Larry 患了重感冒，李華帶著雞湯去看他。李華今天要學兩個常用語，blah
和bounceback.

    LL： Hi ， Li Hua ， it is so nice to see you. I just wish I didn't
feel so blah. LH： Blah ？你得的不是感冒嗎？

    LL： I do have a cold ， Li Hua. But "blah" is a word that describes
how you feel when you have a cold or are sick - Blah is the feeling you
have when you are really tired and have no energy. LH ：我知道了，blah
是不舒服，生病時渾身乏力的意思。

    LL： That's right ， Li Hua. I certainly wish I didn't feel so blah.
I haven't been able to sleep very well with this runny nose and cough
……（Cough ， cough）

    LH：你好可憐。我知道睡不好覺的感覺。別說感冒了，就是平時，睡不好覺
我都會覺得blah.

    LL： Yeah ， I've got a pretty good case of the blahs. I don't feel
like doing much of anything. LH ：我給你熬了點兒雞湯，或許你喝了會感覺
好一些。

    LL： Thanks ， Li Hua. Mmmm ……This soup is great， Li Hua. It has
a lot of flavor - not like my mom's soup. Sometimes her soup can be a
little blah. LH ：你媽的湯怎么會是blah？我以為blah不是指渾身乏力嗎？

    LL： You can also use blah to talk about a thing. When referring to
a thing ， blah means something that isn't very good or interesting. LH
：你是說你媽熬的湯沒味啊。你沒當著她的面說過吧？

    LL： Actually ， I have. My mom's blah cooking is a joke in my family.
My mom really doesn't like spicyfood， so many dishes she cooks are very
blah. LH：還好你沒覺得我的湯也是blah. 你現(xiàn)在感覺怎么樣？

    LL： I'm feeling a little less blah ， thanks to you， Li Hua. So ，
how has your day been ， anyway ？

    LH：沒什么新鮮的。外面又濕又冷，我一直在家里批論文。I've been having
a blah day.

    LL： Say， have you had some of the soup you brought， Li Hua ？ It
is just the thing to cheer you up when you are having a blah day！

    ******

    LL： Now that I've had a nice bowl of hot soup， Li Hua ， all I need
to bounce back is a good night's sleep. LH：你要bounce back 彈回來，那
一定得有張蹦蹦床羅。

    LL： Ha ， ha. That's funny ， Li Hua. While you can bounce on a trampoline，
to "bounce back" means to recover from something. In this case， I am
looking forward to bouncing back from this cold. LH ：原來你說的bounce
back是復原的意思。只要你多吃多睡，用不了多少時間，就會象原來一樣生龍活
虎。

    LL： I am expecting to bounce back in a day or two. Then I will head
back to work. LH：幸好你只是感冒。你知道我的一個學生得了肺炎。

    LL： Wow！ One of your students has pneumonia ？ That is a pretty
serious illness. It will take several weeks before he will be able to
bounce back. LH ：還有，我另外一個學生上星期剛剛割了闌尾。I don't expect
he'll be bouncing back very quickly either.

    LL： You are right. It takes more time to bounce back from surgery
or an injury than it does from a little cold. LH：真希望生病不會影響到
他們的成績。

    LL： If they are good students and work hard， I am sure they will
bounce right back from a few bad grades. LH ：有時候，遇到讓人失望的事
情也很難重新振作起來。

    LL： That's true. It took my Uncle Bob a long time to bounce back
from his divorce. LH：那你叔叔Bob 離婚后是怎么重新振作起來的呢？

    LL： Well ， he stayed very positive through the whole experience ，
and instead of thinking about the divorce ， he put his energy into spending
time with his children and doing things he enjoyed. That really helped
him bounce back. LH ：保持積極的態(tài)度、多跟家人在一起，做喜歡做的事情。

    Larry ，這些真是好建議。

    今天李華學到了兩個常用語。一個是blah，指全身乏力或是沒滋沒味。另一
個是bounce back ，指恢復過來。