Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard (left) and Coalition Leader Tony Abbott (right)

??????? 據報道，澳大利亞近日大選陷入僵局，工黨和自由黨都未能獲得眾議院多數席位，澳70年來將首次出現沒有多數黨的“懸空議會”。澳大利亞的命運落入三位獨立議員手中。然而，目前三位獨立議員都沒有明確表示支持工黨還是自由黨，使大選結果變得更加不確定。請看新華社報道：

???????Voters have likely delivered Australia its first hung parliament since 1940, which means neither Labor nor the opposition Liberal/National coalition had the outright majority of 76 seats to form government.

???????The three sitting independent MPs on Monday promised to work as closely together as possible as a political deadlock continues to hang over the country.

—— Excerpt from Hung parliament negotiations continue in Australia

???????deadlock 指的是a situation in which no progress can be made or no advancement is possible，即“僵局”；那么“打破僵局”就要用break a deadlock 來表示；而“陷入僵局”則用reach a deadlock 表示。例：

???????The negotiations came to a deadlock.

???????談判陷入僵局。

???????He has brought things to a deadlock.

???????他把事情搞僵了。

???????Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda resigned on Monday in an effort to break a political deadlock, becoming the second Japanese leader to resign abruptly in less than a year.

???????日本首相福田康夫于本周一宣布辭職以期打破目前的政治僵局，他由此成為一年內第二位突然辭職的日本首相。

???????“政治僵局”同樣可以用political gridlock來表示。例如，去年羅馬尼亞大選的相關報道中說道：

???????Romania has been in a political gridlock since mid-October, when its democrat liberal government was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament, the first in the 20 years after the fall of the communist regime.

???????President Traian Basescu failed to win Parliament support for a new prime minister and the country will likely not to have a legitimate government in place before the election runoff scheduled for December 6.

—— Excerpt from Presidential elections begin in Romania

???????這里用的是 gridlock 的比喻義“癱瘓，僵局”。gridlock 這個詞的本義是指極端嚴重的交通堵塞。例如，英國廣播公司在一篇報道里引用新華社的報道說：

???????The gridlock, which started August 14, involves thousands of trucks between the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the Chinese capital of Beijing.

???????從內蒙古自治區到中國首都北京，從8月14號開始的嚴重擁堵困住了成千上萬的貨車。

???????英國《金融時報》的報道說：

???????Many of the vehicles stuck in the gridlock are trucks carrying coal and fruit.

???????此次擁堵被困的很多都是拉煤和水果的貨車。

???????又例如：

???????Motorists have been warned to avoid Brisbane's Story Bridge after a broken down car caused gridlock in the afternoon peak-hour run.

???????下午高峰時段，司機們被告知繞開布里斯班的故事大橋，一輛故障車導致該段嚴重堵車。

???????類似詞匯還有standstill（停頓），例如：

???????Traffic was brought to a standstill by the accident.

???????出了事故以后，交通陷于停頓。

（來源：中國網學英語頻道）