趣味英语 | Rack one's brains

如果我说我正在rack my brains，你该不会以为我是说我脑子一团浆糊吧？

Rack one's brains

【英文解释】

make great mental effort (to remember something, think of a solution, etc.

【中文解释】

思前想后，绞尽脑汁

【短语来源】

Literally, to stretch one's brains on the rack, an instrument of torture that stretched a victim's joints when its wheels and rollers, to which the limbs were attached, were turned by the operator. Its use in England was abolished in 1640.

这个短语很形象，是一种残酷的绞脑袋的刑罚，连动词“绞”都和中文遥相呼应，所以可以说，人类的智慧是相通的。

I have been racking my brains all day trying to think of a birthday present for her.
我花了一整天思前想后给她送什么生日礼物。

All night I have been tossing and turning racking my brains to think what could have possessed the young man to kill himself.
整整一晚我辗转反侧, 绞尽脑汁，到底是什么使这个年轻人自尽。