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I 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.  <!--more-->

<img src="http://devenv.chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20120428-INLINE.jpg" alt="Chinese Reading Material: Free Advanced Chinese Lessons" title="Learn to Read Chinese: Read Advanced Chinese Essays" width="100" height="100" class="imgborder alignleft" />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. 

For 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).

As you read through this, bear in mind that the words in "quotes" are usernames, hence the strange collection of characters.

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<h4>Click to Listen</h4>
闷闷不乐 - [pinyin]men4 men4 bu4 le4[/pinyin] - Sulky, moody, unhappy
怎么了 - [pinyin]zen3 me5 le4[/pinyin] - What's wrong?
叹 - [pinyin]tan4[/pinyin] - Sigh
暑假 - [pinyin]shu3 jia4[/pinyin] - Summer vacation
自责 - [pinyin]zi4 ze2[/pinyin] - To blame oneself
根本 - [pinyin]gen1 ben3[/pinyin] - absolutely (not)
努力 - [pinyin]nu3 li4[/pinyin] -  To strive, work hard
盯 - [pinyin]ding1[/pinyin] - Stare at
攥 - [pinyin]zuan4[/pinyin] - To grasp
共同 - [pinyin]gong4 tong2[/pinyin] - Together
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<div id="chinesetext">
9月24日星期六

今天，开完家长会，妈妈<strong>闷闷不乐</strong>，我小心地问：“妈妈，您<strong>怎么了</strong>？”妈妈看着我，<strong>叹</strong>了口气说：“你<strong>暑假</strong>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。

看着妈妈<strong>自责</strong>的样子，我心里特别难过，我对妈妈说：“妈妈，您不要自责了，这<strong>根本</strong>就不是你的错，而是我自己不<strong>努力</strong>，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<strong>盯</strong>着我的眼睛，<strong>攥</strong>着我的手说：“好孩子，妈妈相信你，让我们<strong>共同</strong>努力！”
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September 24, Saturday

Today, 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. 

When 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." 
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