这个短语的字面解释是“在石头和硬的地方中间”，这是什么意思呢？请看对话：

    A: Are you coming? Lily will leave for her studies in the United States next week and we’ve planned for a farewell party for ages.

    B: I’m between a rock and a hard place. My girlfriend will be unhappy if I don’t go with her to the movies tonight.

    Note: This idiom means “being in a dilemma where the only two available options are both unsatisfying or bad.” It originated in America and was first printed in 1921. In Arizona at that time, there was a big problem with the mining companies. The miners went on strike and asked for better pay and working conditions but their demands were refused and instead, most of them were sent to other places in America. The miners had a very difficult decision to make — they could either stay in Arizona and continue to work in the mines in bad conditions with low pay (the mines they worked in were the “rock”) or move to a new city where they would need to find a new home and a new job (this was the “hard place”).