Larry 和李華兩人正在做菜，準備一會兒帶到朋友家參加party.今天李華會
學到兩個常用語：to blow it和to wing it.

    （Cooking sounds）

    LH： Larry，那是什么味道？（sniffing）……哎呀，糟了！是豬排烤焦了
啦！

    LL： What ？ Oh no！ I ruined them. They're stuck to the bottom of
the pot. I blew it！

    LH：你在說什么��！你是把豬排烤焦了，又沒有吹壞什么東西！你怎么說blow
it呢？

    LL： When I said "I blew it"， I meant that I ruined the whole dish.
To "blow it" means to make a mistake that leads to total failure， or
ruins a good opportunity.

    LH：噢，原來blow it 是指犯了錯，把事情搞砸了，或者錯過了一個大好機
會。你��！還真是把這道豬排給搞砸了。這樣吧！給你個將功補過的機會，再給
我舉個blow it 的例子吧！

    LL： Well ， the other day I was playing pool with Jack. I was just
two shots away from winning ， but then I blew it ： I sunk the eight
ball and lost.

    LH：哈哈！你玩臺球輸給Jack！八成是你太有自信，所以才會在最后關(guān)頭輸
掉。

    LL： And last week， I finally got a date with that girl from my international
relations class ， but I blew it. I took a nap， overslept， and showed
up at her place an hour and a half late.

    LH：哎， Larry，你幾星期來一直要約那個女孩出去玩。終于約到了，怎么
會睡過頭，還遲到一個半小時的呢！我看你��！你真是砸了這個好機會。

    LL： Yeah ， well ， it wasn't as bad as when you had that job opportunity
last week and blew it ！

    LH：喲，你說到我頭上來啦！我沒有拿到那分工作又不是我的錯！我怎么知
道他們在我的電話里留了言。

    LL： That's because you forgot to check it. That was a really good
job ， too， and you blew it！

    LH：我沒有聽電話留言。就算是我blew it.

    ******

    LH：哎，Larry ，現(xiàn)在可怎么辦？我們一個小時后就得到Jane的家里，可是
我們一道菜也沒做好！

    LL： Well ， we'll just have to wing it.

    LH： Wings？你是說雞翅膀？可是我們已經(jīng)沒有時間到店里去買了��！

    LL： No ， no ， Li Hua ， I said we have to wing it. That means，
we'll have to do the best we can with limited time and resources.

    LH：噢，原來to wing it是說在有限的時間和條件下盡量拼湊。好吧！那你
有什么好辦法？

    LL： Let me see ， what do you have in the fridge ？（sound of fridge
opening ） Hmm， there's some tofu in here， and some green onions. And
there's all these jars of weird Chinese sauces. Maybe we can wing it by
making some kind of tofu dish.

    LH：嗯，讓我看看……！對了！這兒有豆腐，有蔥，還有……讓我看這瓶子
里是什么……噢，四川辣醬！得了，我們可以做麻辣豆腐，這道菜又快又容易，
只要把豆腐切塊，再切些青蔥，半個小時就可以完工咯！

    LL： O.K. ， let's get to work. （sound of sink/cooking sounds）。
This is a great idea. People will love it ， and no one will even notice
that we're winging it.

    LH：沒人會看出我們是臨時湊出這道菜的。所以Larry ， to wing it 是不
是只能用在臨時把東西放在一塊兒，就像做菜？

    LL： Not always. For instance ， when I covered for Jack and taught
his history 101 students last week， I didn't have time to prepare for
the class ， so I just winged it.

    LH：你替Jack上課，可是事前沒有時間備課。咦？那你是怎么臨時備好課的
呢？

    LL： I read the reading assignment just an hour before class began.
The students knew I was winging it， but they were very understanding.

    LH：上課前一小時看看指定閱讀些什么材料你就去上課啦！那學生當然知道
你是在湊合咯！

    LL：Li Hua， pay attention to your cooking， don't blow it this time！

    LH：你放心，你沒看見我老守在爐子邊嗎！我絕不會blow it ！

    今天李華學到的兩個常用語，一個是to blow it，意思是把事情搞砸了，或
者是錯過一個大好機會。另一個常用語是to wing it，是指在有限的時間和條件
下，臨時拼湊完成一件工作。