Larry和李华今天去看赛车。 李华会学到两个常用语sick和souped up。
LH: Larry，你看， 每辆赛车都不一样，各有独特之处，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？ 你说那辆车有病，可你又说它很酷。有病是坏事， 很酷是好事。你究竟在说什么呀？
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: 原来sick 和cool是一样的意思，都是指很好，很特别。这里的sick跟生病毫无关。那我可以说，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只用来形容一样东西？
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: 我的太阳镜的确很酷，可是你给我买的帽子就很难说了。 Larry你看我的新鞋好看吗？
LL: Totally sick，very nice. Where did you get them?
LH: 特别酷吧。这双鞋是我在学校附近新开的大商场里买的。那商场的建筑很特别 – 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: 那购物中心是你父亲的朋友建的呀？ 而且每两个星期就开一个新的购物中心！他肯定很有钱了。
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，家产当然是惊人的。我们中国人就说：家产万贯。
******
LH: Larry, 看赛车真有意思。你看，赛车奔驰而过， 人群不断地呐喊助威，多热闹啊。
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不是汤吗？Souped up cars是什么呀？
LL: Souped up means changed or altered to go faster.
LH: 噢，souped up的意思是经过改装，速度加快了。这里的赛车一定都经过改装。它们的速度比普通汽车要快得多。
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: 自行车也能改装加速吗？那我的自行车也该换换车胎了。
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: 滑板也能改装，让它加快速度呀？ 你可要注意安全啊。对了，我以前也改装过电脑。我的朋友帮我安装了一些新的电脑软件，那电脑一下子快了不少。我用了好多年，直到没法再加快了。后来我只好再买一个新的。
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: 对了，上回我看到Google和Yahoo的广告，说它们的搜索引擎速度加快，当时我也不懂什么是souped up。今天才弄清楚，souped up就是为了加快速度而改装。
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：还有人把改装东西作为嗜好？真是难以想象。我要有空就去购物中心。
LL: Well, looks like the red car has won the race, let’s go home.
LH: 我就说嘛， 那辆红车一定会赢。我们走吧。
LL: Too bad we can’t take one of these souped up cars and quickly get home for dinner. I’m hungry.
今天李华学到了两个常用语。一个是sick，意思是很棒、很酷。 还有一个是souped up， 意思是为了加快速度而改装某样东西。