A passage from a Beijing Language and Culture University textbook in which a university student laments catching a cold. 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 prescribed it instead.

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<h3>Chinese text</h3>
1) 我病了。　头疼，发烧，嗓子也疼，不想吃东西，晚上咳嗽的很厉害。　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。

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

3) 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。

4) 下午，果然不发烧了，喜庆也好了。　我用　Email个我姐姐发了一封信。　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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<strong>1)</strong> 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.

<strong>2)</strong> 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.

<strong>3)</strong> 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.

<strong>4)</strong> 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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