Paul和Sara夫婦倆跟老朋友Jesse和Miika一起吃飯。

P: It's so good to see you guys! It's been forever!

M: We should try to set a monthly dinner date...we've missed you!

S: So what's new?

J: Tracy just turned four. She's growing ridiculously fast. Seems like yesterday she was a tiny infant in my arms.

S: Oh...that's so sweet. Did she like the teddy bear we sent?

M: She loved it! She named it Puki and the two of them are inseparable!

兩對(duì)夫婦很久不見(jiàn)。It's been forever! 是夸張的說(shuō)法，意思就是好久不見(jiàn)。 So what's new? 有什么新鮮事呢？ Jesse和Miika的女兒Tracy剛過(guò)四歲。She's growing ridiculously fast. 長(zhǎng)得太快了。 Tracy很喜歡Paul和Sara送的泰迪熊，走到哪里都帶在身邊，The two of them are inseparable.

P: So how's work these days, Jesse? Times are tough, huh?

J: You know, you guys are such old friends...I'm not going to beat around the bush. I got laid off last month.

經(jīng)濟(jì)不好，Times are tough. Jesse說(shuō)，大家都是老朋友，我就不拐彎抹角了。I am not going to beat around the bush. Beat around the bush, 是兜圈子的意思。I got laid off我被裁員了。

S: Oh, that's awful! But we should level with you too...the hospital cut me back to part-time.

M: I'm so sorry to hear that! You work such long hours! What explanation did they give?

S: They said they were outsourcing most of the hospital's paperwork to India...it costs like a third of what they are spending now.

J: Makes sense from a business perspective, but it's very unfortunate for you.

Sara也坦白地說(shuō)，她在醫(yī)院的工作從全職改成兼職了。 Level with somebody，向某人坦白。 Part-time，兼職工作。醫(yī)院減少她的工作時(shí)間是為了節(jié)省開(kāi)支，把大部分文書(shū)工作，paperwork，都外包到印度去了。

S: How about you? Why did you get a pink slip?

J: The company is "restructuring"...which in this case is a fancy word for going bankrupt.

P: Well, you two are some of the most resilient people I know...so what's the plan?

M: I'm taking more freelance writing work. I can do that from home and still watch Tracy. That way we save on daycare.

J: And I'm thinking I'll go back to school and finish my Master's Degree. Then when the economy picks up, I'll be much more marketable.

Miika說(shuō)自己打算多做一些自由撰稿工作，freelance writing work. Jesse則打算回去完成碩士學(xué)位，Master's Degree，等待市場(chǎng)回暖。