Larry看见李华在修补她的书包，觉得有点奇怪。 李华今天要学会两个常用语cut it和get on it。
LL: Hey, Li Hua, what are you doing with that tape?
LH: (Sighs)我不小心把书包扯了一个大洞。 我要用胶布把它粘上。
LL: With that tape? Li Hua, this cheap clear tape isn’t going to cut it, you need some duct tape.
LH: The clear tape isn’t going to cut it? 我不是要把书包切开呀!
LL: I know! I said the clear tape won’t cut it. Cut. If something or someone can’t “cut it”, that means it’s not good enough.
LH: 原来won’t cut it的意思是不够好， 而不是把它切开。所以你是说这种透明的胶条不结实，粘不住，你要用那种厚的胶布？
LL: That’s right. Remember that Chinese newspaper reading class I was taking, it was too hard for me- my Chinese wasn’t good enough. I couldn’t cut it in that class, so I changed to another.
LH: 我当然记得咯！当时你才学了半年中文，看中国报刊是不行，所以跟不上，只好放弃。
LL: Yeah, to be able to read Chinese newspaper, I have to learn more Chinese characters.
LH: 你说的对。 Larry你有没有帮我修改申请书啊？
LL: Yeah, I looked at it. I don’t think your application is going to cut it, though. You’ll need to re-write some parts.
LH: 你认为凭我写的申请书是拿不到奖学金的。哪怎么办呢？你说吧，哪些部分要重写。
LL: You need to be more specific about your future academic plans. Simply promising to work hard isn’t going to cut it with the review committee.
LH: 你说得有道理，我得应当更具体地讲未来的学术计划，而不是泛泛地说要努力学习。 我写的恐怕是通不过审查委员会。
LL：Call me when you finish rewriting.
LH：I will, Larry.
******
[Li Hua and Larry meet on campus several days later]
LL: Hey, Li Hua, haven’t see you for a couple of days. Do you have another draft of that application essay for me to check?
LH: 是啊，我们好几天没见了。 我一直忙着上课， 我的申请还没写好呢。
LL: Well, you’d better get on it! It’s due next week!
LH: 我得get on it，那是什么意思？
LL: I said, you’d better get on it. To get on it means to take care of something or start working on an important task.
LH: 噢， get on it就是动手处理某件重要的事情。 没错，没错，我的确该动手修改那申请书了。
LL: That’s right! You’d better get on it right away. By the way, I’m going to be busy on Thursday, so you’d better have it ready by noon tomorrow.
LH: 你星期四没有时间， 那就是说我非得在明天中午以前交给你。
LL: Yes. If you can give it to me around noon tomorrow, I’ll get on it right away and have the corrections ready by Thursday morning.
LH: 星期四上午你就能改完。那太好了。 谢谢你。 你知道吗？我现在千头万绪，忙得不可开交，我这个月的电话账单还没付呢。
LL: Really? You’d better get on that! If you wait too long, they’ll charge a big fee, and it might damage your credit score.
LH: 我知道，所以心里着急呢！过期不付要罚很多钱， 而且还会影响我的信誉。 这我都知道。可是我事太多， 我的汽车还没有重新登记呢。
LL: What? If the police notice that you are driving a car with an out of date registration, you’ll get a big ticket, or worse! You’d better get on that!
LH: 是啊， 这件事一定得赶快办。 我可不想让警察发现我的车没登记，真要罚钱，我可受不了。可是我就是不喜欢填表， 要花很多时间。
LL: That kind of thinking definitely won’t cut it if you want to go to graduate school. Filling out forms for grant proposals is one of the main things that professors and graduate students do.
LH: 那也是，研究生要申请研究经费都要填表。 看来我是得改变这种想法了。
今天李华学到了两个常用语。一个是won’t cut it, 意思是不行，不够好。还有一个是get on it ， 意思是赶快处理。