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Feels 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 <a href="http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_6ace1efa0100kltk.html" target="_blank">Zifengling's personal blog</a>. 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.<!--more-->

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. 

There'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!" 
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<h4>Click to Listen</h4>
非凡 - [pinyin]fei1 fan2[/pinyin] - Extraordinarily
舞池 - [pinyin]wu3 chi2[/pinyin] - Dance floor
气愤 - [pinyin]qi4 fen4[/pinyin] - Angry
对待 - [pinyin]dui4 dai4[/pinyin] - To treat someone (a certain way)
灿烂 - [pinyin]can4 lan4[/pinyin] - Brilliant (smile, light)
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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<strong>非凡</strong>。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<strong>舞池</strong>，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<strong>气愤</strong>，说：“他们怎么能这样<strong>对待</strong>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。
 
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The 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. 
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