Dialogue and Translation for Exercise 3

Two sisters talk in the home of a Chinese family in Washington, D.C.

A:   Èrjiě, nǐ kàn shénme hào ne?

B:   Ming Bào, wǒ xǐhuan zhèige

hàozhǐ, hù zuǒ yě hú you.

-   A: Erqiě, shìjièxìngde xǐnwén tā

dōu you. Zhèige hào zhēnde hú cuò.

-   B: Wǒ yě xǐhuan tāde guǎnggào, duì

women zhèixie zhù zai guǒwàide Zhōngguo rén hěn yǒu yòng.

-   A: Nǐ kànjian shénme guǎnggào le,

zhème yǒu xìngqu?

-   B: Nǐ lai kàn, zhèr yǒu yige

diànshì guǎnggào.

-   A: Zěnme shuōde?

-   B: Zhèige guǎnggào shuō, zhǐ yào

women jì yìzhāng zhīpiào dào Xiānggǎng, Jiù kéyi gěi Jiāli rén mǎi cǎisè
diànshì le.

-   A: Shi ma? Dàlù rén mǎi diànshì

hù rōngyi. Women lái kànkan, kàn néng hu néng gěi yéye nǎinai mǎi ge
diànshì.

-   B: Bànfa shi zhèiyangr: Women hǎ

qian hé yéyede dìzhī Jì dao Xiānggǎng, Xiānggǎngde gōngsī Jì yìzhāng
dānzi gěi tāmen, tāmen jiu kéyi zài Guǎngzhōude hǎihuò gōngsǐ qǔ diànshì
le.

-   A: Rúguǒ nèige diànshì hù hǎo

zěnme hàn?

-   B: Nà shi gōngsǐde zéren, tāmen

yídìng kéyi gěi° huàn yige hǎode.

What newspaper are you reading, Sister No. Two?

Ming Pao. I like it; it's neither too left nor too right.

And it has all the world news. It's really quite a good paper.

I like its advertisements too. They are very useful to us Chinese who
live abroad.

What ad did you see that you're so interested in?

Come look, there's an ad for a television here.

What does it say?

It says that if we just send a check to Hong Kong, we can huy a color
television for our family.

Oh? It's not easy for people on the mainland to huy televisions. Let's
look and see if we can huy a T.V. for grandpa and grandma.

This is the way it works: We send the money and grandpa's address to
Hong Kong, and the company in Hong Kong sends them a receipt,’ and then
they can pick up the television at a department store in Guǎngzhōu.

What if the television has something wrong with it?

That's the company's responsibility. I'm sure they would exchange it for
a good one.

Dānzi here refers to a tíhuòdān, bill of lading, hence it may be
translated loosely as receipt. (The specific translation for receipt
is shōujù or fāpiào.)

°°Gěi is a colloquial abbreviation for gěi tamen, for them.

+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
| B:   Duì, women jǐntiǎn jiù bǎ    | Right. Let’s send out the check   |
|                                   | today.                            |
| zhǐpiào jìchuqu.                  |                                   |
+-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+

A:   M, nà bú cuò, xiànzài yéye

nǎinai shēnghuo ǎndìng, shénme dōu hǎo, jiù shi shǎo yige diànshì. Yōule
diànshì, tāmen yídìng hěn gāoxìng.

Mm, that’s good. Now grandpa and

grandma have a settled life, and all

is well for them; the

only thing

they

lack is a television.

When they

have

a television I’m sure happy.

they’ll be

very