李華正在為朋友的生日party 做準備，她生平第一次烤了一個蛋糕。今天李
華會學到兩個常用語：from scratch和all set.

    LH： Larry，這是我烤的蛋糕，你嘗嘗。這可是我生平第一次烤蛋糕，不一
定會好吃！

    LL： Mmmm ！ This is delicious！ Did you make this from scratch or
did you use a cake mix？

    LH：你覺得好吃呀？太好了！哎，你剛才問我是不是make it from scratch？

    那是什么意思��？我是照因特網上的一個食譜做的。

    LL： Then you did make it from scratch. To make something from scratch
is to make it yourself using all of the basic ingredients.

    LH：原來to make something from scratch就是自己用基本材料，從頭做起。

    是呀，我用雞蛋、面粉、牛奶和黃油做的。還有別的做蛋糕的方法？

    LL： A lot of people nowadays use a pre-packaged cake mix with all
the ingredients in it already ， so it's easier to make.

    LH：用事先調好的蛋糕粉那當然簡單多了。那多沒意思啊！自己把所有的材
料準備好，從頭開始做，其實很好玩呢！

    LL： Well ， you should be proud of yourself. This cake is great！

    LH：謝謝，你說好吃我就放心了！對了，Larry ，你有沒有自己烤過蛋糕？

    LL： No ， but I tried making chocolate chip cookies from scratch
once.

    LH：自己做巧克力餅干��？好吃嗎？

    LL： They were awful because I forgot to put oil in them. After that，
I decided that it was best if I didn't try to make things from scratch
anymore.

    LH：忘了放油！那餅干肯定會太硬。你一次沒做成功就決定下回不做了！你
知道，做這種東西是試驗好多次才行。

    LL： I know ， but I'm not that patient.

    LH：嗨，要做好就得要有耐心嘛！

    ******

    LL： All right， Li Hua. The cake is ready， the drinks are prepared，
and the decorations look great. I think we are all set. LH： We are all
set ？這是什么意思？蛋糕、飲料都準備好了，一切都布置好了。你的意思是一
切準備就緒了，是嗎？

    LL： That's right. To be "all set" is to be ready for whatever it
is you're going to do. In this case ， we are all set to have a party.
LH：對，要舉行party 的個方面似乎都準備好了。那我是不是可以說we're all
set to have fun at the party？

    LL： If you're ready to have fun， then of course you can say that.
Hey ， what about the music - is that all set ？

    LH：音樂��？沒問題！我把激光唱機和幾片激光盤全放桌上了。So it's all
set.

    LL： Great！ Now， I'm all set to eat more of that cake you made.
It's really delicious LH：不行，你現在還不能吃這蛋糕，要等做生日的人吹
完蠟燭后才能吃的！

    LL： I know. I was just kidding. Hey， do you have a place for people
to put presents ？

    LH：放禮物的地方�。吭鐪蕚浜昧�！我在進門的地方有張桌子。大家可以把
禮物和生日卡放在那兒……

    LL： Okay ， since everything is all set， we can relax until the
guests start arriving. LH ：我早就準備好在客人來以前先休息一下。籌辦一
個生日party 可真是夠累人的！

    LL： Preparing a party isn't that bad ； it's cleaning up afterwardsthat's
a lot of work. LH ： Party結束后，我想你一定會幫我收拾的。對不對？

    LL：Of course ！