今天Michael正在设法买票和李华一起去看世界职业棒球赛的决赛。李华学到了两个习惯用语：to strike out 和to pull something off.

    M： Well， Li Hua， I struck out again. It looks like my cousin won't have any world series tickets to sell to us after all.

    L： 你说什么？Struck out？ 这跟买球票有什么关系？

    M： I said I struck out again. Struck out means that I failed after trying several times.

    L： 噢，我想起来了！棒球赛里就有strike out这个说法。如果一个击球手三次击球不中，他就strike out， 也就是“三振出局”。所以，strike out的意思是，一件事做了几次也不成功。

    M： That's right. Looks like you've got a good grasp of the rules of baseball. Why don't you try and use it in a sentence.

    L： 嗯，让我想想。对了，我一个朋友申请了几个学校的研究院，可是没有一所学校接受她。 （English） So， she completely struck out.

    M： There you go. You know， even if your friend struck out this year， I hope she tries again. I remember the first year I applied to graduate school， I struck out too. But I learned from my mistakes， and eventually found a good school that accepted me.

    L： 原来你和我朋友一样也有申请研究院失败的经历，可是吸取教训后你就成功了，希望我朋友也会如此。

    M： Yeah， I was rather pleased to get into graduate school. Too bad I still strike out with the girls. None of the good ones want to go out with me.

    L： 嘿嘿，别担心，Michael， 你要求不要太高，一定会找到你喜欢的女孩的。你总不可能一直在这方面strike out吧！

    L： 嘿 Michael， 你到底有没有买到棒球决赛的球票啊？

    M： No， to tell you the truth， Li Hua， I don't think I can pull it off. There simply are no tickets for sale.

    L： 你说什么？ Pull it off？ 你还在想办法，对不对？

    M： I said I don't think I can pull it off. To pull something off - Pull. P U L L. Off. O F F， means to succeed at something very difficult， usually unexpectedly.

    L： 噢，To pull something off就是出人意料地做成一件很困难的事情。哎，Michael， 你再举个例子好不好？

    M： Ok， most of our friends didn't think that Beijing would be allowed to host the 2008 Olympics， but in the end Beijing pulled it off！ I was really surprised.

    L： 对，很多人以为中国申办奥运不会成功，但是中国试了几次，终于成功， 也就是pulled it off.Michael， 凭你对中国的了解，你不应该感到惊讶才对嘛。

    M： Yeah. I guess so. Anyway， as for the tickets， I don't think I can pull this off.

    L： 为什么买棒球赛的票那么难啊？

    M： The series has already started， the tickets were sold months ago， and the only people selling them on the Internet want at least $600 a ticket for game 7.

    L： 电脑上买票还要六百美元一张？这也太过份了吧？哎，Michael， 反正我对棒球也没兴趣，你就不用给我买票了。

    M： You know， Li Hua， I spent the whole afternoon calling people and trying to find tickets. I wish you had said something sooner.

    L： 对不起，我知道你花了很多时间。可是，我没想到你这么没能耐，试了半天还是struck out！

    Michael和李华想买职业棒球赛的球票，可是没有买到。李华学到了两个习惯用语：to strike out和to pull something off.Strike out表示一件事做了几次都没有成功。To pull something off表示出人意料地做成了一件很困难的事情。