User Comments - Right-Wingnut

Posted on: Where Have All the Videos Gone?

OK, thanks.

Posted on: Annual Meeting Raffle

Spelling error in 4th last Expansion sentence: authenic = authentic.

Posted on: Where Have All the Videos Gone?

In the podcast when talking about the second line of the dialog, Dilu states that 他们 refers to the websites themselves, and not the website owners.

Why then is 他们 used? Why is it not 它们?

Posted on: 中国古代酷刑

All the tabs are working properly for me, so I guess the problem is at your end.

I'll tell you what I get told whenever this kind of thing happens: clear your cache.

I finally worked out how to do it recently, but I still have no idea what is happening or why it makes a difference.

Posted on: Expressing Location with 边 and 面

You might want to edit the last word in the English translation of the 8th line of dialog. It looks very Chinglish at the moment.

Posted on: Washing the Sheets

Ok, I've looked at a large number of examples from Intermediate lessons, and it seems that indeed most examples were conveying negative situations. And that certainly explains the difference in my examples.

Not sure about the 'human involvement' issue though. I found CPod examples where the instigator of the action was

(a) another animal:

草原上的草被羊吃光了。(Cǎoyuán shàng de cǎo bèi yáng chīguāng le.) The grass on the grassland was completely eaten by sheep.

(b) a machine:

你好，我的银行卡被ATM机吞了，怎么办？(Nǐ hǎo, wǒde yínhángkǎ bèi ATM jī tūn le, zěnme bàn?) Hello. My bank card was eaten by the ATM. What should I do?

(c) an inanimate object:

别做梦了。昨天早上有个女的被楼上掉下来的东西砸死了。(Bié zuòmèng le. Zuótiān zǎoshang yǒu ge nǚ de bèi lóushàng diào xiàlái de dōngxi zásǐ le.) Quit dreaming. Yesterday morning a woman was struck and killed by something that fell off of a building.

(d) an invisible 'object':

嗯，很多道路都积水了，很多树也被刮倒了。(Ng, hěnduō dàolù dōu jīshuǐ le, hěnduō shù yě bèi guā dǎo le.) Yeah, a lot of streets have been flooded and trees blown over by the wind.

(e) a 'feeling'

我经常做可怕的梦，半夜被吓醒。(Wǒ jīngcháng zuò kěpà de mèng, bànyè bèi xià xǐng.) I often have bad dreams and wake up in a fright in the middle of the night.

Posted on: No Tip?

Or how about this for a suggestion: Each restaurant charges customers for the cost of the food, then adds a standard tip for the cook, another for the waiter, and another for the restaurant owners. And to save any confusion over paying four different amounts, they incorporate these charges into the cost of each dish, then add these dish prices together and call this total 'the bill', which is then presented to the customer on a single slip of paper.

Posted on: Washing the Sheets

CPod:

I am wondering when 被 is and isn't used. I am thinking of the Expansion sentence from this lesson:

厨房打扫了吗？(Chúfáng dǎsǎo le ma?) Has the kitchen been cleaned?

Why is this not 厨房被打扫了吗？ ?

After all:

(i) you render it in English using the passive voice

(ii) you use the sentence 手机被偷了 in another lesson.

So I guess I want to know:

1. Is this an example which COULD use 被, but where you have the option of leaving it out. If this is the case, in what situations do you have the option of omitting, and in what situations do you not.

OR

2. Am I completely mis-reading the situation? It seems to me that 厨房(被)打扫了 and 手机被偷了 are exactly the same type of sentence. Am I wrong here.

Posted on: Windows 8

I only just listened to this lesson. Not sure if David is there due to my request 6 weeks ago to hear him in Intermediate. Whether or not that is the case, I'd like to hear a lot more of him at this level. Well done.

Posted on: The Brave Little Tailor (Part 1)

Just wondering when Part 2 is coming out - its been a while.