Word: bi
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...None of Bi's personal problems are on his mind this day. Instead he is incensed about work. "Meiyou," he says once, and then again. Meiyou (pronounced may-o) means "No, it cannot be done," or "No, we don't have it" -- a word foreigners learn quickly. "Too few primers," says Bi. "One hundred eighty-two students and 15 English books. Bad enough, right? But look at the books. They're about 40 years old, and boring. We can barely get by the first story...
...Bi would like to ignore the texts entirely, but the college entrance exams test the books' content. "They can actually ask you how exactly Marx learned English," he says. (By writing for American newspapers, it turns out.) "So we have to go through them. But we also try to come up with exercises that get to the real questions of English grammar. Now, which word do you think belongs in the blank...
...sentence on Bi's crumbling blackboard reads, "He has corn and other things -----------in his fields...
...says Bi, "which word belongs in the blank, grown or growing...
...What I said too," says Bi triumphantly to the three other teachers standing at his side...