Larry 和李华今天去看赛车。李华会学到两个常用语sick和souped up.

    LH： Larry，你看，每辆赛车都不一样，各有独特之处，真有意思。

    LL： That car over there is totally sick. Look at the paint and the
tires. That is so cool. I'd love to have a car like that.

    LH： That car over there is totally sick？你说那辆车有病，可你又说
它很酷。有病是坏事，很酷是好事。你究竟在说什么呀？

    LL： Cool means I like that car ， sick means I like the car too.
If I say something is sick， that means it's really good， I like it，
it's special.

    LH：原来sick和cool是一样的意思，都是指很好，很特别。这里的sick跟生
病毫无关。那我可以说，you are neat Larry， you're special ， you are so
sick.

    LL： Hmm. You shouldn't use sick in that way！ I would never say my
friend is sick or that pretty girl over there is sick.

    LH：你的意思是sick只用来形容一样东西？

    LL： That's right. That car over there is sick， those sunglasses
you are wearing are sick， that new hat I bought you is sick too.

    LH：我的太阳镜的确很酷，可是你给我买的帽子就很难说了。 Larry你看我
的新鞋好看吗？

    LL： Totally sick ，very nice. Where did you get them ？

    LH：特别酷吧。这双鞋是我在学校附近新开的大商场里买的。那商场的建筑
很特别 - The structure of that shopping center is very unique ……totally
sick！

    LL： The company that developed that shopping center is owned by a
friend of my Dad's， his company is opening new shopping centers every
other week.

    LH：那购物中心是你父亲的朋友建的呀？而且每两个星期就开一个新的购物
中心！他肯定很有钱了。

    LL： That's for sure. Their revenue is pretty sick. With company growth
like that ， I bet my Dad's friend's net worth is pretty sick too.

    LH：那是肯定的。收入那么多，家产当然是惊人的。我们中国人就说：家产
万贯。

    ******

    LH： Larry，看赛车真有意思。你看，赛车奔驰而过，人群不断地呐喊助威，
多热闹啊。

    LL： A lot of people come to car races for the excitement but a lot
just come to see the souped up cars.

    LH： See the souped up cars ？ Soup 不是汤吗？Souped up cars是什么
呀？

    LL： Souped up means changed or altered to go faster.

    LH：噢，souped up 的意思是经过改装，速度加快了。这里的赛车一定都经
过改装。它们的速度比普通汽车要快得多。

    LL： That's right. If someone takes an ordinary bicycle and changes
the wheels so it can go faster， we can say it was souped up.

    LH：自行车也能改装加速吗？那我的自行车也该换换车胎了。

    LL： One time I had a skateboard， but it wasn't very fast. My Dad
helped me soup it up with some new parts. After that my skateboard was
one of the fastest in the neighborhood.

    LH：滑板也能改装，让它加快速度呀？你可要注意安全啊。对了，我以前也
改装过电脑。我的朋友帮我安装了一些新的电脑软件，那电脑一下子快了不少。
我用了好多年，直到没法再加快了。后来我只好再买一个新的。

    LL： Souped up is also often used with the Internet. When Google or
Yahoo makes an improvement in their search engine ， they'll often say
that a certain type of search has been souped up.

    LH：对了，上回我看到Google和Yahoo 的广告，说它们的搜索引擎速度加快，
当时我也不懂什么是souped up.今天才弄清楚，souped up 就是为了加快速度而
改装。

    LL：For some people ， souping up motorcycles or cars is their hobby.
I knew a guy who was always souping up something in his spare time.

    LH：还有人把改装东西作为嗜好？真是难以想象。我要有空就去购物中心。

    LL： Well ， looks like the red car has won the race， let's go home.

    LH：我就说嘛，那辆红车一定会赢。我们走吧。

    LL： Too bad we can't take one of these souped up cars and quickly
get home for dinner. I'm hungry.

    今天李华学到了两个常用语。一个是sick，意思是很棒、很酷。还有一个是
souped up ，意思是为了加快速度而改装某样东西。