#字词篇
1. When I got out of the van, I called Rodrick a big jerk, and then it got physical. Mom saw the whole thing unfold from the living room window.
get physical: aggressive or violent，是一种informal的用法
造句：see the whole thing unfold是see的一种用法，see somebody/something do something
表示看见了某事发生/某人做某事的全过程
此外see somebody/something doing something表示看见某事正在发生/某人正在做某事
造句：I saw him leave a few minutes ago.
2. I just wish I had some dirt on him to even things out.
和下文的one embarrassing thing about somebody是一个意思。dirt这里是unpleasant or bad details about someone's private life,类似于“丑闻，影响不好的绯闻”
even something out: make something equal，这里颇有一种“来啊，互相伤害”的感觉，你出了我的丑，我也要想办法揭你的短…
造句：My younger brother just messed my room up, so I decided to ruin his to even things out.
3. And earlier today I overheard Dad say something to Manny to make sure he doesn't go poking around back there, either.
poke around: to search for something by moving things around, usually not in a very careful or organized way.
造句：I was pocking around in the drawer, trying to find the key.
4. But we couldn't really get the hang of it, so we made up our own secret language.
get the hang of: to learn how to do something especially when it is not simple or obvious.
make up虚构，编造
造句：My brother didn't get the hang of this puzzle, so he just make up an easier one and pretended to finish it successfully.
5. But Rowley's dad must have cracked our code, because...
crack本意是“破裂， 撞击”的意思，此外还表示“破译密码/难题之类。
另外我们也可以使用figure out the code来表示破解密码。
造句：He has finally cracked the system after years of research.
#句子篇
See, Rodrick is the only one who knows about this really embarrassing thing that happened to me over the summer, and he's been holding it over my head ever since. So if I ever tell on him for anything, he'll spill my secret to the whole world.
over the summer为什么不是 in the summer?
over表示的是在一整段时间里，全覆盖式的，而in只是泛指在某短时间内，这段时间中的任何一点都可以用in来表示。
hold something over one's head表示天天在某人脑袋边拿某事说事儿
tell on someone在背后说某人坏话的意思，也类似于上文dirt的意思
spill the secret泄密，还可以直接说tell the secret，Edgar Allen Poe有一个著名的短篇叫The Tell-tale Heart, 翻译为“泄密的心”，就是tell的这个用法。
造句：Over the past week, my younger brother's been holding my math-failing stuff over my head. He threatens me that if I tell on him for anything he will tell the secret to my folks.
#作文篇
Recently my younger brother had some pimples on the forehead. So he's been wearing my pink headband, avoiding his hair worsens those pimples. But what he didn't know was I had taken some pictures of him right when he put my pink headband on. See, how sissy was he! Knowing I had some dirt on him, my younger brother promised to never tell on me in the future and begged me not to spill the secret. However, he felt no safety because he always thought of I was accident prone! So he said he would just do something embarrassing to me and even things out.
#其他知识点
a bunch of four-year-olds 类似的还有12-year-olds, passer-bys
speed bump
get along: to deal with a situation, usually successfully
do somebody good 对某人有利
kiss smooch 尤指慢舞时的接吻拥抱
accident prone,prone本意是“有…倾向的”，accident prone就是有闯祸倾向的
klutzy move: klutz一词也作klotz/klutz, 来自德文klotz,表示“large piece of wood"这里的意思是笨拙的，愚笨的
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