Larry 在學校的電腦室里見到了李華。李華今天要學會兩個常用語ASAP和crank
out.

    LL： Hey Li Hua ！ What are you working on？ A paper？

    LH：不是，我在寫申請威廉森中國歷史獎學金的申請書。

    LL： What ？ But that's due tomorrow！ You'd better finish that ASAP.
LH：我知道明天是申請的最后期限，所以我在趕吶。ASAP，那是什么意思��？

    LL： ASAP means "as soon as possible". You need to finish that application
as soon as possible ！

    LH：噢，原來ASAP就是盡快 - as soon as possible的縮寫。 Larry，那你
為什么不說as soon as possible 而是說ASAP呢？

    LL： Well ， people say "as soon as possible" ， but if you are in
a hurry ， it's easier to just say ASAP. LH ：匆忙的時候說ASAP，這能節(jié)
省多少時間呢，頂多半秒鐘吧。

    LL： Well ， it also sounds more forceful. For instance ， if your
boss tells you， "Li Hua， I need you to get this done ASAP ！" you know
that he is in a hurry ！

    LH：那倒是。ASAP聽起來比較干脆，比較有力。

    LL： Or if your mechanic tells you that you car is leaking oil， and
that you need to have it fixed ASAP ， you'd better take his word for
it. LH：你別舉這種讓我倒霉的例子。不過，要是我的車漏油了，我當然得盡快
修理。I need to have it fixed ASAP.

    LL： Wait ， Li Hua ， you promised me yesterday that you would proofread
my Chinese composition. Have you done that yet？ I need to hand it in
ASAP！

    LH：天啊，昨天我答應幫你修改中文作文，我怎么把這件事給忘了呢？真的
好對不起。那你今天下午交還來得及嗎？

    LL： I need to go to work ASAP， so I need to hand this in before
I go. LH：（Sighs ）如果你一定要在上班之前把作業(yè)交上去，那我現在就幫你
看吧。

    LL： Thank you so much， Li Hua. You're such a good friend.

    ******

    （Larry returns to the computer lab later in the day. ）

    LL： Hey Li Hua ！ I am back from work. Are you still working on that
statement ？

    LH：是啊，我還在寫申請。哎，Larry ，寫申請有什么竅門嗎？你怎么每次
都寫得那么快呢？

    LL： Oh ， I don't know. I guess because I have written so many of
them， now it's easy for me to crank them out. LH ： Crank them out ？
這是什么意思呀？

    LL： To crank something out means to produce something quickly and
mechanically， without much thought. LH ：嗯，To crank something out就
是不需要太多思考，很機戒地做成某種事。

    LL： Well ， when I was an undergraduate， I would just crank out
essays and term papers， no problem. Of course， it's not that easy these
days. LH：我聽說了，你讀本科的時候是寫作高手，論文和學期作文都難不倒你。
現在當研究生就不一樣了；你要作大量研究才能有根有據地寫。

    LL： Exactly. So， did you ever just crank out essays when you were
a student in China？

    LH：當然了，我在中國讀中學的時候，半個小時就能crank out 兩頁的政論
文章。Larry ， to crank out 這個短語還能用在別的地方嗎？

    LL： Sure ， for instance ， at McDonald's， they crank out hundreds
of hamburgers every day. LH ：麥當勞每天制作成千上萬個的漢堡包。這一點
也不錯。

    LL： And Hollywood cranks out stupid action movies every other week.
LH：我從來不看好萊塢制作的那種武打片，所以我就不太清楚了。

    LL： Anyway ， I have another piece of homework for Chinese class
that I need you to look at ASAP. Can you help me？

    LH：沒問題，我可以幫你看中文作業(yè)，不過你得幫我修改一下我寫的申請書。
I need to drop it in the mail ASAP.

    LL： Ok ， no problem. Show me what you've written so far.

    今天李華學到了兩個常用語。一個是ASAP，意思是盡快。還有一個是crank
out ，意思是不需多加思考地，機械地制作某種東西。