Diarmuid: (laughing to himself) Dear, oh dear. 亲爱的，哦，亲爱的。

Feifei: Hi Diarmuid. What are you laughing at? 嗨，圣保罗，你在笑什么？

Diarmuid: I'm just looking at these. My mum found them in the attic. 我正在看这些东西。我妈妈在阁楼上找到的。

Feifei: 在阁楼里找到的东西？What are they? 什么东西？

Diarmuid: They're my old class reports from my school days. They've been stored away for all these years. 是我以前的学习成绩报告。

Feifei: Diarmuid 上学时候的学习成绩报告。那我可要看看他上学的时候是不是个乖孩子。What do the reports say? 报告上都写什么了？

Diarmuid: Have a look for yourself. 你自己看看吧。

Feifei: Let me see. Let's choose a subject... here we are, History: (reading from report) "Diarmuid has failed to learn anything this year because he spends all his time chatting at the back of the classroom." 让我看看。让我选一科来看……在这里，历史：圣保罗今年什么科目都没有学好，因为他上课的时候总是在教室后面聊天。

Let's look at another... Maths: "Diarmuid must learn that it is not enough just to sit at his desk. He must pay attention to the lesson, and study hard out of class and do his homework." 让我再看看其他的科目…… 数学：圣保罗必须真的学习而不只是坐在他的书桌旁。他必须认真听讲，并且在课后努力学习并且做他的家庭作业。

Diarmuid: I wasn't very good at maths. 我不是很擅长数学。

Feifei: So I see. Let's have another... Science: "This lazy boy is a disgrace to the school uniform!" 嗯，我知道了……理科：这个懒惰的男孩违背了学校的规章制度，给学校丢脸了。

Diarmuid: That teacher never liked me. 老师们都不喜欢我。

Feifei: Diarmuid 的学习成绩报告单上老师的评语实在是惨不忍睹。It seems you were an awful student. 看上去他是一个糟糕的学生。

Diarmuid: Well, it's true I was never a swot. 嗯，这是事实我从来不是书呆子。

Feifei: A what? 你不是什么？

Diarmuid: A swot. S.W.O.T. Swot. That's our Authentic Real English word of the day. Can you guess what it means? 书呆子。这个词就是我们今天要学习的。你能猜出它的意思吗？

Feifei: Well, since you say you were not a swot and you got very bad grades at school, I would say that a swot is a very good student. 嗯，自从你说你不是一个书呆子，你在学校表现得很差，那我应该可以说书呆子是非常好的学生。

Diarmuid: You're right. A swot is a student who spends all their time studying, or swotting. 你是对的。一个书呆子是把所有的时间都放在学习上的人。

Feifei: Swot. 书呆子。

Diarmuid: Yes, but be careful because being a swot usually means that other students don't like you. 是的，但是小心，因为做个书呆子，往往代表大家都不喜欢你。

Feifei: Swots 通常什么都不做，一身心只顾学习，也就是我们说的两耳不闻窗外事，一心只读圣贤书。他们在学校不受那些不爱学习的学生欢迎，同时也招来大家对他们成绩的嫉妒。

Example

A: Look at this old photo of our class at school. 看在学校里拍的我们班的这张旧照片。

B: Oh yes, there's Simon Studious. He was such a swot. I wonder whatever happened to him. 哦，是的，这是好学的西蒙，他就是个书呆子。我想知道他是不是不受欢迎。

A: I heard he started his own software company; he's a multi-millionaire now. 我听说他开了自己的软件公司；他是个亿万富翁了。

B: Oh. Wish I'd worked a bit harder then. 哦，但愿我能更努力地工作。
Diarmuid: But you don't have to be a student to use this word. We can use the verb form—to swot up—to mean learn more about anything. 但是这个词并不是只有学生能用。我们能用这个词的动词词性，表示刻苦攻读，去学更多的其他东西。

Feifei: So I could say I'm going to swot up on laptops because I want to buy a new computer. 所以我可以说我将要去刻苦攻读计算机，因为我想买一台新的计算机。