The heart of the operation was a claustrophobic room tucked away in the bowels of just another city bar. Once through the trap door into the basement, visitors were greeted by a tiny circle of chairs arranged haphazardly atop an unfinished concrete floor. It was not a place anyone would come for civil discussion. The air was fetid, and pools of water collected unevenly on the floor as water dripped down from the cooling pipes which snaked across the ceiling.

Learning Chinese? Our lesson today features an intermediate-level dialogue, along with a quick book club of our own. Want to know who we consider to be the Hemingway of China? And who else is worth reading now that you're up to this level? Get our verdict in this show, and leave your own thoughts in the comment section below to share recommendations on contemporary authors we've missed.
 said on
November 15, 2012
今天的对话写着都乱七八糟的! 应该是这样吧:

今天我们来了很多的新面孔。

但是这也给我们带来了很多的不便。

图书馆里所有的海明威都被借光了。

图书大厦里的也都卖完了。

对。这意味着你们中的很多人坏了读书俱乐部的头两条规矩。

第一条规矩是什么?不能谈起读书俱乐部。第二条呢?不能谈起读书俱乐部!

好。现在我们谈讨一下太阳照常升起的主体和象征意义。
 said on
November 15, 2012
@Aylish,

解决了。谢谢。

--david

 said on
November 21, 2012
Could you provide the Chinese names of the authors recommended?

多谢!
 said on
November 26, 2012
是什么问题

 said on
November 29, 2012
我的意思是: 能否告诉我们他们的中文名字? 有三毛, 还有。。。

谢谢!
 said on
December 2, 2012
@huyilin,

没问题。有三毛、刘墉、余华、王小波和几米。

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
November 4, 2015
why do they say 第二条。。。in the dialogue? I thought that 两 was used before measure words. Is it because of the 第?
 said on
November 4, 2015
You've got it, ordinal numbers use 二. We hear 两 in 头两条 as the more common usage because the speaker is referring to both of the first two conditions, not just the second isolated in sequence.