今天李華到Larry 家來借一本書，碰巧Larry 的媽媽打電話來。什么事呢？

    你聽了他們的對話就知道了。今天李華會(huì)學(xué)到兩個(gè)常用語：play hooky和put
one's foot down.

    （Hang up phone ）

    LH： Larry，怎么啦？你看起來很不高興。

    LL： Oh ， it's just that my little sister is giving my mom a lot
of trouble. She played hooky from school two days in a row last week.

    LH：你妹妹給你媽惹麻煩了。你說她上星期在學(xué)校連續(xù)兩天played hooky？

    那是一種游戲嗎？為什么你媽媽會(huì)生氣啊？

    LL： No ， it's not a game. To play hooky is to skip school or work
when you have no excuse for doing so.

    LH：噢！play hooky就是逃學(xué)，曠課的意思。那很嚴(yán)重耶！我要是逃學(xué)，我
媽媽一定會(huì)非常非常生氣！

    LL： Every kid plays hooky once in a while， but playing hooky as
often as my little sister does is a serious problem. It's affecting her
grades.

    LH：對，偶爾曠課還可以，如果像你妹妹這樣常常逃課，成績當(dāng)然會(huì)受影響
嘍！那你媽媽打算怎么做？

    LL： She'll forbid my sister from watching TV ， talking on the phone，
or going out with her friends for at least a month.

    LH：哇！至少一個(gè)月不能看電視、不許和朋友通電話，也不可以和朋友出去。

    這樣的處罰是夠厲害的。不過也許她能得到教訓(xùn)，以后不再逃學(xué)。

    LL： I hope so. Hey ， you really never played hooky when you were
a kid ？

    LH：嗯，有那么幾次我不想上學(xué)，就裝病待在家里。這樣也算play hooky嗎？

    LL： Of course， that counts！ Actually ， I think every kid has used
that trick to play hooky at least once.

    LH：對，假裝生病是孩子們想逃學(xué)時(shí)常用的借口。我記得我是因?yàn)橛械耐瑢W(xué)
老是取笑我，所以我不想上學(xué)。

    LL： Unfortunately， I think that's probably a very common reason
for playing hooky from school.

    ******

    LH： Larry，剛才是誰打電話來？

    LL： That was my sister. My mom really put her foot down this time.
She's not allowed to watch TV or see her friends for two months. She's
really upset.

    LH：你媽媽罰你妹妹兩個(gè)月不準(zhǔn)看電視，也不準(zhǔn)和朋友出去玩，那是夠厲害
的。可是，Larry ，你剛才說"put her foot down" 是什么意思？

    LL： Oh ， to put one's foot down means to take a really firm stanceon
something and enforce it.

    LH： Put one's foot down就是采取堅(jiān)定立場，嚴(yán)厲執(zhí)行。你媽媽是不是也
曾經(jīng)對你這么嚴(yán)格啊？

    LL： I was generally a good kid ， but she did put her foot down once
that I can remember. She thought one of my friends was a bad influence，
so she didn't allow me to hang out with him

    LH：那是可以理解。中國人常說，“近朱者赤，近墨者黑，”你媽媽是怕你
交了壞朋友，所以才不讓你跟他交往。

    LL： Well ， haven't you ever had to put your foot down with anyone？

    LH：你還記得我那討厭的同屋嗎？在她開始偷我的東西之后，我就對她不客
氣了。

    LL： Yeah ， I remember that. I think you probably should have put
your foot down before then， but you were too nice.

    LH：是，我可能早就不該遷就她了。不過，我總覺得不太好意思，不太敢和
別人發(fā)生沖突。

    LL： You've got to learn to put your foot down when it's necessary，
otherwise people will take advantage of you.

    LH：沒錯(cuò)，必要的時(shí)候就得學(xué)會(huì)對別人硬一些，有的人就是會(huì)欺軟怕硬。