Audrey:You're not looking too cheerful, what's the matter?
奧黛麗:你看來心情不大愉快,是什麼回事?
Eva:I've just had my first driving lesson and it was terrible.
伊娃:我剛才上了第一次駕駛課，很不順利。
Audrey:Oh, I'm sure it couldn't have been that bad.
奧黛麗:啊,應該不會太糟吧。
Eva:It was. Every time I let the clutch out, the engine stalled.
伊娃:糟極了, 我每次鬆開離合器,引擎就停下來。
Audrey:That's because you weren't depressing the accelerator enough.
奧黛麗:那是因為油門踩得不夠低。
Eva:I know, that's what the instructor kept telling me.
伊娃:我也明白，駕駛教練不斷跟我這樣說。
Audrey:Don't worry, you just need more practice and then you'll master it.
奧黛麗:別擔心!多點練習，就可以掌握了。
Eva:Ihope you're right, because I want to get a car of my own, but I can't do that until I've passed the driving test.
伊娃:希望如此，因為我真想自己有一輛車；但要有自己的車，一定要駕駛測驗及格不可。
今天，汽車有自動換檔的，英文叫automatics；也有用操縱桿換檔的，叫stick shifts。I prefer a stick shift to an automatic即「我寧要操縱桿換檔的汽車，不要自動換檔的」。用操縱桿換檔的汽車，要開動，須使用離合器(clutch)。你要踩著離合器踏板，使汽車掛上排檔(gear)：You have to press the clutch pedal down and put the car in/into gear。然後，你得慢慢鬆開離合器踏板，同時用另一隻腳踩油門(accelerator，又稱gas pedal)：You let the clutch up and at the same time step on the accelerator。這時，進一步鬆開離合器，汽車就可開動：You let the clutch out (= release the clutch), and the car will start to move。不過，假如踩油門不得其法，引擎得不到足夠燃料，就會停止轉動。汽車或引擎因動力不足而停下來，叫做stall，例如：The car/engine stalled because the gas had run out（由於汽油耗盡，汽車拋錨了）。汽車的排檔關乎車速。一檔(first gear)速度最低，以後二、三檔(second/third gear)等逐漸加速。一檔也叫bottom/low gear，最高速的排檔的則叫top/high gear，例如：He shifted/changed to a lower gear when going down the hill（下山時，他改用較低的排檔）。引申其義，high/top gear有「高速」的意思，例如：Our work gradually got into high gear（我們的工作漸漸快起來）。
