Larry 周末去找李華。今天我們要學兩個常用語：the cat is out of the
bag 和kick the bucket.

    LL： Hi Li Hua， how's it going ？

    LH：挺好的，總算又考完了一門。你怎么樣？

    LL： I'm doing pretty well. There's something I've been meaning to
ask you ……

    LH：你先別說，讓我猜猜，你要帶我出去渡假？

    LL： What ？How'd you know？！ Who let the cat out of the bag ？

    LH： What ？什么叫"let the cat out of the bag ？"

    LL： Who told you ？

    LH：哈哈，當然是你妹妹Susie.

    LL： I can't believe she told you ！

    LH： Well. I guess she let the cat out of the bag.

    LL： Did she ever ！ I can't believe she let the cat out of the bag！

    LH：你還不了解Susie 嗎，她肚子里什么事情也藏不住。

    LL： I see that now.

    LH：你以后有什么要保密的事，千萬不能告訴她。

    LL： I guess Susie is not a good candidate for being a spy.

    LH：她要當間諜，第一天就把自己先出賣了！

    LL： Oh well， so the cat is out of the bag ， I want to take you
on a vacation.

    LH：好啊！帶我去渡假我當然愿意，可總得有點兒理由吧？

    LL： Well ， that project just finished and my boss offered me a few
weeks off to relax since we all worked so many hours on it. Plus I just
got a bonus for the work.

    LH：又放假，又發獎金。這可真是雙喜臨門。

    LL： It's pretty good. I'm just glad that now I have some time to
relax.

    LH：那你有沒有想好去哪里呢？

    LL： I was thinking that we could go down to Miami， you know ， just
relax by the beach. I think it would be a pretty good way to get away
from it all for a little bit.

    LH：邁阿密的陽光，我來了！

    LL： It's a shame you weren't surprised though， now I know not to
tell someone who might let the cat out of the bag next time.

    ******

    李華第二天見到Larry. Larry看上去情緒十分低落。

    LH： Larry，你怎么了，臉色這么難看，發生什么事情了嗎？

    LL： My second grade teacher apparently just kicked the bucket.

    LH：你小學二年級老師kicked the bucket ？她的腳沒受傷吧？

    LL： No ， kicked the bucket means she died.

    LH：哦，原來kick the bucket 是去世的意思。對不起，你一定很難過吧？

    LL： Well ， She always had some health problems. To be honest， I'm
surprised she lived to be as old as she did. She was probably in her 60s
when I had her.

    LH：不管怎么說，自己以前的老師去世，心里一定還是很不好受。

    LL： Yeah ， it is a little sad ， and a little strange. I hadn't
thought of her in years.

    LH：那你是怎么聽說她去世的消息呢？

    LL： Someone from my hometown posted it on my facebook wall.

    LH：沒想到，臉譜網還能起到發訃告的作用。

    LL： Yeah ， it is kind of weird that someone would use facebook as
an obituary. Usually people like to write about having kids online. But
this is the first time I heard about someone kicking the bucket.

    LH：不說這些不高興的事了。Larry ，晚上要不一起去看電影？

    LL： OK. Anything in particular ？

    LH：我隨便，聽你的。

    LL： I guess I'd like to see a comedy or something light.

    LH： So you don't think about your teacher having kicked the bucket？

    LL： Well I guess ， but also just because I feel like seeing a comedy.

    LH：對了，Larry ，要不要聽個小秘密？

    LL： A secret ？ Of course.

    LH： Jenny和Mark訂婚了。

    LL： WOW！ That's great news！

    LH：別嚷別嚷。他們還沒有正式宣布呢。You have to promise you won't
let the cat out of the bag！

    今天李華學了兩個常用語。一個是the cat is out of the bag ，意思是泄
露秘密。另一個是kick the bucket 意思是去世。