Larry 在告訴李華這個星期他辦公室發(fā)生的一場爭論。今天李華會學(xué)到兩個
常用語：to have a beef with someone 和hit pay dirt.

    LL： The boss still wants to fire Jim because they had a beef over
the last sales report. LH ：老板要開除Jim ，因?yàn)樗麄冇惺裁�？A beef？你
是說他們?yōu)榱艘恍┡Ｈ庠诔臣埽?/p>

    LL： No （laughing）， not beef as in the beef that you eat. To have
a beef with someone means to have a disagreement. The boss and Jim had
a disagreement over the sales report. LH：噢，哈哈，原來have a beef with
someone 就是和某人有爭執(zhí)。這和我們吃的牛肉一點(diǎn)關(guān)系也沒有。你老板為什么
會和Jim 吵架呢？

    LL： Well ， the boss felt that Jim had done a really bad job of preparing
the report and Jim felt that the boss did not give him enough time to
do the report properly. LH：噢，老板覺得Jim 寫的報(bào)告太差，而Jim 覺得老
板沒給他足夠的時(shí)間，所以兩人就這么吵起來啦？Jim had a beef with the boss.
我說得對嗎？

    LL： Yep. Now ， the boss is making everyone else miserable because
of his beef with Jim. LH：他是和Jim 鬧不開心，這跟其他人有什么關(guān)系呢？

    LL： He's just been in a really bad mood and he's being tough on everyone.
It's not fair. His beef is with Jim ， not the rest of the people in the
office. LH：他不高興就對辦公室里每個人都特別厲害。這是很不公平。他是跟
Jim 吵架，又不是和全辦公室吵架。

    LL： Exactly. I'm worried that the situation will go too far and there
will be major problems in our office. LH：你怕情況發(fā)展下去辦公室會出大
問題呀？你們?yōu)槭裁床蛔孞im 向老板道個歉。這不就完了嗎？

    LL： I don't think he'll do that. LH：他不會道歉？啊呀，你勸勸他嘛。

    關(guān)鍵在他身上，道了欠緊張氣氛就化解了，對大家都有好處。

    LL： It's worth a try. Maybe Jim will be willing to sacrificehis own
interests and resolve his beef with the boss.

    ******

    LL： Hey， Li Hua ， you really hit pay dirt with that suggestion
you made. Jim apologized to the boss and everybody is happy now. LH ：
Jim 和你們老板道歉啦？那太好了！不過，Larry ，你說hit pay dirt是什么意
思，我聽不懂耶！

    LL： To hit pay dirt means that you found something that turned out
to be profitable or beneficial. LH： To hit pay dirt就是發(fā)現(xiàn)了很有好處
的東西。所以你剛才的意思是我的建議非常有用。不過，這三個詞hit ， pay，
dirt合在一起挺怪的。這說法是從哪里來的？

    LL： When miners would dig for gold ， they would say that they had
hit pay dirt when they found dirt that contained gold. LH ：噢，原來是
采金礦的工人在挖到含黃金的礦石時(shí)，他們就會說hit pay dirt，這樣一解釋，
我就懂了。

    LL： They sometimes say "strike pay dirt". Anyway ， LI Hua ， I also
hit pay dirt today. LH：你今天也挖到寶啦？怎么說？

    LL： I got a job offer for after I graduate. LH ：你已經(jīng)找到畢業(yè)后
的工作啦！那太好了！是哪家公司要雇你呢？

    LL： Actually ， the office I'm working in offered me the job. LH
：真的？就是你現(xiàn)在打工的這家公司？不過你真的想在那兒工作嗎？

    LL： At first ， I wasn't that interested ， but when they told me
what my salary would be ， I realized that I'd really hit pay dirt.16
：18 2009-7-8 LH：哇，太棒了，你很快就能把你的破車賣了，買一輛高級車，
a nice set of wheels. 我們一塊兒出去慶祝慶祝吧！

    今天李華學(xué)到兩個常用語。第一個是have a beef with someone，就是和某
人爭吵，關(guān)系緊張的意思。另一個常用語hit pay dirt，也可以說strike pay dirt，
就是指發(fā)現(xiàn)了有價(jià)值的東西。