Collection 艺海拾贝

at the end of one’s rope

Definition: be under a lot of stress; at the breaking point; at a loss for a solution

注释：在巨大的压力下；达到崩溃极点；毫无解决办法

If you are at the end of your rope, you are in a tough situation without many solutions available. This idiom is very popular in American English. Any idiom that describes stress or problems is extremely useful for daily communication. After all, who doesn’t suffer from stress? I just hope you never will feel that you are at the end of your rope when it comes to learning English.

如果你感到“at the end of your rope”， 那表示正处于艰难的境况，没有多少解决问题的办法。 这个成语在美国英语中很流行。 凡是描述压力或问题的成语在日常交流中都极为有用。毕竟，谁不遭受压力呢？我只希望你们学英语的时候，绝不要有“at the end of your rope”的感觉。

an eager beaver

An eager beaver is a person who is keen to volunteer or be involved in something. The beaver is used as a comparison because it is such an industrious creature. Ample evidence of this is seen in the way beavers build up many layers of mud, stone and timber in order to construct their dams.