Part 1 Otakus on the Rise
生活聊吧
Part 1
Laura勸終日泡在宿舍的男友Ted多出去參加一些社交、戶外活動，Ted卻覺得沒這個必要，這讓擔心男友健康的Laura沒轍……
（knock knock knock）
Ted： Door’s open！
Laura： Hey babe， what’s up？
Ted： Hey， hey. Just finishing up this paper on Professor Liang. How’s yours going？
Laura： Piece of cake. The man’s a dinosaur， ①but I know his work from A to Z， so it’s pretty simple.
Ted： I really like his fiction work—②his last novel was a page-turner. But I can’t stand that piece of junk he calls a column. Do you actually buy into all that so-called“otaku” 3）crap he keeps talking about？
Smart Sentences
① But I know his work from A to Z.
但是我很了解他的作品。
A to Z： everything（所有的內容）。例如：
I’ve been in this company for 20 years I and know it from A to Z.
我來這家公司20年了，對它的一切了如指掌。
② His last novel was a page-turner.他的上一部小說很引人入勝。
page-turner： a very interesting， exciting， or suspenseful book（引人入勝的書，讓人不能釋卷的書）。例如：
Laura： You’re joking， right？ I’m having trouble keeping a straight face here.
Ted： Huh？ What do you mean？
Laura： Oh give me a break！Ted， you’re it！ You’re the “so-called otaku crap”， as you put it， that he’s talking about.
Ted： No way！
Laura： Unbelievable. Ted， when was the last time you played sports？
Ted： I don’t know， but what does that matter？ C’mon， Laura. I’ve got my nose to the 4）grindstone half the day. I got no energy for sports after that.
Laura： That’s bullshit. Doing exercise actually gives you more energy—all the studies prove that.
Ted： Yeah， but I hate sports. And all the student activities they run here just seem like forced happiness. It’s 5）creepy.
Laura： Seriously？ ③You can’t rack your brain and come up with anything at all that you enjoy doing that counts as physical activity？