At sixes and sevens
【英文解释】in a state of confusion
【中文解释】乱七八糟
【短语来源】The pips on a dice,and later on playing cards,used to be numbered in an approximation to French:ace(which is still used in card-playing),deuce,trey(both of which persisted into the 21st century),quatre,cinq(ue) and sice.To set (all) on cinque and sice meant literally to gamble on the highest numbers and figuratively to behave recklessly.
In the course of time,the literal meanings of cinque and sice were forgotten:cinqu(pronounced "sink") was incorrectly anglicised as six,so sice bacame seven and the whole phrase gradually assumed its familiar from.
From the earlier association with reckiess behaviour came the idea that things in disorder were at sixes and sevens.
这个数字首先用于骰子，后来用于纸牌，在法语中也被用于计算近似数(现在仍然用于纸牌游戏中)。平分，三点(两个都持续到了21世纪)，四分之一，五分之一也一样存在。五点骰从字面的意思来看就是在身边的最高编号的赌博和象征着不计后果的行为。
在时间的进程中，五点六点骰的真实意义被遗忘：五点(发音下沉)被错误地英语化的读成六。以至于逐渐成为七并且整个词组渐渐的展示它原本的意思。从早期不计后果的行为成为和对混乱的事情的想法的联系成为了乱七八糟这个意思。
【学以致用】The students dormitories are rather at sixs and sevens.
学生的宿舍简直是乱七八糟。
Things are at sixs and sevens.
事情被搞得乱七八糟的。
