Larry患了重感冒，李華帶著雞湯去看他。李華今天要學兩個常用語，blah和bounce back.

LL: Hi, Li Hua, it is so nice to see you. I just wish I didn't feel so blah.

LH: Blah? 你得的不是感冒嗎？

LL: I do have a cold, Li Hua. But "blah" is a word that describes how you feel when you have a cold or are sick - Blah is the feeling you have when you are really tired and have no energy.

LH: 我知道了，blah是不舒服，生病時渾身乏力的意思。

LL: That's right, Li Hua. I certainly wish I didn't feel so blah. I haven't been able to sleep very well with this runny nose and cough... (Cough, cough)

LH: 你好可憐。我知道睡不好覺的感覺。別說感冒了，就是平時，睡不好覺我都會覺得blah.

LL: Yeah, I've got a pretty good case of the blahs. I don't feel like doing much of anything.

LH: 我給你熬了點兒雞湯，或許你喝了會感覺好一些。

LL: Thanks, Li Hua. Mmmm...This soup is great, Li Hua. It has a lot of flavor - not like my mom's soup. Sometimes her soup can be a little blah.

LH: 你媽的湯怎么會是blah? 我以為blah不是指渾身乏力嗎？

LL: You can also use blah to talk about a thing. When referring to a thing, blah means something that isn't very good or interesting.

LH: 你是說你媽熬的湯沒味啊。你沒當著她的面說過吧？

LL: Actually, I have. My mom's blah cooking is a joke in my family. My mom really doesn't like spicy food, so many dishes she cooks are very blah.

LH: 還好你沒覺得我的湯也是blah. 你現在感覺怎么樣？

LL: I'm feeling a little less blah, thanks to you, Li Hua. So, how has your day been, anyway?

LH: 沒什么新鮮的。外面又濕又冷，我一直在家里批論文。I've been having a blah day.

LL: Say, have you had some of the soup you brought, Li Hua? It is just the thing to cheer you up when you are having a blah day!

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LL: Now that I've had a nice bowl of hot soup, Li Hua, all I need to bounce back is a good night's sleep.

LH: 你要bounce back彈回來，那一定得有張蹦蹦床羅。

LL: Ha, ha. That's funny, Li Hua. While you can bounce on a trampoline, to "bounce back" means to recover from something. In this case, I am looking forward to bouncing back from this cold.

LH: 原來你說的bounce back是復原的意思。只要你多吃多睡，用不了多少時間，就會象原來一樣生龍活虎。

LL: I am expecting to bounce back in a day or two. Then I will head back to work.

LH: 幸好你只是感冒。你知道我的一個學生得了肺炎。

LL: Wow! One of your students has pneumonia? That is a pretty serious illness. It will take several weeks before he will be able to bounce back.

LH: 還有，我另外一個學生上星期剛剛割了闌尾。I don't expect he'll be bouncing back very quickly either.

LL: You are right. It takes more time to bounce back from surgery or an injury than it does from a little cold.

LH: 真希望生病不會影響到他們的成績。

LL: If they are good students and work hard, I am sure they will bounce right back from a few bad grades.

LH: 有時候，遇到讓人失望的事情也很難重新振作起來。

LL: That's true. It took my Uncle Bob a long time to bounce back from his divorce.

LH: 那你叔叔Bob離婚后是怎么重新振作起來的呢？

LL: Well, he stayed very positive through the whole experience, and instead of thinking about the divorce, he put his energy into spending time with his children and doing things he enjoyed. That really helped him bounce back.

LH: 保持積極的態度、多跟家人在一起，做喜歡做的事情。Larry, 這些真是好建議。

今天李華學到了兩個常用語。一個是blah, 指全身乏力或是沒滋沒味。另一個是bounce back, 指恢復過來。