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<strong>Public service announcement:</strong> you may or may not have heard that the <a href="https://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2020/05/25/hsk-to-be-overhauled-first-time-in-11-years">HSK system is about to get a major overhaul</a> for the first time in a decade. There will now be 9 HSK levels instead of 6, so my half-assed grading system on this site is about to become inaccurate. But the details aren't totally clear yet, so guess I'll be sticking with this until we know more.

Anyway, in this story, a gentleman named Buzi (卜子 - [pinyin]bu3 zi[/pinyin]) asks his wife (卜妻 - [pinyin]bu3 qi1[/pinyin]) to make him a new pair of pants (裤子 - [pinyin]ku4 zi[/pinyin]), but he doesn't give her very clear instructions. 
 
<a href="http://www.rensheng5.com/xiaogushi/id-6042.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Source here</span>
<h4>Some language stuff</h4>
First, a note on the use of 为 in the title 《卜妻为裤》. 为 has so many meanings in Chinese, in this case the definition used is "to make". 

A couple key words that will inform your understanding of the story:

<strong>讲究</strong> [pinyin]jiang3 jiu[/pinyin] - You may have learned this one already, but if you don't know it, it's crucial to understanding the plot. 讲究 means to be meticulous or fastidious about something. The phrased used here is 不讲究穿着 - "to not be fastidious about what one is wearing". 

<strong>破烂</strong> [pinyin]po4 lan4[/pinyin] - This means ragged, ripped or torn. 破, by itself, usually means "broken", in this story, it is used to mean "tattered".

<strong>照</strong> [pinyin]zhao4[/pinyin] - We usually first learn this character in the word 照片, "photograph", and 照 is also present in a lot of words that have to do with light, like 照亮 [pinyin]zhao4 liang4[/pinyin], to illuminate or shine upon. But that is not the definition of 照 being used here. In this case, 照 is short for 按照 [pinyin]an4 zhao4[/pinyin], to be based on, or 仿照 [pinyin]fang3 zhao4[/pinyin], to imitate or follow.
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<h4>《卜妻为裤》</h4>
从前，住着一个名叫<span class="highlightText">卜子</span>的人。

他平时很不<span class="highlightText">讲究</span>穿着，经常是穿着一身<span class="highlightText">破烂</span>的衣服就出去了。

有一天，他还是和平时一样穿着一条又脏又破的裤子出去了，走到街上，很多人都在看他的破裤子，他自己觉得很难堪，就买一块布头，回到家叫妻子给他做一条新裤子。

<span class="highlightText">卜妻</span>量量尺寸，问他：“这条裤子做成什么式样啊?”

卜子随口回答：“<span class="highlightText">照</span>老样子做吧！”

妻子以为丈夫喜欢那种又脏又破衣服的款式，就想：他是不是觉得穿这种裤子很舒服，而且这一条裤子不够穿，所以叫我再做一条？

卜妻就认认真真地<span class="highlightText">仿照</span>老裤子的模样，这里戳几个破洞，那里抹一摊油，弄得皱皱巴巴、破破烂烂的。花费了不少工夫，总算完成了。

她把裤子放到卜子面前，得意地说：“满意吧?同老裤子一样的样式。”

说话一定要说清楚，尤其是大事情。
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Long ago, there lived a man named Buzi. 

He typically wasn't meticulous about what he wore, and often went out wearing ragged clothes.

One day, same as usual he went out wearing a pair of dirty, torn pants, but when he walked onto the street, many people were looking at his torn pants, and he felt quite embarrassed, so be bought a piece of cloth, and went back home to ask his wife to make him a new pair of pants.

Buzi's wife took measurements, asking him: "In what kind of style should the pants be made?" 

Buzi casually answered, "Base them on the old style!"

[His] wife thought her husband like that kind of dirty, tattered style, so she thought: Does he feel that wearing this kind of pants is comfortable, and feel that one pair isn't enough, so he asked me to make another? 

Buzi's wife diligently followed the old style, poking a few holes here, smearing some oil there, making them wrinkled and tattered. [After] expending no small amount of effort, they were finally done. 

She put the pants in front of Buzi, and pleased with herself said: "Satisfied? The same style as your old pants."

When speaking you must speak clearly, especially in important matters. 
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