每日单词：ordeal

ordeal /ɔːˈdiːl/

IELTS丨TOEFL丨专八

 外刊例句 

To permit existing sales staff to concentrate on attracting and retaining customers, they had to be relieved of some duties, such as preparing sales forecasts. Internal review meetings were reduced, including an intimidating ordeal known as the mid-year review in which senior executives grilled employees—and for which workers spent lots of time cramming like students for a test.
为了让现有的销售人员能够集中精力吸引和留住客户，必须减去他们的一些职责，比如不用再制定销售预测。内部评审会议减少了，包括一项称作年中评定的吓人的严酷考验——高管长时间“拷问”员工，员工则要像学生备考一样花大量时间做准备。

——《经济学人》

外刊音频 来自我爱背单词 00:00 00:24

 基本释义 

If you describe an experience or situation as an ordeal, you think it is difficult and stressful. 

n. 折磨；严酷考验；煎熬

 追根溯源 

在古时候，尚未出台明确的司法制度，人们把声张正义的希望寄托于神灵，认为神灵可以对人世间的是非作出判定，并帮助人们给罪犯量刑。

其方式多种多样，现在看也极不人道，比如让嫌疑人吞食某种有毒的东西、手伸进油锅取物、将嫌疑者投入河中等等。这种肉体考验在古英语中就是ordal，字面意思就是“deal out by gods”（由神灵来施加惩罚）。如果经过这些考验，嫌疑犯还是毫发无损，就可定为无罪。

13世纪初英国废除了除决斗以外的各种“神裁法”，但ordal一词却传了下来，演变为ordeal，如今多用于引申义，表示“（对品格、忍耐力等的）严峻考验”、“磨难”或“煎熬”等。

 同近义词 

trial: If you refer to the trials of a situation, you mean the unpleasant things that you experience in it..（磨难） 

tribulation:You can refer to the suffering or difficulty that you experience in a particular situation as tribulations .（磨难）