今天讲两个和毫无希望，彻底完蛋有关的习惯用语。权当长长知识，希望大家没机会用到。

　　1 all washed up

　　大家都知道，wash就是洗东西的“洗”。但是，all washed up的意思是彻底完蛋，和干净不干净毫无关系。

　　例如：Did you hear that Gloria's marriage is all washed up? She found her husband was seeing another woman, so she packed up, took the kids and moved out. Now she's suing¹ for divorce².

　　你听说了没有，格洛里亚的婚姻是彻底完蛋了。她发现她的丈夫有外遇，因此她收拾起自己的东西，带着孩子搬出去了。现在，她向法院申请离婚。

　　又如：That man over there used to be one of the best players in baseball. But then he started drinking, turned into an alcoholic³, and just two years later he was all washed up.

　　那边那个人以前是最好的棒球运动员之一。但是，后来他开始喝酒，逐渐酗酒成习。这样，只过了两年，他的棒球生涯也就完蛋了。

　　2 basket case

　　Basket是“篮子”的意思。比如说，要是一个人在一次事故中失去了四肢，他就变得毫无能力来料理自己的生活，只能让人们把他放在一只篮子里抬来抬去。这种毫无能力和希望的情景就是basket case的意思。Basket case经常被用来形容那些很穷的国家，它们的人民饥寒交迫，毫无希望。有的时候，basket case也是指那些老是亏钱，即将倒闭的企业。

　　例如：I'm really worried--our company is losing so much money these days that if things don't get better in the next two months we'll be a basket case and have to go out of business.

　　我真是非常担心，我们公司这些日子亏损了那么多钱，要是在今后两个月里情况没有好转的话，我们就彻底没有希望，只好倒闭了。

　　Basket case也可以用半开玩笑的口气来指个别人，就像下面这个人。他正在找工作，刚刚从一个公司面谈回来：

　　They made me wait so long for the interview that I was a basket case by the time I finally got called in. I've never been so nervous! I stammered⁴, I stuttered--I almost couldn't remember my own name.

　　他们让我等了很久才和我面谈。等到他们叫我进去的时候，我根本就不行了。我从来没有这样紧张过，结结巴巴地说不出话来，差一点连自己的名字都忘了。