Help with sentence

[Alhazred]

Hello everyone,

I once more stumbled upon a sentence I cannot understand (there's no context, it's an sample sentence in a grammar book):

大家实事求是地总结了前一段的工作。

As far as I understand, it should mean something like "everyone's real demands have been examined before a work session."

But I am sure I am wrong somewhere. First, I don't really get how the part before the 地 (that is 大家实事求是) relates to 总结了. Second, my dictionary did not list any compound formed with those characters 实事求 and I have a feeling they are not three separate words.

Any help would be much appreciated.

[roddy]

从小平同志学习!!

This is a Deng Xiaoping quote - shishiqiushi - usually translated as 'seek truth from facts'.

So:

They summed up their recent work in a 'seeking truth from facts'- like manner.

or more colloquially

They realistically / honestly summed up their recent work.

my other favourite Deng quote (I only know two ) =

多干实事,小说空话

More do real things, less talk empty speech.

Roddy

[Alhazred]

Thanks, Roddy.

Makes it a lot more clear.

That grammar book I use is bilingual chinese/french (实用汉语语法, by 李德津 and 程美珍) and there are indeed a lot of references to how communist heroes liberated the chinese people and how the communist party works for the well-being of all chinese people, etc. but I did not know they even used leaders' quotes (couldn't have spotted them anyway).

Interesting, propaganda delivered with the language ;)

[roddy]

I see it constantly. Company reports and so on will always have the current political catchphrases in there - 全面建设小康社会, 以人为本, blah blah blah. I keep on deleting them, my boss keeps sneaking them back in . . .

Roddy

[HashiriKata]

Using political catchphrases makes it sound more like you know what you're talking about, especially when you're not quite sure what you're talking about . I also noticed that it is used frequently within the old communist block (as well as in "1984", "Animal Farm", etc.)

[Bob Dylan Thomas]

the utterly, utterly meaningless phrase "the war on terror" would be another example - the brainless British media (indeed, the world's media) have fallen for this one and use it constantly, much to the benefit of the Bush administration.

Here, we're being told compoulsory ID cards are "part of the war on terror". WTF????