PART 1 Summary

In September of grade twelve, the matric dance was at hand. Trevor was consumed with worries that he wouldn't have a date. Tom, one of Trevor's agents of his CD business, set him up with a mesmerizing girl named Babiki. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. Trevor talked his stepfather Abel into lending him a BMW and had Bongaini, the other middleman from his CD business give him a makeover. The big night finally came. However, things started to go wrong. First off, Albel got wasted and refused to lend Trevor the BMW. Babiki was pissed off as he was an hour late picking her up. Worse still, Trevor got lost on the way to the dance. Therefore, Babiki was completely incensed and declined to get out of the car. Once again, Trevor was humiliated because of a romantic relationship.To his surprise, it transpired that Trevor could not even converse with Babiki as she could only speak Pedi, a language Trevor had not picked up.   

matric dance

PART 2 Expressions

1.Plus we didn’t want the white minority to feel ostracized in the new South Africa, or else they’d take all their money and leave.

ostracize [ˈɒstrəsaɪz]: 排挤 if a group of people ostracize sb, they refuse to accept them as a member of the group

She was afraid that if she spoke up her colleagues would ostracize her.

2. You’ll miss part of it, someone might translate on the fly to give you the gist, you pick up the rest from the context, and you just figure it out.

the gist: the main idea and meaning of what sb has said or written 要旨

The gist of his argument is that full employment is impossible.

Don't worry about all the details as long as you get the gist of it.

3.I had carved out my niche, and was having a great time.

carve a niche/ carve out a niche/ a career/ a new life: to succeed in getting the job, position, life etc that you want

He carved a niche her himself as a writer.

She carved out a successful career in the film industry.

He moved to Boston to carve out a new life for himself.

4. I’d scrimped and saved my tuck-shop money and my CD money to buy them.

scrimp: to try to save as much money as you can, even though you have very little 节省着过日子

They scrimped and saved for years to buy their own house.

5. He was never dating them, but he talked a good game, and was always around them.

talk a good game: To "talk a great game" means someone who has presented what seems like a good plan (either spoken or written) but has not actually shown that it will work in a real situation ("talk" a great game instead of "play" a great game). This usually shows some doubt on the speaker's part that what has been presented will really work, and can also imply doubt that the presenter can execute the plan they present.

6. He jumped right in and smoothed everything over.

smooth sth over: If you smooth over problems, difficulties etc, you make them seem less serious and easier to control, especially by talking to the people who are involved in the problem.

Sally managed to smooth over the bad feelings between them.

7. At any given time, we had at least ten or fifteen cars in the driveway.

any/ a given...: any particular time, situation, amount etc that is being used as an example

On any given day in the Houston area, half the hospital beds are empty.

The rules are to be followed in any given situation.

at any given time/ moment

There are thought to be around 10,000 young homeless Scots in London at any given time.

8. It was old and beat-up like the Mazda, but a shit BMW is still a BMW.

a beat-up car, bicycle etc is old and in bad condition SYN battered

a beat-up old Ford Escort

9. Bongani, the other middleman from my CD business, found out I had a date, and he made it his mission to give me a makeover.

1. give sb a makeover: make them look more attractive by giving them new clothes, a new hairstyle etc

2. give sp a makeover: make it look more attractive by painting the walls, putting in new furniture etc 

It's time we gave the kitchen a makeover.

10. Guys were gawking at her like she was an animal at the zoo.

gawk: [gɔ:k] （n.）呆子； （v.）呆呆地看, to look at sth for a long time, in a way that looks stupid,  gawk at = stare at

Don't just stand there gawking at those girls.

PART 3 Thoughts

Finally she said, okay, you can look in the mirror. She turned me around in the chair and I looked in the mirror and... I had never seen myself like that before. It was like the makeover scenes in my American movies, where they take the dorky guy or girl, fix the hair and change the clothes, and the ugly duckling becomes the swan. I'd been so convinced I'd never get a date that I never tried to look nice for a girl, so I didn't know that I could. The hair was good. My skin wasn't perfect, but it was getting better; the pustules had receded into regular pimples. I looked...not bad.

这一段写得特别有画面感，可以想象得到Trevor那种发现自己脱胎换骨般变帅的惊喜。看来无论哪个时代哪个地方都是看脸的。其实追求美丽本身没有什么不好，爱美之心人皆有之。变美也可以让人焕发出自信。想起我初高中的时候，因为一直和外公外婆住在一起，老人的眼光比较守旧和传统，在二老眼里打扮就是不务正业耽误学习。那时候的我头发剪得像男生一样短，每天穿着运动衫。我也像Trevor一样对自己的外貌感到一丝自卑。每次文艺表演我都不会报名参加，不是觉得自己舞蹈动作笨拙，而是觉得自己站在一群长发飘飘的女生中间如同一个丑小鸭一样。现在回想起来是一个莫大的遗憾。每个人的青葱岁月都只有一次，应该让它尽可能美丽地绽放才对。