李华跟Larry一起去吃晚饭。今天我们要学两个常用语： squared away和temporary fix.
LH: Larry, 怎么样，今天上班忙不忙？
LL: Oh it was a bit stressful. I had a relatively large report due that I was too busy to start until the last minute, but it looks like I got it all squared away.
LH: Squared away? 你是说虽然等到最后一分钟，但还是赶出来了？
LL: Yes, Li Hua, squared away means I took care of it, or finished the job.
LH: 太好了，那你现在可以好好放松一下了？
LL: Yeah. Now I just feel relieved to have gotten the report squared away.
LH: 那份报告是关于什么的？
LL: It was just about the logistics of a new advertising campaign that ships out next week. It wasn’t too hard, just tedious, but now it is all squared away.
LH: 我明白你的感受，处理掉手头的一件大事，肯定是如释重负。
LL: Exactly. It’s hard to relax with a report hanging over your head.
LH: 没错。我经济选修课的期中论文上星期交，老师规定要写二十页，而且还要进行很多复杂的数据分析。
LL: How did it turn out?
LH: 我在学校电脑房里整整泡了两天，I finally got it all squared away. 总算是搞定了，竟然还提前了一天。
LL: That’s excellent.
LH: 可我一点也不敢放松，这篇论文写完了，可还有另外三篇等着我呢！
LL: Well, at least you got one squared away.
LH: 那倒也是。你完成了这份报告，是不是可以喘口气了？
LL: Well now that I’ve got that report all squared away, I’m pretty much in the clear. I guess I will wait until they give me a new assignment.
LH: 真羡慕你，可惜我还有三篇论文要写，不然我们周末可以去秋游。
LL: I wouldn’t worry too much Li Hua, I’m sure you’ll get all of your papers squared away in no time.
LH: I know, I just wish that they were already squared away and I didn’t have to deal with them. 好，酒足饭饱，我又得去泡图书馆了。
******
李华 Larry第二天下午一起去喝咖啡。
LL: How’d the paper writing go?
LH: 别提了，论文倒是写完了一篇，可是电脑房里的打印机坏了，我又没带USB, 所以只好把文章寄到我自己的电子信箱里。
LL: That’s a good temporary fix.
LH: A temporary what?
LL: Temporary Fix it means a good short term solution for a problem. In this case, emailing the paper to yourself is a good fix until you can print the paper.
LH: 噢，temporary fix就是临时解决办法。我一看打印机坏了，差点儿没得心脏病，还好灵机一动，把论文寄给了自己。
LL: It’s good that you found that temporary fix then!
LH: 可不是吗，要不然，我还真是不知道要怎么办了。
LL: The other day at work we had to come up with a temporary fix because our usual print-shop was closed for vacation, and the one we hired instead completely botched the job.
LH: 怎么回事？不会是把你们的广告印刷品都印坏了吧？
LL: Well the whole thing came out backwards and none of the words went with the pictures, plus we had a client coming in only an hour afterwards.
LH: 那你们最后是怎么办的？
LL: Ultimately we just cut the words out of each picture and switched them with scissors and glue. It held together through the meeting. It didn’t look perfect but at least it was a temporary fix.
LH: 客户有没有看出什么破绽？
LL: I think we made an alright impression on the client. I’m not sure that they noticed that anything was wrong.
LH: That’s great.
LL: Yeah, what about you, how did your paper turn out?
LH: 最后我还是在导师的办公室里把论文印出来的。
LL: So your temporary fix was successful.
LH: 没错，我现在只剩一篇论文就万事大吉了！
LL: Well, you’re almost there.
今天李华学了两个常用语。一个是squared away 意思是处理完了。另一个是temporary fix意思是临时的解决办法。