It has stood the test of time.
它经受住了时间的考验。
This is the sentence you could say about Notre Dame de Paris, because it has already stood for 750 years. It has seen two World Wars and the French Revolution. It's not destroyed. And over the years, it still remains as the symbol not only of French and European history and culture, but of the special place you want to go, even there are many taller and more splendid churches around the world today. Another example: In western schools, people still learn Shakespeare. Many people still read Shakespeare, still love Shakespeare. They make movies out of his plays; they put on his plays: we can say Shakespeare's works have stood the test of time.
Fortune favors the brave.
好运眷顾勇者。
If you are brave enough to pursue what you want, to pursue your dreams, your hopes and your wishes, maybe you will be rewarded in the end. At least, people who try to go for their dreams will be rewarded more so than people who are too timid or think hard to do so. Originally, fortune was Fortuna, the goddess of fortune. She will favor you if you are brave. People who are timid will not earn the favor of fortune.
He was at his wits' end.
他已经黔驴技穷了。(不知所措)
Sometimes we also hear that someone is at the end of his rope. He doesn't know what to do; he doesn't know what's going on. Your wits are your keen sense of judgement, your smarts, your ability to think and to react – those are your wits. And suddenly you don't know how to think anymore: you are at your wits' end. If you are at your wits' end about learning English, you'd better join tingroom.com, because she can certainly help you out.
That did the trick. 那很管用噢！
We are not talking about a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat. We are talking about something that really works well for a particular situation. It's exactly what you needed in that circumstance. Maybe you have an engine trouble with your car, you could spend a lot of money on fixing it, or maybe you just need a little solution, a five dollar solution for fixing your car, and if it works, you can say: that did the trick. And it could even be simple as you sitting in an uneven chair, what you could do is to take a piece of paper, fold it ten times, and put it under one of the chair legs, then suddenly your chair is stable. So, that did the trick.
He's swimming against the stream.
他并不随波逐流。
While you do that, you are gonna have a hard time. It sounds like a salmon. Why do salmons swim against the stream? Well, when salmons are out in the sea, they feel the call of nature to go back to the place where they were born, the very birth place, the pond of water where they are originated. To get there, they have to swim against the stream, they can't swim with the flow of water, and that's usually a long and arduous journey. We are not talking of salmon here, but the feelings are kind of the same. We have another expression in English: we say 'go with the stream', which means to do what everyone is doing. And if you don't want to do that, if that goes against everything you believe, you will be a person who swims against the stream: you have your own ideas.
