When the passage refers to "transliterated terms" (line 22), the author most likely means words
iris.diaz823on August 3, 2020
Why A
Hello, I was wondering if I could get an explanation about why D is incorrect. I did not feel the sound of the English words was reflected in the new Chinese dialect while I can see that the meaning is. I thought D was a better answer choice as a result.
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Thanks for the question! So we’re asked here for the meaning of the words “transliterated terms.” We’re given a line number here, so we should go to that line and read above and below it to understand the full context of how it’s being used. Now, what’s goin on here? We’re talked about vocabulary of Chinatown Chinese. Some words are “transliterated terms,” like “dang-tang” and “downtown.” In other words, these are words that just sound the same. So “downtown” sounds like “dang-tang” to some Chinese people, so they’d say “dang-tang” for “downtown.”
In contrast, we have “others,” which indicates a different group. And these are the “direct translations from American English.” So the transliterated terms and the direct translations talk about two different groups of terms, and so transliterated terms can’t mean the words that are direct translations from another language! That’s what rules out (D).
(A), on the other hand, tells us that transliterated terms are words whose sounds and meanings have been directly incorporated into another language. Even if you don’t know the meaning of “transliteration,” which describes this process, you can still guess at it by the fact that “dang-tang” sounds like “downtown.”
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.
