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. <!--more-->

<h3>Enough already - 才...呢</h3> 
As 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:

"萝卜的根最好吃。"

This 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:

“白菜的叶子<strong>才</strong>好吃<strong>呢</strong>！”

The 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:

你怎么两个小时<strong>才</strong>回来了?
How did it take you <strong>an entire</strong> two hours to get back here? 

In today's reading, we might translate as "Cabbages are <strong>only</strong> good <strong>when</strong> you eat the leaves!" Like, when you finally eat the cabbage leaves, cabbages will be delicious. 

So 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." 

So the whole statement is a little snippy, right? A little bit of ire there for sure. 

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<div class="chinesetext">
1) 羊妈妈带着小羊到菜园去收菜。

2) 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。”

3) 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！”

4) 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<strong>呀</strong>！”


See the <a href="http://www.360doc.com/content/12/0624/17/1764012_220163890.shtml" target="_blank">source</a>.

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1) Mother Sheep brought Little Lamb to the vegetable field to gather vegetables. 

2) 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." 

3) 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!"  

4) They walked to the tomato patch. Little Lamb wanted to eat the tomato leaves. Mother Sheep said: "You eat the fruit of the tomato!"

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