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A passage from a BLCU textbook in which a university student laments about catching a cold. <!--more--> This essay focuses on mostly illness-centric beginner language, such as 感冒 [pinyin]gan3 mao4[/pinyin], meaning "to have a cold"， and 打针 [pinyin]da3 zhen1[/pinyin], meaning "to get an IV drip or shot".

Lest it seems a little dramatic to you that the writer would go to the hospital over a 24-hour cold, the Chinese typically don't use private clinics (except in the case of accupuncture and massage), and commonly go to the hospital for almost every health-related issue, including colds and small fevers.

Of special interest is the phrase "还开了一些药", or "and also prescribed me some medicine". Literally, it says, "Also opened a bit of medicine". But the word 开 [pinyin]kai1[/pinyin], which usually means "open", is also the verb used to describe a doctor writing a perscription. This tells us that the doctor didn't give (给[pinyin]gei3[/pinyin]) the student any medicine himself, but perscribed it instead.
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<div class="postintro">
<h4>Interesting Vocabulary</h4>
发烧 - [pinyin]fa1 shao1[/pinyin] - Have a fever
咳嗽 - [pinyin]ke2 sou5[/pinyin] - Cough
同学 - [pinyin]tong2 xue2[/pinyin] - Classmates
寂寞 - [pinyin]ji4 mo4[/pinyin] - Lonely
不舒服 - [pinyin]bu4 shu1 fu5[/pinyin] - Feel unwell, uncomfortable
检查 - [pinyin]jian3 cha2[/pinyin] - Check, examine
果然 - [pinyin]guo3 ran2[/pinyin] - Sure enough

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<div id="chinesetext">

我病了。　头疼，<strong>发烧</strong>，嗓子也疼，不想吃东西，晚上<strong>咳嗽</strong>的很厉害。　上午同学们都去上课了，我一个人在宿舍里，感到很寂寞。　寂寞了就容易想家。　我家里人很多，有哥哥，姐姐，还有一个弟弟。　在家的时候，我们常一起玩儿。　现在，我在北京学习汉语，寂寞的时候就常常想他们。

因为不<strong>舒服</strong>，所以我今天起得很晚。　起了床就去医院了。　大夫给我<strong>检查</strong>了一下儿，说我感冒了。　给我打了一针，<strong>还开了一些药</strong>。　他说，吃了药病就好了。

老师和同学们知道我病了，都来看我。　林老师听说我不想吃东西，还做了一碗面条给我吃。　吃了面条，身上出了很多汗，老师说，出了汗可能不发烧了。

下午，<strong>果然</strong>不发烧了，喜庆也好了。　我用　Ｅｍａｉｌ　个哦姐姐发了一封信。　我说，我在这儿生活得很好，我有很好的老师，还有很多好同学，好朋友，和他们在一起，我感到很愉快。

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I'm sick. My head hurts, I have a fever, my throat also hurts, I don't want to eat anything, and at night I have a serious cough. In the morning my classmates all went to class, and I was the only one left in the dormitory. I feel very lonely. When you're lonely, it's easy to miss home. I have a lot of family members - an older brother, older sister, and also a younger brother. When I'm at home, we often play together. Right now, I'm in Beijing studying Chinese, and when I'm lonely I miss them.

Because I don't feel well, I got up late today. When I got up, I went to the hospital. The doctor gave me a quick checkup and said I have a cold. He gave me one shot [also: IV drip], and also prescribed some medicine. He said, take the medicine and you'll get better.

My teacher and classmates know I'm sick, so they all came to see me. Teacher Lin heard that I didn't want to eat anything, so she made me a bowl of noodles. After I ate the noodles, I began to pour sweat. Teacher said, if you sweat, maybe your fever will go away.

In the afternoon, sure enough my fever was gone, and I was in a good mood. I emailed my older sister. I said, I have a very good life here, I have a good teacher and good classmates and good friends, and all together they make me very happy.

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