A: Hello, this is Word Wise on language tips, I am Marc.
B: 大家好，我是Christie. Marc, you look very smart today in the new black jacket. Do you often go shopping?
A: Well, not too often, but I do like to do some window-shopping.
B: Window-shopping? What does that mean?
A: To window-shop means to shop with the eyes only, or to look at the store windows without making any purchases.
B Ah, I see. Window shopping 就是只看不買，隨便逛逛而已。這么說，我也經常去window shopping. But have you ever shopped somebody, by the way?
A: Shop somebody?
B: Yeah. I read a news story the other day, and its title read, “Man shops fugitive fiancée”. I’m just wondering how we shop someone.
A: Oh, did you read the whole story?
B: Yes, I did. It is about a man who turned his bride-to-be into the police at their engagement banquet after discovering that she is a fugitive from justice.
A: In this case, I think you’ve already known the answer to your question.
B: Well, I can figure out the brief idea of the story, but still not quite clear about “shop sb”.
Shop不是“逛街、購物”的意思嗎，可是shop somebody總不能說是“買人”吧？
A: Of course not. Here in this story, “shop” means “to give away information about somebody”.
B:哦，明白了。在這則新聞里，shop 就是“告發、舉報”。那個人向警察舉報他未婚妻是個在逃犯。can you give us another example？
A: Sure, for instance, you won 5 million yuan from lottery, and you don’t want others to know this. But the receptionist at the lottery center shopped you, and then hundreds of people came to you hoping to get their share of the 5 million yuan.
B:假如你買彩票中了500萬元，不想讓別人知道。但是彩票中心的接待員把你出賣了，到時候有無數的人都來找你分一杯羹。這里的shop就是出賣的意思。So we need to tell the meaning of a word from the context.
A: You’ve got it. It’s time for us to go. So much for today’s Word Wise.
B. By the way, there is a new department store nearby, shall we go for a window shopping after work?
A: Ah, why not! Join us again for more word wise at language.chinadaily.com.cn. Bye.
B: See you next time.
（Script by Helen, 英語點津 Helen 編輯）
