Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard (left) and Coalition Leader Tony Abbott (right)

        据报道，澳大利亚近日大选陷入僵局，工党和自由党都未能获得众议院多数席位，澳70年来将首次出现没有多数党的“悬空议会”。澳大利亚的命运落入三位独立议员手中。然而，目前三位独立议员都没有明确表示支持工党还是自由党，使大选结果变得更加不确定。请看新华社报道：

       Voters have likely delivered Australia its first hung parliament since 1940, which means neither Labor nor the opposition Liberal/National coalition had the outright majority of 76 seats to form government.

       The three sitting independent MPs on Monday promised to work as closely together as possible as a political deadlock continues to hang over the country.

—— Excerpt from Hung parliament negotiations continue in Australia

       deadlock 指的是a situation in which no progress can be made or no advancement is possible，即“僵局”；那么“打破僵局”就要用break a deadlock 来表示；而“陷入僵局”则用reach a deadlock 表示。例：

       The negotiations came to a deadlock.

       谈判陷入僵局。

       He has brought things to a deadlock.

       他把事情搞僵了。

       Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda resigned on Monday in an effort to break a political deadlock, becoming the second Japanese leader to resign abruptly in less than a year.

       日本首相福田康夫于本周一宣布辞职以期打破目前的政治僵局，他由此成为一年内第二位突然辞职的日本首相。

       “政治僵局”同样可以用political gridlock来表示。例如，去年罗马尼亚大选的相关报道中说道：

       Romania has been in a political gridlock since mid-October, when its democrat liberal government was ousted in a no-confidence vote in Parliament, the first in the 20 years after the fall of the communist regime.

       President Traian Basescu failed to win Parliament support for a new prime minister and the country will likely not to have a legitimate government in place before the election runoff scheduled for December 6.

—— Excerpt from Presidential elections begin in Romania

       这里用的是 gridlock 的比喻义“瘫痪，僵局”。gridlock 这个词的本义是指极端严重的交通堵塞。例如，英国广播公司在一篇报道里引用新华社的报道说：

       The gridlock, which started August 14, involves thousands of trucks between the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the Chinese capital of Beijing.

       从内蒙古自治区到中国首都北京，从8月14号开始的严重拥堵困住了成千上万的货车。

       英国《金融时报》的报道说：

       Many of the vehicles stuck in the gridlock are trucks carrying coal and fruit.

       此次拥堵被困的很多都是拉煤和水果的货车。

       又例如：

       Motorists have been warned to avoid Brisbane's Story Bridge after a broken down car caused gridlock in the afternoon peak-hour run.

       下午高峰时段，司机们被告知绕开布里斯班的故事大桥，一辆故障车导致该段严重堵车。

       类似词汇还有standstill（停顿），例如：

       Traffic was brought to a standstill by the accident.

       出了事故以后，交通陷于停顿。

（来源：中国网学英语频道）