最后的關鍵時刻 the eleventh hour

激烈的球賽要到最后一刻才見分曉，艱難的磋商要到最后一刻才見成敗，兩難的決定通常也到最后一刻才會做出。這種“最后的關鍵時刻”有個貼切的英文表達，就是the eleventh hour。

The eleventh hour is used to describe the final moments of a given event, or situation where change is still a possibility.

“第十一個小時”用來形容某件事的最后一刻，不過扭轉局勢依然是有可能的。

If you do something – usually involving a difficult decision to make – at the eleventh hour, you do it at the last moment, when you absolutely have to. In other words, it’s the very last minute before the deadline.

如果你在“第十一個小時”做某事（經常是做一個艱難的決定），你到最后不得不做的時候才做。換而言之，就是截止日期前的最后一刻。

In olden times, people worked only during daytime from dawn to dusk, or roughly speaking during the twelve hours from six o’clock in the morn to six o’clock in the afternoon. Literally, those who come in to work at the eleventh hour arrive at 5pm, which is pretty late, obviously. In the Bible story, some laborers came in at the eleventh hour but received a full day’s pay, the same as those who came in at day break and had to “borne the burden and heat of the day.”

在古時候，人們只在白天工作，從黎明工作到傍晚，如果按十二小時來粗略計算，就是從早上六點工作到下午六點。那些到第十一個小時才來工作的人從下午五點才開始干活，顯然到的相當遲了。在圣經故事當中，有些工人到第十一個小時才來，卻能領到一整天的報酬，和那些天破曉就來干活、擔負重擔、飽受酷熱的工人拿得一樣多。

Example:

It’s very hard to predict what the outcome will be until the 11th hour.

直到最后的關鍵時刻，你都很難預測最后的結果會如何。

（中國日報網英語點津 陳丹妮）