人们在碰到突然的、出乎意料之外的事的时候往往会睁大了眼睛表示惊奇。中国人对此有个夸张的形容：那个人的眼珠子都快掉出来了。而美国人在形容这种情景时经常说:Somebody's eyes pop out.

　　1 Somebody's eyes pop out.

例如：My wife's eyes popped out when she saw the necklace I bought her for our twentieth wedding anniversary.

在我们庆祝结婚二十周年时，我给我的妻子买了一条项链。当她看到那条项链时，她眼睛睁得可大了。

又如：I hadn't seen my niece since she was a child, so when she visited town the other day my eyes popped out--she's grown into a very beautiful young woman.

我还是在我侄女是个孩子的时候见过她。自从那时起，我一直就没有机会见到她。因此，那天她突然来这儿访问使我感到十分惊奇。她已经长大，变成一个很漂亮的年轻少女了。”

还有好几个表示突然、惊奇含义的习惯用语都和eye有关。

2 to hit between the eyes

To hit between the eyes 听起来好像是很痛苦的事，但是作为一个俗语，它的意思仅仅是：十分惊奇，非常突然。

例如：When my wife told me we were going to have a baby, it hit me right between the eyes.

当我的妻子告诉我她已经怀孕了的时候，我真是惊奇万分。

又如：I bet I fooled around with these equations for ten minutes but then all of a sudden the right answer hit me right between the eyes.

我敢打赌，我在这些方程式上花了总总十分钟还没有得出答案。后来，不知怎么回事，我突然想出了正确的答案。

3 eye-opener

Eye-opener是一个字。Eye-opener有两个意思，一个是表示惊奇。

例如：Of course, John and I have had a few problems, just like most married couples. But I always felt we had a good, solid marriage. So it was a terrible eye-opener when I opened the letter he’d left on the kitchen table and found out he’d run off with his old college sweetheart.

        当然，约翰和我是有一些矛盾，就像大多数夫妻一样。但是，我一直认为我们的婚姻是有牢固基础的。所以，当我打开他留在厨房桌上的信，知道他和他以前大学里的女朋友出走了的时候，我真是非常惊奇。

Eye-opener的另一意思是：开阔眼界。

例如：Seeing those color films the astronauts took off the earth on their flight to the moon was certainly an eye-opener. I never realized how beautiful and how lonely our planet looks hanging there in space.”

看到宇航员在登上月球时拍的那些有关地球的彩色照片真是开了眼界。我从来也不知道我们的地球在空间是这么美丽、这么孤单。”

不过，有的人不管发生什么大事，似乎从来也不会惊奇到眼珠子掉出来，他们总能保持镇静，连眼睛都不眨一下，这在英文里就是：Not even bat an eye。Bat这个字的一个解释是眨眼睛。可是，在这种情况下，它经常是以否定的形式出现的。

例如：Bill didn't even bat an eye when they told him he had just won the lottery. He just shrugged and said, "Well, I guess I can use the money."

当比尔听到他中了头奖的时候，他连眼睛都没有眨一下，只是耸耸肩膀说：“行，我想这些钱是会有用的。”

中了头奖不表现激动，这已经很不容易了。要是一个人在赌钱的时候输了钱，还要保持镇静的话那就更不容易了。例如：

Bill lost five thousand dollars on this one poker hand, but he didn't even bat an eye--he just shrugged and said, "Easy come, easy go. Come on and deal the next hand!"

比尔在仅仅打一付扑克牌游戏的过程中就输了五千美元。可是他眼睛都没眨一下。他只是耸耸肩说：“来得容易，去得容易。快，发牌吧。

惊奇时睁大眼睛，或者眼睛一眨不眨的表达我们都学了。你遇到突发事件会做出什么样的表情呢？