Larry 和李華今天去看賽車。李華會學到兩個常用語sick和souped up.

    LH： Larry，你看，每輛賽車都不一樣，各有獨特之處，真有意思。

    LL： That car over there is totally sick. Look at the paint and the
tires. That is so cool. I'd love to have a car like that.

    LH： That car over there is totally sick？你說那輛車有病，可你又說
它很酷。有病是壞事，很酷是好事。你究竟在說什么呀？

    LL： Cool means I like that car ， sick means I like the car too.
If I say something is sick， that means it's really good， I like it，
it's special.

    LH：原來sick和cool是一樣的意思，都是指很好，很特別。這里的sick跟生
病毫無關。那我可以說，you are neat Larry， you're special ， you are so
sick.

    LL： Hmm. You shouldn't use sick in that way！ I would never say my
friend is sick or that pretty girl over there is sick.

    LH：你的意思是sick只用來形容一樣東西？

    LL： That's right. That car over there is sick， those sunglasses
you are wearing are sick， that new hat I bought you is sick too.

    LH：我的太陽鏡的確很酷，可是你給我買的帽子就很難說了。 Larry你看我
的新鞋好看嗎？

    LL： Totally sick ，very nice. Where did you get them ？

    LH：特別酷吧。這雙鞋是我在學校附近新開的大商場里買的。那商場的建筑
很特別 - The structure of that shopping center is very unique ……totally
sick！

    LL： The company that developed that shopping center is owned by a
friend of my Dad's， his company is opening new shopping centers every
other week.

    LH：那購物中心是你父親的朋友建的呀？而且每兩個星期就開一個新的購物
中心！他肯定很有錢了。

    LL： That's for sure. Their revenue is pretty sick. With company growth
like that ， I bet my Dad's friend's net worth is pretty sick too.

    LH：那是肯定的。收入那么多，家產當然是驚人的。我們中國人就說：家產
萬貫。

    ******

    LH： Larry，看賽車真有意思。你看，賽車奔馳而過，人群不斷地吶喊助威，
多熱鬧啊。

    LL： A lot of people come to car races for the excitement but a lot
just come to see the souped up cars.

    LH： See the souped up cars ？ Soup 不是湯嗎？Souped up cars是什么
呀？

    LL： Souped up means changed or altered to go faster.

    LH：噢，souped up 的意思是經過改裝，速度加快了。這里的賽車一定都經
過改裝。它們的速度比普通汽車要快得多。

    LL： That's right. If someone takes an ordinary bicycle and changes
the wheels so it can go faster， we can say it was souped up.

    LH：自行車也能改裝加速嗎？那我的自行車也該換換車胎了。

    LL： One time I had a skateboard， but it wasn't very fast. My Dad
helped me soup it up with some new parts. After that my skateboard was
one of the fastest in the neighborhood.

    LH：滑板也能改裝，讓它加快速度呀？你可要注意安全啊。對了，我以前也
改裝過電腦。我的朋友幫我安裝了一些新的電腦軟件，那電腦一下子快了不少。
我用了好多年，直到沒法再加快了。后來我只好再買一個新的。

    LL： Souped up is also often used with the Internet. When Google or
Yahoo makes an improvement in their search engine ， they'll often say
that a certain type of search has been souped up.

    LH：對了，上回我看到Google和Yahoo 的廣告，說它們的搜索引擎速度加快，
當時我也不懂什么是souped up.今天才弄清楚，souped up 就是為了加快速度而
改裝。

    LL：For some people ， souping up motorcycles or cars is their hobby.
I knew a guy who was always souping up something in his spare time.

    LH：還有人把改裝東西作為嗜好？真是難以想象。我要有空就去購物中心。

    LL： Well ， looks like the red car has won the race， let's go home.

    LH：我就說嘛，那輛紅車一定會贏。我們走吧。

    LL： Too bad we can't take one of these souped up cars and quickly
get home for dinner. I'm hungry.

    今天李華學到了兩個常用語。一個是sick，意思是很棒、很酷。還有一個是
souped up ，意思是為了加快速度而改裝某樣東西。