a: hello! this is word wise on language tips, i’m brendan.

　　b: hi, this is meggie.

　　a: meggie, did you watch sunday night’s basketball match between the united states and china? it was just fantastic! the game was competitive and exciting, even though the united states is far stronger right now than china. i think china did a good job and tried their best.

　　b: you are quite right! they failed but they are not losers. they are heroes in china! so what’s the word for today?

　　a: hah, well you’ve been so obsessed with the game,so today’s word is tip-off.

　　b: tip-off?

　　a: yes, the tip-off in basketball means a jump ball that begins each period.

　　b: 哦，就是开球时的跳球，是吧？

　　a: yes. we can have several jump balls in a game, but only one tip-off at the beginning of each period.

　　b: 也就是说tip-off是指每一节开球时的跳球，而jump ball可以是比赛中的任何一次跳球，对吗？

　　a: yes. that’s it. but do you know that the verb phrase “tip off” has nothing even to do with basketball at all?

　　b: 那动词短语tip off到底是什么意思呢？

　　a: tip off means to supply with private or insider information. for example, he tipped off the police about the drug trafficking.

　　b: 他向警方提供了关于毒品交易的内幕。嗯，的确跟在篮球中的用法很不同。我们今天讲的词是tip-off 篮球中的开球， 以及短语 tip off，告密、提供内部消息。

　　a: and that’s a tip off from me to you about the world of basketball and crime. for more words, please log onto our website at language.chinadaily.com.cn. see you next time!

　　b: bye bye.