今天Michael正在設法買票和李華一起去看世界職業(yè)棒球賽的決賽。李華學到了兩個習慣用語：to strike out 和to pull something off.

    M： Well， Li Hua， I struck out again. It looks like my cousin won't have any world series tickets to sell to us after all.

    L： 你說什么？Struck out？ 這跟買球票有什么關系？

    M： I said I struck out again. Struck out means that I failed after trying several times.

    L： 噢，我想起來了！棒球賽里就有strike out這個說法。如果一個擊球手三次擊球不中，他就strike out， 也就是“三振出局”。所以，strike out的意思是，一件事做了幾次也不成功。

    M： That's right. Looks like you've got a good grasp of the rules of baseball. Why don't you try and use it in a sentence.

    L： 嗯，讓我想想。對了，我一個朋友申請了幾個學校的研究院，可是沒有一所學校接受她。 （English） So， she completely struck out.

    M： There you go. You know， even if your friend struck out this year， I hope she tries again. I remember the first year I applied to graduate school， I struck out too. But I learned from my mistakes， and eventually found a good school that accepted me.

    L： 原來你和我朋友一樣也有申請研究院失敗的經(jīng)歷，可是吸取教訓后你就成功了，希望我朋友也會如此。

    M： Yeah， I was rather pleased to get into graduate school. Too bad I still strike out with the girls. None of the good ones want to go out with me.

    L： 嘿嘿，別擔心，Michael， 你要求不要太高，一定會找到你喜歡的女孩的。你總不可能一直在這方面strike out吧！

    L： 嘿 Michael， 你到底有沒有買到棒球決賽的球票啊？

    M： No， to tell you the truth， Li Hua， I don't think I can pull it off. There simply are no tickets for sale.

    L： 你說什么？ Pull it off？ 你還在想辦法，對不對？

    M： I said I don't think I can pull it off. To pull something off - Pull. P U L L. Off. O F F， means to succeed at something very difficult， usually unexpectedly.

    L： 噢，To pull something off就是出人意料地做成一件很困難的事情。哎，Michael， 你再舉個例子好不好？

    M： Ok， most of our friends didn't think that Beijing would be allowed to host the 2008 Olympics， but in the end Beijing pulled it off！ I was really surprised.

    L： 對，很多人以為中國申辦奧運不會成功，但是中國試了幾次，終于成功， 也就是pulled it off.Michael， 憑你對中國的了解，你不應該感到驚訝才對嘛。

    M： Yeah. I guess so. Anyway， as for the tickets， I don't think I can pull this off.

    L： 為什么買棒球賽的票那么難�。�

    M： The series has already started， the tickets were sold months ago， and the only people selling them on the Internet want at least $600 a ticket for game 7.

    L： 電腦上買票還要六百美元一張？這也太過份了吧？哎，Michael， 反正我對棒球也沒興趣，你就不用給我買票了。

    M： You know， Li Hua， I spent the whole afternoon calling people and trying to find tickets. I wish you had said something sooner.

    L： 對不起，我知道你花了很多時間。可是，我沒想到你這么沒能耐，試了半天還是struck out！

    Michael和李華想買職業(yè)棒球賽的球票，可是沒有買到。李華學到了兩個習慣用語：to strike out和to pull something off.Strike out表示一件事做了幾次都沒有成功。To pull something off表示出人意料地做成了一件很困難的事情。