[two_third]
Story behind the Chinese idiom 专心致志 [pinyin]zhuan1 xin1 zhi4 zhi4[/pinyin], which means "to do something with single-minded devotion". <!--more-->

<img src="http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/20140826-INLINE.jpg" alt="Learn to Read Chinese Characters: Chinese Fables" width="100" height="100" class="imgborder alignnone" />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.

You 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". 

<a href="http://www.tom61.com/ertongwenxue/chengyugushi/2014-07-14/43769.html" target="_blank">Here's the original text</a> on tom61.com.  

Let's t棋艺
[/two_third]
[one_third last=last]
<div class="postintro">
<h4>Click to Listen</h4>
下棋 - [pinyin]xia4 qi2[/pinyin] - To play chess
专心 - [pinyin]zhuan1 xin1[/pinyin] - Concentrate
鸿雁 - [pinyin]hong2 yan4[/pinyin] - Swan goose
胡思乱想 - [pinyin]hu2 si1 luan4 xiang3[/pinyin] - Thoughts running wild
心不在焉 - [pinyin]xin1 bu4 zai4 yan1/pinyin] - Absent-minded, one's heart is not present
传授 - [pinyin]chuan2 shou4[/pinyin] - To have knowledge imparted upon you, esp. by a great master. 
</div>
[/one_third]

<hr />

[one_half]
<div id="chinesetext">
从前有一个<strong>下棋</strong>能手名叫秋，他的<strong>棋艺</strong>非常高超。

秋有两个学生，一起跟他学习下棋，其中一个学生非常<strong>专心</strong>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<strong>鸿雁</strong>，美餐一顿该多好。 ”因为他总是<strong>胡思乱想</strong><strong>心不在焉</strong>，老师的讲解一点也没听进去。

结果，虽然两个学生同是一个名师<strong>传授</strong>，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。 

</div>
[/one_half]

[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink="SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION"]
Long ago there was a chess master named Qiu whose chess skills were superlative. 

Qiu 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.

As 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. 
[/hide-this-part][/one_half]