Whose Birthday Is It?
A Beginners reading text is a short message:
小明，明天是我妈妈的生日。我想给她买一件礼物，可是我不知道买什么。她喜欢喝茶，也喜欢看书。我姐姐说买茶叶，我爸爸说买一本书。你觉得呢？放学以后你能陪我去商店吗？我们在学校门口等你。 小华
Question: 小华想给谁买礼物？为什么她不知道买什么？
Ben answers: "Xiao Hua wants to buy a present for Xiao Ming's mother. She doesn't know what to buy because her sister and father each suggested something different."
Ben's teacher says the second half is a reasonable inference but the first half is wrong, and that the mistake comes from a habit Ben uses in English.
1. Explain Ben's error, why the sentence structure caused it, and give the correct answer.
Read the worked answer
The error
Ben has read 我妈妈的生日 as if 我妈妈 belonged to Xiao Ming, the person being addressed. But 我 in a written message always refers to the writer - here 小华. So it is Xiao Hua's own mother's birthday.
Why the structure traps him
- The message opens 小明，… so Xiao Ming's name is the first thing on the page. In English, a reader can lean on word order and pronouns to work out whose mother it is.
- Chinese drops subjects freely. 明天是我妈妈的生日 has no explicit subject, so Ben filled the gap with the most recent name - the addressee.
- The rule he needs: 我 = the writer; 你 = the reader. The addressee's family is never 我妈妈; it would be 你妈妈.
Correct answer: 小华想给她自己的妈妈买礼物。她不知道买什么，因为她妈妈喜欢喝茶，也喜欢看书，小华拿不定主意。
On the second half: Ben's inference is defensible - 姐姐说买茶叶，爸爸说买一本书 does present two options - but the text's own framing is 我不知道买什么 before the suggestions, so the safest answer names her uncertainty first, then the two suggestions.
Habit to change: in Chinese messages, first work out who is writing, then assign every 我 to that person.
2. A classmate claims the message shows Xiao Hua has already decided to buy tea. Using only the text, argue for or against this claim.
Read the worked answer
Against the claim - the text does not support it.
Evidence:
- 我不知道买什么 - an explicit statement of indecision. Nothing later cancels it.
- 我姐姐说买茶叶 - the suggestion is attributed to the sister with 说, not adopted by Xiao Hua. Compare the difference between 姐姐说买茶叶 (sister says buy tea) and 我想买茶叶 (I want to buy tea).
- 我爸爸说买一本书 - a second, competing suggestion, left unresolved.
- 你觉得呢？ - she asks Xiao Ming's opinion. You do not ask for advice after deciding.
- 你能陪我去商店吗？ - she wants company to go shopping, which is what you do when the choice is still open.
What the classmate may have done: seen 茶叶 twice (once as a like, once as the sister's idea) and treated repetition as a decision. In Beginners reading, repetition signals importance, not resolution.
Strongest answer to the exam question: 小华还没有决定。她妈妈喜欢喝茶，也喜欢看书，姐姐和爸爸的意见不一样，所以她想听听小明的意见。
Transferable rule: in these texts, a character's own choice is marked by 我想/我要/我决定. Anything inside 说 belongs to the speaker of that clause.