【大紀元12月15日訊】Larry下班後，跟李華一起去喝咖啡。今天我們要學兩個常用語：brutal和rager.
LH: Larry, 怎麼樣，今天上班忙不忙？
LL: Oh it was way brutal.
LH: Brutal? Brutal 不是粗暴、殘忍的意思嗎？
LL: Here it means harsh. You know, like a hassle. It was way brutal.
LH: 噢，你說今天上班was way brutal 就是特別麻煩，不順的意思。你說具體點兒，In what way was it brutal?
LL: Well for one thing, the coffee machine in my office was broken, so that was lame.
LH: 咖啡壺壞了頂多也就是不方便，也談不上brutal啊。
LL: Well on top of that they were doing some sort of maintenance in the hall, so all day there was this high pitched drilling noise. I have a pounding headache.
LH: 一整天都有人在樓道裡修房子，那可是夠吵的。It IS brutal!
LL: Yeah it was totally brutal.
LH: 我這兩天正在申請一家大公司的實習機會。Let me tell you, it’s so brutal.
LL: How is it brutal, Li Hua?
LH: 這家公司要我證明身份，結果害得我跑了四趟大使館，腿都跑細了。
LL: Woah, brutal. Are you at least done with the application process now?
LH: I wish! 我現在還要到學校的工作許可辦公室去開證明，最後還不知道到底是不是能拿到這個實習的位置。
LL: Is it paid?
LH: 沒有，是沒有報酬的那種實習。
LL: Brutal. I did an unpaid internship once. It was alright though.
LH: 申請實習的手續麻煩點兒也就算了，我現在唯一的希望是，真開始實習了，工作上不要更加brutal。
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李華第二天中午興高彩烈地打電話給Larry。
LL: Hello? This is Larry London speaking.
LH: Larry?
LL: Hi Li Hua, how’s it going?
LH: 告訴你一個好消息，我拿到那個實習的機會了。
LL: That’s great Li Hua!
LH: 公司人事部門打電話通知我，我簡直高興死了。
LL: We have to celebrate, we should throw a rager.
LH: Rager，那是什麼？聽起來好像挺可怕的。
LL: No, a rager means a huge party. A raging party.
LH: 哦，我知道了，a rager就是一個特別瘋狂的派對。好啊，我同意，咱們把朋友都叫來，開個rager.
LL: My friend Jack the DJ has been looking to find some more work. I’m sure he’d be willing to set up his turntables at our rager.
LH: 你是說你那個做職業DJ的朋友Jack嗎？太棒了，要真能把他找來，It is bound to be a killer rager.
LL: I think it should be pretty good. We can have it at my place.
LH: 在你那兒開？你可想好了，那些人一定會把你家搞得一團糟。
LL: Eh, it’s fine. I don’t have anything nice that can be damaged anyhow.
LH: 你在家大吵大鬧地開派對，鄰居會不會有意見？
LL: Probably not, there are a lot of young people around here anyhow. I feel like somebody is always throwing a rager on this street.
LH: 太好了，那你說，咱們都請誰？
LL: Well you should tell friends in your classes, and I’ll send out a Facebook invitation. Oh, When will we hold our rager?
LH: 這個星期五晚上怎麼樣？
LL: Mmm, this Friday isn’t good. I told my friend Kevin I’d help him fix the bike. How about Saturday?
LH: 星期六好。星期六大家精神頭更足。
LL: Exactly, you want people to be high energy if you are going to throw a rager. Do you think a lot of people will come?
LH: 那還用說，I think it will be a huge rager. 你說咱們的派對應該幾點開始？
LL: We can say nine o’clock and no one will likely show up until 10:30 at the earliest.
LH: 十點半？那麼晚啊？
LL: That tends to be how it goes.
LH: 好，就聽你的，拿到這個實習的機會，我真是高興死了。
LL: Congratulations! You earned it.
今天李華學了兩個常用語。一個是brutal意思是很糟糕，很麻煩。另一個是rager指特別瘋狂、特別熱鬧的派對。 (http://www.dajiyuan.com)
