各位亲爱的听众朋友，欢迎来到Juliet的《每日原味美语》课堂！Juliet将带您体验美国哈弗大学，美国纽约大学的口语课堂的学习内容。

Let's go. 首先，我们还是来回顾一下Jack对自己经历的事情的描述：

Jack: Oh! No. There's Bonnie Margolin. A year ago, some mutual friends of ours fixed us up because they thought we would hit it off. Unfortunately, she was on the rebound, so I didn't want to get involved. I tried to let her down easy but she got furious and started screaming at me. Oh, no! She's coming this way. Run!

Jack说到的“let her down easy”是什么意思呢？今天，我们就来学习这个原味表述：let someone down easy. To let someone down easy means convey bad or disappointing news in a considerate way, so as to spare the person's self-respect. 用中文来说是“婉言拒绝”的意思。我们通过下面的例句来熟悉它的意思和运用：

E.g. The boss tried to let Tim down easy when he had to tell him he was too young for the job.（老板试图婉言告诉Tim，他太小，不能做这项工作。）

Ps: too young for the job = too young to the job

E.g. Dick started to apologize and George, who has had much practice in these matters, let him down easy. （Dick开始道歉，Gorge在这些事情上很有经验，就给他留了面子。）

Ps: have much practice in...

E.g. When I told him I wanted to borrow some money, he let me down easy.（我告诉他我想借些钱，他婉言谢绝了。）

在此，Juliet想说：To let someone down easy是一个idiom，那么文中的“I tried to let her down easy.”用标准书面英语如何来说则是：I tried to reject her gently.

Juliet先前只能听懂慢速VOA，但经常跟Robert老师学打交道之后，竟然完全能听懂常速VOA了。这需要我们去研究美国人是如何发音的，掌握一些规律，反复模仿朗读。在明天的学习中，由Robert老师带您操练real speak。咱们明天再见！