On a Friday after class, Xue You and Ren Mei went to Xin Hua bookstore in Beijing University together to buy dictionaries. There were a lot of students in the bookstore. Some of them were looking for books, some of them were waiting in line to pay.
Xueyou and Renmei were standing in front of a bookshelf that sells dictionaries. A young sales associate asked them cordially : " what kind of dictionary would you like to buy?" Xueyou and Renmei told the sales associate that they are American exchange students who came to Beida to study Chinese. They want to buy some Chinese dictionaries, but they have no idea which one is good (appropriate). The sales associate introduced "Xian Da Han Ying Ci Dian" and "Xin Hua Zi Dian" to them. She told them that Ci Dian is different from Zi Dian; Ci Dian collects and explains vocabularies, while Zi Dian explains the pronunciation, meaning and usage of a character. "Xian Da Han Ying Ci Dian" is a Chinese-English dictionary. (People) can use Pin Yin to look up new words, and it is very convenient. "Xin Hua Zi Dian" is written in Chinese. People can use the radicals or strokes to look up new characters. It collects more characters and has more detailed explanations than "Xian Dan Han Ying Ci Dian". But "Xin Hua Zi Dian" is more difficult than "Xian Dan Han Ying Ci Dian" for foreign students. These two dictionaries also have different prices. A "Xian Dan Han Ying Ci Dian" is forty three dollars and eighty cents. "Xin Hua Zi Dian" is cheaper than "Xian Dai Han Ying Ci Dian",it is twenty Yuan. Xueyou and Renmei told the sales associate, Chinese dictionaries are cheaper than American dictionaries. They like both of the dictionaries that the clerk introduced very much. Finally, both Xueyou and Renmei bought one "Xin Hua Zi Dian" and one "Xian Dai Han Yu Ci Dian".
Note: Both "Xin Hua Zi Dian" and "Xian Dai an Ying Ci Dian" are in simplified edition.
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