Chris早上在咖啡間跟同事Ben打招呼。

Chris: Hey, Ben...did you catch the game last night?

Ben: Uh...what game?

C: Baltimore defeated Texas by 17 points!

B: Um...and what sport are we talking about here?

C: Football of course!

B: Oh...football. Football is cool. I usually try to catch the World Cup finals.

Chris問Ben, Did you catch the game last night? 意思是昨天晚上有沒有看比賽，英語里看比賽，看表演在口語里都可以用動詞catch, 比如，Let's go catch a movie. 咱們看電影去。Chris說的是美式足球比賽，football，巴爾的摩烏鴉隊(duì)贏了德克薩斯人隊(duì)17分。Ben說，足球好看, 每次World Cup finals世界杯決賽我都看，他顯然是把soccer和美式足球football混了。Chris說，

C: No, I'm talking about American football. The World Cup is soccer.

B: Oh, I understand. I can't say I'm a big fan. I'm from China, and football doesn't have a really big following over there.

C: So Chinese people prefer soccer or basketball?

B: Yes, I think so. But to be perfectly honest, I'm not really a sports nut.

When I was in high school I played on the school volleyball team. Are you a diehard football fan?

Ben說自己不是特別愛看美式足球，I can't say I'm a big fan. 在中國，美式足球沒有多少球迷。Football doesn't have a really big following. Following 在這里是名詞，指粉絲，追隨者，仰慕者。Ben還說，To be perfectly honest 意思是老實(shí)說，I'm not a sports nut. 這里的nut, n-u-t, nut是俚語，意思是對某事非常熱衷愛好的人，比如history nut, movie nut 還有Ben所說的sports nut。Ben問Chris是不是鐵桿美式足球球迷，a diehard football fan. diehard is spelled d-i-e-h-a-r-d, diehard 意思是死忠。Chris回答說，

C: Oh, certainly. I wouldn't miss a game for the world. My girlfriend says I have an addiction. And actually, if I had to choose between her and my games...I'd probably pick football.

B: It seems Americans are very passionate about sports. Is this just a part of your culture?

C: Oh, yeah! I think the love of sports starts when kids are very young. Americans come from many different backgrounds so I guess sports are something we can all enjoy together.

Chris 承認(rèn)自己是鐵桿球迷，I wouldn't miss a game for the world. 不會因?yàn)槿魏卧蝈e過比賽。not miss something for the world是一種很常見的說法，強(qiáng)調(diào)無論如何都不會錯過，比如，I wouldn't miss your concert for the world. 我絕不會錯過你的音樂會。Chris說，美國人熱愛體育，是從小培養(yǎng)的，大家來自不同背景，但是運(yùn)動卻能讓彼此走到一起。