【大紀元1月7日訊】Larry和李華正在為他們的朋友Laura擔心。他們兩人都覺得Laura好像有甚麼心事。今天李華會學到兩個常用語：clam up和to tank。
LL: Laura has been acting really strange lately, but every time I try to ask her what’s bothering her, she just clams up.
LH: 我也注意到了，Laura最近是有點怪怪的。我也問過她怎麼回事，她就是不肯說….對了，Larry，你剛才說clam up，那是甚麼意思啊？
LL: To clam up is to become silent and refuse to talk about something.
LH: To clam up就是閉緊了嘴巴，不肯把心裏的事告訴別人。可是Larry，clam不是一種蛤蜊嗎？這跟說不說話有甚麼關係？
LL: Yes, in fact, that’s where the expression comes from. Clams can close their shells very tightly. If a person refuses to talk, his lips are closed just like a clam’s shell.
LH: 噢，對了。一個人嘴巴閉得緊緊的時候，就好像蛤蜊閉上殼，怎麼也不打開。這個說法太形象了！
LH: The problem is that Laura has clammed up about whatever is bothering her, which means that we have no way of helping her out.
LH: 那倒也是。她要不說，我們又怎麼能幫她。也許我們應該讓她一個人靜一靜，等她想說的時候自然會告訴我們到底是怎麼回事。
LL: That’s probably the only thing we can do.
LH: 其實我爸爸也是一樣。心裏如果有事，從來不肯說。有的時候把我媽急的一直生氣。
LL: A lot of people clam up when something is bothering them. I tend to clam up when I’m really nervous.
LH: 我也是耶！我只要一緊張，就不說話了。每個人不一樣，我妹妹一生氣就可以幾天不說話。別人也不知道她在生甚麼氣。
LL: That’s like my mother. She could clam up for days when she is angry with my father.
LH: 你媽媽跟你爸爸生氣幾天不說話。那你爸爸怎麼辦哪？
LL：Whenever my mother clams up, he clams up too.
*****
LL: I found out what was bothering Laura. She was upset because the last play she wrote tanked. Everyone criticized it.
LH: 大家都批評她最近寫的劇本。為甚麼？你說她寫的那個劇本tanked，那是甚麼意思？Tank， 不就是打仗用的坦克嗎？
LL: No, this has nothing to do with the tank used in war. This 「tank」 is a verb. When something 「tanks」 that means that it is a complete failure.
LH: 噢，這個tank 和軍用坦克毫無關係。這裡說的tank是個動詞。意思是完全失敗。所有的劇評家都批評Laura的舞台劇。那真是太慘了。可憐的Laura!
LL: Yeah, no wonder she clammed up. I wouldn’t want to talk about it if one of my projects tanked, either.
LH: 就是啊，自己的成果被別人這樣批評，心情一定不好受。對了，Larry，為甚麼大家不喜歡Laura的劇本呢？
LL: I have no idea. I haven’t seen or read her play, so I have no way of judging her work. Laura is a good playwright, I don’t understand why her work tanked.
LH: 嗯，沒有看過她的劇本是很難判斷。不過，Laura確實是一個很好的劇作家。也許我們應該去看看她寫的舞台劇，說不定沒有這麼糟麼。
LL: Even if the play really is terrible, we could at least show our support by going to see it.
LH: 你說的對，不管是好是壞，我們去看就代表我們對Laura的支持。好！我去問她在哪兒可以買票。Larry，那你甚麼時候有空去看呢？
LL: Let’s go this Friday. Originally, I had planned to see a movie this Friday, but the movie I wanted to see tanked, so I might as well go and see Laura’s play.
LH: 怎麼就那麼巧呢？你要看的電影也失敗了。好，就這麼說定了。我去買票，星期五我們就去看Laura的舞台劇嘍！
今天李華學到兩個常用語。第一個是clam up，是指一個人不肯把心裏的話告訴別人。另一個常用語是to tank，也就是失敗的意思。
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