Writing Feedback: What Is Your National Dish?

Chirashi sushi is the national dish of Japan.

散壽司是日本的國菜。

It is a sweet and sour dish that consists of rice, shrimp, eggs, dried gourd, vinegar, salt and sugar.

這是一道酸甜口味的料理，由米、蝦、蛋、乾瓜、醋、鹽和糖組成。

In May fifth, we eat the traditional sweet called kashiwa mochi.

在五月五日節，我們會食用一種傳統甜點，稱為柏餅。

It is a sweet and sticky small snack, that consists of rice powder, small red beans and sugar.

這是一種香甜黏糯的小點心，由米粉、紅豆和糖製成。

Kaori used the structures that we discussed in our previous lesson.

Kaori運用了我們在上一課討論過的句型結構。

The writing included adjectives such as sweet and sour, the phrasal verb consist of, and nouns such as rice, shrimp, and eggs.

她的寫作中使用了形容詞如「酸甜」、片語動詞「由……組成」，以及名詞如「米」、「蝦」和「蛋」。

We were especially interested to read about dried gourd, an ingredient that is not common in America.

我們特別感興趣的是讀到關於乾瓜的介紹，這是一種在美國不常見的材料。

Our main suggestion is to replace the short word in with on, as in on May fifth we eat the traditional sweet.

我們的主要建議是用介系詞「on」取代短語「in」，例如說「on May fifth we eat the traditional sweet」。

Remember, we use on for exact dates, so we say, for example, on January first, or on September twenty seventh.

記住，我們對於確切的日期使用「on」，因此會說，例如「on January first」或「on September twenty seventh」。

Next we go to China to learn about two popular dishes.

接下來我們前往中國，了解兩道受歡迎的菜餚。

Here we notice a similarity between the United States and China.

在此我們可以注意到美國與中國之間的一項相似之處。

If you asked Americans to write about a national dish, you would likely get different answers.

如果你請美國人寫下他們的國菜，你很可能會得到不同的答案。

In the same way, we received different answers about a national dish of China.

同樣地，我們也收到了關於中國國菜的不同回覆。

Here is part of John's message.

以下是John訊息的部分內容。

Chicken soup is a national dish of China.

雞湯是中國的國菜。

It's a light soup, that consists of hens and medicine plants.

這是一道清淡的湯，由母雞和中藥材組成。

Most part of chicken soup is hen's meat, because it tastes finer.

雞湯的大部分成分是母雞肉，因為它的味道更細膩。

The other ingredients of it are Chinese medicine plants, such as dang gui.

其他材料則包括中藥材，例如當歸。

Of course, we need some flavorings to make it tastes more delicious.

當然，我們需要一些調味料讓它吃起來更美味。

Soy beans, peppers, ginger, and garlic are necessary to the soup.

大豆、辣椒、薑和大蒜對這道湯來說都是必要的。

John's message is clear and easy to understand.

John的訊息清晰易懂。

That said, we have a few suggested changes.

不過，我們仍有一些建議的修改。

In terms of grammar, we should remove the noun form medicine and instead use the adjective medicinal, as in medicinal plants.

就文法而言，我們應將名詞「medicine」改為形容詞「medicinal」，例如說「medicinal plants」。

We could also use a more exact noun such as herb, as in medicinal herbs.

我們也可以使用更精確的名詞，如「herb」，例如說「medicinal herbs」。

We should also replace the short word to with for, as in necessary for the soup.

我們還應用介系詞「for」取代「to」，例如說「necessary for the soup」。

We could also make a few small stylistic changes.

此外，我們也可以進行幾處微小的風格調整。

For example, in the first sentence, we could use the noun chicken in place of hen, although a hen makes it clear that the bird is a female.

例如，在第一句中，我們可以用名詞「chicken」替換「hen」，雖然用「hen」能清楚指出這是雌性雞隻。

Here is one way we might update the message.

以下是我們可能更新這段訊息的一種方式。

Chicken soup is a national dish of China.

雞湯是中國的國菜。

It is a light soup that consists of chicken and medicinal herbs.

這是一道清淡的湯，由雞肉和中草藥組成。

Most of the chicken soup has meat from the female chicken, or hen, because it tastes finer and softer than meat from the male chicken.

雞湯中的肉大多來自雌性雞（即母雞），因為其肉質比雄性雞的肉更為細嫩柔軟。

The other ingredients of chicken soup, are Chinese medicinal herbs such as dang gui.

雞湯的其他材料則是中草藥，例如當歸。

Of course, we need some flavorings to make it taste more delicious.

當然，我們需要一些調味料讓它更美味。

Soy bean, peppers, ginger and garlic are necessary for the soup.

豆類、辣椒、薑和蒜是這道湯不可或缺的。

Next, here is part of what Ming wrote to us.

接下來，這裡有部分明寫給我們的內容。

Ma Cai Kow Row is the national dish of China.

梅菜扣肉是中國的國菜。

It is a salty dish that consists of pork belly, fermented red tofu sauce, dry mizuna, soybean sauce, salt and species, such as Sichuan peppercorn and star anise.

這是一道鹹味料理，由五花肉、發酵紅豆腐乳醬、乾芥菜、豆醬、鹽以及花椒、八角等香料組成。

Mei Cai is the mizuna's pronunciation in Chinese.

梅菜是中文裡對「mizuna」的發音。

Ming wrote a nice message that is clear and easy to understand.

明寫了一則清晰易懂的好訊息。

We suggest a few changes for some of the nouns.

我們建議對其中一些名詞進行修改。

Instead of source, we want to use the word sauce, and instead of species, we would use spices.

我們將「source」改為「醬汁」，並將「species」改為「香料」。

So the second sentence might say: fermented red tofu sauce, soybean sauce, and salt and spices.

因此第二句可能會這樣說：發酵紅豆腐乳醬、豆醬、鹽和香料。

The final sentences might go like this: It is a salty dish that consists of pork belly, fermented red tofu sauce, dry mizuna, soybean sauce, salt and spices.

最後的句子可能是這樣的：這是一道鹹味料理，由五花肉、發酵紅豆腐乳醬、乾芥菜、豆醬、鹽和香料組成。

Such as Sichuan peppercorn, and star anise, maitai is the Chinese pronunciation for mizuna.

例如四川花椒和八角；而「maitai」是中文裡對「mizuna」的發音。

We can take a few lessons from the messages that we received.

我們可以從收到的訊息中學習到一些經驗。

The first is that writing does not need to be perfect to be understandable.

第一點是，文字不必完美也能讓人理解。

All the messages had nice clear structures and were easy to understand for a native English speaker.

所有訊息都有清晰良好的結構，對母語為英語的人來說很容易理解。

The main issues were in the details—the spelling of nouns and adjectives, punctuation, and other small things.

主要問題在於細節——名詞和形容字的拼寫、標點符號以及其他小地方。

Our recommendation is to carefully look over these details several times in future writing efforts.

我們建議在未來的寫作中多次仔細檢查這些細節。

We will give more writing feedback on messages from our fans around the world in coming lessons.

在接下來的課程中，我們將針對全球粉絲寄來的訊息提供更多寫作回饋。

We will learn more about national dishes from other areas of the world, including Europe and Africa.

我們將進一步了解世界其他地區（包括歐洲和非洲）的國菜。

If you have a question or comment about today's lesson, feel free to send us an email at learningenglish@voanews. com.

如果您對今天的課程有任何疑問或意見，歡迎致電 learningenglish@voanews.com 給我們發送電子郵件。

I'm John Russell.

我是約翰·羅素。