mark time 原地踏步；停顿
A：Why did we stop?
B：No, we didn’t really stop. We just marked time.
A：Marked time?
B：Yeah, we have to pause until we get approval.
甲：我们为什么停下来？
乙：不，我们并没有真的停下来。我们只是原地踏步。
甲：原地踏步？
乙：是的。我们不得不暂时停下待命。