李華和Larry 在學(xué)生中心的咖啡館里休息。今天李華會學(xué)到兩個常用語：cop
out 和to get worked up.

    LL： Hey Li Hua. Some friends and I are planning to go camping and
hiking next month. Do you want to come along？

    LH：嗯……去露營啊？嗯，下個月我可能會很忙耶！噢！對！那個周末我已
經(jīng)答應(yīng)幫我鄰居照顧他的狗。

    LL： What ？ I didn't even tell you when we're going！ Sounds like
a cop-out to me ！

    LH：對，你還沒有告訴我是哪個周末。不過，A cop ？ cop不是警察嗎？我
不去露營和警察有什么關(guān)系？

    LL： No ， no ， I don't mean "cop" as in "police officer". A cop
out ， is a weak excuse for not doing something. LH ：噢，原來cop out
是想推脫做某件事，但是理由又很牽強(qiáng)。哎呀，好啦！我招了，我是不喜歡露營！
要走那么多路，又會被蟲咬，還得睡睡袋，而且我還聽說美國有很多熊呢！

    LL： Bears？ Don't tell me you won't go just because you're afraid
of bears. That's an even stupider cop out. LH ：好啦好啦！跟熊沒有關(guān)系，
我就是懶惰！不喜歡露營嘛！

    LL： That's what I thought. Well， it's better to be honest than to
cop out. So do you understand what "cop out" means now？

    LH：嗯，我想我大概懂cop out 的意思了！給你舉個例子吧！我的朋友Jeanna
老是說她想學(xué)中文，可是當(dāng)我主動提出要教她時，她又總是說沒時間。這就是cop
out 嘍！

    LL： Yeah ， that sounds like a cop out to me. Most people just aren't
willing to put the time and effort into really learning another language.
LH：說到學(xué)外語，Larry ，我記得不久前，你也叫我教你讀中文報紙，怎么樣？
你明天有時間嗎？

    LL： I， um …… I think I'm busy tomorrow. The plumber is coming
to my house sometime in the afternoon ， so I have to wait for him， and
……

    LH：得了吧！什么等工人來修水管？誰會相信這種借口。你這才是真正的cop
out ！

    ******

    LH：（Growls）嗨！這些學(xué)中文的學(xué)生，我真不想教了！怎么考試考得這么
糟！我看啊，這學(xué)期他們一個也別想拿A ！

    LL： Calm down， Li Hua. Don't get so worked up over it.

    LH：你要我別work up ？你是說我不必那么努力，那什么意思呀？

    LL： No ， I don't mean you have to work harder. I mean ， you shouldn't
get worked up. To get worked up means to get angry or excited.

    LH：噢，don't get worked up 是別生氣的意思！不生氣？你看看他們寫的
中文有難看，而且還老是寫錯別字。

    LL： Let me see those. Hmm…… Wow， this isn't bad at all. I can
tell they're a lot better than they were a few weeks ago. Don't get so
worked up over a few small mistakes ！

    LH：你覺得他們比幾個星期前進(jìn)步多了？我看看……嗯，也許你說的對，也
許我對他們要求太高了。

    LL： That's right. I can tell most of these students want to learn
Chinese. If you always get worked up when they make mistakes， you won't
notice when they improve.

    LH： Larry，你說的對，大多數(shù)學(xué)生都是真的想學(xué)，我不應(yīng)該看到他們的錯
誤就生氣，應(yīng)該多多鼓勵他們。

    （Sound of distant argument ）

    LH：嘿！Jack和Ben 兩個人在那兒那么生氣吵什么啊？

    LL： Oh ， nothing. It's election year， and those two are always
getting worked up over politics.

    LH：噢，我知道美國人在競選總統(tǒng)方面意見不一致，但是沒有想到有些人會
爭的面紅耳赤。

    LL： Yeah ， sometimes when you get worked up about something ， it
shows that you really care about it. Just like you with your students ！

    LH：那倒是，關(guān)心某件事才會激動，就像我很在乎我學(xué)生的成績。說到學(xué)習(xí)，
Larry 你準(zhǔn)備好上中文課了嗎？

    LL： Um …… well …… OK. No more cop outs. Let's get started.

    今天李華學(xué)到兩個常用語。一個是cop out ，意思是用牽強(qiáng)的借口來逃避做
某件事。另一個常用語是to get worked up，就是為某件事生氣。