Answer to Chinese Quiz: A Sweet Surprise for Your Teacher

Answer: B

When you work for a company, or do other sorts of physical (and even mental) activities for another party, you’re likely to use the Chinese preposition 为 (wèi), which is often translated into English as “for,” a translation which is often unnatural or unnecessary depending on the particular phrase.

为 + (Some Part) + Verb / (Verb Phrase)

Tā wèi wǒ zuò le hěnduō shì.
他  为 我  做   了  很多     事 。
He’s done a lot for me.

Wǒ yòng qiānbǐ jì xià le tā de diànhuà hàomǎ.
我   用     铅笔  记 下 了 他 的   电话      号码。
I noted down his telephone number with a pencil.

Tā yǐ gāo xiàolǜ wánchéng le nà jiàn gōngzuò.
她 以  高   效率     完成    了 那  件     工作。
She did the job with great efficiency.

A basic sentence in Mandarin is formed with a subject-verb-object (SVO) word order, as in English:
Subj. + Verb Phrase + Obj.
A “把 (bǎ)” sentence shakes things up a bit, and you get this structure:
Subj. + 把 + Obj. + Verb Phrase
In the quiz above, that sentence is matching the structure: Subj. + 把 + Obj. + Verb Phrase. And “把 + something + 送给 + somebody” is a fixed structure which means “give something to somebody.”

Tā bǎ xiānhuā sòng gěi le zhōngwén lǎoshī.
他 把   鲜花      送   给 了    中文      老师。
He gave the flowers to the Chinese teacher.

So B is the correct answer.

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