I'd say that if you can use 一次, then it's countable: Countable — a wonderful experience: 一次美妙的經歷 If you cannot use 一次, then it's uncountable: Uncountable — lots of experience: 豐富的經驗 Also, my Chinese is really basic, but my impression is that jingli is more often used countably, while jingyan is more often uncountable. What do you think?

Good to see you, Troggy!

Hello, Shana. I imagine we're talking about two or more cities. If we use the structure with "of", then it's "(the) populations of (the) cities". However, there is another option where we use the singular even if there are multiple cities: "(The) city populations" (I guess this is "Chinese style"). Note that in this case, the article refers to the populations, not the city. In fact, we usually use a singular noun in such constructions — for example, an "egg carton" may contain 12 eggs (or whatever), yet we do not say an "eggs carton". An option with a slightly different shade of meaning would be "The cities' populations". Note that in this case, the article refers to the cities, not the populations. Note that it is also possible for multiple cities to share "one population" (i.e. a number representing the sum of the individual cities' populations). Note that "cities" and "cities" or may not be preceded by the definite article (depending on the meaning).

Thanks for inviting me to answer your question. Version (a) is correct English. Version (b) is a common non-standard variant pattern used in colloquial American English (possibly a result of influence from immigrants speaking High German), but it still sounds a bit weird to me in the example given (for some reason). It might work better with a more dynamic verb (but it would still be considered colloquial Americcan — not standard). In any event, I always use and teach version (a), not version (b). Exception: Version (b) is perfectly correct when "would" has its original meaning of "quisiera": "If he would only study more" (si tan sólo quisiera estudiar más). Note that sometimes, colloquial British usage is less standard than American, for example, the usage of the past and present the subjunctive.

The camera fell off my laptop when I turned it in an attempt to view your picture.

Hello, Aud. The economy is definite because the author expects everyone reading to know from the context which economy is meant — the current British economy in general. When the slide is *mentioned*, it has not yet been defined, so it is indefinite. Later on, after being defined, we use “the”. For example, “I have a book. The book is very interesting”. “An economy” refers to one particular economic situation among many possible situations. We can have a good economy, a bad economy, etc. Keep up the good work!

The correct and natural answer is "where".

Here, it refers to how the votes are *distributed* (divided, broken up, etc.) among the candidates / parties / options.