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A sweet essay about a young child doing something nice for her mother. 
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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, <a href="http://v.pptv.com/show/hs26OKAGdrQXlVk.html"> here's a full video episode of Grand Gate Mansion</a>. 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.

The other proper noun is 明明, a young girl's name. 

One 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"?

The Chinese title of this little narrative is 我为妈妈做点儿事.

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<div class="postintro">
<h4>Click to Listen</h4>
津津有味 - [pinyin]jin1 jin1 you3 wei4[/pinyin] - To do sth. with great interest
动画片 - [pinyin]dong4 hua4 pian1[/pinyin] - Cartoons [lit: moving drawing slides]
屏幕 - [pinyin]ping2 mu4[/pinyin] - Screen [for TV, computer, etc.]
片名 - [pinyin]pian1 ming2[/pinyin] - Show or movie title
辛苦 - [pinyin]xin1 ku3[/pinyin] - Hard or exhausting work
围裙 - [pinyin]wei2 qun2[/pinyin] -  Apron
小心 - [pinyin]xiao3 xin1[/pinyin] - Be careful
放心 - [pinyin]fang4 xin1[/pinyin] - Don't worry
开心 - [pinyin]kai1 xin1[/pinyin] - Happy, fun
</div>
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<div id="chinesetext">
吃完晚饭,妈妈在厨房里洗碗，明明坐在大大的沙发上，<strong>津津有味</strong>地看着自己喜欢的<strong>动画片</strong>。

过了一会儿,动画片演完了，电视<strong>屏幕</strong>上出现了大宅门的<strong>片名</strong>。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<strong>辛苦</strong>，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<strong>围裙</strong>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<strong>小心</strong>啊。”明明说: “妈妈您放心吧!”

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<strong>开心</strong>了!
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[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink="SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION"]
After 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.  

<img src="http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/20110906-INLINE.jpg" alt="Beginner Chinese Vocabulary and Simplified Reading Materials" title="Beginner Chinese Vocabulary and Simplified Reading Materials" width="100" height="100" class="imgborder alignleft" />After 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!" 

Mother 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! 

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