Lisa请Shirley吃饭，有事征求Shirley的意见。

Lisa:Hey, Shirley! Want to join me for lunch...my treat!

Shirley:Wow! Sure!

Lisa:I must confess I have an ulterior motive for asking you to lunch.

S:Oh....that's OK....as long as you're buying!

L:I really want to pick your brain about something I've been thinking a lot about.

S:I'd love to help if I can.

请别人吃饭，可以说 my treat, 也可以说 it's on me. 原来，Lisa请Shirley吃饭别有用心，She has an ulterior motive. motive是动机，ulterior is spelled u-l-t-e-r-i-o-r, ulterior意思是暗藏的，别有用心的。Lisa告诉Shirley, I really want to pick your brain about something. to pick someone's brain意思是跟某人交谈，获取信息，征求意见。

L:Well, as you know, I have a Bachelor's degree in English literature and that's served me well so far, but I've always wanted to do some post-graduate work...maybe even get a Doctorate!

S:Wow! Just the idea of going back to school fills my head with pain.

L:But you have a Master's degree...hasn't that helped your career?
S:Yeah, I'd have to say it has. But I'm still paying for it, you know.

L:I know education is expensive, but it's been my lifelong dream. Call me crazy, but I've always wanted to have that PhD at the end of my name.

原来，Lisa是考虑要回去上学。她已经有了a Bachelor's Degree学士学位，想再拿个Master's Degree硕士学位，甚至是a Doctorate博士学位，这是她的lifetime dream这辈子梦寐以求的。Shirley承认，硕士学位确实对自己的事业有帮助，但是在美国接受高等教育很贵，I'm still paying for it.我上学的钱到现在还没有还清。Shirley还说，

S:Well, getting a Doctorate degree would mean close to a decade of school. Can you afford that? Can you survive that?
L:I certainly can't afford it, but I'm sure I could find some good student loans.

S:I think you need to separate the dream of having a PhD from the reality of years of more schooling. It's not as romantic as you might think.

L:Yeah....I keep thinking about what I'll do with a Master's or Doctorate. I love language but I don't think there are a lot of well-paying jobs out there for experts on Shakespeare.

S:Uh huh, that's for sure. You might find that your only career choice is teaching other graduate students.

Shirley劝Lisa不要把回去读书想得太好，要看自己经济上能否承担得起，Can you afford that? 还要看自己能不能坚持下来，Can you survive that?Lisa会不顾一切却追求梦想吗？我们下次继续听。