4. High stakes

Stake 指的是"賭博中的賭金"，high stakes 指的是"高額賭金"。

此外，stake 還可以做動(dòng)詞，表示"賭，下注"，例如：I'd stake my all on it.

5. Clean kill

A clean kill is a killing without lots of attention being attracted, something that is quiet and doesn't attract attention to the killer.

6. Play the market

"以賺錢為目的的有價(jià)證券交易"，例如：He is always playing the market with only mixed results.

7. In the service

指的是"服役"，Bond 是在MI6, British intelligence工作的。

文化面面觀

James Bond 的間諜生涯

Fleming's commissioned impression of 007 used as an example to aid theDaily Expresscomic strip artists.It is never stated when James Bond became a 00 agent. According to Fleming, after joining the RNVR, Bond is mentioned as travelling to America, Hong Kong, and Jamaica. It is believed that it is during this time that Bond perhaps joined another organisation such as the SOE, the 00 Section of the British Secret Service, or perhaps as a commando in Fleming's own "Red Indians" 30th Assault Unit (30 AU). One supporting reason is that Fleming describes Bond in the Ardennes firing a bazooka in 1944. 30AU were the only British unit attached in small groups to US units all over Europe. In Bond's obituary fromYou Only Live Twice, his commanding officer, M, alludes to Bond's rank as being cover:

"To serve the confidential nature of his duties, he was accorded the rank of lieutenant in the Special Branch of the R.N.V.R., and it is a measure of the satisfaction his services gave to his superiors that he ended the war with the rank of Commander." -You Only Live Twice, chapter 21: "Obit"

Bond earns his stripes in the 00 Section by completing two tasks, which Fleming outlines inCasino Royale. The first is the assassination of a Japanese cipher expert on the 36th floor of the RCA Building at Rockefeller Centre in New York City. The second was the assassination of a Norwegian who became a double agent and betrayed two British agents. Bond travels to Stockholm where he kills the man in his sleep with a knife.

According to Bond, obtaining a 00 number is not hard so long as you're prepared to kill, which John Pearson suggests Bond first did as a teenager. Throughout Fleming's novels, further continuation novels, and even the films, Bond's attitude toward his job is similar; he dislikes taking life - resorting (typically in the films) to flippant jokes and off-hand remarks as after-the-fact relief, often misinterpreted as cold-bloodedness.

"It was part of his profession to kill people. He had never liked doing it and when he had to kill he did it as well as he knew how and forgot about it. As a secret agent who held the rare Double-O prefix - the licence to kill in the Secret Service - it was his duty to be as cool about death as a surgeon. If it happened, it happened. Regret was unprofessional - worse, it was a death-watch beetle in the soul." -Goldfinger, chapter 1: "Reflections in a Double Bourbon"