If you love your job, part of the reason may be thatyou freely chose the work that you do. You were notforced to do it. But imagine a situation duringwartime in which there were some soldiers or guardswith guns standing above you, forcing you to do thatsame job. Suddenly it would not be pleasurable workanymore.

如果你热爱工作，原因之一可能是你可以按照自己的意愿来选择工作，而不是被迫的。但是，想象一下这种场景，一些战士或警卫拿着枪站在你面前，强迫你做同样的事情。忽然间，这份工作变得不再有趣。

The fear that you might be harmed if you did not work quickly and efficiently would be verystressful. There would be a sense of danger as you worked below the level where the gunmenwere standing. Working "under the gun" of a watchful and hostile master would make anyonenervous. Thus, although no one we can see nearby may have an actual gun, we use this idiomin any work situation where the workers are put under strong pressure to perform quickly andefficiently.

如果你不快速而有效率地工作，你就会被伤害，这种恐惧会压得你喘不过气来。当持枪的人站在你面前，而你的工作却处于平均水平以下，就会产生一种危机感。在警惕和充满敌意的主人枪下干活，会使任何人感到紧张。因此，虽然我们周围所看到的人没有一把真枪，但是我们可以用这个惯用词来描述这种工作环境：工人被强大的压力驱使着快速高效地工作着。