1. Work the System: To take advantage of the system, often in an unethical way, to get what you want. (ex: Once elected, the corrupt politician began to use his power to work the system and increase his personal fortune).
利用制度，常指用一种不道德的方式去得到想要的东西。（例如：一旦被选上，腐败的政治家就会利用他的权力去钻制度的空子，从而牟取个人利益。）
2. In the Works: When an item or project is currently being produced or developed. (ex: While the band was touring for their newest album, they revealed that their next album was in the works and would soon be available.)
一个产品或者项目正在产生或发展。（例如：当一个乐队为最新专辑巡回演出的时候，他们发布了他们的下一张专辑正在制作中，并且很快发售。）
3. Work(s) like a charm: When something functions perfectly. (ex: After his friend fixed his computer, it worked like a charmfor the rest of the year.)
当某样东西正在完美地运作。（例如：电脑在被他的朋友修好好，在这一年剩下的时间里都运行得很好。）
4. Work Wonders: To have a very positive effect to solve a problem. (ex: He soon discovered that listening to RealLife Radio every day worked wonders for his listening comprehension)
在解决某个问题上有很好的影响（例如：他很快就发现，每天听真生活录音对提高听力理解有很大帮助。）
5. Put to Work: To assign a job or to make somebody work [who was previously inactive] (ex: His school vacation didn’t last long, as his parents soon put him to work in the family business.)
给某人布置一项工作（那个人之前工作并不积极）（例如：他的假期并不长，因为他的父母给他安排了很多家族生意的工作。）
6. Out of Work: To be unemployed, or to not have a job [when one previously had a job] (ex:After losing his job last year, he was out of work for 6 months)
失业或没有工作（以前是有工作的）（例如：自从去年被解雇以后，他失业了六个月。）
7. All in a Day’s Work: Used to express that something is very routine (even though it’s often difficult), and it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. (ex: You may say this after finishing a day filled with difficult tasks that are expected in your job.)
用于描述某些常规的东西（尽管这些东西经常是难度很大的），或是描述一个不出彩的东西（例如：你可能会在完成了一天艰难而又常规的工作后，说这句话。）
8. All Work and No Play (Makes Jack a Dull Boy): When one is working so hard that they don’t have the time to enjoy life or cultivate joy for living.
描述某人努力工作，以致于没时间找乐子、享受生活。
9. Piece of Work: An expression meaning that somebody is difficult to get along with in a complex way. Usually said with some degree of disgust. (ex/common collocation: After getting upset with a person for mistreating you in a clever way, you might say “she/he’s a real piece of work.”)
意思是某人很难相处，经常是带有一些厌恶的感觉。（常有的含义：因为被某人巧妙地虐待而感到失落后，你可能会说，他/她真难相处。）
10. Dirty Work: The work nobody else want’s to do. “To do somebody’s dirty work” is to do the unethical, dishonest work that the person doesn’t want to do.(i.e. A mob boss might have somebody do their dirty work- i.e. kill people, get money, conduct deals, etc)
肮脏的活：没人想做的工作。“做某人的脏活儿”是指做别人不想做的不道德的不老实的活儿。（例如：一个暴民老板可能会让别人去干脏活儿，像杀人、赚黑钱、干脏买卖等。）
11. Work Up a Sweat: To put a lot of effort into something, to work hard enough to start to sweat. Often used figuratively.
为某事投入很大心力，因为努力工作，以致流汗。这个词经常用于比喻。
12. Have your work cut out for you: To have a lot of work to do in order to achieve a goal/objective. (ex:before starting a job that’s going to be difficult and last all day, “We better get started. We’ve got our work cut out for us.” )
为了实现一个目标而做大量的工作。（例如：在开始一天艰难工作之时，“我们最好现在开始，我今天有大量棘手的工作。”）
13. Working Hard or Hardly Working? A friendly play on words you can ask somebody to discover how much they are working. Working hard, obviously, means to exert a lot of effort, while hardly working means to not be working very much at all. The humor is that they sound the same but are complete opposites.
一个善意的语言游戏，你可以问一下别人，他们到底干了多少活儿。“Working hard”，很明显，意思是做很多工作，但是“hardly working”的意思是一点儿也不工作。这里面的幽默是，他们听上去差不多但是反应的是截然不同的意思。
更多信息请查看生活口语
