used to say that there's not much time left before something happens 时间不多了（表示某事临近）
The clock is ticking down to midnight on New Year’s Eve.新年钟声即将敲响。
The clock is ticking for one mystery lottery winner who has less than 24 hours to claim a £64 million prize.对于一名神秘彩票中奖者来说，领取 6400 万英镑奖金的时间已经不多了，他只有不到 24 小时的时间。