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分享一个知识点： Reader question: GM’s chief executive, Fritz Henderson, has repeatedly described bankruptcy as the “probable” route for restructuring the stricken automotive behemoth. But experts say there is still a slim chance that lenders could buckle at the last minute. “In very hostile negotiations, most of the progress is made at the 11th hour,” Edward Neiger, founder of the New York bankruptcy law firm Neiger LLP, told CNN. “It’s very hard to predict what the outcome will be until the 11th hour, when the parties often realize the alternative is worse for both of them.” In that passage from the Guardian (Fiat improves bid as GM faces crunch week, May 24, 2009), what does “11th hour” mean? My comments: The eleventh hour means simply the last moment (before a decision has to be made), and this saying comes from the Christian Bible (King James Version, Mathew 20): And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, [that] shall ye receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the laborers, and give them [their] hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that [were hired] about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. | 
