Larry 在咖啡馆里碰见了李华。他们会用到两个常用语：take someone under
your wing 和take someone for a ride.

    （Sound of cafédoor opening - chimes ）

    Larry ： Hey， there you are， Lihua.

    LH：（Sounding tired） Oh ， hi Larry.

    Larry ： I haven't seen you since last weekend. What have you been
up to ？ Don't tell me you're having midterms already.

    LH：我连看书的时间都没有！尽忙着照顾我表妹了。她从中国来美国上高中，
初来乍到，什么都不会，所以我这两天一直在帮她安顿。

    Larry ： I'm sure it's a very tough transition for both of you. But，
it's so nice of you to take her under your wing.

    LH： "Take her under my wing" ？这是什么意思？

    Larry ： To take someone under your wing means to give them a great
deal of personal guidance and protection while they are learning something
of which you have experience.

    LH：我明白了， to take someone under your wing，就是指导、保护和照
料某人。我现在就是这样像母鸡带小鸡一样照顾着我表妹呢！

    Larry ： It takes time to learn how to cope with living in a totally
new environment - it's only natural to need a little bit of help at first.
As a matter of fact ， I can remember a time not so long ago when I took
a certain confused girl from China under my own wing……

    LH：你说你也曾这样帮助过一个女孩？你不是在说我吧？Larry ，虽然你给
了我很多帮助，但这和我给我表妹的帮助是不同的。我要是不在她身边，她连出
门买吃的都不敢！

    Larry ： But Lihua， you couldn't buy groceries on your own either
when you first moved here. One time at the grocery store， your bill came
to $7.50 and you pulled out a dollar bill ， asking me if it was enough！

    LH： Haha ，这个我记得。刚到美国时，每次需要跟美国人打交道我都会非
常紧张，就算不说英语，还是觉得很恐怖。

    Larry ： Luckily， I was there to take you under my wing while you
got used to living in the United States - just like how you're taking
your cousin under your wing now ！

    LH：哈，看来我们都是好心人！最近我在帮我表妹找房子。她以前的房东欺
负她是新来的，把房租提高了两倍！我表妹已经傻呼呼地交了一个月的钱！

    Larry ： Yeah ， you have to be really careful. It sounds like that
landlord was taking your cousin for a ride.

    LH： Taking her for a ride？开车带她出去？那个房东可没这么好心！

    Larry ： Um ， I mean "taking her for a ride" as in ， taking advantage
of her situation - playing a trick on her for his own benefit.

    LH：哦！原来to take someone for a ride还有欺负人，宰人的意思！

    Larry ： Yea， that's right. For example， when I went to New York
City， my cab driver noticed that I had never been to New York before ，
and so he took a longer route to my hotel in order to run up my bill.
This is a classic case of "taking someone for a ride."

    LH：啊？司机看你是第一次来纽约，就带着你绕远路，多收你的车费。这可
真差劲，欺负人！

    Larry ： Unfortunately， some people will take advantage of other
people like that.

    LH： Larry，咱们是愿意take others under our wings ，不遗余力地帮助
别人，可这个房东和那个出租司机却会take people for a ride，占别人便宜。
所以这两个说法的意思正好相反嘛！

    Larry ： Yea， you could think of it like that. So， it's a great
thing that you are taking your cousin under your wing ！ Otherwise， it
would be easy for people to take her for a ride.

    LH：好吧，为了防止她受欺负，我就继续努力吧。

    Larry ： I'm sure your cousin is a smart girl. Before you know it ，
she'll be just as capable to live on her own in the United States as you
are - and you won't have to worry about people trying to take her for
a ride.

    LH：（叹气）不过，在她完全自立前，我可有的忙了，估计不能常和你见面
了！

    Larry ： That's OK. Taking someone under your wing is a quite a full-time
job ！

    今天李华学了两个常用语。一个是to take someone under your wing ，意
思是“照顾和帮助某人”。另一个是to take someone for a ride，意思是“占
人便宜，欺负人”。