neil: hello, welcome to real english from bbc learning english, i’m neil.
lily: 大家好，我是杨莉。
neil: in real english we look at words and phrases that you might not find in your dictionary.
lily: 在我们的 real english《地道英语》节目中 我们要来学习一些书本以外的新词和说法。so, what’s today’s expression?
neil: to faff about.
lily: to faff about.
neil: that’s right, to faff about.
lily: what does it mean?
neil: well, to faff about, means to spend a lot of time doing unimportant things when really you should be doing something more important.
lily: oh i see. to faff about 就是把时间都花在区区小事上，而忽略了更为重要的大事。说白了，就是耽误时间，瞎忙活的意思。
neil: for example, perhaps you are a student with an important deadline for your coursework.
lily: oh, so you’d better do your work.
neil: yes, but instead of doing the work, you read a book, you phone your friend, you play some computer games…
lily: oh, i see, you waste time.
neil: yep. you faff about. you waste valuable time doing unimportant things.
lily: 如果你喧宾夺主地浪费了宝贵时间，那么你就是在 faff about。
insert
a: come on, hurry up, we’re going to miss our train!
b: just a sec, i’m can’t decide what scarf to wear.
a: stop faffing about! we need to leave now or we’ll have to wait two hours for the next train!
neil: to faff about is the verb, but if you want to talk about the activity, we say faffing about.
lily: to faff about 是个动词短语，它的名词形式就是 faffing about。
neil: if she doesn’t stop faffing around they’ll have to wait two hours to get the next train.
lily: you said faffing around.
neil: yes you can say faff about or faff around. both are possible.
lily: faff around 和 faff about 表达的是同一个意思，耽误时间，瞎忙活。
neil: join us again soon for some more real english, from bbc learning english. goodbye!
lily: see you.