http://www.amazon.com/Opposite-Me-Novel-Sarah-Pekkanen/dp/1439121982
http://book.douban.com/subject/6041708/

[two_third]
A sweet essay about a young child doing something nice for her mother. 
<!--more-->

<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" />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.

[/two_third]
[one_third last=last]
<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>
[/one_third]

<hr />

[one_half]
<div id="chinesetext">
　　《世上另一个我》：讲述了一段爱恨交织的情感纠葛。林赛有一个美丽漂亮的双胞胎姐姐亚历克斯，一个在她生命里扮演了重要角色的人，一个让她羡慕、嫉恨了二十多年的人。亚历克斯永远性感美丽、光彩照人，轻易就能得到父母甚至是陌生人的宠爱，那是林赛从未有过的幸福。和姐姐在一起，她总是令人遗憾的存在。在《世上另一个我》中，主人公林赛努力学习、拼命工作，事业的成功是她获得关注的唯一筹码。她为工作赔上了自己全部的生活，却终究逃不脱这个社会并非以实力论输赢的规矩。当工作遭遇重大背叛，她的职业也陷入前所未有的危机当中。
　　《世上另一个我》也是一场找寻自我的艰辛历程，一个温馨感人的爱情故事。重返故乡的林赛依然要面对亚历克斯耀眼的光芒。甚至那个喜欢了她二十多年的男孩，也只因和亚历克斯的一场邂逅，就从此改变了心意。林赛埋怨命运的不公，而这种情绪也全部转嫁到了亚历克斯的身上。
　　然而，当厄运朝亚历克斯袭来，林赛终于发现自己对姐姐的情感远非自己以为的那么直接简单。为了满足姐姐的愿望，林赛爬上了关闭多年的阁楼，却意外发现了一个尘封多年的旧信封，信封里面揭示的竟是一个隐藏了近三十年的大秘密。它打破了林赛长久以来为自己规划的人生历程，也在姐妹二人的生活中掀起了新的风浪……
</div>
[/one_half]

[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink="SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION"]
　　《世上另一个我》：讲述了一段爱恨交织的情感纠葛。林赛有一个美丽漂亮的双胞胎姐姐亚历克斯，一个在她生命里扮演了重要角色的人，一个让她羡慕、嫉恨了二十多年的人。亚历克斯永远性感美丽、光彩照人，轻易就能得到父母甚至是陌生人的宠爱，那是林赛从未有过的幸福。和姐姐在一起，她总是令人遗憾的存在。在《世上另一个我》中，主人公林赛努力学习、拼命工作，事业的成功是她获得关注的唯一筹码。她为工作赔上了自己全部的生活，却终究逃不脱这个社会并非以实力论输赢的规矩。当工作遭遇重大背叛，她的职业也陷入前所未有的危机当中。
　　《世上另一个我》也是一场找寻自我的艰辛历程，一个温馨感人的爱情故事。重返故乡的林赛依然要面对亚历克斯耀眼的光芒。甚至那个喜欢了她二十多年的男孩，也只因和亚历克斯的一场邂逅，就从此改变了心意。林赛埋怨命运的不公，而这种情绪也全部转嫁到了亚历克斯的身上。
　　然而，当厄运朝亚历克斯袭来，林赛终于发现自己对姐姐的情感远非自己以为的那么直接简单。为了满足姐姐的愿望，林赛爬上了关闭多年的阁楼，却意外发现了一个尘封多年的旧信封，信封里面揭示的竟是一个隐藏了近三十年的大秘密。它打破了林赛长久以来为自己规划的人生历程，也在姐妹二人的生活中掀起了新的风浪……

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