Using English at Work：53 Leaving Work(5)

"To leave something behind" means to forget to take something when you are leaving a place.

When I leave the office on a hot afternoon, I may accidentally¹ leave my jacket behind and then I don't have anything warm to wear on my walk back to work the next day when it's cold in the morning.

It's always a good idea to look around and make sure that you haven't left anything behind when you leave a place.

This happens to me when I go to a hotel; I always forget something because I don't look around to make sure I haven't left anything behind.

In our story, I don't see anything that I've forgotten, so I'm ready to head home.

"To head home" means to leave a place and start to go home.

You may head home at 5:30 and on a day when there isn't very much traffic, you may arrive home, or get home at 6:00, assuming² you don't have a long commute³ or drive, a long bus ride, or train ride home.

If you live in Los Angeles, you can expect to get home another hour and a half later.

The verb "to head," here, means to go in that direction, to move in that direction.

"To head east" means to go in an easterly direction.

"To head to the beach" means to start driving or walking or taking a bus toward⁴ the beach.

As I'm leaving the office, I think, "Weekend, here I come!"

The phrase "here I come" is used to show that you are excited to do something or to go somewhere in the near future.

In this case, I'm excited to begin the weekend.

You might say, "California, here I come!" when you're excited about visiting or moving to California.

In fact, there was a famous song; "California, here I come" was one of the lines or sentences in the song.

1 accidentally   

adv.偶然地；意外地

参考例句：

• Mary accidentally let out that her mother had telephoned.玛丽无意中说出她的母亲来过电话。
• As I turned around,I accidentally hit him in the face.我转身时不经意撞了他的脸。

2 assuming   

如果

参考例句：

• You were mistaken in assuming it. 你这样臆断是错了。
• The country's industry is assuming a new aspect. 该国的工业正在呈现新的面貌。

3 commute   

vi.乘车上下班；vt.减(刑)；折合；n.上下班交通

参考例句：

• I spend much less time on my commute to work now.我现在工作的往返时间要节省好多。
• Most office workers commute from the suburbs.很多公司的职员都是从郊外来上班的。

4 toward   

prep.对于，关于，接近，将近，向，朝

参考例句：

• Suddenly I saw a tall figure approaching toward the policeman.突然间我看到一个高大的身影朝警察靠近。
• Upon seeing her,I smiled and ran toward her. 看到她我笑了，并跑了过去。