The most famous square in China
Hello there Yanko
I’m not sure if you read any of my blogs as you never seem to answer any questions or respond to the language points I am raising. Nevertheless, I’ll continue to chat to you and ask you for more information about things that you write; I’m also hoping that you understand the corrections to some of your writing errors. Please let me know if you need any more explanations!
The carnival certainly is one of the most famous things about Rio and it springs to mind whenever the city is mentioned. I sometimes eat in a restaurant here called ‘Rio Brazilian BBQ’ and they show DVD’s of the carnival on big screens with very catchy music all night, every night. It looks amazing and the costumes are very decorative and elaborate. You said that the carnival’s history is an act of farewell to the pleasures of the flesh but, from what I’ve seen of the carnival from recordings, pleasures of the flesh are a primary focus!! There are many sexy and scantily dressed women and men in the carnival and a percentage of them are topless!! I bet it would be a really memorable experience to attend a carnival like that but I doubt I'd go topless ;-) What would you wear Yanko?
I’ll move on from that point to look at some of the errors in your posting;
1) ‘Many personalities, celebrities and foreign come from all of world participate…’ This sentence should read ‘Many personalities, celebrities and foreigners come from all over the world to participate…’
2) ‘Carnival is the most of popular festival in Brazil’ Did you want to write ‘The carnival is the most popular festival in Brazil’?
3) The carnival have, this is another error of agreement so note that it should be ‘The carnival has’
4) ‘The parade starts Sunday evening and go on into early morning Monday of the celebration’ the first half of the sentence is correct but the second half should read ‘and the celebration goes on into the early hours of Monday morning’. Here I have changed the word order, made the verb agree and added a phrase.
5) ‘There are a street carnival at famous place in Rio like Copacabana, Ipanema’ Sorry to point out another error in agreement of tense and plural noun but the mistakes in these areas are frequent so I’m hoping that you can recognize these reoccurring errors and try to correct them. The correct sentence is ‘There is a street carnival in famous places in Rio like…’ or ‘There are street carnivals in famous places in Rio.. .’
As some readers told me they know little about the most famous landmarks in China, I thought I’d write a bit about one today. I’m also following Yanko’s topic of ‘the most famous’ by talking about Tian’anmen Square which is the heart of Beijing.It is the central point and the rest of the city has been built and planned around it.
Tian’anmen Square is the world’s largest square-a good general knowledge fact that will help you in a game of Trivial Pursuit or a local pub quiz!. It is surely one of China’s most iconic spots and conjures up different attitudes and feelings in different people due to events that have occurred there. During the Qing dynasty, it was just a kind of corridor between ministry buildings and no where near the size it is today. Those structures were knocked down in 1911 and it wasn’t until some time in the late 1950’s that the square was enlarged to its present size and Soviet –style building were put up to flank it. The new style square was made because it was the 10th anniversary of the PRC at that time.
Nearly every time I have visited the square it is packed with tourists from all over China and overseas, I’ve never seen it without the photo-snapping, kite- flying hoards! If you can get up early enough (again, you have to be an early riser!), crowds of people gather at sunrise for the flag raising ceremony. The Chinese flag is raised daily at sunrise and set at sunset. On national holidays, the square is festooned with red flags and flowers and there are always many more troops of the Chinese army present at holiday times compared to ordinary days.
At one end of the square(north end I think!) is a building called the gate of Heavenly Peace and it has a huge portrait of the former Chinese Chairman, Mao on it so he can look out across the square. As I don't have a picture of the Square to hand, I have posted a picture of the gate with Mao's portrait which looks small in the photo but is, in fact, huge.
If you go through the gate, you will enter the Forbidden City. This ‘city’ is the place where the imperial families lived during the Ming and Qing dynasties and it’s vast. The other buildings around Tian’anmen square are Great Hall of the People, used for government meetings and other very special events, China National Museum and Chairman Mao Memorial Hall.
I'm sure Chinese people could give many more interesting facts and figures and even stories about the Square and the Forbidden city; all I've done is try to give you a taster here.
Well, that's my lot for today. I need some shut eye!
Bye Bye
Trudi
PS How much time do you spend studying English every week Yanko? Do you self-study or attend classes?
Vocabulary
springs to mind to appear suddenly or immediately in your thoughts
catchy (adj) attractive and appealing, easily remembered
scantily dressed wearing very few(not enough) clothes
iconic (adj) an important symbol
conjures up creates or brings into the mind
Soviet-style Russian- style
flank (v) placed on the sided of something
hoards (n) large gathering of people
festooned (adj) decorated with
taster (n) sample, tester
shut eye sleep
Comments
Hi Trudi! Thanks for telling us a bit more about China. The Forbidden City must be amazing. I wish one day I could see with my own eyes :-). Oh by the way Trudi, regarding to Carnival, do you know that 50% of the Brazilians don´t like this festival? And do you know that a great number of Brazilians rather work in this 'holiday'?( just like me). This dislike has a reason. People associate the increase of violence with Carnival( which is a sad true). Therefore, it´s better go to work or stay at home instead of going out. See you, Ana Paula.
Dear Trudi, Thank you very much for writing short historical background of Tiananmen Square and general description about it. I know that it was one of the world’s most highlighted places during students’ movement in 1989. We heard a lot of things during that time but I actually I don’t know about it in great detail.
Hello it is the first time that I am coment this blog though I am reading this for long time and I am learning very much with the teachers this site.Bye for now Fernando
Hi,The information is nice. You really conjured a pictured in everybody's mind. Good Work!!! Cheers Praveen Raj
Hi Madam, My mother language (Punjabi) owned many words of English language i.e. Railway platform, Train, Chair, Table, Cut… and many more. Is it also a case with language spoken in Beijing? As far as vocabulary is concerned, I feel that this is a area which can be well developed by a lot of self-study (set aside pronunciation aspect). I value your suggestion & kept in mind that learners should pay attention to all forms of word (nouns, adjectives, adverbs). Also please suggest which other areas can be developed well with self-study and for which one should go for training institution. Thanks.
Hi there , Thanks Trudi . I deeply enjoy whe n i increase my knowlege about other countries and i learn some language point at the same time .I hope to see china some day . Kiss your angle and keep going
Dear Trudi, thank you very much for getting us into the Chinese life and culture with humor and cleverness. Your western way let me understand better the hither and thither which are suddenly changing either China and our related part of the world. Please, could you tell me if the use of "hither and thither" is correct? Keep up with your beautiful and interesting web-lessons
I spend more than one hour for learning English. Most of the time I study on myself (self study) I am doing exercises from books of the Good grammar book from Oxford, English Vocabulary book and grammar builder from Cambridge university press. All these books meant for the intermediate level students. I want to go the next level books after finishing all these. Every day I try to spend minimum 15minutes each book. I like to give comment on this column when ever time permits to do that. I love to listen the programmes of “people and places” and “talk about English” from the BBC Learning English. I completed my college twenty years ago. Still I find it difficult to be fluent in English. My parents and brother insisted me to go to special English classes for learning English in my school days. I did not realize the value of English at that time. Now one of ambition is to speak, write well in English. For achieving this I specify enough time to read and to listen in this great languge. Beside all these I spend half an hour each day with one of my friend and talking to her in English in general topic. She is doing doctoral studies in English. She will not give much correction. Just allow me to talk. I am sure, one day I can teach some basic English to some one in a confident manner. I am sure every teacher expects the student to respond well. The teacher will be happy if the student show the progress and follow the suggestions. Otherwise the teaching and learning won’t be meaningful.
Hi Trudi, I promise myself to start writing some comments in this blog, cos' I enjoy reading it especially for those information about China. I have been in Beijing & Shanghai several times but only for business or just as an ordinary tourist. I like your foreigners' perspective in writing China and appreciate your word choices in those articles. I find myself have an urge need to practice more in writing.
Dear Trudi. I know it might be frustrating to write to someone who appears don't read you. So, I wish to make it clear that I always read you...but I'm too shy to post here. I learn a lot from you. Go ahead. Thank you and good bye.
Fascinating blog, im Chinese, but never been to Tiananmeng Square. Thanks for all the information. Btw, Trudi, can you perhaps tell us something about Trivial Pursuit in the future? Cheers.
Hi Trudi!I am interested in Tian’anmen Square by your concice and fantastic story.I try to visit Beijin and Tian’anmen Square.Recently,I need to concentrate on studying English in a few years to use English in business.But,if I have a confidence of my English-ability,I try to study Chinese.Do you study Chinese?Is it difficult to study Chinese?If you don't mind mentioning that,please inform me.Bye!
I never write blog.in this way I think we could communication with another person who's English is very good,and I could learn more English ,asole I shall improve my skill of English.you are wellcome to contact me.Bye
nice story
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