今日小常识

　　The pattern of black and white squares on a chessboard is described as being 'chequered' in British English and 'checkered' in American English. The squares themselves are known as 'cheques' or 'checks' respectively. But the verb 'to check' is spelled the same in both places.

　　棋盘上的黑白格子在英式英语中被描述为 'chequered'. 在美式英语中则是 'checkered'（注意两种不同的单词拼写）。在英语中方形的格子叫 'cheques' （英）或 'checks'（美）。不过在使用动词 'to check' 的时候拼写是统一的。

　　今日短语

　　'Checkmate' 出自国际象棋，汉语中说“将！”。在一方把关键的一个棋子放到致对方于死地的时候说一声“将军！”不过现在这个短语也用来表达“一次彻底的胜利”。

　　例句

　　The rebels surrounded the president's palace. He had no option but to agree to their demands: it was checkmate.

　　Unless we make some serious changes around this business, our competition will catch up and it will be checkmate.

　　It can also be used as a verb:

　　Garry Kasparov checkmated the chess computer after a fine series of moves.

　　请注意

　　Stalemate 僵局和 checkmate 的意思正好相反，stalemate 表示一种双方僵持不下的局面。

　　I could only afford ￡150,000 for the house but the seller would go no lower than ￡155,000. We reached a stalemate and called the deal off.

编辑：张雨

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