Some questions about sentences

[DrWatson]

So I am currently working with "A New Text for a Modern China", but as a self-study student since I don't have access to a Chinese teacher. I have a question about a sentence I came upon and was hoping I might get some help.

Here is the sentence fragment:

但是傳統的婚姻觀念還存在,找對象時還必須看對方的社會的位,...

How would I roughly translate this sentence? Especially this part: 找對象時還必須看對方的社會的位 ? Does it mean something like "When looking for a partner one still must look at the other's social status...."

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And I also came across another phrase in another reading sample given below which is supposed to an add from a guy looking for a companion I believe:

希望找一位家住本市，會社交，能作秘書工作，長得較好，具有高中以上文化水平，二十四至三十歲的未婚姑娘為伴侶．

If I understand this correctly, basically the guy is looking for a girl from a family in his city, and she should be capable of doing "PR", handling secretarial work, 長得較好, she should have at least a secondary school education, and be an unmarried girl between the ages of 24 and 30 for companionship.

I could not understand 長得較好. What does it mean?

Thanks for your help!

[muyongshi]

First it should be 地位 not 的位 but you have understood the sentence correctly. Traditional society 讲门第，要门当户对.

Second 长得较好 means the person 长得比较好 so they are decent looking. 长得 refers to how the person has "grown up". Sorry i know that sounds funny but not quite sure how to express it in proper english.

[muyongshi]

Sorry didn't notice you wanted a whole sentence translation...

"But the concept of traditional marriages still exist. When looking for a partner you must consider/look at the person's level in society"

[OracleBone]

“長得較好” means “good looking”.I think it is more usually used in spoken Chinese than in written Chinese. so in this case, “長相較好” should be better.

There are some examples here:

長得很好看

長得很難看

長得魁梧結實

長得牛高馬大

長得虎背熊腰

[fireball9261]

Sorry OracleBone, “長相較好” is an awkward use of Chinese here -- After being told multiple times that my use of English was awkward by my English teachers, I finally got a chance to say the same to someone regarding the use of Chinese. Hee hee!

Also, 长得 is more like "being born with" as in the sentence, "some one was born with better looks".

[DrWatson]

Thanks everyone!

[wangw]

"長得較好"The expression is really strange and unusually both in spoken Chinese and in written Chinese.it's better to use "容貌佼好(rong2mao4jiao3hao3)" to describe a women is good-looking in written Chinese. but it's just one of the thousand expressions in Chinese to describe a women's looking. In spoken chinese.,We usually to say "这是个美女" or "这个女孩很漂亮".

[fireball9261]

I would use the phrase "相貌好" in the ad and forget about the word "較".