Lumbering across the field, the plane finally came to a stop before the group that had assembled to greet the president and his party. Workers rolled a gangway up to the jet entrance in double time.

請(qǐng)教翻譯 in double time

My comments:

At face value, to do something in double time seems to suggest the undertaking takes twice the normal time, but that doesn’t make sense here, does it?

No, it doesn’t. It actually means the exact opposite; workers rolled the gangway up to the jet entrance at a faster speed than usual.

In other words, workers were double quick.

A good question.

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本文僅代表作者本人觀點(diǎn)，與本網(wǎng)立場無關(guān)。歡迎大家討論學(xué)術(shù)問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發(fā)布一切違反國家現(xiàn)行法律法規(guī)的內(nèi)容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin（張欣） has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.