The $25 billion rescue plan for the auto industry， desperately sought by Detroit’s beleaguered Big Three， collapsed Thursday as Congress drew the line at one more bailout and Democrats said they wouldn’t even consider it until the companies produced a convincing plan for rebuilding their once-mighty industry.

美國(guó)“底特律三大汽車巨頭”極力要求通過的一項(xiàng)250億美元的汽車業(yè)援助計(jì)劃遭到擱置，美國(guó)國(guó)會(huì)已于本周四對(duì)這項(xiàng)追加的救援計(jì)劃加以限制，民主黨方面稱在這些公司制訂出能夠重振昔日輝煌的汽車工業(yè)的可信計(jì)劃之前，他們將對(duì)此援助計(jì)劃不予考慮。

在上面的報(bào)道中，draw the line就是指reasonably object (to) or set a limit (on)，即“劃定界限”或“對(duì)某件事限制或反對(duì)”，也可用draw a line替換。

這種用法最早來源于網(wǎng)球以及類似的球類運(yùn)動(dòng)，這些活動(dòng)需要在場(chǎng)地中央劃線，將場(chǎng)地分成兩塊，后來演變成“劃定界限”的意思。如：It all depends on your concept of fiction and where you draw the line between fact and fiction.(這有賴于你對(duì)虛構(gòu)這一概念的理解以及你如何劃定事實(shí)和虛構(gòu)的界線。)

我們常說的“忍耐也得有個(gè)度”常用One must draw the line somewhere來表示。

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