今天Michael和李華剛上完課在學生休息室里聊天。李華會學到兩個常用語：out of line和to trash something.

    L： 嗨， Michael，剛才我聽到歷史課的教授在對你嚷嚷，什么事呀？

    M： I argued with him because I thought that a book he's assigning us to read is no good. I guess I was out of line.

    L： 你說教授指定要我們看的書不好！你真是沒有分寸。嗯，你剛才還說什么來啦？Out of line？ Line， 是l-i-n-e這個字嗎？那不是排隊的意思嗎？

    M： No， "to be out of line" means to speak or act when it is not appropriate， especially when dealing with someone who is your superior.

    L： To-be-out-of-line就是話說得不恰當，或者是做事做得不合適，特別是對長輩。那不就是我剛才說的“沒分寸”嗎？我們中國人對長輩特別要有禮貌，哪有象你那樣跟教授爭論的嘛！

    M： Well， in America， you're not always out of line when you disagree with your teacher. Still， I was wrong to criticize our professor so loudly in front of the whole class.

    L： 我知道，美國學生和老師辯論是很正常的。可是，象你那樣在全班同學面前對教授大聲嚷嚷，那才是出了格，out of line.Michael，out of line只是指你和長輩說話沒有分寸嗎？

    M： Not always. For instance， I once told my classmate he should break up with his girlfriend. The two of them had been together for many years. I was not a close friend of this guy， so I was out of line to say that.

    L： 你要你同學和他女朋友分手？你跟這個同學又不熟。哎喲，你不僅是out of line， 你簡直是瘋了—— out of your mind！

    L： Michael，我覺得那教授對你大聲嚷嚷也有點過份。

    M： Well， I really trashed the book he was asking us to read. I probably should have been a little more tactful.

    L： 噢，你還把那本書扔到垃圾桶里啦？那可真是太沒禮貌啦！

    M： What are you talking about？ I didn't throw anything in the trash. I said I "trashed the book". That means I said really bad things about it.

    L： 噢，to trash the book不是把書扔到垃圾桶里，而是把它說成一錢不值。

    M： Last year I made a professor angry because I trashed General MacArthur in a history class. I wrote a paper on his mistakes in the Korean War.

    L： 去年你寫了一篇論文例舉了麥卡瑟將軍在韓戰(zhàn)中的種種錯誤？我怎么不知道呀？Michael， 你不能老是這么貶低歷史人物嘛！對了，除了書和人以外，to trash something還能用在別的地方嗎？

    M： You can trash anything. For instance （sips coffee）， this coffee is horrible！ It tastes like dishwater.

    L： 這咖啡象洗碗水？我覺得還可以嘛。有什么東西你覺得好吃的嗎？

    M： Not really. That's the problem with Americans. We don't have good taste in food or drink. Americans don't understand what good cheese， bread or chocolate taste like. We always eat junk.

    L： 你聽聽，現在你又在貶低美國人了，說他們不知道什么是好吃的，不懂得什么是好的奶酪、面包和巧克力，老是吃那些垃圾食品。 Now you're "trashing" your own country.

    M： Hey， this is a free country. I can trash America anyway I want.

    L： 把自己的國家說得一錢不值似乎也有點out of line了。你這個人啊，就是愛看到反面的東西。嗨（sighs） Whatever.

    今天李華學到兩個常用語，一個是：out of line， 意思是沒有分寸，出格。另一個是：to trash something， 是把什么東西說成一錢不值。