【英语时差8,16】鞭策；督促

These days, we don't see many horse-drawn carriages in the streets, driven by coachmen who carry long whips. In the past, coach drivers used those whips to make their horses go faster. However, they did not let the whip lash¹ actually touch or hurt the horses. Instead, just the loud sound of the whip cracking in the air just above the horses was enough motivation to make them go faster. A cracking whip can sound as loud as a gunshot. Because of that, when a boss, a supervisor², or a teacher wants people working under them to hurry up doing their work and produce excellent results, we often say they are "cracking the whip." They don't really have a whip in their hands, but their nagging³ and sense of urgency feels like they do.

1 lash   

v.系牢；鞭打；猛烈抨击；n.鞭打；眼睫毛

参考例句：

• He received a lash of her hand on his cheek.他突然被她打了一记耳光。
• With a lash of its tail the tiger leaped at her.老虎把尾巴一甩朝她扑过来。

2 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。

3 nagging   

adj.唠叨的，挑剔的；使人不得安宁的v.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的现在分词 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责

参考例句：

• Stop nagging—I'll do it as soon as I can. 别唠叨了—我会尽快做的。
• I've got a nagging pain in my lower back. 我后背下方老是疼。 来自《简明英汉词典》