【大紀元6月18日訊】

李華陪Larry一起去看房子。今天我們要學兩個常用語：tip your hand和poker face.

LH: Larry, 這間公寓簡直太理想了。兩個臥室，一個大廚房，後面居然還有個小院子。我看就是它吧！

LL: Yeah, I know. And best of all, the second bedroom will be a great place for me to keep my collection of Chia pets.

LH: 你心裏只有你那些草頭娃娃！不過話說過來了，這是你辦公室附近唯一的一家高檔公寓樓，你也沒有別的選擇。

LL: Shhh! Don’t let the landlord hear that I don’t have any other options. I don’t want to tip my hand when we negotiate over the price.

LH: Tip? 難道租房子還要給房東小費嗎？

LL: No no, tip my hand. When you tip your hand, it means that you give someone else secret information.

LH: 我明白了，tip your hand是露底牌的意思。你是怕房東知道你沒有其它選擇，在租金上就會獅子大開口。所以你不願意tip your hand，讓他知道你的底細。

LL: Exactly. You can remember it by thinking about playing cards. If you tip your hand forward so that other people can see your cards, you give the other players an advantage.

LH: 對啊，打牌的時候一定要拿好自己的牌，讓別人看見了你的牌，還能不輸？哦，怪不得我老輸。一定是你偷看我的牌。

LL: Say, what are you going to get me for a house-warming present? Maybe that new Barack Obama Chia pet that just came out?

LH: 你別想套我的話，暖房的禮物要給你個驚喜，我絕對不會提前tip my hand.

LL: Fair enough.But just in case you were wondering what I want, I’ll tip my hand a little bit and tell you that I love Chia pets, and I also love Barack Obama.

LH: 我就知道你看中了新上市的奧巴馬草頭娃娃。說正經的，這公寓唯一的問題就是租金太貴。你老闆最近會給你漲工資嗎？

LL: Well I asked my boss for a big raise last week, but so far she hasn’t said whether she will accept my offer. I bet if I threaten to quit she will be forced to tip her hand.

LH: 你可千萬要三思而行。你要是真丟了飯碗，就別想住進這樣的「豪華」公寓了！

******

LL: OK, Lihua. It’s time to try to negotiate over the price with the landlord. We don’t want to tip our hand, so remember to put on your poker face.

LH: Poker? 談價錢跟打撲克牌有什麼關係？

LL: No, it’s an expression. When you put on your poker face, it means that you don’t show any emotion.

LH: 我明白了，poker face就是中文裡說的不動聲色。你是擔心如果表現得太積極，房東就會提高租金，但是如果不動聲色，房東就沒辦法揣摩你的心理，反而會提供一些優惠把你留住。

LL: That’s exactly right. It’s like when you play poker.You don’t want the other players to know if you have good or bad cards by acting happy or sad, so you put on your poker face.

LH: 換句話說，如果你不put on your poke face, 你就會tip your hand.

LL: That’s right. My boss has a really good poker face. When I asked for that raise, she didn’t show any reaction. Now I don’t know if she is going to accept it or not.

LH: 那poke face跟straight face是不是一個意思呢？

LL: They’re similar, but keeping a straight face usually refers only to not laughing when you think something is funny. It doesn’t usually apply to other emotions.

LH: 我知道了，straight face是說故意繃著不笑。哦對了，我已經去過草頭娃娃專賣店，奧巴馬草頭娃娃已經脫銷了。

LL: Oh no! That’s terrible news! My life is over!

LH: Haha, gotcha! 逗你的！ I told you I can really keep a straight face.

LL: Oh Lihua, please don’t joke about something as important as Chia pets. But you did keep a straight face. You didn’t smile at all, even though you were making a joke.

LH: 我可是專業水平的！怎麼樣，要不要我替你跟房東砍價啊？

LL: Sounds good to me. It’s pretty clear that you have a much better poker face than I do.

LH: 忘了告訴你，我的砍價費是每小時一百美元。

LL: What? You won’t do it just to be a good friend?

LH: Haha, got you again! 又上當了。

今天李華學了兩個常用語。一個是tip your hand意思是露底牌。另一個是poke face，意思是不動聲色。

(//www.dajiyuan.com)