Online Class Notes (Nick) [S]

Vocabulary

Quality control – to check whether the goods are good quality
e.g. Tony’s job is perform quality control at the Chaozhou factory in Guangdong.

To make the trip – to travel; to take a business trip (correct!)
However, this is usually used to express how many times, or how long.
e.g. Tony took a business trip from Guangzhou to Chaozhou last week.
e.g. It takes fourteen hours to make the trip to Chicago. I make the trip twice a year.

Marketing – selling goods to buyers; making people want to buy the goods
e.g. My cousin works in marketing for a beer company. He sells beer to stores.

Grammar

the factory – we know which factory it is, it’s the one in Chaozhou
e.g. Tony lives in the city of Guangzhou (we know which city that is)
e.g. Tony lives in a large Chinese city (we either don’t know, or don’t need to tell which city that is)

First dialogue:

(What did you do this week?) This week I checked quality at the factory, ceramics. (Where is the factory at?) The factory is in Chaozhou. Chaozhou is in Guangdong province. (How did you get there?) By high-speed train. (Do you go often?) Twice a year. (Who do you sell the goods too?) I don’t know! I only work for factory, not market.

Correction and example of turning the dialogue into a description:

This week I checked the quality of the ceramics at the factory in Chaozhou, Guangdong.
In this way, the different parts of the idea are all clearly connected, since they are in the same sentence.
I traveled to the factory by high-speed train. The train takes three hours to arrive in Chaozhou from Guangzhou. (Tony doesn’t live in Shanghai!) I make the trip to Chaozhou twice each year. I only work with the factory, not with marketing.

Second dialogue:

(What do you do during National Holiday?) We are play with my child, my son. (How old is he?) He is seven years old. (What does he like to do?) He play football. (Do you take a football from the factory to give to him?) Yes, you’re right. I take a football from the factory. (What does he like to study?) He likes to study math. (Does he do pretty well?) Yes.

Now turn that into a story, a description of your holiday:

National holiday is coming soon. I plan to go hometown. I plan to go home by train. I will play football with my seven-years-old child. The football is took from my supplier. This is our new product of my company, and I will also check the quality of this football. I will check the durability of this ball. After football games, I will teach my son math.

Corrections:

I plan to go to my hometown.
This is similar the case with “the,” that we want to tell someone which city it is. It is Tony’s, not someone else’s hometown. Also, we use “to” for travel.

I will play football with my seven-year-old child (son, as above).

This is the new product of our company.
Even better: This is our company’s new product. Same as Chinese: 我们的公司的新品

After playing football, I will teach my son math.
In English we use this form to talk about doing something without saying that anyone is doing it. Talking “in general.”