今天李华到Larry 家来借一本书，碰巧Larry 的妈妈打电话来。什么事呢？

    你听了他们的对话就知道了。今天李华会学到两个常用语：play hooky和put
one's foot down.

    （Hang up phone ）

    LH： Larry，怎么啦？你看起来很不高兴。

    LL： Oh ， it's just that my little sister is giving my mom a lot
of trouble. She played hooky from school two days in a row last week.

    LH：你妹妹给你妈惹麻烦了。你说她上星期在学校连续两天played hooky？

    那是一种游戏吗？为什么你妈妈会生气啊？

    LL： No ， it's not a game. To play hooky is to skip school or work
when you have no excuse for doing so.

    LH：噢！play hooky就是逃学，旷课的意思。那很严重耶！我要是逃学，我
妈妈一定会非常非常生气！

    LL： Every kid plays hooky once in a while， but playing hooky as
often as my little sister does is a serious problem. It's affecting her
grades.

    LH：对，偶尔旷课还可以，如果像你妹妹这样常常逃课，成绩当然会受影响
喽！那你妈妈打算怎么做？

    LL： She'll forbid my sister from watching TV ， talking on the phone，
or going out with her friends for at least a month.

    LH：哇！至少一个月不能看电视、不许和朋友通电话，也不可以和朋友出去。

    这样的处罚是够厉害的。不过也许她能得到教训，以后不再逃学。

    LL： I hope so. Hey ， you really never played hooky when you were
a kid ？

    LH：嗯，有那么几次我不想上学，就装病待在家里。这样也算play hooky吗？

    LL： Of course， that counts！ Actually ， I think every kid has used
that trick to play hooky at least once.

    LH：对，假装生病是孩子们想逃学时常用的借口。我记得我是因为有的同学
老是取笑我，所以我不想上学。

    LL： Unfortunately， I think that's probably a very common reason
for playing hooky from school.

    ******

    LH： Larry，刚才是谁打电话来？

    LL： That was my sister. My mom really put her foot down this time.
She's not allowed to watch TV or see her friends for two months. She's
really upset.

    LH：你妈妈罚你妹妹两个月不准看电视，也不准和朋友出去玩，那是够厉害
的。可是，Larry ，你刚才说"put her foot down" 是什么意思？

    LL： Oh ， to put one's foot down means to take a really firm stanceon
something and enforce it.

    LH： Put one's foot down就是采取坚定立场，严厉执行。你妈妈是不是也
曾经对你这么严格啊？

    LL： I was generally a good kid ， but she did put her foot down once
that I can remember. She thought one of my friends was a bad influence，
so she didn't allow me to hang out with him

    LH：那是可以理解。中国人常说，“近朱者赤，近墨者黑，”你妈妈是怕你
交了坏朋友，所以才不让你跟他交往。

    LL： Well ， haven't you ever had to put your foot down with anyone？

    LH：你还记得我那讨厌的同屋吗？在她开始偷我的东西之后，我就对她不客
气了。

    LL： Yeah ， I remember that. I think you probably should have put
your foot down before then， but you were too nice.

    LH：是，我可能早就不该迁就她了。不过，我总觉得不太好意思，不太敢和
别人发生冲突。

    LL： You've got to learn to put your foot down when it's necessary，
otherwise people will take advantage of you.

    LH：没错，必要的时候就得学会对别人硬一些，有的人就是会欺软怕硬。