【大紀元11月26日訊】李華跟Larry一起去吃晚飯。今天我們要學兩個常用語： squared away和temporary fix.
LH: Larry, 怎麼樣，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? 你是說雖然等到最後一分鐘，但還是趕出來了？
LL: Yes, Li Hua, squared away means I took care of it, or finished the job.
LH: 太好了，那你現在可以好好放鬆一下了？
LL: Yeah. Now I just feel relieved to have gotten the report squared away.
LH: 那份報告是關於什麼的？
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，處理掉手頭的一件大事，肯定是如釋重負。
LL: Exactly. It’s hard to relax with a report hanging over your head.
LH: 沒錯。我經濟選修課的期中論文上星期交，老師規定要寫二十頁，而且還要進行很多複雜的數據分析。
LL: How did it turn out?
LH: 我在學校電腦房裡整整泡了兩天，I finally got it all squared away. 總算是搞定了，竟然還提前了一天。
LL: That’s excellent.
LH: 可我一點也不敢放鬆，這篇論文寫完了，可還有另外三篇等著我呢！
LL: Well, at least you got one squared away.
LH: 那倒也是。你完成了這份報告，是不是可以喘口氣了？
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: 真羨慕你，可惜我還有三篇論文要寫，不然我們週末可以去秋遊。
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，酒足飯飽，我又得去泡圖書館了。
******
李華 Larry第二天下午一起去喝咖啡。
LL: How’d the paper writing go?
LH: 別提了，論文倒是寫完了一篇，可是電腦房裡的打印機壞了，我又沒帶USB, 所以只好把文章寄到我自己的電子信箱裡。
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就是臨時解決辦法。我一看打印機壞了，差點兒沒得心臟病，還好靈機一動，把論文寄給了自己。
LL: It’s good that you found that temporary fix then!
LH: 可不是嗎，要不然，我還真是不知道要怎麼辦了。
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: 怎麼回事？不會是把你們的廣告印刷品都印壞了吧？
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: 那你們最後是怎麼辦的？
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: 客戶有沒有看出什麼破綻？
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: 最後我還是在導師的辦公室裡把論文印出來的。
LL: So your temporary fix was successful.
LH: 沒錯，我現在只剩一篇論文就萬事大吉了！
LL: Well, you’re almost there.
今天李華學了兩個常用語。一個是squared away 意思是處理完了。另一個是temporary fix意思是臨時的解決辦法。 (http://www.dajiyuan.com)
