Neil 想给一位让他心仪已久的姑娘发条消息，但不知道该怎么表达。菲菲建议他发些表情符，既友好又自然。但 Neil 还没掌握使用表情符的技巧，所以需要赶紧“up his emoji game”。看视频，学习单词“game 游戏”的另一个用法。

（关于台词的备注: 请注意这不是广播节目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能没有体现录制、编辑过程中对节目做出的改变。）

Neil
Welcome to Authentic Real English. I’m Neil.

Feifei
大家好，我是冯菲菲。

Neil
Actually, could you help me with something?

Feifei
Go on. 

Neil
There’s this girl I like. I want to ask her for coffee. But I don’t want to seem too serious or creepy or anything. Just friendly.

Feifei
你现在是想给她发条消息？OK.

Neil
I just can’t find the words. 

Feifei
Easy. 给她发几个表情。Much less formal! 

Neil
You mean, like, a smiley face?

Feifei
Yeah, but those are so last year.

Neil
Maybe a love heart?

Feifei
Seriously? That’s a bit too much. 不要吓到人家。You need to up your emoji game!

Neil
My emoji game… like an emoji of a video game… or a football?

Feifei
Nope. The phrase ‘to raise your game’, or ‘to up your game’, means to improve. 我的意思是你发表情符的本领需要好好提高提高。

Neil
Yes, it’s a good phrase. Feifei, you’re not working hard enough, you need to up your game!

Feifei
That’s not true, but good use of ‘up your game’. Now the phrase has developed a bit. We often add what we are trying to improve before the word ‘game’. Game 这个词可以指“一个比赛或游戏的技巧”、本领。短语“to raise your game”和“to up your game”的意思是“提高技能和水平”。不过，现在在使用的时侯，我们多在 game 前加上需要提高的那个本领。

Neil
Like this:

Examples
I never finish novels. I need to up my reading game.

I badly need to work on my interview game before my big interview next week.

You could do with a bit more exercise, mate. You should raise your running game!

Feifei
好了，希望上面的例子给大家示范了如何用“game”来表示“技能、能力”。Any progress with that text message?

Neil
Here goes: “Lucy. Please have a coffee with me tomorrow.” And then some coffee emojis. 

Feifei
Well, it’s direct! But I still think we need to up your emoji game. Actually, and your texting game. Oh, and your dating game… We’ve got a lot of work to do!

Neil
Oh, ok. Well, I already sent the message. Let’s hope it works! Oh, she’s replied already.

Feifei
快看她说什么？

Neil
“Neil. I thought you’d never ask! I’d love to have coffee. 3pm?” And then a couple of big smiley emojis.

Feifei
Wow, congratulations. Maybe it’s me who needs to up my game.