Beginning Level 初级 (chūjí)
The right answer for the online test is A.
Translation:
Wǒ míngnián shíyī zhǔnbèi qù Ōuzhōu lǚyóu.
Lily: 我 明年 十一 准备 去 欧洲 旅游。
I am planning to travel to Europe during National Day next year.
Shì ma? Tǐng hǎo de.
Lucy: 是 吗？ 挺 好 的。
Really? That’s cool.
Analysis:
In Chinese, when you are referring to years, the expression for “next year” is “明年 (míngnián).” The expression for “last year” is “去年 (qùnián).”
When you are referring to days, the Chinese expression for “tomorrow” is “明天 (míngtiān).” The expression for “the day before yesterday” is “前天(qiántiān).”
If you are referring to weeks, the Chinese expression for “next week” is “下周 (xiàzhōu),” “last week” is “上周 (shàngzhōu).”
Examples:
Qùnián shǔjià wǒmen qù le Měiguó, míngnián wǒmen yào qù Yīngguó.
去年 暑假 我们 去了 美国， 明年 我们 要 去 英国。
Last summer vacation we went to America, and this year we will go to England.
Cóng qiántiān jiù kāishǐ xiàyǔ le, tiānqì yùbào shuō míngtiān hái yǒu yǔ.
从 前 天 就 开始 下雨了，天气 预报 说 明天 还 有 雨。
It has been raining since the day before yesterday, and the weather report says it will still be raining tomorrow.
Xiàzhōu wǒ yào chūchāi le. Nǐ zhàogù hǎo zìjǐ.
Husband: 下周 我 要 出差 了。你 照顾 好 自己。
I will be on a business trip next week. Please take care of yourself.
Zhīdào le, nǐ yě shì.
Wife: 知 道 了，你也 是。
OK, you too.
Please advise how to use the word 辛苦。 When someone say that to you, how would you answer that? Thank you.
辛苦 literally means exhausting or hard. It can be used as an adjective and an adverb. For example: “做翻译是件辛苦的事。(Zuò fānyì shì jiàn xīnkǔ de shì.) Translation is hard work,” or “爸爸工作很辛苦。(Bàba gōngzuò hěn xīnkǔ.) Father works hard.” Nowadays it is always used as a greeting. For example, you can say “老师，您辛苦了。(Lǎoshī, nín xīnkǔ le.) Dear teacher, thank you for your effort”. If someone says this to you, you can respond with: “不用客气。(Bú yòng kèqi.) You are welcome.”