今天Michael正在設法買票和李華一起去看世界職業棒球賽的決賽。李華學到了兩個習慣用語：to strike out 和to pull something off。
M: Well, Li Hua, I struck out again. It looks like my cousin won't have any world series tickets to sell to us after all.
L: 你說什麼？Struck out? 這跟買球票有什麼關係？
M: I said I struck out again. Struck out means that I failed after trying several times.
L: 噢，我想起來了！棒球賽裏就有strike out這個說法。如果一個擊球手三次擊球不中，他就strike out， 也就是“三振出局”。所以，strike out的意思是，一件事做了幾次也不成功。
M: That's right. Looks like you've got a good grasp of the rules of baseball. Why don't you try and use it in a sentence.
L: 嗯，讓我想想。對了，我一個朋友申請了幾個學校的研究院，可是沒有一所學校接受她。 (English) So, she completely struck out.
M: There you go. You know, even if your friend struck out this year, I hope she tries again. I remember the first year I applied to graduate school, I struck out too. But I learned from my mistakes, and eventually found a good school that accepted me.
L: 原來你和我朋友一樣也有申請研究院失敗的經歷，可是吸取教訓後你就成功了，希望我朋友也會如此。
M: Yeah, I was rather pleased to get into graduate school. Too bad I still strike out with the girls. None of the good ones want to go out with me.
L: 嘿嘿，別擔心，Michael, 你要求不要太高，一定會找到你喜歡的女孩的。你總不可能一直在這方面strike out吧!