scrape up/together

　　To obtain or collect together something, but with difficulty.

　　这个短语，用“凑”来翻译比较恰当。比如：

　　We managed to scrape together eight volunteers.

　　excuse

　　这里的excuse不是我们平时使用的意思了，而是a very bad example of something，此时的它通常跟pathetic一起搭配，例如：

　　Why get involved with that pathetic excuse for a human being?

　　come clean (with somebody) (about something)

　　To admit and explain something that you have kept as a secret.

　　全盘招供，坦白交代。例如：

　　Isn’t it time the government came clean about their plans for education?