VOA流行美語 Unit 292:check out; max out

Larry跟李華一起在超市購物。今天我們要學兩個常用語：Check out和max out.

LH: OK. 讓我看看購物清單。今天晚上開party的東西就差奶酪了。

LL: OK, wow! Check this out! What a great price!

LH: 你是說要買這種奶酪嗎？

LL: No, I mean that I want you to check this out! And yeah, if you agree that it's good, we should buy it!

LH: Check out在英語裏，不就是交錢的意思嗎？你越說我越糊塗了。

LL: Oh, my mistake. 'Check out' has a few different meanings, depending on the situation. For example, when I just said 'check this out' I mean - take a look at it.

LH: 哦，你是讓我看看這種減價奶酪，那你說'Hey, take a look at this cheese'. 不就完了。

LL: It's just our way of saying 'look at' or 'inspect' in American slang.

LH: 我明白了。可是美國超市裏交錢的地方不是也叫checkout嗎？你看，那邊還掛了個大牌子，上面就寫着 Checkout.

LL: Oh, I see why you're confused. 'Checkout' is a noun - and you're right - it means the area where you pay money for the things that you buy. And 'to check out' - in this case a verb, is when you return your key and leave a hotel room.

LH: 所以說，checkout連在一起，是名詞，指交錢的地方.那如果分開，就是動詞，指交錢的行爲，在旅館說to check out就是退房結帳。那現在，我們要check out the cheese prices，那是看看奶酪的價格，如果決定買，就去交錢go to the checkout to buy them.

LL: Exactly! And one more thing. We can also use 'check out' as a verb to describe the action when a male or female is looking at a person they are physically attracted to.

LH: 你是說，看到吸引人的異性多看幾眼也叫check out? How come you never check ME out!

LL: Oh, trust me. I check you out, but I only do it when you're not looking. Us men have a special talent for that, haha!

LH: 夠了夠了，你又貧嘴。我們還是趕緊買奶酪吧。

LL: Haha, ok. Wait. Check this out! And that! And...

******

LH: 東西都買全了嗎？奶酪、麪包、葡萄酒、水果.....

LL: And this box of chocolate! Now we're ready. Let's go to the checkout.

LH: 我們今天用現金還是刷信用卡？

LL: Let's go ahead and use cash. I actually maxed out my credit card the last time I used it.

LH: Maxed out? 是什麼意思？

LL: It means I used up all the available credit on the card. I reached the maximum amount last month. So, in American slang, we just say 'max out.'

LH: 怎麼可能。你卡上的信用額度不是很高嗎？怎麼會max out用光了呢？

LL: I maxed out the card because I booked our vacation to Hawaii last month. Don't worry. I intend to pay if off over the next few months.

LH: 難怪。原來去夏威夷渡假的開銷你全都放在了信用卡上。那max out還能用在其他地方嗎？

LL: Well, you can use it when you have reached or exceeded the maximum quantity of something that you are capable of. Some other things I can think of are vacation time and allowed overtime hours.

LH: 我明白了。公司一般對年假和加班都有限制，所以要說假用光了，就可以說max out.

LL: Exactly. So regarding our trip to Hawaii - I managed to max out my credit card AND my vacation time. Haha! It better be worth it!

LH: Larry, 我還聽說如果把信用卡上的額度全都用光的話，對你的信用記錄不好，是這樣嗎？

LL: Oh, it's true. You have to be very careful with the amount of credit you have. But as long as you pay all of your bills, it's ok. Constantly maxing out your credit card is not something you want to do, however.

LH: 你上個月把卡刷爆。這完全可以理解，一趟夏威夷，又是機票、又是渡假村，還要租車，一定很多錢。

LL: Yeah. It's why I didn't tell you, because I just thought it wasn't a major issue. I'll let you know next time, but I'm hoping that there won't be a next time.

LH: OK. 我們去交錢吧！這巧克力還買嗎？

LL: Perhaps I can put those back on the shelf. I need to watch my spending a little more.

今天李華學了兩個常用語。一個是check out, 瞧一瞧。另一個是max out，意思是用到極限。