12 Lesson 13 Dialogue 2: 欢迎来北京
Dialogue:
（Jenny在北海公园玩，她想去吃午饭。这时候，她看见一位大爷在旁边做运动。）
Jenny：大爷，打扰一下，请问这附近有餐馆吗？
大爷：有，公园里面就有。我们对面有一家中餐馆，看见那个又高又大的楼房了吗？那儿就是。公园的另一边还有一个西餐厅。
Jenny：您能告诉我去西餐厅怎么走吗？
大爷：从这儿往前一直走，走到头，往右一拐，过一个路口就到了。姑娘，你的中文说得真好！你学中文学了多久？
Jenny：学了两年了。
大爷：你是在哪儿学的？
Jenny：美国。我是美国人。
大爷：你是来中国留学的吗？
Jenny：不是，这次学校放暑假，我来北京玩儿，想看看长城和故宫。
大爷：欢迎你来北京！
Vocabulary:
| 中文 | 拼音 | 英文 |
|---|---|---|
| 这时候 | zhè shí hòu | time word, at this moment |
| 运动 | yùn dòng | n./v., exercise; to exercise, to work out |
| 一直 | yī zhí | adv., continuously |
| 打扰 | dǎ rǎo | v., to disturb, to trouble |
| 头 | tóu | n., end, tip, head |
| 附近 | fù jìn | n./adj., nearby |
| 中餐 | zhōng cān | n., Chinese food |
| 西餐 | xī cān | n., Western food |
| 餐厅 | cān tīng | n., canteen, restaurant |
| 又…又… | yòu … yòu … | conj., both…and… |
| 楼房 | lóu fáng | n., tall building |
| 另 | lìng | adj., other, another |
| 姑娘 | gū niáng | n., young woman, used normally by the people in the North to refer to unmarried young ladies |
| 留学 | liú xué | v., to study abroad |
| 次 | cì | measure word for times of repeating something, time as in “this time” or “next time” |
| 暑假 | shǔ jià | n., summer vacation |
| 长城 | cháng chéng | n. the Great Wall |
Grammar Notes:
- Link multiple adjectives using 又…又…
This expression is often used to give two non-conflicting qualities to something. Note that the two qualities must both be bad or both be good. The structure is “Subject + 又 + Adj. 1 + 又 + Adj. 2″. For example,
爸爸又高又帅。(Dad is both tall and handsome.)
这件衣服又便宜又合适This coat is both cheap and suitable.)
我又饿又渴。(I am both hungry and thirsty.) - Express the duration of the completed action with 了
To express how long we did something, we use the structure “Subject + Verb + 了 + Duration + (的 +) Object”. In this structure, 了 is put after the verb to indicate that the action is completed. For example:
我在北京生活了十年。（I lived in Beijing for ten years.)
他学了两年的中文。（He studied Chinese for two years.)
学生们看了两个小时的书。（The students read for two hours.) - Express ongoing duration of the completed action with double 了
Based on the above structure, we add another 了 to the end of the structure to indicate that the action is ongoing. The structure is “Subject + Verb + 了 + Duration + (的 +) Object + 了“, where the first 了 means “action concluded” and the second 了 means “ongoing”. Let’s compare the following sentences with those above:
我在北京生活了十年了。（I have been living in Beijing for ten years.)
他学了两年的中文了。(He has been studying Chinese for two years.)
学生们看了两个小时的书了。(The students have been reading for two hours.) - Emphatic structure 是…的
To ask or tell details about the past, we often use the (是)…的 structure. For example, if your friend told you a past experience “他去了中国” and you are curious about more specific information like “when, how, with whom…”, you may ask for details using the structure: 他是什么时候去中国的？他是怎么去中国的？他是跟谁一起去中国的？
We can use the structure in the affirmative forms: 他是昨天去中国的。他是坐飞机去中国的。他是跟朋友一起去中国的。
Culture Notes:
The Forbidden City (Chinese name: 故宫, literally ‘the Former Palace’) was constructed from 1406 to 1420, and was a Chinese imperial palace and winter residence for the Ming and Qing dynasties, between 1420 and 1912. Watch it from the sky. Here are some basic facts about this palace:
- Considered a divine place, it was certainly forbidden to ordinary people and that is why the Forbidden City is so named.
- It is China’s best-preserved imperial palace, and it is the largest and most complete complex of ancient wooden structures in the world.
- To represent the supreme power of the emperor, given from Heaven, and the place where he lived being the center of the world, all the important gates and halls of the Forbidden City were arranged symmetrically on the north-south central axis of old Beijing.
- Forbidden City carpenters used interlocking mortise and tenon joints to build its great palace buildings “harmoniously”, without nails.
- It was the home of 24 emperors — 14 of the Ming dynasty and 10 of the Qing dynasty.
- It covers an area of about 72 hectares (180 acres or 0.28 sq mi) with a total floor space of approximately 150,000 square meters (1,600,000 square feet)
- It has 980 buildings in over 70 palace compounds, with over 8,728 rooms.
- Stone and bronze lions are popular as symbolic guardians, and can be seen beside the gates of many Forbidden City palace compounds. The lions are always in pairs, with the female lion on the left and the male on the right.
- It is surrounded by a 10-meter-high wall, which is 3.4 km (2 miles) long.
- It has a 52-meter wide moat round it.
- The walls, pillars, doors, and windows were mostly painted in red, which is a regarded as a symbol of good fortune and happiness in Chinese culture.
- The roofs were painted in yellow, which was a symbol of supreme power and only used by the imperial family.
- It hosts 14 million visitors per year, a maximum of 80,000 visitors per day.
- It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.
(information source: China Highlights)
