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Giving a Hand鼓掌
Jaime, a new immigrant, was attending his daughter"s first performance in a school play. His daughter, Carol, was five years old. She was a kindergarten student at the local public school. Carol did not have a very big role in the school play. She was playing a rain cloud in a play about the drought in California. Carol had one line. Her line was, " I am sad enough to cry about how dry the state is."
杰米，一个新移民，在学校参加女儿的第一次表演节目。他的女儿，卡罗尔，五岁了。她是当地公立学校的一名幼稚园学生。在学校的比赛中，她没有一个非常重要的角色，她在剧本中扮演一个利福尼亚干旱时的乌云。卡罗尔只有一行台词，是：“看到这个国家这么的干燥，我很难过，所以我就哭了”
Jaime and his wife made sure to arrive early so that they could get a good seat in the auditorium. They secured seats in the front row. Before the show began, the school principal made an introductory speech. The speech was about how hard the students and teachers worked together to make the play possible. At the end of the speech, the principal said, "Let"s give the school staff a hand".
杰米和他的妻子一定要提前到达，这样他们可以在礼堂里得到一个好的座位。他们在前排找了座位坐了下来。节目开始前，校长发表了一个演讲，是关于学生和老师们如何努力打造出了这个表演节目。在演讲结束时，校长说：“让我们给学校的全体老师鼓掌”。
Jaime, whose English was not very good, stood up when the principal said this. He knew that when people said "to give someone a hand" they meant they needed help. Jaime always wanted to help, especially at his daughter"s school. Jaime thought maybe they needed help backstage.
杰米，她的英语不是很好，当校长说完后他便站了起来。他知道当人们说“to give someone a hand”时，就意味着他们需要帮助。 杰米总是想帮助别人，尤其是在他女儿的学校里的人。杰米想也许他们需要后台的支援。
Jaime"s wife put her arm in front of her husband. "Where are you going?" she whispered. "They need a hand," Jaime whispered back. His wife explained that "to give someone a hand" could also mean to applaud someone. "They don"t need help. They just want us to clap," Jaime"s wife said. Jaime felt a little embarrassed. He sat back down and began clapping along with the rest of the audience.
杰米的妻子将她的手放在丈夫面前。“你要去哪里？”她低声说。“他们需要支援“他在她低声耳边说。他的妻子解释说，“to give someone a hand”也可能意味着为某人鼓掌,”他们不需要帮助。他们只是希望我们鼓掌 。“吉米的妻子说。杰米感到有点尴尬。他坐下来，开始与观众一起鼓掌。
Jaime thought to himself that someone needed to give the English language a hand. How could one phrase mean two different things? He meant the English language needed help.
杰米自己认为需要给英语这个语言鼓个掌。一句话怎么可能意味着不同的事情？他的意思是说英语需要帮助。
