Dialogue and Translation for Exercise U

A father (B) and son (A) talk in Beijing.

-   A: Bàba! Xiànzài zěnme you zenme

duō rén xiāngxìn zǒngjiào le, zhēn qíguài!

-   B: Nǐ kànjian shénme shi le?

-   A: Zài lùkǒurshang nèige jiàotāng,

jǐntiǎn yōu hěn duō rén zài ner zuò lǐbài, yě yōu niánqīngde rén!

-   B: Wōmende fǎlū shuō Zhōngguo rén

kéyi yōu zǒngjiào zìyou, zhèi méiyou shénme qíguài ma!

-   A: Wō jìde bàoshang shuō, zài Nan

Měide yíge guojiā yōu yìzhōng shénme zōngjiào yōu hěn duō rén xiāngxìn,
zhèixiē rén bǎ zìjǐde qián dōu gěile zhèige zōngjiào-de tour, kěshi
zhèige tour shi ge huàirén, xīdú, shā rén, shénme luānqǐbāzāode shir dōu
zuò. Suóyi wō juéde zōngjiào zìyou yě bù yídìng hǎo.

-   B: Zōngjiào bú shi yíjiàn Jiǎndān-

de shi. Zōngjiào hé fàn zuì méiyou yídìngde guānxi. Zōngjiào yōu tāde
dúlìxìng, yōude shihou hé zhèngzhi, wénhuà yōu guānxi, yōude shihou
méiyou. Děng dào nǐ zhǎngdàle yǐhòu, rúguǒ n? yōu xìngqu kéyi yánjiū
yanjiu.

Dad, how come there are so many people who believe in religion now? It’s
so strange!

Why, what have you seen?

In that church on the corner, today there were a lot of people
worshiping. There were young people there too.

Our law does give the Chinese people freedom of religion. There’s
nothing strange about that!

I remember it said in the newspaper that there was some religion in
South America a lot of people believed in, and the people gave all their
money to the head of this religion, but he was a bad person who took
drugs and killed people and did all sorts of crazy things. So I don’t
think that freedom of religion is necessarily good.

Religion isn’t a simple thing. It doesn’t have a definite relationship
to crime. Religion has its independent character; sometimes it’s related
to politics and culture, and sometimes it isn’t. When you grow up, if
you’re interested, you can study it.

“yìzhōng shénme zōngjiào, some religion Shénme here acts as an
indefinite pronoun modifying zōngjiào and means that the speaker does
not know how to describe or specify the religion precisely.

-   A: Wǒ tingshuǒ shìjièshang you hěn

duō bù tóngde zōngjiào, yě you hěn duō you yìside zōngjiào gùshi, zài
zhèixiě gùshili you xiě shi ràng rén xué hǎo, shi duì rén you hǎochùde.

-   B: Zhèi shi zhēnde. Yánjiū zōng-

Jiào xūyào hěn duōde zhishi, tèbié shi lìshǐ zhishi, shi hěn you yìside.
Hǎo le, zhèige wèn-tí women yǐhòu zài tan. Nǐde gōngkè zuòwánle meiyou?

-   A: Hái you yidiǎnr, wǒ mǎshàng

jiù qù zuò.

-   B: Hǎo, kuài qù ba! Zuòwánle

gōngkè zài tan.

A:    Hǎo!

I hear that there are many different religions in the world and that
there are a lot of interesting religious stories. Some of the stories
have the purpose of teaching people from good examples, so they’re good
for people.

That’s true. To study religion, you need a lot of knowledge, especially
a knowledge of history. It’s very interesting. All right, we’ll talk
about this question later. Is your homework done?

I still have a little. I’ll go do it right away.

Okay, hurry up! When you’ve finished your homework, we’ll talk some
more.

Okay!