\r\n策士 - [pinyin]ce5 shi1[/pinyin] - Military strategist\r\n如下 - [pinyin]ru xia[/pinyin] - The following, as follows\r\n寓言 - [pinyin]yu4 yan2[/pinyin] - Fable\r\n易水 - [pinyin]yi4 shui3[/pinyin] - Gentle waters\r\n恰好 - [pinyin]qia4 hao3[/pinyin] - As it happens\r\n蚌 - [pinyin]bang4[/pinyin] - Clam\r\n鹬 - [pinyin]yu4[/pinyin] - Sandpiper\r\n介壳 - [pinyin]jie4 qiao4[/pinyin] - Hard outer shell\r\n针锋相对 - [pinyin]zhen1 feng1 xiang1 dui4[/pinyin] - Measure for measure, give as good as one gets, fight back just as hard\r\n两者 - [pinyin]liang3 zhe3[/pinyin] - Both sides\r\n渔父 - [pinyin]yu4 fu4[/pinyin] - Fisherman\r\n疲劳 - [pinyin]pi2 lao2[/pinyin] - Weary\r\n扮演 - [pinyin]ban4 yan3[/pinyin] - To play the role of, as an actor, or person pretending\r\n深思熟虑 - [pinyin]shen1 si1 shu2 lv4[/pinyin] - Consider carefully\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe Zhao State was taking up arms against the Yan State, and Su Dai (a military strategist during the Warring States period, and little brother to Su Qin of the School of Diplomacy) traveled to speak with King HuiWen of Zhao on behalf of the Yan State, and he told the following fable: \r\n\r\n\"When I was coming here I passed over some gentle water, and by chance I happened to see a clam sunning itself. A sandpiper seized the opportunity to peck at the clam\'s meat, but the clam slammed the two wings of its hard shell shut on the sandpiper\'s beak. The sandpiper said, \'Today it won\'t rain, tomorrow it won\'t rain, and there will be one dead clam!\' The clam gave as good as he got, saying: \'I won\'t come out today, I won\'t come out tomorrow (so your beak won\'t be free), and there will be one dead sandpiper!\' Neither party was willing to give up, and at this time, a fisherman scooped them both up and carried them off. If Yan and Zhao oppose each other, we\'ll both fight ourselves weary. I\'m afraid the strong Qin State is playing the role of the fisherman, so I hope that your majesty will carefully deliberate on this matter.\" \r\n\r\nKing HuiWen approved of SuDai\'s message, and stopped using armed forces against the Yan State.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Story Behind the Idiom: Yu Bang Xiang Zheng', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1036-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-03-17 02:58:20', '2012-03-17 06:58:20', '', 1036, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/03/17/1036-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2117, 1, '2016-11-04 23:15:29', '2016-11-05 03:15:29', '[two_third]\nThis paragraph introduces \"Punk Times Magazine\", and talks a little about its importance in influencing Chinese alternative youth culture. \"Punk Times\" is 朋克时代 [pinyin]peng2 ke4 shi2 dai4[/pinyin]. Though this is definitely a magazine, it looks like it also came with a CD, as there\'s a track listing that goes with it. It\'s my understanding that along with two other Chinese music magazines 《盛事摇滚》 [pinyin]sheng4 shi4 yao2 gun3[/pinyin] and 《自由音乐》[pinyin]zi4 you2 yin1 yue4[/pinyin], 朋克时代 is among the cannon of alternative music publications in China (or as one netizen put it, \"这三本小册子已成经典\" - \"these three booklets have already become classics\"). \n\n
\nHoo-ey, look at the angry teen vocabulary in this post: \n\n摇滚 - [pinyin]yao2 gun3[/pinyin] - Rock (rock\'n\'roll)\n铭记 - [pinyin]ming2 ji4[/pinyin] - Engrave in one\'s mind\n掀起 - [pinyin]xian1 qi3[/pinyin] - To set off (to set off a reaction or commotion, for example)\n风暴 - [pinyin]feng1 bao4[/pinyin] - Violent commotion\n颠覆性 - [pinyin]dian1 fu4 xing4[/pinyin] - Subversive\n反抗 - [pinyin]fan3 kang4[/pinyin] - To rebel\n义无返顾 - [pinyin]yi4 wu2 fan3 gu4[/pinyin] - No looking back\n燃烧 - [pinyin]ran2 shao1[/pinyin] - Ignite, combust\n\nThe original is here:
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1998 was absolutely the year in Chinese rock history to be engraved in your mind, as this is the year that music culture magazine \"Punk Times\" was first published, [a magazine] whose like hadn\'t been seen before, and it has never since been surpassed. It set off a civilian firestorm which had a subversive impact on China\'s art world towards the end of the last century, as it was the first time a music magazine\'s content introduced the spirit of rebellion into the sphere of popular consciousness. At that time, the magazine brought untold numbers of youths into the world of real rock, and [untold numbers] picked up the guitar without looking back, using music to ignite the young. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Punk Times Magazine', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1025-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:15:29', '2016-11-05 03:15:29', '', 1025, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1025-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2118, 1, '2016-11-04 23:17:10', '2016-11-05 03:17:10', '', 'Complex Chinese Reading Passages: Punk Rock in China Translation in English', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'chinese-music-writeups-learn-chinese-reading', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:17:21', '2016-11-05 03:17:21', '', 1025, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/chinese-music-writeups-learn-chinese-reading.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1042, 1, '2012-03-17 03:02:24', '2012-03-17 07:02:24', '[two_third]\r\nThis is the backstory behind the Chinese idiom 鹬蚌相争 [pinyin]yu4 bang4 xiang1 zheng1[/pinyin], which translates to \"The Sandpiper and the Clam Fight Each Other\", and means \"Two parties fight and a third party benefits.\" \r\n\r\n
Cool upper-intermediate piece - in case it hasn\'t been obvious throughout these posts, I love classical stories about wily government counselors and should probably post about something else on occasion, but so many classical tales involve this trope that it\'s hard to avoid. \r\n\r\nThis piece is cool because - excepting the first sentence - the sentence structure is simple but there are quite a few classical words, so you\'ll learn some historical terms. In case you think this kind of thing isn\'t really useful, think again. Historical figures in the Chinese dynasties are mentioned frequently in the oddest places, and their stories bleed out into every medium. If you\'re at a museum, if you\'re reading Chinese magazines, if you\'re reading Chinese historical essays, if you\'re watching a TV show or book or listening to the radio, you\'ll see mentions of historical dynasties all the time. But most importantly, if you want to watch Chinese war movies or period pieces (and there are some great ones), this vocab is crucial. You might as well know at least when to recognize that the conversation has gone that way.\r\n\r\nThis short story takes place during the Warring States period (475 BC to 221 BC), and mentions three of the seven warring kingdoms of that time, so you\'ll learn some dynasty names: 赵国 [pinyin]zhao4 guo2[/pinyin] (The Zhao State), 燕国 [pinyin]yan1 guo2[/pinyin] (The Yan State), and 秦国 [pinyin]qin2 guo2[/pinyin] (the Qin State). Speaking of dynasties, when you\'re reading this, look out for the word 王[pinyin]wang2[/pinyin] - as you probably know at this point in your studies, 王means \"king\", and when you see that, you can sometimes guess that the two or three characters before this word are the name of the king. Unlike in English, where we say \"King Charles\" or \"King John\", in this case the Chinese put \"king\" after the name. For example, in this story, we have 赵惠文王 - King Huiwen of Zhao (in other words, king of the Zhao state).\r\n\r\nWhat\'s amusing about this story is that in reality, the Qin Dynasty came out on top of the Warring States period and ruled China (well, for a decade or so, anyway) after the Warring States were over - so bear that in mind as you read the last sentence. \r\n\r\nYou\'ll also meet our protagonist 苏代 [pinyin]su1 dai4[/pinyin] - who he is is explained in the first sentence, but suffice to say that 苏代 is a person\'s name. He\'s mentioned in conjunction with 纵横家 [pinyin]zong4 heng2 jia1[/pinyin], the School of Diplomacy, which was a sort of league of scholar-statesmen from the Warring States period. If you\'re interested, you can
. \r\n\r\nAnyway, I\'m making this story sound really complicated, but other than the historical terminology, the storyline is not at all convoluted. \r\n\r\nOriginal story is here:
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n策士 - [pinyin]ce5 shi1[/pinyin] - Military strategist\r\n如下 - [pinyin]ru xia[/pinyin] - The following, as follows\r\n寓言 - [pinyin]yu4 yan2[/pinyin] - Fable\r\n易水 - [pinyin]yi4 shui3[/pinyin] - Gentle waters\r\n恰好 - [pinyin]qia4 hao3[/pinyin] - As it happens\r\n蚌 - [pinyin]bang4[/pinyin] - Clam\r\n鹬 - [pinyin]yu4[/pinyin] - Sandpiper\r\n介壳 - [pinyin]jie4 qiao4[/pinyin] - Hard outer shell\r\n针锋相对 - [pinyin]zhen1 feng1 xiang1 dui4[/pinyin] - Measure for measure, give as good as one gets, fight back just as hard\r\n两者 - [pinyin]liang3 zhe3[/pinyin] - Both sides\r\n渔父 - [pinyin]yu4 fu4[/pinyin] - Fisherman\r\n疲劳 - [pinyin]pi2 lao2[/pinyin] - Weary\r\n扮演 - [pinyin]ban4 yan3[/pinyin] - To play the role of, as an actor, or person pretending\r\n深思熟虑 - [pinyin]shen1 si1 shu2 lv4[/pinyin] - Consider carefully\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n赵国将要讨伐燕国，苏代(战国时策士，纵横家苏秦的弟弟)替燕国游说赵惠文王，讲了如下的寓言故事: \r\n\r\n“我来的时候经过易水，恰好看到蚌出来晒太阳。鹬趁机啄蚌的肉，蚌把两扇介壳一闭就夹住了鹬的喙。鹬说:‘今天不下雨，明天不下雨，就有死蚌。’蚌也针锋相对地说: ‘今天不出，明天不出(夹住不放)，就有死鹬。’两者谁也不肯罢休，这时过来一个渔父把两者一起拎走了。”燕赵相对抗，都搞得很疲劳，我恐怕强大的秦国正在扮演渔父的角色，所以希望大王深思熟虑。\r\n\r\n惠文王赞同苏代的意见，停止对燕国用兵。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe Zhao State was taking up arms against the Yan State, and Su Dai (a military strategist during the Warring States period, and little brother to Su Qin of the School of Diplomacy) traveled to speak with King HuiWen of Zhao on behalf of the Yan State, and he told the following fable: \r\n\r\n\"When I was coming here I passed over some gentle water, and by chance I happened to see a clam sunning itself. A sandpiper seized the opportunity to peck at the clam\'s meat, but the clam slammed the two wings of its hard shell shut on the sandpiper\'s beak. The sandpiper said, \'Today it won\'t rain, tomorrow it won\'t rain, and there will be one dead clam!\' The clam gave as good as he got, saying: \'I won\'t come out today, I won\'t come out tomorrow (so your beak won\'t be free), and there will be one dead sandpiper!\' Neither party was willing to give up, and at this time, a fisherman scooped them both up and carried them off. If Yan and Zhao oppose each other, we\'ll both fight ourselves weary. I\'m afraid the strong Qin State is playing the role of the fisherman, so I hope that your majesty will carefully deliberate on this matter.\" \r\n\r\nKing HuiWen approved of SuDai\'s message, and stopped using armed forces against the Yan State.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Story Behind the Idiom: Yu Bang Xiang Zheng', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1036-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-03-17 03:02:24', '2012-03-17 07:02:24', '', 1036, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/03/17/1036-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1043, 1, '2012-03-27 03:10:07', '2012-03-27 07:10:07', 'Sweet! I found a bunch of Chinese riddles. Read the Chinese and try to guess the word! This is VERY short, lower-intermediate reading. Some of the riddles I found are impossible, because not only is the riddle hard, the answer is a kind of fruit or plant or thing I\'ve never heard of, so I\'m skipping past all those and over the next few days I\'ll post a few riddles that are answerable for those of us who didn\'t grow up in the southern Yao jungles or whatever.\r\n\r\nI think the most interesting word in this text is 青. I see this word everywhere, and I\'ve never been able to come up with an English equivalent. It\'s not green, and it\'s not blue... well, it\'s not actually a color. It means \"the color that nature is\". It can be used to describe a clear pond. It can be used to talk about trees or grass. So it\'s not actually a specific hue, but the word is used as if it is. Someone feel free to dive in if you can think of a good translation for this. \r\n\r\nThis particular riddle kinda rhymes in Chinese, so when you\'ve sorted out the words, read it out loud.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n青枝绿叶不是菜， 有的烤来有的晒，腾云驾雾烧着吃，不能锅里煮熟卖。\r\n\r\nHint: this is a type of plant.\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\r\nTranslation: Green branches green leaves but it\'s not a vegetable, some roast it and some dry it, soaring on clouds and sailing the mist it\'s consumed, it\'s not sold boiled in a pot.\r\n\r\n
Answer: 烟叶 (Tobacco) \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Riddles] Guess the Word 1', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'riddle-guess-the-word-1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:42:56', '2016-11-05 03:42:56', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1043', 0, 'post', '', 6),
(2116, 1, '2016-11-04 23:11:00', '2016-11-05 03:11:00', 'Sweet! I found a bunch of Chinese riddles. Read the Chinese and try to guess the word! This is VERY short, lower-intermediate reading. Some of the riddles I found are impossible, because not only is the riddle hard, the answer is a kind of fruit or plant or thing I\'ve never heard of, so I\'m skipping past all those and over the next few days I\'ll post a few riddles that are answerable for those of us who didn\'t grow up in the southern Yao jungles or whatever.\r\n\r\nI think the most interesting word in this text is 青. I see this word everywhere, and I\'ve never been able to come up with an English equivalent. It\'s not green, and it\'s not blue... well, it\'s not actually a color. It means \"the color that nature is\". It can be used to describe a clear pond. It can be used to talk about trees or grass. So it\'s not actually a specific hue, but the word is used as if it is. Someone feel free to dive in if you can think of a good translation for this. \r\n\r\nThis particular riddle kinda rhymes in Chinese, so when you\'ve sorted out the words, read it out loud.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n青枝绿叶不是菜， 有的烤来有的晒，腾云驾雾烧着吃，不能锅里煮熟卖。\r\n\r\nHint: this is a type of plant.\r\n
\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\r\nTranslation: Green branches green leaves but it\'s not a vegetable, some roast it and some dry it, soaring on clouds and sailing the mist it\'s consumed, it\'s not sold boiled in a pot.\r\n\r\n
Answer: 烟叶 (Tobacco) \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Riddle: Guess the Word 1', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1043-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:11:00', '2016-11-05 03:11:00', '', 1043, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1043-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1050, 1, '2012-03-17 03:53:55', '2012-03-17 07:53:55', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese Online: Intermediate Chinese Character Simplified Riddles and Jokes', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120327', '', '', '2012-03-17 03:53:55', '2012-03-17 07:53:55', '', 1043, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/20120327.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1051, 1, '2012-03-17 03:54:57', '2012-03-17 07:54:57', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese Online: Intermediate Chinese Character Simplified Riddles and Jokes', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120327-inline', '', '', '2012-03-17 03:54:57', '2012-03-17 07:54:57', '', 1043, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/20120327-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1052, 1, '2012-03-17 03:55:21', '2012-03-17 07:55:21', '[two_third]\nSweet! I found a bunch of Chinese riddles. Read the Chinese and try to guess the word! This is VERY short, lower-intermediate reading. \n\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/20120327-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Learn")
Some of the riddles I found are impossible, because not only is the riddle hard, the answer is a kind of fruit or plant or thing I\'ve never heard of, so I\'m skipping past all those and over the next few days I\'ll post a few riddles that are answerable for those of us who didn\'t group up in the southern Yao jungles or whatever.\n\nI think the most interesting word in this text is 青. I see this word everywhere, and I\'ve never been able to come up with an English equivalent. It\'s not green, and it\'s not blue... well, it\'s not actually a color. It means \"the color that nature is\". It can be used to describe a clear green pond. It can be used to talk about trees or grass. So it\'s not actually a specific hue, but the word is used as if it is. Someone feel free to dive in if you can think of a good translation for this. \n\nThis particular riddle kinda rhymes in Chinese, so when you\'ve sorted out the words, read it out loud.\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n青 - [pinyin]qing1[/pinyin] - Nature\'s color - green or blue\n烤 - [pinyin]kao3[/pinyin] - Roast\n晒 - [pinyin]shai4[/pinyin] - Dry in the sun\n腾 - [pinyin]teng[/pinyin] - To soar\n驾 - [pinyin]jia4[/pinyin] - To pilot a vehicle (to drive a car, sail a boat, ride a wave, etc.)\n雾 - [pinyin]wu4[/pinyin] - Fog, mist\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n青枝绿叶不是菜， 有的烤来有的晒，腾云驾雾烧着吃，不能锅里煮熟卖。\n\nHint: this is a type of plant.\n
\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\nTranslation: Green branches green leaves but it\'s not a vegetable, some roast it and some dry it, soaring on clouds and sailing the mist it\'s consumed, it\'s not sold boiled in a pot.\n\n
Answer: 烟叶 (Tobacco) \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Riddle: Guess the Word 1', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1043-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-03-17 03:55:21', '2012-03-17 07:55:21', '', 1043, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/03/17/1043-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1053, 1, '2016-11-04 23:10:44', '2016-11-05 03:10:44', 'Sweet! I found a bunch of Chinese riddles. Read the Chinese and try to guess the word! This is VERY short, lower-intermediate reading. Some of the riddles I found are impossible, because not only is the riddle hard, the answer is a kind of fruit or plant or thing I\'ve never heard of, so I\'m skipping past all those and over the next few days I\'ll post a few riddles that are answerable for those of us who didn\'t grow up in the southern Yao jungles or whatever.\n\nI think the most interesting word in this text is 青. I see this word everywhere, and I\'ve never been able to come up with an English equivalent. It\'s not green, and it\'s not blue... well, it\'s not actually a color. It means \"the color that nature is\". It can be used to describe a clear pond. It can be used to talk about trees or grass. So it\'s not actually a specific hue, but the word is used as if it is. Someone feel free to dive in if you can think of a good translation for this. \n\nThis particular riddle kinda rhymes in Chinese, so when you\'ve sorted out the words, read it out loud.\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n青枝绿叶不是菜， 有的烤来有的晒，腾云驾雾烧着吃，不能锅里煮熟卖。\n\nHint: this is a type of plant.\n
\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\nTranslation: Green branches green leaves but it\'s not a vegetable, some roast it and some dry it, soaring on clouds and sailing the mist it\'s consumed, it\'s not sold boiled in a pot.\n\n
Answer: 烟叶 (Tobacco) \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Riddle: Guess the Word 1', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1043-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:10:44', '2016-11-05 03:10:44', '', 1043, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/03/17/1043-autosave/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2115, 1, '2016-11-04 23:10:33', '2016-11-05 03:10:33', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese Online: Intermediate Chinese Character Simplified Riddles and Jokes', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'chinese-riddles-guess-the-word-1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:10:41', '2016-11-05 03:10:41', '', 1043, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/chinese-riddles-guess-the-word-1.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1054, 1, '2012-03-29 07:00:39', '2012-03-29 11:00:39', 'Continuing our riddle fest here is another short \"guess the word\" post. I think this one might be simple enough to classify as \"beginner\", but the 3 unusual words push this into intermediate territory. Unlike the last one, this riddle doesn\'t really rhyme, but I think it\'s easier to guess. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n头戴红帽子，身披五彩衣，从来不唱戏，喜欢吊嗓子\r\n\r\nHint: this is a type of animal.\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\r\nIt wears a red hat, its body is draped in a five-color coat, and though it\'s never sang an opera, it likes doing voice exercises. \r\n\r\n
Answer: 公鸡 (Rooster) \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Riddles] Guess the Word 2', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'riddle-guess-the-word-2', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:07:42', '2016-11-05 03:07:42', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1054', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2113, 1, '2016-11-04 23:07:25', '2016-11-05 03:07:25', 'Continuing our riddle fest here is another short \"guess the word\" post. I think this one might be simple enough to classify as \"beginner\", but the 3 unusual words push this into intermediate territory. Unlike the last one, this riddle doesn\'t really rhyme, but I think it\'s easier to guess. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n头戴红帽子，身披五彩衣，从来不唱戏，喜欢吊嗓子\r\n\r\nHint: this is a type of animal.\r\n
\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\r\nIt wears a red hat, its body is draped in a five-color coat, and though it\'s never sang an opera, it likes doing voice exercises. \r\n\r\n
Answer: 公鸡 (Rooster) \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Riddles] Guess the Word 2', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1054-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:07:25', '2016-11-05 03:07:25', '', 1054, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1054-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1055, 1, '2012-03-17 04:11:37', '2012-03-17 08:11:37', '', 'Study Chinese Simplified Characters: Intermediate and Beginner', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120329-inline', '', '', '2012-03-17 04:11:37', '2012-03-17 08:11:37', '', 1054, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/20120329-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1056, 1, '2012-03-17 04:13:20', '2012-03-17 08:13:20', '', 'Modern Chinese Vocabulary Building: Chinese Childrens Riddles, Jokes and Stories', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120329', '', '', '2012-03-17 04:13:20', '2012-03-17 08:13:20', '', 1054, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/20120329.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1057, 1, '2012-03-17 04:08:51', '2012-03-17 08:08:51', '[two_third]\nContinuing our riddle fest here is another short \"guess the word\" post. I think this one might be simple enough to classify as \"beginner\", but the 3 unusual words push this into intermediate territory. \n\nUnlike the last one, this riddle doesn\'t really rhyme, but I think it\'s easier to guess. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n戴 - [pinyin]dai4[/pinyin] - To wear \n披 - [pinyin]pi1[/pinyin] - Drape over one\'s shoulders\n五彩 - [pinyin]wu3 cai3[/pinyin] - Multicolored\n从来不 - [pinyin]cong2 lai2 bu4[/pinyin] - Has never (done something)\n唱戏 - [pinyin]chang4 xi4[/pinyin] - Perform in an opera\n吊嗓子 - [pinyin]diao4 sang3 zi3[/pinyin] - Voice training for opera singers\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n头戴红帽子，身披五彩衣，从来不唱戏，喜欢吊嗓子\n\nHint: this is a type of animal.\n
\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\nIt wears a red hat, its body is draped in a five-color coat, and though it\'s never sang an opera, it likes doing voice exercises. \n\n
Answer: 公鸡 (Rooster) \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Riddle: Guess the Word 2', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1054-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-03-17 04:08:51', '2012-03-17 08:08:51', '', 1054, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/03/17/1054-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
INSERT INTO `wp_posts` (`ID`, `post_author`, `post_date`, `post_date_gmt`, `post_content`, `post_title`, `post_excerpt`, `post_status`, `comment_status`, `ping_status`, `post_password`, `post_name`, `to_ping`, `pinged`, `post_modified`, `post_modified_gmt`, `post_content_filtered`, `post_parent`, `guid`, `menu_order`, `post_type`, `post_mime_type`, `comment_count`) VALUES
(1058, 1, '2016-11-04 23:07:08', '2016-11-05 03:07:08', 'Continuing our riddle fest here is another short \"guess the word\" post. I think this one might be simple enough to classify as \"beginner\", but the 3 unusual words push this into intermediate territory. Unlike the last one, this riddle doesn\'t really rhyme, but I think it\'s easier to guess. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n头戴红帽子，身披五彩衣，从来不唱戏，喜欢吊嗓子\n\nHint: this is a type of animal.\n
\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\nIt wears a red hat, its body is draped in a five-color coat, and though it\'s never sang an opera, it likes doing voice exercises. \n\n
Answer: 公鸡 (Rooster) \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Riddles] Guess the Word 2', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1054-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:07:08', '2016-11-05 03:07:08', '', 1054, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/03/17/1054-autosave/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2112, 1, '2016-11-04 23:07:07', '2016-11-05 03:07:07', '', 'Modern Chinese Vocabulary Building: Chinese Childrens Riddles, Jokes and Stories', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'chinese-riddles-guess-the-word-2', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:07:18', '2016-11-05 03:07:18', '', 1054, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/chinese-riddles-guess-the-word-2.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2114, 1, '2016-11-04 23:07:42', '2016-11-05 03:07:42', 'Continuing our riddle fest here is another short \"guess the word\" post. I think this one might be simple enough to classify as \"beginner\", but the 3 unusual words push this into intermediate territory. Unlike the last one, this riddle doesn\'t really rhyme, but I think it\'s easier to guess. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n头戴红帽子，身披五彩衣，从来不唱戏，喜欢吊嗓子\r\n\r\nHint: this is a type of animal.\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\r\nIt wears a red hat, its body is draped in a five-color coat, and though it\'s never sang an opera, it likes doing voice exercises. \r\n\r\n
Answer: 公鸡 (Rooster) \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Riddles] Guess the Word 2', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1054-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:07:42', '2016-11-05 03:07:42', '', 1054, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1054-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1059, 1, '2012-03-31 07:00:33', '2012-03-31 11:00:33', 'And now, the final installment in our \"guess the word\" riddle series, and we\'ve finally hit upon a true beginner-level riddle. Even readers just starting out should be able to tackle this one. Pay particular attention to the double-meaning of the word 面 in this riddle. This riddle rhymes kinda pleasantly, so do read it out loud once you\'ve sorted out all the words. The rhyme also might be useful for teaching kids. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n有面没有口，有脚没有手，虽有四只脚，自己不会走。\r\n\r\nHint: this is a type of household object.\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\r\nIt has a face but no mouth, it has feet but no hands, though it has four feet, it can\'t walk by itself. \r\n
Answer: 桌子 (A table) \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Riddles] Guess the Word 3', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'riddle-guess-the-word-3', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:03:55', '2016-11-05 03:03:55', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1059', 0, 'post', '', 13),
(1739, 1, '2016-10-31 03:24:43', '2016-10-31 07:24:43', 'And now, the final installment in our \"guess the word\" riddle series, and we\'ve finally hit upon a true beginner-level riddle. Even readers just starting out should be able to tackle this one. Pay particular attention to the double-meaning of the word 面 in this riddle. This riddle rhymes kinda pleasantly, so do read it out loud once you\'ve sorted out all the words. The rhyme also might be useful for teaching kids. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n有面没有口，有脚没有手，虽有四只脚，自己不会走。\r\n\r\nHint: this is a type of household object.\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\r\nIt has a face but no mouth, it has feet but no hands, though it has four feet, it can\'t walk by itself. \r\n
Answer: 桌子 (A table) \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Riddle: Guess the Word 3', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1059-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:24:43', '2016-10-31 07:24:43', '', 1059, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1059-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1060, 1, '2012-03-17 04:37:56', '2012-03-17 08:37:56', '', 'Chinese Childrens Riddles: Study Chinese Characters and Learn to Read Chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120331-inline', '', '', '2012-03-17 04:37:56', '2012-03-17 08:37:56', '', 1059, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/20120331-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1061, 1, '2012-03-17 04:47:30', '2012-03-17 08:47:30', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese Characters: Chinese Characters for Beginners - Easy Riddles and Jokes', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120331', '', '', '2012-03-17 04:47:30', '2012-03-17 08:47:30', '', 1059, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/20120331.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1062, 1, '2012-03-17 04:38:39', '2012-03-17 08:38:39', '[two_third]\nAnd now, the final installment in our \"guess the word\" riddle series, and we\'ve finally hit upon a true beginner-level riddle. Even readers just starting out should be able to tackle this one.\n\n
![\"Chinese](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/20120331-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Chinese")
Pay particular attention to the double-meaning of the word 面 in this riddle. This riddle rhymes kinda pleasantly, so do read it out loud once you\'ve sorted out all the words. The rhyme also might be useful for teaching kids. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n面 - [pinyin]mian4[/pinyin] - Face, surface\n脚 - [pinyin]jiao3[/pinyin] - Foot\n虽 - [pinyin]sui1[/pinyin] - Although\n只 - [pinyin]zhi3[/pinyin] - Measure word for \"feet\"\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n有面没有口，有脚没有手，虽有四只脚，自己不会走。\n\nHint: this is a type of household object.\n
\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\nIt has a face but no mouth, it has feet but no hands, though it has four feet, it can\'t walk by itself. \n
Answer: 桌子 (A table) \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Riddle: Guess the Word 3', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1059-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-03-17 04:38:39', '2012-03-17 08:38:39', '', 1059, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/03/17/1059-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1063, 1, '2016-11-04 23:02:47', '2016-11-05 03:02:47', 'And now, the final installment in our \"guess the word\" riddle series, and we\'ve finally hit upon a true beginner-level riddle. Even readers just starting out should be able to tackle this one. Pay particular attention to the double-meaning of the word 面 in this riddle. This riddle rhymes kinda pleasantly, so do read it out loud once you\'ve sorted out all the words. The rhyme also might be useful for teaching kids. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n
Chinese text
\n有面没有口，有脚没有手，虽有四只脚，自己不会走。\n\nHint: this is a type of household object.\n\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\nIt has a face but no mouth, it has feet but no hands, though it has four feet, it can\'t walk by itself. \n
Answer: 桌子 (A table) \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Riddles] Guess the Word 3', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1059-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:02:47', '2016-11-05 03:02:47', '', 1059, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/03/17/1059-autosave/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2110, 1, '2016-11-04 23:03:31', '2016-11-05 03:03:31', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese Characters: Chinese Characters for Beginners - Easy Riddles and Jokes', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'learn-chinese-guess-the-world-riddle', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:03:43', '2016-11-05 03:03:43', '', 1059, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/learn-chinese-guess-the-world-riddle.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2111, 1, '2016-11-04 23:03:55', '2016-11-05 03:03:55', 'And now, the final installment in our \"guess the word\" riddle series, and we\'ve finally hit upon a true beginner-level riddle. Even readers just starting out should be able to tackle this one. Pay particular attention to the double-meaning of the word 面 in this riddle. This riddle rhymes kinda pleasantly, so do read it out loud once you\'ve sorted out all the words. The rhyme also might be useful for teaching kids. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n有面没有口，有脚没有手，虽有四只脚，自己不会走。\r\n\r\nHint: this is a type of household object.\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\r\nIt has a face but no mouth, it has feet but no hands, though it has four feet, it can\'t walk by itself. \r\n
Answer: 桌子 (A table) \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Riddles] Guess the Word 3', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1059-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:03:55', '2016-11-05 03:03:55', '', 1059, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1059-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1064, 1, '2012-03-17 04:51:36', '2012-03-17 08:51:36', '[two_third]\r\nAnd now, the final installment in our \"guess the word\" riddle series, and we\'ve finally hit upon a true beginner-level riddle. Even readers just starting out should be able to tackle this one.\r\n\r\n
Pay particular attention to the double-meaning of the word 面 in this riddle. This riddle rhymes kinda pleasantly, so do read it out loud once you\'ve sorted out all the words. The rhyme also might be useful for teaching kids. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n面 - [pinyin]mian4[/pinyin] - Face, surface\r\n脚 - [pinyin]jiao3[/pinyin] - Foot\r\n虽 - [pinyin]sui1[/pinyin] - Although\r\n只 - [pinyin]zhi3[/pinyin] - Measure word for \"feet\"\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n有面没有口，有脚没有手，虽有四只脚，自己不会走。\r\n\r\nHint: this is a type of household object.\r\n
\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\r\nIt has a face but no mouth, it has feet but no hands, though it has four feet, it can\'t walk by itself. \r\n
Answer: 桌子 (A table) \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Riddle: Guess the Word 3', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1059-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-03-17 04:51:36', '2012-03-17 08:51:36', '', 1059, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/03/17/1059-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1065, 1, '2012-04-05 07:00:07', '2012-04-05 11:00:07', 'Hoo boy, this song is an AWESOME find. Not only is it politically charged in the most amazing way, it\'s ultra-beginner reading. \r\n\r\nBut first, a little back story so we all know what we\'re reading here. The big campaign here right now is an expansion of the \"Harmonious Society\" campaign. It\'s on every political poster on the roadsides - there are 20 such signs on my street alone. The point, basically, is to do your job in your place and not make waves, or make life uncomfortable for those around you. Sounds nice, but you can kind of see a little ways down that road, and you can understand why \"harmo ny\" has become a euphemism for ce n z*or*sh p. For example, whenever something \"offensive\" is, erm, stricken from the internet, Chinese sarcastically say that it has been \"harmonised\". This concept goes right back to Confucius, whose big idea was that everyone has their duty and their place, and should follow a very strict set of rules governing what people in their position should and should not be able to do. \r\n\r\nSo the concept of harmony (和谐 - [pinyin]he2 xie2[/pinyin]) has long been an integral part of Chinese culture, but it\'s also been a point of criticism. Sadly, this whole \"nail that sticks up gets hammered down\" mentality is now giving the honchos a headache, because while the Chinese now have the manpower and the money to take the world economy by storm, they can\'t get enough people to break away, be creative and innovate. \r\n\r\nAmusingly, the solution to this has apparently been to put signs up all over Beijing that say: \"Beijing Spirit: Patriotism, Innovation, Inclusiveness, Morality.\" So now, the message is \"Don\'t piss anyone off, but hurry up and do something unique\".\r\n\r\nGuess that solves that problem. NEXT!\r\n\r\nAnyway, the below is a children\'s song that has probably been made up in the last few years, teaching children why harmony is so important. There are a couple of intermediate words in the last sentence, but they\'re easy to figure out. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n蓝蓝的天上鸟儿飞，\r\n清清的水里鱼儿游，\r\n密密的森林动物跑，\r\n空空的草地孩子忙，\r\n ……\r\n啊！这一切多么美好！\r\n和谐的环境需要我们去创造。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH\"]\r\nBirds fly in a blue blue sky, \r\nFish swim in the clear clear water, \r\nAnimals run in the thick thick forest, \r\nChildren run around in the open open meadow, \r\n ……\r\nOh, how wonderful everything is like this, \r\nA harmonious environment requires us to create it.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Songs] 和谐环境 - The Harmonious Environment Song', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-harmonious-environment-song', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:17:55', '2016-11-04 09:17:55', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1065', 0, 'post', '', 11),
(1737, 1, '2016-10-31 03:22:50', '2016-10-31 07:22:50', 'Hoo boy, this song is an AWESOME find. Not only is it politically charged in the most amazing way, it\'s ultra-beginner reading. \r\n\r\nBut first, a little back story so we all know what we\'re reading here. The big campaign here right now is an expansion of the \"Harmonious Society\" campaign. It\'s on every political poster on the roadsides - there are 20 such signs on my street alone. The point, basically, is to do your job in your place and not make waves, or make life uncomfortable for those around you. Sounds nice, but you can kind of see a little ways down that road, and you can understand why \"harmo ny\" has become a euphemism for ce n z*or*sh p. For example, whenever something \"offensive\" is, erm, stricken from the internet, Chinese sarcastically say that it has been \"harmonised\". This concept goes right back to Confucius, whose big idea was that everyone has their duty and their place, and should follow a very strict set of rules governing what people in their position should and should not be able to do. \r\n\r\nSo the concept of har mony (和谐 - [pinyin]he2 xie2[/pinyin]) has long been an integral part of Chinese culture, but it\'s also been a point of criticism. Sadly, this whole \"nail that sticks up gets hammered down\" mentality is now giving the honchos a headache, because while the Chinese now have the manpower and the money to take the world economy by storm, they can\'t get enough people to break away, be creative and innovate. \r\n\r\nAmusingly, the solution to this has apparently been to put signs up all over Beijing that say: \"Beijing Spirit: Patriotism, Innovation, Inclusiveness, Morality.\" So now, the message is \"Don\'t piss anyone off, but hurry up and do something unique\".\r\n\r\nGuess that solves that problem. NEXT!\r\n\r\nAnyway, the below is a children\'s song that has probably been made up in the last few years, teaching children why harmony is so important. There are a couple of intermediate words in the last sentence, but they\'re easy to figure out. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n蓝蓝的天上鸟儿飞，\r\n清清的水里鱼儿游，\r\n密密的森林动物跑，\r\n空空的草地孩子忙，\r\n ……\r\n啊！这一切多么美好！\r\n和谐的环境需要我们去创造。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH\"]\r\nBirds fly in a blue blue sky, \r\nFish swim in the clear clear water, \r\nAnimals run in the thick thick forest, \r\nChildren run around in the open open meadow, \r\n ……\r\nOh, how wonderful everything is like this, \r\nA harmonious environment requires us to create it.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Harmonious Environment Song', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1065-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:22:50', '2016-10-31 07:22:50', '', 1065, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1065-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1066, 1, '2012-03-17 23:47:13', '2012-03-18 03:47:13', '[two_third]\nHoo boy, this song is an AWESOME find. Not only is it politically charged in the most amazing way, it\'s ultra-beginner reading. \n\nBut first, a little back story so we all know what we\'re reading here. The big campaign in Beijing right now is an expansion of the \"Harmonious Society\" campaign. It\'s on every political poster on the roadsides - there are 20 such signs on my street alone. The point, basically, is to do your job in your place and not make waves, or make life uncomfortable for those around you. Sounds nice, but you can kind of see a little ways down that road, and you can understand why \"harmony\" has become a euphemism for ce n z*or*sh p. For example, whenever something \"offensive\" is, erm, stricken from the internet, Chinese sarcastically say that it has been \"harmonized\". The idea of a harmonious society goes right back to Confucius, whose big idea was that everyone has their place, and should follow a very strict set of rules governing what people in their position should and should not be able to do. \n\nSo the concept of harmony (和谐 - [pinyin]he2 xie2[/pinyin] has long been an integral part of Chinese culture, but it\'s also been a point of criticism. Sadly, this whole \"nail that sticks up gets hammered down\" mentality is now giving the honchos a headache, because while the Chinese now have the manpower and the money to take the world economy by storm, they can\'t get enough people to break away, be creative and innovate.\n\nAmusingly, the solution to this has apparently been to put signs up all over Beijing that say: \"Beijing Spirit: Patriotism, Innovation, Inclusiveness, Morality.\" So now, the message is \"Don\'t piss anyone off, but hurry the hell up and do something unique\".\n\nGuess that solves that problem. NEXT!\n\nAnyway, the below is a children\'s song that has probably been made up in the last few years, teaching children why harmony is so important. Early adoption! Let\'s hear it...\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n面 - [pinyin]mian4[/pinyin] - Face, surface\n脚 - [pinyin]jiao3[/pinyin] - Foot\n虽 - [pinyin]sui1[/pinyin] - Although\n只 - [pinyin]zhi3[/pinyin] - Measure word for \"feet\"\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n蓝蓝的天上鸟儿飞，\n清清的水里鱼儿游，\n密密的森林动物跑，\n空空的草地孩子忙，\n ……\n啊！这一切多么美好！\n和谐的环境需要我们去创造。\n
\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\nIt has a face but no mouth, it has feet but no hands, though it has four feet, it can\'t walk by itself. \n
Answer: 桌子 (A table) \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Harmonious Environment Song', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1065-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-03-17 23:47:13', '2012-03-18 03:47:13', '', 1065, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/03/17/1065-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1067, 1, '2012-03-17 23:48:00', '2012-03-18 03:48:00', '[two_third]\r\nHoo boy, this song is an AWESOME find. Not only is it politically charged in the most amazing way, it\'s ultra-beginner reading. I know many of my readers are beginners, and I\'m trying to cater a little more in that directions. \r\n\r\nBut first, a little back story so we all know what we\'re reading here. The big campaign in Beijing right now is an expansion of the \"Harmonious Society\" campaign. It\'s on every political poster on the roadsides - there are 20 such signs on my street alone. The point, basically, is to do your job in your place and not make waves, or make life uncomfortable for those around you. Sounds nice, but you can kind of see a little ways down that road, and you can understand why \"harmony\" has become a euphemism for ce n z*or*sh p. For example, whenever something \"offensive\" is, erm, stricken from the internet, Chinese sarcastically say that it has been \"harmonized\". The idea of a harmonious society goes right back to Confucius, whose big idea was that everyone has their duty and their place, and should follow a very strict set of rules governing what people in their position should and should not be able to do. \r\n\r\nSo the concept of harmony (和谐 - [pinyin]he2 xie2[/pinyin] has long been an integral part of Chinese culture, but it\'s also been a point of criticism. Sadly, this whole \"nail that sticks up gets hammered down\" mentality is now giving the honchos a headache, because while the Chinese now have the manpower and the money to take the world economy by storm, they can\'t get enough people to break away, be creative and innovate.\r\n\r\nAmusingly, the solution to this has apparently been to put signs up all over Beijing that say: \"Beijing Spirit: Patriotism, Innovation, Inclusiveness, Morality.\" So now, the message is \"Don\'t piss anyone off, but hurry the hell up and do something unique\".\r\n\r\nGuess that solves that problem. NEXT!\r\n\r\nAnyway, the below is a children\'s song that has probably been made up in the last few years, teaching children why harmony is so important. Early adoption! Let\'s hear it...\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n面 - [pinyin]mian4[/pinyin] - Face, surface\r\n脚 - [pinyin]jiao3[/pinyin] - Foot\r\n虽 - [pinyin]sui1[/pinyin] - Although\r\n只 - [pinyin]zhi3[/pinyin] - Measure word for \"feet\"\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n蓝蓝的天上鸟儿飞，\r\n清清的水里鱼儿游，\r\n密密的森林动物跑，\r\n空空的草地孩子忙，\r\n ……\r\n啊！这一切多么美好！\r\n和谐的环境需要我们去创造。\r\n
\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\r\nIt has a face but no mouth, it has feet but no hands, though it has four feet, it can\'t walk by itself. \r\n
Answer: 桌子 (A table) \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Harmonious Environment Song', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1065-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-03-17 23:48:00', '2012-03-18 03:48:00', '', 1065, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/03/17/1065-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1068, 1, '2012-03-18 01:00:30', '2012-03-18 05:00:30', '', 'Study Easy Chinese Childrens Reading: Chinese Children\'s Songs, Poems and Stories', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120405', '', '', '2012-03-18 01:00:30', '2012-03-18 05:00:30', '', 1065, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120405.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1069, 1, '2012-03-18 01:02:50', '2012-03-18 05:02:50', '', 'Study Easy Chinese Childrens Reading: Chinese Children\'s Songs, Poems and Stories', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120405-inline', '', '', '2012-03-18 01:02:50', '2012-03-18 05:02:50', '', 1065, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120405-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1070, 1, '2012-03-18 00:52:44', '2012-03-18 04:52:44', '[two_third]\r\nHoo boy, this song is an AWESOME find. Not only is it politically charged in the most amazing way, it\'s ultra-beginner reading. \r\n\r\nBut first, a little back story so we all know what we\'re reading here (and I do hope after this my blog stays available on the mainland - gonna use some weird spacing and spelling to avoid bots). The big campaign here right now is an expansion of the \"Ha rmoni ous S *ocie\\ ty\" campaign. It\'s on every political poster on the roadsides - there are 20 such signs on my street alone. The point, basically, is to do your job in your place and not make waves, or make life uncomfortable for those around you. Sounds nice, but you can kind of see a little ways down that road, and you can understand why \"harmo ny\" has become a euphemism for ce n z*or*sh p. For example, whenever something \"offensive\" is, erm, stricken from the internet, Chinese sarcastically say that it has been \"h-a r m onisd\". This concept goes right back to Confucius, whose big idea was that everyone has their duty and their place, and should follow a very strict set of rules governing what people in their position should and should not be able to do. \r\n\r\nSo the concept of har mony (和谐 - [pinyin]he2 xie2[/pinyin] has long been an integral part of Chinese culture, but it\'s also been a point of criticism. Sadly, this whole \"nail that sticks up gets hammered down\" mentality is now giving the honchos a headache, because while the Chinese now have the manpower and the money to take the world economy by storm, they can\'t get enough people to break away, be creative and innovate. \r\n\r\nAmusingly, the solution to this has apparently been to put signs up all over Beijing that say: \"Beijing Spirit: Patriotism, Innovation, Inclusiveness, Morality.\" So now, the message is \"Don\'t piss anyone off, but hurry up and do something unique\".\r\n\r\nGuess that solves that problem. NEXT!\r\n\r\nAnyway, the below is a children\'s song that has probably been made up in the last few years, teaching children why harmony is so important. There are a couple of intermediate words in the last sentence, but they\'re easy to figure out. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n清 - [pinyin]qing1[/pinyin] - Clear\r\n密 - [pinyin]mi4[/pinyin] - Dense, thick\r\n空 - [pinyin]kong4[/pinyin] - Open, empty, unoccupied\r\n忙 - [pinyin]mang2[/pinyin] - To rush around\r\n啊 - [pinyin]a1[/pinyin] - Ah!, Oh!\r\n和谐 - [pinyin]he2 xie2[/pinyin] - Harmony, harmonious\r\n环境 - [pinyin]huan2 jing4[/pinyin] - Environment\r\n创造 - [pinyin]chuang4 zao4[/pinyin] - to create, to bring about\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n蓝蓝的天上鸟儿飞，\r\n清清的水里鱼儿游，\r\n密密的森林动物跑，\r\n空空的草地孩子忙，\r\n ……\r\n啊！这一切多么美好！\r\n和谐的环境需要我们去创造。\r\n
\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\r\nBirds fly in a blue blue sky, \r\nFish swim in the clear clear water, \r\nAnimals run in the thick thick forest, \r\nChildren run around in the open open meadow, \r\n ……\r\nOh, how wonderful everything is like this, \r\nA harmonious environment we all must create. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Harmonious Environment Song', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1065-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-03-18 00:52:44', '2012-03-18 04:52:44', '', 1065, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/03/18/1065-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1071, 1, '2012-03-18 01:03:08', '2012-03-18 05:03:08', '[two_third]\r\nHoo boy, this song is an AWESOME find. Not only is it politically charged in the most amazing way, it\'s ultra-beginner reading. \r\n\r\n
![\"Study](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120405-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Study")
But first, a little back story so we all know what we\'re reading here (and I do hope after this my blog stays available on the mainland - gonna use some weird spacing and spelling to avoid bots). The big campaign here right now is an expansion of the \"Ha rmoni ous S *ocie\\ ty\" campaign. It\'s on every political poster on the roadsides - there are 20 such signs on my street alone. The point, basically, is to do your job in your place and not make waves, or make life uncomfortable for those around you. Sounds nice, but you can kind of see a little ways down that road, and you can understand why \"harmo ny\" has become a euphemism for ce n z*or*sh p. For example, whenever something \"offensive\" is, erm, stricken from the internet, Chinese sarcastically say that it has been \"h-a r m onisd\". This concept goes right back to Confucius, whose big idea was that everyone has their duty and their place, and should follow a very strict set of rules governing what people in their position should and should not be able to do. \r\n\r\nSo the concept of har mony (和谐 - [pinyin]he2 xie2[/pinyin] has long been an integral part of Chinese culture, but it\'s also been a point of criticism. Sadly, this whole \"nail that sticks up gets hammered down\" mentality is now giving the honchos a headache, because while the Chinese now have the manpower and the money to take the world economy by storm, they can\'t get enough people to break away, be creative and innovate. \r\n\r\nAmusingly, the solution to this has apparently been to put signs up all over Beijing that say: \"Beijing Spirit: Patriotism, Innovation, Inclusiveness, Morality.\" So now, the message is \"Don\'t piss anyone off, but hurry up and do something unique\".\r\n\r\nGuess that solves that problem. NEXT!\r\n\r\nAnyway, the below is a children\'s song that has probably been made up in the last few years, teaching children why harmony is so important. There are a couple of intermediate words in the last sentence, but they\'re easy to figure out. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n清 - [pinyin]qing1[/pinyin] - Clear\r\n密 - [pinyin]mi4[/pinyin] - Dense, thick\r\n空 - [pinyin]kong4[/pinyin] - Open, empty, unoccupied\r\n忙 - [pinyin]mang2[/pinyin] - To rush around\r\n啊 - [pinyin]a1[/pinyin] - Ah!, Oh!\r\n和谐 - [pinyin]he2 xie2[/pinyin] - Harmony, harmonious\r\n环境 - [pinyin]huan2 jing4[/pinyin] - Environment\r\n创造 - [pinyin]chuang4 zao4[/pinyin] - to create, to bring about\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n蓝蓝的天上鸟儿飞，\r\n清清的水里鱼儿游，\r\n密密的森林动物跑，\r\n空空的草地孩子忙，\r\n ……\r\n啊！这一切多么美好！\r\n和谐的环境需要我们去创造。\r\n
\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\r\nBirds fly in a blue blue sky, \r\nFish swim in the clear clear water, \r\nAnimals run in the thick thick forest, \r\nChildren run around in the open open meadow, \r\n ……\r\nOh, how wonderful everything is like this, \r\nA harmonious environment we all must create. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Harmonious Environment Song', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1065-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-03-18 01:03:08', '2012-03-18 05:03:08', '', 1065, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/03/18/1065-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1072, 1, '2012-03-17 03:55:23', '2012-03-17 07:55:23', '[two_third]\r\nSweet! I found a bunch of Chinese riddles. Read the Chinese and try to guess the word! This is VERY short, lower-intermediate reading. \r\n\r\n
Some of the riddles I found are impossible, because not only is the riddle hard, the answer is a kind of fruit or plant or thing I\'ve never heard of, so I\'m skipping past all those and over the next few days I\'ll post a few riddles that are answerable for those of us who didn\'t group up in the southern Yao jungles or whatever.\r\n\r\nI think the most interesting word in this text is 青. I see this word everywhere, and I\'ve never been able to come up with an English equivalent. It\'s not green, and it\'s not blue... well, it\'s not actually a color. It means \"the color that nature is\". It can be used to describe a clear green pond. It can be used to talk about trees or grass. So it\'s not actually a specific hue, but the word is used as if it is. Someone feel free to dive in if you can think of a good translation for this. \r\n\r\nThis particular riddle kinda rhymes in Chinese, so when you\'ve sorted out the words, read it out loud.\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n青 - [pinyin]qing1[/pinyin] - Nature\'s color - green or blue\r\n烤 - [pinyin]kao3[/pinyin] - Roast\r\n晒 - [pinyin]shai4[/pinyin] - Dry in the sun\r\n腾 - [pinyin]teng[/pinyin] - To soar\r\n驾 - [pinyin]jia4[/pinyin] - To pilot a vehicle (to drive a car, sail a boat, ride a wave, etc.)\r\n雾 - [pinyin]wu4[/pinyin] - Fog, mist\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n青枝绿叶不是菜， 有的烤来有的晒，腾云驾雾烧着吃，不能锅里煮熟卖。\r\n\r\nHint: this is a type of plant.\r\n
\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\r\nTranslation: Green branches green leaves but it\'s not a vegetable, some roast it and some dry it, soaring on clouds and sailing the mist it\'s consumed, it\'s not sold boiled in a pot.\r\n\r\n
Answer: 烟叶 (Tobacco) \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Riddle: Guess the Word 1', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1043-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-03-17 03:55:23', '2012-03-17 07:55:23', '', 1043, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/03/17/1043-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1073, 1, '2012-03-17 04:14:10', '2012-03-17 08:14:10', '[two_third]\r\nContinuing our riddle fest here is another short \"guess the word\" post. I think this one might be simple enough to classify as \"beginner\", but the 3 unusual words push this into intermediate territory. \r\n\r\n
![\"Modern](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/20120329-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Study")
Unlike the last one, this riddle doesn\'t really rhyme, but I think it\'s easier to guess. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n戴 - [pinyin]dai4[/pinyin] - To wear \r\n披 - [pinyin]pi1[/pinyin] - Drape over one\'s shoulders\r\n五彩 - [pinyin]wu3 cai3[/pinyin] - Multicolored\r\n从来不 - [pinyin]cong2 lai2 bu4[/pinyin] - Has never (done something)\r\n唱戏 - [pinyin]chang4 xi4[/pinyin] - Perform in an opera\r\n吊嗓子 - [pinyin]diao4 sang3 zi3[/pinyin] - Voice training for opera singers\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n头戴红帽子，身披五彩衣，从来不唱戏，喜欢吊嗓子\r\n\r\nHint: this is a type of animal.\r\n
\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\r\nIt wears a red hat, its body is draped in a five-color coat, and though it\'s never sang an opera, it likes doing voice exercises. \r\n\r\n
Answer: 公鸡 (Rooster) \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Riddle: Guess the Word 2', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1054-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-03-17 04:14:10', '2012-03-17 08:14:10', '', 1054, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/03/17/1054-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1086, 1, '2012-04-25 04:45:58', '2012-04-25 08:45:58', 'This is a much longer read than I typically put up here, so I hope you\'re up for a slog. I kind of can\'t tell whether I should be offended by this or not - the protagonists are two \"lazy Uighurs\" (A Uighur 维吾尔族 [pinyin]wei2 wu2 er3 zu2[/pinyin] is a member of the ethnic minority hailing from the Uighur Autonomous Region of China, a politically touchy topic on the mainland). I\'ve never seen a folk story about heroic Uighurs or smart Uighurs, or really ever seen a story about Uighurs at all. So to run across this one first makes me wonder if the \"lazy Uighur\" thing is a mean stereotype or if I just haven\'t read widely enough. I\'ll have to go in search of some Uighur folk tales in Mandarin and see what I can dig up. \r\n\r\nI really know almost nothing about Uighur cultural history, but this story taught me something interesting: it looks like Uighurs have six-character names (as opposed to two and three character names for Chinese and 4 character names for Japanese). Our two protagonists here are rather lengthily called 哈山代吾来克 [pinyin]Ha1 shan1 dai4 wu2 lai2 ke4[/pinyin] and 沙吾提卡巴克 [pinyin]sha1 wu2 ti2 ka3 ba1 ke4[/pinyin]. \r\n\r\nAnother interesting thing: this story mentions a 大鹏鸟 [pinyin]da peng3 niao3[/pinyin] - called a \"Roc\" in English (though I\'d never heard that word before). Apparently, it\'s a legendary fictional bird of prey, like a giant eagle.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n1) 从前，维吾尔族有这么两个懒汉，一个叫哈山代吾来克，一个叫沙吾提卡巴克。他们都懒得要命，吃穿全靠父母，一点活儿也不干，一天到晚靠着墙根晒太阳。 这样，久而久之，弄得他们父母也讨厌他们了，不得不把他们从家里赶了出来。他们俩过着流浪的生活，饿了几天肚子，一块馕也没有吃到。\r\n\r\n2) 这天，他俩蹲在馕坑上商量着今后该怎么办。哈山代吾来克说: “最好到一个有吃有穿，又不需要劳动的地方去，不知道有没有这么个地方？”\r\n\r\n3) 沙吾提卡巴克说: “世界上是没有这么个地方的，只天上有吧！听说天上的神仙最快活。”\r\n\r\n4) 哈山代吾来克说: “那末，我们就上天去吧，干嘛要呆在这个必须劳动的地方受人鄙视呢？”\r\n\r\n5) 沙吾提卡巴克说: “好倒好，不过怎么上去呢？能找到这么个长梯子吗？”\r\n\r\n6) 哈山代吾来克肯定地说: “这么长的梯子是找不到的。但是，没有梯子也可以上去。”\r\n\r\n7) 沙吾提卡巴克惊奇地问道: “怎么上去？”\r\n\r\n8) 哈山代吾来克说: “山谷里有一只大鹏鸟，小时候我跟父亲上去看见过。我们只要把这只大鹏抓住，它就会带我们上天去的。”\r\n\r\n9) 沙吾提卡巴克说: “好办法，我们就这样办好了。”\r\n\r\n10) 两个朋友就这么决定了。第二天一早，他们就起身往山上走去，走到一个山谷里，找到了大鹏的窝，他们在附近躲藏起来，等到太阳落山的时候，大鹏飞回来刚落在窝里，就被哈山代吾来克紧紧地抓住了。他连忙招呼沙吾提卡巴克抓住自己的脚，大鹏受了惊，直往天空飞去。\r\n\r\n11) 就这样，沙吾提卡巴克抓住哈山代吾来克的脚，哈山代吾来克抓住大鹏的爪子，飘飘荡荡地一直飞向七层云端里去了。\r\n\r\n12) 沙吾提卡巴克问道: “嘿！到了吗？我的手吃不消啦！”\r\n\r\n13) 哈山代吾来克望着云层的空隙说: “快啦！连窟窿都已经看见了。”\r\n\r\n14) 沙吾提卡巴克问道: “窟窿有多大？我们能不能钻进去呀？”\r\n\r\n15) 哈山代吾来克回答: “有这么大。”哈山代吾来克一面答应着，一面用手来比划窟窿的大小。\r\n\r\n16) 不料哈山代吾来克两手一松，这两个懒汉朋友都离开了大鹏鸟，摇摇晃晃地掉下来，摔成肉酱了。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH\"]\r\n1) Long ago, among the Uighur people there were two lazybones, one called Hashandaiwulaike, the other called Shawutikabake. They were both extremely lazy, depending on their parents for food and clothing, unwilling to do even a little work, from morning to night they sat at the base of a wall and sunned themselves. As time passed this way, their parents [began to] loathe them, and had no choice but to kick them out. The two of them lived a drifter\'s life, and went hungry for days at a time, with not even a piece of bread to eat. \r\n\r\n2) One day, they were squatting next to a bread pit discussing what to do. Hashandaiwulaike said: \"The best thing would be to go to a place where there\'s food and clothes, but you don\'t have to work - I don\'t know if there is such a place?\"\r\n\r\n3) Shawutikabake said: \"There\'s no such place on this earth, only in heaven! I heard that the immortals in heaven are the happiest.\" \r\n\r\n4) Hashandaiwulaike said: \"In that case, we should go to heaven. Why on earth would we stay in this place where we have to work and suffer other people\'s disdain?\" \r\n\r\n5) Shawutikabake said: \"That\'s all very well and good, but how will we get up there? Can we find a ladder that long?\" \r\n\r\n6) Hashandaiwulaike said: \"We could never find a ladder that long, but you can still get up there without a ladder.\" \r\n\r\n7) Shawutikabake said: \"How?\"\r\n\r\n8) Hashandaiwulaike said: \"In the valley there\'s a Roc bird, when I was little I saw it when I went up there with my father. All we have to do is grab onto the Roc, and he will take us up to heaven.\"\r\n\r\n9) Shawutikabake said: \"That\'s a great idea, we\'ll do it that way.\" \r\n\r\n10) So the two friends decided thus. On the morning of the next day, they got us and walked to the mountain. When they got to the mountain valley, they found the Roc\'s nest, and they hid themselves next to it. They waited until the sun fell behind the mountain and the Roc flew back and had just landed in its nest, when Hashandaiwulaike grabbed it and held it tightly. He promptly called to Shawutikabake to grab his feet, and the Roc was frightened and flew into the sky.\r\n\r\n11) So Shawutikabake was holding on to Hashandaiwulaike\'s feet, and Hashandaiwulaike was holding on to the Roc\'s claws, and they floated towards the seventh level of clouds [heaven]. \r\n\r\n12) Shawutikabake asked,\" Hey! Are we there yet? I can\'t hold on much longer!\" \r\n\r\n13) Hashandaiwulaike looked into a gap between the clouds and said, \"Almost! I can already see the opening!\" \r\n\r\n14) Shawutikabake asked, \"How big is the opening? Can we fit into it?\" \r\n\r\n15) Hashandaiwulaike answered, \"It\'s this big.\" As Hashandaiwulaike answered, he used his hands to demonstrate how big the opening [to heaven] was. \r\n\r\n16) But to his surprise, as soon as Hashandaiwulaike let go, the two lazy friends parted ways with the Roc, tumbled down, and were smashed into mincemeat. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Fables] 两个懒汉 - The Two Lazybones', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-two-lazybones', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:31:06', '2016-11-04 13:31:06', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1086', 0, 'post', '', 6);
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(2103, 1, '2016-11-04 09:28:10', '2016-11-04 13:28:10', 'This is a much longer read than I typically put up here, so I hope you\'re up for a slog. I kind of can\'t tell whether I should be offended by this or not - the protagonists are two \"lazy Uighurs\" (A Uighur 维吾尔族 [pinyin]wei2 wu2 er3 zu2[/pinyin] is a member of the ethnic minority hailing from the Uighur Autonomous Region of China, a politically touchy topic on the mainland). I\'ve never seen a folk story about heroic Uighurs or smart Uighurs, or really ever seen a story about Uighurs at all. So to run across this one first makes me wonder if the \"lazy Uighur\" thing is a mean stereotype or if I just haven\'t read widely enough. I\'ll have to go in search of some Uighur folk tales in Mandarin and see what I can dig up. \r\n\r\nI really know almost nothing about Uighur cultural history, but this story taught me something interesting: it looks like Uighurs have six-character names (as opposed to two and three character names for Chinese and 4 character names for Japanese). Our two protagonists here are rather lengthily called 哈山代吾来克 [pinyin]Ha1 shan1 dai4 wu2 lai2 ke4[/pinyin] and 沙吾提卡巴克 [pinyin]sha1 wu2 ti2 ka3 ba1 ke4[/pinyin]. \r\n\r\nAnother interesting thing: this story mentions a 大鹏鸟 [pinyin]da peng3 niao3[/pinyin] - called a \"Roc\" in English (though I\'d never heard that word before). Apparently, it\'s a legendary fictional bird of prey, like a giant eagle.\r\n\r\n
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Chinese Text
\r\n1) 从前，维吾尔族有这么两个懒汉，一个叫哈山代吾来克，一个叫沙吾提卡巴克。他们都懒得要命，吃穿全靠父母，一点活儿也不干，一天到晚靠着墙根晒太阳。 这样，久而久之，弄得他们父母也讨厌他们了，不得不把他们从家里赶了出来。他们俩过着流浪的生活，饿了几天肚子，一块馕也没有吃到。\r\n\r\n2) 这天，他俩蹲在馕坑上商量着今后该怎么办。哈山代吾来克说: “最好到一个有吃有穿，又不需要劳动的地方去，不知道有没有这么个地方？”\r\n\r\n3) 沙吾提卡巴克说: “世界上是没有这么个地方的，只天上有吧！听说天上的神仙最快活。”\r\n\r\n4) 哈山代吾来克说: “那末，我们就上天去吧，干嘛要呆在这个必须劳动的地方受人鄙视呢？”\r\n\r\n5) 沙吾提卡巴克说: “好倒好，不过怎么上去呢？能找到这么个长梯子吗？”\r\n\r\n6) 哈山代吾来克肯定地说: “这么长的梯子是找不到的。但是，没有梯子也可以上去。”\r\n\r\n7) 沙吾提卡巴克惊奇地问道: “怎么上去？”\r\n\r\n8) 哈山代吾来克说: “山谷里有一只大鹏鸟，小时候我跟父亲上去看见过。我们只要把这只大鹏抓住，它就会带我们上天去的。”\r\n\r\n9) 沙吾提卡巴克说: “好办法，我们就这样办好了。”\r\n\r\n10) 两个朋友就这么决定了。第二天一早，他们就起身往山上走去，走到一个山谷里，找到了大鹏的窝，他们在附近躲藏起来，等到太阳落山的时候，大鹏飞回来刚落在窝里，就被哈山代吾来克紧紧地抓住了。他连忙招呼沙吾提卡巴克抓住自己的脚，大鹏受了惊，直往天空飞去。\r\n\r\n11) 就这样，沙吾提卡巴克抓住哈山代吾来克的脚，哈山代吾来克抓住大鹏的爪子，飘飘荡荡地一直飞向七层云端里去了。\r\n\r\n12) 沙吾提卡巴克问道: “嘿！到了吗？我的手吃不消啦！”\r\n\r\n13) 哈山代吾来克望着云层的空隙说: “快啦！连窟窿都已经看见了。”\r\n\r\n14) 沙吾提卡巴克问道: “窟窿有多大？我们能不能钻进去呀？”\r\n\r\n15) 哈山代吾来克回答: “有这么大。”哈山代吾来克一面答应着，一面用手来比划窟窿的大小。\r\n\r\n16) 不料哈山代吾来克两手一松，这两个懒汉朋友都离开了大鹏鸟，摇摇晃晃地掉下来，摔成肉酱了。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH\"]\r\n1) Long ago, among the Uighur people there were two lazybones, one called Hashandaiwulaike, the other called Shawutikabake. They were both extremely lazy, depending on their parents for food and clothing, unwilling to do even a little work, from morning to night they sat at the base of a wall and sunned themselves. As time passed this way, their parents [began to] loathe them, and had no choice but to kick them out. The two of them lived a drifter\'s life, and went hungry for days at a time, with not even a piece of bread to eat. \r\n\r\n2) One day, they were squatting next to a bread pit discussing what to do. Hashandaiwulaike said: \"The best thing would be to go to a place where there\'s food and clothes, but you don\'t have to work - I don\'t know if there is such a place?\"\r\n\r\n3) Shawutikabake said: \"There\'s no such place on this earth, only in heaven! I heard that the immortals in heaven are the happiest.\" \r\n\r\n4) Hashandaiwulaike said: \"In that case, we should go to heaven. Why on earth would we stay in this place where we have to work and suffer other people\'s disdain?\" \r\n\r\n5) Shawutikabake said: \"That\'s all very well and good, but how will we get up there? Can we find a ladder that long?\" \r\n\r\n6) Hashandaiwulaike said: \"We could never find a ladder that long, but you can still get up there without a ladder.\" \r\n\r\n7) Shawutikabake said: \"How?\"\r\n\r\n8) Hashandaiwulaike said: \"In the valley there\'s a Roc bird, when I was little I saw it when I went up there with my father. All we have to do is grab onto the Roc, and he will take us up to heaven.\"\r\n\r\n9) Shawutikabake said: \"That\'s a great idea, we\'ll do it that way.\" \r\n\r\n10) So the two friends decided thus. On the morning of the next day, they got us and walked to the mountain. When they got to the mountain valley, they found the Roc\'s nest, and they hid themselves next to it. They waited until the sun fell behind the mountain and the Roc flew back and had just landed in its nest, when Hashandaiwulaike grabbed it and held it tightly. He promptly called to Shawutikabake to grab his feet, and the Roc was frightened and flew into the sky.\r\n\r\n11) So Shawutikabake was holding on to Hashandaiwulaike\'s feet, and Hashandaiwulaike was holding on to the Roc\'s claws, and they floated towards the seventh level of clouds [heaven]. \r\n\r\n12) Shawutikabake asked,\" Hey! Are we there yet? I can\'t hold on much longer!\" \r\n\r\n13) Hashandaiwulaike looked into a gap between the clouds and said, \"Almost! I can already see the opening!\" \r\n\r\n14) Shawutikabake asked, \"How big is the opening? Can we fit into it?\" \r\n\r\n15) Hashandaiwulaike answered, \"It\'s this big.\" As Hashandaiwulaike answered, he used his hands to demonstrate how big the opening [to heaven] was. \r\n\r\n16) But to his surprise, as soon as Hashandaiwulaike let go, the two lazy friends parted ways with the Roc, tumbled down, and were smashed into mincemeat. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Fables] 两个懒汉 - The Two Lazybones', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1086-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:28:10', '2016-11-04 13:28:10', '', 1086, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1086-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1078, 1, '2012-04-10 05:01:45', '2012-04-10 09:01:45', '', 'Practice Reading Mandarin Chinese: Simlified Chinese TV and Movie Vocabulary, Advanced', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120410', '', '', '2012-04-10 05:01:45', '2012-04-10 09:01:45', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120410.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1079, 1, '2012-04-10 05:11:19', '2012-04-10 09:11:19', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Simplified Mandarin Chinese Advanced Exercises', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120410-inline', '', '', '2012-04-10 05:11:19', '2012-04-10 09:11:19', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120410-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1081, 1, '2012-04-18 22:39:21', '2012-04-19 02:39:21', '[two_third]\nIn this essay you\'ll find a few specialized martial-arts words, but it\'s not really the vocabulary that places this in the \"advanced\" category. It\'s more that most of the text is full of wax-on, wax-off Karate Kid statements, as the martial arts master talks about how putting oneself in a position of inferiority allows you to attain superiority. \n\nThis kind of \"making logic out of illogical-sounding contradictions\" is very typical of martial arts and Eastern mysticism, and most of this type of stuff comes strait out of Taoist philosophy. \n\nYou\'ll enjoy this if you\'re an upper-intermediate or advanced reader, and are interested in some specialized vocabulary. \n\n
See the original\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
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Click to Listen
\n马来西亚 - [pinyin]ma3 lai2 xi1 ya4[/pinyin] - Malaysia\n性骚扰 - [pinyin]xing4 sao1 rao3[/pinyin] - Sexual Harassment\n据 - [pinyin]ju4[/pinyin] - According to (reports, etc.)\n挡风玻璃 - [pinyin]dang3 feng1 bo1 li5[/pinyin] - Windshield\n吉隆坡 - [pinyin]ji2 long2 po1[/pinyin] - Kuala Lumpur\n妇女、家庭和社会发展部 - [pinyin]fu4 nv3 jia1 ting2 he2 she4 hui4 fa1 zhan3 bu4 [/pinyin] - Department of Women, Family and Community Development\n项 - [pinyin]xiang4[/pinyin] - Classifier for projects, actions, decisions and tasks\n举措 - [pinyin]ju3 cuo4[/pinyin] - Action, decision\n担忧 - [pinyin]dan1 you1[/pinyin] - To be concerned \n袭击 - [pinyin]xi2 ji1[/pinyin] - An attack, esp. by surprise\n埃及 - [pinyin]ai1 ji2[/pinyin] - Egypt\n伊朗 - [pinyin]yi1 lang3[/pinyin] - Iran\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
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\n一名剑客去拜访一位武林泰斗，请教他是如何练就非凡武艺的。武林泰斗拿出一把只有一尺长的剑，说:“多亏了它，才让我有了今天的成就。”\n\n 剑客大为不解，问:“别人的剑都是三尺三寸长的，而你的剑为什么只有一尺长呢?兵器谱上说:剑短一分，险增三分。拿着这么短的剑无疑是处于一种劣势，你怎么还说这剑好呢?”\n\n 武林泰斗说:“就因为在兵器上我处于劣势，所以我才会时时刻刻想到，如果与别人对阵，我会是多么的危险，所以我只有勤练剑招，以剑招之长补兵器之短，这样一来，我的剑招不断进步，劣势就转化为优势了。”\n\n 的确，优势和劣势有时候并不是绝对的。把自己放在劣势，就是给自己压力，为自己注入进取的动力，敢于把自己放在劣势的人，最终就有可能把劣势转化成为优势，从而取得胜利。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nA swordsman went to pay a visit to a martial arts master [literally: a leading figure in martial arts circles] to ask for guidance on how to train [so as to attain] exceptional martial skill. The martial arts master took out a sword that was only 1 foot long, and said: \"Thanks to this, I\'ve accomplished what I have today.\" \n\nBewildered, the swordsman asked, \"Other people\'s swords are all 3 feet 3 inches long, so why is yours only one foot long? The weapons chart says that: if your sword is one-fold shorter, the danger to you is threefold greater. 兵器谱上说:剑短一分，险增三分。拿着这么短的剑无疑是处于一种劣势，你怎么还说这剑好呢?”\n\n 武林泰斗说:“就因为在兵器上我处于劣势，所以我才会时时刻刻想到，如果与别人对阵，我会是多么的危险，所以我只有勤练剑招，以剑招之长补兵器之短，这样一来，我的剑招不断进步，劣势就转化为优势了。”\n\n 的确，优势和劣势有时候并不是绝对的。把自己放在劣势，就是给自己压力，为自己注入进取的动力，敢于把自己放在劣势的人，最终就有可能把劣势转化成为优势，从而取得胜利。\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Martial Arts Mastery: Put Yourself at a Disadvantage', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '989-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-04-18 22:39:21', '2012-04-19 02:39:21', '', 989, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/04/18/989-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1082, 1, '2012-04-18 23:27:22', '2012-04-19 03:27:22', '[two_third]\nIn this essay you\'ll find a few specialized martial-arts words, but it\'s not really the vocabulary that places this in the \"advanced\" category. It\'s more that most of the text is full of wax-on, wax-off Karate Kid statements, as the martial arts master talks about how putting oneself in a position of inferiority allows you to attain superiority. \n\nThis kind of \"making logic out of illogical-sounding contradictions\" is very typical of martial arts and Eastern mysticism, and most of this type of stuff comes strait out of Taoist philosophy. \n\nThere are two phrases I found grammatically difficult to get past, the first being 处于劣势, or as the text has it, 处于一种劣势. \"处于\" [pinyin]chu3 yu2[/pinyin] means to \"be in a state of...\", or \"to be in a position of...\". 劣势 [pinyin]lie4 shi4[/pinyin] means \"inferior\". Put together, this translates into English as \"to be at a disadvantage\", or in the case of 处于一种劣势, \"to be at some kind of disadvantage\".\n\nThe second and more difficult phrase is found in the third paragraph: 以剑招之长补兵器之短. The thing that makes this sentence difficult is all the accursed nebulous words that have many meanings - we\'ve got 以, 之, and 补 all smooshed together, and these words are the keys to unlocking the meaning of this sentence. So let\'s break this down word by word and see if all the definitions together don\'t give us a clue: \n\n以 - [pinyin]yi3[/pinyin] - The definition of 以 that\'s being used here is \"by means of\" or \"by way of\"\n剑招 - [pinyin]jian4 zhao1[/pinyin] - Swordsmanship maneuvers\n之 - [pinyin]zhi1[/pinyin] - of\n长 - [pinyin]chang2[/pinyin] - length\n补 - [pinyin]bu3[/pinyin] - \"to make up for\"\n兵器 - [pinyin]bing1 qi4[/pinyin] - Weapon\n之 - [pinyin]zhi1[/pinyin] - of\n短 - [pinyin]duan3[/pinyin] - shortness\n\nAh hah! Though this is still a little convoluted, once we know the meaning of 以 and 补 in this instance, this now becomes much simpler to read. It says: \"By means of the \'length\' of [my] swordsmanship maneuvers, [I] make up for the shortness of [my] weapon.\" We can see here that \"length\" doesn\'t really mean how \"long\" something is - \"length\" here means a high level of skill. The word \"length\" is just being used to juxtapose against the word \"short\". \n\nYou\'ll enjoy this if you\'re an upper-intermediate or advanced reader, and are interested in some specialized vocabulary. \n\n
See the original\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n剑客 - [pinyin]jian4 ke4[/pinyin] - Swordsman, fencer\n武林泰斗 - [pinyin]wu3 lin2 tai4 dou3[/pinyin] - Martial arts master - lit: leading scholar in martial arts circles\n请教 - [pinyin]qing3 jiao4[/pinyin] - Ask for guidance\n多亏 - [pinyin]duo1 kui1[/pinyin] - Thanks to\n大为不解 - [pinyin]da4 wei4 bu4 jie3[/pinyin] - Bewildered\n兵器 - [pinyin]bing1 qi4[/pinyin] - Department of Women, Family and Community Development\n谱 - [pinyin]pu3[/pinyin] - Chart, table, register\n处于 - [pinyin]chu3 yu2[/pinyin] - To be in a state of...\n劣势 - [pinyin]lie4 shi4[/pinyin] - Inferior, disadvantaged\n对阵 - [pinyin]dui4 zhen4[/pinyin] - Poised for battle\n招 - [pinyin]zhao1[/pinyin] - Square up for a fight\n补 - [pinyin]bu3[/pinyin] - To make up for\n优势 - [pinyin]you1 shi4[/pinyin] - Advantage, superior\n注入 - [pinyin]zhu4 ru4[/pinyin] - To pour into\n敢于 - [pinyin]gan3 yu2[/pinyin] - To dare to\n胜利 - [pinyin]sheng4 li4[/pinyin] - Victory\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
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\n一名剑客去拜访一位武林泰斗，请教他是如何练就非凡武艺的。武林泰斗拿出一把只有一尺长的剑，说:“多亏了它，才让我有了今天的成就。”\n\n 剑客大为不解，问:“别人的剑都是三尺三寸长的，而你的剑为什么只有一尺长呢?兵器谱上说:剑短一分，险增三分。拿着这么短的剑无疑是处于一种劣势，你怎么还说这剑好呢?”\n\n武林泰斗说:“就因为在兵器上我处于劣势，所以我才会时时刻刻想到，如果与别人对阵，我会是多么的危险，所以我只有勤练剑招，以剑招之长补兵器之短，这样一来，我的剑招不断进步，劣势就转化为优势了。”\n\n 的确，优势和劣势有时候并不是绝对的。把自己放在劣势，就是给自己压力，为自己注入进取的动力，敢于把自己放在劣势的人，最终就有可能把劣势转化成为优势，从而取得胜利。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nA swordsman went to pay a visit to a martial arts master [literally: a leading figure in martial arts circles] to ask for guidance on how to train [so as to attain] exceptional martial skill. The martial arts master took out a sword that was only 1 foot long, and said: \"Thanks to this, I\'ve accomplished what I have today.\" \n\nBewildered, the swordsman asked, \"Other people\'s swords are all 3 feet 3 inches long, so why is yours only one foot long? The weapons chart says that: if your sword is one-fold shorter, the danger to you is threefold greater. Using this short of a sword undoubtedly places you at a disadvantage, how can you say this is a good sword?\" \n\nThe martial arts master said: \"That\'s precisely it - my weapon puts me at a disadvantage, so I must always be thinking that if I\'m up against another person in a fight, the danger to me is greater, and all I have is my diligently practiced sword maneuvers, so the \"length\" of my maneuvers must make up for the shortness of my sword; thus, I\'m always improving, and a disadvantage is transformed into an advantage. \n\nIndeed, \"advantage\" and \"disadvantage\" really isn\'t always set in stone. If you put yourself at a disadvantage, you put pressure on yourself, pouring into yourself the power to forge ahead; those who dare to place themselves in an inferior position, can perhaps in the end turn their disadvantage into an advantage, and thereby achieve victory. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Martial Arts Mastery: Put Yourself at a Disadvantage', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '989-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-04-18 23:27:22', '2012-04-19 03:27:22', '', 989, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/04/18/989-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1083, 1, '2012-04-18 23:50:14', '2012-04-19 03:50:14', '', 'Reading Chinese: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Chinese Practice Essays', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120419', '', '', '2012-04-18 23:50:14', '2012-04-19 03:50:14', '', 989, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120419.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1084, 1, '2012-04-18 23:50:15', '2012-04-19 03:50:15', '', 'Reading Chinese: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Chinese Practice Essays', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120419-inline', '', '', '2012-04-18 23:50:15', '2012-04-19 03:50:15', '', 989, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120419-inline.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1085, 1, '2012-04-18 23:32:06', '2012-04-19 03:32:06', '[two_third]\nIn this essay you\'ll learn to read Chinese martial arts words - well, a few, anyway - but it\'s not really the vocabulary that places this in the \"advanced\" category. It\'s more that most of the text is full of wax-on, wax-off Karate Kid statements, as the martial arts master talks about how putting oneself in a position of inferiority allows you to attain superiority. \n\nThis kind of \"making logic out of illogical-sounding contradictions\" is very typical of martial arts and Eastern mysticism, and most of this type of stuff comes strait out of Taoist philosophy. \n\nThere are two phrases I found grammatically difficult to get past, the first being 处于劣势, or as the text has it, 处于一种劣势. \"处于\" [pinyin]chu3 yu2[/pinyin] means to \"be in a state of...\", or \"to be in a position of...\". 劣势 [pinyin]lie4 shi4[/pinyin] means \"inferior\". Put together, this translates into English as \"to be at a disadvantage\", or in the case of 处于一种劣势, \"to be at some kind of disadvantage\".\n\nThe second and more difficult phrase is found in the third paragraph: 以剑招之长补兵器之短. The thing that makes this sentence difficult is all the accursed nebulous words that have many meanings - we\'ve got 以, 之, and 补 all smooshed together, and these words are the keys to unlocking the meaning of this sentence. So let\'s break this down word by word and see if all the definitions together don\'t give us a clue: \n\n以 - [pinyin]yi3[/pinyin] - The definition of 以 that\'s being used here is \"by means of\" or \"by way of\"\n剑招 - [pinyin]jian4 zhao1[/pinyin] - Swordsmanship maneuvers\n之 - [pinyin]zhi1[/pinyin] - of\n长 - [pinyin]chang2[/pinyin] - length\n补 - [pinyin]bu3[/pinyin] - \"to make up for\"\n兵器 - [pinyin]bing1 qi4[/pinyin] - Weapon\n之 - [pinyin]zhi1[/pinyin] - of\n短 - [pinyin]duan3[/pinyin] - shortness\n\nAh hah! Though this is still a little convoluted, once we know the meaning of 以 and 补 in this instance, this now becomes much simpler to read. It says: \"By means of the \'length\' of [my] swordsmanship maneuvers, [I] make up for the shortness of [my] weapon.\" We can see here that \"length\" doesn\'t really mean how \"long\" something is - \"length\" here means a high level of skill. The word \"length\" is just being used to juxtapose against the word \"short\". \n\nYou\'ll enjoy this if you\'re an upper-intermediate or advanced reader, and are interested in some specialized vocabulary. \n\n
See the original\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
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Click to Listen
\n剑客 - [pinyin]jian4 ke4[/pinyin] - Swordsman, fencer\n武林泰斗 - [pinyin]wu3 lin2 tai4 dou3[/pinyin] - Martial arts master - lit: leading scholar in martial arts circles\n请教 - [pinyin]qing3 jiao4[/pinyin] - Ask for guidance\n多亏 - [pinyin]duo1 kui1[/pinyin] - Thanks to\n大为不解 - [pinyin]da4 wei4 bu4 jie3[/pinyin] - Bewildered\n兵器 - [pinyin]bing1 qi4[/pinyin] - Department of Women, Family and Community Development\n谱 - [pinyin]pu3[/pinyin] - Chart, table, register\n处于 - [pinyin]chu3 yu2[/pinyin] - To be in a state of...\n劣势 - [pinyin]lie4 shi4[/pinyin] - Inferior, disadvantaged\n对阵 - [pinyin]dui4 zhen4[/pinyin] - Poised for battle\n招 - [pinyin]zhao1[/pinyin] - Square up for a fight\n补 - [pinyin]bu3[/pinyin] - To make up for\n优势 - [pinyin]you1 shi4[/pinyin] - Advantage, superior\n注入 - [pinyin]zhu4 ru4[/pinyin] - To pour into\n敢于 - [pinyin]gan3 yu2[/pinyin] - To dare to\n胜利 - [pinyin]sheng4 li4[/pinyin] - Victory\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n一名剑客去拜访一位武林泰斗，请教他是如何练就非凡武艺的。武林泰斗拿出一把只有一尺长的剑，说:“多亏了它，才让我有了今天的成就。”\n\n 剑客大为不解，问:“别人的剑都是三尺三寸长的，而你的剑为什么只有一尺长呢?兵器谱上说:剑短一分，险增三分。拿着这么短的剑无疑是处于一种劣势，你怎么还说这剑好呢?”\n\n武林泰斗说:“就因为在兵器上我处于劣势，所以我才会时时刻刻想到，如果与别人对阵，我会是多么的危险，所以我只有勤练剑招，以剑招之长补兵器之短，这样一来，我的剑招不断进步，劣势就转化为优势了。”\n\n 的确，优势和劣势有时候并不是绝对的。把自己放在劣势，就是给自己压力，为自己注入进取的动力，敢于把自己放在劣势的人，最终就有可能把劣势转化成为优势，从而取得胜利。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nA swordsman went to pay a visit to a martial arts master [literally: a leading figure in martial arts circles] to ask for guidance on how to train [so as to attain] exceptional martial skill. The martial arts master took out a sword that was only 1 foot long, and said: \"Thanks to this, I\'ve accomplished what I have today.\" \n\nBewildered, the swordsman asked, \"Other people\'s swords are all 3 feet 3 inches long, so why is yours only one foot long? The weapons chart says that: if your sword is one-fold shorter, the danger to you is threefold greater. Using this short of a sword undoubtedly places you at a disadvantage, how can you say this is a good sword?\" \n\nThe martial arts master said: \"That\'s precisely it - my weapon puts me at a disadvantage, so I must always be thinking that if I\'m up against another person in a fight, the danger to me is greater, and all I have is my diligently practiced sword maneuvers, so the \"length\" of my maneuvers must make up for the shortness of my sword; thus, I\'m always improving, and a disadvantage is transformed into an advantage. \n\nIndeed, \"advantage\" and \"disadvantage\" really isn\'t always set in stone. If you put yourself at a disadvantage, you put pressure on yourself, pouring into yourself the power to forge ahead; those who dare to place themselves in an inferior position, can perhaps in the end turn their disadvantage into an advantage, and thereby achieve victory. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Martial Arts Mastery: Put Yourself at a Disadvantage', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '989-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-04-18 23:32:06', '2012-04-19 03:32:06', '', 989, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/04/18/989-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1087, 1, '2012-04-21 00:30:59', '2012-04-21 04:30:59', '[two_third]\nThis is probably the longest text I\'ve ever posted, but happily it\'s very beginner reading. The first few sentences are much more intermediate as we learn new vocabulary words and set up the story, but after that the reading is very smooth and very simple, so press through the first paragraph or two if you can. \n\nI kind of can\'t tell weather I should be offended by this or not - the protagonists are two \"lazy Uighurs\" (A Uighur 维吾尔族 [pinyin]wei2 wu2 er3 zu2[/pinyin] is a member of the ethnic minority hailing from the Uighur Autonomous Region of China, a politically touchy topic on the mainland). I guess I\'m a little iffy on that because I\'ve never seen a folk story about heroic Uighurs or smart Uighurs, or really ever seen a story about Uighurs at all. So to run across this one first makes me wonder if the \"lazy Uighur\" thing is a mean stereotype or if I just haven\'t read widely enough. I\'ll have to go in search of some Uighur folk tales in Mandarin and see what I can dig up. \n\nI really know almost nothing about Uighur cultural history, but this story taught me something interesting: it looks like Uighurs have six-character names. Our two protagonists here are rather lengthily called 哈山代吾来克 [pinyin]Ha1 shan1 dai4 wu2 lai2 ke4[/pinyin] and 沙吾提卡巴克 [pinyin]sha1 wu2 ti2 ka3 ba1 ke4[/pinyin]. \n\nAnother interesting thing: this story mentions a 大鹏鸟 [pinyin]da peng3 niao3[/pinyin] - called a \"Roc\" in English (though I\'d never heard that word before). Apparently, it\'s a legendary fictional bird of prey, like a giant Eagle.\n\nThe Chinese title of this post is 两个懒汉 - the two lazybones. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
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Click to Listen
\n众星捧月- [pinyin]zhong4 xing1 peng3 yue4[/pinyin] - Core figure in a group, group around a revered leader\n冷酷 - [pinyin]leng3 ku4[/pinyin] - Callous, unfeeling\n帅哥 - [pinyin]shuai4 ge1[/pinyin] - Hot guy, handsome man\n出色 - [pinyin]chu1 se4[/pinyin] - Remarkable, outstanding\n社交白痴 - [pinyin]she4 jiao1 bai2 chi1[/pinyin] - Social idiot, not know how to interact with others socially\n死党 - [pinyin]si3 dang3[/pinyin] - Inseparable sidekick\n一塌糊涂 - [pinyin]yi1 ta1 hu2 tu5[/pinyin] - Muddled and collapsing, in complete shambles\n出头 - [pinyin]chu1 tou2[/pinyin] - Get out of trouble\n亲密无间 - [pinyin]qin1 mi4 wu2 jian1[/pinyin] - Close relation\n独白 - [pinyin]du2 bai2[/pinyin] - A monologue\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
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\n从前，维吾尔族有这么两个懒汉，一个叫哈山代吾来克，一个叫沙吾提卡巴克。他们都懒得要命，吃穿全靠父母，一点活儿也不干，一天到晚靠着墙根晒太阳。 这样，久而久之，弄得他们父母也讨厌他们了，不得不把他们从家里赶了出来。他们俩过着流浪的生活，饿了几天肚子，一块馕也没有吃到。\n\n这天，他俩蹲在馕坑上商量着今后该怎么办。哈山代吾来克说: “最好到一个有吃有穿，又不需要劳动的地方去，不知道有没有这么个地方？”\n\n沙吾提卡巴克说: “世界上是没有这么个地方的，只伯天上有吧！听说天上的神仙最快活。”\n\n哈山代吾来克说: “那末，我们就上天去吧，干嘛要呆在这个必须劳动的地方受人鄙视呢？”\n\n沙吾提卡巴克说: “好倒好，不过怎么上去呢？能找到这么个长梯子吗？”\n\n哈山代吾来克肯定地说: “这么长的梯子是找不到的。但是，没有梯子也可以上去。”\n\n沙吾提卡巴克惊奇地问道: “怎么上去？”\n\n哈山代吾来克说: “山谷里有一只大鹏鸟，小时候我跟父亲上去看见过。我们只要把这只大鹏抓住，它就会带我们上天去的。”\n\n沙吾提卡巴克说: “好办法，我们就这样办好了。”\n\n两个朋友就这么决定了。第二天一早，他们就起身往山上走去，走到一个山谷里，找到了大鹏的窝，他们在附近躲藏起来，等到太阳落山的时候，大鹏飞回来刚落在窝里，就被哈山代吾来克紧紧地抓住了。他连忙招呼沙吾提卡巴克抓住自己的脚，大鹏受了惊，直往天空飞去。\n\n就这样，沙吾提卡巴克抓住哈山代吾来克的脚，哈山代吾来克抓住大鹏的爪子，飘飘荡荡地一直飞向七层云端里去了。\n\n沙吾提卡巴克问道: “嘿！到了吗？我的手吃不消啦！”\n\n哈山代吾来克望着云层的空隙说: “快啦！连窟窿都已经看见了。”\n\n沙吾提卡巴克问道: “窟窿有多大？我们能不能钻进去呀？”\n\n哈山代吾来克回答: “有这么大。”哈山代吾来克一面答应着，一面用手来比划窟窿的大小。\n\n不料哈山代吾来克两手一松，这两个懒汉朋友都离开了大鹏鸟，摇摇晃晃地掉下来，摔成肉酱了。\n
\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH\"]\nLong ago, among the Uighur people there were two lazybones, one called Hashandaiwulaike, the other called Shawutikabake. They were both extremely lazy, depending on their parents for food and clothing, unwilling to do even a little work, from morning to night they sat at the base of a wall and sunned themselves. As time passed this way, their parents [began to] loathe them, and had no choice but to kick them out. The two of them lived a drifter\'s life, and went hungry for days at a time, with not even a piece of bread to eat. \n\nOne day, they were squatting next to a bread pit discussing what to do. Hashandaiwulaike said: The ebst thing would be to go to a place where there\'s food and clothes, but you don\'t have to work - I don\'t know if there is such a place?\"\n\nShawutikabake said: \"There\'s no such place on this earth, only in heaven! I heard that the immortals in heaven are the happiest.\" \n\nHashandaiwulaike said: \"In that case, we should go to heaven. Why on earth would we stay in this place where we have to work and suffer other people\'s disdain?\" \n\nShawutikabake said: \"That\'s all very well and good, but how will we get up there? Can we find a ladder that long?\" \n\nHashandaiwulaike said: \"We could never find a ladder that long, but you can still get up there without a ladder.\" \n\nShawutikabake said: \"How?\"\n\nHashandaiwulaike said: \"In the valley there\'s a Roc bird, when I was little I saw it when I went up there with my father. All we have to do is grab onto the Roc, and he will take us up to heaven.\"\n\nShawutikabake said: \"That\'s a great idea, we\'ll do it that way.\" \n\nSo the two friends decided thus. On the morning of the next day, they got us and walked to the mountain. When they got to the mountain valley, they found the Roc\'s nest, and they hid themselves next to it. They waited until the sun fell behind the mountain and the Roc flew back and had just landed in its nest, when Hashandaiwulaike grabbed it and held it tightly. He promptly urged Shawutikabake to grab his feet, and the Roc was frightened and flew into the sky.\n\nSo Shawutikabake was holding on to Hashandaiwulaike\'s feet, and Hashandaiwulaike was holding on to the Roc\'s claws, and they floated towards the seventh level of clouds [heaven]. \n\nShawutikabake asked,\" Hey! Are we there yet? I can\'t hold on much longer!\" \n\nHashandaiwulaike looked into a gap between the clouds and said, \"Almost! I can already see the entrance [literally: the hole, the crack]!\" \n\nShawutikabake asked, \"How big is the entrance? Can we fit into it?\" \n\nHashandaiwulaike answered, \"It\'s this big.\" As Hashandaiwulaike answered, he used his hands to demonstrate how big the [entrance] hole was. \n\nBut to his surprise, as soon as Hashandaiwulaike let go, the two lazy friends parted ways with the Roc, tumbled down, and became mincemeat. 不料哈山代吾来克两手一松，这两个懒汉朋友都离开了大鹏鸟，摇摇晃晃地掉下来，摔成肉酱了。\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Two Lazybones', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1086-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-04-21 00:30:59', '2012-04-21 04:30:59', '', 1086, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/04/21/1086-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1088, 1, '2012-04-21 00:55:32', '2012-04-21 04:55:32', '[two_third]\nThis is probably the longest text I\'ve ever posted, but this is upper beginner to mid-intermediate reading. I could probably toss this in the beginner category, but the length is possibly prohibitive. The first few sentences are much more intermediate as we learn new vocabulary words and set up the story, but after that the reading is mostly a dialogue which is very smooth and fairly simple, so press through the first paragraph or two if you can. \n\nI kind of can\'t tell weather I should be offended by this or not - the protagonists are two \"lazy Uighurs\" (A Uighur 维吾尔族 [pinyin]wei2 wu2 er3 zu2[/pinyin] is a member of the ethnic minority hailing from the Uighur Autonomous Region of China, a politically touchy topic on the mainland). I\'ve never seen a folk story about heroic Uighurs or smart Uighurs, or really ever seen a story about Uighurs at all. So to run across this one first makes me wonder if the \"lazy Uighur\" thing is a mean stereotype or if I just haven\'t read widely enough. I\'ll have to go in search of some Uighur folk tales in Mandarin and see what I can dig up. \n\nI really know almost nothing about Uighur cultural history, but this story taught me something interesting: it looks like Uighurs have six-character names. Our two protagonists here are rather lengthily called 哈山代吾来克 [pinyin]Ha1 shan1 dai4 wu2 lai2 ke4[/pinyin] and 沙吾提卡巴克 [pinyin]sha1 wu2 ti2 ka3 ba1 ke4[/pinyin]. \n\nAnother interesting thing: this story mentions a 大鹏鸟 [pinyin]da peng3 niao3[/pinyin] - called a \"Roc\" in English (though I\'d never heard that word before). Apparently, it\'s a legendary fictional bird of prey, like a giant Eagle.\n\nThe Chinese title of this post is 两个懒汉 - the two lazybones. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
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Click to Listen
\n懒汉- [pinyin]lan3 han4[/pinyin] - Lazybones\n要命 - [pinyin]yao4 ming4[/pinyin] - Extremely\n墙根 - [pinyin]qiang2 gen1[/pinyin] - Base of a wall\n久而久之 - [pinyin]jiu3 er2 jiu3 zhi1[/pinyin] - As time passed\n不得不 - [pinyin]bu4 de2 bu4[/pinyin] - have no choice but to... \n赶 - [pinyin]gan3[/pinyin] - To kick or drive [someone / something] out \n流浪 - [pinyin]liu2 lang4[/pinyin] - Drift aimlessly, wander\n馕 - [pinyin]nang2[/pinyin] - Flatbread\n蹲 - [pinyin]dun1[/pinyin] - To crouch, squat\n神仙 - [pinyin]shen2 xian1[/pinyin] - Immortals, dieties\n干嘛 - [pinyin]gan4 ma2[/pinyin] - Why on earth would...? Why should [I / you]...? Whatever for...?\n鄙视 - [pinyin]bi3 shi4[/pinyin] - Contempt, disdain \n好倒好 - [pinyin]hao3 dao3 hao3[/pinyin] - That\'s all very well and good, but...\n梯子 - [pinyin]ti1 zi[/pinyin] - A ladder\n山谷 - [pinyin]shan1 gu3[/pinyin] - A valley\n抓住 - [pinyin]zhua1 zhu4[/pinyin] - To grab onto, catch\n窝 - [pinyin]wo1[/pinyin] - A nest\n躲藏 - [pinyin]duo3 cang2[/pinyin] - To hide \n飘飘荡荡 - [pinyin]piao1 piao1 dang4 dang4[/pinyin] - To drift, float on waves or wind\n窟窿 - [pinyin]ku1 long5[/pinyin] - Hole, pocket, cavity, opening\n松 - [pinyin]song1[/pinyin] - To loosen or relax a hold\n摇摇晃晃 - [pinyin]yao2 yao2 huang4 huan4[/pinyin] - back and forth\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
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\n从前，维吾尔族有这么两个懒汉，一个叫哈山代吾来克，一个叫沙吾提卡巴克。他们都懒得要命，吃穿全靠父母，一点活儿也不干，一天到晚靠着墙根晒太阳。 这样，久而久之，弄得他们父母也讨厌他们了，不得不把他们从家里赶了出来。他们俩过着流浪的生活，饿了几天肚子，一块馕也没有吃到。\n\n这天，他俩蹲在馕坑上商量着今后该怎么办。哈山代吾来克说: “最好到一个有吃有穿，又不需要劳动的地方去，不知道有没有这么个地方？”\n\n沙吾提卡巴克说: “世界上是没有这么个地方的，只天上有吧！听说天上的神仙最快活。”\n\n哈山代吾来克说: “那末，我们就上天去吧，干嘛要呆在这个必须劳动的地方受人鄙视呢？”\n\n沙吾提卡巴克说: “好倒好，不过怎么上去呢？能找到这么个长梯子吗？”\n\n哈山代吾来克肯定地说: “这么长的梯子是找不到的。但是，没有梯子也可以上去。”\n\n沙吾提卡巴克惊奇地问道: “怎么上去？”\n\n哈山代吾来克说: “山谷里有一只大鹏鸟，小时候我跟父亲上去看见过。我们只要把这只大鹏抓住，它就会带我们上天去的。”\n\n沙吾提卡巴克说: “好办法，我们就这样办好了。”\n\n两个朋友就这么决定了。第二天一早，他们就起身往山上走去，走到一个山谷里，找到了大鹏的窝，他们在附近躲藏起来，等到太阳落山的时候，大鹏飞回来刚落在窝里，就被哈山代吾来克紧紧地抓住了。他连忙招呼沙吾提卡巴克抓住自己的脚，大鹏受了惊，直往天空飞去。\n\n就这样，沙吾提卡巴克抓住哈山代吾来克的脚，哈山代吾来克抓住大鹏的爪子，飘飘荡荡地一直飞向七层云端里去了。\n\n沙吾提卡巴克问道: “嘿！到了吗？我的手吃不消啦！”\n\n哈山代吾来克望着云层的空隙说: “快啦！连窟窿都已经看见了。”\n\n沙吾提卡巴克问道: “窟窿有多大？我们能不能钻进去呀？”\n\n哈山代吾来克回答: “有这么大。”哈山代吾来克一面答应着，一面用手来比划窟窿的大小。\n\n不料哈山代吾来克两手一松，这两个懒汉朋友都离开了大鹏鸟，摇摇晃晃地掉下来，摔成肉酱了。\n
\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH\"]\nLong ago, among the Uighur people there were two lazybones, one called Hashandaiwulaike, the other called Shawutikabake. They were both extremely lazy, depending on their parents for food and clothing, unwilling to do even a little work, from morning to night they sat at the base of a wall and sunned themselves. As time passed this way, their parents [began to] loathe them, and had no choice but to kick them out. The two of them lived a drifter\'s life, and went hungry for days at a time, with not even a piece of bread to eat. \n\nOne day, they were squatting next to a bread pit discussing what to do. Hashandaiwulaike said: The ebst thing would be to go to a place where there\'s food and clothes, but you don\'t have to work - I don\'t know if there is such a place?\"\n\nShawutikabake said: \"There\'s no such place on this earth, only in heaven! I heard that the immortals in heaven are the happiest.\" \n\nHashandaiwulaike said: \"In that case, we should go to heaven. Why on earth would we stay in this place where we have to work and suffer other people\'s disdain?\" \n\nShawutikabake said: \"That\'s all very well and good, but how will we get up there? Can we find a ladder that long?\" \n\nHashandaiwulaike said: \"We could never find a ladder that long, but you can still get up there without a ladder.\" \n\nShawutikabake said: \"How?\"\n\nHashandaiwulaike said: \"In the valley there\'s a Roc bird, when I was little I saw it when I went up there with my father. All we have to do is grab onto the Roc, and he will take us up to heaven.\"\n\nShawutikabake said: \"That\'s a great idea, we\'ll do it that way.\" \n\nSo the two friends decided thus. On the morning of the next day, they got us and walked to the mountain. When they got to the mountain valley, they found the Roc\'s nest, and they hid themselves next to it. They waited until the sun fell behind the mountain and the Roc flew back and had just landed in its nest, when Hashandaiwulaike grabbed it and held it tightly. He promptly called to Shawutikabake to grab his feet, and the Roc was frightened and flew into the sky.\n\nSo Shawutikabake was holding on to Hashandaiwulaike\'s feet, and Hashandaiwulaike was holding on to the Roc\'s claws, and they floated towards the seventh level of clouds [heaven]. \n\nShawutikabake asked,\" Hey! Are we there yet? I can\'t hold on much longer!\" \n\nHashandaiwulaike looked into a gap between the clouds and said, \"Almost! I can already see the opening!\" \n\nShawutikabake asked, \"How big is the opening? Can we fit into it?\" \n\nHashandaiwulaike answered, \"It\'s this big.\" As Hashandaiwulaike answered, he used his hands to demonstrate how big the opening [to heaven] was. \n\nBut to his surprise, as soon as Hashandaiwulaike let go, the two lazy friends parted ways with the Roc, tumbled down, and were smashed into mincemeat. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Two Lazybones', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1086-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-04-21 00:55:32', '2012-04-21 04:55:32', '', 1086, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/04/21/1086-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1123, 1, '2012-06-15 06:32:05', '2012-06-15 10:32:05', 'This is an upper-beginner or low-intermediate level text. It\'s good for beginner readers in the sense that a) it\'s short, and b) it\'s extremely repetitive - if you can puzzle out the first two or three sentences, the rest should be clear. To get you going, it might be worth noting there that the protagonist is a small blade of (or lump of, or field of - it\'s never really defined) grass named \"YinYin\" (小草银银), who keeps asking one particular favor of each season. The seasons are personified as ladies - for example, \"The Lady of Spring\" (春姑娘) and \"the Lady of Summer\" (夏姑娘), etc. \r\n\r\nThere\'s so much metaphor going on in this I\'m not sure where to start. You could choose to interpret this as a statement about aging, about changing seasons, go nuts. \r\n\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n1) 小草银银喜欢银色。\r\n2) 春天，小草银银让春姑娘把她的头发染成银色。春姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成青色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n3) 夏天小草银银让夏姑娘把她的头发染成银色。夏姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成深绿色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n4) 秋天小草银银让秋姑娘把她的头发染成银色。秋姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成金黄色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n5) 冬天小草银银让冬姑娘把她的头发染成银色。冬姑娘说：“好啊，不过你可不要后悔呦”？银银说：“不会的，有了那么漂亮的头发我高兴还来不及呢”！就这样银银的头发变成了银色。忽然，银银的头发掉下来了，这是怎么回事呢？原来，头发染多了是会伤害身体的。这下银银真的后悔了。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) The little grass YinYin liked the color silver. \r\n\r\n2) In spring time, little grass Yinyin asked the Lady of Spring to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Spring said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair blue/green [see explanation]. YinYin was very broken-hearted. \r\n\r\n3) In summer time, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Summer to dye her hair silver. The lady of summer said, \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair green!\" YinYin was very broken-hearted. \r\n\r\n4) In autumn, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Autumn to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Autumn said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair golden yellow.\" YinYin was very broken-hearted.\r\n\r\n5) In winter, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Winter to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Winter said, \"Okay, but won\'t you regret it?\" YinYin said, \"I won\'t, if I had hair that beautiful I couldn\'t be happier!\" And so YinYin\'s hair turned silver. Suddenly, YinYin\'s hair fell out - how could this be? Of course, if you dye your hair too often, it\'s not good for you. And after this YinYin was indeed regretful. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Fables] 小草银银 - Little Grass\' Silver Hair', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'little-grass-silver-hair', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:17:04', '2016-11-04 13:17:04', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1123', 0, 'post', '', 29),
(1732, 1, '2016-10-31 03:17:48', '2016-10-31 07:17:48', 'This is an upper-beginner or low-intermediate level text. It\'s good for beginner readers in the sense that a) it\'s short, and b) it\'s extremely repetitive - if you can puzzle out the first two or three sentences, the rest should be clear. To get you going, it might be worth noting there that the protagonist is a small blade of (or lump of, or field of - it\'s never really defined) grass named \"YinYin\" (小草银银), who keeps asking one particular favor of each season. \r\n\r\n
![\"Simplified](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20120615-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Simplified")
The seasons are personified as ladies - for example, \"The Lady of Spring\" (春姑娘) and \"the Lady of Summer\" (夏姑娘), etc. \r\n\r\nThere\'s so much metaphor going on in this I\'m not sure where to start. You could choose to interpret this as a statement about aging, about changing seasons, go nuts. \r\n\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n小草银银喜欢银色。\r\n 春天，小草银银让春姑娘把她的头发染成银色。春姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成青色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 夏天小草银银让夏姑娘把她的头发染成银色。夏姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成深绿色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 秋天小草银银让秋姑娘把她的头发染成银色。秋姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成金黄色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 冬天小草银银让冬姑娘把她的头发染成银色。冬姑娘说：“好啊，不过你可不要后悔呦”？银银说：“不会的，有了那么漂亮的头发我高兴还来不及呢”！\r\n 就这样银银的头发变成了银色。忽然，银银的头发掉下来了，这是怎么回事呢？原来，头发染多了是会伤害身体的。这下银银真的后悔了。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe little grass YinYin liked the color silver. \r\n\r\n In spring time, little grass Yinyin asked the Lady of Spring to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Spring said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair blue/green [see explanation]. YinYin was very broken-hearted. \r\n\r\nIn summer time, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Summer to dye her hair silver. The lady of summer said, \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair green!\" YinYin was very broken-hearted. \r\n\r\nIn autumn, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Autumn to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Autumn said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair golden yellow.\" YinYin was very broken-hearted.\r\n\r\nIn winter, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Winter to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Winter said, \"Okay, but won\'t you regret it?\" YinYin said, \"I won\'t, if I had hair that beautiful I couldn\'t be happier!\" And so YinYin\'s hair turned silver. Suddenly, YinYin\'s hair fell out - how could this be? Of course, if you dye your hair too often, it\'s not good for you. And after this YinYin was indeed regretful. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Grass\' Silver Hair', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1123-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:17:48', '2016-10-31 07:17:48', '', 1123, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1123-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1090, 1, '2012-03-18 01:04:15', '2012-03-18 05:04:15', '[two_third]\r\nHoo boy, this song is an AWESOME find. Not only is it politically charged in the most amazing way, it\'s ultra-beginner reading. \r\n\r\n
But first, a little back story so we all know what we\'re reading here (and I do hope after this my blog stays available on the mainland - gonna use some weird spacing and spelling to avoid bots). The big campaign here right now is an expansion of the \"Ha rmoni ous S *ocie\\ ty\" campaign. It\'s on every political poster on the roadsides - there are 20 such signs on my street alone. The point, basically, is to do your job in your place and not make waves, or make life uncomfortable for those around you. Sounds nice, but you can kind of see a little ways down that road, and you can understand why \"harmo ny\" has become a euphemism for ce n z*or*sh p. For example, whenever something \"offensive\" is, erm, stricken from the internet, Chinese sarcastically say that it has been \"h-a r m onisd\". This concept goes right back to Confucius, whose big idea was that everyone has their duty and their place, and should follow a very strict set of rules governing what people in their position should and should not be able to do. \r\n\r\nSo the concept of har mony (和谐 - [pinyin]he2 xie2[/pinyin] has long been an integral part of Chinese culture, but it\'s also been a point of criticism. Sadly, this whole \"nail that sticks up gets hammered down\" mentality is now giving the honchos a headache, because while the Chinese now have the manpower and the money to take the world economy by storm, they can\'t get enough people to break away, be creative and innovate. \r\n\r\nAmusingly, the solution to this has apparently been to put signs up all over Beijing that say: \"Beijing Spirit: Patriotism, Innovation, Inclusiveness, Morality.\" So now, the message is \"Don\'t piss anyone off, but hurry up and do something unique\".\r\n\r\nGuess that solves that problem. NEXT!\r\n\r\nAnyway, the below is a children\'s song that has probably been made up in the last few years, teaching children why harmony is so important. There are a couple of intermediate words in the last sentence, but they\'re easy to figure out. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
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Click to Listen
\r\n清 - [pinyin]qing1[/pinyin] - Clear\r\n密 - [pinyin]mi4[/pinyin] - Dense, thick\r\n空 - [pinyin]kong4[/pinyin] - Open, empty, unoccupied\r\n忙 - [pinyin]mang2[/pinyin] - To rush around\r\n啊 - [pinyin]a1[/pinyin] - Ah!, Oh!\r\n和谐 - [pinyin]he2 xie2[/pinyin] - Harmony, harmonious\r\n环境 - [pinyin]huan2 jing4[/pinyin] - Environment\r\n创造 - [pinyin]chuang4 zao4[/pinyin] - to create, to bring about\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
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\r\n蓝蓝的天上鸟儿飞，\r\n清清的水里鱼儿游，\r\n密密的森林动物跑，\r\n空空的草地孩子忙，\r\n ……\r\n啊！这一切多么美好！\r\n和谐的环境需要我们去创造。\r\n
\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH\"]\r\nBirds fly in a blue blue sky, \r\nFish swim in the clear clear water, \r\nAnimals run in the thick thick forest, \r\nChildren run around in the open open meadow, \r\n ……\r\nOh, how wonderful everything is like this, \r\nA harmonious environment requires us to create it.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Harmonious Environment Song', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1065-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-03-18 01:04:15', '2012-03-18 05:04:15', '', 1065, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/03/18/1065-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1091, 1, '2012-04-25 04:43:53', '2012-04-25 08:43:53', '', 'Mandarin Chinese Characters: Learn to Read Simplified Chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120425', '', '', '2012-04-25 04:43:53', '2012-04-25 08:43:53', '', 1086, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120425.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1092, 1, '2012-04-25 04:43:55', '2012-04-25 08:43:55', '', 'Mandarin Chinese Characters: Learn to Read Simplified Chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120425-inline', '', '', '2012-04-25 04:43:55', '2012-04-25 08:43:55', '', 1086, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120425-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0);
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(1093, 1, '2012-04-25 04:41:08', '2012-04-25 08:41:08', '[two_third]\nThis is probably the longest text I\'ve ever posted, but this is upper-beginner to mid-intermediate reading. I could probably toss this in the beginner category, but the length is prohibitive. The first few sentences are much more intermediate as we learn new vocabulary words and set up the story, but after that the reading is mostly a dialogue which is very smooth and fairly simple, so press through the first paragraph or two if you can. \n\nI kind of can\'t tell weather I should be offended by this or not - the protagonists are two \"lazy Uighurs\" (A Uighur 维吾尔族 [pinyin]wei2 wu2 er3 zu2[/pinyin] is a member of the ethnic minority hailing from the Uighur Autonomous Region of China, a politically touchy topic on the mainland). I\'ve never seen a folk story about heroic Uighurs or smart Uighurs, or really ever seen a story about Uighurs at all. So to run across this one first makes me wonder if the \"lazy Uighur\" thing is a mean stereotype or if I just haven\'t read widely enough. I\'ll have to go in search of some Uighur folk tales in Mandarin and see what I can dig up. \n\nI really know almost nothing about Uighur cultural history, but this story taught me something interesting: it looks like Uighurs have six-character names (as opposed to two and three character names for Chinese and 4 character names for Japanese). Our two protagonists here are rather lengthily called 哈山代吾来克 [pinyin]Ha1 shan1 dai4 wu2 lai2 ke4[/pinyin] and 沙吾提卡巴克 [pinyin]sha1 wu2 ti2 ka3 ba1 ke4[/pinyin]. \n\nAnother interesting thing: this story mentions a 大鹏鸟 [pinyin]da peng3 niao3[/pinyin] - called a \"Roc\" in English (though I\'d never heard that word before). Apparently, it\'s a legendary fictional bird of prey, like a giant eagle.\n\nThe Chinese title of this post is 两个懒汉 - the two lazybones. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n懒汉- [pinyin]lan3 han4[/pinyin] - Lazybones\n要命 - [pinyin]yao4 ming4[/pinyin] - Extremely\n墙根 - [pinyin]qiang2 gen1[/pinyin] - Base of a wall\n久而久之 - [pinyin]jiu3 er2 jiu3 zhi1[/pinyin] - As time passed\n不得不 - [pinyin]bu4 de2 bu4[/pinyin] - have no choice but to... \n赶 - [pinyin]gan3[/pinyin] - To kick or drive [someone / something] out \n流浪 - [pinyin]liu2 lang4[/pinyin] - Drift aimlessly, wander\n馕 - [pinyin]nang2[/pinyin] - Flatbread\n蹲 - [pinyin]dun1[/pinyin] - To crouch, squat\n神仙 - [pinyin]shen2 xian1[/pinyin] - Immortals, dieties\n干嘛 - [pinyin]gan4 ma2[/pinyin] - Why on earth would...? Why should [I / you]...? Whatever for...?\n鄙视 - [pinyin]bi3 shi4[/pinyin] - Contempt, disdain \n好倒好 - [pinyin]hao3 dao3 hao3[/pinyin] - That\'s all very well and good, but...\n梯子 - [pinyin]ti1 zi[/pinyin] - A ladder\n山谷 - [pinyin]shan1 gu3[/pinyin] - A valley\n抓住 - [pinyin]zhua1 zhu4[/pinyin] - To grab onto, catch\n窝 - [pinyin]wo1[/pinyin] - A nest\n躲藏 - [pinyin]duo3 cang2[/pinyin] - To hide \n飘飘荡荡 - [pinyin]piao1 piao1 dang4 dang4[/pinyin] - To drift, float on waves or wind\n窟窿 - [pinyin]ku1 long5[/pinyin] - Hole, pocket, cavity, opening\n松 - [pinyin]song1[/pinyin] - To loosen or relax a hold\n摇摇晃晃 - [pinyin]yao2 yao2 huang4 huan4[/pinyin] - back and forth\n肉酱 - [pinyin]rou4 jiang4[/pinyin] - Mincemeat\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n从前，维吾尔族有这么两个懒汉，一个叫哈山代吾来克，一个叫沙吾提卡巴克。他们都懒得要命，吃穿全靠父母，一点活儿也不干，一天到晚靠着墙根晒太阳。 这样，久而久之，弄得他们父母也讨厌他们了，不得不把他们从家里赶了出来。他们俩过着流浪的生活，饿了几天肚子，一块馕也没有吃到。\n\n这天，他俩蹲在馕坑上商量着今后该怎么办。哈山代吾来克说: “最好到一个有吃有穿，又不需要劳动的地方去，不知道有没有这么个地方？”\n\n沙吾提卡巴克说: “世界上是没有这么个地方的，只天上有吧！听说天上的神仙最快活。”\n\n哈山代吾来克说: “那末，我们就上天去吧，干嘛要呆在这个必须劳动的地方受人鄙视呢？”\n\n沙吾提卡巴克说: “好倒好，不过怎么上去呢？能找到这么个长梯子吗？”\n\n哈山代吾来克肯定地说: “这么长的梯子是找不到的。但是，没有梯子也可以上去。”\n\n沙吾提卡巴克惊奇地问道: “怎么上去？”\n\n哈山代吾来克说: “山谷里有一只大鹏鸟，小时候我跟父亲上去看见过。我们只要把这只大鹏抓住，它就会带我们上天去的。”\n\n沙吾提卡巴克说: “好办法，我们就这样办好了。”\n\n两个朋友就这么决定了。第二天一早，他们就起身往山上走去，走到一个山谷里，找到了大鹏的窝，他们在附近躲藏起来，等到太阳落山的时候，大鹏飞回来刚落在窝里，就被哈山代吾来克紧紧地抓住了。他连忙招呼沙吾提卡巴克抓住自己的脚，大鹏受了惊，直往天空飞去。\n\n就这样，沙吾提卡巴克抓住哈山代吾来克的脚，哈山代吾来克抓住大鹏的爪子，飘飘荡荡地一直飞向七层云端里去了。\n\n沙吾提卡巴克问道: “嘿！到了吗？我的手吃不消啦！”\n\n哈山代吾来克望着云层的空隙说: “快啦！连窟窿都已经看见了。”\n\n沙吾提卡巴克问道: “窟窿有多大？我们能不能钻进去呀？”\n\n哈山代吾来克回答: “有这么大。”哈山代吾来克一面答应着，一面用手来比划窟窿的大小。\n\n不料哈山代吾来克两手一松，这两个懒汉朋友都离开了大鹏鸟，摇摇晃晃地掉下来，摔成肉酱了。\n
\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH\"]\nLong ago, among the Uighur people there were two lazybones, one called Hashandaiwulaike, the other called Shawutikabake. They were both extremely lazy, depending on their parents for food and clothing, unwilling to do even a little work, from morning to night they sat at the base of a wall and sunned themselves. As time passed this way, their parents [began to] loathe them, and had no choice but to kick them out. The two of them lived a drifter\'s life, and went hungry for days at a time, with not even a piece of bread to eat. \n\nOne day, they were squatting next to a bread pit discussing what to do. Hashandaiwulaike said: The ebst thing would be to go to a place where there\'s food and clothes, but you don\'t have to work - I don\'t know if there is such a place?\"\n\nShawutikabake said: \"There\'s no such place on this earth, only in heaven! I heard that the immortals in heaven are the happiest.\" \n\nHashandaiwulaike said: \"In that case, we should go to heaven. Why on earth would we stay in this place where we have to work and suffer other people\'s disdain?\" \n\nShawutikabake said: \"That\'s all very well and good, but how will we get up there? Can we find a ladder that long?\" \n\nHashandaiwulaike said: \"We could never find a ladder that long, but you can still get up there without a ladder.\" \n\nShawutikabake said: \"How?\"\n\nHashandaiwulaike said: \"In the valley there\'s a Roc bird, when I was little I saw it when I went up there with my father. All we have to do is grab onto the Roc, and he will take us up to heaven.\"\n\nShawutikabake said: \"That\'s a great idea, we\'ll do it that way.\" \n\nSo the two friends decided thus. On the morning of the next day, they got us and walked to the mountain. When they got to the mountain valley, they found the Roc\'s nest, and they hid themselves next to it. They waited until the sun fell behind the mountain and the Roc flew back and had just landed in its nest, when Hashandaiwulaike grabbed it and held it tightly. He promptly called to Shawutikabake to grab his feet, and the Roc was frightened and flew into the sky.\n\nSo Shawutikabake was holding on to Hashandaiwulaike\'s feet, and Hashandaiwulaike was holding on to the Roc\'s claws, and they floated towards the seventh level of clouds [heaven]. \n\nShawutikabake asked,\" Hey! Are we there yet? I can\'t hold on much longer!\" \n\nHashandaiwulaike looked into a gap between the clouds and said, \"Almost! I can already see the opening!\" \n\nShawutikabake asked, \"How big is the opening? Can we fit into it?\" \n\nHashandaiwulaike answered, \"It\'s this big.\" As Hashandaiwulaike answered, he used his hands to demonstrate how big the opening [to heaven] was. \n\nBut to his surprise, as soon as Hashandaiwulaike let go, the two lazy friends parted ways with the Roc, tumbled down, and were smashed into mincemeat. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Two Lazybones', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1086-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-04-25 04:41:08', '2012-04-25 08:41:08', '', 1086, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/04/25/1086-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1094, 1, '2012-04-25 04:45:58', '2012-04-25 08:45:58', '[two_third]\r\nThis is probably the longest text I\'ve ever posted, but this is upper-beginner to mid-intermediate reading. I could probably toss this in the beginner category, but the length is prohibitive. The first few sentences are much more intermediate as we learn new vocabulary words and set up the story, but after that the reading is mostly a dialogue which is very smooth and fairly simple, so press through the first paragraph or two if you can. \r\n\r\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120425-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Mandarin")
I kind of can\'t tell weather I should be offended by this or not - the protagonists are two \"lazy Uighurs\" (A Uighur 维吾尔族 [pinyin]wei2 wu2 er3 zu2[/pinyin] is a member of the ethnic minority hailing from the Uighur Autonomous Region of China, a politically touchy topic on the mainland). I\'ve never seen a folk story about heroic Uighurs or smart Uighurs, or really ever seen a story about Uighurs at all. So to run across this one first makes me wonder if the \"lazy Uighur\" thing is a mean stereotype or if I just haven\'t read widely enough. I\'ll have to go in search of some Uighur folk tales in Mandarin and see what I can dig up. \r\n\r\nI really know almost nothing about Uighur cultural history, but this story taught me something interesting: it looks like Uighurs have six-character names (as opposed to two and three character names for Chinese and 4 character names for Japanese). Our two protagonists here are rather lengthily called 哈山代吾来克 [pinyin]Ha1 shan1 dai4 wu2 lai2 ke4[/pinyin] and 沙吾提卡巴克 [pinyin]sha1 wu2 ti2 ka3 ba1 ke4[/pinyin]. \r\n\r\nAnother interesting thing: this story mentions a 大鹏鸟 [pinyin]da peng3 niao3[/pinyin] - called a \"Roc\" in English (though I\'d never heard that word before). Apparently, it\'s a legendary fictional bird of prey, like a giant eagle.\r\n\r\nThe Chinese title of this post is 两个懒汉 - the two lazybones. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n懒汉- [pinyin]lan3 han4[/pinyin] - Lazybones\r\n要命 - [pinyin]yao4 ming4[/pinyin] - Extremely\r\n墙根 - [pinyin]qiang2 gen1[/pinyin] - Base of a wall\r\n久而久之 - [pinyin]jiu3 er2 jiu3 zhi1[/pinyin] - As time passed\r\n不得不 - [pinyin]bu4 de2 bu4[/pinyin] - have no choice but to... \r\n赶 - [pinyin]gan3[/pinyin] - To kick or drive [someone / something] out \r\n流浪 - [pinyin]liu2 lang4[/pinyin] - Drift aimlessly, wander\r\n馕 - [pinyin]nang2[/pinyin] - Flatbread\r\n蹲 - [pinyin]dun1[/pinyin] - To crouch, squat\r\n神仙 - [pinyin]shen2 xian1[/pinyin] - Immortals, dieties\r\n干嘛 - [pinyin]gan4 ma2[/pinyin] - Why on earth would...? Why should [I / you]...? Whatever for...?\r\n鄙视 - [pinyin]bi3 shi4[/pinyin] - Contempt, disdain \r\n好倒好 - [pinyin]hao3 dao3 hao3[/pinyin] - That\'s all very well and good, but...\r\n梯子 - [pinyin]ti1 zi[/pinyin] - A ladder\r\n山谷 - [pinyin]shan1 gu3[/pinyin] - A valley\r\n抓住 - [pinyin]zhua1 zhu4[/pinyin] - To grab onto, catch\r\n窝 - [pinyin]wo1[/pinyin] - A nest\r\n躲藏 - [pinyin]duo3 cang2[/pinyin] - To hide \r\n飘飘荡荡 - [pinyin]piao1 piao1 dang4 dang4[/pinyin] - To drift, float on waves or wind\r\n窟窿 - [pinyin]ku1 long5[/pinyin] - Hole, pocket, cavity, opening\r\n松 - [pinyin]song1[/pinyin] - To loosen or relax a hold\r\n摇摇晃晃 - [pinyin]yao2 yao2 huang4 huan4[/pinyin] - back and forth\r\n肉酱 - [pinyin]rou4 jiang4[/pinyin] - Mincemeat\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n从前，维吾尔族有这么两个懒汉，一个叫哈山代吾来克，一个叫沙吾提卡巴克。他们都懒得要命，吃穿全靠父母，一点活儿也不干，一天到晚靠着墙根晒太阳。 这样，久而久之，弄得他们父母也讨厌他们了，不得不把他们从家里赶了出来。他们俩过着流浪的生活，饿了几天肚子，一块馕也没有吃到。\r\n\r\n这天，他俩蹲在馕坑上商量着今后该怎么办。哈山代吾来克说: “最好到一个有吃有穿，又不需要劳动的地方去，不知道有没有这么个地方？”\r\n\r\n沙吾提卡巴克说: “世界上是没有这么个地方的，只天上有吧！听说天上的神仙最快活。”\r\n\r\n哈山代吾来克说: “那末，我们就上天去吧，干嘛要呆在这个必须劳动的地方受人鄙视呢？”\r\n\r\n沙吾提卡巴克说: “好倒好，不过怎么上去呢？能找到这么个长梯子吗？”\r\n\r\n哈山代吾来克肯定地说: “这么长的梯子是找不到的。但是，没有梯子也可以上去。”\r\n\r\n沙吾提卡巴克惊奇地问道: “怎么上去？”\r\n\r\n哈山代吾来克说: “山谷里有一只大鹏鸟，小时候我跟父亲上去看见过。我们只要把这只大鹏抓住，它就会带我们上天去的。”\r\n\r\n沙吾提卡巴克说: “好办法，我们就这样办好了。”\r\n\r\n两个朋友就这么决定了。第二天一早，他们就起身往山上走去，走到一个山谷里，找到了大鹏的窝，他们在附近躲藏起来，等到太阳落山的时候，大鹏飞回来刚落在窝里，就被哈山代吾来克紧紧地抓住了。他连忙招呼沙吾提卡巴克抓住自己的脚，大鹏受了惊，直往天空飞去。\r\n\r\n就这样，沙吾提卡巴克抓住哈山代吾来克的脚，哈山代吾来克抓住大鹏的爪子，飘飘荡荡地一直飞向七层云端里去了。\r\n\r\n沙吾提卡巴克问道: “嘿！到了吗？我的手吃不消啦！”\r\n\r\n哈山代吾来克望着云层的空隙说: “快啦！连窟窿都已经看见了。”\r\n\r\n沙吾提卡巴克问道: “窟窿有多大？我们能不能钻进去呀？”\r\n\r\n哈山代吾来克回答: “有这么大。”哈山代吾来克一面答应着，一面用手来比划窟窿的大小。\r\n\r\n不料哈山代吾来克两手一松，这两个懒汉朋友都离开了大鹏鸟，摇摇晃晃地掉下来，摔成肉酱了。\r\n
\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH\"]\r\nLong ago, among the Uighur people there were two lazybones, one called Hashandaiwulaike, the other called Shawutikabake. They were both extremely lazy, depending on their parents for food and clothing, unwilling to do even a little work, from morning to night they sat at the base of a wall and sunned themselves. As time passed this way, their parents [began to] loathe them, and had no choice but to kick them out. The two of them lived a drifter\'s life, and went hungry for days at a time, with not even a piece of bread to eat. \r\n\r\nOne day, they were squatting next to a bread pit discussing what to do. Hashandaiwulaike said: The ebst thing would be to go to a place where there\'s food and clothes, but you don\'t have to work - I don\'t know if there is such a place?\"\r\n\r\nShawutikabake said: \"There\'s no such place on this earth, only in heaven! I heard that the immortals in heaven are the happiest.\" \r\n\r\nHashandaiwulaike said: \"In that case, we should go to heaven. Why on earth would we stay in this place where we have to work and suffer other people\'s disdain?\" \r\n\r\nShawutikabake said: \"That\'s all very well and good, but how will we get up there? Can we find a ladder that long?\" \r\n\r\nHashandaiwulaike said: \"We could never find a ladder that long, but you can still get up there without a ladder.\" \r\n\r\nShawutikabake said: \"How?\"\r\n\r\nHashandaiwulaike said: \"In the valley there\'s a Roc bird, when I was little I saw it when I went up there with my father. All we have to do is grab onto the Roc, and he will take us up to heaven.\"\r\n\r\nShawutikabake said: \"That\'s a great idea, we\'ll do it that way.\" \r\n\r\nSo the two friends decided thus. On the morning of the next day, they got us and walked to the mountain. When they got to the mountain valley, they found the Roc\'s nest, and they hid themselves next to it. They waited until the sun fell behind the mountain and the Roc flew back and had just landed in its nest, when Hashandaiwulaike grabbed it and held it tightly. He promptly called to Shawutikabake to grab his feet, and the Roc was frightened and flew into the sky.\r\n\r\nSo Shawutikabake was holding on to Hashandaiwulaike\'s feet, and Hashandaiwulaike was holding on to the Roc\'s claws, and they floated towards the seventh level of clouds [heaven]. \r\n\r\nShawutikabake asked,\" Hey! Are we there yet? I can\'t hold on much longer!\" \r\n\r\nHashandaiwulaike looked into a gap between the clouds and said, \"Almost! I can already see the opening!\" \r\n\r\nShawutikabake asked, \"How big is the opening? Can we fit into it?\" \r\n\r\nHashandaiwulaike answered, \"It\'s this big.\" As Hashandaiwulaike answered, he used his hands to demonstrate how big the opening [to heaven] was. \r\n\r\nBut to his surprise, as soon as Hashandaiwulaike let go, the two lazy friends parted ways with the Roc, tumbled down, and were smashed into mincemeat. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Two Lazybones', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1086-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-04-25 04:45:58', '2012-04-25 08:45:58', '', 1086, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/04/25/1086-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1095, 1, '2012-04-26 01:52:18', '2012-04-26 05:52:18', '
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[submit \"Send\"]
\nSubject: CRP\n[your-name] <[your-email]>\nFrom: [your-name] <[your-email]>\r\n\r\nSup? \r\n [content]\r\n\r\n--\r\nThis mail is sent via contact form on Chinese Reading Practice http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com\nkendrawiseman@gmail.com\n\n\n\n\n\n[your-subject]\n[your-name] <[your-email]>\nMessage body:\r\n[your-message]\r\n\r\n--\r\nThis mail is sent via contact form on Chinese Reading Practice http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com\n[your-email]\n\n\n\n\nYour message was sent successfully. Thanks.\nFailed to send your message. Please try later or contact the administrator by another method.\nValidation errors occurred. Please confirm the fields and submit it again.\nPlease accept the terms to proceed.\nEmail address seems invalid.\nPlease fill the required field.\nYour answer is not correct.\nFailed to send your message. Please try later or contact the administrator by another method.\nFailed to upload file.\nThis file type is not allowed.\nThis file is too large.\nFailed to upload file. Error occurred.\nYour entered code is incorrect.\nThere was an error trying to send your message. Please try again later.\nThe field is too long.\nThe field is too short.\nThe date format is incorrect.\nThe date is before the earliest one allowed.\nThe date is after the latest one allowed.\nThe number format is invalid.\nThe number is smaller than the minimum allowed.\nThe number is larger than the maximum allowed.\nThe URL is invalid.\nThe telephone number is invalid.', 'Contact form 1', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'open', '', 'contact-form-1', '', '', '2016-11-19 01:17:21', '2016-11-19 06:17:21', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wpcf7_contact_form/contact-form-1/', 0, 'wpcf7_contact_form', '', 0),
(2694, 1, '2017-01-22 05:31:30', '2017-01-22 10:31:30', 'I\'m not sure if this qualifies as a \"joke\" so much as a commentary on the uselessness of the ruling class. Or maybe the moral here is \'battered and experienced trumps fresh-faced and skilled\'? Your call. \r\n\r\nLooks to me like the hard bits of this passage are collected right in the beginning, on the sign placed in front of the first parrot. The sign reads:\r\n\r\n
此鹦鹉会两门语言
\r\n\r\nLet\'s have a look:\r\n\r\n
This: 此 [pinyin]ci3[/pinyin]
\r\n\r\nChances are good you\'re familiar with the word \"这个\" [pinyin]zhe4 ge[/pinyin] (\"this\"). It\'s one of the first words we learn in Chinese, and it quickly becomes a placeholder for vocabulary we haven\'t learned yet (\"No, no, THIS. THIS.\") Thing is, 这个 is too laid-back for official documents, scholarly works or other situations that call for a bit of formality. Enter 此 [pinyin]ci3[/pinyin], which replaces \"这个\" [pinyin]zhe4 ge[/pinyin] whenever a touch of class is required. On signage, for example. \r\n\r\n
会两门语言
\r\n\r\nThere are two sticking points here: One, a word has been dropped for brevity\'s sake. The meaning of 会两门语言 would perhaps be clearer if we added \"说\" here: 会
说两门语言。 \r\n\r\nTwo, what is 门 [pinyin]men2[/pinyin] doing there? \"Can speak double door language?\" Nope. A different definition of 门 is being used here. You probably know 门 as a \"door\" - that\'s its most basic definition. In this case, it\'s not a \"door\", it\'s a measure word for \"languages\". \r\n\r\nSo, if we take the original sentence and convert it into colloquial Chinese, we get: \r\n\r\n
这个鹦鹉会说两个语言。, or \"This parrot can speak two languages.\"
\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n1) 一个人去买鹦鹉，看到一只鹦鹉前标：此鹦鹉会两门语言，售价二百元。\r\n\r\n2) 另一只鹦鹉前则标道：此鹦鹉会四门语言，售价四百元。\r\n\r\n3) 该买哪只呢？两只都毛色光鲜，非常灵活可爱。这人转啊转，拿不定主意。\r\n\r\n4) 结果突然发现一只老掉了牙的鹦鹉，毛色暗淡散乱，标价八百元。\r\n\r\n5) 这人赶紧将老板叫来：这只鹦鹉是不是会说八门语言？\r\n\r\n6) 店主说：不。\r\n\r\n7) 这人奇怪了：那为什么又老又丑，又没有能力，会值这个数呢？\r\n\r\n8) 店主回答：因为另外两只鹦鹉叫这只鹦鹉老板。\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) A man went shopping for a parrot, and saw a sign in front of one parrot reading: \"This parrot can speak two languages, selling price 200
yuan.\" \r\n\r\n2) In front of another parrot was a sign reading: This parrot can speak four languages, selling price 400
yuan. \r\n\r\n3) Which one should he buy? Both had a shiny coat of feathers, [both] were lively and adorable. The man turned to this one then that one, but couldn\'t settle on one.\r\n\r\n4) Then he suddenly saw an ancient parrot, coat dull and in disarray, with a posted price of 800
yuan.\r\n\r\n5) The man quickly called the shopkeeper over: \"I suppose this parrot can speak 8 languages?\" \r\n\r\n6) The shopkeeper said: \"Nope.\" \r\n\r\n7) The man was confused: \"Then why is an old, ugly, unskilled parrot worth such a price?\"\r\n\r\n8) The shopkeeper replied: \"Because the two other parrots call this parrot \'The Boss\'.\" \r\n \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n', '[Jokes in Chinese] 鹦鹉 - Parrots & the Price of Power', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1826-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-22 05:31:30', '2017-01-22 10:31:30', '', 1826, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/1826-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1120, 1, '2012-04-28 03:54:42', '2012-04-28 07:54:42', '[two_third]\nAnd now a break', 'Dear Diary: Mama Please Believe Me', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1113-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-04-28 03:54:42', '2012-04-28 07:54:42', '', 1113, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/04/28/1113-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1108, 1, '2012-04-27 22:36:27', '2012-04-28 02:36:27', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Read Advanced Chinese Essays', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120428-inline', '', '', '2012-04-27 22:36:27', '2012-04-28 02:36:27', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120428-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1109, 1, '2012-04-27 22:36:29', '2012-04-28 02:36:29', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Read Advanced Chinese Essays', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120428', '', '', '2012-04-27 22:36:29', '2012-04-28 02:36:29', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120428.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1113, 1, '2012-05-03 07:00:25', '2012-05-03 11:00:25', 'And now a break from all the intermediate and advanced exercises I\'ve been posting lately. This one is a straightforward beginner Chinese diary-style essay about a student whose mother is displeased with his (or her, it\'s never clarified) homework. \r\n\r\nThere\'s only one thing that particularly stands out to me as confusing here, which is when the mother says: 可能是
有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。 Literally, this translates as \"Maybe it\'s have small sister, I during this time towards you care little.\" The last clause we can translate into less literal and more readable English as \"I haven\'t looked after you much during this time,\" but the first bit, \"
have small sister\" (有了), is confusing. Why \"have\" 有了? \r\n\r\nIn this case, that could be translated as, \"Maybe it\'s because we have your little sister,\" or \"It\'s because I had your little sister [to look after]\", though \"because\" is never actually used in the sentence, it becomes that much harder to read. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n9月24日星期六\r\n\r\n1) 今天，开完家长会，妈妈闷闷不乐，我小心地问：“妈妈，您怎么了？”妈妈看着我，叹了口气说：“你暑假作业完成的不好，字也写的不好。我想，可能是有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。”我听了，不好意思地低下了头。\r\n\r\n2) 看着妈妈自责的样子，我心里特别难过，我对妈妈说：“妈妈，您不要自责了，这根本就不是你的错，而是我自己不努力，请您不要生气了，从现在开始，我一定认真完成老师交给的每项作业，争取取得好成绩。请您相信我！”妈妈盯着我的眼睛，攥着我的手说：“好孩子，妈妈相信你，让我们共同努力！”\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nSeptember 24, Saturday\r\n\r\n1) Today, after my parent-teacher conference, mama looked moody, and I carefully asked her, \"Mama, what\'s wrong?\" Looking at me, mother sighed and said: \"Your summer vacation homework is not close to being done, and your writing is poor. I think, because [I\'ve been spending so much time with] your little sister, I haven\'t been paying as much attention to you during this time.\" As I listened, I hung my head in embarrassment. \r\n\r\n2) When I saw the self-blame on mama\'s face, I was very sad, and I said to mama: \"Mama, don\'t blame yourself, it isn\'t your fault at all, it\'s that I haven\'t worked hard enough, so please don\'t be angry, starting now, I\'ll earnestly finish all the homework teacher gave me, and I\'ll fight to get good grades. Please believe me!\" Mama stared into my eyes, grasped my hand and said, \"Good child, mother believes you, let us work hard together.\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 妈妈相信我 - Mama Please Believe Me', '', 'publish', 'open', 'closed', '', 'dear-diary-mama-please-believe-me', '', '', '2016-11-12 03:40:18', '2016-11-12 08:40:18', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1113', 0, 'post', '', 15),
(2101, 1, '2016-11-04 09:24:12', '2016-11-04 13:24:12', 'And now a break from all the intermediate and advanced exercises I\'ve been posting lately. This one is a straightforward beginner Chinese diary-style essay about a student whose mother is displeased with his (or her, it\'s never clarified) homework. \r\n\r\nThere\'s only one thing that particularly stands out to me as confusing here, which is when the mother says: 可能是
有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。 Literally, this translates as \"Maybe it\'s have small sister, I during this time towards you care little.\" The last clause we can translate into less literal and more readable English as \"I haven\'t looked after you much during this time,\" but the first bit, \"
have small sister\" (有了), is confusing. Why \"have\" 有了? \r\n\r\nIn this case, that could be translated as, \"Maybe it\'s because we have your little sister,\" or \"It\'s because I had your little sister [to look after]\", though \"because\" is never actually used in the sentence, it becomes that much harder to read. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n9月24日星期六\r\n\r\n1) 今天，开完家长会，妈妈闷闷不乐，我小心地问：“妈妈，您怎么了？”妈妈看着我，叹了口气说：“你暑假作业完成的不好，字也写的不好。我想，可能是有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。”我听了，不好意思地低下了头。\r\n\r\n2) 看着妈妈自责的样子，我心里特别难过，我对妈妈说：“妈妈，您不要自责了，这根本就不是你的错，而是我自己不努力，请您不要生气了，从现在开始，我一定认真完成老师交给的每项作业，争取取得好成绩。请您相信我！”妈妈盯着我的眼睛，攥着我的手说：“好孩子，妈妈相信你，让我们共同努力！”\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nSeptember 24, Saturday\r\n\r\n1) Today, after my parent-teacher conference, mama looked moody, and I carefully asked her, \"Mama, what\'s wrong?\" Looking at me, mother sighed and said: \"Your summer vacation homework is not close to being done, and your writing is poor. I think, because [I\'ve been spending so much time with] your little sister, I haven\'t been paying as much attention to you during this time.\" As I listened, I hung my head in embarrassment. \r\n\r\n2) When I saw the self-blame on mama\'s face, I was very sad, and I said to mama: \"Mama, don\'t blame yourself, it isn\'t your fault at all, it\'s that I haven\'t worked hard enough, so please don\'t be angry, starting now, I\'ll earnestly finish all the homework teacher gave me, and I\'ll fight to get good grades. Please believe me!\" Mama stared into my eyes, grasped my hand and said, \"Good child, mother believes you, let us work hard together.\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 妈妈相信我 - Mama Please Believe Me', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1113-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:24:12', '2016-11-04 13:24:12', '', 1113, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1113-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1735, 1, '2016-10-31 03:21:00', '2016-10-31 07:21:00', 'And now a break from all the intermediate and advanced exercises I\'ve been posting lately. This one is a straightforward beginner Chinese diary-style essay about a student whose mother is displeased with his (or her, it\'s never clarified) homework. \r\n\r\n
![\"Beginner](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120503-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Easy")
There\'s only one thing that particularly stands out to me as confusing here, which is when the mother says: 可能是
有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。 Literally, this translates as \"Maybe it\'s have small sister, I during this time towards you care little.\" The last clause we can translate into less literal and more readable English as \"I haven\'t looked after you much during this time,\" but the first bit, \"
have small sister\" (有了), is confusing. Why \"have\" 有了? \r\n\r\nIn this case, that could be translated as, \"Maybe it\'s because we have your little sister,\" or \"It\'s because I had your little sister [to look after]\", though \"because\" is never actually used in the sentence, it becomes that much harder to read. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n9月24日星期六\r\n\r\n今天，开完家长会，妈妈闷闷不乐，我小心地问：“妈妈，您怎么了？”妈妈看着我，叹了口气说：“你暑假作业完成的不好，字也写的不好。我想，可能是有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。”我听了，不好意思地低下了头。\r\n\r\n看着妈妈自责的样子，我心里特别难过，我对妈妈说：“妈妈，您不要自责了，这根本就不是你的错，而是我自己不努力，请您不要生气了，从现在开始，我一定认真完成老师交给的每项作业，争取取得好成绩。请您相信我！”妈妈盯着我的眼睛，攥着我的手说：“好孩子，妈妈相信你，让我们共同努力！”\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nSeptember 24, Saturday\r\n\r\nToday, after my parent-teacher conference, mama looked moody, and I carefully asked her, \"Mama, what\'s wrong?\" Looking at me, mother sighed and said: \"Your summer vacation homework is not close to being done, and your writing is poor. I think, because [I\'ve been spending so much time with] your little sister, I haven\'t been paying as much attention to you during this time.\" As I listened, I hung my head in embarrassment. \r\n\r\nWhen I saw the self-blame on mama\'s face, I was very sad, and I said to mama: \"Mama, don\'t blame yourself, it isn\'t your fault at all, it\'s that I haven\'t worked hard enough, so please don\'t be angry, starting now, I\'ll earnestly finish all the homework teacher gave me, and I\'ll fight to get good grades. Please believe me!\" Mama stared into my eyes, grasped my hand and said, \"Good child, mother believes you, let us work hard together.\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essay] 妈妈相信我 - Mama Please Believe Me', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1113-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:21:00', '2016-10-31 07:21:00', '', 1113, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1113-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1117, 1, '2012-04-28 03:21:29', '2012-04-28 07:21:29', '[two_third]\n\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n闷闷不乐 - [pinyin]men4 men4 bu4 le4[/pinyin] - Sulky, moody, unhappy\n怎么了 - [pinyin]zen3 me5 le4[/pinyin] - What\'s wrong?\n叹 - [pinyin]tan4[/pinyin] - Sigh\n暑假 - [pinyin]shu3 jia4[/pinyin] - Summer vacation\n自责 - [pinyin]zi4 ze2[/pinyin] - To blame oneself\n根本 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - absolutely (not)\n努力 - [pinyin]nu3 li4[/pinyin] - To strive, work hard\n盯 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - Stare at\n攥 - [pinyin]zuan4[/pinyin] - To grasp\n共同 - [pinyin]gong4 tong2[/pinyin] - Together\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n9月24日星期六\n\n今天，开完家长会，妈妈闷闷不乐，我小心地问：“妈妈，您怎么了？”妈妈看着我，叹了口气说：“你暑假作业完成的不好，字也写的不好。我想，可能是有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。”我听了，不好意思地低下了头。\n\n看着妈妈自责的样子，我心里特别难过，我对妈妈说：“妈妈，您不要自责了，这根本就不是你的错，而是我自己不努力，请您不要生气了，从现在开始，我一定认真完成老师交给的每项作业，争取取得好成绩。请您相信我！”妈妈盯着我的眼睛，攥着我的手说：“好孩子，妈妈相信你，让我们共同努力！”\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nSeptember 24, Saturday\n\nToday, as we were finishing our family meeting, mama looked moody, and I carefully asked her, \"Mama, what\'s wrong?\" Looking at me, mother sighed and said: \"Your summer vacation homework is not close to being done, and your writing is poor. I think, because [I\'ve been spending so much time with] your little sister, I haven\'t been paying as much attention to you during this time.\" As I listened, I hung my head in embarrassment. \n\nWhen I saw the self-blame on mama\'s face, I was very sad, and I said to mama: \"Mama, don\'t blame yourself, is isn\'t your fault at all, it\'s that I haven\'t worked hard enough, so please don\'t be angry, starting now, I\'ll earnestly finish all the homework teacher gave me, and I\'ll fight to get good grades. Please believe me!\" Mama stared into my eyes, grasped my hand and said, \"Good child, mother believes you, let us work hard together.\" \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Dear Diary: Mama Please Believe Me', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1113-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-04-28 03:21:29', '2012-04-28 07:21:29', '', 1113, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/04/28/1113-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1115, 1, '2012-04-28 03:17:42', '2012-04-28 07:17:42', '', 'Easy Chinese Passages: Easy Chinese Essays', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120503', '', '', '2012-04-28 03:17:42', '2012-04-28 07:17:42', '', 1113, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120503.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1116, 1, '2012-04-28 03:17:47', '2012-04-28 07:17:47', '', 'Easy Chinese Passages: Easy Chinese Essays', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120503-inline', '', '', '2012-04-28 03:17:47', '2012-04-28 07:17:47', '', 1113, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120503-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1114, 1, '2012-04-28 02:57:43', '2012-04-28 06:57:43', '[two_third]\nI got the most ah-mayzing canned message from Sina Weibo\'s glorious legality enforcers a couple of days ago, informing me that some people who had been saying too much online had been, erm, prevented from continuing to do so, and warning me not to follow the same path. \n\n
![\"Chinese](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120428-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Learn")
In this note, which I presume everyone on Sina Weibo got, I was warned not to listen to all the \"political rumors\" that are being spread - rumors which I hadn\'t heard about until I got the warning and will now trot off to Google. We often hear about how this kind of thing happens in China - now\'s your chance to read it straight from the horse\'s mouth. \n\nFor those of you just tuning in, Sina Weibo (新浪微博 - you\'ll see those words a couple of times in the post) is China\'s most popular Twitter-esque microblog platform. 微博 [pinyin]wei1 bo2[/pinyin] means \"microblog\", 新浪 is the particular microblog platform (China has several competing microblogs, as opposed to just the one Twitter).\n\nAs you read through this, bear in mind that the words in \"quotes\" are usernames, hence the strange collection of characters.\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n闷闷不乐 - [pinyin]men4 men4 bu4 le4[/pinyin] - Sulky, moody, unhappy\n怎么了 - [pinyin]zen3 me5 le4[/pinyin] - What\'s wrong?\n叹 - [pinyin]tan4[/pinyin] - Sigh\n暑假 - [pinyin]shu3 jia4[/pinyin] - Summer vacation\n自责 - [pinyin]zi4 ze2[/pinyin] - To blame oneself\n根本 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - absolutely (not)\n努力 - [pinyin]nu3 li4[/pinyin] - To strive, work hard\n盯 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - Stare at\n攥 - [pinyin]zuan4[/pinyin] - To grasp\n共同 - [pinyin]gong4 tong2[/pinyin] - Together\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n9月24日星期六\n\n今天，开完家长会，妈妈闷闷不乐，我小心地问：“妈妈，您怎么了？”妈妈看着我，叹了口气说：“你暑假作业完成的不好，字也写的不好。我想，可能是有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。”我听了，不好意思地低下了头。\n\n看着妈妈自责的样子，我心里特别难过，我对妈妈说：“妈妈，您不要自责了，这根本就不是你的错，而是我自己不努力，请您不要生气了，从现在开始，我一定认真完成老师交给的每项作业，争取取得好成绩。请您相信我！”妈妈盯着我的眼睛，攥着我的手说：“好孩子，妈妈相信你，让我们共同努力！”\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nSeptember 24, Saturday\n\nToday, as we were finishing our family meeting, mama looked moody, and I carefully asked her, \"Mama, what\'s wrong?\" Looking at me, mother sighed and said: \"Your summer vacation homework is not close to being done, and your writing is poor. I think, because [I\'ve been spending so much time with] your little sister, I haven\'t been paying as much attention to you during this time.\" As I listened, I hung my head in embarrassment. \n\nWhen I saw the self-blame on mama\'s face, I was very sad, and I said to mama: \"Mama, don\'t blame yourself, is isn\'t your fault at all, it\'s that I haven\'t worked hard enough, so please don\'t be angry, starting now, I\'ll earnestly finish all the homework teacher gave me, and I\'ll fight to get good grades. Please believe me!\" Mama stared into my eyes, grasped my hand and said, \"Good child, mother believes you, let us work hard together.\" \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Dear Diary: Mama Please Believe Me', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1113-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-04-28 02:57:43', '2012-04-28 06:57:43', '', 1113, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/04/28/1113-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1121, 1, '2012-04-28 03:55:05', '2012-04-28 07:55:05', '[two_third]\r\nAnd now a break from all the intermediate and advanced exercises I\'ve been posting lately. This one is a straightforward beginner Chinese diary-style essay about a student whose mother is displeased with his (or her, it\'s never clarified) homework. \r\n\r\n
There\'s only one thing that particularly stands out to me as confusing here, which is when the mother says: 可能是
有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。 Literally, this translates as \"Maybe it\'s have small sister, I during this time towards you care little.\" The last clause we can translate into less literal and more readable English as \"I haven\'t looked after you much during this time,\" but the first bit, \"
have small sister\" (有了), is confusing. Why \"have\" 有了? \r\n\r\nIn this case, that could be translated as, \"Maybe it\'s because we have your little sister,\" or \"It\'s because I had your little sister [to look after]\", though \"because\" is never actually used in the sentence, it becomes that much harder to read. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n闷闷不乐 - [pinyin]men4 men4 bu4 le4[/pinyin] - Sulky, moody, unhappy\r\n怎么了 - [pinyin]zen3 me5 le4[/pinyin] - What\'s wrong?\r\n叹 - [pinyin]tan4[/pinyin] - Sigh\r\n暑假 - [pinyin]shu3 jia4[/pinyin] - Summer vacation\r\n自责 - [pinyin]zi4 ze2[/pinyin] - To blame oneself\r\n根本 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - absolutely (not)\r\n努力 - [pinyin]nu3 li4[/pinyin] - To strive, work hard\r\n盯 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - Stare at\r\n攥 - [pinyin]zuan4[/pinyin] - To grasp\r\n共同 - [pinyin]gong4 tong2[/pinyin] - Together\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n9月24日星期六\r\n\r\n今天，开完家长会，妈妈
闷闷不乐，', 'Dear Diary: Mama Please Believe Me', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1113-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-04-28 03:55:05', '2012-04-28 07:55:05', '', 1113, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/04/28/1113-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1122, 1, '2012-04-28 04:01:10', '2012-04-28 08:01:10', '[two_third]\r\nAnd now a break from all the intermediate and advanced exercises I\'ve been posting lately. This one is a straightforward beginner Chinese diary-style essay about a student whose mother is displeased with his (or her, it\'s never clarified) homework. \r\n\r\n
There\'s only one thing that particularly stands out to me as confusing here, which is when the mother says: 可能是
有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。 Literally, this translates as \"Maybe it\'s have small sister, I during this time towards you care little.\" The last clause we can translate into less literal and more readable English as \"I haven\'t looked after you much during this time,\" but the first bit, \"
have small sister\" (有了), is confusing. Why \"have\" 有了? \r\n\r\nIn this case, that could be translated as, \"Maybe it\'s because we have your little sister,\" or \"It\'s because I had your little sister [to look after]\", though \"because\" is never actually used in the sentence, it becomes that much harder to read. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n闷闷不乐 - [pinyin]men4 men4 bu4 le4[/pinyin] - Sulky, moody, unhappy\r\n怎么了 - [pinyin]zen3 me5 le4[/pinyin] - What\'s wrong?\r\n叹 - [pinyin]tan4[/pinyin] - Sigh\r\n暑假 - [pinyin]shu3 jia4[/pinyin] - Summer vacation\r\n自责 - [pinyin]zi4 ze2[/pinyin] - To blame oneself\r\n根本 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - absolutely (not)\r\n努力 - [pinyin]nu3 li4[/pinyin] - To strive, work hard\r\n盯 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - Stare at\r\n攥 - [pinyin]zuan4[/pinyin] - To grasp\r\n共同 - [pinyin]gong4 tong2[/pinyin] - Together\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n9月24日星期六\r\n\r\n今天，开完家长会，妈妈闷闷不乐，我小心地问：“妈妈，您怎么了？”妈妈看着我，叹了口气说：“你暑假作业完成的不好，字也写的不好。我想，可能是有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。”我听了，不好意思地低下了头。\r\n\r\n看着妈妈自责的样子，我心里特别难过，我对妈妈说：“妈妈，您不要自责了，这根本就不是你的错，而是我自己不努力，请您不要生气了，从现在开始，我一定认真完成老师交给的每项作业，争取取得好成绩。请您相信我！”妈妈盯着我的眼睛，攥着我的手说：“好孩子，妈妈相信你，让我们共同努力！”\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nSeptember 24, Saturday\r\n\r\nToday, as we were finishing our family meeting, mama looked moody, and I carefully asked her, \"Mama, what\'s wrong?\" Looking at me, mother sighed and said: ', 'Dear Diary: Mama Please Believe Me', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1113-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-04-28 04:01:10', '2012-04-28 08:01:10', '', 1113, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/04/28/1113-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1125, 1, '2012-05-07 09:36:15', '2012-05-07 13:36:15', '[two_third]\nIn this \nAs is pretty typical in Chinese texts, it\'s never really specified if it\'s one blade of grass or a field of grass that is the protagonist here, but . My point is that this is a great example of - in English stories, it\'s hard to personify something you can\'t define. \n\n\n\nNot 100% sure I\'m happy with the conclusion that\'s drawn here, considering I dye my hair all the time, but what the hell. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n闷闷不乐 - [pinyin]men4 men4 bu4 le4[/pinyin] - Sulky, moody, unhappy\n怎么了 - [pinyin]zen3 me5 le4[/pinyin] - What\'s wrong?\n叹 - [pinyin]tan4[/pinyin] - Sigh\n暑假 - [pinyin]shu3 jia4[/pinyin] - Summer vacation\n自责 - [pinyin]zi4 ze2[/pinyin] - To blame oneself\n根本 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - absolutely (not)\n努力 - [pinyin]nu3 li4[/pinyin] - To strive, work hard\n盯 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - Stare at\n攥 - [pinyin]zuan4[/pinyin] - To grasp\n共同 - [pinyin]gong4 tong2[/pinyin] - Together\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n小草银银喜欢银色。\n 春天，小草银银让春姑娘把她的头发染成银色。春姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成青色”。银银非常伤心。\n 夏天小草银银让夏姑娘把她的头发染成银色。夏姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成深绿色”。银银非常伤心。\n 秋天小草银银让秋姑娘把她的头发染成银色。秋姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成金黄色”。银银非常伤心。\n 冬天小草银银让冬姑娘把她的头发染成银色。冬姑娘说：“好啊，不过你可不要后悔呦”？银银说：“不会的，有了那么漂亮的头发我高兴还来不及呢”！\n 就这样银银的头发变成了银色。忽然，银银的头发掉下来了，这是怎么回事呢？原来，头发染多了是会伤害身体的。这下银银真的后悔了。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThe little grass YinYin liked the color silver. \n In spring time, little grass Yinyin asked the Lady of Spring to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Spring said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair blue/green [see explanation]. YinYin was very broken-hearted. \n\nIn summer time, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Summer to to dye her hair silver. The lady of summer said, \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair green!\" YinYin was very broken-hearted. \n\nIn autumn, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Autumn to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Autumn said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair golden yellow.\" YinYin was very broken-hearted.\n\nIn winter, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Winter to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Winter said, \"Okay, but won\'t you regret it?\" YinYin said, \"I won\'t, if I had hair that beautiful I couldn\'t be happier!\" And so YinYin\'s hair turned silver. Suddenly, YinYin\'s hair fell out - how could this be? Of course, if you dye your hair too often, it\'s not good for you. And after this YinYin was indeed regretful. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Grass\' Silver Hair', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1123-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-05-07 09:36:15', '2012-05-07 13:36:15', '', 1123, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/05/07/1123-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1124, 1, '2012-05-07 09:32:47', '2012-05-07 13:32:47', '[two_third]\nIn this \nAs is pretty typical in Chinese texts, it\'s never really specified if it\'s one blade of grass or a field of grass that is the protagonist here, but . My point is that this is a great example of - in English stories, it\'s hard to personify something you can\'t define. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n闷闷不乐 - [pinyin]men4 men4 bu4 le4[/pinyin] - Sulky, moody, unhappy\n怎么了 - [pinyin]zen3 me5 le4[/pinyin] - What\'s wrong?\n叹 - [pinyin]tan4[/pinyin] - Sigh\n暑假 - [pinyin]shu3 jia4[/pinyin] - Summer vacation\n自责 - [pinyin]zi4 ze2[/pinyin] - To blame oneself\n根本 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - absolutely (not)\n努力 - [pinyin]nu3 li4[/pinyin] - To strive, work hard\n盯 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - Stare at\n攥 - [pinyin]zuan4[/pinyin] - To grasp\n共同 - [pinyin]gong4 tong2[/pinyin] - Together\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n小草银银喜欢银色。\n 春天，小草银银让春姑娘把她的头发染成银色。春姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成青色”。银银非常伤心。\n 夏天小草银银让夏姑娘把她的头发染成银色。夏姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成深绿色”。银银非常伤心。\n 秋天小草银银让秋姑娘把她的头发染成银色。秋姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成金黄色”。银银非常伤心。\n 冬天小草银银让冬姑娘把她的头发染成银色。冬姑娘说：“好啊，不过你可不要后悔呦”？银银说：“不会的，有了那么漂亮的头发我高兴还来不及呢”！\n 就这样银银的头发变成了银色。忽然，银银的头发掉下来了，这是怎么回事呢？原来，头发染多了是会伤害身体的。这下银银真的后悔了。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThe little grass YinYin liked the color silver. \n In spring time, little grass Yinyin asked the Lady of Spring to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Spring said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair blue/green [see explanation]. YinYin was very broken-hearted. \n\nIn summer time, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Summer to to dye her hair silver. The lady of summer said, \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair green!\" YinYin was very broken-hearted. \n\nIn autumn, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Autumn to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Autumn said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair golden yellow.\" YinYin was very broken-hearted.\n\nIn winter, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Winter to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Winter said, \"Okay, but won\'t you regret it?\" YinYin said, \"I won\'t, if I had hair that beautiful I couldn\'t be happier!\" And so YinYin\'s hair turned silver. Suddenly, YinYin\'s hair fell out - how could this be? Of course, if you dye your hair too often, it\'s not good for your body. And after this YinYin was inde\n 冬天小草银银让冬姑娘把她的头发染成银色。冬姑娘说：“好啊，不过你可不要后悔呦”？银银说：“不会的，有了那么漂亮的头发我高兴还来不及呢”！\n 就这样银银的头发变成了银色。忽然，银银的头发掉下来了，这是怎么回事呢？原来，头发染多了是会伤害身体的。这下银银真的后悔了。\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Grass\' Silver Hair', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1123-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-05-07 09:32:47', '2012-05-07 13:32:47', '', 1123, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/05/07/1123-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2580, 1, '2017-01-08 02:33:36', '2017-01-08 07:33:36', 'Choices, choices. Choices don\'t always present themselves in the clearest terms, and they aren\'t necessarily fair. This tortured little piece represents one dude\'s introspection on the sad reality of choice. \r\n\r\n
纷纷 - [pinyin]fen1 fen1[/pinyin]
\r\nThis word probably the most useful take-away here. It means \"one after the other\", or \"in quick succession\", but it\'s got a little bit of a messy overtone to it, like batches of things are happening around the same time. \r\n\r\nFor example, you could say, 落叶纷纷 [pinyin]luo4 ye4 fen1 fen1[/pinyin], meaning \"the leaves fell in profusion\". Leaves wouldn\'t fall off a tree in measured order, right? But they wouldn\'t all fall off in a synchronized bunch, either. They\'d kind of, you know, fall off generally around the same time, around the same season, some today, some tomorrow. Or \r\n\r\nGo straight to the
source.\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 一个农民从洪水中救起了他的妻子，他的孩子却被淹死了。\r\n\r\n2) 事后，人们议论纷纷。有的说他做得对，因为孩子可以再生一个，妻子却不能死而复活。有的说他做错了，因为妻子可以另娶一个，孩子却不能死而复活。\r\n\r\n3) 我听了人们的议论，也感到疑惑难决：如果只能救活一人，究竟应该救妻子呢，还是救孩子?\r\n\r\n4) 于是我去拜访那个农民，问他当时是怎么想的。\r\n\r\n5) 他答道：“我什么也没想。洪水袭来，妻子在我身过，我抓住她就往附近的山坡游。当我返回时，孩子已经被洪水冲走了。”\r\n\r\n6) 归途上，我琢磨着农民的话，对自己说：如果当时这个农民稍有迟疑，可能一个都救不了；所谓人生的抉择不少便是如此。\r\n\r\n7)【经典小故事心得】：很多事情根本没有错与对，也容不得你去细想错与对，如果过于犹豫或过于在乎别人的想法，你可能什么事也做不成。\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) A farmer saved his wife from a flood, but his child drowned. \r\n\r\n2) Afterwards, everyone offered up one opinion after another. Some said he did the right thing, since he could always have another child, but his wife couldn\'t be revived from the dead. Some said he did the wrong thing, because he could always marry again, but his child could never return. \r\n\r\n3) I listened to everyone\'s opinion, and felt myself at a loss: if only one person could be saved, should the wife be saved, or should the child be saved? \r\n\r\n4) So I went to visit the farmer, and asked him what he\'d been thinking at the time. \r\n\r\n5) He answered: \"I wasn\'t thinking anything. The flood rushed in unexpectedly, and my wife was by my side, so I grabbed her and swam for a nearby hill. When I went back, my child had already been swept away by the flood waters.\" \r\n\r\n6) On the road back, I was tormented by the farmer\'s words, and said to myself: if that farmer had hesitated, he might have been unable to save even one of them; so many of the so-called choices in our lives happen this way.\r\n\r\n7) Moral of the story: In many matters there is no right and wrong, and those matters don\'t lend themselves well to deeper consideration of right and wrong. If you hesitate too long or worry too much about the opinions of others, you may be unable to do anything at all. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n ', '[Short Story] 选择 - Choices', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1797-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-08 02:33:36', '2017-01-08 07:33:36', '', 1797, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/1797-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2581, 1, '2017-01-08 03:01:03', '2017-01-08 08:01:03', 'Choices, choices. Choices don\'t always present themselves in the clearest terms, and they aren\'t necessarily fair. This tortured little piece represents one dude\'s introspection on the sad reality of choice. \r\n\r\n
纷纷 - [pinyin]fen1 fen1[/pinyin]
\r\nThis word probably the most useful take-away here. It means \"one after the other\", or \"in quick succession\", but it\'s got a little bit of a messy overtone to it, like batches of things are happening around the same time. \r\n\r\nFor example, you could say, 落叶纷纷 [pinyin]luo4 ye4 fen1 fen1[/pinyin], meaning \"the leaves fell in profusion\". Leaves wouldn\'t fall off a tree in measured order, right? But they wouldn\'t all fall off in a synchronized bunch, either. They\'d kind of, you know, fall off generally around the same time, around the same season, some today, some tomorrow. Or you might also say, 同学们纷纷发言 - \"the students spoke up one after another\". \r\n\r\nGo straight to the
source.\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 一个农民从洪水中救起了他的妻子，他的孩子却被淹死了。\r\n\r\n2) 事后，人们议论纷纷。有的说他做得对，因为孩子可以再生一个，妻子却不能死而复活。有的说他做错了，因为妻子可以另娶一个，孩子却不能死而复活。\r\n\r\n3) 我听了人们的议论，也感到疑惑难决：如果只能救活一人，究竟应该救妻子呢，还是救孩子?\r\n\r\n4) 于是我去拜访那个农民，问他当时是怎么想的。\r\n\r\n5) 他答道：“我什么也没想。洪水袭来，妻子在我身过，我抓住她就往附近的山坡游。当我返回时，孩子已经被洪水冲走了。”\r\n\r\n6) 归途上，我琢磨着农民的话，对自己说：如果当时这个农民稍有迟疑，可能一个都救不了；所谓人生的抉择不少便是如此。\r\n\r\n7)【经典小故事心得】：很多事情根本没有错与对，也容不得你去细想错与对，如果过于犹豫或过于在乎别人的想法，你可能什么事也做不成。\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) A farmer saved his wife from a flood, but his child drowned. \r\n\r\n2) Afterwards, everyone offered up one opinion after another. Some said he did the right thing, since he could always have another child, but his wife couldn\'t be revived from the dead. Some said he did the wrong thing, because he could always marry again, but his child could never return. \r\n\r\n3) I listened to everyone\'s opinion, and felt myself at a loss: if only one person could be saved, should the wife be saved, or should the child be saved? \r\n\r\n4) So I went to visit the farmer, and asked him what he\'d been thinking at the time. \r\n\r\n5) He answered: \"I wasn\'t thinking anything. The flood rushed in unexpectedly, and my wife was by my side, so I grabbed her and swam for a nearby hill. When I went back, my child had already been swept away by the flood waters.\" \r\n\r\n6) On the road back, I was tormented by the farmer\'s words, and said to myself: if that farmer had hesitated, he might have been unable to save even one of them; so many of the so-called choices in our lives happen this way.\r\n\r\n7) Moral of the story: In many matters there is no right and wrong, and those matters don\'t lend themselves well to deeper consideration of right and wrong. If you hesitate too long or worry too much about the opinions of others, you may be unable to do anything at all. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n ', '[Short Story] 选择 - Choices', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1797-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-08 03:01:03', '2017-01-08 08:01:03', '', 1797, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/1797-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2582, 1, '2017-01-08 03:03:29', '2017-01-08 08:03:29', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Intermediate Chinese Essays Practice', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'learn-to-read-chinese-20170107-flood-featured', '', '', '2017-01-08 03:04:11', '2017-01-08 08:04:11', '', 1797, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/learn-to-read-chinese-20170107-flood-featured.png', 0, 'attachment', 'image/png', 0),
(1127, 1, '2012-04-28 04:25:20', '2012-04-28 08:25:20', '[two_third]\r\nAnd now a break from all the intermediate and advanced exercises I\'ve been posting lately. This one is a straightforward beginner Chinese diary-style essay about a student whose mother is displeased with his (or her, it\'s never clarified) homework. \r\n\r\n
There\'s only one thing that particularly stands out to me as confusing here, which is when the mother says: 可能是
有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。 Literally, this translates as \"Maybe it\'s have small sister, I during this time towards you care little.\" The last clause we can translate into less literal and more readable English as \"I haven\'t looked after you much during this time,\" but the first bit, \"
have small sister\" (有了), is confusing. Why \"have\" 有了? \r\n\r\nIn this case, that could be translated as, \"Maybe it\'s because we have your little sister,\" or \"It\'s because I had your little sister [to look after]\", though \"because\" is never actually used in the sentence, it becomes that much harder to read. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n闷闷不乐 - [pinyin]men4 men4 bu4 le4[/pinyin] - Sulky, moody, unhappy\r\n怎么了 - [pinyin]zen3 me5 le4[/pinyin] - What\'s wrong?\r\n叹 - [pinyin]tan4[/pinyin] - Sigh\r\n暑假 - [pinyin]shu3 jia4[/pinyin] - Summer vacation\r\n自责 - [pinyin]zi4 ze2[/pinyin] - To blame oneself\r\n根本 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - absolutely (not)\r\n努力 - [pinyin]nu3 li4[/pinyin] - To strive, work hard\r\n盯 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - Stare at\r\n攥 - [pinyin]zuan4[/pinyin] - To grasp\r\n共同 - [pinyin]gong4 tong2[/pinyin] - Together\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n9月24日星期六\r\n\r\n今天，开完家长会，妈妈闷闷不乐，我小心地问：“妈妈，您怎么了？”妈妈看着我，叹了口气说：“你暑假作业完成的不好，字也写的不好。我想，可能是有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。”我听了，不好意思地低下了头。\r\n\r\n看着妈妈自责的样子，我心里特别难过，我对妈妈说：“妈妈，您不要自责了，这根本就不是你的错，而是我自己不努力，请您不要生气了，从现在开始，我一定认真完成老师交给的每项作业，争取取得好成绩。请您相信我！”妈妈盯着我的眼睛，攥着我的手说：“好孩子，妈妈相信你，让我们共同努力！”\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nSeptember 24, Saturday\r\n\r\nToday, as we were finishing our family meeting, mama looked moody, and I carefully asked her, \"Mama, what\'s wrong?\" Looking at me, mother sighed and said: \"Your summer vacation homework is not close to being done, and your writing is poor. I think, because [I\'ve been spending so much time with] your little sister, I haven\'t been paying as much attention to you during this time.\" As I listened, I hung my head in embarrassment. \r\n\r\nWhen I saw the self-blame on mama\'s face, I was very sad, and I said to mama: \"Mama, don\'t blame yourself, is isn\'t your fault at all, it\'s that I haven\'t worked hard enough, so please don\'t be angry, starting now, I\'ll earnestly finish all the homework teacher gave me, and I\'ll fight to get good grades. Please believe me!\" Mama stared into my eyes, grasped my hand and said, \"Good child, mother believes you, let us work hard together.\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Dear Diary: Mama Please Believe Me', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1113-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-04-28 04:25:20', '2012-04-28 08:25:20', '', 1113, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/04/28/1113-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1147, 1, '2012-06-30 05:04:05', '2012-06-30 09:04:05', '', 'ingredients-oil-veggies', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', 'ingredients-oil-veggies', '', '', '2012-06-30 05:04:05', '2012-06-30 09:04:05', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ingredients-oil-veggies.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1129, 1, '2016-11-05 01:07:36', '2016-11-05 05:07:36', 'A slightly off-color \"they don\'t teach you how to say that in the textbook\" joke about two parents dealing with an unexpected pregnancy in the family. This is really upper-intermediate, not really super advanced, but there will be quite a few new words here for lower-intermediate readers.\n\nIt\'s a little hard to get rolling on this one, as the first sentence is a little hard to get past unless you know what they\'re talking about, so I\'ll explain a bit. The joke starts out: \"一个16岁的女孩跟她母亲说她已经2个月没来了\", which literally translates into \"A 16-year-old girl tells her mother that already two months hadn\'t come.\" Once you see it in English, and you know the joke\'s about pregnancy, it\'s pretty easy to decipher the meaning - the girl hasn\'t had her period for 2 months and suspects she\'s pregnant. Thing is, the medical word for \"menstrual cycle\" never actually shows up here - we\'re seeing instead the colloquial term \"月\", or \"moon / month\".\n\nIt\'s also worth noting that in this reading, 令媛 is an old-fashioned term of respect to say \'your daughter\'.\n\nAnd one last interesting grammar point here is the phrase \"负该负的责任\". To \"负责任\", means to shoulder your responsibilities and fulfill your obligations. So this phrase means \"fulfill the responsibilities that should be fulfilled\", or \"to bear the responsibilities that one should bear\".\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n
Chinese text
\n一个16岁的女孩跟她母亲说她已经2个月没来了.... 母亲一听不得了赶紧去药房买了验孕剂来确认一下... 结果女孩真的怀孕了！ 母亲又哭又骂的问到:\"到底是那个浑蛋干的好事，你给我从实招来!!\" 女孩只好打了通电话... 半小时后，一部全新的法拉利跑车疾驶到了女孩家门，而跨出车门的是位全身名牌衣着又风度翩翩的中年绅士. 绅士进入屋内与女孩及她的父母双亲在客厅坐了下来. \"午安!\"绅士礼貌的向她们问候并说道:\"令媛刚刚告知了我这个大问题，但是因为我的个人家庭问题，很抱歉我无法娶令媛为妻，不过我会负该负的责任\" \"这样好了，如果生的是女孩，我会留3家店面，2间房子，1栋海边别墅及一个200万美金的帐户给她\" \"如果生的是男孩，我会让他继承2家公司再加上一个200万美金的帐户\" \"如果生的是双胞胎，那就每人继承1家公司还有各100万美金的帐户\" \"但如果不幸流产了............\" 此时在一旁沉默已久的父亲，突然站起来，并把手紧紧的搭在绅士的肩上后说:\"没关系，到时你可以再来一次!!\"\n\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nA 16-year-old girl said to her mother that she had missed 2 menstrual cycles... as soon as her mother heard this, she rushed in extreme haste to the pharmacy to buy a pregnancy test and confirm the issue... sure enough the daughter was pregnant! Crying and yelling, the mother asked, \"Whichever scoundrel did the happy deed, you make him come face me!!\" The daughter was forced to pick up the phone... half an hour later, a brand new Ferrari sports car quickly pulled up to the girl\'s front door, and who stepped out of the car but an elegant middle-aged gentleman wearing a completely new set of brand-name clothes. The gentleman entered the room and sat down in the living room with the daughter and her parents. \"Good afternoon!\" the gentleman politely paid his respects, and said, \"Your honorable daughter just told me about this serious problem, but because of my own family situation, I\'m very sorry to say I can\'t take her to wife, but I will bear the responsibility I should bear. This should do: if a girl child is born, I will give her 3 storefronts, 2 houses, 1 seaside villa and a bank account with 2 million American dollars in it. If a boy is born, he will inherit 2 companies plus a bank account worth 2 million American dollars. If it\'s twins, each will inherit one company and a 1 million American dollar bank account. But if it\'s a miscarriage...\" At that moment, the girl\'s father, who had been sitting silently off to one side, suddenly stood up, put both hands firmly on the gentleman\'s shoulders and said, \"Don\'t worry, if that happens you can come back again!\"\n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Jokes] 你可以再来一次 - You can come back again', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '756-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 01:07:36', '2016-11-05 05:07:36', '', 756, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/06/15/756-autosave/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2172, 1, '2016-11-05 01:07:51', '2016-11-05 05:07:51', '', 'Advanced Chinese Jokes and Written Vocaublary Practice', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'chinese-jokes-you-can-come-back-again', '', '', '2016-11-05 01:07:57', '2016-11-05 05:07:57', '', 756, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/chinese-jokes-you-can-come-back-again.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1130, 1, '2011-08-31 21:05:28', '2011-09-01 01:05:28', '[two_third]\r\nAnother slightly off-color \"they don\'t teach you how to say that in the textbook\" joke, this one about two parents dealing with an unexpected pregnancy in the family. This is really upper-intermediate, not really super advanced, but there will be quite a few new words here for lower-intermediate readers.\r\n\r\n\r\n
![\"Advanced](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/20110830-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Advanced")
You\'ll have to forgive me these couple of recent not-really-for-kids jokes - I\'m no primary school teacher, and I find that an endless stream of kids\' jokes gets a bit tiresome, and is not as reflective of real spoken language. This is the kind of joke you\'d tell with your friends after a couple of glasses of 啤酒, and you have to admit, as scripted jokes go, this one\'s pretty funny.\r\n\r\nIt\'s a little hard to get rolling on this one, as the first sentence is a little hard to get past unless you know what they\'re talking about, so I\'ll explain a bit. The joke starts out: \"一个16岁的女孩跟她母亲说她已经2个月没来了\", which literally translates into \"A 16-year-old girl tells her mother that already two months hadn\'t come.\" Once you see it in English, and you know the joke\'s about pregnancy, it\'s pretty easy to decipher the meaning - the girl hasn\'t had her period for 2 months and suspects she\'s pregnant. Thing is, the medical word for \"menstrual cycle\" never actually shows up here - we\'re seeing instead the colloquial term \"月\", or \"moon / month\".\r\n\r\nIt\'s also worth noting that in this reading, 令媛 is the name of the pregnant daughter - that is not really explained.\r\n\r\nAnd one last interesting grammar point here is the phrase \"负该负的责任\". To \"负责任\", means to shoulder your responsibilities and fulfill your obligations. So this phrase means \"fulfill the responsibilities that should be fulfilled\", or \"to bear the responsibilities that one should bear\". \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title of this joke is \"你可以再来一次\".\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n验孕剂 - [pinyin]yan4 yun4 ji4[/pinyin] - Pregnancy test\r\n浑蛋 - [pinyin]hun2 dan4[/pinyin] - Variant of 混蛋, meaning scoundrel, cur, bastard\r\n法拉利 - [pinyin]fa3 la1 li4[/pinyin] - Ferrari (sports car brand)\r\n跑车 - [pinyin]pao3 che1[/pinyin] - Sports car\r\n名牌 - [pinyin]ming2 pai2[/pinyin] - Name brand\r\n风度 - [pinyin]feng1 du4[/pinyin] - Elegant (applies only to men)\r\n绅士 - [pinyin]shen1 shi4[/pinyin] - Gentleman\r\n别墅 - [pinyin]bie2 shu4[/pinyin] - Villa\r\n继承 - [pinyin]ji4 cheng2[/pinyin] - To inherit\r\n双胞胎 - [pinyin]shuang1 bao1 tai[/pinyin] - Twins\r\n不幸流产 - [pinyin]bu4 xing4 liu2 chan3[/pinyin] - Accidental miscarriage\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n一个16岁的女孩跟她母亲说她已经2个月没来了.... 母亲一听不得了赶紧去药房买了验孕剂来确认一下... 结果女孩真的怀孕了！ 母亲又哭又骂的问到:\"到底是那个浑蛋干的好事，你给我从实招来!!\" 女孩只好打了通电话... 半小时后，一部全新的法拉利跑车疾驶到了女孩家门，而跨出车门的是位全身名牌衣着又风度翩翩的中年绅士. 绅士进入屋内与女孩及她的父母双亲在客厅坐了下来. \"午安!\"绅士礼貌的向她们问候并说道:\"令媛刚刚告知了我这个大问题，但是因为我的个人家庭问题，很抱歉我无法娶令媛为妻，不过我会负该负的责任\" \"这样好了，如果生的是女孩，我会留3家店面，2间房子，1栋海边别墅及一个200万美金的帐户给她\" \"如果生的是男孩，我会让他继承2家公司再加上一个200万美金的帐户\" \"如果生的是双胞胎，那就每人继承1家公司还有各100万美金的帐户\" \"但如果不幸流产了............\" 此时在一旁沉默已久的父亲，突然站起来，并把手紧紧的搭在绅士的肩上后说:\"没关系，到时你可以再来一次!!\" \r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nA 16-year-old girl said to her mother that she had missed 2 menstrual cycles... as soon as her mother heard this, she rushed in extreme haste to the pharmacy to buy a pregnancy test and confirm the issue... sure enough the daughter was pregnant! Crying and yelling, the mother asked, \"Whichever scoundrel did the happy deed, you make him come face me!!\" The daughter was forced to pick up the phone... half an hour later, a brand new Ferrari sports car quickly pulled up to the girl\'s front door, and who stepped out of the car but an elegant middle-aged gentleman wearing a completely new set of brand-name clothes. The gentleman entered the room and sat down in the living room with the daughter and her parents. \"Good afternoon!\" the gentleman politely paid his respects, and said, \"Ling Yuan [presumably daughter\'s name] just told me about this serious problem, but because of my own family situation, I\'m very sorry to say I can\'t take Ling Yuan to wife, but I will bear the responsibility I should bear. This should do: if a girl child is born, I will give her 3 storefronts, 2 houses, 1 seaside villa and a bank account with 2 million American dollars in it. If a boy is born, he will inherit 2 companies plus a bank account worth 2 million American dollars. If it\'s twins, each will inherit one company and a 1 million American dollar bank account. But if it\'s a miscarriage...\" At that moment, the girl\'s father, who had been sitting silently off to one side, suddenly stood up, put both hands firmly on the gentleman\'s shoulders and said, \"Don\'t worry, if that happens [lit: when the time comes] you can come back again!\" \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n', 'You can come back again', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '756-revision-v1', '', '', '2011-08-31 21:05:28', '2011-09-01 01:05:28', '', 756, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2011/08/31/756-revision-9/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1131, 1, '2012-06-15 05:55:06', '2012-06-15 09:55:06', '[two_third]\r\nAnother slightly off-color \"they don\'t teach you how to say that in the textbook\" joke, this one about two parents dealing with an unexpected pregnancy in the family. This is really upper-intermediate, not really super advanced, but there will be quite a few new words here for lower-intermediate readers.\r\n\r\n\r\n
You\'ll have to forgive me these couple of recent not-really-for-kids jokes - I\'m no primary school teacher, and I find that an endless stream of kids\' jokes gets a bit tiresome, and is not as reflective of real spoken language. This is the kind of joke you\'d tell with your friends after a couple of glasses of 啤酒, and you have to admit, as scripted jokes go, this one\'s pretty funny.\r\n\r\nIt\'s a little hard to get rolling on this one, as the first sentence is a little hard to get past unless you know what they\'re talking about, so I\'ll explain a bit. The joke starts out: \"一个16岁的女孩跟她母亲说她已经2个月没来了\", which literally translates into \"A 16-year-old girl tells her mother that already two months hadn\'t come.\" Once you see it in English, and you know the joke\'s about pregnancy, it\'s pretty easy to decipher the meaning - the girl hasn\'t had her period for 2 months and suspects she\'s pregnant. Thing is, the medical word for \"menstrual cycle\" never actually shows up here - we\'re seeing instead the colloquial term \"月\", or \"moon / month\".\r\n\r\n
It\'s also worth noting that in this reading, 令媛 is the name of the pregnant daughter - that is not really explained.\r\n\r\n[CORRECTION: Alert reader Katy informs me that I was very wrong - 令媛 is not the name of the daughter but, \"an old-fashioned term of respect to say \'your daughter\' which is in keeping with the status of the man as a 绅士 (gentleman)\". Apparently, when you assume, you make an ass out of 令 and 媛. Thanks Katy.]\r\n\r\nAnd one last interesting grammar point here is the phrase \"负该负的责任\". To \"负责任\", means to shoulder your responsibilities and fulfill your obligations. So this phrase means \"fulfill the responsibilities that should be fulfilled\", or \"to bear the responsibilities that one should bear\". \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title of this joke is \"你可以再来一次\".\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n验孕剂 - [pinyin]yan4 yun4 ji4[/pinyin] - Pregnancy test\r\n浑蛋 - [pinyin]hun2 dan4[/pinyin] - Variant of 混蛋, meaning scoundrel, cur, bastard\r\n法拉利 - [pinyin]fa3 la1 li4[/pinyin] - Ferrari (sports car brand)\r\n跑车 - [pinyin]pao3 che1[/pinyin] - Sports car\r\n名牌 - [pinyin]ming2 pai2[/pinyin] - Name brand\r\n风度 - [pinyin]feng1 du4[/pinyin] - Elegant (applies only to men)\r\n绅士 - [pinyin]shen1 shi4[/pinyin] - Gentleman\r\n别墅 - [pinyin]bie2 shu4[/pinyin] - Villa\r\n继承 - [pinyin]ji4 cheng2[/pinyin] - To inherit\r\n双胞胎 - [pinyin]shuang1 bao1 tai[/pinyin] - Twins\r\n不幸流产 - [pinyin]bu4 xing4 liu2 chan3[/pinyin] - Accidental miscarriage\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n一个16岁的女孩跟她母亲说她已经2个月没来了.... 母亲一听不得了赶紧去药房买了验孕剂来确认一下... 结果女孩真的怀孕了！ 母亲又哭又骂的问到:\"到底是那个浑蛋干的好事，你给我从实招来!!\" 女孩只好打了通电话... 半小时后，一部全新的法拉利跑车疾驶到了女孩家门，而跨出车门的是位全身名牌衣着又风度翩翩的中年绅士. 绅士进入屋内与女孩及她的父母双亲在客厅坐了下来. \"午安!\"绅士礼貌的向她们问候并说道:\"令媛刚刚告知了我这个大问题，但是因为我的个人家庭问题，很抱歉我无法娶令媛为妻，不过我会负该负的责任\" \"这样好了，如果生的是女孩，我会留3家店面，2间房子，1栋海边别墅及一个200万美金的帐户给她\" \"如果生的是男孩，我会让他继承2家公司再加上一个200万美金的帐户\" \"如果生的是双胞胎，那就每人继承1家公司还有各100万美金的帐户\" \"但如果不幸流产了............\" 此时在一旁沉默已久的父亲，突然站起来，并把手紧紧的搭在绅士的肩上后说:\"没关系，到时你可以再来一次!!\" \r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nA 16-year-old girl said to her mother that she had missed 2 menstrual cycles... as soon as her mother heard this, she rushed in extreme haste to the pharmacy to buy a pregnancy test and confirm the issue... sure enough the daughter was pregnant! Crying and yelling, the mother asked, \"Whichever scoundrel did the happy deed, you make him come face me!!\" The daughter was forced to pick up the phone... half an hour later, a brand new Ferrari sports car quickly pulled up to the girl\'s front door, and who stepped out of the car but an elegant middle-aged gentleman wearing a completely new set of brand-name clothes. The gentleman entered the room and sat down in the living room with the daughter and her parents. \"Good afternoon!\" the gentleman politely paid his respects, and said, \"Ling Yuan [presumably daughter\'s name] just told me about this serious problem, but because of my own family situation, I\'m very sorry to say I can\'t take Ling Yuan to wife, but I will bear the responsibility I should bear. This should do: if a girl child is born, I will give her 3 storefronts, 2 houses, 1 seaside villa and a bank account with 2 million American dollars in it. If a boy is born, he will inherit 2 companies plus a bank account worth 2 million American dollars. If it\'s twins, each will inherit one company and a 1 million American dollar bank account. But if it\'s a miscarriage...\" At that moment, the girl\'s father, who had been sitting silently off to one side, suddenly stood up, put both hands firmly on the gentleman\'s shoulders and said, \"Don\'t worry, if that happens [lit: when the time comes] you can come back again!\" \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n', 'You can come back again', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '756-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-06-15 05:55:06', '2012-06-15 09:55:06', '', 756, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/06/15/756-revision-10/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1132, 1, '2012-06-15 05:56:54', '2012-06-15 09:56:54', '[two_third]\r\nAnother slightly off-color \"they don\'t teach you how to say that in the textbook\" joke, this one about two parents dealing with an unexpected pregnancy in the family. This is really upper-intermediate, not really super advanced, but there will be quite a few new words here for lower-intermediate readers.\r\n\r\n\r\n
You\'ll have to forgive me these couple of recent not-really-for-kids jokes - I\'m no primary school teacher, and I find that an endless stream of kids\' jokes gets a bit tiresome, and is not as reflective of real spoken language. This is the kind of joke you\'d tell with your friends after a couple of glasses of 啤酒, and you have to admit, as scripted jokes go, this one\'s pretty funny.\r\n\r\nIt\'s a little hard to get rolling on this one, as the first sentence is a little hard to get past unless you know what they\'re talking about, so I\'ll explain a bit. The joke starts out: \"一个16岁的女孩跟她母亲说她已经2个月没来了\", which literally translates into \"A 16-year-old girl tells her mother that already two months hadn\'t come.\" Once you see it in English, and you know the joke\'s about pregnancy, it\'s pretty easy to decipher the meaning - the girl hasn\'t had her period for 2 months and suspects she\'s pregnant. Thing is, the medical word for \"menstrual cycle\" never actually shows up here - we\'re seeing instead the colloquial term \"月\", or \"moon / month\".\r\n\r\n
It\'s also worth noting that in this reading, 令媛 is the name of the pregnant daughter - that is not really explained.\r\n\r\n[CORRECTION: Alert reader Katy informs me that I was very wrong - 令媛 is not the name of the daughter but, \"an old-fashioned term of respect to say \'your daughter\' which is in keeping with the status of the man as a 绅士 (gentleman)\". Apparently, when you assume, you make an ass out of 令 and 媛. Thanks Katy.]\r\n\r\nAnd one last interesting grammar point here is the phrase \"负该负的责任\". To \"负责任\", means to shoulder your responsibilities and fulfill your obligations. So this phrase means \"fulfill the responsibilities that should be fulfilled\", or \"to bear the responsibilities that one should bear\". \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title of this joke is \"你可以再来一次\".\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n验孕剂 - [pinyin]yan4 yun4 ji4[/pinyin] - Pregnancy test\r\n浑蛋 - [pinyin]hun2 dan4[/pinyin] - Variant of 混蛋, meaning scoundrel, cur, bastard\r\n法拉利 - [pinyin]fa3 la1 li4[/pinyin] - Ferrari (sports car brand)\r\n跑车 - [pinyin]pao3 che1[/pinyin] - Sports car\r\n名牌 - [pinyin]ming2 pai2[/pinyin] - Name brand\r\n风度 - [pinyin]feng1 du4[/pinyin] - Elegant (applies only to men)\r\n绅士 - [pinyin]shen1 shi4[/pinyin] - Gentleman\r\n别墅 - [pinyin]bie2 shu4[/pinyin] - Villa\r\n继承 - [pinyin]ji4 cheng2[/pinyin] - To inherit\r\n双胞胎 - [pinyin]shuang1 bao1 tai[/pinyin] - Twins\r\n不幸流产 - [pinyin]bu4 xing4 liu2 chan3[/pinyin] - Accidental miscarriage\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n一个16岁的女孩跟她母亲说她已经2个月没来了.... 母亲一听不得了赶紧去药房买了验孕剂来确认一下... 结果女孩真的怀孕了！ 母亲又哭又骂的问到:\"到底是那个浑蛋干的好事，你给我从实招来!!\" 女孩只好打了通电话... 半小时后，一部全新的法拉利跑车疾驶到了女孩家门，而跨出车门的是位全身名牌衣着又风度翩翩的中年绅士. 绅士进入屋内与女孩及她的父母双亲在客厅坐了下来. \"午安!\"绅士礼貌的向她们问候并说道:\"令媛刚刚告知了我这个大问题，但是因为我的个人家庭问题，很抱歉我无法娶令媛为妻，不过我会负该负的责任\" \"这样好了，如果生的是女孩，我会留3家店面，2间房子，1栋海边别墅及一个200万美金的帐户给她\" \"如果生的是男孩，我会让他继承2家公司再加上一个200万美金的帐户\" \"如果生的是双胞胎，那就每人继承1家公司还有各100万美金的帐户\" \"但如果不幸流产了............\" 此时在一旁沉默已久的父亲，突然站起来，并把手紧紧的搭在绅士的肩上后说:\"没关系，到时你可以再来一次!!\" \r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nA 16-year-old girl said to her mother that she had missed 2 menstrual cycles... as soon as her mother heard this, she rushed in extreme haste to the pharmacy to buy a pregnancy test and confirm the issue... sure enough the daughter was pregnant! Crying and yelling, the mother asked, \"Whichever scoundrel did the happy deed, you make him come face me!!\" The daughter was forced to pick up the phone... half an hour later, a brand new Ferrari sports car quickly pulled up to the girl\'s front door, and who stepped out of the car but an elegant middle-aged gentleman wearing a completely new set of brand-name clothes. The gentleman entered the room and sat down in the living room with the daughter and her parents. \"Good afternoon!\" the gentleman politely paid his respects, and said, \"Your daughter just told me about this serious problem, but because of my own family situation, I\'m very sorry to say I can\'t take Ling Yuan to wife, but I will bear the responsibility I should bear. This should do: if a girl child is born, I will give her 3 storefronts, 2 houses, 1 seaside villa and a bank account with 2 million American dollars in it. If a boy is born, he will inherit 2 companies plus a bank account worth 2 million American dollars. If it\'s twins, each will inherit one company and a 1 million American dollar bank account. But if it\'s a miscarriage...\" At that moment, the girl\'s father, who had been sitting silently off to one side, suddenly stood up, put both hands firmly on the gentleman\'s shoulders and said, \"Don\'t worry, if that happens [lit: when the time comes] you can come back again!\" \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n', 'You can come back again', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '756-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-06-15 05:56:54', '2012-06-15 09:56:54', '', 756, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/06/15/756-revision-11/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1133, 1, '2012-06-15 05:57:33', '2012-06-15 09:57:33', '[two_third]\r\nAnother slightly off-color \"they don\'t teach you how to say that in the textbook\" joke, this one about two parents dealing with an unexpected pregnancy in the family. This is really upper-intermediate, not really super advanced, but there will be quite a few new words here for lower-intermediate readers.\r\n\r\n\r\n
You\'ll have to forgive me these couple of recent not-really-for-kids jokes - I\'m no primary school teacher, and I find that an endless stream of kids\' jokes gets a bit tiresome, and is not as reflective of real spoken language. This is the kind of joke you\'d tell with your friends after a couple of glasses of 啤酒, and you have to admit, as scripted jokes go, this one\'s pretty funny.\r\n\r\nIt\'s a little hard to get rolling on this one, as the first sentence is a little hard to get past unless you know what they\'re talking about, so I\'ll explain a bit. The joke starts out: \"一个16岁的女孩跟她母亲说她已经2个月没来了\", which literally translates into \"A 16-year-old girl tells her mother that already two months hadn\'t come.\" Once you see it in English, and you know the joke\'s about pregnancy, it\'s pretty easy to decipher the meaning - the girl hasn\'t had her period for 2 months and suspects she\'s pregnant. Thing is, the medical word for \"menstrual cycle\" never actually shows up here - we\'re seeing instead the colloquial term \"月\", or \"moon / month\".\r\n\r\n
It\'s also worth noting that in this reading, 令媛 is the name of the pregnant daughter - that is not really explained.\r\n\r\n[CORRECTION: Alert reader Katy informs me that I was very wrong - 令媛 is not the name of the daughter but, \"an old-fashioned term of respect to say \'your daughter\' which is in keeping with the status of the man as a 绅士 (gentleman)\". Apparently, when you assume, you make an ass out of 令 and 媛. Thanks Katy.]\r\n\r\nAnd one last interesting grammar point here is the phrase \"负该负的责任\". To \"负责任\", means to shoulder your responsibilities and fulfill your obligations. So this phrase means \"fulfill the responsibilities that should be fulfilled\", or \"to bear the responsibilities that one should bear\". \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title of this joke is \"你可以再来一次\".\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n验孕剂 - [pinyin]yan4 yun4 ji4[/pinyin] - Pregnancy test\r\n浑蛋 - [pinyin]hun2 dan4[/pinyin] - Variant of 混蛋, meaning scoundrel, cur, bastard\r\n法拉利 - [pinyin]fa3 la1 li4[/pinyin] - Ferrari (sports car brand)\r\n跑车 - [pinyin]pao3 che1[/pinyin] - Sports car\r\n名牌 - [pinyin]ming2 pai2[/pinyin] - Name brand\r\n风度 - [pinyin]feng1 du4[/pinyin] - Elegant (applies only to men)\r\n绅士 - [pinyin]shen1 shi4[/pinyin] - Gentleman\r\n别墅 - [pinyin]bie2 shu4[/pinyin] - Villa\r\n继承 - [pinyin]ji4 cheng2[/pinyin] - To inherit\r\n双胞胎 - [pinyin]shuang1 bao1 tai[/pinyin] - Twins\r\n不幸流产 - [pinyin]bu4 xing4 liu2 chan3[/pinyin] - Accidental miscarriage\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n一个16岁的女孩跟她母亲说她已经2个月没来了.... 母亲一听不得了赶紧去药房买了验孕剂来确认一下... 结果女孩真的怀孕了！ 母亲又哭又骂的问到:\"到底是那个浑蛋干的好事，你给我从实招来!!\" 女孩只好打了通电话... 半小时后，一部全新的法拉利跑车疾驶到了女孩家门，而跨出车门的是位全身名牌衣着又风度翩翩的中年绅士. 绅士进入屋内与女孩及她的父母双亲在客厅坐了下来. \"午安!\"绅士礼貌的向她们问候并说道:\"令媛刚刚告知了我这个大问题，但是因为我的个人家庭问题，很抱歉我无法娶令媛为妻，不过我会负该负的责任\" \"这样好了，如果生的是女孩，我会留3家店面，2间房子，1栋海边别墅及一个200万美金的帐户给她\" \"如果生的是男孩，我会让他继承2家公司再加上一个200万美金的帐户\" \"如果生的是双胞胎，那就每人继承1家公司还有各100万美金的帐户\" \"但如果不幸流产了............\" 此时在一旁沉默已久的父亲，突然站起来，并把手紧紧的搭在绅士的肩上后说:\"没关系，到时你可以再来一次!!\" \r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nA 16-year-old girl said to her mother that she had missed 2 menstrual cycles... as soon as her mother heard this, she rushed in extreme haste to the pharmacy to buy a pregnancy test and confirm the issue... sure enough the daughter was pregnant! Crying and yelling, the mother asked, \"Whichever scoundrel did the happy deed, you make him come face me!!\" The daughter was forced to pick up the phone... half an hour later, a brand new Ferrari sports car quickly pulled up to the girl\'s front door, and who stepped out of the car but an elegant middle-aged gentleman wearing a completely new set of brand-name clothes. The gentleman entered the room and sat down in the living room with the daughter and her parents. \"Good afternoon!\" the gentleman politely paid his respects, and said, \"Your honorable daughter just told me about this serious problem, but because of my own family situation, I\'m very sorry to say I can\'t take Ling Yuan to wife, but I will bear the responsibility I should bear. This should do: if a girl child is born, I will give her 3 storefronts, 2 houses, 1 seaside villa and a bank account with 2 million American dollars in it. If a boy is born, he will inherit 2 companies plus a bank account worth 2 million American dollars. If it\'s twins, each will inherit one company and a 1 million American dollar bank account. But if it\'s a miscarriage...\" At that moment, the girl\'s father, who had been sitting silently off to one side, suddenly stood up, put both hands firmly on the gentleman\'s shoulders and said, \"Don\'t worry, if that happens [lit: when the time comes] you can come back again!\" \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n', 'You can come back again', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '756-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-06-15 05:57:33', '2012-06-15 09:57:33', '', 756, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/06/15/756-revision-12/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1134, 1, '2012-06-15 06:28:41', '2012-06-15 10:28:41', '', 'Simplified Chinese Literacy: Easy Passages in Chinese for Beginners', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120615', '', '', '2012-06-15 06:28:41', '2012-06-15 10:28:41', '', 1123, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20120615.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1135, 1, '2012-06-15 06:28:42', '2012-06-15 10:28:42', '', 'Simplified Chinese Literacy: Easy Passages in Chinese for Beginners', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120615-inline', '', '', '2012-06-15 06:28:42', '2012-06-15 10:28:42', '', 1123, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/20120615-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1137, 1, '2012-06-15 06:31:56', '2012-06-15 10:31:56', '[two_third]\nThis is an upper-beginner or low-intermediate level text. It\'s good for beginner readers in the sense that a) it\'s short, and b) it\'s extremely repetitive - if you can puzzle out the first two or three sentences, the rest should be clear. To get you going, it might be worth noting there that the protagonist is a small blade of (or lump of, or field of - it\'s never really defined) grass named \"YinYin\" (小草银银), who keeps asking one particular favor of each season. \n\n
The seasons are personified as ladies - for example, \"The Lady of Spring\" (春姑娘) and \"the Lady of Summer\" (夏姑娘), etc. Notice the \n\nAs is pretty typical in Chinese texts, it\'s never really specified if it\'s one blade of grass or a field of grass that is the protagonist here, but . My point is that this is a great example of - in English stories, it\'s hard to personify something you can\'t define. \n\nThere\'s so much metaphor going on in this I\'m not sure where to start. You could choose to interpret this as a statement about aging, about changing seasons, go nuts. \n\nAnd on a personal note, not 100% sure I\'m happy with the conclusion that\'s drawn here, considering I dye my hair all the time, but what the hell. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n春天 - [pinyin]chun1 tian1[/pinyin] - springtime\n染 - [pinyin]ran3[/pinyin] - dye\n青色 - [pinyin]qing1 se4[/pinyin] - A blue, green or blue-green the Chinese consider the \"color of nature\"\n伤心 - [pinyin]shang1 xin1[/pinyin] - Broken-hearted\n夏天 - [pinyin]xia4 tian1[/pinyin] - Summer\n深绿 - [pinyin]shu3 jia4[/pinyin] - Dark green\n秋天 - [pinyin]zi4 ze2[/pinyin] - Autumn\n金黄 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - Golden yellow\n冬天 - [pinyin]nu3 li4[/pinyin] - Winter\n后悔 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - Regret\n可不要 - [pinyin]zuan4[/pinyin] - Won\'t [you] be...(ex. sad?)\n忽然 - [pinyin]gong4 tong2[/pinyin] - Suddenly\n掉下来 - [pinyin]gong4 tong2[/pinyin] - fall, drop down\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n小草银银喜欢银色。\n 春天，小草银银让春姑娘把她的头发染成银色。春姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成青色”。银银非常伤心。\n 夏天小草银银让夏姑娘把她的头发染成银色。夏姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成深绿色”。银银非常伤心。\n 秋天小草银银让秋姑娘把她的头发染成银色。秋姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成金黄色”。银银非常伤心。\n 冬天小草银银让冬姑娘把她的头发染成银色。冬姑娘说：“好啊，不过你可不要后悔呦”？银银说：“不会的，有了那么漂亮的头发我高兴还来不及呢”！\n 就这样银银的头发变成了银色。忽然，银银的头发掉下来了，这是怎么回事呢？原来，头发染多了是会伤害身体的。这下银银真的后悔了。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThe little grass YinYin liked the color silver. \n In spring time, little grass Yinyin asked the Lady of Spring to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Spring said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair blue/green [see explanation]. YinYin was very broken-hearted. \n\nIn summer time, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Summer to to dye her hair silver. The lady of summer said, \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair green!\" YinYin was very broken-hearted. \n\nIn autumn, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Autumn to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Autumn said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair golden yellow.\" YinYin was very broken-hearted.\n\nIn winter, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Winter to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Winter said, \"Okay, but won\'t you regret it?\" YinYin said, \"I won\'t, if I had hair that beautiful I couldn\'t be happier!\" And so YinYin\'s hair turned silver. Suddenly, YinYin\'s hair fell out - how could this be? Of course, if you dye your hair too often, it\'s not good for you. And after this YinYin was indeed regretful. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Grass\' Silver Hair', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1123-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-06-15 06:31:56', '2012-06-15 10:31:56', '', 1123, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/06/15/1123-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1138, 1, '2012-06-15 06:32:05', '2012-06-15 10:32:05', '[two_third]\r\nThis is an upper-beginner or low-intermediate level text. It\'s good for beginner readers in the sense that a) it\'s short, and b) it\'s extremely repetitive - if you can puzzle out the first two or three sentences, the rest should be clear. To get you going, it might be worth noting there that the protagonist is a small blade of (or lump of, or field of - it\'s never really defined) grass named \"YinYin\" (小草银银), who keeps asking one particular favor of each season. \r\n\r\n
The seasons are personified as ladies - for example, \"The Lady of Spring\" (春姑娘) and \"the Lady of Summer\" (夏姑娘), etc. Notice the \r\n\r\nAs is pretty typical in Chinese texts, it\'s never really specified if it\'s one blade of grass or a field of grass that is the protagonist here, but . My point is that this is a great example of - in English stories, it\'s hard to personify something you can\'t define. \r\n\r\nThere\'s so much metaphor going on in this I\'m not sure where to start. You could choose to interpret this as a statement about aging, about changing seasons, go nuts. \r\n\r\nAnd on a personal note, not 100% sure I\'m happy with the conclusion that\'s drawn here, considering I dye my hair all the time, but what the hell. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n春天 - [pinyin]chun1 tian1[/pinyin] - springtime\r\n染 - [pinyin]ran3[/pinyin] - dye\r\n青色 - [pinyin]qing1 se4[/pinyin] - A blue, green or blue-green the Chinese consider the \"color of nature\"\r\n伤心 - [pinyin]shang1 xin1[/pinyin] - Broken-hearted\r\n夏天 - [pinyin]xia4 tian1[/pinyin] - Summer\r\n深绿 - [pinyin]shu3 jia4[/pinyin] - Dark green\r\n秋天 - [pinyin]zi4 ze2[/pinyin] - Autumn\r\n金黄 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - Golden yellow\r\n冬天 - [pinyin]nu3 li4[/pinyin] - Winter\r\n后悔 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - Regret\r\n可不要 - [pinyin]zuan4[/pinyin] - Won\'t [you] be...(ex. sad?)\r\n忽然 - [pinyin]gong4 tong2[/pinyin] - Suddenly\r\n掉下来 - [pinyin]gong4 tong2[/pinyin] - fall, drop down\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n小草银银喜欢银色。\r\n 春天，小草银银让春姑娘把她的头发染成银色。春姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成青色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 夏天小草银银让夏姑娘把她的头发染成银色。夏姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成深绿色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 秋天小草银银让秋姑娘把她的头发染成银色。秋姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成金黄色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 冬天小草银银让冬姑娘把她的头发染成银色。冬姑娘说：“好啊，不过你可不要后悔呦”？银银说：“不会的，有了那么漂亮的头发我高兴还来不及呢”！\r\n 就这样银银的头发变成了银色。忽然，银银的头发掉下来了，这是怎么回事呢？原来，头发染多了是会伤害身体的。这下银银真的后悔了。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe little grass YinYin liked the color silver. \r\n In spring time, little grass Yinyin asked the Lady of Spring to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Spring said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair blue/green [see explanation]. YinYin was very broken-hearted. \r\n\r\nIn summer time, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Summer to to dye her hair silver. The lady of summer said, \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair green!\" YinYin was very broken-hearted. \r\n\r\nIn autumn, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Autumn to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Autumn said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair golden yellow.\" YinYin was very broken-hearted.\r\n\r\nIn winter, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Winter to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Winter said, \"Okay, but won\'t you regret it?\" YinYin said, \"I won\'t, if I had hair that beautiful I couldn\'t be happier!\" And so YinYin\'s hair turned silver. Suddenly, YinYin\'s hair fell out - how could this be? Of course, if you dye your hair too often, it\'s not good for you. And after this YinYin was indeed regretful. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Grass\' Silver Hair', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1123-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-06-15 06:32:05', '2012-06-15 10:32:05', '', 1123, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/06/15/1123-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1139, 1, '2012-06-15 06:32:53', '2012-06-15 10:32:53', '[two_third]\r\nThis is an upper-beginner or low-intermediate level text. It\'s good for beginner readers in the sense that a) it\'s short, and b) it\'s extremely repetitive - if you can puzzle out the first two or three sentences, the rest should be clear. To get you going, it might be worth noting there that the protagonist is a small blade of (or lump of, or field of - it\'s never really defined) grass named \"YinYin\" (小草银银), who keeps asking one particular favor of each season. \r\n\r\n
The seasons are personified as ladies - for example, \"The Lady of Spring\" (春姑娘) and \"the Lady of Summer\" (夏姑娘), etc. \r\n\r\nAs is pretty typical in Chinese texts, it\'s never really specified if it\'s one blade of grass or a field of grass that is the protagonist here, but . My point is that this is a great example of - in English stories, it\'s hard to personify something you can\'t define. \r\n\r\nThere\'s so much metaphor going on in this I\'m not sure where to start. You could choose to interpret this as a statement about aging, about changing seasons, go nuts. \r\n\r\nAnd on a personal note, not 100% sure I\'m happy with the conclusion that\'s drawn here, considering I dye my hair all the time, but what the hell. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n春天 - [pinyin]chun1 tian1[/pinyin] - springtime\r\n染 - [pinyin]ran3[/pinyin] - dye\r\n青色 - [pinyin]qing1 se4[/pinyin] - A blue, green or blue-green the Chinese consider the \"color of nature\"\r\n伤心 - [pinyin]shang1 xin1[/pinyin] - Broken-hearted\r\n夏天 - [pinyin]xia4 tian1[/pinyin] - Summer\r\n深绿 - [pinyin]shu3 jia4[/pinyin] - Dark green\r\n秋天 - [pinyin]zi4 ze2[/pinyin] - Autumn\r\n金黄 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - Golden yellow\r\n冬天 - [pinyin]nu3 li4[/pinyin] - Winter\r\n后悔 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - Regret\r\n可不要 - [pinyin]zuan4[/pinyin] - Won\'t [you] be...(ex. sad?)\r\n忽然 - [pinyin]gong4 tong2[/pinyin] - Suddenly\r\n掉下来 - [pinyin]gong4 tong2[/pinyin] - fall, drop down\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n小草银银喜欢银色。\r\n 春天，小草银银让春姑娘把她的头发染成银色。春姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成青色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 夏天小草银银让夏姑娘把她的头发染成银色。夏姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成深绿色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 秋天小草银银让秋姑娘把她的头发染成银色。秋姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成金黄色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 冬天小草银银让冬姑娘把她的头发染成银色。冬姑娘说：“好啊，不过你可不要后悔呦”？银银说：“不会的，有了那么漂亮的头发我高兴还来不及呢”！\r\n 就这样银银的头发变成了银色。忽然，银银的头发掉下来了，这是怎么回事呢？原来，头发染多了是会伤害身体的。这下银银真的后悔了。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe little grass YinYin liked the color silver. \r\n In spring time, little grass Yinyin asked the Lady of Spring to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Spring said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair blue/green [see explanation]. YinYin was very broken-hearted. \r\n\r\nIn summer time, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Summer to to dye her hair silver. The lady of summer said, \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair green!\" YinYin was very broken-hearted. \r\n\r\nIn autumn, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Autumn to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Autumn said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair golden yellow.\" YinYin was very broken-hearted.\r\n\r\nIn winter, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Winter to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Winter said, \"Okay, but won\'t you regret it?\" YinYin said, \"I won\'t, if I had hair that beautiful I couldn\'t be happier!\" And so YinYin\'s hair turned silver. Suddenly, YinYin\'s hair fell out - how could this be? Of course, if you dye your hair too often, it\'s not good for you. And after this YinYin was indeed regretful. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Grass\' Silver Hair', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1123-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-06-15 06:32:53', '2012-06-15 10:32:53', '', 1123, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/06/15/1123-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1141, 1, '2016-11-04 09:20:03', '2016-11-04 13:20:03', 'This is an upper-beginner or low-intermediate level text. It\'s good for beginner readers in the sense that a) it\'s short, and b) it\'s extremely repetitive - if you can puzzle out the first two or three sentences, the rest should be clear. To get you going, it might be worth noting there that the protagonist is a small blade of (or lump of, or field of - it\'s never really defined) grass named \"YinYin\" (小草银银), who keeps asking one particular favor of each season. The seasons are personified as ladies - for example, \"The Lady of Spring\" (春姑娘) and \"the Lady of Summer\" (夏姑娘), etc. \n\nThere\'s so much metaphor going on in this I\'m not sure where to start. You could choose to interpret this as a statement about aging, about changing seasons, go nuts. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n
Chinese text
\n1) 小草银银喜欢银色。\n2) 春天，小草银银让春姑娘把她的头发染成银色。春姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成青色”。银银非常伤心。\n3) 夏天小草银银让夏姑娘把她的头发染成银色。夏姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成深绿色”。银银非常伤心。\n4) 秋天小草银银让秋姑娘把她的头发染成银色。秋姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成金黄色”。银银非常伤心。\n5) 冬天小草银银让冬姑娘把她的头发染成银色。冬姑娘说：“好啊，不过你可不要后悔呦”？银银说：“不会的，有了那么漂亮的头发我高兴还来不及呢”！就这样银银的头发变成了银色。忽然，银银的头发掉下来了，这是怎么回事呢？原来，头发染多了是会伤害身体的。这下银银真的后悔了。\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) The little grass YinYin liked the color silver. \n\n2) In spring time, little grass Yinyin asked the Lady of Spring to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Spring said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair blue/green [see explanation]. YinYin was very broken-hearted. \n\n3) In summer time, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Summer to dye her hair silver. The lady of summer said, \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair green!\" YinYin was very broken-hearted. \n\n4) In autumn, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Autumn to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Autumn said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair golden yellow.\" YinYin was very broken-hearted.\n\n5) In winter, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Winter to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Winter said, \"Okay, but won\'t you regret it?\" YinYin said, \"I won\'t, if I had hair that beautiful I couldn\'t be happier!\" And so YinYin\'s hair turned silver. Suddenly, YinYin\'s hair fell out - how could this be? Of course, if you dye your hair too often, it\'s not good for you. And after this YinYin was indeed regretful. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Fables] 小草银银 - Little Grass\' Silver Hair', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1123-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:20:03', '2016-11-04 13:20:03', '', 1123, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/06/27/1123-autosave/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1142, 1, '2012-06-15 06:33:07', '2012-06-15 10:33:07', '[two_third]\r\nThis is an upper-beginner or low-intermediate level text. It\'s good for beginner readers in the sense that a) it\'s short, and b) it\'s extremely repetitive - if you can puzzle out the first two or three sentences, the rest should be clear. To get you going, it might be worth noting there that the protagonist is a small blade of (or lump of, or field of - it\'s never really defined) grass named \"YinYin\" (小草银银), who keeps asking one particular favor of each season. \r\n\r\n
The seasons are personified as ladies - for example, \"The Lady of Spring\" (春姑娘) and \"the Lady of Summer\" (夏姑娘), etc. \r\n\r\nThere\'s so much metaphor going on in this I\'m not sure where to start. You could choose to interpret this as a statement about aging, about changing seasons, go nuts. \r\n\r\nAnd on a personal note, not 100% sure I\'m happy with the conclusion that\'s drawn here, considering I dye my hair all the time, but what the hell. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n春天 - [pinyin]chun1 tian1[/pinyin] - springtime\r\n染 - [pinyin]ran3[/pinyin] - dye\r\n青色 - [pinyin]qing1 se4[/pinyin] - A blue, green or blue-green the Chinese consider the \"color of nature\"\r\n伤心 - [pinyin]shang1 xin1[/pinyin] - Broken-hearted\r\n夏天 - [pinyin]xia4 tian1[/pinyin] - Summer\r\n深绿 - [pinyin]shu3 jia4[/pinyin] - Dark green\r\n秋天 - [pinyin]zi4 ze2[/pinyin] - Autumn\r\n金黄 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - Golden yellow\r\n冬天 - [pinyin]nu3 li4[/pinyin] - Winter\r\n后悔 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - Regret\r\n可不要 - [pinyin]zuan4[/pinyin] - Won\'t [you] be...(ex. sad?)\r\n忽然 - [pinyin]gong4 tong2[/pinyin] - Suddenly\r\n掉下来 - [pinyin]gong4 tong2[/pinyin] - fall, drop down\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n小草银银喜欢银色。\r\n 春天，小草银银让春姑娘把她的头发染成银色。春姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成青色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 夏天小草银银让夏姑娘把她的头发染成银色。夏姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成深绿色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 秋天小草银银让秋姑娘把她的头发染成银色。秋姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成金黄色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 冬天小草银银让冬姑娘把她的头发染成银色。冬姑娘说：“好啊，不过你可不要后悔呦”？银银说：“不会的，有了那么漂亮的头发我高兴还来不及呢”！\r\n 就这样银银的头发变成了银色。忽然，银银的头发掉下来了，这是怎么回事呢？原来，头发染多了是会伤害身体的。这下银银真的后悔了。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe little grass YinYin liked the color silver. \r\n In spring time, little grass Yinyin asked the Lady of Spring to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Spring said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair blue/green [see explanation]. YinYin was very broken-hearted. \r\n\r\nIn summer time, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Summer to to dye her hair silver. The lady of summer said, \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair green!\" YinYin was very broken-hearted. \r\n\r\nIn autumn, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Autumn to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Autumn said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair golden yellow.\" YinYin was very broken-hearted.\r\n\r\nIn winter, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Winter to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Winter said, \"Okay, but won\'t you regret it?\" YinYin said, \"I won\'t, if I had hair that beautiful I couldn\'t be happier!\" And so YinYin\'s hair turned silver. Suddenly, YinYin\'s hair fell out - how could this be? Of course, if you dye your hair too often, it\'s not good for you. And after this YinYin was indeed regretful. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Grass\' Silver Hair', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1123-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-06-15 06:33:07', '2012-06-15 10:33:07', '', 1123, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/06/15/1123-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2635, 1, '2017-01-15 03:07:51', '2017-01-15 08:07:51', '', 'how-to-read-chinese-201701-i-like-rain', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'how-to-read-chinese-201701-i-like-rain', '', '', '2017-01-15 03:08:37', '2017-01-15 08:08:37', '', 2423, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/how-to-read-chinese-201701-i-like-rain.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2636, 1, '2017-01-15 03:08:44', '2017-01-15 08:08:44', 'People who like the rain seem to think they\'re some kind of elite class of whimsical puddle-jumping Amelies. No, dude. Everyone likes the rain. Only miserable, soul-sick, sad sacks don\'t like any kind of rain, ever. We\'ll forgive the kid that wrote this his affectation, though, since it sounds like he\'s in middle school or thereabouts. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Verb + Result - 冲坏
\r\nIn Chinese, very often an action, and then the result of that action, are placed right next to each other. We see a pretty sweet example of this in paragraph two: \r\n\r\n
(雨)把道路冲坏了。
\r\n\r\nFirst, we see the verb, in this case 冲 ([pinyin]chong[/pinyin] - to flood, gush or pour), and then the result of that verb, in this case 坏 ([pinyin]huai4[/pinyin] - broken, messed up). In other words, the rain flooded the streets until they were a big ol\' mess. More examples:\r\n\r\n
倒满了水\r\nto
pour full of water\r\n\r\n把玩具
弄坏\r\nTake the toy and
use it until it\'s
broken (break it)\r\n\r\n
用光了钱\r\n
Use up the money\r\n\r\nAnd now, our feature presentation. \r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n1) 我喜欢雨。春天的雨使种子发芽，大地一片桃红柳绿。夏天的雨给大地洗个澡，人们觉得很凉快。秋天的雨给大地换上了金色的外衣，大地丰收了。\r\n\r\n2) 可是，昨天的雨太可怕了，就像天上有人把一盆一盆的水往下倒，把道路
冲坏了，把庄稼冲坏了。\r\n\r\n3) 雨给人们带来了许多好处，有时也会给人们带来灾难。\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) I like rain. Spring rain causes the seeds to sprout, and all the earth is red peaches and green willows. Summer rains shower the earth, and everyone feels refreshed. Autumn rains let the earth change into a coat of gold, and the harvest is bountiful. \r\n\r\n2) And yet, yesterday\'s rain was frightening, as if there was someone in heaven overturning basin after basin of water, flooding the streets, flooding the crops.\r\n\r\n3) Rain brings us benefits, but sometimes also brings us disaster. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n', '[Chinese Essays] 我喜欢雨 - I like the Rain', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2423-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-15 03:08:44', '2017-01-15 08:08:44', '', 2423, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2423-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1145, 1, '2012-06-30 03:40:18', '2012-06-30 07:40:18', '', 'whatweremaking', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', 'whatweremaking', '', '', '2012-06-30 03:40:18', '2012-06-30 07:40:18', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/whatweremaking.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1148, 1, '2012-06-30 05:07:20', '2012-06-30 09:07:20', '', 'ingredients-beer-noodles-peanuts', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', 'ingredients-beer-noodles-peanuts', '', '', '2012-06-30 05:07:20', '2012-06-30 09:07:20', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ingredients-beer-noodles-peanuts.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2640, 1, '2017-01-15 04:05:12', '2017-01-15 09:05:12', 'This little anecdote takes place during the
Northern and Southern Dynasties, which lasted 150 years or so (from 420 to 589 AD), and outlines the origin of the rather stalwart Chinese phrase 乘风破浪 [pinyin]cheng2 feng1 po4 lang4[/pinyin], which hints at spirited daring and ambition. Unless you regularly lay waste to English garrisons, I don\'t know how often you\'ll encounter 乘风破浪 in day-to-day conversations, but that\'s not to say it doesn\'t have its place. There are those rousing pep talks you give yourself in the bathroom mirror, for instance. \r\n\r\n
Usage Examples
\r\n\r\n
\r\n- 在工作上,我们要敢于乘风破浪。 - In my work, I must dare to dare.
\r\n- 这艘轮船乘风破浪驶向大海。 - This ship, braving the winds and waves, flies towards the sea.
\r\n
\r\n\r\n
Some good martial vocab
\r\n
勇敢 [pinyin]yong3 gan3[/pinyin] - Brave, courageous\r\n\r\n
抱负 [pinyin]bao4 fu4[/pinyin] - Aspiration, ambition\r\nThis is something you have, rather than something you are, as in 很有抱负 / 没有抱负。 \r\n\r\n
勤学苦练 [pinyin]qin2 xue2 ku3 lian4[/pinyin] - Study diligently and train hard\r\n\r\n
奋斗 [pinyin]fen4 dou4[/pinyin] - To struggle \r\nThis word is super useful outside of any martial context. Not only does it mean \"to struggle\" in the military sense, it also means \"to struggle\" in the \"life is hard\" sense. It can be used to describe the general struggle of the daily grind: getting up, getting the kids to school, working long hours, making dinner. If, for example, a husband and wife were to say to you: \"我们奋斗了六年。\" that would mean, \"We worked our butts off for six years.\" \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n1) 古代南北朝的时候，宋国有位将军姓宗名悫，他从小就很
勇敢，也很有
抱负。有一天，宗悫的叔父问他有什么志向，宗悫回答道：“愿乘长风，破万里浪。”意思是：我一定要突破一切障碍，勇往直前，干一番事业。宗悫经过
勤学苦练，努力
奋斗，终于成为一位能征善战的将军。\r\n\r\n2) 后来，人们就用“乘风破浪”来形容不怕困难，奋勇前进的精神。\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) In ancient times, during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there was a general of the Song State, whose surname was Zong, and whose family name Que. Even as a child he was brave and full of ambition. One day, Zong Que\'s uncle asked him about his aspirations, to which Zong Que replied, \"I will ride the long wind, and brave 10,000 waves.\" By this he meant: \"I will undoubtedly break through any obstructions, bravely forging ahead in a given undertaking.\" Zong Que underwent rigorous training, assiduously struggling on, finally becoming a skillful general. \r\n\r\n2) Later, people used the term \"Ride the wind and brave the waves\" to describe a spirit unafraid of meeting difficulty, one which plows ahead with courage and energy. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 乘风破浪 - Bravery & Courage', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1779-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-15 04:05:12', '2017-01-15 09:05:12', '', 1779, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/1779-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2631, 1, '2017-01-13 06:39:42', '2017-01-13 11:39:42', '', '201701-read-chinese-mandarin-reading', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', '201701-read-chinese-mandarin-reading', '', '', '2017-01-13 06:40:05', '2017-01-13 11:40:05', '', 2430, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/201701-read-chinese-mandarin-reading.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2632, 1, '2017-01-13 06:40:10', '2017-01-13 11:40:10', 'Or rather, \"Little Tortoise figures out that life is mostly just about figuring out what defense mechanisms you developed and learning to deal with them.\" \r\n\r\n
However - 却
\r\nThis passage is a good showcase for 却 [pinyin]que4[/pinyin]. 却 usually appears in the second part of a sentence, and indicates a reversal of whatever was said in the first bit, similar to \"however\", \"but\", or \"on the other hand\". \r\n\r\nHowever (heh), 却 is used a little differently than we might use these words in English. You can\'t stick it in the beginning of a sentence. \"However, she only waited two hours before she decided to go home.\" MAY NOT BE translated as \"却, 她只等了两个小时就决定回家了。\" \r\n\r\nRather, you stick it behind the noun in the second part of the sentence to show contrast with the first part: 我想去，他却不想去。(\"I want to go, he, however, does not.\")\r\n\r\nYou\'ll see this several times in the passage below. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n1) 小乌龟问妈妈：“为什么我们生下来，就要背着这又硬又重的外壳呢？” \r\n\r\n2) 妈妈：“因为我们的身体很软，很脆弱，可以爬，却爬不快；可以游，又游不远。外面的世界充满了危险，这个壳就是保护我们的家啊！” \r\n\r\n3) 小乌龟疑惑地问：“可是海鸥小妹妹的身体好像也很软，为什么她却不用背像我们这样又硬又重的壳呢？” \r\n\r\n4) 妈妈耐心地解释：“因为海鸥妹妹长大了会飞翔，天空会保护她啊。” \r\n\r\n5) 小乌龟还是不明白：“青蛙弟弟也很软，爬不快游不远，而且也不会飞翔，他为什么不背像我们这样又硬又重的壳呢？” \r\n\r\n6) 妈妈说：“因为青蛙弟弟的家在麦田，大地会保护他啊。” \r\n\r\n7) 小乌龟哭了起来：“我们好可怜，天空不保护我们，大地也不保护我们。” \r\n\r\n8) 乌龟妈妈安慰他：“可是我们有壳啊！我们不靠天，不靠地，我们只靠我们自己。”\r\n\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) The little tortoise asked his mother: \"Why is it that when we\'re born, we must carry around these hard and heavy shells?\" \r\n\r\n2) Mother: \"Because our bodies are weak and frail, we can crawl but we can\'t crawl fast; we can swim, but we can\'t swim far. The outside world is full of danger, these shells are the homes that protect us!\" \r\n\r\n3) Little Tortoise doubtfully asked: \"But Sister Seagull\'s body also seems weak, why doesn\'t she have to carry a hard and heavy shell like ours?\" \r\n\r\n4) Mama patiently explained: \"Because when Sister Seagull grows up she can fly, and the sky will protect her.\" \r\n\r\n5) Little Tortoise still didn\'t understand: \"Little brother frog is also weak, he can\'t crawl fast and he can\'t swim far, neither can he fly, so why doesn\'t he have to carry a hard and heavy shell like ours?\"\r\n\r\n6) Mother said: \"Because Little Brother Frog lives in the wheat fields, the earth will protect him.\" \r\n\r\n7) Little tortoise started to cry: \"How pitiful we are, the sky doesn\'t protect us, and the earth doesn\'t protect us either.\" \r\n\r\n8) Mama Tortoise comforted him: \"But we have shells! We don\'t depend on the sky, we don\'t depend on the earth, we need only depend on ourselves.\" \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n', '[Chinese Short Stories] 《小乌龟的困惑》Little Tortoise Find Out Life is Hard', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2430-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-13 06:40:10', '2017-01-13 11:40:10', '', 2430, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2430-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1149, 1, '2012-06-30 05:09:21', '2012-06-30 09:09:21', '', 'Recipe Ingredients: Chinese Dry Yellow Soybean Paste', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', 'ingredients-soybean-paste', '', '', '2012-06-30 05:09:21', '2012-06-30 09:09:21', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ingredients-soybean-paste.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1150, 1, '2012-06-30 05:11:45', '2012-06-30 09:11:45', '', 'ingredients-together', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', 'ingredients-together', '', '', '2012-06-30 05:11:45', '2012-06-30 09:11:45', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ingredients-together.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1151, 1, '2012-06-30 05:12:45', '2012-06-30 09:12:45', '', 'dry-bean-paste', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', 'dry-bean-paste', '', '', '2012-06-30 05:12:45', '2012-06-30 09:12:45', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/dry-bean-paste.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1152, 1, '2012-06-30 05:14:07', '2012-06-30 09:14:07', '', 'stirring-bean-paste', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', 'stirring-bean-paste', '', '', '2012-06-30 05:14:07', '2012-06-30 09:14:07', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/stirring-bean-paste.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1153, 1, '2012-06-30 05:15:13', '2012-06-30 09:15:13', '', 'IMAG0139', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', 'imag0139', '', '', '2012-06-30 05:15:13', '2012-06-30 09:15:13', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMAG0139.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1154, 1, '2012-06-30 05:18:16', '2012-06-30 09:18:16', '', 'mushroom-stir', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', 'mushroom-stir', '', '', '2012-06-30 05:18:16', '2012-06-30 09:18:16', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/mushroom-stir.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1155, 1, '2012-06-30 05:21:17', '2012-06-30 09:21:17', '', 'sauce-halfdone', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', 'sauce-halfdone', '', '', '2012-06-30 05:21:17', '2012-06-30 09:21:17', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/sauce-halfdone.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1156, 1, '2012-06-30 05:23:01', '2012-06-30 09:23:01', '', 'IMAG0146', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', 'imag0146', '', '', '2012-06-30 05:23:01', '2012-06-30 09:23:01', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/IMAG0146.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1157, 1, '2012-06-30 05:23:47', '2012-06-30 09:23:47', '', 'cucumber-slice-1', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', 'cucumber-slice-1', '', '', '2012-06-30 05:23:47', '2012-06-30 09:23:47', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/cucumber-slice-1.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1158, 1, '2012-06-30 05:23:59', '2012-06-30 09:23:59', '', 'cucumber-slice-2', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', 'cucumber-slice-2', '', '', '2012-06-30 05:23:59', '2012-06-30 09:23:59', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/cucumber-slice-2.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1159, 1, '2012-06-30 05:25:34', '2012-06-30 09:25:34', '', 'noodles-done', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', 'noodles-done', '', '', '2012-06-30 05:25:34', '2012-06-30 09:25:34', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/noodles-done.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1160, 1, '2012-06-30 05:30:08', '2012-06-30 09:30:08', '', 'done-noodles', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', 'done-noodles', '', '', '2012-06-30 05:30:08', '2012-06-30 09:30:08', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/done-noodles.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1161, 1, '2012-06-30 05:35:12', '2012-06-30 09:35:12', '', 'featured', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', 'featured', '', '', '2012-06-30 05:35:12', '2012-06-30 09:35:12', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/featured.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2628, 1, '2017-01-13 04:16:29', '2017-01-13 09:16:29', '', '201701-turtledove-featured', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', '201701-turtledove-featured', '', '', '2017-01-13 04:17:31', '2017-01-13 09:17:31', '', 2349, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/201701-turtledove-featured.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2629, 1, '2017-01-13 04:17:39', '2017-01-13 09:17:39', 'There\'s only one thing worse than a bratty turtledove, and that is a bratty turtledove who feels entitled to everyone\'s good opinion. Amiright? This little bird needs a serious lesson in reciprocity. \r\n\r\n
Being Nice
\r\nThere\'s one phrase in here that might read as confusing, if only because the meaning of 好 in this context is a little vague. The turtledove is complaining that he can\'t make friends with the magpie, because he already stole the magpie\'s nest, and therefore the magpie: \r\n\r\n不会和我好的。\r\n\r\nIf you translate this directly, it actually kind of works in American slang English: \"He won\'t be good with me.\" That\'s exactly right, turtledove. If you stole my nest, I wouldn\'t be good with you either. But more formally, we might translate this as \"He won\'t be nice to me.\" \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n1) 小斑鸠很孤单，几乎没有朋友。有一天，他问白头翁：“白头翁爷爷，谁能和我交朋友呢？” \r\n\r\n2) 白头翁说：“你可以去和喜鹊交朋友，他热情、善良！” \r\n\r\n3) 小斑鸠惭愧地说：“我强占过他的巢，他不会和我好的。” \r\n\r\n4) 白头翁说：“你可以去和啄木鸟交朋友，他勤劳、正直！” \r\n\r\n5) 小斑鸠不好意思地说：“上次，我骂他是笨蛋，他不会原谅我的。” \r\n\r\n6) 白头翁想了想，又说：“那么，你去找小麻雀试试，他天真、活泼！” \r\n\r\n7) 小斑鸠为难地说：“不行啊，前几天我和他打了一架，把他啄得头破血流。” \r\n\r\n8) 白头翁叹了一口气说：“哎，你总是欺负别人，谁还愿意成为你的朋友呢？” \r\n\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) The little turtledove was very lonely, he had almost no friends. One day, he asked the wizened old man: \"Wizened Grandfather, who will make friends with me?\"\r\n\r\n2) The old man said: \"You could go make friends with the magpie, he\'s enthusiastic and kindly!\" \r\n\r\n3) The little turtledove ashamedly said: \"I once forced him out of his nest, he won\'t be nice to me.\" \r\n\r\n4) The old man said: \"You could go make friends with the woodpecker, he\'s hardworking and upright!\" \r\n\r\n5) The little turtledove said with embarrassment: \"Last time [I saw him], I called him an fool, he won\'t forgive me.\" \r\n\r\n6) The old man thought a moment, then said: \"Then, you could go try the sparrow, he\'s unaffected and lively!\" \r\n\r\n7) The little turtledove awkwardly said: \"That won\'t do, a few days ago he and I came to blows, I pecked him in the head until he was bleeding.\" \r\n\r\n8) The old man sighed and said: \"
Ai, you\'re always off bullying others, who\'d still want to be your friend?\" \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] 《孤单的斑鸠》The Lonely Little Turtledove', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2349-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-13 04:17:39', '2017-01-13 09:17:39', '', 2349, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2349-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1163, 1, '2012-06-30 05:38:26', '2012-06-30 09:38:26', '', 'chop-up-peanuts-mushrooms', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', 'chop-up-peanuts-mushrooms', '', '', '2012-06-30 05:38:26', '2012-06-30 09:38:26', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/chop-up-peanuts-mushrooms.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2624, 1, '2017-01-13 03:20:52', '2017-01-13 08:20:52', 'Oh man, I dated this guy. Big dreams, no follow-through. Lots of watching CSI while speculating about how much money he was going to make with the project he\'d never get around to actually launching. You know what that guy was doing? He was 守株待兔 [pinyin]shou3 zhu1 dai4 tu4[/pinyin], or more cryptically, \"guarding a tree stump waiting for rabbits\". \r\n\r\n
Usage Examples
\r\n\r\n
\r\n- 我们要积极创造机会，而不是只会守株待兔而已。 - We have to actively create opportunities, otherwise we\'re just sitting around waiting for a stroke of luck.
\r\n- 一分耕耘一分收穫，守株待兔终究不可靠。 - You reap what you sow, passively waiting for a lucky break is an unreliable strategy in the end.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAs outlined in the first sentence of the text, this story takes place during the Warring States period (475 and 221 BC), a 250-year mess which was finally kind of resolved when legendary emperor Qin Shihuang (秦始皇) whipped everyone\'s butt and unified China for the first time. While he was doing that, on the other hand, the protagonist in our story here was farming. And then giving up farming for a career in sitting down. \r\n\r\n
Pay attention to...
\r\n
不偏不倚 [pinyin]bu4 pian1 bu4 yi3[/pinyin] - Smack-dab\r\nIf you nab the definition directly out of the dictionary, this word makes zero sense. It translates as \"impartial\" or \"unbiased\", but in this case, it means \"straight\" or \"smack-dab\", as in \"He ran smack-dab into the door-frame\". \r\n\r\n
日出而作，日入而息 - [pinyin]ri4 chu1 er zuo, ru4 ru4 er4 xi1[/pinyin]\r\nThis structure, specifically the way the character 而 is used, draws a little on ancient Chinese grammar. 而 has a ton of meanings. In this case, it connects what is done with the manner in which it is done. The manner in which something is done comes first. So 作 (do / go out) is what is done, and 日出 (when the sun comes out) is how or when it is done. 息 (rest) is what is done, and 日入 (when the sun recedes) is how or when it is done. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n1) 相传在战国时代宋国，有一个农民，
日出而作，日入而息．遇到好年景，也不过刚刚吃饱穿暖；一遇灾荒，可就要忍饥挨饿了．他想改善生活，但他太懒，胆子又特小，干什么都是又懒又怕，总想碰到送上门来的意外之财。\r\n\r\n2) 奇迹终于发生了。深秋的一天，他正在田里耕地，周围有人在打猎。吆喝之声四处起伏，受惊的小野兽没命的奔跑。突然，有一只兔子，
不偏不倚，一头撞死在他田边的树根上。\r\n\r\n3) 当天，他美美地饱餐了一顿。从此，他便不再种地。一天到晚，守着那神奇的树根，等着奇迹的出现。\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Legend has it that during the Warring States period in the State of Song, there was a farmer who toiled every day from sunrise to sunset. Even in times of plenty, he was still only barely able to eat well and dress warmly; when times of famine came, he invariably went hungry. He wanted to change his life, but he was too lazy, and not particularly brave, and being always slack and afraid, was always hoping wealth would arrive at his door by chance. \r\n\r\n2) A miracle finally happened. One day in the depths of autumn, as he was plowing in the fields, there was someone hunting near by. The cries of the hunters sounded from all sides, and startled little beasts went running in desperation. Suddenly, one little hare ran smack-dab into a tree stump in the middle of the field and died. \r\n\r\n3) That day, the farmer joyously ate his fill. From then on, he never tended another field. From morning until night, he sat guarding that magical tree stump, waiting for miracles. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 守株待兔 - To sit around waiting for a lucky break', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1781-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-13 03:20:52', '2017-01-13 08:20:52', '', 1781, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/1781-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2627, 1, '2017-01-13 04:02:11', '2017-01-13 09:02:11', 'There\'s only one thing worse than a turtledove, and that\'s is a turtledove who feels entitled to your good opinion. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n1) 小斑鸠很孤单，几乎没有朋友。有一天，他问白头翁：“白头翁爷爷，谁能和我交朋友呢？” \r\n\r\n2) 白头翁说：“你可以去和喜鹊交朋友，他热情、善良！” \r\n\r\n3) 小斑鸠惭愧地说：“我强占过他的巢，他不会和我好的。” \r\n\r\n4) 白头翁说：“你可以去和啄木鸟交朋友，他勤劳、正直！” \r\n\r\n5) 小斑鸠不好意思地说：“上次，我骂他是笨蛋，他不会原谅我的。” \r\n\r\n6) 白头翁想了想，又说：“那么，你去找小麻雀试试，他天真、活泼！” \r\n\r\n7) 小斑鸠为难地说：“不行啊，前几天我和他打了一架，把他啄得头破血流。” \r\n\r\n8) 白头翁叹了一口气说：“哎，你总是欺负别人，谁还愿意成为你的朋友呢？” \r\n\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) The little turtledove was very lonely, he had almost no friends. One day, he asked the wizened old man: \"Wizened Grandfather, who will make friends with me?\"\r\n\r\n2) The old man said: \"You could go make friends with the magpie, he\'s enthusiastic and kindly!\" \r\n\r\n3) The little turtledove ashamedly said: \"I once forced him out of his nest, he won\'t be nice to me.\" \r\n\r\n4) The old man said: \"You could go make friends with the woodpecker, he\'s hardworking and upright!\" \r\n\r\n5) The little turtledove said with embarrassment: \"Last time [I saw him], I called him an fool, he won\'t forgive me.\" \r\n\r\n6) The old man thought a moment, then said: \"Then, you could go try the sparrow, he\'s unaffected and lively!\" \r\n\r\n7) The little turtledove , \"That won\'t do, a few days ago he and I came to blows, I pecked him in the head and he bled.\" \r\n\r\n8) The old man sighed and said: \"Ai, you\'re always off bullying others, who\'d still want to be your friend?\" \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] 《孤单的斑鸠》The Lonely Little Turtledove', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2349-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-13 04:02:11', '2017-01-13 09:02:11', '', 2349, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2349-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2625, 1, '2017-01-13 03:50:29', '2017-01-13 08:50:29', '', '201701-learn-simplified-chinese-idioms', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', '201701-learn-simplified-chinese-idioms', '', '', '2017-01-13 03:50:29', '2017-01-13 08:50:29', '', 1785, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/201701-learn-simplified-chinese-idioms.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2626, 1, '2017-01-13 03:50:58', '2017-01-13 08:50:58', 'Ever gotten so distracted by trivialities that you missed the core issue? Haven\'t we all. 买椟还珠 [pinyin]mai3 du2 huan2 zhu1[/pinyin] means \"to trade the pearl for the box it came in\". Which\'ll make more sense after you read it, I swear. \r\n\r\n
Usage Examples
\r\n\r\n
\r\n- 学习上我们要有主次之分，千万不能买椟还珠。 - In our studies we must distinguish between primary and secondary, we certainly mustn\'t trade the pearl for the box it came in.
\r\n
\r\n\r\n
Pay attention to...
\r\n
动脑筋 [pinyin]ding4 nao3 jin1[/pinyin] - Use your brains\r\nYes, do. \r\n\r\n
身份 - [pinyin]shen4 fen4[/pinyin]\r\n身份 translates directly as \"identity\", in both the abstract and practical senses. In modern Chinese, \"身份证\" is your \"ID Card\", for example. But in this case, the English word \"identity\" doesn\'t translate well. \r\n\r\n
His (Dark?) Materials
\r\nA couple of the words in this text don\'t appear in the dictionary, or if they do, the definitions don\'t make a ton of sense. 木兰 [pinyin]mu4 lan2[/pinyin], for one example. 桂椒香料 [pinyin]gui4 jiao1 xiang1 liao4[/pinyin] for another. \r\n\r\nThe most basic definition of 木兰 is a flower - magnolia, if we\'re splitting hairs. This is also the given name of 花木兰, the Chinese warrior princess of Disney movie fame (originally a
poem from the Northern Dynasties). We can assume here that this box was made from magnolia wood. 桂椒香料 uses the characters for \"cinnamon\" and \"pepper\" to make a general reference to fragrant, top-shelf spices. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n1) 一个楚国人，他有一颗漂亮的珍珠，他打算把这颗珍珠卖出去。为了卖个好价钱，他便
动脑筋要将珍珠好好包装一下，他觉得有了高贵的包装，那么珍珠的“
身份”就自然会高起来。\r\n\r\n2) 这个楚国人找来名贵的
木兰，又请来手艺高超的匠人，为珍珠做了一个盒子（即椟），用
桂椒香料把盒子熏得香气扑鼻。然后，在盒子的外面精雕细刻了许多好看的花纹，还镶上漂亮的金属花边，看上去，闪闪发亮，实在是一件精致美观的工艺品。 \r\n\r\n3) 这样，楚人将珍珠小心翼翼地放进盒子里，拿到市场上去卖。\r\n\r\n4) 到市场上不久，很多人都围上来欣赏楚人的盒子。一个郑国人将盒子拿在手里看了半天，爱不释手，终于出高价将楚人的盒子买了下来。郑人交过钱后，便拿着盒子往回走。可是没走几步他又回来了。楚人以为郑人后悔了要退货，没等楚人想完，郑人已走到楚人跟前。只见郑人将打开的盒子里的珍珠取出来交给楚人说：“先生，您将一颗珍珠忘放在盒子里了，我特意回来还珠子的。”于是郑人将珍珠交给了楚人，然后低着头一边欣赏着木盒子，一边往回走去。\r\n\r\n5) 楚人拿着被退回的珍珠，十分尴尬地站在那里。他原本以为别人会欣赏他的珍珠，可是没想到精美的外包装超过了包装盒内的价值，以致于“喧宾夺主”，令楚人哭笑不得。\r\n\r\n6) 郑人只重外表而不顾实质，使他做出了舍本求末的不当取舍；而楚人的“过分包装”也有些可笑。\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) There was a man from the State of Chu, who had a beautiful pearl, which he decided to sell. In order to sell it for a good price, he went all-out packaging it up well, so that the pearl\'s value seemed naturally increased.\r\n\r\n2) This man of Chu called for rare magnolia wood and invited highly skilled craftsmen in order to make a box for the pearl, smoking the box with the finest spices to tickle the nose. Then, on the outside of the box he engraved many lovely patterns inlayed in metal so that it sparkled before one\'s eyes, truly an exquisitely-wraught work of art.\r\n\r\n3) Just so, the man from Chu carefully placed the pearl inside the box, and went off to market to conduct the sale. \r\n\r\n4) Not long after he reached the market, many people gathered around to admire the Man from Chu\'s box. One man from the State of Zheng held it in his hand and examined it for what seemed like half the day, unable to put it down, and finally bought it for a steep price. After the man from Zheng had paid, he walked away carrying it. But he hadn\'t gone but a few steps before he headed back [towards the man from Chu] again. The man from Chu thought the man from Zheng regretted his purchase and wished to return it, but before he\'d had time to think it through, the man from Zheng was already standing before him. The man from Zheng opened the box, took out the pearl and held it out to him, saying, \"Sir, you forgot a jewel inside this box, I came with the particular purpose of returning it.\" And so the man from Zheng gave the pearl back to the man from Chu, then strolled away, head down, admiring the wooden box. \r\n\r\n5) The man from Chu took the returned pearl, and stood there looking rather embarrassed. He\'d thought other would admire his pearl, but he never thought the fine packaging might exceed the value of what was inside, to the extent that \"the voice of the guest was louder than the voice of the host\", and he wasn\'t sure whether to laugh or cry. \r\n\r\n6) The man from Zheng looked at the outer appearance and didn\'t see the true value, causing him to make a choice that placed importance on inessential details rather than on the central issue, and the man from Chu\'s excessive packaging was also a bit ridiculous. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 买椟还珠 - To show poor judgement', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1785-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-13 03:50:58', '2017-01-13 08:50:58', '', 1785, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/1785-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(2621, 1, '2017-01-12 18:28:01', '2017-01-12 23:28:01', 'In this legend, famous Jin Dynasty calligrapher 王羲之 [pinyin]Wang2 Xi1 zhi1[/pinyin] avoids death by throwing up on himself. Nice work, Mr. Wang. \n\nWhile I have no idea if this story is true - probably not - the real Wang Xizhi was quite a guy. You know what else he was into, besides calligraphy? Are you ready for this? Ducks.
He was really into ducks. And fathering children, I guess, because he had seven. \n\n
Sleeptalking - 呓呓
\nWe\'re all acquainted with the common Chinese onomatopoeia by now, yes? 喵喵 [pinyin]miao1 miao1[/pinyin] is the sound a cat makes, etc? Here\'s a less familiar one: the Chinese onomatopoeia for talking in your sleep is \"呓呓\" [pinyin]yi4 yi4[/pinyin]. So, that\'s a thing. \n\n
Adventures in Murder - 灭口
\nLot of meaning packed into this one tiny word, 灭口 [pinyin]mie4 kou3[/pinyin]. Makes sense, though: 灭 means \"to snuff out\", 口 is that big hole in your face, the one you keep opening right when you shouldn\'t. Together, these character describe committing murder in order to protect a secret. \"To snuff out the mouth\", indeed. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n
Chinese text:
\n1) 东晋时期著名书法家王羲之，七岁就开始练字，尚未成年，已经落笔不俗，被人誉为“小神笔”。 \n\n2) 当时，朝廷中有位名叫王敦的大将军，常常把王羲之带到军帐中表演书法，天色晚了，还让他在自己的床铺上睡觉。 \n\n3) 有一次，王敦起床了，王羲之还没有醒。一会儿，王敦的心腹谋士钱凤进来了，两人悄悄地商量事情，谈的是想造反的事，却忘记了王羲之还睡在帐中。王羲之醒来，听见了他们的谈话内容，非常吃惊，心想：“如果他们记起了自己睡在这里，一定会怀疑机密泄露，说不定要杀人
灭口呢！怎么办？” 恰好昨天喝了点酒，于是，他就假装酩酊大醉，把床上吐得遍处都是，接着，又蒙头盖脸，发出轻轻的鼾声，好像睡熟了似的。 \n\n4) 王敦和钱凤密谈了多时，忽然想起了王羲之，不由得心惊肉跳，脸色骤变。钱凤咬着牙根，恶狠狠地说：“这小子，不能不除掉。不然，我们都要遭灭门之祸了。” 两人手握尖刀，掀开帐子，正要下手，忽听王羲之“呓呓”地说起梦话来，再一看，崭新的被褥吐满了饭菜，散发出一股呛鼻的酒味。王敦和钱凤相视片刻，都以为王羲之酒后熟睡未醒，也就算了。\n\n
See source \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) During the Eastern Jin Dynasty there was a famous calligrapher named Wang Xizhi, who by the age of seven had already begun to practice writing, and when he was still not fully grown, he was already producing original work, and was acclaimed as \"Little God of the Pen\". \n\n2) At that time, there was a great general in the imperial court named Wang Dun, who often brought Wang Xizhi back to his army tent to perform calligraphy, and when it grew dark, would let him lay down to sleep in his [the general\'s] bed. \n\n2One time, when Wang Dun awoke, Wang Zhixi had not yet arisen. Soon, Wang Dun\'s trusted advisor Qian Feng entered, and the two of them quietly discussed their affairs, they talked about starting a revolt, but they forgot that Wang Xizhi was still sleeping in the tent. Wang Zhixi woke up, heard what they were talking about, and was extremely startled, thinking inwardly: \"If they remember that I\'m sleeping in here, they\'ll surely wonder if their secret is out, they might kill me to keep me silent! What do I do?\" It just so happened that the day before they\'d had a bit to drink, so, he pretended to be drop-dead drunk, threw up all over the bed, and covered his face, then let out light snores, as if he was thoroughly asleep. \n\nWang Dun and Qian Feng spoke secretly for some time, then suddenly remembered Wang Xizhi, and could not but be extremely alarmed, their faces changing suddenly. Qian Feng gritted his teeth, and said fiercely, \"This guy must be gotten rid of. Otherwise, both of our families will be exterminated.\" Both men gripped sharp blades, lifted up the tent flap, and were just about to act, when they suddenly heard Wang Xizhi talking in his sleep, and looking closely, saw that the brand new bedding was covered in thrown-up food, and the pungent smell of alcohol emanated from within. Wang Dun and Qian Feng traded glances, both thinking that Wang Xizhi had slept soundly after drinking and hadn\'t woken, so they let the matter go. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\n', '[Famous People] 王羲之 - Calligrapher Wang Xizhi Pretends to be Drunk', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2443-autosave-v1', '', '', '2017-01-12 18:28:01', '2017-01-12 23:28:01', '', 2443, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2443-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2622, 1, '2017-01-12 18:28:19', '2017-01-12 23:28:19', 'In this legend, famous Jin Dynasty calligrapher 王羲之 [pinyin]Wang2 Xi1 zhi1[/pinyin] avoids death by throwing up on himself. Nice work, Mr. Wang. \r\n\r\nWhile I have no idea if this story is true - probably not - the real Wang Xizhi was quite a guy. You know what else he was into, besides calligraphy? Are you ready for this? Ducks.
He was really into ducks. And fathering children, I guess, because he had seven. \r\n\r\n
Sleeptalking - 呓呓
\r\nWe\'re all acquainted with the common Chinese onomatopoeia by now, yes? 喵喵 [pinyin]miao1 miao1[/pinyin] is the sound a cat makes, etc? Here\'s a less familiar one: the Chinese onomatopoeia for talking in your sleep is \"呓呓\" [pinyin]yi4 yi4[/pinyin]. So, that\'s a thing. \r\n\r\n
Adventures in Murder - 灭口
\r\nLot of meaning packed into this one tiny word, 灭口 [pinyin]mie4 kou3[/pinyin]. Makes sense, though: 灭 means \"to snuff out\", 口 is that big hole in your face, the one you keep opening right when you shouldn\'t. Together, these character describe committing murder in order to protect a secret. \"To snuff out the mouth\", indeed. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 东晋时期著名书法家王羲之，七岁就开始练字，尚未成年，已经落笔不俗，被人誉为“小神笔”。 \r\n\r\n2) 当时，朝廷中有位名叫王敦的大将军，常常把王羲之带到军帐中表演书法，天色晚了，还让他在自己的床铺上睡觉。 \r\n\r\n3) 有一次，王敦起床了，王羲之还没有醒。一会儿，王敦的心腹谋士钱凤进来了，两人悄悄地商量事情，谈的是想造反的事，却忘记了王羲之还睡在帐中。王羲之醒来，听见了他们的谈话内容，非常吃惊，心想：“如果他们记起了自己睡在这里，一定会怀疑机密泄露，说不定要杀人
灭口呢！怎么办？” 恰好昨天喝了点酒，于是，他就假装酩酊大醉，把床上吐得遍处都是，接着，又蒙头盖脸，发出轻轻的鼾声，好像睡熟了似的。 \r\n\r\n4) 王敦和钱凤密谈了多时，忽然想起了王羲之，不由得心惊肉跳，脸色骤变。钱凤咬着牙根，恶狠狠地说：“这小子，不能不除掉。不然，我们都要遭灭门之祸了。” 两人手握尖刀，掀开帐子，正要下手，忽听王羲之“呓呓”地说起梦话来，再一看，崭新的被褥吐满了饭菜，散发出一股呛鼻的酒味。王敦和钱凤相视片刻，都以为王羲之酒后熟睡未醒，也就算了。\r\n\r\n
See source \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) During the Eastern Jin Dynasty there was a famous calligrapher named Wang Xizhi, who by the age of seven had already begun to practice writing, and when he was still not fully grown, he was already producing original work, and was acclaimed as \"Little God of the Pen\". \r\n\r\n2) At that time, there was a great general in the imperial court named Wang Dun, who often brought Wang Xizhi back to his army tent to perform calligraphy, and when it grew dark, would let him lay down to sleep in his [the general\'s] bed. \r\n\r\n3) One time, when Wang Dun awoke, Wang Zhixi had not yet arisen. Soon, Wang Dun\'s trusted advisor Qian Feng entered, and the two of them quietly discussed their affairs, they talked about starting a revolt, but they forgot that Wang Xizhi was still sleeping in the tent. Wang Zhixi woke up, heard what they were talking about, and was extremely startled, thinking inwardly: \"If they remember that I\'m sleeping in here, they\'ll surely wonder if their secret is out, they might kill me to keep me silent! What do I do?\" It just so happened that the day before they\'d had a bit to drink, so, he pretended to be drop-dead drunk, threw up all over the bed, and covered his face, then let out light snores, as if he was thoroughly asleep. \r\n\r\n4) Wang Dun and Qian Feng spoke secretly for some time, then suddenly remembered Wang Xizhi, and could not but be extremely alarmed, their faces changing suddenly. Qian Feng gritted his teeth, and said fiercely, \"This guy must be gotten rid of. Otherwise, both of our families will be exterminated.\" Both men gripped sharp blades, lifted up the tent flap, and were just about to act, when they suddenly heard Wang Xizhi talking in his sleep, and looking closely, saw that the brand new bedding was covered in thrown-up food, and the pungent smell of alcohol emanated from within. Wang Dun and Qian Feng traded glances, both thinking that Wang Xizhi had slept soundly after drinking and hadn\'t woken, so they let the matter go. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n', '[Famous People] 王羲之 - Calligrapher Wang Xizhi Pretends to be Drunk', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2443-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-12 18:28:19', '2017-01-12 23:28:19', '', 2443, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2443-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2623, 1, '2017-01-13 03:11:54', '2017-01-13 08:11:54', 'Ever gotten so distracted by trivialities that you\'ve missed the core issue? Haven\'t we all. 买椟还珠 [pinyin]mai3 du2 huan2 zhu1[/pinyin] means \"to trade the pearl for the box it came in\", and means \r\n\r\n
Usage Examples
\r\n\r\n
\r\n- 学习上我们要有主次之分，千万不能买椟还珠。 - In our studies we must distinguish between primary and secondary, we certainly mustn\'t trade the pearl for the box it came in.
\r\n
\r\n谢谢\r\n\r\n
Pay attention to...
\r\n
动脑筋 [pinyin]ding4 nao3 jin1[/pinyin] - Use your brains\r\nYes, do. \r\n\r\n
身份 - [pinyin]shen4 fen4[/pinyin]\r\n身份 translates directly as \"identity\", in both the abstract and practical senses. In modern Chinese, \"身份证\" is your \"ID Card\", for example. But in this case, the English word \"identity\" doesn\'t translate well. \r\n\r\n
His (Dark?) Materials
\r\nA couple of the words in this text don\'t appear in the dictionary, or if they do, the definitions don\'t make a ton of sense. 木兰 [pinyin]mu4 lan2[/pinyin], for one example. 桂椒香料 [pinyin]gui4 jiao1 xiang1 liao4[/pinyin] for another. \r\n\r\nThe most basic definition of 木兰 is a flower - magnolia, if we\'re splitting hairs. This is also the given name of 花木兰, the Chinese warrior princess of Disney movie fame (originally a
poem from the Northern Dynasties). \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n1) 一个楚国人，他有一颗漂亮的珍珠，他打算把这颗珍珠卖出去。为了卖个好价钱，他便
动脑筋要将珍珠好好包装一下，他觉得有了高贵的包装，那么珍珠的“
身份”就自然会高起来。\r\n\r\n2) 这个楚国人找来名贵的
木兰，又请来手艺高超的匠人，为珍珠做了一个盒子（即椟），用
桂椒香料把盒子熏得香气扑鼻。然后，在盒子的外面精雕细刻了许多好看的花纹，还镶上漂亮的金属花边，看上去，闪闪发亮，实在是一件精致美观的工艺品。 \r\n\r\n3) 这样，楚人将珍珠小心翼翼地放进盒子里，拿到市场上去卖。\r\n\r\n4) 到市场上不久，很多人都围上来欣赏楚人的盒子。一个郑国人将盒子拿在手里看了半天，爱不释手，终于出高价将楚人的盒子买了下来。郑人交过钱后，便拿着盒子往回走。可是没走几步他又回来了。楚人以为郑人后悔了要退货，没等楚人想完，郑人已走到楚人跟前。只见郑人将打开的盒子里的珍珠取出来交给楚人说：“先生，您将一颗珍珠忘放在盒子里了，我特意回来还珠子的。”于是郑人将珍珠交给了楚人，然后低着头一边欣赏着木盒子，一边往回走去。\r\n\r\n5) 楚人拿着被退回的珍珠，十分尴尬地站在那里。他原本以为别人会欣赏他的珍珠，可是没想到精美的外包装超过了包装盒内的价值，以致于“喧宾夺主”，令楚人哭笑不得。\r\n\r\n6) 郑人只重外表而不顾实质，使他做出了舍本求末的不当取舍；而楚人的“过分包装”也有些可笑。\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) There was a man from the State of Chu, who had a beautiful pearl, which he decided to sell. In order to sell it for a good price, he went all-out packaging it up well, so that the pearl\'s value seemed naturally increased.\r\n\r\n2) This man of Chu called for rare magnolia wood and invited highly skilled craftsmen in order to make a box for the pearl, scenting the box with the finest spices to tickle the nose. Then, on the outside of the box he engraved many lovely patterns inlayed in metal so that it sparkled before one\'s eyes, truly an exquisitely-wraught work of art.\r\n\r\n3) Just so, the man from Chu carefully placed the pearl inside the box, and went off to market to conduct the sale. \r\n\r\n4) Not long after he reached the market, many people gathered around to admire the Man from Chu\'s box. One man from the State of Zheng held it in his hand and examined it for what seemed like half the day, unable to put it down, and finally bought it for a steep price. After the man from Zheng had paid, he walked away carrying it. But he hadn\'t gone but a few steps before he headed back [towards the man from Chu] again. The man from Chu thought the man from Zheng regretted his purchase and wished to return it, but before he\'d had time to think it through, the man from Zheng was already standing before him. The man from Zheng opened the box, took out the pearl and held it out to him, saying, \"Sir, you forgot a jewel inside this box, I came with the particular purpose of returning it.\" And so the man from Zheng gave the pearl back to the man from Chu, then strolled away, head down, admiring the wooden box. \r\n\r\n5) The man from Chu took the returned pearl, and stood there looking rather embarrassed. He\'d thought other would admire his pearl, but he never thought the fine packaging might exceed the value of what was inside, to the extent that \"the voice of the guest was louder than the voice of the host\", and he wasn\'t sure whether to laugh or cry. \r\n\r\n6) The man from Zheng looked at the outer appearance and didn\'t see the true value, causing him to make a choice that placed importance on inessential details rather than on the central issue, and the man from Chu\'s excessive packaging was also a bit ridiculous. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 买椟还珠 - To show poor judgement', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1785-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-13 03:11:54', '2017-01-13 08:11:54', '', 1785, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/1785-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2619, 1, '2017-01-12 18:25:15', '2017-01-12 23:25:15', 'In this legend, famous Jin Dynasty calligrapher 王羲之 [pinyin]Wang2 Xi1 zhi1[/pinyin] avoids death by throwing up on himself. Nice work, Mr. Wang. \r\n\r\nWhile I have no idea if this story is true - probably not - the real Wang Xizhi was quite a guy. You know what else he was into, besides calligraphy? Are you ready for this? Ducks.
He was really into ducks. And fathering children, I guess, because he had seven. \r\n\r\n
Sleeptalking - 呓呓
\r\nWe\'re all acquainted with the common Chinese onomatopoeia by now, yes? 喵喵 [pinyin]miao1 miao1[/pinyin] is the sound a cat makes, etc? Here\'s a less familiar one: the Chinese onomatopoeia for talking in your sleep is \"呓呓\" [pinyin]yi4 yi4[/pinyin]. So, that\'s a thing. \r\n\r\n
Adventures in Murder - 灭口
\r\nLot of meaning packed into this one tiny word, 灭口 [pinyin]mie4 kou3[/pinyin]. Makes sense, though: 灭 means \"to snuff out\", 口 is that big hole in your face, the one you keep opening right when you shouldn\'t. Together, these character describe committing murder in order to protect a secret. \"To snuff out the mouth\", indeed. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n东晋时期著名书法家王羲之，七岁就开始练字，尚未成年，已经落笔不俗，被人誉为“小神笔”。 \r\n\r\n当时，朝廷中有位名叫王敦的大将军，常常把王羲之带到军帐中表演书法，天色晚了，还让他在自己的床铺上睡觉。 \r\n\r\n有一次，王敦起床了，王羲之还没有醒。一会儿，王敦的心腹谋士钱凤进来了，两人悄悄地商量事情，谈的是想造反的事，却忘记了王羲之还睡在帐中。王羲之醒来，听见了他们的谈话内容，非常吃惊，心想：“如果他们记起了自己睡在这里，一定会怀疑机密泄露，说不定要杀人
灭口呢！怎么办？” 恰好昨天喝了点酒，于是，他就假装酩酊大醉，把床上吐得遍处都是，接着，又蒙头盖脸，发出轻轻的鼾声，好像睡熟了似的。 \r\n\r\n王敦和钱凤密谈了多时，忽然想起了王羲之，不由得心惊肉跳，脸色骤变。钱凤咬着牙根，恶狠狠地说：“这小子，不能不除掉。不然，我们都要遭灭门之祸了。” 两人手握尖刀，掀开帐子，正要下手，忽听王羲之“呓呓”地说起梦话来，再一看，崭新的被褥吐满了饭菜，散发出一股呛鼻的酒味。王敦和钱凤相视片刻，都以为王羲之酒后熟睡未醒，也就算了。\r\n\r\n
See source \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDuring the Eastern Jin Dynasty there was a famous calligrapher named Wang Xizhi, who by the age of seven had already begun to practice writing, and when he was still not fully grown, he was already producing original work, and was acclaimed as \"Little God of the Pen\". \r\n\r\nAt that time, there was a great general in the imperial court named Wang Dun, who often brought Wang Xizhi back to his army tent to perform calligraphy, and when it grew dark, would let him lay down to sleep in his [the general\'s] bed. \r\n\r\nOne time, when Wang Dun awoke, Wang Zhixi had not yet arisen. Soon, Wang Dun\'s trusted advisor Qian Feng entered, and the two of them quietly discussed their affairs, they talked about starting a revolt, but they forgot that Wang Xizhi was still sleeping in the tent. Wang Zhixi woke up, heard what they were talking about, and was extremely startled, thinking inwardly: \"If they remember that I\'m sleeping in here, they\'ll surely wonder if their secret is out, they might kill me to keep me silent! What do I do?\" It just so happened that the day before they\'d had a bit to drink, so, he pretended to be drop-dead drunk, threw up all over the bed, and covered his face, then let out light snores, as if he was thoroughly asleep. \r\n\r\nWang Dun and Qian Feng spoke secretly for some time, then suddenly remembered Wang Xizhi, and could not but be extremely alarmed, their faces changing suddenly. Qian Feng gritted his teeth, and said fiercely, \"This guy must be gotten rid of. Otherwise, both of our families will be exterminated.\" Both men gripped sharp blades, lifted up the tent flap, and were just about to act, when they suddenly heard Wang Xizhi talking in his sleep, and looking closely, saw that the brand new bedding was covered in thrown-up food, and the pungent smell of alcohol emanated from within. Wang Dun and Qian Feng traded glances, both thinking that Wang Xizhi had slept soundly after drinking and hadn\'t woken, so they let the matter go. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n', '[Famous People] 王羲之 - Calligrapher Wang Xizhi Pretends to be Drunk', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2443-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-12 18:25:15', '2017-01-12 23:25:15', '', 2443, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2443-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2637, 1, '2017-01-15 03:51:13', '2017-01-15 08:51:13', '', '201701-how-to-read-mandarin-sheep', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', '201701-how-to-read-mandarin-sheep', '', '', '2017-01-15 03:52:00', '2017-01-15 08:52:00', '', 2384, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/201701-how-to-read-mandarin-sheep.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2638, 1, '2017-01-15 03:52:40', '2017-01-15 08:52:40', 'I can\'t decide who\'s at fault in this passage. I mean, poor Mother Sheep. She clearly does not have a little Einstein on her hands. Then again, maybe she should give her child some clearer instructions before she gets all passive-aggressive on him. So your kid didn\'t come out of the womb knowing how to forage for radishes. Relax. Enjoy the teachable moment. \r\n\r\n
Enough already - 才...呢
\r\nAs Little Lamb tries to stuff inedible tuber after inedible tuber into his stupid mouth, Mother Sheep gets increasingly exasperated. How do we know this? Because of the sentence structure \"才...呢\". Compare the difference in Mother Sheep\'s tone. The first time Little Lamb screws up, she says:\r\n\r\n\"萝卜的根最好吃。\"\r\n\r\nThis is a straightforward, laid-back statement: \"The radish\'s roots taste the best.\" Mama Sheep isn\'t annoyed yet. But the next time Little Lamb messes up, we hear notes of aggravation:\r\n\r\n“白菜的叶子
才好吃
呢！”\r\n\r\nThe character 才 [pinyin]cai2[/pinyin] has a ton of usages in Chinese, but almost all of those usages have something to do with lateness, or something taking a long time, or something happening after a long interval. For example:\r\n\r\n你怎么两个小时
才回来了?\r\nHow did it take you
an entire two hours to get back here? \r\n\r\nIn today\'s reading, we might translate as \"Cabbages are
only good
when you eat the leaves!\" Like, when you finally eat the cabbage leaves, cabbages will be delicious. \r\n\r\nSo what function does 呢 [pinyin]ne[/pinyin] serve at the end there? In this case, the 呢 gives the whole preceding sentence an overtone of obviousness. Like, \"what I just said is self-evident, duh.\" \r\n\r\nSo the whole statement is a little snippy, right? A little bit of ire there for sure. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n1) 羊妈妈带着小羊到菜园去收菜。\r\n\r\n2) 他们走到萝卜地里。羊妈妈拔了一个萝卜。小羊要吃萝卜叶子。羊妈妈说：“萝卜的根最好吃。”\r\n\r\n3) 他们走到白菜地里。羊妈妈拔了一棵小白菜。小羊要吃白菜的根。羊妈妈说：“白菜的叶子才好吃呢！”\r\n\r\n4) 他们走到西红柿地里。小羊要吃西红柿的叶子。羊妈妈说：“要吃西红柿的果实
呀！”\r\n\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Mother Sheep brought Little Lamb to the vegetable field to gather vegetables. \r\n\r\n2) They walked to the radish patch. Mother Sheep pulled up a radish. Little Lamb wanted to eat the radish leaves. Mother Sheep said: \"The roots of the radish taste the best.\" \r\n\r\n3) They walked to the cabbage patch. Mother Sheep pulled up a little cabbage. Little Lamb wanted to eat the cabbage root. Mother Sheep said: \"Only the leaves of the cabbage are tasty!\" \r\n\r\n4) They walked to the tomato patch. Little Lamb wanted to eat the tomato leaves. Mother Sheep said: \"You eat the fruit of the tomato!\"\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n', '[Chinese Short Stories] 《羊妈妈收菜》Mother Sheep Gathers Vegetables', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2384-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-15 03:52:40', '2017-01-15 08:52:40', '', 2384, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2384-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2618, 1, '2017-01-12 17:56:32', '2017-01-12 22:56:32', '', 'study-simplified-chinese-characters-201701', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'study-simplified-chinese-characters-201701', '', '', '2017-01-12 17:57:12', '2017-01-12 22:57:12', '', 2443, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/study-simplified-chinese-characters-201701.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2616, 1, '2017-01-12 17:22:27', '2017-01-12 22:22:27', 'http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=Sx3mX8w6aJ8_0COvgSh3DrKGi4FHbhTjTj5oJ8huu6VEL96khdeV_o32z-DaGDlxEmQxwTQLp3_ctuiLPCOqaIaVfSYtYNAahk-PAI2WJ88oB5qMzBwy0pAQGRbbKwhr\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n东晋时期著名书法家王羲之，七岁就开始练字，尚未成年，已经落笔不俗，被人誉为“小神笔”。 \r\n\r\n当时，朝廷中有位名叫王敦的大将军，常常把王羲之带到军帐中表演书法，天色晚了，还让他在自己的床铺上睡觉。 \r\n\r\n有一次，王敦起床了，王羲之还没有醒。一会儿，王敦的心腹谋士钱凤进来了，两人悄悄地商量事情，谈的是想造反的事，却忘记了王羲之还睡在帐中。王羲之醒来，听见了他们的谈话内容，非常吃惊，心想：如果他们记起了自己睡在这里，一定会怀疑机密泄露，说不定要杀人灭口呢！怎么办？恰好昨天喝了点酒，于是，他就假装酩酊大醉，把床上吐得遍处都是，接着，又蒙头盖脸，发出轻轻的鼾声，好像睡熟了似的。 \r\n\r\n王敦和钱凤密谈了多时，忽然想起了王羲之，不由地心惊肉跳，脸色骤变。钱凤咬着牙根，恶狠狠地说：“这小子，不能不除掉。不然，我们都要遭灭门之祸了。” 两人手握尖刀，掀开帐子，正要下手，忽听王羲之“呓呓”地说起梦话来，再一看，崭新的被褥吐满了饭菜，散发出一股呛鼻的酒味。王敦和钱凤相视片刻，都以为王羲之酒后熟睡未醒，也就算了。\r\n\r\n
See source \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDuring the Eastern Jin Dynasty there was a famous calligrapher named Wang Xizhi, who by the age of seven had already begun to practice writing, and when he was still not fully grown, he was already producing original work, and was acclaimed as \"Little God of the Pen\". \r\n\r\nAt that time, there was a great general in the imperial court named Wang Dun, who often brought Wang Xizhi back to his army tent to PERFORM calligraphy, and when it grew dark, would let him lay down to [the calligrapher] sleep in his [the general\'s] bed. \r\n\r\nOne time, when Wang Dun awoke, Wang Zhixi had not yet arisen. Soon, Wang Dun\'s trusted advisor Qian Feng entered, and the two of them quietly discussed some things, talked about starting a revolt, but foretting that Wang Xizhi was still sleeping in the tent. Wang Zhixi woke up, heard what they were talking about, and was extremely startled, thinking inwardly: \"If they remember that I\'m sleeping in here, they\'ll surely wonder if their secret is out, they might kill me to keep me silent! What do I do?\" 有一次，王敦起床了，王羲之还没有醒。一会儿，王敦的心腹谋士钱凤进来了，两人悄悄地商量事情，谈的是想造反的事，却忘记了王羲之还睡在帐中。王羲之醒来，听见了他们的谈话内容，非常吃惊，心想：如果他们记起了自己睡在这里，一定会怀疑机密泄露，说不定要杀人灭口呢！怎么办？恰好昨天喝了点酒，于是，他就假装酩酊大醉，把床上吐得遍处都是，接着，又蒙头盖脸，发出轻轻的鼾声，好像睡熟了似的。 \r\n\r\n王敦和钱凤密谈了多时，忽然想起了王羲之，不由地心惊肉跳，脸色骤变。钱凤咬着牙根，恶狠狠地说：“这小子，不能不除掉。不然，我们都要遭灭门之祸了。” 两人手握尖刀，掀开帐子，正要下手，忽听王羲之“呓呓”地说起梦话来，再一看，崭新的被褥吐满了饭菜，散发出一股呛鼻的酒味。王敦和钱凤相视片刻，都以为王羲之酒后熟睡未醒，也就算了。\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nhttp://wenku.baidu.com/link?url=1Ik36il1QlMtTweU2bfr4IGN2uCf0CHHmCOV9OkmS62Y5_sHUYn_G3N2ddJ4W3GI-nW1YutoUNmJPLI8EVFwRQKFPsZaJVl-bjqupItlpPm###\r\n', '[Famous People] 王羲之 - Calligrapher Wang Xizhi Pretends to be Drunk', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2443-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-12 17:22:27', '2017-01-12 22:22:27', '', 2443, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2443-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2617, 1, '2017-01-12 17:49:04', '2017-01-12 22:49:04', 'http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=Sx3mX8w6aJ8_0COvgSh3DrKGi4FHbhTjTj5oJ8huu6VEL96khdeV_o32z-DaGDlxEmQxwTQLp3_ctuiLPCOqaIaVfSYtYNAahk-PAI2WJ88oB5qMzBwy0pAQGRbbKwhr\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n东晋时期著名书法家王羲之，七岁就开始练字，尚未成年，已经落笔不俗，被人誉为“小神笔”。 \r\n\r\n当时，朝廷中有位名叫王敦的大将军，常常把王羲之带到军帐中表演书法，天色晚了，还让他在自己的床铺上睡觉。 \r\n\r\n有一次，王敦起床了，王羲之还没有醒。一会儿，王敦的心腹谋士钱凤进来了，两人悄悄地商量事情，谈的是想造反的事，却忘记了王羲之还睡在帐中。王羲之醒来，听见了他们的谈话内容，非常吃惊，心想：如果他们记起了自己睡在这里，一定会怀疑机密泄露，说不定要杀人灭口呢！怎么办？恰好昨天喝了点酒，于是，他就假装酩酊大醉，把床上吐得遍处都是，接着，又蒙头盖脸，发出轻轻的鼾声，好像睡熟了似的。 \r\n\r\n王敦和钱凤密谈了多时，忽然想起了王羲之，不由得心惊肉跳，脸色骤变。钱凤咬着牙根，恶狠狠地说：“这小子，不能不除掉。不然，我们都要遭灭门之祸了。” 两人手握尖刀，掀开帐子，正要下手，忽听王羲之“呓呓”地说起梦话来，再一看，崭新的被褥吐满了饭菜，散发出一股呛鼻的酒味。王敦和钱凤相视片刻，都以为王羲之酒后熟睡未醒，也就算了。\r\n\r\n
See source \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDuring the Eastern Jin Dynasty there was a famous calligrapher named Wang Xizhi, who by the age of seven had already begun to practice writing, and when he was still not fully grown, he was already producing original work, and was acclaimed as \"Little God of the Pen\". \r\n\r\nAt that time, there was a great general in the imperial court named Wang Dun, who often brought Wang Xizhi back to his army tent to perform calligraphy, and when it grew dark, would let him lay down to sleep in his [the general\'s] bed. \r\n\r\nOne time, when Wang Dun awoke, Wang Zhixi had not yet arisen. Soon, Wang Dun\'s trusted advisor Qian Feng entered, and the two of them quietly discussed their affairs, they talked about starting a revolt, but they forgot that Wang Xizhi was still sleeping in the tent. Wang Zhixi woke up, heard what they were talking about, and was extremely startled, thinking inwardly: \"If they remember that I\'m sleeping in here, they\'ll surely wonder if their secret is out, they might kill me to keep me silent! What do I do?\" It just so happened that the day before they\'d had a bit to drink, so, he pretended to be drop-dead drunk, threw up all over the bed, and all over his face and head besides, then let out light snores, as if he was thoroughly asleep. \r\n\r\nWang Dun and Qian Feng spoke secretly for some time, then suddenly remembered Wang Xizhi, and could not but be extremely alarmed, their faces changing suddenly. Qian Feng gritted his teeth, and said fiercely, \"This guy must be gotten rid of. Otherwise, both of our families will be exterminated.\" Both men gripped sharp blades, lifted up the tent flap, and were just about to act, when they suddenly heard Wang Xizhi talking in his sleep, and looking closely, saw that the brand new bedding was covered in thrown-up food, and the pungent smell of alcohol emanated from within. Wang Dun and Qian Feng traded glances, both thinking that Wang Xizhi had slept soundly after drinking and hadn\'t woken, so they let the matter go. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n', '[Famous People] 王羲之 - Calligrapher Wang Xizhi Pretends to be Drunk', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2443-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-12 17:49:04', '2017-01-12 22:49:04', '', 2443, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2443-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2614, 1, '2017-01-12 16:45:40', '2017-01-12 21:45:40', 'I started translating this post thinking that it was going to be about sunflowers, the big, yellow, pinwheel-type dealies. I mean, 太阳花 [pinyin]tai4 yang2 hua1[/pinyin], right? Literally translates into \"sun flower\". But then I got to the bit where the flowers are described as \"pink-red\", and scrambled for the Baidu encyclopedia. Turns out, 太阳花 are not \"sunflowers\" as we know them. Those are
向日葵 [pinyin]xiang4 ri4 kui2[/pinyin]. No,
太阳花 is actually something called a \"moss rose\" (
English Wikipedia entry). They look like this: \r\n\r\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/20170113-learn-chinese-sunflowers-science-baidu.png\")
\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 太阳花是一种很美丽的小花，细细的小花瓣，粉红粉红的，鲜艳极了。叶子呢，也是细细的，嫩嫩的，像含着一包绿汁。\r\n\r\n2) 早上，太阳一升起，太阳花就兴冲冲地开放了。傍晚，太阳一下山，太阳花就慢慢合拢花瓣睡觉了。\r\n\r\n3) 太阳花的颜色可多了！有粉红的，有黄黄的、蓝蓝的，还有紫紫的。\r\n\r\n
See source \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Moss roses are a very pretty type of flower, with thin petals, all pinkish-red, very colorful. And the leaves, they\'re also thin and tender, as if containing a sack of green juice. \r\n\r\n2) In the morning, when the sun rises, moss roses excitedly open. In the evening, when the sun falls behind the mountains, moss roses slowly close up their petals and sleep. \r\n\r\n3) How many colors of moss roses there are! There are pink-red, yellow, blue and also purple. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Facts in Chinese] 太阳花 - Sun... flowers?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2406-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-12 16:45:40', '2017-01-12 21:45:40', '', 2406, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2406-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2610, 1, '2017-01-12 16:32:47', '2017-01-12 21:32:47', '', '20170113-learn-chinese-sunflowers-science', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', '20170113-learn-chinese-sunflowers-science', '', '', '2017-01-12 16:33:11', '2017-01-12 21:33:11', '', 2406, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/20170113-learn-chinese-sunflowers-science.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2611, 1, '2017-01-12 16:37:05', '2017-01-12 21:37:05', '', '20170113-learn-chinese-sunflowers-science-baidu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', '20170113-learn-chinese-sunflowers-science-baidu', '', '', '2017-01-12 16:37:05', '2017-01-12 21:37:05', '', 2406, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/20170113-learn-chinese-sunflowers-science-baidu.png', 0, 'attachment', 'image/png', 0),
(2612, 1, '2017-01-12 16:38:24', '2017-01-12 21:38:24', 'I started translating this post thinking that it was going to be about sunflowers, the big, yellow, pinwheel-type dealies. I mean, 太阳花 [pinyin]tai4 yang2 hua1[/pinyin], right? Literally translates into \"sun flower\". But then I got to the bit where the flowers are described as \"pink-red\", and scrambled for the Baidu encyclopedia. Turns out, 太阳花 are not \"sunflowers\" as we know them. Those are
向日葵 [pinyin]xiang4 ri4 kui2[/pinyin]. No,
太阳花 is actually something called a \"moss rose\" (
English Wikipedia entry). They look like this: \r\n\r\n
\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 太阳花是一种很美丽的小花，细细的小花瓣，粉红粉红的，鲜艳极了。叶子呢，也是细细的，嫩嫩的，像含着一包绿汁。\r\n\r\n2) 早上，太阳一升起，太阳花就兴冲冲地开放了。傍晚，太阳一下山，太阳花就慢慢合拢花瓣睡觉了。\r\n\r\n3) 太阳花的颜色可多了！有粉红的，有黄黄的、蓝蓝的，还有紫紫的。\r\n\r\n
See source \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Sunflowers are a very pretty type of flower, with thin petals, 太阳花是一种很美丽的小花，细细的小花瓣，粉红粉红的，鲜艳极了。叶子呢，也是细细的，嫩嫩的，像含着一包绿汁。\r\n\r\n2) 早上，太阳一升起，太阳花就兴冲冲地开放了。傍晚，太阳一下山，太阳花就慢慢合拢花瓣睡觉了。\r\n\r\n3) 太阳花的颜色可多了！有粉红的，有黄黄的、蓝蓝的，还有紫紫的。\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Facts in Chinese] 太阳花 - Sun... flowers?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2406-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-12 16:38:24', '2017-01-12 21:38:24', '', 2406, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2406-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2609, 1, '2017-01-12 05:35:31', '2017-01-12 10:35:31', 'Man, this kid Kong Rong (孔融 [pinyin]kong3 rong2[/pinyin]). What a cutie. What a humble little guy. This is a kid that knows all about r-e-s-p-e-c-t. He knows that you gotta save all the best pears for the older kids. No one told him, he just knew. He probably also learned to tie his shoes before everyone else, and got nothing but gold stars on his homework, and started chewing with his mouth closed while he was still breastfeeding.\r\n\r\n... Wait, you know what, actually? I take it all back. I\'m not into it. Those Kong Rong kids made the rest of us look bad. Get a life, Kong Rong. Grab the big pear for yourself next time. Live a little. \r\n\r\nSo, Kong Rong isn\'t just a random made-up name - Kong Rong (153-208AD) was actually a famous poet, and it\'s pretty common to see fictional stories about legendary people in ancient history, stories that illuminate their character, along the lines of \"George Washington and the Cherry Tree\". And that, my friends, is what this is. \r\n\r\nNow, grammar: \r\n\r\n
When... 的时候
\r\n
When we talk about things that happened in the past or might happen in the future, we typically start our sentence with \"when\". \r\n\r\n\"When I was ten years old, I got my first dog.\"\r\n\"When I go to the store, do you want me to get you something?\"\r\n\r\nIn Chinese, the \"when\" is placed after the time, using 的时候 [pinyin]de5 shi2 hou4[/pinyin]. The same sentences, following a Chinese pattern, would be sound like this:\r\n\r\n\"I was ten years old when, ....\"\r\n我十岁
的时候，\r\n\r\n\"I go to the store when, ...?\"\r\n我去商店
的时候,\r\n\r\nMake sense?\r\n\r\n
So much togetherness 一块儿
\r\nDepending on how long you\'ve been studying, you may or may not have run across the word 一起 [pinyin]yi1 qi3[/pinyin], which means \"together\", as in \"We ate dinner together.\" (我们
一起吃了晚饭). 一块儿 [pinyin]yi1 kuai4 er5[/pinyin] actually has two meanings. The first meaning is \"a block (of something)\", so like \"A block of cheese\" or \"A . But its second definition is very similar to 一起: in this case it also means \"together\" or more precisely \"
as a block\". \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 太阳花是一种很美丽的小花，细细的小花瓣，粉红粉红的，鲜艳极了。叶子呢，也是细细的，嫩(nèn)嫩的，像含着一包绿汁(zhī)。\r\n\r\n2) 早上，太阳一升起，太阳花就兴冲冲地开放了。傍晚，太阳一下山，太阳花就慢慢合拢(lǒnɡ)花瓣睡觉了。\r\n\r\n3) 太阳花的颜色可多了！有粉红的，有黄黄的、蓝蓝的，还有紫紫的。\r\n\r\n
See source \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Once, there was a child named Kong Rong. When he was 4 years old, one day he and his brother were eating pears. On the plate were big pears, and small pears, and Kong Rong grabbed a small pear. \r\n\r\n2) His father saw this and asked him, \"Why didn\'t you take a big pear?\" \r\n\r\n3) Kong Rong said: \"I\'m the little brother, I should eat the small one.\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\nhttp://www.360doc.com/content/12/0624/17/1764012_220163890.shtml', '[Facts in Chinese] 太阳花 - Sunflowers', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2406-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-12 05:35:31', '2017-01-12 10:35:31', '', 2406, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2406-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2613, 1, '2017-01-12 16:44:45', '2017-01-12 21:44:45', 'I started translating this post thinking that it was going to be about sunflowers, the big, yellow, pinwheel-type dealies. I mean, 太阳花 [pinyin]tai4 yang2 hua1[/pinyin], right? Literally translates into \"sun flower\". But then I got to the bit where the flowers are described as \"pink-red\", and scrambled for the Baidu encyclopedia. Turns out, 太阳花 are not \"sunflowers\" as we know them. Those are
向日葵 [pinyin]xiang4 ri4 kui2[/pinyin]. No,
太阳花 is actually something called a \"moss rose\" (
English Wikipedia entry). They look like this: \r\n\r\n
\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 太阳花是一种很美丽的小花，细细的小花瓣，粉红粉红的，鲜艳极了。叶子呢，也是细细的，嫩嫩的，像含着一包绿汁。\r\n\r\n2) 早上，太阳一升起，太阳花就兴冲冲地开放了。傍晚，太阳一下山，太阳花就慢慢合拢花瓣睡觉了。\r\n\r\n3) 太阳花的颜色可多了！有粉红的，有黄黄的、蓝蓝的，还有紫紫的。\r\n\r\n
See source \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Moss roses are a very pretty type of flower, with thin petals, all pinkish-red, very colorful. And the leaves, they\'re also thin and tender, as if containing a sack of green juice. \r\n\r\n2) In the morning, when the sun rises, moss roses excitedly open. In the evening, when the sun falls behind the mountains, moss flowers slowly close up their petals and sleep. \r\n\r\n3) How many colors the moss roses have! There are pink-red, yellow, blue and also purple. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Facts in Chinese] 太阳花 - Sun... flowers?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2406-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-12 16:44:45', '2017-01-12 21:44:45', '', 2406, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2406-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2606, 1, '2017-01-12 05:27:36', '2017-01-12 10:27:36', 'This passage comes out of a science-for-little-kids document library, and describes - shocker - dragonflies. How do I know it was written for kids? Because \"dragonflies\" (蜻蜓 [pinyin]qing1 ting2[/pinyin] are referred to as \"小蜻蜓\" [pinyin]xiao3 qing1 ting2[/pinyin], or \"little dragonflies\", so the whole thing has a cutsie-face overtone. \r\n\r\nThere are definitely two or three advanced verb characters in the passage, like 飞舞 [pinyin]fei1 wu3[/pinyin], which literally translates to \"fly dance\", but which might be better translated as \"to flit\" (through the air); and 掠 [pinyin]lve4[/pinyin], meaning \"skim\" or \"graze\". \r\n\r\n
Verb Doubling
\r\nDid you know that doubling up a verb in Chinese changes the tone of the verb? Yup. When you double up a verb, it implies that the action is done casually or in a carefree, offhand way. So this bit: 这里飞飞，那里停停，implies laid back \"flying\" and \"stopping\", as in, \"Flying here, stopping there\", or, \"Casually flying here and there\".\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 清清的小河边长满了绿油油的草，夹杂着许多不知名的野花。这就是小蜻蜓活动的天地。\r\n\r\n2) 小蜻蜓，身体轻，看上去好像一架小飞机。\r\n\r\n3) 它们有时在花间飞舞，有时轻轻掠过水面。这里飞飞，那里停停，小蜻蜓过者悠闲的日子。\r\n
See source \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) The clear riverbank is covered with lush green grass, and scattered with nameless wildflowers. This is the little dragonfly\'s world (lit: activity world). \r\n\r\n2) Little dragonflies have light bodies, they look just like little airplanes.\r\n\r\n3) Sometimes they flit amongst the flowers, sometimes they skim across the surface of the water. Flying here, stopping there, little dragonflies rest in the sun. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n', '[Facts in Chinese] 小蜻蜓 - Dragonflies', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2407-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-12 05:27:36', '2017-01-12 10:27:36', '', 2407, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2407-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2604, 1, '2017-01-12 03:17:59', '2017-01-12 08:17:59', 'Man, this kid Kong Rong (孔融 [pinyin]kong3 rong2[/pinyin]). What a cutie. What a humble little guy. This is a kid that knows all about r-e-s-p-e-c-t. He knows that you gotta save all the best pears for the older kids. No one told him, he just knew. He probably also learned to tie his shoes before everyone else, and got nothing but gold stars on his homework, and started chewing with his mouth closed while he was still breastfeeding.\n\n... Wait, you know what, actually? I take it all back. I\'m not into it. Those Kong Rong kids made the rest of us look bad. Get a life, Kong Rong. Grab the big pear for yourself next time. Live a little. \n\nSo, Kong Rong isn\'t just a random made-up name - Kong Rong (153-208AD) was actually a famous poet, and it\'s pretty common to see fictional stories about legendary people in ancient history, stories that illuminate their character, along the lines of \"George Washington and the Cherry Tree\". And that, my friends, is what this is. Now, for som\n\n
When... 的时候
\n
When we talk about things that happened in the past or might happen in the future, we typically start our sentence with \"when\". \n\n\"When I was ten years old, I got my first dog.\"\n\"When I go to the store, do you want me to get you something?\"\n\nIn Chinese, the \"when\" is placed after the time, using 的时候 [pinyin]de5 shi2 hou4[/pinyin]. The same sentences, following a Chinese pattern, would be sound like this:\n\n\"I was ten years old when, ....\"\n我十岁
的时候，\n\n\"I go to the store when, ...?\"\n我去商店
的时候,\n\nMake sense?\n\n
So much togetherness 一块儿
\nDepending on how long you\'ve been studying, you may or may not have run across the word 一起 [pinyin]yi1 qi3[/pinyin], which means \"together\", as in \"We ate dinner together.\" (我们
一起吃了晚饭). 一块儿 [pinyin]yi1 kuai4 er5[/pinyin] actually has two meanings. The first meaning is \"a block (of something)\", so like \"A block of cheese\" or \"A . But its second definition is very similar to 一起: in this case it also means \"together\" or more precisely \"
as a block\". \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n
Chinese text:
\n1) 从前，有个孩子叫孔融。他四岁
的时候，有一天和哥哥
一块儿吃梨。盘子里的梨有大的，也有小的，孔融拿了一个小梨。\n\n2) 爸爸看见了，问道：“你为什么不拿大的呢？”\n\n3) 孔融说：“我是弟弟，应该吃小的。”\n\n
See source \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) Once, there was a child named Kong Rong. When he was 4 years old, one day he and his brother were eating pears. On the plate were big pears, and small pears, and Kong Rong grabbed a small pear. \n\n2) His father saw this and asked him, \"Why didn\'t you take a big pear?\" \n\n3) Kong Rong said: \"I\'m the little brother, I should eat the small one.\" \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\n', '[Chinese Short Stories] 《孔融让梨》Kong Rong Gives up the Pears', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2402-autosave-v1', '', '', '2017-01-12 03:17:59', '2017-01-12 08:17:59', '', 2402, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2402-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2605, 1, '2017-01-12 03:18:16', '2017-01-12 08:18:16', 'Man, this kid Kong Rong (孔融 [pinyin]kong3 rong2[/pinyin]). What a cutie. What a humble little guy. This is a kid that knows all about r-e-s-p-e-c-t. He knows that you gotta save all the best pears for the older kids. No one told him, he just knew. He probably also learned to tie his shoes before everyone else, and got nothing but gold stars on his homework, and started chewing with his mouth closed while he was still breastfeeding.\r\n\r\n... Wait, you know what, actually? I take it all back. I\'m not into it. Those Kong Rong kids made the rest of us look bad. Get a life, Kong Rong. Grab the big pear for yourself next time. Live a little. \r\n\r\nSo, Kong Rong isn\'t just a random made-up name - Kong Rong (153-208AD) was actually a famous poet, and it\'s pretty common to see fictional stories about legendary people in ancient history, stories that illuminate their character, along the lines of \"George Washington and the Cherry Tree\". And that, my friends, is what this is. \r\n\r\nNow, grammar: \r\n\r\n
When... 的时候
\r\n
When we talk about things that happened in the past or might happen in the future, we typically start our sentence with \"when\". \r\n\r\n\"When I was ten years old, I got my first dog.\"\r\n\"When I go to the store, do you want me to get you something?\"\r\n\r\nIn Chinese, the \"when\" is placed after the time, using 的时候 [pinyin]de5 shi2 hou4[/pinyin]. The same sentences, following a Chinese pattern, would be sound like this:\r\n\r\n\"I was ten years old when, ....\"\r\n我十岁
的时候，\r\n\r\n\"I go to the store when, ...?\"\r\n我去商店
的时候,\r\n\r\nMake sense?\r\n\r\n
So much togetherness 一块儿
\r\nDepending on how long you\'ve been studying, you may or may not have run across the word 一起 [pinyin]yi1 qi3[/pinyin], which means \"together\", as in \"We ate dinner together.\" (我们
一起吃了晚饭). 一块儿 [pinyin]yi1 kuai4 er5[/pinyin] actually has two meanings. The first meaning is \"a block (of something)\", so like \"A block of cheese\" or \"A . But its second definition is very similar to 一起: in this case it also means \"together\" or more precisely \"
as a block\". \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 从前，有个孩子叫孔融。他四岁
的时候，有一天和哥哥
一块儿吃梨。盘子里的梨有大的，也有小的，孔融拿了一个小梨。\r\n\r\n2) 爸爸看见了，问道：“你为什么不拿大的呢？”\r\n\r\n3) 孔融说：“我是弟弟，应该吃小的。”\r\n\r\n
See source \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Once, there was a child named Kong Rong. When he was 4 years old, one day he and his brother were eating pears. On the plate were big pears, and small pears, and Kong Rong grabbed a small pear. \r\n\r\n2) His father saw this and asked him, \"Why didn\'t you take a big pear?\" \r\n\r\n3) Kong Rong said: \"I\'m the little brother, I should eat the small one.\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n', '[Chinese Short Stories] 《孔融让梨》Kong Rong Gives up the Pears', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2402-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-12 03:18:16', '2017-01-12 08:18:16', '', 2402, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2402-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2607, 1, '2017-01-12 05:29:52', '2017-01-12 10:29:52', '', 'learn-simplified-chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'learn-simplified-chinese', '', '', '2017-01-12 05:30:10', '2017-01-12 10:30:10', '', 2407, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/learn-simplified-chinese.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0);
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(2600, 1, '2017-01-12 02:38:46', '2017-01-12 07:38:46', '', '201701012-learn-to-read-chinese-pears', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', '201701012-learn-to-read-chinese-pears', '', '', '2017-01-12 02:39:10', '2017-01-12 07:39:10', '', 2402, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/201701012-learn-to-read-chinese-pears.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2601, 1, '2017-01-12 02:42:02', '2017-01-12 07:42:02', 'Man, this kid Kong Rong (孔融 [pinyin][/pinyin]). What a cutie. What a humble little guy. This is a kid that knows all about r-e-s-p-e-c-t. He knows that you gotta save all the best pears for the older kids. No one told him, he just knew. He probably also learned to tie his shoes before everyone else, and got nothing but gold stars on his homework, and started chewing with his mouth closed while he was still breastfeeding.\r\n\r\n... Wait, you know what, actually? I take it all back. I\'m not into it. Those Kong Rong kids made the rest of us look bad. Get a life, Kong Rong. Grab the big pear for yourself next time. Live a little. \r\n
\r\n\r\n
When... 的时候
\r\n
When we talk about things that happened in the past or might happen in the future, we typically start our sentence with \"when\". \r\n\r\n\"When I was ten years old, I got my first dog.\"\r\n\"When I go to the store, do you want me to get you something?\"\r\n\r\nIn Chinese, the \"when\" is placed after the time, using 的时候 [pinyin]de5 shi2 hou4[/pinyin]. The same sentences, following a Chinese pattern, would be sound like this:\r\n\r\n\"I was ten years old when, ....\"\r\n我十岁
的时候，\r\n\r\n\"I go to the store when, ...?\"\r\n我去商店
的时候,\r\n\r\nMake sense?\r\n\r\n
So much togetherness 一块儿
\r\nDepending on how long you\'ve been studying, you may or may not have run across the word 一起 [pinyin]yi1 qi3[/pinyin], which means \"together\", as in \"We ate dinner together.\" (我们
一起吃了晚饭). 一块儿 [pinyin]yi1 kuai4 er5[/pinyin] actually has two meanings. The first meaning is \"a block (of something)\", so like \"A block of cheese\" or \"A . But its second definition is very similar to 一起: in this case it also means \"together\" or more precisely \"
as a block\". \r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 从前，有个孩子叫孔融。他四岁
的时候，有一天和哥哥
一块儿吃梨。盘子里的梨有大的，也有小的，孔融拿了一个小梨。\r\n\r\n2) 爸爸看见了，
问道：“你为什么不拿大的呢？”\r\n\r\n3) 孔融说：“我是弟弟，应该吃小的。”\r\n\r\n
See source \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Once, there was a child named Kong Rong. When he was 4 years old, one day he and his brother were eating pears. On the plate were big pears, and small pears, and Kong Rong grabbed a small pear. \r\n\r\n2) His father saw this and asked him, \"Why didn\'t you take a big pear?\" \r\n\r\n3) Kong Rong said: \"I\'m the little brother, I should eat the small one.\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n', '[Chinese Short Stories] 《孔融让梨》Kong Rong Gives up the Pears', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2402-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-12 02:42:02', '2017-01-12 07:42:02', '', 2402, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2402-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2603, 1, '2017-01-12 03:01:53', '2017-01-12 08:01:53', 'Man, this kid Kong Rong (孔融 [pinyin][/pinyin]). What a cutie. What a humble little guy. This is a kid that knows all about r-e-s-p-e-c-t. He knows that you gotta save all the best pears for the older kids. No one told him, he just knew. He probably also learned to tie his shoes before everyone else, and got nothing but gold stars on his homework, and started chewing with his mouth closed while he was still breastfeeding.\r\n\r\n... Wait, you know what, actually? I take it all back. I\'m not into it. Those Kong Rong kids made the rest of us look bad. Get a life, Kong Rong. Grab the big pear for yourself next time. Live a little. \r\n\r\n
When... 的时候
\r\n
When we talk about things that happened in the past or might happen in the future, we typically start our sentence with \"when\". \r\n\r\n\"When I was ten years old, I got my first dog.\"\r\n\"When I go to the store, do you want me to get you something?\"\r\n\r\nIn Chinese, the \"when\" is placed after the time, using 的时候 [pinyin]de5 shi2 hou4[/pinyin]. The same sentences, following a Chinese pattern, would be sound like this:\r\n\r\n\"I was ten years old when, ....\"\r\n我十岁
的时候，\r\n\r\n\"I go to the store when, ...?\"\r\n我去商店
的时候,\r\n\r\nMake sense?\r\n\r\n
So much togetherness 一块儿
\r\nDepending on how long you\'ve been studying, you may or may not have run across the word 一起 [pinyin]yi1 qi3[/pinyin], which means \"together\", as in \"We ate dinner together.\" (我们
一起吃了晚饭). 一块儿 [pinyin]yi1 kuai4 er5[/pinyin] actually has two meanings. The first meaning is \"a block (of something)\", so like \"A block of cheese\" or \"A . But its second definition is very similar to 一起: in this case it also means \"together\" or more precisely \"
as a block\". \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 从前，有个孩子叫孔融。他四岁
的时候，有一天和哥哥
一块儿吃梨。盘子里的梨有大的，也有小的，孔融拿了一个小梨。\r\n\r\n2) 爸爸看见了，问道：“你为什么不拿大的呢？”\r\n\r\n3) 孔融说：“我是弟弟，应该吃小的。”\r\n\r\n
See source \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Once, there was a child named Kong Rong. When he was 4 years old, one day he and his brother were eating pears. On the plate were big pears, and small pears, and Kong Rong grabbed a small pear. \r\n\r\n2) His father saw this and asked him, \"Why didn\'t you take a big pear?\" \r\n\r\n3) Kong Rong said: \"I\'m the little brother, I should eat the small one.\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n', '[Chinese Short Stories] 《孔融让梨》Kong Rong Gives up the Pears', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2402-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-12 03:01:53', '2017-01-12 08:01:53', '', 2402, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/2402-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2594, 1, '2017-01-10 00:57:29', '2017-01-10 05:57:29', 'Choices, choices. Choices don\'t always present themselves in the clearest terms, and they aren\'t necessarily fair. This tortured little piece represents one dude\'s introspection on the sad reality of choice. \n\n
纷纷 - [pinyin]fen1 fen1[/pinyin]
\nThis word probably the most useful take-away here. It means \"one after the other\", or \"in quick succession\", but it\'s got a little bit of a messy overtone to it, like batches of things are happening around the same time. \n\nFor example, you could say, 落叶纷纷 [pinyin]luo4 ye4 fen1 fen1[/pinyin], meaning \"the leaves fell in profusion\". Leaves wouldn\'t fall off a tree in measured order, right? But they wouldn\'t all fall off in a synchronized bunch, either. They\'d kind of, you know, fall off generally around the same time, around the same season, some today, some tomorrow. Or you might also say, 同学们纷纷发言 - \"the students spoke up one after another\". \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n
Chinese text:
\n1) 一个农民从洪水中救起了他的妻子，他的孩子却被淹死了。\n\n2) 事后，人们议论纷纷。有的说他做得对，因为孩子可以再生一个，妻子却不能死而复活。有的说他做错了，因为妻子可以另娶一个，孩子却不能死而复活。\n\n3) 我听了人们的议论，也感到疑惑难决：如果只能救活一人，究竟应该救妻子呢，还是救孩子?\n\n4) 于是我去拜访那个农民，问他当时是怎么想的。\n\n5) 他答道：“我什么也没想。洪水袭来，妻子在我身过，我抓住她就往附近的山坡游。当我返回时，孩子已经被洪水冲走了。”\n\n6) 归途上，我琢磨着农民的话，对自己说：如果当时这个农民稍有迟疑，可能一个都救不了；所谓人生的抉择不少便是如此。\n\n7)【经典小故事心得】：很多事情根本没有错与对，也容不得你去细想错与对，如果过于犹豫或过于在乎别人的想法，你可能什么事也做不成。\n \n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) A farmer saved his wife from a flood, but his child drowned. \n\n2) Afterwards, everyone offered up one opinion after another. Some said he did the right thing, since he could always have another child, but his wife couldn\'t be revived from the dead. Some said he did the wrong thing, because he could always marry again, but his child could never return. \n\n3) I listened to everyone\'s opinion, and felt myself at a loss: if only one person could be saved, should the wife be saved, or should the child be saved? \n\n4) So I went to visit the farmer, and asked him what he\'d been thinking at the time. \n\n5) He answered: \"I wasn\'t thinking anything. The flood rushed in unexpectedly, and my wife was by my side, so I grabbed her and swam for a nearby hill. When I went back, my child had already been swept away by the flood waters.\" \n\n6) On the road back, I was tormented by the farmer\'s words, and said to myself: if that farmer had hesitated, he might have been unable to save even one of them; so many of the so-called choices in our lives happen this way.\n\n7) Moral of the story: In many matters there is no right and wrong, and those matters don\'t lend themselves well to deeper consideration of right and wrong. If you hesitate too long or worry too much about the opinions of others, you may be unable to do anything at all. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\n\n\n ', '[Short Story] 选择 - Choices', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1797-autosave-v1', '', '', '2017-01-10 00:57:29', '2017-01-10 05:57:29', '', 1797, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/1797-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2595, 1, '2017-01-10 00:57:36', '2017-01-10 05:57:36', 'Choices, choices. Choices don\'t always present themselves in the clearest terms, and they aren\'t necessarily fair. This tortured little piece represents one dude\'s introspection on the sad reality of choice. \r\n\r\n
纷纷 - [pinyin]fen1 fen1[/pinyin]
\r\nThis word probably the most useful take-away here. It means \"one after the other\", or \"in quick succession\", but it\'s got a little bit of a messy overtone to it, like batches of things are happening around the same time. \r\n\r\nFor example, you could say, 落叶纷纷 [pinyin]luo4 ye4 fen1 fen1[/pinyin], meaning \"the leaves fell in profusion\". Leaves wouldn\'t fall off a tree in measured order, right? But they wouldn\'t all fall off in a synchronized bunch, either. They\'d kind of, you know, fall off generally around the same time, around the same season, some today, some tomorrow. Or you might also say, 同学们纷纷发言 - \"the students spoke up one after another\". \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 一个农民从洪水中救起了他的妻子，他的孩子却被淹死了。\r\n\r\n2) 事后，人们议论
纷纷。有的说他做得对，因为孩子可以再生一个，妻子却不能死而复活。有的说他做错了，因为妻子可以另娶一个，孩子却不能死而复活。\r\n\r\n3) 我听了人们的议论，也感到疑惑难决：如果只能救活一人，究竟应该救妻子呢，还是救孩子?\r\n\r\n4) 于是我去拜访那个农民，问他当时是怎么想的。\r\n\r\n5) 他答道：“我什么也没想。洪水袭来，妻子在我身过，我抓住她就往附近的山坡游。当我返回时，孩子已经被洪水冲走了。”\r\n\r\n6) 归途上，我琢磨着农民的话，对自己说：如果当时这个农民稍有迟疑，可能一个都救不了；所谓人生的抉择不少便是如此。\r\n\r\n7)【经典小故事心得】：很多事情根本没有错与对，也容不得你去细想错与对，如果过于犹豫或过于在乎别人的想法，你可能什么事也做不成。\r\n\r\nGo straight to the
source.\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) A farmer saved his wife from a flood, but his child drowned. \r\n\r\n2) Afterwards, everyone offered up one opinion after another. Some said he did the right thing, since he could always have another child, but his wife couldn\'t be revived from the dead. Some said he did the wrong thing, because he could always marry again, but his child could never return. \r\n\r\n3) I listened to everyone\'s opinion, and felt myself at a loss: if only one person could be saved, should the wife be saved, or should the child be saved? \r\n\r\n4) So I went to visit the farmer, and asked him what he\'d been thinking at the time. \r\n\r\n5) He answered: \"I wasn\'t thinking anything. The flood rushed in unexpectedly, and my wife was by my side, so I grabbed her and swam for a nearby hill. When I went back, my child had already been swept away by the flood waters.\" \r\n\r\n6) On the road back, I was tormented by the farmer\'s words, and said to myself: if that farmer had hesitated, he might have been unable to save even one of them; so many of the so-called choices in our lives happen this way.\r\n\r\n7) Moral of the story: In many matters there is no right and wrong, and those matters don\'t lend themselves well to deeper consideration of right and wrong. If you hesitate too long or worry too much about the opinions of others, you may be unable to do anything at all. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n ', '[Short Story] 选择 - Choices', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1797-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-10 00:57:36', '2017-01-10 05:57:36', '', 1797, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/1797-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2596, 1, '2017-01-10 02:16:20', '2017-01-10 07:16:20', '', 'learn-chinese-reading-20171001-yu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'learn-chinese-reading-20171001-yu', '', '', '2017-01-10 02:16:20', '2017-01-10 07:16:20', '', 1787, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/learn-chinese-reading-20171001-yu.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2597, 1, '2017-01-10 02:24:32', '2017-01-10 07:24:32', '', 'learn-simplified-chinese-characters-20170110-yu2', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'learn-simplified-chinese-characters-20170110-yu2', '', '', '2017-01-10 02:25:01', '2017-01-10 07:25:01', '', 1787, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/learn-simplified-chinese-characters-20170110-yu2.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2598, 1, '2017-01-10 02:25:35', '2017-01-10 07:25:35', 'Ever forget the words to your national anthem, so you stand there moving your mouth around so no one can tell you\'re not really singing? That\'s 滥竽充数 right there, my friend.\r\n \r\nLet\'s take a look at the character breakdown we\'ve got here: \r\n\r\n[pinyin]lan4[/pinyin] - Indiscriminately (without qualification)\r\n[pinyin]yu2[/pinyin] - An ancient wind instrument\r\n[pinyin]chong1[/pinyin] - To fill in for, to fill out\r\n[pinyin]shu4[/pinyin] - Numbers\r\n\r\nTaken together, the idiom means \"to be a faker hiding amongst people with actual talent.\" Why these four characters? Doesn\'t really make a lot of sense until you read the story, but you\'ll get it afterwards. I don\'t wanna spoil the read, just like, have a look. \r\n\r\n
Usage Examples
\r\nYou\'ll often hear this idiom used as a way to politely make less of one\'s own talents, or to humbly respond to flattery. In English, 滥竽充数 might crop up in a conversation like these:\r\n\r\nA: You\'re really great at your job. \r\nB: Not at all, I\'m just
a talentless hack concealed amongst masters. \r\n\r\nOr \r\n\r\nA: That guy sure can play ball. \r\nB: Please, he\'s just there to
fill out the team. \r\n\r\nHere are some example usages in Chinese:\r\n\r\n老师让我们背诵课文，总有些同学滥竽充数。\r\n
\"The teacher asked us to recite the text, but there\'s always some students pretending to mouth along with the rest of us.\"\r\n\r\n我从来不滥竽充数，总是认认真真做事。\r\n
I\'ve never just dialed it in, I always diligently handle my affairs. \r\n\r\n
竽 － Reed organs for [pinyin]yu2[/pinyin] and me
\r\nSooo, they had a lot of weird musical instruments in ancient China. This one, the [pinyin]yu2[/pinyin], was kind of like a set of panpipes. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 据《韩非子》记载，齐宣王爱听吹竽，又好
讲排场。为他吹竽的就有三百人。他常常叫这三百人一起吹竽给他听。有个南郭先生，根本就不会吹竽，看到这个机会，就到齐宣王那里去，请求参加这个吹竽队。齐宣王就把他编在吹竽队里，并且给他很高的薪水。这位根本不会吹竽的南郭先生，每逢吹竽，就混在队里，拿着竽装腔作势。这样一天天混过去，不曾被人发现。\r\n\r\n2) 等到齐宣王死了，齐泯王接替王位。他和齐宣王不同，不喜欢听大家一起吹竽，而是喜欢叫吹竽的人一个一个地来吹给他听。南郭先生听到这个消息，只好逃之夭夭，不敢再冒充吹竽人了。\r\n\r\n3)【释读】\r\n\r\n4) 西方谚语说，你可以在某时欺骗某一些人，却不能一直欺骗所有的人。南郭先生不会吹竽硬装做会吹竽，终有露出马脚之时。\r\n \r\n
See the source\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) As recorded in the \"Han Feizi\", King Xuan of Qi loved to listen to the
yu, and enjoyed a good show of ostentation. 300 people played the
yu for him. He often called for these 300 people to play together for his listening enjoyment. [Amongst them] was a Mr. Nanguo, who couldn\'t play the yu at all, but he saw an opportunity, and went to the king asking to be allowed to play yu with the group. The king placed him in with the
yu players, and gave him a high salary. So this Mr. Nanguo who couldn\'t play the
yu at all, whenever he was made to perform, simply mixed in with the group and pretended to play along. This way the days passed, and no one found him out. \r\n\r\n2) One day King Xuan of Qi died, and King Min of Qi succeeded him on the throne. Unlike King Xuan, King Qi didn\'t like to listen to everyone playing the yu at the same time, but rather preferred to hear players perform one by one. Mr. Nanguo heard this news, and had no choice but to make a getaway, not daring to keep posing at a
yu player. \r\n\r\n3)【Explanation of the Reading】\r\n\r\n4) A western proverb states, \"you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can\'t fool all the people all of the time\". Mr. Nanguo couldn\'t play the
yu but pretended to do so, and was unmasked in the end. \r\n \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n', '[Chinese Idioms] 滥竽充数 - A Talentless Hack Hiding Amongst Masters', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1787-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-10 02:25:35', '2017-01-10 07:25:35', '', 1787, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/1787-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2591, 1, '2017-01-10 00:31:04', '2017-01-10 05:31:04', '', 'Learn to Read Intermediate Chinese: Intermediate Chinese Lessons', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'learn-to-read-chinese-20170110', '', '', '2017-01-10 00:31:42', '2017-01-10 05:31:42', '', 1794, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/learn-to-read-chinese-20170110.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2592, 1, '2017-01-10 00:52:25', '2017-01-10 05:52:25', 'Teaching is all about walking that fine line between guiding students around pitfalls while letting them make enough of their own mistakes that the lesson sticks. Try telling that to this fisherman, though. \r\n\r\n
被...称为... - [pinyin]bei4 ... cheng4 wei2...[/pinyin]
\r\nIn the first sentence, we see the emergence of this pretty common word group. 被, as we know, means \"by\", as in \"I was slapped in the face
被 a ginormous fish.\" 称, in this context, means \"to be called\" or \"to be named\", and 为 means \"as\". \r\n\r\nTaken together, this word group means \"To be called ... by ...\", except that in Chinese, the \"by...\" bit comes first. For example: \r\n\r\n我的想法
被大家
称为异想天开。\r\n
\"Everyone called my idea a wild fantasy.\" / \"My idea was called a wild fantasy by everyone.\"\r\n\r\n她
被老师
称为得力助手的小女孩。\r\n
\"The teacher called her a capable assistant.\" / \"She was called a capable assistant by the teacher.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Cool. On with the story.\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 有个渔人有着一流的捕鱼技术，被人们尊称为‘渔王’。然而‘渔王’年老的时候非常苦恼，因为他的三个儿子的渔技都很平庸。\r\n\r\n2) 于是经常向人诉说心中的苦恼：“我真不明白，我捕鱼的技术这么好，我的儿子们为什么这么差？我从他们懂事起就传授捕鱼技术给他们，从最基本的东西教起，告诉他们怎样织网最容易捕捉到鱼，怎样划船最不会惊动鱼，怎样下网最容易请鱼入瓮。他们长大了，我又教他们怎样识潮汐，等等。。。凡是我长年辛辛苦苦总结出来的经验，我都毫无保留地传授给了他们，可他们的捕鱼技术竟然赶不上技术比我差的渔民的儿子！”\r\n\r\n3) 一位路人听了他的诉说后，问：“你一直手把手地教他们吗？”\r\n\r\n4) “是的，为了让他们得到一流的捕鱼技术，我教得很仔细很耐心。”\r\n\r\n5) “他们一直跟随着你吗？”\r\n\r\n6) “是的，为了让他们少走弯路，我一直让他们跟着我学。”\r\n\r\n7) 路人说：“这样说来，你的错误就很明显了。你只传授给了他们技术，却没传授给他们教训。\r\n\r\n
See the source\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) There once was a fisherman who possessed consummate skill in catching fish, and everyone respectfully called him \"Fisher King\". However, as the \"Fisher King\" got on in years he was quite vexed, because his three sons were very mediocre at fishing.\r\n\r\n2) So he often told others of the troubles in his heart: \"I just don\'t understand, my fishing skills are this good, why are my sons\' skills so poor? As soon as they were old enough to understand I began imparting these skills to them, starting from the most basic things, I told them how to weave next to catch fish with the most ease, how to row your boat so that the fish are not startled, how to lower the net so as to best entice fish in. As they grew older, I also taught them how to read the tides, and more... all this is the experience I attained through long years of hard work, I imparted this to them in full, but surprisingly their skills are no match for the sons of fisherman who are less skilled than I!\" \r\n\r\n3) One traveller heard him speak and asked: \"You\'ve always handheld them through your teachings?\" \r\n\r\n4) \"That\'s right, so that they might achieve consummate skill, I taught them thoroughly and patiently.\" \r\n\r\n5) \"And they\'ve always followed you?\"\r\n\r\n6) \"That\'s right, so that they would take fewer wrong turns, they\'ve always studied at my side.\"\r\n\r\n7) The traveller said: \"From what you say, your mistake is very evident. You only imparted skills to them, but you didn\'t teach them any real lessons.\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n', '[Chinese Fable] 鱼王的儿子 - The Fisherman\'s Sons', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1794-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-10 00:52:25', '2017-01-10 05:52:25', '', 1794, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/1794-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2593, 1, '2017-01-10 00:54:16', '2017-01-10 05:54:16', 'Teaching is all about walking that fine line between guiding students around pitfalls while letting them make enough of their own mistakes that the lesson sticks. Try telling that to this fisherman, though. \r\n\r\n
被...称为... - [pinyin]bei4 ... cheng4 wei2...[/pinyin]
\r\nIn the first sentence, we see the emergence of this pretty common word group. 被, as we know, means \"by\", as in \"I was slapped in the face
被 a ginormous fish.\" 称, in this context, means \"to be called\" or \"to be named\", and 为 means \"as\". \r\n\r\nTaken together, this word group means \"To be called ... by ...\", except that in Chinese, the \"by...\" bit comes first. For example: \r\n\r\n我的想法
被大家
称为异想天开。\r\n
\"Everyone called my idea a wild fantasy.\" / \"My idea was called a wild fantasy by everyone.\"\r\n\r\n她
被老师
称为得力助手的小女孩。\r\n
\"The teacher called her a capable assistant.\" / \"She was called a capable assistant by the teacher.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Cool. On with the story.\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 有个渔人有着一流的捕鱼技术，被人们尊称为‘渔王’。然而‘渔王’年老的时候非常苦恼，因为他的三个儿子的渔技都很平庸。\r\n\r\n2) 于是经常向人诉说心中的苦恼：“我真不明白，我捕鱼的技术这么好，我的儿子们为什么这么差？我从他们懂事起就传授捕鱼技术给他们，从最基本的东西教起，告诉他们怎样织网最容易捕捉到鱼，怎样划船最不会惊动鱼，怎样下网最容易请鱼入瓮。他们长大了，我又教他们怎样识潮汐，等等。。。凡是我长年辛辛苦苦总结出来的经验，我都毫无保留地传授给了他们，可他们的捕鱼技术竟然赶不上技术比我差的渔民的儿子！”\r\n\r\n3) 一位路人听了他的诉说后，问：“你一直手把手地教他们吗？”\r\n\r\n4) “是的，为了让他们得到一流的捕鱼技术，我教得很仔细很耐心。”\r\n\r\n5) “他们一直跟随着你吗？”\r\n\r\n6) “是的，为了让他们少走弯路，我一直让他们跟着我学。”\r\n\r\n7) 路人说：“这样说来，你的错误就很明显了。你只传授给了他们技术，却没传授给他们教训。\r\n\r\n
See the source\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) There once was a fisherman who possessed consummate skill in catching fish, and everyone respectfully called him \"Fisher King\". However, as the \"Fisher King\" got on in years he was quite vexed, because his three sons were very mediocre at fishing.\r\n\r\n2) So he often told others of the troubles in his heart: \"I just don\'t understand, my fishing skills are this good, why are my sons\' skills so poor? As soon as they were old enough to understand I began imparting these skills to them, starting from the most basic things, I told them how to weave next to catch fish with the most ease, how to row your boat so that the fish are not startled, how to lower the net so as to best entice fish in. As they grew older, I also taught them how to read the tides, and more... all this is the experience I attained through long years of hard work, I imparted this to them in full, but surprisingly their skills are no match for the sons of fisherman who are less skilled than I!\" \r\n\r\n3) One traveller heard him speak and asked: \"You\'ve always handheld them through your teachings?\" \r\n\r\n4) \"That\'s right, so that they might achieve consummate skill, I taught them thoroughly and patiently.\" \r\n\r\n5) \"And they\'ve always followed you?\"\r\n\r\n6) \"That\'s right, so that they would take fewer wrong turns, they\'ve always studied at my side.\"\r\n\r\n7) The traveller said: \"From what you say, your mistake is very evident. You only imparted skills to them, but you didn\'t teach them any real lessons.\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n', '[Chinese Fable] 鱼王的儿子 - The Fisherman\'s Sons', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1794-autosave-v1', '', '', '2017-01-10 00:54:16', '2017-01-10 05:54:16', '', 1794, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/1794-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2587, 1, '2017-01-08 04:42:32', '2017-01-08 09:42:32', 'Tackling green recruits that are standing in the line of fire is listed as an absolute must on Time Out China\'s \"Top 10 Things to do in the Heat of Battle\". \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Martial vocab
\r\nWe pick up some battle-stations vocab in this paragraph, namely: \r\n
\r\n- 战斗 [pinyin]zhan4 dou4[/pinyin] - fight, combat
\r\n- 上尉 [pinyin]shang4 wei4[/pinyin] - captain
\r\n- 敌机 [pinyin]di4 ji1[/pinyin] - enemy plane
\r\n- 战士 [pinyin]zhan4 shi4[/pinyin] - soldier
\r\n
\r\n\r\nWe\'ve also got a bit of a rough sentence in there at the end. I\'ve highlighted what I believe are the hard bits: \r\n\r\n他
顾不上多想，
一个鱼跃飞身将小战士紧紧地压在了身下。\r\n\r\nThe first part, 顾不上, means to not have the resources to attend to something. In this sentence, the resource that we don\'t have is \"time\", though the word \"time\" never explicitly appears. The second part, 一个鱼跃飞身, is a lively description of how the captain jumps towards the soldier. How does he jump? He flies like a fish leaping out of the water, his body, we can presume, horizontal in the air, parallel to the ground. So this sentence might read as:\r\n\r\n
He didn\'t have time to think, but leapt into the air like a fish flying straight at the young soldier and pressed him tightly beneath his body.\r\n\r\nReady? Cool, let\'s read.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 在一场激烈的
战斗中，
上尉忽然发现一架
敌机向阵地俯冲下来。照常理，发现敌机俯冲时要毫不犹豫地卧倒。可上尉并没有立刻卧倒，他发现离他四五米远处有一个小
战士还站在那儿。他顾不上多想，一个鱼跃飞身将小战士紧紧地压在了身下。此时一声巨响，飞溅起来的泥土纷纷落在他们的身上。上尉拍拍身上的尘土，回头一看，顿时惊呆了：刚才自己所处的那个位置被炸成了一个大坑。\r\n\r\n2)【小故事大道理】：在帮助别人的同时也帮助了自己！ \r\n\r\n
See source\r\n\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) In the middle of an intense battle, a captain noticed an enemy plane swooping down upon his position. According to common sense, when you see an enemy plan swooping down on you, you should throw yourself flat without hesitation. But the captain didn\'t immediately lie down, as he saw that 4 or 5 meters away from him a young soldier was still just standing there. He didn\'t have time to think, but leapt into the air like a fish flying straight at the young soldier and pressed him tightly beneath his body. Just then there was a tremendously loud sound, and flying droplets of mud fell all over them. When the captain brushed the dust off himself, he looked back, and was immediately dumbstruck: the spot where he\'d just been [standing] had exploded and had become [nothing more than] a big hole [in the ground]. \r\n\r\n2)【The big moral of this little story】：When you help others, you simultaneously help yourself! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n ', '[Chinese Short Story] 救人 - When you help others, you also help yourself', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1792-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-08 04:42:32', '2017-01-08 09:42:32', '', 1792, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/1792-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2641, 1, '2017-01-15 04:06:25', '2017-01-15 09:06:25', 'Tackling green recruits that are standing in the line of fire is listed as an absolute must on Time Out China\'s \"Top 10 Things to do in the Heat of Battle\". \r\n\r\n
Martial vocab
\r\nWe pick up some battle-stations vocab in this paragraph, namely: \r\n
\r\n- 战斗 [pinyin]zhan4 dou4[/pinyin] - fight, combat
\r\n- 上尉 [pinyin]shang4 wei4[/pinyin] - captain
\r\n- 敌机 [pinyin]di4 ji1[/pinyin] - enemy plane
\r\n- 战士 [pinyin]zhan4 shi4[/pinyin] - soldier
\r\n
\r\n\r\nWe\'ve also got a bit of a rough sentence in there at the end. I\'ve highlighted what I believe are the hard bits: \r\n\r\n他
顾不上多想，
一个鱼跃飞身将小战士紧紧地压在了身下。\r\n\r\nThe first part, 顾不上, means to not have the resources to attend to something. In this sentence, the resource that we don\'t have is \"time\", though the word \"time\" never explicitly appears. The second part, 一个鱼跃飞身, is a lively description of how the captain jumps towards the soldier. How does he jump? He flies like a fish leaping out of the water, his body, we can presume, horizontal in the air, parallel to the ground. So this sentence might read as:\r\n\r\n
He didn\'t have time to think, but leapt into the air like a fish flying straight at the young soldier and pressed him tightly beneath his body.\r\n\r\nReady? Cool, let\'s read.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 在一场激烈的
战斗中，
上尉忽然发现一架
敌机向阵地俯冲下来。照常理，发现敌机俯冲时要毫不犹豫地卧倒。可上尉并没有立刻卧倒，他发现离他四五米远处有一个小
战士还站在那儿。他顾不上多想，一个鱼跃飞身将小战士紧紧地压在了身下。此时一声巨响，飞溅起来的泥土纷纷落在他们的身上。上尉拍拍身上的尘土，回头一看，顿时惊呆了：刚才自己所处的那个位置被炸成了一个大坑。\r\n\r\n2)【小故事大道理】：在帮助别人的同时也帮助了自己！ \r\n\r\n
See source\r\n\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) In the middle of an intense battle, a captain noticed an enemy plane swooping down upon his position. According to common sense, when you see an enemy plan swooping down on you, you should throw yourself flat without hesitation. But the captain didn\'t immediately lie down, as he saw that 4 or 5 meters away from him a young soldier was still just standing there. He didn\'t have time to think, but leapt into the air like a fish flying straight at the young soldier and pressed him tightly beneath his body. Just then there was a tremendously loud sound, and flying droplets of mud fell all over them. When the captain brushed the dust off himself, he looked back, and was immediately dumbstruck: the spot where he\'d just been [standing] had exploded and had become [nothing more than] a big hole [in the ground]. \r\n\r\n2)【The big moral of this little story】：When you help others, you simultaneously help yourself! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n', '[Chinese Short Story] 救人 - When you help others, you also help yourself', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1792-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-15 04:06:25', '2017-01-15 09:06:25', '', 1792, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/1792-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2590, 1, '2017-01-10 00:20:27', '2017-01-10 05:20:27', 'What\'s the difference between hearing something and learning it? \r\n\r\n
被...称为 - [pinyin]bei4 cheng4 wei2[/pinyin]
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 有个渔人有着一流的捕鱼技术，被人们尊称为‘渔王’。然而‘渔王’年老的时候非常苦恼，因为他的三个儿子的渔技都很平庸。\r\n\r\n2) 于是经常向人诉说心中的苦恼：“我真不明白，我捕鱼的技术这么好，我的儿子们为什么这么差？我从他们懂事起就传授捕鱼技术给他们，从最基本的东西教起，告诉他们怎样织网最容易捕捉到鱼，怎样划船最不会惊动鱼，怎样下网最容易请鱼入瓮。他们长大了，我又教他们怎样识潮汐，等等。。。凡是我长年辛辛苦苦总结出来的经验，我都毫无保留地传授给了他们，可他们的捕鱼技术竟然赶不上技术比我差的渔民的儿子！”\r\n\r\n3) 一位路人听了他的诉说后，问：“你一直手把手地教他们吗？”\r\n\r\n4) “是的，为了让他们得到一流的捕鱼技术，我教得很仔细很耐心。”\r\n\r\n5) “他们一直跟随着你吗？”\r\n\r\n6) “是的，为了让他们少走弯路，我一直让他们跟着我学。”\r\n\r\n7) 路人说：“这样说来，你的错误就很明显了。你只传授给了他们技术，却没传授给他们教训。\r\n\r\n
See the source\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) There once was a fisherman who possessed consummate skill in catching fish, and everyone respectfully called him \"Fisher King\". However, as the \"Fisher King\" got on in years he was quite vexed, because his three sons were very mediocre at fishing.\r\n\r\n2) So he often told others of the troubles in his heart: \"I just don\'t understand, my fishing skills are this good, why are my sons\' skills so poor? As soon as they were old enough to understand I began imparting these skills to them, starting from the most basic things, I told them how to weave next to catch fish with the most ease, how to row your boat so that the fish are not startled, how to lower the net so as to best entice fish in. As they grew older, I also taught them how to read the tides, and more... all this is the experience I attained through long years of hard work, I imparted this to them in full, but surprisingly their skills are no match for the sons of fisherman who are less skilled than I!\" \r\n\r\n3) One traveller heard him speak and asked: \"You\'ve always handheld them through your teachings?\" \r\n\r\n4) \"That\'s right, so that they might achieve consummate skill, I taught them thoroughly and patiently.\" \r\n\r\n5) \"And they\'ve always followed you?\"\r\n\r\n6) \"That\'s right, so that they would take fewer wrong turns, they\'ve always studied at my side.\"\r\n\r\n7) The traveller said: \"From what you say, your mistake is very evident. You only imparted skills to them, but you didn\'t teach them any real lessons.\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n', '[Chinese Fable] 鱼王的儿子 - The Fisherman\'s Sons', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1794-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-10 00:20:27', '2017-01-10 05:20:27', '', 1794, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/1794-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1176, 1, '2012-07-22 21:04:58', '2012-07-23 01:04:58', 'Seeing as how I just got back from a trip to the Wall myself, I figured I\'d stay on that theme. This traditional and very famous story, called 孟姜女哭长城 [pinyin]meng4 jiang1 nv3 ku1 chang2 cheng2[/pinyin], is set in the Qin Dynasty, and is super sad in the way that only East Asian stories can be sad (are we noticing a trend, here?). If you\'re the \"watches a lot of anime\" type, you\'ll easily find the beauty here (which lies in the power of tears - where else?), but if you like your fairy-tale endings, prepare for a big downer. \r\n\r\nI happen to enjoy sad stories as long as there\'s some sweetness in them, and this one is paced very nicely, so I\'m translating it for you here, though it\'s much longer than my usual fare (I seem to be trending towards longer stuff these days). \r\n\r\nThis story happens between 259 B.C. and 210 B.C., and describes two characters, our heroine 孟姜女[pinyin]meng4 jiang1 nv3[/pinyin], and her love, 范喜良 [pinyin]fan4 xi3 liang2[/pinyin], who live under the rule of emperor 秦始皇 [pinyin]qin2 shi3 huang2[/pinyin] during the building of the Great Wall. The story describes how they meet and how they finally part, and dwells on the strength of 孟姜女\'s love for her man. There are a few specialized words here pertaining to weddings. One is 喜酒 [pinyin]xi3 jiu3[/pinyin], meaning \"happiness wine\", which is alcohol drunk at weddings to wish the bride and groom well. Another is 洞房 [pinyin]dong4 fang2[/pinyin], or \"marriage chamber\" (literally \"cave room\"). And yet another is 成亲, meaning \"to get married\".\r\n\r\nAn interesting word here is 眼看 [pinyin]yan3 kan4[/pinyin], which means \"in a moment\", or \"when ____ is just about to happen\", not \"the eye sees\" or \"to look\", as may be supposed. \r\n\r\nOne difficult few words to puzzle out here is in the second paragraph, when it\'s stated that some soldiers \"不容分说\" [pinyin]bu4 rong2 fen1 shuo1[/pinyin] charge into the room. 不容 here means \"without tolerating\" or \"would not tolerate\", and 分说 means \"to explain\". So we can imagine that this means the soldiers barged in and though people tried to explain the situation to them, they weren\'t interested in listening. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n1) 秦朝时候，有个善良美丽的女子，名叫孟姜女。一天，她正在自家的院子里做家务，突然发现葡萄架下藏了一个人，吓了她一大跳，正要叫喊，只见那个人连连摆手，恳求道：“别喊别喊，救救我吧！我叫范喜良，是来逃难的。”原来这时秦始皇为了造长城，正到处抓>人做劳工，已经饿死、累死了不知多少人！孟姜女把范喜良救了下来，见他知书达理，眉清目秀，对他产生了爱慕之情，而范喜良也喜欢上了孟姜女。他俩儿心心相印，征得了父母的同意后，就准备结为夫妻。\r\n\r\n2) 成亲那天，孟家>张灯结彩，宾客满堂，一派喜气洋洋<的情景。眼看天快黑了，喝喜酒的人也都渐渐散了，新郎新娘正要入洞房，忽然只听见鸡飞狗叫，随后闯进来一队恶狠狠的官兵，不容分说，用铁链一锁，硬把范喜良抓到长城去做工了。好端端的喜事变成了一场空，孟姜女悲愤交加，日夜思念着丈夫。她想：我与其坐在家里干着急，还不如自己到长城去找他。对！就这么办！孟姜女立刻收拾收拾行装，上路了。\r\n\r\n3) 一路上，也不知经历了多少风霜雨雪，跋涉过多少险山恶水，孟姜女没有喊过一声苦，没有掉过一滴泪，终于，凭着顽强的毅力，凭着对丈夫深深的爱，她到达了长城。这时的长城已经是由一个个工地组成的一道很长很长的城墙了，孟姜女一个工地一个工地地找过来，却始终不见丈夫的踪影。最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\r\n\r\n4) 猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) During the Qin dynasty, there was a kind and beautify woman, called Meng JiangNv. One day, she was in her garden doing housework, when she suddenly realized that someone was hiding in the grape arbor. She was hugely startled, and was about to call out, when she saw the person repeatedly wave his hands, and begged her, \"Don\'t call out, don\'t call out, save me! I am Fan XiLiang, and I\'m running away from trouble.\" Well, during this time, [Emperor] Qin Shi Huang, in order to build the great wall, was seizing people from everywhere to [force them to] do labor, and he\'d already worked and starved countless people to death! Meng JiangNv rescued Fan XiLiang, and when she saw that he was well educated and sensible, and good looking with delicate features as well, she began to love him, and Fan XiLiang also liked Meng JiangNv. Their two hearts beat as one, and after seeking the approval of their parents, prepared to become husband and wife. \r\n\r\n2) On the wedding day, the Meng house was lit with lanterns and colored banners, and was jam-packed with guests - it was a joyous scene. When it was almost dark out, and those that had come to drink the marriage wine slowly scattered, the bride and groom prepared to enter the marriage chamber, suddenly came the sounds of birds crying and dogs barking, and soon after a company of fierce officers and soldiers charged in, and without listening to any explanation, locked up Fan XiLiang in iron chains and hauled him off to the Great Wall to work. The lovely wedding had come to nothing, and Meng JiangNv felt both grief and indignation, and she longed for her husband day and night. She thought:
Instead of sitting here worrying hopelessly, it\'s better if I go to the Great Wall and search for him. Yes! That\'s what I\'ll do! So Meng JiangNv immediately prepared her traveling clothes and set out on the road. \r\n\r\n3) On the road, though she couldn\'t count how many times she endured wind, frost, rain and snow, trudged across dangerous mountains and treacherous rapids, Meng JiangNv never spoke one word of complaint, never spilled one tear, and finally, drawing strength from her tenacious willpower, and drawing strength from her deep love for her husband, she reached the Great Wall. The Great Wall at this time was made up of many small construction sites that had been strung together to form a long city wall, and Meng JiangNv went from each construction site to the next, but she never saw a trace of her husband. Finally, she drummed up her courage, and asked a group of workers who were just about to begin work: \"Do any of you know a Fan XiLiang?\" The workers said, \"Yes, there was a man like that, he\'d just arrived.\" When Meng JiangNv heard that, she was indescribably happy! She immediately asked, \"Where is he?\" The worker said, \"He\'s dead, his corpse has already been tossed into the wall.\" \r\n\r\n4) When Meng JiangNv heard this grievous news, it was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, Meng\'s eyes went dark, and [she felt] a burst of sadness, and began to sob. She cried for a full three days and three nights, she cried until the sky was twilight and the earth was dark, [until] even Heaven and Earth were moved. The sky became more and more gloomy, the wind more and more fierce, and then there was a great \"crash\", and a section of the Wall had been cried down, and Fan XiLiang\'s corpse was revealed; Meng JiangNv\'s tears dripped on his badly mutilated face. She finally was able to see the husband she loved, but he wasn\'t able to see her, because he had already been killed by the cruel Qin ShiHuang. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Legends] 孟姜女哭长城 - Meng JiangNv Cries the Great Wall Down', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'meng-jiangnv-cries-the-great-wall-down', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:02:41', '2016-11-04 13:02:41', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1176', 0, 'post', '', 4);
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(2091, 1, '2016-11-04 08:57:55', '2016-11-04 12:57:55', 'Seeing as how I just got back from a trip to the Wall myself, I figured I\'d stay on that theme. This traditional and very famous story, called 孟姜女哭长城 [pinyin]meng4 jiang1 nv3 ku1 chang2 cheng2[/pinyin], is set in the Qin Dynasty, and is super sad in the way that only East Asian stories can be sad (are we noticing a trend, here?). If you\'re the \"watches a lot of anime\" type, you\'ll easily find the beauty here (which lies in the power of tears - where else?), but if you like your fairy-tale endings, prepare for a big downer. \r\n\r\nI happen to enjoy sad stories as long as there\'s some sweetness in them, and this one is paced very nicely, so I\'m translating it for you here, though it\'s much longer than my usual fare (I seem to be trending towards longer stuff these days). \r\n\r\nThis story happens between 259 B.C. and 210 B.C., and describes two characters, our heroine 孟姜女[pinyin]meng4 jiang1 nv3[/pinyin], and her love, 范喜良 [pinyin]fan4 xi3 liang2[/pinyin], who live under the rule of emperor 秦始皇 [pinyin]qin2 shi3 huang2[/pinyin] during the building of the Great Wall. The story describes how they meet and how they finally part, and dwells on the strength of 孟姜女\'s love for her man. There are a few specialized words here pertaining to weddings. One is 喜酒 [pinyin]xi3 jiu3[/pinyin], meaning \"happiness wine\", which is alcohol drunk at weddings to wish the bride and groom well. Another is 洞房 [pinyin]dong4 fang2[/pinyin], or \"marriage chamber\" (literally \"cave room\"). And yet another is 成亲, meaning \"to get married\".\r\n\r\nAn interesting word here is 眼看 [pinyin]yan3 kan4[/pinyin], which means \"in a moment\", or \"when ____ is just about to happen\", not \"the eye sees\" or \"to look\", as may be supposed. \r\n\r\nOne difficult few words to puzzle out here is in the second paragraph, when it\'s stated that some soldiers \"不容分说\" [pinyin]bu4 rong2 fen1 shuo1[/pinyin] charge into the room. 不容 here means \"without tolerating\" or \"would not tolerate\", and 分说 means \"to explain\". So we can imagine that this means the soldiers barged in and though people tried to explain the situation to them, they weren\'t interested in listening. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n1) 秦朝时候，有个善良美丽的女子，名叫孟姜女。一天，她正在自家的院子里做家务，突然发现葡萄架下藏了一个人，吓了她一大跳，正要叫喊，只见那个人连连摆手，恳求道：“别喊别喊，救救我吧！我叫范喜良，是来逃难的。”原来这时秦始皇为了造长城，正到处抓>人做劳工，已经饿死、累死了不知多少人！孟姜女把范喜良救了下来，见他知书达理，眉清目秀，对他产生了爱慕之情，而范喜良也喜欢上了孟姜女。他俩儿心心相印，征得了父母的同意后，就准备结为夫妻。\r\n\r\n2) 成亲那天，孟家>张灯结彩，宾客满堂，一派喜气洋洋<的情景。眼看天快黑了，喝喜酒的人也都渐渐散了，新郎新娘正要入洞房，忽然只听见鸡飞狗叫，随后闯进来一队恶狠狠的官兵，不容分说，用铁链一锁，硬把范喜良抓到长城去做工了。好端端的喜事变成了一场空，孟姜女悲愤交加，日夜思念着丈夫。她想：我与其坐在家里干着急，还不如自己到长城去找他。对！就这么办！孟姜女立刻收拾收拾行装，上路了。\r\n\r\n3) 一路上，也不知经历了多少风霜雨雪，跋涉过多少险山恶水，孟姜女没有喊过一声苦，没有掉过一滴泪，终于，凭着顽强的毅力，凭着对丈夫深深的爱，她到达了长城。这时的长城已经是由一个个工地组成的一道很长很长的城墙了，孟姜女一个工地一个工地地找过来，却始终不见丈夫的踪影。最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\r\n\r\n4) 猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) During the Qin dynasty, there was a kind and beautify woman, called Meng JiangNv. One day, she was in her garden doing housework, when she suddenly realized that someone was hiding in the grape arbor. She was hugely startled, and was about to call out, when she saw the person repeatedly wave his hands, and begged her, \"Don\'t call out, don\'t call out, save me! I am Fan XiLiang, and I\'m running away from trouble.\" Well, during this time, [Emperor] Qin Shi Huang, in order to build the great wall, was seizing people from everywhere to [force them to] do labor, and he\'d already worked and starved countless people to death! Meng JiangNv rescued Fan XiLiang, and when she saw that he was well educated and sensible, and good looking with delicate features as well, she began to love him, and Fan XiLiang also liked Meng JiangNv. Their two hearts beat as one, and after seeking the approval of their parents, prepared to become husband and wife. \r\n\r\n2) On the wedding day, the Meng house was lit with lanterns and colored banners, and was jam-packed with guests - it was a joyous scene. When it was almost dark out, and those that had come to drink the marriage wine slowly scattered, the bride and groom prepared to enter the marriage chamber, suddenly came the sounds of birds crying and dogs barking, and soon after a company of fierce officers and soldiers charged in, and without listening to any explanation, locked up Fan XiLiang in iron chains and hauled him off to the Great Wall to work. The lovely wedding had come to nothing, and Meng JiangNv felt both grief and indignation, and she longed for her husband day and night. She thought:
Instead of sitting here worrying hopelessly, it\'s better if I go to the Great Wall and search for him. Yes! That\'s what I\'ll do! So Meng JiangNv immediately prepared her traveling clothes and set out on the road. \r\n\r\n3) On the road, though she couldn\'t count how many times she endured wind, frost, rain and snow, trudged across dangerous mountains and treacherous rapids, Meng JiangNv never spoke one word of complaint, never spilled one tear, and finally, drawing strength from her tenacious willpower, and drawing strength from her deep love for her husband, she reached the Great Wall. The Great Wall at this time was made up of many small construction sites that had been strung together to form a long city wall, and Meng JiangNv went from each construction site to the next, but she never saw a trace of her husband. Finally, she drummed up her courage, and asked a group of workers who were just about to begin work: \"Do any of you know a Fan XiLiang?\" The workers said, \"Yes, there was a man like that, he\'d just arrived.\" When Meng JiangNv heard that, she was indescribably happy! She immediately asked, \"Where is he?\" The worker said, \"He\'s dead, his corpse has already been tossed into the wall.\" \r\n\r\n4) When Meng JiangNv heard this grievous news, it was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, Meng\'s eyes went dark, and [she felt] a burst of sadness, and began to sob. She cried for a full three days and three nights, she cried until the sky was twilight and the earth was dark, [until] even Heaven and Earth were moved. The sky became more and more gloomy, the wind more and more fierce, and then there was a great \"crash\", and a section of the Wall had been cried down, and Fan XiLiang\'s corpse was revealed; Meng JiangNv\'s tears dripped on his badly mutilated face. She finally was able to see the husband she loved, but he wasn\'t able to see her, because he had already been killed by the cruel Qin ShiHuang. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Legends] 孟姜女哭长城 - Meng JiangNv Cries the Great Wall Down', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1176-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 08:57:55', '2016-11-04 12:57:55', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1176-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1175, 1, '2011-01-31 07:18:36', '2011-01-31 12:18:36', '[two_third]\r\n\r\nThis short essay, taken from the Beijing Language and Culture University beginner comprehension textbook, is written from the perspective of a friend visiting Jiang Ping （江苹） before she leaves the country. The language is mostly school-centric as the writer discusses his classmates, Jiang Ping\'s scholarship, and her test results.\r\n\r\nThe crux of the last paragraph hinges on the fact that the Chinese word for \"Goodbye\" (再见) literally translates as \"See you again\", as the writer wonders when or if he\'ll ever really see Jiang Ping again.\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Interesting Vocabulary
\r\n同学 - [pinyin]tong2 xue2[/pinyin] - Classmates\r\n努力 - [pinyin]nu3 li4[/pinyin] - Great effort\r\n参加 - [pinyin]can1 jia1[/pinyin] - Participate\r\n得 - [pinyin]de[/pinyin] - To get, earn\r\n满分 - [pinyin]man3 fen1[/pinyin] - Full marks, 100%\r\n奖学金 - [pinyin]jiang3 xue2 jin1[/pinyin] - Scholarship\r\n留学 - [pinyin]liu2 xue2[/pinyin] - Study abroad\r\n预祝 - [pinyin]yu4 zhu4[/pinyin] - Wish\r\n成功 - [pinyin]cheng2 gong1[/pinyin] - Success\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
[one_half]\r\n
今天我去江苹家了。 我和江苹是中学同学， 她是我的好朋友， 也是我们全班同学的朋友。 她学习非常努力， 是我们班学习最好的学生。 她会学习， 她会玩儿， 还常常帮助别人， 老师和同学都很喜欢她。 她这次参加了美国一个大学考试。 这个考试非常难，但是她考得很好，得了满分。 听说全世界只有三个学生得满分。 这个大学给江苹最高的奖学金。 我们都为她感到高兴。\r\n\r\n她下星期要去美国留学， 我们班的同学都去看他， 给他送行。\r\n\r\n江苹的家在城东边， 离我家比较远。 我下午四点多就从家里出发了， 五点半才到。 我到的时候， 同学们都已经到了。\r\n\r\n江苹很热情地欢迎我们。 同学们好久不见了， 见面以后高兴得又说又笑， 谈得很愉快。 我们预祝江苹成功。 祝她一路平安。 我说， 一定要常来信啊。 江苹说，一定。 跟她说 “再见” 的时候， 她哭了， 我也哭了。\r\n\r\n回家的路上， 我想， 我们常常说 “再见”， 但是， 有时候 “再见” 是很难的。 我和江苹什么时候能 “再见” 呢？\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nToday I\'m going to Jiang Ping\'s house. Jiang Ping and I are highschool classmates. She\'s my good friend, and she\'s also good friends with everyone in our class. She studies very hard, she\'s the best student in our class. She studies, she plays, and she also often helps others. The teacher and the other students like her. She recently participated in an examination for an American college. That test is very hard, but she did very well - she earned full marks. I heard that only three people in the whole world got full marks. This college gave Jiang Ping their highest scholarship. We\'re all very happy for her.\r\n\r\nNext week she\'s going to study abroad in America, and all our classmates are going to see her off.\r\n\r\nJiang Ping\'s house is on the east side of the city very far away from mine. I left my house a little after four o\'clock in the afternoon, and didn\'t get there until 5:30. When I arrived, the rest of our classmates were already there.\r\n\r\nJiang Ping warmly welcomed us. She hadn\'t seen her classmates in a while, and after she greeted us, we talked and smiled, chatting happily. We wished Jiang Ping success. Wished her a pleasant trip. I said, Be sure to write often. Jiang Ping said, Of course. When she said \"Goodbye\", she cried, and I also cried.\r\n\r\nOn my way home, I thought, We often say \"Goodbye\" [lit: see you again], but sometimes \"Goodbye\" is sad. When will Jiang Ping and I be able to see each other again?\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Jiang Ping Going to Study Abroad', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '67-revision-v1', '', '', '2011-01-31 07:18:36', '2011-01-31 12:18:36', '', 67, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2011/01/31/67-revision-19/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1177, 1, '2012-07-22 11:45:31', '2012-07-22 15:45:31', '[two_third]\nThis traditional story, called 孟姜女哭长城, is super sad in the way that only East Asian stories can be. If you\'re the \"watches a lot of anime\" type, you\'ll easily find the beauty in the power of our heroine\'s tears, but if you like your fairy-tale endings, prepare for a big downer. \n\nI happen to like sad stories, and I think the pace and level of this one is very nice, so I\'m translating another longer passage. \n\nI learned a few new words here, one of which is worth a giggle or two: 洞房. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n春天 - [pinyin]chun1 tian1[/pinyin] - springtime\n染 - [pinyin]ran3[/pinyin] - dye\n青色 - [pinyin]qing1 se4[/pinyin] - A blue, green or blue-green the Chinese consider the \"color of nature\"\n伤心 - [pinyin]shang1 xin1[/pinyin] - Broken-hearted\n夏天 - [pinyin]xia4 tian1[/pinyin] - Summer\n深绿 - [pinyin]shen1 lv4[/pinyin] - Dark green\n秋天 - [pinyin]qiu1 tian1[/pinyin] - Autumn\n金黄 - [pinyin]jin1 huang2[/pinyin] - Golden yellow\n冬天 - [pinyin]dong1 tian1[/pinyin] - Winter\n后悔 - [pinyin]hou4 hui3[/pinyin] - Regret\n可不要 - [pinyin]ke3 bu4 yao4[/pinyin] - Won\'t [you] be...(ex. sad?)\n忽然 - [pinyin]hu1 ran2[/pinyin] - Suddenly\n掉下来 - [pinyin]diao4 xia4 lai2[/pinyin] - fall, drop down\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 秦朝时候，有个善良美丽的女子，名叫孟姜女。一天，她正在自家的院子里做家务，突然发现葡萄架下藏了一个人，吓了她一大跳，正要叫喊，只见那个人连连摆手，恳求道：“别喊别喊，救救我吧！我叫范喜良，是来逃难的。”原来这时秦始皇为了造长城，正到处抓人做劳工，已经饿死、累死了不知多少人！孟姜女把范喜良救了下来，见他知书达理，眉清目秀，对他产生了爱慕之情，而范喜良也喜欢上了孟姜女。他俩儿心心相印，征得了父母的同意后，就准备结为夫妻。\n\n 成亲那天，孟家张灯结彩，宾客满堂，一派喜气洋洋的情景。眼看天快黑了，喝喜酒的人也都渐渐散了，新郎新娘正要入洞房，忽然只听见鸡飞狗叫，随后闯进来一队恶狠狠的官兵，不容分说，用铁链一锁，硬把范喜良抓到长城去做工了。好端端的喜事变成了一场空，孟姜女悲愤交加，日夜思念着丈夫。她想：我与其坐在家里干着急，还不如自己到长城去找他。对！就这么办！孟姜女立刻收拾收拾行装，上路了。\n\n 一路上，也不知经历了多少风霜雨雪，跋涉过多少险山恶水，孟姜女没有喊过一声苦，没有掉过一滴泪，终于，凭着顽强的毅力，凭着对丈夫深深的爱，她到达了长城。这时的长城已经是由一个个工地组成的一道很长很长的城墙了，孟姜女一个工地一个工地地找过来，却始终不见丈夫的踪影。最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\n\n 猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDuring the Qin dynasty, there was a kind and beautify woman, called Meng JiangNv. One day, she was in her garden doing housework, when she suddenly realized that someone was hiding in the grape arbor. She was hugely startled, and was about to call out, when she saw the person repeatedly wave his hands, and begged her, \"Don\'t call out, don\'t call out, save me! I am Fan XiLiang, and I\'m running away from trouble.\" Well, during this time, [Emperor] Qin Shi Huang, in order to build the great wall, was seizing people from everywhere to [force them to] do labor, and he\'d already worked and starved countless people to death! Pretty Meng rescued Fan XiLang, and when she saw that he was well educated and sensible, and good looking with delicate features as well, she began to love him, and Fan XiLiang also liked the pretty Meng. Their two hearts beat as one, and after seeking the approval of their parents, prepared to become husband and wife. \n\nOn the wedding day, the Meng house was lit with many-colored lanterns, was jam-packed with guests, it was a joyous scene. When it was almost dark out, and those that had come to drink the marriage wine slowly scattered, the bride and groom prepared to enter the marriage chamber, suddenly came the sounds of birds crying and dogs barking, and soon after a company of fierce officers and soldiers charged in, and without listening to any explanation, locked up Fan XiLang in iron chains and hauled him off to the Great Wall to work. The lovely wedding had come to nothing, and Meng felt both grief and indignation, and she longed for her husband day and night. She thought:
Instead of sitting here worrying hopelessly, it\'s better if I go to the Great Wall and search for him. Yes! That\'s what I\'ll do! So Meng immediately prepared her traveling clothes and set out on the road. 好端端的喜事变成了一场空，孟姜女悲愤交加，日夜思念着丈夫。她想：我与其坐在家里干着急，还不如自己到长城去找他。对！就这么办！孟姜女立刻收拾收拾行装，上路了。\n\n 一路上，也不知经历了多少风霜雨雪，跋涉过多少险山恶水，孟姜女没有喊过一声苦，没有掉过一滴泪，终于，凭着顽强的毅力，凭着对丈夫深深的爱，她到达了长城。这时的长城已经是由一个个工地组成的一道很长很长的城墙了，孟姜女一个工地一个工地地找过来，却始终不见丈夫的踪影。最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\n\n 猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Meng Jiang Nv Cries the Great Wall Down', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1176-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-07-22 11:45:31', '2012-07-22 15:45:31', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/07/22/1176-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1178, 1, '2012-07-22 11:56:39', '2012-07-22 15:56:39', '[two_third]\nThis traditional story, called 孟姜女哭长城, is super sad in the way that only East Asian stories can be. If you\'re the \"watches a lot of anime\" type, you\'ll easily find the beauty in the power of our heroine\'s tears, but if you like your fairy-tale endings, prepare for a big downer. \n\nI happen to like sad stories, and I think the pace and level of this one is very nice, so I\'m translating another longer passage. \n\nI learned a few new words here, one of which is worth a giggle or two: 洞房 - meaning \"the marriage chamber\" - or literally \"Cave room\". \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n春天 - [pinyin]chun1 tian1[/pinyin] - springtime\n染 - [pinyin]ran3[/pinyin] - dye\n青色 - [pinyin]qing1 se4[/pinyin] - A blue, green or blue-green the Chinese consider the \"color of nature\"\n伤心 - [pinyin]shang1 xin1[/pinyin] - Broken-hearted\n夏天 - [pinyin]xia4 tian1[/pinyin] - Summer\n深绿 - [pinyin]shen1 lv4[/pinyin] - Dark green\n秋天 - [pinyin]qiu1 tian1[/pinyin] - Autumn\n金黄 - [pinyin]jin1 huang2[/pinyin] - Golden yellow\n冬天 - [pinyin]dong1 tian1[/pinyin] - Winter\n后悔 - [pinyin]hou4 hui3[/pinyin] - Regret\n可不要 - [pinyin]ke3 bu4 yao4[/pinyin] - Won\'t [you] be...(ex. sad?)\n忽然 - [pinyin]hu1 ran2[/pinyin] - Suddenly\n掉下来 - [pinyin]diao4 xia4 lai2[/pinyin] - fall, drop down\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 秦朝时候，有个善良美丽的女子，名叫孟姜女。一天，她正在自家的院子里做家务，突然发现葡萄架下藏了一个人，吓了她一大跳，正要叫喊，只见那个人连连摆手，恳求道：“别喊别喊，救救我吧！我叫范喜良，是来逃难的。”原来这时秦始皇为了造长城，正到处抓人做劳工，已经饿死、累死了不知多少人！孟姜女把范喜良救了下来，见他知书达理，眉清目秀，对他产生了爱慕之情，而范喜良也喜欢上了孟姜女。他俩儿心心相印，征得了父母的同意后，就准备结为夫妻。\n\n 成亲那天，孟家张灯结彩，宾客满堂，一派喜气洋洋的情景。眼看天快黑了，喝喜酒的人也都渐渐散了，新郎新娘正要入洞房，忽然只听见鸡飞狗叫，随后闯进来一队恶狠狠的官兵，不容分说，用铁链一锁，硬把范喜良抓到长城去做工了。好端端的喜事变成了一场空，孟姜女悲愤交加，日夜思念着丈夫。她想：我与其坐在家里干着急，还不如自己到长城去找他。对！就这么办！孟姜女立刻收拾收拾行装，上路了。\n\n 一路上，也不知经历了多少风霜雨雪，跋涉过多少险山恶水，孟姜女没有喊过一声苦，没有掉过一滴泪，终于，凭着顽强的毅力，凭着对丈夫深深的爱，她到达了长城。这时的长城已经是由一个个工地组成的一道很长很长的城墙了，孟姜女一个工地一个工地地找过来，却始终不见丈夫的踪影。最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\n\n 猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDuring the Qin dynasty, there was a kind and beautify woman, called Meng JiangNv. One day, she was in her garden doing housework, when she suddenly realized that someone was hiding in the grape arbor. She was hugely startled, and was about to call out, when she saw the person repeatedly wave his hands, and begged her, \"Don\'t call out, don\'t call out, save me! I am Fan XiLiang, and I\'m running away from trouble.\" Well, during this time, [Emperor] Qin Shi Huang, in order to build the great wall, was seizing people from everywhere to [force them to] do labor, and he\'d already worked and starved countless people to death! Pretty Meng rescued Fan XiLiang, and when she saw that he was well educated and sensible, and good looking with delicate features as well, she began to love him, and Fan XiLiang also liked the pretty Meng. Their two hearts beat as one, and after seeking the approval of their parents, prepared to become husband and wife. \n\nOn the wedding day, the Meng house was lit with many-colored lanterns, was jam-packed with guests, it was a joyous scene. When it was almost dark out, and those that had come to drink the marriage wine slowly scattered, the bride and groom prepared to enter the marriage chamber, suddenly came the sounds of birds crying and dogs barking, and soon after a company of fierce officers and soldiers charged in, and without listening to any explanation, locked up Fan XiLiang in iron chains and hauled him off to the Great Wall to work. The lovely wedding had come to nothing, and Meng felt both grief and indignation, and she longed for her husband day and night. She thought:
Instead of sitting here worrying hopelessly, it\'s better if I go to the Great Wall and search for him. Yes! That\'s what I\'ll do! So Meng immediately prepared her traveling clothes and set out on the road. \n\nOn the road, though she couldn\'t count how many times she endured wind, frost, rain and snow, trudged across dangerous mountains and treacherous rapids, Meng never spoke one word of complaint, never spilled one tear, and finally, drawing strength from her tenacious willpower, and drawing strength from her deep love for her husband, she reached the Great Wall. The Great Wall at this time was made up of many small construction sites that had been strung together to form a long city wall, and Meng went from each construction site to the next, but she never saw a trace of her husband. Finally, she drummed up her courage, and asked a group of workers who were just about to begin work: \"Do any of you know a Fan XiLiang?\" The workers said, \"Yes, there was a man like that, he\'d just arrived.\" When Pretty Meng heard that, she was indescribably happy! She immediately asked, \"Where is he?\" The worker said, \"He\'s already dead, his corp 最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\n\n 猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Meng Jiang Nv Cries the Great Wall Down', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1176-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-07-22 11:56:39', '2012-07-22 15:56:39', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/07/22/1176-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1179, 1, '2012-07-22 12:08:17', '2012-07-22 16:08:17', '[two_third]\nThis traditional story, called 孟姜女哭长城, is super sad in the way that only East Asian stories can be sad. If you\'re the \"watches a lot of anime\" type, you\'ll easily find the beauty here, but if you like your fairy-tale endings, prepare for a big downer. \n\nI happen to like sad stories, and I think the pace and reading level of this one is very nice, so I\'m it, though it\'s much longer than my usual fare (I seem to be trending towards longer stuff these days). \n\nI learned a few new words here, one of which is worth a giggle or two: 洞房 - meaning \"the marriage chamber\" - or literally \"Cave room\" / \"Hole Room\". Weather that\'s because the bride and groom go in and don\'t want to come out of their, you know, cave for a while, or if that\'s more in reference to the
other meaning of 洞 is beyond me, but I won\'t forget that in a hurry. (Thank goodness, because I say \'marriage chamber\' so often).\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n春天 - [pinyin]chun1 tian1[/pinyin] - springtime\n染 - [pinyin]ran3[/pinyin] - dye\n青色 - [pinyin]qing1 se4[/pinyin] - A blue, green or blue-green the Chinese consider the \"color of nature\"\n伤心 - [pinyin]shang1 xin1[/pinyin] - Broken-hearted\n夏天 - [pinyin]xia4 tian1[/pinyin] - Summer\n深绿 - [pinyin]shen1 lv4[/pinyin] - Dark green\n秋天 - [pinyin]qiu1 tian1[/pinyin] - Autumn\n金黄 - [pinyin]jin1 huang2[/pinyin] - Golden yellow\n冬天 - [pinyin]dong1 tian1[/pinyin] - Winter\n后悔 - [pinyin]hou4 hui3[/pinyin] - Regret\n可不要 - [pinyin]ke3 bu4 yao4[/pinyin] - Won\'t [you] be...(ex. sad?)\n忽然 - [pinyin]hu1 ran2[/pinyin] - Suddenly\n掉下来 - [pinyin]diao4 xia4 lai2[/pinyin] - fall, drop down\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 秦朝时候，有个善良美丽的女子，名叫孟姜女。一天，她正在自家的院子里做家务，突然发现葡萄架下藏了一个人，吓了她一大跳，正要叫喊，只见那个人连连摆手，恳求道：“别喊别喊，救救我吧！我叫范喜良，是来逃难的。”原来这时秦始皇为了造长城，正到处抓人做劳工，已经饿死、累死了不知多少人！孟姜女把范喜良救了下来，见他知书达理，眉清目秀，对他产生了爱慕之情，而范喜良也喜欢上了孟姜女。他俩儿心心相印，征得了父母的同意后，就准备结为夫妻。\n\n 成亲那天，孟家张灯结彩，宾客满堂，一派喜气洋洋的情景。眼看天快黑了，喝喜酒的人也都渐渐散了，新郎新娘正要入洞房，忽然只听见鸡飞狗叫，随后闯进来一队恶狠狠的官兵，不容分说，用铁链一锁，硬把范喜良抓到长城去做工了。好端端的喜事变成了一场空，孟姜女悲愤交加，日夜思念着丈夫。她想：我与其坐在家里干着急，还不如自己到长城去找他。对！就这么办！孟姜女立刻收拾收拾行装，上路了。\n\n 一路上，也不知经历了多少风霜雨雪，跋涉过多少险山恶水，孟姜女没有喊过一声苦，没有掉过一滴泪，终于，凭着顽强的毅力，凭着对丈夫深深的爱，她到达了长城。这时的长城已经是由一个个工地组成的一道很长很长的城墙了，孟姜女一个工地一个工地地找过来，却始终不见丈夫的踪影。最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\n\n 猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDuring the Qin dynasty, there was a kind and beautify woman, called Meng JiangNv. One day, she was in her garden doing housework, when she suddenly realized that someone was hiding in the grape arbor. She was hugely startled, and was about to call out, when she saw the person repeatedly wave his hands, and begged her, \"Don\'t call out, don\'t call out, save me! I am Fan XiLiang, and I\'m running away from trouble.\" Well, during this time, [Emperor] Qin Shi Huang, in order to build the great wall, was seizing people from everywhere to [force them to] do labor, and he\'d already worked and starved countless people to death! Pretty Meng rescued Fan XiLiang, and when she saw that he was well educated and sensible, and good looking with delicate features as well, she began to love him, and Fan XiLiang also liked the pretty Meng. Their two hearts beat as one, and after seeking the approval of their parents, prepared to become husband and wife. \n\nOn the wedding day, the Meng house was lit with many-colored lanterns, was jam-packed with guests, it was a joyous scene. When it was almost dark out, and those that had come to drink the marriage wine slowly scattered, the bride and groom prepared to enter the marriage chamber, suddenly came the sounds of birds crying and dogs barking, and soon after a company of fierce officers and soldiers charged in, and without listening to any explanation, locked up Fan XiLiang in iron chains and hauled him off to the Great Wall to work. The lovely wedding had come to nothing, and Meng felt both grief and indignation, and she longed for her husband day and night. She thought:
Instead of sitting here worrying hopelessly, it\'s better if I go to the Great Wall and search for him. Yes! That\'s what I\'ll do! So Meng immediately prepared her traveling clothes and set out on the road. \n\nOn the road, though she couldn\'t count how many times she endured wind, frost, rain and snow, trudged across dangerous mountains and treacherous rapids, Meng never spoke one word of complaint, never spilled one tear, and finally, drawing strength from her tenacious willpower, and drawing strength from her deep love for her husband, she reached the Great Wall. The Great Wall at this time was made up of many small construction sites that had been strung together to form a long city wall, and Meng went from each construction site to the next, but she never saw a trace of her husband. Finally, she drummed up her courage, and asked a group of workers who were just about to begin work: \"Do any of you know a Fan XiLiang?\" The workers said, \"Yes, there was a man like that, he\'d just arrived.\" When Pretty Meng heard that, she was indescribably happy! She immediately asked, \"Where is he?\" The worker said, \"He\'s dead, his corpse has already been tossed into the wall.\" \n\nWhen Meng heard this grevious news, it was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, Meng\'s eyes went dark, and [she felt] a burst of sadness, and began to sob. She cried for a full three days and three nights, she cried until the sky was twilight and the earth was dark, [until] even Heaven and Earth were moved. The sky became more and more gloomy, the wind more and more fierce, and then there was a great \"crash\", and a section of the Wall had been 天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Meng Jiang Nv Cries the Great Wall Down', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1176-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-07-22 12:08:17', '2012-07-22 16:08:17', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/07/22/1176-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1181, 1, '2012-07-22 12:11:04', '2012-07-22 16:11:04', '[two_third]\r\nThis traditional story, called 孟姜女哭长城, is super sad in the way that only East Asian stories can be sad. If you\'re the \"watches a lot of anime\" type, you\'ll easily find the beauty here, but if you like your fairy-tale endings, prepare for a big downer. \r\n\r\nI happen to like sad stories, and I think the pace and reading level of this one is very nice, so I\'m it, though it\'s much longer than my usual fare (I seem to be trending towards longer stuff these days). \r\n\r\nI learned a few new words here, one of which is worth a giggle or two: 洞房 - meaning \"the marriage chamber\" - or literally \"Cave room\" / \"Hole Room\". Weather that\'s because the bride and groom go in and don\'t want to come out of their, you know, cave for a while, or if that\'s more in reference to the
other meaning of 洞 is beyond me, but I won\'t forget that in a hurry. (Thank goodness, because I say \'marriage chamber\' so often).\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n春天 - [pinyin]chun1 tian1[/pinyin] - springtime\r\n染 - [pinyin]ran3[/pinyin] - dye\r\n青色 - [pinyin]qing1 se4[/pinyin] - A blue, green or blue-green the Chinese consider the \"color of nature\"\r\n伤心 - [pinyin]shang1 xin1[/pinyin] - Broken-hearted\r\n夏天 - [pinyin]xia4 tian1[/pinyin] - Summer\r\n深绿 - [pinyin]shen1 lv4[/pinyin] - Dark green\r\n秋天 - [pinyin]qiu1 tian1[/pinyin] - Autumn\r\n金黄 - [pinyin]jin1 huang2[/pinyin] - Golden yellow\r\n冬天 - [pinyin]dong1 tian1[/pinyin] - Winter\r\n后悔 - [pinyin]hou4 hui3[/pinyin] - Regret\r\n可不要 - [pinyin]ke3 bu4 yao4[/pinyin] - Won\'t [you] be...(ex. sad?)\r\n忽然 - [pinyin]hu1 ran2[/pinyin] - Suddenly\r\n掉下来 - [pinyin]diao4 xia4 lai2[/pinyin] - fall, drop down\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n 秦朝时候，有个善良美丽的女子，名叫孟姜女。一天，她正在自家的院子里做家务，突然发现葡萄架下藏了一个人，吓了她一大跳，正要叫喊，只见那个人连连摆手，恳求道：“别喊别喊，救救我吧！我叫范喜良，是来逃难的。”原来这时秦始皇为了造长城，正到处抓人做劳工，已经饿死、累死了不知多少人！孟姜女把范喜良救了下来，见他知书达理，眉清目秀，对他产生了爱慕之情，而范喜良也喜欢上了孟姜女。他俩儿心心相印，征得了父母的同意后，就准备结为夫妻。\r\n\r\n 成亲那天，孟家张灯结彩，宾客满堂，一派喜气洋洋的情景。眼看天快黑了，喝喜酒的人也都渐渐散了，新郎新娘正要入洞房，忽然只听见鸡飞狗叫，随后闯进来一队恶狠狠的官兵，不容分说，用铁链一锁，硬把范喜良抓到长城去做工了。好端端的喜事变成了一场空，孟姜女悲愤交加，日夜思念着丈夫。她想：我与其坐在家里干着急，还不如自己到长城去找他。对！就这么办！孟姜女立刻收拾收拾行装，上路了。\r\n\r\n 一路上，也不知经历了多少风霜雨雪，跋涉过多少险山恶水，孟姜女没有喊过一声苦，没有掉过一滴泪，终于，凭着顽强的毅力，凭着对丈夫深深的爱，她到达了长城。这时的长城已经是由一个个工地组成的一道很长很长的城墙了，孟姜女一个工地一个工地地找过来，却始终不见丈夫的踪影。最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\r\n\r\n 猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDuring the Qin dynasty, there was a kind and beautify woman, called Meng JiangNv. One day, she was in her garden doing housework, when she suddenly realized that someone was hiding in the grape arbor. She was hugely startled, and was about to call out, when she saw the person repeatedly wave his hands, and begged her, \"Don\'t call out, don\'t call out, save me! I am Fan XiLiang, and I\'m running away from trouble.\" Well, during this time, [Emperor] Qin Shi Huang, in order to build the great wall, was seizing people from everywhere to [force them to] do labor, and he\'d already worked and starved countless people to death! Pretty Meng rescued Fan XiLiang, and when she saw that he was well educated and sensible, and good looking with delicate features as well, she began to love him, and Fan XiLiang also liked the pretty Meng. Their two hearts beat as one, and after seeking the approval of their parents, prepared to become husband and wife. \r\n\r\nOn the wedding day, the Meng house was lit with many-colored lanterns, was jam-packed with guests, it was a joyous scene. When it was almost dark out, and those that had come to drink the marriage wine slowly scattered, the bride and groom prepared to enter the marriage chamber, suddenly came the sounds of birds crying and dogs barking, and soon after a company of fierce officers and soldiers charged in, and without listening to any explanation, locked up Fan XiLiang in iron chains and hauled him off to the Great Wall to work. The lovely wedding had come to nothing, and Meng felt both grief and indignation, and she longed for her husband day and night. She thought:
Instead of sitting here worrying hopelessly, it\'s better if I go to the Great Wall and search for him. Yes! That\'s what I\'ll do! So Meng immediately prepared her traveling clothes and set out on the road. \r\n\r\nOn the road, though she couldn\'t count how many times she endured wind, frost, rain and snow, trudged across dangerous mountains and treacherous rapids, Meng never spoke one word of complaint, never spilled one tear, and finally, drawing strength from her tenacious willpower, and drawing strength from her deep love for her husband, she reached the Great Wall. The Great Wall at this time was made up of many small construction sites that had been strung together to form a long city wall, and Meng went from each construction site to the next, but she never saw a trace of her husband. Finally, she drummed up her courage, and asked a group of workers who were just about to begin work: \"Do any of you know a Fan XiLiang?\" The workers said, \"Yes, there was a man like that, he\'d just arrived.\" When Pretty Meng heard that, she was indescribably happy! She immediately asked, \"Where is he?\" The worker said, \"He\'s dead, his corpse has already been tossed into the wall.\" \r\n\r\nWhen Meng heard this grevious news, it was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, Meng\'s eyes went dark, and [she felt] a burst of sadness, and began to sob. She cried for a full three days and three nights, she cried until the sky was twilight and the earth was dark, [until] even Heaven and Earth were moved. The sky became more and more gloomy, the wind more and more fierce, and then there was a great \"crash\", and a section of the Wall had been cried down, and Fan XiLiang\'s corpse was revealed; Meng\'s tears dripped on his badly mutilated face. She finally was able to see the husband she loved, but he wasn\'t able to see her, because he had already been killed by the brutality of Qin ShiHuang. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Meng Jiang Nv Cries the Great Wall Down', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1176-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-07-22 12:11:04', '2012-07-22 16:11:04', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/07/22/1176-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1180, 1, '2012-07-22 12:10:52', '2012-07-22 16:10:52', '[two_third]\nThis traditional story, called 孟姜女哭长城, is super sad in the way that only East Asian stories can be sad. If you\'re the \"watches a lot of anime\" type, you\'ll easily find the beauty here, but if you like your fairy-tale endings, prepare for a big downer. \n\nI happen to like sad stories, and I think the pace and reading level of this one is very nice, so I\'m it, though it\'s much longer than my usual fare (I seem to be trending towards longer stuff these days). \n\nI learned a few new words here, one of which is worth a giggle or two: 洞房 - meaning \"the marriage chamber\" - or literally \"Cave room\" / \"Hole Room\". Weather that\'s because the bride and groom go in and don\'t want to come out of their, you know, cave for a while, or if that\'s more in reference to the
other meaning of 洞 is beyond me, but I won\'t forget that in a hurry. (Thank goodness, because I say \'marriage chamber\' so often).\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n春天 - [pinyin]chun1 tian1[/pinyin] - springtime\n染 - [pinyin]ran3[/pinyin] - dye\n青色 - [pinyin]qing1 se4[/pinyin] - A blue, green or blue-green the Chinese consider the \"color of nature\"\n伤心 - [pinyin]shang1 xin1[/pinyin] - Broken-hearted\n夏天 - [pinyin]xia4 tian1[/pinyin] - Summer\n深绿 - [pinyin]shen1 lv4[/pinyin] - Dark green\n秋天 - [pinyin]qiu1 tian1[/pinyin] - Autumn\n金黄 - [pinyin]jin1 huang2[/pinyin] - Golden yellow\n冬天 - [pinyin]dong1 tian1[/pinyin] - Winter\n后悔 - [pinyin]hou4 hui3[/pinyin] - Regret\n可不要 - [pinyin]ke3 bu4 yao4[/pinyin] - Won\'t [you] be...(ex. sad?)\n忽然 - [pinyin]hu1 ran2[/pinyin] - Suddenly\n掉下来 - [pinyin]diao4 xia4 lai2[/pinyin] - fall, drop down\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 秦朝时候，有个善良美丽的女子，名叫孟姜女。一天，她正在自家的院子里做家务，突然发现葡萄架下藏了一个人，吓了她一大跳，正要叫喊，只见那个人连连摆手，恳求道：“别喊别喊，救救我吧！我叫范喜良，是来逃难的。”原来这时秦始皇为了造长城，正到处抓人做劳工，已经饿死、累死了不知多少人！孟姜女把范喜良救了下来，见他知书达理，眉清目秀，对他产生了爱慕之情，而范喜良也喜欢上了孟姜女。他俩儿心心相印，征得了父母的同意后，就准备结为夫妻。\n\n 成亲那天，孟家张灯结彩，宾客满堂，一派喜气洋洋的情景。眼看天快黑了，喝喜酒的人也都渐渐散了，新郎新娘正要入洞房，忽然只听见鸡飞狗叫，随后闯进来一队恶狠狠的官兵，不容分说，用铁链一锁，硬把范喜良抓到长城去做工了。好端端的喜事变成了一场空，孟姜女悲愤交加，日夜思念着丈夫。她想：我与其坐在家里干着急，还不如自己到长城去找他。对！就这么办！孟姜女立刻收拾收拾行装，上路了。\n\n 一路上，也不知经历了多少风霜雨雪，跋涉过多少险山恶水，孟姜女没有喊过一声苦，没有掉过一滴泪，终于，凭着顽强的毅力，凭着对丈夫深深的爱，她到达了长城。这时的长城已经是由一个个工地组成的一道很长很长的城墙了，孟姜女一个工地一个工地地找过来，却始终不见丈夫的踪影。最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\n\n 猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDuring the Qin dynasty, there was a kind and beautify woman, called Meng JiangNv. One day, she was in her garden doing housework, when she suddenly realized that someone was hiding in the grape arbor. She was hugely startled, and was about to call out, when she saw the person repeatedly wave his hands, and begged her, \"Don\'t call out, don\'t call out, save me! I am Fan XiLiang, and I\'m running away from trouble.\" Well, during this time, [Emperor] Qin Shi Huang, in order to build the great wall, was seizing people from everywhere to [force them to] do labor, and he\'d already worked and starved countless people to death! Pretty Meng rescued Fan XiLiang, and when she saw that he was well educated and sensible, and good looking with delicate features as well, she began to love him, and Fan XiLiang also liked the pretty Meng. Their two hearts beat as one, and after seeking the approval of their parents, prepared to become husband and wife. \n\nOn the wedding day, the Meng house was lit with many-colored lanterns, was jam-packed with guests, it was a joyous scene. When it was almost dark out, and those that had come to drink the marriage wine slowly scattered, the bride and groom prepared to enter the marriage chamber, suddenly came the sounds of birds crying and dogs barking, and soon after a company of fierce officers and soldiers charged in, and without listening to any explanation, locked up Fan XiLiang in iron chains and hauled him off to the Great Wall to work. The lovely wedding had come to nothing, and Meng felt both grief and indignation, and she longed for her husband day and night. She thought:
Instead of sitting here worrying hopelessly, it\'s better if I go to the Great Wall and search for him. Yes! That\'s what I\'ll do! So Meng immediately prepared her traveling clothes and set out on the road. \n\nOn the road, though she couldn\'t count how many times she endured wind, frost, rain and snow, trudged across dangerous mountains and treacherous rapids, Meng never spoke one word of complaint, never spilled one tear, and finally, drawing strength from her tenacious willpower, and drawing strength from her deep love for her husband, she reached the Great Wall. The Great Wall at this time was made up of many small construction sites that had been strung together to form a long city wall, and Meng went from each construction site to the next, but she never saw a trace of her husband. Finally, she drummed up her courage, and asked a group of workers who were just about to begin work: \"Do any of you know a Fan XiLiang?\" The workers said, \"Yes, there was a man like that, he\'d just arrived.\" When Pretty Meng heard that, she was indescribably happy! She immediately asked, \"Where is he?\" The worker said, \"He\'s dead, his corpse has already been tossed into the wall.\" \n\nWhen Meng heard this grevious news, it was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, Meng\'s eyes went dark, and [she felt] a burst of sadness, and began to sob. She cried for a full three days and three nights, she cried until the sky was twilight and the earth was dark, [until] even Heaven and Earth were moved. The sky became more and more gloomy, the wind more and more fierce, and then there was a great \"crash\", and a section of the Wall had been cried down, and Fan XiLiang\'s corpse was revealed; Meng\'s tears dripped on his badly mutilated face. She finally was able to see the husband she loved, but he wasn\'t able to see her, because he had already been killed by the brutality of Qin ShiHuang. 天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Meng Jiang Nv Cries the Great Wall Down', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1176-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-07-22 12:10:52', '2012-07-22 16:10:52', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/07/22/1176-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1182, 1, '2012-07-22 12:14:26', '2012-07-22 16:14:26', '[two_third]\nThis traditional story, called 孟姜女哭长城, is set in the Qin Dynasty, and is super sad in the way that only East Asian stories can be sad. If you\'re the \"watches a lot of anime\" type, you\'ll easily find the beauty here (which lies in the power of tears - where else?), but if you like your fairy-tale endings, prepare for a big downer. \n\nI happen to like sad stories, and I think the pace and reading level of this one is very nice, so I\'m translating it for you here, though it\'s much longer than my usual fare (I seem to be trending towards longer stuff these days). \n\nI learned a few new words here, one of which is worth a giggle or two: 洞房 - meaning \"the marriage chamber\" - or literally \"Cave room\" / \"Hole Room\". Weather that\'s because the bride and groom go in and don\'t want to come out of their, you know, cave for a while, or if that\'s more in reference to the
other meaning of 洞 is beyond me, but I won\'t forget that in a hurry. (Thank goodness, because I say \'marriage chamber\' so often).\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n春天 - [pinyin]chun1 tian1[/pinyin] - springtime\n染 - [pinyin]ran3[/pinyin] - dye\n青色 - [pinyin]qing1 se4[/pinyin] - A blue, green or blue-green the Chinese consider the \"color of nature\"\n伤心 - [pinyin]shang1 xin1[/pinyin] - Broken-hearted\n夏天 - [pinyin]xia4 tian1[/pinyin] - Summer\n深绿 - [pinyin]shen1 lv4[/pinyin] - Dark green\n秋天 - [pinyin]qiu1 tian1[/pinyin] - Autumn\n金黄 - [pinyin]jin1 huang2[/pinyin] - Golden yellow\n冬天 - [pinyin]dong1 tian1[/pinyin] - Winter\n后悔 - [pinyin]hou4 hui3[/pinyin] - Regret\n可不要 - [pinyin]ke3 bu4 yao4[/pinyin] - Won\'t [you] be...(ex. sad?)\n忽然 - [pinyin]hu1 ran2[/pinyin] - Suddenly\n掉下来 - [pinyin]diao4 xia4 lai2[/pinyin] - fall, drop down\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 秦朝时候，有个善良美丽的女子，名叫孟姜女。一天，她正在自家的院子里做家务，突然发现葡萄架下藏了一个人，吓了她一大跳，正要叫喊，只见那个人连连摆手，恳求道：“别喊别喊，救救我吧！我叫范喜良，是来逃难的。”原来这时秦始皇为了造长城，正到处抓人做劳工，已经饿死、累死了不知多少人！孟姜女把范喜良救了下来，见他知书达理，眉清目秀，对他产生了爱慕之情，而范喜良也喜欢上了孟姜女。他俩儿心心相印，征得了父母的同意后，就准备结为夫妻。\n\n 成亲那天，孟家张灯结彩，宾客满堂，一派喜气洋洋的情景。眼看天快黑了，喝喜酒的人也都渐渐散了，新郎新娘正要入洞房，忽然只听见鸡飞狗叫，随后闯进来一队恶狠狠的官兵，不容分说，用铁链一锁，硬把范喜良抓到长城去做工了。好端端的喜事变成了一场空，孟姜女悲愤交加，日夜思念着丈夫。她想：我与其坐在家里干着急，还不如自己到长城去找他。对！就这么办！孟姜女立刻收拾收拾行装，上路了。\n\n一路上，也不知经历了多少风霜雨雪，跋涉过多少险山恶水，孟姜女没有喊过一声苦，没有掉过一滴泪，终于，凭着顽强的毅力，凭着对丈夫深深的爱，她到达了长城。这时的长城已经是由一个个工地组成的一道很长很长的城墙了，孟姜女一个工地一个工地地找过来，却始终不见丈夫的踪影。最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\n\n 猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDuring the Qin dynasty, there was a kind and beautify woman, called Meng JiangNv. One day, she was in her garden doing housework, when she suddenly realized that someone was hiding in the grape arbor. She was hugely startled, and was about to call out, when she saw the person repeatedly wave his hands, and begged her, \"Don\'t call out, don\'t call out, save me! I am Fan XiLiang, and I\'m running away from trouble.\" Well, during this time, [Emperor] Qin Shi Huang, in order to build the great wall, was seizing people from everywhere to [force them to] do labor, and he\'d already worked and starved countless people to death! Meng JiangNv rescued Fan XiLiang, and when she saw that he was well educated and sensible, and good looking with delicate features as well, she began to love him, and Fan XiLiang also liked Meng JiangNv. Their two hearts beat as one, and after seeking the approval of their parents, prepared to become husband and wife. \n\nOn the wedding day, the Meng house was lit with many-colored lanterns, was jam-packed with guests, it was a joyous scene. When it was almost dark out, and those that had come to drink the marriage wine slowly scattered, the bride and groom prepared to enter the marriage chamber, suddenly came the sounds of birds crying and dogs barking, and soon after a company of fierce officers and soldiers charged in, and without listening to any explanation, locked up Fan XiLiang in iron chains and hauled him off to the Great Wall to work. The lovely wedding had come to nothing, and Meng JiangNv felt both grief and indignation, and she longed for her husband day and night. She thought:
Instead of sitting here worrying hopelessly, it\'s better if I go to the Great Wall and search for him. Yes! That\'s what I\'ll do! So Meng JiangNv immediately prepared her traveling clothes and set out on the road. \n\nOn the road, though she couldn\'t count how many times she endured wind, frost, rain and snow, trudged across dangerous mountains and treacherous rapids, Meng JiangNv never spoke one word of complaint, never spilled one tear, and finally, drawing strength from her tenacious willpower, and drawing strength from her deep love for her husband, she reached the Great Wall. The Great Wall at this time was made up of many small construction sites that had been strung together to form a long city wall, and Meng JiangNv went from each construction site to the next, but she never saw a trace of her husband. Finally, she drummed up her courage, and asked a group of workers who were just about to begin work: \"Do any of you know a Fan XiLiang?\" The workers said, \"Yes, there was a man like that, he\'d just arrived.\" When Meng JiangNv heard that, she was indescribably happy! She immediately asked, \"Where is he?\" The worker said, \"He\'s dead, his corpse has already been tossed into the wall.\" \n\nWhen Meng heard this grevious news, it was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, Meng\'s eyes went dark, and [she felt] a burst of sadness, and began to sob. She cried for a full three days and three nights, she cried until the sky was twilight and the earth was dark, [until] even Heaven and Earth were moved. The sky became more and more gloomy, the wind more and more fierce, and then there was a great \"crash\", and a section of the Wall had been cried down, and Fan XiLiang\'s corpse was revealed; Meng\'s tears dripped on his badly mutilated face. She finally was able to see the husband she loved, but he wasn\'t able to see her, because he had already been killed by the brutality of Qin ShiHuang. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Meng JiangNv Cries the Great Wall Down', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1176-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-07-22 12:14:26', '2012-07-22 16:14:26', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/07/22/1176-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1183, 1, '2012-07-22 20:34:49', '2012-07-23 00:34:49', '[two_third]\nThis traditional story, called 孟姜女哭长城, is set in the Qin Dynasty, and is super sad in the way that only East Asian stories can be sad. If you\'re the \"watches a lot of anime\" type, you\'ll easily find the beauty here (which lies in the power of tears - where else?), but if you like your fairy-tale endings, prepare for a big downer. \n\nI happen to enjoy stories, and this one is paced very nicely, so I\'m translating it for you here, though it\'s much longer than my usual fare (I seem to be trending towards longer stuff these days). \n\nThis story describes two characters, our heroine 孟姜女, and her love, 范喜良, who live under the rule of emperor 秦始皇 during the building of the Great Wall. There are a few specialized words here pertaining to weddings. One is 喜酒, meaning \"happiness wine\", which is alcohol drunk at weddings to wish the bride and groom well. Another is 洞房, or \"marriage chamber\" (literally \"cave room\"). \n\nAn interesting word here is 眼看, which means \"in a moment\", or \"when ____ is just about to happen\", not \"the eye sees\" or \"to look\", as may be supposed. \n\nOne difficult few words to puzzle out here is in the second paragraph, when it\'s stated that some soldiers \"不容分说\" charge into the room. 不容 here means \"without tolerating\" or \"would not tolerate\", and 分说 means \"to explain\". So we can imagine that this means the soldiers barged in and though people tried to explain the situation to them, they weren\'t interested in listening. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n连连 - [pinyin]chun1 tian1[/pinyin] - springtime\n逃难 - [pinyin]ran3[/pinyin] - dye\n抓 - [pinyin]qing1 se4[/pinyin] - A blue, green or blue-green the Chinese consider the \"color of nature\"\n知书达理 - [pinyin]shang1 xin1[/pinyin] - Broken-hearted\n眉清目秀 - [pinyin]xia4 tian1[/pinyin] - Summer\n心心相印 - [pinyin]shen1 lv4[/pinyin] - Dark green\n成亲 - [pinyin]qiu1 tian1[/pinyin] - Autumn\n张灯结彩 - [pinyin]jin1 huang2[/pinyin] - Golden yellow\n满堂 - [pinyin]dong1 tian1[/pinyin] - Winter\n喜气洋洋 - [pinyin]hou4 hui3[/pinyin] - Regret\n干着急 - [pinyin]ke3 bu4 yao4[/pinyin] - Won\'t [you] be...(ex. sad?)\n跋涉 - [pinyin]hu1 ran2[/pinyin] - Suddenly\n顽强 - [pinyin]diao4 xia4 lai2[/pinyin] - fall, drop down\n工地\n踪影\n尸首\n噩耗\n猛烈\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 秦朝时候，有个善良美丽的女子，名叫孟姜女。一天，她正在自家的院子里做家务，突然发现葡萄架下藏了一个人，吓了她一大跳，正要叫喊，只见那个人连连摆手，恳求道：“别喊别喊，救救我吧！我叫范喜良，是来逃难的。”原来这时秦始皇为了造长城，正到处抓人做劳工，已经饿死、累死了不知多少人！孟姜女把范喜良救了下来，见他知书达理，眉清目秀，对他产生了爱慕之情，而范喜良也喜欢上了孟姜女。他俩儿心心相印，征得了父母的同意后，就准备结为夫妻。\n\n 成亲那天，孟家张灯结彩，宾客满堂，一派喜气洋洋的情景。眼看天快黑了，喝喜酒的人也都渐渐散了，新郎新娘正要入洞房，忽然只听见鸡飞狗叫，随后闯进来一队恶狠狠的官兵，不容分说，用铁链一锁，硬把范喜良抓到长城去做工了。好端端的喜事变成了一场空，孟姜女悲愤交加，日夜思念着丈夫。她想：我与其坐在家里干着急，还不如自己到长城去找他。对！就这么办！孟姜女立刻收拾收拾行装，上路了。\n\n一路上，也不知经历了多少风霜雨雪，跋涉过多少险山恶水，孟姜女没有喊过一声苦，没有掉过一滴泪，终于，凭着顽强的毅力，凭着对丈夫深深的爱，她到达了长城。这时的长城已经是由一个个工地组成的一道很长很长的城墙了，孟姜女一个工地一个工地地找过来，却始终不见丈夫的踪影。最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\n\n猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDuring the Qin dynasty, there was a kind and beautify woman, called Meng JiangNv. One day, she was in her garden doing housework, when she suddenly realized that someone was hiding in the grape arbor. She was hugely startled, and was about to call out, when she saw the person repeatedly wave his hands, and begged her, \"Don\'t call out, don\'t call out, save me! I am Fan XiLiang, and I\'m running away from trouble.\" Well, during this time, [Emperor] Qin Shi Huang, in order to build the great wall, was seizing people from everywhere to [force them to] do labor, and he\'d already worked and starved countless people to death! Meng JiangNv rescued Fan XiLiang, and when she saw that he was well educated and sensible, and good looking with delicate features as well, she began to love him, and Fan XiLiang also liked Meng JiangNv. Their two hearts beat as one, and after seeking the approval of their parents, prepared to become husband and wife. \n\nOn the wedding day, the Meng house was lit with many-colored lanterns, was jam-packed with guests, it was a joyous scene. When it was almost dark out, and those that had come to drink the marriage wine slowly scattered, the bride and groom prepared to enter the marriage chamber, suddenly came the sounds of birds crying and dogs barking, and soon after a company of fierce officers and soldiers charged in, and without listening to any explanation, locked up Fan XiLiang in iron chains and hauled him off to the Great Wall to work. The lovely wedding had come to nothing, and Meng JiangNv felt both grief and indignation, and she longed for her husband day and night. She thought:
Instead of sitting here worrying hopelessly, it\'s better if I go to the Great Wall and search for him. Yes! That\'s what I\'ll do! So Meng JiangNv immediately prepared her traveling clothes and set out on the road. \n\nOn the road, though she couldn\'t count how many times she endured wind, frost, rain and snow, trudged across dangerous mountains and treacherous rapids, Meng JiangNv never spoke one word of complaint, never spilled one tear, and finally, drawing strength from her tenacious willpower, and drawing strength from her deep love for her husband, she reached the Great Wall. The Great Wall at this time was made up of many small construction sites that had been strung together to form a long city wall, and Meng JiangNv went from each construction site to the next, but she never saw a trace of her husband. Finally, she drummed up her courage, and asked a group of workers who were just about to begin work: \"Do any of you know a Fan XiLiang?\" The workers said, \"Yes, there was a man like that, he\'d just arrived.\" When Meng JiangNv heard that, she was indescribably happy! She immediately asked, \"Where is he?\" The worker said, \"He\'s dead, his corpse has already been tossed into the wall.\" \n\nWhen Meng JiangNv heard this grievous news, it was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, Meng\'s eyes went dark, and [she felt] a burst of sadness, and began to sob. She cried for a full three days and three nights, she cried until the sky was twilight and the earth was dark, [until] even Heaven and Earth were moved. The sky became more and more gloomy, the wind more and more fierce, and then there was a great \"crash\", and a section of the Wall had been cried down, and Fan XiLiang\'s corpse was revealed; Meng JiangNv\'s tears dripped on his badly mutilated face. She finally was able to see the husband she loved, but he wasn\'t able to see her, because he had already been killed by the brutality of Qin ShiHuang. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Meng JiangNv Cries the Great Wall Down', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1176-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-07-22 20:34:49', '2012-07-23 00:34:49', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/07/22/1176-revision-7/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1184, 1, '2012-07-22 21:01:20', '2012-07-23 01:01:20', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese - Learn Intermediate Chinese Reading Passages with Famous Chinese Fables and Myths', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120723', '', '', '2012-07-22 21:01:20', '2012-07-23 01:01:20', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/20120723.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1185, 1, '2012-07-22 21:01:21', '2012-07-23 01:01:21', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese Characters - Intermediate Chinese Reading', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120723-inline', '', '', '2012-07-22 21:01:21', '2012-07-23 01:01:21', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/20120723-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1186, 1, '2012-07-22 21:03:42', '2012-07-23 01:03:42', '[two_third]\nThis traditional and very famous story, called 孟姜女哭长城, is set in the Qin Dynasty, and is super sad in the way that only East Asian stories can be sad (are we noticing a trend, here?). If you\'re the \"watches a lot of anime\" type, you\'ll easily find the beauty here (which lies in the power of tears - where else?), but if you like your fairy-tale endings, prepare for a big downer. \n\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/20120723-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Learn")
I happen to enjoy sad stories as long as there\'s some sweetness in them, and this one is paced very nicely, so I\'m translating it for you here, though it\'s much longer than my usual fare (I seem to be trending towards longer stuff these days). \n\nThis story describes two characters, our heroine 孟姜女, and her love, 范喜良, who live under the rule of emperor 秦始皇 during the building of the Great Wall. The story describe how they meet and how they finally part, and dwells on the strength of 孟姜女\'s love for her man. There are a few specialized words here pertaining to weddings. One is 喜酒, meaning \"happiness wine\", which is alcohol drunk at weddings to wish the bride and groom well. Another is 洞房, or \"marriage chamber\" (literally \"cave room\"). And yet another is 成亲, meaning \"to get married\".\n\nAn interesting word here is 眼看, which means \"in a moment\", or \"when ____ is just about to happen\", not \"the eye sees\" or \"to look\", as may be supposed. \n\nOne difficult few words to puzzle out here is in the second paragraph, when it\'s stated that some soldiers \"不容分说\" charge into the room. 不容 here means \"without tolerating\" or \"would not tolerate\", and 分说 means \"to explain\". So we can imagine that this means the soldiers barged in and though people tried to explain the situation to them, they weren\'t interested in listening. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n连连 - [pinyin]lian2 lian2[/pinyin] - Again and again\n逃难 - [pinyin]tao2 nan4[/pinyin] - Run away from trouble\n抓 - [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin] - Grab, catch, seize\n知书达理 - [pinyin]zhi1 shu1 da2 li3[/pinyin] - Educated and well-balanced\n眉清目秀 - [pinyin]mei2 qing1 mu4 xiu4[/pinyin] - Good-looking with delicate features\n心心相印 - [pinyin]xin1 xin1 xiang1 yin4[/pinyin] - Two hearts beat as one\n成亲 - [pinyin]cheng2 qin1[/pinyin] - To get married\n张灯结彩 - [pinyin]zheng1 deng1 jie2 cai3[/pinyin] - Decorated with lanterns and colored banners\n满堂 - [pinyin]man3 tang2[/pinyin] - jam-packed, a full house\n喜气洋洋 - [pinyin]xi3 qi4 yang2 yang2[/pinyin] - Full of joy\n干着急 - [pinyin]gan1 zhan2 ji2[/pinyin] - Worry needlessly\n跋涉 - [pinyin]ba2 she4[/pinyin] - To trek, trudge\n顽强 - [pinyin]wan2 qiang2[/pinyin] - Tenacious\n工地 - [pinyin]gong1 di4[/pinyin] - Construction site\n踪影 - [pinyin]zong1 ying3[/pinyin] - A trace (no trace of sthg)\n尸首 - [pinyin]shi1 shou5[/pinyin] - Corpse\n噩耗 - [pinyin]e4 hao4[/pinyin] - News of someone\'s death\n猛烈 - [pinyin]meng3 lie4[/pinyin] - fierce / violent\n血肉模糊 - [pinyin]xue4 rou4 mo2 hu5[/pinyin] - Badly mutilated\n残暴 - [pinyin]can2 bao4[/pinyin] - Cruelty\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 秦朝时候，有个善良美丽的女子，名叫孟姜女。一天，她正在自家的院子里做家务，突然发现葡萄架下藏了一个人，吓了她一大跳，正要叫喊，只见那个人连连摆手，恳求道：“别喊别喊，救救我吧！我叫范喜良，是来逃难的。”原来这时秦始皇为了造长城，正到处抓人做劳工，已经饿死、累死了不知多少人！孟姜女把范喜良救了下来，见他知书达理，眉清目秀，对他产生了爱慕之情，而范喜良也喜欢上了孟姜女。他俩儿心心相印，征得了父母的同意后，就准备结为夫妻。\n\n 成亲那天，孟家张灯结彩，宾客满堂，一派喜气洋洋的情景。眼看天快黑了，喝喜酒的人也都渐渐散了，新郎新娘正要入洞房，忽然只听见鸡飞狗叫，随后闯进来一队恶狠狠的官兵，不容分说，用铁链一锁，硬把范喜良抓到长城去做工了。好端端的喜事变成了一场空，孟姜女悲愤交加，日夜思念着丈夫。她想：我与其坐在家里干着急，还不如自己到长城去找他。对！就这么办！孟姜女立刻收拾收拾行装，上路了。\n\n一路上，也不知经历了多少风霜雨雪，跋涉过多少险山恶水，孟姜女没有喊过一声苦，没有掉过一滴泪，终于，凭着顽强的毅力，凭着对丈夫深深的爱，她到达了长城。这时的长城已经是由一个个工地组成的一道很长很长的城墙了，孟姜女一个工地一个工地地找过来，却始终不见丈夫的踪影。最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\n\n猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDuring the Qin dynasty, there was a kind and beautify woman, called Meng JiangNv. One day, she was in her garden doing housework, when she suddenly realized that someone was hiding in the grape arbor. She was hugely startled, and was about to call out, when she saw the person repeatedly wave his hands, and begged her, \"Don\'t call out, don\'t call out, save me! I am Fan XiLiang, and I\'m running away from trouble.\" Well, during this time, [Emperor] Qin Shi Huang, in order to build the great wall, was seizing people from everywhere to [force them to] do labor, and he\'d already worked and starved countless people to death! Meng JiangNv rescued Fan XiLiang, and when she saw that he was well educated and sensible, and good looking with delicate features as well, she began to love him, and Fan XiLiang also liked Meng JiangNv. Their two hearts beat as one, and after seeking the approval of their parents, prepared to become husband and wife. \n\nOn the wedding day, the Meng house was lit with lanterns and colored banners, and was jam-packed with guests - it was a joyous scene. When it was almost dark out, and those that had come to drink the marriage wine slowly scattered, the bride and groom prepared to enter the marriage chamber, suddenly came the sounds of birds crying and dogs barking, and soon after a company of fierce officers and soldiers charged in, and without listening to any explanation, locked up Fan XiLiang in iron chains and hauled him off to the Great Wall to work. The lovely wedding had come to nothing, and Meng JiangNv felt both grief and indignation, and she longed for her husband day and night. She thought:
Instead of sitting here worrying hopelessly, it\'s better if I go to the Great Wall and search for him. Yes! That\'s what I\'ll do! So Meng JiangNv immediately prepared her traveling clothes and set out on the road. \n\nOn the road, though she couldn\'t count how many times she endured wind, frost, rain and snow, trudged across dangerous mountains and treacherous rapids, Meng JiangNv never spoke one word of complaint, never spilled one tear, and finally, drawing strength from her tenacious willpower, and drawing strength from her deep love for her husband, she reached the Great Wall. The Great Wall at this time was made up of many small construction sites that had been strung together to form a long city wall, and Meng JiangNv went from each construction site to the next, but she never saw a trace of her husband. Finally, she drummed up her courage, and asked a group of workers who were just about to begin work: \"Do any of you know a Fan XiLiang?\" The workers said, \"Yes, there was a man like that, he\'d just arrived.\" When Meng JiangNv heard that, she was indescribably happy! She immediately asked, \"Where is he?\" The worker said, \"He\'s dead, his corpse has already been tossed into the wall.\" \n\nWhen Meng JiangNv heard this grievous news, it was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, Meng\'s eyes went dark, and [she felt] a burst of sadness, and began to sob. She cried for a full three days and three nights, she cried until the sky was twilight and the earth was dark, [until] even Heaven and Earth were moved. The sky became more and more gloomy, the wind more and more fierce, and then there was a great \"crash\", and a section of the Wall had been cried down, and Fan XiLiang\'s corpse was revealed; Meng JiangNv\'s tears dripped on his badly mutilated face. She finally was able to see the husband she loved, but he wasn\'t able to see her, because he had already been killed by the cruel Qin ShiHuang. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Meng JiangNv Cries the Great Wall Down', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1176-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-07-22 21:03:42', '2012-07-23 01:03:42', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/07/22/1176-revision-8/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1187, 1, '2012-07-22 21:04:26', '2012-07-23 01:04:26', '[two_third]\r\nThis traditional and very famous story, called 孟姜女哭长城, is set in the Qin Dynasty, and is super sad in the way that only East Asian stories can be sad (are we noticing a trend, here?). If you\'re the \"watches a lot of anime\" type, you\'ll easily find the beauty here (which lies in the power of tears - where else?), but if you like your fairy-tale endings, prepare for a big downer. \r\n\r\n
I happen to enjoy sad stories as long as there\'s some sweetness in them, and this one is paced very nicely, so I\'m translating it for you here, though it\'s much longer than my usual fare (I seem to be trending towards longer stuff these days). \r\n\r\nThis story describes two characters, our heroine 孟姜女, and her love, 范喜良, who live under the rule of emperor 秦始皇 during the building of the Great Wall. The story describe how they meet and how they finally part, and dwells on the strength of 孟姜女\'s love for her man. There are a few specialized words here pertaining to weddings. One is 喜酒, meaning \"happiness wine\", which is alcohol drunk at weddings to wish the bride and groom well. Another is 洞房, or \"marriage chamber\" (literally \"cave room\"). And yet another is 成亲, meaning \"to get married\".\r\n\r\nAn interesting word here is 眼看, which means \"in a moment\", or \"when ____ is just about to happen\", not \"the eye sees\" or \"to look\", as may be supposed. \r\n\r\nOne difficult few words to puzzle out here is in the second paragraph, when it\'s stated that some soldiers \"不容分说\" charge into the room. 不容 here means \"without tolerating\" or \"would not tolerate\", and 分说 means \"to explain\". So we can imagine that this means the soldiers barged in and though people tried to explain the situation to them, they weren\'t interested in listening. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n连连 - [pinyin]lian2 lian2[/pinyin] - Again and again\r\n逃难 - [pinyin]tao2 nan4[/pinyin] - Run away from trouble\r\n抓 - [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin] - Grab, catch, seize\r\n知书达理 - [pinyin]zhi1 shu1 da2 li3[/pinyin] - Educated and well-balanced\r\n眉清目秀 - [pinyin]mei2 qing1 mu4 xiu4[/pinyin] - Good-looking with delicate features\r\n心心相印 - [pinyin]xin1 xin1 xiang1 yin4[/pinyin] - Two hearts beat as one\r\n成亲 - [pinyin]cheng2 qin1[/pinyin] - To get married\r\n张灯结彩 - [pinyin]zheng1 deng1 jie2 cai3[/pinyin] - Decorated with lanterns and colored banners\r\n满堂 - [pinyin]man3 tang2[/pinyin] - jam-packed, a full house\r\n喜气洋洋 - [pinyin]xi3 qi4 yang2 yang2[/pinyin] - Full of joy\r\n干着急 - [pinyin]gan1 zhan2 ji2[/pinyin] - Worry needlessly\r\n跋涉 - [pinyin]ba2 she4[/pinyin] - To trek, trudge\r\n顽强 - [pinyin]wan2 qiang2[/pinyin] - Tenacious\r\n工地 - [pinyin]gong1 di4[/pinyin] - Construction site\r\n踪影 - [pinyin]zong1 ying3[/pinyin] - A trace (no trace of sthg)\r\n尸首 - [pinyin]shi1 shou5[/pinyin] - Corpse\r\n噩耗 - [pinyin]e4 hao4[/pinyin] - News of someone\'s death\r\n猛烈 - [pinyin]meng3 lie4[/pinyin] - fierce / violent\r\n血肉模糊 - [pinyin]xue4 rou4 mo2 hu5[/pinyin] - Badly mutilated\r\n残暴 - [pinyin]can2 bao4[/pinyin] - Cruelty\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n 秦朝时候，有个善良美丽的女子，名叫孟姜女。一天，她正在自家的院子里做家务，突然发现葡萄架下藏了一个人，吓了她一大跳，正要叫喊，只见那个人连连摆手，恳求道：“别喊别喊，救救我吧！我叫范喜良，是来逃难的。”原来这时秦始皇为了造长城，正到处抓人做劳工，已经饿死、累死了不知多少人！孟姜女把范喜良救了下来，见他知书达理，眉清目秀，对他产生了爱慕之情，而范喜良也喜欢上了孟姜女。他俩儿心心相印，征得了父母的同意后，就准备结为夫妻。\r\n\r\n 成亲那天，孟家张灯结彩，宾客满堂，一派喜气洋洋的情景。眼看天快黑了，喝喜酒的人也都渐渐散了，新郎新娘正要入洞房，忽然只听见鸡飞狗叫，随后闯进来一队恶狠狠的官兵，不容分说，用铁链一锁，硬把范喜良抓到长城去做工了。好端端的喜事变成了一场空，孟姜女悲愤交加，日夜思念着丈夫。她想：我与其坐在家里干着急，还不如自己到长城去找他。对！就这么办！孟姜女立刻收拾收拾行装，上路了。\r\n\r\n一路上，也不知经历了多少风霜雨雪，跋涉过多少险山恶水，孟姜女没有喊过一声苦，没有掉过一滴泪，终于，凭着顽强的毅力，凭着对丈夫深深的爱，她到达了长城。这时的长城已经是由一个个工地组成的一道很长很长的城墙了，孟姜女一个工地一个工地地找过来，却始终不见丈夫的踪影。最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\r\n\r\n猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDuring the Qin dynasty, there was a kind and beautify woman, called Meng JiangNv. One day, she was in her garden doing housework, when she suddenly realized that someone was hiding in the grape arbor. She was hugely startled, and was about to call out, when she saw the person repeatedly wave his hands, and begged her, \"Don\'t call out, don\'t call out, save me! I am Fan XiLiang, and I\'m running away from trouble.\" Well, during this time, [Emperor] Qin Shi Huang, in order to build the great wall, was seizing people from everywhere to [force them to] do labor, and he\'d already worked and starved countless people to death! Meng JiangNv rescued Fan XiLiang, and when she saw that he was well educated and sensible, and good looking with delicate features as well, she began to love him, and Fan XiLiang also liked Meng JiangNv. Their two hearts beat as one, and after seeking the approval of their parents, prepared to become husband and wife. \r\n\r\nOn the wedding day, the Meng house was lit with lanterns and colored banners, and was jam-packed with guests - it was a joyous scene. When it was almost dark out, and those that had come to drink the marriage wine slowly scattered, the bride and groom prepared to enter the marriage chamber, suddenly came the sounds of birds crying and dogs barking, and soon after a company of fierce officers and soldiers charged in, and without listening to any explanation, locked up Fan XiLiang in iron chains and hauled him off to the Great Wall to work. The lovely wedding had come to nothing, and Meng JiangNv felt both grief and indignation, and she longed for her husband day and night. She thought:
Instead of sitting here worrying hopelessly, it\'s better if I go to the Great Wall and search for him. Yes! That\'s what I\'ll do! So Meng JiangNv immediately prepared her traveling clothes and set out on the road. \r\n\r\nOn the road, though she couldn\'t count how many times she endured wind, frost, rain and snow, trudged across dangerous mountains and treacherous rapids, Meng JiangNv never spoke one word of complaint, never spilled one tear, and finally, drawing strength from her tenacious willpower, and drawing strength from her deep love for her husband, she reached the Great Wall. The Great Wall at this time was made up of many small construction sites that had been strung together to form a long city wall, and Meng JiangNv went from each construction site to the next, but she never saw a trace of her husband. Finally, she drummed up her courage, and asked a group of workers who were just about to begin work: \"Do any of you know a Fan XiLiang?\" The workers said, \"Yes, there was a man like that, he\'d just arrived.\" When Meng JiangNv heard that, she was indescribably happy! She immediately asked, \"Where is he?\" The worker said, \"He\'s dead, his corpse has already been tossed into the wall.\" \r\n\r\nWhen Meng JiangNv heard this grievous news, it was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, Meng\'s eyes went dark, and [she felt] a burst of sadness, and began to sob. She cried for a full three days and three nights, she cried until the sky was twilight and the earth was dark, [until] even Heaven and Earth were moved. The sky became more and more gloomy, the wind more and more fierce, and then there was a great \"crash\", and a section of the Wall had been cried down, and Fan XiLiang\'s corpse was revealed; Meng JiangNv\'s tears dripped on his badly mutilated face. She finally was able to see the husband she loved, but he wasn\'t able to see her, because he had already been killed by the cruel Qin ShiHuang. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Meng JiangNv Cries the Great Wall Down', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1176-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-07-22 21:04:26', '2012-07-23 01:04:26', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/07/22/1176-revision-9/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1188, 1, '2012-08-13 01:36:02', '2012-08-13 05:36:02', '[two_third]\nSeeing as how I just got back from a trip to the Wall myself, I figured I\'d stay on that theme. This traditional and very famous story, called 孟姜女哭长城 [pinyin]meng4 jiang1 nv3 ku1 chang2 cheng2[/pinyin], is set in the Qin Dynasty, and is super sad in the way that only East Asian stories can be sad (are we noticing a trend, here?). If you\'re the \"watches a lot of anime\" type, you\'ll easily find the beauty here (which lies in the power of tears - where else?), but if you like your fairy-tale endings, prepare for a big downer. \n\n
I happen to enjoy sad stories as long as there\'s some sweetness in them, and this one is paced very nicely, so I\'m translating it for you here, though it\'s much longer than my usual fare (I seem to be trending towards longer stuff these days). \n\nThis story happens between 259 B.C. and 210 B.C., and describes two characters, our heroine 孟姜女[pinyin]meng4 jiang1 nv3[/pinyin], and her love, 范喜良 [pinyin]fan4 xi3 liang2[/pinyin], who live under the rule of emperor 秦始皇 [pinyin]qin2 shi3 huang2[/pinyin] during the building of the Great Wall. The story describes how they meet and how they finally part, and dwells on the strength of 孟姜女\'s love for her man. There are a few specialized words here pertaining to weddings. One is 喜酒 [pinyin]xi3 jiu3[/pinyin], meaning \"happiness wine\", which is alcohol drunk at weddings to wish the bride and groom well. Another is 洞房 [pinyin]dong4 fang2[/pinyin], or \"marriage chamber\" (literally \"cave room\"). And yet another is 成亲, meaning \"to get married\".\n\nAn interesting word here is 眼看 [pinyin]yan3 kan4[/pinyin], which means \"in a moment\", or \"when ____ is just about to happen\", not \"the eye sees\" or \"to look\", as may be supposed. \n\nOne difficult few words to puzzle out here is in the second paragraph, when it\'s stated that some soldiers \"不容分说\" [pinyin]bu4 rong2 fen1 shuo1[/pinyin] charge into the room. 不容 here means \"without tolerating\" or \"would not tolerate\", and 分说 means \"to explain\". So we can imagine that this means the soldiers barged in and though people tried to explain the situation to them, they weren\'t interested in listening. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n连连 - [pinyin]lian2 lian2[/pinyin] - Again and again\n逃难 - [pinyin]tao2 nan4[/pinyin] - Run away from trouble\n抓 - [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin] - Grab, catch, seize\n知书达理 - [pinyin]zhi1 shu1 da2 li3[/pinyin] - Educated and well-balanced\n眉清目秀 - [pinyin]mei2 qing1 mu4 xiu4[/pinyin] - Good-looking with delicate features\n心心相印 - [pinyin]xin1 xin1 xiang1 yin4[/pinyin] - Two hearts beat as one\n成亲 - [pinyin]cheng2 qin1[/pinyin] - To get married\n张灯结彩 - [pinyin]zheng1 deng1 jie2 cai3[/pinyin] - Decorated with lanterns and colored banners\n满堂 - [pinyin]man3 tang2[/pinyin] - jam-packed, a full house\n喜气洋洋 - [pinyin]xi3 qi4 yang2 yang2[/pinyin] - Full of joy\n干着急 - [pinyin]gan1 zhan2 ji2[/pinyin] - Worry needlessly\n跋涉 - [pinyin]ba2 she4[/pinyin] - To trek, trudge\n顽强 - [pinyin]wan2 qiang2[/pinyin] - Tenacious\n工地 - [pinyin]gong1 di4[/pinyin] - Construction site\n踪影 - [pinyin]zong1 ying3[/pinyin] - A trace (no trace of sthg)\n尸首 - [pinyin]shi1 shou5[/pinyin] - Corpse\n噩耗 - [pinyin]e4 hao4[/pinyin] - News of someone\'s death\n猛烈 - [pinyin]meng3 lie4[/pinyin] - fierce / violent\n血肉模糊 - [pinyin]xue4 rou4 mo2 hu5[/pinyin] - Badly mutilated\n残暴 - [pinyin]can2 bao4[/pinyin] - Cruelty\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 秦朝时候，有个善良美丽的女子，名叫孟姜女。一天，她正在自家的院子里做家务，突然发现葡萄架下藏了一个人，吓了她一大跳，正要叫喊，只见那个人连连摆手，恳求道：“别喊别喊，救救我吧！我叫范喜良，是来逃难的。”原来这时秦始皇为了造长城，正到处抓人做劳工，已经饿死、累死了不知多少人！孟姜女把范喜良救了下来，见他知书达理，眉清目秀，对他产生了爱慕之情，而范喜良也喜欢上了孟姜女。他俩儿心心相印，征得了父母的同意后，就准备结为夫妻。\n\n 成亲那天，孟家张灯结彩，宾客满堂，一派喜气洋洋的情景。眼看天快黑了，喝喜酒的人也都渐渐散了，新郎新娘正要入洞房，忽然只听见鸡飞狗叫，随后闯进来一队恶狠狠的官兵，不容分说，用铁链一锁，硬把范喜良抓到长城去做工了。好端端的喜事变成了一场空，孟姜女悲愤交加，日夜思念着丈夫。她想：我与其坐在家里干着急，还不如自己到长城去找他。对！就这么办！孟姜女立刻收拾收拾行装，上路了。\n\n一路上，也不知经历了多少风霜雨雪，跋涉过多少险山恶水，孟姜女没有喊过一声苦，没有掉过一滴泪，终于，凭着顽强的毅力，凭着对丈夫深深的爱，她到达了长城。这时的长城已经是由一个个工地组成的一道很长很长的城墙了，孟姜女一个工地一个工地地找过来，却始终不见丈夫的踪影。最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\n\n猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDuring the Qin dynasty, there was a kind and beautify woman, called Meng JiangNv. One day, she was in her garden doing housework, when she suddenly realized that someone was hiding in the grape arbor. She was hugely startled, and was about to call out, when she saw the person repeatedly wave his hands, and begged her, \"Don\'t call out, don\'t call out, save me! I am Fan XiLiang, and I\'m running away from trouble.\" Well, during this time, [Emperor] Qin Shi Huang, in order to build the great wall, was seizing people from everywhere to [force them to] do labor, and he\'d already worked and starved countless people to death! Meng JiangNv rescued Fan XiLiang, and when she saw that he was well educated and sensible, and good looking with delicate features as well, she began to love him, and Fan XiLiang also liked Meng JiangNv. Their two hearts beat as one, and after seeking the approval of their parents, prepared to become husband and wife. \n\nOn the wedding day, the Meng house was lit with lanterns and colored banners, and was jam-packed with guests - it was a joyous scene. When it was almost dark out, and those that had come to drink the marriage wine slowly scattered, the bride and groom prepared to enter the marriage chamber, suddenly came the sounds of birds crying and dogs barking, and soon after a company of fierce officers and soldiers charged in, and without listening to any explanation, locked up Fan XiLiang in iron chains and hauled him off to the Great Wall to work. The lovely wedding had come to nothing, and Meng JiangNv felt both grief and indignation, and she longed for her husband day and night. She thought:
Instead of sitting here worrying hopelessly, it\'s better if I go to the Great Wall and search for him. Yes! That\'s what I\'ll do! So Meng JiangNv immediately prepared her traveling clothes and set out on the road. \n\nOn the road, though she couldn\'t count how many times she endured wind, frost, rain and snow, trudged across dangerous mountains and treacherous rapids, Meng JiangNv never spoke one word of complaint, never spilled one tear, and finally, drawing strength from her tenacious willpower, and drawing strength from her deep love for her husband, she reached the Great Wall. The Great Wall at this time was made up of many small construction sites that had been strung together to form a long city wall, and Meng JiangNv went from each construction site to the next, but she never saw a trace of her husband. Finally, she drummed up her courage, and asked a group of workers who were just about to begin work: \"Do any of you know a Fan XiLiang?\" The workers said, \"Yes, there was a man like that, he\'d just arrived.\" When Meng JiangNv heard that, she was indescribably happy! She immediately asked, \"Where is he?\" The worker said, \"He\'s dead, his corpse has already been tossed into the wall.\" \n\nWhen Meng JiangNv heard this grievous news, it was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, Meng\'s eyes went dark, and [she felt] a burst of sadness, and began to sob. She cried for a full three days and three nights, she cried until the sky was twilight and the earth was dark, [until] even Heaven and Earth were moved. The sky became more and more gloomy, the wind more and more fierce, and then there was a great \"crash\", and a section of the Wall had been cried down, and Fan XiLiang\'s corpse was revealed; Meng JiangNv\'s tears dripped on his badly mutilated face. She finally was able to see the husband she loved, but he wasn\'t able to see her, because he had already been killed by the cruel Qin ShiHuang. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Meng JiangNv Cries the Great Wall Down', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1176-autosave-v1', '', '', '2012-08-13 01:36:02', '2012-08-13 05:36:02', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/07/22/1176-autosave/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1189, 1, '2012-07-22 21:04:58', '2012-07-23 01:04:58', '[two_third]\r\nThis traditional and very famous story, called 孟姜女哭长城, is set in the Qin Dynasty, and is super sad in the way that only East Asian stories can be sad (are we noticing a trend, here?). If you\'re the \"watches a lot of anime\" type, you\'ll easily find the beauty here (which lies in the power of tears - where else?), but if you like your fairy-tale endings, prepare for a big downer. \r\n\r\n
I happen to enjoy sad stories as long as there\'s some sweetness in them, and this one is paced very nicely, so I\'m translating it for you here, though it\'s much longer than my usual fare (I seem to be trending towards longer stuff these days). \r\n\r\nThis story describes two characters, our heroine 孟姜女, and her love, 范喜良, who live under the rule of emperor 秦始皇 during the building of the Great Wall. The story describe how they meet and how they finally part, and dwells on the strength of 孟姜女\'s love for her man. There are a few specialized words here pertaining to weddings. One is 喜酒, meaning \"happiness wine\", which is alcohol drunk at weddings to wish the bride and groom well. Another is 洞房, or \"marriage chamber\" (literally \"cave room\"). And yet another is 成亲, meaning \"to get married\".\r\n\r\nAn interesting word here is 眼看, which means \"in a moment\", or \"when ____ is just about to happen\", not \"the eye sees\" or \"to look\", as may be supposed. \r\n\r\nOne difficult few words to puzzle out here is in the second paragraph, when it\'s stated that some soldiers \"不容分说\" charge into the room. 不容 here means \"without tolerating\" or \"would not tolerate\", and 分说 means \"to explain\". So we can imagine that this means the soldiers barged in and though people tried to explain the situation to them, they weren\'t interested in listening. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n连连 - [pinyin]lian2 lian2[/pinyin] - Again and again\r\n逃难 - [pinyin]tao2 nan4[/pinyin] - Run away from trouble\r\n抓 - [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin] - Grab, catch, seize\r\n知书达理 - [pinyin]zhi1 shu1 da2 li3[/pinyin] - Educated and well-balanced\r\n眉清目秀 - [pinyin]mei2 qing1 mu4 xiu4[/pinyin] - Good-looking with delicate features\r\n心心相印 - [pinyin]xin1 xin1 xiang1 yin4[/pinyin] - Two hearts beat as one\r\n成亲 - [pinyin]cheng2 qin1[/pinyin] - To get married\r\n张灯结彩 - [pinyin]zheng1 deng1 jie2 cai3[/pinyin] - Decorated with lanterns and colored banners\r\n满堂 - [pinyin]man3 tang2[/pinyin] - jam-packed, a full house\r\n喜气洋洋 - [pinyin]xi3 qi4 yang2 yang2[/pinyin] - Full of joy\r\n干着急 - [pinyin]gan1 zhan2 ji2[/pinyin] - Worry needlessly\r\n跋涉 - [pinyin]ba2 she4[/pinyin] - To trek, trudge\r\n顽强 - [pinyin]wan2 qiang2[/pinyin] - Tenacious\r\n工地 - [pinyin]gong1 di4[/pinyin] - Construction site\r\n踪影 - [pinyin]zong1 ying3[/pinyin] - A trace (no trace of sthg)\r\n尸首 - [pinyin]shi1 shou5[/pinyin] - Corpse\r\n噩耗 - [pinyin]e4 hao4[/pinyin] - News of someone\'s death\r\n猛烈 - [pinyin]meng3 lie4[/pinyin] - fierce / violent\r\n血肉模糊 - [pinyin]xue4 rou4 mo2 hu5[/pinyin] - Badly mutilated\r\n残暴 - [pinyin]can2 bao4[/pinyin] - Cruelty\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n 秦朝时候，有个善良美丽的女子，名叫孟姜女。一天，她正在自家的院子里做家务，突然发现葡萄架下藏了一个人，吓了她一大跳，正要叫喊，只见那个人连连摆手，恳求道：“别喊别喊，救救我吧！我叫范喜良，是来逃难的。”原来这时秦始皇为了造长城，正到处抓人做劳工，已经饿死、累死了不知多少人！孟姜女把范喜良救了下来，见他知书达理，眉清目秀，对他产生了爱慕之情，而范喜良也喜欢上了孟姜女。他俩儿心心相印，征得了父母的同意后，就准备结为夫妻。\r\n\r\n 成亲那天，孟家张灯结彩，宾客满堂，一派喜气洋洋的情景。眼看天快黑了，喝喜酒的人也都渐渐散了，新郎新娘正要入洞房，忽然只听见鸡飞狗叫，随后闯进来一队恶狠狠的官兵，不容分说，用铁链一锁，硬把范喜良抓到长城去做工了。好端端的喜事变成了一场空，孟姜女悲愤交加，日夜思念着丈夫。她想：我与其坐在家里干着急，还不如自己到长城去找他。对！就这么办！孟姜女立刻收拾收拾行装，上路了。\r\n\r\n一路上，也不知经历了多少风霜雨雪，跋涉过多少险山恶水，孟姜女没有喊过一声苦，没有掉过一滴泪，终于，凭着顽强的毅力，凭着对丈夫深深的爱，她到达了长城。这时的长城已经是由一个个工地组成的一道很长很长的城墙了，孟姜女一个工地一个工地地找过来，却始终不见丈夫的踪影。最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\r\n\r\n猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDuring the Qin dynasty, there was a kind and beautify woman, called Meng JiangNv. One day, she was in her garden doing housework, when she suddenly realized that someone was hiding in the grape arbor. She was hugely startled, and was about to call out, when she saw the person repeatedly wave his hands, and begged her, \"Don\'t call out, don\'t call out, save me! I am Fan XiLiang, and I\'m running away from trouble.\" Well, during this time, [Emperor] Qin Shi Huang, in order to build the great wall, was seizing people from everywhere to [force them to] do labor, and he\'d already worked and starved countless people to death! Meng JiangNv rescued Fan XiLiang, and when she saw that he was well educated and sensible, and good looking with delicate features as well, she began to love him, and Fan XiLiang also liked Meng JiangNv. Their two hearts beat as one, and after seeking the approval of their parents, prepared to become husband and wife. \r\n\r\nOn the wedding day, the Meng house was lit with lanterns and colored banners, and was jam-packed with guests - it was a joyous scene. When it was almost dark out, and those that had come to drink the marriage wine slowly scattered, the bride and groom prepared to enter the marriage chamber, suddenly came the sounds of birds crying and dogs barking, and soon after a company of fierce officers and soldiers charged in, and without listening to any explanation, locked up Fan XiLiang in iron chains and hauled him off to the Great Wall to work. The lovely wedding had come to nothing, and Meng JiangNv felt both grief and indignation, and she longed for her husband day and night. She thought:
Instead of sitting here worrying hopelessly, it\'s better if I go to the Great Wall and search for him. Yes! That\'s what I\'ll do! So Meng JiangNv immediately prepared her traveling clothes and set out on the road. \r\n\r\nOn the road, though she couldn\'t count how many times she endured wind, frost, rain and snow, trudged across dangerous mountains and treacherous rapids, Meng JiangNv never spoke one word of complaint, never spilled one tear, and finally, drawing strength from her tenacious willpower, and drawing strength from her deep love for her husband, she reached the Great Wall. The Great Wall at this time was made up of many small construction sites that had been strung together to form a long city wall, and Meng JiangNv went from each construction site to the next, but she never saw a trace of her husband. Finally, she drummed up her courage, and asked a group of workers who were just about to begin work: \"Do any of you know a Fan XiLiang?\" The workers said, \"Yes, there was a man like that, he\'d just arrived.\" When Meng JiangNv heard that, she was indescribably happy! She immediately asked, \"Where is he?\" The worker said, \"He\'s dead, his corpse has already been tossed into the wall.\" \r\n\r\nWhen Meng JiangNv heard this grievous news, it was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, Meng\'s eyes went dark, and [she felt] a burst of sadness, and began to sob. She cried for a full three days and three nights, she cried until the sky was twilight and the earth was dark, [until] even Heaven and Earth were moved. The sky became more and more gloomy, the wind more and more fierce, and then there was a great \"crash\", and a section of the Wall had been cried down, and Fan XiLiang\'s corpse was revealed; Meng JiangNv\'s tears dripped on his badly mutilated face. She finally was able to see the husband she loved, but he wasn\'t able to see her, because he had already been killed by the cruel Qin ShiHuang. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Meng JiangNv Cries the Great Wall Down', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1176-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-07-22 21:04:58', '2012-07-23 01:04:58', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/07/22/1176-revision-10/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1190, 1, '2012-07-22 21:07:06', '2012-07-23 01:07:06', '[two_third]\r\nSeeing as how I just got back from a trip to the Wall myself, I figured I\'d stay on that theme. This traditional and very famous story, called 孟姜女哭长城, is set in the Qin Dynasty, and is super sad in the way that only East Asian stories can be sad (are we noticing a trend, here?). If you\'re the \"watches a lot of anime\" type, you\'ll easily find the beauty here (which lies in the power of tears - where else?), but if you like your fairy-tale endings, prepare for a big downer. \r\n\r\n
I happen to enjoy sad stories as long as there\'s some sweetness in them, and this one is paced very nicely, so I\'m translating it for you here, though it\'s much longer than my usual fare (I seem to be trending towards longer stuff these days). \r\n\r\nThis story describes two characters, our heroine 孟姜女, and her love, 范喜良, who live under the rule of emperor 秦始皇 during the building of the Great Wall. The story describe how they meet and how they finally part, and dwells on the strength of 孟姜女\'s love for her man. There are a few specialized words here pertaining to weddings. One is 喜酒, meaning \"happiness wine\", which is alcohol drunk at weddings to wish the bride and groom well. Another is 洞房, or \"marriage chamber\" (literally \"cave room\"). And yet another is 成亲, meaning \"to get married\".\r\n\r\nAn interesting word here is 眼看, which means \"in a moment\", or \"when ____ is just about to happen\", not \"the eye sees\" or \"to look\", as may be supposed. \r\n\r\nOne difficult few words to puzzle out here is in the second paragraph, when it\'s stated that some soldiers \"不容分说\" charge into the room. 不容 here means \"without tolerating\" or \"would not tolerate\", and 分说 means \"to explain\". So we can imagine that this means the soldiers barged in and though people tried to explain the situation to them, they weren\'t interested in listening. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n连连 - [pinyin]lian2 lian2[/pinyin] - Again and again\r\n逃难 - [pinyin]tao2 nan4[/pinyin] - Run away from trouble\r\n抓 - [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin] - Grab, catch, seize\r\n知书达理 - [pinyin]zhi1 shu1 da2 li3[/pinyin] - Educated and well-balanced\r\n眉清目秀 - [pinyin]mei2 qing1 mu4 xiu4[/pinyin] - Good-looking with delicate features\r\n心心相印 - [pinyin]xin1 xin1 xiang1 yin4[/pinyin] - Two hearts beat as one\r\n成亲 - [pinyin]cheng2 qin1[/pinyin] - To get married\r\n张灯结彩 - [pinyin]zheng1 deng1 jie2 cai3[/pinyin] - Decorated with lanterns and colored banners\r\n满堂 - [pinyin]man3 tang2[/pinyin] - jam-packed, a full house\r\n喜气洋洋 - [pinyin]xi3 qi4 yang2 yang2[/pinyin] - Full of joy\r\n干着急 - [pinyin]gan1 zhan2 ji2[/pinyin] - Worry needlessly\r\n跋涉 - [pinyin]ba2 she4[/pinyin] - To trek, trudge\r\n顽强 - [pinyin]wan2 qiang2[/pinyin] - Tenacious\r\n工地 - [pinyin]gong1 di4[/pinyin] - Construction site\r\n踪影 - [pinyin]zong1 ying3[/pinyin] - A trace (no trace of sthg)\r\n尸首 - [pinyin]shi1 shou5[/pinyin] - Corpse\r\n噩耗 - [pinyin]e4 hao4[/pinyin] - News of someone\'s death\r\n猛烈 - [pinyin]meng3 lie4[/pinyin] - fierce / violent\r\n血肉模糊 - [pinyin]xue4 rou4 mo2 hu5[/pinyin] - Badly mutilated\r\n残暴 - [pinyin]can2 bao4[/pinyin] - Cruelty\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n 秦朝时候，有个善良美丽的女子，名叫孟姜女。一天，她正在自家的院子里做家务，突然发现葡萄架下藏了一个人，吓了她一大跳，正要叫喊，只见那个人连连摆手，恳求道：“别喊别喊，救救我吧！我叫范喜良，是来逃难的。”原来这时秦始皇为了造长城，正到处抓人做劳工，已经饿死、累死了不知多少人！孟姜女把范喜良救了下来，见他知书达理，眉清目秀，对他产生了爱慕之情，而范喜良也喜欢上了孟姜女。他俩儿心心相印，征得了父母的同意后，就准备结为夫妻。\r\n\r\n 成亲那天，孟家张灯结彩，宾客满堂，一派喜气洋洋的情景。眼看天快黑了，喝喜酒的人也都渐渐散了，新郎新娘正要入洞房，忽然只听见鸡飞狗叫，随后闯进来一队恶狠狠的官兵，不容分说，用铁链一锁，硬把范喜良抓到长城去做工了。好端端的喜事变成了一场空，孟姜女悲愤交加，日夜思念着丈夫。她想：我与其坐在家里干着急，还不如自己到长城去找他。对！就这么办！孟姜女立刻收拾收拾行装，上路了。\r\n\r\n一路上，也不知经历了多少风霜雨雪，跋涉过多少险山恶水，孟姜女没有喊过一声苦，没有掉过一滴泪，终于，凭着顽强的毅力，凭着对丈夫深深的爱，她到达了长城。这时的长城已经是由一个个工地组成的一道很长很长的城墙了，孟姜女一个工地一个工地地找过来，却始终不见丈夫的踪影。最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\r\n\r\n猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDuring the Qin dynasty, there was a kind and beautify woman, called Meng JiangNv. One day, she was in her garden doing housework, when she suddenly realized that someone was hiding in the grape arbor. She was hugely startled, and was about to call out, when she saw the person repeatedly wave his hands, and begged her, \"Don\'t call out, don\'t call out, save me! I am Fan XiLiang, and I\'m running away from trouble.\" Well, during this time, [Emperor] Qin Shi Huang, in order to build the great wall, was seizing people from everywhere to [force them to] do labor, and he\'d already worked and starved countless people to death! Meng JiangNv rescued Fan XiLiang, and when she saw that he was well educated and sensible, and good looking with delicate features as well, she began to love him, and Fan XiLiang also liked Meng JiangNv. Their two hearts beat as one, and after seeking the approval of their parents, prepared to become husband and wife. \r\n\r\nOn the wedding day, the Meng house was lit with lanterns and colored banners, and was jam-packed with guests - it was a joyous scene. When it was almost dark out, and those that had come to drink the marriage wine slowly scattered, the bride and groom prepared to enter the marriage chamber, suddenly came the sounds of birds crying and dogs barking, and soon after a company of fierce officers and soldiers charged in, and without listening to any explanation, locked up Fan XiLiang in iron chains and hauled him off to the Great Wall to work. The lovely wedding had come to nothing, and Meng JiangNv felt both grief and indignation, and she longed for her husband day and night. She thought:
Instead of sitting here worrying hopelessly, it\'s better if I go to the Great Wall and search for him. Yes! That\'s what I\'ll do! So Meng JiangNv immediately prepared her traveling clothes and set out on the road. \r\n\r\nOn the road, though she couldn\'t count how many times she endured wind, frost, rain and snow, trudged across dangerous mountains and treacherous rapids, Meng JiangNv never spoke one word of complaint, never spilled one tear, and finally, drawing strength from her tenacious willpower, and drawing strength from her deep love for her husband, she reached the Great Wall. The Great Wall at this time was made up of many small construction sites that had been strung together to form a long city wall, and Meng JiangNv went from each construction site to the next, but she never saw a trace of her husband. Finally, she drummed up her courage, and asked a group of workers who were just about to begin work: \"Do any of you know a Fan XiLiang?\" The workers said, \"Yes, there was a man like that, he\'d just arrived.\" When Meng JiangNv heard that, she was indescribably happy! She immediately asked, \"Where is he?\" The worker said, \"He\'s dead, his corpse has already been tossed into the wall.\" \r\n\r\nWhen Meng JiangNv heard this grievous news, it was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, Meng\'s eyes went dark, and [she felt] a burst of sadness, and began to sob. She cried for a full three days and three nights, she cried until the sky was twilight and the earth was dark, [until] even Heaven and Earth were moved. The sky became more and more gloomy, the wind more and more fierce, and then there was a great \"crash\", and a section of the Wall had been cried down, and Fan XiLiang\'s corpse was revealed; Meng JiangNv\'s tears dripped on his badly mutilated face. She finally was able to see the husband she loved, but he wasn\'t able to see her, because he had already been killed by the cruel Qin ShiHuang. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Meng JiangNv Cries the Great Wall Down', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1176-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-07-22 21:07:06', '2012-07-23 01:07:06', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/07/22/1176-revision-11/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1192, 1, '2012-08-03 23:03:13', '2012-08-04 03:03:13', 'This very indignant kid seems destined to be a vegetarian. \r\n\r\nI\'d say the most difficult phrase in this little passage is: 家里人都
吃得很香. The beginning of that sentence is no problem: 家里人都 \"Everyone in the family...\", but 吃得很香 is a bit more difficult, as we don\'t have sentence structure similar to this in English. Let\'s break it down:\r\n\r\n吃 - [pinyin]chi1[/pinyin] - To eat\r\n得 - [pinyin]de[/pinyin] - Grammar word, which kind of acts as a bridge between \"吃\" and \"香\", indicating that the result of 吃 (eating) is that it was very 香 (savory)\r\n很 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Very\r\n香 - [pinyin]xiang1[/pinyin] - Savory\r\n\r\nAnother interesting thing about this sentence is the word 香, which can mean both \"fragrant\" (smells good) and / or \"savory\" (tastes good). I find it particularly interesting that the Chinese recognize in language the interconnectedness of good taste and smell. \r\n\r\n
又 and 再
\r\n\r\nOne other notable point is the word 又, which means \"again\". But did you know that in Chinese, there are two ways to say \"again\"? There\'s 又, and there\'s also 再. It\'s a little alien to a native English speaker that there might be two different ways to say \"again\", so let me explain the difference:\r\n\r\n又 - Indicates that the action has already been repeated in the past. Example: \"
You forgot your homework again? You\'re going to get in trouble.\" The person being scolded forgot their homework once, then already forgot it again (maybe many times). The forgetting of homework again has already happened. So we use 又.\r\n\r\n再 - Indicates that something will happen again
in the future. An example of this would be:
Don\'t forget your homework again or you\'ll get in trouble. In other words, you forgot your homework at least once already, don\'t repeat that action again in the future. Another example of this is would be a sentence like, \"When will I see you again?\" The seeing again hasn\'t yet happened - it may happen in the future. So we would use 再. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n青蛙捉害虫，是庄稼的好朋友。可我爸爸成天出去捉青蛙。\r\n\r\n我对爸爸说：“青蛙是消灭害虫的能手，你不能捉它！”爸爸却笑着说：“大人的事，小孩别管。”我很着急。\r\n\r\n爸爸又捉了许多青蛙，煮了一锅青蛙肉。家里人都吃得很香，我却一点儿也不想吃。我想：我们吃了青蛙肉，又有许多小青蛙没妈妈了，他们一定在哭着找妈妈，多可怜呀！爸爸真是个大坏蛋！\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nFrogs catch pests, so they\'re a farm crop\'s good friend. But my dad goes out during the day and catches frogs. \r\n\r\nI said to dad: \"Frogs are experts at annihilating pests, you can\'t catch them!\" But my dad only smiled and said: \"Children should stay out of adult business.\" I\'m very worried.\r\n\r\nOnce again, dad caught several frogs and boiled up a pot of frog meat. Everyone in the family ate up the savory [food], but I didn\'t even want to eat a little. I thought: here we are eating frog meat, that means there are many small frogs with no mama, surely they\'re crying for their mother, it\'s such a pity! My dad is a big scoundrel! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 爸爸是个大坏蛋 - My Dad is a Scoundrel!', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'my-dads-a-scoundrel', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:43:10', '2016-11-05 03:43:10', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1192', 0, 'post', '', 9),
(2131, 1, '2016-11-04 23:37:03', '2016-11-05 03:37:03', 'This very indignant kid seems destined to be a vegetarian. \r\n\r\nI\'d say the most difficult phrase in this little passage is: 家里人都
吃得很香. The beginning of that sentence is no problem: 家里人都 \"Everyone in the family...\", but 吃得很香 is a bit more difficult, as we don\'t have sentence structure similar to this in English. Let\'s break it down:\r\n\r\n吃 - [pinyin]chi1[/pinyin] - To eat\r\n得 - [pinyin]de[/pinyin] - Grammar word, which kind of acts as a bridge between \"吃\" and \"香\", indicating that the result of 吃 (eating) is that it was very 香 (savory)\r\n很 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Very\r\n香 - [pinyin]xiang1[/pinyin] - Savory\r\n\r\nAnother interesting thing about this sentence is the word 香, which can mean both \"fragrant\" (smells good) and / or \"savory\" (tastes good). I find it particularly interesting that the Chinese recognize in language the interconnectedness of good taste and smell. \r\n\r\n
又 and 再
\r\n\r\nOne other notable point is the word 又, which means \"again\". But did you know that in Chinese, there are two ways to say \"again\"? There\'s 又, and there\'s also 再. It\'s a little alien to a native English speaker that there might be two different ways to say \"again\", so let me explain the difference:\r\n\r\n又 - Indicates that the action has already been repeated in the past. Example: \"
You forgot your homework again? You\'re going to get in trouble.\" The person being scolded forgot their homework once, then already forgot it again (maybe many times). The forgetting of homework again has already happened. So we use 又.\r\n\r\n再 - Indicates that something will happen again
in the future. An example of this would be:
Don\'t forget your homework again or you\'ll get in trouble. In other words, you forgot your homework at least once already, don\'t repeat that action again in the future. Another example of this is would be a sentence like, \"When will I see you again?\" The seeing again hasn\'t yet happened - it may happen in the future. So we would use 再. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n青蛙捉害虫，是庄稼的好朋友。可我爸爸成天出去捉青蛙。\r\n\r\n我对爸爸说：“青蛙是消灭害虫的能手，你不能捉它！”爸爸却笑着说：“大人的事，小孩别管。”我很着急。\r\n\r\n爸爸又捉了许多青蛙，煮了一锅青蛙肉。家里人都吃得很香，我却一点儿也不想吃。我想：我们吃了青蛙肉，又有许多小青蛙没妈妈了，他们一定在哭着找妈妈，多可怜呀！爸爸真是个大坏蛋！\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nFrogs catch pests, so they\'re a farm crop\'s good friend. But my dad goes out during the day and catches frogs. \r\n\r\nI said to dad: \"Frogs are experts at annihilating pests, you can\'t catch them!\" But my dad only smiled and said: \"Children should stay out of adult business.\" I\'m very worried.\r\n\r\nOnce again, dad caught several frogs and boiled up a pot of frog meat. Everyone in the family ate up the savory [food], but I didn\'t even want to eat a little. I thought: here we are eating frog meat, that means there are many small frogs with no mama, surely they\'re crying for their mother, it\'s such a pity! My dad is a big scoundrel! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essay] 爸爸是个大坏蛋 - My Dad is a Scoundrel!', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1192-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:37:03', '2016-11-05 03:37:03', '', 1192, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1192-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2130, 1, '2016-11-04 23:36:29', '2016-11-05 03:36:29', 'This very indignant kid seems destined to be a vegetarian. \r\n\r\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120804-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Learn")
I\'d say the most difficult phrase in this little passage is: 家里人都
吃得很香. The beginning of that sentence is no problem: 家里人都 \"Everyone in the family...\", but 吃得很香 is a bit more difficult, as we don\'t have sentence structure similar to this in English. Let\'s break it down:\r\n\r\n吃 - [pinyin]chi1[/pinyin] - To eat\r\n得 - [pinyin]de[/pinyin] - Grammar word, which kind of acts as a bridge between \"吃\" and \"香\", indicating that the result of 吃 (eating) is that it was very 香 (savory)\r\n很 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Very\r\n香 - [pinyin]xiang1[/pinyin] - Savory\r\n\r\nAnother interesting thing about this sentence is the word 香, which can mean both \"fragrant\" (smells good) and / or \"savory\" (tastes good). I find it particularly interesting that the Chinese recognize in language the interconnectedness of good taste and smell. \r\n\r\n
又 and 再
\r\n\r\nOne other notable point is the word 又, which means \"again\". But did you know that in Chinese, there are two ways to say \"again\"? There\'s 又, and there\'s also 再. It\'s a little alien to a native English speaker that there might be two different ways to say \"again\", so let me explain the difference:\r\n\r\n又 - Indicates that the action has already been repeated in the past. Example: \"
You forgot your homework again? You\'re going to get in trouble.\" The person being scolded forgot their homework once, then already forgot it again (maybe many times). The forgetting of homework again has already happened. So we use 又.\r\n\r\n再 - Indicates that something will happen again
in the future. An example of this would be:
Don\'t forget your homework again or you\'ll get in trouble. In other words, you forgot your homework at least once already, don\'t repeat that action again in the future. Another example of this is would be a sentence like, \"When will I see you again?\" The seeing again hasn\'t yet happened - it may happen in the future. So we would use 再. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n青蛙捉害虫，是庄稼的好朋友。可我爸爸成天出去捉青蛙。\r\n\r\n我对爸爸说：“青蛙是消灭害虫的能手，你不能捉它！”爸爸却笑着说：“大人的事，小孩别管。”我很着急。\r\n\r\n爸爸又捉了许多青蛙，煮了一锅青蛙肉。家里人都吃得很香，我却一点儿也不想吃。我想：我们吃了青蛙肉，又有许多小青蛙没妈妈了，他们一定在哭着找妈妈，多可怜呀！爸爸真是个大坏蛋！\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nFrogs catch pests, so they\'re a farm crop\'s good friend. But my dad goes out during the day and catches frogs. \r\n\r\nI said to dad: \"Frogs are experts at annihilating pests, you can\'t catch them!\" But my dad only smiled and said: \"Children should stay out of adult business.\" I\'m very worried.\r\n\r\nOnce again, dad caught several frogs and boiled up a pot of frog meat. Everyone in the family ate up the savory [food], but I didn\'t even want to eat a little. I thought: here we are eating frog meat, that means there are many small frogs with no mama, surely they\'re crying for their mother, it\'s such a pity! My dad is a big scoundrel! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essay] 爸爸是个大坏蛋 - My Dad is a Scoundrel!', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1192-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:36:29', '2016-11-05 03:36:29', '', 1192, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1192-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1731, 1, '2016-10-31 03:16:51', '2016-10-31 07:16:51', 'This very indignant kid seems destined to be a vegetarian. \r\n\r\n
I\'d say the most difficult phrase in this little passage is: 家里人都
吃得很香. The beginning of that sentence is no problem: 家里人都 \"Everyone in the family...\", but 吃得很香 is a bit more difficult, as we don\'t have sentence structure similar to this in English. Let\'s break it down:\r\n\r\n吃 - [pinyin]chi1[/pinyin] - To eat\r\n得 - [pinyin]de[/pinyin] - Grammar word, which kind of acts as a bridge between \"吃\" and \"香\", indicating that the result of 吃 (eating) is that it was very 香 (savory)\r\n很 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Very\r\n香 - [pinyin]xiang1[/pinyin] - Savory\r\n\r\nAnother interesting thing about this sentence is the word 香, which can mean both \"fragrant\" (smells good) and / or \"savory\" (tastes good). I find it particularly interesting that the Chinese recognize in language the interconnectedness of good taste and smell. \r\n\r\nOne other notable point is the word 又, which means \"again\". But did you know that in Chinese, there are two ways to say \"again\"? There\'s 又, and there\'s also 再. It\'s a little alien to a native English speaker that there might be two different ways to say \"again\", so let me explain the difference:\r\n\r\n又 - Indicates that the action has already been repeated in the past. Example: \"
You forgot your homework again? You\'re going to get in trouble.\" The person being scolded forgot their homework once, then already forgot it again (maybe many times). The forgetting of homework again has already happened. So we use 又.\r\n\r\n再 - Indicates that something will happen again
in the future. An example of this would be:
Don\'t forget your homework again or you\'ll get in trouble. In other words, you forgot your homework at least once already, don\'t repeat that action again in the future. Another example of this is would be a sentence like, \"When will I see you again?\" The seeing again hasn\'t yet happened - it may happen in the future. So we would use 再. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n青蛙捉害虫，是庄稼的好朋友。可我爸爸成天出去捉青蛙。\r\n\r\n我对爸爸说：“青蛙是消灭害虫的能手，你不能捉它！”爸爸却笑着说：“大人的事，小孩别管。”我很着急。\r\n\r\n爸爸又捉了许多青蛙，煮了一锅青蛙肉。家里人都吃得很香，我却一点儿也不想吃。我想：我们吃了青蛙肉，又有许多小青蛙没妈妈了，他们一定在哭着找妈妈，多可怜呀！爸爸真是个大坏蛋！\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nFrogs catch pests, so they\'re a farm crop\'s good friend. But my dad goes out during the day and catches frogs. \r\n\r\nI said to dad: \"Frogs are experts at annihilating pests, you can\'t catch them!\" But my dad only smiled and said: \"Children should stay out of adult business.\" I\'m very worried.\r\n\r\nOnce again, dad caught several frogs and boiled up a pot of frog meat. Everyone in the family ate up the savory [food], but I didn\'t even want to eat a little. I thought: here we are eating frog meat, that means there are many small frogs with no mama, surely they\'re crying for their mother, it\'s such a pity! My dad is a big scoundrel! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essays] 爸爸是个大坏蛋 - My Dad is a Scoundrel!', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1192-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:16:51', '2016-10-31 07:16:51', '', 1192, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1192-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1193, 1, '2012-08-03 23:01:02', '2012-08-04 03:01:02', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Exercises for Beginner Mandarin Chinese Learners', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120804-inline', '', '', '2012-08-03 23:01:02', '2012-08-04 03:01:02', '', 1192, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120804-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1194, 1, '2012-08-03 23:01:05', '2012-08-04 03:01:05', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Exercises for Beginner Mandarin Chinese Learners', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120804', '', '', '2012-08-03 23:01:05', '2012-08-04 03:01:05', '', 1192, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120804.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1195, 1, '2012-08-03 22:55:50', '2012-08-04 02:55:50', '[two_third]\nThis very indignant kid seems destined to be a vegetarian. \n\nI\'d say the most difficult phrase in this little passage is: 家里人都
吃得很香. The beginning of that sentence is no problem: 家里人都 \"Everyone in the family...\", but 吃得很香 is a bit more difficult, as we don\'t have sentence structure similar to this in English. Let\'s break it down:\n\n吃 - [pinyin]chi1[/pinyin] - To eat\n得 - [pinyin]de[/pinyin] - Grammar word, which kind of acts as a bridge between \"吃\" and \"香\", indicating that the result of 吃 (eating) is that it was very 香 (savory)\n很 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Very\n香 - [pinyin]xiang1[/pinyin] - Savory\n\nAnother interesting thing about this sentence is the word 香, which can mean both \"fragrant\" (smells good) and / or \"savory\" (tastes good). I find it particularly interesting that the Chinese recognize in language the interconnectedness of good taste and smell. \n\nThe Chinese title of this text is 爸爸是个大坏蛋.\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n青蛙 - [pinyin]qing1 wa1[/pinyin] - Frog\n害虫 - [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Harmful pests (insects, etc.)\n庄稼 - [pinyin]zhuang1 jia5[/pinyin] - Farm crop\n消灭 - [pinyin]e4 lie4[/pinyin] - Nasty, vile\n能手 - [pinyin]xiao1 mie4[/pinyin] - Put an end to, annihilate\n煮 - [pinyin]zhu3[/pinyin] - Cook, boil\n却 - [pinyin]que4[/pinyin] - But, however\n可怜 - [pinyin]ke3 lian2[/pinyin] - A pity \n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n青蛙捉害虫，是庄稼的好朋友。可我爸爸在天出去捉青蛙。\n\n我对爸爸说：“青蛙是消灭害虫的能手，你不能捉它！”爸爸却笑着说：“大人的事，小孩别管。”我很着急。\n\n爸爸又捉了许多青蛙，煮了一锅青蛙肉。家里人都吃得很香，我却一点儿也不想吃。我想：我们吃了青蛙肉，又有许多小青蛙没妈妈了，他们一定在哭着找妈妈，多可怜呀！爸爸真是个大坏蛋！\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nFrogs catch pests, so they\'re a farm crop\'s good friend. But my dad goes out during the day and catches frogs. \n\nI said to dad: \"Frogs are experts at annihilating pests, you can\'t catch them!\" But my dad only smiled and said: \"Children should stay out of adult business.\" I\'m very worried.\n\nOnce again, dad caught several frogs and boiled up a pot of frog meat. Everyone in the family ate up the savory [food], but I didn\'t even want to eat a little. I thought: here we are eating frog meat, that means there are many small frogs with no mama, surely they\'re crying for their mother, it\'s such a pity! My dad is a big scoundrel! \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'My Dad\'s A Scoundrel!', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1192-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-03 22:55:50', '2012-08-04 02:55:50', '', 1192, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/03/1192-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1196, 1, '2012-08-03 23:03:13', '2012-08-04 03:03:13', '[two_third]\r\nThis very indignant kid seems destined to be a vegetarian. \r\n\r\n
I\'d say the most difficult phrase in this little passage is: 家里人都
吃得很香. The beginning of that sentence is no problem: 家里人都 \"Everyone in the family...\", but 吃得很香 is a bit more difficult, as we don\'t have sentence structure similar to this in English. Let\'s break it down:\r\n\r\n吃 - [pinyin]chi1[/pinyin] - To eat\r\n得 - [pinyin]de[/pinyin] - Grammar word, which kind of acts as a bridge between \"吃\" and \"香\", indicating that the result of 吃 (eating) is that it was very 香 (savory)\r\n很 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Very\r\n香 - [pinyin]xiang1[/pinyin] - Savory\r\n\r\nAnother interesting thing about this sentence is the word 香, which can mean both \"fragrant\" (smells good) and / or \"savory\" (tastes good). I find it particularly interesting that the Chinese recognize in language the interconnectedness of good taste and smell. \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title of this text is 爸爸是个大坏蛋.\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n青蛙 - [pinyin]qing1 wa1[/pinyin] - Frog\r\n害虫 - [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Harmful pests (insects, etc.)\r\n庄稼 - [pinyin]zhuang1 jia5[/pinyin] - Farm crop\r\n消灭 - [pinyin]e4 lie4[/pinyin] - Nasty, vile\r\n能手 - [pinyin]xiao1 mie4[/pinyin] - Put an end to, annihilate\r\n煮 - [pinyin]zhu3[/pinyin] - Cook, boil\r\n却 - [pinyin]que4[/pinyin] - But, however\r\n可怜 - [pinyin]ke3 lian2[/pinyin] - A pity \r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n青蛙捉害虫，是庄稼的好朋友。可我爸爸在天出去捉青蛙。\r\n\r\n我对爸爸说：“青蛙是消灭害虫的能手，你不能捉它！”爸爸却笑着说：“大人的事，小孩别管。”我很着急。\r\n\r\n爸爸又捉了许多青蛙，煮了一锅青蛙肉。家里人都吃得很香，我却一点儿也不想吃。我想：我们吃了青蛙肉，又有许多小青蛙没妈妈了，他们一定在哭着找妈妈，多可怜呀！爸爸真是个大坏蛋！\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nFrogs catch pests, so they\'re a farm crop\'s good friend. But my dad goes out during the day and catches frogs. \r\n\r\nI said to dad: \"Frogs are experts at annihilating pests, you can\'t catch them!\" But my dad only smiled and said: \"Children should stay out of adult business.\" I\'m very worried.\r\n\r\nOnce again, dad caught several frogs and boiled up a pot of frog meat. Everyone in the family ate up the savory [food], but I didn\'t even want to eat a little. I thought: here we are eating frog meat, that means there are many small frogs with no mama, surely they\'re crying for their mother, it\'s such a pity! My dad is a big scoundrel! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'My Dad\'s A Scoundrel!', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1192-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-03 23:03:13', '2012-08-04 03:03:13', '', 1192, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/03/1192-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1197, 1, '2016-11-04 09:14:20', '2016-11-04 13:14:20', 'This one is a straightforward beginner Chinese diary-style essay about a student whose mother is displeased with his (or her, it\'s never clarified) homework. There\'s only one thing that particularly stands out to me as confusing here, which is when the mother says: 可能是
有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。 Literally, this translates as \"Maybe it\'s have small sister, I during this time towards you care little.\" The last clause we can translate into less literal and more readable English as \"I haven\'t looked after you much during this time,\" but the first bit, \"
have small sister\" (有了), is confusing. Why \"have\" 有了? \n\nIn this case, that could be translated as, \"Maybe it\'s because we have your little sister,\" or \"It\'s because I had your little sister [to look after]\", though \"because\" is never actually used in the sentence, it becomes that much harder to read. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n
Chinese text
\n9月24日星期六\n\n1) 今天，开完家长会，妈妈闷闷不乐，我小心地问：“妈妈，您怎么了？”妈妈看着我，叹了口气说：“你暑假作业完成的不好，字也写的不好。我想，可能是有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。”我听了，不好意思地低下了头。\n\n2) 看着妈妈自责的样子，我心里特别难过，我对妈妈说：“妈妈，您不要自责了，这根本就不是你的错，而是我自己不努力，请您不要生气了，从现在开始，我一定认真完成老师交给的每项作业，争取取得好成绩。请您相信我！”妈妈盯着我的眼睛，攥着我的手说：“好孩子，妈妈相信你，让我们共同努力！”\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nSeptember 24, Saturday\n\n1) Today, after my parent-teacher conference, mama looked moody, and I carefully asked her, \"Mama, what\'s wrong?\" Looking at me, mother sighed and said: \"Your summer vacation homework is not close to being done, and your writing is poor. I think, because [I\'ve been spending so much time with] your little sister, I haven\'t been paying as much attention to you during this time.\" As I listened, I hung my head in embarrassment. \n\n2) When I saw the self-blame on mama\'s face, I was very sad, and I said to mama: \"Mama, don\'t blame yourself, it isn\'t your fault at all, it\'s that I haven\'t worked hard enough, so please don\'t be angry, starting now, I\'ll earnestly finish all the homework teacher gave me, and I\'ll fight to get good grades. Please believe me!\" Mama stared into my eyes, grasped my hand and said, \"Good child, mother believes you, let us work hard together.\" \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 妈妈相信我 - Mama Please Believe Me', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1113-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:14:20', '2016-11-04 13:14:20', '', 1113, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/03/1113-autosave/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2097, 1, '2016-11-04 09:14:41', '2016-11-04 13:14:41', '', 'mama-please-believe-me-featured', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'mama-please-believe-me-featured', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:14:41', '2016-11-04 13:14:41', '', 1113, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/mama-please-believe-me-featured.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2098, 1, '2016-11-04 09:27:14', '2016-11-04 13:27:14', 'This is a much longer read than I typically put up here, so I hope you\'re up for a slog. I kind of can\'t tell weather I should be offended by this or not - the protagonists are two \"lazy Uighurs\" (A Uighur 维吾尔族 [pinyin]wei2 wu2 er3 zu2[/pinyin] is a member of the ethnic minority hailing from the Uighur Autonomous Region of China, a politically touchy topic on the mainland). I\'ve never seen a folk story about heroic Uighurs or smart Uighurs, or really ever seen a story about Uighurs at all. So to run across this one first makes me wonder if the \"lazy Uighur\" thing is a mean stereotype or if I just haven\'t read widely enough. I\'ll have to go in search of some Uighur folk tales in Mandarin and see what I can dig up. \n\nI really know almost nothing about Uighur cultural history, but this story taught me something interesting: it looks like Uighurs have six-character names (as opposed to two and three character names for Chinese and 4 character names for Japanese). Our two protagonists here are rather lengthily called 哈山代吾来克 [pinyin]Ha1 shan1 dai4 wu2 lai2 ke4[/pinyin] and 沙吾提卡巴克 [pinyin]sha1 wu2 ti2 ka3 ba1 ke4[/pinyin]. \n\nAnother interesting thing: this story mentions a 大鹏鸟 [pinyin]da peng3 niao3[/pinyin] - called a \"Roc\" in English (though I\'d never heard that word before). Apparently, it\'s a legendary fictional bird of prey, like a giant eagle.\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n
Chinese Text
\n1) 从前，维吾尔族有这么两个懒汉，一个叫哈山代吾来克，一个叫沙吾提卡巴克。他们都懒得要命，吃穿全靠父母，一点活儿也不干，一天到晚靠着墙根晒太阳。 这样，久而久之，弄得他们父母也讨厌他们了，不得不把他们从家里赶了出来。他们俩过着流浪的生活，饿了几天肚子，一块馕也没有吃到。\n\n2) 这天，他俩蹲在馕坑上商量着今后该怎么办。哈山代吾来克说: “最好到一个有吃有穿，又不需要劳动的地方去，不知道有没有这么个地方？”\n\n3) 沙吾提卡巴克说: “世界上是没有这么个地方的，只天上有吧！听说天上的神仙最快活。”\n\n4) 哈山代吾来克说: “那末，我们就上天去吧，干嘛要呆在这个必须劳动的地方受人鄙视呢？”\n\n5) 沙吾提卡巴克说: “好倒好，不过怎么上去呢？能找到这么个长梯子吗？”\n\n6) 哈山代吾来克肯定地说: “这么长的梯子是找不到的。但是，没有梯子也可以上去。”\n\n7) 沙吾提卡巴克惊奇地问道: “怎么上去？”\n\n8) 哈山代吾来克说: “山谷里有一只大鹏鸟，小时候我跟父亲上去看见过。我们只要把这只大鹏抓住，它就会带我们上天去的。”\n\n9) 沙吾提卡巴克说: “好办法，我们就这样办好了。”\n\n10) 两个朋友就这么决定了。第二天一早，他们就起身往山上走去，走到一个山谷里，找到了大鹏的窝，他们在附近躲藏起来，等到太阳落山的时候，大鹏飞回来刚落在窝里，就被哈山代吾来克紧紧地抓住了。他连忙招呼沙吾提卡巴克抓住自己的脚，大鹏受了惊，直往天空飞去。\n\n11) 就这样，沙吾提卡巴克抓住哈山代吾来克的脚，哈山代吾来克抓住大鹏的爪子，飘飘荡荡地一直飞向七层云端里去了。\n\n12) 沙吾提卡巴克问道: “嘿！到了吗？我的手吃不消啦！”\n\n13) 哈山代吾来克望着云层的空隙说: “快啦！连窟窿都已经看见了。”\n\n14) 沙吾提卡巴克问道: “窟窿有多大？我们能不能钻进去呀？”\n\n15) 哈山代吾来克回答: “有这么大。”哈山代吾来克一面答应着，一面用手来比划窟窿的大小。\n\n16) 不料哈山代吾来克两手一松，这两个懒汉朋友都离开了大鹏鸟，摇摇晃晃地掉下来，摔成肉酱了。\n\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH\"]\n1) Long ago, among the Uighur people there were two lazybones, one called Hashandaiwulaike, the other called Shawutikabake. They were both extremely lazy, depending on their parents for food and clothing, unwilling to do even a little work, from morning to night they sat at the base of a wall and sunned themselves. As time passed this way, their parents [began to] loathe them, and had no choice but to kick them out. The two of them lived a drifter\'s life, and went hungry for days at a time, with not even a piece of bread to eat. \n\n2) One day, they were squatting next to a bread pit discussing what to do. Hashandaiwulaike said: \"The best thing would be to go to a place where there\'s food and clothes, but you don\'t have to work - I don\'t know if there is such a place?\"\n\n3) Shawutikabake said: \"There\'s no such place on this earth, only in heaven! I heard that the immortals in heaven are the happiest.\" \n\n4) Hashandaiwulaike said: \"In that case, we should go to heaven. Why on earth would we stay in this place where we have to work and suffer other people\'s disdain?\" \n\n5) Shawutikabake said: \"That\'s all very well and good, but how will we get up there? Can we find a ladder that long?\" \n\n6) Hashandaiwulaike said: \"We could never find a ladder that long, but you can still get up there without a ladder.\" \n\n7) Shawutikabake said: \"How?\"\n\n8) Hashandaiwulaike said: \"In the valley there\'s a Roc bird, when I was little I saw it when I went up there with my father. All we have to do is grab onto the Roc, and he will take us up to heaven.\"\n\n9) Shawutikabake said: \"That\'s a great idea, we\'ll do it that way.\" \n\n10) So the two friends decided thus. On the morning of the next day, they got us and walked to the mountain. When they got to the mountain valley, they found the Roc\'s nest, and they hid themselves next to it. They waited until the sun fell behind the mountain and the Roc flew back and had just landed in its nest, when Hashandaiwulaike grabbed it and held it tightly. He promptly called to Shawutikabake to grab his feet, and the Roc was frightened and flew into the sky.\n\n11) So Shawutikabake was holding on to Hashandaiwulaike\'s feet, and Hashandaiwulaike was holding on to the Roc\'s claws, and they floated towards the seventh level of clouds [heaven]. \n\n12) Shawutikabake asked,\" Hey! Are we there yet? I can\'t hold on much longer!\" \n\n13) Hashandaiwulaike looked into a gap between the clouds and said, \"Almost! I can already see the opening!\" \n\n14) Shawutikabake asked, \"How big is the opening? Can we fit into it?\" \n\n15) Hashandaiwulaike answered, \"It\'s this big.\" As Hashandaiwulaike answered, he used his hands to demonstrate how big the opening [to heaven] was. \n\n16) But to his surprise, as soon as Hashandaiwulaike let go, the two lazy friends parted ways with the Roc, tumbled down, and were smashed into mincemeat. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Fables] 两个懒汉 - The Two Lazybones', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1086-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:27:14', '2016-11-04 13:27:14', '', 1086, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1086-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1198, 1, '2012-05-07 09:40:34', '2012-05-07 13:40:34', '[two_third]\r\nAnd now a break from all the intermediate and advanced exercises I\'ve been posting lately. This one is a straightforward beginner Chinese diary-style essay about a student whose mother is displeased with his (or her, it\'s never clarified) homework. \r\n\r\n
There\'s only one thing that particularly stands out to me as confusing here, which is when the mother says: 可能是
有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。 Literally, this translates as \"Maybe it\'s have small sister, I during this time towards you care little.\" The last clause we can translate into less literal and more readable English as \"I haven\'t looked after you much during this time,\" but the first bit, \"
have small sister\" (有了), is confusing. Why \"have\" 有了? \r\n\r\nIn this case, that could be translated as, \"Maybe it\'s because we have your little sister,\" or \"It\'s because I had your little sister [to look after]\", though \"because\" is never actually used in the sentence, it becomes that much harder to read. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
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Click to Listen
\r\n闷闷不乐 - [pinyin]men4 men4 bu4 le4[/pinyin] - Sulky, moody, unhappy\r\n怎么了 - [pinyin]zen3 me5 le4[/pinyin] - What\'s wrong?\r\n叹 - [pinyin]tan4[/pinyin] - Sigh\r\n暑假 - [pinyin]shu3 jia4[/pinyin] - Summer vacation\r\n自责 - [pinyin]zi4 ze2[/pinyin] - To blame oneself\r\n根本 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - absolutely (not)\r\n努力 - [pinyin]nu3 li4[/pinyin] - To strive, work hard\r\n盯 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - Stare at\r\n攥 - [pinyin]zuan4[/pinyin] - To grasp\r\n共同 - [pinyin]gong4 tong2[/pinyin] - Together\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
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\r\n9月24日星期六\r\n\r\n今天，开完家长会，妈妈闷闷不乐，我小心地问：“妈妈，您怎么了？”妈妈看着我，叹了口气说：“你暑假作业完成的不好，字也写的不好。我想，可能是有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。”我听了，不好意思地低下了头。\r\n\r\n看着妈妈自责的样子，我心里特别难过，我对妈妈说：“妈妈，您不要自责了，这根本就不是你的错，而是我自己不努力，请您不要生气了，从现在开始，我一定认真完成老师交给的每项作业，争取取得好成绩。请您相信我！”妈妈盯着我的眼睛，攥着我的手说：“好孩子，妈妈相信你，让我们共同努力！”\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nSeptember 24, Saturday\r\n\r\nToday, as we were finishing our family meeting, mama looked moody, and I carefully asked her, \"Mama, what\'s wrong?\" Looking at me, mother sighed and said: \"Your summer vacation homework is not close to being done, and your writing is poor. I think, because [I\'ve been spending so much time with] your little sister, I haven\'t been paying as much attention to you during this time.\" As I listened, I hung my head in embarrassment. \r\n\r\nWhen I saw the self-blame on mama\'s face, I was very sad, and I said to mama: \"Mama, don\'t blame yourself, is isn\'t your fault at all, it\'s that I haven\'t worked hard enough, so please don\'t be angry, starting now, I\'ll earnestly finish all the homework teacher gave me, and I\'ll fight to get good grades. Please believe me!\" Mama stared into my eyes, grasped my hand and said, \"Good child, mother believes you, let us work hard together.\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Dear Diary: Mama Please Believe Me', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1113-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-05-07 09:40:34', '2012-05-07 13:40:34', '', 1113, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/05/07/1113-revision-7/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1199, 1, '2016-11-04 23:35:01', '2016-11-05 03:35:01', 'This very indignant kid seems destined to be a vegetarian. \n\n
I\'d say the most difficult phrase in this little passage is: 家里人都
吃得很香. The beginning of that sentence is no problem: 家里人都 \"Everyone in the family...\", but 吃得很香 is a bit more difficult, as we don\'t have sentence structure similar to this in English. Let\'s break it down:\n\n吃 - [pinyin]chi1[/pinyin] - To eat\n得 - [pinyin]de[/pinyin] - Grammar word, which kind of acts as a bridge between \"吃\" and \"香\", indicating that the result of 吃 (eating) is that it was very 香 (savory)\n很 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Very\n香 - [pinyin]xiang1[/pinyin] - Savory\n\nAnother interesting thing about this sentence is the word 香, which can mean both \"fragrant\" (smells good) and / or \"savory\" (tastes good). I find it particularly interesting that the Chinese recognize in language the interconnectedness of good taste and smell. \n\nOne other notable point is the word 又, which means \"again\". But did you know that in Chinese, there are two ways to say \"again\"? There\'s 又, and there\'s also 再. It\'s a little alien to a native English speaker that there might be two different ways to say \"again\", so let me explain the difference:\n\n又 - Indicates that the action has already been repeated in the past. Example: \"
You forgot your homework again? You\'re going to get in trouble.\" The person being scolded forgot their homework once, then already forgot it again (maybe many times). The forgetting of homework again has already happened. So we use 又.\n\n再 - Indicates that something will happen again
in the future. An example of this would be:
Don\'t forget your homework again or you\'ll get in trouble. In other words, you forgot your homework at least once already, don\'t repeat that action again in the future. Another example of this is would be a sentence like, \"When will I see you again?\" The seeing again hasn\'t yet happened - it may happen in the future. So we would use 再. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n青蛙捉害虫，是庄稼的好朋友。可我爸爸成天出去捉青蛙。\n\n我对爸爸说：“青蛙是消灭害虫的能手，你不能捉它！”爸爸却笑着说：“大人的事，小孩别管。”我很着急。\n\n爸爸又捉了许多青蛙，煮了一锅青蛙肉。家里人都吃得很香，我却一点儿也不想吃。我想：我们吃了青蛙肉，又有许多小青蛙没妈妈了，他们一定在哭着找妈妈，多可怜呀！爸爸真是个大坏蛋！\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nFrogs catch pests, so they\'re a farm crop\'s good friend. But my dad goes out during the day and catches frogs. \n\nI said to dad: \"Frogs are experts at annihilating pests, you can\'t catch them!\" But my dad only smiled and said: \"Children should stay out of adult business.\" I\'m very worried.\n\nOnce again, dad caught several frogs and boiled up a pot of frog meat. Everyone in the family ate up the savory [food], but I didn\'t even want to eat a little. I thought: here we are eating frog meat, that means there are many small frogs with no mama, surely they\'re crying for their mother, it\'s such a pity! My dad is a big scoundrel! \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essay] 爸爸是个大坏蛋 - My Dad is a Scoundrel!', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1192-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:35:01', '2016-11-05 03:35:01', '', 1192, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/03/1192-autosave/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1200, 1, '2012-08-03 23:03:55', '2012-08-04 03:03:55', '[two_third]\r\nThis very indignant kid seems destined to be a vegetarian. \r\n\r\n
I\'d say the most difficult phrase in this little passage is: 家里人都
吃得很香. The beginning of that sentence is no problem: 家里人都 \"Everyone in the family...\", but 吃得很香 is a bit more difficult, as we don\'t have sentence structure similar to this in English. Let\'s break it down:\r\n\r\n吃 - [pinyin]chi1[/pinyin] - To eat\r\n得 - [pinyin]de[/pinyin] - Grammar word, which kind of acts as a bridge between \"吃\" and \"香\", indicating that the result of 吃 (eating) is that it was very 香 (savory)\r\n很 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Very\r\n香 - [pinyin]xiang1[/pinyin] - Savory\r\n\r\nAnother interesting thing about this sentence is the word 香, which can mean both \"fragrant\" (smells good) and / or \"savory\" (tastes good). I find it particularly interesting that the Chinese recognize in language the interconnectedness of good taste and smell. \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title of this text is 爸爸是个大坏蛋.\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
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Click to Listen
\r\n青蛙 - [pinyin]qing1 wa1[/pinyin] - Frog\r\n害虫 - [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Harmful pests (insects, etc.)\r\n庄稼 - [pinyin]zhuang1 jia5[/pinyin] - Farm crop\r\n消灭 - [pinyin]e4 lie4[/pinyin] - Nasty, vile\r\n能手 - [pinyin]xiao1 mie4[/pinyin] - Put an end to, annihilate\r\n煮 - [pinyin]zhu3[/pinyin] - Cook, boil\r\n却 - [pinyin]que4[/pinyin] - But, however\r\n可怜 - [pinyin]ke3 lian2[/pinyin] - A pity \r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
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\r\n青蛙捉害虫，是庄稼的好朋友。可我爸爸在天出去捉青蛙。\r\n\r\n我对爸爸说：“青蛙是消灭害虫的能手，你不能捉它！”爸爸却笑着说：“大人的事，小孩别管。”我很着急。\r\n\r\n爸爸又捉了许多青蛙，煮了一锅青蛙肉。家里人都吃得很香，我却一点儿也不想吃。我想：我们吃了青蛙肉，又有许多小青蛙没妈妈了，他们一定在哭着找妈妈，多可怜呀！爸爸真是个大坏蛋！\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nFrogs catch pests, so they\'re a farm crop\'s good friend. But my dad goes out during the day and catches frogs. \r\n\r\nI said to dad: \"Frogs are experts at annihilating pests, you can\'t catch them!\" But my dad only smiled and said: \"Children should stay out of adult business.\" I\'m very worried.\r\n\r\nOnce again, dad caught several frogs and boiled up a pot of frog meat. Everyone in the family ate up the savory [food], but I didn\'t even want to eat a little. I thought: here we are eating frog meat, that means there are many small frogs with no mama, surely they\'re crying for their mother, it\'s such a pity! My dad is a big scoundrel! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'My Dad is a Scoundrel!', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1192-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-03 23:03:55', '2012-08-04 03:03:55', '', 1192, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/03/1192-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1201, 1, '2012-08-10 22:36:21', '2012-08-11 02:36:21', 'This melancholy kid doesn\'t seem to have very much luck with pets or siblings. You may or may not have a little difficulty with the sentence 楼区不让养, which is said in regards to a pet dog. Looking at each word...\r\n\r\n楼 - [pinyin]lou2[/pinyin] Building\r\n区 - [pinyin]qu1[/pinyin] District / region / area\r\n不 - [pinyin]bu4[/pinyin] No, not, doesn\'t\r\n让 - [pinyin]rang4[/pinyin] Allow, let\r\n养 - [pinyin]yang3[/pinyin] Raise, take care of (as in a child or a pet)\r\n\r\n... the meaning isn\'t too hard to decipher \"the building doesn\'t allow raising [of dogs]\". But while the meaning isn\'t difficult, some of the words are used a little bit differently than they are in English. For example, in English, when we say someone \"raises dogs\", or \"raises\" any type of animal, it usually indicates some kind of professional or large-scale dedication to breeding that type of animal. When people casually keep a pet or pets, we say they \"have a dog\", or \"own a dog\". Not so in Chinese. The correct Chinese term for having a pet dog (or many types of pet) is \"raising a dog\" - 养狗. So, for example, saying \"I want to raise a dog\" (我想养一只狗) is the equivalent of saying \"I want a dog\" in English. \r\n\r\nThe other question this raises is \"what do they mean by 楼区, \'building district\'\"? You\'d assume this means the area around your apartment building, and you\'d be right - but why \"区\"? This is because in China, many older apartment blocks are much more like tiny districts or communities than they are in the western world. In one complex, there may be several buildings that make up your block, with little numbered sub-staircases (单元) that each contain 12 or so apartments, and they may include small playgrounds inside the block or have other amenities. 楼区 refers to all buildings in the apartment block, any outdoor areas or amenities for that apartment area. \r\n\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n我是个独生子，家里没有兄弟，只好养动物来解闷。可是，小黄狗，楼区不让养，只好放走；大白鹅，被人偷走了；小松鼠，不小心从窗台上摔了下来，死了。就这样，我的小动物死的死，放的放。现在只有两只小乌龟<陪伴着我。我心想：你们俩可算得上“忠臣”了。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nI\'m an only child, I have no brothers, so I have to raise pets to relieve my boredom. But as to the little yellow dog, the building [management] doesn\'t allow [people to have dogs], so we had to set it free; the big white goose was stolen, and the little squirrel accidentally leaped from the window ledge and died. In these ways, my pets have died, or been let go. Right now I only have two turtles to accompany me. In my heart I think: \"You two are my only \"loyal ministers\". \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 我孤独 - I am All Alone', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'im-all-alone', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:53:27', '2016-11-05 03:53:27', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1201', 0, 'post', '', 12),
(2140, 1, '2016-11-04 23:47:57', '2016-11-05 03:47:57', 'This melancholy kid doesn\'t seem to have very much luck with pets or siblings. You may or may not have a little difficulty with the sentence 楼区不让养, which is said in regards to a pet dog. Looking at each word...\r\n\r\n楼 - [pinyin]lou2[/pinyin] Building\r\n区 - [pinyin]qu1[/pinyin] District / region / area\r\n不 - [pinyin]bu4[/pinyin] No, not, doesn\'t\r\n让 - [pinyin]rang4[/pinyin] Allow, let\r\n养 - [pinyin]yang3[/pinyin] Raise, take care of (as in a child or a pet)\r\n\r\n... the meaning isn\'t too hard to decipher \"the building doesn\'t allow raising [of dogs]\". But while the meaning isn\'t difficult, some of the words are used a little bit differently than they are in English. For example, in English, when we say someone \"raises dogs\", or \"raises\" any type of animal, it usually indicates some kind of professional or large-scale dedication to breeding that type of animal. When people casually keep a pet or pets, we say they \"have a dog\", or \"own a dog\". Not so in Chinese. The correct Chinese term for having a pet dog (or many types of pet) is \"raising a dog\" - 养狗. So, for example, saying \"I want to raise a dog\" (我想养一只狗) is the equivalent of saying \"I want a dog\" in English. \r\n\r\nThe other question this raises is \"what do they mean by 楼区, \'building district\'\"? You\'d assume this means the area around your apartment building, and you\'d be right - but why \"区\"? This is because in China, many older apartment blocks are much more like tiny districts or communities than they are in the western world. In one complex, there may be several buildings that make up your block, with little numbered sub-staircases (单元) that each contain 12 or so apartments, and they may include small playgrounds inside the block or have other amenities. 楼区 refers to all buildings in the apartment block, any outdoor areas or amenities for that apartment area. \r\n\r\n
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\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n我是个独生子，家里没有兄弟，只好养动物来解闷。可是，小黄狗，楼区不让养，只好放走；大白鹅，被人偷走了；小松鼠，不小心从窗台上摔了下来，死了。就这样，我的小动物死的死，放的放。现在只有两只小乌龟<陪伴着我。我心想：你们俩可算得上“忠臣”了。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nI\'m an only child, I have no brothers, so I have to raise pets to relieve my boredom. But as to the little yellow dog, the building [management] doesn\'t allow [people to have dogs], so we had to set it free; the big white goose was stolen, and the little squirrel accidentally leaped from the window ledge and died. In these ways, my pets have died, or been let go. Right now I only have two turtles to accompany me. In my heart I think: \"You two are my only \"loyal subjects\". \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 我孤独 - I am All Alone', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1201-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:47:57', '2016-11-05 03:47:57', '', 1201, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1201-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1729, 1, '2016-10-31 03:16:08', '2016-10-31 07:16:08', 'This melancholy kid doesn\'t seem to have very much luck with pets or siblings. \r\n\r\n
![\"Mandarin](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120810-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Learn")
You may or may not have a little difficulty with the sentence 楼区不让养, which is said in regards to a pet dog. Looking at each word...\r\n\r\n楼 - [pinyin]lou2[/pinyin] Building\r\n区 - [pinyin]qu1[/pinyin] District / region / area\r\n不 - [pinyin]bu4[/pinyin] No, not, doesn\'t\r\n让 - [pinyin]rang4[/pinyin] Allow, let\r\n养 - [pinyin]yang3[/pinyin] Raise, take care of (as in a child or a pet)\r\n\r\n... the meaning isn\'t too hard to decipher \"the building doesn\'t allow raising [of dogs]\". But while the meaning isn\'t difficult, some of the words are used a little bit differently than they are in English. For example, in English, when we say someone \"raises dogs\", or \"raises\" any type of animal, it usually indicates some kind of professional or large-scale dedication to breeding that type of animal. When people casually keep a pet or pets, we say they \"have a dog\", or \"own a dog\". Not so in Chinese. The correct Chinese term for having a pet dog (or many types of pet) is \"raising a dog\" - 养狗. So, for example, saying \"I want to raise a dog\" (我想养一只狗) is the equivalent of saying \"I want a dog\" in English. \r\n\r\nThe other question this raises is \"what do they mean by 楼区, \'building district\'\"? You\'d assume this means the area around your apartment building, and you\'d be right - but why \"区\"? This is because in China, many older apartment blocks are much more like tiny districts or communities than they are in the western world. In one complex, there may be several buildings that make up your block, with little numbered sub-staircases (单元) that each contain 12 or so apartments, and they may include small playgrounds inside the block or have other amenities. 楼区 refers to all buildings in the apartment block, any outdoor areas or amenities for that apartment area. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n我是个独生子，家里没有兄弟，只好养动物来解闷。可是，小黄狗，楼区不让养，只好放走；大白鹅，被人偷走了；小松鼠，不小心从窗台上摔了下来，死了。就这样，我的小动物死的死，放的放。现在只有两只小乌龟陪伴着我。我心想：你们俩可算得上“忠臣”了。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nI\'m an only child, I have no brothers, so I have to raise pets to relieve my boredom. But as to the little yellow dog, the building [management] doesn\'t allow [people to have dogs], so we had to set it free; the big white goose was stolen, and the little squirrel accidentally leaped from the window ledge and died. In these ways, my pets have died, or been let go. Right now I only have two turtles to accompany me. In my heart I think: \"You two are my only \"loyal subjects\". \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essay] 我孤独 - I am All Alone', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1201-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:16:08', '2016-10-31 07:16:08', '', 1201, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1201-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1202, 1, '2012-08-04 23:23:46', '2012-08-05 03:23:46', '', 'Learn Beginner Chinese Characters: Chinese Character Practice for Beginner Learners', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120810', '', '', '2012-08-04 23:23:46', '2012-08-05 03:23:46', '', 1201, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120810.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1203, 1, '2012-08-04 23:23:50', '2012-08-05 03:23:50', '', 'Learn Beginner Chinese Characters: Chinese Character Practice for Beginner Learners', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120810-inline', '', '', '2012-08-04 23:23:50', '2012-08-05 03:23:50', '', 1201, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120810-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1204, 1, '2012-08-04 23:20:27', '2012-08-05 03:20:27', '[two_third]\nThis melancholy kid doesn\'t seem to have very much luck with pets or siblings. \n\nYou may or may not have a little difficulty with the sentence 楼区不让养, which is said in regards to a pet dog. Looking at each word...\n\n楼 - [pinyin]lou2[/pinyin] Building\n区 - [pinyin]qu1[/pinyin] District / region / area\n不 - [pinyin]bu4[/pinyin] No, not, doesn\'t\n让 - [pinyin]rang4[/pinyin] Allow, let\n养 - [pinyin]yang3[/pinyin] Raise, take care of (as in a child or a pet)\n\n... the meaning isn\'t too hard to decipher \"the building doesn\'t allow raising [of dogs]\". But while the meaning isn\'t difficult, some of the words are used a little bit differently than they are in English. For example, in English, when we say someone \"raises dogs\", or \"raises\" any type of animal, it usually indicates some kind of professional or large-scale dedication to breeding that type of animal. When people casually keep a pet or pets, we say they \"have a dog\", or \"own a dog\". Not so in Chinese. The correct Chinese term for having a pet dog (or many types of pet) is \"raising a dog\" - 养狗. So, for example, saying \"I want to raise a dog\" (我想养一只狗) is the equivalent of saying \"I want a dog\" in English. \n\nThe other question this raises is \"what do they mean by 楼区, \'building district\'\"? You\'d assume this means the area around your apartment building, and you\'d be right - but why \"区\"? This is because in China, many older apartment blocks are much more like tiny districts or communities than they are in the western world. In one complex, there may be several buildings that make up your block, with little numbered sub-staircases (单元) that each contain 12 or so apartments, and they may include small playgrounds inside the block or have other amenities. 楼区 refers to all buildings in the apartment block, any outdoor areas or amenities for that apartment area. \n\nThe Chinese title of this text is 爸爸是个大坏蛋.\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n独生子 - [pinyin]du2 sheng1 zi3[/pinyin] - Only child\n养 - [pinyin]yang3[/pinyin] - To raise\n解闷 - [pinyin]jie3 men4[/pinyin] - Relieve bordom\n放走 - [pinyin]fang4 zou3[/pinyin] - To let go, to free (an animal)\n陪伴 - [pinyin]pei ban4[/pinyin] - To accompany, be with\n忠臣 - [pinyin]zhong1 chen2[/pinyin] - Loyal subject\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n我是个独生子，家里没有兄弟，只好养动物来解闷。可是，小黄狗，楼区不让养，只好放走；大白鹅，被人偷走了；小松鼠，不小心从窗台上摔了下来，死了。就这样，我的小动物死的死，放的放。现在只有两只小乌龟陪伴着我。我心想：你们俩可算得上“忠臣”了。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nI\'m an only child, I have no brothers, so I have to raise pets to relieve my boredom. But as to the little yellow dog, the building [management] doesn\'t allow [people to have dogs], so we had to set it free; the big white goose was stolen, and the little squirrel accidentally leaped from the window ledge and died. In these ways, my pets have died, or been let go. Right now I only have two turtles to accompany me. In my heart I think: \"You two are my only \"loyal subjects\". \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'I\'m All Alone', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1201-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-04 23:20:27', '2012-08-05 03:20:27', '', 1201, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/04/1201-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1205, 1, '2012-08-04 23:26:00', '2012-08-05 03:26:00', '[two_third]\r\nThis melancholy kid doesn\'t seem to have very much luck with pets or siblings. \r\n\r\n
You may or may not have a little difficulty with the sentence 楼区不让养, which is said in regards to a pet dog. Looking at each word...\r\n\r\n楼 - [pinyin]lou2[/pinyin] Building\r\n区 - [pinyin]qu1[/pinyin] District / region / area\r\n不 - [pinyin]bu4[/pinyin] No, not, doesn\'t\r\n让 - [pinyin]rang4[/pinyin] Allow, let\r\n养 - [pinyin]yang3[/pinyin] Raise, take care of (as in a child or a pet)\r\n\r\n... the meaning isn\'t too hard to decipher \"the building doesn\'t allow raising [of dogs]\". But while the meaning isn\'t difficult, some of the words are used a little bit differently than they are in English. For example, in English, when we say someone \"raises dogs\", or \"raises\" any type of animal, it usually indicates some kind of professional or large-scale dedication to breeding that type of animal. When people casually keep a pet or pets, we say they \"have a dog\", or \"own a dog\". Not so in Chinese. The correct Chinese term for having a pet dog (or many types of pet) is \"raising a dog\" - 养狗. So, for example, saying \"I want to raise a dog\" (我想养一只狗) is the equivalent of saying \"I want a dog\" in English. \r\n\r\nThe other question this raises is \"what do they mean by 楼区, \'building district\'\"? You\'d assume this means the area around your apartment building, and you\'d be right - but why \"区\"? This is because in China, many older apartment blocks are much more like tiny districts or communities than they are in the western world. In one complex, there may be several buildings that make up your block, with little numbered sub-staircases (单元) that each contain 12 or so apartments, and they may include small playgrounds inside the block or have other amenities. 楼区 refers to all buildings in the apartment block, any outdoor areas or amenities for that apartment area. \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title of this text is 爸爸是个大坏蛋.\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n独生子 - [pinyin]du2 sheng1 zi3[/pinyin] - Only child\r\n养 - [pinyin]yang3[/pinyin] - To raise\r\n解闷 - [pinyin]jie3 men4[/pinyin] - Relieve bordom\r\n放走 - [pinyin]fang4 zou3[/pinyin] - To let go, to free (an animal)\r\n陪伴 - [pinyin]pei ban4[/pinyin] - To accompany, be with\r\n忠臣 - [pinyin]zhong1 chen2[/pinyin] - Loyal subject\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n我是个独生子，家里没有兄弟，只好养动物来解闷。可是，小黄狗，楼区不让养，只好放走；大白鹅，被人偷走了；小松鼠，不小心从窗台上摔了下来，死了。就这样，我的小动物死的死，放的放。现在只有两只小乌龟陪伴着我。我心想：你们俩可算得上“忠臣”了。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nI\'m an only child, I have no brothers, so I have to raise pets to relieve my boredom. But as to the little yellow dog, the building [management] doesn\'t allow [people to have dogs], so we had to set it free; the big white goose was stolen, and the little squirrel accidentally leaped from the window ledge and died. In these ways, my pets have died, or been let go. Right now I only have two turtles to accompany me. In my heart I think: \"You two are my only \"loyal subjects\". \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'I\'m All Alone', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1201-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-04 23:26:00', '2012-08-05 03:26:00', '', 1201, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/04/1201-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1206, 1, '2012-08-03 23:33:39', '2012-08-04 03:33:39', '[two_third]\r\nThis very indignant kid seems destined to be a vegetarian. \r\n\r\n
I\'d say the most difficult phrase in this little passage is: 家里人都
吃得很香. The beginning of that sentence is no problem: 家里人都 \"Everyone in the family...\", but 吃得很香 is a bit more difficult, as we don\'t have sentence structure similar to this in English. Let\'s break it down:\r\n\r\n吃 - [pinyin]chi1[/pinyin] - To eat\r\n得 - [pinyin]de[/pinyin] - Grammar word, which kind of acts as a bridge between \"吃\" and \"香\", indicating that the result of 吃 (eating) is that it was very 香 (savory)\r\n很 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Very\r\n香 - [pinyin]xiang1[/pinyin] - Savory\r\n\r\nAnother interesting thing about this sentence is the word 香, which can mean both \"fragrant\" (smells good) and / or \"savory\" (tastes good). I find it particularly interesting that the Chinese recognize in language the interconnectedness of good taste and smell. \r\n\r\nOne other notable point is the word 又, which means \"again\". But did you know that in Chinese, there are two ways to say \"again\"? There\'s 又, and there\'s also 再. It\'s a little alien to a native English speaker that there might be two different ways to say \"again\", so let me explain the difference:\r\n\r\n又 - Indicates that the action has already been repeated in the past. Example: \"
You forgot your homework again? You\'re going to get in trouble.\" The person being scolded forgot their homework once, then already forgot it again (maybe many times). The forgetting of homework again has already happened. So we use 又.\r\n\r\n再 - Indicates that something will happen again
in the future. An example of this would be:
Don\'t forget your homework again or you\'ll get in trouble. In other words, you forgot your homework at least once already, don\'t repeat that action again in the future. Another example of this is would be a sentence like, \"When will I see you again?\" The seeing again hasn\'t yet happened - it may happen in the future. So we would use 再. \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title of this text is 爸爸是个大坏蛋.\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n青蛙 - [pinyin]qing1 wa1[/pinyin] - Frog\r\n害虫 - [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Harmful pests (insects, etc.)\r\n庄稼 - [pinyin]zhuang1 jia5[/pinyin] - Farm crop\r\n消灭 - [pinyin]e4 lie4[/pinyin] - Nasty, vile\r\n能手 - [pinyin]xiao1 mie4[/pinyin] - Put an end to, annihilate\r\n煮 - [pinyin]zhu3[/pinyin] - Cook, boil\r\n却 - [pinyin]que4[/pinyin] - But, however\r\n可怜 - [pinyin]ke3 lian2[/pinyin] - A pity \r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n青蛙捉害虫，是庄稼的好朋友。可我爸爸在天出去捉青蛙。\r\n\r\n我对爸爸说：“青蛙是消灭害虫的能手，你不能捉它！”爸爸却笑着说：“大人的事，小孩别管。”我很着急。\r\n\r\n爸爸又捉了许多青蛙，煮了一锅青蛙肉。家里人都吃得很香，我却一点儿也不想吃。我想：我们吃了青蛙肉，又有许多小青蛙没妈妈了，他们一定在哭着找妈妈，多可怜呀！爸爸真是个大坏蛋！\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nFrogs catch pests, so they\'re a farm crop\'s good friend. But my dad goes out during the day and catches frogs. \r\n\r\nI said to dad: \"Frogs are experts at annihilating pests, you can\'t catch them!\" But my dad only smiled and said: \"Children should stay out of adult business.\" I\'m very worried.\r\n\r\nOnce again, dad caught several frogs and boiled up a pot of frog meat. Everyone in the family ate up the savory [food], but I didn\'t even want to eat a little. I thought: here we are eating frog meat, that means there are many small frogs with no mama, surely they\'re crying for their mother, it\'s such a pity! My dad is a big scoundrel! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'My Dad is a Scoundrel!', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1192-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-03 23:33:39', '2012-08-04 03:33:39', '', 1192, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/03/1192-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1207, 1, '2012-08-07 20:39:44', '2012-08-08 00:39:44', '[two_third]\r\nThis very indignant kid seems destined to be a vegetarian. \r\n\r\n
I\'d say the most difficult phrase in this little passage is: 家里人都
吃得很香. The beginning of that sentence is no problem: 家里人都 \"Everyone in the family...\", but 吃得很香 is a bit more difficult, as we don\'t have sentence structure similar to this in English. Let\'s break it down:\r\n\r\n吃 - [pinyin]chi1[/pinyin] - To eat\r\n得 - [pinyin]de[/pinyin] - Grammar word, which kind of acts as a bridge between \"吃\" and \"香\", indicating that the result of 吃 (eating) is that it was very 香 (savory)\r\n很 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Very\r\n香 - [pinyin]xiang1[/pinyin] - Savory\r\n\r\nAnother interesting thing about this sentence is the word 香, which can mean both \"fragrant\" (smells good) and / or \"savory\" (tastes good). I find it particularly interesting that the Chinese recognize in language the interconnectedness of good taste and smell. \r\n\r\nOne other notable point is the word 又, which means \"again\". But did you know that in Chinese, there are two ways to say \"again\"? There\'s 又, and there\'s also 再. It\'s a little alien to a native English speaker that there might be two different ways to say \"again\", so let me explain the difference:\r\n\r\n又 - Indicates that the action has already been repeated in the past. Example: \"
You forgot your homework again? You\'re going to get in trouble.\" The person being scolded forgot their homework once, then already forgot it again (maybe many times). The forgetting of homework again has already happened. So we use 又.\r\n\r\n再 - Indicates that something will happen again
in the future. An example of this would be:
Don\'t forget your homework again or you\'ll get in trouble. In other words, you forgot your homework at least once already, don\'t repeat that action again in the future. Another example of this is would be a sentence like, \"When will I see you again?\" The seeing again hasn\'t yet happened - it may happen in the future. So we would use 再. \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title of this text is 爸爸是个大坏蛋.\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n青蛙 - [pinyin]qing1 wa1[/pinyin] - Frog\r\n害虫 - [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Harmful pests (insects, etc.)\r\n庄稼 - [pinyin]zhuang1 jia5[/pinyin] - Farm crop\r\n消灭 - [pinyin]xiao1 mie4[/pinyin] - Nasty, vile\r\n能手 - [pinyin]neng2 shou3[/pinyin] - Put an end to, annihilate\r\n煮 - [pinyin]zhu3[/pinyin] - Cook, boil\r\n却 - [pinyin]que4[/pinyin] - But, however\r\n可怜 - [pinyin]ke3 lian2[/pinyin] - A pity \r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n青蛙捉害虫，是庄稼的好朋友。可我爸爸在天出去捉青蛙。\r\n\r\n我对爸爸说：“青蛙是消灭害虫的能手，你不能捉它！”爸爸却笑着说：“大人的事，小孩别管。”我很着急。\r\n\r\n爸爸又捉了许多青蛙，煮了一锅青蛙肉。家里人都吃得很香，我却一点儿也不想吃。我想：我们吃了青蛙肉，又有许多小青蛙没妈妈了，他们一定在哭着找妈妈，多可怜呀！爸爸真是个大坏蛋！\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nFrogs catch pests, so they\'re a farm crop\'s good friend. But my dad goes out during the day and catches frogs. \r\n\r\nI said to dad: \"Frogs are experts at annihilating pests, you can\'t catch them!\" But my dad only smiled and said: \"Children should stay out of adult business.\" I\'m very worried.\r\n\r\nOnce again, dad caught several frogs and boiled up a pot of frog meat. Everyone in the family ate up the savory [food], but I didn\'t even want to eat a little. I thought: here we are eating frog meat, that means there are many small frogs with no mama, surely they\'re crying for their mother, it\'s such a pity! My dad is a big scoundrel! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'My Dad is a Scoundrel!', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1192-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-07 20:39:44', '2012-08-08 00:39:44', '', 1192, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/07/1192-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1209, 1, '2012-08-16 02:00:50', '2012-08-16 06:00:50', 'This excerpt is one of the Tiger Team supernatural mystery novels for adolescents. The Tiger Team series was originally created in German by author
Thomas C. Brezina, and features a band of young detectives: Jupiter Katz, son of a supernatural researcher Erasmus Katz, Jupiter\'s cousin Vicky and Vicky\'s little brother Nick. This is listed as \"advanced\" not necessarily because of the vocabulary - which isn\'t terribly difficult - but also because some of the sentence structures aren\'t very straightforward. This is the easy end of the advanced spectrum, so if you think you might be an advanced reader, try this.\r\n\r\nI found this Chinese translation of the Tiger Team novel \"Ghost Hotel\" in my local bookstore, and I\'ve manually typed in the first few paragraphs of the book, which describe a dilapidated, mostly-abandoned hotel, where most of the novel takes place. This is interesting practice in reading longer descriptions, and includes many words that are strictly book-language: you\'re not likely to run into them in daily conversation. There\'s probably an actual English version of this book, but I can\'t easily get my hands on this, so bear in mind you\'re not reading the official English translation.
Here\'s the Chinese version on Amazon China. \r\n\r\nThere are a couple of difficult passages here that don\'t quite mean what they seem to mean. One is 木条都不知下落了. Originally, I read this as \"wooden slats scattered here and there\", or literally \"wooden slats fallen down in who knows how many places\". But I learned that 下落, in this case, doesn\'t mean \"fall down\". It means \"where is it?\" (the same as 在哪儿). So 不知下落 actually means \"to be missing\", or \"to be gone to who knows where\". \r\n\r\nAnother phrase I should note is 数目远远大于实际需要, \"an amount (数目) far (远远) greater (大于) than actually (实际) needed (需要)\". 大于 was a new word for me, and I didn\'t know that 远远 - meaning \"far away\" - can also sometimes be used the same way in Chinese as in English, to mean \"very\" (example:
far above the normal amount). \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n那栋房子是木质结构的， 看起来就像是婚礼蛋糕。 它总共有四层，越向上越狭窄，所以最高的那层就只是一座带有小小玻璃穹顶的尖塔了。\r\n\r\n灰蒙蒙的木头外墙已经腐朽不堪， 黑色的穹顶上好像也被戳了好几个窟窿。\r\n\r\n窗户都是拱形，数目远远大于实际需要，上面还钉了好多木条。\r\n\r\n这栋房子从1911年起就矗立在这座孤零零的山丘上。有时候，附近的农民发现这栋房子会像磁铁一样，吸引着乌云，雷电，冰雹和风雨。\r\n\r\n如果谁在夏天的时候走近这栋房子，就会发现这里奇特现象：房子周围为数不多的那几棵树都是光秃秃的。 树枝如同黝黑的手臂， 高高地指向天空。\r\n\r\n这块地被低矮的木栅栏圈在当中， 有几处已经被人损坏， 木条都不知下落了。 甚至， 有的地方已经完全被杂草所掩埋。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe building was constructed of wood, and looked like a wedding cake. Altogether, it had four floors, each narrower than the one below, so the topmost floor was just a small minaret topped with a glass dome. \r\n\r\nThe gloomy outer wall was already in a state of extreme disrepair, and the dark and the vaulted roof looked as if it had been stabbed full of holes. \r\n\r\nThe windows were all arched, there were far more of them than actually necessary, and they had wooden boards nailed over them. \r\n\r\nThe house had towered atop this isolated hill since 1911. Sometimes, the nearby villagers would find that the building was like a magnet, attracting dark clouds, lightening, hail, wind and rain. \r\n\r\nIf anyone walked near the house during summer, they would discover a strange phenomenon: the few surrounding trees were all bare. The tree branches were like dark arms, pointing tall towards the sky. \r\n\r\nThe land was encircled by a low fence, which had been broken in several places, and the wooden slats were missing. It was in such a state that some parts of it had even been completely buried by weeds. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Books] 《惊恐小虎队》Tiger Team: Ghost Hotel', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'tiger-team-ghost-hotel', '', '', '2016-11-04 08:35:30', '2016-11-04 12:35:30', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1209', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(2085, 1, '2016-11-04 08:32:32', '2016-11-04 12:32:32', 'This excerpt is one of the Tiger Team supernatural mystery novels for adolescents. The Tiger Team series was originally created in German by author
Thomas C. Brezina, and features a band of young detectives: Jupiter Katz, son of a supernatural researcher Erasmus Katz, Jupiter\'s cousin Vicky and Vicky\'s little brother Nick. This is listed as \"advanced\" not necessarily because of the vocabulary - which isn\'t terribly difficult - but also because some of the sentence structures aren\'t very straightforward. This is the easy end of the advanced spectrum, so if you think you might be an advanced reader, try this.\r\n\r\nI found this Chinese translation of the Tiger Team novel \"Ghost Hotel\" in my local bookstore, and I\'ve manually typed in the first few paragraphs of the book, which describe a dilapidated, mostly-abandoned hotel, where most of the novel takes place. This is interesting practice in reading longer descriptions, and includes many words that are strictly book-language: you\'re not likely to run into them in daily conversation. There\'s probably an actual English version of this book, but I can\'t easily get my hands on this, so bear in mind you\'re not reading the official English translation.
Here\'s the Chinese version on Amazon China. \r\n\r\nThere are a couple of difficult passages here that don\'t quite mean what they seem to mean. One is 木条都不知下落了. Originally, I read this as \"wooden slats scattered here and there\", or literally \"wooden slats fallen down in who knows how many places\". But I learned that 下落, in this case, doesn\'t mean \"fall down\". It means \"where is it?\" (the same as 在哪儿). So 不知下落 actually means \"to be missing\", or \"to be gone to who knows where\". \r\n\r\nAnother phrase I should note is 数目远远大于实际需要, \"an amount (数目) far (远远) greater (大于) than actually (实际) needed (需要)\". 大于 was a new word for me, and I didn\'t know that 远远 - meaning \"far away\" - can also sometimes be used the same way in Chinese as in English, to mean \"very\" (example:
far above the normal amount). \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n那栋房子是木质结构的， 看起来就像是婚礼蛋糕。 它总共有四层，越向上越狭窄，所以最高的那层就只是一座带有小小玻璃穹顶的尖塔了。\r\n\r\n灰蒙蒙的木头外墙已经腐朽不堪， 黑色的穹顶上好像也被戳了好几个窟窿。\r\n\r\n窗户都是拱形，数目远远大于实际需要，上面还钉了好多木条。\r\n\r\n这栋房子从1911年起就矗立在这座孤零零的山丘上。有时候，附近的农民发现这栋房子会像磁铁一样，吸引着乌云，雷电，冰雹和风雨。\r\n\r\n如果谁在夏天的时候走近这栋房子，就会发现这里奇特现象：房子周围为数不多的那几棵树都是光秃秃的。 树枝如同黝黑的手臂， 高高地指向天空。\r\n\r\n这块地被低矮的木栅栏圈在当中， 有几处已经被人损坏， 木条都不知下落了。 甚至， 有的地方已经完全被杂草所掩埋。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe building was constructed of wood, and looked like a wedding cake. Altogether, it had four floors, each narrower than the one below, so the topmost floor was just a small minaret topped with a glass dome. \r\n\r\nThe gloomy outer wall was already in a state of extreme disrepair, and the dark and the vaulted roof looked as if it had been stabbed full of holes. \r\n\r\nThe windows were all arched, there were far more of them than actually necessary, and they had wooden boards nailed over them. \r\n\r\nThe house had towered atop this isolated hill since 1911. Sometimes, the nearby villagers would find that the building was like a magnet, attracting dark clouds, lightening, hail, wind and rain. \r\n\r\nIf anyone walked near the house during summer, they would discover a strange phenomenon: the few surrounding trees were all bare. The tree branches were like dark arms, pointing tall towards the sky. \r\n\r\nThe land was encircled by a low fence, which had been broken in several places, and the wooden slats were missing. It was in such a state that some parts of it had even been completely buried by weeds. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Books] 《惊恐小虎队》Tiger Team: Ghost Hotel', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1209-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 08:32:32', '2016-11-04 12:32:32', '', 1209, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1209-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1214, 1, '2012-08-12 23:50:22', '2012-08-13 03:50:22', '[two_third]\nThis excerpt is one of the Tiger Team supernatural mystery novels for adolescents. The Tiger Team series was originally created in German by author
Thomas C. Brezina, and features a band of young detectives: Jupiter Katz, son of a supernatural researcher Erasmus Katz, Jupiter\'s cousin Vicky and Vicky\'s little brother Nick. \n\nI found this Chinese translation of the Tiger Team novel \"Ghost Hotel\" in my local bookstore, and I\'ve manually typed in the first few paragraphs of the book, which describes a dilapidated, mostly-abandoned hotel: the location of this horror novel. This is interesting practice in reading longer descriptions, and includes many words that are strictly book-language: you\'re not likely to run into them in daily conversation. There\'s probably an actual English version of this book, but I can\'t easily get my hands on this, so bear in mind you\'re not reading the official English translation. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n独生子 - [pinyin]du2 sheng1 zi3[/pinyin] - Only child\n养 - [pinyin]yang3[/pinyin] - To raise\n解闷 - [pinyin]jie3 men4[/pinyin] - Relieve bordom\n放走 - [pinyin]fang4 zou3[/pinyin] - To let go, to free (an animal)\n陪伴 - [pinyin]pei ban4[/pinyin] - To accompany, be with\n忠臣 - [pinyin]zhong1 chen2[/pinyin] - Loyal subject\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n那栋房子是木质结构的， 看起来就像是婚礼蛋糕。 它总共有四层，越向上越狭窄，所以最高的那层就只是一座带有小小玻璃穹顶的尖塔了。\n\n灰蒙蒙的木头外墙已经腐朽不堪， 黑色的穹顶上好像也被戳了好几个窟窿。\n\n窗户都是拱形，数目远远大于实际需要，它们被开在高处， 上面还钉了好多木条。\n\n这栋房子从1911年起就矗立在这座孤零零的山丘上。有时候，附近的农民发现这栋房子会像磁铁一样，吸引着乌云，雷电，冰雹和风雨。\n\n如果谁在夏天的时候走近这栋房子，就会发现这里奇特现象：房子周围为数不多的那几棵树都是光秃秃的。 树枝如同黝黑的手臂， 高高地指向天空。\n\n这块地被低矮的木栅栏圈在当中， 有几处已经被人损坏， 木条都不知下落了。 甚至， 有的地方已经完全被杂草所掩埋。\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThe building was constructed of wood, and looked like a wedding cake. Altogether, it had four floors, each narrower than the one below, to the topmost floor was just a small glass domed-topped minaret. \n\nThe gloomy outer wall was already in a state of extreme disrepair, and the dark 灰蒙蒙的木头外墙已经腐朽不堪， 黑色的穹顶上好像也被戳了好几个窟窿。\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Tiger Team: Ghost Hotel', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1209-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-12 23:50:22', '2012-08-13 03:50:22', '', 1209, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/12/1209-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1215, 1, '2012-08-13 00:54:29', '2012-08-13 04:54:29', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese Characters: Practice Exercizes and Passages for Advanced Learners', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120817', '', '', '2012-08-13 00:54:29', '2012-08-13 04:54:29', '', 1209, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120817.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1216, 1, '2012-08-13 00:54:31', '2012-08-13 04:54:31', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese Characters: Practice Exercizes and Passages for Advanced Learners', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120817-inline', '', '', '2012-08-13 00:54:31', '2012-08-13 04:54:31', '', 1209, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120817-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1217, 1, '2012-08-13 00:50:05', '2012-08-13 04:50:05', '[two_third]\nThis excerpt is one of the Tiger Team supernatural mystery novels for adolescents. The Tiger Team series was originally created in German by author
Thomas C. Brezina, and features a band of young detectives: Jupiter Katz, son of a supernatural researcher Erasmus Katz, Jupiter\'s cousin Vicky and Vicky\'s little brother Nick. This is listed as \"advanced\" not necessarily because of the vocabulary - which isn\'t terribly difficult - but also because some of the sentence structures aren\'t very straightforward. This is the easy end of the advanced spectrum, so if you think you might be an advanced reader, try this.\n\nI found this Chinese translation of the Tiger Team novel \"Ghost Hotel\" in my local bookstore, and I\'ve manually typed in the first few paragraphs of the book, which describe a dilapidated, mostly-abandoned hotel, where most of the novel takes place. This is interesting practice in reading longer descriptions, and includes many words that are strictly book-language: you\'re not likely to run into them in daily conversation. There\'s probably an actual English version of this book, but I can\'t easily get my hands on this, so bear in mind you\'re not reading the official English translation.
Here the chinese version on Amazon China. \n\nThere are a couple of difficult passages here that don\'t quite mean what they seem to mean. One is 木条都不知下落了. Originally, I read this as \"wooden slats scattered here and there\", or literally \"wooden slats fallen down in who knows how many places\". But thanks to my Chinese friend Anna, I learned that 下落, in this case, doesn\'t mean \"fall down\". It means \"where is it?\" (the same as 在哪儿). So 不知下落 actually means \"to be missing\", or \"to be gone to who knows where\". \n\nAnother phrase I should note is 数目远远大于实际需要, \"an amount (数目) far (远远) greater (大于) than actually (实际) needed (需要)\". 大于 was a new word for me, and I didn\'t know that 远远 - meaning \"far away\" - can also sometimes be used the same way in Chinese as in English, to mean \"very\" (example:
far above the normal amount). \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n狭窄 - [pinyin]xia2 zhai3[/pinyin] - Narrow\n穹顶 - [pinyin]qiong2 ding3[/pinyin] - Domed / vaulted roof\n尖塔 - [pinyin]jian1 ta3[/pinyin] - Minaret\n灰蒙蒙 - [pinyin]hui1 meng1 meng1[/pinyin] - Dusky\n戳 - [pinyin]chuo1[/pinyin] - poke, stab\n矗立 - [pinyin]chu4 li4[/pinyin] - To tower (of buildings)\n孤零零 - [pinyin]gu1 ling2 ling2[/pinyin] - Solitary\n山丘 - [pinyin]shan1 qiu1[/pinyin] - Hill\n光秃秃 - [pinyin]guang1 tu1 tu1[/pinyin] - Bare, bald\n杂草 - [pinyin]za2 cao3[/pinyin] - Weeds\n掩埋 - [pinyin]yan3 mai2[/pinyin] - Bury\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n那栋房子是木质结构的， 看起来就像是婚礼蛋糕。 它总共有四层，越向上越狭窄，所以最高的那层就只是一座带有小小玻璃穹顶的尖塔了。\n\n灰蒙蒙的木头外墙已经腐朽不堪， 黑色的穹顶上好像也被戳了好几个窟窿。\n\n窗户都是拱形，数目远远大于实际需要，上面还钉了好多木条。\n\n这栋房子从1911年起就矗立在这座孤零零的山丘上。有时候，附近的农民发现这栋房子会像磁铁一样，吸引着乌云，雷电，冰雹和风雨。\n\n如果谁在夏天的时候走近这栋房子，就会发现这里奇特现象：房子周围为数不多的那几棵树都是光秃秃的。 树枝如同黝黑的手臂， 高高地指向天空。\n\n这块地被低矮的木栅栏圈在当中， 有几处已经被人损坏， 木条都不知下落了。 甚至， 有的地方已经完全被杂草所掩埋。\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThe building was constructed of wood, and looked like a wedding cake. Altogether, it had four floors, each narrower than the one below, so the topmost floor was just a small minaret topped with a glass dome. \n\nThe gloomy outer wall was already in a state of extreme disrepair, and the dark and the vaulted roof looked as if it had been stabbed full of holes. \n\nThe windows were all arched, there were far more of them than actually necessary, and they had wooden boards nailed over them. \n\nThe house had towered atop this isolated hill since 1911. Sometimes, the nearby villagers would find that the building was like a magnet, attracting dark clouds, lightening, hail, wind and rain. \n\nIf anyone walked near the house during summer, they would discover a strange phenomenon: the few surrounding trees were all bare. The tree branches were like dark arms, pointing tall towards the sky. \n\nThe land was encircled by a low fence, which had been broken in several places, and the wooden slats were missing. It was in such a state that some parts of it had even been completely buried by weeds. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Tiger Team: Ghost Hotel', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1209-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-13 00:50:05', '2012-08-13 04:50:05', '', 1209, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/13/1209-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1218, 1, '2012-08-13 00:58:27', '2012-08-13 04:58:27', '[two_third]\r\nThis excerpt is one of the Tiger Team supernatural mystery novels for adolescents. The Tiger Team series was originally created in German by author
Thomas C. Brezina, and features a band of young detectives: Jupiter Katz, son of a supernatural researcher Erasmus Katz, Jupiter\'s cousin Vicky and Vicky\'s little brother Nick. This is listed as \"advanced\" not necessarily because of the vocabulary - which isn\'t terribly difficult - but also because some of the sentence structures aren\'t very straightforward. This is the easy end of the advanced spectrum, so if you think you might be an advanced reader, try this.\r\n\r\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120817-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Learn")
I found this Chinese translation of the Tiger Team novel \"Ghost Hotel\" in my local bookstore, and I\'ve manually typed in the first few paragraphs of the book, which describe a dilapidated, mostly-abandoned hotel, where most of the novel takes place. This is interesting practice in reading longer descriptions, and includes many words that are strictly book-language: you\'re not likely to run into them in daily conversation. There\'s probably an actual English version of this book, but I can\'t easily get my hands on this, so bear in mind you\'re not reading the official English translation.
Here the chinese version on Amazon China. \r\n\r\nThere are a couple of difficult passages here that don\'t quite mean what they seem to mean. One is 木条都不知下落了. Originally, I read this as \"wooden slats scattered here and there\", or literally \"wooden slats fallen down in who knows how many places\". But thanks to my Chinese friend Anna, I learned that 下落, in this case, doesn\'t mean \"fall down\". It means \"where is it?\" (the same as 在哪儿). So 不知下落 actually means \"to be missing\", or \"to be gone to who knows where\". \r\n\r\nAnother phrase I should note is 数目远远大于实际需要, \"an amount (数目) far (远远) greater (大于) than actually (实际) needed (需要)\". 大于 was a new word for me, and I didn\'t know that 远远 - meaning \"far away\" - can also sometimes be used the same way in Chinese as in English, to mean \"very\" (example:
far above the normal amount). \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n狭窄 - [pinyin]xia2 zhai3[/pinyin] - Narrow\r\n穹顶 - [pinyin]qiong2 ding3[/pinyin] - Domed / vaulted roof\r\n尖塔 - [pinyin]jian1 ta3[/pinyin] - Minaret\r\n灰蒙蒙 - [pinyin]hui1 meng1 meng1[/pinyin] - Dusky\r\n戳 - [pinyin]chuo1[/pinyin] - poke, stab\r\n矗立 - [pinyin]chu4 li4[/pinyin] - To tower (of buildings)\r\n孤零零 - [pinyin]gu1 ling2 ling2[/pinyin] - Solitary\r\n山丘 - [pinyin]shan1 qiu1[/pinyin] - Hill\r\n光秃秃 - [pinyin]guang1 tu1 tu1[/pinyin] - Bare, bald\r\n杂草 - [pinyin]za2 cao3[/pinyin] - Weeds\r\n掩埋 - [pinyin]yan3 mai2[/pinyin] - Bury\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n那栋房子是木质结构的， 看起来就像是婚礼蛋糕。 它总共有四层，越向上越狭窄，所以最高的那层就只是一座带有小小玻璃穹顶的尖塔了。\r\n\r\n灰蒙蒙的木头外墙已经腐朽不堪， 黑色的穹顶上好像也被戳了好几个窟窿。\r\n\r\n窗户都是拱形，数目远远大于实际需要，上面还钉了好多木条。\r\n\r\n这栋房子从1911年起就矗立在这座孤零零的山丘上。有时候，附近的农民发现这栋房子会像磁铁一样，吸引着乌云，雷电，冰雹和风雨。\r\n\r\n如果谁在夏天的时候走近这栋房子，就会发现这里奇特现象：房子周围为数不多的那几棵树都是光秃秃的。 树枝如同黝黑的手臂， 高高地指向天空。\r\n\r\n这块地被低矮的木栅栏圈在当中， 有几处已经被人损坏， 木条都不知下落了。 甚至， 有的地方已经完全被杂草所掩埋。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe building was constructed of wood, and looked like a wedding cake. Altogether, it had four floors, each narrower than the one below, so the topmost floor was just a small minaret topped with a glass dome. \r\n\r\nThe gloomy outer wall was already in a state of extreme disrepair, and the dark and the vaulted roof looked as if it had been stabbed full of holes. \r\n\r\nThe windows were all arched, there were far more of them than actually necessary, and they had wooden boards nailed over them. \r\n\r\nThe house had towered atop this isolated hill since 1911. Sometimes, the nearby villagers would find that the building was like a magnet, attracting dark clouds, lightening, hail, wind and rain. \r\n\r\nIf anyone walked near the house during summer, they would discover a strange phenomenon: the few surrounding trees were all bare. The tree branches were like dark arms, pointing tall towards the sky. \r\n\r\nThe land was encircled by a low fence, which had been broken in several places, and the wooden slats were missing. It was in such a state that some parts of it had even been completely buried by weeds. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Tiger Team: Ghost Hotel', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1209-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-13 00:58:27', '2012-08-13 04:58:27', '', 1209, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/13/1209-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1219, 1, '2012-08-04 23:26:48', '2012-08-05 03:26:48', '[two_third]\r\nThis melancholy kid doesn\'t seem to have very much luck with pets or siblings. \r\n\r\n
You may or may not have a little difficulty with the sentence 楼区不让养, which is said in regards to a pet dog. Looking at each word...\r\n\r\n楼 - [pinyin]lou2[/pinyin] Building\r\n区 - [pinyin]qu1[/pinyin] District / region / area\r\n不 - [pinyin]bu4[/pinyin] No, not, doesn\'t\r\n让 - [pinyin]rang4[/pinyin] Allow, let\r\n养 - [pinyin]yang3[/pinyin] Raise, take care of (as in a child or a pet)\r\n\r\n... the meaning isn\'t too hard to decipher \"the building doesn\'t allow raising [of dogs]\". But while the meaning isn\'t difficult, some of the words are used a little bit differently than they are in English. For example, in English, when we say someone \"raises dogs\", or \"raises\" any type of animal, it usually indicates some kind of professional or large-scale dedication to breeding that type of animal. When people casually keep a pet or pets, we say they \"have a dog\", or \"own a dog\". Not so in Chinese. The correct Chinese term for having a pet dog (or many types of pet) is \"raising a dog\" - 养狗. So, for example, saying \"I want to raise a dog\" (我想养一只狗) is the equivalent of saying \"I want a dog\" in English. \r\n\r\nThe other question this raises is \"what do they mean by 楼区, \'building district\'\"? You\'d assume this means the area around your apartment building, and you\'d be right - but why \"区\"? This is because in China, many older apartment blocks are much more like tiny districts or communities than they are in the western world. In one complex, there may be several buildings that make up your block, with little numbered sub-staircases (单元) that each contain 12 or so apartments, and they may include small playgrounds inside the block or have other amenities. 楼区 refers to all buildings in the apartment block, any outdoor areas or amenities for that apartment area. \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title of this text is 我孤独.\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
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Click to Listen
\r\n独生子 - [pinyin]du2 sheng1 zi3[/pinyin] - Only child\r\n养 - [pinyin]yang3[/pinyin] - To raise\r\n解闷 - [pinyin]jie3 men4[/pinyin] - Relieve bordom\r\n放走 - [pinyin]fang4 zou3[/pinyin] - To let go, to free (an animal)\r\n陪伴 - [pinyin]pei ban4[/pinyin] - To accompany, be with\r\n忠臣 - [pinyin]zhong1 chen2[/pinyin] - Loyal subject\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
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\r\n我是个独生子，家里没有兄弟，只好养动物来解闷。可是，小黄狗，楼区不让养，只好放走；大白鹅，被人偷走了；小松鼠，不小心从窗台上摔了下来，死了。就这样，我的小动物死的死，放的放。现在只有两只小乌龟陪伴着我。我心想：你们俩可算得上“忠臣”了。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nI\'m an only child, I have no brothers, so I have to raise pets to relieve my boredom. But as to the little yellow dog, the building [management] doesn\'t allow [people to have dogs], so we had to set it free; the big white goose was stolen, and the little squirrel accidentally leaped from the window ledge and died. In these ways, my pets have died, or been let go. Right now I only have two turtles to accompany me. In my heart I think: \"You two are my only \"loyal subjects\". \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'I\'m All Alone', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1201-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-04 23:26:48', '2012-08-05 03:26:48', '', 1201, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/04/1201-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1221, 1, '2012-07-22 21:11:18', '2012-07-23 01:11:18', '[two_third]\r\nSeeing as how I just got back from a trip to the Wall myself, I figured I\'d stay on that theme. This traditional and very famous story, called 孟姜女哭长城 [pinyin]meng4 jiang1 nv3 ku1 chang2 cheng2[/pinyin], is set in the Qin Dynasty, and is super sad in the way that only East Asian stories can be sad (are we noticing a trend, here?). If you\'re the \"watches a lot of anime\" type, you\'ll easily find the beauty here (which lies in the power of tears - where else?), but if you like your fairy-tale endings, prepare for a big downer. \r\n\r\n
I happen to enjoy sad stories as long as there\'s some sweetness in them, and this one is paced very nicely, so I\'m translating it for you here, though it\'s much longer than my usual fare (I seem to be trending towards longer stuff these days). \r\n\r\nThis story happens between 259 B.C. and 210 B.C., and describes two characters, our heroine 孟姜女[pinyin]meng4 jiang1 nv3[/pinyin], and her love, 范喜良 [pinyin]fan4 xi3 liang2[/pinyin], who live under the rule of emperor 秦始皇 [pinyin]qin2 shi3 huang2[/pinyin] during the building of the Great Wall. The story describe how they meet and how they finally part, and dwells on the strength of 孟姜女\'s love for her man. There are a few specialized words here pertaining to weddings. One is 喜酒 [pinyin]xi3 jiu3[/pinyin], meaning \"happiness wine\", which is alcohol drunk at weddings to wish the bride and groom well. Another is 洞房 [pinyin]dong4 fang2[/pinyin], or \"marriage chamber\" (literally \"cave room\"). And yet another is 成亲, meaning \"to get married\".\r\n\r\nAn interesting word here is 眼看 [pinyin]yan3 kan4[/pinyin], which means \"in a moment\", or \"when ____ is just about to happen\", not \"the eye sees\" or \"to look\", as may be supposed. \r\n\r\nOne difficult few words to puzzle out here is in the second paragraph, when it\'s stated that some soldiers \"不容分说\" [pinyin]bu4 rong2 fen1 shuo1[/pinyin] charge into the room. 不容 here means \"without tolerating\" or \"would not tolerate\", and 分说 means \"to explain\". So we can imagine that this means the soldiers barged in and though people tried to explain the situation to them, they weren\'t interested in listening. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
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Click to Listen
\r\n连连 - [pinyin]lian2 lian2[/pinyin] - Again and again\r\n逃难 - [pinyin]tao2 nan4[/pinyin] - Run away from trouble\r\n抓 - [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin] - Grab, catch, seize\r\n知书达理 - [pinyin]zhi1 shu1 da2 li3[/pinyin] - Educated and well-balanced\r\n眉清目秀 - [pinyin]mei2 qing1 mu4 xiu4[/pinyin] - Good-looking with delicate features\r\n心心相印 - [pinyin]xin1 xin1 xiang1 yin4[/pinyin] - Two hearts beat as one\r\n成亲 - [pinyin]cheng2 qin1[/pinyin] - To get married\r\n张灯结彩 - [pinyin]zheng1 deng1 jie2 cai3[/pinyin] - Decorated with lanterns and colored banners\r\n满堂 - [pinyin]man3 tang2[/pinyin] - jam-packed, a full house\r\n喜气洋洋 - [pinyin]xi3 qi4 yang2 yang2[/pinyin] - Full of joy\r\n干着急 - [pinyin]gan1 zhan2 ji2[/pinyin] - Worry needlessly\r\n跋涉 - [pinyin]ba2 she4[/pinyin] - To trek, trudge\r\n顽强 - [pinyin]wan2 qiang2[/pinyin] - Tenacious\r\n工地 - [pinyin]gong1 di4[/pinyin] - Construction site\r\n踪影 - [pinyin]zong1 ying3[/pinyin] - A trace (no trace of sthg)\r\n尸首 - [pinyin]shi1 shou5[/pinyin] - Corpse\r\n噩耗 - [pinyin]e4 hao4[/pinyin] - News of someone\'s death\r\n猛烈 - [pinyin]meng3 lie4[/pinyin] - fierce / violent\r\n血肉模糊 - [pinyin]xue4 rou4 mo2 hu5[/pinyin] - Badly mutilated\r\n残暴 - [pinyin]can2 bao4[/pinyin] - Cruelty\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
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\r\n 秦朝时候，有个善良美丽的女子，名叫孟姜女。一天，她正在自家的院子里做家务，突然发现葡萄架下藏了一个人，吓了她一大跳，正要叫喊，只见那个人连连摆手，恳求道：“别喊别喊，救救我吧！我叫范喜良，是来逃难的。”原来这时秦始皇为了造长城，正到处抓人做劳工，已经饿死、累死了不知多少人！孟姜女把范喜良救了下来，见他知书达理，眉清目秀，对他产生了爱慕之情，而范喜良也喜欢上了孟姜女。他俩儿心心相印，征得了父母的同意后，就准备结为夫妻。\r\n\r\n 成亲那天，孟家张灯结彩，宾客满堂，一派喜气洋洋的情景。眼看天快黑了，喝喜酒的人也都渐渐散了，新郎新娘正要入洞房，忽然只听见鸡飞狗叫，随后闯进来一队恶狠狠的官兵，不容分说，用铁链一锁，硬把范喜良抓到长城去做工了。好端端的喜事变成了一场空，孟姜女悲愤交加，日夜思念着丈夫。她想：我与其坐在家里干着急，还不如自己到长城去找他。对！就这么办！孟姜女立刻收拾收拾行装，上路了。\r\n\r\n一路上，也不知经历了多少风霜雨雪，跋涉过多少险山恶水，孟姜女没有喊过一声苦，没有掉过一滴泪，终于，凭着顽强的毅力，凭着对丈夫深深的爱，她到达了长城。这时的长城已经是由一个个工地组成的一道很长很长的城墙了，孟姜女一个工地一个工地地找过来，却始终不见丈夫的踪影。最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\r\n\r\n猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDuring the Qin dynasty, there was a kind and beautify woman, called Meng JiangNv. One day, she was in her garden doing housework, when she suddenly realized that someone was hiding in the grape arbor. She was hugely startled, and was about to call out, when she saw the person repeatedly wave his hands, and begged her, \"Don\'t call out, don\'t call out, save me! I am Fan XiLiang, and I\'m running away from trouble.\" Well, during this time, [Emperor] Qin Shi Huang, in order to build the great wall, was seizing people from everywhere to [force them to] do labor, and he\'d already worked and starved countless people to death! Meng JiangNv rescued Fan XiLiang, and when she saw that he was well educated and sensible, and good looking with delicate features as well, she began to love him, and Fan XiLiang also liked Meng JiangNv. Their two hearts beat as one, and after seeking the approval of their parents, prepared to become husband and wife. \r\n\r\nOn the wedding day, the Meng house was lit with lanterns and colored banners, and was jam-packed with guests - it was a joyous scene. When it was almost dark out, and those that had come to drink the marriage wine slowly scattered, the bride and groom prepared to enter the marriage chamber, suddenly came the sounds of birds crying and dogs barking, and soon after a company of fierce officers and soldiers charged in, and without listening to any explanation, locked up Fan XiLiang in iron chains and hauled him off to the Great Wall to work. The lovely wedding had come to nothing, and Meng JiangNv felt both grief and indignation, and she longed for her husband day and night. She thought:
Instead of sitting here worrying hopelessly, it\'s better if I go to the Great Wall and search for him. Yes! That\'s what I\'ll do! So Meng JiangNv immediately prepared her traveling clothes and set out on the road. \r\n\r\nOn the road, though she couldn\'t count how many times she endured wind, frost, rain and snow, trudged across dangerous mountains and treacherous rapids, Meng JiangNv never spoke one word of complaint, never spilled one tear, and finally, drawing strength from her tenacious willpower, and drawing strength from her deep love for her husband, she reached the Great Wall. The Great Wall at this time was made up of many small construction sites that had been strung together to form a long city wall, and Meng JiangNv went from each construction site to the next, but she never saw a trace of her husband. Finally, she drummed up her courage, and asked a group of workers who were just about to begin work: \"Do any of you know a Fan XiLiang?\" The workers said, \"Yes, there was a man like that, he\'d just arrived.\" When Meng JiangNv heard that, she was indescribably happy! She immediately asked, \"Where is he?\" The worker said, \"He\'s dead, his corpse has already been tossed into the wall.\" \r\n\r\nWhen Meng JiangNv heard this grievous news, it was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, Meng\'s eyes went dark, and [she felt] a burst of sadness, and began to sob. She cried for a full three days and three nights, she cried until the sky was twilight and the earth was dark, [until] even Heaven and Earth were moved. The sky became more and more gloomy, the wind more and more fierce, and then there was a great \"crash\", and a section of the Wall had been cried down, and Fan XiLiang\'s corpse was revealed; Meng JiangNv\'s tears dripped on his badly mutilated face. She finally was able to see the husband she loved, but he wasn\'t able to see her, because he had already been killed by the cruel Qin ShiHuang. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Meng JiangNv Cries the Great Wall Down', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1176-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-07-22 21:11:18', '2012-07-23 01:11:18', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/07/22/1176-revision-12/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1222, 1, '2012-06-27 22:34:02', '2012-06-28 02:34:02', '[two_third]\r\nThis is an upper-beginner or low-intermediate level text. It\'s good for beginner readers in the sense that a) it\'s short, and b) it\'s extremely repetitive - if you can puzzle out the first two or three sentences, the rest should be clear. To get you going, it might be worth noting there that the protagonist is a small blade of (or lump of, or field of - it\'s never really defined) grass named \"YinYin\" (小草银银), who keeps asking one particular favor of each season. \r\n\r\n
The seasons are personified as ladies - for example, \"The Lady of Spring\" (春姑娘) and \"the Lady of Summer\" (夏姑娘), etc. \r\n\r\nThere\'s so much metaphor going on in this I\'m not sure where to start. You could choose to interpret this as a statement about aging, about changing seasons, go nuts. \r\n\r\nAnd on a personal note, not 100% sure I\'m happy with the conclusion that\'s drawn here, considering I dye my hair all the time, but what the hell. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
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Click to Listen
\r\n春天 - [pinyin]chun1 tian1[/pinyin] - springtime\r\n染 - [pinyin]ran3[/pinyin] - dye\r\n青色 - [pinyin]qing1 se4[/pinyin] - A blue, green or blue-green the Chinese consider the \"color of nature\"\r\n伤心 - [pinyin]shang1 xin1[/pinyin] - Broken-hearted\r\n夏天 - [pinyin]xia4 tian1[/pinyin] - Summer\r\n深绿 - [pinyin]shen1 lv4[/pinyin] - Dark green\r\n秋天 - [pinyin]qiu1 tian1[/pinyin] - Autumn\r\n金黄 - [pinyin]jin1 huang2[/pinyin] - Golden yellow\r\n冬天 - [pinyin]dong1 tian1[/pinyin] - Winter\r\n后悔 - [pinyin]hou4 hui3[/pinyin] - Regret\r\n可不要 - [pinyin]ke3 bu4 yao4[/pinyin] - Won\'t [you] be...(ex. sad?)\r\n忽然 - [pinyin]hu1 ran2[/pinyin] - Suddenly\r\n掉下来 - [pinyin]diao4 xia4 lai2[/pinyin] - fall, drop down\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
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\r\n小草银银喜欢银色。\r\n 春天，小草银银让春姑娘把她的头发染成银色。春姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成青色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 夏天小草银银让夏姑娘把她的头发染成银色。夏姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成深绿色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 秋天小草银银让秋姑娘把她的头发染成银色。秋姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成金黄色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 冬天小草银银让冬姑娘把她的头发染成银色。冬姑娘说：“好啊，不过你可不要后悔呦”？银银说：“不会的，有了那么漂亮的头发我高兴还来不及呢”！\r\n 就这样银银的头发变成了银色。忽然，银银的头发掉下来了，这是怎么回事呢？原来，头发染多了是会伤害身体的。这下银银真的后悔了。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe little grass YinYin liked the color silver. \r\n In spring time, little grass Yinyin asked the Lady of Spring to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Spring said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair blue/green [see explanation]. YinYin was very broken-hearted. \r\n\r\nIn summer time, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Summer to to dye her hair silver. The lady of summer said, \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair green!\" YinYin was very broken-hearted. \r\n\r\nIn autumn, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Autumn to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Autumn said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair golden yellow.\" YinYin was very broken-hearted.\r\n\r\nIn winter, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Winter to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Winter said, \"Okay, but won\'t you regret it?\" YinYin said, \"I won\'t, if I had hair that beautiful I couldn\'t be happier!\" And so YinYin\'s hair turned silver. Suddenly, YinYin\'s hair fell out - how could this be? Of course, if you dye your hair too often, it\'s not good for you. And after this YinYin was indeed regretful. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Grass\' Silver Hair', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1123-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-06-27 22:34:02', '2012-06-28 02:34:02', '', 1123, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/06/27/1123-revision-7/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1282, 1, '2012-10-02 00:42:05', '2012-10-02 04:42:05', '[two_third]\n
Chinese Title: 我们家的跳绳比赛\n\nA single-paragraph essay about the results of a family jump rope competition. \n\nHaven\'t had a ton of extra time in the last few weeks - just went on a trip to Dalian, and
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20121002-300x95.jpg\" "\\"Learn")
still catching up from that. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
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Click to Listen
\n跳 - [pinyin]lie4 ri4[/pinyin] - Scorching sun\n绳 - [pinyin]yan2 yan2[/pinyin] - Scorching\n失误 - [pinyin]bao4 shang4[/pinyin] - Pick up (the way one picks up a child, encircling them with both arms)\n砰砰 - [pinyin]tang2 guo3[/pinyin] - Candy \n弃权 - [pinyin]zhong4[/pinyin] - To plant (eg. vegetable seeds)\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
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\n今天早上我和爸爸比赛跳绳，爸爸先跳，妈妈记时数数，爸爸一分钟跳了128个，该我上场了，爸爸数数，妈妈记时，我这次没有失误，一分钟跳了145个，我的心砰砰乱跳，都快蹦出来了，妈妈弃权了，我成了全家中的第一名，，我好开心。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThis morning father and competed in jump rope, father went first, mother kept time and count, father jumped 128 times in a minute, and when I entered the playing field, father counted and mother took notes. In this round [literally: \'this time\', but sounds weird in English because there are no previous times] I made no mistakes, and in one minute I jumped 145 times, my heart pounded in my chest, as if it would bounce right out. So I became Number 1 in our family, I was very happy. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Our Family\'s Jump Rope Contest', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1277-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-10-02 00:42:05', '2012-10-02 04:42:05', '', 1277, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/10/02/1277-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1224, 1, '2012-08-13 01:05:11', '2012-08-13 05:05:11', '[two_third]\r\nThis excerpt is one of the Tiger Team supernatural mystery novels for adolescents. The Tiger Team series was originally created in German by author
Thomas C. Brezina, and features a band of young detectives: Jupiter Katz, son of a supernatural researcher Erasmus Katz, Jupiter\'s cousin Vicky and Vicky\'s little brother Nick. This is listed as \"advanced\" not necessarily because of the vocabulary - which isn\'t terribly difficult - but also because some of the sentence structures aren\'t very straightforward. This is the easy end of the advanced spectrum, so if you think you might be an advanced reader, try this.\r\n\r\n
I found this Chinese translation of the Tiger Team novel \"Ghost Hotel\" in my local bookstore, and I\'ve manually typed in the first few paragraphs of the book, which describe a dilapidated, mostly-abandoned hotel, where most of the novel takes place. This is interesting practice in reading longer descriptions, and includes many words that are strictly book-language: you\'re not likely to run into them in daily conversation. There\'s probably an actual English version of this book, but I can\'t easily get my hands on this, so bear in mind you\'re not reading the official English translation.
Here\'s the Chinese version on Amazon China. \r\n\r\nThere are a couple of difficult passages here that don\'t quite mean what they seem to mean. One is 木条都不知下落了. Originally, I read this as \"wooden slats scattered here and there\", or literally \"wooden slats fallen down in who knows how many places\". But thanks to my Chinese friend Anna, I learned that 下落, in this case, doesn\'t mean \"fall down\". It means \"where is it?\" (the same as 在哪儿). So 不知下落 actually means \"to be missing\", or \"to be gone to who knows where\". \r\n\r\nAnother phrase I should note is 数目远远大于实际需要, \"an amount (数目) far (远远) greater (大于) than actually (实际) needed (需要)\". 大于 was a new word for me, and I didn\'t know that 远远 - meaning \"far away\" - can also sometimes be used the same way in Chinese as in English, to mean \"very\" (example:
far above the normal amount). \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n狭窄 - [pinyin]xia2 zhai3[/pinyin] - Narrow\r\n穹顶 - [pinyin]qiong2 ding3[/pinyin] - Domed / vaulted roof\r\n尖塔 - [pinyin]jian1 ta3[/pinyin] - Minaret\r\n灰蒙蒙 - [pinyin]hui1 meng1 meng1[/pinyin] - Dusky\r\n戳 - [pinyin]chuo1[/pinyin] - poke, stab\r\n矗立 - [pinyin]chu4 li4[/pinyin] - To tower (of buildings)\r\n孤零零 - [pinyin]gu1 ling2 ling2[/pinyin] - Solitary\r\n山丘 - [pinyin]shan1 qiu1[/pinyin] - Hill\r\n光秃秃 - [pinyin]guang1 tu1 tu1[/pinyin] - Bare, bald\r\n杂草 - [pinyin]za2 cao3[/pinyin] - Weeds\r\n掩埋 - [pinyin]yan3 mai2[/pinyin] - Bury\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n那栋房子是木质结构的， 看起来就像是婚礼蛋糕。 它总共有四层，越向上越狭窄，所以最高的那层就只是一座带有小小玻璃穹顶的尖塔了。\r\n\r\n灰蒙蒙的木头外墙已经腐朽不堪， 黑色的穹顶上好像也被戳了好几个窟窿。\r\n\r\n窗户都是拱形，数目远远大于实际需要，上面还钉了好多木条。\r\n\r\n这栋房子从1911年起就矗立在这座孤零零的山丘上。有时候，附近的农民发现这栋房子会像磁铁一样，吸引着乌云，雷电，冰雹和风雨。\r\n\r\n如果谁在夏天的时候走近这栋房子，就会发现这里奇特现象：房子周围为数不多的那几棵树都是光秃秃的。 树枝如同黝黑的手臂， 高高地指向天空。\r\n\r\n这块地被低矮的木栅栏圈在当中， 有几处已经被人损坏， 木条都不知下落了。 甚至， 有的地方已经完全被杂草所掩埋。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe building was constructed of wood, and looked like a wedding cake. Altogether, it had four floors, each narrower than the one below, so the topmost floor was just a small minaret topped with a glass dome. \r\n\r\nThe gloomy outer wall was already in a state of extreme disrepair, and the dark and the vaulted roof looked as if it had been stabbed full of holes. \r\n\r\nThe windows were all arched, there were far more of them than actually necessary, and they had wooden boards nailed over them. \r\n\r\nThe house had towered atop this isolated hill since 1911. Sometimes, the nearby villagers would find that the building was like a magnet, attracting dark clouds, lightening, hail, wind and rain. \r\n\r\nIf anyone walked near the house during summer, they would discover a strange phenomenon: the few surrounding trees were all bare. The tree branches were like dark arms, pointing tall towards the sky. \r\n\r\nThe land was encircled by a low fence, which had been broken in several places, and the wooden slats were missing. It was in such a state that some parts of it had even been completely buried by weeds. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Tiger Team: Ghost Hotel', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1209-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-13 01:05:11', '2012-08-13 05:05:11', '', 1209, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/13/1209-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1225, 1, '2012-08-22 07:00:48', '2012-08-22 11:00:48', 'A cool introduction to one of the lesser-known deities, Shen Nong 神农 [pinyin]shen2 nong2[/pinyin], the God of Agriculture (and later called the Bodhisattva of Medicine). \r\n\r\nShen Nong, we are to understand, had a transparent abdomen so all his innards could be seen from the outside (yes, the first sentence
does say \'Shen Nong had a crystal belly\'), and he always carried two bags with him - read the story to find out what the bags were for.\r\n\r\nWe touch on the origins of some well-known plants (one of which is poorly described, I think), but the last paragraph talks about the herb \"heartbreak grass\" - 断肠草 [pinyin]duan4 chang2 cao3[/pinyin] - which I\'d never heard of and which is not a common plant. The English botanical name is
Gelsemium elegans (yeah, no idea), which according to the abstract of
one study is \"a toxic plant indigenous to southeastern Asia, well known among hill tribes as an effective means for committing suicide\". So a very potent poison, then.\r\n\r\nOriginal post was found on
a cool mythology and fable website - you may find some other interesting stuff there. I made a tiny edit from the original to correct a mistake.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n1) 神农一生下来就是个水晶肚子，五脏六腑全都能看得一清二楚。那时侯，人们经常因为乱吃东西而生病，甚至丧命。神农决心尝遍所有的东西，好吃的放在身边左边的袋子里，给人吃；不好吃的就放在身子右边的袋子里，作药用。\r\n\r\n2) 第一次，神农尝了一片小嫩叶。这叶片一落进肚里，就上上下下地把里面各器官擦洗得清清爽爽，象巡查似的，神农把它叫做“查”，就是后人所称的“茶”。神农将它放进右边袋子里。第二次，神农尝了朵蝴蝶样的淡红小花，甜津津的，香味扑鼻，这是“甘草”。他把它放进了左边袋子里。就这样，神农辛苦地尝遍百草，每次中毒，都靠茶来解救。后来，他左边的袋子里花草根叶有四万七千种，右边有三十九万八千种。\r\n\r\n3) 但有一天，神农尝到了“断肠草”，这种毒草太厉害了，他还来不及吃茶解毒就死了。他是为了拯救人们而牺牲的，人们称他为“药王菩萨”，人间以这个神话故事永远地纪念他。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) All his life, Shen Nong had a crystal abdomen, and one could clearly see all of his internal organs. At that time, humans were often getting sick and even dying because they ate things indiscriminately [not knowing if they were good or bad]. Shen Nong determinedly tasted everything everywhere; the good-tasting things he put in a bag on his left side, those were for people to eat; the bad-tasting things he put in a bag on his right side, and those were used for medicine.\r\n\r\n2) The first time, Shen Nong tasted a small fresh leaf. As this leaf fell into his stomach, it cleaned every inch of his insides so that every organ top and bottom was fresh and cool, as if [the leaf] was somehow on patrol [making the rounds], so Shen Nong called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [to investigate / check], and later generations of men called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [tea]. Shen Nong put it in the bag on the right. The second time, Shen Nong tasted a little light red flower that looked like a butterfly, which was sweet and delicious, with an exotic smell that filled his nostrils, so he called it \"licorice\". He put it in the bag on the left. In this way, Shen Nong diligently tasted all manner of flora, and every time he was poisoned, he used tea to rescue himself. Before long, the bag on his left contained 47,000 kinds of flowers, grasses, roots and leaves, and the right side had 398,000 kinds. \r\n\r\n3) But one day, Shen Nong tasted \"heartbreak grass\", and this poison was too terrible, so there wasn\'t enough time to eat the tea leaves to detoxify and he died. He sacrificed himself to save humanity, so people call him the \"Bodhisattva of Medicine\", and people forever commemorate him through this story. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Mythology] 神农尝百草- The Farmer God Shen Nong Tastes All the Plants', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-farmer-god-shen-nong-tastes-all-the-plants', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:03:46', '2016-11-04 13:03:46', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1225', 0, 'post', '', 2),
(2089, 1, '2016-11-04 08:52:07', '2016-11-04 12:52:07', 'A cool introduction to one of the lesser-known deities, Shen Nong 神农 [pinyin]shen2 nong2[/pinyin], the God of Agriculture (and later called the Bodhisattva of Medicine). \r\n\r\nShen Nong, we are to understand, had a transparent abdomen so all his innards could be seen from the outside (yes, the first sentence
does say \'Shen Nong had a crystal belly\'), and he always carried two bags with him - read the story to find out what the bags were for.\r\n\r\nWe touch on the origins of some well-known plants (one of which is poorly described, I think), but the last paragraph talks about the herb \"heartbreak grass\" - 断肠草 [pinyin]duan4 chang2 cao3[/pinyin] - which I\'d never heard of and which is not a common plant. The English botanical name is
Gelsemium elegans (yeah, no idea), which according to the abstract of
one study is \"a toxic plant indigenous to southeastern Asia, well known among hill tribes as an effective means for committing suicide\". So a very potent poison, then.\r\n\r\nOriginal post was found on
a cool mythology and fable website - you may find some other interesting stuff there. I made a tiny edit from the original to correct a mistake.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n神农一生下来就是个水晶肚子，五脏六腑全都能看得一清二楚。那时侯，人们经常因为乱吃东西而生病，甚至丧命。神农决心尝遍所有的东西，好吃的放在身边左边的袋子里，给人吃；不好吃的就放在身子右边的袋子里，作药用。\r\n\r\n第一次，神农尝了一片小嫩叶。这叶片一落进肚里，就上上下下地把里面各器官擦洗得清清爽爽，象巡查似的，神农把它叫做“查”，就是后人所称的“茶”。神农将它放进右边袋子里。第二次，神农尝了朵蝴蝶样的淡红小花，甜津津的，香味扑鼻，这是“甘草”。他把它放进了左边袋子里。就这样，神农辛苦地尝遍百草，每次中毒，都靠茶来解救。后来，他左边的袋子里花草根叶有四万七千种，右边有三十九万八千种。\r\n\r\n但有一天，神农尝到了“断肠草”，这种毒草太厉害了，他还来不及吃茶解毒就死了。他是为了拯救人们而牺牲的，人们称他为“药王菩萨”，人间以这个神话故事永远地纪念他。 \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nAll his life, Shen Nong had a crystal abdomen, and one could clearly see all of his internal organs. At that time, humans were often getting sick and even dying because they ate things indiscriminately [not knowing if they were good or bad]. Shen Nong determinedly tasted everything everywhere; the good-tasting things he put in a bag on his left side, those were for people to eat; the bad-tasting things he put in a bag on his right side, and those were used for medicine.\r\n\r\nThe first time, Shen Nong tasted a small fresh leaf. As this leaf fell into his stomach, it cleaned every inch of his insides so that every organ top and bottom was fresh and cool, as if [the leaf] was somehow on patrol [making the rounds], so Shen Nong called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [to investigate / check], and later generations of men called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [tea]. Shen Nong put it in the bag on the right. The second time, Shen Nong tasted a little light red flower that looked like a butterfly, which was sweet and delicious, with an exotic smell that filled his nostrils, so he called it \"licorice\". He put it in the bag on the left. In this way, Shen Nong diligently tasted all manner of flora, and every time he was poisoned, he used tea to rescue himself. Before long, the bag on his left contained 47,000 kinds of flowers, grasses, roots and leaves, and the right side had 398,000 kinds. \r\n\r\nBut one day, Shen Nong tasted \"heartbreak grass\", and this poison was too terrible, so there wasn\'t enough time to eat the tea leaves to detoxify and he died. He sacrificed himself to save humanity, so people call him the \"Bodhisattva of Medicine\", and people forever commemorate him through this story. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Mythology] 神农尝百草- The Farmer God Shen Nong Tastes All the Plants', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1225-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 08:52:07', '2016-11-04 12:52:07', '', 1225, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1225-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2583, 1, '2017-01-08 03:43:48', '2017-01-08 08:43:48', '', 'learn-to-read-chinese-20170107-kangaroo', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'learn-to-read-chinese-20170107-kangaroo', '', '', '2017-01-08 03:44:09', '2017-01-08 08:44:09', '', 1790, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/learn-to-read-chinese-20170107-kangaroo.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2584, 1, '2017-01-08 03:45:02', '2017-01-08 08:45:02', 'Absolute silliness: this har-har kid\'s joke features talking animals and a zoo manager that should probably be fired. \r\n\r\n
Grammar: 将... 由... 到...
\r\nIn the first paragraph there, we get a slightly complex grammatical structure in this sentence: \r\n\r\n所以他们决定将笼子的高度由原来的10米加高到20米。\r\n\r\nNow, I don\'t know if real grammarians would explain it this way, but for me, three key characters link this sentence together, and once we decipher those, the whole thing makes sense. I\'m highlighting those words in Chinese first, then highlighting the corresponding words in the English translation: \r\n\r\nChinese: 所以他们决定
将笼子的高度
由原来的10米加高
到20米。\r\n\r\nEnglish: So they decided to
take the cage
from its original height of 10 meters and increase it
to 20 meters.\r\n\r\nSee? These three characters link the sentence together - we \"take\" (将) something \"from\" (由) one state \"to\" (到) another. Now, this \"take\" isn\'t the same as 拿 [pinyin]na2[/pinyin], where we actually pick something up with our fingers (though 将 can be used that way). This is more of a figurative \"take\". \r\n\r\nIn this sentence, 由 serves the same purpose as the slightly more familiar 从 [pinyin]cong2[/pinyin]. \r\n\r\nGo straight to the
source.\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 一天动物园管理员发现袋鼠从笼子里跑出来了，于是开会讨论，一致认为是笼子的高度过低。所以他们决定将笼子的高度由原来的10米加高到20米。结果第二天他们发现袋鼠还是跑到外面来，所以他们又决定再将高度加高到30米。\r\n\r\n2) 没想到隔天居然又看到袋鼠全跑到外面，于是管理员们大为紧张，决定一不做二不休，将笼子的高度加高到100米。\r\n\r\n3) 一天长颈鹿和几只袋鼠们在闲聊。\r\n\r\n4) \"你们看，这些人会不会再继续加高你们的笼子？长颈鹿问。\r\n\r\n5) 袋鼠说∶“很难说。如果他们再继续忘记关门的话!\"\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) One day, the manager of the zoo discovered that the kangaroo had run out of his cage, so he called a meeting to discuss it, and everyone unanimously agreed that the height of the cage was too low. So they decided to take the cage from its original height of 10 meters and increase it to 20 meters. But on the second day they found that the kangaroo had gotten out again, so they decided to once again increase the height to 30 meters. \r\n\r\n2) Would know know it, but on the next day, to everyone\'s surprise, they once again saw that the kangaroos had all gotten out, so the zoo manager became quite anxious, and decided to go all out, raising the height of the cage to 100 meters. \r\n\r\n3) One day the giraffes and several kangaroos were having a leisurely chat. \r\n\r\n4) \"Look here fellas, you think these folks are going to raise the height of the cage again?\" asked a giraffe. \r\n\r\n5) A kangaroo answered, \"Hard to say. Probably will if they keep leaving the cage door open!\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n', '[Chinese Jokes] 袋鼠与笼子 - The Kangaroo and the Cage', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1790-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-08 03:45:02', '2017-01-08 08:45:02', '', 1790, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/1790-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2586, 1, '2017-01-08 04:41:56', '2017-01-08 09:41:56', '', 'learn-chinese-reading-20170107-war-pilot', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'learn-chinese-reading-20170107-war-pilot', '', '', '2017-01-08 04:42:25', '2017-01-08 09:42:25', '', 1792, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/learn-chinese-reading-20170107-war-pilot.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2585, 1, '2017-01-08 04:35:56', '2017-01-08 09:35:56', 'Tackling green recruits that are standing in the line of fire is listed as an absolute must on Time Out China\'s \"Top 10 Things to do in the Heat of Battle\". \r\n\r\n
Martial vocab
\r\nWe pick up some battle-stations vocab in this paragraph, namely: \r\n
\r\n- 战斗 [pinyin]zhan4 dou4[/pinyin] - fight, combat
\r\n- 上尉 [pinyin]shang4 wei4[/pinyin] - captain
\r\n- 敌机 [pinyin]di4 ji1[/pinyin] - enemy plane
\r\n- 战士 [pinyin]zhan4 shi4[/pinyin] - soldier
\r\n
\r\n\r\nWe\'ve also got a bit of a rough sentence in there at the end. I\'ve highlighted what I believe are the hard bits: \r\n\r\n他
顾不上多想，
一个鱼跃飞身将小战士紧紧地压在了身下。\r\n\r\nThe first part, 顾不上, means to not have the resources to attend to something. In this sentence, the resource that we don\'t have is \"time\", though the word \"time\" never directly appears. The second part, 一个鱼跃飞身, is a lively description of how the captain jumps towards the soldier. How does he jump? He flies like a fish leaping out of the water, his body, we can presume, horizontal in the air, parallel to the ground. So this sentence might read as:\r\n\r\n
He didn\'t have time to think, but leapt into the air like a fish flying straight at the young soldier and pressed him tightly beneath his body.\r\n\r\nReady? Cool, let\'s read.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 在一场激烈的
战斗中，
上尉忽然发现一架
敌机向阵地俯冲下来。照常理，发现敌机俯冲时要毫不犹豫地卧倒。可上尉并没有立刻卧倒，他发现离他四五米远处有一个小
战士还站在那儿。他顾不上多想，一个鱼跃飞身将小战士紧紧地压在了身下。此时一声巨响，飞溅起来的泥土纷纷落在他们的身上。上尉拍拍身上的尘土，回头一看，顿时惊呆了：刚才自己所处的那个位置被炸成了一个大坑。\r\n\r\n2)【小故事大道理】：在帮助别人的同时也帮助了自己！ \r\n\r\n
See source\r\n\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) In the middle of an intense battle, a captain noticed an enemy plane swooping down upon his position. According to common sense, when you see an enemy plan swooping down on you, you should throw yourself flat without hesitation. But the captain didn\'t immediately lie down, as he saw that 4 or 5 meters away from him a young soldier was still just standing there. He didn\'t have time to think, but leapt into the air like a fish flying straight at the young soldier and pressed him tightly beneath his body. Just then there was a tremendously loud sound, and flying droplets of mud fell all over them. When the captain brushed the dust off himself, he looked back, and was immediately dumbstruck: the spot where he\'d just been [standing] had exploded and had become [nothing more than] a big hole [in the ground]. \r\n\r\n2)【The big moral of this little story】：When you help others, you simultaneously help yourself! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n ', '[Chinese Short Story] 救人 - When you help others, you also help yourself', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1792-revision-v1', '', '', '2017-01-08 04:35:56', '2017-01-08 09:35:56', '', 1792, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2017/01/1792-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1227, 1, '2012-08-14 02:30:43', '2012-08-14 06:30:43', '[two_third]\n
Chinese Title: 神农尝百草\n\nA cool introduction to one of the lesser-known deities, Shen Nong 神农 [pinyin]shen2 nong2[/pinyin], the God of Agriculture (and later called the Buddha of Medicine). This is upper-intermediate reading: expect a lot of new words (mostly relating to plants) but simple sentence structure, and sentences mostly communicate a complete point. \n\nShen Nong, we are to understand, had a transparent abdomen so all his innards could be seen from the outside (yes, the first sentence
does say he \'had a crystal belly\'), and he always carried two bags with him - read the story to find out what the bags were for.\n\nWe touch on the origins of some well-known plants (one of which is poorly described, I think), but the last paragraph talks about the herb \"heartbreak grass\" - 断肠草 [pinyin]duan4 chang2 cao3[/pinyin] - which I\'d never heard of and which is not a common plant. The English botanical name is
Gelsemium elegans (yeah, no idea), which according to the abstract of
one study is \"a toxic plant indigenous to southeastern Asia, well known among hilltribes as an effective means for committing suicide\". \n\nOriginal post was found on
a cool mythology and fable website - you may find some other interesting stuff there. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n狭窄 - [pinyin]xia2 zhai3[/pinyin] - Narrow\n穹顶 - [pinyin]qiong2 ding3[/pinyin] - Domed / vaulted roof\n尖塔 - [pinyin]jian1 ta3[/pinyin] - Minaret\n灰蒙蒙 - [pinyin]hui1 meng1 meng1[/pinyin] - Dusky\n戳 - [pinyin]chuo1[/pinyin] - poke, stab\n矗立 - [pinyin]chu4 li4[/pinyin] - To tower (of buildings)\n孤零零 - [pinyin]gu1 ling2 ling2[/pinyin] - Solitary\n山丘 - [pinyin]shan1 qiu1[/pinyin] - Hill\n光秃秃 - [pinyin]guang1 tu1 tu1[/pinyin] - Bare, bald\n杂草 - [pinyin]za2 cao3[/pinyin] - Weeds\n掩埋 - [pinyin]yan3 mai2[/pinyin] - Bury\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n神农一生下来就是个水晶肚子，五脏六腑全都能看得一清二楚。那时侯，人们经常因为乱吃东西而生病，甚至丧命。神农决心尝遍所有的东西，好吃的放在身边左边的袋子里，给人吃；不好吃的就放在身子右边的袋子里，作药用。\n\n第一次，神农尝了一片小嫩叶。这叶片一落进肚里，就上上下下地把里面各器官擦洗得清清爽爽，象巡查似的，神农把它叫做“查”，就是后人所称的“茶”。神农将它放进右边袋子里。第二次，神农尝了朵蝴蝶样的淡红小花，甜津津的，香味扑鼻，这是“甘草”。他把它放进了左边袋子里。就这样，神农辛苦地尝遍百草，每次中毒，都靠茶来解救。后来，他左边的袋子里花草根叶有四万七千种，右边有三十九万八千种。\n\n但有一天，神农尝到了“断肠草”，这种毒草太厉害了，他还来不及吃茶解毒就死了。他是为了拯救人们而牺牲的，人们称他为“药王菩萨”，人间以这个神话故事永远地纪念他。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nAll his life, Shen Nong had a crystal abdomen, and one could clearly see all of his internal organs. At that time, humans were often getting sick and even dying because they ate things indiscriminately [not knowing if they were good or bad]. Shen Nong determinedly tasted everything everywhere; the good-tasting things he put in a bag on his left side, those were for people to eat; the bad-tasting things he put in a bag on his right side, and those were used for medicine.\n\nThe first time, Shen Nong tasted a small fresh leaf. As this leaf fell into his stomach, it cleaned every inch of his insides so that every organ top and bottom was fresh and cool, as if [the leaf] was somehow on patrol [making the rounds], so Shen Nong called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [to investigate / check], and later generations of men called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [tea]. Shen Nong put it in the bag on the right. The second time, Shen Nong tasted a little light red flower that looked like a butterfly, which was sweet and delicious, with an exotic smell that filled his nostrils, so he called it \"licorice\". He put it in the bag on the left. In this way, Shen Nong diligently tasted all manner of flora, and every time he was poisoned, he [drank] the tea to rescue himself. Before long, the bag on his left contained 47,000 kinds of flowers, grasses, roots and leaves, and the right side had 398,000 kinds. \n\n但有一天，神农尝到了“断肠草”，这种毒草太厉害了，他还来不及吃茶解毒就死了。他是为了拯救人们而牺牲的，人们称他为“药王菩萨”，人间以这个神话故事永远地纪念他。\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Farmer God Shen Nong Tastes All the Plants', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1225-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-14 02:30:43', '2012-08-14 06:30:43', '', 1225, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/14/1225-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1228, 1, '2012-08-14 02:46:03', '2012-08-14 06:46:03', '[two_third]\n
Chinese Title: 神农尝百草\n\nA cool introduction to one of the lesser-known deities, Shen Nong 神农 [pinyin]shen2 nong2[/pinyin], the God of Agriculture (and later called the Buddha of Medicine). This is upper-intermediate reading: expect a lot of new words (mostly relating to plants and Chinese medicine) but simple sentence structure, and sentences mostly communicate a complete point. \n\nShen Nong, we are to understand, had a transparent abdomen so all his innards could be seen from the outside (yes, the first sentence
does say \'Shen Nong had a crystal belly\'), and he always carried two bags with him - read the story to find out what the bags were for.\n\nWe touch on the origins of some well-known plants (one of which is poorly described, I think), but the last paragraph talks about the herb \"heartbreak grass\" - 断肠草 [pinyin]duan4 chang2 cao3[/pinyin] - which I\'d never heard of and which is not a common plant. The English botanical name is
Gelsemium elegans (yeah, no idea), which according to the abstract of
one study is \"a toxic plant indigenous to southeastern Asia, well known among hill tribes as an effective means for committing suicide\". \n\nOriginal post was found on
a cool mythology and fable website - you may find some other interesting stuff there. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n五脏六腑 - [pinyin]wu5 zang4 liu4 fu3[/pinyin] - Five main organs (and six bowels) of Chinese medicine - heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys\n一清二楚 - [pinyin]yi1 qing1 er4 chu3[/pinyin] - Very clear\n丧命 - [pinyin]sang4 ming4[/pinyin] - Lose one\'s life\n嫩叶 - [pinyin]nen4 ye4[/pinyin] - Tender new leaves\n器官 - [pinyin]qi4 guan1[/pinyin] - Bodily organ\n清清爽爽 - [pinyin]qing1 qing1 shuang3 shuang3[/pinyin] - Fresh and cool\n巡查 - [pinyin]xun2 cha2[/pinyin] - Do one\'s rounds on patrol\n香味扑鼻 - [pinyin]xiang1 wei4 pu2 bi2[/pinyin] - Exotic odors assail the nostrils\n甘草 - [pinyin]gan1 cao3[/pinyin] - Licorice\n中毒 - [pinyin]zhong4 du2[/pinyin] - Be poisoned\n来不及 - [pinyin]lai2 bu5 ji2[/pinyin] - Not enough time to...\n解毒 - [pinyin]jie3 du2[/pinyin] - Detoxify\n拯救 - [pinyin]zheng3 jiu4[/pinyin] - To rescue\n牺牲 - [pinyin]xi1 sheng1[/pinyin] - Sacrifice oneself\n菩萨 - [pinyin]pu2 sa4[/pinyin] - Bodhisattva\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n神农一生下来就是个水晶肚子，五脏六腑全都能看得一清二楚。那时侯，人们经常因为乱吃东西而生病，甚至丧命。神农决心尝遍所有的东西，好吃的放在身边左边的袋子里，给人吃；不好吃的就放在身子右边的袋子里，作药用。\n\n第一次，神农尝了一片小嫩叶。这叶片一落进肚里，就上上下下地把里面各器官擦洗得清清爽爽，象巡查似的，神农把它叫做“查”，就是后人所称的“茶”。神农将它放进右边袋子里。第二次，神农尝了朵蝴蝶样的淡红小花，甜津津的，香味扑鼻，这是“甘草”。他把它放进了左边袋子里。就这样，神农辛苦地尝遍百草，每次中毒，都靠茶来解救。后来，他左边的袋子里花草根叶有四万七千种，右边有三十九万八千种。\n\n但有一天，神农尝到了“断肠草”，这种毒草太厉害了，他还来不及吃茶解毒就死了。他是为了拯救人们而牺牲的，人们称他为“药王菩萨”，人间以这个神话故事永远地纪念他。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nAll his life, Shen Nong had a crystal abdomen, and one could clearly see all of his internal organs. At that time, humans were often getting sick and even dying because they ate things indiscriminately [not knowing if they were good or bad]. Shen Nong determinedly tasted everything everywhere; the good-tasting things he put in a bag on his left side, those were for people to eat; the bad-tasting things he put in a bag on his right side, and those were used for medicine.\n\nThe first time, Shen Nong tasted a small fresh leaf. As this leaf fell into his stomach, it cleaned every inch of his insides so that every organ top and bottom was fresh and cool, as if [the leaf] was somehow on patrol [making the rounds], so Shen Nong called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [to investigate / check], and later generations of men called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [tea]. Shen Nong put it in the bag on the right. The second time, Shen Nong tasted a little light red flower that looked like a butterfly, which was sweet and delicious, with an exotic smell that filled his nostrils, so he called it \"licorice\". He put it in the bag on the left. In this way, Shen Nong diligently tasted all manner of flora, and every time he was poisoned, he [drank] the tea to rescue himself. Before long, the bag on his left contained 47,000 kinds of flowers, grasses, roots and leaves, and the right side had 398,000 kinds. \n\nBut one day, Shen Nong tasted \"heartbreak grass\", and this poison was too terrible, so there wasn\'t enough time to eat the tea leaves to detoxify and he died. He sacrificed himself to save humanity, so people call him the \"Buddha of Medicine\", and people forever commemorate him through this story. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Farmer God Shen Nong Tastes All the Plants', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1225-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-14 02:46:03', '2012-08-14 06:46:03', '', 1225, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/14/1225-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1229, 1, '2012-08-14 03:29:49', '2012-08-14 07:29:49', '', 'Chinese Buddhist Fables: Learn to Read Chinese ', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120822', '', '', '2012-08-14 03:29:49', '2012-08-14 07:29:49', '', 1225, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120822.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1230, 1, '2012-08-14 03:29:55', '2012-08-14 07:29:55', '', 'Chinese Buddhist Fables: Learn to Read Chinese ', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120822-inline', '', '', '2012-08-14 03:29:55', '2012-08-14 07:29:55', '', 1225, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120822-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1231, 1, '2012-08-14 03:31:57', '2012-08-14 07:31:57', '[two_third]\n
Chinese Title: 神农尝百草\n\nA cool introduction to one of the lesser-known deities, Shen Nong 神农 [pinyin]shen2 nong2[/pinyin], the God of Agriculture (and later called the Bodhisattva of Medicine). This is upper-intermediate reading: expect a lot of new words (mostly relating to plants and Chinese medicine) but intermediate sentence structure, and sentences mostly communicate a complete point. \n\n
![\"Buddhist](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120822-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Chinese")
Shen Nong, we are to understand, had a transparent abdomen so all his innards could be seen from the outside (yes, the first sentence
does say \'Shen Nong had a crystal belly\'), and he always carried two bags with him - read the story to find out what the bags were for.\n\nWe touch on the origins of some well-known plants (one of which is poorly described, I think), but the last paragraph talks about the herb \"heartbreak grass\" - 断肠草 [pinyin]duan4 chang2 cao3[/pinyin] - which I\'d never heard of and which is not a common plant. The English botanical name is
Gelsemium elegans (yeah, no idea), which according to the abstract of
one study is \"a toxic plant indigenous to southeastern Asia, well known among hill tribes as an effective means for committing suicide\". So a very potent poison, then.\n\nOriginal post was found on
a cool mythology and fable website - you may find some other interesting stuff there. I made a tiny edit from the original to correct a mistake.\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n五脏六腑 - [pinyin]wu5 zang4 liu4 fu3[/pinyin] - Five main organs (and six bowels) of Chinese medicine - heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys\n一清二楚 - [pinyin]yi1 qing1 er4 chu3[/pinyin] - Very clear\n丧命 - [pinyin]sang4 ming4[/pinyin] - Lose one\'s life\n嫩叶 - [pinyin]nen4 ye4[/pinyin] - Tender new leaves\n器官 - [pinyin]qi4 guan1[/pinyin] - Bodily organ\n清清爽爽 - [pinyin]qing1 qing1 shuang3 shuang3[/pinyin] - Fresh and cool\n巡查 - [pinyin]xun2 cha2[/pinyin] - Do one\'s rounds on patrol\n香味扑鼻 - [pinyin]xiang1 wei4 pu2 bi2[/pinyin] - Exotic odors assail the nostrils\n甘草 - [pinyin]gan1 cao3[/pinyin] - Licorice\n中毒 - [pinyin]zhong4 du2[/pinyin] - Be poisoned\n来不及 - [pinyin]lai2 bu5 ji2[/pinyin] - Not enough time to...\n解毒 - [pinyin]jie3 du2[/pinyin] - Detoxify\n拯救 - [pinyin]zheng3 jiu4[/pinyin] - To rescue\n牺牲 - [pinyin]xi1 sheng1[/pinyin] - Sacrifice oneself\n菩萨 - [pinyin]pu2 sa4[/pinyin] - Bodhisattva\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n神农一生下来就是个水晶肚子，五脏六腑全都能看得一清二楚。那时侯，人们经常因为乱吃东西而生病，甚至丧命。神农决心尝遍所有的东西，好吃的放在身边左边的袋子里，给人吃；不好吃的就放在身子右边的袋子里，作药用。\n\n第一次，神农尝了一片小嫩叶。这叶片一落进肚里，就上上下下地把里面各器官擦洗得清清爽爽，象巡查似的，神农把它叫做“查”，就是后人所称的“茶”。神农将它放进右边袋子里。第二次，神农尝了朵蝴蝶样的淡红小花，甜津津的，香味扑鼻，这是“甘草”。他把它放进了左边袋子里。就这样，神农辛苦地尝遍百草，每次中毒，都靠茶来解救。后来，他左边的袋子里花草根叶有四万七千种，右边有三十九万八千种。\n\n但有一天，神农尝到了“断肠草”，这种毒草太厉害了，他还来不及吃茶解毒就死了。他是为了拯救人们而牺牲的，人们称他为“药王菩萨”，人间以这个神话故事永远地纪念他。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nAll his life, Shen Nong had a crystal abdomen, and one could clearly see all of his internal organs. At that time, humans were often getting sick and even dying because they ate things indiscriminately [not knowing if they were good or bad]. Shen Nong determinedly tasted everything everywhere; the good-tasting things he put in a bag on his left side, those were for people to eat; the bad-tasting things he put in a bag on his right side, and those were used for medicine.\n\nThe first time, Shen Nong tasted a small fresh leaf. As this leaf fell into his stomach, it cleaned every inch of his insides so that every organ top and bottom was fresh and cool, as if [the leaf] was somehow on patrol [making the rounds], so Shen Nong called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [to investigate / check], and later generations of men called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [tea]. Shen Nong put it in the bag on the right. The second time, Shen Nong tasted a little light red flower that looked like a butterfly, which was sweet and delicious, with an exotic smell that filled his nostrils, so he called it \"licorice\". He put it in the bag on the left. In this way, Shen Nong diligently tasted all manner of flora, and every time he was poisoned, he used tea to rescue himself. Before long, the bag on his left contained 47,000 kinds of flowers, grasses, roots and leaves, and the right side had 398,000 kinds. \n\nBut one day, Shen Nong tasted \"heartbreak grass\", and this poison was too terrible, so there wasn\'t enough time to eat the tea leaves to detoxify and he died. He sacrificed himself to save humanity, so people call him the \"Bodhisattva of Medicine\", and people forever commemorate him through this story. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Farmer God Shen Nong Tastes All the Plants', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1225-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-14 03:31:57', '2012-08-14 07:31:57', '', 1225, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/14/1225-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1232, 1, '2016-11-04 08:46:43', '2016-11-04 12:46:43', 'A cool introduction to one of the lesser-known deities, Shen Nong 神农 [pinyin]shen2 nong2[/pinyin], the God of Agriculture (and later called the Bodhisattva of Medicine). \n\nShen Nong, we are to understand, had a transparent abdomen so all his innards could be seen from the outside (yes, the first sentence
does say \'Shen Nong had a crystal belly\'), and he always carried two bags with him - read the story to find out what the bags were for.\n\nWe touch on the origins of some well-known plants (one of which is poorly described, I think), but the last paragraph talks about the herb \"heartbreak grass\" - 断肠草 [pinyin]duan4 chang2 cao3[/pinyin] - which I\'d never heard of and which is not a common plant. The English botanical name is
Gelsemium elegans (yeah, no idea), which according to the abstract of
one study is \"a toxic plant indigenous to southeastern Asia, well known among hill tribes as an effective means for committing suicide\". So a very potent poison, then.\n\nOriginal post was found on
a cool mythology and fable website - you may find some other interesting stuff there. I made a tiny edit from the original to correct a mistake.\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n神农一生下来就是个水晶肚子，五脏六腑全都能看得一清二楚。那时侯，人们经常因为乱吃东西而生病，甚至丧命。神农决心尝遍所有的东西，好吃的放在身边左边的袋子里，给人吃；不好吃的就放在身子右边的袋子里，作药用。\n\n第一次，神农尝了一片小嫩叶。这叶片一落进肚里，就上上下下地把里面各器官擦洗得清清爽爽，象巡查似的，神农把它叫做“查”，就是后人所称的“茶”。神农将它放进右边袋子里。第二次，神农尝了朵蝴蝶样的淡红小花，甜津津的，香味扑鼻，这是“甘草”。他把它放进了左边袋子里。就这样，神农辛苦地尝遍百草，每次中毒，都靠茶来解救。后来，他左边的袋子里花草根叶有四万七千种，右边有三十九万八千种。\n\n但有一天，神农尝到了“断肠草”，这种毒草太厉害了，他还来不及吃茶解毒就死了。他是为了拯救人们而牺牲的，人们称他为“药王菩萨”，人间以这个神话故事永远地纪念他。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nAll his life, Shen Nong had a crystal abdomen, and one could clearly see all of his internal organs. At that time, humans were often getting sick and even dying because they ate things indiscriminately [not knowing if they were good or bad]. Shen Nong determinedly tasted everything everywhere; the good-tasting things he put in a bag on his left side, those were for people to eat; the bad-tasting things he put in a bag on his right side, and those were used for medicine.\n\nThe first time, Shen Nong tasted a small fresh leaf. As this leaf fell into his stomach, it cleaned every inch of his insides so that every organ top and bottom was fresh and cool, as if [the leaf] was somehow on patrol [making the rounds], so Shen Nong called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [to investigate / check], and later generations of men called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [tea]. Shen Nong put it in the bag on the right. The second time, Shen Nong tasted a little light red flower that looked like a butterfly, which was sweet and delicious, with an exotic smell that filled his nostrils, so he called it \"licorice\". He put it in the bag on the left. In this way, Shen Nong diligently tasted all manner of flora, and every time he was poisoned, he used tea to rescue himself. Before long, the bag on his left contained 47,000 kinds of flowers, grasses, roots and leaves, and the right side had 398,000 kinds. \n\nBut one day, Shen Nong tasted \"heartbreak grass\", and this poison was too terrible, so there wasn\'t enough time to eat the tea leaves to detoxify and he died. He sacrificed himself to save humanity, so people call him the \"Bodhisattva of Medicine\", and people forever commemorate him through this story. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Mythology] 神农尝百草- The Farmer God Shen Nong Tastes All the Plants', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1225-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 08:46:43', '2016-11-04 12:46:43', '', 1225, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/14/1225-autosave/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2088, 1, '2016-11-04 08:50:47', '2016-11-04 12:50:47', '', 'Chinese Buddhist Fables: Learn to Read Chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'shen-nong-tastes-the-plants', '', '', '2016-11-04 08:51:12', '2016-11-04 12:51:12', '', 1225, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/shen-nong-tastes-the-plants.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1233, 1, '2012-04-18 23:52:24', '2012-04-19 03:52:24', '[two_third]\r\nIn this essay you\'ll learn to read Chinese martial arts words - well, a few, anyway - but it\'s not really the vocabulary that places this in the \"advanced\" category. It\'s more that most of the text is full of wax-on, wax-off Karate Kid statements, as the martial arts master talks about how putting oneself in a position of inferiority allows you to attain superiority. \r\n\r\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120419-inline.jpg\" "\\"Reading")
This kind of \"making logic out of illogical-sounding contradictions\" is very typical of martial arts and Eastern mysticism, and most of this type of stuff comes strait out of Taoist philosophy. \r\n\r\nThere are two phrases I found grammatically difficult to get past, the first being 处于劣势, or as the text has it, 处于一种劣势. \"处于\" [pinyin]chu3 yu2[/pinyin] means to \"be in a state of...\", or \"to be in a position of...\". 劣势 [pinyin]lie4 shi4[/pinyin] means \"inferior\". Put together, this translates into English as \"to be at a disadvantage\", or in the case of 处于一种劣势, \"to be at some kind of disadvantage\".\r\n\r\nThe second and more difficult phrase is found in the third paragraph: 以剑招之长补兵器之短. The thing that makes this sentence difficult is all the accursed nebulous words that have many meanings - we\'ve got 以, 之, and 补 all smooshed together, and these words are the keys to unlocking the meaning of this sentence. So let\'s break this down word by word and see if all the definitions together don\'t give us a clue: \r\n\r\n以 - [pinyin]yi3[/pinyin] - The definition of 以 that\'s being used here is \"by means of\" or \"by way of\"\r\n剑招 - [pinyin]jian4 zhao1[/pinyin] - Swordsmanship maneuvers\r\n之 - [pinyin]zhi1[/pinyin] - of\r\n长 - [pinyin]chang2[/pinyin] - length\r\n补 - [pinyin]bu3[/pinyin] - \"to make up for\"\r\n兵器 - [pinyin]bing1 qi4[/pinyin] - Weapon\r\n之 - [pinyin]zhi1[/pinyin] - of\r\n短 - [pinyin]duan3[/pinyin] - shortness\r\n\r\nAh hah! Though this is still a little convoluted, once we know the meaning of 以 and 补 in this instance, this now becomes much simpler to read. It says: \"By means of the \'length\' of [my] swordsmanship maneuvers, [I] make up for the shortness of [my] weapon.\" We can see here that \"length\" doesn\'t really mean how \"long\" something is - \"length\" here means a high level of skill. The word \"length\" is just being used to juxtapose against the word \"short\". \r\n\r\nYou\'ll enjoy this if you\'re an upper-intermediate or advanced reader, and are interested in some specialized vocabulary. \r\n\r\n
See the original\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
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Click to Listen
\r\n剑客 - [pinyin]jian4 ke4[/pinyin] - Swordsman, fencer\r\n武林泰斗 - [pinyin]wu3 lin2 tai4 dou3[/pinyin] - Martial arts master - lit: leading scholar in martial arts circles\r\n请教 - [pinyin]qing3 jiao4[/pinyin] - Ask for guidance\r\n多亏 - [pinyin]duo1 kui1[/pinyin] - Thanks to\r\n大为不解 - [pinyin]da4 wei4 bu4 jie3[/pinyin] - Bewildered\r\n兵器 - [pinyin]bing1 qi4[/pinyin] - Department of Women, Family and Community Development\r\n谱 - [pinyin]pu3[/pinyin] - Chart, table, register\r\n处于 - [pinyin]chu3 yu2[/pinyin] - To be in a state of...\r\n劣势 - [pinyin]lie4 shi4[/pinyin] - Inferior, disadvantaged\r\n对阵 - [pinyin]dui4 zhen4[/pinyin] - Poised for battle\r\n招 - [pinyin]zhao1[/pinyin] - Square up for a fight\r\n补 - [pinyin]bu3[/pinyin] - To make up for\r\n优势 - [pinyin]you1 shi4[/pinyin] - Advantage, superior\r\n注入 - [pinyin]zhu4 ru4[/pinyin] - To pour into\r\n敢于 - [pinyin]gan3 yu2[/pinyin] - To dare to\r\n胜利 - [pinyin]sheng4 li4[/pinyin] - Victory\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
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\r\n一名剑客去拜访一位武林泰斗，请教他是如何练就非凡武艺的。武林泰斗拿出一把只有一尺长的剑，说:“多亏了它，才让我有了今天的成就。”\r\n\r\n 剑客大为不解，问:“别人的剑都是三尺三寸长的，而你的剑为什么只有一尺长呢?兵器谱上说:剑短一分，险增三分。拿着这么短的剑无疑是处于一种劣势，你怎么还说这剑好呢?”\r\n\r\n武林泰斗说:“就因为在兵器上我处于劣势，所以我才会时时刻刻想到，如果与别人对阵，我会是多么的危险，所以我只有勤练剑招，以剑招之长补兵器之短，这样一来，我的剑招不断进步，劣势就转化为优势了。”\r\n\r\n 的确，优势和劣势有时候并不是绝对的。把自己放在劣势，就是给自己压力，为自己注入进取的动力，敢于把自己放在劣势的人，最终就有可能把劣势转化成为优势，从而取得胜利。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nA swordsman went to pay a visit to a martial arts master [literally: a leading figure in martial arts circles] to ask for guidance on how to train [so as to attain] exceptional martial skill. The martial arts master took out a sword that was only 1 foot long, and said: \"Thanks to this, I\'ve accomplished what I have today.\" \r\n\r\nBewildered, the swordsman asked, \"Other people\'s swords are all 3 feet 3 inches long, so why is yours only one foot long? The weapons chart says that: if your sword is one-fold shorter, the danger to you is threefold greater. Using this short of a sword undoubtedly places you at a disadvantage, how can you say this is a good sword?\" \r\n\r\nThe martial arts master said: \"That\'s precisely it - my weapon puts me at a disadvantage, so I must always be thinking that if I\'m up against another person in a fight, the danger to me is greater, and all I have is my diligently practiced sword maneuvers, so the \"length\" of my maneuvers must make up for the shortness of my sword; thus, I\'m always improving, and a disadvantage is transformed into an advantage. \r\n\r\nIndeed, \"advantage\" and \"disadvantage\" really isn\'t always set in stone. If you put yourself at a disadvantage, you put pressure on yourself, pouring into yourself the power to forge ahead; those who dare to place themselves in an inferior position, can perhaps in the end turn their disadvantage into an advantage, and thereby achieve victory. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Martial Arts Mastery: Put Yourself at a Disadvantage', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '989-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-04-18 23:52:24', '2012-04-19 03:52:24', '', 989, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/04/18/989-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1234, 1, '2012-08-13 01:36:08', '2012-08-13 05:36:08', '[two_third]\r\nSeeing as how I just got back from a trip to the Wall myself, I figured I\'d stay on that theme. This traditional and very famous story, called 孟姜女哭长城 [pinyin]meng4 jiang1 nv3 ku1 chang2 cheng2[/pinyin], is set in the Qin Dynasty, and is super sad in the way that only East Asian stories can be sad (are we noticing a trend, here?). If you\'re the \"watches a lot of anime\" type, you\'ll easily find the beauty here (which lies in the power of tears - where else?), but if you like your fairy-tale endings, prepare for a big downer. \r\n\r\n
I happen to enjoy sad stories as long as there\'s some sweetness in them, and this one is paced very nicely, so I\'m translating it for you here, though it\'s much longer than my usual fare (I seem to be trending towards longer stuff these days). \r\n\r\nThis story happens between 259 B.C. and 210 B.C., and describes two characters, our heroine 孟姜女[pinyin]meng4 jiang1 nv3[/pinyin], and her love, 范喜良 [pinyin]fan4 xi3 liang2[/pinyin], who live under the rule of emperor 秦始皇 [pinyin]qin2 shi3 huang2[/pinyin] during the building of the Great Wall. The story describes how they meet and how they finally part, and dwells on the strength of 孟姜女\'s love for her man. There are a few specialized words here pertaining to weddings. One is 喜酒 [pinyin]xi3 jiu3[/pinyin], meaning \"happiness wine\", which is alcohol drunk at weddings to wish the bride and groom well. Another is 洞房 [pinyin]dong4 fang2[/pinyin], or \"marriage chamber\" (literally \"cave room\"). And yet another is 成亲, meaning \"to get married\".\r\n\r\nAn interesting word here is 眼看 [pinyin]yan3 kan4[/pinyin], which means \"in a moment\", or \"when ____ is just about to happen\", not \"the eye sees\" or \"to look\", as may be supposed. \r\n\r\nOne difficult few words to puzzle out here is in the second paragraph, when it\'s stated that some soldiers \"不容分说\" [pinyin]bu4 rong2 fen1 shuo1[/pinyin] charge into the room. 不容 here means \"without tolerating\" or \"would not tolerate\", and 分说 means \"to explain\". So we can imagine that this means the soldiers barged in and though people tried to explain the situation to them, they weren\'t interested in listening. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
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Click to Listen
\r\n连连 - [pinyin]lian2 lian2[/pinyin] - Again and again\r\n逃难 - [pinyin]tao2 nan4[/pinyin] - Run away from trouble\r\n抓 - [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin] - Grab, catch, seize\r\n知书达理 - [pinyin]zhi1 shu1 da2 li3[/pinyin] - Educated and well-balanced\r\n眉清目秀 - [pinyin]mei2 qing1 mu4 xiu4[/pinyin] - Good-looking with delicate features\r\n心心相印 - [pinyin]xin1 xin1 xiang1 yin4[/pinyin] - Two hearts beat as one\r\n成亲 - [pinyin]cheng2 qin1[/pinyin] - To get married\r\n张灯结彩 - [pinyin]zheng1 deng1 jie2 cai3[/pinyin] - Decorated with lanterns and colored banners\r\n满堂 - [pinyin]man3 tang2[/pinyin] - jam-packed, a full house\r\n喜气洋洋 - [pinyin]xi3 qi4 yang2 yang2[/pinyin] - Full of joy\r\n干着急 - [pinyin]gan1 zhan2 ji2[/pinyin] - Worry needlessly\r\n跋涉 - [pinyin]ba2 she4[/pinyin] - To trek, trudge\r\n顽强 - [pinyin]wan2 qiang2[/pinyin] - Tenacious\r\n工地 - [pinyin]gong1 di4[/pinyin] - Construction site\r\n踪影 - [pinyin]zong1 ying3[/pinyin] - A trace (no trace of sthg)\r\n尸首 - [pinyin]shi1 shou5[/pinyin] - Corpse\r\n噩耗 - [pinyin]e4 hao4[/pinyin] - News of someone\'s death\r\n猛烈 - [pinyin]meng3 lie4[/pinyin] - fierce / violent\r\n血肉模糊 - [pinyin]xue4 rou4 mo2 hu5[/pinyin] - Badly mutilated\r\n残暴 - [pinyin]can2 bao4[/pinyin] - Cruelty\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
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\r\n 秦朝时候，有个善良美丽的女子，名叫孟姜女。一天，她正在自家的院子里做家务，突然发现葡萄架下藏了一个人，吓了她一大跳，正要叫喊，只见那个人连连摆手，恳求道：“别喊别喊，救救我吧！我叫范喜良，是来逃难的。”原来这时秦始皇为了造长城，正到处抓人做劳工，已经饿死、累死了不知多少人！孟姜女把范喜良救了下来，见他知书达理，眉清目秀，对他产生了爱慕之情，而范喜良也喜欢上了孟姜女。他俩儿心心相印，征得了父母的同意后，就准备结为夫妻。\r\n\r\n 成亲那天，孟家张灯结彩，宾客满堂，一派喜气洋洋的情景。眼看天快黑了，喝喜酒的人也都渐渐散了，新郎新娘正要入洞房，忽然只听见鸡飞狗叫，随后闯进来一队恶狠狠的官兵，不容分说，用铁链一锁，硬把范喜良抓到长城去做工了。好端端的喜事变成了一场空，孟姜女悲愤交加，日夜思念着丈夫。她想：我与其坐在家里干着急，还不如自己到长城去找他。对！就这么办！孟姜女立刻收拾收拾行装，上路了。\r\n\r\n一路上，也不知经历了多少风霜雨雪，跋涉过多少险山恶水，孟姜女没有喊过一声苦，没有掉过一滴泪，终于，凭着顽强的毅力，凭着对丈夫深深的爱，她到达了长城。这时的长城已经是由一个个工地组成的一道很长很长的城墙了，孟姜女一个工地一个工地地找过来，却始终不见丈夫的踪影。最后，她鼓起勇气，向一队正要上工的民工询问：“你们这儿有个范喜良吗？”民工说：“有这么个人，新来的。”孟姜女一听，甭提多开心了！她连忙再问：“他在哪儿呢？”民工说：“已经死了，尸首都已经填了城脚了！”\r\n\r\n猛地听到这个噩耗，真好似晴天霹雳一般，孟姜女只觉眼前一黑，一阵心酸，大哭起来。整整哭了三天三夜，哭得天昏地暗，连天地都感动了。天越来越阴沉，风越来越猛烈，只听“哗啦”一声，一段长城被哭倒了，露出来的正是范喜良的尸首，孟姜女的眼泪滴在了他血肉模糊的脸上。她终于见到了自己心爱的丈夫，但他却再也看不到她了，因为他已经被残暴的秦始皇害死了。 \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDuring the Qin dynasty, there was a kind and beautify woman, called Meng JiangNv. One day, she was in her garden doing housework, when she suddenly realized that someone was hiding in the grape arbor. She was hugely startled, and was about to call out, when she saw the person repeatedly wave his hands, and begged her, \"Don\'t call out, don\'t call out, save me! I am Fan XiLiang, and I\'m running away from trouble.\" Well, during this time, [Emperor] Qin Shi Huang, in order to build the great wall, was seizing people from everywhere to [force them to] do labor, and he\'d already worked and starved countless people to death! Meng JiangNv rescued Fan XiLiang, and when she saw that he was well educated and sensible, and good looking with delicate features as well, she began to love him, and Fan XiLiang also liked Meng JiangNv. Their two hearts beat as one, and after seeking the approval of their parents, prepared to become husband and wife. \r\n\r\nOn the wedding day, the Meng house was lit with lanterns and colored banners, and was jam-packed with guests - it was a joyous scene. When it was almost dark out, and those that had come to drink the marriage wine slowly scattered, the bride and groom prepared to enter the marriage chamber, suddenly came the sounds of birds crying and dogs barking, and soon after a company of fierce officers and soldiers charged in, and without listening to any explanation, locked up Fan XiLiang in iron chains and hauled him off to the Great Wall to work. The lovely wedding had come to nothing, and Meng JiangNv felt both grief and indignation, and she longed for her husband day and night. She thought:
Instead of sitting here worrying hopelessly, it\'s better if I go to the Great Wall and search for him. Yes! That\'s what I\'ll do! So Meng JiangNv immediately prepared her traveling clothes and set out on the road. \r\n\r\nOn the road, though she couldn\'t count how many times she endured wind, frost, rain and snow, trudged across dangerous mountains and treacherous rapids, Meng JiangNv never spoke one word of complaint, never spilled one tear, and finally, drawing strength from her tenacious willpower, and drawing strength from her deep love for her husband, she reached the Great Wall. The Great Wall at this time was made up of many small construction sites that had been strung together to form a long city wall, and Meng JiangNv went from each construction site to the next, but she never saw a trace of her husband. Finally, she drummed up her courage, and asked a group of workers who were just about to begin work: \"Do any of you know a Fan XiLiang?\" The workers said, \"Yes, there was a man like that, he\'d just arrived.\" When Meng JiangNv heard that, she was indescribably happy! She immediately asked, \"Where is he?\" The worker said, \"He\'s dead, his corpse has already been tossed into the wall.\" \r\n\r\nWhen Meng JiangNv heard this grievous news, it was like a clap of thunder from a clear sky, Meng\'s eyes went dark, and [she felt] a burst of sadness, and began to sob. She cried for a full three days and three nights, she cried until the sky was twilight and the earth was dark, [until] even Heaven and Earth were moved. The sky became more and more gloomy, the wind more and more fierce, and then there was a great \"crash\", and a section of the Wall had been cried down, and Fan XiLiang\'s corpse was revealed; Meng JiangNv\'s tears dripped on his badly mutilated face. She finally was able to see the husband she loved, but he wasn\'t able to see her, because he had already been killed by the cruel Qin ShiHuang. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Meng JiangNv Cries the Great Wall Down', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1176-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-13 01:36:08', '2012-08-13 05:36:08', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/13/1176-revision-13/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1235, 1, '2012-08-29 07:00:15', '2012-08-29 11:00:15', 'This essay about a kid who takes his father\'s advice a little too literally (with amusing results) is almost as beginner as a five-paragraph read can get. You\'ll find very few intermediate-level words, and extremely basic sentence structure. Only thing intermediate about this read is the very first sentence, which we\'ll talk about here. After this it\'s pretty easy going. The essay starts out 童年仿佛是一条小船，里面装满了甜蜜的糖果，也装满了许多忧伤。 Let\'s break this one down word by word:\r\n\r\n童年 - [pinyin]tong2 nian2[/pinyin] - Childhood\r\n仿佛 - [pinyin]fang3 fu2[/pinyin] - seems like\r\n是 - [pinyin]shi4[/pinyin] - [it] is\r\n一条 - [pinyin]yi1 tiao2[/pinyin] - a (literally: the word \"one\" plus the classifier for boats, which is 条)\r\n小船, - [pinyin]xiao3 chuan2[/pinyin] - boat,\r\n里面 - [pinyin]li3 mian4[/pinyin] - inside\r\n装满了 - [pinyin]zhuang1 man3 le5[/pinyin] - is full (of)\r\n甜蜜的 - [pinyin]tian2 mi4 de5[/pinyin] - sweet\r\n糖果, - [pinyin]tang2 guo3[/pinyin] - candy,\r\n也 - [pinyin]ye3[/pinyin] - also\r\n装满了 - [pinyin]zhuang1 man3 le5[/pinyin] - is full (of)\r\n许多 - [pinyin]xu3 duo1[/pinyin] - much\r\n忧伤 - [pinyin]you1 shang1[/pinyin] - distress.\r\n\r\nPretty straightforward when you look at it that way. A quick note on that: though the word 糖果 (which appears a lot in this text) means \"candy\", it does not mean \"candy fruit\" or \"sweet fruit\", as you might guess from the character 果. This is just a general word for candy, though the Chinese don\'t consider chocolate a \"candy\" - it\'s in its own category. \r\n\r\nThe original is from a Chinese
essay composition site. \r\n
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\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n1) 童年仿佛是一条小船，里面装满了甜蜜的糖果，也装满了许多忧伤。\r\n\r\n2) 我出生在一个幸福的六口之家。有爸爸、妈妈、爷爷、奶奶、姐姐，还有我。\r\n\r\n3) 我四岁时，一个烈日炎炎的中午。爷爷、奶奶、妈妈和姐姐都忙着自己手中的活。爸爸抱上我去商店、给我买了很多糖果。回到家中，爸爸放下我，就去我们家的后院种苹果树去了。我也跟了过去，我问爸爸你在干什么？爸爸说：“我在种苹果树，到了秋天你就有苹果吃了。”爸爸还说：“你种什么种子就会长什么。”爸爸说完就回家喝茶去了。当时我心想如果把刚刚买的糖果种到土中，秋天不就有很多糖果了吗！\r\n\r\n4) 我说做就做，我刨了个坑，把刚才剩下的糖果都放在坑里，用土埋了。我默默的许下愿说：“糖果快长！糖果快长！长成大树，长出很多很多糖果。”我把这个愿望告诉了爸爸，爸爸听了。大笑起来说：“糖果不会长出大树，也更不会长出糖果。”我听了爸爸话坐在地上大哭起来，我的糖果，我的糖果。爸爸赶快跑到我面前，抱起我说：“哦，不哭了小宝贝，爸爸给你买很多很多糖果。我听了就不哭了。\r\n\r\n5) 如今我已经长大了，种糖果的傻事也不会再做了。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n
1) Childhood seems like a boat that is full of sweet candy, but is also laden with grief. \r\n\r\n
2) I was born into a happy six-person family. There\'s father, mother, grandpa, grandma, my elder sister and myself. \r\n\r\n
3) [The story begins] when I was four, on a scorching afternoon. Grandpa, grandma, mother and my elder sister were all busy doing their own thing. Dad picked me up and carried me to the store, and bought me lots of candy. On the way back to the house, dad put me down, and went to our house\'s back garden to plant apple trees. I went with him, and asked him \'what are you doing\'? Father said: \"I\'m planting apple trees, when autumn arrives you\'ll have apples to eat.\" Father continued: \"Whatever seeds you plant will grow.\" Father finished speaking and went back into the house to drink tea. Then I thought to myself if I take the candy I just bought and plant it in the earth, in autumn I should have lots of candy! \r\n\r\n
4) I did just that, I dug a hole, took my left over candy and put it all in the hole, using dirt to bury it. In silence I fervently hoped: \"Candy, grow quickly! Candy, grow quickly! Grow into a big tree, and sprout lots and lots of candy.\" I told this wish to my father, and he listened. Laughing heartily he said: \"Candy can\'t grow into a big tree, and it definitely can\'t sprout more candy.\" I heard my father\'s words and I sat down on the grass and started sobbing, my candy, my candy. Father quickly ran up to me, embraced me and said: \"Oh, don\'t cry little darling, daddy will buy you lots and lots of candy.\" I listened to him and stopped crying.\r\n\r\nNowadays I\'ve already grown up, and I won\'t try foolishly planting candy again.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 童年傻事 - A Foolish Affair from my Childhood', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'a-foolish-affair-from-my-childhood', '', '', '2016-11-04 08:44:33', '2016-11-04 12:44:33', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1235', 0, 'post', '', 14),
(2086, 1, '2016-11-04 08:43:19', '2016-11-04 12:43:19', 'This essay about a kid who takes his father\'s advice a little too literally (with amusing results) is almost as beginner as a five-paragraph read can get. You\'ll find very few intermediate-level words, and extremely basic sentence structure. Only thing intermediate about this read is the very first sentence, which we\'ll talk about here. After this it\'s pretty easy going. The essay starts out 童年仿佛是一条小船，里面装满了甜蜜的糖果，也装满了许多忧伤。 Let\'s break this one down word by word:\r\n\r\n童年 - [pinyin]tong2 nian2[/pinyin] - Childhood\r\n仿佛 - [pinyin]fang3 fu2[/pinyin] - seems like\r\n是 - [pinyin]shi4[/pinyin] - [it] is\r\n一条 - [pinyin]yi1 tiao2[/pinyin] - a (literally: the word \"one\" plus the classifier for boats, which is 条)\r\n小船, - [pinyin]xiao3 chuan2[/pinyin] - boat,\r\n里面 - [pinyin]li3 mian4[/pinyin] - inside\r\n装满了 - [pinyin]zhuang1 man3 le5[/pinyin] - is full (of)\r\n甜蜜的 - [pinyin]tian2 mi4 de5[/pinyin] - sweet\r\n糖果, - [pinyin]tang2 guo3[/pinyin] - candy,\r\n也 - [pinyin]ye3[/pinyin] - also\r\n装满了 - [pinyin]zhuang1 man3 le5[/pinyin] - is full (of)\r\n许多 - [pinyin]xu3 duo1[/pinyin] - much\r\n忧伤 - [pinyin]you1 shang1[/pinyin] - distress.\r\n\r\nPretty straightforward when you look at it that way. A quick note on that: though the word 糖果 (which appears a lot in this text) means \"candy\", it does not mean \"candy fruit\" or \"sweet fruit\", as you might guess from the character 果. This is just a general word for candy, though the Chinese don\'t consider chocolate a \"candy\" - it\'s in its own category. \r\n\r\nThe original is from a Chinese
essay composition site. \r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n1) 童年仿佛是一条小船，里面装满了甜蜜的糖果，也装满了许多忧伤。\r\n\r\n2) 我出生在一个幸福的六口之家。有爸爸、妈妈、爷爷、奶奶、姐姐，还有我。\r\n\r\n3) 我四岁时，一个烈日炎炎的中午。爷爷、奶奶、妈妈和姐姐都忙着自己手中的活。爸爸抱上我去商店、给我买了很多糖果。回到家中，爸爸放下我，就去我们家的后院种苹果树去了。我也跟了过去，我问爸爸你在干什么？爸爸说：“我在种苹果树，到了秋天你就有苹果吃了。”爸爸还说：“你种什么种子就会长什么。”爸爸说完就回家喝茶去了。当时我心想如果把刚刚买的糖果种到土中，秋天不就有很多糖果了吗！\r\n\r\n4) 我说做就做，我刨了个坑，把刚才剩下的糖果都放在坑里，用土埋了。我默默的许下愿说：“糖果快长！糖果快长！长成大树，长出很多很多糖果。”我把这个愿望告诉了爸爸，爸爸听了。大笑起来说：“糖果不会长出大树，也更不会长出糖果。”我听了爸爸话坐在地上大哭起来，我的糖果，我的糖果。爸爸赶快跑到我面前，抱起我说：“哦，不哭了小宝贝，爸爸给你买很多很多糖果。我听了就不哭了。\r\n\r\n5) 如今我已经长大了，种糖果的傻事也不会再做了。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n
1) Childhood seems like a boat that is full of sweet candy, but is also laden with grief. \r\n\r\n
2) I was born into a happy six-person family. There\'s father, mother, grandpa, grandma, my elder sister and myself. \r\n\r\n
3) [The story begins] when I was four, on a scorching afternoon. Grandpa, grandma, mother and my elder sister were all busy doing their own thing. Dad picked me up and carried me to the store, and bought me lots of candy. On the way back to the house, dad put me down, and went to our house\'s back garden to plant apple trees. I went with him, and asked him \'what are you doing\'? Father said: \"I\'m planting apple trees, when autumn arrives you\'ll have apples to eat.\" Father continued: \"Whatever seeds you plant will grow.\" Father finished speaking and went back into the house to drink tea. Then I thought to myself if I take the candy I just bought and plant it in the earth, in autumn I should have lots of candy! \r\n\r\n
4) I did just that, I dug a hole, took my left over candy and put it all in the hole, using dirt to bury it. In silence I fervently hoped: \"Candy, grow quickly! Candy, grow quickly! Grow into a big tree, and sprout lots and lots of candy.\" I told this wish to my father, and he listened. Laughing heartily he said: \"Candy can\'t grow into a big tree, and it definitely can\'t sprout more candy.\" I heard my father\'s words and I sat down on the grass and started sobbing, my candy, my candy. Father quickly ran up to me, embraced me and said: \"Oh, don\'t cry little darling, daddy will buy you lots and lots of candy.\" I listened to him and stopped crying.\r\n\r\nNowadays I\'ve already grown up, and I won\'t try foolishly planting candy again.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 童年傻事 - A Foolish Affair from my Childhood', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1235-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 08:43:19', '2016-11-04 12:43:19', '', 1235, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1235-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1727, 1, '2016-10-31 03:15:08', '2016-10-31 07:15:08', 'This essay about a kid who takes his father\'s advice a little too literally (with amusing results) is almost as beginner as a five-paragraph read can get. You\'ll find very few intermediate-level words, and extremely basic sentence structure. \r\n\r\n
![\"Beginner](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120829-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Chinese")
Only thing intermediate about this read is the very first sentence, which we\'ll talk about here. After this it\'s pretty easy going. The essay starts out 童年仿佛是一条小船，里面装满了甜蜜的糖果，也装满了许多忧伤。 Let\'s break this one down word by word:\r\n\r\n童年 - [pinyin]tong2 nian2[/pinyin] - Childhood\r\n仿佛 - [pinyin]fang3 fu2[/pinyin] - seems like\r\n是 - [pinyin]shi4[/pinyin] - [it] is\r\n一条 - [pinyin]yi1 tiao2[/pinyin] - a (literally: the word \"one\" plus the classifier for boats, which is 条)\r\n小船, - [pinyin]xiao3 chuan2[/pinyin] - boat,\r\n里面 - [pinyin]li3 mian4[/pinyin] - inside\r\n装满了 - [pinyin]zhuang1 man3 le5[/pinyin] - is full (of)\r\n甜蜜的 - [pinyin]tian2 mi4 de5[/pinyin] - sweet\r\n糖果, - [pinyin]tang2 guo3[/pinyin] - candy,\r\n也 - [pinyin]ye3[/pinyin] - also\r\n装满了 - [pinyin]zhuang1 man3 le5[/pinyin] - is full (of)\r\n许多 - [pinyin]xu3 duo1[/pinyin] - much\r\n忧伤 - [pinyin]you1 shang1[/pinyin] - distress.\r\n\r\nPretty straightforward when you look at it that way. A quick note on that: though the word 糖果 (which appears a lot in this text) means \"candy\", it does not mean \"candy fruit\" or \"sweet fruit\", as you might guess from the character 果. This is just a general word for candy, though the Chinese don\'t consider chocolate a \"candy\" - it\'s in its own category. \r\n\r\nThe original is from a Chinese
essay composition site. \r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n1) 童年仿佛是一条小船，里面装满了甜蜜的糖果，也装满了许多忧伤。\r\n\r\n2) 我出生在一个幸福的六口之家。有爸爸、妈妈、爷爷、奶奶、姐姐，还有我。\r\n\r\n3) 我四岁时，一个烈日炎炎的中午。爷爷、奶奶、妈妈和姐姐都忙着自己手中的活。爸爸抱上我去商店、给我买了很多糖果。回到家中，爸爸放下我，就去我们家的后院种苹果树去了。我也跟了过去，我问爸爸你在干什么？爸爸说：“我在种苹果树，到了秋天你就有苹果吃了。”爸爸还说：“你种什么种子就会长什么。”爸爸说完就回家喝茶去了。当时我心想如果把刚刚买的糖果种到土中，秋天不就有很多糖果了吗！\r\n\r\n4) 我说做就做，我刨了个坑，把刚才剩下的糖果都放在坑里，用土埋了。我默默的许下愿说：“糖果快长！糖果快长！长成大树，长出很多很多糖果。”我把这个愿望告诉了爸爸，爸爸听了。大笑起来说：“糖果不会长出大树，也更不会长出糖果。”我听了爸爸话坐在地上大哭起来，我的糖果，我的糖果。爸爸赶快跑到我面前，抱起我说：“哦，不哭了小宝贝，爸爸给你买很多很多糖果。我听了就不哭了。\r\n\r\n5) 如今我已经长大了，种糖果的傻事也不会再做了。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n
1) Childhood seems like a boat that is full of sweet candy, but is also laden with grief. \r\n\r\n
2) I was born into a happy six-person family. There\'s father, mother, grandpa, grandma, my elder sister and myself. \r\n\r\n
3) [The story begins] when I was four, on a scorching afternoon. Grandpa, grandma, mother and my elder sister were all busy doing their own thing. Dad picked me up and carried me to the store, and bought me lots of candy. On the way back to the house, dad put me down, and went to our house\'s back garden to plant apple trees. I went with him, and asked him \'what are you doing\'? Father said: \"I\'m planting apple trees, when autumn arrives you\'ll have apples to eat.\" Father continued: \"Whatever seeds you plant will grow.\" Father finished speaking and went back into the house to drink tea. Then I thought to myself if I take the candy I just bought and plant it in the earth, in autumn I should have lots of candy! \r\n\r\n
4) I did just that, I dug a hole, took my left over candy and put it all in the hole, using dirt to bury it. In silence I fervently hoped: \"Candy, grow quickly! Candy, grow quickly! Grow into a big tree, and sprout lots and lots of candy.\" I told this wish to my father, and he listened. Laughing heartily he said: \"Candy can\'t grow into a big tree, and it definitely can\'t sprout more candy.\" I heard my father\'s words and I sat down on the grass and started sobbing, my candy, my candy. Father quickly ran up to me, embraced me and said: \"Oh, don\'t cry little darling, daddy will buy you lots and lots of candy.\" I listened to him and stopped crying.\r\n\r\nNowadays I\'ve already grown up, and I won\'t try foolishly planting candy again.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essay] 童年傻事 - A Foolish Affair from my Childhood', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1235-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:15:08', '2016-10-31 07:15:08', '', 1235, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1235-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1236, 1, '2012-08-14 10:30:22', '2012-08-14 14:30:22', '[two_third]\n
Chinese Title: 童年傻事\n\nThis essay about a kid who takes his father\'s advice a little too literally (with amusing results) is almost as beginner as a multi-paragraph read can get. You\'ll find very few intermediate-level words, and extremely basic sentence structure. \n\nOnly thing intermediate about this read is the very first sentence, which we\'ll talk about here. After this it\'s pretty easy going. The essay starts out 童年仿佛是一条小船，里面装满了甜蜜的糖果，也装满了许多忧伤。 Let\'s break this one down word by word:\n\n童年 - [pinyin]tong2 nian2[/pinyin] - Childhood\n仿佛 - [pinyin]fang3 fu2[/pinyin] - seems like\n是 - [pinyin]shi4[/pinyin] - [it] is\n一条 - [pinyin]yi1 tiao2[/pinyin] - a (literally: the word \"one\" plus the classifier for boats, which is 条)\n小船, - [pinyin]xiao3 chuan2[/pinyin] - boat,\n里面 - [pinyin]li3 mian4[/pinyin] - inside\n装满了 - [pinyin]zhuang1 man3 le5[/pinyin] - is full (of)\n甜蜜的 - [pinyin]tian2 mi4 de5[/pinyin] - sweet\n糖果, - [pinyin]tang2 guo3[/pinyin] - candy,\n也 - [pinyin]ye3[/pinyin] - also\n装满了 - [pinyin]zhuang1 man3 le5[/pinyin] - is full (of)\n许多 - [pinyin]xu3 duo1[/pinyin] - much\n忧伤 - [pinyin]you1 shang1[/pinyin] - distress.\n\nThe original is from a Chinese
essay composition site. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n五脏六腑 - [pinyin]wu5 zang4 liu4 fu3[/pinyin] - Five main organs (and six bowels) of Chinese medicine - heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys\n一清二楚 - [pinyin]yi1 qing1 er4 chu3[/pinyin] - Very clear\n丧命 - [pinyin]sang4 ming4[/pinyin] - Lose one\'s life\n嫩叶 - [pinyin]nen4 ye4[/pinyin] - Tender new leaves\n器官 - [pinyin]qi4 guan1[/pinyin] - Bodily organ\n清清爽爽 - [pinyin]qing1 qing1 shuang3 shuang3[/pinyin] - Fresh and cool\n巡查 - [pinyin]xun2 cha2[/pinyin] - Do one\'s rounds on patrol\n香味扑鼻 - [pinyin]xiang1 wei4 pu2 bi2[/pinyin] - Exotic odors assail the nostrils\n甘草 - [pinyin]gan1 cao3[/pinyin] - Licorice\n中毒 - [pinyin]zhong4 du2[/pinyin] - Be poisoned\n来不及 - [pinyin]lai2 bu5 ji2[/pinyin] - Not enough time to...\n解毒 - [pinyin]jie3 du2[/pinyin] - Detoxify\n拯救 - [pinyin]zheng3 jiu4[/pinyin] - To rescue\n牺牲 - [pinyin]xi1 sheng1[/pinyin] - Sacrifice oneself\n菩萨 - [pinyin]pu2 sa4[/pinyin] - Bodhisattva\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n童年仿佛是一条小船，里面装满了甜蜜的糖果，也装满了许多忧伤。\n\n我出生在一个幸福的六口之家。有爸爸、妈妈、爷爷、奶奶、姐姐，还有我。\n\n我四岁时，一个烈日炎炎的中午。爷爷、奶奶、妈妈和姐姐都忙着自己手中的活。爸爸抱上我去商店、给我买了很多糖果。回到家中，爸爸放下我，就去我们家的后院种苹果树去了。我也跟了过去，我问爸爸你在干什么？爸爸说：“我在种苹果树，到了秋天你就有苹果吃了。”爸爸还说：“你种什么种子就会长什么。”爸爸说完就回家喝茶去了。当时我心想如果把刚刚买的糖果种到土中，秋天不就有很多糖果了吗！\n\n我说做就做，我刨了个坑，把刚才剩下的糖果都放在坑里，用土埋了。我默默的许下愿说：“糖果快长！糖果快长！长成大树，长出很多很多糖果。”我把这个愿望告诉了爸爸，爸爸听了。大笑起来说：“糖果不会长出大树，也更不会长出糖果。”我听了爸爸话坐在地上大哭起来，我的糖果，我的糖果。爸爸赶快跑到我面前，抱起我说：“哦，不哭了小宝贝，爸爸给你买很多很多糖果。我听了就不哭了。\n\n如今我已经长大了，种糖果的傻事也不会再做了。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nChildhood seems like a boat that is full of sweet candy, but is also laden with grief. \n\nI was born into a happy six-person family. There\'s father, mother, grandpa, grandma, my elder sister and myself. \n\n[The story begins] when I was four, on a scorching afternoon. Grandpa, grandma, mother an dmy elder sister were all busy doing their own thing. Dad picked me up and carried me to the store, and bought me lots of candy. On the way back to the house, dad put me down, and went to our house\'s back garden to plant apple trees. I went with him, and asked him \'what are you doing\'? Father said: \"I\'m planting apple trees, when autumn arrives you\'ll have apples to eat.\" Father continued: \"Whatever seeds you plant will grow.\" Father finished speaking and went back into the house to drink tea. Then I thought to myself if I take the candy I just bought and plant it in the earth, in autumn I should have lots of candy! \n\n我说做就做，我刨了个坑，把刚才剩下的糖果都放在坑里，用土埋了。我默默的许下愿说：“糖果快长！糖果快长！长成大树，长出很多很多糖果。”我把这个愿望告诉了爸爸，爸爸听了。大笑起来说：“糖果不会长出大树，也更不会长出糖果。”我听了爸爸话坐在地上大哭起来，我的糖果，我的糖果。爸爸赶快跑到我面前，抱起我说：“哦，不哭了小宝贝，爸爸给你买很多很多糖果。我听了就不哭了。\n\n如今我已经长大了，种糖果的傻事也不会再做了。\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'A Foolish Affair from my Childhood', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1235-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-14 10:30:22', '2012-08-14 14:30:22', '', 1235, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/14/1235-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1237, 1, '2012-08-14 11:49:25', '2012-08-14 15:49:25', '', 'Chinese Essays for Beginners: Learn to Read Chinese Essays ', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120829', '', '', '2012-08-14 11:49:25', '2012-08-14 15:49:25', '', 1235, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120829.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1238, 1, '2012-08-14 11:49:31', '2012-08-14 15:49:31', '', 'Chinese Essays for Beginners: Learn to Read Chinese Essays ', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120829-inline', '', '', '2012-08-14 11:49:31', '2012-08-14 15:49:31', '', 1235, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120829-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1239, 1, '2012-08-14 10:30:24', '2012-08-14 14:30:24', '[two_third]\r\n
Chinese Title: 童年傻事\r\n\r\nThis essay about a kid who takes his father\'s advice a little too literally (with amusing results) is almost as beginner as a multi-paragraph read can get. You\'ll find very few intermediate-level words, and extremely basic sentence structure. \r\n\r\nOnly thing intermediate about this read is the very first sentence, which we\'ll talk about here. After this it\'s pretty easy going. The essay starts out 童年仿佛是一条小船，里面装满了甜蜜的糖果，也装满了许多忧伤。 Let\'s break this one down word by word:\r\n\r\n童年 - [pinyin]tong2 nian2[/pinyin] - Childhood\r\n仿佛 - [pinyin]fang3 fu2[/pinyin] - seems like\r\n是 - [pinyin]shi4[/pinyin] - [it] is\r\n一条 - [pinyin]yi1 tiao2[/pinyin] - a (literally: the word \"one\" plus the classifier for boats, which is 条)\r\n小船, - [pinyin]xiao3 chuan2[/pinyin] - boat,\r\n里面 - [pinyin]li3 mian4[/pinyin] - inside\r\n装满了 - [pinyin]zhuang1 man3 le5[/pinyin] - is full (of)\r\n甜蜜的 - [pinyin]tian2 mi4 de5[/pinyin] - sweet\r\n糖果, - [pinyin]tang2 guo3[/pinyin] - candy,\r\n也 - [pinyin]ye3[/pinyin] - also\r\n装满了 - [pinyin]zhuang1 man3 le5[/pinyin] - is full (of)\r\n许多 - [pinyin]xu3 duo1[/pinyin] - much\r\n忧伤 - [pinyin]you1 shang1[/pinyin] - distress.\r\n\r\nThe original is from a Chinese
essay composition site. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n五脏六腑 - [pinyin]wu5 zang4 liu4 fu3[/pinyin] - Five main organs (and six bowels) of Chinese medicine - heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys\r\n一清二楚 - [pinyin]yi1 qing1 er4 chu3[/pinyin] - Very clear\r\n丧命 - [pinyin]sang4 ming4[/pinyin] - Lose one\'s life\r\n嫩叶 - [pinyin]nen4 ye4[/pinyin] - Tender new leaves\r\n器官 - [pinyin]qi4 guan1[/pinyin] - Bodily organ\r\n清清爽爽 - [pinyin]qing1 qing1 shuang3 shuang3[/pinyin] - Fresh and cool\r\n巡查 - [pinyin]xun2 cha2[/pinyin] - Do one\'s rounds on patrol\r\n香味扑鼻 - [pinyin]xiang1 wei4 pu2 bi2[/pinyin] - Exotic odors assail the nostrils\r\n甘草 - [pinyin]gan1 cao3[/pinyin] - Licorice\r\n中毒 - [pinyin]zhong4 du2[/pinyin] - Be poisoned\r\n来不及 - [pinyin]lai2 bu5 ji2[/pinyin] - Not enough time to...\r\n解毒 - [pinyin]jie3 du2[/pinyin] - Detoxify\r\n拯救 - [pinyin]zheng3 jiu4[/pinyin] - To rescue\r\n牺牲 - [pinyin]xi1 sheng1[/pinyin] - Sacrifice oneself\r\n菩萨 - [pinyin]pu2 sa4[/pinyin] - Bodhisattva\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n童年仿佛是一条小船，里面装满了甜蜜的糖果，也装满了许多忧伤。\r\n\r\n我出生在一个幸福的六口之家。有爸爸、妈妈、爷爷、奶奶、姐姐，还有我。\r\n\r\n我四岁时，一个烈日炎炎的中午。爷爷、奶奶、妈妈和姐姐都忙着自己手中的活。爸爸抱上我去商店、给我买了很多糖果。回到家中，爸爸放下我，就去我们家的后院种苹果树去了。我也跟了过去，我问爸爸你在干什么？爸爸说：“我在种苹果树，到了秋天你就有苹果吃了。”爸爸还说：“你种什么种子就会长什么。”爸爸说完就回家喝茶去了。当时我心想如果把刚刚买的糖果种到土中，秋天不就有很多糖果了吗！\r\n\r\n我说做就做，我刨了个坑，把刚才剩下的糖果都放在坑里，用土埋了。我默默的许下愿说：“糖果快长！糖果快长！长成大树，长出很多很多糖果。”我把这个愿望告诉了爸爸，爸爸听了。大笑起来说：“糖果不会长出大树，也更不会长出糖果。”我听了爸爸话坐在地上大哭起来，我的糖果，我的糖果。爸爸赶快跑到我面前，抱起我说：“哦，不哭了小宝贝，爸爸给你买很多很多糖果。我听了就不哭了。\r\n\r\n如今我已经长大了，种糖果的傻事也不会再做了。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nChildhood seems like a boat that is full of sweet candy, but is also laden with grief. \r\n\r\nI was born into a happy six-person family. There\'s father, mother, grandpa, grandma, my elder sister and myself. \r\n\r\n[The story begins] when I was four, on a scorching afternoon. Grandpa, grandma, mother an dmy elder sister were all busy doing their own thing. Dad picked me up and carried me to the store, and bought me lots of candy. On the way back to the house, dad put me down, and went to our house\'s back garden to plant apple trees. I went with him, and asked him \'what are you doing\'? Father said: \"I\'m planting apple trees, when autumn arrives you\'ll have apples to eat.\" Father continued: \"Whatever seeds you plant will grow.\" Father finished speaking and went back into the house to drink tea. Then I thought to myself if I take the candy I just bought and plant it in the earth, in autumn I should have lots of candy! \r\n\r\n我说做就做，我刨了个坑，把刚才剩下的糖果都放在坑里，用土埋了。我默默的许下愿说：“糖果快长！糖果快长！长成大树，长出很多很多糖果。”我把这个愿望告诉了爸爸，爸爸听了。大笑起来说：“糖果不会长出大树，也更不会长出糖果。”我听了爸爸话坐在地上大哭起来，我的糖果，我的糖果。爸爸赶快跑到我面前，抱起我说：“哦，不哭了小宝贝，爸爸给你买很多很多糖果。我听了就不哭了。\r\n\r\n如今我已经长大了，种糖果的傻事也不会再做了。\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'A Foolish Affair from my Childhood', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1235-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-14 10:30:24', '2012-08-14 14:30:24', '', 1235, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/14/1235-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1724, 1, '2013-08-05 07:33:40', '2013-08-05 11:33:40', '[two_third]\r\n
Chinese Title: 拿到压岁钱以后\r\nFor those of you new to Chinese culture, one thing a Chinese child most looks forward to all year is the time during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) when they get to go ask their neighbors and other adults for red envelopes containing some money - it\'s a bit like trick-or-treating for cash. This essay is about what happened to one kid\'s Spring Festival haul. We\'ll cover a lot of beginner grammar here.\r\n\r\n
![\"How](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/20120910-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Learning")
I should probably talk about a couple of points before we dive in. One is the use of the word 玩. Describing what he (or she, perhaps) does on Chinese New Year, the author says he can 玩得快活 - \"play happily\". The Chinese don\'t use \"play\" the way we do. While they do use it to mean \"to play with toys\" as a child does, they also use it to mean going out (like adults going out on Saturday night), or friends going out to a mall to go shopping - it\'s really more of a blanket term better translated as \"having fun\". So the kid is not saying they necessarily only play with toys happily on Chinese New Year, but also maybe that they go hang out at parents\' friends houses, or whatever. It\'s not specified.\r\n\r\nAnother interesting point comes in here: 心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴 - \"In my heart I was extremely happy, but also very disappointed\". Note the use of the words 特别 and 很 - meaning \"extremely\" / \"very\" respectively. Thing is, in Chinese you can\'t use a word like \"happy\" or \"disappointed\" without balancing it with a word measuring how happy or disappointed you were. There\'s no way in general casual conversation to say \"I was happy\" - just regular ol\' happy. You can\'t, for example, say just \"我高兴“. Instead, say \"I was VERY happy\" 我很高兴, or \"extremely happy\" 我非常高兴 or \"exceedingly happy\" 高兴极了 or \"fairly happy\" 比较高兴 or whatever. So when we translate Chinese, we could actually drop the \"very\"s and \"extremely\"s and all that, because they have much less meaning in Mandarin then they do to us. This used to bug me a lot when speaking. I didn\'t
want to say I was \"very happy\" - I wasn\'t. I was just normally happy. But it was finally explained to me how little that \"very\" actually mattered. So bear that in mind. \r\n\r\nAnd another point: ...收到了700
余元... This means \"received over 700 yuan\". Notice that the word 余, which means \"over\" / \"more than\" is written
after the amount of money and
before the actual word \"yuan\". In English, this would be like saying \"received 700-plus dollars\". You could also say 收到了700
多元, which means the same thing. \r\n\r\nAnd finally: Beware the definition I give for the word 由 here. It\'s one of those grammar words that means a ton of different things in different contexts - kind of like how the English word \"to\" is hard to define and used often. In my definition list, I only ever show the definition relevant to this text, so you\'re going to see the word 由 in many contexts in many essays and it doesn\'t always mean what it means here. \r\n\r\nThe original is from my new favorite Chinese
essay composition site. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n过 - [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] - To celebrate\r\n不但...而且 - [pinyin]bu4 dan4...er2 qie3[/pinyin] - Not only [sthg], but also [sthg else]\r\n压岁钱 - [pinyin]ya1 sui4 qian2[/pinyin] - Money Chinese children get as presents during Chinese New Years\r\n以往 - [pinyin]yi3 wang3[/pinyin] - Before, previously\r\n上缴 - [pinyin]shang4 jiao3[/pinyin] - To give money up to higher authorities\r\n由 - [pinyin]you4[/pinyin] - To leave something to someone (to manage / handle)\r\n爽快 - [pinyin]shuang3 kuai5[/pinyin] - Straightforward\r\n肯德基 - [pinyin]ken3 de2 ji1[/pinyin] - Kentucky Fried Chicken\r\n苦思冥想 - [pinyin]ku3 si1 ming2 xiang3[/pinyin] - Rack one\'s brains\r\n订 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - To subscribe to (a newspaper / magazine)\r\n献 - [pinyin]xian4[/pinyin] - To donate\r\n勤俭节约 - [pinyin]qin2 jian3 jie2 jue1 [/pinyin] - Diligent and thrifty\r\n逐渐 - [pinyin]zhu2 jian4[/pinyin] - Gradually\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n我非常喜欢过新年，因为过年不但能穿新衣服，玩得快活，而且还能收到很多的压岁钱。今年我一下子就收到了700余元压岁钱，我拿着压岁钱，心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴，怕妈妈给收走了，以往的压岁钱都要上缴的，我就给妈妈商量：今年我刚满十岁，我已经长大了，希望这些压岁钱由我来保管，没想到妈妈很爽快的答应了，我心里乐的开了花。我拿到这些压岁钱，我应该怎样来花这些钱呢？买我喜欢的玩具、还有我最喜欢吃的肯德基？我苦思冥想了好几天，我打算用这些钱来买我喜欢的书籍、买一些学习用品或者订报纸、献爱心捐款......除了这些,我是决不乱花的。\r\n\r\n我觉得这样做，不但可以从小学会勤俭节约、不乱花钱的习惯，而且还可以使我学会管理、学会生活，这样才会使我逐渐成长起来。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n I really love New Year, because [during] New Year I can not only wear new clothes, and play happily, but also I can get a lot of New Year\'s money. This year in a short while I got more than 700 yuan, and holding that New Years\' money, in my heart I was extremely happy, but also my spirits were dampened, I was afraid mama would take it away from me, [because] in the past [I had to] give over my New Year\'s money to the higher authorities [author means his mother here, not God], so I discussed it with mom [thus]:
this year I\'m fully 10 years old, I\'m already a grown up, and I hope this New Year\'s money can be left under my care, but I never though she\'d agree so easily [lit: so frankly], and happiness bloomed in my heart like a flower. I held the New Year\'s money, but what should I spend this money on? Buy a toy I like, or my favorite thing to eat, Kentucky Fried Chicken? I racked my brains for several days, and decided to use the money to buy some books I liked, buy a few school supplies or to subscribe to a newspaper, and to make a charitable donation... apart from these things, I figured I\'d better not spend it recklessly [author likely means they won\'t spend the rest at all]. \r\n\r\nI though that doing it this way, I not only could learn to be diligent and thrifty starting in primary school, and develop careful spending habits, but also this could let me study money management, study life [skills], and this would finally let me gradually mature.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'After I Got My New Years\' Money', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1241-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-08-05 07:33:40', '2013-08-05 11:33:40', '', 1241, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/08/1241-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1241, 1, '2012-09-10 05:41:17', '2012-09-10 09:41:17', 'For those of you new to Chinese culture, one thing a Chinese child most looks forward to all year is the time during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) when they get to go ask their neighbors and other adults for red envelopes containing some money, referred to here as 压岁钱 [pinyin]ya1 sui4 qian2[/pinyin] - it\'s a bit like trick-or-treating for cash. This essay is about what happened to one kid\'s Spring Festival haul. We\'ll cover a lot of beginner grammar here.\r\n\r\n
\"Play\"
\r\nI should probably talk about a couple of points before we dive in. One is the use of the word 玩. Describing what he (or she, perhaps) does on Chinese New Year, the author says he can 玩得快活 - \"play happily\". The Chinese don\'t use \"play\" the way we do. While they do use it to mean \"to play with toys\" as a child does, they also use it to mean going out (like adults going out on Saturday night), or friends going out to a mall to go shopping - it\'s really more of a blanket term better translated as \"having fun\". So the kid is not saying they necessarily only play with toys happily on Chinese New Year, but also maybe that they go hang out at parents\' friends houses, or whatever. It\'s not specified.\r\n\r\n
Comparatives
\r\nAnother interesting point comes in here: 心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴 - \"In my heart I was extremely happy, but also very disappointed\". Note the use of the words 特别 and 很 - meaning \"extremely\" / \"very\" respectively. Thing is, in Chinese you can\'t use a word like \"happy\" or \"disappointed\" without balancing it with a word measuring how happy or disappointed you were. There\'s no way in general casual conversation to say \"I was happy\" - just regular ol\' happy. You can\'t, for example, say just \"我高兴“. Instead, say \"I was VERY happy\" 我很高兴, or \"extremely happy\" 我非常高兴 or \"exceedingly happy\" 高兴极了 or \"fairly happy\" 比较高兴 or whatever. So when we translate Chinese, we could actually drop the \"very\"s and \"extremely\"s and all that, because they have much less meaning in Mandarin then they do to us. This used to bug me a lot when speaking. I didn\'t
want to say I was \"very happy\" - I wasn\'t. I was just normally happy. But it was finally explained to me how little that \"very\" actually mattered. So bear that in mind. \r\n\r\n
余
\r\nAnd another point: ...收到了700
余元... This means \"received over 700 yuan\". Notice that the word 余, which means \"over\" / \"more than\" is written
after the amount of money and
before the actual word \"yuan\". In English, this would be like saying \"received 700-plus dollars\". You could also say 收到了700
多元, which means the same thing. \r\n\r\nThe original is from my new favorite Chinese
essay composition site. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n我非常喜欢过新年，因为过年不但能穿新衣服，玩得快活，而且还能收到很多的压岁钱。今年我一下子就收到了700余元压岁钱，我拿着压岁钱，心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴，怕妈妈给收走了，以往的压岁钱都要上缴的，我就给妈妈商量：今年我刚满十岁，我已经长大了，希望这些压岁钱由我来保管，没想到妈妈很爽快的答应了，我心里乐的开了花。我拿到这些压岁钱，我应该怎样来花这些钱呢？买我喜欢的玩具、还有我最喜欢吃的肯德基？我苦思冥想了好几天，我打算用这些钱来买我喜欢的书籍、买一些学习用品或者订报纸、献爱心捐款......除了这些,我是决不乱花的。\r\n\r\n我觉得这样做，不但可以从小学会勤俭节约、不乱花钱的习惯，而且还可以使我学会管理、学会生活，这样才会使我逐渐成长起来。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nI really love New Year, because [during] New Year I can not only wear new clothes, and play happily, but also I can get a lot of New Year\'s money. This year in a short while I got more than 700 yuan, and holding that New Years\' money, in my heart I was extremely happy, but also my spirits were dampened, I was afraid mama would take it away from me, [because] in the past [I had to] give over my New Year\'s money to the higher authorities [author means his mother here, not God], so I discussed it with mom [thus]:
this year I\'m fully 10 years old, I\'m already a grown up, and I hope this New Year\'s money can be left under my care, but I never though she\'d agree so easily [lit: so frankly], and happiness bloomed in my heart like a flower. I held the New Year\'s money, but what should I spend this money on? Buy a toy I like, or my favorite thing to eat, Kentucky Fried Chicken? I racked my brains for several days, and decided to use the money to buy some books I liked, buy a few school supplies or to subscribe to a newspaper, and to make a charitable donation... apart from these things, I figured I\'d better not spend it recklessly [author likely means they won\'t spend the rest at all]. \r\n\r\nI though that doing it this way, I not only could learn to be diligent and thrifty starting in primary school, and develop careful spending habits, but also this could let me study money management, study life [skills], and this would finally let me gradually mature.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essay] 拿到压岁钱以后 - After I Got My New Years\' Money', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'after-i-got-my-new-years-money', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:54:59', '2016-11-05 03:54:59', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1241', 0, 'post', '', 19),
(2143, 1, '2016-11-04 23:54:59', '2016-11-05 03:54:59', 'For those of you new to Chinese culture, one thing a Chinese child most looks forward to all year is the time during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) when they get to go ask their neighbors and other adults for red envelopes containing some money, referred to here as 压岁钱 [pinyin]ya1 sui4 qian2[/pinyin] - it\'s a bit like trick-or-treating for cash. This essay is about what happened to one kid\'s Spring Festival haul. We\'ll cover a lot of beginner grammar here.\r\n\r\n
\"Play\"
\r\nI should probably talk about a couple of points before we dive in. One is the use of the word 玩. Describing what he (or she, perhaps) does on Chinese New Year, the author says he can 玩得快活 - \"play happily\". The Chinese don\'t use \"play\" the way we do. While they do use it to mean \"to play with toys\" as a child does, they also use it to mean going out (like adults going out on Saturday night), or friends going out to a mall to go shopping - it\'s really more of a blanket term better translated as \"having fun\". So the kid is not saying they necessarily only play with toys happily on Chinese New Year, but also maybe that they go hang out at parents\' friends houses, or whatever. It\'s not specified.\r\n\r\n
Comparatives
\r\nAnother interesting point comes in here: 心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴 - \"In my heart I was extremely happy, but also very disappointed\". Note the use of the words 特别 and 很 - meaning \"extremely\" / \"very\" respectively. Thing is, in Chinese you can\'t use a word like \"happy\" or \"disappointed\" without balancing it with a word measuring how happy or disappointed you were. There\'s no way in general casual conversation to say \"I was happy\" - just regular ol\' happy. You can\'t, for example, say just \"我高兴“. Instead, say \"I was VERY happy\" 我很高兴, or \"extremely happy\" 我非常高兴 or \"exceedingly happy\" 高兴极了 or \"fairly happy\" 比较高兴 or whatever. So when we translate Chinese, we could actually drop the \"very\"s and \"extremely\"s and all that, because they have much less meaning in Mandarin then they do to us. This used to bug me a lot when speaking. I didn\'t
want to say I was \"very happy\" - I wasn\'t. I was just normally happy. But it was finally explained to me how little that \"very\" actually mattered. So bear that in mind. \r\n\r\n
余
\r\nAnd another point: ...收到了700
余元... This means \"received over 700 yuan\". Notice that the word 余, which means \"over\" / \"more than\" is written
after the amount of money and
before the actual word \"yuan\". In English, this would be like saying \"received 700-plus dollars\". You could also say 收到了700
多元, which means the same thing. \r\n\r\nThe original is from my new favorite Chinese
essay composition site. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n我非常喜欢过新年，因为过年不但能穿新衣服，玩得快活，而且还能收到很多的压岁钱。今年我一下子就收到了700余元压岁钱，我拿着压岁钱，心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴，怕妈妈给收走了，以往的压岁钱都要上缴的，我就给妈妈商量：今年我刚满十岁，我已经长大了，希望这些压岁钱由我来保管，没想到妈妈很爽快的答应了，我心里乐的开了花。我拿到这些压岁钱，我应该怎样来花这些钱呢？买我喜欢的玩具、还有我最喜欢吃的肯德基？我苦思冥想了好几天，我打算用这些钱来买我喜欢的书籍、买一些学习用品或者订报纸、献爱心捐款......除了这些,我是决不乱花的。\r\n\r\n我觉得这样做，不但可以从小学会勤俭节约、不乱花钱的习惯，而且还可以使我学会管理、学会生活，这样才会使我逐渐成长起来。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nI really love New Year, because [during] New Year I can not only wear new clothes, and play happily, but also I can get a lot of New Year\'s money. This year in a short while I got more than 700 yuan, and holding that New Years\' money, in my heart I was extremely happy, but also my spirits were dampened, I was afraid mama would take it away from me, [because] in the past [I had to] give over my New Year\'s money to the higher authorities [author means his mother here, not God], so I discussed it with mom [thus]:
this year I\'m fully 10 years old, I\'m already a grown up, and I hope this New Year\'s money can be left under my care, but I never though she\'d agree so easily [lit: so frankly], and happiness bloomed in my heart like a flower. I held the New Year\'s money, but what should I spend this money on? Buy a toy I like, or my favorite thing to eat, Kentucky Fried Chicken? I racked my brains for several days, and decided to use the money to buy some books I liked, buy a few school supplies or to subscribe to a newspaper, and to make a charitable donation... apart from these things, I figured I\'d better not spend it recklessly [author likely means they won\'t spend the rest at all]. \r\n\r\nI though that doing it this way, I not only could learn to be diligent and thrifty starting in primary school, and develop careful spending habits, but also this could let me study money management, study life [skills], and this would finally let me gradually mature.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essay] 拿到压岁钱以后 - After I Got My New Years\' Money', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1241-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:54:59', '2016-11-05 03:54:59', '', 1241, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1241-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1725, 1, '2016-10-31 03:12:49', '2016-10-31 07:12:49', 'For those of you new to Chinese culture, one thing a Chinese child most looks forward to all year is the time during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) when they get to go ask their neighbors and other adults for red envelopes containing some money - it\'s a bit like trick-or-treating for cash. This essay is about what happened to one kid\'s Spring Festival haul. We\'ll cover a lot of beginner grammar here.\r\n\r\n
I should probably talk about a couple of points before we dive in. One is the use of the word 玩. Describing what he (or she, perhaps) does on Chinese New Year, the author says he can 玩得快活 - \"play happily\". The Chinese don\'t use \"play\" the way we do. While they do use it to mean \"to play with toys\" as a child does, they also use it to mean going out (like adults going out on Saturday night), or friends going out to a mall to go shopping - it\'s really more of a blanket term better translated as \"having fun\". So the kid is not saying they necessarily only play with toys happily on Chinese New Year, but also maybe that they go hang out at parents\' friends houses, or whatever. It\'s not specified.\r\n\r\nAnother interesting point comes in here: 心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴 - \"In my heart I was extremely happy, but also very disappointed\". Note the use of the words 特别 and 很 - meaning \"extremely\" / \"very\" respectively. Thing is, in Chinese you can\'t use a word like \"happy\" or \"disappointed\" without balancing it with a word measuring how happy or disappointed you were. There\'s no way in general casual conversation to say \"I was happy\" - just regular ol\' happy. You can\'t, for example, say just \"我高兴“. Instead, say \"I was VERY happy\" 我很高兴, or \"extremely happy\" 我非常高兴 or \"exceedingly happy\" 高兴极了 or \"fairly happy\" 比较高兴 or whatever. So when we translate Chinese, we could actually drop the \"very\"s and \"extremely\"s and all that, because they have much less meaning in Mandarin then they do to us. This used to bug me a lot when speaking. I didn\'t
want to say I was \"very happy\" - I wasn\'t. I was just normally happy. But it was finally explained to me how little that \"very\" actually mattered. So bear that in mind. \r\n\r\nAnd another point: ...收到了700
余元... This means \"received over 700 yuan\". Notice that the word 余, which means \"over\" / \"more than\" is written
after the amount of money and
before the actual word \"yuan\". In English, this would be like saying \"received 700-plus dollars\". You could also say 收到了700
多元, which means the same thing. \r\n\r\nAnd finally: Beware the definition I give for the word 由 here. It\'s one of those grammar words that means a ton of different things in different contexts - kind of like how the English word \"to\" is hard to define and used often. In my definition list, I only ever show the definition relevant to this text, so you\'re going to see the word 由 in many contexts in many essays and it doesn\'t always mean what it means here. \r\n\r\nThe original is from my new favorite Chinese
essay composition site. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n我非常喜欢过新年，因为过年不但能穿新衣服，玩得快活，而且还能收到很多的压岁钱。今年我一下子就收到了700余元压岁钱，我拿着压岁钱，心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴，怕妈妈给收走了，以往的压岁钱都要上缴的，我就给妈妈商量：今年我刚满十岁，我已经长大了，希望这些压岁钱由我来保管，没想到妈妈很爽快的答应了，我心里乐的开了花。我拿到这些压岁钱，我应该怎样来花这些钱呢？买我喜欢的玩具、还有我最喜欢吃的肯德基？我苦思冥想了好几天，我打算用这些钱来买我喜欢的书籍、买一些学习用品或者订报纸、献爱心捐款......除了这些,我是决不乱花的。\r\n\r\n我觉得这样做，不但可以从小学会勤俭节约、不乱花钱的习惯，而且还可以使我学会管理、学会生活，这样才会使我逐渐成长起来。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n I really love New Year, because [during] New Year I can not only wear new clothes, and play happily, but also I can get a lot of New Year\'s money. This year in a short while I got more than 700 yuan, and holding that New Years\' money, in my heart I was extremely happy, but also my spirits were dampened, I was afraid mama would take it away from me, [because] in the past [I had to] give over my New Year\'s money to the higher authorities [author means his mother here, not God], so I discussed it with mom [thus]:
this year I\'m fully 10 years old, I\'m already a grown up, and I hope this New Year\'s money can be left under my care, but I never though she\'d agree so easily [lit: so frankly], and happiness bloomed in my heart like a flower. I held the New Year\'s money, but what should I spend this money on? Buy a toy I like, or my favorite thing to eat, Kentucky Fried Chicken? I racked my brains for several days, and decided to use the money to buy some books I liked, buy a few school supplies or to subscribe to a newspaper, and to make a charitable donation... apart from these things, I figured I\'d better not spend it recklessly [author likely means they won\'t spend the rest at all]. \r\n\r\nI though that doing it this way, I not only could learn to be diligent and thrifty starting in primary school, and develop careful spending habits, but also this could let me study money management, study life [skills], and this would finally let me gradually mature.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essay] 拿到压岁钱以后 - After I Got My New Years\' Money', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1241-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:12:49', '2016-10-31 07:12:49', '', 1241, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1241-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1242, 1, '2012-08-16 10:47:17', '2012-08-16 14:47:17', '', 'Auto Draft', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1241-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-16 10:47:17', '2012-08-16 14:47:17', '', 1241, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/16/1241-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1246, 1, '2012-08-20 13:06:44', '2012-08-20 17:06:44', '[two_third]\n
Chinese Title: 拿到压岁钱以后\nFor those of you new to Chinese culture, one thing a Chinese child most looks forward to all year is the time during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) when they get to go ask their neighbors and other adults for red envelopes containing some money - it\'s a bit like trick-or-treating for cash. This essay is about what happened to one kid\'s Spring Festival haul. \n\nI should probably talk about a couple of points before we dive in. One is the use of the word 玩. Describing what he (or she, perhaps) does on Chinese New Year, the author says he can 玩得快活 - \"play happily\". The Chinese don\'t use \"play\" the way we do. While they do use it to mean \"to play with toys\" as a child does, they also use it to mean going out (like adults going out on Saturday night), or friends going out to a mall to go shopping - it\'s really more of a blanket term better translated as \"having fun\". So the kid is not saying they necessarily only play with toys happily on Chinese New Year, but also maybe that they go hang out at parents\' friends houses, or whatever. It\'s not specified.\n\nAnother interesting point comes in here: 心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴 - \"In my heart I was extremely happy, but also very disappointed\". Note the use of the words 特别 and 很 - meaning \"extremely\" / \"very\" respectively. Thing is, in Chinese you can\'t use a word like \"happy\" or \"disappointed\" without balancing it with a word measuring how happy or disappointed you were. There\'s no way in general casual conversation to say \"I was happy\" - just regular ol\' happy. You can\'t, for example, say just \"我高兴“. Instead, say \"I was VERY happy\" 我很高兴, or \"extremely happy\" 我非常高兴 or \"exceedingly happy\" 高兴极了 or \"fairly happy\" 比较高兴 or whatever. So when we translate Chinese, we could actually drop the \"very\"s and \"extremely\"s and all that, because they have much less meaning in Mandarin then they do to us. This used to bug me a lot when speaking. I didn\'t
want to say I was \"very happy\" - I wasn\'t. I was just normally happy. But it was finally explained to me how little that \"very\" actually mattered. \n\nChinese is bad for run-on sentences - there are many cases when they use a comma when we\'d use a period, but the first paragraph of this contains one of the longest run-ons I\'ve ever seen. \n\nThe original is from my new favorite Chinese
essay composition site. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n烈日 - [pinyin]lie4 ri4[/pinyin] - Scorching sun\n炎炎 - [pinyin]yan2 yan2[/pinyin] - Scorching\n抱上 - [pinyin]bao4 shang4[/pinyin] - Pick up (the way one picks up a child, encircling them with both arms)\n糖果 - [pinyin]tang2 guo3[/pinyin] - Candy \n种 - [pinyin]zhong4[/pinyin] - To plant (eg. vegetable seeds)\n种子 - [pinyin]zhong3 zi5[/pinyin] - A seed\n心想 - [pinyin]xin1 xiang3[/pinyin] - Think to oneself\n刨 - [pinyin]pao2[/pinyin] - To dig\n坑 - [pinyin]keng1[/pinyin] - Hole\n埋 - [pinyin]mai2[/pinyin] - To bury\n默默 - [pinyin]mo4 mo4[/pinyin] - Without speaking\n宝贝 - [pinyin]bao3 bei4[/pinyin] - \"Baby\", \"Darling\" - term of endearment\n如今 - [pinyin]ru2 jin1[/pinyin] - Nowadays\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n我非常喜欢过新年，因为过年不但能穿新衣服，玩得快活，而且还能收到很多的压岁钱。今年我一下子就收到了700余元压岁钱，我拿着压岁钱，心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴，怕妈妈给收走了，以往的压岁钱都要上缴的，我就给妈妈商量：今年我刚满十岁，我已经长大了，希望这些压岁钱由我来保管，没想到妈妈很爽快的答应了，我心里乐的开了花。我拿到这些压岁钱，我应该怎样来花这些钱呢？买我喜欢的玩具、还有我最喜欢吃的肯德基？我苦思冥想了好几天，我打算用这些钱来买我喜欢的书籍、买一些学习用品或者订报纸、献爱心捐款......除了这些,我是决不乱花的。\n\n 我决得这样做，不但可以从小学会勤俭节约、不乱花钱的习惯，而且还可以使我学会管理、学会生活，这样才会使我逐渐成长起来。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n I really love New Year, because [during] New Year I can not only wear new clothes, and play happily, but also I can get a lot of New Year\'s money. This year in a short while I got more than 700 yuan, and holding that New Years\' money, in my heart I was extremely happy, but also my spirits were dampened, I was afraid mama would take it away from me, [because] in the past [I had to] give over my New Year\'s money to the higher authorities [author means his mother here, not God], so I discussed it with mom [thus]:
this year I\'m fully 10 years old, I\'m already a grown up, and I hope this New Year\'s money can be left under my care, but I never though she\'d agree so easily [lit: so frankly], and happiness bloomed in my heart like a flower. I held the New Year\'s money, but what should I spend this money on? Buy a toy I like, or my favorite Kentucky Fried Chicken? I racked my brains for several days, and decided to use the money to buy some books I liked, buy a few school supplies or to subscribe to a newspaper, and to make a charitable donation... apart from these things, I figured I\'d better not spend it recklessly [author likely means they won\'t spend the rest at all]. \n\nI though that doing it this way, I not only could learn to be diligent and thrifty starting in primary school, and develop careful spending habits, but also this could let me study money management, study life [skills?], and this would finally let me gradually mature.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'After I Got My New Years\' Money', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1241-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-20 13:06:44', '2012-08-20 17:06:44', '', 1241, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/20/1241-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1243, 1, '2012-08-14 01:07:15', '2012-08-14 05:07:15', '[two_third]\r\nThis excerpt is one of the Tiger Team supernatural mystery novels for adolescents. The Tiger Team series was originally created in German by author
Thomas C. Brezina, and features a band of young detectives: Jupiter Katz, son of a supernatural researcher Erasmus Katz, Jupiter\'s cousin Vicky and Vicky\'s little brother Nick. This is listed as \"advanced\" not necessarily because of the vocabulary - which isn\'t terribly difficult - but also because some of the sentence structures aren\'t very straightforward. This is the easy end of the advanced spectrum, so if you think you might be an advanced reader, try this.\r\n\r\n
I found this Chinese translation of the Tiger Team novel \"Ghost Hotel\" in my local bookstore, and I\'ve manually typed in the first few paragraphs of the book, which describe a dilapidated, mostly-abandoned hotel, where most of the novel takes place. This is interesting practice in reading longer descriptions, and includes many words that are strictly book-language: you\'re not likely to run into them in daily conversation. There\'s probably an actual English version of this book, but I can\'t easily get my hands on this, so bear in mind you\'re not reading the official English translation.
Here\'s the Chinese version on Amazon China. \r\n\r\nThere are a couple of difficult passages here that don\'t quite mean what they seem to mean. One is 木条都不知下落了. Originally, I read this as \"wooden slats scattered here and there\", or literally \"wooden slats fallen down in who knows how many places\". But thanks to my Chinese friend Anna, I learned that 下落, in this case, doesn\'t mean \"fall down\". It means \"where is it?\" (the same as 在哪儿). So 不知下落 actually means \"to be missing\", or \"to be gone to who knows where\". \r\n\r\nAnother phrase I should note is 数目远远大于实际需要, \"an amount (数目) far (远远) greater (大于) than actually (实际) needed (需要)\". 大于 was a new word for me, and I didn\'t know that 远远 - meaning \"far away\" - can also sometimes be used the same way in Chinese as in English, to mean \"very\" (example:
far above the normal amount). \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n狭窄 - [pinyin]xia2 zhai3[/pinyin] - Narrow\r\n穹顶 - [pinyin]qiong2 ding3[/pinyin] - Domed / vaulted roof\r\n尖塔 - [pinyin]jian1 ta3[/pinyin] - Minaret\r\n灰蒙蒙 - [pinyin]hui1 meng1 meng1[/pinyin] - Dusky\r\n戳 - [pinyin]chuo1[/pinyin] - poke, stab\r\n矗立 - [pinyin]chu4 li4[/pinyin] - To tower (of buildings)\r\n孤零零 - [pinyin]gu1 ling2 ling2[/pinyin] - Solitary\r\n山丘 - [pinyin]shan1 qiu1[/pinyin] - Hill\r\n光秃秃 - [pinyin]guang1 tu1 tu1[/pinyin] - Bare, bald\r\n杂草 - [pinyin]za2 cao3[/pinyin] - Weeds\r\n掩埋 - [pinyin]yan3 mai2[/pinyin] - Bury\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n那栋房子是木质结构的， 看起来就像是婚礼蛋糕。 它总共有四层，越向上越狭窄，所以最高的那层就只是一座带有小小玻璃穹顶的尖塔了。\r\n\r\n灰蒙蒙的木头外墙已经腐朽不堪， 黑色的穹顶上好像也被戳了好几个窟窿。\r\n\r\n窗户都是拱形，数目远远大于实际需要，上面还钉了好多木条。\r\n\r\n这栋房子从1911年起就矗立在这座孤零零的山丘上。有时候，附近的农民发现这栋房子会像磁铁一样，吸引着乌云，雷电，冰雹和风雨。\r\n\r\n如果谁在夏天的时候走近这栋房子，就会发现这里奇特现象：房子周围为数不多的那几棵树都是光秃秃的。 树枝如同黝黑的手臂， 高高地指向天空。\r\n\r\n这块地被低矮的木栅栏圈在当中， 有几处已经被人损坏， 木条都不知下落了。 甚至， 有的地方已经完全被杂草所掩埋。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe building was constructed of wood, and looked like a wedding cake. Altogether, it had four floors, each narrower than the one below, so the topmost floor was just a small minaret topped with a glass dome. \r\n\r\nThe gloomy outer wall was already in a state of extreme disrepair, and the dark and the vaulted roof looked as if it had been stabbed full of holes. \r\n\r\nThe windows were all arched, there were far more of them than actually necessary, and they had wooden boards nailed over them. \r\n\r\nThe house had towered atop this isolated hill since 1911. Sometimes, the nearby villagers would find that the building was like a magnet, attracting dark clouds, lightening, hail, wind and rain. \r\n\r\nIf anyone walked near the house during summer, they would discover a strange phenomenon: the few surrounding trees were all bare. The tree branches were like dark arms, pointing tall towards the sky. \r\n\r\nThe land was encircled by a low fence, which had been broken in several places, and the wooden slats were missing. It was in such a state that some parts of it had even been completely buried by weeds. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Excerpt from Tiger Team: Ghost Hotel', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1209-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-14 01:07:15', '2012-08-14 05:07:15', '', 1209, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/14/1209-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1244, 1, '2012-08-16 21:55:05', '2012-08-17 01:55:05', '[two_third]\r\nThis excerpt is one of the Tiger Team supernatural mystery novels for adolescents. The Tiger Team series was originally created in German by author
Thomas C. Brezina, and features a band of young detectives: Jupiter Katz, son of a supernatural researcher Erasmus Katz, Jupiter\'s cousin Vicky and Vicky\'s little brother Nick. This is listed as \"advanced\" not necessarily because of the vocabulary - which isn\'t terribly difficult - but also because some of the sentence structures aren\'t very straightforward. This is the easy end of the advanced spectrum, so if you think you might be an advanced reader, try this.\r\n\r\n
I found this Chinese translation of the Tiger Team novel \"Ghost Hotel\" in my local bookstore, and I\'ve manually typed in the first few paragraphs of the book, which describe a dilapidated, mostly-abandoned hotel, where most of the novel takes place. This is interesting practice in reading longer descriptions, and includes many words that are strictly book-language: you\'re not likely to run into them in daily conversation. There\'s probably an actual English version of this book, but I can\'t easily get my hands on this, so bear in mind you\'re not reading the official English translation.
Here\'s the Chinese version on Amazon China. \r\n\r\nThere are a couple of difficult passages here that don\'t quite mean what they seem to mean. One is 木条都不知下落了. Originally, I read this as \"wooden slats scattered here and there\", or literally \"wooden slats fallen down in who knows how many places\". But thanks to my Chinese friend Anna, I learned that 下落, in this case, doesn\'t mean \"fall down\". It means \"where is it?\" (the same as 在哪儿). So 不知下落 actually means \"to be missing\", or \"to be gone to who knows where\". \r\n\r\nAnother phrase I should note is 数目远远大于实际需要, \"an amount (数目) far (远远) greater (大于) than actually (实际) needed (需要)\". 大于 was a new word for me, and I didn\'t know that 远远 - meaning \"far away\" - can also sometimes be used the same way in Chinese as in English, to mean \"very\" (example:
far above the normal amount). \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n狭窄 - [pinyin]xia2 zhai3[/pinyin] - Narrow\r\n穹顶 - [pinyin]qiong2 ding3[/pinyin] - Domed / vaulted roof\r\n尖塔 - [pinyin]jian1 ta3[/pinyin] - Minaret\r\n灰蒙蒙 - [pinyin]hui1 meng1 meng1[/pinyin] - Dusky\r\n戳 - [pinyin]chuo1[/pinyin] - poke, stab\r\n矗立 - [pinyin]chu4 li4[/pinyin] - To tower (of buildings)\r\n孤零零 - [pinyin]gu1 ling2 ling2[/pinyin] - Solitary\r\n山丘 - [pinyin]shan1 qiu1[/pinyin] - Hill\r\n光秃秃 - [pinyin]guang1 tu1 tu1[/pinyin] - Bare, bald\r\n杂草 - [pinyin]za2 cao3[/pinyin] - Weeds\r\n掩埋 - [pinyin]yan3 mai2[/pinyin] - Bury\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n那栋房子是木质结构的， 看起来就像是婚礼蛋糕。 它总共有四层，越向上越狭窄，所以最高的那层就只是一座带有小小玻璃穹顶的尖塔了。\r\n\r\n灰蒙蒙的木头外墙已经腐朽不堪， 黑色的穹顶上好像也被戳了好几个窟窿。\r\n\r\n窗户都是拱形，数目远远大于实际需要，上面还钉了好多木条。\r\n\r\n这栋房子从1911年起就矗立在这座孤零零的山丘上。有时候，附近的农民发现这栋房子会像磁铁一样，吸引着乌云，雷电，冰雹和风雨。\r\n\r\n如果谁在夏天的时候走近这栋房子，就会发现这里奇特现象：房子周围为数不多的那几棵树都是光秃秃的。 树枝如同黝黑的手臂， 高高地指向天空。\r\n\r\n这块地被低矮的木栅栏圈在当中， 有几处已经被人损坏， 木条都不知下落了。 甚至， 有的地方已经完全被杂草所掩埋。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe building was constructed of wood, and looked like a wedding cake. Altogether, it had four floors, each narrower than the one below, so the topmost floor was just a small minaret topped with a glass dome. \r\n\r\nThe gloomy outer wall was already in a state of extreme disrepair, and the dark and the vaulted roof looked as if it had been stabbed full of holes. \r\n\r\nThe windows were all arched, there were far more of them than actually necessary, and they had wooden boards nailed over them. \r\n\r\nThe house had towered atop this isolated hill since 1911. Sometimes, the nearby villagers would find that the building was like a magnet, attracting dark clouds, lightening, hail, wind and rain. \r\n\r\nIf anyone walked near the house during summer, they would discover a strange phenomenon: the few surrounding trees were all bare. The tree branches were like dark arms, pointing tall towards the sky. \r\n\r\nThe land was encircled by a low fence, which had been broken in several places, and the wooden slats were missing. It was in such a state that some parts of it had even been completely buried by weeds. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Excerpt from Tiger Team: Ghost Hotel', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1209-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-16 21:55:05', '2012-08-17 01:55:05', '', 1209, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/16/1209-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1245, 1, '2012-08-16 21:55:18', '2012-08-17 01:55:18', '[two_third]\r\nThis excerpt is one of the Tiger Team supernatural mystery novels for adolescents. The Tiger Team series was originally created in German by author
Thomas C. Brezina, and features a band of young detectives: Jupiter Katz, son of a supernatural researcher Erasmus Katz, Jupiter\'s cousin Vicky and Vicky\'s little brother Nick. This is listed as \"advanced\" not necessarily because of the vocabulary - which isn\'t terribly difficult - but also because some of the sentence structures aren\'t very straightforward. This is the easy end of the advanced spectrum, so if you think you might be an advanced reader, try this.\r\n\r\n
I found this Chinese translation of the Tiger Team novel \"Ghost Hotel\" in my local bookstore, and I\'ve manually typed in the first few paragraphs of the book, which describe a dilapidated, mostly-abandoned hotel, where most of the novel takes place. This is interesting practice in reading longer descriptions, and includes many words that are strictly book-language: you\'re not likely to run into them in daily conversation. There\'s probably an actual English version of this book, but I can\'t easily get my hands on this, so bear in mind you\'re not reading the official English translation.
Here\'s the Chinese version on Amazon China. \r\n\r\nThere are a couple of difficult passages here that don\'t quite mean what they seem to mean. One is 木条都不知下落了. Originally, I read this as \"wooden slats scattered here and there\", or literally \"wooden slats fallen down in who knows how many places\". But thanks to my Chinese friend Anna, I learned that 下落, in this case, doesn\'t mean \"fall down\". It means \"where is it?\" (the same as 在哪儿). So 不知下落 actually means \"to be missing\", or \"to be gone to who knows where\". \r\n\r\nAnother phrase I should note is 数目远远大于实际需要, \"an amount (数目) far (远远) greater (大于) than actually (实际) needed (需要)\". 大于 was a new word for me, and I didn\'t know that 远远 - meaning \"far away\" - can also sometimes be used the same way in Chinese as in English, to mean \"very\" (example:
far above the normal amount). \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n狭窄 - [pinyin]xia2 zhai3[/pinyin] - Narrow\r\n穹顶 - [pinyin]qiong2 ding3[/pinyin] - Domed / vaulted roof\r\n尖塔 - [pinyin]jian1 ta3[/pinyin] - Minaret\r\n灰蒙蒙 - [pinyin]hui1 meng1 meng1[/pinyin] - Dusky\r\n戳 - [pinyin]chuo1[/pinyin] - poke, stab\r\n矗立 - [pinyin]chu4 li4[/pinyin] - To tower (of buildings)\r\n孤零零 - [pinyin]gu1 ling2 ling2[/pinyin] - Solitary\r\n山丘 - [pinyin]shan1 qiu1[/pinyin] - Hill\r\n光秃秃 - [pinyin]guang1 tu1 tu1[/pinyin] - Bare, bald\r\n杂草 - [pinyin]za2 cao3[/pinyin] - Weeds\r\n掩埋 - [pinyin]yan3 mai2[/pinyin] - Bury\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n那栋房子是木质结构的， 看起来就像是婚礼蛋糕。 它总共有四层，越向上越狭窄，所以最高的那层就只是一座带有小小玻璃穹顶的尖塔了。\r\n\r\n灰蒙蒙的木头外墙已经腐朽不堪， 黑色的穹顶上好像也被戳了好几个窟窿。\r\n\r\n窗户都是拱形，数目远远大于实际需要，上面还钉了好多木条。\r\n\r\n这栋房子从1911年起就矗立在这座孤零零的山丘上。有时候，附近的农民发现这栋房子会像磁铁一样，吸引着乌云，雷电，冰雹和风雨。\r\n\r\n如果谁在夏天的时候走近这栋房子，就会发现这里奇特现象：房子周围为数不多的那几棵树都是光秃秃的。 树枝如同黝黑的手臂， 高高地指向天空。\r\n\r\n这块地被低矮的木栅栏圈在当中， 有几处已经被人损坏， 木条都不知下落了。 甚至， 有的地方已经完全被杂草所掩埋。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe building was constructed of wood, and looked like a wedding cake. Altogether, it had four floors, each narrower than the one below, so the topmost floor was just a small minaret topped with a glass dome. \r\n\r\nThe gloomy outer wall was already in a state of extreme disrepair, and the dark and the vaulted roof looked as if it had been stabbed full of holes. \r\n\r\nThe windows were all arched, there were far more of them than actually necessary, and they had wooden boards nailed over them. \r\n\r\nThe house had towered atop this isolated hill since 1911. Sometimes, the nearby villagers would find that the building was like a magnet, attracting dark clouds, lightening, hail, wind and rain. \r\n\r\nIf anyone walked near the house during summer, they would discover a strange phenomenon: the few surrounding trees were all bare. The tree branches were like dark arms, pointing tall towards the sky. \r\n\r\nThe land was encircled by a low fence, which had been broken in several places, and the wooden slats were missing. It was in such a state that some parts of it had even been completely buried by weeds. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Excerpt from Tiger Team: Ghost Hotel', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1209-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-16 21:55:18', '2012-08-17 01:55:18', '', 1209, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/16/1209-revision-7/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1247, 1, '2012-08-14 03:32:12', '2012-08-14 07:32:12', '[two_third]\r\n
Chinese Title: 神农尝百草\r\n\r\nA cool introduction to one of the lesser-known deities, Shen Nong 神农 [pinyin]shen2 nong2[/pinyin], the God of Agriculture (and later called the Bodhisattva of Medicine). This is upper-intermediate reading: expect a lot of new words (mostly relating to plants and Chinese medicine) but intermediate sentence structure, and sentences mostly communicate a complete point. \r\n\r\n
Shen Nong, we are to understand, had a transparent abdomen so all his innards could be seen from the outside (yes, the first sentence
does say \'Shen Nong had a crystal belly\'), and he always carried two bags with him - read the story to find out what the bags were for.\r\n\r\nWe touch on the origins of some well-known plants (one of which is poorly described, I think), but the last paragraph talks about the herb \"heartbreak grass\" - 断肠草 [pinyin]duan4 chang2 cao3[/pinyin] - which I\'d never heard of and which is not a common plant. The English botanical name is
Gelsemium elegans (yeah, no idea), which according to the abstract of
one study is \"a toxic plant indigenous to southeastern Asia, well known among hill tribes as an effective means for committing suicide\". So a very potent poison, then.\r\n\r\nOriginal post was found on
a cool mythology and fable website - you may find some other interesting stuff there. I made a tiny edit from the original to correct a mistake.\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n五脏六腑 - [pinyin]wu5 zang4 liu4 fu3[/pinyin] - Five main organs (and six bowels) of Chinese medicine - heart, liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys\r\n一清二楚 - [pinyin]yi1 qing1 er4 chu3[/pinyin] - Very clear\r\n丧命 - [pinyin]sang4 ming4[/pinyin] - Lose one\'s life\r\n嫩叶 - [pinyin]nen4 ye4[/pinyin] - Tender new leaves\r\n器官 - [pinyin]qi4 guan1[/pinyin] - Bodily organ\r\n清清爽爽 - [pinyin]qing1 qing1 shuang3 shuang3[/pinyin] - Fresh and cool\r\n巡查 - [pinyin]xun2 cha2[/pinyin] - Do one\'s rounds on patrol\r\n香味扑鼻 - [pinyin]xiang1 wei4 pu2 bi2[/pinyin] - Exotic odors assail the nostrils\r\n甘草 - [pinyin]gan1 cao3[/pinyin] - Licorice\r\n中毒 - [pinyin]zhong4 du2[/pinyin] - Be poisoned\r\n来不及 - [pinyin]lai2 bu5 ji2[/pinyin] - Not enough time to...\r\n解毒 - [pinyin]jie3 du2[/pinyin] - Detoxify\r\n拯救 - [pinyin]zheng3 jiu4[/pinyin] - To rescue\r\n牺牲 - [pinyin]xi1 sheng1[/pinyin] - Sacrifice oneself\r\n菩萨 - [pinyin]pu2 sa4[/pinyin] - Bodhisattva\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n神农一生下来就是个水晶肚子，五脏六腑全都能看得一清二楚。那时侯，人们经常因为乱吃东西而生病，甚至丧命。神农决心尝遍所有的东西，好吃的放在身边左边的袋子里，给人吃；不好吃的就放在身子右边的袋子里，作药用。\r\n\r\n第一次，神农尝了一片小嫩叶。这叶片一落进肚里，就上上下下地把里面各器官擦洗得清清爽爽，象巡查似的，神农把它叫做“查”，就是后人所称的“茶”。神农将它放进右边袋子里。第二次，神农尝了朵蝴蝶样的淡红小花，甜津津的，香味扑鼻，这是“甘草”。他把它放进了左边袋子里。就这样，神农辛苦地尝遍百草，每次中毒，都靠茶来解救。后来，他左边的袋子里花草根叶有四万七千种，右边有三十九万八千种。\r\n\r\n但有一天，神农尝到了“断肠草”，这种毒草太厉害了，他还来不及吃茶解毒就死了。他是为了拯救人们而牺牲的，人们称他为“药王菩萨”，人间以这个神话故事永远地纪念他。 \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nAll his life, Shen Nong had a crystal abdomen, and one could clearly see all of his internal organs. At that time, humans were often getting sick and even dying because they ate things indiscriminately [not knowing if they were good or bad]. Shen Nong determinedly tasted everything everywhere; the good-tasting things he put in a bag on his left side, those were for people to eat; the bad-tasting things he put in a bag on his right side, and those were used for medicine.\r\n\r\nThe first time, Shen Nong tasted a small fresh leaf. As this leaf fell into his stomach, it cleaned every inch of his insides so that every organ top and bottom was fresh and cool, as if [the leaf] was somehow on patrol [making the rounds], so Shen Nong called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [to investigate / check], and later generations of men called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [tea]. Shen Nong put it in the bag on the right. The second time, Shen Nong tasted a little light red flower that looked like a butterfly, which was sweet and delicious, with an exotic smell that filled his nostrils, so he called it \"licorice\". He put it in the bag on the left. In this way, Shen Nong diligently tasted all manner of flora, and every time he was poisoned, he used tea to rescue himself. Before long, the bag on his left contained 47,000 kinds of flowers, grasses, roots and leaves, and the right side had 398,000 kinds. \r\n\r\nBut one day, Shen Nong tasted \"heartbreak grass\", and this poison was too terrible, so there wasn\'t enough time to eat the tea leaves to detoxify and he died. He sacrificed himself to save humanity, so people call him the \"Bodhisattva of Medicine\", and people forever commemorate him through this story. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Farmer God Shen Nong Tastes All the Plants', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1225-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-14 03:32:12', '2012-08-14 07:32:12', '', 1225, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/14/1225-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1248, 1, '2011-05-07 18:24:11', '2011-05-07 22:24:11', 'After spending six years in China studying Mandarin and working, I took a several-year haitus and returned to my native country. It was alarming how quickly my language skills began distinegrating. I searched online for Chinese reading materials, and though I found plenty of dictionaries and flash card sources, I had a very difficult time finding something that was at an appropriate reading level, was different than the typical textbook-y stuff available online, was presented in a way that was easy to read, and that I was sure I could get through. I ended up spending more time looking for something that was suitable than actually doing any reading.\r\n\r\nAs someone who organizes her thoughts into a series of domain names, it was inevitable I\'d eventually start a website about it, and here you are. I post whenever I get a chance.\r\n\r\nThis site doesn\'t exist to teach you Chinese from scratch - there are plenty of sites and programs that do that. But this collection might help you keep your skills fresh, or pick up the occasional new vocabulary word.\r\n
About the Translations
\r\nMany of the translations on this site are done by me, and I don\'t post anything unless I\'ve checked it several times, but that doesn\'t mean I haven\'t missed something. Do feel free to comment if you see anything that ought to have a better translation - it won\'t be taken amiss. Quite a few of the translations, however, are done by others, are taken from old Chinese textbooks or hardcopy magazines I picked up overseas, or were sent in by a third party.\r\n\r\nIt\'s often quite difficult to do a word-for-word translation, as Chinese words that fit well into a particular Chinese sentence read very awkwardly after they\'ve been translated - sometimes a direct translation just sounds \"off\". This is more and more true the higher your reading level. I stick to a word-for-word translation when it\'s appropriate, but I\'ll often change a sentence a little so that it makes sense or reads well in English.\r\n\r\nYou\'ll also notice that I often remove commas, split long Chinese sentences into two or more English sentences, or rearrange the order of clauses, which is necessary to accommodate Chinese grammar. The translation is meant as a guidepost to help point you in the right direction and keep you grounded in the text when needed - it\'s up to you to dissect sentence structure.\r\n
How I Classify Reading Levels
\r\nUltimately, my classifications are pretty arbitrary, but I\'ll try to lay out some of my basic reasoning here.\r\n\r\n
Beginner - None of the texts here are truly beginner texts; at least I haven\'t been able to find any real beginner stuff yet (I\'m still looking for good sources of real beginner texts that aren\'t boring dialogs - if you know of any, please write!). This is because for any story, article or essay to really take shape, it usually must involve some intermediate grammar or intermediate vocabulary. This is why most truly beginner textbooks stick to dialogs as opposed to actual articles. In order to do any real reading, you\'ve got to at least know the basics of sentence structure. I will classify something as beginner if at least a couple of the following criteria are met:\r\n
\r\n - The sentence structure is easy
\r\n - It contains only words that you can find in the dictionary (or I can explain them)
\r\n - There is no modern slang
\r\n - The subject matter is basic / or for children
\r\n - It\'s not too long
\r\n - It contains few or no idioms
\r\n- It contains intermediate vocabulary but the story structure is very repetitive, so you can pick up the thread more easily as you go along.
\r\n
\r\n\r\n
Intermediate - I classify something as intermediate if:\r\n\r\n
\r\n- It\'s a longer piece that you have to hold a narrative thread through.
\r\n- The language is intermediate or upper-intermediate.
\r\n- There are some light idioms.
\r\n
\r\n\r\n
Advanced - Most of what\'s out there online is advanced reading. That\'s why as of now, there are more advanced texts on here than anything else. I classify something as advanced if:\r\n\r\n
\r\n- It contains specialized or technical words (technology, health, beauty, geography, etc.)
\r\n- It contains high-level structures, like newspaper-y or literary writing styles.
\r\n- It contains any archaic words.
\r\n- The sentence structure is very complicated.
\r\n- It contains a lot of modern slang.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nEnjoy, and good luck with your studies.', 'About', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '2-revision-v1', '', '', '2011-05-07 18:24:11', '2011-05-07 22:24:11', '', 2, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2011/05/07/2-revision-22/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1249, 1, '2012-09-10 05:38:02', '2012-09-10 09:38:02', '', 'Learning to Read Chinese: Simplified Mandarin Chinese Essays for Kids', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120910-inline', '', '', '2012-09-10 05:38:02', '2012-09-10 09:38:02', '', 1241, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/20120910-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1250, 1, '2012-09-10 05:38:06', '2012-09-10 09:38:06', '', 'Learning to Read Chinese: Simplified Mandarin Chinese Essays for Kids', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20120910', '', '', '2012-09-10 05:38:06', '2012-09-10 09:38:06', '', 1241, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/20120910.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1251, 1, '2012-09-10 05:36:17', '2012-09-10 09:36:17', '[two_third]\n
Chinese Title: 拿到压岁钱以后\nFor those of you new to Chinese culture, one thing a Chinese child most looks forward to all year is the time during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) when they get to go ask their neighbors and other adults for red envelopes containing some money - it\'s a bit like trick-or-treating for cash. This essay is about what happened to one kid\'s Spring Festival haul. We\'ll cover a lot of beginner grammar here.\n\nI should probably talk about a couple of points before we dive in. One is the use of the word 玩. Describing what he (or she, perhaps) does on Chinese New Year, the author says he can 玩得快活 - \"play happily\". The Chinese don\'t use \"play\" the way we do. While they do use it to mean \"to play with toys\" as a child does, they also use it to mean going out (like adults going out on Saturday night), or friends going out to a mall to go shopping - it\'s really more of a blanket term better translated as \"having fun\". So the kid is not saying they necessarily only play with toys happily on Chinese New Year, but also maybe that they go hang out at parents\' friends houses, or whatever. It\'s not specified.\n\nAnother interesting point comes in here: 心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴 - \"In my heart I was extremely happy, but also very disappointed\". Note the use of the words 特别 and 很 - meaning \"extremely\" / \"very\" respectively. Thing is, in Chinese you can\'t use a word like \"happy\" or \"disappointed\" without balancing it with a word measuring how happy or disappointed you were. There\'s no way in general casual conversation to say \"I was happy\" - just regular ol\' happy. You can\'t, for example, say just \"我高兴“. Instead, say \"I was VERY happy\" 我很高兴, or \"extremely happy\" 我非常高兴 or \"exceedingly happy\" 高兴极了 or \"fairly happy\" 比较高兴 or whatever. So when we translate Chinese, we could actually drop the \"very\"s and \"extremely\"s and all that, because they have much less meaning in Mandarin then they do to us. This used to bug me a lot when speaking. I didn\'t
want to say I was \"very happy\" - I wasn\'t. I was just normally happy. But it was finally explained to me how little that \"very\" actually mattered. So bear that in mind. \n\nAnd another point: ...收到了700
余元... This means \"received over 700 yuan\". Notice that the word 余, which means \"over\" / \"more than\" is written
after the amount of money and
before the actual word \"yuan\". In English, this would be like saying \"received 700-plus dollars\". You could also say 收到了700
多元, which means the same thing. \n\nAnd finally: Beware the definition I give for the word 由 here. It\'s one of those grammar words that means a ton of different things in different contexts - kind of like how the English word \"to\" is hard to define and used often. In my definition list, I only ever show the definition relevant to this text, so you\'re going to see the word 由 in many contexts in many essays and it doesn\'t always mean what it means here. \n\nThe original is from my new favorite Chinese
essay composition site. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n过 - [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] - To celebrate\n不但...而且 - [pinyin]bu4 dan4...er2 qie3[/pinyin] - Not only [sthg], but also [sthg else]\n压岁钱 - [pinyin]ya1 sui4 qian2[/pinyin] - Money Chinese children get as presents during Chinese New Years\n以往 - [pinyin]yi3 want3[/pinyin] - Before, previously\n上缴 - [pinyin]shang4 jiao3[/pinyin] - To give money up to higher authorities\n由 - [pinyin]you4[/pinyin] - To leave something to someone (to manage / handle)\n爽快 - [pinyin]shuang3 kuai5[/pinyin] - Straightforward\n肯德基 - [pinyin]ken3 de2 ji1[/pinyin] - Kentucky Fried Chicken\n苦思冥想 - [pinyin]ku3 si1 ming2 xiang3[/pinyin] - Rack one\'s brains\n订 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - To subscribe to (a newspaper / magazine)\n献 - [pinyin]xian4[/pinyin] - To donate\n勤俭节约 - [pinyin]qin2 jian3 jie2 jue1 [/pinyin] - Diligent and thrifty\n逐渐 - [pinyin]zhu2 jian4[/pinyin] - Gradually\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n我非常喜欢过新年，因为过年不但能穿新衣服，玩得快活，而且还能收到很多的压岁钱。今年我一下子就收到了700余元压岁钱，我拿着压岁钱，心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴，怕妈妈给收走了，以往的压岁钱都要上缴的，我就给妈妈商量：今年我刚满十岁，我已经长大了，希望这些压岁钱由我来保管，没想到妈妈很爽快的答应了，我心里乐的开了花。我拿到这些压岁钱，我应该怎样来花这些钱呢？买我喜欢的玩具、还有我最喜欢吃的肯德基？我苦思冥想了好几天，我打算用这些钱来买我喜欢的书籍、买一些学习用品或者订报纸、献爱心捐款......除了这些,我是决不乱花的。\n\n我决得这样做，不但可以从小学会勤俭节约、不乱花钱的习惯，而且还可以使我学会管理、学会生活，这样才会使我逐渐成长起来。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n I really love New Year, because [during] New Year I can not only wear new clothes, and play happily, but also I can get a lot of New Year\'s money. This year in a short while I got more than 700 yuan, and holding that New Years\' money, in my heart I was extremely happy, but also my spirits were dampened, I was afraid mama would take it away from me, [because] in the past [I had to] give over my New Year\'s money to the higher authorities [author means his mother here, not God], so I discussed it with mom [thus]:
this year I\'m fully 10 years old, I\'m already a grown up, and I hope this New Year\'s money can be left under my care, but I never though she\'d agree so easily [lit: so frankly], and happiness bloomed in my heart like a flower. I held the New Year\'s money, but what should I spend this money on? Buy a toy I like, or my favorite thing to eat, Kentucky Fried Chicken? I racked my brains for several days, and decided to use the money to buy some books I liked, buy a few school supplies or to subscribe to a newspaper, and to make a charitable donation... apart from these things, I figured I\'d better not spend it recklessly [author likely means they won\'t spend the rest at all]. \n\nI though that doing it this way, I not only could learn to be diligent and thrifty starting in primary school, and develop careful spending habits, but also this could let me study money management, study life [skills], and this would finally let me gradually mature.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'After I Got My New Years\' Money', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1241-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-09-10 05:36:17', '2012-09-10 09:36:17', '', 1241, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/09/10/1241-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1252, 1, '2012-09-10 05:40:16', '2012-09-10 09:40:16', '[two_third]\n
Chinese Title: 拿到压岁钱以后\n
For those of you new to Chinese culture, one thing a Chinese child most looks forward to all year is the time during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) when they get to go ask their neighbors and other adults for red envelopes containing some money - it\'s a bit like trick-or-treating for cash. This essay is about what happened to one kid\'s Spring Festival haul. We\'ll cover a lot of beginner grammar here.\n\nI should probably talk about a couple of points before we dive in. One is the use of the word 玩. Describing what he (or she, perhaps) does on Chinese New Year, the author says he can 玩得快活 - \"play happily\". The Chinese don\'t use \"play\" the way we do. While they do use it to mean \"to play with toys\" as a child does, they also use it to mean going out (like adults going out on Saturday night), or friends going out to a mall to go shopping - it\'s really more of a blanket term better translated as \"having fun\". So the kid is not saying they necessarily only play with toys happily on Chinese New Year, but also maybe that they go hang out at parents\' friends houses, or whatever. It\'s not specified.\n\nAnother interesting point comes in here: 心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴 - \"In my heart I was extremely happy, but also very disappointed\". Note the use of the words 特别 and 很 - meaning \"extremely\" / \"very\" respectively. Thing is, in Chinese you can\'t use a word like \"happy\" or \"disappointed\" without balancing it with a word measuring how happy or disappointed you were. There\'s no way in general casual conversation to say \"I was happy\" - just regular ol\' happy. You can\'t, for example, say just \"我高兴“. Instead, say \"I was VERY happy\" 我很高兴, or \"extremely happy\" 我非常高兴 or \"exceedingly happy\" 高兴极了 or \"fairly happy\" 比较高兴 or whatever. So when we translate Chinese, we could actually drop the \"very\"s and \"extremely\"s and all that, because they have much less meaning in Mandarin then they do to us. This used to bug me a lot when speaking. I didn\'t
want to say I was \"very happy\" - I wasn\'t. I was just normally happy. But it was finally explained to me how little that \"very\" actually mattered. So bear that in mind. \n\nAnd another point: ...收到了700
余元... This means \"received over 700 yuan\". Notice that the word 余, which means \"over\" / \"more than\" is written
after the amount of money and
before the actual word \"yuan\". In English, this would be like saying \"received 700-plus dollars\". You could also say 收到了700
多元, which means the same thing. \n\nAnd finally: Beware the definition I give for the word 由 here. It\'s one of those grammar words that means a ton of different things in different contexts - kind of like how the English word \"to\" is hard to define and used often. In my definition list, I only ever show the definition relevant to this text, so you\'re going to see the word 由 in many contexts in many essays and it doesn\'t always mean what it means here. \n\nThe original is from my new favorite Chinese
essay composition site. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n过 - [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] - To celebrate\n不但...而且 - [pinyin]bu4 dan4...er2 qie3[/pinyin] - Not only [sthg], but also [sthg else]\n压岁钱 - [pinyin]ya1 sui4 qian2[/pinyin] - Money Chinese children get as presents during Chinese New Years\n以往 - [pinyin]yi3 want3[/pinyin] - Before, previously\n上缴 - [pinyin]shang4 jiao3[/pinyin] - To give money up to higher authorities\n由 - [pinyin]you4[/pinyin] - To leave something to someone (to manage / handle)\n爽快 - [pinyin]shuang3 kuai5[/pinyin] - Straightforward\n肯德基 - [pinyin]ken3 de2 ji1[/pinyin] - Kentucky Fried Chicken\n苦思冥想 - [pinyin]ku3 si1 ming2 xiang3[/pinyin] - Rack one\'s brains\n订 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - To subscribe to (a newspaper / magazine)\n献 - [pinyin]xian4[/pinyin] - To donate\n勤俭节约 - [pinyin]qin2 jian3 jie2 jue1 [/pinyin] - Diligent and thrifty\n逐渐 - [pinyin]zhu2 jian4[/pinyin] - Gradually\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n我非常喜欢过新年，因为过年不但能穿新衣服，玩得快活，而且还能收到很多的压岁钱。今年我一下子就收到了700余元压岁钱，我拿着压岁钱，心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴，怕妈妈给收走了，以往的压岁钱都要上缴的，我就给妈妈商量：今年我刚满十岁，我已经长大了，希望这些压岁钱由我来保管，没想到妈妈很爽快的答应了，我心里乐的开了花。我拿到这些压岁钱，我应该怎样来花这些钱呢？买我喜欢的玩具、还有我最喜欢吃的肯德基？我苦思冥想了好几天，我打算用这些钱来买我喜欢的书籍、买一些学习用品或者订报纸、献爱心捐款......除了这些,我是决不乱花的。\n\n我决得这样做，不但可以从小学会勤俭节约、不乱花钱的习惯，而且还可以使我学会管理、学会生活，这样才会使我逐渐成长起来。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n I really love New Year, because [during] New Year I can not only wear new clothes, and play happily, but also I can get a lot of New Year\'s money. This year in a short while I got more than 700 yuan, and holding that New Years\' money, in my heart I was extremely happy, but also my spirits were dampened, I was afraid mama would take it away from me, [because] in the past [I had to] give over my New Year\'s money to the higher authorities [author means his mother here, not God], so I discussed it with mom [thus]:
this year I\'m fully 10 years old, I\'m already a grown up, and I hope this New Year\'s money can be left under my care, but I never though she\'d agree so easily [lit: so frankly], and happiness bloomed in my heart like a flower. I held the New Year\'s money, but what should I spend this money on? Buy a toy I like, or my favorite thing to eat, Kentucky Fried Chicken? I racked my brains for several days, and decided to use the money to buy some books I liked, buy a few school supplies or to subscribe to a newspaper, and to make a charitable donation... apart from these things, I figured I\'d better not spend it recklessly [author likely means they won\'t spend the rest at all]. \n\nI though that doing it this way, I not only could learn to be diligent and thrifty starting in primary school, and develop careful spending habits, but also this could let me study money management, study life [skills], and this would finally let me gradually mature.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'After I Got My New Years\' Money', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1241-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-09-10 05:40:16', '2012-09-10 09:40:16', '', 1241, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/09/10/1241-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1253, 1, '2012-09-10 05:41:17', '2012-09-10 09:41:17', '[two_third]\r\n
Chinese Title: 拿到压岁钱以后\r\n
For those of you new to Chinese culture, one thing a Chinese child most looks forward to all year is the time during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) when they get to go ask their neighbors and other adults for red envelopes containing some money - it\'s a bit like trick-or-treating for cash. This essay is about what happened to one kid\'s Spring Festival haul. We\'ll cover a lot of beginner grammar here.\r\n\r\nI should probably talk about a couple of points before we dive in. One is the use of the word 玩. Describing what he (or she, perhaps) does on Chinese New Year, the author says he can 玩得快活 - \"play happily\". The Chinese don\'t use \"play\" the way we do. While they do use it to mean \"to play with toys\" as a child does, they also use it to mean going out (like adults going out on Saturday night), or friends going out to a mall to go shopping - it\'s really more of a blanket term better translated as \"having fun\". So the kid is not saying they necessarily only play with toys happily on Chinese New Year, but also maybe that they go hang out at parents\' friends houses, or whatever. It\'s not specified.\r\n\r\nAnother interesting point comes in here: 心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴 - \"In my heart I was extremely happy, but also very disappointed\". Note the use of the words 特别 and 很 - meaning \"extremely\" / \"very\" respectively. Thing is, in Chinese you can\'t use a word like \"happy\" or \"disappointed\" without balancing it with a word measuring how happy or disappointed you were. There\'s no way in general casual conversation to say \"I was happy\" - just regular ol\' happy. You can\'t, for example, say just \"我高兴“. Instead, say \"I was VERY happy\" 我很高兴, or \"extremely happy\" 我非常高兴 or \"exceedingly happy\" 高兴极了 or \"fairly happy\" 比较高兴 or whatever. So when we translate Chinese, we could actually drop the \"very\"s and \"extremely\"s and all that, because they have much less meaning in Mandarin then they do to us. This used to bug me a lot when speaking. I didn\'t
want to say I was \"very happy\" - I wasn\'t. I was just normally happy. But it was finally explained to me how little that \"very\" actually mattered. So bear that in mind. \r\n\r\nAnd another point: ...收到了700
余元... This means \"received over 700 yuan\". Notice that the word 余, which means \"over\" / \"more than\" is written
after the amount of money and
before the actual word \"yuan\". In English, this would be like saying \"received 700-plus dollars\". You could also say 收到了700
多元, which means the same thing. \r\n\r\nAnd finally: Beware the definition I give for the word 由 here. It\'s one of those grammar words that means a ton of different things in different contexts - kind of like how the English word \"to\" is hard to define and used often. In my definition list, I only ever show the definition relevant to this text, so you\'re going to see the word 由 in many contexts in many essays and it doesn\'t always mean what it means here. \r\n\r\nThe original is from my new favorite Chinese
essay composition site. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n过 - [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] - To celebrate\r\n不但...而且 - [pinyin]bu4 dan4...er2 qie3[/pinyin] - Not only [sthg], but also [sthg else]\r\n压岁钱 - [pinyin]ya1 sui4 qian2[/pinyin] - Money Chinese children get as presents during Chinese New Years\r\n以往 - [pinyin]yi3 want3[/pinyin] - Before, previously\r\n上缴 - [pinyin]shang4 jiao3[/pinyin] - To give money up to higher authorities\r\n由 - [pinyin]you4[/pinyin] - To leave something to someone (to manage / handle)\r\n爽快 - [pinyin]shuang3 kuai5[/pinyin] - Straightforward\r\n肯德基 - [pinyin]ken3 de2 ji1[/pinyin] - Kentucky Fried Chicken\r\n苦思冥想 - [pinyin]ku3 si1 ming2 xiang3[/pinyin] - Rack one\'s brains\r\n订 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - To subscribe to (a newspaper / magazine)\r\n献 - [pinyin]xian4[/pinyin] - To donate\r\n勤俭节约 - [pinyin]qin2 jian3 jie2 jue1 [/pinyin] - Diligent and thrifty\r\n逐渐 - [pinyin]zhu2 jian4[/pinyin] - Gradually\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n我非常喜欢过新年，因为过年不但能穿新衣服，玩得快活，而且还能收到很多的压岁钱。今年我一下子就收到了700余元压岁钱，我拿着压岁钱，心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴，怕妈妈给收走了，以往的压岁钱都要上缴的，我就给妈妈商量：今年我刚满十岁，我已经长大了，希望这些压岁钱由我来保管，没想到妈妈很爽快的答应了，我心里乐的开了花。我拿到这些压岁钱，我应该怎样来花这些钱呢？买我喜欢的玩具、还有我最喜欢吃的肯德基？我苦思冥想了好几天，我打算用这些钱来买我喜欢的书籍、买一些学习用品或者订报纸、献爱心捐款......除了这些,我是决不乱花的。\r\n\r\n我决得这样做，不但可以从小学会勤俭节约、不乱花钱的习惯，而且还可以使我学会管理、学会生活，这样才会使我逐渐成长起来。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n I really love New Year, because [during] New Year I can not only wear new clothes, and play happily, but also I can get a lot of New Year\'s money. This year in a short while I got more than 700 yuan, and holding that New Years\' money, in my heart I was extremely happy, but also my spirits were dampened, I was afraid mama would take it away from me, [because] in the past [I had to] give over my New Year\'s money to the higher authorities [author means his mother here, not God], so I discussed it with mom [thus]:
this year I\'m fully 10 years old, I\'m already a grown up, and I hope this New Year\'s money can be left under my care, but I never though she\'d agree so easily [lit: so frankly], and happiness bloomed in my heart like a flower. I held the New Year\'s money, but what should I spend this money on? Buy a toy I like, or my favorite thing to eat, Kentucky Fried Chicken? I racked my brains for several days, and decided to use the money to buy some books I liked, buy a few school supplies or to subscribe to a newspaper, and to make a charitable donation... apart from these things, I figured I\'d better not spend it recklessly [author likely means they won\'t spend the rest at all]. \r\n\r\nI though that doing it this way, I not only could learn to be diligent and thrifty starting in primary school, and develop careful spending habits, but also this could let me study money management, study life [skills], and this would finally let me gradually mature.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'After I Got My New Years\' Money', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1241-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-09-10 05:41:17', '2012-09-10 09:41:17', '', 1241, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/09/10/1241-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
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(1277, 1, '2012-10-02 00:43:24', '2012-10-02 04:43:24', 'A single-paragraph essay about the results of a family jump rope competition. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n今天早上我和爸爸比赛跳绳，爸爸先跳，妈妈记时数数，爸爸一分钟跳了128个，该我上场了，爸爸数数，妈妈记时，我这次没有失误，一分钟跳了145个，我的心砰砰乱跳，都快蹦出来了，妈妈弃权了，我成了全家中的第一名，我好开心。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThis morning father and I competed in jump rope, father went first, mother kept time and count, father jumped 128 times in a minute, and when I entered the playing field, father counted and mother took notes. In this round [literally: \'this time\', but sounds weird in English because there are no previous times] I made no mistakes, and in one minute I jumped 145 times, my heart pounded in my chest, as if it would bounce right out. Mother abstained from participating, so I became Number 1 in our family, I was very happy. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 我们家的跳绳比赛 - Our Family\'s Jump Rope Contest', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', 'our-familys-jump-rope-contest', '', '', '2016-11-12 03:40:04', '2016-11-12 08:40:04', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1277', 0, 'post', '', 14),
(2080, 1, '2016-11-04 07:37:48', '2016-11-04 11:37:48', 'A single-paragraph essay about the results of a family jump rope competition. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n今天早上我和爸爸比赛跳绳，爸爸先跳，妈妈记时数数，爸爸一分钟跳了128个，该我上场了，爸爸数数，妈妈记时，我这次没有失误，一分钟跳了145个，我的心砰砰乱跳，都快蹦出来了，妈妈弃权了，我成了全家中的第一名，我好开心。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThis morning father and I competed in jump rope, father went first, mother kept time and count, father jumped 128 times in a minute, and when I entered the playing field, father counted and mother took notes. In this round [literally: \'this time\', but sounds weird in English because there are no previous times] I made no mistakes, and in one minute I jumped 145 times, my heart pounded in my chest, as if it would bounce right out. Mother abstained from participating, so I became Number 1 in our family, I was very happy. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 我们家的跳绳比赛 - Our Family\'s Jump Rope Contest', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1277-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:37:48', '2016-11-04 11:37:48', '', 1277, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1277-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2015, 1, '2016-11-04 05:06:18', '2016-11-04 09:06:18', 'A single-paragraph essay about the results of a family jump rope competition. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n今天早上我和爸爸比赛跳绳，爸爸先跳，妈妈记时数数，爸爸一分钟跳了128个，该我上场了，爸爸数数，妈妈记时，我这次没有失误，一分钟跳了145个，我的心砰砰乱跳，都快蹦出来了，妈妈弃权了，我成了全家中的第一名，我好开心。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThis morning father and I competed in jump rope, father went first, mother kept time and count, father jumped 128 times in a minute, and when I entered the playing field, father counted and mother took notes. In this round [literally: \'this time\', but sounds weird in English because there are no previous times] I made no mistakes, and in one minute I jumped 145 times, my heart pounded in my chest, as if it would bounce right out. Mother abstained from participating, so I became Number 1 in our family, I was very happy. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 我们家的跳绳比赛 - Our Family\'s Jump Rope Contest', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1277-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:06:18', '2016-11-04 09:06:18', '', 1277, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1277-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1723, 1, '2016-10-31 03:11:53', '2016-10-31 07:11:53', 'A single-paragraph essay about the results of a family jump rope competition. \r\n\r\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20121002-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Learn")
Haven\'t had a ton of extra time in the last few weeks - just went on a trip to Dalian, and still catching up from that. \r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n今天早上我和爸爸比赛跳绳，爸爸先跳，妈妈记时数数，爸爸一分钟跳了128个，该我上场了，爸爸数数，妈妈记时，我这次没有失误，一分钟跳了145个，我的心砰砰乱跳，都快蹦出来了，妈妈弃权了，我成了全家中的第一名，，我好开心。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThis morning father and I competed in jump rope, father went first, mother kept time and count, father jumped 128 times in a minute, and when I entered the playing field, father counted and mother took notes. In this round [literally: \'this time\', but sounds weird in English because there are no previous times] I made no mistakes, and in one minute I jumped 145 times, my heart pounded in my chest, as if it would bounce right out. Mother abstained from participating, so I became Number 1 in our family, I was very happy. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essay] 我们家的跳绳比赛 - Our Family\'s Jump Rope Contest', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1277-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:11:53', '2016-10-31 07:11:53', '', 1277, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1277-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1275, 1, '2012-03-18 01:05:27', '2012-03-18 05:05:27', '[two_third]\r\nSweet! I found a bunch of Chinese riddles. Read the Chinese and try to guess the word! This is VERY short, lower-intermediate reading. \r\n\r\n
Some of the riddles I found are impossible, because not only is the riddle hard, the answer is a kind of fruit or plant or thing I\'ve never heard of, so I\'m skipping past all those and over the next few days I\'ll post a few riddles that are answerable for those of us who didn\'t group up in the southern Yao jungles or whatever.\r\n\r\nI think the most interesting word in this text is 青. I see this word everywhere, and I\'ve never been able to come up with an English equivalent. It\'s not green, and it\'s not blue... well, it\'s not actually a color. It means \"the color that nature is\". It can be used to describe a clear green pond. It can be used to talk about trees or grass. So it\'s not actually a specific hue, but the word is used as if it is. Someone feel free to dive in if you can think of a good translation for this. \r\n\r\nThis particular riddle kinda rhymes in Chinese, so when you\'ve sorted out the words, read it out loud.\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n青 - [pinyin]qing1[/pinyin] - Nature\'s color - green or blue\r\n烤 - [pinyin]kao3[/pinyin] - Roast\r\n晒 - [pinyin]shai4[/pinyin] - Dry in the sun\r\n腾 - [pinyin]teng[/pinyin] - To soar\r\n驾 - [pinyin]jia4[/pinyin] - To pilot a vehicle (to drive a car, sail a boat, ride a wave, etc.)\r\n雾 - [pinyin]wu4[/pinyin] - Fog, mist\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n青枝绿叶不是菜， 有的烤来有的晒，腾云驾雾烧着吃，不能锅里煮熟卖。\r\n\r\nHint: this is a type of plant.\r\n
\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\r\nTranslation: Green branches green leaves but it\'s not a vegetable, some roast it and some dry it, soaring on clouds and sailing the mist it\'s consumed, it\'s not sold boiled in a pot.\r\n\r\n
Answer: 烟叶 (Tobacco) \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Riddle: Guess the Word 1', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1043-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-03-18 01:05:27', '2012-03-18 05:05:27', '', 1043, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/03/18/1043-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1284, 1, '2012-10-02 00:43:24', '2012-10-02 04:43:24', '[two_third]\r\n
Chinese Title: 我们家的跳绳比赛\r\n\r\nA single-paragraph essay about the results of a family jump rope competition. \r\n\r\n
Haven\'t had a ton of extra time in the last few weeks - just went on a trip to Dalian, and still catching up from that. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n跳 - [pinyin]lie4 ri4[/pinyin] - Scorching sun\r\n绳 - [pinyin]yan2 yan2[/pinyin] - Scorching\r\n失误 - [pinyin]bao4 shang4[/pinyin] - Pick up (the way one picks up a child, encircling them with both arms)\r\n砰砰 - [pinyin]tang2 guo3[/pinyin] - Candy \r\n弃权 - [pinyin]zhong4[/pinyin] - To plant (eg. vegetable seeds)\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n今天早上我和爸爸比赛跳绳，爸爸先跳，妈妈记时数数，爸爸一分钟跳了128个，该我上场了，爸爸数数，妈妈记时，我这次没有失误，一分钟跳了145个，我的心砰砰乱跳，都快蹦出来了，妈妈弃权了，我成了全家中的第一名，，我好开心。 \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThis morning father and competed in jump rope, father went first, mother kept time and count, father jumped 128 times in a minute, and when I entered the playing field, father counted and mother took notes. In this round [literally: \'this time\', but sounds weird in English because there are no previous times] I made no mistakes, and in one minute I jumped 145 times, my heart pounded in my chest, as if it would bounce right out. So I became Number 1 in our family, I was very happy. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Our Family\'s Jump Rope Contest', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1277-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-10-02 00:43:24', '2012-10-02 04:43:24', '', 1277, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/10/02/1277-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1285, 1, '2012-09-10 05:41:46', '2012-09-10 09:41:46', '[two_third]\r\n
Chinese Title: 拿到压岁钱以后\r\nFor those of you new to Chinese culture, one thing a Chinese child most looks forward to all year is the time during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) when they get to go ask their neighbors and other adults for red envelopes containing some money - it\'s a bit like trick-or-treating for cash. This essay is about what happened to one kid\'s Spring Festival haul. We\'ll cover a lot of beginner grammar here.\r\n\r\n
I should probably talk about a couple of points before we dive in. One is the use of the word 玩. Describing what he (or she, perhaps) does on Chinese New Year, the author says he can 玩得快活 - \"play happily\". The Chinese don\'t use \"play\" the way we do. While they do use it to mean \"to play with toys\" as a child does, they also use it to mean going out (like adults going out on Saturday night), or friends going out to a mall to go shopping - it\'s really more of a blanket term better translated as \"having fun\". So the kid is not saying they necessarily only play with toys happily on Chinese New Year, but also maybe that they go hang out at parents\' friends houses, or whatever. It\'s not specified.\r\n\r\nAnother interesting point comes in here: 心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴 - \"In my heart I was extremely happy, but also very disappointed\". Note the use of the words 特别 and 很 - meaning \"extremely\" / \"very\" respectively. Thing is, in Chinese you can\'t use a word like \"happy\" or \"disappointed\" without balancing it with a word measuring how happy or disappointed you were. There\'s no way in general casual conversation to say \"I was happy\" - just regular ol\' happy. You can\'t, for example, say just \"我高兴“. Instead, say \"I was VERY happy\" 我很高兴, or \"extremely happy\" 我非常高兴 or \"exceedingly happy\" 高兴极了 or \"fairly happy\" 比较高兴 or whatever. So when we translate Chinese, we could actually drop the \"very\"s and \"extremely\"s and all that, because they have much less meaning in Mandarin then they do to us. This used to bug me a lot when speaking. I didn\'t
want to say I was \"very happy\" - I wasn\'t. I was just normally happy. But it was finally explained to me how little that \"very\" actually mattered. So bear that in mind. \r\n\r\nAnd another point: ...收到了700
余元... This means \"received over 700 yuan\". Notice that the word 余, which means \"over\" / \"more than\" is written
after the amount of money and
before the actual word \"yuan\". In English, this would be like saying \"received 700-plus dollars\". You could also say 收到了700
多元, which means the same thing. \r\n\r\nAnd finally: Beware the definition I give for the word 由 here. It\'s one of those grammar words that means a ton of different things in different contexts - kind of like how the English word \"to\" is hard to define and used often. In my definition list, I only ever show the definition relevant to this text, so you\'re going to see the word 由 in many contexts in many essays and it doesn\'t always mean what it means here. \r\n\r\nThe original is from my new favorite Chinese
essay composition site. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n过 - [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] - To celebrate\r\n不但...而且 - [pinyin]bu4 dan4...er2 qie3[/pinyin] - Not only [sthg], but also [sthg else]\r\n压岁钱 - [pinyin]ya1 sui4 qian2[/pinyin] - Money Chinese children get as presents during Chinese New Years\r\n以往 - [pinyin]yi3 want3[/pinyin] - Before, previously\r\n上缴 - [pinyin]shang4 jiao3[/pinyin] - To give money up to higher authorities\r\n由 - [pinyin]you4[/pinyin] - To leave something to someone (to manage / handle)\r\n爽快 - [pinyin]shuang3 kuai5[/pinyin] - Straightforward\r\n肯德基 - [pinyin]ken3 de2 ji1[/pinyin] - Kentucky Fried Chicken\r\n苦思冥想 - [pinyin]ku3 si1 ming2 xiang3[/pinyin] - Rack one\'s brains\r\n订 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - To subscribe to (a newspaper / magazine)\r\n献 - [pinyin]xian4[/pinyin] - To donate\r\n勤俭节约 - [pinyin]qin2 jian3 jie2 jue1 [/pinyin] - Diligent and thrifty\r\n逐渐 - [pinyin]zhu2 jian4[/pinyin] - Gradually\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n我非常喜欢过新年，因为过年不但能穿新衣服，玩得快活，而且还能收到很多的压岁钱。今年我一下子就收到了700余元压岁钱，我拿着压岁钱，心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴，怕妈妈给收走了，以往的压岁钱都要上缴的，我就给妈妈商量：今年我刚满十岁，我已经长大了，希望这些压岁钱由我来保管，没想到妈妈很爽快的答应了，我心里乐的开了花。我拿到这些压岁钱，我应该怎样来花这些钱呢？买我喜欢的玩具、还有我最喜欢吃的肯德基？我苦思冥想了好几天，我打算用这些钱来买我喜欢的书籍、买一些学习用品或者订报纸、献爱心捐款......除了这些,我是决不乱花的。\r\n\r\n我决得这样做，不但可以从小学会勤俭节约、不乱花钱的习惯，而且还可以使我学会管理、学会生活，这样才会使我逐渐成长起来。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n I really love New Year, because [during] New Year I can not only wear new clothes, and play happily, but also I can get a lot of New Year\'s money. This year in a short while I got more than 700 yuan, and holding that New Years\' money, in my heart I was extremely happy, but also my spirits were dampened, I was afraid mama would take it away from me, [because] in the past [I had to] give over my New Year\'s money to the higher authorities [author means his mother here, not God], so I discussed it with mom [thus]:
this year I\'m fully 10 years old, I\'m already a grown up, and I hope this New Year\'s money can be left under my care, but I never though she\'d agree so easily [lit: so frankly], and happiness bloomed in my heart like a flower. I held the New Year\'s money, but what should I spend this money on? Buy a toy I like, or my favorite thing to eat, Kentucky Fried Chicken? I racked my brains for several days, and decided to use the money to buy some books I liked, buy a few school supplies or to subscribe to a newspaper, and to make a charitable donation... apart from these things, I figured I\'d better not spend it recklessly [author likely means they won\'t spend the rest at all]. \r\n\r\nI though that doing it this way, I not only could learn to be diligent and thrifty starting in primary school, and develop careful spending habits, but also this could let me study money management, study life [skills], and this would finally let me gradually mature.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'After I Got My New Years\' Money', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1241-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-09-10 05:41:46', '2012-09-10 09:41:46', '', 1241, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/09/10/1241-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1287, 1, '2012-10-21 02:34:14', '2012-10-21 06:34:14', 'Gonna lay it on a bit thick today with something nice and serious. This is an abstract of an academic paper from the
Gender Studies Network authored by Zhou Ying. \r\n\r\nBecause this is an advanced academic abstract, you can really see how, in the upper levels of written Chinese, a ton of words that we find essential in English can be dropped from a sentence while still preserving the essence of the meaning. We tend to extend sentences with explanation, but here, I feel, is a reasonable example of how efficient Chinese can be. Because so many words have been dropped, I\'ve added a whole lot of bracketed explanation and English fill-in words in the translation to better illuminate the implied meaning.\r\n\r\nI\'m not quite sure I know what a \"proper role in domestic life is\", I\'m fairly certain that not all policewomen feel intensely conflicted, but I do like the idea of implementing some social policies to better support working women. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n女警察工作与生活平衡问题探讨\r\n\r\n警察职业曾是女性的“禁区”。随着社会的发展, 目前女警数量不断扩大, 警务工作范围不断扩展, 他们已成为维护社会治安、打击犯罪的特殊力量。女警发展面临着工作与生活平衡的困境。一方面, 存在着女警人数所占比例小、岗位受限、晋升和参与决策的机会有限、职业安全遭受到威胁等限制职业发展的问题。另一方面, 繁忙的警务工作使其无法扮演好家庭角色, 内心冲突激烈。促进女警工作与生活平衡需要社会方面与个体方面的双重努力, 特别是社会政策的支持。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nA Probe into the Work-Life Balance of Chinese Policewomen\r\n\r\nPolice work was once an occupational area forbidden to women. In the wake of [current] social development, the continuous increase in the number of policewomen and the continuous expansion in the scope of police work, policewomen have become an extraordinary force in upholding law and order and cracking down on crime. [At the same time,] this development has left policewomen faced with difficulties in [maintaining] work-life balance. On the one hand, [there are work-related issues such as] their small number in proportion [to male policemen], a limited number of posts they may accept, few opportunities for promotion or participation in decision-making, threats to their occupational safety, and so on. On the other hand, [there are personal issues such as the fact that] the frenetic pace of police work makes it almost impossible to play a proper role in domestic life, creating an intense inner conflict in [policewomen\'s] heart. In order to improve policewomen\'s work-life balance, we must strive [to address] both the social and individual aspects [of this problem], particularly in the form of support through social policies. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Academic Study] A Probe into the Work-Life Balance of Chinese Policewomen', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'a-probe-into-the-work-life-balance-of-chinese-policewomen', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:33:32', '2016-11-04 11:33:32', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1287', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(2078, 1, '2016-11-04 07:33:32', '2016-11-04 11:33:32', 'Gonna lay it on a bit thick today with something nice and serious. This is an abstract of an academic paper from the
Gender Studies Network authored by Zhou Ying. \r\n\r\nBecause this is an advanced academic abstract, you can really see how, in the upper levels of written Chinese, a ton of words that we find essential in English can be dropped from a sentence while still preserving the essence of the meaning. We tend to extend sentences with explanation, but here, I feel, is a reasonable example of how efficient Chinese can be. Because so many words have been dropped, I\'ve added a whole lot of bracketed explanation and English fill-in words in the translation to better illuminate the implied meaning.\r\n\r\nI\'m not quite sure I know what a \"proper role in domestic life is\", I\'m fairly certain that not all policewomen feel intensely conflicted, but I do like the idea of implementing some social policies to better support working women. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n女警察工作与生活平衡问题探讨\r\n\r\n警察职业曾是女性的“禁区”。随着社会的发展, 目前女警数量不断扩大, 警务工作范围不断扩展, 他们已成为维护社会治安、打击犯罪的特殊力量。女警发展面临着工作与生活平衡的困境。一方面, 存在着女警人数所占比例小、岗位受限、晋升和参与决策的机会有限、职业安全遭受到威胁等限制职业发展的问题。另一方面, 繁忙的警务工作使其无法扮演好家庭角色, 内心冲突激烈。促进女警工作与生活平衡需要社会方面与个体方面的双重努力, 特别是社会政策的支持。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nA Probe into the Work-Life Balance of Chinese Policewomen\r\n\r\nPolice work was once an occupational area forbidden to women. In the wake of [current] social development, the continuous increase in the number of policewomen and the continuous expansion in the scope of police work, policewomen have become an extraordinary force in upholding law and order and cracking down on crime. [At the same time,] this development has left policewomen faced with difficulties in [maintaining] work-life balance. On the one hand, [there are work-related issues such as] their small number in proportion [to male policemen], a limited number of posts they may accept, few opportunities for promotion or participation in decision-making, threats to their occupational safety, and so on. On the other hand, [there are personal issues such as the fact that] the frenetic pace of police work makes it almost impossible to play a proper role in domestic life, creating an intense inner conflict in [policewomen\'s] heart. In order to improve policewomen\'s work-life balance, we must strive [to address] both the social and individual aspects [of this problem], particularly in the form of support through social policies. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Academic Study] A Probe into the Work-Life Balance of Chinese Policewomen', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1287-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:33:32', '2016-11-04 11:33:32', '', 1287, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1287-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1288, 1, '2012-10-21 02:32:17', '2012-10-21 06:32:17', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese - Gender Research and Advanced Academic Papers in Chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20121021', '', '', '2012-10-21 02:32:17', '2012-10-21 06:32:17', '', 1287, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20121021.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1289, 1, '2012-10-21 02:32:18', '2012-10-21 06:32:18', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese - Gender Research and Advanced Academic Papers in Chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20121021-inline', '', '', '2012-10-21 02:32:18', '2012-10-21 06:32:18', '', 1287, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20121021-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1290, 1, '2012-10-21 02:34:00', '2012-10-21 06:34:00', '[two_third]\n
Chinese Title: 女警察工作与生活平衡问题探讨\n\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/20121021-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Learn")
Gonna lay it on a bit thick today with something nice and serious. This is an abstract of an academic paper from the Gender Studies Network authored by Zhou Ying. \n\nBecause this is an advanced academic abstract, you can really see how, in the upper levels of written Chinese, a ton of words that we find essential in English can be dropped from a sentence while still preserving the essence of the meaning. We tend to extend sentences with explanation, but here, I feel, is a fabulous example of how efficient Chinese can be. Because so many words have been dropped, I\'ve added a whole lot of bracketed explanation and English fill-in words in the translation to better illuminate the implied meaning.\n\nI\'m not quite sure I know what a \"proper role in domestic life is\", I\'m fairly certain that not all policewomen feel intensely conflicted, and I\'m not sure I really like the implications there, but hey. It\'s not my paper. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n禁区 - [pinyin]jin4 qu1[/pinyin] - Forbidden region\n范围 - [pinyin]fan4 wei2[/pinyin] - Range, scope\n治安 - [pinyin]zhi4 an1[/pinyin] - Law and order\n打击 - [pinyin]da3 ji1[/pinyin] - Crack down on\n面临 - [pinyin]mian4 lin2[/pinyin] - Be faced with\n工作与生活平衡 - [pinyin]gong1 zuo4 yu2 sheng1 huo2 ping2 heng2[/pinyin] - Work-life balance\n比例 - [pinyin]bi3 li4[/pinyin] - Proportion\n岗位 - [pinyin]gang3 wei4[/pinyin] - A job\n限 - [pinyin]xian4[/pinyin] - Limit\n遭受 - [pinyin]zao1 shou4[/pinyin] - To suffer\n威胁 - [pinyin]wei1 xie2[/pinyin] - To threaten\n扮演 - [pinyin]ban4 yan3[/pinyin] - To play a role\n冲突 - [pinyin]chong1 tu1[/pinyin] - Conflict\n政策 - [pinyin]zheng4 ce4[/pinyin] - Policy\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n警察职业曾是女性的“禁区”。随着社会的发展, 目前女警数量不断扩大, 警务工作范围不断扩展, 他们已成为维护社会治安、打击犯罪的特殊力量。女警发展面临着工作与生活平衡的困境。一方面, 存在着女警人数所占比例小、岗位受限、晋升和参与决策的机会有限、职业安全遭受到威胁等限制职业发展的问题。另一方面, 繁忙的警务工作使其无法扮演好家庭角色, 内心冲突激烈。促进女警工作与生活平衡需要社会方面与个体方面的双重努力, 特别是社会政策的支持。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nPolice work was once an occupational area forbidden to women. In the wake of [current] social development, the continuous increase in the number of policewomen and the continuous expansion in the scope of police work, policewomen have become an extraordinary force in upholding law and order and cracking down on crime. [At the same time,] this development has left policewomen faced with difficulties in [maintaining] work-life balance. On the one hand, [there are work-related issues such as] their small number in proportion [to male policemen], a limited number of posts they may accept, few opportunities for promotion or participation in decision-making, threats to their occupational safety, and so on. On the other hand, [there are personal issues such as the fact that] the frenetic pace of police work makes it almost impossible to play a proper role in domestic life, creating an intense inner conflict in [policewomen\'s] heart. In order to improve policewomen\'s work-life balance, we must strive [to address] both the social and individual aspects [of this problem], particularly in the form of support through social policies. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'A Probe into the Work-Life Balance of Chinese Policewomen', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1287-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-10-21 02:34:00', '2012-10-21 06:34:00', '', 1287, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/10/21/1287-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1291, 1, '2012-10-21 02:34:14', '2012-10-21 06:34:14', '[two_third]\r\n
Chinese Title: 女警察工作与生活平衡问题探讨\r\n\r\nGonna lay it on a bit thick today with something nice and serious. This is an abstract of an academic paper from the Gender Studies Network authored by Zhou Ying. \r\n\r\n
Because this is an advanced academic abstract, you can really see how, in the upper levels of written Chinese, a ton of words that we find essential in English can be dropped from a sentence while still preserving the essence of the meaning. We tend to extend sentences with explanation, but here, I feel, is a fabulous example of how efficient Chinese can be. Because so many words have been dropped, I\'ve added a whole lot of bracketed explanation and English fill-in words in the translation to better illuminate the implied meaning.\r\n\r\nI\'m not quite sure I know what a \"proper role in domestic life is\", I\'m fairly certain that not all policewomen feel intensely conflicted, and I\'m not sure I really like the implications there, but hey. It\'s not my paper. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n禁区 - [pinyin]jin4 qu1[/pinyin] - Forbidden region\r\n范围 - [pinyin]fan4 wei2[/pinyin] - Range, scope\r\n治安 - [pinyin]zhi4 an1[/pinyin] - Law and order\r\n打击 - [pinyin]da3 ji1[/pinyin] - Crack down on\r\n面临 - [pinyin]mian4 lin2[/pinyin] - Be faced with\r\n工作与生活平衡 - [pinyin]gong1 zuo4 yu2 sheng1 huo2 ping2 heng2[/pinyin] - Work-life balance\r\n比例 - [pinyin]bi3 li4[/pinyin] - Proportion\r\n岗位 - [pinyin]gang3 wei4[/pinyin] - A job\r\n限 - [pinyin]xian4[/pinyin] - Limit\r\n遭受 - [pinyin]zao1 shou4[/pinyin] - To suffer\r\n威胁 - [pinyin]wei1 xie2[/pinyin] - To threaten\r\n扮演 - [pinyin]ban4 yan3[/pinyin] - To play a role\r\n冲突 - [pinyin]chong1 tu1[/pinyin] - Conflict\r\n政策 - [pinyin]zheng4 ce4[/pinyin] - Policy\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n警察职业曾是女性的“禁区”。随着社会的发展, 目前女警数量不断扩大, 警务工作范围不断扩展, 他们已成为维护社会治安、打击犯罪的特殊力量。女警发展面临着工作与生活平衡的困境。一方面, 存在着女警人数所占比例小、岗位受限、晋升和参与决策的机会有限、职业安全遭受到威胁等限制职业发展的问题。另一方面, 繁忙的警务工作使其无法扮演好家庭角色, 内心冲突激烈。促进女警工作与生活平衡需要社会方面与个体方面的双重努力, 特别是社会政策的支持。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nPolice work was once an occupational area forbidden to women. In the wake of [current] social development, the continuous increase in the number of policewomen and the continuous expansion in the scope of police work, policewomen have become an extraordinary force in upholding law and order and cracking down on crime. [At the same time,] this development has left policewomen faced with difficulties in [maintaining] work-life balance. On the one hand, [there are work-related issues such as] their small number in proportion [to male policemen], a limited number of posts they may accept, few opportunities for promotion or participation in decision-making, threats to their occupational safety, and so on. On the other hand, [there are personal issues such as the fact that] the frenetic pace of police work makes it almost impossible to play a proper role in domestic life, creating an intense inner conflict in [policewomen\'s] heart. In order to improve policewomen\'s work-life balance, we must strive [to address] both the social and individual aspects [of this problem], particularly in the form of support through social policies. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'A Probe into the Work-Life Balance of Chinese Policewomen', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1287-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-10-21 02:34:14', '2012-10-21 06:34:14', '', 1287, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/10/21/1287-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1292, 1, '2012-10-02 00:45:36', '2012-10-02 04:45:36', '[two_third]\r\n
Chinese Title: 我们家的跳绳比赛\r\n\r\nA single-paragraph essay about the results of a family jump rope competition. \r\n\r\n
Haven\'t had a ton of extra time in the last few weeks - just went on a trip to Dalian, and still catching up from that. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n跳 - [pinyin]tiao4[/pinyin] - Jump\r\n绳 - [pinyin]sheng2[/pinyin] - Rope\r\n失误 - [pinyin]shi1 wu4[/pinyin] - Mistake\r\n砰砰 - [pinyin]peng1 peng1[/pinyin] - Onomat. Sound of heart beating\r\n弃权 - [pinyin]qi4 quan2[/pinyin] - To voluntarily not participate\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n今天早上我和爸爸比赛跳绳，爸爸先跳，妈妈记时数数，爸爸一分钟跳了128个，该我上场了，爸爸数数，妈妈记时，我这次没有失误，一分钟跳了145个，我的心砰砰乱跳，都快蹦出来了，妈妈弃权了，我成了全家中的第一名，，我好开心。 \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThis morning father and competed in jump rope, father went first, mother kept time and count, father jumped 128 times in a minute, and when I entered the playing field, father counted and mother took notes. In this round [literally: \'this time\', but sounds weird in English because there are no previous times] I made no mistakes, and in one minute I jumped 145 times, my heart pounded in my chest, as if it would bounce right out. So I became Number 1 in our family, I was very happy. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Our Family\'s Jump Rope Contest', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1277-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-10-02 00:45:36', '2012-10-02 04:45:36', '', 1277, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/10/02/1277-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1295, 1, '2013-01-15 22:40:26', '2013-01-16 03:40:26', 'You know you need a KTV song! Beijing, Beijing is a slow ballad sung by Chinese artist 汪峰 [pinyin]wang1 feng1[/pinyin] and was in the
Baidu Top 100 top 10 for a bit this year. Now it looks like it\'s fallen between the 30th and 40th place on various music charts, but it\'s still pretty popular, particularly in, you know, Beijing. If you can find it in yourself to embrace the painful 80\'s growly I-mean-it man voice and the \"Streets of Philadelphia\" emo-dad thing, you may find that the song is a good karaoke song if you\'re just starting out because it\'s repetitive, it\'s not abstract, it\'s sung slowly enough to sing along and it\'s so emotionally over-fraught that it\'s fun. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nI recommend you read and translate the lyrics before you listen to the song, so you\'ve got an idea of what you\'re hearing. \r\n\r\nA few translation notes: it\'s not always clear exactly how to translate song lyrics. Example: 寻找着追逐着奄奄一息的碎梦 is not an easy lyric to translate. Or rather, it\'s super easy to get the gist of the meaning (searching, chasing, dying, broken dreams... you get the idea), but put an \"of\" in the wrong place and the meaning changes to something slightly different. I\'ve done my best, feel free to re-write or re-interpret those in a different way. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 当我走在这里的每一条街道 \r\n我的心似乎从来都不能平静 \r\n除了发动机的轰鸣和电器之音 \r\n我似乎听到了他烛骨般的心跳 \r\n我在这里欢笑 \r\n我在这里哭泣\r\n我在这里活着 \r\n也在这死去 \r\n我在这里祈祷 \r\n我在这里迷惘 \r\n我在这里寻找 \r\n也在这儿失去 \r\n北京 北京 \r\n\r\n2) 咖啡馆与广场有三个街区 \r\n就像霓虹灯到月亮的距离 \r\n人们在挣扎中相互告慰和拥抱 \r\n寻找着追逐着奄奄一息的碎梦 \r\n我们在这欢笑 \r\n我们在这哭泣 \r\n我们在这活着 \r\n也在这死去 \r\n我们在这祈祷 \r\n我们在这迷惘 \r\n我们在这寻找 \r\n也在这儿失去 \r\n北京 北京 \r\n \r\n3) 如果有一天我不得不离去 \r\n我希望人们把我埋在这里 \r\n在这儿我能感觉到我的存在 \r\n在这儿有太多让我眷恋的东西 \r\n我在这里欢笑 \r\n我在这里哭泣 \r\n我在这里活着 \r\n也在这儿死去 \r\n我在这里祈祷 \r\n我在这里迷惘 \r\n我在这里寻找 \r\n也在这儿失去 \r\n北京 北京\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) When I walk the streets here\r\nIt seems like my heart can never be serene\r\nBeyond the rumble of engines and sounds of electronics\r\nI seem to hear its candlewick heartbeat\r\nThis is where I laugh happily\r\nThis is where I weep\r\nThis is where I live\r\nAnd this is where I\'ll die\r\nThis is where I pray\r\nThis is where I\'m confused\r\nThis is where I search\r\nAnd also where I lose\r\nBeijing, Beijing \r\n\r\n2) The three blocks between the coffee shop and the plaza\r\nSeem like the distance between the neon lights and the moon \r\nPeople comfort and embrace each other as they struggle together\r\nSearching for, chasing after, the last gasp of broken dreams\r\nThis is where we laugh happily\r\nThis is where we cry bitterly \r\nThis is where we live\r\nAnd this is where we\'ll die\r\nThis is where we pray\r\nThis is where we\'re confused\r\nThis is where we search\r\nAnd also where we lose\r\nBeijing, Beijing \r\n\r\n \r\n3) If someday I have no choice but to leave\r\nI hope people bury me here\r\nHere I can sense my existence \r\nHere there are too many things I yearn for\r\nThis is where I laugh happily\r\nThis is where I cry bitterly \r\nThis is where I live\r\nAnd this is where I die\r\nThis is where I pray\r\nThis is where I\'m confused\r\nThis is where I search\r\nAnd also where I lose\r\nBeijing, Beijing \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Songs] 《北京北京》Beijing Beijing by Wang Feng', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'song-lyrics-beijing-beijing-by-wang-feng', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:09:00', '2016-11-04 11:09:00', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1295', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(2067, 1, '2016-11-04 07:09:00', '2016-11-04 11:09:00', 'You know you need a KTV song! Beijing, Beijing is a slow ballad sung by Chinese artist 汪峰 [pinyin]wang1 feng1[/pinyin] and was in the
Baidu Top 100 top 10 for a bit this year. Now it looks like it\'s fallen between the 30th and 40th place on various music charts, but it\'s still pretty popular, particularly in, you know, Beijing. If you can find it in yourself to embrace the painful 80\'s growly I-mean-it man voice and the \"Streets of Philadelphia\" emo-dad thing, you may find that the song is a good karaoke song if you\'re just starting out because it\'s repetitive, it\'s not abstract, it\'s sung slowly enough to sing along and it\'s so emotionally over-fraught that it\'s fun. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nI recommend you read and translate the lyrics before you listen to the song, so you\'ve got an idea of what you\'re hearing. \r\n\r\nA few translation notes: it\'s not always clear exactly how to translate song lyrics. Example: 寻找着追逐着奄奄一息的碎梦 is not an easy lyric to translate. Or rather, it\'s super easy to get the gist of the meaning (searching, chasing, dying, broken dreams... you get the idea), but put an \"of\" in the wrong place and the meaning changes to something slightly different. I\'ve done my best, feel free to re-write or re-interpret those in a different way. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 当我走在这里的每一条街道 \r\n我的心似乎从来都不能平静 \r\n除了发动机的轰鸣和电器之音 \r\n我似乎听到了他烛骨般的心跳 \r\n我在这里欢笑 \r\n我在这里哭泣\r\n我在这里活着 \r\n也在这死去 \r\n我在这里祈祷 \r\n我在这里迷惘 \r\n我在这里寻找 \r\n也在这儿失去 \r\n北京 北京 \r\n\r\n2) 咖啡馆与广场有三个街区 \r\n就像霓虹灯到月亮的距离 \r\n人们在挣扎中相互告慰和拥抱 \r\n寻找着追逐着奄奄一息的碎梦 \r\n我们在这欢笑 \r\n我们在这哭泣 \r\n我们在这活着 \r\n也在这死去 \r\n我们在这祈祷 \r\n我们在这迷惘 \r\n我们在这寻找 \r\n也在这儿失去 \r\n北京 北京 \r\n \r\n3) 如果有一天我不得不离去 \r\n我希望人们把我埋在这里 \r\n在这儿我能感觉到我的存在 \r\n在这儿有太多让我眷恋的东西 \r\n我在这里欢笑 \r\n我在这里哭泣 \r\n我在这里活着 \r\n也在这儿死去 \r\n我在这里祈祷 \r\n我在这里迷惘 \r\n我在这里寻找 \r\n也在这儿失去 \r\n北京 北京\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) When I walk the streets here\r\nIt seems like my heart can never be serene\r\nBeyond the rumble of engines and sounds of electronics\r\nI seem to hear its candlewick heartbeat\r\nThis is where I laugh happily\r\nThis is where I weep\r\nThis is where I live\r\nAnd this is where I\'ll die\r\nThis is where I pray\r\nThis is where I\'m confused\r\nThis is where I search\r\nAnd also where I lose\r\nBeijing, Beijing \r\n\r\n2) The three blocks between the coffee shop and the plaza\r\nSeem like the distance between the neon lights and the moon \r\nPeople comfort and embrace each other as they struggle together\r\nSearching for, chasing after, the last gasp of broken dreams\r\nThis is where we laugh happily\r\nThis is where we cry bitterly \r\nThis is where we live\r\nAnd this is where we\'ll die\r\nThis is where we pray\r\nThis is where we\'re confused\r\nThis is where we search\r\nAnd also where we lose\r\nBeijing, Beijing \r\n\r\n \r\n3) If someday I have no choice but to leave\r\nI hope people bury me here\r\nHere I can sense my existence \r\nHere there are too many things I yearn for\r\nThis is where I laugh happily\r\nThis is where I cry bitterly \r\nThis is where I live\r\nAnd this is where I die\r\nThis is where I pray\r\nThis is where I\'m confused\r\nThis is where I search\r\nAnd also where I lose\r\nBeijing, Beijing \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Songs] 《北京北京》Beijing Beijing by Wang Feng', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1295-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:09:00', '2016-11-04 11:09:00', '', 1295, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1295-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1294, 1, '2012-10-21 02:34:46', '2012-10-21 06:34:46', '[two_third]\r\n
Chinese Title: 女警察工作与生活平衡问题探讨\r\n\r\nGonna lay it on a bit thick today with something nice and serious. This is an abstract of an academic paper from the
Gender Studies Network authored by Zhou Ying. \r\n\r\n
Because this is an advanced academic abstract, you can really see how, in the upper levels of written Chinese, a ton of words that we find essential in English can be dropped from a sentence while still preserving the essence of the meaning. We tend to extend sentences with explanation, but here, I feel, is a fabulous example of how efficient Chinese can be. Because so many words have been dropped, I\'ve added a whole lot of bracketed explanation and English fill-in words in the translation to better illuminate the implied meaning.\r\n\r\nI\'m not quite sure I know what a \"proper role in domestic life is\", I\'m fairly certain that not all policewomen feel intensely conflicted, and I\'m not sure I really like the implications there, but hey. It\'s not my paper. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n禁区 - [pinyin]jin4 qu1[/pinyin] - Forbidden region\r\n范围 - [pinyin]fan4 wei2[/pinyin] - Range, scope\r\n治安 - [pinyin]zhi4 an1[/pinyin] - Law and order\r\n打击 - [pinyin]da3 ji1[/pinyin] - Crack down on\r\n面临 - [pinyin]mian4 lin2[/pinyin] - Be faced with\r\n工作与生活平衡 - [pinyin]gong1 zuo4 yu2 sheng1 huo2 ping2 heng2[/pinyin] - Work-life balance\r\n比例 - [pinyin]bi3 li4[/pinyin] - Proportion\r\n岗位 - [pinyin]gang3 wei4[/pinyin] - A job\r\n限 - [pinyin]xian4[/pinyin] - Limit\r\n遭受 - [pinyin]zao1 shou4[/pinyin] - To suffer\r\n威胁 - [pinyin]wei1 xie2[/pinyin] - To threaten\r\n扮演 - [pinyin]ban4 yan3[/pinyin] - To play a role\r\n冲突 - [pinyin]chong1 tu1[/pinyin] - Conflict\r\n政策 - [pinyin]zheng4 ce4[/pinyin] - Policy\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n警察职业曾是女性的“禁区”。随着社会的发展, 目前女警数量不断扩大, 警务工作范围不断扩展, 他们已成为维护社会治安、打击犯罪的特殊力量。女警发展面临着工作与生活平衡的困境。一方面, 存在着女警人数所占比例小、岗位受限、晋升和参与决策的机会有限、职业安全遭受到威胁等限制职业发展的问题。另一方面, 繁忙的警务工作使其无法扮演好家庭角色, 内心冲突激烈。促进女警工作与生活平衡需要社会方面与个体方面的双重努力, 特别是社会政策的支持。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nPolice work was once an occupational area forbidden to women. In the wake of [current] social development, the continuous increase in the number of policewomen and the continuous expansion in the scope of police work, policewomen have become an extraordinary force in upholding law and order and cracking down on crime. [At the same time,] this development has left policewomen faced with difficulties in [maintaining] work-life balance. On the one hand, [there are work-related issues such as] their small number in proportion [to male policemen], a limited number of posts they may accept, few opportunities for promotion or participation in decision-making, threats to their occupational safety, and so on. On the other hand, [there are personal issues such as the fact that] the frenetic pace of police work makes it almost impossible to play a proper role in domestic life, creating an intense inner conflict in [policewomen\'s] heart. In order to improve policewomen\'s work-life balance, we must strive [to address] both the social and individual aspects [of this problem], particularly in the form of support through social policies. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'A Probe into the Work-Life Balance of Chinese Policewomen', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1287-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-10-21 02:34:46', '2012-10-21 06:34:46', '', 1287, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/10/21/1287-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1296, 1, '2012-10-28 11:55:31', '2012-10-28 15:55:31', '[two_third]\n
You know you need a KTV song! Beijing, Beijing is a slow ballad sung by Chinese artist 汪峰 and was in the Baidu Top 100 top 10 for a bit this year. Now it looks like it\'s fallen between the 30th and 40th place on various music charts, but it\'s still pretty popular, particularly in, you know, Beijing. \n\nIf you can find it in yourself to embrace the painful 80\'s growly I-mean-it man voice and the \"Streets of Philadelphia\" emo-dad philosophy, you may find that the song is a good karaoke song if you\'re just starting out because it\'s repetitive, sung slowly enough to sing along and the language really isn\'t too hard. \n\nI recommend you read and translate the lyrics before you listen to the song, so you\'ve got an idea of what you\'re hearing. \n\nA few translation notes:\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n禁区 - [pinyin]jin4 qu1[/pinyin] - Forbidden region\n范围 - [pinyin]fan4 wei2[/pinyin] - Range, scope\n治安 - [pinyin]zhi4 an1[/pinyin] - Law and order\n打击 - [pinyin]da3 ji1[/pinyin] - Crack down on\n面临 - [pinyin]mian4 lin2[/pinyin] - Be faced with\n工作与生活平衡 - [pinyin]gong1 zuo4 yu2 sheng1 huo2 ping2 heng2[/pinyin] - Work-life balance\n比例 - [pinyin]bi3 li4[/pinyin] - Proportion\n岗位 - [pinyin]gang3 wei4[/pinyin] - A job\n限 - [pinyin]xian4[/pinyin] - Limit\n遭受 - [pinyin]zao1 shou4[/pinyin] - To suffer\n威胁 - [pinyin]wei1 xie2[/pinyin] - To threaten\n扮演 - [pinyin]ban4 yan3[/pinyin] - To play a role\n冲突 - [pinyin]chong1 tu1[/pinyin] - Conflict\n政策 - [pinyin]zheng4 ce4[/pinyin] - Policy\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n当我走在这里的每一条街道 \n我的心似乎从来都不能平静 \n除了发动机的轰鸣和电器之音 \n我似乎听到了他烛骨般的心跳 \n我在这里欢笑 \n我在这里哭泣 \n我在这里活着 \n也在这死去 \n我在这里祈祷 \n我在这里迷惘 \n我在这里寻找 \n也在这儿失去 \n北京 北京 \n\n咖啡馆与广场有三个街区 \n就像霓虹灯到月亮的距离 \n人们在挣扎中相互告慰和拥抱 \n寻找着追逐着奄奄一息的碎梦 \n我们在这欢笑 \n我们在这哭泣 \n我们在这活着 \n也在这死去 \n我们在这祈祷 \n我们在这迷惘 \n我们在这寻找 \n也在这儿失去 \n北京 北京 \n \n如果有一天我不得不离去 \n我希望人们把我埋在这里 \n在这儿我能感觉到我的存在 \n在这儿有太多让我眷恋的东西 \n我在这里欢笑 \n我在这里哭泣 \n我在这里活着 \n也在这儿死去 \n我在这里祈祷 \n我在这里迷惘 \n我在这里寻找 \n也在这儿失去 \n北京 北京\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nWhen I walk the streets here\nIt seems like my heart can never be serene\nBeyond [except] the rumble of engines and sounds of electronics\nIt seems like I can hear HIS? SOMETHING heartbeat\nThis is where I laugh happily\nThis is where I cry bitterly [weep]\nThis is where I live\nAnd this is where I die\nThis is where I pray\nThis is where I\'m confused\nThis is where I search\nAnd also where I lose\nBeijing, Beijing \n\nThe three blocks with the coffee shop and the plaza\nSeem like the distance between the neon lights and the moon \nPeople SPEAK and embrace as they struggle together \nSearching for, chasing after, the last gasp of broken dreams\nThis is where we laugh happily\nThis is where we cry bitterly \nThis is where we live\nAnd this is where we die\nThis is where we pray\nThis is where we\'re confused\nThis is where we search\nAnd also where we lose\nBeijing, Beijing \n\n \nIf someday I have no choice but to leave\nI hope people bury me here\nHere I can sense my existence \nHere there are many things I yearn for\nThis is where I laugh happily\nThis is where I cry bitterly \nThis is where I live\nAnd this is where I die\nThis is where I pray\nThis is where I\'m confused\nThis is where I search\nAnd also where I lose\nBeijing, Beijing \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Song Lyrics: Beijing Beijing', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1295-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-10-28 11:55:31', '2012-10-28 15:55:31', '', 1295, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/10/28/1295-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1297, 1, '2012-10-28 12:00:41', '2012-10-28 16:00:41', '[two_third]\nYou know you need a KTV song! Beijing, Beijing is a slow ballad sung by Chinese artist 汪峰 and was in the Baidu Top 100 top 10 for a bit this year. Now it looks like it\'s fallen between the 30th and 40th place on various music charts, but it\'s still pretty popular, particularly in, you know, Beijing. \n\nIf you can find it in yourself to embrace the painful 80\'s growly I-mean-it man voice and the \"Streets of Philadelphia\" emo-dad philosophy, you may find that the song is a good karaoke song if you\'re just starting out because it\'s repetitive, sung slowly enough to sing along and the language really isn\'t too hard. \n\nI recommend you read and translate the lyrics before you listen to the song, so you\'ve got an idea of what you\'re hearing. \n\nA few translation notes: it\'s not always clear exactly how to translate song lyrics. Example: 寻找着追逐着奄奄一息的碎梦 is not an easy lyric to translate. Or rather, it\'s super easy to get the gist of the meaning (searching, chasing, dying, broken dreams... you get the idea), but put an \"of\" in the wrong place and the meaning changes to something slightly different. I\'ve done my best, feel free to re-write or re-interpret those in a different way. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n禁区 - [pinyin]jin4 qu1[/pinyin] - Forbidden region\n范围 - [pinyin]fan4 wei2[/pinyin] - Range, scope\n治安 - [pinyin]zhi4 an1[/pinyin] - Law and order\n打击 - [pinyin]da3 ji1[/pinyin] - Crack down on\n面临 - [pinyin]mian4 lin2[/pinyin] - Be faced with\n工作与生活平衡 - [pinyin]gong1 zuo4 yu2 sheng1 huo2 ping2 heng2[/pinyin] - Work-life balance\n比例 - [pinyin]bi3 li4[/pinyin] - Proportion\n岗位 - [pinyin]gang3 wei4[/pinyin] - A job\n限 - [pinyin]xian4[/pinyin] - Limit\n遭受 - [pinyin]zao1 shou4[/pinyin] - To suffer\n威胁 - [pinyin]wei1 xie2[/pinyin] - To threaten\n扮演 - [pinyin]ban4 yan3[/pinyin] - To play a role\n冲突 - [pinyin]chong1 tu1[/pinyin] - Conflict\n政策 - [pinyin]zheng4 ce4[/pinyin] - Policy\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n当我走在这里的每一条街道 \n我的心似乎从来都不能平静 \n除了发动机的轰鸣和电器之音 \n我似乎听到了他烛骨般的心跳 \n我在这里欢笑 \n我在这里哭泣 \n我在这里活着 \n也在这死去 \n我在这里祈祷 \n我在这里迷惘 \n我在这里寻找 \n也在这儿失去 \n北京 北京 \n\n咖啡馆与广场有三个街区 \n就像霓虹灯到月亮的距离 \n人们在挣扎中相互告慰和拥抱 \n寻找着追逐着奄奄一息的碎梦 \n我们在这欢笑 \n我们在这哭泣 \n我们在这活着 \n也在这死去 \n我们在这祈祷 \n我们在这迷惘 \n我们在这寻找 \n也在这儿失去 \n北京 北京 \n \n如果有一天我不得不离去 \n我希望人们把我埋在这里 \n在这儿我能感觉到我的存在 \n在这儿有太多让我眷恋的东西 \n我在这里欢笑 \n我在这里哭泣 \n我在这里活着 \n也在这儿死去 \n我在这里祈祷 \n我在这里迷惘 \n我在这里寻找 \n也在这儿失去 \n北京 北京\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nWhen I walk the streets here\nIt seems like my heart can never be serene\nBeyond [except] the rumble of engines and sounds of electronics\nIt seems like I can hear HIS? SOMETHING heartbeat\nThis is where I laugh happily\nThis is where I cry bitterly [weep]\nThis is where I live\nAnd this is where I die\nThis is where I pray\nThis is where I\'m confused\nThis is where I search\nAnd also where I lose\nBeijing, Beijing \n\nThe three blocks with the coffee shop and the plaza\nSeem like the distance between the neon lights and the moon \nPeople comfort and embrace each other as they struggle together\nSearching for, chasing after, the last gasp of broken dreams\nThis is where we laugh happily\nThis is where we cry bitterly \nThis is where we live\nAnd this is where we die\nThis is where we pray\nThis is where we\'re confused\nThis is where we search\nAnd also where we lose\nBeijing, Beijing \n\n \nIf someday I have no choice but to leave\nI hope people bury me here\nHere I can sense my existence \nHere there are many things I yearn for\nThis is where I laugh happily\nThis is where I cry bitterly \nThis is where I live\nAnd this is where I die\nThis is where I pray\nThis is where I\'m confused\nThis is where I search\nAnd also where I lose\nBeijing, Beijing \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Song Lyrics: Beijing Beijing', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1295-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-10-28 12:00:41', '2012-10-28 16:00:41', '', 1295, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/10/28/1295-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1304, 1, '2013-01-02 19:55:40', '2013-01-03 00:55:40', 'In the spirit of the holiday season, which is winding to a blissfully overweight close, I give you an article about something you may or may not have just struggled through if you flew home for the holidays. This is a wildly factual article about the congestion caused by the snow storms a week or so ago. Not a lot of excitement here, mostly a tallying up of what a big fat mess the American aviation system becomes during the annual Christmas hysteria. \r\n\r\nLots and lots of proper nouns in here, including lots of U.S. states, some cities and even a couple of basketball team names. Probably the most fun you\'ll have reading this is trying to decipher the list of Chinese names for U.S. states (read the characters out loud quickly and see if you can guess - example: 弗吉尼亚州 fo ji ni ya = Virginia). You can always tell you\'re reading a U.S. state name because the character 州 appears at the tail end of each state. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n暴风雪已致15人死 2000航班延误取消\r\n\r\n圣诞节期间美国遭遇暴风雪袭击，已至少造成15人死亡，2000次美国航班延误或取消。\r\n\r\n据报道，因暴雪严寒造成人员死亡的州包括肯塔基州、俄亥俄州、印第安纳州、阿肯色州、俄克拉何马州、得克萨斯州、路易斯安那州、宾夕法尼亚州和弗吉尼亚州。\r\n\r\n很多地区发出警告提醒人们不要外出，因为凛冽狂风、低温和充满危险的路况对行人构成威胁。气象部门说，位于美国东北部的新英格兰地区数州即将出现大雪天气，缅因州部分地区的降雪厚度达18英寸(约45厘米)。因此，很多人的圣诞节假期旅行计划受到影响。\r\n\r\n目前，已有超过20万居民家中断电，成千上万出游的人们滞留在各处。NBA推迟了原本于周三晚在印第安纳波利斯举行的印第安纳步行者对芝加哥公牛队的篮球赛。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThis Christmas season, America is suffering through a blizzard, which has already caused at least 15 deaths and the delay or cancellation of 2000 flights. \r\n\r\nAccording to reports, the snowstorm and bitter cold has caused deaths in states including Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Virginia. \r\n\r\nMany regions issued warnings reminding people not to go outside, because the biting cold, howling winds, low temperatures and dangerous traffic conditions compose a threat to pedestrians. The weather department said that severe snow will soon appear in America\'s northeastern New England area, with snowfall in Maine reaching 18 inches (about 45 centimeters). As a result, many people\'s Christmas travel plans will be effected.\r\n\r\nCurrently, 200,000 homes have already experienced electrical outages, and tens of thousands of travelers have been detained. [Also due to snow] in Indianapolis, the NBA postponed Wednesday night\'s Indiana Pacers vs. Chicago Bulls basketball game. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[News in Chinese] Snowstorm has caused 15 deaths and 2000 flight delays or cancellations', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'news-snowstorm-has-caused-15-deaths-and-2000-flight-delays-or-cancellations', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:21:24', '2016-11-04 11:21:24', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1304', 0, 'post', '', 7),
(2072, 1, '2016-11-04 07:21:24', '2016-11-04 11:21:24', 'In the spirit of the holiday season, which is winding to a blissfully overweight close, I give you an article about something you may or may not have just struggled through if you flew home for the holidays. This is a wildly factual article about the congestion caused by the snow storms a week or so ago. Not a lot of excitement here, mostly a tallying up of what a big fat mess the American aviation system becomes during the annual Christmas hysteria. \r\n\r\nLots and lots of proper nouns in here, including lots of U.S. states, some cities and even a couple of basketball team names. Probably the most fun you\'ll have reading this is trying to decipher the list of Chinese names for U.S. states (read the characters out loud quickly and see if you can guess - example: 弗吉尼亚州 fo ji ni ya = Virginia). You can always tell you\'re reading a U.S. state name because the character 州 appears at the tail end of each state. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n暴风雪已致15人死 2000航班延误取消\r\n\r\n圣诞节期间美国遭遇暴风雪袭击，已至少造成15人死亡，2000次美国航班延误或取消。\r\n\r\n据报道，因暴雪严寒造成人员死亡的州包括肯塔基州、俄亥俄州、印第安纳州、阿肯色州、俄克拉何马州、得克萨斯州、路易斯安那州、宾夕法尼亚州和弗吉尼亚州。\r\n\r\n很多地区发出警告提醒人们不要外出，因为凛冽狂风、低温和充满危险的路况对行人构成威胁。气象部门说，位于美国东北部的新英格兰地区数州即将出现大雪天气，缅因州部分地区的降雪厚度达18英寸(约45厘米)。因此，很多人的圣诞节假期旅行计划受到影响。\r\n\r\n目前，已有超过20万居民家中断电，成千上万出游的人们滞留在各处。NBA推迟了原本于周三晚在印第安纳波利斯举行的印第安纳步行者对芝加哥公牛队的篮球赛。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThis Christmas season, America is suffering through a blizzard, which has already caused at least 15 deaths and the delay or cancellation of 2000 flights. \r\n\r\nAccording to reports, the snowstorm and bitter cold has caused deaths in states including Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Virginia. \r\n\r\nMany regions issued warnings reminding people not to go outside, because the biting cold, howling winds, low temperatures and dangerous traffic conditions compose a threat to pedestrians. The weather department said that severe snow will soon appear in America\'s northeastern New England area, with snowfall in Maine reaching 18 inches (about 45 centimeters). As a result, many people\'s Christmas travel plans will be effected.\r\n\r\nCurrently, 200,000 homes have already experienced electrical outages, and tens of thousands of travelers have been detained. [Also due to snow] in Indianapolis, the NBA postponed Wednesday night\'s Indiana Pacers vs. Chicago Bulls basketball game. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[News in Chinese] Snowstorm has caused 15 deaths and 2000 flight delays or cancellations', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1304-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:21:24', '2016-11-04 11:21:24', '', 1304, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1304-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1300, 1, '2012-11-01 02:15:23', '2012-11-01 06:15:23', 'Know someone who has a high, but misguided, opinion of their own worth? Thought so. Stick this one in the language bank for when you need to take someone down a peg (preferably while stroking your fu manchu and calmly catching flies with your chopsticks). \r\n\r\nAll the tong zhi\'s
\r\nI learned a new word on this one: 统治 [pinyin]tong3 zhi4[/pinyin]. Which brings the total number of \"tongzhi\" words (tonal differences aside) I know up to three. \r\n\r\nWe\'ve got:\r\n同志 - [pinyin]tong2 zhi4[/pinyin] or \"Comrade\" (and in Chinese slang this also means \"a homosexual\", though if you keep an eye on the Chinese news you\'ll see that that one of the more reputable local dictionaries refused to include that definition though it\'s in common use) \r\n\r\n通知 [pinyin]tong1 zhi1[/pinyin] - To notify, give notice\r\n\r\nAnd now, 统治 [pinyin]tong3 zhi4[/pinyin] - To rule over (a kingdom / country)\r\n\r\nLet us hope there aren\'t any more configurations of that sound. \r\n\r\nAnyway, this post might be Advanced level, I can\'t 100% tell, so do post in the comments if you feel it\'s inaccurately placed in \"Intermediate\". I\'ll move it if enough people agree. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 汉朝的时候，在西南方有个名叫夜郎的小国家，它虽然是一个独立的国家，可是国土很小，百姓也少，物产更是少得可怜。但是由于邻近地区以夜郎这个国家最大，从没离开过国家的夜郎国国王就以为自己统治的国家是全天下最大的国家。\r\n\r\n2) 有一天，夜郎国国王与部下巡视国境的时候，他指着前方问说：“这里哪个国家最大呀？”部下们为了迎合国王的心意，于是就说：“当然是夜郎国最大啰！”走着走着，国王又抬起头来、望着前方的高山问说：“天底下还有比这座山更高的山吗？”部下们回答说：“天底下没有比这座山更高的山了。”后来，他们来到河边，国王又问：“我认为这可是世界上最长的河川了。”部下们仍然异口同声回答说：“大王说得一点都没错。”从此以后，无知的国王就更相信夜郎是天底下最大的国家。\r\n\r\n有一次，汉朝派使者来到夜郎，途中先经过夜郎的邻国滇国，滇王问使者：“汉朝和我的国家比起来哪个大？”使者一听吓了一跳，他没想到这个小国家，竟然无知的自以为能与汉朝相比。却没想到后来使者到了夜郎国，骄傲又无知的国王因为不知道自己统治的国家只和汉朝的一个县差不多大，竟然不知天高地厚也问使者：“汉朝和我的国家哪个大？”\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n3) During the Han Dynasty, in the southwest there was a small country called Yelang, and although it was an independent nation, its territory was small, there weren\'t many citizens, and its products were pitifully few. Because it was the largest kingdom in the near area, the Yelang king who\'d never left his own country thought the country he ruled was the biggest on earth. \r\n\r\nOne day, the king of Yelang was on a national border inspection tour with his troops, when he pointed in front of him [to neighboring country] and said, \"Which country is bigger?\" In order to serve their own interests and make the king happy, the troops said, \"Of course Yelang is bigger!\" They walked along, and the king once again lifted up his head, gazed at the big mountain in the distance and asked: \"Is there a taller mountain than this anywhere on earth?\" And his men answered: \"No, there\'s no mountain taller than this one on earth.\" After a while, they reached the river side, and the king asked again: \"I think this is the world\'s longest river.\" And all his men said in unison \"The king speaks truly.\" After this, the ignorant king believed even more firmly that Yelang was the world\'s biggest country.\r\n\r\nThen one day, the Han Dynasty dispatched an envoy to Yelang, and en route they encountered the neighboring kingdom DianGuo, and the King of Dian asked the emissary: \"If you compared the Han Dynasty and my Kingdom, which one would be bigger?\" The emissary listened in astonishment, as he\'d never have thought this small a country thought it could compare itself to the Han Dynasty. But he really never could have suspected that when he got to Yelang, the prideful and ignorant king who didn\'t know that the kingdom he ruled was about the size of one Han county, would ask with an exaggerated opinion of his own worth, \"Which is bigger: the Han Dynasty or my country?\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 夜郎自大 - Foolish Conceit', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'story-behind-the-idiom-yelang-zi-da', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:28:12', '2016-11-04 11:28:12', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1300', 0, 'post', '', 12),
(2074, 1, '2016-11-04 07:25:52', '2016-11-04 11:25:52', 'Know someone who has a high, but misguided, opinion of their own worth? Thought so. Stick this one in the language bank for when you need to take someone down a peg (preferably while stroking your fu manchu and calmly catching flies with your chopsticks). \r\n\r\nAll the tong zhi\'s
\r\nI learned a new word on this one: 统治 [pinyin]tong3 zhi4[/pinyin]. Which brings the total number of \"tongzhi\" words (tonal differences aside) I know up to three. \r\n\r\nWe\'ve got:\r\n同志 - [pinyin]tong2 zhi4[/pinyin] or \"Comrade\" (and in Chinese slang this also means \"a homosexual\", though if you keep an eye on the Chinese news you\'ll see that that one of the more reputable local dictionaries refused to include that definition though it\'s in common use) \r\n\r\n通知 [pinyin]tong1 zhi1[/pinyin] - To notify, give notice\r\n\r\nAnd now, 统治 [pinyin]tong3 zhi4[/pinyin] - To rule over (a kingdom / country)\r\n\r\nLet us hope there aren\'t any more configurations of that sound. \r\n\r\nAnyway, this post might be Advanced level, I can\'t 100% tell, so do post in the comments if you feel it\'s inaccurately placed in \"Intermediate\". I\'ll move it if enough people agree. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 汉朝的时候，在西南方有个名叫夜郎的小国家，它虽然是一个独立的国家，可是国土很小，百姓也少，物产更是少得可怜。但是由于邻近地区以夜郎这个国家最大，从没离开过国家的夜郎国国王就以为自己统治的国家是全天下最大的国家。\r\n\r\n2) 有一天，夜郎国国王与部下巡视国境的时候，他指着前方问说：“这里哪个国家最大呀？”部下们为了迎合国王的心意，于是就说：“当然是夜郎国最大啰！”走着走着，国王又抬起头来、望着前方的高山问说：“天底下还有比这座山更高的山吗？”部下们回答说：“天底下没有比这座山更高的山了。”后来，他们来到河边，国王又问：“我认为这可是世界上最长的河川了。”部下们仍然异口同声回答说：“大王说得一点都没错。”从此以后，无知的国王就更相信夜郎是天底下最大的国家。\r\n\r\n有一次，汉朝派使者来到夜郎，途中先经过夜郎的邻国滇国，滇王问使者：“汉朝和我的国家比起来哪个大？”使者一听吓了一跳，他没想到这个小国家，竟然无知的自以为能与汉朝相比。却没想到后来使者到了夜郎国，骄傲又无知的国王因为不知道自己统治的国家只和汉朝的一个县差不多大，竟然不知天高地厚也问使者：“汉朝和我的国家哪个大？”\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n3) During the Han Dynasty, in the southwest there was a small country called Yelang, and although it was an independent nation, its territory was small, there weren\'t many citizens, and its products were pitifully few. Because it was the largest kingdom in the near area, the Yelang king who\'d never left his own country thought the country he ruled was the biggest on earth. \r\n\r\nOne day, the king of Yelang was on a national border inspection tour with his troops, when he pointed in front of him [to neighboring country] and said, \"Which country is bigger?\" In order to serve their own interests and make the king happy, the troops said, \"Of course Yelang is bigger!\" They walked along, and the king once again lifted up his head, gazed at the big mountain in the distance and asked: \"Is there a taller mountain than this anywhere on earth?\" And his men answered: \"No, there\'s no mountain taller than this one on earth.\" After a while, they reached the river side, and the king asked again: \"I think this is the world\'s longest river.\" And all his men said in unison \"The king speaks truly.\" After this, the ignorant king believed even more firmly that Yelang was the world\'s biggest country.\r\n\r\nThen one day, the Han Dynasty dispatched an envoy to Yelang, and en route they encountered the neighboring kingdom DianGuo, and the King of Dian asked the emissary: \"If you compared the Han Dynasty and my Kingdom, which one would be bigger?\" The emissary listened in astonishment, as he\'d never have thought this small a country thought it could compare itself to the Han Dynasty. But he really never could have suspected that when he got to Yelang, the prideful and ignorant king who didn\'t know that the kingdom he ruled was about the size of one Han county, would ask with an exaggerated opinion of his own worth, \"Which is bigger: the Han Dynasty or my country?\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 夜郎自大 - Foolish Conceit', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1300-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:25:52', '2016-11-04 11:25:52', '', 1300, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1300-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1301, 1, '2012-11-01 02:11:50', '2012-11-01 06:11:50', '', 'Learn to read Chinese: Intermediate Essays, Idioms and Grammar', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20121101-inline', '', '', '2012-11-01 02:11:50', '2012-11-01 06:11:50', '', 1300, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/20121101-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1302, 1, '2012-11-01 02:12:08', '2012-11-01 06:12:08', '', 'Learn to read Chinese: Intermediate Essays, Idioms and Grammar', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20121101', '', '', '2012-11-01 02:12:08', '2012-11-01 06:12:08', '', 1300, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/20121101.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1303, 1, '2012-11-01 02:14:42', '2012-11-01 06:14:42', '[two_third]\nChinese Title: 夜郎自大\n\nHere we\'ll cover the back story behind the idiom \"夜郎自大\", or \"Yelang thinks highly of itself\". This idiom one refers to someone who has a high, but misguided, opinion of their own worth. Stick this one in the language bank for when you need to take someone down a peg (preferably while stroking your fu manchu and calmly catching flies with your chopsticks). \n\n![\"Learning](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/20121101-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Learn")
I learned a new word on this one: 统治 [pinyin]tong3 zhi4[/pinyin]. Which brings the total number of \"tongzhi\" words (tonal differences aside) I know up to three. \n\nWe\'ve got:\n同志 - [pinyin]tong2 zhi4[/pinyin] or \"Comrade\" (and in Chinese slang this also means \"a homosexual\", though if you keep an eye on the Chinese news you\'ll see that that one of the more reputable local dictionaries refused to include that definition though it\'s in common use) \n\n通知 [pinyin1]tong1 zhi1[/pinyin] - To notify, give notice\n\nAnd now, 统治 [pinyin]tong3 zhi4[/pinyin] - To rule over (a kingdom / country)\n\nLet us hope there aren\'t any more configurations of that sound. \n\nAnyway, I\'m not sure how useful the words in this passage will be unless you, like me, enj\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n汉朝 - [pinyin]han4 chao2[/pinyin] - Han Dynasty\n部下 - [pinyin]bu4 xia4[/pinyin] - Troops or subordinates under one\'s command\n巡视 - [pinyin]xun2 shi4[/pinyin] - Go on an inspection tour\n国境 - [pinyin]guo2 jing4[/pinyin] - National Borders\n迎合 - [pinyin]ying2 he2[/pinyin] - Serve one\'s own interests / to fawn or cater\n异口同声 - [pinyin]yi4 kou3 tong2 sheng1[/pinyin] - To say in unison\n派 - [pinyin]pai4[/pinyin] - To dispatch, send someone\n使者 - [pinyin]shi3 zhe3[/pinyin] - Envoy\n途中 - [pinyin]tu2 zhong1[/pinyin] - En route\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n汉朝的时候，在西南方有个名叫夜郎的小国家，它虽然是一个独立的国家，可是国土很小，百姓也少，物产更是少得可怜。但是由于邻近地区以夜郎这个国家最大，从没离开过国家的夜郎国国王就以为自己统治的国家是全天下最大的国家。\n\n有一天，夜郎国国王与部下巡视国境的时候，他指着前方问说：“这里哪个国家最大呀？”部下们为了迎合国王的心意，于是就说：“当然是夜郎国最大啰！”走着走着，国王又抬起头来、望着前方的高山问说：“天底下还有比这座山更高的山吗？”部下们回答说：“天底下没有比这座山更高的山了。”后来，他们来到河边，国王又问：“我认为这可是世界上最长的河川了。”部下们仍然异口同声回答说：“大王说得一点都没错。”从此以后，无知的国王就更相信夜郎是天底下最大的国家。\n\n有一次，汉朝派使者来到夜郎，途中先经过夜郎的邻国滇国，滇王问使者：“汉朝和我的国家比起来哪个大？”使者一听吓了一跳，他没想到这个小国家，竟然无知的自以为能与汉朝相比。却没想到后来使者到了夜郎国，骄傲又无知的国王因为不知道自己统治的国家只和汉朝的一个县差不多大，竟然不知天高地厚也问使者：“汉朝和我的国家哪个大？”\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDuring the Han Dynasty, in the southwest there was a small country called Yelang, and although it was an independent nation, its territory was small, there weren\'t many citizens, and its products were pitifully few. Because it was the largest kingdom in the near area, the Yelang king who\'d never left his own country thought the country he ruled was the biggest on earth. \n\nOne day, the king of Yelang was on a national border inspection tour with his troops, when he pointed in front of him [to neighboring country] and said, \"Which country is bigger?\" In order to serve their own interests and make the king happy, the troops said, \"Of course Yelang is bigger!\" They walked along, and the king once again lifted up his head, gazed at the big mountain in the distance and asked: \"Is there a taller mountain than this anywhere on earth?\" And his men answered: \"No, there\'s no mountain taller than this one on earth.\" After a while, they reached the river side, and the king asked again: \"I think this is the world\'s longest river.\" And all his men said in unison \"The king speaks truly.\" After this, the ignorant king believed even more firmly that Yelang was the world\'s biggest country.\n\nThen one day, the Han Dynasty dispatched an envoy to Yelang, and en route they encountered the neighboring kingdom DianGuo, and the King of Dian asked the emissary: \"If you compared the Han Dynasty and my Kingdom, which one would be bigger?\" The emissary listened in astonishment, as he\'d never have thought this small a country thought it could compare itself to the Han Dynasty. But he really never could have suspected that when he got to Yelang, the prideful and ignorant king who didn\'t know that the kingdom he ruled was about the size of one Han county, would ask with an exaggerated opinion of his own worth, \"Which is bigger: the Han Dynasty or my country?\" \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Story Behind the Idiom: YeLang Zi Da', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1300-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-11-01 02:14:42', '2012-11-01 06:14:42', '', 1300, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/11/01/1300-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1307, 1, '2013-01-02 19:53:36', '2013-01-03 00:53:36', '', 'How to Read Simplified Chinese: Practice Reading Chinese Newspaper Articles', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130103-inline', '', '', '2013-01-02 19:53:36', '2013-01-03 00:53:36', '', 1304, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/20130103-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1308, 1, '2013-01-02 19:53:38', '2013-01-03 00:53:38', '', 'How to Read Simplified Chinese: Practice Reading Chinese Newspaper Articles', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130103', '', '', '2013-01-02 19:53:38', '2013-01-03 00:53:38', '', 1304, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/20130103.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1309, 1, '2013-01-02 19:51:11', '2013-01-03 00:51:11', '[two_third]\nChinese Title: 暴风雪已致15人死 2000航班延误取消\n\nIn the spirit of the holiday season, which is winding to a blissfully overweight close, I give you an article about something you may or may not have just struggled through if you flew home for the holidays (which I did).\n\nThis is a wildly factual article about the congestion caused by the snow storms a week or so ago. Not a lot of excitement here, mostly a tallying up of what a big fat mess the American aviation system becomes during the annual Christmas hysteria. \n\nLots and lots of proper nouns in here, including lots of U.S. states, some cities and even a couple of basketball team names. Probably the most fun you\'ll have reading this is trying to decipher the list of Chinese names for U.S. states (read the characters out loud quickly and see if you can guess - example: 弗吉尼亚州 fo ji ni ya = Virginia). You can always tell you\'re reading a U.S. state name because the character 州 appears at the tail end of each state. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n暴风 - [pinyin]bao4 feng1[/pinyin] - Blizzard\n造成 - [pinyin]zao4 cheng2[/pinyin] - To cause, bring about\n严寒 - [pinyin]yan2 han2[/pinyin] - Severe winter\n警告 - [pinyin]jing3 gao4[/pinyin] - Warning (typically official one, issued by police or govt.)\n凛冽 - [pinyin]lin3 lie4[/pinyin] - Biting cold\n构成 - [pinyin]gou4 cheng2[/pinyin] - To constitute \n威胁 - [pinyin]wei1 xie2[/pinyin] - Threat\n气象部门 - [pinyin]qi4 xiang4 bu4 men2[/pinyin] - Weather service \n成千上万 - [pinyin]cheng2 qian1 shang4 wan4[/pinyin] - Tens of thousands\n推迟 - [pinyin]tui1 chi2[/pinyin] - To postpone\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n圣诞节期间美国遭遇暴风雪袭击，已至少造成15人死亡，2000次美国航班延误或取消。\n\n据报道，因暴雪严寒造成人员死亡的州包括肯塔基州、俄亥俄州、印第安纳州、阿肯色州、俄克拉何马州、得克萨斯州、路易斯安那州、宾夕法尼亚州和弗吉尼亚州。\n\n很多地区发出警告提醒人们不要外出，因为凛冽狂风、低温和充满危险的路况对行人构成威胁。气象部门说，位于美国东北部的新英格兰地区数州即将出现大雪天气，缅因州部分地区的降雪厚度达18英寸(约45厘米)。因此，很多人的圣诞节假期旅行计划受到影响。\n\n目前，已有超过20万居民家中断电，成千上万出游的人们滞留在各处。nba推迟了原本于周三晚在印第安纳波利斯举行的印第安纳步行者对芝加哥公牛队的篮球赛。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThis Christmas season, America is suffering through a blizzard, which has already caused at least 15 deaths and the delay or cancellation of 2000 flights. \n\nAccording to reports, the snowstorm and bitter cold has caused deaths in states including Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Virginia. \n\nMany regions issued warnings reminding people not to go outside, because the biting cold, howling winds, low temperatures and dangerous traffic conditions compose a threat to pedestrians. The weather department said that severe snow will soon appear in America\'s northeastern New England area, with snowfall in Maine reaching 18 inches (about 45 centimeters). As a result, many people\'s Christmas travel plans will be effected.\n\nCurrently, 200,000 homes have already experienced electrical outages, and tens of thousands of travelers have been detained. [Also due to snow] in Indianapolis, the NBA postponed Wednesday night\'s Indiana Pacers vs. Chicago Bulls basketball game. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'News: Snowstorm has caused 15 deaths and 2000 flight delays or cancellations', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1304-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-01-02 19:51:11', '2013-01-03 00:51:11', '', 1304, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/01/02/1304-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1305, 1, '2012-12-28 15:12:08', '2012-12-28 20:12:08', '[two_third]\nChinese Title: 夜郎自大\n\nHere we\'ll cover the back story behind the idiom \"夜郎自大\", or \"Yelang thinks highly of itself\". This idiom one refers to someone who has a high, but misguided, opinion of their own worth. Stick this one in the language bank for when you need to take someone down a peg (preferably while stroking your fu manchu and calmly catching flies with your chopsticks). \n\nI learned a new word on this one: 统治 [pinyin]tong3 zhi4[/pinyin]. Which brings the total number of \"tongzhi\" words (tonal differences aside) I know up to three. \n\nWe\'ve got:\n同志 - [pinyin]tong2 zhi4[/pinyin] or \"Comrade\" (and in Chinese slang this also means \"a homosexual\", though if you keep an eye on the Chinese news you\'ll see that that one of the more reputable local dictionaries refused to include that definition though it\'s in common use) \n\n通知 [pinyin1]tong1 zhi1[/pinyin] - To notify, give notice\n\nAnd now, 统治 [pinyin]tong3 zhi4[/pinyin] - To rule over (a kingdom / country)\n\nLet us hope there aren\'t any more configurations of that sound. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n汉朝 - [pinyin]han4 chao2[/pinyin] - Han Dynasty\n部下 - [pinyin]bu4 xia4[/pinyin] - Troops or subordinates under one\'s command\n巡视 - [pinyin]xun2 shi4[/pinyin] - Go on an inspection tour\n国境 - [pinyin]guo2 jing4[/pinyin] - National Borders\n迎合 - [pinyin]ying2 he2[/pinyin] - Serve one\'s own interests / to fawn or cater\n异口同声 - [pinyin]yi4 kou3 tong2 sheng1[/pinyin] - To say in unison\n派 - [pinyin]pai4[/pinyin] - To dispatch, send someone\n使者 - [pinyin]shi3 zhe3[/pinyin] - Envoy\n途中 - [pinyin]tu2 zhong1[/pinyin] - En route\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n\n\n\n2012年12月28日 美国中文网\n圣诞节期间美国遭遇暴风雪袭击，已至少造成15人死亡，2000次美国航班延误或取消。\n\n\n据报道，因暴雪严寒造成人员死亡的州包括肯塔基州、俄亥俄州、印第安纳州、阿肯色州、俄克拉何马州、得克萨斯州、路易斯安那州、宾夕法尼亚州和弗吉尼亚州。\n\n\n很多地区发出警告提醒人们不要外出，因为凛冽狂风、低温和充满危险的路况对行人构成威胁。气象部门说，位于美国东北部的新英格兰地区数州即将出现大雪天气，缅因州部分地区的降雪厚度达18英寸(约45厘米)。因此，很多人的圣诞节假期旅行计划受到影响。\n\n\n目前，已有超过20万居民家中断电，成千上万出游的人们滞留在各处。nba推迟了原本于周三晚在印第安纳波利斯举行的印第安纳步行者对芝加哥公牛队的篮球赛。\n\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDuring the Han Dynasty, in the southwest there was a small country called Yelang, and although it was an independent nation, its territory was small, there weren\'t many citizens, and its products were pitifully few. Because it was the largest kingdom in the near area, the Yelang king who\'d never left his own country thought the country he ruled was the biggest on earth. \n\nOne day, the king of Yelang was on a national border inspection tour with his troops, when he pointed in front of him [to neighboring country] and said, \"Which country is bigger?\" In order to serve their own interests and make the king happy, the troops said, \"Of course Yelang is bigger!\" They walked along, and the king once again lifted up his head, gazed at the big mountain in the distance and asked: \"Is there a taller mountain than this anywhere on earth?\" And his men answered: \"No, there\'s no mountain taller than this one on earth.\" After a while, they reached the river side, and the king asked again: \"I think this is the world\'s longest river.\" And all his men said in unison \"The king speaks truly.\" After this, the ignorant king believed even more firmly that Yelang was the world\'s biggest country.\n\nThen one day, the Han Dynasty dispatched an envoy to Yelang, and en route they encountered the neighboring kingdom DianGuo, and the King of Dian asked the emissary: \"If you compared the Han Dynasty and my Kingdom, which one would be bigger?\" The emissary listened in astonishment, as he\'d never have thought this small a country thought it could compare itself to the Han Dynasty. But he really never could have suspected that when he got to Yelang, the prideful and ignorant king who didn\'t know that the kingdom he ruled was about the size of one Han county, would ask with an exaggerated opinion of his own worth, \"Which is bigger: the Han Dynasty or my country?\" \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'News: Snowstorm has caused 15 deaths and 2000 flight delays or cancellations', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1304-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-12-28 15:12:08', '2012-12-28 20:12:08', '', 1304, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/12/28/1304-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1329, 1, '2013-01-26 00:36:33', '2013-01-26 05:36:33', 'Hey hey! This site has made it through two years online and 100 posts! That makes an average of 50 posts a year, which averages out to a little less than one a week. Not terribly shabby, huh? In any case, on with the Chinese. \r\n\r\nThough we could probably skip this info, you might want to know that 晨练 - meaning \"morning exercise\" - is a much more formalized concept in China than in west. Here, every morning in almost any weather, crowds of old people gather together in parks around 6-7a.m. to do group taiqi, stretch and take brisk walks. This is so prevalent that you can show up at any park or open community space in China early in the morning and see groups of mostly old people doing their exercises. So, while reading the first joke, you should imagine a scene of 40 or so retirees doing taiqi forms in the park. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 小姑娘指着晨练的老人问： 为什么他们能天天到公园来玩？\r\n奶奶：因为他们是退休人员。\r\n一天，爸爸问女儿：你长大当什么？\r\n小姑娘：退休人员。\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n2) 父亲教儿子学算术：“一加一是多少？”\r\n儿子：“不知道。”\r\n父亲：“是两个，<笨蛋！知道了吗？”\r\n儿子：“知道了。”\r\n父亲：“那么，我和你，加起来是几个人？”\r\n儿子：“是两个笨蛋！” \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n3) 一个女孩和一个男孩吃汉堡。男孩说女孩：“我要告诉你一件事！”\r\n女孩说：“不要跟我说话在我吃的时候，当我吃我的汉堡，那么你就可以谈。”\r\n所以，当他们吃完了女孩问男孩：“现在你想说什么呢？”\r\n男孩说：“嗯，我是说，有一只蟑螂在你的汉堡里！” \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) A little girl pointing at old people doing morning exercises, said: \"Why are they allowed to play in the park all day?\"\r\nGrandmother: \"Because they are retirees.\"\r\nOne day, the father asked the little girl: What do you want to be when you grow up?\r\nLittle girl: A retiree!\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n2) Father is teaching his son arithmetic: \"One plus one is how much?\" \r\nSon: \"I don\'t know.\" \r\nFather: \"It\'s two, idiot! You get it?\"\r\nSon: \"I get it.\" \r\nFather: \"Now, me and you, put us together and how many people is that?\"\r\nSon: \"Two idiots!\" \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n3) A girl and a boy are eating hamburgers. The boy says to the girl: \"I want to tell you something!\" \r\nThe girl says: \"Don\'t talk to me while I\'m eating, when I\'m done with my hamburger, then you can speak.\"\r\nSo, when they finished eating the girl asked the boy: \"Now what do you want to say?\"\r\nBoy says: \"Huh, I was saying, there\'s a cockroach in your hamburger.\"\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Jokes] Three kid-friendly Chinese jokes', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'our-100th-post-plus-some-new-beginner-jokes', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:04:54', '2016-11-04 11:04:54', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1329', 0, 'post', '', 16),
(2064, 1, '2016-11-04 07:04:54', '2016-11-04 11:04:54', 'Hey hey! This site has made it through two years online and 100 posts! That makes an average of 50 posts a year, which averages out to a little less than one a week. Not terribly shabby, huh? In any case, on with the Chinese. \r\n\r\nThough we could probably skip this info, you might want to know that 晨练 - meaning \"morning exercise\" - is a much more formalized concept in China than in west. Here, every morning in almost any weather, crowds of old people gather together in parks around 6-7a.m. to do group taiqi, stretch and take brisk walks. This is so prevalent that you can show up at any park or open community space in China early in the morning and see groups of mostly old people doing their exercises. So, while reading the first joke, you should imagine a scene of 40 or so retirees doing taiqi forms in the park. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 小姑娘指着晨练的老人问： 为什么他们能天天到公园来玩？\r\n奶奶：因为他们是退休人员。\r\n一天，爸爸问女儿：你长大当什么？\r\n小姑娘：退休人员。\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n2) 父亲教儿子学算术：“一加一是多少？”\r\n儿子：“不知道。”\r\n父亲：“是两个，<笨蛋！知道了吗？”\r\n儿子：“知道了。”\r\n父亲：“那么，我和你，加起来是几个人？”\r\n儿子：“是两个笨蛋！” \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n3) 一个女孩和一个男孩吃汉堡。男孩说女孩：“我要告诉你一件事！”\r\n女孩说：“不要跟我说话在我吃的时候，当我吃我的汉堡，那么你就可以谈。”\r\n所以，当他们吃完了女孩问男孩：“现在你想说什么呢？”\r\n男孩说：“嗯，我是说，有一只蟑螂在你的汉堡里！” \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) A little girl pointing at old people doing morning exercises, said: \"Why are they allowed to play in the park all day?\"\r\nGrandmother: \"Because they are retirees.\"\r\nOne day, the father asked the little girl: What do you want to be when you grow up?\r\nLittle girl: A retiree!\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n2) Father is teaching his son arithmetic: \"One plus one is how much?\" \r\nSon: \"I don\'t know.\" \r\nFather: \"It\'s two, idiot! You get it?\"\r\nSon: \"I get it.\" \r\nFather: \"Now, me and you, put us together and how many people is that?\"\r\nSon: \"Two idiots!\" \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n3) A girl and a boy are eating hamburgers. The boy says to the girl: \"I want to tell you something!\" \r\nThe girl says: \"Don\'t talk to me while I\'m eating, when I\'m done with my hamburger, then you can speak.\"\r\nSo, when they finished eating the girl asked the boy: \"Now what do you want to say?\"\r\nBoy says: \"Huh, I was saying, there\'s a cockroach in your hamburger.\"\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Jokes] Three kid-friendly Chinese jokes', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1329-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:04:54', '2016-11-04 11:04:54', '', 1329, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1329-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
INSERT INTO `wp_posts` (`ID`, `post_author`, `post_date`, `post_date_gmt`, `post_content`, `post_title`, `post_excerpt`, `post_status`, `comment_status`, `ping_status`, `post_password`, `post_name`, `to_ping`, `pinged`, `post_modified`, `post_modified_gmt`, `post_content_filtered`, `post_parent`, `guid`, `menu_order`, `post_type`, `post_mime_type`, `comment_count`) VALUES
(1740, 1, '2016-10-31 03:26:56', '2016-10-31 07:26:56', 'Hey hey! This site has made it through two years online and 100 posts! That makes an average of 50 posts a year, which averages out to a little less than one a week. Not terribly shabby, huh? In any case, on with the Chinese. \r\n\r\nI\'ve been having a bit of trouble rounding up truly beginner texts, and whenever I try I end up with an intermediate post. But this one, though not earth-shattering, should certainly do. We\'ve got three short jokes here of the silly variety, appropriate for young kids. \r\n\r\n![\"Learning](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/20130126-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"How")
Though we could probably skip this info, you might want to know that 晨练 - meaning \"morning exercise\" - is a much more formalized concept in China than in west. Here, every morning in almost any weather, crowds of old people gather together in parks around 6-7a.m. to do group taiqi, stretch and take brisk walks. This is so prevalent that you can show up at any park or open community space in China early in the morning and see groups of mostly old people doing their exercises. So, while reading the first joke, you should imagine a scene of 40 or so retirees doing taiqi forms in the park. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n小姑娘指着晨练的老人问： 为什么他们能天天到公园来玩？\r\n奶奶：因为他们是退休人员。\r\n一天，爸爸问女儿：你长大当什么？\r\n小姑娘：退休人员。\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n父亲教儿子学算术：“一加一是多少？”\r\n儿子：“不知道。”\r\n父亲：“是两个，笨蛋！知道了吗？”\r\n儿子：“知道了。”\r\n父亲：“那么，我和你，加起来是几个人？”\r\n儿子：“是两个笨蛋！” \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n一个女孩和一个男孩吃汉堡。男孩说女孩：“我要告诉你一件事！”\r\n女孩说：“不要跟我说话在我吃的时候，当我吃我的汉堡，那么你就可以谈。”\r\n所以，当他们吃完了女孩问男孩：“现在你想说什么呢？”\r\n男孩说：“嗯，我是说，有一只蟑螂在你的汉堡里！” \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nA little girl pointing at old people doing morning exercises, said: \"Why are they allowed to play in the park all day?\"\r\nGrandmother: \"Because they are retirees.\"\r\nOne day, the father asked the little girl: What do you want to be when you grow up?\r\nLittle girl: A retiree!\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nFather is teaching his son arithmetic: \"One plus one is how much?\" \r\nSon: \"I don\'t know.\" \r\nFather: \"It\'s two, idiot! You get it?\"\r\nSon: \"I get it.\" \r\nFather: \"Now, me and you, put us together and how many people is that?\"\r\nSon: \"Two idiots!\" \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nA girl and a boy are eating hamburgers. The boy says to the girl: \"I want to tell you something!\" \r\nThe girl says: \"Don\'t talk to me while I\'m eating, when I\'m done with my hamburger, then you can speak.\"\r\nSo, when they finished eating the girl asked the boy: \"Now what do you want to say?\"\r\nBoy says: \"Huh, I was saying, there\'s a cockroach in your hamburger.\"\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Jokes] Three kid-friendly Chinese jokes', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1329-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:26:56', '2016-10-31 07:26:56', '', 1329, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1329-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1310, 1, '2013-01-08 02:00:41', '2013-01-08 07:00:41', 'Hah! I set out to do a beginner post since I haven\'t done one in a while, but no joy, I think I have to classify this as intermediate. Beginners are welcome to try this out, as most of the words are simple and the subject matter is a bit immature (so of course it totally cracked me up), but the issue is that this essay is written by a kid making fun of her older brother for eating too much, and the sentence structure reads like a playground taunt - it sounds like the author used this essay assignment as an opportunity to get back at her brother for something. So it\'s very casually written and the sentence structure isn\'t book-formal enough to be smooth reading for newbies. Still, if you can get most of the words, which aren\'t too hard, you\'ll get the drift. \r\n\r\nAn example of just such an easy-to-figure-out colloquialism is \"不嘛,\" which means something along the lines of \"Nuh-uh!\" or \"No!\" (as in the way a child starts off an argumentative sentence with \"No it\'s not!\" or \"No it isn\'t!\")\r\n\r\nA few things I should cover right out the gate: 红烧排骨和猪蹄 is the name of a dish. 红烧 is a way of cooking a dish where food is slowly simmered in an oily red sauce. On Chinese menus you\'ll often see 红烧 followed by many different things. One of my favorites is 红烧茄子 - Eggplant Simmered in Red Sauce. So this dish, 红烧排骨和猪蹄, is spare ribs (排骨) and pig feet (猪蹄) simmered in red sauce (红烧).\r\n\r\nOne of the more difficult sentences here is 要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了 - there are multiple points of difficulty here. \r\n\r\nLet\'s break this one down a bit. In the previous sentence, the author is talking about how much her brother can eat. Then she says, 要是换成我吃那么多的话 - the hard part of this is 换成, which means \"to switch\", or in this case \"to switch positions with someone\". In other words \"If (要是) I switched positions (换成) with my brother (\'with my brother\' is implied, not said), and it was me that ate so much (我吃那么多)\"...\r\n\r\nThe sentence continues: 现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了. I think the hard part of this is the way 的 is used. Beginning readers expect 的 to either follow a word to make it possessive (我的, 他的）, or to show that something\'s being described (\"红色的箱子\"). In this case, the author actually left out the word being described, which is 人. This part could also be written 现在写作文的人: or in other words \"the person writing this essay right now...\" This is a very informal way of talking. We continue: 早就是个饱死鬼了 \"Long ago (早) would have become (就是个...了) a full devil (饱死鬼 - someone who has eaten until they are overstuffed - google image result for 饱死鬼 gets us this). \r\n\r\nSo all together: \"If I was the one who\'d eaten that much, the person writing this essay [me] would have long ago become overstuffed.\"\r\n\r\nAnd one last thing: the older brother at one point calls the author 臭乐乐. I understand this translates to \"Stinky Lele!\", so we can assume here that \"Lele\" is the author\'s name. This is probably a girl\'s name, so we assume the author is female. \r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) “嗯，好吃，真好吃！姥姥，再来一盘鸡腿。”\r\n\r\n2) “洋洋，你都那么胖了，少吃一点吧！”\r\n\r\n3) “不嘛，我吃得多证明你菜做得好吃，这是给你面子啊！” 瞧，我那贪吃的哥哥又开始油嘴滑舌了。\r\n\r\n4) “姥姥，我明天要吃红烧排骨和猪蹄！”哥哥大声说。\r\n\r\n5) “姥姥，别听哥哥的。他整天就知道吃，都快成猪了。”我说。\r\n\r\n6) “臭乐乐，说我快成猪了，你不怕我教训你？”哥哥生气地说。\r\n\r\n7) 不好，把哥哥惹急了后果可不堪设想。我起身就跑，哥哥撒腿就追，好在他太胖，根本跑不动，我很快就把他甩掉了。\r\n\r\n8) 在我睡觉前，妈妈常跟我讲哥哥是怎么贪吃的。有一次，奶奶跟我讲，哥哥一顿饭就能吃四个人的饭。他小时候一顿吃两碗鸡蛋糕是绝对没有问题的，就算三碗对他来说也是小菜一碟。要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了。\r\n\r\n9) 哥哥总抢我的饭吃。有一次，我正在洗澡，妈妈让奶奶他们先吃。可等我洗完澡后，发现碗里的饭早没了踪影，哥哥却在一旁直打饱嗝，原来，是哥哥把我的饭给偷吃了。我心里这个气啊，可还只能忍，悲剧啊！天哪，哥哥啥时才能改掉贪吃的毛病啊？\r\n\r\n10) 不好，哥哥又要抢我的饭了，不写了，赶紧保护我的饭去啊！\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) \"Mmm, delicious, really delicious! [Maternal] grandma, give me another plate of chicken drumsticks!\" \r\n\r\n2) “YangYang, you\'re already that fat, you should eat less!\" \r\n\r\n3) \"Nuh uh, [the fact that] I eat a lot only proves that you\'re a good cook, this gives you face!\" Oh look, there goes my gluttonous older brother smooth-talking again. \r\n\r\n4) \"Grandma, tomorrow I want to eat Spare Ribs and Pig Trotters Simmered in Red Sauce!\" older brother says loudly. \r\n\r\n5) \"Grandma, don\'t listen to older brother. All he thinks about all day is eating, he\'ll soon turn into a pig,\" I say. \r\n\r\n6) \"Stinky LeLe, saying I\'ll turn into a pig. Aren\'t you afraid I\'ll teach you a lesson?\" older brother says angrily. \r\n\r\n7) Not good, I can\'t bear to imagine the consequences of provoking older brother. I get up and run, and older brother scrambles up to chase me, luckily he\'s too fat, he can\'t run at all, so I quickly lose him.\r\n\r\n8) Before I go to sleep, mother often talks with me about how gluttonous my brother is. One time, [paternal] grandmother was talking with me, saying that older brother eats enough for four people in a single sitting. When he was small it was absolutely no problem for him to polish off two bowls of egg cake in a sitting, even three bowls is just a small appetizer to him. If it was me that ate that much, the person writing this essay would have long ago become a \"stuffed devil\".\r\n\r\n9) Older brother is always snatching my food and eating it. One time, when I was in the shower, mother allowed grandmother and all them start eating first. When I was done showering, I found that there wasn\'t a trace [of food] left in my bowl, but my brother was off to one side burping with satisfaction, turns out my brother stole my food and ate it. I was so mad, but all I could do is endure it, what a tragedy! God, when is older brother finally going to fix this gluttonous defect? \r\n\r\n10) Not good, older brother just snatched my food again, I\'ve got to stop writing, and quickly go protect my meal! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 贪吃的哥哥 - My Gluttonous Elder Brother', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'my-gluttonous-elder-brother', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:14:36', '2016-11-04 11:14:36', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1310', 0, 'post', '', 8),
(2069, 1, '2016-11-04 07:14:36', '2016-11-04 11:14:36', 'Hah! I set out to do a beginner post since I haven\'t done one in a while, but no joy, I think I have to classify this as intermediate. Beginners are welcome to try this out, as most of the words are simple and the subject matter is a bit immature (so of course it totally cracked me up), but the issue is that this essay is written by a kid making fun of her older brother for eating too much, and the sentence structure reads like a playground taunt - it sounds like the author used this essay assignment as an opportunity to get back at her brother for something. So it\'s very casually written and the sentence structure isn\'t book-formal enough to be smooth reading for newbies. Still, if you can get most of the words, which aren\'t too hard, you\'ll get the drift. \r\n\r\nAn example of just such an easy-to-figure-out colloquialism is \"不嘛,\" which means something along the lines of \"Nuh-uh!\" or \"No!\" (as in the way a child starts off an argumentative sentence with \"No it\'s not!\" or \"No it isn\'t!\")\r\n\r\nA few things I should cover right out the gate: 红烧排骨和猪蹄 is the name of a dish. 红烧 is a way of cooking a dish where food is slowly simmered in an oily red sauce. On Chinese menus you\'ll often see 红烧 followed by many different things. One of my favorites is 红烧茄子 - Eggplant Simmered in Red Sauce. So this dish, 红烧排骨和猪蹄, is spare ribs (排骨) and pig feet (猪蹄) simmered in red sauce (红烧).\r\n\r\nOne of the more difficult sentences here is 要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了 - there are multiple points of difficulty here. \r\n\r\nLet\'s break this one down a bit. In the previous sentence, the author is talking about how much her brother can eat. Then she says, 要是换成我吃那么多的话 - the hard part of this is 换成, which means \"to switch\", or in this case \"to switch positions with someone\". In other words \"If (要是) I switched positions (换成) with my brother (\'with my brother\' is implied, not said), and it was me that ate so much (我吃那么多)\"...\r\n\r\nThe sentence continues: 现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了. I think the hard part of this is the way 的 is used. Beginning readers expect 的 to either follow a word to make it possessive (我的, 他的）, or to show that something\'s being described (\"红色的箱子\"). In this case, the author actually left out the word being described, which is 人. This part could also be written 现在写作文的人: or in other words \"the person writing this essay right now...\" This is a very informal way of talking. We continue: 早就是个饱死鬼了 \"Long ago (早) would have become (就是个...了) a full devil (饱死鬼 - someone who has eaten until they are overstuffed - google image result for 饱死鬼 gets us this). \r\n\r\nSo all together: \"If I was the one who\'d eaten that much, the person writing this essay [me] would have long ago become overstuffed.\"\r\n\r\nAnd one last thing: the older brother at one point calls the author 臭乐乐. I understand this translates to \"Stinky Lele!\", so we can assume here that \"Lele\" is the author\'s name. This is probably a girl\'s name, so we assume the author is female. \r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) “嗯，好吃，真好吃！姥姥，再来一盘鸡腿。”\r\n\r\n2) “洋洋，你都那么胖了，少吃一点吧！”\r\n\r\n3) “不嘛，我吃得多证明你菜做得好吃，这是给你面子啊！” 瞧，我那贪吃的哥哥又开始油嘴滑舌了。\r\n\r\n4) “姥姥，我明天要吃红烧排骨和猪蹄！”哥哥大声说。\r\n\r\n5) “姥姥，别听哥哥的。他整天就知道吃，都快成猪了。”我说。\r\n\r\n6) “臭乐乐，说我快成猪了，你不怕我教训你？”哥哥生气地说。\r\n\r\n7) 不好，把哥哥惹急了后果可不堪设想。我起身就跑，哥哥撒腿就追，好在他太胖，根本跑不动，我很快就把他甩掉了。\r\n\r\n8) 在我睡觉前，妈妈常跟我讲哥哥是怎么贪吃的。有一次，奶奶跟我讲，哥哥一顿饭就能吃四个人的饭。他小时候一顿吃两碗鸡蛋糕是绝对没有问题的，就算三碗对他来说也是小菜一碟。要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了。\r\n\r\n9) 哥哥总抢我的饭吃。有一次，我正在洗澡，妈妈让奶奶他们先吃。可等我洗完澡后，发现碗里的饭早没了踪影，哥哥却在一旁直打饱嗝，原来，是哥哥把我的饭给偷吃了。我心里这个气啊，可还只能忍，悲剧啊！天哪，哥哥啥时才能改掉贪吃的毛病啊？\r\n\r\n10) 不好，哥哥又要抢我的饭了，不写了，赶紧保护我的饭去啊！\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) \"Mmm, delicious, really delicious! [Maternal] grandma, give me another plate of chicken drumsticks!\" \r\n\r\n2) “YangYang, you\'re already that fat, you should eat less!\" \r\n\r\n3) \"Nuh uh, [the fact that] I eat a lot only proves that you\'re a good cook, this gives you face!\" Oh look, there goes my gluttonous older brother smooth-talking again. \r\n\r\n4) \"Grandma, tomorrow I want to eat Spare Ribs and Pig Trotters Simmered in Red Sauce!\" older brother says loudly. \r\n\r\n5) \"Grandma, don\'t listen to older brother. All he thinks about all day is eating, he\'ll soon turn into a pig,\" I say. \r\n\r\n6) \"Stinky LeLe, saying I\'ll turn into a pig. Aren\'t you afraid I\'ll teach you a lesson?\" older brother says angrily. \r\n\r\n7) Not good, I can\'t bear to imagine the consequences of provoking older brother. I get up and run, and older brother scrambles up to chase me, luckily he\'s too fat, he can\'t run at all, so I quickly lose him.\r\n\r\n8) Before I go to sleep, mother often talks with me about how gluttonous my brother is. One time, [paternal] grandmother was talking with me, saying that older brother eats enough for four people in a single sitting. When he was small it was absolutely no problem for him to polish off two bowls of egg cake in a sitting, even three bowls is just a small appetizer to him. If it was me that ate that much, the person writing this essay would have long ago become a \"stuffed devil\".\r\n\r\n9) Older brother is always snatching my food and eating it. One time, when I was in the shower, mother allowed grandmother and all them start eating first. When I was done showering, I found that there wasn\'t a trace [of food] left in my bowl, but my brother was off to one side burping with satisfaction, turns out my brother stole my food and ate it. I was so mad, but all I could do is endure it, what a tragedy! God, when is older brother finally going to fix this gluttonous defect? \r\n\r\n10) Not good, older brother just snatched my food again, I\'ve got to stop writing, and quickly go protect my meal! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 贪吃的哥哥 - My Gluttonous Elder Brother', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1310-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:14:36', '2016-11-04 11:14:36', '', 1310, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1310-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1311, 1, '2013-01-02 21:12:31', '2013-01-03 02:12:31', '', 'Learn to Read Mandarin Chinese: Simplified Reading Intermediate Level', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130109', '', '', '2013-01-02 21:12:31', '2013-01-03 02:12:31', '', 1310, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/20130109.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1312, 1, '2013-01-02 21:12:34', '2013-01-03 02:12:34', '', 'Learn to Read Mandarin Chinese: Simplified Reading Intermediate Level', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130109-inline', '', '', '2013-01-02 21:12:34', '2013-01-03 02:12:34', '', 1310, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/20130109-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1313, 1, '2013-01-02 21:53:48', '2013-01-03 02:53:48', '[two_third]\nChinese Title: 贪吃的哥哥\n\nHah! I set out to do a beginner post since I haven\'t done one in a while, but no joy, I think I have to classify this as intermediate. Beginners are welcome to try this out, as most of the words are simple and the subject matter is for immature readers (so of course it totally cracked me up), but the issue is that this essay is written by a kid making fun of his older brother for eating too much, and the sentence structure reads like a playground taunt - it sounds like the author used this essay assignment as an opportunity to get back at his brother for something. So it\'s very casually written and the sentence structure isn\'t book-formal enough to be smooth reading for newbies. Still, if you can get most of the words, which aren\'t too hard, you\'ll get the drift. \n\n![\"Intermediate](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/20130109-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Learn")
An example of just such an easy-to-figure-out colloquialism is \"不嘛,\" which means something along the lines of \"Nuh-uh!\" or \"No!\" (as in the way a child starts off an argumentative sentence with \"No it\'s not!\" or \"No it isn\'t!\")\n\nA few things I should cover right out the gate: 红烧排骨和猪蹄 is the name of a dish. 红烧 is a way of cooking a dish where food is slowly simmered in an oily red sauce. On Chinese menus you\'ll often see 红烧 followed by many different things. One of my favorites is 红烧茄子 - Eggplant Simmered in Red Sauce. So this dish, 红烧排骨和猪蹄, is spare ribs (排骨) and pig feet (猪蹄) simmered in red sauce (红烧).\n\nOne of the more difficult sentences here is 要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了 - there are multiple points of difficulty here. \n\nLet\'s break this one down a bit. In the previous sentence, the author is talking about how much his brother can eat. Then he says, 要是换成我吃那么多的话 - the hard part of this is 换成, which means \"to switch\", or in this case \"to switch positions with someone\". In other words \"If (要是) I switched positions (换成) with my brother (\'with my brother\' is implied, not said), and it was me that ate so much (我吃那么多)\"...\n\nThe sentence continues: 现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了. I think the hard part of this is the way 的 is used. Beginning readers expect 的 to either follow a word to make it possessive (我的, 他的）, or to show that something\'s being described (\"红色的箱子\"). In this case, the author actually left out the word being described, which is 人. This part could also be written 现在写作文的人: or in other words \"the person writing this essay right now...\" This is a very informal way of talking. We continue: 早就是个饱死鬼了 \"Long ago (早) would have become (就是个...了) a full devil (饱死鬼 - someone who has eaten until they are overstuffed - google image result for 饱死鬼 gets us this). \n\nSo all together: \"If I was the one who\'d eaten that much, the person writing this essay would have long ago become overstuffed.\"\n\nAnd one last thing that maybe one of you guys can help me out with this: the older brother at one point calls the younger brother 臭乐乐. This is clearly a mean name that the older brother is calling the younger brother. But while I understand this translates to \"Stinky Lele!\", I can\'t figure out if this is because the younger brother\'s name is actually \"乐乐\", or if the whole phrase is a colloquialism meaning something like \"Stinky baby!\" or similar. I\'m in the process of asking my Chinese friends, but until I hear back, anyone care to weigh in?\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n贪吃 - [pinyin]tan1 chi1[/pinyin] - Gluttonous\n嗯 - [pinyin]en1[/pinyin] - A groaning sound, in this case because food is good, like \"mmm, mmm\"\n油嘴滑舌 - [pinyin]you2 zui3 hua2 she2[/pinyin] - Smooth-talking, oily-mouthed\n成 - [pinyin]cheng2[/pinyin] - To turn into\n就算 - [pinyin]jiu4 suan4[/pinyin] - Even if\n小菜一碟 - [pinyin]xiao3 cai4 yi1 die2[/pinyin] - Small appetizer\n抢 - [pinyin]qiang3[/pinyin] - Snatch\n嗝 - [pinyin]ge2[/pinyin] - To burp\n悲剧 - [pinyin]bei1 ju4[/pinyin] - Tragedy\n改掉- [pinyin]gai3 diao4[/pinyin] - Drop a bad habit\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n“嗯，好吃，真好吃！姥姥，再来一盘鸡腿。”\n\n“洋洋，你都那么胖了，少吃一点吧！”\n\n“不嘛，我吃得多证明你菜做得好吃，这是给你面子啊！” 瞧，我那贪吃的哥哥又开始油嘴滑舌了。\n\n“姥姥，我明天要吃红烧排骨和猪蹄！”哥哥大声说。\n\n“姥姥，别听哥哥的。他整天就知道吃，都快成猪了。”我说。\n\n“臭乐乐，说我快成猪了，你不怕我教训你？”哥哥生气地说。\n\n不好，把哥哥惹急了后果可不堪设想。我起身就跑，哥哥撒腿就追，好在他太胖，根本跑不动，我很快就把他甩掉了。\n\n在我睡觉前，妈妈常跟我讲哥哥是怎么贪吃的。有一次，奶奶跟我讲，哥哥一顿饭就能吃四个人的饭。他小时候一顿吃两碗鸡蛋糕是绝对没有问题的，就算三碗对他来说也是小菜一碟。要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了。\n\n哥哥总抢我的饭吃。有一次，我正在洗澡，妈妈让奶奶他们先吃。可等我洗完澡后，发现碗里的饭早没了踪影，哥哥却在一旁直打饱嗝，原来，是哥哥把我的饭给偷吃了。我心里这个气啊，可还只能忍，悲剧啊！天哪，哥哥啥时才能改掉贪吃的毛病啊？\n\n不好，哥哥又要抢我的饭了，不写了，赶紧保护我的饭去啊！\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n\"Mmm, delicious, really delicious! [Maternal] grandma, give me another plate of chicken drumsticks!\" \n\n“YangYang, you\'re already that fat, you should eat less!\" \n\n\"Nuh uh, [the fact that] I eat a lot only proves that you\'re a good cook, this gives you face!\" Oh look, there goes my gluttonous older brother smooth-talking again. \n\n\"Grandma, tomorrow I want to eat Spare Ribs and Pig\'s Trotters Simmered in Red Sauce!\" older brother says loudly. \n\n\"Grandma, don\'t listen to older brother. All he thinks about all day is eating, he\'ll soon turn into a pig,\" I say. \n\n\"Stinky LeLe, saying I\'ll turn into a pig. Aren\'t you afraid I\'ll teach you a lesson?\" older brother says angrily. \n\nNot good, I can\'t bear to imagine the consequences of provoking older brother. I get up and run, and older brother scrambles up to chase me, luckily he\'s too fat, he can\'t run at all, so I quickly lose him.\n\nBefore I go to sleep, mother often talks with me about how gluttonous my brother is. One time, [paternal] grandmother was talking with me, saying that older brother eats enough for four people in a single sitting. When he was small it was absolutely no problem for him to polish off two bowls of egg cake in a sitting, even three bowls is just a small appetizer to him. If it was me that ate that much, the person writing this essay would have long ago become a \"stuffed devil\".\n\nOlder brother is always snatching my food and eating it. One time, when I was in the shower, mother allowed grandmother and all them start eating first. But when I was done showering, I found that there wasn\'t a trace [of food] left in my bowl, but my brother was off to one side burping with satisfaction, turns out my brother stole my food and ate it. I was THIS MAD, but all I could do is endure it, what a tragedy! God, when is older brother finally going to fix this gluttonous defect? \n\nNot good, older brother just snatched my food again, I\'ve got to stop writing, and quickly go protect my meal! \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'My Gluttonous Elder Brother', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1310-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-01-02 21:53:48', '2013-01-03 02:53:48', '', 1310, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/01/02/1310-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1314, 1, '2016-11-04 07:12:37', '2016-11-04 11:12:37', 'Hah! I set out to do a beginner post since I haven\'t done one in a while, but no joy, I think I have to classify this as intermediate. Beginners are welcome to try this out, as most of the words are simple and the subject matter is a bit immature (so of course it totally cracked me up), but the issue is that this essay is written by a kid making fun of her older brother for eating too much, and the sentence structure reads like a playground taunt - it sounds like the author used this essay assignment as an opportunity to get back at her brother for something. So it\'s very casually written and the sentence structure isn\'t book-formal enough to be smooth reading for newbies. Still, if you can get most of the words, which aren\'t too hard, you\'ll get the drift. \n\nAn example of just such an easy-to-figure-out colloquialism is \"不嘛,\" which means something along the lines of \"Nuh-uh!\" or \"No!\" (as in the way a child starts off an argumentative sentence with \"No it\'s not!\" or \"No it isn\'t!\")\n\nA few things I should cover right out the gate: 红烧排骨和猪蹄 is the name of a dish. 红烧 is a way of cooking a dish where food is slowly simmered in an oily red sauce. On Chinese menus you\'ll often see 红烧 followed by many different things. One of my favorites is 红烧茄子 - Eggplant Simmered in Red Sauce. So this dish, 红烧排骨和猪蹄, is spare ribs (排骨) and pig feet (猪蹄) simmered in red sauce (红烧).\n\nOne of the more difficult sentences here is 要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了 - there are multiple points of difficulty here. \n\nLet\'s break this one down a bit. In the previous sentence, the author is talking about how much her brother can eat. Then she says, 要是换成我吃那么多的话 - the hard part of this is 换成, which means \"to switch\", or in this case \"to switch positions with someone\". In other words \"If (要是) I switched positions (换成) with my brother (\'with my brother\' is implied, not said), and it was me that ate so much (我吃那么多)\"...\n\nThe sentence continues: 现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了. I think the hard part of this is the way 的 is used. Beginning readers expect 的 to either follow a word to make it possessive (我的, 他的）, or to show that something\'s being described (\"红色的箱子\"). In this case, the author actually left out the word being described, which is 人. This part could also be written 现在写作文的人: or in other words \"the person writing this essay right now...\" This is a very informal way of talking. We continue: 早就是个饱死鬼了 \"Long ago (早) would have become (就是个...了) a full devil (饱死鬼 - someone who has eaten until they are overstuffed - google image result for 饱死鬼 gets us this). \n\nSo all together: \"If I was the one who\'d eaten that much, the person writing this essay [me] would have long ago become overstuffed.\"\n\nAnd one last thing: the older brother at one point calls the author 臭乐乐. I understand this translates to \"Stinky Lele!\", so we can assume here that \"Lele\" is the author\'s name. This is probably a girl\'s name, so we assume the author is female. \n\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n1) “嗯，好吃，真好吃！姥姥，再来一盘鸡腿。”\n\n2) “洋洋，你都那么胖了，少吃一点吧！”\n\n3) “不嘛，我吃得多证明你菜做得好吃，这是给你面子啊！” 瞧，我那贪吃的哥哥又开始油嘴滑舌了。\n\n4) “姥姥，我明天要吃红烧排骨和猪蹄！”哥哥大声说。\n\n5) “姥姥，别听哥哥的。他整天就知道吃，都快成猪了。”我说。\n\n6) “臭乐乐，说我快成猪了，你不怕我教训你？”哥哥生气地说。\n\n7) 不好，把哥哥惹急了后果可不堪设想。我起身就跑，哥哥撒腿就追，好在他太胖，根本跑不动，我很快就把他甩掉了。\n\n8) 在我睡觉前，妈妈常跟我讲哥哥是怎么贪吃的。有一次，奶奶跟我讲，哥哥一顿饭就能吃四个人的饭。他小时候一顿吃两碗鸡蛋糕是绝对没有问题的，就算三碗对他来说也是小菜一碟。要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了。\n\n9) 哥哥总抢我的饭吃。有一次，我正在洗澡，妈妈让奶奶他们先吃。可等我洗完澡后，发现碗里的饭早没了踪影，哥哥却在一旁直打饱嗝，原来，是哥哥把我的饭给偷吃了。我心里这个气啊，可还只能忍，悲剧啊！天哪，哥哥啥时才能改掉贪吃的毛病啊？\n\n10) 不好，哥哥又要抢我的饭了，不写了，赶紧保护我的饭去啊！\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) \"Mmm, delicious, really delicious! [Maternal] grandma, give me another plate of chicken drumsticks!\" \n\n2) “YangYang, you\'re already that fat, you should eat less!\" \n\n3) \"Nuh uh, [the fact that] I eat a lot only proves that you\'re a good cook, this gives you face!\" Oh look, there goes my gluttonous older brother smooth-talking again. \n\n4) \"Grandma, tomorrow I want to eat Spare Ribs and Pig Trotters Simmered in Red Sauce!\" older brother says loudly. \n\n5) \"Grandma, don\'t listen to older brother. All he thinks about all day is eating, he\'ll soon turn into a pig,\" I say. \n\n6) \"Stinky LeLe, saying I\'ll turn into a pig. Aren\'t you afraid I\'ll teach you a lesson?\" older brother says angrily. \n\n7) Not good, I can\'t bear to imagine the consequences of provoking older brother. I get up and run, and older brother scrambles up to chase me, luckily he\'s too fat, he can\'t run at all, so I quickly lose him.\n\n8) Before I go to sleep, mother often talks with me about how gluttonous my brother is. One time, [paternal] grandmother was talking with me, saying that older brother eats enough for four people in a single sitting. When he was small it was absolutely no problem for him to polish off two bowls of egg cake in a sitting, even three bowls is just a small appetizer to him. If it was me that ate that much, the person writing this essay would have long ago become a \"stuffed devil\".\n\n9) Older brother is always snatching my food and eating it. One time, when I was in the shower, mother allowed grandmother and all them start eating first. When I was done showering, I found that there wasn\'t a trace [of food] left in my bowl, but my brother was off to one side burping with satisfaction, turns out my brother stole my food and ate it. I was so mad, but all I could do is endure it, what a tragedy! God, when is older brother finally going to fix this gluttonous defect? \n\n10) Not good, older brother just snatched my food again, I\'ve got to stop writing, and quickly go protect my meal! \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essay] 贪吃的哥哥 - My Gluttonous Elder Brother', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1310-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:12:37', '2016-11-04 11:12:37', '', 1310, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/01/02/1310-autosave/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2068, 1, '2016-11-04 07:14:13', '2016-11-04 11:14:13', '', 'Learn to Read Mandarin Chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'read-chinese-my-gluttonous-elder-brother', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:14:28', '2016-11-04 11:14:28', '', 1310, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/read-chinese-my-gluttonous-elder-brother.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1320, 1, '2013-01-03 09:19:39', '2013-01-03 14:19:39', '[two_third]\r\nChinese Title: 贪吃的哥哥\r\n\r\nHah! I set out to do a beginner post since I haven\'t done one in a while, but no joy, I think I have to classify this as intermediate. Beginners are welcome to try this out, as most of the words are simple and the subject matter is for immature readers (so of course it totally cracked me up), but the issue is that this essay is written by a kid making fun of his older brother for eating too much, and the sentence structure reads like a playground taunt - it sounds like the author used this essay assignment as an opportunity to get back at his brother for something. So it\'s very casually written and the sentence structure isn\'t book-formal enough to be smooth reading for newbies. Still, if you can get most of the words, which aren\'t too hard, you\'ll get the drift. \r\n\r\n An example of just such an easy-to-figure-out colloquialism is \"不嘛,\" which means something along the lines of \"Nuh-uh!\" or \"No!\" (as in the way a child starts off an argumentative sentence with \"No it\'s not!\" or \"No it isn\'t!\")\r\n\r\nA few things I should cover right out the gate: 红烧排骨和猪蹄 is the name of a dish. 红烧 is a way of cooking a dish where food is slowly simmered in an oily red sauce. On Chinese menus you\'ll often see 红烧 followed by many different things. One of my favorites is 红烧茄子 - Eggplant Simmered in Red Sauce. So this dish, 红烧排骨和猪蹄, is spare ribs (排骨) and pig feet (猪蹄) simmered in red sauce (红烧).\r\n\r\nOne of the more difficult sentences here is 要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了 - there are multiple points of difficulty here. \r\n\r\nLet\'s break this one down a bit. In the previous sentence, the author is talking about how much his brother can eat. Then he says, 要是换成我吃那么多的话 - the hard part of this is 换成, which means \"to switch\", or in this case \"to switch positions with someone\". In other words \"If (要是) I switched positions (换成) with my brother (\'with my brother\' is implied, not said), and it was me that ate so much (我吃那么多)\"...\r\n\r\nThe sentence continues: 现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了. I think the hard part of this is the way 的 is used. Beginning readers expect 的 to either follow a word to make it possessive (我的, 他的）, or to show that something\'s being described (\"红色的箱子\"). In this case, the author actually left out the word being described, which is 人. This part could also be written 现在写作文的人: or in other words \"the person writing this essay right now...\" This is a very informal way of talking. We continue: 早就是个饱死鬼了 \"Long ago (早) would have become (就是个...了) a full devil (饱死鬼 - someone who has eaten until they are overstuffed - google image result for 饱死鬼 gets us this). \r\n\r\nSo all together: \"If I was the one who\'d eaten that much, the person writing this essay would have long ago become overstuffed.\"\r\n\r\nAnd one last thing: the older brother at one point calls the younger brother 臭乐乐. I understand this translates to \"Stinky Lele!\", so we can assume here that \"Lele\" is the younger brother\'s name. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n贪吃 - [pinyin]tan1 chi1[/pinyin] - Gluttonous\r\n嗯 - [pinyin]en1[/pinyin] - A groaning sound, in this case because food is good, like \"mmm, mmm\"\r\n油嘴滑舌 - [pinyin]you2 zui3 hua2 she2[/pinyin] - Smooth-talking, oily-mouthed\r\n成 - [pinyin]cheng2[/pinyin] - To turn into\r\n就算 - [pinyin]jiu4 suan4[/pinyin] - Even if\r\n小菜一碟 - [pinyin]xiao3 cai4 yi1 die2[/pinyin] - Small appetizer\r\n抢 - [pinyin]qiang3[/pinyin] - Snatch\r\n嗝 - [pinyin]ge2[/pinyin] - To burp\r\n悲剧 - [pinyin]bei1 ju4[/pinyin] - Tragedy\r\n改掉- [pinyin]gai3 diao4[/pinyin] - Drop a bad habit\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n“嗯，好吃，真好吃！姥姥，再来一盘鸡腿。”\r\n\r\n“洋洋，你都那么胖了，少吃一点吧！”\r\n\r\n“不嘛，我吃得多证明你菜做得好吃，这是给你面子啊！” 瞧，我那贪吃的哥哥又开始油嘴滑舌了。\r\n\r\n“姥姥，我明天要吃红烧排骨和猪蹄！”哥哥大声说。\r\n\r\n“姥姥，别听哥哥的。他整天就知道吃，都快成猪了。”我说。\r\n\r\n“臭乐乐，说我快成猪了，你不怕我教训你？”哥哥生气地说。\r\n\r\n不好，把哥哥惹急了后果可不堪设想。我起身就跑，哥哥撒腿就追，好在他太胖，根本跑不动，我很快就把他甩掉了。\r\n\r\n在我睡觉前，妈妈常跟我讲哥哥是怎么贪吃的。有一次，奶奶跟我讲，哥哥一顿饭就能吃四个人的饭。他小时候一顿吃两碗鸡蛋糕是绝对没有问题的，就算三碗对他来说也是小菜一碟。要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了。\r\n\r\n哥哥总抢我的饭吃。有一次，我正在洗澡，妈妈让奶奶他们先吃。可等我洗完澡后，发现碗里的饭早没了踪影，哥哥却在一旁直打饱嗝，原来，是哥哥把我的饭给偷吃了。我心里这个气啊，可还只能忍，悲剧啊！天哪，哥哥啥时才能改掉贪吃的毛病啊？\r\n\r\n不好，哥哥又要抢我的饭了，不写了，赶紧保护我的饭去啊！\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\"Mmm, delicious, really delicious! [Maternal] grandma, give me another plate of chicken drumsticks!\" \r\n\r\n“YangYang, you\'re already that fat, you should eat less!\" \r\n\r\n\"Nuh uh, [the fact that] I eat a lot only proves that you\'re a good cook, this gives you face!\" Oh look, there goes my gluttonous older brother smooth-talking again. \r\n\r\n\"Grandma, tomorrow I want to eat Spare Ribs and Pig\'s Trotters Simmered in Red Sauce!\" older brother says loudly. \r\n\r\n\"Grandma, don\'t listen to older brother. All he thinks about all day is eating, he\'ll soon turn into a pig,\" I say. \r\n\r\n\"Stinky LeLe, saying I\'ll turn into a pig. Aren\'t you afraid I\'ll teach you a lesson?\" older brother says angrily. \r\n\r\nNot good, I can\'t bear to imagine the consequences of provoking older brother. I get up and run, and older brother scrambles up to chase me, luckily he\'s too fat, he can\'t run at all, so I quickly lose him.\r\n\r\nBefore I go to sleep, mother often talks with me about how gluttonous my brother is. One time, [paternal] grandmother was talking with me, saying that older brother eats enough for four people in a single sitting. When he was small it was absolutely no problem for him to polish off two bowls of egg cake in a sitting, even three bowls is just a small appetizer to him. If it was me that ate that much, the person writing this essay would have long ago become a \"stuffed devil\".\r\n\r\nOlder brother is always snatching my food and eating it. One time, when I was in the shower, mother allowed grandmother and all them start eating first. But when I was done showering, I found that there wasn\'t a trace [of food] left in my bowl, but my brother was off to one side burping with satisfaction, turns out my brother stole my food and ate it. I was THIS MAD, but all I could do is endure it, what a tragedy! God, when is older brother finally going to fix this gluttonous defect? \r\n\r\nNot good, older brother just snatched my food again, I\'ve got to stop writing, and quickly go protect my meal! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'My Gluttonous Elder Brother', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1310-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-01-03 09:19:39', '2013-01-03 14:19:39', '', 1310, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/01/03/1310-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1319, 1, '2013-01-02 21:58:23', '2013-01-03 02:58:23', '[two_third]\r\nChinese Title: 贪吃的哥哥\r\n\r\nHah! I set out to do a beginner post since I haven\'t done one in a while, but no joy, I think I have to classify this as intermediate. Beginners are welcome to try this out, as most of the words are simple and the subject matter is for immature readers (so of course it totally cracked me up), but the issue is that this essay is written by a kid making fun of his older brother for eating too much, and the sentence structure reads like a playground taunt - it sounds like the author used this essay assignment as an opportunity to get back at his brother for something. So it\'s very casually written and the sentence structure isn\'t book-formal enough to be smooth reading for newbies. Still, if you can get most of the words, which aren\'t too hard, you\'ll get the drift. \r\n\r\n An example of just such an easy-to-figure-out colloquialism is \"不嘛,\" which means something along the lines of \"Nuh-uh!\" or \"No!\" (as in the way a child starts off an argumentative sentence with \"No it\'s not!\" or \"No it isn\'t!\")\r\n\r\nA few things I should cover right out the gate: 红烧排骨和猪蹄 is the name of a dish. 红烧 is a way of cooking a dish where food is slowly simmered in an oily red sauce. On Chinese menus you\'ll often see 红烧 followed by many different things. One of my favorites is 红烧茄子 - Eggplant Simmered in Red Sauce. So this dish, 红烧排骨和猪蹄, is spare ribs (排骨) and pig feet (猪蹄) simmered in red sauce (红烧).\r\n\r\nOne of the more difficult sentences here is 要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了 - there are multiple points of difficulty here. \r\n\r\nLet\'s break this one down a bit. In the previous sentence, the author is talking about how much his brother can eat. Then he says, 要是换成我吃那么多的话 - the hard part of this is 换成, which means \"to switch\", or in this case \"to switch positions with someone\". In other words \"If (要是) I switched positions (换成) with my brother (\'with my brother\' is implied, not said), and it was me that ate so much (我吃那么多)\"...\r\n\r\nThe sentence continues: 现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了. I think the hard part of this is the way 的 is used. Beginning readers expect 的 to either follow a word to make it possessive (我的, 他的）, or to show that something\'s being described (\"红色的箱子\"). In this case, the author actually left out the word being described, which is 人. This part could also be written 现在写作文的人: or in other words \"the person writing this essay right now...\" This is a very informal way of talking. We continue: 早就是个饱死鬼了 \"Long ago (早) would have become (就是个...了) a full devil (饱死鬼 - someone who has eaten until they are overstuffed - google image result for 饱死鬼 gets us this). \r\n\r\nSo all together: \"If I was the one who\'d eaten that much, the person writing this essay would have long ago become overstuffed.\"\r\n\r\nAnd one last thing that maybe one of you guys can help me out with this: the older brother at one point calls the younger brother 臭乐乐. This is clearly a mean name that the older brother is calling the younger brother. But while I understand this translates to \"Stinky Lele!\", I can\'t figure out if this is because the younger brother\'s name is actually \"乐乐\", or if the whole phrase is a colloquialism meaning something like \"Stinky baby!\" or similar. I\'m in the process of asking my Chinese friends, but until I hear back, anyone care to weigh in?\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n贪吃 - [pinyin]tan1 chi1[/pinyin] - Gluttonous\r\n嗯 - [pinyin]en1[/pinyin] - A groaning sound, in this case because food is good, like \"mmm, mmm\"\r\n油嘴滑舌 - [pinyin]you2 zui3 hua2 she2[/pinyin] - Smooth-talking, oily-mouthed\r\n成 - [pinyin]cheng2[/pinyin] - To turn into\r\n就算 - [pinyin]jiu4 suan4[/pinyin] - Even if\r\n小菜一碟 - [pinyin]xiao3 cai4 yi1 die2[/pinyin] - Small appetizer\r\n抢 - [pinyin]qiang3[/pinyin] - Snatch\r\n嗝 - [pinyin]ge2[/pinyin] - To burp\r\n悲剧 - [pinyin]bei1 ju4[/pinyin] - Tragedy\r\n改掉- [pinyin]gai3 diao4[/pinyin] - Drop a bad habit\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n“嗯，好吃，真好吃！姥姥，再来一盘鸡腿。”\r\n\r\n“洋洋，你都那么胖了，少吃一点吧！”\r\n\r\n“不嘛，我吃得多证明你菜做得好吃，这是给你面子啊！” 瞧，我那贪吃的哥哥又开始油嘴滑舌了。\r\n\r\n“姥姥，我明天要吃红烧排骨和猪蹄！”哥哥大声说。\r\n\r\n“姥姥，别听哥哥的。他整天就知道吃，都快成猪了。”我说。\r\n\r\n“臭乐乐，说我快成猪了，你不怕我教训你？”哥哥生气地说。\r\n\r\n不好，把哥哥惹急了后果可不堪设想。我起身就跑，哥哥撒腿就追，好在他太胖，根本跑不动，我很快就把他甩掉了。\r\n\r\n在我睡觉前，妈妈常跟我讲哥哥是怎么贪吃的。有一次，奶奶跟我讲，哥哥一顿饭就能吃四个人的饭。他小时候一顿吃两碗鸡蛋糕是绝对没有问题的，就算三碗对他来说也是小菜一碟。要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了。\r\n\r\n哥哥总抢我的饭吃。有一次，我正在洗澡，妈妈让奶奶他们先吃。可等我洗完澡后，发现碗里的饭早没了踪影，哥哥却在一旁直打饱嗝，原来，是哥哥把我的饭给偷吃了。我心里这个气啊，可还只能忍，悲剧啊！天哪，哥哥啥时才能改掉贪吃的毛病啊？\r\n\r\n不好，哥哥又要抢我的饭了，不写了，赶紧保护我的饭去啊！\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\"Mmm, delicious, really delicious! [Maternal] grandma, give me another plate of chicken drumsticks!\" \r\n\r\n“YangYang, you\'re already that fat, you should eat less!\" \r\n\r\n\"Nuh uh, [the fact that] I eat a lot only proves that you\'re a good cook, this gives you face!\" Oh look, there goes my gluttonous older brother smooth-talking again. \r\n\r\n\"Grandma, tomorrow I want to eat Spare Ribs and Pig\'s Trotters Simmered in Red Sauce!\" older brother says loudly. \r\n\r\n\"Grandma, don\'t listen to older brother. All he thinks about all day is eating, he\'ll soon turn into a pig,\" I say. \r\n\r\n\"Stinky LeLe, saying I\'ll turn into a pig. Aren\'t you afraid I\'ll teach you a lesson?\" older brother says angrily. \r\n\r\nNot good, I can\'t bear to imagine the consequences of provoking older brother. I get up and run, and older brother scrambles up to chase me, luckily he\'s too fat, he can\'t run at all, so I quickly lose him.\r\n\r\nBefore I go to sleep, mother often talks with me about how gluttonous my brother is. One time, [paternal] grandmother was talking with me, saying that older brother eats enough for four people in a single sitting. When he was small it was absolutely no problem for him to polish off two bowls of egg cake in a sitting, even three bowls is just a small appetizer to him. If it was me that ate that much, the person writing this essay would have long ago become a \"stuffed devil\".\r\n\r\nOlder brother is always snatching my food and eating it. One time, when I was in the shower, mother allowed grandmother and all them start eating first. But when I was done showering, I found that there wasn\'t a trace [of food] left in my bowl, but my brother was off to one side burping with satisfaction, turns out my brother stole my food and ate it. I was THIS MAD, but all I could do is endure it, what a tragedy! God, when is older brother finally going to fix this gluttonous defect? \r\n\r\nNot good, older brother just snatched my food again, I\'ve got to stop writing, and quickly go protect my meal! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'My Gluttonous Elder Brother', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1310-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-01-02 21:58:23', '2013-01-03 02:58:23', '', 1310, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/01/02/1310-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
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(1317, 1, '2013-01-02 23:27:51', '2013-01-03 04:27:51', '', '20130115-inline', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130115-inline', '', '', '2013-01-02 23:27:51', '2013-01-03 04:27:51', '', 1295, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/20130115-inline.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0);
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(1318, 1, '2013-01-02 23:00:31', '2013-01-03 04:00:31', '[two_third]\nYou know you need a KTV song! Beijing, Beijing is a slow ballad sung by Chinese artist 汪峰 [pinyin]wang1 feng1[/pinyin] and was in the Baidu Top 100 top 10 for a bit this year. Now it looks like it\'s fallen between the 30th and 40th place on various music charts, but it\'s still pretty popular, particularly in, you know, Beijing. If you can find it in yourself to embrace the painful 80\'s growly I-mean-it man voice and the \"Streets of Philadelphia\" emo-dad thing, you may find that the song is a good karaoke song if you\'re just starting out because it\'s repetitive, it\'s not abstract, it\'s sung slowly enough to sing along and it\'s so emotionally over-fraught that it\'s fun. \n\n\n\n\nI recommend you read and translate the lyrics before you listen to the song, so you\'ve got an idea of what you\'re hearing. \n\nA few translation notes: it\'s not always clear exactly how to translate song lyrics. Example: 寻找着追逐着奄奄一息的碎梦 is not an easy lyric to translate. Or rather, it\'s super easy to get the gist of the meaning (searching, chasing, dying, broken dreams... you get the idea), but put an \"of\" in the wrong place and the meaning changes to something slightly different. I\'ve done my best, feel free to re-write or re-interpret those in a different way. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n平静 - [pinyin]ping2 jing4[/pinyin] - Tranquil\n轰鸣 - [pinyin]hong1 ming2[/pinyin] - Rumble\n烛骨 - [pinyin]zhu2 gu3[/pinyin] - wick (of a candle)\n哭泣 - [pinyin]ku1 qi4[/pinyin] - Weep\n祈祷 - [pinyin]qi2 dao3[/pinyin] - Pray\n迷惘 - [pinyin]mi2 wang3[/pinyin] - Pray\n霓虹灯 - [pinyin]ni2 hong2 deng1[/pinyin] - Neon lights\n挣扎 - [pinyin]zheng1 zha2[/pinyin] - Struggle\n奄奄一息 - [pinyin]yan3 yan3 yi1 xi1[/pinyin] - Last gasp\n眷恋 - [pinyin]juan4 lian4[/pinyin] - To long for\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n当我走在这里的每一条街道 \n我的心似乎从来都不能平静 \n除了发动机的轰鸣和电器之音 \n我似乎听到了他烛骨般的心跳 \n我在这里欢笑 \n我在这里哭泣 \n我在这里活着 \n也在这死去 \n我在这里祈祷 \n我在这里迷惘 \n我在这里寻找 \n也在这儿失去 \n北京 北京 \n\n咖啡馆与广场有三个街区 \n就像霓虹灯到月亮的距离 \n人们在挣扎中相互告慰和拥抱 \n寻找着追逐着奄奄一息的碎梦 \n我们在这欢笑 \n我们在这哭泣 \n我们在这活着 \n也在这死去 \n我们在这祈祷 \n我们在这迷惘 \n我们在这寻找 \n也在这儿失去 \n北京 北京 \n \n如果有一天我不得不离去 \n我希望人们把我埋在这里 \n在这儿我能感觉到我的存在 \n在这儿有太多让我眷恋的东西 \n我在这里欢笑 \n我在这里哭泣 \n我在这里活着 \n也在这儿死去 \n我在这里祈祷 \n我在这里迷惘 \n我在这里寻找 \n也在这儿失去 \n北京 北京\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nWhen I walk the streets here\nIt seems like my heart can never be serene\nBeyond the rumble of engines and sounds of electronics\nI seem to hear its candlewick heartbeat\nThis is where I laugh happily\nThis is where I weep\nThis is where I live\nAnd this is where I\'ll die\nThis is where I pray\nThis is where I\'m confused\nThis is where I search\nAnd also where I lose\nBeijing, Beijing \n\nThe three blocks between the coffee shop and the plaza\nSeem like the distance between the neon lights and the moon \nPeople comfort and embrace each other as they struggle together\nSearching for, chasing after, the last gasp of broken dreams\nThis is where we laugh happily\nThis is where we cry bitterly \nThis is where we live\nAnd this is where we\'ll die\nThis is where we pray\nThis is where we\'re confused\nThis is where we search\nAnd also where we lose\nBeijing, Beijing \n\n \nIf someday I have no choice but to leave\nI hope people bury me here\nHere I can sense my existence \nHere there are too many things I yearn for\nThis is where I laugh happily\nThis is where I cry bitterly \nThis is where I live\nAnd this is where I die\nThis is where I pray\nThis is where I\'m confused\nThis is where I search\nAnd also where I lose\nBeijing, Beijing \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Song Lyrics: Beijing Beijing by Wang Feng', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1295-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-01-02 23:00:31', '2013-01-03 04:00:31', '', 1295, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/01/02/1295-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1321, 1, '2013-01-03 09:23:30', '2013-01-03 14:23:30', '[two_third]\r\nChinese Title: 贪吃的哥哥\r\n\r\nHah! I set out to do a beginner post since I haven\'t done one in a while, but no joy, I think I have to classify this as intermediate. Beginners are welcome to try this out, as most of the words are simple and the subject matter is for immature readers (so of course it totally cracked me up), but the issue is that this essay is written by a kid making fun of her older brother for eating too much, and the sentence structure reads like a playground taunt - it sounds like the author used this essay assignment as an opportunity to get back at her brother for something. So it\'s very casually written and the sentence structure isn\'t book-formal enough to be smooth reading for newbies. Still, if you can get most of the words, which aren\'t too hard, you\'ll get the drift. \r\n\r\n An example of just such an easy-to-figure-out colloquialism is \"不嘛,\" which means something along the lines of \"Nuh-uh!\" or \"No!\" (as in the way a child starts off an argumentative sentence with \"No it\'s not!\" or \"No it isn\'t!\")\r\n\r\nA few things I should cover right out the gate: 红烧排骨和猪蹄 is the name of a dish. 红烧 is a way of cooking a dish where food is slowly simmered in an oily red sauce. On Chinese menus you\'ll often see 红烧 followed by many different things. One of my favorites is 红烧茄子 - Eggplant Simmered in Red Sauce. So this dish, 红烧排骨和猪蹄, is spare ribs (排骨) and pig feet (猪蹄) simmered in red sauce (红烧).\r\n\r\nOne of the more difficult sentences here is 要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了 - there are multiple points of difficulty here. \r\n\r\nLet\'s break this one down a bit. In the previous sentence, the author is talking about how much her brother can eat. Then she says, 要是换成我吃那么多的话 - the hard part of this is 换成, which means \"to switch\", or in this case \"to switch positions with someone\". In other words \"If (要是) I switched positions (换成) with my brother (\'with my brother\' is implied, not said), and it was me that ate so much (我吃那么多)\"...\r\n\r\nThe sentence continues: 现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了. I think the hard part of this is the way 的 is used. Beginning readers expect 的 to either follow a word to make it possessive (我的, 他的）, or to show that something\'s being described (\"红色的箱子\"). In this case, the author actually left out the word being described, which is 人. This part could also be written 现在写作文的人: or in other words \"the person writing this essay right now...\" This is a very informal way of talking. We continue: 早就是个饱死鬼了 \"Long ago (早) would have become (就是个...了) a full devil (饱死鬼 - someone who has eaten until they are overstuffed - google image result for 饱死鬼 gets us this). \r\n\r\nSo all together: \"If I was the one who\'d eaten that much, the person writing this essay [me] would have long ago become overstuffed.\"\r\n\r\nAnd one last thing: the older brother at one point calls the author 臭乐乐. I understand this translates to \"Stinky Lele!\", so we can assume here that \"Lele\" is the author\'s name. This is probably a girl\'s name, so we assume the author is female. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n贪吃 - [pinyin]tan1 chi1[/pinyin] - Gluttonous\r\n嗯 - [pinyin]en1[/pinyin] - A groaning sound, in this case because food is good, like \"mmm, mmm\"\r\n油嘴滑舌 - [pinyin]you2 zui3 hua2 she2[/pinyin] - Smooth-talking, oily-mouthed\r\n成 - [pinyin]cheng2[/pinyin] - To turn into\r\n就算 - [pinyin]jiu4 suan4[/pinyin] - Even if\r\n小菜一碟 - [pinyin]xiao3 cai4 yi1 die2[/pinyin] - Small appetizer\r\n抢 - [pinyin]qiang3[/pinyin] - Snatch\r\n嗝 - [pinyin]ge2[/pinyin] - To burp\r\n悲剧 - [pinyin]bei1 ju4[/pinyin] - Tragedy\r\n改掉- [pinyin]gai3 diao4[/pinyin] - Drop a bad habit\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n“嗯，好吃，真好吃！姥姥，再来一盘鸡腿。”\r\n\r\n“洋洋，你都那么胖了，少吃一点吧！”\r\n\r\n“不嘛，我吃得多证明你菜做得好吃，这是给你面子啊！” 瞧，我那贪吃的哥哥又开始油嘴滑舌了。\r\n\r\n“姥姥，我明天要吃红烧排骨和猪蹄！”哥哥大声说。\r\n\r\n“姥姥，别听哥哥的。他整天就知道吃，都快成猪了。”我说。\r\n\r\n“臭乐乐，说我快成猪了，你不怕我教训你？”哥哥生气地说。\r\n\r\n不好，把哥哥惹急了后果可不堪设想。我起身就跑，哥哥撒腿就追，好在他太胖，根本跑不动，我很快就把他甩掉了。\r\n\r\n在我睡觉前，妈妈常跟我讲哥哥是怎么贪吃的。有一次，奶奶跟我讲，哥哥一顿饭就能吃四个人的饭。他小时候一顿吃两碗鸡蛋糕是绝对没有问题的，就算三碗对他来说也是小菜一碟。要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了。\r\n\r\n哥哥总抢我的饭吃。有一次，我正在洗澡，妈妈让奶奶他们先吃。可等我洗完澡后，发现碗里的饭早没了踪影，哥哥却在一旁直打饱嗝，原来，是哥哥把我的饭给偷吃了。我心里这个气啊，可还只能忍，悲剧啊！天哪，哥哥啥时才能改掉贪吃的毛病啊？\r\n\r\n不好，哥哥又要抢我的饭了，不写了，赶紧保护我的饭去啊！\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\"Mmm, delicious, really delicious! [Maternal] grandma, give me another plate of chicken drumsticks!\" \r\n\r\n“YangYang, you\'re already that fat, you should eat less!\" \r\n\r\n\"Nuh uh, [the fact that] I eat a lot only proves that you\'re a good cook, this gives you face!\" Oh look, there goes my gluttonous older brother smooth-talking again. \r\n\r\n\"Grandma, tomorrow I want to eat Spare Ribs and Pig Trotters Simmered in Red Sauce!\" older brother says loudly. \r\n\r\n\"Grandma, don\'t listen to older brother. All he thinks about all day is eating, he\'ll soon turn into a pig,\" I say. \r\n\r\n\"Stinky LeLe, saying I\'ll turn into a pig. Aren\'t you afraid I\'ll teach you a lesson?\" older brother says angrily. \r\n\r\nNot good, I can\'t bear to imagine the consequences of provoking older brother. I get up and run, and older brother scrambles up to chase me, luckily he\'s too fat, he can\'t run at all, so I quickly lose him.\r\n\r\nBefore I go to sleep, mother often talks with me about how gluttonous my brother is. One time, [paternal] grandmother was talking with me, saying that older brother eats enough for four people in a single sitting. When he was small it was absolutely no problem for him to polish off two bowls of egg cake in a sitting, even three bowls is just a small appetizer to him. If it was me that ate that much, the person writing this essay would have long ago become a \"stuffed devil\".\r\n\r\nOlder brother is always snatching my food and eating it. One time, when I was in the shower, mother allowed grandmother and all them start eating first. When I was done showering, I found that there wasn\'t a trace [of food] left in my bowl, but my brother was off to one side burping with satisfaction, turns out my brother stole my food and ate it. I was so mad, but all I could do is endure it, what a tragedy! God, when is older brother finally going to fix this gluttonous defect? \r\n\r\nNot good, older brother just snatched my food again, I\'ve got to stop writing, and quickly go protect my meal! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'My Gluttonous Elder Brother', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1310-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-01-03 09:23:30', '2013-01-03 14:23:30', '', 1310, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/01/03/1310-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1322, 1, '2013-01-02 19:55:40', '2013-01-03 00:55:40', '[two_third]\r\nChinese Title: 暴风雪已致15人死 2000航班延误取消\r\n\r\nIn the spirit of the holiday season, which is winding to a blissfully overweight close, I give you an article about something you may or may not have just struggled through if you flew home for the holidays (which I did).\r\n\r\n![\"Reading](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/20130103-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"How")
This is a wildly factual article about the congestion caused by the snow storms a week or so ago. Not a lot of excitement here, mostly a tallying up of what a big fat mess the American aviation system becomes during the annual Christmas hysteria. \r\n\r\nLots and lots of proper nouns in here, including lots of U.S. states, some cities and even a couple of basketball team names. Probably the most fun you\'ll have reading this is trying to decipher the list of Chinese names for U.S. states (read the characters out loud quickly and see if you can guess - example: 弗吉尼亚州 fo ji ni ya = Virginia). You can always tell you\'re reading a U.S. state name because the character 州 appears at the tail end of each state. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n暴风 - [pinyin]bao4 feng1[/pinyin] - Blizzard\r\n造成 - [pinyin]zao4 cheng2[/pinyin] - To cause, bring about\r\n严寒 - [pinyin]yan2 han2[/pinyin] - Severe winter\r\n警告 - [pinyin]jing3 gao4[/pinyin] - Warning (typically official one, issued by police or govt.)\r\n凛冽 - [pinyin]lin3 lie4[/pinyin] - Biting cold\r\n构成 - [pinyin]gou4 cheng2[/pinyin] - To constitute \r\n威胁 - [pinyin]wei1 xie2[/pinyin] - Threat\r\n气象部门 - [pinyin]qi4 xiang4 bu4 men2[/pinyin] - Weather service \r\n成千上万 - [pinyin]cheng2 qian1 shang4 wan4[/pinyin] - Tens of thousands\r\n推迟 - [pinyin]tui1 chi2[/pinyin] - To postpone\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n圣诞节期间美国遭遇暴风雪袭击，已至少造成15人死亡，2000次美国航班延误或取消。\r\n\r\n据报道，因暴雪严寒造成人员死亡的州包括肯塔基州、俄亥俄州、印第安纳州、阿肯色州、俄克拉何马州、得克萨斯州、路易斯安那州、宾夕法尼亚州和弗吉尼亚州。\r\n\r\n很多地区发出警告提醒人们不要外出，因为凛冽狂风、低温和充满危险的路况对行人构成威胁。气象部门说，位于美国东北部的新英格兰地区数州即将出现大雪天气，缅因州部分地区的降雪厚度达18英寸(约45厘米)。因此，很多人的圣诞节假期旅行计划受到影响。\r\n\r\n目前，已有超过20万居民家中断电，成千上万出游的人们滞留在各处。nba推迟了原本于周三晚在印第安纳波利斯举行的印第安纳步行者对芝加哥公牛队的篮球赛。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThis Christmas season, America is suffering through a blizzard, which has already caused at least 15 deaths and the delay or cancellation of 2000 flights. \r\n\r\nAccording to reports, the snowstorm and bitter cold has caused deaths in states including Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Virginia. \r\n\r\nMany regions issued warnings reminding people not to go outside, because the biting cold, howling winds, low temperatures and dangerous traffic conditions compose a threat to pedestrians. The weather department said that severe snow will soon appear in America\'s northeastern New England area, with snowfall in Maine reaching 18 inches (about 45 centimeters). As a result, many people\'s Christmas travel plans will be effected.\r\n\r\nCurrently, 200,000 homes have already experienced electrical outages, and tens of thousands of travelers have been detained. [Also due to snow] in Indianapolis, the NBA postponed Wednesday night\'s Indiana Pacers vs. Chicago Bulls basketball game. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'News: Snowstorm has caused 15 deaths and 2000 flight delays or cancellations', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1304-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-01-02 19:55:40', '2013-01-03 00:55:40', '', 1304, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/01/02/1304-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1323, 1, '2013-01-02 23:28:20', '2013-01-03 04:28:20', '[two_third]\r\nYou know you need a KTV song! Beijing, Beijing is a slow ballad sung by Chinese artist 汪峰 [pinyin]wang1 feng1[/pinyin] and was in the Baidu Top 100 top 10 for a bit this year. Now it looks like it\'s fallen between the 30th and 40th place on various music charts, but it\'s still pretty popular, particularly in, you know, Beijing. If you can find it in yourself to embrace the painful 80\'s growly I-mean-it man voice and the \"Streets of Philadelphia\" emo-dad thing, you may find that the song is a good karaoke song if you\'re just starting out because it\'s repetitive, it\'s not abstract, it\'s sung slowly enough to sing along and it\'s so emotionally over-fraught that it\'s fun. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nI recommend you read and translate the lyrics before you listen to the song, so you\'ve got an idea of what you\'re hearing. \r\n\r\nA few translation notes: it\'s not always clear exactly how to translate song lyrics. Example: 寻找着追逐着奄奄一息的碎梦 is not an easy lyric to translate. Or rather, it\'s super easy to get the gist of the meaning (searching, chasing, dying, broken dreams... you get the idea), but put an \"of\" in the wrong place and the meaning changes to something slightly different. I\'ve done my best, feel free to re-write or re-interpret those in a different way. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n平静 - [pinyin]ping2 jing4[/pinyin] - Tranquil\r\n轰鸣 - [pinyin]hong1 ming2[/pinyin] - Rumble\r\n烛骨 - [pinyin]zhu2 gu3[/pinyin] - wick (of a candle)\r\n哭泣 - [pinyin]ku1 qi4[/pinyin] - Weep\r\n祈祷 - [pinyin]qi2 dao3[/pinyin] - Pray\r\n迷惘 - [pinyin]mi2 wang3[/pinyin] - Pray\r\n霓虹灯 - [pinyin]ni2 hong2 deng1[/pinyin] - Neon lights\r\n挣扎 - [pinyin]zheng1 zha2[/pinyin] - Struggle\r\n奄奄一息 - [pinyin]yan3 yan3 yi1 xi1[/pinyin] - Last gasp\r\n眷恋 - [pinyin]juan4 lian4[/pinyin] - To long for\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n当我走在这里的每一条街道 \r\n我的心似乎从来都不能平静 \r\n除了发动机的轰鸣和电器之音 \r\n我似乎听到了他烛骨般的心跳 \r\n我在这里欢笑 \r\n我在这里哭泣 \r\n我在这里活着 \r\n也在这死去 \r\n我在这里祈祷 \r\n我在这里迷惘 \r\n我在这里寻找 \r\n也在这儿失去 \r\n北京 北京 \r\n\r\n咖啡馆与广场有三个街区 \r\n就像霓虹灯到月亮的距离 \r\n人们在挣扎中相互告慰和拥抱 \r\n寻找着追逐着奄奄一息的碎梦 \r\n我们在这欢笑 \r\n我们在这哭泣 \r\n我们在这活着 \r\n也在这死去 \r\n我们在这祈祷 \r\n我们在这迷惘 \r\n我们在这寻找 \r\n也在这儿失去 \r\n北京 北京 \r\n \r\n如果有一天我不得不离去 \r\n我希望人们把我埋在这里 \r\n在这儿我能感觉到我的存在 \r\n在这儿有太多让我眷恋的东西 \r\n我在这里欢笑 \r\n我在这里哭泣 \r\n我在这里活着 \r\n也在这儿死去 \r\n我在这里祈祷 \r\n我在这里迷惘 \r\n我在这里寻找 \r\n也在这儿失去 \r\n北京 北京\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nWhen I walk the streets here\r\nIt seems like my heart can never be serene\r\nBeyond the rumble of engines and sounds of electronics\r\nI seem to hear its candlewick heartbeat\r\nThis is where I laugh happily\r\nThis is where I weep\r\nThis is where I live\r\nAnd this is where I\'ll die\r\nThis is where I pray\r\nThis is where I\'m confused\r\nThis is where I search\r\nAnd also where I lose\r\nBeijing, Beijing \r\n\r\nThe three blocks between the coffee shop and the plaza\r\nSeem like the distance between the neon lights and the moon \r\nPeople comfort and embrace each other as they struggle together\r\nSearching for, chasing after, the last gasp of broken dreams\r\nThis is where we laugh happily\r\nThis is where we cry bitterly \r\nThis is where we live\r\nAnd this is where we\'ll die\r\nThis is where we pray\r\nThis is where we\'re confused\r\nThis is where we search\r\nAnd also where we lose\r\nBeijing, Beijing \r\n\r\n \r\nIf someday I have no choice but to leave\r\nI hope people bury me here\r\nHere I can sense my existence \r\nHere there are too many things I yearn for\r\nThis is where I laugh happily\r\nThis is where I cry bitterly \r\nThis is where I live\r\nAnd this is where I die\r\nThis is where I pray\r\nThis is where I\'m confused\r\nThis is where I search\r\nAnd also where I lose\r\nBeijing, Beijing \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Song Lyrics: Beijing Beijing by Wang Feng', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1295-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-01-02 23:28:20', '2013-01-03 04:28:20', '', 1295, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/01/02/1295-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1327, 1, '2013-01-03 09:25:56', '2013-01-03 14:25:56', '[two_third]\r\nChinese Title: 贪吃的哥哥\r\n\r\nHah! I set out to do a beginner post since I haven\'t done one in a while, but no joy, I think I have to classify this as intermediate. Beginners are welcome to try this out, as most of the words are simple and the subject matter is a bit immature (so of course it totally cracked me up), but the issue is that this essay is written by a kid making fun of her older brother for eating too much, and the sentence structure reads like a playground taunt - it sounds like the author used this essay assignment as an opportunity to get back at her brother for something. So it\'s very casually written and the sentence structure isn\'t book-formal enough to be smooth reading for newbies. Still, if you can get most of the words, which aren\'t too hard, you\'ll get the drift. \r\n\r\n An example of just such an easy-to-figure-out colloquialism is \"不嘛,\" which means something along the lines of \"Nuh-uh!\" or \"No!\" (as in the way a child starts off an argumentative sentence with \"No it\'s not!\" or \"No it isn\'t!\")\r\n\r\nA few things I should cover right out the gate: 红烧排骨和猪蹄 is the name of a dish. 红烧 is a way of cooking a dish where food is slowly simmered in an oily red sauce. On Chinese menus you\'ll often see 红烧 followed by many different things. One of my favorites is 红烧茄子 - Eggplant Simmered in Red Sauce. So this dish, 红烧排骨和猪蹄, is spare ribs (排骨) and pig feet (猪蹄) simmered in red sauce (红烧).\r\n\r\nOne of the more difficult sentences here is 要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了 - there are multiple points of difficulty here. \r\n\r\nLet\'s break this one down a bit. In the previous sentence, the author is talking about how much her brother can eat. Then she says, 要是换成我吃那么多的话 - the hard part of this is 换成, which means \"to switch\", or in this case \"to switch positions with someone\". In other words \"If (要是) I switched positions (换成) with my brother (\'with my brother\' is implied, not said), and it was me that ate so much (我吃那么多)\"...\r\n\r\nThe sentence continues: 现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了. I think the hard part of this is the way 的 is used. Beginning readers expect 的 to either follow a word to make it possessive (我的, 他的）, or to show that something\'s being described (\"红色的箱子\"). In this case, the author actually left out the word being described, which is 人. This part could also be written 现在写作文的人: or in other words \"the person writing this essay right now...\" This is a very informal way of talking. We continue: 早就是个饱死鬼了 \"Long ago (早) would have become (就是个...了) a full devil (饱死鬼 - someone who has eaten until they are overstuffed - google image result for 饱死鬼 gets us this). \r\n\r\nSo all together: \"If I was the one who\'d eaten that much, the person writing this essay [me] would have long ago become overstuffed.\"\r\n\r\nAnd one last thing: the older brother at one point calls the author 臭乐乐. I understand this translates to \"Stinky Lele!\", so we can assume here that \"Lele\" is the author\'s name. This is probably a girl\'s name, so we assume the author is female. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n贪吃 - [pinyin]tan1 chi1[/pinyin] - Gluttonous\r\n嗯 - [pinyin]en1[/pinyin] - A groaning sound, in this case because food is good, like \"mmm, mmm\"\r\n油嘴滑舌 - [pinyin]you2 zui3 hua2 she2[/pinyin] - Smooth-talking, oily-mouthed\r\n成 - [pinyin]cheng2[/pinyin] - To turn into\r\n就算 - [pinyin]jiu4 suan4[/pinyin] - Even if\r\n小菜一碟 - [pinyin]xiao3 cai4 yi1 die2[/pinyin] - Small appetizer\r\n抢 - [pinyin]qiang3[/pinyin] - Snatch\r\n嗝 - [pinyin]ge2[/pinyin] - To burp\r\n悲剧 - [pinyin]bei1 ju4[/pinyin] - Tragedy\r\n改掉- [pinyin]gai3 diao4[/pinyin] - Drop a bad habit\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n“嗯，好吃，真好吃！姥姥，再来一盘鸡腿。”\r\n\r\n“洋洋，你都那么胖了，少吃一点吧！”\r\n\r\n“不嘛，我吃得多证明你菜做得好吃，这是给你面子啊！” 瞧，我那贪吃的哥哥又开始油嘴滑舌了。\r\n\r\n“姥姥，我明天要吃红烧排骨和猪蹄！”哥哥大声说。\r\n\r\n“姥姥，别听哥哥的。他整天就知道吃，都快成猪了。”我说。\r\n\r\n“臭乐乐，说我快成猪了，你不怕我教训你？”哥哥生气地说。\r\n\r\n不好，把哥哥惹急了后果可不堪设想。我起身就跑，哥哥撒腿就追，好在他太胖，根本跑不动，我很快就把他甩掉了。\r\n\r\n在我睡觉前，妈妈常跟我讲哥哥是怎么贪吃的。有一次，奶奶跟我讲，哥哥一顿饭就能吃四个人的饭。他小时候一顿吃两碗鸡蛋糕是绝对没有问题的，就算三碗对他来说也是小菜一碟。要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了。\r\n\r\n哥哥总抢我的饭吃。有一次，我正在洗澡，妈妈让奶奶他们先吃。可等我洗完澡后，发现碗里的饭早没了踪影，哥哥却在一旁直打饱嗝，原来，是哥哥把我的饭给偷吃了。我心里这个气啊，可还只能忍，悲剧啊！天哪，哥哥啥时才能改掉贪吃的毛病啊？\r\n\r\n不好，哥哥又要抢我的饭了，不写了，赶紧保护我的饭去啊！\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\"Mmm, delicious, really delicious! [Maternal] grandma, give me another plate of chicken drumsticks!\" \r\n\r\n“YangYang, you\'re already that fat, you should eat less!\" \r\n\r\n\"Nuh uh, [the fact that] I eat a lot only proves that you\'re a good cook, this gives you face!\" Oh look, there goes my gluttonous older brother smooth-talking again. \r\n\r\n\"Grandma, tomorrow I want to eat Spare Ribs and Pig Trotters Simmered in Red Sauce!\" older brother says loudly. \r\n\r\n\"Grandma, don\'t listen to older brother. All he thinks about all day is eating, he\'ll soon turn into a pig,\" I say. \r\n\r\n\"Stinky LeLe, saying I\'ll turn into a pig. Aren\'t you afraid I\'ll teach you a lesson?\" older brother says angrily. \r\n\r\nNot good, I can\'t bear to imagine the consequences of provoking older brother. I get up and run, and older brother scrambles up to chase me, luckily he\'s too fat, he can\'t run at all, so I quickly lose him.\r\n\r\nBefore I go to sleep, mother often talks with me about how gluttonous my brother is. One time, [paternal] grandmother was talking with me, saying that older brother eats enough for four people in a single sitting. When he was small it was absolutely no problem for him to polish off two bowls of egg cake in a sitting, even three bowls is just a small appetizer to him. If it was me that ate that much, the person writing this essay would have long ago become a \"stuffed devil\".\r\n\r\nOlder brother is always snatching my food and eating it. One time, when I was in the shower, mother allowed grandmother and all them start eating first. When I was done showering, I found that there wasn\'t a trace [of food] left in my bowl, but my brother was off to one side burping with satisfaction, turns out my brother stole my food and ate it. I was so mad, but all I could do is endure it, what a tragedy! God, when is older brother finally going to fix this gluttonous defect? \r\n\r\nNot good, older brother just snatched my food again, I\'ve got to stop writing, and quickly go protect my meal! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'My Gluttonous Elder Brother', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1310-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-01-03 09:25:56', '2013-01-03 14:25:56', '', 1310, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/01/03/1310-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1328, 1, '2013-01-09 03:35:02', '2013-01-09 08:35:02', '[two_third]\r\nChinese Title: 贪吃的哥哥\r\n\r\nHah! I set out to do a beginner post since I haven\'t done one in a while, but no joy, I think I have to classify this as intermediate. Beginners are welcome to try this out, as most of the words are simple and the subject matter is a bit immature (so of course it totally cracked me up), but the issue is that this essay is written by a kid making fun of her older brother for eating too much, and the sentence structure reads like a playground taunt - it sounds like the author used this essay assignment as an opportunity to get back at her brother for something. So it\'s very casually written and the sentence structure isn\'t book-formal enough to be smooth reading for newbies. Still, if you can get most of the words, which aren\'t too hard, you\'ll get the drift. \r\n\r\n An example of just such an easy-to-figure-out colloquialism is \"不嘛,\" which means something along the lines of \"Nuh-uh!\" or \"No!\" (as in the way a child starts off an argumentative sentence with \"No it\'s not!\" or \"No it isn\'t!\")\r\n\r\nA few things I should cover right out the gate: 红烧排骨和猪蹄 is the name of a dish. 红烧 is a way of cooking a dish where food is slowly simmered in an oily red sauce. On Chinese menus you\'ll often see 红烧 followed by many different things. One of my favorites is 红烧茄子 - Eggplant Simmered in Red Sauce. So this dish, 红烧排骨和猪蹄, is spare ribs (排骨) and pig feet (猪蹄) simmered in red sauce (红烧).\r\n\r\nOne of the more difficult sentences here is 要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了 - there are multiple points of difficulty here. \r\n\r\nLet\'s break this one down a bit. In the previous sentence, the author is talking about how much her brother can eat. Then she says, 要是换成我吃那么多的话 - the hard part of this is 换成, which means \"to switch\", or in this case \"to switch positions with someone\". In other words \"If (要是) I switched positions (换成) with my brother (\'with my brother\' is implied, not said), and it was me that ate so much (我吃那么多)\"...\r\n\r\nThe sentence continues: 现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了. I think the hard part of this is the way 的 is used. Beginning readers expect 的 to either follow a word to make it possessive (我的, 他的）, or to show that something\'s being described (\"红色的箱子\"). In this case, the author actually left out the word being described, which is 人. This part could also be written 现在写作文的人: or in other words \"the person writing this essay right now...\" This is a very informal way of talking. We continue: 早就是个饱死鬼了 \"Long ago (早) would have become (就是个...了) a full devil (饱死鬼 - someone who has eaten until they are overstuffed - google image result for 饱死鬼 gets us this). \r\n\r\nSo all together: \"If I was the one who\'d eaten that much, the person writing this essay [me] would have long ago become overstuffed.\"\r\n\r\nAnd one last thing: the older brother at one point calls the author 臭乐乐. I understand this translates to \"Stinky Lele!\", so we can assume here that \"Lele\" is the author\'s name. This is probably a girl\'s name, so we assume the author is female. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n贪吃 - [pinyin]tan1 chi1[/pinyin] - Gluttonous\r\n嗯 - [pinyin]en1[/pinyin] - A groaning sound, in this case because food is good, like \"mmm, mmm\"\r\n油嘴滑舌 - [pinyin]you2 zui3 hua2 she2[/pinyin] - Smooth-talking, oily-mouthed\r\n成 - [pinyin]cheng2[/pinyin] - To turn into\r\n就算 - [pinyin]jiu4 suan4[/pinyin] - Even if\r\n小菜一碟 - [pinyin]xiao3 cai4 yi1 die2[/pinyin] - Small appetizer\r\n抢 - [pinyin]qiang3[/pinyin] - Snatch\r\n嗝 - [pinyin]ge2[/pinyin] - To burp\r\n悲剧 - [pinyin]bei1 ju4[/pinyin] - Tragedy\r\n改掉- [pinyin]gai3 diao4[/pinyin] - Drop a bad habit\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n“嗯，好吃，真好吃！姥姥，再来一盘鸡腿。”\r\n\r\n“洋洋，你都那么胖了，少吃一点吧！”\r\n\r\n“不嘛，我吃得多证明你菜做得好吃，这是给你面子啊！” 瞧，我那贪吃的哥哥又开始油嘴滑舌了。\r\n\r\n“姥姥，我明天要吃红烧排骨和猪蹄！”哥哥大声说。\r\n\r\n“姥姥，别听哥哥的。他整天就知道吃，都快成猪了。”我说。\r\n\r\n“臭乐乐，说我快成猪了，你不怕我教训你？”哥哥生气地说。\r\n\r\n不好，把哥哥惹急了后果可不堪设想。我起身就跑，哥哥撒腿就追，好在他太胖，根本跑不动，我很快就把他甩掉了。\r\n\r\n在我睡觉前，妈妈常跟我讲哥哥是怎么贪吃的。有一次，奶奶跟我讲，哥哥一顿饭就能吃四个人的饭。他小时候一顿吃两碗鸡蛋糕是绝对没有问题的，就算三碗对他来说也是小菜一碟。要是换成我吃那么多的话，现在写作文的早就是个饱死鬼了。\r\n\r\n哥哥总抢我的饭吃。有一次，我正在洗澡，妈妈让奶奶他们先吃。可等我洗完澡后，发现碗里的饭早没了踪影，哥哥却在一旁直打饱嗝，原来，是哥哥把我的饭给偷吃了。我心里这个气啊，可还只能忍，悲剧啊！天哪，哥哥啥时才能改掉贪吃的毛病啊？\r\n\r\n不好，哥哥又要抢我的饭了，不写了，赶紧保护我的饭去啊！\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\"Mmm, delicious, really delicious! [Maternal] grandma, give me another plate of chicken drumsticks!\" \r\n\r\n“YangYang, you\'re already that fat, you should eat less!\" \r\n\r\n\"Nuh uh, [the fact that] I eat a lot only proves that you\'re a good cook, this gives you face!\" Oh look, there goes my gluttonous older brother smooth-talking again. \r\n\r\n\"Grandma, tomorrow I want to eat Spare Ribs and Pig Trotters Simmered in Red Sauce!\" older brother says loudly. \r\n\r\n\"Grandma, don\'t listen to older brother. All he thinks about all day is eating, he\'ll soon turn into a pig,\" I say. \r\n\r\n\"Stinky LeLe, saying I\'ll turn into a pig. Aren\'t you afraid I\'ll teach you a lesson?\" older brother says angrily. \r\n\r\nNot good, I can\'t bear to imagine the consequences of provoking older brother. I get up and run, and older brother scrambles up to chase me, luckily he\'s too fat, he can\'t run at all, so I quickly lose him.\r\n\r\nBefore I go to sleep, mother often talks with me about how gluttonous my brother is. One time, [paternal] grandmother was talking with me, saying that older brother eats enough for four people in a single sitting. When he was small it was absolutely no problem for him to polish off two bowls of egg cake in a sitting, even three bowls is just a small appetizer to him. If it was me that ate that much, the person writing this essay would have long ago become a \"stuffed devil\".\r\n\r\nOlder brother is always snatching my food and eating it. One time, when I was in the shower, mother allowed grandmother and all them start eating first. When I was done showering, I found that there wasn\'t a trace [of food] left in my bowl, but my brother was off to one side burping with satisfaction, turns out my brother stole my food and ate it. I was so mad, but all I could do is endure it, what a tragedy! God, when is older brother finally going to fix this gluttonous defect? \r\n\r\nNot good, older brother just snatched my food again, I\'ve got to stop writing, and quickly go protect my meal! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'My Gluttonous Elder Brother', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1310-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-01-09 03:35:02', '2013-01-09 08:35:02', '', 1310, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/01/09/1310-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1330, 1, '2013-01-26 00:34:10', '2013-01-26 05:34:10', '', 'How to Read Chinese Jokes: Mandarin Exercise Passages for Reading', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130126-inline', '', '', '2013-01-26 00:34:10', '2013-01-26 05:34:10', '', 1329, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/20130126-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1331, 1, '2013-01-26 00:34:12', '2013-01-26 05:34:12', '', '20130126', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130126', '', '', '2013-01-26 00:34:12', '2013-01-26 05:34:12', '', 1329, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/20130126.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1332, 1, '2013-01-26 00:30:58', '2013-01-26 05:30:58', '[two_third]\nHey hey! This site has made it through two years online and 100 posts! That makes an average of 50 posts a year, which averages out to a little less than one a week. Not terribly shabby, huh? In any case, on with the Chinese. \n\nI\'ve been having a bit of trouble rounding up truly beginner texts, and whenever I try I end up with an intermediate post. But this one, though not earth-shattering, should certainly do. We\'ve got three short jokes here of the silly variety, appropriate for young kids. \n\nThough we could probably skip this info, you might want to know that 晨练 - meaning \"morning exercise\" - is a much more formalized concept in China than in west. Here, every morning in almost any weather, crowds of old people gather together in parks around 6-7a.m. to do group taiqi, stretch and take brisk walks. This is so prevalent that you can show up at any park or open community space in China early in the morning and see groups of mostly old people doing their exercises. So, while reading the first joke, you should imagine a scene of 40 or so retirees doing taiqi forms in the park. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n晨练 - [pinyin]chen2 lian4[/pinyin] - Morning exercise\n退休 - [pinyin]tui4 xiu1[/pinyin] - Retire\n笨蛋 - [pinyin]ben4 dan4[/pinyin] - Idiot\n汉堡 - [pinyin]han4 bao3[/pinyin] - Hamburger\n告诉 - [pinyin]gao4 su5[/pinyin] - To tell\n谈 - [pinyin]tan2[/pinyin] - Speak, discuss\n蟑螂 - [pinyin]zhang1 lang2[/pinyin] - Cockroach\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n小姑娘指着晨练的老人问： 为什么他们能天天到公园来玩？\n奶奶：因为他们是退休人员。\n一天，爸爸问女儿：你长大当什么？\n小姑娘：退休人员。\n\n\n父亲教儿子学算术：“一加一是多少？”\n儿子：“不知道。”\n父亲：“是两个，笨蛋！知道了吗？”\n儿子：“知道了。”\n父亲：“那么，我和你，加起来是几个人？”\n儿子：“是两个笨蛋！” \n\n一个女孩和一个男孩吃汉堡。男孩说女孩：“我要告诉你一件事！”\n女孩说：“不要跟我说话在我吃的时候，当我吃我的汉堡，那么你就可以谈。”\n所以，当他们吃完了女孩问男孩：“现在你想说什么呢？”\n男孩说：“嗯，我是说，有一只蟑螂在你的汉堡里！” \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nA little girl pointing at old people doing morning exercises, said: \"Why are they allowed to play in the park all day?\"\nGrandmother: \"Because they are retirees.\"\nOne day, the father asked the little girl: What do you want to be when you grow up?\nLittle girl: A retiree!\n\n\nFather is teaching his son arithmetic: \"One plus one is how much?\" \nSon: \"I don\'t know.\" \nFather: \"It\'s two, idiot! You get it?\"\nSon: \"I get it.\" \nFather: \"Now, me and you, put us together and how many people is that?\"\nSon: \"It\'s two idiots!\" \n\n\nA girl and a boy are eating hamburgers. The boy says to the girl: \"I want to tell you something!\" \nThe girl says: \"Don\'t talk to me while I\'m eating, when I\'m done with my hamburger, then you can speak.\"\nSo, when they finished eating the girl asked the boy: \"Now what do you want to say?\"\nBoy says: \"Huh, I was saying, there\'s a cockroach in your hamburger.\"\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Our 100th Post! Plus some new beginner jokes', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1329-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-01-26 00:30:58', '2013-01-26 05:30:58', '', 1329, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/01/26/1329-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1333, 1, '2013-01-26 00:36:33', '2013-01-26 05:36:33', '[two_third]\r\nHey hey! This site has made it through two years online and 100 posts! That makes an average of 50 posts a year, which averages out to a little less than one a week. Not terribly shabby, huh? In any case, on with the Chinese. \r\n\r\nI\'ve been having a bit of trouble rounding up truly beginner texts, and whenever I try I end up with an intermediate post. But this one, though not earth-shattering, should certainly do. We\'ve got three short jokes here of the silly variety, appropriate for young kids. \r\n\r\nThough we could probably skip this info, you might want to know that 晨练 - meaning \"morning exercise\" - is a much more formalized concept in China than in west. Here, every morning in almost any weather, crowds of old people gather together in parks around 6-7a.m. to do group taiqi, stretch and take brisk walks. This is so prevalent that you can show up at any park or open community space in China early in the morning and see groups of mostly old people doing their exercises. So, while reading the first joke, you should imagine a scene of 40 or so retirees doing taiqi forms in the park. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n晨练 - [pinyin]chen2 lian4[/pinyin] - Morning exercise\r\n退休 - [pinyin]tui4 xiu1[/pinyin] - Retire\r\n笨蛋 - [pinyin]ben4 dan4[/pinyin] - Idiot\r\n汉堡 - [pinyin]han4 bao3[/pinyin] - Hamburger\r\n告诉 - [pinyin]gao4 su5[/pinyin] - To tell\r\n谈 - [pinyin]tan2[/pinyin] - Speak, discuss\r\n蟑螂 - [pinyin]zhang1 lang2[/pinyin] - Cockroach\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n小姑娘指着晨练的老人问： 为什么他们能天天到公园来玩？\r\n奶奶：因为他们是退休人员。\r\n一天，爸爸问女儿：你长大当什么？\r\n小姑娘：退休人员。\r\n\r\n\r\n父亲教儿子学算术：“一加一是多少？”\r\n儿子：“不知道。”\r\n父亲：“是两个，笨蛋！知道了吗？”\r\n儿子：“知道了。”\r\n父亲：“那么，我和你，加起来是几个人？”\r\n儿子：“是两个笨蛋！” \r\n\r\n一个女孩和一个男孩吃汉堡。男孩说女孩：“我要告诉你一件事！”\r\n女孩说：“不要跟我说话在我吃的时候，当我吃我的汉堡，那么你就可以谈。”\r\n所以，当他们吃完了女孩问男孩：“现在你想说什么呢？”\r\n男孩说：“嗯，我是说，有一只蟑螂在你的汉堡里！” \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nA little girl pointing at old people doing morning exercises, said: \"Why are they allowed to play in the park all day?\"\r\nGrandmother: \"Because they are retirees.\"\r\nOne day, the father asked the little girl: What do you want to be when you grow up?\r\nLittle girl: A retiree!\r\n\r\n\r\nFather is teaching his son arithmetic: \"One plus one is how much?\" \r\nSon: \"I don\'t know.\" \r\nFather: \"It\'s two, idiot! You get it?\"\r\nSon: \"I get it.\" \r\nFather: \"Now, me and you, put us together and how many people is that?\"\r\nSon: \"It\'s two idiots!\" \r\n\r\n\r\nA girl and a boy are eating hamburgers. The boy says to the girl: \"I want to tell you something!\" \r\nThe girl says: \"Don\'t talk to me while I\'m eating, when I\'m done with my hamburger, then you can speak.\"\r\nSo, when they finished eating the girl asked the boy: \"Now what do you want to say?\"\r\nBoy says: \"Huh, I was saying, there\'s a cockroach in your hamburger.\"\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Our 100th Post! Plus some new beginner jokes', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1329-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-01-26 00:36:33', '2013-01-26 05:36:33', '', 1329, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/01/26/1329-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1334, 1, '2013-01-26 00:37:34', '2013-01-26 05:37:34', '[two_third]\r\nHey hey! This site has made it through two years online and 100 posts! That makes an average of 50 posts a year, which averages out to a little less than one a week. Not terribly shabby, huh? In any case, on with the Chinese. \r\n\r\nI\'ve been having a bit of trouble rounding up truly beginner texts, and whenever I try I end up with an intermediate post. But this one, though not earth-shattering, should certainly do. We\'ve got three short jokes here of the silly variety, appropriate for young kids. \r\n\r\nThough we could probably skip this info, you might want to know that 晨练 - meaning \"morning exercise\" - is a much more formalized concept in China than in west. Here, every morning in almost any weather, crowds of old people gather together in parks around 6-7a.m. to do group taiqi, stretch and take brisk walks. This is so prevalent that you can show up at any park or open community space in China early in the morning and see groups of mostly old people doing their exercises. So, while reading the first joke, you should imagine a scene of 40 or so retirees doing taiqi forms in the park. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n晨练 - [pinyin]chen2 lian4[/pinyin] - Morning exercise\r\n退休 - [pinyin]tui4 xiu1[/pinyin] - Retire\r\n笨蛋 - [pinyin]ben4 dan4[/pinyin] - Idiot\r\n汉堡 - [pinyin]han4 bao3[/pinyin] - Hamburger\r\n告诉 - [pinyin]gao4 su5[/pinyin] - To tell\r\n谈 - [pinyin]tan2[/pinyin] - Speak, discuss\r\n蟑螂 - [pinyin]zhang1 lang2[/pinyin] - Cockroach\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n小姑娘指着晨练的老人问： 为什么他们能天天到公园来玩？\r\n奶奶：因为他们是退休人员。\r\n一天，爸爸问女儿：你长大当什么？\r\n小姑娘：退休人员。\r\n\r\n\r\n父亲教儿子学算术：“一加一是多少？”\r\n儿子：“不知道。”\r\n父亲：“是两个，笨蛋！知道了吗？”\r\n儿子：“知道了。”\r\n父亲：“那么，我和你，加起来是几个人？”\r\n儿子：“是两个笨蛋！” \r\n\r\n一个女孩和一个男孩吃汉堡。男孩说女孩：“我要告诉你一件事！”\r\n女孩说：“不要跟我说话在我吃的时候，当我吃我的汉堡，那么你就可以谈。”\r\n所以，当他们吃完了女孩问男孩：“现在你想说什么呢？”\r\n男孩说：“嗯，我是说，有一只蟑螂在你的汉堡里！” \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nA little girl pointing at old people doing morning exercises, said: \"Why are they allowed to play in the park all day?\"\r\nGrandmother: \"Because they are retirees.\"\r\nOne day, the father asked the little girl: What do you want to be when you grow up?\r\nLittle girl: A retiree!\r\n\r\n\r\nFather is teaching his son arithmetic: \"One plus one is how much?\" \r\nSon: \"I don\'t know.\" \r\nFather: \"It\'s two, idiot! You get it?\"\r\nSon: \"I get it.\" \r\nFather: \"Now, me and you, put us together and how many people is that?\"\r\nSon: \"It\'s two idiots!\" \r\n\r\n\r\nA girl and a boy are eating hamburgers. The boy says to the girl: \"I want to tell you something!\" \r\nThe girl says: \"Don\'t talk to me while I\'m eating, when I\'m done with my hamburger, then you can speak.\"\r\nSo, when they finished eating the girl asked the boy: \"Now what do you want to say?\"\r\nBoy says: \"Huh, I was saying, there\'s a cockroach in your hamburger.\"\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Our 100th Post! Plus some new beginner jokes', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1329-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-01-26 00:37:34', '2013-01-26 05:37:34', '', 1329, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/01/26/1329-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1335, 1, '2013-01-26 00:39:00', '2013-01-26 05:39:00', '[two_third]\r\nHey hey! This site has made it through two years online and 100 posts! That makes an average of 50 posts a year, which averages out to a little less than one a week. Not terribly shabby, huh? In any case, on with the Chinese. \r\n\r\nI\'ve been having a bit of trouble rounding up truly beginner texts, and whenever I try I end up with an intermediate post. But this one, though not earth-shattering, should certainly do. We\'ve got three short jokes here of the silly variety, appropriate for young kids. \r\n\r\nThough we could probably skip this info, you might want to know that 晨练 - meaning \"morning exercise\" - is a much more formalized concept in China than in west. Here, every morning in almost any weather, crowds of old people gather together in parks around 6-7a.m. to do group taiqi, stretch and take brisk walks. This is so prevalent that you can show up at any park or open community space in China early in the morning and see groups of mostly old people doing their exercises. So, while reading the first joke, you should imagine a scene of 40 or so retirees doing taiqi forms in the park. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n晨练 - [pinyin]chen2 lian4[/pinyin] - Morning exercise\r\n退休 - [pinyin]tui4 xiu1[/pinyin] - Retire\r\n笨蛋 - [pinyin]ben4 dan4[/pinyin] - Idiot\r\n汉堡 - [pinyin]han4 bao3[/pinyin] - Hamburger\r\n告诉 - [pinyin]gao4 su5[/pinyin] - To tell\r\n谈 - [pinyin]tan2[/pinyin] - Speak, discuss\r\n蟑螂 - [pinyin]zhang1 lang2[/pinyin] - Cockroach\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n小姑娘指着晨练的老人问： 为什么他们能天天到公园来玩？\r\n奶奶：因为他们是退休人员。\r\n一天，爸爸问女儿：你长大当什么？\r\n小姑娘：退休人员。\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n父亲教儿子学算术：“一加一是多少？”\r\n儿子：“不知道。”\r\n父亲：“是两个，笨蛋！知道了吗？”\r\n儿子：“知道了。”\r\n父亲：“那么，我和你，加起来是几个人？”\r\n儿子：“是两个笨蛋！” \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n一个女孩和一个男孩吃汉堡。男孩说女孩：“我要告诉你一件事！”\r\n女孩说：“不要跟我说话在我吃的时候，当我吃我的汉堡，那么你就可以谈。”\r\n所以，当他们吃完了女孩问男孩：“现在你想说什么呢？”\r\n男孩说：“嗯，我是说，有一只蟑螂在你的汉堡里！” \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nA little girl pointing at old people doing morning exercises, said: \"Why are they allowed to play in the park all day?\"\r\nGrandmother: \"Because they are retirees.\"\r\nOne day, the father asked the little girl: What do you want to be when you grow up?\r\nLittle girl: A retiree!\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nFather is teaching his son arithmetic: \"One plus one is how much?\" \r\nSon: \"I don\'t know.\" \r\nFather: \"It\'s two, idiot! You get it?\"\r\nSon: \"I get it.\" \r\nFather: \"Now, me and you, put us together and how many people is that?\"\r\nSon: \"It\'s two idiots!\" \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nA girl and a boy are eating hamburgers. The boy says to the girl: \"I want to tell you something!\" \r\nThe girl says: \"Don\'t talk to me while I\'m eating, when I\'m done with my hamburger, then you can speak.\"\r\nSo, when they finished eating the girl asked the boy: \"Now what do you want to say?\"\r\nBoy says: \"Huh, I was saying, there\'s a cockroach in your hamburger.\"\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Our 100th Post! Plus some new beginner jokes', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1329-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-01-26 00:39:00', '2013-01-26 05:39:00', '', 1329, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/01/26/1329-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1336, 1, '2012-10-21 02:39:12', '2012-10-21 06:39:12', '[two_third]\r\nChinese Title: 我们家的跳绳比赛\r\n\r\nA single-paragraph essay about the results of a family jump rope competition. \r\n\r\nHaven\'t had a ton of extra time in the last few weeks - just went on a trip to Dalian, and still catching up from that. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n跳 - [pinyin]tiao4[/pinyin] - Jump\r\n绳 - [pinyin]sheng2[/pinyin] - Rope\r\n失误 - [pinyin]shi1 wu4[/pinyin] - Mistake\r\n砰砰 - [pinyin]peng1 peng1[/pinyin] - Onomat. Sound of heart beating\r\n弃权 - [pinyin]qi4 quan2[/pinyin] - To voluntarily not participate\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n今天早上我和爸爸比赛跳绳，爸爸先跳，妈妈记时数数，爸爸一分钟跳了128个，该我上场了，爸爸数数，妈妈记时，我这次没有失误，一分钟跳了145个，我的心砰砰乱跳，都快蹦出来了，妈妈弃权了，我成了全家中的第一名，，我好开心。 \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThis morning father and competed in jump rope, father went first, mother kept time and count, father jumped 128 times in a minute, and when I entered the playing field, father counted and mother took notes. In this round [literally: \'this time\', but sounds weird in English because there are no previous times] I made no mistakes, and in one minute I jumped 145 times, my heart pounded in my chest, as if it would bounce right out. Mother abstained from participating, so I became Number 1 in our family, I was very happy. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Our Family\'s Jump Rope Contest', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1277-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-10-21 02:39:12', '2012-10-21 06:39:12', '', 1277, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/10/21/1277-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1337, 1, '2012-02-12 20:12:10', '2012-02-13 01:12:10', '[two_third]\r\nI apologize for not posting a month or so, I\'ve been in the process of - ta da - moving back to China, so life\'s been exciting but busy. On the upside, looks like I\'ll have some interesting new posts from here. But today, in place of something interesting, we\'ve got a slightly insipid story for young children about a bird who appears to have no head. \r\n\r\n![\"Childrens](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/20120212-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Easy")
Not sure what the life lesson is in this story or if it\'s supposed to have one at all. Maybe \"don\'t gossip\"? Or \"don\'t make wild assumptions?\" Not sure. I\'d say the most interesting word in here is 天哪, which means \"My goodness!\" This is used with relative frequency in China, and it\'s a good interjection to use when you\'re shocked or unpleasantly surprised about something but don\'t want to swear or be offensive. For example, if you walked into a room that smelled badly, or if you were jostled by a few dozen people coming off the subway, or if you found out that something you want to buy is outrageously expensive. It doesn\'t always have negative connotations, though - this can be used neutrally as well, but I rarely hear it used in a super positive context. Because the word 天 \"Tian\" ends with an \"n\" and the word 哪 \"na\" starts with one, this usually comes out sounding like \"Tian ah!\" rather than \"Tian na\".\r\n\r\nAnother notable word here is 假如 [pinyin]jia1 ru2[/pinyin], which means \"if\". Thing is, in Chinese, there are quite a few ways to say \"if\". There\'s the most common, which is 如果，there\'s 要是，there\'s 假使，若是，and so on. At a loss for a good explanation myself, I found a site that does a great job of summing this up. In short:\r\n\r\n1) expressing a fact: 要是你水烧到摄氏一百度就会沸腾, if you heat the water to 100 degrees celcius [then] it will boil.\r\n2) talking about a future result: 假如你认真学外语就会进步- if you study foreign language hard, it will improve.\r\n3)an imagined situation: 假使我很有钱，我就带她去很多地方- If I were rich,I would take her to so many places.\r\n4)if something didn\'t happen: 如果你没迟到，我就不会那么生气 (if you weren\'t late, I wouldn\'t of been so mad.\r\n\r\n\"ruguo\" is more common than all of them. In a learning Chinese book you might only see \"ruguo\" and you would hear \"ruguo\" in daily speech. They are all correct to say, and you can use them interchangeably. However, i\'d like to note that 要是 can also be used negatively if you place 不 in the middle, i.e. 要是 means \"if\" 要不是 means \"If not..\" such as 要不是你，我就不会来- If it wasn\'t for you, I wouldn\'t come. Whereas \"ruguo\" and the others cannot be used in that way.
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n白鹭 - [pinyin]bai2 lu4[/pinyin] - Egret\r\n浅浅 - [pinyin]jian1 jian1[/pinyin] - Sound of running water\r\n池 - [pinyin]chi2[/pinyin] - Pond\r\n刺猬 - [pinyin]ci4 wei4[/pinyin] - Hedgehog\r\n脑袋 - [pinyin]nao3 dai4[/pinyin] - Head, skull, brains\r\n鼹鼠 - [pinyin]yan3 shu3[/pinyin] - Mole (animal)\r\n假如 - [pinyin]jia3 ru2[/pinyin] - If\r\n翅膀 - [pinyin]chi4 bang3[/pinyin] - Wing\r\n伸出 - [pinyin]shen1 chu1[/pinyin] - To stretch out\r\n梳理 - [pinyin]shu1 li3[/pinyin] - To comb out, untangle\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n一只白鹭在浅浅的池水中站着。\r\n\r\n一只小刺猬走过，他说: “天哪，这只白鹭怎么没有脑袋！”\r\n\r\n“真的！”一只小鼹鼠也叫了起来，“没有脑袋的鸟，我第一次看到!”\r\n\r\n“假如我没有了脑袋就不能活了！”小刺猬说。\r\n\r\n“是啊，可这只鸟还能站着不动，真了不起!”小鼹鼠说。\r\n\r\n这时，白鹭从她那翅膀底下，伸出了长脖子，长脖子上长着一颗好端端的脑袋。\r\n\r\n白鹭笑着说: “我是把脑袋钻进翅膀底下，梳理梳理羽毛，我怎么是没有脑袋的鸟呢?”\r\n\r\n小刺猬和小鼹鼠都笑了，他们说:\r\n\r\n“是我们没有用脑袋好好想一想，对不起，白鹭姐姐！”\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nAn egret stood in the middle of a flowing pond. \r\n\r\nA hedgehog walked up and said, \"Goodness gracious! Somehow, that egret has no head!\" \r\n\r\n\"Really!\" a little mole also cried out, \"This is the first time I\'ve seen a bird without a head!\" \r\n\r\n\"If I didn\'t have a head, I wouldn\'t be able to live!\" the little hedgehog said. \r\n\r\n\"Yes, but this bird can still stand there not moving, how very impressive!\" \r\n\r\nAt this time, from beneath her wing the egret stretched out a long neck, and on top of that long neck grew a very short head. \r\n\r\nSmiling, the egret said, \"I had my head tucked beneath my wing to comb out my feathers, how could I be a bird with no head?\" \r\n\r\nThe little hedgehog and the little mole smiled, and they said: \r\n\r\n\"It was us that weren\'t using our heads to think, sorry Sister Egret!\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Little Bird with No Head', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1007-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-02-12 20:12:10', '2012-02-13 01:12:10', '', 1007, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/02/12/1007-revision-9/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1339, 1, '2013-03-03 08:40:35', '2013-03-03 13:40:35', 'There was this chick in my fourth grade class that had some kind of selective brain damage: every time she lost a pencil or some other tifle, which she did daily, she accused everyone in the area of theft. \"Who took my eraser?\" she\'d bleat without looking for it, and no matter how many times the thing turned up untouched in her bag, or exactly wherever she left it, she never learned. Like, she couldn\'t imagine a universe in which no one coveted her Lisa Frank stickers. I wonder whatever happened to that girl. \r\n\r\nThis idiom, as you may have guessed, describes just such a series of behaviors. 丢了斧子,怀疑邻居, indeed. \r\n\r\nAt the end of the first paragraph, the protagonist says, \"“我早就看出那个家伙不是个好东西。” This translates to \"I always thought that guy was no good.\" But why use the term \"东西\", or \"thing\", instead of \"person\"? In Chinese, when you refer to a person as 东西, or \"thing\", this is a form of insult. In English, an equivalent might be the phrase \"you worthless thing!\" So we can understand from the use of the word 东西 in this sentence that the protagonist really doesn\'t like the person he\'s speaking about. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 有人丢失了一把斧子，怎么找也没有找到。后来他认为是邻居的儿子偷去了，他注意到邻居的孩子的言行，神情怎么看都象是一个小偷。于是他断定是那个孩子偷去了，心里还对说，“我早就看出那个家伙不是个好东西。”\r\n\r\n2) 第二天，他上山砍柴时在一棵树边上发现了丢失的斧子。现在他才想起来，原来是前天忘记在这里了。他后悔随便的怀疑邻居的孩子。回家后，再看那个孩子的言行和神情，根本不象是偷东西的人。于是他又对说，“我早就想过，他不是那种偷东西的人。” \r\n\r\n3) 后来人们就用“失斧疑邻”形容主观臆造、胡乱猜疑。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) There once was a man who lost his axe, and though he searched all over for it he still couldn\'t find it. After a while he thought it must have been that the neighbor\'s son stole it, so he began to take note of the child\'s expressions, words and actions and thought they were all those of a thief. Thus, he concluded that it was the neighbor\'s kid that stole it, and in his heart he said, \"I always thought that guy was no good.\" \r\n\r\n2) On the second day, when he went up the mountain to chop firewood and at the side of a tree he found his lost axe. Now he finally remembered that he\'d actually forgotten it there two days before. He regretted casually suspecting his neighbor\'s child. After he returned home, he took another look at the child\'s behavior, words and actions, and he didn\'t seem at all like a person who would steal anything. So he said, \"I\'ve always thought that [that kid] is not the kind of person who would steal\". \r\n\r\n3) After this, people have used the phrase \"Lose the Axe and Suspect the Neighbor\" to describe inventing subjective feelings and careless suspicions. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 丢了斧子,怀疑邻居 - Lose the Axe, Suspect the Neighbor', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'story-behind-the-idiom-lose-the-axe-suspect-the-neighbor', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:00:07', '2016-11-04 11:00:07', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1339', 0, 'post', '', 19),
(2062, 1, '2016-11-04 07:00:07', '2016-11-04 11:00:07', 'There was this chick in my fourth grade class that had some kind of selective brain damage: every time she lost a pencil or some other tifle, which she did daily, she accused everyone in the area of theft. \"Who took my eraser?\" she\'d bleat without looking for it, and no matter how many times the thing turned up untouched in her bag, or exactly wherever she left it, she never learned. Like, she couldn\'t imagine a universe in which no one coveted her Lisa Frank stickers. I wonder whatever happened to that girl. \r\n\r\nThis idiom, as you may have guessed, describes just such a series of behaviors. 丢了斧子,怀疑邻居, indeed. \r\n\r\nAt the end of the first paragraph, the protagonist says, \"“我早就看出那个家伙不是个好东西。” This translates to \"I always thought that guy was no good.\" But why use the term \"东西\", or \"thing\", instead of \"person\"? In Chinese, when you refer to a person as 东西, or \"thing\", this is a form of insult. In English, an equivalent might be the phrase \"you worthless thing!\" So we can understand from the use of the word 东西 in this sentence that the protagonist really doesn\'t like the person he\'s speaking about. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 有人丢失了一把斧子，怎么找也没有找到。后来他认为是邻居的儿子偷去了，他注意到邻居的孩子的言行，神情怎么看都象是一个小偷。于是他断定是那个孩子偷去了，心里还对说，“我早就看出那个家伙不是个好东西。”\r\n\r\n2) 第二天，他上山砍柴时在一棵树边上发现了丢失的斧子。现在他才想起来，原来是前天忘记在这里了。他后悔随便的怀疑邻居的孩子。回家后，再看那个孩子的言行和神情，根本不象是偷东西的人。于是他又对说，“我早就想过，他不是那种偷东西的人。” \r\n\r\n3) 后来人们就用“失斧疑邻”形容主观臆造、胡乱猜疑。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) There once was a man who lost his axe, and though he searched all over for it he still couldn\'t find it. After a while he thought it must have been that the neighbor\'s son stole it, so he began to take note of the child\'s expressions, words and actions and thought they were all those of a thief. Thus, he concluded that it was the neighbor\'s kid that stole it, and in his heart he said, \"I always thought that guy was no good.\" \r\n\r\n2) On the second day, when he went up the mountain to chop firewood and at the side of a tree he found his lost axe. Now he finally remembered that he\'d actually forgotten it there two days before. He regretted casually suspecting his neighbor\'s child. After he returned home, he took another look at the child\'s behavior, words and actions, and he didn\'t seem at all like a person who would steal anything. So he said, \"I\'ve always thought that [that kid] is not the kind of person who would steal\". \r\n\r\n3) After this, people have used the phrase \"Lose the Axe and Suspect the Neighbor\" to describe inventing subjective feelings and careless suspicions. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 丢了斧子,怀疑邻居 - Lose the Axe, Suspect the Neighbor', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1339-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:00:07', '2016-11-04 11:00:07', '', 1339, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1339-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1340, 1, '2013-02-18 12:02:18', '2013-02-18 17:02:18', '[two_third]\nHey hey! This site has made it through two years online and 100 posts! That makes an average of 50 posts a year, which averages out to a little less than one a week. Not terribly shabby, huh? In any case, on with the Chinese. \n\nI\'ve been having a bit of trouble rounding up truly beginner texts, and whenever I try I end up with an intermediate post. But this one, though not earth-shattering, should certainly do. We\'ve got three short jokes here of the silly variety, appropriate for young kids. \n\nThough we could probably skip this info, you might want to know that 晨练 - meaning \"morning exercise\" - is a much more formalized concept in China than in west. Here, every morning in almost any weather, crowds of old people gather together in parks around 6-7a.m. to do group taiqi, stretch and take brisk walks. This is so prevalent that you can show up at any park or open community space in China early in the morning and see groups of mostly old people doing their exercises. So, while reading the first joke, you should imagine a scene of 40 or so retirees doing taiqi forms in the park. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n晨练 - [pinyin]chen2 lian4[/pinyin] - Morning exercise\n退休 - [pinyin]tui4 xiu1[/pinyin] - Retire\n笨蛋 - [pinyin]ben4 dan4[/pinyin] - Idiot\n汉堡 - [pinyin]han4 bao3[/pinyin] - Hamburger\n告诉 - [pinyin]gao4 su5[/pinyin] - To tell\n谈 - [pinyin]tan2[/pinyin] - Speak, discuss\n蟑螂 - [pinyin]zhang1 lang2[/pinyin] - Cockroach\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n小姑娘指着晨练的老人问： 为什么他们能天天到公园来玩？\n奶奶：因为他们是退休人员。\n一天，爸爸问女儿：你长大当什么？\n小姑娘：退休人员。\n\n
\n\n父亲教儿子学算术：“一加一是多少？”\n儿子：“不知道。”\n父亲：“是两个，笨蛋！知道了吗？”\n儿子：“知道了。”\n父亲：“那么，我和你，加起来是几个人？”\n儿子：“是两个笨蛋！” \n\n
\n\n一个女孩和一个男孩吃汉堡。男孩说女孩：“我要告诉你一件事！”\n女孩说：“不要跟我说话在我吃的时候，当我吃我的汉堡，那么你就可以谈。”\n所以，当他们吃完了女孩问男孩：“现在你想说什么呢？”\n男孩说：“嗯，我是说，有一只蟑螂在你的汉堡里！” \n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nA little girl pointing at old people doing morning exercises, said: \"Why are they allowed to play in the park all day?\"\nGrandmother: \"Because they are retirees.\"\nOne day, the father asked the little girl: What do you want to be when you grow up?\nLittle girl: A retiree!\n\n
\n\nFather is teaching his son arithmetic: \"One plus one is how much?\" \nSon: \"I don\'t know.\" \nFather: \"It\'s two, idiot! You get it?\"\nSon: \"I get it.\" \nFather: \"Now, me and you, put us together and how many people is that?\"\nSon: \"Two idiots!\" \n\n
\n\nA girl and a boy are eating hamburgers. The boy says to the girl: \"I want to tell you something!\" \nThe girl says: \"Don\'t talk to me while I\'m eating, when I\'m done with my hamburger, then you can speak.\"\nSo, when they finished eating the girl asked the boy: \"Now what do you want to say?\"\nBoy says: \"Huh, I was saying, there\'s a cockroach in your hamburger.\"\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1339-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-02-18 12:02:18', '2013-02-18 17:02:18', '', 1339, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/02/18/1339-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1348, 1, '2013-05-06 04:37:53', '2013-05-06 08:37:53', '[two_third]\r\nWell well well, lookie here. A guest post! Today we\'ll be reading Rebecca Chua\'s (Chinese name: 蔡幸彤) translation of an essay from her textbook. The post is about the rewards of honesty. I remember my own textbook being full of these types of essays, so thank you, Rebecca, for the traditional read. \r\n\r\n![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130506-inline.jpg\" "\\"20130506-inline\\"")
Rebecca has this to say about the post: This story talks about a school-going child\'s problems of getting his parents to sign his papers. It also talks about being honest, and that life\'s exam papers matter the most. This essay was from my tutoring centre\'s teaching materials. This was done with help. Thank you for those who helped me!\r\n\r\n(And the same in Chinese:) 这个故事是讲述华文考试卷要签名所遇到的困难。这个故事教我们要诚实，也教我们，虽然考卷的真正分数低，但人生的考卷上有高分才是最重要的。\r\n\r\nOne of the interesting things about this post is the punctuation. In Chinese, they use a six-dot ellipses …… where we only use... three. (u c wat i did thar?). We also learn a little culture here: it\'s worth noting that in most Chinese highschools, parents actually have to sign your test results to prove you showed it to them. We also see that Rebecca\'s book spells \"A+\" as \"A*\".\r\n\r\nI\'m super loving this phrase - 从天堂降落到地狱 - though it might need a little breakdown:\r\n\r\n从 - From\r\n天堂 - Heaven\r\n降落 - descend\r\n到 - to\r\n地狱 - Hell\r\n\r\nThis phrase means to \"have a sinking heart\" or to \"fall from joy to misery\".\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n发下来 - [pinyin]fa1 xia4 lai5[/pinyin] - To pass out (papers), hand back (homework)\r\n考卷 - [pinyin]kao3 juan4[/pinyin] - Exam paper\r\n沉重 - [pinyin]chen2 zhong4[/pinyin] - Hard, serious\r\n羡慕 - [pinyin]xian4 mu4[/pinyin] - To envy\r\n竟然 - [pinyin]jing4 ran2[/pinyin] - Unexpectedly\r\n松了一口气 - [pinyin]song1 le yi1 kou3 qi4[/pinyin] - Let out a sigh (usually of relief) \r\n顿 - [pinyin]dun4[/pinyin] - Classifier for a period of time when a beating, scolding or critique takes place\r\n到底 - [pinyin]dao4 di3[/pinyin] - When all is said and done\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n我背着书包，手里拿着刚刚发下来的考卷，一边拖着沉重的脚步向家走着，一边紧张的思考怎样让爸爸在考卷上签名……前两天的考卷，今天老师发下来了。我拿了一个A*，考到了97分！同学们都很羡慕我，我也得到老师的肯定。在老师要我们做改正的时候，我就从天堂降落到地狱。天啊！我竟然忘了一整页试题，整整要被扣十分！但是老师却没发现，我还真不知该不该对她说。这时，我的头脑出现了两个“我”，一个说：“算了，不要告诉老师，我已经得了老师的肯定，同学们又那么羡慕我，如果我告诉老师，不就等于丢我的脸，还失去爸爸要给我的礼物。”另一个说：“不行，要做个诚实的人，一定要告诉老师。”于是，我对老师说：“我漏掉了这些题，应该是87 分！”老师帮我改分数的那一刻，我立刻松了一口气。\r\n\r\n在回家的路上，我真希望我没有对老师说这番话。现在，我不仅要丢掉爸爸的礼物，还得被他骂一顿。晚上，我把考卷交给爸爸，爸爸说：“你为什么那么不小心？为什么一整页的题目没做？为什么？” 如在平时，当他问我这些问题时，我会叫他一个“十万个为什么”的人。可现在，我不敢，应为他生气得好像要打我似的。突然，他看见97分改成87分，很奇怪地问我：\"到底怎么一回事？“我把情况如实地告诉了他。我低着头，准备继续挨训。\r\n\r\n爸爸沉默了一会儿，突然惊喜地看着我：“不，宝贝儿，虽然你考卷上的分数不尽人意，但是在人生考卷上你却得了高分。爸爸为你骄傲！你做得对......”说完他在考卷上签了名。\r\n\r\n第二天早上，我背起书包，手里拿着由爸爸签名的考卷，迈着轻快的脚步，迎着初升的朝阳，信心十足地向学校走去……\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nCarrying a heavy load on my back, holding the exam papers that were just handed back to us, I wondered how I could make my father sign this paper......\r\n\r\nThe exam, which was held just two days before, was handed back to us. I got an A+, a high score of 97 points! All the students in my class were envious of me, and I got the praise of my teacher. But when we were asked to do corrections, I found myself dropping all the way from heaven to hell. I actually forgot to do a whole page of questions, and had to be deducted of ten marks! But my teacher hadn\'t discovered yet, and I wasn\'t sure if I had to say it to her. I was in two minds. One said, \"Don\'t tell her, otherwise you would lose face and lose your father\'s present!\" The other said, \"No, you should be honest, just tell her!\" So, I said, \"I missed these questions, the actual points should be 87!\" When she helped me change my score, I heaved a sigh of relief.\r\n\r\nWhen I was going home, I wished I had not said all that. Now, not only was I going to lose my father\'s present, but I was also going to be scolded by him. At night, when I passed my paper to him, he said,\"Why were you so careless? Why did you miss out a whole page of questions?\" Usually, when he asks me all these questions, I call him a \"dad of ten-thousand questions\". But now, I daren\'t, because he seems so angry that he might hit me. Suddenly, when he saw that my 97 points became 87 points, he asked me,\"What happened?\" I told him the truth, and lowered my head, ready to continue being scolded.\r\n\r\nMy father silenced for a while. Then he suddenly said, \"No, darling, even though you results aren\'t satisfactory, in life\'s exam, you have gotten a high score. I am proud of you! You have done it right......\" after saying that he signed his name.\r\n\r\nThe next morning, carrying my schoolbag, with light steps, I was feeling happy. Welcoming the rising sun, I walked towards my school with confidence......\r\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Guest Post by Rebecca Chua: The difference between life\'s exam and exam papers', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', 'guest-post-by-rebecca-chua-the-difference-between-lifes-exam-and-exam-papers', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:01:08', '2016-10-31 07:01:08', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1348', 0, 'post', '', 8),
(1342, 1, '2013-03-03 08:37:19', '2013-03-03 13:37:19', '', 'Read Chinese: Read Mandarin Chinese Lessons Exercises ', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130303-inline', '', '', '2013-03-03 08:37:19', '2013-03-03 13:37:19', '', 1339, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/20130303-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1343, 1, '2013-03-03 08:37:36', '2013-03-03 13:37:36', '', 'Read Chinese: Read Mandarin Chinese Lessons Exercises ', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130303', '', '', '2013-03-03 08:37:36', '2013-03-03 13:37:36', '', 1339, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/20130303.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1344, 1, '2013-03-03 08:40:27', '2013-03-03 13:40:27', 'http://www.tom61.com/youxiuzuowen/xiaoxueernianjizuowen/2013-02-03/1359852541245275.html\n[two_third]\nBeen a little while since I posted, I\'ve been a bit wrapped up in my new iPad app, Hanzi Reader, which is, may I say, amazing for reading practice. It\'s very much like this site, except you can choose any Chinese text you like, copy-paste it into the reader, the reader analyses the text. After the analysis is complete, pushing any word in the text pops up an English and pinyin translation - truly a wonderful reading tool. \n\n![\"Read](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/20130303-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Read")
The \"Story Behind the Idiom\" posts are my favorite to put up, they\'re not only helpful in remember idioms, they\'re usually pretty interesting to read. This one is a lower intermediate text. \n\nAt the end of the first paragraph, the protagonist says, \"“我早就看出那个家伙不是个好东西。” This translates to \"I always thought that guys was no good.\" But why use the term \"东西\", or \"thing\", instead of \"person\"? In Chinese, when you refer to a person as 东西, or \"thing\", this is a form of insult. In English, an equivalent might be the phrase \"you worthless thing!\" So we can understand from the use of the word 东西 in this sentence that the protagonist really doesn\'t like the person he\'s speaking about. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n斧子 - [pinyin]fu3 zi5[/pinyin] - Axe\n邻居 - [pinyin]lin2 ju1[/pinyin] - Neighbor\n言行 - [pinyin]yan2 xing2[/pinyin] - Words and Actions\n神情 - [pinyin]shen2 qing2[/pinyin] - Look, expression\n断定 - [pinyin]duan4 ding4[/pinyin] - To conclude\n家伙 - [pinyin]jia1 huo5[/pinyin] - Guy, chap\n砍柴 - [pinyin]kan3 chai2[/pinyin] - Chop firewood\n怀疑 - [pinyin]huan2 yi2[/pinyin] - To doubt, to suspect\n根本 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - At all, in any way\n胡乱 - [pinyin]hu2 luan4[/pinyin] - Careless, reckless\n猜疑 - [pinyin]cai1 yi2[/pinyin] - Suspicious\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n有人丢失了一把斧子，怎么找也没有找到。后来他认为是邻居的儿子偷去了，他注意到邻居的孩子的言行，神情怎么看都象是一个小偷。于是他断定是那个孩子偷去了，心里还对说，“我早就看出那个家伙不是个好东西。”\n\n第二天，他上山砍柴时在一棵树边上发现了丢失的斧子。现在他才想起来，原来是前天忘记在这里了。他后悔随便的怀疑邻居的孩子。回家后，再看那个孩子的言行和神情，根本不象是偷东西的人。于是他又对说，“我早就想过，他不是那种偷东西的人。” \n\n后来人们就用“失斧疑邻”形容主观臆造、胡乱猜疑。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThere once was a man who lost his axe, and though he searched all over for it he still couldn\'t find it. After a while he thought it must have been that the neighbor\'s son stole it, so he began to take note of the child\'s expressions, words and actions and thought they were all those of a thief. Thus, he concluded that it was the neighbor\'s kid that stole it, and in his heart he said, \"I always thought that guy was no good.\" \n\nOn the second day, when he went up the mountain to chop firewood and at the side of a tree he found his lost axe. Now he finally remembered that he\'d actually forgotten it there two days before. He regretted casually suspecting his neighbor\'s child. After he returned home, he took another look at the child\'s behavior, words and actions, and he didn\'t seem at all like a person who would steal anything. So he said, \"I\'ve always thought that [that kid] is not the kind of person who would steal\". \n\nAfter this, people have used the phrase \"Lose the Axe and Suspect the Neighbor\" to describe inventing subjective feelings and careless suspicions. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Story Behind the Idiom: Lose the Axe, Suspect the Neighbor', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1339-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-03-03 08:40:27', '2013-03-03 13:40:27', '', 1339, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/03/03/1339-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1345, 1, '2016-11-04 06:59:22', '2016-11-04 10:59:22', 'There was this chick in my fourth grade class that had some kind of selective brain damage: every time she lost a pencil or some other tifle, which she did daily, she accused everyone in the area of theft. \"Who took my eraser?\" she\'d bleat without looking for it, and no matter how many times the thing turned up untouched in her bag, or exactly wherever she left it, she never learned. Like, she couldn\'t imagine a universe in which no one coveted her Lisa Frank stickers. I wonder whatever happened to that girl. \n\nThis idiom, as you may have guessed, describes just such a series of behaviors. 丢了斧子,怀疑邻居, indeed. \n\nAt the end of the first paragraph, the protagonist says, \"“我早就看出那个家伙不是个好东西。” This translates to \"I always thought that guy was no good.\" But why use the term \"东西\", or \"thing\", instead of \"person\"? In Chinese, when you refer to a person as 东西, or \"thing\", this is a form of insult. In English, an equivalent might be the phrase \"you worthless thing!\" So we can understand from the use of the word 东西 in this sentence that the protagonist really doesn\'t like the person he\'s speaking about. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n1) 有人丢失了一把斧子，怎么找也没有找到。后来他认为是邻居的儿子偷去了，他注意到邻居的孩子的言行，神情怎么看都象是一个小偷。于是他断定是那个孩子偷去了，心里还对说，“我早就看出那个家伙不是个好东西。”\n\n2) 第二天，他上山砍柴时在一棵树边上发现了丢失的斧子。现在他才想起来，原来是前天忘记在这里了。他后悔随便的怀疑邻居的孩子。回家后，再看那个孩子的言行和神情，根本不象是偷东西的人。于是他又对说，“我早就想过，他不是那种偷东西的人。” \n\n3) 后来人们就用“失斧疑邻”形容主观臆造、胡乱猜疑。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) There once was a man who lost his axe, and though he searched all over for it he still couldn\'t find it. After a while he thought it must have been that the neighbor\'s son stole it, so he began to take note of the child\'s expressions, words and actions and thought they were all those of a thief. Thus, he concluded that it was the neighbor\'s kid that stole it, and in his heart he said, \"I always thought that guy was no good.\" \n\n2) On the second day, when he went up the mountain to chop firewood and at the side of a tree he found his lost axe. Now he finally remembered that he\'d actually forgotten it there two days before. He regretted casually suspecting his neighbor\'s child. After he returned home, he took another look at the child\'s behavior, words and actions, and he didn\'t seem at all like a person who would steal anything. So he said, \"I\'ve always thought that [that kid] is not the kind of person who would steal\". \n\n3) After this, people have used the phrase \"Lose the Axe and Suspect the Neighbor\" to describe inventing subjective feelings and careless suspicions. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 丢了斧子,怀疑邻居 - Lose the Axe, Suspect the Neighbor', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1339-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:59:22', '2016-11-04 10:59:22', '', 1339, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/03/03/1339-autosave/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2061, 1, '2016-11-04 06:59:53', '2016-11-04 10:59:53', '', 'Read Simplified Chinese: Read Chinese Characters', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'chinese-reading-lose-the-axe-suspect-the-neighbor', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:00:00', '2016-11-04 11:00:00', '', 1339, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/chinese-reading-lose-the-axe-suspect-the-neighbor.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1347, 1, '2013-03-03 08:43:23', '2013-03-03 13:43:23', '[two_third]\r\nBeen a little while since I posted, I\'ve been a bit wrapped up in my new iPad app, Hanzi Reader, which is, may I say, amazing for reading practice. It\'s very much like this site, except you can choose any Chinese text you like, copy-paste it into the reader, the reader analyses the text. After the analysis is complete, pushing any word in the text pops up an English and pinyin translation - truly a wonderful reading tool. \r\n\r\nThe \"Story Behind the Idiom\" posts are my favorite to put up, they\'re not only helpful in remember idioms, they\'re usually pretty interesting to read. This one is a lower intermediate text. \r\n\r\nAt the end of the first paragraph, the protagonist says, \"“我早就看出那个家伙不是个好东西。” This translates to \"I always thought that guys was no good.\" But why use the term \"东西\", or \"thing\", instead of \"person\"? In Chinese, when you refer to a person as 东西, or \"thing\", this is a form of insult. In English, an equivalent might be the phrase \"you worthless thing!\" So we can understand from the use of the word 东西 in this sentence that the protagonist really doesn\'t like the person he\'s speaking about. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n斧子 - [pinyin]fu3 zi5[/pinyin] - Axe\r\n邻居 - [pinyin]lin2 ju1[/pinyin] - Neighbor\r\n言行 - [pinyin]yan2 xing2[/pinyin] - Words and Actions\r\n神情 - [pinyin]shen2 qing2[/pinyin] - Look, expression\r\n断定 - [pinyin]duan4 ding4[/pinyin] - To conclude\r\n家伙 - [pinyin]jia1 huo5[/pinyin] - Guy, chap\r\n砍柴 - [pinyin]kan3 chai2[/pinyin] - Chop firewood\r\n怀疑 - [pinyin]huan2 yi2[/pinyin] - To doubt, to suspect\r\n根本 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - At all, in any way\r\n胡乱 - [pinyin]hu2 luan4[/pinyin] - Careless, reckless\r\n猜疑 - [pinyin]cai1 yi2[/pinyin] - Suspicious\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n有人丢失了一把斧子，怎么找也没有找到。后来他认为是邻居的儿子偷去了，他注意到邻居的孩子的言行，神情怎么看都象是一个小偷。于是他断定是那个孩子偷去了，心里还对说，“我早就看出那个家伙不是个好东西。”\r\n\r\n第二天，他上山砍柴时在一棵树边上发现了丢失的斧子。现在他才想起来，原来是前天忘记在这里了。他后悔随便的怀疑邻居的孩子。回家后，再看那个孩子的言行和神情，根本不象是偷东西的人。于是他又对说，“我早就想过，他不是那种偷东西的人。” \r\n\r\n后来人们就用“失斧疑邻”形容主观臆造、胡乱猜疑。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThere once was a man who lost his axe, and though he searched all over for it he still couldn\'t find it. After a while he thought it must have been that the neighbor\'s son stole it, so he began to take note of the child\'s expressions, words and actions and thought they were all those of a thief. Thus, he concluded that it was the neighbor\'s kid that stole it, and in his heart he said, \"I always thought that guy was no good.\" \r\n\r\nOn the second day, when he went up the mountain to chop firewood and at the side of a tree he found his lost axe. Now he finally remembered that he\'d actually forgotten it there two days before. He regretted casually suspecting his neighbor\'s child. After he returned home, he took another look at the child\'s behavior, words and actions, and he didn\'t seem at all like a person who would steal anything. So he said, \"I\'ve always thought that [that kid] is not the kind of person who would steal\". \r\n\r\nAfter this, people have used the phrase \"Lose the Axe and Suspect the Neighbor\" to describe inventing subjective feelings and careless suspicions. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Story Behind the Idiom: Lose the Axe, Suspect the Neighbor', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1339-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-03-03 08:43:23', '2013-03-03 13:43:23', '', 1339, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/03/03/1339-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1346, 1, '2013-03-03 08:40:35', '2013-03-03 13:40:35', 'http://www.tom61.com/youxiuzuowen/xiaoxueernianjizuowen/2013-02-03/1359852541245275.html\r\n[two_third]\r\nBeen a little while since I posted, I\'ve been a bit wrapped up in my new iPad app, Hanzi Reader, which is, may I say, amazing for reading practice. It\'s very much like this site, except you can choose any Chinese text you like, copy-paste it into the reader, the reader analyses the text. After the analysis is complete, pushing any word in the text pops up an English and pinyin translation - truly a wonderful reading tool. \r\n\r\nThe \"Story Behind the Idiom\" posts are my favorite to put up, they\'re not only helpful in remember idioms, they\'re usually pretty interesting to read. This one is a lower intermediate text. \r\n\r\nAt the end of the first paragraph, the protagonist says, \"“我早就看出那个家伙不是个好东西。” This translates to \"I always thought that guys was no good.\" But why use the term \"东西\", or \"thing\", instead of \"person\"? In Chinese, when you refer to a person as 东西, or \"thing\", this is a form of insult. In English, an equivalent might be the phrase \"you worthless thing!\" So we can understand from the use of the word 东西 in this sentence that the protagonist really doesn\'t like the person he\'s speaking about. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n斧子 - [pinyin]fu3 zi5[/pinyin] - Axe\r\n邻居 - [pinyin]lin2 ju1[/pinyin] - Neighbor\r\n言行 - [pinyin]yan2 xing2[/pinyin] - Words and Actions\r\n神情 - [pinyin]shen2 qing2[/pinyin] - Look, expression\r\n断定 - [pinyin]duan4 ding4[/pinyin] - To conclude\r\n家伙 - [pinyin]jia1 huo5[/pinyin] - Guy, chap\r\n砍柴 - [pinyin]kan3 chai2[/pinyin] - Chop firewood\r\n怀疑 - [pinyin]huan2 yi2[/pinyin] - To doubt, to suspect\r\n根本 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - At all, in any way\r\n胡乱 - [pinyin]hu2 luan4[/pinyin] - Careless, reckless\r\n猜疑 - [pinyin]cai1 yi2[/pinyin] - Suspicious\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n有人丢失了一把斧子，怎么找也没有找到。后来他认为是邻居的儿子偷去了，他注意到邻居的孩子的言行，神情怎么看都象是一个小偷。于是他断定是那个孩子偷去了，心里还对说，“我早就看出那个家伙不是个好东西。”\r\n\r\n第二天，他上山砍柴时在一棵树边上发现了丢失的斧子。现在他才想起来，原来是前天忘记在这里了。他后悔随便的怀疑邻居的孩子。回家后，再看那个孩子的言行和神情，根本不象是偷东西的人。于是他又对说，“我早就想过，他不是那种偷东西的人。” \r\n\r\n后来人们就用“失斧疑邻”形容主观臆造、胡乱猜疑。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThere once was a man who lost his axe, and though he searched all over for it he still couldn\'t find it. After a while he thought it must have been that the neighbor\'s son stole it, so he began to take note of the child\'s expressions, words and actions and thought they were all those of a thief. Thus, he concluded that it was the neighbor\'s kid that stole it, and in his heart he said, \"I always thought that guy was no good.\" \r\n\r\nOn the second day, when he went up the mountain to chop firewood and at the side of a tree he found his lost axe. Now he finally remembered that he\'d actually forgotten it there two days before. He regretted casually suspecting his neighbor\'s child. After he returned home, he took another look at the child\'s behavior, words and actions, and he didn\'t seem at all like a person who would steal anything. So he said, \"I\'ve always thought that [that kid] is not the kind of person who would steal\". \r\n\r\nAfter this, people have used the phrase \"Lose the Axe and Suspect the Neighbor\" to describe inventing subjective feelings and careless suspicions. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Story Behind the Idiom: Lose the Axe, Suspect the Neighbor', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1339-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-03-03 08:40:35', '2013-03-03 13:40:35', '', 1339, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/03/03/1339-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1349, 1, '2013-05-02 04:23:29', '2013-05-02 08:23:29', '[two_third]\nWell well well, lookie here. A guest post! Today we\'ll be reading Rebecca Chua\'s (Chinese name: 蔡幸彤) translation of an essay from her textbook. The post is about the rewards of honesty. I remember my own textbook being full of these types of essays, so thank you, Rebecca, for the traditional read.\n\nRebecca has this to say about the post: This story talks about a school-going child\'s problems of getting his parents to sign his papers. It also talks about being honest, and that life\'s exam papers matter the most. This essay was from my tutoring centre\'s teaching materials. This was done with help. Thank you for those who helped me!\n\n(And the same in Chinese:) 这个故事是讲述华文考试卷要签名所遇到的困难。这个故事教我们要诚实，也教我们，虽然考卷的真正分数低，但人生的考卷上有高分才是最重要的。\n\nOne of the interesting things about this post is the punctuation. In Chinese, they use a six-dot ellipses …… where we only use... three. (u c wat i did thar?)\n\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n斧子 - [pinyin]fu3 zi5[/pinyin] - Axe\n邻居 - [pinyin]lin2 ju1[/pinyin] - Neighbor\n言行 - [pinyin]yan2 xing2[/pinyin] - Words and Actions\n神情 - [pinyin]shen2 qing2[/pinyin] - Look, expression\n断定 - [pinyin]duan4 ding4[/pinyin] - To conclude\n家伙 - [pinyin]jia1 huo5[/pinyin] - Guy, chap\n砍柴 - [pinyin]kan3 chai2[/pinyin] - Chop firewood\n怀疑 - [pinyin]huan2 yi2[/pinyin] - To doubt, to suspect\n根本 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - At all, in any way\n胡乱 - [pinyin]hu2 luan4[/pinyin] - Careless, reckless\n猜疑 - [pinyin]cai1 yi2[/pinyin] - Suspicious\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n我背着书包，手里拿着刚刚发下来的考卷，一边拖着沉重的脚步向家走着，一边紧张的思考怎样让爸爸在考卷上签名……\n\n前两天的考卷，今天老师发下来了。我拿了一个A*，考到了97分！同学们都很羡慕我，我也得到老师的肯定。在老师要我们做改正的时候，我就从天堂降落到地狱。天啊！我竟然忘了一整页试题，整整要被扣十分！但是老师却没发现，我还真不知该不该对她说。这时，我的头脑出现了两个“我”，一个说：“算了，不要告诉老师，我已经得了老师的肯定，同学们又那么羡慕我，如果我告诉老师，不就等于丢我的脸，还失去爸爸要給我的礼物。”另一个说：“不行，要做个诚实的人，一定要告诉老师。”于是，我对老师说：“我漏掉了这些题，应该是87 分！”老师帮我改分数的那一刻，我立刻松了一口气。\n\n在回家的路上，我真希望我没有对老师说这番话。现在，我不仅要丢掉爸爸的礼物，还得被他骂一顿。晚上，我把考卷交给爸爸，爸爸说：“你为什么那么不小心？为什么一整页的题目没做？为什么？”如在平时，当他问我这些问题时，我会叫他一个“十万个为什么”的人。可现在，我不敢，应为他生气得好像要打我似的。突然，他看见97分改成87分，很奇怪地问我：\"到底怎么一回事？“我把情况如实地告诉了他。我低着头，准备继续挨训。\n\n爸爸沉默了一会儿，突然惊喜地看着我：“不，宝贝儿，虽然你考卷上的分数不尽人意，但是在人生考卷上你却得了高分。爸爸为你骄傲！你做得对......”说完他在考卷上签了名。\n\n第二天早上，我背起书包，手里拿着由爸爸签名的考卷，迈着轻快的脚步，迎着初升的朝阳，信心十足地向学校走去……\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nCarrying a heavy load on my back, holding the exam papers that were just handed back to us, I wondered how I could make my father sign this paper......\n\nThe exam, which was held just two days before, was handed back to us. I got an A+, a high score of 97 points! All the students in my class were envious of me, and I got the praise of my teacher. But when we were asked to do corrections, I found myself dropping all the way from heaven to hell. I actually forgot to do a whole page of questions, and had to be deducted of ten marks! But my teacher hadn\'t discovered yet, and I wasn\'t sure if I had to say it to her. I was in two minds. One said,\"Don\'t tell her, otherwise you would lose face and lose your father\'s present!\" The other said, \"No, you should be honest, just tell her!\" So, I said, \"I missed these questions, the actual points should be 87!\" When she helped me change my score, I heaved a sigh of relief.\n\nWhen I was going home, I wished I had not said all that. Now, not only was I going to lose my father\'s present, but I was also going to be scolded by him. At night, when I passed my paper to him, he said,\"Why were you so careless? Why did you miss out a whole page of questions?\" Usually, when he asks me all these questions, I call him a \"super inquisitive dad\". But now, I daren\'t, because he seems so angry that he might hit me. Suddenly, when he saw that my 97 points became 87 points, he asked me,\"What happened?\" I told him the truth, and lowered my head, ready to continue being scolded.\n\nMy father silenced for a while. Then he suddenly said, \"No, darling, even though you results aren\'t satisfactory, in life\'s exam, you have gotten a high score. I am proud of you! You have done it right......\" after saying that he signed his name.\n\nThe next morning, carrying my schoolbag, with light steps, I was feeling happy. Welcoming the rising sun, I walked towards my school with confidence......\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Guest Post by Rebecca Chua: The difference between life\'s exam and exam papers', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1348-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-02 04:23:29', '2013-05-02 08:23:29', '', 1348, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/02/1348-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1350, 1, '2013-05-02 04:29:25', '2013-05-02 08:29:25', '[two_third]\nWell well well, lookie here. A guest post! Today we\'ll be reading Rebecca Chua\'s (Chinese name: 蔡幸彤) translation of an essay from her textbook. The post is about the rewards of honesty. I remember my own textbook being full of these types of essays, so thank you, Rebecca, for the traditional read. \n\nRebecca has this to say about the post: This story talks about a school-going child\'s problems of getting his parents to sign his papers. It also talks about being honest, and that life\'s exam papers matter the most. This essay was from my tutoring centre\'s teaching materials. This was done with help. Thank you for those who helped me!\n\n(And the same in Chinese:) 这个故事是讲述华文考试卷要签名所遇到的困难。这个故事教我们要诚实，也教我们，虽然考卷的真正分数低，但人生的考卷上有高分才是最重要的。\n\nOne of the interesting things about this post is the punctuation. In Chinese, they use a six-dot ellipses …… where we only use... three. (u c wat i did thar?). We also learn a little culture here: it\'s worth noting that in most Chinese highschools, parents actually have to sign your test results to prove you showed it to them. We also see that Rebecca\'s book spells \"A+\" as \"A*\". \n\nI\'m super loving this phrase - 从天堂降落到地狱 - though it might need a little breakdown:\n\n从 - From\n天堂 - Heaven\n降落到\n地狱 - Hell\n\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n发下来\n考卷 - [pinyin]fu3 zi5[/pinyin] - Axe\n沉重 - [pinyin]lin2 ju1[/pinyin] - Neighbor\n羡慕 - [pinyin]yan2 xing2[/pinyin] - Words and Actions\n神情 - [pinyin]shen2 qing2[/pinyin] - Look, expression\n断定 - [pinyin]duan4 ding4[/pinyin] - To conclude\n家伙 - [pinyin]jia1 huo5[/pinyin] - Guy, chap\n砍柴 - [pinyin]kan3 chai2[/pinyin] - Chop firewood\n怀疑 - [pinyin]huan2 yi2[/pinyin] - To doubt, to suspect\n根本 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - At all, in any way\n胡乱 - [pinyin]hu2 luan4[/pinyin] - Careless, reckless\n猜疑 - [pinyin]cai1 yi2[/pinyin] - Suspicious\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n我背着书包，手里拿着刚刚发下来的考卷，一边拖着沉重的脚步向家走着，一边紧张的思考怎样让爸爸在考卷上签名……\n\n前两天的考卷，今天老师发下来了。我拿了一个A*，考到了97分！同学们都很羡慕我，我也得到老师的肯定。在老师要我们做改正的时候，我就从天堂降落到地狱。天啊！我竟然忘了一整页试题，整整要被扣十分！但是老师却没发现，我还真不知该不该对她说。这时，我的头脑出现了两个“我”，一个说：“算了，不要告诉老师，我已经得了老师的肯定，同学们又那么羡慕我，如果我告诉老师，不就等于丢我的脸，还失去爸爸要給我的礼物。”另一个说：“不行，要做个诚实的人，一定要告诉老师。”于是，我对老师说：“我漏掉了这些题，应该是87 分！”老师帮我改分数的那一刻，我立刻松了一口气。\n\n在回家的路上，我真希望我没有对老师说这番话。现在，我不仅要丢掉爸爸的礼物，还得被他骂一顿。晚上，我把考卷交给爸爸，爸爸说：“你为什么那么不小心？为什么一整页的题目没做？为什么？”如在平时，当他问我这些问题时，我会叫他一个“十万个为什么”的人。可现在，我不敢，应为他生气得好像要打我似的。突然，他看见97分改成87分，很奇怪地问我：\"到底怎么一回事？“我把情况如实地告诉了他。我低着头，准备继续挨训。\n\n爸爸沉默了一会儿，突然惊喜地看着我：“不，宝贝儿，虽然你考卷上的分数不尽人意，但是在人生考卷上你却得了高分。爸爸为你骄傲！你做得对......”说完他在考卷上签了名。\n\n第二天早上，我背起书包，手里拿着由爸爸签名的考卷，迈着轻快的脚步，迎着初升的朝阳，信心十足地向学校走去……\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nCarrying a heavy load on my back, holding the exam papers that were just handed back to us, I wondered how I could make my father sign this paper......\n\nThe exam, which was held just two days before, was handed back to us. I got an A+, a high score of 97 points! All the students in my class were envious of me, and I got the praise of my teacher. But when we were asked to do corrections, I found myself dropping all the way from heaven to hell. I actually forgot to do a whole page of questions, and had to be deducted of ten marks! But my teacher hadn\'t discovered yet, and I wasn\'t sure if I had to say it to her. I was in two minds. One said,\"Don\'t tell her, otherwise you would lose face and lose your father\'s present!\" The other said, \"No, you should be honest, just tell her!\" So, I said, \"I missed these questions, the actual points should be 87!\" When she helped me change my score, I heaved a sigh of relief.\n\nWhen I was going home, I wished I had not said all that. Now, not only was I going to lose my father\'s present, but I was also going to be scolded by him. At night, when I passed my paper to him, he said,\"Why were you so careless? Why did you miss out a whole page of questions?\" Usually, when he asks me all these questions, I call him a \"super inquisitive dad\". But now, I daren\'t, because he seems so angry that he might hit me. Suddenly, when he saw that my 97 points became 87 points, he asked me,\"What happened?\" I told him the truth, and lowered my head, ready to continue being scolded.\n\nMy father silenced for a while. Then he suddenly said, \"No, darling, even though you results aren\'t satisfactory, in life\'s exam, you have gotten a high score. I am proud of you! You have done it right......\" after saying that he signed his name.\n\nThe next morning, carrying my schoolbag, with light steps, I was feeling happy. Welcoming the rising sun, I walked towards my school with confidence......\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Guest Post by Rebecca Chua: The difference between life\'s exam and exam papers', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1348-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-02 04:29:25', '2013-05-02 08:29:25', '', 1348, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/02/1348-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1351, 1, '2013-05-02 04:32:26', '2013-05-02 08:32:26', '[two_third]\r\nWell well well, lookie here. A guest post! Today we\'ll be reading Rebecca Chua\'s (Chinese name: 蔡幸彤) translation of an essay from her textbook. The post is about the rewards of honesty. I remember my own textbook being full of these types of essays, so thank you, Rebecca, for the traditional read. \r\n\r\nRebecca has this to say about the post: This story talks about a school-going child\'s problems of getting his parents to sign his papers. It also talks about being honest, and that life\'s exam papers matter the most. This essay was from my tutoring centre\'s teaching materials. This was done with help. Thank you for those who helped me!\r\n\r\n(And the same in Chinese:) 这个故事是讲述华文考试卷要签名所遇到的困难。这个故事教我们要诚实，也教我们，虽然考卷的真正分数低，但人生的考卷上有高分才是最重要的。\r\n\r\nOne of the interesting things about this post is the punctuation. In Chinese, they use a six-dot ellipses …… where we only use... three. (u c wat i did thar?). We also learn a little culture here: it\'s worth noting that in most Chinese highschools, parents actually have to sign your test results to prove you showed it to them. We also see that Rebecca\'s book spells \"A+\" as \"A*\". \r\n\r\nI\'m super loving this phrase - 从天堂降落到地狱 - though it might need a little breakdown:\r\n\r\n从 - From\r\n天堂 - Heaven\r\n降落 - descend\r\n到 - to\r\n地狱 - Hell\r\n\r\nThis phrase means to \"have a sinking heart\" or to \"fall from joy to misery\". \r\n\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n发下来\r\n考卷 - [pinyin]fu3 zi5[/pinyin] - Axe\r\n沉重 - [pinyin]lin2 ju1[/pinyin] - Neighbor\r\n羡慕 - [pinyin]yan2 xing2[/pinyin] - Words and Actions\r\n神情 - [pinyin]shen2 qing2[/pinyin] - Look, expression\r\n断定 - [pinyin]duan4 ding4[/pinyin] - To conclude\r\n家伙 - [pinyin]jia1 huo5[/pinyin] - Guy, chap\r\n砍柴 - [pinyin]kan3 chai2[/pinyin] - Chop firewood\r\n怀疑 - [pinyin]huan2 yi2[/pinyin] - To doubt, to suspect\r\n根本 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - At all, in any way\r\n胡乱 - [pinyin]hu2 luan4[/pinyin] - Careless, reckless\r\n猜疑 - [pinyin]cai1 yi2[/pinyin] - Suspicious\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n我背着书包，手里拿着刚刚发下来的考卷，一边拖着沉重的脚步向家走着，一边紧张的思考怎样让爸爸在考卷上签名……\r\n\r\n前两天的考卷，今天老师发下来了。我拿了一个A*，考到了97分！同学们都很羡慕我，我也得到老师的肯定。在老师要我们做改正的时候，我就从天堂降落到地狱。天啊！我竟然忘了一整页试题，整整要被扣十分！但是老师却没发现，我还真不知该不该对她说。这时，我的头脑出现了两个“我”，一个说：“算了，不要告诉老师，我已经得了老师的肯定，同学们又那么羡慕我，如果我告诉老师，不就等于丢我的脸，还失去爸爸要給我的礼物。”另一个说：“不行，要做个诚实的人，一定要告诉老师。”于是，我对老师说：“我漏掉了这些题，应该是87 分！”老师帮我改分数的那一刻，我立刻松了一口气。\r\n\r\n在回家的路上，我真希望我没有对老师说这番话。现在，我不仅要丢掉爸爸的礼物，还得被他骂一顿。晚上，我把考卷交给爸爸，爸爸说：“你为什么那么不小心？为什么一整页的题目没做？为什么？”如在平时，当他问我这些问题时，我会叫他一个“十万个为什么”的人。可现在，我不敢，应为他生气得好像要打我似的。突然，他看见97分改成87分，很奇怪地问我：\"到底怎么一回事？“我把情况如实地告诉了他。我低着头，准备继续挨训。\r\n\r\n爸爸沉默了一会儿，突然惊喜地看着我：“不，宝贝儿，虽然你考卷上的分数不尽人意，但是在人生考卷上你却得了高分。爸爸为你骄傲！你做得对......”说完他在考卷上签了名。\r\n\r\n第二天早上，我背起书包，手里拿着由爸爸签名的考卷，迈着轻快的脚步，迎着初升的朝阳，信心十足地向学校走去……\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nCarrying a heavy load on my back, holding the exam papers that were just handed back to us, I wondered how I could make my father sign this paper......\r\n\r\nThe exam, which was held just two days before, was handed back to us. I got an A+, a high score of 97 points! All the students in my class were envious of me, and I got the praise of my teacher. But when we were asked to do corrections, I found myself dropping all the way from heaven to hell. I actually forgot to do a whole page of questions, and had to be deducted of ten marks! But my teacher hadn\'t discovered yet, and I wasn\'t sure if I had to say it to her. I was in two minds. One said,\"Don\'t tell her, otherwise you would lose face and lose your father\'s present!\" The other said, \"No, you should be honest, just tell her!\" So, I said, \"I missed these questions, the actual points should be 87!\" When she helped me change my score, I heaved a sigh of relief.\r\n\r\nWhen I was going home, I wished I had not said all that. Now, not only was I going to lose my father\'s present, but I was also going to be scolded by him. At night, when I passed my paper to him, he said,\"Why were you so careless? Why did you miss out a whole page of questions?\" Usually, when he asks me all these questions, I call him a \"super inquisitive dad\". But now, I daren\'t, because he seems so angry that he might hit me. Suddenly, when he saw that my 97 points became 87 points, he asked me,\"What happened?\" I told him the truth, and lowered my head, ready to continue being scolded.\r\n\r\nMy father silenced for a while. Then he suddenly said, \"No, darling, even though you results aren\'t satisfactory, in life\'s exam, you have gotten a high score. I am proud of you! You have done it right......\" after saying that he signed his name.\r\n\r\nThe next morning, carrying my schoolbag, with light steps, I was feeling happy. Welcoming the rising sun, I walked towards my school with confidence......\r\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Guest Post by Rebecca Chua: The difference between life\'s exam and exam papers', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1348-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-02 04:32:26', '2013-05-02 08:32:26', '', 1348, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/02/1348-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1357, 1, '2013-05-13 05:31:30', '2013-05-13 09:31:30', '[two_third]\r\nI\'m not sure what stars aligned in the googley cosmos, but this is the second guest post I\'ve gotten this week. In this recipe post by blogger Rosie Zhao, we learn how to make cake in a rice cooker (bless you, Rosie, bless you). This is particularly relevant if you live in China, the land of no ovens. You can find the original post, with delicious cake-filled pictures, here. \r\n\r\n![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130513-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Learning")
Rosie says: \"Since living in China I\'ve become more and more interested in learning to cook western food from scratch. I want to try to recreate some of my favorites from back home in the U.S. I am trying to post some recipes in both English and Chinese on my blog in hopes that other expats as well as Chinese locals will give them a try. This recipe is my own and translated into Chinese with the help of my husband.\"\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n电饭煲 - [pinyin]dian4 fan4 bao1[/pinyin] - Rice cooker\r\n克 - [pinyin]ke4[/pinyin] - Gram\r\n毫升 - [pinyin]hao2 sheng1[/pinyin] - Milliliter\r\n室温的 - [pinyin]shi4 wen1 de5[/pinyin] - Room temperature\r\n捣碎 - [pinyin]dao3 sui4[/pinyin] - Mashed\r\n涂抹 - [pinyin]tu2 mo3[/pinyin] - Spread\r\n拌入 - [pinyin]ban4 ru4[/pinyin] - Stir in\r\n混合物 - [pinyin]hun4 he2 wu4[/pinyin] - Mixture\r\n跳闸 - [pinyin]tiao4 zha2[/pinyin] - Flips, switch\r\n牙签 - [pinyin]ya2 qian1[/pinyin] - Toothpick\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n水果反转蛋糕 （使用电饭煲做的）\r\n份量：8\r\n\r\n准备材料\r\n水果（比如：草莓，芒果）250 克\r\n黄油（常温的）115克或者油180毫升*\r\n白糖180克\r\n鸡蛋2个\r\n牛奶180毫升\r\n香草精5毫升 （可选可不选）**\r\n自发粉125克\r\n苏打粉1茶匙\r\n盐1小撮\r\n\r\n制作方法\r\n准备：10分钟 | 制作：15分钟 | 额外时间：10 分钟, 放凉\r\n1. 把水果放在碗里。使用一把叉子捣碎水果做水果泥。我用的水果是草莓和芒果，其他的水果也可，比如：香蕉，菠萝等。\r\n2. 用刷子把电饭煲内壁底部轻上一层油。\r\n3. 把水果泥放在电饭煲底,均匀涂抹。\r\n4. 拿一中碗，拌入面粉、苏打粉和盐混合在一起。\r\n5. 另拿一大碗里把室温的黄油（或者油）和白糖混合一起。拌入鸡蛋搅拌。后拌入香草精和牛奶搅拌。\r\n6. 慢慢将面粉混合物加入以上混合物拌均。\r\n7. 把混合物倒入电饭煲。\r\n8. 按“煮饭”的开关。蛋糕要制作大约15分钟。如果在这个时候煮饭开关已经跳闸了请等几分钟然后再按“煮饭”的开关。继续制作直至蛋糕完成为止。\r\n9. 蛋糕制作好了以后需要用牙签测试一下是否已经熟了，插进去拔出来没有碎屑就代表熟了反之则不熟。\r\n10. 让蛋糕冷却10分钟。用塑料或木制的勺子把蛋糕轻轻的取出来。\r\n11. 最后用一个碟子盖着锅然后翻转，这样有水果的一面就在上面了。可以多加一些新鲜的水果在蛋糕上面。\r\n\r\n*不同的油有不同的味道。做蛋糕的话，我觉得植物油或葵花籽油是最好的。\r\n**很多西式甜点要求香草精。如果您经常想做西式布丁，蛋糕，饼干等您应该买一瓶，在淘宝能买到。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nUpside Down Cake (in a rice cooker)\r\n\r\nServings: 8\r\n\r\nIngredients:\r\n1 c fruit\r\n½ c softened butter OR 3/8 c oil\r\n¾ c white sugar\r\n2 eggs\r\n3/8 c milk\r\n1 tsp vanilla extract optional\r\n1 c flour\r\n1 tsp baking soda\r\npinch of salt\r\n\r\nDirections:\r\n\r\n1. Mash fruit in a bowl, using a fork. I used strawberries and mangoes, but feel free to experiment!\r\n2. Grease the bottom of your rice cooker with oil or butter.\r\n3. Spread fruit in bottom of greased rice cooker.\r\n4. In a bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and salt.\r\n5. In a second bowl, cream butter (or oil) with sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla extract and milk and mix.\r\n6. Stir dry mixture into wet mixture. Stir until combined.\r\n7. Pour batter into rice cooker.\r\n8. Close cooker and press \'cook\' button. The cake will probably take about 15 minutes to cook but the \'cook\' button will change to \'keep\' before that. Just let it stay on \'keep\' for a few minutes and then hit \'cook\' again. Repeat if needed.\r\n9. Check cake with toothpick, it should come out clean.\r\n10. Let cool for 10 minutes. When done, loosen cake from sides of rice cooker with a plastic or wooden spoon (or spatula).\r\n11. Flip onto plate and serve. Top with fresh fruit if desired.\r\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Guest Post by Rosie Zhao: Cake Without the Bake', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '1357', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:01:12', '2016-10-31 07:01:12', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1357', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(1354, 1, '2013-05-06 04:34:20', '2013-05-06 08:34:20', '', '20130506-inline', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130506-inline', '', '', '2013-05-06 04:34:20', '2013-05-06 08:34:20', '', 1348, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130506-inline.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1353, 1, '2013-05-06 04:32:54', '2013-05-06 08:32:54', '', 'Learn Mandarin Chinese Characters: Practice Reading Simplified Chinese Character Essays', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130506', '', '', '2013-05-06 04:32:54', '2013-05-06 08:32:54', '', 1348, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130506.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1355, 1, '2013-05-06 04:37:11', '2013-05-06 08:37:11', '[two_third]\nWell well well, lookie here. A guest post! Today we\'ll be reading Rebecca Chua\'s (Chinese name: 蔡幸彤) translation of an essay from her textbook. The post is about the rewards of honesty. I remember my own textbook being full of these types of essays, so thank you, Rebecca, for the traditional read. \n\nRebecca has this to say about the post: This story talks about a school-going child\'s problems of getting his parents to sign his papers. It also talks about being honest, and that life\'s exam papers matter the most. This essay was from my tutoring centre\'s teaching materials. This was done with help. Thank you for those who helped me!\n\n(And the same in Chinese:) 这个故事是讲述华文考试卷要签名所遇到的困难。这个故事教我们要诚实，也教我们，虽然考卷的真正分数低，但人生的考卷上有高分才是最重要的。\n\nOne of the interesting things about this post is the punctuation. In Chinese, they use a six-dot ellipses …… where we only use... three. (u c wat i did thar?). We also learn a little culture here: it\'s worth noting that in most Chinese highschools, parents actually have to sign your test results to prove you showed it to them. We also see that Rebecca\'s book spells \"A+\" as \"A*\".\n\nI\'m super loving this phrase - 从天堂降落到地狱 - though it might need a little breakdown:\n\n从 - From\n天堂 - Heaven\n降落 - descend\n到 - to\n地狱 - Hell\n\nThis phrase means to \"have a sinking heart\" or to \"fall from joy to misery\".\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n发下来 - [pinyin]fa1 xia4 lai5[/pinyin] - To pass out (papers), hand back (homework)\n考卷 - [pinyin]kao3 juan4[/pinyin] - Exam paper\n沉重 - [pinyin]chen2 zhong4[/pinyin] - Hard, serious\n羡慕 - [pinyin]xian4 mu4[/pinyin] - To envy\n竟然 - [pinyin]jing4 ran2[/pinyin] - Unexpectedly\n松了一口气 - [pinyin]song1 le yi1 kou3 qi4[/pinyin] - Let out a sigh (usually of relief) \n顿 - [pinyin]dun4[/pinyin] - Classifier for a period of time when a beating, scolding or critique takes place\n到底 - [pinyin]dao4 di3[/pinyin] - When all is said and done\n\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n我背着书包，手里拿着刚刚发下来的考卷，一边拖着沉重的脚步向家走着，一边紧张的思考怎样让爸爸在考卷上签名……前两天的考卷，今天老师发下来了。我拿了一个A*，考到了97分！同学们都很羡慕我，我也得到老师的肯定。在老师要我们做改正的时候，我就从天堂降落到地狱。天啊！我竟然忘了一整页试题，整整要被扣十分！但是老师却没发现，我还真不知该不该对她说。这时，我的头脑出现了两个“我”，一个说：“算了，不要告诉老师，我已经得了老师的肯定，同学们又那么羡慕我，如果我告诉老师，不就等于丢我的脸，还失去爸爸要給我的礼物。”另一个说：“不行，要做个诚实的人，一定要告诉老师。”于是，我对老师说：“我漏掉了这些题，应该是87 分！”老师帮我改分数的那一刻，我立刻松了一口气。\n\n在回家的路上，我真希望我没有对老师说这番话。现在，我不仅要丢掉爸爸的礼物，还得被他骂一顿。晚上，我把考卷交给爸爸，爸爸说：“你为什么那么不小心？为什么一整页的题目没做？为什么？” 如在平时，当他问我这些问题时，我会叫他一个“十万个为什么”的人。可现在，我不敢，应为他生气得好像要打我似的。突然，他看见97分改成87分，很奇怪地问我：\"到底怎么一回事？“我把情况如实地告诉了他。我低着头，准备继续挨训。\n\n爸爸沉默了一会儿，突然惊喜地看着我：“不，宝贝儿，虽然你考卷上的分数不尽人意，但是在人生考卷上你却得了高分。爸爸为你骄傲！你做得对......”说完他在考卷上签了名。\n\n第二天早上，我背起书包，手里拿着由爸爸签名的考卷，迈着轻快的脚步，迎着初升的朝阳，信心十足地向学校走去……\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nCarrying a heavy load on my back, holding the exam papers that were just handed back to us, I wondered how I could make my father sign this paper......\n\nThe exam, which was held just two days before, was handed back to us. I got an A+, a high score of 97 points! All the students in my class were envious of me, and I got the praise of my teacher. But when we were asked to do corrections, I found myself dropping all the way from heaven to hell. I actually forgot to do a whole page of questions, and had to be deducted of ten marks! But my teacher hadn\'t discovered yet, and I wasn\'t sure if I had to say it to her. I was in two minds. One said, \"Don\'t tell her, otherwise you would lose face and lose your father\'s present!\" The other said, \"No, you should be honest, just tell her!\" So, I said, \"I missed these questions, the actual points should be 87!\" When she helped me change my score, I heaved a sigh of relief.\n\nWhen I was going home, I wished I had not said all that. Now, not only was I going to lose my father\'s present, but I was also going to be scolded by him. At night, when I passed my paper to him, he said,\"Why were you so careless? Why did you miss out a whole page of questions?\" Usually, when he asks me all these questions, I call him a \"dad of ten-thousand questions\". But now, I daren\'t, because he seems so angry that he might hit me. Suddenly, when he saw that my 97 points became 87 points, he asked me,\"What happened?\" I told him the truth, and lowered my head, ready to continue being scolded.\n\nMy father silenced for a while. Then he suddenly said, \"No, darling, even though you results aren\'t satisfactory, in life\'s exam, you have gotten a high score. I am proud of you! You have done it right......\" after saying that he signed his name.\n\nThe next morning, carrying my schoolbag, with light steps, I was feeling happy. Welcoming the rising sun, I walked towards my school with confidence......\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Guest Post by Rebecca Chua: The difference between life\'s exam and exam papers', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1348-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-06 04:37:11', '2013-05-06 08:37:11', '', 1348, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/06/1348-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1356, 1, '2013-05-06 04:37:53', '2013-05-06 08:37:53', '[two_third]\r\nWell well well, lookie here. A guest post! Today we\'ll be reading Rebecca Chua\'s (Chinese name: 蔡幸彤) translation of an essay from her textbook. The post is about the rewards of honesty. I remember my own textbook being full of these types of essays, so thank you, Rebecca, for the traditional read. \r\n\r\nRebecca has this to say about the post: This story talks about a school-going child\'s problems of getting his parents to sign his papers. It also talks about being honest, and that life\'s exam papers matter the most. This essay was from my tutoring centre\'s teaching materials. This was done with help. Thank you for those who helped me!\r\n\r\n(And the same in Chinese:) 这个故事是讲述华文考试卷要签名所遇到的困难。这个故事教我们要诚实，也教我们，虽然考卷的真正分数低，但人生的考卷上有高分才是最重要的。\r\n\r\nOne of the interesting things about this post is the punctuation. In Chinese, they use a six-dot ellipses …… where we only use... three. (u c wat i did thar?). We also learn a little culture here: it\'s worth noting that in most Chinese highschools, parents actually have to sign your test results to prove you showed it to them. We also see that Rebecca\'s book spells \"A+\" as \"A*\".\r\n\r\nI\'m super loving this phrase - 从天堂降落到地狱 - though it might need a little breakdown:\r\n\r\n从 - From\r\n天堂 - Heaven\r\n降落 - descend\r\n到 - to\r\n地狱 - Hell\r\n\r\nThis phrase means to \"have a sinking heart\" or to \"fall from joy to misery\".\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n发下来 - [pinyin]fa1 xia4 lai5[/pinyin] - To pass out (papers), hand back (homework)\r\n考卷 - [pinyin]kao3 juan4[/pinyin] - Exam paper\r\n沉重 - [pinyin]chen2 zhong4[/pinyin] - Hard, serious\r\n羡慕 - [pinyin]xian4 mu4[/pinyin] - To envy\r\n竟然 - [pinyin]jing4 ran2[/pinyin] - Unexpectedly\r\n松了一口气 - [pinyin]song1 le yi1 kou3 qi4[/pinyin] - Let out a sigh (usually of relief) \r\n顿 - [pinyin]dun4[/pinyin] - Classifier for a period of time when a beating, scolding or critique takes place\r\n到底 - [pinyin]dao4 di3[/pinyin] - When all is said and done\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n我背着书包，手里拿着刚刚发下来的考卷，一边拖着沉重的脚步向家走着，一边紧张的思考怎样让爸爸在考卷上签名……前两天的考卷，今天老师发下来了。我拿了一个A*，考到了97分！同学们都很羡慕我，我也得到老师的肯定。在老师要我们做改正的时候，我就从天堂降落到地狱。天啊！我竟然忘了一整页试题，整整要被扣十分！但是老师却没发现，我还真不知该不该对她说。这时，我的头脑出现了两个“我”，一个说：“算了，不要告诉老师，我已经得了老师的肯定，同学们又那么羡慕我，如果我告诉老师，不就等于丢我的脸，还失去爸爸要給我的礼物。”另一个说：“不行，要做个诚实的人，一定要告诉老师。”于是，我对老师说：“我漏掉了这些题，应该是87 分！”老师帮我改分数的那一刻，我立刻松了一口气。\r\n\r\n在回家的路上，我真希望我没有对老师说这番话。现在，我不仅要丢掉爸爸的礼物，还得被他骂一顿。晚上，我把考卷交给爸爸，爸爸说：“你为什么那么不小心？为什么一整页的题目没做？为什么？” 如在平时，当他问我这些问题时，我会叫他一个“十万个为什么”的人。可现在，我不敢，应为他生气得好像要打我似的。突然，他看见97分改成87分，很奇怪地问我：\"到底怎么一回事？“我把情况如实地告诉了他。我低着头，准备继续挨训。\r\n\r\n爸爸沉默了一会儿，突然惊喜地看着我：“不，宝贝儿，虽然你考卷上的分数不尽人意，但是在人生考卷上你却得了高分。爸爸为你骄傲！你做得对......”说完他在考卷上签了名。\r\n\r\n第二天早上，我背起书包，手里拿着由爸爸签名的考卷，迈着轻快的脚步，迎着初升的朝阳，信心十足地向学校走去……\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nCarrying a heavy load on my back, holding the exam papers that were just handed back to us, I wondered how I could make my father sign this paper......\r\n\r\nThe exam, which was held just two days before, was handed back to us. I got an A+, a high score of 97 points! All the students in my class were envious of me, and I got the praise of my teacher. But when we were asked to do corrections, I found myself dropping all the way from heaven to hell. I actually forgot to do a whole page of questions, and had to be deducted of ten marks! But my teacher hadn\'t discovered yet, and I wasn\'t sure if I had to say it to her. I was in two minds. One said, \"Don\'t tell her, otherwise you would lose face and lose your father\'s present!\" The other said, \"No, you should be honest, just tell her!\" So, I said, \"I missed these questions, the actual points should be 87!\" When she helped me change my score, I heaved a sigh of relief.\r\n\r\nWhen I was going home, I wished I had not said all that. Now, not only was I going to lose my father\'s present, but I was also going to be scolded by him. At night, when I passed my paper to him, he said,\"Why were you so careless? Why did you miss out a whole page of questions?\" Usually, when he asks me all these questions, I call him a \"dad of ten-thousand questions\". But now, I daren\'t, because he seems so angry that he might hit me. Suddenly, when he saw that my 97 points became 87 points, he asked me,\"What happened?\" I told him the truth, and lowered my head, ready to continue being scolded.\r\n\r\nMy father silenced for a while. Then he suddenly said, \"No, darling, even though you results aren\'t satisfactory, in life\'s exam, you have gotten a high score. I am proud of you! You have done it right......\" after saying that he signed his name.\r\n\r\nThe next morning, carrying my schoolbag, with light steps, I was feeling happy. Welcoming the rising sun, I walked towards my school with confidence......\r\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Guest Post by Rebecca Chua: The difference between life\'s exam and exam papers', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1348-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-06 04:37:53', '2013-05-06 08:37:53', '', 1348, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/06/1348-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1358, 1, '2013-05-13 05:28:46', '2013-05-13 09:28:46', '', 'Learning to Read Chinese Exercises: Chinese Rice Cooker Recipes with English Translations', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130513', '', '', '2013-05-13 05:28:46', '2013-05-13 09:28:46', '', 1357, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130513.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1359, 1, '2013-05-13 05:30:57', '2013-05-13 09:30:57', '', '20130513-INLINE', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130513-inline', '', '', '2013-05-13 05:30:57', '2013-05-13 09:30:57', '', 1357, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130513-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1360, 1, '2013-05-13 05:26:48', '2013-05-13 09:26:48', '[two_third]\nI\'m not sure what stars aligned in the googley cosmos, but this is the second guest post I\'ve gotten this week. In this recipe post by blogger Rosie Zhao, we learn how to make cake in a rice cooker (bless you, Rosie, bless you). This is particularly relevant if you live in China, the land of no ovens. You can find the original post, with delicious cake-filled pictures, here. \n\nRosie says: \"Since living in China I\'ve become more and more interested in learning to cook western food from scratch. I want to try to recreate some of my favorites from back home in the U.S. I am trying to post some recipes in both English and Chinese on my blog in hopes that other expats as well as Chinese locals will give them a try. This recipe is my own and translated into Chinese with the help of my husband.\"\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n电饭煲 - [pinyin]dian4 fan4 bao1[/pinyin] - Rice cooker\n克 - [pinyin]ke4[/pinyin] - Gram\n毫升 - [pinyin]hao2 sheng1[/pinyin] - Milliliter\n室温的 - [pinyin]shi4 wen1 de5[/pinyin] - Room temperature\n捣碎 - [pinyin]dao3 sui4[/pinyin] - Mashed\n涂抹 - [pinyin]tu2 mo3[/pinyin] - Spread\n拌入 - [pinyin]ban4 ru4[/pinyin] - Stir in\n混合物 - [pinyin]hun4 he2 wu4[/pinyin] - Mixture\n跳闸 - [pinyin]tiao4 zha2[/pinyin] - Flips, switch\n牙签 - [pinyin]ya2 qian1[/pinyin] - Toothpick\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n水果反转蛋糕 （使用电饭煲做的）\n份量：8\n\n准备材料\n水果（比如：草莓，芒果）250 克\n黄油（常温的）115克或者油180毫升*\n白糖180克\n鸡蛋2个\n牛奶180毫升\n香草精5毫升 （可选可不选）**\n自发粉125克\n苏打粉1茶匙\n盐1小撮\n\n制作方法\n准备：10分钟 | 制作：15分钟 | 额外时间：10 分钟, 放凉\n1. 把水果放在碗里。使用一把叉子捣碎水果做水果泥。我用的水果是草莓和芒果，其他的水果也可，比如：香蕉，菠萝等。\n2. 用刷子把电饭煲内壁底部轻上一层油。\n3. 把水果泥放在电饭煲底,均匀涂抹。\n4. 拿一中碗，拌入面粉、苏打粉和盐混合在一起。\n5. 另拿一大碗里把室温的黄油（或者油）和白糖混合一起。拌入鸡蛋搅拌。后拌入香草精和牛奶搅拌。\n6. 慢慢将面粉混合物加入以上混合物拌均。\n7. 把混合物倒入电饭煲。\n8. 按“煮饭”的开关。蛋糕要制作大约15分钟。如果在这个时候煮饭开关已经跳闸了请等几分钟然后再按“煮饭”的开关。继续制作直至蛋糕完成为止。\n9. 蛋糕制作好了以后需要用牙签测试一下是否已经熟了，插进去拔出来没有碎屑就代表熟了反之则不熟。\n10. 让蛋糕冷却10分钟。用塑料或木制的勺子把蛋糕轻轻的取出来。\n11. 最后用一个碟子盖着锅然后翻转，这样有水果的一面就在上面了。可以多加一些新鲜的水果在蛋糕上面。\n\n*不同的油有不同的味道。做蛋糕的话，我觉得植物油或葵花籽油是最好的。\n**很多西式甜点要求香草精。如果您经常想做西式布丁，蛋糕，饼干等您应该买一瓶，在淘宝能买到。\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nUpside Down Cake (in a rice cooker)\n\nServings: 8\n\nIngredients:\n1 c fruit\n½ c softened butter OR 3/8 c oil\n¾ c white sugar\n2 eggs\n3/8 c milk\n1 tsp vanilla extract optional\n1 c flour\n1 tsp baking soda\npinch of salt\n\nDirections:\n\n1. Mash fruit in a bowl, using a fork. I used strawberries and mangoes, but feel free to experiment!\n2. Grease the bottom of your rice cooker with oil or butter.\n3. Spread fruit in bottom of greased rice cooker.\n4. In a bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and salt.\n5. In a second bowl, cream butter (or oil) with sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla extract and milk and mix.\n6. Stir dry mixture into wet mixture. Stir until combined.\n7. Pour batter into rice cooker.\n8. Close cooker and press \'cook\' button. The cake will probably take about 15 minutes to cook but the \'cook\' button will change to \'keep\' before that. Just let it stay on \'keep\' for a few minutes and then hit \'cook\' again. Repeat if needed.\n9. Check cake with toothpick, it should come out clean.\n10. Let cool for 10 minutes. When done, loosen cake from sides of rice cooker with a plastic or wooden spoon (or spatula).\n11. Flip onto plate and serve. Top with fresh fruit if desired.\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Recipe Guest Post by Rosie Zhao: Cake without the Bake (Upside Down Cake in a Rice Cooker)', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1357-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-13 05:26:48', '2013-05-13 09:26:48', '', 1357, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/13/1357-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1361, 1, '2013-05-13 05:31:30', '2013-05-13 09:31:30', '[two_third]\r\nI\'m not sure what stars aligned in the googley cosmos, but this is the second guest post I\'ve gotten this week. In this recipe post by blogger Rosie Zhao, we learn how to make cake in a rice cooker (bless you, Rosie, bless you). This is particularly relevant if you live in China, the land of no ovens. You can find the original post, with delicious cake-filled pictures, here. \r\n\r\nRosie says: \"Since living in China I\'ve become more and more interested in learning to cook western food from scratch. I want to try to recreate some of my favorites from back home in the U.S. I am trying to post some recipes in both English and Chinese on my blog in hopes that other expats as well as Chinese locals will give them a try. This recipe is my own and translated into Chinese with the help of my husband.\"\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n电饭煲 - [pinyin]dian4 fan4 bao1[/pinyin] - Rice cooker\r\n克 - [pinyin]ke4[/pinyin] - Gram\r\n毫升 - [pinyin]hao2 sheng1[/pinyin] - Milliliter\r\n室温的 - [pinyin]shi4 wen1 de5[/pinyin] - Room temperature\r\n捣碎 - [pinyin]dao3 sui4[/pinyin] - Mashed\r\n涂抹 - [pinyin]tu2 mo3[/pinyin] - Spread\r\n拌入 - [pinyin]ban4 ru4[/pinyin] - Stir in\r\n混合物 - [pinyin]hun4 he2 wu4[/pinyin] - Mixture\r\n跳闸 - [pinyin]tiao4 zha2[/pinyin] - Flips, switch\r\n牙签 - [pinyin]ya2 qian1[/pinyin] - Toothpick\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n水果反转蛋糕 （使用电饭煲做的）\r\n份量：8\r\n\r\n准备材料\r\n水果（比如：草莓，芒果）250 克\r\n黄油（常温的）115克或者油180毫升*\r\n白糖180克\r\n鸡蛋2个\r\n牛奶180毫升\r\n香草精5毫升 （可选可不选）**\r\n自发粉125克\r\n苏打粉1茶匙\r\n盐1小撮\r\n\r\n制作方法\r\n准备：10分钟 | 制作：15分钟 | 额外时间：10 分钟, 放凉\r\n1. 把水果放在碗里。使用一把叉子捣碎水果做水果泥。我用的水果是草莓和芒果，其他的水果也可，比如：香蕉，菠萝等。\r\n2. 用刷子把电饭煲内壁底部轻上一层油。\r\n3. 把水果泥放在电饭煲底,均匀涂抹。\r\n4. 拿一中碗，拌入面粉、苏打粉和盐混合在一起。\r\n5. 另拿一大碗里把室温的黄油（或者油）和白糖混合一起。拌入鸡蛋搅拌。后拌入香草精和牛奶搅拌。\r\n6. 慢慢将面粉混合物加入以上混合物拌均。\r\n7. 把混合物倒入电饭煲。\r\n8. 按“煮饭”的开关。蛋糕要制作大约15分钟。如果在这个时候煮饭开关已经跳闸了请等几分钟然后再按“煮饭”的开关。继续制作直至蛋糕完成为止。\r\n9. 蛋糕制作好了以后需要用牙签测试一下是否已经熟了，插进去拔出来没有碎屑就代表熟了反之则不熟。\r\n10. 让蛋糕冷却10分钟。用塑料或木制的勺子把蛋糕轻轻的取出来。\r\n11. 最后用一个碟子盖着锅然后翻转，这样有水果的一面就在上面了。可以多加一些新鲜的水果在蛋糕上面。\r\n\r\n*不同的油有不同的味道。做蛋糕的话，我觉得植物油或葵花籽油是最好的。\r\n**很多西式甜点要求香草精。如果您经常想做西式布丁，蛋糕，饼干等您应该买一瓶，在淘宝能买到。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nUpside Down Cake (in a rice cooker)\r\n\r\nServings: 8\r\n\r\nIngredients:\r\n1 c fruit\r\n½ c softened butter OR 3/8 c oil\r\n¾ c white sugar\r\n2 eggs\r\n3/8 c milk\r\n1 tsp vanilla extract optional\r\n1 c flour\r\n1 tsp baking soda\r\npinch of salt\r\n\r\nDirections:\r\n\r\n1. Mash fruit in a bowl, using a fork. I used strawberries and mangoes, but feel free to experiment!\r\n2. Grease the bottom of your rice cooker with oil or butter.\r\n3. Spread fruit in bottom of greased rice cooker.\r\n4. In a bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and salt.\r\n5. In a second bowl, cream butter (or oil) with sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla extract and milk and mix.\r\n6. Stir dry mixture into wet mixture. Stir until combined.\r\n7. Pour batter into rice cooker.\r\n8. Close cooker and press \'cook\' button. The cake will probably take about 15 minutes to cook but the \'cook\' button will change to \'keep\' before that. Just let it stay on \'keep\' for a few minutes and then hit \'cook\' again. Repeat if needed.\r\n9. Check cake with toothpick, it should come out clean.\r\n10. Let cool for 10 minutes. When done, loosen cake from sides of rice cooker with a plastic or wooden spoon (or spatula).\r\n11. Flip onto plate and serve. Top with fresh fruit if desired.\r\n[/hide-this-part]', '', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1357-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-13 05:31:30', '2013-05-13 09:31:30', '', 1357, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/13/1357-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1401, 1, '2013-06-16 08:00:14', '2013-06-16 12:00:14', 'Eeps - bad medicine! In this story, the mischievous Monkey - always a trickster figure in Chinese stories - pulls the wool over Little Bear\'s eyes. If Little Bear was American, he\'d sue the hospital for negligence and rake in millions of baskets of peaches. Though the majority of this text is very basic reading, there are three phrases which jump out at me as being difficult, or words I couldn\'t find in basic dictionaries. \r\n\r\n理所应当 - [pinyin]li3 suo3 ying1 dang1[/pinyin] This phrase means to feel something is well-deserved, that something has been earned through hard work, usually when it actually hasn\'t. So I guess that roughly translates to \'taking a reward for granted\'? In this story, Monkey feels that his payment is well-earned or well-deserved. But as readers, we know Monkey doesn\'t deserve anything at all - he\'s taking that payment for granted when he didn\'t really earn it. Consider this phrase in another context:\r\n\r\n别人帮助你那是义气，你不能当作是理所应当的。 - \"When other people help you it\'s in the spirit of self-sacrifice, you shouldn\'t consider this something you deserve as a matter of course.\" \r\n\r\n甜头 - Though this looks like two words, the first meaning \"sweet\" and the second meaning \"head\" or \"brain\", it\'s actually a colloquialism that just means \"sweet flavor\" or \"pleasant taste\". \r\n\r\n贪念 - These two characters also seem separate, they don\'t appear together in my dictionary, but they\'re actually one word. According to Baidu Bai Ke, the Baidu dictionary (a Chinese-language resource for word meanings and derivations), 贪念 [pinyin]tan1 nian4[/pinyin] just means \"greedy\" (I presume the \"念\" probably adds the meaning \"idea\" or \"thoughts\" here, so 贪念 could be read as \"greedy thoughts\"). \r\n\r\nYou can read the original here. \r\n\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n1) 猴子去医院玩耍,进了大夫的房间。正好大夫不在,衣服也落在了房间内。\r\n\r\n2) 猴子觉得好玩,就穿上了大夫的衣服,也就是我们常见的那种白大褂子。这时候有一只小熊来医院看病。小熊是第一次上医院,并不了解医院的情况。它所知道的,就是大夫们都穿着白大褂子。\r\n\r\n3) 小熊提着一篮桃子(这是它准备送给大夫的酬金)来到医院,正好走进猴子所在的房间。小熊不认识猴子,但是它认识那件白大褂子,于是就请猴子给它看病。\r\n\r\n4) 猴子本来只是玩耍,并不会看病,但是它看到小熊的篮子后,就起了贪念。于是猴子便装模作样地给小熊看了病,并且理所应当地收下了那篮桃子。至于小熊的病是否给猴子看好了,这一点不得而知。\r\n\r\n5) 但是猴子却尝到了甜头,以后常常潜入医院,趁大夫不在的时候,穿上大夫的衣服,给病人看病。到后来,猴子干脆给自己也做了一身那样的白大褂子。\r\n\r\n6) 唉!我们不知道有多少人是在猴子那里看的病啊!\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Monkey went to the hospital on a lark, and entered the doctor\'s room. At that moment, the doctor wasn\'t in, and he\'d left his [doctor\'s] clothes in the room.\r\n\r\n2) Monkey thought this would be fun, so he put on the doctor\'s clothes, that white lab coat we see so often. Just then a little bear came to the hospital to see the doctor. This was the little bear\'s first time at the hospital, and he didn\'t know what hospitals were like [lit: didn\'t know the hospital situation]. All he knew was that doctors wear white lab coats. \r\n\r\n3) The little bear had shown up at the hospital carrying a basket of peaches (this was the payment he had prepared to give to the doctor), and he happened to walk into the room where Monkey was. Little Bear didn\'t know Monkey, but he recognized the white lab coat, so he asked Monkey to examine him.\r\n\r\n4) Monkey originally just [intended to] have a bit of fun, but when he saw Little Bear\'s basket, he coveted it fiercely. So Monkey put on a big show of examining Little Bear, and accepted his well-earned basket of peaches. As to whether or not Monkey actually cured Little Bear, we will never know. \r\n\r\n5) However, after Monkey tasted that sweetness, he often stole into the hospital, taking advantage of the doctor\'s absence, and examined patients. Later, Monkey simply made himself one of those white lab coats. \r\n\r\n6) Ai! We don\'t know how many people were examined by Monkey!\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] 大夫和猴子 - The Doctor and the Monkey', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-doctor-and-the-monkey', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:26:40', '2016-11-04 10:26:40', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1401', 0, 'post', '', 36),
(2052, 1, '2016-11-04 06:26:40', '2016-11-04 10:26:40', 'Eeps - bad medicine! In this story, the mischievous Monkey - always a trickster figure in Chinese stories - pulls the wool over Little Bear\'s eyes. If Little Bear was American, he\'d sue the hospital for negligence and rake in millions of baskets of peaches. Though the majority of this text is very basic reading, there are three phrases which jump out at me as being difficult, or words I couldn\'t find in basic dictionaries. \r\n\r\n理所应当 - [pinyin]li3 suo3 ying1 dang1[/pinyin] This phrase means to feel something is well-deserved, that something has been earned through hard work, usually when it actually hasn\'t. So I guess that roughly translates to \'taking a reward for granted\'? In this story, Monkey feels that his payment is well-earned or well-deserved. But as readers, we know Monkey doesn\'t deserve anything at all - he\'s taking that payment for granted when he didn\'t really earn it. Consider this phrase in another context:\r\n\r\n别人帮助你那是义气，你不能当作是理所应当的。 - \"When other people help you it\'s in the spirit of self-sacrifice, you shouldn\'t consider this something you deserve as a matter of course.\" \r\n\r\n甜头 - Though this looks like two words, the first meaning \"sweet\" and the second meaning \"head\" or \"brain\", it\'s actually a colloquialism that just means \"sweet flavor\" or \"pleasant taste\". \r\n\r\n贪念 - These two characters also seem separate, they don\'t appear together in my dictionary, but they\'re actually one word. According to Baidu Bai Ke, the Baidu dictionary (a Chinese-language resource for word meanings and derivations), 贪念 [pinyin]tan1 nian4[/pinyin] just means \"greedy\" (I presume the \"念\" probably adds the meaning \"idea\" or \"thoughts\" here, so 贪念 could be read as \"greedy thoughts\"). \r\n\r\nYou can read the original here. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 猴子去医院玩耍,进了大夫的房间。正好大夫不在,衣服也落在了房间内。\r\n\r\n2) 猴子觉得好玩,就穿上了大夫的衣服,也就是我们常见的那种白大褂子。这时候有一只小熊来医院看病。小熊是第一次上医院,并不了解医院的情况。它所知道的,就是大夫们都穿着白大褂子。\r\n\r\n3) 小熊提着一篮桃子(这是它准备送给大夫的酬金)来到医院,正好走进猴子所在的房间。小熊不认识猴子,但是它认识那件白大褂子,于是就请猴子给它看病。\r\n\r\n4) 猴子本来只是玩耍,并不会看病,但是它看到小熊的篮子后,就起了贪念。于是猴子便装模作样地给小熊看了病,并且理所应当地收下了那篮桃子。至于小熊的病是否给猴子看好了,这一点不得而知。\r\n\r\n5) 但是猴子却尝到了甜头,以后常常潜入医院,趁大夫不在的时候,穿上大夫的衣服,给病人看病。到后来,猴子干脆给自己也做了一身那样的白大褂子。\r\n\r\n6) 唉!我们不知道有多少人是在猴子那里看的病啊!\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Monkey went to the hospital on a lark, and entered the doctor\'s room. At that moment, the doctor wasn\'t in, and he\'d left his [doctor\'s] clothes in the room.\r\n\r\n2) Monkey thought this would be fun, so he put on the doctor\'s clothes, that white lab coat we see so often. Just then a little bear came to the hospital to see the doctor. This was the little bear\'s first time at the hospital, and he didn\'t know what hospitals were like [lit: didn\'t know the hospital situation]. All he knew was that doctors wear white lab coats. \r\n\r\n3) The little bear had shown up at the hospital carrying a basket of peaches (this was the payment he had prepared to give to the doctor), and he happened to walk into the room where Monkey was. Little Bear didn\'t know Monkey, but he recognized the white lab coat, so he asked Monkey to examine him.\r\n\r\n4) Monkey originally just [intended to] have a bit of fun, but when he saw Little Bear\'s basket, he coveted it fiercely. So Monkey put on a big show of examining Little Bear, and accepted his well-earned basket of peaches. As to whether or not Monkey actually cured Little Bear, we will never know. \r\n\r\n5) However, after Monkey tasted that sweetness, he often stole into the hospital, taking advantage of the doctor\'s absence, and examined patients. Later, Monkey simply made himself one of those white lab coats. \r\n\r\n6) Ai! We don\'t know how many people were examined by Monkey!\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] 大夫和猴子 - The Doctor and the Monkey', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1401-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:26:40', '2016-11-04 10:26:40', '', 1401, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1401-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1742, 1, '2016-10-31 03:29:34', '2016-10-31 07:29:34', 'Eeps - bad medicine! In this story, the mischievous Monkey - always a trickster figure in Chinese stories - pulls the wool over Little Bear\'s eyes. If Little Bear was American, he\'d sue the hospital for negligence and rake in millions of baskets of peaches. \r\n\r\n![\"Read](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/20130617-INLINE.jpg\")
Though the majority of this text is very basic reading, there are three phrases which jump out at me as being difficult, or words I couldn\'t find in basic dictionaries. \r\n\r\n理所应当 - [pinyin]li3 suo3 ying1 dang1[/pinyin] This phrase means to feel something is well-deserved, that something has been earned through hard work, usually when it actually hasn\'t. So I guess that roughly translates to \'taking a reward for granted\'? In this story, Monkey feels that his payment is well-earned or well-deserved. But as readers, we know Monkey doesn\'t deserve anything at all - he\'s taking that payment for granted when he didn\'t really earn it. Consider this phrase in another context:\r\n\r\n别人帮助你那是义气，你不能当作是理所应当的。 - \"When other people help you it\'s in the spirit of self-sacrifice, you shouldn\'t consider this something you deserve as a matter of course.\" \r\n\r\n甜头 - Though this looks like two words, the first meaning \"sweet\" and the second meaning \"head\" or \"brain\", it\'s actually a colloquialism that just means \"sweet flavor\" or \"pleasant taste\". \r\n\r\n贪念 - These two characters also seem separate, they don\'t appear together in my dictionary, but they\'re actually one word. According to Baidu Bai Ke, the Baidu dictionary (a Chinese-language resource for word meanings and derivations), 贪念 [pinyin]tan1 nian4[/pinyin] just means \"greedy\" (I presume the \"念\" probably adds the meaning \"idea\" or \"thoughts\" here, so 贪念 could be read as \"greedy thoughts\"). \r\n\r\nYou can read the original here. \r\n\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n1) 猴子去医院玩耍,进了大夫的房间。正好大夫不在,衣服也落在了房间内。\r\n\r\n2) 猴子觉得好玩,就穿上了大夫的衣服,也就是我们常见的那种白大褂子。这时候有一只小熊来医院看病。小熊是第一次上医院,并不了解医院的情况。它所知道的,就是大夫们都穿着白大褂子。\r\n\r\n3) 小熊提着一篮桃子(这是它准备送给大夫的酬金)来到医院,正好走进猴子所在的房间。小熊不认识猴子,但是它认识那件白大褂子,于是就请猴子给它看病。\r\n\r\n4) 猴子本来只是玩耍,并不会看病,但是它看到小熊的篮子后,就起了贪念。于是猴子便装模作样地给小熊看了病,并且理所应当地收下了那篮桃子。至于小熊的病是否给猴子看好了,这一点不得而知。\r\n\r\n5) 但是猴子却尝到了甜头,以后常常潜入医院,趁大夫不在的时候,穿上大夫的衣服,给病人看病。到后来,猴子干脆给自己也做了一身那样的白大褂子。\r\n\r\n6) 唉!我们不知道有多少人是在猴子那里看的病啊!\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Monkey went to the hospital on a lark, and entered the doctor\'s room. At that moment, the doctor wasn\'t in, and he\'d left his [doctor\'s] clothes in the room.\r\n\r\n2) Monkey thought this would be fun, so he put on the doctor\'s clothes, that white lab coat we see so often. Just then a little bear came to the hospital to see the doctor. This was the little bear\'s first time at the hospital, and he didn\'t know what hospitals were like [lit: didn\'t know the hospital situation]. All he knew was that doctors wear white lab coats. \r\n\r\n3) The little bear had shown up at the hospital carrying a basket of peaches (this was the payment he had prepared to give to the doctor), and he happened to walk into the room where Monkey was. Little Bear didn\'t know Monkey, but he recognized the white lab coat, so he asked Monkey to examine him.\r\n\r\n4) Monkey originally just [intended to] have a bit of fun, but when he saw Little Bear\'s basket, he coveted it fiercely. So Monkey put on a big show of examining Little Bear, and accepted his well-earned basket of peaches. As to whether or not Monkey actually cured Little Bear, we will never know. \r\n\r\n5) However, after Monkey tasted that sweetness, he often stole into the hospital, taking advantage of the doctor\'s absence, and examined patients. Later, Monkey simply made himself one of those white lab coats. \r\n\r\n6) Ai! We don\'t know how many people were examined by Monkey!\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Story] 大夫和猴子 - The Doctor and the Monkey', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1401-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:29:34', '2016-10-31 07:29:34', '', 1401, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1401-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1363, 1, '2013-05-21 11:12:41', '2013-05-21 15:12:41', 'Father\'s Day\'s coming up in a few weeks, and we\'ll be looking at the lyrics of a beginner-level saccharine-cute song written for children to sing to their dads (or, for the children of the digital generation, to forward to their dads) on their special day. This post is accompanied by a Flash Father\'s Day video where you can listen to the song on an INFINITE LOOP. Lucky you. \r\n\r\nHere\'s the original video with the actual song. http://new.060s.com/flash/flashbrow.php?flash=70648ecb985590c987c8ffd9b0b5edb1, have a listen if you dare. \r\n\r\nBecause this is a song, we have a couple of instances where a similar sentence structure is used with different words - these are probably the hardest sentences in the song. Example: 脏活累活他全包了. First, let me break down this sentence: \r\n\r\n脏 - Dirty\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n累 - Tired\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n他 - He\r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 - (grammar word)\r\n\r\nWhat? Dirty activity tired activity he all included?! What the heck does that mean? In proper English, we might translate that as \"Dirty work, Tired work, he does it all!\" We are, of course, talking about our amazing dads and all the thanklessly exhausting housework and job work they do. Thing is, there\'s nowhere in this sentence where the verb \"does\" as in \"to do work\" actually appears. We\'re just expected to infer the word from the context of 全包 - \"all included\". \r\n\r\nWe see the same sentence structure later in the song: 剩菜剩饭他全包了. The breakdown: \r\n\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n菜 - Vegetables\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n饭 - Rice\r\n他 - He \r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 (grammar word). \r\n\r\nOnce again, that strange \"all included\" - we are again expected to infer the verb here. Any guesses? The sentence means \"Leftover Vegetables, Leftover Rice, he eats it all!\" or \"He eats all the leftovers!\" So the missing word we kinda have to mentally fill in is \"eats\". \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的力气真不小\r\n做得多说得少\r\n脏活累活他全包了\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的肚量真不小\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDad\'s the best, Dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best!\r\nDad\'s really got no shortage of strength \r\nHe does a lot but speaks little\r\nHe does all the dirty and tired work.\r\nDad\'s the best, dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best! \r\nDad\'s really got no shortage of generosity\r\nHe earns a lot but spends little\r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\nHe earns a lot but spends little \r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/one_half]', '[Chinese Children\'s Songs] 爸爸好 - Baba Hao, a Song for Father\'s Day', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'lyrics-baba-hao-a-song-for-fathers-day', '', '', '2016-11-18 19:25:09', '2016-11-19 00:25:09', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1363', 0, 'post', '', 7),
(1719, 1, '2016-10-31 03:05:11', '2016-10-31 07:05:11', 'Father\'s Day\'s coming up in a few weeks, and we\'ll be looking at the lyrics of a beginner-level saccharine-cute song written for children to sing to their dads (or, for the children of the digital generation, to forward to their dads) on their special day. This post is accompanied by a Flash Father\'s Day video where you can listen to the song on an INFINITE LOOP. Lucky you. \r\n![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130521-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Reading")
\r\nHere\'s the original video with the actual song. http://new.060s.com/flash/flashbrow.php?flash=70648ecb985590c987c8ffd9b0b5edb1, have a listen if you dare. \r\n\r\nBecause this is a song, we have a couple of instances where a similar sentence structure is used with different words - these are probably the hardest sentences in the song. Example: 脏活累活他全包了. First, let me break down this sentence: \r\n\r\n脏 - Dirty\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n累 - Tired\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n他 - He\r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 - (grammar word)\r\n\r\nWhat? Dirty activity tired activity he all included?! What the heck does that mean? In proper English, we might translate that as \"Dirty work, Tired work, he does it all!\" We are, of course, talking about our amazing dads and all the thanklessly exhausting housework and job work they do. Thing is, there\'s nowhere in this sentence where the verb \"does\" as in \"to do work\" actually appears. We\'re just expected to infer the word from the context of 全包 - \"all included\". \r\n\r\nWe see the same sentence structure later in the song: 剩菜剩饭他全包了. The breakdown: \r\n\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n菜 - Vegetables\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n饭 - Rice\r\n他 - He \r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 (grammar word). \r\n\r\nOnce again, that strange \"all included\" - we are again expected to infer the verb here. Any guesses? The sentence means \"Leftover Vegetables, Leftover Rice, he eats it all!\" or \"He eats all the leftovers!\" So the missing word we kinda have to mentally fill in is \"eats\". \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的力气真不小\r\n做得多说得少\r\n脏活累活他全包了\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的肚量真不小\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDad\'s the best, Dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best!\r\nDad\'s really got no shortage of strength \r\nHe does a lot but speaks little\r\nHe does all the dirty and tired work.\r\nDad\'s the best, dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best! \r\nDad\'s really got no shortage of generosity\r\nHe earns a lot but spends little\r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\nHe earns a lot but spends little \r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Lyrics: Baba Hao, a Song for Father\'s Day', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1363-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:05:11', '2016-10-31 07:05:11', '', 1363, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1363-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1364, 1, '2013-05-21 11:09:51', '2013-05-21 15:09:51', '', 'Reading in Simplified Chinese: Easy Exercises for Language Study', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130521-inline', '', '', '2013-05-21 11:09:51', '2013-05-21 15:09:51', '', 1363, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130521-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1365, 1, '2013-05-21 11:09:52', '2013-05-21 15:09:52', '', 'Reading in Simplified Chinese: Easy Exercises for Language Study', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130521', '', '', '2013-05-21 11:09:52', '2013-05-21 15:09:52', '', 1363, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130521.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1366, 1, '2013-05-21 11:05:02', '2013-05-21 15:05:02', '[two_third]\nFather\'s Day\'s coming up in a few weeks, and we\'ll be looking at the lyrics of a beginner-level saccharine-cute song written for children to sing to their dads (or, for the children of the digital generation, to forward to their dads) on their special day. This post is accompanied by a Flash Father\'s Day video where you can listen to the song on an INFINITE LOOP. Lucky you. \n\nHere\'s the original video with the actual song. http://new.060s.com/flash/flashbrow.php?flash=70648ecb985590c987c8ffd9b0b5edb1, have a listen if you dare. \n\nBecause this is a song, we have a couple of instances where a similar sentence structure is used with different words - these are probably the hardest sentences in the song. Example: 脏活累活他全包了. First, let me break down this sentence: \n\n脏 - Dirty\n活 - Activity, work\n累 - Tired\n活 - Activity, work\n他 - He\n全包 - All included\n了 - (grammar word)\n\nWhat? Dirty activity tired activity he all included?! What the heck does that mean? In proper English, we might translate that as \"Dirty work, Tired work, he does it all!\" We are, of course, talking about our amazing dads and all the thanklessly exhausting housework and job work they do. Thing is, there\'s nowhere in this sentence where the verb \"does\" as in \"to do work\" actually appears. We\'re just expected to infer the word from the context of 全包 - \"all included\". \n\nWe see the same sentence structure later in the song: 剩菜剩饭他全包了. The breakdown: \n\n剩 - Leftover\n菜 - Vegetables\n剩 - Leftover\n饭 - Rice\n他 - He \n全包 - All included\n了 (grammar word). \n\nOnce again, that strange \"all included\" - we are again expected to infer the verb here. Any guesses? The sentence means \"Leftover Vegetables, Leftover Rice, he eats it all!\" or \"He eats all the leftovers!\" So the missing word we kinda have to mentally fill in is \"eats\". \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n力气 - [pinyin]li4 qi4[/pinyin] - Strength\n脏活 - [pinyin]zang4 huo2[/pinyin] - Dirty work\n累活 - [pinyin]lei4 huo2[/pinyin] - Exhausting work\n肚量 - [pinyin]du4 liang4[/pinyin] - Generosity\n挣 - [pinyin]zheng1[/pinyin] - Earn (usually money)\n花 - [pinyin]hua1[/pinyin] - Spend (money)\n剩 - [pinyin]sheng4[/pinyin] - Surplus, leftover\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\n爸爸的力气真不小\n做得多说得少\n脏活累活他全包了\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\n爸爸的肚量真不小\n挣得多花得少\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\n挣得多花得少\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDad\'s the best, Dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best!\nDad\'s really got not shortage of strength \nHe does a lot but speaks little\nHe does all the dirty and tired work.\nDad\'s the best, dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best! \nDad\'s really got no shortage of generosity\nHe earns a lot but spends little\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \nHe earns a lot but spends little \nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \n[/hide-this-part]', 'Lyrics: Baba Hao, a Song for Father\'s Day', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1363-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-21 11:05:02', '2013-05-21 15:05:02', '', 1363, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/21/1363-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1367, 1, '2013-05-21 11:12:34', '2013-05-21 15:12:34', '[two_third]\r\nFather\'s Day\'s coming up in a few weeks, and we\'ll be looking at the lyrics of a beginner-level saccharine-cute song written for children to sing to their dads (or, for the children of the digital generation, to forward to their dads) on their special day. This post is accompanied by a Flash Father\'s Day video where you can listen to the song on an INFINITE LOOP. Lucky you. \r\n\r\nHere\'s the original video with the actual song. http://new.060s.com/flash/flashbrow.php?flash=70648ecb985590c987c8ffd9b0b5edb1, have a listen if you dare. \r\n\r\nBecause this is a song, we have a couple of instances where a similar sentence structure is used with different words - these are probably the hardest sentences in the song. Example: 脏活累活他全包了. First, let me break down this sentence: \r\n\r\n脏 - Dirty\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n累 - Tired\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n他 - He\r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 - (grammar word)\r\n\r\nWhat? Dirty activity tired activity he all included?! What the heck does that mean? In proper English, we might translate that as \"Dirty work, Tired work, he does it all!\" We are, of course, talking about our amazing dads and all the thanklessly exhausting housework and job work they do. Thing is, there\'s nowhere in this sentence where the verb \"does\" as in \"to do work\" actually appears. We\'re just expected to infer the word from the context of 全包 - \"all included\". \r\n\r\nWe see the same sentence structure later in the song: 剩菜剩饭他全包了. The breakdown: \r\n\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n菜 - Vegetables\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n饭 - Rice\r\n他 - He \r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 (grammar word). \r\n\r\nOnce again, that strange \"all included\" - we are again expected to infer the verb here. Any guesses? The sentence means \"Leftover Vegetables, Leftover Rice, he eats it all!\" or \"He eats all the leftovers!\" So the missing word we kinda have to mentally fill in is \"eats\". \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n力气 - [pinyin]li4 qi4[/pinyin] - Strength\r\n脏活 - [pinyin]zang4 huo2[/pinyin] - Dirty work\r\n累活 - [pinyin]lei4 huo2[/pinyin] - Exhausting work\r\n肚量 - [pinyin]du4 liang4[/pinyin] - Generosity\r\n挣 - [pinyin]zheng1[/pinyin] - Earn (usually money)\r\n花 - [pinyin]hua1[/pinyin] - Spend (money)\r\n剩 - [pinyin]sheng4[/pinyin] - Surplus, leftover\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的力气真不小\r\n做得多说得少\r\n脏活累活他全包了\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的肚量真不小\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDad\'s the best, Dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best!\r\nDad\'s really got not shortage of strength \r\nHe does a lot but speaks little\r\nHe does all the dirty and tired work.\r\nDad\'s the best, dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best! \r\nDad\'s really got no shortage of generosity\r\nHe earns a lot but spends little\r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\nHe earns a lot but spends little \r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Lyrics: Baba Hao, a Song for Father\'s Day', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1363-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-21 11:12:34', '2013-05-21 15:12:34', '', 1363, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/21/1363-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1368, 1, '2013-05-21 11:12:41', '2013-05-21 15:12:41', '[two_third]\r\nFather\'s Day\'s coming up in a few weeks, and we\'ll be looking at the lyrics of a beginner-level saccharine-cute song written for children to sing to their dads (or, for the children of the digital generation, to forward to their dads) on their special day. This post is accompanied by a Flash Father\'s Day video where you can listen to the song on an INFINITE LOOP. Lucky you. \r\n\r\nHere\'s the original video with the actual song. http://new.060s.com/flash/flashbrow.php?flash=70648ecb985590c987c8ffd9b0b5edb1, have a listen if you dare. \r\n\r\nBecause this is a song, we have a couple of instances where a similar sentence structure is used with different words - these are probably the hardest sentences in the song. Example: 脏活累活他全包了. First, let me break down this sentence: \r\n\r\n脏 - Dirty\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n累 - Tired\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n他 - He\r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 - (grammar word)\r\n\r\nWhat? Dirty activity tired activity he all included?! What the heck does that mean? In proper English, we might translate that as \"Dirty work, Tired work, he does it all!\" We are, of course, talking about our amazing dads and all the thanklessly exhausting housework and job work they do. Thing is, there\'s nowhere in this sentence where the verb \"does\" as in \"to do work\" actually appears. We\'re just expected to infer the word from the context of 全包 - \"all included\". \r\n\r\nWe see the same sentence structure later in the song: 剩菜剩饭他全包了. The breakdown: \r\n\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n菜 - Vegetables\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n饭 - Rice\r\n他 - He \r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 (grammar word). \r\n\r\nOnce again, that strange \"all included\" - we are again expected to infer the verb here. Any guesses? The sentence means \"Leftover Vegetables, Leftover Rice, he eats it all!\" or \"He eats all the leftovers!\" So the missing word we kinda have to mentally fill in is \"eats\". \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n力气 - [pinyin]li4 qi4[/pinyin] - Strength\r\n脏活 - [pinyin]zang4 huo2[/pinyin] - Dirty work\r\n累活 - [pinyin]lei4 huo2[/pinyin] - Exhausting work\r\n肚量 - [pinyin]du4 liang4[/pinyin] - Generosity\r\n挣 - [pinyin]zheng1[/pinyin] - Earn (usually money)\r\n花 - [pinyin]hua1[/pinyin] - Spend (money)\r\n剩 - [pinyin]sheng4[/pinyin] - Surplus, leftover\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的力气真不小\r\n做得多说得少\r\n脏活累活他全包了\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的肚量真不小\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDad\'s the best, Dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best!\r\nDad\'s really got not shortage of strength \r\nHe does a lot but speaks little\r\nHe does all the dirty and tired work.\r\nDad\'s the best, dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best! \r\nDad\'s really got no shortage of generosity\r\nHe earns a lot but spends little\r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\nHe earns a lot but spends little \r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Lyrics: Baba Hao, a Song for Father\'s Day', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1363-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-21 11:12:41', '2013-05-21 15:12:41', '', 1363, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/21/1363-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1369, 1, '2013-05-27 14:39:05', '2013-05-27 18:39:05', '\r\nThanks to Sina Weibo, China\'s most popular blog network, I stumbled across this neat art blog, which I recommend taking a stab at if you like art, as you\'ll learn a bunch of useful simplified Chiense artist vocabulary. This post discusses the fable-like origins of Ukiyo-e, a traditional style of Japanese art. The Chinese for \"Ukiyo-e\" is 浮世绘, or \"Floating world paintings\".\r\n\r\nI\'ve only translated the first paragraph here. Here\'s the original post, if you care to finish it on your own. The original post has the best pictures.\r\n\r\n印象派 - [pinyin]yin4 xiang4 pai4[/pinyin] - Impressionism\r\n梵高 - [pinyin]fan4 gao1[/pinyin] - Van Gogh\r\n以至于 - [pinyin]yi3 zhi4 yu2[/pinyin] - To the extent that...\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n19世纪初，一位荷兰商人在他的办公室里发现了他的日本瓷器包装纸上居然有一副美人肖像，姿态传神生动，但是却不同于他见过的所有西方肖像。显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他，他翻出了所有的瓷器包装纸，发现它们上面都有着色彩亮丽，内容各异的画面。从此以后，商人开始寻求这种日本版画之路。当时这类版画可谓是价格低廉，便于收藏。当他把这些藏品拿出来展览之时，几乎震撼了所有的来宾。这批日本版画就是“浮世绘”。这些版画对欧洲的画坛产生了深远的印象，以至于现在大家提起浮世绘，第一想到的是色情，第二想到的就是梵高和印象派。\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the beginning of the 19th century, a businessman from Holland was in his office when he suddenly noticed, [painted on] the wrapping paper of some porcelain, a beautiful portrait, the pose both vivid and lifelike, but it was unlike any of the Western portraits he had seen. Clearly this completely revolutionary work of art deeply attracted him, and he turned over every piece of porcelain wrapping paper, discovering that all of them were painted with a colorful, bright and beautiful scene, each one different. From then on, the businessman took to the road seeking this type of Japanese wood cut painting. At that time, this type of woodcut was actually quite cheap, and easy to collect. When he took these collector\'s items out and exhibited them, it practically stunned all the visitors. These Japanese woodcut paintings are \"Ukiyo-e\". These woodcuts had a deep and lasting influence on the European art world, so much so that when anyone raises the topic of ukiyo-e, the first association that comes to mind is pornography, the second is Van Gogh and Impressionism.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Historical Essays] 浮世绘 - The Tale of Japanese Ukiyo-e Woodblock Paintings', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'art-blog-the-tale-of-japanese-ukiyo-e-woodblock-paintings', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:42:57', '2016-11-04 10:42:57', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1369', 0, 'post', '', 5),
(2057, 1, '2016-11-04 06:42:57', '2016-11-04 10:42:57', '\r\nThanks to Sina Weibo, China\'s most popular blog network, I stumbled across this neat art blog, which I recommend taking a stab at if you like art, as you\'ll learn a bunch of useful simplified Chiense artist vocabulary. This post discusses the fable-like origins of Ukiyo-e, a traditional style of Japanese art. The Chinese for \"Ukiyo-e\" is 浮世绘, or \"Floating world paintings\".\r\n\r\nI\'ve only translated the first paragraph here. Here\'s the original post, if you care to finish it on your own. The original post has the best pictures.\r\n\r\n印象派 - [pinyin]yin4 xiang4 pai4[/pinyin] - Impressionism\r\n梵高 - [pinyin]fan4 gao1[/pinyin] - Van Gogh\r\n以至于 - [pinyin]yi3 zhi4 yu2[/pinyin] - To the extent that...\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n19世纪初，一位荷兰商人在他的办公室里发现了他的日本瓷器包装纸上居然有一副美人肖像，姿态传神生动，但是却不同于他见过的所有西方肖像。显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他，他翻出了所有的瓷器包装纸，发现它们上面都有着色彩亮丽，内容各异的画面。从此以后，商人开始寻求这种日本版画之路。当时这类版画可谓是价格低廉，便于收藏。当他把这些藏品拿出来展览之时，几乎震撼了所有的来宾。这批日本版画就是“浮世绘”。这些版画对欧洲的画坛产生了深远的印象，以至于现在大家提起浮世绘，第一想到的是色情，第二想到的就是梵高和印象派。\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the beginning of the 19th century, a businessman from Holland was in his office when he suddenly noticed, [painted on] the wrapping paper of some porcelain, a beautiful portrait, the pose both vivid and lifelike, but it was unlike any of the Western portraits he had seen. Clearly this completely revolutionary work of art deeply attracted him, and he turned over every piece of porcelain wrapping paper, discovering that all of them were painted with a colorful, bright and beautiful scene, each one different. From then on, the businessman took to the road seeking this type of Japanese wood cut painting. At that time, this type of woodcut was actually quite cheap, and easy to collect. When he took these collector\'s items out and exhibited them, it practically stunned all the visitors. These Japanese woodcut paintings are \"Ukiyo-e\". These woodcuts had a deep and lasting influence on the European art world, so much so that when anyone raises the topic of ukiyo-e, the first association that comes to mind is pornography, the second is Van Gogh and Impressionism.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Historical Essays] 浮世绘 - The Tale of Japanese Ukiyo-e Woodblock Paintings', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1369-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:42:57', '2016-11-04 10:42:57', '', 1369, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1369-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1370, 1, '2013-05-27 13:27:59', '2013-05-27 17:27:59', '[two_third]\nThanks to Sina Weibo, China\'s most popular blog network, I stumbled across this neat art blog, which I recommend taking a stab at if you like art - the vocabulary is upper-intermediate to advanced, but the sentence structure is conversational, which I love. \n\nThe Chinese for \"Ukiyo-e\" is 浮世绘, or \"Floating world paintings\". \n\nFor me, the hardest part of this read was the following phrase, which seems to make sense on its own, but makes little sense in the context of the sentence, was this: 不用于往日视觉经验的. \n\nI\'ve only translated the first paragraph here. Here\'s the original post, if you care to finish it on your own. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n力气 - [pinyin]li4 qi4[/pinyin] - Strength\n脏活 - [pinyin]zang4 huo2[/pinyin] - Dirty work\n累活 - [pinyin]lei4 huo2[/pinyin] - Exhausting work\n肚量 - [pinyin]du4 liang4[/pinyin] - Generosity\n挣 - [pinyin]zheng1[/pinyin] - Earn (usually money)\n花 - [pinyin]hua1[/pinyin] - Spend (money)\n剩 - [pinyin]sheng4[/pinyin] - Surplus, leftover\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n19世纪初，一位荷兰商人在他的办公室里发现了他的日本瓷器包装纸上居然有一副美人肖像，姿态传神生动，但是却不同于他见过的所有西方肖像。显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他，他翻出了所有的瓷器包装纸，发现它们上面都有着色彩亮丽，内容各异的画面。从此以后，商人开始寻求这种日本版画之路。当时这类版画可谓是价格低廉，便于收藏。当他把这些藏品拿出来展览之时，几乎震撼了所有的来宾。这批日本版画就是“浮世绘”。这些版画对欧洲的画坛产生了深远的印象，以至于现在大家提起浮世绘，第一想到的是色情，第二想到的就是梵高和印象派。\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nIn the beginning of the 19th century, a businessman from Holland was in his office when he suddenly noticed, [painted on] the wrapping paper of some porcelain, a beautiful portrait, the pose both vivid and lifelike, but it was unlike any of the Western portraits he had seen. Clearly this completely NEED NOT LOOK TO FORMER DAYS EXPERIENCE work of art deeply attracted him, and he turned over every piece of porcelain wrapping paper, discovering that all of them were painted with a colorful, bright and beautiful scene, each one different. From then on, the businessman took to the road seeking this type of Japanese wood cut painting. At that time, this type of woodcut was actually quite cheap, and easy to collect. When he took these collector\'s items out and exhibited them, it practically stunned all the visitors. These Japanese woodcut paintings are \"Ukiyo-e\". These woodcusts had a deep and lasting influence on the European art world, so much so that when anyone raises the topic of ukiyo-e, the first association that comes to mind is pornography, the second is Van Gogh and Impressionism. \n[/hide-this-part]', 'Art Blog: The Tale of Japanese Ukiyo-e Woodblock Paintings', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1369-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-27 13:27:59', '2013-05-27 17:27:59', '', 1369, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/27/1369-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1371, 1, '2013-05-27 13:35:33', '2013-05-27 17:35:33', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Art Vocabulary and Simplified Chinese Art Blogs', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130528', '', '', '2013-05-27 13:35:33', '2013-05-27 17:35:33', '', 1369, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130528.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1372, 1, '2013-05-27 13:35:35', '2013-05-27 17:35:35', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Art Vocabulary and Simplified Chinese Art Blogs', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130528-inline', '', '', '2013-05-27 13:35:35', '2013-05-27 17:35:35', '', 1369, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130528-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1373, 1, '2013-05-27 13:44:43', '2013-05-27 17:44:43', '[two_third]\n![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130528-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Learn")
Thanks to Sina Weibo, China\'s most popular blog network, I stumbled across this neat art blog, which I recommend taking a stab at if you like art, as you\'ll learn a bunch of useful simplified Chiense artist vocabulary. This post discusses the fable-like origins of Ukiyo-e, a traditional style of Japanese art. \n\nThe Chinese for \"Ukiyo-e\" is 浮世绘, or \"Floating world paintings\". \n\nFor me, the hardest part of this read was the following phrase, which seems to make sense on its own, but makes little sense in the context of the sentence, was this: 不用于往日视觉经验的. \n\nI\'m also a fan of the word 翻出 - \n\nI\'ve only translated the first paragraph here. Here\'s the original post, if you care to finish it on your own. The original post has the best pictures. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n荷兰 - [pinyin]he2 lan2[/pinyin] - Holland\n瓷器 - [pinyin]ci2 qi4[/pinyin] - Porcelain\n包装纸 - [pinyin]bao1 zhuang1 zhi3[/pinyin] - Wrapping paper\n肖像 - [pinyin]xiao4 xiang4[/pinyin] - Portrait\n姿态 - [pinyin]zi1 tai4[/pinyin] - Pose\n各异 - [pinyin]ge4 yi4[/pinyin] - All different\n版画 - [pinyin]ban3 hua4[/pinyin] - woodblock painting\n震撼 - [pinyin]zhen4 han4[/pinyin] - To shock, mind-blowing\n以至于 - [pinyin]yi3 zhi4 yu2[/pinyin] - To the extent that...\n色情 - [pinyin]se4 qing2[/pinyin] - Eroti\n梵高\n印象派\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n19世纪初，一位荷兰商人在他的办公室里发现了他的日本瓷器包装纸上居然有一副美人肖像，姿态传神生动，但是却不同于他见过的所有西方肖像。显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他，他翻出了所有的瓷器包装纸，发现它们上面都有着色彩亮丽，内容各异的画面。从此以后，商人开始寻求这种日本版画之路。当时这类版画可谓是价格低廉，便于收藏。当他把这些藏品拿出来展览之时，几乎震撼了所有的来宾。这批日本版画就是“浮世绘”。这些版画对欧洲的画坛产生了深远的印象，以至于现在大家提起浮世绘，第一想到的是色情，第二想到的就是梵高和印象派。\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nIn the beginning of the 19th century, a businessman from Holland was in his office when he suddenly noticed, [painted on] the wrapping paper of some porcelain, a beautiful portrait, the pose both vivid and lifelike, but it was unlike any of the Western portraits he had seen. Clearly this completely NEED NOT LOOK TO FORMER DAYS EXPERIENCE work of art deeply attracted him, and he turned over every piece of porcelain wrapping paper, discovering that all of them were painted with a colorful, bright and beautiful scene, each one different. From then on, the businessman took to the road seeking this type of Japanese wood cut painting. At that time, this type of woodcut was actually quite cheap, and easy to collect. When he took these collector\'s items out and exhibited them, it practically stunned all the visitors. These Japanese woodcut paintings are \"Ukiyo-e\". These woodcusts had a deep and lasting influence on the European art world, so much so that when anyone raises the topic of ukiyo-e, the first association that comes to mind is pornography, the second is Van Gogh and Impressionism. \n[/hide-this-part]', 'Art Blog: The Tale of Japanese Ukiyo-e Woodblock Paintings', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1369-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-27 13:44:43', '2013-05-27 17:44:43', '', 1369, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/27/1369-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1374, 1, '2012-08-22 22:56:59', '2012-08-23 02:56:59', 'The Basics
\r\nMy name is: Kendra\r\nI live in: Beijing\r\nAge: 29 \r\nFirst year in China: 2002\r\nWhat this site is for: This site doesn\'t exist to teach you Chinese from scratch - there are plenty of sites and programs that do that. But this collection might help you keep your skills fresh, practice recognizing sentence structure, or pick up the occasional new vocabulary word.\r\n\r\nThe Story
\r\nAfter spending a few years China studying Mandarin and working, I took a several-year hiatus and returned to my native country. It was alarming how quickly my language skills began disintegrating. I searched online for Chinese reading materials, and though I found plenty of dictionaries and flash card sources, I had a very difficult time finding something that was at an appropriate reading level, was different than the typical textbook-y stuff available online, was presented in a way that was easy to read, and that I was sure I could get through. I ended up spending more time looking for something that was suitable than actually doing any reading.\r\n\r\nAs someone who organizes her thoughts into a series of domain names, it was inevitable I\'d eventually start a website about it, and here you are. I post whenever I get a chance.\r\n\r\nAbout the Translations
\r\nMost (but not all) of the translations on this site are done by me, and I don\'t post anything unless I\'ve checked it several times, but that doesn\'t mean I haven\'t missed something. Do feel free to comment if you see anything that ought to have a better translation - it won\'t be taken amiss. \r\n\r\nIt\'s often quite difficult to do a word-for-word translation, as Chinese words that fit well into a particular Chinese sentence read very awkwardly after they\'ve been translated - sometimes a direct translation just sounds off. This is more and more true the higher your reading level. \r\n\r\nI\'ll often change the order of wording in a sentence so that it makes sense or reads well in English. You\'ll also notice that I often remove commas, split long Chinese sentences into two or more English sentences, or rearrange the order of clauses, which is necessary to accommodate Chinese grammar. The translation is meant as a guidepost to help point you in the right direction and keep you grounded in the text when needed - it\'s up to you to dissect sentence structure.\r\nHow I Classify Reading Levels
\r\nUltimately, my classifications are pretty arbitrary, but I\'ll try to lay out some of my basic reasoning here.\r\n\r\nBeginner - Very very few of these texts are actually beginner tests; at least I haven\'t been able to find any real beginner stuff yet (I\'m still looking for good sources of real beginner texts that aren\'t boring dialogs - if you know of any, please write!). This is because for any story, article or essay to really take shape, it usually must involve some intermediate grammar or intermediate vocabulary. This is why most truly beginner textbooks stick to dialogs as opposed to actual articles. In order to do any real reading, you\'ve got to at least know the basics of sentence structure. I will classify something as beginner if at least a couple of the following criteria are met:\r\n\r\n - The sentence structure is easy throughout
\r\n - It contains mostly simpler words that are in the dictionary
\r\n - There is no modern slang
\r\n - The subject matter is basic / or for children
\r\n - It\'s not too long
\r\n - It contains few or no idioms
\r\n- It contains intermediate vocabulary but the story structure is very repetitive, so you can pick up the thread more easily as you go along.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nIntermediate - I classify something as intermediate if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It\'s a longer piece that you have to hold a narrative thread through.
\r\n- The language is intermediate or upper-intermediate.
\r\n- There are some light idioms.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAdvanced - Most of what\'s out there online is advanced reading. That\'s why as of now, there are more advanced texts on here than anything else. I classify something as advanced if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It contains many specialized or technical words (technology, health, beauty, geography, etc.)
\r\n- It contains high-level structures, like newspaper-y or literary writing styles.
\r\n- It contains any archaic words.
\r\n- The sentence structure is very complicated.
\r\n- It contains a lot of modern slang.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nEnjoy, and good luck with your studies.', 'About', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '2-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-22 22:56:59', '2012-08-23 02:56:59', '', 2, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/22/2-revision-23/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1375, 1, '2013-05-13 05:32:06', '2013-05-13 09:32:06', '[two_third]\r\nI\'m not sure what stars aligned in the googley cosmos, but this is the second guest post I\'ve gotten this week. In this recipe post by blogger Rosie Zhao, we learn how to make cake in a rice cooker (bless you, Rosie, bless you). This is particularly relevant if you live in China, the land of no ovens. You can find the original post, with delicious cake-filled pictures, here. \r\n\r\nRosie says: \"Since living in China I\'ve become more and more interested in learning to cook western food from scratch. I want to try to recreate some of my favorites from back home in the U.S. I am trying to post some recipes in both English and Chinese on my blog in hopes that other expats as well as Chinese locals will give them a try. This recipe is my own and translated into Chinese with the help of my husband.\"\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n电饭煲 - [pinyin]dian4 fan4 bao1[/pinyin] - Rice cooker\r\n克 - [pinyin]ke4[/pinyin] - Gram\r\n毫升 - [pinyin]hao2 sheng1[/pinyin] - Milliliter\r\n室温的 - [pinyin]shi4 wen1 de5[/pinyin] - Room temperature\r\n捣碎 - [pinyin]dao3 sui4[/pinyin] - Mashed\r\n涂抹 - [pinyin]tu2 mo3[/pinyin] - Spread\r\n拌入 - [pinyin]ban4 ru4[/pinyin] - Stir in\r\n混合物 - [pinyin]hun4 he2 wu4[/pinyin] - Mixture\r\n跳闸 - [pinyin]tiao4 zha2[/pinyin] - Flips, switch\r\n牙签 - [pinyin]ya2 qian1[/pinyin] - Toothpick\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n水果反转蛋糕 （使用电饭煲做的）\r\n份量：8\r\n\r\n准备材料\r\n水果（比如：草莓，芒果）250 克\r\n黄油（常温的）115克或者油180毫升*\r\n白糖180克\r\n鸡蛋2个\r\n牛奶180毫升\r\n香草精5毫升 （可选可不选）**\r\n自发粉125克\r\n苏打粉1茶匙\r\n盐1小撮\r\n\r\n制作方法\r\n准备：10分钟 | 制作：15分钟 | 额外时间：10 分钟, 放凉\r\n1. 把水果放在碗里。使用一把叉子捣碎水果做水果泥。我用的水果是草莓和芒果，其他的水果也可，比如：香蕉，菠萝等。\r\n2. 用刷子把电饭煲内壁底部轻上一层油。\r\n3. 把水果泥放在电饭煲底,均匀涂抹。\r\n4. 拿一中碗，拌入面粉、苏打粉和盐混合在一起。\r\n5. 另拿一大碗里把室温的黄油（或者油）和白糖混合一起。拌入鸡蛋搅拌。后拌入香草精和牛奶搅拌。\r\n6. 慢慢将面粉混合物加入以上混合物拌均。\r\n7. 把混合物倒入电饭煲。\r\n8. 按“煮饭”的开关。蛋糕要制作大约15分钟。如果在这个时候煮饭开关已经跳闸了请等几分钟然后再按“煮饭”的开关。继续制作直至蛋糕完成为止。\r\n9. 蛋糕制作好了以后需要用牙签测试一下是否已经熟了，插进去拔出来没有碎屑就代表熟了反之则不熟。\r\n10. 让蛋糕冷却10分钟。用塑料或木制的勺子把蛋糕轻轻的取出来。\r\n11. 最后用一个碟子盖着锅然后翻转，这样有水果的一面就在上面了。可以多加一些新鲜的水果在蛋糕上面。\r\n\r\n*不同的油有不同的味道。做蛋糕的话，我觉得植物油或葵花籽油是最好的。\r\n**很多西式甜点要求香草精。如果您经常想做西式布丁，蛋糕，饼干等您应该买一瓶，在淘宝能买到。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nUpside Down Cake (in a rice cooker)\r\n\r\nServings: 8\r\n\r\nIngredients:\r\n1 c fruit\r\n½ c softened butter OR 3/8 c oil\r\n¾ c white sugar\r\n2 eggs\r\n3/8 c milk\r\n1 tsp vanilla extract optional\r\n1 c flour\r\n1 tsp baking soda\r\npinch of salt\r\n\r\nDirections:\r\n\r\n1. Mash fruit in a bowl, using a fork. I used strawberries and mangoes, but feel free to experiment!\r\n2. Grease the bottom of your rice cooker with oil or butter.\r\n3. Spread fruit in bottom of greased rice cooker.\r\n4. In a bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and salt.\r\n5. In a second bowl, cream butter (or oil) with sugar. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla extract and milk and mix.\r\n6. Stir dry mixture into wet mixture. Stir until combined.\r\n7. Pour batter into rice cooker.\r\n8. Close cooker and press \'cook\' button. The cake will probably take about 15 minutes to cook but the \'cook\' button will change to \'keep\' before that. Just let it stay on \'keep\' for a few minutes and then hit \'cook\' again. Repeat if needed.\r\n9. Check cake with toothpick, it should come out clean.\r\n10. Let cool for 10 minutes. When done, loosen cake from sides of rice cooker with a plastic or wooden spoon (or spatula).\r\n11. Flip onto plate and serve. Top with fresh fruit if desired.\r\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Guest Post by Rosie Zhao: Cake Without the Bake', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1357-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-13 05:32:06', '2013-05-13 09:32:06', '', 1357, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/13/1357-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1376, 1, '2013-05-27 14:38:11', '2013-05-27 18:38:11', '[two_third]\n Thanks to Sina Weibo, China\'s most popular blog network, I stumbled across this neat art blog, which I recommend taking a stab at if you like art, as you\'ll learn a bunch of useful simplified Chiense artist vocabulary. This post discusses the fable-like origins of Ukiyo-e, a traditional style of Japanese art. \n\nThe Chinese for \"Ukiyo-e\" is 浮世绘, or \"Floating world paintings\". \n\nFor me, the hardest part of this read was the following phrase, which seems to make sense on its own, but makes little sense in the context of the sentence, was this: 不用于往日视觉经验的. By itself, this says \"no use (不用于) in looking to days past (于往日) for this visual experience (视觉经验的)\". Okay, fair enough. But the full sentence is: 显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他. We\'ve got the beginning of the sentence (显然这种全然) - this means \"Obviously this type of completely...\". And we\'ve got the end of the sentence (作品深深的吸引了他), which means \"works of art deeply attracted him.\" But when we add the middle bit, the sentence no longer seems clear: \"Obviously this type of completely [no use in looking to days past for this visual experience] work of art deeply attracted him. \n\nWhat?\n\nI\'m told by my Chinese friend that this language is pretty rare, but turns out, the middle phrase is just a way of describing just how different from other things this Ukiyo-e actually was. There\'s \"no use consulting the past\" to re-live this experience, because the experience (seeing the work of art) has never been had before (by the person viewing). Anyone with input, please feel free to add to this. \n\nIf I were to write that sentence in English, I\'d replace that phrase with \"revolutionary\", but the word \"revolutionary\" in Chinese tends to call up a lot of other associations that aren\'t \n\nI\'m also a fan of the word 翻出 - \n\nI\'ve only translated the first paragraph here. Here\'s the original post, if you care to finish it on your own. The original post has the best pictures. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n荷兰 - [pinyin]he2 lan2[/pinyin] - Holland\n瓷器 - [pinyin]ci2 qi4[/pinyin] - Porcelain\n包装纸 - [pinyin]bao1 zhuang1 zhi3[/pinyin] - Wrapping paper\n肖像 - [pinyin]xiao4 xiang4[/pinyin] - Portrait\n姿态 - [pinyin]zi1 tai4[/pinyin] - Pose\n各异 - [pinyin]ge4 yi4[/pinyin] - All different\n版画 - [pinyin]ban3 hua4[/pinyin] - woodblock painting\n震撼 - [pinyin]zhen4 han4[/pinyin] - To shock, mind-blowing\n以至于 - [pinyin]yi3 zhi4 yu2[/pinyin] - To the extent that...\n色情 - [pinyin]se4 qing2[/pinyin] - Erotic\n梵高 - [pinyin]fan4 gao1[/pinyin] - Van Gogh\n印象派 - [pinyin]yin4 xiang4 pai4[/pinyin] - Impressionism\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n19世纪初，一位荷兰商人在他的办公室里发现了他的日本瓷器包装纸上居然有一副美人肖像，姿态传神生动，但是却不同于他见过的所有西方肖像。显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他，他翻出了所有的瓷器包装纸，发现它们上面都有着色彩亮丽，内容各异的画面。从此以后，商人开始寻求这种日本版画之路。当时这类版画可谓是价格低廉，便于收藏。当他把这些藏品拿出来展览之时，几乎震撼了所有的来宾。这批日本版画就是“浮世绘”。这些版画对欧洲的画坛产生了深远的印象，以至于现在大家提起浮世绘，第一想到的是色情，第二想到的就是梵高和印象派。\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nIn the beginning of the 19th century, a businessman from Holland was in his office when he suddenly noticed, [painted on] the wrapping paper of some porcelain, a beautiful portrait, the pose both vivid and lifelike, but it was unlike any of the Western portraits he had seen. Clearly this completely NEED NOT LOOK TO FORMER DAYS EXPERIENCE work of art deeply attracted him, and he turned over every piece of porcelain wrapping paper, discovering that all of them were painted with a colorful, bright and beautiful scene, each one different. From then on, the businessman took to the road seeking this type of Japanese wood cut painting. At that time, this type of woodcut was actually quite cheap, and easy to collect. When he took these collector\'s items out and exhibited them, it practically stunned all the visitors. These Japanese woodcut paintings are \"Ukiyo-e\". These woodcusts had a deep and lasting influence on the European art world, so much so that when anyone raises the topic of ukiyo-e, the first association that comes to mind is pornography, the second is Van Gogh and Impressionism. \n[/hide-this-part]', 'Art Blog: The Tale of Japanese Ukiyo-e Woodblock Paintings', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1369-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-27 14:38:11', '2013-05-27 18:38:11', '', 1369, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/27/1369-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1377, 1, '2016-11-04 06:42:45', '2016-11-04 10:42:45', '\nThanks to Sina Weibo, China\'s most popular blog network, I stumbled across this neat art blog, which I recommend taking a stab at if you like art, as you\'ll learn a bunch of useful simplified Chiense artist vocabulary. This post discusses the fable-like origins of Ukiyo-e, a traditional style of Japanese art. The Chinese for \"Ukiyo-e\" is 浮世绘, or \"Floating world paintings\".\n\nI\'ve only translated the first paragraph here. Here\'s the original post, if you care to finish it on your own. The original post has the best pictures.\n\n印象派 - [pinyin]yin4 xiang4 pai4[/pinyin] - Impressionism\n梵高 - [pinyin]fan4 gao1[/pinyin] - Van Gogh\n以至于 - [pinyin]yi3 zhi4 yu2[/pinyin] - To the extent that...\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n
Chinese text
\n19世纪初，一位荷兰商人在他的办公室里发现了他的日本瓷器包装纸上居然有一副美人肖像，姿态传神生动，但是却不同于他见过的所有西方肖像。显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他，他翻出了所有的瓷器包装纸，发现它们上面都有着色彩亮丽，内容各异的画面。从此以后，商人开始寻求这种日本版画之路。当时这类版画可谓是价格低廉，便于收藏。当他把这些藏品拿出来展览之时，几乎震撼了所有的来宾。这批日本版画就是“浮世绘”。这些版画对欧洲的画坛产生了深远的印象，以至于现在大家提起浮世绘，第一想到的是色情，第二想到的就是梵高和印象派。\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nIn the beginning of the 19th century, a businessman from Holland was in his office when he suddenly noticed, [painted on] the wrapping paper of some porcelain, a beautiful portrait, the pose both vivid and lifelike, but it was unlike any of the Western portraits he had seen. Clearly this completely revolutionary work of art deeply attracted him, and he turned over every piece of porcelain wrapping paper, discovering that all of them were painted with a colorful, bright and beautiful scene, each one different. From then on, the businessman took to the road seeking this type of Japanese wood cut painting. At that time, this type of woodcut was actually quite cheap, and easy to collect. When he took these collector\'s items out and exhibited them, it practically stunned all the visitors. These Japanese woodcut paintings are \"Ukiyo-e\". These woodcuts had a deep and lasting influence on the European art world, so much so that when anyone raises the topic of ukiyo-e, the first association that comes to mind is pornography, the second is Van Gogh and Impressionism.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Historical Essays] 浮世绘 - The Tale of Japanese Ukiyo-e Woodblock Paintings', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1369-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:42:45', '2016-11-04 10:42:45', '', 1369, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/27/1369-autosave/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2058, 1, '2016-11-18 19:08:53', '2016-11-19 00:08:53', 'Father\'s Day\'s coming up in a few weeks, and we\'ll be looking at the lyrics of a beginner-level saccharine-cute song written for children to sing to their dads (or, for the children of the digital generation, to forward to their dads) on their special day. This post is accompanied by a Flash Father\'s Day video where you can listen to the song on an INFINITE LOOP. Lucky you. \n\nHere\'s the original video with the actual song. http://new.060s.com/flash/flashbrow.php?flash=70648ecb985590c987c8ffd9b0b5edb1, have a listen if you dare. \n\nBecause this is a song, we have a couple of instances where a similar sentence structure is used with different words - these are probably the hardest sentences in the song. Example: 脏活累活他全包了. First, let me break down this sentence: \n\n脏 - Dirty\n活 - Activity, work\n累 - Tired\n活 - Activity, work\n他 - He\n全包 - All included\n了 - (grammar word)\n\nWhat? Dirty activity tired activity he all included?! What the heck does that mean? In proper English, we might translate that as \"Dirty work, Tired work, he does it all!\" We are, of course, talking about our amazing dads and all the thanklessly exhausting housework and job work they do. Thing is, there\'s nowhere in this sentence where the verb \"does\" as in \"to do work\" actually appears. We\'re just expected to infer the word from the context of 全包 - \"all included\". \n\nWe see the same sentence structure later in the song: 剩菜剩饭他全包了. The breakdown: \n\n剩 - Leftover\n菜 - Vegetables\n剩 - Leftover\n饭 - Rice\n他 - He \n全包 - All included\n了 (grammar word). \n\nOnce again, that strange \"all included\" - we are again expected to infer the verb here. Any guesses? The sentence means \"Leftover Vegetables, Leftover Rice, he eats it all!\" or \"He eats all the leftovers!\" So the missing word we kinda have to mentally fill in is \"eats\". \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n
Chinese text
\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\n爸爸的力气真不小\n做得多说得少\n脏活累活他全包了\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\n爸爸的肚量真不小\n挣得多花得少\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\n挣得多花得少\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\n\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDad\'s the best, Dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best!\nDad\'s really got no shortage of strength \nHe does a lot but speaks little\nHe does all the dirty and tired work.\nDad\'s the best, dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best! \nDad\'s really got no shortage of generosity\nHe earns a lot but spends little\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \nHe earns a lot but spends little \nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \n[/hide-this-part]', '[Chinese Children\'s Songs] 爸爸好 - Baba Hao, a Song for Father\'s Day', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1363-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 19:08:53', '2016-11-19 00:08:53', '', 1363, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1363-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1378, 1, '2013-05-27 14:39:05', '2013-05-27 18:39:05', '[two_third]\r\n Thanks to Sina Weibo, China\'s most popular blog network, I stumbled across this neat art blog, which I recommend taking a stab at if you like art, as you\'ll learn a bunch of useful simplified Chiense artist vocabulary. This post discusses the fable-like origins of Ukiyo-e, a traditional style of Japanese art. \r\n\r\nThe Chinese for \"Ukiyo-e\" is 浮世绘, or \"Floating world paintings\". \r\n\r\nFor me, the hardest part of this read was the following phrase, which seems to make sense on its own, but makes little sense in the context of the sentence, was this: 不用于往日视觉经验的. By itself, this says \"no use (不用于) in looking to days past (于往日) for this visual experience (视觉经验的)\". Okay, fair enough. But the full sentence is: 显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他. We\'ve got the beginning of the sentence (显然这种全然) - this means \"Obviously this type of completely...\". And we\'ve got the end of the sentence (作品深深的吸引了他), which means \"works of art deeply attracted him.\" But when we add the middle bit, the sentence no longer seems clear: \"Obviously this type of completely [no use in looking to days past for this visual experience] work of art deeply attracted him. \r\n\r\nWhat?\r\n\r\nI\'m told by my Chinese friend that this language is pretty rare, but turns out, the middle phrase is just a way of describing just how different from other things this Ukiyo-e actually was. There\'s \"no use consulting the past\" to re-live this experience, because the experience (seeing the work of art) has never been had before (by the person viewing). Anyone with input, please feel free to add to this. \r\n\r\nIf I were to write that sentence in English, I\'d replace that phrase with \"revolutionary\" - \"Obviously this type of completely revolutionary artwork deeply attracted him\" - but the word \"revolutionary\" in Chinese tends to call up a lot of other associations that aren\'t relevant in this context. \r\n\r\nI\'ve only translated the first paragraph here. Here\'s the original post, if you care to finish it on your own. The original post has the best pictures. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n荷兰 - [pinyin]he2 lan2[/pinyin] - Holland\r\n瓷器 - [pinyin]ci2 qi4[/pinyin] - Porcelain\r\n包装纸 - [pinyin]bao1 zhuang1 zhi3[/pinyin] - Wrapping paper\r\n肖像 - [pinyin]xiao4 xiang4[/pinyin] - Portrait\r\n姿态 - [pinyin]zi1 tai4[/pinyin] - Pose\r\n各异 - [pinyin]ge4 yi4[/pinyin] - All different\r\n版画 - [pinyin]ban3 hua4[/pinyin] - woodblock painting\r\n震撼 - [pinyin]zhen4 han4[/pinyin] - To shock, mind-blowing\r\n以至于 - [pinyin]yi3 zhi4 yu2[/pinyin] - To the extent that...\r\n色情 - [pinyin]se4 qing2[/pinyin] - Erotic\r\n梵高 - [pinyin]fan4 gao1[/pinyin] - Van Gogh\r\n印象派 - [pinyin]yin4 xiang4 pai4[/pinyin] - Impressionism\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n19世纪初，一位荷兰商人在他的办公室里发现了他的日本瓷器包装纸上居然有一副美人肖像，姿态传神生动，但是却不同于他见过的所有西方肖像。显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他，他翻出了所有的瓷器包装纸，发现它们上面都有着色彩亮丽，内容各异的画面。从此以后，商人开始寻求这种日本版画之路。当时这类版画可谓是价格低廉，便于收藏。当他把这些藏品拿出来展览之时，几乎震撼了所有的来宾。这批日本版画就是“浮世绘”。这些版画对欧洲的画坛产生了深远的印象，以至于现在大家提起浮世绘，第一想到的是色情，第二想到的就是梵高和印象派。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the beginning of the 19th century, a businessman from Holland was in his office when he suddenly noticed, [painted on] the wrapping paper of some porcelain, a beautiful portrait, the pose both vivid and lifelike, but it was unlike any of the Western portraits he had seen. Clearly this completely NEED NOT LOOK TO FORMER DAYS EXPERIENCE work of art deeply attracted him, and he turned over every piece of porcelain wrapping paper, discovering that all of them were painted with a colorful, bright and beautiful scene, each one different. From then on, the businessman took to the road seeking this type of Japanese wood cut painting. At that time, this type of woodcut was actually quite cheap, and easy to collect. When he took these collector\'s items out and exhibited them, it practically stunned all the visitors. These Japanese woodcut paintings are \"Ukiyo-e\". These woodcusts had a deep and lasting influence on the European art world, so much so that when anyone raises the topic of ukiyo-e, the first association that comes to mind is pornography, the second is Van Gogh and Impressionism. \r\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Art Blog: The Tale of Japanese Ukiyo-e Woodblock Paintings', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1369-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-27 14:39:05', '2013-05-27 18:39:05', '', 1369, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/27/1369-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1379, 1, '2013-05-27 14:41:13', '2013-05-27 18:41:13', '[two_third]\r\nThanks to Sina Weibo, China\'s most popular blog network, I stumbled across this neat art blog, which I recommend taking a stab at if you like art, as you\'ll learn a bunch of useful simplified Chiense artist vocabulary. This post discusses the fable-like origins of Ukiyo-e, a traditional style of Japanese art. The Chinese for \"Ukiyo-e\" is 浮世绘, or \"Floating world paintings\".\r\n\r\nFor me, the hardest part of this read was the following phrase, which seems to make sense on its own, but makes little sense in the context of the sentence, was this: 不用于往日视觉经验的. By itself, this says \"no use (不用于) in looking to days past (于往日) for this visual experience (视觉经验的)\". Okay, fair enough. But the full sentence is: 显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他. We\'ve got the beginning of the sentence (显然这种全然) - this means \"Obviously this type of completely...\". And we\'ve got the end of the sentence (作品深深的吸引了他), which means \"works of art deeply attracted him.\" But when we add the middle bit, the sentence no longer seems clear: \"Obviously this type of completely [no use in looking to days past for this visual experience] work of art deeply attracted him.\r\n\r\nWhat?\r\n\r\nI\'m told by my Chinese friend that this language is pretty rare, but turns out, the middle phrase is just a way of describing just how different from other things this Ukiyo-e actually was. There\'s \"no use consulting the past\" to re-live this experience, because the experience (seeing the work of art) has never been had before (by the person viewing). Anyone with input, please feel free to add to this.\r\n\r\nIf I were to write that sentence in English, I\'d replace that phrase with \"revolutionary\" - \"Obviously this type of completely revolutionary artwork deeply attracted him\" - but the word \"revolutionary\" in Chinese tends to call up a lot of other associations that aren\'t relevant in this context.\r\n\r\nI\'ve only translated the first paragraph here. Here\'s the original post, if you care to finish it on your own. The original post has the best pictures.\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n荷兰 - [pinyin]he2 lan2[/pinyin] - Holland\r\n瓷器 - [pinyin]ci2 qi4[/pinyin] - Porcelain\r\n包装纸 - [pinyin]bao1 zhuang1 zhi3[/pinyin] - Wrapping paper\r\n肖像 - [pinyin]xiao4 xiang4[/pinyin] - Portrait\r\n姿态 - [pinyin]zi1 tai4[/pinyin] - Pose\r\n各异 - [pinyin]ge4 yi4[/pinyin] - All different\r\n版画 - [pinyin]ban3 hua4[/pinyin] - woodblock painting\r\n震撼 - [pinyin]zhen4 han4[/pinyin] - To shock, mind-blowing\r\n以至于 - [pinyin]yi3 zhi4 yu2[/pinyin] - To the extent that...\r\n色情 - [pinyin]se4 qing2[/pinyin] - Erotic\r\n梵高 - [pinyin]fan4 gao1[/pinyin] - Van Gogh\r\n印象派 - [pinyin]yin4 xiang4 pai4[/pinyin] - Impressionism\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n19世纪初，一位荷兰商人在他的办公室里发现了他的日本瓷器包装纸上居然有一副美人肖像，姿态传神生动，但是却不同于他见过的所有西方肖像。显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他，他翻出了所有的瓷器包装纸，发现它们上面都有着色彩亮丽，内容各异的画面。从此以后，商人开始寻求这种日本版画之路。当时这类版画可谓是价格低廉，便于收藏。当他把这些藏品拿出来展览之时，几乎震撼了所有的来宾。这批日本版画就是“浮世绘”。这些版画对欧洲的画坛产生了深远的印象，以至于现在大家提起浮世绘，第一想到的是色情，第二想到的就是梵高和印象派。
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the beginning of the 19th century, a businessman from Holland was in his office when he suddenly noticed, [painted on] the wrapping paper of some porcelain, a beautiful portrait, the pose both vivid and lifelike, but it was unlike any of the Western portraits he had seen. Clearly this completely NEED NOT LOOK TO FORMER DAYS EXPERIENCE work of art deeply attracted him, and he turned over every piece of porcelain wrapping paper, discovering that all of them were painted with a colorful, bright and beautiful scene, each one different. From then on, the businessman took to the road seeking this type of Japanese wood cut painting. At that time, this type of woodcut was actually quite cheap, and easy to collect. When he took these collector\'s items out and exhibited them, it practically stunned all the visitors. These Japanese woodcut paintings are \"Ukiyo-e\". These woodcusts had a deep and lasting influence on the European art world, so much so that when anyone raises the topic of ukiyo-e, the first association that comes to mind is pornography, the second is Van Gogh and Impressionism.\r\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Art Blog: The Tale of Japanese Ukiyo-e Woodblock Paintings', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1369-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-27 14:41:13', '2013-05-27 18:41:13', '', 1369, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/27/1369-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1380, 1, '2013-05-27 14:42:14', '2013-05-27 18:42:14', '[two_third]\r\nThanks to Sina Weibo, China\'s most popular blog network, I stumbled across this neat art blog, which I recommend taking a stab at if you like art, as you\'ll learn a bunch of useful simplified Chiense artist vocabulary. This post discusses the fable-like origins of Ukiyo-e, a traditional style of Japanese art. The Chinese for \"Ukiyo-e\" is 浮世绘, or \"Floating world paintings\".\r\n\r\nFor me, the hardest part of this read was the following phrase, which seems to make sense on its own, but makes little sense in the context of the sentence: 不用于往日视觉经验的. By itself, this says \"no use (不用于) in looking to days past (于往日) for this visual experience (视觉经验的)\". Okay, fair enough. But the full sentence is: 显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他. We\'ve got the beginning of the sentence (显然这种全然) - this means \"Obviously this type of completely...\". And we\'ve got the end of the sentence (作品深深的吸引了他), which means \"works of art deeply attracted him.\" But when we add the middle bit, the sentence no longer seems clear: \"Obviously this type of completely [no use in looking to days past for this visual experience] work of art deeply attracted him.\r\n\r\nWhat?\r\n\r\nI\'m told by my Chinese friend that this language is pretty rare, but turns out, the middle phrase is just a way of describing just how different from other things this Ukiyo-e actually was. There\'s \"no use consulting the past\" to re-live this experience, because the experience (seeing the work of art) has never been had before (by the person viewing). Anyone with input, please feel free to add to this.\r\n\r\nIf I were to write that sentence in English, I\'d replace that phrase with \"revolutionary\" - \"Obviously this type of completely revolutionary artwork deeply attracted him\" - but the word \"revolutionary\" in Chinese tends to call up a lot of other associations that aren\'t relevant in this context.\r\n\r\nI\'ve only translated the first paragraph here. Here\'s the original post, if you care to finish it on your own. The original post has the best pictures.\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n荷兰 - [pinyin]he2 lan2[/pinyin] - Holland\r\n瓷器 - [pinyin]ci2 qi4[/pinyin] - Porcelain\r\n包装纸 - [pinyin]bao1 zhuang1 zhi3[/pinyin] - Wrapping paper\r\n肖像 - [pinyin]xiao4 xiang4[/pinyin] - Portrait\r\n姿态 - [pinyin]zi1 tai4[/pinyin] - Pose\r\n各异 - [pinyin]ge4 yi4[/pinyin] - All different\r\n版画 - [pinyin]ban3 hua4[/pinyin] - woodblock painting\r\n震撼 - [pinyin]zhen4 han4[/pinyin] - To shock, mind-blowing\r\n以至于 - [pinyin]yi3 zhi4 yu2[/pinyin] - To the extent that...\r\n色情 - [pinyin]se4 qing2[/pinyin] - Erotic\r\n梵高 - [pinyin]fan4 gao1[/pinyin] - Van Gogh\r\n印象派 - [pinyin]yin4 xiang4 pai4[/pinyin] - Impressionism\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n19世纪初，一位荷兰商人在他的办公室里发现了他的日本瓷器包装纸上居然有一副美人肖像，姿态传神生动，但是却不同于他见过的所有西方肖像。显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他，他翻出了所有的瓷器包装纸，发现它们上面都有着色彩亮丽，内容各异的画面。从此以后，商人开始寻求这种日本版画之路。当时这类版画可谓是价格低廉，便于收藏。当他把这些藏品拿出来展览之时，几乎震撼了所有的来宾。这批日本版画就是“浮世绘”。这些版画对欧洲的画坛产生了深远的印象，以至于现在大家提起浮世绘，第一想到的是色情，第二想到的就是梵高和印象派。
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the beginning of the 19th century, a businessman from Holland was in his office when he suddenly noticed, [painted on] the wrapping paper of some porcelain, a beautiful portrait, the pose both vivid and lifelike, but it was unlike any of the Western portraits he had seen. Clearly this completely NEED NOT LOOK TO FORMER DAYS EXPERIENCE work of art deeply attracted him, and he turned over every piece of porcelain wrapping paper, discovering that all of them were painted with a colorful, bright and beautiful scene, each one different. From then on, the businessman took to the road seeking this type of Japanese wood cut painting. At that time, this type of woodcut was actually quite cheap, and easy to collect. When he took these collector\'s items out and exhibited them, it practically stunned all the visitors. These Japanese woodcut paintings are \"Ukiyo-e\". These woodcusts had a deep and lasting influence on the European art world, so much so that when anyone raises the topic of ukiyo-e, the first association that comes to mind is pornography, the second is Van Gogh and Impressionism.\r\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Art Blog: The Tale of Japanese Ukiyo-e Woodblock Paintings', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1369-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-27 14:42:14', '2013-05-27 18:42:14', '', 1369, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/27/1369-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1381, 1, '2013-05-27 14:42:32', '2013-05-27 18:42:32', '[two_third]\r\nThanks to Sina Weibo, China\'s most popular blog network, I stumbled across this neat art blog, which I recommend taking a stab at if you like art, as you\'ll learn a bunch of useful simplified Chiense artist vocabulary. This post discusses the fable-like origins of Ukiyo-e, a traditional style of Japanese art. The Chinese for \"Ukiyo-e\" is 浮世绘, or \"Floating world paintings\".\r\n\r\nFor me, the hardest part of this read was the following phrase, which seems to make sense on its own, but makes little sense in the context of the sentence: 不用于往日视觉经验的. By itself, this says \"no use (不用) in looking to days past (于往日) for this visual experience (视觉经验的)\". Okay, fair enough. But the full sentence is: 显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他. We\'ve got the beginning of the sentence (显然这种全然) - this means \"Obviously this type of completely...\". And we\'ve got the end of the sentence (作品深深的吸引了他), which means \"works of art deeply attracted him.\" But when we add the middle bit, the sentence no longer seems clear: \"Obviously this type of completely [no use in looking to days past for this visual experience] work of art deeply attracted him.\r\n\r\nWhat?\r\n\r\nI\'m told by my Chinese friend that this language is pretty rare, but turns out, the middle phrase is just a way of describing just how different from other things this Ukiyo-e actually was. There\'s \"no use consulting the past\" to re-live this experience, because the experience (seeing the work of art) has never been had before (by the person viewing). Anyone with input, please feel free to add to this.\r\n\r\nIf I were to write that sentence in English, I\'d replace that phrase with \"revolutionary\" - \"Obviously this type of completely revolutionary artwork deeply attracted him\" - but the word \"revolutionary\" in Chinese tends to call up a lot of other associations that aren\'t relevant in this context.\r\n\r\nI\'ve only translated the first paragraph here. Here\'s the original post, if you care to finish it on your own. The original post has the best pictures.\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n荷兰 - [pinyin]he2 lan2[/pinyin] - Holland\r\n瓷器 - [pinyin]ci2 qi4[/pinyin] - Porcelain\r\n包装纸 - [pinyin]bao1 zhuang1 zhi3[/pinyin] - Wrapping paper\r\n肖像 - [pinyin]xiao4 xiang4[/pinyin] - Portrait\r\n姿态 - [pinyin]zi1 tai4[/pinyin] - Pose\r\n各异 - [pinyin]ge4 yi4[/pinyin] - All different\r\n版画 - [pinyin]ban3 hua4[/pinyin] - woodblock painting\r\n震撼 - [pinyin]zhen4 han4[/pinyin] - To shock, mind-blowing\r\n以至于 - [pinyin]yi3 zhi4 yu2[/pinyin] - To the extent that...\r\n色情 - [pinyin]se4 qing2[/pinyin] - Erotic\r\n梵高 - [pinyin]fan4 gao1[/pinyin] - Van Gogh\r\n印象派 - [pinyin]yin4 xiang4 pai4[/pinyin] - Impressionism\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n19世纪初，一位荷兰商人在他的办公室里发现了他的日本瓷器包装纸上居然有一副美人肖像，姿态传神生动，但是却不同于他见过的所有西方肖像。显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他，他翻出了所有的瓷器包装纸，发现它们上面都有着色彩亮丽，内容各异的画面。从此以后，商人开始寻求这种日本版画之路。当时这类版画可谓是价格低廉，便于收藏。当他把这些藏品拿出来展览之时，几乎震撼了所有的来宾。这批日本版画就是“浮世绘”。这些版画对欧洲的画坛产生了深远的印象，以至于现在大家提起浮世绘，第一想到的是色情，第二想到的就是梵高和印象派。
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the beginning of the 19th century, a businessman from Holland was in his office when he suddenly noticed, [painted on] the wrapping paper of some porcelain, a beautiful portrait, the pose both vivid and lifelike, but it was unlike any of the Western portraits he had seen. Clearly this completely NEED NOT LOOK TO FORMER DAYS EXPERIENCE work of art deeply attracted him, and he turned over every piece of porcelain wrapping paper, discovering that all of them were painted with a colorful, bright and beautiful scene, each one different. From then on, the businessman took to the road seeking this type of Japanese wood cut painting. At that time, this type of woodcut was actually quite cheap, and easy to collect. When he took these collector\'s items out and exhibited them, it practically stunned all the visitors. These Japanese woodcut paintings are \"Ukiyo-e\". These woodcusts had a deep and lasting influence on the European art world, so much so that when anyone raises the topic of ukiyo-e, the first association that comes to mind is pornography, the second is Van Gogh and Impressionism.\r\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Art Blog: The Tale of Japanese Ukiyo-e Woodblock Paintings', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1369-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-27 14:42:32', '2013-05-27 18:42:32', '', 1369, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/27/1369-revision-7/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1382, 1, '2013-05-27 14:21:51', '2013-05-27 18:21:51', 'The Basics
\r\nMy name is: Kendra\r\nI live in: Beijing\r\nAge: 30 \r\nFirst year in China: 2002\r\nWhat this site is for: This site doesn\'t exist to teach you Chinese from scratch - there are plenty of sites and programs that do that. But this collection might help you keep your skills fresh, practice recognizing sentence structure, or pick up the occasional new vocabulary word.\r\n\r\nThe Story
\r\nAfter spending a few years China studying Mandarin and working, I took a several-year hiatus and returned to my native country. It was alarming how quickly my language skills began disintegrating. I searched online for Chinese reading materials, and though I found plenty of dictionaries and flash card sources, I had a very difficult time finding something that was at an appropriate reading level, was different than the typical textbook-y stuff available online, was presented in a way that was easy to read, and that I was sure I could get through. I ended up spending more time looking for something that was suitable than actually doing any reading.\r\n\r\nAs someone who organizes her thoughts into a series of domain names, it was inevitable I\'d eventually start a website about it, and here you are. I post whenever I get a chance.\r\n\r\nAbout the Translations
\r\nMost (but not all) of the translations on this site are done by me, and I don\'t post anything unless I\'ve checked it several times, but that doesn\'t mean I haven\'t missed something. Do feel free to comment if you see anything that ought to have a better translation - it won\'t be taken amiss. \r\n\r\nIt\'s often quite difficult to do a word-for-word translation, as Chinese words that fit well into a particular Chinese sentence read very awkwardly after they\'ve been translated - sometimes a direct translation just sounds off. This is more and more true the higher your reading level. \r\n\r\nI\'ll often change the order of wording in a sentence so that it makes sense or reads well in English. You\'ll also notice that I often remove commas, split long Chinese sentences into two or more English sentences, or rearrange the order of clauses, which is necessary to accommodate Chinese grammar. The translation is meant as a guidepost to help point you in the right direction and keep you grounded in the text when needed - it\'s up to you to dissect sentence structure.\r\nHow I Classify Reading Levels
\r\nUltimately, my classifications are pretty arbitrary, but I\'ll try to lay out some of my basic reasoning here.\r\n\r\nBeginner - Very very few of these texts are actually beginner tests; at least I haven\'t been able to find any real beginner stuff yet (I\'m still looking for good sources of real beginner texts that aren\'t boring dialogs - if you know of any, please write!). This is because for any story, article or essay to really take shape, it usually must involve some intermediate grammar or intermediate vocabulary. This is why most truly beginner textbooks stick to dialogs as opposed to actual articles. In order to do any real reading, you\'ve got to at least know the basics of sentence structure. I will classify something as beginner if at least a couple of the following criteria are met:\r\n\r\n - The sentence structure is easy throughout
\r\n - It contains mostly simpler words that are in the dictionary
\r\n - There is no modern slang
\r\n - The subject matter is basic / or for children
\r\n - It\'s not too long
\r\n - It contains few or no idioms
\r\n- It contains intermediate vocabulary but the story structure is very repetitive, so you can pick up the thread more easily as you go along.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nIntermediate - I classify something as intermediate if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It\'s a longer piece that you have to hold a narrative thread through.
\r\n- The language is intermediate or upper-intermediate.
\r\n- There are some light idioms.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAdvanced - Most of what\'s out there online is advanced reading. That\'s why as of now, there are more advanced texts on here than anything else. I classify something as advanced if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It contains many specialized or technical words (technology, health, beauty, geography, etc.)
\r\n- It contains high-level structures, like newspaper-y or literary writing styles.
\r\n- It contains any archaic words.
\r\n- The sentence structure is very complicated.
\r\n- It contains a lot of modern slang.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nEnjoy, and good luck with your studies.', 'About', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '2-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-27 14:21:51', '2013-05-27 18:21:51', '', 2, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/27/2-revision-24/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1383, 1, '2013-05-27 14:43:32', '2013-05-27 18:43:32', '[two_third]\r\nThanks to Sina Weibo, China\'s most popular blog network, I stumbled across this neat art blog, which I recommend taking a stab at if you like art, as you\'ll learn a bunch of useful simplified Chiense artist vocabulary. This post discusses the fable-like origins of Ukiyo-e, a traditional style of Japanese art. The Chinese for \"Ukiyo-e\" is 浮世绘, or \"Floating world paintings\".\r\n\r\nFor me, the hardest part of this read was the following phrase, which seems to make sense on its own, but makes little sense in the context of the sentence: 不用于往日视觉经验的. By itself, this says \"no use (不用) in looking to days past (于往日) for this visual experience (视觉经验的)\". Okay, fair enough. But the full sentence is: 显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他. We\'ve got the beginning of the sentence (显然这种全然) - this means \"Obviously this type of completely...\". And we\'ve got the end of the sentence (作品深深的吸引了他), which means \"works of art deeply attracted him.\" But when we add the middle bit, the sentence no longer seems clear: \"Obviously this type of completely [no use in looking to days past for this visual experience] work of art deeply attracted him.\r\n\r\nWhat?\r\n\r\nI\'m told by my Chinese friend that this language is pretty rare, but turns out, the middle phrase is just a way of describing just how different from other things this Ukiyo-e actually was. There\'s \"no use consulting the past\" to re-live this experience, because the experience (seeing the work of art) has never been had before (by the person viewing). (Anyone with input, please feel free to add to this in the comments).\r\n\r\nIf I were to write that sentence in English, I\'d replace that phrase with \"revolutionary\" - \"Obviously this type of completely revolutionary artwork deeply attracted him\" - but the word \"revolutionary\" in Chinese tends to call up a lot of other associations that aren\'t relevant in this context.\r\n\r\nI\'ve only translated the first paragraph here. Here\'s the original post, if you care to finish it on your own. The original post has the best pictures.\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n荷兰 - [pinyin]he2 lan2[/pinyin] - Holland\r\n瓷器 - [pinyin]ci2 qi4[/pinyin] - Porcelain\r\n包装纸 - [pinyin]bao1 zhuang1 zhi3[/pinyin] - Wrapping paper\r\n肖像 - [pinyin]xiao4 xiang4[/pinyin] - Portrait\r\n姿态 - [pinyin]zi1 tai4[/pinyin] - Pose\r\n各异 - [pinyin]ge4 yi4[/pinyin] - All different\r\n版画 - [pinyin]ban3 hua4[/pinyin] - woodblock painting\r\n震撼 - [pinyin]zhen4 han4[/pinyin] - To shock, mind-blowing\r\n以至于 - [pinyin]yi3 zhi4 yu2[/pinyin] - To the extent that...\r\n色情 - [pinyin]se4 qing2[/pinyin] - Erotic\r\n梵高 - [pinyin]fan4 gao1[/pinyin] - Van Gogh\r\n印象派 - [pinyin]yin4 xiang4 pai4[/pinyin] - Impressionism\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n19世纪初，一位荷兰商人在他的办公室里发现了他的日本瓷器包装纸上居然有一副美人肖像，姿态传神生动，但是却不同于他见过的所有西方肖像。显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他，他翻出了所有的瓷器包装纸，发现它们上面都有着色彩亮丽，内容各异的画面。从此以后，商人开始寻求这种日本版画之路。当时这类版画可谓是价格低廉，便于收藏。当他把这些藏品拿出来展览之时，几乎震撼了所有的来宾。这批日本版画就是“浮世绘”。这些版画对欧洲的画坛产生了深远的印象，以至于现在大家提起浮世绘，第一想到的是色情，第二想到的就是梵高和印象派。
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the beginning of the 19th century, a businessman from Holland was in his office when he suddenly noticed, [painted on] the wrapping paper of some porcelain, a beautiful portrait, the pose both vivid and lifelike, but it was unlike any of the Western portraits he had seen. Clearly this completely NEED NOT LOOK TO FORMER DAYS EXPERIENCE work of art deeply attracted him, and he turned over every piece of porcelain wrapping paper, discovering that all of them were painted with a colorful, bright and beautiful scene, each one different. From then on, the businessman took to the road seeking this type of Japanese wood cut painting. At that time, this type of woodcut was actually quite cheap, and easy to collect. When he took these collector\'s items out and exhibited them, it practically stunned all the visitors. These Japanese woodcut paintings are \"Ukiyo-e\". These woodcusts had a deep and lasting influence on the European art world, so much so that when anyone raises the topic of ukiyo-e, the first association that comes to mind is pornography, the second is Van Gogh and Impressionism.\r\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Art Blog: The Tale of Japanese Ukiyo-e Woodblock Paintings', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1369-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-27 14:43:32', '2013-05-27 18:43:32', '', 1369, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/27/1369-revision-8/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1384, 1, '2013-05-27 14:50:48', '2013-05-27 18:50:48', '[two_third]\r\nThanks to Sina Weibo, China\'s most popular blog network, I stumbled across this neat art blog, which I recommend taking a stab at if you like art, as you\'ll learn a bunch of useful simplified Chiense artist vocabulary. This post discusses the fable-like origins of Ukiyo-e, a traditional style of Japanese art. The Chinese for \"Ukiyo-e\" is 浮世绘, or \"Floating world paintings\".\r\n\r\nFor me, the hardest part of this read was the following phrase, which seems to make sense on its own, but makes little sense in the context of the sentence: 不用于往日视觉经验的. By itself, this says \"no use (不用) in looking to days past (于往日) for this visual experience (视觉经验的)\". Okay, fair enough. But the full sentence is: 显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他. We\'ve got the beginning of the sentence (显然这种全然) - this means \"Obviously this type of completely...\". And we\'ve got the end of the sentence (作品深深的吸引了他), which means \"works of art deeply attracted him.\" But when we add the middle bit, the sentence no longer seems clear: \"Obviously this type of completely [no use in looking to days past for this visual experience] work of art deeply attracted him.\r\n\r\nWhat?\r\n\r\nI\'m told by my Chinese friend that this language is pretty rare, but turns out, the middle phrase is just a way of describing just how different from other things this Ukiyo-e actually was. There\'s \"no use consulting the past\" to re-live this experience, because the experience (seeing the work of art) has never been had before (by the person viewing). (Anyone with input, please feel free to add to this in the comments).\r\n\r\nIf I were to write that sentence in English, I\'d replace that phrase with \"revolutionary\" - \"Obviously this type of completely revolutionary artwork deeply attracted him\" - but the word \"revolutionary\" in Chinese tends to call up a lot of other associations that aren\'t relevant in this context.\r\n\r\nI\'ve only translated the first paragraph here. Here\'s the original post, if you care to finish it on your own. The original post has the best pictures.\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n荷兰 - [pinyin]he2 lan2[/pinyin] - Holland\r\n瓷器 - [pinyin]ci2 qi4[/pinyin] - Porcelain\r\n包装纸 - [pinyin]bao1 zhuang1 zhi3[/pinyin] - Wrapping paper\r\n肖像 - [pinyin]xiao4 xiang4[/pinyin] - Portrait\r\n姿态 - [pinyin]zi1 tai4[/pinyin] - Pose\r\n各异 - [pinyin]ge4 yi4[/pinyin] - All different\r\n版画 - [pinyin]ban3 hua4[/pinyin] - woodblock painting\r\n震撼 - [pinyin]zhen4 han4[/pinyin] - To shock, mind-blowing\r\n以至于 - [pinyin]yi3 zhi4 yu2[/pinyin] - To the extent that...\r\n色情 - [pinyin]se4 qing2[/pinyin] - Erotic\r\n梵高 - [pinyin]fan4 gao1[/pinyin] - Van Gogh\r\n印象派 - [pinyin]yin4 xiang4 pai4[/pinyin] - Impressionism\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n19世纪初，一位荷兰商人在他的办公室里发现了他的日本瓷器包装纸上居然有一副美人肖像，姿态传神生动，但是却不同于他见过的所有西方肖像。显然这种全然不用于往日视觉经验的作品深深的吸引了他，他翻出了所有的瓷器包装纸，发现它们上面都有着色彩亮丽，内容各异的画面。从此以后，商人开始寻求这种日本版画之路。当时这类版画可谓是价格低廉，便于收藏。当他把这些藏品拿出来展览之时，几乎震撼了所有的来宾。这批日本版画就是“浮世绘”。这些版画对欧洲的画坛产生了深远的印象，以至于现在大家提起浮世绘，第一想到的是色情，第二想到的就是梵高和印象派。
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the beginning of the 19th century, a businessman from Holland was in his office when he suddenly noticed, [painted on] the wrapping paper of some porcelain, a beautiful portrait, the pose both vivid and lifelike, but it was unlike any of the Western portraits he had seen. Clearly this completely NEED NOT LOOK TO FORMER DAYS EXPERIENCE work of art deeply attracted him, and he turned over every piece of porcelain wrapping paper, discovering that all of them were painted with a colorful, bright and beautiful scene, each one different. From then on, the businessman took to the road seeking this type of Japanese wood cut painting. At that time, this type of woodcut was actually quite cheap, and easy to collect. When he took these collector\'s items out and exhibited them, it practically stunned all the visitors. These Japanese woodcut paintings are \"Ukiyo-e\". These woodcusts had a deep and lasting influence on the European art world, so much so that when anyone raises the topic of ukiyo-e, the first association that comes to mind is pornography, the second is Van Gogh and Impressionism.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Art Blog: The Tale of Japanese Ukiyo-e Woodblock Paintings', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1369-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-27 14:50:48', '2013-05-27 18:50:48', '', 1369, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/27/1369-revision-9/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1385, 1, '2013-06-03 10:54:13', '2013-06-03 14:54:13', 'In this essay, a child desperately (and very angrily) pleads their father not to smoke. Though this is classified as \"Intermediate\", beginners should definitely try this read, leaning heavily on the hover word-list. The difficult parts are the mid-level turns of phrase, which are all explained below. \r\n\r\nCouple of grammar points
\r\nFirst of all: 我本想让您别抽烟. Most of this sentence is quite simple, but the addition of the character 本 can be puzzling, especially since 本 has many meanings. In this case, the word 本 means \"originally\", as in \"I originally thought to let you not smoke.\" Or, in better English, \"My original intention was that this would make you stop smoking.\" \r\n\r\nAnother point: When the father learns that his cigarettes are gone, he 东翻西找. This phrase is actually a mixture of two words: 东西 (east and west / left and right / in all directions) and 翻找 (to rummage through things while searching, turn things over). We\'ve seen this kind of thing before in previous posts, as with the phrase \"仰起头来\" in the post Little Dog Wears Shoes. If you let the mental picture kind of wash over you, you get an image of the father turning things over looking for his cigarettes.\r\n\r\nA word of interest: 大烟枪. Literally, this word means \"big opium pipe\" or in more contemporary times can actually mean \"big bong\". Colloquially in reference to a person, this means \"someone who smokes a lot\", a \"heavy smoker\". \r\n\r\nSee the source. \r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我还清楚地记得，那天，我悄悄地把您的烟盒偷走，又偷偷地扔进垃圾桶里，我本想让您别抽烟。可谁知，您回来后，发现烟盒不见了，就东翻西找。当我告诉您，烟盒是我扔的，您十分生气，还狠狠的骂了一句话，你这个坏孩子！这句话，让当时的我感到莫大的痛苦。我把自己反锁在房间内，当时心里想着，你这个大烟枪！抽吧，抽吧，抽到死了我也不理你。\r\n\r\n2) 爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我常常发现您上班时，烟盒的烟还是满满的，可下班回来时，烟盒里的香烟只剩下几根了。每当看见您身旁云雾缭绕，我的鼻子感觉酸酸的。我担心您的肺已被尼古丁熏得千疮百孔。\r\n\r\n3) 爸爸请您别抽烟了！现在您每天都在咳嗽，每天都在吐痰。我担心您会离我们而去。那时丢下我们，那该怎么办呀。\r\n\r\n4) 爸爸，为了您的健康，为了我们，请您别抽烟了!\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Papa, please don\'t smoke! I still remember clearly, that day, I quietly stole your box of cigarettes, and secretly threw them in the trash can, because I was thinking that would stop you from smoking. But who could have known, when you returned, and you found out your cigarettes were gone, you rummaged through everything looking for them. When I told you, that it was me who threw them away, you were quite angry, and you ruthlessly scolded me, You bad child! That sentence made me [lit: \'the me of that time\'] feel great pain. I locked myself in my room, and at that time in my heart I thought, You big opium pipe! [Then go ahead and] smoke, smoke, smoke until you die and I won\'t care [lit: I won\'t pay any attention to you].\r\n\r\n2) Papa, please don\'t smoke! I always find that when you go to work, your box of cigarettes is still full of cigarettes, but when you get off work and come back, there are only a few cigarettes left in the box. Every time I see you you\'re surrounded by a curling cloud [of smoke], there\'s a sour smell in my nose. I worry that your lungs have already been riddled with gaping wounds by the nicotine. \r\n\r\n3) Papa, please don\'t smoke! You cough every day, and every day you expectorate. I worry that you will leave us. When you abandon us, then what will we do? \r\n\r\n4) Papa, for your health, and for us, please don\'t smoke! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 爸爸请您别抽烟了 - Papa, Please Don\'t Smoke!', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'papa-please-dont-smoke', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:36:21', '2016-11-04 10:36:21', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1385', 0, 'post', '', 12),
(2055, 1, '2016-11-04 06:36:21', '2016-11-04 10:36:21', 'In this essay, a child desperately (and very angrily) pleads their father not to smoke. Though this is classified as \"Intermediate\", beginners should definitely try this read, leaning heavily on the hover word-list. The difficult parts are the mid-level turns of phrase, which are all explained below. \r\n\r\nCouple of grammar points
\r\nFirst of all: 我本想让您别抽烟. Most of this sentence is quite simple, but the addition of the character 本 can be puzzling, especially since 本 has many meanings. In this case, the word 本 means \"originally\", as in \"I originally thought to let you not smoke.\" Or, in better English, \"My original intention was that this would make you stop smoking.\" \r\n\r\nAnother point: When the father learns that his cigarettes are gone, he 东翻西找. This phrase is actually a mixture of two words: 东西 (east and west / left and right / in all directions) and 翻找 (to rummage through things while searching, turn things over). We\'ve seen this kind of thing before in previous posts, as with the phrase \"仰起头来\" in the post Little Dog Wears Shoes. If you let the mental picture kind of wash over you, you get an image of the father turning things over looking for his cigarettes.\r\n\r\nA word of interest: 大烟枪. Literally, this word means \"big opium pipe\" or in more contemporary times can actually mean \"big bong\". Colloquially in reference to a person, this means \"someone who smokes a lot\", a \"heavy smoker\". \r\n\r\nSee the source. \r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我还清楚地记得，那天，我悄悄地把您的烟盒偷走，又偷偷地扔进垃圾桶里，我本想让您别抽烟。可谁知，您回来后，发现烟盒不见了，就东翻西找。当我告诉您，烟盒是我扔的，您十分生气，还狠狠的骂了一句话，你这个坏孩子！这句话，让当时的我感到莫大的痛苦。我把自己反锁在房间内，当时心里想着，你这个大烟枪！抽吧，抽吧，抽到死了我也不理你。\r\n\r\n2) 爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我常常发现您上班时，烟盒的烟还是满满的，可下班回来时，烟盒里的香烟只剩下几根了。每当看见您身旁云雾缭绕，我的鼻子感觉酸酸的。我担心您的肺已被尼古丁熏得千疮百孔。\r\n\r\n3) 爸爸请您别抽烟了！现在您每天都在咳嗽，每天都在吐痰。我担心您会离我们而去。那时丢下我们，那该怎么办呀。\r\n\r\n4) 爸爸，为了您的健康，为了我们，请您别抽烟了!\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Papa, please don\'t smoke! I still remember clearly, that day, I quietly stole your box of cigarettes, and secretly threw them in the trash can, because I was thinking that would stop you from smoking. But who could have known, when you returned, and you found out your cigarettes were gone, you rummaged through everything looking for them. When I told you, that it was me who threw them away, you were quite angry, and you ruthlessly scolded me, You bad child! That sentence made me [lit: \'the me of that time\'] feel great pain. I locked myself in my room, and at that time in my heart I thought, You big opium pipe! [Then go ahead and] smoke, smoke, smoke until you die and I won\'t care [lit: I won\'t pay any attention to you].\r\n\r\n2) Papa, please don\'t smoke! I always find that when you go to work, your box of cigarettes is still full of cigarettes, but when you get off work and come back, there are only a few cigarettes left in the box. Every time I see you you\'re surrounded by a curling cloud [of smoke], there\'s a sour smell in my nose. I worry that your lungs have already been riddled with gaping wounds by the nicotine. \r\n\r\n3) Papa, please don\'t smoke! You cough every day, and every day you expectorate. I worry that you will leave us. When you abandon us, then what will we do? \r\n\r\n4) Papa, for your health, and for us, please don\'t smoke! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 爸爸请您别抽烟了 - Papa, Please Don\'t Smoke!', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1385-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:36:21', '2016-11-04 10:36:21', '', 1385, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1385-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1386, 1, '2013-05-28 02:39:53', '2013-05-28 06:39:53', '[two_third]\nIn this essay, a child desperately (and very angrily) pleads their father not to smoke. Though this is classified as \"Intermediate\", beginners should definitely try this read, leaning heavily on the hover word-list. The difficult parts are the mid-level turns of phrase, which are all explained below. \n\nCouple of grammar points. First of all: 我本想让您别抽烟. Most of this sentence is quite simple, but the addition of the character 本 can be puzzling, especially since 本 has many meanings. In this case, the word 本 means \"originally\", as in \"I originally thought to let you not smoke.\" Or, in better English, \"My original intention was that this would make you stop smoking.\" \n\nAnother point: When the father learns that his cigarettes are gone, he 东翻西找. This phrase is actually a mixture of two words: 东西 (thing, stuff) and 翻找 (to rummage through things while searching, turn things over). We\'ve seen this kind of thing before in previous posts, as with the phrase \"仰起头来\" in the post Little Dog Wears Shoes. If you let the mental picture kind of wash over you, you get an image of the father turning things over looking for his cigarettes.\n\nA word of interest: 大烟枪. Literally, this word means \"big opium pipe\" or in more contemporary times can actually mean \"big bong\". Colloquially in reference to a person, this means \"someone who smokes a lot\", a \"heavy smoker\". \n\nThe Chinese title is: 爸爸请您别抽烟了, and the original is here. \n\n这句话，让当时的我感到莫大的痛苦。\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n荷兰 - [pinyin]he2 lan2[/pinyin] - Holland\n瓷器 - [pinyin]ci2 qi4[/pinyin] - Porcelain\n包装纸 - [pinyin]bao1 zhuang1 zhi3[/pinyin] - Wrapping paper\n肖像 - [pinyin]xiao4 xiang4[/pinyin] - Portrait\n姿态 - [pinyin]zi1 tai4[/pinyin] - Pose\n各异 - [pinyin]ge4 yi4[/pinyin] - All different\n版画 - [pinyin]ban3 hua4[/pinyin] - woodblock painting\n震撼 - [pinyin]zhen4 han4[/pinyin] - To shock, mind-blowing\n以至于 - [pinyin]yi3 zhi4 yu2[/pinyin] - To the extent that...\n色情 - [pinyin]se4 qing2[/pinyin] - Erotic\n梵高 - [pinyin]fan4 gao1[/pinyin] - Van Gogh\n印象派 - [pinyin]yin4 xiang4 pai4[/pinyin] - Impressionism\n\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我还清楚地记得，那天，我悄悄地把您的烟盒偷走，又偷偷地扔进垃圾桶里，我本想让您别抽烟。可谁知，您回来后，发现烟盒不见了，就东翻西找。当我告诉您，烟盒是我扔的，您十分生气，还狠狠的骂了一句话，你这个坏孩子！这句话，让当时的我感到莫大的痛苦。我把自己反锁在房间内，当时心里想着，你这个大烟枪！抽吧，抽吧，抽到死了我也不理你。\n\n爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我常常发现您上班时，烟盒的烟还是满满的，可下班回来时，烟盒里的香烟只剩下几根了。每当看见您身旁云雾缭绕，我的鼻子感觉酸酸的。我担心您的肺已被尼古丁熏得千疮百孔。\n\n爸爸请您别抽烟了！现在您每天都在咳嗽，每天都在吐痰。我担心您会离我们而去。那时丢下我们，那该怎么办呀。\n\n爸爸，为了您的健康，为了我们，请您别抽烟了!\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! I still remember clearly, that day, I quietly stole your box of cigarettes, and secretly threw them in the trash can, because I was thinking that would stop you from smoking. But who knew, when you returned, and you found out your cigarettes were gone, you rummaged through everything looking for them. When I told you, that it was me who threw them away, you were quite angry, and you ruthlessly scolded me, You bad child! That sentence made me [lit: \'the me of that time\'] feel great pain. I locked myself in my room, and at that time in my heart I thought, You big opium pipe! [Then go ahead and] smoke, smoke, smoke until you die and I won\'t care [lit: I won\'t pay any attention to you].\n\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! I always find that when you go to work, your box of cigarettes is still full of cigarettes, but when you get off work and come back, there are only a few cigarettes left in the box. Every time I you surrounded by a curling cloud [of smoke], there\'s a sour smell in my nose. I worry that your lungs have already been riddled with gaping wounds by the nicotine. \n\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! You cough every day, and every day you expectorate. I worry that you will leave us. When you abandon us, then what will we do? \n\nPapa, for your health, and for us, please don\'t smoke! \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Papa, Please Don\'t Smoke! ', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1385-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-28 02:39:53', '2013-05-28 06:39:53', '', 1385, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/28/1385-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1387, 1, '2013-05-28 03:43:20', '2013-05-28 07:43:20', '[two_third]\r\nIn this essay, a child desperately (and very angrily) pleads their father not to smoke. Though this is classified as \"Intermediate\", beginners should definitely try this read, leaning heavily on the hover word-list. The difficult parts are the mid-level turns of phrase, which are all explained below. \r\n\r\nCouple of grammar points. First of all: 我本想让您别抽烟. Most of this sentence is quite simple, but the addition of the character 本 can be puzzling, especially since 本 has many meanings. In this case, the word 本 means \"originally\", as in \"I originally thought to let you not smoke.\" Or, in better English, \"My original intention was that this would make you stop smoking.\" \r\n\r\nAnother point: When the father learns that his cigarettes are gone, he 东翻西找. This phrase is actually a mixture of two words: 东西 (thing, stuff) and 翻找 (to rummage through things while searching, turn things over). We\'ve seen this kind of thing before in previous posts, as with the phrase \"仰起头来\" in the post Little Dog Wears Shoes. If you let the mental picture kind of wash over you, you get an image of the father turning things over looking for his cigarettes.\r\n\r\nA word of interest: 大烟枪. Literally, this word means \"big opium pipe\" or in more contemporary times can actually mean \"big bong\". Colloquially in reference to a person, this means \"someone who smokes a lot\", a \"heavy smoker\". \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title is: 爸爸请您别抽烟了, and the original is here. \r\n\r\n这句话，让当时的我感到莫大的痛苦。\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n荷兰 - [pinyin]he2 lan2[/pinyin] - Holland\r\n瓷器 - [pinyin]ci2 qi4[/pinyin] - Porcelain\r\n包装纸 - [pinyin]bao1 zhuang1 zhi3[/pinyin] - Wrapping paper\r\n肖像 - [pinyin]xiao4 xiang4[/pinyin] - Portrait\r\n姿态 - [pinyin]zi1 tai4[/pinyin] - Pose\r\n各异 - [pinyin]ge4 yi4[/pinyin] - All different\r\n版画 - [pinyin]ban3 hua4[/pinyin] - woodblock painting\r\n震撼 - [pinyin]zhen4 han4[/pinyin] - To shock, mind-blowing\r\n以至于 - [pinyin]yi3 zhi4 yu2[/pinyin] - To the extent that...\r\n色情 - [pinyin]se4 qing2[/pinyin] - Erotic\r\n梵高 - [pinyin]fan4 gao1[/pinyin] - Van Gogh\r\n印象派 - [pinyin]yin4 xiang4 pai4[/pinyin] - Impressionism\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我还清楚地记得，那天，我悄悄地把您的烟盒偷走，又偷偷地扔进垃圾桶里，我本想让您别抽烟。可谁知，您回来后，发现烟盒不见了，就东翻西找。当我告诉您，烟盒是我扔的，您十分生气，还狠狠的骂了一句话，你这个坏孩子！这句话，让当时的我感到莫大的痛苦。我把自己反锁在房间内，当时心里想着，你这个大烟枪！抽吧，抽吧，抽到死了我也不理你。\r\n\r\n爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我常常发现您上班时，烟盒的烟还是满满的，可下班回来时，烟盒里的香烟只剩下几根了。每当看见您身旁云雾缭绕，我的鼻子感觉酸酸的。我担心您的肺已被尼古丁熏得千疮百孔。\r\n\r\n爸爸请您别抽烟了！现在您每天都在咳嗽，每天都在吐痰。我担心您会离我们而去。那时丢下我们，那该怎么办呀。\r\n\r\n爸爸，为了您的健康，为了我们，请您别抽烟了!\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! I still remember clearly, that day, I quietly stole your box of cigarettes, and secretly threw them in the trash can, because I was thinking that would stop you from smoking. But who knew, when you returned, and you found out your cigarettes were gone, you rummaged through everything looking for them. When I told you, that it was me who threw them away, you were quite angry, and you ruthlessly scolded me, You bad child! That sentence made me [lit: \'the me of that time\'] feel great pain. I locked myself in my room, and at that time in my heart I thought, You big opium pipe! [Then go ahead and] smoke, smoke, smoke until you die and I won\'t care [lit: I won\'t pay any attention to you].\r\n\r\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! I always find that when you go to work, your box of cigarettes is still full of cigarettes, but when you get off work and come back, there are only a few cigarettes left in the box. Every time I you surrounded by a curling cloud [of smoke], there\'s a sour smell in my nose. I worry that your lungs have already been riddled with gaping wounds by the nicotine. \r\n\r\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! You cough every day, and every day you expectorate. I worry that you will leave us. When you abandon us, then what will we do? \r\n\r\nPapa, for your health, and for us, please don\'t smoke! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Papa, Please Don\'t Smoke! ', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1385-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-28 03:43:20', '2013-05-28 07:43:20', '', 1385, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/28/1385-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1388, 1, '2013-05-28 10:54:40', '2013-05-28 14:54:40', '', 'Learn to Read Mandarin Chinese: Simplified Character Reading Comprehension', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130603-inline', '', '', '2013-05-28 10:54:40', '2013-05-28 14:54:40', '', 1385, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130603-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1389, 1, '2013-05-28 10:54:42', '2013-05-28 14:54:42', '', 'Learn to Read Mandarin Chinese: Simplified Character Reading Comprehension', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130603', '', '', '2013-05-28 10:54:42', '2013-05-28 14:54:42', '', 1385, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130603.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1390, 1, '2013-05-28 11:02:17', '2013-05-28 15:02:17', '[two_third]\nIn this essay, a child desperately (and very angrily) pleads their father not to smoke. Though this is classified as \"Intermediate\", beginners should definitely try this read, leaning heavily on the hover word-list. The difficult parts are the mid-level turns of phrase, which are all explained below. \n\n![\"Chinese](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/20130603-INLINE.jpg\")
Couple of grammar points. First of all: 我本想让您别抽烟. Most of this sentence is quite simple, but the addition of the character 本 can be puzzling, especially since 本 has many meanings. In this case, the word 本 means \"originally\", as in \"I originally thought to let you not smoke.\" Or, in better English, \"My original intention was that this would make you stop smoking.\" \n\nAnother point: When the father learns that his cigarettes are gone, he 东翻西找. This phrase is actually a mixture of two words: 东西 (thing, stuff) and 翻找 (to rummage through things while searching, turn things over). We\'ve seen this kind of thing before in previous posts, as with the phrase \"仰起头来\" in the post Little Dog Wears Shoes. If you let the mental picture kind of wash over you, you get an image of the father turning things over looking for his cigarettes.\n\nA word of interest: 大烟枪. Literally, this word means \"big opium pipe\" or in more contemporary times can actually mean \"big bong\". Colloquially in reference to a person, this means \"someone who smokes a lot\", a \"heavy smoker\". \n\nThe Chinese title is: 爸爸请您别抽烟了, and the original is here. \n\n这句话，让当时的我感到莫大的痛苦。\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n抽烟 - [pinyin]chou1 yan1[/pinyin] - Smoke cigarettes\n悄悄 - [pinyin]qiao1 qiao1[/pinyin] - Quietly, secretly\n偷走 - [pinyin]tou1 zou3[/pinyin] - Steal (away with something)\n垃圾桶 - [pinyin]la1 ji1 tong3[/pinyin] - Trash can\n狠 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Fierce\n莫大 - [pinyin]mo4 da4[/pinyin] - Great (as in \'a large amount\' rather than \'good\')\n理 - [pinyin]li3[/pinyin] - Pay attention to\n肺 - [pinyin]fei4[/pinyin] - Lungs\n尼古丁 - [pinyin]ni2 gu3 ding1[/pinyin] - Nicotine\n千疮百孔 - [pinyin]qian1 chuang1 bai3 kong3[/pinyin] - Riddled with wounds, afflicted with many illnesses\n吐痰 - [pinyin]tu3 tan2[/pinyin] - Hawk a lookie\n丢下 - [pinyin]yin4 xiang4 pai4[/pinyin] - Impressionism\n\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我还清楚地记得，那天，我悄悄地把您的烟盒偷走，又偷偷地扔进垃圾桶里，我本想让您别抽烟。可谁知，您回来后，发现烟盒不见了，就东翻西找。当我告诉您，烟盒是我扔的，您十分生气，还狠狠的骂了一句话，你这个坏孩子！这句话，让当时的我感到莫大的痛苦。我把自己反锁在房间内，当时心里想着，你这个大烟枪！抽吧，抽吧，抽到死了我也不理你。\n\n爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我常常发现您上班时，烟盒的烟还是满满的，可下班回来时，烟盒里的香烟只剩下几根了。每当看见您身旁云雾缭绕，我的鼻子感觉酸酸的。我担心您的肺已被尼古丁熏得千疮百孔。\n\n爸爸请您别抽烟了！现在您每天都在咳嗽，每天都在吐痰。我担心您会离我们而去。那时丢下我们，那该怎么办呀。\n\n爸爸，为了您的健康，为了我们，请您别抽烟了!\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! I still remember clearly, that day, I quietly stole your box of cigarettes, and secretly threw them in the trash can, because I was thinking that would stop you from smoking. But who knew, when you returned, and you found out your cigarettes were gone, you rummaged through everything looking for them. When I told you, that it was me who threw them away, you were quite angry, and you ruthlessly scolded me, You bad child! That sentence made me [lit: \'the me of that time\'] feel great pain. I locked myself in my room, and at that time in my heart I thought, You big opium pipe! [Then go ahead and] smoke, smoke, smoke until you die and I won\'t care [lit: I won\'t pay any attention to you].\n\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! I always find that when you go to work, your box of cigarettes is still full of cigarettes, but when you get off work and come back, there are only a few cigarettes left in the box. Every time I you surrounded by a curling cloud [of smoke], there\'s a sour smell in my nose. I worry that your lungs have already been riddled with gaping wounds by the nicotine. \n\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! You cough every day, and every day you expectorate. I worry that you will leave us. When you abandon us, then what will we do? \n\nPapa, for your health, and for us, please don\'t smoke! \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Papa, Please Don\'t Smoke! ', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1385-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-28 11:02:17', '2013-05-28 15:02:17', '', 1385, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/28/1385-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1391, 1, '2013-05-28 11:02:42', '2013-05-28 15:02:42', '[two_third]\r\nIn this essay, a child desperately (and very angrily) pleads their father not to smoke. Though this is classified as \"Intermediate\", beginners should definitely try this read, leaning heavily on the hover word-list. The difficult parts are the mid-level turns of phrase, which are all explained below. \r\n\r\nCouple of grammar points. First of all: 我本想让您别抽烟. Most of this sentence is quite simple, but the addition of the character 本 can be puzzling, especially since 本 has many meanings. In this case, the word 本 means \"originally\", as in \"I originally thought to let you not smoke.\" Or, in better English, \"My original intention was that this would make you stop smoking.\" \r\n\r\nAnother point: When the father learns that his cigarettes are gone, he 东翻西找. This phrase is actually a mixture of two words: 东西 (thing, stuff) and 翻找 (to rummage through things while searching, turn things over). We\'ve seen this kind of thing before in previous posts, as with the phrase \"仰起头来\" in the post Little Dog Wears Shoes. If you let the mental picture kind of wash over you, you get an image of the father turning things over looking for his cigarettes.\r\n\r\nA word of interest: 大烟枪. Literally, this word means \"big opium pipe\" or in more contemporary times can actually mean \"big bong\". Colloquially in reference to a person, this means \"someone who smokes a lot\", a \"heavy smoker\". \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title is: 爸爸请您别抽烟了, and the original is here. \r\n\r\n这句话，让当时的我感到莫大的痛苦。\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n抽烟 - [pinyin]chou1 yan1[/pinyin] - Smoke cigarettes\r\n悄悄 - [pinyin]qiao1 qiao1[/pinyin] - Quietly, secretly\r\n偷走 - [pinyin]tou1 zou3[/pinyin] - Steal (away with something)\r\n垃圾桶 - [pinyin]la1 ji1 tong3[/pinyin] - Trash can\r\n狠 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Fierce\r\n莫大 - [pinyin]mo4 da4[/pinyin] - Great (as in \'a large amount\' rather than \'good\')\r\n理 - [pinyin]li3[/pinyin] - Pay attention to\r\n肺 - [pinyin]fei4[/pinyin] - Lungs\r\n尼古丁 - [pinyin]ni2 gu3 ding1[/pinyin] - Nicotine\r\n千疮百孔 - [pinyin]qian1 chuang1 bai3 kong3[/pinyin] - Riddled with wounds, afflicted with many illnesses\r\n吐痰 - [pinyin]tu3 tan2[/pinyin] - Hawk a loogie\r\n丢下 - [pinyin]diu1 xia4[/pinyin] - to abandon\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我还清楚地记得，那天，我悄悄地把您的烟盒偷走，又偷偷地扔进垃圾桶里，我本想让您别抽烟。可谁知，您回来后，发现烟盒不见了，就东翻西找。当我告诉您，烟盒是我扔的，您十分生气，还狠狠的骂了一句话，你这个坏孩子！这句话，让当时的我感到莫大的痛苦。我把自己反锁在房间内，当时心里想着，你这个大烟枪！抽吧，抽吧，抽到死了我也不理你。\r\n\r\n爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我常常发现您上班时，烟盒的烟还是满满的，可下班回来时，烟盒里的香烟只剩下几根了。每当看见您身旁云雾缭绕，我的鼻子感觉酸酸的。我担心您的肺已被尼古丁熏得千疮百孔。\r\n\r\n爸爸请您别抽烟了！现在您每天都在咳嗽，每天都在吐痰。我担心您会离我们而去。那时丢下我们，那该怎么办呀。\r\n\r\n爸爸，为了您的健康，为了我们，请您别抽烟了!\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! I still remember clearly, that day, I quietly stole your box of cigarettes, and secretly threw them in the trash can, because I was thinking that would stop you from smoking. But who knew, when you returned, and you found out your cigarettes were gone, you rummaged through everything looking for them. When I told you, that it was me who threw them away, you were quite angry, and you ruthlessly scolded me, You bad child! That sentence made me [lit: \'the me of that time\'] feel great pain. I locked myself in my room, and at that time in my heart I thought, You big opium pipe! [Then go ahead and] smoke, smoke, smoke until you die and I won\'t care [lit: I won\'t pay any attention to you].\r\n\r\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! I always find that when you go to work, your box of cigarettes is still full of cigarettes, but when you get off work and come back, there are only a few cigarettes left in the box. Every time I you surrounded by a curling cloud [of smoke], there\'s a sour smell in my nose. I worry that your lungs have already been riddled with gaping wounds by the nicotine. \r\n\r\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! You cough every day, and every day you expectorate. I worry that you will leave us. When you abandon us, then what will we do? \r\n\r\nPapa, for your health, and for us, please don\'t smoke! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Papa, Please Don\'t Smoke! ', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1385-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-28 11:02:42', '2013-05-28 15:02:42', '', 1385, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/28/1385-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1396, 1, '2013-06-11 00:28:08', '2013-06-11 04:28:08', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese Beginners: Easy Beginner Chinese Characters Pasasges', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130611-inline', '', '', '2013-06-11 00:28:08', '2013-06-11 04:28:08', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/20130611-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1397, 1, '2013-06-11 00:28:10', '2013-06-11 04:28:10', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese Beginners: Easy Beginner Chinese Characters Pasasges', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130611', '', '', '2013-06-11 00:28:10', '2013-06-11 04:28:10', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/20130611.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1400, 1, '2013-05-28 11:03:14', '2013-05-28 15:03:14', '[two_third]\r\nIn this essay, a child desperately (and very angrily) pleads their father not to smoke. Though this is classified as \"Intermediate\", beginners should definitely try this read, leaning heavily on the hover word-list. The difficult parts are the mid-level turns of phrase, which are all explained below. \r\n\r\nCouple of grammar points. First of all: 我本想让您别抽烟. Most of this sentence is quite simple, but the addition of the character 本 can be puzzling, especially since 本 has many meanings. In this case, the word 本 means \"originally\", as in \"I originally thought to let you not smoke.\" Or, in better English, \"My original intention was that this would make you stop smoking.\" \r\n\r\nAnother point: When the father learns that his cigarettes are gone, he 东翻西找. This phrase is actually a mixture of two words: 东西 (thing, stuff) and 翻找 (to rummage through things while searching, turn things over). We\'ve seen this kind of thing before in previous posts, as with the phrase \"仰起头来\" in the post Little Dog Wears Shoes. If you let the mental picture kind of wash over you, you get an image of the father turning things over looking for his cigarettes.\r\n\r\nA word of interest: 大烟枪. Literally, this word means \"big opium pipe\" or in more contemporary times can actually mean \"big bong\". Colloquially in reference to a person, this means \"someone who smokes a lot\", a \"heavy smoker\". \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title is: 爸爸请您别抽烟了, and the original is here. \r\n\r\n这句话，让当时的我感到莫大的痛苦。\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n抽烟 - [pinyin]chou1 yan1[/pinyin] - Smoke cigarettes\r\n悄悄 - [pinyin]qiao1 qiao1[/pinyin] - Quietly, secretly\r\n偷走 - [pinyin]tou1 zou3[/pinyin] - Steal (away with something)\r\n垃圾桶 - [pinyin]la1 ji1 tong3[/pinyin] - Trash can\r\n狠 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Fierce\r\n莫大 - [pinyin]mo4 da4[/pinyin] - Great (as in \'a large amount\' rather than \'good\')\r\n理 - [pinyin]li3[/pinyin] - Pay attention to\r\n肺 - [pinyin]fei4[/pinyin] - Lungs\r\n尼古丁 - [pinyin]ni2 gu3 ding1[/pinyin] - Nicotine\r\n千疮百孔 - [pinyin]qian1 chuang1 bai3 kong3[/pinyin] - Riddled with wounds, afflicted with many illnesses\r\n吐痰 - [pinyin]tu3 tan2[/pinyin] - Hawk a loogie\r\n丢下 - [pinyin]diu1 xia4[/pinyin] - to abandon\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我还清楚地记得，那天，我悄悄地把您的烟盒偷走，又偷偷地扔进垃圾桶里，我本想让您别抽烟。可谁知，您回来后，发现烟盒不见了，就东翻西找。当我告诉您，烟盒是我扔的，您十分生气，还狠狠的骂了一句话，你这个坏孩子！这句话，让当时的我感到莫大的痛苦。我把自己反锁在房间内，当时心里想着，你这个大烟枪！抽吧，抽吧，抽到死了我也不理你。\r\n\r\n爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我常常发现您上班时，烟盒的烟还是满满的，可下班回来时，烟盒里的香烟只剩下几根了。每当看见您身旁云雾缭绕，我的鼻子感觉酸酸的。我担心您的肺已被尼古丁熏得千疮百孔。\r\n\r\n爸爸请您别抽烟了！现在您每天都在咳嗽，每天都在吐痰。我担心您会离我们而去。那时丢下我们，那该怎么办呀。\r\n\r\n爸爸，为了您的健康，为了我们，请您别抽烟了!\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! I still remember clearly, that day, I quietly stole your box of cigarettes, and secretly threw them in the trash can, because I was thinking that would stop you from smoking. But who knew, when you returned, and you found out your cigarettes were gone, you rummaged through everything looking for them. When I told you, that it was me who threw them away, you were quite angry, and you ruthlessly scolded me, You bad child! That sentence made me [lit: \'the me of that time\'] feel great pain. I locked myself in my room, and at that time in my heart I thought, You big opium pipe! [Then go ahead and] smoke, smoke, smoke until you die and I won\'t care [lit: I won\'t pay any attention to you].\r\n\r\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! I always find that when you go to work, your box of cigarettes is still full of cigarettes, but when you get off work and come back, there are only a few cigarettes left in the box. Every time I you surrounded by a curling cloud [of smoke], there\'s a sour smell in my nose. I worry that your lungs have already been riddled with gaping wounds by the nicotine. \r\n\r\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! You cough every day, and every day you expectorate. I worry that you will leave us. When you abandon us, then what will we do? \r\n\r\nPapa, for your health, and for us, please don\'t smoke! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Papa, Please Don\'t Smoke! ', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1385-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-28 11:03:14', '2013-05-28 15:03:14', '', 1385, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/28/1385-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1617, 1, '2016-10-30 22:35:23', '2016-10-31 02:35:23', '\r\n\r\n
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\r\nWhy, 您好 there. You\'ve stumbled upon the inter-webz\'s most popular blog of Simplified Chinese reading exercises. I\'m Kendra (more about the CRP origin story here), and this is my tiny little kingdom. I publish one freebie post a week, but members get a new post every day, Monday-Friday, and the ability to save favorite posts. \r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the pay-to-play membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while the Member\'s Only library accumulates content. Introductory rates will be available until March 15, 2017, after which, my lovelies, subscriptions will go up to $5 bucks a month. Anyone who jumps on the early train will have their lower price locked in for life. Get while the gettin\'s good. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
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(2260, 1, '2016-11-10 23:05:22', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'Source: http://story.beva.com/23/content/bai-feng-chao-niao-5\r\n\r\n很久很久以前，凤凰和其它小鸟一样，羽毛也很平常，它很勤劳，不像别的鸟那样吃饱了就知道玩，而是从早到晚忙个不停，将别的鸟扔掉的果实都一颗一颗捡起来，收藏在洞里。\r\n这有什么意思呀？这不是财迷精，大傻瓜吗？可别小看了这种贮藏食物的行为，到了一定的时候，他可发挥大用处了！\r\n果然，有一年，森林大旱。鸟儿们找不到吃的，这时，凤凰急忙打开山洞，把自己多年积存下来的干果和草籽拿出来分给大家，和大家共渡难关。\r\n旱灾过后，为了感谢凤凰的救命之恩，鸟儿们都从自己身上选了一根最漂亮的羽毛拔下来，制成了一件光彩耀眼的百鸟衣献给凤凰，并一致推举它为鸟王。\r\n以后，每逢凤凰生日之时，四面八方的鸟儿都会飞来向凤凰表示祝贺，这就是百鸟朝凤。\r\n\r\n', '[Chinese Mythology] 《百鸟朝凤》All Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:05:22', '2016-11-11 04:05:22', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2260', 0, 'post', '', 0),
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(1628, 1, '2016-10-30 23:14:14', '2016-10-31 03:14:14', '[woocommerce_checkout]', 'Checkout', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'checkout', '', '', '2016-11-18 23:25:40', '2016-11-19 04:25:40', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/checkout/', 0, 'page', '', 0),
(1627, 1, '2016-10-30 23:14:14', '2016-10-31 03:14:14', '[woocommerce_cart]', 'Cart', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'cart', '', '', '2016-11-18 23:25:44', '2016-11-19 04:25:44', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/cart/', 0, 'page', '', 0),
(2261, 1, '2016-11-08 05:30:48', '2016-11-08 10:30:48', 'Source: http://story.beva.com/23/content/bai-feng-chao-niao-5\r\n\r\n很久很久以前，凤凰和其它小鸟一样，羽毛也很平常，它很勤劳，不像别的鸟那样吃饱了就知道玩，而是从早到晚忙个不停，将别的鸟扔掉的果实都一颗一颗捡起来，收藏在洞里。\r\n这有什么意思呀？这不是财迷精，大傻瓜吗？可别小看了这种贮藏食物的行为，到了一定的时候，他可发挥大用处了！\r\n果然，有一年，森林大旱。鸟儿们找不到吃的，这时，凤凰急忙打开山洞，把自己多年积存下来的干果和草籽拿出来分给大家，和大家共渡难关。\r\n旱灾过后，为了感谢凤凰的救命之恩，鸟儿们都从自己身上选了一根最漂亮的羽毛拔下来，制成了一件光彩耀眼的百鸟衣献给凤凰，并一致推举它为鸟王。\r\n以后，每逢凤凰生日之时，四面八方的鸟儿都会飞来向凤凰表示祝贺，这就是百鸟朝凤。\r\n\r\n', '[Chinese Myths & Legends] All Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2260-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-08 05:30:48', '2016-11-08 10:30:48', '', 2260, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2260-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
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(1622, 1, '2016-10-30 22:40:57', '2016-10-31 02:40:57', ' ', '', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1622', '', '', '2016-11-18 23:43:05', '2016-11-19 04:43:05', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1622', 1, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(1429, 1, '2013-06-13 00:46:20', '2013-06-13 04:46:20', '[two_third]\nEeps - bad medicine! In this story, the mischievous Monkey - always a trickster figure in Chinese stories - pulls the wool over Little Bear\'s eyes. If Little Bear was American, he\'d sue the hospital for negligence and rake in millions of baskets of peaches. \n\nThough the majority of this text is very basic reading, there are three phrases which jump out at me as being difficult, or words I couldn\'t find in basic dictionaries. \n\n理所应当 - [pinyin]li3 suo3 ying1 dang1[/pinyin] This phrase means to feel something is well-deserved, that something has been earned through hard work, usually when it actually hasn\'t. So I guess that roughly translates to \'taking a reward for granted\'? In this story, Monkey feels that his payment is well-earned or well-deserved. But as readers, we know Monkey doesn\'t deserve anything at all - he\'s taking that payment for granted when he didn\'t really earn it. Consider this phrase in another context:\n\n别人帮助你那是义气，你不能当作是理所应当的。 - \"When other people help you it\'s in the spirit of self-sacrifice, you shouldn\'t consider this something you deserve as a matter of course.\" \n\n甜头 - Though this looks like two words, the first meaning \"sweet\" and the second meaning \"head\" or \"brain\", it\'s actually a colloquialism that just means \"sweet flavor\" or \"pleasant taste\". \n\n贪念 - These two characters also seem separate, they don\'t appear together in my dictionary, but they\'re actually one word. According to Baidu Bai Ke, the Baidu dictionary (a Chinese-language resource for word meanings and derivations), 贪念 [pinyin]tan1 nian4[/pinyin] just means \"greedy\" (I presume the \"念\" probably adds the meaning \"idea\" or \"thoughts\" here, so 贪念 could be read as \"greedy thoughts\"). \n\nYou can read the original here. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n玩耍 - [pinyin]wan2 shua3[/pinyin] - Enjoy oneself, mess around\n白大褂子 - [pinyin]bai2 da4 gua4 zi5[/pinyin] - White lab coat [lit: Large white unlined upper garment]\n看病 - [pinyin]kan4 bing4[/pinyin] - See a doctor\n酬金 - [pinyin]chou2 jin1[/pinyin] - monetary remuneration, payment\n贪念 - [pinyin]tan1 nian4[/pinyin] - Greedy\n装模作样 - [pinyin]zhuang1 mo2 zuo4 yang4[/pinyin] - To put on an act\n不得而知 - [pinyin]bu4 de2 er2 zhi1[/pinyin] - Can\'t be known, unknowable\n潜入 - [pinyin]qian2 ru4[/pinyin] - To sneak into\n干脆 - [pinyin]gan1 cui4[/pinyin] - Simply, straightbforward\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n猴子去医院玩耍,进了大夫的房间。正好大夫不在,衣服也落在了房间内。\n\n猴子觉得好玩,就穿上了大夫的衣服,也就是我们常见的那种白大褂子。这时候有一只小熊来医院看病。小熊是第一次上医院,并不了解医院的情况。它所知道的,就是大夫们都穿着白大褂子。\n\n小熊提着一篮桃子(这是它准备送给大夫的酬金)来到医院,正好走进猴子所在的房间。小熊不认识猴子,但是它认识那件白大褂子,于是就请猴子给它看病。\n\n猴子本来只是玩耍,并不会看病,但是它看到小熊的篮子后,就起了贪念。于是猴子便装模作样地给小熊看了病,并且理所应当地收下了那篮桃子。至于小熊的病是否给猴子看好了,这一点不得而知。\n\n但是猴子却尝到了甜头,以后常常潜入医院,趁大夫不在的时候,穿上大夫的衣服,给病人看病。到后来,猴子干脆给自己也做了一身那样的白大褂子。\n\n唉!我们不知道有多少人是在猴子那里看的病啊!\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nMonkey went to the hospital on a lark, and entered the doctor\'s room. At that moment, the doctor wasn\'t in, and he\'d left his [doctor\'s] clothes in the room.\n\nMonkey thought this would be fun, so he put on the doctor\'s clothes, that white lab coat we see so often. Just then a little bear came to the hospital to see the doctor. This was the little bear\'s first time at the hospital, and he didn\'t know what hospitals were like [lit: didn\'t know the hospital situation]. All he knew was that doctors wear white lab coats. \n\nThe little bear had shown up at the hospital carrying a basket of peaches (this was the payment he had prepared to give to the doctor), and he happened to walk into the room where Monkey was. Little Bear didn\'t know Monkey, but he recognized the white lab coat, so he asked Monkey to examine him.\n\nMonkey originally just [intended to] have a bit of fun, but when he saw Little Bear\'s basket, he coveted it fiercely. So Monkey put on a big show of examining Little Bear, and accepted his well-earned basket of peaches. As to whether or not Monkey actually cured Little Bear, we will never know. \n\nHowever, after Monkey tasted that sweetness, he often stole into the hospital, taking advantage of the doctor\'s absence, and examined patients. Later, Monkey simply made himself one of those kind of white lab coats. \n\nAi! We don\'t know how many people were examined by Monkey!\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Doctor and the Monkey', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1401-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-06-13 00:46:20', '2013-06-13 04:46:20', '', 1401, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/06/13/1401-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1431, 1, '2013-06-13 01:14:37', '2013-06-13 05:14:37', '[two_third]\r\nEeps - bad medicine! In this story, the mischievous Monkey - always a trickster figure in Chinese stories - pulls the wool over Little Bear\'s eyes. If Little Bear was American, he\'d sue the hospital for negligence and rake in millions of baskets of peaches. \r\n\r\nThough the majority of this text is very basic reading, there are three phrases which jump out at me as being difficult, or words I couldn\'t find in basic dictionaries. \r\n\r\n理所应当 - [pinyin]li3 suo3 ying1 dang1[/pinyin] This phrase means to feel something is well-deserved, that something has been earned through hard work, usually when it actually hasn\'t. So I guess that roughly translates to \'taking a reward for granted\'? In this story, Monkey feels that his payment is well-earned or well-deserved. But as readers, we know Monkey doesn\'t deserve anything at all - he\'s taking that payment for granted when he didn\'t really earn it. Consider this phrase in another context:\r\n\r\n别人帮助你那是义气，你不能当作是理所应当的。 - \"When other people help you it\'s in the spirit of self-sacrifice, you shouldn\'t consider this something you deserve as a matter of course.\" \r\n\r\n甜头 - Though this looks like two words, the first meaning \"sweet\" and the second meaning \"head\" or \"brain\", it\'s actually a colloquialism that just means \"sweet flavor\" or \"pleasant taste\". \r\n\r\n贪念 - These two characters also seem separate, they don\'t appear together in my dictionary, but they\'re actually one word. According to Baidu Bai Ke, the Baidu dictionary (a Chinese-language resource for word meanings and derivations), 贪念 [pinyin]tan1 nian4[/pinyin] just means \"greedy\" (I presume the \"念\" probably adds the meaning \"idea\" or \"thoughts\" here, so 贪念 could be read as \"greedy thoughts\"). \r\n\r\nYou can read the original here. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n玩耍 - [pinyin]wan2 shua3[/pinyin] - Enjoy oneself, mess around\r\n白大褂子 - [pinyin]bai2 da4 gua4 zi5[/pinyin] - White lab coat [lit: Large white unlined upper garment]\r\n看病 - [pinyin]kan4 bing4[/pinyin] - See a doctor\r\n酬金 - [pinyin]chou2 jin1[/pinyin] - monetary remuneration, payment\r\n贪念 - [pinyin]tan1 nian4[/pinyin] - Greedy\r\n装模作样 - [pinyin]zhuang1 mo2 zuo4 yang4[/pinyin] - To put on an act\r\n不得而知 - [pinyin]bu4 de2 er2 zhi1[/pinyin] - Can\'t be known, unknowable\r\n潜入 - [pinyin]qian2 ru4[/pinyin] - To sneak into\r\n干脆 - [pinyin]gan1 cui4[/pinyin] - Simply, straightbforward\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n猴子去医院玩耍,进了大夫的房间。正好大夫不在,衣服也落在了房间内。\r\n\r\n猴子觉得好玩,就穿上了大夫的衣服,也就是我们常见的那种白大褂子。这时候有一只小熊来医院看病。小熊是第一次上医院,并不了解医院的情况。它所知道的,就是大夫们都穿着白大褂子。\r\n\r\n小熊提着一篮桃子(这是它准备送给大夫的酬金)来到医院,正好走进猴子所在的房间。小熊不认识猴子,但是它认识那件白大褂子,于是就请猴子给它看病。\r\n\r\n猴子本来只是玩耍,并不会看病,但是它看到小熊的篮子后,就起了贪念。于是猴子便装模作样地给小熊看了病,并且理所应当地收下了那篮桃子。至于小熊的病是否给猴子看好了,这一点不得而知。\r\n\r\n但是猴子却尝到了甜头,以后常常潜入医院,趁大夫不在的时候,穿上大夫的衣服,给病人看病。到后来,猴子干脆给自己也做了一身那样的白大褂子。\r\n\r\n唉!我们不知道有多少人是在猴子那里看的病啊!\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nMonkey went to the hospital on a lark, and entered the doctor\'s room. At that moment, the doctor wasn\'t in, and he\'d left his [doctor\'s] clothes in the room.\r\n\r\nMonkey thought this would be fun, so he put on the doctor\'s clothes, that white lab coat we see so often. Just then a little bear came to the hospital to see the doctor. This was the little bear\'s first time at the hospital, and he didn\'t know what hospitals were like [lit: didn\'t know the hospital situation]. All he knew was that doctors wear white lab coats. \r\n\r\nThe little bear had shown up at the hospital carrying a basket of peaches (this was the payment he had prepared to give to the doctor), and he happened to walk into the room where Monkey was. Little Bear didn\'t know Monkey, but he recognized the white lab coat, so he asked Monkey to examine him.\r\n\r\nMonkey originally just [intended to] have a bit of fun, but when he saw Little Bear\'s basket, he coveted it fiercely. So Monkey put on a big show of examining Little Bear, and accepted his well-earned basket of peaches. As to whether or not Monkey actually cured Little Bear, we will never know. \r\n\r\nHowever, after Monkey tasted that sweetness, he often stole into the hospital, taking advantage of the doctor\'s absence, and examined patients. Later, Monkey simply made himself one of those kind of white lab coats. \r\n\r\nAi! We don\'t know how many people were examined by Monkey!\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Doctor and the Monkey', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1401-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-06-13 01:14:37', '2013-06-13 05:14:37', '', 1401, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/06/13/1401-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1432, 1, '2013-06-23 02:43:24', '2013-06-23 06:43:24', 'Welp, I swore I would never do this again but I found this (and several other short stories) in Hainan Airlines\' in-flight magazine (I\'m in Prague!) and couldn\'t resist typing it up (as opposed to copy-pasting from an online source). I\'ve checked and checked for typos, but I\'m not always the best at that, so if you run across one, please comment.\r\n\r\nThis is one of those reads where the sentence structure is basic and in parts very repetitive, but quite a few advanced words are used - \"advanced\" only because they\'re not used often in casual conversation, like parts of an animal (hooves, horns, etc.) So beginners, you can give this a go if you\'re feeling very patient but you\'ll be looking up every other word in some paragraphs even though you will be able to predict generally what the next few sentences are about.\r\n\r\n![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/20130624-INLINE.jpg\")
I wanted to post a quick comment about the words 一箭一般, because this looks like a typical four-character idiom, but it\'s actually two separate words, 一箭 (an arrow) and 一般 (like, as if). Together this means \"like an arrow\", or in context of this sentence \"to take off (running) like a shot\". \r\n\r\nThere\'s also the phrase 从草丛中闪出. We\'re talking here about a dog that is \"[darting] out in a flash\" (闪出) \"from the middle of a cluster of grasses\" (从草丛中). We can imagine a dog charging out of a field of tall grass and into a clearing. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 傍晚，一只羊独自在山坡上玩，突然从树木中窜出一只狼来，要吃羊，羊跳起来，拼命用角抵抗，并大声向朋友们救命。\r\n\r\n2) 牛在树丛中向这个地方望了一眼，发现是狼，跑走了。\r\n\r\n3) 马低头一看，发现是狼，一溜烟跑了。\r\n\r\n4) 驴停下脚步，发现是狼，悄悄溜下山坡。\r\n\r\n5) 猪经过这里，发现是狼，冲下山坡。\r\n\r\n6) 兔子一听，更是一箭一般离去。\r\n\r\n7) 山下的狗听见羊的呼喊，急忙奔上坡来，从草丛中闪出，一下咬住了狼的脖子，狼疼得直叫唤, 趁够换气时，怆惶挑走了。\r\n\r\n8) 回到家，朋友都来了，\r\n牛说：你怎么不告诉我？我的角可以剜出狼的肠子。\r\n马说：你怎么不告诉我？我的蹄子能踢碎狼的脑袋。\r\n驴说：你怎么不告诉我？我一声吼叫，吓破狼的胆。\r\n猪说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我用嘴一拱，就让它摔下山去。\r\n兔子说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我跑得快，可以传信呀。\r\n\r\n9) 在这闹嚷嚷的一群中，唯独没有狗。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) One nightfall, a sheep was playing alone on the mountainside, when suddenly a wolf emerged from among the trees, wanting to eat the sheep, so the sheep jumped up, using his horns to defend himself with all his might, and loudly called out for his friends to save his life.\r\n\r\n2) The bull looked over from among a cluster of trees, saw there was a wolf, and ran away.\r\n\r\n3) The horse lowered its head and looked, discovered there was a wolf, and slipped away in a puff of smoke.\r\n\r\n4) The mule stopped walking for a moment, discovered there was a wolf, and quietly slipped down the mountain.\r\n\r\n5) The pig passed through there, found out there was a wolf, and rushed down the mountainside.\r\n\r\n6) The rabbit listened a moment, then took off like a shot.\r\n\r\n7) From the bottom of the mountain, the dog heard the sheep\'s cry, and ran quickly up the mountainside, came out of the grass in a flash, and in a moment had grabbed the wolf\'s neck in his teeth, the wolf cried out in pain, and taking advantage of the dog\'s intake of breath, ran away full of sorrow and fear. [When the sheep] returned home, his friends all came over.\r\n\r\n8) The bull said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My horns could have gouged out the wolf\'s intestines.\r\nThe horse said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My hooves could have kicked the wolf\'s skull apart.\r\nDonkey said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could have brayed and startled the wolf so as to break his courage. \r\nPig said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could nuzzle him with my snout, and make him fall down the mountain.\r\nRabbit said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I run fast, I could have spread the word.\r\n\r\n9) In this noisy group, the only one who wasn\'t present was the dog.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Fables] 沉默的狗 - The Silent Dog', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-silent-dog', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:22:27', '2016-11-04 10:22:27', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1432', 0, 'post', '', 20),
(2049, 1, '2016-11-04 06:22:27', '2016-11-04 10:22:27', 'Welp, I swore I would never do this again but I found this (and several other short stories) in Hainan Airlines\' in-flight magazine (I\'m in Prague!) and couldn\'t resist typing it up (as opposed to copy-pasting from an online source). I\'ve checked and checked for typos, but I\'m not always the best at that, so if you run across one, please comment.\r\n\r\nThis is one of those reads where the sentence structure is basic and in parts very repetitive, but quite a few advanced words are used - \"advanced\" only because they\'re not used often in casual conversation, like parts of an animal (hooves, horns, etc.) So beginners, you can give this a go if you\'re feeling very patient but you\'ll be looking up every other word in some paragraphs even though you will be able to predict generally what the next few sentences are about.\r\n\r\nI wanted to post a quick comment about the words 一箭一般, because this looks like a typical four-character idiom, but it\'s actually two separate words, 一箭 (an arrow) and 一般 (like, as if). Together this means \"like an arrow\", or in context of this sentence \"to take off (running) like a shot\". \r\n\r\nThere\'s also the phrase 从草丛中闪出. We\'re talking here about a dog that is \"[darting] out in a flash\" (闪出) \"from the middle of a cluster of grasses\" (从草丛中). We can imagine a dog charging out of a field of tall grass and into a clearing. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 傍晚，一只羊独自在山坡上玩，突然从树木中窜出一只狼来，要吃羊，羊跳起来，拼命用角抵抗，并大声向朋友们救命。\r\n\r\n2) 牛在树丛中向这个地方望了一眼，发现是狼，跑走了。\r\n\r\n3) 马低头一看，发现是狼，一溜烟跑了。\r\n\r\n4) 驴停下脚步，发现是狼，悄悄溜下山坡。\r\n\r\n5) 猪经过这里，发现是狼，冲下山坡。\r\n\r\n6) 兔子一听，更是一箭一般离去。\r\n\r\n7) 山下的狗听见羊的呼喊，急忙奔上坡来，从草丛中闪出，一下咬住了狼的脖子，狼疼得直叫唤, 趁够换气时，怆惶挑走了。\r\n\r\n8) 回到家，朋友都来了，\r\n牛说：你怎么不告诉我？我的角可以剜出狼的肠子。\r\n马说：你怎么不告诉我？我的蹄子能踢碎狼的脑袋。\r\n驴说：你怎么不告诉我？我一声吼叫，吓破狼的胆。\r\n猪说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我用嘴一拱，就让它摔下山去。\r\n兔子说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我跑得快，可以传信呀。\r\n\r\n9) 在这闹嚷嚷的一群中，唯独没有狗。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) One nightfall, a sheep was playing alone on the mountainside, when suddenly a wolf emerged from among the trees, wanting to eat the sheep, so the sheep jumped up, using his horns to defend himself with all his might, and loudly called out for his friends to save his life.\r\n\r\n2) The bull looked over from among a cluster of trees, saw there was a wolf, and ran away.\r\n\r\n3) The horse lowered its head and looked, discovered there was a wolf, and slipped away in a puff of smoke.\r\n\r\n4) The mule stopped walking for a moment, discovered there was a wolf, and quietly slipped down the mountain.\r\n\r\n5) The pig passed through there, found out there was a wolf, and rushed down the mountainside.\r\n\r\n6) The rabbit listened a moment, then took off like a shot.\r\n\r\n7) From the bottom of the mountain, the dog heard the sheep\'s cry, and ran quickly up the mountainside, came out of the grass in a flash, and in a moment had grabbed the wolf\'s neck in his teeth, the wolf cried out in pain, and taking advantage of the dog\'s intake of breath, ran away full of sorrow and fear. [When the sheep] returned home, his friends all came over.\r\n\r\n8) The bull said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My horns could have gouged out the wolf\'s intestines.\r\nThe horse said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My hooves could have kicked the wolf\'s skull apart.\r\nDonkey said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could have brayed and startled the wolf so as to break his courage. \r\nPig said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could nuzzle him with my snout, and make him fall down the mountain.\r\nRabbit said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I run fast, I could have spread the word.\r\n\r\n9) In this noisy group, the only one who wasn\'t present was the dog.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Fables] 沉默的狗 - The Silent Dog', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1432-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:22:27', '2016-11-04 10:22:27', '', 1432, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1432-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1774, 1, '2016-10-31 04:00:27', '2016-10-31 08:00:27', 'Welp, I swore I would never do this again but I found this (and several other short stories) in Hainan Airlines\' in-flight magazine (I\'m in Prague!) and couldn\'t resist typing it up (as opposed to copy-pasting from an online source). I\'ve checked and checked for typos, but I\'m not always the best at that, so if you run across one, please comment.\r\n\r\nThis is one of those reads where the sentence structure is basic and in parts very repetitive, but quite a few advanced words are used - \"advanced\" only because they\'re not used often in casual conversation, like parts of an animal (hooves, horns, etc.) So beginners, you can give this a go if you\'re feeling very patient but you\'ll be looking up every other word in some paragraphs even though you will be able to predict generally what the next few sentences are about.\r\n\r\nI wanted to post a quick comment about the words 一箭一般, because this looks like a typical four-character idiom, but it\'s actually two separate words, 一箭 (an arrow) and 一般 (like, as if). Together this means \"like an arrow\", or in context of this sentence \"to take off (running) like a shot\". \r\n\r\nThere\'s also the phrase 从草丛中闪出. We\'re talking here about a dog that is \"[darting] out in a flash\" (闪出) \"from the middle of a cluster of grasses\" (从草丛中). We can imagine a dog charging out of a field of tall grass and into a clearing. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 傍晚，一只羊独自在山坡上玩，突然从树木中窜出一只狼来，要吃羊，羊跳起来，拼命用角抵抗，并大声向朋友们救命。\r\n\r\n2) 牛在树丛中向这个地方望了一眼，发现是狼，跑走了。\r\n\r\n3) 马低头一看，发现是狼，一溜烟跑了。\r\n\r\n4) 驴停下脚步，发现是狼，悄悄溜下山坡。\r\n\r\n5) 猪经过这里，发现是狼，冲下山坡。\r\n\r\n6) 兔子一听，更是一箭一般离去。\r\n\r\n7) 山下的狗听见羊的呼喊，急忙奔上坡来，从草丛中闪出，一下咬住了狼的脖子，狼疼得直叫唤, 趁够换气时，怆惶挑走了。\r\n\r\n8) 回到家，朋友都来了，\r\n牛说：你怎么不告诉我？我的角可以剜出狼的肠子。\r\n马说：你怎么不告诉我？我的蹄子能踢碎狼的脑袋。\r\n驴说：你怎么不告诉我？我一声吼叫，吓破狼的胆。\r\n猪说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我用嘴一拱，就让它摔下山去。\r\n兔子说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我跑得快，可以传信呀。\r\n\r\n9) 在这闹嚷嚷的一群中，唯独没有狗。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) One nightfall, a sheep was playing alone on the mountainside, when suddenly a wolf emerged from among the trees, wanting to eat the sheep, so the sheep jumped up, using his horns to defend himself with all his might, and loudly called out for his friends to save his life.\r\n\r\n2) The bull looked over from among a cluster of trees, saw there was a wolf, and ran away.\r\n\r\n3) The horse lowered its head and looked, discovered there was a wolf, and slipped away in a puff of smoke.\r\n\r\n4) The mule stopped walking for a moment, discovered there was a wolf, and quietly slipped down the mountain.\r\n\r\n5) The pig passed through there, found out there was a wolf, and rushed down the mountainside.\r\n\r\n6) The rabbit listened a moment, then took off like a shot.\r\n\r\n7) From the bottom of the mountain, the dog heard the sheep\'s cry, and ran quickly up the mountainside, came out of the grass in a flash, and in a moment had grabbed the wolf\'s neck in his teeth, the wolf cried out in pain, and taking advantage of the dog\'s intake of breath, ran away full of sorrow and fear. [When the sheep] returned home, his friends all came over.\r\n\r\n8) The bull said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My horns could have gouged out the wolf\'s intestines.\r\nThe horse said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My hooves could have kicked the wolf\'s skull apart.\r\nDonkey said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could have brayed and startled the wolf so as to break his courage. \r\nPig said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could nuzzle him with my snout, and make him fall down the mountain.\r\nRabbit said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I run fast, I could have spread the word.\r\n\r\n9) In this noisy group, the only one who wasn\'t present was the dog.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Fable] 沉默的狗 - The Silent Dog', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1432-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 04:00:27', '2016-10-31 08:00:27', '', 1432, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1432-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1434, 1, '2013-06-17 02:42:32', '2013-06-17 06:42:32', '[two_third]\nWelp, I swore I would never do this again but I found this (and several other short stories) in an in-flight magazine and couldn\'t resist typing it up. I\'ve checked and checked for typos, but they\'re had to scan for in Chinese, so if you run across one, please comment. \n\nThe Chinese title is 沉默的狗\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n玩耍 - [pinyin]wan2 shua3[/pinyin] - Enjoy oneself, mess around\n白大褂子 - [pinyin]bai2 da4 gua4 zi5[/pinyin] - White lab coat [lit: Large white unlined upper garment]\n看病 - [pinyin]kan4 bing4[/pinyin] - See a doctor\n酬金 - [pinyin]chou2 jin1[/pinyin] - monetary remuneration, payment\n贪念 - [pinyin]tan1 nian4[/pinyin] - Greedy\n装模作样 - [pinyin]zhuang1 mo2 zuo4 yang4[/pinyin] - To put on an act\n不得而知 - [pinyin]bu4 de2 er2 zhi1[/pinyin] - Can\'t be known, unknowable\n潜入 - [pinyin]qian2 ru4[/pinyin] - To sneak into\n干脆 - [pinyin]gan1 cui4[/pinyin] - Simply, straightbforward\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n傍晚，一只羊独自在山坡上玩，突然从树木中窜出一只狼来，要吃羊，羊挑起来，拼命用角抵抗，并大声向朋友们救命。\n\n牛在树丛中向这个地方望了一眼，发现是狼，跑走了。\n\n马低头一看，发现是狼，一溜烟跑了。\n\n驴停下脚步，发现是狼，悄悄溜下山坡。\n\n猪经过这里，发现是狼，冲下山坡。\n\n兔子一听，更是一箭一般离去。\n\n山下的狗听见羊的呼喊，急忙奔上坡来，从草丛中闪出，一下咬住了狼的脖子，狼疼得直叫唤, 趁够换气时，怆惶挑走了。\n\n回到家，朋友都来了，\n牛说：你怎么不告诉我？我的角可以剜出狼的肠子。\n马说：你怎么不告诉我？我的蹄子能踢碎狼的脑袋。\n驴说：你怎么不告诉我？我一声吼叫，吓破狼的胆。\n猪说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我用嘴一拱，就让它摔下山去。\n兔子说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我跑得快，可以传心呀。\n\n在这闹嚷嚷的一群中，唯独没有狗。\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nMonkey went to the hospital on a lark, and entered the doctor\'s room. At that moment, the doctor wasn\'t in, and he\'d left his [doctor\'s] clothes in the room.\n\nMonkey thought this would be fun, so he put on the doctor\'s clothes, that white lab coat we see so often. Just then a little bear came to the hospital to see the doctor. This was the little bear\'s first time at the hospital, and he didn\'t know what hospitals were like [lit: didn\'t know the hospital situation]. All he knew was that doctors wear white lab coats. \n\nThe little bear had shown up at the hospital carrying a basket of peaches (this was the payment he had prepared to give to the doctor), and he happened to walk into the room where Monkey was. Little Bear didn\'t know Monkey, but he recognized the white lab coat, so he asked Monkey to examine him.\n\nMonkey originally just [intended to] have a bit of fun, but when he saw Little Bear\'s basket, he coveted it fiercely. So Monkey put on a big show of examining Little Bear, and accepted his well-earned basket of peaches. As to whether or not Monkey actually cured Little Bear, we will never know. \n\nHowever, after Monkey tasted that sweetness, he often stole into the hospital, taking advantage of the doctor\'s absence, and examined patients. Later, Monkey simply made himself one of those kind of white lab coats. \n\nAi! We don\'t know how many people were examined by Monkey!\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Silent Dog', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1432-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-06-17 02:42:32', '2013-06-17 06:42:32', '', 1432, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/06/17/1432-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1433, 1, '2013-06-17 02:08:47', '2013-06-17 06:08:47', '[two_third]\r\nEeps - bad medicine! In this story, the mischievous Monkey - always a trickster figure in Chinese stories - pulls the wool over Little Bear\'s eyes. If Little Bear was American, he\'d sue the hospital for negligence and rake in millions of baskets of peaches. \r\n\r\nThough the majority of this text is very basic reading, there are three phrases which jump out at me as being difficult, or words I couldn\'t find in basic dictionaries. \r\n\r\n理所应当 - [pinyin]li3 suo3 ying1 dang1[/pinyin] This phrase means to feel something is well-deserved, that something has been earned through hard work, usually when it actually hasn\'t. So I guess that roughly translates to \'taking a reward for granted\'? In this story, Monkey feels that his payment is well-earned or well-deserved. But as readers, we know Monkey doesn\'t deserve anything at all - he\'s taking that payment for granted when he didn\'t really earn it. Consider this phrase in another context:\r\n\r\n别人帮助你那是义气，你不能当作是理所应当的。 - \"When other people help you it\'s in the spirit of self-sacrifice, you shouldn\'t consider this something you deserve as a matter of course.\" \r\n\r\n甜头 - Though this looks like two words, the first meaning \"sweet\" and the second meaning \"head\" or \"brain\", it\'s actually a colloquialism that just means \"sweet flavor\" or \"pleasant taste\". \r\n\r\n贪念 - These two characters also seem separate, they don\'t appear together in my dictionary, but they\'re actually one word. According to Baidu Bai Ke, the Baidu dictionary (a Chinese-language resource for word meanings and derivations), 贪念 [pinyin]tan1 nian4[/pinyin] just means \"greedy\" (I presume the \"念\" probably adds the meaning \"idea\" or \"thoughts\" here, so 贪念 could be read as \"greedy thoughts\"). \r\n\r\nYou can read the original here. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n玩耍 - [pinyin]wan2 shua3[/pinyin] - Enjoy oneself, mess around\r\n白大褂子 - [pinyin]bai2 da4 gua4 zi5[/pinyin] - White lab coat [lit: Large white unlined upper garment]\r\n看病 - [pinyin]kan4 bing4[/pinyin] - See a doctor\r\n酬金 - [pinyin]chou2 jin1[/pinyin] - monetary remuneration, payment\r\n贪念 - [pinyin]tan1 nian4[/pinyin] - Greedy\r\n装模作样 - [pinyin]zhuang1 mo2 zuo4 yang4[/pinyin] - To put on an act\r\n不得而知 - [pinyin]bu4 de2 er2 zhi1[/pinyin] - Can\'t be known, unknowable\r\n潜入 - [pinyin]qian2 ru4[/pinyin] - To sneak into\r\n干脆 - [pinyin]gan1 cui4[/pinyin] - Simply, straightbforward\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n猴子去医院玩耍,进了大夫的房间。正好大夫不在,衣服也落在了房间内。\r\n\r\n猴子觉得好玩,就穿上了大夫的衣服,也就是我们常见的那种白大褂子。这时候有一只小熊来医院看病。小熊是第一次上医院,并不了解医院的情况。它所知道的,就是大夫们都穿着白大褂子。\r\n\r\n小熊提着一篮桃子(这是它准备送给大夫的酬金)来到医院,正好走进猴子所在的房间。小熊不认识猴子,但是它认识那件白大褂子,于是就请猴子给它看病。\r\n\r\n猴子本来只是玩耍,并不会看病,但是它看到小熊的篮子后,就起了贪念。于是猴子便装模作样地给小熊看了病,并且理所应当地收下了那篮桃子。至于小熊的病是否给猴子看好了,这一点不得而知。\r\n\r\n但是猴子却尝到了甜头,以后常常潜入医院,趁大夫不在的时候,穿上大夫的衣服,给病人看病。到后来,猴子干脆给自己也做了一身那样的白大褂子。\r\n\r\n唉!我们不知道有多少人是在猴子那里看的病啊!\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nMonkey went to the hospital on a lark, and entered the doctor\'s room. At that moment, the doctor wasn\'t in, and he\'d left his [doctor\'s] clothes in the room.\r\n\r\nMonkey thought this would be fun, so he put on the doctor\'s clothes, that white lab coat we see so often. Just then a little bear came to the hospital to see the doctor. This was the little bear\'s first time at the hospital, and he didn\'t know what hospitals were like [lit: didn\'t know the hospital situation]. All he knew was that doctors wear white lab coats. \r\n\r\nThe little bear had shown up at the hospital carrying a basket of peaches (this was the payment he had prepared to give to the doctor), and he happened to walk into the room where Monkey was. Little Bear didn\'t know Monkey, but he recognized the white lab coat, so he asked Monkey to examine him.\r\n\r\nMonkey originally just [intended to] have a bit of fun, but when he saw Little Bear\'s basket, he coveted it fiercely. So Monkey put on a big show of examining Little Bear, and accepted his well-earned basket of peaches. As to whether or not Monkey actually cured Little Bear, we will never know. \r\n\r\nHowever, after Monkey tasted that sweetness, he often stole into the hospital, taking advantage of the doctor\'s absence, and examined patients. Later, Monkey simply made himself one of those kind of white lab coats. \r\n\r\nAi! We don\'t know how many people were examined by Monkey!\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Doctor and the Monkey', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1401-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-06-17 02:08:47', '2013-06-17 06:08:47', '', 1401, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/06/17/1401-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1435, 1, '2013-06-17 03:12:07', '2013-06-17 07:12:07', '', 'Read Chinese: Intermediate Chinese Character Learning Exercises', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130624-inline', '', '', '2013-06-17 03:12:07', '2013-06-17 07:12:07', '', 1432, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/20130624-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1436, 1, '2013-06-17 03:12:09', '2013-06-17 07:12:09', '', '', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130624', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:21:47', '2016-11-04 10:21:47', '', 1432, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/20130624.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1437, 1, '2013-06-17 03:11:27', '2013-06-17 07:11:27', '[two_third]\nWelp, I swore I would never do this again but I found this (and several other short stories) in Hainan Airlines\' in-flight magazine (I\'m in Prague!) and couldn\'t resist typing it up (as opposed to copy-pasting from an online source). I\'ve checked and checked for typos, but I\'m not always the best at that, so if you run across one, please comment.\n\nThis is one of those reads where the sentence structure is basic and in parts very repetitive, but quite a few advanced words are used - \"advanced\" only because they\'re not used often in casual conversation, like parts of an animal (hooves, horns, etc.) So beginners, you can give this a go if you\'re feeling very patient but you\'ll be looking up every other word in some paragraphs even though you will be able to predict generally what the next few sentences are about.\n\nI wanted to post a quick comment about the words 一箭一般, because this looks like a typical four-character idiom, but it\'s actually two separate words, 一箭 (an arrow) and 一般 (like, as if). Together this means \"like an arrow\", or in context of this sentence \"to take off (running) like a shot\". \n\nThere\'s also the phrase 从草丛中闪出. We\'re talking here about a dog that is \"[darting] out in a flash\" (闪出) \"from the middle of a cluster of grasses\" (从草丛中). We can imagine a dog charging out of a field of tall grass and into a clearing. \n\nThe Chinese title is 沉默的狗\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n山坡 - [pinyin]wan2 shua3[/pinyin] - Enjoy oneself, mess around\n窜 - [pinyin]bai2 da4 gua4 zi5[/pinyin] - White lab coat [lit: Large white unlined upper garment]\n抵抗 - [pinyin]kan4 bing4[/pinyin] - See a doctor\n溜烟 - [pinyin]chou2 jin1[/pinyin] - monetary remuneration, payment\n奔 - [pinyin]tan1 nian4[/pinyin] - Greedy\n换气 - [pinyin]zhuang1 mo2 zuo4 yang4[/pinyin] - To put on an act\n怆惶 - [pinyin]bu4 de2 er2 zhi1[/pinyin] - Can\'t be known, unknowable\n剜出 - [pinyin]qian2 ru4[/pinyin] - To sneak into\n蹄子 - [pinyin]gan1 cui4[/pinyin] - Simply, straightbforward\n一拱 - [pinyin]gan1 cui4[/pinyin] - Simply, straightbforward\n唯独 - [pinyin]gan1 cui4[/pinyin] - Simply, straightbforward\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n傍晚，一只羊独自在山坡上玩，突然从树木中窜出一只狼来，要吃羊，羊挑起来，拼命用角抵抗，并大声向朋友们救命。\n\n牛在树丛中向这个地方望了一眼，发现是狼，跑走了。\n\n马低头一看，发现是狼，一溜烟跑了。\n\n驴停下脚步，发现是狼，悄悄溜下山坡。\n\n猪经过这里，发现是狼，冲下山坡。\n\n兔子一听，更是一箭一般离去。\n\n山下的狗听见羊的呼喊，急忙奔上坡来，从草丛中闪出，一下咬住了狼的脖子，狼疼得直叫唤, 趁够换气时，怆惶挑走了。\n\n回到家，朋友都来了，\n牛说：你怎么不告诉我？我的角可以剜出狼的肠子。\n马说：你怎么不告诉我？我的蹄子能踢碎狼的脑袋。\n驴说：你怎么不告诉我？我一声吼叫，吓破狼的胆。\n猪说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我用嘴一拱，就让它摔下山去。\n兔子说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我跑得快，可以传心呀。\n\n在这闹嚷嚷的一群中，唯独没有狗。\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nOne nightfall, a sheep was playing alone on the mountainside, when suddenly a wolf emerged from among the trees, wanting to eat the sheep, so the sheep jumped up, using his horns to defend himself with all his might, and loudly called out for his friends to save his life.\n\nThe bull looked over from among a cluster of trees, saw there was a wolf, and ran away.\n\nThe horse lowered its head and looked, discovered there was a wolf, and ran away in a streak of smoke.\n\nThe mule stopped walking for a moment, discovered there was a wolf, and quietly streaked down the mountain.\n\nThe pig passed through there, found out there was a wolf, and rushed down the mountainside.\n\nThe rabbit listened a moment, then took off like a shot.\n\nFrom the bottom of the mountain, the dog heard the sheep\'s cry, and ran quickly up the mountainside, came out of the grass in a flash, and in a moment had grabbed the wolf\'s neck in his teeth, the wolf cried out in pain, and taking advantage of the dog\'s intake of breath, ran away full of sorrow and fear.\n\n[When the sheep] returned home, his friends all came over.\n\nThe bull said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My horns could have gouged out the wolf\'s intestines.\nThe horse said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My hooves could have kicked the wolf\'s skull apart.\nDonkey said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could have brayed and startled the wolf so as to break his courage. \nPig said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could nuzzle him with my snout, and make him fall down the mountain.\nRabbit said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I ran fast, I could have spread the word.\nIn this noisy group, the only one who wasn\'t present was the dog.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Silent Dog', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1432-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-06-17 03:11:27', '2013-06-17 07:11:27', '', 1432, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/06/17/1432-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1439, 1, '2013-06-17 03:29:37', '2013-06-17 07:29:37', '[two_third]\nWelp, I swore I would never do this again but I found this (and several other short stories) in Hainan Airlines\' in-flight magazine (I\'m in Prague!) and couldn\'t resist typing it up (as opposed to copy-pasting from an online source). I\'ve checked and checked for typos, but I\'m not always the best at that, so if you run across one, please comment.\n\nThis is one of those reads where the sentence structure is basic and in parts very repetitive, but quite a few advanced words are used - \"advanced\" only because they\'re not used often in casual conversation, like parts of an animal (hooves, horns, etc.) So beginners, you can give this a go if you\'re feeling very patient but you\'ll be looking up every other word in some paragraphs even though you will be able to predict generally what the next few sentences are about.\n\nI wanted to post a quick comment about the words 一箭一般, because this looks like a typical four-character idiom, but it\'s actually two separate words, 一箭 (an arrow) and 一般 (like, as if). Together this means \"like an arrow\", or in context of this sentence \"to take off (running) like a shot\". \n\nThere\'s also the phrase 从草丛中闪出. We\'re talking here about a dog that is \"[darting] out in a flash\" (闪出) \"from the middle of a cluster of grasses\" (从草丛中). We can imagine a dog charging out of a field of tall grass and into a clearing. \n\nThe Chinese title is 沉默的狗\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n山坡 - [pinyin]shan1 po1[/pinyin] - Hillside, mountain side\n窜 - [pinyin]cuan4[/pinyin] - To be exiled from, to flee\n抵抗 - [pinyin]di3 kang4[/pinyin] - Resist\n溜烟 - [pinyin]liu1 yan1[/pinyin] - Slip away like smoke, disappear in a puff of smoke\n奔 - [pinyin]ben1[/pinyin] - To rush, to hurry\n换气 - [pinyin]huan4 qi4[/pinyin] - Take a breath (after holding your breath, as with swimming)\n怆惶 - [pinyin]chuang4 huang2[/pinyin] - Sad and scared\n剜出 - [pinyin]wan1 chu1[/pinyin] - To gouge out\n蹄子 - [pinyin]ti2 zi5[/pinyin] - Hoov\n一拱 - [pinyin]gan1 cui4[/pinyin] - Simply, straightbforward\n唯独 - [pinyin]gan1 cui4[/pinyin] - Simply, straightbforward\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n傍晚，一只羊独自在山坡上玩，突然从树木中窜出一只狼来，要吃羊，羊挑起来，拼命用角抵抗，并大声向朋友们救命。\n\n牛在树丛中向这个地方望了一眼，发现是狼，跑走了。\n\n马低头一看，发现是狼，一溜烟跑了。\n\n驴停下脚步，发现是狼，悄悄溜下山坡。\n\n猪经过这里，发现是狼，冲下山坡。\n\n兔子一听，更是一箭一般离去。\n\n山下的狗听见羊的呼喊，急忙奔上坡来，从草丛中闪出，一下咬住了狼的脖子，狼疼得直叫唤, 趁够换气时，怆惶挑走了。\n\n回到家，朋友都来了，\n牛说：你怎么不告诉我？我的角可以剜出狼的肠子。\n马说：你怎么不告诉我？我的蹄子能踢碎狼的脑袋。\n驴说：你怎么不告诉我？我一声吼叫，吓破狼的胆。\n猪说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我用嘴一拱，就让它摔下山去。\n兔子说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我跑得快，可以传心呀。\n\n在这闹嚷嚷的一群中，唯独没有狗。\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nOne nightfall, a sheep was playing alone on the mountainside, when suddenly a wolf emerged from among the trees, wanting to eat the sheep, so the sheep jumped up, using his horns to defend himself with all his might, and loudly called out for his friends to save his life.\n\nThe bull looked over from among a cluster of trees, saw there was a wolf, and ran away.\n\nThe horse lowered its head and looked, discovered there was a wolf, and slipped away in a puff of smoke.\n\nThe mule stopped walking for a moment, discovered there was a wolf, and quietly slipped down the mountain.\n\nThe pig passed through there, found out there was a wolf, and rushed down the mountainside.\n\nThe rabbit listened a moment, then took off like a shot.\n\nFrom the bottom of the mountain, the dog heard the sheep\'s cry, and ran quickly up the mountainside, came out of the grass in a flash, and in a moment had grabbed the wolf\'s neck in his teeth, the wolf cried out in pain, and taking advantage of the dog\'s intake of breath, ran away full of sorrow and fear.\n\n[When the sheep] returned home, his friends all came over.\n\nThe bull said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My horns could have gouged out the wolf\'s intestines.\nThe horse said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My hooves could have kicked the wolf\'s skull apart.\nDonkey said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could have brayed and startled the wolf so as to break his courage. \nPig said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could nuzzle him with my snout, and make him fall down the mountain.\nRabbit said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I ran fast, I could have spread the word.\nIn this noisy group, the only one who wasn\'t present was the dog.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Silent Dog', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1432-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-06-17 03:29:37', '2013-06-17 07:29:37', '', 1432, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/06/17/1432-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1438, 1, '2011-02-23 09:37:58', '2011-02-23 14:37:58', '[two_third]\r\n\r\nThis very short husband and wife joke is courtesy of the March 2006 print issue of Youth Digest. \r\n\r\nThe vocabulary here is intermediate, but the story contains quite a few beginner words and short sentences that you may enjoy puzzling out.\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Interesting Vocabulary
\r\n性感 - [pinyin]xing4 gan3[/pinyin] - Sexy\r\n期盼 - [pinyin]qi1 pan4[/pinyin] - Look forward to, hope to expect\r\n袍 - [pinyin]pao4[/pinyin] - Gown\r\n镂空 - [pinyin]lou4 kong4[/pinyin] - Lacy or mostly see-through. Lit: Pierced with holes\r\n睡褂 - [pinyin]shui4 gua4[/pinyin] - Sleep robe\r\n吓了一条 - [pinyin]xia4 le5 yi1 tiao2[/pinyin] - Be startled\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
[one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n丈夫问我，40岁生日礼物想要什么东西，我告诉他想要一种能使我看上去更加性感和美丽的东西，也就是说，我心中期盼的是装有黑色丝袍和镂空睡褂的女内衣盒。 但是礼物送到时，我着实吓了一条。 丈夫拖回家一直巨大笨重的包装箱，里面是一辆健身自行车。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nMy husband asked me what I wanted for my 40th birthday. I told him that I wanted something that would make me look more sexy and beautiful. In other words, I was looking forward to getting some clothes, like a black silk gown and a lacy sleeping robe in a women\'s lingerie box. But when the gift arrived, I was startled. My husband dragged home a huge, heavy package, and inside was an exercise bike. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Birthday Present', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '270-revision-v1', '', '', '2011-02-23 09:37:58', '2011-02-23 14:37:58', '', 270, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2011/02/23/270-revision-12/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1440, 1, '2013-06-17 03:30:22', '2013-06-17 07:30:22', '[two_third]\r\nWelp, I swore I would never do this again but I found this (and several other short stories) in Hainan Airlines\' in-flight magazine (I\'m in Prague!) and couldn\'t resist typing it up (as opposed to copy-pasting from an online source). I\'ve checked and checked for typos, but I\'m not always the best at that, so if you run across one, please comment.\r\n\r\nThis is one of those reads where the sentence structure is basic and in parts very repetitive, but quite a few advanced words are used - \"advanced\" only because they\'re not used often in casual conversation, like parts of an animal (hooves, horns, etc.) So beginners, you can give this a go if you\'re feeling very patient but you\'ll be looking up every other word in some paragraphs even though you will be able to predict generally what the next few sentences are about.\r\n\r\nI wanted to post a quick comment about the words 一箭一般, because this looks like a typical four-character idiom, but it\'s actually two separate words, 一箭 (an arrow) and 一般 (like, as if). Together this means \"like an arrow\", or in context of this sentence \"to take off (running) like a shot\". \r\n\r\nThere\'s also the phrase 从草丛中闪出. We\'re talking here about a dog that is \"[darting] out in a flash\" (闪出) \"from the middle of a cluster of grasses\" (从草丛中). We can imagine a dog charging out of a field of tall grass and into a clearing. \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title is 沉默的狗\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n山坡 - [pinyin]shan1 po1[/pinyin] - Hillside, mountain side\r\n窜 - [pinyin]cuan4[/pinyin] - To be exiled from, to flee\r\n抵抗 - [pinyin]di3 kang4[/pinyin] - Resist\r\n溜烟 - [pinyin]liu1 yan1[/pinyin] - Slip away like smoke, disappear in a puff of smoke\r\n奔 - [pinyin]ben1[/pinyin] - To rush, to hurry\r\n换气 - [pinyin]huan4 qi4[/pinyin] - Take a breath (after holding your breath, as with swimming)\r\n怆惶 - [pinyin]chuang4 huang2[/pinyin] - Sad and scared\r\n剜出 - [pinyin]wan1 chu1[/pinyin] - To gouge out\r\n蹄子 - [pinyin]ti2 zi5[/pinyin] - Hooves\r\n一拱 - [pinyin]yi1 gong3[/pinyin] - Nuzzle with snout\r\n唯独 - [pinyin]wei2 du2[/pinyin] - Only\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n傍晚，一只羊独自在山坡上玩，突然从树木中窜出一只狼来，要吃羊，羊挑起来，拼命用角抵抗，并大声向朋友们救命。\r\n\r\n牛在树丛中向这个地方望了一眼，发现是狼，跑走了。\r\n\r\n马低头一看，发现是狼，一溜烟跑了。\r\n\r\n驴停下脚步，发现是狼，悄悄溜下山坡。\r\n\r\n猪经过这里，发现是狼，冲下山坡。\r\n\r\n兔子一听，更是一箭一般离去。\r\n\r\n山下的狗听见羊的呼喊，急忙奔上坡来，从草丛中闪出，一下咬住了狼的脖子，狼疼得直叫唤, 趁够换气时，怆惶挑走了。\r\n\r\n回到家，朋友都来了，\r\n牛说：你怎么不告诉我？我的角可以剜出狼的肠子。\r\n马说：你怎么不告诉我？我的蹄子能踢碎狼的脑袋。\r\n驴说：你怎么不告诉我？我一声吼叫，吓破狼的胆。\r\n猪说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我用嘴一拱，就让它摔下山去。\r\n兔子说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我跑得快，可以传心呀。\r\n\r\n在这闹嚷嚷的一群中，唯独没有狗。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nOne nightfall, a sheep was playing alone on the mountainside, when suddenly a wolf emerged from among the trees, wanting to eat the sheep, so the sheep jumped up, using his horns to defend himself with all his might, and loudly called out for his friends to save his life.\r\n\r\nThe bull looked over from among a cluster of trees, saw there was a wolf, and ran away.\r\n\r\nThe horse lowered its head and looked, discovered there was a wolf, and slipped away in a puff of smoke.\r\n\r\nThe mule stopped walking for a moment, discovered there was a wolf, and quietly slipped down the mountain.\r\n\r\nThe pig passed through there, found out there was a wolf, and rushed down the mountainside.\r\n\r\nThe rabbit listened a moment, then took off like a shot.\r\n\r\nFrom the bottom of the mountain, the dog heard the sheep\'s cry, and ran quickly up the mountainside, came out of the grass in a flash, and in a moment had grabbed the wolf\'s neck in his teeth, the wolf cried out in pain, and taking advantage of the dog\'s intake of breath, ran away full of sorrow and fear.\r\n\r\n[When the sheep] returned home, his friends all came over.\r\n\r\nThe bull said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My horns could have gouged out the wolf\'s intestines.\r\nThe horse said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My hooves could have kicked the wolf\'s skull apart.\r\nDonkey said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could have brayed and startled the wolf so as to break his courage. \r\nPig said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could nuzzle him with my snout, and make him fall down the mountain.\r\nRabbit said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I ran fast, I could have spread the word.\r\nIn this noisy group, the only one who wasn\'t present was the dog.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Silent Dog', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1432-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-06-17 03:30:22', '2013-06-17 07:30:22', '', 1432, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/06/17/1432-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1441, 1, '2013-06-11 00:46:40', '2013-06-11 04:46:40', '[two_third]\r\nIn this essay, a child desperately (and very angrily) pleads their father not to smoke. Though this is classified as \"Intermediate\", beginners should definitely try this read, leaning heavily on the hover word-list. The difficult parts are the mid-level turns of phrase, which are all explained below. \r\n\r\nCouple of grammar points. First of all: 我本想让您别抽烟. Most of this sentence is quite simple, but the addition of the character 本 can be puzzling, especially since 本 has many meanings. In this case, the word 本 means \"originally\", as in \"I originally thought to let you not smoke.\" Or, in better English, \"My original intention was that this would make you stop smoking.\" \r\n\r\nAnother point: When the father learns that his cigarettes are gone, he 东翻西找. This phrase is actually a mixture of two words: 东西 (thing, stuff) and 翻找 (to rummage through things while searching, turn things over). We\'ve seen this kind of thing before in previous posts, as with the phrase \"仰起头来\" in the post Little Dog Wears Shoes. If you let the mental picture kind of wash over you, you get an image of the father turning things over looking for his cigarettes.\r\n\r\nA word of interest: 大烟枪. Literally, this word means \"big opium pipe\" or in more contemporary times can actually mean \"big bong\". Colloquially in reference to a person, this means \"someone who smokes a lot\", a \"heavy smoker\". \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title is: 爸爸请您别抽烟了, and the original is here. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n抽烟 - [pinyin]chou1 yan1[/pinyin] - Smoke cigarettes\r\n悄悄 - [pinyin]qiao1 qiao1[/pinyin] - Quietly, secretly\r\n偷走 - [pinyin]tou1 zou3[/pinyin] - Steal (away with something)\r\n垃圾桶 - [pinyin]la1 ji1 tong3[/pinyin] - Trash can\r\n狠 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Fierce\r\n莫大 - [pinyin]mo4 da4[/pinyin] - Great (as in \'a large amount\' rather than \'good\')\r\n理 - [pinyin]li3[/pinyin] - Pay attention to\r\n肺 - [pinyin]fei4[/pinyin] - Lungs\r\n尼古丁 - [pinyin]ni2 gu3 ding1[/pinyin] - Nicotine\r\n千疮百孔 - [pinyin]qian1 chuang1 bai3 kong3[/pinyin] - Riddled with wounds, afflicted with many illnesses\r\n吐痰 - [pinyin]tu3 tan2[/pinyin] - Hawk a loogie\r\n丢下 - [pinyin]diu1 xia4[/pinyin] - to abandon\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我还清楚地记得，那天，我悄悄地把您的烟盒偷走，又偷偷地扔进垃圾桶里，我本想让您别抽烟。可谁知，您回来后，发现烟盒不见了，就东翻西找。当我告诉您，烟盒是我扔的，您十分生气，还狠狠的骂了一句话，你这个坏孩子！这句话，让当时的我感到莫大的痛苦。我把自己反锁在房间内，当时心里想着，你这个大烟枪！抽吧，抽吧，抽到死了我也不理你。\r\n\r\n爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我常常发现您上班时，烟盒的烟还是满满的，可下班回来时，烟盒里的香烟只剩下几根了。每当看见您身旁云雾缭绕，我的鼻子感觉酸酸的。我担心您的肺已被尼古丁熏得千疮百孔。\r\n\r\n爸爸请您别抽烟了！现在您每天都在咳嗽，每天都在吐痰。我担心您会离我们而去。那时丢下我们，那该怎么办呀。\r\n\r\n爸爸，为了您的健康，为了我们，请您别抽烟了!\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! I still remember clearly, that day, I quietly stole your box of cigarettes, and secretly threw them in the trash can, because I was thinking that would stop you from smoking. But who knew, when you returned, and you found out your cigarettes were gone, you rummaged through everything looking for them. When I told you, that it was me who threw them away, you were quite angry, and you ruthlessly scolded me, You bad child! That sentence made me [lit: \'the me of that time\'] feel great pain. I locked myself in my room, and at that time in my heart I thought, You big opium pipe! [Then go ahead and] smoke, smoke, smoke until you die and I won\'t care [lit: I won\'t pay any attention to you].\r\n\r\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! I always find that when you go to work, your box of cigarettes is still full of cigarettes, but when you get off work and come back, there are only a few cigarettes left in the box. Every time I you surrounded by a curling cloud [of smoke], there\'s a sour smell in my nose. I worry that your lungs have already been riddled with gaping wounds by the nicotine. \r\n\r\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! You cough every day, and every day you expectorate. I worry that you will leave us. When you abandon us, then what will we do? \r\n\r\nPapa, for your health, and for us, please don\'t smoke! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Papa, Please Don\'t Smoke! ', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1385-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-06-11 00:46:40', '2013-06-11 04:46:40', '', 1385, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/06/11/1385-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1445, 1, '2013-06-17 03:33:39', '2013-06-17 07:33:39', '[two_third]\r\nWelp, I swore I would never do this again but I found this (and several other short stories) in Hainan Airlines\' in-flight magazine (I\'m in Prague!) and couldn\'t resist typing it up (as opposed to copy-pasting from an online source). I\'ve checked and checked for typos, but I\'m not always the best at that, so if you run across one, please comment.\r\n\r\nThis is one of those reads where the sentence structure is basic and in parts very repetitive, but quite a few advanced words are used - \"advanced\" only because they\'re not used often in casual conversation, like parts of an animal (hooves, horns, etc.) So beginners, you can give this a go if you\'re feeling very patient but you\'ll be looking up every other word in some paragraphs even though you will be able to predict generally what the next few sentences are about.\r\n\r\nI wanted to post a quick comment about the words 一箭一般, because this looks like a typical four-character idiom, but it\'s actually two separate words, 一箭 (an arrow) and 一般 (like, as if). Together this means \"like an arrow\", or in context of this sentence \"to take off (running) like a shot\". \r\n\r\nThere\'s also the phrase 从草丛中闪出. We\'re talking here about a dog that is \"[darting] out in a flash\" (闪出) \"from the middle of a cluster of grasses\" (从草丛中). We can imagine a dog charging out of a field of tall grass and into a clearing. \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title is 沉默的狗\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n山坡 - [pinyin]shan1 po1[/pinyin] - Hillside, mountain side\r\n窜 - [pinyin]cuan4[/pinyin] - To be exiled from, to flee\r\n抵抗 - [pinyin]di3 kang4[/pinyin] - Resist\r\n溜烟 - [pinyin]liu1 yan1[/pinyin] - Slip away like smoke, disappear in a puff of smoke\r\n奔 - [pinyin]ben1[/pinyin] - To rush, to hurry\r\n换气 - [pinyin]huan4 qi4[/pinyin] - Take a breath (after holding your breath, as with swimming)\r\n怆惶 - [pinyin]chuang4 huang2[/pinyin] - Sad and scared\r\n剜出 - [pinyin]wan1 chu1[/pinyin] - To gouge out\r\n蹄子 - [pinyin]ti2 zi5[/pinyin] - Hooves\r\n一拱 - [pinyin]yi1 gong3[/pinyin] - Nuzzle with snout\r\n唯独 - [pinyin]wei2 du2[/pinyin] - Only\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n傍晚，一只羊独自在山坡上玩，突然从树木中窜出一只狼来，要吃羊，羊挑起来，拼命用角抵抗，并大声向朋友们救命。\r\n\r\n牛在树丛中向这个地方望了一眼，发现是狼，跑走了。\r\n\r\n马低头一看，发现是狼，一溜烟跑了。\r\n\r\n驴停下脚步，发现是狼，悄悄溜下山坡。\r\n\r\n猪经过这里，发现是狼，冲下山坡。\r\n\r\n兔子一听，更是一箭一般离去。\r\n\r\n山下的狗听见羊的呼喊，急忙奔上坡来，从草丛中闪出，一下咬住了狼的脖子，狼疼得直叫唤, 趁够换气时，怆惶挑走了。\r\n\r\n回到家，朋友都来了，\r\n牛说：你怎么不告诉我？我的角可以剜出狼的肠子。\r\n马说：你怎么不告诉我？我的蹄子能踢碎狼的脑袋。\r\n驴说：你怎么不告诉我？我一声吼叫，吓破狼的胆。\r\n猪说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我用嘴一拱，就让它摔下山去。\r\n兔子说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我跑得快，可以传心呀。\r\n\r\n在这闹嚷嚷的一群中，唯独没有狗。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nOne nightfall, a sheep was playing alone on the mountainside, when suddenly a wolf emerged from among the trees, wanting to eat the sheep, so the sheep jumped up, using his horns to defend himself with all his might, and loudly called out for his friends to save his life.\r\n\r\nThe bull looked over from among a cluster of trees, saw there was a wolf, and ran away.\r\n\r\nThe horse lowered its head and looked, discovered there was a wolf, and slipped away in a puff of smoke.\r\n\r\nThe mule stopped walking for a moment, discovered there was a wolf, and quietly slipped down the mountain.\r\n\r\nThe pig passed through there, found out there was a wolf, and rushed down the mountainside.\r\n\r\nThe rabbit listened a moment, then took off like a shot.\r\n\r\nFrom the bottom of the mountain, the dog heard the sheep\'s cry, and ran quickly up the mountainside, came out of the grass in a flash, and in a moment had grabbed the wolf\'s neck in his teeth, the wolf cried out in pain, and taking advantage of the dog\'s intake of breath, ran away full of sorrow and fear.\r\n\r\n[When the sheep] returned home, his friends all came over.\r\n\r\nThe bull said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My horns could have gouged out the wolf\'s intestines.\r\nThe horse said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My hooves could have kicked the wolf\'s skull apart.\r\nDonkey said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could have brayed and startled the wolf so as to break his courage. \r\nPig said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could nuzzle him with my snout, and make him fall down the mountain.\r\nRabbit said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I run fast, I could have spread the word.\r\nIn this noisy group, the only one who wasn\'t present was the dog.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Silent Dog', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1432-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-06-17 03:33:39', '2013-06-17 07:33:39', '', 1432, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/06/17/1432-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1444, 1, '2011-03-26 21:54:42', '2011-03-27 01:54:42', '[two_third]\r\n\r\nA short story about an older cat teaching a younger cat a lesson as they fish together. \r\n\r\n![\"Easy](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/20110328-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Easy")
The most interesting thing you\'ll learn here is the contrast between the two phrases \"三心二意\" and \"一心一意\". The first, 三心二意, literally translates as \"three hearts two intentions\", and it means to be of two minds about something, or to be a bit scatterbrained while doing something. The second, 一心一意, translates into \"one heart one intention\", which means \"intently\", or to really concentrate on what you\'re doing. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n蜻蜓 - [pinyin]qing1 ting2[/pinyin] - Dragonfly\r\n蝴蝶- [pinyin]hu2 die2[/pinyin] - Butterfly\r\n不大一会儿 - [pinyin]bu4 da4 yi1 hui4 er5[/pinyin] - Not long after\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
[one_half]\r\n\r\n老猫和小猫一块儿在河边钓鱼。\r\n\r\n一只蜻蜓飞来了。小猫看见了，放下钓鱼竿，就去捉蜻蜓。蜻蜓飞走了，小猫没捉着，空着手回到河边来。小猫一看，老猫钓着了一条大鱼。\r\n\r\n一只蝴蝶飞来了。小猫看见了，放下钓鱼竿，又去捉蝴蝶。蝴蝶飞走了，小猫又没捉着，空着手回到河边来。小猫一看，老猫又钓着了一条大鱼。\r\n\r\n小猫说: “真气人，我怎么一条小鱼也钓不着？”\r\n\r\n老猫看了看小猫，说: “钓鱼就钓鱼，不要这么三心二意的。一会儿捉蜻蜓，一会儿捉蝴蝶，怎么能钓着鱼呢？”\r\n\r\n小猫听了老猫的话，就一心一意地钓鱼。\r\n\r\n蜻蜓又飞来了，蝴蝶又飞来了，小猫就象没看见一样。不大一会儿，小猫也钓着了一条大鱼。\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nOld Cat and Little Cat were fishing together on the riverbank.\r\n\r\nA dragonfly flew over. The little cat saw it, put down his fishing pole, and tried to grab the dragonfly. The dragonfly flew away, and the little cat, unable to grab it, stopped trying and went back to fishing on the riverbank. As soon as Little Cat was back [lit: as soon as little cat looked], Old Cat caught a big fish. \r\n\r\n[This time] a butterfly flew over. The little cat saw it, put down his fishing pole and again tried to catch it. The butterfly flew away without the little cat having caught it, and Little Cat again went back to the riverbank. As soon as he looked over at Old Cat, Old Cat had caught another big fish.\r\n\r\nLittle Cat said: \"How annoying, why is it that I haven\'t caught even one little fish?\" \r\n\r\nOld Cat looked him over and said: \"If you\'re fishing just fish, don\'t be in two minds about it. If you spend a while catching dragonflies, then you spend another while catching butterflies, how can you catch fish?\" \r\n\r\nLittle Cat listened to Old Fish\'s words and begin to fish intently. \r\n\r\nThe dragonfly flew over again, and the butterfly flew over also, but it was as if Little Cat didn\'t see them. Not long after that, Little Cat caught a big fish. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n', 'Cat Goes Fishing', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '607-revision-v1', '', '', '2011-03-26 21:54:42', '2011-03-27 01:54:42', '', 607, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2011/03/26/607-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1446, 1, '2013-06-23 03:28:40', '2013-06-23 07:28:40', '[two_third]\r\nIn this essay, a child desperately (and very angrily) pleads their father not to smoke. Though this is classified as \"Intermediate\", beginners should definitely try this read, leaning heavily on the hover word-list. The difficult parts are the mid-level turns of phrase, which are all explained below. \r\n\r\nCouple of grammar points. First of all: 我本想让您别抽烟. Most of this sentence is quite simple, but the addition of the character 本 can be puzzling, especially since 本 has many meanings. In this case, the word 本 means \"originally\", as in \"I originally thought to let you not smoke.\" Or, in better English, \"My original intention was that this would make you stop smoking.\" \r\n\r\nAnother point: When the father learns that his cigarettes are gone, he 东翻西找. This phrase is actually a mixture of two words: 东西 (east and west / left and right / in all directions) and 翻找 (to rummage through things while searching, turn things over). We\'ve seen this kind of thing before in previous posts, as with the phrase \"仰起头来\" in the post Little Dog Wears Shoes. If you let the mental picture kind of wash over you, you get an image of the father turning things over looking for his cigarettes.\r\n\r\nA word of interest: 大烟枪. Literally, this word means \"big opium pipe\" or in more contemporary times can actually mean \"big bong\". Colloquially in reference to a person, this means \"someone who smokes a lot\", a \"heavy smoker\". \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title is: 爸爸请您别抽烟了, and the original is here. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n抽烟 - [pinyin]chou1 yan1[/pinyin] - Smoke cigarettes\r\n悄悄 - [pinyin]qiao1 qiao1[/pinyin] - Quietly, secretly\r\n偷走 - [pinyin]tou1 zou3[/pinyin] - Steal (away with something)\r\n垃圾桶 - [pinyin]la1 ji1 tong3[/pinyin] - Trash can\r\n狠 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Fierce\r\n莫大 - [pinyin]mo4 da4[/pinyin] - Great (as in \'a large amount\' rather than \'good\')\r\n理 - [pinyin]li3[/pinyin] - Pay attention to\r\n肺 - [pinyin]fei4[/pinyin] - Lungs\r\n尼古丁 - [pinyin]ni2 gu3 ding1[/pinyin] - Nicotine\r\n千疮百孔 - [pinyin]qian1 chuang1 bai3 kong3[/pinyin] - Riddled with wounds, afflicted with many illnesses\r\n吐痰 - [pinyin]tu3 tan2[/pinyin] - Hawk a loogie\r\n丢下 - [pinyin]diu1 xia4[/pinyin] - to abandon\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我还清楚地记得，那天，我悄悄地把您的烟盒偷走，又偷偷地扔进垃圾桶里，我本想让您别抽烟。可谁知，您回来后，发现烟盒不见了，就东翻西找。当我告诉您，烟盒是我扔的，您十分生气，还狠狠的骂了一句话，你这个坏孩子！这句话，让当时的我感到莫大的痛苦。我把自己反锁在房间内，当时心里想着，你这个大烟枪！抽吧，抽吧，抽到死了我也不理你。\r\n\r\n爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我常常发现您上班时，烟盒的烟还是满满的，可下班回来时，烟盒里的香烟只剩下几根了。每当看见您身旁云雾缭绕，我的鼻子感觉酸酸的。我担心您的肺已被尼古丁熏得千疮百孔。\r\n\r\n爸爸请您别抽烟了！现在您每天都在咳嗽，每天都在吐痰。我担心您会离我们而去。那时丢下我们，那该怎么办呀。\r\n\r\n爸爸，为了您的健康，为了我们，请您别抽烟了!\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! I still remember clearly, that day, I quietly stole your box of cigarettes, and secretly threw them in the trash can, because I was thinking that would stop you from smoking. But who knew, when you returned, and you found out your cigarettes were gone, you rummaged through everything looking for them. When I told you, that it was me who threw them away, you were quite angry, and you ruthlessly scolded me, You bad child! That sentence made me [lit: \'the me of that time\'] feel great pain. I locked myself in my room, and at that time in my heart I thought, You big opium pipe! [Then go ahead and] smoke, smoke, smoke until you die and I won\'t care [lit: I won\'t pay any attention to you].\r\n\r\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! I always find that when you go to work, your box of cigarettes is still full of cigarettes, but when you get off work and come back, there are only a few cigarettes left in the box. Every time I you surrounded by a curling cloud [of smoke], there\'s a sour smell in my nose. I worry that your lungs have already been riddled with gaping wounds by the nicotine. \r\n\r\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! You cough every day, and every day you expectorate. I worry that you will leave us. When you abandon us, then what will we do? \r\n\r\nPapa, for your health, and for us, please don\'t smoke! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Papa, Please Don\'t Smoke! ', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1385-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-06-23 03:28:40', '2013-06-23 07:28:40', '', 1385, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/06/23/1385-revision-7/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1474, 1, '2014-02-15 06:12:53', '2014-02-15 11:12:53', 'I was away for a couple of months towards the end of last year, so I missed a few awesome comments until just recently. \r\n\r\nGrace, a commenter on this blog, brought her Chinese reading practice website to my attention, and it\'s the jam. She has a fabulous collections of translated materials for Elementary, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced readers, including my absolute fav genre, Chinese detective stories. Yay!\r\n\r\nDon\'t miss adding Justlearnchinese.comto your blogroll. \r\n\r\n', '[The CRP Blog] New Resource: Justlearnchinese.com', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'new-resource-justlearnchinese-com', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:09:45', '2016-11-04 10:09:45', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1474', 0, 'post', '', 1),
(1450, 1, '2013-08-05 07:13:59', '2013-08-05 11:13:59', 'I love it when I find a longer story that\'s suitable for beginning readers. This one, which is either a tale that reminds us what happens when you try to be something you\'re not, or a tale that reminds us that men should never be allowed to give each other fashion advice, definitely fits the bill. The first sentence isn\'t super simple, so push through that one if you can, it gets much easier in the following paragraphs. Four points of grammar: \r\n\r\n能有幸请 [pinyin]neng2 you3 xing4 qing3[/pinyin] - A politely formal phrase of invitation \"May have the pleasure of inviting you ...\" or more specifically, \"May I be so lucky as to...\" (have this dance?) (take you on a date?). \r\n\r\n看上去 [pinyin]kan4 shang4 qu4[/pinyin] - To look like. \r\n\r\n你要是再不走开 [pinyin]ni3 yao4 shi4 zai4 bu4 zou3 kai1[/pinyin] - This one might be a little confusing. Let\'s break it down: \r\n\r\n你 - You\r\n要是 - If\r\n再不 - Otherwise / If not\r\n走开 - Go away\r\n\r\nThe full phrase means \"If you don\'t go away....\"\r\n\r\n他会来收拾你的 [pinyin]ta1 hui4 lai2 shou1 shi5 ni3 de5[/pinyin]. In the story, Miss Pig says this to an unwelcome guest. The \"他\" in this case is Mr. Pig. The Beginners often learn the word \"收拾\", meaning \"to tidy up\". Usually, this means exactly what it sounds like, and applies to cleaning up a room or an apartment. In this case, it\'s being used in kind of an action movie way, meaning \"He\'ll come over and deal with you!\" or \"He\'ll come straighten you out!\". So Miss Pig is threatening the unwelcome guest, telling him that Mr. Pig will come over and beat him up. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 今天，真是个野餐的好日子。 猪先生精心打扮着自己，他期待着猪小姐能与他一起去野餐。\r\n\r\n2) “呵呵，真希望她会说‘我愿意’啊。 嗯，我再摘朵花送给她，一定能够打动她！”\r\n\r\n3) 路上，猪先生遇到了他的朋友狐狸。狐狸听说了野餐的事，就说：“让我给你一个建议，把我美丽的尾巴借去吧。瞧，你看上去有多聪明啊，猪小姐肯定会喜欢的。” 猪先生很满意。\r\n\r\n4) 接着，他又遇到了他的朋友狮子。狮子听说了野餐的事，就说：“让我给你一个建议，把我美丽的头发借去吧。 瞧，你看上去有多威猛啊，猪小姐肯定会喜欢的。” 猪先生很满意。\r\n\r\n5) 后来，他又遇到他的朋友斑马。斑马听说了野餐的事，就说：“让我给你一个建议，把我美丽的条纹借去吧。 瞧，你看上去有多英俊啊，猪小姐肯定会喜欢的。” 猪先生很满意。他觉得自己从来没有这样英俊过。\r\n\r\n6) 终于来到猪小姐家了，猪先生激动地敲了敲门。“能有幸请你一起去野餐吗？”他问。\r\n\r\n7) 猪小姐吓了一大跳：“噢，不行！你是哪儿来的妖怪呀？你要是再不走开，我就去叫猪先生了，他会来收拾你的！”\r\n\r\n8) 猪先生连忙往回跑。一路上，他把条纹还给了斑马，把头发还给了狮子，把尾巴还给了狐狸。然后，他又赶回到猪小姐的家，再一次摁响了门铃。\r\n\r\n9) “能有幸请你一起去野餐吗？”他又问。\r\n\r\n10) “啊呀，猪先生！” 猪小姐叫道，“看到你我真是太高兴啦，我很愿意跟你一起去野餐。刚才来了个丑八怪，就站在我的院子里，可把我吓坏啦。”\r\n\r\n11) 一路上，猪小姐把那个丑八怪的故事仔细地讲给了猪先生。她英俊的朋友猪先生，则一直满怀同情地听着。这真是一个去野餐的好日子啊。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Today, it\'s a great day for a picnic. Mr. Pig dressed himself with care, looking forward to [the possibility of] Miss Pig and himself going on a picnic together.\r\n\r\n2) \"Heh, I hope she says \'Yes\' [lit: I\'m willing]. Hm, I\'ll also pick some flowers to give her, that will certainly be enough to sway her!\"\r\n\r\n3) On the road, Mr. Pig ran into his friend Fox. When fox heard about the picnic, he said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, let me lend you my beautiful tail. See, you look so clever, Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. \r\n\r\n4) Continuing on, he ran into his friend Lion. Lion heard about the picnic and said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, borrow my beautiful hair for when you go over there. See, you look so powerful, Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. \r\n\r\n5) After a while, he ran into his friend Zebra. Zebra heard about the picnic and said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, I\'ll lend you my beautiful stripes. See, you look so handsome. Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. He felt that he\'d never before looked so handsome.\r\n\r\n6) Finally arriving at Miss Pig\'s house, Mr. Pig excitedly knocked on the door. \"Would you do me the honor of going on a picnic with me?\" he asked. \r\n\r\n7) Miss Pig was terrified: \"Oh, no way! What kind of monster are you? If you don\'t go away, I\'ll go get Mr. Pig, he\'ll straighten you out!\"\r\n\r\n8) Mr. Pig hurriedly ran away. On the road, he gave the stripes back to Zebra, the hair back to Lion, and the tail back to Fox. AFter that, he hurried back to Miss Pig\'s house, and again pressed the doorbell. \r\n\r\n9) \"Would you do me the honor of having a picnic with me?\" he asked again. \r\n\r\n10) \"Goodness, Mr. Pig!\" Miss Pig cried out. \"I\'m so happy to see you, I\'d love to go on a picnic with you. An ugly wretch just came by here, standing in my garden, and scared me so.\" \r\n\r\n11) On the way, Miss Pig told Mr. Pig the story of the \'ugly wretch\' in great detail. Her handsome friend Mr. Pig, though, listened with great sympathy. It really was a great day for a picnic.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] 猪先生去野餐 - Mr. Pig\'s Picnic', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'mr-pigs-picnic', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:18:35', '2016-11-04 10:18:35', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1450', 0, 'post', '', 60),
(2047, 1, '2016-11-04 06:18:35', '2016-11-04 10:18:35', 'I love it when I find a longer story that\'s suitable for beginning readers. This one, which is either a tale that reminds us what happens when you try to be something you\'re not, or a tale that reminds us that men should never be allowed to give each other fashion advice, definitely fits the bill. The first sentence isn\'t super simple, so push through that one if you can, it gets much easier in the following paragraphs. Four points of grammar: \r\n\r\n能有幸请 [pinyin]neng2 you3 xing4 qing3[/pinyin] - A politely formal phrase of invitation \"May have the pleasure of inviting you ...\" or more specifically, \"May I be so lucky as to...\" (have this dance?) (take you on a date?). \r\n\r\n看上去 [pinyin]kan4 shang4 qu4[/pinyin] - To look like. \r\n\r\n你要是再不走开 [pinyin]ni3 yao4 shi4 zai4 bu4 zou3 kai1[/pinyin] - This one might be a little confusing. Let\'s break it down: \r\n\r\n你 - You\r\n要是 - If\r\n再不 - Otherwise / If not\r\n走开 - Go away\r\n\r\nThe full phrase means \"If you don\'t go away....\"\r\n\r\n他会来收拾你的 [pinyin]ta1 hui4 lai2 shou1 shi5 ni3 de5[/pinyin]. In the story, Miss Pig says this to an unwelcome guest. The \"他\" in this case is Mr. Pig. The Beginners often learn the word \"收拾\", meaning \"to tidy up\". Usually, this means exactly what it sounds like, and applies to cleaning up a room or an apartment. In this case, it\'s being used in kind of an action movie way, meaning \"He\'ll come over and deal with you!\" or \"He\'ll come straighten you out!\". So Miss Pig is threatening the unwelcome guest, telling him that Mr. Pig will come over and beat him up. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 今天，真是个野餐的好日子。 猪先生精心打扮着自己，他期待着猪小姐能与他一起去野餐。\r\n\r\n2) “呵呵，真希望她会说‘我愿意’啊。 嗯，我再摘朵花送给她，一定能够打动她！”\r\n\r\n3) 路上，猪先生遇到了他的朋友狐狸。狐狸听说了野餐的事，就说：“让我给你一个建议，把我美丽的尾巴借去吧。瞧，你看上去有多聪明啊，猪小姐肯定会喜欢的。” 猪先生很满意。\r\n\r\n4) 接着，他又遇到了他的朋友狮子。狮子听说了野餐的事，就说：“让我给你一个建议，把我美丽的头发借去吧。 瞧，你看上去有多威猛啊，猪小姐肯定会喜欢的。” 猪先生很满意。\r\n\r\n5) 后来，他又遇到他的朋友斑马。斑马听说了野餐的事，就说：“让我给你一个建议，把我美丽的条纹借去吧。 瞧，你看上去有多英俊啊，猪小姐肯定会喜欢的。” 猪先生很满意。他觉得自己从来没有这样英俊过。\r\n\r\n6) 终于来到猪小姐家了，猪先生激动地敲了敲门。“能有幸请你一起去野餐吗？”他问。\r\n\r\n7) 猪小姐吓了一大跳：“噢，不行！你是哪儿来的妖怪呀？你要是再不走开，我就去叫猪先生了，他会来收拾你的！”\r\n\r\n8) 猪先生连忙往回跑。一路上，他把条纹还给了斑马，把头发还给了狮子，把尾巴还给了狐狸。然后，他又赶回到猪小姐的家，再一次摁响了门铃。\r\n\r\n9) “能有幸请你一起去野餐吗？”他又问。\r\n\r\n10) “啊呀，猪先生！” 猪小姐叫道，“看到你我真是太高兴啦，我很愿意跟你一起去野餐。刚才来了个丑八怪，就站在我的院子里，可把我吓坏啦。”\r\n\r\n11) 一路上，猪小姐把那个丑八怪的故事仔细地讲给了猪先生。她英俊的朋友猪先生，则一直满怀同情地听着。这真是一个去野餐的好日子啊。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Today, it\'s a great day for a picnic. Mr. Pig dressed himself with care, looking forward to [the possibility of] Miss Pig and himself going on a picnic together.\r\n\r\n2) \"Heh, I hope she says \'Yes\' [lit: I\'m willing]. Hm, I\'ll also pick some flowers to give her, that will certainly be enough to sway her!\"\r\n\r\n3) On the road, Mr. Pig ran into his friend Fox. When fox heard about the picnic, he said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, let me lend you my beautiful tail. See, you look so clever, Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. \r\n\r\n4) Continuing on, he ran into his friend Lion. Lion heard about the picnic and said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, borrow my beautiful hair for when you go over there. See, you look so powerful, Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. \r\n\r\n5) After a while, he ran into his friend Zebra. Zebra heard about the picnic and said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, I\'ll lend you my beautiful stripes. See, you look so handsome. Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. He felt that he\'d never before looked so handsome.\r\n\r\n6) Finally arriving at Miss Pig\'s house, Mr. Pig excitedly knocked on the door. \"Would you do me the honor of going on a picnic with me?\" he asked. \r\n\r\n7) Miss Pig was terrified: \"Oh, no way! What kind of monster are you? If you don\'t go away, I\'ll go get Mr. Pig, he\'ll straighten you out!\"\r\n\r\n8) Mr. Pig hurriedly ran away. On the road, he gave the stripes back to Zebra, the hair back to Lion, and the tail back to Fox. AFter that, he hurried back to Miss Pig\'s house, and again pressed the doorbell. \r\n\r\n9) \"Would you do me the honor of having a picnic with me?\" he asked again. \r\n\r\n10) \"Goodness, Mr. Pig!\" Miss Pig cried out. \"I\'m so happy to see you, I\'d love to go on a picnic with you. An ugly wretch just came by here, standing in my garden, and scared me so.\" \r\n\r\n11) On the way, Miss Pig told Mr. Pig the story of the \'ugly wretch\' in great detail. Her handsome friend Mr. Pig, though, listened with great sympathy. It really was a great day for a picnic.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] 猪先生去野餐 - Mr. Pig\'s Picnic', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1450-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:18:35', '2016-11-04 10:18:35', '', 1450, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1450-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1744, 1, '2016-10-31 03:31:56', '2016-10-31 07:31:56', 'I love it when I find a longer story that\'s suitable for beginning readers. This one, which is either a tale that reminds us what happens when you try to be something you\'re not, or a tale that reminds us that men should never be allowed to give each other fashion advice, definitely fits the bill. \r\n\r\n![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/20130805-INLINE.jpg\")
The first sentence isn\'t super simple, so push through that one if you can, it gets much easier in the following paragraphs. Four points of grammar: \r\n\r\n能有幸请 [pinyin]neng2 you3 xing4 qing3[/pinyin] - A politely formal phrase of invitation \"May have the pleasure of inviting you ...\" or more specifically, \"May I be so lucky as to...\" (have this dance?) (take you on a date?). \r\n\r\n看上去 [pinyin]kan4 shang4 qu4[/pinyin] - To look like. \r\n\r\n你要是再不走开 [pinyin]ni3 yao4 shi4 zai4 bu4 zou3 kai1[/pinyin] - This one might be a little confusing. Let\'s break it down: \r\n\r\n你 - You\r\n要是 - If\r\n再不 - Otherwise / If not\r\n走开 - Go away\r\n\r\nThe full phrase means \"If you don\'t go away....\"\r\n\r\n他会来收拾你的 [pinyin]ta1 hui4 lai2 shou1 shi5 ni3 de5[/pinyin]. In the story, Miss Pig says this to an unwelcome guest. The \"他\" in this case is Mr. Pig. The Beginners often learn the word \"收拾\", meaning \"to tidy up\". Usually, this means exactly what it sounds like, and applies to cleaning up a room or an apartment. In this case, it\'s being used in kind of an action movie way, meaning \"He\'ll come over and deal with you!\" or \"He\'ll come straighten you out!\". So Miss Pig is threatening the unwelcome guest, telling him that Mr. Pig will come over and beat him up. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 今天，真是个野餐的好日子。 猪先生精心打扮着自己，他期待着猪小姐能与他一起去野餐。\r\n\r\n2) “呵呵，真希望她会说‘我愿意’啊。 嗯，我再摘朵花送给她，一定能够打动她！”\r\n\r\n3) 路上，猪先生遇到了他的朋友狐狸。狐狸听说了野餐的事，就说：“让我给你一个建议，把我美丽的尾巴借去吧。瞧，你看上去有多聪明啊，猪小姐肯定会喜欢的。” 猪先生很满意。\r\n\r\n4) 接着，他又遇到了他的朋友狮子。狮子听说了野餐的事，就说：“让我给你一个建议，把我美丽的头发借去吧。 瞧，你看上去有多威猛啊，猪小姐肯定会喜欢的。” 猪先生很满意。\r\n\r\n5) 后来，他又遇到他的朋友斑马。斑马听说了野餐的事，就说：“让我给你一个建议，把我美丽的条纹借去吧。 瞧，你看上去有多英俊啊，猪小姐肯定会喜欢的。” 猪先生很满意。他觉得自己从来没有这样英俊过。\r\n\r\n6) 终于来到猪小姐家了，猪先生激动地敲了敲门。“能有幸请你一起去野餐吗？”他问。\r\n\r\n7) 猪小姐吓了一大跳：“噢，不行！你是哪儿来的妖怪呀？你要是再不走开，我就去叫猪先生了，他会来收拾你的！”\r\n\r\n8) 猪先生连忙往回跑。一路上，他把条纹还给了斑马，把头发还给了狮子，把尾巴还给了狐狸。然后，他又赶回到猪小姐的家，再一次摁响了门铃。\r\n\r\n9) “能有幸请你一起去野餐吗？”他又问。\r\n\r\n10) “啊呀，猪先生！” 猪小姐叫道，“看到你我真是太高兴啦，我很愿意跟你一起去野餐。刚才来了个丑八怪，就站在我的院子里，可把我吓坏啦。”\r\n\r\n11) 一路上，猪小姐把那个丑八怪的故事仔细地讲给了猪先生。她英俊的朋友猪先生，则一直满怀同情地听着。这真是一个去野餐的好日子啊。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Today, it\'s a great day for a picnic. Mr. Pig dressed himself with care, looking forward to [the possibility of] Miss Pig and himself going on a picnic together.\r\n\r\n2) \"Heh, I hope she says \'Yes\' [lit: I\'m willing]. Hm, I\'ll also pick some flowers to give her, that will certainly be enough to sway her!\"\r\n\r\n3) On the road, Mr. Pig ran into his friend Fox. When fox heard about the picnic, he said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, let me lend you my beautiful tail. See, you look so clever, Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. \r\n\r\n4) Continuing on, he ran into his friend Lion. Lion heard about the picnic and said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, borrow my beautiful hair for when you go over there. See, you look so powerful, Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. \r\n\r\n5) After a while, he ran into his friend Zebra. Zebra heard about the picnic and said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, I\'ll lend you my beautiful stripes. See, you look so handsome. Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. He felt that he\'d never before looked so handsome.\r\n\r\n6) Finally arriving at Miss Pig\'s house, Mr. Pig excitedly knocked on the door. \"Would you do me the honor of going on a picnic with me?\" he asked. \r\n\r\n7) Miss Pig was terrified: \"Oh, no way! What kind of monster are you? If you don\'t go away, I\'ll go get Mr. Pig, he\'ll straighten you out!\"\r\n\r\n8) Mr. Pig hurriedly ran away. On the road, he gave the stripes back to Zebra, the hair back to Lion, and the tail back to Fox. AFter that, he hurried back to Miss Pig\'s house, and again pressed the doorbell. \r\n\r\n9) \"Would you do me the honor of having a picnic with me?\" he asked again. \r\n\r\n10) \"Goodness, Mr. Pig!\" Miss Pig cried out. \"I\'m so happy to see you, I\'d love to go on a picnic with you. An ugly wretch just came by here, standing in my garden, and scared me so.\" \r\n\r\n11) On the way, Miss Pig told Mr. Pig the story of the \'ugly wretch\' in great detail. Her handsome friend Mr. Pig, though, listened with great sympathy. It really was a great day for a picnic.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Story] 猪先生去野餐 - Mr. Pig\'s Picnic', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1450-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:31:56', '2016-10-31 07:31:56', '', 1450, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1450-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1451, 1, '2013-08-05 07:12:01', '2013-08-05 11:12:01', '', 'Basic Chinese Reading Texts: Learn to Read in Chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130805-inline', '', '', '2013-08-05 07:12:01', '2013-08-05 11:12:01', '', 1450, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/20130805-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1452, 1, '2013-08-05 07:12:03', '2013-08-05 11:12:03', '', 'Basic Chinese Reading Texts: Learn to Read in Chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20130805', '', '', '2013-08-05 07:12:03', '2013-08-05 11:12:03', '', 1450, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/20130805.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1453, 1, '2013-08-05 07:07:51', '2013-08-05 11:07:51', '[two_third]\nI love it when I find a longer story that\'s suitable for beginning readers. This one, which is either a tale that reminds us what happens when you try to be something you\'re not, or a tale that reminds us that men should never be allowed to give each other fashion advice, definitely fits the bill. \n\nThe first sentence isn\'t super simple, so push through that one if you can, it gets much easier in the following paragraphs. Four points of grammar: \n\n能有幸请 [pinyin]neng2 you3 xing4 qing3[/pinyin] - A politely formal phrase of invitation \"May have the pleasure of inviting you ...\" or more specifically, \"May I be so lucky as to...\" (have this dance?) (take you on a date?). \n\n看上去 [pinyin]kan4 shang4 qu4[/pinyin] - To look like. \n\n你要是再不走开 [pinyin]ni3 yao4 shi4 zai4 bu4 zou3 kai1[/pinyin] - This one might be a little confusing. Let\'s break it down: \n\n你 - You\n要是 - If\n再不 - Otherwise / If not\n走开 - Go away\n\nThe full phrase means \"If you don\'t go away....\"\n\n他会来收拾你的 [pinyin]ta1 hui4 lai2 shou1 shi5 ni3 de5[/pinyin]. In the story, Miss Pig says this to an unwelcome guest. The \"他\" in this case is Mr. Pig. The Beginners often learn the word \"收拾\", meaning \"to tidy up\". Usually, this means exactly what it sounds like, and applies to cleaning up a room or an apartment. In this case, it\'s being used in kind of an action movie way, meaning \"He\'ll come over and deal with you!\" or \"He\'ll come straighten you out!\". So Miss Pig is threatening the unwelcome guest, telling him that Mr. Pig will come over and beat him up. \n\nThe Chinese title is 猪先生去野餐\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n\n
Click to Listen
\n野餐 - [pinyin]ye3 can1[/pinyin] - Picnic\n期待 - [pinyin]qi1 dai4[/pinyin] - To look forward to\n打动 - [pinyin]da3 dong4[/pinyin] - To move someone(emotionally)\n遇到 - [pinyin]yu4 dao4[/pinyin] - To run into\n借 - [pinyin]jie4[/pinyin] - Lend, borrow\n接着 - [pinyin]jie1 zhe5[/pinyin] - Continuing on\n威猛 - [pinyin]wei1 meng3[/pinyin] - Bold and powerful\n英俊 - [pinyin]ying1 jun4[/pinyin] - Handsome\n激动 - [pinyin]ji1 dong4[/pinyin] - Excite, agitate\n妖怪 - [pinyin]yao1 guai4[/pinyin] - Monster, devil\n丑八怪 - [pinyin]chou3 ba1 guai4[/pinyin] - Ugly person\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n今天，真是个野餐的好日子。 猪先生精心打扮着自己，他期待着猪小姐能与他一起去野餐。\n\n“呵呵，真希望她会说‘我愿意’啊。 嗯，我再摘朵花送给她，一定能够打动她！”\n\n路上，猪先生遇到了他的朋友狐狸。狐狸听说了野餐的事，就说：“让我给你一个建议，把我美丽的尾巴借去吧。瞧，你看上去有多聪明啊，猪小姐肯定会喜欢的。” 猪先生很满意。\n\n接着，他又遇到了他的朋友狮子。狮子听说了野餐的事，就说：“让我给你一个建议，把我美丽的头发借去吧。 瞧，你看上去有多威猛啊，猪小姐肯定会喜欢的。” 猪先生很满意。\n\n后来，他又遇到他的朋友斑马。斑马听说了野餐的事，就说：“让我给你一个建议，把我美丽的条纹借去吧。 瞧，你看上去有多英俊啊，猪小姐肯定会喜欢的。” 猪先生很满意。他觉得自己从来没有这样英俊过。\n\n终于来到猪小姐家了，猪先生激动地敲了敲门。“能有幸请你一起去野餐吗？”他问。\n\n猪小姐吓了一大跳：“噢，不行！你是哪儿来的妖怪呀？你要是再不走开，我就去叫猪先生了，他会来收拾你的！”\n\n猪先生连忙往回跑。一路上，他把条纹还给了斑马，把头发还给了狮子，把尾巴还给了狐狸。然后，他又赶回到猪小姐的家，再一次摁响了门铃。\n\n“能有幸请你一起去野餐吗？”他又问。\n\n“啊呀，猪先生！” 猪小姐叫道，“看到你我真是太高兴啦，我很愿意跟你一起去野餐。刚才来了个丑八怪，就站在我的院子里，可把我吓坏啦。”\n\n一路上，猪小姐把那个丑八怪的故事仔细地讲给了猪先生。她英俊的朋友猪先生，则一直满怀同情地听着。这真是一个去野餐的好日子啊。\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nToday, it\'s a great day for a picnic. Mr. Pig dressed himself with care, looking forward to [the possibility of] Miss Pig and himself going on a picnic together.\n\n\"Heh, I hope she says \'Yes\' [lit: I\'m willing]. Hm, I\'ll also pick some flowers to give her, that will certainly be enough to sway her!\"\n\nOn the road, Mr. Pig ran into his friend Fox. When fox heard about the picnic, he said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, let me lend you my beautiful tail. See, you look so clever, Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. \n\nContinuing on, he ran into his friend Lion. Lion heard about the picnic and said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, borrow my beautiful hair for when you go over there. See, you look so powerful, Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. \n\nAfter a while, he ran into his friend Zebra. Zebra heard about the picnic and said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, I\'ll lend you my beautiful stripes. See, you look so handsome. Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. He felt that he\'d never before looked so handsome.\n\nFinally arriving at Miss Pig\'s house, Mr. Pig excitedly knocked on the door. \"Would you do me the honor of going on a picnic with me?\" he asked. \n\nMiss Pig was terrified: \"Oh, no way! What kind of monster are you? If you don\'t go away, I\'ll go get Mr. Pig, he\'ll straighten you out!\"\n\nMr. Pig hurriedly ran away. On the road, he gave the stripes back to Zebra, the hair back to Lion, and the tail back to Fox. AFter that, he hurried back to Miss Pig\'s house, and again pressed the doorbell. \n\n\"Would you do me the honor of having a picnic with me?\" he asked again. \n\n\"Goodness, Mr. Pig!\" Miss Pig cried out. \"I\'m so happy to see you, I\'d love to go on a picnic with you. An ugly wretch just came by here, standing in my garden, and scared me so.\" \n\nOn the way, Miss Pig told Mr. Pig the story of the \'ugly wretch\' in great detail. Her handsome friend Mr. Pig, though, listened with great sympathy. It really was a great day for a picnic.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Mr. Pig\'s Picnic', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1450-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-08-05 07:07:51', '2013-08-05 11:07:51', '', 1450, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/08/05/1450-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1454, 1, '2013-05-21 11:15:10', '2013-05-21 15:15:10', '[two_third]\r\nFather\'s Day\'s coming up in a few weeks, and we\'ll be looking at the lyrics of a beginner-level saccharine-cute song written for children to sing to their dads (or, for the children of the digital generation, to forward to their dads) on their special day. This post is accompanied by a Flash Father\'s Day video where you can listen to the song on an INFINITE LOOP. Lucky you. \r\n\r\nHere\'s the original video with the actual song. http://new.060s.com/flash/flashbrow.php?flash=70648ecb985590c987c8ffd9b0b5edb1, have a listen if you dare. \r\n\r\nBecause this is a song, we have a couple of instances where a similar sentence structure is used with different words - these are probably the hardest sentences in the song. Example: 脏活累活他全包了. First, let me break down this sentence: \r\n\r\n脏 - Dirty\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n累 - Tired\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n他 - He\r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 - (grammar word)\r\n\r\nWhat? Dirty activity tired activity he all included?! What the heck does that mean? In proper English, we might translate that as \"Dirty work, Tired work, he does it all!\" We are, of course, talking about our amazing dads and all the thanklessly exhausting housework and job work they do. Thing is, there\'s nowhere in this sentence where the verb \"does\" as in \"to do work\" actually appears. We\'re just expected to infer the word from the context of 全包 - \"all included\". \r\n\r\nWe see the same sentence structure later in the song: 剩菜剩饭他全包了. The breakdown: \r\n\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n菜 - Vegetables\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n饭 - Rice\r\n他 - He \r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 (grammar word). \r\n\r\nOnce again, that strange \"all included\" - we are again expected to infer the verb here. Any guesses? The sentence means \"Leftover Vegetables, Leftover Rice, he eats it all!\" or \"He eats all the leftovers!\" So the missing word we kinda have to mentally fill in is \"eats\". \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n力气 - [pinyin]li4 qi4[/pinyin] - Strength\r\n脏活 - [pinyin]zang4 huo2[/pinyin] - Dirty work\r\n累活 - [pinyin]lei4 huo2[/pinyin] - Exhausting work\r\n肚量 - [pinyin]du4 liang4[/pinyin] - Generosity\r\n挣 - [pinyin]zheng1[/pinyin] - Earn (usually money)\r\n花 - [pinyin]hua1[/pinyin] - Spend (money)\r\n剩 - [pinyin]sheng4[/pinyin] - Surplus, leftover\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的力气真不小\r\n做得多说得少\r\n脏活累活他全包了\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的肚量真不小\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDad\'s the best, Dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best!\r\nDad\'s really got not shortage of strength \r\nHe does a lot but speaks little\r\nHe does all the dirty and tired work.\r\nDad\'s the best, dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best! \r\nDad\'s really got no shortage of generosity\r\nHe earns a lot but spends little\r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\nHe earns a lot but spends little \r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Lyrics: Baba Hao, a Song for Father\'s Day', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1363-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-21 11:15:10', '2013-05-21 15:15:10', '', 1363, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/21/1363-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1455, 1, '2013-05-06 04:44:05', '2013-05-06 08:44:05', '[two_third]\r\nWell well well, lookie here. A guest post! Today we\'ll be reading Rebecca Chua\'s (Chinese name: 蔡幸彤) translation of an essay from her textbook. The post is about the rewards of honesty. I remember my own textbook being full of these types of essays, so thank you, Rebecca, for the traditional read. \r\n\r\nRebecca has this to say about the post: This story talks about a school-going child\'s problems of getting his parents to sign his papers. It also talks about being honest, and that life\'s exam papers matter the most. This essay was from my tutoring centre\'s teaching materials. This was done with help. Thank you for those who helped me!\r\n\r\n(And the same in Chinese:) 这个故事是讲述华文考试卷要签名所遇到的困难。这个故事教我们要诚实，也教我们，虽然考卷的真正分数低，但人生的考卷上有高分才是最重要的。\r\n\r\nOne of the interesting things about this post is the punctuation. In Chinese, they use a six-dot ellipses …… where we only use... three. (u c wat i did thar?). We also learn a little culture here: it\'s worth noting that in most Chinese highschools, parents actually have to sign your test results to prove you showed it to them. We also see that Rebecca\'s book spells \"A+\" as \"A*\".\r\n\r\nI\'m super loving this phrase - 从天堂降落到地狱 - though it might need a little breakdown:\r\n\r\n从 - From\r\n天堂 - Heaven\r\n降落 - descend\r\n到 - to\r\n地狱 - Hell\r\n\r\nThis phrase means to \"have a sinking heart\" or to \"fall from joy to misery\".\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n发下来 - [pinyin]fa1 xia4 lai5[/pinyin] - To pass out (papers), hand back (homework)\r\n考卷 - [pinyin]kao3 juan4[/pinyin] - Exam paper\r\n沉重 - [pinyin]chen2 zhong4[/pinyin] - Hard, serious\r\n羡慕 - [pinyin]xian4 mu4[/pinyin] - To envy\r\n竟然 - [pinyin]jing4 ran2[/pinyin] - Unexpectedly\r\n松了一口气 - [pinyin]song1 le yi1 kou3 qi4[/pinyin] - Let out a sigh (usually of relief) \r\n顿 - [pinyin]dun4[/pinyin] - Classifier for a period of time when a beating, scolding or critique takes place\r\n到底 - [pinyin]dao4 di3[/pinyin] - When all is said and done\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n我背着书包，手里拿着刚刚发下来的考卷，一边拖着沉重的脚步向家走着，一边紧张的思考怎样让爸爸在考卷上签名……前两天的考卷，今天老师发下来了。我拿了一个A*，考到了97分！同学们都很羡慕我，我也得到老师的肯定。在老师要我们做改正的时候，我就从天堂降落到地狱。天啊！我竟然忘了一整页试题，整整要被扣十分！但是老师却没发现，我还真不知该不该对她说。这时，我的头脑出现了两个“我”，一个说：“算了，不要告诉老师，我已经得了老师的肯定，同学们又那么羡慕我，如果我告诉老师，不就等于丢我的脸，还失去爸爸要給我的礼物。”另一个说：“不行，要做个诚实的人，一定要告诉老师。”于是，我对老师说：“我漏掉了这些题，应该是87 分！”老师帮我改分数的那一刻，我立刻松了一口气。\r\n\r\n在回家的路上，我真希望我没有对老师说这番话。现在，我不仅要丢掉爸爸的礼物，还得被他骂一顿。晚上，我把考卷交给爸爸，爸爸说：“你为什么那么不小心？为什么一整页的题目没做？为什么？” 如在平时，当他问我这些问题时，我会叫他一个“十万个为什么”的人。可现在，我不敢，应为他生气得好像要打我似的。突然，他看见97分改成87分，很奇怪地问我：\"到底怎么一回事？“我把情况如实地告诉了他。我低着头，准备继续挨训。\r\n\r\n爸爸沉默了一会儿，突然惊喜地看着我：“不，宝贝儿，虽然你考卷上的分数不尽人意，但是在人生考卷上你却得了高分。爸爸为你骄傲！你做得对......”说完他在考卷上签了名。\r\n\r\n第二天早上，我背起书包，手里拿着由爸爸签名的考卷，迈着轻快的脚步，迎着初升的朝阳，信心十足地向学校走去……\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nCarrying a heavy load on my back, holding the exam papers that were just handed back to us, I wondered how I could make my father sign this paper......\r\n\r\nThe exam, which was held just two days before, was handed back to us. I got an A+, a high score of 97 points! All the students in my class were envious of me, and I got the praise of my teacher. But when we were asked to do corrections, I found myself dropping all the way from heaven to hell. I actually forgot to do a whole page of questions, and had to be deducted of ten marks! But my teacher hadn\'t discovered yet, and I wasn\'t sure if I had to say it to her. I was in two minds. One said, \"Don\'t tell her, otherwise you would lose face and lose your father\'s present!\" The other said, \"No, you should be honest, just tell her!\" So, I said, \"I missed these questions, the actual points should be 87!\" When she helped me change my score, I heaved a sigh of relief.\r\n\r\nWhen I was going home, I wished I had not said all that. Now, not only was I going to lose my father\'s present, but I was also going to be scolded by him. At night, when I passed my paper to him, he said,\"Why were you so careless? Why did you miss out a whole page of questions?\" Usually, when he asks me all these questions, I call him a \"dad of ten-thousand questions\". But now, I daren\'t, because he seems so angry that he might hit me. Suddenly, when he saw that my 97 points became 87 points, he asked me,\"What happened?\" I told him the truth, and lowered my head, ready to continue being scolded.\r\n\r\nMy father silenced for a while. Then he suddenly said, \"No, darling, even though you results aren\'t satisfactory, in life\'s exam, you have gotten a high score. I am proud of you! You have done it right......\" after saying that he signed his name.\r\n\r\nThe next morning, carrying my schoolbag, with light steps, I was feeling happy. Welcoming the rising sun, I walked towards my school with confidence......\r\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Guest Post by Rebecca Chua: The difference between life\'s exam and exam papers', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1348-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-06 04:44:05', '2013-05-06 08:44:05', '', 1348, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/06/1348-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1456, 1, '2012-10-06 00:58:15', '2012-10-06 04:58:15', '[two_third]\r\nChinese Title: 拿到压岁钱以后\r\nFor those of you new to Chinese culture, one thing a Chinese child most looks forward to all year is the time during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) when they get to go ask their neighbors and other adults for red envelopes containing some money - it\'s a bit like trick-or-treating for cash. This essay is about what happened to one kid\'s Spring Festival haul. We\'ll cover a lot of beginner grammar here.\r\n\r\nI should probably talk about a couple of points before we dive in. One is the use of the word 玩. Describing what he (or she, perhaps) does on Chinese New Year, the author says he can 玩得快活 - \"play happily\". The Chinese don\'t use \"play\" the way we do. While they do use it to mean \"to play with toys\" as a child does, they also use it to mean going out (like adults going out on Saturday night), or friends going out to a mall to go shopping - it\'s really more of a blanket term better translated as \"having fun\". So the kid is not saying they necessarily only play with toys happily on Chinese New Year, but also maybe that they go hang out at parents\' friends houses, or whatever. It\'s not specified.\r\n\r\nAnother interesting point comes in here: 心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴 - \"In my heart I was extremely happy, but also very disappointed\". Note the use of the words 特别 and 很 - meaning \"extremely\" / \"very\" respectively. Thing is, in Chinese you can\'t use a word like \"happy\" or \"disappointed\" without balancing it with a word measuring how happy or disappointed you were. There\'s no way in general casual conversation to say \"I was happy\" - just regular ol\' happy. You can\'t, for example, say just \"我高兴“. Instead, say \"I was VERY happy\" 我很高兴, or \"extremely happy\" 我非常高兴 or \"exceedingly happy\" 高兴极了 or \"fairly happy\" 比较高兴 or whatever. So when we translate Chinese, we could actually drop the \"very\"s and \"extremely\"s and all that, because they have much less meaning in Mandarin then they do to us. This used to bug me a lot when speaking. I didn\'t want to say I was \"very happy\" - I wasn\'t. I was just normally happy. But it was finally explained to me how little that \"very\" actually mattered. So bear that in mind. \r\n\r\nAnd another point: ...收到了700余元... This means \"received over 700 yuan\". Notice that the word 余, which means \"over\" / \"more than\" is written after the amount of money and before the actual word \"yuan\". In English, this would be like saying \"received 700-plus dollars\". You could also say 收到了700多元, which means the same thing. \r\n\r\nAnd finally: Beware the definition I give for the word 由 here. It\'s one of those grammar words that means a ton of different things in different contexts - kind of like how the English word \"to\" is hard to define and used often. In my definition list, I only ever show the definition relevant to this text, so you\'re going to see the word 由 in many contexts in many essays and it doesn\'t always mean what it means here. \r\n\r\nThe original is from my new favorite Chinese essay composition site. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n过 - [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] - To celebrate\r\n不但...而且 - [pinyin]bu4 dan4...er2 qie3[/pinyin] - Not only [sthg], but also [sthg else]\r\n压岁钱 - [pinyin]ya1 sui4 qian2[/pinyin] - Money Chinese children get as presents during Chinese New Years\r\n以往 - [pinyin]yi3 wang3[/pinyin] - Before, previously\r\n上缴 - [pinyin]shang4 jiao3[/pinyin] - To give money up to higher authorities\r\n由 - [pinyin]you4[/pinyin] - To leave something to someone (to manage / handle)\r\n爽快 - [pinyin]shuang3 kuai5[/pinyin] - Straightforward\r\n肯德基 - [pinyin]ken3 de2 ji1[/pinyin] - Kentucky Fried Chicken\r\n苦思冥想 - [pinyin]ku3 si1 ming2 xiang3[/pinyin] - Rack one\'s brains\r\n订 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - To subscribe to (a newspaper / magazine)\r\n献 - [pinyin]xian4[/pinyin] - To donate\r\n勤俭节约 - [pinyin]qin2 jian3 jie2 jue1 [/pinyin] - Diligent and thrifty\r\n逐渐 - [pinyin]zhu2 jian4[/pinyin] - Gradually\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n我非常喜欢过新年，因为过年不但能穿新衣服，玩得快活，而且还能收到很多的压岁钱。今年我一下子就收到了700余元压岁钱，我拿着压岁钱，心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴，怕妈妈给收走了，以往的压岁钱都要上缴的，我就给妈妈商量：今年我刚满十岁，我已经长大了，希望这些压岁钱由我来保管，没想到妈妈很爽快的答应了，我心里乐的开了花。我拿到这些压岁钱，我应该怎样来花这些钱呢？买我喜欢的玩具、还有我最喜欢吃的肯德基？我苦思冥想了好几天，我打算用这些钱来买我喜欢的书籍、买一些学习用品或者订报纸、献爱心捐款......除了这些,我是决不乱花的。\r\n\r\n我决得这样做，不但可以从小学会勤俭节约、不乱花钱的习惯，而且还可以使我学会管理、学会生活，这样才会使我逐渐成长起来。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n I really love New Year, because [during] New Year I can not only wear new clothes, and play happily, but also I can get a lot of New Year\'s money. This year in a short while I got more than 700 yuan, and holding that New Years\' money, in my heart I was extremely happy, but also my spirits were dampened, I was afraid mama would take it away from me, [because] in the past [I had to] give over my New Year\'s money to the higher authorities [author means his mother here, not God], so I discussed it with mom [thus]: this year I\'m fully 10 years old, I\'m already a grown up, and I hope this New Year\'s money can be left under my care, but I never though she\'d agree so easily [lit: so frankly], and happiness bloomed in my heart like a flower. I held the New Year\'s money, but what should I spend this money on? Buy a toy I like, or my favorite thing to eat, Kentucky Fried Chicken? I racked my brains for several days, and decided to use the money to buy some books I liked, buy a few school supplies or to subscribe to a newspaper, and to make a charitable donation... apart from these things, I figured I\'d better not spend it recklessly [author likely means they won\'t spend the rest at all]. \r\n\r\nI though that doing it this way, I not only could learn to be diligent and thrifty starting in primary school, and develop careful spending habits, but also this could let me study money management, study life [skills], and this would finally let me gradually mature.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'After I Got My New Years\' Money', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1241-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-10-06 00:58:15', '2012-10-06 04:58:15', '', 1241, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/10/06/1241-revision-7/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1460, 1, '2014-02-04 03:49:05', '2014-02-04 08:49:05', 'The content of this story is for children, but the language is not beginner, and neither is the sentence structure - this is an intermediate read for sure. I say that because it feels very \"fairy-tale\" language-y, in the sense that sentences are formed in a more literary way, rather than in a chatty way, and there are some uncommonly-heard words, like \"footprint\" (脚印), etc. The tone of the story, on the other hand, is very tra-la-la, winter sparkly glitter magic.\r\n\r\nTwo quick notes on phrases here: 传来了 [pinyin]chuan4 lai2[/pinyin] is an intermediate phrase that can be a little hard to understand, but it is used in reference to things we hear that come to us from afar. This may include voices (like hearing someone\'s voice from outside your house), or noises, or smells, or a piece of news. You can use this to talk about sensations and things that come to you from no particular person or direction - from \"afar\" or \"all around\". \r\n\r\n掏出 [pinyin]tao1 chu1[/pinyin]: this means to fish something out of something else. For example, to fish your phone out of your pocket, or to fish your sweatshirt out of your backpack. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 下雪啦，下雪啦！一片片雪花像蒲公英一样在空中翩翩起舞，不一会儿，大地就穿上了一件洁白的衣裳。\r\n\r\n2) 可爱的小熊不小心扭到脚了，只得孤零零地躺在小床上。忽然，从窗外传来了欢快的歌声。小熊朝窗外看去，原来是小老鼠和小白兔在雪地里载歌载舞呢！雪地上还留下了他们可爱的小脚印。小熊心里真羡慕呀！可是，他有什么办法呢？小熊深深地叹了一口气，自言自语：“还是睡一觉吧，说不定梦里会出现奇迹！”\r\n\r\n3) 小熊果然做了一个好梦。他梦见一位留着长胡子的老爷爷来到了他的小屋里。老爷爷从衣袋里掏出一个小瓶子，笑眯眯地喷了喷小熊受伤的脚。小熊马上就活蹦乱跳了，快活地在雪地上和小伙伴们玩耍……\r\n\r\n4) 小鸟们的欢声笑语把小熊吵醒了，原来这只是一场梦。可是小熊发现自己的手里竟然有一个小瓶子！小熊拿起小瓶子往脚上一喷，受伤的脚马上就好了。这真是一瓶神水啊！从此，小熊再也不怕摔伤了。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) It\'s snowing, it\'s snowing! Flakes of snow lightly danced like dandelions in the air, and after a while, the earth wore clothes of pure white. \r\n\r\n2) Cute Little Bear incautiously sprained his ankle, and had to lie in bed all alone. Suddenly, from outside the window came the sound of lighthearted singing. Little bear looked out the window, and [saw that it was] Little Mouse and Little White Rabbit dancing and singing! The snow still held [impressions of] their cute little footprints. Little Bear was truly envious! But what could he do? Little Bear gave a deep sigh, and said aloud to himself: \"Better get some more sleep, and maybe in my dream there will be a miracle!\" \r\n\r\n3) Sure enough, Little bear had a good dream. In his dream, an old man with a long beard came into his room. The old man fished a little bottle out of his pocket, and smilingly sprayed [some liquid from the bottle] on Little Bear\'s wounded foot. Little Bear immediately leaped up and frisked about, playing cheerfully with his [two] buddies on the snowy ground.\r\n\r\n4) The happy sounds of the small birds woke Little Bear up, and [found that] actually it was all just a dream. But then he discovered that there was a small bottle in his hand! Little Bear took up the small bottle and sprayed it on his foot, and the wounded foot was immediately better! This really was a bottle of magic water! After that, Little Bear never again feared bumps and bruises. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] 小熊的美梦 - Little Bear\'s Beautiful Dream', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'little-bears-beautiful-dream', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:15:54', '2016-11-04 10:15:54', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1460', 0, 'post', '', 18),
(1751, 1, '2016-10-31 03:39:47', '2016-10-31 07:39:47', '[two_third]\r\nBeen a couple of months since I tossed a post out there - the latter half of 2013 was a bit of a shake-up, so please forgive the lapse. In other news, I can\'t get my favorite Chinese story website, tom61.com, to load anymore, #sadface. Fingers crossed that\'s a temporary glitch, but if not, I\'ll mourn the loss of a fantastic learner\'s website. \r\n\r\n![\"Practice](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/20140204-INLINE.jpg\")
In the meantime, I\'ve pulled something off gushi365.com. \r\n\r\nThe content of this story is for children, but the language is not beginner, and neither is the sentence structure - this is an intermediate read for sure. I say that because it feels very \"fairy-tale\" language-y, in the sense that sentences are formed in a more literary way, rather than in a chatty way, and there are some uncommonly-heard words, like \"footprint\" (脚印), etc. The tone of the story, on the other hand, is very tra-la-la, winter sparkly glitter magic.\r\n\r\nTwo quick notes on phrases here: 传来了 [pinyin]chuan4 lai2[/pinyin] is an intermediate phrase that can be a little hard to understand, but it is used in reference to things we hear that come to us from afar. This may include voices (like hearing someone\'s voice from outside your house), or noises, or smells, or a piece of news. You can use this to talk about sensations and things that come to you from no particular person or direction - from \"afar\" or \"all around\". \r\n\r\n掏出 [pinyin]tao1 chu1[/pinyin]: this means to fish something out of something else. For example, to fish your phone out of your pocket, or to fish your sweatshirt out of your backpack. \r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n下雪啦，下雪啦！一片片雪花像蒲公英一样在空中翩翩起舞，不一会儿，大地就穿上了一件洁白的衣裳。\r\n\r\n可爱的小熊不小心扭到脚了，只得孤零零地躺在小床上。忽然，从窗外传来了欢快的歌声。小熊朝窗外看去，原来是小老鼠和小白兔在雪地里载歌载舞呢！雪地上还留下了他们可爱的小脚印。小熊心里真羡慕呀！可是，他有什么办法呢？小熊深深地叹了一口气，自言自语：“还是睡一觉吧，说不定梦里会出现奇迹！”\r\n\r\n小熊果然做了一个好梦。他梦见一位留着长胡子的老爷爷来到了他的小屋里。老爷爷从衣袋里掏出一个小瓶子，笑眯眯地喷了喷小熊受伤的脚。小熊马上就活蹦乱跳了，快活地在雪地上和小伙伴们玩耍……\r\n\r\n小鸟们的欢声笑语把小熊吵醒了，原来这只是一场梦。可是小熊发现自己的手里竟然有一个小瓶子！小熊拿起小瓶子往脚上一喷，受伤的脚马上就好了。这真是一瓶神水啊！从此，小熊再也不怕摔伤了。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIt\'s snowing, it\'s snowing! Flakes of snow lightly danced like dandelions in the air, and after a while, the earth wore clothes of pure white. \r\n\r\nCute little bear incautiously sprained his ankle, and had to lie in bed all alone. Suddenly, from outside the window came the sound of lighthearted singing. Little bear looked out the window, and [saw that it was] Little Mouse and Little White Rabbit dancing and singing! The snow still held [impressions of] their cute little footprints. Little Bear was truly envious! But what could he do? Little Bear gave a deep sigh, and said aloud to himself: \"Better get some more sleep, and maybe in my dream there will be a miracle!\" \r\n\r\nSure enough, Little bear had a good dream. In his dream, an old man with a long beard came into his room. The old man fished a little bottle out of his pocket, and smilingly sprayed [some liquid from the bottle] on Little Bear\'s wounded foot. Little Bear immediately leaped up and frisked about, playing cheerfully with his [two] buddies on the snowy ground.\r\n\r\nThe happy sounds of the small birds woke Little Bear up, and [found that] actually it was all just a dream. But then he discovered that there was a small bottle in his hand! Little Bear took up the small bottle and sprayed it on his foot, and the wounded foot was immediately better! This really was a bottle of magic water! After that, Little Bear never again feared bumps and bruises. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Bear\'s Beautiful Dream', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1460-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:39:47', '2016-10-31 07:39:47', '', 1460, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1460-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1461, 1, '2014-02-04 03:42:37', '2014-02-04 08:42:37', '[two_third]\nBeen a couple of months since I tossed a post out there - the latter half of 2013 was a bit of a shake-up, so please forgive the lapse. In other news, I can\'t get my favorite Chinese story website, tom61.com, to load anymore, #sadface. Fingers crossed that\'s a temporary glitch, but if not, I\'ll mourn the loss of a fantastic learner\'s website. \n\nIn the meantime, I\'ve pulled something off gushi365.com. \n\nThe content of this story is for children, but the language is not beginner, and neither is the sentence structure - this is an intermediate read for sure. I say that because it feels very \"fairy-tale\" language-y, in the sense that sentences are formed in a more literary way, rather than in a chatty way, and there are some uncommonly-heard words, like \"footprint\" (脚印), etc. The tone of the story, on the other hand, is very tra-la-la, winter sparkly glitter magic.\n\nTwo quick notes on phrases here: 传来了 [pinyin]chuan4 lai2[/pinyin] is an intermediate phrase that can be a little hard to understand, but it is used in reference to things we hear that come to us from afar. This may include voices (like hearing someone\'s voice from outside your house), or noises, or smells, or a piece of news. You can use this to talk about sensations and things that come to you from no particular person or direction - from \"afar\" or \"all around\". \n\n掏出 [pinyin]tao1 chu1[/pinyin]: this means to fish something out of something else. For example, to fish your phone out of your pocket, or to fish your sweatshirt out of your backpack. Quick Chinese internet culture cross-over: 掏 is the same character in \nClick to Listen
\n蒲公英 - [pinyin]pu2 gong1 ying1[/pinyin] - Dandelion\n翩翩起舞 - [pinyin]pian1 pian1 qi3 wu3[/pinyin] - Lightly dance about\n扭到脚了 - [pinyin]niu3 dao4 jiao3 le[/pinyin] - Sprain / twist one\'s foot / ankle\n载歌载舞 - [pinyin]zai4 ge1 zai4 wu3[/pinyin] - Singing and dancing\n自言自语- [pinyin]zi4 yan2 zi4 yu3[/pinyin] - Talk to yourself\n说不定 - [pinyin]shuo1 bu5 ding4[/pinyin] - Who can say... [that sthng won\'t happen]\n奇迹 - [pinyin]qi2 ji4[/pinyin] - Miracle\n活蹦乱跳 - [pinyin]huo2 beng4 luan4 tiao4[/pinyin] - Leap and frisk about\n吵醒 - [pinyin]chao2 xing3[/pinyin] - To be woken up by noise\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n下雪啦，下雪啦！一片片雪花像蒲公英一样在空中翩翩起舞，不一会儿，大地就穿上了一件洁白的衣裳。\n\n可爱的小熊不小心扭到脚了，只得孤零零地躺在小床上。忽然，从窗外传来了欢快的歌声。小熊朝窗外看去，原来是小老鼠和小白兔在雪地里载歌载舞呢！雪地上还留下了他们可爱的小脚印。小熊心里真羡慕呀！可是，他有什么办法呢？小熊深深地叹了一口气，自言自语：“还是睡一觉吧，说不定梦里会出现奇迹！”\n\n小熊果然做了一个好梦。他梦见一位留着长胡子的老爷爷来到了他的小屋里。老爷爷从衣袋里掏出一个小瓶子，笑眯眯地喷了喷小熊受伤的脚。小熊马上就活蹦乱跳了，快活地在雪地上和小伙伴们玩耍……\n\n小鸟们的欢声笑语把小熊吵醒了，原来这只是一场梦。可是小熊发现自己的手里竟然有一个小瓶子！小熊拿起小瓶子往脚上一喷，受伤的脚马上就好了。这真是一瓶神水啊！从此，小熊再也不怕摔伤了。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nIt\'s snowing, it\'s snowing! Flakes of snow lightly danced like dandelions in the air, and after a while, the earth wore clothes of pure white. \n\nCute little bear incautiously sprained his ankle, and had to lie in bed all alone. Suddenly, from outside the window came the sound of lighthearted singing. Little bear looked out the window, and [saw that it was] Little Mouse and Little White Rabbit dancing and singing! The snow still held [impressions of] their cute little footprints. Little Bear was truly envious! But what could he do? Little Bear gave a deep sigh, and said aloud to himself: \"Better get some more sleep, and maybe in my dream there will be a miracle!\" \n\nSure enough, Little bear had a good dream. In his dream, an old man with a long beard came into his room. The old man fished a little bottle out of his pocket, and smilingly sprayed [some liquid from the bottle] on Little Bear\'s wounded foot. Little Bear immediately leaped up and frisked about, playing cheerfully with his [two] buddies on the snowy ground.\n\nThe happy sounds of the small birds woke Little Bear up, and [found that] actually it was all just a dream. But then he discovered that there was a small bottle in his hand! Little Bear took up the small bottle and sprayed it on his foot, and the wounded foot was immediately better! This really was a bottle of magic water! After that, Little Bear never again feared bumps and bruises. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Bear\'s Beautiful Dream', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1460-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-02-04 03:42:37', '2014-02-04 08:42:37', '', 1460, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/02/04/1460-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1462, 1, '2014-02-04 03:47:54', '2014-02-04 08:47:54', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Learn Simplified Chinese character Reading', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20140204-inline', '', '', '2014-02-04 03:47:54', '2014-02-04 08:47:54', '', 1460, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/20140204-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1463, 1, '2014-02-04 03:47:56', '2014-02-04 08:47:56', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: beginners', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20140204', '', '', '2014-02-04 03:47:56', '2014-02-04 08:47:56', '', 1460, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/20140204.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1464, 1, '2014-02-04 03:43:22', '2014-02-04 08:43:22', '[two_third]\r\nBeen a couple of months since I tossed a post out there - the latter half of 2013 was a bit of a shake-up, so please forgive the lapse. In other news, I can\'t get my favorite Chinese story website, tom61.com, to load anymore, #sadface. Fingers crossed that\'s a temporary glitch, but if not, I\'ll mourn the loss of a fantastic learner\'s website. \r\n\r\nIn the meantime, I\'ve pulled something off
gushi365.com. \r\n\r\nThe content of
this story is for children, but the language is not beginner, and neither is the sentence structure - this is an intermediate read for sure. I say that because it feels very \"fairy-tale\" language-y, in the sense that sentences are formed in a more literary way, rather than in a chatty way, and there are some uncommonly-heard words, like \"footprint\" (脚印), etc. The tone of the story, on the other hand, is very tra-la-la, winter sparkly glitter magic.\r\n\r\nTwo quick notes on phrases here: 传来了 [pinyin]chuan4 lai2[/pinyin] is an intermediate phrase that can be a little hard to understand, but it is used in reference to things we hear that come to us from afar. This may include voices (like hearing someone\'s voice from outside your house), or noises, or smells, or a piece of news. You can use this to talk about sensations and things that come to you from no particular person or direction - from \"afar\" or \"all around\". \r\n\r\n掏出 [pinyin]tao1 chu1[/pinyin]: this means to fish something out of something else. For example, to fish your phone out of your pocket, or to fish your sweatshirt out of your backpack. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n蒲公英 - [pinyin]pu2 gong1 ying1[/pinyin] - Dandelion\r\n翩翩起舞 - [pinyin]pian1 pian1 qi3 wu3[/pinyin] - Lightly dance about\r\n扭到脚了 - [pinyin]niu3 dao4 jiao3 le[/pinyin] - Sprain / twist one\'s foot / ankle\r\n载歌载舞 - [pinyin]zai4 ge1 zai4 wu3[/pinyin] - Singing and dancing\r\n自言自语- [pinyin]zi4 yan2 zi4 yu3[/pinyin] - Talk to yourself\r\n说不定 - [pinyin]shuo1 bu5 ding4[/pinyin] - Who can say... [that sthng won\'t happen]\r\n奇迹 - [pinyin]qi2 ji4[/pinyin] - Miracle\r\n活蹦乱跳 - [pinyin]huo2 beng4 luan4 tiao4[/pinyin] - Leap and frisk about\r\n吵醒 - [pinyin]chao2 xing3[/pinyin] - To be woken up by noise\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n下雪啦，下雪啦！一片片雪花像蒲公英一样在空中翩翩起舞，不一会儿，大地就穿上了一件洁白的衣裳。\r\n\r\n可爱的小熊不小心扭到脚了，只得孤零零地躺在小床上。忽然，从窗外传来了欢快的歌声。小熊朝窗外看去，原来是小老鼠和小白兔在雪地里载歌载舞呢！雪地上还留下了他们可爱的小脚印。小熊心里真羡慕呀！可是，他有什么办法呢？小熊深深地叹了一口气，自言自语：“还是睡一觉吧，说不定梦里会出现奇迹！”\r\n\r\n小熊果然做了一个好梦。他梦见一位留着长胡子的老爷爷来到了他的小屋里。老爷爷从衣袋里掏出一个小瓶子，笑眯眯地喷了喷小熊受伤的脚。小熊马上就活蹦乱跳了，快活地在雪地上和小伙伴们玩耍……\r\n\r\n小鸟们的欢声笑语把小熊吵醒了，原来这只是一场梦。可是小熊发现自己的手里竟然有一个小瓶子！小熊拿起小瓶子往脚上一喷，受伤的脚马上就好了。这真是一瓶神水啊！从此，小熊再也不怕摔伤了。 \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIt\'s snowing, it\'s snowing! Flakes of snow lightly danced like dandelions in the air, and after a while, the earth wore clothes of pure white. \r\n\r\nCute little bear incautiously sprained his ankle, and had to lie in bed all alone. Suddenly, from outside the window came the sound of lighthearted singing. Little bear looked out the window, and [saw that it was] Little Mouse and Little White Rabbit dancing and singing! The snow still held [impressions of] their cute little footprints. Little Bear was truly envious! But what could he do? Little Bear gave a deep sigh, and said aloud to himself: \"Better get some more sleep, and maybe in my dream there will be a miracle!\" \r\n\r\nSure enough, Little bear had a good dream. In his dream, an old man with a long beard came into his room. The old man fished a little bottle out of his pocket, and smilingly sprayed [some liquid from the bottle] on Little Bear\'s wounded foot. Little Bear immediately leaped up and frisked about, playing cheerfully with his [two] buddies on the snowy ground.\r\n\r\nThe happy sounds of the small birds woke Little Bear up, and [found that] actually it was all just a dream. But then he discovered that there was a small bottle in his hand! Little Bear took up the small bottle and sprayed it on his foot, and the wounded foot was immediately better! This really was a bottle of magic water! After that, Little Bear never again feared bumps and bruises. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Bear\'s Beautiful Dream', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1460-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-02-04 03:43:22', '2014-02-04 08:43:22', '', 1460, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/02/04/1460-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1465, 1, '2013-07-08 15:38:57', '2013-07-08 19:38:57', '[two_third]\r\nWelp, I swore I would never do this again but I found this (and several other short stories) in Hainan Airlines\' in-flight magazine (I\'m in Prague!) and couldn\'t resist typing it up (as opposed to copy-pasting from an online source). I\'ve checked and checked for typos, but I\'m not always the best at that, so if you run across one, please comment.\r\n\r\nThis is one of those reads where the sentence structure is basic and in parts very repetitive, but quite a few advanced words are used - \"advanced\" only because they\'re not used often in casual conversation, like parts of an animal (hooves, horns, etc.) So beginners, you can give this a go if you\'re feeling very patient but you\'ll be looking up every other word in some paragraphs even though you will be able to predict generally what the next few sentences are about.\r\n\r\n
I wanted to post a quick comment about the words 一箭一般, because this looks like a typical four-character idiom, but it\'s actually two separate words, 一箭 (an arrow) and 一般 (like, as if). Together this means \"like an arrow\", or in context of this sentence \"to take off (running) like a shot\". \r\n\r\nThere\'s also the phrase 从草丛中闪出. We\'re talking here about a dog that is \"[darting] out in a flash\" (闪出) \"from the middle of a cluster of grasses\" (从草丛中). We can imagine a dog charging out of a field of tall grass and into a clearing. \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title is 沉默的狗\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n山坡 - [pinyin]shan1 po1[/pinyin] - Hillside, mountain side\r\n窜 - [pinyin]cuan4[/pinyin] - To be exiled from, to flee\r\n抵抗 - [pinyin]di3 kang4[/pinyin] - Resist\r\n溜烟 - [pinyin]liu1 yan1[/pinyin] - Slip away like smoke, disappear in a puff of smoke\r\n奔 - [pinyin]ben1[/pinyin] - To rush, to hurry\r\n换气 - [pinyin]huan4 qi4[/pinyin] - Take a breath (after holding your breath, as with swimming)\r\n怆惶 - [pinyin]chuang4 huang2[/pinyin] - Sad and scared\r\n剜出 - [pinyin]wan1 chu1[/pinyin] - To gouge out\r\n蹄子 - [pinyin]ti2 zi5[/pinyin] - Hooves\r\n一拱 - [pinyin]yi1 gong3[/pinyin] - Nuzzle with snout\r\n唯独 - [pinyin]wei2 du2[/pinyin] - Only\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n傍晚，一只羊独自在山坡上玩，突然从树木中窜出一只狼来，要吃羊，羊跳起来，拼命用角抵抗，并大声向朋友们救命。\r\n\r\n牛在树丛中向这个地方望了一眼，发现是狼，跑走了。\r\n\r\n马低头一看，发现是狼，一溜烟跑了。\r\n\r\n驴停下脚步，发现是狼，悄悄溜下山坡。\r\n\r\n猪经过这里，发现是狼，冲下山坡。\r\n\r\n兔子一听，更是一箭一般离去。\r\n\r\n山下的狗听见羊的呼喊，急忙奔上坡来，从草丛中闪出，一下咬住了狼的脖子，狼疼得直叫唤, 趁够换气时，怆惶挑走了。\r\n\r\n回到家，朋友都来了，\r\n牛说：你怎么不告诉我？我的角可以剜出狼的肠子。\r\n马说：你怎么不告诉我？我的蹄子能踢碎狼的脑袋。\r\n驴说：你怎么不告诉我？我一声吼叫，吓破狼的胆。\r\n猪说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我用嘴一拱，就让它摔下山去。\r\n兔子说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我跑得快，可以传心呀。\r\n\r\n在这闹嚷嚷的一群中，唯独没有狗。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nOne nightfall, a sheep was playing alone on the mountainside, when suddenly a wolf emerged from among the trees, wanting to eat the sheep, so the sheep jumped up, using his horns to defend himself with all his might, and loudly called out for his friends to save his life.\r\n\r\nThe bull looked over from among a cluster of trees, saw there was a wolf, and ran away.\r\n\r\nThe horse lowered its head and looked, discovered there was a wolf, and slipped away in a puff of smoke.\r\n\r\nThe mule stopped walking for a moment, discovered there was a wolf, and quietly slipped down the mountain.\r\n\r\nThe pig passed through there, found out there was a wolf, and rushed down the mountainside.\r\n\r\nThe rabbit listened a moment, then took off like a shot.\r\n\r\nFrom the bottom of the mountain, the dog heard the sheep\'s cry, and ran quickly up the mountainside, came out of the grass in a flash, and in a moment had grabbed the wolf\'s neck in his teeth, the wolf cried out in pain, and taking advantage of the dog\'s intake of breath, ran away full of sorrow and fear.\r\n\r\n[When the sheep] returned home, his friends all came over.\r\n\r\nThe bull said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My horns could have gouged out the wolf\'s intestines.\r\nThe horse said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My hooves could have kicked the wolf\'s skull apart.\r\nDonkey said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could have brayed and startled the wolf so as to break his courage. \r\nPig said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could nuzzle him with my snout, and make him fall down the mountain.\r\nRabbit said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I run fast, I could have spread the word.\r\nIn this noisy group, the only one who wasn\'t present was the dog.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Silent Dog', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1432-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-07-08 15:38:57', '2013-07-08 19:38:57', '', 1432, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/07/08/1432-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1466, 1, '2014-02-05 05:21:12', '2014-02-05 10:21:12', 'I can\'t vouch for the accuracy of the history here, not being a pencil history expert myself, but this read has a lot of good words for larnin\'. I\'d put this in the lower-advanced spectrum, as the sentence structure isn\'t over-the-top literary, but there are a ton of specialized words and proper nouns. The tone is very encyclopedic, so, rather serious and not a lot of fun. \r\n\r\nA couple of proper names for you: \r\n
巴罗代尔 - Borrowdale, England\r\n
乔治二世 - George the Second (English King)\r\n
法伯 - Eberhard Faber, a German chemist\r\n
孔德 - Nicolas-Jacques Conté, French scientist\r\n\r\nSource:
http://www.gushi365.com/info/9763.html\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 铅笔的历史非常悠久，它起源于2000多年前的古罗马时期。那时的铅笔很简陋，只不过是金属套里夹着的一根铅棒，甚至是铅块，倒真是名副其实的“铅”笔。而我们今天使用的铅笔是用石墨和黏土制成的，里面并不含铅。\r\n\r\n2) 现代铅笔诞生于16世纪的英国。1564年，有人在巴罗代尔发现了一种名叫石墨的黑色矿物。石墨能像铅一样在纸上留下痕迹，而且比铅的痕迹要黑得多，因此，人们称石墨为“黑铅”。巴罗代尔一带的牧羊人常用石墨在羊身上做记号。后来，人们又将石墨块切成小条，用于写字、绘画。不久，英王乔治二世将巴罗代尔石墨矿收归皇室所有，把它定为皇家的专用品。\r\n\r\n3) 不过，石墨条也有它的缺点：容易弄脏手，还容易折断。1761年，德国化学家法伯用石墨粉同硫磺、松香等混合起来，制成条，这比纯石墨条的韧性大得多，也不大容易弄脏手。18世纪末时，只有英、德两国能够生产铅笔。\r\n\r\n4) 后来，法国也在自己的国土上找到了石墨矿，但矿的质量不高，储量也少。法国科学家孔德便在石墨中掺入黏土，放进窑里烧制，制成了既好用又耐用的铅笔芯。石墨中掺入的黏土的比例不同，铅笔芯的硬度也就不同。我们常看到铅笔头上标着B、HB一类的字母，表示的就是铅笔芯的硬度和颜色深浅。B表示黑度，H表示硬度，所以，HB就是软硬和颜色深浅都适中的铅笔芯，适合写字。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n
1) The history of the pencil is very long, dating back 2000 years to ancient Roman times. The pencils of that time were very crude, being nothing more than a gold cover cripping a lead stick, or even a lead block, and it really was a \"lead\" pen (not just in name only). Whereas the pencils we use toady are manufactured from graphite and clay, the inside doesn\'t really contain lead. \r\n\r\n
2) Modern pencils were born in 16th Century England. In 1564, people in Borrowdale discovered a kind of black mineral called graphite. Like lead, graphite could leave marks on paper, and the marks it left were much darker than lead, thus, people called graphite \"black lead\". Shepherds in the Borrowdale region commonly used graphite to mark seals on the bodies of sheep. Later, people carved lead into little strips, using them for writing and drawing. After long, the English king George the Second brought Borrowdale graphite ore back to the imperial household for the royal family\'s particular use. \r\n\r\n
3) However, graphite strips also had their weak point: they dirty the hands, and they break easily. In 1761, German chemist Faber mixed graphite powder together with sulfer, pine resin and other things, and manufactured them as strips, which was much tougher than simple graphite, and didn\'t dirty the hands as easily. At the end of the 18th century, only England and Germany were capable of producing pencils. \r\n\r\n
4) Later, France discovered [deposits of] graphite ore in their earth, but the ore\'s quality wasn\'t high, and the quantities weren\'t great. French Scientist Conte mixed the ore with clay, fired it in a kiln, making a more easy to use and durable pencil core. The amount of clay mixed with the graphite wasn\'t always the same, and so the hardness of the lead [core] also changed accordingly. We often see \"B\" and \"HB\" letters marked out on the head of the pencil, indicating hardness and light or darkness of color. \"B\" indicates color, H indicates hardness, therefore, \"HB\" indicates that hardness and darkness of the lead are both moderate, and are suitable for writing. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Facts in Chinese] 铅笔的历史 - The History of the Pencil', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'history-of-the-pencil', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:12:46', '2016-11-04 10:12:46', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1466', 0, 'post', '', 9),
(2042, 1, '2016-11-04 06:12:46', '2016-11-04 10:12:46', 'I can\'t vouch for the accuracy of the history here, not being a pencil history expert myself, but this read has a lot of good words for larnin\'. I\'d put this in the lower-advanced spectrum, as the sentence structure isn\'t over-the-top literary, but there are a ton of specialized words and proper nouns. The tone is very encyclopedic, so, rather serious and not a lot of fun. \r\n\r\nA couple of proper names for you: \r\n
巴罗代尔 - Borrowdale, England\r\n
乔治二世 - George the Second (English King)\r\n
法伯 - Eberhard Faber, a German chemist\r\n
孔德 - Nicolas-Jacques Conté, French scientist\r\n\r\nSource:
http://www.gushi365.com/info/9763.html\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 铅笔的历史非常悠久，它起源于2000多年前的古罗马时期。那时的铅笔很简陋，只不过是金属套里夹着的一根铅棒，甚至是铅块，倒真是名副其实的“铅”笔。而我们今天使用的铅笔是用石墨和黏土制成的，里面并不含铅。\r\n\r\n2) 现代铅笔诞生于16世纪的英国。1564年，有人在巴罗代尔发现了一种名叫石墨的黑色矿物。石墨能像铅一样在纸上留下痕迹，而且比铅的痕迹要黑得多，因此，人们称石墨为“黑铅”。巴罗代尔一带的牧羊人常用石墨在羊身上做记号。后来，人们又将石墨块切成小条，用于写字、绘画。不久，英王乔治二世将巴罗代尔石墨矿收归皇室所有，把它定为皇家的专用品。\r\n\r\n3) 不过，石墨条也有它的缺点：容易弄脏手，还容易折断。1761年，德国化学家法伯用石墨粉同硫磺、松香等混合起来，制成条，这比纯石墨条的韧性大得多，也不大容易弄脏手。18世纪末时，只有英、德两国能够生产铅笔。\r\n\r\n4) 后来，法国也在自己的国土上找到了石墨矿，但矿的质量不高，储量也少。法国科学家孔德便在石墨中掺入黏土，放进窑里烧制，制成了既好用又耐用的铅笔芯。石墨中掺入的黏土的比例不同，铅笔芯的硬度也就不同。我们常看到铅笔头上标着B、HB一类的字母，表示的就是铅笔芯的硬度和颜色深浅。B表示黑度，H表示硬度，所以，HB就是软硬和颜色深浅都适中的铅笔芯，适合写字。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n
1) The history of the pencil is very long, dating back 2000 years to ancient Roman times. The pencils of that time were very crude, being nothing more than a gold cover cripping a lead stick, or even a lead block, and it really was a \"lead\" pen (not just in name only). Whereas the pencils we use toady are manufactured from graphite and clay, the inside doesn\'t really contain lead. \r\n\r\n
2) Modern pencils were born in 16th Century England. In 1564, people in Borrowdale discovered a kind of black mineral called graphite. Like lead, graphite could leave marks on paper, and the marks it left were much darker than lead, thus, people called graphite \"black lead\". Shepherds in the Borrowdale region commonly used graphite to mark seals on the bodies of sheep. Later, people carved lead into little strips, using them for writing and drawing. After long, the English king George the Second brought Borrowdale graphite ore back to the imperial household for the royal family\'s particular use. \r\n\r\n
3) However, graphite strips also had their weak point: they dirty the hands, and they break easily. In 1761, German chemist Faber mixed graphite powder together with sulfer, pine resin and other things, and manufactured them as strips, which was much tougher than simple graphite, and didn\'t dirty the hands as easily. At the end of the 18th century, only England and Germany were capable of producing pencils. \r\n\r\n
4) Later, France discovered [deposits of] graphite ore in their earth, but the ore\'s quality wasn\'t high, and the quantities weren\'t great. French Scientist Conte mixed the ore with clay, fired it in a kiln, making a more easy to use and durable pencil core. The amount of clay mixed with the graphite wasn\'t always the same, and so the hardness of the lead [core] also changed accordingly. We often see \"B\" and \"HB\" letters marked out on the head of the pencil, indicating hardness and light or darkness of color. \"B\" indicates color, H indicates hardness, therefore, \"HB\" indicates that hardness and darkness of the lead are both moderate, and are suitable for writing. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Facts in Chinese] 铅笔的历史 - The History of the Pencil', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1466-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:12:46', '2016-11-04 10:12:46', '', 1466, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1466-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
INSERT INTO `wp_posts` (`ID`, `post_author`, `post_date`, `post_date_gmt`, `post_content`, `post_title`, `post_excerpt`, `post_status`, `comment_status`, `ping_status`, `post_password`, `post_name`, `to_ping`, `pinged`, `post_modified`, `post_modified_gmt`, `post_content_filtered`, `post_parent`, `guid`, `menu_order`, `post_type`, `post_mime_type`, `comment_count`) VALUES
(1753, 1, '2016-10-31 03:41:27', '2016-10-31 07:41:27', '[two_third]\r\nWoo, I\'m on a roll this week. I can\'t vouch for the accuracy of the history here, not being a pencil history expert myself, but this read has a lot of good words for larnin\'. I\'d put this in the lower-advanced spectrum, as the sentence structure isn\'t over-the-top literary, but there are a ton of specialized words and proper nouns. \r\n\r\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/20140205-INLINE.jpg\")
The tone is very encyclopedic, so, rather serious and not a lot of fun. \r\n\r\nA couple of proper names for you: \r\n
巴罗代尔 - Borrowdale, England\r\n
乔治二世 - George the Second (English King)\r\n
法伯 - Eberhard Faber, a German chemist\r\n
孔德 - Nicolas-Jacques Conté, French scientist\r\n\r\nSource:
http://www.gushi365.com/info/9763.html\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 铅笔的历史非常悠久，它起源于2000多年前的古罗马时期。那时的铅笔很简陋，只不过是金属套里夹着的一根铅棒，甚至是铅块，倒真是名副其实的“铅”笔。而我们今天使用的铅笔是用石墨和黏土制成的，里面并不含铅。\r\n\r\n2) 现代铅笔诞生于16世纪的英国。1564年，有人在巴罗代尔发现了一种名叫石墨的黑色矿物。石墨能像铅一样在纸上留下痕迹，而且比铅的痕迹要黑得多，因此，人们称石墨为“黑铅”。巴罗代尔一带的牧羊人常用石墨在羊身上做记号。后来，人们又将石墨块切成小条，用于写字、绘画。不久，英王乔治二世将巴罗代尔石墨矿收归皇室所有，把它定为皇家的专用品。\r\n\r\n3) 不过，石墨条也有它的缺点：容易弄脏手，还容易折断。1761年，德国化学家法伯用石墨粉同硫磺、松香等混合起来，制成条，这比纯石墨条的韧性大得多，也不大容易弄脏手。18世纪末时，只有英、德两国能够生产铅笔。\r\n\r\n4) 后来，法国也在自己的国土上找到了石墨矿，但矿的质量不高，储量也少。法国科学家孔德便在石墨中掺入黏土，放进窑里烧制，制成了既好用又耐用的铅笔芯。石墨中掺入的黏土的比例不同，铅笔芯的硬度也就不同。我们常看到铅笔头上标着B、HB一类的字母，表示的就是铅笔芯的硬度和颜色深浅。B表示黑度，H表示硬度，所以，HB就是软硬和颜色深浅都适中的铅笔芯，适合写字。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n
1) The history of the pencil is very long, dating back 2000 years to ancient Roman times. The pencils of that time were very crude, being nothing more than a gold cover cripping a lead stick, or even a lead block, and it really was a \"lead\" pen (not just in name only). Whereas the pencils we use toady are manufactured from graphite and clay, the inside doesn\'t really contain lead. \r\n\r\n
2) Modern pencils were born in 16th Century England. In 1564, people in Borrowdale discovered a kind of black mineral called graphite. Like lead, graphite could leave marks on paper, and the marks it left were much darker than lead, thus, people called graphite \"black lead\". Shepherds in the Borrowdale region commonly used graphite to mark seals on the bodies of sheep. Later, people carved lead into little strips, using them for writing and drawing. After long, the English king George the Second brought Borrowdale graphite ore back to the imperial household for the royal family\'s particular use. \r\n\r\n
3) However, graphite strips also had their weak point: they dirty the hands, and they break easily. In 1761, German chemist Faber mixed graphite powder together with sulfer, pine resin and other things, and manufactured them as strips, which was much tougher than simple graphite, and didn\'t dirty the hands as easily. At the end of the 18th century, only England and Germany were capable of producing pencils. \r\n\r\n
4) Later, France discovered [deposits of] graphite ore in their earth, but the ore\'s quality wasn\'t high, and the quantities weren\'t great. French Scientist Conte mixed the ore with clay, fired it in a kiln, making a more easy to use and durable pencil wick. The amount of clay mixed with the graphite wasn\'t always the same, and so the hardness of the lead [wick] also changed accordingly. We often see \"B\" and \"HB\" letters marked out on the head of the pencil, indicating hardness and light or darkness of color. \"B\" indicates color, H indicates hardness, therefore, \"HB\" indicates that hardness and darkness of the lead are both moderate, and are suitable for writing. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Facts] 铅笔的历史 - The History of the Pencil', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1466-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:41:27', '2016-10-31 07:41:27', '', 1466, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1466-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1467, 1, '2014-02-04 22:32:04', '2014-02-05 03:32:04', '[two_third]\nhttp://ent.chinadaily.com.cn/2014-02/04/content_17268203.htm\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n蒲公英 - [pinyin]pu2 gong1 ying1[/pinyin] - Dandelion\n翩翩起舞 - [pinyin]pian1 pian1 qi3 wu3[/pinyin] - Lightly dance about\n扭到脚了 - [pinyin]niu3 dao4 jiao3 le[/pinyin] - Sprain / twist one\'s foot / ankle\n载歌载舞 - [pinyin]zai4 ge1 zai4 wu3[/pinyin] - Singing and dancing\n自言自语- [pinyin]zi4 yan2 zi4 yu3[/pinyin] - Talk to yourself\n说不定 - [pinyin]shuo1 bu5 ding4[/pinyin] - Who can say... [that sthng won\'t happen]\n奇迹 - [pinyin]qi2 ji4[/pinyin] - Miracle\n活蹦乱跳 - [pinyin]huo2 beng4 luan4 tiao4[/pinyin] - Leap and frisk about\n吵醒 - [pinyin]chao2 xing3[/pinyin] - To be woken up by noise\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n下雪啦，下雪啦！一片片雪花像蒲公英一样在空中翩翩起舞，不一会儿，大地就穿上了一件洁白的衣裳。\n\n可爱的小熊不小心扭到脚了，只得孤零零地躺在小床上。忽然，从窗外传来了欢快的歌声。小熊朝窗外看去，原来是小老鼠和小白兔在雪地里载歌载舞呢！雪地上还留下了他们可爱的小脚印。小熊心里真羡慕呀！可是，他有什么办法呢？小熊深深地叹了一口气，自言自语：“还是睡一觉吧，说不定梦里会出现奇迹！”\n\n小熊果然做了一个好梦。他梦见一位留着长胡子的老爷爷来到了他的小屋里。老爷爷从衣袋里掏出一个小瓶子，笑眯眯地喷了喷小熊受伤的脚。小熊马上就活蹦乱跳了，快活地在雪地上和小伙伴们玩耍……\n\n小鸟们的欢声笑语把小熊吵醒了，原来这只是一场梦。可是小熊发现自己的手里竟然有一个小瓶子！小熊拿起小瓶子往脚上一喷，受伤的脚马上就好了。这真是一瓶神水啊！从此，小熊再也不怕摔伤了。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nIt\'s snowing, it\'s snowing! Flakes of snow lightly danced like dandelions in the air, and after a while, the earth wore clothes of pure white. \n\nCute little bear incautiously sprained his ankle, and had to lie in bed all alone. Suddenly, from outside the window came the sound of lighthearted singing. Little bear looked out the window, and [saw that it was] Little Mouse and Little White Rabbit dancing and singing! The snow still held [impressions of] their cute little footprints. Little Bear was truly envious! But what could he do? Little Bear gave a deep sigh, and said aloud to himself: \"Better get some more sleep, and maybe in my dream there will be a miracle!\" \n\nSure enough, Little bear had a good dream. In his dream, an old man with a long beard came into his room. The old man fished a little bottle out of his pocket, and smilingly sprayed [some liquid from the bottle] on Little Bear\'s wounded foot. Little Bear immediately leaped up and frisked about, playing cheerfully with his [two] buddies on the snowy ground.\n\nThe happy sounds of the small birds woke Little Bear up, and [found that] actually it was all just a dream. But then he discovered that there was a small bottle in his hand! Little Bear took up the small bottle and sprayed it on his foot, and the wounded foot was immediately better! This really was a bottle of magic water! After that, Little Bear never again feared bumps and bruises. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'News: Famous Hong Kong Actor Xu Ma Dies of Lung Cancer at 71', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1466-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-02-04 22:32:04', '2014-02-05 03:32:04', '', 1466, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/02/04/1466-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1468, 1, '2014-02-05 04:19:43', '2014-02-05 09:19:43', '[two_third]\nhttp://www.gushi365.com/info/9763.html\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n简陋 - [pinyin]pu2 gong1 ying1[/pinyin] - Dandelion\n名副其实 - [pinyin]pian1 pian1 qi3 wu3[/pinyin] - Lightly dance about\n扭到脚了 - [pinyin]niu3 dao4 jiao3 le[/pinyin] - Sprain / twist one\'s foot / ankle\n载歌载舞 - [pinyin]zai4 ge1 zai4 wu3[/pinyin] - Singing and dancing\n自言自语- [pinyin]zi4 yan2 zi4 yu3[/pinyin] - Talk to yourself\n说不定 - [pinyin]shuo1 bu5 ding4[/pinyin] - Who can say... [that sthng won\'t happen]\n奇迹 - [pinyin]qi2 ji4[/pinyin] - Miracle\n活蹦乱跳 - [pinyin]huo2 beng4 luan4 tiao4[/pinyin] - Leap and frisk about\n吵醒 - [pinyin]chao2 xing3[/pinyin] - To be woken up by noise\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n铅笔的历史非常悠久，它起源于2000多年前的古罗马时期。那时的铅笔很简陋（lòu），只不过是金属套里夹着的一根铅棒，甚至是铅块，倒真是名副其实的“铅”笔。而我们今天使用的铅笔是用石墨和黏（nián）土制成的，里面并不含铅。\n\n现代铅笔诞生于16世纪的英国。1564年，有人在巴罗代尔发现了一种名叫石墨的黑色矿物。石墨能像铅一样在纸上留下痕迹，而且比铅的痕迹要黑得多，因此，人们称石墨为“黑铅”。巴罗代尔一带的牧羊人常用石墨在羊身上做记号。后来，人们又将石墨块切成小条，用于写字、绘画。不久，英王乔治二世将巴罗代尔石墨矿收归皇室所有，把它定为皇家的专用品。\n\n不过，石墨条也有它的缺点：容易弄脏手，还容易折断。1761年，德国化学家法伯用石墨粉同硫磺（liú huánɡ）、松香等混合起来，制成条，这比纯石墨条的韧（rèn）性大得多，也不大容易弄脏手。18世纪末时，只有英、德两国能够生产铅笔。\n\n后来，法国也在自己的国土上找到了石墨矿，但矿的质量不高，储（chǔ）量也少。法国科学家孔德便在石墨中掺（chān）入黏土，放进窑（yáo）里烧制，制成了既好用又耐用的铅笔芯（xīn）。石墨中掺入的黏土的比例不同，铅笔芯的硬度也就不同。我们常看到铅笔头上标着B、HB一类的字母，表示的就是铅笔芯的硬度和颜色深浅。B表示黑度，H表示硬度，所以，HB就是软硬和颜色深浅都适中的铅笔芯，适合写字。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThe history of the pencil is very long, dating back 2000 years to ancient Roman times. The pencils of that time were very crude, being nothing more than a gold cover cripping a lead stick, or even a lead block, and it really was a \"lead\" pen (not just in name only). Whereas the pencils we use toady are manufactured from graphite and clay, the inside doesn\'t really contain lead. \n\nModern pencils were born in 16th Century England. In 1564, people in Borrowdale discovered a kind of black mineral called graphite. Like lead, graphite could leave marks on paper, and the marks it left were much darker than lead, thus, people called graphite \"black lead\". Shepherds in the Borrowdale region commonly used graphite to mark seals on the bodies of sheep. Later, people carved lead into little strips, using them for writing and drawing. After long, the English king George the Second brought Borrowdale graphite ore back to the imperial household, 。后来，人们又将石墨块切成小条，用于写字、绘画。不久，英王乔治二世将巴罗代尔石墨矿收归皇室所有，把它定为皇家的专用品。\n\n不过，石墨条也有它的缺点：容易弄脏手，还容易折断。1761年，德国化学家法伯用石墨粉同硫磺（liú huánɡ）、松香等混合起来，制成条，这比纯石墨条的韧（rèn）性大得多，也不大容易弄脏手。18世纪末时，只有英、德两国能够生产铅笔。\n\n后来，法国也在自己的国土上找到了石墨矿，但矿的质量不高，储（chǔ）量也少。法国科学家孔德便在石墨中掺（chān）入黏土，放进窑（yáo）里烧制，制成了既好用又耐用的铅笔芯（xīn）。石墨中掺入的黏土的比例不同，铅笔芯的硬度也就不同。我们常看到铅笔头上标着B、HB一类的字母，表示的就是铅笔芯的硬度和颜色深浅。B表示黑度，H表示硬度，所以，HB就是软硬和颜色深浅都适中的铅笔芯，适合写字。 \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The History of the Pencil', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1466-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-02-05 04:19:43', '2014-02-05 09:19:43', '', 1466, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/02/05/1466-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1469, 1, '2014-02-05 04:41:10', '2014-02-05 09:41:10', '[two_third]\nWoo, I\'m on a roll this week. I can\'t vouch for the accuracy of the history here, not being a pencil history expert myself, \nI can\'t vouch for the \nhttp://www.gushi365.com/info/9763.html\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n简陋 - [pinyin]pu2 gong1 ying1[/pinyin] - Dandelion\n名副其实 - [pinyin]pian1 pian1 qi3 wu3[/pinyin] - Lightly dance about\n扭到脚了 - [pinyin]niu3 dao4 jiao3 le[/pinyin] - Sprain / twist one\'s foot / ankle\n载歌载舞 - [pinyin]zai4 ge1 zai4 wu3[/pinyin] - Singing and dancing\n自言自语- [pinyin]zi4 yan2 zi4 yu3[/pinyin] - Talk to yourself\n说不定 - [pinyin]shuo1 bu5 ding4[/pinyin] - Who can say... [that sthng won\'t happen]\n奇迹 - [pinyin]qi2 ji4[/pinyin] - Miracle\n活蹦乱跳 - [pinyin]huo2 beng4 luan4 tiao4[/pinyin] - Leap and frisk about\n吵醒 - [pinyin]chao2 xing3[/pinyin] - To be woken up by noise\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n铅笔的历史非常悠久，它起源于2000多年前的古罗马时期。那时的铅笔很简陋（lòu），只不过是金属套里夹着的一根铅棒，甚至是铅块，倒真是名副其实的“铅”笔。而我们今天使用的铅笔是用石墨和黏（nián）土制成的，里面并不含铅。\n\n现代铅笔诞生于16世纪的英国。1564年，有人在巴罗代尔发现了一种名叫石墨的黑色矿物。石墨能像铅一样在纸上留下痕迹，而且比铅的痕迹要黑得多，因此，人们称石墨为“黑铅”。巴罗代尔一带的牧羊人常用石墨在羊身上做记号。后来，人们又将石墨块切成小条，用于写字、绘画。不久，英王乔治二世将巴罗代尔石墨矿收归皇室所有，把它定为皇家的专用品。\n\n不过，石墨条也有它的缺点：容易弄脏手，还容易折断。1761年，德国化学家法伯用石墨粉同硫磺（liú huánɡ）、松香等混合起来，制成条，这比纯石墨条的韧（rèn）性大得多，也不大容易弄脏手。18世纪末时，只有英、德两国能够生产铅笔。\n\n后来，法国也在自己的国土上找到了石墨矿，但矿的质量不高，储（chǔ）量也少。法国科学家孔德便在石墨中掺（chān）入黏土，放进窑（yáo）里烧制，制成了既好用又耐用的铅笔芯（xīn）。石墨中掺入的黏土的比例不同，铅笔芯的硬度也就不同。我们常看到铅笔头上标着B、HB一类的字母，表示的就是铅笔芯的硬度和颜色深浅。B表示黑度，H表示硬度，所以，HB就是软硬和颜色深浅都适中的铅笔芯，适合写字。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThe history of the pencil is very long, dating back 2000 years to ancient Roman times. The pencils of that time were very crude, being nothing more than a gold cover cripping a lead stick, or even a lead block, and it really was a \"lead\" pen (not just in name only). Whereas the pencils we use toady are manufactured from graphite and clay, the inside doesn\'t really contain lead. \n\nModern pencils were born in 16th Century England. In 1564, people in Borrowdale discovered a kind of black mineral called graphite. Like lead, graphite could leave marks on paper, and the marks it left were much darker than lead, thus, people called graphite \"black lead\". Shepherds in the Borrowdale region commonly used graphite to mark seals on the bodies of sheep. Later, people carved lead into little strips, using them for writing and drawing. After long, the English king George the Second brought Borrowdale graphite ore back to the imperial household for the royal family\'s particular use. \n\nHowever, graphite strips also had their weak point: they dirty the hands, and they break easily. In 1761, German chemist Faber mixed graphite powder together with sulfer, pine resin and other things, and manufactured them as strips, which was much tougher than simple graphite, and didn\'t dirty the hands as easily. At the end of the 18th century, only England and Germany were capable of producing pencils. \n\nLater, France discovered [deposits of] graphite ore in their earth, but the ore\'s quality wasn\'t high, and the quantities weren\'t great. French Scientist Conte mixed the ore with clay, fired it in a kiln, making a more easy to use and durable pencil wick. The amount of clay mixed with the graphite wasn\'t always the same, and so the hardness of the lead [wick] also changed accordingly. We often see \"B\" and \"HB\" letters marked out on the head of the pencil, indicating hardness and light or darkness of color. \"B\" indicates color, H indicates hardness, therefore, \"HB\" indicates that hardness and darkness of the lead are both 我们常看到铅笔头上标着B、HB一类的字母，表示的就是铅笔芯的硬度和颜色深浅。B表示黑度，H表示硬度，所以，HB就是软硬和颜色深浅都适中的铅笔芯，适合写字。 \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The History of the Pencil', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1466-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-02-05 04:41:10', '2014-02-05 09:41:10', '', 1466, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/02/05/1466-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1470, 1, '2014-02-05 04:43:38', '2014-02-05 09:43:38', '[two_third]\nWoo, I\'m on a roll this week. I can\'t vouch for the accuracy of the history here, not being a pencil history expert myself, but this read has a lot of good words for larnin\'. I\'d put this in the lower-advanced spectrum, as the sentence structure isn\'t over-the-top literary, but there are a ton of specialized words and proper nouns. \n\nI can\'t vouch for the \nhttp://www.gushi365.com/info/9763.html\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n简陋 - [pinyin]pu2 gong1 ying1[/pinyin] - Dandelion\n名副其实 - [pinyin]pian1 pian1 qi3 wu3[/pinyin] - Lightly dance about\n扭到脚了 - [pinyin]niu3 dao4 jiao3 le[/pinyin] - Sprain / twist one\'s foot / ankle\n载歌载舞 - [pinyin]zai4 ge1 zai4 wu3[/pinyin] - Singing and dancing\n自言自语- [pinyin]zi4 yan2 zi4 yu3[/pinyin] - Talk to yourself\n说不定 - [pinyin]shuo1 bu5 ding4[/pinyin] - Who can say... [that sthng won\'t happen]\n奇迹 - [pinyin]qi2 ji4[/pinyin] - Miracle\n活蹦乱跳 - [pinyin]huo2 beng4 luan4 tiao4[/pinyin] - Leap and frisk about\n吵醒 - [pinyin]chao2 xing3[/pinyin] - To be woken up by noise\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n铅笔的历史非常悠久，它起源于2000多年前的古罗马时期。那时的铅笔很简陋，只不过是金属套里夹着的一根铅棒，甚至是铅块，倒真是名副其实的“铅”笔。而我们今天使用的铅笔是用石墨和黏（ni土制成的，里面并不含铅。\n\n现代铅笔诞生于16世纪的英国。1564年，有人在巴罗代尔发现了一种名叫石墨的黑色矿物。石墨能像铅一样在纸上留下痕迹，而且比铅的痕迹要黑得多，因此，人们称石墨为“黑铅”。巴罗代尔一带的牧羊人常用石墨在羊身上做记号。后来，人们又将石墨块切成小条，用于写字、绘画。不久，英王乔治二世将巴罗代尔石墨矿收归皇室所有，把它定为皇家的专用品。\n\n不过，石墨条也有它的缺点：容易弄脏手，还容易折断。1761年，德国化学家法伯用石墨粉同硫磺（liú huánɡ）、松香等混合起来，制成条，这比纯石墨条的韧（rèn）性大得多，也不大容易弄脏手。18世纪末时，只有英、德两国能够生产铅笔。\n\n后来，法国也在自己的国土上找到了石墨矿，但矿的质量不高，储（chǔ）量也少。法国科学家孔德便在石墨中掺（chān）入黏土，放进窑（yáo）里烧制，制成了既好用又耐用的铅笔芯（xīn）。石墨中掺入的黏土的比例不同，铅笔芯的硬度也就不同。我们常看到铅笔头上标着B、HB一类的字母，表示的就是铅笔芯的硬度和颜色深浅。B表示黑度，H表示硬度，所以，HB就是软硬和颜色深浅都适中的铅笔芯，适合写字。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThe history of the pencil is very long, dating back 2000 years to ancient Roman times. The pencils of that time were very crude, being nothing more than a gold cover cripping a lead stick, or even a lead block, and it really was a \"lead\" pen (not just in name only). Whereas the pencils we use toady are manufactured from graphite and clay, the inside doesn\'t really contain lead. \n\nModern pencils were born in 16th Century England. In 1564, people in Borrowdale discovered a kind of black mineral called graphite. Like lead, graphite could leave marks on paper, and the marks it left were much darker than lead, thus, people called graphite \"black lead\". Shepherds in the Borrowdale region commonly used graphite to mark seals on the bodies of sheep. Later, people carved lead into little strips, using them for writing and drawing. After long, the English king George the Second brought Borrowdale graphite ore back to the imperial household for the royal family\'s particular use. \n\nHowever, graphite strips also had their weak point: they dirty the hands, and they break easily. In 1761, German chemist Faber mixed graphite powder together with sulfer, pine resin and other things, and manufactured them as strips, which was much tougher than simple graphite, and didn\'t dirty the hands as easily. At the end of the 18th century, only England and Germany were capable of producing pencils. \n\nLater, France discovered [deposits of] graphite ore in their earth, but the ore\'s quality wasn\'t high, and the quantities weren\'t great. French Scientist Conte mixed the ore with clay, fired it in a kiln, making a more easy to use and durable pencil wick. The amount of clay mixed with the graphite wasn\'t always the same, and so the hardness of the lead [wick] also changed accordingly. We often see \"B\" and \"HB\" letters marked out on the head of the pencil, indicating hardness and light or darkness of color. \"B\" indicates color, H indicates hardness, therefore, \"HB\" indicates that hardness and darkness of the lead are both moderate, and are suitable for writing. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The History of the Pencil', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1466-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-02-05 04:43:38', '2014-02-05 09:43:38', '', 1466, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/02/05/1466-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1471, 1, '2014-02-05 05:10:10', '2014-02-05 10:10:10', '', 'Learn to Read Simplified Chinese - Advanced Chinese Essays', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20140205-inline', '', '', '2014-02-05 05:10:10', '2014-02-05 10:10:10', '', 1466, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/20140205-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1472, 1, '2014-02-05 05:10:11', '2014-02-05 10:10:11', '', 'Learn to Read Simplified Chinese - Advanced Chinese Essays', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20140205', '', '', '2014-02-05 05:10:11', '2014-02-05 10:10:11', '', 1466, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/20140205.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1473, 1, '2014-02-05 05:20:20', '2014-02-05 10:20:20', '[two_third]\nWoo, I\'m on a roll this week. I can\'t vouch for the accuracy of the history here, not being a pencil history expert myself, but this read has a lot of good words for larnin\'. I\'d put this in the lower-advanced spectrum, as the sentence structure isn\'t over-the-top literary, but there are a ton of specialized words and proper nouns. \n\n
The tone is very encyclopedic, so, rather serious and not a lot of fun. \n\nA couple of proper names for you: \n
巴罗代尔 - Borrowdale, England\n
乔治二世 - George the Second (English King)\n
法伯 - Eberhard Faber, a German chemist\n
孔德 - Nicolas-Jacques Conté, French scientist\n\nSource:
http://www.gushi365.com/info/9763.html\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n简陋 - [pinyin]jian3 lou4[/pinyin] - Simple and crude\n名副其实 - [pinyin]ming2 fu4 qi2 shi2[/pinyin] - Not in name only, but also in reality\n诞生 - [pinyin]dan4 sheng1[/pinyin] - To be born\n矿物 - [pinyin]kuang4 wu4[/pinyin] - Mineral\n皇室- [pinyin]huang2 shi4[/pinyin] - Imperial household\n缺点 - [pinyin]que1 dian3[/pinyin] - Weak point, drawback\n硫磺 - [pinyin]liu2 huang2[/pinyin] - Sulfer\n松香 - [pinyin]song1 xiang1[/pinyin] - Leap and frisk about\n掺入 - [pinyin]chao2 xing3[/pinyin] - To be woken up by noise\n芯\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n铅笔的历史非常悠久，它起源于2000多年前的古罗马时期。那时的铅笔很简陋，只不过是金属套里夹着的一根铅棒，甚至是铅块，倒真是名副其实的“铅”笔。而我们今天使用的铅笔是用石墨和黏土制成的，里面并不含铅。\n\n现代铅笔诞生于16世纪的英国。1564年，有人在巴罗代尔发现了一种名叫石墨的黑色矿物。石墨能像铅一样在纸上留下痕迹，而且比铅的痕迹要黑得多，因此，人们称石墨为“黑铅”。巴罗代尔一带的牧羊人常用石墨在羊身上做记号。后来，人们又将石墨块切成小条，用于写字、绘画。不久，英王乔治二世将巴罗代尔石墨矿收归皇室所有，把它定为皇家的专用品。\n\n不过，石墨条也有它的缺点：容易弄脏手，还容易折断。1761年，德国化学家法伯用石墨粉同硫磺、松香等混合起来，制成条，这比纯石墨条的韧性大得多，也不大容易弄脏手。18世纪末时，只有英、德两国能够生产铅笔。\n\n后来，法国也在自己的国土上找到了石墨矿，但矿的质量不高，储量也少。法国科学家孔德便在石墨中掺入黏土，放进窑里烧制，制成了既好用又耐用的铅笔芯。石墨中掺入的黏土的比例不同，铅笔芯的硬度也就不同。我们常看到铅笔头上标着B、HB一类的字母，表示的就是铅笔芯的硬度和颜色深浅。B表示黑度，H表示硬度，所以，HB就是软硬和颜色深浅都适中的铅笔芯，适合写字。 \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThe history of the pencil is very long, dating back 2000 years to ancient Roman times. The pencils of that time were very crude, being nothing more than a gold cover cripping a lead stick, or even a lead block, and it really was a \"lead\" pen (not just in name only). Whereas the pencils we use toady are manufactured from graphite and clay, the inside doesn\'t really contain lead. \n\nModern pencils were born in 16th Century England. In 1564, people in Borrowdale discovered a kind of black mineral called graphite. Like lead, graphite could leave marks on paper, and the marks it left were much darker than lead, thus, people called graphite \"black lead\". Shepherds in the Borrowdale region commonly used graphite to mark seals on the bodies of sheep. Later, people carved lead into little strips, using them for writing and drawing. After long, the English king George the Second brought Borrowdale graphite ore back to the imperial household for the royal family\'s particular use. \n\nHowever, graphite strips also had their weak point: they dirty the hands, and they break easily. In 1761, German chemist Faber mixed graphite powder together with sulfer, pine resin and other things, and manufactured them as strips, which was much tougher than simple graphite, and didn\'t dirty the hands as easily. At the end of the 18th century, only England and Germany were capable of producing pencils. \n\nLater, France discovered [deposits of] graphite ore in their earth, but the ore\'s quality wasn\'t high, and the quantities weren\'t great. French Scientist Conte mixed the ore with clay, fired it in a kiln, making a more easy to use and durable pencil wick. The amount of clay mixed with the graphite wasn\'t always the same, and so the hardness of the lead [wick] also changed accordingly. We often see \"B\" and \"HB\" letters marked out on the head of the pencil, indicating hardness and light or darkness of color. \"B\" indicates color, H indicates hardness, therefore, \"HB\" indicates that hardness and darkness of the lead are both moderate, and are suitable for writing. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The History of the Pencil', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1466-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-02-05 05:20:20', '2014-02-05 10:20:20', '', 1466, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/02/05/1466-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1475, 1, '2014-02-05 06:12:33', '2014-02-05 11:12:33', 'I was away for a couple of months there, so I missed a few awesome comments until just recently. \n\nGrace, a commenter on this blog, brought her Chinese reading practice website to my attention, and I love it! She has a fabulous collections of translated materials for Elementary, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced readers, including my absolute fav genre, Chinese detective stories. Yay!\n\nDon\'t miss adding
Justlearnchinese.com to your ', 'New Resource: Justlearnchinese.com', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1474-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-02-05 06:12:33', '2014-02-05 11:12:33', '', 1474, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/02/05/1474-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1476, 1, '2014-02-05 06:13:56', '2014-02-05 11:13:56', 'I was away for a couple of months towards the end of last year, so I missed a few awesome comments until just recently. \n\nGrace, a commenter on this blog, brought her Chinese reading practice website to my attention, and it\'s the jam. She has a fabulous collections of translated materials for Elementary, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced readers, including my absolute fav genre, Chinese detective stories. Yay!\n\nDon\'t miss adding
Justlearnchinese.comto your blogroll. \n\n', 'New Resource: Justlearnchinese.com', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1474-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-02-05 06:13:56', '2014-02-05 11:13:56', '', 1474, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/02/05/1474-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1480, 1, '2014-06-10 20:05:10', '2014-06-11 00:05:10', 'Science! A quick paragraph about why peppers come in so many hues. Though the sentence structure here isn\'t too bad and the article is very short, I\'m classifying this as \'advanced\' since several of the words are quite chemistry-specific. Advanced readers will recognize the words \"被破坏\" - to be broken by - as the phrase itself is common. In this case, though, we\'re not talking about a literal breaking, we\'re talking about the chemical process of an element \"breaking down\". \r\n\r\nHere\'s
the original. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n辣椒的品种有很多，但不论哪一个品种，在未成熟前都是青绿色的，那是因为含有叶绿素的缘故。到了成熟期，叶绿素被破坏，辣椒中含有的黄色素和叶红素就相应增多，于是变成黄色和红色。而有的辣椒品种是在青绿色时味道更好，因而在未成熟前就上市了。所以，我们可看到各种颜色的辣椒。 \r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThere are many types of peppers, but all types of pepper are green in color before they ripen, which is because they contain chlorophyll. When it finally comes time for them to ripen, the chlorophyll breaks down, and the yellow and red pigments in the peppers increase accordingly, so they become yellow and red. In addition, some types of peppers taste better when they\'re still green, so they are brought to market before they ripen. That\'s why we see so many different colors of peppers. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Facts in Chinese] Why are some peppers different colors?', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'why-are-some-peppers-different-colors', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:57:03', '2016-11-04 09:57:03', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1480', 0, 'post', '', 8),
(2034, 1, '2016-11-04 05:53:17', '2016-11-04 09:53:17', 'Science! A quick paragraph about why peppers come in so many hues. Though the sentence structure here isn\'t too bad and the article is very short, I\'m classifying this as \'advanced\' since several of the words are quite chemistry-specific. Advanced readers will recognize the words \"被破坏\" - to be broken by - as the phrase itself is common. In this case, though, we\'re not talking about a literal breaking, we\'re talking about the chemical process of an element \"breaking down\". \r\n\r\nHere\'s
the original. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n辣椒的品种有很多，但不论哪一个品种，在未成熟前都是青绿色的，那是因为含有叶绿素的缘故。到了成熟期，叶绿素被破坏，辣椒中含有的黄色素和叶红素就相应增多，于是变成黄色和红色。而有的辣椒品种是在青绿色时味道更好，因而在未成熟前就上市了。所以，我们可看到各种颜色的辣椒。 \r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThere are many types of peppers, but all types of pepper are green in color before they ripen, which is because they contain chlorophyll. When it finally comes time for them to ripen, the chlorophyll breaks down, and the yellow and red pigments in the peppers increase accordingly, so they become yellow and red. In addition, some types of peppers taste better when they\'re still green, so they are brought to market before they ripen. That\'s why we see so many different colors of peppers. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Facts in Chinese] Why are some peppers different colors?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1480-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:53:17', '2016-11-04 09:53:17', '', 1480, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1480-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1722, 1, '2016-10-31 03:09:24', '2016-10-31 07:09:24', 'Science! A quick paragraph about why peppers come in so many hues. Though the sentence structure here isn\'t too bad and the article is very short, I\'m classifying this as \'advanced\' since several of the words are quite chemistry-specific. Advanced readers will recognize the words \"被破坏\" - to be broken by - as the phrase itself is common. In this case, though, we\'re not talking about a literal breaking, we\'re talking about the chemical process of an element \"breaking down\". \r\n\r\nHere\'s
the original. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n 辣椒的品种有很多，但不论哪一个品种，在未成熟前都是青绿色的，那是因为含有叶绿素的缘故。到了成熟期，叶绿素被破坏，辣椒中含有的黄色素和叶红素就相应增多，于是变成黄色和红色。而有的辣椒品种是在青绿色时味道更好，因而在未成熟前就上市了。所以，我们可看到各种颜色的辣椒。 \r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThere are many types of peppers, but all types of pepper are green in color before they ripen, which is because they contain chlorophyll. When it finally comes time for them to ripen, the chlorophyll breaks down, and the yellow and red pigments in the peppers increase accordingly, so they become yellow and red. In addition, some types of peppers taste better when they\'re still green, so they are brought to market before they ripen. That\'s why we see so many different colors of peppers. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Facts] Why are some peppers different colors?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1480-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:09:24', '2016-10-31 07:09:24', '', 1480, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1480-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1481, 1, '2014-05-28 05:43:31', '2014-05-28 09:43:31', 'This post kicks ass, if I do say so myself. This kid was asked to imagine the perfect desk-chair of the future - what it would look like, and what it would do - and boy, does he ever. The chair turns into all kinds of utopian machinery. It flies, it helps you sleep, and it carries your books to school. Sentence structure is pretty easy and the language is solidly intermediate, with very little advanced vocab (one idiom, a couple of advanced words but not much). At six paragraphs, the text is a bit long, though. \r\n\r\nIn this text, you\'ll notice several uses of the character \"型\". 型 [pinyin]xing2[/pinyin] means \"type\", \"kind\", \"sort\". The character can be combined with other descriptive words, and in this text you\'ll see 新型 - \"New Type of...\" and 大型, meaning \"big type\" or \"large-scale\". \r\n\r\nHere\'s the
original. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n你想知道未来的桌椅是什么样子吗? 还是让我这个发明人来介绍一下吧!\r\n\r\n未来的桌椅是高科技材料制成的，大小、颜色、形状能随意变化。早晨去上学，就按第一个按钮，颜色可以变成绿色，象征新的一天朝气蓬勃，这个桌椅变成了新型自行车，那时候人们讲究环保，每个学生都骑这样的车去上学，不用别的能源，有太阳能和风就够了。如果遇见堵车的现象，自行车就会飞跃过去，保证准时到达学校。\r\n\r\n到了学校，请按第二个按钮，绿色自行车变成了蓝色电脑桌椅，开始上课学习，根本不用带书包呀、文具盒、教材什么的。一切学习任务都在电脑上完成。\r\n\r\n到了放学的时候，又变回自行车回到家。当然这时候的车速可以放慢，好好欣赏一下大自然的风光。回到家没有作业，这时请按第三个橘色按钮，自行车再变成大型游戏机，你就可以玩各种游戏了。当然，对眼睛没有害处。\r\n\r\n到了晚上，请按第四个按钮，游戏机变成了你喜欢颜色的折叠床，发出美妙的音乐，催你甜蜜地入眠。假如你感觉哪儿不舒服了，就从床头伸出几个按摩头给你按摩，让你安然入睡。\r\n\r\n怎么样，我发明的未来的桌椅你一定喜欢吧?欢迎你现在就来预订一套。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDo you want to know what chairs and tables will be like in the future? Well then let this inventor [author is referring to self] introduce you!\r\n\r\nChairs and tables in the future are manufactured from high-tech materials, and the size, color and shape can change according to your wishes. In the morning when you go to school, you just push the first button, and the color will change to green, symbolizing a new day full of youthful energy, and its shape will change into a new type of bicycle, since at that time [the future] people will all pay attention to the environment, and every student will ride this kind of bike to go to school, and no other power source will be needed, just solar and wind will be enough. If you run into traffic, this bike can leap over it, ensuring you\'ll arrive at school on time. \r\n\r\nOnce you get to school, please push the second button, and the green bike will turn into a blue computer desk and chair, and when you start to study, you don\'t even need to have your book bag, stationery box or other study materials. Everything you need [to accomplish studying] is all in the computer. \r\n\r\nWhen school gets out, it will again turn into a bike so you can return home. Of course at this time, the bike is also freed to go slowly, so that you can take a moment to appreciate the natural scenery. When you get home and you have no homework, press the third orange-colored button, and the bike will change into a large video game machine, and you can play all kinds of games. Of course, it will do no damage to your eyes. \r\n\r\nAt night, press the fourth button, and the video game machine will turn into a fold-out bed in any color you want, playing splendid music, that will encourage you to drift into sweet sleep. If you feel at all uncomfortable, a few massagers will extend from the head of the bed and give you a massage, to let you rest peacefully. \r\n\r\nWhat do you think? Surely you\'ll like my future desk chair. You\'re welcome to place an order for one now. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 未来的桌椅 - Desk-chairs of the Future', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'desk-chairs-of-the-future', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:55:05', '2016-11-04 09:55:05', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1481', 0, 'post', '', 11),
(2035, 1, '2016-11-04 05:55:05', '2016-11-04 09:55:05', 'This post kicks ass, if I do say so myself. This kid was asked to imagine the perfect desk-chair of the future - what it would look like, and what it would do - and boy, does he ever. The chair turns into all kinds of utopian machinery. It flies, it helps you sleep, and it carries your books to school. Sentence structure is pretty easy and the language is solidly intermediate, with very little advanced vocab (one idiom, a couple of advanced words but not much). At six paragraphs, the text is a bit long, though. \r\n\r\nIn this text, you\'ll notice several uses of the character \"型\". 型 [pinyin]xing2[/pinyin] means \"type\", \"kind\", \"sort\". The character can be combined with other descriptive words, and in this text you\'ll see 新型 - \"New Type of...\" and 大型, meaning \"big type\" or \"large-scale\". \r\n\r\nHere\'s the
original. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n你想知道未来的桌椅是什么样子吗? 还是让我这个发明人来介绍一下吧!\r\n\r\n未来的桌椅是高科技材料制成的，大小、颜色、形状能随意变化。早晨去上学，就按第一个按钮，颜色可以变成绿色，象征新的一天朝气蓬勃，这个桌椅变成了新型自行车，那时候人们讲究环保，每个学生都骑这样的车去上学，不用别的能源，有太阳能和风就够了。如果遇见堵车的现象，自行车就会飞跃过去，保证准时到达学校。\r\n\r\n到了学校，请按第二个按钮，绿色自行车变成了蓝色电脑桌椅，开始上课学习，根本不用带书包呀、文具盒、教材什么的。一切学习任务都在电脑上完成。\r\n\r\n到了放学的时候，又变回自行车回到家。当然这时候的车速可以放慢，好好欣赏一下大自然的风光。回到家没有作业，这时请按第三个橘色按钮，自行车再变成大型游戏机，你就可以玩各种游戏了。当然，对眼睛没有害处。\r\n\r\n到了晚上，请按第四个按钮，游戏机变成了你喜欢颜色的折叠床，发出美妙的音乐，催你甜蜜地入眠。假如你感觉哪儿不舒服了，就从床头伸出几个按摩头给你按摩，让你安然入睡。\r\n\r\n怎么样，我发明的未来的桌椅你一定喜欢吧?欢迎你现在就来预订一套。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDo you want to know what chairs and tables will be like in the future? Well then let this inventor [author is referring to self] introduce you!\r\n\r\nChairs and tables in the future are manufactured from high-tech materials, and the size, color and shape can change according to your wishes. In the morning when you go to school, you just push the first button, and the color will change to green, symbolizing a new day full of youthful energy, and its shape will change into a new type of bicycle, since at that time [the future] people will all pay attention to the environment, and every student will ride this kind of bike to go to school, and no other power source will be needed, just solar and wind will be enough. If you run into traffic, this bike can leap over it, ensuring you\'ll arrive at school on time. \r\n\r\nOnce you get to school, please push the second button, and the green bike will turn into a blue computer desk and chair, and when you start to study, you don\'t even need to have your book bag, stationery box or other study materials. Everything you need [to accomplish studying] is all in the computer. \r\n\r\nWhen school gets out, it will again turn into a bike so you can return home. Of course at this time, the bike is also freed to go slowly, so that you can take a moment to appreciate the natural scenery. When you get home and you have no homework, press the third orange-colored button, and the bike will change into a large video game machine, and you can play all kinds of games. Of course, it will do no damage to your eyes. \r\n\r\nAt night, press the fourth button, and the video game machine will turn into a fold-out bed in any color you want, playing splendid music, that will encourage you to drift into sweet sleep. If you feel at all uncomfortable, a few massagers will extend from the head of the bed and give you a massage, to let you rest peacefully. \r\n\r\nWhat do you think? Surely you\'ll like my future desk chair. You\'re welcome to place an order for one now. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 未来的桌椅 - Desk-chairs of the Future', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1481-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:55:05', '2016-11-04 09:55:05', '', 1481, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1481-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1778, 1, '2016-10-31 04:14:34', '2016-10-31 08:14:34', 'This post kicks ass, if I do say so myself. This kid was asked to imagine the perfect desk-chair of the future - what it would look like, and what it would do - and boy, does he ever. The chair turns into all kinds of utopian machinery. It flies, it helps you sleep, and it carries your books to school. Sentence structure is pretty easy and the language is solidly intermediate, with very little advanced vocab (one idiom, a couple of advanced words but not much). At six paragraphs, the text is a bit long, though. \r\n\r\nIn this text, you\'ll notice several uses of the character \"型\". 型 [pinyin]xing2[/pinyin] means \"type\", \"kind\", \"sort\". The character can be combined with other descriptive words, and in this text you\'ll see 新型 - \"New Type of...\" and 大型, meaning \"big type\" or \"large-scale\". \r\n\r\nHere\'s the
original. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n你想知道未来的桌椅是什么样子吗? 还是让我这个发明人来介绍一下吧!\r\n\r\n未来的桌椅是高科技材料制成的，大小、颜色、形状能随意变化。早晨去上学，就按第一个按钮，颜色可以变成绿色，象征新的一天朝气蓬勃，这个桌椅变成了新型自行车，那时候人们讲究环保，每个学生都骑这样的车去上学，不用别的能源，有太阳能和风就够了。如果遇见堵车的现象，自行车就会飞跃过去，保证准时到达学校。\r\n\r\n到了学校，请按第二个按钮，绿色自行车变成了蓝色电脑桌椅，开始上课学习，根本不用带书包呀、文具盒、教材什么的。一切学习任务都在电脑上完成。\r\n\r\n到了放学的时候，又变回自行车回到家。当然这时候的车速可以放慢，好好欣赏一下大自然的风光。回到家没有作业，这时请按第三个橘色按钮，自行车再变成大型游戏机，你就可以玩各种游戏了。当然，对眼睛没有害处。\r\n\r\n到了晚上，请按第四个按钮，游戏机变成了你喜欢颜色的折叠床，发出美妙的音乐，催你甜蜜地入眠。假如你感觉哪儿不舒服了，就从床头伸出几个按摩头给你按摩，让你安然入睡。\r\n\r\n怎么样，我发明的未来的桌椅你一定喜欢吧?欢迎你现在就来预订一套。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDo you want to know what chairs and tables will be like in the future? Well then let this inventor [author is referring to self] introduce you!\r\n\r\nChairs and tables in the future are manufactured from high-tech materials, and the size, color and shape can change according to your wishes. In the morning when you go to school, you just push the first button, and the color will change to green, symbolizing a new day full of youthful energy, and its shape will change into a new type of bicycle, since at that time [the future] people will all pay attention to the environment, and every student will ride this kind of bike to go to school, and no other power source will be needed, just solar and wind will be enough. If you run into traffic, this bike can leap over it, ensuring you\'ll arrive at school on time. \r\n\r\nOnce you get to school, please push the second button, and the green bike will turn into a blue computer desk and chair, and when you start to study, you don\'t even need to have your book bag, stationery box or other study materials. Everything you need [to accomplish studying] is all in the computer. \r\n\r\nWhen school gets out, it will again turn into a bike so you can return home. Of course at this time, the bike is also freed to go slowly, so that you can take a moment to appreciate the natural scenery. When you get home and you have no homework, press the third orange-colored button, and the bike will change into a large video game machine, and you can play all kinds of games. Of course, it will do no damage to your eyes. \r\n\r\nAt night, press the fourth button, and the video game machine will turn into a fold-out bed in any color you want, playing splendid music, that will encourage you to drift into sweet sleep. If you feel at all uncomfortable, a few massagers will extend from the head of the bed and give you a massage, to let you rest peacefully. \r\n\r\nWhat do you think? Surely you\'ll like my future desk chair. You\'re welcome to place an order for one now. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essays] 未来的桌椅 - Desk-chairs of the Future', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1481-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 04:14:34', '2016-10-31 08:14:34', '', 1481, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1481-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1759, 1, '2016-10-31 03:45:51', '2016-10-31 07:45:51', 'This post kicks ass, if I do say so myself. This kid was asked to imagine the perfect desk-chair of the future - what it would look like, and what it would do - and boy, does he ever. The chair turns into all kinds of utopian machinery. It flies, it helps you sleep, and it carries your books to school. Sentence structure is pretty easy and the language is solidly intermediate, with very little advanced vocab (one idiom, a couple of advanced words but not much). At six paragraphs, the text is a bit long, though. \r\n\r\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/20140528-INLINE.jpg\")
In this text, you\'ll notice several uses of the character \"型\". 型 [pinyin]xing2[/pinyin] means \"type\", \"kind\", \"sort\". The character can be combined with other descriptive words, and in this text you\'ll see 新型 - \"New Type of...\" and 大型, meaning \"big type\" or \"large-scale\". \r\n\r\nHere\'s the
original. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n你想知道未来的桌椅是什么样子吗? 还是让我这个发明人来介绍一下吧!\r\n\r\n未来的桌椅是高科技材料制成的，大小、颜色、形状能随意变化。早晨去上学，就按第一个按钮，颜色可以变成绿色，象征新的一天朝气蓬勃，这个桌椅变成了新型自行车，那时候人们讲究环保，每个学生都骑这样的车去上学，不用别的能源，有太阳能和风就够了。如果遇见堵车的现象，自行车就会飞跃过去，保证准时到达学校。\r\n\r\n到了学校，请按第二个按钮，绿色自行车变成了蓝色电脑桌椅，开始上课学习，根本不用带书包呀、文具盒、教材什么的。一切学习任务都在电脑上完成。\r\n\r\n到了放学的时候，又变回自行车回到家。当然这时候的车速可以放慢，好好欣赏一下大自然的风光。回到家没有作业，这时请按第三个橘色按钮，自行车再变成大型游戏机，你就可以玩各种游戏了。当然，对眼睛没有害处。\r\n\r\n到了晚上，请按第四个按钮，游戏机变成了你喜欢颜色的折叠床，发出美妙的音乐，催你甜蜜地入眠。假如你感觉哪儿不舒服了，就从床头伸出几个按摩头给你按摩，让你安然入睡。\r\n\r\n怎么样，我发明的未来的桌椅你一定喜欢吧?欢迎你现在就来预订一套。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDo you want to know what chairs and tables will be like in the future? Well then let this inventor [author is referring to self] introduce you!\r\n\r\nChairs and tables in the future are manufactured from high-tech materials, and the size, color and shape can change according to your wishes. In the morning when you go to school, you just push the first button, and the color will change to green, symbolizing a new day full of youthful energy, and its shape will change into a new type of bicycle, since at that time [the future] people will all pay attention to the environment, and every student will ride this kind of bike to go to school, and no other power source will be needed, just solar and wind will be enough. If you run into traffic, this bike can leap over it, ensuring you\'ll arrive at school on time. \r\n\r\nOnce you get to school, please push the second button, and the green bike will turn into a blue computer desk and chair, and when you start to study, you don\'t even need to have your book bag, stationery box or other study materials. Everything you need [to accomplish studying] is all in the computer. \r\n\r\nWhen school gets out, it will again turn into a bike so you can return home. Of course at this time, the bike is also freed to go slowly, so that you can take a moment to appreciate the natural scenery. When you get home and you have no homework, press the third orange-colored button, and the bike will change into a large video game machine, and you can play all kinds of games. Of course, it will do no damage to your eyes. \r\n\r\nAt night, press the fourth button, and the video game machine will turn into a fold-out bed in any color you want, playing splendid music, that will encourage you to drift into sweet sleep. If you feel at all uncomfortable, a few massagers will extend from the head of the bed and give you a massage, to let you rest peacefully. \r\n\r\nWhat do you think? Surely you\'ll like my future desk chair. You\'re welcome to place an order for one now. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essays] 未来的桌椅 - Desk-chairs of the Future', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1481-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:45:51', '2016-10-31 07:45:51', '', 1481, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1481-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1482, 1, '2014-05-01 23:17:01', '2014-05-02 03:17:01', ' 你想知道未来的桌椅是什么样子吗?还是让我这个发明人来介绍一下吧!\n 未来的桌椅是高科技材料制成的，大小、颜色、形状能随意变化。早晨去上学，就按第一个按钮，颜色可以变成绿色，象征新的一天朝气蓬勃，这个桌椅变成了新型自行车，那时候人们讲究环保，每个学生都骑这样的车去上学，不用别的能源，有太阳能和风就够了。如果遇见堵车的现象，自行车就会飞跃过去，保证准时到达学校。\n 到了学校，请按第二个按钮，绿色自行车变成了蓝色电脑桌椅，开始上课学习，根本不用带书包呀、文具盒、教材什么的。一切学习任务都在电脑上完成。\n 到了放学的时候，又变回自行车回到家。当然这时候的车速可以放慢，好好欣赏一下大自然的风光。回到家没有作业，这时请按第三个橘色按钮，自行车再变成大型游戏机，你就可以玩各种游戏了。当然，对眼睛没有害处。\n 到了晚上，请按第四个按钮，游戏机变成了你喜欢颜色的折叠床，发出美妙的音乐，催你甜蜜地入眠。假如你感觉哪儿不舒服了，就从床头伸出几个按摩头给你按摩，让你安然入睡。\n 怎么样，我发明的未来的桌椅你一定喜欢吧?欢迎你现在就来预订一套。\n\nhttp://www.tom61.com/youxiuzuowen/xiaoxueyinianjizuowen/2014-04-02/1396399386256109.html', 'Chairs of the Future', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1481-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-05-01 23:17:01', '2014-05-02 03:17:01', '', 1481, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/01/1481-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1483, 1, '2014-05-07 00:08:31', '2014-05-07 04:08:31', 'Though this post is beginner-level, it\'s also very condensed. I\'d say you\'ll have to stop and remind yourself what something means every few words or so. \r\n\r\n
A few notes:
\r\n\r\n- There\'s a proper noun in here you probably won\'t find in the dictionary: 江东 is a place, [pinyin]jiang1 dong1[/pinyin], it\'s a district of Ningbo in Zhejiang Province (south China). So 江东公园 is \"JiangDong Park\". \r\n\r\n- 小朋友 [pinyin]xiao3 peng2 you5[/pinyin], literally \"Little Friend\", actually just means \"small children\", often used when one child is referring to a other children he or she doesn\'t know. \r\n\r\nSource:
http://www.zuowen.com/e/20120522/4fbb17e8c23c9.shtml\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n 前几天，我做了一件不光彩的事。说出来真难为情。晚上，我去江东公园玩，看到有几位小朋友在捉青蛙，我也赶忙捉青蛙，捉了青蛙就把它们带回家。在家里养了几天，青蛙渐渐瘦了下来，它们好像在对我说：“把我们放回大自然吧，我们一定会多捉害虫。”我听了感到真不好意思，晚上，就悄悄把它们放回了大自然。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the last few days, I did a not-so-illustrious thing. I\'m ashamed to say what it is. In the evening, I went to JiangDong Park to play, and I saw that there were a few other children catching frogs, so I also hurriedly started catching frogs, and after I caught them I brought them back to my house. I took care of them at my house for a few days, but the frogs gradually became thinner and thinner, as if they were saying to me: \"Put us back in nature, and we can catch more insects.\" I listened to this and was truly embarrassed so that night, I secretly put them back outside. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 抓青蛙 - Catching Frogs', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'catching-frogs', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:05:27', '2016-11-04 10:05:27', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1483', 0, 'post', '', 41),
(2037, 1, '2016-11-04 06:05:27', '2016-11-04 10:05:27', 'Though this post is beginner-level, it\'s also very condensed. I\'d say you\'ll have to stop and remind yourself what something means every few words or so. \r\n\r\n
A few notes:
\r\n\r\n- There\'s a proper noun in here you probably won\'t find in the dictionary: 江东 is a place, [pinyin]jiang1 dong1[/pinyin], it\'s a district of Ningbo in Zhejiang Province (south China). So 江东公园 is \"JiangDong Park\". \r\n\r\n- 小朋友 [pinyin]xiao3 peng2 you5[/pinyin], literally \"Little Friend\", actually just means \"small children\", often used when one child is referring to a other children he or she doesn\'t know. \r\n\r\nSource:
http://www.zuowen.com/e/20120522/4fbb17e8c23c9.shtml\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n 前几天，我做了一件不光彩的事。说出来真难为情。晚上，我去江东公园玩，看到有几位小朋友在捉青蛙，我也赶忙捉青蛙，捉了青蛙就把它们带回家。在家里养了几天，青蛙渐渐瘦了下来，它们好像在对我说：“把我们放回大自然吧，我们一定会多捉害虫。”我听了感到真不好意思，晚上，就悄悄把它们放回了大自然。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the last few days, I did a not-so-illustrious thing. I\'m ashamed to say what it is. In the evening, I went to JiangDong Park to play, and I saw that there were a few other children catching frogs, so I also hurriedly started catching frogs, and after I caught them I brought them back to my house. I took care of them at my house for a few days, but the frogs gradually became thinner and thinner, as if they were saying to me: \"Put us back in nature, and we can catch more insects.\" I listened to this and was truly embarrassed so that night, I secretly put them back outside. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 抓青蛙 - Catching Frogs', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1483-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:05:27', '2016-11-04 10:05:27', '', 1483, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1483-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1747, 1, '2016-10-31 03:36:36', '2016-10-31 07:36:36', 'Though this post is beginner-level, it\'s also very condensed. I\'d say you\'ll have to stop and remind yourself what something means every few words or so. \r\n\r\n
A few notes:
\r\n\r\n- There\'s a proper noun in here you probably won\'t find in the dictionary: 江东 is a place, [pinyin]jiang1 dong1[/pinyin], it\'s a district of Ningbo in Zhejiang Province (south China). So 江东公园 is \"JiangDong Park\". \r\n\r\n- 小朋友 [pinyin]xiao3 peng2 you5[/pinyin], literally \"Little Friend\", actually just means \"small children\", often used when one child is referring to a other children he or she doesn\'t know. \r\n\r\nSource:
http://www.zuowen.com/e/20120522/4fbb17e8c23c9.shtml\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n 前几天，我做了一件不光彩的事。说出来真难为情。晚上，我去江东公园玩，看到有几位小朋友在捉青蛙，我也赶忙捉青蛙，捉了青蛙就把它们带回家。在家里养了几天，青蛙渐渐瘦了下来，它们好像在对我说：“把我们放回大自然吧，我们一定会多捉害虫。”我听了感到真不好意思，晚上，就悄悄把它们放回了大自然。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the last few days, I did a not-so-illustrious thing, and I\'m ashamed to say it. In the evening, I went to JiangDong Park to play, and I saw that there were a few other children catching frogs, so I also hurriedly started catching frogs, and after I caught them I brought them back to my house. At my house I took care of them for a few days, but the frogs gradually became thinner and thinner, it\'s like they were saying to me: \"Put us back in nature, and we can catch more insects.\" I listened to this and was truly embarrassed0 so that night, I secretly put them back outside. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essay] Catching Frogs', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1483-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:36:36', '2016-10-31 07:36:36', '', 1483, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1483-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1490, 1, '2014-05-02 00:57:49', '2014-05-02 04:57:49', '', 'Beginning Chinese Reading: Mandarin Chinese Childrens Essays', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20140510', '', '', '2014-05-02 00:57:49', '2014-05-02 04:57:49', '', 1483, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/20140510.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1491, 1, '2014-05-02 00:57:51', '2014-05-02 04:57:51', '', 'Beginning Chinese Reading: Mandarin Chinese Childrens Essays', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20100510-inline', '', '', '2014-05-02 00:57:51', '2014-05-02 04:57:51', '', 1483, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/20100510-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1492, 1, '2014-05-02 00:54:41', '2014-05-02 04:54:41', '[two_third]\nThough this post is beginner-level, it\'s also very condensed. I\'d say you\'ll have to stop and remind yourself what something means every few words or so. \n\nA few notes: \n\n- There\'s a proper noun in here you probably won\'t find in the dictionary: 江东 is a place, [pinyin]jiang1 dong1[/pinyin], it\'s a district of Ningbo in Zhejiang Province (south China). So 江东公园 is \"JiangDong Park\". \n\n- 小朋友 [pinyin]xiao3 peng2 you5[/pinyin], literally \"Little Friend\", actually just means \"small children\", often used when one child is referring to a other children he or she doesn\'t know. \n\nSource:
http://www.zuowen.com/e/20120522/4fbb17e8c23c9.shtml\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n光彩 - [pinyin]guang1 cai3[/pinyin] - Illustrious\n难为情 - [pinyin]nan2 wei2 qing2[/pinyin] - Embarrassed\n捉 - [pinyin]zhuo1[/pinyin] - Capture\n青蛙 - [pinyin]qing1 wa1[/pinyin] - Frog\n渐渐- [pinyin]jian1 jian1[/pinyin] - Gradually\n大自然 - [pinyin]da4 zi4 ran2[/pinyin] - The great outdoors\n害虫- [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Insect\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 前几天，我做了一件不光彩的事。说出来真难为情。晚上，我去江东公园玩，看到有几位小朋友在捉青蛙，我也赶忙捉青蛙，捉了青蛙就把它们带回家。在家里养了几天，青蛙渐渐瘦了下来，它们好像在对我说：“把我们放回大自然吧，我们一定会多捉害虫。”我听了感到真不好意思，晚上，就悄悄把它们放回了大自然。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nIn the last few days, I did a not-so-illustrious thing, and I\'m ashamed to say it. In the evening, I went to JiangDong Park to play, and I saw that there were a few other children catching frogs, so I also hurriedly started catching frogs, and after I caught them I brought them back to my house. At my house I took care of them for a few days, but the frogs gradually became thinner and thinner, it\'s like they were saying to me: \"Put us back in nature, and we can catch more insects.\" I listened to this and was truly embarrassed0 so that night, I secretly put them back outside. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Catching Frogs', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1483-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-05-02 00:54:41', '2014-05-02 04:54:41', '', 1483, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/02/1483-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1484, 1, '2014-05-02 00:37:08', '2014-05-02 04:37:08', 'A quick and simple poem about morning dew. \r\n\r\nThis isn\'t a famous poem, just a little somethin-somethin\' from around the net. The author used a turn of phrase here which might be slightly confusing: 打湿. Most commonly, we know the word 打 [pinyin]da3[/pinyin] as \"to hit\" or \"to strike\". 湿 [pinyin]shi1[/pinyin] means \"wet\" or \"moist\". Put these two words together, and 打湿 means \"to get something wet\" or to moisten. \r\n\r\nThough the title of the poem is \"Dewdrops\" - 露珠 - you\'ll notice that the actual word is never mentioned in the poem. \r\n\r\nSource:
http://www.zuowen.com/e/20131223/52b840bf2572e.shtml\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n昨天夜里，\r\n谁从草地上走过？\r\n丢了那么多的珍珠。\r\n今天早上，\r\n谁在草丛中看着我？\r\n还打湿了我的衣裤。\r\n太阳升高了，\r\n谁收走了珍珠？\r\n留下了湿湿的气息，\r\n湿湿的泥土。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLast night,\r\nWho walked up from the meadow?\r\n[They] lost so many pearls.\r\nThis morning, \r\nWho was watching me from the underbrush? \r\n[They] made damp my trousers.\r\nThe sun is high,\r\nwho left with the pearls?\r\n[They] left behind them dewy breath,\r\nand wet soil.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Modern Chinese Poetry] 露珠 - Dewdrops', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'poem-dewdrops', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:06:36', '2016-11-04 10:06:36', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1484', 0, 'post', '', 13),
(1700, 1, '2016-10-31 02:32:36', '2016-10-31 06:32:36', 'A quick and simple poem about morning dew. \r\n\r\nThe author used a turn of phrase here which might be slightly confusing: 打湿. Most commonly, we know the word 打 [pinyin]da3[/pinyin] as \"to hit\" or \"to strike\". 湿 [pinyin]shi1[/pinyin] means \"wet\" or \"moist\". Put these two words together, and 打湿 means \"to get something wet\" or to moisten. \r\n\r\nThough the title of the poem is \"Dewdrops\" - 露珠 - you\'ll notice that the actual word is never mentioned in the poem. \r\n\r\nSource:
http://www.zuowen.com/e/20131223/52b840bf2572e.shtml\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n昨天夜里，\r\n谁从草地上走过？\r\n丢了那么多的珍珠。\r\n今天早上，\r\n谁在草丛中看着我？\r\n还打湿了我的衣裤。\r\n太阳升高了，\r\n谁收走了珍珠？\r\n留下了湿湿的气息，\r\n湿湿的泥土。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLast night,\r\nWho walked up from the meadow?\r\n[They] lost so many pearls.\r\nThis morning, \r\nWho was watching me from the underbrush? \r\n[They] made damp my trousers.\r\nThe sun is high,\r\nwho left with the pearls?\r\n[They] left behind them dewy breath,\r\nand wet soil.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Poem] 露珠 - Dewdrops', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1484-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:32:36', '2016-10-31 06:32:36', '', 1484, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1484-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1485, 1, '2014-05-02 00:34:52', '2014-05-02 04:34:52', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Beginner Chinese Reading Exercises', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20140502', '', '', '2014-05-02 00:34:52', '2014-05-02 04:34:52', '', 1484, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/20140502.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1486, 1, '2014-05-02 00:34:57', '2014-05-02 04:34:57', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Beginner Chinese Reading Exercises', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20140502-inline', '', '', '2014-05-02 00:34:57', '2014-05-02 04:34:57', '', 1484, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/20140502-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1487, 1, '2014-05-02 00:37:02', '2014-05-02 04:37:02', '[two_third]\nA quick and simple poem about morning dew. \n\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/20140502-INLINE.jpg\")
The author used a turn of phrase here which might be slightly confusing: 打湿. Most commonly, we know the word 打 [pinyin]da3[/pinyin] as \"to hit\" or \"to strike\". 湿 [pinyin]shi1[/pinyin] means \"wet\" or \"moist\". Put these two words together, and 打湿 means \"to get something wet\" or to moisten. \n\nThough the title of the poem is \"Dewdrops\" - 露珠 - you\'ll notice that the actual word is never mentioned in the poem. \n\nSource:
http://www.zuowen.com/e/20131223/52b840bf2572e.shtml\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n草地 - [pinyin]cao3 di4[/pinyin] - Meadow\n珍珠 - [pinyin]zhen1 zhu1[/pinyin] - Pearl\n草丛 - [pinyin]cao3 cong2[/pinyin] - Underbrush\n湿 - [pinyin]shi1[/pinyin] - Moist, wet\n泥土- [pinyin]ni2 tu3[/pinyin] - soil, earth\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n昨天夜里，\n谁从草地上走过？\n丢了那么多的珍珠。\n今天早上，\n谁在草丛中看着我？\n还打湿了我的衣裤。\n太阳升高了，\n谁收走了珍珠？\n留下了湿湿的气息，\n湿湿的泥土。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nLast night,\nWho walked up from the meadow?\n[They] lost so many pearls.\nThis morning, \nWho was watching me from the underbrush? \n[They] made damp my trousers.\nThe sun is high,\nwho left with the pearls?\n[They] left behind them dewy breath,\nand wet soil.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Poem: Dewdrops', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1484-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-05-02 00:37:02', '2014-05-02 04:37:02', '', 1484, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/02/1484-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1488, 1, '2016-10-31 02:32:43', '2016-10-31 06:32:43', 'A quick and simple poem about morning dew. \n\nThe author used a turn of phrase here which might be slightly confusing: 打湿. Most commonly, we know the word 打 [pinyin]da3[/pinyin] as \"to hit\" or \"to strike\". 湿 [pinyin]shi1[/pinyin] means \"wet\" or \"moist\". Put these two words together, and 打湿 means \"to get something wet\" or to moisten. \n\nThough the title of the poem is \"Dewdrops\" - 露珠 - you\'ll notice that the actual word is never mentioned in the poem. \n\nSource:
http://www.zuowen.com/e/20131223/52b840bf2572e.shtml\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n
Chinese text
\n昨天夜里，\n谁从草地上走过？\n丢了那么多的珍珠。\n今天早上，\n谁在草丛中看着我？\n还打湿了我的衣裤。\n太阳升高了，\n谁收走了珍珠？\n留下了湿湿的气息，\n湿湿的泥土。\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nLast night,\nWho walked up from the meadow?\n[They] lost so many pearls.\nThis morning, \nWho was watching me from the underbrush? \n[They] made damp my trousers.\nThe sun is high,\nwho left with the pearls?\n[They] left behind them dewy breath,\nand wet soil.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Poem] 露珠 - Dewdrops', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1484-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:32:43', '2016-10-31 06:32:43', '', 1484, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/02/1484-autosave/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1699, 1, '2016-10-31 02:30:24', '2016-10-31 06:30:24', '', 'practice-chinese-reading-beginner-poetry', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'practice-chinese-reading-beginner-poetry', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:32:14', '2016-10-31 06:32:14', '', 1484, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/practice-chinese-reading-beginner-poetry.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1489, 1, '2014-05-02 00:37:08', '2014-05-02 04:37:08', '[two_third]\r\nA quick and simple poem about morning dew. \r\n\r\n
The author used a turn of phrase here which might be slightly confusing: 打湿. Most commonly, we know the word 打 [pinyin]da3[/pinyin] as \"to hit\" or \"to strike\". 湿 [pinyin]shi1[/pinyin] means \"wet\" or \"moist\". Put these two words together, and 打湿 means \"to get something wet\" or to moisten. \r\n\r\nThough the title of the poem is \"Dewdrops\" - 露珠 - you\'ll notice that the actual word is never mentioned in the poem. \r\n\r\nSource:
http://www.zuowen.com/e/20131223/52b840bf2572e.shtml\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n草地 - [pinyin]cao3 di4[/pinyin] - Meadow\r\n珍珠 - [pinyin]zhen1 zhu1[/pinyin] - Pearl\r\n草丛 - [pinyin]cao3 cong2[/pinyin] - Underbrush\r\n湿 - [pinyin]shi1[/pinyin] - Moist, wet\r\n泥土- [pinyin]ni2 tu3[/pinyin] - soil, earth\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n昨天夜里，\r\n谁从草地上走过？\r\n丢了那么多的珍珠。\r\n今天早上，\r\n谁在草丛中看着我？\r\n还打湿了我的衣裤。\r\n太阳升高了，\r\n谁收走了珍珠？\r\n留下了湿湿的气息，\r\n湿湿的泥土。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLast night,\r\nWho walked up from the meadow?\r\n[They] lost so many pearls.\r\nThis morning, \r\nWho was watching me from the underbrush? \r\n[They] made damp my trousers.\r\nThe sun is high,\r\nwho left with the pearls?\r\n[They] left behind them dewy breath,\r\nand wet soil.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Poem: Dewdrops', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1484-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-05-02 00:37:08', '2014-05-02 04:37:08', '', 1484, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/02/1484-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1493, 1, '2016-11-04 06:03:35', '2016-11-04 10:03:35', 'Though this post is beginner-level, it\'s also very condensed. I\'d say you\'ll have to stop and remind yourself what something means every few words or so. \n\n
A few notes:
\n\n- There\'s a proper noun in here you probably won\'t find in the dictionary: 江东 is a place, [pinyin]jiang1 dong1[/pinyin], it\'s a district of Ningbo in Zhejiang Province (south China). So 江东公园 is \"JiangDong Park\". \n\n- 小朋友 [pinyin]xiao3 peng2 you5[/pinyin], literally \"Little Friend\", actually just means \"small children\", often used when one child is referring to a other children he or she doesn\'t know. \n\nSource:
http://www.zuowen.com/e/20120522/4fbb17e8c23c9.shtml\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 前几天，我做了一件不光彩的事。说出来真难为情。晚上，我去江东公园玩，看到有几位小朋友在捉青蛙，我也赶忙捉青蛙，捉了青蛙就把它们带回家。在家里养了几天，青蛙渐渐瘦了下来，它们好像在对我说：“把我们放回大自然吧，我们一定会多捉害虫。”我听了感到真不好意思，晚上，就悄悄把它们放回了大自然。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nIn the last few days, I did a not-so-illustrious thing. I\'m ashamed to say what it is. In the evening, I went to JiangDong Park to play, and I saw that there were a few other children catching frogs, so I also hurriedly started catching frogs, and after I caught them I brought them back to my house. I took care of them at my house for a few days, but the frogs gradually became thinner and thinner, as if they were saying to me: \"Put us back in nature, and we can catch more insects.\" I listened to this and was truly embarrassed so that night, I secretly put them back outside. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 抓青蛙 - Catching Frogs', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1483-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:03:35', '2016-11-04 10:03:35', '', 1483, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/02/1483-autosave/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2036, 1, '2016-11-04 06:04:57', '2016-11-04 10:04:57', '', 'Beginning Chinese Reading: Learning Chinese Characters', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'learn-to-read-simplified-mandarin-chinese-catching-frogs', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:05:17', '2016-11-04 10:05:17', '', 1483, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/learn-to-read-simplified-mandarin-chinese-catching-frogs.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1494, 1, '2014-05-02 01:00:39', '2014-05-02 05:00:39', '[two_third]\r\nThough this post is beginner-level, it\'s also very condensed. I\'d say you\'ll have to stop and remind yourself what something means every few words or so. \r\n\r\n
![\"Learning](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/20100510-INLINE.jpg\")
A few notes: \r\n\r\n- There\'s a proper noun in here you probably won\'t find in the dictionary: 江东 is a place, [pinyin]jiang1 dong1[/pinyin], it\'s a district of Ningbo in Zhejiang Province (south China). So 江东公园 is \"JiangDong Park\". \r\n\r\n- 小朋友 [pinyin]xiao3 peng2 you5[/pinyin], literally \"Little Friend\", actually just means \"small children\", often used when one child is referring to a other children he or she doesn\'t know. \r\n\r\nSource:
http://www.zuowen.com/e/20120522/4fbb17e8c23c9.shtml\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n光彩 - [pinyin]guang1 cai3[/pinyin] - Illustrious\r\n难为情 - [pinyin]nan2 wei2 qing2[/pinyin] - Embarrassed\r\n捉 - [pinyin]zhuo1[/pinyin] - Capture\r\n青蛙 - [pinyin]qing1 wa1[/pinyin] - Frog\r\n渐渐- [pinyin]jian1 jian1[/pinyin] - Gradually\r\n大自然 - [pinyin]da4 zi4 ran2[/pinyin] - The great outdoors\r\n害虫- [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Insect\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n 前几天，我做了一件不光彩的事。说出来真难为情。晚上，我去江东公园玩，看到有几位小朋友在捉青蛙，我也赶忙捉青蛙，捉了青蛙就把它们带回家。在家里养了几天，青蛙渐渐瘦了下来，它们好像在对我说：“把我们放回大自然吧，我们一定会多捉害虫。”我听了感到真不好意思，晚上，就悄悄把它们放回了大自然。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the last few days, I did a not-so-illustrious thing, and I\'m ashamed to say it. In the evening, I went to JiangDong Park to play, and I saw that there were a few other children catching frogs, so I also hurriedly started catching frogs, and after I caught them I brought them back to my house. At my house I took care of them for a few days, but the frogs gradually became thinner and thinner, it\'s like they were saying to me: \"Put us back in nature, and we can catch more insects.\" I listened to this and was truly embarrassed0 so that night, I secretly put them back outside. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Catching Frogs', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1483-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-05-02 01:00:39', '2014-05-02 05:00:39', '', 1483, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/02/1483-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1495, 1, '2014-05-07 23:07:36', '2014-05-08 03:07:36', '[two_third]\r\nThough this post is beginner-level, it\'s also very condensed. I\'d say you\'ll have to stop and remind yourself what something means every few words or so. \r\n\r\n
A few notes: \r\n\r\n- There\'s a proper noun in here you probably won\'t find in the dictionary: 江东 is a place, [pinyin]jiang1 dong1[/pinyin], it\'s a district of Ningbo in Zhejiang Province (south China). So 江东公园 is \"JiangDong Park\". \r\n\r\n- 小朋友 [pinyin]xiao3 peng2 you5[/pinyin], literally \"Little Friend\", actually just means \"small children\", often used when one child is referring to a other children he or she doesn\'t know. \r\n\r\nSource:
http://www.zuowen.com/e/20120522/4fbb17e8c23c9.shtml\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n光彩 - [pinyin]guang1 cai3[/pinyin] - Illustrious\r\n难为情 - [pinyin]nan2 wei2 qing2[/pinyin] - Embarrassed\r\n捉 - [pinyin]zhuo1[/pinyin] - Capture\r\n青蛙 - [pinyin]qing1 wa1[/pinyin] - Frog\r\n渐渐- [pinyin]jian1 jian1[/pinyin] - Gradually\r\n大自然 - [pinyin]da4 zi4 ran2[/pinyin] - The great outdoors\r\n害虫- [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Insect\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n 前几天，我做了一件不光彩的事。说出来真难为情。晚上，我去江东公园玩，看到有几位小朋友在捉青蛙，我也赶忙捉青蛙，捉了青蛙就把它们带回家。在家里养了几天，青蛙渐渐瘦了下来，它们好像在对我说：“把我们放回大自然吧，我们一定会多捉害虫。”我听了感到真不好意思，晚上，就悄悄把它们放回了大自然。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the last few days, I did a not-so-illustrious thing, and I\'m ashamed to say it. In the evening, I went to JiangDong Park to play, and I saw that there were a few other children catching frogs, so I also hurriedly started catching frogs, and after I caught them I brought them back to my house. At my house I took care of them for a few days, but the frogs gradually became thinner and thinner, it\'s like they were saying to me: \"Put us back in nature, and we can catch more insects.\" I listened to this and was truly embarrassed0 so that night, I secretly put them back outside. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Catching Frogs', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1483-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-05-07 23:07:36', '2014-05-08 03:07:36', '', 1483, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/07/1483-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1496, 1, '2014-05-07 23:08:06', '2014-05-08 03:08:06', '[two_third]\r\nThough this post is beginner-level, it\'s also very condensed. I\'d say you\'ll have to stop and remind yourself what something means every few words or so. \r\n\r\n
A few notes: \r\n\r\n- There\'s a proper noun in here you probably won\'t find in the dictionary: 江东 is a place, [pinyin]jiang1 dong1[/pinyin], it\'s a district of Ningbo in Zhejiang Province (south China). So 江东公园 is \"JiangDong Park\". \r\n\r\n- 小朋友 [pinyin]xiao3 peng2 you5[/pinyin], literally \"Little Friend\", actually just means \"small children\", often used when one child is referring to a other children he or she doesn\'t know. \r\n\r\nSource:
http://www.zuowen.com/e/20120522/4fbb17e8c23c9.shtml\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n光彩 - [pinyin]guang1 cai3[/pinyin] - Illustrious\r\n难为情 - [pinyin]nan2 wei2 qing2[/pinyin] - Embarrassed\r\n捉 - [pinyin]zhuo1[/pinyin] - Capture\r\n青蛙 - [pinyin]qing1 wa1[/pinyin] - Frog\r\n渐渐- [pinyin]jian1 jian1[/pinyin] - Gradually\r\n大自然 - [pinyin]da4 zi4 ran2[/pinyin] - The great outdoors\r\n害虫- [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Insect\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n 前几天，我做了一件不光彩的事。说出来真难为情。晚上，我去江东公园玩，看到有几位小朋友在捉青蛙，我也赶忙捉青蛙，捉了青蛙就把它们带回家。在家里养了几天，青蛙渐渐瘦了下来，它们好像在对我说：“把我们放回大自然吧，我们一定会多捉害虫。”我听了感到真不好意思，晚上，就悄悄把它们放回了大自然。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the last few days, I did a not-so-illustrious thing, and I\'m ashamed to say it. In the evening, I went to JiangDong Park to play, and I saw that there were a few other children catching frogs, so I also hurriedly started catching frogs, and after I caught them I brought them back to my house. At my house I took care of them for a few days, but the frogs gradually became thinner and thinner, it\'s like they were saying to me: \"Put us back in nature, and we can catch more insects.\" I listened to this and was truly embarrassed0 so that night, I secretly put them back outside. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Catching Frogs', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1483-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-05-07 23:08:06', '2014-05-08 03:08:06', '', 1483, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/07/1483-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1498, 1, '2014-05-07 23:35:01', '2014-05-08 03:35:01', '\r\n\r\n\r\n[two_third]\r\nintro \r\nhttp://www.tom61.com/shiwangeweishime/youqudezhiwu/2012-01-30/25368.html\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n野餐 - [pinyin]ye3 can1[/pinyin] - Picnic\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n 辣椒的品种有很多，但不论哪一个品种，在未成熟前都是青绿色的，那是因为含有叶绿素的缘故。到了成熟期，叶绿素被破坏，辣椒中含有的黄色素和叶红素就相应增多，于是变成黄色和红色。而有的辣椒品种是在青绿色时味道更好，因而在未成熟前就上市了。所以，我们可看到各种颜色的辣椒。 \r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n 辣椒的品种有很多，但不论哪一个品种，在未成熟前都是青绿色的，那是因为含有叶绿素的缘故。到了成熟期，叶绿素被破坏，辣椒中含有的黄色素和叶红素就相应增多，于是变成黄色和红色。而有的辣椒品种是在青绿色时味道更好，因而在未成熟前就上市了。所以，我们可看到各种颜色的辣椒。 \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Why are some peppers different colors?', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1480-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-05-07 23:35:01', '2014-05-08 03:35:01', '', 1480, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/07/1480-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1500, 1, '2014-05-08 19:42:46', '2014-05-08 23:42:46', '[two_third]\nintro \nhttp://www.tom61.com/shiwangeweishime/youqudezhiwu/2012-01-30/25368.html\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n辣椒 - [pinyin]ye3 can1[/pinyin] - Picnic\n未成熟\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 辣椒的品种有很多，但不论哪一个品种，在未成熟前都是青绿色的，那是因为含有叶绿素的缘故。到了成熟期，叶绿素被破坏，辣椒中含有的黄色素和叶红素就相应增多，于是变成黄色和红色。而有的辣椒品种是在青绿色时味道更好，因而在未成熟前就上市了。所以，我们可看到各种颜色的辣椒。 \n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThere are many types of peppers, but all types of pepper are green in color before they ripen, which is because they contain chlorophyll. When it finally comes time for them to ripen, the chlorophyll breaks down, and the yellow and red pigments in the peppers increase accordingly, so they become yellow and red. In addition, some types of peppers taste better when they\'re still green, so they are brought to market before they ripen. That\'s why we see so many different colors of peppers. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Why are some peppers different colors?', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1480-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-05-08 19:42:46', '2014-05-08 23:42:46', '', 1480, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/08/1480-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1499, 1, '2014-05-08 19:30:16', '2014-05-08 23:30:16', '\n[two_third]\nintro \nhttp://www.tom61.com/shiwangeweishime/youqudezhiwu/2012-01-30/25368.html\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n野餐 - [pinyin]ye3 can1[/pinyin] - Picnic\n\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 辣椒的品种有很多，但不论哪一个品种，在未成熟前都是青绿色的，那是因为含有叶绿素的缘故。到了成熟期，叶绿素被破坏，辣椒中含有的黄色素和叶红素就相应增多，于是变成黄色和红色。而有的辣椒品种是在青绿色时味道更好，因而在未成熟前就上市了。所以，我们可看到各种颜色的辣椒。 \n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThere are many types of peppers, but all types of pepper are green in color before they ripen, which is because they contain chlorophyll. When it finally comes time for them to ripen, the chlorophyll breaks down, and the yellow and red pigments in the peppers increase accordingly, so they become yellow and red. In addition, some types of peppers taste better when they\'re still green, so they are brought to market before they ripen. Therefore, we can see 辣椒的品种有很多，但不论哪一个品种，在未成熟前都是青绿色的，那是因为含有叶绿素的缘故。到了成熟期，叶绿素被破坏，辣椒中含有的黄色素和叶红素就相应增多，于是变成黄色和红色。而有的辣椒品种是在青绿色时味道更好，因而在未成熟前就上市了。所以，我们可看到各种颜色的辣椒。 \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Why are some peppers different colors?', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1480-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-05-08 19:30:16', '2014-05-08 23:30:16', '', 1480, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/08/1480-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1497, 1, '2014-05-07 23:34:32', '2014-05-08 03:34:32', '\n\n\n[two_third]\nI love it when I find a longer story that\'s suitable for beginning readers. This one, which is either a tale that reminds us what happens when you try to be something you\'re not, or a tale that reminds us that men should never be allowed to give each other fashion advice, definitely fits the bill. \n\n
The first sentence isn\'t super simple, so push through that one if you can, it gets much easier in the following paragraphs. Four points of grammar: \n\n能有幸请 [pinyin]neng2 you3 xing4 qing3[/pinyin] - A politely formal phrase of invitation \"May have the pleasure of inviting you ...\" or more specifically, \"May I be so lucky as to...\" (have this dance?) (take you on a date?). \n\n看上去 [pinyin]kan4 shang4 qu4[/pinyin] - To look like. \n\n你要是再不走开 [pinyin]ni3 yao4 shi4 zai4 bu4 zou3 kai1[/pinyin] - This one might be a little confusing. Let\'s break it down: \n\n你 - You\n要是 - If\n再不 - Otherwise / If not\n走开 - Go away\n\nThe full phrase means \"If you don\'t go away....\"\n\n他会来收拾你的 [pinyin]ta1 hui4 lai2 shou1 shi5 ni3 de5[/pinyin]. In the story, Miss Pig says this to an unwelcome guest. The \"他\" in this case is Mr. Pig. The Beginners often learn the word \"收拾\", meaning \"to tidy up\". Usually, this means exactly what it sounds like, and applies to cleaning up a room or an apartment. In this case, it\'s being used in kind of an action movie way, meaning \"He\'ll come over and
deal with you!\" or \"He\'ll come
straighten you out!\". So Miss Pig is threatening the unwelcome guest, telling him that Mr. Pig will come over and beat him up. \n\nThe Chinese title is 猪先生去野餐\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n野餐 - [pinyin]ye3 can1[/pinyin] - Picnic\n期待 - [pinyin]qi1 dai4[/pinyin] - To look forward to\n打动 - [pinyin]da3 dong4[/pinyin] - To move someone(emotionally)\n遇到 - [pinyin]yu4 dao4[/pinyin] - To run into\n借 - [pinyin]jie4[/pinyin] - Lend, borrow\n接着 - [pinyin]jie1 zhe5[/pinyin] - Continuing on\n威猛 - [pinyin]wei1 meng3[/pinyin] - Bold and powerful\n英俊 - [pinyin]ying1 jun4[/pinyin] - Handsome\n激动 - [pinyin]ji1 dong4[/pinyin] - Excite, agitate\n妖怪 - [pinyin]yao1 guai4[/pinyin] - Monster, devil\n丑八怪 - [pinyin]chou3 ba1 guai4[/pinyin] - Ugly person\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 辣椒的品种有很多，但不论哪一个品种，在未成熟前都是青绿色的，那是因为含有叶绿素的缘故。到了成熟期，叶绿素被破坏，辣椒中含有的黄色素和叶红素就相应增多，于是变成黄色和红色。而有的辣椒品种是在青绿色时味道更好，因而在未成熟前就上市了。所以，我们可看到各种颜色的辣椒。 \n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nToday, it\'s a great day for a picnic. Mr. Pig dressed himself with care, looking forward to [the possibility of] Miss Pig and himself going on a picnic together.\n\n\"Heh, I hope she says \'Yes\' [lit: I\'m willing]. Hm, I\'ll also pick some flowers to give her, that will certainly be enough to sway her!\"\n\nOn the road, Mr. Pig ran into his friend Fox. When fox heard about the picnic, he said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, let me lend you my beautiful tail. See, you look so clever, Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. \n\nContinuing on, he ran into his friend Lion. Lion heard about the picnic and said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, borrow my beautiful hair for when you go over there. See, you look so powerful, Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. \n\nAfter a while, he ran into his friend Zebra. Zebra heard about the picnic and said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, I\'ll lend you my beautiful stripes. See, you look so handsome. Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. He felt that he\'d never before looked so handsome.\n\nFinally arriving at Miss Pig\'s house, Mr. Pig excitedly knocked on the door. \"Would you do me the honor of going on a picnic with me?\" he asked. \n\nMiss Pig was terrified: \"Oh, no way! What kind of monster are you? If you don\'t go away, I\'ll go get Mr. Pig, he\'ll straighten you out!\"\n\nMr. Pig hurriedly ran away. On the road, he gave the stripes back to Zebra, the hair back to Lion, and the tail back to Fox. AFter that, he hurried back to Miss Pig\'s house, and again pressed the doorbell. \n\n\"Would you do me the honor of having a picnic with me?\" he asked again. \n\n\"Goodness, Mr. Pig!\" Miss Pig cried out. \"I\'m so happy to see you, I\'d love to go on a picnic with you. An ugly wretch just came by here, standing in my garden, and scared me so.\" \n\nOn the way, Miss Pig told Mr. Pig the story of the \'ugly wretch\' in great detail. Her handsome friend Mr. Pig, though, listened with great sympathy. It really was a great day for a picnic.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Why are some peppers different colors?', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1480-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-05-07 23:34:32', '2014-05-08 03:34:32', '', 1480, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/07/1480-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1501, 1, '2014-05-08 19:44:41', '2014-05-08 23:44:41', '[two_third]\nScience! A quick para. Though the sentence structure here isn\'t too bad and the article is very short, I\'m classifying this as \'advanced\' since several of the words are quite s\nhttp://www.tom61.com/shiwangeweishime/youqudezhiwu/2012-01-30/25368.html\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n辣椒 - [pinyin]ye3 can1[/pinyin] - Picnic\n未成熟\n叶绿素\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 辣椒的品种有很多，但不论哪一个品种，在未成熟前都是青绿色的，那是因为含有叶绿素的缘故。到了成熟期，叶绿素被破坏，辣椒中含有的黄色素和叶红素就相应增多，于是变成黄色和红色。而有的辣椒品种是在青绿色时味道更好，因而在未成熟前就上市了。所以，我们可看到各种颜色的辣椒。 \n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThere are many types of peppers, but all types of pepper are green in color before they ripen, which is because they contain chlorophyll. When it finally comes time for them to ripen, the chlorophyll breaks down, and the yellow and red pigments in the peppers increase accordingly, so they become yellow and red. In addition, some types of peppers taste better when they\'re still green, so they are brought to market before they ripen. That\'s why we see so many different colors of peppers. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Why are some peppers different colors?', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1480-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-05-08 19:44:41', '2014-05-08 23:44:41', '', 1480, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/08/1480-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1503, 1, '2014-05-28 04:49:35', '2014-05-28 08:49:35', '\n\nhttp://www.tom61.com/youxiuzuowen/xiaoxueyinianjizuowen/2014-04-02/1396399386256109.html\n\n\n[two_third]\nThis post kicks ass, if I do say so myself. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n光彩 - [pinyin]guang1 cai3[/pinyin] - Illustrious\n难为情 - [pinyin]nan2 wei2 qing2[/pinyin] - Embarrassed\n捉 - [pinyin]zhuo1[/pinyin] - Capture\n青蛙 - [pinyin]qing1 wa1[/pinyin] - Frog\n渐渐- [pinyin]jian1 jian1[/pinyin] - Gradually\n大自然 - [pinyin]da4 zi4 ran2[/pinyin] - The great outdoors\n害虫- [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Insect\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 你想知道未来的桌椅是什么样子吗?还是让我这个发明人来介绍一下吧!\n 未来的桌椅是高科技材料制成的，大小、颜色、形状能随意变化。早晨去上学，就按第一个按钮，颜色可以变成绿色，象征新的一天朝气蓬勃，这个桌椅变成了新型自行车，那时候人们讲究环保，每个学生都骑这样的车去上学，不用别的能源，有太阳能和风就够了。如果遇见堵车的现象，自行车就会飞跃过去，保证准时到达学校。\n 到了学校，请按第二个按钮，绿色自行车变成了蓝色电脑桌椅，开始上课学习，根本不用带书包呀、文具盒、教材什么的。一切学习任务都在电脑上完成。\n 到了放学的时候，又变回自行车回到家。当然这时候的车速可以放慢，好好欣赏一下大自然的风光。回到家没有作业，这时请按第三个橘色按钮，自行车再变成大型游戏机，你就可以玩各种游戏了。当然，对眼睛没有害处。\n 到了晚上，请按第四个按钮，游戏机变成了你喜欢颜色的折叠床，发出美妙的音乐，催你甜蜜地入眠。假如你感觉哪儿不舒服了，就从床头伸出几个按摩头给你按摩，让你安然入睡。\n 怎么样，我发明的未来的桌椅你一定喜欢吧?欢迎你现在就来预订一套。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDo you want to know what chairs and tables will be like in the future? Well then let this inventor [author is referring to self] introduce you!\n\nChairs and tables in the future are made from hig 未来的桌椅是高科技材料制成的，大小、颜色、形状能随意变化。早晨去上学，就按第一个按钮，颜色可以变成绿色，象征新的一天朝气蓬勃，这个桌椅变成了新型自行车，那时候人们讲究环保，每个学生都骑这样的车去上学，不用别的能源，有太阳能和风就够了。如果遇见堵车的现象，自行车就会飞跃过去，保证准时到达学校。\n 到了学校，请按第二个按钮，绿色自行车变成了蓝色电脑桌椅，开始上课学习，根本不用带书包呀、文具盒、教材什么的。一切学习任务都在电脑上完成。\n 到了放学的时候，又变回自行车回到家。当然这时候的车速可以放慢，好好欣赏一下大自然的风光。回到家没有作业，这时请按第三个橘色按钮，自行车再变成大型游戏机，你就可以玩各种游戏了。当然，对眼睛没有害处。\n 到了晚上，请按第四个按钮，游戏机变成了你喜欢颜色的折叠床，发出美妙的音乐，催你甜蜜地入眠。假如你感觉哪儿不舒服了，就从床头伸出几个按摩头给你按摩，让你安然入睡。\n 怎么样，我发明的未来的桌椅你一定喜欢吧?欢迎你现在就来预订一套。\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Chairs of the Future', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1481-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-05-28 04:49:35', '2014-05-28 08:49:35', '', 1481, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/28/1481-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1504, 1, '2014-05-28 05:21:28', '2014-05-28 09:21:28', '[two_third]\nThis post kicks ass, if I do say so myself. This kid was asked to imagine the perfect desk-chair of the future - what it would look like, and what it would do - and boy, does he ever. The chair turns into all kinds of utopian machinery, flies, and . Sentence structure is pretty easy and the language is solidly intermediate, with very little advanced vocab (one idiom, a couple of advanced words but not much). At 5 paragraphs, the text is a bit long, though. \n\nHere\'s the
original. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n光彩 - [pinyin]guang1 cai3[/pinyin] - Illustrious\n难为情 - [pinyin]nan2 wei2 qing2[/pinyin] - Embarrassed\n捉 - [pinyin]zhuo1[/pinyin] - Capture\n青蛙 - [pinyin]qing1 wa1[/pinyin] - Frog\n渐渐- [pinyin]jian1 jian1[/pinyin] - Gradually\n大自然 - [pinyin]da4 zi4 ran2[/pinyin] - The great outdoors\n害虫- [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Insect\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 你想知道未来的桌椅是什么样子吗?还是让我这个发明人来介绍一下吧!\n 未来的桌椅是高科技材料制成的，大小、颜色、形状能随意变化。早晨去上学，就按第一个按钮，颜色可以变成绿色，象征新的一天朝气蓬勃，这个桌椅变成了新型自行车，那时候人们讲究环保，每个学生都骑这样的车去上学，不用别的能源，有太阳能和风就够了。如果遇见堵车的现象，自行车就会飞跃过去，保证准时到达学校。\n 到了学校，请按第二个按钮，绿色自行车变成了蓝色电脑桌椅，开始上课学习，根本不用带书包呀、文具盒、教材什么的。一切学习任务都在电脑上完成。\n 到了放学的时候，又变回自行车回到家。当然这时候的车速可以放慢，好好欣赏一下大自然的风光。回到家没有作业，这时请按第三个橘色按钮，自行车再变成大型游戏机，你就可以玩各种游戏了。当然，对眼睛没有害处。\n 到了晚上，请按第四个按钮，游戏机变成了你喜欢颜色的折叠床，发出美妙的音乐，催你甜蜜地入眠。假如你感觉哪儿不舒服了，就从床头伸出几个按摩头给你按摩，让你安然入睡。\n 怎么样，我发明的未来的桌椅你一定喜欢吧?欢迎你现在就来预订一套。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDo you want to know what chairs and tables will be like in the future? Well then let this inventor [author is referring to self] introduce you!\n\nChairs and tables in the future are manufactured from high-tech materials, and the size, color and shape can change according to your wishes. In the morning when you go to school, you just push the first button, and the color will change to green, symbolizing a new day full of youthful energy, and its shape will change into a new type of bicycle, since at that time [the future] people will all pay attention to the environment, and every student will ride this kind of bike to go to school, and no other power source will be needed, just solar and wind will be enough. If you run into traffic, this bike can leap over it, ensuring you\'ll arrive at school on time. \n\nOnce you get to school, please push the second button, and the green bike will turn into a blue computer desk and chair, and when you start to study, you don\'t even need to have your book bag, stationery or other study materials. Everything you need [to accomplish studying] is all in the computer. \n\nWhen school gets out, it will again turn into a bike so you can return home. Of course at this time, the bike can also go slowly, so that you can take a moment to appreciate the natural scenery. When you get home and you have no homework, press the third orange-colored button, and the bike will change into a large video game machine. Of course, it will do no damage to your eyes. \n\nAt night, press the fourth button, and the video game machine will turn into a fold-out bed in any color you want, playing splendid music, that will encourage you to drift into sweet sleep. If you feel at all uncomfortable, a few massagers will extend from the head of the bed and give you a massage, to let you rest peacefully. \n\nWhat do you think? Surely you\'ll like my future desk chair. I welcome you to place an order for one now. \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Chairs of the Future', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1481-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-05-28 05:21:28', '2014-05-28 09:21:28', '', 1481, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/28/1481-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1505, 1, '2014-05-28 05:32:15', '2014-05-28 09:32:15', '[two_third]\nThis post kicks ass, if I do say so myself. This kid was asked to imagine the perfect desk-chair of the future - what it would look like, and what it would do - and boy, does he ever. The chair turns into all kinds of utopian machinery. It flies, it helps you sleep, and it carries your books to school. Sentence structure is pretty easy and the language is solidly intermediate, with very little advanced vocab (one idiom, a couple of advanced words but not much). At six paragraphs, the text is a bit long, though. \n\nIn this text, you\'ll notice several uses of the character \"型\". 型 [pinyin]xing2[/pinyin] means \"type\", \"kind\", \"sort\". The character can be combined with other descriptive words, and in this text you\'ll see 新型 - \"New Type of...\" and 大型, meaning \"big type\" or \"large-scale\". \n\nHere\'s the
original. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n未来 - [pinyin]guang1 cai3[/pinyin] - Illustrious\n发明人 - [pinyin]nan2 wei2 qing2[/pinyin] - Embarrassed\n高科技 - [pinyin]zhuo1[/pinyin] - Capture\n变化 - [pinyin]qing1 wa1[/pinyin] - Frog\n按钮 - [pinyin]jian1 jian1[/pinyin] - Gradually\n朝气蓬勃 - [pinyin]da4 zi4 ran2[/pinyin] - The great outdoors\n能源 - [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Insect\n文具盒 - [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Insect\n游戏机 - [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Insect\n叠床 - [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Insect\n能源 - [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Insect\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n你想知道未来的桌椅是什么样子吗? 还是让我这个发明人来介绍一下吧!\n\n未来的桌椅是高科技材料制成的，大小、颜色、形状能随意变化。早晨去上学，就按第一个按钮，颜色可以变成绿色，象征新的一天朝气蓬勃，这个桌椅变成了新型自行车，那时候人们讲究环保，每个学生都骑这样的车去上学，不用别的能源，有太阳能和风就够了。如果遇见堵车的现象，自行车就会飞跃过去，保证准时到达学校。\n\n到了学校，请按第二个按钮，绿色自行车变成了蓝色电脑桌椅，开始上课学习，根本不用带书包呀、文具盒、教材什么的。一切学习任务都在电脑上完成。\n\n到了放学的时候，又变回自行车回到家。当然这时候的车速可以放慢，好好欣赏一下大自然的风光。回到家没有作业，这时请按第三个橘色按钮，自行车再变成大型游戏机，你就可以玩各种游戏了。当然，对眼睛没有害处。\n\n到了晚上，请按第四个按钮，游戏机变成了你喜欢颜色的折叠床，发出美妙的音乐，催你甜蜜地入眠。假如你感觉哪儿不舒服了，就从床头伸出几个按摩头给你按摩，让你安然入睡。\n\n怎么样，我发明的未来的桌椅你一定喜欢吧?欢迎你现在就来预订一套。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDo you want to know what chairs and tables will be like in the future? Well then let this inventor [author is referring to self] introduce you!\n\nChairs and tables in the future are manufactured from high-tech materials, and the size, color and shape can change according to your wishes. In the morning when you go to school, you just push the first button, and the color will change to green, symbolizing a new day full of youthful energy, and its shape will change into a new type of bicycle, since at that time [the future] people will all pay attention to the environment, and every student will ride this kind of bike to go to school, and no other power source will be needed, just solar and wind will be enough. If you run into traffic, this bike can leap over it, ensuring you\'ll arrive at school on time. \n\nOnce you get to school, please push the second button, and the green bike will turn into a blue computer desk and chair, and when you start to study, you don\'t even need to have your book bag, stationery box or other study materials. Everything you need [to accomplish studying] is all in the computer. \n\nWhen school gets out, it will again turn into a bike so you can return home. Of course at this time, the bike is also freed to go slowly, so that you can take a moment to appreciate the natural scenery. When you get home and you have no homework, press the third orange-colored button, and the bike will change into a large video game machine, and you can play all kinds of games. Of course, it will do no damage to your eyes. \n\nAt night, press the fourth button, and the video game machine will turn into a fold-out bed in any color you want, playing splendid music, that will encourage you to drift into sweet sleep. If you feel at all uncomfortable, a few massagers will extend from the head of the bed and give you a massage, to let you rest peacefully. \n\nWhat do you think? Surely you\'ll like my future desk chair. I welcome you to place an order for one now. \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Desk-chairs of the Future', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1481-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-05-28 05:32:15', '2014-05-28 09:32:15', '', 1481, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/28/1481-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1506, 1, '2014-05-28 05:35:24', '2014-05-28 09:35:24', '[two_third]\nThis post kicks ass, if I do say so myself. This kid was asked to imagine the perfect desk-chair of the future - what it would look like, and what it would do - and boy, does he ever. The chair turns into all kinds of utopian machinery. It flies, it helps you sleep, and it carries your books to school. Sentence structure is pretty easy and the language is solidly intermediate, with very little advanced vocab (one idiom, a couple of advanced words but not much). At six paragraphs, the text is a bit long, though. \n\nIn this text, you\'ll notice several uses of the character \"型\". 型 [pinyin]xing2[/pinyin] means \"type\", \"kind\", \"sort\". The character can be combined with other descriptive words, and in this text you\'ll see 新型 - \"New Type of...\" and 大型, meaning \"big type\" or \"large-scale\". \n\nHere\'s the
original. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n未来 - [pinyin]wei4 lai2[/pinyin] - The Future\n发明人 - [pinyin]fa1 ming2 ren2[/pinyin] - Inventor\n高科技 - [pinyin]gao1 ke1 ji4[/pinyin] - High-tech\n变化 - [pinyin]bian4 hua4[/pinyin] - To change\n按钮 - [pinyin]an4 niu3[/pinyin] - A button\n朝气蓬勃 - [pinyin]zhao1 qi4 peng2 bo2[/pinyin] - Youthful vigor\n能源 - [pinyin]neng2 yuan2[/pinyin] - Power source\n文具盒 - [pinyin]wen2 ju4 he2[/pinyin] - Box of stationery, pencil case\n游戏机 - [pinyin]you2 xi4 ji1[/pinyin] - Video game machine\n叠床 - [pinyin]die2 chuang2[/pinyin] - Insect\n能源 - [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Insect\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n你想知道未来的桌椅是什么样子吗? 还是让我这个发明人来介绍一下吧!\n\n未来的桌椅是高科技材料制成的，大小、颜色、形状能随意变化。早晨去上学，就按第一个按钮，颜色可以变成绿色，象征新的一天朝气蓬勃，这个桌椅变成了新型自行车，那时候人们讲究环保，每个学生都骑这样的车去上学，不用别的能源，有太阳能和风就够了。如果遇见堵车的现象，自行车就会飞跃过去，保证准时到达学校。\n\n到了学校，请按第二个按钮，绿色自行车变成了蓝色电脑桌椅，开始上课学习，根本不用带书包呀、文具盒、教材什么的。一切学习任务都在电脑上完成。\n\n到了放学的时候，又变回自行车回到家。当然这时候的车速可以放慢，好好欣赏一下大自然的风光。回到家没有作业，这时请按第三个橘色按钮，自行车再变成大型游戏机，你就可以玩各种游戏了。当然，对眼睛没有害处。\n\n到了晚上，请按第四个按钮，游戏机变成了你喜欢颜色的折叠床，发出美妙的音乐，催你甜蜜地入眠。假如你感觉哪儿不舒服了，就从床头伸出几个按摩头给你按摩，让你安然入睡。\n\n怎么样，我发明的未来的桌椅你一定喜欢吧?欢迎你现在就来预订一套。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDo you want to know what chairs and tables will be like in the future? Well then let this inventor [author is referring to self] introduce you!\n\nChairs and tables in the future are manufactured from high-tech materials, and the size, color and shape can change according to your wishes. In the morning when you go to school, you just push the first button, and the color will change to green, symbolizing a new day full of youthful energy, and its shape will change into a new type of bicycle, since at that time [the future] people will all pay attention to the environment, and every student will ride this kind of bike to go to school, and no other power source will be needed, just solar and wind will be enough. If you run into traffic, this bike can leap over it, ensuring you\'ll arrive at school on time. \n\nOnce you get to school, please push the second button, and the green bike will turn into a blue computer desk and chair, and when you start to study, you don\'t even need to have your book bag, stationery box or other study materials. Everything you need [to accomplish studying] is all in the computer. \n\nWhen school gets out, it will again turn into a bike so you can return home. Of course at this time, the bike is also freed to go slowly, so that you can take a moment to appreciate the natural scenery. When you get home and you have no homework, press the third orange-colored button, and the bike will change into a large video game machine, and you can play all kinds of games. Of course, it will do no damage to your eyes. \n\nAt night, press the fourth button, and the video game machine will turn into a fold-out bed in any color you want, playing splendid music, that will encourage you to drift into sweet sleep. If you feel at all uncomfortable, a few massagers will extend from the head of the bed and give you a massage, to let you rest peacefully. \n\nWhat do you think? Surely you\'ll like my future desk chair. I welcome you to place an order for one now. \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Desk-chairs of the Future', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1481-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-05-28 05:35:24', '2014-05-28 09:35:24', '', 1481, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/28/1481-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1507, 1, '2014-05-28 05:41:45', '2014-05-28 09:41:45', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese - High Tech Essays and Intermediate Language Practice', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20140528', '', '', '2014-05-28 05:41:45', '2014-05-28 09:41:45', '', 1481, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/20140528.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1508, 1, '2014-05-28 05:41:49', '2014-05-28 09:41:49', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese - Intermediate Texts and Stories', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20140528-inline', '', '', '2014-05-28 05:41:49', '2014-05-28 09:41:49', '', 1481, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/20140528-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1509, 1, '2014-05-28 05:43:30', '2014-05-28 09:43:30', '[two_third]\nThis post kicks ass, if I do say so myself. This kid was asked to imagine the perfect desk-chair of the future - what it would look like, and what it would do - and boy, does he ever. The chair turns into all kinds of utopian machinery. It flies, it helps you sleep, and it carries your books to school. Sentence structure is pretty easy and the language is solidly intermediate, with very little advanced vocab (one idiom, a couple of advanced words but not much). At six paragraphs, the text is a bit long, though. \n\n
In this text, you\'ll notice several uses of the character \"型\". 型 [pinyin]xing2[/pinyin] means \"type\", \"kind\", \"sort\". The character can be combined with other descriptive words, and in this text you\'ll see 新型 - \"New Type of...\" and 大型, meaning \"big type\" or \"large-scale\". \n\nHere\'s the
original. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n未来 - [pinyin]wei4 lai2[/pinyin] - The Future\n发明人 - [pinyin]fa1 ming2 ren2[/pinyin] - Inventor\n高科技 - [pinyin]gao1 ke1 ji4[/pinyin] - High-tech\n变化 - [pinyin]bian4 hua4[/pinyin] - To change\n按钮 - [pinyin]an4 niu3[/pinyin] - A button\n朝气蓬勃 - [pinyin]zhao1 qi4 peng2 bo2[/pinyin] - Youthful vigor\n能源 - [pinyin]neng2 yuan2[/pinyin] - Power source\n文具盒 - [pinyin]wen2 ju4 he2[/pinyin] - Box of stationery, pencil case\n游戏机 - [pinyin]you2 xi4 ji1[/pinyin] - Video game machine\n叠床 - [pinyin]die2 chuang2[/pinyin] - Fold-out bed\n安然 - [pinyin]an1 ran2[/pinyin] - Peacefully\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n你想知道未来的桌椅是什么样子吗? 还是让我这个发明人来介绍一下吧!\n\n未来的桌椅是高科技材料制成的，大小、颜色、形状能随意变化。早晨去上学，就按第一个按钮，颜色可以变成绿色，象征新的一天朝气蓬勃，这个桌椅变成了新型自行车，那时候人们讲究环保，每个学生都骑这样的车去上学，不用别的能源，有太阳能和风就够了。如果遇见堵车的现象，自行车就会飞跃过去，保证准时到达学校。\n\n到了学校，请按第二个按钮，绿色自行车变成了蓝色电脑桌椅，开始上课学习，根本不用带书包呀、文具盒、教材什么的。一切学习任务都在电脑上完成。\n\n到了放学的时候，又变回自行车回到家。当然这时候的车速可以放慢，好好欣赏一下大自然的风光。回到家没有作业，这时请按第三个橘色按钮，自行车再变成大型游戏机，你就可以玩各种游戏了。当然，对眼睛没有害处。\n\n到了晚上，请按第四个按钮，游戏机变成了你喜欢颜色的折叠床，发出美妙的音乐，催你甜蜜地入眠。假如你感觉哪儿不舒服了，就从床头伸出几个按摩头给你按摩，让你安然入睡。\n\n怎么样，我发明的未来的桌椅你一定喜欢吧?欢迎你现在就来预订一套。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDo you want to know what chairs and tables will be like in the future? Well then let this inventor [author is referring to self] introduce you!\n\nChairs and tables in the future are manufactured from high-tech materials, and the size, color and shape can change according to your wishes. In the morning when you go to school, you just push the first button, and the color will change to green, symbolizing a new day full of youthful energy, and its shape will change into a new type of bicycle, since at that time [the future] people will all pay attention to the environment, and every student will ride this kind of bike to go to school, and no other power source will be needed, just solar and wind will be enough. If you run into traffic, this bike can leap over it, ensuring you\'ll arrive at school on time. \n\nOnce you get to school, please push the second button, and the green bike will turn into a blue computer desk and chair, and when you start to study, you don\'t even need to have your book bag, stationery box or other study materials. Everything you need [to accomplish studying] is all in the computer. \n\nWhen school gets out, it will again turn into a bike so you can return home. Of course at this time, the bike is also freed to go slowly, so that you can take a moment to appreciate the natural scenery. When you get home and you have no homework, press the third orange-colored button, and the bike will change into a large video game machine, and you can play all kinds of games. Of course, it will do no damage to your eyes. \n\nAt night, press the fourth button, and the video game machine will turn into a fold-out bed in any color you want, playing splendid music, that will encourage you to drift into sweet sleep. If you feel at all uncomfortable, a few massagers will extend from the head of the bed and give you a massage, to let you rest peacefully. \n\nWhat do you think? Surely you\'ll like my future desk chair. I welcome you to place an order for one now. \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Desk-chairs of the Future', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1481-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-05-28 05:43:30', '2014-05-28 09:43:30', '', 1481, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/05/28/1481-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1512, 1, '2014-06-10 19:52:33', '2014-06-10 23:52:33', '[two_third]\nScience! A quick paragraph about why peppers come in so many hues. Though the sentence structure here isn\'t too bad and the article is very short, I\'m classifying this as \'advanced\' since several of the words are quite chemistry-specific. \n\nHere\'s the original. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n辣椒 - [pinyin]ye3 can1[/pinyin] - Picnic\n未成熟\n叶绿素\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 辣椒的品种有很多，但不论哪一个品种，在未成熟前都是青绿色的，那是因为含有叶绿素的缘故。到了成熟期，叶绿素被破坏，辣椒中含有的黄色素和叶红素就相应增多，于是变成黄色和红色。而有的辣椒品种是在青绿色时味道更好，因而在未成熟前就上市了。所以，我们可看到各种颜色的辣椒。 \n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThere are many types of peppers, but all types of pepper are green in color before they ripen, which is because they contain chlorophyll. When it finally comes time for them to ripen, the chlorophyll breaks down, and the yellow and red pigments in the peppers increase accordingly, so they become yellow and red. In addition, some types of peppers taste better when they\'re still green, so they are brought to market before they ripen. That\'s why we see so many different colors of peppers. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Why are some peppers different colors?', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1480-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-06-10 19:52:33', '2014-06-10 23:52:33', '', 1480, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/06/10/1480-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1514, 1, '2014-06-10 20:01:00', '2014-06-11 00:01:00', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Chinese Reading Materials for Advanced Learners', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20140611', '', '', '2014-06-10 20:01:00', '2014-06-11 00:01:00', '', 1480, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140611.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1515, 1, '2014-06-10 20:01:01', '2014-06-11 00:01:01', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Practice Chinese Reading Skills', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20140611-inline', '', '', '2014-06-10 20:01:01', '2014-06-11 00:01:01', '', 1480, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140611-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1516, 1, '2014-06-10 20:04:34', '2014-06-11 00:04:34', '[two_third]\nScience! A quick paragraph about why peppers come in so many hues. Though the sentence structure here isn\'t too bad and the article is very short, I\'m classifying this as \'advanced\' since several of the words are quite chemistry-specific. \n\n
![\"Chinese](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/20140611-INLINE.jpg\")
Advanced readers will recognize the words \"被破坏\" - to be broken by - as the phrase itself is common. In this case, though, we\'re not talking about a literal breaking, we\'re talking about the chemical process of an element \"breaking down\". \n\nHere\'s
the original. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n辣椒 - [pinyin]la4 jiao1[/pinyin] - Pepper\n未成熟 - [pinyin]wei4 cheng2 shu2[/pinyin] - Not yet ripe\n叶绿素 - [pinyin]ye4 lv4 su4[/pinyin] - chlorophyll\n缘故 - [pinyin]yuan2 gu4[/pinyin] - A reason\n含有 - [pinyin]han2 you3[/pinyin] - To contain\n素 - [pinyin]su4[/pinyin] - Pigment\n相应 - [pinyin]xiang1 ying4[/pinyin] - Correspondingly\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n 辣椒的品种有很多，但不论哪一个品种，在未成熟前都是青绿色的，那是因为含有叶绿素的缘故。到了成熟期，叶绿素被破坏，辣椒中含有的黄色素和叶红素就相应增多，于是变成黄色和红色。而有的辣椒品种是在青绿色时味道更好，因而在未成熟前就上市了。所以，我们可看到各种颜色的辣椒。 \n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThere are many types of peppers, but all types of pepper are green in color before they ripen, which is because they contain chlorophyll. When it finally comes time for them to ripen, the chlorophyll breaks down, and the yellow and red pigments in the peppers increase accordingly, so they become yellow and red. In addition, some types of peppers taste better when they\'re still green, so they are brought to market before they ripen. That\'s why we see so many different colors of peppers. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Why are some peppers different colors?', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1480-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-06-10 20:04:34', '2014-06-11 00:04:34', '', 1480, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/06/10/1480-revision-7/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1517, 1, '2013-05-27 14:49:43', '2013-05-27 18:49:43', '
The Basics
\r\nMy name is:
Kendra\r\nI live in:
Beijing\r\nAge:
30 \r\nFirst year in China:
2002\r\nWhat this site is for: This site doesn\'t exist to teach you Chinese from scratch - there are plenty of sites and programs that do that. But this collection might help you keep your skills fresh, practice recognizing sentence structure, or pick up the occasional new vocabulary word.\r\n\r\n
The Story
\r\nAfter spending a few years China studying Mandarin and working, I took a several-year hiatus and returned to my native country. It was alarming how quickly my language skills began disintegrating. I searched online for Chinese reading materials, and though I found plenty of dictionaries and flash card sources, I had a very difficult time finding something that was at an appropriate reading level, was different than the typical textbook-y stuff available online, was presented in a way that was easy to read, and that I was sure I could get through. I ended up spending more time looking for something that was suitable than actually doing any reading. Even worse, I\'d often get through a few paragraphs only to hit a phrase I couldn\'t decipher and, with no one to ask, would have to put the reading aside. Annoy-ing! \r\n\r\nAs someone who organizes her thoughts into a series of domain names, it was inevitable I\'d eventually start a website about it, and here you are. I post whenever I get a chance. \r\n\r\n
About the Translations
\r\nMost (but not all) of the translations on this site are done by me, and I don\'t post anything unless I\'ve checked it several times, but that doesn\'t mean I haven\'t missed something. Do feel free to comment if you see anything that ought to have a better translation - it won\'t be taken amiss. \r\n\r\nIt\'s often quite difficult to do a word-for-word translation, as Chinese words that fit well into a particular Chinese sentence read very awkwardly after they\'ve been translated - sometimes a direct translation just sounds off. This is more and more true the higher your reading level. \r\n\r\nI\'ll often change the order of wording in a sentence so that it makes sense or reads well in English. You\'ll also notice that I often remove commas, split long Chinese sentences into two or more English sentences, or rearrange the order of clauses, which is necessary to accommodate Chinese grammar. The translation is meant as a guidepost to help point you in the right direction and keep you grounded in the text when needed - it\'s up to you to dissect sentence structure.\r\n
How I Classify Reading Levels
\r\nUltimately, my classifications are pretty arbitrary, but I\'ll try to lay out some of my basic reasoning here.\r\n\r\n
Beginner - Very very few of these texts are actually beginner tests; at least I haven\'t been able to find any real beginner stuff yet (I\'m still looking for good sources of real beginner texts that aren\'t boring dialogs - if you know of any, please write!). This is because for any story, article or essay to really take shape, it usually must involve some intermediate grammar or intermediate vocabulary. This is why most truly beginner textbooks stick to dialogs as opposed to actual articles. In order to do any real reading, you\'ve got to at least know the basics of sentence structure. I will classify something as beginner if at least a couple of the following criteria are met:\r\n
\r\n - The sentence structure is easy throughout
\r\n - It contains mostly simpler words that are in the dictionary
\r\n - There is no modern slang
\r\n - The subject matter is basic / or for children
\r\n - It\'s not too long
\r\n - It contains few or no idioms
\r\n- It contains intermediate vocabulary but the story structure is very repetitive, so you can pick up the thread more easily as you go along.
\r\n
\r\n\r\n
Intermediate - I classify something as intermediate if:\r\n\r\n
\r\n- It\'s a longer piece that you have to hold a narrative thread through.
\r\n- The language is intermediate or upper-intermediate.
\r\n- There are some light idioms.
\r\n
\r\n\r\n
Advanced - Most of what\'s out there online is advanced reading. That\'s why as of now, there are more advanced texts on here than anything else. I classify something as advanced if:\r\n\r\n
\r\n- It contains many specialized or technical words (technology, health, beauty, geography, etc.)
\r\n- It contains high-level structures, like newspaper-y or literary writing styles.
\r\n- It contains any archaic words.
\r\n- The sentence structure is very complicated.
\r\n- It contains a lot of modern slang.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nEnjoy, and good luck with your studies.', 'About', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '2-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-05-27 14:49:43', '2013-05-27 18:49:43', '', 2, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/05/27/2-revision-25/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1519, 1, '2014-07-30 06:41:00', '2014-07-30 10:41:00', '[two_third]\r\nHey, whaddaya know! A guest post. Been a while since we got one of these. Many thanks to Ryan, who submitted recently. Ryan tells us: \"This is a very interesting article about Chinese-Americans that shouldn\'t be too hard for intermediate-level readers. The grammar in this article is fairly simple, and I could understand most of it, having learnt Chinese for half a year.\" \r\n\r\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/20140730-INLINE.jpg\")
This post was taken from a passage in one of Ryan\'s old Chinese textbooks, given to him by a friend. It introduces what we presume is a much longer treatise on the history of Chinese immigration to North America. In this text, we learn a couple of cool place names and period names here. \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title is: 华裔美国人. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n世纪 - [pinyin]shi4 ji4[/pinyin] - Century\r\n广东省 - [pinyin]guang3 dong1 sheng3[/pinyin] - Guangdong Province\r\n福建省 - [pinyin]fu2 jian4 sheng3[/pinyin] - Fujian Province\r\n淘金 - [pinyin]tao2 jin1[/pinyin] - Gold Rush\r\n铁路 - [pinyin]tie3 lu4[/pinyin] - Railroads\r\n内战 - [pinyin]nei4 zhan4[/pinyin] - Civil War\r\n中国城 - [pinyin]zhong1 guo2 cheng2[/pinyin] - Chinatown\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n中国人是从19世纪二十年代开始到美国来的。他们大多来自广东省和福建省。一开始，他们在加利福尼亚淘金；后来，又在西部修建铁路、经营农场。20世纪四五十年代，一些人因为中国内战来到美国。从20世纪七十年代开始，越来越多的中国人到美国来留学。学习结束后，有的人继续留在美国工作和生活。\r\n\r\n中国人到美国的时候，最先是在大城市里居住。所以，现在很多城市像旧金山、纽约、檀香山和加拿大的温哥华等都有很大的中国城。\r\n\r\n以前，中国人在美国生活非常艰难。在几代人的共同努力下，很多人取得了很大的成就。看看下面的当代华裔美国人，有哪些是你认识的？ \r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nFrom the 1820\'s, Chinese people started arriving in America. Most of them came from Guangdong Province and Fujian Province. Initially, they came to California to pan for gold [during the Gold Rush] ; later, they built railroads and started farms in the West. In the 1940s and 1950s, more people [immigrated to the] United States] because of the Chinese civil war. Beginning in the 1970s, more and more Chinese people came to America to study. After they graduated, some people stayed in America to work and live.\r\n\r\nWhen the Chinese arrived in the United States, most of them lived in big cities. Thus, now many cities like San Francisco, New York, Honolulu, Canada\'s Vancouver, and others have large Chinatowns.\r\n\r\nPreviously, Chinese people living in the United States had it very hard. But through the joint efforts of several generations, many [Chinese] people have achieved great things. Here\'s a look at contemporary Chinese Americans, which ones are you familiar with?\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: The History of Chinese Americans', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', 'guest-post-the-history-of-chinese-americans', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:53:31', '2016-10-31 06:53:31', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1519', 0, 'post', '', 15),
(1520, 1, '2014-07-30 06:35:19', '2014-07-30 10:35:19', '[two_third]\nHey, whaddaya know! A guest post. Been a while since we got one of these. Many thanks to Ryan, who submitted recently. Ryan tells us: \"This is a very interesting article about Chinese-Americans that shouldn\'t be too hard for intermediate-level readers. The grammar in this article is fairly simple, and I could understand most of it, having learnt Chinese for half a year.\" \n\nThis post was taken from a passage in one of Ryan\'s old Chinese textbooks, given to him by a friend. It introduces what we presume is a much longer treatise on the history of Chinese immigration to North America. In this text, we learn a couple of cool place names and period names here. \n\nThe Chinese title is: 华裔美国人. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n世纪 - [pinyin]shi4 ji4[/pinyin] - Century\n广东省 - [pinyin]guang3 dong1 sheng3[/pinyin] - Guangdong Province\n福建省 - [pinyin]fu2 jian4 sheng3[/pinyin] - Fujian Province\n淘金 - [pinyin]tao2 jin1[/pinyin] - Gold Rush\n铁路 - [pinyin]tie2[/pinyin] - To contain\n内战 - [pinyin]su4[/pinyin] - Pigment\n中国城 - [pinyin]xiang1 ying4[/pinyin] - Correspondingly\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n中国人是从19世纪二十年代开始到美国来的。他们大多来自广东省和福建省。一开始，他们在加利福尼亚淘金；后来，又在西部修建铁路、经营农场。20世纪四五十年代，一些人因为中国内战来到美国。从20世纪七十年代开始，越来越多的中国人到美国来留学。学习结束后，有的人继续留在美国工作和生活。\n\n中国人到美国的时候，最先是在大城市里居住。所以，现在很多城市像旧金山、纽约、檀香山和加拿大的温哥华等都有很大的中国城。\n\n以前，中国人在美国生活非常艰难。在几代人的共同努力下，很多人取得了很大的成就。看看下面的当代华裔美国人，有哪些是你认识的？ \n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nFrom the 1820\'s, Chinese people started arriving in America. Most of them came from Guangdong Province and Fujian Province. Initially, they came to California to pan for gold [during the Gold Rush] ; later, they built railroads and started farms in the West. In the 1940s and 1950s, more people [immigrated to the] United States] because of the Chinese civil war. Beginning in the 1970s, more and more Chinese people came to America to study. After they graduated, some people stayed in America to work and live.\n\nWhen the Chinese arrived in the United States, most of them lived in big cities. Thus, now many cities like San Francisco, New York, Honolulu, Canada\'s Vancouver, and others have large Chinatowns.\n\nPreviously, Chinese people living in the United States had it very hard. But through the joint efforts of several generations, many [Chinese] people have achieved great things. Here\'s a look at contemporary Chinese Americans, which ones are you familiar with?\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: The History of Chinese Americans', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1519-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-07-30 06:35:19', '2014-07-30 10:35:19', '', 1519, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/07/30/1519-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1521, 1, '2014-07-30 06:39:40', '2014-07-30 10:39:40', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Simplified Chinese Reading Exercises', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20140730', '', '', '2014-07-30 06:39:40', '2014-07-30 10:39:40', '', 1519, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/20140730.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1522, 1, '2014-07-30 06:39:42', '2014-07-30 10:39:42', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Simplified Chinese Character Study', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20140730-inline', '', '', '2014-07-30 06:39:42', '2014-07-30 10:39:42', '', 1519, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/20140730-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1523, 1, '2014-07-30 06:36:14', '2014-07-30 10:36:14', '[two_third]\r\nHey, whaddaya know! A guest post. Been a while since we got one of these. Many thanks to Ryan, who submitted recently. Ryan tells us: \"This is a very interesting article about Chinese-Americans that shouldn\'t be too hard for intermediate-level readers. The grammar in this article is fairly simple, and I could understand most of it, having learnt Chinese for half a year.\" \r\n\r\nThis post was taken from a passage in one of Ryan\'s old Chinese textbooks, given to him by a friend. It introduces what we presume is a much longer treatise on the history of Chinese immigration to North America. In this text, we learn a couple of cool place names and period names here. \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title is: 华裔美国人. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n世纪 - [pinyin]shi4 ji4[/pinyin] - Century\r\n广东省 - [pinyin]guang3 dong1 sheng3[/pinyin] - Guangdong Province\r\n福建省 - [pinyin]fu2 jian4 sheng3[/pinyin] - Fujian Province\r\n淘金 - [pinyin]tao2 jin1[/pinyin] - Gold Rush\r\n铁路 - [pinyin]tie3 lu4[/pinyin] - Railroads\r\n内战 - [pinyin]nei4 zhan4[/pinyin] - Civil War\r\n中国城 - [pinyin]zhong1 guo2 cheng2[/pinyin] - Chinatown\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n中国人是从19世纪二十年代开始到美国来的。他们大多来自广东省和福建省。一开始，他们在加利福尼亚淘金；后来，又在西部修建铁路、经营农场。20世纪四五十年代，一些人因为中国内战来到美国。从20世纪七十年代开始，越来越多的中国人到美国来留学。学习结束后，有的人继续留在美国工作和生活。\r\n\r\n中国人到美国的时候，最先是在大城市里居住。所以，现在很多城市像旧金山、纽约、檀香山和加拿大的温哥华等都有很大的中国城。\r\n\r\n以前，中国人在美国生活非常艰难。在几代人的共同努力下，很多人取得了很大的成就。看看下面的当代华裔美国人，有哪些是你认识的？ \r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nFrom the 1820\'s, Chinese people started arriving in America. Most of them came from Guangdong Province and Fujian Province. Initially, they came to California to pan for gold [during the Gold Rush] ; later, they built railroads and started farms in the West. In the 1940s and 1950s, more people [immigrated to the] United States] because of the Chinese civil war. Beginning in the 1970s, more and more Chinese people came to America to study. After they graduated, some people stayed in America to work and live.\r\n\r\nWhen the Chinese arrived in the United States, most of them lived in big cities. Thus, now many cities like San Francisco, New York, Honolulu, Canada\'s Vancouver, and others have large Chinatowns.\r\n\r\nPreviously, Chinese people living in the United States had it very hard. But through the joint efforts of several generations, many [Chinese] people have achieved great things. Here\'s a look at contemporary Chinese Americans, which ones are you familiar with?\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: The History of Chinese Americans', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1519-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-07-30 06:36:14', '2014-07-30 10:36:14', '', 1519, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/07/30/1519-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1526, 1, '2014-08-26 00:51:16', '2014-08-26 04:51:16', 'Story behind the Chinese idiom 专心致志 [pinyin]zhuan1 xin1 zhi4 zhi4[/pinyin], which means \"to do something with single-minded devotion\". \r\n\r\nSometimes these idiom stories do a good job tying themselves into the history of the idiom; sometimes they\'re more just a vaguely-related tale that will help you remember the idiom. This is one of the latter. This idiom story actually contains 2 other idioms (see the vocab list), so, hey, idiom party.\r\n\r\nYou might be interested in the way that the author of this story talks about chess. To \"play chess\" is written like this: 下棋 - [pinyin]xia4 qi2[/pinyin], or literally \"to put down chess pieces\". But when we\'re talking about someone\'s skill level of chess play - in otherwords, the level of chess mastery - the author uses 棋艺 - [pinyin]qi2 yi4[/pinyin], or literally \"chess art\". So 下棋 is a verb, \"to play chess\", while 棋艺 is a noun, as in \"mad chess skillz\". \r\n\r\n
Here\'s the original text on tom61.com. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 从前有一个下棋能手名叫秋，他的棋艺非常高超。\r\n\r\n2) 秋有两个学生，一起跟他学习下棋，其中一个学生非常专心集中精力跟老师学习。另一个却不这样，他认为学下棋很容易，用不着认真。老师讲解的时候，他虽然坐在那里，眼睛也好像在看着棋子可心里却想着：“要是现在到野外射下一只鸿雁，美餐一顿该多好。 ”因为他总是胡思乱想心不在焉，老师的讲解一点也没听进去。\r\n\r\n3) 结果，虽然两个学生同是一个名师传授，但是，一个进步很快，成了棋艺高强的名手，另一个却没学到一点本事。 \r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLong ago there was a chess master named Qiu whose chess skills were superlative. \r\n\r\nQiu had two students who studied chess with him, one student studied with concentrated focus and energy. The other, however, wasn\'t like that, he thought studying chess was very easy, and there was no need to take it seriously. When the teacher was explaining, although the [the student] sat there, his eyes seemed to be on the chess pieces, he was actually thinking: \"If I go to the countryside right now and shoot a goose, I\'ll have a lovely dinner.\" Because he was always indulging in flights of fancy and absent-mindedness, nothing the teacher said ever sunk in.\r\n\r\nAs a result, although the two students studied were taught at the same time by the same master, one improved quickly and became a superior chess player, while the other never learned much at all. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 专心致志 - To Act with Single-minded Devotion', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'story-behind-the-idiom-zhuan-xin-zhi-zhi', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:50:56', '2016-11-04 09:50:56', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1526', 0, 'post', '', 8),
(2033, 1, '2016-11-04 05:50:56', '2016-11-04 09:50:56', 'Story behind the Chinese idiom 专心致志 [pinyin]zhuan1 xin1 zhi4 zhi4[/pinyin], which means \"to do something with single-minded devotion\". \r\n\r\nSometimes these idiom stories do a good job tying themselves into the history of the idiom; sometimes they\'re more just a vaguely-related tale that will help you remember the idiom. This is one of the latter. This idiom story actually contains 2 other idioms (see the vocab list), so, hey, idiom party.\r\n\r\nYou might be interested in the way that the author of this story talks about chess. To \"play chess\" is written like this: 下棋 - [pinyin]xia4 qi2[/pinyin], or literally \"to put down chess pieces\". But when we\'re talking about someone\'s skill level of chess play - in otherwords, the level of chess mastery - the author uses 棋艺 - [pinyin]qi2 yi4[/pinyin], or literally \"chess art\". So 下棋 is a verb, \"to play chess\", while 棋艺 is a noun, as in \"mad chess skillz\". \r\n\r\n
Here\'s the original text on tom61.com. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 从前有一个下棋能手名叫秋，他的棋艺非常高超。\r\n\r\n2) 秋有两个学生，一起跟他学习下棋，其中一个学生非常专心集中精力跟老师学习。另一个却不这样，他认为学下棋很容易，用不着认真。老师讲解的时候，他虽然坐在那里，眼睛也好像在看着棋子可心里却想着：“要是现在到野外射下一只鸿雁，美餐一顿该多好。 ”因为他总是胡思乱想心不在焉，老师的讲解一点也没听进去。\r\n\r\n3) 结果，虽然两个学生同是一个名师传授，但是，一个进步很快，成了棋艺高强的名手，另一个却没学到一点本事。 \r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLong ago there was a chess master named Qiu whose chess skills were superlative. \r\n\r\nQiu had two students who studied chess with him, one student studied with concentrated focus and energy. The other, however, wasn\'t like that, he thought studying chess was very easy, and there was no need to take it seriously. When the teacher was explaining, although the [the student] sat there, his eyes seemed to be on the chess pieces, he was actually thinking: \"If I go to the countryside right now and shoot a goose, I\'ll have a lovely dinner.\" Because he was always indulging in flights of fancy and absent-mindedness, nothing the teacher said ever sunk in.\r\n\r\nAs a result, although the two students studied were taught at the same time by the same master, one improved quickly and became a superior chess player, while the other never learned much at all. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 专心致志 - To Act with Single-minded Devotion', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1526-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:50:56', '2016-11-04 09:50:56', '', 1526, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1526-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1691, 1, '2016-10-31 01:51:24', '2016-10-31 05:51:24', 'Story behind the Chinese idiom 专心致志 [pinyin]zhuan1 xin1 zhi4 zhi4[/pinyin], which means \"to do something with single-minded devotion\". \r\n\r\nSometimes these idiom stories do a good job tying themselves into the history of the idiom; sometimes they\'re more just a vaguely-related tale that will help you remember the idiom. This is one of the latter. This idiom story actually contains 2 other idioms (see the vocab list), so, hey, idiom party.\r\n\r\nYou might be interested in the way that the author of this story talks about chess. To \"play chess\" is written like this: 下棋 - [pinyin]xia4 qi2[/pinyin], or literally \"to put down chess pieces\". But when we\'re talking about someone\'s skill level of chess play - in otherwords, the level of chess mastery - the author uses 棋艺 - [pinyin]qi2 yi4[/pinyin], or literally \"chess art\". So 下棋 is a verb, \"to play chess\", while 棋艺 is a noun, as in \"mad chess skillz\". \r\n\r\n
Here\'s the original text on tom61.com. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n从前有一个下棋能手名叫秋，他的棋艺非常高超。\r\n\r\n秋有两个学生，一起跟他学习下棋，其中一个学生非常专心集中精力跟老师学习。另一个却不这样，他认为学下棋很容易，用不着认真。老师讲解的时候，他虽然坐在那里，眼睛也好像在看着棋子可心里却想着：“要是现在到野外射下一只鸿雁，美餐一顿该多好。 ”因为他总是胡思乱想心不在焉，老师的讲解一点也没听进去。\r\n\r\n结果，虽然两个学生同是一个名师传授，但是，一个进步很快，成了棋艺高强的名手，另一个却没学到一点本事。 \r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLong ago there was a chess master named Qiu whose chess skills were superlative. \r\n\r\nQiu had two students who studied chess with him, one student studied with concentrated focus and energy. The other, however, wasn\'t like that, he thought studying chess was very easy, and there was no need to take it seriously. When the teacher was explaining, although the [the student] sat there, his eyes seemed to be on the chess pieces, he was actually thinking: \"If I go to the countryside right now and shoot a goose, I\'ll have a lovely dinner.\" Because he was always indulging in flights of fancy and absent-mindedness, nothing the teacher said ever sunk in.\r\n\r\nAs a result, although the two students studied were taught at the same time by the same master, one improved quickly and became a superior chess player, while the other never learned much at all. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 专心致志 - To Act with Single-minded Devotion', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1526-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 01:51:24', '2016-10-31 05:51:24', '', 1526, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1526-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1528, 1, '2014-08-26 00:40:47', '2014-08-26 04:40:47', '[two_third]\nOften these idiom stories e. This idiom story actually contains 3 other idioms, so, hey, idiom party. \n\nLet\'s t棋艺\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n下棋 - [pinyin]la4 jiao1[/pinyin] - Pepper\n专心 - [pinyin]wei4 cheng2 shu2[/pinyin] - Not yet ripe\n鸿雁 - [pinyin]ye4 lv4 su4[/pinyin] - chlorophyll\n胡思乱想 - [pinyin]hu2 si1 luan4 xiang3[/pinyin] - A reason\n心不在焉 - [pinyin]xin1 bu4 zai4 yan1/pinyin] - Absent-minded, one\'s heart is not present\n传授 - [pinyin]chuan2 shou4[/pinyin] - To have knowledge imparted upon you, esp. by a great master. \n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n从前有一个下棋能手名叫秋，他的棋艺非常高超。\n\n秋有两个学生，一起跟他学习下棋，其中一个学生非常专心集中精力跟老师学习。另一个却不这样，他认为学下棋很容易，用不着认真。老师讲解的时候，他虽然坐在那里，眼睛也好像在看着棋子可心里却想着：“要是现在到野外射下一只鸿雁，美餐一顿该多好。 ”因为他总是胡思乱想心不在焉，老师的讲解一点也没听进去。\n\n结果，虽然两个学生同是一个名师传授，但是，一个进步很快，成了棋艺高强的名手，另一个却没学到一点本事。 \n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nLong ago there was a chess master named Qiu whose chess skills were superlative. \n\nQiu had two students who studied chess with him, one student studied with concentrated focus and energy. The other, however, wasn\'t like that, he thought studying chess was very easy, and there was no need to take it seriously. When the teacher was explaining, although the [the student] sat there, his eyes seemed to be on the chess pieces, he was actually thinking: \"If I go to the countryside right now and shoot a goose, I\'ll have a lovely dinner.\" Because he was always indulging in flights of fancy and absent-mindedness, nothing the teacher said ever sunk in.\n\nAs a result, although the two students studied were taught at the same time by the same master, one improved quickly and became a superior chess player, while the other never learned much at all. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Story Behind the Idiom: Zhuan Xin Zhi Zhi', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1526-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-08-26 00:40:47', '2014-08-26 04:40:47', '', 1526, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/08/26/1526-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1529, 1, '2014-08-26 00:49:00', '2014-08-26 04:49:00', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Chinese Fables in English', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20140826', '', '', '2014-08-26 00:49:00', '2014-08-26 04:49:00', '', 1526, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/20140826.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1530, 1, '2014-08-26 00:49:02', '2014-08-26 04:49:02', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Chinese Fables in English', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20140826-inline', '', '', '2014-08-26 00:49:02', '2014-08-26 04:49:02', '', 1526, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/20140826-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0);
INSERT INTO `wp_posts` (`ID`, `post_author`, `post_date`, `post_date_gmt`, `post_content`, `post_title`, `post_excerpt`, `post_status`, `comment_status`, `ping_status`, `post_password`, `post_name`, `to_ping`, `pinged`, `post_modified`, `post_modified_gmt`, `post_content_filtered`, `post_parent`, `guid`, `menu_order`, `post_type`, `post_mime_type`, `comment_count`) VALUES
(1531, 1, '2014-08-26 00:45:46', '2014-08-26 04:45:46', '[two_third]\nStory behind the Chinese idiom 专心致志 [pinyin]zhuan1 xin1 zhi4 zhi4[/pinyin], which means \"to do something with single-minded devotion\". \n\nSometimes these idiom stories do a good job tying themselves into the history of the idiom; sometimes they\'re more just a vaguely-related tale that will help you remember the idiom. This is one of the latter. This idiom story actually contains 2 other idioms (see the vocab list), so, hey, idiom party.\n\n
Here\'s the original text on tom61.com. \n\nLet\'s t棋艺\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n下棋 - [pinyin]xia4 qi2[/pinyin] - To play chess\n专心 - [pinyin]zhuan1 xin1[/pinyin] - Concentrate\n鸿雁 - [pinyin]hong2 yan4[/pinyin] - Swan goose\n胡思乱想 - [pinyin]hu2 si1 luan4 xiang3[/pinyin] - Thoughts running wild\n心不在焉 - [pinyin]xin1 bu4 zai4 yan1/pinyin] - Absent-minded, one\'s heart is not present\n传授 - [pinyin]chuan2 shou4[/pinyin] - To have knowledge imparted upon you, esp. by a great master. \n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n从前有一个下棋能手名叫秋，他的棋艺非常高超。\n\n秋有两个学生，一起跟他学习下棋，其中一个学生非常专心集中精力跟老师学习。另一个却不这样，他认为学下棋很容易，用不着认真。老师讲解的时候，他虽然坐在那里，眼睛也好像在看着棋子可心里却想着：“要是现在到野外射下一只鸿雁，美餐一顿该多好。 ”因为他总是胡思乱想心不在焉，老师的讲解一点也没听进去。\n\n结果，虽然两个学生同是一个名师传授，但是，一个进步很快，成了棋艺高强的名手，另一个却没学到一点本事。 \n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nLong ago there was a chess master named Qiu whose chess skills were superlative. \n\nQiu had two students who studied chess with him, one student studied with concentrated focus and energy. The other, however, wasn\'t like that, he thought studying chess was very easy, and there was no need to take it seriously. When the teacher was explaining, although the [the student] sat there, his eyes seemed to be on the chess pieces, he was actually thinking: \"If I go to the countryside right now and shoot a goose, I\'ll have a lovely dinner.\" Because he was always indulging in flights of fancy and absent-mindedness, nothing the teacher said ever sunk in.\n\nAs a result, although the two students studied were taught at the same time by the same master, one improved quickly and became a superior chess player, while the other never learned much at all. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Story Behind the Idiom: Zhuan Xin Zhi Zhi', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1526-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-08-26 00:45:46', '2014-08-26 04:45:46', '', 1526, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/08/26/1526-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1532, 1, '2014-08-26 00:51:16', '2014-08-26 04:51:16', '[two_third]\r\nStory behind the Chinese idiom 专心致志 [pinyin]zhuan1 xin1 zhi4 zhi4[/pinyin], which means \"to do something with single-minded devotion\". \r\n\r\nSometimes these idiom
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/20140826-INLINE.jpg\")
stories do a good job tying themselves into the history of the idiom; sometimes they\'re more just a vaguely-related tale that will help you remember the idiom. This is one of the latter. This idiom story actually contains 2 other idioms (see the vocab list), so, hey, idiom party.\r\n\r\n
Here\'s the original text on tom61.com. \r\n\r\nLet\'s t棋艺\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n下棋 - [pinyin]xia4 qi2[/pinyin] - To play chess\r\n专心 - [pinyin]zhuan1 xin1[/pinyin] - Concentrate\r\n鸿雁 - [pinyin]hong2 yan4[/pinyin] - Swan goose\r\n胡思乱想 - [pinyin]hu2 si1 luan4 xiang3[/pinyin] - Thoughts running wild\r\n心不在焉 - [pinyin]xin1 bu4 zai4 yan1/pinyin] - Absent-minded, one\'s heart is not present\r\n传授 - [pinyin]chuan2 shou4[/pinyin] - To have knowledge imparted upon you, esp. by a great master. \r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n从前有一个下棋能手名叫秋，他的棋艺非常高超。\r\n\r\n秋有两个学生，一起跟他学习下棋，其中一个学生非常专心集中精力跟老师学习。另一个却不这样，他认为学下棋很容易，用不着认真。老师讲解的时候，他虽然坐在那里，眼睛也好像在看着棋子可心里却想着：“要是现在到野外射下一只鸿雁，美餐一顿该多好。 ”因为他总是胡思乱想心不在焉，老师的讲解一点也没听进去。\r\n\r\n结果，虽然两个学生同是一个名师传授，但是，一个进步很快，成了棋艺高强的名手，另一个却没学到一点本事。 \r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLong ago there was a chess master named Qiu whose chess skills were superlative. \r\n\r\nQiu had two students who studied chess with him, one student studied with concentrated focus and energy. The other, however, wasn\'t like that, he thought studying chess was very easy, and there was no need to take it seriously. When the teacher was explaining, although the [the student] sat there, his eyes seemed to be on the chess pieces, he was actually thinking: \"If I go to the countryside right now and shoot a goose, I\'ll have a lovely dinner.\" Because he was always indulging in flights of fancy and absent-mindedness, nothing the teacher said ever sunk in.\r\n\r\nAs a result, although the two students studied were taught at the same time by the same master, one improved quickly and became a superior chess player, while the other never learned much at all. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Story Behind the Idiom: Zhuan Xin Zhi Zhi', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1526-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-08-26 00:51:16', '2014-08-26 04:51:16', '', 1526, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/08/26/1526-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1533, 1, '2016-11-04 05:49:54', '2016-11-04 09:49:54', 'Story behind the Chinese idiom 专心致志 [pinyin]zhuan1 xin1 zhi4 zhi4[/pinyin], which means \"to do something with single-minded devotion\". \n\nSometimes these idiom stories do a good job tying themselves into the history of the idiom; sometimes they\'re more just a vaguely-related tale that will help you remember the idiom. This is one of the latter. This idiom story actually contains 2 other idioms (see the vocab list), so, hey, idiom party.\n\nYou might be interested in the way that the author of this story talks about chess. To \"play chess\" is written like this: 下棋 - [pinyin]xia4 qi2[/pinyin], or literally \"to put down chess pieces\". But when we\'re talking about someone\'s skill level of chess play - in otherwords, the level of chess mastery - the author uses 棋艺 - [pinyin]qi2 yi4[/pinyin], or literally \"chess art\". So 下棋 is a verb, \"to play chess\", while 棋艺 is a noun, as in \"mad chess skillz\". \n\n
Here\'s the original text on tom61.com. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n
Chinese text
\n1) 从前有一个下棋能手名叫秋，他的棋艺非常高超。\n\n2) 秋有两个学生，一起跟他学习下棋，其中一个学生非常专心集中精力跟老师学习。另一个却不这样，他认为学下棋很容易，用不着认真。老师讲解的时候，他虽然坐在那里，眼睛也好像在看着棋子可心里却想着：“要是现在到野外射下一只鸿雁，美餐一顿该多好。 ”因为他总是胡思乱想心不在焉，老师的讲解一点也没听进去。\n\n3) 结果，虽然两个学生同是一个名师传授，但是，一个进步很快，成了棋艺高强的名手，另一个却没学到一点本事。 \n\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nLong ago there was a chess master named Qiu whose chess skills were superlative. \n\nQiu had two students who studied chess with him, one student studied with concentrated focus and energy. The other, however, wasn\'t like that, he thought studying chess was very easy, and there was no need to take it seriously. When the teacher was explaining, although the [the student] sat there, his eyes seemed to be on the chess pieces, he was actually thinking: \"If I go to the countryside right now and shoot a goose, I\'ll have a lovely dinner.\" Because he was always indulging in flights of fancy and absent-mindedness, nothing the teacher said ever sunk in.\n\nAs a result, although the two students studied were taught at the same time by the same master, one improved quickly and became a superior chess player, while the other never learned much at all. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 专心致志 - To Act with Single-minded Devotion', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1526-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:49:54', '2016-11-04 09:49:54', '', 1526, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/08/26/1526-autosave/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1534, 1, '2014-08-26 00:52:02', '2014-08-26 04:52:02', '[two_third]\r\nStory behind the Chinese idiom 专心致志 [pinyin]zhuan1 xin1 zhi4 zhi4[/pinyin], which means \"to do something with single-minded devotion\". \r\n\r\n
Sometimes these idiom stories do a good job tying themselves into the history of the idiom; sometimes they\'re more just a vaguely-related tale that will help you remember the idiom. This is one of the latter. This idiom story actually contains 2 other idioms (see the vocab list), so, hey, idiom party.\r\n\r\n
Here\'s the original text on tom61.com. \r\n\r\nLet\'s t棋艺\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n下棋 - [pinyin]xia4 qi2[/pinyin] - To play chess\r\n专心 - [pinyin]zhuan1 xin1[/pinyin] - Concentrate\r\n鸿雁 - [pinyin]hong2 yan4[/pinyin] - Swan goose\r\n胡思乱想 - [pinyin]hu2 si1 luan4 xiang3[/pinyin] - Thoughts running wild\r\n心不在焉 - [pinyin]xin1 bu4 zai4 yan1/pinyin] - Absent-minded, one\'s heart is not present\r\n传授 - [pinyin]chuan2 shou4[/pinyin] - To have knowledge imparted upon you, esp. by a great master. \r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n从前有一个下棋能手名叫秋，他的棋艺非常高超。\r\n\r\n秋有两个学生，一起跟他学习下棋，其中一个学生非常专心集中精力跟老师学习。另一个却不这样，他认为学下棋很容易，用不着认真。老师讲解的时候，他虽然坐在那里，眼睛也好像在看着棋子可心里却想着：“要是现在到野外射下一只鸿雁，美餐一顿该多好。 ”因为他总是胡思乱想心不在焉，老师的讲解一点也没听进去。\r\n\r\n结果，虽然两个学生同是一个名师传授，但是，一个进步很快，成了棋艺高强的名手，另一个却没学到一点本事。 \r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLong ago there was a chess master named Qiu whose chess skills were superlative. \r\n\r\nQiu had two students who studied chess with him, one student studied with concentrated focus and energy. The other, however, wasn\'t like that, he thought studying chess was very easy, and there was no need to take it seriously. When the teacher was explaining, although the [the student] sat there, his eyes seemed to be on the chess pieces, he was actually thinking: \"If I go to the countryside right now and shoot a goose, I\'ll have a lovely dinner.\" Because he was always indulging in flights of fancy and absent-mindedness, nothing the teacher said ever sunk in.\r\n\r\nAs a result, although the two students studied were taught at the same time by the same master, one improved quickly and became a superior chess player, while the other never learned much at all. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Story Behind the Idiom: Zhuan Xin Zhi Zhi', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1526-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-08-26 00:52:02', '2014-08-26 04:52:02', '', 1526, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/08/26/1526-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1535, 1, '2014-08-26 00:55:08', '2014-08-26 04:55:08', '[two_third]\r\nStory behind the Chinese idiom 专心致志 [pinyin]zhuan1 xin1 zhi4 zhi4[/pinyin], which means \"to do something with single-minded devotion\". \r\n\r\n
Sometimes these idiom stories do a good job tying themselves into the history of the idiom; sometimes they\'re more just a vaguely-related tale that will help you remember the idiom. This is one of the latter. This idiom story actually contains 2 other idioms (see the vocab list), so, hey, idiom party.\r\n\r\nYou might be interested in the way that the author of this story talks about chess. To \"play chess\" is written like this: 下棋 - [pinyin]xia4 qi2[/pinyin], or literally \"to put down chess pieces\". But when we\'re talking about someone\'s skill level of chess play - in otherwords, the level of chess mastery - the author uses 棋艺 - [pinyin]qi2 yi4[/pinyin], or literally \"chess art\". So 下棋 is a verb, \"to play chess\", while 棋艺 is a noun, as in \"mad chess skillz\". \r\n\r\n
Here\'s the original text on tom61.com. \r\n\r\nLet\'s t棋艺\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n下棋 - [pinyin]xia4 qi2[/pinyin] - To play chess\r\n专心 - [pinyin]zhuan1 xin1[/pinyin] - Concentrate\r\n鸿雁 - [pinyin]hong2 yan4[/pinyin] - Swan goose\r\n胡思乱想 - [pinyin]hu2 si1 luan4 xiang3[/pinyin] - Thoughts running wild\r\n心不在焉 - [pinyin]xin1 bu4 zai4 yan1/pinyin] - Absent-minded, one\'s heart is not present\r\n传授 - [pinyin]chuan2 shou4[/pinyin] - To have knowledge imparted upon you, esp. by a great master. \r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n从前有一个下棋能手名叫秋，他的棋艺非常高超。\r\n\r\n秋有两个学生，一起跟他学习下棋，其中一个学生非常专心集中精力跟老师学习。另一个却不这样，他认为学下棋很容易，用不着认真。老师讲解的时候，他虽然坐在那里，眼睛也好像在看着棋子可心里却想着：“要是现在到野外射下一只鸿雁，美餐一顿该多好。 ”因为他总是胡思乱想心不在焉，老师的讲解一点也没听进去。\r\n\r\n结果，虽然两个学生同是一个名师传授，但是，一个进步很快，成了棋艺高强的名手，另一个却没学到一点本事。 \r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLong ago there was a chess master named Qiu whose chess skills were superlative. \r\n\r\nQiu had two students who studied chess with him, one student studied with concentrated focus and energy. The other, however, wasn\'t like that, he thought studying chess was very easy, and there was no need to take it seriously. When the teacher was explaining, although the [the student] sat there, his eyes seemed to be on the chess pieces, he was actually thinking: \"If I go to the countryside right now and shoot a goose, I\'ll have a lovely dinner.\" Because he was always indulging in flights of fancy and absent-mindedness, nothing the teacher said ever sunk in.\r\n\r\nAs a result, although the two students studied were taught at the same time by the same master, one improved quickly and became a superior chess player, while the other never learned much at all. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Story Behind the Idiom: Zhuan Xin Zhi Zhi', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1526-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-08-26 00:55:08', '2014-08-26 04:55:08', '', 1526, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/08/26/1526-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1536, 1, '2014-08-26 00:55:31', '2014-08-26 04:55:31', '[two_third]\r\nStory behind the Chinese idiom 专心致志 [pinyin]zhuan1 xin1 zhi4 zhi4[/pinyin], which means \"to do something with single-minded devotion\". \r\n\r\n
Sometimes these idiom stories do a good job tying themselves into the history of the idiom; sometimes they\'re more just a vaguely-related tale that will help you remember the idiom. This is one of the latter. This idiom story actually contains 2 other idioms (see the vocab list), so, hey, idiom party.\r\n\r\nYou might be interested in the way that the author of this story talks about chess. To \"play chess\" is written like this: 下棋 - [pinyin]xia4 qi2[/pinyin], or literally \"to put down chess pieces\". But when we\'re talking about someone\'s skill level of chess play - in otherwords, the level of chess mastery - the author uses 棋艺 - [pinyin]qi2 yi4[/pinyin], or literally \"chess art\". So 下棋 is a verb, \"to play chess\", while 棋艺 is a noun, as in \"mad chess skillz\". \r\n\r\n
Here\'s the original text on tom61.com. \r\n\r\nLet\'s t棋艺\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n下棋 - [pinyin]xia4 qi2[/pinyin] - To play chess\r\n专心 - [pinyin]zhuan1 xin1[/pinyin] - Concentrate\r\n鸿雁 - [pinyin]hong2 yan4[/pinyin] - Swan goose\r\n胡思乱想 - [pinyin]hu2 si1 luan4 xiang3[/pinyin] - Thoughts running wild\r\n心不在焉 - [pinyin]xin1 bu4 zai4 yan1[/pinyin] - Absent-minded, one\'s heart is not present\r\n传授 - [pinyin]chuan2 shou4[/pinyin] - To have knowledge imparted upon you, esp. by a great master. \r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n从前有一个下棋能手名叫秋，他的棋艺非常高超。\r\n\r\n秋有两个学生，一起跟他学习下棋，其中一个学生非常专心集中精力跟老师学习。另一个却不这样，他认为学下棋很容易，用不着认真。老师讲解的时候，他虽然坐在那里，眼睛也好像在看着棋子可心里却想着：“要是现在到野外射下一只鸿雁，美餐一顿该多好。 ”因为他总是胡思乱想心不在焉，老师的讲解一点也没听进去。\r\n\r\n结果，虽然两个学生同是一个名师传授，但是，一个进步很快，成了棋艺高强的名手，另一个却没学到一点本事。 \r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLong ago there was a chess master named Qiu whose chess skills were superlative. \r\n\r\nQiu had two students who studied chess with him, one student studied with concentrated focus and energy. The other, however, wasn\'t like that, he thought studying chess was very easy, and there was no need to take it seriously. When the teacher was explaining, although the [the student] sat there, his eyes seemed to be on the chess pieces, he was actually thinking: \"If I go to the countryside right now and shoot a goose, I\'ll have a lovely dinner.\" Because he was always indulging in flights of fancy and absent-mindedness, nothing the teacher said ever sunk in.\r\n\r\nAs a result, although the two students studied were taught at the same time by the same master, one improved quickly and became a superior chess player, while the other never learned much at all. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Story Behind the Idiom: Zhuan Xin Zhi Zhi', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1526-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-08-26 00:55:31', '2014-08-26 04:55:31', '', 1526, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/08/26/1526-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1539, 1, '2015-02-18 02:04:33', '2015-02-18 07:04:33', 'Happy Year of the Sheep! Couple of days ago, I stumbled across the Book \"The Last Yin Yang Master\", aka \"The Last Onmyoji\", a supernatural ghost story available for free online. It\'s incredibly rare to find full-length books that aren\'t impossibly difficult to get through, but this one is phenomenal for learners. I\'m gonna put part of the first chapter here, so you can dive on in. The rest can be grabbed on
Zhuaji.com. \r\n\r\nI\'ve recently sort of discovered that ghost stories and detective novels are where it\'s at for practicing reading. The cliches in a Chinese murder mystery are exactly the same as they are anywhere: hard-boiled cop, confused rookie, seductive woman, shady business, and definitely a chase scene. It\'s easier to follow a story when you have a semi-expectation of what\'s supposed to happen. They get hard when people start talking about blood spatter and ballistics, but you can kind of get the gist. Ghost stories are the same way - a scene of normalcy is set, followed by some red-flag strangeness that everyone completely ignores because they don\'t believe in the supernatural, followed by some myths and legends, or maybe a mysterious old man, or maybe a body goes missing, and then things really freaky. Again, the read gets hard when characters start talking about the mystic books of old, or funeral customs, so you should probably be reading this with the help of Pleco (which I do), but The Last Onmyoji is accessible enough that those parts shouldn\'t totally derail you. Highly recommended.\r\n\r\nThis really is worth a go for readers at almost all levels. The read is late-intermediate, but using Pleco, late-stage beginners and early-intermediates will be able to understand large chunks of it, enough to motivate you to puzzle through the parts you don\'t get, more so because this is being told in first-person. Remember, now, that the beginning of a book is usually the hardest as you try to get a sense of the story. Once the story gets rolling, it\'s easier to flow with it. Advanced readers may just appreciate learning a bit of spooky vocab. \r\n\r\nThe segment that I\"m translating here doesn\'t have any ghostly bits in it, this is the first chapter to get you going on the story. It\'s packed full of Chinese village culture, and some parts at the end that would be considered extremely un-PC in the west: a little anti-Japanese talk, and a little bit about buying women, the rarities of college education in the countryside: the realities of village life in China, even these days. \r\n\r\nThere\'s a lot I could talk about in here, but I do like the word 投 [pinyin]tou2[/pinyin] - This word had a ton of meanings. Imagine slipping a piece of paper into a suggestion box. Got it? That\'s what this word embodies, that action, or anything related to a similar action of taking a flat object and dropping it into a slot, literally or figuratively. So it can mean to \"vote\", as in an election, because you\'re submitting a ballot. It can mean to \"slide\" an envelope into a letter box. In this case, it means to \"submit\" a resume while seeking a job offer. We don\'t have a word for that concept in English, I think. \r\n\r\nEnjoy!\r\n\r\n
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Chinese Text
\r\n1) 我叫林小凡,今年23岁。大学刚毕业。一个三流的大学四流的成绩,大学是在杭州读,毕业之后最开始在一家房地产公司做销售员,底薪一千八。因为业绩太差,公司没说辞退我,我自己就不好意思待了。\r\n\r\n2) 在杭州转了两个月,投了不知道多少份儿简历,面试了多少次,都没有通过。盘缠花光之后,就回了老家。\r\n\r\n3) 我的老家是洛阳。洛阳的乡下,一个叫做十里铺儿的小村儿落。\r\n\r\n4) 之所以回来,是因为村儿里小学唯一的教师得了肺痨,病的已经非常严重,我作为村里走出来唯一的大学生,村长愿意一月掏出一千块的巨资来请我去代课。\r\n\r\n5) 所以我回来了。\r\n\r\n6) 在外面活的不如一条狗的我,在老家得到了极大的尊严。\r\n\r\n7) 在偏远的山村,大学生,还是一个极其厉害的存在,村民们在看到我父亲的时候,都会为他竖起大拇指,说:“老林家祖坟冒了青烟,竟然出了个大学生,以后你就走出了大山咯。”\r\n\r\n8) 每当这个时候,我父亲都会憨厚的笑一笑,抹去他脸上的汗水。\r\n\r\n9) 我回到村子之后,方圆几里的媒婆都争着抢着给我介绍对象,几乎踏破我家的门槛儿,这不是吹牛。你不在那个环境里,不知道大学生三个字的分量。\r\n\r\n10) 父亲也极力的给我张罗,在他们眼里,23岁,甚至已经过了结婚的年纪。跟我同龄的人,现在儿子已经可以光着屁股到处跑了。\r\n\r\n11) 为了不让他们操心,我也去一次次的应付相亲。\r\n\r\n12) 对,是应付。\r\n\r\n13) 大学,说白了就是一个区分性与理性的地方,虽然是山村出来的,可是我的相貌并不算丑,甚至可以说英俊。也谈过一个女朋友,我没钱,她也不是非常的富裕,可是就算这样,我们还在在一起了三年,我尽我所能的打零工,来做一个男朋友该做的。大三那年,我们分手。\r\n14) \r\n那一天,我在我们学校的后山喝了一瓶2块钱的二锅头。醒来之后,不再悲伤,继续浑浑噩噩的过日子。\r\n\r\n15) 关于相貌这一点,我继承了我母亲。\r\n\r\n16) 一个不知道故乡在哪里的美貌女人。\r\n\r\n17) 她有痴呆症。\r\n\r\n18) 在几十年前,我父亲进城,用了三百块钱把她买了回来。\r\n\r\n19) 我父亲说,他那一天花了两元钱给母亲买了一身衣服,回来的时候母亲的美貌,让村里的人哈喇子都流到了地上。\r\n\r\n20) 可惜,她是个傻子。\r\n\r\n21) 如果不是傻子,我父亲也买不起。\r\n\r\n22) 后来有了我,母亲的痴傻一直都是那样,可是她的傻,并不是像街头的疯子一样,她非常安静。\r\n\r\n23) 不说话,不动。只是安静的坐着。\r\n\r\n24) 我就在这样的一个环境下长大,可是我并不想文艺的说,我有孤僻的性格,因为就算是这样,我还是有完整的童年。\r\n\r\n25) 我父亲非常的勤劳,他尽一个农民的极限,利用手中的农具,养活一个家。我没有什么怪他的地方。\r\n\r\n26) 没钱,这是命。\r\n\r\n27) 我爷爷,是一个退伍的老军人,他不识字,没有农民典型的精明,反倒是实诚的可怕。有人说他是gmd,有人说他是gcd,可是他自己都不知道自己到底是哪个党,他唯一知道的,就是他拿枪打日本鬼子,鬼子打跑之后,他就回到了家。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n
1) My name is Lin Xiaofan, I\'m 23 years old this year. I just graduated from college. A third-rate school with fourth-tier grades, my college was in Hangzhou, and after I graduated I first went to work as sales staff at a real estate agency with a salary of 1,800 [translator\'s note: this is a very low salary, about $300 USD / month]. My sales performance was poor, and the company never fired me, but I was so embarrassed that I left. \r\n\r\n
2) I wandered around Hangzhou for two months, submitted I don\'t even know how many resumes, or went to how many interviews, but nothing came through. After I\'d spent all my travel money, I went back to my home town.\r\n\r\n
3) My home town is Luoyang. In the Luoyang countryside falls a little village called Shilipu\'er. \r\n\r\n
4) The reason I went home is because the village\'s only teacher got tuberculosis, and he was very seriously ill, so as the village\'s only person who\'d ever gone off to college, the village chief dug up a thousand-dollar [translator\'s note: \"1000 kuai\" is \"1000 Chinese Renminbi\"] investment and asked me to substitute teach. \r\n\r\n
5) So I went home. \r\n\r\n
6) My life away from home wasn\'t even as good as a dog\'s, but I get plenty of respect in my home town. \r\n\r\n
7) In such a remote village, being a college graduate is still an extremely awesome thing to be, and every time the villagers see my father, they all give him a thumbs-up and say, \"Your family\'s ancestral grave is emitting green smoke, unexpectedly out popped a college student! You\'ll be walking off this mountain after a while!\" [translator\'s note: this is a compliment regarding the family\'s lineage.]\r\n\r\n
8) Of course at these times, my father would smile in a simple and honest way, wiping the sweat off his brow. \r\n\r\n
9) After I came back to the village, all the local matchmakers tried to set me up with someone, almost trampling down my door, no exaggeration. If you\'ve never been in that [village] environment, you don\'t know the power of those three words, \"College Degree Holder\".\r\n\r\n
10) My dad also made a supreme effort to settle me, because in his eyes, at 23 years old I\'d already passed marrying age. Everyone my age already had kids running around with their bare butts hanging out. \r\n\r\n
11) So as not to make him worry, I\'d already coped with my first blind date. \r\n\r\n
12) Yes, it was definitely \"coping\". \r\n\r\n
13) College, speaking frankly, was a place with completely different place with different rationales, but although I came from a farm village, I wasn\'t considered ugly, you might even say I\'m handsome. I had a girlfriend, but I had no money, and she wasn\'t very rich either, but that\'s just the way it was, we were together three years, and I used up all my part-time work money trying to do all the things a boyfriend is supposed to do. In the third year, we broke up. \r\n\r\n
14) On that day, on the hill behind our school, I drank a bottle of 2-dollar liquor. After I woke up, I wasn\'t sad anymore, and I just continued muddle-headedly passing the days. \r\n\r\n
15) About my looks, those I inherited from my mother. \r\n\r\n
16) A good-looking woman from who-knows-where. \r\n\r\n
17) She had dementia.\r\n\r\n
18) A few decades ago, my father went to the city, and spent three hundred dollars to buy her and bring her home.\r\n\r\n
19) My dad said, that day he spent two bucks to buy mom some clothes, and when he returned, mom\'s good looks made everyone in the village drool all over the ground. \r\n\r\n
20) Pity, she was an idiot.\r\n\r\n
21) If she hadn\'t been an idiot, my dad could never have afforded her. \r\n\r\n
22) Then I came along, and mom\'s dementia continued as before, but her brand of dementia wasn\'t like a crazy street person\'s, she was very quiet. \r\n\r\n
23) She didn\'t speak, didn\'t move. Just quietly sat there.\r\n\r\n
24) This is the environment I grew up in, but I don\'t want to make it sound literary, I had an antisocial nature, but even so, I still had a full childhood. \r\n\r\n
25) My father is very industrious, he has a farmer\'s strength, using the farm tools in his hands, he nurtured a household. I don\'t have anything to blame him for. \r\n\r\n
26) No money, that\'s just life. \r\n\r\n
27) My grandfather is a retired soldier, he\'s illiterate, and he doesn\'t have any of a villager\'s typical shrewdness, on the contrary he\'s terrifyingly honest. Some people said he was GMD [translator\'s note: GMD = guo min dang, the fascist party in the Chinese civil war, who lost], some people said he was GCD [GCD = gong chang dang, the communist party that won the war and remains in power today], but he doesn\'t even know himself which \"dang\" [translator\'s note - this \"dang\" means \"political party\"] he was in, the only thing he knows is that he grabbed a gun and fought the Japanese devils [the Japanese invaded while the GMD and the GCD were fighting each other], and after the devils ran away, he went home.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Books] 《最后一个阴阳师》The Last Yin Yang Master', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'great-book-the-last-yin-yang-master', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:48:29', '2016-11-04 09:48:29', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1539', 0, 'post', '', 19),
(1540, 1, '2015-02-18 00:34:57', '2015-02-18 05:34:57', 'Happy Year of the Sheep! Couple of days ago, I stumbled across the Book \"The Last Yin Yang Master\", aka \"The Last Onmyoji\" （最后一个阴阳师), a supernatural ghost story available for free online. It\'s incredibly rare to find full-length books that aren\'t impossibly difficult to get through, but this one is phenomenal for learners. I\'m gonna put part of the first chapter here, so you can dive on in. The rest can be grabbed on
Zhuaji.com.\n\nI\'ve recently sort of discovered that ghost stories and detective novels are where it\'s at for practicing reading. The cliches in a Chinese murder mystery are exactly the same as they are anywhere: hard-boiled cop, confused rookie, seductive woman, shady business, and definitely a chase scene. It\'s easier to follow a story when you have a semi-expectation of what\'s supposed to happen. They get hard when people start talking about blood spatter and ballistics, but you can kind of get the gist. Ghost stories are the same way - a scene of normalcy is set, followed by some red-flag strangeness that everyone ignores, followed by some myths and legends, or maybe a mysterious old man, or maybe a body goes missing, and then things freaky. Again, things get hard when people start talking about the mystic books of old, or funeral customs, so you should probably be reading this with the help of Pleco (which I do), but The Last Onmyoji is accessible enough that those parts shouldn\'t stop you.\n\nThis really is worth a go for readers at almost all levels. The read is mid- to late-intermediate, but using Pleco, late-stage beginners and early-intermediates will be able to understand big chunks of it, enough to motivate you to puzzle through the parts you don\'t get. Advanced readers may just appreciate learning a bit of spooky vocab.', 'Great book: The Last Yin Yang Master', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1539-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-18 00:34:57', '2015-02-18 05:34:57', '', 1539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/18/1539-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1541, 1, '2015-02-18 02:03:04', '2015-02-18 07:03:04', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Intermediate Chinese Reading Exercises', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150218-inline', '', '', '2015-02-18 02:03:04', '2015-02-18 07:03:04', '', 1539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/20150218-inline.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1542, 1, '2015-02-18 02:03:05', '2015-02-18 07:03:05', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Intermediate Chinese Books with English Translation', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150218', '', '', '2015-02-18 02:03:05', '2015-02-18 07:03:05', '', 1539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/20150218-.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1543, 1, '2015-02-18 01:59:16', '2015-02-18 06:59:16', '[two_third]\nHappy Year of the Sheep! Couple of days ago, I stumbled across the Book \"The Last Yin Yang Master\", aka \"The Last Onmyoji\" （最后一个阴阳师), a supernatural ghost story available for free online. It\'s incredibly rare to find full-length books that aren\'t impossibly difficult to get through, but this one is phenomenal for learners. I\'m gonna put part of the first chapter here, so you can dive on in. The rest can be grabbed on
Zhuaji.com. \n\nI\'ve recently sort of discovered that ghost stories and detective novels are where it\'s at for practicing reading. The cliches in a Chinese murder mystery are exactly the same as they are anywhere: hard-boiled cop, confused rookie, seductive woman, shady business, and definitely a chase scene. It\'s easier to follow a story when you have a semi-expectation of what\'s supposed to happen. They get hard when people start talking about blood spatter and ballistics, but you can kind of get the gist. Ghost stories are the same way - a scene of normalcy is set, followed by some red-flag strangeness that everyone completely ignores because they don\'t believe in the supernatural, followed by some myths and legends, or maybe a mysterious old man, or maybe a body goes missing, and then things really freaky. Again, the read gets hard when characters start talking about the mystic books of old, or funeral customs, so you should probably be reading this with the help of Pleco (which I do), but The Last Onmyoji is accessible enough that those parts shouldn\'t totally derail you. Highly recomemended.\n\nThis really is worth a go for readers at almost all levels. The read is late-intermediate, but using Pleco, late-stage beginners and early-intermediates will be able to understand large chunks of it, enough to motivate you to puzzle through the parts you don\'t get, more so because this is being told in first-person. Remember, now, that the beginning of a book is usually the hardest as you try to get a sense of the story. Once the story gets rolling, it\'s easier to flow with it. Advanced readers may just appreciate learning a bit of spooky vocab. \n\nThe segment that I\"m translating here doesn\'t have any ghostly bits in it, this is the first chapter to get you going on the story. It\'s packed full of Chinese village culture, and some parts at the end that would be considered extremely un-PC in the west: a little anti-Japanese talk, and a little bit about buying women, the rarities of college education in the countryside: the realities of village life in China, even these days. \n\nThere\'s a lot I could talk about in here, but I do like the word 投 [pinyin]tou2[/pinyin] - This word had a ton of meanings. Imagine slipping a piece of paper into a suggestion box. Got it? That\'s what this word embodies, that action, or anything related to a similar action of taking a flat object and dropping it into a slot, literally or figuratively. So it can mean to \"vote\", as in an election, because you\'re submitting a ballot. It can mean to \"slide\" an envelope into a letter box. In this case, it means to \"submit\" a resume while seeking a job offer. We don\'t have a word for that concept in English, I think. \n\nEnjoy!\n\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n盘缠 - [pinyin]pan2 chan2[/pinyin] - Travel money\n肺痨 - [pinyin]fei4 lao2[/pinyin] - Tuberculosis\n张罗 - [pinyin]zhang1 luo5[/pinyin] - Gather together\n屁股 - [pinyin]pi4 gu5[/pinyin] - Butt, behind, rump\n浑浑噩噩 - [pinyin]hun2 hun2 e4 e4[/pinyin] - Butt, behind, rump\n\n[/one_third]\n\n\n[one_half]\n
\n我叫林小凡,今年23岁。大学刚毕业。一个三流的大学四流的成绩,大学是在杭州读,毕业之后最开始在一家房地产公司做销售员,底薪一千八。因为业绩太差,公司没说辞退我,我自己就不好意思待了。\n\n在杭州转了两个月,投了不知道多少份儿简历,面试了多少次,都没有通过。盘缠花光之后,就回了老家。\n\n我的老家是洛阳。洛阳的乡下,一个叫做十里铺儿的小村儿落。\n\n之所以回来,是因为村儿里小学唯一的教师得了肺痨,病的已经非常严重,我作为村里走出来唯一的大学生,村长愿意一月掏出一千块的巨资来请我去代课。\n\n所以我回来了。\n\n在外面活的不如一条狗的我,在老家得到了极大的尊严。\n\n在偏远的山村,大学生,还是一个极其厉害的存在,村民们在看到我父亲的时候,都会为他竖起大拇指,说:“老林家祖坟冒了青烟,竟然出了个大学生,以后你就走出了大山咯。”\n\n每当这个时候,我父亲都会憨厚的笑一笑,抹去他脸上的汗水。\n\n我回到村子之后,方圆几里的媒婆都争着抢着给我介绍对象,几乎踏破我家的门槛儿,这不是吹牛。你不在那个环境里,不知道大学生三个字的分量。\n\n父亲也极力的给我张罗,在他们眼里,23岁,甚至已经过了结婚的年纪。跟我同龄的人,现在儿子已经可以光着屁股到处跑了。\n\n为了不让他们操心,我也去一次次的应付相亲。\n\n对,是应付。\n\n大学,说白了就是一个区分性与理性的地方,虽然是山村出来的,可是我的相貌并不算丑,甚至可以说英俊。也谈过一个女朋友,我没钱,她也不是非常的富裕,可是就算这样,我们还在在一起了三年,我尽我所能的打零工,来做一个男朋友该做的。大三那年,我们分手。\n\n那一天,我在我们学校的后山喝了一瓶2块钱的二锅头。醒来之后,不再悲伤,继续浑浑噩噩的过日子。\n\n关于相貌这一点,我继承了我母亲。\n\n 一个不知道故乡在哪里的美貌女人。\n\n她有痴呆症。\n\n在几十年前,我父亲进城,用了三百块钱把她买了回来。\n\n我父亲说,他那一天花了两元钱给母亲买了一身衣服,回来的时候母亲的美貌,让村里的人哈喇子都流到了地上。\n\n可惜,她是个傻子。\n\n如果不是傻子,我父亲也买不起。\n\n后来有了我,母亲的痴傻一直都是那样,可是她的傻,并不是像街头的疯子一样,她非常安静。\n\n不说话,不动。只是安静的坐着。\n\n我就在这样的一个环境下长大,可是我并不想文艺的说,我有孤僻的性格,因为就算是这样,我还是有完整的童年。\n\n我父亲非常的勤劳,他尽一个农民的极限,利用手中的农具,养活一个家。我没有什么怪他的地方。\n\n没钱,这是命。\n\n我爷爷,是一个退伍的老军人,他不识字,没有农民典型的精明,反倒是实诚的可怕。有人说他是gmd,有人说他是gcd,可是他自己都不知道自己到底是哪个党,他唯一知道的,就是他拿枪打日本鬼子,鬼子打跑之后,他就回到了家。\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nMy name is Lin Xiaofan, I\'m 23 years old this year. I just graduated from college. A third-rate school with fourth-tier grades, my college was in Hangzhou, and after I graduated I first went to work as sales staff at a real estate agency with a salary of 1,800 [translator\'s note: this is a very low salary, about $300 USD / month]. My sales performance was poor, and the company never fired me, but I was so embarrassed that I left. \n\nI wandered around Hangzhou for two months, submitted I don\'t even know how many resumes, or went to how many interviews, but nothing came through. After I\'d spent all my travel money, I went back to my home town.\n\nMy home town is Luoyang. In the Luoyang countryside falls a little village called Shilipu\'er. \n\nThe reason I went home is because the village\'s only teacher got tuberculosis, and he was very seriously ill, so as the village\'s only person who\'d ever gone off to college, the village chief dug up a thousand-dollar [translator\'s note: \"1000 kuai\" is \"1000 Chinese Renminbi\"] investment and asked me to substitute teach. \n\nSo I went home. \n\nMy life away from home wasn\'t even as good as a dog\'s, but I get plenty of respect in my home town. \n\nIn such a remote village, being a college graduate is still an extremely awesome thing to be, and every time the villagers see my father, they all give him a thumbs-up and say, \"Your family\'s ancestral grave is emitting green smoke, unexpectedly out popped a college student! You\'ll be walking off this mountain after a while!\" [translator\'s note: this is a compliment regarding the family\'s lineage.]\n\nOf course at these times, my father would smile in a simple and honest way, wiping the sweat off his brow. \n\nAfter I came back to the village, all the local matchmakers tried to set me up with someone, almost trampling down my door, no exaggeration. If you\'ve never been in that [village] environment, you don\'t know the power of those three words, \"College Degree Holder\".\n\nMy dad also made a supreme effort to settle me, because in his eyes, at 23 years old I\'d already passed marrying age. Everyone my age already had kids running around with their bare butts hanging out. \n\nSo as not to make him worry, I\'d already coped with my first blind date. \n\nYes, it was definitely \"coping\". \n\nCollege, speaking frankly, was a place with completely different place with different rationales, but although I came from a farm village, I wasn\'t considered ugly, you might even say I\'m handsome. I had a girlfriend, but I had no money, and she wasn\'t very rich either, but that\'s just the way it was, we were together three years, and I used up all my part-time work money trying to do all the things a boyfriend is supposed to do. In the third year, we broke up. \n\nOn that day, on the hill behind our school, I drank a bottle of 2-dollar liquor. After I woke up, I wasn\'t sad anymore, and I just continued muddle-headedly passing the days. \n\nAbout my looks, those I inherited from my mother. \n\nA good-looking woman from who-knows-where. \n\nShe had dementia.\n\nA few decades ago, my father went to the city, and spent three hundred dollars to buy her and bring her home.\n\nMy dad said, that day he spent two bucks to buy mom some clothes, and when he returned, mom\'s good looks made everyone in the village drool all over the ground. \n\nPity, she was an idiot.\n\nIf she hadn\'t been an idiot, my dad could never have afforded her. \n\nThen I came along, and mom\'s dementia continued as before, but her brand of dementia wasn\'t like a crazy street person\'s, she was very quiet. \n\nShe didn\'t speak, didn\'t move. Just quietly sat there.\n\nThis is the environment I grew up in, but I don\'t want to make it sound literary, I had an antisocial nature, but even so, I still had a full childhood. \n\nMy father is very industrious, he has a farmer\'s strength, using the farm tools in his hands, he nurtured a household. I don\'t have anything to blame him for. \n\nNo money, that\'s just life. \n\nMy grandfather is a retired soldier, he\'s illiterate, and he doesn\'t have any of a villager\'s typical shrewdness, on the contrary he\'s terrifyingly honest. Some people said he was GMD [translator\'s note: GMD = guo min dang, the fascist party in the Chinese civil war, who lost], some people said he was GCD [GCD = gong chang dang, the communist party that won the war and remains in power today], but he doesn\'t even know himself which \"dang\" [translator\'s note - this \"dang\" means \"political party\"] he was in, the only thing he knows is that he grabbed a gun and fought the Japanese devils [the Japanese invaded while the GMD and the GCD were fighting each other], and after the devils ran away, he went home.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Great book: The Last Yin Yang Master', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1539-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-18 01:59:16', '2015-02-18 06:59:16', '', 1539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/18/1539-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1544, 1, '2015-02-18 02:04:33', '2015-02-18 07:04:33', '[two_third]\r\nHappy Year of the Sheep! Couple of days ago, I stumbled across the Book \"The Last Yin Yang Master\", aka \"The Last Onmyoji\" （最后一个阴阳师), a supernatural ghost story available for free online. It\'s incredibly rare to find full-length books that aren\'t impossibly difficult to get through, but this one is phenomenal for learners. I\'m gonna put part of the first chapter here, so you can dive on in. The rest can be grabbed on
Zhuaji.com. \r\n\r\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/20150218-inline.jpg\" "\\"Learn")
I\'ve recently sort of discovered that ghost stories and detective novels are where it\'s at for practicing reading. The cliches in a Chinese murder mystery are exactly the same as they are anywhere: hard-boiled cop, confused rookie, seductive woman, shady business, and definitely a chase scene. It\'s easier to follow a story when you have a semi-expectation of what\'s supposed to happen. They get hard when people start talking about blood spatter and ballistics, but you can kind of get the gist. Ghost stories are the same way - a scene of normalcy is set, followed by some red-flag strangeness that everyone completely ignores because they don\'t believe in the supernatural, followed by some myths and legends, or maybe a mysterious old man, or maybe a body goes missing, and then things really freaky. Again, the read gets hard when characters start talking about the mystic books of old, or funeral customs, so you should probably be reading this with the help of Pleco (which I do), but The Last Onmyoji is accessible enough that those parts shouldn\'t totally derail you. Highly recomemended.\r\n\r\nThis really is worth a go for readers at almost all levels. The read is late-intermediate, but using Pleco, late-stage beginners and early-intermediates will be able to understand large chunks of it, enough to motivate you to puzzle through the parts you don\'t get, more so because this is being told in first-person. Remember, now, that the beginning of a book is usually the hardest as you try to get a sense of the story. Once the story gets rolling, it\'s easier to flow with it. Advanced readers may just appreciate learning a bit of spooky vocab. \r\n\r\nThe segment that I\"m translating here doesn\'t have any ghostly bits in it, this is the first chapter to get you going on the story. It\'s packed full of Chinese village culture, and some parts at the end that would be considered extremely un-PC in the west: a little anti-Japanese talk, and a little bit about buying women, the rarities of college education in the countryside: the realities of village life in China, even these days. \r\n\r\nThere\'s a lot I could talk about in here, but I do like the word 投 [pinyin]tou2[/pinyin] - This word had a ton of meanings. Imagine slipping a piece of paper into a suggestion box. Got it? That\'s what this word embodies, that action, or anything related to a similar action of taking a flat object and dropping it into a slot, literally or figuratively. So it can mean to \"vote\", as in an election, because you\'re submitting a ballot. It can mean to \"slide\" an envelope into a letter box. In this case, it means to \"submit\" a resume while seeking a job offer. We don\'t have a word for that concept in English, I think. \r\n\r\nEnjoy!\r\n\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n盘缠 - [pinyin]pan2 chan2[/pinyin] - Travel money\r\n肺痨 - [pinyin]fei4 lao2[/pinyin] - Tuberculosis\r\n张罗 - [pinyin]zhang1 luo5[/pinyin] - Gather together\r\n屁股 - [pinyin]pi4 gu5[/pinyin] - Butt, behind, rump\r\n浑浑噩噩 - [pinyin]hun2 hun2 e4 e4[/pinyin] - Butt, behind, rump\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n我叫林小凡,今年23岁。大学刚毕业。一个三流的大学四流的成绩,大学是在杭州读,毕业之后最开始在一家房地产公司做销售员,底薪一千八。因为业绩太差,公司没说辞退我,我自己就不好意思待了。\r\n\r\n在杭州转了两个月,投了不知道多少份儿简历,面试了多少次,都没有通过。盘缠花光之后,就回了老家。\r\n\r\n我的老家是洛阳。洛阳的乡下,一个叫做十里铺儿的小村儿落。\r\n\r\n之所以回来,是因为村儿里小学唯一的教师得了肺痨,病的已经非常严重,我作为村里走出来唯一的大学生,村长愿意一月掏出一千块的巨资来请我去代课。\r\n\r\n所以我回来了。\r\n\r\n在外面活的不如一条狗的我,在老家得到了极大的尊严。\r\n\r\n在偏远的山村,大学生,还是一个极其厉害的存在,村民们在看到我父亲的时候,都会为他竖起大拇指,说:“老林家祖坟冒了青烟,竟然出了个大学生,以后你就走出了大山咯。”\r\n\r\n每当这个时候,我父亲都会憨厚的笑一笑,抹去他脸上的汗水。\r\n\r\n我回到村子之后,方圆几里的媒婆都争着抢着给我介绍对象,几乎踏破我家的门槛儿,这不是吹牛。你不在那个环境里,不知道大学生三个字的分量。\r\n\r\n父亲也极力的给我张罗,在他们眼里,23岁,甚至已经过了结婚的年纪。跟我同龄的人,现在儿子已经可以光着屁股到处跑了。\r\n\r\n为了不让他们操心,我也去一次次的应付相亲。\r\n\r\n对,是应付。\r\n\r\n大学,说白了就是一个区分性与理性的地方,虽然是山村出来的,可是我的相貌并不算丑,甚至可以说英俊。也谈过一个女朋友,我没钱,她也不是非常的富裕,可是就算这样,我们还在在一起了三年,我尽我所能的打零工,来做一个男朋友该做的。大三那年,我们分手。\r\n\r\n那一天,我在我们学校的后山喝了一瓶2块钱的二锅头。醒来之后,不再悲伤,继续浑浑噩噩的过日子。\r\n\r\n关于相貌这一点,我继承了我母亲。\r\n\r\n 一个不知道故乡在哪里的美貌女人。\r\n\r\n她有痴呆症。\r\n\r\n在几十年前,我父亲进城,用了三百块钱把她买了回来。\r\n\r\n我父亲说,他那一天花了两元钱给母亲买了一身衣服,回来的时候母亲的美貌,让村里的人哈喇子都流到了地上。\r\n\r\n可惜,她是个傻子。\r\n\r\n如果不是傻子,我父亲也买不起。\r\n\r\n后来有了我,母亲的痴傻一直都是那样,可是她的傻,并不是像街头的疯子一样,她非常安静。\r\n\r\n不说话,不动。只是安静的坐着。\r\n\r\n我就在这样的一个环境下长大,可是我并不想文艺的说,我有孤僻的性格,因为就算是这样,我还是有完整的童年。\r\n\r\n我父亲非常的勤劳,他尽一个农民的极限,利用手中的农具,养活一个家。我没有什么怪他的地方。\r\n\r\n没钱,这是命。\r\n\r\n我爷爷,是一个退伍的老军人,他不识字,没有农民典型的精明,反倒是实诚的可怕。有人说他是gmd,有人说他是gcd,可是他自己都不知道自己到底是哪个党,他唯一知道的,就是他拿枪打日本鬼子,鬼子打跑之后,他就回到了家。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nMy name is Lin Xiaofan, I\'m 23 years old this year. I just graduated from college. A third-rate school with fourth-tier grades, my college was in Hangzhou, and after I graduated I first went to work as sales staff at a real estate agency with a salary of 1,800 [translator\'s note: this is a very low salary, about $300 USD / month]. My sales performance was poor, and the company never fired me, but I was so embarrassed that I left. \r\n\r\nI wandered around Hangzhou for two months, submitted I don\'t even know how many resumes, or went to how many interviews, but nothing came through. After I\'d spent all my travel money, I went back to my home town.\r\n\r\nMy home town is Luoyang. In the Luoyang countryside falls a little village called Shilipu\'er. \r\n\r\nThe reason I went home is because the village\'s only teacher got tuberculosis, and he was very seriously ill, so as the village\'s only person who\'d ever gone off to college, the village chief dug up a thousand-dollar [translator\'s note: \"1000 kuai\" is \"1000 Chinese Renminbi\"] investment and asked me to substitute teach. \r\n\r\nSo I went home. \r\n\r\nMy life away from home wasn\'t even as good as a dog\'s, but I get plenty of respect in my home town. \r\n\r\nIn such a remote village, being a college graduate is still an extremely awesome thing to be, and every time the villagers see my father, they all give him a thumbs-up and say, \"Your family\'s ancestral grave is emitting green smoke, unexpectedly out popped a college student! You\'ll be walking off this mountain after a while!\" [translator\'s note: this is a compliment regarding the family\'s lineage.]\r\n\r\nOf course at these times, my father would smile in a simple and honest way, wiping the sweat off his brow. \r\n\r\nAfter I came back to the village, all the local matchmakers tried to set me up with someone, almost trampling down my door, no exaggeration. If you\'ve never been in that [village] environment, you don\'t know the power of those three words, \"College Degree Holder\".\r\n\r\nMy dad also made a supreme effort to settle me, because in his eyes, at 23 years old I\'d already passed marrying age. Everyone my age already had kids running around with their bare butts hanging out. \r\n\r\nSo as not to make him worry, I\'d already coped with my first blind date. \r\n\r\nYes, it was definitely \"coping\". \r\n\r\nCollege, speaking frankly, was a place with completely different place with different rationales, but although I came from a farm village, I wasn\'t considered ugly, you might even say I\'m handsome. I had a girlfriend, but I had no money, and she wasn\'t very rich either, but that\'s just the way it was, we were together three years, and I used up all my part-time work money trying to do all the things a boyfriend is supposed to do. In the third year, we broke up. \r\n\r\nOn that day, on the hill behind our school, I drank a bottle of 2-dollar liquor. After I woke up, I wasn\'t sad anymore, and I just continued muddle-headedly passing the days. \r\n\r\nAbout my looks, those I inherited from my mother. \r\n\r\nA good-looking woman from who-knows-where. \r\n\r\nShe had dementia.\r\n\r\nA few decades ago, my father went to the city, and spent three hundred dollars to buy her and bring her home.\r\n\r\nMy dad said, that day he spent two bucks to buy mom some clothes, and when he returned, mom\'s good looks made everyone in the village drool all over the ground. \r\n\r\nPity, she was an idiot.\r\n\r\nIf she hadn\'t been an idiot, my dad could never have afforded her. \r\n\r\nThen I came along, and mom\'s dementia continued as before, but her brand of dementia wasn\'t like a crazy street person\'s, she was very quiet. \r\n\r\nShe didn\'t speak, didn\'t move. Just quietly sat there.\r\n\r\nThis is the environment I grew up in, but I don\'t want to make it sound literary, I had an antisocial nature, but even so, I still had a full childhood. \r\n\r\nMy father is very industrious, he has a farmer\'s strength, using the farm tools in his hands, he nurtured a household. I don\'t have anything to blame him for. \r\n\r\nNo money, that\'s just life. \r\n\r\nMy grandfather is a retired soldier, he\'s illiterate, and he doesn\'t have any of a villager\'s typical shrewdness, on the contrary he\'s terrifyingly honest. Some people said he was GMD [translator\'s note: GMD = guo min dang, the fascist party in the Chinese civil war, who lost], some people said he was GCD [GCD = gong chang dang, the communist party that won the war and remains in power today], but he doesn\'t even know himself which \"dang\" [translator\'s note - this \"dang\" means \"political party\"] he was in, the only thing he knows is that he grabbed a gun and fought the Japanese devils [the Japanese invaded while the GMD and the GCD were fighting each other], and after the devils ran away, he went home.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Great book: The Last Yin Yang Master', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1539-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-18 02:04:33', '2015-02-18 07:04:33', '', 1539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/18/1539-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1545, 1, '2015-02-18 02:04:47', '2015-02-18 07:04:47', '[two_third]\r\nHappy Year of the Sheep! Couple of days ago, I stumbled across the Book \"The Last Yin Yang Master\", aka \"The Last Onmyoji\" （最后一个阴阳师), a supernatural ghost story available for free online. It\'s incredibly rare to find full-length books that aren\'t impossibly difficult to get through, but this one is phenomenal for learners. I\'m gonna put part of the first chapter here, so you can dive on in. The rest can be grabbed on
Zhuaji.com. \r\n\r\n
I\'ve recently sort of discovered that ghost stories and detective novels are where it\'s at for practicing reading. The cliches in a Chinese murder mystery are exactly the same as they are anywhere: hard-boiled cop, confused rookie, seductive woman, shady business, and definitely a chase scene. It\'s easier to follow a story when you have a semi-expectation of what\'s supposed to happen. They get hard when people start talking about blood spatter and ballistics, but you can kind of get the gist. Ghost stories are the same way - a scene of normalcy is set, followed by some red-flag strangeness that everyone completely ignores because they don\'t believe in the supernatural, followed by some myths and legends, or maybe a mysterious old man, or maybe a body goes missing, and then things really freaky. Again, the read gets hard when characters start talking about the mystic books of old, or funeral customs, so you should probably be reading this with the help of Pleco (which I do), but The Last Onmyoji is accessible enough that those parts shouldn\'t totally derail you. Highly recommended.\r\n\r\nThis really is worth a go for readers at almost all levels. The read is late-intermediate, but using Pleco, late-stage beginners and early-intermediates will be able to understand large chunks of it, enough to motivate you to puzzle through the parts you don\'t get, more so because this is being told in first-person. Remember, now, that the beginning of a book is usually the hardest as you try to get a sense of the story. Once the story gets rolling, it\'s easier to flow with it. Advanced readers may just appreciate learning a bit of spooky vocab. \r\n\r\nThe segment that I\"m translating here doesn\'t have any ghostly bits in it, this is the first chapter to get you going on the story. It\'s packed full of Chinese village culture, and some parts at the end that would be considered extremely un-PC in the west: a little anti-Japanese talk, and a little bit about buying women, the rarities of college education in the countryside: the realities of village life in China, even these days. \r\n\r\nThere\'s a lot I could talk about in here, but I do like the word 投 [pinyin]tou2[/pinyin] - This word had a ton of meanings. Imagine slipping a piece of paper into a suggestion box. Got it? That\'s what this word embodies, that action, or anything related to a similar action of taking a flat object and dropping it into a slot, literally or figuratively. So it can mean to \"vote\", as in an election, because you\'re submitting a ballot. It can mean to \"slide\" an envelope into a letter box. In this case, it means to \"submit\" a resume while seeking a job offer. We don\'t have a word for that concept in English, I think. \r\n\r\nEnjoy!\r\n\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n盘缠 - [pinyin]pan2 chan2[/pinyin] - Travel money\r\n肺痨 - [pinyin]fei4 lao2[/pinyin] - Tuberculosis\r\n张罗 - [pinyin]zhang1 luo5[/pinyin] - Gather together\r\n屁股 - [pinyin]pi4 gu5[/pinyin] - Butt, behind, rump\r\n浑浑噩噩 - [pinyin]hun2 hun2 e4 e4[/pinyin] - Butt, behind, rump\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n我叫林小凡,今年23岁。大学刚毕业。一个三流的大学四流的成绩,大学是在杭州读,毕业之后最开始在一家房地产公司做销售员,底薪一千八。因为业绩太差,公司没说辞退我,我自己就不好意思待了。\r\n\r\n在杭州转了两个月,投了不知道多少份儿简历,面试了多少次,都没有通过。盘缠花光之后,就回了老家。\r\n\r\n我的老家是洛阳。洛阳的乡下,一个叫做十里铺儿的小村儿落。\r\n\r\n之所以回来,是因为村儿里小学唯一的教师得了肺痨,病的已经非常严重,我作为村里走出来唯一的大学生,村长愿意一月掏出一千块的巨资来请我去代课。\r\n\r\n所以我回来了。\r\n\r\n在外面活的不如一条狗的我,在老家得到了极大的尊严。\r\n\r\n在偏远的山村,大学生,还是一个极其厉害的存在,村民们在看到我父亲的时候,都会为他竖起大拇指,说:“老林家祖坟冒了青烟,竟然出了个大学生,以后你就走出了大山咯。”\r\n\r\n每当这个时候,我父亲都会憨厚的笑一笑,抹去他脸上的汗水。\r\n\r\n我回到村子之后,方圆几里的媒婆都争着抢着给我介绍对象,几乎踏破我家的门槛儿,这不是吹牛。你不在那个环境里,不知道大学生三个字的分量。\r\n\r\n父亲也极力的给我张罗,在他们眼里,23岁,甚至已经过了结婚的年纪。跟我同龄的人,现在儿子已经可以光着屁股到处跑了。\r\n\r\n为了不让他们操心,我也去一次次的应付相亲。\r\n\r\n对,是应付。\r\n\r\n大学,说白了就是一个区分性与理性的地方,虽然是山村出来的,可是我的相貌并不算丑,甚至可以说英俊。也谈过一个女朋友,我没钱,她也不是非常的富裕,可是就算这样,我们还在在一起了三年,我尽我所能的打零工,来做一个男朋友该做的。大三那年,我们分手。\r\n\r\n那一天,我在我们学校的后山喝了一瓶2块钱的二锅头。醒来之后,不再悲伤,继续浑浑噩噩的过日子。\r\n\r\n关于相貌这一点,我继承了我母亲。\r\n\r\n 一个不知道故乡在哪里的美貌女人。\r\n\r\n她有痴呆症。\r\n\r\n在几十年前,我父亲进城,用了三百块钱把她买了回来。\r\n\r\n我父亲说,他那一天花了两元钱给母亲买了一身衣服,回来的时候母亲的美貌,让村里的人哈喇子都流到了地上。\r\n\r\n可惜,她是个傻子。\r\n\r\n如果不是傻子,我父亲也买不起。\r\n\r\n后来有了我,母亲的痴傻一直都是那样,可是她的傻,并不是像街头的疯子一样,她非常安静。\r\n\r\n不说话,不动。只是安静的坐着。\r\n\r\n我就在这样的一个环境下长大,可是我并不想文艺的说,我有孤僻的性格,因为就算是这样,我还是有完整的童年。\r\n\r\n我父亲非常的勤劳,他尽一个农民的极限,利用手中的农具,养活一个家。我没有什么怪他的地方。\r\n\r\n没钱,这是命。\r\n\r\n我爷爷,是一个退伍的老军人,他不识字,没有农民典型的精明,反倒是实诚的可怕。有人说他是gmd,有人说他是gcd,可是他自己都不知道自己到底是哪个党,他唯一知道的,就是他拿枪打日本鬼子,鬼子打跑之后,他就回到了家。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nMy name is Lin Xiaofan, I\'m 23 years old this year. I just graduated from college. A third-rate school with fourth-tier grades, my college was in Hangzhou, and after I graduated I first went to work as sales staff at a real estate agency with a salary of 1,800 [translator\'s note: this is a very low salary, about $300 USD / month]. My sales performance was poor, and the company never fired me, but I was so embarrassed that I left. \r\n\r\nI wandered around Hangzhou for two months, submitted I don\'t even know how many resumes, or went to how many interviews, but nothing came through. After I\'d spent all my travel money, I went back to my home town.\r\n\r\nMy home town is Luoyang. In the Luoyang countryside falls a little village called Shilipu\'er. \r\n\r\nThe reason I went home is because the village\'s only teacher got tuberculosis, and he was very seriously ill, so as the village\'s only person who\'d ever gone off to college, the village chief dug up a thousand-dollar [translator\'s note: \"1000 kuai\" is \"1000 Chinese Renminbi\"] investment and asked me to substitute teach. \r\n\r\nSo I went home. \r\n\r\nMy life away from home wasn\'t even as good as a dog\'s, but I get plenty of respect in my home town. \r\n\r\nIn such a remote village, being a college graduate is still an extremely awesome thing to be, and every time the villagers see my father, they all give him a thumbs-up and say, \"Your family\'s ancestral grave is emitting green smoke, unexpectedly out popped a college student! You\'ll be walking off this mountain after a while!\" [translator\'s note: this is a compliment regarding the family\'s lineage.]\r\n\r\nOf course at these times, my father would smile in a simple and honest way, wiping the sweat off his brow. \r\n\r\nAfter I came back to the village, all the local matchmakers tried to set me up with someone, almost trampling down my door, no exaggeration. If you\'ve never been in that [village] environment, you don\'t know the power of those three words, \"College Degree Holder\".\r\n\r\nMy dad also made a supreme effort to settle me, because in his eyes, at 23 years old I\'d already passed marrying age. Everyone my age already had kids running around with their bare butts hanging out. \r\n\r\nSo as not to make him worry, I\'d already coped with my first blind date. \r\n\r\nYes, it was definitely \"coping\". \r\n\r\nCollege, speaking frankly, was a place with completely different place with different rationales, but although I came from a farm village, I wasn\'t considered ugly, you might even say I\'m handsome. I had a girlfriend, but I had no money, and she wasn\'t very rich either, but that\'s just the way it was, we were together three years, and I used up all my part-time work money trying to do all the things a boyfriend is supposed to do. In the third year, we broke up. \r\n\r\nOn that day, on the hill behind our school, I drank a bottle of 2-dollar liquor. After I woke up, I wasn\'t sad anymore, and I just continued muddle-headedly passing the days. \r\n\r\nAbout my looks, those I inherited from my mother. \r\n\r\nA good-looking woman from who-knows-where. \r\n\r\nShe had dementia.\r\n\r\nA few decades ago, my father went to the city, and spent three hundred dollars to buy her and bring her home.\r\n\r\nMy dad said, that day he spent two bucks to buy mom some clothes, and when he returned, mom\'s good looks made everyone in the village drool all over the ground. \r\n\r\nPity, she was an idiot.\r\n\r\nIf she hadn\'t been an idiot, my dad could never have afforded her. \r\n\r\nThen I came along, and mom\'s dementia continued as before, but her brand of dementia wasn\'t like a crazy street person\'s, she was very quiet. \r\n\r\nShe didn\'t speak, didn\'t move. Just quietly sat there.\r\n\r\nThis is the environment I grew up in, but I don\'t want to make it sound literary, I had an antisocial nature, but even so, I still had a full childhood. \r\n\r\nMy father is very industrious, he has a farmer\'s strength, using the farm tools in his hands, he nurtured a household. I don\'t have anything to blame him for. \r\n\r\nNo money, that\'s just life. \r\n\r\nMy grandfather is a retired soldier, he\'s illiterate, and he doesn\'t have any of a villager\'s typical shrewdness, on the contrary he\'s terrifyingly honest. Some people said he was GMD [translator\'s note: GMD = guo min dang, the fascist party in the Chinese civil war, who lost], some people said he was GCD [GCD = gong chang dang, the communist party that won the war and remains in power today], but he doesn\'t even know himself which \"dang\" [translator\'s note - this \"dang\" means \"political party\"] he was in, the only thing he knows is that he grabbed a gun and fought the Japanese devils [the Japanese invaded while the GMD and the GCD were fighting each other], and after the devils ran away, he went home.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Great book: The Last Yin Yang Master', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1539-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-18 02:04:47', '2015-02-18 07:04:47', '', 1539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/18/1539-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1546, 1, '2015-02-18 02:05:23', '2015-02-18 07:05:23', '[two_third]\r\nHappy Year of the Sheep! Couple of days ago, I stumbled across the Book \"The Last Yin Yang Master\", aka \"The Last Onmyoji\" （最后一个阴阳师), a supernatural ghost story available for free online. It\'s incredibly rare to find full-length books that aren\'t impossibly difficult to get through, but this one is phenomenal for learners. I\'m gonna put part of the first chapter here, so you can dive on in. The rest can be grabbed on
Zhuaji.com. \r\n\r\n
I\'ve recently sort of discovered that ghost stories and detective novels are where it\'s at for practicing reading. The cliches in a Chinese murder mystery are exactly the same as they are anywhere: hard-boiled cop, confused rookie, seductive woman, shady business, and definitely a chase scene. It\'s easier to follow a story when you have a semi-expectation of what\'s supposed to happen. They get hard when people start talking about blood spatter and ballistics, but you can kind of get the gist. Ghost stories are the same way - a scene of normalcy is set, followed by some red-flag strangeness that everyone completely ignores because they don\'t believe in the supernatural, followed by some myths and legends, or maybe a mysterious old man, or maybe a body goes missing, and then things really freaky. Again, the read gets hard when characters start talking about the mystic books of old, or funeral customs, so you should probably be reading this with the help of Pleco (which I do), but The Last Onmyoji is accessible enough that those parts shouldn\'t totally derail you. Highly recommended.\r\n\r\nThis really is worth a go for readers at almost all levels. The read is late-intermediate, but using Pleco, late-stage beginners and early-intermediates will be able to understand large chunks of it, enough to motivate you to puzzle through the parts you don\'t get, more so because this is being told in first-person. Remember, now, that the beginning of a book is usually the hardest as you try to get a sense of the story. Once the story gets rolling, it\'s easier to flow with it. Advanced readers may just appreciate learning a bit of spooky vocab. \r\n\r\nThe segment that I\"m translating here doesn\'t have any ghostly bits in it, this is the first chapter to get you going on the story. It\'s packed full of Chinese village culture, and some parts at the end that would be considered extremely un-PC in the west: a little anti-Japanese talk, and a little bit about buying women, the rarities of college education in the countryside: the realities of village life in China, even these days. \r\n\r\nThere\'s a lot I could talk about in here, but I do like the word 投 [pinyin]tou2[/pinyin] - This word had a ton of meanings. Imagine slipping a piece of paper into a suggestion box. Got it? That\'s what this word embodies, that action, or anything related to a similar action of taking a flat object and dropping it into a slot, literally or figuratively. So it can mean to \"vote\", as in an election, because you\'re submitting a ballot. It can mean to \"slide\" an envelope into a letter box. In this case, it means to \"submit\" a resume while seeking a job offer. We don\'t have a word for that concept in English, I think. \r\n\r\nEnjoy!\r\n\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n盘缠 - [pinyin]pan2 chan2[/pinyin] - Travel money\r\n肺痨 - [pinyin]fei4 lao2[/pinyin] - Tuberculosis\r\n张罗 - [pinyin]zhang1 luo5[/pinyin] - Gather together\r\n屁股 - [pinyin]pi4 gu5[/pinyin] - Butt, behind, rump\r\n浑浑噩噩 - [pinyin]hun2 hun2 e4 e4[/pinyin] - Butt, behind, rump\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n我叫林小凡,今年23岁。大学刚毕业。一个三流的大学四流的成绩,大学是在杭州读,毕业之后最开始在一家房地产公司做销售员,底薪一千八。因为业绩太差,公司没说辞退我,我自己就不好意思待了。\r\n\r\n在杭州转了两个月,投了不知道多少份儿简历,面试了多少次,都没有通过。盘缠花光之后,就回了老家。\r\n\r\n我的老家是洛阳。洛阳的乡下,一个叫做十里铺儿的小村儿落。\r\n\r\n之所以回来,是因为村儿里小学唯一的教师得了肺痨,病的已经非常严重,我作为村里走出来唯一的大学生,村长愿意一月掏出一千块的巨资来请我去代课。\r\n\r\n所以我回来了。\r\n\r\n在外面活的不如一条狗的我,在老家得到了极大的尊严。\r\n\r\n在偏远的山村,大学生,还是一个极其厉害的存在,村民们在看到我父亲的时候,都会为他竖起大拇指,说:“老林家祖坟冒了青烟,竟然出了个大学生,以后你就走出了大山咯。”\r\n\r\n每当这个时候,我父亲都会憨厚的笑一笑,抹去他脸上的汗水。\r\n\r\n我回到村子之后,方圆几里的媒婆都争着抢着给我介绍对象,几乎踏破我家的门槛儿,这不是吹牛。你不在那个环境里,不知道大学生三个字的分量。\r\n\r\n父亲也极力的给我张罗,在他们眼里,23岁,甚至已经过了结婚的年纪。跟我同龄的人,现在儿子已经可以光着屁股到处跑了。\r\n\r\n为了不让他们操心,我也去一次次的应付相亲。\r\n\r\n对,是应付。\r\n\r\n大学,说白了就是一个区分性与理性的地方,虽然是山村出来的,可是我的相貌并不算丑,甚至可以说英俊。也谈过一个女朋友,我没钱,她也不是非常的富裕,可是就算这样,我们还在在一起了三年,我尽我所能的打零工,来做一个男朋友该做的。大三那年,我们分手。\r\n\r\n那一天,我在我们学校的后山喝了一瓶2块钱的二锅头。醒来之后,不再悲伤,继续浑浑噩噩的过日子。\r\n\r\n关于相貌这一点,我继承了我母亲。\r\n\r\n 一个不知道故乡在哪里的美貌女人。\r\n\r\n她有痴呆症。\r\n\r\n在几十年前,我父亲进城,用了三百块钱把她买了回来。\r\n\r\n我父亲说,他那一天花了两元钱给母亲买了一身衣服,回来的时候母亲的美貌,让村里的人哈喇子都流到了地上。\r\n\r\n可惜,她是个傻子。\r\n\r\n如果不是傻子,我父亲也买不起。\r\n\r\n后来有了我,母亲的痴傻一直都是那样,可是她的傻,并不是像街头的疯子一样,她非常安静。\r\n\r\n不说话,不动。只是安静的坐着。\r\n\r\n我就在这样的一个环境下长大,可是我并不想文艺的说,我有孤僻的性格,因为就算是这样,我还是有完整的童年。\r\n\r\n我父亲非常的勤劳,他尽一个农民的极限,利用手中的农具,养活一个家。我没有什么怪他的地方。\r\n\r\n没钱,这是命。\r\n\r\n我爷爷,是一个退伍的老军人,他不识字,没有农民典型的精明,反倒是实诚的可怕。有人说他是gmd,有人说他是gcd,可是他自己都不知道自己到底是哪个党,他唯一知道的,就是他拿枪打日本鬼子,鬼子打跑之后,他就回到了家。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nMy name is Lin Xiaofan, I\'m 23 years old this year. I just graduated from college. A third-rate school with fourth-tier grades, my college was in Hangzhou, and after I graduated I first went to work as sales staff at a real estate agency with a salary of 1,800 [translator\'s note: this is a very low salary, about $300 USD / month]. My sales performance was poor, and the company never fired me, but I was so embarrassed that I left. \r\n\r\nI wandered around Hangzhou for two months, submitted I don\'t even know how many resumes, or went to how many interviews, but nothing came through. After I\'d spent all my travel money, I went back to my home town.\r\n\r\nMy home town is Luoyang. In the Luoyang countryside falls a little village called Shilipu\'er. \r\n\r\nThe reason I went home is because the village\'s only teacher got tuberculosis, and he was very seriously ill, so as the village\'s only person who\'d ever gone off to college, the village chief dug up a thousand-dollar [translator\'s note: \"1000 kuai\" is \"1000 Chinese Renminbi\"] investment and asked me to substitute teach. \r\n\r\nSo I went home. \r\n\r\nMy life away from home wasn\'t even as good as a dog\'s, but I get plenty of respect in my home town. \r\n\r\nIn such a remote village, being a college graduate is still an extremely awesome thing to be, and every time the villagers see my father, they all give him a thumbs-up and say, \"Your family\'s ancestral grave is emitting green smoke, unexpectedly out popped a college student! You\'ll be walking off this mountain after a while!\" [translator\'s note: this is a compliment regarding the family\'s lineage.]\r\n\r\nOf course at these times, my father would smile in a simple and honest way, wiping the sweat off his brow. \r\n\r\nAfter I came back to the village, all the local matchmakers tried to set me up with someone, almost trampling down my door, no exaggeration. If you\'ve never been in that [village] environment, you don\'t know the power of those three words, \"College Degree Holder\".\r\n\r\nMy dad also made a supreme effort to settle me, because in his eyes, at 23 years old I\'d already passed marrying age. Everyone my age already had kids running around with their bare butts hanging out. \r\n\r\nSo as not to make him worry, I\'d already coped with my first blind date. \r\n\r\nYes, it was definitely \"coping\". \r\n\r\nCollege, speaking frankly, was a place with completely different place with different rationales, but although I came from a farm village, I wasn\'t considered ugly, you might even say I\'m handsome. I had a girlfriend, but I had no money, and she wasn\'t very rich either, but that\'s just the way it was, we were together three years, and I used up all my part-time work money trying to do all the things a boyfriend is supposed to do. In the third year, we broke up. \r\n\r\nOn that day, on the hill behind our school, I drank a bottle of 2-dollar liquor. After I woke up, I wasn\'t sad anymore, and I just continued muddle-headedly passing the days. \r\n\r\nAbout my looks, those I inherited from my mother. \r\n\r\nA good-looking woman from who-knows-where. \r\n\r\nShe had dementia.\r\n\r\nA few decades ago, my father went to the city, and spent three hundred dollars to buy her and bring her home.\r\n\r\nMy dad said, that day he spent two bucks to buy mom some clothes, and when he returned, mom\'s good looks made everyone in the village drool all over the ground. \r\n\r\nPity, she was an idiot.\r\n\r\nIf she hadn\'t been an idiot, my dad could never have afforded her. \r\n\r\nThen I came along, and mom\'s dementia continued as before, but her brand of dementia wasn\'t like a crazy street person\'s, she was very quiet. \r\n\r\nShe didn\'t speak, didn\'t move. Just quietly sat there.\r\n\r\nThis is the environment I grew up in, but I don\'t want to make it sound literary, I had an antisocial nature, but even so, I still had a full childhood. \r\n\r\nMy father is very industrious, he has a farmer\'s strength, using the farm tools in his hands, he nurtured a household. I don\'t have anything to blame him for. \r\n\r\nNo money, that\'s just life. \r\n\r\nMy grandfather is a retired soldier, he\'s illiterate, and he doesn\'t have any of a villager\'s typical shrewdness, on the contrary he\'s terrifyingly honest. Some people said he was GMD [translator\'s note: GMD = guo min dang, the fascist party in the Chinese civil war, who lost], some people said he was GCD [GCD = gong chang dang, the communist party that won the war and remains in power today], but he doesn\'t even know himself which \"dang\" [translator\'s note - this \"dang\" means \"political party\"] he was in, the only thing he knows is that he grabbed a gun and fought the Japanese devils [the Japanese invaded while the GMD and the GCD were fighting each other], and after the devils ran away, he went home.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Great book: The Last Yin Yang Master', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1539-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-18 02:05:23', '2015-02-18 07:05:23', '', 1539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/18/1539-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1548, 1, '2015-02-18 03:19:19', '2015-02-18 08:19:19', '', 'Advanced Chinese Stories: Learn to Read Mandarin', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150224', '', '', '2015-02-18 03:19:19', '2015-02-18 08:19:19', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/20150224.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1549, 1, '2015-02-18 03:19:21', '2015-02-18 08:19:21', '', 'Advanced Chinese Stories: Learn to Read Mandarin', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150224-inline', '', '', '2015-02-18 03:19:21', '2015-02-18 08:19:21', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/20150224-inline.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1551, 1, '2015-02-19 22:44:54', '2015-02-20 03:44:54', 'Hey hey, lookie here, an excellent guest post submitted by native Chinese speaker Yang from
Learn Mandarin Now. This story tells us a bit about the Chinese
chengyu (idiom),塞翁失马, which can mean \"a blessing in disguise\", or can conversely mean \"bad luck disguised as good\". It\'s used to point out the hidden positives or negatives in a situation, so you might say it means \"there are two sides to every circumstance\". \r\n\r\nI\'m loving this post for the fable-y language: \"servant\", \"steed\", etc. Plus, I learned a new favorite word in this one: 塞外 [pinyin]sai4 wai4[/pinyin], meaning \"Beyond the Great Wall\". In other words, a remote place near the outskirts or borders of China. Also, don\'t forget, 匹 [pinyin]pi3[/pinyin] is the measure word for Horses, so you\'re gonna see that a few times. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one phrase we should probably get into in greater detail, because I don\'t think it\'s immediately clear what it means: 全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗. Let\'s take a look at this, word by word:\r\n\r\n全国 - The whole country\r\n上下的 - Everywhere\r\n年轻男子 - young men\r\n都 - all\r\n被 - grammar word usually indicating that the subject of the sentence has had something unfortunate happen to them\r\n抓 - grabbed\r\n去 - go out\r\n打仗 - fight \r\n\r\nThe key word here is 抓 [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin], which usually means to \"catch\" or \"grab\". In this case, the word means \"drafted\", so it still means to \"grab\", but in this case, it\'s the ruling power (probably the king) doing the grabbing up (of potential soldiers). The 被 in this case functions as \"were\", with a negative overtone. So this can be translated as \"All the young men everywhere in the country
were drafted to go fight a war.\"\r\n\r\nLearn Mandarin Now\'s \"
How to Read Chinese\" page for a basic overview on getting started with Simplified characters, and look at
their new blog for some learning tips. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 从前，一位老翁和他的儿子住在塞外的边境上。他们都非常喜欢骑马。有一天，他们家的仆人给老先生报告：\"我们家的一匹骏马走丢了，好像跑去邻国了。\"\r\n\r\n2) 老翁的朋友闻讯都过来安慰他。但老先生说：“呵呵，这也许不是坏事，谁知道呢！＂\r\n\r\n3) 几个月之后，奇妙的事情发生了，那匹走失了的骏马意外地跑回来了，并且从邻国带来了一匹新的骏马。老翁的好友纷纷过来祝贺他。老翁说：“唉，这也许不是什么好事情呢！”\r\n\r\n4) 一天，老翁的儿子正在骑那匹新的骏马，突然不小心从马上掉了下来并摔断了腿。他从今以后都不能正常走路了。老翁的朋友都为老翁感到伤心，但老翁却说：“这个意外以后能为咱们带来好运也不一定。”\r\n\r\n5) 一年后，全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗，大部分去参军的年轻人都死在了战场。老翁的儿子因为腿受伤了所以避过了这一次劫难。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n
1) Once upon a time, there was an old man who lived with his son on the borders of the country. They both very much enjoyed riding horses. One day, a servant reported to the old man, “One of our good horses has gone missing. It seems the horse ran across to the neighboring country.\"\r\n\r\n
2) The old man\'s friends came and comforted him. However, the old man said: \"Well, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Who knows!\"\r\n\r\n
3) A couple of months later, a strange thing happened. The missing horse came back, accompanied by a great steed from the neighboring country. When his friends congratulated him on this great news, the old man said: \"Well, this might bring us bad luck.\"\r\n\r\n
4) One day, his son was having fun riding on the fine [new] steed. Suddenly, he fell from the hose and broke his leg. His son was never able to walk again. Again, the old man\'s friends came to comfort him. But the old man was not bothered and said: \"This accident might bring us good luck in the future.\"\r\n\r\n
5) A year later, all young men in the country were drafted to join a war. Most young men who fought died on the battlefield. Luckily, his son avoided entering the war because of his broken leg.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 塞翁失马 - A Blessing in Disguise', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'guest-post-story-behind-the-idiom-sai-weng-shi-ma', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:47:36', '2016-11-04 09:47:36', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1551', 0, 'post', '', 28),
(1637, 1, '2016-10-31 00:00:39', '2016-10-31 04:00:39', 'Hey hey, lookie here, an excellent guest post submitted by native Chinese speaker Yang from
Learn Mandarin Now. This story tells us a bit about the Chinese
chengyu (idiom),塞翁失马, which can mean \"a blessing in disguise\", or can conversely mean \"bad luck disguised as good\". It\'s used to point out the hidden positives or negatives in a situation, so you might say it means \"there are two sides to every circumstance\". \r\n\r\n
![\"Beginner](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/20150220-INLINE.jpg\")
I\'m loving this post for the fable-y language: \"servant\", \"steed\", etc. Plus, I learned a new favorite word in this one: 塞外 [pinyin]sai4 wai4[/pinyin], meaning \"Beyond the Great Wall\". In other words, a remote place near the outskirts or borders of China. Also, don\'t forget, 匹 [pinyin]pi3[/pinyin] is the measure word for Horses, so you\'re gonna see that a few times. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one phrase we should probably get into in greater detail, because I don\'t think it\'s immediately clear what it means: 全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗. Let\'s take a look at this, word by word:\r\n\r\n全国 - The whole country\r\n上下的 - Everywhere\r\n年轻男子 - young men\r\n都 - all\r\n被 - grammar word usually indicating that the subject of the sentence has had something unfortunate happen to them\r\n抓 - grabbed\r\n去 - go out\r\n打仗 - fight \r\n\r\nThe key word here is 抓 [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin], which usually means to \"catch\" or \"grab\". In this case, the word means \"drafted\", so it still means to \"grab\", but in this case, it\'s the ruling power (probably the king) doing the grabbing up (of potential soldiers). The 被 in this case functions as \"were\", with a negative overtone. So this can be translated as \"All the young men everywhere in the country
were drafted to go fight a war.\"\r\n\r\nLearn Mandarin Now\'s \"
How to Read Chinese\" page for a basic overview on getting started with Simplified characters, and look at
their new blog for some learning tips. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n从前，一位老翁和他的儿子住在塞外的边境上。他们都非常喜欢骑马。有一天，他们家的仆人给老先生报告：\"我们家的一匹骏马走丢了，好像跑去邻国了。\"\r\n\r\n老翁的朋友闻讯都过来安慰他。但老先生说：“呵呵，这也许不是坏事，谁知道呢！＂\r\n\r\n几个月之后，奇妙的事情发生了，那匹走失了的骏马意外地跑回来了，并且从邻国带来了一匹新的骏马。老翁的好友纷纷过来祝贺他。老翁说：“唉，这也许不是什么好事情呢！”\r\n\r\n一天，老翁的儿子正在骑那匹新的骏马，突然不小心从马上掉了下来并摔断了腿。他从今以后都不能正常走路了。老翁的朋友都为老翁感到伤心，但老翁却说：“这个意外以后能为咱们带来好运也不一定。”\r\n\r\n一年后，全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗，大部分去参军的年轻人都死在了战场。老翁的儿子因为腿受伤了所以避过了这一次劫难。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nOnce upon a time, there was an old man who lived with his son on the borders of the country. They both very much enjoyed riding horses. One day, a servant reported to the old man, “One of our good horses has gone missing. It seems the horse ran across to the neighboring country.\"\r\n\r\nOld man\'s friends came and comforted him. However, the old man said: \"Well, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Who knows!\"\r\n\r\nCouple of months later, a strange thing happened. The missing horse came back, accompanied by a great steed from the neighboring country. When his friends congratulated him on this great news, the old man said: \"Well, this might bring us bad luck.\"\r\n\r\nOne day, his son was having fun riding on the fine [new] steed. Suddenly, he fell from the hose and broke his leg. His son was never able to walk again. Again, his friends came to comfort the old man. But the old man was not bothered and said: \"This accident might bring us good luck in the future.\"\r\n\r\nA year later, all young men in the country were drafted to join a war. Most young men who fought died on the battlefield. Luckily, his son avoided entering the war because of his broken leg.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Story Behind the Idiom: 塞翁失马', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1551-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 00:00:39', '2016-10-31 04:00:39', '', 1551, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1551-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1552, 1, '2015-02-19 22:39:26', '2015-02-20 03:39:26', '[two_third]\nHey hey, lookie here, an excellent guest post submitted by native Chinese speaker Yang from
Learn Mandarin Now. This story tells us a bit about the Chinese
chengyu (idiom),塞翁失马, which can mean \"a blessing in disguise\", or can conversely mean \"bad luck in disguised as good\". It\'s used to point out the hidden positives or negatives in a situation, so you might say it means \"there are two sides to every circumstance\". \n\nI\'m loving this post for the fable-y language: \"servant\", \"steed\", etc. Plus, I learned a new favorite word in this one: 塞外 [pinyin]sai4 wai4[/pinyin], meaning \"Beyond the Great Wall\". In other words, a remote place near the outskirts or borders of China. Also, don\'t forget, 匹 [pinyin]pi3[/pinyin] is the measure word for Horses, so you\'re gonna see that a few times. \n\nThere\'s one phrase I\'d like to discuss, because I don\'t think it\'s immediately clear what it means: 全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗. Let\'s take a look at this, word by word:\n\n全国 - The whole country\n上下的 - Everywhere\n年轻男子 - young men\n都 - all\n被 - grammar word usually indicating that the subject of the sentence has had something unfortunate happen to them\n抓 - grabbed\n去 - go out\n打仗 - fight \n\nThe key word here is 抓 [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin], which usually means to \"catch\" or \"grab\". In this case, the word means \"drafted\", so it still means to \"grab\", but in this case, it\'s the ruling power (probably the king) doing the grabbing up (of potential soldiers). The 被 in this case functions as \"were\", with a negative overtone. So this can be translated as \"All the young men everywhere in the country
were drafted to go fight a war.\"\n\nLearn Mandarin Now\'s \"
How to Read Chinese\" page for a basic overview on getting started with Simplified characters, and look at
their new blog for some learning tips. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n老翁 - [pinyin]sui4 dao4[/pinyin] - Tunnel\n仆人 - [pinyin]ning2 jing4[/pinyin] - Tranquil\n邻国 - [pinyin]hua1 jia3[/pinyin] - Old person over 60\n闻讯 - [pinyin]fu4 weng1[/pinyin] - Millionaire\n骏马 - [pinyin]zhong1 dian3 zhan4[/pinyin] - Terminus\n战场 - [pinyin]zhong1 dian3 zhan4[/pinyin] - Terminus\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n从前，一位老翁和他的儿子住在塞外的边境上。他们都非常喜欢换骑马。有一天，他们家的仆人给老先生报告：\"我们家的一匹骏马走丢了，好像跑去邻国了。\"\n\n老翁的朋友闻讯都过来安慰他。但老先生说：“呵呵，这也许不是坏事，谁知道呢！＂\n\n几个月之后，奇妙的事情发生了，那匹走失了的骏马意外地跑回来了，并且从邻国带来了一匹新的骏马。老翁的好友纷纷过来祝贺他。老翁说：“唉，这也许不是什么好事情呢！”\n\n一天，老翁的儿子正在骑那匹新的骏马，突然不小心从马上掉了下来并摔断了腿。他从今以后都不能正常走路了。老翁的朋友都为老翁感到伤心，但老翁却说：“这个意外以后能为咱们带来好运也不一定。”\n\n一年后，全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗，大部分去参军的年轻人都死在了战场。老翁的儿子因为腿受伤了所以避过了这一次劫难。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nOnce upon a time, there was an old man who lived with his son on the borders of the country. They both very much enjoyed riding horses. One day, a servant reported to the old man, “One of our good horses has gone missing. It seems the horse ran across to the neighboring country.\"\n\nOld man\'s friends came and comforted him. However, the old man said: \"Well, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Who knows!\"\n\nCouple of months later, a strange thing happened. The missing horse came back, accompanied by a great steed from the neighboring country. When his friends congratulated him on this great news, the old man said: \"Well, this might bring us bad luck.\"\n\nOne day, his son was having fun riding on the fine [new] steed. Suddenly, he fell from the hose and broke his leg. His son was never able to walk again. Again, his friends came to comfort the old man. But the old man was not bothered and said: \"This accident might bring us good luck in the future.\"\n\nA year later, all young men in the country were drafted to join a war. Most young men who fought died on the battlefield. Luckily, his son avoided entering the war because of his broken leg.\n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom - Sai Weng Shi Ma', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1551-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-19 22:39:26', '2015-02-20 03:39:26', '', 1551, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/19/1551-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1553, 1, '2015-02-19 22:43:37', '2015-02-20 03:43:37', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Chinese Idioms and Fables', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150220-inline', '', '', '2015-02-19 22:43:37', '2015-02-20 03:43:37', '', 1551, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/20150220-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1554, 1, '2015-02-19 22:43:40', '2015-02-20 03:43:40', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Chinese Idioms and Fables', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150220', '', '', '2015-02-19 22:43:40', '2015-02-20 03:43:40', '', 1551, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/20150220.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0);
INSERT INTO `wp_posts` (`ID`, `post_author`, `post_date`, `post_date_gmt`, `post_content`, `post_title`, `post_excerpt`, `post_status`, `comment_status`, `ping_status`, `post_password`, `post_name`, `to_ping`, `pinged`, `post_modified`, `post_modified_gmt`, `post_content_filtered`, `post_parent`, `guid`, `menu_order`, `post_type`, `post_mime_type`, `comment_count`) VALUES
(1555, 1, '2015-02-19 22:41:07', '2015-02-20 03:41:07', '[two_third]\r\nHey hey, lookie here, an excellent guest post submitted by native Chinese speaker Yang from
Learn Mandarin Now. This story tells us a bit about the Chinese
chengyu (idiom),塞翁失马, which can mean \"a blessing in disguise\", or can conversely mean \"bad luck in disguised as good\". It\'s used to point out the hidden positives or negatives in a situation, so you might say it means \"there are two sides to every circumstance\". \r\n\r\nI\'m loving this post for the fable-y language: \"servant\", \"steed\", etc. Plus, I learned a new favorite word in this one: 塞外 [pinyin]sai4 wai4[/pinyin], meaning \"Beyond the Great Wall\". In other words, a remote place near the outskirts or borders of China. Also, don\'t forget, 匹 [pinyin]pi3[/pinyin] is the measure word for Horses, so you\'re gonna see that a few times. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one phrase I\'d like to discuss, because I don\'t think it\'s immediately clear what it means: 全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗. Let\'s take a look at this, word by word:\r\n\r\n全国 - The whole country\r\n上下的 - Everywhere\r\n年轻男子 - young men\r\n都 - all\r\n被 - grammar word usually indicating that the subject of the sentence has had something unfortunate happen to them\r\n抓 - grabbed\r\n去 - go out\r\n打仗 - fight \r\n\r\nThe key word here is 抓 [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin], which usually means to \"catch\" or \"grab\". In this case, the word means \"drafted\", so it still means to \"grab\", but in this case, it\'s the ruling power (probably the king) doing the grabbing up (of potential soldiers). The 被 in this case functions as \"were\", with a negative overtone. So this can be translated as \"All the young men everywhere in the country
were drafted to go fight a war.\"\r\n\r\nLearn Mandarin Now\'s \"
How to Read Chinese\" page for a basic overview on getting started with Simplified characters, and look at
their new blog for some learning tips. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n老翁 - [pinyin]lao3 weng1[/pinyin] - Old man\r\n仆人 - [pinyin]pu2 ren2[/pinyin] - Servant\r\n邻国 - [pinyin]lin2 guo2[/pinyin] - Neighboring country\r\n闻讯 - [pinyin]wen2 xun4[/pinyin] - [upon] hearing the news...\r\n骏马 - [pinyin]jun4 ma3[/pinyin] - Great Steed\r\n战场 - [pinyin]zhan4 chang3[/pinyin] - Battlefield\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n从前，一位老翁和他的儿子住在塞外的边境上。他们都非常喜欢换骑马。有一天，他们家的仆人给老先生报告：\"我们家的一匹骏马走丢了，好像跑去邻国了。\"\r\n\r\n老翁的朋友闻讯都过来安慰他。但老先生说：“呵呵，这也许不是坏事，谁知道呢！＂\r\n\r\n几个月之后，奇妙的事情发生了，那匹走失了的骏马意外地跑回来了，并且从邻国带来了一匹新的骏马。老翁的好友纷纷过来祝贺他。老翁说：“唉，这也许不是什么好事情呢！”\r\n\r\n一天，老翁的儿子正在骑那匹新的骏马，突然不小心从马上掉了下来并摔断了腿。他从今以后都不能正常走路了。老翁的朋友都为老翁感到伤心，但老翁却说：“这个意外以后能为咱们带来好运也不一定。”\r\n\r\n一年后，全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗，大部分去参军的年轻人都死在了战场。老翁的儿子因为腿受伤了所以避过了这一次劫难。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nOnce upon a time, there was an old man who lived with his son on the borders of the country. They both very much enjoyed riding horses. One day, a servant reported to the old man, “One of our good horses has gone missing. It seems the horse ran across to the neighboring country.\"\r\n\r\nOld man\'s friends came and comforted him. However, the old man said: \"Well, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Who knows!\"\r\n\r\nCouple of months later, a strange thing happened. The missing horse came back, accompanied by a great steed from the neighboring country. When his friends congratulated him on this great news, the old man said: \"Well, this might bring us bad luck.\"\r\n\r\nOne day, his son was having fun riding on the fine [new] steed. Suddenly, he fell from the hose and broke his leg. His son was never able to walk again. Again, his friends came to comfort the old man. But the old man was not bothered and said: \"This accident might bring us good luck in the future.\"\r\n\r\nA year later, all young men in the country were drafted to join a war. Most young men who fought died on the battlefield. Luckily, his son avoided entering the war because of his broken leg.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom - Sai Weng Shi Ma', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1551-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-19 22:41:07', '2015-02-20 03:41:07', '', 1551, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/19/1551-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1556, 1, '2015-02-19 22:44:54', '2015-02-20 03:44:54', '[two_third]\r\nHey hey, lookie here, an excellent guest post submitted by native Chinese speaker Yang from
Learn Mandarin Now. This story tells us a bit about the Chinese
chengyu (idiom),塞翁失马, which can mean \"a blessing in disguise\", or can conversely mean \"bad luck in disguised as good\". It\'s used to point out the hidden positives or negatives in a situation, so you might say it means \"there are two sides to every circumstance\". \r\n\r\n
I\'m loving this post for the fable-y language: \"servant\", \"steed\", etc. Plus, I learned a new favorite word in this one: 塞外 [pinyin]sai4 wai4[/pinyin], meaning \"Beyond the Great Wall\". In other words, a remote place near the outskirts or borders of China. Also, don\'t forget, 匹 [pinyin]pi3[/pinyin] is the measure word for Horses, so you\'re gonna see that a few times. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one phrase we should probably get into in greater detail, because I don\'t think it\'s immediately clear what it means: 全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗. Let\'s take a look at this, word by word:\r\n\r\n全国 - The whole country\r\n上下的 - Everywhere\r\n年轻男子 - young men\r\n都 - all\r\n被 - grammar word usually indicating that the subject of the sentence has had something unfortunate happen to them\r\n抓 - grabbed\r\n去 - go out\r\n打仗 - fight \r\n\r\nThe key word here is 抓 [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin], which usually means to \"catch\" or \"grab\". In this case, the word means \"drafted\", so it still means to \"grab\", but in this case, it\'s the ruling power (probably the king) doing the grabbing up (of potential soldiers). The 被 in this case functions as \"were\", with a negative overtone. So this can be translated as \"All the young men everywhere in the country
were drafted to go fight a war.\"\r\n\r\nLearn Mandarin Now\'s \"
How to Read Chinese\" page for a basic overview on getting started with Simplified characters, and look at
their new blog for some learning tips. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n老翁 - [pinyin]lao3 weng1[/pinyin] - Old man\r\n仆人 - [pinyin]pu2 ren2[/pinyin] - Servant\r\n邻国 - [pinyin]lin2 guo2[/pinyin] - Neighboring country\r\n闻讯 - [pinyin]wen2 xun4[/pinyin] - [upon] hearing the news...\r\n骏马 - [pinyin]jun4 ma3[/pinyin] - Great Steed\r\n战场 - [pinyin]zhan4 chang3[/pinyin] - Battlefield\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n从前，一位老翁和他的儿子住在塞外的边境上。他们都非常喜欢换骑马。有一天，他们家的仆人给老先生报告：\"我们家的一匹骏马走丢了，好像跑去邻国了。\"\r\n\r\n老翁的朋友闻讯都过来安慰他。但老先生说：“呵呵，这也许不是坏事，谁知道呢！＂\r\n\r\n几个月之后，奇妙的事情发生了，那匹走失了的骏马意外地跑回来了，并且从邻国带来了一匹新的骏马。老翁的好友纷纷过来祝贺他。老翁说：“唉，这也许不是什么好事情呢！”\r\n\r\n一天，老翁的儿子正在骑那匹新的骏马，突然不小心从马上掉了下来并摔断了腿。他从今以后都不能正常走路了。老翁的朋友都为老翁感到伤心，但老翁却说：“这个意外以后能为咱们带来好运也不一定。”\r\n\r\n一年后，全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗，大部分去参军的年轻人都死在了战场。老翁的儿子因为腿受伤了所以避过了这一次劫难。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nOnce upon a time, there was an old man who lived with his son on the borders of the country. They both very much enjoyed riding horses. One day, a servant reported to the old man, “One of our good horses has gone missing. It seems the horse ran across to the neighboring country.\"\r\n\r\nOld man\'s friends came and comforted him. However, the old man said: \"Well, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Who knows!\"\r\n\r\nCouple of months later, a strange thing happened. The missing horse came back, accompanied by a great steed from the neighboring country. When his friends congratulated him on this great news, the old man said: \"Well, this might bring us bad luck.\"\r\n\r\nOne day, his son was having fun riding on the fine [new] steed. Suddenly, he fell from the hose and broke his leg. His son was never able to walk again. Again, his friends came to comfort the old man. But the old man was not bothered and said: \"This accident might bring us good luck in the future.\"\r\n\r\nA year later, all young men in the country were drafted to join a war. Most young men who fought died on the battlefield. Luckily, his son avoided entering the war because of his broken leg.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom - Sai Weng Shi Ma', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1551-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-19 22:44:54', '2015-02-20 03:44:54', '', 1551, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/19/1551-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1557, 1, '2015-03-01 00:30:15', '2015-03-01 05:30:15', 'Yang over at
Learn Mandarin Now is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading
[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin] (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable, though you may struggle a bit. \r\n\r\nIn the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \r\n\r\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu3guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the
State of Chu\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.
Encyclopedia Britannica tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\" Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\r\n \r\nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\r\n\r\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to
Yang! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 从前有一位楚国人, 他非常爱惜他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，一不小心他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了记号。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\r\n \r\n2) 宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在移动。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Long ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it. \r\n \r\n2) The sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 刻舟求剑 - Actions Made Pointless by Changing Circumstances', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'guest-post-story-behind-the-idiom-ke-zhou-qiu-jian', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:46:22', '2016-11-04 09:46:22', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1557', 0, 'post', '', 39),
(1686, 1, '2016-10-31 01:44:22', '2016-10-31 05:44:22', 'Yang over at
Learn Mandarin Now is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading
[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin] (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. \r\n\r\nIn the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \r\n\r\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu3guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the
State of Chu\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.
Encyclopedia Britannica tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\" Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\r\n \r\nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\r\n\r\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to
Yang! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n从前有一位楚国人, 他非常爱惜他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，一不小心他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了记号。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\r\n \r\n宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在移动。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLong ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it. \r\n \r\nThe sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 刻舟求剑 - Actions Made Pointless by Changing Circumstances', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1557-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 01:44:22', '2016-10-31 05:44:22', '', 1557, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1557-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1559, 1, '2015-02-25 21:41:04', '2015-02-26 02:41:04', '[two_third]\nYang over at
Learn Mandarin Now is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading
[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin] (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. \n\nIn the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \n\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu1guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the
State of Chu\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.
Encyclopedia Britannica tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\" Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\n \nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n从前 - [pinyin]sui4 dao4[/pinyin] - Tunnel\n爱惜 - [pinyin]ning2 jing4[/pinyin] - Tranquil\n一不小心 - [pinyin]hua1 jia3[/pinyin] - Old person over 60\n宝 - [pinyin]fu4 weng1[/pinyin] - Millionaire\n记号 - [pinyin]zhong1 dian3 zhan4[/pinyin] - Terminus\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n从前有一位楚国人, 他非常爱惜他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，一不小心他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了记号。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\n \n宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在移动。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nLong ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it. \n \nThe sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom, Ke Zhou Qiu Jian', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1557-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-25 21:41:04', '2015-02-26 02:41:04', '', 1557, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/25/1557-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1560, 1, '2015-02-25 21:51:40', '2015-02-26 02:51:40', '', 'Easy Reading Material Chinese: Learn to Read Chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150226', '', '', '2015-02-25 21:51:40', '2015-02-26 02:51:40', '', 1557, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/20150226.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1561, 1, '2015-02-25 21:51:42', '2015-02-26 02:51:42', '', 'Easy Reading Material Chinese: Learn to Read Chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150226-inline', '', '', '2015-02-25 21:51:42', '2015-02-26 02:51:42', '', 1557, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/20150226-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1562, 1, '2015-02-25 21:44:09', '2015-02-26 02:44:09', '[two_third]\nYang over at
Learn Mandarin Now is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading
[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin] (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. \n\nIn the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \n\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu1guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the
State of Chu\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.
Encyclopedia Britannica tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\" Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\n \nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\n\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to
Yang! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n从前 - [pinyin]cong2 qian2[/pinyin] - A long time ago\n爱惜 - [pinyin]ai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Cherish\n一不小心 - [pinyin]yi1 bu4 xiao3 xin1[/pinyin] - Accidentally\n记号 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Notch, notation made to remember something\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n从前有一位楚国人, 他非常爱惜他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，一不小心他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了记号。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\n \n宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在移动。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nLong ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it. \n \nThe sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom, Ke Zhou Qiu Jian', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1557-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-25 21:44:09', '2015-02-26 02:44:09', '', 1557, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/25/1557-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1563, 1, '2015-02-25 21:53:44', '2015-02-26 02:53:44', '[two_third]\r\nYang over at
Learn Mandarin Now is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading
[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin] (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. \r\n\r\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/20150226-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Easy")
In the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \r\n\r\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu1guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the
State of Chu\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.
Encyclopedia Britannica tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\" Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\r\n \r\nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\r\n\r\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to
Yang! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n从前 - [pinyin]cong2 qian2[/pinyin] - A long time ago\r\n爱惜 - [pinyin]ai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Cherish\r\n一不小心 - [pinyin]yi1 bu4 xiao3 xin1[/pinyin] - Accidentally\r\n记号 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Notch, notation made to remember something\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n从前有一位楚国人, 他非常爱惜他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，一不小心他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了记号。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\r\n \r\n宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在移动。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLong ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it. \r\n \r\nThe sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom, Ke Zhou Qiu Jian', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1557-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-25 21:53:44', '2015-02-26 02:53:44', '', 1557, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/25/1557-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1565, 1, '2015-03-05 06:00:18', '2015-03-05 11:00:18', 'Your basic \"it\'s what\'s on the inside that counts\", moral-of-the-story story about a rabbit filled with self-loathing. \r\n\r\n
Burrowing into 钻
\r\nDifficult bits in this passage include the phrase 钻出来 [pinyin]zuan1 chu1 lai2[/pinyin]. We know that 出来 means to \"come out of\". But 钻? If you check the dictionary, the first definition that comes up for this word is \"diamond\", but that wasn\'t the correct definition in this case. Secondly, it also means to \"drill\" or \"bore\", which makes sense as a second definition of \"diamond\" - lots of diamond drill bits out there. But that still doesn\'t work in context of the whole sentence. But if you run a Baidu image search on the phrase, and you\'ll find lots of pictures of people squeezing out of small spaces, children coming out of playground tunnels, workers coming out of manholes, and you\'ll probably realize that 钻出来 means to wiggle out of a space via a small opening. Imagine a secret agent crawling through an air duct; in Chinese, there\'s a word for that, and that word is 钻. So it\'s really more like \"to burrow out of or in to\". I often hear it used in Beijing in reference to \"burrowing under the covers\" (钻进被窝).\r\n\r\n
Sources
\r\nI got this story from Sina user
Zifengling\'s personal blog, in a post where she lists a few different easy stories, so if you wanna read some more on your own, head on over. I\'ll probably translate another couple from there before too long. \r\n\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n森林里住着一只小兔子，它叫“丑丑”。它的眼睛红红的，像一对红宝石。可是它的毛灰灰的，像是从灰炉里钻出来似的，它觉得自己太丑了，常常一个人躲在家里。\r\n\r\n虽然它长得不好看，但是它有一颗无比善良的心。小猴子乐乐的家被大水冲垮了，无家可归。丑丑就让乐乐住在自己的家，还把自己最喜欢吃的巧克力分给乐乐吃。不仅如此，谁头痛、生病了，没钱买药，它都会尽其所能进行帮助。\r\n\r\n日子一天天过去了，丑丑还是很孤单。一次，森林里最好看的小兔子美美来找它玩，可丑丑觉得自己太丑了，没脸见它。美美告诉丑丑：“人的外表并不重要，重要的是内在美。”丑丑恍然大悟，它跑了出去，和伙伴们一起尽情地玩耍。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the forest there lived a little rabbit whose name was \"Chouchou\". His eyes were red, like a pair of rubies. But his fur was grey, like he\'d wiggled out of a furnace, and he felt himself to be very ugly, often hiding in his house alone. \r\n\r\nAlthough he wasn\'t nice to look at, he had an incomparably kind heart. When Little Monkey Lele\'s home was burst apart by a flood, he had no house to return to. Chouchou let Lele live with him, and he divided up his favorite chocolate to give some to Lele to eat. Not only that, whoever had a headach, or got sick, with no money to buy medicine, he did everything he was able to do to help. \r\n\r\nThe days passed one by one, and Chouchou was still alone. One time, the forest\'s most beautiful rabbit Meimei came looking for Chouchou to play, but Chouchou thought of himself as just too ugly, he couldn\'t face seeing her. Meimei told Chouchou: \"It\'s not what\'s on the outside that counts, the important thing is what\'s on the inside.\" Chouchou suddenly saw the light, he ran outside, and played with his friends to his heart\'s content. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] “美丽”的小兔 - The \"Beautiful\" Rabbit', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-beautiful-rabbit', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:41:11', '2016-11-04 09:41:11', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1565', 0, 'post', '', 125),
(1566, 1, '2015-09-24 21:47:56', '2015-09-25 01:47:56', 'This is another one I nabbed from Sina user
Zifengling\'s personal blog. I tried to convince myself that this was beginner, but I just couldn\'t. The words are mostly OK, but there are one too many wibble-wobbly sentence configurations.\r\n\r\nThis is also a perfect example of a fairly easy story that had one phrase I spent an hour trying to sort out, and a perfect example of the reason I started this blog in the first damn place - you start reading and then one word trips you up and you can\'t get past it. 99% sure I figured it out, but don\'t hesitate to correct me in the comments if you have intelligence to the contrary. The word was 香草娃娃 [pinyin]xiang1 cao3 wa2 wa2[/pinyin]. Uh, well, [pinyin]xiang1 cao3[/pinyin] means \"vanilla\" and [pinyin]wa2 wa2[/pinyin] is \"baby\", so... vanilla baby? Really? In the story, 香草娃娃 is used as a toy\'s name, so I thought, maybe there\'s a toy called a Vanilla Baby? Anyway, it turns out an out-of-use definition for 香草 is \"old and dependable\". Ah hah - \"old, dependable baby doll\". That makes sense. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one other very useful phrase here that\'s very commonly used in everyday language: 太过分了！Directly translated, this means \"Too excessive!\", but this phrase doesn\'t usually actually refer to a large amount of things. It\'s more often used to refer to a circumstance or someone\'s behavior, like, \"That is just too much to bear!\". If someone was very mean to you, you could say, \"太过分了!\" or if an interview process was super rough and you got raked over the coals, also \"太过分了!\" \r\n\r\nEnjoy this one, and consider it good practicing in very colloquial story building.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n新年快到了，玩具王国决定举行一场盛大的舞会，准备邀请全国的玩具都来参加。舞会那天，玩具们都不停地跳着、笑着，整个舞场热闹非凡。可是在一个角落里，谁也没有注意到，有一只紫色的香草娃娃正一声不吭地望着舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这时，一只小白熊正好从她面前经过，它看到了这一切，就走过去问香草娃娃：“娃娃，你为什么不去跳舞呢？”香草娃娃难过地低下了头，轻轻地说：“玩具们都嫌我个子小，不愿意请我跳舞。”说完流下了眼泪。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？难道他们不懂得要团结友爱吗！太过分了！”小白熊拉起香草娃娃的手，说，“娃娃，不要难过了。走，我请你跳舞。”香草娃娃听了这话，脸上顿时露出了灿烂的笑容，她连忙擦掉脸上的泪水，高兴地说：“太好了！太好了！”娃娃和小白熊在舞池里又跳又笑，一起度过了一个愉快的夜晚。\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe new year had almost arrived, and the Toy Kingdom planned to invite everyone to a grand ball. The day of the dance, the toys were all dancing and laughing, and the whole ballroom was extraordinarily lively. But off in one corner, receiving no attention from anyone, there was an old purple doll silently gazing at the dance floor, her eyes were blank and she looked lonely. Just then, a white polar bear in front of her saw this, walked over and asked the dependable old doll, \"Doll, why don\'t you go dance?\" The dependable doll lowered her head sadly, saying in a small voice, \"The [other] toys all say I\'m too short, they\'re not willing to dance with me.\" Saying this, she began to cry. Polar Bear was furious when he heard this, and said: \"How could they treat you this way? Don\'t they understand solidarity? That\'s just too much!\" Little Bear pulled on the baby doll\'s hand, and said: \"Doll, don\'t be sad. Come on, I\'m asking you to dance with me.\" The dependable doll heard these words, and a brilliant smile immediately lit up her face. She quickly wiped the tears off her face and said happily, \"Wonderful! Wonderful!\" On the dance floor, Doll and Bear danced and laughed, and passed a lovely evening together. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Children\'s Stories] The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-little-polar-bear-and-the-doll-dance-together', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:32:52', '2016-11-04 09:32:52', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1566', 0, 'post', '', 23),
(2026, 1, '2016-11-04 05:32:18', '2016-11-04 09:32:18', 'This is another one I nabbed from Sina user
Zifengling\'s personal blog. I tried to convince myself that this was beginner, but I just couldn\'t. The words are mostly OK, but there are one too many wibble-wobbly sentence configurations.\r\n\r\nThis is also a perfect example of a fairly easy story that had one phrase I spent an hour trying to sort out, and a perfect example of the reason I started this blog in the first damn place - you start reading and then one word trips you up and you can\'t get past it. 99% sure I figured it out, but don\'t hesitate to correct me in the comments if you have intelligence to the contrary. The word was 香草娃娃 [pinyin]xiang1 cao3 wa2 wa2[/pinyin]. Uh, well, [pinyin]xiang1 cao3[/pinyin] means \"vanilla\" and [pinyin]wa2 wa2[/pinyin] is \"baby\", so... vanilla baby? Really? In the story, 香草娃娃 is used as a toy\'s name, so I thought, maybe there\'s a toy called a Vanilla Baby? Anyway, it turns out an out-of-use definition for 香草 is \"old and dependable\". Ah hah - \"old, dependable baby doll\". That makes sense. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one other very useful phrase here that\'s very commonly used in everyday language: 太过分了！Directly translated, this means \"Too excessive!\", but this phrase doesn\'t usually actually refer to a large amount of things. It\'s more often used to refer to a circumstance or someone\'s behavior, like, \"That is just too much to bear!\". If someone was very mean to you, you could say, \"太过分了!\" or if an interview process was super rough and you got raked over the coals, also \"太过分了!\" \r\n\r\nEnjoy this one, and consider it good practicing in very colloquial story building.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n新年快到了，玩具王国决定举行一场盛大的舞会，准备邀请全国的玩具都来参加。舞会那天，玩具们都不停地跳着、笑着，整个舞场热闹非凡。可是在一个角落里，谁也没有注意到，有一只紫色的香草娃娃正一声不吭地望着舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这时，一只小白熊正好从她面前经过，它看到了这一切，就走过去问香草娃娃：“娃娃，你为什么不去跳舞呢？”香草娃娃难过地低下了头，轻轻地说：“玩具们都嫌我个子小，不愿意请我跳舞。”说完流下了眼泪。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？难道他们不懂得要团结友爱吗！太过分了！”小白熊拉起香草娃娃的手，说，“娃娃，不要难过了。走，我请你跳舞。”香草娃娃听了这话，脸上顿时露出了灿烂的笑容，她连忙擦掉脸上的泪水，高兴地说：“太好了！太好了！”娃娃和小白熊在舞池里又跳又笑，一起度过了一个愉快的夜晚。\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe new year had almost arrived, and the Toy Kingdom planned to invite everyone to a grand ball. The day of the dance, the toys were all dancing and laughing, and the whole ballroom was extraordinarily lively. But off in one corner, receiving no attention from anyone, there was an old purple doll silently gazing at the dance floor, her eyes were blank and she looked lonely. Just then, a white polar bear in front of her saw this, walked over and asked the dependable old doll, \"Doll, why don\'t you go dance?\" The dependable doll lowered her head sadly, saying in a small voice, \"The [other] toys all say I\'m too short, they\'re not willing to dance with me.\" Saying this, she began to cry. Polar Bear was furious when he heard this, and said: \"How could they treat you this way? Don\'t they understand solidarity? That\'s just too much!\" Little Bear pulled on the baby doll\'s hand, and said: \"Doll, don\'t be sad. Come on, I\'m asking you to dance with me.\" The dependable doll heard these words, and a brilliant smile immediately lit up her face. She quickly wiped the tears off her face and said happily, \"Wonderful! Wonderful!\" On the dance floor, Doll and Bear danced and laughed, and passed a lovely evening together. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Children\'s Stories] The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:32:18', '2016-11-04 09:32:18', '', 1566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1566-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1567, 1, '2012-11-01 02:15:23', '2012-11-01 06:15:23', '[two_third]\r\n
Chinese Title: 夜郎自大\r\n\r\nHere we\'ll cover the back story behind the idiom \"夜郎自大\", or \"Yelang thinks highly of itself\". This idiom one refers to someone who has a high, but misguided, opinion of their own worth. Stick this one in the language bank for when you need to take someone down a peg (preferably while stroking your fu manchu and calmly catching flies with your chopsticks). \r\n\r\n
I learned a new word on this one: 统治 [pinyin]tong3 zhi4[/pinyin]. Which brings the total number of \"tongzhi\" words (tonal differences aside) I know up to three. \r\n\r\nWe\'ve got:\r\n同志 - [pinyin]tong2 zhi4[/pinyin] or \"Comrade\" (and in Chinese slang this also means \"a homosexual\", though if you keep an eye on the Chinese news you\'ll see that that one of the more reputable local dictionaries refused to include that definition though it\'s in common use) \r\n\r\n通知 [pinyin1]tong1 zhi1[/pinyin] - To notify, give notice\r\n\r\nAnd now, 统治 [pinyin]tong3 zhi4[/pinyin] - To rule over (a kingdom / country)\r\n\r\nLet us hope there aren\'t any more configurations of that sound. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n汉朝 - [pinyin]han4 chao2[/pinyin] - Han Dynasty\r\n部下 - [pinyin]bu4 xia4[/pinyin] - Troops or subordinates under one\'s command\r\n巡视 - [pinyin]xun2 shi4[/pinyin] - Go on an inspection tour\r\n国境 - [pinyin]guo2 jing4[/pinyin] - National Borders\r\n迎合 - [pinyin]ying2 he2[/pinyin] - Serve one\'s own interests / to fawn or cater\r\n异口同声 - [pinyin]yi4 kou3 tong2 sheng1[/pinyin] - To say in unison\r\n派 - [pinyin]pai4[/pinyin] - To dispatch, send someone\r\n使者 - [pinyin]shi3 zhe3[/pinyin] - Envoy\r\n途中 - [pinyin]tu2 zhong1[/pinyin] - En route\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n汉朝的时候，在西南方有个名叫夜郎的小国家，它虽然是一个独立的国家，可是国土很小，百姓也少，物产更是少得可怜。但是由于邻近地区以夜郎这个国家最大，从没离开过国家的夜郎国国王就以为自己统治的国家是全天下最大的国家。\r\n\r\n有一天，夜郎国国王与部下巡视国境的时候，他指着前方问说：“这里哪个国家最大呀？”部下们为了迎合国王的心意，于是就说：“当然是夜郎国最大啰！”走着走着，国王又抬起头来、望着前方的高山问说：“天底下还有比这座山更高的山吗？”部下们回答说：“天底下没有比这座山更高的山了。”后来，他们来到河边，国王又问：“我认为这可是世界上最长的河川了。”部下们仍然异口同声回答说：“大王说得一点都没错。”从此以后，无知的国王就更相信夜郎是天底下最大的国家。\r\n\r\n有一次，汉朝派使者来到夜郎，途中先经过夜郎的邻国滇国，滇王问使者：“汉朝和我的国家比起来哪个大？”使者一听吓了一跳，他没想到这个小国家，竟然无知的自以为能与汉朝相比。却没想到后来使者到了夜郎国，骄傲又无知的国王因为不知道自己统治的国家只和汉朝的一个县差不多大，竟然不知天高地厚也问使者：“汉朝和我的国家哪个大？”\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDuring the Han Dynasty, in the southwest there was a small country called Yelang, and although it was an independent nation, its territory was small, there weren\'t many citizens, and its products were pitifully few. Because it was the largest kingdom in the near area, the Yelang king who\'d never left his own country thought the country he ruled was the biggest on earth. \r\n\r\nOne day, the king of Yelang was on a national border inspection tour with his troops, when he pointed in front of him [to neighboring country] and said, \"Which country is bigger?\" In order to serve their own interests and make the king happy, the troops said, \"Of course Yelang is bigger!\" They walked along, and the king once again lifted up his head, gazed at the big mountain in the distance and asked: \"Is there a taller mountain than this anywhere on earth?\" And his men answered: \"No, there\'s no mountain taller than this one on earth.\" After a while, they reached the river side, and the king asked again: \"I think this is the world\'s longest river.\" And all his men said in unison \"The king speaks truly.\" After this, the ignorant king believed even more firmly that Yelang was the world\'s biggest country.\r\n\r\nThen one day, the Han Dynasty dispatched an envoy to Yelang, and en route they encountered the neighboring kingdom DianGuo, and the King of Dian asked the emissary: \"If you compared the Han Dynasty and my Kingdom, which one would be bigger?\" The emissary listened in astonishment, as he\'d never have thought this small a country thought it could compare itself to the Han Dynasty. But he really never could have suspected that when he got to Yelang, the prideful and ignorant king who didn\'t know that the kingdom he ruled was about the size of one Han county, would ask with an exaggerated opinion of his own worth, \"Which is bigger: the Han Dynasty or my country?\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Story Behind the Idiom: YeLang Zi Da', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1300-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-11-01 02:15:23', '2012-11-01 06:15:23', '', 1300, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/11/01/1300-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1568, 1, '2015-02-27 21:47:43', '2015-02-28 02:47:43', '[two_third]\nThis is another one I nabbed from Sina user
Zifengling\'s personal blog. I tried to convince myself that this was beginner, but I just couldn\'t. One too many wibble-wobbly sentence configurations. \n\nThis is also a perfect example of a fairly easy story that had one phrase I spent an hour trying to sort out, and a perfect example of the reason I started this blog in the first damn place - you find a story with one word that trips you up and you can\'t get past it. 99% sure I figured it out, but don\'t hesitate to correct me in the comments if you have intelligence to the contrary. The word was 香草娃娃 [pinyin]xiang1 cao3 wa2 wa2[/pinyin]. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n从前 - [pinyin]cong2 qian2[/pinyin] - A long time ago\n爱惜 - [pinyin]ai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Cherish\n一不小心 - [pinyin]yi1 bu4 xiao3 xin1[/pinyin] - Accidentally\n记号 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Notch, notation made to remember something\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n新年快到了，玩具王国决定举行一场盛大的舞会，准备邀请全国的玩具都来参加。舞会那天，玩具们都不停地跳着、笑着，整个舞场热闹非凡。可是在一个角落里，谁也没有注意到，有一只紫色的香草娃娃正一声不吭地望着舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这是，一只小白熊正好从她面前经过，它看到了这一切，就走过去问香草娃娃：“娃娃，你为什么不去跳舞呢？”香草娃娃难过地低下了头，轻轻地说：“玩具们都嫌我个子小，不愿意请我跳舞。”说完流下了眼泪。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？难道他们不懂得要团结友爱吗！太过分了！”小白熊拉起香草娃娃的手，说，“娃娃，不要难过了。走，我请你跳舞。”香草娃娃听了这话，脸上顿时露出了灿烂的笑容，她连忙擦掉脸上的泪水，高兴地说：“太好了！太好了！”娃娃和小白熊在舞池里又跳又笑，一起度过了一个愉快的夜晚。\n \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n新年快到了，玩具王国决定举行一场盛大的舞会，准备邀请全国的玩具都来参加。舞会那天，玩具们都不停地跳着、笑着，整个舞场热闹非凡。可是在一个角落里，谁也没有注意到，有一只紫色的香草娃娃正一声不吭地望着舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这是，一只小白熊正好从她面前经过，它看到了这一切，就走过去问香草娃娃：“娃娃，你为什么不去跳舞呢？”香草娃娃难过地低下了头，轻轻地说：“玩具们都嫌我个子小，不愿意请我跳舞。”说完流下了眼泪。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？难道他们不懂得要团结友爱吗！太过分了！”小白熊拉起香草娃娃的手，说，“娃娃，不要难过了。走，我请你跳舞。”香草娃娃听了这话，脸上顿时露出了灿烂的笑容，她连忙擦掉脸上的泪水，高兴地说：“太好了！太好了！”娃娃和小白熊在舞池里又跳又笑，一起度过了一个愉快的夜晚。\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-27 21:47:43', '2015-02-28 02:47:43', '', 1566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/27/1566-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
INSERT INTO `wp_posts` (`ID`, `post_author`, `post_date`, `post_date_gmt`, `post_content`, `post_title`, `post_excerpt`, `post_status`, `comment_status`, `ping_status`, `post_password`, `post_name`, `to_ping`, `pinged`, `post_modified`, `post_modified_gmt`, `post_content_filtered`, `post_parent`, `guid`, `menu_order`, `post_type`, `post_mime_type`, `comment_count`) VALUES
(1569, 1, '2015-02-27 22:15:56', '2015-02-28 03:15:56', '[two_third]\nA fairly simple read for newbies about a self-hating rabbit. \n\nIn terms of plot, this is your basic \"it\'s what\'s on the inside that counts\", moral-of-the-story story. Frankly, it\'s a bit boring, but there are a couple of good words and phrases in here. One in particular is difficult, and I couldn\'t figure it out just by looking at the definition, I had to go hunt around a bit: 钻出来 [pinyin]zuan1 chu1 lai2[/pinyin]. We know that 出来 means to \"come out of\". But 钻? The first definition that came up when I looked was \"diamond\", but that wasn\'t the correct definition in this case. Secondly, it also means to \"drill\" or \"bore\", which makes sense as a second definition of \"diamond\" - lots of diamond drill bits out there. But that still doesn\'t work in context of the whole sentence. I finally ran a Baidu image search on the phrase, and there were lots of pictures of miners squeezing out of small spaces, children coming out of playground tunnels, workers coming out of manholes, and I realized that 钻出来 means to wiggle out of a space via a small opening. Imagine a secret agent crawling through an air duct; in Chinese, there\'s a word for that, and that word is 钻. \n\nI got this from Sina user
Zifengling\'s personal blog, in a post where she lists a few different easy stories, so if you wanna . I\'ll probably translate another couple from there before too long. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n红宝石 - [pinyin]hong2 bao3 shi2[/pinyin] - Ruby\n灰炉 - [pinyin]hui1 lu2[/pinyin] - Furnace\n丑 - [pinyin]chou3[/pinyin] - Ugly\n不仅如此 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Not only that, \n孤单 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Alone\n外表 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Appearance\n内在 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Inherent / (abstract) interior \n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n森林里住着一只小兔子，它叫“丑丑”。它的眼睛红红的，像一对红宝石。可是它的毛灰灰的，像是从灰炉里钻出来似的，它觉得自己太丑了，常常一个人躲在家里。\n\n虽然它长得不好看，但是它有一颗无比善良的心。小猴子乐乐的家被大水冲垮了，无家可归。丑丑就让乐乐住在自己的家，还把自己最喜欢吃的巧克力分给乐乐吃。不仅如此，谁头痛、生病了，没钱买药，它都会尽其所能进行帮助。\n\n日子一天天过去了，丑丑还是很孤单。一次，森林里最好看的小兔子美美来找它玩，可丑丑觉得自己太丑了，没脸见它。美美告诉丑丑：“人的外表并不重要，重要的是内在美。”丑丑恍然大悟，它跑了出去，和伙伴们一起尽情地玩耍。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nIn the forest there lived a little rabbit whose name was \"Chouchou\". His eyes were red, like a pair of rubies. But his fur was grey, like he\'d wiggled out of a furnace, and he felt himself to be very ugly, often hiding in his house alone. \n\nAlthough he wasn\'t nice to look at, he had an incomparably kind heart. When Little Monkey Lele\'s home was burst apart by a flood, he had no house to return to. Chouchou let Lele live with him, and he divided up his favorite chocolate to give some to Lele to eat. Not only that, whoever had a headach, or got sick, with no money to buy medicine, he did everything he was able to do to help. \n\nThe days passed one by one, and Chouchou was still alone. One time, the forest\'s most beautiful rabbit Meimei came looking for Chouchou to play, but Chouchou thought of himself as just too ugly, he couldn\'t face seeing her. Meimei told Chouchou: \"It\'s not what\'s on the outside that counts, the important thing is what\'s on the inside.\" Chouchou suddenly saw the light, he ran outside, and played with his friends to his heart\'s content. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The \"Beautiful\" Rabbit', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1565-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-27 22:15:56', '2015-02-28 03:15:56', '', 1565, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/27/1565-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1570, 1, '2015-02-27 22:21:55', '2015-02-28 03:21:55', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese Characters: Mandarin Readying Study', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150305', '', '', '2015-02-27 22:21:55', '2015-02-28 03:21:55', '', 1565, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/20150305.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1571, 1, '2015-02-27 22:21:56', '2015-02-28 03:21:56', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese Characters: Mandarin Readying Study', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150305-inline', '', '', '2015-02-27 22:21:56', '2015-02-28 03:21:56', '', 1565, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/20150305-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1572, 1, '2015-02-27 22:16:22', '2015-02-28 03:16:22', '[two_third]\r\nA fairly simple read for newbies about a self-hating rabbit. \r\n\r\nIn terms of plot, this is your basic \"it\'s what\'s on the inside that counts\", moral-of-the-story story. Frankly, it\'s a bit boring, but there are a couple of good words and phrases in here. One in particular is difficult, and I couldn\'t figure it out just by looking at the definition, I had to go hunt around a bit: 钻出来 [pinyin]zuan1 chu1 lai2[/pinyin]. We know that 出来 means to \"come out of\". But 钻? The first definition that came up when I looked was \"diamond\", but that wasn\'t the correct definition in this case. Secondly, it also means to \"drill\" or \"bore\", which makes sense as a second definition of \"diamond\" - lots of diamond drill bits out there. But that still doesn\'t work in context of the whole sentence. I finally ran a Baidu image search on the phrase, and there were lots of pictures of miners squeezing out of small spaces, children coming out of playground tunnels, workers coming out of manholes, and I realized that 钻出来 means to wiggle out of a space via a small opening. Imagine a secret agent crawling through an air duct; in Chinese, there\'s a word for that, and that word is 钻. \r\n\r\nI got this from Sina user
Zifengling\'s personal blog, in a post where she lists a few different easy stories, so if you wanna . I\'ll probably translate another couple from there before too long. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n红宝石 - [pinyin]hong2 bao3 shi2[/pinyin] - Ruby\r\n灰炉 - [pinyin]hui1 lu2[/pinyin] - Furnace\r\n丑 - [pinyin]chou3[/pinyin] - Ugly\r\n不仅如此 - [pinyin]bu4 jin3 ru2 ci3[/pinyin] - Not only that, \r\n孤单 - [pinyin]gu1 dan1[/pinyin] - Alone\r\n外表 - [pinyin]wai4 biao3[/pinyin] - Appearance\r\n内在 - [pinyin]nei4 zai4[/pinyin] - Inherent / (abstract) interior \r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n森林里住着一只小兔子，它叫“丑丑”。它的眼睛红红的，像一对红宝石。可是它的毛灰灰的，像是从灰炉里钻出来似的，它觉得自己太丑了，常常一个人躲在家里。\r\n\r\n虽然它长得不好看，但是它有一颗无比善良的心。小猴子乐乐的家被大水冲垮了，无家可归。丑丑就让乐乐住在自己的家，还把自己最喜欢吃的巧克力分给乐乐吃。不仅如此，谁头痛、生病了，没钱买药，它都会尽其所能进行帮助。\r\n\r\n日子一天天过去了，丑丑还是很孤单。一次，森林里最好看的小兔子美美来找它玩，可丑丑觉得自己太丑了，没脸见它。美美告诉丑丑：“人的外表并不重要，重要的是内在美。”丑丑恍然大悟，它跑了出去，和伙伴们一起尽情地玩耍。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the forest there lived a little rabbit whose name was \"Chouchou\". His eyes were red, like a pair of rubies. But his fur was grey, like he\'d wiggled out of a furnace, and he felt himself to be very ugly, often hiding in his house alone. \r\n\r\nAlthough he wasn\'t nice to look at, he had an incomparably kind heart. When Little Monkey Lele\'s home was burst apart by a flood, he had no house to return to. Chouchou let Lele live with him, and he divided up his favorite chocolate to give some to Lele to eat. Not only that, whoever had a headach, or got sick, with no money to buy medicine, he did everything he was able to do to help. \r\n\r\nThe days passed one by one, and Chouchou was still alone. One time, the forest\'s most beautiful rabbit Meimei came looking for Chouchou to play, but Chouchou thought of himself as just too ugly, he couldn\'t face seeing her. Meimei told Chouchou: \"It\'s not what\'s on the outside that counts, the important thing is what\'s on the inside.\" Chouchou suddenly saw the light, he ran outside, and played with his friends to his heart\'s content. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The \"Beautiful\" Rabbit', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1565-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-27 22:16:22', '2015-02-28 03:16:22', '', 1565, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/27/1565-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1573, 1, '2015-02-27 22:33:30', '2015-02-28 03:33:30', '[two_third]\nThis is another one I nabbed from Sina user
Zifengling\'s personal blog. I tried to convince myself that this was beginner, but I just couldn\'t. One too many wibble-wobbly sentence configurations. \n\nThis is also a perfect example of a fairly easy story that had one phrase I spent an hour trying to sort out, and a perfect example of the reason I started this blog in the first damn place - you start reading and then one word trips you up and you can\'t get past it. 99% sure I figured it out, but don\'t hesitate to correct me in the comments if you have intelligence to the contrary. The word was 香草娃娃 [pinyin]xiang1 cao3 wa2 wa2[/pinyin]. Uh, well, [pinyin]xiang1 cao3[/pinyin] means \"vanilla\" and [pinyin]wa2 wa2[/pinyin] is \"baby\", so... vanilla baby? Really? In the story, 香草娃娃 is used as a toy\'s name, so maybe it was actually. Anyway, it turns out an out-of-use definition for 香草\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n从前 - [pinyin]cong2 qian2[/pinyin] - A long time ago\n爱惜 - [pinyin]ai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Cherish\n一不小心 - [pinyin]yi1 bu4 xiao3 xin1[/pinyin] - Accidentally\n记号 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Notch, notation made to remember something\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n新年快到了，玩具王国决定举行一场盛大的舞会，准备邀请全国的玩具都来参加。舞会那天，玩具们都不停地跳着、笑着，整个舞场热闹非凡。可是在一个角落里，谁也没有注意到，有一只紫色的香草娃娃正一声不吭地望着舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这是，一只小白熊正好从她面前经过，它看到了这一切，就走过去问香草娃娃：“娃娃，你为什么不去跳舞呢？”香草娃娃难过地低下了头，轻轻地说：“玩具们都嫌我个子小，不愿意请我跳舞。”说完流下了眼泪。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？难道他们不懂得要团结友爱吗！太过分了！”小白熊拉起香草娃娃的手，说，“娃娃，不要难过了。走，我请你跳舞。”香草娃娃听了这话，脸上顿时露出了灿烂的笑容，她连忙擦掉脸上的泪水，高兴地说：“太好了！太好了！”娃娃和小白熊在舞池里又跳又笑，一起度过了一个愉快的夜晚。\n \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n新年快到了，玩具王国决定举行一场盛大的舞会，准备邀请全国的玩具都来参加。舞会那天，玩具们都不停地跳着、笑着，整个舞场热闹非凡。可是在一个角落里，谁也没有注意到，有一只紫色的香草娃娃正一声不吭地望着舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这是，一只小白熊正好从她面前经过，它看到了这一切，就走过去问香草娃娃：“娃娃，你为什么不去跳舞呢？”香草娃娃难过地低下了头，轻轻地说：“玩具们都嫌我个子小，不愿意请我跳舞。”说完流下了眼泪。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？难道他们不懂得要团结友爱吗！太过分了！”小白熊拉起香草娃娃的手，说，“娃娃，不要难过了。走，我请你跳舞。”香草娃娃听了这话，脸上顿时露出了灿烂的笑容，她连忙擦掉脸上的泪水，高兴地说：“太好了！太好了！”娃娃和小白熊在舞池里又跳又笑，一起度过了一个愉快的夜晚。\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-27 22:33:30', '2015-02-28 03:33:30', '', 1566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/27/1566-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1574, 1, '2015-02-25 21:54:56', '2015-02-26 02:54:56', '[two_third]\r\nYang over at
Learn Mandarin Now is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading
[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin] (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. \r\n\r\n
In the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \r\n\r\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu3guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the
State of Chu\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.
Encyclopedia Britannica tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\" Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\r\n \r\nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\r\n\r\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to
Yang! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n从前 - [pinyin]cong2 qian2[/pinyin] - A long time ago\r\n爱惜 - [pinyin]ai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Cherish\r\n一不小心 - [pinyin]yi1 bu4 xiao3 xin1[/pinyin] - Accidentally\r\n记号 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Notch, notation made to remember something\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n从前有一位楚国人, 他非常爱惜他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，一不小心他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了记号。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\r\n \r\n宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在移动。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLong ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it. \r\n \r\nThe sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom, Ke Zhou Qiu Jian', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1557-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-25 21:54:56', '2015-02-26 02:54:56', '', 1557, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/25/1557-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1575, 1, '2015-03-01 22:39:59', '2015-03-02 03:39:59', '[two_third]\r\nYang over at
Learn Mandarin Now is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading
[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin] (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. \r\n\r\n
In the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \r\n\r\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu3guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the
State of Chu\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.
Encyclopedia Britannica tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\" Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\r\n \r\nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\r\n\r\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to
Yang! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n从前 - [pinyin]cong2 qian2[/pinyin] - A long time ago\r\n爱惜 - [pinyin]ai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Cherish\r\n一不小心 - [pinyin]yi1 bu4 xiao3 xin1[/pinyin] - Accidentally\r\n记号 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Notch, notation made to remember something\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n从前有一位楚国人, 他非常爱惜他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，一不小心他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了记号。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\r\n \r\n宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在移动。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLong ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it. \r\n \r\nThe sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom, Ke Zhou Qiu Jian', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1557-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-03-01 22:39:59', '2015-03-02 03:39:59', '', 1557, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/03/01/1557-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1576, 1, '2015-03-01 22:40:15', '2015-03-02 03:40:15', '[two_third]\r\nYang over at
Learn Mandarin Now is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading
[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin] (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. \r\n\r\n
In the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \r\n\r\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu3guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the
State of Chu\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.
Encyclopedia Britannica tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\" Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\r\n \r\nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\r\n\r\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to
Yang! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n从前 - [pinyin]cong2 qian2[/pinyin] - A long time ago\r\n爱惜 - [pinyin]ai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Cherish\r\n一不小心 - [pinyin]yi1 bu4 xiao3 xin1[/pinyin] - Accidentally\r\n记号 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Notch, notation made to remember something\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n从前有一位楚国人, 他非常爱惜他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，一不小心他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了记号。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\r\n \r\n宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在移动。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLong ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it. \r\n \r\nThe sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom, Ke Zhou Qiu Jian', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1557-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-03-01 22:40:15', '2015-03-02 03:40:15', '', 1557, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/03/01/1557-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1577, 1, '2015-02-19 22:48:42', '2015-02-20 03:48:42', '[two_third]\r\nHey hey, lookie here, an excellent guest post submitted by native Chinese speaker Yang from
Learn Mandarin Now. This story tells us a bit about the Chinese
chengyu (idiom),塞翁失马, which can mean \"a blessing in disguise\", or can conversely mean \"bad luck disguised as good\". It\'s used to point out the hidden positives or negatives in a situation, so you might say it means \"there are two sides to every circumstance\". \r\n\r\n
I\'m loving this post for the fable-y language: \"servant\", \"steed\", etc. Plus, I learned a new favorite word in this one: 塞外 [pinyin]sai4 wai4[/pinyin], meaning \"Beyond the Great Wall\". In other words, a remote place near the outskirts or borders of China. Also, don\'t forget, 匹 [pinyin]pi3[/pinyin] is the measure word for Horses, so you\'re gonna see that a few times. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one phrase we should probably get into in greater detail, because I don\'t think it\'s immediately clear what it means: 全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗. Let\'s take a look at this, word by word:\r\n\r\n全国 - The whole country\r\n上下的 - Everywhere\r\n年轻男子 - young men\r\n都 - all\r\n被 - grammar word usually indicating that the subject of the sentence has had something unfortunate happen to them\r\n抓 - grabbed\r\n去 - go out\r\n打仗 - fight \r\n\r\nThe key word here is 抓 [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin], which usually means to \"catch\" or \"grab\". In this case, the word means \"drafted\", so it still means to \"grab\", but in this case, it\'s the ruling power (probably the king) doing the grabbing up (of potential soldiers). The 被 in this case functions as \"were\", with a negative overtone. So this can be translated as \"All the young men everywhere in the country
were drafted to go fight a war.\"\r\n\r\nLearn Mandarin Now\'s \"
How to Read Chinese\" page for a basic overview on getting started with Simplified characters, and look at
their new blog for some learning tips. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n老翁 - [pinyin]lao3 weng1[/pinyin] - Old man\r\n仆人 - [pinyin]pu2 ren2[/pinyin] - Servant\r\n邻国 - [pinyin]lin2 guo2[/pinyin] - Neighboring country\r\n闻讯 - [pinyin]wen2 xun4[/pinyin] - [upon] hearing the news...\r\n骏马 - [pinyin]jun4 ma3[/pinyin] - Great Steed\r\n战场 - [pinyin]zhan4 chang3[/pinyin] - Battlefield\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n从前，一位老翁和他的儿子住在塞外的边境上。他们都非常喜欢换骑马。有一天，他们家的仆人给老先生报告：\"我们家的一匹骏马走丢了，好像跑去邻国了。\"\r\n\r\n老翁的朋友闻讯都过来安慰他。但老先生说：“呵呵，这也许不是坏事，谁知道呢！＂\r\n\r\n几个月之后，奇妙的事情发生了，那匹走失了的骏马意外地跑回来了，并且从邻国带来了一匹新的骏马。老翁的好友纷纷过来祝贺他。老翁说：“唉，这也许不是什么好事情呢！”\r\n\r\n一天，老翁的儿子正在骑那匹新的骏马，突然不小心从马上掉了下来并摔断了腿。他从今以后都不能正常走路了。老翁的朋友都为老翁感到伤心，但老翁却说：“这个意外以后能为咱们带来好运也不一定。”\r\n\r\n一年后，全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗，大部分去参军的年轻人都死在了战场。老翁的儿子因为腿受伤了所以避过了这一次劫难。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nOnce upon a time, there was an old man who lived with his son on the borders of the country. They both very much enjoyed riding horses. One day, a servant reported to the old man, “One of our good horses has gone missing. It seems the horse ran across to the neighboring country.\"\r\n\r\nOld man\'s friends came and comforted him. However, the old man said: \"Well, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Who knows!\"\r\n\r\nCouple of months later, a strange thing happened. The missing horse came back, accompanied by a great steed from the neighboring country. When his friends congratulated him on this great news, the old man said: \"Well, this might bring us bad luck.\"\r\n\r\nOne day, his son was having fun riding on the fine [new] steed. Suddenly, he fell from the hose and broke his leg. His son was never able to walk again. Again, his friends came to comfort the old man. But the old man was not bothered and said: \"This accident might bring us good luck in the future.\"\r\n\r\nA year later, all young men in the country were drafted to join a war. Most young men who fought died on the battlefield. Luckily, his son avoided entering the war because of his broken leg.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom - Sai Weng Shi Ma', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1551-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-19 22:48:42', '2015-02-20 03:48:42', '', 1551, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/19/1551-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1578, 1, '2015-02-18 02:49:47', '2015-02-18 07:49:47', '[two_third]\r\nHappy Year of the Sheep! Couple of days ago, I stumbled across the Book \"The Last Yin Yang Master\", aka \"The Last Onmyoji\" （最后一个阴阳师), a supernatural ghost story available for free online. It\'s incredibly rare to find full-length books that aren\'t impossibly difficult to get through, but this one is phenomenal for learners. I\'m gonna put part of the first chapter here, so you can dive on in. The rest can be grabbed on
Zhuaji.com. \r\n\r\n
I\'ve recently sort of discovered that ghost stories and detective novels are where it\'s at for practicing reading. The cliches in a Chinese murder mystery are exactly the same as they are anywhere: hard-boiled cop, confused rookie, seductive woman, shady business, and definitely a chase scene. It\'s easier to follow a story when you have a semi-expectation of what\'s supposed to happen. They get hard when people start talking about blood spatter and ballistics, but you can kind of get the gist. Ghost stories are the same way - a scene of normalcy is set, followed by some red-flag strangeness that everyone completely ignores because they don\'t believe in the supernatural, followed by some myths and legends, or maybe a mysterious old man, or maybe a body goes missing, and then things really freaky. Again, the read gets hard when characters start talking about the mystic books of old, or funeral customs, so you should probably be reading this with the help of Pleco (which I do), but The Last Onmyoji is accessible enough that those parts shouldn\'t totally derail you. Highly recommended.\r\n\r\nThis really is worth a go for readers at almost all levels. The read is late-intermediate, but using Pleco, late-stage beginners and early-intermediates will be able to understand large chunks of it, enough to motivate you to puzzle through the parts you don\'t get, more so because this is being told in first-person. Remember, now, that the beginning of a book is usually the hardest as you try to get a sense of the story. Once the story gets rolling, it\'s easier to flow with it. Advanced readers may just appreciate learning a bit of spooky vocab. \r\n\r\nThe segment that I\"m translating here doesn\'t have any ghostly bits in it, this is the first chapter to get you going on the story. It\'s packed full of Chinese village culture, and some parts at the end that would be considered extremely un-PC in the west: a little anti-Japanese talk, and a little bit about buying women, the rarities of college education in the countryside: the realities of village life in China, even these days. \r\n\r\nThere\'s a lot I could talk about in here, but I do like the word 投 [pinyin]tou2[/pinyin] - This word had a ton of meanings. Imagine slipping a piece of paper into a suggestion box. Got it? That\'s what this word embodies, that action, or anything related to a similar action of taking a flat object and dropping it into a slot, literally or figuratively. So it can mean to \"vote\", as in an election, because you\'re submitting a ballot. It can mean to \"slide\" an envelope into a letter box. In this case, it means to \"submit\" a resume while seeking a job offer. We don\'t have a word for that concept in English, I think. \r\n\r\nEnjoy!\r\n\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n盘缠 - [pinyin]pan2 chan2[/pinyin] - Travel money\r\n肺痨 - [pinyin]fei4 lao2[/pinyin] - Tuberculosis\r\n张罗 - [pinyin]zhang1 luo5[/pinyin] - Gather together\r\n屁股 - [pinyin]pi4 gu5[/pinyin] - Butt, behind, rump\r\n浑浑噩噩 - [pinyin]hun2 hun2 e4 e4[/pinyin] - Butt, behind, rump\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n我叫林小凡,今年23岁。大学刚毕业。一个三流的大学四流的成绩,大学是在杭州读,毕业之后最开始在一家房地产公司做销售员,底薪一千八。因为业绩太差,公司没说辞退我,我自己就不好意思待了。\r\n\r\n在杭州转了两个月,投了不知道多少份儿简历,面试了多少次,都没有通过。盘缠花光之后,就回了老家。\r\n\r\n我的老家是洛阳。洛阳的乡下,一个叫做十里铺儿的小村儿落。\r\n\r\n之所以回来,是因为村儿里小学唯一的教师得了肺痨,病的已经非常严重,我作为村里走出来唯一的大学生,村长愿意一月掏出一千块的巨资来请我去代课。\r\n\r\n所以我回来了。\r\n\r\n在外面活的不如一条狗的我,在老家得到了极大的尊严。\r\n\r\n在偏远的山村,大学生,还是一个极其厉害的存在,村民们在看到我父亲的时候,都会为他竖起大拇指,说:“老林家祖坟冒了青烟,竟然出了个大学生,以后你就走出了大山咯。”\r\n\r\n每当这个时候,我父亲都会憨厚的笑一笑,抹去他脸上的汗水。\r\n\r\n我回到村子之后,方圆几里的媒婆都争着抢着给我介绍对象,几乎踏破我家的门槛儿,这不是吹牛。你不在那个环境里,不知道大学生三个字的分量。\r\n\r\n父亲也极力的给我张罗,在他们眼里,23岁,甚至已经过了结婚的年纪。跟我同龄的人,现在儿子已经可以光着屁股到处跑了。\r\n\r\n为了不让他们操心,我也去一次次的应付相亲。\r\n\r\n对,是应付。\r\n\r\n大学,说白了就是一个区分性与理性的地方,虽然是山村出来的,可是我的相貌并不算丑,甚至可以说英俊。也谈过一个女朋友,我没钱,她也不是非常的富裕,可是就算这样,我们还在在一起了三年,我尽我所能的打零工,来做一个男朋友该做的。大三那年,我们分手。\r\n\r\n那一天,我在我们学校的后山喝了一瓶2块钱的二锅头。醒来之后,不再悲伤,继续浑浑噩噩的过日子。\r\n\r\n关于相貌这一点,我继承了我母亲。\r\n\r\n 一个不知道故乡在哪里的美貌女人。\r\n\r\n她有痴呆症。\r\n\r\n在几十年前,我父亲进城,用了三百块钱把她买了回来。\r\n\r\n我父亲说,他那一天花了两元钱给母亲买了一身衣服,回来的时候母亲的美貌,让村里的人哈喇子都流到了地上。\r\n\r\n可惜,她是个傻子。\r\n\r\n如果不是傻子,我父亲也买不起。\r\n\r\n后来有了我,母亲的痴傻一直都是那样,可是她的傻,并不是像街头的疯子一样,她非常安静。\r\n\r\n不说话,不动。只是安静的坐着。\r\n\r\n我就在这样的一个环境下长大,可是我并不想文艺的说,我有孤僻的性格,因为就算是这样,我还是有完整的童年。\r\n\r\n我父亲非常的勤劳,他尽一个农民的极限,利用手中的农具,养活一个家。我没有什么怪他的地方。\r\n\r\n没钱,这是命。\r\n\r\n我爷爷,是一个退伍的老军人,他不识字,没有农民典型的精明,反倒是实诚的可怕。有人说他是gmd,有人说他是gcd,可是他自己都不知道自己到底是哪个党,他唯一知道的,就是他拿枪打日本鬼子,鬼子打跑之后,他就回到了家。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nMy name is Lin Xiaofan, I\'m 23 years old this year. I just graduated from college. A third-rate school with fourth-tier grades, my college was in Hangzhou, and after I graduated I first went to work as sales staff at a real estate agency with a salary of 1,800 [translator\'s note: this is a very low salary, about $300 USD / month]. My sales performance was poor, and the company never fired me, but I was so embarrassed that I left. \r\n\r\nI wandered around Hangzhou for two months, submitted I don\'t even know how many resumes, or went to how many interviews, but nothing came through. After I\'d spent all my travel money, I went back to my home town.\r\n\r\nMy home town is Luoyang. In the Luoyang countryside falls a little village called Shilipu\'er. \r\n\r\nThe reason I went home is because the village\'s only teacher got tuberculosis, and he was very seriously ill, so as the village\'s only person who\'d ever gone off to college, the village chief dug up a thousand-dollar [translator\'s note: \"1000 kuai\" is \"1000 Chinese Renminbi\"] investment and asked me to substitute teach. \r\n\r\nSo I went home. \r\n\r\nMy life away from home wasn\'t even as good as a dog\'s, but I get plenty of respect in my home town. \r\n\r\nIn such a remote village, being a college graduate is still an extremely awesome thing to be, and every time the villagers see my father, they all give him a thumbs-up and say, \"Your family\'s ancestral grave is emitting green smoke, unexpectedly out popped a college student! You\'ll be walking off this mountain after a while!\" [translator\'s note: this is a compliment regarding the family\'s lineage.]\r\n\r\nOf course at these times, my father would smile in a simple and honest way, wiping the sweat off his brow. \r\n\r\nAfter I came back to the village, all the local matchmakers tried to set me up with someone, almost trampling down my door, no exaggeration. If you\'ve never been in that [village] environment, you don\'t know the power of those three words, \"College Degree Holder\".\r\n\r\nMy dad also made a supreme effort to settle me, because in his eyes, at 23 years old I\'d already passed marrying age. Everyone my age already had kids running around with their bare butts hanging out. \r\n\r\nSo as not to make him worry, I\'d already coped with my first blind date. \r\n\r\nYes, it was definitely \"coping\". \r\n\r\nCollege, speaking frankly, was a place with completely different place with different rationales, but although I came from a farm village, I wasn\'t considered ugly, you might even say I\'m handsome. I had a girlfriend, but I had no money, and she wasn\'t very rich either, but that\'s just the way it was, we were together three years, and I used up all my part-time work money trying to do all the things a boyfriend is supposed to do. In the third year, we broke up. \r\n\r\nOn that day, on the hill behind our school, I drank a bottle of 2-dollar liquor. After I woke up, I wasn\'t sad anymore, and I just continued muddle-headedly passing the days. \r\n\r\nAbout my looks, those I inherited from my mother. \r\n\r\nA good-looking woman from who-knows-where. \r\n\r\nShe had dementia.\r\n\r\nA few decades ago, my father went to the city, and spent three hundred dollars to buy her and bring her home.\r\n\r\nMy dad said, that day he spent two bucks to buy mom some clothes, and when he returned, mom\'s good looks made everyone in the village drool all over the ground. \r\n\r\nPity, she was an idiot.\r\n\r\nIf she hadn\'t been an idiot, my dad could never have afforded her. \r\n\r\nThen I came along, and mom\'s dementia continued as before, but her brand of dementia wasn\'t like a crazy street person\'s, she was very quiet. \r\n\r\nShe didn\'t speak, didn\'t move. Just quietly sat there.\r\n\r\nThis is the environment I grew up in, but I don\'t want to make it sound literary, I had an antisocial nature, but even so, I still had a full childhood. \r\n\r\nMy father is very industrious, he has a farmer\'s strength, using the farm tools in his hands, he nurtured a household. I don\'t have anything to blame him for. \r\n\r\nNo money, that\'s just life. \r\n\r\nMy grandfather is a retired soldier, he\'s illiterate, and he doesn\'t have any of a villager\'s typical shrewdness, on the contrary he\'s terrifyingly honest. Some people said he was GMD [translator\'s note: GMD = guo min dang, the fascist party in the Chinese civil war, who lost], some people said he was GCD [GCD = gong chang dang, the communist party that won the war and remains in power today], but he doesn\'t even know himself which \"dang\" [translator\'s note - this \"dang\" means \"political party\"] he was in, the only thing he knows is that he grabbed a gun and fought the Japanese devils [the Japanese invaded while the GMD and the GCD were fighting each other], and after the devils ran away, he went home.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Great book: The Last Yin Yang Master', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1539-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-18 02:49:47', '2015-02-18 07:49:47', '', 1539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/18/1539-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1580, 1, '2015-09-24 21:46:52', '2015-09-25 01:46:52', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Chinese Children Fables Stories for Kids', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150925-inline', '', '', '2015-09-24 21:46:52', '2015-09-25 01:46:52', '', 1566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/20150925-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1581, 1, '2015-09-24 21:46:54', '2015-09-25 01:46:54', '', '20150925', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150925', '', '', '2015-09-24 21:46:54', '2015-09-25 01:46:54', '', 1566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/20150925.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1582, 1, '2015-09-24 21:45:15', '2015-09-25 01:45:15', '[two_third]\nFeels like it\'s been a hundred years since I threw something up here. Rest assured I carry the shame of an un-updated blog around with me constantly, so - yay, guilt. I\'m actually taking intensive classes in Chinese (yet again) to push my reading level higher, hence the lack of posts. I\'m more active on here when I\'m not studying anywhere else. Anyhoo, this is another one I nabbed from Sina user
Zifengling\'s personal blog. I tried to convince myself that this was beginner, but I just couldn\'t. The words are mostly OK, but there are one too many wibble-wobbly sentence configurations.\n\nThis is also a perfect example of a fairly easy story that had one phrase I spent an hour trying to sort out, and a perfect example of the reason I started this blog in the first damn place - you start reading and then one word trips you up and you can\'t get past it. 99% sure I figured it out, but don\'t hesitate to correct me in the comments if you have intelligence to the contrary. The word was 香草娃娃 [pinyin]xiang1 cao3 wa2 wa2[/pinyin]. Uh, well, [pinyin]xiang1 cao3[/pinyin] means \"vanilla\" and [pinyin]wa2 wa2[/pinyin] is \"baby\", so... vanilla baby? Really? In the story, 香草娃娃 is used as a toy\'s name, so I thought, maybe there\'s a toy called a Vanilla Baby? Anyway, it turns out an out-of-use definition for 香草 is \"old and dependable\". Ah hah - \"old, dependable baby doll\". That makes sense. \n\nThere\'s one other very useful phrase here that\'s very commonly used in everyday language here: 太过分了！Directly translated, this means \"Too excessive!\", but this phrase doesn\'t usually actually refer to a large amount of things. It\'s more often used to refer to a circumstance or someone\'s behavior, like, \"That is just too much to bear!\". If someone was very mean to you, you could say, \"太过分了!\" or if an interview process was super rough and you got raked over the coals, also \"太过分了!\" \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n非凡 - [pinyin]fei1 fan2[/pinyin] - Extraordinarily\n舞池 - [pinyin]wu3 chi2[/pinyin] - Dance floor\n气愤 - [pinyin]qi4 fen4[/pinyin] - Angry\n对待 - [pinyin]dui4 dai4[/pinyin] - To treat someone (a certain way)\n灿烂 - [pinyin]can4 lan4[/pinyin] - Brilliant (smile, light)\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n新年快到了，玩具王国决定举行一场盛大的舞会，准备邀请全国的玩具都来参加。舞会那天，玩具们都不停地跳着、笑着，整个舞场热闹非凡。可是在一个角落里，谁也没有注意到，有一只紫色的香草娃娃正一声不吭地望着舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这时，一只小白熊正好从她面前经过，它看到了这一切，就走过去问香草娃娃：“娃娃，你为什么不去跳舞呢？”香草娃娃难过地低下了头，轻轻地说：“玩具们都嫌我个子小，不愿意请我跳舞。”说完流下了眼泪。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？难道他们不懂得要团结友爱吗！太过分了！”小白熊拉起香草娃娃的手，说，“娃娃，不要难过了。走，我请你跳舞。”香草娃娃听了这话，脸上顿时露出了灿烂的笑容，她连忙擦掉脸上的泪水，高兴地说：“太好了！太好了！”娃娃和小白熊在舞池里又跳又笑，一起度过了一个愉快的夜晚。\n \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThe new year had almost arrived, and the Toy Kingdom planned to invite everyone to a grand ball. The day of the dance, the toys were all dancing and laughing, and the whole ballroom was extraordinarily lively. But off in one corner, receiving no attention from anyone, there was an old purple doll silently gazing at the dance floor, her eyes were blank and she looked lonely. Just then, a white polar bear in front of her saw this, walked over and asked the dependable old doll, \"Doll, why don\'t you go dance?\" The dependable doll lowered her head sadly, saying in a small voice, \"The [other] toys all say I\'m too short, they\'re not willing to dance with me.\" Saying this, she began to cry. Polar Bear was furious when he heard this, and said: \"How could they treat you this way? Don\'t they understand solidarity? That\'s just too much!\" Little Bear pulled on the baby doll\'s hand, and said: \"Doll, don\'t be sad. Come on, I\'m asking you to dance with me.\" The dependable doll heard these words, and a brilliant smile immediately lit up her face. She quickly wiped the tears off her face and said happily, \"Wonderful! Wonderful!\" On the dance floor, Doll and Bear danced and laughed, and passed a lovely evening together. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-09-24 21:45:15', '2015-09-25 01:45:15', '', 1566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/09/24/1566-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1583, 1, '2015-09-24 21:47:56', '2015-09-25 01:47:56', '[two_third]\r\nFeels like it\'s been a hundred years since I threw something up here. Rest assured I carry the shame of an un-updated blog around with me constantly, so - yay, guilt. I\'m actually taking intensive classes in Chinese (yet again) to push my reading level higher, hence the lack of posts. I\'m more active on here when I\'m not studying anywhere else. Anyhoo, this is another one I nabbed from Sina user
Zifengling\'s personal blog. I tried to convince myself that this was beginner, but I just couldn\'t. The words are mostly OK, but there are one too many wibble-wobbly sentence configurations.\r\n\r\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/20150925-INLINE.jpg\")
This is also a perfect example of a fairly easy story that had one phrase I spent an hour trying to sort out, and a perfect example of the reason I started this blog in the first damn place - you start reading and then one word trips you up and you can\'t get past it. 99% sure I figured it out, but don\'t hesitate to correct me in the comments if you have intelligence to the contrary. The word was 香草娃娃 [pinyin]xiang1 cao3 wa2 wa2[/pinyin]. Uh, well, [pinyin]xiang1 cao3[/pinyin] means \"vanilla\" and [pinyin]wa2 wa2[/pinyin] is \"baby\", so... vanilla baby? Really? In the story, 香草娃娃 is used as a toy\'s name, so I thought, maybe there\'s a toy called a Vanilla Baby? Anyway, it turns out an out-of-use definition for 香草 is \"old and dependable\". Ah hah - \"old, dependable baby doll\". That makes sense. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one other very useful phrase here that\'s very commonly used in everyday language here: 太过分了！Directly translated, this means \"Too excessive!\", but this phrase doesn\'t usually actually refer to a large amount of things. It\'s more often used to refer to a circumstance or someone\'s behavior, like, \"That is just too much to bear!\". If someone was very mean to you, you could say, \"太过分了!\" or if an interview process was super rough and you got raked over the coals, also \"太过分了!\" \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n非凡 - [pinyin]fei1 fan2[/pinyin] - Extraordinarily\r\n舞池 - [pinyin]wu3 chi2[/pinyin] - Dance floor\r\n气愤 - [pinyin]qi4 fen4[/pinyin] - Angry\r\n对待 - [pinyin]dui4 dai4[/pinyin] - To treat someone (a certain way)\r\n灿烂 - [pinyin]can4 lan4[/pinyin] - Brilliant (smile, light)\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n新年快到了，玩具王国决定举行一场盛大的舞会，准备邀请全国的玩具都来参加。舞会那天，玩具们都不停地跳着、笑着，整个舞场热闹非凡。可是在一个角落里，谁也没有注意到，有一只紫色的香草娃娃正一声不吭地望着舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这时，一只小白熊正好从她面前经过，它看到了这一切，就走过去问香草娃娃：“娃娃，你为什么不去跳舞呢？”香草娃娃难过地低下了头，轻轻地说：“玩具们都嫌我个子小，不愿意请我跳舞。”说完流下了眼泪。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？难道他们不懂得要团结友爱吗！太过分了！”小白熊拉起香草娃娃的手，说，“娃娃，不要难过了。走，我请你跳舞。”香草娃娃听了这话，脸上顿时露出了灿烂的笑容，她连忙擦掉脸上的泪水，高兴地说：“太好了！太好了！”娃娃和小白熊在舞池里又跳又笑，一起度过了一个愉快的夜晚。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe new year had almost arrived, and the Toy Kingdom planned to invite everyone to a grand ball. The day of the dance, the toys were all dancing and laughing, and the whole ballroom was extraordinarily lively. But off in one corner, receiving no attention from anyone, there was an old purple doll silently gazing at the dance floor, her eyes were blank and she looked lonely. Just then, a white polar bear in front of her saw this, walked over and asked the dependable old doll, \"Doll, why don\'t you go dance?\" The dependable doll lowered her head sadly, saying in a small voice, \"The [other] toys all say I\'m too short, they\'re not willing to dance with me.\" Saying this, she began to cry. Polar Bear was furious when he heard this, and said: \"How could they treat you this way? Don\'t they understand solidarity? That\'s just too much!\" Little Bear pulled on the baby doll\'s hand, and said: \"Doll, don\'t be sad. Come on, I\'m asking you to dance with me.\" The dependable doll heard these words, and a brilliant smile immediately lit up her face. She quickly wiped the tears off her face and said happily, \"Wonderful! Wonderful!\" On the dance floor, Doll and Bear danced and laughed, and passed a lovely evening together. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-09-24 21:47:56', '2015-09-25 01:47:56', '', 1566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/09/24/1566-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1584, 1, '2015-09-24 21:49:27', '2015-09-25 01:49:27', '[two_third]\r\nFeels like it\'s been a hundred years since I threw something up here. Rest assured I carry the shame of an un-updated blog around with me constantly, so - yay, guilt. I\'m actually taking intensive classes in Chinese (yet again) to push my reading level higher, hence the lack of posts. I\'m more active on here when I\'m not studying anywhere else. Anyhoo, this is another one I nabbed from Sina user
Zifengling\'s personal blog. I tried to convince myself that this was beginner, but I just couldn\'t. The words are mostly OK, but there are one too many wibble-wobbly sentence configurations.\r\n\r\n
This is also a perfect example of a fairly easy story that had one phrase I spent an hour trying to sort out, and a perfect example of the reason I started this blog in the first damn place - you start reading and then one word trips you up and you can\'t get past it. 99% sure I figured it out, but don\'t hesitate to correct me in the comments if you have intelligence to the contrary. The word was 香草娃娃 [pinyin]xiang1 cao3 wa2 wa2[/pinyin]. Uh, well, [pinyin]xiang1 cao3[/pinyin] means \"vanilla\" and [pinyin]wa2 wa2[/pinyin] is \"baby\", so... vanilla baby? Really? In the story, 香草娃娃 is used as a toy\'s name, so I thought, maybe there\'s a toy called a Vanilla Baby? Anyway, it turns out an out-of-use definition for 香草 is \"old and dependable\". Ah hah - \"old, dependable baby doll\". That makes sense. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one other very useful phrase here that\'s very commonly used in everyday language: 太过分了！Directly translated, this means \"Too excessive!\", but this phrase doesn\'t usually actually refer to a large amount of things. It\'s more often used to refer to a circumstance or someone\'s behavior, like, \"That is just too much to bear!\". If someone was very mean to you, you could say, \"太过分了!\" or if an interview process was super rough and you got raked over the coals, also \"太过分了!\" \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n非凡 - [pinyin]fei1 fan2[/pinyin] - Extraordinarily\r\n舞池 - [pinyin]wu3 chi2[/pinyin] - Dance floor\r\n气愤 - [pinyin]qi4 fen4[/pinyin] - Angry\r\n对待 - [pinyin]dui4 dai4[/pinyin] - To treat someone (a certain way)\r\n灿烂 - [pinyin]can4 lan4[/pinyin] - Brilliant (smile, light)\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n新年快到了，玩具王国决定举行一场盛大的舞会，准备邀请全国的玩具都来参加。舞会那天，玩具们都不停地跳着、笑着，整个舞场热闹非凡。可是在一个角落里，谁也没有注意到，有一只紫色的香草娃娃正一声不吭地望着舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这时，一只小白熊正好从她面前经过，它看到了这一切，就走过去问香草娃娃：“娃娃，你为什么不去跳舞呢？”香草娃娃难过地低下了头，轻轻地说：“玩具们都嫌我个子小，不愿意请我跳舞。”说完流下了眼泪。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？难道他们不懂得要团结友爱吗！太过分了！”小白熊拉起香草娃娃的手，说，“娃娃，不要难过了。走，我请你跳舞。”香草娃娃听了这话，脸上顿时露出了灿烂的笑容，她连忙擦掉脸上的泪水，高兴地说：“太好了！太好了！”娃娃和小白熊在舞池里又跳又笑，一起度过了一个愉快的夜晚。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe new year had almost arrived, and the Toy Kingdom planned to invite everyone to a grand ball. The day of the dance, the toys were all dancing and laughing, and the whole ballroom was extraordinarily lively. But off in one corner, receiving no attention from anyone, there was an old purple doll silently gazing at the dance floor, her eyes were blank and she looked lonely. Just then, a white polar bear in front of her saw this, walked over and asked the dependable old doll, \"Doll, why don\'t you go dance?\" The dependable doll lowered her head sadly, saying in a small voice, \"The [other] toys all say I\'m too short, they\'re not willing to dance with me.\" Saying this, she began to cry. Polar Bear was furious when he heard this, and said: \"How could they treat you this way? Don\'t they understand solidarity? That\'s just too much!\" Little Bear pulled on the baby doll\'s hand, and said: \"Doll, don\'t be sad. Come on, I\'m asking you to dance with me.\" The dependable doll heard these words, and a brilliant smile immediately lit up her face. She quickly wiped the tears off her face and said happily, \"Wonderful! Wonderful!\" On the dance floor, Doll and Bear danced and laughed, and passed a lovely evening together. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-09-24 21:49:27', '2015-09-25 01:49:27', '', 1566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/09/24/1566-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1585, 1, '2015-09-24 21:49:41', '2015-09-25 01:49:41', '[two_third]\r\nFeels like it\'s been a hundred years since I threw something up here. Rest assured I carry the shame of an un-updated blog around with me constantly, so - yay, guilt. I\'m actually taking intensive classes in Chinese (yet again) to push my reading level higher, hence the lack of posts. I\'m more active on here when I\'m not studying anywhere else. Anyhoo, this is another one I nabbed from Sina user
Zifengling\'s personal blog. I tried to convince myself that this was beginner, but I just couldn\'t. The words are mostly OK, but there are one too many wibble-wobbly sentence configurations.\r\n\r\n
This is also a perfect example of a fairly easy story that had one phrase I spent an hour trying to sort out, and a perfect example of the reason I started this blog in the first damn place - you start reading and then one word trips you up and you can\'t get past it. 99% sure I figured it out, but don\'t hesitate to correct me in the comments if you have intelligence to the contrary. The word was 香草娃娃 [pinyin]xiang1 cao3 wa2 wa2[/pinyin]. Uh, well, [pinyin]xiang1 cao3[/pinyin] means \"vanilla\" and [pinyin]wa2 wa2[/pinyin] is \"baby\", so... vanilla baby? Really? In the story, 香草娃娃 is used as a toy\'s name, so I thought, maybe there\'s a toy called a Vanilla Baby? Anyway, it turns out an out-of-use definition for 香草 is \"old and dependable\". Ah hah - \"old, dependable baby doll\". That makes sense. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one other very useful phrase here that\'s very commonly used in everyday language: 太过分了！Directly translated, this means \"Too excessive!\", but this phrase doesn\'t usually actually refer to a large amount of things. It\'s more often used to refer to a circumstance or someone\'s behavior, like, \"That is just too much to bear!\". If someone was very mean to you, you could say, \"太过分了!\" or if an interview process was super rough and you got raked over the coals, also \"太过分了!\" \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n非凡 - [pinyin]fei1 fan2[/pinyin] - Extraordinarily\r\n舞池 - [pinyin]wu3 chi2[/pinyin] - Dance floor\r\n气愤 - [pinyin]qi4 fen4[/pinyin] - Angry\r\n对待 - [pinyin]dui4 dai4[/pinyin] - To treat someone (a certain way)\r\n灿烂 - [pinyin]can4 lan4[/pinyin] - Brilliant (smile, light)\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n新年快到了，玩具王国决定举行一场盛大的舞会，准备邀请全国的玩具都来参加。舞会那天，玩具们都不停地跳着、笑着，整个舞场热闹非凡。可是在一个角落里，谁也没有注意到，有一只紫色的香草娃娃正一声不吭地望着舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这时，一只小白熊正好从她面前经过，它看到了这一切，就走过去问香草娃娃：“娃娃，你为什么不去跳舞呢？”香草娃娃难过地低下了头，轻轻地说：“玩具们都嫌我个子小，不愿意请我跳舞。”说完流下了眼泪。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？难道他们不懂得要团结友爱吗！太过分了！”小白熊拉起香草娃娃的手，说，“娃娃，不要难过了。走，我请你跳舞。”香草娃娃听了这话，脸上顿时露出了灿烂的笑容，她连忙擦掉脸上的泪水，高兴地说：“太好了！太好了！”娃娃和小白熊在舞池里又跳又笑，一起度过了一个愉快的夜晚。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe new year had almost arrived, and the Toy Kingdom planned to invite everyone to a grand ball. The day of the dance, the toys were all dancing and laughing, and the whole ballroom was extraordinarily lively. But off in one corner, receiving no attention from anyone, there was an old purple doll silently gazing at the dance floor, her eyes were blank and she looked lonely. Just then, a white polar bear in front of her saw this, walked over and asked the dependable old doll, \"Doll, why don\'t you go dance?\" The dependable doll lowered her head sadly, saying in a small voice, \"The [other] toys all say I\'m too short, they\'re not willing to dance with me.\" Saying this, she began to cry. Polar Bear was furious when he heard this, and said: \"How could they treat you this way? Don\'t they understand solidarity? That\'s just too much!\" Little Bear pulled on the baby doll\'s hand, and said: \"Doll, don\'t be sad. Come on, I\'m asking you to dance with me.\" The dependable doll heard these words, and a brilliant smile immediately lit up her face. She quickly wiped the tears off her face and said happily, \"Wonderful! Wonderful!\" On the dance floor, Doll and Bear danced and laughed, and passed a lovely evening together. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-09-24 21:49:41', '2015-09-25 01:49:41', '', 1566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/09/24/1566-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1910, 1, '2016-11-02 02:22:41', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', '我是一条天狗呀！\r\n我把月来吞了，\r\n我把日来吞了，\r\n我把一切的星球来吞了，\r\n我把全宇宙来吞了。\r\n我便是我了！\r\n我是月的光，\r\n我是日的光，\r\n我是一切星球的光，\r\n我是 X 光线的光，\r\n我是全宇宙的 Energy （能量）的总量！\r\n我飞奔，\r\n我狂叫，\r\n我燃烧。\r\n我如烈火一样地燃烧！\r\n我如大海一样地狂叫！\r\n我如电气一样地飞跑！\r\n我飞跑，\r\n我飞跑，\r\n我飞跑，\r\n我剥我的皮，\r\n我食我的肉，\r\n我吸我的血，\r\n我啮我的心肝，\r\n我在我神经上飞跑，\r\n我在我脊髓上飞跑，\r\n我在我脑筋上飞跑。\r\n我便是我呀！\r\n我的我要爆了！\r\n\r\nhttp://baike.baidu.com/subview/5737/6582464.htm?fromtitle=%E3%80%8A%E5%A4%A9%E7%8B%97%E3%80%8B&type=syn\r\n', '[Modern Chinese Poetry] 《天狗》by Guo Moruo', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-02 02:22:41', '2016-11-02 06:22:41', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1910', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(1587, 1, '2016-04-28 07:01:48', '2016-04-28 11:01:48', 'Kinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer.
Dai Wangshu, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.\r\n\r\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20160428-inline.jpg\")
《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the
April 12 Incident, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the
translation that\'s available for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n1) 撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n\r\n2) 她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的芬芳，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中哀怨，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n3) 她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默彳亍着，\r\n冷漠，凄清，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n4) 她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n太息一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的凄婉迷茫。\r\n\r\n5) 像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了颓圮的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n6) 在雨的哀曲里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n7) 撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Holding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n2) She has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\n3) She paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\n4) She walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\n5) Floats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of this drizzling alley.\r\n\r\n6) In the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\n7) Holding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Modern Chinese Poetry] 《雨巷》 Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'modern-chinese-poetry-rainy-alley-by-dai-wangshu', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:30:11', '2016-11-04 09:30:11', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1587', 0, 'post', '', 3),
(2025, 1, '2016-11-04 05:30:11', '2016-11-04 09:30:11', 'Kinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer.
Dai Wangshu, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.\r\n\r\n
《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the
April 12 Incident, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the
translation that\'s available for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n1) 撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n\r\n2) 她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的芬芳，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中哀怨，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n3) 她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默彳亍着，\r\n冷漠，凄清，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n4) 她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n太息一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的凄婉迷茫。\r\n\r\n5) 像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了颓圮的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n6) 在雨的哀曲里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n7) 撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Holding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n2) She has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\n3) She paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\n4) She walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\n5) Floats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of this drizzling alley.\r\n\r\n6) In the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\n7) Holding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Modern Chinese Poetry] 《雨巷》 Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:30:11', '2016-11-04 09:30:11', '', 1587, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1587-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1588, 1, '2016-04-27 20:26:18', '2016-04-28 00:26:18', '[two_third]\nHey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry. \n\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese authors, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated. Dai Wangshu, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy? Dai Wangshu was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthsma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman), and once when his wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce. \n\n雨巷, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with a long-time lover, and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the
April 12 Incident, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. \n\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 雨巷 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author in a silent rainy alley. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently. The language is difficult at first, but then get repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, . \n\nI don\'t love the
translation that\'s available for this, which I\'m using here, and may do my own at some point - I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, so give it a whirl if you can. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n彷徨 - [pinyin]fei1 fan2[/pinyin] - Extraordinarily\n寂寥 - [pinyin]wu3 chi2[/pinyin] - Dance floor\n丁香 - [pinyin]qi4 fen4[/pinyin] - Angry\n愁怨\n芬芳 - [pinyin]dui4 dai4[/pinyin] - To treat someone (a certain way)\n哀怨 - [pinyin]can4 lan4[/pinyin] - Brilliant (smile, light)\n彳亍\n凄清\n太息\n凄婉\n颓圮\n哀曲\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n撑着油纸伞，独自\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\n又寂寥的雨巷，\n我希望逢着\n一个丁香一样的\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\n\n她是有\n丁香一样的颜色，\n丁香一样的芬芳，\n丁香一样的忧愁，\n在雨中哀怨，\n哀怨又彷徨；\n\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\n撑着油纸伞\n像我一样，\n像我一样地\n默默彳亍着，\n冷漠，凄清，又惆怅。\n\n她静默地走近\n走近，又投出\n太息③一般的眼光，\n她飘过\n像梦一般的，\n像梦一般的凄婉迷茫。\n\n像梦中飘过\n一枝丁香的，\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\n她静默地远了，远了，\n到了颓圮的篱墙，\n走尽这雨巷。\n\n在雨的哀曲里，\n消了她的颜色，\n散了她的芬芳\n消散了，甚至她的\n太息般的眼光，\n丁香般的惆怅。\n\n撑着油纸伞，独自\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\n又寂寥的雨巷，\n我希望飘过\n一个丁香一样的\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\n \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nAlone holding an oil-paper umbrella, \nI wander along a long \nSolitary lane in the rain, \nHoping to encounter \nA girl like a bouquet of lilacs \nGnawed by anxiety and resentment.\n\nA girl \nThe colour of lilacs,\nThe fragrance of lilacs, \nWith the worries of lilacs,\nFeeling melancholy in the rain,\nPlaintive and hesitating.\n\nShe wanders along the solitary lane in the rain,\nHolding an oil-paper umbrella\nJust as I do,\nJust like me,\nWalking slowly in silence,\nAloof, sad and melancholy.\n\nSilently she comes closer,\nCloser, giving me \nA glance like a sigh; \nThen she floats past \nLike a dream, \nDreary and blank like a dream.\n\nLike a lilac\nFloating past in a dream, \nthe girl floats past me; \nSilently she goes further and further, \nTo the crumbling wall, \nOut of the lane in the rain.\n\nIn the mournful melody of the rain, \nHer colour has faded, \nHer fragrance has disappeared, \nVanished into the void; \nEven her glance like a sigh, \nMelancholy like lilacs.\n\nAlone holding an oil-paper umbrella, \nI wander along a long \nSolitary lane in the rain, \nHoping to pass \nA girl like a bouquet of lilacs \nGnawed by anxiety and resentment.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-27 20:26:18', '2016-04-28 00:26:18', '', 1587, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/27/1587-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1589, 1, '2016-04-28 06:56:55', '2016-04-28 10:56:55', '[two_third]\nHey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\n\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer.
Dai Wangshu, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\n\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.\n\n《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the
April 12 Incident, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \n\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \n\nI don\'t love the
translation that\'s available for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\n\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \n\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n彷徨 - [pinyin]pang2huang2[/pinyin] - To pace (or to hestitate)\n寂寥 - [pinyin]ji4 liao2[/pinyin] - Solitude / solitary\n丁香 - [pinyin]ding1 xiang1[/pinyin] - Lilac\n愁怨 - [pinyin]chou2 yuan4[/pinyin] - Worried and resentful (two separate words)\n芬芳 - [pinyin]fen1 fang1[/pinyin] - Fragrance\n哀怨 - [pinyin]ai1 yuan4[/pinyin] - Sad\n彳亍 - [pinyin]chi4 chu4[/pinyin] - Walk slowly\n凄清 - [pinyin]qi1 qing1[/pinyin] - Gloomy\n太息 - [pinyin]tai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Sigh\n凄婉 - [pinyin]qi1 wan3[/pinyin] - Bittersweet, sad but beautiful\n颓圮 - [pinyin]tui2 pi3[/pinyin] - Crumbling, toppled\n哀曲 - [pinyin]ai1 qu1[/pinyin] - Sad song\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n撑着油纸伞，独自\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\n又寂寥的雨巷，\n我希望逢着\n一个丁香一样的\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\n\n她是有\n丁香一样的颜色，\n丁香一样的芬芳，\n丁香一样的忧愁，\n在雨中哀怨，\n哀怨又彷徨；\n\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\n撑着油纸伞\n像我一样，\n像我一样地\n默默彳亍着，\n冷漠，凄清，又惆怅。\n\n她静默地走近\n走近，又投出\n太息③一般的眼光，\n她飘过\n像梦一般的，\n像梦一般的凄婉迷茫。\n\n像梦中飘过\n一枝丁香的，\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\n她静默地远了，远了，\n到了颓圮的篱墙，\n走尽这雨巷。\n\n在雨的哀曲里，\n消了她的颜色，\n散了她的芬芳\n消散了，甚至她的\n太息般的眼光，\n丁香般的惆怅。\n\n撑着油纸伞，独自\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\n又寂寥的雨巷，\n我希望飘过\n一个丁香一样的\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\n \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\npace through a long, long, \nand solitary rainy alley.\nI hope to come upon\nA girl like lilacs, \nDistressed and grudging.\n\nShe has\nThe color of lilacs\nThe scent of lilacs\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\nGrudging in the rain,\nResentful and hesitating. \n\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\nAs I do,\nJust as I do, \nSoundlessly wending,\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\n\nShe walks quietly closer,\nWalks closer, casting\nA glance like a sigh,\nShe floats past,\nAs a dream does,\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\n\nFloats by as a dream does, \nA single lilac,\nThe girl who floats past me, \nShe is getting farther, farther,\nReaches the toppled fence,\nWalks out of the lane. \n\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\nHer color is washed away\nHer scent dissipates\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\nSighing eyes\nHer lilac melancholy.\n\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\npace through a long, long, \nand desolate rainy alley.\nI hope to float by\nA girl like lilacs, \nDistressed and grudging.\n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 06:56:55', '2016-04-28 10:56:55', '', 1587, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1587-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1590, 1, '2016-04-28 06:58:54', '2016-04-28 10:58:54', '', '20160428-inline', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20160428-inline', '', '', '2016-04-28 06:58:54', '2016-04-28 10:58:54', '', 1587, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20160428-inline.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1591, 1, '2016-04-28 06:59:00', '2016-04-28 10:59:00', '', '20160428', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20160428', '', '', '2016-04-28 06:59:00', '2016-04-28 10:59:00', '', 1587, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20160428.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1592, 1, '2016-04-28 06:56:57', '2016-04-28 10:56:57', '[two_third]\r\nHey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\r\n\r\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer.
Dai Wangshu, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.\r\n\r\n《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the
April 12 Incident, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the
translation that\'s available for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n彷徨 - [pinyin]pang2huang2[/pinyin] - To pace (or to hestitate)\r\n寂寥 - [pinyin]ji4 liao2[/pinyin] - Solitude / solitary\r\n丁香 - [pinyin]ding1 xiang1[/pinyin] - Lilac\r\n愁怨 - [pinyin]chou2 yuan4[/pinyin] - Worried and resentful (two separate words)\r\n芬芳 - [pinyin]fen1 fang1[/pinyin] - Fragrance\r\n哀怨 - [pinyin]ai1 yuan4[/pinyin] - Sad\r\n彳亍 - [pinyin]chi4 chu4[/pinyin] - Walk slowly\r\n凄清 - [pinyin]qi1 qing1[/pinyin] - Gloomy\r\n太息 - [pinyin]tai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Sigh\r\n凄婉 - [pinyin]qi1 wan3[/pinyin] - Bittersweet, sad but beautiful\r\n颓圮 - [pinyin]tui2 pi3[/pinyin] - Crumbling, toppled\r\n哀曲 - [pinyin]ai1 qu1[/pinyin] - Sad song\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n\r\n她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的芬芳，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中哀怨，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默彳亍着，\r\n冷漠，凄清，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n太息③一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的凄婉迷茫。\r\n\r\n像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了颓圮的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n在雨的哀曲里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\nShe has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\nShe walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\nFloats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of the lane. \r\n\r\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 06:56:57', '2016-04-28 10:56:57', '', 1587, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1587-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1594, 1, '2016-04-28 07:01:41', '2016-04-28 11:01:41', '[two_third]\n
Hey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\n\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer.
Dai Wangshu, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\n\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.\n\n《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the
April 12 Incident, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \n\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \n\nI don\'t love the
translation that\'s available for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\n\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \n\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n彷徨 - [pinyin]pang2huang2[/pinyin] - To pace (or to hestitate)\n寂寥 - [pinyin]ji4 liao2[/pinyin] - Solitude / solitary\n丁香 - [pinyin]ding1 xiang1[/pinyin] - Lilac\n愁怨 - [pinyin]chou2 yuan4[/pinyin] - Worried and resentful (two separate words)\n芬芳 - [pinyin]fen1 fang1[/pinyin] - Fragrance\n哀怨 - [pinyin]ai1 yuan4[/pinyin] - Sad\n彳亍 - [pinyin]chi4 chu4[/pinyin] - Walk slowly\n凄清 - [pinyin]qi1 qing1[/pinyin] - Gloomy\n太息 - [pinyin]tai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Sigh\n凄婉 - [pinyin]qi1 wan3[/pinyin] - Bittersweet, sad but beautiful\n颓圮 - [pinyin]tui2 pi3[/pinyin] - Crumbling, toppled\n哀曲 - [pinyin]ai1 qu1[/pinyin] - Sad song\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n撑着油纸伞，独自\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\n又寂寥的雨巷，\n我希望逢着\n一个丁香一样的\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\n\n她是有\n丁香一样的颜色，\n丁香一样的芬芳，\n丁香一样的忧愁，\n在雨中哀怨，\n哀怨又彷徨；\n\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\n撑着油纸伞\n像我一样，\n像我一样地\n默默彳亍着，\n冷漠，凄清，又惆怅。\n\n她静默地走近\n走近，又投出\n太息一般的眼光，\n她飘过\n像梦一般的，\n像梦一般的凄婉迷茫。\n\n像梦中飘过\n一枝丁香的，\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\n她静默地远了，远了，\n到了颓圮的篱墙，\n走尽这雨巷。\n\n在雨的哀曲里，\n消了她的颜色，\n散了她的芬芳\n消散了，甚至她的\n太息般的眼光，\n丁香般的惆怅。\n\n撑着油纸伞，独自\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\n又寂寥的雨巷，\n我希望飘过\n一个丁香一样的\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\n \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\npace through a long, long, \nand solitary rainy alley.\nI hope to come upon\nA girl like lilacs, \nDistressed and grudging.\n\nShe has\nThe color of lilacs\nThe scent of lilacs\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\nGrudging in the rain,\nResentful and hesitating. \n\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\nAs I do,\nJust as I do, \nSoundlessly wending,\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\n\nShe walks quietly closer,\nWalks closer, casting\nA glance like a sigh,\nShe floats past,\nAs a dream does,\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\n\nFloats by as a dream does, \nA single lilac,\nThe girl who floats past me, \nShe is getting farther, farther,\nReaches the toppled fence,\nWalks out of the \n\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\nHer color is washed away\nHer scent dissipates\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\nSighing eyes\nHer lilac melancholy.\n\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\npace through a long, long, \nand desolate rainy alley.\nI hope to float by\nA girl like lilacs, \nDistressed and grudging.\n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 07:01:41', '2016-04-28 11:01:41', '', 1587, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1587-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1593, 1, '2016-04-28 06:59:42', '2016-04-28 10:59:42', '[two_third]\r\n
Hey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\r\n\r\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer.
Dai Wangshu, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.\r\n\r\n《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the
April 12 Incident, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the
translation that\'s available for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n彷徨 - [pinyin]pang2huang2[/pinyin] - To pace (or to hestitate)\r\n寂寥 - [pinyin]ji4 liao2[/pinyin] - Solitude / solitary\r\n丁香 - [pinyin]ding1 xiang1[/pinyin] - Lilac\r\n愁怨 - [pinyin]chou2 yuan4[/pinyin] - Worried and resentful (two separate words)\r\n芬芳 - [pinyin]fen1 fang1[/pinyin] - Fragrance\r\n哀怨 - [pinyin]ai1 yuan4[/pinyin] - Sad\r\n彳亍 - [pinyin]chi4 chu4[/pinyin] - Walk slowly\r\n凄清 - [pinyin]qi1 qing1[/pinyin] - Gloomy\r\n太息 - [pinyin]tai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Sigh\r\n凄婉 - [pinyin]qi1 wan3[/pinyin] - Bittersweet, sad but beautiful\r\n颓圮 - [pinyin]tui2 pi3[/pinyin] - Crumbling, toppled\r\n哀曲 - [pinyin]ai1 qu1[/pinyin] - Sad song\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n\r\n她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的芬芳，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中哀怨，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默彳亍着，\r\n冷漠，凄清，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n太息③一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的凄婉迷茫。\r\n\r\n像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了颓圮的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n在雨的哀曲里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\nShe has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\nShe walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\nFloats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of the lane. \r\n\r\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 06:59:42', '2016-04-28 10:59:42', '', 1587, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1587-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1595, 1, '2016-04-28 07:01:48', '2016-04-28 11:01:48', '[two_third]\r\n
Hey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\r\n\r\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer.
Dai Wangshu, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.\r\n\r\n《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the
April 12 Incident, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the
translation that\'s available for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n彷徨 - [pinyin]pang2huang2[/pinyin] - To pace (or to hestitate)\r\n寂寥 - [pinyin]ji4 liao2[/pinyin] - Solitude / solitary\r\n丁香 - [pinyin]ding1 xiang1[/pinyin] - Lilac\r\n愁怨 - [pinyin]chou2 yuan4[/pinyin] - Worried and resentful (two separate words)\r\n芬芳 - [pinyin]fen1 fang1[/pinyin] - Fragrance\r\n哀怨 - [pinyin]ai1 yuan4[/pinyin] - Sad\r\n彳亍 - [pinyin]chi4 chu4[/pinyin] - Walk slowly\r\n凄清 - [pinyin]qi1 qing1[/pinyin] - Gloomy\r\n太息 - [pinyin]tai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Sigh\r\n凄婉 - [pinyin]qi1 wan3[/pinyin] - Bittersweet, sad but beautiful\r\n颓圮 - [pinyin]tui2 pi3[/pinyin] - Crumbling, toppled\r\n哀曲 - [pinyin]ai1 qu1[/pinyin] - Sad song\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n\r\n她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的芬芳，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中哀怨，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默彳亍着，\r\n冷漠，凄清，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n太息一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的凄婉迷茫。\r\n\r\n像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了颓圮的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n在雨的哀曲里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\nShe has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\nShe walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\nFloats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of this drizzling alley.\r\n\r\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 07:01:48', '2016-04-28 11:01:48', '', 1587, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1587-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1596, 1, '2016-05-01 08:00:04', '2016-05-01 12:00:04', 'Yayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \r\n\r\n
Using 过
\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他
过的很快乐，时光飞快地
过去了。\r\n\r\n\"He
passed [his days] very happily, time flew
past.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n
Not you, stoopid: 咱们 vs. 我们
\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n2) 小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n3) 牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n4) 小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\r\n\r\n5) 小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n6) 小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n
1) Little Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\n
2) Little Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\n
3) Uncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\n
4) Little Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\n
5) Little Horse didn\'t know what to think. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\n
6) Little Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] 小马过河 - Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'little-horse-crosses-the-river', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:32:36', '2016-11-04 09:32:36', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1596', 0, 'post', '', 45),
(1670, 1, '2016-10-31 01:18:05', '2016-10-31 05:18:05', 'Yayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \r\n\r\n
A few notable points:
\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他
过的很快乐，时光飞快地
过去了。\r\n\r\n\"He
passed [his days] very happily, time flew
past.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n
One more thing:
\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Story] Little Horse Crosses the River 小马过河', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 01:18:05', '2016-10-31 05:18:05', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1597, 1, '2016-04-28 08:57:25', '2016-04-28 12:57:25', '[two_third]\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \n\n
A few notable points:
\n\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地>过去了。\n\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\n\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \n\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \n\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\n\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \n\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\n\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \n\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \n\n他
过的很快乐，时光飞快地
过去了。\n\n\"He
passed [his days] very happily, time flew
past.\"\n\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \n\n
One more thing:
\n\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\n\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\n\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\n\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n粮食 - [pinyin]liang2 shi2[/pinyin] - Grain (or foodstuffs)\n岸 - [pinyin]an4[/pinyin] - Bank (of a river)\n驮 - [pinyin]tuo2[/pinyin] - To carry on the back (of a pack animal)\n犹豫 - [pinyin]you2 yu4[/pinyin] - Hesitate\n迈 - [pinyin]mai4[/pinyin] - Stride, step\n翘 - [pinyin]qiao4[/pinyin] - Lift up\n卷 - [pinyin]juan3[/pinyin] - Roll up\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\n\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\n\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\n\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\n\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\n\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\n \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \n\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \n\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \n\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \n\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \n\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 08:57:25', '2016-04-28 12:57:25', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1596-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
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(1604, 1, '2016-04-28 07:18:59', '2016-04-28 11:18:59', '[two_third]\r\n>Hey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\r\n\r\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer.
Dai Wangshu, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.\r\n\r\n
April 12 Incident, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the
translation that\'s available for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n彷徨 - [pinyin]pang2huang2[/pinyin] - To pace (or to hestitate)\r\n寂寥 - [pinyin]ji4 liao2[/pinyin] - Solitude / solitary\r\n丁香 - [pinyin]ding1 xiang1[/pinyin] - Lilac\r\n愁怨 - [pinyin]chou2 yuan4[/pinyin] - Worried and resentful (two separate words)\r\n芬芳 - [pinyin]fen1 fang1[/pinyin] - Fragrance\r\n哀怨 - [pinyin]ai1 yuan4[/pinyin] - Sad\r\n彳亍 - [pinyin]chi4 chu4[/pinyin] - Walk slowly\r\n凄清 - [pinyin]qi1 qing1[/pinyin] - Gloomy\r\n太息 - [pinyin]tai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Sigh\r\n凄婉 - [pinyin]qi1 wan3[/pinyin] - Bittersweet, sad but beautiful\r\n颓圮 - [pinyin]tui2 pi3[/pinyin] - Crumbling, toppled\r\n哀曲 - [pinyin]ai1 qu1[/pinyin] - Sad song\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n\r\n她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的芬芳，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中哀怨，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默彳亍着，\r\n冷漠，凄清，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n太息一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的凄婉迷茫。\r\n\r\n像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了颓圮的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n在雨的哀曲里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\nShe has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\nShe walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\nFloats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of this drizzling alley.\r\n\r\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 07:18:59', '2016-04-28 11:18:59', '', 1587, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1587-revision-7/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1605, 1, '2016-04-28 09:08:48', '2016-04-28 13:08:48', '[two_third]\r\n>Hey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\r\n\r\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer.
Dai Wangshu, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.\r\n\r\n
《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the
April 12 Incident, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the
translation that\'s available for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n彷徨 - [pinyin]pang2huang2[/pinyin] - To pace (or to hestitate)\r\n寂寥 - [pinyin]ji4 liao2[/pinyin] - Solitude / solitary\r\n丁香 - [pinyin]ding1 xiang1[/pinyin] - Lilac\r\n愁怨 - [pinyin]chou2 yuan4[/pinyin] - Worried and resentful (two separate words)\r\n芬芳 - [pinyin]fen1 fang1[/pinyin] - Fragrance\r\n哀怨 - [pinyin]ai1 yuan4[/pinyin] - Sad\r\n彳亍 - [pinyin]chi4 chu4[/pinyin] - Walk slowly\r\n凄清 - [pinyin]qi1 qing1[/pinyin] - Gloomy\r\n太息 - [pinyin]tai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Sigh\r\n凄婉 - [pinyin]qi1 wan3[/pinyin] - Bittersweet, sad but beautiful\r\n颓圮 - [pinyin]tui2 pi3[/pinyin] - Crumbling, toppled\r\n哀曲 - [pinyin]ai1 qu1[/pinyin] - Sad song\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n\r\n她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的芬芳，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中哀怨，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默彳亍着，\r\n冷漠，凄清，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n太息一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的凄婉迷茫。\r\n\r\n像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了颓圮的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n在雨的哀曲里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\nShe has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\nShe walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\nFloats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of this drizzling alley.\r\n\r\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 09:08:48', '2016-04-28 13:08:48', '', 1587, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1587-revision-8/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1606, 1, '2016-04-28 09:08:42', '2016-04-28 13:08:42', '[two_third]\nYayzors, horsies. \n\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \n\n
![\"20160501-inline\"](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/20160501-inline2.jpg\")
A few notable points:
\n\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地>过去了。\n\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\n\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \n\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \n\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\n\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \n\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\n\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \n\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \n\n他
过的很快乐，时光飞快地
过去了。\n\n\"He
passed [his days] very happily, time flew
past.\"\n\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \n\n
One more thing:
\n\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\n\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\n\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\n\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n
\n
Click to Listen
\n粮食 - [pinyin]liang2 shi2[/pinyin] - Grain (or foodstuffs)\n岸 - [pinyin]an4[/pinyin] - Bank (of a river)\n驮 - [pinyin]tuo2[/pinyin] - To carry on the back (of a pack animal)\n犹豫 - [pinyin]you2 yu4[/pinyin] - Hesitate\n迈 - [pinyin]mai4[/pinyin] - Stride, step\n翘 - [pinyin]qiao4[/pinyin] - Lift up\n卷 - [pinyin]juan3[/pinyin] - Roll up\n\n[/one_third]\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\n\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\n\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\n\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\n\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\n\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\n \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \n\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \n\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \n\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \n\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \n\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 09:08:42', '2016-04-28 13:08:42', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1596-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1607, 1, '2016-04-28 09:09:12', '2016-04-28 13:09:12', '[two_third]\r\nYayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \r\n\r\n
A few notable points:
\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他
过的很快乐，时光飞快地
过去了。\r\n\r\n\"He
passed [his days] very happily, time flew
past.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n
One more thing:
\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n粮食 - [pinyin]liang2 shi2[/pinyin] - Grain (or foodstuffs)\r\n岸 - [pinyin]an4[/pinyin] - Bank (of a river)\r\n驮 - [pinyin]tuo2[/pinyin] - To carry on the back (of a pack animal)\r\n犹豫 - [pinyin]you2 yu4[/pinyin] - Hesitate\r\n迈 - [pinyin]mai4[/pinyin] - Stride, step\r\n翘 - [pinyin]qiao4[/pinyin] - Lift up\r\n卷 - [pinyin]juan3[/pinyin] - Roll up\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 09:09:12', '2016-04-28 13:09:12', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1596-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2255, 1, '2016-11-06 19:53:56', '2016-11-07 00:53:56', '', 'Order – November 6, 2016 @ 07:53 PM', '', 'wc-processing', 'open', 'closed', 'order_581fd0a1bbf94', 'order-nov-07-2016-1253-am', '', '', '2016-11-06 19:53:56', '2016-11-07 00:53:56', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?post_type=shop_order&p=2255', 0, 'shop_order', '', 2),
(1613, 1, '2016-04-28 09:21:11', '2016-04-28 13:21:11', '[two_third]\r\nYayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \r\n\r\n
A few notable points:
\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他
过的很快乐，时光飞快地
过去了。\r\n\r\n\"He
passed [his days] very happily, time flew
past.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n
One more thing:
\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n粮食 - [pinyin]liang2 shi2[/pinyin] - Grain (or foodstuffs)\r\n岸 - [pinyin]an4[/pinyin] - Bank (of a river)\r\n驮 - [pinyin]tuo2[/pinyin] - To carry on the back (of a pack animal)\r\n犹豫 - [pinyin]you2 yu4[/pinyin] - Hesitate\r\n迈 - [pinyin]mai4[/pinyin] - Stride, step\r\n翘 - [pinyin]qiao4[/pinyin] - Lift up\r\n卷 - [pinyin]juan3[/pinyin] - Roll up\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 09:21:11', '2016-04-28 13:21:11', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1635, 1, '2016-10-30 23:52:24', '2016-10-31 03:52:24', 'Yayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \r\n\r\n
A few notable points:
\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他
过的很快乐，时光飞快地
过去了。\r\n\r\n\"He
passed [his days] very happily, time flew
past.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n
One more thing:
\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Weekly Freebie: Little Horse Crosses the River 小马过河', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-30 23:52:24', '2016-10-31 03:52:24', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1614, 1, '2016-10-30 21:39:02', '2016-10-31 01:39:02', '[two_third]\r\nYayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \r\n\r\n
A few notable points:
\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他
过的很快乐，时光飞快地
过去了。\r\n\r\n\"He
passed [his days] very happily, time flew
past.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n
One more thing:
\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n粮食 - [pinyin]liang2 shi2[/pinyin] - Grain (or foodstuffs)\r\n岸 - [pinyin]an4[/pinyin] - Bank (of a river)\r\n驮 - [pinyin]tuo2[/pinyin] - To carry on the back (of a pack animal)\r\n犹豫 - [pinyin]you2 yu4[/pinyin] - Hesitate\r\n迈 - [pinyin]mai4[/pinyin] - Stride, step\r\n翘 - [pinyin]qiao4[/pinyin] - Lift up\r\n卷 - [pinyin]juan3[/pinyin] - Roll up\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River 小马过河', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-30 21:39:02', '2016-10-31 01:39:02', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1615, 1, '2016-04-28 09:08:55', '2016-04-28 13:08:55', '[two_third]\r\nHey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\r\n\r\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer.
Dai Wangshu, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.\r\n\r\n
《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the
April 12 Incident, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the
translation that\'s available for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n彷徨 - [pinyin]pang2huang2[/pinyin] - To pace (or to hestitate)\r\n寂寥 - [pinyin]ji4 liao2[/pinyin] - Solitude / solitary\r\n丁香 - [pinyin]ding1 xiang1[/pinyin] - Lilac\r\n愁怨 - [pinyin]chou2 yuan4[/pinyin] - Worried and resentful (two separate words)\r\n芬芳 - [pinyin]fen1 fang1[/pinyin] - Fragrance\r\n哀怨 - [pinyin]ai1 yuan4[/pinyin] - Sad\r\n彳亍 - [pinyin]chi4 chu4[/pinyin] - Walk slowly\r\n凄清 - [pinyin]qi1 qing1[/pinyin] - Gloomy\r\n太息 - [pinyin]tai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Sigh\r\n凄婉 - [pinyin]qi1 wan3[/pinyin] - Bittersweet, sad but beautiful\r\n颓圮 - [pinyin]tui2 pi3[/pinyin] - Crumbling, toppled\r\n哀曲 - [pinyin]ai1 qu1[/pinyin] - Sad song\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n\r\n她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的芬芳，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中哀怨，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默彳亍着，\r\n冷漠，凄清，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n太息一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的凄婉迷茫。\r\n\r\n像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了颓圮的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n在雨的哀曲里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\nShe has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\nShe walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\nFloats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of this drizzling alley.\r\n\r\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 09:08:55', '2016-04-28 13:08:55', '', 1587, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/1587-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1634, 1, '2016-10-30 23:51:27', '2016-10-31 03:51:27', 'Kinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer.
Dai Wangshu, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.\r\n\r\n
《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the
April 12 Incident, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the
translation that\'s available for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n\r\n她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的芬芳，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中哀怨，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默彳亍着，\r\n冷漠，凄清，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n太息一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的凄婉迷茫。\r\n\r\n像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了颓圮的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n在雨的哀曲里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\nShe has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\nShe walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\nFloats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of this drizzling alley.\r\n\r\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley 《雨巷》 by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-30 23:51:27', '2016-10-31 03:51:27', '', 1587, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1587-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1616, 1, '2016-10-30 22:03:31', '2016-10-31 02:03:31', '[two_third]\r\nHey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\r\n\r\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer.
Dai Wangshu, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.\r\n\r\n
《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the
April 12 Incident, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the
translation that\'s available for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n彷徨 - [pinyin]pang2huang2[/pinyin] - To pace (or to hestitate)\r\n寂寥 - [pinyin]ji4 liao2[/pinyin] - Solitude / solitary\r\n丁香 - [pinyin]ding1 xiang1[/pinyin] - Lilac\r\n愁怨 - [pinyin]chou2 yuan4[/pinyin] - Worried and resentful (two separate words)\r\n芬芳 - [pinyin]fen1 fang1[/pinyin] - Fragrance\r\n哀怨 - [pinyin]ai1 yuan4[/pinyin] - Sad\r\n彳亍 - [pinyin]chi4 chu4[/pinyin] - Walk slowly\r\n凄清 - [pinyin]qi1 qing1[/pinyin] - Gloomy\r\n太息 - [pinyin]tai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Sigh\r\n凄婉 - [pinyin]qi1 wan3[/pinyin] - Bittersweet, sad but beautiful\r\n颓圮 - [pinyin]tui2 pi3[/pinyin] - Crumbling, toppled\r\n哀曲 - [pinyin]ai1 qu1[/pinyin] - Sad song\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n\r\n她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的芬芳，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中哀怨，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默彳亍着，\r\n冷漠，凄清，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n太息一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的凄婉迷茫。\r\n\r\n像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了颓圮的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n在雨的哀曲里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\nShe has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\nShe walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\nFloats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of this drizzling alley.\r\n\r\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley 《雨巷》 by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-30 22:03:31', '2016-10-31 02:03:31', '', 1587, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1587-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
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(1636, 1, '2016-10-31 02:10:40', '2016-10-31 06:10:40', 'Hey hey, lookie here, an excellent guest post submitted by native Chinese speaker Yang from
Learn Mandarin Now. This story tells us a bit about the Chinese
chengyu (idiom),塞翁失马, which can mean \"a blessing in disguise\", or can conversely mean \"bad luck disguised as good\". It\'s used to point out the hidden positives or negatives in a situation, so you might say it means \"there are two sides to every circumstance\". \n\nI\'m loving this post for the fable-y language: \"servant\", \"steed\", etc. Plus, I learned a new favorite word in this one: 塞外 [pinyin]sai4 wai4[/pinyin], meaning \"Beyond the Great Wall\". In other words, a remote place near the outskirts or borders of China. Also, don\'t forget, 匹 [pinyin]pi3[/pinyin] is the measure word for Horses, so you\'re gonna see that a few times. \n\nThere\'s one phrase we should probably get into in greater detail, because I don\'t think it\'s immediately clear what it means: 全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗. Let\'s take a look at this, word by word:\n\n全国 - The whole country\n上下的 - Everywhere\n年轻男子 - young men\n都 - all\n被 - grammar word usually indicating that the subject of the sentence has had something unfortunate happen to them\n抓 - grabbed\n去 - go out\n打仗 - fight \n\nThe key word here is 抓 [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin], which usually means to \"catch\" or \"grab\". In this case, the word means \"drafted\", so it still means to \"grab\", but in this case, it\'s the ruling power (probably the king) doing the grabbing up (of potential soldiers). The 被 in this case functions as \"were\", with a negative overtone. So this can be translated as \"All the young men everywhere in the country
were drafted to go fight a war.\"\n\nLearn Mandarin Now\'s \"
How to Read Chinese\" page for a basic overview on getting started with Simplified characters, and look at
their new blog for some learning tips. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n
Chinese text
\n1) 从前，一位老翁和他的儿子住在塞外的边境上。他们都非常喜欢骑马。有一天，他们家的仆人给老先生报告：\"我们家的一匹骏马走丢了，好像跑去邻国了。\"\n\n2) 老翁的朋友闻讯都过来安慰他。但老先生说：“呵呵，这也许不是坏事，谁知道呢！＂\n\n3) 几个月之后，奇妙的事情发生了，那匹走失了的骏马意外地跑回来了，并且从邻国带来了一匹新的骏马。老翁的好友纷纷过来祝贺他。老翁说：“唉，这也许不是什么好事情呢！”\n\n4) 一天，老翁的儿子正在骑那匹新的骏马，突然不小心从马上掉了下来并摔断了腿。他从今以后都不能正常走路了。老翁的朋友都为老翁感到伤心，但老翁却说：“这个意外以后能为咱们带来好运也不一定。”\n\n5) 一年后，全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗，大部分去参军的年轻人都死在了战场。老翁的儿子因为腿受伤了所以避过了这一次劫难。\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n
1) Once upon a time, there was an old man who lived with his son on the borders of the country. They both very much enjoyed riding horses. One day, a servant reported to the old man, “One of our good horses has gone missing. It seems the horse ran across to the neighboring country.\"\n\n
2) Old man\'s friends came and comforted him. However, the old man said: \"Well, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Who knows!\"\n\n
3) Couple of months later, a strange thing happened. The missing horse came back, accompanied by a great steed from the neighboring country. When his friends congratulated him on this great news, the old man said: \"Well, this might bring us bad luck.\"\n\n
4) One day, his son was having fun riding on the fine [new] steed. Suddenly, he fell from the hose and broke his leg. His son was never able to walk again. Again, the old man\'s friends came to comfort him. But the old man was not bothered and said: \"This accident might bring us good luck in the future.\"\n\n
5) A year later, all young men in the country were drafted to join a war. Most young men who fought died on the battlefield. Luckily, his son avoided entering the war because of his broken leg.\n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 塞翁失马 - A Blessing in Disguise', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1551-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:10:40', '2016-10-31 06:10:40', '', 1551, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1551-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
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(1640, 1, '2016-10-31 00:17:28', '2016-10-31 04:17:28', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Advanced Chinese Poetry', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'rain-2', '', '', '2016-10-31 00:17:49', '2016-10-31 04:17:49', '', 1587, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/rain-2.png', 0, 'attachment', 'image/png', 0),
(1656, 1, '2016-10-31 00:59:27', '2016-10-31 04:59:27', '', 'Myths & Legends', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'myths-legends', '', '', '2016-10-31 10:57:04', '2016-10-31 14:57:04', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1656', 9, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(1655, 1, '2016-10-31 00:59:27', '2016-10-31 04:59:27', '', 'Internet & Memes', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'internet-memes', '', '', '2016-10-31 10:57:04', '2016-10-31 14:57:04', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1655', 8, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(1654, 1, '2016-10-31 00:59:27', '2016-10-31 04:59:27', '', 'Current Events', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'current-events', '', '', '2016-10-31 10:57:04', '2016-10-31 14:57:04', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1654', 5, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(1653, 1, '2016-10-31 00:59:27', '2016-10-31 04:59:27', '', 'Communist Kitch', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'communist-kitch', '', '', '2016-10-31 10:57:03', '2016-10-31 14:57:03', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1653', 4, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(1652, 1, '2016-10-31 00:59:27', '2016-10-31 04:59:27', '', 'Chinese Idioms (成语)', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'chinese-idioms-%e6%88%90%e8%af%ad', '', '', '2016-10-31 10:57:03', '2016-10-31 14:57:03', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1652', 3, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(1651, 1, '2016-10-31 00:59:27', '2016-10-31 04:59:27', '', 'Chinese Holidays', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'chinese-holidays', '', '', '2016-10-31 10:57:03', '2016-10-31 14:57:03', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1651', 2, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(1650, 1, '2016-10-31 00:59:27', '2016-10-31 04:59:27', '', 'Children\'s Stories', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'childrens-stories', '', '', '2016-10-31 10:57:03', '2016-10-31 14:57:03', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1650', 1, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(1649, 1, '2016-10-31 00:39:01', '2016-10-31 04:39:01', ' ', '', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1649', '', '', '2017-01-21 02:15:20', '2017-01-21 07:15:20', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1649', 1, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(1659, 1, '2013-01-26 00:40:31', '2013-01-26 05:40:31', '[two_third]\r\nHey hey! This site has made it through two years online and 100 posts! That makes an average of 50 posts a year, which averages out to a little less than one a week. Not terribly shabby, huh? In any case, on with the Chinese. \r\n\r\nI\'ve been having a bit of trouble rounding up truly beginner texts, and whenever I try I end up with an intermediate post. But this one, though not earth-shattering, should certainly do. We\'ve got three short jokes here of the silly variety, appropriate for young kids. \r\n\r\n
Though we could probably skip this info, you might want to know that 晨练 - meaning \"morning exercise\" - is a much more formalized concept in China than in west. Here, every morning in almost any weather, crowds of old people gather together in parks around 6-7a.m. to do group taiqi, stretch and take brisk walks. This is so prevalent that you can show up at any park or open community space in China early in the morning and see groups of mostly old people doing their exercises. So, while reading the first joke, you should imagine a scene of 40 or so retirees doing taiqi forms in the park. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n晨练 - [pinyin]chen2 lian4[/pinyin] - Morning exercise\r\n退休 - [pinyin]tui4 xiu1[/pinyin] - Retire\r\n笨蛋 - [pinyin]ben4 dan4[/pinyin] - Idiot\r\n汉堡 - [pinyin]han4 bao3[/pinyin] - Hamburger\r\n告诉 - [pinyin]gao4 su5[/pinyin] - To tell\r\n谈 - [pinyin]tan2[/pinyin] - Speak, discuss\r\n蟑螂 - [pinyin]zhang1 lang2[/pinyin] - Cockroach\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n小姑娘指着晨练的老人问： 为什么他们能天天到公园来玩？\r\n奶奶：因为他们是退休人员。\r\n一天，爸爸问女儿：你长大当什么？\r\n小姑娘：退休人员。\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n父亲教儿子学算术：“一加一是多少？”\r\n儿子：“不知道。”\r\n父亲：“是两个，笨蛋！知道了吗？”\r\n儿子：“知道了。”\r\n父亲：“那么，我和你，加起来是几个人？”\r\n儿子：“是两个笨蛋！” \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n一个女孩和一个男孩吃汉堡。男孩说女孩：“我要告诉你一件事！”\r\n女孩说：“不要跟我说话在我吃的时候，当我吃我的汉堡，那么你就可以谈。”\r\n所以，当他们吃完了女孩问男孩：“现在你想说什么呢？”\r\n男孩说：“嗯，我是说，有一只蟑螂在你的汉堡里！” \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nA little girl pointing at old people doing morning exercises, said: \"Why are they allowed to play in the park all day?\"\r\nGrandmother: \"Because they are retirees.\"\r\nOne day, the father asked the little girl: What do you want to be when you grow up?\r\nLittle girl: A retiree!\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nFather is teaching his son arithmetic: \"One plus one is how much?\" \r\nSon: \"I don\'t know.\" \r\nFather: \"It\'s two, idiot! You get it?\"\r\nSon: \"I get it.\" \r\nFather: \"Now, me and you, put us together and how many people is that?\"\r\nSon: \"Two idiots!\" \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\nA girl and a boy are eating hamburgers. The boy says to the girl: \"I want to tell you something!\" \r\nThe girl says: \"Don\'t talk to me while I\'m eating, when I\'m done with my hamburger, then you can speak.\"\r\nSo, when they finished eating the girl asked the boy: \"Now what do you want to say?\"\r\nBoy says: \"Huh, I was saying, there\'s a cockroach in your hamburger.\"\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Our 100th Post! Plus some new beginner jokes', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1329-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-01-26 00:40:31', '2013-01-26 05:40:31', '', 1329, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/01/1329-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
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(1663, 1, '2016-10-31 01:16:13', '2016-10-31 05:16:13', '', 'Fables', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'fables', '', '', '2016-10-31 10:46:59', '2016-10-31 14:46:59', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1663', 3, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(1664, 1, '2016-10-31 01:16:14', '2016-10-31 05:16:14', '', 'Facts', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'facts', '', '', '2016-10-31 10:46:59', '2016-10-31 14:46:59', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1664', 4, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(1665, 1, '2016-10-31 01:16:14', '2016-10-31 05:16:14', '', 'Jokes & Riddles', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'jokes-riddles', '', '', '2016-10-31 10:46:59', '2016-10-31 14:46:59', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1665', 5, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(1666, 1, '2016-10-31 01:16:14', '2016-10-31 05:16:14', '', 'News', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'news', '', '', '2016-10-31 10:46:59', '2016-10-31 14:46:59', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1666', 6, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(1667, 1, '2016-10-31 01:16:14', '2016-10-31 05:16:14', '', 'Poetry', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'poetry', '', '', '2016-10-31 10:46:59', '2016-10-31 14:46:59', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1667', 7, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(1668, 1, '2016-10-31 01:16:14', '2016-10-31 05:16:14', '', 'Short Stories', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'short-stories', '', '', '2016-10-31 10:46:59', '2016-10-31 14:46:59', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1668', 8, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(1669, 1, '2016-10-31 01:16:14', '2016-10-31 05:16:14', '', 'Songs', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'songs', '', '', '2016-10-31 10:46:59', '2016-10-31 14:46:59', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1669', 9, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0);
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(1671, 1, '2016-10-31 01:27:28', '2016-10-31 05:27:28', 'Yayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \r\n\r\n
A few notable points:
\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他
过的很快乐，时光飞快地
过去了。\r\n\r\n\"He
passed [his days] very happily, time flew
past.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n
One more thing:
\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Story] Little Horse Crosses the River 小马过河', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 01:27:28', '2016-10-31 05:27:28', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1672, 1, '2016-10-31 01:32:30', '2016-10-31 05:32:30', 'Yayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \r\n\r\n
A few notable points:
\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他
过的很快乐，时光飞快地
过去了。\r\n\r\n\"He
passed [his days] very happily, time flew
past.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n
One more thing:
\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n➊小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n➊Little Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Story] Little Horse Crosses the River 小马过河', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 01:32:30', '2016-10-31 05:32:30', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1673, 1, '2016-10-31 02:04:16', '2016-10-31 06:04:16', 'Yayzors, horsies. \n\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \n\n
Using 过
\n\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\n\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\n\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \n\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \n\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\n\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \n\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\n\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \n\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \n\n他
过的很快乐，时光飞快地
过去了。\n\n\"He
passed [his days] very happily, time flew
past.\"\n\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \n\n
Not you, stoopid: 咱们 vs. 我们
\n\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\n\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\n\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\n\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n
\n
Chinese text:
\n1) 小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\n\n2) 小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\n\n3) 牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\n\n4) 小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\n\n5) 小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\n\n6) 小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\n \n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n
1) Little Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \n\n
2) Little Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \n\n
3) Uncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \n\n
4) Little Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \n\nLittle Horse didn\'t know what to think. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \n\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Story] 小马过河 - Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:04:16', '2016-10-31 06:04:16', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1596-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1674, 1, '2016-10-31 01:34:42', '2016-10-31 05:34:42', 'Yayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \r\n\r\n
A few notable points:
\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他
过的很快乐，时光飞快地
过去了。\r\n\r\n\"He
passed [his days] very happily, time flew
past.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n
One more thing:
\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n2) 小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n3) 牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n4) 小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\r\n\r\n5) 小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n6) 小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n➊Little Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was. While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Story] Little Horse Crosses the River 小马过河', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 01:34:42', '2016-10-31 05:34:42', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1692, 1, '2016-10-31 01:52:58', '2016-10-31 05:52:58', 'Yayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \r\n\r\n
A few notable points:
\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他
过的很快乐，时光飞快地
过去了。\r\n\r\n\"He
passed [his days] very happily, time flew
past.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n
One more thing:
\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n➊小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n➊Little Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Story] 小马过河 - Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 01:52:58', '2016-10-31 05:52:58', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1675, 1, '2016-10-31 01:35:43', '2016-10-31 05:35:43', 'Yayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \r\n\r\n
A few notable points:
\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他
过的很快乐，时光飞快地
过去了。\r\n\r\n\"He
passed [his days] very happily, time flew
past.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n
One more thing:
\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n2) 小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n3) 牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n4) 小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\r\n\r\n5) 小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n6) 小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n
1)Little Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\n
2)Little Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was. While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\n
3)Uncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\n
4)Little Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\n
5)Little Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\n
6)Little Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Story] Little Horse Crosses the River 小马过河', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 01:35:43', '2016-10-31 05:35:43', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1676, 1, '2016-10-31 01:36:34', '2016-10-31 05:36:34', 'Kinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer.
Dai Wangshu, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.\r\n\r\n
《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the
April 12 Incident, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the
translation that\'s available for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n\r\n她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的芬芳，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中哀怨，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默彳亍着，\r\n冷漠，凄清，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n太息一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的凄婉迷茫。\r\n\r\n像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了颓圮的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n在雨的哀曲里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个丁香一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\nShe has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\nShe walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\nFloats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of this drizzling alley.\r\n\r\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Modern Chinese Poetry] Rainy Alley 《雨巷》 by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 01:36:34', '2016-10-31 05:36:34', '', 1587, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1587-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1677, 1, '2015-09-24 21:50:30', '2015-09-25 01:50:30', '[two_third]\r\nFeels like it\'s been a hundred years since I threw something up here. Rest assured I carry the shame of an un-updated blog around with me constantly, so - yay, guilt. I\'m actually taking intensive classes in Chinese (yet again) to push my reading level higher, hence the lack of posts. I\'m more active on here when I\'m not studying anywhere else. Anyhoo, this is another one I nabbed from Sina user
Zifengling\'s personal blog. I tried to convince myself that this was beginner, but I just couldn\'t. The words are mostly OK, but there are one too many wibble-wobbly sentence configurations.\r\n\r\n
This is also a perfect example of a fairly easy story that had one phrase I spent an hour trying to sort out, and a perfect example of the reason I started this blog in the first damn place - you start reading and then one word trips you up and you can\'t get past it. 99% sure I figured it out, but don\'t hesitate to correct me in the comments if you have intelligence to the contrary. The word was 香草娃娃 [pinyin]xiang1 cao3 wa2 wa2[/pinyin]. Uh, well, [pinyin]xiang1 cao3[/pinyin] means \"vanilla\" and [pinyin]wa2 wa2[/pinyin] is \"baby\", so... vanilla baby? Really? In the story, 香草娃娃 is used as a toy\'s name, so I thought, maybe there\'s a toy called a Vanilla Baby? Anyway, it turns out an out-of-use definition for 香草 is \"old and dependable\". Ah hah - \"old, dependable baby doll\". That makes sense. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one other very useful phrase here that\'s very commonly used in everyday language: 太过分了！Directly translated, this means \"Too excessive!\", but this phrase doesn\'t usually actually refer to a large amount of things. It\'s more often used to refer to a circumstance or someone\'s behavior, like, \"That is just too much to bear!\". If someone was very mean to you, you could say, \"太过分了!\" or if an interview process was super rough and you got raked over the coals, also \"太过分了!\" \r\n\r\nEnjoy this one, and consider it good practicing in very colloquial story building.\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n非凡 - [pinyin]fei1 fan2[/pinyin] - Extraordinarily\r\n舞池 - [pinyin]wu3 chi2[/pinyin] - Dance floor\r\n气愤 - [pinyin]qi4 fen4[/pinyin] - Angry\r\n对待 - [pinyin]dui4 dai4[/pinyin] - To treat someone (a certain way)\r\n灿烂 - [pinyin]can4 lan4[/pinyin] - Brilliant (smile, light)\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n新年快到了，玩具王国决定举行一场盛大的舞会，准备邀请全国的玩具都来参加。舞会那天，玩具们都不停地跳着、笑着，整个舞场热闹非凡。可是在一个角落里，谁也没有注意到，有一只紫色的香草娃娃正一声不吭地望着舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这时，一只小白熊正好从她面前经过，它看到了这一切，就走过去问香草娃娃：“娃娃，你为什么不去跳舞呢？”香草娃娃难过地低下了头，轻轻地说：“玩具们都嫌我个子小，不愿意请我跳舞。”说完流下了眼泪。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？难道他们不懂得要团结友爱吗！太过分了！”小白熊拉起香草娃娃的手，说，“娃娃，不要难过了。走，我请你跳舞。”香草娃娃听了这话，脸上顿时露出了灿烂的笑容，她连忙擦掉脸上的泪水，高兴地说：“太好了！太好了！”娃娃和小白熊在舞池里又跳又笑，一起度过了一个愉快的夜晚。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe new year had almost arrived, and the Toy Kingdom planned to invite everyone to a grand ball. The day of the dance, the toys were all dancing and laughing, and the whole ballroom was extraordinarily lively. But off in one corner, receiving no attention from anyone, there was an old purple doll silently gazing at the dance floor, her eyes were blank and she looked lonely. Just then, a white polar bear in front of her saw this, walked over and asked the dependable old doll, \"Doll, why don\'t you go dance?\" The dependable doll lowered her head sadly, saying in a small voice, \"The [other] toys all say I\'m too short, they\'re not willing to dance with me.\" Saying this, she began to cry. Polar Bear was furious when he heard this, and said: \"How could they treat you this way? Don\'t they understand solidarity? That\'s just too much!\" Little Bear pulled on the baby doll\'s hand, and said: \"Doll, don\'t be sad. Come on, I\'m asking you to dance with me.\" The dependable doll heard these words, and a brilliant smile immediately lit up her face. She quickly wiped the tears off her face and said happily, \"Wonderful! Wonderful!\" On the dance floor, Doll and Bear danced and laughed, and passed a lovely evening together. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-09-24 21:50:30', '2015-09-25 01:50:30', '', 1566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/09/1566-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1704, 1, '2016-10-31 02:39:03', '2016-10-31 06:39:03', 'This is another one I nabbed from Sina user
Zifengling\'s personal blog. I tried to convince myself that this was beginner, but I just couldn\'t. The words are mostly OK, but there are one too many wibble-wobbly sentence configurations.\r\n\r\nThis is also a perfect example of a fairly easy story that had one phrase I spent an hour trying to sort out, and a perfect example of the reason I started this blog in the first damn place - you start reading and then one word trips you up and you can\'t get past it. 99% sure I figured it out, but don\'t hesitate to correct me in the comments if you have intelligence to the contrary. The word was 香草娃娃 [pinyin]xiang1 cao3 wa2 wa2[/pinyin]. Uh, well, [pinyin]xiang1 cao3[/pinyin] means \"vanilla\" and [pinyin]wa2 wa2[/pinyin] is \"baby\", so... vanilla baby? Really? In the story, 香草娃娃 is used as a toy\'s name, so I thought, maybe there\'s a toy called a Vanilla Baby? Anyway, it turns out an out-of-use definition for 香草 is \"old and dependable\". Ah hah - \"old, dependable baby doll\". That makes sense. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one other very useful phrase here that\'s very commonly used in everyday language: 太过分了！Directly translated, this means \"Too excessive!\", but this phrase doesn\'t usually actually refer to a large amount of things. It\'s more often used to refer to a circumstance or someone\'s behavior, like, \"That is just too much to bear!\". If someone was very mean to you, you could say, \"太过分了!\" or if an interview process was super rough and you got raked over the coals, also \"太过分了!\" \r\n\r\nEnjoy this one, and consider it good practicing in very colloquial story building.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n新年快到了，玩具王国决定举行一场盛大的舞会，准备邀请全国的玩具都来参加。舞会那天，玩具们都不停地跳着、笑着，整个舞场热闹非凡。可是在一个角落里，谁也没有注意到，有一只紫色的香草娃娃正一声不吭地望着舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这时，一只小白熊正好从她面前经过，它看到了这一切，就走过去问香草娃娃：“娃娃，你为什么不去跳舞呢？”香草娃娃难过地低下了头，轻轻地说：“玩具们都嫌我个子小，不愿意请我跳舞。”说完流下了眼泪。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？难道他们不懂得要团结友爱吗！太过分了！”小白熊拉起香草娃娃的手，说，“娃娃，不要难过了。走，我请你跳舞。”香草娃娃听了这话，脸上顿时露出了灿烂的笑容，她连忙擦掉脸上的泪水，高兴地说：“太好了！太好了！”娃娃和小白熊在舞池里又跳又笑，一起度过了一个愉快的夜晚。\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe new year had almost arrived, and the Toy Kingdom planned to invite everyone to a grand ball. The day of the dance, the toys were all dancing and laughing, and the whole ballroom was extraordinarily lively. But off in one corner, receiving no attention from anyone, there was an old purple doll silently gazing at the dance floor, her eyes were blank and she looked lonely. Just then, a white polar bear in front of her saw this, walked over and asked the dependable old doll, \"Doll, why don\'t you go dance?\" The dependable doll lowered her head sadly, saying in a small voice, \"The [other] toys all say I\'m too short, they\'re not willing to dance with me.\" Saying this, she began to cry. Polar Bear was furious when he heard this, and said: \"How could they treat you this way? Don\'t they understand solidarity? That\'s just too much!\" Little Bear pulled on the baby doll\'s hand, and said: \"Doll, don\'t be sad. Come on, I\'m asking you to dance with me.\" The dependable doll heard these words, and a brilliant smile immediately lit up her face. She quickly wiped the tears off her face and said happily, \"Wonderful! Wonderful!\" On the dance floor, Doll and Bear danced and laughed, and passed a lovely evening together. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Children\'s Story] The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:39:03', '2016-10-31 06:39:03', '', 1566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1566-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1678, 1, '2016-10-31 01:37:05', '2016-10-31 05:37:05', '[two_third]\r\nFeels like it\'s been a hundred years since I threw something up here. Rest assured I carry the shame of an un-updated blog around with me constantly, so - yay, guilt. I\'m actually taking intensive classes in Chinese (yet again) to push my reading level higher, hence the lack of posts. I\'m more active on here when I\'m not studying anywhere else. Anyhoo, this is another one I nabbed from Sina user
Zifengling\'s personal blog. I tried to convince myself that this was beginner, but I just couldn\'t. The words are mostly OK, but there are one too many wibble-wobbly sentence configurations.\r\n\r\n
This is also a perfect example of a fairly easy story that had one phrase I spent an hour trying to sort out, and a perfect example of the reason I started this blog in the first damn place - you start reading and then one word trips you up and you can\'t get past it. 99% sure I figured it out, but don\'t hesitate to correct me in the comments if you have intelligence to the contrary. The word was 香草娃娃 [pinyin]xiang1 cao3 wa2 wa2[/pinyin]. Uh, well, [pinyin]xiang1 cao3[/pinyin] means \"vanilla\" and [pinyin]wa2 wa2[/pinyin] is \"baby\", so... vanilla baby? Really? In the story, 香草娃娃 is used as a toy\'s name, so I thought, maybe there\'s a toy called a Vanilla Baby? Anyway, it turns out an out-of-use definition for 香草 is \"old and dependable\". Ah hah - \"old, dependable baby doll\". That makes sense. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one other very useful phrase here that\'s very commonly used in everyday language: 太过分了！Directly translated, this means \"Too excessive!\", but this phrase doesn\'t usually actually refer to a large amount of things. It\'s more often used to refer to a circumstance or someone\'s behavior, like, \"That is just too much to bear!\". If someone was very mean to you, you could say, \"太过分了!\" or if an interview process was super rough and you got raked over the coals, also \"太过分了!\" \r\n\r\nEnjoy this one, and consider it good practicing in very colloquial story building.\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n非凡 - [pinyin]fei1 fan2[/pinyin] - Extraordinarily\r\n舞池 - [pinyin]wu3 chi2[/pinyin] - Dance floor\r\n气愤 - [pinyin]qi4 fen4[/pinyin] - Angry\r\n对待 - [pinyin]dui4 dai4[/pinyin] - To treat someone (a certain way)\r\n灿烂 - [pinyin]can4 lan4[/pinyin] - Brilliant (smile, light)\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n新年快到了，玩具王国决定举行一场盛大的舞会，准备邀请全国的玩具都来参加。舞会那天，玩具们都不停地跳着、笑着，整个舞场热闹非凡。可是在一个角落里，谁也没有注意到，有一只紫色的香草娃娃正一声不吭地望着舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这时，一只小白熊正好从她面前经过，它看到了这一切，就走过去问香草娃娃：“娃娃，你为什么不去跳舞呢？”香草娃娃难过地低下了头，轻轻地说：“玩具们都嫌我个子小，不愿意请我跳舞。”说完流下了眼泪。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？难道他们不懂得要团结友爱吗！太过分了！”小白熊拉起香草娃娃的手，说，“娃娃，不要难过了。走，我请你跳舞。”香草娃娃听了这话，脸上顿时露出了灿烂的笑容，她连忙擦掉脸上的泪水，高兴地说：“太好了！太好了！”娃娃和小白熊在舞池里又跳又笑，一起度过了一个愉快的夜晚。\r\n \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe new year had almost arrived, and the Toy Kingdom planned to invite everyone to a grand ball. The day of the dance, the toys were all dancing and laughing, and the whole ballroom was extraordinarily lively. But off in one corner, receiving no attention from anyone, there was an old purple doll silently gazing at the dance floor, her eyes were blank and she looked lonely. Just then, a white polar bear in front of her saw this, walked over and asked the dependable old doll, \"Doll, why don\'t you go dance?\" The dependable doll lowered her head sadly, saying in a small voice, \"The [other] toys all say I\'m too short, they\'re not willing to dance with me.\" Saying this, she began to cry. Polar Bear was furious when he heard this, and said: \"How could they treat you this way? Don\'t they understand solidarity? That\'s just too much!\" Little Bear pulled on the baby doll\'s hand, and said: \"Doll, don\'t be sad. Come on, I\'m asking you to dance with me.\" The dependable doll heard these words, and a brilliant smile immediately lit up her face. She quickly wiped the tears off her face and said happily, \"Wonderful! Wonderful!\" On the dance floor, Doll and Bear danced and laughed, and passed a lovely evening together. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Children\'s Story] The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 01:37:05', '2016-10-31 05:37:05', '', 1566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1566-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1679, 1, '2015-02-27 22:26:04', '2015-02-28 03:26:04', '[two_third]\r\nA fairly simple read for newbies about a self-hating rabbit. \r\n\r\n
![\"Learn](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/20150305-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Learn")
In terms of plot, this is your basic \"it\'s what\'s on the inside that counts\", moral-of-the-story story. Frankly, it\'s a bit boring, but there are a couple of good words and phrases in here. One in particular is difficult, and I couldn\'t figure it out just by looking at the definition, I had to go hunt around a bit: 钻出来 [pinyin]zuan1 chu1 lai2[/pinyin]. We know that 出来 means to \"come out of\". But 钻? The first definition that came up when I looked was \"diamond\", but that wasn\'t the correct definition in this case. Secondly, it also means to \"drill\" or \"bore\", which makes sense as a second definition of \"diamond\" - lots of diamond drill bits out there. But that still doesn\'t work in context of the whole sentence. I finally ran a Baidu image search on the phrase, and there were lots of pictures of miners squeezing out of small spaces, children coming out of playground tunnels, workers coming out of manholes, and I realized that 钻出来 means to wiggle out of a space via a small opening. Imagine a secret agent crawling through an air duct; in Chinese, there\'s a word for that, and that word is 钻. \r\n\r\nI got this from Sina user
Zifengling\'s personal blog, in a post where she lists a few different easy stories, so if you wanna read some more on your own, head on over. I\'ll probably translate another couple from there before too long. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n红宝石 - [pinyin]hong2 bao3 shi2[/pinyin] - Ruby\r\n灰炉 - [pinyin]hui1 lu2[/pinyin] - Furnace\r\n丑 - [pinyin]chou3[/pinyin] - Ugly\r\n不仅如此 - [pinyin]bu4 jin3 ru2 ci3[/pinyin] - Not only that, \r\n孤单 - [pinyin]gu1 dan1[/pinyin] - Alone\r\n外表 - [pinyin]wai4 biao3[/pinyin] - Appearance\r\n内在 - [pinyin]nei4 zai4[/pinyin] - Inherent / (abstract) interior \r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n森林里住着一只小兔子，它叫“丑丑”。它的眼睛红红的，像一对红宝石。可是它的毛灰灰的，像是从灰炉里钻出来似的，它觉得自己太丑了，常常一个人躲在家里。\r\n\r\n虽然它长得不好看，但是它有一颗无比善良的心。小猴子乐乐的家被大水冲垮了，无家可归。丑丑就让乐乐住在自己的家，还把自己最喜欢吃的巧克力分给乐乐吃。不仅如此，谁头痛、生病了，没钱买药，它都会尽其所能进行帮助。\r\n\r\n日子一天天过去了，丑丑还是很孤单。一次，森林里最好看的小兔子美美来找它玩，可丑丑觉得自己太丑了，没脸见它。美美告诉丑丑：“人的外表并不重要，重要的是内在美。”丑丑恍然大悟，它跑了出去，和伙伴们一起尽情地玩耍。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the forest there lived a little rabbit whose name was \"Chouchou\". His eyes were red, like a pair of rubies. But his fur was grey, like he\'d wiggled out of a furnace, and he felt himself to be very ugly, often hiding in his house alone. \r\n\r\nAlthough he wasn\'t nice to look at, he had an incomparably kind heart. When Little Monkey Lele\'s home was burst apart by a flood, he had no house to return to. Chouchou let Lele live with him, and he divided up his favorite chocolate to give some to Lele to eat. Not only that, whoever had a headach, or got sick, with no money to buy medicine, he did everything he was able to do to help. \r\n\r\nThe days passed one by one, and Chouchou was still alone. One time, the forest\'s most beautiful rabbit Meimei came looking for Chouchou to play, but Chouchou thought of himself as just too ugly, he couldn\'t face seeing her. Meimei told Chouchou: \"It\'s not what\'s on the outside that counts, the important thing is what\'s on the inside.\" Chouchou suddenly saw the light, he ran outside, and played with his friends to his heart\'s content. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The \"Beautiful\" Rabbit', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1565-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-27 22:26:04', '2015-02-28 03:26:04', '', 1565, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/1565-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1707, 1, '2016-10-31 02:44:05', '2016-10-31 06:44:05', 'A fairly simple read for newbies about a self-hating rabbit. \r\n\r\nIn terms of plot, this is your basic \"it\'s what\'s on the inside that counts\", moral-of-the-story story. Frankly, it\'s a bit boring, but there are a couple of good words and phrases in here. One in particular is difficult, and I couldn\'t figure it out just by looking at the definition, I had to go hunt around a bit: 钻出来 [pinyin]zuan1 chu1 lai2[/pinyin]. We know that 出来 means to \"come out of\". But 钻? The first definition that came up when I looked was \"diamond\", but that wasn\'t the correct definition in this case. Secondly, it also means to \"drill\" or \"bore\", which makes sense as a second definition of \"diamond\" - lots of diamond drill bits out there. But that still doesn\'t work in context of the whole sentence. I finally ran a Baidu image search on the phrase, and there were lots of pictures of miners squeezing out of small spaces, children coming out of playground tunnels, workers coming out of manholes, and I realized that 钻出来 means to wiggle out of a space via a small opening. Imagine a secret agent crawling through an air duct; in Chinese, there\'s a word for that, and that word is 钻. \r\n\r\nI got this from Sina user
Zifengling\'s personal blog, in a post where she lists a few different easy stories, so if you wanna read some more on your own, head on over. I\'ll probably translate another couple from there before too long. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n森林里住着一只小兔子，它叫“丑丑”。它的眼睛红红的，像一对红宝石。可是它的毛灰灰的，像是从灰炉里钻出来似的，它觉得自己太丑了，常常一个人躲在家里。\r\n\r\n虽然它长得不好看，但是它有一颗无比善良的心。小猴子乐乐的家被大水冲垮了，无家可归。丑丑就让乐乐住在自己的家，还把自己最喜欢吃的巧克力分给乐乐吃。不仅如此，谁头痛、生病了，没钱买药，它都会尽其所能进行帮助。\r\n\r\n日子一天天过去了，丑丑还是很孤单。一次，森林里最好看的小兔子美美来找它玩，可丑丑觉得自己太丑了，没脸见它。美美告诉丑丑：“人的外表并不重要，重要的是内在美。”丑丑恍然大悟，它跑了出去，和伙伴们一起尽情地玩耍。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the forest there lived a little rabbit whose name was \"Chouchou\". His eyes were red, like a pair of rubies. But his fur was grey, like he\'d wiggled out of a furnace, and he felt himself to be very ugly, often hiding in his house alone. \r\n\r\nAlthough he wasn\'t nice to look at, he had an incomparably kind heart. When Little Monkey Lele\'s home was burst apart by a flood, he had no house to return to. Chouchou let Lele live with him, and he divided up his favorite chocolate to give some to Lele to eat. Not only that, whoever had a headach, or got sick, with no money to buy medicine, he did everything he was able to do to help. \r\n\r\nThe days passed one by one, and Chouchou was still alone. One time, the forest\'s most beautiful rabbit Meimei came looking for Chouchou to play, but Chouchou thought of himself as just too ugly, he couldn\'t face seeing her. Meimei told Chouchou: \"It\'s not what\'s on the outside that counts, the important thing is what\'s on the inside.\" Chouchou suddenly saw the light, he ran outside, and played with his friends to his heart\'s content. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Story] The \"Beautiful\" Rabbit', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1565-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:44:05', '2016-10-31 06:44:05', '', 1565, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1565-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1680, 1, '2016-10-31 01:37:14', '2016-10-31 05:37:14', '[two_third]\r\nA fairly simple read for newbies about a self-hating rabbit. \r\n\r\n
In terms of plot, this is your basic \"it\'s what\'s on the inside that counts\", moral-of-the-story story. Frankly, it\'s a bit boring, but there are a couple of good words and phrases in here. One in particular is difficult, and I couldn\'t figure it out just by looking at the definition, I had to go hunt around a bit: 钻出来 [pinyin]zuan1 chu1 lai2[/pinyin]. We know that 出来 means to \"come out of\". But 钻? The first definition that came up when I looked was \"diamond\", but that wasn\'t the correct definition in this case. Secondly, it also means to \"drill\" or \"bore\", which makes sense as a second definition of \"diamond\" - lots of diamond drill bits out there. But that still doesn\'t work in context of the whole sentence. I finally ran a Baidu image search on the phrase, and there were lots of pictures of miners squeezing out of small spaces, children coming out of playground tunnels, workers coming out of manholes, and I realized that 钻出来 means to wiggle out of a space via a small opening. Imagine a secret agent crawling through an air duct; in Chinese, there\'s a word for that, and that word is 钻. \r\n\r\nI got this from Sina user
Zifengling\'s personal blog, in a post where she lists a few different easy stories, so if you wanna read some more on your own, head on over. I\'ll probably translate another couple from there before too long. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n
\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n红宝石 - [pinyin]hong2 bao3 shi2[/pinyin] - Ruby\r\n灰炉 - [pinyin]hui1 lu2[/pinyin] - Furnace\r\n丑 - [pinyin]chou3[/pinyin] - Ugly\r\n不仅如此 - [pinyin]bu4 jin3 ru2 ci3[/pinyin] - Not only that, \r\n孤单 - [pinyin]gu1 dan1[/pinyin] - Alone\r\n外表 - [pinyin]wai4 biao3[/pinyin] - Appearance\r\n内在 - [pinyin]nei4 zai4[/pinyin] - Inherent / (abstract) interior \r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n
\r\n森林里住着一只小兔子，它叫“丑丑”。它的眼睛红红的，像一对红宝石。可是它的毛灰灰的，像是从灰炉里钻出来似的，它觉得自己太丑了，常常一个人躲在家里。\r\n\r\n虽然它长得不好看，但是它有一颗无比善良的心。小猴子乐乐的家被大水冲垮了，无家可归。丑丑就让乐乐住在自己的家，还把自己最喜欢吃的巧克力分给乐乐吃。不仅如此，谁头痛、生病了，没钱买药，它都会尽其所能进行帮助。\r\n\r\n日子一天天过去了，丑丑还是很孤单。一次，森林里最好看的小兔子美美来找它玩，可丑丑觉得自己太丑了，没脸见它。美美告诉丑丑：“人的外表并不重要，重要的是内在美。”丑丑恍然大悟，它跑了出去，和伙伴们一起尽情地玩耍。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the forest there lived a little rabbit whose name was \"Chouchou\". His eyes were red, like a pair of rubies. But his fur was grey, like he\'d wiggled out of a furnace, and he felt himself to be very ugly, often hiding in his house alone. \r\n\r\nAlthough he wasn\'t nice to look at, he had an incomparably kind heart. When Little Monkey Lele\'s home was burst apart by a flood, he had no house to return to. Chouchou let Lele live with him, and he divided up his favorite chocolate to give some to Lele to eat. Not only that, whoever had a headach, or got sick, with no money to buy medicine, he did everything he was able to do to help. \r\n\r\nThe days passed one by one, and Chouchou was still alone. One time, the forest\'s most beautiful rabbit Meimei came looking for Chouchou to play, but Chouchou thought of himself as just too ugly, he couldn\'t face seeing her. Meimei told Chouchou: \"It\'s not what\'s on the outside that counts, the important thing is what\'s on the inside.\" Chouchou suddenly saw the light, he ran outside, and played with his friends to his heart\'s content. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Story] The \"Beautiful\" Rabbit', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1565-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 01:37:14', '2016-10-31 05:37:14', '', 1565, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1565-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1681, 1, '2016-11-04 05:45:00', '2016-11-04 09:45:00', 'Yang over at
Learn Mandarin Now is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading
[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin] (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. \n\nIn the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \n\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu3guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the
State of Chu\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.
Encyclopedia Britannica tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\" Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\n \nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\n\n
Usage Examples
\n
从事研究工作，眼界要宽，知所权变，切忌刻舟求剑。When undertaking scientific res\n\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to Yang! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n
Chinese text:
\n1) 从前有一位楚国人, 他非常爱惜他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，一不小心他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了记号。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\n \n2) 宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在移动。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\n\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) Long ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it. \n \n2) The sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 刻舟求剑 - Actions Made Pointless by Changing Circumstances', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1557-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:45:00', '2016-11-04 09:45:00', '', 1557, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1557-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2030, 1, '2016-11-04 05:46:22', '2016-11-04 09:46:22', 'Yang over at Learn Mandarin Now is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading [pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin] (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable, though you may struggle a bit. \r\n\r\nIn the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \r\n\r\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu3guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the State of Chu\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times. Encyclopedia Britannica tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\" Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\r\n \r\nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\r\n\r\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to Yang! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 从前有一位楚国人, 他非常爱惜他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，一不小心他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了记号。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\r\n \r\n2) 宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在移动。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Long ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it. \r\n \r\n2) The sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 刻舟求剑 - Actions Made Pointless by Changing Circumstances', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1557-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:46:22', '2016-11-04 09:46:22', '', 1557, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1557-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1685, 1, '2016-10-31 01:43:32', '2016-10-31 05:43:32', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese Free: Read Chinese Idioms', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'kezhouzhiquan-featured', '', '', '2016-10-31 01:43:53', '2016-10-31 05:43:53', '', 1557, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/kezhouzhiquan-featured.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1684, 1, '2016-10-31 01:38:27', '2016-10-31 05:38:27', 'Hey hey, lookie here, an excellent guest post submitted by native Chinese speaker Yang from Learn Mandarin Now. This story tells us a bit about the Chinese chengyu (idiom),塞翁失马, which can mean \"a blessing in disguise\", or can conversely mean \"bad luck disguised as good\". It\'s used to point out the hidden positives or negatives in a situation, so you might say it means \"there are two sides to every circumstance\". \r\n\r\nI\'m loving this post for the fable-y language: \"servant\", \"steed\", etc. Plus, I learned a new favorite word in this one: 塞外 [pinyin]sai4 wai4[/pinyin], meaning \"Beyond the Great Wall\". In other words, a remote place near the outskirts or borders of China. Also, don\'t forget, 匹 [pinyin]pi3[/pinyin] is the measure word for Horses, so you\'re gonna see that a few times. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one phrase we should probably get into in greater detail, because I don\'t think it\'s immediately clear what it means: 全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗. Let\'s take a look at this, word by word:\r\n\r\n全国 - The whole country\r\n上下的 - Everywhere\r\n年轻男子 - young men\r\n都 - all\r\n被 - grammar word usually indicating that the subject of the sentence has had something unfortunate happen to them\r\n抓 - grabbed\r\n去 - go out\r\n打仗 - fight \r\n\r\nThe key word here is 抓 [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin], which usually means to \"catch\" or \"grab\". In this case, the word means \"drafted\", so it still means to \"grab\", but in this case, it\'s the ruling power (probably the king) doing the grabbing up (of potential soldiers). The 被 in this case functions as \"were\", with a negative overtone. So this can be translated as \"All the young men everywhere in the country were drafted to go fight a war.\"\r\n\r\nLearn Mandarin Now\'s \"How to Read Chinese\" page for a basic overview on getting started with Simplified characters, and look at their new blog for some learning tips. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n从前，一位老翁和他的儿子住在塞外的边境上。他们都非常喜欢骑马。有一天，他们家的仆人给老先生报告：\"我们家的一匹骏马走丢了，好像跑去邻国了。\"\r\n\r\n老翁的朋友闻讯都过来安慰他。但老先生说：“呵呵，这也许不是坏事，谁知道呢！＂\r\n\r\n几个月之后，奇妙的事情发生了，那匹走失了的骏马意外地跑回来了，并且从邻国带来了一匹新的骏马。老翁的好友纷纷过来祝贺他。老翁说：“唉，这也许不是什么好事情呢！”\r\n\r\n一天，老翁的儿子正在骑那匹新的骏马，突然不小心从马上掉了下来并摔断了腿。他从今以后都不能正常走路了。老翁的朋友都为老翁感到伤心，但老翁却说：“这个意外以后能为咱们带来好运也不一定。”\r\n\r\n一年后，全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗，大部分去参军的年轻人都死在了战场。老翁的儿子因为腿受伤了所以避过了这一次劫难。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nOnce upon a time, there was an old man who lived with his son on the borders of the country. They both very much enjoyed riding horses. One day, a servant reported to the old man, “One of our good horses has gone missing. It seems the horse ran across to the neighboring country.\"\r\n\r\nOld man\'s friends came and comforted him. However, the old man said: \"Well, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Who knows!\"\r\n\r\nCouple of months later, a strange thing happened. The missing horse came back, accompanied by a great steed from the neighboring country. When his friends congratulated him on this great news, the old man said: \"Well, this might bring us bad luck.\"\r\n\r\nOne day, his son was having fun riding on the fine [new] steed. Suddenly, he fell from the hose and broke his leg. His son was never able to walk again. Again, his friends came to comfort the old man. But the old man was not bothered and said: \"This accident might bring us good luck in the future.\"\r\n\r\nA year later, all young men in the country were drafted to join a war. Most young men who fought died on the battlefield. Luckily, his son avoided entering the war because of his broken leg.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 塞翁失马 - A Blessing in Disguise', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1551-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 01:38:27', '2016-10-31 05:38:27', '', 1551, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1551-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1687, 1, '2015-03-04 20:10:38', '2015-03-05 01:10:38', '[two_third]\r\nHappy Year of the Sheep! Couple of days ago, I stumbled across the Book \"The Last Yin Yang Master\", aka \"The Last Onmyoji\" （最后一个阴阳师), a supernatural ghost story available for free online. It\'s incredibly rare to find full-length books that aren\'t impossibly difficult to get through, but this one is phenomenal for learners. I\'m gonna put part of the first chapter here, so you can dive on in. The rest can be grabbed on Zhuaji.com. \r\n\r\nI\'ve recently sort of discovered that ghost stories and detective novels are where it\'s at for practicing reading. The cliches in a Chinese murder mystery are exactly the same as they are anywhere: hard-boiled cop, confused rookie, seductive woman, shady business, and definitely a chase scene. It\'s easier to follow a story when you have a semi-expectation of what\'s supposed to happen. They get hard when people start talking about blood spatter and ballistics, but you can kind of get the gist. Ghost stories are the same way - a scene of normalcy is set, followed by some red-flag strangeness that everyone completely ignores because they don\'t believe in the supernatural, followed by some myths and legends, or maybe a mysterious old man, or maybe a body goes missing, and then things really freaky. Again, the read gets hard when characters start talking about the mystic books of old, or funeral customs, so you should probably be reading this with the help of Pleco (which I do), but The Last Onmyoji is accessible enough that those parts shouldn\'t totally derail you. Highly recommended.\r\n\r\nThis really is worth a go for readers at almost all levels. The read is late-intermediate, but using Pleco, late-stage beginners and early-intermediates will be able to understand large chunks of it, enough to motivate you to puzzle through the parts you don\'t get, more so because this is being told in first-person. Remember, now, that the beginning of a book is usually the hardest as you try to get a sense of the story. Once the story gets rolling, it\'s easier to flow with it. Advanced readers may just appreciate learning a bit of spooky vocab. \r\n\r\nThe segment that I\"m translating here doesn\'t have any ghostly bits in it, this is the first chapter to get you going on the story. It\'s packed full of Chinese village culture, and some parts at the end that would be considered extremely un-PC in the west: a little anti-Japanese talk, and a little bit about buying women, the rarities of college education in the countryside: the realities of village life in China, even these days. \r\n\r\nThere\'s a lot I could talk about in here, but I do like the word 投 [pinyin]tou2[/pinyin] - This word had a ton of meanings. Imagine slipping a piece of paper into a suggestion box. Got it? That\'s what this word embodies, that action, or anything related to a similar action of taking a flat object and dropping it into a slot, literally or figuratively. So it can mean to \"vote\", as in an election, because you\'re submitting a ballot. It can mean to \"slide\" an envelope into a letter box. In this case, it means to \"submit\" a resume while seeking a job offer. We don\'t have a word for that concept in English, I think. \r\n\r\nEnjoy!\r\n\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n盘缠 - [pinyin]pan2 chan2[/pinyin] - Travel money\r\n肺痨 - [pinyin]fei4 lao2[/pinyin] - Tuberculosis\r\n张罗 - [pinyin]zhang1 luo5[/pinyin] - Gather together\r\n屁股 - [pinyin]pi4 gu5[/pinyin] - Butt, behind, rump\r\n浑浑噩噩 - [pinyin]hun2 hun2 e4 e4[/pinyin] - Muddleheaded\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n我叫林小凡,今年23岁。大学刚毕业。一个三流的大学四流的成绩,大学是在杭州读,毕业之后最开始在一家房地产公司做销售员,底薪一千八。因为业绩太差,公司没说辞退我,我自己就不好意思待了。\r\n\r\n在杭州转了两个月,投了不知道多少份儿简历,面试了多少次,都没有通过。盘缠花光之后,就回了老家。\r\n\r\n我的老家是洛阳。洛阳的乡下,一个叫做十里铺儿的小村儿落。\r\n\r\n之所以回来,是因为村儿里小学唯一的教师得了肺痨,病的已经非常严重,我作为村里走出来唯一的大学生,村长愿意一月掏出一千块的巨资来请我去代课。\r\n\r\n所以我回来了。\r\n\r\n在外面活的不如一条狗的我,在老家得到了极大的尊严。\r\n\r\n在偏远的山村,大学生,还是一个极其厉害的存在,村民们在看到我父亲的时候,都会为他竖起大拇指,说:“老林家祖坟冒了青烟,竟然出了个大学生,以后你就走出了大山咯。”\r\n\r\n每当这个时候,我父亲都会憨厚的笑一笑,抹去他脸上的汗水。\r\n\r\n我回到村子之后,方圆几里的媒婆都争着抢着给我介绍对象,几乎踏破我家的门槛儿,这不是吹牛。你不在那个环境里,不知道大学生三个字的分量。\r\n\r\n父亲也极力的给我张罗,在他们眼里,23岁,甚至已经过了结婚的年纪。跟我同龄的人,现在儿子已经可以光着屁股到处跑了。\r\n\r\n为了不让他们操心,我也去一次次的应付相亲。\r\n\r\n对,是应付。\r\n\r\n大学,说白了就是一个区分性与理性的地方,虽然是山村出来的,可是我的相貌并不算丑,甚至可以说英俊。也谈过一个女朋友,我没钱,她也不是非常的富裕,可是就算这样,我们还在在一起了三年,我尽我所能的打零工,来做一个男朋友该做的。大三那年,我们分手。\r\n\r\n那一天,我在我们学校的后山喝了一瓶2块钱的二锅头。醒来之后,不再悲伤,继续浑浑噩噩的过日子。\r\n\r\n关于相貌这一点,我继承了我母亲。\r\n\r\n 一个不知道故乡在哪里的美貌女人。\r\n\r\n她有痴呆症。\r\n\r\n在几十年前,我父亲进城,用了三百块钱把她买了回来。\r\n\r\n我父亲说,他那一天花了两元钱给母亲买了一身衣服,回来的时候母亲的美貌,让村里的人哈喇子都流到了地上。\r\n\r\n可惜,她是个傻子。\r\n\r\n如果不是傻子,我父亲也买不起。\r\n\r\n后来有了我,母亲的痴傻一直都是那样,可是她的傻,并不是像街头的疯子一样,她非常安静。\r\n\r\n不说话,不动。只是安静的坐着。\r\n\r\n我就在这样的一个环境下长大,可是我并不想文艺的说,我有孤僻的性格,因为就算是这样,我还是有完整的童年。\r\n\r\n我父亲非常的勤劳,他尽一个农民的极限,利用手中的农具,养活一个家。我没有什么怪他的地方。\r\n\r\n没钱,这是命。\r\n\r\n我爷爷,是一个退伍的老军人,他不识字,没有农民典型的精明,反倒是实诚的可怕。有人说他是gmd,有人说他是gcd,可是他自己都不知道自己到底是哪个党,他唯一知道的,就是他拿枪打日本鬼子,鬼子打跑之后,他就回到了家。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nMy name is Lin Xiaofan, I\'m 23 years old this year. I just graduated from college. A third-rate school with fourth-tier grades, my college was in Hangzhou, and after I graduated I first went to work as sales staff at a real estate agency with a salary of 1,800 [translator\'s note: this is a very low salary, about $300 USD / month]. My sales performance was poor, and the company never fired me, but I was so embarrassed that I left. \r\n\r\nI wandered around Hangzhou for two months, submitted I don\'t even know how many resumes, or went to how many interviews, but nothing came through. After I\'d spent all my travel money, I went back to my home town.\r\n\r\nMy home town is Luoyang. In the Luoyang countryside falls a little village called Shilipu\'er. \r\n\r\nThe reason I went home is because the village\'s only teacher got tuberculosis, and he was very seriously ill, so as the village\'s only person who\'d ever gone off to college, the village chief dug up a thousand-dollar [translator\'s note: \"1000 kuai\" is \"1000 Chinese Renminbi\"] investment and asked me to substitute teach. \r\n\r\nSo I went home. \r\n\r\nMy life away from home wasn\'t even as good as a dog\'s, but I get plenty of respect in my home town. \r\n\r\nIn such a remote village, being a college graduate is still an extremely awesome thing to be, and every time the villagers see my father, they all give him a thumbs-up and say, \"Your family\'s ancestral grave is emitting green smoke, unexpectedly out popped a college student! You\'ll be walking off this mountain after a while!\" [translator\'s note: this is a compliment regarding the family\'s lineage.]\r\n\r\nOf course at these times, my father would smile in a simple and honest way, wiping the sweat off his brow. \r\n\r\nAfter I came back to the village, all the local matchmakers tried to set me up with someone, almost trampling down my door, no exaggeration. If you\'ve never been in that [village] environment, you don\'t know the power of those three words, \"College Degree Holder\".\r\n\r\nMy dad also made a supreme effort to settle me, because in his eyes, at 23 years old I\'d already passed marrying age. Everyone my age already had kids running around with their bare butts hanging out. \r\n\r\nSo as not to make him worry, I\'d already coped with my first blind date. \r\n\r\nYes, it was definitely \"coping\". \r\n\r\nCollege, speaking frankly, was a place with completely different place with different rationales, but although I came from a farm village, I wasn\'t considered ugly, you might even say I\'m handsome. I had a girlfriend, but I had no money, and she wasn\'t very rich either, but that\'s just the way it was, we were together three years, and I used up all my part-time work money trying to do all the things a boyfriend is supposed to do. In the third year, we broke up. \r\n\r\nOn that day, on the hill behind our school, I drank a bottle of 2-dollar liquor. After I woke up, I wasn\'t sad anymore, and I just continued muddle-headedly passing the days. \r\n\r\nAbout my looks, those I inherited from my mother. \r\n\r\nA good-looking woman from who-knows-where. \r\n\r\nShe had dementia.\r\n\r\nA few decades ago, my father went to the city, and spent three hundred dollars to buy her and bring her home.\r\n\r\nMy dad said, that day he spent two bucks to buy mom some clothes, and when he returned, mom\'s good looks made everyone in the village drool all over the ground. \r\n\r\nPity, she was an idiot.\r\n\r\nIf she hadn\'t been an idiot, my dad could never have afforded her. \r\n\r\nThen I came along, and mom\'s dementia continued as before, but her brand of dementia wasn\'t like a crazy street person\'s, she was very quiet. \r\n\r\nShe didn\'t speak, didn\'t move. Just quietly sat there.\r\n\r\nThis is the environment I grew up in, but I don\'t want to make it sound literary, I had an antisocial nature, but even so, I still had a full childhood. \r\n\r\nMy father is very industrious, he has a farmer\'s strength, using the farm tools in his hands, he nurtured a household. I don\'t have anything to blame him for. \r\n\r\nNo money, that\'s just life. \r\n\r\nMy grandfather is a retired soldier, he\'s illiterate, and he doesn\'t have any of a villager\'s typical shrewdness, on the contrary he\'s terrifyingly honest. Some people said he was GMD [translator\'s note: GMD = guo min dang, the fascist party in the Chinese civil war, who lost], some people said he was GCD [GCD = gong chang dang, the communist party that won the war and remains in power today], but he doesn\'t even know himself which \"dang\" [translator\'s note - this \"dang\" means \"political party\"] he was in, the only thing he knows is that he grabbed a gun and fought the Japanese devils [the Japanese invaded while the GMD and the GCD were fighting each other], and after the devils ran away, he went home.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Great book: The Last Yin Yang Master', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1539-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-03-04 20:10:38', '2015-03-05 01:10:38', '', 1539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/03/1539-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1688, 1, '2016-10-31 01:45:04', '2016-10-31 05:45:04', '[two_third]\r\nHappy Year of the Sheep! Couple of days ago, I stumbled across the Book \"The Last Yin Yang Master\", aka \"The Last Onmyoji\" （最后一个阴阳师), a supernatural ghost story available for free online. It\'s incredibly rare to find full-length books that aren\'t impossibly difficult to get through, but this one is phenomenal for learners. I\'m gonna put part of the first chapter here, so you can dive on in. The rest can be grabbed on Zhuaji.com. \r\n\r\nI\'ve recently sort of discovered that ghost stories and detective novels are where it\'s at for practicing reading. The cliches in a Chinese murder mystery are exactly the same as they are anywhere: hard-boiled cop, confused rookie, seductive woman, shady business, and definitely a chase scene. It\'s easier to follow a story when you have a semi-expectation of what\'s supposed to happen. They get hard when people start talking about blood spatter and ballistics, but you can kind of get the gist. Ghost stories are the same way - a scene of normalcy is set, followed by some red-flag strangeness that everyone completely ignores because they don\'t believe in the supernatural, followed by some myths and legends, or maybe a mysterious old man, or maybe a body goes missing, and then things really freaky. Again, the read gets hard when characters start talking about the mystic books of old, or funeral customs, so you should probably be reading this with the help of Pleco (which I do), but The Last Onmyoji is accessible enough that those parts shouldn\'t totally derail you. Highly recommended.\r\n\r\nThis really is worth a go for readers at almost all levels. The read is late-intermediate, but using Pleco, late-stage beginners and early-intermediates will be able to understand large chunks of it, enough to motivate you to puzzle through the parts you don\'t get, more so because this is being told in first-person. Remember, now, that the beginning of a book is usually the hardest as you try to get a sense of the story. Once the story gets rolling, it\'s easier to flow with it. Advanced readers may just appreciate learning a bit of spooky vocab. \r\n\r\nThe segment that I\"m translating here doesn\'t have any ghostly bits in it, this is the first chapter to get you going on the story. It\'s packed full of Chinese village culture, and some parts at the end that would be considered extremely un-PC in the west: a little anti-Japanese talk, and a little bit about buying women, the rarities of college education in the countryside: the realities of village life in China, even these days. \r\n\r\nThere\'s a lot I could talk about in here, but I do like the word 投 [pinyin]tou2[/pinyin] - This word had a ton of meanings. Imagine slipping a piece of paper into a suggestion box. Got it? That\'s what this word embodies, that action, or anything related to a similar action of taking a flat object and dropping it into a slot, literally or figuratively. So it can mean to \"vote\", as in an election, because you\'re submitting a ballot. It can mean to \"slide\" an envelope into a letter box. In this case, it means to \"submit\" a resume while seeking a job offer. We don\'t have a word for that concept in English, I think. \r\n\r\nEnjoy!\r\n\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n盘缠 - [pinyin]pan2 chan2[/pinyin] - Travel money\r\n肺痨 - [pinyin]fei4 lao2[/pinyin] - Tuberculosis\r\n张罗 - [pinyin]zhang1 luo5[/pinyin] - Gather together\r\n屁股 - [pinyin]pi4 gu5[/pinyin] - Butt, behind, rump\r\n浑浑噩噩 - [pinyin]hun2 hun2 e4 e4[/pinyin] - Muddleheaded\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n我叫林小凡,今年23岁。大学刚毕业。一个三流的大学四流的成绩,大学是在杭州读,毕业之后最开始在一家房地产公司做销售员,底薪一千八。因为业绩太差,公司没说辞退我,我自己就不好意思待了。\r\n\r\n在杭州转了两个月,投了不知道多少份儿简历,面试了多少次,都没有通过。盘缠花光之后,就回了老家。\r\n\r\n我的老家是洛阳。洛阳的乡下,一个叫做十里铺儿的小村儿落。\r\n\r\n之所以回来,是因为村儿里小学唯一的教师得了肺痨,病的已经非常严重,我作为村里走出来唯一的大学生,村长愿意一月掏出一千块的巨资来请我去代课。\r\n\r\n所以我回来了。\r\n\r\n在外面活的不如一条狗的我,在老家得到了极大的尊严。\r\n\r\n在偏远的山村,大学生,还是一个极其厉害的存在,村民们在看到我父亲的时候,都会为他竖起大拇指,说:“老林家祖坟冒了青烟,竟然出了个大学生,以后你就走出了大山咯。”\r\n\r\n每当这个时候,我父亲都会憨厚的笑一笑,抹去他脸上的汗水。\r\n\r\n我回到村子之后,方圆几里的媒婆都争着抢着给我介绍对象,几乎踏破我家的门槛儿,这不是吹牛。你不在那个环境里,不知道大学生三个字的分量。\r\n\r\n父亲也极力的给我张罗,在他们眼里,23岁,甚至已经过了结婚的年纪。跟我同龄的人,现在儿子已经可以光着屁股到处跑了。\r\n\r\n为了不让他们操心,我也去一次次的应付相亲。\r\n\r\n对,是应付。\r\n\r\n大学,说白了就是一个区分性与理性的地方,虽然是山村出来的,可是我的相貌并不算丑,甚至可以说英俊。也谈过一个女朋友,我没钱,她也不是非常的富裕,可是就算这样,我们还在在一起了三年,我尽我所能的打零工,来做一个男朋友该做的。大三那年,我们分手。\r\n\r\n那一天,我在我们学校的后山喝了一瓶2块钱的二锅头。醒来之后,不再悲伤,继续浑浑噩噩的过日子。\r\n\r\n关于相貌这一点,我继承了我母亲。\r\n\r\n 一个不知道故乡在哪里的美貌女人。\r\n\r\n她有痴呆症。\r\n\r\n在几十年前,我父亲进城,用了三百块钱把她买了回来。\r\n\r\n我父亲说,他那一天花了两元钱给母亲买了一身衣服,回来的时候母亲的美貌,让村里的人哈喇子都流到了地上。\r\n\r\n可惜,她是个傻子。\r\n\r\n如果不是傻子,我父亲也买不起。\r\n\r\n后来有了我,母亲的痴傻一直都是那样,可是她的傻,并不是像街头的疯子一样,她非常安静。\r\n\r\n不说话,不动。只是安静的坐着。\r\n\r\n我就在这样的一个环境下长大,可是我并不想文艺的说,我有孤僻的性格,因为就算是这样,我还是有完整的童年。\r\n\r\n我父亲非常的勤劳,他尽一个农民的极限,利用手中的农具,养活一个家。我没有什么怪他的地方。\r\n\r\n没钱,这是命。\r\n\r\n我爷爷,是一个退伍的老军人,他不识字,没有农民典型的精明,反倒是实诚的可怕。有人说他是gmd,有人说他是gcd,可是他自己都不知道自己到底是哪个党,他唯一知道的,就是他拿枪打日本鬼子,鬼子打跑之后,他就回到了家。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nMy name is Lin Xiaofan, I\'m 23 years old this year. I just graduated from college. A third-rate school with fourth-tier grades, my college was in Hangzhou, and after I graduated I first went to work as sales staff at a real estate agency with a salary of 1,800 [translator\'s note: this is a very low salary, about $300 USD / month]. My sales performance was poor, and the company never fired me, but I was so embarrassed that I left. \r\n\r\nI wandered around Hangzhou for two months, submitted I don\'t even know how many resumes, or went to how many interviews, but nothing came through. After I\'d spent all my travel money, I went back to my home town.\r\n\r\nMy home town is Luoyang. In the Luoyang countryside falls a little village called Shilipu\'er. \r\n\r\nThe reason I went home is because the village\'s only teacher got tuberculosis, and he was very seriously ill, so as the village\'s only person who\'d ever gone off to college, the village chief dug up a thousand-dollar [translator\'s note: \"1000 kuai\" is \"1000 Chinese Renminbi\"] investment and asked me to substitute teach. \r\n\r\nSo I went home. \r\n\r\nMy life away from home wasn\'t even as good as a dog\'s, but I get plenty of respect in my home town. \r\n\r\nIn such a remote village, being a college graduate is still an extremely awesome thing to be, and every time the villagers see my father, they all give him a thumbs-up and say, \"Your family\'s ancestral grave is emitting green smoke, unexpectedly out popped a college student! You\'ll be walking off this mountain after a while!\" [translator\'s note: this is a compliment regarding the family\'s lineage.]\r\n\r\nOf course at these times, my father would smile in a simple and honest way, wiping the sweat off his brow. \r\n\r\nAfter I came back to the village, all the local matchmakers tried to set me up with someone, almost trampling down my door, no exaggeration. If you\'ve never been in that [village] environment, you don\'t know the power of those three words, \"College Degree Holder\".\r\n\r\nMy dad also made a supreme effort to settle me, because in his eyes, at 23 years old I\'d already passed marrying age. Everyone my age already had kids running around with their bare butts hanging out. \r\n\r\nSo as not to make him worry, I\'d already coped with my first blind date. \r\n\r\nYes, it was definitely \"coping\". \r\n\r\nCollege, speaking frankly, was a place with completely different place with different rationales, but although I came from a farm village, I wasn\'t considered ugly, you might even say I\'m handsome. I had a girlfriend, but I had no money, and she wasn\'t very rich either, but that\'s just the way it was, we were together three years, and I used up all my part-time work money trying to do all the things a boyfriend is supposed to do. In the third year, we broke up. \r\n\r\nOn that day, on the hill behind our school, I drank a bottle of 2-dollar liquor. After I woke up, I wasn\'t sad anymore, and I just continued muddle-headedly passing the days. \r\n\r\nAbout my looks, those I inherited from my mother. \r\n\r\nA good-looking woman from who-knows-where. \r\n\r\nShe had dementia.\r\n\r\nA few decades ago, my father went to the city, and spent three hundred dollars to buy her and bring her home.\r\n\r\nMy dad said, that day he spent two bucks to buy mom some clothes, and when he returned, mom\'s good looks made everyone in the village drool all over the ground. \r\n\r\nPity, she was an idiot.\r\n\r\nIf she hadn\'t been an idiot, my dad could never have afforded her. \r\n\r\nThen I came along, and mom\'s dementia continued as before, but her brand of dementia wasn\'t like a crazy street person\'s, she was very quiet. \r\n\r\nShe didn\'t speak, didn\'t move. Just quietly sat there.\r\n\r\nThis is the environment I grew up in, but I don\'t want to make it sound literary, I had an antisocial nature, but even so, I still had a full childhood. \r\n\r\nMy father is very industrious, he has a farmer\'s strength, using the farm tools in his hands, he nurtured a household. I don\'t have anything to blame him for. \r\n\r\nNo money, that\'s just life. \r\n\r\nMy grandfather is a retired soldier, he\'s illiterate, and he doesn\'t have any of a villager\'s typical shrewdness, on the contrary he\'s terrifyingly honest. Some people said he was GMD [translator\'s note: GMD = guo min dang, the fascist party in the Chinese civil war, who lost], some people said he was GCD [GCD = gong chang dang, the communist party that won the war and remains in power today], but he doesn\'t even know himself which \"dang\" [translator\'s note - this \"dang\" means \"political party\"] he was in, the only thing he knows is that he grabbed a gun and fought the Japanese devils [the Japanese invaded while the GMD and the GCD were fighting each other], and after the devils ran away, he went home.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Books] The Last Yin Yang Master', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1539-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 01:45:04', '2016-10-31 05:45:04', '', 1539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1539-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1690, 1, '2016-10-31 01:46:00', '2016-10-31 05:46:00', 'Yang over at Learn Mandarin Now is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading [pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin] (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. \r\n\r\nIn the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \r\n\r\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu3guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the State of Chu\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times. Encyclopedia Britannica tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\" Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\r\n \r\nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\r\n\r\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to Yang! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n从前有一位楚国人, 他非常爱惜他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，一不小心他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了记号。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\r\n \r\n宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在移动。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLong ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it. \r\n \r\nThe sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 刻舟求剑 - Actions Made Pointless by Changing Circumstances', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1557-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 01:46:00', '2016-10-31 05:46:00', '', 1557, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1557-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1693, 1, '2016-10-31 02:00:52', '2016-10-31 06:00:52', '', 'learn-to-read-chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'learn-to-read-chinese', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:01:16', '2016-10-31 06:01:16', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/learn-to-read-chinese.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1694, 1, '2016-10-31 02:02:08', '2016-10-31 06:02:08', 'Yayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \r\n\r\nUsing 过
\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\n\"He passed [his days] very happily, time flew past.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\nNot you, stoopid: 咱们 vs. 我们
\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n
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Chinese text:
\r\n➊小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n➊Little Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Story] 小马过河 - Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:02:08', '2016-10-31 06:02:08', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1695, 1, '2016-10-31 02:04:27', '2016-10-31 06:04:27', 'Yayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \r\n\r\nUsing 过
\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\n\"He passed [his days] very happily, time flew past.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\nNot you, stoopid: 咱们 vs. 我们
\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n
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\r\n1) 小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n2) 小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n3) 牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n4) 小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\r\n\r\n5) 小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n6) 小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Little Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\n2) Little Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\n3) Uncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\n4) Little Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\n5) Little Horse didn\'t know what to think. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\n6) Little Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Story] 小马过河 - Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:04:27', '2016-10-31 06:04:27', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1697, 1, '2016-10-31 02:09:33', '2016-10-31 06:09:33', 'Hey hey, lookie here, an excellent guest post submitted by native Chinese speaker Yang from Learn Mandarin Now. This story tells us a bit about the Chinese chengyu (idiom),塞翁失马, which can mean \"a blessing in disguise\", or can conversely mean \"bad luck disguised as good\". It\'s used to point out the hidden positives or negatives in a situation, so you might say it means \"there are two sides to every circumstance\". \r\n\r\nI\'m loving this post for the fable-y language: \"servant\", \"steed\", etc. Plus, I learned a new favorite word in this one: 塞外 [pinyin]sai4 wai4[/pinyin], meaning \"Beyond the Great Wall\". In other words, a remote place near the outskirts or borders of China. Also, don\'t forget, 匹 [pinyin]pi3[/pinyin] is the measure word for Horses, so you\'re gonna see that a few times. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one phrase we should probably get into in greater detail, because I don\'t think it\'s immediately clear what it means: 全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗. Let\'s take a look at this, word by word:\r\n\r\n全国 - The whole country\r\n上下的 - Everywhere\r\n年轻男子 - young men\r\n都 - all\r\n被 - grammar word usually indicating that the subject of the sentence has had something unfortunate happen to them\r\n抓 - grabbed\r\n去 - go out\r\n打仗 - fight \r\n\r\nThe key word here is 抓 [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin], which usually means to \"catch\" or \"grab\". In this case, the word means \"drafted\", so it still means to \"grab\", but in this case, it\'s the ruling power (probably the king) doing the grabbing up (of potential soldiers). The 被 in this case functions as \"were\", with a negative overtone. So this can be translated as \"All the young men everywhere in the country were drafted to go fight a war.\"\r\n\r\nLearn Mandarin Now\'s \"How to Read Chinese\" page for a basic overview on getting started with Simplified characters, and look at their new blog for some learning tips. \r\n\r\n
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\r\n1) 从前，一位老翁和他的儿子住在塞外的边境上。他们都非常喜欢骑马。有一天，他们家的仆人给老先生报告：\"我们家的一匹骏马走丢了，好像跑去邻国了。\"\r\n\r\n2) 老翁的朋友闻讯都过来安慰他。但老先生说：“呵呵，这也许不是坏事，谁知道呢！＂\r\n\r\n3) 几个月之后，奇妙的事情发生了，那匹走失了的骏马意外地跑回来了，并且从邻国带来了一匹新的骏马。老翁的好友纷纷过来祝贺他。老翁说：“唉，这也许不是什么好事情呢！”\r\n\r\n4) 一天，老翁的儿子正在骑那匹新的骏马，突然不小心从马上掉了下来并摔断了腿。他从今以后都不能正常走路了。老翁的朋友都为老翁感到伤心，但老翁却说：“这个意外以后能为咱们带来好运也不一定。”\r\n\r\n5) 一年后，全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗，大部分去参军的年轻人都死在了战场。老翁的儿子因为腿受伤了所以避过了这一次劫难。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Once upon a time, there was an old man who lived with his son on the borders of the country. They both very much enjoyed riding horses. One day, a servant reported to the old man, “One of our good horses has gone missing. It seems the horse ran across to the neighboring country.\"\r\n\r\n2) Old man\'s friends came and comforted him. However, the old man said: \"Well, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Who knows!\"\r\n\r\n3) Couple of months later, a strange thing happened. The missing horse came back, accompanied by a great steed from the neighboring country. When his friends congratulated him on this great news, the old man said: \"Well, this might bring us bad luck.\"\r\n\r\n4) One day, his son was having fun riding on the fine [new] steed. Suddenly, he fell from the hose and broke his leg. His son was never able to walk again. Again, his friends came to comfort the old man. But the old man was not bothered and said: \"This accident might bring us good luck in the future.\"\r\n\r\n5) A year later, all young men in the country were drafted to join a war. Most young men who fought died on the battlefield. Luckily, his son avoided entering the war because of his broken leg.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 塞翁失马 - A Blessing in Disguise', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1551-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:09:33', '2016-10-31 06:09:33', '', 1551, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1551-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1698, 1, '2016-10-31 02:11:12', '2016-10-31 06:11:12', 'Hey hey, lookie here, an excellent guest post submitted by native Chinese speaker Yang from Learn Mandarin Now. This story tells us a bit about the Chinese chengyu (idiom),塞翁失马, which can mean \"a blessing in disguise\", or can conversely mean \"bad luck disguised as good\". It\'s used to point out the hidden positives or negatives in a situation, so you might say it means \"there are two sides to every circumstance\". \r\n\r\nI\'m loving this post for the fable-y language: \"servant\", \"steed\", etc. Plus, I learned a new favorite word in this one: 塞外 [pinyin]sai4 wai4[/pinyin], meaning \"Beyond the Great Wall\". In other words, a remote place near the outskirts or borders of China. Also, don\'t forget, 匹 [pinyin]pi3[/pinyin] is the measure word for Horses, so you\'re gonna see that a few times. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one phrase we should probably get into in greater detail, because I don\'t think it\'s immediately clear what it means: 全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗. Let\'s take a look at this, word by word:\r\n\r\n全国 - The whole country\r\n上下的 - Everywhere\r\n年轻男子 - young men\r\n都 - all\r\n被 - grammar word usually indicating that the subject of the sentence has had something unfortunate happen to them\r\n抓 - grabbed\r\n去 - go out\r\n打仗 - fight \r\n\r\nThe key word here is 抓 [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin], which usually means to \"catch\" or \"grab\". In this case, the word means \"drafted\", so it still means to \"grab\", but in this case, it\'s the ruling power (probably the king) doing the grabbing up (of potential soldiers). The 被 in this case functions as \"were\", with a negative overtone. So this can be translated as \"All the young men everywhere in the country were drafted to go fight a war.\"\r\n\r\nLearn Mandarin Now\'s \"How to Read Chinese\" page for a basic overview on getting started with Simplified characters, and look at their new blog for some learning tips. \r\n\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n1) 从前，一位老翁和他的儿子住在塞外的边境上。他们都非常喜欢骑马。有一天，他们家的仆人给老先生报告：\"我们家的一匹骏马走丢了，好像跑去邻国了。\"\r\n\r\n2) 老翁的朋友闻讯都过来安慰他。但老先生说：“呵呵，这也许不是坏事，谁知道呢！＂\r\n\r\n3) 几个月之后，奇妙的事情发生了，那匹走失了的骏马意外地跑回来了，并且从邻国带来了一匹新的骏马。老翁的好友纷纷过来祝贺他。老翁说：“唉，这也许不是什么好事情呢！”\r\n\r\n4) 一天，老翁的儿子正在骑那匹新的骏马，突然不小心从马上掉了下来并摔断了腿。他从今以后都不能正常走路了。老翁的朋友都为老翁感到伤心，但老翁却说：“这个意外以后能为咱们带来好运也不一定。”\r\n\r\n5) 一年后，全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗，大部分去参军的年轻人都死在了战场。老翁的儿子因为腿受伤了所以避过了这一次劫难。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Once upon a time, there was an old man who lived with his son on the borders of the country. They both very much enjoyed riding horses. One day, a servant reported to the old man, “One of our good horses has gone missing. It seems the horse ran across to the neighboring country.\"\r\n\r\n2) The old man\'s friends came and comforted him. However, the old man said: \"Well, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Who knows!\"\r\n\r\n3) A couple of months later, a strange thing happened. The missing horse came back, accompanied by a great steed from the neighboring country. When his friends congratulated him on this great news, the old man said: \"Well, this might bring us bad luck.\"\r\n\r\n4) One day, his son was having fun riding on the fine [new] steed. Suddenly, he fell from the hose and broke his leg. His son was never able to walk again. Again, the old man\'s friends came to comfort him. But the old man was not bothered and said: \"This accident might bring us good luck in the future.\"\r\n\r\n5) A year later, all young men in the country were drafted to join a war. Most young men who fought died on the battlefield. Luckily, his son avoided entering the war because of his broken leg.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 塞翁失马 - A Blessing in Disguise', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1551-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:11:12', '2016-10-31 06:11:12', '', 1551, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1551-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2038, 1, '2016-11-04 06:06:36', '2016-11-04 10:06:36', 'A quick and simple poem about morning dew. \r\n\r\nThis isn\'t a famous poem, just a little somethin-somethin\' from around the net. The author used a turn of phrase here which might be slightly confusing: 打湿. Most commonly, we know the word 打 [pinyin]da3[/pinyin] as \"to hit\" or \"to strike\". 湿 [pinyin]shi1[/pinyin] means \"wet\" or \"moist\". Put these two words together, and 打湿 means \"to get something wet\" or to moisten. \r\n\r\nThough the title of the poem is \"Dewdrops\" - 露珠 - you\'ll notice that the actual word is never mentioned in the poem. \r\n\r\nSource: http://www.zuowen.com/e/20131223/52b840bf2572e.shtml\r\n\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n昨天夜里，\r\n谁从草地上走过？\r\n丢了那么多的珍珠。\r\n今天早上，\r\n谁在草丛中看着我？\r\n还打湿了我的衣裤。\r\n太阳升高了，\r\n谁收走了珍珠？\r\n留下了湿湿的气息，\r\n湿湿的泥土。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLast night,\r\nWho walked up from the meadow?\r\n[They] lost so many pearls.\r\nThis morning, \r\nWho was watching me from the underbrush? \r\n[They] made damp my trousers.\r\nThe sun is high,\r\nwho left with the pearls?\r\n[They] left behind them dewy breath,\r\nand wet soil.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Modern Chinese Poetry] 露珠 - Dewdrops', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1484-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:06:36', '2016-11-04 10:06:36', '', 1484, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1484-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1701, 1, '2016-10-31 02:34:20', '2016-10-31 06:34:20', 'A quick and simple poem about morning dew. \r\n\r\nThis isn\'t a famous poem, just a little somethin-somethin\' from around the net. The author used a turn of phrase here which might be slightly confusing: 打湿. Most commonly, we know the word 打 [pinyin]da3[/pinyin] as \"to hit\" or \"to strike\". 湿 [pinyin]shi1[/pinyin] means \"wet\" or \"moist\". Put these two words together, and 打湿 means \"to get something wet\" or to moisten. \r\n\r\nThough the title of the poem is \"Dewdrops\" - 露珠 - you\'ll notice that the actual word is never mentioned in the poem. \r\n\r\nSource: http://www.zuowen.com/e/20131223/52b840bf2572e.shtml\r\n\r\n
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\r\n昨天夜里，\r\n谁从草地上走过？\r\n丢了那么多的珍珠。\r\n今天早上，\r\n谁在草丛中看着我？\r\n还打湿了我的衣裤。\r\n太阳升高了，\r\n谁收走了珍珠？\r\n留下了湿湿的气息，\r\n湿湿的泥土。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLast night,\r\nWho walked up from the meadow?\r\n[They] lost so many pearls.\r\nThis morning, \r\nWho was watching me from the underbrush? \r\n[They] made damp my trousers.\r\nThe sun is high,\r\nwho left with the pearls?\r\n[They] left behind them dewy breath,\r\nand wet soil.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Poetry] 露珠 - Dewdrops', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1484-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:34:20', '2016-10-31 06:34:20', '', 1484, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1484-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1702, 1, '2016-11-04 05:31:46', '2016-11-04 09:31:46', 'This is another one I nabbed from Sina user Zifengling\'s personal blog. I tried to convince myself that this was beginner, but I just couldn\'t. The words are mostly OK, but there are one too many wibble-wobbly sentence configurations.\n\nThis is also a perfect example of a fairly easy story that had one phrase I spent an hour trying to sort out, and a perfect example of the reason I started this blog in the first damn place - you start reading and then one word trips you up and you can\'t get past it. 99% sure I figured it out, but don\'t hesitate to correct me in the comments if you have intelligence to the contrary. The word was 香草娃娃 [pinyin]xiang1 cao3 wa2 wa2[/pinyin]. Uh, well, [pinyin]xiang1 cao3[/pinyin] means \"vanilla\" and [pinyin]wa2 wa2[/pinyin] is \"baby\", so... vanilla baby? Really? In the story, 香草娃娃 is used as a toy\'s name, so I thought, maybe there\'s a toy called a Vanilla Baby? Anyway, it turns out an out-of-use definition for 香草 is \"old and dependable\". Ah hah - \"old, dependable baby doll\". That makes sense. \n\nThere\'s one other very useful phrase here that\'s very commonly used in everyday language: 太过分了！Directly translated, this means \"Too excessive!\", but this phrase doesn\'t usually actually refer to a large amount of things. It\'s more often used to refer to a circumstance or someone\'s behavior, like, \"That is just too much to bear!\". If someone was very mean to you, you could say, \"太过分了!\" or if an interview process was super rough and you got raked over the coals, also \"太过分了!\" \n\nEnjoy this one, and consider it good practicing in very colloquial story building.\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n
Chinese text
\n新年快到了，玩具王国决定举行一场盛大的舞会，准备邀请全国的玩具都来参加。舞会那天，玩具们都不停地跳着、笑着，整个舞场热闹非凡。可是在一个角落里，谁也没有注意到，有一只紫色的香草娃娃正一声不吭地望着舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这时，一只小白熊正好从她面前经过，它看到了这一切，就走过去问香草娃娃：“娃娃，你为什么不去跳舞呢？”香草娃娃难过地低下了头，轻轻地说：“玩具们都嫌我个子小，不愿意请我跳舞。”说完流下了眼泪。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？难道他们不懂得要团结友爱吗！太过分了！”小白熊拉起香草娃娃的手，说，“娃娃，不要难过了。走，我请你跳舞。”香草娃娃听了这话，脸上顿时露出了灿烂的笑容，她连忙擦掉脸上的泪水，高兴地说：“太好了！太好了！”娃娃和小白熊在舞池里又跳又笑，一起度过了一个愉快的夜晚。\n \n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThe new year had almost arrived, and the Toy Kingdom planned to invite everyone to a grand ball. The day of the dance, the toys were all dancing and laughing, and the whole ballroom was extraordinarily lively. But off in one corner, receiving no attention from anyone, there was an old purple doll silently gazing at the dance floor, her eyes were blank and she looked lonely. Just then, a white polar bear in front of her saw this, walked over and asked the dependable old doll, \"Doll, why don\'t you go dance?\" The dependable doll lowered her head sadly, saying in a small voice, \"The [other] toys all say I\'m too short, they\'re not willing to dance with me.\" Saying this, she began to cry. Polar Bear was furious when he heard this, and said: \"How could they treat you this way? Don\'t they understand solidarity? That\'s just too much!\" Little Bear pulled on the baby doll\'s hand, and said: \"Doll, don\'t be sad. Come on, I\'m asking you to dance with me.\" The dependable doll heard these words, and a brilliant smile immediately lit up her face. She quickly wiped the tears off her face and said happily, \"Wonderful! Wonderful!\" On the dance floor, Doll and Bear danced and laughed, and passed a lovely evening together. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Children\'s Stories] The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1566-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:31:46', '2016-11-04 09:31:46', '', 1566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1566-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1703, 1, '2016-10-31 02:37:25', '2016-10-31 06:37:25', '', 'Read Chinese Free: Chinese short stories', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'chinese-reading-exercises-intermediate-stories', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:37:44', '2016-10-31 06:37:44', '', 1566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/chinese-reading-exercises-intermediate-stories.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1705, 1, '2016-11-04 05:39:52', '2016-11-04 09:39:52', 'Your basic \"it\'s what\'s on the inside that counts\", moral-of-the-story story about a rabbit filled with self-loathing. \n\nDifficult bits include the phrase 钻出来 [pinyin]zuan1 chu1 lai2[/pinyin]. We know that 出来 means to \"come out of\". But 钻? If you check the dictionary, the first definition that comes up for this word is \"diamond\", but that wasn\'t the correct definition in this case. Secondly, it also means to \"drill\" or \"bore\", which makes sense as a second definition of \"diamond\" - lots of diamond drill bits out there. But that still doesn\'t work in context of the whole sentence. But if you run a Baidu image search on the phrase, and you\'ll find lots of pictures of people squeezing out of small spaces, children coming out of playground tunnels, workers coming out of manholes, and you\'ll probably realize that 钻出来 means to wiggle out of a space via a small opening. Imagine a secret agent crawling through an air duct; in Chinese, there\'s a word for that, and that word is 钻. So it\'s really more like \"to burrow out of or in to\". I often hear it used in Beijing in reference to \"bur\n\nI got this from Sina user Zifengling\'s personal blog, in a post where she lists a few different easy stories, so if you wanna read some more on your own, head on over. I\'ll probably translate another couple from there before too long. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n
Chinese text
\n森林里住着一只小兔子，它叫“丑丑”。它的眼睛红红的，像一对红宝石。可是它的毛灰灰的，像是从灰炉里钻出来似的，它觉得自己太丑了，常常一个人躲在家里。\n\n虽然它长得不好看，但是它有一颗无比善良的心。小猴子乐乐的家被大水冲垮了，无家可归。丑丑就让乐乐住在自己的家，还把自己最喜欢吃的巧克力分给乐乐吃。不仅如此，谁头痛、生病了，没钱买药，它都会尽其所能进行帮助。\n\n日子一天天过去了，丑丑还是很孤单。一次，森林里最好看的小兔子美美来找它玩，可丑丑觉得自己太丑了，没脸见它。美美告诉丑丑：“人的外表并不重要，重要的是内在美。”丑丑恍然大悟，它跑了出去，和伙伴们一起尽情地玩耍。\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nIn the forest there lived a little rabbit whose name was \"Chouchou\". His eyes were red, like a pair of rubies. But his fur was grey, like he\'d wiggled out of a furnace, and he felt himself to be very ugly, often hiding in his house alone. \n\nAlthough he wasn\'t nice to look at, he had an incomparably kind heart. When Little Monkey Lele\'s home was burst apart by a flood, he had no house to return to. Chouchou let Lele live with him, and he divided up his favorite chocolate to give some to Lele to eat. Not only that, whoever had a headach, or got sick, with no money to buy medicine, he did everything he was able to do to help. \n\nThe days passed one by one, and Chouchou was still alone. One time, the forest\'s most beautiful rabbit Meimei came looking for Chouchou to play, but Chouchou thought of himself as just too ugly, he couldn\'t face seeing her. Meimei told Chouchou: \"It\'s not what\'s on the outside that counts, the important thing is what\'s on the inside.\" Chouchou suddenly saw the light, he ran outside, and played with his friends to his heart\'s content. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] “美丽”的小兔 - The \"Beautiful\" Rabbit', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1565-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:39:52', '2016-11-04 09:39:52', '', 1565, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1565-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1706, 1, '2016-10-31 02:43:38', '2016-10-31 06:43:38', '', 'Learn to Read Mandarin: Read Chinese Study', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'practice-chinese-reading-exercises', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:43:44', '2016-10-31 06:43:44', '', 1565, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/practice-chinese-reading-exercises.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0);
INSERT INTO `wp_posts` (`ID`, `post_author`, `post_date`, `post_date_gmt`, `post_content`, `post_title`, `post_excerpt`, `post_status`, `comment_status`, `ping_status`, `post_password`, `post_name`, `to_ping`, `pinged`, `post_modified`, `post_modified_gmt`, `post_content_filtered`, `post_parent`, `guid`, `menu_order`, `post_type`, `post_mime_type`, `comment_count`) VALUES
(2029, 1, '2016-11-04 05:41:11', '2016-11-04 09:41:11', 'Your basic \"it\'s what\'s on the inside that counts\", moral-of-the-story story about a rabbit filled with self-loathing. \r\n\r\nBurrowing into 钻
\r\nDifficult bits in this passage include the phrase 钻出来 [pinyin]zuan1 chu1 lai2[/pinyin]. We know that 出来 means to \"come out of\". But 钻? If you check the dictionary, the first definition that comes up for this word is \"diamond\", but that wasn\'t the correct definition in this case. Secondly, it also means to \"drill\" or \"bore\", which makes sense as a second definition of \"diamond\" - lots of diamond drill bits out there. But that still doesn\'t work in context of the whole sentence. But if you run a Baidu image search on the phrase, and you\'ll find lots of pictures of people squeezing out of small spaces, children coming out of playground tunnels, workers coming out of manholes, and you\'ll probably realize that 钻出来 means to wiggle out of a space via a small opening. Imagine a secret agent crawling through an air duct; in Chinese, there\'s a word for that, and that word is 钻. So it\'s really more like \"to burrow out of or in to\". I often hear it used in Beijing in reference to \"burrowing under the covers\" (钻进被窝).\r\n\r\nSources
\r\nI got this story from Sina user Zifengling\'s personal blog, in a post where she lists a few different easy stories, so if you wanna read some more on your own, head on over. I\'ll probably translate another couple from there before too long. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n森林里住着一只小兔子，它叫“丑丑”。它的眼睛红红的，像一对红宝石。可是它的毛灰灰的，像是从灰炉里钻出来似的，它觉得自己太丑了，常常一个人躲在家里。\r\n\r\n虽然它长得不好看，但是它有一颗无比善良的心。小猴子乐乐的家被大水冲垮了，无家可归。丑丑就让乐乐住在自己的家，还把自己最喜欢吃的巧克力分给乐乐吃。不仅如此，谁头痛、生病了，没钱买药，它都会尽其所能进行帮助。\r\n\r\n日子一天天过去了，丑丑还是很孤单。一次，森林里最好看的小兔子美美来找它玩，可丑丑觉得自己太丑了，没脸见它。美美告诉丑丑：“人的外表并不重要，重要的是内在美。”丑丑恍然大悟，它跑了出去，和伙伴们一起尽情地玩耍。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the forest there lived a little rabbit whose name was \"Chouchou\". His eyes were red, like a pair of rubies. But his fur was grey, like he\'d wiggled out of a furnace, and he felt himself to be very ugly, often hiding in his house alone. \r\n\r\nAlthough he wasn\'t nice to look at, he had an incomparably kind heart. When Little Monkey Lele\'s home was burst apart by a flood, he had no house to return to. Chouchou let Lele live with him, and he divided up his favorite chocolate to give some to Lele to eat. Not only that, whoever had a headach, or got sick, with no money to buy medicine, he did everything he was able to do to help. \r\n\r\nThe days passed one by one, and Chouchou was still alone. One time, the forest\'s most beautiful rabbit Meimei came looking for Chouchou to play, but Chouchou thought of himself as just too ugly, he couldn\'t face seeing her. Meimei told Chouchou: \"It\'s not what\'s on the outside that counts, the important thing is what\'s on the inside.\" Chouchou suddenly saw the light, he ran outside, and played with his friends to his heart\'s content. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] “美丽”的小兔 - The \"Beautiful\" Rabbit', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1565-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:41:11', '2016-11-04 09:41:11', '', 1565, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1565-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1708, 1, '2016-10-31 02:45:05', '2016-10-31 06:45:05', 'A fairly simple read for newbies about a self-hating rabbit. \r\n\r\nIn terms of plot, this is your basic \"it\'s what\'s on the inside that counts\", moral-of-the-story story. Frankly, it\'s a bit boring, but there are a couple of good words and phrases in here. One in particular is difficult, and I couldn\'t figure it out just by looking at the definition, I had to go hunt around a bit: 钻出来 [pinyin]zuan1 chu1 lai2[/pinyin]. We know that 出来 means to \"come out of\". But 钻? The first definition that came up when I looked was \"diamond\", but that wasn\'t the correct definition in this case. Secondly, it also means to \"drill\" or \"bore\", which makes sense as a second definition of \"diamond\" - lots of diamond drill bits out there. But that still doesn\'t work in context of the whole sentence. I finally ran a Baidu image search on the phrase, and there were lots of pictures of miners squeezing out of small spaces, children coming out of playground tunnels, workers coming out of manholes, and I realized that 钻出来 means to wiggle out of a space via a small opening. Imagine a secret agent crawling through an air duct; in Chinese, there\'s a word for that, and that word is 钻. \r\n\r\nI got this from Sina user Zifengling\'s personal blog, in a post where she lists a few different easy stories, so if you wanna read some more on your own, head on over. I\'ll probably translate another couple from there before too long. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n森林里住着一只小兔子，它叫“丑丑”。它的眼睛红红的，像一对红宝石。可是它的毛灰灰的，像是从灰炉里钻出来似的，它觉得自己太丑了，常常一个人躲在家里。\r\n\r\n虽然它长得不好看，但是它有一颗无比善良的心。小猴子乐乐的家被大水冲垮了，无家可归。丑丑就让乐乐住在自己的家，还把自己最喜欢吃的巧克力分给乐乐吃。不仅如此，谁头痛、生病了，没钱买药，它都会尽其所能进行帮助。\r\n\r\n日子一天天过去了，丑丑还是很孤单。一次，森林里最好看的小兔子美美来找它玩，可丑丑觉得自己太丑了，没脸见它。美美告诉丑丑：“人的外表并不重要，重要的是内在美。”丑丑恍然大悟，它跑了出去，和伙伴们一起尽情地玩耍。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the forest there lived a little rabbit whose name was \"Chouchou\". His eyes were red, like a pair of rubies. But his fur was grey, like he\'d wiggled out of a furnace, and he felt himself to be very ugly, often hiding in his house alone. \r\n\r\nAlthough he wasn\'t nice to look at, he had an incomparably kind heart. When Little Monkey Lele\'s home was burst apart by a flood, he had no house to return to. Chouchou let Lele live with him, and he divided up his favorite chocolate to give some to Lele to eat. Not only that, whoever had a headach, or got sick, with no money to buy medicine, he did everything he was able to do to help. \r\n\r\nThe days passed one by one, and Chouchou was still alone. One time, the forest\'s most beautiful rabbit Meimei came looking for Chouchou to play, but Chouchou thought of himself as just too ugly, he couldn\'t face seeing her. Meimei told Chouchou: \"It\'s not what\'s on the outside that counts, the important thing is what\'s on the inside.\" Chouchou suddenly saw the light, he ran outside, and played with his friends to his heart\'s content. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Story] “美丽”的小兔 - The \"Beautiful\" Rabbit', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1565-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:45:05', '2016-10-31 06:45:05', '', 1565, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1565-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1709, 1, '2016-10-31 02:52:37', '2016-10-31 06:52:37', '[two_third]\nHey, whaddaya know! A guest post. Been a while since we got one of these. Many thanks to Ryan, who submitted recently. Ryan tells us: \"This is a very interesting article about Chinese-Americans that shouldn\'t be too hard for intermediate-level readers. The grammar in this article is fairly simple, and I could understand most of it, having learnt Chinese for half a year.\" \n\n This post was taken from a passage in one of Ryan\'s old Chinese textbooks, given to him by a friend. It introduces what we presume is a much longer treatise on the history of Chinese immigration to North America. In this text, we learn a couple of cool place names and period names here. \n\nThe Chinese title is: 华裔美国人. \n\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n中国人是从19世纪二十年代开始到美国来的。他们大多来自广东省和福建省。一开始，他们在加利福尼亚淘金；后来，又在西部修建铁路、经营农场。20世纪四五十年代，一些人因为中国内战来到美国。从20世纪七十年代开始，越来越多的中国人到美国来留学。学习结束后，有的人继续留在美国工作和生活。\n\n中国人到美国的时候，最先是在大城市里居住。所以，现在很多城市像旧金山、纽约、檀香山和加拿大的温哥华等都有很大的中国城。\n\n以前，中国人在美国生活非常艰难。在几代人的共同努力下，很多人取得了很大的成就。\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nFrom the 1820\'s, Chinese people started arriving in America. Most of them came from Guangdong Province and Fujian Province. Initially, they came to California to pan for gold [during the Gold Rush] ; later, they built railroads and started farms in the West. In the 1940s and 1950s, more people [immigrated to the United States] because of the Chinese cCivil war. Beginning in the 1970s, more and more Chinese people came to America to study. After they graduated, some people stayed in America to work and live.\n\nWhen the Chinese arrived in the United States, most of them lived in big cities. Thus, now many cities like San Francisco, New York, Honolulu, Canada\'s Vancouver, and others have large Chinatowns.\n\nPreviously, Chinese people living in the United States had it very hard. But through the joint efforts of several generations, many [Chinese] people have achieved great things. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: The History of Chinese Americans', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1519-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:52:37', '2016-10-31 06:52:37', '', 1519, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1519-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1710, 1, '2016-10-31 02:53:31', '2016-10-31 06:53:31', '[two_third]\r\nHey, whaddaya know! A guest post. Been a while since we got one of these. Many thanks to Ryan, who submitted recently. Ryan tells us: \"This is a very interesting article about Chinese-Americans that shouldn\'t be too hard for intermediate-level readers. The grammar in this article is fairly simple, and I could understand most of it, having learnt Chinese for half a year.\" \r\n\r\n This post was taken from a passage in one of Ryan\'s old Chinese textbooks, given to him by a friend. It introduces what we presume is a much longer treatise on the history of Chinese immigration to North America. In this text, we learn a couple of cool place names and period names here. \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title is: 华裔美国人. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n世纪 - [pinyin]shi4 ji4[/pinyin] - Century\r\n广东省 - [pinyin]guang3 dong1 sheng3[/pinyin] - Guangdong Province\r\n福建省 - [pinyin]fu2 jian4 sheng3[/pinyin] - Fujian Province\r\n淘金 - [pinyin]tao2 jin1[/pinyin] - Gold Rush\r\n铁路 - [pinyin]tie3 lu4[/pinyin] - Railroads\r\n内战 - [pinyin]nei4 zhan4[/pinyin] - Civil War\r\n中国城 - [pinyin]zhong1 guo2 cheng2[/pinyin] - Chinatown\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n中国人是从19世纪二十年代开始到美国来的。他们大多来自广东省和福建省。一开始，他们在加利福尼亚淘金；后来，又在西部修建铁路、经营农场。20世纪四五十年代，一些人因为中国内战来到美国。从20世纪七十年代开始，越来越多的中国人到美国来留学。学习结束后，有的人继续留在美国工作和生活。\r\n\r\n中国人到美国的时候，最先是在大城市里居住。所以，现在很多城市像旧金山、纽约、檀香山和加拿大的温哥华等都有很大的中国城。\r\n\r\n以前，中国人在美国生活非常艰难。在几代人的共同努力下，很多人取得了很大的成就。看看下面的当代华裔美国人，有哪些是你认识的？ \r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nFrom the 1820\'s, Chinese people started arriving in America. Most of them came from Guangdong Province and Fujian Province. Initially, they came to California to pan for gold [during the Gold Rush] ; later, they built railroads and started farms in the West. In the 1940s and 1950s, more people [immigrated to the] United States] because of the Chinese civil war. Beginning in the 1970s, more and more Chinese people came to America to study. After they graduated, some people stayed in America to work and live.\r\n\r\nWhen the Chinese arrived in the United States, most of them lived in big cities. Thus, now many cities like San Francisco, New York, Honolulu, Canada\'s Vancouver, and others have large Chinatowns.\r\n\r\nPreviously, Chinese people living in the United States had it very hard. But through the joint efforts of several generations, many [Chinese] people have achieved great things. Here\'s a look at contemporary Chinese Americans, which ones are you familiar with?\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: The History of Chinese Americans', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1519-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:53:31', '2016-10-31 06:53:31', '', 1519, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1519-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2022, 1, '2016-11-04 05:26:53', '2016-11-04 09:26:53', 'Yayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \r\n\r\nUsing 过
\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\n\"He passed [his days] very happily, time flew past.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\nNot you, stoopid: 咱们 vs. 我们
\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n2) 小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n3) 牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n4) 小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\r\n\r\n5) 小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n6) 小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Little Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\n2) Little Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\n3) Uncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\n4) Little Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\n5) Little Horse didn\'t know what to think. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\n6) Little Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Stories] 小马过河 - Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:26:53', '2016-11-04 09:26:53', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2023, 1, '2016-11-04 05:27:37', '2016-11-04 09:27:37', 'Yayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \r\n\r\nUsing 过
\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\n\"He passed [his days] very happily, time flew past.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\nNot you, stoopid: 咱们 vs. 我们
\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n2) 小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n3) 牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n4) 小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\r\n\r\n5) 小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n6) 小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Little Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\n2) Little Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\n3) Uncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\n4) Little Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\n5) Little Horse didn\'t know what to think. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\n6) Little Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Stories] 小马过河 - Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:27:37', '2016-11-04 09:27:37', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1712, 1, '2016-10-31 02:57:45', '2016-10-31 06:57:45', '', 'chinese-reading-practice', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'chinese-reading-practice', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:58:08', '2016-10-31 06:58:08', '', 1539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/chinese-reading-practice.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1713, 1, '2016-10-31 02:58:39', '2016-10-31 06:58:39', '[two_third]\r\nHappy Year of the Sheep! Couple of days ago, I stumbled across the Book \"The Last Yin Yang Master\", aka \"The Last Onmyoji\", a supernatural ghost story available for free online. It\'s incredibly rare to find full-length books that aren\'t impossibly difficult to get through, but this one is phenomenal for learners. I\'m gonna put part of the first chapter here, so you can dive on in. The rest can be grabbed on Zhuaji.com. \r\n\r\nI\'ve recently sort of discovered that ghost stories and detective novels are where it\'s at for practicing reading. The cliches in a Chinese murder mystery are exactly the same as they are anywhere: hard-boiled cop, confused rookie, seductive woman, shady business, and definitely a chase scene. It\'s easier to follow a story when you have a semi-expectation of what\'s supposed to happen. They get hard when people start talking about blood spatter and ballistics, but you can kind of get the gist. Ghost stories are the same way - a scene of normalcy is set, followed by some red-flag strangeness that everyone completely ignores because they don\'t believe in the supernatural, followed by some myths and legends, or maybe a mysterious old man, or maybe a body goes missing, and then things really freaky. Again, the read gets hard when characters start talking about the mystic books of old, or funeral customs, so you should probably be reading this with the help of Pleco (which I do), but The Last Onmyoji is accessible enough that those parts shouldn\'t totally derail you. Highly recommended.\r\n\r\nThis really is worth a go for readers at almost all levels. The read is late-intermediate, but using Pleco, late-stage beginners and early-intermediates will be able to understand large chunks of it, enough to motivate you to puzzle through the parts you don\'t get, more so because this is being told in first-person. Remember, now, that the beginning of a book is usually the hardest as you try to get a sense of the story. Once the story gets rolling, it\'s easier to flow with it. Advanced readers may just appreciate learning a bit of spooky vocab. \r\n\r\nThe segment that I\"m translating here doesn\'t have any ghostly bits in it, this is the first chapter to get you going on the story. It\'s packed full of Chinese village culture, and some parts at the end that would be considered extremely un-PC in the west: a little anti-Japanese talk, and a little bit about buying women, the rarities of college education in the countryside: the realities of village life in China, even these days. \r\n\r\nThere\'s a lot I could talk about in here, but I do like the word 投 [pinyin]tou2[/pinyin] - This word had a ton of meanings. Imagine slipping a piece of paper into a suggestion box. Got it? That\'s what this word embodies, that action, or anything related to a similar action of taking a flat object and dropping it into a slot, literally or figuratively. So it can mean to \"vote\", as in an election, because you\'re submitting a ballot. It can mean to \"slide\" an envelope into a letter box. In this case, it means to \"submit\" a resume while seeking a job offer. We don\'t have a word for that concept in English, I think. \r\n\r\nEnjoy!\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n1) 我叫林小凡,今年23岁。大学刚毕业。一个三流的大学四流的成绩,大学是在杭州读,毕业之后最开始在一家房地产公司做销售员,底薪一千八。因为业绩太差,公司没说辞退我,我自己就不好意思待了。\r\n\r\n2) 在杭州转了两个月,投了不知道多少份儿简历,面试了多少次,都没有通过。盘缠花光之后,就回了老家。\r\n\r\n3) 我的老家是洛阳。洛阳的乡下,一个叫做十里铺儿的小村儿落。\r\n\r\n4) 之所以回来,是因为村儿里小学唯一的教师得了肺痨,病的已经非常严重,我作为村里走出来唯一的大学生,村长愿意一月掏出一千块的巨资来请我去代课。\r\n\r\n5) 所以我回来了。\r\n\r\n6) 在外面活的不如一条狗的我,在老家得到了极大的尊严。\r\n\r\n7) 在偏远的山村,大学生,还是一个极其厉害的存在,村民们在看到我父亲的时候,都会为他竖起大拇指,说:“老林家祖坟冒了青烟,竟然出了个大学生,以后你就走出了大山咯。”\r\n\r\n8) 每当这个时候,我父亲都会憨厚的笑一笑,抹去他脸上的汗水。\r\n\r\n9) 我回到村子之后,方圆几里的媒婆都争着抢着给我介绍对象,几乎踏破我家的门槛儿,这不是吹牛。你不在那个环境里,不知道大学生三个字的分量。\r\n\r\n10) 父亲也极力的给我张罗,在他们眼里,23岁,甚至已经过了结婚的年纪。跟我同龄的人,现在儿子已经可以光着屁股到处跑了。\r\n\r\n11) 为了不让他们操心,我也去一次次的应付相亲。\r\n\r\n12) 对,是应付。\r\n\r\n13) 大学,说白了就是一个区分性与理性的地方,虽然是山村出来的,可是我的相貌并不算丑,甚至可以说英俊。也谈过一个女朋友,我没钱,她也不是非常的富裕,可是就算这样,我们还在在一起了三年,我尽我所能的打零工,来做一个男朋友该做的。大三那年,我们分手。\r\n14) \r\n那一天,我在我们学校的后山喝了一瓶2块钱的二锅头。醒来之后,不再悲伤,继续浑浑噩噩的过日子。\r\n\r\n15) 关于相貌这一点,我继承了我母亲。\r\n\r\n16) 一个不知道故乡在哪里的美貌女人。\r\n\r\n17) 她有痴呆症。\r\n\r\n18) 在几十年前,我父亲进城,用了三百块钱把她买了回来。\r\n\r\n19) 我父亲说,他那一天花了两元钱给母亲买了一身衣服,回来的时候母亲的美貌,让村里的人哈喇子都流到了地上。\r\n\r\n20) 可惜,她是个傻子。\r\n\r\n21) 如果不是傻子,我父亲也买不起。\r\n\r\n22) 后来有了我,母亲的痴傻一直都是那样,可是她的傻,并不是像街头的疯子一样,她非常安静。\r\n\r\n23) 不说话,不动。只是安静的坐着。\r\n\r\n24) 我就在这样的一个环境下长大,可是我并不想文艺的说,我有孤僻的性格,因为就算是这样,我还是有完整的童年。\r\n\r\n25) 我父亲非常的勤劳,他尽一个农民的极限,利用手中的农具,养活一个家。我没有什么怪他的地方。\r\n\r\n26) 没钱,这是命。\r\n\r\n27) 我爷爷,是一个退伍的老军人,他不识字,没有农民典型的精明,反倒是实诚的可怕。有人说他是gmd,有人说他是gcd,可是他自己都不知道自己到底是哪个党,他唯一知道的,就是他拿枪打日本鬼子,鬼子打跑之后,他就回到了家。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) My name is Lin Xiaofan, I\'m 23 years old this year. I just graduated from college. A third-rate school with fourth-tier grades, my college was in Hangzhou, and after I graduated I first went to work as sales staff at a real estate agency with a salary of 1,800 [translator\'s note: this is a very low salary, about $300 USD / month]. My sales performance was poor, and the company never fired me, but I was so embarrassed that I left. \r\n\r\n2) I wandered around Hangzhou for two months, submitted I don\'t even know how many resumes, or went to how many interviews, but nothing came through. After I\'d spent all my travel money, I went back to my home town.\r\n\r\n3) My home town is Luoyang. In the Luoyang countryside falls a little village called Shilipu\'er. \r\n\r\n4) The reason I went home is because the village\'s only teacher got tuberculosis, and he was very seriously ill, so as the village\'s only person who\'d ever gone off to college, the village chief dug up a thousand-dollar [translator\'s note: \"1000 kuai\" is \"1000 Chinese Renminbi\"] investment and asked me to substitute teach. \r\n\r\n5) So I went home. \r\n\r\n6) My life away from home wasn\'t even as good as a dog\'s, but I get plenty of respect in my home town. \r\n\r\n7) In such a remote village, being a college graduate is still an extremely awesome thing to be, and every time the villagers see my father, they all give him a thumbs-up and say, \"Your family\'s ancestral grave is emitting green smoke, unexpectedly out popped a college student! You\'ll be walking off this mountain after a while!\" [translator\'s note: this is a compliment regarding the family\'s lineage.]\r\n\r\n8) Of course at these times, my father would smile in a simple and honest way, wiping the sweat off his brow. \r\n\r\n9) After I came back to the village, all the local matchmakers tried to set me up with someone, almost trampling down my door, no exaggeration. If you\'ve never been in that [village] environment, you don\'t know the power of those three words, \"College Degree Holder\".\r\n\r\n10) My dad also made a supreme effort to settle me, because in his eyes, at 23 years old I\'d already passed marrying age. Everyone my age already had kids running around with their bare butts hanging out. \r\n\r\n11) So as not to make him worry, I\'d already coped with my first blind date. \r\n\r\n12) Yes, it was definitely \"coping\". \r\n\r\n13) College, speaking frankly, was a place with completely different place with different rationales, but although I came from a farm village, I wasn\'t considered ugly, you might even say I\'m handsome. I had a girlfriend, but I had no money, and she wasn\'t very rich either, but that\'s just the way it was, we were together three years, and I used up all my part-time work money trying to do all the things a boyfriend is supposed to do. In the third year, we broke up. \r\n\r\n14) On that day, on the hill behind our school, I drank a bottle of 2-dollar liquor. After I woke up, I wasn\'t sad anymore, and I just continued muddle-headedly passing the days. \r\n\r\n15) About my looks, those I inherited from my mother. \r\n\r\n16) A good-looking woman from who-knows-where. \r\n\r\n17) She had dementia.\r\n\r\n18) A few decades ago, my father went to the city, and spent three hundred dollars to buy her and bring her home.\r\n\r\n19) My dad said, that day he spent two bucks to buy mom some clothes, and when he returned, mom\'s good looks made everyone in the village drool all over the ground. \r\n\r\n20) Pity, she was an idiot.\r\n\r\n21) If she hadn\'t been an idiot, my dad could never have afforded her. \r\n\r\n22) Then I came along, and mom\'s dementia continued as before, but her brand of dementia wasn\'t like a crazy street person\'s, she was very quiet. \r\n\r\n23) She didn\'t speak, didn\'t move. Just quietly sat there.\r\n\r\n24) This is the environment I grew up in, but I don\'t want to make it sound literary, I had an antisocial nature, but even so, I still had a full childhood. \r\n\r\n25) My father is very industrious, he has a farmer\'s strength, using the farm tools in his hands, he nurtured a household. I don\'t have anything to blame him for. \r\n\r\n26) No money, that\'s just life. \r\n\r\n27) My grandfather is a retired soldier, he\'s illiterate, and he doesn\'t have any of a villager\'s typical shrewdness, on the contrary he\'s terrifyingly honest. Some people said he was GMD [translator\'s note: GMD = guo min dang, the fascist party in the Chinese civil war, who lost], some people said he was GCD [GCD = gong chang dang, the communist party that won the war and remains in power today], but he doesn\'t even know himself which \"dang\" [translator\'s note - this \"dang\" means \"political party\"] he was in, the only thing he knows is that he grabbed a gun and fought the Japanese devils [the Japanese invaded while the GMD and the GCD were fighting each other], and after the devils ran away, he went home.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Books ] 《最后一个阴阳师》 - The Last Yin Yang Master', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1539-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 02:58:39', '2016-10-31 06:58:39', '', 1539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1539-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1714, 1, '2016-11-04 06:24:22', '2016-11-04 10:24:22', 'Eeps - bad medicine! In this story, the mischievous Monkey - always a trickster figure in Chinese stories - pulls the wool over Little Bear\'s eyes. If Little Bear was American, he\'d sue the hospital for negligence and rake in millions of baskets of peaches. \n\nThough the majority of this text is very basic reading, there are three phrases which jump out at me as being difficult, or words I couldn\'t find in basic dictionaries. \n\n理所应当 - [pinyin]li3 suo3 ying1 dang1[/pinyin] This phrase means to feel something is well-deserved, that something has been earned through hard work, usually when it actually hasn\'t. So I guess that roughly translates to \'taking a reward for granted\'? In this story, Monkey feels that his payment is well-earned or well-deserved. But as readers, we know Monkey doesn\'t deserve anything at all - he\'s taking that payment for granted when he didn\'t really earn it. Consider this phrase in another context:\n\n别人帮助你那是义气，你不能当作是理所应当的。 - \"When other people help you it\'s in the spirit of self-sacrifice, you shouldn\'t consider this something you deserve as a matter of course.\" \n\n甜头 - Though this looks like two words, the first meaning \"sweet\" and the second meaning \"head\" or \"brain\", it\'s actually a colloquialism that just means \"sweet flavor\" or \"pleasant taste\". \n\n贪念 - These two characters also seem separate, they don\'t appear together in my dictionary, but they\'re actually one word. According to Baidu Bai Ke, the Baidu dictionary (a Chinese-language resource for word meanings and derivations), 贪念 [pinyin]tan1 nian4[/pinyin] just means \"greedy\" (I presume the \"念\" probably adds the meaning \"idea\" or \"thoughts\" here, so 贪念 could be read as \"greedy thoughts\"). \n\nYou can read the original here. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n
Chinese text
\n1) 猴子去医院玩耍,进了大夫的房间。正好大夫不在,衣服也落在了房间内。\n\n2) 猴子觉得好玩,就穿上了大夫的衣服,也就是我们常见的那种白大褂子。这时候有一只小熊来医院看病。小熊是第一次上医院,并不了解医院的情况。它所知道的,就是大夫们都穿着白大褂子。\n\n3) 小熊提着一篮桃子(这是它准备送给大夫的酬金)来到医院,正好走进猴子所在的房间。小熊不认识猴子,但是它认识那件白大褂子,于是就请猴子给它看病。\n\n4) 猴子本来只是玩耍,并不会看病,但是它看到小熊的篮子后,就起了贪念。于是猴子便装模作样地给小熊看了病,并且理所应当地收下了那篮桃子。至于小熊的病是否给猴子看好了,这一点不得而知。\n\n5) 但是猴子却尝到了甜头,以后常常潜入医院,趁大夫不在的时候,穿上大夫的衣服,给病人看病。到后来,猴子干脆给自己也做了一身那样的白大褂子。\n\n6) 唉!我们不知道有多少人是在猴子那里看的病啊!\n\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) Monkey went to the hospital on a lark, and entered the doctor\'s room. At that moment, the doctor wasn\'t in, and he\'d left his [doctor\'s] clothes in the room.\n\n2) Monkey thought this would be fun, so he put on the doctor\'s clothes, that white lab coat we see so often. Just then a little bear came to the hospital to see the doctor. This was the little bear\'s first time at the hospital, and he didn\'t know what hospitals were like [lit: didn\'t know the hospital situation]. All he knew was that doctors wear white lab coats. \n\n3) The little bear had shown up at the hospital carrying a basket of peaches (this was the payment he had prepared to give to the doctor), and he happened to walk into the room where Monkey was. Little Bear didn\'t know Monkey, but he recognized the white lab coat, so he asked Monkey to examine him.\n\n4) Monkey originally just [intended to] have a bit of fun, but when he saw Little Bear\'s basket, he coveted it fiercely. So Monkey put on a big show of examining Little Bear, and accepted his well-earned basket of peaches. As to whether or not Monkey actually cured Little Bear, we will never know. \n\n5) However, after Monkey tasted that sweetness, he often stole into the hospital, taking advantage of the doctor\'s absence, and examined patients. Later, Monkey simply made himself one of those white lab coats. \n\n6) Ai! We don\'t know how many people were examined by Monkey!\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] 大夫和猴子 - The Doctor and the Monkey', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1401-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:24:22', '2016-11-04 10:24:22', '', 1401, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1401-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1717, 1, '2013-08-05 07:23:32', '2013-08-05 11:23:32', '[two_third]\r\nFather\'s Day\'s coming up in a few weeks, and we\'ll be looking at the lyrics of a beginner-level saccharine-cute song written for children to sing to their dads (or, for the children of the digital generation, to forward to their dads) on their special day. This post is accompanied by a Flash Father\'s Day video where you can listen to the song on an INFINITE LOOP. Lucky you. \r\n\r\nHere\'s the original video with the actual song. http://new.060s.com/flash/flashbrow.php?flash=70648ecb985590c987c8ffd9b0b5edb1, have a listen if you dare. \r\n\r\nBecause this is a song, we have a couple of instances where a similar sentence structure is used with different words - these are probably the hardest sentences in the song. Example: 脏活累活他全包了. First, let me break down this sentence: \r\n\r\n脏 - Dirty\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n累 - Tired\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n他 - He\r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 - (grammar word)\r\n\r\nWhat? Dirty activity tired activity he all included?! What the heck does that mean? In proper English, we might translate that as \"Dirty work, Tired work, he does it all!\" We are, of course, talking about our amazing dads and all the thanklessly exhausting housework and job work they do. Thing is, there\'s nowhere in this sentence where the verb \"does\" as in \"to do work\" actually appears. We\'re just expected to infer the word from the context of 全包 - \"all included\". \r\n\r\nWe see the same sentence structure later in the song: 剩菜剩饭他全包了. The breakdown: \r\n\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n菜 - Vegetables\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n饭 - Rice\r\n他 - He \r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 (grammar word). \r\n\r\nOnce again, that strange \"all included\" - we are again expected to infer the verb here. Any guesses? The sentence means \"Leftover Vegetables, Leftover Rice, he eats it all!\" or \"He eats all the leftovers!\" So the missing word we kinda have to mentally fill in is \"eats\". \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n力气 - [pinyin]li4 qi4[/pinyin] - Strength\r\n脏活 - [pinyin]zang4 huo2[/pinyin] - Dirty work\r\n累活 - [pinyin]lei4 huo2[/pinyin] - Exhausting work\r\n肚量 - [pinyin]du4 liang4[/pinyin] - Generosity\r\n挣 - [pinyin]zheng1[/pinyin] - Earn (usually money)\r\n花 - [pinyin]hua1[/pinyin] - Spend (money)\r\n剩 - [pinyin]sheng4[/pinyin] - Surplus, leftover\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的力气真不小\r\n做得多说得少\r\n脏活累活他全包了\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的肚量真不小\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDad\'s the best, Dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best!\r\nDad\'s really got no shortage of strength \r\nHe does a lot but speaks little\r\nHe does all the dirty and tired work.\r\nDad\'s the best, dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best! \r\nDad\'s really got no shortage of generosity\r\nHe earns a lot but spends little\r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\nHe earns a lot but spends little \r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Lyrics: Baba Hao, a Song for Father\'s Day', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1363-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-08-05 07:23:32', '2013-08-05 11:23:32', '', 1363, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/08/1363-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1715, 1, '2013-08-05 07:24:46', '2013-08-05 11:24:46', '[two_third]\r\nWell well well, lookie here. A guest post! Today we\'ll be reading Rebecca Chua\'s (Chinese name: 蔡幸彤) translation of an essay from her textbook. The post is about the rewards of honesty. I remember my own textbook being full of these types of essays, so thank you, Rebecca, for the traditional read. \r\n\r\nRebecca has this to say about the post: This story talks about a school-going child\'s problems of getting his parents to sign his papers. It also talks about being honest, and that life\'s exam papers matter the most. This essay was from my tutoring centre\'s teaching materials. This was done with help. Thank you for those who helped me!\r\n\r\n(And the same in Chinese:) 这个故事是讲述华文考试卷要签名所遇到的困难。这个故事教我们要诚实，也教我们，虽然考卷的真正分数低，但人生的考卷上有高分才是最重要的。\r\n\r\nOne of the interesting things about this post is the punctuation. In Chinese, they use a six-dot ellipses …… where we only use... three. (u c wat i did thar?). We also learn a little culture here: it\'s worth noting that in most Chinese highschools, parents actually have to sign your test results to prove you showed it to them. We also see that Rebecca\'s book spells \"A+\" as \"A*\".\r\n\r\nI\'m super loving this phrase - 从天堂降落到地狱 - though it might need a little breakdown:\r\n\r\n从 - From\r\n天堂 - Heaven\r\n降落 - descend\r\n到 - to\r\n地狱 - Hell\r\n\r\nThis phrase means to \"have a sinking heart\" or to \"fall from joy to misery\".\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n发下来 - [pinyin]fa1 xia4 lai5[/pinyin] - To pass out (papers), hand back (homework)\r\n考卷 - [pinyin]kao3 juan4[/pinyin] - Exam paper\r\n沉重 - [pinyin]chen2 zhong4[/pinyin] - Hard, serious\r\n羡慕 - [pinyin]xian4 mu4[/pinyin] - To envy\r\n竟然 - [pinyin]jing4 ran2[/pinyin] - Unexpectedly\r\n松了一口气 - [pinyin]song1 le yi1 kou3 qi4[/pinyin] - Let out a sigh (usually of relief) \r\n顿 - [pinyin]dun4[/pinyin] - Classifier for a period of time when a beating, scolding or critique takes place\r\n到底 - [pinyin]dao4 di3[/pinyin] - When all is said and done\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n我背着书包，手里拿着刚刚发下来的考卷，一边拖着沉重的脚步向家走着，一边紧张的思考怎样让爸爸在考卷上签名……前两天的考卷，今天老师发下来了。我拿了一个A*，考到了97分！同学们都很羡慕我，我也得到老师的肯定。在老师要我们做改正的时候，我就从天堂降落到地狱。天啊！我竟然忘了一整页试题，整整要被扣十分！但是老师却没发现，我还真不知该不该对她说。这时，我的头脑出现了两个“我”，一个说：“算了，不要告诉老师，我已经得了老师的肯定，同学们又那么羡慕我，如果我告诉老师，不就等于丢我的脸，还失去爸爸要给我的礼物。”另一个说：“不行，要做个诚实的人，一定要告诉老师。”于是，我对老师说：“我漏掉了这些题，应该是87 分！”老师帮我改分数的那一刻，我立刻松了一口气。\r\n\r\n在回家的路上，我真希望我没有对老师说这番话。现在，我不仅要丢掉爸爸的礼物，还得被他骂一顿。晚上，我把考卷交给爸爸，爸爸说：“你为什么那么不小心？为什么一整页的题目没做？为什么？” 如在平时，当他问我这些问题时，我会叫他一个“十万个为什么”的人。可现在，我不敢，应为他生气得好像要打我似的。突然，他看见97分改成87分，很奇怪地问我：\"到底怎么一回事？“我把情况如实地告诉了他。我低着头，准备继续挨训。\r\n\r\n爸爸沉默了一会儿，突然惊喜地看着我：“不，宝贝儿，虽然你考卷上的分数不尽人意，但是在人生考卷上你却得了高分。爸爸为你骄傲！你做得对......”说完他在考卷上签了名。\r\n\r\n第二天早上，我背起书包，手里拿着由爸爸签名的考卷，迈着轻快的脚步，迎着初升的朝阳，信心十足地向学校走去……\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nCarrying a heavy load on my back, holding the exam papers that were just handed back to us, I wondered how I could make my father sign this paper......\r\n\r\nThe exam, which was held just two days before, was handed back to us. I got an A+, a high score of 97 points! All the students in my class were envious of me, and I got the praise of my teacher. But when we were asked to do corrections, I found myself dropping all the way from heaven to hell. I actually forgot to do a whole page of questions, and had to be deducted of ten marks! But my teacher hadn\'t discovered yet, and I wasn\'t sure if I had to say it to her. I was in two minds. One said, \"Don\'t tell her, otherwise you would lose face and lose your father\'s present!\" The other said, \"No, you should be honest, just tell her!\" So, I said, \"I missed these questions, the actual points should be 87!\" When she helped me change my score, I heaved a sigh of relief.\r\n\r\nWhen I was going home, I wished I had not said all that. Now, not only was I going to lose my father\'s present, but I was also going to be scolded by him. At night, when I passed my paper to him, he said,\"Why were you so careless? Why did you miss out a whole page of questions?\" Usually, when he asks me all these questions, I call him a \"dad of ten-thousand questions\". But now, I daren\'t, because he seems so angry that he might hit me. Suddenly, when he saw that my 97 points became 87 points, he asked me,\"What happened?\" I told him the truth, and lowered my head, ready to continue being scolded.\r\n\r\nMy father silenced for a while. Then he suddenly said, \"No, darling, even though you results aren\'t satisfactory, in life\'s exam, you have gotten a high score. I am proud of you! You have done it right......\" after saying that he signed his name.\r\n\r\nThe next morning, carrying my schoolbag, with light steps, I was feeling happy. Welcoming the rising sun, I walked towards my school with confidence......\r\n[/hide-this-part]', 'Guest Post by Rebecca Chua: The difference between life\'s exam and exam papers', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1348-revision-v1', '', '', '2013-08-05 07:24:46', '2013-08-05 11:24:46', '', 1348, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2013/08/1348-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1716, 1, '2016-11-04 07:03:25', '2016-11-04 11:03:25', 'Hey hey! This site has made it through two years online and 100 posts! That makes an average of 50 posts a year, which averages out to a little less than one a week. Not terribly shabby, huh? In any case, on with the Chinese. \n\nThough we could probably skip this info, you might want to know that 晨练 - meaning \"morning exercise\" - is a much more formalized concept in China than in west. Here, every morning in almost any weather, crowds of old people gather together in parks around 6-7a.m. to do group taiqi, stretch and take brisk walks. This is so prevalent that you can show up at any park or open community space in China early in the morning and see groups of mostly old people doing their exercises. So, while reading the first joke, you should imagine a scene of 40 or so retirees doing taiqi forms in the park. \n\n
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Chinese text
\n1) 小姑娘指着晨练的老人问： 为什么他们能天天到公园来玩？\n奶奶：因为他们是退休人员。\n一天，爸爸问女儿：你长大当什么？\n小姑娘：退休人员。\n\n
\n\n2) 父亲教儿子学算术：“一加一是多少？”\n儿子：“不知道。”\n父亲：“是两个，<笨蛋！知道了吗？”\n儿子：“知道了。”\n父亲：“那么，我和你，加起来是几个人？”\n儿子：“是两个笨蛋！” \n\n
\n\n3) 一个女孩和一个男孩吃汉堡。男孩说女孩：“我要告诉你一件事！”\n女孩说：“不要跟我说话在我吃的时候，当我吃我的汉堡，那么你就可以谈。”\n所以，当他们吃完了女孩问男孩：“现在你想说什么呢？”\n男孩说：“嗯，我是说，有一只蟑螂在你的汉堡里！” \n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) A little girl pointing at old people doing morning exercises, said: \"Why are they allowed to play in the park all day?\"\nGrandmother: \"Because they are retirees.\"\nOne day, the father asked the little girl: What do you want to be when you grow up?\nLittle girl: A retiree!\n\n
\n\n2) Father is teaching his son arithmetic: \"One plus one is how much?\" \nSon: \"I don\'t know.\" \nFather: \"It\'s two, idiot! You get it?\"\nSon: \"I get it.\" \nFather: \"Now, me and you, put us together and how many people is that?\"\nSon: \"Two idiots!\" \n\n
\n\n3) A girl and a boy are eating hamburgers. The boy says to the girl: \"I want to tell you something!\" \nThe girl says: \"Don\'t talk to me while I\'m eating, when I\'m done with my hamburger, then you can speak.\"\nSo, when they finished eating the girl asked the boy: \"Now what do you want to say?\"\nBoy says: \"Huh, I was saying, there\'s a cockroach in your hamburger.\"\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Jokes] Three kid-friendly Chinese jokes', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1329-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:03:25', '2016-11-04 11:03:25', '', 1329, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1329-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1718, 1, '2016-10-31 03:04:59', '2016-10-31 07:04:59', 'Happy Year of the Sheep! Couple of days ago, I stumbled across the Book \"The Last Yin Yang Master\", aka \"The Last Onmyoji\", a supernatural ghost story available for free online. It\'s incredibly rare to find full-length books that aren\'t impossibly difficult to get through, but this one is phenomenal for learners. I\'m gonna put part of the first chapter here, so you can dive on in. The rest can be grabbed on Zhuaji.com. \r\n\r\nI\'ve recently sort of discovered that ghost stories and detective novels are where it\'s at for practicing reading. The cliches in a Chinese murder mystery are exactly the same as they are anywhere: hard-boiled cop, confused rookie, seductive woman, shady business, and definitely a chase scene. It\'s easier to follow a story when you have a semi-expectation of what\'s supposed to happen. They get hard when people start talking about blood spatter and ballistics, but you can kind of get the gist. Ghost stories are the same way - a scene of normalcy is set, followed by some red-flag strangeness that everyone completely ignores because they don\'t believe in the supernatural, followed by some myths and legends, or maybe a mysterious old man, or maybe a body goes missing, and then things really freaky. Again, the read gets hard when characters start talking about the mystic books of old, or funeral customs, so you should probably be reading this with the help of Pleco (which I do), but The Last Onmyoji is accessible enough that those parts shouldn\'t totally derail you. Highly recommended.\r\n\r\nThis really is worth a go for readers at almost all levels. The read is late-intermediate, but using Pleco, late-stage beginners and early-intermediates will be able to understand large chunks of it, enough to motivate you to puzzle through the parts you don\'t get, more so because this is being told in first-person. Remember, now, that the beginning of a book is usually the hardest as you try to get a sense of the story. Once the story gets rolling, it\'s easier to flow with it. Advanced readers may just appreciate learning a bit of spooky vocab. \r\n\r\nThe segment that I\"m translating here doesn\'t have any ghostly bits in it, this is the first chapter to get you going on the story. It\'s packed full of Chinese village culture, and some parts at the end that would be considered extremely un-PC in the west: a little anti-Japanese talk, and a little bit about buying women, the rarities of college education in the countryside: the realities of village life in China, even these days. \r\n\r\nThere\'s a lot I could talk about in here, but I do like the word 投 [pinyin]tou2[/pinyin] - This word had a ton of meanings. Imagine slipping a piece of paper into a suggestion box. Got it? That\'s what this word embodies, that action, or anything related to a similar action of taking a flat object and dropping it into a slot, literally or figuratively. So it can mean to \"vote\", as in an election, because you\'re submitting a ballot. It can mean to \"slide\" an envelope into a letter box. In this case, it means to \"submit\" a resume while seeking a job offer. We don\'t have a word for that concept in English, I think. \r\n\r\nEnjoy!\r\n\r\n
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Chinese Text
\r\n1) 我叫林小凡,今年23岁。大学刚毕业。一个三流的大学四流的成绩,大学是在杭州读,毕业之后最开始在一家房地产公司做销售员,底薪一千八。因为业绩太差,公司没说辞退我,我自己就不好意思待了。\r\n\r\n2) 在杭州转了两个月,投了不知道多少份儿简历,面试了多少次,都没有通过。盘缠花光之后,就回了老家。\r\n\r\n3) 我的老家是洛阳。洛阳的乡下,一个叫做十里铺儿的小村儿落。\r\n\r\n4) 之所以回来,是因为村儿里小学唯一的教师得了肺痨,病的已经非常严重,我作为村里走出来唯一的大学生,村长愿意一月掏出一千块的巨资来请我去代课。\r\n\r\n5) 所以我回来了。\r\n\r\n6) 在外面活的不如一条狗的我,在老家得到了极大的尊严。\r\n\r\n7) 在偏远的山村,大学生,还是一个极其厉害的存在,村民们在看到我父亲的时候,都会为他竖起大拇指,说:“老林家祖坟冒了青烟,竟然出了个大学生,以后你就走出了大山咯。”\r\n\r\n8) 每当这个时候,我父亲都会憨厚的笑一笑,抹去他脸上的汗水。\r\n\r\n9) 我回到村子之后,方圆几里的媒婆都争着抢着给我介绍对象,几乎踏破我家的门槛儿,这不是吹牛。你不在那个环境里,不知道大学生三个字的分量。\r\n\r\n10) 父亲也极力的给我张罗,在他们眼里,23岁,甚至已经过了结婚的年纪。跟我同龄的人,现在儿子已经可以光着屁股到处跑了。\r\n\r\n11) 为了不让他们操心,我也去一次次的应付相亲。\r\n\r\n12) 对,是应付。\r\n\r\n13) 大学,说白了就是一个区分性与理性的地方,虽然是山村出来的,可是我的相貌并不算丑,甚至可以说英俊。也谈过一个女朋友,我没钱,她也不是非常的富裕,可是就算这样,我们还在在一起了三年,我尽我所能的打零工,来做一个男朋友该做的。大三那年,我们分手。\r\n14) \r\n那一天,我在我们学校的后山喝了一瓶2块钱的二锅头。醒来之后,不再悲伤,继续浑浑噩噩的过日子。\r\n\r\n15) 关于相貌这一点,我继承了我母亲。\r\n\r\n16) 一个不知道故乡在哪里的美貌女人。\r\n\r\n17) 她有痴呆症。\r\n\r\n18) 在几十年前,我父亲进城,用了三百块钱把她买了回来。\r\n\r\n19) 我父亲说,他那一天花了两元钱给母亲买了一身衣服,回来的时候母亲的美貌,让村里的人哈喇子都流到了地上。\r\n\r\n20) 可惜,她是个傻子。\r\n\r\n21) 如果不是傻子,我父亲也买不起。\r\n\r\n22) 后来有了我,母亲的痴傻一直都是那样,可是她的傻,并不是像街头的疯子一样,她非常安静。\r\n\r\n23) 不说话,不动。只是安静的坐着。\r\n\r\n24) 我就在这样的一个环境下长大,可是我并不想文艺的说,我有孤僻的性格,因为就算是这样,我还是有完整的童年。\r\n\r\n25) 我父亲非常的勤劳,他尽一个农民的极限,利用手中的农具,养活一个家。我没有什么怪他的地方。\r\n\r\n26) 没钱,这是命。\r\n\r\n27) 我爷爷,是一个退伍的老军人,他不识字,没有农民典型的精明,反倒是实诚的可怕。有人说他是gmd,有人说他是gcd,可是他自己都不知道自己到底是哪个党,他唯一知道的,就是他拿枪打日本鬼子,鬼子打跑之后,他就回到了家。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) My name is Lin Xiaofan, I\'m 23 years old this year. I just graduated from college. A third-rate school with fourth-tier grades, my college was in Hangzhou, and after I graduated I first went to work as sales staff at a real estate agency with a salary of 1,800 [translator\'s note: this is a very low salary, about $300 USD / month]. My sales performance was poor, and the company never fired me, but I was so embarrassed that I left. \r\n\r\n2) I wandered around Hangzhou for two months, submitted I don\'t even know how many resumes, or went to how many interviews, but nothing came through. After I\'d spent all my travel money, I went back to my home town.\r\n\r\n3) My home town is Luoyang. In the Luoyang countryside falls a little village called Shilipu\'er. \r\n\r\n4) The reason I went home is because the village\'s only teacher got tuberculosis, and he was very seriously ill, so as the village\'s only person who\'d ever gone off to college, the village chief dug up a thousand-dollar [translator\'s note: \"1000 kuai\" is \"1000 Chinese Renminbi\"] investment and asked me to substitute teach. \r\n\r\n5) So I went home. \r\n\r\n6) My life away from home wasn\'t even as good as a dog\'s, but I get plenty of respect in my home town. \r\n\r\n7) In such a remote village, being a college graduate is still an extremely awesome thing to be, and every time the villagers see my father, they all give him a thumbs-up and say, \"Your family\'s ancestral grave is emitting green smoke, unexpectedly out popped a college student! You\'ll be walking off this mountain after a while!\" [translator\'s note: this is a compliment regarding the family\'s lineage.]\r\n\r\n8) Of course at these times, my father would smile in a simple and honest way, wiping the sweat off his brow. \r\n\r\n9) After I came back to the village, all the local matchmakers tried to set me up with someone, almost trampling down my door, no exaggeration. If you\'ve never been in that [village] environment, you don\'t know the power of those three words, \"College Degree Holder\".\r\n\r\n10) My dad also made a supreme effort to settle me, because in his eyes, at 23 years old I\'d already passed marrying age. Everyone my age already had kids running around with their bare butts hanging out. \r\n\r\n11) So as not to make him worry, I\'d already coped with my first blind date. \r\n\r\n12) Yes, it was definitely \"coping\". \r\n\r\n13) College, speaking frankly, was a place with completely different place with different rationales, but although I came from a farm village, I wasn\'t considered ugly, you might even say I\'m handsome. I had a girlfriend, but I had no money, and she wasn\'t very rich either, but that\'s just the way it was, we were together three years, and I used up all my part-time work money trying to do all the things a boyfriend is supposed to do. In the third year, we broke up. \r\n\r\n14) On that day, on the hill behind our school, I drank a bottle of 2-dollar liquor. After I woke up, I wasn\'t sad anymore, and I just continued muddle-headedly passing the days. \r\n\r\n15) About my looks, those I inherited from my mother. \r\n\r\n16) A good-looking woman from who-knows-where. \r\n\r\n17) She had dementia.\r\n\r\n18) A few decades ago, my father went to the city, and spent three hundred dollars to buy her and bring her home.\r\n\r\n19) My dad said, that day he spent two bucks to buy mom some clothes, and when he returned, mom\'s good looks made everyone in the village drool all over the ground. \r\n\r\n20) Pity, she was an idiot.\r\n\r\n21) If she hadn\'t been an idiot, my dad could never have afforded her. \r\n\r\n22) Then I came along, and mom\'s dementia continued as before, but her brand of dementia wasn\'t like a crazy street person\'s, she was very quiet. \r\n\r\n23) She didn\'t speak, didn\'t move. Just quietly sat there.\r\n\r\n24) This is the environment I grew up in, but I don\'t want to make it sound literary, I had an antisocial nature, but even so, I still had a full childhood. \r\n\r\n25) My father is very industrious, he has a farmer\'s strength, using the farm tools in his hands, he nurtured a household. I don\'t have anything to blame him for. \r\n\r\n26) No money, that\'s just life. \r\n\r\n27) My grandfather is a retired soldier, he\'s illiterate, and he doesn\'t have any of a villager\'s typical shrewdness, on the contrary he\'s terrifyingly honest. Some people said he was GMD [translator\'s note: GMD = guo min dang, the fascist party in the Chinese civil war, who lost], some people said he was GCD [GCD = gong chang dang, the communist party that won the war and remains in power today], but he doesn\'t even know himself which \"dang\" [translator\'s note - this \"dang\" means \"political party\"] he was in, the only thing he knows is that he grabbed a gun and fought the Japanese devils [the Japanese invaded while the GMD and the GCD were fighting each other], and after the devils ran away, he went home.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Books ] 《最后一个阴阳师》 - The Last Yin Yang Master', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1539-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:04:59', '2016-10-31 07:04:59', '', 1539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1539-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1720, 1, '2016-10-31 03:06:23', '2016-10-31 07:06:23', '', 'read-mandarin-chinese-peppers', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'read-mandarin-chinese-peppers', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:08:43', '2016-10-31 07:08:43', '', 1480, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/read-mandarin-chinese-peppers.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1721, 1, '2016-11-04 05:52:25', '2016-11-04 09:52:25', 'Science! A quick paragraph about why peppers come in so many hues. Though the sentence structure here isn\'t too bad and the article is very short, I\'m classifying this as \'advanced\' since several of the words are quite chemistry-specific. Advanced readers will recognize the words \"被破坏\" - to be broken by - as the phrase itself is common. In this case, though, we\'re not talking about a literal breaking, we\'re talking about the chemical process of an element \"breaking down\". \n\nHere\'s the original. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n
Chinese text
\n辣椒的品种有很多，但不论哪一个品种，在未成熟前都是青绿色的，那是因为含有叶绿素的缘故。到了成熟期，叶绿素被破坏，辣椒中含有的黄色素和叶红素就相应增多，于是变成黄色和红色。而有的辣椒品种是在青绿色时味道更好，因而在未成熟前就上市了。所以，我们可看到各种颜色的辣椒。 \n\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThere are many types of peppers, but all types of pepper are green in color before they ripen, which is because they contain chlorophyll. When it finally comes time for them to ripen, the chlorophyll breaks down, and the yellow and red pigments in the peppers increase accordingly, so they become yellow and red. In addition, some types of peppers taste better when they\'re still green, so they are brought to market before they ripen. That\'s why we see so many different colors of peppers. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Facts in Chinese] Why are some peppers different colors?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1480-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:52:25', '2016-11-04 09:52:25', '', 1480, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1480-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1726, 1, '2016-11-04 08:34:51', '2016-11-04 12:34:51', 'This essay about a kid who takes his father\'s advice a little too literally (with amusing results) is almost as beginner as a five-paragraph read can get. You\'ll find very few intermediate-level words, and extremely basic sentence structure. Only thing intermediate about this read is the very first sentence, which we\'ll talk about here. After this it\'s pretty easy going. The essay starts out 童年仿佛是一条小船，里面装满了甜蜜的糖果，也装满了许多忧伤。 Let\'s break this one down word by word:\n\n童年 - [pinyin]tong2 nian2[/pinyin] - Childhood\n仿佛 - [pinyin]fang3 fu2[/pinyin] - seems like\n是 - [pinyin]shi4[/pinyin] - [it] is\n一条 - [pinyin]yi1 tiao2[/pinyin] - a (literally: the word \"one\" plus the classifier for boats, which is 条)\n小船, - [pinyin]xiao3 chuan2[/pinyin] - boat,\n里面 - [pinyin]li3 mian4[/pinyin] - inside\n装满了 - [pinyin]zhuang1 man3 le5[/pinyin] - is full (of)\n甜蜜的 - [pinyin]tian2 mi4 de5[/pinyin] - sweet\n糖果, - [pinyin]tang2 guo3[/pinyin] - candy,\n也 - [pinyin]ye3[/pinyin] - also\n装满了 - [pinyin]zhuang1 man3 le5[/pinyin] - is full (of)\n许多 - [pinyin]xu3 duo1[/pinyin] - much\n忧伤 - [pinyin]you1 shang1[/pinyin] - distress.\n\nPretty straightforward when you look at it that way. A quick note on that: though the word 糖果 (which appears a lot in this text) means \"candy\", it does not mean \"candy fruit\" or \"sweet fruit\", as you might guess from the character 果. This is just a general word for candy, though the Chinese don\'t consider chocolate a \"candy\" - it\'s in its own category. \n\nThe original is from a Chinese essay composition site. \n
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\n1) 童年仿佛是一条小船，里面装满了甜蜜的糖果，也装满了许多忧伤。\n\n2) 我出生在一个幸福的六口之家。有爸爸、妈妈、爷爷、奶奶、姐姐，还有我。\n\n3) 我四岁时，一个烈日炎炎的中午。爷爷、奶奶、妈妈和姐姐都忙着自己手中的活。爸爸抱上我去商店、给我买了很多糖果。回到家中，爸爸放下我，就去我们家的后院种苹果树去了。我也跟了过去，我问爸爸你在干什么？爸爸说：“我在种苹果树，到了秋天你就有苹果吃了。”爸爸还说：“你种什么种子就会长什么。”爸爸说完就回家喝茶去了。当时我心想如果把刚刚买的糖果种到土中，秋天不就有很多糖果了吗！\n\n4) 我说做就做，我刨了个坑，把刚才剩下的糖果都放在坑里，用土埋了。我默默的许下愿说：“糖果快长！糖果快长！长成大树，长出很多很多糖果。”我把这个愿望告诉了爸爸，爸爸听了。大笑起来说：“糖果不会长出大树，也更不会长出糖果。”我听了爸爸话坐在地上大哭起来，我的糖果，我的糖果。爸爸赶快跑到我面前，抱起我说：“哦，不哭了小宝贝，爸爸给你买很多很多糖果。我听了就不哭了。\n\n5) 如今我已经长大了，种糖果的傻事也不会再做了。\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) Childhood seems like a boat that is full of sweet candy, but is also laden with grief. \n\n2) I was born into a happy six-person family. There\'s father, mother, grandpa, grandma, my elder sister and myself. \n\n3) [The story begins] when I was four, on a scorching afternoon. Grandpa, grandma, mother and my elder sister were all busy doing their own thing. Dad picked me up and carried me to the store, and bought me lots of candy. On the way back to the house, dad put me down, and went to our house\'s back garden to plant apple trees. I went with him, and asked him \'what are you doing\'? Father said: \"I\'m planting apple trees, when autumn arrives you\'ll have apples to eat.\" Father continued: \"Whatever seeds you plant will grow.\" Father finished speaking and went back into the house to drink tea. Then I thought to myself if I take the candy I just bought and plant it in the earth, in autumn I should have lots of candy! \n\n4) I did just that, I dug a hole, took my left over candy and put it all in the hole, using dirt to bury it. In silence I fervently hoped: \"Candy, grow quickly! Candy, grow quickly! Grow into a big tree, and sprout lots and lots of candy.\" I told this wish to my father, and he listened. Laughing heartily he said: \"Candy can\'t grow into a big tree, and it definitely can\'t sprout more candy.\" I heard my father\'s words and I sat down on the grass and started sobbing, my candy, my candy. Father quickly ran up to me, embraced me and said: \"Oh, don\'t cry little darling, daddy will buy you lots and lots of candy.\" I listened to him and stopped crying.\n\nNowadays I\'ve already grown up, and I won\'t try foolishly planting candy again.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 童年傻事 - A Foolish Affair from my Childhood', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1235-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 08:34:51', '2016-11-04 12:34:51', '', 1235, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1235-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1728, 1, '2016-11-04 23:47:41', '2016-11-05 03:47:41', 'This melancholy kid doesn\'t seem to have very much luck with pets or siblings. You may or may not have a little difficulty with the sentence 楼区不让养, which is said in regards to a pet dog. Looking at each word...\n\n楼 - [pinyin]lou2[/pinyin] Building\n区 - [pinyin]qu1[/pinyin] District / region / area\n不 - [pinyin]bu4[/pinyin] No, not, doesn\'t\n让 - [pinyin]rang4[/pinyin] Allow, let\n养 - [pinyin]yang3[/pinyin] Raise, take care of (as in a child or a pet)\n\n... the meaning isn\'t too hard to decipher \"the building doesn\'t allow raising [of dogs]\". But while the meaning isn\'t difficult, some of the words are used a little bit differently than they are in English. For example, in English, when we say someone \"raises dogs\", or \"raises\" any type of animal, it usually indicates some kind of professional or large-scale dedication to breeding that type of animal. When people casually keep a pet or pets, we say they \"have a dog\", or \"own a dog\". Not so in Chinese. The correct Chinese term for having a pet dog (or many types of pet) is \"raising a dog\" - 养狗. So, for example, saying \"I want to raise a dog\" (我想养一只狗) is the equivalent of saying \"I want a dog\" in English. \n\nThe other question this raises is \"what do they mean by 楼区, \'building district\'\"? You\'d assume this means the area around your apartment building, and you\'d be right - but why \"区\"? This is because in China, many older apartment blocks are much more like tiny districts or communities than they are in the western world. In one complex, there may be several buildings that make up your block, with little numbered sub-staircases (单元) that each contain 12 or so apartments, and they may include small playgrounds inside the block or have other amenities. 楼区 refers to all buildings in the apartment block, any outdoor areas or amenities for that apartment area. \n\n
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\n我是个独生子，家里没有兄弟，只好养动物来解闷。可是，小黄狗，楼区不让养，只好放走；大白鹅，被人偷走了；小松鼠，不小心从窗台上摔了下来，死了。就这样，我的小动物死的死，放的放。现在只有两只小乌龟<陪伴着我。我心想：你们俩可算得上“忠臣”了。\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nI\'m an only child, I have no brothers, so I have to raise pets to relieve my boredom. But as to the little yellow dog, the building [management] doesn\'t allow [people to have dogs], so we had to set it free; the big white goose was stolen, and the little squirrel accidentally leaped from the window ledge and died. In these ways, my pets have died, or been let go. Right now I only have two turtles to accompany me. In my heart I think: \"You two are my only \"loyal subjects\". \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 我孤独 - I am All Alone', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1201-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:47:41', '2016-11-05 03:47:41', '', 1201, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1201-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2139, 1, '2016-11-04 23:47:34', '2016-11-05 03:47:34', '', 'Learn Beginner Chinese Characters: Chinese Character Practice for Beginner Learners', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'im-all-alone-2', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:47:42', '2016-11-05 03:47:42', '', 1201, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/im-all-alone.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1730, 1, '2012-08-09 04:38:39', '2012-08-09 08:38:39', '[two_third]\r\nThis very indignant kid seems destined to be a vegetarian. \r\n\r\nI\'d say the most difficult phrase in this little passage is: 家里人都吃得很香. The beginning of that sentence is no problem: 家里人都 \"Everyone in the family...\", but 吃得很香 is a bit more difficult, as we don\'t have sentence structure similar to this in English. Let\'s break it down:\r\n\r\n吃 - [pinyin]chi1[/pinyin] - To eat\r\n得 - [pinyin]de[/pinyin] - Grammar word, which kind of acts as a bridge between \"吃\" and \"香\", indicating that the result of 吃 (eating) is that it was very 香 (savory)\r\n很 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Very\r\n香 - [pinyin]xiang1[/pinyin] - Savory\r\n\r\nAnother interesting thing about this sentence is the word 香, which can mean both \"fragrant\" (smells good) and / or \"savory\" (tastes good). I find it particularly interesting that the Chinese recognize in language the interconnectedness of good taste and smell. \r\n\r\nOne other notable point is the word 又, which means \"again\". But did you know that in Chinese, there are two ways to say \"again\"? There\'s 又, and there\'s also 再. It\'s a little alien to a native English speaker that there might be two different ways to say \"again\", so let me explain the difference:\r\n\r\n又 - Indicates that the action has already been repeated in the past. Example: \"You forgot your homework again? You\'re going to get in trouble.\" The person being scolded forgot their homework once, then already forgot it again (maybe many times). The forgetting of homework again has already happened. So we use 又.\r\n\r\n再 - Indicates that something will happen again in the future. An example of this would be: Don\'t forget your homework again or you\'ll get in trouble. In other words, you forgot your homework at least once already, don\'t repeat that action again in the future. Another example of this is would be a sentence like, \"When will I see you again?\" The seeing again hasn\'t yet happened - it may happen in the future. So we would use 再. \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title of this text is 爸爸是个大坏蛋.\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n青蛙 - [pinyin]qing1 wa1[/pinyin] - Frog\r\n害虫 - [pinyin]hai4 chong2[/pinyin] - Harmful pests (insects, etc.)\r\n庄稼 - [pinyin]zhuang1 jia5[/pinyin] - Farm crop\r\n消灭 - [pinyin]xiao1 mie4[/pinyin] - Nasty, vile\r\n能手 - [pinyin]neng2 shou3[/pinyin] - Put an end to, annihilate\r\n煮 - [pinyin]zhu3[/pinyin] - Cook, boil\r\n却 - [pinyin]que4[/pinyin] - But, however\r\n可怜 - [pinyin]ke3 lian2[/pinyin] - A pity \r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n青蛙捉害虫，是庄稼的好朋友。可我爸爸成天出去捉青蛙。\r\n\r\n我对爸爸说：“青蛙是消灭害虫的能手，你不能捉它！”爸爸却笑着说：“大人的事，小孩别管。”我很着急。\r\n\r\n爸爸又捉了许多青蛙，煮了一锅青蛙肉。家里人都吃得很香，我却一点儿也不想吃。我想：我们吃了青蛙肉，又有许多小青蛙没妈妈了，他们一定在哭着找妈妈，多可怜呀！爸爸真是个大坏蛋！\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nFrogs catch pests, so they\'re a farm crop\'s good friend. But my dad goes out during the day and catches frogs. \r\n\r\nI said to dad: \"Frogs are experts at annihilating pests, you can\'t catch them!\" But my dad only smiled and said: \"Children should stay out of adult business.\" I\'m very worried.\r\n\r\nOnce again, dad caught several frogs and boiled up a pot of frog meat. Everyone in the family ate up the savory [food], but I didn\'t even want to eat a little. I thought: here we are eating frog meat, that means there are many small frogs with no mama, surely they\'re crying for their mother, it\'s such a pity! My dad is a big scoundrel! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'My Dad is a Scoundrel!', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1192-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-09 04:38:39', '2012-08-09 08:38:39', '', 1192, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/1192-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2096, 1, '2016-11-04 09:09:53', '2016-11-04 13:09:53', 'This is an upper-beginner or low-intermediate level text. It\'s good for beginner readers in the sense that a) it\'s short, and b) it\'s extremely repetitive - if you can puzzle out the first two or three sentences, the rest should be clear. To get you going, it might be worth noting there that the protagonist is a small blade of (or lump of, or field of - it\'s never really defined) grass named \"YinYin\" (小草银银), who keeps asking one particular favor of each season. The seasons are personified as ladies - for example, \"The Lady of Spring\" (春姑娘) and \"the Lady of Summer\" (夏姑娘), etc. \r\n\r\nThere\'s so much metaphor going on in this I\'m not sure where to start. You could choose to interpret this as a statement about aging, about changing seasons, go nuts. \r\n\r\n
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\r\n1) 小草银银喜欢银色。\r\n2) 春天，小草银银让春姑娘把她的头发染成银色。春姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成青色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n3) 夏天小草银银让夏姑娘把她的头发染成银色。夏姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成深绿色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n4) 秋天小草银银让秋姑娘把她的头发染成银色。秋姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成金黄色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n5) 冬天小草银银让冬姑娘把她的头发染成银色。冬姑娘说：“好啊，不过你可不要后悔呦”？银银说：“不会的，有了那么漂亮的头发我高兴还来不及呢”！就这样银银的头发变成了银色。忽然，银银的头发掉下来了，这是怎么回事呢？原来，头发染多了是会伤害身体的。这下银银真的后悔了。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) The little grass YinYin liked the color silver. \r\n\r\n2) In spring time, little grass Yinyin asked the Lady of Spring to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Spring said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair blue/green [see explanation]. YinYin was very broken-hearted. \r\n\r\n3) In summer time, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Summer to dye her hair silver. The lady of summer said, \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair green!\" YinYin was very broken-hearted. \r\n\r\n4) In autumn, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Autumn to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Autumn said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair golden yellow.\" YinYin was very broken-hearted.\r\n\r\n5) In winter, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Winter to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Winter said, \"Okay, but won\'t you regret it?\" YinYin said, \"I won\'t, if I had hair that beautiful I couldn\'t be happier!\" And so YinYin\'s hair turned silver. Suddenly, YinYin\'s hair fell out - how could this be? Of course, if you dye your hair too often, it\'s not good for you. And after this YinYin was indeed regretful. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Fables] 小草银银 - Little Grass\' Silver Hair', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1123-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:09:53', '2016-11-04 13:09:53', '', 1123, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1123-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1733, 1, '2016-10-31 03:18:28', '2016-10-31 07:18:28', 'This is an upper-beginner or low-intermediate level text. It\'s good for beginner readers in the sense that a) it\'s short, and b) it\'s extremely repetitive - if you can puzzle out the first two or three sentences, the rest should be clear. To get you going, it might be worth noting there that the protagonist is a small blade of (or lump of, or field of - it\'s never really defined) grass named \"YinYin\" (小草银银), who keeps asking one particular favor of each season. \r\n\r\nThe seasons are personified as ladies - for example, \"The Lady of Spring\" (春姑娘) and \"the Lady of Summer\" (夏姑娘), etc. \r\n\r\nThere\'s so much metaphor going on in this I\'m not sure where to start. You could choose to interpret this as a statement about aging, about changing seasons, go nuts. \r\n\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n小草银银喜欢银色。\r\n 春天，小草银银让春姑娘把她的头发染成银色。春姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成青色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 夏天小草银银让夏姑娘把她的头发染成银色。夏姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成深绿色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 秋天小草银银让秋姑娘把她的头发染成银色。秋姑娘说：“对不起，银银，我只能把你的头发染成金黄色”。银银非常伤心。\r\n 冬天小草银银让冬姑娘把她的头发染成银色。冬姑娘说：“好啊，不过你可不要后悔呦”？银银说：“不会的，有了那么漂亮的头发我高兴还来不及呢”！\r\n 就这样银银的头发变成了银色。忽然，银银的头发掉下来了，这是怎么回事呢？原来，头发染多了是会伤害身体的。这下银银真的后悔了。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe little grass YinYin liked the color silver. \r\n\r\n In spring time, little grass Yinyin asked the Lady of Spring to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Spring said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair blue/green [see explanation]. YinYin was very broken-hearted. \r\n\r\nIn summer time, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Summer to dye her hair silver. The lady of summer said, \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair green!\" YinYin was very broken-hearted. \r\n\r\nIn autumn, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Autumn to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Autumn said: \"I\'m sorry, YinYin, I can only dye your hair golden yellow.\" YinYin was very broken-hearted.\r\n\r\nIn winter, little grass YinYin asked the Lady of Winter to dye her hair silver. The Lady of Winter said, \"Okay, but won\'t you regret it?\" YinYin said, \"I won\'t, if I had hair that beautiful I couldn\'t be happier!\" And so YinYin\'s hair turned silver. Suddenly, YinYin\'s hair fell out - how could this be? Of course, if you dye your hair too often, it\'s not good for you. And after this YinYin was indeed regretful. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Fable] 小草银银 - Little Grass\' Silver Hair', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1123-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:18:28', '2016-10-31 07:18:28', '', 1123, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1123-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1734, 1, '2016-10-31 03:18:46', '2016-10-31 07:18:46', 'This very indignant kid seems destined to be a vegetarian. \r\n\r\nI\'d say the most difficult phrase in this little passage is: 家里人都吃得很香. The beginning of that sentence is no problem: 家里人都 \"Everyone in the family...\", but 吃得很香 is a bit more difficult, as we don\'t have sentence structure similar to this in English. Let\'s break it down:\r\n\r\n吃 - [pinyin]chi1[/pinyin] - To eat\r\n得 - [pinyin]de[/pinyin] - Grammar word, which kind of acts as a bridge between \"吃\" and \"香\", indicating that the result of 吃 (eating) is that it was very 香 (savory)\r\n很 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Very\r\n香 - [pinyin]xiang1[/pinyin] - Savory\r\n\r\nAnother interesting thing about this sentence is the word 香, which can mean both \"fragrant\" (smells good) and / or \"savory\" (tastes good). I find it particularly interesting that the Chinese recognize in language the interconnectedness of good taste and smell. \r\n\r\nOne other notable point is the word 又, which means \"again\". But did you know that in Chinese, there are two ways to say \"again\"? There\'s 又, and there\'s also 再. It\'s a little alien to a native English speaker that there might be two different ways to say \"again\", so let me explain the difference:\r\n\r\n又 - Indicates that the action has already been repeated in the past. Example: \"You forgot your homework again? You\'re going to get in trouble.\" The person being scolded forgot their homework once, then already forgot it again (maybe many times). The forgetting of homework again has already happened. So we use 又.\r\n\r\n再 - Indicates that something will happen again in the future. An example of this would be: Don\'t forget your homework again or you\'ll get in trouble. In other words, you forgot your homework at least once already, don\'t repeat that action again in the future. Another example of this is would be a sentence like, \"When will I see you again?\" The seeing again hasn\'t yet happened - it may happen in the future. So we would use 再. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n青蛙捉害虫，是庄稼的好朋友。可我爸爸成天出去捉青蛙。\r\n\r\n我对爸爸说：“青蛙是消灭害虫的能手，你不能捉它！”爸爸却笑着说：“大人的事，小孩别管。”我很着急。\r\n\r\n爸爸又捉了许多青蛙，煮了一锅青蛙肉。家里人都吃得很香，我却一点儿也不想吃。我想：我们吃了青蛙肉，又有许多小青蛙没妈妈了，他们一定在哭着找妈妈，多可怜呀！爸爸真是个大坏蛋！\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nFrogs catch pests, so they\'re a farm crop\'s good friend. But my dad goes out during the day and catches frogs. \r\n\r\nI said to dad: \"Frogs are experts at annihilating pests, you can\'t catch them!\" But my dad only smiled and said: \"Children should stay out of adult business.\" I\'m very worried.\r\n\r\nOnce again, dad caught several frogs and boiled up a pot of frog meat. Everyone in the family ate up the savory [food], but I didn\'t even want to eat a little. I thought: here we are eating frog meat, that means there are many small frogs with no mama, surely they\'re crying for their mother, it\'s such a pity! My dad is a big scoundrel! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essay] 爸爸是个大坏蛋 - My Dad is a Scoundrel!', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1192-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:18:46', '2016-10-31 07:18:46', '', 1192, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1192-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1736, 1, '2016-11-04 05:09:19', '2016-11-04 09:09:19', 'Hoo boy, this song is an AWESOME find. Not only is it politically charged in the most amazing way, it\'s ultra-beginner reading. \n\nBut first, a little back story so we all know what we\'re reading here. The big campaign here right now is an expansion of the \"Harmonious Society\" campaign. It\'s on every political poster on the roadsides - there are 20 such signs on my street alone. The point, basically, is to do your job in your place and not make waves, or make life uncomfortable for those around you. Sounds nice, but you can kind of see a little ways down that road, and you can understand why \"harmo ny\" has become a euphemism for ce n z*or*sh p. For example, whenever something \"offensive\" is, erm, stricken from the internet, Chinese sarcastically say that it has been \"harmonised\". This concept goes right back to Confucius, whose big idea was that everyone has their duty and their place, and should follow a very strict set of rules governing what people in their position should and should not be able to do. \n\nSo the concept of harmony (和谐 - [pinyin]he2 xie2[/pinyin]) has long been an integral part of Chinese culture, but it\'s also been a point of criticism. Sadly, this whole \"nail that sticks up gets hammered down\" mentality is now giving the honchos a headache, because while the Chinese now have the manpower and the money to take the world economy by storm, they can\'t get enough people to break away, be creative and innovate. \n\nAmusingly, the solution to this has apparently been to put signs up all over Beijing that say: \"Beijing Spirit: Patriotism, Innovation, Inclusiveness, Morality.\" So now, the message is \"Don\'t piss anyone off, but hurry up and do something unique\".\n\nGuess that solves that problem. NEXT!\n\nAnyway, the below is a children\'s song that has probably been made up in the last few years, teaching children why harmony is so important. There are a couple of intermediate words in the last sentence, but they\'re easy to figure out. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n
Chinese text
\n蓝蓝的天上鸟儿飞，\n清清的水里鱼儿游，\n密密的森林动物跑，\n空空的草地孩子忙，\n ……\n啊！这一切多么美好！\n和谐的环境需要我们去创造。\n\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH\"]\nBirds fly in a blue blue sky, \nFish swim in the clear clear water, \nAnimals run in the thick thick forest, \nChildren run around in the open open meadow, \n ……\nOh, how wonderful everything is like this, \nA harmonious environment requires us to create it.\n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Song] 和谐环境 - The Harmonious Environment Song', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1065-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:09:19', '2016-11-04 09:09:19', '', 1065, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1065-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(2016, 1, '2016-11-04 05:12:55', '2016-11-04 09:12:55', 'The most interesting thing you\'ll learn here is the contrast between the two phrases \"三心二意\" and \"一心一意\". The first, 三心二意, literally translates as \"three hearts two intentions\", and it means to be of two minds about something, or to be a bit scatterbrained while doing something. The second, 一心一意, translates into \"one heart one intention\", which means \"intently\", or to really concentrate on what you\'re doing. \r\n\r\n
\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n1) 老猫和小猫一块儿在河边钓鱼。\r\n\r\n2) 一只蜻蜓飞来了。小猫看见了，放下钓鱼竿，就去捉蜻蜓。蜻蜓飞走了，小猫没捉着，空着手回到河边来。小猫一看，老猫钓着了一条大鱼。\r\n\r\n3) 一只蝴蝶飞来了。小猫看见了，放下钓鱼竿，又去捉蝴蝶。蝴蝶飞走了，小猫又没捉着，空着手回到河边来。小猫一看，老猫又钓着了一条大鱼。\r\n\r\n4) 小猫说: “真气人，我怎么一条小鱼也钓不着？”\r\n\r\n5) 老猫看了看小猫，说: “钓鱼就钓鱼，不要这么三心二意的。一会儿捉蜻蜓，一会儿捉蝴蝶，怎么能钓着鱼呢？”\r\n\r\n6) 小猫听了老猫的话，就一心一意地钓鱼。\r\n\r\n7) 蜻蜓又飞来了，蝴蝶又飞来了，小猫就象没看见一样。不大一会儿，小猫也钓着了一条大鱼。\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Old Cat and Little Cat were fishing together on the riverbank.\r\n\r\n2) A dragonfly flew over. The little cat saw it, put down his fishing pole, and tried to grab the dragonfly. The dragonfly flew away, and the little cat, unable to grab it, stopped trying and went back to fishing on the riverbank. As soon as Little Cat was back [lit: as soon as little cat looked], Old Cat caught a big fish. \r\n\r\n3) [This time] a butterfly flew over. The little cat saw it, put down his fishing pole and again tried to catch it. The butterfly flew away without the little cat having caught it, and Little Cat again went back to the riverbank. As soon as he looked over at Old Cat, Old Cat had caught another big fish.\r\n\r\n4) Little Cat said: \"How annoying, why is it that I haven\'t caught even one little fish?\" \r\n\r\n5) Old Cat looked him over and said: \"If you\'re fishing just fish, don\'t be in two minds about it. If you spend a while catching dragonflies, then you spend another while catching butterflies, how can you catch fish?\" \r\n\r\n6) Little Cat listened to Old Cat\'s words and begin to fish intently. \r\n\r\n7) The dragonfly flew over again, and the butterfly flew over also, but it was as if Little Cat didn\'t see them. Not long after that, Little Cat caught a big fish. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n', '[Chinese Short Stories] 小猫钓鱼 - Cat Goes Fishing', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '607-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:12:55', '2016-11-04 09:12:55', '', 607, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/607-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2018, 1, '2016-11-04 05:13:22', '2016-11-04 09:13:22', 'Hoo boy, this song is an AWESOME find. Not only is it politically charged in the most amazing way, it\'s ultra-beginner reading. \r\n\r\nBut first, a little back story so we all know what we\'re reading here. The big campaign here right now is an expansion of the \"Harmonious Society\" campaign. It\'s on every political poster on the roadsides - there are 20 such signs on my street alone. The point, basically, is to do your job in your place and not make waves, or make life uncomfortable for those around you. Sounds nice, but you can kind of see a little ways down that road, and you can understand why \"harmo ny\" has become a euphemism for ce n z*or*sh p. For example, whenever something \"offensive\" is, erm, stricken from the internet, Chinese sarcastically say that it has been \"harmonised\". This concept goes right back to Confucius, whose big idea was that everyone has their duty and their place, and should follow a very strict set of rules governing what people in their position should and should not be able to do. \r\n\r\nSo the concept of harmony (和谐 - [pinyin]he2 xie2[/pinyin]) has long been an integral part of Chinese culture, but it\'s also been a point of criticism. Sadly, this whole \"nail that sticks up gets hammered down\" mentality is now giving the honchos a headache, because while the Chinese now have the manpower and the money to take the world economy by storm, they can\'t get enough people to break away, be creative and innovate. \r\n\r\nAmusingly, the solution to this has apparently been to put signs up all over Beijing that say: \"Beijing Spirit: Patriotism, Innovation, Inclusiveness, Morality.\" So now, the message is \"Don\'t piss anyone off, but hurry up and do something unique\".\r\n\r\nGuess that solves that problem. NEXT!\r\n\r\nAnyway, the below is a children\'s song that has probably been made up in the last few years, teaching children why harmony is so important. There are a couple of intermediate words in the last sentence, but they\'re easy to figure out. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n蓝蓝的天上鸟儿飞，\r\n清清的水里鱼儿游，\r\n密密的森林动物跑，\r\n空空的草地孩子忙，\r\n ……\r\n啊！这一切多么美好！\r\n和谐的环境需要我们去创造。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH\"]\r\nBirds fly in a blue blue sky, \r\nFish swim in the clear clear water, \r\nAnimals run in the thick thick forest, \r\nChildren run around in the open open meadow, \r\n ……\r\nOh, how wonderful everything is like this, \r\nA harmonious environment requires us to create it.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Song] 和谐环境 - The Harmonious Environment Song', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1065-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:13:22', '2016-11-04 09:13:22', '', 1065, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1065-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1738, 1, '2016-10-31 03:23:15', '2016-10-31 07:23:15', 'Hoo boy, this song is an AWESOME find. Not only is it politically charged in the most amazing way, it\'s ultra-beginner reading. \r\n\r\nBut first, a little back story so we all know what we\'re reading here. The big campaign here right now is an expansion of the \"Harmonious Society\" campaign. It\'s on every political poster on the roadsides - there are 20 such signs on my street alone. The point, basically, is to do your job in your place and not make waves, or make life uncomfortable for those around you. Sounds nice, but you can kind of see a little ways down that road, and you can understand why \"harmo ny\" has become a euphemism for ce n z*or*sh p. For example, whenever something \"offensive\" is, erm, stricken from the internet, Chinese sarcastically say that it has been \"harmonised\". This concept goes right back to Confucius, whose big idea was that everyone has their duty and their place, and should follow a very strict set of rules governing what people in their position should and should not be able to do. \r\n\r\nSo the concept of har mony (和谐 - [pinyin]he2 xie2[/pinyin]) has long been an integral part of Chinese culture, but it\'s also been a point of criticism. Sadly, this whole \"nail that sticks up gets hammered down\" mentality is now giving the honchos a headache, because while the Chinese now have the manpower and the money to take the world economy by storm, they can\'t get enough people to break away, be creative and innovate. \r\n\r\nAmusingly, the solution to this has apparently been to put signs up all over Beijing that say: \"Beijing Spirit: Patriotism, Innovation, Inclusiveness, Morality.\" So now, the message is \"Don\'t piss anyone off, but hurry up and do something unique\".\r\n\r\nGuess that solves that problem. NEXT!\r\n\r\nAnyway, the below is a children\'s song that has probably been made up in the last few years, teaching children why harmony is so important. There are a couple of intermediate words in the last sentence, but they\'re easy to figure out. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n蓝蓝的天上鸟儿飞，\r\n清清的水里鱼儿游，\r\n密密的森林动物跑，\r\n空空的草地孩子忙，\r\n ……\r\n啊！这一切多么美好！\r\n和谐的环境需要我们去创造。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH\"]\r\nBirds fly in a blue blue sky, \r\nFish swim in the clear clear water, \r\nAnimals run in the thick thick forest, \r\nChildren run around in the open open meadow, \r\n ……\r\nOh, how wonderful everything is like this, \r\nA harmonious environment requires us to create it.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Song] 和谐环境 - The Harmonious Environment Song', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1065-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:23:15', '2016-10-31 07:23:15', '', 1065, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1065-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2063, 1, '2016-11-04 07:04:22', '2016-11-04 11:04:22', '', 'read-mandarin-chinese-learning-jokes', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'read-mandarin-chinese-learning-jokes', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:04:46', '2016-11-04 11:04:46', '', 1329, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/read-mandarin-chinese-learning-jokes.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1743, 1, '2016-11-04 06:18:03', '2016-11-04 10:18:03', 'I love it when I find a longer story that\'s suitable for beginning readers. This one, which is either a tale that reminds us what happens when you try to be something you\'re not, or a tale that reminds us that men should never be allowed to give each other fashion advice, definitely fits the bill. The first sentence isn\'t super simple, so push through that one if you can, it gets much easier in the following paragraphs. Four points of grammar: \n\n能有幸请 [pinyin]neng2 you3 xing4 qing3[/pinyin] - A politely formal phrase of invitation \"May have the pleasure of inviting you ...\" or more specifically, \"May I be so lucky as to...\" (have this dance?) (take you on a date?). \n\n看上去 [pinyin]kan4 shang4 qu4[/pinyin] - To look like. \n\n你要是再不走开 [pinyin]ni3 yao4 shi4 zai4 bu4 zou3 kai1[/pinyin] - This one might be a little confusing. Let\'s break it down: \n\n你 - You\n要是 - If\n再不 - Otherwise / If not\n走开 - Go away\n\nThe full phrase means \"If you don\'t go away....\"\n\n他会来收拾你的 [pinyin]ta1 hui4 lai2 shou1 shi5 ni3 de5[/pinyin]. In the story, Miss Pig says this to an unwelcome guest. The \"他\" in this case is Mr. Pig. The Beginners often learn the word \"收拾\", meaning \"to tidy up\". Usually, this means exactly what it sounds like, and applies to cleaning up a room or an apartment. In this case, it\'s being used in kind of an action movie way, meaning \"He\'ll come over and deal with you!\" or \"He\'ll come straighten you out!\". So Miss Pig is threatening the unwelcome guest, telling him that Mr. Pig will come over and beat him up. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n1) 今天，真是个野餐的好日子。 猪先生精心打扮着自己，他期待着猪小姐能与他一起去野餐。\n\n2) “呵呵，真希望她会说‘我愿意’啊。 嗯，我再摘朵花送给她，一定能够打动她！”\n\n3) 路上，猪先生遇到了他的朋友狐狸。狐狸听说了野餐的事，就说：“让我给你一个建议，把我美丽的尾巴借去吧。瞧，你看上去有多聪明啊，猪小姐肯定会喜欢的。” 猪先生很满意。\n\n4) 接着，他又遇到了他的朋友狮子。狮子听说了野餐的事，就说：“让我给你一个建议，把我美丽的头发借去吧。 瞧，你看上去有多威猛啊，猪小姐肯定会喜欢的。” 猪先生很满意。\n\n5) 后来，他又遇到他的朋友斑马。斑马听说了野餐的事，就说：“让我给你一个建议，把我美丽的条纹借去吧。 瞧，你看上去有多英俊啊，猪小姐肯定会喜欢的。” 猪先生很满意。他觉得自己从来没有这样英俊过。\n\n6) 终于来到猪小姐家了，猪先生激动地敲了敲门。“能有幸请你一起去野餐吗？”他问。\n\n7) 猪小姐吓了一大跳：“噢，不行！你是哪儿来的妖怪呀？你要是再不走开，我就去叫猪先生了，他会来收拾你的！”\n\n8) 猪先生连忙往回跑。一路上，他把条纹还给了斑马，把头发还给了狮子，把尾巴还给了狐狸。然后，他又赶回到猪小姐的家，再一次摁响了门铃。\n\n9) “能有幸请你一起去野餐吗？”他又问。\n\n10) “啊呀，猪先生！” 猪小姐叫道，“看到你我真是太高兴啦，我很愿意跟你一起去野餐。刚才来了个丑八怪，就站在我的院子里，可把我吓坏啦。”\n\n11) 一路上，猪小姐把那个丑八怪的故事仔细地讲给了猪先生。她英俊的朋友猪先生，则一直满怀同情地听着。这真是一个去野餐的好日子啊。\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) Today, it\'s a great day for a picnic. Mr. Pig dressed himself with care, looking forward to [the possibility of] Miss Pig and himself going on a picnic together.\n\n2) \"Heh, I hope she says \'Yes\' [lit: I\'m willing]. Hm, I\'ll also pick some flowers to give her, that will certainly be enough to sway her!\"\n\n3) On the road, Mr. Pig ran into his friend Fox. When fox heard about the picnic, he said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, let me lend you my beautiful tail. See, you look so clever, Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. \n\n4) Continuing on, he ran into his friend Lion. Lion heard about the picnic and said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, borrow my beautiful hair for when you go over there. See, you look so powerful, Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. \n\n5) After a while, he ran into his friend Zebra. Zebra heard about the picnic and said: \"Let me give you a suggestion, I\'ll lend you my beautiful stripes. See, you look so handsome. Miss Pig will certainly like it.\" Mr. Pig was very pleased. He felt that he\'d never before looked so handsome.\n\n6) Finally arriving at Miss Pig\'s house, Mr. Pig excitedly knocked on the door. \"Would you do me the honor of going on a picnic with me?\" he asked. \n\n7) Miss Pig was terrified: \"Oh, no way! What kind of monster are you? If you don\'t go away, I\'ll go get Mr. Pig, he\'ll straighten you out!\"\n\n8) Mr. Pig hurriedly ran away. On the road, he gave the stripes back to Zebra, the hair back to Lion, and the tail back to Fox. AFter that, he hurried back to Miss Pig\'s house, and again pressed the doorbell. \n\n9) \"Would you do me the honor of having a picnic with me?\" he asked again. \n\n10) \"Goodness, Mr. Pig!\" Miss Pig cried out. \"I\'m so happy to see you, I\'d love to go on a picnic with you. An ugly wretch just came by here, standing in my garden, and scared me so.\" \n\n11) On the way, Miss Pig told Mr. Pig the story of the \'ugly wretch\' in great detail. Her handsome friend Mr. Pig, though, listened with great sympathy. It really was a great day for a picnic.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] 猪先生去野餐 - Mr. Pig\'s Picnic', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1450-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:18:03', '2016-11-04 10:18:03', '', 1450, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1450-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1745, 1, '2016-11-04 23:30:11', '2016-11-05 03:30:11', 'Not sure what the life lesson is in this story or if it\'s supposed to have one at all. Maybe \"don\'t gossip\"? Or \"don\'t make wild assumptions?\" Not sure. I\'d say the most interesting word in here is 天哪, which means \"My goodness!\" This is used with relative frequency in China, and it\'s a good interjection to use when you\'re shocked or unpleasantly surprised about something but don\'t want to swear or be offensive. For example, if you walked into a room that smelled badly, or if you were jostled by a few dozen people coming off the subway, or if you found out that something you want to buy is outrageously expensive. It doesn\'t always have negative connotations, though - this can be used neutrally as well, but I rarely hear it used in a super positive context. Because the word 天 \"Tian\" ends with an \"n\" and the word 哪 \"na\" starts with one, this usually comes out sounding like \"Tian ah!\" rather than \"Tian na\".\n\nAnother notable word here is 假如 [pinyin]jia1 ru2[/pinyin], which means \"if\". Thing is, in Chinese, there are quite a few ways to say \"if\". There\'s the most common, which is 如果，there\'s 要是，there\'s 假使，若是，and so on. At a loss for a good explanation myself, I found a site that does a great job of summing this up. In short:\n\n1) expressing a fact: 要是你水烧到摄氏一百度就会沸腾, if you heat the water to 100 degrees celcius [then] it will boil.\n2) talking about a future result: 假如你认真学外语就会进步- if you study foreign language hard, it will improve.\n3)an imagined situation: 假使我很有钱，我就带她去很多地方- If I were rich,I would take her to so many places.\n4)if something didn\'t happen: 如果你没迟到，我就不会那么生气 (if you weren\'t late, I wouldn\'t of been so mad.\n\n\"ruguo\" is more common than all of them. In a learning Chinese book you might only see \"ruguo\" and you would hear \"ruguo\" in daily speech. They are all correct to say, and you can use them interchangeably. However, i\'d like to note that 要是 can also be used negatively if you place 不 in the middle, i.e. 要是 means \"if\" 要不是 means \"If not..\" such as 要不是你，我就不会来- If it wasn\'t for you, I wouldn\'t come. Whereas \"ruguo\" and the others cannot be used in that way.
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Chinese text
\n1) 一只白鹭在浅浅的池水中站着。\n\n2) 一只小刺猬走过，他说: “天哪，这只白鹭怎么没有脑袋！”\n\n3) “真的！”一只小鼹鼠也叫了起来，“没有脑袋的鸟，我第一次看到!”\n\n4) “假如我没有了脑袋就不能活了！”小刺猬说。\n\n5) “是啊，可这只鸟还能站着不动，真了不起!”小鼹鼠说。\n\n6) 这时，白鹭从她那翅膀底下，伸出了长脖子，长脖子上长着一颗好短短的脑袋。\n\n7) 白鹭笑着说: “我是把脑袋钻进翅膀底下，梳理梳理羽毛，我怎么是没有脑袋的鸟呢?”\n\n8) 小刺猬和小鼹鼠都笑了，他们说:\n\n9) “是我们没有用脑袋好好想一想，对不起，白鹭姐姐！”\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) An egret stood in the middle of a shallow pond. \n\n2) A hedgehog walked up and said, \"Goodness gracious! Somehow, that egret has no head!\" \n\n3) \"Really!\" a little mole also cried out, \"This is the first time I\'ve seen a bird without a head!\" \n\n4) \"If I didn\'t have a head, I wouldn\'t be able to live!\" the little hedgehog said. \n\n5) \"Yes, but this bird can still stand there not moving, how very impressive!\" \n\n6) At this time, from beneath her wing the egret stretched out a long neck, and on top of that long neck grew a very short head. \n\n7) Smiling, the egret said, \"I had my head tucked beneath my wing to comb out my feathers, how could I be a bird with no head?\" \n\n8) The little hedgehog and the little mole smiled, and they said: \n\n9) \"We weren\'t using our heads, sorry Sister Egret!\" \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Fables] 没有脑袋的鸟 - The Little Bird with No Head', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1007-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:30:11', '2016-11-05 03:30:11', '', 1007, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1007-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2127, 1, '2016-11-04 23:31:18', '2016-11-05 03:31:18', '', 'Easy Beginner Chinese Reading Passage: The Little Bird with No Head', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'little-bird-with-no-head-chinese-fables', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:31:29', '2016-11-05 03:31:29', '', 1007, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/little-bird-with-no-head-chinese-fables.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2060, 1, '2016-11-04 06:47:38', '2016-11-04 10:47:38', 'Father\'s Day\'s coming up in a few weeks, and we\'ll be looking at the lyrics of a beginner-level saccharine-cute song written for children to sing to their dads (or, for the children of the digital generation, to forward to their dads) on their special day. This post is accompanied by a Flash Father\'s Day video where you can listen to the song on an INFINITE LOOP. Lucky you. \r\n\r\nHere\'s the original video with the actual song. http://new.060s.com/flash/flashbrow.php?flash=70648ecb985590c987c8ffd9b0b5edb1, have a listen if you dare. \r\n\r\nBecause this is a song, we have a couple of instances where a similar sentence structure is used with different words - these are probably the hardest sentences in the song. Example: 脏活累活他全包了. First, let me break down this sentence: \r\n\r\n脏 - Dirty\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n累 - Tired\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n他 - He\r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 - (grammar word)\r\n\r\nWhat? Dirty activity tired activity he all included?! What the heck does that mean? In proper English, we might translate that as \"Dirty work, Tired work, he does it all!\" We are, of course, talking about our amazing dads and all the thanklessly exhausting housework and job work they do. Thing is, there\'s nowhere in this sentence where the verb \"does\" as in \"to do work\" actually appears. We\'re just expected to infer the word from the context of 全包 - \"all included\". \r\n\r\nWe see the same sentence structure later in the song: 剩菜剩饭他全包了. The breakdown: \r\n\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n菜 - Vegetables\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n饭 - Rice\r\n他 - He \r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 (grammar word). \r\n\r\nOnce again, that strange \"all included\" - we are again expected to infer the verb here. Any guesses? The sentence means \"Leftover Vegetables, Leftover Rice, he eats it all!\" or \"He eats all the leftovers!\" So the missing word we kinda have to mentally fill in is \"eats\". \r\n\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的力气真不小\r\n做得多说得少\r\n脏活累活他全包了\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的肚量真不小\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDad\'s the best, Dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best!\r\nDad\'s really got no shortage of strength \r\nHe does a lot but speaks little\r\nHe does all the dirty and tired work.\r\nDad\'s the best, dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best! \r\nDad\'s really got no shortage of generosity\r\nHe earns a lot but spends little\r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\nHe earns a lot but spends little \r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\n[/hide-this-part]', '[Chinese Children\'s Songs] 爸爸好 - Baba Hao, a Song for Father\'s Day', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1363-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:47:38', '2016-11-04 10:47:38', '', 1363, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1363-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1748, 1, '2016-10-31 03:37:34', '2016-10-31 07:37:34', 'Father\'s Day\'s coming up in a few weeks, and we\'ll be looking at the lyrics of a beginner-level saccharine-cute song written for children to sing to their dads (or, for the children of the digital generation, to forward to their dads) on their special day. This post is accompanied by a Flash Father\'s Day video where you can listen to the song on an INFINITE LOOP. Lucky you. \r\n\r\nHere\'s the original video with the actual song. http://new.060s.com/flash/flashbrow.php?flash=70648ecb985590c987c8ffd9b0b5edb1, have a listen if you dare. \r\n\r\nBecause this is a song, we have a couple of instances where a similar sentence structure is used with different words - these are probably the hardest sentences in the song. Example: 脏活累活他全包了. First, let me break down this sentence: \r\n\r\n脏 - Dirty\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n累 - Tired\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n他 - He\r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 - (grammar word)\r\n\r\nWhat? Dirty activity tired activity he all included?! What the heck does that mean? In proper English, we might translate that as \"Dirty work, Tired work, he does it all!\" We are, of course, talking about our amazing dads and all the thanklessly exhausting housework and job work they do. Thing is, there\'s nowhere in this sentence where the verb \"does\" as in \"to do work\" actually appears. We\'re just expected to infer the word from the context of 全包 - \"all included\". \r\n\r\nWe see the same sentence structure later in the song: 剩菜剩饭他全包了. The breakdown: \r\n\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n菜 - Vegetables\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n饭 - Rice\r\n他 - He \r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 (grammar word). \r\n\r\nOnce again, that strange \"all included\" - we are again expected to infer the verb here. Any guesses? The sentence means \"Leftover Vegetables, Leftover Rice, he eats it all!\" or \"He eats all the leftovers!\" So the missing word we kinda have to mentally fill in is \"eats\". \r\n\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的力气真不小\r\n做得多说得少\r\n脏活累活他全包了\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的肚量真不小\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDad\'s the best, Dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best!\r\nDad\'s really got no shortage of strength \r\nHe does a lot but speaks little\r\nHe does all the dirty and tired work.\r\nDad\'s the best, dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best! \r\nDad\'s really got no shortage of generosity\r\nHe earns a lot but spends little\r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\nHe earns a lot but spends little \r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\n[/hide-this-part]', '[Song] 爸爸好 - Baba Hao, a Song for Father\'s Day', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1363-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:37:34', '2016-10-31 07:37:34', '', 1363, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1363-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1749, 1, '2016-10-31 03:37:57', '2016-10-31 07:37:57', 'Though this post is beginner-level, it\'s also very condensed. I\'d say you\'ll have to stop and remind yourself what something means every few words or so. \r\n\r\nA few notes:
\r\n\r\n- There\'s a proper noun in here you probably won\'t find in the dictionary: 江东 is a place, [pinyin]jiang1 dong1[/pinyin], it\'s a district of Ningbo in Zhejiang Province (south China). So 江东公园 is \"JiangDong Park\". \r\n\r\n- 小朋友 [pinyin]xiao3 peng2 you5[/pinyin], literally \"Little Friend\", actually just means \"small children\", often used when one child is referring to a other children he or she doesn\'t know. \r\n\r\nSource: http://www.zuowen.com/e/20120522/4fbb17e8c23c9.shtml\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n 前几天，我做了一件不光彩的事。说出来真难为情。晚上，我去江东公园玩，看到有几位小朋友在捉青蛙，我也赶忙捉青蛙，捉了青蛙就把它们带回家。在家里养了几天，青蛙渐渐瘦了下来，它们好像在对我说：“把我们放回大自然吧，我们一定会多捉害虫。”我听了感到真不好意思，晚上，就悄悄把它们放回了大自然。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the last few days, I did a not-so-illustrious thing, and I\'m ashamed to say it. In the evening, I went to JiangDong Park to play, and I saw that there were a few other children catching frogs, so I also hurriedly started catching frogs, and after I caught them I brought them back to my house. At my house I took care of them for a few days, but the frogs gradually became thinner and thinner, it\'s like they were saying to me: \"Put us back in nature, and we can catch more insects.\" I listened to this and was truly embarrassed0 so that night, I secretly put them back outside. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essay] 抓青蛙 - Catching Frogs', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1483-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:37:57', '2016-10-31 07:37:57', '', 1483, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1483-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1750, 1, '2014-02-04 03:49:05', '2014-02-04 08:49:05', '[two_third]\r\nBeen a couple of months since I tossed a post out there - the latter half of 2013 was a bit of a shake-up, so please forgive the lapse. In other news, I can\'t get my favorite Chinese story website, tom61.com, to load anymore, #sadface. Fingers crossed that\'s a temporary glitch, but if not, I\'ll mourn the loss of a fantastic learner\'s website. \r\n\r\nIn the meantime, I\'ve pulled something off gushi365.com. \r\n\r\nThe content of this story is for children, but the language is not beginner, and neither is the sentence structure - this is an intermediate read for sure. I say that because it feels very \"fairy-tale\" language-y, in the sense that sentences are formed in a more literary way, rather than in a chatty way, and there are some uncommonly-heard words, like \"footprint\" (脚印), etc. The tone of the story, on the other hand, is very tra-la-la, winter sparkly glitter magic.\r\n\r\nTwo quick notes on phrases here: 传来了 [pinyin]chuan4 lai2[/pinyin] is an intermediate phrase that can be a little hard to understand, but it is used in reference to things we hear that come to us from afar. This may include voices (like hearing someone\'s voice from outside your house), or noises, or smells, or a piece of news. You can use this to talk about sensations and things that come to you from no particular person or direction - from \"afar\" or \"all around\". \r\n\r\n掏出 [pinyin]tao1 chu1[/pinyin]: this means to fish something out of something else. For example, to fish your phone out of your pocket, or to fish your sweatshirt out of your backpack. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n蒲公英 - [pinyin]pu2 gong1 ying1[/pinyin] - Dandelion\r\n翩翩起舞 - [pinyin]pian1 pian1 qi3 wu3[/pinyin] - Lightly dance about\r\n扭到脚了 - [pinyin]niu3 dao4 jiao3 le[/pinyin] - Sprain / twist one\'s foot / ankle\r\n载歌载舞 - [pinyin]zai4 ge1 zai4 wu3[/pinyin] - Singing and dancing\r\n自言自语- [pinyin]zi4 yan2 zi4 yu3[/pinyin] - Talk to yourself\r\n说不定 - [pinyin]shuo1 bu5 ding4[/pinyin] - Who can say... [that sthng won\'t happen]\r\n奇迹 - [pinyin]qi2 ji4[/pinyin] - Miracle\r\n活蹦乱跳 - [pinyin]huo2 beng4 luan4 tiao4[/pinyin] - Leap and frisk about\r\n吵醒 - [pinyin]chao2 xing3[/pinyin] - To be woken up by noise\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n下雪啦，下雪啦！一片片雪花像蒲公英一样在空中翩翩起舞，不一会儿，大地就穿上了一件洁白的衣裳。\r\n\r\n可爱的小熊不小心扭到脚了，只得孤零零地躺在小床上。忽然，从窗外传来了欢快的歌声。小熊朝窗外看去，原来是小老鼠和小白兔在雪地里载歌载舞呢！雪地上还留下了他们可爱的小脚印。小熊心里真羡慕呀！可是，他有什么办法呢？小熊深深地叹了一口气，自言自语：“还是睡一觉吧，说不定梦里会出现奇迹！”\r\n\r\n小熊果然做了一个好梦。他梦见一位留着长胡子的老爷爷来到了他的小屋里。老爷爷从衣袋里掏出一个小瓶子，笑眯眯地喷了喷小熊受伤的脚。小熊马上就活蹦乱跳了，快活地在雪地上和小伙伴们玩耍……\r\n\r\n小鸟们的欢声笑语把小熊吵醒了，原来这只是一场梦。可是小熊发现自己的手里竟然有一个小瓶子！小熊拿起小瓶子往脚上一喷，受伤的脚马上就好了。这真是一瓶神水啊！从此，小熊再也不怕摔伤了。 \r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIt\'s snowing, it\'s snowing! Flakes of snow lightly danced like dandelions in the air, and after a while, the earth wore clothes of pure white. \r\n\r\nCute little bear incautiously sprained his ankle, and had to lie in bed all alone. Suddenly, from outside the window came the sound of lighthearted singing. Little bear looked out the window, and [saw that it was] Little Mouse and Little White Rabbit dancing and singing! The snow still held [impressions of] their cute little footprints. Little Bear was truly envious! But what could he do? Little Bear gave a deep sigh, and said aloud to himself: \"Better get some more sleep, and maybe in my dream there will be a miracle!\" \r\n\r\nSure enough, Little bear had a good dream. In his dream, an old man with a long beard came into his room. The old man fished a little bottle out of his pocket, and smilingly sprayed [some liquid from the bottle] on Little Bear\'s wounded foot. Little Bear immediately leaped up and frisked about, playing cheerfully with his [two] buddies on the snowy ground.\r\n\r\nThe happy sounds of the small birds woke Little Bear up, and [found that] actually it was all just a dream. But then he discovered that there was a small bottle in his hand! Little Bear took up the small bottle and sprayed it on his foot, and the wounded foot was immediately better! This really was a bottle of magic water! After that, Little Bear never again feared bumps and bruises. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Bear\'s Beautiful Dream', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1460-revision-v1', '', '', '2014-02-04 03:49:05', '2014-02-04 08:49:05', '', 1460, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2014/02/1460-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1752, 1, '2016-11-04 06:11:11', '2016-11-04 10:11:11', 'I can\'t vouch for the accuracy of the history here, not being a pencil history expert myself, but this read has a lot of good words for larnin\'. I\'d put this in the lower-advanced spectrum, as the sentence structure isn\'t over-the-top literary, but there are a ton of specialized words and proper nouns. The tone is very encyclopedic, so, rather serious and not a lot of fun. \n\nA couple of proper names for you: \n巴罗代尔 - Borrowdale, England\n乔治二世 - George the Second (English King)\n法伯 - Eberhard Faber, a German chemist\n孔德 - Nicolas-Jacques Conté, French scientist\n\nSource: http://www.gushi365.com/info/9763.html\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n
Chinese text
\n1) 铅笔的历史非常悠久，它起源于2000多年前的古罗马时期。那时的铅笔很简陋，只不过是金属套里夹着的一根铅棒，甚至是铅块，倒真是名副其实的“铅”笔。而我们今天使用的铅笔是用石墨和黏土制成的，里面并不含铅。\n\n2) 现代铅笔诞生于16世纪的英国。1564年，有人在巴罗代尔发现了一种名叫石墨的黑色矿物。石墨能像铅一样在纸上留下痕迹，而且比铅的痕迹要黑得多，因此，人们称石墨为“黑铅”。巴罗代尔一带的牧羊人常用石墨在羊身上做记号。后来，人们又将石墨块切成小条，用于写字、绘画。不久，英王乔治二世将巴罗代尔石墨矿收归皇室所有，把它定为皇家的专用品。\n\n3) 不过，石墨条也有它的缺点：容易弄脏手，还容易折断。1761年，德国化学家法伯用石墨粉同硫磺、松香等混合起来，制成条，这比纯石墨条的韧性大得多，也不大容易弄脏手。18世纪末时，只有英、德两国能够生产铅笔。\n\n4) 后来，法国也在自己的国土上找到了石墨矿，但矿的质量不高，储量也少。法国科学家孔德便在石墨中掺入黏土，放进窑里烧制，制成了既好用又耐用的铅笔芯。石墨中掺入的黏土的比例不同，铅笔芯的硬度也就不同。我们常看到铅笔头上标着B、HB一类的字母，表示的就是铅笔芯的硬度和颜色深浅。B表示黑度，H表示硬度，所以，HB就是软硬和颜色深浅都适中的铅笔芯，适合写字。 \n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) The history of the pencil is very long, dating back 2000 years to ancient Roman times. The pencils of that time were very crude, being nothing more than a gold cover cripping a lead stick, or even a lead block, and it really was a \"lead\" pen (not just in name only). Whereas the pencils we use toady are manufactured from graphite and clay, the inside doesn\'t really contain lead. \n\n2) Modern pencils were born in 16th Century England. In 1564, people in Borrowdale discovered a kind of black mineral called graphite. Like lead, graphite could leave marks on paper, and the marks it left were much darker than lead, thus, people called graphite \"black lead\". Shepherds in the Borrowdale region commonly used graphite to mark seals on the bodies of sheep. Later, people carved lead into little strips, using them for writing and drawing. After long, the English king George the Second brought Borrowdale graphite ore back to the imperial household for the royal family\'s particular use. \n\n3) However, graphite strips also had their weak point: they dirty the hands, and they break easily. In 1761, German chemist Faber mixed graphite powder together with sulfer, pine resin and other things, and manufactured them as strips, which was much tougher than simple graphite, and didn\'t dirty the hands as easily. At the end of the 18th century, only England and Germany were capable of producing pencils. \n\n4) Later, France discovered [deposits of] graphite ore in their earth, but the ore\'s quality wasn\'t high, and the quantities weren\'t great. French Scientist Conte mixed the ore with clay, fired it in a kiln, making a more easy to use and durable pencil wick. The amount of clay mixed with the graphite wasn\'t always the same, and so the hardness of the lead [wick] also changed accordingly. We often see \"B\" and \"HB\" letters marked out on the head of the pencil, indicating hardness and light or darkness of color. \"B\" indicates color, H indicates hardness, therefore, \"HB\" indicates that hardness and darkness of the lead are both moderate, and are suitable for writing. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Facts in Chinese] 铅笔的历史 - The History of the Pencil', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1466-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:11:11', '2016-11-04 10:11:11', '', 1466, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1466-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2041, 1, '2016-11-04 06:11:47', '2016-11-04 10:11:47', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese for Beginners: Beginner Chinese Essays', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'learn-to-read-chinese-pencils', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:12:15', '2016-11-04 10:12:15', '', 1466, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/learn-to-read-chinese-pencils.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1754, 1, '2016-10-31 03:41:52', '2016-10-31 07:41:52', 'I was away for a couple of months towards the end of last year, so I missed a few awesome comments until just recently. \r\n\r\nGrace, a commenter on this blog, brought her Chinese reading practice website to my attention, and it\'s the jam. She has a fabulous collections of translated materials for Elementary, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced readers, including my absolute fav genre, Chinese detective stories. Yay!\r\n\r\nDon\'t miss adding Justlearnchinese.comto your blogroll. \r\n\r\n', '[Blog] New Resource: Justlearnchinese.com', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1474-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:41:52', '2016-10-31 07:41:52', '', 1474, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1474-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1755, 1, '2016-10-31 03:42:27', '2016-10-31 07:42:27', '', 'History', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'history', '', '', '2016-10-31 10:57:04', '2016-10-31 14:57:04', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1755', 7, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(1756, 1, '2016-11-04 06:14:04', '2016-11-04 10:14:04', 'The content of this story is for children, but the language is not beginner, and neither is the sentence structure - this is an intermediate read for sure. I say that because it feels very \"fairy-tale\" language-y, in the sense that sentences are formed in a more literary way, rather than in a chatty way, and there are some uncommonly-heard words, like \"footprint\" (脚印), etc. The tone of the story, on the other hand, is very tra-la-la, winter sparkly glitter magic.\n\nTwo quick notes on phrases here: 传来了 [pinyin]chuan4 lai2[/pinyin] is an intermediate phrase that can be a little hard to understand, but it is used in reference to things we hear that come to us from afar. This may include voices (like hearing someone\'s voice from outside your house), or noises, or smells, or a piece of news. You can use this to talk about sensations and things that come to you from no particular person or direction - from \"afar\" or \"all around\". \n\n掏出 [pinyin]tao1 chu1[/pinyin]: this means to fish something out of something else. For example, to fish your phone out of your pocket, or to fish your sweatshirt out of your backpack. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n
Chinese text
\n1) 下雪啦，下雪啦！一片片雪花像蒲公英一样在空中翩翩起舞，不一会儿，大地就穿上了一件洁白的衣裳。\n\n2) 可爱的小熊不小心扭到脚了，只得孤零零地躺在小床上。忽然，从窗外传来了欢快的歌声。小熊朝窗外看去，原来是小老鼠和小白兔在雪地里载歌载舞呢！雪地上还留下了他们可爱的小脚印。小熊心里真羡慕呀！可是，他有什么办法呢？小熊深深地叹了一口气，自言自语：“还是睡一觉吧，说不定梦里会出现奇迹！”\n\n3) 小熊果然做了一个好梦。他梦见一位留着长胡子的老爷爷来到了他的小屋里。老爷爷从衣袋里掏出一个小瓶子，笑眯眯地喷了喷小熊受伤的脚。小熊马上就活蹦乱跳了，快活地在雪地上和小伙伴们玩耍……\n\n4) 小鸟们的欢声笑语把小熊吵醒了，原来这只是一场梦。可是小熊发现自己的手里竟然有一个小瓶子！小熊拿起小瓶子往脚上一喷，受伤的脚马上就好了。这真是一瓶神水啊！从此，小熊再也不怕摔伤了。 \n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) It\'s snowing, it\'s snowing! Flakes of snow lightly danced like dandelions in the air, and after a while, the earth wore clothes of pure white. \n\n2) Cute Little Bear incautiously sprained his ankle, and had to lie in bed all alone. Suddenly, from outside the window came the sound of lighthearted singing. Little bear looked out the window, and [saw that it was] Little Mouse and Little White Rabbit dancing and singing! The snow still held [impressions of] their cute little footprints. Little Bear was truly envious! But what could he do? Little Bear gave a deep sigh, and said aloud to himself: \"Better get some more sleep, and maybe in my dream there will be a miracle!\" \n\n3) Sure enough, Little bear had a good dream. In his dream, an old man with a long beard came into his room. The old man fished a little bottle out of his pocket, and smilingly sprayed [some liquid from the bottle] on Little Bear\'s wounded foot. Little Bear immediately leaped up and frisked about, playing cheerfully with his [two] buddies on the snowy ground.\n\n4) The happy sounds of the small birds woke Little Bear up, and [found that] actually it was all just a dream. But then he discovered that there was a small bottle in his hand! Little Bear took up the small bottle and sprayed it on his foot, and the wounded foot was immediately better! This really was a bottle of magic water! After that, Little Bear never again feared bumps and bruises. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Story] Little Bear\'s Beautiful Dream', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1460-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:14:04', '2016-11-04 10:14:04', '', 1460, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1460-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2043, 1, '2016-11-04 06:14:48', '2016-11-04 10:14:48', '', 'Practice Chinese Simplified Essays Stories for Beginners', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'mandarin-chinese-reading-exercises-bears-beautiful-dream', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:14:55', '2016-11-04 10:14:55', '', 1460, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/mandarin-chinese-reading-exercises-bears-beautiful-dream.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2044, 1, '2016-11-04 06:15:16', '2016-11-04 10:15:16', 'The content of this story is for children, but the language is not beginner, and neither is the sentence structure - this is an intermediate read for sure. I say that because it feels very \"fairy-tale\" language-y, in the sense that sentences are formed in a more literary way, rather than in a chatty way, and there are some uncommonly-heard words, like \"footprint\" (脚印), etc. The tone of the story, on the other hand, is very tra-la-la, winter sparkly glitter magic.\r\n\r\nTwo quick notes on phrases here: 传来了 [pinyin]chuan4 lai2[/pinyin] is an intermediate phrase that can be a little hard to understand, but it is used in reference to things we hear that come to us from afar. This may include voices (like hearing someone\'s voice from outside your house), or noises, or smells, or a piece of news. You can use this to talk about sensations and things that come to you from no particular person or direction - from \"afar\" or \"all around\". \r\n\r\n掏出 [pinyin]tao1 chu1[/pinyin]: this means to fish something out of something else. For example, to fish your phone out of your pocket, or to fish your sweatshirt out of your backpack. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 下雪啦，下雪啦！一片片雪花像蒲公英一样在空中翩翩起舞，不一会儿，大地就穿上了一件洁白的衣裳。\r\n\r\n2) 可爱的小熊不小心扭到脚了，只得孤零零地躺在小床上。忽然，从窗外传来了欢快的歌声。小熊朝窗外看去，原来是小老鼠和小白兔在雪地里载歌载舞呢！雪地上还留下了他们可爱的小脚印。小熊心里真羡慕呀！可是，他有什么办法呢？小熊深深地叹了一口气，自言自语：“还是睡一觉吧，说不定梦里会出现奇迹！”\r\n\r\n3) 小熊果然做了一个好梦。他梦见一位留着长胡子的老爷爷来到了他的小屋里。老爷爷从衣袋里掏出一个小瓶子，笑眯眯地喷了喷小熊受伤的脚。小熊马上就活蹦乱跳了，快活地在雪地上和小伙伴们玩耍……\r\n\r\n4) 小鸟们的欢声笑语把小熊吵醒了，原来这只是一场梦。可是小熊发现自己的手里竟然有一个小瓶子！小熊拿起小瓶子往脚上一喷，受伤的脚马上就好了。这真是一瓶神水啊！从此，小熊再也不怕摔伤了。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) It\'s snowing, it\'s snowing! Flakes of snow lightly danced like dandelions in the air, and after a while, the earth wore clothes of pure white. \r\n\r\n2) Cute Little Bear incautiously sprained his ankle, and had to lie in bed all alone. Suddenly, from outside the window came the sound of lighthearted singing. Little bear looked out the window, and [saw that it was] Little Mouse and Little White Rabbit dancing and singing! The snow still held [impressions of] their cute little footprints. Little Bear was truly envious! But what could he do? Little Bear gave a deep sigh, and said aloud to himself: \"Better get some more sleep, and maybe in my dream there will be a miracle!\" \r\n\r\n3) Sure enough, Little bear had a good dream. In his dream, an old man with a long beard came into his room. The old man fished a little bottle out of his pocket, and smilingly sprayed [some liquid from the bottle] on Little Bear\'s wounded foot. Little Bear immediately leaped up and frisked about, playing cheerfully with his [two] buddies on the snowy ground.\r\n\r\n4) The happy sounds of the small birds woke Little Bear up, and [found that] actually it was all just a dream. But then he discovered that there was a small bottle in his hand! Little Bear took up the small bottle and sprayed it on his foot, and the wounded foot was immediately better! This really was a bottle of magic water! After that, Little Bear never again feared bumps and bruises. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Story] Little Bear\'s Beautiful Dream', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1460-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:15:16', '2016-11-04 10:15:16', '', 1460, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1460-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1757, 1, '2016-10-31 03:44:17', '2016-10-31 07:44:17', 'Been a couple of months since I tossed a post out there - the latter half of 2013 was a bit of a shake-up, so please forgive the lapse. In other news, I can\'t get my favorite Chinese story website, tom61.com, to load anymore, #sadface. Fingers crossed that\'s a temporary glitch, but if not, I\'ll mourn the loss of a fantastic learner\'s website. \r\n\r\nIn the meantime, I\'ve pulled something off gushi365.com. \r\n\r\nThe content of this story is for children, but the language is not beginner, and neither is the sentence structure - this is an intermediate read for sure. I say that because it feels very \"fairy-tale\" language-y, in the sense that sentences are formed in a more literary way, rather than in a chatty way, and there are some uncommonly-heard words, like \"footprint\" (脚印), etc. The tone of the story, on the other hand, is very tra-la-la, winter sparkly glitter magic.\r\n\r\nTwo quick notes on phrases here: 传来了 [pinyin]chuan4 lai2[/pinyin] is an intermediate phrase that can be a little hard to understand, but it is used in reference to things we hear that come to us from afar. This may include voices (like hearing someone\'s voice from outside your house), or noises, or smells, or a piece of news. You can use this to talk about sensations and things that come to you from no particular person or direction - from \"afar\" or \"all around\". \r\n\r\n掏出 [pinyin]tao1 chu1[/pinyin]: this means to fish something out of something else. For example, to fish your phone out of your pocket, or to fish your sweatshirt out of your backpack. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 下雪啦，下雪啦！一片片雪花像蒲公英一样在空中翩翩起舞，不一会儿，大地就穿上了一件洁白的衣裳。\r\n\r\n2) 可爱的小熊不小心扭到脚了，只得孤零零地躺在小床上。忽然，从窗外传来了欢快的歌声。小熊朝窗外看去，原来是小老鼠和小白兔在雪地里载歌载舞呢！雪地上还留下了他们可爱的小脚印。小熊心里真羡慕呀！可是，他有什么办法呢？小熊深深地叹了一口气，自言自语：“还是睡一觉吧，说不定梦里会出现奇迹！”\r\n\r\n3) 小熊果然做了一个好梦。他梦见一位留着长胡子的老爷爷来到了他的小屋里。老爷爷从衣袋里掏出一个小瓶子，笑眯眯地喷了喷小熊受伤的脚。小熊马上就活蹦乱跳了，快活地在雪地上和小伙伴们玩耍……\r\n\r\n4) 小鸟们的欢声笑语把小熊吵醒了，原来这只是一场梦。可是小熊发现自己的手里竟然有一个小瓶子！小熊拿起小瓶子往脚上一喷，受伤的脚马上就好了。这真是一瓶神水啊！从此，小熊再也不怕摔伤了。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) It\'s snowing, it\'s snowing! Flakes of snow lightly danced like dandelions in the air, and after a while, the earth wore clothes of pure white. \r\n\r\n2) Cute Little Bear incautiously sprained his ankle, and had to lie in bed all alone. Suddenly, from outside the window came the sound of lighthearted singing. Little bear looked out the window, and [saw that it was] Little Mouse and Little White Rabbit dancing and singing! The snow still held [impressions of] their cute little footprints. Little Bear was truly envious! But what could he do? Little Bear gave a deep sigh, and said aloud to himself: \"Better get some more sleep, and maybe in my dream there will be a miracle!\" \r\n\r\n3) Sure enough, Little bear had a good dream. In his dream, an old man with a long beard came into his room. The old man fished a little bottle out of his pocket, and smilingly sprayed [some liquid from the bottle] on Little Bear\'s wounded foot. Little Bear immediately leaped up and frisked about, playing cheerfully with his [two] buddies on the snowy ground.\r\n\r\n4) The happy sounds of the small birds woke Little Bear up, and [found that] actually it was all just a dream. But then he discovered that there was a small bottle in his hand! Little Bear took up the small bottle and sprayed it on his foot, and the wounded foot was immediately better! This really was a bottle of magic water! After that, Little Bear never again feared bumps and bruises. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Story] Little Bear\'s Beautiful Dream', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1460-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:44:17', '2016-10-31 07:44:17', '', 1460, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1460-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1758, 1, '2016-11-04 05:54:34', '2016-11-04 09:54:34', 'This post kicks ass, if I do say so myself. This kid was asked to imagine the perfect desk-chair of the future - what it would look like, and what it would do - and boy, does he ever. The chair turns into all kinds of utopian machinery. It flies, it helps you sleep, and it carries your books to school. Sentence structure is pretty easy and the language is solidly intermediate, with very little advanced vocab (one idiom, a couple of advanced words but not much). At six paragraphs, the text is a bit long, though. \n\nIn this text, you\'ll notice several uses of the character \"型\". 型 [pinyin]xing2[/pinyin] means \"type\", \"kind\", \"sort\". The character can be combined with other descriptive words, and in this text you\'ll see 新型 - \"New Type of...\" and 大型, meaning \"big type\" or \"large-scale\". \n\nHere\'s the original. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n
Chinese text
\n你想知道未来的桌椅是什么样子吗? 还是让我这个发明人来介绍一下吧!\n\n未来的桌椅是高科技材料制成的，大小、颜色、形状能随意变化。早晨去上学，就按第一个按钮，颜色可以变成绿色，象征新的一天朝气蓬勃，这个桌椅变成了新型自行车，那时候人们讲究环保，每个学生都骑这样的车去上学，不用别的能源，有太阳能和风就够了。如果遇见堵车的现象，自行车就会飞跃过去，保证准时到达学校。\n\n到了学校，请按第二个按钮，绿色自行车变成了蓝色电脑桌椅，开始上课学习，根本不用带书包呀、文具盒、教材什么的。一切学习任务都在电脑上完成。\n\n到了放学的时候，又变回自行车回到家。当然这时候的车速可以放慢，好好欣赏一下大自然的风光。回到家没有作业，这时请按第三个橘色按钮，自行车再变成大型游戏机，你就可以玩各种游戏了。当然，对眼睛没有害处。\n\n到了晚上，请按第四个按钮，游戏机变成了你喜欢颜色的折叠床，发出美妙的音乐，催你甜蜜地入眠。假如你感觉哪儿不舒服了，就从床头伸出几个按摩头给你按摩，让你安然入睡。\n\n怎么样，我发明的未来的桌椅你一定喜欢吧?欢迎你现在就来预订一套。\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDo you want to know what chairs and tables will be like in the future? Well then let this inventor [author is referring to self] introduce you!\n\nChairs and tables in the future are manufactured from high-tech materials, and the size, color and shape can change according to your wishes. In the morning when you go to school, you just push the first button, and the color will change to green, symbolizing a new day full of youthful energy, and its shape will change into a new type of bicycle, since at that time [the future] people will all pay attention to the environment, and every student will ride this kind of bike to go to school, and no other power source will be needed, just solar and wind will be enough. If you run into traffic, this bike can leap over it, ensuring you\'ll arrive at school on time. \n\nOnce you get to school, please push the second button, and the green bike will turn into a blue computer desk and chair, and when you start to study, you don\'t even need to have your book bag, stationery box or other study materials. Everything you need [to accomplish studying] is all in the computer. \n\nWhen school gets out, it will again turn into a bike so you can return home. Of course at this time, the bike is also freed to go slowly, so that you can take a moment to appreciate the natural scenery. When you get home and you have no homework, press the third orange-colored button, and the bike will change into a large video game machine, and you can play all kinds of games. Of course, it will do no damage to your eyes. \n\nAt night, press the fourth button, and the video game machine will turn into a fold-out bed in any color you want, playing splendid music, that will encourage you to drift into sweet sleep. If you feel at all uncomfortable, a few massagers will extend from the head of the bed and give you a massage, to let you rest peacefully. \n\nWhat do you think? Surely you\'ll like my future desk chair. You\'re welcome to place an order for one now. \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 未来的桌椅 - Desk-chairs of the Future', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1481-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:54:34', '2016-11-04 09:54:34', '', 1481, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1481-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1760, 1, '2016-10-31 03:45:58', '2016-10-31 07:45:58', 'Happy Year of the Sheep! Couple of days ago, I stumbled across the Book \"The Last Yin Yang Master\", aka \"The Last Onmyoji\", a supernatural ghost story available for free online. It\'s incredibly rare to find full-length books that aren\'t impossibly difficult to get through, but this one is phenomenal for learners. I\'m gonna put part of the first chapter here, so you can dive on in. The rest can be grabbed on Zhuaji.com. \r\n\r\nI\'ve recently sort of discovered that ghost stories and detective novels are where it\'s at for practicing reading. The cliches in a Chinese murder mystery are exactly the same as they are anywhere: hard-boiled cop, confused rookie, seductive woman, shady business, and definitely a chase scene. It\'s easier to follow a story when you have a semi-expectation of what\'s supposed to happen. They get hard when people start talking about blood spatter and ballistics, but you can kind of get the gist. Ghost stories are the same way - a scene of normalcy is set, followed by some red-flag strangeness that everyone completely ignores because they don\'t believe in the supernatural, followed by some myths and legends, or maybe a mysterious old man, or maybe a body goes missing, and then things really freaky. Again, the read gets hard when characters start talking about the mystic books of old, or funeral customs, so you should probably be reading this with the help of Pleco (which I do), but The Last Onmyoji is accessible enough that those parts shouldn\'t totally derail you. Highly recommended.\r\n\r\nThis really is worth a go for readers at almost all levels. The read is late-intermediate, but using Pleco, late-stage beginners and early-intermediates will be able to understand large chunks of it, enough to motivate you to puzzle through the parts you don\'t get, more so because this is being told in first-person. Remember, now, that the beginning of a book is usually the hardest as you try to get a sense of the story. Once the story gets rolling, it\'s easier to flow with it. Advanced readers may just appreciate learning a bit of spooky vocab. \r\n\r\nThe segment that I\"m translating here doesn\'t have any ghostly bits in it, this is the first chapter to get you going on the story. It\'s packed full of Chinese village culture, and some parts at the end that would be considered extremely un-PC in the west: a little anti-Japanese talk, and a little bit about buying women, the rarities of college education in the countryside: the realities of village life in China, even these days. \r\n\r\nThere\'s a lot I could talk about in here, but I do like the word 投 [pinyin]tou2[/pinyin] - This word had a ton of meanings. Imagine slipping a piece of paper into a suggestion box. Got it? That\'s what this word embodies, that action, or anything related to a similar action of taking a flat object and dropping it into a slot, literally or figuratively. So it can mean to \"vote\", as in an election, because you\'re submitting a ballot. It can mean to \"slide\" an envelope into a letter box. In this case, it means to \"submit\" a resume while seeking a job offer. We don\'t have a word for that concept in English, I think. \r\n\r\nEnjoy!\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n1) 我叫林小凡,今年23岁。大学刚毕业。一个三流的大学四流的成绩,大学是在杭州读,毕业之后最开始在一家房地产公司做销售员,底薪一千八。因为业绩太差,公司没说辞退我,我自己就不好意思待了。\r\n\r\n2) 在杭州转了两个月,投了不知道多少份儿简历,面试了多少次,都没有通过。盘缠花光之后,就回了老家。\r\n\r\n3) 我的老家是洛阳。洛阳的乡下,一个叫做十里铺儿的小村儿落。\r\n\r\n4) 之所以回来,是因为村儿里小学唯一的教师得了肺痨,病的已经非常严重,我作为村里走出来唯一的大学生,村长愿意一月掏出一千块的巨资来请我去代课。\r\n\r\n5) 所以我回来了。\r\n\r\n6) 在外面活的不如一条狗的我,在老家得到了极大的尊严。\r\n\r\n7) 在偏远的山村,大学生,还是一个极其厉害的存在,村民们在看到我父亲的时候,都会为他竖起大拇指,说:“老林家祖坟冒了青烟,竟然出了个大学生,以后你就走出了大山咯。”\r\n\r\n8) 每当这个时候,我父亲都会憨厚的笑一笑,抹去他脸上的汗水。\r\n\r\n9) 我回到村子之后,方圆几里的媒婆都争着抢着给我介绍对象,几乎踏破我家的门槛儿,这不是吹牛。你不在那个环境里,不知道大学生三个字的分量。\r\n\r\n10) 父亲也极力的给我张罗,在他们眼里,23岁,甚至已经过了结婚的年纪。跟我同龄的人,现在儿子已经可以光着屁股到处跑了。\r\n\r\n11) 为了不让他们操心,我也去一次次的应付相亲。\r\n\r\n12) 对,是应付。\r\n\r\n13) 大学,说白了就是一个区分性与理性的地方,虽然是山村出来的,可是我的相貌并不算丑,甚至可以说英俊。也谈过一个女朋友,我没钱,她也不是非常的富裕,可是就算这样,我们还在在一起了三年,我尽我所能的打零工,来做一个男朋友该做的。大三那年,我们分手。\r\n14) \r\n那一天,我在我们学校的后山喝了一瓶2块钱的二锅头。醒来之后,不再悲伤,继续浑浑噩噩的过日子。\r\n\r\n15) 关于相貌这一点,我继承了我母亲。\r\n\r\n16) 一个不知道故乡在哪里的美貌女人。\r\n\r\n17) 她有痴呆症。\r\n\r\n18) 在几十年前,我父亲进城,用了三百块钱把她买了回来。\r\n\r\n19) 我父亲说,他那一天花了两元钱给母亲买了一身衣服,回来的时候母亲的美貌,让村里的人哈喇子都流到了地上。\r\n\r\n20) 可惜,她是个傻子。\r\n\r\n21) 如果不是傻子,我父亲也买不起。\r\n\r\n22) 后来有了我,母亲的痴傻一直都是那样,可是她的傻,并不是像街头的疯子一样,她非常安静。\r\n\r\n23) 不说话,不动。只是安静的坐着。\r\n\r\n24) 我就在这样的一个环境下长大,可是我并不想文艺的说,我有孤僻的性格,因为就算是这样,我还是有完整的童年。\r\n\r\n25) 我父亲非常的勤劳,他尽一个农民的极限,利用手中的农具,养活一个家。我没有什么怪他的地方。\r\n\r\n26) 没钱,这是命。\r\n\r\n27) 我爷爷,是一个退伍的老军人,他不识字,没有农民典型的精明,反倒是实诚的可怕。有人说他是gmd,有人说他是gcd,可是他自己都不知道自己到底是哪个党,他唯一知道的,就是他拿枪打日本鬼子,鬼子打跑之后,他就回到了家。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) My name is Lin Xiaofan, I\'m 23 years old this year. I just graduated from college. A third-rate school with fourth-tier grades, my college was in Hangzhou, and after I graduated I first went to work as sales staff at a real estate agency with a salary of 1,800 [translator\'s note: this is a very low salary, about $300 USD / month]. My sales performance was poor, and the company never fired me, but I was so embarrassed that I left. \r\n\r\n2) I wandered around Hangzhou for two months, submitted I don\'t even know how many resumes, or went to how many interviews, but nothing came through. After I\'d spent all my travel money, I went back to my home town.\r\n\r\n3) My home town is Luoyang. In the Luoyang countryside falls a little village called Shilipu\'er. \r\n\r\n4) The reason I went home is because the village\'s only teacher got tuberculosis, and he was very seriously ill, so as the village\'s only person who\'d ever gone off to college, the village chief dug up a thousand-dollar [translator\'s note: \"1000 kuai\" is \"1000 Chinese Renminbi\"] investment and asked me to substitute teach. \r\n\r\n5) So I went home. \r\n\r\n6) My life away from home wasn\'t even as good as a dog\'s, but I get plenty of respect in my home town. \r\n\r\n7) In such a remote village, being a college graduate is still an extremely awesome thing to be, and every time the villagers see my father, they all give him a thumbs-up and say, \"Your family\'s ancestral grave is emitting green smoke, unexpectedly out popped a college student! You\'ll be walking off this mountain after a while!\" [translator\'s note: this is a compliment regarding the family\'s lineage.]\r\n\r\n8) Of course at these times, my father would smile in a simple and honest way, wiping the sweat off his brow. \r\n\r\n9) After I came back to the village, all the local matchmakers tried to set me up with someone, almost trampling down my door, no exaggeration. If you\'ve never been in that [village] environment, you don\'t know the power of those three words, \"College Degree Holder\".\r\n\r\n10) My dad also made a supreme effort to settle me, because in his eyes, at 23 years old I\'d already passed marrying age. Everyone my age already had kids running around with their bare butts hanging out. \r\n\r\n11) So as not to make him worry, I\'d already coped with my first blind date. \r\n\r\n12) Yes, it was definitely \"coping\". \r\n\r\n13) College, speaking frankly, was a place with completely different place with different rationales, but although I came from a farm village, I wasn\'t considered ugly, you might even say I\'m handsome. I had a girlfriend, but I had no money, and she wasn\'t very rich either, but that\'s just the way it was, we were together three years, and I used up all my part-time work money trying to do all the things a boyfriend is supposed to do. In the third year, we broke up. \r\n\r\n14) On that day, on the hill behind our school, I drank a bottle of 2-dollar liquor. After I woke up, I wasn\'t sad anymore, and I just continued muddle-headedly passing the days. \r\n\r\n15) About my looks, those I inherited from my mother. \r\n\r\n16) A good-looking woman from who-knows-where. \r\n\r\n17) She had dementia.\r\n\r\n18) A few decades ago, my father went to the city, and spent three hundred dollars to buy her and bring her home.\r\n\r\n19) My dad said, that day he spent two bucks to buy mom some clothes, and when he returned, mom\'s good looks made everyone in the village drool all over the ground. \r\n\r\n20) Pity, she was an idiot.\r\n\r\n21) If she hadn\'t been an idiot, my dad could never have afforded her. \r\n\r\n22) Then I came along, and mom\'s dementia continued as before, but her brand of dementia wasn\'t like a crazy street person\'s, she was very quiet. \r\n\r\n23) She didn\'t speak, didn\'t move. Just quietly sat there.\r\n\r\n24) This is the environment I grew up in, but I don\'t want to make it sound literary, I had an antisocial nature, but even so, I still had a full childhood. \r\n\r\n25) My father is very industrious, he has a farmer\'s strength, using the farm tools in his hands, he nurtured a household. I don\'t have anything to blame him for. \r\n\r\n26) No money, that\'s just life. \r\n\r\n27) My grandfather is a retired soldier, he\'s illiterate, and he doesn\'t have any of a villager\'s typical shrewdness, on the contrary he\'s terrifyingly honest. Some people said he was GMD [translator\'s note: GMD = guo min dang, the fascist party in the Chinese civil war, who lost], some people said he was GCD [GCD = gong chang dang, the communist party that won the war and remains in power today], but he doesn\'t even know himself which \"dang\" [translator\'s note - this \"dang\" means \"political party\"] he was in, the only thing he knows is that he grabbed a gun and fought the Japanese devils [the Japanese invaded while the GMD and the GCD were fighting each other], and after the devils ran away, he went home.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Books] 《最后一个阴阳师》 - The Last Yin Yang Master', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1539-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 03:45:58', '2016-10-31 07:45:58', '', 1539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1539-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2151, 1, '2016-11-05 00:15:49', '2016-11-05 04:15:49', '', 'Beginner Chinese Texts - Learn to Read Mandarin Free', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'essay-happy-me', '', '', '2016-11-05 00:16:30', '2016-11-05 04:16:30', '', 933, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/essay-happy-me.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1766, 1, '2011-11-02 21:17:18', '2011-11-03 01:17:18', '[two_third]\r\nA short, sweet children\'s essay about how umbrellas look on a rainy day. The Chinese title is 小伞花. \r\n\r\n![\"Easy](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/20111102-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Easy")
Most of this is beginner reading, but there is one part of a sentence towards the end of the text which is intermediate reading, so I\'ve outlined the more difficult words there in the \"click to listen\" area. \r\n\r\nYou\'ll also notice another onomatopoeia (I\'ve been running into those a lot lately), 滴滴答答. We\'re rather lucky when we describe sounds in English, we can mash a bunch of letters together until they sound similar to the sound we heard - we have a little more flexibility. I could write: pfffsssshhhh, and you could make that sound, or imagine that sound. The Chinese have no alphabet to work with, so they do this by taking existing characters that sound similar and arranging them together. In this case 滴滴答答 (di1 di1 da1 da1) represents the pattering of raindrops, as you might hear rain fall against a window or roof.\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n传来- [pinyin]chuan2 lai2[/pinyin] - Arrive\r\n滴滴答答 - [pinyin]di1 di1 da1 da1[/pinyin] - The sound of water droplets falling on something\r\n行人 - [pinyin]xing2 ren2[/pinyin] - Pedestrian\r\n雨伞 - [pinyin]yu3 san3[/pinyin] - Umbrella\r\n极了 - [pinyin]ji2 le5[/pinyin] - very, extremely [used after word it refers to]\r\n撑- [pinyin]cheng1[/pinyin] - To open up / unfurl\r\n晴朗 - [pinyin]qing2 lang3[/pinyin] - sunny and cloudless\r\n陪伴 - [pinyin]pei2 ban4[/pinyin] - Accompany\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n今天，我回家写作业的时候，我听见外面传来了滴滴答答的声音，我想一定是下雨了。我赶忙跑到窗前，向下一看，街上的行人都打着雨伞，真的是下雨了。\r\n\r\n雨伞有黄色的、有白色的、有红色的、有紫色的，还有银灰色的……，美丽极了!\r\n\r\n我觉得雨伞可真好，它为我们撑起了一片晴朗的天空，它真是我们的好朋友。我希望每天都能下雨，让我的漂亮小雨伞每天都能陪伴我。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nToday, when I had returned to my house and I was doing my homework, I heard the sound of droplets coming from outside, and I thought it surely must be raining. I hurriedly ran to the window, and looked down, on the street the pedestrians were all carrying umbrellas, and it was indeed raining. \r\n\r\nThere were yellow umbrellas, and there were white ones, and red ones, and purple ones, and also silver ones... so beautiful!\r\n\r\nI thought about how great umbrellas are, they unfurl a sunny and cloudless sky for us, they\'re really our good friends. I wish it could rain every day, so that my beautiful little umbrella could accompany me.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Umbrella Flowers', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '887-revision-v1', '', '', '2011-11-02 21:17:18', '2011-11-03 01:17:18', '', 887, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2011/11/887-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1771, 1, '2011-09-06 18:36:43', '2011-09-06 22:36:43', '[two_third]\r\nA sweet essay about a young child doing something nice for her mother. \r\n\r\n\r\n![\"Beginner](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/20110906-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Beginner")
This story has two proper nouns in it, which I should probably explain. The words 《大宅门》, which is the title of a TV show called \"Grand Gate Mansion\". This is a real Chinese TV soap / drama. If you want to watch it, here\'s a full video episode of Grand Gate Mansion. Another interesting thing about that is the punctuation 《 and 》, marks that don\'t exist in English. In English, when we refer to the name of a book or movie, we often put the name in quotes, for example, \"Cinderella\" or \"Gone with the Wind\". These 《》 punctuation marks are the equivalent of quotes in English, but while we use quotes for lots of purposes, the Chinese only ever use these to describe the name of a play, book, movie or show.\r\n\r\nThe other proper noun is 明明, a young girl\'s name. \r\n\r\nOne of the things I really like about this is also the juxtaposition between the three words 小心, 放心 and 开心, which mean \"to be careful or cautious\", \"to stop worrying\", and \"to be happy / to have fun\", respectively. You\'ll notice these words all end in 心, \"heart\", and these words could literally be translated as \"small heart\", \"to let go of your heart\", and \"open heart\". When you\'re being careful, doesn\'t it feel like your heart is small? And when you stop worrying about something, isn\'t it just like \"putting your heart down\"? And when you\'re having fun, isn\'t it just like you have an \"open heart\"?\r\n\r\nThe Chinese title of this little narrative is 我为妈妈做点儿事.\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n津津有味 - [pinyin]jin1 jin1 you3 wei4[/pinyin] - To do sth. with great interest\r\n动画片 - [pinyin]dong4 hua4 pian1[/pinyin] - Cartoons [lit: moving drawing slides]\r\n屏幕 - [pinyin]ping2 mu4[/pinyin] - Screen [for TV, computer, etc.]\r\n片名 - [pinyin]pian1 ming2[/pinyin] - Show or movie title\r\n辛苦 - [pinyin]xin1 ku3[/pinyin] - Hard or exhausting work\r\n围裙 - [pinyin]wei2 qun2[/pinyin] - Apron\r\n小心 - [pinyin]xiao3 xin1[/pinyin] - Be careful\r\n放心 - [pinyin]fang4 xin1[/pinyin] - Don\'t worry\r\n开心 - [pinyin]kai1 xin1[/pinyin] - Happy, fun\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n吃完晚饭,妈妈在厨房里洗碗，明明坐在大大的沙发上，津津有味地看着自己喜欢的动画片。\r\n\r\n过了一会儿,动画片演完了，电视屏幕上出现了大宅门的片名。明明知道妈妈最喜欢看《大宅门》了，明明想妈妈要做事，要洗碗，很辛苦，一定要让妈妈看会儿《大宅门》，她边想边向厨房跑去。明明拉着妈妈的围裙说: “妈妈，您最喜欢看的《大宅门》开始了，您快去看吧,我来洗碗。”妈妈高兴地说: “好呀，你洗碗的时候一定要小心啊。”明明说: “妈妈您放心吧!”\r\n\r\n妈妈坐在舒服的沙发上看起电视，明明在厨房里认真地洗碗，这个晚上她们俩过得可开心了!\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nAfter dinner was done, mother was in the kitchen washing dishes, and Ming Ming was on the big sofa, watching her favorite cartoons with great interest. \r\n\r\nAfter a while, the cartoons were over, and the TV show title \"Grand Gate Mansion\" appeared on the screen. Ming Ming thought about how her mother had things to do, she had to wash the dishes, which is very tiring work, so [Ming Ming] should certainly let mother watch Grand Gate Mansion for a while, and thinking this, she ran into the kitchen. Ming Ming pulled on her mother\'s apron and said, \"Mama, your favorite show \'Grand Gate Mansion\' is starting, quick, go and watch it, I\'ll wash the dishes.\" Mother happily said, \"Great, just be careful as you\'re washing the dishes.\" Ming Ming said, \"Mama, don\'t worry!\" \r\n\r\nMother sat on the comfortable sofa and watched television, and Ming Ming was in the kitchen diligently washing dishes - that night those two had a great time! \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'I Did Something for Mom', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '785-revision-v1', '', '', '2011-09-06 18:36:43', '2011-09-06 22:36:43', '', 785, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2011/09/785-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1773, 1, '2016-11-04 06:21:55', '2016-11-04 10:21:55', 'Welp, I swore I would never do this again but I found this (and several other short stories) in Hainan Airlines\' in-flight magazine (I\'m in Prague!) and couldn\'t resist typing it up (as opposed to copy-pasting from an online source). I\'ve checked and checked for typos, but I\'m not always the best at that, so if you run across one, please comment.\n\nThis is one of those reads where the sentence structure is basic and in parts very repetitive, but quite a few advanced words are used - \"advanced\" only because they\'re not used often in casual conversation, like parts of an animal (hooves, horns, etc.) So beginners, you can give this a go if you\'re feeling very patient but you\'ll be looking up every other word in some paragraphs even though you will be able to predict generally what the next few sentences are about.\n\nI wanted to post a quick comment about the words 一箭一般, because this looks like a typical four-character idiom, but it\'s actually two separate words, 一箭 (an arrow) and 一般 (like, as if). Together this means \"like an arrow\", or in context of this sentence \"to take off (running) like a shot\". \n\nThere\'s also the phrase 从草丛中闪出. We\'re talking here about a dog that is \"[darting] out in a flash\" (闪出) \"from the middle of a cluster of grasses\" (从草丛中). We can imagine a dog charging out of a field of tall grass and into a clearing. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n
Chinese text
\n1) 傍晚，一只羊独自在山坡上玩，突然从树木中窜出一只狼来，要吃羊，羊跳起来，拼命用角抵抗，并大声向朋友们救命。\n\n2) 牛在树丛中向这个地方望了一眼，发现是狼，跑走了。\n\n3) 马低头一看，发现是狼，一溜烟跑了。\n\n4) 驴停下脚步，发现是狼，悄悄溜下山坡。\n\n5) 猪经过这里，发现是狼，冲下山坡。\n\n6) 兔子一听，更是一箭一般离去。\n\n7) 山下的狗听见羊的呼喊，急忙奔上坡来，从草丛中闪出，一下咬住了狼的脖子，狼疼得直叫唤, 趁够换气时，怆惶挑走了。\n\n8) 回到家，朋友都来了，\n牛说：你怎么不告诉我？我的角可以剜出狼的肠子。\n马说：你怎么不告诉我？我的蹄子能踢碎狼的脑袋。\n驴说：你怎么不告诉我？我一声吼叫，吓破狼的胆。\n猪说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我用嘴一拱，就让它摔下山去。\n兔子说：你怎么不告诉我？ 我跑得快，可以传信呀。\n\n9) 在这闹嚷嚷的一群中，唯独没有狗。\n\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) One nightfall, a sheep was playing alone on the mountainside, when suddenly a wolf emerged from among the trees, wanting to eat the sheep, so the sheep jumped up, using his horns to defend himself with all his might, and loudly called out for his friends to save his life.\n\n2) The bull looked over from among a cluster of trees, saw there was a wolf, and ran away.\n\n3) The horse lowered its head and looked, discovered there was a wolf, and slipped away in a puff of smoke.\n\n4) The mule stopped walking for a moment, discovered there was a wolf, and quietly slipped down the mountain.\n\n5) The pig passed through there, found out there was a wolf, and rushed down the mountainside.\n\n6) The rabbit listened a moment, then took off like a shot.\n\n7) From the bottom of the mountain, the dog heard the sheep\'s cry, and ran quickly up the mountainside, came out of the grass in a flash, and in a moment had grabbed the wolf\'s neck in his teeth, the wolf cried out in pain, and taking advantage of the dog\'s intake of breath, ran away full of sorrow and fear. [When the sheep] returned home, his friends all came over.\n\n8) The bull said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My horns could have gouged out the wolf\'s intestines.\nThe horse said: Why didn\'t you tell me? My hooves could have kicked the wolf\'s skull apart.\nDonkey said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could have brayed and startled the wolf so as to break his courage. \nPig said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I could nuzzle him with my snout, and make him fall down the mountain.\nRabbit said: Why didn\'t you tell me? I run fast, I could have spread the word.\n\n9) In this noisy group, the only one who wasn\'t present was the dog.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Fables] 沉默的狗 - The Silent Dog', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1432-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:21:55', '2016-11-04 10:21:55', '', 1432, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1432-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1776, 1, '2016-10-31 04:11:12', '2016-10-31 08:11:12', '', 'Learn to read Chinese Chengyu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'chinese-reading-exercises-idiom-devotion', '', '', '2016-10-31 04:11:38', '2016-10-31 08:11:38', '', 1526, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/chinese-reading-exercises-idiom-devotion.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1777, 1, '2016-10-31 04:13:59', '2016-10-31 08:13:59', '', 'learn-to-read-mandarin-desk-chairs', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'learn-to-read-mandarin-desk-chairs', '', '', '2016-10-31 04:14:10', '2016-10-31 08:14:10', '', 1481, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/learn-to-read-mandarin-desk-chairs.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1779, 1, '2017-03-02 06:30:22', '2017-03-02 11:30:22', 'This little anecdote takes place during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, which lasted 150 years or so (from 420 to 589 AD), and outlines the origin of the rather stalwart Chinese phrase 乘风破浪 [pinyin]cheng2 feng1 po4 lang4[/pinyin], which hints at spirited daring and ambition. Unless you regularly lay waste to English garrisons, I don\'t know how often you\'ll encounter 乘风破浪 in day-to-day conversations, but that\'s not to say it doesn\'t have its place. There are those rousing pep talks you give yourself in the bathroom mirror, for instance. \r\n\r\nUsage Examples
\r\n\r\n\r\n- 在工作上,我们要敢于乘风破浪。 - In my work, I must dare to dare.
\r\n- 这艘轮船乘风破浪驶向大海。 - This ship, braving the winds and waves, flies towards the sea.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nSome good martial vocab
\r\n勇敢 [pinyin]yong3 gan3[/pinyin] - Brave, courageous\r\n\r\n抱负 [pinyin]bao4 fu4[/pinyin] - Aspiration, ambition\r\nThis is something you have, rather than something you are, as in 很有抱负 / 没有抱负。 \r\n\r\n勤学苦练 [pinyin]qin2 xue2 ku3 lian4[/pinyin] - Study diligently and train hard\r\n\r\n奋斗 [pinyin]fen4 dou4[/pinyin] - To struggle \r\nThis word is super useful outside of any martial context. Not only does it mean \"to struggle\" in the military sense, it also means \"to struggle\" in the \"life is hard\" sense. It can be used to describe the general struggle of the daily grind: getting up, getting the kids to school, working long hours, making dinner. If, for example, a husband and wife were to say to you: \"我们奋斗了六年。\" that would mean, \"We worked our butts off for six years.\" \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 古代南北朝的时候，宋国有位将军姓宗名悫，他从小就很
勇敢，也很有
抱负。有一天，宗悫的叔父问他有什么志向，宗悫回答道：“愿乘长风，破万里浪。”意思是：我一定要突破一切障碍，勇往直前，干一番事业。宗悫经过
勤学苦练，努力
奋斗，终于成为一位能征善战的将军。\r\n\r\n2) 后来，人们就用“乘风破浪”来形容不怕困难，奋勇前进的精神。\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n
Usage Examples
\r\n\r\n\r\n- 我们要积极创造机会，而不是只会守株待兔而已。 - We have to actively create opportunities, otherwise we\'re just sitting around waiting for a stroke of luck.
\r\n- 一分耕耘一分收穫，守株待兔终究不可靠。 - You reap what you sow, passively waiting for a lucky break is an unreliable strategy in the end.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAs outlined in the first sentence of the text, this story takes place during the Warring States period (475 and 221 BC), a 250-year mess which was finally kind of resolved when legendary emperor Qin Shihuang (秦始皇) whipped everyone\'s butt and unified China for the first time. While he was doing that, on the other hand, the protagonist in our story here was farming. And then giving up farming for a career in sitting down. \r\n\r\nPay attention to...
\r\n不偏不倚 [pinyin]bu4 pian1 bu4 yi3[/pinyin] - Smack-dab\r\nIf you nab the definition directly out of the dictionary, this word makes zero sense. It translates as \"impartial\" or \"unbiased\", but in this case, it means \"straight\" or \"smack-dab\", as in \"He ran smack-dab into the door-frame\". \r\n\r\n日出而作，日入而息 - [pinyin]ri4 chu1 er zuo, ru4 ru4 er4 xi1[/pinyin]\r\nThis structure, specifically the way the character 而 is used, draws a little on ancient Chinese grammar. 而 has a ton of meanings. In this case, it connects what is done with the manner in which it is done. The manner in which something is done comes first. So 作 (do / go out) is what is done, and 日出 (when the sun comes out) is how or when it is done. 息 (rest) is what is done, and 日入 (when the sun recedes) is how or when it is done. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 相传在战国时代宋国，有一个农民，
日出而作，日入而息．遇到好年景，也不过刚刚吃饱穿暖；一遇灾荒，可就要忍饥挨饿了．他想改善生活，但他太懒，胆子又特小，干什么都是又懒又怕，总想碰到送上门来的意外之财。\r\n\r\n2) 奇迹终于发生了。深秋的一天，他正在田里耕地，周围有人在打猎。吆喝之声四处起伏，受惊的小野兽没命的奔跑。突然，有一只兔子，
不偏不倚，一头撞死在他田边的树根上。\r\n\r\n3) 当天，他美美地饱餐了一顿。从此，他便不再种地。一天到晚，守着那神奇的树根，等着奇迹的出现。\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
Usage Examples
\r\n\r\n\r\n- 学习上我们要有主次之分，千万不能买椟还珠。 - In our studies we must distinguish between primary and secondary, we certainly mustn\'t trade the pearl for the box it came in.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nPay attention to...
\r\n动脑筋 [pinyin]ding4 nao3 jin1[/pinyin] - Use your brains\r\nYes, do. \r\n\r\n身份 - [pinyin]shen4 fen4[/pinyin]\r\n身份 translates directly as \"identity\", in both the abstract and practical senses. In modern Chinese, \"身份证\" is your \"ID Card\", for example. But in this case, the English word \"identity\" doesn\'t translate well. \r\n\r\nHis (Dark?) Materials
\r\nA couple of the words in this text don\'t appear in the dictionary, or if they do, the definitions don\'t make a ton of sense. 木兰 [pinyin]mu4 lan2[/pinyin], for one example. 桂椒香料 [pinyin]gui4 jiao1 xiang1 liao4[/pinyin] for another. \r\n\r\nThe most basic definition of 木兰 is a flower - magnolia, if we\'re splitting hairs. This is also the given name of 花木兰, the Chinese warrior princess of Disney movie fame (originally a poem from the Northern Dynasties). We can assume here that this box was made from magnolia wood. 桂椒香料 uses the characters for \"cinnamon\" and \"pepper\" to make a general reference to fragrant, top-shelf spices. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 一个楚国人，他有一颗漂亮的珍珠，他打算把这颗珍珠卖出去。为了卖个好价钱，他便
动脑筋要将珍珠好好包装一下，他觉得有了高贵的包装，那么珍珠的“
身份”就自然会高起来。\r\n\r\n2) 这个楚国人找来名贵的
木兰，又请来手艺高超的匠人，为珍珠做了一个盒子（即椟），用
桂椒香料把盒子熏得香气扑鼻。然后，在盒子的外面精雕细刻了许多好看的花纹，还镶上漂亮的金属花边，看上去，闪闪发亮，实在是一件精致美观的工艺品。 \r\n\r\n3) 这样，楚人将珍珠小心翼翼地放进盒子里，拿到市场上去卖。\r\n\r\n4) 到市场上不久，很多人都围上来欣赏楚人的盒子。一个郑国人将盒子拿在手里看了半天，爱不释手，终于出高价将楚人的盒子买了下来。郑人交过钱后，便拿着盒子往回走。可是没走几步他又回来了。楚人以为郑人后悔了要退货，没等楚人想完，郑人已走到楚人跟前。只见郑人将打开的盒子里的珍珠取出来交给楚人说：“先生，您将一颗珍珠忘放在盒子里了，我特意回来还珠子的。”于是郑人将珍珠交给了楚人，然后低着头一边欣赏着木盒子，一边往回走去。\r\n\r\n5) 楚人拿着被退回的珍珠，十分尴尬地站在那里。他原本以为别人会欣赏他的珍珠，可是没想到精美的外包装超过了包装盒内的价值，以致于“喧宾夺主”，令楚人哭笑不得。\r\n\r\n6) 郑人只重外表而不顾实质，使他做出了舍本求末的不当取舍；而楚人的“过分包装”也有些可笑。\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
Usage Examples
\r\nYou\'ll often hear this idiom used as a way to politely make less of one\'s own talents, or to humbly respond to flattery. In English, 滥竽充数 might crop up in a conversation like these:\r\n\r\nA: You\'re really great at your job. \r\nB: Not at all, I\'m just a talentless hack concealed amongst masters. \r\n\r\nOr \r\n\r\nA: That guy sure can play ball. \r\nB: Please, he\'s just there to fill out the team. \r\n\r\nHere are some example usages in Chinese:\r\n\r\n老师让我们背诵课文，总有些同学滥竽充数。\r\n\"The teacher asked us to recite the text, but there\'s always some students pretending to mouth along with the rest of us.\"\r\n\r\n我从来不滥竽充数，总是认认真真做事。\r\nI\'ve never just dialed it in, I always diligently handle my affairs. \r\n\r\n竽 － Reed organs for [pinyin]yu2[/pinyin] and me
\r\nSooo, they had a lot of weird musical instruments in ancient China. This one, the [pinyin]yu2[/pinyin], was kind of like a set of panpipes. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 据《韩非子》记载，齐宣王爱听吹竽，又好
讲排场。为他吹竽的就有三百人。他常常叫这三百人一起吹竽给他听。有个南郭先生，根本就不会吹竽，看到这个机会，就到齐宣王那里去，请求参加这个吹竽队。齐宣王就把他编在吹竽队里，并且给他很高的薪水。这位根本不会吹竽的南郭先生，每逢吹竽，就混在队里，拿着竽装腔作势。这样一天天混过去，不曾被人发现。\r\n\r\n2) 等到齐宣王死了，齐泯王接替王位。他和齐宣王不同，不喜欢听大家一起吹竽，而是喜欢叫吹竽的人一个一个地来吹给他听。南郭先生听到这个消息，只好逃之夭夭，不敢再冒充吹竽人了。\r\n\r\n3)【释读】\r\n\r\n4) 西方谚语说，你可以在某时欺骗某一些人，却不能一直欺骗所有的人。南郭先生不会吹竽硬装做会吹竽，终有露出马脚之时。\r\n \r\n
See the source\r\n
Grammar: 将... 由... 到...
\r\nIn the first paragraph there, we get a slightly complex grammatical structure in this sentence: \r\n\r\n所以他们决定将笼子的高度由原来的10米加高到20米。\r\n\r\nNow, I don\'t know if real grammarians would explain it this way, but for me, three key characters link this sentence together, and once we decipher those, the whole thing makes sense. I\'m highlighting those words in Chinese first, then highlighting the corresponding words in the English translation: \r\n\r\nChinese: 所以他们决定将笼子的高度由原来的10米加高到20米。\r\n\r\nEnglish: So they decided to take the cage from its original height of 10 meters and increase it to 20 meters.\r\n\r\nSee? These three characters link the sentence together - we \"take\" (将) something \"from\" (由) one state \"to\" (到) another. Now, this \"take\" isn\'t the same as 拿 [pinyin]na2[/pinyin], where we actually pick something up with our fingers (though 将 can be used that way). This is more of a figurative \"take\". \r\n\r\nIn this sentence, 由 serves the same purpose as the slightly more familiar 从 [pinyin]cong2[/pinyin]. \r\n\r\nGo straight to the source.\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 一天动物园管理员发现袋鼠从笼子里跑出来了，于是开会讨论，一致认为是笼子的高度过低。所以他们决定将笼子的高度由原来的10米加高到20米。结果第二天他们发现袋鼠还是跑到外面来，所以他们又决定再将高度加高到30米。\r\n\r\n2) 没想到隔天居然又看到袋鼠全跑到外面，于是管理员们大为紧张，决定一不做二不休，将笼子的高度加高到100米。\r\n\r\n3) 一天长颈鹿和几只袋鼠们在闲聊。\r\n\r\n4) \"你们看，这些人会不会再继续加高你们的笼子？长颈鹿问。\r\n\r\n5) 袋鼠说∶“很难说。如果他们再继续忘记关门的话!\"\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) One day, the manager of the zoo discovered that the kangaroo had run out of his cage, so he called a meeting to discuss it, and everyone unanimously agreed that the height of the cage was too low. So they decided to take the cage from its original height of 10 meters and increase it to 20 meters. But on the second day they found that the kangaroo had gotten out again, so they decided to once again increase the height to 30 meters. \r\n\r\n2) Would know know it, but on the next day, to everyone\'s surprise, they once again saw that the kangaroos had all gotten out, so the zoo manager became quite anxious, and decided to go all out, raising the height of the cage to 100 meters. \r\n\r\n3) One day the giraffes and several kangaroos were having a leisurely chat. \r\n\r\n4) \"Look here fellas, you think these folks are going to raise the height of the cage again?\" asked a giraffe. \r\n\r\n5) A kangaroo answered, \"Hard to say. Probably will if they keep leaving the cage door open!\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n', '[Chinese Jokes] 袋鼠与笼子 - The Kangaroo and the Cage', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'chinese-jokes-%e8%a2%8b%e9%bc%a0%e4%b8%8e%e7%ac%bc%e5%ad%90-the-kangaroo-and-the-cage', '', '', '2017-01-08 03:45:02', '2017-01-08 08:45:02', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1790', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(1791, 1, '2016-10-31 05:53:45', '2016-10-31 09:53:45', '\r\n\r\n 一天动物园管理员发现袋鼠从笼子里跑出来了，于是开会讨论，一致认为是笼子的高度过低。所以他们决定将笼子的高度由原来的10米加高到20米。结果第二天他们发现袋鼠还是跑到外面来，所以他们又决定再将高度加高到30米。\r\n\r\n 没想到隔天居然又看到袋鼠全跑到外面，于是管理员们大为紧张，决定一不做二不休，将笼子的高度加高到100米。\r\n\r\n 一天长颈鹿和几只袋鼠们在闲聊，“你们看，这些人会不会再继续加高你们的笼子？长颈鹿问。“很难说。袋鼠说∶“如果他们再继续忘记关门的话！', '[Short Story] 袋鼠与笼子 - The Kangaroo and the Cage', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1790-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 05:53:45', '2016-10-31 09:53:45', '', 1790, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1790-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1792, 1, '2017-01-09 08:35:58', '2017-01-09 13:35:58', 'Tackling green recruits that are standing in the line of fire is listed as an absolute must on Time Out China\'s \"Top 10 Things to do in the Heat of Battle\". \r\n\r\nMartial vocab
\r\nWe pick up some battle-stations vocab in this paragraph, namely: \r\n\r\n- 战斗 [pinyin]zhan4 dou4[/pinyin] - fight, combat
\r\n- 上尉 [pinyin]shang4 wei4[/pinyin] - captain
\r\n- 敌机 [pinyin]di4 ji1[/pinyin] - enemy plane
\r\n- 战士 [pinyin]zhan4 shi4[/pinyin] - soldier
\r\n
\r\n\r\nWe\'ve also got a bit of a rough sentence in there at the end. I\'ve highlighted what I believe are the hard bits: \r\n\r\n他顾不上多想，一个鱼跃飞身将小战士紧紧地压在了身下。\r\n\r\nThe first part, 顾不上, means to not have the resources to attend to something. In this sentence, the resource that we don\'t have is \"time\", though the word \"time\" never explicitly appears. The second part, 一个鱼跃飞身, is a lively description of how the captain jumps towards the soldier. How does he jump? He flies like a fish leaping out of the water, his body, we can presume, horizontal in the air, parallel to the ground. So this sentence might read as:\r\n\r\nHe didn\'t have time to think, but leapt into the air like a fish flying straight at the young soldier and pressed him tightly beneath his body.\r\n\r\nReady? Cool, let\'s read.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 在一场激烈的
战斗中，
上尉忽然发现一架
敌机向阵地俯冲下来。照常理，发现敌机俯冲时要毫不犹豫地卧倒。可上尉并没有立刻卧倒，他发现离他四五米远处有一个小
战士还站在那儿。他顾不上多想，一个鱼跃飞身将小战士紧紧地压在了身下。此时一声巨响，飞溅起来的泥土纷纷落在他们的身上。上尉拍拍身上的尘土，回头一看，顿时惊呆了：刚才自己所处的那个位置被炸成了一个大坑。\r\n\r\n2)【小故事大道理】：在帮助别人的同时也帮助了自己！ \r\n\r\n
See source\r\n\r\n \r\n
被...称为... - [pinyin]bei4 ... cheng4 wei2...[/pinyin]
\r\nIn the first sentence, we see the emergence of this pretty common word group. 被, as we know, means \"by\", as in \"I was slapped in the face 被 a ginormous fish.\" 称, in this context, means \"to be called\" or \"to be named\", and 为 means \"as\". \r\n\r\nTaken together, this word group means \"To be called ... by ...\", except that in Chinese, the \"by...\" bit comes first. For example: \r\n\r\n我的想法被大家称为异想天开。\r\n\"Everyone called my idea a wild fantasy.\" / \"My idea was called a wild fantasy by everyone.\"\r\n\r\n她被老师称为得力助手的小女孩。\r\n\"The teacher called her a capable assistant.\" / \"She was called a capable assistant by the teacher.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Cool. On with the story.\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 有个渔人有着一流的捕鱼技术，被人们尊称为‘渔王’。然而‘渔王’年老的时候非常苦恼，因为他的三个儿子的渔技都很平庸。\r\n\r\n2) 于是经常向人诉说心中的苦恼：“我真不明白，我捕鱼的技术这么好，我的儿子们为什么这么差？我从他们懂事起就传授捕鱼技术给他们，从最基本的东西教起，告诉他们怎样织网最容易捕捉到鱼，怎样划船最不会惊动鱼，怎样下网最容易请鱼入瓮。他们长大了，我又教他们怎样识潮汐，等等。。。凡是我长年辛辛苦苦总结出来的经验，我都毫无保留地传授给了他们，可他们的捕鱼技术竟然赶不上技术比我差的渔民的儿子！”\r\n\r\n3) 一位路人听了他的诉说后，问：“你一直手把手地教他们吗？”\r\n\r\n4) “是的，为了让他们得到一流的捕鱼技术，我教得很仔细很耐心。”\r\n\r\n5) “他们一直跟随着你吗？”\r\n\r\n6) “是的，为了让他们少走弯路，我一直让他们跟着我学。”\r\n\r\n7) 路人说：“这样说来，你的错误就很明显了。你只传授给了他们技术，却没传授给他们教训。\r\n\r\n
See the source纷纷 - [pinyin]fen1 fen1[/pinyin]
\r\nThis word probably the most useful take-away here. It means \"one after the other\", or \"in quick succession\", but it\'s got a little bit of a messy overtone to it, like batches of things are happening around the same time. \r\n\r\nFor example, you could say, 落叶纷纷 [pinyin]luo4 ye4 fen1 fen1[/pinyin], meaning \"the leaves fell in profusion\". Leaves wouldn\'t fall off a tree in measured order, right? But they wouldn\'t all fall off in a synchronized bunch, either. They\'d kind of, you know, fall off generally around the same time, around the same season, some today, some tomorrow. Or you might also say, 同学们纷纷发言 - \"the students spoke up one after another\". \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 一个农民从洪水中救起了他的妻子，他的孩子却被淹死了。\r\n\r\n2) 事后，人们议论
纷纷。有的说他做得对，因为孩子可以再生一个，妻子却不能死而复活。有的说他做错了，因为妻子可以另娶一个，孩子却不能死而复活。\r\n\r\n3) 我听了人们的议论，也感到疑惑难决：如果只能救活一人，究竟应该救妻子呢，还是救孩子?\r\n\r\n4) 于是我去拜访那个农民，问他当时是怎么想的。\r\n\r\n5) 他答道：“我什么也没想。洪水袭来，妻子在我身过，我抓住她就往附近的山坡游。当我返回时，孩子已经被洪水冲走了。”\r\n\r\n6) 归途上，我琢磨着农民的话，对自己说：如果当时这个农民稍有迟疑，可能一个都救不了；所谓人生的抉择不少便是如此。\r\n\r\n7)【经典小故事心得】：很多事情根本没有错与对，也容不得你去细想错与对，如果过于犹豫或过于在乎别人的想法，你可能什么事也做不成。\r\n\r\nGo straight to the
source.\r\n \r\n
此鹦鹉会两门语言
\r\n\r\nLet\'s have a look:\r\n\r\nThis: 此 [pinyin]ci3[/pinyin]
\r\n\r\nChances are good you\'re familiar with the word \"这个\" [pinyin]zhe4 ge[/pinyin] (\"this\"). It\'s one of the first words we learn in Chinese, and it quickly becomes a placeholder for vocabulary we haven\'t learned yet (\"No, no, THIS. THIS.\") Thing is, 这个 is too laid-back for official documents, scholarly works or other situations that call for a bit of formality. Enter 此 [pinyin]ci3[/pinyin], which replaces \"这个\" [pinyin]zhe4 ge[/pinyin] whenever a touch of class is required. On signage, for example. \r\n\r\n会两门语言
\r\n\r\nThere are two sticking points here: One, a word has been dropped for brevity\'s sake. The meaning of 会两门语言 would perhaps be clearer if we added \"说\" here: 会说两门语言。 \r\n\r\nTwo, what is 门 [pinyin]men2[/pinyin] doing there? \"Can speak double door language?\" Nope. A different definition of 门 is being used here. You probably know 门 as a \"door\" - that\'s its most basic definition. In this case, it\'s not a \"door\", it\'s a measure word for \"languages\". \r\n\r\nSo, if we take the original sentence and convert it into colloquial Chinese, we get: \r\n\r\n这个鹦鹉会说两个语言。, or \"This parrot can speak two languages.\"
\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 一个人去买鹦鹉，看到一只鹦鹉前标：此鹦鹉会两门语言，售价二百元。\r\n\r\n2) 另一只鹦鹉前则标道：此鹦鹉会四门语言，售价四百元。\r\n\r\n3) 该买哪只呢？两只都毛色光鲜，非常灵活可爱。这人转啊转，拿不定主意。\r\n\r\n4) 结果突然发现一只老掉了牙的鹦鹉，毛色暗淡散乱，标价八百元。\r\n\r\n5) 这人赶紧将老板叫来：这只鹦鹉是不是会说八门语言？\r\n\r\n6) 店主说：不。\r\n\r\n7) 这人奇怪了：那为什么又老又丑，又没有能力，会值这个数呢？\r\n\r\n8) 店主回答：因为另外两只鹦鹉叫这只鹦鹉老板。\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n
Versatile 只 [pinyin]zhi3[/pinyin]
\r\nThe character 只 might throw you for a bit of a loop in this passage. You\'ll see it used twice, but the definitions are different each time. \r\n\r\nIn the first sentence, we see 只 used as a measure word which is used, among other things, for certain four-legged animals, most notably cats, dogs and birds. So \"一只大老虎\" simply means \"a large tiger\". \r\n\r\nIn the last sentence, we see 只 again, but this time it means \"only / merely\". In this case, it\'s pared with 要 [pinyin]yao4[/pinyin], which also has several meanings. 要 can mean \"to want\", as in \"我要出去\" (\"I want to go out\"), and that\'s usually the first definition of 要 that we learn as beginners. But here, it means \"must / have to / need to\". So 只要 means \"...only have to...\" or \"... merely need to ...\" . \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 两个人在森林里，遇到了一只大老虎。\r\n2) A就赶紧从背后取下一双更轻便的运动鞋换上。\r\n3) B急死了，骂道：“你干嘛呢?再换鞋也跑不过老虎啊！”\r\n4) A说：“我只要跑得比你快就好了。” \r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
\r\n
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\r\nWhy, 您好 there. You\'ve stumbled upon the inter-webz\'s most popular blog of Simplified Chinese reading exercises. I\'m Kendra (more about the CRP origin story here), and this is my tiny little kingdom. I publish one freebie post a week, but members get a new post every day, Monday-Friday, and the ability to save favorite posts. \r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the pay-to-play membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while the Member\'s Only library accumulates content. Introductory rates will be available until March 15, 2017, after which, my lovelies, subscriptions will go up to $5 bucks a month. Anyone who jumps on the early train will have their lower price locked in for life. Get while the gettin\'s good. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nNew posts are published daily between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post or \"Deep Dive\" (exploration of a themed topic). That\'s five new posts a week (plus one freebie, so six total).\r\n\r\nMember\'s Only Li-bibbly
\r\nYou\'ll also get access to all previous Member\'s Only posts, but as I said, as of December 2016, it\'s a meager collection. It is, however, growing daily. \r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time via your My Account area. \r\n\r\nQuestions?
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(2533, 1, '2016-11-18 23:51:42', '2016-11-19 04:51:42', ' ', '', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2533', '', '', '2016-11-18 23:51:44', '2016-11-19 04:51:44', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2533', 6, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
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(1853, 1, '2016-10-31 22:02:57', '2016-11-01 02:02:57', 'asdfasdfasdf', 'Test Blog Post', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'test-blog-post', '', '', '2016-10-31 22:02:57', '2016-11-01 02:02:57', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?post_type=blogentries&p=1853', 0, 'blog', '', 0),
(1868, 1, '2016-11-01 01:02:40', '2016-11-01 05:02:40', ' 两个人在森林里，遇到了一只大老虎。A就赶紧从背后取下一双更轻便的运动鞋换上。B急死了，骂道：“你干嘛呢，再换鞋也跑不过老虎啊！”\r\nA说：“我只要跑得比你快就好了。” ', '[Chinese Jokes] 当老虎来临时 - The Tiger Approaches', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1867-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-01 01:02:40', '2016-11-01 05:02:40', '', 1867, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1867-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(2554, 1, '2016-11-19 01:35:11', '2016-11-19 06:35:11', '\r\n\r\n
Join Monthly: $3.50 / mo
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\r\nWhy, 您好 there. You\'ve stumbled upon the inter-webz\'s most popular blog of Simplified Chinese reading exercises. I\'m Kendra (more about the CRP origin story here), and this is my tiny little kingdom. I publish one freebie post a week, but members get a new post every day, Monday-Friday, and the ability to save favorite posts. \r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the pay-to-play membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while the Member\'s Only library accumulates content. Introductory rates will be available until March 15, 2017, after which, my lovelies, subscriptions will go up to $5 bucks a month. Anyone who jumps on the early train will have their lower price locked in for life. Get while the gettin\'s good. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nNew posts are published daily between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post or \"Deep Dive\" (exploration of a themed topic). That\'s five new posts a week (plus one freebie, so six total).\r\n\r\nMember\'s Only Li-bibbly
\r\nYou\'ll also get access to all previous Member\'s Only posts, but as I said, as of December 2016, it\'s a meager collection. It is, however, growing daily. \r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time via your My Account area. \r\n\r\nQuestions?
\r\nYou can get in touch with me here. asdfasdfasdf', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-19 01:35:11', '2016-11-19 06:35:11', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
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(1854, 1, '2016-10-31 22:02:57', '2016-11-01 02:02:57', 'asdfasdfasdf', 'Test Blog Post', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1853-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 22:02:57', '2016-11-01 02:02:57', '', 1853, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1853-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1862, 1, '2016-11-11 02:37:19', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'http://www.nipic.com/show/795493.html', '[Communist Kitch] Understanding Chinese Cultural Revolution Propaganda Posters', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-11 02:37:19', '2016-11-11 07:37:19', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1862', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(1856, 1, '2016-10-31 22:45:35', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', ' 曾经有个小国到中国来，进贡了三个一模一样的金人，金碧辉煌，把皇帝高兴坏了。可是这小国不厚道，同时出一道题目：这三个金人哪个最有价值?\r\n 皇帝想了许多的办法，请来珠宝匠检查，称重量，看做工，都是一模一样的。怎么办?使者还等着回去汇报呢。泱泱大国，不会连这个小事都不懂吧?\r\n 最后，有一位退位的老大臣说他有办法。\r\n 皇帝将使者请到大殿，老臣胸有成足地拿着三根稻草，插入第一个金人的耳朵里，这稻草从另一边耳朵出来了。第二个金人的稻草从嘴巴里直接掉出来，而第三个金人，稻草进去后掉进了肚子，什么响动也没有。老臣说：第三个金人最有价值!使者默默无语，答案正确。 ', '[Fable] 三个金人 - The Three Golden Statues', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-10-31 22:45:35', '2016-11-01 02:45:35', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1856', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(1857, 1, '2016-10-31 22:45:35', '2016-11-01 02:45:35', ' 曾经有个小国到中国来，进贡了三个一模一样的金人，金碧辉煌，把皇帝高兴坏了。可是这小国不厚道，同时出一道题目：这三个金人哪个最有价值?\r\n 皇帝想了许多的办法，请来珠宝匠检查，称重量，看做工，都是一模一样的。怎么办?使者还等着回去汇报呢。泱泱大国，不会连这个小事都不懂吧?\r\n 最后，有一位退位的老大臣说他有办法。\r\n 皇帝将使者请到大殿，老臣胸有成足地拿着三根稻草，插入第一个金人的耳朵里，这稻草从另一边耳朵出来了。第二个金人的稻草从嘴巴里直接掉出来，而第三个金人，稻草进去后掉进了肚子，什么响动也没有。老臣说：第三个金人最有价值!使者默默无语，答案正确。 ', '[Fable] 三个金人 - The Three Golden Statues', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1856-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-10-31 22:45:35', '2016-11-01 02:45:35', '', 1856, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/10/1856-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
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(1859, 1, '2016-11-01 00:40:18', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'http://www.nipic.com/show/795493.html', '[The CRP Blog] Imperialist Running Dogs & Capitalist Roaders: Understanding Chinese Cultural Revolution Posters', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-01 00:40:18', '2016-11-01 04:40:18', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?post_type=blog&p=1859', 0, 'blog', '', 0),
(1860, 1, '2016-11-01 00:40:18', '2016-11-01 04:40:18', 'http://www.nipic.com/show/795493.html', '[The CRP Blog] Imperialist Running Dogs & Capitalist Roaders: Understanding Chinese Cultural Revolution Posters', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1859-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-01 00:40:18', '2016-11-01 04:40:18', '', 1859, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1859-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
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(1863, 1, '2016-11-01 00:44:26', '2016-11-01 04:44:26', 'http://www.nipic.com/show/795493.html', '[Communist Kitch] Understanding Chinese Cultural Revolution Propaganda Posters', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1862-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-01 00:44:26', '2016-11-01 04:44:26', '', 1862, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1862-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1864, 1, '2016-11-01 00:48:16', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', '', '[Ancient Chinese] An Officer and a 君子: the Art of Being a Chinese Gentleman', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-01 00:48:16', '2016-11-01 04:48:16', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1864', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(1865, 1, '2016-11-01 00:47:16', '2016-11-01 04:47:16', '', '[Ancient Chinese] An Officer and a 君子: a Chinese Gentleman', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1864-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-01 00:47:16', '2016-11-01 04:47:16', '', 1864, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1864-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1866, 1, '2016-11-01 00:48:16', '2016-11-01 04:48:16', '', '[Ancient Chinese] An Officer and a 君子: the Art of Being a Chinese Gentleman', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1864-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-01 00:48:16', '2016-11-01 04:48:16', '', 1864, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1864-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1867, 1, '2017-01-21 07:33:29', '2017-01-21 12:33:29', 'Chances are pretty good you\'ve heard this conversation between \"A\" and \"B\" before in your native language, and you may recognize the joke right away. Not really a thigh-slapper, this. More of a sad commentary on the state of human empathy. \r\n\r\nVersatile 只 [pinyin]zhi3[/pinyin]
\r\nThe character 只 might throw you for a bit of a loop in this passage. You\'ll see it used twice, but the definitions are different each time. \r\n\r\nIn the first sentence, we see 只 used as a measure word which is used, among other things, for certain four-legged animals, most notably cats, dogs and birds. So \"一只大老虎\" simply means \"a large tiger\". (Don\'t known what a measure word is? Read this.)\r\n\r\nIn the last sentence, we see 只 again, but this time it means \"only / merely\". In this case, it\'s pared with 要 [pinyin]yao4[/pinyin], which also has several meanings. 要 can mean \"to want\", as in \"我要出去\" (\"I want to go out\"), and that\'s usually the first definition of 要 that we learn as beginners. But here, it means \"must / have to / need to\". So 只要 means \"...only have to...\" or \"... merely need to ...\" . \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 两个人在森林里，遇到了一只大老虎。\r\n2) A就赶紧从背后取下一双更轻便的运动鞋换上。\r\n3) B急死了，骂道：“你干嘛呢?再换鞋也跑不过老虎啊！”\r\n4) A说：“我只要跑得比你快就好了。” \r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
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\nWhy, 您好 there. You\'ve stumbled upon the inter-webz\'s most popular blog of Simplified Chinese reading exercises. I\'m Kendra (more about the CRP origin story here), and this is my tiny little kingdom. I publish one freebie post a week, but members get a new post every day, Monday-Friday, and the ability to save favorite posts. \n\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the pay-to-play membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while the Member\'s Only library accumulates content. Introductory rates will be available until March 15, 2017, after which, my lovelies, subscriptions will go up to $5 bucks a month. Anyone who jumps on the early train will have their lower price locked in for life. Get while the gettin\'s good. \n\nPost schedules
\nNew posts are published daily between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post or \"Deep Dive\" (exploration of a themed topic). That\'s five new posts a week (plus one freebie, so six total).\n\nMember\'s Only Li-bibbly
\nYou\'ll also get access to the Member\'s Only post library, but as I said, as of December 2016, it\'s a meager collection. It is, however, growing daily. \n\nBilling
\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time via your My Account area. \n\nQuestions?
\nYou can get in touch with me here. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-19 03:48:37', '2016-11-19 08:48:37', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1975, 1, '2016-11-04 01:00:47', '2016-11-04 05:00:47', 'A very short children\'s story about a bear\'s search for a new home. \r\n\r\nSource: GuShi365.com\r\n\r\n
\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n小熊一家住在山洞里。熊爷爷对小熊说,“你去造间木头房子住吧!\"\r\n\r\n春天，小熊走进树林。树上长满了绿叶，他舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n夏天，小熊又走进了树林。树上开满了鲜花，小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n秋天，小熊走进树林，树上挂满了果实。小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n冬天，小熊走进了树林。树上站着许多小鸟，小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n一年又一年，小熊没有砍树造房子，还是高高兴兴地住在山洞里……\r\n\r\n树林里的小动物非常感谢小熊，他们送给小熊一束束美丽的鲜花.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nLittle bear lived in a mountain cave. Grandfather bear said to Little Bear: \"Go and build a wooden house to live in!\"\r\n\r\nIn spring, little bear went into the forest. The trees were full of green leaves, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\nIn summer, little bear again went into the forest. The trees were full of fresh flowers, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\nIn autumn, little bear went into the forest. The trees were full of hanging fruit, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\nIn winter, little bear went into the forest. Many little birds were living in the trees, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\nYears passed, and little bear still hadn\'t made a home out of the trees. He was still living happily in his mountain cave.\r\n\r\nThe little forest animals thanked Little Bear very much, and they gave him a bunch of beautiful fresh flowers.\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/one_half]', '[Children\'s Stories] 小熊住山洞 - Little Bear Lived in a Mountain Cave', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '7-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 01:00:47', '2016-11-04 05:00:47', '', 7, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/7-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1974, 1, '2016-11-04 01:00:14', '2016-11-04 05:00:14', 'A very short children\'s story about a bear\'s search for a new home. \r\n\r\nSource: GuShi365.com\r\n\r\n
\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n小熊一家住在山洞里。熊爷爷对小熊说,“你去造间木头房子住吧!\"\r\n\r\n春天，小熊走进树林。树上长满了绿叶，他舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n夏天，小熊又走进了树林。树上开满了鲜花，小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n秋天，小熊走进树林，树上挂满了果实。小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n冬天，小熊走进了树林。树上站着许多小鸟，小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n一年又一年，小熊没有砍树造房子，还是高高兴兴地住在山洞里……\r\n\r\n树林里的小动物非常感谢小熊，他们送给小熊一束束美丽的鲜花.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nLittle bear lived in a mountain cave. Grandfather bear said to Little Bear: \"Go and build a wooden house to live in!\"\r\n\r\nIn spring, little bear went into the forest. The trees were full of green leaves, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\nIn summer, little bear again went into the forest. The trees were full of fresh flowers, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\nIn autumn, little bear went into the forest. The trees were full of hanging fruit, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\nIn winter, little bear went into the forest. Many little birds were living in the trees, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\nYears passed, and little bear still hadn\'t made a home out of the trees. He was still living happily in his mountain cave.\r\n\r\nThe little forest animals thanked Little Bear very much, and they gave him a bunch of beautiful fresh flowers.\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/one_half]', '[Children\'s Stories] 小熊住山洞 - Little Bear Lived in a Mountain Cave', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '7-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 01:00:14', '2016-11-04 05:00:14', '', 7, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/7-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1976, 1, '2016-11-04 01:01:11', '2016-11-04 05:01:11', 'A very short children\'s story about a bear\'s search for a new home. \r\n\r\nSource: GuShi365.com\r\n\r\n
\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n小熊一家住在山洞里。熊爷爷对小熊说,“你去造间木头房子住吧!\"\r\n\r\n春天，小熊走进树林。树上长满了绿叶，他舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n夏天，小熊又走进了树林。树上开满了鲜花，小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n秋天，小熊走进树林，树上挂满了果实。小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n冬天，小熊走进了树林。树上站着许多小鸟，小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n一年又一年，小熊没有砍树造房子，还是高高兴兴地住在山洞里……\r\n\r\n树林里的小动物非常感谢小熊，他们送给小熊一束束美丽的鲜花.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nLittle bear lived in a mountain cave. Grandfather bear said to Little Bear: \"Go and build a wooden house to live in!\"\r\n\r\nIn spring, little bear went into the forest. The trees were full of green leaves, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\nIn summer, little bear again went into the forest. The trees were full of fresh flowers, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\nIn autumn, little bear went into the forest. The trees were full of hanging fruit, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\nIn winter, little bear went into the forest. Many little birds were living in the trees, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\nYears passed, and little bear still hadn\'t made a home out of the trees. He was still living happily in his mountain cave.\r\n\r\nThe little forest animals thanked Little Bear very much, and they gave him a bunch of beautiful fresh flowers.\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Story] 小熊住山洞 - Little Bear Lived in a Mountain Cave', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '7-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 01:01:11', '2016-11-04 05:01:11', '', 7, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/7-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1981, 1, '2012-02-11 00:05:24', '2012-02-11 05:05:24', '[two_third]\r\n\r\nA passage from a BLCU textbook in which a university student laments about catching a cold. This essay focuses on mostly illness-centric beginner language, such as 感冒 [pinyin]gan3 mao4[/pinyin], meaning \"to have a cold\"， and 打针 [pinyin]da3 zhen1[/pinyin], meaning \"to get an IV drip or shot\".\r\n\r\nLest it seems a little dramatic to you that the writer would go to the hospital over a 24-hour cold, the Chinese typically don\'t use private clinics (except in the case of accupuncture and massage), and commonly go to the hospital for almost every health-related issue, including colds and small fevers.\r\n\r\nOf special interest is the phrase \"还开了一些药\", or \"and also prescribed me some medicine\". Literally, it says, \"Also opened a bit of medicine\". But the word 开 [pinyin]kai1[/pinyin], which usually means \"open\", is also the verb used to describe a doctor writing a perscription. This tells us that the doctor didn\'t give (给[pinyin]gei3[/pinyin]) the student any medicine himself, but perscribed it instead.\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Interesting Vocabulary
\r\n发烧 - [pinyin]fa1 shao1[/pinyin] - Have a fever\r\n咳嗽 - [pinyin]ke2 sou5[/pinyin] - Cough\r\n同学 - [pinyin]tong2 xue2[/pinyin] - Classmates\r\n寂寞 - [pinyin]ji4 mo4[/pinyin] - Lonely\r\n不舒服 - [pinyin]bu4 shu1 fu5[/pinyin] - Feel unwell, uncomfortable\r\n检查 - [pinyin]jian3 cha2[/pinyin] - Check, examine\r\n果然 - [pinyin]guo3 ran2[/pinyin] - Sure enough\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
[one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n我病了。 头疼，发烧，嗓子也疼，不想吃东西，晚上咳嗽的很厉害。 上午同学们都去上课了，我一个人在宿舍里，感到很寂寞。 寂寞了就容易想家。 我家里人很多，有哥哥，姐姐，还有一个弟弟。 在家的时候，我们常一起玩儿。 现在，我在北京学习汉语，寂寞的时候就常常想他们。\r\n\r\n因为不舒服，所以我今天起得很晚。 起了床就去医院了。 大夫给我检查了一下儿，说我感冒了。 给我打了一针，还开了一些药。 他说，吃了药病就好了。\r\n\r\n老师和同学们知道我病了，都来看我。 林老师听说我不想吃东西，还做了一碗面条给我吃。 吃了面条，身上出了很多汗，老师说，出了汗可能不发烧了。\r\n\r\n下午，果然不发烧了，喜庆也好了。 我用 Ｅｍａｉｌ 个我姐姐发了一封信。 我说，我在这儿生活得很好，我有很好的老师，还有很多好同学，好朋友，和他们在一起，我感到很愉快。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nI\'m sick. My head hurts, I have a fever, my throat also hurts, I don\'t want to eat anything, and at night I have a serious cough. In the morning my classmates all went to class, and I was the only one left in the dormitory. I feel very lonely. When you\'re lonely, it\'s easy to miss home. I have a lot of family members - an older brother, older sister, and also a younger brother. When I\'m at home, we often play together. Right now, I\'m in Beijing studying Chinese, and when I\'m lonely I miss them.\r\n\r\nBecause I don\'t feel well, I got up late today. When I got up, I went to the hospital. The doctor gave me a quick checkup and said I have a cold. He gave me one shot [also: IV drip], and also prescribed some medicine. He said, take the medicine and you\'ll get better.\r\n\r\nMy teacher and classmates know I\'m sick, so they all came to see me. Teacher Lin heard that I didn\'t want to eat anything, so she made me a bowl of noodles. After I ate the noodles, I began to pour sweat. Teacher said, if you sweat, maybe your fever will go away.\r\n\r\nIn the afternoon, sure enough my fever was gone, and I was in a good mood. I emailed my older sister. I said, I have a very good life here, I have a good teacher and good classmates and good friends, and all together they make me very happy.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Feeling Sick', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '139-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-02-11 00:05:24', '2012-02-11 05:05:24', '', 139, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/02/139-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1986, 1, '2016-11-04 03:09:38', '2016-11-04 07:09:38', 'This short essay, taken from the Beijing Language and Culture University beginner comprehension textbook, is written from the perspective of a friend visiting Jiang Ping （江苹） before she leaves the country. The language is mostly school-centric as the writer discusses his classmates, Jiang Ping\'s scholarship, and her test results.\r\n\r\nThe crux of the last paragraph hinges on the fact that the Chinese word for \"Goodbye\" (再见) literally translates as \"See you again\", as the writer wonders when or if he\'ll ever really see Jiang Ping again.\r\n\r\n
[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n今天我去江苹家了。 我和江苹是中学同学， 她是我的好朋友， 也是我们全班同学的朋友。 她学习非常努力， 是我们班学习最好的学生。 她会学习， 她会玩儿， 还常常帮助别人， 老师和同学都很喜欢她。 她这次参加了美国一个大学考试。 这个考试非常难，但是她考得很好，得了满分。 听说全世界只有三个学生得满分。 这个大学给江苹最高的奖学金。 我们都为她感到高兴。\r\n\r\n她下星期要去美国留学， 我们班的同学都去看她， 给他送行。\r\n\r\n江苹的家在城东边， 离我家比较远。 我下午四点多就从家里出发了， 五点半才到。 我到的时候， 同学们都已经到了。\r\n\r\n江苹很热情地欢迎我们。 同学们好久不见了， 见面以后高兴得又说又笑， 谈得很愉快。 我们预祝江苹成功。 祝她一路平安。 我说， 一定要常来信啊。 江苹说，一定。 跟她说 “再见” 的时候， 她哭了， 我也哭了。\r\n\r\n回家的路上， 我想， 我们常常说 “再见”， 但是， 有时候 “再见” 是很难的。 我和江苹什么时候能 “再见” 呢？\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nToday I\'m going to Jiang Ping\'s house. Jiang Ping and I are highschool classmates. She\'s my good friend, and she\'s also good friends with everyone in our class. She studies very hard, she\'s the best student in our class. She studies, she plays, and she also often helps others. The teacher and the other students like her. She recently participated in an examination for an American college. That test is very hard, but she did very well - she earned full marks. I heard that only three people in the whole world got full marks. This college gave Jiang Ping their highest scholarship. We\'re all very happy for her.\r\n\r\nNext week she\'s going to study abroad in America, and all our classmates are going to see her off.\r\n\r\nJiang Ping\'s house is on the east side of the city very far away from mine. I left my house a little after four o\'clock in the afternoon, and didn\'t get there until 5:30. When I arrived, the rest of our classmates were already there.\r\n\r\nJiang Ping warmly welcomed us. She hadn\'t seen her classmates in a while, and after she greeted us, we talked and smiled, chatting happily. We wished Jiang Ping success. Wished her a pleasant trip. I said, Be sure to write often. Jiang Ping said, Of course. When she said \"Goodbye\", she cried, and I also cried.\r\n\r\nOn my way home, I thought, We often say \"Goodbye\" [lit: see you again], but sometimes \"Goodbye\" is sad. When will Jiang Ping and I be able to see each other again?\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essay] 江苹去留学 - Jiang Ping Goes to Study Abroad', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '67-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 03:09:38', '2016-11-04 07:09:38', '', 67, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/67-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1985, 1, '2016-11-04 03:08:07', '2016-11-04 07:08:07', 'This short essay, taken from the Beijing Language and Culture University beginner comprehension textbook, is written from the perspective of a friend visiting Jiang Ping （江苹） before she leaves the country. The language is mostly school-centric as the writer discusses his classmates, Jiang Ping\'s scholarship, and her test results.\r\n\r\nThe crux of the last paragraph hinges on the fact that the Chinese word for \"Goodbye\" (再见) literally translates as \"See you again\", as the writer wonders when or if he\'ll ever really see Jiang Ping again.\r\n\r\n
[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n今天我去江苹家了。 我和江苹是中学同学， 她是我的好朋友， 也是我们全班同学的朋友。 她学习非常努力， 是我们班学习最好的学生。 她会学习， 她会玩儿， 还常常帮助别人， 老师和同学都很喜欢她。 她这次参加了美国一个大学考试。 这个考试非常难，但是她考得很好，得了满分。 听说全世界只有三个学生得满分。 这个大学给江苹最高的奖学金。 我们都为她感到高兴。\r\n\r\n她下星期要去美国留学， 我们班的同学都去看她， 给他送行。\r\n\r\n江苹的家在城东边， 离我家比较远。 我下午四点多就从家里出发了， 五点半才到。 我到的时候， 同学们都已经到了。\r\n\r\n江苹很热情地欢迎我们。 同学们好久不见了， 见面以后高兴得又说又笑， 谈得很愉快。 我们预祝江苹成功。 祝她一路平安。 我说， 一定要常来信啊。 江苹说，一定。 跟她说 “再见” 的时候， 她哭了， 我也哭了。\r\n\r\n回家的路上， 我想， 我们常常说 “再见”， 但是， 有时候 “再见” 是很难的。 我和江苹什么时候能 “再见” 呢？\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nToday I\'m going to Jiang Ping\'s house. Jiang Ping and I are highschool classmates. She\'s my good friend, and she\'s also good friends with everyone in our class. She studies very hard, she\'s the best student in our class. She studies, she plays, and she also often helps others. The teacher and the other students like her. She recently participated in an examination for an American college. That test is very hard, but she did very well - she earned full marks. I heard that only three people in the whole world got full marks. This college gave Jiang Ping their highest scholarship. We\'re all very happy for her.\r\n\r\nNext week she\'s going to study abroad in America, and all our classmates are going to see her off.\r\n\r\nJiang Ping\'s house is on the east side of the city very far away from mine. I left my house a little after four o\'clock in the afternoon, and didn\'t get there until 5:30. When I arrived, the rest of our classmates were already there.\r\n\r\nJiang Ping warmly welcomed us. She hadn\'t seen her classmates in a while, and after she greeted us, we talked and smiled, chatting happily. We wished Jiang Ping success. Wished her a pleasant trip. I said, Be sure to write often. Jiang Ping said, Of course. When she said \"Goodbye\", she cried, and I also cried.\r\n\r\nOn my way home, I thought, We often say \"Goodbye\" [lit: see you again], but sometimes \"Goodbye\" is sad. When will Jiang Ping and I be able to see each other again?\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 江苹去留学 - Jiang Ping Goes to Study Abroad', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '67-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 03:08:07', '2016-11-04 07:08:07', '', 67, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/67-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1989, 1, '2016-11-04 03:16:01', '2016-11-04 07:16:01', 'This short essay, taken from the Beijing Language and Culture University beginner comprehension textbook, is written from the perspective of a friend visiting Jiang Ping （江苹） before she leaves the country. The language is mostly school-centric as the writer discusses his classmates, Jiang Ping\'s scholarship, and her test results.\r\n\r\nThe crux of the last paragraph hinges on the fact that the Chinese word for \"Goodbye\" (再见) literally translates as \"See you again\", as the writer wonders when or if he\'ll ever really see Jiang Ping again.\r\n\r\n
[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n今天我去江苹家了。 我和江苹是中学同学， 她是我的好朋友， 也是我们全班同学的朋友。 她学习非常努力， 是我们班学习最好的学生。 她会学习， 她会玩儿， 还常常帮助别人， 老师和同学都很喜欢她。 她这次参加了美国一个大学考试。 这个考试非常难，但是她考得很好，得了满分。 听说全世界只有三个学生得满分。 这个大学给江苹最高的奖学金。 我们都为她感到高兴。\r\n\r\n她下星期要去美国留学， 我们班的同学都去看她， 给他送行。\r\n\r\n江苹的家在城东边， 离我家比较远。 我下午四点多就从家里出发了， 五点半才到。 我到的时候， 同学们都已经到了。\r\n\r\n江苹很热情地欢迎我们。 同学们好久不见了， 见面以后高兴得又说又笑， 谈得很愉快。 我们预祝江苹成功。 祝她一路平安。 我说， 一定要常来信啊。 江苹说，一定。 跟她说 “再见” 的时候， 她哭了， 我也哭了。\r\n\r\n回家的路上， 我想， 我们常常说 “再见”， 但是， 有时候 “再见” 是很难的。 我和江苹什么时候能 “再见” 呢？\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nToday I\'m going to Jiang Ping\'s house. Jiang Ping and I are highschool classmates. She\'s my good friend, and she\'s also good friends with everyone in our class. She studies very hard, she\'s the best student in our class. She studies, she plays, and she also often helps others. The teacher and the other students like her. She recently participated in an examination for an American college. That test is very hard, but she did very well - she earned full marks. I heard that only three people in the whole world got full marks. This college gave Jiang Ping their highest scholarship. We\'re all very happy for her.\r\n\r\nNext week she\'s going to study abroad in America, and all our classmates are going to see her off.\r\n\r\nJiang Ping\'s house is on the east side of the city very far away from mine. I left my house a little after four o\'clock in the afternoon, and didn\'t get there until 5:30. When I arrived, the rest of our classmates were already there.\r\n\r\nJiang Ping warmly welcomed us. She hadn\'t seen her classmates in a while, and after she greeted us, we talked and smiled, chatting happily. We wished Jiang Ping success. Wished her a pleasant trip. I said, Be sure to write often. Jiang Ping said, Of course. When she said \"Goodbye\", she cried, and I also cried.\r\n\r\nOn my way home, I thought, We often say \"Goodbye\" [lit: see you again], but sometimes \"Goodbye\" is sad. When will Jiang Ping and I be able to see each other again?\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essay] 江苹去留学 - Jiang Ping Goes to Study Abroad', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '67-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 03:16:01', '2016-11-04 07:16:01', '', 67, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/67-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1990, 1, '2016-11-04 03:16:04', '2016-11-04 07:16:04', 'A very short children\'s story about a bear\'s search for a new home. \r\n\r\nSource: GuShi365.com\r\n\r\n
\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n小熊一家住在山洞里。熊爷爷对小熊说,“你去造间木头房子住吧!\"\r\n\r\n春天，小熊走进树林。树上长满了绿叶，他舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n夏天，小熊又走进了树林。树上开满了鲜花，小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n秋天，小熊走进树林，树上挂满了果实。小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n冬天，小熊走进了树林。树上站着许多小鸟，小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n一年又一年，小熊没有砍树造房子，还是高高兴兴地住在山洞里……\r\n\r\n树林里的小动物非常感谢小熊，他们送给小熊一束束美丽的鲜花.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nLittle bear lived in a mountain cave. Grandfather bear said to Little Bear: \"Go and build a wooden house to live in!\"\r\n\r\nIn spring, little bear went into the forest. The trees were full of green leaves, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\nIn summer, little bear again went into the forest. The trees were full of fresh flowers, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\nIn autumn, little bear went into the forest. The trees were full of hanging fruit, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\nIn winter, little bear went into the forest. Many little birds were living in the trees, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\nYears passed, and little bear still hadn\'t made a home out of the trees. He was still living happily in his mountain cave.\r\n\r\nThe little forest animals thanked Little Bear very much, and they gave him a bunch of beautiful fresh flowers.\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Story] 小熊住山洞 - Little Bear Lived in a Mountain Cave', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '7-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 03:16:04', '2016-11-04 07:16:04', '', 7, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/7-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1992, 1, '2016-11-04 03:19:45', '2016-11-04 07:19:45', 'This short essay, taken from the Beijing Language and Culture University beginner comprehension textbook, is written from the perspective of a friend visiting Jiang Ping （江苹） before she leaves the country. The language is mostly school-centric as the writer discusses his classmates, Jiang Ping\'s scholarship, and her test results.\r\n\r\nThe crux of the last paragraph hinges on the fact that the Chinese word for \"Goodbye\" (再见) literally translates as \"See you again\", as the writer wonders when or if he\'ll ever really see Jiang Ping again.\r\n\r\n
[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n今天我去江苹家了。 我和江苹是中学同学， 她是我的好朋友， 也是我们全班同学的朋友。 她学习非常努力， 是我们班学习最好的学生。 她会学习， 她会玩儿， 还常常帮助别人， 老师和同学都很喜欢她。 她这次参加了美国一个大学考试。 这个考试非常难，但是她考得很好，得了满分。 听说全世界只有三个学生得满分。 这个大学给江苹最高的奖学金。 我们都为她感到高兴。\r\n\r\n她下星期要去美国留学， 我们班的同学都去看她， 给他送行。\r\n\r\n江苹的家在城东边， 离我家比较远。 我下午四点多就从家里出发了， 五点半才到。 我到的时候， 同学们都已经到了。\r\n\r\n江苹很热情地欢迎我们。 同学们好久不见了， 见面以后高兴得又说又笑， 谈得很愉快。 我们预祝江苹成功。 祝她一路平安。 我说， 一定要常来信啊。 江苹说，一定。 跟她说 “再见” 的时候， 她哭了， 我也哭了。\r\n\r\n回家的路上， 我想， 我们常常说 “再见”， 但是， 有时候 “再见” 是很难的。 我和江苹什么时候能 “再见” 呢？\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nToday I\'m going to Jiang Ping\'s house. Jiang Ping and I are highschool classmates. She\'s my good friend, and she\'s also good friends with everyone in our class. She studies very hard, she\'s the best student in our class. She studies, she plays, and she also often helps others. The teacher and the other students like her. She recently participated in an examination for an American college. That test is very hard, but she did very well - she earned full marks. I heard that only three people in the whole world got full marks. This college gave Jiang Ping their highest scholarship. We\'re all very happy for her.\r\n\r\nNext week she\'s going to study abroad in America, and all our classmates are going to see her off.\r\n\r\nJiang Ping\'s house is on the east side of the city very far away from mine. I left my house a little after four o\'clock in the afternoon, and didn\'t get there until 5:30. When I arrived, the rest of our classmates were already there.\r\n\r\nJiang Ping warmly welcomed us. She hadn\'t seen her classmates in a while, and after she greeted us, we talked and smiled, chatting happily. We wished Jiang Ping success. Wished her a pleasant trip. I said, Be sure to write often. Jiang Ping said, Of course. When she said \"Goodbye\", she cried, and I also cried.\r\n\r\nOn my way home, I thought, We often say \"Goodbye\" [lit: see you again], but sometimes \"Goodbye\" is sad. When will Jiang Ping and I be able to see each other again?\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 江苹去留学 - Jiang Ping Goes to Study Abroad', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '67-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 03:19:45', '2016-11-04 07:19:45', '', 67, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/67-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1993, 1, '2016-11-04 03:20:37', '2016-11-04 07:20:37', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Intermediate Chinese Books with English Translation', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'learn-to-read-mandarin-chinese-white-hair-black-beard', '', '', '2016-11-04 03:30:21', '2016-11-04 07:30:21', '', 287, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/learn-to-read-mandarin-chinese-white-hair-black-beard.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1994, 1, '2016-11-04 03:32:01', '2016-11-04 07:32:01', 'This short essay, taken from the Beijing Language and Culture University beginner comprehension textbook, is written from the perspective of a friend visiting Jiang Ping （江苹） before she leaves the country. The language is mostly school-centric as the writer discusses his classmates, Jiang Ping\'s scholarship, and her test results.\r\n\r\nThe crux of the last paragraph hinges on the fact that the Chinese word for \"Goodbye\" (再见) literally translates as \"See you again\", as the writer wonders when or if he\'ll ever really see Jiang Ping again.\r\n\r\n
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Chinese Text
\r\n1) 今天我去江苹家了。 我和江苹是中学同学， 她是我的好朋友， 也是我们全班同学的朋友。 她学习非常努力， 是我们班学习最好的学生。 她会学习， 她会玩儿， 还常常帮助别人， 老师和同学都很喜欢她。 她这次参加了美国一个大学考试。 这个考试非常难，但是她考得很好，得了满分。 听说全世界只有三个学生得满分。 这个大学给江苹最高的奖学金。 我们都为她感到高兴。\r\n\r\n2) 她下星期要去美国留学， 我们班的同学都去看她， 给他送行。\r\n\r\n3) 江苹的家在城东边， 离我家比较远。 我下午四点多就从家里出发了， 五点半才到。 我到的时候， 同学们都已经到了。\r\n\r\n4) 江苹很热情地欢迎我们。 同学们好久不见了， 见面以后高兴得又说又笑， 谈得很愉快。 我们预祝江苹成功。 祝她一路平安。 我说， 一定要常来信啊。 江苹说，一定。 跟她说 “再见” 的时候， 她哭了， 我也哭了。\r\n\r\n5) 回家的路上， 我想， 我们常常说 “再见”， 但是， 有时候 “再见” 是很难的。 我和江苹什么时候能 “再见” 呢？\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Today I\'m going to Jiang Ping\'s house. Jiang Ping and I are highschool classmates. She\'s my good friend, and she\'s also good friends with everyone in our class. She studies very hard, she\'s the best student in our class. She studies, she plays, and she also often helps others. The teacher and the other students like her. She recently participated in an examination for an American college. That test is very hard, but she did very well - she earned full marks. I heard that only three people in the whole world got full marks. This college gave Jiang Ping their highest scholarship. We\'re all very happy for her.\r\n\r\n2) Next week she\'s going to study abroad in America, and all our classmates are going to see her off.\r\n\r\n3) Jiang Ping\'s house is on the east side of the city very far away from mine. I left my house a little after four o\'clock in the afternoon, and didn\'t get there until 5:30. When I arrived, the rest of our classmates were already there.\r\n\r\n4) Jiang Ping warmly welcomed us. She hadn\'t seen her classmates in a while, and after she greeted us, we talked and smiled, chatting happily. We wished Jiang Ping success. Wished her a pleasant trip. I said, Be sure to write often. Jiang Ping said, Of course. When she said \"Goodbye\", she cried, and I also cried.\r\n\r\n5) On my way home, I thought, We often say \"Goodbye\" [lit: see you again], but sometimes \"Goodbye\" is sad. When will Jiang Ping and I be able to see each other again?\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essay] 江苹去留学 - Jiang Ping Goes to Study Abroad', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '67-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 03:32:01', '2016-11-04 07:32:01', '', 67, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/67-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1995, 1, '2016-11-04 03:32:49', '2016-11-04 07:32:49', 'A very short children\'s story about a bear\'s search for a new home. \r\n\r\nSource: GuShi365.com\r\n\r\n
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\r\n1) 小熊一家住在山洞里。熊爷爷对小熊说,“你去造间木头房子住吧!\"\r\n\r\n2) 春天，小熊走进树林。树上长满了绿叶，他舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n3) 夏天，小熊又走进了树林。树上开满了鲜花，小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n4) 秋天，小熊走进树林，树上挂满了果实。小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n5) 冬天，小熊走进了树林。树上站着许多小鸟，小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n6) 一年又一年，小熊没有砍树造房子，还是高高兴兴地住在山洞里……\r\n\r\n7) 树林里的小动物非常感谢小熊，他们送给小熊一束束美丽的鲜花.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Little bear lived in a mountain cave. Grandfather bear said to Little Bear: \"Go and build a wooden house to live in!\"\r\n\r\n2) In spring, little bear went into the forest. The trees were full of green leaves, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\n3) In summer, little bear again went into the forest. The trees were full of fresh flowers, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\n4) In autumn, little bear went into the forest. The trees were full of hanging fruit, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\n5) In winter, little bear went into the forest. Many little birds were living in the trees, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\n6) Years passed, and little bear still hadn\'t made a home out of the trees. He was still living happily in his mountain cave.\r\n\r\n7) The little forest animals thanked Little Bear very much, and they gave him a bunch of beautiful fresh flowers.\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Story] 小熊住山洞 - Little Bear Lived in a Mountain Cave', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '7-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 03:32:49', '2016-11-04 07:32:49', '', 7, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/7-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1998, 1, '2016-11-04 03:44:09', '2016-11-04 07:44:09', 'This short essay, taken from the Beijing Language and Culture University beginner comprehension textbook, is written from the perspective of a friend visiting Jiang Ping （江苹） before she leaves the country. The language is mostly school-centric as the writer discusses his classmates, Jiang Ping\'s scholarship, and her test results.\r\n\r\nThe crux of the last paragraph hinges on the fact that the Chinese word for \"Goodbye\" (再见) literally translates as \"See you again\", as the writer wonders when or if he\'ll ever really see Jiang Ping again.\r\n\r\n
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\r\n1) 今天我去江苹家了。 我和江苹是中学同学， 她是我的好朋友， 也是我们全班同学的朋友。 她学习非常努力， 是我们班学习最好的学生。 她会学习， 她会玩儿， 还常常帮助别人， 老师和同学都很喜欢她。 她这次参加了美国一个大学考试。 这个考试非常难，但是她考得很好，得了满分。 听说全世界只有三个学生得满分。 这个大学给江苹最高的奖学金。 我们都为她感到高兴。\r\n\r\n2) 她下星期要去美国留学， 我们班的同学都去看她， 给他送行。\r\n\r\n3) 江苹的家在城东边， 离我家比较远。 我下午四点多就从家里出发了， 五点半才到。 我到的时候， 同学们都已经到了。\r\n\r\n4) 江苹很热情地欢迎我们。 同学们好久不见了， 见面以后高兴得又说又笑， 谈得很愉快。 我们预祝江苹成功。 祝她一路平安。 我说， 一定要常来信啊。 江苹说，一定。 跟她说 “再见” 的时候， 她哭了， 我也哭了。\r\n\r\n5) 回家的路上， 我想， 我们常常说 “再见”， 但是， 有时候 “再见” 是很难的。 我和江苹什么时候能 “再见” 呢？\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Today I\'m going to Jiang Ping\'s house. Jiang Ping and I are highschool classmates. She\'s my good friend, and she\'s also good friends with everyone in our class. She studies very hard, she\'s the best student in our class. She studies, she plays, and she also often helps others. The teacher and the other students like her. She recently participated in an examination for an American college. That test is very hard, but she did very well - she earned full marks. I heard that only three people in the whole world got full marks. This college gave Jiang Ping their highest scholarship. We\'re all very happy for her.\r\n\r\n2) Next week she\'s going to study abroad in America, and all our classmates are going to see her off.\r\n\r\n3) Jiang Ping\'s house is on the east side of the city very far away from mine. I left my house a little after four o\'clock in the afternoon, and didn\'t get there until 5:30. When I arrived, the rest of our classmates were already there.\r\n\r\n4) Jiang Ping warmly welcomed us. She hadn\'t seen her classmates in a while, and after she greeted us, we talked and smiled, chatting happily. We wished Jiang Ping success. Wished her a pleasant trip. I said, Be sure to write often. Jiang Ping said, Of course. When she said \"Goodbye\", she cried, and I also cried.\r\n\r\n5) On my way home, I thought, We often say \"Goodbye\" [lit: see you again], but sometimes \"Goodbye\" is sad. When will Jiang Ping and I be able to see each other again?\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 江苹去留学 - Jiang Ping Goes to Study Abroad', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '67-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 03:44:09', '2016-11-04 07:44:09', '', 67, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/67-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1999, 1, '2016-11-04 03:44:14', '2016-11-04 07:44:14', 'A very short children\'s story about a bear\'s search for a new home. \r\n\r\nSource: GuShi365.com\r\n\r\n
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\r\n1) 小熊一家住在山洞里。熊爷爷对小熊说,“你去造间木头房子住吧!\"\r\n\r\n2) 春天，小熊走进树林。树上长满了绿叶，他舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n3) 夏天，小熊又走进了树林。树上开满了鲜花，小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n4) 秋天，小熊走进树林，树上挂满了果实。小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n5) 冬天，小熊走进了树林。树上站着许多小鸟，小熊舍不得砍。\r\n\r\n6) 一年又一年，小熊没有砍树造房子，还是高高兴兴地住在山洞里……\r\n\r\n7) 树林里的小动物非常感谢小熊，他们送给小熊一束束美丽的鲜花.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Little bear lived in a mountain cave. Grandfather bear said to Little Bear: \"Go and build a wooden house to live in!\"\r\n\r\n2) In spring, little bear went into the forest. The trees were full of green leaves, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\n3) In summer, little bear again went into the forest. The trees were full of fresh flowers, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\n4) In autumn, little bear went into the forest. The trees were full of hanging fruit, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\n5) In winter, little bear went into the forest. Many little birds were living in the trees, and he couldn\'t bear to cut them down.\r\n\r\n6) Years passed, and little bear still hadn\'t made a home out of the trees. He was still living happily in his mountain cave.\r\n\r\n7) The little forest animals thanked Little Bear very much, and they gave him a bunch of beautiful fresh flowers.\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] 小熊住山洞 - Little Bear Lived in a Mountain Cave', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '7-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 03:44:14', '2016-11-04 07:44:14', '', 7, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/7-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2001, 1, '2016-11-04 04:10:07', '2016-11-04 08:10:07', '', 'learn-mandarin-simplified-reading', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'learn-mandarin-simplified-reading', '', '', '2016-11-04 04:10:49', '2016-11-04 08:10:49', '', 590, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/learn-mandarin-simplified-reading.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2002, 1, '2016-11-04 04:11:10', '2016-11-04 08:11:10', 'You know how in English we abbreviate university names? Like UCLA is short for \"University of California Los Angeles\"? And NYU is short for \"New York University\"? We do this, clearly, by grabbing the first letter of each word in the long-form name and using them to create a new, shorter word. So in a language with no letters, like Chinese, how do abbreviations work? \r\n\r\nWell, you take a long title and you select a couple of key characters, and use those as the abbreviation. Most of the popular universities in China have commonly understood abbreviations, two of which appear in this passage:\r\n\r\n1) 北大 - This is the shortened version of 北京大学, \"Beijing University\". \r\n2) 师大 - This is the abbreviation for 北京师范大学, \"Beijing Normal University\". \r\n\r\nThere are many others:\r\n\r\n北语 - 北京语言大学 - Beijing Language University\r\n人大 - 北京人民大学 - Beijing People\'s University\r\n\r\nEtc. etc. \r\n\r\n
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\r\n1） 王先生是北大的老教师，一九三八年五月二十四号出生， 今年五十八岁。 今天是他的生日。 他是一位非常有经验的法语老师。这个学期他教大三的学生现代法语语法。\r\n\r\n2） 王先生的一位老朋友是老年大学的老师， 他经常在这个大学教日语。\r\n\r\n4） 他的一个学生在师大工作。 他有汉语书，法语书和日语书。 他天天教留学生现代汉语。现在他有五个男学生，八个女学生。\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Mr. Wang is an old teacher at Beijing University. He was born May 24, 1938, he\'s 58 this year. Today is his birthday. He is a French teacher with a lot of experience. This semester he is teaching modern French grammar to 3rd year students. \r\n\r\n2) One of Mr. Wang\'s friends is an old university teacher, he often teaches Japanese at this university. \r\n\r\n3) One of his students works at Beijing Normal University. He has Chinese books, French book and Japanese books. Every day he teaches foreign students modern Chinese. Right now he has 5 male students and 8 female students. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n', '[Chinese Essays] 王先生在大学工作 - Mr. Wang Works at the University', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '590-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 04:11:10', '2016-11-04 08:11:10', '', 590, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/590-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2003, 1, '2016-11-04 04:12:26', '2016-11-04 08:12:26', 'A passage from a Beijing Language and Culture University textbook in which a university student laments catching a cold. This essay focuses on mostly illness-centric beginner language, such as 感冒 [pinyin]gan3 mao4[/pinyin], meaning \"to have a cold\"， and 打针 [pinyin]da3 zhen1[/pinyin], meaning \"to get an IV drip or shot\".\r\n\r\nLest it seems a little dramatic to you that the writer would go to the hospital over a 24-hour cold, the Chinese typically don\'t use private clinics (except in the case of accupuncture and massage), and commonly go to the hospital for almost every health-related issue, including colds and small fevers.\r\n\r\nOf special interest is the phrase \"还开了一些药\", or \"and also prescribed me some medicine\". Literally, it says, \"Also opened a bit of medicine\". But the word 开 [pinyin]kai1[/pinyin], which usually means \"open\", is also the verb used to describe a doctor writing a perscription. This tells us that the doctor didn\'t give (给[pinyin]gei3[/pinyin]) the student any medicine himself, but prescribed it instead.\r\n\r\n
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\r\n1) 我病了。 头疼，发烧，嗓子也疼，不想吃东西，晚上咳嗽的很厉害。 上午同学们都去上课了，我一个人在宿舍里，感到很寂寞。 寂寞了就容易想家。 我家里人很多，有哥哥，姐姐，还有一个弟弟。 在家的时候，我们常一起玩儿。 现在，我在北京学习汉语，寂寞的时候就常常想他们。\r\n\r\n2) 因为不舒服，所以我今天起得很晚。 起了床就去医院了。 大夫给我检查了一下儿，说我感冒了。 给我打了一针，还开了一些药。 他说，吃了药病就好了。\r\n\r\n3) 老师和同学们知道我病了，都来看我。 林老师听说我不想吃东西，还做了一碗面条给我吃。 吃了面条，身上出了很多汗，老师说，出了汗可能不发烧了。\r\n\r\n4) 下午，果然不发烧了，喜庆也好了。 我用 Email个我姐姐发了一封信。 我说，我在这儿生活得很好，我有很好的老师，还有很多好同学，好朋友，和他们在一起，我感到很愉快。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) I\'m sick. My head hurts, I have a fever, my throat also hurts, I don\'t want to eat anything, and at night I have a serious cough. In the morning my classmates all went to class, and I was the only one left in the dormitory. I feel very lonely. When you\'re lonely, it\'s easy to miss home. I have a lot of family members - an older brother, older sister, and also a younger brother. When I\'m at home, we often play together. Right now, I\'m in Beijing studying Chinese, and when I\'m lonely I miss them.\r\n\r\n2) Because I don\'t feel well, I got up late today. When I got up, I went to the hospital. The doctor gave me a quick checkup and said I have a cold. He gave me one shot [also: IV drip], and also prescribed some medicine. He said, take the medicine and you\'ll get better.\r\n\r\n3) My teacher and classmates know I\'m sick, so they all came to see me. Teacher Lin heard that I didn\'t want to eat anything, so she made me a bowl of noodles. After I ate the noodles, I began to pour sweat. Teacher said, if you sweat, maybe your fever will go away.\r\n\r\n4) In the afternoon, sure enough my fever was gone, and I was in a good mood. I emailed my older sister. I said, I have a very good life here, I have a good teacher and good classmates and good friends, and all together they make me very happy.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 我病了 - I\'m Feeling Sick', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '139-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 04:12:26', '2016-11-04 08:12:26', '', 139, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/139-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2004, 1, '2016-11-04 04:15:38', '2016-11-04 08:15:38', 'A very simple story about three friendly butterflies (蝴蝶) who stick up for each other.\n\n
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\n1) 花园里有三只蝴蝶，一只是红色的，一只是黄色的，一只是白色的。三个好朋友天天都在一起玩，可好了。一天，他们正玩得，天突然下起了雨。三只蝴蝶的翅膀都被雨打湿了，浑身冻得发抖。\n\n2) 三只小蝴蝶一起飞到红花那里，对红花说: “红花姐姐，让我们飞到你的叶子下面躲躲雨吧！”\n\n3) 红花说: “红蝴蝶进来吧，其他的快飞开！”\n\n4) 三个好朋友一齐摇摇头: “我们是好朋友，一块儿来，也一块儿走。”\n\n5) 他们又飞到黄花那里，对黄花说: “黄花姐姐，让我们飞到你的叶子下面躲躲雨吧！”黄花说: “黄蝴蝶进来吧，其他的快飞开！”\n\n6) 三个好朋友一齐摇摇头: “我们是好朋友，一块儿来，也一块儿走。”\n\n7) 然后，他们又飞到白花那里，对白花说: “白花姐姐，让我们飞到你的叶子下面躲躲雨吧！”\n\n8) 可是白花也说: “白蝴蝶进来吧，其他的快飞开！”\n\n9) 这三个好朋友还是一齐摇摇头，对白花说: “我们是好朋友，一块儿来，也一块儿走。”\n\n10) 这时，太阳公公看见了，赶忙把乌云赶走，叫雨停下。\n\n11) 天终于晴了，这三个好朋友又一起在花丛中跳舞玩游戏了。\n\n\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n\n1) In the garden there were three butterflies, one red one, one yellow one, and one white one. Every day the three good friends played together, it was great. One day just as they were playing, it suddenly began to rain. The three butterflies\' wings were drenched by the rain, their whole bodies were trembling with cold. \n\n2) The three butterflies few together to a red flower, and said to it: \"Big Sister Red Flower, let us hide from the rain under your leaves.\" \n\n3) The red flower said: \"The red butterfly can come in, but the others must leave.\"\n\n4) The three good friends shook their heads together: \"We\'re good friends, we came together, and we\'ll leave together.\"\n\n5) They flew off to a yellow flower, and to the yellow flower said, \"Big Sister Yellow Flower, let us hide from the rain under your leaves.\" The yellow flower said: \"The yellow butterfly can come in, but the others must leave.\"\n\n6) The three good friends shook their heads and said: \"We\'re good friends, we came together, and we\'ll leave together.\"\n\n7) Then, they flew away to the white flower, and to the white flower said: \"Big Sister White Flower, let us hide from the rain under your leaves!\" \n\n8) But the white flower said to them: \"The white butterfly can come in, but the rest must leave.\" \n\n9) The three good friends still shook their heads together and said: \"We\'re good friends, we came together and we\'ll leave together.\"\n\n10) At this time, Old Man Sun saw what was happening, and he hurriedly chased the black clouds away and made the rain stop. \n\n11) The sky was finally clear, and the three friends again went again to play and dance among the flowers. \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\n\n\n\n\n', 'Three Good Friends', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '539-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 04:15:38', '2016-11-04 08:15:38', '', 539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/539-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2005, 1, '2016-11-04 04:16:39', '2016-11-04 08:16:39', '', 'Beginner Chinese Reading Practice: Three Good Friends', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'learn-to-read-mandarin-butterflies', '', '', '2016-11-04 04:16:48', '2016-11-04 08:16:48', '', 539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/learn-to-read-mandarin-butterflies.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2008, 1, '2016-11-04 04:18:27', '2016-11-04 08:18:27', 'A very simple story about three friendly butterflies (蝴蝶) who stick up for each other.\r\n\r\n
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Chinese Text
\r\n1) 花园里有三只蝴蝶，一只是红色的，一只是黄色的，一只是白色的。三个好朋友天天都在一起玩，可好了。一天，他们正玩得，天突然下起了雨。三只蝴蝶的翅膀都被雨打湿了，浑身冻得发抖。\r\n\r\n2) 三只小蝴蝶一起飞到红花那里，对红花说: “红花姐姐，让我们飞到你的叶子下面躲躲雨吧！”\r\n\r\n3) 红花说: “红蝴蝶进来吧，其他的快飞开！”\r\n\r\n4) 三个好朋友一齐摇摇头: “我们是好朋友，一块儿来，也一块儿走。”\r\n\r\n5) 他们又飞到黄花那里，对黄花说: “黄花姐姐，让我们飞到你的叶子下面躲躲雨吧！”黄花说: “黄蝴蝶进来吧，其他的快飞开！”\r\n\r\n6) 三个好朋友一齐摇摇头: “我们是好朋友，一块儿来，也一块儿走。”\r\n\r\n7) 然后，他们又飞到白花那里，对白花说: “白花姐姐，让我们飞到你的叶子下面躲躲雨吧！”\r\n\r\n8) 可是白花也说: “白蝴蝶进来吧，其他的快飞开！”\r\n\r\n9) 这三个好朋友还是一齐摇摇头，对白花说: “我们是好朋友，一块儿来，也一块儿走。”\r\n\r\n10) 这时，太阳公公看见了，赶忙把乌云赶走，叫雨停下。\r\n\r\n11) 天终于晴了，这三个好朋友又一起在花丛中跳舞玩游戏了。\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) In the garden there were three butterflies, one red one, one yellow one, and one white one. Every day the three good friends played together, it was great. One day just as they were playing, it suddenly began to rain. The three butterflies\' wings were drenched by the rain, their whole bodies were trembling with cold. \r\n\r\n2) The three butterflies few together to a red flower, and said to it: \"Big Sister Red Flower, let us hide from the rain under your leaves.\" \r\n\r\n3) The red flower said: \"The red butterfly can come in, but the others must leave.\"\r\n\r\n4) The three good friends shook their heads together: \"We\'re good friends, we came together, and we\'ll leave together.\"\r\n\r\n5) They flew off to a yellow flower, and to the yellow flower said, \"Big Sister Yellow Flower, let us hide from the rain under your leaves.\" The yellow flower said: \"The yellow butterfly can come in, but the others must leave.\"\r\n\r\n6) The three good friends shook their heads and said: \"We\'re good friends, we came together, and we\'ll leave together.\"\r\n\r\n7) Then, they flew away to the white flower, and to the white flower said: \"Big Sister White Flower, let us hide from the rain under your leaves!\" \r\n\r\n8) But the white flower said to them: \"The white butterfly can come in, but the rest must leave.\" \r\n\r\n9) The three good friends still shook their heads together and said: \"We\'re good friends, we came together and we\'ll leave together.\"\r\n\r\n10) At this time, Old Man Sun saw what was happening, and he hurriedly chased the black clouds away and made the rain stop. \r\n\r\n11) The sky was finally clear, and the three friends again went again to play and dance among the flowers. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n', '[Chinese Short Stories] 三个好朋友 - Three Good Friends', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '539-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 04:18:27', '2016-11-04 08:18:27', '', 539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/539-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2013, 1, '2016-11-04 04:55:56', '2016-11-04 08:55:56', '', 'easy-mandarin-chinese-reading-cat-goes-fishing', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'easy-mandarin-chinese-reading-cat-goes-fishing', '', '', '2016-11-04 04:56:19', '2016-11-04 08:56:19', '', 607, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/easy-mandarin-chinese-reading-cat-goes-fishing.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2017, 1, '2016-11-04 05:13:07', '2016-11-04 09:13:07', '', 'Study Easy Chinese Childrens Reading: Chinese Children\'s Songs, Poems and Stories', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'learn-to-read-mandarin-chinese-harmonious-environment-song', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:13:16', '2016-11-04 09:13:16', '', 1065, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/learn-to-read-mandarin-chinese-harmonious-environment-song.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2019, 1, '2016-11-04 05:17:55', '2016-11-04 09:17:55', 'Hoo boy, this song is an AWESOME find. Not only is it politically charged in the most amazing way, it\'s ultra-beginner reading. \r\n\r\nBut first, a little back story so we all know what we\'re reading here. The big campaign here right now is an expansion of the \"Harmonious Society\" campaign. It\'s on every political poster on the roadsides - there are 20 such signs on my street alone. The point, basically, is to do your job in your place and not make waves, or make life uncomfortable for those around you. Sounds nice, but you can kind of see a little ways down that road, and you can understand why \"harmo ny\" has become a euphemism for ce n z*or*sh p. For example, whenever something \"offensive\" is, erm, stricken from the internet, Chinese sarcastically say that it has been \"harmonised\". This concept goes right back to Confucius, whose big idea was that everyone has their duty and their place, and should follow a very strict set of rules governing what people in their position should and should not be able to do. \r\n\r\nSo the concept of harmony (和谐 - [pinyin]he2 xie2[/pinyin]) has long been an integral part of Chinese culture, but it\'s also been a point of criticism. Sadly, this whole \"nail that sticks up gets hammered down\" mentality is now giving the honchos a headache, because while the Chinese now have the manpower and the money to take the world economy by storm, they can\'t get enough people to break away, be creative and innovate. \r\n\r\nAmusingly, the solution to this has apparently been to put signs up all over Beijing that say: \"Beijing Spirit: Patriotism, Innovation, Inclusiveness, Morality.\" So now, the message is \"Don\'t piss anyone off, but hurry up and do something unique\".\r\n\r\nGuess that solves that problem. NEXT!\r\n\r\nAnyway, the below is a children\'s song that has probably been made up in the last few years, teaching children why harmony is so important. There are a couple of intermediate words in the last sentence, but they\'re easy to figure out. \r\n\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n蓝蓝的天上鸟儿飞，\r\n清清的水里鱼儿游，\r\n密密的森林动物跑，\r\n空空的草地孩子忙，\r\n ……\r\n啊！这一切多么美好！\r\n和谐的环境需要我们去创造。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH\"]\r\nBirds fly in a blue blue sky, \r\nFish swim in the clear clear water, \r\nAnimals run in the thick thick forest, \r\nChildren run around in the open open meadow, \r\n ……\r\nOh, how wonderful everything is like this, \r\nA harmonious environment requires us to create it.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Songs] 和谐环境 - The Harmonious Environment Song', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1065-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:17:55', '2016-11-04 09:17:55', '', 1065, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1065-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2020, 1, '2016-11-04 05:20:22', '2016-11-04 09:20:22', '', '', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'easy-chinese-childrens-stories-polite-rabbit', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:21:11', '2016-11-04 09:21:11', '', 614, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/easy-chinese-childrens-stories-polite-rabbit.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2024, 1, '2016-11-04 05:28:54', '2016-11-04 09:28:54', 'Kinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer. Dai Wangshu, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\n\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.\n\n《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the April 12 Incident, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \n\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \n\nI don\'t love the translation that\'s available for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\n\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \n\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n撑着油纸伞，独自\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\n又寂寥的雨巷，\n我希望逢着\n一个丁香一样的\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\n\n她是有\n丁香一样的颜色，\n丁香一样的芬芳，\n丁香一样的忧愁，\n在雨中哀怨，\n哀怨又彷徨；\n\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\n撑着油纸伞\n像我一样，\n像我一样地\n默默彳亍着，\n冷漠，凄清，又惆怅。\n\n她静默地走近\n走近，又投出\n太息一般的眼光，\n她飘过\n像梦一般的，\n像梦一般的凄婉迷茫。\n\n像梦中飘过\n一枝丁香的，\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\n她静默地远了，远了，\n到了颓圮的篱墙，\n走尽这雨巷。\n\n在雨的哀曲里，\n消了她的颜色，\n散了她的芬芳\n消散了，甚至她的\n太息般的眼光，\n丁香般的惆怅。\n\n撑着油纸伞，独自\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\n又寂寥的雨巷，\n我希望飘过\n一个丁香一样的\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\n \n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\npace through a long, long, \nand solitary rainy alley.\nI hope to come upon\nA girl like lilacs, \nDistressed and grudging.\n\nShe has\nThe color of lilacs\nThe scent of lilacs\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\nGrudging in the rain,\nResentful and hesitating. \n\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\nAs I do,\nJust as I do, \nSoundlessly wending,\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\n\nShe walks quietly closer,\nWalks closer, casting\nA glance like a sigh,\nShe floats past,\nAs a dream does,\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\n\nFloats by as a dream does, \nA single lilac,\nThe girl who floats past me, \nShe is getting farther, farther,\nReaches the toppled fence,\nWalks out of this drizzling alley.\n\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\nHer color is washed away\nHer scent dissipates\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\nSighing eyes\nHer lilac melancholy.\n\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\npace through a long, long, \nand desolate rainy alley.\nI hope to float by\nA girl like lilacs, \nDistressed and grudging.\n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Modern Chinese Poetry] Rainy Alley 《雨巷》 by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1587-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:28:54', '2016-11-04 09:28:54', '', 1587, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1587-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2027, 1, '2016-11-04 05:32:36', '2016-11-04 09:32:36', 'Yayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. \r\n\r\nUsing 过
\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\n\"He passed [his days] very happily, time flew past.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\nNot you, stoopid: 咱们 vs. 我们
\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does. 咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n
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Chinese text:
\r\n1) 小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋粮食送到河对岸的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n2) 小马非常高兴地答应了。他驮着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己淌过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？犹豫中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n3) 牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n4) 小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一迈腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠翘着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他卷走了。”\r\n\r\n5) 小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，咱们一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n6) 小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Little Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\n2) Little Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\n3) Uncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\n4) Little Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\n5) Little Horse didn\'t know what to think. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\n6) Little Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] 小马过河 - Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:32:36', '2016-11-04 09:32:36', '', 1596, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2028, 1, '2016-11-04 05:32:52', '2016-11-04 09:32:52', 'This is another one I nabbed from Sina user Zifengling\'s personal blog. I tried to convince myself that this was beginner, but I just couldn\'t. The words are mostly OK, but there are one too many wibble-wobbly sentence configurations.\r\n\r\nThis is also a perfect example of a fairly easy story that had one phrase I spent an hour trying to sort out, and a perfect example of the reason I started this blog in the first damn place - you start reading and then one word trips you up and you can\'t get past it. 99% sure I figured it out, but don\'t hesitate to correct me in the comments if you have intelligence to the contrary. The word was 香草娃娃 [pinyin]xiang1 cao3 wa2 wa2[/pinyin]. Uh, well, [pinyin]xiang1 cao3[/pinyin] means \"vanilla\" and [pinyin]wa2 wa2[/pinyin] is \"baby\", so... vanilla baby? Really? In the story, 香草娃娃 is used as a toy\'s name, so I thought, maybe there\'s a toy called a Vanilla Baby? Anyway, it turns out an out-of-use definition for 香草 is \"old and dependable\". Ah hah - \"old, dependable baby doll\". That makes sense. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one other very useful phrase here that\'s very commonly used in everyday language: 太过分了！Directly translated, this means \"Too excessive!\", but this phrase doesn\'t usually actually refer to a large amount of things. It\'s more often used to refer to a circumstance or someone\'s behavior, like, \"That is just too much to bear!\". If someone was very mean to you, you could say, \"太过分了!\" or if an interview process was super rough and you got raked over the coals, also \"太过分了!\" \r\n\r\nEnjoy this one, and consider it good practicing in very colloquial story building.\r\n\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n新年快到了，玩具王国决定举行一场盛大的舞会，准备邀请全国的玩具都来参加。舞会那天，玩具们都不停地跳着、笑着，整个舞场热闹非凡。可是在一个角落里，谁也没有注意到，有一只紫色的香草娃娃正一声不吭地望着舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这时，一只小白熊正好从她面前经过，它看到了这一切，就走过去问香草娃娃：“娃娃，你为什么不去跳舞呢？”香草娃娃难过地低下了头，轻轻地说：“玩具们都嫌我个子小，不愿意请我跳舞。”说完流下了眼泪。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？难道他们不懂得要团结友爱吗！太过分了！”小白熊拉起香草娃娃的手，说，“娃娃，不要难过了。走，我请你跳舞。”香草娃娃听了这话，脸上顿时露出了灿烂的笑容，她连忙擦掉脸上的泪水，高兴地说：“太好了！太好了！”娃娃和小白熊在舞池里又跳又笑，一起度过了一个愉快的夜晚。\r\n \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe new year had almost arrived, and the Toy Kingdom planned to invite everyone to a grand ball. The day of the dance, the toys were all dancing and laughing, and the whole ballroom was extraordinarily lively. But off in one corner, receiving no attention from anyone, there was an old purple doll silently gazing at the dance floor, her eyes were blank and she looked lonely. Just then, a white polar bear in front of her saw this, walked over and asked the dependable old doll, \"Doll, why don\'t you go dance?\" The dependable doll lowered her head sadly, saying in a small voice, \"The [other] toys all say I\'m too short, they\'re not willing to dance with me.\" Saying this, she began to cry. Polar Bear was furious when he heard this, and said: \"How could they treat you this way? Don\'t they understand solidarity? That\'s just too much!\" Little Bear pulled on the baby doll\'s hand, and said: \"Doll, don\'t be sad. Come on, I\'m asking you to dance with me.\" The dependable doll heard these words, and a brilliant smile immediately lit up her face. She quickly wiped the tears off her face and said happily, \"Wonderful! Wonderful!\" On the dance floor, Doll and Bear danced and laughed, and passed a lovely evening together. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Children\'s Stories] The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:32:52', '2016-11-04 09:32:52', '', 1566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1566-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2031, 1, '2016-11-04 05:47:36', '2016-11-04 09:47:36', 'Hey hey, lookie here, an excellent guest post submitted by native Chinese speaker Yang from Learn Mandarin Now. This story tells us a bit about the Chinese chengyu (idiom),塞翁失马, which can mean \"a blessing in disguise\", or can conversely mean \"bad luck disguised as good\". It\'s used to point out the hidden positives or negatives in a situation, so you might say it means \"there are two sides to every circumstance\". \r\n\r\nI\'m loving this post for the fable-y language: \"servant\", \"steed\", etc. Plus, I learned a new favorite word in this one: 塞外 [pinyin]sai4 wai4[/pinyin], meaning \"Beyond the Great Wall\". In other words, a remote place near the outskirts or borders of China. Also, don\'t forget, 匹 [pinyin]pi3[/pinyin] is the measure word for Horses, so you\'re gonna see that a few times. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one phrase we should probably get into in greater detail, because I don\'t think it\'s immediately clear what it means: 全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗. Let\'s take a look at this, word by word:\r\n\r\n全国 - The whole country\r\n上下的 - Everywhere\r\n年轻男子 - young men\r\n都 - all\r\n被 - grammar word usually indicating that the subject of the sentence has had something unfortunate happen to them\r\n抓 - grabbed\r\n去 - go out\r\n打仗 - fight \r\n\r\nThe key word here is 抓 [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin], which usually means to \"catch\" or \"grab\". In this case, the word means \"drafted\", so it still means to \"grab\", but in this case, it\'s the ruling power (probably the king) doing the grabbing up (of potential soldiers). The 被 in this case functions as \"were\", with a negative overtone. So this can be translated as \"All the young men everywhere in the country were drafted to go fight a war.\"\r\n\r\nLearn Mandarin Now\'s \"How to Read Chinese\" page for a basic overview on getting started with Simplified characters, and look at their new blog for some learning tips. \r\n\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n1) 从前，一位老翁和他的儿子住在塞外的边境上。他们都非常喜欢骑马。有一天，他们家的仆人给老先生报告：\"我们家的一匹骏马走丢了，好像跑去邻国了。\"\r\n\r\n2) 老翁的朋友闻讯都过来安慰他。但老先生说：“呵呵，这也许不是坏事，谁知道呢！＂\r\n\r\n3) 几个月之后，奇妙的事情发生了，那匹走失了的骏马意外地跑回来了，并且从邻国带来了一匹新的骏马。老翁的好友纷纷过来祝贺他。老翁说：“唉，这也许不是什么好事情呢！”\r\n\r\n4) 一天，老翁的儿子正在骑那匹新的骏马，突然不小心从马上掉了下来并摔断了腿。他从今以后都不能正常走路了。老翁的朋友都为老翁感到伤心，但老翁却说：“这个意外以后能为咱们带来好运也不一定。”\r\n\r\n5) 一年后，全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗，大部分去参军的年轻人都死在了战场。老翁的儿子因为腿受伤了所以避过了这一次劫难。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Once upon a time, there was an old man who lived with his son on the borders of the country. They both very much enjoyed riding horses. One day, a servant reported to the old man, “One of our good horses has gone missing. It seems the horse ran across to the neighboring country.\"\r\n\r\n2) The old man\'s friends came and comforted him. However, the old man said: \"Well, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Who knows!\"\r\n\r\n3) A couple of months later, a strange thing happened. The missing horse came back, accompanied by a great steed from the neighboring country. When his friends congratulated him on this great news, the old man said: \"Well, this might bring us bad luck.\"\r\n\r\n4) One day, his son was having fun riding on the fine [new] steed. Suddenly, he fell from the hose and broke his leg. His son was never able to walk again. Again, the old man\'s friends came to comfort him. But the old man was not bothered and said: \"This accident might bring us good luck in the future.\"\r\n\r\n5) A year later, all young men in the country were drafted to join a war. Most young men who fought died on the battlefield. Luckily, his son avoided entering the war because of his broken leg.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 塞翁失马 - A Blessing in Disguise', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1551-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:47:36', '2016-11-04 09:47:36', '', 1551, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1551-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(2032, 1, '2016-11-04 05:48:29', '2016-11-04 09:48:29', 'Happy Year of the Sheep! Couple of days ago, I stumbled across the Book \"The Last Yin Yang Master\", aka \"The Last Onmyoji\", a supernatural ghost story available for free online. It\'s incredibly rare to find full-length books that aren\'t impossibly difficult to get through, but this one is phenomenal for learners. I\'m gonna put part of the first chapter here, so you can dive on in. The rest can be grabbed on Zhuaji.com. \r\n\r\nI\'ve recently sort of discovered that ghost stories and detective novels are where it\'s at for practicing reading. The cliches in a Chinese murder mystery are exactly the same as they are anywhere: hard-boiled cop, confused rookie, seductive woman, shady business, and definitely a chase scene. It\'s easier to follow a story when you have a semi-expectation of what\'s supposed to happen. They get hard when people start talking about blood spatter and ballistics, but you can kind of get the gist. Ghost stories are the same way - a scene of normalcy is set, followed by some red-flag strangeness that everyone completely ignores because they don\'t believe in the supernatural, followed by some myths and legends, or maybe a mysterious old man, or maybe a body goes missing, and then things really freaky. Again, the read gets hard when characters start talking about the mystic books of old, or funeral customs, so you should probably be reading this with the help of Pleco (which I do), but The Last Onmyoji is accessible enough that those parts shouldn\'t totally derail you. Highly recommended.\r\n\r\nThis really is worth a go for readers at almost all levels. The read is late-intermediate, but using Pleco, late-stage beginners and early-intermediates will be able to understand large chunks of it, enough to motivate you to puzzle through the parts you don\'t get, more so because this is being told in first-person. Remember, now, that the beginning of a book is usually the hardest as you try to get a sense of the story. Once the story gets rolling, it\'s easier to flow with it. Advanced readers may just appreciate learning a bit of spooky vocab. \r\n\r\nThe segment that I\"m translating here doesn\'t have any ghostly bits in it, this is the first chapter to get you going on the story. It\'s packed full of Chinese village culture, and some parts at the end that would be considered extremely un-PC in the west: a little anti-Japanese talk, and a little bit about buying women, the rarities of college education in the countryside: the realities of village life in China, even these days. \r\n\r\nThere\'s a lot I could talk about in here, but I do like the word 投 [pinyin]tou2[/pinyin] - This word had a ton of meanings. Imagine slipping a piece of paper into a suggestion box. Got it? That\'s what this word embodies, that action, or anything related to a similar action of taking a flat object and dropping it into a slot, literally or figuratively. So it can mean to \"vote\", as in an election, because you\'re submitting a ballot. It can mean to \"slide\" an envelope into a letter box. In this case, it means to \"submit\" a resume while seeking a job offer. We don\'t have a word for that concept in English, I think. \r\n\r\nEnjoy!\r\n\r\n
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Chinese Text
\r\n1) 我叫林小凡,今年23岁。大学刚毕业。一个三流的大学四流的成绩,大学是在杭州读,毕业之后最开始在一家房地产公司做销售员,底薪一千八。因为业绩太差,公司没说辞退我,我自己就不好意思待了。\r\n\r\n2) 在杭州转了两个月,投了不知道多少份儿简历,面试了多少次,都没有通过。盘缠花光之后,就回了老家。\r\n\r\n3) 我的老家是洛阳。洛阳的乡下,一个叫做十里铺儿的小村儿落。\r\n\r\n4) 之所以回来,是因为村儿里小学唯一的教师得了肺痨,病的已经非常严重,我作为村里走出来唯一的大学生,村长愿意一月掏出一千块的巨资来请我去代课。\r\n\r\n5) 所以我回来了。\r\n\r\n6) 在外面活的不如一条狗的我,在老家得到了极大的尊严。\r\n\r\n7) 在偏远的山村,大学生,还是一个极其厉害的存在,村民们在看到我父亲的时候,都会为他竖起大拇指,说:“老林家祖坟冒了青烟,竟然出了个大学生,以后你就走出了大山咯。”\r\n\r\n8) 每当这个时候,我父亲都会憨厚的笑一笑,抹去他脸上的汗水。\r\n\r\n9) 我回到村子之后,方圆几里的媒婆都争着抢着给我介绍对象,几乎踏破我家的门槛儿,这不是吹牛。你不在那个环境里,不知道大学生三个字的分量。\r\n\r\n10) 父亲也极力的给我张罗,在他们眼里,23岁,甚至已经过了结婚的年纪。跟我同龄的人,现在儿子已经可以光着屁股到处跑了。\r\n\r\n11) 为了不让他们操心,我也去一次次的应付相亲。\r\n\r\n12) 对,是应付。\r\n\r\n13) 大学,说白了就是一个区分性与理性的地方,虽然是山村出来的,可是我的相貌并不算丑,甚至可以说英俊。也谈过一个女朋友,我没钱,她也不是非常的富裕,可是就算这样,我们还在在一起了三年,我尽我所能的打零工,来做一个男朋友该做的。大三那年,我们分手。\r\n14) \r\n那一天,我在我们学校的后山喝了一瓶2块钱的二锅头。醒来之后,不再悲伤,继续浑浑噩噩的过日子。\r\n\r\n15) 关于相貌这一点,我继承了我母亲。\r\n\r\n16) 一个不知道故乡在哪里的美貌女人。\r\n\r\n17) 她有痴呆症。\r\n\r\n18) 在几十年前,我父亲进城,用了三百块钱把她买了回来。\r\n\r\n19) 我父亲说,他那一天花了两元钱给母亲买了一身衣服,回来的时候母亲的美貌,让村里的人哈喇子都流到了地上。\r\n\r\n20) 可惜,她是个傻子。\r\n\r\n21) 如果不是傻子,我父亲也买不起。\r\n\r\n22) 后来有了我,母亲的痴傻一直都是那样,可是她的傻,并不是像街头的疯子一样,她非常安静。\r\n\r\n23) 不说话,不动。只是安静的坐着。\r\n\r\n24) 我就在这样的一个环境下长大,可是我并不想文艺的说,我有孤僻的性格,因为就算是这样,我还是有完整的童年。\r\n\r\n25) 我父亲非常的勤劳,他尽一个农民的极限,利用手中的农具,养活一个家。我没有什么怪他的地方。\r\n\r\n26) 没钱,这是命。\r\n\r\n27) 我爷爷,是一个退伍的老军人,他不识字,没有农民典型的精明,反倒是实诚的可怕。有人说他是gmd,有人说他是gcd,可是他自己都不知道自己到底是哪个党,他唯一知道的,就是他拿枪打日本鬼子,鬼子打跑之后,他就回到了家。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) My name is Lin Xiaofan, I\'m 23 years old this year. I just graduated from college. A third-rate school with fourth-tier grades, my college was in Hangzhou, and after I graduated I first went to work as sales staff at a real estate agency with a salary of 1,800 [translator\'s note: this is a very low salary, about $300 USD / month]. My sales performance was poor, and the company never fired me, but I was so embarrassed that I left. \r\n\r\n2) I wandered around Hangzhou for two months, submitted I don\'t even know how many resumes, or went to how many interviews, but nothing came through. After I\'d spent all my travel money, I went back to my home town.\r\n\r\n3) My home town is Luoyang. In the Luoyang countryside falls a little village called Shilipu\'er. \r\n\r\n4) The reason I went home is because the village\'s only teacher got tuberculosis, and he was very seriously ill, so as the village\'s only person who\'d ever gone off to college, the village chief dug up a thousand-dollar [translator\'s note: \"1000 kuai\" is \"1000 Chinese Renminbi\"] investment and asked me to substitute teach. \r\n\r\n5) So I went home. \r\n\r\n6) My life away from home wasn\'t even as good as a dog\'s, but I get plenty of respect in my home town. \r\n\r\n7) In such a remote village, being a college graduate is still an extremely awesome thing to be, and every time the villagers see my father, they all give him a thumbs-up and say, \"Your family\'s ancestral grave is emitting green smoke, unexpectedly out popped a college student! You\'ll be walking off this mountain after a while!\" [translator\'s note: this is a compliment regarding the family\'s lineage.]\r\n\r\n8) Of course at these times, my father would smile in a simple and honest way, wiping the sweat off his brow. \r\n\r\n9) After I came back to the village, all the local matchmakers tried to set me up with someone, almost trampling down my door, no exaggeration. If you\'ve never been in that [village] environment, you don\'t know the power of those three words, \"College Degree Holder\".\r\n\r\n10) My dad also made a supreme effort to settle me, because in his eyes, at 23 years old I\'d already passed marrying age. Everyone my age already had kids running around with their bare butts hanging out. \r\n\r\n11) So as not to make him worry, I\'d already coped with my first blind date. \r\n\r\n12) Yes, it was definitely \"coping\". \r\n\r\n13) College, speaking frankly, was a place with completely different place with different rationales, but although I came from a farm village, I wasn\'t considered ugly, you might even say I\'m handsome. I had a girlfriend, but I had no money, and she wasn\'t very rich either, but that\'s just the way it was, we were together three years, and I used up all my part-time work money trying to do all the things a boyfriend is supposed to do. In the third year, we broke up. \r\n\r\n14) On that day, on the hill behind our school, I drank a bottle of 2-dollar liquor. After I woke up, I wasn\'t sad anymore, and I just continued muddle-headedly passing the days. \r\n\r\n15) About my looks, those I inherited from my mother. \r\n\r\n16) A good-looking woman from who-knows-where. \r\n\r\n17) She had dementia.\r\n\r\n18) A few decades ago, my father went to the city, and spent three hundred dollars to buy her and bring her home.\r\n\r\n19) My dad said, that day he spent two bucks to buy mom some clothes, and when he returned, mom\'s good looks made everyone in the village drool all over the ground. \r\n\r\n20) Pity, she was an idiot.\r\n\r\n21) If she hadn\'t been an idiot, my dad could never have afforded her. \r\n\r\n22) Then I came along, and mom\'s dementia continued as before, but her brand of dementia wasn\'t like a crazy street person\'s, she was very quiet. \r\n\r\n23) She didn\'t speak, didn\'t move. Just quietly sat there.\r\n\r\n24) This is the environment I grew up in, but I don\'t want to make it sound literary, I had an antisocial nature, but even so, I still had a full childhood. \r\n\r\n25) My father is very industrious, he has a farmer\'s strength, using the farm tools in his hands, he nurtured a household. I don\'t have anything to blame him for. \r\n\r\n26) No money, that\'s just life. \r\n\r\n27) My grandfather is a retired soldier, he\'s illiterate, and he doesn\'t have any of a villager\'s typical shrewdness, on the contrary he\'s terrifyingly honest. Some people said he was GMD [translator\'s note: GMD = guo min dang, the fascist party in the Chinese civil war, who lost], some people said he was GCD [GCD = gong chang dang, the communist party that won the war and remains in power today], but he doesn\'t even know himself which \"dang\" [translator\'s note - this \"dang\" means \"political party\"] he was in, the only thing he knows is that he grabbed a gun and fought the Japanese devils [the Japanese invaded while the GMD and the GCD were fighting each other], and after the devils ran away, he went home.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Books] 《最后一个阴阳师》The Last Yin Yang Master', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1539-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 05:48:29', '2016-11-04 09:48:29', '', 1539, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1539-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2039, 1, '2016-11-04 06:09:07', '2016-11-04 10:09:07', '', 'chinese-reading-practice-blog-learn-chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'chinese-reading-practice-blog-learn-chinese', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:09:07', '2016-11-04 10:09:07', '', 1474, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/chinese-reading-practice-blog-learn-chinese.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2040, 1, '2016-11-04 06:09:45', '2016-11-04 10:09:45', 'I was away for a couple of months towards the end of last year, so I missed a few awesome comments until just recently. \r\n\r\nGrace, a commenter on this blog, brought her Chinese reading practice website to my attention, and it\'s the jam. She has a fabulous collections of translated materials for Elementary, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced readers, including my absolute fav genre, Chinese detective stories. Yay!\r\n\r\nDon\'t miss adding Justlearnchinese.comto your blogroll. \r\n\r\n', '[The CRP Blog] New Resource: Justlearnchinese.com', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1474-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:09:45', '2016-11-04 10:09:45', '', 1474, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1474-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2045, 1, '2016-11-04 06:15:54', '2016-11-04 10:15:54', 'The content of this story is for children, but the language is not beginner, and neither is the sentence structure - this is an intermediate read for sure. I say that because it feels very \"fairy-tale\" language-y, in the sense that sentences are formed in a more literary way, rather than in a chatty way, and there are some uncommonly-heard words, like \"footprint\" (脚印), etc. The tone of the story, on the other hand, is very tra-la-la, winter sparkly glitter magic.\r\n\r\nTwo quick notes on phrases here: 传来了 [pinyin]chuan4 lai2[/pinyin] is an intermediate phrase that can be a little hard to understand, but it is used in reference to things we hear that come to us from afar. This may include voices (like hearing someone\'s voice from outside your house), or noises, or smells, or a piece of news. You can use this to talk about sensations and things that come to you from no particular person or direction - from \"afar\" or \"all around\". \r\n\r\n掏出 [pinyin]tao1 chu1[/pinyin]: this means to fish something out of something else. For example, to fish your phone out of your pocket, or to fish your sweatshirt out of your backpack. \r\n\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n1) 下雪啦，下雪啦！一片片雪花像蒲公英一样在空中翩翩起舞，不一会儿，大地就穿上了一件洁白的衣裳。\r\n\r\n2) 可爱的小熊不小心扭到脚了，只得孤零零地躺在小床上。忽然，从窗外传来了欢快的歌声。小熊朝窗外看去，原来是小老鼠和小白兔在雪地里载歌载舞呢！雪地上还留下了他们可爱的小脚印。小熊心里真羡慕呀！可是，他有什么办法呢？小熊深深地叹了一口气，自言自语：“还是睡一觉吧，说不定梦里会出现奇迹！”\r\n\r\n3) 小熊果然做了一个好梦。他梦见一位留着长胡子的老爷爷来到了他的小屋里。老爷爷从衣袋里掏出一个小瓶子，笑眯眯地喷了喷小熊受伤的脚。小熊马上就活蹦乱跳了，快活地在雪地上和小伙伴们玩耍……\r\n\r\n4) 小鸟们的欢声笑语把小熊吵醒了，原来这只是一场梦。可是小熊发现自己的手里竟然有一个小瓶子！小熊拿起小瓶子往脚上一喷，受伤的脚马上就好了。这真是一瓶神水啊！从此，小熊再也不怕摔伤了。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) It\'s snowing, it\'s snowing! Flakes of snow lightly danced like dandelions in the air, and after a while, the earth wore clothes of pure white. \r\n\r\n2) Cute Little Bear incautiously sprained his ankle, and had to lie in bed all alone. Suddenly, from outside the window came the sound of lighthearted singing. Little bear looked out the window, and [saw that it was] Little Mouse and Little White Rabbit dancing and singing! The snow still held [impressions of] their cute little footprints. Little Bear was truly envious! But what could he do? Little Bear gave a deep sigh, and said aloud to himself: \"Better get some more sleep, and maybe in my dream there will be a miracle!\" \r\n\r\n3) Sure enough, Little bear had a good dream. In his dream, an old man with a long beard came into his room. The old man fished a little bottle out of his pocket, and smilingly sprayed [some liquid from the bottle] on Little Bear\'s wounded foot. Little Bear immediately leaped up and frisked about, playing cheerfully with his [two] buddies on the snowy ground.\r\n\r\n4) The happy sounds of the small birds woke Little Bear up, and [found that] actually it was all just a dream. But then he discovered that there was a small bottle in his hand! Little Bear took up the small bottle and sprayed it on his foot, and the wounded foot was immediately better! This really was a bottle of magic water! After that, Little Bear never again feared bumps and bruises. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] 小熊的美梦 - Little Bear\'s Beautiful Dream', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1460-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:15:54', '2016-11-04 10:15:54', '', 1460, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1460-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2046, 1, '2016-11-04 06:18:07', '2016-11-04 10:18:07', '', 'Learn to Read Simplified Chinese Free: Exercises', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'mr-pigs-picnic-featured', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:18:26', '2016-11-04 10:18:26', '', 1450, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/mr-pigs-picnic-featured.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2048, 1, '2016-11-04 06:21:50', '2016-11-04 10:21:50', '', 'the-silent-dog-mandarin-chinese-practice', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'the-silent-dog-mandarin-chinese-practice', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:21:50', '2016-11-04 10:21:50', '', 1432, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/the-silent-dog-mandarin-chinese-practice.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2050, 1, '2016-11-04 06:25:36', '2016-11-04 10:25:36', '', 'Learn Chinese Characters: Kids Stories in Simplified Mandarin', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'featured-monkey-chinese-reading-exercises', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:25:53', '2016-11-04 10:25:53', '', 1401, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/featured-monkey-chinese-reading-exercises.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2051, 1, '2016-11-04 06:26:17', '2016-11-04 10:26:17', 'Eeps - bad medicine! In this story, the mischievous Monkey - always a trickster figure in Chinese stories - pulls the wool over Little Bear\'s eyes. If Little Bear was American, he\'d sue the hospital for negligence and rake in millions of baskets of peaches. \r\n\r\nThough the majority of this text is very basic reading, there are three phrases which jump out at me as being difficult, or words I couldn\'t find in basic dictionaries. \r\n\r\n理所应当 - [pinyin]li3 suo3 ying1 dang1[/pinyin] This phrase means to feel something is well-deserved, that something has been earned through hard work, usually when it actually hasn\'t. So I guess that roughly translates to \'taking a reward for granted\'? In this story, Monkey feels that his payment is well-earned or well-deserved. But as readers, we know Monkey doesn\'t deserve anything at all - he\'s taking that payment for granted when he didn\'t really earn it. Consider this phrase in another context:\r\n\r\n别人帮助你那是义气，你不能当作是理所应当的。 - \"When other people help you it\'s in the spirit of self-sacrifice, you shouldn\'t consider this something you deserve as a matter of course.\" \r\n\r\n甜头 - Though this looks like two words, the first meaning \"sweet\" and the second meaning \"head\" or \"brain\", it\'s actually a colloquialism that just means \"sweet flavor\" or \"pleasant taste\". \r\n\r\n贪念 - These two characters also seem separate, they don\'t appear together in my dictionary, but they\'re actually one word. According to Baidu Bai Ke, the Baidu dictionary (a Chinese-language resource for word meanings and derivations), 贪念 [pinyin]tan1 nian4[/pinyin] just means \"greedy\" (I presume the \"念\" probably adds the meaning \"idea\" or \"thoughts\" here, so 贪念 could be read as \"greedy thoughts\"). \r\n\r\nYou can read the original here. \r\n\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n1) 猴子去医院玩耍,进了大夫的房间。正好大夫不在,衣服也落在了房间内。\r\n\r\n2) 猴子觉得好玩,就穿上了大夫的衣服,也就是我们常见的那种白大褂子。这时候有一只小熊来医院看病。小熊是第一次上医院,并不了解医院的情况。它所知道的,就是大夫们都穿着白大褂子。\r\n\r\n3) 小熊提着一篮桃子(这是它准备送给大夫的酬金)来到医院,正好走进猴子所在的房间。小熊不认识猴子,但是它认识那件白大褂子,于是就请猴子给它看病。\r\n\r\n4) 猴子本来只是玩耍,并不会看病,但是它看到小熊的篮子后,就起了贪念。于是猴子便装模作样地给小熊看了病,并且理所应当地收下了那篮桃子。至于小熊的病是否给猴子看好了,这一点不得而知。\r\n\r\n5) 但是猴子却尝到了甜头,以后常常潜入医院,趁大夫不在的时候,穿上大夫的衣服,给病人看病。到后来,猴子干脆给自己也做了一身那样的白大褂子。\r\n\r\n6) 唉!我们不知道有多少人是在猴子那里看的病啊!\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) Monkey went to the hospital on a lark, and entered the doctor\'s room. At that moment, the doctor wasn\'t in, and he\'d left his [doctor\'s] clothes in the room.\r\n\r\n2) Monkey thought this would be fun, so he put on the doctor\'s clothes, that white lab coat we see so often. Just then a little bear came to the hospital to see the doctor. This was the little bear\'s first time at the hospital, and he didn\'t know what hospitals were like [lit: didn\'t know the hospital situation]. All he knew was that doctors wear white lab coats. \r\n\r\n3) The little bear had shown up at the hospital carrying a basket of peaches (this was the payment he had prepared to give to the doctor), and he happened to walk into the room where Monkey was. Little Bear didn\'t know Monkey, but he recognized the white lab coat, so he asked Monkey to examine him.\r\n\r\n4) Monkey originally just [intended to] have a bit of fun, but when he saw Little Bear\'s basket, he coveted it fiercely. So Monkey put on a big show of examining Little Bear, and accepted his well-earned basket of peaches. As to whether or not Monkey actually cured Little Bear, we will never know. \r\n\r\n5) However, after Monkey tasted that sweetness, he often stole into the hospital, taking advantage of the doctor\'s absence, and examined patients. Later, Monkey simply made himself one of those white lab coats. \r\n\r\n6) Ai! We don\'t know how many people were examined by Monkey!\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] 大夫和猴子 - The Doctor and the Monkey', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1401-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:26:17', '2016-11-04 10:26:17', '', 1401, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1401-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2053, 1, '2016-11-04 06:32:02', '2016-11-04 10:32:02', 'In this essay, a child desperately (and very angrily) pleads their father not to smoke. Though this is classified as \"Intermediate\", beginners should definitely try this read, leaning heavily on the hover word-list. The difficult parts are the mid-level turns of phrase, which are all explained below. \n\nCouple of grammar points
\nFirst of all: 我本想让您别抽烟. Most of this sentence is quite simple, but the addition of the character 本 can be puzzling, especially since 本 has many meanings. In this case, the word 本 means \"originally\", as in \"I originally thought to let you not smoke.\" Or, in better English, \"My original intention was that this would make you stop smoking.\" \n\nAnother point: When the father learns that his cigarettes are gone, he 东翻西找. This phrase is actually a mixture of two words: 东西 (east and west / left and right / in all directions) and 翻找 (to rummage through things while searching, turn things over). We\'ve seen this kind of thing before in previous posts, as with the phrase \"仰起头来\" in the post Little Dog Wears Shoes. If you let the mental picture kind of wash over you, you get an image of the father turning things over looking for his cigarettes.\n\nA word of interest: 大烟枪. Literally, this word means \"big opium pipe\" or in more contemporary times can actually mean \"big bong\". Colloquially in reference to a person, this means \"someone who smokes a lot\", a \"heavy smoker\". \n\nSee the source. \n\n\n
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Chinese text
\n爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我还清楚地记得，那天，我悄悄地把您的烟盒偷走，又偷偷地扔进垃圾桶里，我本想让您别抽烟。可谁知，您回来后，发现烟盒不见了，就东翻西找。当我告诉您，烟盒是我扔的，您十分生气，还狠狠的骂了一句话，你这个坏孩子！这句话，让当时的我感到莫大的痛苦。我把自己反锁在房间内，当时心里想着，你这个大烟枪！抽吧，抽吧，抽到死了我也不理你。\n\n爸爸，请您别抽烟了！我常常发现您上班时，烟盒的烟还是满满的，可下班回来时，烟盒里的香烟只剩下几根了。每当看见您身旁云雾缭绕，我的鼻子感觉酸酸的。我担心您的肺已被尼古丁熏得千疮百孔。\n\n爸爸请您别抽烟了！现在您每天都在咳嗽，每天都在吐痰。我担心您会离我们而去。那时丢下我们，那该怎么办呀。\n\n爸爸，为了您的健康，为了我们，请您别抽烟了!\n\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! I still remember clearly, that day, I quietly stole your box of cigarettes, and secretly threw them in the trash can, because I was thinking that would stop you from smoking. But who could have known, when you returned, and you found out your cigarettes were gone, you rummaged through everything looking for them. When I told you, that it was me who threw them away, you were quite angry, and you ruthlessly scolded me, You bad child! That sentence made me [lit: \'the me of that time\'] feel great pain. I locked myself in my room, and at that time in my heart I thought, You big opium pipe! [Then go ahead and] smoke, smoke, smoke until you die and I won\'t care [lit: I won\'t pay any attention to you].\n\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! I always find that when you go to work, your box of cigarettes is still full of cigarettes, but when you get off work and come back, there are only a few cigarettes left in the box. Every time I see you you\'re surrounded by a curling cloud [of smoke], there\'s a sour smell in my nose. I worry that your lungs have already been riddled with gaping wounds by the nicotine. \n\nPapa, please don\'t smoke! You cough every day, and every day you expectorate. I worry that you will leave us. When you abandon us, then what will we do? \n\nPapa, for your health, and for us, please don\'t smoke! \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 爸爸请您别抽烟了 - Papa, Please Don\'t Smoke!', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1385-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:32:02', '2016-11-04 10:32:02', '', 1385, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1385-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2054, 1, '2016-11-04 06:35:01', '2016-11-04 10:35:01', '', 'beginner-chinese-essays-dont-smoke', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'beginner-chinese-essays-dont-smoke', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:35:34', '2016-11-04 10:35:34', '', 1385, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/beginner-chinese-essays-dont-smoke.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2056, 1, '2016-11-04 06:40:32', '2016-11-04 10:40:32', '', 'featured-image-japanese-maples', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'featured-image-japanese-maples', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:40:44', '2016-11-04 10:40:44', '', 1369, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/featured-image-japanese-maples.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2059, 1, '2016-11-04 06:47:10', '2016-11-04 10:47:10', '', 'chinese-reading-practice-learn-chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'chinese-reading-practice-learn-chinese', '', '', '2016-11-04 06:47:31', '2016-11-04 10:47:31', '', 1363, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/chinese-reading-practice-learn-chinese.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2065, 1, '2016-11-04 07:08:11', '2016-11-04 11:08:11', 'You know you need a KTV song! Beijing, Beijing is a slow ballad sung by Chinese artist 汪峰 [pinyin]wang1 feng1[/pinyin] and was in the Baidu Top 100 top 10 for a bit this year. Now it looks like it\'s fallen between the 30th and 40th place on various music charts, but it\'s still pretty popular, particularly in, you know, Beijing. If you can find it in yourself to embrace the painful 80\'s growly I-mean-it man voice and the \"Streets of Philadelphia\" emo-dad thing, you may find that the song is a good karaoke song if you\'re just starting out because it\'s repetitive, it\'s not abstract, it\'s sung slowly enough to sing along and it\'s so emotionally over-fraught that it\'s fun. \n\n\n\nI recommend you read and translate the lyrics before you listen to the song, so you\'ve got an idea of what you\'re hearing. \n\nA few translation notes: it\'s not always clear exactly how to translate song lyrics. Example: 寻找着追逐着奄奄一息的碎梦 is not an easy lyric to translate. Or rather, it\'s super easy to get the gist of the meaning (searching, chasing, dying, broken dreams... you get the idea), but put an \"of\" in the wrong place and the meaning changes to something slightly different. I\'ve done my best, feel free to re-write or re-interpret those in a different way. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n
Chinese text
\n1) 当我走在这里的每一条街道 \n我的心似乎从来都不能平静 \n除了发动机的轰鸣和电器之音 \n我似乎听到了他烛骨般的心跳 \n我在这里欢笑 \n我在这里哭泣\n我在这里活着 \n也在这死去 \n我在这里祈祷 \n我在这里迷惘 \n我在这里寻找 \n也在这儿失去 \n北京 北京 \n\n2) 咖啡馆与广场有三个街区 \n就像霓虹灯到月亮的距离 \n人们在挣扎中相互告慰和拥抱 \n寻找着追逐着奄奄一息的碎梦 \n我们在这欢笑 \n我们在这哭泣 \n我们在这活着 \n也在这死去 \n我们在这祈祷 \n我们在这迷惘 \n我们在这寻找 \n也在这儿失去 \n北京 北京 \n \n3) 如果有一天我不得不离去 \n我希望人们把我埋在这里 \n在这儿我能感觉到我的存在 \n在这儿有太多让我眷恋的东西 \n我在这里欢笑 \n我在这里哭泣 \n我在这里活着 \n也在这儿死去 \n我在这里祈祷 \n我在这里迷惘 \n我在这里寻找 \n也在这儿失去 \n北京 北京\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) When I walk the streets here\nIt seems like my heart can never be serene\nBeyond the rumble of engines and sounds of electronics\nI seem to hear its candlewick heartbeat\nThis is where I laugh happily\nThis is where I weep\nThis is where I live\nAnd this is where I\'ll die\nThis is where I pray\nThis is where I\'m confused\nThis is where I search\nAnd also where I lose\nBeijing, Beijing \n\n2) The three blocks between the coffee shop and the plaza\nSeem like the distance between the neon lights and the moon \nPeople comfort and embrace each other as they struggle together\nSearching for, chasing after, the last gasp of broken dreams\nThis is where we laugh happily\nThis is where we cry bitterly \nThis is where we live\nAnd this is where we\'ll die\nThis is where we pray\nThis is where we\'re confused\nThis is where we search\nAnd also where we lose\nBeijing, Beijing \n\n \n3) If someday I have no choice but to leave\nI hope people bury me here\nHere I can sense my existence \nHere there are too many things I yearn for\nThis is where I laugh happily\nThis is where I cry bitterly \nThis is where I live\nAnd this is where I die\nThis is where I pray\nThis is where I\'m confused\nThis is where I search\nAnd also where I lose\nBeijing, Beijing \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Songs] 《北京北京》Beijing Beijing by Wang Feng', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1295-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:08:11', '2016-11-04 11:08:11', '', 1295, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1295-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2066, 1, '2016-11-04 07:08:20', '2016-11-04 11:08:20', '', 'beijing-beijing-song-featured', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'beijing-beijing-song-featured', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:08:42', '2016-11-04 11:08:42', '', 1295, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/beijing-beijing-song-featured.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2070, 1, '2016-11-04 07:20:47', '2016-11-04 11:20:47', 'Chinese Title: 暴风雪已致15人死 2000航班延误取消\n\nIn the spirit of the holiday season, which is winding to a blissfully overweight close, I give you an article about something you may or may not have just struggled through if you flew home for the holidays (which I did). This is a wildly factual article about the congestion caused by the snow storms a week or so ago. Not a lot of excitement here, mostly a tallying up of what a big fat mess the American aviation system becomes during the annual Christmas hysteria. \n\nLots and lots of proper nouns in here, including lots of U.S. states, some cities and even a couple of basketball team names. Probably the most fun you\'ll have reading this is trying to decipher the list of Chinese names for U.S. states (read the characters out loud quickly and see if you can guess - example: 弗吉尼亚州 fo ji ni ya = Virginia). You can always tell you\'re reading a U.S. state name because the character 州 appears at the tail end of each state. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n
Chinese \n圣诞节期间美国遭遇暴风雪袭击，已至少造成15人死亡，2000次美国航班延误或取消。\n\n据报道，因暴雪严寒造成人员死亡的州包括肯塔基州、俄亥俄州、印第安纳州、阿肯色州、俄克拉何马州、得克萨斯州、路易斯安那州、宾夕法尼亚州和弗吉尼亚州。\n\n很多地区发出警告提醒人们不要外出，因为凛冽狂风、低温和充满危险的路况对行人构成威胁。气象部门说，位于美国东北部的新英格兰地区数州即将出现大雪天气，缅因州部分地区的降雪厚度达18英寸(约45厘米)。因此，很多人的圣诞节假期旅行计划受到影响。\n\n目前，已有超过20万居民家中断电，成千上万出游的人们滞留在各处。NBA推迟了原本于周三晚在印第安纳波利斯举行的印第安纳步行者对芝加哥公牛队的篮球赛。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThis Christmas season, America is suffering through a blizzard, which has already caused at least 15 deaths and the delay or cancellation of 2000 flights. \n\nAccording to reports, the snowstorm and bitter cold has caused deaths in states including Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Virginia. \n\nMany regions issued warnings reminding people not to go outside, because the biting cold, howling winds, low temperatures and dangerous traffic conditions compose a threat to pedestrians. The weather department said that severe snow will soon appear in America\'s northeastern New England area, with snowfall in Maine reaching 18 inches (about 45 centimeters). As a result, many people\'s Christmas travel plans will be effected.\n\nCurrently, 200,000 homes have already experienced electrical outages, and tens of thousands of travelers have been detained. [Also due to snow] in Indianapolis, the NBA postponed Wednesday night\'s Indiana Pacers vs. Chicago Bulls basketball game. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[News in Chinese] Snowstorm has caused 15 deaths and 2000 flight delays or cancellations', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1304-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:20:47', '2016-11-04 11:20:47', '', 1304, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1304-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2071, 1, '2016-11-04 07:19:58', '2016-11-04 11:19:58', '', 'read-in-chinese-snow-storm', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'read-in-chinese-snow-storm', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:20:33', '2016-11-04 11:20:33', '', 1304, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/read-in-chinese-snow-storm.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2073, 1, '2016-11-04 07:24:33', '2016-11-04 11:24:33', 'Know someone who has a high, but misguided, opinion of their own worth? Thought so. Stick this one in the language bank for when you need to take someone down a peg (preferably while stroking your fu manchu and calmly catching flies with your chopsticks). \n\nI learned a new word on this one: 统治 [pinyin]tong3 zhi4[/pinyin]. Which brings the total number of \"tongzhi\" words (tonal differences aside) I know up to three. \n\nWe\'ve got:\n同志 - [pinyin]tong2 zhi4[/pinyin] or \"Comrade\" (and in Chinese slang this also means \"a homosexual\", though if you keep an eye on the Chinese news you\'ll see that that one of the more reputable local dictionaries refused to include that definition though it\'s in common use) \n\n通知 [pinyin]tong1 zhi1[/pinyin] - To notify, give notice\n\nAnd now, 统治 [pinyin]tong3 zhi4[/pinyin] - To rule over (a kingdom / country)\n\nLet us hope there aren\'t any more configurations of that sound. \n\nAnyway, this post might be Advanced level, I can\'t 100% tell, so do post in the comments if you feel it\'s inaccurately placed in \"Intermediate\". I\'ll move it if enough people agree. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n汉朝的时候，在西南方有个名叫夜郎的小国家，它虽然是一个独立的国家，可是国土很小，百姓也少，物产更是少得可怜。但是由于邻近地区以夜郎这个国家最大，从没离开过国家的夜郎国国王就以为自己统治的国家是全天下最大的国家。\n\n有一天，夜郎国国王与部下巡视国境的时候，他指着前方问说：“这里哪个国家最大呀？”部下们为了迎合国王的心意，于是就说：“当然是夜郎国最大啰！”走着走着，国王又抬起头来、望着前方的高山问说：“天底下还有比这座山更高的山吗？”部下们回答说：“天底下没有比这座山更高的山了。”后来，他们来到河边，国王又问：“我认为这可是世界上最长的河川了。”部下们仍然异口同声回答说：“大王说得一点都没错。”从此以后，无知的国王就更相信夜郎是天底下最大的国家。\n\n有一次，汉朝派使者来到夜郎，途中先经过夜郎的邻国滇国，滇王问使者：“汉朝和我的国家比起来哪个大？”使者一听吓了一跳，他没想到这个小国家，竟然无知的自以为能与汉朝相比。却没想到后来使者到了夜郎国，骄傲又无知的国王因为不知道自己统治的国家只和汉朝的一个县差不多大，竟然不知天高地厚也问使者：“汉朝和我的国家哪个大？”\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nDuring the Han Dynasty, in the southwest there was a small country called Yelang, and although it was an independent nation, its territory was small, there weren\'t many citizens, and its products were pitifully few. Because it was the largest kingdom in the near area, the Yelang king who\'d never left his own country thought the country he ruled was the biggest on earth. \n\nOne day, the king of Yelang was on a national border inspection tour with his troops, when he pointed in front of him [to neighboring country] and said, \"Which country is bigger?\" In order to serve their own interests and make the king happy, the troops said, \"Of course Yelang is bigger!\" They walked along, and the king once again lifted up his head, gazed at the big mountain in the distance and asked: \"Is there a taller mountain than this anywhere on earth?\" And his men answered: \"No, there\'s no mountain taller than this one on earth.\" After a while, they reached the river side, and the king asked again: \"I think this is the world\'s longest river.\" And all his men said in unison \"The king speaks truly.\" After this, the ignorant king believed even more firmly that Yelang was the world\'s biggest country.\n\nThen one day, the Han Dynasty dispatched an envoy to Yelang, and en route they encountered the neighboring kingdom DianGuo, and the King of Dian asked the emissary: \"If you compared the Han Dynasty and my Kingdom, which one would be bigger?\" The emissary listened in astonishment, as he\'d never have thought this small a country thought it could compare itself to the Han Dynasty. But he really never could have suspected that when he got to Yelang, the prideful and ignorant king who didn\'t know that the kingdom he ruled was about the size of one Han county, would ask with an exaggerated opinion of his own worth, \"Which is bigger: the Han Dynasty or my country?\" \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 夜郎自大 - Foolish Conceit', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1300-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:24:33', '2016-11-04 11:24:33', '', 1300, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1300-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2075, 1, '2016-11-04 07:27:12', '2016-11-04 11:27:12', '', 'Learn to read Chinese: Intermediate Essays, Idioms and Grammar', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'yelangzida-featured', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:27:27', '2016-11-04 11:27:27', '', 1300, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/yelangzida-featured.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2076, 1, '2016-11-04 07:32:25', '2016-11-04 11:32:25', 'Gonna lay it on a bit thick today with something nice and serious. This is an abstract of an academic paper from the Gender Studies Network authored by Zhou Ying. \n\nBecause this is an advanced academic abstract, you can really see how, in the upper levels of written Chinese, a ton of words that we find essential in English can be dropped from a sentence while still preserving the essence of the meaning. We tend to extend sentences with explanation, but here, I feel, is a reasonable example of how efficient Chinese can be. Because so many words have been dropped, I\'ve added a whole lot of bracketed explanation and English fill-in words in the translation to better illuminate the implied meaning.\n\nI\'m not quite sure I know what a \"proper role in domestic life is\", I\'m fairly certain that not all policewomen feel intensely conflicted, but I do like the idea of implementing some social policies to better support working women. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n女警察工作与生活平衡问题探讨\n\n警察职业曾是女性的“禁区”。随着社会的发展, 目前女警数量不断扩大, 警务工作范围不断扩展, 他们已成为维护社会治安、打击犯罪的特殊力量。女警发展面临着工作与生活平衡的困境。一方面, 存在着女警人数所占比例小、岗位受限、晋升和参与决策的机会有限、职业安全遭受到威胁等限制职业发展的问题。另一方面, 繁忙的警务工作使其无法扮演好家庭角色, 内心冲突激烈。促进女警工作与生活平衡需要社会方面与个体方面的双重努力, 特别是社会政策的支持。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nA Probe into the Work-Life Balance of Chinese Policewomen\n\nPolice work was once an occupational area forbidden to women. In the wake of [current] social development, the continuous increase in the number of policewomen and the continuous expansion in the scope of police work, policewomen have become an extraordinary force in upholding law and order and cracking down on crime. [At the same time,] this development has left policewomen faced with difficulties in [maintaining] work-life balance. On the one hand, [there are work-related issues such as] their small number in proportion [to male policemen], a limited number of posts they may accept, few opportunities for promotion or participation in decision-making, threats to their occupational safety, and so on. On the other hand, [there are personal issues such as the fact that] the frenetic pace of police work makes it almost impossible to play a proper role in domestic life, creating an intense inner conflict in [policewomen\'s] heart. In order to improve policewomen\'s work-life balance, we must strive [to address] both the social and individual aspects [of this problem], particularly in the form of support through social policies. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Academic Study] A Probe into the Work-Life Balance of Chinese Policewomen', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1287-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:32:25', '2016-11-04 11:32:25', '', 1287, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1287-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2077, 1, '2016-11-04 07:33:15', '2016-11-04 11:33:15', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese - Gender Research and Advanced Academic Papers in Chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'academic-abstract-chinese-police-women', '', '', '2016-11-04 07:33:25', '2016-11-04 11:33:25', '', 1287, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/academic-abstract-chinese-police-women.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2082, 1, '2016-11-04 23:53:15', '2016-11-05 03:53:15', 'For those of you new to Chinese culture, one thing a Chinese child most looks forward to all year is the time during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) when they get to go ask their neighbors and other adults for red envelopes containing some money, referred to here as 压岁钱 [pinyin]ya1 sui4 qian2[/pinyin] - it\'s a bit like trick-or-treating for cash. This essay is about what happened to one kid\'s Spring Festival haul. We\'ll cover a lot of beginner grammar here.\n\n\"Play\"
\nI should probably talk about a couple of points before we dive in. One is the use of the word 玩. Describing what he (or she, perhaps) does on Chinese New Year, the author says he can 玩得快活 - \"play happily\". The Chinese don\'t use \"play\" the way we do. While they do use it to mean \"to play with toys\" as a child does, they also use it to mean going out (like adults going out on Saturday night), or friends going out to a mall to go shopping - it\'s really more of a blanket term better translated as \"having fun\". So the kid is not saying they necessarily only play with toys happily on Chinese New Year, but also maybe that they go hang out at parents\' friends houses, or whatever. It\'s not specified.\n\nComparatives
\nAnother interesting point comes in here: 心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴 - \"In my heart I was extremely happy, but also very disappointed\". Note the use of the words 特别 and 很 - meaning \"extremely\" / \"very\" respectively. Thing is, in Chinese you can\'t use a word like \"happy\" or \"disappointed\" without balancing it with a word measuring how happy or disappointed you were. There\'s no way in general casual conversation to say \"I was happy\" - just regular ol\' happy. You can\'t, for example, say just \"我高兴“. Instead, say \"I was VERY happy\" 我很高兴, or \"extremely happy\" 我非常高兴 or \"exceedingly happy\" 高兴极了 or \"fairly happy\" 比较高兴 or whatever. So when we translate Chinese, we could actually drop the \"very\"s and \"extremely\"s and all that, because they have much less meaning in Mandarin then they do to us. This used to bug me a lot when speaking. I didn\'t want to say I was \"very happy\" - I wasn\'t. I was just normally happy. But it was finally explained to me how little that \"very\" actually mattered. So bear that in mind. \n\n余
\nAnd another point: ...收到了700余元... This means \"received over 700 yuan\". Notice that the word 余, which means \"over\" / \"more than\" is written after the amount of money and before the actual word \"yuan\". In English, this would be like saying \"received 700-plus dollars\". You could also say 收到了700多元, which means the same thing. \n\nThe original is from my new favorite Chinese essay composition site. \n\n
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Chinese text
\n我非常喜欢过新年，因为过年不但能穿新衣服，玩得快活，而且还能收到很多的压岁钱。今年我一下子就收到了700余元压岁钱，我拿着压岁钱，心里特别高兴，但是也很扫兴，怕妈妈给收走了，以往的压岁钱都要上缴的，我就给妈妈商量：今年我刚满十岁，我已经长大了，希望这些压岁钱由我来保管，没想到妈妈很爽快的答应了，我心里乐的开了花。我拿到这些压岁钱，我应该怎样来花这些钱呢？买我喜欢的玩具、还有我最喜欢吃的肯德基？我苦思冥想了好几天，我打算用这些钱来买我喜欢的书籍、买一些学习用品或者订报纸、献爱心捐款......除了这些,我是决不乱花的。\n\n我觉得这样做，不但可以从小学会勤俭节约、不乱花钱的习惯，而且还可以使我学会管理、学会生活，这样才会使我逐渐成长起来。\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nI really love New Year, because [during] New Year I can not only wear new clothes, and play happily, but also I can get a lot of New Year\'s money. This year in a short while I got more than 700 yuan, and holding that New Years\' money, in my heart I was extremely happy, but also my spirits were dampened, I was afraid mama would take it away from me, [because] in the past [I had to] give over my New Year\'s money to the higher authorities [author means his mother here, not God], so I discussed it with mom [thus]: this year I\'m fully 10 years old, I\'m already a grown up, and I hope this New Year\'s money can be left under my care, but I never though she\'d agree so easily [lit: so frankly], and happiness bloomed in my heart like a flower. I held the New Year\'s money, but what should I spend this money on? Buy a toy I like, or my favorite thing to eat, Kentucky Fried Chicken? I racked my brains for several days, and decided to use the money to buy some books I liked, buy a few school supplies or to subscribe to a newspaper, and to make a charitable donation... apart from these things, I figured I\'d better not spend it recklessly [author likely means they won\'t spend the rest at all]. \n\nI though that doing it this way, I not only could learn to be diligent and thrifty starting in primary school, and develop careful spending habits, but also this could let me study money management, study life [skills], and this would finally let me gradually mature.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Essay] 拿到压岁钱以后 - After I Got My New Years\' Money', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1241-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:53:15', '2016-11-05 03:53:15', '', 1241, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1241-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(2141, 1, '2016-11-04 23:53:27', '2016-11-05 03:53:27', 'This melancholy kid doesn\'t seem to have very much luck with pets or siblings. You may or may not have a little difficulty with the sentence 楼区不让养, which is said in regards to a pet dog. Looking at each word...\r\n\r\n楼 - [pinyin]lou2[/pinyin] Building\r\n区 - [pinyin]qu1[/pinyin] District / region / area\r\n不 - [pinyin]bu4[/pinyin] No, not, doesn\'t\r\n让 - [pinyin]rang4[/pinyin] Allow, let\r\n养 - [pinyin]yang3[/pinyin] Raise, take care of (as in a child or a pet)\r\n\r\n... the meaning isn\'t too hard to decipher \"the building doesn\'t allow raising [of dogs]\". But while the meaning isn\'t difficult, some of the words are used a little bit differently than they are in English. For example, in English, when we say someone \"raises dogs\", or \"raises\" any type of animal, it usually indicates some kind of professional or large-scale dedication to breeding that type of animal. When people casually keep a pet or pets, we say they \"have a dog\", or \"own a dog\". Not so in Chinese. The correct Chinese term for having a pet dog (or many types of pet) is \"raising a dog\" - 养狗. So, for example, saying \"I want to raise a dog\" (我想养一只狗) is the equivalent of saying \"I want a dog\" in English. \r\n\r\nThe other question this raises is \"what do they mean by 楼区, \'building district\'\"? You\'d assume this means the area around your apartment building, and you\'d be right - but why \"区\"? This is because in China, many older apartment blocks are much more like tiny districts or communities than they are in the western world. In one complex, there may be several buildings that make up your block, with little numbered sub-staircases (单元) that each contain 12 or so apartments, and they may include small playgrounds inside the block or have other amenities. 楼区 refers to all buildings in the apartment block, any outdoor areas or amenities for that apartment area. \r\n\r\n
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Chinese text
\r\n我是个独生子，家里没有兄弟，只好养动物来解闷。可是，小黄狗，楼区不让养，只好放走；大白鹅，被人偷走了；小松鼠，不小心从窗台上摔了下来，死了。就这样，我的小动物死的死，放的放。现在只有两只小乌龟<陪伴着我。我心想：你们俩可算得上“忠臣”了。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nI\'m an only child, I have no brothers, so I have to raise pets to relieve my boredom. But as to the little yellow dog, the building [management] doesn\'t allow [people to have dogs], so we had to set it free; the big white goose was stolen, and the little squirrel accidentally leaped from the window ledge and died. In these ways, my pets have died, or been let go. Right now I only have two turtles to accompany me. In my heart I think: \"You two are my only \"loyal ministers\". \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 我孤独 - I am All Alone', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1201-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:53:27', '2016-11-05 03:53:27', '', 1201, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1201-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2083, 1, '2016-11-04 08:31:25', '2016-11-04 12:31:25', 'This excerpt is one of the Tiger Team supernatural mystery novels for adolescents. The Tiger Team series was originally created in German by author Thomas C. Brezina, and features a band of young detectives: Jupiter Katz, son of a supernatural researcher Erasmus Katz, Jupiter\'s cousin Vicky and Vicky\'s little brother Nick. This is listed as \"advanced\" not necessarily because of the vocabulary - which isn\'t terribly difficult - but also because some of the sentence structures aren\'t very straightforward. This is the easy end of the advanced spectrum, so if you think you might be an advanced reader, try this.\n\nI found this Chinese translation of the Tiger Team novel \"Ghost Hotel\" in my local bookstore, and I\'ve manually typed in the first few paragraphs of the book, which describe a dilapidated, mostly-abandoned hotel, where most of the novel takes place. This is interesting practice in reading longer descriptions, and includes many words that are strictly book-language: you\'re not likely to run into them in daily conversation. There\'s probably an actual English version of this book, but I can\'t easily get my hands on this, so bear in mind you\'re not reading the official English translation. Here\'s the Chinese version on Amazon China. \n\nThere are a couple of difficult passages here that don\'t quite mean what they seem to mean. One is 木条都不知下落了. Originally, I read this as \"wooden slats scattered here and there\", or literally \"wooden slats fallen down in who knows how many places\". But I learned that 下落, in this case, doesn\'t mean \"fall down\". It means \"where is it?\" (the same as 在哪儿). So 不知下落 actually means \"to be missing\", or \"to be gone to who knows where\". \n\nAnother phrase I should note is 数目远远大于实际需要, \"an amount (数目) far (远远) greater (大于) than actually (实际) needed (需要)\". 大于 was a new word for me, and I didn\'t know that 远远 - meaning \"far away\" - can also sometimes be used the same way in Chinese as in English, to mean \"very\" (example: far above the normal amount). \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n那栋房子是木质结构的， 看起来就像是婚礼蛋糕。 它总共有四层，越向上越狭窄，所以最高的那层就只是一座带有小小玻璃穹顶的尖塔了。\n\n灰蒙蒙的木头外墙已经腐朽不堪， 黑色的穹顶上好像也被戳了好几个窟窿。\n\n窗户都是拱形，数目远远大于实际需要，上面还钉了好多木条。\n\n这栋房子从1911年起就矗立在这座孤零零的山丘上。有时候，附近的农民发现这栋房子会像磁铁一样，吸引着乌云，雷电，冰雹和风雨。\n\n如果谁在夏天的时候走近这栋房子，就会发现这里奇特现象：房子周围为数不多的那几棵树都是光秃秃的。 树枝如同黝黑的手臂， 高高地指向天空。\n\n这块地被低矮的木栅栏圈在当中， 有几处已经被人损坏， 木条都不知下落了。 甚至， 有的地方已经完全被杂草所掩埋。\n\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThe building was constructed of wood, and looked like a wedding cake. Altogether, it had four floors, each narrower than the one below, so the topmost floor was just a small minaret topped with a glass dome. \n\nThe gloomy outer wall was already in a state of extreme disrepair, and the dark and the vaulted roof looked as if it had been stabbed full of holes. \n\nThe windows were all arched, there were far more of them than actually necessary, and they had wooden boards nailed over them. \n\nThe house had towered atop this isolated hill since 1911. Sometimes, the nearby villagers would find that the building was like a magnet, attracting dark clouds, lightening, hail, wind and rain. \n\nIf anyone walked near the house during summer, they would discover a strange phenomenon: the few surrounding trees were all bare. The tree branches were like dark arms, pointing tall towards the sky. \n\nThe land was encircled by a low fence, which had been broken in several places, and the wooden slats were missing. It was in such a state that some parts of it had even been completely buried by weeds. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Books] 《惊恐小虎队》Tiger Team: Ghost Hotel', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1209-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 08:31:25', '2016-11-04 12:31:25', '', 1209, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1209-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2084, 1, '2016-11-04 08:31:43', '2016-11-04 12:31:43', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese Characters: Practice Exercizes and Passages for Advanced Learners', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'chinese-stories-tiger-team', '', '', '2016-11-04 08:35:10', '2016-11-04 12:35:10', '', 1209, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/chinese-stories-tiger-team.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2087, 1, '2016-11-04 08:44:03', '2016-11-04 12:44:03', '', 'Chinese Essays for Beginners: Learn to Read Chinese Essays', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'chinese-reading-practice-candy', '', '', '2016-11-04 08:44:16', '2016-11-04 12:44:16', '', 1235, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/chinese-reading-practice-candy.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2093, 1, '2016-11-04 09:00:46', '2016-11-04 13:00:46', 'A cool introduction to one of the lesser-known deities, Shen Nong 神农 [pinyin]shen2 nong2[/pinyin], the God of Agriculture (and later called the Bodhisattva of Medicine). \r\n\r\nShen Nong, we are to understand, had a transparent abdomen so all his innards could be seen from the outside (yes, the first sentence does say \'Shen Nong had a crystal belly\'), and he always carried two bags with him - read the story to find out what the bags were for.\r\n\r\nWe touch on the origins of some well-known plants (one of which is poorly described, I think), but the last paragraph talks about the herb \"heartbreak grass\" - 断肠草 [pinyin]duan4 chang2 cao3[/pinyin] - which I\'d never heard of and which is not a common plant. The English botanical name is Gelsemium elegans (yeah, no idea), which according to the abstract of one study is \"a toxic plant indigenous to southeastern Asia, well known among hill tribes as an effective means for committing suicide\". So a very potent poison, then.\r\n\r\nOriginal post was found on a cool mythology and fable website - you may find some other interesting stuff there. I made a tiny edit from the original to correct a mistake.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n神农一生下来就是个水晶肚子，五脏六腑全都能看得一清二楚。那时侯，人们经常因为乱吃东西而生病，甚至丧命。神农决心尝遍所有的东西，好吃的放在身边左边的袋子里，给人吃；不好吃的就放在身子右边的袋子里，作药用。\r\n\r\n第一次，神农尝了一片小嫩叶。这叶片一落进肚里，就上上下下地把里面各器官擦洗得清清爽爽，象巡查似的，神农把它叫做“查”，就是后人所称的“茶”。神农将它放进右边袋子里。第二次，神农尝了朵蝴蝶样的淡红小花，甜津津的，香味扑鼻，这是“甘草”。他把它放进了左边袋子里。就这样，神农辛苦地尝遍百草，每次中毒，都靠茶来解救。后来，他左边的袋子里花草根叶有四万七千种，右边有三十九万八千种。\r\n\r\n但有一天，神农尝到了“断肠草”，这种毒草太厉害了，他还来不及吃茶解毒就死了。他是为了拯救人们而牺牲的，人们称他为“药王菩萨”，人间以这个神话故事永远地纪念他。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nAll his life, Shen Nong had a crystal abdomen, and one could clearly see all of his internal organs. At that time, humans were often getting sick and even dying because they ate things indiscriminately [not knowing if they were good or bad]. Shen Nong determinedly tasted everything everywhere; the good-tasting things he put in a bag on his left side, those were for people to eat; the bad-tasting things he put in a bag on his right side, and those were used for medicine.\r\n\r\nThe first time, Shen Nong tasted a small fresh leaf. As this leaf fell into his stomach, it cleaned every inch of his insides so that every organ top and bottom was fresh and cool, as if [the leaf] was somehow on patrol [making the rounds], so Shen Nong called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [to investigate / check], and later generations of men called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [tea]. Shen Nong put it in the bag on the right. The second time, Shen Nong tasted a little light red flower that looked like a butterfly, which was sweet and delicious, with an exotic smell that filled his nostrils, so he called it \"licorice\". He put it in the bag on the left. In this way, Shen Nong diligently tasted all manner of flora, and every time he was poisoned, he used tea to rescue himself. Before long, the bag on his left contained 47,000 kinds of flowers, grasses, roots and leaves, and the right side had 398,000 kinds. \r\n\r\nBut one day, Shen Nong tasted \"heartbreak grass\", and this poison was too terrible, so there wasn\'t enough time to eat the tea leaves to detoxify and he died. He sacrificed himself to save humanity, so people call him the \"Bodhisattva of Medicine\", and people forever commemorate him through this story. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Mythology] 神农尝百草- The Farmer God Shen Nong Tastes All the Plants', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1225-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:00:46', '2016-11-04 13:00:46', '', 1225, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1225-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2090, 1, '2016-11-04 08:56:12', '2016-11-04 12:56:12', 'A cool introduction to one of the lesser-known deities, Shen Nong 神农 [pinyin]shen2 nong2[/pinyin], the God of Agriculture (and later called the Bodhisattva of Medicine). \r\n\r\nShen Nong, we are to understand, had a transparent abdomen so all his innards could be seen from the outside (yes, the first sentence does say \'Shen Nong had a crystal belly\'), and he always carried two bags with him - read the story to find out what the bags were for.\r\n\r\nWe touch on the origins of some well-known plants (one of which is poorly described, I think), but the last paragraph talks about the herb \"heartbreak grass\" - 断肠草 [pinyin]duan4 chang2 cao3[/pinyin] - which I\'d never heard of and which is not a common plant. The English botanical name is Gelsemium elegans (yeah, no idea), which according to the abstract of one study is \"a toxic plant indigenous to southeastern Asia, well known among hill tribes as an effective means for committing suicide\". So a very potent poison, then.\r\n\r\nOriginal post was found on a cool mythology and fable website - you may find some other interesting stuff there. I made a tiny edit from the original to correct a mistake.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n神农一生下来就是个水晶肚子，五脏六腑全都能看得一清二楚。那时侯，人们经常因为乱吃东西而生病，甚至丧命。神农决心尝遍所有的东西，好吃的放在身边左边的袋子里，给人吃；不好吃的就放在身子右边的袋子里，作药用。\r\n\r\n第一次，神农尝了一片小嫩叶。这叶片一落进肚里，就上上下下地把里面各器官擦洗得清清爽爽，象巡查似的，神农把它叫做“查”，就是后人所称的“茶”。神农将它放进右边袋子里。第二次，神农尝了朵蝴蝶样的淡红小花，甜津津的，香味扑鼻，这是“甘草”。他把它放进了左边袋子里。就这样，神农辛苦地尝遍百草，每次中毒，都靠茶来解救。后来，他左边的袋子里花草根叶有四万七千种，右边有三十九万八千种。\r\n\r\n但有一天，神农尝到了“断肠草”，这种毒草太厉害了，他还来不及吃茶解毒就死了。他是为了拯救人们而牺牲的，人们称他为“药王菩萨”，人间以这个神话故事永远地纪念他。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nAll his life, Shen Nong had a crystal abdomen, and one could clearly see all of his internal organs. At that time, humans were often getting sick and even dying because they ate things indiscriminately [not knowing if they were good or bad]. Shen Nong determinedly tasted everything everywhere; the good-tasting things he put in a bag on his left side, those were for people to eat; the bad-tasting things he put in a bag on his right side, and those were used for medicine.\r\n\r\nThe first time, Shen Nong tasted a small fresh leaf. As this leaf fell into his stomach, it cleaned every inch of his insides so that every organ top and bottom was fresh and cool, as if [the leaf] was somehow on patrol [making the rounds], so Shen Nong called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [to investigate / check], and later generations of men called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [tea]. Shen Nong put it in the bag on the right. The second time, Shen Nong tasted a little light red flower that looked like a butterfly, which was sweet and delicious, with an exotic smell that filled his nostrils, so he called it \"licorice\". He put it in the bag on the left. In this way, Shen Nong diligently tasted all manner of flora, and every time he was poisoned, he used tea to rescue himself. Before long, the bag on his left contained 47,000 kinds of flowers, grasses, roots and leaves, and the right side had 398,000 kinds. \r\n\r\nBut one day, Shen Nong tasted \"heartbreak grass\", and this poison was too terrible, so there wasn\'t enough time to eat the tea leaves to detoxify and he died. He sacrificed himself to save humanity, so people call him the \"Bodhisattva of Medicine\", and people forever commemorate him through this story. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Mythology] 神农尝百草- The Farmer God Shen Nong Tastes All the Plants', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1225-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 08:56:12', '2016-11-04 12:56:12', '', 1225, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1225-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2092, 1, '2016-11-04 09:00:25', '2016-11-04 13:00:25', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese - Learn Intermediate Chinese Reading Passages with Famous Chinese Fables and Myths', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'meng-jiang-nv', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:00:56', '2016-11-04 13:00:56', '', 1176, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/meng-jiang-nv.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2094, 1, '2016-11-04 09:03:46', '2016-11-04 13:03:46', 'A cool introduction to one of the lesser-known deities, Shen Nong 神农 [pinyin]shen2 nong2[/pinyin], the God of Agriculture (and later called the Bodhisattva of Medicine). \r\n\r\nShen Nong, we are to understand, had a transparent abdomen so all his innards could be seen from the outside (yes, the first sentence does say \'Shen Nong had a crystal belly\'), and he always carried two bags with him - read the story to find out what the bags were for.\r\n\r\nWe touch on the origins of some well-known plants (one of which is poorly described, I think), but the last paragraph talks about the herb \"heartbreak grass\" - 断肠草 [pinyin]duan4 chang2 cao3[/pinyin] - which I\'d never heard of and which is not a common plant. The English botanical name is Gelsemium elegans (yeah, no idea), which according to the abstract of one study is \"a toxic plant indigenous to southeastern Asia, well known among hill tribes as an effective means for committing suicide\". So a very potent poison, then.\r\n\r\nOriginal post was found on a cool mythology and fable website - you may find some other interesting stuff there. I made a tiny edit from the original to correct a mistake.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese Text
\r\n1) 神农一生下来就是个水晶肚子，五脏六腑全都能看得一清二楚。那时侯，人们经常因为乱吃东西而生病，甚至丧命。神农决心尝遍所有的东西，好吃的放在身边左边的袋子里，给人吃；不好吃的就放在身子右边的袋子里，作药用。\r\n\r\n2) 第一次，神农尝了一片小嫩叶。这叶片一落进肚里，就上上下下地把里面各器官擦洗得清清爽爽，象巡查似的，神农把它叫做“查”，就是后人所称的“茶”。神农将它放进右边袋子里。第二次，神农尝了朵蝴蝶样的淡红小花，甜津津的，香味扑鼻，这是“甘草”。他把它放进了左边袋子里。就这样，神农辛苦地尝遍百草，每次中毒，都靠茶来解救。后来，他左边的袋子里花草根叶有四万七千种，右边有三十九万八千种。\r\n\r\n3) 但有一天，神农尝到了“断肠草”，这种毒草太厉害了，他还来不及吃茶解毒就死了。他是为了拯救人们而牺牲的，人们称他为“药王菩萨”，人间以这个神话故事永远地纪念他。 \r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) All his life, Shen Nong had a crystal abdomen, and one could clearly see all of his internal organs. At that time, humans were often getting sick and even dying because they ate things indiscriminately [not knowing if they were good or bad]. Shen Nong determinedly tasted everything everywhere; the good-tasting things he put in a bag on his left side, those were for people to eat; the bad-tasting things he put in a bag on his right side, and those were used for medicine.\r\n\r\n2) The first time, Shen Nong tasted a small fresh leaf. As this leaf fell into his stomach, it cleaned every inch of his insides so that every organ top and bottom was fresh and cool, as if [the leaf] was somehow on patrol [making the rounds], so Shen Nong called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [to investigate / check], and later generations of men called it \"[pinyin]cha2[/pinyin]\" [tea]. Shen Nong put it in the bag on the right. The second time, Shen Nong tasted a little light red flower that looked like a butterfly, which was sweet and delicious, with an exotic smell that filled his nostrils, so he called it \"licorice\". He put it in the bag on the left. In this way, Shen Nong diligently tasted all manner of flora, and every time he was poisoned, he used tea to rescue himself. Before long, the bag on his left contained 47,000 kinds of flowers, grasses, roots and leaves, and the right side had 398,000 kinds. \r\n\r\n3) But one day, Shen Nong tasted \"heartbreak grass\", and this poison was too terrible, so there wasn\'t enough time to eat the tea leaves to detoxify and he died. He sacrificed himself to save humanity, so people call him the \"Bodhisattva of Medicine\", and people forever commemorate him through this story. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Mythology] 神农尝百草- The Farmer God Shen Nong Tastes All the Plants', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1225-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:03:46', '2016-11-04 13:03:46', '', 1225, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1225-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2095, 1, '2016-11-04 09:09:04', '2016-11-04 13:09:04', '', 'Simplified Chinese Literacy: Easy Passages in Chinese for Beginners', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'little-grass-silver-hair-2', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:09:46', '2016-11-04 13:09:46', '', 1123, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/little-grass-silver-hair.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2102, 1, '2016-11-04 09:27:13', '2016-11-04 13:27:13', '', 'Mandarin Chinese Characters: Learn to Read Simplified Chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'two-lazybones', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:27:27', '2016-11-04 13:27:27', '', 1086, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/two-lazybones.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2104, 1, '2016-11-04 09:31:03', '2016-11-04 13:31:03', '', 'Reading Chinese: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Chinese Practice Essays', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'martial-arts-mastery', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:31:20', '2016-11-04 13:31:20', '', 989, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/martial-arts-mastery.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2100, 1, '2016-11-04 09:22:33', '2016-11-04 13:22:33', 'And now a break from all the intermediate and advanced exercises I\'ve been posting lately. This one is a straightforward beginner Chinese diary-style essay about a student whose mother is displeased with his (or her, it\'s never clarified) homework. \r\n\r\n There\'s only one thing that particularly stands out to me as confusing here, which is when the mother says: 可能是有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。 Literally, this translates as \"Maybe it\'s have small sister, I during this time towards you care little.\" The last clause we can translate into less literal and more readable English as \"I haven\'t looked after you much during this time,\" but the first bit, \"have small sister\" (有了), is confusing. Why \"have\" 有了? \r\n\r\nIn this case, that could be translated as, \"Maybe it\'s because we have your little sister,\" or \"It\'s because I had your little sister [to look after]\", though \"because\" is never actually used in the sentence, it becomes that much harder to read. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n9月24日星期六\r\n\r\n今天，开完家长会，妈妈闷闷不乐，我小心地问：“妈妈，您怎么了？”妈妈看着我，叹了口气说：“你暑假作业完成的不好，字也写的不好。我想，可能是有了小妹妹，我这段时间对你关心少了。”我听了，不好意思地低下了头。\r\n\r\n看着妈妈自责的样子，我心里特别难过，我对妈妈说：“妈妈，您不要自责了，这根本就不是你的错，而是我自己不努力，请您不要生气了，从现在开始，我一定认真完成老师交给的每项作业，争取取得好成绩。请您相信我！”妈妈盯着我的眼睛，攥着我的手说：“好孩子，妈妈相信你，让我们共同努力！”\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nSeptember 24, Saturday\r\n\r\nToday, after my parent-teacher conference, mama looked moody, and I carefully asked her, \"Mama, what\'s wrong?\" Looking at me, mother sighed and said: \"Your summer vacation homework is not close to being done, and your writing is poor. I think, because [I\'ve been spending so much time with] your little sister, I haven\'t been paying as much attention to you during this time.\" As I listened, I hung my head in embarrassment. \r\n\r\nWhen I saw the self-blame on mama\'s face, I was very sad, and I said to mama: \"Mama, don\'t blame yourself, it isn\'t your fault at all, it\'s that I haven\'t worked hard enough, so please don\'t be angry, starting now, I\'ll earnestly finish all the homework teacher gave me, and I\'ll fight to get good grades. Please believe me!\" Mama stared into my eyes, grasped my hand and said, \"Good child, mother believes you, let us work hard together.\" \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 妈妈相信我 - Mama Please Believe Me', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1113-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:22:33', '2016-11-04 13:22:33', '', 1113, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1113-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2106, 1, '2016-11-04 09:39:46', '2016-11-04 13:39:46', 'This is the backstory behind the Chinese idiom 鹬蚌相争 [pinyin]yu4 bang4 xiang1 zheng1[/pinyin], which translates to \"The Sandpiper and the Clam Fight Each Other\", and means \"Two parties fight and a third party benefits.\" Cool upper-intermediate piece - in case it hasn\'t been obvious throughout these posts, I love classical stories about wily government counselors and should probably post about something else on occasion, but so many classical tales involve this trope that it\'s hard to avoid. \n\nThis piece is cool because - excepting the first sentence - the sentence structure is simple but there are quite a few classical words, so you\'ll learn some historical terms. In case you think this kind of thing isn\'t really useful, think again. Historical figures in the Chinese dynasties are mentioned frequently in the oddest places, and their stories bleed out into every medium. If you\'re at a museum, if you\'re reading Chinese magazines, if you\'re reading Chinese historical essays, if you\'re watching a TV show or book or listening to the radio, you\'ll see mentions of historical dynasties all the time. But most importantly, if you want to watch Chinese war movies or period pieces (and there are some great ones), this vocab is crucial. You might as well know at least when to recognize that the conversation has gone that way.\n\nThis short story takes place during the Warring States period (475 BC to 221 BC), and mentions three of the seven warring kingdoms of that time, so you\'ll learn some dynasty names: 赵国 [pinyin]zhao4 guo2[/pinyin] (The Zhao State), 燕国 [pinyin]yan1 guo2[/pinyin] (The Yan State), and 秦国 [pinyin]qin2 guo2[/pinyin] (the Qin State). Speaking of dynasties, when you\'re reading this, look out for the word 王[pinyin]wang2[/pinyin] - as you probably know at this point in your studies, 王means \"king\", and when you see that, you can sometimes guess that the two or three characters before this word are the name of the king. Unlike in English, where we say \"King Charles\" or \"King John\", in this case the Chinese put \"king\" after the name. For example, in this story, we have 赵惠文王 - King Huiwen of Zhao (in other words, king of the Zhao state).\n\nWhat\'s amusing about this story is that in reality, the Qin Dynasty came out on top of the Warring States period and ruled China (well, for a decade or so, anyway) after the Warring States were over - so bear that in mind as you read the last sentence. \n\nYou\'ll also meet our protagonist 苏代 [pinyin]su1 dai4[/pinyin] - who he is is explained in the first sentence, but suffice to say that 苏代 is a person\'s name. He\'s mentioned in conjunction with 纵横家 [pinyin]zong4 heng2 jia1[/pinyin], the School of Diplomacy, which was a sort of league of scholar-statesmen from the Warring States period. If you\'re interested, you can read more about it on Wikipedia. \n\nAnyway, I\'m making this story sound really complicated, but other than the historical terminology, the storyline is not at all convoluted. \n\nOriginal story is here: http://www.diyifanwen.com/chengyu/sizichengyugushi/20100516141051614035955767805.html\n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n1) 赵国将要讨伐燕国，苏代(战国时策士，纵横家苏秦的弟弟)替燕国游说赵惠文王，讲了如下的寓言故事: \n\n2) “我来的时候经过易水，恰好看到蚌出来晒太阳。鹬趁机啄蚌的肉，蚌把两扇介壳一闭就夹住了鹬的喙。鹬说:‘今天不下雨，明天不下雨，就有死蚌。’蚌也针锋相对地说: ‘今天不出，明天不出(夹住不放)，就有死鹬。’两者谁也不肯罢休，这时过来一个渔父把两者一起拎走了。”燕赵相对抗，都搞得很疲劳，我恐怕强大的秦国正在扮演渔父的角色，所以希望大王深思熟虑。\n\n3) 惠文王赞同苏代的意见，停止对燕国用兵。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) The Zhao State was taking up arms against the Yan State, and Su Dai (a military strategist during the Warring States period, and little brother to Su Qin of the School of Diplomacy) traveled to speak with King HuiWen of Zhao on behalf of the Yan State, and he told the following tale: \n\n2) \"When I was coming here I passed over some gentle water, and by chance I happened to see a clam sunning itself. A sandpiper seized the opportunity to peck at the clam\'s meat, but the clam slammed the two wings of its hard shell shut on the sandpiper\'s beak. The sandpiper said, \'Today it won\'t rain, tomorrow it won\'t rain, and there will be one dead clam!\' The clam gave as good as he got, saying: \'I won\'t come out today, I won\'t come out tomorrow (so your beak won\'t be free), and there will be one dead sandpiper!\' Neither party was willing to give up, and at this time, a fisherman scooped them both up and carried them off. If Yan and Zhao oppose each other, we\'ll both fight ourselves weary. I\'m afraid the strong Qin State is playing the role of the fisherman, so I hope that your majesty will carefully deliberate on this matter.\" \n\n3) King HuiWen approved of SuDai\'s message, and stopped using armed forces against the Yan State.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 鹬蚌相争 - When you fight amongst yourselves, a third party profits', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1036-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 09:39:46', '2016-11-04 13:39:46', '', 1036, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1036-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2120, 1, '2016-11-04 23:18:30', '2016-11-05 03:18:30', 'This paragraph introduces \"Punk Times Magazine\", and talks a little about its importance in influencing Chinese alternative youth culture. \"Punk Times\" is 朋克时代 [pinyin]peng2 ke4 shi2 dai4[/pinyin]. Though this is definitely a magazine, it looks like it also came with a CD, as there\'s a track listing that goes with it. It\'s my understanding that along with two other Chinese music magazines 《盛事摇滚》 [pinyin]sheng4 shi4 yao2 gun3[/pinyin] and 《自由音乐》[pinyin]zi4 you2 yin1 yue4[/pinyin], 朋克时代 is among the cannon of alternative music publications in China (or as one netizen put it, \"这三本小册子已成经典\" - \"these three booklets have already become classics\"). \r\n\r\nThe Language of Rebellion
\r\nHoo-ey, look at the angry teen vocabulary in this post: \r\n\r\n摇滚 - [pinyin]yao2 gun3[/pinyin] - Rock (rock\'n\'roll)\r\n铭记 - [pinyin]ming2 ji4[/pinyin] - Engrave in one\'s mind\r\n掀起 - [pinyin]xian1 qi3[/pinyin] - To set off (to set off a reaction or commotion, for example)\r\n风暴 - [pinyin]feng1 bao4[/pinyin] - Violent commotion\r\n颠覆性 - [pinyin]dian1 fu4 xing4[/pinyin] - Subversive\r\n反抗 - [pinyin]fan3 kang4[/pinyin] - To rebel\r\n义无返顾 - [pinyin]yi4 wu2 fan3 gu4[/pinyin] - No looking back\r\n燃烧 - [pinyin]ran2 shao1[/pinyin] - Ignite, combust\r\n\r\nThe original is here: http://music.douban.com/subject/3437383/\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1998年绝对是中国摇滚乐历史上最值得铭记的一年，这一年出现了一本之前没有过、之后也没谁能超越过的摇滚文化杂志: 《朋克时代》。它所掀起的平民音乐风暴对整个上个世纪末的国内摇滚艺术界是具有颠覆性作用的，它第一次将音乐杂志的内容引入了反抗现实意识的领域。在当时不知有多少青年被这本杂志带进了真正的摇滚世界中，并义无返顾的抄起吉它，用音乐燃烧着青春。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1998 was absolutely the year in Chinese rock history to be engraved in your mind, as this is the year that music culture magazine \"Punk Times\" was first published, [a magazine] whose like hadn\'t been seen before, and it has never since been surpassed. It set off a civilian firestorm which had a subversive impact on China\'s art world towards the end of the last century, as it was the first time a music magazine\'s content introduced the spirit of rebellion into the sphere of popular consciousness. At that time, the magazine brought untold numbers of youths into the world of real rock, and [untold numbers] picked up the guitar without looking back, using music to ignite the young. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Magazines] 《朋克时代》Punk Times', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1025-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:18:30', '2016-11-05 03:18:30', '', 1025, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1025-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2121, 1, '2016-11-04 23:23:46', '2016-11-05 03:23:46', 'This short paragraph is taken from a China Daily article about weightless rollercoaster (\"rollercoaster\" being translated as 过山车 [pinyin]guo4 shan1 che1[/pinyin] - or \"crossing-the-mountain car\") that may or may not be built. This is a four-paragraph article, I\'m only translating the first paragraph here, if you want to read the rest, the complete article can be found on the China Daily site.\n\nOne of the fun words in this paragraph is 模拟舱 [pinyin]mo2 ni3 cang1[/pinyin], which means \"simulator\", like a flight simulator. In English, \"simulator\" can refer to anything that simulates, so this could be a combat simulator that\'s really just a video game on a flat panel, but the Chinese word here is more specific. 模拟 means \"simulate\", but 舱 [pinyin]cang1[/pinyin] means a kind of cabin, like an airplane cabin, that you can step into and ride in. \n\n
\n\n[one_half]\n\n1)美国一公司计划打造新型过山车 乘客可体验8秒完全失重\n\n2) 目前若想体验完全失重的感觉，除非成为一名航天员，或是搭乘失重模拟舱，否则这将是一个遥不可及的梦想。近日美国一家设计公司提出了一个新想法，他们计划研发一款能让乘客体验8秒钟完全失重感觉的过山车。如果资金充足，这款新型过山车会在2013年底前与世人见面。\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) American Company Plans to Create a New Kind of Rollercoaster Riders can Experience 8 Seconds of Weightlessness\n\n2) At present, if you want to experience what it feels like to be weightless, you can only become an astronaut or ride in an zero-gravity simulator, otherwise this dream is out of reach. But today, an American design company proposed to research and develop a rollercoaster that would allow passengers to experience weightlessness for 8 seconds. If there is sufficient capital, this new type of roller coaster would be introduced to the people of the world in late 2013. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[News in Chinese] Building a Weightless Rollercoaster', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1017-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:23:46', '2016-11-05 03:23:46', '', 1017, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1017-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2122, 1, '2016-11-04 23:24:53', '2016-11-05 03:24:53', '', 'Read News in Chinese: Advanced Chinese Reading Exercises', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'new-kind-of-rollercoaster', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:25:09', '2016-11-05 03:25:09', '', 1017, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/new-kind-of-rollercoaster.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2125, 1, '2011-08-31 21:28:30', '2011-09-01 01:28:30', '[two_third]\r\nTo commemorate passing my 50th post, I\'ll be starting a new series on this blog called \"Interesting Headlines\", which will just include several one-line news headlines from major Chinese newspapers, and will hopefully help with newspaper reading skills.\r\n\r\n\r\n![\"Advanced](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/20110903-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Advanced")
I tend to find that if I can read a headline and get the gist of a story, then I can read the story. But if I can\'t grasp the overall concept, it\'s difficult to pinpoint what\'s being discussed - so I\'ll be tackling headlines directly, and linking to the news story. You\'re welcome to tackle it if it sounds interesting.\r\n\r\nAlmost all news headlines, with a few exceptions, are advanced reading material. I know most of my readers are beginner-level, so I apologize for the emphasis on advanced stuff. But the upshot is that news headlines are very short, which may give lower-level readers a shot at tackling something a bit more difficult. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n\r\n
Click to Listen
\r\n减税 - [pinyin]jian3 shui4[/pinyin] - Tax cut\r\n吉普赛 - [pinyin]ji2 pu3 sai4[/pinyin] - Gypsy\r\n争夺 - [pinyin]zheng1 duo2[/pinyin] - To fight / vie over sthg.\r\n仪式 - [pinyin]yi2 shi4[/pinyin] - Rite, ceremony\r\n探秘 - [pinyin]tan4 mi4[/pinyin] - Explore the unknown, probe mysteries\r\n亩 - [pinyin]mu3[/pinyin] - Chinese equivalent of the word \"acre\", one mu equals one fifteenth of a hectare\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 新个税法明起施行: 月入五千每年将
减税3360元\r\nFinance:
Read it on China Daily\r\n\r\n2) 会说话
吉普赛古董算卦机引天价
争夺 美当地政府拒卖\r\nHuman Interest:
Read it on China Daily\r\n\r\n3) 杭州万松书院举办仿古入学
仪式\r\nChildren:
Read it on China Daily\r\n\r\n4)
探秘印度尼西亚原始部落的木乃伊\r\nHistory & Culture:
Read it on XinHua \r\n\r\n5) 重庆国家级森林公园发生火灾 面积已超300
亩\r\nDisasters:
Read it on XinHua\r\n\r\n
![\"Dirty](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/20110806-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Dirty")
The crux of the joke is that the word sun, 日, and the word \"grass\", 草, are pronounced identically to the way two Chinese swear words, both meaning \"fuck\", are pronounced. So the phrase \"我日\" means both \"I\'m the sun\" and also \"fuck me!\", while the phrase \"我草“ means both \"I\'m the grass\" and (if pronounced the same but spelled differently in writing), \"Fuck me!\"\r\n\r\nThis usage of the term “我操” (the profane way to spell 我草) is pure Beijing taxi-driver slang, not an actual invitation to have sex. For example, \"Fuck me! That guy almost ran right into us!\"\r\n\r\nThere are a few other swear words with double meanings, so I\'m going to do this a little differently than I usually do. I\'ll write the Chinese, and in the English translation area, I\'ll include the double meanings of words. \r\n\r\nLest you think I\'m being crass [only] for crass\'s (crasses? Crassnesses?) sake, these swear words are very often used in China, and because they have alternate meanings, it\'s hard to figure out what\'s going on when you read them. \r\n\r\nThe original text comes from Chinese joke site Chinajokes.cn\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_third]\r\n\r\n\r\n太阳给草打电话\r\n\r\n太阳: 喂，草，你好吗，我日。\r\n\r\n草: 我草，你谁啊？\r\n\r\n太阳: 我日啊\r\n\r\n草: 我草，你到底谁啊\r\n\r\n太阳: 我日啊，你草吧\r\n\r\n草: 他妈的，你到底是谁啊，我草\r\n\r\n太阳: 我日，我日啊\r\n\r\n草:我草.\r\n\r\n这时， 太阳的妈妈接过电话: 我日他妈呀，你是草吧，草你妈呢\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_third]\r\n[one_third]\r\n\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW BASIC MEANING\"]\r\nThe sun gave the grass a telephone call. \r\n\r\nSun: Hey, Grass, how are you, I\'m the sun. \r\n\r\nGrass: I\'m grass, who are you? \r\n\r\nSun: I\'m the sun.\r\n\r\nGrass: I\'m the grass. Seriously, who are you? \r\n\r\nSun: I\'m the sun! And you\'re the grass!\r\n\r\nGrass: Goddamnit (literally: His mother\'s)! Really this time, who are you? I\'m the grass!\r\n\r\nSun: I\'m the sun! The sun, I say!\r\n\r\nGrass: I\'m the grass!\r\n\r\nAt this point, the sun\'s mother picked up the phone and said: I\'m the sun\'s mother, you\'re the grass, grass is your mother. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n\r\n[/one_third]\r\n[one_third last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW PROFANE MEANING\"]\r\nThe sun gave the grass a telephone call. \r\n\r\nSun: Hey, Grass, how are you, fuck me. \r\n\r\nGrass: Fuck me, who are you? \r\n\r\nSun: Fuck me.\r\n\r\nGrass: Fuck me. Seriously, who are you? \r\n\r\nSun: Fuck me!! And fuck you! \r\n\r\nGrass: Goddamnit (literally: His mother\'s)! Really this time, who are you? Fuck me! \r\n\r\nSun: Fuck me! Fuck me!\r\n\r\nGrass: Fuck me!\r\n\r\nAt this point, the sun\'s mother picked up the phone and said: Fuck me goddamnit it, you\'re fucked, fuck your mother. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_third]', 'The Sun Gives the Grass a Call: The F Word. A Lot.', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '695-revision-v1', '', '', '2011-08-08 23:18:30', '2011-08-09 03:18:30', '', 695, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2011/08/695-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2129, 1, '2016-11-04 23:34:49', '2016-11-05 03:34:49', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Exercises for Beginner Mandarin Chinese Learners', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'my-father-is-a-scoundrel-chinese', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:34:56', '2016-11-05 03:34:56', '', 1192, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/my-father-is-a-scoundrel-chinese.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2133, 1, '2016-11-04 23:38:17', '2016-11-05 03:38:17', 'Sweet! I found a bunch of Chinese riddles. Read the Chinese and try to guess the word! This is VERY short, lower-intermediate reading. Some of the riddles I found are impossible, because not only is the riddle hard, the answer is a kind of fruit or plant or thing I\'ve never heard of, so I\'m skipping past all those and over the next few days I\'ll post a few riddles that are answerable for those of us who didn\'t grow up in the southern Yao jungles or whatever.\r\n\r\nI think the most interesting word in this text is 青. I see this word everywhere, and I\'ve never been able to come up with an English equivalent. It\'s not green, and it\'s not blue... well, it\'s not actually a color. It means \"the color that nature is\". It can be used to describe a clear pond. It can be used to talk about trees or grass. So it\'s not actually a specific hue, but the word is used as if it is. Someone feel free to dive in if you can think of a good translation for this. \r\n\r\nThis particular riddle kinda rhymes in Chinese, so when you\'ve sorted out the words, read it out loud.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n青枝绿叶不是菜， 有的烤来有的晒，腾云驾雾烧着吃，不能锅里煮熟卖。\r\n\r\nHint: this is a type of plant.\r\n
\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH AND ANSWER\"]\r\nTranslation: Green branches green leaves but it\'s not a vegetable, some roast it and some dry it, soaring on clouds and sailing the mist it\'s consumed, it\'s not sold boiled in a pot.\r\n\r\nAnswer: 烟叶 (Tobacco) \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Riddles] Guess the Word 1', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1043-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:38:17', '2016-11-05 03:38:17', '', 1043, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1043-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2136, 1, '2016-11-04 23:43:10', '2016-11-05 03:43:10', 'This very indignant kid seems destined to be a vegetarian. \r\n\r\nI\'d say the most difficult phrase in this little passage is: 家里人都吃得很香. The beginning of that sentence is no problem: 家里人都 \"Everyone in the family...\", but 吃得很香 is a bit more difficult, as we don\'t have sentence structure similar to this in English. Let\'s break it down:\r\n\r\n吃 - [pinyin]chi1[/pinyin] - To eat\r\n得 - [pinyin]de[/pinyin] - Grammar word, which kind of acts as a bridge between \"吃\" and \"香\", indicating that the result of 吃 (eating) is that it was very 香 (savory)\r\n很 - [pinyin]hen3[/pinyin] - Very\r\n香 - [pinyin]xiang1[/pinyin] - Savory\r\n\r\nAnother interesting thing about this sentence is the word 香, which can mean both \"fragrant\" (smells good) and / or \"savory\" (tastes good). I find it particularly interesting that the Chinese recognize in language the interconnectedness of good taste and smell. \r\n\r\n又 and 再
\r\n\r\nOne other notable point is the word 又, which means \"again\". But did you know that in Chinese, there are two ways to say \"again\"? There\'s 又, and there\'s also 再. It\'s a little alien to a native English speaker that there might be two different ways to say \"again\", so let me explain the difference:\r\n\r\n又 - Indicates that the action has already been repeated in the past. Example: \"You forgot your homework again? You\'re going to get in trouble.\" The person being scolded forgot their homework once, then already forgot it again (maybe many times). The forgetting of homework again has already happened. So we use 又.\r\n\r\n再 - Indicates that something will happen again in the future. An example of this would be: Don\'t forget your homework again or you\'ll get in trouble. In other words, you forgot your homework at least once already, don\'t repeat that action again in the future. Another example of this is would be a sentence like, \"When will I see you again?\" The seeing again hasn\'t yet happened - it may happen in the future. So we would use 再. \r\n\r\n
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\r\n青蛙捉害虫，是庄稼的好朋友。可我爸爸成天出去捉青蛙。\r\n\r\n我对爸爸说：“青蛙是消灭害虫的能手，你不能捉它！”爸爸却笑着说：“大人的事，小孩别管。”我很着急。\r\n\r\n爸爸又捉了许多青蛙，煮了一锅青蛙肉。家里人都吃得很香，我却一点儿也不想吃。我想：我们吃了青蛙肉，又有许多小青蛙没妈妈了，他们一定在哭着找妈妈，多可怜呀！爸爸真是个大坏蛋！\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nFrogs catch pests, so they\'re a farm crop\'s good friend. But my dad goes out during the day and catches frogs. \r\n\r\nI said to dad: \"Frogs are experts at annihilating pests, you can\'t catch them!\" But my dad only smiled and said: \"Children should stay out of adult business.\" I\'m very worried.\r\n\r\nOnce again, dad caught several frogs and boiled up a pot of frog meat. Everyone in the family ate up the savory [food], but I didn\'t even want to eat a little. I thought: here we are eating frog meat, that means there are many small frogs with no mama, surely they\'re crying for their mother, it\'s such a pity! My dad is a big scoundrel! \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 爸爸是个大坏蛋 - My Dad is a Scoundrel!', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1192-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:43:10', '2016-11-05 03:43:10', '', 1192, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1192-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2137, 1, '2016-11-04 23:43:41', '2016-11-05 03:43:41', '', 'Advanced Chinese News Reading Practice - Advanced Chinese Newspaper Vocabulary', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'malaysia-taxis-for-women', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:43:48', '2016-11-05 03:43:48', '', 976, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/malaysia-taxis-for-women.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0);
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(2142, 1, '2016-11-04 23:54:14', '2016-11-05 03:54:14', '', 'Learning to Read Chinese: Simplified Mandarin Chinese Essays for Kids', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'new-years-money', '', '', '2016-11-04 23:54:20', '2016-11-05 03:54:20', '', 1241, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/new-years-money.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2150, 1, '2016-11-05 00:13:50', '2016-11-05 04:13:50', 'While we\'re busy prepping for our holiday season, I figured I\'d post something about a Chinese holiday. This is a culturally-rich and comfortably intermediate essay describing how one family celebrates the Dragon Boat Festival (端午节 [pinyin]duan1 wu3 jie2[/pinyin]. If you\'re curious what the typical Chinese household does on this late-spring holiday (held on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese lunar calendar), you\'ll love this read. The customs described are quite unlike any holidays in the West.\r\n\r\nThe dragon boat festival is held in remembrance of poet Qu Yuan\'s death. Qu Yuan was a faithful servant of his emperor, but was falsely accused of being a traitor. He drowned himself in a river after several decades in exile, but the local people loved him and remember him fondly. Sounds morbid, but actually the festival is a joyous one, where dragon boats are raced on the river (to commemorate the search for Qu Yuan\'s body) and 粽子 [pinyin]zong4 zi5[/pinyin] (boiled triangular rice balls wrapped in leaves) are eaten (when he died, it\'s said that 粽子 were thrown into the river to feed him in the afterlife - other stories have it that people threw 粽子 into the river to keep the fish from eating his body before they could find it).\r\n\r\nA couple of words in this essay are not in the dictionary, and need explaining: namely 艾香. I this case, 艾香 [pinyin]ai4 xiang1[/pinyin] means \"the smell of wormwood\", and it refers to the smell produced by bouquets of wormwood (艾草) that people hang on their door during the Dragon Boat Festival to drive away bad luck.Another word here is 雄黄酒, something that I\'ve seen but never tried, and while there is an English word for this, I\'ve never heard this spoken in English. 雄黄酒 is \"realgar wine\", whatever the heck realgar is. If you\'re curious, this article has more information on realgar wine and it\'s association with the Dragon Boat Festival. \r\n\r\nAnd finally, there\'s 趟露水, literally \"to wade in the dew\", and it refers to (what I think is a) regional custom of going out on an early morning walk and anointing one\'s face with dew drops. And without further adew (har!), the essay.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n今天是端午节，我们一家人五点就起床，按照习俗上山去趟露水。一路上我用双手捧起晶莹的露珠往眼睛上抹，一时间我觉得眼睛好像亮了好多。直到坐在教室读书时还觉得眼睛特别亮，什么字都能看清楚。\r\n\r\n放学后，我撒开腿就往家里跑。刚到门口就闻到粽子香，一进门就看见爸爸做了一桌子好菜专门等我回家吃。我洗过手来到饭桌前，先给爸爸妈妈一人解了一个粽子，撒上白糖，然后给我自己解了一个漂亮的三角粽子，撒上白糖就津津有味地吃起来。饭桌上，我们一家边吃边聊，屋子里充满了端午节的快乐气氛，弥漫着>香喷喷的粽子味和浓浓的艾香。\r\n\r\n吃完饭，妈妈给我耳朵上抹了雄黄酒，给我嘴上摸了唇膏，给我手腕上戴了红线绳，把我打扮得和粽子一样香，就让我到学校去学习。\r\n\r\n我爱吃粽子，爱过端午节，爱享受节日的欢乐气氛。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nToday is the Dragon Boat Festival, my family got out of bed at 5:00, and in accordance with local customs, when up the mountain to wade in the dew. On the road, I used both hands to cup sparkling dewdrops and smear them on my eyes, for a moment I felt as if they [my eyes] were considerably brightened. I felt they remained extremely bright as I sat in the classroom and read books; I could see every word clearly. \r\n\r\nWhen school let out, I let my legs loose and ran towards home. As soon as I reached the door I could smell the scent of zongzi, and as I entered I saw my father had made a whole table of delicious food that was just waiting for me to come home and eat it. I washed my hands and went to the dining table, first I broke open one zongzi each for father and mother and sprinkled them with white sugar, then I broke open a beautiful triangular zongzi for myself, sprinkled it with white sugar and heartily began eating. At the dining table, our family ate and chatted, the woom was full of Dragon Boat Festival good cheer, suffused with the savory smell of zongzi and thick with the smell of wormwood.\r\n\r\nAfter we\'d had eaten, mother spread realgar wine on my ears, put lipstick on my lips, placed [bracelets of] red rope around my wrists, and made sure I smelled as sweetly as a zongzi, then sent me off back to school to study. \r\n\r\nI love eating zongzi, I loved the Dragon Boat Festival, and I love enjoying the holiday cheer. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 我家的端午节 - My Family\'s Dragon Boat Festival', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '940-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 00:13:50', '2016-11-05 04:13:50', '', 940, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/940-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2153, 1, '2016-11-05 00:23:19', '2016-11-05 04:23:19', 'This is possibly the girliest essay ever written, with crystals, dolls, little elfs and pretty colors described with great rapture. The writer is describing a gift given to her by a friend, which she loved as a child. I love this essay for its use of unusual color words, like \"glistening yellow\", \"vibrant red\", and \"transparent\".\n\nIn terms of the item the author describes, it\'s a bit hard to tell from the Chinese text that the writer is describing multiple crystal dolls inside of crystal balls in a crystal bottle until you get partway into the description, and while the girl paints a very vivid picture of this pretty bauble, I don\'t know that I\'ve ever seen anything like it in real life. It sounds like the crystal figurine version of Inception. \n\n
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\n在我生日的时候，朋友送给了我一个小小的“水晶瓶”，我非常喜欢它，爱不释手。\n\n这个“水晶瓶”一闪一闪，漂亮极了！在“水晶瓶”里有一只只亮晶晶“水晶球”。那“水晶球”形状各异，颜色不一。紫盈盈的是星星形的，黄澄澄的是足球形的，红通通的是皮包形的，透明发亮的是笛子形的。这些美丽的“水晶球”在五彩缤纷的灯光的映衬下，显得更夺目耀眼。\n\n在“水晶球”里，有一个小小的“舞台”，在这个小巧玲珑的“舞台”上，有一个“舞蹈家”——水晶娃娃。水晶娃娃的手一晃一晃的，伴随着美妙的音乐，立着脚尖旋转起来，多像一个轻盈飞舞的小精灵。我看着，看着，沉醉在这优美的舞姿当中，我不由自主地也跟它跳起舞来。在这个时候，所有的烦恼全都抛到九霄云外去了。\n\n可是有一次我不知怎么了，突然间不喜欢这个水晶球了，还把他随便放在衣橱里一直到这位好朋友转学了以后才知道它的重要性.\n\n我喜欢这个“水晶瓶”，因为它陪我渡过了美好的童年，它将一直陪着我走下去……\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nOn my birthday, my friend gave me a little \"crystal bottle\", I really liked it, loved it so much I never wanted to part with it. \n\nThis \"crystal bottle\" twinkled very beautifully! Inside the crystal bottle, there were shining \"crystal balls\". Those crystal balls were all shaped differently, and were all different colors. The one filled with a purple color was shaped like a star, the glistening yellow one was shaped like a football, the bright red one was shaped like a handbag, the shining clear one was shaped like a flute. These beautiful \"crystal balls\" contrasted with each other in a radiant profusion of light, dazzling to behold.\n\nInside the crystal balls, there was a very small \"dancing stage\" and on each exquisitely small, clinking stage there was a \"dancer\" -- a crystal doll. The crystal dolls\' hands flashed, accompanying wonderful music, and [the dolls] rotated while standing on tiptoe, like graceful little elves dancing in the breeze. I watched and watched, intoxicated by the dancer\'s elegant movements, and I couldn\'t help but begin dancing with them. Whenever I watched them, all of my worries dropped away, vanishing beyond the topmost clouds. \n\nBut one day, and I don\'t know why, I suddenly no longer liked to look at the crystal balls, and I put them somewhere in my closet, and it was only when that friend moved to a different school that I realized their importance. I like this crystal bottle because it was with me as I passed through a beautiful childhood, and it will always be with me as I go through life.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 水晶球 - Crystal Balls', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '894-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 00:23:19', '2016-11-05 04:23:19', '', 894, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/894-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2154, 1, '2016-11-05 00:24:36', '2016-11-05 04:24:36', '', 'Advanced / Intermediate Chinese Essays and Reading Passage', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'crystal-balls-essay', '', '', '2016-11-05 00:24:43', '2016-11-05 04:24:43', '', 894, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/crystal-balls-essay.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2158, 1, '2016-11-05 00:26:58', '2016-11-05 04:26:58', 'A short, sweet children\'s essay about how umbrellas look on a rainy day. Most of this is beginner reading, but there is one part of a sentence towards the end of the text which is intermediate reading. \n\nDi di da da
\nYou\'ll also notice another onomatopoeia (I\'ve been running into those a lot lately), 滴滴答答. We\'re rather lucky when we describe sounds in English, we can mash a bunch of letters together until they sound similar to the sound we heard - we have a little more flexibility. I could write: pfffsssshhhh, and you could make that sound, or imagine that sound. The Chinese have no alphabet to work with, so they do this by taking existing characters that sound similar and arranging them together. In this case 滴滴答答 (di1 di1 da1 da1) represents the pattering of raindrops, as you might hear rain fall against a window or roof.\n\n
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\n1) 今天，我回家写作业的时候，我听见外面传来了滴滴答答的声音，我想一定是下雨了。我赶忙跑到窗前，向下一看，街上的行人都打着雨伞，真的是下雨了。\n\n2) 雨伞有黄色的、有白色的、有红色的、有紫色的，还有银灰色的……，美丽极了!\n\n3) 我觉得雨伞可真好，它为我们撑起了一片晴朗的天空，它真是我们的好朋友。我希望每天都能下雨，让我的漂亮小雨伞每天都能陪伴我。\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) Today, when I had returned to my house and I was doing my homework, I heard the sound of droplets coming from outside, and I thought it surely must be raining. I hurriedly ran to the window, and looked down, on the street the pedestrians were all carrying umbrellas, and it was indeed raining. \n\n2) There were yellow umbrellas, and there were white ones, and red ones, and purple ones, and also silver ones... so beautiful!\n\n3) I thought about how great umbrellas are, they unfurl a sunny and cloudless sky for us, they\'re really our good friends. I wish it could rain every day, so that my beautiful little umbrella could accompany me.\n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Essays] 小伞花 - Umbrella Flowers', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '887-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 00:26:58', '2016-11-05 04:26:58', '', 887, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/887-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2159, 1, '2016-11-05 00:28:24', '2016-11-05 04:28:24', '', 'Easy Chinese Reading - Simplified Texts, Passages and Essays', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'umbrella-flowers-read-chinese', '', '', '2016-11-05 00:28:30', '2016-11-05 04:28:30', '', 887, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/umbrella-flowers-read-chinese.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2174, 1, '2016-11-05 01:09:03', '2016-11-05 05:09:03', '', 'Beginner Chinese Vocabulary and Simplified Reading Materials', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'i-did-something-for-mom-2', '', '', '2016-11-05 01:09:09', '2016-11-05 05:09:09', '', 785, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/i-did-something-for-mom.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2178, 1, '2016-11-05 01:12:42', '2016-11-05 05:12:42', 'Another super-simple and very short children\'s joke. One thing to watch out for here that can be confusing is the way the word \"分\" is used here. Typically, one says \"100分\", meaning that one received \"100%\" on a test. In this case, the student indicates that he wants the teacher to give him \"5分\", which we can take to mean \"5 stars\" - not actually 5%. The \n\n
\n[one_half]\n\n老师:“同学们，今天的家庭问题讨论课，讨论‘父子不和’这个题目。秋子同学，你认为要消除父子不和的现象，最好的办法是什么呢？”\n秋子起立回答: “老师，最好的办法是:这一次在我的成绩通知单上全填5分！”\n
\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n\nTeacher said: \"Students, in today\'s Family Issues Discussion Class, the topic is \"Father and Son Don\'t Get Along\". Student QiuZi, do you know the best way to eliminate an issue with father and son not getting along?\" \nQiuZi immediately answered: \"Teacher, the best way to eliminate this problem is to give me five stars on my next report card!\"\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\n\n\n\n\n', '[Chinese Jokes] 父子不和 - Father and Son Don\'t Get Along', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '718-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 01:12:42', '2016-11-05 05:12:42', '', 718, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/718-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2179, 1, '2016-11-05 01:14:26', '2016-11-05 05:14:26', '', 'Beginner Chinese Passages and Jokes', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'father-and-son-dont-get-along-2', '', '', '2016-11-05 01:14:32', '2016-11-05 05:14:32', '', 718, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/father-and-son-dont-get-along.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2181, 1, '2016-11-05 01:17:48', '2016-11-05 05:17:48', 'This is a very short beginner children\'s joke.\n\nhref=\"http://www.tom61.com/ertongwenxue/ertongxiaoxiaohua/2011-04-26/22880.html\">Read the original on Tom61\n\n
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\n老师: “沙漠是一块又长又宽的地方，上面光光的，什么东西都不长。”\n小学生: “老师，我明白了。我爸爸的秃头就是一片沙漠。”\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n\nTeacher: \"A desert is a long, wide place, its surface is very bright, and not a single thing grows there.\" \nPrimary School Student: \"Teacher, I understand. My father\'s bald head is a strip of desert.\" \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\n\n\n\n\n', '[Chinese Jokes] 沙漠 - The Desert', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '713-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 01:17:48', '2016-11-05 05:17:48', '', 713, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/713-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2182, 1, '2016-11-05 01:18:00', '2016-11-05 05:18:00', '', 'Chinese Jokes for Beginners', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'jokes-the-desert', '', '', '2016-11-05 01:18:23', '2016-11-05 05:18:23', '', 713, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/jokes-the-desert.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2184, 1, '2016-11-05 01:25:04', '2016-11-05 05:25:04', 'A story about a young elephant who learns a valuable life lesson. There is one particularly difficult sentence here, and that\'s 小象爬到树去学飞“哎哟”一声，摔了一个大跟头. The words themselves aren\'t too hard, but the sentence arrangement doesn\'t make a lot of sense when directly translated into English. Let\'s take it step by step:\n\n小象 - Little Elephant\n爬到 - Climbed to / climbed up\n树 - tree\n去 - go\n学飞 - learn to fly\n“哎哟” - \'Ai yo!\' Sound which means \"Yikes!\" or \"Ow!\" \n一声 - Noise, sound\n摔了 - to fall\n一个大 - a big\n跟头 - Fall, trip and fall.\n\nIf you look at all these words together, you can more easily process the overall meaning of the sentence, which is, \"In order to learn to fly, Little Elephant climbed a tree and, with a yelp of \"Ai Yo!\", fell heavily to the ground.\" \n
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\n1) 小象生下来的第三天，跟妈妈来到小河边，看见一只小鸟在天空飞来飞去。小象想：“要是我也会飞，可以看到更多的东西，多好呀！”\n\n2) 小象爬到树去学飞“哎哟”一声，摔了一个大跟头。\n\n3) 蛇看见了说:“小象，我们有自己的本事。我不会飞，可是，我会在树上睡觉。”\n\n4) 狮子说:“我也不会飞，可是，我能跳过宽宽的大河。”\n\n5) 老虎说:“我不会飞，可是我会游泳！”\n\n6) 爸爸妈妈对小象说:“我们象的力气大，这是小鸟不能比的。”小象明白了。他用长鼻子一钩，大木头就搬走了。\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) On the third day after he was born, Little Elephant went with his mother to the banks of a stream, and there he saw a bird in the sky flying here and there. Little Elephant said: \"If I could fly, I could see even more things, it would be great!\"\n\n2) In order to learn to fly, Little Elephant climbed a tree and, with a yelp of \"Ai Yo!\", fell heavily to the ground.\n\n3) Seeing this, the snake said: \"Little elephant, we all have our own abilities. I can\'t fly, but I can sleep in a tree.\"\n\n4) Lion said: \"I also can\'t fly, but I can jump across a wide river.\"\n\n5) Tiger said, \"I can\'t fly, but I can swim!\"\n\n6) Little Elephant\'s father and mother said to him, \"We elephants have great strength, incomparably greater than that little bird\'s.\" Little Elephant understood. He used his long nose as a hook and moved a large branch.\n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Short Stories] The Little Elephant that Wanted to Fly', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '688-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 01:25:04', '2016-11-05 05:25:04', '', 688, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/688-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2185, 1, '2016-11-05 01:24:51', '2016-11-05 05:24:51', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese Beginners - Simplified Chinese Exercises', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'chinese-elephant-fly', '', '', '2016-11-05 01:25:09', '2016-11-05 05:25:09', '', 688, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/chinese-elephant-fly.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2188, 1, '2016-11-05 01:32:01', '2016-11-05 05:32:01', 'A little late for a post about Tron, but hey. This synopses covers the movie Tron: Legacy, released around Christmas last year. Giant nerd that I am, I was super excited about Tron coming out, so this post is kind of a way for me to relive that in Chinese. Enjoy.\n\n
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\n剧情简介:\n\n20世纪80年代，电子软体天才凯文·弗林（杰夫·布里吉斯 Jeff Bridges 饰）创建了英康公司，将人类带入一个全新的时代。可是在辉煌的时代开创不久后，凯文神秘失踪。在此之后，凯文年幼的儿子萨姆（加内特·赫德兰 Garrett Hedlund 饰）继承了父亲的位置，实际工作则由其他工作人员主持。萨姆天资聪颖，充满冒险精神，经常给英康的高层们惹来麻烦。这一天，他得知一间荒废已久的工作室内竟传来父亲的讯息。萨姆前去探查，结果竟进入一个全数字化的虚拟世界。这个世界的掌控者克鲁（杰夫·布里吉斯 Jeff Bridges 饰）与父亲有着同样的容貌，却野心勃勃，邪恶无比。萨姆被迫卷入一场充满阴谋的电子争霸战中……\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nIn the 80\'s (of the 20th century), electronic software genius Kevin Flyin (played by Jeff Bridges) founded ENCOM, which would lead humanity into a brand new age. But not long after this glorious new age began, Kevin mysteriously disappeared. After that, Kevin\'s young son Sam (played by Garret Hedlund) inherited his father\'s position, but actually the company is run by other employees. Sam is talented, smart and full of adventurous spirit, often causing trouble for the higher-ups at ENCOM. One day, he hears of an abandoned work room via a message which was surprisingly sent from his father. Sam goes to nose around, and is transported into a digital virtual reality world. The world\'s master (played by Jeff Bridges) looks just like his father, but is ambitious and wicked. Sam is drawn into the middle of a war full of plotting and electronic power struggles...\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\n\n', '[Movie Synopsis in Chinese] 《创：战纪》Tron Legacy', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '667-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 01:32:01', '2016-11-05 05:32:01', '', 667, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/667-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2189, 1, '2016-11-05 01:33:24', '2016-11-05 05:33:24', '', 'Advanced Chinese Reading: Movie Plots in CHinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'tron-legacy', '', '', '2016-11-05 01:33:47', '2016-11-05 05:33:47', '', 667, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/tron-legacy.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2191, 1, '2016-11-05 01:34:37', '2016-11-05 05:34:37', 'A story about a young elephant who learns a valuable life lesson. There is one particularly difficult sentence here, and that\'s 小象爬到树去学飞“哎哟”一声，摔了一个大跟头. The words themselves aren\'t too hard, but the sentence arrangement doesn\'t make a lot of sense when directly translated into English. Let\'s take it step by step:\r\n\r\n小象 - Little Elephant\r\n爬到 - Climbed to / climbed up\r\n树 - tree\r\n去 - go\r\n学飞 - learn to fly\r\n“哎哟” - \'Ai yo!\' Sound which means \"Yikes!\" or \"Ow!\" \r\n一声 - Noise, sound\r\n摔了 - to fall\r\n一个大 - a big\r\n跟头 - Fall, trip and fall.\r\n\r\nIf you look at all these words together, you can more easily process the overall meaning of the sentence, which is, \"In order to learn to fly, Little Elephant climbed a tree and, with a yelp of \"Ai Yo!\", fell heavily to the ground.\" \r\n
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\r\n1) 小象生下来的第三天，跟妈妈来到小河边，看见一只小鸟在天空飞来飞去。小象想：“要是我也会飞，可以看到更多的东西，多好呀！”\r\n\r\n2) 小象爬到树去学飞“哎哟”一声，摔了一个大跟头。\r\n\r\n3) 蛇看见了说:“小象，我们有自己的本事。我不会飞，可是，我会在树上睡觉。”\r\n\r\n4) 狮子说:“我也不会飞，可是，我能跳过宽宽的大河。”\r\n\r\n5) 老虎说:“我不会飞，可是我会游泳！”\r\n\r\n6) 爸爸妈妈对小象说:“我们象的力气大，这是小鸟不能比的。”小象明白了。他用长鼻子一钩，大木头就搬走了。\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n1) On the third day after he was born, Little Elephant went with his mother to the banks of a stream, and there he saw a bird in the sky flying here and there. Little Elephant said: \"If I could fly, I could see even more things, it would be great!\"\r\n\r\n2) In order to learn to fly, Little Elephant climbed a tree and, with a yelp of \"Ai Yo!\", fell heavily to the ground.\r\n\r\n3) Seeing this, the snake said: \"Little elephant, we all have our own abilities. I can\'t fly, but I can sleep in a tree.\"\r\n\r\n4) Lion said: \"I also can\'t fly, but I can jump across a wide river.\"\r\n\r\n5) Tiger said, \"I can\'t fly, but I can swim!\"\r\n\r\n6) Little Elephant\'s father and mother said to him, \"We elephants have great strength, incomparably greater than that little bird\'s.\" Little Elephant understood. He used his long nose as a hook and moved a large branch.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] 《想飞的小象》The Little Elephant that Wanted to Fly', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '688-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 01:34:37', '2016-11-05 05:34:37', '', 688, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/688-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2196, 1, '2016-11-05 01:47:51', '2016-11-05 05:47:51', 'Tom Clancy fans, take heed. This Chinese excerpt is from the modern militant action novel \"Cold Thorn\", or 冷刺, written by 天地飘鸥. You\'ll be reading the first part of Chapter 1: King of the Commandos (特种兵之王). he language here is very heavy on the cheesy military slang, so if you like action movies and thrillers, you\'ll be able to catch quite a few of the cliches. If you\'d like to finish reading the book after you finish this first bit, the full text is available online from Sina.com\'s book archive. \n\nAction-thriller vocab
\n追踪 - [pinyin]zhui1 zong1[/pinyin] - Track, trace, follow a trail\n特战 - [pinyin]te4 zhan4[/pinyin] - Special forces\n狙 - [pinyin]ju1[/pinyin] - Lie in ambush\n杀戮 - [pinyin]sha1 lu4[/pinyin] - Massacre\n比武 - [pinyin]bi3 wu3[/pinyin] - Martial / military contest\n\n\n
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\n1) 韩枫静静地伏在厚厚的落叶下，一动不动，安静得如同一条冬眠的蛇，不，他比蛇还要无声无息，谁也不会想到斑驳腐烂的落叶堆里会有这样坚强的生命存在，仿佛亘古就是如此。真是无法想象一个人能在这样的环境中潜伏两天两夜，不吃不喝，纹丝不动。在苍茫的原始丛林中，空气闷热得令人窒息，浑身就像霉烂了似的，湿漉漉的感觉别提有多难受了，何况韩枫的身上还捂着这么厚的一堆落叶，真是连气也喘不过来了。\n\n2) 韩枫就这样无声无息地潜伏着，安静得几乎连生命的体征也消失了，身边来来往往已经过去了几个特种小组，就连最擅长追踪的“灵狐”特战小组也没有发现他。\n\n3) 他不能动，也不敢动，因为他知道林中还有不少特战高手在伺机狙杀，他要做最有耐心的猎人而不是成为别人的猎物。他们这一组除了他，其他人都“挂”了，在三天前残酷的“杀戮”中先后“阵亡”，而他，凭着超强的第六感和匪夷所思的身手不但逃过了对方的狙杀，而且还“杀”了数名富有经验的特战精英，居然毫发无伤。在十多个特战精英小组的攻击下能做到这一点，真是奇迹！\n\n4) 这次的特种兵大比武，是五年一度的全国“特种兵”对抗大赛，来自全国七大军区的特战精英，个个都是身经百战的高手，随便挑出一个，横扫一个普通连队绝不是痴人说梦。这次的特种兵大比武是实兵对抗，一切从实战出发，除了弹药是空包弹外，其他都是特种部队必需的武器装备。十天为限，没有后援，没有给养，各自为战，淘汰者出局。\n\n\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n\n1) Han Feng silently hid beneath a thick pile of dead leaves, motionless, as calm as a hibernating snake; no, he was even more silent than a snake. No one would think that a strong life could exist inside such a motley, rotten pile of dead leaves, it was as if [the pile] had always been this way. There was no way to imagine that a person could hide in this environment for two days without food or drink, not moving a whisker. In this vast primeval forest, the weather was so stiflingly hot as to make men suffocate, as if they were rotting from head to toe; needless to say the clamminess was very uncomfortable, moreso since Han Feng was covered in a thick pile of dead leaves - it was difficult to even draw breath. \n\n2) And so Han Feng hid there not making a sound, his very sense of life nearly fading away, as special units came and went around him; even the most expert trackers, the \"Quick Foxes\" special forces unit, didn\'t discover his position.\n\n3) He didn\'t move, he didn\'t dare, because he knew that in the forest special forces experts were laying in wait to ambush him. He must be the most patient hunter, or else he would become someone else\'s prey. Everyone else in his group had already been \"hung\". In the \"massacre\" three days before, they\'d \"died\" in battle one after the other. But he, relying on his superior sixth sense and freakish agility, had escaped his opponent\'s ambush, and had also \"killed\" more than a few of supremely experienced special forces elite, somehow taking no wounds himself. It was a real miracle that he\'d managed this under attack from 10-plus special forces elite groups!\n\n4) To this Commando Competition, an international \"special forces soldier\" face-off held once every five years, came elite commandos from the world\'s seven major military regions. Each [soldier] had [proven themselves] in numerous battles - it would not be unrealistic to say that any one you picked out of the bunch could single-handedly wipe out a whole unit of regular soldiers. This Commando Competition was a real military engagement, everything was like a real war, except for the fact that blanks are used for ammunition, all other equipment was special forces standard issue. A ten day limit, no reinforcements, no support, every man for himself, anyone eliminated is out of the running. \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\n', '[Chinese Books] 《冷刺》Cold Thorn Part 1', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '630-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 01:47:51', '2016-11-05 05:47:51', '', 630, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/630-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2197, 1, '2016-11-05 01:47:40', '2016-11-05 05:47:40', '', 'Advanced Chinese Reading Practice: Cold Thorn Part 1', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'cold-thorn-part-1-chinese-novels', '', '', '2016-11-05 01:47:46', '2016-11-05 05:47:46', '', 630, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/cold-thorn-part-1-chinese-novels.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2199, 1, '2016-11-05 01:52:38', '2016-11-05 05:52:38', 'I\'ve found some cool Chinese movie review sites, so the next few posts will probably focus there. This one is a very short blurb introducing the plot (剧情 - [pinyin]ju4 qing2[/pinyin]) of the new comic book movie Thor, in which the god of thunder naturally struggles against the forces of darkness (恶势力 - [pinyin]e4 shi4 li5[/pinyin] - Evil forces).\n\nThe original summary was taken from the movie section of Chinese web portal Douban. \n\n
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\n剧情简介:\n《雷神托尔》讲述了北欧神话中掌控着暴风和闪电的雷神因点燃了古代战争的战火，被发配到地球生活。然而地球却遭到了恶势力派来的阿斯加德（Asgard）王国黑暗力量的入侵，雷神肩负保护地球的重任，在这里他学会了如何成为一个真正的英雄。\n\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n\n\"Thunder God Thor\" gives an account of the god from Northern European mythology who controls storms and lightning, who ignited the flames of an ancient war, and [because of this] was banished to live on Earth. But when Earth suffers as evil forces invade the kingdom of Asgard, Thor shoulders the heavy responsibility of protecting Earth, and in doing so learns how to be a real hero. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\n', '[Movie Synopsis in Chinese] 《雷神》Thor', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '657-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 01:52:38', '2016-11-05 05:52:38', '', 657, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/657-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2200, 1, '2016-11-05 01:53:01', '2016-11-05 05:53:01', '', 'Chinese movie synopsis Thor', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'chinese-movie-synopsis-thor', '', '', '2016-11-05 01:53:21', '2016-11-05 05:53:21', '', 657, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/chinese-movie-synopsis-thor.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2204, 1, '2016-11-05 02:01:53', '2016-11-05 06:01:53', '', 'Children\'s stories in Chinese - Learn to read chinese free', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'magic-pencil', '', '', '2016-11-05 02:02:16', '2016-11-05 06:02:16', '', 572, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/magic-pencil.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2205, 1, '2016-11-05 02:05:55', '2016-11-05 06:05:55', 'My heart goes out to the many who lost family, friends or homes in Japan this week. This straightforward Chinese article reviews the Japanese death tolls in the recent earthquake. The tragedy in Japan has been big news in Asia (as it has been everywhere in the world), particularly as many fear the radiation from the failed nuclear reactors will hit their shores. This article is chalk full of words you hate to read but which newspapers seems to love so much: fatality, refugee camp, disaster, missing persons, etc.\n\n
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\n1) 日本地震已致7653人死亡11746人失踪. \n\n2) 中新网3月20日电 据“中央社”报道，日本3月11日强震和海啸灾难，今天迈入第10天，警察厅指出，截至19日深夜11时为止，确认死亡人数达7653人，下落不明者增至1万1746人，死亡和失踪人数合计1万9399人。\n\n3) 警察厅指出，罹难者遍布12都县，其中宫城县4449人、岩手县2501人、福岛县647人，此3县沿海地区遭海啸侵袭，灾情最惨重。警方接获的行踪不明者通报，岩手县有4253人、福岛县4503人、宫城县2895人，另外3县也有人失踪。\n\n4) 此外，仍栖身避难所的灾民总数约36万3000人。其中宫城县约有15万5000人、福岛县约13万2000人、岩手县约4万9000人。很多人因避难生活长期化而健康恶化，灾民依然处于严峻状况下。 \n\n\n\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n1) 7653 Dead in Japan Earthquake and 11746 Missing\n\n2) China News Service, March 20 via [Taiwan] Central News Agency Report: The March 11 Japan mega-quake disaster is entering its 10th day and according to Japan\'s National Police Agency has confirmed that, as of [March] 19th at 11:00p.m., the death toll has reached 7653 people, and the number of persons unaccounted for has increased to 11,746 people, with the missing and dead totaling 19,399 people. \n\n3) The National Police Agency reports that the fatalities are spread over 12 districts, included among these are Miyagi with 4449 people, Iwate with 2501 people, and Fukushima with 647 people - these three districts are coastal areas where the tsunami was most disastrous. The police recieved reports of 4253 missing persons in Iwate, 4503 in Fukushima, and 2895 in Miyagi. Three other districts additionally have [reported] missing persons. \n\n4) In addition, there are still 363,000 victims living in refugee shelters. That number includes 155,000 people in Miyagi, 132,000 people in Fukushima, and 49,000 from Iwate. Due to long-term stays in the shelters, the health of many refugees is worsening, leaving many in a grim situation. \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[News in Chinese] 7653 Dead in Japan Earthquake and 11746 Missing', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '564-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 02:05:55', '2016-11-05 06:05:55', '', 564, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/564-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2206, 1, '2016-11-05 02:06:41', '2016-11-05 06:06:41', '', 'Advanced Chinese Reading Exercises and Drills - Newspapers', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'earthquake-in-japan-news-in-chinese', '', '', '2016-11-05 02:07:02', '2016-11-05 06:07:02', '', 564, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/earthquake-in-japan-news-in-chinese.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2215, 1, '2016-11-05 02:24:05', '2016-11-05 06:24:05', '', 'Learn Chinese Idioms - Read Simplified Chinese Drills', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'chinese-idioms-bury-head-in-sand', '', '', '2016-11-05 02:24:31', '2016-11-05 06:24:31', '', 476, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/chinese-idioms-bury-head-in-sand.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2216, 1, '2016-11-05 02:24:36', '2016-11-05 06:24:36', 'This fable describes backstory / origination of the idiom 掩耳盗铃 [pinyin]yan3 er3 dao4 ling2[/pinyin], which literally translates as \"to plug one\'s ears while stealing a bell\", and meaning \"to bury one\'s head in the sand\", or \"to deceive oneself\".\r\n\r\nI understand that this story was taken from the collection 吕氏春秋 (\"Mr. Lu\'s Annals [of the Spring / Autumn Period]\"), which is described as \"a historical miscellany from the point of view of Qin period merchant and politician 吕不韦 Lu BuWei [pinyin]lv3 bu4 wei2[/pinyin]\"\r\n\r\n
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\r\n\r\n1) 春秋时侯，晋国贵族智伯灭掉了范氏。有人趁机跑到范氏家里想偷点东西，看见院子里吊着一口大钟。钟是用上等青铜铸成的，造型和图案都很精美。小偷心里高兴极了，想把这口精美的大钟背回自已家去。可是钟又大又重，怎么也挪不动。他想来想去，只有一个办法，那就是把钟敲碎，然后再分别搬回家。\r\n \r\n2)小偷找来一把大大锤，拼命朝钟砸去，咣的一声巨响，把他吓了一大跳。小偷着慌，心想这下糟了，这种声不就等于是告诉人们我正在这里偷钟吗？他心里一急，身子一下子扑到了钟上，张开双臂想捂住钟声，可钟声又怎么捂得住呢！钟声依然悠悠地传向远方。\r\n\r\n3)他越听越害怕，不同自由地抽回双手，使劲捂住自已的耳朵。“咦，钟声变小了，听不见了！”小偷高兴起来，“妙极了！把耳朵捂住不住就听不进钟声了吗！”他立刻找来两个布团，把耳朵塞住，心想，这下谁也听不见钟声了。于是就放手砸起钟来，一下一下，钟声响亮地传到很远的地方。人们听到钟声蜂拥而至把小偷捉住了。\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1)During the Spring and Autumn period, Nobleman ZhiBo of the Jin state eliminated the Fan clan [in battle]. There was a person who sought to take advantage of the defeated [and thus absent] Fan clan to steal some things from their house, and he saw that in their yard dangled a large bell. The bell was molded from the finest bronze, its shape and design were very fine indeed. The thief was extremely happy, thinking to take this refined bell and carry it back to his own house. But the bell was both big and heavy, and howsoever he tried, he couldn\'t move it. He thought and thought, and came up with just one solution, which was to break the bell to bits, then take the pieces separately back to his house. \r\n \r\n2)The thief found a sledgehammer, and swung at the bell with all his might. A loud \"gong\" sound rang out, startling the thief. The thief panicked, thinking this [enterprise] was spoiled, thinking \"that kind of noise is tantamount to telling people that I\'m here stealing the bell, isn\'t it?\" He was worried, and he flung is body at the bell, stretching his arms around it to try to still the sound, but really how could he stop it? The sound went on and on, ringing far and wide. \r\n\r\n3)The longer he heard it, the more afraid he became, and withdrew his hands to press them against his ears with all his strength. \"Yi, the sound has lessened, I can\'t hear it anymore!\" The thief became happy again, \"How wonderful! If I cover my ears well, the sound can\'t be heard!\" covered his ears well, he couldn\'t hear the sound at all! He immediately found two pieces of cloth and stopped up his ears, thinking that this way, no one else could hear the bell\'s sound either. So he began smashing the bell, hitting it again and again, the ringing of the bell being heard even in far away places. People heard the bells sounds and came in great numbers, catching the thief. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n', '[Chinese Idioms] 掩耳盗铃 - To bury one\'s head in the sand', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '476-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 02:24:36', '2016-11-05 06:24:36', '', 476, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/476-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2219, 1, '2016-11-05 02:30:03', '2016-11-05 06:30:03', '', 'Easy Simplified Chinese Exercises for Beginners', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'chinese-essays-i-did-something-wrong', '', '', '2016-11-05 02:30:33', '2016-11-05 06:30:33', '', 441, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/chinese-essays-i-did-something-wrong.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2221, 1, '2016-11-05 02:35:40', '2016-11-05 06:35:40', '', 'Advanced Chinese Reading Exercises: Old People Stealing More in Japan', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'news-in-chinese-theft-japan', '', '', '2016-11-05 02:35:50', '2016-11-05 06:35:50', '', 403, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/news-in-chinese-theft-japan.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2227, 1, '2016-11-05 02:51:34', '2016-11-05 06:51:34', 'Huh, learn something new every day. My entire understanding of the postal service comes from Terry Pratchett\'s \"Going Postal\", so it\'s interesting to take a quick look into the [vaguely] factual history of the postage stamp. This widely-circulated story is believed to be apocryphal, but Sir Rowland Hill was a very real postal reformer and inventor who lived during the reign of Queen Victoria (维多利亚女王 - [pinyin]wei2 duo1 li4 ya4 nv3 wang2[/pinyin])\r\n\r\nSome postal language
\r\n便士 - [pinyin]bian4 shi4[/pinyin] - Penny\r\n罕见 - [pinyin]han3 jian4[/pinyin] - Rare\r\n邮差 - [pinyin]you2 chai1[/pinyin] - Postman\r\n\r\n
[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 1840年，英国发行了世界第一枚邮票。它上面印了英国维多利亚女王的头像。因为这一枚邮票是黑色的，所以有“黑便士”之称。\r\n\r\n2) 一百五十多年前的某一天，在英国的一个村子里，来了一辆由马儿拉动的邮车。那个时候，邮车到村里来送信是十分罕见的。所以，村里的人一听见马车声，便立刻从屋子里、田地里冲出来，围在邮车的周围。\r\n\r\n3) 邮差走下车，手里高举着一封信，大声喊着: “爱里丝·布朗小姐，有信！”一个姑娘轻声地对邮差说: “我就是爱里丝·布朗。”人们的眼光都不约而同地投向她。\r\n\r\n4) 爱里丝接过邮差给她的信，看了一看信封，便把信交还给邮差。“对不起。”她说，“我没有足够的钱付邮费。”\r\n\r\n5) 人们都很同情她，不知道该说些什么话。突然间，人群里走出一个绅士模样的人，从口袋里拿出一些钱币，说要替爱里丝付邮费，可是爱里丝并不认识他。\r\n\r\n6) 她带着感激的笑容对这位绅士说: “谢谢您的好意，先生，这封信我盼望了很久，可是现在我用不着它了。”\r\n\r\n7) “为什么呢？”那位绅士感到十分奇怪。\r\n\r\n8) “这封信是我的男朋友寄给我的。我们打算明年结婚。他为了筹钱结婚，只得到外地去找工作做。由于我付不起邮费，所以他事先交代我: 在信封上画个叉，是表示他的日子过得很好；画个圆圈，意思是他已经找到工作了。”\r\n\r\n9) “啊！原来这信封里是没有信的。”那位绅士自言自语地说: “这种情形很不合理，必须改善。”\r\n\r\n10) 对于这件事情，他想了很久，终于想出了一个好办法。\r\n\r\n11) 他向当时的英国政府建议: “邮费应该由寄信的人来付，而且也不应该太昂贵，否则穷人是付不起的。为了大家的方便，我认为寄信的人，用一个便士买一枚邮票，贴在信封上，这样寄出去就可以了。”\r\n\r\n12) 结果，英国政府从善如流，接受了他的建议。这位绅士的名字叫罗兰·希尔世界上第一枚邮票就是这样诞生的。\r\n\r\n\r\nRead the original essay\r\n[/one_half]\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) In 1840, England issued the world\'s first postage stamp. The face of Queen Victoria was printed on it. Because the stamp was black, it was called the \"Penny Black\".\r\n\r\n2) One day more than one hundred and fifty years ago, a mail coach rode into a village in England. At that time, mail coaches rarely brought letters to the villages. So as soon as the village folks heard the sound of the carriage, they immediately rushed out of houses and fields to stand around the coach.\r\n\r\n3) The postman stepped down from the coach holding up a letter and loudly cried, \"Miss Alice Brown, you have a letter!\" A girl\'s light voice replied, \"I\'m Alice Brown.\" Everyone\'s gaze simultaneously went her way.\r\n\r\n4) Alice took the letter the postman handed her, looked at the envelope, and then gave the envelope back to the postman. \"Sorry,\" she said, \"I don\'t have enough money to pay the postage fee.\"\r\n\r\n5) Everyone sympathized with her, and didn\'t know what to say. Suddenly, a man of gentlemanly appearance walked out of the crowd, took some cash from his pocket, and said he wanted to pay the postal fee on Alice\'s behalf, though Alice didn\'t know him at all.\r\n\r\n6) Wearing a proud smile, she told the gentleman, \"Thank you for your kindness, mister, I\'ve looked forward to this letter for a long time, but I have no use for it now.\"\r\n\r\n7) \"Why?\" The gentlemen thought this was quite strange.\r\n\r\n8) \"This letter was sent to me by my boyfriend. I plan to marry him next year. To earn money for the marriage, he went away to look for work. Because I can\'t pay any postage fees, before he left he told me: if he draws an X written on the envelope, it means he\'s doing well, if there\'s a circle on the envelope, it means he\'s already found work.\"\r\n\r\n9) \"Ah! So actually there\'s wasn\'t any letter in the envelope to begin with.\" The gentlemen mused out loud to himself, \"This situation is unfair, [the mail system] must be improved.\"\r\n\r\n10) He thought about it for a long time, and finally thought of a solution.\r\n\r\n11) He suggested to the then-government: \"The postage fee should be paid by the sender of the letter, and it shouldn\'t be too expensive, otherwise poor people won\'t be able to afford it. For everyone\'s convenience, I think people sending letters should use a one-penny stamp and stick it on the front of the letter - that\'s how they can send it out.\"\r\n\r\n12) As a result, the English government were willing to follow this good advice and accepted his suggestion. This gentleman\'s name was Rowland Hill, and this is how the world\'s first postage stamp was born. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Facts in Chinese] The History of Postage Stamps', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '341-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 02:51:34', '2016-11-05 06:51:34', '', 341, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/341-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2230, 1, '2016-11-05 02:56:16', '2016-11-05 06:56:16', 'Huh, learn something new every day. My entire understanding of the postal service comes from Terry Pratchett\'s \"Going Postal\", so it\'s interesting to take a quick look into the [vaguely] factual history of the postage stamp. This widely-circulated story is believed to be apocryphal, but Sir Rowland Hill was a very real postal reformer and inventor who lived during the reign of Queen Victoria (维多利亚女王 - [pinyin]wei2 duo1 li4 ya4 nv3 wang2[/pinyin])\r\n\r\nSome postal language
\r\n便士 - [pinyin]bian4 shi4[/pinyin] - Penny\r\n罕见 - [pinyin]han3 jian4[/pinyin] - Rare\r\n邮差 - [pinyin]you2 chai1[/pinyin] - Postman\r\n\r\n
[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 1840年，英国发行了世界第一枚邮票。它上面印了英国维多利亚女王的头像。因为这一枚邮票是黑色的，所以有“黑便士”之称。\r\n\r\n2) 一百五十多年前的某一天，在英国的一个村子里，来了一辆由马儿拉动的邮车。那个时候，邮车到村里来送信是十分罕见的。所以，村里的人一听见马车声，便立刻从屋子里、田地里冲出来，围在邮车的周围。\r\n\r\n3) 邮差走下车，手里高举着一封信，大声喊着: “爱里丝·布朗小姐，有信！”一个姑娘轻声地对邮差说: “我就是爱里丝·布朗。”人们的眼光都不约而同地投向她。\r\n\r\n4) 爱里丝接过邮差给她的信，看了一看信封，便把信交还给邮差。“对不起。”她说，“我没有足够的钱付邮费。”\r\n\r\n5) 人们都很同情她，不知道该说些什么话。突然间，人群里走出一个绅士模样的人，从口袋里拿出一些钱币，说要替爱里丝付邮费，可是爱里丝并不认识他。\r\n\r\n6) 她带着感激的笑容对这位绅士说: “谢谢您的好意，先生，这封信我盼望了很久，可是现在我用不着它了。”\r\n\r\n7) “为什么呢？”那位绅士感到十分奇怪。\r\n\r\n8) “这封信是我的男朋友寄给我的。我们打算明年结婚。他为了筹钱结婚，只得到外地去找工作做。由于我付不起邮费，所以他事先交代我: 在信封上画个叉，是表示他的日子过得很好；画个圆圈，意思是他已经找到工作了。”\r\n\r\n9) “啊！原来这信封里是没有信的。”那位绅士自言自语地说: “这种情形很不合理，必须改善。”\r\n\r\n10) 对于这件事情，他想了很久，终于想出了一个好办法。\r\n\r\n11) 他向当时的英国政府建议: “邮费应该由寄信的人来付，而且也不应该太昂贵，否则穷人是付不起的。为了大家的方便，我认为寄信的人，用一个便士买一枚邮票，贴在信封上，这样寄出去就可以了。”\r\n\r\n12) 结果，英国政府从善如流，接受了他的建议。这位绅士的名字叫罗兰·希尔世界上第一枚邮票就是这样诞生的。\r\n\r\n\r\nRead the original essay\r\n[/one_half]\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) In 1840, England issued the world\'s first postage stamp. The face of Queen Victoria was printed on it. Because the stamp was black, it was called the \"Penny Black\".\r\n\r\n2) One day more than one hundred and fifty years ago, a mail coach rode into a village in England. At that time, mail coaches rarely brought letters to the villages. So as soon as the village folks heard the sound of the carriage, they immediately rushed out of houses and fields to stand around the coach.\r\n\r\n3) The postman stepped down from the coach holding up a letter and loudly cried, \"Miss Alice Brown, you have a letter!\" A girl\'s light voice replied, \"I\'m Alice Brown.\" Everyone\'s gaze simultaneously went her way.\r\n\r\n4) Alice took the letter the postman handed her, looked at the envelope, and then gave the envelope back to the postman. \"Sorry,\" she said, \"I don\'t have enough money to pay the postage fee.\"\r\n\r\n5) Everyone sympathized with her, and didn\'t know what to say. Suddenly, a man of gentlemanly appearance walked out of the crowd, took some cash from his pocket, and said he wanted to pay the postal fee on Alice\'s behalf, though Alice didn\'t know him at all.\r\n\r\n6) Wearing a proud smile, she told the gentleman, \"Thank you for your kindness, mister, I\'ve looked forward to this letter for a long time, but I have no use for it now.\"\r\n\r\n7) \"Why?\" The gentlemen thought this was quite strange.\r\n\r\n8) \"This letter was sent to me by my boyfriend. I plan to marry him next year. To earn money for the marriage, he went away to look for work. Because I can\'t pay any postage fees, before he left he told me: if he draws an X written on the envelope, it means he\'s doing well, if there\'s a circle on the envelope, it means he\'s already found work.\"\r\n\r\n9) \"Ah! So actually there\'s wasn\'t any letter in the envelope to begin with.\" The gentlemen mused out loud to himself, \"This situation is unfair, [the mail system] must be improved.\"\r\n\r\n10) He thought about it for a long time, and finally thought of a solution.\r\n\r\n11) He suggested to the then-government: \"The postage fee should be paid by the sender of the letter, and it shouldn\'t be too expensive, otherwise poor people won\'t be able to afford it. For everyone\'s convenience, I think people sending letters should use a one-penny stamp and stick it on the front of the letter - that\'s how they can send it out.\"\r\n\r\n12) As a result, the English government were willing to follow this good advice and accepted his suggestion. This gentleman\'s name was Rowland Hill, and this is how the world\'s first postage stamp was born. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Facts in Chinese] 邮票的历史 - The History of Postage Stamps', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '341-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 02:56:16', '2016-11-05 06:56:16', '', 341, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/341-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2236, 1, '2016-11-05 03:07:38', '2016-11-05 07:07:38', '', 'Chinese Reading Practice: The House Behind Me', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'chinese-poems-the-house-behind-me', '', '', '2016-11-05 03:07:49', '2016-11-05 07:07:49', '', 236, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/chinese-poems-the-house-behind-me.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2239, 1, '2016-11-05 03:16:11', '2016-11-05 07:16:11', '', 'Intermediate Chinese Essays - Contemporary Chinese Authors Bingxin', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'bingxin', '', '', '2016-11-05 03:17:03', '2016-11-05 07:17:03', '', 186, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/bingxin.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0);
INSERT INTO `wp_posts` (`ID`, `post_author`, `post_date`, `post_date_gmt`, `post_content`, `post_title`, `post_excerpt`, `post_status`, `comment_status`, `ping_status`, `post_password`, `post_name`, `to_ping`, `pinged`, `post_modified`, `post_modified_gmt`, `post_content_filtered`, `post_parent`, `guid`, `menu_order`, `post_type`, `post_mime_type`, `comment_count`) VALUES
(2244, 1, '2016-11-05 03:24:08', '2016-11-05 07:24:08', 'No one likes being bullied (欺负 - [pinyin]qi1 fu5[/pinyin]). As vaguely sordid fables go, this one\'s fairly tame, resulting only in some humiliatory retribution and a lost tail or two. \r\n\r\n
[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n1) 从前有一只小狼他总是欺负别人。一天小动物们聚在一起商量对付那只小狼的办法，聪明的小狐狸想到了一个办法。\r\n\r\n2) 一天小狼出外觅食的狼，忽然闻到一阵阵烤鱼的香味，小狼跑进山洞一看，原来是狐狸在烤鱼。狐狸见狼来了，心里暗自高兴。\r\n\r\n3) 狼问, “这些鱼是从哪弄来的？”\r\n\r\n4) 狐狸说, “有一个地方可以钓到好多鱼，我可以给你带路。”\r\n\r\n5) 于时狼就跟着狐狸走啊走，来到了河边，原来是河里的水结了一层冰。\r\n\r\n6) 狐狸说, “只要在冰上凿一个洞，把尾巴放进河里，等鱼咬住尾巴的时候，就把尾巴提上来，这样就可以钓到好多好多的鱼！”\r\n\r\n7) 狼想着这下钓的鱼吃也吃不光啦，狼等了好久，也没有鱼咬住他的尾巴。狼实在冷得不行了，就想把尾巴提上来，回头一看，尾巴都被冰住了。狼大力拉，哪知他的尾巴“啪”的一声断掉了，狼逃走了。\r\n\r\n8) 小动物们看见狼的惨样子，都哈哈地笑了。\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Long ago, there was a wolf who was always bullying others. One day, the small animals gathered together to discuss a way to solve the problem. The smart fox thought of a solution.\r\n\r\n2) One day Wolf went out to forage for food, when suddenly he smelled the scent of roasting fish. When Little Wolf ran into a mountain cave and looked, he saw that it was Little Fox that was cooking the fish. Fox saw that Wolf had come, and in his heart he was secretly happy.\r\n\r\n3) Wolf asked \"Where did these fish come from?\"\r\n\r\n4) Fox said, \"There is a place where you can catch many fish, I can take you there.\"\r\n\r\n5) So Wolf followed Fox as he walked and walked, until they came to a riverbank. There turned out to be a layer of ice over the water.\r\n\r\n6) Fox said, \"All you have to do is bore a hole in the ice, stick your tail into the river, wait until the fish bite your tail, then pull your tail out. This way, you\'ll catch many, many fish.\r\n\r\n7) Wolf, thinking of how the fish would be more than a full meal, waited quite a while, but no fish bit his tail. Wolf was finally too cold to continue and tried to pull up his tail, but when he turned his head to look, he saw that his tail was stuck in the ice. He gave a great pull, and what do you know but his tail came off with a \"pa\" sound. Wolf fled.\r\n\r\n8) When the other little animals saw wolf\'s miserable face, they all laughed.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Short Stories] 浪去钓鱼 - Wolf Goes Fishing', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '85-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 03:24:08', '2016-11-05 07:24:08', '', 85, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/85-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2247, 1, '2016-11-05 04:19:59', '2016-11-05 08:19:59', 'Hey there. \n\nIf you\'re not . I publish one freebie post a week, so if you\'re not ready to get down and. If you\'d like content daily, . \n\n', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 04:19:59', '2016-11-05 08:19:59', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2248, 1, '2016-11-05 04:24:38', '2016-11-05 08:24:38', 'Hey there. \r\n\r\nIf you\'re not . I publish one freebie post a week, so if you\'re not ready to get down and. If you\'d like content daily, . \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n| stuff | \r\n
\r\n\r\n\r\n| stuff | \r\n
\r\n
', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 04:24:38', '2016-11-05 08:24:38', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
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(2254, 1, '2016-11-05 05:18:53', '2016-11-05 09:18:53', '\r\n
Beta launch prices
\r\n\r\n[add_to_cart id=\"1967\"]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nI publish one freebie post a week, with Member\'s Only posts published Monday through Friday, between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post.\r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nAs we only recently launched the subscription membership section, we\'ll be offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $30 per year, while we build up our Member\'s Only library. If you join during our Beta period, you\'ll be locked in at this lower rate for the \r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew either monthly or annually, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 05:18:53', '2016-11-05 09:18:53', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2251, 1, '2016-11-05 04:56:57', '2016-11-05 08:56:57', '\r\n
Beta launch prices
\r\n[product id=\"1967\"]\r\nJoin for $3.50 per month\r\nJoin for $30 per year\r\n\r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nI publish one freebie post a week, with Member\'s Only posts published Monday through Friday, between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post.\r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nAs we only recently launched the subscription membership section, we\'ll be offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $30 per year, while we build up our Member\'s Only library. If you join during our Beta period, you\'ll be locked in at this lower rate for the \r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew either monthly or annually, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 04:56:57', '2016-11-05 08:56:57', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2250, 1, '2016-11-05 04:53:05', '2016-11-05 08:53:05', '\r\n
Beta launch prices
\r\n\r\n
![](\"\'.)
Buy Now\r\n\r\nJoin for $3.50 per month\r\nJoin for $30 per year\r\n
Post schedules
\r\nI publish one freebie post a week, with Member\'s Only posts published Monday through Friday, between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post.\r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nAs we only recently launched the subscription membership section, we\'ll be offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $30 per year, while we build up our Member\'s Only library. If you join during our Beta period, you\'ll be locked in at this lower rate for the \r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew either monthly or annually, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 04:53:05', '2016-11-05 08:53:05', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2252, 1, '2016-11-05 05:05:58', '2016-11-05 09:05:58', '\r\n
Beta launch prices
\r\n\r\n[wc_quick_buy product=\"1967\" label=\"Join for $3.50 per month\"]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nI publish one freebie post a week, with Member\'s Only posts published Monday through Friday, between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post.\r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nAs we only recently launched the subscription membership section, we\'ll be offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $30 per year, while we build up our Member\'s Only library. If you join during our Beta period, you\'ll be locked in at this lower rate for the \r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew either monthly or annually, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 05:05:58', '2016-11-05 09:05:58', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2253, 1, '2016-11-05 05:08:34', '2016-11-05 09:08:34', '\r\n
Beta launch prices
\r\n\r\n[wc_quick_buy_link product=\"1967\"]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nI publish one freebie post a week, with Member\'s Only posts published Monday through Friday, between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post.\r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nAs we only recently launched the subscription membership section, we\'ll be offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $30 per year, while we build up our Member\'s Only library. If you join during our Beta period, you\'ll be locked in at this lower rate for the \r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew either monthly or annually, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-05 05:08:34', '2016-11-05 09:08:34', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2256, 1, '2016-11-06 19:53:53', '2016-11-07 00:53:53', '', 'Subscription – Nov 07, 2016 @ 12:53 AM', '', 'wc-cancelled', 'open', 'closed', 'order_581fd0a1eb637', 'subscription-nov-07-2016-1253-am', '', '', '2016-11-18 18:39:32', '2016-11-18 23:39:32', '', 2255, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?post_type=shop_subscription&p=2256', 0, 'shop_subscription', '', 5),
(2257, 1, '2016-11-06 19:53:53', '2016-11-07 00:53:53', '', 'Subscription – Nov 07, 2016 @ 12:53 AM', '', 'wc-on-hold', 'open', 'closed', 'order_581fd0a224cf1', 'subscription-nov-07-2016-1253-am-2', '', '', '2018-11-06 23:40:10', '2018-11-07 04:40:10', '', 2255, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?post_type=shop_subscription&p=2257', 0, 'shop_subscription', '', 9),
(2719, 1, '2017-12-20 18:10:51', '2017-12-20 23:10:51', '', 'Order – December 20, 2017 @ 06:10 PM', '', 'wc-processing', 'open', 'closed', 'order_5a3aedf7d27ff', 'order-dec-20-2017-1110-pm', '', '', '2017-12-20 18:10:51', '2017-12-20 23:10:51', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?post_type=shop_order&p=2719', 0, 'shop_order', '', 2),
(2464, 1, '2016-11-16 18:31:48', '2016-11-16 23:31:48', '仿词', '[Blog] Can you make up words in Chinese?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2463-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-16 18:31:48', '2016-11-16 23:31:48', '', 2463, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2463-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2310, 1, '2016-11-10 23:04:56', '2016-11-11 04:04:56', 'Source: http://story.beva.com/23/content/bai-feng-chao-niao-5\r\n\r\n很久很久以前，凤凰和其它小鸟一样，羽毛也很平常，它很勤劳，不像别的鸟那样吃饱了就知道玩，而是从早到晚忙个不停，将别的鸟扔掉的果实都一颗一颗捡起来，收藏在洞里。\r\n这有什么意思呀？这不是财迷精，大傻瓜吗？可别小看了这种贮藏食物的行为，到了一定的时候，他可发挥大用处了！\r\n果然，有一年，森林大旱。鸟儿们找不到吃的，这时，凤凰急忙打开山洞，把自己多年积存下来的干果和草籽拿出来分给大家，和大家共渡难关。\r\n旱灾过后，为了感谢凤凰的救命之恩，鸟儿们都从自己身上选了一根最漂亮的羽毛拔下来，制成了一件光彩耀眼的百鸟衣献给凤凰，并一致推举它为鸟王。\r\n以后，每逢凤凰生日之时，四面八方的鸟儿都会飞来向凤凰表示祝贺，这就是百鸟朝凤。\r\n\r\n', '[Chinese Mythology] 《百鸟朝凤》All Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2260-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:04:56', '2016-11-11 04:04:56', '', 2260, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2260-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2263, 1, '2016-11-08 05:37:02', '2016-11-08 10:37:02', 'Source: http://story.beva.com/23/content/bai-feng-chao-niao-5\r\n\r\n很久很久以前，凤凰和其它小鸟一样，羽毛也很平常，它很勤劳，不像别的鸟那样吃饱了就知道玩，而是从早到晚忙个不停，将别的鸟扔掉的果实都一颗一颗捡起来，收藏在洞里。\r\n这有什么意思呀？这不是财迷精，大傻瓜吗？可别小看了这种贮藏食物的行为，到了一定的时候，他可发挥大用处了！\r\n果然，有一年，森林大旱。鸟儿们找不到吃的，这时，凤凰急忙打开山洞，把自己多年积存下来的干果和草籽拿出来分给大家，和大家共渡难关。\r\n旱灾过后，为了感谢凤凰的救命之恩，鸟儿们都从自己身上选了一根最漂亮的羽毛拔下来，制成了一件光彩耀眼的百鸟衣献给凤凰，并一致推举它为鸟王。\r\n以后，每逢凤凰生日之时，四面八方的鸟儿都会飞来向凤凰表示祝贺，这就是百鸟朝凤。\r\n\r\n', '[Chinese Myths & Legends] 《百鸟朝凤》All Birds Pay Homage to the Phoenix', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2260-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-08 05:37:02', '2016-11-08 10:37:02', '', 2260, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2260-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2264, 1, '2016-11-10 23:05:28', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'http://story.beva.com/20/content/shi-er-sheng-xiao-de-gu-shi-5-20\r\n\r\n你知道自己属什么吗？有属小白兔的，有属大老虎的...有属猫的吗？没有，怎么有属老鼠的，没有属猫的呢？这里有个故事。\r\n很久很久以前，有一天，人们说：“我们要选十二种动物作为人的生肖，一年一种动物。”天下的动物有多少呀？怎么个选法呢？这样吧，定好一个日子，这一天，动物们来报名，就选先到的十二种动物为十二生肖。猫和老鼠是邻居，又是好朋友，它们都想去报名。猫说：“咱们得一早起来去报名，可是我爱睡懒觉，怎么办呢？”老鼠说：“别着急，别着急，你尽管睡你的大觉，我一醒来，就去叫你，咱们一块儿去。”猫听了很高兴，说：“你真是我的好朋友，谢谢你了。”\r\n到了报名那天早晨，老鼠早就醒来了，可是它光想到自己的事，把好\r\n朋友猫的事给忘了。就自己去报名了。结果，老鼠被选上了。猫呢？猫因为睡懒觉，起床太迟了，等它赶到时，十二种动物已被选定了。猫没有被选上，就生老鼠的气，怪老鼠没有叫它。\r\n从这以后，猫见了老鼠就要吃它，老鼠就只好拼命地逃。现在还是这样。', '[Chinese Mythology]《十二生肖的》 Why there\'s no cat in the zodiac', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:05:28', '2016-11-11 04:05:28', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2264', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2265, 1, '2016-11-08 05:43:16', '2016-11-08 10:43:16', 'http://story.beva.com/20/content/shi-er-sheng-xiao-de-gu-shi-5-20\r\n\r\n你知道自己属什么吗？有属小白兔的，有属大老虎的...有属猫的吗？没有，怎么有属老鼠的，没有属猫的呢？这里有个故事。\r\n很久很久以前，有一天，人们说：“我们要选十二种动物作为人的生肖，一年一种动物。”天下的动物有多少呀？怎么个选法呢？这样吧，定好一个日子，这一天，动物们来报名，就选先到的十二种动物为十二生肖。猫和老鼠是邻居，又是好朋友，它们都想去报名。猫说：“咱们得一早起来去报名，可是我爱睡懒觉，怎么办呢？”老鼠说：“别着急，别着急，你尽管睡你的大觉，我一醒来，就去叫你，咱们一块儿去。”猫听了很高兴，说：“你真是我的好朋友，谢谢你了。”\r\n到了报名那天早晨，老鼠早就醒来了，可是它光想到自己的事，把好\r\n朋友猫的事给忘了。就自己去报名了。结果，老鼠被选上了。猫呢？猫因为睡懒觉，起床太迟了，等它赶到时，十二种动物已被选定了。猫没有被选上，就生老鼠的气，怪老鼠没有叫它。\r\n从这以后，猫见了老鼠就要吃它，老鼠就只好拼命地逃。现在还是这样。', '[Chinese Myths & Legends]《十二生肖的》 Why there\'s no cat in the zodiac', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2264-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-08 05:43:16', '2016-11-08 10:43:16', '', 2264, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2264-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2266, 1, '2016-11-08 05:44:33', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'http://story.beva.com/24/content/ba-xian-guo-hai-6\r\n\r\n有一天八个神仙仙向西王母拜寿，腾云驾雾从东海上空经过，只见海上波涛汹涌，白浪滔天，很壮观。于是，八仙决定到海面上玩一玩。\r\n吕洞宾说：“大家把自己的宝物扔到海面上，借着它渡过大海，比一比谁更有神通，怎么样？”\r\n铁拐李对这一建议表示欢迎，他兴致昂扬地说：“好啊！大家先看我的！”便把拐杖投向海中，拐杖像一条小船漂浮在水面，铁拐李一个筋斗，翻立在拐杖上。\r\n接着汉钟离把他的芭蕉扇丢到海上，跳下去站在上面。\r\n八仙安稳地顺着汹涌的波浪漂去，这与腾云驾雾感觉大不相同，别有一番新的刺激和情调。\r\n这时，曹国舅突然用手指向右边，并高声喊道： “大家看啊！那里有座海市蜃楼！”\r\n大家转头一看，只见一座仙山渐渐地从海里升起，山上有树木，有楼房，一会儿就升到半空中，慢慢地变成天边的浮云，一转眼，那浮云又被风吹散了。\r\n韩湘子说：“我们真是有眼福！蜃气是海里蛟龙嘘出来的气体 ，百年难得一见啊！”\r\n突然 ，蓝采和从他们当中消失了。大家远近观望，一边找一边喊，可就是不见蓝采和的踪迹，张果老猜说： “可能是东海龙王作怪，他不欢迎我们在他的海上大显神通，把蓝采和抓到龙宫去了，走 我们一起到龙宫要人去！”\r\n大家来到龙宫，请求龙王放人。龙王蛮不讲理，不但不肯，还派自己的几个儿子带领虾兵蟹将追杀八仙。八仙只得用随身的法宝当武器，抵抗虾兵蟹将，经过一场激烈的战斗之后，龙王的两个太子被八仙杀死了。\r\n龙王一听，自己的两个儿子被八仙杀了，很生气，并请南海、西海、北海龙王来帮忙。龙王的不依不饶，把八仙也给惹火了。铁拐李用酒葫芦把海水吸光，其余几位仙人将泰山搬了过来，往东海一扔，东海立刻变成了一座高 。\r\n双方打得天昏地暗，把太上老君、如来佛和观世音也惊动了，他们全都赶来调解。调解的结果是，由蓝采送东海龙王两片玉版，作为杀两位太子的补偿泰山则由观世音负责搬回原处。\r\n因为这一场纠纷，八仙被玉皇大帝降级一等。从此，八仙再也不敢到外面惹事了。', '[Chinese Myths & Legends] 《八仙过海》The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-08 05:44:33', '2016-11-08 10:44:33', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2266', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2267, 1, '2016-11-08 05:44:33', '2016-11-08 10:44:33', 'http://story.beva.com/24/content/ba-xian-guo-hai-6\r\n\r\n有一天八个神仙仙向西王母拜寿，腾云驾雾从东海上空经过，只见海上波涛汹涌，白浪滔天，很壮观。于是，八仙决定到海面上玩一玩。\r\n吕洞宾说：“大家把自己的宝物扔到海面上，借着它渡过大海，比一比谁更有神通，怎么样？”\r\n铁拐李对这一建议表示欢迎，他兴致昂扬地说：“好啊！大家先看我的！”便把拐杖投向海中，拐杖像一条小船漂浮在水面，铁拐李一个筋斗，翻立在拐杖上。\r\n接着汉钟离把他的芭蕉扇丢到海上，跳下去站在上面。\r\n八仙安稳地顺着汹涌的波浪漂去，这与腾云驾雾感觉大不相同，别有一番新的刺激和情调。\r\n这时，曹国舅突然用手指向右边，并高声喊道： “大家看啊！那里有座海市蜃楼！”\r\n大家转头一看，只见一座仙山渐渐地从海里升起，山上有树木，有楼房，一会儿就升到半空中，慢慢地变成天边的浮云，一转眼，那浮云又被风吹散了。\r\n韩湘子说：“我们真是有眼福！蜃气是海里蛟龙嘘出来的气体 ，百年难得一见啊！”\r\n突然 ，蓝采和从他们当中消失了。大家远近观望，一边找一边喊，可就是不见蓝采和的踪迹，张果老猜说： “可能是东海龙王作怪，他不欢迎我们在他的海上大显神通，把蓝采和抓到龙宫去了，走 我们一起到龙宫要人去！”\r\n大家来到龙宫，请求龙王放人。龙王蛮不讲理，不但不肯，还派自己的几个儿子带领虾兵蟹将追杀八仙。八仙只得用随身的法宝当武器，抵抗虾兵蟹将，经过一场激烈的战斗之后，龙王的两个太子被八仙杀死了。\r\n龙王一听，自己的两个儿子被八仙杀了，很生气，并请南海、西海、北海龙王来帮忙。龙王的不依不饶，把八仙也给惹火了。铁拐李用酒葫芦把海水吸光，其余几位仙人将泰山搬了过来，往东海一扔，东海立刻变成了一座高 。\r\n双方打得天昏地暗，把太上老君、如来佛和观世音也惊动了，他们全都赶来调解。调解的结果是，由蓝采送东海龙王两片玉版，作为杀两位太子的补偿泰山则由观世音负责搬回原处。\r\n因为这一场纠纷，八仙被玉皇大帝降级一等。从此，八仙再也不敢到外面惹事了。', '[Chinese Myths & Legends] 《八仙过海》The Eight Immortals Cross the Sea', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2266-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-08 05:44:33', '2016-11-08 10:44:33', '', 2266, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2266-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2268, 1, '2016-11-10 23:05:46', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'http://story.beva.com/20/content/da-yu-zhi-shui-4-20\r\n\r\n禹是一位神仙，他来到人间和阿娇姑娘结了婚，住在山洞里。有一年洪水泛滥，禹告别新婚的妻子，号召人和天神们团结起来到会稽山集合，商量治理洪水的办法。\r\n禹在去会稽山的路上遇到乡亲，乡亲告诉他阿娇怀孕了。禹听了很高兴，但是约定的时间快到了，他只好托乡亲转达他对妻子的问候。人和神都按时赶到了会稽山。禹说：“我想应该用疏导的方法，让洪水顺着河道流到大海里去。”大家觉得这个办法很好。于是，禹带领众人动手开凿河道，挖出的泥土用来填平洪水冲成的大坑。\r\n大家不停地工作，修了一条又一条河道。又是一天，禹带领人们经过自己的家乡。一位乡亲告诉他阿娇生病了，希望他回家去看看。禹非常想念妻子，可是他想了想说：“治水是大家的事，不能因为我而耽搁了大家。”他托乡亲把草药带给阿娇，又和大家一起上路了。禹去疏导另一条河道时，又经过自己的家乡。一位乡亲对他说：“阿娇快生孩子了，你快去看看她吧!”禹叹了口气说：“不，我回家一天，就耽误一天治水的工作。”禹三次路过自已的家门都没有回家，乡亲们听了这件事十分感动，干起活来更加努力。\r\n禹非常想念妻子，阿娇也非常想念禹。阿娇天天站在山上等禹胜利归来，渐渐地化成了一块岩石。当禹把洪水完全治理好，回到家乡之后发现妻子已经化成了石头。禹悲痛万分，伤心哭泣，这时石人进裂，跳出了一个小孩。为了纪念孩子的母亲，禹为孩子起名为启。禹被人们拥戴为领袖，称为“大禹王”。', '[Chinese Mythology] 《 大禹治水》Yu the Great Tames the Floods', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:05:46', '2016-11-11 04:05:46', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2268', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2269, 1, '2016-11-08 05:55:49', '2016-11-08 10:55:49', 'http://story.beva.com/20/content/da-yu-zhi-shui-4-20\r\n\r\n禹是一位神仙，他来到人间和阿娇姑娘结了婚，住在山洞里。有一年洪水泛滥，禹告别新婚的妻子，号召人和天神们团结起来到会稽山集合，商量治理洪水的办法。\r\n禹在去会稽山的路上遇到乡亲，乡亲告诉他阿娇怀孕了。禹听了很高兴，但是约定的时间快到了，他只好托乡亲转达他对妻子的问候。人和神都按时赶到了会稽山。禹说：“我想应该用疏导的方法，让洪水顺着河道流到大海里去。”大家觉得这个办法很好。于是，禹带领众人动手开凿河道，挖出的泥土用来填平洪水冲成的大坑。\r\n大家不停地工作，修了一条又一条河道。又是一天，禹带领人们经过自己的家乡。一位乡亲告诉他阿娇生病了，希望他回家去看看。禹非常想念妻子，可是他想了想说：“治水是大家的事，不能因为我而耽搁了大家。”他托乡亲把草药带给阿娇，又和大家一起上路了。禹去疏导另一条河道时，又经过自己的家乡。一位乡亲对他说：“阿娇快生孩子了，你快去看看她吧!”禹叹了口气说：“不，我回家一天，就耽误一天治水的工作。”禹三次路过自已的家门都没有回家，乡亲们听了这件事十分感动，干起活来更加努力。\r\n禹非常想念妻子，阿娇也非常想念禹。阿娇天天站在山上等禹胜利归来，渐渐地化成了一块岩石。当禹把洪水完全治理好，回到家乡之后发现妻子已经化成了石头。禹悲痛万分，伤心哭泣，这时石人进裂，跳出了一个小孩。为了纪念孩子的母亲，禹为孩子起名为启。禹被人们拥戴为领袖，称为“大禹王”。', '[Chinese Myths & Legends] 《 大禹治水》Yu the Great Tames the Floods', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2268-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-08 05:55:49', '2016-11-08 10:55:49', '', 2268, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2268-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2270, 1, '2016-11-10 23:12:32', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'http://story.beva.com/20/content/guo-nian-de-lai-li-2\r\n\r\n相传：中国古时侯有一种叫＂年＂的怪兽，头长尖角，凶猛异常，＂年＂兽长年深居海底，每到除夕，爬上岸来吞食牲畜伤害人命，因此每到除夕，村村寨寨的人们扶老携幼，逃往深山，以躲避＂年＂的伤害．\r\n今年的除夕，乡亲们都忙着收拾东西逃往深山，这时候村东头来了一个白发老人对一户老婆婆说只要让他在她家住一晚，他定能将＂年＂兽驱走．众人不信，老婆婆劝其还是上山躲避的好，老人坚持留下，众人见劝他不住，便纷纷上山躲避去了．\r\n当＂年＂兽象往年一样准备闯进村肆虐的时候，突然传来白发老人然响的爆竹声，＂年＂兽混身颤栗，再也不敢向前凑了，原来＂年＂兽最怕红色，火光和炸响．这时大门大开，只见院内一位身披红袍的老人哈哈大笑，＂年＂兽大惊失色，仓惶而逃．\r\n第二天，当人们从深山会到村里时，发现村里安然无恙，这才恍然大悟，原来白发老人是帮助大家驱逐＂年＂兽的神仙，人们同时还发现了白发老人驱逐＂年＂兽的三件法宝．从此，每年的除夕，家家都贴红对联，燃放爆竹，户户灯火通明，守更待岁．这风俗越传越广，成了中国民间最隆重的传统节日＂过年＂．\r\n\r\n', '[Chinese Holidays] 过年的来历 - A Beast in the Village: the Origins of Chinese New Year', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:12:32', '2016-11-11 04:12:32', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2270', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2271, 1, '2016-11-08 05:59:52', '2016-11-08 10:59:52', '相传：中国古时侯有一种叫＂年＂的怪兽，头长尖角，凶猛异常，＂年＂兽长年深居海底，每到除夕，爬上岸来吞食牲畜伤害人命，因此每到除夕，村村寨寨的人们扶老携幼，逃往深山，以躲避＂年＂的伤害．\r\n今年的除夕，乡亲们都忙着收拾东西逃往深山，这时候村东头来了一个白发老人对一户老婆婆说只要让他在她家住一晚，他定能将＂年＂兽驱走．众人不信，老婆婆劝其还是上山躲避的好，老人坚持留下，众人见劝他不住，便纷纷上山躲避去了．\r\n当＂年＂兽象往年一样准备闯进村肆虐的时候，突然传来白发老人然响的爆竹声，＂年＂兽混身颤栗，再也不敢向前凑了，原来＂年＂兽最怕红色，火光和炸响．这时大门大开，只见院内一位身披红袍的老人哈哈大笑，＂年＂兽大惊失色，仓惶而逃．\r\n第二天，当人们从深山会到村里时，发现村里安然无恙，这才恍然大悟，原来白发老人是帮助大家驱逐＂年＂兽的神仙，人们同时还发现了白发老人驱逐＂年＂兽的三件法宝．从此，每年的除夕，家家都贴红对联，燃放爆竹，户户灯火通明，守更待岁．这风俗越传越广，成了中国民间最隆重的传统节日＂过年＂．', '[Chinese Myths & Legends] 过年的来历 - A Beast in the Village: the Origins of Chinese New Year', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2270-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-08 05:59:52', '2016-11-08 10:59:52', '', 2270, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2270-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2272, 1, '2016-11-08 06:00:12', '2016-11-08 11:00:12', 'http://story.beva.com/20/content/guo-nian-de-lai-li-2\r\n\r\n相传：中国古时侯有一种叫＂年＂的怪兽，头长尖角，凶猛异常，＂年＂兽长年深居海底，每到除夕，爬上岸来吞食牲畜伤害人命，因此每到除夕，村村寨寨的人们扶老携幼，逃往深山，以躲避＂年＂的伤害．\r\n今年的除夕，乡亲们都忙着收拾东西逃往深山，这时候村东头来了一个白发老人对一户老婆婆说只要让他在她家住一晚，他定能将＂年＂兽驱走．众人不信，老婆婆劝其还是上山躲避的好，老人坚持留下，众人见劝他不住，便纷纷上山躲避去了．\r\n当＂年＂兽象往年一样准备闯进村肆虐的时候，突然传来白发老人然响的爆竹声，＂年＂兽混身颤栗，再也不敢向前凑了，原来＂年＂兽最怕红色，火光和炸响．这时大门大开，只见院内一位身披红袍的老人哈哈大笑，＂年＂兽大惊失色，仓惶而逃．\r\n第二天，当人们从深山会到村里时，发现村里安然无恙，这才恍然大悟，原来白发老人是帮助大家驱逐＂年＂兽的神仙，人们同时还发现了白发老人驱逐＂年＂兽的三件法宝．从此，每年的除夕，家家都贴红对联，燃放爆竹，户户灯火通明，守更待岁．这风俗越传越广，成了中国民间最隆重的传统节日＂过年＂．', '[Chinese Myths & Legends] 过年的来历 - A Beast in the Village: the Origins of Chinese New Year', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2270-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-08 06:00:12', '2016-11-08 11:00:12', '', 2270, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2270-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2273, 1, '2016-11-08 07:24:17', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'http://china.huanqiu.com/photo/2016-11/2850826.html#p=1 \r\n\r\n 11月7日，在武汉分会场大妈、大叔们在雨中齐跳广场舞。当日，在“西班牙斗牛舞”、“生命之杯”的乐曲中，5万余名中国大妈、大叔们在北京、上海、天津、武汉等14个城市同跳一支广场舞。一起挑战最大规模排舞（多场地）吉尼斯世界纪录。据活动主办方介绍，同一时间、不同场地、同跳一支舞曲，挑战最大规模排舞（多场地）吉尼斯世界纪录，在全国多个重点城市一起举行，是迄今为止全国范围内发起的最大规模广场舞活动。张畅 摄', '[News in Chinese] 50,000 Grannies Break Guinness Record for Synchronized Dance', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-08 07:24:17', '2016-11-08 12:24:17', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2273', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2274, 1, '2016-11-08 07:24:17', '2016-11-08 12:24:17', 'http://china.huanqiu.com/photo/2016-11/2850826.html#p=1 \r\n\r\n 11月7日，在武汉分会场大妈、大叔们在雨中齐跳广场舞。当日，在“西班牙斗牛舞”、“生命之杯”的乐曲中，5万余名中国大妈、大叔们在北京、上海、天津、武汉等14个城市同跳一支广场舞。一起挑战最大规模排舞（多场地）吉尼斯世界纪录。据活动主办方介绍，同一时间、不同场地、同跳一支舞曲，挑战最大规模排舞（多场地）吉尼斯世界纪录，在全国多个重点城市一起举行，是迄今为止全国范围内发起的最大规模广场舞活动。张畅 摄', '[News in Chinese] 50,000 Grannies Break Guinness Record for Synchronized Dance', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2273-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-08 07:24:17', '2016-11-08 12:24:17', '', 2273, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2273-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2275, 1, '2016-11-08 07:32:03', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'http://china.huanqiu.com/photo/2016-11/2850771.html#p=1\r\n\r\n随着时代的进步，各行各业都已经有了一个高速的发展，游戏行业也不例外。随之而来，也出现了不少“游戏代练”。\r\n这位游戏代练男子叫做王刚，据称他每次可以同时操控好几台电脑，而且每台电脑都操作好几个帐号，是一个不折不扣的“金牌代练”。\r\n 据介绍，王刚今年30多岁，已婚，有一个10岁的儿子。他本人透露，他从小就喜欢打游戏，读书时也选了计算机专业，可是由于毕业后找不到工作，只能将就在酒店里打杂。\r\n后来，和妻子结婚了，为了赚更多的钱，他决定辞职在家摸索游戏，便从此走上“游戏代练”这一条路。', '[News in Chinese] Gamer Plays on 19 Computers at Once, Raises Whole Family on Profits', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-08 07:32:03', '2016-11-08 12:32:03', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2275', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2276, 1, '2016-11-08 07:32:03', '2016-11-08 12:32:03', 'http://china.huanqiu.com/photo/2016-11/2850771.html#p=1\r\n\r\n随着时代的进步，各行各业都已经有了一个高速的发展，游戏行业也不例外。随之而来，也出现了不少“游戏代练”。\r\n这位游戏代练男子叫做王刚，据称他每次可以同时操控好几台电脑，而且每台电脑都操作好几个帐号，是一个不折不扣的“金牌代练”。\r\n 据介绍，王刚今年30多岁，已婚，有一个10岁的儿子。他本人透露，他从小就喜欢打游戏，读书时也选了计算机专业，可是由于毕业后找不到工作，只能将就在酒店里打杂。\r\n后来，和妻子结婚了，为了赚更多的钱，他决定辞职在家摸索游戏，便从此走上“游戏代练”这一条路。', '[News in Chinese] Gamer Plays on 19 Computers at Once, Raises Whole Family on Profits', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2275-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-08 07:32:03', '2016-11-08 12:32:03', '', 2275, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2275-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2277, 1, '2016-11-08 07:38:15', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'http://china.huanqiu.com/photo/2016-11/2850613.html\r\n\r\n中国人首次太空泡茶 航天员也能“挑食”\r\n\r\n 大家好，我是新华社太空特约记者、航天员景海鹏。11月7日是新华社建社85周年，神舟十一号飞行乘组在太空向全社的同志们问好，向全社的同志们致以最美好的祝愿和祝福！今天是进入天宫二号的第十七天（11月4日），很多人关心我们在太空的伙食怎么样，今天就和大家讲一讲。 说到航天食品，大家可能会觉得特别单调，口感也不好，其实并不是这样。先说说我们今天吃的东西：早餐，有粳米粥、椰蓉面包、五香鹌鹑蛋、酱香芥菜等，总共7种食品；中午有8种，包括什锦炒饭、肉丝炒面、土豆牛肉、紫菜蛋花汤等；而晚上有8种，有绿豆炒面、牛肉米粉、虾仁鸡蛋、什锦罐头等；加餐有5种，包括麻辣猪肉、蟹黄蚕豆、香辣豆干等。怎么样，够丰富吧？\r\n\r\n 不同飞行阶段，吃的东西也不同。刚入轨时，我们就会吃清淡些，这样更容易消化。目前在组合体飞行阶段，我们的食谱是五天一循环，包括主食、副食、即食、饮品、调味品、功能食品等6大类近100种食品。我们不仅吃得丰富，甚至还可以“挑挑食”，在一个食品周期之内，可以同类替换。因为我之前上过两次太空，所以在前期制定食谱时，科研人员征求过我的意见。吃了这么多天，我觉得比前两次选择更多、味道更好。就是说，这次带上来的食品，本身就是我和陈冬爱吃的，所以根本不会感到单调。航天员中心航天食品与营养研究室助理研究员臧鹏解说：我们考虑了不同地域航天员的饮食需求，有针对性地准备航天食品，比如南方的一种特色蔬菜——贡菜。据我所知，贡菜是第一次进入太空。\r\n', '[News in Chinese] China Brews Tea in Space for the First Time', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-08 07:38:15', '2016-11-08 12:38:15', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2277', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2278, 1, '2016-11-08 07:37:26', '2016-11-08 12:37:26', 'http://china.huanqiu.com/photo/2016-11/2850613.html\r\n\r\n中国人首次太空泡茶 航天员也能“挑食”\r\n\r\n 大家好，我是新华社太空特约记者、航天员景海鹏。11月7日是新华社建社85周年，神舟十一号飞行乘组在太空向全社的同志们问好，向全社的同志们致以最美好的祝愿和祝福！今天是进入天宫二号的第十七天（11月4日），很多人关心我们在太空的伙食怎么样，今天就和大家讲一讲。 说到航天食品，大家可能会觉得特别单调，口感也不好，其实并不是这样。先说说我们今天吃的东西：早餐，有粳米粥、椰蓉面包、五香鹌鹑蛋、酱香芥菜等，总共7种食品；中午有8种，包括什锦炒饭、肉丝炒面、土豆牛肉、紫菜蛋花汤等；而晚上有8种，有绿豆炒面、牛肉米粉、虾仁鸡蛋、什锦罐头等；加餐有5种，包括麻辣猪肉、蟹黄蚕豆、香辣豆干等。怎么样，够丰富吧？\r\n\r\n 不同飞行阶段，吃的东西也不同。刚入轨时，我们就会吃清淡些，这样更容易消化。目前在组合体飞行阶段，我们的食谱是五天一循环，包括主食、副食、即食、饮品、调味品、功能食品等6大类近100种食品。我们不仅吃得丰富，甚至还可以“挑挑食”，在一个食品周期之内，可以同类替换。因为我之前上过两次太空，所以在前期制定食谱时，科研人员征求过我的意见。吃了这么多天，我觉得比前两次选择更多、味道更好。就是说，这次带上来的食品，本身就是我和陈冬爱吃的，所以根本不会感到单调。航天员中心航天食品与营养研究室助理研究员臧鹏解说：我们考虑了不同地域航天员的饮食需求，有针对性地准备航天食品，比如南方的一种特色蔬菜——贡菜。据我所知，贡菜是第一次进入太空。\r\n', '[News in Chinese] China Brews Tea in Space for the First Time, also Makes Snacks', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2277-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-08 07:37:26', '2016-11-08 12:37:26', '', 2277, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2277-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2279, 1, '2016-11-08 07:38:15', '2016-11-08 12:38:15', 'http://china.huanqiu.com/photo/2016-11/2850613.html\r\n\r\n中国人首次太空泡茶 航天员也能“挑食”\r\n\r\n 大家好，我是新华社太空特约记者、航天员景海鹏。11月7日是新华社建社85周年，神舟十一号飞行乘组在太空向全社的同志们问好，向全社的同志们致以最美好的祝愿和祝福！今天是进入天宫二号的第十七天（11月4日），很多人关心我们在太空的伙食怎么样，今天就和大家讲一讲。 说到航天食品，大家可能会觉得特别单调，口感也不好，其实并不是这样。先说说我们今天吃的东西：早餐，有粳米粥、椰蓉面包、五香鹌鹑蛋、酱香芥菜等，总共7种食品；中午有8种，包括什锦炒饭、肉丝炒面、土豆牛肉、紫菜蛋花汤等；而晚上有8种，有绿豆炒面、牛肉米粉、虾仁鸡蛋、什锦罐头等；加餐有5种，包括麻辣猪肉、蟹黄蚕豆、香辣豆干等。怎么样，够丰富吧？\r\n\r\n 不同飞行阶段，吃的东西也不同。刚入轨时，我们就会吃清淡些，这样更容易消化。目前在组合体飞行阶段，我们的食谱是五天一循环，包括主食、副食、即食、饮品、调味品、功能食品等6大类近100种食品。我们不仅吃得丰富，甚至还可以“挑挑食”，在一个食品周期之内，可以同类替换。因为我之前上过两次太空，所以在前期制定食谱时，科研人员征求过我的意见。吃了这么多天，我觉得比前两次选择更多、味道更好。就是说，这次带上来的食品，本身就是我和陈冬爱吃的，所以根本不会感到单调。航天员中心航天食品与营养研究室助理研究员臧鹏解说：我们考虑了不同地域航天员的饮食需求，有针对性地准备航天食品，比如南方的一种特色蔬菜——贡菜。据我所知，贡菜是第一次进入太空。\r\n', '[News in Chinese] China Brews Tea in Space for the First Time', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2277-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-08 07:38:15', '2016-11-08 12:38:15', '', 2277, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2277-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2280, 1, '2016-11-08 07:44:18', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'http://china.huanqiu.com/photo/2016-11/2850533.html\r\n\r\n供图：中国青年网\r\n-36℃！中国最冷的地方现在是什么样\r\n\r\n11月3日，有“中国冷极”之称的内蒙古根河市气温继续下降，7时的气温为-29.3℃，较昨日同时段又下降了7.2℃之多，金河镇早晨的气温更是跌至-35.8℃，为全区下半年以来的最低温。\r\n 同时，加之前期降雪的影响，当地雪雾茫茫、天寒地冻，仿佛连空气也在慢慢地变成结晶中，吸进去空气容易，可呼出空气就得吐出一块大冰块了！11月3日，根河市金河镇的居民在扫门前雪。', '[News in Chinese] China\'s Coldest City Hits -36C in November', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-08 07:44:18', '2016-11-08 12:44:18', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2280', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2281, 1, '2016-11-08 07:44:18', '2016-11-08 12:44:18', 'http://china.huanqiu.com/photo/2016-11/2850533.html\r\n\r\n供图：中国青年网\r\n-36℃！中国最冷的地方现在是什么样\r\n\r\n11月3日，有“中国冷极”之称的内蒙古根河市气温继续下降，7时的气温为-29.3℃，较昨日同时段又下降了7.2℃之多，金河镇早晨的气温更是跌至-35.8℃，为全区下半年以来的最低温。\r\n 同时，加之前期降雪的影响，当地雪雾茫茫、天寒地冻，仿佛连空气也在慢慢地变成结晶中，吸进去空气容易，可呼出空气就得吐出一块大冰块了！11月3日，根河市金河镇的居民在扫门前雪。', '[News in Chinese] China\'s Coldest City Hits -36C in November', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2280-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-08 07:44:18', '2016-11-08 12:44:18', '', 2280, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2280-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2282, 1, '2016-11-08 07:45:18', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'http://china.huanqiu.com/photo/2016-11/2850588.html\r\n', '[News in Chinese] Villager Digs Out 1000-Meter Wine Cellar with a Tractor', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-08 07:45:18', '2016-11-08 12:45:18', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2282', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2283, 1, '2016-11-08 07:45:18', '2016-11-08 12:45:18', 'http://china.huanqiu.com/photo/2016-11/2850588.html\r\n', '[News in Chinese] Villager Digs Out 1000-Meter Wine Cellar with a Tractor', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2282-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-08 07:45:18', '2016-11-08 12:45:18', '', 2282, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2282-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2284, 1, '2016-11-08 07:49:16', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'http://china.huanqiu.com/photo/2016-11/2850428.html', '[News in Chinese] Monkey in Chongqing Forecasts Trump Election Win', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-08 07:49:16', '2016-11-08 12:49:16', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2284', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2285, 1, '2016-11-08 07:49:16', '2016-11-08 12:49:16', 'http://china.huanqiu.com/photo/2016-11/2850428.html', '[News in Chinese] Monkey in Chongqing Forecasts Trump Election Win', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2284-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-08 07:49:16', '2016-11-08 12:49:16', '', 2284, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2284-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2286, 1, '2016-11-08 07:55:51', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'http://china.huanqiu.com/photo/2016-10/2849884.html#p=6', '[News in Chinese] 2000 Hubei Students Paint in Unison to Prep for Art Exam', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-08 07:55:51', '2016-11-08 12:55:51', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2286', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2287, 1, '2016-11-08 07:55:51', '2016-11-08 12:55:51', 'http://china.huanqiu.com/photo/2016-10/2849884.html#p=6', '[News in Chinese] 2000 Hubei Students Paint in Unison to Prep for Art Exam', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2286-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-08 07:55:51', '2016-11-08 12:55:51', '', 2286, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2286-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2463, 1, '2016-11-16 18:35:17', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', '仿词', '[Blog] Yo diggety: Can you make up words in Chinese?', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-16 18:35:17', '2016-11-16 23:35:17', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2463', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2291, 1, '2016-11-10 19:30:21', '2016-11-11 00:30:21', 'Where do you think you\'re going?\r\nI\'m going with you.\r\nOh, you\'re going with me, are you? And what are you going to do?\r\nI\'m going to help.\r\nAnd a good help you\'d be, too. But I need you to stay here and look after the place for me while I\'m away. \r\nI can fight. \r\nI know. I know you can fight. But it\'s our wits that make us men. See you tomorrow. \r\n\r\n你想去哪儿？\r\n跟着你。\r\n你想和我一起，是吗？你想干什么？\r\n我要去帮你。\r\n哦，你会成为好帮手的。但是我要你留在这儿，在我不在的时候，照看好这地方。\r\n我能打仗。\r\n我知道。我知道你能打仗。不过真正的男子汉还要会用脑子。明天见。\r\n', '[Movie Scripts] 勇敢的心 - Braveheart: Dad Leaves for Battle', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2290-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 19:30:21', '2016-11-11 00:30:21', '', 2290, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2290-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2292, 1, '2016-11-10 21:46:19', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'magine there\'s no heaven _____________________ 想像这个世界没有天堂\r\nIt\'s easy if you try __________________________ 只要你想像�这事很轻松\r\nNo hell below us ______________________________ 想像这个世界没有地狱\r\nAbove us only sky _____________________________ 在我们的头顶只有天空\r\nImagine all the people ________________________ 想像这个世界所有的人\r\nLiving for today... ___________________________ 为今天而生活着\r\nImagine there\'s no countries __________________ 想像这个世界没有国家\r\nIt isn\'t hard to do ___________________________ 只要你去做�这事并不难\r\nNothing to kill or die for ____________________ 没有人会被杀或为此死亡\r\nAnd no religion too ___________________________ 也没有宗教的纠缠\r\nImagine all the people ________________________ 想像这个世界所有的人\r\nLiving life in peace... _______________________ 在和平中生活着\r\nYou may say I\'m a dreamer _____________________ 你也许会说�我是个梦想\r\n者\r\nBut I\'m not the only one ______________________ 但我绝不是唯一\r\nI hope someday you\'ll join us _________________ 我希望有一天你会加入我\r\n们\r\nAnd the world will be as one __________________ 那世界将会合一\r\nImagine no possessions ________________________ 想像这个世界没有财产\r\nI wonder if you can ___________________________ 这个奇迹�由你来实现\r\nNo need for greed or hunger ___________________ 想像这个世界没有饥饿和\r\n贪婪\r\nA brotherhood of man __________________________ 人们象兄弟一样友善\r\nImagine all the people ________________________ 想像这个世界所有的人\r\nSharing all the world... ______________________ 分享着整个世界\r\nYou may say I\'m a dreamer _____________________ 你也许会说�我是个梦想\r\n者\r\nBut I\'m not the only one ______________________ 但是我绝不是唯一\r\nI hope someday you\'ll join us _________________ 我希望有一天你会加入我\r\n们\r\nAnd the world will live as one ________________ 那世界将会合一\r\n\r\nhttp://www.doc88.com/p-408269812857.html', '[Song Lyrics in Chinese] Imagine by John Lennon', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-10 21:46:19', '2016-11-11 02:46:19', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2292', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2293, 1, '2016-11-10 21:06:32', '2016-11-11 02:06:32', 'Where do you think you\'re going?\r\nI\'m going with you.\r\nOh, you\'re going with me, are you? And what are you going to do?\r\nI\'m going to help.\r\nAnd a good help you\'d be, too. But I need you to stay here and look after the place for me while I\'m away. \r\nI can fight. \r\nI know. I know you can fight. But it\'s our wits that make us men. See you tomorrow. \r\n\r\n你想去哪儿？\r\n跟着你。\r\n你想和我一起，是吗？你想干什么？\r\n我要去帮你。\r\n哦，你会成为好帮手的。但是我要你留在这儿，在我不在的时候，照看好这地方。\r\n我能打仗。\r\n我知道。我知道你能打仗。不过真正的男子汉还要会用脑子。明天见。\r\n', '[Movie Scripts in Chinese] 勇敢的心 - Braveheart: Dad Leaves for Battle', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2290-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 21:06:32', '2016-11-11 02:06:32', '', 2290, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2290-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2294, 1, '2016-11-10 21:42:37', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'yesterday-the beatles 昨日(披头士)美国往事\r\nyesterday !昨日!\r\nall my troubles seemed so far away.所有的烦恼彷佛都已远去.\r\nnow it looks as though they\'re here 2 stay.现在它似乎在此停留.\r\noh,i believe in yesterday.噢,我相信昨日.\r\nsuddenly !刹那间!\r\ni\'m not half 2 man i used 2 be.我已不是往日的我.\r\nthere\'s a shadow hanging over me.有个阴影笼罩在我心头.\r\noh,yesterday came suddenly.噢,昨日来得太快.\r\nwhy she had 2 go ?她为何不得不离去?\r\ni don\'t know she woldn\'t say.我不知道,她也没说.\r\ni said something wrong.要我说一定有些事错了.\r\nnow i long 4 yesterday.如今我渴望昨日.\r\nlove was such an easy game 2 play.爱情是一场如此简单的游戏.\r\nnow i need a place 2 hide away.现在我则需要找个地方躲藏起来.\r\nmm mm mm mm mm……\r\n\r\n', '[Song Lyrics in Chinese] Yesterday by The Beatles', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-10 21:42:37', '2016-11-11 02:42:37', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2294', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2295, 1, '2016-11-10 21:24:37', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'Help, I need somebody, 求救，需要帮助 \r\nHelp, not just anybody, 求救，不是任何人都能帮 \r\nHelp, you know I need someone, help. 求救，你知道 我需要谁，求救 \r\n\r\nWhen I was younger, so much younger than today, 当我还很小时，比现在的我年轻许多I never needed anybody\'s help in any way.从来在任何方面都不用别人的帮忙 \r\nBut now these days are gone, I\'m not so self assured, 但是那些日子已过去，我不在过分自傲 \r\nNow I find I\'ve changed my mind and opened up the doors. 现在我改变了我的想法，打开了心门 \r\n\r\nHelp me if you can, I\'m feeling down ，如果可以希望你帮助我，此时我感到沮丧 \r\nAnd I do appreciate you being round. 我非常欣赏你的为人 \r\nHelp me, get my feet back on the ground, 帮我，帮我翻身 \r\nWon\'t you please, please help me. 你会愿意吗，请帮助我 \r\n\r\nAnd now my life has changed in oh so many ways, 我的生活在很多方面都已经改变了 \r\nMy independence seems to vanish in the haze. 我的自立堙灭在头脑糊涂中 \r\nBut every now and then I feel so insecure, 现在我时常感到没有安全感 \r\nI know that I just need you like I\'ve never done before.我需要你，我从来没有过的想法', '[Song Lyrics in Chinese] Help! by The Beatles', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-10 21:24:37', '2016-11-11 02:24:37', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2295', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2296, 1, '2016-11-10 21:24:37', '2016-11-11 02:24:37', 'Help, I need somebody, 求救，需要帮助 \r\nHelp, not just anybody, 求救，不是任何人都能帮 \r\nHelp, you know I need someone, help. 求救，你知道 我需要谁，求救 \r\n\r\nWhen I was younger, so much younger than today, 当我还很小时，比现在的我年轻许多I never needed anybody\'s help in any way.从来在任何方面都不用别人的帮忙 \r\nBut now these days are gone, I\'m not so self assured, 但是那些日子已过去，我不在过分自傲 \r\nNow I find I\'ve changed my mind and opened up the doors. 现在我改变了我的想法，打开了心门 \r\n\r\nHelp me if you can, I\'m feeling down ，如果可以希望你帮助我，此时我感到沮丧 \r\nAnd I do appreciate you being round. 我非常欣赏你的为人 \r\nHelp me, get my feet back on the ground, 帮我，帮我翻身 \r\nWon\'t you please, please help me. 你会愿意吗，请帮助我 \r\n\r\nAnd now my life has changed in oh so many ways, 我的生活在很多方面都已经改变了 \r\nMy independence seems to vanish in the haze. 我的自立堙灭在头脑糊涂中 \r\nBut every now and then I feel so insecure, 现在我时常感到没有安全感 \r\nI know that I just need you like I\'ve never done before.我需要你，我从来没有过的想法', '[Song Lyrics in Chinese] Help! by The Beatles', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2295-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 21:24:37', '2016-11-11 02:24:37', '', 2295, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2295-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2298, 1, '2016-11-10 21:26:02', '2016-11-11 02:26:02', 'magine there\'s no heaven _____________________ 想像这个世界没有天堂\r\nIt\'s easy if you try __________________________ 只要你想像�这事很轻松\r\nNo hell below us ______________________________ 想像这个世界没有地狱\r\nAbove us only sky _____________________________ 在我们的头顶只有天空\r\nImagine all the people ________________________ 想像这个世界所有的人\r\nLiving for today... ___________________________ 为今天而生活着\r\nImagine there\'s no countries __________________ 想像这个世界没有国家\r\nIt isn\'t hard to do ___________________________ 只要你去做�这事并不难\r\nNothing to kill or die for ____________________ 没有人会被杀或为此死亡\r\nAnd no religion too ___________________________ 也没有宗教的纠缠\r\nImagine all the people ________________________ 想像这个世界所有的人\r\nLiving life in peace... _______________________ 在和平中生活着\r\nYou may say I\'m a dreamer _____________________ 你也许会说�我是个梦想\r\n者\r\nBut I\'m not the only one ______________________ 但我绝不是唯一\r\nI hope someday you\'ll join us _________________ 我希望有一天你会加入我\r\n们\r\nAnd the world will be as one __________________ 那世界将会合一\r\nImagine no possessions ________________________ 想像这个世界没有财产\r\nI wonder if you can ___________________________ 这个奇迹�由你来实现\r\nNo need for greed or hunger ___________________ 想像这个世界没有饥饿和\r\n贪婪\r\nA brotherhood of man __________________________ 人们象兄弟一样友善\r\nImagine all the people ________________________ 想像这个世界所有的人\r\nSharing all the world... ______________________ 分享着整个世界\r\nYou may say I\'m a dreamer _____________________ 你也许会说�我是个梦想\r\n者\r\nBut I\'m not the only one ______________________ 但是我绝不是唯一\r\nI hope someday you\'ll join us _________________ 我希望有一天你会加入我\r\n们\r\nAnd the world will live as one ________________ 那世界将会合一', '[Songs in Chinese] Imagine by John Lennon', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2292-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 21:26:02', '2016-11-11 02:26:02', '', 2292, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2292-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2299, 1, '2016-11-10 21:26:17', '2016-11-11 02:26:17', 'magine there\'s no heaven _____________________ 想像这个世界没有天堂\r\nIt\'s easy if you try __________________________ 只要你想像�这事很轻松\r\nNo hell below us ______________________________ 想像这个世界没有地狱\r\nAbove us only sky _____________________________ 在我们的头顶只有天空\r\nImagine all the people ________________________ 想像这个世界所有的人\r\nLiving for today... ___________________________ 为今天而生活着\r\nImagine there\'s no countries __________________ 想像这个世界没有国家\r\nIt isn\'t hard to do ___________________________ 只要你去做�这事并不难\r\nNothing to kill or die for ____________________ 没有人会被杀或为此死亡\r\nAnd no religion too ___________________________ 也没有宗教的纠缠\r\nImagine all the people ________________________ 想像这个世界所有的人\r\nLiving life in peace... _______________________ 在和平中生活着\r\nYou may say I\'m a dreamer _____________________ 你也许会说�我是个梦想\r\n者\r\nBut I\'m not the only one ______________________ 但我绝不是唯一\r\nI hope someday you\'ll join us _________________ 我希望有一天你会加入我\r\n们\r\nAnd the world will be as one __________________ 那世界将会合一\r\nImagine no possessions ________________________ 想像这个世界没有财产\r\nI wonder if you can ___________________________ 这个奇迹�由你来实现\r\nNo need for greed or hunger ___________________ 想像这个世界没有饥饿和\r\n贪婪\r\nA brotherhood of man __________________________ 人们象兄弟一样友善\r\nImagine all the people ________________________ 想像这个世界所有的人\r\nSharing all the world... ______________________ 分享着整个世界\r\nYou may say I\'m a dreamer _____________________ 你也许会说�我是个梦想\r\n者\r\nBut I\'m not the only one ______________________ 但是我绝不是唯一\r\nI hope someday you\'ll join us _________________ 我希望有一天你会加入我\r\n们\r\nAnd the world will live as one ________________ 那世界将会合一', '[Song Lyrics in Chinese] Imagine by John Lennon', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2292-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 21:26:17', '2016-11-11 02:26:17', '', 2292, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2292-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2300, 1, '2016-11-10 21:37:28', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'At first I was afraid I was petrified \r\n起初我很害怕，不知所措 \r\nKept thinking I could never live without you by my side \r\n一直在想：没有你在身边，我一定活不下去 \r\nBut then I spent so many nights \r\n但是后来，我花了很多个夜晚 \r\nThinking how you did me wrong \r\n思考你是如何辜负了我 \r\nAnd I grew strong \r\n我变得坚强 \r\nAnd I learn how to get along \r\n学会了独立 \r\nAnd so you\\\'re back from outer space \r\n然而，你从外头回到了这里 \r\nI just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face \r\n我走进来，发现了满脸愁容的你 \r\nI should have changed that stupid lock \r\n我早该换门锁 \r\nI should have made you leave your key \r\n我早该叫你把钥匙留下 \r\nIf I\\\'d known for just one second you\\\'d be back to bother me \r\n如果我早知道你会回来骚扰我的话 \r\n*Go on now, go walk out the door \r\n走吧！滚到外面去 \r\nJust turn around now \r\n请你转身离开 \r\n(Cos) You\\\'re not welcome anymore \r\n你已经不受欢迎 \r\nWeren\\\'t you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye \r\n你就是那个用分手来伤害我的家伙 \r\nDid I crumble \r\n难道是我搞砸了？ \r\nDid you think I\\\'d lay down and die \r\n你以为我会坐以待毙 \r\nOh no, not I, I will survive \r\n哦！不，我会活下去 \r\nOh as long as I know how to love I know I\\\'ll stay alive \r\n一旦我学会如何去爱，我就能活下去 \r\nI\\\'ve got all my life to live \r\n我会用一生好好过日子 \r\nI\\\'ve got all my love to give and I\\\'ll survive \r\n我会用全部的爱去奉献，我会活下去 \r\nI will survive \r\n我会活下去 \r\nIt took all the strength I had not to fall apart \r\n我用尽全身的力气，不让自己崩溃 \r\nKept trying hard to mend the pieces of my broken heart \r\n努力修补着我心碎的碎片 \r\nAnd I spent oh so many nights \r\n我花了多少个夜晚 \r\nJust feeling sorry for myself \r\n为自己感到难过 \r\nI used to cry but now I hold my head up high \r\n我曾经哭泣，但现在的我昂首阔步 \r\nAnd you see me somebody new \r\n你可以看到我已脱胎换骨 \r\nI\\\'m not that chained up little person still in love with you \r\n我已不是那个还爱着你而被束缚的卑微女子 \r\nAnd so you feel like dropping in \r\n你说想来看我 \r\nAnd just expect me to be free \r\n希望我有空见你 \r\nNow I\\\'m saving all my loving for someone who\\\'s loving me \r\n如今，我已把全部的爱都留给那个爱我的人\r\n\r\nhttps://zhidao.baidu.com/question/568557625.html', '[Song Lyrics in Chinese] I Will Survive', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-10 21:37:28', '2016-11-11 02:37:28', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2300', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2301, 1, '2016-11-10 21:37:28', '2016-11-11 02:37:28', 'At first I was afraid I was petrified \r\n起初我很害怕，不知所措 \r\nKept thinking I could never live without you by my side \r\n一直在想：没有你在身边，我一定活不下去 \r\nBut then I spent so many nights \r\n但是后来，我花了很多个夜晚 \r\nThinking how you did me wrong \r\n思考你是如何辜负了我 \r\nAnd I grew strong \r\n我变得坚强 \r\nAnd I learn how to get along \r\n学会了独立 \r\nAnd so you\\\'re back from outer space \r\n然而，你从外头回到了这里 \r\nI just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face \r\n我走进来，发现了满脸愁容的你 \r\nI should have changed that stupid lock \r\n我早该换门锁 \r\nI should have made you leave your key \r\n我早该叫你把钥匙留下 \r\nIf I\\\'d known for just one second you\\\'d be back to bother me \r\n如果我早知道你会回来骚扰我的话 \r\n*Go on now, go walk out the door \r\n走吧！滚到外面去 \r\nJust turn around now \r\n请你转身离开 \r\n(Cos) You\\\'re not welcome anymore \r\n你已经不受欢迎 \r\nWeren\\\'t you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye \r\n你就是那个用分手来伤害我的家伙 \r\nDid I crumble \r\n难道是我搞砸了？ \r\nDid you think I\\\'d lay down and die \r\n你以为我会坐以待毙 \r\nOh no, not I, I will survive \r\n哦！不，我会活下去 \r\nOh as long as I know how to love I know I\\\'ll stay alive \r\n一旦我学会如何去爱，我就能活下去 \r\nI\\\'ve got all my life to live \r\n我会用一生好好过日子 \r\nI\\\'ve got all my love to give and I\\\'ll survive \r\n我会用全部的爱去奉献，我会活下去 \r\nI will survive \r\n我会活下去 \r\nIt took all the strength I had not to fall apart \r\n我用尽全身的力气，不让自己崩溃 \r\nKept trying hard to mend the pieces of my broken heart \r\n努力修补着我心碎的碎片 \r\nAnd I spent oh so many nights \r\n我花了多少个夜晚 \r\nJust feeling sorry for myself \r\n为自己感到难过 \r\nI used to cry but now I hold my head up high \r\n我曾经哭泣，但现在的我昂首阔步 \r\nAnd you see me somebody new \r\n你可以看到我已脱胎换骨 \r\nI\\\'m not that chained up little person still in love with you \r\n我已不是那个还爱着你而被束缚的卑微女子 \r\nAnd so you feel like dropping in \r\n你说想来看我 \r\nAnd just expect me to be free \r\n希望我有空见你 \r\nNow I\\\'m saving all my loving for someone who\\\'s loving me \r\n如今，我已把全部的爱都留给那个爱我的人\r\n\r\nhttps://zhidao.baidu.com/question/568557625.html', '[Song Lyrics in Chinese] I Will Survive', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2300-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 21:37:28', '2016-11-11 02:37:28', '', 2300, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2300-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2302, 1, '2016-11-10 21:42:37', '2016-11-11 02:42:37', 'yesterday-the beatles 昨日(披头士)美国往事\r\nyesterday !昨日!\r\nall my troubles seemed so far away.所有的烦恼彷佛都已远去.\r\nnow it looks as though they\'re here 2 stay.现在它似乎在此停留.\r\noh,i believe in yesterday.噢,我相信昨日.\r\nsuddenly !刹那间!\r\ni\'m not half 2 man i used 2 be.我已不是往日的我.\r\nthere\'s a shadow hanging over me.有个阴影笼罩在我心头.\r\noh,yesterday came suddenly.噢,昨日来得太快.\r\nwhy she had 2 go ?她为何不得不离去?\r\ni don\'t know she woldn\'t say.我不知道,她也没说.\r\ni said something wrong.要我说一定有些事错了.\r\nnow i long 4 yesterday.如今我渴望昨日.\r\nlove was such an easy game 2 play.爱情是一场如此简单的游戏.\r\nnow i need a place 2 hide away.现在我则需要找个地方躲藏起来.\r\nmm mm mm mm mm……\r\n\r\n', '[Song Lyrics in Chinese] Yesterday by The Beatles', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2294-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 21:42:37', '2016-11-11 02:42:37', '', 2294, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2294-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2303, 1, '2016-11-10 21:43:56', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'Over the rainbow Judy Garland \r\n\r\nSomewhere over the rainbow, way up high \r\nThere\'s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby \r\n\r\nSomewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue \r\nAnd the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true \r\n\r\nSomeday I\'ll wish upon a star \r\nAnd wake up where the clouds are far behind me \r\nWhere troubles melt like lemon drops \r\nAway above the chimney tops \r\nThat\'s where you\'ll find me \r\n\r\nSomewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly \r\nBirds fly over the rainbow \r\nWhy then, oh why can\'t I? \r\n\r\nIf happy little bluebirds fly \r\nBeyond the rainbow \r\nWhy, oh why can\'t I? \r\n彩虹之上 茱蒂迦伦 \r\n\r\n在彩虹之上，有个很高的地方 \r\n有一块乐土，我曾在摇篮曲中听到过 \r\n\r\n在彩虹之上的某个地方，天空是蔚蓝的 \r\n只要你敢做的梦，都会实现 \r\n\r\n有一天，我会对著星星许愿 \r\n然后在云远天高的地方醒来 \r\n在那里，烦恼像柠檬糖一样溶化 \r\n远离烟囱的顶端 \r\n你就可以找到我 \r\n\r\n在彩虹之上的某个地方，青鸟悠然飞翔 \r\n青鸟越过了彩虹 \r\n那麼，我为何不能？ \r\n\r\n如果快乐的小青鸟儿 \r\n飞过了彩虹 \r\n那麼，我为何不能？\r\n\r\nhttps://zhidao.baidu.com/question/2137634458933321788.html', '[Song Lyrics in Chinese] Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-10 21:43:56', '2016-11-11 02:43:56', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2303', 0, 'post', '', 0);
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(2304, 1, '2016-11-10 21:43:56', '2016-11-11 02:43:56', 'Over the rainbow Judy Garland \r\n\r\nSomewhere over the rainbow, way up high \r\nThere\'s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby \r\n\r\nSomewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue \r\nAnd the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true \r\n\r\nSomeday I\'ll wish upon a star \r\nAnd wake up where the clouds are far behind me \r\nWhere troubles melt like lemon drops \r\nAway above the chimney tops \r\nThat\'s where you\'ll find me \r\n\r\nSomewhere over the rainbow, bluebirds fly \r\nBirds fly over the rainbow \r\nWhy then, oh why can\'t I? \r\n\r\nIf happy little bluebirds fly \r\nBeyond the rainbow \r\nWhy, oh why can\'t I? \r\n彩虹之上 茱蒂迦伦 \r\n\r\n在彩虹之上，有个很高的地方 \r\n有一块乐土，我曾在摇篮曲中听到过 \r\n\r\n在彩虹之上的某个地方，天空是蔚蓝的 \r\n只要你敢做的梦，都会实现 \r\n\r\n有一天，我会对著星星许愿 \r\n然后在云远天高的地方醒来 \r\n在那里，烦恼像柠檬糖一样溶化 \r\n远离烟囱的顶端 \r\n你就可以找到我 \r\n\r\n在彩虹之上的某个地方，青鸟悠然飞翔 \r\n青鸟越过了彩虹 \r\n那麼，我为何不能？ \r\n\r\n如果快乐的小青鸟儿 \r\n飞过了彩虹 \r\n那麼，我为何不能？\r\n\r\nhttps://zhidao.baidu.com/question/2137634458933321788.html', '[Song Lyrics in Chinese] Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2303-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 21:43:56', '2016-11-11 02:43:56', '', 2303, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2303-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2305, 1, '2016-11-10 21:46:19', '2016-11-11 02:46:19', 'magine there\'s no heaven _____________________ 想像这个世界没有天堂\r\nIt\'s easy if you try __________________________ 只要你想像�这事很轻松\r\nNo hell below us ______________________________ 想像这个世界没有地狱\r\nAbove us only sky _____________________________ 在我们的头顶只有天空\r\nImagine all the people ________________________ 想像这个世界所有的人\r\nLiving for today... ___________________________ 为今天而生活着\r\nImagine there\'s no countries __________________ 想像这个世界没有国家\r\nIt isn\'t hard to do ___________________________ 只要你去做�这事并不难\r\nNothing to kill or die for ____________________ 没有人会被杀或为此死亡\r\nAnd no religion too ___________________________ 也没有宗教的纠缠\r\nImagine all the people ________________________ 想像这个世界所有的人\r\nLiving life in peace... _______________________ 在和平中生活着\r\nYou may say I\'m a dreamer _____________________ 你也许会说�我是个梦想\r\n者\r\nBut I\'m not the only one ______________________ 但我绝不是唯一\r\nI hope someday you\'ll join us _________________ 我希望有一天你会加入我\r\n们\r\nAnd the world will be as one __________________ 那世界将会合一\r\nImagine no possessions ________________________ 想像这个世界没有财产\r\nI wonder if you can ___________________________ 这个奇迹�由你来实现\r\nNo need for greed or hunger ___________________ 想像这个世界没有饥饿和\r\n贪婪\r\nA brotherhood of man __________________________ 人们象兄弟一样友善\r\nImagine all the people ________________________ 想像这个世界所有的人\r\nSharing all the world... ______________________ 分享着整个世界\r\nYou may say I\'m a dreamer _____________________ 你也许会说�我是个梦想\r\n者\r\nBut I\'m not the only one ______________________ 但是我绝不是唯一\r\nI hope someday you\'ll join us _________________ 我希望有一天你会加入我\r\n们\r\nAnd the world will live as one ________________ 那世界将会合一\r\n\r\nhttp://www.doc88.com/p-408269812857.html', '[Song Lyrics in Chinese] Imagine by John Lennon', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2292-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 21:46:19', '2016-11-11 02:46:19', '', 2292, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2292-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2306, 1, '2016-11-10 22:05:28', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', '杜雷（1832-1883），1832年1月6日生于法国斯特拉斯堡，被公认为数百年来最优秀的插画家。年轻时他就立志以插画为业，他擅长素描并完全靠自学成才，并从一开始就显示出非凡的艺术天分。15岁时他的第一本作品《赫克斯的业绩》问世，吸引了大家的目光，而后不断有作品问世，数量可观。1883年死于中风。\r\n16世纪的西班牙，写作风格怪诞夸张的游侠小说盛行，一个名叫基罕诺的高贵绅士对那些荒诞的故事入了迷，梦想成为一名真正的骑士，他骑上一匹瘦马，带上一枝旧长柄矛和一面生锈的盾牌，开始了他的“冒险”之旅，一路上，他出尽了洋相，发生一系列荒诞的故事……\r\n\r\nhttps://book.douban.com/subject/1427261/', '[Guess the Book] dq', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-10 22:05:28', '2016-11-11 03:05:28', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2306', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2307, 1, '2016-11-10 22:05:28', '2016-11-11 03:05:28', '杜雷（1832-1883），1832年1月6日生于法国斯特拉斯堡，被公认为数百年来最优秀的插画家。年轻时他就立志以插画为业，他擅长素描并完全靠自学成才，并从一开始就显示出非凡的艺术天分。15岁时他的第一本作品《赫克斯的业绩》问世，吸引了大家的目光，而后不断有作品问世，数量可观。1883年死于中风。\r\n16世纪的西班牙，写作风格怪诞夸张的游侠小说盛行，一个名叫基罕诺的高贵绅士对那些荒诞的故事入了迷，梦想成为一名真正的骑士，他骑上一匹瘦马，带上一枝旧长柄矛和一面生锈的盾牌，开始了他的“冒险”之旅，一路上，他出尽了洋相，发生一系列荒诞的故事……\r\n\r\nhttps://book.douban.com/subject/1427261/', '[Guess the Book] dq', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2306-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 22:05:28', '2016-11-11 03:05:28', '', 2306, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2306-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2309, 1, '2016-11-10 23:04:18', '2016-11-11 04:04:18', '小王子是一个超凡脱俗的仙童，他住在一颗只比他大一丁点儿的小行星上。陪伴他的是一朵他非常喜爱的小玫瑰花。但玫瑰花的虚荣心伤害了小王子对她的感情。小王子告别小行星，开始了遨游太空的旅行。他先后访问了六个行星，各种见闻使他陷入忧伤，他感到大人们荒唐可笑、太不正常。只有在其中一个点灯人的星球上，小王子才找到一个可以作为朋友的人。但点灯人的天地又十分狭小，除了点灯人他自己，不能容下第二个人。在地理学家的指点下，孤单的小王子来到人类居住的地球。\r\n小王子发现人类缺乏想象力，只知像鹦鹉那样重复别人讲过的话。小王子这时越来越思念自己星球上的那枝小玫瑰。后来，小王子遇到一只小狐狸，小王子用耐心征服了小狐狸，与它结成了亲密的朋友。小狐狸把自己心中的秘密——肉眼看不见事务的本质，只有用心灵才能洞察一切——作为礼物，送给小王子。用这个秘密，小王子在撒哈拉大沙漠与遇险的飞行员一...\r\n\r\nhttps://book.douban.com/subject/1084336/', '[Guess the Book] TLP', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2308-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:04:18', '2016-11-11 04:04:18', '', 2308, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2308-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2311, 1, '2016-11-10 23:05:28', '2016-11-11 04:05:28', 'http://story.beva.com/20/content/shi-er-sheng-xiao-de-gu-shi-5-20\r\n\r\n你知道自己属什么吗？有属小白兔的，有属大老虎的...有属猫的吗？没有，怎么有属老鼠的，没有属猫的呢？这里有个故事。\r\n很久很久以前，有一天，人们说：“我们要选十二种动物作为人的生肖，一年一种动物。”天下的动物有多少呀？怎么个选法呢？这样吧，定好一个日子，这一天，动物们来报名，就选先到的十二种动物为十二生肖。猫和老鼠是邻居，又是好朋友，它们都想去报名。猫说：“咱们得一早起来去报名，可是我爱睡懒觉，怎么办呢？”老鼠说：“别着急，别着急，你尽管睡你的大觉，我一醒来，就去叫你，咱们一块儿去。”猫听了很高兴，说：“你真是我的好朋友，谢谢你了。”\r\n到了报名那天早晨，老鼠早就醒来了，可是它光想到自己的事，把好\r\n朋友猫的事给忘了。就自己去报名了。结果，老鼠被选上了。猫呢？猫因为睡懒觉，起床太迟了，等它赶到时，十二种动物已被选定了。猫没有被选上，就生老鼠的气，怪老鼠没有叫它。\r\n从这以后，猫见了老鼠就要吃它，老鼠就只好拼命地逃。现在还是这样。', '[Chinese Mythology]《十二生肖的》 Why there\'s no cat in the zodiac', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2264-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:05:28', '2016-11-11 04:05:28', '', 2264, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2264-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2312, 1, '2016-11-10 23:05:46', '2016-11-11 04:05:46', 'http://story.beva.com/20/content/da-yu-zhi-shui-4-20\r\n\r\n禹是一位神仙，他来到人间和阿娇姑娘结了婚，住在山洞里。有一年洪水泛滥，禹告别新婚的妻子，号召人和天神们团结起来到会稽山集合，商量治理洪水的办法。\r\n禹在去会稽山的路上遇到乡亲，乡亲告诉他阿娇怀孕了。禹听了很高兴，但是约定的时间快到了，他只好托乡亲转达他对妻子的问候。人和神都按时赶到了会稽山。禹说：“我想应该用疏导的方法，让洪水顺着河道流到大海里去。”大家觉得这个办法很好。于是，禹带领众人动手开凿河道，挖出的泥土用来填平洪水冲成的大坑。\r\n大家不停地工作，修了一条又一条河道。又是一天，禹带领人们经过自己的家乡。一位乡亲告诉他阿娇生病了，希望他回家去看看。禹非常想念妻子，可是他想了想说：“治水是大家的事，不能因为我而耽搁了大家。”他托乡亲把草药带给阿娇，又和大家一起上路了。禹去疏导另一条河道时，又经过自己的家乡。一位乡亲对他说：“阿娇快生孩子了，你快去看看她吧!”禹叹了口气说：“不，我回家一天，就耽误一天治水的工作。”禹三次路过自已的家门都没有回家，乡亲们听了这件事十分感动，干起活来更加努力。\r\n禹非常想念妻子，阿娇也非常想念禹。阿娇天天站在山上等禹胜利归来，渐渐地化成了一块岩石。当禹把洪水完全治理好，回到家乡之后发现妻子已经化成了石头。禹悲痛万分，伤心哭泣，这时石人进裂，跳出了一个小孩。为了纪念孩子的母亲，禹为孩子起名为启。禹被人们拥戴为领袖，称为“大禹王”。', '[Chinese Mythology] 《 大禹治水》Yu the Great Tames the Floods', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2268-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:05:46', '2016-11-11 04:05:46', '', 2268, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2268-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2313, 1, '2016-11-10 23:06:02', '2016-11-11 04:06:02', 'http://story.beva.com/20/content/guo-nian-de-lai-li-2\r\n\r\n相传：中国古时侯有一种叫＂年＂的怪兽，头长尖角，凶猛异常，＂年＂兽长年深居海底，每到除夕，爬上岸来吞食牲畜伤害人命，因此每到除夕，村村寨寨的人们扶老携幼，逃往深山，以躲避＂年＂的伤害．\r\n今年的除夕，乡亲们都忙着收拾东西逃往深山，这时候村东头来了一个白发老人对一户老婆婆说只要让他在她家住一晚，他定能将＂年＂兽驱走．众人不信，老婆婆劝其还是上山躲避的好，老人坚持留下，众人见劝他不住，便纷纷上山躲避去了．\r\n当＂年＂兽象往年一样准备闯进村肆虐的时候，突然传来白发老人然响的爆竹声，＂年＂兽混身颤栗，再也不敢向前凑了，原来＂年＂兽最怕红色，火光和炸响．这时大门大开，只见院内一位身披红袍的老人哈哈大笑，＂年＂兽大惊失色，仓惶而逃．\r\n第二天，当人们从深山会到村里时，发现村里安然无恙，这才恍然大悟，原来白发老人是帮助大家驱逐＂年＂兽的神仙，人们同时还发现了白发老人驱逐＂年＂兽的三件法宝．从此，每年的除夕，家家都贴红对联，燃放爆竹，户户灯火通明，守更待岁．这风俗越传越广，成了中国民间最隆重的传统节日＂过年＂．', '[Chinese Holidays] 过年的来历 - A Beast in the Village: the Origins of Chinese New Year', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2270-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:06:02', '2016-11-11 04:06:02', '', 2270, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2270-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2314, 1, '2016-11-10 23:10:07', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', '小说中的故事发生在1861年美国南北战争前夕。生活在南方的少女郝思嘉从小深受南方文化传统的熏陶，可在她的血液里却流淌着野性的叛逆因素。随着战火的蔓廷和生活环境的恶化，郝思嘉的叛逆个性越来越丰满，越鲜明，在一系列的的挫折中她改造了自我，改变了个人甚至整个家族的命运，成为时代时势造就的新女性的形象。\r\n作品在描绘人物生活与爱情的同时，勾勒出南北双方在政治，经济，文化各个层次的异同，具有浓厚的史诗风格，堪称美国历史转折时期的真实写照，同时也成为历久不衰的爱情经典。\r\n\r\nhttps://book.douban.com/subject/1068920/', '[Guess the Book] GWTW', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:10:07', '2016-11-11 04:10:07', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2314', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2315, 1, '2016-11-10 23:10:07', '2016-11-11 04:10:07', '小说中的故事发生在1861年美国南北战争前夕。生活在南方的少女郝思嘉从小深受南方文化传统的熏陶，可在她的血液里却流淌着野性的叛逆因素。随着战火的蔓廷和生活环境的恶化，郝思嘉的叛逆个性越来越丰满，越鲜明，在一系列的的挫折中她改造了自我，改变了个人甚至整个家族的命运，成为时代时势造就的新女性的形象。\r\n作品在描绘人物生活与爱情的同时，勾勒出南北双方在政治，经济，文化各个层次的异同，具有浓厚的史诗风格，堪称美国历史转折时期的真实写照，同时也成为历久不衰的爱情经典。\r\n\r\nhttps://book.douban.com/subject/1068920/', '[Guess the Book] GWTW', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2314-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:10:07', '2016-11-11 04:10:07', '', 2314, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2314-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2316, 1, '2016-11-10 23:12:40', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', '这本书收入斯蒂芬·金的四部中篇小说，是他作品中的杰出代表作。其英文版一经推出，即登上《纽约时报》畅销书排行榜的冠军之位，当年在美国狂销二十八万册。目前，这本书已经被翻译成三十一种语言，同时创下了收录的四篇小说中有三篇被改编成轰动一时的电影的记录。\r\n其中最为著名是曾获奥斯卡奖七项提名、被称为电影史上最完美影片的《肖申克救赎》（又译《刺激一九九五》）。这部小说展现了斯蒂芬·金于擅长的惊悚题材之外的过人功力。书中的另两篇小说《纳粹高徒》与《尸体》拍成电影后也赢得了极佳的口碑。其中《尸体》还被视为斯蒂芬·金最具自传色彩的作品。\r\n\r\nhttps://book.douban.com/subject/1829226/', '[Guess the Book] TSR', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:12:40', '2016-11-11 04:12:40', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2316', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2317, 1, '2016-11-10 23:12:40', '2016-11-11 04:12:40', '这本书收入斯蒂芬·金的四部中篇小说，是他作品中的杰出代表作。其英文版一经推出，即登上《纽约时报》畅销书排行榜的冠军之位，当年在美国狂销二十八万册。目前，这本书已经被翻译成三十一种语言，同时创下了收录的四篇小说中有三篇被改编成轰动一时的电影的记录。\r\n其中最为著名是曾获奥斯卡奖七项提名、被称为电影史上最完美影片的《肖申克救赎》（又译《刺激一九九五》）。这部小说展现了斯蒂芬·金于擅长的惊悚题材之外的过人功力。书中的另两篇小说《纳粹高徒》与《尸体》拍成电影后也赢得了极佳的口碑。其中《尸体》还被视为斯蒂芬·金最具自传色彩的作品。\r\n\r\nhttps://book.douban.com/subject/1829226/', '[Guess the Book] TSR', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2316-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:12:40', '2016-11-11 04:12:40', '', 2316, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2316-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2318, 1, '2016-11-10 23:24:01', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', '亚当·斯密并不是经济学说的最早开拓者，他最著名的思想中有许多也并非新颖独特，但是他首次提出了全面系统的经济学说，为该领域的发展打下了良好的基础。因此完全可以说《国富论》是现代政治经济学研究的起点。\r\n《国富论》远远不是一部通常所认为的学术论文。虽然斯密也劝说放任自由，但他的论证却更多地是反对政府干预和反对垄断；虽然他赞扬贪欲的结果，却又几乎总是鄙视商人的行为和策略。他也不认为商业制度本身是完全值得赞美的。\r\n\r\nhttps://book.douban.com/subject/1261560/', '[Guess the Book] WON', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:24:01', '2016-11-11 04:24:01', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2318', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2319, 1, '2016-11-10 23:24:01', '2016-11-11 04:24:01', '亚当·斯密并不是经济学说的最早开拓者，他最著名的思想中有许多也并非新颖独特，但是他首次提出了全面系统的经济学说，为该领域的发展打下了良好的基础。因此完全可以说《国富论》是现代政治经济学研究的起点。\r\n《国富论》远远不是一部通常所认为的学术论文。虽然斯密也劝说放任自由，但他的论证却更多地是反对政府干预和反对垄断；虽然他赞扬贪欲的结果，却又几乎总是鄙视商人的行为和策略。他也不认为商业制度本身是完全值得赞美的。\r\n\r\nhttps://book.douban.com/subject/1261560/', '[Guess the Book] WON', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2318-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:24:01', '2016-11-11 04:24:01', '', 2318, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2318-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2320, 1, '2016-11-10 23:36:33', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', '史记是我国第一部通史。在史记之前，有以年代为次的“编年史”如春秋，有以地域为限的“国别史”如国语、战国策，有以文告档卷形式保存下来的“政治史”如尚书，可是没有上下几千年，包罗各方面，而又融会贯通，�络分明，像史记那样的通史。\r\n唐刘知几的史通分叙六家，统归二体。所谓“二体”，就是“编年体”和“纪传体”，而史记是纪传体的创始。从此以后，历代的所谓“正史，从汉书到明史，尽管名目有改变（例如汉书改“书”为“志”，晋书改世家”为“载记”），门类有短缺（例如汉书无“世家”，后汉书、三国志等都无“表”、“志及世家”），但都有“纪”有“传”，绝无例外地沿袭了史记的体例。\r\n据司马迁自序，史记全书本纪十二篇，表十篇，书八篇，世家三十篇，列传七十篇（包括太史公自序），共一百三十篇。今本史记一百三十卷，篇数跟司马迁自序所说的相符。但汉书司马迁传说其中“十篇缺，有录无书。三国魏张晏注：“迁没之后，亡景纪、武纪、礼书、乐书、兵书（按：即律书）、汉兴以来将相年表、日者传、三王世家、龟策列传、传靳列传。兀成之间，褚先生补缺，作武帝纪、三王世家、龟策、日者列传，言辞鄙陋，非迁本意也。可见司马迁编写史记，只能说是基本上完成，其中有若干篇，或者没有写定，或者已经定稿而后来散失了。\r\n\r\nhttps://book.douban.com/subject/1077847/\r\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Records_of_the_Grand_Historian', '[Classic Chinese Books] 《史记》 China\'s Earliest Historical Text', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:36:33', '2016-11-11 04:36:33', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2320', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2321, 1, '2016-11-10 23:30:18', '2016-11-11 04:30:18', '史记是我国第一部通史。在史记之前，有以年代为次的“编年史”如春秋，有以地域为限的“国别史”如国语、战国策，有以文告档卷形式保存下来的“政治史”如尚书，可是没有上下几千年，包罗各方面，而又融会贯通，�络分明，像史记那样的通史。\r\n唐刘知几的史通分叙六家，统归二体。所谓“二体”，就是“编年体”和“纪传体”，而史记是纪传体的创始。从此以后，历代的所谓“正史，从汉书到明史，尽管名目有改变（例如汉书改“书”为“志”，晋书改世家”为“载记”），门类有短缺（例如汉书无“世家”，后汉书、三国志等都无“表”、“志及世家”），但都有“纪”有“传”，绝无例外地沿袭了史记的体例。\r\n据司马迁自序，史记全书本纪十二篇，表十篇，书八篇，世家三十篇，列传七十篇（包括太史公自序），共一百三十篇。今本史记一百三十卷，篇数跟司马迁自序所说的相符。但汉书司马迁传说其中“十篇缺，有录无书。三国魏张晏注：“迁没之后，亡景纪、武纪、礼书、乐书、兵书（按：即律书）、汉兴以来将相年表、日者传、三王世家、龟策列传、传靳列传。兀成之间，褚先生补缺，作武帝纪、三王世家、龟策、日者列传，言辞鄙陋，非迁本意也。可见司马迁编写史记，只能说是基本上完成，其中有若干篇，或者没有写定，或者已经定稿而后来散失了。\r\n\r\nhttps://book.douban.com/subject/1077847/\r\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Records_of_the_Grand_Historian', '[Classic Chinese Books] 《史记》 China\'s Earliest Historical Textbook', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2320-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:30:18', '2016-11-11 04:30:18', '', 2320, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2320-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2322, 1, '2016-11-10 23:36:33', '2016-11-11 04:36:33', '史记是我国第一部通史。在史记之前，有以年代为次的“编年史”如春秋，有以地域为限的“国别史”如国语、战国策，有以文告档卷形式保存下来的“政治史”如尚书，可是没有上下几千年，包罗各方面，而又融会贯通，�络分明，像史记那样的通史。\r\n唐刘知几的史通分叙六家，统归二体。所谓“二体”，就是“编年体”和“纪传体”，而史记是纪传体的创始。从此以后，历代的所谓“正史，从汉书到明史，尽管名目有改变（例如汉书改“书”为“志”，晋书改世家”为“载记”），门类有短缺（例如汉书无“世家”，后汉书、三国志等都无“表”、“志及世家”），但都有“纪”有“传”，绝无例外地沿袭了史记的体例。\r\n据司马迁自序，史记全书本纪十二篇，表十篇，书八篇，世家三十篇，列传七十篇（包括太史公自序），共一百三十篇。今本史记一百三十卷，篇数跟司马迁自序所说的相符。但汉书司马迁传说其中“十篇缺，有录无书。三国魏张晏注：“迁没之后，亡景纪、武纪、礼书、乐书、兵书（按：即律书）、汉兴以来将相年表、日者传、三王世家、龟策列传、传靳列传。兀成之间，褚先生补缺，作武帝纪、三王世家、龟策、日者列传，言辞鄙陋，非迁本意也。可见司马迁编写史记，只能说是基本上完成，其中有若干篇，或者没有写定，或者已经定稿而后来散失了。\r\n\r\nhttps://book.douban.com/subject/1077847/\r\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Records_of_the_Grand_Historian', '[Classic Chinese Books] 《史记》 China\'s Earliest Historical Text', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2320-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-10 23:36:33', '2016-11-11 04:36:33', '', 2320, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2320-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2323, 1, '2016-11-11 02:37:17', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', ' 现在，在北京、天津、上海等城市，都有以张自忠命名的街道。因为张自忠是为国捐躯的将军，是“抗战军人之魂”。\r\n 张自忠经常教育部下：军人只有以必死的决心去战胜敌人，才能对得起国家和自己的良心。\r\n 1940年5月，国民党军三十三集团军总司令张自忠率军在湖北襄樊一带抗战。大洪山一战，他们消灭了1000多名日寇。日军疯狂报复，派重兵包围过来。张自忠和士兵们坚决抵抗，他手举步枪高喊：“弟兄们，一定把敌人消灭!”一天过去了，阵地还在，他们却一天没吃东西。第二天，敌人用飞机大炮轰炸。张自忠几次率军反击，没有成功。部下劝他突围，他说：“我要撤了，这一带就保不住了。我要用身体来保卫湖北西部河山!”后来他们被困在杏儿山上，无法冲出去。张自忠左肩受了伤，他说：“我是不打败仗的，败只有死，我不能对不起部下。只有誓死不退，才能抗敌保国。”\r\n 日军冲了上来，张自忠身中数弹，仍然立在山头，坚持抵抗。一颗子弹击中他的胸部，血喷不止。他倒在地上对副官说：“我这样死得好，对得起国家，对得起民族……心里平安。”说完，他又顽强地站起来，向敌人扑过去，敌人的子弹又射中他的腹部和头部。张自忠为国尽忠了，他是在抗战中牺牲的中国军人中职务最高的一个。\r\n 自古以来，牺牲在战场上，一直是爱国军人引以自豪的志向。特别是那些明知死在眼前仍勇敢赴难的人，更令人崇敬。在中日甲午海战中牺牲的邓世昌就是这样的人。\r\n\r\nhttp://www.61ertong.com/wenxue/aiguogushi/20160817/260240.html\r\n\r\n', '[Chinese Communist History] 抗日名将张自忠 - Anti-Japanese General Zhang Zizhong', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-11 02:37:17', '2016-11-11 07:37:17', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2323', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2324, 1, '2016-11-11 00:08:37', '2016-11-11 05:08:37', ' 现在，在北京、天津、上海等城市，都有以张自忠命名的街道。因为张自忠是为国捐躯的将军，是“抗战军人之魂”。\r\n 张自忠经常教育部下：军人只有以必死的决心去战胜敌人，才能对得起国家和自己的良心。\r\n 1940年5月，国民党军三十三集团军总司令张自忠率军在湖北襄樊一带抗战。大洪山一战，他们消灭了1000多名日寇。日军疯狂报复，派重兵包围过来。张自忠和士兵们坚决抵抗，他手举步枪高喊：“弟兄们，一定把敌人消灭!”一天过去了，阵地还在，他们却一天没吃东西。第二天，敌人用飞机大炮轰炸。张自忠几次率军反击，没有成功。部下劝他突围，他说：“我要撤了，这一带就保不住了。我要用身体来保卫湖北西部河山!”后来他们被困在杏儿山上，无法冲出去。张自忠左肩受了伤，他说：“我是不打败仗的，败只有死，我不能对不起部下。只有誓死不退，才能抗敌保国。”\r\n 日军冲了上来，张自忠身中数弹，仍然立在山头，坚持抵抗。一颗子弹击中他的胸部，血喷不止。他倒在地上对副官说：“我这样死得好，对得起国家，对得起民族……心里平安。”说完，他又顽强地站起来，向敌人扑过去，敌人的子弹又射中他的腹部和头部。张自忠为国尽忠了，他是在抗战中牺牲的中国军人中职务最高的一个。\r\n 自古以来，牺牲在战场上，一直是爱国军人引以自豪的志向。特别是那些明知死在眼前仍勇敢赴难的人，更令人崇敬。在中日甲午海战中牺牲的邓世昌就是这样的人。\r\n\r\nhttp://www.61ertong.com/wenxue/aiguogushi/20160817/260240.html\r\n\r\n', '[Chinese Communist History] 抗日名将张自忠 - Anti-Japanese General Zhang Zizhong', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2323-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-11 00:08:37', '2016-11-11 05:08:37', '', 2323, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2323-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2325, 1, '2016-11-11 02:35:40', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', ' 台儿庄战役发生于1938年春天，我爱国军队在第五战区司令长官李宗仁的指挥下，一举歼灭日军11984人，震惊中外。这场战役的胜利，除爱国军队英勇作战外，还与当时战区的民气有着非常密切的关系。\r\n 李宗仁在谈到台儿庄战役胜利时，深有感慨地说：“台儿庄人民完全和军队配合起来了，在战场上挽救伤兵的是民众，作侦察的是民众，帮助军队输送炮弹粮食的是民众。这些民众是赤诚地表现他们的爱国热情，充分地担任起救亡的责任来了。”\r\n 据台儿庄北关老大娘王谭氏回忆：台儿庄战役打响后，我们青壮年妇女并没有躲到安全的地方，而是自发地组成女子督战队，一方面激励战士勇敢杀敌，一方面防止逃兵脱离战场。当时就有一个逃兵差点从我们的眼皮底下跑掉。我们几个姐妹一起骂这个逃兵：“你还算是个男人吗?你如果怕死，就让我们拿着烧乡火棍跟日本鬼子拼!”这个逃兵被我们得害羞了、激动了，掉头就冲向了战场。\r\n\r\nhttp://www.61ertong.com/wenxue/aiguogushi/20160830/260692.html', '[Chinese Communist History] 英雄的台儿庄人民 - The Heroic People of Taierzhuang', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-11 02:35:40', '2016-11-11 07:35:40', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2325', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2326, 1, '2016-11-11 00:12:05', '2016-11-11 05:12:05', 'http://www.61ertong.com/wenxue/aiguogushi/20160830/260692.html', '[Chinese Communist History] 英雄的台儿庄人民 - The Heroic People of Taierzhuang', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2325-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-11 00:12:05', '2016-11-11 05:12:05', '', 2325, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2325-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2327, 1, '2016-11-11 00:12:29', '2016-11-11 05:12:29', ' 台儿庄战役发生于1938年春天，我爱国军队在第五战区司令长官李宗仁的指挥下，一举歼灭日军11984人，震惊中外。这场战役的胜利，除爱国军队英勇作战外，还与当时战区的民气有着非常密切的关系。\r\n 李宗仁在谈到台儿庄战役胜利时，深有感慨地说：“台儿庄人民完全和军队配合起来了，在战场上挽救伤兵的是民众，作侦察的是民众，帮助军队输送炮弹粮食的是民众。这些民众是赤诚地表现他们的爱国热情，充分地担任起救亡的责任来了。”\r\n 据台儿庄北关老大娘王谭氏回忆：台儿庄战役打响后，我们青壮年妇女并没有躲到安全的地方，而是自发地组成女子督战队，一方面激励战士勇敢杀敌，一方面防止逃兵脱离战场。当时就有一个逃兵差点从我们的眼皮底下跑掉。我们几个姐妹一起骂这个逃兵：“你还算是个男人吗?你如果怕死，就让我们拿着烧乡火棍跟日本鬼子拼!”这个逃兵被我们得害羞了、激动了，掉头就冲向了战场。\r\n\r\nhttp://www.61ertong.com/wenxue/aiguogushi/20160830/260692.html', '[Chinese Communist History] 英雄的台儿庄人民 - The Heroic People of Taierzhuang', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2325-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-11 00:12:29', '2016-11-11 05:12:29', '', 2325, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2325-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2328, 1, '2016-11-11 00:24:10', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', ' 清朝的康熙皇帝亲政的时候，还不到20岁，却遇到了很多麻烦事。当时有个叫吴三桂的汉军首领，因为为清朝夺取全国立了大功，被封为平西王，势力越来越大，后来又野心勃勃，以西南为基地发兵谋反，要与清朝争夺天下。他的军队人多，又得到了其他地方的支持，气势汹汹。当时清朝刚刚稳定下来，对吴三桂作战，兵力、财力有很多困难。有的大臣就劝康熙皇帝不要派兵镇压，而是议和为上，实在不行，就把长江以南的地区让给吴三桂，实行南北分治。如果真那样，就又要出现南北朝分裂的局面了。\r\n 康熙皇帝坚决不同意。他说，不管有多大难处，也要派兵平定叛乱，南北分治是绝对不许可的。于是，他亲自调集各种军队，和吴三桂叛军较量，又采取各种手段分化瓦解，孤立首要，终于扭转了被动局面，顶住了叛军的大规模进攻，继而开始反攻。\r\n 吴三桂没想到年轻的小皇帝这么果断坚决，而且他自己又是名声极坏的人，得不到人民的支持，仗越打越糟，最后自己先病死了，叛乱也被平定了。事实证明，康熙皇帝顺应历史潮流和民心，坚决维护国家统一，是完全正确的。\r\n\r\nhttp://www.xuexila.com/lizhi/gushi/1496749.html', '[Chinese History] 康熙帝反对南北分治 - Kangxi Emperor Refuses to Cede Control', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-11 00:24:10', '2016-11-11 05:24:10', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2328', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2329, 1, '2016-11-11 00:24:10', '2016-11-11 05:24:10', ' 清朝的康熙皇帝亲政的时候，还不到20岁，却遇到了很多麻烦事。当时有个叫吴三桂的汉军首领，因为为清朝夺取全国立了大功，被封为平西王，势力越来越大，后来又野心勃勃，以西南为基地发兵谋反，要与清朝争夺天下。他的军队人多，又得到了其他地方的支持，气势汹汹。当时清朝刚刚稳定下来，对吴三桂作战，兵力、财力有很多困难。有的大臣就劝康熙皇帝不要派兵镇压，而是议和为上，实在不行，就把长江以南的地区让给吴三桂，实行南北分治。如果真那样，就又要出现南北朝分裂的局面了。\r\n 康熙皇帝坚决不同意。他说，不管有多大难处，也要派兵平定叛乱，南北分治是绝对不许可的。于是，他亲自调集各种军队，和吴三桂叛军较量，又采取各种手段分化瓦解，孤立首要，终于扭转了被动局面，顶住了叛军的大规模进攻，继而开始反攻。\r\n 吴三桂没想到年轻的小皇帝这么果断坚决，而且他自己又是名声极坏的人，得不到人民的支持，仗越打越糟，最后自己先病死了，叛乱也被平定了。事实证明，康熙皇帝顺应历史潮流和民心，坚决维护国家统一，是完全正确的。\r\n\r\nhttp://www.xuexila.com/lizhi/gushi/1496749.html', '[Chinese History] 康熙帝反对南北分治 - Kangxi Emperor Refuses to Cede Control', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2328-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-11 00:24:10', '2016-11-11 05:24:10', '', 2328, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2328-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2330, 1, '2016-11-11 00:32:55', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', ' 19世纪初，清朝政府卖国媚洋，帝国主义列强像一群恶狼似地窜到了中国大地。徐特立那时正在湖南修业学校教书，为了启发大家都投身到爱国救亡运动中去，他决定给学生进行时事演讲。\r\n 全校的教员、学生和工友，都争着去听，不一会儿，礼堂里就挤满了人。徐特立身穿一件青衣长衫，两眼炯炯有神，昂然站在讲台上，揭露帝国主义侵略中国的暴行和清政府丧权辱国的罪行，号召大家：国家兴亡，匹夫有责。我们要把挽救民族危亡的担子挑起来，赴汤蹈火，在所不辞!\r\n 忽然，他转身奔下讲台，从厨房里取来一把菜刀，当着大家的面，砍断了自己的一个手指头，用鲜血写了“驱除鞑虏，恢复中华” 八个字，表示为国雪耻的决心!\r\n 殷红的鲜血，溅满了徐特立的衣衫，全场的人为之震惊。他的这一壮举，很快传遍了长沙城，影响到整个湖南，使更多的人很快觉醒起来。\r\n\r\nhttp://www.61ertong.com/wenxue/aiguogushi/20160903/260840.html', '[Chinese History] Xu Teli Cuts his finger off for the motherland', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-11 00:32:55', '2016-11-11 05:32:55', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2330', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2331, 1, '2016-11-11 00:31:27', '2016-11-11 05:31:27', ' 19世纪初，清朝政府卖国媚洋，帝国主义列强像一群恶狼似地窜到了中国大地。徐特立那时正在湖南修业学校教书，为了启发大家都投身到爱国救亡运动中去，他决定给学生进行时事演讲。\r\n 全校的教员、学生和工友，都争着去听，不一会儿，礼堂里就挤满了人。徐特立身穿一件青衣长衫，两眼炯炯有神，昂然站在讲台上，揭露帝国主义侵略中国的暴行和清政府丧权辱国的罪行，号召大家：国家兴亡，匹夫有责。我们要把挽救民族危亡的担子挑起来，赴汤蹈火，在所不辞!\r\n 忽然，他转身奔下讲台，从厨房里取来一把菜刀，当着大家的面，砍断了自己的一个手指头，用鲜血写了“驱除鞑虏，恢复中华” 八个字，表示为国雪耻的决心!\r\n 殷红的鲜血，溅满了徐特立的衣衫，全场的人为之震惊。他的这一壮举，很快传遍了长沙城，影响到整个湖南，使更多的人很快觉醒起来。\r\n\r\nhttp://www.61ertong.com/wenxue/aiguogushi/20160903/260840.html', '[Chinese History] Xu Teli Cuts his finger off for the motherland', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2330-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-11 00:31:27', '2016-11-11 05:31:27', '', 2330, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2330-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2332, 1, '2016-11-11 01:17:28', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', '春天到了\r\n天气暖和了\r\n快点出来吧\r\n小芽苞\r\n别只露出个小头\r\n树皮外面多美\r\n快点出来吧\r\n太阳会给你\r\n穿上绿衣\r\n春风会送给你\r\n甜甜的露滴\r\n\r\nhttp://special.pcbaby.com.cn/222/2224544.html', '[Chinese Children\'s Poetry]《芽苞》Little Bud Sprout', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-11 01:17:28', '2016-11-11 06:17:28', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2332', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2333, 1, '2016-11-11 01:17:06', '2016-11-11 06:17:06', '春天到了\r\n天气暖和了\r\n快点出来吧\r\n小芽苞\r\n别只露出个小头\r\n树皮外面多美\r\n快点出来吧\r\n太阳会给你\r\n穿上绿衣\r\n春风会送给你\r\n甜甜的露滴', '[Chinese Children\'s Poetry]《芽苞》Little Bud Sprout', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2332-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-11 01:17:06', '2016-11-11 06:17:06', '', 2332, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2332-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2334, 1, '2016-11-11 01:17:28', '2016-11-11 06:17:28', '春天到了\r\n天气暖和了\r\n快点出来吧\r\n小芽苞\r\n别只露出个小头\r\n树皮外面多美\r\n快点出来吧\r\n太阳会给你\r\n穿上绿衣\r\n春风会送给你\r\n甜甜的露滴\r\n\r\nhttp://special.pcbaby.com.cn/222/2224544.html', '[Chinese Children\'s Poetry]《芽苞》Little Bud Sprout', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2332-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-11 01:17:28', '2016-11-11 06:17:28', '', 2332, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2332-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2335, 1, '2016-11-11 01:24:31', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', ' 低低地飞，\r\n 低低地飞，\r\n 你这红蜻蜒，\r\n 你丢失了什么?\r\n 飞得这样低，\r\n 飞得这样低。\r\n 草坪里，\r\n 铺着嫩绿。\r\n 花丛里，\r\n 漫着香气。\r\n 湖面上，\r\n 闪着涟漪。\r\n 红蜻蜓，\r\n 你丢失了什么?\r\n 是被晒干的露水，\r\n 还是雨天的记忆?\r\n 你也许没有找到你丢失的东西，\r\n 你飞得倦了，\r\n 伏在我家的竹篱上，\r\n 静静地休息。\r\n 我悄悄地悄悄地走近了你，\r\n 一把捏住了你透明的双翼。\r\n 天，\r\n 下起了小雨，\r\n 一滴，一滴，\r\n 提醒着我，\r\n 快快回家去!\r\n 当我刚刚跑回家，\r\n 窗外就下起了大雨。\r\n 我把红蜻蜓，\r\n 放在绿纱窗上，\r\n 它望着窗外迷迷蒙蒙的天地。\r\n 难道它还在寻找寻找它丢失的东西?\r\n 妈妈，\r\n 是您告诉了我，\r\n 它在寻找丢失的爱，\r\n 那世间最珍贵的东西。\r\n 雨过天晴。\r\n 我推开窗子，\r\n 放走了那红蜻蜓，\r\n 让它飞向晴朗的天空和开花的土地……\r\n\r\nhttp://special.pcbaby.com.cn/319/3197064.html', '[Chinese Children\'s Poetry] 《红蜻蜓》Red Dragon Fly', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-11 01:24:31', '2016-11-11 06:24:31', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2335', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2336, 1, '2016-11-11 01:24:31', '2016-11-11 06:24:31', ' 低低地飞，\r\n 低低地飞，\r\n 你这红蜻蜒，\r\n 你丢失了什么?\r\n 飞得这样低，\r\n 飞得这样低。\r\n 草坪里，\r\n 铺着嫩绿。\r\n 花丛里，\r\n 漫着香气。\r\n 湖面上，\r\n 闪着涟漪。\r\n 红蜻蜓，\r\n 你丢失了什么?\r\n 是被晒干的露水，\r\n 还是雨天的记忆?\r\n 你也许没有找到你丢失的东西，\r\n 你飞得倦了，\r\n 伏在我家的竹篱上，\r\n 静静地休息。\r\n 我悄悄地悄悄地走近了你，\r\n 一把捏住了你透明的双翼。\r\n 天，\r\n 下起了小雨，\r\n 一滴，一滴，\r\n 提醒着我，\r\n 快快回家去!\r\n 当我刚刚跑回家，\r\n 窗外就下起了大雨。\r\n 我把红蜻蜓，\r\n 放在绿纱窗上，\r\n 它望着窗外迷迷蒙蒙的天地。\r\n 难道它还在寻找寻找它丢失的东西?\r\n 妈妈，\r\n 是您告诉了我，\r\n 它在寻找丢失的爱，\r\n 那世间最珍贵的东西。\r\n 雨过天晴。\r\n 我推开窗子，\r\n 放走了那红蜻蜓，\r\n 让它飞向晴朗的天空和开花的土地……\r\n\r\nhttp://special.pcbaby.com.cn/319/3197064.html', '[Chinese Children\'s Poetry] 《红蜻蜓》Red Dragon Fly', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2335-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-11 01:24:31', '2016-11-11 06:24:31', '', 2335, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2335-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2337, 1, '2016-11-11 01:32:33', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', ' 我背着书包上学的时候想\r\n 青蛙如果也背着书包\r\n 往前跳\r\n 那一定很好玩\r\n 我做早操的时候想\r\n 青蛙如果也排着队\r\n 做早操\r\n 那一定很好玩\r\n 我走到教室里的时候想\r\n 在黑板上写字的老师一转身\r\n 发现一只青蛙正鼓着眼睛看着她\r\n 那一定很好玩\r\n 如果老师知道\r\n 青蛙是我放在讲台上的话\r\n 那……一定很不好玩', '[Chinese Children\'s Poetry] 我背着书包 - Wearing my Backpack', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-11 01:32:33', '2016-11-11 06:32:33', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2337', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2338, 1, '2016-11-11 01:32:33', '2016-11-11 06:32:33', ' 我背着书包上学的时候想\r\n 青蛙如果也背着书包\r\n 往前跳\r\n 那一定很好玩\r\n 我做早操的时候想\r\n 青蛙如果也排着队\r\n 做早操\r\n 那一定很好玩\r\n 我走到教室里的时候想\r\n 在黑板上写字的老师一转身\r\n 发现一只青蛙正鼓着眼睛看着她\r\n 那一定很好玩\r\n 如果老师知道\r\n 青蛙是我放在讲台上的话\r\n 那……一定很不好玩', '[Chinese Children\'s Poetry] 我背着书包 - Wearing my Backpack', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2337-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-11 01:32:33', '2016-11-11 06:32:33', '', 2337, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2337-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2339, 1, '2016-11-11 02:34:50', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', ' 有一个很热很热的夜晚，\r\n 我从梦中醒来，\r\n 妈妈正给我扇着扇子，\r\n 汗水却湿透了她的衣裳。\r\n 啊!妈妈的爱是清凉的风。\r\n 有一个很凉很凉的雨天，\r\n 妈妈到学校接我，\r\n 一把伞遮在我的头顶，\r\n 雨水却打在妈妈的身上。\r\n 啊，妈妈的爱是遮雨的伞。\r\n 有一回我病了，\r\n 妈妈抱我去医院。\r\n 摸着我很烫很烫的额头，\r\n 妈妈着急地哭了。\r\n 啊，妈妈的爱是滴落的泪。\r\n 有一天，我打破了暖瓶，\r\n 对妈妈又说了谎，\r\n 妈妈的批评叫我脸红，\r\n 我不敢抬头看她的眼睛。\r\n 啊，妈妈的爱是责备的目光。\r\n 一次老师叫用“最”字造句，\r\n 我说：“我最爱妈妈。”\r\n 妈妈告诉我：“最该爱的是祖国，\r\n 祖国是我们所有人的妈妈。”\r\n\r\nhttp://special.pcbaby.com.cn/308/3085346.html', '[Chinese Poems] 《妈妈的爱》A Mother(land)\'s Love', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-11 02:34:50', '2016-11-11 07:34:50', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2339', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2340, 1, '2016-11-11 01:39:26', '2016-11-11 06:39:26', ' 有一个很热很热的夜晚，\r\n 我从梦中醒来，\r\n 妈妈正给我扇着扇子，\r\n 汗水却湿透了她的衣裳。\r\n 啊!妈妈的爱是清凉的风。\r\n 有一个很凉很凉的雨天，\r\n 妈妈到学校接我，\r\n 一把伞遮在我的头顶，\r\n 雨水却打在妈妈的身上。\r\n 啊，妈妈的爱是遮雨的伞。\r\n 有一回我病了，\r\n 妈妈抱我去医院。\r\n 摸着我很烫很烫的额头，\r\n 妈妈着急地哭了。\r\n 啊，妈妈的爱是滴落的泪。\r\n 有一天，我打破了暖瓶，\r\n 对妈妈又说了谎，\r\n 妈妈的批评叫我脸红，\r\n 我不敢抬头看她的眼睛。\r\n 啊，妈妈的爱是责备的目光。\r\n 一次老师叫用“最”字造句，\r\n 我说：“我最爱妈妈。”\r\n 妈妈告诉我：“最该爱的是祖国，\r\n 祖国是我们所有人的妈妈。”\r\n\r\nhttp://special.pcbaby.com.cn/308/3085346.html', '[Chinese Poems] 《妈妈的爱》A Mother(land)\'s Love', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2339-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-11 01:39:26', '2016-11-11 06:39:26', '', 2339, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2339-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2341, 1, '2016-11-11 02:33:34', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', '起来！不愿做 奴隶 的人们！\r\n把我们的血肉筑成我们新的长城！\r\n中华民族到了最危险的时候，\r\n每个人被迫着发出最后的吼声。\r\n起来！起来！起来！\r\n我们万众一心，\r\n冒着敌人的炮火，前进！\r\n冒着敌人的炮火，前进！\r\n前进！前进、进！...', '[Chinese Songs]《义勇军进行曲》\"March of the Volunteer Army\" - China\'s National Anthem', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-11 02:33:34', '2016-11-11 07:33:34', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2341', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2342, 1, '2016-11-11 02:33:34', '2016-11-11 07:33:34', '起来！不愿做 奴隶 的人们！\r\n把我们的血肉筑成我们新的长城！\r\n中华民族到了最危险的时候，\r\n每个人被迫着发出最后的吼声。\r\n起来！起来！起来！\r\n我们万众一心，\r\n冒着敌人的炮火，前进！\r\n冒着敌人的炮火，前进！\r\n前进！前进、进！...', '[Chinese Songs]《义勇军进行曲》\"March of the Volunteer Army\" - China\'s National Anthem', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2341-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-11 02:33:34', '2016-11-11 07:33:34', '', 2341, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2341-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2343, 1, '2016-11-11 02:44:52', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', '朱自清 \r\n\r\n我与父亲不相见已二年余了，我最不能忘记的是他的背影。 \r\n那年冬天，祖母死了，父亲的差使也交卸了，正是祸不单行的日子。我从北京到徐州，打算跟着父亲奔丧回家。到徐州见着父亲，看见满院狼藉的东西，又想起祖母，不禁簌簌地流下眼泪。父亲说：“事已如此，不必难过，好在天无绝人之路！” \r\n回家变卖典质，父亲还了亏空；又借钱办了丧事。这些日子，家中光景很是惨淡，一半为了丧事，一半为了父亲赋闲。丧事完毕，父亲要到南京谋事，我也要回北京念书，我们便同行。 \r\n到南京时，有朋友约去游逛，勾留了一日；第二日上午便须渡江到浦口，下午上车北去。父亲因为事忙，本已说定不送我，叫旅馆里一个熟识的茶房陪我同去。他再三嘱咐茶房，甚是仔细。但他终于不放心，怕茶房不妥帖；颇踌躇了一会。其实我那年已二十岁，北京已来往过两三次，是没有什么要紧的了。他踌躇了一会，终于决定还是自己送我去。我两三劝他不必去；他只说，“不要紧，他们去不好！” \r\n我们过了江，进了车站。我买票，他忙着照看行李。行李太多了，得向脚夫行些小费才可过去。他便又忙着和他们讲价钱。我那时真是聪明过分，总觉他说话不大漂亮，非自己插嘴不可，但他终于讲定了价钱；就送我上车。他给我拣定了靠车门的一张椅子；我将他给我做的紫毛大衣铺好坐位。他嘱我路上小心，夜里警醒些，不要受凉。又嘱托茶房好好照应我。我心里暗笑他的迂；他们只认得钱，托他们只是白托！而且我这样大年纪的人，难道还不能料理自己么？唉，我现在想想，那时真是太聪明了！ \r\n我说道，“爸爸，你走吧。”他望车外看了看说：“我买几个橘子去。你就在此地，不要走动。”我看那边月台的栅栏外有几个卖东西的等着顾客。走到那边月台，须穿过铁道，须跳下去又爬上去。父亲是一个胖子，走过去自然要费事些。我本来要去的，他不肯，只好让他去。我看见他戴着黑布小帽，穿着黑布大马褂，深青布棉袍，蹒跚地走到铁道边，慢慢探身下去，尚不大难。可是他穿过铁道，要爬上那边月台，就不容易了。他用两手攀着上面，两脚再向上缩；他肥胖的身子向左微倾，显出努力的样子。这时我看见他的背影，我的泪很快地流下来了。我赶紧拭干了泪。怕他看见，也怕别人看见。我再向外看时，他已抱了朱红的橘子往回走了。过铁道时，他先将橘子散放在地上，自己慢慢爬下，再抱起橘子走。到这边时，我赶紧去搀他。他和我走到车上，将橘子一股脑儿放在我的皮大衣上。于是扑扑衣上的泥土，心里很轻松似的。过一会说：“我走了，到那边来信！”我望着他走出去。他走了几步，回过头看见我，说：“进去吧，里边没人。”等他的背影混入来来往往的人里，再找不着了，我便进来坐下，我的眼泪又来了。 \r\n近几年来，父亲和我都是东奔西走，家中光景是一日不如一日。他少年出外谋生，独力支持，做了许多大事。哪知老境却如此颓唐！他触目伤怀，自然情不能自已。情郁于中，自然要发之于外；家庭琐屑便往往触他之怒。他待我渐渐不同往日。但最近两年的不见，他终于忘却我的不好，只是惦记着我，惦记着我的儿子。我北来后，他写了一信给我，信中说道：“我身体平安，惟膀子疼痛厉害，举箸提笔，诸多不便，大约大去之期不远矣。”我读到此处，在晶莹的泪光中，又看见那肥胖的、青布棉袍黑布马褂的背影。唉！我不知何时再能与他相见！ \r\n\r\nhttps://zhidao.baidu.com/question/1924059486155727107.html\r\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhu_Ziqing', '[Famous Chinese Essays] 《背影》\"Retreating Figure\" by Zhu Ziqing', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-11 02:44:52', '2016-11-11 07:44:52', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2343', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2344, 1, '2016-11-11 02:40:21', '2016-11-11 07:40:21', '朱自清 \r\n\r\n我与父亲不相见已二年余了，我最不能忘记的是他的背影。 \r\n那年冬天，祖母死了，父亲的差使也交卸了，正是祸不单行的日子。我从北京到徐州，打算跟着父亲奔丧回家。到徐州见着父亲，看见满院狼藉的东西，又想起祖母，不禁簌簌地流下眼泪。父亲说：“事已如此，不必难过，好在天无绝人之路！” \r\n回家变卖典质，父亲还了亏空；又借钱办了丧事。这些日子，家中光景很是惨淡，一半为了丧事，一半为了父亲赋闲。丧事完毕，父亲要到南京谋事，我也要回北京念书，我们便同行。 \r\n到南京时，有朋友约去游逛，勾留了一日；第二日上午便须渡江到浦口，下午上车北去。父亲因为事忙，本已说定不送我，叫旅馆里一个熟识的茶房陪我同去。他再三嘱咐茶房，甚是仔细。但他终于不放心，怕茶房不妥帖；颇踌躇了一会。其实我那年已二十岁，北京已来往过两三次，是没有什么要紧的了。他踌躇了一会，终于决定还是自己送我去。我两三劝他不必去；他只说，“不要紧，他们去不好！” \r\n我们过了江，进了车站。我买票，他忙着照看行李。行李太多了，得向脚夫行些小费才可过去。他便又忙着和他们讲价钱。我那时真是聪明过分，总觉他说话不大漂亮，非自己插嘴不可，但他终于讲定了价钱；就送我上车。他给我拣定了靠车门的一张椅子；我将他给我做的紫毛大衣铺好坐位。他嘱我路上小心，夜里警醒些，不要受凉。又嘱托茶房好好照应我。我心里暗笑他的迂；他们只认得钱，托他们只是白托！而且我这样大年纪的人，难道还不能料理自己么？唉，我现在想想，那时真是太聪明了！ \r\n我说道，“爸爸，你走吧。”他望车外看了看说：“我买几个橘子去。你就在此地，不要走动。”我看那边月台的栅栏外有几个卖东西的等着顾客。走到那边月台，须穿过铁道，须跳下去又爬上去。父亲是一个胖子，走过去自然要费事些。我本来要去的，他不肯，只好让他去。我看见他戴着黑布小帽，穿着黑布大马褂，深青布棉袍，蹒跚地走到铁道边，慢慢探身下去，尚不大难。可是他穿过铁道，要爬上那边月台，就不容易了。他用两手攀着上面，两脚再向上缩；他肥胖的身子向左微倾，显出努力的样子。这时我看见他的背影，我的泪很快地流下来了。我赶紧拭干了泪。怕他看见，也怕别人看见。我再向外看时，他已抱了朱红的橘子往回走了。过铁道时，他先将橘子散放在地上，自己慢慢爬下，再抱起橘子走。到这边时，我赶紧去搀他。他和我走到车上，将橘子一股脑儿放在我的皮大衣上。于是扑扑衣上的泥土，心里很轻松似的。过一会说：“我走了，到那边来信！”我望着他走出去。他走了几步，回过头看见我，说：“进去吧，里边没人。”等他的背影混入来来往往的人里，再找不着了，我便进来坐下，我的眼泪又来了。 \r\n近几年来，父亲和我都是东奔西走，家中光景是一日不如一日。他少年出外谋生，独力支持，做了许多大事。哪知老境却如此颓唐！他触目伤怀，自然情不能自已。情郁于中，自然要发之于外；家庭琐屑便往往触他之怒。他待我渐渐不同往日。但最近两年的不见，他终于忘却我的不好，只是惦记着我，惦记着我的儿子。我北来后，他写了一信给我，信中说道：“我身体平安，惟膀子疼痛厉害，举箸提笔，诸多不便，大约大去之期不远矣。”我读到此处，在晶莹的泪光中，又看见那肥胖的、青布棉袍黑布马褂的背影。唉！我不知何时再能与他相见！ \r\n\r\nhttps://zhidao.baidu.com/question/1924059486155727107.html', '[Famous Chinese Essays] 《背影》by Zhu Ziqing', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2343-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-11 02:40:21', '2016-11-11 07:40:21', '', 2343, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2343-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2345, 1, '2016-11-11 02:44:12', '2016-11-11 07:44:12', '朱自清 \r\n\r\n我与父亲不相见已二年余了，我最不能忘记的是他的背影。 \r\n那年冬天，祖母死了，父亲的差使也交卸了，正是祸不单行的日子。我从北京到徐州，打算跟着父亲奔丧回家。到徐州见着父亲，看见满院狼藉的东西，又想起祖母，不禁簌簌地流下眼泪。父亲说：“事已如此，不必难过，好在天无绝人之路！” \r\n回家变卖典质，父亲还了亏空；又借钱办了丧事。这些日子，家中光景很是惨淡，一半为了丧事，一半为了父亲赋闲。丧事完毕，父亲要到南京谋事，我也要回北京念书，我们便同行。 \r\n到南京时，有朋友约去游逛，勾留了一日；第二日上午便须渡江到浦口，下午上车北去。父亲因为事忙，本已说定不送我，叫旅馆里一个熟识的茶房陪我同去。他再三嘱咐茶房，甚是仔细。但他终于不放心，怕茶房不妥帖；颇踌躇了一会。其实我那年已二十岁，北京已来往过两三次，是没有什么要紧的了。他踌躇了一会，终于决定还是自己送我去。我两三劝他不必去；他只说，“不要紧，他们去不好！” \r\n我们过了江，进了车站。我买票，他忙着照看行李。行李太多了，得向脚夫行些小费才可过去。他便又忙着和他们讲价钱。我那时真是聪明过分，总觉他说话不大漂亮，非自己插嘴不可，但他终于讲定了价钱；就送我上车。他给我拣定了靠车门的一张椅子；我将他给我做的紫毛大衣铺好坐位。他嘱我路上小心，夜里警醒些，不要受凉。又嘱托茶房好好照应我。我心里暗笑他的迂；他们只认得钱，托他们只是白托！而且我这样大年纪的人，难道还不能料理自己么？唉，我现在想想，那时真是太聪明了！ \r\n我说道，“爸爸，你走吧。”他望车外看了看说：“我买几个橘子去。你就在此地，不要走动。”我看那边月台的栅栏外有几个卖东西的等着顾客。走到那边月台，须穿过铁道，须跳下去又爬上去。父亲是一个胖子，走过去自然要费事些。我本来要去的，他不肯，只好让他去。我看见他戴着黑布小帽，穿着黑布大马褂，深青布棉袍，蹒跚地走到铁道边，慢慢探身下去，尚不大难。可是他穿过铁道，要爬上那边月台，就不容易了。他用两手攀着上面，两脚再向上缩；他肥胖的身子向左微倾，显出努力的样子。这时我看见他的背影，我的泪很快地流下来了。我赶紧拭干了泪。怕他看见，也怕别人看见。我再向外看时，他已抱了朱红的橘子往回走了。过铁道时，他先将橘子散放在地上，自己慢慢爬下，再抱起橘子走。到这边时，我赶紧去搀他。他和我走到车上，将橘子一股脑儿放在我的皮大衣上。于是扑扑衣上的泥土，心里很轻松似的。过一会说：“我走了，到那边来信！”我望着他走出去。他走了几步，回过头看见我，说：“进去吧，里边没人。”等他的背影混入来来往往的人里，再找不着了，我便进来坐下，我的眼泪又来了。 \r\n近几年来，父亲和我都是东奔西走，家中光景是一日不如一日。他少年出外谋生，独力支持，做了许多大事。哪知老境却如此颓唐！他触目伤怀，自然情不能自已。情郁于中，自然要发之于外；家庭琐屑便往往触他之怒。他待我渐渐不同往日。但最近两年的不见，他终于忘却我的不好，只是惦记着我，惦记着我的儿子。我北来后，他写了一信给我，信中说道：“我身体平安，惟膀子疼痛厉害，举箸提笔，诸多不便，大约大去之期不远矣。”我读到此处，在晶莹的泪光中，又看见那肥胖的、青布棉袍黑布马褂的背影。唉！我不知何时再能与他相见！ \r\n\r\nhttps://zhidao.baidu.com/question/1924059486155727107.html', '[Famous Chinese Essays] 《背影》\"Retreating Figure\" by Zhu Ziqing', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2343-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-11 02:44:12', '2016-11-11 07:44:12', '', 2343, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2343-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2346, 1, '2016-11-11 02:44:52', '2016-11-11 07:44:52', '朱自清 \r\n\r\n我与父亲不相见已二年余了，我最不能忘记的是他的背影。 \r\n那年冬天，祖母死了，父亲的差使也交卸了，正是祸不单行的日子。我从北京到徐州，打算跟着父亲奔丧回家。到徐州见着父亲，看见满院狼藉的东西，又想起祖母，不禁簌簌地流下眼泪。父亲说：“事已如此，不必难过，好在天无绝人之路！” \r\n回家变卖典质，父亲还了亏空；又借钱办了丧事。这些日子，家中光景很是惨淡，一半为了丧事，一半为了父亲赋闲。丧事完毕，父亲要到南京谋事，我也要回北京念书，我们便同行。 \r\n到南京时，有朋友约去游逛，勾留了一日；第二日上午便须渡江到浦口，下午上车北去。父亲因为事忙，本已说定不送我，叫旅馆里一个熟识的茶房陪我同去。他再三嘱咐茶房，甚是仔细。但他终于不放心，怕茶房不妥帖；颇踌躇了一会。其实我那年已二十岁，北京已来往过两三次，是没有什么要紧的了。他踌躇了一会，终于决定还是自己送我去。我两三劝他不必去；他只说，“不要紧，他们去不好！” \r\n我们过了江，进了车站。我买票，他忙着照看行李。行李太多了，得向脚夫行些小费才可过去。他便又忙着和他们讲价钱。我那时真是聪明过分，总觉他说话不大漂亮，非自己插嘴不可，但他终于讲定了价钱；就送我上车。他给我拣定了靠车门的一张椅子；我将他给我做的紫毛大衣铺好坐位。他嘱我路上小心，夜里警醒些，不要受凉。又嘱托茶房好好照应我。我心里暗笑他的迂；他们只认得钱，托他们只是白托！而且我这样大年纪的人，难道还不能料理自己么？唉，我现在想想，那时真是太聪明了！ \r\n我说道，“爸爸，你走吧。”他望车外看了看说：“我买几个橘子去。你就在此地，不要走动。”我看那边月台的栅栏外有几个卖东西的等着顾客。走到那边月台，须穿过铁道，须跳下去又爬上去。父亲是一个胖子，走过去自然要费事些。我本来要去的，他不肯，只好让他去。我看见他戴着黑布小帽，穿着黑布大马褂，深青布棉袍，蹒跚地走到铁道边，慢慢探身下去，尚不大难。可是他穿过铁道，要爬上那边月台，就不容易了。他用两手攀着上面，两脚再向上缩；他肥胖的身子向左微倾，显出努力的样子。这时我看见他的背影，我的泪很快地流下来了。我赶紧拭干了泪。怕他看见，也怕别人看见。我再向外看时，他已抱了朱红的橘子往回走了。过铁道时，他先将橘子散放在地上，自己慢慢爬下，再抱起橘子走。到这边时，我赶紧去搀他。他和我走到车上，将橘子一股脑儿放在我的皮大衣上。于是扑扑衣上的泥土，心里很轻松似的。过一会说：“我走了，到那边来信！”我望着他走出去。他走了几步，回过头看见我，说：“进去吧，里边没人。”等他的背影混入来来往往的人里，再找不着了，我便进来坐下，我的眼泪又来了。 \r\n近几年来，父亲和我都是东奔西走，家中光景是一日不如一日。他少年出外谋生，独力支持，做了许多大事。哪知老境却如此颓唐！他触目伤怀，自然情不能自已。情郁于中，自然要发之于外；家庭琐屑便往往触他之怒。他待我渐渐不同往日。但最近两年的不见，他终于忘却我的不好，只是惦记着我，惦记着我的儿子。我北来后，他写了一信给我，信中说道：“我身体平安，惟膀子疼痛厉害，举箸提笔，诸多不便，大约大去之期不远矣。”我读到此处，在晶莹的泪光中，又看见那肥胖的、青布棉袍黑布马褂的背影。唉！我不知何时再能与他相见！ \r\n\r\nhttps://zhidao.baidu.com/question/1924059486155727107.html\r\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhu_Ziqing', '[Famous Chinese Essays] 《背影》\"Retreating Figure\" by Zhu Ziqing', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2343-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-11 02:44:52', '2016-11-11 07:44:52', '', 2343, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2343-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2347, 1, '2016-11-11 02:57:04', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', '东方红太阳升\r\n中国出了个毛泽东\r\n他为人民谋幸福\r\n呼儿嗨哟 \r\n他是人民大救星\r\n\r\n他为人民谋幸福\r\n呼儿嗨哟 \r\n他是人民大救星\r\n\r\n毛主席爱人民\r\n他是我们的带路人\r\n为了建设新中国\r\n呼儿嗨哟 \r\n领导我们向前进\r\n\r\n为了建设新中国\r\n呼儿嗨哟 \r\n领导我们向前进\r\n\r\n共产党像太阳\r\n照到那里那里亮\r\n哪里有了共产党\r\n呼儿嗨哟 \r\n那里人民得解放\r\n\r\n哪里有了共产党\r\n呼儿嗨哟 \r\n那里人民得解放\r\n\r\n东方红太阳升\r\n中国出了个毛泽东\r\n他为人民谋幸福\r\n呼儿嗨哟 \r\n他是人民大救星\r\n\r\n他为人民谋幸福\r\n呼儿嗨哟 \r\n他是人民大救星\r\n大救星', '[Chinese Communist Songs] 《东方红》The East is Red', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-11 02:57:04', '2016-11-11 07:57:04', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2347', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2348, 1, '2016-11-11 02:56:50', '2016-11-11 07:56:50', '东方红太阳升\r\n中国出了个毛泽东\r\n他为人民谋幸福\r\n呼儿嗨哟 \r\n他是人民大救星\r\n\r\n他为人民谋幸福\r\n呼儿嗨哟 \r\n他是人民大救星\r\n\r\n毛主席爱人民\r\n他是我们的带路人\r\n为了建设新中国\r\n呼儿嗨哟 \r\n领导我们向前进\r\n\r\n为了建设新中国\r\n呼儿嗨哟 \r\n领导我们向前进\r\n\r\n共产党像太阳\r\n照到那里那里亮\r\n哪里有了共产党\r\n呼儿嗨哟 \r\n那里人民得解放\r\n\r\n哪里有了共产党\r\n呼儿嗨哟 \r\n那里人民得解放\r\n\r\n东方红太阳升\r\n中国出了个毛泽东\r\n他为人民谋幸福\r\n呼儿嗨哟 \r\n他是人民大救星\r\n\r\n他为人民谋幸福\r\n呼儿嗨哟 \r\n他是人民大救星\r\n大救星', '[Chinese Communist Songs] 《东方红》The East is Red', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2347-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-11 02:56:50', '2016-11-11 07:56:50', '', 2347, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2347-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2349, 1, '2017-03-27 07:00:21', '2017-03-27 11:00:21', 'There\'s only one thing worse than a bratty turtledove, and that is a bratty turtledove who feels entitled to everyone\'s good opinion. Amiright? This little bird needs a serious lesson in reciprocity. \r\n\r\nBeing Nice
\r\nThere\'s one phrase in here that might read as confusing, if only because the meaning of 好 in this context is a little vague. The turtledove is complaining that he can\'t make friends with the magpie, because he already stole the magpie\'s nest, and therefore the magpie: \r\n\r\n不会和我好的。\r\n\r\nIf you translate this directly, it actually kind of works in American slang English: \"He won\'t be good with me.\" That\'s exactly right, turtledove. If you stole my nest, I wouldn\'t be good with you either. But more formally, we might translate this as \"He won\'t be nice to me.\" \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 小斑鸠很孤单，几乎没有朋友。有一天，他问白头翁：“白头翁爷爷，谁能和我交朋友呢？” \r\n\r\n2) 白头翁说：“你可以去和喜鹊交朋友，他热情、善良！” \r\n\r\n3) 小斑鸠惭愧地说：“我强占过他的巢，他不会和我好的。” \r\n\r\n4) 白头翁说：“你可以去和啄木鸟交朋友，他勤劳、正直！” \r\n\r\n5) 小斑鸠不好意思地说：“上次，我骂他是笨蛋，他不会原谅我的。” \r\n\r\n6) 白头翁想了想，又说：“那么，你去找小麻雀试试，他天真、活泼！” \r\n\r\n7) 小斑鸠为难地说：“不行啊，前几天我和他打了一架，把他啄得头破血流。” \r\n\r\n8) 白头翁叹了一口气说：“哎，你总是欺负别人，谁还愿意成为你的朋友呢？” \r\n\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
Big, scary nature words
\r\nIf you\'re just getting started reading Chinese, don\'t expect to be able to breeze through this post without checking the dictionary. I say it all the time on this blog, but I\'ll say it again: even in the simplest posts (the ones that are fun to read, anyway) end up having a word or two from the upper levels of the HSK (the official Chinese proficiency test in the PRC). So, do forgive the three or four words of advanced naturalist vocab, like 芽 [pinyin]ya2[/pinyin] (sprout), 瓣 [pinyin]ban42[/pinyin] (petal), and 土壤 [pinyin]tu3 rang3[/pinyin] - soil. Even an intermediate reader might need to look up those characters. Still, the majority of the characters here are basic enough, so I recommend you approach this post like a little puzzle - see how much you can get without the dictionary, and then go back and look up the complex characters. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n春天的树上，长出嫩嫩的芽瓣。\r\n夏天的树上，挂满肥肥的叶片。\r\n秋天的树上，树叶涂满鲜红和金黄。\r\n冬天的树下，树叶落地化成土壤。\r\n落叶是大自然的邮票，\r\n把一年四季寄给你，\r\n寄给我，\r\n寄给大家。 \r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
Whaaaa? Compound characters and 啥 [pinyin]sha2[/pinyin]
\r\nDo me a quick favor. Say 什么 [pinyin]shen2 me5[/pinyin] (\"what\") out loud. Kay, now say it again, really fast. Rad. Now say it so fast that the \"m\" sound drops, like you\'re talking around a mouthful of marbles. You get something that sounds like \"shaaaahh?\", right? That\'s what this character is. It means exactly the same thing as 什么, but it represents this word spoken quickly and colloquially. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 人有两件宝，双手和大脑。双手会做工，大脑会思考。\r\n2) 用手不用脑，事情做不好。用脑不用手，啥也做不好。\r\n3) 用手又用脑，才能有创造。一切创造靠劳动，劳动要用手和脑。\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
And 浪花 [pinyin]lang4 hua1[/pinyin] is what, exactly?
\r\nThing is, we don\'t really have a succinct word in English for 浪花. The word means \"sea foam of breaking waves\", the white, fluffy, toe-tickling stuff that washes up on the beach. We have \"sea foam\", we have \"breaking waves\", we have \"wave crests\", but nothing quite as specific as 浪花. It matters, somehow. \r\n\r\nChinese onomatopoeia: Swishing around with 哗 [pinyin]hua1[/pinyin]
\r\nIn China, dogs go 汪汪 [pinyin]wang1 wang1[/pinyin], cats go 咪咪 [pinyin]mi1 mi1[/pinyin] and sea foam, we are led to believe, goes 哗哗哗 [pinyin]hua1 hua1 hua1[/pinyin]. Whisper it, it\'ll make more sense. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 我坐在沙滩上玩耍。浪花看见了，迈着轻轻的步子走来，悄悄地瘙痒了我的小脚丫。笑得我眼泪都流出来了，它才哗哗地笑着跑回家。\r\n\r\n2) 一会儿，浪花又唱着笑着跑来了。这次它给我捧来了雪白的贝壳，青青的小虾。\r\n\r\n3) 哗哗哗，浪花跑去又跑来，像一群淘气的娃娃。\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
Enough already - 才...呢
\r\nAs Little Lamb tries to stuff inedible tuber after inedible tuber into his stupid mouth, Mother Sheep gets increasingly exasperated. How do we know this? Because of the sentence structure \"才...呢\". Compare the difference in Mother Sheep\'s tone. The first time Little Lamb screws up, she says:\r\n\r\n\"萝卜的根最好吃。\"\r\n\r\nThis is a straightforward, laid-back statement: \"The radish\'s roots taste the best.\" Mama Sheep isn\'t annoyed yet. But the next time Little Lamb messes up, we hear notes of aggravation:\r\n\r\n“白菜的叶子才好吃呢！”\r\n\r\nThe character 才 [pinyin]cai2[/pinyin] has a ton of usages in Chinese, but almost all of those usages have something to do with lateness, or something taking a long time, or something happening after a long interval. For example:\r\n\r\n你怎么两个小时才回来了?\r\nHow did it take you an entire two hours to get back here? \r\n\r\nIn today\'s reading, we might translate as \"Cabbages are only good when you eat the leaves!\" Like, when you finally eat the cabbage leaves, cabbages will be delicious. \r\n\r\nSo what function does 呢 [pinyin]ne[/pinyin] serve at the end there? In this case, the 呢 gives the whole preceding sentence an overtone of obviousness. Like, \"what I just said is self-evident, duh.\" \r\n\r\nSo the whole statement is a little snippy, right? A little bit of ire there for sure. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 羊妈妈带着小羊到菜园去收菜。\r\n\r\n2) 他们走到萝卜地里。羊妈妈拔了一个萝卜。小羊要吃萝卜叶子。羊妈妈说：“萝卜的根最好吃。”\r\n\r\n3) 他们走到白菜地里。羊妈妈拔了一棵小白菜。小羊要吃白菜的根。羊妈妈说：“白菜的叶子才好吃呢！”\r\n\r\n4) 他们走到西红柿地里。小羊要吃西红柿的叶子。羊妈妈说：“要吃西红柿的果实
呀！”\r\n\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
Points of interest...
\r\n\r\n直叫 [pinyin]zhi1 jiao4[/pinyin]\r\nChinese is a super condensed language, by which I mean that a lot of meaning can get packed into just a few characters. Such is the case in our first sentence here with the words 直叫. You\'re not going to find this in the dictionary, because it\'s actually a shortened way to say two separate words: 一直 [pinyin]yi1 zhi2[/pinyin], meaning \"constantly, ongoing, all along\", and 叫 [pinyin]jiao4[/pinyin], to cry out. So 直叫 means \"to be constantly crying out that...\". \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 小明病了，直叫肚子疼。妈妈带他去医院看病。\r\n\r\n2) 医生问小明吃了脏东西没有，小明摇摇头。医生看了看他的手，发现他的手很脏，指甲也很长，说：“用脏手拿东西吃会生病的。”\r\n\r\n3) 小明记住医生的话，做到经常洗手、剪指甲，成了一个讲卫生的孩子。\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
When... 的时候
\r\nWhen we talk about things that happened in the past or might happen in the future, we typically start our sentence with \"when\". \r\n\r\n\"When I was ten years old, I got my first dog.\"\r\n\"When I go to the store, do you want me to get you something?\"\r\n\r\nIn Chinese, the \"when\" is placed after the time, using 的时候 [pinyin]de5 shi2 hou4[/pinyin]. The same sentences, following a Chinese pattern, would be sound like this:\r\n\r\n\"I was ten years old when, ....\"\r\n我十岁的时候，\r\n\r\n\"I go to the store when, ...?\"\r\n我去商店的时候,\r\n\r\nMake sense?\r\n\r\nSo much togetherness 一块儿
\r\nDepending on how long you\'ve been studying, you may or may not have run across the word 一起 [pinyin]yi1 qi3[/pinyin], which means \"together\", as in \"We ate dinner together.\" (我们一起吃了晚饭). 一块儿 [pinyin]yi1 kuai4 er5[/pinyin] actually has two meanings. The first meaning is \"a block (of something)\", so like \"A block of cheese\" or \"A . But its second definition is very similar to 一起: in this case it also means \"together\" or more precisely \"as a block\". \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 从前，有个孩子叫孔融。他四岁
的时候，有一天和哥哥
一块儿吃梨。盘子里的梨有大的，也有小的，孔融拿了一个小梨。\r\n\r\n2) 爸爸看见了，问道：“你为什么不拿大的呢？”\r\n\r\n3) 孔融说：“我是弟弟，应该吃小的。”\r\n\r\n
See source \r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 太阳花是一种很美丽的小花，细细的小花瓣，粉红粉红的，鲜艳极了。叶子呢，也是细细的，嫩嫩的，像含着一包绿汁。\r\n\r\n2) 早上，太阳一升起，太阳花就兴冲冲地开放了。傍晚，太阳一下山，太阳花就慢慢合拢花瓣睡觉了。\r\n\r\n3) 太阳花的颜色可多了！有粉红的，有黄黄的、蓝蓝的，还有紫紫的。\r\n\r\n
See source \r\n
Verb Doubling
\r\nDid you know that doubling up a verb in Chinese changes the tone of the verb? Yup. When you double up a verb, it implies that the action is done casually or in a carefree, offhand way. So this bit: 这里飞飞，那里停停，implies laid back \"flying\" and \"stopping\", as in, \"Flying here, stopping there\", or, \"Casually flying here and there\".\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 清清的小河边长满了绿油油的草，夹杂着许多不知名的野花。这就是小蜻蜓活动的天地。\r\n\r\n2) 小蜻蜓，身体轻，看上去好像一架小飞机。\r\n\r\n3) 它们有时在花间飞舞，有时轻轻掠过水面。这里飞飞，那里停停，小蜻蜓过者悠闲的日子。\r\n
See source \r\n
Inescapable - 逃不过 [pinyin]tao4 bu2 guo4[/pinyin]
\r\nTry as you might, there are some things in this life you can\'t get away from. If you\'re human, death and taxes, right? If you\'re a mouse, cats. And when we\'re describing these unavoidable things in Chinese, we might use the phrase 逃不过. \"A 逃不过 B\" means \"A can\'t escape from B\", or \"A couldn\'t escape B\". \r\n\r\nHard bits
\r\nIn the fourth sentence, the author mentions that cat\'s whiskers are \"像把尺\" - huh? Seems awkward and confusing, but this is perhaps easier to understand if I add back in the character that the author dropped from this sentence: \r\n\r\n猫的胡须像一把尺
\r\n\r\nAh, once the number 一 [pinyin]yi1[/pinyin] goes back in there, the meaning is a little clearer. See, 把 [pinyin]ba3[/pinyin] is most frequently used as a verb that means \"to take\" or \"to pick up\". But in this case, it\'s a measure word for long, straight, rigid things. Which long, straight, rigid things? In this case, rulers, 尺 [pinyin]chi3[/pinyin]. So the entire phrase means:\r\n\r\nCat whiskers are like rulers
\r\n\r\nAre they, though? This makes more sense when you read the rest, so I\'ll leave you to it:\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n猫是捉老鼠的能手。它的耳朵很灵敏，能转来转去，哪怕是极小的声音，它也能及时辨出。猫有一双明亮的眼睛，狡猾的老鼠逃不过它的眼睛。猫的胡须像把尺，能测出各个洞的大小。猫的脚爪上有锋利的爪子，能爬树、跳墙、追捕老鼠。 \r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
Verb + Result - 冲坏
\r\nIn Chinese, very often an action, and then the result of that action, are placed right next to each other. We see a pretty sweet example of this in paragraph two: \r\n\r\n(雨)把道路冲坏了。
\r\n\r\nFirst, we see the verb, in this case 冲 ([pinyin]chong[/pinyin] - to flood, gush or pour), and then the result of that verb, in this case 坏 ([pinyin]huai4[/pinyin] - broken, messed up). In other words, the rain flooded the streets until they were a big ol\' mess. More examples:\r\n\r\n倒满了水\r\nto pour full of water\r\n\r\n把玩具弄坏\r\nTake the toy and use it until it\'s broken (break it)\r\n\r\n用光了钱\r\nUse up the money\r\n\r\nAnd now, our feature presentation. \r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 我喜欢雨。春天的雨使种子发芽，大地一片桃红柳绿。夏天的雨给大地洗个澡，人们觉得很凉快。秋天的雨给大地换上了金色的外衣，大地丰收了。\r\n\r\n2) 可是，昨天的雨太可怕了，就像天上有人把一盆一盆的水往下倒，把道路
冲坏了，把庄稼冲坏了。\r\n\r\n3) 雨给人们带来了许多好处，有时也会给人们带来灾难。\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
三步并作两步 [pinyin]san1 bu4 bing4 zuo4 liang3 bu4[/pinyin]
\r\nCouldn\'t find this in the dictionary, had to turn to Baidu Answers for feedback. Apparently, 三步并作两步 is just a wordy way to say \"walking fast\". The phrase also seems to have a few different permutations, and turned up in web searches more commonly as: 三步并做二步. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 苏联优秀小说《钢铁是怎样炼成的》作者尼古拉·奥斯特洛夫斯基，从小就懂得关心和同情别人。有一次，母亲让他去铁路机车库给哥哥送早饭，临走时，再三嘱咐他路上不要逗留。可尼古拉一去就是几个小时，直到日升中天时还没有回来。母亲心慌意乱起来，几次跑到篱栅门外去张望。因为她知道，尼古拉经过车站时，经常从车厢底下爬过去。这样虽然少跑了路，但很容易发生危险。望来望去，仍然不见尼古拉的影子，母亲只好三步并作两步往车库方向找去，就在母亲心急如焚的时候，终于看见了尼古拉的身影。 \r\n\r\n2) 原来，尼古拉在从车库回家的路上，遇见一位妇女。她身上背着两个满满鼓鼓的大口袋，一只手提着篮子，里面放着一只母鸡和许多小鸡，另一只手还领着一个两三岁的孩子。那孩子正哭着闹着不肯走呢！尼古拉一问，知道她是急着去赶火车的，眼下离开车时间只有十几分钟了。偏偏就在这个时候，母鸡挣脱篮子飞了出来，小鸡也跟着四处乱跑。尼古拉见此情景，毫不迟疑地跑过去，把母鸡和小鸡一只只抓住，放进了篮子，并把篮子牢牢捆好。随后，又接过那位妇女背上的口袋，一直送她到了车站。母亲听了，心中的火气顿时烟消云散。她高兴地抱住尼古拉，接连亲吻了几次。\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
However - 却
\r\nThis passage is a good showcase for 却 [pinyin]que4[/pinyin]. 却 usually appears in the second part of a sentence, and indicates a reversal of whatever was said in the first bit, similar to \"however\", \"but\", or \"on the other hand\". \r\n\r\nHowever (heh), 却 is used a little differently than we might use these words in English. You can\'t stick it in the beginning of a sentence. \"However, she only waited two hours before she decided to go home.\" MAY NOT BE translated as \"却, 她只等了两个小时就决定回家了。\" \r\n\r\nRather, you stick it behind the noun in the second part of the sentence to show contrast with the first part: 我想去，他却不想去。(\"I want to go, he, however, does not.\")\r\n\r\nYou\'ll see this several times in the passage below. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 小乌龟问妈妈：“为什么我们生下来，就要背着这又硬又重的外壳呢？” \r\n\r\n2) 妈妈：“因为我们的身体很软，很脆弱，可以爬，却爬不快；可以游，又游不远。外面的世界充满了危险，这个壳就是保护我们的家啊！” \r\n\r\n3) 小乌龟疑惑地问：“可是海鸥小妹妹的身体好像也很软，为什么她却不用背像我们这样又硬又重的壳呢？” \r\n\r\n4) 妈妈耐心地解释：“因为海鸥妹妹长大了会飞翔，天空会保护她啊。” \r\n\r\n5) 小乌龟还是不明白：“青蛙弟弟也很软，爬不快游不远，而且也不会飞翔，他为什么不背像我们这样又硬又重的壳呢？” \r\n\r\n6) 妈妈说：“因为青蛙弟弟的家在麦田，大地会保护他啊。” \r\n\r\n7) 小乌龟哭了起来：“我们好可怜，天空不保护我们，大地也不保护我们。” \r\n\r\n8) 乌龟妈妈安慰他：“可是我们有壳啊！我们不靠天，不靠地，我们只靠我们自己。”\r\n\r\n\r\nSee the
source.\r\n\r\n
\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 清末著名画家任伯年，出身贫寒，父亲早亡。他为谋生路，十五岁就流落到上海，自画扇面，摆摊出卖。然而，一个穷孩子的画谁能瞧得上眼呢？他每日都在为温饱而发愁。有一次，他看到两个人为争名画家任渭长的一幅画而吵得面红耳赤，非常感慨，心想：为克服生活困境，挣点学习费用，何不借用一下任渭长的大名呢！于是，他就把自己画的扇面都假落“任渭长”的名字。果然，地摊上的生意一天天地好起来。 \r\n\r\n2) 当时，任渭长正在上海。一天，他经过任伯年的地摊，见地摊上的扇面画得不错，拿起来仔细一瞧，上面的落款竟是自己的名字，十分诧异，就问道：“这些扇面是谁画的？” \r\n\r\n3) “任渭长画的。”任伯年回答。 \r\n\r\n4) “任渭长是你什么人？” \r\n\r\n5) “我的叔叔。” \r\n\r\n6) “你见过他么？” \r\n\r\n7) “这...”任伯年愣了一下，不高兴地说：“你要买就买，不买就算了，何必打破砂锅问到底？” \r\n\r\n8) 任渭长觉得这孩子倒也可爱，就笑着说：“我就是任渭长。” \r\n\r\n9) 任伯年一听，羞愧得无地自容，欲正打算丢下地摊逃走，任渭长一把拉住了他，和气地问道：“你为什么要冒名顶替呢？” \r\n\r\n10) 任伯年把自己的真实想法一五一十地全讲了。任渭长十分同情任伯年的处境，再看他的画也已有几分基础，就当场表示愿意收他为徒。 \r\n\r\n11) 任伯年因祸得福，喜出望外，马上叩头拜了老师。在任渭长的指导下，任伯年长进很快，不到壮年，他的画已名扬江南了。 \r\n\r\n
See source\r\n\r\n \r\n
Sleeptalking - 呓呓
\r\nWe\'re all acquainted with the common Chinese onomatopoeia by now, yes? 喵喵 [pinyin]miao1 miao1[/pinyin] is the sound a cat makes, etc? Here\'s a less familiar one: the Chinese onomatopoeia for talking in your sleep is \"呓呓\" [pinyin]yi4 yi4[/pinyin]. So, that\'s a thing. \r\n\r\nAdventures in Murder - 灭口
\r\nLot of meaning packed into this one tiny word, 灭口 [pinyin]mie4 kou3[/pinyin]. Makes sense, though: 灭 means \"to snuff out\", 口 is that big hole in your face, the one you keep opening right when you shouldn\'t. Together, these character describe committing murder in order to protect a secret. \"To snuff out the mouth\", indeed. \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text:
\r\n1) 东晋时期著名书法家王羲之，七岁就开始练字，尚未成年，已经落笔不俗，被人誉为“小神笔”。 \r\n\r\n2) 当时，朝廷中有位名叫王敦的大将军，常常把王羲之带到军帐中表演书法，天色晚了，还让他在自己的床铺上睡觉。 \r\n\r\n3) 有一次，王敦起床了，王羲之还没有醒。一会儿，王敦的心腹谋士钱凤进来了，两人悄悄地商量事情，谈的是想造反的事，却忘记了王羲之还睡在帐中。王羲之醒来，听见了他们的谈话内容，非常吃惊，心想：“如果他们记起了自己睡在这里，一定会怀疑机密泄露，说不定要杀人
灭口呢！怎么办？” 恰好昨天喝了点酒，于是，他就假装酩酊大醉，把床上吐得遍处都是，接着，又蒙头盖脸，发出轻轻的鼾声，好像睡熟了似的。 \r\n\r\n4) 王敦和钱凤密谈了多时，忽然想起了王羲之，不由得心惊肉跳，脸色骤变。钱凤咬着牙根，恶狠狠地说：“这小子，不能不除掉。不然，我们都要遭灭门之祸了。” 两人手握尖刀，掀开帐子，正要下手，忽听王羲之“呓呓”地说起梦话来，再一看，崭新的被褥吐满了饭菜，散发出一股呛鼻的酒味。王敦和钱凤相视片刻，都以为王羲之酒后熟睡未醒，也就算了。\r\n\r\n
See source \r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n古代南北朝的时候，宋国有位将军姓宗名悫，他从小就很勇敢，也很有抱负。有一天，宗悫的叔父问他有什么志向，宗悫回答道：“愿乘长风，破万里浪。”意思是：我一定要突破一切障碍，勇往直前，干一番事业。宗悫经过勤学苦练，努力奋斗，终于成为一位能征善战的将军。\r\n\r\n后来，人们就用“乘风破浪”来形容不怕困难，奋勇前进的精神。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nIn ancient times, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there was a general of the Song State, whose surname was Zong, and whose family name Que. Even as a child he was brave, and full of ambition. One day, Zong Que\'s uncle asked him about his aspirations, to which Zong Que replied, \"I wish to ride the long wind, and brave 10,000 waves.\" By this he meant: \"I will undoubtedly break through any obstructions, bravely forging ahead in a given undertaking. Zong Que underwent rigorous training, assiduously struggling on, finally becoming a skillful general. \r\n\r\nLater, people used the term \"Ride the wind and brave the waves\" to describe a spirit unafraid of meeting difficulty, one which plows ahead with courage and energy. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 乘风破浪 - Bravery & Courage', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1779-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-12 09:39:26', '2016-11-12 14:39:26', '', 1779, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1779-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2452, 1, '2016-11-12 09:43:58', '2016-11-12 14:43:58', 'Martial vocab in this Text
\r\n勇敢\r\n抱负\r\n勤学苦练\r\n奋斗 [pinyin] - This word is useful outside of any martial . \r\n\r\n乘风破浪 Usage Examples
\r\n\r\nhttps://zhidao.baidu.com/question/130604310.html\r\n\r\nxx\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n古代南北朝的时候，宋国有位将军姓宗名悫，他从小就很勇敢，也很有抱负。有一天，宗悫的叔父问他有什么志向，宗悫回答道：“愿乘长风，破万里浪。”意思是：我一定要突破一切障碍，勇往直前，干一番事业。宗悫经过勤学苦练，努力奋斗，终于成为一位能征善战的将军。\r\n\r\n后来，人们就用“乘风破浪”来形容不怕困难，奋勇前进的精神。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nIn ancient times, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there was a general of the Song State, whose surname was Zong, and whose family name Que. Even as a child he was brave, and full of ambition. One day, Zong Que\'s uncle asked him about his aspirations, to which Zong Que replied, \"I will ride the long wind, and brave 10,000 waves.\" By this he meant: \"I will undoubtedly break through any obstructions, bravely forging ahead in a given undertaking.\" Zong Que underwent rigorous training, assiduously struggling on, finally becoming a skillful general. \r\n\r\nLater, people used the term \"Ride the wind and brave the waves\" to describe a spirit unafraid of meeting difficulty, one which plows ahead with courage and energy. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 乘风破浪 - Bravery & Courage', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1779-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-12 09:43:58', '2016-11-12 14:43:58', '', 1779, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1779-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2453, 1, '2016-11-12 09:52:33', '2016-11-12 14:52:33', 'Martial vocab in this Text
\r\n奋斗 [pinyin] - This word is useful outside of any martial context. Not only does it mean \"to struggle\" in the military sense, it also means \"to struggle\" in the \"life is friggin\' hard\" sense. \r\n勇敢\r\n抱负\r\n勤学苦练\r\n\r\n\r\n乘风破浪 Usage Examples
\r\n\r\n\r\n- 在工作上,我们要敢于乘风破浪。 - In my work, I must dare to dare.
\r\n- 人民解放军乘风破浪，横渡长江。 - The daring and courageousPeople\'s Liberation Army crossed the Yangtze River.
\r\n- 这艘轮船乘风破浪驶向大海。 - This ship, braving the winds and waves, flies towards the sea.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nSee the source\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n古代南北朝的时候，宋国有位将军姓宗名悫，他从小就很勇敢，也很有抱负。有一天，宗悫的叔父问他有什么志向，宗悫回答道：“愿乘长风，破万里浪。”意思是：我一定要突破一切障碍，勇往直前，干一番事业。宗悫经过勤学苦练，努力奋斗，终于成为一位能征善战的将军。\r\n\r\n后来，人们就用“乘风破浪”来形容不怕困难，奋勇前进的精神。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nIn ancient times, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there was a general of the Song State, whose surname was Zong, and whose family name Que. Even as a child he was brave and full of ambition. One day, Zong Que\'s uncle asked him about his aspirations, to which Zong Que replied, \"I will ride the long wind, and brave 10,000 waves.\" By this he meant: \"I will undoubtedly break through any obstructions, bravely forging ahead in a given undertaking.\" Zong Que underwent rigorous training, assiduously struggling on, finally becoming a skillful general. \r\n\r\nLater, people used the term \"Ride the wind and brave the waves\" to describe a spirit unafraid of meeting difficulty, one which plows ahead with courage and energy. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 乘风破浪 - Bravery & Courage', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1779-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-12 09:52:33', '2016-11-12 14:52:33', '', 1779, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1779-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2454, 1, '2016-11-12 09:57:38', '2016-11-12 14:57:38', 'Martial vocab in this Text
\r\n奋斗 [pinyin]fen4 dou4[/pinyin] - To struggle \r\nThis word is useful outside of any martial context. Not only does it mean \"to struggle\" in the military sense, it also means \"to struggle\" in the \"life is hard\" sense. It can be used to describe the general struggle of the daily grind: getting up, getting the kids to school, working long hours, making dinner. If, for example, a husband and wife were to say to you: \"我们奋斗了六年。\" that would mean, \"We worked our butts off for six years.\" \r\n\r\n勇敢\r\n\r\n抱负\r\n勤学苦练\r\n\r\n\r\n乘风破浪 Usage Examples
\r\n\r\n\r\n- 在工作上,我们要敢于乘风破浪。 - In my work, I must dare to dare.
\r\n- 人民解放军乘风破浪，横渡长江。 - The daring and courageousPeople\'s Liberation Army crossed the Yangtze River.
\r\n- 这艘轮船乘风破浪驶向大海。 - This ship, braving the winds and waves, flies towards the sea.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nSee the source\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n古代南北朝的时候，宋国有位将军姓宗名悫，他从小就很勇敢，也很有抱负。有一天，宗悫的叔父问他有什么志向，宗悫回答道：“愿乘长风，破万里浪。”意思是：我一定要突破一切障碍，勇往直前，干一番事业。宗悫经过勤学苦练，努力奋斗，终于成为一位能征善战的将军。\r\n\r\n后来，人们就用“乘风破浪”来形容不怕困难，奋勇前进的精神。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nIn ancient times, during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there was a general of the Song State, whose surname was Zong, and whose family name Que. Even as a child he was brave and full of ambition. One day, Zong Que\'s uncle asked him about his aspirations, to which Zong Que replied, \"I will ride the long wind, and brave 10,000 waves.\" By this he meant: \"I will undoubtedly break through any obstructions, bravely forging ahead in a given undertaking.\" Zong Que underwent rigorous training, assiduously struggling on, finally becoming a skillful general. \r\n\r\nLater, people used the term \"Ride the wind and brave the waves\" to describe a spirit unafraid of meeting difficulty, one which plows ahead with courage and energy. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 乘风破浪 - Bravery & Courage', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1779-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-12 09:57:38', '2016-11-12 14:57:38', '', 1779, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1779-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2455, 1, '2016-11-12 12:15:58', '2016-11-12 17:15:58', 'This 成语 story takes place during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, which lasted a hundred or so years, from 420 to 589 - and describes the origin of the Chinese idiom 乘风破浪. \r\n\r\nSome good martial vocab
\r\n奋斗 [pinyin]fen4 dou4[/pinyin] - To struggle \r\nThis word is useful outside of any martial context. Not only does it mean \"to struggle\" in the military sense, it also means \"to struggle\" in the \"life is hard\" sense. It can be used to describe the general struggle of the daily grind: getting up, getting the kids to school, working long hours, making dinner. If, for example, a husband and wife were to say to you: \"我们奋斗了六年。\" that would mean, \"We worked our butts off for six years.\" \r\n\r\n勇敢 [pinyin]\r\n\r\n抱负\r\n勤学苦练\r\n\r\n\r\n乘风破浪 Usage Examples
\r\n\r\n\r\n- 在工作上,我们要敢于乘风破浪。 - In my work, I must dare to dare.
\r\n- 人民解放军乘风破浪，横渡长江。 - The daring and courageousPeople\'s Liberation Army crossed the Yangtze River.
\r\n- 这艘轮船乘风破浪驶向大海。 - This ship, braving the winds and waves, flies towards the sea.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nSee the source\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n古代南北朝的时候，宋国有位将军姓宗名悫，他从小就很勇敢，也很有抱负。有一天，宗悫的叔父问他有什么志向，宗悫回答道：“愿乘长风，破万里浪。”意思是：我一定要突破一切障碍，勇往直前，干一番事业。宗悫经过勤学苦练，努力奋斗，终于成为一位能征善战的将军。\r\n\r\n后来，人们就用“乘风破浪”来形容不怕困难，奋勇前进的精神。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nIn ancient times, during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there was a general of the Song State, whose surname was Zong, and whose family name Que. Even as a child he was brave and full of ambition. One day, Zong Que\'s uncle asked him about his aspirations, to which Zong Que replied, \"I will ride the long wind, and brave 10,000 waves.\" By this he meant: \"I will undoubtedly break through any obstructions, bravely forging ahead in a given undertaking.\" Zong Que underwent rigorous training, assiduously struggling on, finally becoming a skillful general. \r\n\r\nLater, people used the term \"Ride the wind and brave the waves\" to describe a spirit unafraid of meeting difficulty, one which plows ahead with courage and energy. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 乘风破浪 - Bravery & Courage', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1779-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-12 12:15:58', '2016-11-12 17:15:58', '', 1779, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1779-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2456, 1, '2016-11-13 05:53:49', '2016-11-13 10:53:49', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'learn-to-read-chinese-bravery', '', '', '2016-11-13 05:55:46', '2016-11-13 10:55:46', '', 1779, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/learn-to-read-chinese-bravery.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2457, 1, '2016-11-13 18:07:00', '2016-11-13 23:07:00', 'Hey. I\'m Kendra.
\r\nI\'m an American writer, designer and interface consultant living in Beijing. I moved to China in 2002. Somewhere in the middle there, I moved back to the U.S. for a couple of years. I searched online for Chinese reading materials, and though I found plenty of dictionaries and flash card sources, I had a very difficult time finding something that was at an appropriate reading level, was different than the typical textbook-y stuff available online, was presented in a way that was easy to read, and that I was sure I could get through. I ended up spending more time looking for something that was suitable than actually doing any reading. Even worse, I\'d often get through a few paragraphs only to hit a phrase I couldn\'t decipher and, with no one to ask, would have to put the reading aside. It almost killed my interest in the language all-together. \r\n\r\nI am not a grammarian, \r\n\r\nThis site is not
\r\nIf you don\'t have at least a basic grounding in Chinese, this site probably isn\'t for you. This site doesn\'t exist to teach you Chinese from scratch - there are plenty of sites and programs that do that. But this collection might help you keep your skills fresh, practice recognizing sentence structure, or pick up the occasional new vocabulary word.\r\n\r\nThe Story
\r\n\r\n\r\nReading Levels
\r\n\r\nSuper Easy
\r\n\r\n\r\nBeginner
\r\nVery very few of these texts are actually beginner tests; at least I haven\'t been able to find any real beginner stuff yet (I\'m still looking for good sources of real beginner texts that aren\'t boring dialogs - if you know of any, please write!). This is because for any story, article or essay to really take shape, it usually must involve some intermediate grammar or intermediate vocabulary. This is why most truly beginner textbooks stick to dialogs as opposed to actual articles. In order to do any real reading, you\'ve got to at least know the basics of sentence structure. I will classify something as beginner if at least a couple of the following criteria are met:\r\n\r\n - The sentence structure is easy throughout
\r\n - It contains mostly simpler words that are in the dictionary
\r\n - There is no modern slang
\r\n - The subject matter is basic / or for children
\r\n - It\'s not too long
\r\n - It contains few or no idioms
\r\n- It contains intermediate vocabulary but the story structure is very repetitive, so you can pick up the thread more easily as you go along.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nIntermediate
\r\nI classify something as intermediate if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It\'s a longer piece that you have to hold a narrative thread through.
\r\n- The language is intermediate or upper-intermediate.
\r\n- There are some light idioms.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAdvanced
\r\nMost of what\'s out there online is advanced reading. I classify something as advanced if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It contains many specialized or technical words (technology, health, beauty, geography, etc.)
\r\n- It contains high-level structures, like newspaper-y or literary writing styles.
\r\n- It contains any archaic words.
\r\n- The sentence structure is very complicated.
\r\n- It contains a lot of modern slang.
\r\n
\r\n', 'About', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-13 18:07:00', '2016-11-13 23:07:00', '', 2, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(2458, 1, '2016-11-13 18:23:43', '2016-11-13 23:23:43', 'Hey. I\'m Kendra.
\r\nI\'m an American writer, designer and interface consultant living in Beijing. I first pitched camp in China around 2002, and I\'ve been studying the language on and off ever since. When I was first starting out, I had no idea how to make the leap from memorizing characters to actually reading. I spent a considerable amount of time searching online for Chinese reading materials and finding nothing suitable. Though there are plenty of dictionaries and flash card sources, I had a very difficult time finding something that was at an appropriate reading level, was presented in a way that was easy to read, and that I was sure I could get through. I ended up spending more time looking for something that was suitable than actually doing any reading. Even worse, I\'d often get through a few paragraphs only to hit a phrase I couldn\'t decipher and, with no one to ask, would have to put the reading aside. The struggle almost killed my interest in the language all together. \r\n\r\nI am not a grammarian. I\'m not a linguist. I\'ve studied Mandarin for over 10 years and I still can\'t tell you what a \"predicate\" is. \r\n\r\nWho this site is for
\r\nI didn\'t create this site to teach you Chinese from scratch - there are plenty of sites and programs that do that - so if you don\'t have at least a very basic grounding in Chinese, this site probably isn\'t for you. But if you\'re looking to make that transition from memorizing characters to actually reading texts in Chinese, welcome. We have mooncakes. \r\n\r\nAbout the Reading Levels
\r\n\r\nAgain, if you\'ve never studied Chinese before, even the easiest of these texts will be hard for you to get through. This is because for any story, article or essay to really take shape, it usually must involve some intermediate grammar or intermediate vocabulary. This is why most truly beginner textbooks stick to dialog as opposed to actual articles. In order to do any real reading, you\'ve got to at least know the basics of sentence structure. So, reading levels on this site are a little relative. If you think I\'ve incorrectly categorized a text, please tell me in the comments, and if I agree, I\'ll move it to a different level. \r\n\r\nSuper Easy
\r\nI will classify something as \"super easy\" if it\'s very short, \r\n\r\nBeginner
\r\nI will classify something as beginner if at least a couple of the following criteria are met:\r\n\r\n - The sentence structure is easy throughout
\r\n - It contains mostly simpler words that are in the dictionary
\r\n - There is no modern slang
\r\n - The subject matter is basic / or for children
\r\n - It\'s not too long
\r\n - It contains few or no idioms
\r\n- It contains intermediate vocabulary but the story structure is very repetitive, so you can pick up the thread more easily as you go along.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nIntermediate
\r\nI classify something as intermediate if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It\'s a longer piece that you have to hold a narrative thread through.
\r\n- The language is intermediate or upper-intermediate.
\r\n- There are some light idioms.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAdvanced
\r\nMost of what\'s out there online is advanced reading. I classify something as advanced if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It contains many specialized or technical words (technology, health, beauty, geography, etc.)
\r\n- It contains high-level structures, like newspaper-y or literary writing styles.
\r\n- It contains any archaic words.
\r\n- The sentence structure is very complicated.
\r\n- It contains a lot of modern slang.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nWhere I get my material
\r\nMaterial is taken. I don\'t always post the whole, particularly ', 'About', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-13 18:23:43', '2016-11-13 23:23:43', '', 2, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2459, 1, '2016-11-13 18:25:03', '2016-11-13 23:25:03', 'Hey. I\'m Kendra.
\r\nI\'m an American writer, designer and interface consultant living in Beijing. I first pitched camp in China around 2002, and I\'ve been studying the language on and off ever since. When I was first starting out, I had no idea how to make the leap from memorizing characters to actually reading. I spent a considerable amount of time searching online for Chinese reading materials and finding nothing suitable. Though there are plenty of dictionaries and flash card sources, I had a very difficult time finding something that was at an appropriate reading level, was presented in a way that was easy to read, and that I was sure I could get through. I ended up spending more time looking for something that was suitable than actually doing any reading. Even worse, I\'d often get through a few paragraphs only to hit a phrase I couldn\'t decipher and, with no one to ask, would have to put the reading aside. The struggle almost killed my interest in the language all together. \r\n\r\nI am not a grammarian. I\'m not a linguist. I\'ve studied Mandarin for over 10 years and I still can\'t tell you what a \"predicate\" is. \r\n\r\nWho this site is for
\r\nI didn\'t create this site to teach you Chinese from scratch - there are plenty of sites and programs that do that - so if you don\'t have at least a very basic grounding in Chinese, this site probably isn\'t for you. But if you\'re looking to make that transition from memorizing characters to understanding texts, welcome. We have mooncakes. \r\n\r\nAbout the Reading Levels
\r\nAgain, if you\'ve never studied Chinese before, even the easiest of these texts will be hard for you to get through. This is because for any story, article or essay to really take shape, it usually must involve some intermediate grammar or intermediate vocabulary. This is why most truly beginner textbooks stick to dialog as opposed to actual articles. In order to do any real reading, you\'ve got to at least know the basics of sentence structure. So, reading levels on this site are a little relative. If you think I\'ve incorrectly categorized a text, please tell me in the comments, and if I agree, I\'ll move it to a different level. \r\n\r\nSuper Easy
\r\nI will classify something as \"super easy\" if it\'s very short, \r\n\r\nBeginner
\r\nI will classify something as beginner if at least a couple of the following criteria are met:\r\n\r\n - The sentence structure is easy throughout
\r\n - It contains mostly simpler words that are in the dictionary
\r\n - There is no modern slang
\r\n - The subject matter is basic / or for children
\r\n - It\'s not too long
\r\n - It contains few or no idioms
\r\n- It contains intermediate vocabulary but the story structure is very repetitive, so you can pick up the thread more easily as you go along.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nIntermediate
\r\nI classify something as intermediate if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It\'s a longer piece that you have to hold a narrative thread through.
\r\n- The language is intermediate or upper-intermediate.
\r\n- There are some light idioms.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAdvanced
\r\nMost of what\'s out there online is advanced reading. I classify something as advanced if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It contains many specialized or technical words (technology, health, beauty, geography, etc.)
\r\n- It contains high-level structures, like newspaper-y or literary writing styles.
\r\n- It contains any archaic words.
\r\n- The sentence structure is very complicated.
\r\n- It contains a lot of modern slang.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nWhere I get my material
\r\nMaterial is taken. I don\'t always post the whole, particularly ', 'About', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-13 18:25:03', '2016-11-13 23:25:03', '', 2, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2460, 1, '2016-11-13 18:39:21', '2016-11-13 23:39:21', 'Hey. I\'m Kendra.
\r\nI\'m an American writer, designer and interface consultant living in Beijing. I first pitched camp in China around 2002, and I\'ve been studying the language on and off ever since. When I was first starting out, I had no idea how to make the leap from memorizing characters to actually reading. I spent a considerable amount of time searching online for Chinese reading materials and finding nothing suitable. Though there are plenty of dictionaries and flash card sources out there, I had a very difficult time finding something that was at an appropriate reading level, was presented in a way that was easy to read, and that I was sure I could get through. I ended up spending more time looking for material than actually doing any reading. Even worse, I\'d often get through a few paragraphs only to hit a phrase I couldn\'t decipher and, with no one to ask, would have to put the reading aside. The struggle almost killed my interest in the language. \r\n\r\nI am not a grammarian. I\'m not a linguist. I\'ve studied Mandarin for over 10 years and I still can\'t tell you what a \"predicate\" is. \r\n\r\nWho this site is for
\r\nI didn\'t create this site to teach you Chinese from scratch - there are plenty of sites and programs that do that - so if you don\'t have at least a very basic grounding in Chinese, this site probably isn\'t for you. But if you\'re looking to make that transition from memorizing characters to understanding texts, welcome. We have mooncakes. \r\n\r\nAbout the Reading Levels
\r\nAgain, if you\'ve never studied Chinese before, even the easiest of these texts will be hard for you to get through. This is because for any story, article or essay to really take shape, it usually must involve some intermediate grammar or intermediate vocabulary. This is why most truly beginner textbooks stick to dialog as opposed to actual articles. In order to do any real reading, you\'ve got to at least know the basics of sentence structure. So, reading levels on this site are a little relative. If you think I\'ve incorrectly categorized a text, please tell me in the comments, and if I agree, I\'ll move it to a different level. \r\n\r\nSuper Easy
\r\nI will classify something as \"super easy\" if it meets at least a couple of the following criteria:\r\n\r\n - It\'s extremely short
\r\n - There are no long sentences
\r\n - Minimal grammar
\r\n
\r\n\r\nBeginner
\r\nI will classify something as beginner if:\r\n\r\n - The sentence structure is easy throughout
\r\n - It contains mostly simpler words that are in the dictionary
\r\n - There is no modern slang
\r\n - The subject matter is basic / or for children
\r\n - It\'s not too long
\r\n - It contains few or no idioms
\r\n- It contains intermediate vocabulary but the story structure is very repetitive, so you can pick up the thread more easily as you go along.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nIntermediate
\r\nI classify something as intermediate if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It\'s a longer piece that you have to hold a narrative thread through.
\r\n- The language is intermediate or upper-intermediate.
\r\n- There are some light idioms.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAdvanced
\r\nMost of what\'s out there online is advanced reading. I classify something as advanced if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It contains many specialized or technical words (technology, health, beauty, geography, etc.)
\r\n- It contains high-level structures, like newspaper-y or literary writing styles.
\r\n- It contains any archaic words.
\r\n- The sentence structure is very complicated.
\r\n- It contains a lot of modern slang.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nWhere I get my material
\r\nMaterial is taken. I don\'t always post the whole, particularly ', 'About', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-13 18:39:21', '2016-11-13 23:39:21', '', 2, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2461, 1, '2016-11-13 18:39:56', '2016-11-13 23:39:56', 'Hey. I\'m Kendra.
\r\nI\'m an American writer, designer and interface consultant living in Beijing. I first pitched camp in China around 2002, and I\'ve been studying the language on and off ever since. \r\n\r\nWhen I was first starting out, I had no idea how to make the leap from memorizing characters to actually reading. I spent a considerable amount of time searching online for Chinese reading materials and finding nothing suitable. Though there are plenty of dictionaries and flash card sources out there, I had a very difficult time finding something that was at an appropriate reading level, was presented in a way that was easy to read, and that I was sure I could get through. I ended up spending more time looking for material than actually doing any reading. Even worse, I\'d often get through a few paragraphs only to hit a phrase I couldn\'t decipher and, with no one to ask, would have to put the reading aside. The struggle almost killed my interest in the language. \r\n\r\nI am not a grammarian. I\'m not a linguist. I\'ve studied Mandarin for over 10 years and I still can\'t tell you what a \"predicate\" is. \r\n\r\nWho this site is for
\r\nI didn\'t create this site to teach you Chinese from scratch - there are plenty of sites and programs that do that - so if you don\'t have at least a very basic grounding in Chinese, this site probably isn\'t for you. But if you\'re looking to make that transition from memorizing characters to understanding texts, welcome. We have mooncakes. \r\n\r\nAbout the Reading Levels
\r\nAgain, if you\'ve never studied Chinese before, even the easiest of these texts will be hard for you to get through. This is because for any story, article or essay to really take shape, it usually must involve some intermediate grammar or intermediate vocabulary. This is why most truly beginner textbooks stick to dialog as opposed to actual articles. In order to do any real reading, you\'ve got to at least know the basics of sentence structure. So, reading levels on this site are a little relative. If you think I\'ve incorrectly categorized a text, please tell me in the comments, and if I agree, I\'ll move it to a different level. \r\n\r\nSuper Easy
\r\nI will classify something as \"super easy\" if it meets at least a couple of the following criteria:\r\n\r\n - It\'s extremely short
\r\n - There are no long sentences
\r\n - Minimal grammar
\r\n
\r\n\r\nBeginner
\r\nI will classify something as beginner if:\r\n\r\n - The sentence structure is easy throughout
\r\n - It contains mostly simpler words that are in the dictionary
\r\n - There is no modern slang
\r\n - The subject matter is basic / or for children
\r\n - It\'s not too long
\r\n - It contains few or no idioms
\r\n- It contains intermediate vocabulary but the story structure is very repetitive, so you can pick up the thread more easily as you go along.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nIntermediate
\r\nI classify something as intermediate if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It\'s a longer piece that you have to hold a narrative thread through.
\r\n- The language is intermediate or upper-intermediate.
\r\n- There are some light idioms.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAdvanced
\r\nMost of what\'s out there online is advanced reading. I classify something as advanced if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It contains many specialized or technical words (technology, health, beauty, geography, etc.)
\r\n- It contains high-level structures, like newspaper-y or literary writing styles.
\r\n- It contains any archaic words.
\r\n- The sentence structure is very complicated.
\r\n- It contains a lot of modern slang.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nWhere I get my material
\r\nMaterial is taken. I don\'t always post the whole, particularly ', 'About', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-13 18:39:56', '2016-11-13 23:39:56', '', 2, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2462, 1, '2016-11-13 18:49:04', '2016-11-13 23:49:04', 'This little anecdote takes place during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, which lasted 150 years or so (from 420 to 589 AD), and outlines the origin of the rather stalwart Chinese phrase 乘风破浪 [pinyin]cheng2 feng1 po4 lang4[/pinyin], describes spirited daring and ambition. Unless you regularly lay waste to English garrisons, I don\'t know how often you\'ll encounter 乘风破浪 on day-to-day occasions, but that\'s not to say it doesn\'t have its place. There are those rousing pep talks you give yourself in the bathroom mirror, for instance. \r\n\r\nUsage Examples
\r\n\r\n\r\n- 在工作上,我们要敢于乘风破浪。 - In my work, I must dare to dare.
\r\n- 人民解放军乘风破浪，横渡长江。 - The daring and courageous People\'s Liberation Army crossed the Yangtze River.
\r\n- 这艘轮船乘风破浪驶向大海。 - This ship, braving the winds and waves, flies towards the sea.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nSome good martial vocab
\r\n勇敢 [pinyin]yong3 gan3[/pinyin] - Brave, courageous\r\n\r\n抱负 [pinyin]bao4 fu4[/pinyin] - Aspiration, ambition\r\nThis is something you have, rather than something you are, as in 很有抱负 / 没有抱负。 \r\n\r\n勤学苦练 [pinyin]qin2 xue2 ku3 lian4[/pinyin] - Study diligently and train hard\r\n\r\n奋斗 [pinyin]fen4 dou4[/pinyin] - To struggle \r\nThis word is super useful outside of any martial context. Not only does it mean \"to struggle\" in the military sense, it also means \"to struggle\" in the \"life is hard\" sense. It can be used to describe the general struggle of the daily grind: getting up, getting the kids to school, working long hours, making dinner. If, for example, a husband and wife were to say to you: \"我们奋斗了六年。\" that would mean, \"We worked our butts off for six years.\" \r\n\r\n\r\nSee the source.\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 古代南北朝的时候，宋国有位将军姓宗名悫，他从小就很勇敢，也很有抱负。有一天，宗悫的叔父问他有什么志向，宗悫回答道：“愿乘长风，破万里浪。”意思是：我一定要突破一切障碍，勇往直前，干一番事业。宗悫经过勤学苦练，努力奋斗，终于成为一位能征善战的将军。\r\n\r\n2) 后来，人们就用“乘风破浪”来形容不怕困难，奋勇前进的精神。\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) In ancient times, during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there was a general of the Song State, whose surname was Zong, and whose family name Que. Even as a child he was brave and full of ambition. One day, Zong Que\'s uncle asked him about his aspirations, to which Zong Que replied, \"I will ride the long wind, and brave 10,000 waves.\" By this he meant: \"I will undoubtedly break through any obstructions, bravely forging ahead in a given undertaking.\" Zong Que underwent rigorous training, assiduously struggling on, finally becoming a skillful general. \r\n\r\n2) Later, people used the term \"Ride the wind and brave the waves\" to describe a spirit unafraid of meeting difficulty, one which plows ahead with courage and energy. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idioms] 乘风破浪 - Bravery & Courage', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1779-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-13 18:49:04', '2016-11-13 23:49:04', '', 1779, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1779-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2465, 1, '2016-11-16 18:35:17', '2016-11-16 23:35:17', '仿词', '[Blog] Yo diggety: Can you make up words in Chinese?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2463-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-16 18:35:17', '2016-11-16 23:35:17', '', 2463, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2463-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2466, 1, '2016-11-16 19:11:01', '2016-11-17 00:11:01', '守株待兔 [pinyin]shou3 zhu1 dai4 tu4[/pinyin], or cryptically, to \"guard a tree stump waiting for rabbits\". \r\n\r\nUsage Examples
\r\n\r\n\r\n- 我们要积极创造机会，而不是只会守株待兔而已。 - We have to actively create opportunities, otherwise we\'re just sitting around waiting for a stroke of luck.
\r\n- 一分耕耘一分收穫，守株待兔终究不可靠。 - You reap what you sow, passively waiting for a lucky break is an unreliable strategy in the end.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nSome good martial vocab
\r\n不偏不倚 [pinyin]xx[/pinyin] - Smack-dab\r\n\r\n\r\nSee the source.\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 相传在战国时代宋国，有一个农民，日出而作，日入而息．遇到好年景，也不过刚刚吃饱穿暖；一遇灾荒，可就要忍饥挨饿了．他想改善生活，但他太懒，胆子又特小，干什么都是又懒又怕，总想碰到送上门来的意外之财。\r\n\r\n2) 奇迹终于发生了。深秋的一天，他正在田里耕地，周围有人在打猎。吆喝之声四处起伏，受惊的小野兽没命的奔跑。突然，有一只兔子，不偏不倚，一头撞死在他田边的树根上。\r\n\r\n3) 当天，他美美地饱餐了一顿。从此，他便不再种地。一天到晚，守着那神奇的树根，等着奇迹的出现。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Legend has it that during the Warring States period in the State of Song, there was a farmer who toiled every day from sunrise to sunset. Even in times of plenty, he was still only barely able to eat well and dress warmly; when times of famine came, he invariably went hungry. He wanted to change his life, but he was too lazy, and not particularly brave, and being always slack and afraid, was always hoping wealth would arrive at his door by chance. \r\n\r\n2) A miracle finally happened. One day in the depths of autumn, as he was plowing in the fields, there was someone hunting near by. The cries of the hunters sounded from all sides, and startled little beasts went running in desperation. Suddenly, one little hare ran smack-dab into a tree stump in the middle of the field and died. \r\n\r\n3) That day, the farmer joyously ate his fill. From then on, he never tended another field. From morning until night, he sat guarding that magical tree stump, waiting for miracles. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 守株待兔 - To sit around waiting for a lucky break', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1781-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-16 19:11:01', '2016-11-17 00:11:01', '', 1781, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1781-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2467, 1, '2016-11-16 19:11:34', '2016-11-17 00:11:34', '守株待兔 [pinyin]shou3 zhu1 dai4 tu4[/pinyin], or cryptically, to \"guard a tree stump waiting for rabbits\". \r\n\r\nUsage Examples
\r\n\r\n\r\n- 我们要积极创造机会，而不是只会守株待兔而已。 - We have to actively create opportunities, otherwise we\'re just sitting around waiting for a stroke of luck.
\r\n- 一分耕耘一分收穫，守株待兔终究不可靠。 - You reap what you sow, passively waiting for a lucky break is an unreliable strategy in the end.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nInteresting words
\r\n不偏不倚 [pinyin]xx[/pinyin] - Smack-dab\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSee the source.\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 相传在战国时代宋国，有一个农民，日出而作，日入而息．遇到好年景，也不过刚刚吃饱穿暖；一遇灾荒，可就要忍饥挨饿了．他想改善生活，但他太懒，胆子又特小，干什么都是又懒又怕，总想碰到送上门来的意外之财。\r\n\r\n2) 奇迹终于发生了。深秋的一天，他正在田里耕地，周围有人在打猎。吆喝之声四处起伏，受惊的小野兽没命的奔跑。突然，有一只兔子，不偏不倚，一头撞死在他田边的树根上。\r\n\r\n3) 当天，他美美地饱餐了一顿。从此，他便不再种地。一天到晚，守着那神奇的树根，等着奇迹的出现。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Legend has it that during the Warring States period in the State of Song, there was a farmer who toiled every day from sunrise to sunset. Even in times of plenty, he was still only barely able to eat well and dress warmly; when times of famine came, he invariably went hungry. He wanted to change his life, but he was too lazy, and not particularly brave, and being always slack and afraid, was always hoping wealth would arrive at his door by chance. \r\n\r\n2) A miracle finally happened. One day in the depths of autumn, as he was plowing in the fields, there was someone hunting near by. The cries of the hunters sounded from all sides, and startled little beasts went running in desperation. Suddenly, one little hare ran smack-dab into a tree stump in the middle of the field and died. \r\n\r\n3) That day, the farmer joyously ate his fill. From then on, he never tended another field. From morning until night, he sat guarding that magical tree stump, waiting for miracles. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 守株待兔 - To sit around waiting for a lucky break', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1781-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-16 19:11:34', '2016-11-17 00:11:34', '', 1781, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1781-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2468, 1, '2016-11-17 19:00:14', '2016-11-18 00:00:14', 'Oh man, I dated this guy. Big dreams, no follow-through. Lots of watching CSI while speculating about how much money he was going to make with the project he\'d never get around to actually launching. You know what that guy was doing? He was 守株待兔 [pinyin]shou3 zhu1 dai4 tu4[/pinyin], or more cryptically, \"guarding a tree stump waiting for rabbits\". \r\n\r\nUsage Examples
\r\n\r\n\r\n- 我们要积极创造机会，而不是只会守株待兔而已。 - We have to actively create opportunities, otherwise we\'re just sitting around waiting for a stroke of luck.
\r\n- 一分耕耘一分收穫，守株待兔终究不可靠。 - You reap what you sow, passively waiting for a lucky break is an unreliable strategy in the end.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAs outlined in the first sentence of the text, this story takes place during the Warring States period (475 and 221 BC), a 250-year mess which was finally resolved when legendary emperor Qin Shihuang (秦始皇) whipped everyone\'s butt and unified China for the first time. While he was doing that, however, the protagonist in our little ditty here was farming. And then giving up farming. \r\n\r\nPay attention to...
\r\n不偏不倚 [pinyin]bu4 pian1 bu4 yi3[/pinyin] - Smack-dab\r\nIf you nab the definition directly out of the dictionary, this word makes zero sense. It translates as \"impartial\" or \"unbiased\", but in this case, it means \"straight\" or \"smack-dab\", as in \"He ran smack-dab into the door-frame\". \r\n\r\n日出而作，日入而息\r\nThis structure, specifically the way the character 而 is used, draws a little on classical Chinese grammar. 而 has a ton of meanings. \r\nSee the source.\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 相传在战国时代宋国，有一个农民，日出而作，日入而息．遇到好年景，也不过刚刚吃饱穿暖；一遇灾荒，可就要忍饥挨饿了．他想改善生活，但他太懒，胆子又特小，干什么都是又懒又怕，总想碰到送上门来的意外之财。\r\n\r\n2) 奇迹终于发生了。深秋的一天，他正在田里耕地，周围有人在打猎。吆喝之声四处起伏，受惊的小野兽没命的奔跑。突然，有一只兔子，不偏不倚，一头撞死在他田边的树根上。\r\n\r\n3) 当天，他美美地饱餐了一顿。从此，他便不再种地。一天到晚，守着那神奇的树根，等着奇迹的出现。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Legend has it that during the Warring States period in the State of Song, there was a farmer who toiled every day from sunrise to sunset. Even in times of plenty, he was still only barely able to eat well and dress warmly; when times of famine came, he invariably went hungry. He wanted to change his life, but he was too lazy, and not particularly brave, and being always slack and afraid, was always hoping wealth would arrive at his door by chance. \r\n\r\n2) A miracle finally happened. One day in the depths of autumn, as he was plowing in the fields, there was someone hunting near by. The cries of the hunters sounded from all sides, and startled little beasts went running in desperation. Suddenly, one little hare ran smack-dab into a tree stump in the middle of the field and died. \r\n\r\n3) That day, the farmer joyously ate his fill. From then on, he never tended another field. From morning until night, he sat guarding that magical tree stump, waiting for miracles. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 守株待兔 - To sit around waiting for a lucky break', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1781-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-17 19:00:14', '2016-11-18 00:00:14', '', 1781, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1781-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2469, 1, '2016-11-17 19:01:01', '2016-11-18 00:01:01', 'Oh man, I dated this guy. Big dreams, no follow-through. Lots of watching CSI while speculating about how much money he was going to make with the project he\'d never get around to actually launching. You know what that guy was doing? He was 守株待兔 [pinyin]shou3 zhu1 dai4 tu4[/pinyin], or more cryptically, \"guarding a tree stump waiting for rabbits\". \r\n\r\nUsage Examples
\r\n\r\n\r\n- 我们要积极创造机会，而不是只会守株待兔而已。 - We have to actively create opportunities, otherwise we\'re just sitting around waiting for a stroke of luck.
\r\n- 一分耕耘一分收穫，守株待兔终究不可靠。 - You reap what you sow, passively waiting for a lucky break is an unreliable strategy in the end.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAs outlined in the first sentence of the text, this story takes place during the Warring States period (475 and 221 BC), a 250-year mess which was finally kind of resolved when legendary emperor Qin Shihuang (秦始皇) whipped everyone\'s butt and unified China for the first time. While he was doing that, on the other hand, the protagonist in our little ditty here was farming. And then giving up farming for a career in sitting down. \r\n\r\nPay attention to...
\r\n不偏不倚 [pinyin]bu4 pian1 bu4 yi3[/pinyin] - Smack-dab\r\nIf you nab the definition directly out of the dictionary, this word makes zero sense. It translates as \"impartial\" or \"unbiased\", but in this case, it means \"straight\" or \"smack-dab\", as in \"He ran smack-dab into the door-frame\". \r\n\r\n日出而作，日入而息\r\nThis structure, specifically the way the character 而 is used, draws a little on classical Chinese grammar. 而 has a ton of meanings. \r\nSee the source.\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 相传在战国时代宋国，有一个农民，日出而作，日入而息．遇到好年景，也不过刚刚吃饱穿暖；一遇灾荒，可就要忍饥挨饿了．他想改善生活，但他太懒，胆子又特小，干什么都是又懒又怕，总想碰到送上门来的意外之财。\r\n\r\n2) 奇迹终于发生了。深秋的一天，他正在田里耕地，周围有人在打猎。吆喝之声四处起伏，受惊的小野兽没命的奔跑。突然，有一只兔子，不偏不倚，一头撞死在他田边的树根上。\r\n\r\n3) 当天，他美美地饱餐了一顿。从此，他便不再种地。一天到晚，守着那神奇的树根，等着奇迹的出现。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Legend has it that during the Warring States period in the State of Song, there was a farmer who toiled every day from sunrise to sunset. Even in times of plenty, he was still only barely able to eat well and dress warmly; when times of famine came, he invariably went hungry. He wanted to change his life, but he was too lazy, and not particularly brave, and being always slack and afraid, was always hoping wealth would arrive at his door by chance. \r\n\r\n2) A miracle finally happened. One day in the depths of autumn, as he was plowing in the fields, there was someone hunting near by. The cries of the hunters sounded from all sides, and startled little beasts went running in desperation. Suddenly, one little hare ran smack-dab into a tree stump in the middle of the field and died. \r\n\r\n3) That day, the farmer joyously ate his fill. From then on, he never tended another field. From morning until night, he sat guarding that magical tree stump, waiting for miracles. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 守株待兔 - To sit around waiting for a lucky break', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1781-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-17 19:01:01', '2016-11-18 00:01:01', '', 1781, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1781-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
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(2485, 1, '2016-11-18 18:18:04', '2016-11-18 23:18:04', 'You have [user_favorite_count user_id=\"\" site_id=\"\" post_types=\"\"] favorite posts. \r\n\r\n[user_favorites include_links=\"true\" include_buttons=\"true\"]\r\n', 'My Favorites', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'my-favorites', '', '', '2016-11-18 23:07:45', '2016-11-19 04:07:45', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?page_id=2485', 0, 'page', '', 0),
(2486, 1, '2016-11-18 18:18:04', '2016-11-18 23:18:04', '[user_favorites include_links=\"true\" include_buttons=\"true\"]', 'My Favorites', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2485-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 18:18:04', '2016-11-18 23:18:04', '', 2485, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2485-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
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(2491, 1, '2016-11-18 19:09:50', '2016-11-19 00:09:50', 'Father\'s Day\'s coming up in a few weeks, and we\'ll be looking at the lyrics of a beginner-level saccharine-cute song written for children to sing to their dads (or, for the children of the digital generation, to forward to their dads) on their special day. This post is accompanied by a Flash Father\'s Day video where you can listen to the song on an INFINITE LOOP. Lucky you. \r\n\r\nHere\'s the original video with the actual song. http://new.060s.com/flash/flashbrow.php?flash=70648ecb985590c987c8ffd9b0b5edb1, have a listen if you dare. \r\n\r\nBecause this is a song, we have a couple of instances where a similar sentence structure is used with different words - these are probably the hardest sentences in the song. Example: 脏活累活他全包了. First, let me break down this sentence: \r\n\r\n脏 - Dirty\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n累 - Tired\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n他 - He\r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 - (grammar word)\r\n\r\nWhat? Dirty activity tired activity he all included?! What the heck does that mean? In proper English, we might translate that as \"Dirty work, Tired work, he does it all!\" We are, of course, talking about our amazing dads and all the thanklessly exhausting housework and job work they do. Thing is, there\'s nowhere in this sentence where the verb \"does\" as in \"to do work\" actually appears. We\'re just expected to infer the word from the context of 全包 - \"all included\". \r\n\r\nWe see the same sentence structure later in the song: 剩菜剩饭他全包了. The breakdown: \r\n\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n菜 - Vegetables\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n饭 - Rice\r\n他 - He \r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 (grammar word). \r\n\r\nOnce again, that strange \"all included\" - we are again expected to infer the verb here. Any guesses? The sentence means \"Leftover Vegetables, Leftover Rice, he eats it all!\" or \"He eats all the leftovers!\" So the missing word we kinda have to mentally fill in is \"eats\". \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的力气真不小\r\n做得多说得少\r\n脏活累活他全包了\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的肚量真不小\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDad\'s the best, Dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best!\r\nDad\'s really got no shortage of strength \r\nHe does a lot but speaks little\r\nHe does all the dirty and tired work.\r\nDad\'s the best, dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best! \r\nDad\'s really got no shortage of generosity\r\nHe earns a lot but spends little\r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\nHe earns a lot but spends little \r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\n[/hide-this-part]', '[Chinese Children\'s Songs] 爸爸好 - Baba Hao, a Song for Father\'s Day', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1363-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 19:09:50', '2016-11-19 00:09:50', '', 1363, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1363-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2492, 1, '2016-11-18 23:07:56', '2016-11-19 04:07:56', 'You have [user_favorite_count user_id=\"\" site_id=\"\" post_types=\"\"] favorite posts. \n\n[user_favorites include_links=\"true\" include_buttons=\"true\"]\n', 'My Favorites', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2485-autosave-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 23:07:56', '2016-11-19 04:07:56', '', 2485, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2485-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2546, 1, '2016-11-19 01:12:08', '2016-11-19 06:12:08', 'Hey! Got something to say? You can get in touch directly at me@kendraschaefer.com, or you can plop your message here:\r\n\r\n', 'Contact Kendra', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2545-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-19 01:12:08', '2016-11-19 06:12:08', '', 2545, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2545-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2495, 1, '2016-11-18 19:25:56', '2016-11-19 00:25:56', 'You have [user_favorite_count user_id=\"\" site_id=\"\" post_types=\"\"] favorite posts. \r\n\r\n[user_favorites include_links=\"true\" include_buttons=\"true\"]\r\n', 'My Favorites', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2485-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 19:25:56', '2016-11-19 00:25:56', '', 2485, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2485-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2493, 1, '2016-11-18 19:10:38', '2016-11-19 00:10:38', 'You have [user_favorite_count user_id=\"\" site_id=\"\" post_types=\"\"] favorite posts. \r\n\r\n[user_favorites include_links=\"true\" include_buttons=\"true\"]\r\n\r\n[clear_favorites_button site_id=\"\" text=\"Clear all favorites\"]', 'My Favorites', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2485-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 19:10:38', '2016-11-19 00:10:38', '', 2485, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2485-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2494, 1, '2016-11-18 19:25:09', '2016-11-19 00:25:09', 'Father\'s Day\'s coming up in a few weeks, and we\'ll be looking at the lyrics of a beginner-level saccharine-cute song written for children to sing to their dads (or, for the children of the digital generation, to forward to their dads) on their special day. This post is accompanied by a Flash Father\'s Day video where you can listen to the song on an INFINITE LOOP. Lucky you. \r\n\r\nHere\'s the original video with the actual song. http://new.060s.com/flash/flashbrow.php?flash=70648ecb985590c987c8ffd9b0b5edb1, have a listen if you dare. \r\n\r\nBecause this is a song, we have a couple of instances where a similar sentence structure is used with different words - these are probably the hardest sentences in the song. Example: 脏活累活他全包了. First, let me break down this sentence: \r\n\r\n脏 - Dirty\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n累 - Tired\r\n活 - Activity, work\r\n他 - He\r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 - (grammar word)\r\n\r\nWhat? Dirty activity tired activity he all included?! What the heck does that mean? In proper English, we might translate that as \"Dirty work, Tired work, he does it all!\" We are, of course, talking about our amazing dads and all the thanklessly exhausting housework and job work they do. Thing is, there\'s nowhere in this sentence where the verb \"does\" as in \"to do work\" actually appears. We\'re just expected to infer the word from the context of 全包 - \"all included\". \r\n\r\nWe see the same sentence structure later in the song: 剩菜剩饭他全包了. The breakdown: \r\n\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n菜 - Vegetables\r\n剩 - Leftover\r\n饭 - Rice\r\n他 - He \r\n全包 - All included\r\n了 (grammar word). \r\n\r\nOnce again, that strange \"all included\" - we are again expected to infer the verb here. Any guesses? The sentence means \"Leftover Vegetables, Leftover Rice, he eats it all!\" or \"He eats all the leftovers!\" So the missing word we kinda have to mentally fill in is \"eats\". \r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n
Chinese text
\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的力气真不小\r\n做得多说得少\r\n脏活累活他全包了\r\n爸爸好, 爸爸好, 爸爸好\r\n爸爸的肚量真不小\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n挣得多花得少\r\n剩菜剩饭他全包了\r\n\r\n\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDad\'s the best, Dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best!\r\nDad\'s really got no shortage of strength \r\nHe does a lot but speaks little\r\nHe does all the dirty and tired work.\r\nDad\'s the best, dad\'s the best, dad\'s the best! \r\nDad\'s really got no shortage of generosity\r\nHe earns a lot but spends little\r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\nHe earns a lot but spends little \r\nAnd he eats all the leftovers! \r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/one_half]', '[Chinese Children\'s Songs] 爸爸好 - Baba Hao, a Song for Father\'s Day', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1363-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 19:25:09', '2016-11-19 00:25:09', '', 1363, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1363-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2496, 1, '2016-11-18 19:30:42', '2016-11-19 00:30:42', '\r\n
Daily posts, save your favorites
\r\n\r\n[add_to_cart id=\"1967\"]\r\n[add_to_cart id=\"1966\"]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how we only recently launched the subscription membership section, and our membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, so we\'ll be offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while we build up our Member\'s Only library. This rate will last If you join during our Beta period, you\'ll be locked in at this lower rate for the \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nI publish one freebie post a week, with Member\'s Only posts published Monday through Friday, between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post.\r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew either monthly or annually, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 19:30:42', '2016-11-19 00:30:42', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(2497, 1, '2016-11-18 20:05:12', '2016-11-19 01:05:12', 'Hey. I\'m Kendra.
\r\nI\'m an American writer, designer and interface consultant living in Beijing. I first pitched camp in China around 2002, and I\'ve been studying the language on and off ever since. \r\n\r\nI am not a grammarian. I\'m not a linguist. I\'ve studied Mandarin for over 10 years and I still can\'t tell you what a \"predicate\" is. But when I was first starting out reading Chinese, I had no idea how to make the leap from memorizing individual characters to stringing those characters into sentences. I spent a considerable amount of time searching online for Chinese reading materials, and what I found was that though there are plenty of dictionaries and flash card sources out there, I had a very difficult time finding something that was at an appropriate reading level, was presented in a way that was easy to read, and that I was sure I could get through. I ended up spending more time looking for material than actually doing any reading. Even worse, I\'d often get through a few paragraphs only to hit a phrase I couldn\'t decipher and, with no one to ask, would have to put the reading aside without finishing it. Major buzzkill. \r\n\r\nWho this site is for
\r\nThis site won\'t teach you Chinese from scratch - there are plenty of sites and programs that do that - so if you don\'t have at least a very basic grounding in Chinese, you\'re probably not ready for CRP quite yet. But if you\'re looking to make that transition from memorizing characters to understanding texts, welcome. We have mooncakes. \r\n\r\nThis site is in Simplified Chinese Only
\r\nI\'ve never studied traditional Chinese, nor do I have the time to include it. Some day, perhaps. But not this day.\r\n\r\nWhy isn\'t there audio?
\r\nThe focus here is entirely on reading. \r\n\r\nAbout the Reading Levels
\r\nPrincess. Beadstead. Eider-down. Mattress. These are advanced words in any language - words you don\'t use often in daily life. And yet they appear in Hans Christian Anderson\'s fairy tale \"The Princess and the Pea\", which was written for young children. \r\n\r\nMy point? For any story, article or essay to really take shape, it usually must involve at least some intermediate grammar or intermediate vocabulary. This is why most truly beginner textbooks created for non-native speakers stick to dialog as opposed to narratives. In order to do any real reading, you\'ve got to at least know the basics of sentence structure. So, reading levels on this site are a little relative, and even beginner stories may include some obscure words. However, if you think I\'ve incorrectly categorized a text, please tell me in the comments, and if I agree, I\'ll move it to a different level. \r\n\r\nSuper Easy
\r\nI will classify something as \"super easy\" if it meets at least a couple of the following criteria:\r\n\r\n - It\'s extremely short
\r\n - There are no long sentences
\r\n- It\'s a poem or dialogue
\r\n - Minimal grammar
\r\n
\r\n\r\nBeginner
\r\nI will classify something as beginner if:\r\n\r\n - The sentence structure is easy throughout
\r\n - It contains mostly simpler words that are in the dictionary
\r\n - There is no modern slang
\r\n - The subject matter is basic / or for children
\r\n - It\'s not too long
\r\n - It contains few or no idioms
\r\n- It contains intermediate vocabulary but the story structure is very repetitive, so you can pick up the thread more easily as you go along.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nIntermediate
\r\nI classify something as intermediate if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It\'s a longer piece that you have to hold a narrative thread through.
\r\n- The language is intermediate or upper-intermediate.
\r\n- There are some light idioms.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAdvanced
\r\nMost of what\'s out there online is advanced reading. I classify something as advanced if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It contains many specialized or technical words (technology, health, beauty, geography, etc.)
\r\n- It contains high-level structures, like newspaper-y or literary writing styles.
\r\n- It contains any archaic words.
\r\n- The sentence structure is very complicated.
\r\n- It contains a lot of modern slang.
\r\n
\r\n', 'About', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 20:05:12', '2016-11-19 01:05:12', '', 2, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2498, 1, '2016-11-18 20:10:10', '2016-11-19 01:10:10', '', 'kendra-avatar', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'kendra-avatar', '', '', '2016-11-18 20:10:10', '2016-11-19 01:10:10', '', 2, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/kendra-avatar.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2499, 1, '2016-11-18 20:10:21', '2016-11-19 01:10:21', 'Hey. I\'m Kendra.
\r\n![\"kendra-avatar\"](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/kendra-avatar.jpg\")
I\'m an American writer, designer and interface consultant living in Beijing. I first pitched camp in China around 2002, and I\'ve been studying the language on and off ever since. \r\n\r\nI am not a grammarian. I\'m not a linguist. I\'ve studied Mandarin for over 10 years and I still can\'t tell you what a \"predicate\" is. But when I was first starting out reading Chinese, I had no idea how to make the leap from memorizing individual characters to stringing those characters into sentences. I spent a considerable amount of time searching online for Chinese reading materials, and what I found was that though there are plenty of dictionaries and flash card sources out there, I had a very difficult time finding something that was at an appropriate reading level, was presented in a way that was easy to read, and that I was sure I could get through. I ended up spending more time looking for material than actually doing any reading. Even worse, I\'d often get through a few paragraphs only to hit a phrase I couldn\'t decipher and, with no one to ask, would have to put the reading aside without finishing it. Major buzzkill. \r\n\r\nWho this site is for
\r\nThis site won\'t teach you Chinese from scratch - there are plenty of sites and programs that do that - so if you don\'t have at least a very basic grounding in Chinese, you\'re probably not ready for CRP quite yet. But if you\'re looking to make that transition from memorizing characters to understanding texts, welcome. We have mooncakes. \r\n\r\nThis site is in Simplified Chinese Only
\r\nI\'ve never studied traditional Chinese, nor do I have the time to include it. Some day, perhaps. But not this day.\r\n\r\nWhy isn\'t there audio?
\r\nThe focus here is entirely on reading. \r\n\r\nAbout the Reading Levels
\r\nPrincess. Beadstead. Eider-down. Mattress. These are advanced words in any language - words you don\'t use often in daily life. And yet they appear in Hans Christian Anderson\'s fairy tale \"The Princess and the Pea\", which was written for young children. \r\n\r\nMy point? For any story, article or essay to really take shape, it usually must involve at least some intermediate grammar or intermediate vocabulary. This is why most truly beginner textbooks created for non-native speakers stick to dialog as opposed to narratives. In order to do any real reading, you\'ve got to at least know the basics of sentence structure. So, reading levels on this site are a little relative, and even beginner stories may include some obscure words. However, if you think I\'ve incorrectly categorized a text, please tell me in the comments, and if I agree, I\'ll move it to a different level. \r\n\r\nSuper Easy
\r\nI will classify something as \"super easy\" if it meets at least a couple of the following criteria:\r\n\r\n - It\'s extremely short
\r\n - There are no long sentences
\r\n- It\'s a poem or dialogue
\r\n - Minimal grammar
\r\n
\r\n\r\nBeginner
\r\nI will classify something as beginner if:\r\n\r\n - The sentence structure is easy throughout
\r\n - It contains mostly simpler words that are in the dictionary
\r\n - There is no modern slang
\r\n - The subject matter is basic / or for children
\r\n - It\'s not too long
\r\n - It contains few or no idioms
\r\n- It contains intermediate vocabulary but the story structure is very repetitive, so you can pick up the thread more easily as you go along.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nIntermediate
\r\nI classify something as intermediate if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It\'s a longer piece that you have to hold a narrative thread through.
\r\n- The language is intermediate or upper-intermediate.
\r\n- There are some light idioms.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAdvanced
\r\nMost of what\'s out there online is advanced reading. I classify something as advanced if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It contains many specialized or technical words (technology, health, beauty, geography, etc.)
\r\n- It contains high-level structures, like newspaper-y or literary writing styles.
\r\n- It contains any archaic words.
\r\n- The sentence structure is very complicated.
\r\n- It contains a lot of modern slang.
\r\n
\r\n', 'About', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 20:10:21', '2016-11-19 01:10:21', '', 2, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2500, 1, '2016-11-18 20:11:39', '2016-11-19 01:11:39', 'Hey. I\'m Kendra.
\r\n I\'m an American writer, designer and interface consultant living in Beijing. I first pitched camp in China around 2002, and I\'ve been studying the language on and off ever since. \r\n\r\nI am not a grammarian. I\'m not a linguist. I\'ve studied Mandarin for over 10 years and I still can\'t tell you what a \"predicate\" is. But when I was first starting out reading Chinese, I had no idea how to make the leap from memorizing individual characters to stringing those characters into sentences. I spent a considerable amount of time searching online for Chinese reading materials, and what I found was that though there are plenty of dictionaries and flash card sources out there, I had a very difficult time finding something that was at an appropriate reading level, was presented in a way that was easy to read, and that I was sure I could get through. I ended up spending more time looking for material than actually doing any reading. Even worse, I\'d often get through a few paragraphs only to hit a phrase I couldn\'t decipher and, with no one to ask, would have to put the reading aside without finishing it. Major buzzkill. \r\n\r\nWho this site is for
\r\nThis site won\'t teach you Chinese from scratch - there are plenty of sites and programs that do that - so if you don\'t have at least a very basic grounding in Chinese, you\'re probably not ready for CRP quite yet. But if you\'re looking to make that transition from memorizing characters to understanding texts, welcome. We have mooncakes. \r\n\r\nThis site is in Simplified Chinese Only
\r\nI\'ve never studied traditional Chinese, nor do I have the time to include it. Some day, perhaps. But not this day.\r\n\r\nWhy isn\'t there audio?
\r\nThe focus here is entirely on reading. \r\n\r\nAbout the Reading Levels
\r\nPrincess. Beadstead. Eider-down. Mattress. These are advanced words in any language - words you don\'t use often in daily life. And yet they appear in Hans Christian Anderson\'s fairy tale \"The Princess and the Pea\", which was written for young children. \r\n\r\nMy point? For any story, article or essay to really take shape, it usually must involve at least some intermediate grammar or intermediate vocabulary. This is why most truly beginner textbooks created for non-native speakers stick to dialog as opposed to narratives. In order to do any real reading, you\'ve got to at least know the basics of sentence structure. So, reading levels on this site are a little relative, and even beginner stories may include some obscure words. However, if you think I\'ve incorrectly categorized a text, please tell me in the comments, and if I agree, I\'ll move it to a different level. \r\n\r\nSuper Easy
\r\nI will classify something as \"super easy\" if it meets at least a couple of the following criteria:\r\n\r\n - It\'s extremely short
\r\n - There are no long sentences
\r\n- It\'s a poem or dialogue
\r\n - Minimal grammar
\r\n
\r\n\r\nBeginner
\r\nI will classify something as beginner if:\r\n\r\n - The sentence structure is easy throughout
\r\n - It contains mostly simpler words that are in the dictionary
\r\n - There is no modern slang
\r\n - The subject matter is basic / or for children
\r\n - It\'s not too long
\r\n - It contains few or no idioms
\r\n- It contains intermediate vocabulary but the story structure is very repetitive, so you can pick up the thread more easily as you go along.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nIntermediate
\r\nI classify something as intermediate if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It\'s a longer piece that you have to hold a narrative thread through.
\r\n- The language is intermediate or upper-intermediate.
\r\n- There are some light idioms.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAdvanced
\r\nMost of what\'s out there online is advanced reading. I classify something as advanced if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It contains many specialized or technical words (technology, health, beauty, geography, etc.)
\r\n- It contains high-level structures, like newspaper-y or literary writing styles.
\r\n- It contains any archaic words.
\r\n- The sentence structure is very complicated.
\r\n- It contains a lot of modern slang.
\r\n
\r\n', 'About', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 20:11:39', '2016-11-19 01:11:39', '', 2, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2501, 1, '2016-11-18 20:39:30', '2016-11-19 01:39:30', 'Get new posts daily, save your favorites
\r\n\r\n[add_to_cart id=\"1966\"]
\r\n\r\n\r\n[add_to_cart id=\"1967\"]\r\n
\r\n\r\n\r\nChinese Reading Practice (樾读) is a Chinese translations offering daily stories, \r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the subscription membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while we build up our Member\'s Only library. Introductory rates will last until March 15, 2017. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nI publish one freebie post a week, with Member\'s Only posts published Monday through Friday, between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post.\r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew either monthly or annually, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 20:39:30', '2016-11-19 01:39:30', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2502, 1, '2016-11-18 20:44:58', '2016-11-19 01:44:58', 'Get new posts daily, save your favorites
\r\n\r\n\r\n
Monthly
\r\n[add_to_cart id=\"1966\"]\r\n\r\n\r\n
Yearly
\r\n[add_to_cart id=\"1967\"]\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nChinese Reading Practice (樾读) is a Chinese translations offering daily stories, \r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the subscription membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while we build up our Member\'s Only library. Introductory rates will last until March 15, 2017. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nI publish one freebie post a week, with Member\'s Only posts published Monday through Friday, between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post.\r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew either monthly or annually, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 20:44:58', '2016-11-19 01:44:58', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2503, 1, '2016-11-18 21:08:15', '2016-11-19 02:08:15', '', 'yearly-subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'yearly-subscribe', '', '', '2016-11-18 21:08:15', '2016-11-19 02:08:15', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/yearly-subscribe.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2504, 1, '2016-11-18 21:08:18', '2016-11-19 02:08:18', '', 'monthly-subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'closed', '', 'monthly-subscribe', '', '', '2016-11-18 21:08:18', '2016-11-19 02:08:18', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/monthly-subscribe.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(2505, 1, '2016-11-18 21:08:49', '2016-11-19 02:08:49', 'Get new posts daily, save your favorites
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n
Monthly
\r\n[add_to_cart id=\"1966\"]
\r\n
\r\n\r\n
Yearly
\r\n[add_to_cart id=\"1967\"]\r\n
Introductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the subscription membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while we build up our Member\'s Only library. Introductory rates will last until March 15, 2017. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nI publish one freebie post a week, with Member\'s Only posts published Monday through Friday, between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post.\r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew either monthly or annually, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 21:08:49', '2016-11-19 02:08:49', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2506, 1, '2016-11-18 21:18:40', '2016-11-19 02:18:40', 'Get new posts daily, save your favorites
\r\n\r\n\r\nJoin Monthly
\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[add_to_cart id=\"1966\"]
\r\n
Join Yearly
\r\n
\r\n\r\n[add_to_cart id=\"1967\"]\r\n
Introductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the subscription membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while we build up our Member\'s Only library. Introductory rates will last until March 15, 2017. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nI publish one freebie post a week, with Member\'s Only posts published Monday through Friday, between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post.\r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew either monthly or annually, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 21:18:40', '2016-11-19 02:18:40', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2507, 1, '2016-11-18 21:21:52', '2016-11-19 02:21:52', 'Get new posts daily, save your favorites
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Join Monthly: $3.50 / mo
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
Join Yearly: $35 / yr
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n\r\n
Introductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the subscription membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while we build up our Member\'s Only library. Introductory rates will last until March 15, 2017. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nI publish one freebie post a week, with Member\'s Only posts published Monday through Friday, between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post.\r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew either monthly or annually, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 21:21:52', '2016-11-19 02:21:52', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2508, 1, '2016-11-18 21:27:50', '2016-11-19 02:27:50', '\r\n\r\n
Join Monthly: $3.50 / mo
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
Join Yearly: $35 / yr
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
Get new posts daily, save your favorites
\r\nChinese Reading Practice publishes one freebie post a week, but Members get a new post every day, Monday-Friday. Members may also save and favorite posts. \r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the subscription membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while we build up our Member\'s Only library. Introductory rates will last until March 15, 2017. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nPosts are published daily between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post.\r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew either monthly or annually, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 21:27:50', '2016-11-19 02:27:50', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2509, 1, '2016-11-18 21:46:58', '2016-11-19 02:46:58', '\r\n\r\n
Join Monthly: $3.50 / mo
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
Join Yearly: $35 / yr
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
Get new posts daily, save your favorites
\r\nWhy, 您好 there. You\'ve stumbled upon the inter-webz\'s most popular blog for learners of Simplified Chinese reading (read the CRP origin story About CRP.\" target=\"_blank\">here). I publish one freebie post a week, but members get a new post every day, Monday-Friday, and access to bleeding-edge post favoriting technology. \r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the subscription membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while the Member\'s Only library accumulates content. Introductory rates will last until March 15, 2017, after which, my lovelies, subscriptions will go up to $5 bucks a month. Anyone who jumps on the early train will have their lower price locked in for life. Get while the gettin\'s good. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nNew posts are published daily between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post or \"Deep Dive\" (exploration of a themed topic). That\'s five new posts a week (plus one freebie, so six total).\r\n\r\nMember\'s Only Li-bibbly
\r\nYou\'ll also get access to all previous Member\'s Only posts, but as I said, as of December 2016, it\'s a meager collection. It is, however, growing daily. \r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time via your My Account area. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 21:46:58', '2016-11-19 02:46:58', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2510, 1, '2016-11-18 21:51:26', '2016-11-19 02:51:26', '\r\n\r\n
Join Monthly: $3.50 / mo
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
Join Yearly: $35 / yr
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
Get new posts daily, save your favorites
\r\nWhy, 您好 there. You\'ve stumbled upon the inter-webz\'s most popular blog of Simplified Chinese reading exercises. I\'m Kendra (more about the CRP origin story here), and this is my tiny little kingdom. I publish one freebie post a week, but members get a new post every day, Monday-Friday, and access to exciting post-favoriting technology. \r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the pay-to-play membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while the Member\'s Only library accumulates content. Introductory rates will be available until March 15, 2017, after which, my lovelies, subscriptions will go up to $5 bucks a month. Anyone who jumps on the early train will have their lower price locked in for life. Get while the gettin\'s good. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nNew posts are published daily between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post or \"Deep Dive\" (exploration of a themed topic). That\'s five new posts a week (plus one freebie, so six total).\r\n\r\nMember\'s Only Li-bibbly
\r\nYou\'ll also get access to all previous Member\'s Only posts, but as I said, as of December 2016, it\'s a meager collection. It is, however, growing daily. \r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time via your My Account area. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 21:51:26', '2016-11-19 02:51:26', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2511, 1, '2016-11-18 22:12:00', '2016-11-19 03:12:00', '\r\n\r\n
Join Monthly: $3.50 / mo
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
Join Yearly: $35 / yr
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
Get new posts daily, save your favorites
\r\nWhy, 您好 there. You\'ve stumbled upon the inter-webz\'s most popular blog of Simplified Chinese reading exercises. I\'m Kendra (more about the CRP origin story here), and this is my tiny little kingdom. I publish one freebie post a week, but members get a new post every day, Monday-Friday, and the ability to save favorite posts. \r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the pay-to-play membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while the Member\'s Only library accumulates content. Introductory rates will be available until March 15, 2017, after which, my lovelies, subscriptions will go up to $5 bucks a month. Anyone who jumps on the early train will have their lower price locked in for life. Get while the gettin\'s good. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nNew posts are published daily between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post or \"Deep Dive\" (exploration of a themed topic). That\'s five new posts a week (plus one freebie, so six total).\r\n\r\nMember\'s Only Li-bibbly
\r\nYou\'ll also get access to all previous Member\'s Only posts, but as I said, as of December 2016, it\'s a meager collection. It is, however, growing daily. \r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time via your My Account area. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 22:12:00', '2016-11-19 03:12:00', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2512, 1, '2016-11-18 22:32:01', '2016-11-19 03:32:01', 'Hey. I\'m Kendra.
\r\n I\'m an American writer, designer and interface consultant living in Beijing. I first pitched camp in China around 2002, and I\'ve been studying the language on and off ever since.\r\n\r\nChinese Reading Practice was born in 2011, when I was struggling to transition from memorizing characters to understanding actual Chinese texts. I looked and looked and looked for good Chinese reading material, but I didn\'t really even know where to start. Everything I found was either too advanced or too boring, and I ended up spending more time looking for material than actually doing any reading. Even worse, when I did find something that interested me, I\'d get through a few paragraphs only to hit a phrase I couldn\'t decipher and, with no one to ask, would have to put the reading aside without finishing it. Major buzzkill. If any of this sounds familiar to you, welcome. We have mooncakes. \r\n\r\nI started CRP to collect the texts I could complete, and has my studies have progressed and my user base has grown, I\'ve continued doing translations to keep my own skills sharp. I publish one free post a week, and an additional five posts a week for paying members (want in? Subscribe here). I am not a grammarian. I\'m not a linguist. I\'ve studied Mandarin for over 10 years and I still can\'t tell you what a \"predicate\" is. But I do love dissecting the beauty of the Chinese language, and I do love a good story. \r\n\r\nWho this site is for
\r\nThis site won\'t teach you Chinese from scratch - there are plenty of sites and programs that do that - so if you don\'t have at least a very basic grounding in Chinese, you\'re probably not ready for CRP quite yet. But if you\'re looking to make that transition from memorizing characters to understanding texts, this is a good place to start.\r\n\r\nThis site is in Simplified Chinese Only
\r\nI\'ve never studied traditional Chinese, nor do I have the time to include it. Some day, perhaps. But not this day.\r\n\r\nWhy isn\'t there audio?
\r\nThe focus here is entirely on reading. Though you can click to listen to some of the core words in the text, there is no audio accompaniment at the moment.\r\n\r\nAbout the Reading Levels
\r\nPrincess. Beadstead. Eider-down. Mattress. These are advanced words in any language - words you don\'t use often in daily life. And yet they appear in Hans Christian Anderson\'s fairy tale \"The Princess and the Pea\", which was written for young children. \r\n\r\nMy point? For any story, article or essay to really take shape, it usually must involve at least some intermediate grammar or intermediate vocabulary. This is why most truly beginner textbooks created for non-native speakers stick to dialog as opposed to narratives. In order to do any real reading, you\'ve got to at least know the basics of sentence structure. So, reading levels on this site are a little relative, and even beginner stories may include some obscure words. However, if you think I\'ve incorrectly categorized a text, please tell me in the comments, and if I agree, I\'ll move it to a different level. \r\n\r\nSuper Easy
\r\nI will classify something as \"super easy\" if it meets at least a couple of the following criteria:\r\n\r\n - It\'s extremely short
\r\n - There are no long sentences
\r\n- It\'s a poem or dialogue
\r\n - It has minimal grammar
\r\n
\r\n\r\nBeginner
\r\nI will classify something as beginner if:\r\n\r\n - The sentence structure is easy throughout
\r\n - It contains mostly simpler words that are in the dictionary
\r\n - There is no modern slang
\r\n - The subject matter is basic / or for children
\r\n - It\'s not too long
\r\n - It contains few or no idioms
\r\n- It contains intermediate vocabulary but the story structure is very repetitive, so you can pick up the thread more easily as you go along.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nIntermediate
\r\nI classify something as intermediate if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It\'s a longer piece that you have to hold a narrative thread through.
\r\n- The language is intermediate or upper-intermediate.
\r\n- There are some light idioms.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAdvanced
\r\nMost of what\'s out there online is advanced reading. I classify something as advanced if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It contains many specialized or technical words (technology, health, beauty, geography, etc.)
\r\n- It contains high-level structures, like newspaper-y or literary writing styles.
\r\n- It contains any archaic words.
\r\n- The sentence structure is very complicated.
\r\n- It contains a lot of modern slang.
\r\n
\r\n', 'About', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 22:32:01', '2016-11-19 03:32:01', '', 2, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2513, 1, '2016-11-18 22:34:08', '2016-11-19 03:34:08', '\r\n\r\n
Join Monthly: $3.50 / mo
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
Join Yearly: $35 / yr
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n\r\nGet new posts daily, save your favorites
\r\nWhy, 您好 there. You\'ve stumbled upon the inter-webz\'s most popular blog of Simplified Chinese reading exercises. I\'m Kendra (more about the CRP origin story here), and this is my tiny little kingdom. I publish one freebie post a week, but members get a new post every day, Monday-Friday, and the ability to save favorite posts. \r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the pay-to-play membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while the Member\'s Only library accumulates content. Introductory rates will be available until March 15, 2017, after which, my lovelies, subscriptions will go up to $5 bucks a month. Anyone who jumps on the early train will have their lower price locked in for life. Get while the gettin\'s good. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nNew posts are published daily between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post or \"Deep Dive\" (exploration of a themed topic). That\'s five new posts a week (plus one freebie, so six total).\r\n\r\nMember\'s Only Li-bibbly
\r\nYou\'ll also get access to all previous Member\'s Only posts, but as I said, as of December 2016, it\'s a meager collection. It is, however, growing daily. \r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time via your My Account area. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 22:34:08', '2016-11-19 03:34:08', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2516, 1, '2016-11-18 22:42:14', '2016-11-19 03:42:14', 'Hey. I\'m Kendra.
\r\n I\'m an American writer, designer and interface consultant living in Beijing. I first pitched camp in China around 2002, and I\'ve been studying the language on and off ever since.\r\n\r\nChinese Reading Practice was born in 2011, when I was struggling to transition from memorizing characters to understanding actual Chinese texts. I looked and looked and looked for good Chinese reading material, but I didn\'t really even know where to start. Everything I found was either too advanced or too boring, and I ended up spending more time looking for material than actually doing any reading. Even worse, when I did find something that interested me, I\'d get through a few paragraphs only to hit a phrase I couldn\'t decipher and, with no one to ask, would have to put the reading aside without finishing it. Major buzzkill. If any of this sounds familiar to you, welcome. We have mooncakes. \r\n\r\nI started CRP to collect the texts I could complete, and has my studies have progressed and my user base has grown, I\'ve continued doing translations to keep my own skills sharp. I publish one free post a week, and an additional five posts a week for paying members (want in? Subscribe here). I am not a grammarian. I\'m not a linguist. I\'ve studied Mandarin for over 10 years and I still can\'t tell you what a \"predicate\" is. But I do love dissecting the beauty of the Chinese language, and I do love a good story. \r\n\r\nWho this site is for
\r\nThis site won\'t teach you Chinese from scratch - there are plenty of sites and programs that do that - so if you don\'t have at least a very basic grounding in Chinese, you\'re probably not ready for CRP quite yet. But if you\'re looking to make that transition from memorizing characters to understanding texts, this is a good place to start.\r\n\r\nThis site is in Simplified Chinese Only
\r\nI\'ve never studied traditional Chinese, nor do I have the time to include it. Some day, perhaps. But not this day.\r\n\r\nWhy isn\'t there audio?
\r\nThe focus here is entirely on reading. Though you can click to listen to some of the core words in the text, there is no audio accompaniment at the moment.\r\n\r\nAbout the Reading Levels
\r\nPrincess. Beadstead. Eider-down. Mattress. These are advanced words in any language - words you don\'t use often in daily life. And yet they appear in Hans Christian Anderson\'s fairy tale \"The Princess and the Pea\", which was written for young children. \r\n\r\nMy point? For any story, article or essay to really take shape, it usually must involve at least some intermediate grammar or intermediate vocabulary. This is why most truly beginner textbooks created for non-native speakers stick to dialog as opposed to narratives. In order to do any real reading, you\'ve got to at least know the basics of sentence structure. So, reading levels on this site are a little relative, and even beginner stories may include some obscure words. However, if you think I\'ve incorrectly categorized a text, please tell me in the comments, and if I agree, I\'ll move it to a different level. \r\n\r\nSuper Easy
\r\nI will classify something as \"super easy\" if it meets at least a couple of the following criteria:\r\n\r\n - It\'s extremely short
\r\n - There are no long sentences
\r\n- It\'s a poem or dialogue
\r\n - It has minimal grammar
\r\n
\r\n\r\nBeginner
\r\nI will classify something as beginner if:\r\n\r\n - The sentence structure is easy throughout
\r\n - It contains mostly simpler words that are in the dictionary
\r\n - There is no modern slang
\r\n - The subject matter is basic / or for children
\r\n - It\'s not too long
\r\n - It contains few or no idioms
\r\n- It contains intermediate vocabulary but the story structure is very repetitive, so you can pick up the thread more easily as you go along.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nIntermediate
\r\nI classify something as intermediate if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It\'s a longer piece that you have to hold a narrative thread through.
\r\n- The language is intermediate or upper-intermediate.
\r\n- There are some light idioms.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAdvanced
\r\nMost of what\'s out there online is advanced reading. I classify something as advanced if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It contains many specialized or technical words (technology, health, beauty, geography, etc.)
\r\n- It contains high-level structures, like newspaper-y or literary writing styles.
\r\n- It contains any archaic words.
\r\n- The sentence structure is very complicated.
\r\n- It contains a lot of modern slang.
\r\n
\r\n', 'About', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 22:42:14', '2016-11-19 03:42:14', '', 2, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
INSERT INTO `wp_posts` (`ID`, `post_author`, `post_date`, `post_date_gmt`, `post_content`, `post_title`, `post_excerpt`, `post_status`, `comment_status`, `ping_status`, `post_password`, `post_name`, `to_ping`, `pinged`, `post_modified`, `post_modified_gmt`, `post_content_filtered`, `post_parent`, `guid`, `menu_order`, `post_type`, `post_mime_type`, `comment_count`) VALUES
(2514, 1, '2016-11-18 22:40:25', '2016-11-19 03:40:25', 'Hey. I\'m Kendra.
\r\n I\'m an American writer, designer and interface consultant living in Beijing. I first pitched camp in China around 2002, and I\'ve been studying the language on and off ever since.\r\n\r\nChinese Reading Practice was born in 2011, when I was struggling to transition from memorizing characters to understanding actual Chinese texts. I looked and looked and looked for good Chinese reading material, but I didn\'t really even know where to start. Everything I found was either too advanced or too boring, and I ended up spending more time looking for material than actually doing any reading. Even worse, when I did find something that interested me, I\'d get through a few paragraphs only to hit a phrase I couldn\'t decipher and, with no one to ask, would have to put the reading aside without finishing it. Major buzzkill. If any of this sounds familiar to you, welcome. We have mooncakes. \r\n\r\nI started CRP to collect the texts I could complete, and has my studies have progressed and my user base has grown, I\'ve continued doing translations to keep my own skills sharp. I publish one free post a week, and an additional five posts a week for paying members (want in? Subscribe here). I am not a grammarian. I\'m not a linguist. I\'ve studied Mandarin for over 10 years and I still can\'t tell you what a \"predicate\" is. But I do love dissecting the beauty of the Chinese language, and I do love a good story. \r\n\r\nWho this site is for
\r\nThis site won\'t teach you Chinese from scratch - there are plenty of sites and programs that do that - so if you don\'t have at least a very basic grounding in Chinese, you\'re probably not ready for CRP quite yet. But if you\'re looking to make that transition from memorizing characters to understanding texts, this is a good place to start.\r\n\r\nThis site is in Simplified Chinese Only
\r\nI\'ve never studied traditional Chinese, nor do I have the time to include it. Some day, perhaps. But not this day.\r\n\r\nWhy isn\'t there audio?
\r\nThe focus here is entirely on reading. Though you can click to listen to some of the core words in the text, there is no audio accompaniment at the moment.\r\n\r\nAbout the Reading Levels
\r\nPrincess. Beadstead. Eider-down. Mattress. These are advanced words in any language - words you don\'t use often in daily life. And yet they appear in Hans Christian Anderson\'s fairy tale \"The Princess and the Pea\", which was written for young children. \r\n\r\nMy point? For any story, article or essay to really take shape, it usually must involve at least some intermediate grammar or intermediate vocabulary. This is why most truly beginner textbooks created for non-native speakers stick to dialog as opposed to narratives. In order to do any real reading, you\'ve got to at least know the basics of sentence structure and you must be willing to accept that some more advanced words will be mixed in with beginner texts. So, reading levels on this site are a little relative, and please bear in mind that even beginner stories may include some obscure words. However, if you think I\'ve incorrectly categorized a text, please tell me in the comments, and if I agree, I\'ll move it to a different level. \r\n\r\nSuper Easy
\r\nI will classify something as \"super easy\" if it meets at least a couple of the following criteria:\r\n\r\n - It\'s extremely short
\r\n - There are no long sentences
\r\n- It\'s a poem or dialogue
\r\n - It has minimal grammar
\r\n
\r\n\r\nBeginner
\r\nI will classify something as beginner if:\r\n\r\n - The sentence structure is easy throughout
\r\n - It contains mostly simpler words that are in the dictionary
\r\n - There is no modern slang
\r\n - The subject matter is basic / or for children
\r\n - It\'s not too long
\r\n - It contains few or no idioms
\r\n- It contains intermediate vocabulary but the story structure is very repetitive, so you can pick up the thread more easily as you go along.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nIntermediate
\r\nI classify something as intermediate if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It\'s a longer piece that you have to hold a narrative thread through.
\r\n- The language is intermediate or upper-intermediate.
\r\n- There are some light idioms.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAdvanced
\r\nMost of what\'s out there online is advanced reading. I classify something as advanced if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It contains many specialized or technical words (technology, health, beauty, geography, etc.)
\r\n- It contains high-level structures, like newspaper-y or literary writing styles.
\r\n- It contains any archaic words.
\r\n- The sentence structure is very complicated.
\r\n- It contains a lot of modern slang.
\r\n
\r\n', 'About', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 22:40:25', '2016-11-19 03:40:25', '', 2, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2515, 1, '2016-11-18 22:41:09', '2016-11-19 03:41:09', '\r\n\r\n
Join Monthly: $3.50 / mo
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
Join Yearly: $35 / yr
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n\r\nGet new posts daily, save your favorites
\r\nWhy, 您好 there. You\'ve stumbled upon the inter-webz\'s most popular blog of Simplified Chinese reading exercises. I\'m Kendra (more about the CRP origin story here), and this is my tiny little kingdom. I publish one freebie post a week, but members get a new post every day, Monday-Friday, and the ability to save favorite posts. \r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the pay-to-play membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while the Member\'s Only library accumulates content. Introductory rates will be available until March 15, 2017, after which, my lovelies, subscriptions will go up to $5 bucks a month. Anyone who jumps on the early train will have their lower price locked in for life. Get while the gettin\'s good. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nNew posts are published daily between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post or \"Deep Dive\" (exploration of a themed topic). That\'s five new posts a week (plus one freebie, so six total).\r\n\r\nMember\'s Only Li-bibbly
\r\nYou\'ll also get access to all previous Member\'s Only posts, but as I said, as of December 2016, it\'s a meager collection. It is, however, growing daily. \r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time via your My Account area. \r\n\r\nQuestions?
\r\nYou can get in touch with me at me@kendraschaefer.com', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 22:41:09', '2016-11-19 03:41:09', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2517, 1, '2016-11-18 22:46:10', '2016-11-19 03:46:10', '\r\n\r\n
Join Monthly: $3.50 / mo
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
Join Yearly: $35 / yr
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n\r\nGet new posts daily, save your favorites
\r\nWhy, 您好 there. You\'ve stumbled upon the inter-webz\'s most popular blog of Simplified Chinese reading exercises. I\'m Kendra (more about the CRP origin story here), and this is my tiny little kingdom. I publish one freebie post a week, but members get a new post every day, Monday-Friday, and the ability to save favorite posts. \r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the pay-to-play membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while the Member\'s Only library accumulates content. Introductory rates will be available until March 15, 2017, after which, my lovelies, subscriptions will go up to $5 bucks a month. Anyone who jumps on the early train will have their lower price locked in for life. Get while the gettin\'s good. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nNew posts are published daily between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post or \"Deep Dive\" (exploration of a themed topic). That\'s five new posts a week (plus one freebie, so six total).\r\n\r\nMember\'s Only Li-bibbly
\r\nYou\'ll also get access to all previous Member\'s Only posts, but as I said, as of December 2016, it\'s a meager collection. It is, however, growing daily. \r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time via your My Account area. \r\n\r\nQuestions?
\r\nYou can get in touch with me at me@kendraschaefer.com', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-18 22:46:10', '2016-11-19 03:46:10', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2518, 1, '2016-11-18 22:54:49', '2016-11-19 03:54:49', '', 'Members\' Library', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'members-only-posts', '', '', '2016-11-19 03:33:05', '2016-11-19 08:33:05', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2518', 1, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(2519, 1, '2016-11-18 22:54:49', '2016-11-19 03:54:49', '', 'My Favorites', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'my-favorites', '', '', '2016-11-19 03:33:05', '2016-11-19 08:33:05', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2519', 2, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(2522, 1, '2016-11-18 23:06:28', '2016-11-19 04:06:28', '', 'Log In', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', 'log-in-2', '', '', '2016-11-18 23:07:13', '2016-11-19 04:07:13', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2522', 2, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(2523, 1, '2016-11-18 23:06:58', '2016-11-19 04:06:58', ' ', '', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2523', '', '', '2016-11-18 23:07:13', '2016-11-19 04:07:13', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2523', 1, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(2547, 1, '2016-11-19 01:15:47', '2016-11-19 06:15:47', 'Hey! Got something to say? You can get in touch directly at me@kendraschaefer.com, or you can plop your message here:\r\n\r\n[contact-form-7 id=\"1095\" title=\"Contact form 1\"]', 'Contact Kendra', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2545-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-19 01:15:47', '2016-11-19 06:15:47', '', 2545, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2545-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2548, 1, '2016-11-19 01:19:18', '2016-11-19 06:19:18', '\r\n I\'m an American writer, designer and interface consultant living in Beijing. I first pitched camp in China around 2002, and I\'ve been studying the language on and off ever since.\r\n\r\nChinese Reading Practice was born in 2011, when I was struggling to transition from memorizing characters to understanding actual Chinese texts. I looked and looked and looked for good Chinese reading material, but I didn\'t really even know where to start. Everything I found was either too advanced or too boring, and I ended up spending more time looking for material than actually doing any reading. Even worse, when I did find something that interested me, I\'d get through a few paragraphs only to hit a phrase I couldn\'t decipher and, with no one to ask, would have to put the reading aside without finishing it. Major buzzkill. If any of this sounds familiar to you, welcome. We have mooncakes. \r\n\r\nI started CRP to collect the texts I could complete, and has my studies have progressed and my user base has grown, I\'ve continued doing translations to keep my own skills sharp. I publish one free post a week, and an additional five posts a week for paying members (want in? Subscribe here). I am not a grammarian. I\'m not a linguist. I\'ve studied Mandarin for over 10 years and I still can\'t tell you what a \"predicate\" is. But I do love dissecting the beauty of the Chinese language, and I do love a good story. \r\n\r\nWho this site is for
\r\nThis site won\'t teach you Chinese from scratch - there are plenty of sites and programs that do that - so if you don\'t have at least a very basic grounding in Chinese, you\'re probably not ready for CRP quite yet. But if you\'re looking to make that transition from memorizing characters to understanding texts, this is a good place to start.\r\n\r\nThis site is in Simplified Chinese Only
\r\nI\'ve never studied traditional Chinese, nor do I have the time to include it. Some day, perhaps. But not this day.\r\n\r\nWhy isn\'t there audio?
\r\nThe focus here is entirely on reading. Though you can click to listen to some of the core words in the text, there is no audio accompaniment at the moment.\r\n\r\nAbout the Reading Levels
\r\nPrincess. Beadstead. Eider-down. Mattress. These are advanced words in any language - words you don\'t use often in daily life. And yet they appear in Hans Christian Anderson\'s fairy tale \"The Princess and the Pea\", which was written for young children. \r\n\r\nMy point? For any story, article or essay to really take shape, it usually must involve at least some intermediate grammar or intermediate vocabulary. This is why most truly beginner textbooks created for non-native speakers stick to dialog as opposed to narratives. In order to do any real reading, you\'ve got to at least know the basics of sentence structure. So, reading levels on this site are a little relative, and even beginner stories may include some obscure words. However, if you think I\'ve incorrectly categorized a text, please tell me in the comments, and if I agree, I\'ll move it to a different level. \r\n\r\nSuper Easy
\r\nI will classify something as \"super easy\" if it meets at least a couple of the following criteria:\r\n\r\n - It\'s extremely short
\r\n - There are no long sentences
\r\n- It\'s a poem or dialogue
\r\n - It has minimal grammar
\r\n
\r\n\r\nBeginner
\r\nI will classify something as beginner if:\r\n\r\n - The sentence structure is easy throughout
\r\n - It contains mostly simpler words that are in the dictionary
\r\n - There is no modern slang
\r\n - The subject matter is basic / or for children
\r\n - It\'s not too long
\r\n - It contains few or no idioms
\r\n- It contains intermediate vocabulary but the story structure is very repetitive, so you can pick up the thread more easily as you go along.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nIntermediate
\r\nI classify something as intermediate if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It\'s a longer piece that you have to hold a narrative thread through.
\r\n- The language is intermediate or upper-intermediate.
\r\n- There are some light idioms.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAdvanced
\r\nMost of what\'s out there online is advanced reading. I classify something as advanced if:\r\n\r\n\r\n- It contains many specialized or technical words (technology, health, beauty, geography, etc.)
\r\n- It contains high-level structures, like newspaper-y or literary writing styles.
\r\n- It contains any archaic words.
\r\n- The sentence structure is very complicated.
\r\n- It contains a lot of modern slang.
\r\n
\r\n', 'About', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-19 01:19:18', '2016-11-19 06:19:18', '', 2, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2556, 1, '2016-11-19 03:44:28', '2016-11-19 08:44:28', '\r\n\r\n
Join Monthly: $3.50 / mo
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
Join Yearly: $35 / yr
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n\r\nGet new posts daily, save your favorites
\r\nWhy, 您好 there. You\'ve stumbled upon the inter-webz\'s most popular blog of Simplified Chinese reading exercises. I\'m Kendra (more about the CRP origin story here), and this is my tiny little kingdom. I publish one freebie post a week, but members get a new post every day, Monday-Friday, and the ability to save favorite posts. \r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the pay-to-play membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while the Member\'s Only library accumulates content. Introductory rates will be available until March 15, 2017, after which, my lovelies, subscriptions will go up to $5 bucks a month. Anyone who jumps on the early train will have their lower price locked in for life. Get while the gettin\'s good. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nNew posts are published daily between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post or \"Deep Dive\" (exploration of a themed topic). That\'s five new posts a week (plus one freebie, so six total).\r\n\r\nMember\'s Only Li-bibbly
\r\nYou\'ll also get access to all previous Member\'s Only posts, but as I said, as of December 2016, it\'s a meager collection. It is, however, growing daily. \r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time via your My Account area. \r\n\r\nQuestions?
\r\nYou can get in touch with me here. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-19 03:44:28', '2016-11-19 08:44:28', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2549, 1, '2016-11-19 01:20:30', '2016-11-19 06:20:30', '\r\n\r\n
Join Monthly: $3.50 / mo
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n
Join Yearly: $35 / yr
\r\n
(Beta rate!)
\r\n
\r\n
\r\n\r\nGet new posts daily, save your favorites
\r\nWhy, 您好 there. You\'ve stumbled upon the inter-webz\'s most popular blog of Simplified Chinese reading exercises. I\'m Kendra (more about the CRP origin story here), and this is my tiny little kingdom. I publish one freebie post a week, but members get a new post every day, Monday-Friday, and the ability to save favorite posts. \r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the pay-to-play membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while the Member\'s Only library accumulates content. Introductory rates will be available until March 15, 2017, after which, my lovelies, subscriptions will go up to $5 bucks a month. Anyone who jumps on the early train will have their lower price locked in for life. Get while the gettin\'s good. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nNew posts are published daily between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post or \"Deep Dive\" (exploration of a themed topic). That\'s five new posts a week (plus one freebie, so six total).\r\n\r\nMember\'s Only Li-bibbly
\r\nYou\'ll also get access to all previous Member\'s Only posts, but as I said, as of December 2016, it\'s a meager collection. It is, however, growing daily. \r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time via your My Account area. \r\n\r\nQuestions?
\r\nYou can get in touch with me here. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-19 01:20:30', '2016-11-19 06:20:30', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2550, 1, '2016-11-19 01:21:48', '2016-11-19 06:21:48', '', 'Contact', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2550', '', '', '2016-11-19 01:23:01', '2016-11-19 06:23:01', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2550', 3, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(2551, 1, '2016-11-19 01:21:48', '2016-11-19 06:21:48', ' ', '', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2551', '', '', '2016-11-19 01:23:01', '2016-11-19 06:23:01', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2551', 1, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
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(2553, 1, '2016-11-19 01:26:59', '2016-11-19 06:26:59', ' ', '', '', 'publish', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2553', '', '', '2016-11-19 03:32:39', '2016-11-19 08:32:39', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2553', 3, 'nav_menu_item', '', 0),
(2557, 1, '2016-11-19 03:48:44', '2016-11-19 08:48:44', '\r\n\r\n
Join Monthly: $3.50 / mo
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(Beta rate!)
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Join Yearly: $35 / yr
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\r\n\r\nGet new posts daily, save your favorites
\r\nWhy, 您好 there. You\'ve stumbled upon the inter-webz\'s most popular blog of Simplified Chinese reading exercises. I\'m Kendra (more about the CRP origin story here), and this is my tiny little kingdom. I publish one freebie post a week, but members get a new post every day, Monday-Friday, and the ability to save favorite posts. \r\n\r\nIntroductory Rates for Beta
\r\nSeeing as how I only recently launched the pay-to-play membership section, and the CRP membership-only post library isn\'t yet very big, I\'m offering a special introductory subscription rate of $3.50 per month, or $35 per year, while the Member\'s Only library accumulates content. Introductory rates will be available until March 15, 2017, after which, my lovelies, subscriptions will go up to $5 bucks a month. Anyone who jumps on the early train will have their lower price locked in for life. Get while the gettin\'s good. \r\n\r\nPost schedules
\r\nNew posts are published daily between 8am and 11am, Eastern Standard Time. These include two \"super easy\" or \"beginner\" posts, two intermediate posts, and one advanced post or \"Deep Dive\" (exploration of a themed topic). That\'s five new posts a week (plus one freebie, so six total).\r\n\r\nMember\'s Only Li-bibbly
\r\nYou\'ll also get access to the complete Member\'s Only post library, but as I said, as of December 2016, it\'s a meager collection. It is, however, growing daily. \r\n\r\nBilling
\r\nAll subscriptions are set to auto-renew, but you\'re welcome to cancel at any time via your My Account area. \r\n\r\nQuestions?
\r\nYou can get in touch with me here. ', 'Subscribe', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1617-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-19 03:48:44', '2016-11-19 08:48:44', '', 1617, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1617-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2558, 1, '2016-11-19 03:52:40', '2016-11-19 08:52:40', '', 'Order – November 19, 2016 @ 03:52 AM', '', 'wc-processing', 'open', 'closed', 'order_583012d4c5799', 'order-nov-19-2016-0852-am', '', '', '2016-11-19 03:52:40', '2016-11-19 08:52:40', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?post_type=shop_order&p=2558', 0, 'shop_order', '', 2),
(2559, 1, '2016-11-19 03:52:36', '2016-11-19 08:52:36', '', 'Subscription – Nov 19, 2016 @ 08:52 AM', '', 'wc-on-hold', 'open', 'closed', 'order_583012d50a825', 'subscription-nov-19-2016-0852-am', '', '', '2018-11-22 11:49:16', '2018-11-22 16:49:16', '', 2558, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?post_type=shop_subscription&p=2559', 0, 'shop_subscription', '', 97),
(2562, 1, '2016-11-20 19:18:53', '2016-11-21 00:18:53', 'Oh man, I dated this guy. Big dreams, no follow-through. Lots of watching CSI while speculating about how much money he was going to make with the project he\'d never get around to actually launching. You know what that guy was doing? He was 守株待兔 [pinyin]shou3 zhu1 dai4 tu4[/pinyin], or more cryptically, \"guarding a tree stump waiting for rabbits\". \r\n\r\nUsage Examples
\r\n\r\n\r\n- 我们要积极创造机会，而不是只会守株待兔而已。 - We have to actively create opportunities, otherwise we\'re just sitting around waiting for a stroke of luck.
\r\n- 一分耕耘一分收穫，守株待兔终究不可靠。 - You reap what you sow, passively waiting for a lucky break is an unreliable strategy in the end.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAs outlined in the first sentence of the text, this story takes place during the Warring States period (475 and 221 BC), a 250-year mess which was finally kind of resolved when legendary emperor Qin Shihuang (秦始皇) whipped everyone\'s butt and unified China for the first time. While he was doing that, on the other hand, the protagonist in our little ditty here was farming. And then giving up farming for a career in sitting down. \r\n\r\nPay attention to...
\r\n不偏不倚 [pinyin]bu4 pian1 bu4 yi3[/pinyin] - Smack-dab\r\nIf you nab the definition directly out of the dictionary, this word makes zero sense. It translates as \"impartial\" or \"unbiased\", but in this case, it means \"straight\" or \"smack-dab\", as in \"He ran smack-dab into the door-frame\". \r\n\r\n日出而作，日入而息 - [pinyin]ri4 chu1 er zuo, ru4 ru4 er4 xi1[/pinyin]\r\nThis structure, specifically the way the character 而 is used, draws a little on ancient Chinese grammar. 而 has a ton of meanings. In this case, it connects what is done with the manner in which it is done. The manner in which something is done comes first. So 作 (do / go out) is what is done, and 日出 (when the sun comes out) is how or when it is done . 息 (rest) is what is done, and 日入 (when the sun recedes) is how or when it is done. \r\n\r\nSee the source.\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 相传在战国时代宋国，有一个农民，日出而作，日入而息．遇到好年景，也不过刚刚吃饱穿暖；一遇灾荒，可就要忍饥挨饿了．他想改善生活，但他太懒，胆子又特小，干什么都是又懒又怕，总想碰到送上门来的意外之财。\r\n\r\n2) 奇迹终于发生了。深秋的一天，他正在田里耕地，周围有人在打猎。吆喝之声四处起伏，受惊的小野兽没命的奔跑。突然，有一只兔子，不偏不倚，一头撞死在他田边的树根上。\r\n\r\n3) 当天，他美美地饱餐了一顿。从此，他便不再种地。一天到晚，守着那神奇的树根，等着奇迹的出现。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Legend has it that during the Warring States period in the State of Song, there was a farmer who toiled every day from sunrise to sunset. Even in times of plenty, he was still only barely able to eat well and dress warmly; when times of famine came, he invariably went hungry. He wanted to change his life, but he was too lazy, and not particularly brave, and being always slack and afraid, was always hoping wealth would arrive at his door by chance. \r\n\r\n2) A miracle finally happened. One day in the depths of autumn, as he was plowing in the fields, there was someone hunting near by. The cries of the hunters sounded from all sides, and startled little beasts went running in desperation. Suddenly, one little hare ran smack-dab into a tree stump in the middle of the field and died. \r\n\r\n3) That day, the farmer joyously ate his fill. From then on, he never tended another field. From morning until night, he sat guarding that magical tree stump, waiting for miracles. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 守株待兔 - To sit around waiting for a lucky break', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1781-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-20 19:18:53', '2016-11-21 00:18:53', '', 1781, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1781-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2563, 1, '2016-11-20 19:30:29', '2016-11-21 00:30:29', 'xxx\r\n\r\nUsage Examples
\r\n\r\n\r\n- 我们要积极创造机会，而不是只会守株待兔而已。 - We have to actively create opportunities, otherwise we\'re just sitting around waiting for a stroke of luck.
\r\n- 一分耕耘一分收穫，守株待兔终究不可靠。 - You reap what you sow, passively waiting for a lucky break is an unreliable strategy in the end.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAs outlined in the first sentence of the text, this story takes place during the Warring States period (475 and 221 BC), a 250-year mess which was finally kind of resolved when legendary emperor Qin Shihuang (秦始皇) whipped everyone\'s butt and unified China for the first time. While he was doing that, on the other hand, the protagonist in our little ditty here was farming. And then giving up farming for a career in sitting down. \r\n\r\nPay attention to...
\r\n不偏不倚 [pinyin]bu4 pian1 bu4 yi3[/pinyin] - Smack-dab\r\nIf you nab the definition directly out of the dictionary, this word makes zero sense. It translates as \"impartial\" or \"unbiased\", but in this case, it means \"straight\" or \"smack-dab\", as in \"He ran smack-dab into the door-frame\". \r\n\r\n日出而作，日入而息 - [pinyin]ri4 chu1 er zuo, ru4 ru4 er4 xi1[/pinyin]\r\nThis structure, specifically the way the character 而 is used, draws a little on ancient Chinese grammar. 而 has a ton of meanings. In this case, it connects what is done with the manner in which it is done. The manner in which something is done comes first. So 作 (do / go out) is what is done, and 日出 (when the sun comes out) is how or when it is done . 息 (rest) is what is done, and 日入 (when the sun recedes) is how or when it is done. \r\n\r\nSee the source.\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 一个楚国人，他有一颗漂亮的珍珠，他打算把这颗珍珠卖出去。为了卖个好价钱，他便动脑筋要将珍珠好好包装一下，他觉得有了高贵的包装，那么珍珠的“身份”就自然会高起来。\r\n\r\n2) 这个楚国人找来名贵的木兰，又请来手艺高超的匠人，为珍珠做了一个盒子（即椟），用桂椒香料把盒子熏得香气扑鼻。然后，在盒子的外面精雕细刻了许多好看的花纹，还镶上漂亮的金属花边，看上去，闪闪发亮，实在是一件精致美观的工艺品。 \r\n\r\n3) 这样，楚人将珍珠小心翼翼地放进盒子里，拿到市场上去卖。\r\n\r\n4) 到市场上不久，很多人都围上来欣赏楚人的盒子。一个郑国人将盒子拿在手里看了半天，爱不释手，终于出高价将楚人的盒子买了下来。郑人交过钱后，便拿着盒子往回走。可是没走几步他又回来了。楚人以为郑人后悔了要退货，没等楚人想完，郑人已走到楚人跟前。只见郑人将打开的盒子里的珍珠取出来交给楚人说：“先生，您将一颗珍珠忘放在盒子里了，我特意回来还珠子的。”于是郑人将珍珠交给了楚人，然后低着头一边欣赏着木盒子，一边往回走去。\r\n\r\n5) 楚人拿着被退回的珍珠，十分尴尬地站在那里。他原本以为别人会欣赏他的珍珠，可是没想到精美的外包装超过了包装盒内的价值，以致于“喧宾夺主”，令楚人哭笑不得。\r\n【释读】\r\n\r\n6) 郑人只重外表而不顾实质，使他做出了舍本求末的不当取舍；而楚人的“过分包装”也有些可笑。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) There was a man from the State of Chu, who had a beautiful pearl, which he decided to sell. In order to sell it for a good price, he went all-out packaging it up well, so that the pearl\'s value was naturally increased.\r\n\r\n2) This man of Chu gathered rare magnolias, and invited craftsmen of particular skill, in order to make a box for the pearl, 这个楚国人找来名贵的木兰，又请来手艺高超的匠人，为珍珠做了一个盒子（即椟），用桂椒香料把盒子熏得香气扑鼻。然后，在盒子的外面精雕细刻了许多好看的花纹，还镶上漂亮的金属花边，看上去，闪闪发亮，实在是一件精致美观的工艺品。 \r\n\r\n3) 这样，楚人将珍珠小心翼翼地放进盒子里，拿到市场上去卖。\r\n\r\n4) 到市场上不久，很多人都围上来欣赏楚人的盒子。一个郑国人将盒子拿在手里看了半天，爱不释手，终于出高价将楚人的盒子买了下来。郑人交过钱后，便拿着盒子往回走。可是没走几步他又回来了。楚人以为郑人后悔了要退货，没等楚人想完，郑人已走到楚人跟前。只见郑人将打开的盒子里的珍珠取出来交给楚人说：“先生，您将一颗珍珠忘放在盒子里了，我特意回来还珠子的。”于是郑人将珍珠交给了楚人，然后低着头一边欣赏着木盒子，一边往回走去。\r\n\r\n5) 楚人拿着被退回的珍珠，十分尴尬地站在那里。他原本以为别人会欣赏他的珍珠，可是没想到精美的外包装超过了包装盒内的价值，以致于“喧宾夺主”，令楚人哭笑不得。\r\n【释读】\r\n\r\n6) 郑人只重外表而不顾实质，使他做出了舍本求末的不当取舍；而楚人的“过分包装”也有些可笑。\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 买椟还珠 - To show poor judgement', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1785-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-20 19:30:29', '2016-11-21 00:30:29', '', 1785, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1785-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2564, 1, '2016-11-21 17:44:07', '2016-11-21 22:44:07', 'xxx\r\n\r\nUsage Examples
\r\n\r\n\r\n- 我们要积极创造机会，而不是只会守株待兔而已。 - We have to actively create opportunities, otherwise we\'re just sitting around waiting for a stroke of luck.
\r\n- 一分耕耘一分收穫，守株待兔终究不可靠。 - You reap what you sow, passively waiting for a lucky break is an unreliable strategy in the end.
\r\n
\r\n\r\nAs outlined in the first sentence of the text, this story takes place during the Warring States period (475 and 221 BC), a 250-year mess which was finally kind of resolved when legendary emperor Qin Shihuang (秦始皇) whipped everyone\'s butt and unified China for the first time. While he was doing that, on the other hand, the protagonist in our little ditty here was farming. And then giving up farming for a career in sitting down. \r\n\r\nPay attention to...
\r\n不偏不倚 [pinyin]bu4 pian1 bu4 yi3[/pinyin] - Smack-dab\r\nIf you nab the definition directly out of the dictionary, this word makes zero sense. It translates as \"impartial\" or \"unbiased\", but in this case, it means \"straight\" or \"smack-dab\", as in \"He ran smack-dab into the door-frame\". \r\n\r\n桂椒香料 - [pinyin]ri4 chu1 er zuo, ru4 ru4 er4 xi1[/pinyin]\r\nThis structure, specifically the way the character 而 is used, draws a little on ancient Chinese grammar. 而 has a ton of meanings. In this case, it connects what is done with the manner in which it is done. The manner in which something is done comes first. So 作 (do / go out) is what is done, and 日出 (when the sun comes out) is how or when it is done . 息 (rest) is what is done, and 日入 (when the sun recedes) is how or when it is done. \r\n\r\nSee the source.\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 一个楚国人，他有一颗漂亮的珍珠，他打算把这颗珍珠卖出去。为了卖个好价钱，他便动脑筋要将珍珠好好包装一下，他觉得有了高贵的包装，那么珍珠的“身份”就自然会高起来。\r\n\r\n2) 这个楚国人找来名贵的木兰，又请来手艺高超的匠人，为珍珠做了一个盒子（即椟），用桂椒香料把盒子熏得香气扑鼻。然后，在盒子的外面精雕细刻了许多好看的花纹，还镶上漂亮的金属花边，看上去，闪闪发亮，实在是一件精致美观的工艺品。 \r\n\r\n3) 这样，楚人将珍珠小心翼翼地放进盒子里，拿到市场上去卖。\r\n\r\n4) 到市场上不久，很多人都围上来欣赏楚人的盒子。一个郑国人将盒子拿在手里看了半天，爱不释手，终于出高价将楚人的盒子买了下来。郑人交过钱后，便拿着盒子往回走。可是没走几步他又回来了。楚人以为郑人后悔了要退货，没等楚人想完，郑人已走到楚人跟前。只见郑人将打开的盒子里的珍珠取出来交给楚人说：“先生，您将一颗珍珠忘放在盒子里了，我特意回来还珠子的。”于是郑人将珍珠交给了楚人，然后低着头一边欣赏着木盒子，一边往回走去。\r\n\r\n5) 楚人拿着被退回的珍珠，十分尴尬地站在那里。他原本以为别人会欣赏他的珍珠，可是没想到精美的外包装超过了包装盒内的价值，以致于“喧宾夺主”，令楚人哭笑不得。\r\n【释读】\r\n\r\n6) 郑人只重外表而不顾实质，使他做出了舍本求末的不当取舍；而楚人的“过分包装”也有些可笑。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) There was a man from the State of Chu, who had a beautiful pearl, which he decided to sell. In order to sell it for a good price, he went all-out packaging it up well, so that the pearl\'s value seemed naturally increased.\r\n\r\n2) This man of Chu called for rare woods and invited highly skilled craftsmen in order to make a box for the pearl, and scented the box with the finest spices to tickle the nose. Then, on the outside of the box he engraved many lovely patterns inlayed in metal so that it sparkled before one\'s eyes, truly an exquisitely-wraught work of art.\r\n\r\n3) Just so, the man from Chu carefully placed the pearl inside the box, and went off to market to conduct the sale. \r\n\r\n4) Not long after he reached the market, many people gathered around to admire the Man from Chu\'s box. One man from the State of Zheng held it in his hand and examined it for what seemed like half the day, unable to put it down, and finally bought it for a steep price. After the man from Zheng had paid, he walked away carrying it. But he hadn\'t gone but a few steps before he headed back [towards the man from Chu] again. The man from Chu thought the man from Zheng regretted his purchase and wished to return it, but before he\'d had time to think it through, the man from Zheng was already standing before him. The man from Zheng opened the box, took out the pearl and held it out to him, saying, \"Sir, you forgot a jewel inside this box, I came with the particular purpose of returning it.\" And so the man from Zheng gave the pearl back to the man from Chu, then strolled away, head down, admiring the wooden box. \r\n\r\n5) The man from Chu took the returned pearl, and stood there looking rather embarrassed. He\'d thought other would admire his pearl, but he never thought the fine packaging might exceed the value of what was inside, to the extent that \"the voice of the guest was louder than the voice of the host\", and he wasn\'t sure whether to laugh or cry. \r\n\r\n[Moral of the story]\r\n\r\n6) The man from Zheng looked at the outer appearance and didn\'t see the true value, SOMETHING, and the man from Chu\'s excessive packaging was also a bit ridiculous. 郑人只重外表而不顾实质，使他做出了舍本求末的不当取舍；而楚人的“过分包装”也有些可笑。\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 买椟还珠 - To show poor judgement', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1785-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-21 17:44:07', '2016-11-21 22:44:07', '', 1785, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1785-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2566, 1, '2016-11-26 17:02:48', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'You know that whole Disapproving Asian Dad meme? Yeah, you do, this one: \r\n\r\n[pic] \r\n\r\nYou know where that stuff comes from, culturally speaking? It comes straight from the top, straight from the father of Eastern traditional ethics, from the father of all disappointed Asian fathers: Confucius. Confucius was harsh, man. The guy could dish out burns like no other. And not just any burns. Passive-aggressive, head-shaking, this-hurts-me-more-than-it-hurts-you burns. \r\n\r\nToday we\'re gonna dive into a blurb from The Analects (475 BC–221 BC), a paragraph in which Confucius tears into one of his students for - ohez noez - sleeping late. Confucius did not like late sleepers. He thought sleeping in pointed to a fundamental character flaw.\r\n\r\nAgain, people, this blurb is in classical (we\'re talking ancient) Chinese here. The rules of grammar are a bit different, the vocabulary is a bit different, and the sentence structure is quite different than modern Chinese. I have a Deep-Drive primer on some of the most commonly used Ancient Chinese characters and their meanings here, so if this is your first jump into ancient Chinese, read that first, I won\'t be covering the basic vocabulary again.\r\n\r\nSome points of interest
\r\n子曰 - \r\nThis is it, friends. The two characters from which sprang a thousand bad jokes. \"Confucius says\". 子 is a polite, respectful, and even slightly affectionate form of the Chinese name for Confucius: 孔子 [pinyin]kong3 zi3[/pinyin]. Reminder, that 曰 is a [pinyin]yue1[/pinyin], not a [pinyin]ri4[/pinyin]. Visually, the only difference between 曰 and 日 is that the first is a little wider and shorter than the second. \r\n\r\n宰予\r\nThe name of one of Confucius\' disciples.\r\n\r\n于\r\nThis appears four times in this passage, and luckily, it means the same thing in each case, namely \"as for\" or \"as to\". \r\n\r\n予\r\nThis is just a shortened version of 宰予, the disciple\'s name. \r\n\r\n与\r\nThis one is a bit odd. It does not mean \"and\", as it does in modern Chinese. \r\n\r\n今\r\nYou may recognize this character from its Oscar-winning lead in the word \"今天\", but in ancient Chinese, this character doesn\'t mean \"today\", but rather \"now\". So, same ballpark, but not quite the same word. \r\n\r\n是\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n1) 宰予昼寝，子曰：“朽木不可雕也，粪土之墙不可圬也！于予与何诛？” \r\n\r\n2) 子曰：“始吾于人也，听其言而信其行；今吾于人也，听其言而观其行。于予与改是。”\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Zai Yu was sleeping in late. Confucius said: \"You can\'t carve rotten wood, and you can\'t whitewash a wall made of nightsoil. As for Zai Yu, what criticism can I give?\"\r\n\r\n2) Confucius said: \"Used to be that I listened to what folks said and trusted them to behave accordingly; these days, I verify that their words match their actions. As for Zai Yu, my opinion of him has already changed.\"\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n', '[Confucius (Actually) Said] Analects: Confucius rips his student a new one for sleeping in', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-26 17:02:48', '2016-11-26 22:02:48', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2566', 0, 'post', '', 0);
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(2565, 1, '2016-11-22 17:46:11', '2016-11-22 22:46:11', 'xxx\r\n\r\nUsage Examples
\r\n\r\n\r\n- 我们要积极创造机会，而不是只会守株待兔而已。 - We have to actively create opportunities, otherwise we\'re just sitting around waiting for a stroke of luck.
\r\n- 一分耕耘一分收穫，守株待兔终究不可靠。 - You reap what you sow, passively waiting for a lucky break is an unreliable strategy in the end.
\r\n
\r\n谢谢\r\n\r\nPay attention to...
\r\n动脑筋 [pinyin]ding4 nao3 jin1[/pinyin] - Use your brains\r\nYes, do. \r\n\r\n身份 - [pinyin]shen4 fen4[/pinyin]\r\n身份 translates directly as \"identity\", in both the abstract and practical senses. In modern Chinese, \"身份证\" is your \"ID Card\", for example. But \r\n\r\nHis (Dark?) Materials
\r\n\r\nA couple of the words in this text don\'t appear in the dictionary, or if they do, the definitions don\'t make a ton of sense. 木兰, for one example. 桂椒香料 for another. \r\n\r\nThe most basic definition of 木兰 is a flower - magnolia, if we\'re splitting hairs. This is also the given name of 花木兰, the Chinese warrior princess of Disney movie fame (originally a poem from the Northern Dynasties). \r\n\r\nSee the source.\r\n\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n1) 一个楚国人，他有一颗漂亮的珍珠，他打算把这颗珍珠卖出去。为了卖个好价钱，他便动脑筋要将珍珠好好包装一下，他觉得有了高贵的包装，那么珍珠的“身份”就自然会高起来。\r\n\r\n2) 这个楚国人找来名贵的木兰，又请来手艺高超的匠人，为珍珠做了一个盒子（即椟），用桂椒香料把盒子熏得香气扑鼻。然后，在盒子的外面精雕细刻了许多好看的花纹，还镶上漂亮的金属花边，看上去，闪闪发亮，实在是一件精致美观的工艺品。 \r\n\r\n3) 这样，楚人将珍珠小心翼翼地放进盒子里，拿到市场上去卖。\r\n\r\n4) 到市场上不久，很多人都围上来欣赏楚人的盒子。一个郑国人将盒子拿在手里看了半天，爱不释手，终于出高价将楚人的盒子买了下来。郑人交过钱后，便拿着盒子往回走。可是没走几步他又回来了。楚人以为郑人后悔了要退货，没等楚人想完，郑人已走到楚人跟前。只见郑人将打开的盒子里的珍珠取出来交给楚人说：“先生，您将一颗珍珠忘放在盒子里了，我特意回来还珠子的。”于是郑人将珍珠交给了楚人，然后低着头一边欣赏着木盒子，一边往回走去。\r\n\r\n5) 楚人拿着被退回的珍珠，十分尴尬地站在那里。他原本以为别人会欣赏他的珍珠，可是没想到精美的外包装超过了包装盒内的价值，以致于“喧宾夺主”，令楚人哭笑不得。\r\n【释读】\r\n\r\n6) 郑人只重外表而不顾实质，使他做出了舍本求末的不当取舍；而楚人的“过分包装”也有些可笑。\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) There was a man from the State of Chu, who had a beautiful pearl, which he decided to sell. In order to sell it for a good price, he went all-out packaging it up well, so that the pearl\'s value seemed naturally increased.\r\n\r\n2) This man of Chu called for rare magnolia wood and invited highly skilled craftsmen in order to make a box for the pearl, scenting the box with the finest spices to tickle the nose. Then, on the outside of the box he engraved many lovely patterns inlayed in metal so that it sparkled before one\'s eyes, truly an exquisitely-wraught work of art.\r\n\r\n3) Just so, the man from Chu carefully placed the pearl inside the box, and went off to market to conduct the sale. \r\n\r\n4) Not long after he reached the market, many people gathered around to admire the Man from Chu\'s box. One man from the State of Zheng held it in his hand and examined it for what seemed like half the day, unable to put it down, and finally bought it for a steep price. After the man from Zheng had paid, he walked away carrying it. But he hadn\'t gone but a few steps before he headed back [towards the man from Chu] again. The man from Chu thought the man from Zheng regretted his purchase and wished to return it, but before he\'d had time to think it through, the man from Zheng was already standing before him. The man from Zheng opened the box, took out the pearl and held it out to him, saying, \"Sir, you forgot a jewel inside this box, I came with the particular purpose of returning it.\" And so the man from Zheng gave the pearl back to the man from Chu, then strolled away, head down, admiring the wooden box. \r\n\r\n5) The man from Chu took the returned pearl, and stood there looking rather embarrassed. He\'d thought other would admire his pearl, but he never thought the fine packaging might exceed the value of what was inside, to the extent that \"the voice of the guest was louder than the voice of the host\", and he wasn\'t sure whether to laugh or cry. \r\n\r\n[Moral of the story]\r\n\r\n6) The man from Zheng looked at the outer appearance and didn\'t see the true value, causing him to make a choice that placed importance on inessential details rather than on the central issue, and the man from Chu\'s excessive packaging was also a bit ridiculous. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', '[Chinese Idiom] 买椟还珠 - To show poor judgement', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1785-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-22 17:46:11', '2016-11-22 22:46:11', '', 1785, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/1785-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2567, 1, '2016-11-23 18:56:24', '2016-11-23 23:56:24', 'You know that whole Disapproving Asian Dad meme? Yeah, you do, this one: \r\n\r\n[pic] \r\n\r\nYou know where that stuff comes from, culturally speaking? It comes straight from the top, straight from the father of Eastern traditional ethics, from the father of all disappointed Asian fathers. \r\n\r\nConfucius was harsh, man. The guy could dish out burns like no other. Today we\'re gonna dive into a single paragraph of The Analects, a paragraph in which Confucius tears into one of his students for - horror of horrors - sleeping late. Confucius did not like late sleepers. Late sleepers were not just lazy, they were fundamentally and irreversibly pathetic. This is a burn so brutal, I winced reading it. \r\n\r\nAgain, people, this blurb is in classical (we\'re talking ancient) Chinese here. The rules of grammar are a bit different, the vocabulary is a bit different, and the sentence structure is quite different than modern Chinese. I have a primer on \r\n\r\n宰予昼寝，子曰：“朽木不可雕也，粪土之墙不可圬也！于予与何诛？” \r\n\r\n子曰：“始吾于人也，听其言而信其行；今吾于人也，听其言而观其行。于予与改是。”\r\n\r\nZai Yu was sleeping in one morning, and Confucius said: \"You can\'t carve rotten wood, and you can\'t whitewash a wall made of nightsoil. . \r\n\r\nConfucius said: \"When I first started out, I \r\n\r\n', '[Confucius (Actually) Said] Analects: Confucius rips his student a new one for sleeping in', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2566-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-23 18:56:24', '2016-11-23 23:56:24', '', 2566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2566-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2568, 1, '2016-11-24 05:11:09', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', 'Why ancient Chinese is so friggin\' hard
\nYeah, the vocabulary is different. There are some tools and titles that don\'t exist anymore, and ya gotta learn what those words mean to understand the text. But honestly, by the time you hit. So vocab isn\'t really what makes ancient Chinese so hard. No, what makes it hard is, well, read on:\n\n\nExtremely condensed language
\n\n听其言而信其行\n\nIn modern Chinese, we very often see words constructed of two characters. Those two characters together lend the word a lot of specificity. But in ancient Chinese, the language is extremely condensed. Very often, words are only one character long. Consider this sentence, which is from Confucius\' Analects:\n\n听其言而信其行\n\nFirst, let\'s break the sentence down - I\'ve filled in the easier bits and the hardest bits:\n\n听 - Listen to\n其 - his\n言 - ??\n而 - and then\n信 - ??\n其 - his\n行 - ??\n\nUh oh. There are three characters in here that have kind of ambiguous meanings. 言? Is that 语言 (language)? 方言 (regional dialect)? 预言 (prophecy)? In this case, it\'s more like 言语, meaning \"words\", or \"what one says\". So now we\'ve got:\n\n听 - Listen to\n其 - his\n言 - words\n而 - and then\n信 - ??\n其 - his\n行 - ??\n\nOkay, 信 is a little easier to guess. This is sometimes used as a single character in modern Chinese today, it means \"to believe\" or \"belief\". So we can infer here:\n\n听 - Listen to\n其 - his\n言 - words\n而 - and then\n信 - believe\n其 - his\n行 - ??\n\nBut 行? 行走 (to walk)? You may be able to guess . \n\nAnd that\'s an easy example. It can get really ridiculous with the abbreviated language. So ridiculous, in fact, that it\'s nearly impossible to pinpoint exactly what the original was trying to communicate. Perfect example? The Dao De Jing, which, if we are to believe some translators, begins like this:\n\n\"The Dao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Dao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.”
\n\nAnd according to others, like this:\n\n\"The Providence which could be indicated by words would not be an all-embracing Providence, nor would any name by which we could name it be an ever-applicable name.\"
\n\nOr maybe like this:\n\n\"The Principle that can be enunciated is not the one that always was. The being that can be named is not the one that was at all times.\"
\n\nYou wanna see the original Chinese? Here it is, all 12 characters of it: \n\n道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。\n\nLet\'s break it down:\n\n道 - The way\n可 - can\n道 - the way\n非 - not\n常 - very\n道 - the way. \n\n名 - Name\n可 - can\n名 - name\n非 - not\n常 - very\n名 - name. \n\nUhhh... embellish much? And that\'s why there are over 100 different translations of the Dao De Jing, chapter one, and also why none of them can possibly succeed in bringing out any more clarity in the original text without sacrificing its simplicity. The original is as simple, and pure, and open to interpretation, as it\'s possible to get. \n\n\nOne character, lots of meanings
\nHere\'s another element of complexity: Modern Chinese is pretty forgiving in the sense that most words only have one very specific meaning. There are exceptions, of course, but you rarely have to run down a big list of definitions in order to determine which one applies. \n\nAncient Chinese is the opposite. What makes it so incomprehensible is that many of the super important core grammatical words have multiple - we\'re talking like, 7 or 8 - very different meanings and applications. I spend a lot of time running down lists of definitions for the same character trying to figure out exactly which “之” I\'m dealing with. \n\nPlus, the same character can be both a noun and a verb, and though the character would be pronounced differently depending on whether it\'s referring to an action or an object, there\'s no way to tell from looking at it. Let\'s take, for example, the humble 担。In ancient Chinese, if this is pronounced [pinyin] DANZI[/pinyin], then it\'s referring to a noun, a 担子, which is a carrying pole that lays across the shoulders with a bucket hung at either end, typically used for hauling water or whatever. But if the same character is pronounced [pinyin] DANZI[/pinyin], it refers to a verb - the action of carrying something across the shoulders, \"to shoulder\". How do you know which one, huh? Well, practice, really. \n\n[PIC OF A DANZI]. \n\nSo, those are the tough bits. Now that you know what you\'re getting yourself into, if you\'re ready to keep reading, I\'ll talk some specifics. \n\n\nSome basic principles of ancient Chinese grammar
\n\nChanging the tone changes words from verb to noun
\n担 - to shoulder something\n\nConversations and Dialogue: 曰， 谓， 对
\n\nAh!
\n\nMe / You / He / she / it / WTF
\nFun fact: you know where the Chinese word 她 (she) comes from? It comes from a love poem from the 1920s. That\'s right. The Chinese word \"she\" was invented less than 100 years ago. Before that, there was no female-gender-specific word for \"that person over there\". Up until \n\n吾， 其，君，子，\n\nThe Big Baddies of Ancient Chinese Grammar: 为，而，之
\nI guess they just had less words then or something, but th. \n为
\n\n而
\n\n之
\n\n\n\nOh man, the ', '[Deep Dive] The (Almost) Complete Beginner\'s Ultimate Introduction to Reading Ancient Chinese', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2016-11-24 05:11:09', '2016-11-24 10:11:09', '', 0, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2568', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2569, 1, '2016-11-23 18:58:36', '2016-11-23 23:58:36', '', '[Deep Dive] Introduction to Reading Ancient Chinese: Some Basic Characters', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2568-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-23 18:58:36', '2016-11-23 23:58:36', '', 2568, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2568-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2570, 1, '2016-11-23 19:01:49', '2016-11-24 00:01:49', 'Some basic principles of ancient Chinese grammar
\r\n\r\nChanging the tone changes words from verb to noun
\r\n\r\n担 - to shoulder something\r\n\r\n\r\n为
\r\n\r\n而
\r\n\r\n之
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOh man, the ', '[Deep Dive] Introduction to Reading Ancient Chinese: Some Basic Characters', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2568-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-23 19:01:49', '2016-11-24 00:01:49', '', 2568, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2568-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2571, 1, '2016-11-23 19:21:12', '2016-11-24 00:21:12', 'Some basic principles of ancient Chinese grammar
\r\n\r\nChanging the tone changes words from verb to noun
\r\n担 - to shoulder something\r\n\r\nConversations and Dialogue: 曰， 谓， 对
\r\n\r\nAh!
\r\n\r\nHe / she / it / WTF
\r\nFun fact: you know where the Chinese word 她 (she) comes from? It comes from a love poem from the 1920s. That\'s right. The Chinese word \"she\" was invented less than 100 years ago. Before that, there was no female-gender-specific word for \"that person over there\". Up until \r\n\r\nThe Big Baddies of Ancient Chinese Grammar: 为，而，之
\r\nI guess they just had less words then or something, but th. \r\n为
\r\n\r\n而
\r\n\r\n之
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOh man, the ', '[Deep Dive] Introduction to Reading Ancient Chinese: Some Basic Characters', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2568-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-23 19:21:12', '2016-11-24 00:21:12', '', 2568, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2568-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2572, 1, '2016-11-23 19:30:58', '2016-11-24 00:30:58', 'Why Ancient Chinese is so friggin\' hard
\r\nYeah, the vocabulary is different. There are some tools and titles that don\'t exist anymore, and ya gotta learn what those words mean. But honestly, by the time you hit. So vocab isn\'t really what makes ancient Chinese so hard. \r\n\r\nOne character, lots of meanings
\r\nModern Chinese is pretty forgiving in the sense that most words only have one very specific meaning. There are exceptions, of course, but you rarely have to run down a big list of definitions in order to determine which one applies. \r\n\r\nAncient Chinese is the opposite. What makes it so incomprehensible is that many of the super important core grammatical words have multiple - we\'re talking like, 7 or 8 - very different meanings. I spend a lot of time running down lists of definitions trying to figure out exactly which “之” I\'m dealing with. \r\n\r\nExtremely condensed language
\r\nI know this sounds kind of dippy, but I find I have to approach reading ancient Chinese in a different way. \r\n\r\nSome basic principles of ancient Chinese grammar
\r\n\r\nChanging the tone changes words from verb to noun
\r\n担 - to shoulder something\r\n\r\nConversations and Dialogue: 曰， 谓， 对
\r\n\r\nAh!
\r\n\r\nMe / You / He / she / it / WTF
\r\nFun fact: you know where the Chinese word 她 (she) comes from? It comes from a love poem from the 1920s. That\'s right. The Chinese word \"she\" was invented less than 100 years ago. Before that, there was no female-gender-specific word for \"that person over there\". Up until \r\n\r\n吾， 其，君，子，\r\n\r\nThe Big Baddies of Ancient Chinese Grammar: 为，而，之
\r\nI guess they just had less words then or something, but th. \r\n为
\r\n\r\n而
\r\n\r\n之
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOh man, the ', '[Deep Dive] Introduction to Reading Ancient Chinese: Some Basic Characters', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2568-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-23 19:30:58', '2016-11-24 00:30:58', '', 2568, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2568-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2573, 1, '2016-11-23 19:31:34', '2016-11-24 00:31:34', 'You know that whole Disapproving Asian Dad meme? Yeah, you do, this one: \r\n\r\n[pic] \r\n\r\nYou know where that stuff comes from, culturally speaking? It comes straight from the top, straight from the father of Eastern traditional ethics, from the father of all disappointed Asian fathers. \r\n\r\nConfucius was harsh, man. The guy could dish out burns like no other. Today we\'re gonna dive into a single paragraph of The Analects, a paragraph in which Confucius tears into one of his students for - horror of horrors - sleeping late. Confucius did not like late sleepers. Late sleepers were not just lazy, they were fundamentally and irreversibly pathetic. This is a burn so brutal, I winced reading it. \r\n\r\nAgain, people, this blurb is in classical (we\'re talking ancient) Chinese here. The rules of grammar are a bit different, the vocabulary is a bit different, and the sentence structure is quite different than modern Chinese. I have a Deep-Drive primer on some of the most commonly used Ancient Chinese characters and their meanings here, so if this is your first jump into ancient Chinese, read that first, see if it doesn\'t help. \r\n\r\nSome points of interest
\r\n子曰\r\n\r\n也\r\n\r\n与\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n1) 宰予昼寝，子曰：“朽木不可雕也，粪土之墙不可圬也！于予与何诛？” \r\n\r\n2) 子曰：“始吾于人也，听其言而信其行；今吾于人也，听其言而观其行。于予与改是。”\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Zai Yu was sleeping in one morning, and Confucius said: \"You can\'t carve rotten wood, and you can\'t whitewash a wall made of nightsoil.\"\r\n\r\n2) Confucius said: \"Used to be that I listened to what folks said and trusted them to behave accordingly; these days, I verify that their words match their actions. As for Zai Yu, my opinion of him has already changed.\"\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n', '[Confucius (Actually) Said] Analects: Confucius rips his student a new one for sleeping in', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2566-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-23 19:31:34', '2016-11-24 00:31:34', '', 2566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2566-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2574, 1, '2016-11-23 19:53:34', '2016-11-24 00:53:34', 'Why Ancient Chinese is so friggin\' hard
\r\nYeah, the vocabulary is different. There are some tools and titles that don\'t exist anymore, and ya gotta learn what those words mean to understand the text. But honestly, by the time you hit. So vocab isn\'t really what makes ancient Chinese so hard. \r\n\r\nOne character, lots of meanings
\r\nModern Chinese is pretty forgiving in the sense that most words only have one very specific meaning. There are exceptions, of course, but you rarely have to run down a big list of definitions in order to determine which one applies. \r\n\r\nAncient Chinese is the opposite. What makes it so incomprehensible is that many of the super important core grammatical words have multiple - we\'re talking like, 7 or 8 - very different meanings. I spend a lot of time running down lists of definitions for the same character trying to figure out exactly which “之” I\'m dealing with. \r\n\r\nExtremely condensed language
\r\nI know this sounds kind of dippy, but I find I have to approach reading ancient Chinese in a different way. I have to set aside my need for specificity. I have to let each character kinda wash over me and paint part of a picture, then infer the meaning of the sentence from the picture that\'s been painted. Try it - try relaxing your mental grip on the language a little, drift with it. Maybe it\'ll help, maybe I just need to lay off the educational dowsing rods or whatever.\r\n\r\n听其言而信其行\r\n\r\n\r\nSome basic principles of ancient Chinese grammar
\r\n\r\nChanging the tone changes words from verb to noun
\r\n担 - to shoulder something\r\n\r\nConversations and Dialogue: 曰， 谓， 对
\r\n\r\nAh!
\r\n\r\nMe / You / He / she / it / WTF
\r\nFun fact: you know where the Chinese word 她 (she) comes from? It comes from a love poem from the 1920s. That\'s right. The Chinese word \"she\" was invented less than 100 years ago. Before that, there was no female-gender-specific word for \"that person over there\". Up until \r\n\r\n吾， 其，君，子，\r\n\r\nThe Big Baddies of Ancient Chinese Grammar: 为，而，之
\r\nI guess they just had less words then or something, but th. \r\n为
\r\n\r\n而
\r\n\r\n之
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOh man, the ', '[Deep Dive] Introduction to Reading Ancient Chinese: Some Basic Characters', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2568-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-23 19:53:34', '2016-11-24 00:53:34', '', 2568, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2568-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2575, 1, '2016-11-24 05:04:45', '2016-11-24 10:04:45', 'Why ancient Chinese is so friggin\' hard
\r\nYeah, the vocabulary is different. There are some tools and titles that don\'t exist anymore, and ya gotta learn what those words mean to understand the text. But honestly, by the time you hit. So vocab isn\'t really what makes ancient Chinese so hard. No, what makes it hard is, well, read on:\r\n\r\n\r\nExtremely condensed language
\r\n\r\n听其言而信其行\r\n\r\nIn modern Chinese, we very often see words constructed of two characters. Those two characters together lend the word a lot of specificity. But in ancient Chinese, the language is extremely condensed. Very often, words are only one character long. Consider this sentence, which is from Confucius\' Analects:\r\n\r\n听其言而信其行\r\n\r\nFirst, let\'s break the sentence down - I\'ve filled in the easier bits and the hardest bits:\r\n\r\n听 - Listen to\r\n其 - his\r\n言 - ??\r\n而 - and then\r\n信 - ??\r\n其 - his\r\n行 - ??\r\n\r\nUh oh. There are three characters in here that have kind of ambiguous meanings. 言? Is that 语言 (language)? 方言 (regional dialect)? 预言 (prophecy)? In this case, it\'s more like 言语, meaning \"words\", or \"what one says\". So now we\'ve got:\r\n\r\n听 - Listen to\r\n其 - his\r\n言 - words\r\n而 - and then\r\n信 - ??\r\n其 - his\r\n行 - ??\r\n\r\nOkay, 信 is a little easier to guess. This is sometimes used as a single character in modern Chinese today, it means \"to believe\" or \"belief\". So we can infer here:\r\n\r\n听 - Listen to\r\n其 - his\r\n言 - words\r\n而 - and then\r\n信 - believe\r\n其 - his\r\n行 - ??\r\n\r\nBut 行? 行走 (to walk)? You may be able to guess . \r\n\r\nAnd that\'s an easy example. It can get really ridiculous with the abbreviated language. So ridiculous, in fact, that it\'s nearly impossible to pinpoint exactly what the original was trying to communicate. Perfect example? The Dao De Jing, which, if we are to believe some translators, begins like this:\r\n\r\n\"The Dao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Dao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name.”
\r\n\r\nOr maybe like this: \r\n\r\n\"The Providence which could be indicated by words would not be an all-embracing Providence, nor would any name by which we could name it be an ever-applicable name.\"
\r\n\r\nOr maybe like this:\r\n\r\n\"The Principle that can be enunciated is not the one that always was. The being that can be named is not the one that was at all times. \"
\r\n\r\nYou wanna see the original Chinese? Here it is, all 12 characters of it: \r\n\r\n道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。\r\n\r\nLet\'s break it down:\r\n\r\n道 - The way\r\n可 - can\r\n道 - the way\r\n非 - not\r\n常 - very\r\n道 - the way. \r\n\r\n名 - Name\r\n可 - can\r\n名 - name\r\n非 - not\r\n常 - very\r\n名 - name. \r\n\r\nUhhh... embellish much? And that\'s why there are over 100 different translations of the Dao De Jing, chapter one, and also why none of them can possibly succeed in bringing out any more clarity in the original text without sacrificing its simplicity. The original is as simple, and pure, and open to interpretation, as it\'s possible to get. \r\n\r\nI know this sounds kind of dippy, but I find I have to approach reading ancient Chinese in a different way. I have to set aside my need for specificity. I have to let each character kinda wash over me and paint part of a picture, then infer the meaning of the sentence from the picture that\'s been painted. Try it - try relaxing your mental grip on the language a little, drift with it. Maybe it\'ll help, maybe I just need to lay off the educational dowsing rods or whatever.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOne character, lots of meanings
\r\nHere\'s another element of complexity: Modern Chinese is pretty forgiving in the sense that most words only have one very specific meaning. There are exceptions, of course, but you rarely have to run down a big list of definitions in order to determine which one applies. \r\n\r\nAncient Chinese is the opposite. What makes it so incomprehensible is that many of the super important core grammatical words have multiple - we\'re talking like, 7 or 8 - very different meanings and applications. I spend a lot of time running down lists of definitions for the same character trying to figure out exactly which “之” I\'m dealing with. \r\n\r\nPlus, the same character can be both a noun and a verb, and though the character would be pronounced differently depending on whether it\'s referring to an action or an object, there\'s no way to tell from looking at it. Let\'s take, for example, the humble 担。In ancient Chinese, if this is pronounced [pinyin] DANZI[/pinyin], then it\'s referring to a noun, a 担子, which is a carrying pole that lays across the shoulders with a bucket hung at either end, typically used for hauling water or whatever. But if the same character is pronounced [pinyin] DANZI[/pinyin], it refers to a verb - the action of carrying something across the shoulders, \"to shoulder\". How do you know which one, huh? Well, practice, really. \r\n\r\n[PIC OF A DANZI]. \r\n\r\nSo, those are the tough bits. Now that you know what you\'re getting yourself into, \r\n\r\n\r\nSome basic principles of ancient Chinese grammar
\r\n\r\nChanging the tone changes words from verb to noun
\r\n担 - to shoulder something\r\n\r\nConversations and Dialogue: 曰， 谓， 对
\r\n\r\nAh!
\r\n\r\nMe / You / He / she / it / WTF
\r\nFun fact: you know where the Chinese word 她 (she) comes from? It comes from a love poem from the 1920s. That\'s right. The Chinese word \"she\" was invented less than 100 years ago. Before that, there was no female-gender-specific word for \"that person over there\". Up until \r\n\r\n吾， 其，君，子，\r\n\r\nThe Big Baddies of Ancient Chinese Grammar: 为，而，之
\r\nI guess they just had less words then or something, but th. \r\n为
\r\n\r\n而
\r\n\r\n之
\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOh man, the ', '[Deep Dive] The (Almost) Complete Beginner\'s Ultimate Introduction to Reading Ancient Chinese', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2568-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-24 05:04:45', '2016-11-24 10:04:45', '', 2568, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2568-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2576, 1, '2016-11-26 17:02:48', '2016-11-26 22:02:48', 'You know that whole Disapproving Asian Dad meme? Yeah, you do, this one: \r\n\r\n[pic] \r\n\r\nYou know where that stuff comes from, culturally speaking? It comes straight from the top, straight from the father of Eastern traditional ethics, from the father of all disappointed Asian fathers: Confucius. Confucius was harsh, man. The guy could dish out burns like no other. And not just any burns. Passive-aggressive, head-shaking, this-hurts-me-more-than-it-hurts-you burns. \r\n\r\nToday we\'re gonna dive into a blurb from The Analects (475 BC–221 BC), a paragraph in which Confucius tears into one of his students for - ohez noez - sleeping late. Confucius did not like late sleepers. He thought sleeping in pointed to a fundamental character flaw.\r\n\r\nAgain, people, this blurb is in classical (we\'re talking ancient) Chinese here. The rules of grammar are a bit different, the vocabulary is a bit different, and the sentence structure is quite different than modern Chinese. I have a Deep-Drive primer on some of the most commonly used Ancient Chinese characters and their meanings here, so if this is your first jump into ancient Chinese, read that first, I won\'t be covering the basic vocabulary again.\r\n\r\nSome points of interest
\r\n子曰 - \r\nThis is it, friends. The two characters from which sprang a thousand bad jokes. \"Confucius says\". 子 is a polite, respectful, and even slightly affectionate form of the Chinese name for Confucius: 孔子 [pinyin]kong3 zi3[/pinyin]. Reminder, that 曰 is a [pinyin]yue1[/pinyin], not a [pinyin]ri4[/pinyin]. Visually, the only difference between 曰 and 日 is that the first is a little wider and shorter than the second. \r\n\r\n宰予\r\nThe name of one of Confucius\' disciples.\r\n\r\n于\r\nThis appears four times in this passage, and luckily, it means the same thing in each case, namely \"as for\" or \"as to\". \r\n\r\n予\r\nThis is just a shortened version of 宰予, the disciple\'s name. \r\n\r\n与\r\nThis one is a bit odd. It does not mean \"and\", as it does in modern Chinese. \r\n\r\n今\r\nYou may recognize this character from its Oscar-winning lead in the word \"今天\", but in ancient Chinese, this character doesn\'t mean \"today\", but rather \"now\". So, same ballpark, but not quite the same word. \r\n\r\n是\r\n
\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n\r\n\r\n1) 宰予昼寝，子曰：“朽木不可雕也，粪土之墙不可圬也！于予与何诛？” \r\n\r\n2) 子曰：“始吾于人也，听其言而信其行；今吾于人也，听其言而观其行。于予与改是。”\r\n\r\n
\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\n1) Zai Yu was sleeping in late. Confucius said: \"You can\'t carve rotten wood, and you can\'t whitewash a wall made of nightsoil. As for Zai Yu, what criticism can I give?\"\r\n\r\n2) Confucius said: \"Used to be that I listened to what folks said and trusted them to behave accordingly; these days, I verify that their words match their actions. As for Zai Yu, my opinion of him has already changed.\"\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]\r\n', '[Confucius (Actually) Said] Analects: Confucius rips his student a new one for sleeping in', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2566-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-11-26 17:02:48', '2016-11-26 22:02:48', '', 2566, 'http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/11/2566-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(166, 'Deep Dive', 'deep-dive', 0),
(169, 'It\'s Science!', 'its-science', 0),
(170, 'It\'s Science!', 'its-science', 0),
(171, 'Famous People', 'famous-people', 0),
(172, 'Short Story', 'short-story', 0),
(173, 'Grammar & Language', 'grammar-language', 0);
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `wp_term_relationships`
--
CREATE TABLE `wp_term_relationships` (
`object_id` bigint(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
`term_taxonomy_id` bigint(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
`term_order` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
--
-- Dumping data for table `wp_term_relationships`
--
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-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `wp_term_taxonomy`
--
CREATE TABLE `wp_term_taxonomy` (
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`term_id` bigint(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
`taxonomy` varchar(32) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
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`parent` bigint(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
`count` bigint(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
--
-- Dumping data for table `wp_term_taxonomy`
--
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-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `wp_usermeta`
--
CREATE TABLE `wp_usermeta` (
`umeta_id` bigint(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL,
`user_id` bigint(20) UNSIGNED NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
`meta_key` varchar(255) DEFAULT NULL,
`meta_value` longtext DEFAULT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;
--
-- Dumping data for table `wp_usermeta`
--
INSERT INTO `wp_usermeta` (`umeta_id`, `user_id`, `meta_key`, `meta_value`) VALUES
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-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `wp_users`
--
CREATE TABLE `wp_users` (
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`user_login` varchar(60) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
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`user_nicename` varchar(50) NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
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--
-- Dumping data for table `wp_users`
--
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-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `wp_woocommerce_api_keys`
--
CREATE TABLE `wp_woocommerce_api_keys` (
`key_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`user_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`description` longtext COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci DEFAULT NULL,
`permissions` varchar(10) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL,
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) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci;
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `wp_woocommerce_attribute_taxonomies`
--
CREATE TABLE `wp_woocommerce_attribute_taxonomies` (
`attribute_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`attribute_name` varchar(200) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL,
`attribute_label` longtext COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci DEFAULT NULL,
`attribute_type` varchar(200) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL,
`attribute_orderby` varchar(200) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL,
`attribute_public` int(1) NOT NULL DEFAULT 1
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci;
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `wp_woocommerce_downloadable_product_permissions`
--
CREATE TABLE `wp_woocommerce_downloadable_product_permissions` (
`permission_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`download_id` varchar(32) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL,
`product_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`order_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
`order_key` varchar(200) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL,
`user_email` varchar(200) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL,
`user_id` bigint(20) DEFAULT NULL,
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`access_granted` datetime NOT NULL DEFAULT '0000-00-00 00:00:00',
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`download_count` bigint(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci;
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `wp_woocommerce_order_itemmeta`
--
CREATE TABLE `wp_woocommerce_order_itemmeta` (
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`order_item_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
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`meta_value` longtext COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci DEFAULT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci;
--
-- Dumping data for table `wp_woocommerce_order_itemmeta`
--
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(150, 17, '_line_total', '3.5'),
(151, 17, '_line_subtotal_tax', '0'),
(152, 17, '_line_tax', '0'),
(153, 17, '_line_tax_data', 'a:2:{s:5:\"total\";a:0:{}s:8:\"subtotal\";a:0:{}}'),
(154, 18, '_qty', '3'),
(155, 18, '_tax_class', ''),
(156, 18, '_product_id', '1967'),
(157, 18, '_variation_id', '0'),
(158, 18, '_line_subtotal', '90'),
(159, 18, '_line_total', '90'),
(160, 18, '_line_subtotal_tax', '0'),
(161, 18, '_line_tax', '0'),
(162, 18, '_line_tax_data', 'a:2:{s:5:\"total\";a:0:{}s:8:\"subtotal\";a:0:{}}'),
(163, 19, '_qty', '1'),
(164, 19, '_tax_class', ''),
(165, 19, '_product_id', '1966'),
(166, 19, '_variation_id', '0'),
(167, 19, '_line_subtotal', '3.5'),
(168, 19, '_line_total', '3.5'),
(169, 19, '_line_subtotal_tax', '0'),
(170, 19, '_line_tax', '0'),
(171, 19, '_line_tax_data', 'a:2:{s:5:\"total\";a:0:{}s:8:\"subtotal\";a:0:{}}'),
(172, 20, '_qty', '1'),
(173, 20, '_tax_class', ''),
(174, 20, '_product_id', '1966'),
(175, 20, '_variation_id', '0'),
(176, 20, '_line_subtotal', '3.5'),
(177, 20, '_line_total', '3.5'),
(178, 20, '_line_subtotal_tax', '0'),
(179, 20, '_line_tax', '0'),
(180, 20, '_line_tax_data', 'a:2:{s:5:\"total\";a:0:{}s:8:\"subtotal\";a:0:{}}'),
(181, 21, '_qty', '1'),
(182, 21, '_tax_class', ''),
(183, 21, '_product_id', '1966'),
(184, 21, '_variation_id', '0'),
(185, 21, '_line_subtotal', '3.5'),
(186, 21, '_line_total', '3.5'),
(187, 21, '_line_subtotal_tax', '0'),
(188, 21, '_line_tax', '0'),
(189, 21, '_line_tax_data', 'a:2:{s:5:\"total\";a:0:{}s:8:\"subtotal\";a:0:{}}'),
(190, 22, '_qty', '1'),
(191, 22, '_tax_class', ''),
(192, 22, '_product_id', '1966'),
(193, 22, '_variation_id', '0'),
(194, 22, '_line_subtotal', '3.5'),
(195, 22, '_line_total', '3.5'),
(196, 22, '_line_subtotal_tax', '0'),
(197, 22, '_line_tax', '0'),
(198, 22, '_line_tax_data', 'a:2:{s:5:\"total\";a:0:{}s:8:\"subtotal\";a:0:{}}'),
(199, 23, '_qty', '1'),
(200, 23, '_tax_class', ''),
(201, 23, '_product_id', '1966'),
(202, 23, '_variation_id', '0'),
(203, 23, '_line_subtotal', '3.5'),
(204, 23, '_line_total', '3.5'),
(205, 23, '_line_subtotal_tax', '0'),
(206, 23, '_line_tax', '0'),
(207, 23, '_line_tax_data', 'a:2:{s:5:\"total\";a:0:{}s:8:\"subtotal\";a:0:{}}'),
(208, 24, '_qty', '1'),
(209, 24, '_tax_class', ''),
(210, 24, '_product_id', '1966'),
(211, 24, '_variation_id', '0'),
(212, 24, '_line_subtotal', '3.5'),
(213, 24, '_line_total', '3.5'),
(214, 24, '_line_subtotal_tax', '0'),
(215, 24, '_line_tax', '0'),
(216, 24, '_line_tax_data', 'a:2:{s:5:\"total\";a:0:{}s:8:\"subtotal\";a:0:{}}'),
(217, 25, '_qty', '1'),
(218, 25, '_tax_class', ''),
(219, 25, '_product_id', '1966'),
(220, 25, '_variation_id', '0'),
(221, 25, '_line_subtotal', '3.5'),
(222, 25, '_line_total', '3.5'),
(223, 25, '_line_subtotal_tax', '0'),
(224, 25, '_line_tax', '0'),
(225, 25, '_line_tax_data', 'a:2:{s:5:\"total\";a:0:{}s:8:\"subtotal\";a:0:{}}'),
(226, 26, '_qty', '1'),
(227, 26, '_tax_class', ''),
(228, 26, '_product_id', '1966'),
(229, 26, '_variation_id', '0'),
(230, 26, '_line_subtotal', '3.5'),
(231, 26, '_line_total', '3.5'),
(232, 26, '_line_subtotal_tax', '0'),
(233, 26, '_line_tax', '0'),
(234, 26, '_line_tax_data', 'a:2:{s:5:\"total\";a:0:{}s:8:\"subtotal\";a:0:{}}'),
(235, 27, '_qty', '1'),
(236, 27, '_tax_class', ''),
(237, 27, '_product_id', '1966'),
(238, 27, '_variation_id', '0'),
(239, 27, '_line_subtotal', '3.5'),
(240, 27, '_line_total', '3.5'),
(241, 27, '_line_subtotal_tax', '0'),
(242, 27, '_line_tax', '0'),
(243, 27, '_line_tax_data', 'a:2:{s:5:\"total\";a:0:{}s:8:\"subtotal\";a:0:{}}'),
(244, 28, '_qty', '1'),
(245, 28, '_tax_class', ''),
(246, 28, '_product_id', '1966'),
(247, 28, '_variation_id', '0'),
(248, 28, '_line_subtotal', '3.5'),
(249, 28, '_line_total', '3.5'),
(250, 28, '_line_subtotal_tax', '0'),
(251, 28, '_line_tax', '0'),
(252, 28, '_line_tax_data', 'a:2:{s:5:\"total\";a:0:{}s:8:\"subtotal\";a:0:{}}'),
(253, 29, '_qty', '1'),
(254, 29, '_tax_class', ''),
(255, 29, '_product_id', '1966'),
(256, 29, '_variation_id', '0'),
(257, 29, '_line_subtotal', '3.5'),
(258, 29, '_line_total', '3.5'),
(259, 29, '_line_subtotal_tax', '0'),
(260, 29, '_line_tax', '0'),
(261, 29, '_line_tax_data', 'a:2:{s:5:\"total\";a:0:{}s:8:\"subtotal\";a:0:{}}'),
(262, 30, '_qty', '1'),
(263, 30, '_tax_class', ''),
(264, 30, '_product_id', '1966'),
(265, 30, '_variation_id', '0'),
(266, 30, '_line_subtotal', '3.5'),
(267, 30, '_line_total', '3.5'),
(268, 30, '_line_subtotal_tax', '0'),
(269, 30, '_line_tax', '0'),
(270, 30, '_line_tax_data', 'a:2:{s:5:\"total\";a:0:{}s:8:\"subtotal\";a:0:{}}'),
(271, 31, '_qty', '3'),
(272, 31, '_tax_class', ''),
(273, 31, '_product_id', '1967'),
(274, 31, '_variation_id', '0'),
(275, 31, '_line_subtotal', '90'),
(276, 31, '_line_total', '90'),
(277, 31, '_line_subtotal_tax', '0'),
(278, 31, '_line_tax', '0'),
(279, 31, '_line_tax_data', 'a:2:{s:5:\"total\";a:0:{}s:8:\"subtotal\";a:0:{}}'),
(280, 32, '_qty', '1'),
(281, 32, '_tax_class', ''),
(282, 32, '_product_id', '1966'),
(283, 32, '_variation_id', '0'),
(284, 32, '_line_subtotal', '3.5'),
(285, 32, '_line_total', '3.5'),
(286, 32, '_line_subtotal_tax', '0'),
(287, 32, '_line_tax', '0'),
(288, 32, '_line_tax_data', 'a:2:{s:5:\"total\";a:0:{}s:8:\"subtotal\";a:0:{}}');
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `wp_woocommerce_order_items`
--
CREATE TABLE `wp_woocommerce_order_items` (
`order_item_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`order_item_name` longtext COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL,
`order_item_type` varchar(200) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`order_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci;
--
-- Dumping data for table `wp_woocommerce_order_items`
--
INSERT INTO `wp_woocommerce_order_items` (`order_item_id`, `order_item_name`, `order_item_type`, `order_id`) VALUES
(1, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2255),
(2, 'Yearly Membership', 'line_item', 2255),
(3, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2256),
(4, 'Yearly Membership', 'line_item', 2257),
(5, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2558),
(6, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2559),
(7, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2577),
(8, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2661),
(9, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2696),
(10, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2698),
(11, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2701),
(12, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2703),
(13, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2705),
(14, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2707),
(15, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2709),
(16, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2711),
(17, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2713),
(18, 'Yearly Membership', 'line_item', 2715),
(19, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2717),
(20, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2719),
(21, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2721),
(22, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2723),
(23, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2725),
(24, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2727),
(25, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2729),
(26, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2731),
(27, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2733),
(28, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2735),
(29, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2737),
(30, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2739),
(31, 'Yearly Membership', 'line_item', 2741),
(32, 'Monthly Membership', 'line_item', 2742);
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `wp_woocommerce_payment_tokenmeta`
--
CREATE TABLE `wp_woocommerce_payment_tokenmeta` (
`meta_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`payment_token_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`meta_key` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci DEFAULT NULL,
`meta_value` longtext COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci DEFAULT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci;
--
-- Dumping data for table `wp_woocommerce_payment_tokenmeta`
--
INSERT INTO `wp_woocommerce_payment_tokenmeta` (`meta_id`, `payment_token_id`, `meta_key`, `meta_value`) VALUES
(1, 1, 'card_type', 'visa'),
(2, 1, 'last4', '4242'),
(3, 1, 'expiry_month', '10'),
(4, 1, 'expiry_year', '2018'),
(5, 2, 'card_type', 'visa'),
(6, 2, 'last4', '4242'),
(7, 2, 'expiry_month', '10'),
(8, 2, 'expiry_year', '2018');
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `wp_woocommerce_payment_tokens`
--
CREATE TABLE `wp_woocommerce_payment_tokens` (
`token_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`gateway_id` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL,
`token` text COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL,
`user_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
`type` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL,
`is_default` tinyint(1) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci;
--
-- Dumping data for table `wp_woocommerce_payment_tokens`
--
INSERT INTO `wp_woocommerce_payment_tokens` (`token_id`, `gateway_id`, `token`, `user_id`, `type`, `is_default`) VALUES
(1, 'stripe', 'card_19D1OVCSeU6j47OLu5rDFPjG', 1, 'CC', 1),
(2, 'stripe', 'card_19HUaCCSeU6j47OLcipnPii8', 2, 'CC', 1);
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `wp_woocommerce_sessions`
--
CREATE TABLE `wp_woocommerce_sessions` (
`session_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`session_key` char(32) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL,
`session_value` longtext COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL,
`session_expiry` bigint(20) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci;
--
-- Dumping data for table `wp_woocommerce_sessions`
--
INSERT INTO `wp_woocommerce_sessions` (`session_id`, `session_key`, `session_value`, `session_expiry`) VALUES
(175, '1', 'a:18:{s:4:\"cart\";s:6:\"a:0:{}\";s:15:\"applied_coupons\";s:6:\"a:0:{}\";s:23:\"coupon_discount_amounts\";s:6:\"a:0:{}\";s:27:\"coupon_discount_tax_amounts\";s:6:\"a:0:{}\";s:21:\"removed_cart_contents\";s:6:\"a:0:{}\";s:19:\"cart_contents_total\";i:0;s:5:\"total\";i:0;s:8:\"subtotal\";i:0;s:15:\"subtotal_ex_tax\";i:0;s:9:\"tax_total\";i:0;s:5:\"taxes\";s:6:\"a:0:{}\";s:14:\"shipping_taxes\";s:6:\"a:0:{}\";s:13:\"discount_cart\";i:0;s:17:\"discount_cart_tax\";i:0;s:14:\"shipping_total\";i:0;s:18:\"shipping_tax_total\";i:0;s:9:\"fee_total\";i:0;s:4:\"fees\";s:6:\"a:0:{}\";}', 1551983804);
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `wp_woocommerce_shipping_zones`
--
CREATE TABLE `wp_woocommerce_shipping_zones` (
`zone_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`zone_name` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL,
`zone_order` bigint(20) NOT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci;
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `wp_woocommerce_shipping_zone_locations`
--
CREATE TABLE `wp_woocommerce_shipping_zone_locations` (
`location_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`zone_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`location_code` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL,
`location_type` varchar(40) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci;
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `wp_woocommerce_shipping_zone_methods`
--
CREATE TABLE `wp_woocommerce_shipping_zone_methods` (
`zone_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`instance_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`method_id` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL,
`method_order` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`is_enabled` tinyint(1) NOT NULL DEFAULT 1
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci;
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `wp_woocommerce_tax_rates`
--
CREATE TABLE `wp_woocommerce_tax_rates` (
`tax_rate_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`tax_rate_country` varchar(200) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`tax_rate_state` varchar(200) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`tax_rate` varchar(200) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`tax_rate_name` varchar(200) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
`tax_rate_priority` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`tax_rate_compound` int(1) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
`tax_rate_shipping` int(1) NOT NULL DEFAULT 1,
`tax_rate_order` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`tax_rate_class` varchar(200) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT ''
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci;
-- --------------------------------------------------------
--
-- Table structure for table `wp_woocommerce_tax_rate_locations`
--
CREATE TABLE `wp_woocommerce_tax_rate_locations` (
`location_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`location_code` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL,
`tax_rate_id` bigint(20) NOT NULL,
`location_type` varchar(40) COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci NOT NULL
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8mb4 COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_520_ci;
--
-- Indexes for dumped tables
--
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_commentmeta`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_commentmeta`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`meta_id`),
ADD KEY `comment_id` (`comment_id`),
ADD KEY `meta_key` (`meta_key`(191));
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_comments`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_comments`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`comment_ID`),
ADD KEY `comment_post_ID` (`comment_post_ID`),
ADD KEY `comment_approved_date_gmt` (`comment_approved`,`comment_date_gmt`),
ADD KEY `comment_date_gmt` (`comment_date_gmt`),
ADD KEY `comment_parent` (`comment_parent`),
ADD KEY `comment_author_email` (`comment_author_email`(10));
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_duplicator_packages`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_duplicator_packages`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
ADD KEY `hash` (`hash`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_links`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_links`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`link_id`),
ADD KEY `link_visible` (`link_visible`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_memberful_mapping`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_memberful_mapping`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`member_id`),
ADD UNIQUE KEY `wp_user_id` (`wp_user_id`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_options`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_options`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`option_id`),
ADD UNIQUE KEY `option_name` (`option_name`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_pollsa`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_pollsa`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`polla_aid`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_pollsip`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_pollsip`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`pollip_id`),
ADD KEY `pollip_ip` (`pollip_id`),
ADD KEY `pollip_qid` (`pollip_qid`),
ADD KEY `pollip_ip_qid_aid` (`pollip_ip`,`pollip_qid`,`pollip_aid`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_pollsq`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_pollsq`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`pollq_id`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_postmeta`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_postmeta`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`meta_id`),
ADD KEY `post_id` (`post_id`),
ADD KEY `meta_key` (`meta_key`(191));
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_posts`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_posts`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`ID`),
ADD KEY `type_status_date` (`post_type`,`post_status`,`post_date`,`ID`),
ADD KEY `post_parent` (`post_parent`),
ADD KEY `post_author` (`post_author`),
ADD KEY `post_name` (`post_name`(191));
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_subscribe_reloaded_subscribers`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_subscribe_reloaded_subscribers`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`stcr_id`),
ADD UNIQUE KEY `uk_subscriber_email` (`subscriber_email`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_termmeta`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_termmeta`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`meta_id`),
ADD KEY `term_id` (`term_id`),
ADD KEY `meta_key` (`meta_key`(191));
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_terms`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_terms`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`term_id`),
ADD KEY `slug` (`slug`(191)),
ADD KEY `name` (`name`(191));
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_term_relationships`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_term_relationships`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`object_id`,`term_taxonomy_id`),
ADD KEY `term_taxonomy_id` (`term_taxonomy_id`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_term_taxonomy`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_term_taxonomy`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`term_taxonomy_id`),
ADD UNIQUE KEY `term_id_taxonomy` (`term_id`,`taxonomy`),
ADD KEY `taxonomy` (`taxonomy`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_usermeta`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_usermeta`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`umeta_id`),
ADD KEY `user_id` (`user_id`),
ADD KEY `meta_key` (`meta_key`(191));
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_users`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_users`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`ID`),
ADD KEY `user_login_key` (`user_login`),
ADD KEY `user_nicename` (`user_nicename`),
ADD KEY `user_email` (`user_email`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_woocommerce_api_keys`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_woocommerce_api_keys`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`key_id`),
ADD KEY `consumer_key` (`consumer_key`),
ADD KEY `consumer_secret` (`consumer_secret`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_woocommerce_attribute_taxonomies`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_woocommerce_attribute_taxonomies`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`attribute_id`),
ADD KEY `attribute_name` (`attribute_name`(191));
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_woocommerce_downloadable_product_permissions`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_woocommerce_downloadable_product_permissions`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`permission_id`),
ADD KEY `download_order_key_product` (`product_id`,`order_id`,`order_key`(191),`download_id`),
ADD KEY `download_order_product` (`download_id`,`order_id`,`product_id`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_woocommerce_order_itemmeta`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_woocommerce_order_itemmeta`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`meta_id`),
ADD KEY `order_item_id` (`order_item_id`),
ADD KEY `meta_key` (`meta_key`(191));
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_woocommerce_order_items`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_woocommerce_order_items`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`order_item_id`),
ADD KEY `order_id` (`order_id`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_woocommerce_payment_tokenmeta`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_woocommerce_payment_tokenmeta`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`meta_id`),
ADD KEY `payment_token_id` (`payment_token_id`),
ADD KEY `meta_key` (`meta_key`(191));
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_woocommerce_payment_tokens`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_woocommerce_payment_tokens`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`token_id`),
ADD KEY `user_id` (`user_id`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_woocommerce_sessions`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_woocommerce_sessions`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`session_key`),
ADD UNIQUE KEY `session_id` (`session_id`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_woocommerce_shipping_zones`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_woocommerce_shipping_zones`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`zone_id`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_woocommerce_shipping_zone_locations`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_woocommerce_shipping_zone_locations`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`location_id`),
ADD KEY `location_id` (`location_id`),
ADD KEY `location_type` (`location_type`),
ADD KEY `location_type_code` (`location_type`,`location_code`(90));
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_woocommerce_shipping_zone_methods`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_woocommerce_shipping_zone_methods`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`instance_id`);
--
-- Indexes for table `wp_woocommerce_tax_rates`
--
ALTER TABLE `wp_woocommerce_tax_rates`
ADD PRIMARY KEY (`tax_rate_id`),
ADD KEY `tax_rate_country` (`tax_rate_country`(191)),
ADD KEY `tax_rate_state` (`tax_rate_state`(191)),
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![\"Working...\"](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-admin//images/loading.gif\")
![\"Intermediate](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/20110219-INLINE-turkey-and-bull.jpg\" "\\"Intermediate")
The Turkey and the Bull makes it pretty clear that (and here I quote) \"butt licking\" is not the path to success. I tried to think of a corresponding allegory in English, but nothing quite as poignant comes to mind. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![\"Beginner](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/20110217-INLINE-one-liners.jpg\" "\\"Beginner")
The punchline of the last joke, \"I Won\'t Let You Die\", hinges on the Chinese slang [verb]死了 [pinyin]si3le5[/pinyin]，which doesn\'t actually have anything to do with death, but rather means \"very\". For example, 饿死了, literally \"die from hunger\", means \"very hungry\", similar to the English phrase \"I\'m starving to death!\" In this case, the phrase is 高兴死了, \"happy to death\", or \"very happy\". \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![\"Simplified](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/20110309-INLINE-two-parrots.jpg\" "\\"Simplified")
\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n![\"Practice](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/20110318-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Practice")
There are three names in this text that are Chinese transliterations of English names, so I\'ve given it my best guess. The first, 弗里德曼, I didn\'t even try to translate, so I stuck with Fulideman (Fleiderman?). For the second, 利普霍恩, I went with Philip Horn. And the third, 吉姆•契, I went with Jim Qi. If anyone\'s got a more standard translation for these names, please leave a comment!\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![\"Simplified](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/20110320-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Simplified")
The tragedy in Japan has been big news in Asia (as it has been everywhere in the world), particularly as many fear the radiation from the failed nuclear reactors will hit their shores. This article is chalk full of words you hate to read but which newspapers seems to love so much: fatality, refugee camp, disaster, missing persons, etc.\r\n\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![\"Easy](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/20110322-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Easy")
The sentence structure here is completely beginner - very basic stuff. But there are quite a few vocabulary words that beginners probably won\'t know, so I\'m placing this in the Intermediate category. Still, to save everyone\'s sanity, I took out one phrase from the original due to its difficulty. \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title of this story is 神笔.\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![\"Easy](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/20110324-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Easy")
You\'ll learn a couple of interesting Chinese abbreviations for some of the biggest and most famous universities in Beijing, and a ton of school-centric words. Not a whole lot of compelling narrative here, and not much of a stunning conclusion, but good practice nonetheless.\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![\"Easy](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/20110330-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Beginner")
The Chinese title of this story is 懂礼貌的小兔.\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![\"Advanced](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/20110411-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Advanced")
This Chinese excerpt is from the modern militant action novel \"Cold Thorn\", or 冷刺, written by 天地飘鸥. You\'ll be reading the first part of Chapter 1: King of the Commandos (特种兵之王). \r\n\r\nThe language here is very heavy on the cheesy military slang, so if you like action movies and thrillers, you\'ll be able to catch quite a few of the cliches. \r\n\r\nIf you\'d like to finish reading the book after you finish this first bit, the full text is available online from Sina.com\'s book archive. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![\"\"](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110507-inline.jpg\" "\\"20110507-inline\\"")
The original summary was taken from the movie section of Chinese web portal Douban. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![\"Practice](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/20110510-inline.jpg\" "\\"Practice")
\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n![\"Easy](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/20110813-inline.jpg\" "\\"Beginner")
In this story, you can also expect to learn a few Chinese onomatopoeia, words that sound like what they are, like the English word \"boom\". There\'s a ton of them in here. We find \"呜呜\" [pinyin]wu1 wu1[/pinyin], the Chinese equivalent of \"Boo Hoo!\". There\'s also 劈里啪啦 [pinyin]pi1 li5 pa1 la5[/pinyin], the sound of someone whacking something (in this case, with a stick). There\'s 扑通 [pinyin]pu1 tong1[/pinyin], the Chinese equivalent of the English word \"plunk\" - the sound of something falling into water. And there\'s 唧唧喳喳 [pinyin]ji1 ji1 zha1 zha1[/pinyin], the sound of a crowd of people chattering. \r\n\r\n![\"Basic](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/20110606-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Basic")
There is one particularly difficult sentence here, and that\'s 小象爬到树去学飞“哎哟”一声，摔了一个大跟头. The words themselves aren\'t too hard, but the sentence arrangement doesn\'t make a lot of sense when directly translated into English. Let\'s take it step by step:\r\n\r\n小象 - Little Elephant\r\n爬到 - Climbed to / climbed up\r\n树 - tree\r\n去 - go\r\n学飞 - learn to fly\r\n“哎哟” - \'Ai yo!\' Sound which means \"Yikes!\" or \"Ow!\" \r\n一声 - Noise, sound\r\n摔了 - to fall\r\n一个大 - a big\r\n跟头 - Fall, trip and fall.\r\n\r\nIf you look at all these words together, you can more easily process the overall meaning of the sentence, which is, \"In order to learn to fly, Little Elephant climbed a tree and, with a yelp of \"Ai Yo!\", fell heavily to the ground.\" \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![\"Intermediate](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/20110821-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Intermediate")
This article was both written and translated into English by a Chinese student on her own blog. I wish I could remember where I found it now, as I\'d like to give the credit where credit is due, but it\'s been sitting in my \"drafts\" folder forever. The Chinese title is 如何交朋友.\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![\"Chinese](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/20110905-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Chinese")
This isn\'t really an essay, per se. The Chinese have a different word for this type of \"what I did that day\" article: they call it 记事 (a record of events, like a diary) or 叙事 (a narrative). The weirdest part about this, I think, is the part where the kid says he smokes a cigarette his dad gave him. How old is this child? The rest of the piece makes it sound like he\'s about 7-10? Anyway... The Chinese title of this little story is 放花炮.\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![\"Beginner](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/20110912-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Beginner")
\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![\"Advanced](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/20111127-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Advanced")
The sentence structure never gets too complex to follow in this, so if you\'re an intermediate reader feeling up for a lot of new words, go for it. But this essay is a little bit new-word heavy, so unless you are fairly good with descriptive vocabulary, so don\'t expect an uninterrupted read. I love this essay for its use of unusual color words, like \"glistening yellow\", \"vibrant red\", and \"transparent\".\r\n\r\nIn terms of the item the author describes, it\'s a bit hard to tell from the Chinese text that the writer is describing multiple crystal dolls inside of crystal balls in a crystal bottle until you get partway into the description, and while the girl paints a very vivid picture of this pretty bauble, I don\'t know that I\'ve ever seen anything like it in real life. It sounds like the crystal figurine version of Inception. Anyway, without further ado:\r\n\r\nThe Chinese title is: 水晶球\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![\"Beginner](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/20111210-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Beginner")
A note: The characters 周井寒 which appear in this essay are a person\'s name. The person is referred to twice, first by their given name, 井寒, then by their full name, 周井寒. The person\'s relationship to the author isn\'t really specified. This clearly isn\'t the name of the child\'s mother, as 周井寒 is referred to as a \"he\". \r\n\r\nThe Chinese title of this essay is . \r\n\r\nAnd here\'s the original source\r\n\r\n![\"Practice](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/20111220-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Practice")
The dragon boat festival is held in remembrance of poet Qu Yuan\'s death. Qu Yuan was a faithful servant of his emperor, but was falsely accused of being a traitor. He drowned himself in a river after several decades in exile, but the local people loved him and remember him fondly. Sounds morbid, but actually the festival is a joyous one, where dragon boats are raced on the river (to commemorate the search for Qu Yuan\'s body) and 粽子 [pinyin]zong4 zi5[/pinyin] (boiled triangular rice balls wrapped in leaves) are eaten (when he died, it\'s said that 粽子 were thrown into the river to feed him in the afterlife - other stories have it that people threw 粽子 into the river to keep the fish from eating his body before they could find it).\r\n\r\nA couple of words in this essay are not in the dictionary, and need explaining: namely 艾香. I this case, 艾香 [pinyin]ai4 xiang1[/pinyin] means \"the smell of wormwood\", and it refers to the smell produced by bouquets of wormwood (艾草) that people hang on their door during the Dragon Boat Festival to drive away bad luck.\r\n\r\nAnother word here is 雄黄酒, something that I\'ve seen but never tried, and while there is an English word for this, I\'ve never heard this spoken in English. 雄黄酒 is \"realgar wine\", whatever the heck realgar is. If you\'re curious, this article has more information on realgar wine and it\'s association with the Dragon Boat Festival. \r\n\r\nAnd finally, there\'s 趟露水, literally \"to wade in the dew\", and it refers to (what I think is a) regional custom of going out on an early morning walk and anointing one\'s face with dew drops. And without further adew (har!), the Chinese title of this essay is 我家的端午节.\r\n\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![\"Simple](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/20120102-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Simple")
In this story, the name of the young boy is 浩浩 [pinyin]hao4 hao4[/pinyin], and you\'ll see those two characters a lot. You\'ll also see in several places that characters are sometimes doubled up. When writing is intended for young children, you\'ll often see characters repeated twice. For example, while 小狗 means \'dog\', 狗狗 might be equivalent to \"doggie\" - it\'s essentially baby-talk. \r\n\r\nThere is one difficult little clause in this text, which is: 扯着衣角. Let\'s examine it piece-by-piece. 扯 [pinyin]che3[/pinyin] means to pull at something. 着 [pinyin]zhe5[/pinyin], in this instance, means \"ing\", or \"while doing\". So we\'ve now got \"Pulling at...\". Then there\'s 衣 [pinyin]yi1[/pinyin], meaning \"clothing\", so we now have \"Pulling at clothing...\". And finally 角 [pinyin]jiao3[/pinyin], corner. So the sentence reads \"Pulling at clothing corner\", or in better English, \"Pulling at the corner of his clothes\". \r\n\r\n![\"Advanced](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/20120107-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Advanced")
\r\n\r\nThe Chinese title of this article is: 马来西亚推出50辆女性专用出租车 大受欢迎\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![\"Advanced](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/20120218-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Advanced")
I\'m only translating the first paragraph here, if you want to read the rest, the complete article can be found on the China Daily site.\r\n\r\nOne of the fun words in this paragraph is 模拟舱 [pinyin]mo2 ni3 cang1[/pinyin], which means \"simulator\", like a flight simulator. In English, \"simulator\" can refer to anything that simulates, so this could be a combat simulator that\'s really just a video game on a flat panel, but the Chinese word here is more specific. 模拟 means \"simulate\", but 舱 [pinyin]cang1[/pinyin] means a kind of cabin, like an airplane cabin, that you can step into and ride in. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![\"Practice](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/20120317-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Practice")
\"Punk Times\" is 朋克时代 [pinyin]peng2 ke4 shi2 dai4[/pinyin]. Though this is definitely a magazine, it looks like it also came with a CD, as there\'s a track listing that goes with it. It\'s my understanding that along with two other Chinese music magazines 《盛事摇滚》 [pinyin]sheng4 shi4 yao2 gun3[/pinyin] and 《自由音乐》[pinyin]zi4 you2 yin1 yue4[/pinyin], 朋克时代 is among the cannon of alternative music publications in China (or as one netizen put it, \"这三本小册子已成经典\" - \"these three booklets have already become classics\"). \n\nThe original is here: http://music.douban.com/subject/3437383/\n\nIf you feel like doing your own research and you\'re interested in Chinese rock, here are the titles of other Chinese music magazines I dug up over the course of this post:\n《极端音乐》 \n《R&非音乐》 \n《重型音乐》 \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n![\"Chinese](\"http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/20110323-INLINE.jpg\" "\\"Reading")
Cool upper-intermediate piece - in case it hasn\'t been obvious throughout these posts, I love classical stories about wily government counselors and should probably post about something else on occasion, but so many classical tales involve this trope that it\'s hard to avoid. \r\n\r\nThis piece is cool because - excepting the first sentence - the sentence structure is simple but there are quite a few classical words, so you\'ll learn some historical terms. In case you think this kind of thing isn\'t really useful, think again. Historical figures in the Chinese dynasties are mentioned frequently in the oddest places, and their stories bleed out into every medium. If you\'re at a museum, if you\'re reading Chinese magazines, if you\'re reading Chinese historical essays, if you\'re watching a TV show or book or listening to the radio, you\'ll see mentions of historical dynasties all the time. But most importantly, if you want to watch Chinese war movies or period pieces (and there are some great ones), this vocab is crucial. You might as well know at least when to recognize that the conversation has gone that way.\r\n\r\nThis short story takes place during the Warring States period (475 BC to 221 BC), and mentions three of the seven warring kingdoms of that time, so you\'ll learn some dynasty names: 赵国 [pinyin]zhao4 guo2[/pinyin] (The Zhao State), 燕国 [pinyin]yan1 guo2[/pinyin] (The Yan State), and 秦国 [pinyin]qin2 guo2[/pinyin] (the Qin State). Speaking of dynasties, when you\'re reading this, look out for the word 王[pinyin]wang2[/pinyin] - as you probably know at this point in your studies, 王means \"king\", and when you see that, you can sometimes guess that the two or three characters before this word are the name of the king. Unlike in English, where we say \"King Charles\" or \"King John\", in this case the Chinese put \"king\" after the name. For example, in this story, we have 赵惠文王 - King Huiwen of Zhao (in other words, king of the Zhao state).\r\n\r\nWhat\'s amusing about this story is that in reality, the Qin Dynasty came out on top of the Warring States period and ruled China (well, for a decade or so, anyway) after the Warring States were over - so bear that in mind as you read the last sentence. \r\n\r\nYou\'ll also meet our protagonist 苏代 [pinyin]su1 dai4[/pinyin] - who he is is explained in the first sentence, but suffice to say that 苏代 is a person\'s name. He\'s mentioned in conjunction with 纵横家 [pinyin]zong4 heng2 jia1[/pinyin], the School of Diplomacy, which was a sort of league of scholar-statesmen from the Warring States period. If you\'re interested, you can read more about it on Wikipedia. \r\n\r\nAnyway, I\'m making this story sound really complicated, but other than the historical terminology, the storyline is not at all convoluted. \r\n\r\nOriginal story is here: http://www.diyifanwen.com/chengyu/sizichengyugushi/20100516141051614035955767805.html\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n![this](\"http://m1.img.libdd.com/farm4/2012/0918/10/1E03B280AB539A12D396CE03DC9D7B14A8F7E0F770B6_500_328.jpg\"){kind=link}