19:The Chinese people are a hard working people.请问前后两个people的确切含义是什么？是否一定不能把are改成is？

Question19:I often come across such a sentence: The Chinese
people are a hard working people.What's the exact meaning of
the word "people" here? Can I use "is" instead of "are" here?

Answer:The word "people" has various meanings. Here, the first
"people" means "all the ordinary members of a state". It is often
used as a plural, therefore we can't use "is"instead of "are"
here. The second "people" means "nation" so it can be treated as
singular.

问题19:常见到这样一句话：The Chinese people are a hard working
people.请问前后两个people的确切含义是什么？是否一定不能把are改成is？

回答:People一词的含义很多。在这里，第一个people指人民，是一个复
数的概念，故谓语动词不可用is来代替are。第二个people指民族，所以可
用作单数。