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(1555, 1, '2015-02-19 22:41:07', '2015-02-20 03:41:07', '[two_third]\r\nHey hey, lookie here, an excellent guest post submitted by native Chinese speaker Yang from <a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com\" target=\"_blank\">Learn Mandarin Now</a>. This story tells us a bit about the Chinese <em>chengyu</em> (idiom),塞翁失马, which can mean \"a blessing in disguise\", or can conversely mean \"bad luck in disguised as good\". It\'s used to point out the hidden positives or negatives in a situation, so you might say it means \"there are two sides to every circumstance\". <!--more-->\r\n\r\nI\'m loving this post for the fable-y language: \"servant\", \"steed\", etc. Plus, I learned a new favorite word in this one: 塞外 [pinyin]sai4 wai4[/pinyin], meaning \"Beyond the Great Wall\". In other words, a remote place near the outskirts or borders of China. Also, don\'t forget, 匹 [pinyin]pi3[/pinyin] is the measure word for Horses, so you\'re gonna see that a few times. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one phrase I\'d like to discuss, because I don\'t think it\'s immediately clear what it means: 全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗. Let\'s take a look at this, word by word:\r\n\r\n全国 - The whole country\r\n上下的 - Everywhere\r\n年轻男子 - young men\r\n都 - all\r\n被 - grammar word usually indicating that the subject of the sentence has had something unfortunate happen to them\r\n抓 - grabbed\r\n去 - go out\r\n打仗 - fight \r\n\r\nThe key word here is 抓 [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin], which usually means to \"catch\" or \"grab\". In this case, the word means \"drafted\", so it still means to \"grab\", but in this case, it\'s the ruling power (probably the king) doing the grabbing up (of potential soldiers). The 被 in this case functions as \"were\", with a negative overtone. So this can be translated as \"All the young men everywhere in the country <strong>were drafted</strong> to go fight a war.\"\r\n\r\nLearn Mandarin Now\'s \"<a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com/how-to-read-chinese/\" target=\"_blank\">How to Read Chinese</a>\" page for a basic overview on getting started with Simplified characters, and look at <a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com/blog/\" target=\"_blank\">their new blog</a> for some learning tips. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n老翁 - [pinyin]lao3 weng1[/pinyin] - Old man\r\n仆人 - [pinyin]pu2 ren2[/pinyin] - Servant\r\n邻国 - [pinyin]lin2 guo2[/pinyin] - Neighboring country\r\n闻讯 - [pinyin]wen2 xun4[/pinyin] - [upon] hearing the news...\r\n骏马 - [pinyin]jun4 ma3[/pinyin] - Great Steed\r\n战场 - [pinyin]zhan4 chang3[/pinyin] - Battlefield\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n从前，一位<strong>老翁</strong>和他的儿子住在<strong>塞外</strong>的边境上。他们都非常喜欢换骑马。有一天，他们家的<strong>仆人</strong>给老先生报告：\"我们家的一匹骏马走丢了，好像跑去<strong>邻国</strong>了。\"\r\n\r\n老翁的朋友<strong>闻讯</strong>都过来安慰他。但老先生说：“呵呵，这也许不是坏事，谁知道呢！＂\r\n\r\n几个月之后，奇妙的事情发生了，那匹走失了的骏马意外地跑回来了，并且从邻国带来了一匹新的<strong>骏马</strong>。老翁的好友纷纷过来祝贺他。老翁说：“唉，这也许不是什么好事情呢！”\r\n\r\n一天，老翁的儿子正在骑那匹新的骏马，突然不小心从马上掉了下来并摔断了腿。他从今以后都不能正常走路了。老翁的朋友都为老翁感到伤心，但老翁却说：“这个意外以后能为咱们带来好运也不一定。”\r\n\r\n一年后，全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗，大部分去参军的年轻人都死在了<strong>战场</strong>。老翁的儿子因为腿受伤了所以避过了这一次劫难。\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nOnce upon a time, there was an old man who lived with his son on the borders of the country. They both very much enjoyed riding horses. One day, a servant reported to the old man, “One of our good horses has gone missing. It seems the horse ran across to the neighboring country.\"\r\n\r\nOld man\'s friends came and comforted him. However, the old man said: \"Well, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Who knows!\"\r\n\r\nCouple of months later, a strange thing happened. The missing horse came back, accompanied by a great steed from the neighboring country. When his friends congratulated him on this great news, the old man said: \"Well, this might bring us bad luck.\"\r\n\r\nOne day, his son was having fun riding on the fine [new] steed. Suddenly, he fell from the hose and broke his leg. His son was never able to walk again. Again, his friends came to comfort the old man. But the old man was not bothered and said: \"This accident might bring us good luck in the future.\"\r\n\r\nA year later, all young men in the country were drafted to join a war. Most young men who fought died on the battlefield. Luckily, his son avoided entering the war because of his broken leg.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom - Sai Weng Shi Ma', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1551-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-19 22:41:07', '2015-02-20 03:41:07', '', 1551, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/19/1551-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1556, 1, '2015-02-19 22:44:54', '2015-02-20 03:44:54', '[two_third]\r\nHey hey, lookie here, an excellent guest post submitted by native Chinese speaker Yang from <a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com\" target=\"_blank\">Learn Mandarin Now</a>. This story tells us a bit about the Chinese <em>chengyu</em> (idiom),塞翁失马, which can mean \"a blessing in disguise\", or can conversely mean \"bad luck in disguised as good\". It\'s used to point out the hidden positives or negatives in a situation, so you might say it means \"there are two sides to every circumstance\". <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/20150220-INLINE.jpg\" alt=\"Beginner Chinese Reading: Intermediate Chinese Fables and Idioms\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" />I\'m loving this post for the fable-y language: \"servant\", \"steed\", etc. Plus, I learned a new favorite word in this one: 塞外 [pinyin]sai4 wai4[/pinyin], meaning \"Beyond the Great Wall\". In other words, a remote place near the outskirts or borders of China. Also, don\'t forget, 匹 [pinyin]pi3[/pinyin] is the measure word for Horses, so you\'re gonna see that a few times. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one phrase we should probably get into in greater detail, because I don\'t think it\'s immediately clear what it means: 全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗. Let\'s take a look at this, word by word:\r\n\r\n全国 - The whole country\r\n上下的 - Everywhere\r\n年轻男子 - young men\r\n都 - all\r\n被 - grammar word usually indicating that the subject of the sentence has had something unfortunate happen to them\r\n抓 - grabbed\r\n去 - go out\r\n打仗 - fight \r\n\r\nThe key word here is 抓 [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin], which usually means to \"catch\" or \"grab\". In this case, the word means \"drafted\", so it still means to \"grab\", but in this case, it\'s the ruling power (probably the king) doing the grabbing up (of potential soldiers). The 被 in this case functions as \"were\", with a negative overtone. So this can be translated as \"All the young men everywhere in the country <strong>were drafted</strong> to go fight a war.\"\r\n\r\nLearn Mandarin Now\'s \"<a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com/how-to-read-chinese/\" target=\"_blank\">How to Read Chinese</a>\" page for a basic overview on getting started with Simplified characters, and look at <a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com/blog/\" target=\"_blank\">their new blog</a> for some learning tips. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n老翁 - [pinyin]lao3 weng1[/pinyin] - Old man\r\n仆人 - [pinyin]pu2 ren2[/pinyin] - Servant\r\n邻国 - [pinyin]lin2 guo2[/pinyin] - Neighboring country\r\n闻讯 - [pinyin]wen2 xun4[/pinyin] - [upon] hearing the news...\r\n骏马 - [pinyin]jun4 ma3[/pinyin] - Great Steed\r\n战场 - [pinyin]zhan4 chang3[/pinyin] - Battlefield\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n从前，一位<strong>老翁</strong>和他的儿子住在<strong>塞外</strong>的边境上。他们都非常喜欢换骑马。有一天，他们家的<strong>仆人</strong>给老先生报告：\"我们家的一匹骏马走丢了，好像跑去<strong>邻国</strong>了。\"\r\n\r\n老翁的朋友<strong>闻讯</strong>都过来安慰他。但老先生说：“呵呵，这也许不是坏事，谁知道呢！＂\r\n\r\n几个月之后，奇妙的事情发生了，那匹走失了的骏马意外地跑回来了，并且从邻国带来了一匹新的<strong>骏马</strong>。老翁的好友纷纷过来祝贺他。老翁说：“唉，这也许不是什么好事情呢！”\r\n\r\n一天，老翁的儿子正在骑那匹新的骏马，突然不小心从马上掉了下来并摔断了腿。他从今以后都不能正常走路了。老翁的朋友都为老翁感到伤心，但老翁却说：“这个意外以后能为咱们带来好运也不一定。”\r\n\r\n一年后，全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗，大部分去参军的年轻人都死在了<strong>战场</strong>。老翁的儿子因为腿受伤了所以避过了这一次劫难。\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nOnce upon a time, there was an old man who lived with his son on the borders of the country. They both very much enjoyed riding horses. One day, a servant reported to the old man, “One of our good horses has gone missing. It seems the horse ran across to the neighboring country.\"\r\n\r\nOld man\'s friends came and comforted him. However, the old man said: \"Well, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Who knows!\"\r\n\r\nCouple of months later, a strange thing happened. The missing horse came back, accompanied by a great steed from the neighboring country. When his friends congratulated him on this great news, the old man said: \"Well, this might bring us bad luck.\"\r\n\r\nOne day, his son was having fun riding on the fine [new] steed. Suddenly, he fell from the hose and broke his leg. His son was never able to walk again. Again, his friends came to comfort the old man. But the old man was not bothered and said: \"This accident might bring us good luck in the future.\"\r\n\r\nA year later, all young men in the country were drafted to join a war. Most young men who fought died on the battlefield. Luckily, his son avoided entering the war because of his broken leg.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom - Sai Weng Shi Ma', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1551-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-19 22:44:54', '2015-02-20 03:44:54', '', 1551, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/19/1551-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1557, 1, '2015-03-01 00:30:15', '2015-03-01 05:30:15', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\nYang over at <a href=\"http://learnmandarinnow.com\">Learn Mandarin Now</a> is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading <em>[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin]</em> (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. <!--more-->\r\n\r\nIn the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \r\n\r\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu3guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_(state)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">State of Chu</a>\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.  <a href=\"http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/116528/Chu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Encyclopedia Britannica</a> tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\"  Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\r\n \r\nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\r\n\r\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to <a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com/how-to-learn-chinese-the-easiest-way/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yang</a>! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<h4>刻舟求剑</h4>\r\n<strong>从前</strong>有一位楚国人, 他非常<strong>爱惜</strong>他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，<strong>一不小心</strong>他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了<strong>记号</strong>。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\r\n \r\n宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在<strong>移动</strong>。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\nLong ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it.  \r\n \r\nThe sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]', 'Story Behind the Idiom: 刻舟求剑 - Being too rigid in the face of change', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'guest-post-story-behind-the-idiom-ke-zhou-qiu-jian', '', '', '2020-05-07 17:14:04', '2020-05-07 21:14:04', '', 0, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1557', 0, 'post', '', 40),
(1722, 1, '2020-04-20 03:21:30', '2020-04-20 07:21:30', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\nYang over at <a href=\"http://learnmandarinnow.com\">Learn Mandarin Now</a> is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading <em>[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin]</em> (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. <!--more-->\r\n\r\nIn the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \r\n\r\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu3guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_(state)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">State of Chu</a>\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.  <a href=\"http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/116528/Chu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Encyclopedia Britannica</a> tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\"  Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\r\n \r\nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\r\n\r\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to <a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com/how-to-learn-chinese-the-easiest-way/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yang</a>! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<h4>刻舟求剑</h4>\r\n<strong>从前</strong>有一位楚国人, 他非常<strong>爱惜</strong>他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，<strong>一不小心</strong>他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了<strong>记号</strong>。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\r\n \r\n宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在<strong>移动</strong>。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\nLong ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it.  \r\n \r\nThe sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom: 刻舟求剑', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1557-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 03:21:30', '2020-04-20 07:21:30', '', 1557, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1557-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1559, 1, '2015-02-25 21:41:04', '2015-02-26 02:41:04', '[two_third]\nYang over at <a href=\"http://learnmandarinnow.com\">Learn Mandarin Now</a> is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading <em>[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin]</em> (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. <!--more-->\n\nIn the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \n\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu1guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_(state)\" target=\"_blank\">State of Chu</a>\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.  <a href=\"http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/116528/Chu\" target=\"_blank\">Encyclopedia Britannica</a> tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\"  Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\n \nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n<div class=\"postintro\">\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\n从前 - [pinyin]sui4 dao4[/pinyin] - Tunnel\n爱惜 - [pinyin]ning2 jing4[/pinyin] - Tranquil\n一不小心 - [pinyin]hua1 jia3[/pinyin] - Old person over 60\n宝 - [pinyin]fu4 weng1[/pinyin] - Millionaire\n记号 - [pinyin]zhong1 dian3 zhan4[/pinyin] - Terminus\n</div>\n[/one_third]\n\n<hr />\n\n[one_half]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n<strong>从前</strong>有一位楚国人, 他非常<strong>爱惜</strong>他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，<strong>一不小心</strong>他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了<strong>记号</strong>。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\n \n宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在<strong>移动</strong>。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\n\n</div>\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nLong ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it.  \n \nThe sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom, Ke Zhou Qiu Jian', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1557-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-25 21:41:04', '2015-02-26 02:41:04', '', 1557, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/25/1557-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1560, 1, '2015-02-25 21:51:40', '2015-02-26 02:51:40', '', 'Easy Reading Material Chinese: Learn to Read Chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150226', '', '', '2015-02-25 21:51:40', '2015-02-26 02:51:40', '', 1557, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/20150226.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1561, 1, '2015-02-25 21:51:42', '2015-02-26 02:51:42', '', 'Easy Reading Material Chinese: Learn to Read Chinese', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150226-inline', '', '', '2015-02-25 21:51:42', '2015-02-26 02:51:42', '', 1557, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/20150226-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1562, 1, '2015-02-25 21:44:09', '2015-02-26 02:44:09', '[two_third]\nYang over at <a href=\"http://learnmandarinnow.com\">Learn Mandarin Now</a> is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading <em>[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin]</em> (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. <!--more-->\n\nIn the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \n\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu1guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_(state)\" target=\"_blank\">State of Chu</a>\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.  <a href=\"http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/116528/Chu\" target=\"_blank\">Encyclopedia Britannica</a> tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\"  Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\n \nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\n\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to <a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com/how-to-learn-chinese-the-easiest-way/\" target=\"_blank\">Yang</a>! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n<div class=\"postintro\">\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\n从前 - [pinyin]cong2 qian2[/pinyin] - A long time ago\n爱惜 - [pinyin]ai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Cherish\n一不小心 - [pinyin]yi1 bu4 xiao3 xin1[/pinyin] - Accidentally\n记号 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Notch, notation made to remember something\n</div>\n[/one_third]\n\n<hr />\n\n[one_half]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n<strong>从前</strong>有一位楚国人, 他非常<strong>爱惜</strong>他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，<strong>一不小心</strong>他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了<strong>记号</strong>。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\n \n宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在<strong>移动</strong>。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\n\n</div>\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nLong ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it.  \n \nThe sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom, Ke Zhou Qiu Jian', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1557-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-25 21:44:09', '2015-02-26 02:44:09', '', 1557, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/25/1557-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1563, 1, '2015-02-25 21:53:44', '2015-02-26 02:53:44', '[two_third]\r\nYang over at <a href=\"http://learnmandarinnow.com\">Learn Mandarin Now</a> is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading <em>[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin]</em> (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/20150226-INLINE.jpg\" title=\"Easy Reading Material Chinese: Learn to Read Chinese\" alt=\"Learn to Read Mandarin Free: Mandarin Reading Essays\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" />In the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \r\n\r\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu1guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_(state)\" target=\"_blank\">State of Chu</a>\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.  <a href=\"http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/116528/Chu\" target=\"_blank\">Encyclopedia Britannica</a> tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\"  Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\r\n \r\nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\r\n\r\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to <a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com/how-to-learn-chinese-the-easiest-way/\" target=\"_blank\">Yang</a>! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n从前 - [pinyin]cong2 qian2[/pinyin] - A long time ago\r\n爱惜 - [pinyin]ai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Cherish\r\n一不小心 - [pinyin]yi1 bu4 xiao3 xin1[/pinyin] - Accidentally\r\n记号 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Notch, notation made to remember something\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<strong>从前</strong>有一位楚国人, 他非常<strong>爱惜</strong>他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，<strong>一不小心</strong>他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了<strong>记号</strong>。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\r\n \r\n宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在<strong>移动</strong>。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLong ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it.  \r\n \r\nThe sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom, Ke Zhou Qiu Jian', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1557-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-25 21:53:44', '2015-02-26 02:53:44', '', 1557, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/25/1557-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1565, 1, '2015-03-05 06:00:18', '2015-03-05 11:00:18', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\nA fairly simple read for newbies about a self-hating rabbit. <!--more-->\r\n\r\nIn terms of plot, this is your basic \"it\'s what\'s on the inside that counts\", moral-of-the-story story. Frankly, it\'s a bit boring, but there are a couple of good words and phrases in here. One in particular is difficult, and I couldn\'t figure it out just by looking at the definition, I had to go hunt around a bit: 钻出来 [pinyin]zuan1 chu1 lai2[/pinyin]. We know that 出来 means to \"come out of\". But 钻? The first definition that came up when I looked was \"diamond\", but that wasn\'t the correct definition in this case. Secondly, it also means to \"drill\" or \"bore\", which makes sense as a second definition of \"diamond\" - lots of diamond drill bits out there. But that still doesn\'t work in context of the whole sentence. I finally ran a Baidu image search on the phrase, and there were lots of pictures of miners squeezing out of small spaces, children coming out of playground tunnels, workers coming out of manholes, and I realized that 钻出来 means to wiggle out of a space via a small opening. Imagine a secret agent crawling through an air duct; in Chinese, there\'s a word for that, and that word is 钻. \r\n\r\nI got this from Sina user <a href=\"http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_6ace1efa0100kltk.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zifengling\'s personal blog</a>, in a post where she lists a few different easy stories, so if you wanna read some more on your own, head on over. I\'ll probably translate another couple from there before too long. \r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<h4>美丽的小兔子</h4>\r\n森林里住着一只小兔子，它叫“丑丑”。它的眼睛红红的，像一对<strong>红宝石</strong>。可是它的毛灰灰的，像是从<strong>灰炉</strong>里钻出来似的，它觉得自己太<strong>丑</strong>了，常常一个人躲在家里。\r\n\r\n虽然它长得不好看，但是它有一颗无比善良的心。小猴子乐乐的家被大水<strong>冲垮</strong>了，无家可归。丑丑就让乐乐住在自己的家，还把自己最喜欢吃的巧克力分给乐乐吃。<strong>不仅如此</strong>，谁头痛、生病了，没钱买药，它都会尽其所能进行帮助。\r\n\r\n日子一天天过去了，丑丑还是很<strong>孤单</strong>。一次，森林里最好看的小兔子美美来找它玩，可丑丑觉得自己太丑了，没脸见它。美美告诉丑丑：“人的<strong>外表</strong>并不重要，重要的是<strong>内在</strong>美。”丑丑恍然大悟，它跑了出去，和伙伴们一起尽情地玩耍。\r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\nIn the forest there lived a little rabbit whose name was \"Chouchou\". His eyes were red, like a pair of rubies. But his fur was grey, like he\'d wiggled out of a furnace, and he felt himself to be very ugly, often hiding in his house alone. \r\n\r\nAlthough he wasn\'t nice to look at, he had an incomparably kind heart. When Little Monkey Lele\'s home was burst apart by a flood, he had no house to return to. Chouchou let Lele live with him, and he divided up his favorite chocolate to give some to Lele to eat. Not only that, whoever had a headach, or got sick, with no money to buy medicine, he did everything he was able to do to help. \r\n\r\nThe days passed one by one, and Chouchou was still alone. One time, the forest\'s most beautiful rabbit Meimei came looking for Chouchou to play, but Chouchou thought of himself as just too ugly, he couldn\'t face seeing her. Meimei told Chouchou: \"It\'s not what\'s on the outside that counts, the important thing is what\'s on the inside.\" Chouchou suddenly saw the light, he ran outside, and played with his friends to his heart\'s content.  \r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]', 'Children\'s Story: The \"Beautiful\" Rabbit', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-beautiful-rabbit', '', '', '2020-04-28 20:01:16', '2020-04-29 00:01:16', '', 0, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1565', 0, 'post', '', 137),
(1702, 1, '2020-04-20 02:50:41', '2020-04-20 06:50:41', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\nA fairly simple read for newbies about a self-hating rabbit. <!--more-->\r\n\r\nIn terms of plot, this is your basic \"it\'s what\'s on the inside that counts\", moral-of-the-story story. Frankly, it\'s a bit boring, but there are a couple of good words and phrases in here. One in particular is difficult, and I couldn\'t figure it out just by looking at the definition, I had to go hunt around a bit: 钻出来 [pinyin]zuan1 chu1 lai2[/pinyin]. We know that 出来 means to \"come out of\". But 钻? The first definition that came up when I looked was \"diamond\", but that wasn\'t the correct definition in this case. Secondly, it also means to \"drill\" or \"bore\", which makes sense as a second definition of \"diamond\" - lots of diamond drill bits out there. But that still doesn\'t work in context of the whole sentence. I finally ran a Baidu image search on the phrase, and there were lots of pictures of miners squeezing out of small spaces, children coming out of playground tunnels, workers coming out of manholes, and I realized that 钻出来 means to wiggle out of a space via a small opening. Imagine a secret agent crawling through an air duct; in Chinese, there\'s a word for that, and that word is 钻. \r\n\r\nI got this from Sina user <a href=\"http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_6ace1efa0100kltk.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zifengling\'s personal blog</a>, in a post where she lists a few different easy stories, so if you wanna read some more on your own, head on over. I\'ll probably translate another couple from there before too long. \r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<h4>美丽的小兔子</h4>\r\n森林里住着一只小兔子，它叫“丑丑”。它的眼睛红红的，像一对<strong>红宝石</strong>。可是它的毛灰灰的，像是从<strong>灰炉</strong>里钻出来似的，它觉得自己太<strong>丑</strong>了，常常一个人躲在家里。\r\n\r\n虽然它长得不好看，但是它有一颗无比善良的心。小猴子乐乐的家被大水<strong>冲垮</strong>了，无家可归。丑丑就让乐乐住在自己的家，还把自己最喜欢吃的巧克力分给乐乐吃。<strong>不仅如此</strong>，谁头痛、生病了，没钱买药，它都会尽其所能进行帮助。\r\n\r\n日子一天天过去了，丑丑还是很<strong>孤单</strong>。一次，森林里最好看的小兔子美美来找它玩，可丑丑觉得自己太丑了，没脸见它。美美告诉丑丑：“人的<strong>外表</strong>并不重要，重要的是<strong>内在</strong>美。”丑丑恍然大悟，它跑了出去，和伙伴们一起尽情地玩耍。\r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\nIn the forest there lived a little rabbit whose name was \"Chouchou\". His eyes were red, like a pair of rubies. But his fur was grey, like he\'d wiggled out of a furnace, and he felt himself to be very ugly, often hiding in his house alone. \r\n\r\nAlthough he wasn\'t nice to look at, he had an incomparably kind heart. When Little Monkey Lele\'s home was burst apart by a flood, he had no house to return to. Chouchou let Lele live with him, and he divided up his favorite chocolate to give some to Lele to eat. Not only that, whoever had a headach, or got sick, with no money to buy medicine, he did everything he was able to do to help. \r\n\r\nThe days passed one by one, and Chouchou was still alone. One time, the forest\'s most beautiful rabbit Meimei came looking for Chouchou to play, but Chouchou thought of himself as just too ugly, he couldn\'t face seeing her. Meimei told Chouchou: \"It\'s not what\'s on the outside that counts, the important thing is what\'s on the inside.\" Chouchou suddenly saw the light, he ran outside, and played with his friends to his heart\'s content.  \r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]', 'The \"Beautiful\" Rabbit', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1565-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:50:41', '2020-04-20 06:50:41', '', 1565, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1565-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1566, 1, '2015-09-24 21:47:56', '2015-09-25 01:47:56', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\nFeels 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\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">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-->\r\n\r\nThis 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? \r\n\r\nUPDATE: Thanks to our native Chinese readers, we sorted out this is probably \"straw\" or \"grass\". So, \"straw doll\" is probably the most accurate definition we can get - gonna go with that one.\r\n\r\nThere\'s one other very useful phrase here that\'s very commonly used in everyday language: 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!\" \r\n\r\nEnjoy this one, and consider it good practicing in very colloquial story building.\r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<h4>玩具跳舞</h4>\r\n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<strong>灿烂</strong>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。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\nThe 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 straw 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 straw doll, \"Doll, why don\'t you go dance?\" The straw 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 straw 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. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]', 'Children\'s Story: The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'the-little-polar-bear-and-the-doll-dance-together', '', '', '2020-04-28 19:57:35', '2020-04-28 23:57:35', '', 0, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1566', 0, 'post', '', 31),
(1701, 1, '2020-04-20 02:48:39', '2020-04-20 06:48:39', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\nFeels 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\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">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-->\r\n\r\nThis 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. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one other very useful phrase here that\'s very commonly used in everyday language: 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!\" \r\n\r\nEnjoy this one, and consider it good practicing in very colloquial story building.\r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<h4>玩具跳舞</h4>\r\n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<strong>灿烂</strong>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。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\nThe 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. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]', 'The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:48:39', '2020-04-20 06:48:39', '', 1566, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1566-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1699, 1, '2020-04-20 02:45:43', '2020-04-20 06:45:43', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\nFeels 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\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">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-->\r\n\r\nThis 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. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one other very useful phrase here that\'s very commonly used in everyday language: 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!\" \r\n\r\nEnjoy this one, and consider it good practicing in very colloquial story building.\r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<h4>玩具跳舞</h4>\r\n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<strong>灿烂</strong>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。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe 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. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]', 'The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:45:43', '2020-04-20 06:45:43', '', 1566, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1566-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1567, 1, '2012-11-01 02:15:23', '2012-11-01 06:15:23', '[two_third]\r\n<strong>Chinese Title: 夜郎自大</strong>\r\n\r\nHere we\'ll cover the back story behind the idiom \"夜郎自大\", or \"Yelang thinks highly of itself\". This idiom one refers to someone who has a high, but misguided, opinion of their own worth. Stick this one in the language bank for when you need to take someone down a peg (preferably while stroking your fu manchu and calmly catching flies with your chopsticks). <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/20121101-INLINE.jpg\" alt=\"Learning Simplified Chinese: Passages and Exercises for the Intermediate Reader\" title=\"Learn to read Chinese: Intermediate Essays, Idioms and Grammar\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft \" />I learned a new word on this one: 统治 [pinyin]tong3 zhi4[/pinyin]. Which brings the total number of \"tongzhi\" words (tonal differences aside) I know up to three. \r\n\r\nWe\'ve got:\r\n同志 - [pinyin]tong2 zhi4[/pinyin] or \"Comrade\" (and in Chinese slang this also means \"a homosexual\", though if you keep an eye on the Chinese news you\'ll see that that one of the more reputable local dictionaries refused to include that definition though it\'s in common use) \r\n\r\n通知 [pinyin1]tong1 zhi1[/pinyin] - To notify, give notice\r\n\r\nAnd now, 统治 [pinyin]tong3 zhi4[/pinyin] - To rule over (a kingdom / country)\r\n\r\nLet us hope there aren\'t any more configurations of that sound. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n汉朝 - [pinyin]han4 chao2[/pinyin] - Han Dynasty\r\n部下 - [pinyin]bu4 xia4[/pinyin] - Troops or subordinates under one\'s command\r\n巡视 - [pinyin]xun2 shi4[/pinyin] - Go on an inspection tour\r\n国境 - [pinyin]guo2 jing4[/pinyin] - National Borders\r\n迎合 - [pinyin]ying2 he2[/pinyin] - Serve one\'s own interests / to fawn or cater\r\n异口同声 - [pinyin]yi4 kou3 tong2 sheng1[/pinyin] - To say in unison\r\n派 - [pinyin]pai4[/pinyin] - To dispatch, send someone\r\n使者 - [pinyin]shi3 zhe3[/pinyin] - Envoy\r\n途中 - [pinyin]tu2 zhong1[/pinyin] - En route\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<strong>汉朝</strong>的时候，在西南方有个名叫夜郎的小国家，它虽然是一个独立的国家，可是<strong>国土</strong>很小，百姓也少，物产更是少得可怜。但是由于邻近地区以夜郎这个国家最大，从没离开过国家的夜郎国国王就以为自己<strong>统治</strong>的国家是全天下最大的国家。\r\n\r\n有一天，夜郎国国王与<strong>部下</strong><strong>巡视</strong><strong>国境</strong>的时候，他指着前方问说：“这里哪个国家最大呀？”部下们为了<strong>迎合</strong>国王的心意，于是就说：“当然是夜郎国最大啰！”走着走着，国王又抬起头来、望着前方的高山问说：“天底下还有比这座山更高的山吗？”部下们回答说：“天底下没有比这座山更高的山了。”后来，他们来到河边，国王又问：“我认为这可是世界上最长的河川了。”部下们仍然<strong>异口同声</strong>回答说：“大王说得一点都没错。”从此以后，无知的国王就更相信夜郎是天底下最大的国家。\r\n\r\n有一次，汉朝<strong>派</strong><strong>使者</strong>来到夜郎，<strong>途中</strong>先经过夜郎的邻国滇国，滇王问使者：“汉朝和我的国家比起来哪个大？”使者一听吓了一跳，他没想到这个小国家，竟然无知的自以为能与汉朝相比。却没想到后来使者到了夜郎国，骄傲又无知的国王因为不知道自己统治的国家只和汉朝的一个县差不多大，竟然不知天高地厚也问使者：“汉朝和我的国家哪个大？”\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nDuring the Han Dynasty, in the southwest there was a small country called Yelang, and although it was an independent nation, its territory was small, there weren\'t many citizens, and its products were pitifully few. Because it was the largest kingdom in the near area, the Yelang king who\'d never left his own country thought the country he ruled was the biggest on earth. \r\n\r\nOne day, the king of Yelang was on a national border inspection tour with his troops, when he pointed in front of him [to neighboring country] and said, \"Which country is bigger?\" In order to serve their own interests and make the king happy, the troops said, \"Of course Yelang is bigger!\" They walked along, and the king once again lifted up his head, gazed at the big mountain in the distance and asked: \"Is there a taller mountain than this anywhere on earth?\" And his men answered: \"No, there\'s no mountain taller than this one on earth.\" After a while, they reached the river side, and the king asked again: \"I think this is the world\'s longest river.\" And all his men said in unison \"The king speaks truly.\" After this, the ignorant king believed even more firmly that Yelang was the world\'s biggest country.\r\n\r\nThen one day, the Han Dynasty dispatched an envoy to Yelang, and en route they encountered the neighboring kingdom DianGuo, and the King of Dian asked the emissary: \"If you compared the Han Dynasty and my Kingdom, which one would be bigger?\" The emissary listened in astonishment, as he\'d never have thought this small a country thought it could compare itself to the Han Dynasty. But he really never could have suspected that when he got to Yelang, the prideful and ignorant king who didn\'t know that the kingdom he ruled was about the size of one Han county, would ask with an exaggerated opinion of his own worth, \"Which is bigger: the Han Dynasty or my country?\"  \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Story Behind the Idiom: YeLang Zi Da', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1300-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-11-01 02:15:23', '2012-11-01 06:15:23', '', 1300, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/11/01/1300-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1568, 1, '2015-02-27 21:47:43', '2015-02-28 02:47:43', '[two_third]\nThis 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. One too many wibble-wobbly sentence configurations. <!--more-->\n\nThis 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 find a story with one word that 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]. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n<div class=\"postintro\">\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\n从前 - [pinyin]cong2 qian2[/pinyin] - A long time ago\n爱惜 - [pinyin]ai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Cherish\n一不小心 - [pinyin]yi1 bu4 xiao3 xin1[/pinyin] - Accidentally\n记号 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Notch, notation made to remember something\n</div>\n[/one_third]\n\n<hr />\n\n[one_half]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n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，整个舞场热闹非凡。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舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这是，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。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？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。\n \n</div>\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n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，整个舞场热闹非凡。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舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这是，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。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？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。\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-27 21:47:43', '2015-02-28 02:47:43', '', 1566, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/27/1566-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1569, 1, '2015-02-27 22:15:56', '2015-02-28 03:15:56', '[two_third]\nA fairly simple read for newbies about a self-hating rabbit. <!--more-->\n\nIn terms of plot, this is your basic \"it\'s what\'s on the inside that counts\", moral-of-the-story story. Frankly, it\'s a bit boring, but there are a couple of good words and phrases in here. One in particular is difficult, and I couldn\'t figure it out just by looking at the definition, I had to go hunt around a bit: 钻出来 [pinyin]zuan1 chu1 lai2[/pinyin]. We know that 出来 means to \"come out of\". But 钻? The first definition that came up when I looked was \"diamond\", but that wasn\'t the correct definition in this case. Secondly, it also means to \"drill\" or \"bore\", which makes sense as a second definition of \"diamond\" - lots of diamond drill bits out there. But that still doesn\'t work in context of the whole sentence. I finally ran a Baidu image search on the phrase, and there were lots of pictures of miners squeezing out of small spaces, children coming out of playground tunnels, workers coming out of manholes, and I realized that 钻出来 means to wiggle out of a space via a small opening. Imagine a secret agent crawling through an air duct; in Chinese, there\'s a word for that, and that word is 钻. \n\nI got this from Sina user <a href=\"http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_6ace1efa0100kltk.html\" target=\"_blank\">Zifengling\'s personal blog</a>, in a post where she lists a few different easy stories, so if you wanna . I\'ll probably translate another couple from there before too long. \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n<div class=\"postintro\">\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\n红宝石 - [pinyin]hong2 bao3 shi2[/pinyin] - Ruby\n灰炉 - [pinyin]hui1 lu2[/pinyin] - Furnace\n丑 - [pinyin]chou3[/pinyin] - Ugly\n不仅如此 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Not only that, \n孤单 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Alone\n外表 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Appearance\n内在 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Inherent / (abstract) interior \n</div>\n[/one_third]\n\n<hr />\n\n[one_half]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n森林里住着一只小兔子，它叫“丑丑”。它的眼睛红红的，像一对<strong>红宝石</strong>。可是它的毛灰灰的，像是从<strong>灰炉</strong>里钻出来似的，它觉得自己太<strong>丑</strong>了，常常一个人躲在家里。\n\n虽然它长得不好看，但是它有一颗无比善良的心。小猴子乐乐的家被大水<strong>冲垮</strong>了，无家可归。丑丑就让乐乐住在自己的家，还把自己最喜欢吃的巧克力分给乐乐吃。<strong>不仅如此</strong>，谁头痛、生病了，没钱买药，它都会尽其所能进行帮助。\n\n日子一天天过去了，丑丑还是很<strong>孤单</strong>。一次，森林里最好看的小兔子美美来找它玩，可丑丑觉得自己太丑了，没脸见它。美美告诉丑丑：“人的<strong>外表</strong>并不重要，重要的是<strong>内在</strong>美。”丑丑恍然大悟，它跑了出去，和伙伴们一起尽情地玩耍。\n</div>\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nIn the forest there lived a little rabbit whose name was \"Chouchou\". His eyes were red, like a pair of rubies. But his fur was grey, like he\'d wiggled out of a furnace, and he felt himself to be very ugly, often hiding in his house alone. \n\nAlthough he wasn\'t nice to look at, he had an incomparably kind heart. When Little Monkey Lele\'s home was burst apart by a flood, he had no house to return to. Chouchou let Lele live with him, and he divided up his favorite chocolate to give some to Lele to eat. Not only that, whoever had a headach, or got sick, with no money to buy medicine, he did everything he was able to do to help. \n\nThe days passed one by one, and Chouchou was still alone. One time, the forest\'s most beautiful rabbit Meimei came looking for Chouchou to play, but Chouchou thought of himself as just too ugly, he couldn\'t face seeing her. Meimei told Chouchou: \"It\'s not what\'s on the outside that counts, the important thing is what\'s on the inside.\" Chouchou suddenly saw the light, he ran outside, and played with his friends to his heart\'s content.  \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The \"Beautiful\" Rabbit', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1565-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-27 22:15:56', '2015-02-28 03:15:56', '', 1565, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/27/1565-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1570, 1, '2015-02-27 22:21:55', '2015-02-28 03:21:55', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese Characters: Mandarin Readying Study', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150305', '', '', '2015-02-27 22:21:55', '2015-02-28 03:21:55', '', 1565, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/20150305.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1571, 1, '2015-02-27 22:21:56', '2015-02-28 03:21:56', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese Characters: Mandarin Readying Study', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150305-inline', '', '', '2015-02-27 22:21:56', '2015-02-28 03:21:56', '', 1565, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/20150305-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1572, 1, '2015-02-27 22:16:22', '2015-02-28 03:16:22', '[two_third]\r\nA fairly simple read for newbies about a self-hating rabbit. <!--more-->\r\n\r\nIn terms of plot, this is your basic \"it\'s what\'s on the inside that counts\", moral-of-the-story story. Frankly, it\'s a bit boring, but there are a couple of good words and phrases in here. One in particular is difficult, and I couldn\'t figure it out just by looking at the definition, I had to go hunt around a bit: 钻出来 [pinyin]zuan1 chu1 lai2[/pinyin]. We know that 出来 means to \"come out of\". But 钻? The first definition that came up when I looked was \"diamond\", but that wasn\'t the correct definition in this case. Secondly, it also means to \"drill\" or \"bore\", which makes sense as a second definition of \"diamond\" - lots of diamond drill bits out there. But that still doesn\'t work in context of the whole sentence. I finally ran a Baidu image search on the phrase, and there were lots of pictures of miners squeezing out of small spaces, children coming out of playground tunnels, workers coming out of manholes, and I realized that 钻出来 means to wiggle out of a space via a small opening. Imagine a secret agent crawling through an air duct; in Chinese, there\'s a word for that, and that word is 钻. \r\n\r\nI got this from Sina user <a href=\"http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_6ace1efa0100kltk.html\" target=\"_blank\">Zifengling\'s personal blog</a>, in a post where she lists a few different easy stories, so if you wanna . I\'ll probably translate another couple from there before too long. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n红宝石 - [pinyin]hong2 bao3 shi2[/pinyin] - Ruby\r\n灰炉 - [pinyin]hui1 lu2[/pinyin] - Furnace\r\n丑 - [pinyin]chou3[/pinyin] - Ugly\r\n不仅如此 - [pinyin]bu4 jin3 ru2 ci3[/pinyin] - Not only that, \r\n孤单 - [pinyin]gu1 dan1[/pinyin] - Alone\r\n外表 - [pinyin]wai4 biao3[/pinyin] - Appearance\r\n内在 - [pinyin]nei4 zai4[/pinyin] - Inherent / (abstract) interior \r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n森林里住着一只小兔子，它叫“丑丑”。它的眼睛红红的，像一对<strong>红宝石</strong>。可是它的毛灰灰的，像是从<strong>灰炉</strong>里钻出来似的，它觉得自己太<strong>丑</strong>了，常常一个人躲在家里。\r\n\r\n虽然它长得不好看，但是它有一颗无比善良的心。小猴子乐乐的家被大水<strong>冲垮</strong>了，无家可归。丑丑就让乐乐住在自己的家，还把自己最喜欢吃的巧克力分给乐乐吃。<strong>不仅如此</strong>，谁头痛、生病了，没钱买药，它都会尽其所能进行帮助。\r\n\r\n日子一天天过去了，丑丑还是很<strong>孤单</strong>。一次，森林里最好看的小兔子美美来找它玩，可丑丑觉得自己太丑了，没脸见它。美美告诉丑丑：“人的<strong>外表</strong>并不重要，重要的是<strong>内在</strong>美。”丑丑恍然大悟，它跑了出去，和伙伴们一起尽情地玩耍。\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nIn the forest there lived a little rabbit whose name was \"Chouchou\". His eyes were red, like a pair of rubies. But his fur was grey, like he\'d wiggled out of a furnace, and he felt himself to be very ugly, often hiding in his house alone. \r\n\r\nAlthough he wasn\'t nice to look at, he had an incomparably kind heart. When Little Monkey Lele\'s home was burst apart by a flood, he had no house to return to. Chouchou let Lele live with him, and he divided up his favorite chocolate to give some to Lele to eat. Not only that, whoever had a headach, or got sick, with no money to buy medicine, he did everything he was able to do to help. \r\n\r\nThe days passed one by one, and Chouchou was still alone. One time, the forest\'s most beautiful rabbit Meimei came looking for Chouchou to play, but Chouchou thought of himself as just too ugly, he couldn\'t face seeing her. Meimei told Chouchou: \"It\'s not what\'s on the outside that counts, the important thing is what\'s on the inside.\" Chouchou suddenly saw the light, he ran outside, and played with his friends to his heart\'s content.  \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The \"Beautiful\" Rabbit', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1565-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-27 22:16:22', '2015-02-28 03:16:22', '', 1565, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/27/1565-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1573, 1, '2015-02-27 22:33:30', '2015-02-28 03:33:30', '[two_third]\nThis 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. One too many wibble-wobbly sentence configurations. <!--more-->\n\nThis 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 maybe it was actually. Anyway, it turns out an out-of-use definition for 香草\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n<div class=\"postintro\">\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\n从前 - [pinyin]cong2 qian2[/pinyin] - A long time ago\n爱惜 - [pinyin]ai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Cherish\n一不小心 - [pinyin]yi1 bu4 xiao3 xin1[/pinyin] - Accidentally\n记号 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Notch, notation made to remember something\n</div>\n[/one_third]\n\n<hr />\n\n[one_half]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n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，整个舞场热闹非凡。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舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这是，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。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？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。\n \n</div>\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n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，整个舞场热闹非凡。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舞池，她的眼神呆呆的，显得十分孤独。这是，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。小白熊听了很气愤，说：“他们怎么能这样对待你呢？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。\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-27 22:33:30', '2015-02-28 03:33:30', '', 1566, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/27/1566-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1574, 1, '2015-02-25 21:54:56', '2015-02-26 02:54:56', '[two_third]\r\nYang over at <a href=\"http://learnmandarinnow.com\">Learn Mandarin Now</a> is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading <em>[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin]</em> (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/20150226-INLINE.jpg\" title=\"Easy Reading Material Chinese: Learn to Read Chinese\" alt=\"Learn to Read Mandarin Free: Mandarin Reading Essays\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" />In the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \r\n\r\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu3guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_(state)\" target=\"_blank\">State of Chu</a>\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.  <a href=\"http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/116528/Chu\" target=\"_blank\">Encyclopedia Britannica</a> tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\"  Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\r\n \r\nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\r\n\r\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to <a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com/how-to-learn-chinese-the-easiest-way/\" target=\"_blank\">Yang</a>! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n从前 - [pinyin]cong2 qian2[/pinyin] - A long time ago\r\n爱惜 - [pinyin]ai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Cherish\r\n一不小心 - [pinyin]yi1 bu4 xiao3 xin1[/pinyin] - Accidentally\r\n记号 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Notch, notation made to remember something\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<strong>从前</strong>有一位楚国人, 他非常<strong>爱惜</strong>他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，<strong>一不小心</strong>他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了<strong>记号</strong>。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\r\n \r\n宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在<strong>移动</strong>。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLong ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it.  \r\n \r\nThe sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom, Ke Zhou Qiu Jian', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1557-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-25 21:54:56', '2015-02-26 02:54:56', '', 1557, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/25/1557-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1575, 1, '2015-03-01 22:39:59', '2015-03-02 03:39:59', '[two_third]\r\nYang over at <a href=\"http://learnmandarinnow.com\">Learn Mandarin Now</a> is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading <em>[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin]</em> (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/20150226-INLINE.jpg\" title=\"Easy Reading Material Chinese: Learn to Read Chinese\" alt=\"Learn to Read Mandarin Free: Mandarin Reading Essays\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" />In the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \r\n\r\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu3guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_(state)\" target=\"_blank\">State of Chu</a>\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.  <a href=\"http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/116528/Chu\" target=\"_blank\">Encyclopedia Britannica</a> tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\"  Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\r\n \r\nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\r\n\r\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to <a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com/how-to-learn-chinese-the-easiest-way/\" target=\"_blank\">Yang</a>! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n从前 - [pinyin]cong2 qian2[/pinyin] - A long time ago\r\n爱惜 - [pinyin]ai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Cherish\r\n一不小心 - [pinyin]yi1 bu4 xiao3 xin1[/pinyin] - Accidentally\r\n记号 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Notch, notation made to remember something\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<strong>从前</strong>有一位楚国人, 他非常<strong>爱惜</strong>他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，<strong>一不小心</strong>他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了<strong>记号</strong>。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\r\n \r\n宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在<strong>移动</strong>。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLong ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it.  \r\n \r\nThe sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom, Ke Zhou Qiu Jian', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1557-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-03-01 22:39:59', '2015-03-02 03:39:59', '', 1557, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/03/01/1557-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1576, 1, '2015-03-01 22:40:15', '2015-03-02 03:40:15', '[two_third]\r\nYang over at <a href=\"http://learnmandarinnow.com\">Learn Mandarin Now</a> is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading <em>[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin]</em> (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/20150226-INLINE.jpg\" title=\"Easy Reading Material Chinese: Learn to Read Chinese\" alt=\"Learn to Read Mandarin Free: Mandarin Reading Essays\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" />In the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \r\n\r\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu3guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_(state)\" target=\"_blank\">State of Chu</a>\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.  <a href=\"http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/116528/Chu\" target=\"_blank\">Encyclopedia Britannica</a> tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\"  Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\r\n \r\nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\r\n\r\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to <a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com/how-to-learn-chinese-the-easiest-way/\" target=\"_blank\">Yang</a>! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n从前 - [pinyin]cong2 qian2[/pinyin] - A long time ago\r\n爱惜 - [pinyin]ai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Cherish\r\n一不小心 - [pinyin]yi1 bu4 xiao3 xin1[/pinyin] - Accidentally\r\n记号 - [pinyin]ji4 hao4[/pinyin] - Notch, notation made to remember something\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<strong>从前</strong>有一位楚国人, 他非常<strong>爱惜</strong>他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，<strong>一不小心</strong>他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了<strong>记号</strong>。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\r\n \r\n宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在<strong>移动</strong>。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLong ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it.  \r\n \r\nThe sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom, Ke Zhou Qiu Jian', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1557-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-03-01 22:40:15', '2015-03-02 03:40:15', '', 1557, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/03/01/1557-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1577, 1, '2015-02-19 22:48:42', '2015-02-20 03:48:42', '[two_third]\r\nHey hey, lookie here, an excellent guest post submitted by native Chinese speaker Yang from <a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com\" target=\"_blank\">Learn Mandarin Now</a>. This story tells us a bit about the Chinese <em>chengyu</em> (idiom),塞翁失马, which can mean \"a blessing in disguise\", or can conversely mean \"bad luck disguised as good\". It\'s used to point out the hidden positives or negatives in a situation, so you might say it means \"there are two sides to every circumstance\". <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/20150220-INLINE.jpg\" alt=\"Beginner Chinese Reading: Intermediate Chinese Fables and Idioms\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" />I\'m loving this post for the fable-y language: \"servant\", \"steed\", etc. Plus, I learned a new favorite word in this one: 塞外 [pinyin]sai4 wai4[/pinyin], meaning \"Beyond the Great Wall\". In other words, a remote place near the outskirts or borders of China. Also, don\'t forget, 匹 [pinyin]pi3[/pinyin] is the measure word for Horses, so you\'re gonna see that a few times. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one phrase we should probably get into in greater detail, because I don\'t think it\'s immediately clear what it means: 全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗. Let\'s take a look at this, word by word:\r\n\r\n全国 - The whole country\r\n上下的 - Everywhere\r\n年轻男子 - young men\r\n都 - all\r\n被 - grammar word usually indicating that the subject of the sentence has had something unfortunate happen to them\r\n抓 - grabbed\r\n去 - go out\r\n打仗 - fight \r\n\r\nThe key word here is 抓 [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin], which usually means to \"catch\" or \"grab\". In this case, the word means \"drafted\", so it still means to \"grab\", but in this case, it\'s the ruling power (probably the king) doing the grabbing up (of potential soldiers). The 被 in this case functions as \"were\", with a negative overtone. So this can be translated as \"All the young men everywhere in the country <strong>were drafted</strong> to go fight a war.\"\r\n\r\nLearn Mandarin Now\'s \"<a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com/how-to-read-chinese/\" target=\"_blank\">How to Read Chinese</a>\" page for a basic overview on getting started with Simplified characters, and look at <a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com/blog/\" target=\"_blank\">their new blog</a> for some learning tips. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n老翁 - [pinyin]lao3 weng1[/pinyin] - Old man\r\n仆人 - [pinyin]pu2 ren2[/pinyin] - Servant\r\n邻国 - [pinyin]lin2 guo2[/pinyin] - Neighboring country\r\n闻讯 - [pinyin]wen2 xun4[/pinyin] - [upon] hearing the news...\r\n骏马 - [pinyin]jun4 ma3[/pinyin] - Great Steed\r\n战场 - [pinyin]zhan4 chang3[/pinyin] - Battlefield\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n从前，一位<strong>老翁</strong>和他的儿子住在<strong>塞外</strong>的边境上。他们都非常喜欢换骑马。有一天，他们家的<strong>仆人</strong>给老先生报告：\"我们家的一匹骏马走丢了，好像跑去<strong>邻国</strong>了。\"\r\n\r\n老翁的朋友<strong>闻讯</strong>都过来安慰他。但老先生说：“呵呵，这也许不是坏事，谁知道呢！＂\r\n\r\n几个月之后，奇妙的事情发生了，那匹走失了的骏马意外地跑回来了，并且从邻国带来了一匹新的<strong>骏马</strong>。老翁的好友纷纷过来祝贺他。老翁说：“唉，这也许不是什么好事情呢！”\r\n\r\n一天，老翁的儿子正在骑那匹新的骏马，突然不小心从马上掉了下来并摔断了腿。他从今以后都不能正常走路了。老翁的朋友都为老翁感到伤心，但老翁却说：“这个意外以后能为咱们带来好运也不一定。”\r\n\r\n一年后，全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗，大部分去参军的年轻人都死在了<strong>战场</strong>。老翁的儿子因为腿受伤了所以避过了这一次劫难。\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nOnce upon a time, there was an old man who lived with his son on the borders of the country. They both very much enjoyed riding horses. One day, a servant reported to the old man, “One of our good horses has gone missing. It seems the horse ran across to the neighboring country.\"\r\n\r\nOld man\'s friends came and comforted him. However, the old man said: \"Well, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Who knows!\"\r\n\r\nCouple of months later, a strange thing happened. The missing horse came back, accompanied by a great steed from the neighboring country. When his friends congratulated him on this great news, the old man said: \"Well, this might bring us bad luck.\"\r\n\r\nOne day, his son was having fun riding on the fine [new] steed. Suddenly, he fell from the hose and broke his leg. His son was never able to walk again. Again, his friends came to comfort the old man. But the old man was not bothered and said: \"This accident might bring us good luck in the future.\"\r\n\r\nA year later, all young men in the country were drafted to join a war. Most young men who fought died on the battlefield. Luckily, his son avoided entering the war because of his broken leg.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom - Sai Weng Shi Ma', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1551-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-19 22:48:42', '2015-02-20 03:48:42', '', 1551, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/19/1551-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1578, 1, '2015-02-18 02:49:47', '2015-02-18 07:49:47', '[two_third]\r\nHappy Year of the Sheep! Couple of days ago, I stumbled across the Book \"The Last Yin Yang Master\", aka \"The Last Onmyoji\" （最后一个阴阳师), a supernatural ghost story available for free online. It\'s incredibly rare to find full-length books that aren\'t impossibly difficult to get through, but this one is phenomenal for learners. I\'m gonna put part of the first chapter here, so you can dive on in. The rest can be grabbed on <a href=\"http://www.zhuaji.org/read/146/\" target=\"_blank\">Zhuaji.com</a>. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/20150218-inline.jpg\" alt=\"Learn to Read Chinese Characters: Beginner Chinese Books with English Translations\" title=\"Learn to Read Chinese: Intermediate Chinese Reading Exercises\"  width=\"200\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignleft imgborder\" />I\'ve recently sort of discovered that ghost stories and detective novels are where it\'s at for practicing reading. The cliches in a Chinese murder mystery are exactly the same as they are anywhere: hard-boiled cop, confused rookie, seductive woman, shady business, and definitely a chase scene. It\'s easier to follow a story when you have a semi-expectation of what\'s supposed to happen. They get hard when people start talking about blood spatter and ballistics, but you can kind of get the gist. Ghost stories are the same way - a scene of normalcy is set, followed by some red-flag strangeness that everyone completely ignores because they don\'t believe in the supernatural, followed by some myths and legends, or maybe a mysterious old man, or maybe a body goes missing, and then things really freaky. Again, the read gets hard when characters start talking about the mystic books of old, or funeral customs, so you should probably be reading this with the help of Pleco (which I do), but The Last Onmyoji is accessible enough that those parts shouldn\'t totally derail you. Highly recommended.\r\n\r\nThis really is worth a go for readers at almost all levels. The read is late-intermediate, but using Pleco, late-stage beginners and early-intermediates will be able to understand large chunks of it, enough to motivate you to puzzle through the parts you don\'t get, more so because this is being told in first-person. Remember, now, that the beginning of a book is usually the hardest as you try to get a sense of the story. Once the story gets rolling, it\'s easier to flow with it. Advanced readers may just appreciate learning a bit of spooky vocab. \r\n\r\nThe segment that I\"m translating here doesn\'t have any ghostly bits in it, this is the first chapter to get you going on the story. It\'s packed full of Chinese village culture, and some parts at the end that would be considered extremely un-PC in the west: a little anti-Japanese talk, and a little bit about buying women, the rarities of college education in the countryside: the realities of village life in China, even these days. \r\n\r\nThere\'s a lot I could talk about in here, but I do like the word 投 [pinyin]tou2[/pinyin] - This word had a ton of meanings. Imagine slipping a piece of paper into a suggestion box. Got it? That\'s what this word embodies, that action, or anything related to a similar action of taking a flat object and dropping it into a slot, literally or figuratively. So it can mean to \"vote\", as in an election, because you\'re submitting a ballot. It can mean to \"slide\" an envelope into a letter box. In this case, it means to \"submit\" a resume while seeking a job offer. We don\'t have a word for that concept in English, I think. \r\n\r\nEnjoy!\r\n\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n盘缠 - [pinyin]pan2 chan2[/pinyin] - Travel money\r\n肺痨 - [pinyin]fei4 lao2[/pinyin] - Tuberculosis\r\n张罗 - [pinyin]zhang1 luo5[/pinyin] - Gather together\r\n屁股 - [pinyin]pi4 gu5[/pinyin] - Butt, behind, rump\r\n浑浑噩噩 - [pinyin]hun2 hun2 e4 e4[/pinyin] - Butt, behind, rump\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n我叫林小凡,今年23岁。大学刚毕业。一个三流的大学四流的成绩,大学是在杭州读,毕业之后最开始在一家房地产公司做销售员,底薪一千八。因为业绩太差,公司没说辞退我,我自己就不好意思待了。\r\n\r\n在杭州转了两个月,<strong>投</strong>了不知道多少份儿简历,面试了多少次,都没有通过。<strong>盘缠</strong>花光之后,就回了老家。\r\n\r\n我的老家是洛阳。洛阳的乡下,一个叫做十里铺儿的小村儿落。\r\n\r\n之所以回来,是因为村儿里小学唯一的教师得了<strong>肺痨</strong>,病的已经非常严重,我作为村里走出来唯一的大学生,村长愿意一月掏出一千块的巨资来请我去代课。\r\n\r\n所以我回来了。\r\n\r\n在外面活的不如一条狗的我,在老家得到了极大的尊严。\r\n\r\n在偏远的山村,大学生,还是一个极其厉害的存在,村民们在看到我父亲的时候,都会为他竖起大拇指,说:“老林家祖坟冒了青烟,竟然出了个大学生,以后你就走出了大山咯。”\r\n\r\n每当这个时候,我父亲都会憨厚的笑一笑,抹去他脸上的汗水。\r\n\r\n我回到村子之后,方圆几里的媒婆都争着抢着给我介绍对象,几乎踏破我家的门槛儿,这不是吹牛。你不在那个环境里,不知道大学生三个字的分量。\r\n\r\n父亲也极力的给我<strong>张罗</strong>,在他们眼里,23岁,甚至已经过了结婚的年纪。跟我同龄的人,现在儿子已经可以光着<strong>屁股</strong>到处跑了。\r\n\r\n为了不让他们操心,我也去一次次的应付相亲。\r\n\r\n对,是应付。\r\n\r\n大学,说白了就是一个区分性与理性的地方,虽然是山村出来的,可是我的相貌并不算丑,甚至可以说英俊。也谈过一个女朋友,我没钱,她也不是非常的富裕,可是就算这样,我们还在在一起了三年,我尽我所能的打零工,来做一个男朋友该做的。大三那年,我们分手。\r\n\r\n那一天,我在我们学校的后山喝了一瓶2块钱的二锅头。醒来之后,不再悲伤,继续<strong>浑浑噩噩</strong>的过日子。\r\n\r\n关于相貌这一点,我继承了我母亲。\r\n\r\n 一个不知道故乡在哪里的美貌女人。\r\n\r\n她有痴呆症。\r\n\r\n在几十年前,我父亲进城,用了三百块钱把她买了回来。\r\n\r\n我父亲说,他那一天花了两元钱给母亲买了一身衣服,回来的时候母亲的美貌,让村里的人哈喇子都流到了地上。\r\n\r\n可惜,她是个傻子。\r\n\r\n如果不是傻子,我父亲也买不起。\r\n\r\n后来有了我,母亲的痴傻一直都是那样,可是她的傻,并不是像街头的疯子一样,她非常安静。\r\n\r\n不说话,不动。只是安静的坐着。\r\n\r\n我就在这样的一个环境下长大,可是我并不想文艺的说,我有孤僻的性格,因为就算是这样,我还是有完整的童年。\r\n\r\n我父亲非常的勤劳,他尽一个农民的极限,利用手中的农具,养活一个家。我没有什么怪他的地方。\r\n\r\n没钱,这是命。\r\n\r\n我爷爷,是一个退伍的老军人,他不识字,没有农民典型的精明,反倒是实诚的可怕。有人说他是gmd,有人说他是gcd,可是他自己都不知道自己到底是哪个党,他唯一知道的,就是他拿枪打日本鬼子,鬼子打跑之后,他就回到了家。\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nMy name is Lin Xiaofan, I\'m 23 years old this year. I just graduated from college. A third-rate school with fourth-tier grades, my college was in Hangzhou, and after I graduated I first went to work as sales staff at a real estate agency with a salary of 1,800 [translator\'s note: this is a very low salary, about $300 USD / month]. My sales performance was poor, and the company never fired me, but I was so embarrassed that I left. \r\n\r\nI wandered around Hangzhou for two months, submitted I don\'t even know how many resumes, or went to how many interviews, but nothing came through. After I\'d spent all my travel money, I went back to my home town.\r\n\r\nMy home town is Luoyang. In the Luoyang countryside falls a little village called Shilipu\'er. \r\n\r\nThe reason I went home is because the village\'s only teacher got tuberculosis, and he was very seriously ill, so as the village\'s only person who\'d ever gone off to college, the village chief dug up a thousand-dollar [translator\'s note: \"1000 kuai\" is \"1000 Chinese Renminbi\"] investment and asked me to substitute teach. \r\n\r\nSo I went home. \r\n\r\nMy life away from home wasn\'t even as good as a dog\'s, but I get plenty of respect in my home town. \r\n\r\nIn such a remote village, being a college graduate is still an extremely awesome thing to be, and every time the villagers see my father, they all give him a thumbs-up and say, \"Your family\'s ancestral grave is emitting green smoke, unexpectedly out popped a college student! You\'ll be walking off this mountain after a while!\" [translator\'s note: this is a compliment regarding the family\'s lineage.]\r\n\r\nOf course at these times, my father would smile in a simple and honest way, wiping the sweat off his brow. \r\n\r\nAfter I came back to the village, all the local matchmakers tried to set me up with someone, almost trampling down my door, no exaggeration. If you\'ve never been in that [village] environment, you don\'t know the power of those three words, \"College Degree Holder\".\r\n\r\nMy dad also made a supreme effort to settle me, because in his eyes, at 23 years old I\'d already passed marrying age. Everyone my age already had kids running around with their bare butts hanging out. \r\n\r\nSo as not to make him worry, I\'d already coped with my first blind date. \r\n\r\nYes, it was definitely \"coping\". \r\n\r\nCollege, speaking frankly, was a place with completely different place with different rationales, but although I came from a farm village, I wasn\'t considered ugly, you might even say I\'m handsome. I had a girlfriend, but I had no money, and she wasn\'t very rich either, but that\'s just the way it was, we were together three years, and I used up all my part-time work money trying to do all the things a boyfriend is supposed to do. In the third year, we broke up. \r\n\r\nOn that day, on the hill behind our school, I drank a bottle of 2-dollar liquor. After I woke up, I wasn\'t sad anymore, and I just continued muddle-headedly passing the days. \r\n\r\nAbout my looks, those I inherited from my mother. \r\n\r\nA good-looking woman from who-knows-where.  \r\n\r\nShe had dementia.\r\n\r\nA few decades ago, my father went to the city, and spent three hundred dollars to buy her and bring her home.\r\n\r\nMy dad said, that day he spent two bucks to buy mom some clothes, and when he returned, mom\'s good looks made everyone in the village drool all over the ground. \r\n\r\nPity, she was an idiot.\r\n\r\nIf she hadn\'t been an idiot, my dad could never have afforded her. \r\n\r\nThen I came along, and mom\'s dementia continued as before, but her brand of dementia wasn\'t like a crazy street person\'s, she was very quiet. \r\n\r\nShe didn\'t speak, didn\'t move. Just quietly sat there.\r\n\r\nThis is the environment I grew up in, but I don\'t want to make it sound literary, I had an antisocial nature, but even so, I still had a full childhood. \r\n\r\nMy father is very industrious, he has a farmer\'s strength, using the farm tools in his hands, he nurtured a household. I don\'t have anything to blame him for. \r\n\r\nNo money, that\'s just life. \r\n\r\nMy grandfather is a retired soldier, he\'s illiterate, and he doesn\'t have any of a villager\'s typical shrewdness, on the contrary he\'s terrifyingly honest. Some people said he was GMD [translator\'s note: GMD = guo min dang, the fascist party in the Chinese civil war, who lost], some people said he was GCD [GCD = gong chang dang, the communist party that won the war and remains in power today], but he doesn\'t even know himself which \"dang\" [translator\'s note - this \"dang\" means \"political party\"] he was in, the only thing he knows is that he grabbed a gun and fought the Japanese devils [the Japanese invaded while the GMD and the GCD were fighting each other], and after the devils ran away, he went home.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Great book: The Last Yin Yang Master', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1539-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-02-18 02:49:47', '2015-02-18 07:49:47', '', 1539, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/02/18/1539-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1580, 1, '2015-09-24 21:46:52', '2015-09-25 01:46:52', '', 'Learn to Read Chinese: Chinese Children Fables Stories for Kids', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150925-inline', '', '', '2015-09-24 21:46:52', '2015-09-25 01:46:52', '', 1566, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/20150925-INLINE.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1581, 1, '2015-09-24 21:46:54', '2015-09-25 01:46:54', '', '20150925', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20150925', '', '', '2015-09-24 21:46:54', '2015-09-25 01:46:54', '', 1566, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/20150925.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1582, 1, '2015-09-24 21:45:15', '2015-09-25 01:45:15', '[two_third]\nFeels 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-->\n\nThis 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. \n\nThere\'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!\" \n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n<div class=\"postintro\">\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\n非凡 - [pinyin]fei1 fan2[/pinyin] - Extraordinarily\n舞池 - [pinyin]wu3 chi2[/pinyin] - Dance floor\n气愤 - [pinyin]qi4 fen4[/pinyin] - Angry\n对待 - [pinyin]dui4 dai4[/pinyin] - To treat someone (a certain way)\n灿烂 - [pinyin]can4 lan4[/pinyin] - Brilliant (smile, light)\n</div>\n[/one_third]\n\n<hr />\n\n[one_half]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n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。\n \n</div>\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nThe 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. \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-09-24 21:45:15', '2015-09-25 01:45:15', '', 1566, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/09/24/1566-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1583, 1, '2015-09-24 21:47:56', '2015-09-25 01:47:56', '[two_third]\r\nFeels 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-->\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/20150925-INLINE.jpg\" alt=\"Learn to Read Chinese: Stories for Kids in Mandarin Chinese\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" />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. \r\n\r\nThere\'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!\" \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n非凡 - [pinyin]fei1 fan2[/pinyin] - Extraordinarily\r\n舞池 - [pinyin]wu3 chi2[/pinyin] - Dance floor\r\n气愤 - [pinyin]qi4 fen4[/pinyin] - Angry\r\n对待 - [pinyin]dui4 dai4[/pinyin] - To treat someone (a certain way)\r\n灿烂 - [pinyin]can4 lan4[/pinyin] - Brilliant (smile, light)\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n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。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe 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. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-09-24 21:47:56', '2015-09-25 01:47:56', '', 1566, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/09/24/1566-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1584, 1, '2015-09-24 21:49:27', '2015-09-25 01:49:27', '[two_third]\r\nFeels 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-->\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/20150925-INLINE.jpg\" alt=\"Learn to Read Chinese: Stories for Kids in Mandarin Chinese\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" />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. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one other very useful phrase here that\'s very commonly used in everyday language: 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!\" \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n非凡 - [pinyin]fei1 fan2[/pinyin] - Extraordinarily\r\n舞池 - [pinyin]wu3 chi2[/pinyin] - Dance floor\r\n气愤 - [pinyin]qi4 fen4[/pinyin] - Angry\r\n对待 - [pinyin]dui4 dai4[/pinyin] - To treat someone (a certain way)\r\n灿烂 - [pinyin]can4 lan4[/pinyin] - Brilliant (smile, light)\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n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。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe 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. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-09-24 21:49:27', '2015-09-25 01:49:27', '', 1566, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/09/24/1566-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1585, 1, '2015-09-24 21:49:41', '2015-09-25 01:49:41', '[two_third]\r\nFeels 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-->\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/20150925-INLINE.jpg\" alt=\"Learn to Read Chinese: Stories for Kids in Mandarin Chinese\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" />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. \r\n\r\nThere\'s one other very useful phrase here that\'s very commonly used in everyday language: 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!\" \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n非凡 - [pinyin]fei1 fan2[/pinyin] - Extraordinarily\r\n舞池 - [pinyin]wu3 chi2[/pinyin] - Dance floor\r\n气愤 - [pinyin]qi4 fen4[/pinyin] - Angry\r\n对待 - [pinyin]dui4 dai4[/pinyin] - To treat someone (a certain way)\r\n灿烂 - [pinyin]can4 lan4[/pinyin] - Brilliant (smile, light)\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n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<strong>灿烂</strong>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。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nThe 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. \r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1566-revision-v1', '', '', '2015-09-24 21:49:41', '2015-09-25 01:49:41', '', 1566, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2015/09/24/1566-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1587, 1, '2016-04-28 07:01:48', '2016-04-28 11:01:48', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\nHey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\r\n\r\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer. <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Wangshu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dai Wangshu</a>, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.<!--more-->\r\n\r\n《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_massacre_of_1927\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 12 Incident</a>, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the <a href=\"http://www.zg-wh.com/2014/03/a-lane-in-rain-poem-by-dai-wangshu.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">translation that\'s available</a> for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<h4>《雨巷》</h4>\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n<strong>彷徨</strong>在悠长，悠长\r\n又<strong>寂寥</strong>的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\r\n结着<strong>愁怨</strong>的姑娘。\r\n\r\n她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的<strong>芬芳</strong>，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中<strong>哀怨</strong>，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默<strong>彳亍</strong>着，\r\n冷漠，<strong>凄清</strong>，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n<strong>太息</strong>一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的<strong>凄婉</strong>迷茫。\r\n\r\n像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了<strong>颓圮</strong>的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n在雨的<strong>哀曲</strong>里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\nShe has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\nShe walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\nFloats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of this drizzling alley.\r\n\r\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: 《雨巷》by Dai Wangshu', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'modern-chinese-poetry-rainy-alley-by-dai-wangshu', '', '', '2020-04-21 01:47:31', '2020-04-21 05:47:31', '', 0, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1587', 0, 'post', '', 5),
(1696, 1, '2020-04-20 02:26:20', '2020-04-20 06:26:20', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\nHey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\r\n\r\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer. <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Wangshu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dai Wangshu</a>, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.<!--more-->\r\n\r\n《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_massacre_of_1927\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 12 Incident</a>, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the <a href=\"http://www.zg-wh.com/2014/03/a-lane-in-rain-poem-by-dai-wangshu.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">translation that\'s available</a> for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n<strong>彷徨</strong>在悠长，悠长\r\n又<strong>寂寥</strong>的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\r\n结着<strong>愁怨</strong>的姑娘。\r\n\r\n她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的<strong>芬芳</strong>，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中<strong>哀怨</strong>，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默<strong>彳亍</strong>着，\r\n冷漠，<strong>凄清</strong>，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n<strong>太息</strong>一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的<strong>凄婉</strong>迷茫。\r\n\r\n像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了<strong>颓圮</strong>的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n在雨的<strong>哀曲</strong>里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\nShe has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\nShe walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\nFloats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of this drizzling alley.\r\n\r\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:26:20', '2020-04-20 06:26:20', '', 1587, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1587-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1588, 1, '2016-04-27 20:26:18', '2016-04-28 00:26:18', '[two_third]\nHey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry. \n\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese authors, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated. Dai Wangshu, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy? Dai Wangshu was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthsma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman), and once when his wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce. \n\n雨巷, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with a long-time lover, and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_massacre_of_1927\" target=\"_blank\">April 12 Incident</a>, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. \n\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 雨巷 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author in a silent rainy alley. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently. The language is difficult at first, but then get repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, . \n\nI don\'t love the <a href=\"http://www.zg-wh.com/2014/03/a-lane-in-rain-poem-by-dai-wangshu.html\" target=\"_blank\">translation that\'s available</a> for this, which I\'m using here, and may do my own at some point - I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, so give it a whirl if you can. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n<div class=\"postintro\">\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\n彷徨 - [pinyin]fei1 fan2[/pinyin] - Extraordinarily\n寂寥 - [pinyin]wu3 chi2[/pinyin] - Dance floor\n丁香 - [pinyin]qi4 fen4[/pinyin] - Angry\n愁怨\n芬芳 - [pinyin]dui4 dai4[/pinyin] - To treat someone (a certain way)\n哀怨 - [pinyin]can4 lan4[/pinyin] - Brilliant (smile, light)\n彳亍\n凄清\n太息\n凄婉\n颓圮\n哀曲\n</div>\n[/one_third]\n\n<hr />\n\n[one_half]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n撑着油纸伞，独自\n<strong>彷徨</strong>在悠长，悠长\n又<strong>寂寥</strong>的雨巷，\n我希望逢着\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\n结着<strong>愁怨</strong>的姑娘。\n\n她是有\n丁香一样的颜色，\n丁香一样的<strong>芬芳</strong>，\n丁香一样的忧愁，\n在雨中<strong>哀怨</strong>，\n哀怨又彷徨；\n\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\n撑着油纸伞\n像我一样，\n像我一样地\n默默<strong>彳亍</strong>着，\n冷漠，<strong>凄清</strong>，又惆怅。\n\n她静默地走近\n走近，又投出\n<strong>太息</strong>③一般的眼光，\n她飘过\n像梦一般的，\n像梦一般的<strong>凄婉</strong>迷茫。\n\n像梦中飘过\n一枝丁香的，\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\n她静默地远了，远了，\n到了<strong>颓圮</strong>的篱墙，\n走尽这雨巷。\n\n在雨的<strong>哀曲</strong>里，\n消了她的颜色，\n散了她的芬芳\n消散了，甚至她的\n太息般的眼光，\n丁香般的惆怅。\n\n撑着油纸伞，独自\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\n又寂寥的雨巷，\n我希望飘过\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\n \n</div>\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nAlone holding an oil-paper umbrella, \nI wander along a long \nSolitary lane in the rain, \nHoping to encounter \nA girl like a bouquet of lilacs \nGnawed by anxiety and resentment.\n\nA girl \nThe colour of lilacs,\nThe fragrance of lilacs, \nWith the worries of lilacs,\nFeeling melancholy in the rain,\nPlaintive and hesitating.\n\nShe wanders along the solitary lane in the rain,\nHolding an oil-paper umbrella\nJust as I do,\nJust like me,\nWalking slowly in silence,\nAloof, sad and melancholy.\n\nSilently she comes closer,\nCloser, giving me \nA glance like a sigh; \nThen she floats past \nLike a dream, \nDreary and blank like a dream.\n\nLike a lilac\nFloating past in a dream, \nthe girl floats past me; \nSilently she goes further and further, \nTo the crumbling wall, \nOut of the lane in the rain.\n\nIn the mournful melody of the rain, \nHer colour has faded, \nHer fragrance has disappeared, \nVanished into the void; \nEven her glance like a sigh, \nMelancholy like lilacs.\n\nAlone holding an oil-paper umbrella, \nI wander along a long \nSolitary lane in the rain, \nHoping to pass \nA girl like a bouquet of lilacs \nGnawed by anxiety and resentment.\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-27 20:26:18', '2016-04-28 00:26:18', '', 1587, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/27/1587-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1589, 1, '2016-04-28 06:56:55', '2016-04-28 10:56:55', '[two_third]\nHey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\n\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer. <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Wangshu\" target=\"_blank\">Dai Wangshu</a>, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\n\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.<!--more-->\n\n《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_massacre_of_1927\" target=\"_blank\">April 12 Incident</a>, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \n\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \n\nI don\'t love the <a href=\"http://www.zg-wh.com/2014/03/a-lane-in-rain-poem-by-dai-wangshu.html\" target=\"_blank\">translation that\'s available</a> for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\n\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \n\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n<div class=\"postintro\">\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\n彷徨 - [pinyin]pang2huang2[/pinyin] - To pace (or to hestitate)\n寂寥 - [pinyin]ji4 liao2[/pinyin] - Solitude / solitary\n丁香 - [pinyin]ding1 xiang1[/pinyin] - Lilac\n愁怨 - [pinyin]chou2 yuan4[/pinyin] - Worried and resentful (two separate words)\n芬芳 - [pinyin]fen1 fang1[/pinyin] - Fragrance\n哀怨 - [pinyin]ai1 yuan4[/pinyin] - Sad\n彳亍 - [pinyin]chi4 chu4[/pinyin] - Walk slowly\n凄清 - [pinyin]qi1 qing1[/pinyin] - Gloomy\n太息 - [pinyin]tai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Sigh\n凄婉 - [pinyin]qi1 wan3[/pinyin] - Bittersweet, sad but beautiful\n颓圮 - [pinyin]tui2 pi3[/pinyin] - Crumbling, toppled\n哀曲 - [pinyin]ai1 qu1[/pinyin] - Sad song\n</div>\n[/one_third]\n\n<hr />\n\n[one_half]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n撑着油纸伞，独自\n<strong>彷徨</strong>在悠长，悠长\n又<strong>寂寥</strong>的雨巷，\n我希望逢着\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\n结着<strong>愁怨</strong>的姑娘。\n\n她是有\n丁香一样的颜色，\n丁香一样的<strong>芬芳</strong>，\n丁香一样的忧愁，\n在雨中<strong>哀怨</strong>，\n哀怨又彷徨；\n\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\n撑着油纸伞\n像我一样，\n像我一样地\n默默<strong>彳亍</strong>着，\n冷漠，<strong>凄清</strong>，又惆怅。\n\n她静默地走近\n走近，又投出\n<strong>太息</strong>③一般的眼光，\n她飘过\n像梦一般的，\n像梦一般的<strong>凄婉</strong>迷茫。\n\n像梦中飘过\n一枝丁香的，\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\n她静默地远了，远了，\n到了<strong>颓圮</strong>的篱墙，\n走尽这雨巷。\n\n在雨的<strong>哀曲</strong>里，\n消了她的颜色，\n散了她的芬芳\n消散了，甚至她的\n太息般的眼光，\n丁香般的惆怅。\n\n撑着油纸伞，独自\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\n又寂寥的雨巷，\n我希望飘过\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\n \n</div>\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\npace through a long, long, \nand solitary rainy alley.\nI hope to come upon\nA girl like lilacs, \nDistressed and grudging.\n\nShe has\nThe color of lilacs\nThe scent of lilacs\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\nGrudging in the rain,\nResentful and hesitating. \n\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\nAs I do,\nJust as I do, \nSoundlessly wending,\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\n\nShe walks quietly closer,\nWalks closer, casting\nA glance like a sigh,\nShe floats past,\nAs a dream does,\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\n\nFloats by as a dream does, \nA single lilac,\nThe girl who floats past me, \nShe is getting farther, farther,\nReaches the toppled fence,\nWalks out of the lane. \n\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\nHer color is washed away\nHer scent dissipates\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\nSighing eyes\nHer lilac melancholy.\n\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\npace through a long, long, \nand desolate rainy alley.\nI hope to float by\nA girl like lilacs, \nDistressed and grudging.\n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 06:56:55', '2016-04-28 10:56:55', '', 1587, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1587-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
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(1591, 1, '2016-04-28 06:59:00', '2016-04-28 10:59:00', '', '20160428', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '20160428', '', '', '2016-04-28 06:59:00', '2016-04-28 10:59:00', '', 1587, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20160428.jpg', 0, 'attachment', 'image/jpeg', 0),
(1592, 1, '2016-04-28 06:56:57', '2016-04-28 10:56:57', '[two_third]\r\nHey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\r\n\r\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer. <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Wangshu\" target=\"_blank\">Dai Wangshu</a>, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.<!--more-->\r\n\r\n《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_massacre_of_1927\" target=\"_blank\">April 12 Incident</a>, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the <a href=\"http://www.zg-wh.com/2014/03/a-lane-in-rain-poem-by-dai-wangshu.html\" target=\"_blank\">translation that\'s available</a> for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n彷徨 - [pinyin]pang2huang2[/pinyin] - To pace (or to hestitate)\r\n寂寥 - [pinyin]ji4 liao2[/pinyin] - Solitude / solitary\r\n丁香 - [pinyin]ding1 xiang1[/pinyin] - Lilac\r\n愁怨 - [pinyin]chou2 yuan4[/pinyin] - Worried and resentful (two separate words)\r\n芬芳 - [pinyin]fen1 fang1[/pinyin] - Fragrance\r\n哀怨 - [pinyin]ai1 yuan4[/pinyin] - Sad\r\n彳亍 - [pinyin]chi4 chu4[/pinyin] - Walk slowly\r\n凄清 - [pinyin]qi1 qing1[/pinyin] - Gloomy\r\n太息 - [pinyin]tai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Sigh\r\n凄婉 - [pinyin]qi1 wan3[/pinyin] - Bittersweet, sad but beautiful\r\n颓圮 - [pinyin]tui2 pi3[/pinyin] - Crumbling, toppled\r\n哀曲 - [pinyin]ai1 qu1[/pinyin] - Sad song\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n<strong>彷徨</strong>在悠长，悠长\r\n又<strong>寂寥</strong>的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\r\n结着<strong>愁怨</strong>的姑娘。\r\n\r\n她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的<strong>芬芳</strong>，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中<strong>哀怨</strong>，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默<strong>彳亍</strong>着，\r\n冷漠，<strong>凄清</strong>，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n<strong>太息</strong>③一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的<strong>凄婉</strong>迷茫。\r\n\r\n像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了<strong>颓圮</strong>的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n在雨的<strong>哀曲</strong>里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\nShe has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\nShe walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\nFloats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of the lane. \r\n\r\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 06:56:57', '2016-04-28 10:56:57', '', 1587, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1587-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1594, 1, '2016-04-28 07:01:41', '2016-04-28 11:01:41', '[two_third]\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20160428-inline.jpg\" alt=\"Learn to Read Chinese: Advanced Chinese Poetry, Modern Chinese Poetry\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" />Hey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\n\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer. <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Wangshu\" target=\"_blank\">Dai Wangshu</a>, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\n\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.<!--more-->\n\n《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_massacre_of_1927\" target=\"_blank\">April 12 Incident</a>, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \n\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \n\nI don\'t love the <a href=\"http://www.zg-wh.com/2014/03/a-lane-in-rain-poem-by-dai-wangshu.html\" target=\"_blank\">translation that\'s available</a> for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\n\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \n\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n<div class=\"postintro\">\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\n彷徨 - [pinyin]pang2huang2[/pinyin] - To pace (or to hestitate)\n寂寥 - [pinyin]ji4 liao2[/pinyin] - Solitude / solitary\n丁香 - [pinyin]ding1 xiang1[/pinyin] - Lilac\n愁怨 - [pinyin]chou2 yuan4[/pinyin] - Worried and resentful (two separate words)\n芬芳 - [pinyin]fen1 fang1[/pinyin] - Fragrance\n哀怨 - [pinyin]ai1 yuan4[/pinyin] - Sad\n彳亍 - [pinyin]chi4 chu4[/pinyin] - Walk slowly\n凄清 - [pinyin]qi1 qing1[/pinyin] - Gloomy\n太息 - [pinyin]tai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Sigh\n凄婉 - [pinyin]qi1 wan3[/pinyin] - Bittersweet, sad but beautiful\n颓圮 - [pinyin]tui2 pi3[/pinyin] - Crumbling, toppled\n哀曲 - [pinyin]ai1 qu1[/pinyin] - Sad song\n</div>\n[/one_third]\n\n<hr />\n\n[one_half]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n撑着油纸伞，独自\n<strong>彷徨</strong>在悠长，悠长\n又<strong>寂寥</strong>的雨巷，\n我希望逢着\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\n结着<strong>愁怨</strong>的姑娘。\n\n她是有\n丁香一样的颜色，\n丁香一样的<strong>芬芳</strong>，\n丁香一样的忧愁，\n在雨中<strong>哀怨</strong>，\n哀怨又彷徨；\n\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\n撑着油纸伞\n像我一样，\n像我一样地\n默默<strong>彳亍</strong>着，\n冷漠，<strong>凄清</strong>，又惆怅。\n\n她静默地走近\n走近，又投出\n<strong>太息</strong>一般的眼光，\n她飘过\n像梦一般的，\n像梦一般的<strong>凄婉</strong>迷茫。\n\n像梦中飘过\n一枝丁香的，\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\n她静默地远了，远了，\n到了<strong>颓圮</strong>的篱墙，\n走尽这雨巷。\n\n在雨的<strong>哀曲</strong>里，\n消了她的颜色，\n散了她的芬芳\n消散了，甚至她的\n太息般的眼光，\n丁香般的惆怅。\n\n撑着油纸伞，独自\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\n又寂寥的雨巷，\n我希望飘过\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\n \n</div>\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\npace through a long, long, \nand solitary rainy alley.\nI hope to come upon\nA girl like lilacs, \nDistressed and grudging.\n\nShe has\nThe color of lilacs\nThe scent of lilacs\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\nGrudging in the rain,\nResentful and hesitating. \n\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\nAs I do,\nJust as I do, \nSoundlessly wending,\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\n\nShe walks quietly closer,\nWalks closer, casting\nA glance like a sigh,\nShe floats past,\nAs a dream does,\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\n\nFloats by as a dream does, \nA single lilac,\nThe girl who floats past me, \nShe is getting farther, farther,\nReaches the toppled fence,\nWalks out of the \n\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\nHer color is washed away\nHer scent dissipates\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\nSighing eyes\nHer lilac melancholy.\n\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\npace through a long, long, \nand desolate rainy alley.\nI hope to float by\nA girl like lilacs, \nDistressed and grudging.\n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 07:01:41', '2016-04-28 11:01:41', '', 1587, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1587-revision-5/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1593, 1, '2016-04-28 06:59:42', '2016-04-28 10:59:42', '[two_third]\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20160428-inline.jpg\" alt=\"Learn to Read Chinese: Advanced Chinese Poetry, Modern Chinese Poetry\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" />Hey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\r\n\r\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer. <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Wangshu\" target=\"_blank\">Dai Wangshu</a>, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.<!--more-->\r\n\r\n《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_massacre_of_1927\" target=\"_blank\">April 12 Incident</a>, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the <a href=\"http://www.zg-wh.com/2014/03/a-lane-in-rain-poem-by-dai-wangshu.html\" target=\"_blank\">translation that\'s available</a> for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n彷徨 - [pinyin]pang2huang2[/pinyin] - To pace (or to hestitate)\r\n寂寥 - [pinyin]ji4 liao2[/pinyin] - Solitude / solitary\r\n丁香 - [pinyin]ding1 xiang1[/pinyin] - Lilac\r\n愁怨 - [pinyin]chou2 yuan4[/pinyin] - Worried and resentful (two separate words)\r\n芬芳 - [pinyin]fen1 fang1[/pinyin] - Fragrance\r\n哀怨 - [pinyin]ai1 yuan4[/pinyin] - Sad\r\n彳亍 - [pinyin]chi4 chu4[/pinyin] - Walk slowly\r\n凄清 - [pinyin]qi1 qing1[/pinyin] - Gloomy\r\n太息 - [pinyin]tai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Sigh\r\n凄婉 - [pinyin]qi1 wan3[/pinyin] - Bittersweet, sad but beautiful\r\n颓圮 - [pinyin]tui2 pi3[/pinyin] - Crumbling, toppled\r\n哀曲 - [pinyin]ai1 qu1[/pinyin] - Sad song\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n<strong>彷徨</strong>在悠长，悠长\r\n又<strong>寂寥</strong>的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\r\n结着<strong>愁怨</strong>的姑娘。\r\n\r\n她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的<strong>芬芳</strong>，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中<strong>哀怨</strong>，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默<strong>彳亍</strong>着，\r\n冷漠，<strong>凄清</strong>，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n<strong>太息</strong>③一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的<strong>凄婉</strong>迷茫。\r\n\r\n像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了<strong>颓圮</strong>的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n在雨的<strong>哀曲</strong>里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\nShe has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\nShe walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\nFloats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of the lane. \r\n\r\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 06:59:42', '2016-04-28 10:59:42', '', 1587, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1587-revision-4/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1595, 1, '2016-04-28 07:01:48', '2016-04-28 11:01:48', '[two_third]\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20160428-inline.jpg\" alt=\"Learn to Read Chinese: Advanced Chinese Poetry, Modern Chinese Poetry\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" />Hey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\r\n\r\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer. <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Wangshu\" target=\"_blank\">Dai Wangshu</a>, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.<!--more-->\r\n\r\n《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_massacre_of_1927\" target=\"_blank\">April 12 Incident</a>, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the <a href=\"http://www.zg-wh.com/2014/03/a-lane-in-rain-poem-by-dai-wangshu.html\" target=\"_blank\">translation that\'s available</a> for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n彷徨 - [pinyin]pang2huang2[/pinyin] - To pace (or to hestitate)\r\n寂寥 - [pinyin]ji4 liao2[/pinyin] - Solitude / solitary\r\n丁香 - [pinyin]ding1 xiang1[/pinyin] - Lilac\r\n愁怨 - [pinyin]chou2 yuan4[/pinyin] - Worried and resentful (two separate words)\r\n芬芳 - [pinyin]fen1 fang1[/pinyin] - Fragrance\r\n哀怨 - [pinyin]ai1 yuan4[/pinyin] - Sad\r\n彳亍 - [pinyin]chi4 chu4[/pinyin] - Walk slowly\r\n凄清 - [pinyin]qi1 qing1[/pinyin] - Gloomy\r\n太息 - [pinyin]tai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Sigh\r\n凄婉 - [pinyin]qi1 wan3[/pinyin] - Bittersweet, sad but beautiful\r\n颓圮 - [pinyin]tui2 pi3[/pinyin] - Crumbling, toppled\r\n哀曲 - [pinyin]ai1 qu1[/pinyin] - Sad song\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n<strong>彷徨</strong>在悠长，悠长\r\n又<strong>寂寥</strong>的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\r\n结着<strong>愁怨</strong>的姑娘。\r\n\r\n她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的<strong>芬芳</strong>，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中<strong>哀怨</strong>，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默<strong>彳亍</strong>着，\r\n冷漠，<strong>凄清</strong>，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n<strong>太息</strong>一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的<strong>凄婉</strong>迷茫。\r\n\r\n像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了<strong>颓圮</strong>的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n在雨的<strong>哀曲</strong>里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\nShe has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\nShe walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\nFloats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of this drizzling alley.\r\n\r\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 07:01:48', '2016-04-28 11:01:48', '', 1587, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1587-revision-6/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1596, 1, '2016-05-01 08:00:04', '2016-05-01 12:00:04', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\nYayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<h3>A few notable points:</h3>\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他<strong>过</strong>的很快乐，时光飞快地<strong>过</strong>去了。\r\n\r\n\"He <strong>passed</strong> [his days] very happily, time flew <strong>past</strong>.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n<h3>One more thing:</h3>\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does.  咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<h4>《小马过河》</h4>\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋<strong>粮食</strong>送到河对<strong>岸</strong>的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他<strong>驮</strong>着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己<strong>淌</strong>过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？<strong>犹豫</strong>中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一<strong>迈</strong>腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠<strong>翘</strong>着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他<strong>卷</strong>走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，<strong>咱们</strong>一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]', 'Children\'s Story: 《小马过河》Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'little-horse-crosses-the-river', '', '', '2020-04-28 19:57:23', '2020-04-28 23:57:23', '', 0, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1596', 0, 'post', '', 117);
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(1681, 1, '2020-04-20 02:00:37', '2020-04-20 06:00:37', '[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\nYayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<h3>A few notable points:</h3>\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他<strong>过</strong>的很快乐，时光飞快地<strong>过</strong>去了。\r\n\r\n\"He <strong>passed</strong> [his days] very happily, time flew <strong>past</strong>.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n<h3>One more thing:</h3>\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does.  咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋<strong>粮食</strong>送到河对<strong>岸</strong>的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他<strong>驮</strong>着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己<strong>淌</strong>过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？<strong>犹豫</strong>中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一<strong>迈</strong>腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠<strong>翘</strong>着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他<strong>卷</strong>走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，<strong>咱们</strong>一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:00:37', '2020-04-20 06:00:37', '', 1596, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1680, 1, '2020-04-20 01:58:05', '2020-04-20 05:58:05', '\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\nYayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/20160501-inline2.jpg\" alt=\"Learn to Read Chinese: Learn to Read Mandarin Chinese for Beginners\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" /><h3>A few notable points:</h3>\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他<strong>过</strong>的很快乐，时光飞快地<strong>过</strong>去了。\r\n\r\n\"He <strong>passed</strong> [his days] very happily, time flew <strong>past</strong>.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n<h3>One more thing:</h3>\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does.  咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋<strong>粮食</strong>送到河对<strong>岸</strong>的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他<strong>驮</strong>着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己<strong>淌</strong>过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？<strong>犹豫</strong>中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一<strong>迈</strong>腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠<strong>翘</strong>着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他<strong>卷</strong>走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，<strong>咱们</strong>一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 01:58:05', '2020-04-20 05:58:05', '', 1596, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1679, 1, '2020-04-20 01:56:43', '2020-04-20 05:56:43', '[su_column size=\"1/4\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"][/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\nYayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/20160501-inline2.jpg\" alt=\"Learn to Read Chinese: Learn to Read Mandarin Chinese for Beginners\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" /><h3>A few notable points:</h3>\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他<strong>过</strong>的很快乐，时光飞快地<strong>过</strong>去了。\r\n\r\n\"He <strong>passed</strong> [his days] very happily, time flew <strong>past</strong>.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n<h3>One more thing:</h3>\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does.  咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/4\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"][/su_column]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋<strong>粮食</strong>送到河对<strong>岸</strong>的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他<strong>驮</strong>着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己<strong>淌</strong>过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？<strong>犹豫</strong>中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一<strong>迈</strong>腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠<strong>翘</strong>着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他<strong>卷</strong>走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，<strong>咱们</strong>一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 01:56:43', '2020-04-20 05:56:43', '', 1596, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1597, 1, '2016-04-28 08:57:25', '2016-04-28 12:57:25', '[two_third]\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. <!--more-->\n\n<h3>A few notable points:</h3>\n\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地>过去了。\n\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\n\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \n\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \n\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\n\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \n\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\n\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \n\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \n\n他<strong>过</strong>的很快乐，时光飞快地<strong>过</strong>去了。\n\n\"He <strong>passed</strong> [his days] very happily, time flew <strong>past</strong>.\"\n\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \n\n<h3>One more thing:</h3>\n\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does.  咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\n\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\n\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\n\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n<div class=\"postintro\">\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\n粮食 - [pinyin]liang2 shi2[/pinyin] - Grain (or foodstuffs)\n岸 - [pinyin]an4[/pinyin] - Bank (of a river)\n驮 - [pinyin]tuo2[/pinyin] - To carry on the back (of a pack animal)\n犹豫 - [pinyin]you2 yu4[/pinyin] - Hesitate\n迈 - [pinyin]mai4[/pinyin] - Stride, step\n翘 - [pinyin]qiao4[/pinyin] - Lift up\n卷 - [pinyin]juan3[/pinyin] - Roll up\n</div>\n[/one_third]\n\n<hr />\n\n[one_half]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋<strong>粮食</strong>送到河对<strong>岸</strong>的村子里去吧。”\n\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他<strong>驮</strong>着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己<strong>淌</strong>过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？<strong>犹豫</strong>中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\n\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\n\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一<strong>迈</strong>腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠<strong>翘</strong>着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他<strong>卷</strong>走了。”\n\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，<strong>咱们</strong>一起去看看吧。”\n\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\n \n</div>\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \n\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \n\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \n\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \n\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \n\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 08:57:25', '2016-04-28 12:57:25', '', 1596, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1596-revision/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
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(1604, 1, '2016-04-28 07:18:59', '2016-04-28 11:18:59', '[two_third]\r\n>Hey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\r\n\r\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer. <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Wangshu\" target=\"_blank\">Dai Wangshu</a>, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.<!--more-->\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20160428-inline.jpg\" alt=\"Learn to Read Chinese: Advanced Chinese Poetry, Modern Chinese Poetry\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" /《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_massacre_of_1927\" target=\"_blank\">April 12 Incident</a>, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the <a href=\"http://www.zg-wh.com/2014/03/a-lane-in-rain-poem-by-dai-wangshu.html\" target=\"_blank\">translation that\'s available</a> for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n彷徨 - [pinyin]pang2huang2[/pinyin] - To pace (or to hestitate)\r\n寂寥 - [pinyin]ji4 liao2[/pinyin] - Solitude / solitary\r\n丁香 - [pinyin]ding1 xiang1[/pinyin] - Lilac\r\n愁怨 - [pinyin]chou2 yuan4[/pinyin] - Worried and resentful (two separate words)\r\n芬芳 - [pinyin]fen1 fang1[/pinyin] - Fragrance\r\n哀怨 - [pinyin]ai1 yuan4[/pinyin] - Sad\r\n彳亍 - [pinyin]chi4 chu4[/pinyin] - Walk slowly\r\n凄清 - [pinyin]qi1 qing1[/pinyin] - Gloomy\r\n太息 - [pinyin]tai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Sigh\r\n凄婉 - [pinyin]qi1 wan3[/pinyin] - Bittersweet, sad but beautiful\r\n颓圮 - [pinyin]tui2 pi3[/pinyin] - Crumbling, toppled\r\n哀曲 - [pinyin]ai1 qu1[/pinyin] - Sad song\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n<strong>彷徨</strong>在悠长，悠长\r\n又<strong>寂寥</strong>的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\r\n结着<strong>愁怨</strong>的姑娘。\r\n\r\n她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的<strong>芬芳</strong>，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中<strong>哀怨</strong>，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默<strong>彳亍</strong>着，\r\n冷漠，<strong>凄清</strong>，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n<strong>太息</strong>一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的<strong>凄婉</strong>迷茫。\r\n\r\n像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了<strong>颓圮</strong>的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n在雨的<strong>哀曲</strong>里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\nShe has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\nShe walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\nFloats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of this drizzling alley.\r\n\r\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 07:18:59', '2016-04-28 11:18:59', '', 1587, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1587-revision-7/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1605, 1, '2016-04-28 09:08:48', '2016-04-28 13:08:48', '[two_third]\r\n>Hey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\r\n\r\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer. <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Wangshu\" target=\"_blank\">Dai Wangshu</a>, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.<!--more-->\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20160428-inline.jpg\" alt=\"Learn to Read Chinese: Advanced Chinese Poetry, Modern Chinese Poetry\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" />《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_massacre_of_1927\" target=\"_blank\">April 12 Incident</a>, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the <a href=\"http://www.zg-wh.com/2014/03/a-lane-in-rain-poem-by-dai-wangshu.html\" target=\"_blank\">translation that\'s available</a> for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n彷徨 - [pinyin]pang2huang2[/pinyin] - To pace (or to hestitate)\r\n寂寥 - [pinyin]ji4 liao2[/pinyin] - Solitude / solitary\r\n丁香 - [pinyin]ding1 xiang1[/pinyin] - Lilac\r\n愁怨 - [pinyin]chou2 yuan4[/pinyin] - Worried and resentful (two separate words)\r\n芬芳 - [pinyin]fen1 fang1[/pinyin] - Fragrance\r\n哀怨 - [pinyin]ai1 yuan4[/pinyin] - Sad\r\n彳亍 - [pinyin]chi4 chu4[/pinyin] - Walk slowly\r\n凄清 - [pinyin]qi1 qing1[/pinyin] - Gloomy\r\n太息 - [pinyin]tai4 xi1[/pinyin] - Sigh\r\n凄婉 - [pinyin]qi1 wan3[/pinyin] - Bittersweet, sad but beautiful\r\n颓圮 - [pinyin]tui2 pi3[/pinyin] - Crumbling, toppled\r\n哀曲 - [pinyin]ai1 qu1[/pinyin] - Sad song\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n<strong>彷徨</strong>在悠长，悠长\r\n又<strong>寂寥</strong>的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\r\n结着<strong>愁怨</strong>的姑娘。\r\n\r\n她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的<strong>芬芳</strong>，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中<strong>哀怨</strong>，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默<strong>彳亍</strong>着，\r\n冷漠，<strong>凄清</strong>，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n<strong>太息</strong>一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的<strong>凄婉</strong>迷茫。\r\n\r\n像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了<strong>颓圮</strong>的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n在雨的<strong>哀曲</strong>里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\nShe has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\nShe walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\nFloats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of this drizzling alley.\r\n\r\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 09:08:48', '2016-04-28 13:08:48', '', 1587, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1587-revision-8/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1606, 1, '2016-04-28 09:08:42', '2016-04-28 13:08:42', '[two_third]\nYayzors, horsies. \n\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. <!--more-->\n\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/20160501-inline2.jpg\" alt=\"20160501-inline\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" /><h3>A few notable points:</h3>\n\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地>过去了。\n\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\n\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \n\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \n\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\n\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \n\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\n\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \n\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \n\n他<strong>过</strong>的很快乐，时光飞快地<strong>过</strong>去了。\n\n\"He <strong>passed</strong> [his days] very happily, time flew <strong>past</strong>.\"\n\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \n\n<h3>One more thing:</h3>\n\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does.  咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\n\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\n\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\n\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\n\n[/two_third]\n[one_third last=last]\n<div class=\"postintro\">\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\n粮食 - [pinyin]liang2 shi2[/pinyin] - Grain (or foodstuffs)\n岸 - [pinyin]an4[/pinyin] - Bank (of a river)\n驮 - [pinyin]tuo2[/pinyin] - To carry on the back (of a pack animal)\n犹豫 - [pinyin]you2 yu4[/pinyin] - Hesitate\n迈 - [pinyin]mai4[/pinyin] - Stride, step\n翘 - [pinyin]qiao4[/pinyin] - Lift up\n卷 - [pinyin]juan3[/pinyin] - Roll up\n</div>\n[/one_third]\n\n<hr />\n\n[one_half]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋<strong>粮食</strong>送到河对<strong>岸</strong>的村子里去吧。”\n\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他<strong>驮</strong>着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己<strong>淌</strong>过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？<strong>犹豫</strong>中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\n\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\n\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一<strong>迈</strong>腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠<strong>翘</strong>着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他<strong>卷</strong>走了。”\n\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，<strong>咱们</strong>一起去看看吧。”\n\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\n \n</div>\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \n\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \n\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \n\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \n\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \n\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 09:08:42', '2016-04-28 13:08:42', '', 1596, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1596-revision-2/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1607, 1, '2016-04-28 09:09:12', '2016-04-28 13:09:12', '[two_third]\r\nYayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/20160501-inline2.jpg\" alt=\"20160501-inline\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" /><h3>A few notable points:</h3>\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他<strong>过</strong>的很快乐，时光飞快地<strong>过</strong>去了。\r\n\r\n\"He <strong>passed</strong> [his days] very happily, time flew <strong>past</strong>.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n<h3>One more thing:</h3>\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does.  咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n粮食 - [pinyin]liang2 shi2[/pinyin] - Grain (or foodstuffs)\r\n岸 - [pinyin]an4[/pinyin] - Bank (of a river)\r\n驮 - [pinyin]tuo2[/pinyin] - To carry on the back (of a pack animal)\r\n犹豫 - [pinyin]you2 yu4[/pinyin] - Hesitate\r\n迈 - [pinyin]mai4[/pinyin] - Stride, step\r\n翘 - [pinyin]qiao4[/pinyin] - Lift up\r\n卷 - [pinyin]juan3[/pinyin] - Roll up\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋<strong>粮食</strong>送到河对<strong>岸</strong>的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他<strong>驮</strong>着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己<strong>淌</strong>过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？<strong>犹豫</strong>中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一<strong>迈</strong>腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠<strong>翘</strong>着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他<strong>卷</strong>走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，<strong>咱们</strong>一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2016-04-28 09:09:12', '2016-04-28 13:09:12', '', 1596, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2016/04/28/1596-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1612, 1, '2012-08-14 12:00:23', '2012-08-14 16:00:23', '[two_third]\r\n<strong>Chinese Title: 童年傻事</strong>\r\n\r\nThis essay about a kid who takes his father\'s advice a little too literally (with amusing results) is almost as beginner as a five-paragraph read can get. You\'ll find very few intermediate-level words, and extremely basic sentence structure. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/20120829-INLINE.jpg\" alt=\"Beginner Simplified Chinese Essays: Learn to Read Mandarin\" title=\"Chinese Essays for Beginners: Learn to Read Chinese Essays \" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" />Only thing intermediate about this read is the very first sentence, which we\'ll talk about here. After this it\'s pretty easy going. The essay starts out 童年仿佛是一条小船，里面装满了甜蜜的糖果，也装满了许多忧伤。 Let\'s break this one down word by word:\r\n\r\n童年 - [pinyin]tong2 nian2[/pinyin] - Childhood\r\n仿佛 - [pinyin]fang3 fu2[/pinyin] - seems like\r\n是 - [pinyin]shi4[/pinyin] - [it] is\r\n一条 - [pinyin]yi1 tiao2[/pinyin] - a (literally: the word \"one\" plus the classifier for boats, which is 条)\r\n小船,  - [pinyin]xiao3 chuan2[/pinyin] - boat,\r\n里面  - [pinyin]li3 mian4[/pinyin] - inside\r\n装满了  - [pinyin]zhuang1 man3 le5[/pinyin] - is full (of)\r\n甜蜜的  - [pinyin]tian2 mi4 de5[/pinyin] - sweet\r\n糖果,  - [pinyin]tang2 guo3[/pinyin] - candy,\r\n也  - [pinyin]ye3[/pinyin] - also\r\n装满了  - [pinyin]zhuang1 man3 le5[/pinyin] - is full (of)\r\n许多  - [pinyin]xu3 duo1[/pinyin] - much\r\n忧伤 - [pinyin]you1 shang1[/pinyin] - distress.\r\n\r\nPretty straightforward when you look at it that way. A quick note on that: though the word 糖果 (which appears a lot in this text) means \"candy\", it does not mean \"candy fruit\" or \"sweet fruit\", as you might guess from the character 果. This is just a general word for candy, though the Chinese don\'t consider chocolate a \"candy\" - it\'s in its own category. \r\n\r\nThe original is from a Chinese <a href=\"http://www.61zuowen.com/jishi/2011113020504.html\">essay composition site</a>. \r\n[/two_third]\r\n[one_third last=last]\r\n<div class=\"postintro\">\r\n<h4>Click to Listen</h4>\r\n烈日 - [pinyin]lie4 ri4[/pinyin] - Scorching sun\r\n炎炎 - [pinyin]yan2 yan2[/pinyin] - Scorching\r\n抱上 - [pinyin]bao4 shang4[/pinyin] - Pick up (the way one picks up a child, encircling them with both arms)\r\n糖果 - [pinyin]tang2 guo3[/pinyin] - Candy \r\n种 - [pinyin]zhong4[/pinyin] - To plant (eg. vegetable seeds)\r\n种子 - [pinyin]zhong3 zi5[/pinyin] - A seed\r\n心想 - [pinyin]xin1 xiang3[/pinyin] - Think to oneself\r\n刨 - [pinyin]pao2[/pinyin] - To dig\r\n坑 - [pinyin]keng1[/pinyin] - Hole\r\n埋 - [pinyin]mai2[/pinyin] - To bury\r\n默默 - [pinyin]mo4 mo4[/pinyin] - Without speaking\r\n宝贝 - [pinyin]bao3 bei4[/pinyin] - \"Baby\", \"Darling\" - term of endearment\r\n如今 - [pinyin]ru2 jin1[/pinyin] - Nowadays\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_third]\r\n\r\n<hr />\r\n\r\n[one_half]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n童年仿佛是一条小船，里面装满了甜蜜的糖果，也装满了许多忧伤。\r\n\r\n我出生在一个幸福的六口之家。有爸爸、妈妈、爷爷、奶奶、姐姐，还有我。\r\n\r\n我四岁时，一个<strong>烈日</strong><strong>炎炎</strong>的中午。爷爷、奶奶、妈妈和姐姐都忙着自己手中的活。爸爸<strong>抱上</strong>我去商店、给我买了很多<strong>糖果</strong>。回到家中，爸爸放下我，就去我们家的后院<strong>种</strong>苹果树去了。我也跟了过去，我问爸爸你在干什么？爸爸说：“我在种苹果树，到了秋天你就有苹果吃了。”爸爸还说：“你种什么<strong>种子</strong>就会长什么。”爸爸说完就回家喝茶去了。当时我<strong>心想</strong>如果把刚刚买的糖果种到土中，秋天不就有很多糖果了吗！\r\n\r\n我说做就做，我<strong>刨</strong>了个<strong>坑</strong>，把刚才剩下的糖果都放在坑里，用土<strong>埋</strong>了。我<strong>默默</strong>的许下愿说：“糖果快长！糖果快长！长成大树，长出很多很多糖果。”我把这个愿望告诉了爸爸，爸爸听了。大笑起来说：“糖果不会长出大树，也更不会长出糖果。”我听了爸爸话坐在地上大哭起来，我的糖果，我的糖果。爸爸赶快跑到我面前，抱起我说：“哦，不哭了小<strong>宝贝</strong>，爸爸给你买很多很多糖果。我听了就不哭了。\r\n\r\n<strong>如今</strong>我已经长大了，种糖果的傻事也不会再做了。\r\n</div>\r\n[/one_half]\r\n\r\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nChildhood seems like a boat that is full of sweet candy, but is also laden with grief. \r\n\r\nI was born into a happy six-person family. There\'s father, mother, grandpa, grandma, my elder sister and myself. \r\n\r\n[The story begins] when I was four, on a scorching afternoon. Grandpa, grandma, mother and my elder sister were all busy doing their own thing. Dad picked me up and carried me to the store, and bought me lots of candy. On the way back to the house, dad put me down, and went to our house\'s back garden to plant apple trees. I went with him, and asked him \'what are you doing\'? Father said: \"I\'m planting apple trees, when autumn arrives you\'ll have apples to eat.\" Father continued: \"Whatever seeds you plant will grow.\" Father finished speaking and went back into the house to drink tea. Then I thought to myself if I take the candy I just bought and plant it in the earth, in autumn I should have lots of candy! \r\n\r\nI did just that, I dug a hole, took my left over candy and put it all in the hole, using dirt to bury it. In silence I fervently hoped: \"Candy, grow quickly! Candy, grow quickly! Grow into a big tree, and sprout lots and lots of candy.\" I told this wish to my father, and he listened. Laughing heartily he said: \"Candy can\'t grow into a big tree, and it definitely can\'t sprout more candy.\" I heard my father\'s words and I sat down on the grass and started sobbing, my candy, my candy. Father quickly ran up to me, embraced me and said: \"Oh, don\'t cry little darling, daddy will buy you lots and lots of candy.\" I listened to him and stopped crying.\r\n\r\nNowadays I\'ve already grown up, and I won\'t try foolishly planting candy again.\r\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'A Foolish Affair from my Childhood', '', 'inherit', 'open', 'open', '', '1235-revision-v1', '', '', '2012-08-14 12:00:23', '2012-08-14 16:00:23', '', 1235, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2012/08/14/1235-revision-3/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2443, 1, '2020-06-01 00:00:45', '2020-06-01 04:00:45', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\n<strong>Public service announcement:</strong> you may or may not have heard that the <a href=\"https://www.thebeijinger.com/blog/2020/05/25/hsk-to-be-overhauled-first-time-in-11-years\">HSK system is about to get a major overhaul</a> for the first time in a decade. There will now be 9 HSK levels instead of 6, so my half-assed grading system on this site is about to become inaccurate. But the details aren\'t totally clear yet, so guess I\'ll be sticking with this until we know more.\r\n\r\nAnyway, in this story, a gentleman named Buzi (卜子 - [pinyin]bu3 zi[/pinyin]) asks his wife (卜妻 - [pinyin]bu3 qi1[/pinyin]) to make him a new pair of pants (裤子 - [pinyin]ku4 zi[/pinyin]), but he doesn\'t give her very clear instructions. \r\n \r\n<a href=\"http://www.rensheng5.com/xiaogushi/id-6042.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source here</a>.\r\n<h4>Some language stuff</h4>\r\nFirst, a note on the use of 为 in the title 《卜妻为裤》. 为 has so many meanings in Chinese, in this case the definition used is \"to make\". \r\n\r\nA couple key words that will inform your understanding of the story:\r\n\r\n<strong>讲究</strong> [pinyin]jiang3 jiu[/pinyin] - You may have learned this one already, but if you don\'t know it, it\'s crucial to understanding the plot. 讲究 means to be meticulous or fastidious about something. The phrased used here is 不讲究穿着 - \"to not be fastidious about what one is wearing\". \r\n\r\n<strong>破烂</strong> [pinyin]po4 lan4[/pinyin] - This means ragged, ripped or torn. 破, by itself, usually means \"broken\", in this story, it is used to mean \"tattered\".\r\n\r\n<strong>照</strong> [pinyin]zhao4[/pinyin] - We usually first learn this character in the word 照片, \"photograph\", and 照 is also present in a lot of words that have to do with light, like 照亮 [pinyin]zhao4 liang4[/pinyin], to illuminate or shine upon. But that is not the definition of 照 being used here. In this case, 照 is short for 按照 [pinyin]an4 zhao4[/pinyin], to be based on, or 仿照 [pinyin]fang3 zhao4[/pinyin], to imitate or follow.\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<h4>《卜妻为裤》</h4>\r\n从前，住着一个名叫<span class=\"highlightText\">卜子</span>的人。\r\n\r\n他平时很不<span class=\"highlightText\">讲究</span>穿着，经常是穿着一身<span class=\"highlightText\">破烂</span>的衣服就出去了。\r\n\r\n有一天，他还是和平时一样穿着一条又脏又破的裤子出去了，走到街上，很多人都在看他的破裤子，他自己觉得很难堪，就买一块布头，回到家叫妻子给他做一条新裤子。\r\n\r\n<span class=\"highlightText\">卜妻</span>量量尺寸，问他：“这条裤子做成什么式样啊?”\r\n\r\n卜子随口回答：“<span class=\"highlightText\">照</span>老样子做吧！”\r\n\r\n妻子以为丈夫喜欢那种又脏又破衣服的款式，就想：他是不是觉得穿这种裤子很舒服，而且这一条裤子不够穿，所以叫我再做一条？\r\n\r\n卜妻就认认真真地<span class=\"highlightText\">仿照</span>老裤子的模样，这里戳几个破洞，那里抹一摊油，弄得皱皱巴巴、破破烂烂的。花费了不少工夫，总算完成了。\r\n\r\n她把裤子放到卜子面前，得意地说：“满意吧?同老裤子一样的样式。”\r\n\r\n说话一定要说清楚，尤其是大事情。\r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\nLong ago, there lived a man named Buzi. \r\n\r\nHe typically wasn\'t meticulous about what he wore, and often went out wearing ragged clothes.\r\n\r\nOne day, same as usual he went out wearing a pair of dirty, torn pants, but when he walked onto the street, many people were looking at his torn pants, and he felt quite embarrassed, so be bought a piece of cloth, and went back home to ask his wife to make him a new pair of pants.\r\n\r\nBuzi\'s wife took measurements, asking him: \"In what kind of style should the pants be made?\" \r\n\r\nBuzi casually answered, \"Base them on the old style!\"\r\n\r\n[His] wife thought her husband like that kind of dirty, tattered style, so she thought: Does he feel that wearing this kind of pants is comfortable, and feel that one pair isn\'t enough, so he asked me to make another? \r\n\r\nBuzi\'s wife diligently followed the old style, poking a few holes here, smearing some oil there, making them wrinkled and tattered. [After] expending no small amount of effort, they were finally done. \r\n\r\nShe put the pants in front of Buzi, and pleased with herself said: \"Satisfied? The same style as your old pants.\"\r\n\r\nWhen speaking you must speak clearly, especially in important matters. \r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]</div>', 'Short story: 《卜妻为裤》Buzi\'s wife makes a pair of pants', 'A gentleman named Buzi (卜子) asks his wife (卜妻) to make him a new pair of pants (裤子), but he doesn\'t give her very clear instructions. HSK 3-4. ', 'publish', 'open', 'open', '', 'short-story-buzis-wife-makes-a-pair-of-pants', '', '', '2020-06-01 01:16:59', '2020-06-01 05:16:59', '', 0, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=2443', 0, 'post', '', 0),
(2362, 1, '2020-05-21 19:30:29', '2020-05-21 23:30:29', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\nOne picky little horse learns to appreciate the food he is served. Upper-beginner, bordering on intermediate, HSK 4.\r\n\r\n<h4>Some language stuff</h4>\r\nQuite a bit of the harder vocab in this piece revolves around eating. We\'ve got  津津有味, to eat something with joyous relish, 啃, to gnaw on, 狼吞虎咽, to fiercely gobble something up, and 饥肠辘辘, to be so hungry one\'s stomach is rumbling. \r\n\r\n爱挑食 - Three different words here, 爱, to love, 挑, to be picky, and 食, food. The literal translation here is \"loves to be picky about food\". It bears pointing out that in this case, \"love\" does not really mean \"to have fondness for\", but rather, \"to do something often\". We use \"love\" this way in English as well, as in, \"You just love to start an argument, don\'t you?\"\r\n\r\n转一圈 - 转 is \"to turn around\" and 一圈 is \"a circle\" or \"a loop\". But this is only a figurative definition, in this story, it really means \"to make a circular pass through a place\" - imagine shopping at a farmer\'s market or something, you walk all around to the different stalls to see what everyone is selling. \r\n\r\n一幕\r\n\r\n那儿 - Literally means \"there\" or \"over there\". I just covered a similar usage of \"这儿\" in the <a href=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/05/20/chinese-fable-the-learned-son/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">last beginner post</a>. \r\n\r\n顾不上\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http://www.rensheng5.com/xiaogushi/id-9965.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source here</a>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<h4>最可口的食物</h4>\r\n\r\n　在一个农场里养着很多动物。其中有一匹<span class=\"highlightText\">爱挑食</span>的小马，它总是不满意农场主给它的食物。于是它决定去转<span class=\"highlightText\">一圈</span>，看看别的动物们<span class=\"highlightText\">那儿</span>有什么好吃的。\r\n　　\r\n它很快就发现了几只鸡正在愉快地吃着什么，上前一看，是谷子，它尝了一口，却马上又吐了出来，“一点味没有，不好吃！”说着就走了。\r\n　　\r\n不久它又看到一只狗在<span class=\"highlightText\">津津有味</span>地<span class=\"highlightText\">啃</span>着骨头，还有一只猫一边唱着歌一边<span class=\"highlightText\">撕咬</span>着一条鱼。这些食物，它看了都害怕，那气味快使它呕吐。它赶紧走开了。\r\n　　\r\n走了好一会儿，小马有点渴了，它来到水塘边喝水。看到两只鸭子正在抢夺一条蚯蚓，蚯蚓被它们拉扯的又细又长，最后断成两截，两只鸭子<span class=\"highlightText\">狼吞虎咽</span>地吃下了各自的半截，又开始寻找起来。看到这残忍的<span class=\"highlightText\">一幕</span>，小马水也<span class=\"highlightText\">顾不上</span>喝就跑开了，“真恐怖！”它说。\r\n　　\r\n　　跑了<span class=\"highlightText\">一大圈</span>，它看到的动物吃的东西，都不合它的胃口，有的甚至还让它感得恶心。小马饥肠辘辘的回到马厩，才发现主人为它预备的草料，才是它最喜爱最可口的食物。\r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\nThere was a farm where many animals were raised. Among them was one little horse that was very picky about his food, he was always unsatisfied with what the farmer gave him to eat. So he decided to go walk around, to see what yummy things the other animals had to eat. \r\n　　\r\nHe quickly discovered a few chickens happily eating something, so he went over to look, it was grain, so he tried a mouthful, but he spit out, \"[This] has no flavor, it\'s gross!\", he said and left.　\r\n　　\r\nNot long after he saw a dog gnawing on a bone with relish, and a cat singing a song while tearing into a fish. Just looking at these foods frightened him, and the smell made him retch, so he quickly took his leave. 　\r\n　　\r\nAfter walking for a while, the little horse was a bit thirsty, so he went to the pond to drink some water. He saw two ducks fighting over an earthworm, they stretched the earthworm out long and thin, and finally broke it into two pieces, and the two ducks each gobbled down their piece, and started looking about [for another]. Seeing this cruel scene, the little horse couldn\'t even stand to drink any water and quickly ran away, \"Truly horrifying!\" he said. \r\n　　\r\nHe ran all around, and everything he saw the other animals eating didn\'t suit his own tastes, and some even disgusted him. He returned to his pen with his stomach rumbling, and found that the grass master had prepared for him to eat was his favorite delicious food after all.  \r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]</div>', 'Children\'s Story: 最可口的食物 - The most appetizing meal', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2331-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-05-21 19:30:29', '2020-05-21 23:30:29', '', 2331, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/05/21/2331-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1881, 1, '2020-04-20 11:22:33', '0000-00-00 00:00:00', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div style=\"background-color:#ffeaee; padding: 25px; font-style:italic; font-size: 0.9em; margin-bottom: 20px;\">In the <a href=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/tag/novels/\">Novels</a> series, I get you started reading the first few paragraphs of classic Chinese fiction. If you like the beginning, you can buy the book and keep reading.</div>  \r\nMo Yan is a legendary novelist. My Chinese lit teacher said: sex, violence, and vulgarity. \r\n\r\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sorghum_(novel)\r\nhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mo_Yan\r\nhttps://www.kanunu8.com/book3/8256/182711.html\r\nhttps://www.penguin.com/ajax/books/excerpt/9780140168549\r\nHere\'s Big Tits fat ass: https://www.kanunu8.com/book3/8255/182597.html\r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<h3>A few notable points:</h3>\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他<strong>过</strong>的很快乐，时光飞快地<strong>过</strong>去了。\r\n\r\n\"He <strong>passed</strong> [his days] very happily, time flew <strong>past</strong>.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n<h3>One more thing:</h3>\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does.  咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<h4>小马过河</h4>\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋<strong>粮食</strong>送到河对<strong>岸</strong>的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他<strong>驮</strong>着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己<strong>淌</strong>过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？<strong>犹豫</strong>中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一<strong>迈</strong>腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠<strong>翘</strong>着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他<strong>卷</strong>走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，<strong>咱们</strong>一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]', 'Novels: Start Reading \"Red Sorghum\" 《红高粱家族》by Mo Yan', '', 'draft', 'open', 'open', '', '', '', '', '2020-04-20 11:22:33', '2020-04-20 15:22:33', '', 0, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/?p=1881', 0, 'post', '', 0),
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(2415, 1, '2020-05-24 22:47:26', '2020-05-25 02:47:26', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\n<p style=\"padding:25px; margin-bottom: 20px; font-style: italic; background-color:#ffeaee;\">It\'s Communism Week at CRP. All this week, we\'re learning Chinese through the lens of historical and modern CCP propaganda, speeches, stories, essays and songs.</p> \r\n\r\n<strong>Quick reminder:</strong> To maintain a polite, language learning-focused environment, political comments - positive, negative, or neutral - are not allowed, and will be deleted.\r\n\r\nThis song is a relic of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The melody was adapted from an old farmer\'s folk song back in 1942, and became popular when Mao Zedong\'s (毛泽东) cult of personality was in full swing. This rousing anthem worships the glory of Chairman Mao (毛主席) - I\'m not actually sure \"rousing\" really covers how enthusiastic this song is, it kind of punches you in the eardrums with patriotic fervor. To be clear: this is not the official Chinese national anthem, but during the height of the Cultural Revolution it was kind of an unofficial national anthem, and most folks on mainland usually remember at least some of the lyrics. \r\n\r\nI often get requests from readers to add audio to my posts, and I can\'t do it because of time constraints, but since this was such a popular song, there are still lots of places you can listen to it. So, if you want to listen to the song with music and lyrics, <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GndAiU2qoDI\">you can check it out here</a> (and if that link breaks in the future, just look up 东方红 on Youtube, there are lots of vids). \r\n\r\n<h4>Some language stuff</h4>\r\nI had an impossible time trying to find actual beginner-level reading on Communism. Even the children\'s stories are pretty hard. To read this smoothly without looking anything up, you\'d have to be an advanced reader. But this song is great for HSK 3-4 readers who are willing to put in a bit of effort, because it\'s a good overview of all the entry-level Communist vocab, the lyrics are very repetitive and bite-sized, and there are enough beginner-level words here to point you in the right direction, so with some study, you can get this. However, because there\'s a lot to parse, I\'m going to do a lot of explaining.\r\n\r\nFirst, some critical Communist-themed vocab: \r\n \r\n<strong>毛泽东</strong> [pinyin]mao2 ze2 dong1[/pinyin] - Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China, who died in 1976\r\n\r\n<strong>毛主席</strong> [pinyin]mao2 zhu3 xi2[/pinyin] - Chairman Mao, Mao Zedong\'s official title\r\n\r\n<strong>大救星</strong> [pinyin]da4 jiu4 xing1[/pinyin] - You can probably figure out the general idea here by looking at each character individually. 大 is \"big\" or \"great\", 救 is \"to rescue\", and 星 is \"star\". All together, this means \"great savior\", one of the many worshipful terms used to describe Chairman Mao during the Cultural Revolution.\r\n\r\n<strong>共产党</strong> [pinyin]gong4 chan3 dang3[/pinyin] - The Communist Party (CCP)\r\n\r\n<strong>人民</strong> [pinyin]ren2 min2[/pinyin] - The People. This is used in almost every line of this song, so I won\'t highlight every instance. \r\n\r\n<strong>解放</strong> [pinyin]jie3 fang4[/pinyin] - Liberation\r\n\r\nThen, some grammatical points of order:\r\n\r\n<strong>了</strong> [pinyin]le / liao3[/pinyin] - If you listen to the audio, you\'ll notice that the singers pronounce 了 as <em>liao</em>, rather than <em>le</em>. This is just a colloquial pronunciation thing, the meaning of this grammar word has not changed.\r\n\r\n<strong>出了</strong> [pinyin]chu1 le / liao3[/pinyin] - Grammatically speaking, the most difficult part of these lyrics for me is translating 出了, because it\'s a little abstract. The full lyric is 中国出了个毛泽东, which I\'ll break down here:\r\n\r\n中国 - China\r\n出了 - ???\r\n个 - A / one\r\n毛泽东 - Mao Zedong\r\n\r\nWe know that 出 means \"to go out\", \"to issue forth\". It\'s present in the word 出生 [pinyin]chu1 sheng1[/pinyin], \"to be born\", and also present in the word 出现 [pinyin]chu1 xian4[/pinyin], \"to appear\". So, this lyric means something like \"Mao Zedong appeared in China\", or \"China gave birth to one Mao Zedong\", or \"Mao Zedong comes from China\". None of those translations feel exactly right, but you get the point.   \r\n\r\n<strong>为</strong> [pinyin]wei4[/pinyin] - Another tricky grammar point here is the use of 为. We see this being used in two ways, once just by itself, and once as 为了. These two uses have different definitions. When 为 is by itself before a noun, it means \"for (noun)\". As in \"for the people\". When it is 为了, before a verb, it means \"in order to (do something)\". \r\n\r\n<strong>得</strong> [pinyin]de2[/pinyin] - The definition of 得 being used here is \"to receive\". \r\n\r\n<strong>呼儿嗨哟</strong> [pinyin]hu1 er hei1 yo1[/pinyin] - Don\'t get tripped up on this, these aren\'t real words. These are just sounds that round out the song, as in the \"ooooh\" or \"la la la\", that you might hear in English songs. You might best translate this as \"Hurrah!\", a sound that expresses joy and victory.\r\n\r\nAlright, ready? Let\'s do this.\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<h4>东方红</h4>\r\n东方红,太阳升 \r\n中国<span class=\"highlightText\">出了</span>个<span class=\"highlightText\">毛泽东</span>\r\n他<span class=\"highlightText\">为</span>人民谋幸福\r\n<span class=\"highlightText\">呼儿嗨哟</span>\r\n他是人民<span class=\"highlightText\">大救星</span>\r\n他<span class=\"highlightText\">为</span>人民谋幸福\r\n<span class=\"highlightText\">呼儿嗨哟</span>\r\n他是人民<span class=\"highlightText\">大救星</span>\r\n\r\n<span class=\"highlightText\">毛主席</span>爱人民 \r\n他是我们的带路人\r\n<span class=\"highlightText\">为了</span>建设新中国 \r\n<span class=\"highlightText\">呼儿嗨哟</span>\r\n领导我们向前进 \r\n<span class=\"highlightText\">为了</span>建设新中国\r\n<span class=\"highlightText\">呼儿嗨哟</span> \r\n领导我们向前进\r\n\r\n<span class=\"highlightText\">共产党</span>像太阳 \r\n照到哪里,那里亮\r\n哪里有了<span class=\"highlightText\">共产党</span>\r\n<span class=\"highlightText\">呼儿嗨哟</span>\r\n那里人民<span class=\"highlightText\">得</span><span class=\"highlightText\">解放</span>\r\n哪里有了<span class=\"highlightText\">共产党</span>\r\n<span class=\"highlightText\">呼儿嗨哟</span>\r\n那里人民<span class=\"highlightText\">得</span><span class=\"highlightText\">解放</span>\r\n\r\n东方红,太阳升 \r\n中国<span class=\"highlightText\">出了</span>个<span class=\"highlightText\">毛泽东</span>\r\n他<span class=\"highlightText\">为</span>人民谋幸福\r\n<span class=\"highlightText\">呼儿嗨哟</span>\r\n他是人民<span class=\"highlightText\">大救星</span>\r\n他<span class=\"highlightText\">为</span>人民谋幸福\r\n<span class=\"highlightText\">呼儿嗨哟</span>\r\n他是人民<span class=\"highlightText\">大救星</span> \r\n<span class=\"highlightText\">大救星</span>\r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\nThe East is Red, the sun is rising\r\nMao Zedong appeared in China\r\nHe is working for the People\'s prosperity\r\nHurrah!\r\nHe is the People\'s great savior \r\nHe is working for the People\'s prosperity\r\nHurrah!\r\nHe is the People\'s great savior \r\n\r\nChairman Mao loves the People\r\nHe is our guide\r\nIn order to build New China\r\nHurrah!\r\nHe leads us towards advancement\r\nIn order to build New China\r\nHurrah!\r\nHe leads us towards advancement\r\n\r\nThe Communist Party is like the sun\r\nWherever it shines, there is light\r\nWherever the Communist Party goes\r\nHurrah!\r\nThe People there receive liberation\r\nWherever the Communist Party goes\r\nHurrah!\r\nThe People there receive liberation\r\n\r\nThe east is red, the sun is rising\r\nMao Zedong appeared in China\r\nHe is working for the People\'s prosperity\r\nHurrah!\r\nHe is the People\'s great savior\r\nHe is working for the people\'s prosperity\r\nHurrah!\r\nHe is the People\'s great savior\r\nGreat savior\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]</div>', 'Communist songs: 《东方红》- The East is Red', 'This song is a relic of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The melody was adapted from an old farmer\'s folk song back in 1942, and became popular when Mao Zedong\'s (毛泽东) cult of personality was in full swing.', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2343-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-05-24 22:47:26', '2020-05-25 02:47:26', '', 2343, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/05/24/2343-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1668, 1, '2020-04-20 00:37:16', '2020-04-20 04:37:16', 'h1.entry-title, h2.entry-title {text-align:left;}\nh2.entry-title {font-size: 4.2rem;}\n.section-inner.medium {max-width:100%;}\nh2.widget-title {font-size: 16px}\n.featured-media {display:none;}\n.entry-categories-inner {justify-content: left; }\n.archive-header-inner {text-align:left;}\n.post-meta-single-top .post-meta {justify-content: left;}\n.post-meta-wrapper {max-width: 100%;}\nul.primary-menu {font-size: 16px;}\n.post-meta-wrapper {margin-top: 1rem;}\n.post-inner {padding-top: 3rem;}\n.entry-content > *:not(.alignwide):not(.alignfull):not(.alignleft):not(.alignright):not(.is-style-wide) {\n    max-width: 100%;\n    width: calc(100% - 8rem);\n', 'twentytwenty', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1649-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 00:37:16', '2020-04-20 04:37:16', '', 1649, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1649-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1670, 1, '2020-04-20 01:34:45', '2020-04-20 05:34:45', 'h1.entry-title, h2.entry-title {text-align:left;}\nh2.entry-title {font-size: 4.2rem;}\n.section-inner.medium {max-width:100%;}\nh2.widget-title {font-size: 16px}\n.featured-media {display:none;}\n.entry-categories-inner {justify-content: left; }\n.archive-header-inner {text-align:left;}\n.post-meta-single-top .post-meta {justify-content: left;}\n.post-meta-wrapper {max-width: 100%;}\nul.primary-menu {font-size: 16px;}\n.post-meta-wrapper {margin-top: 1rem;}\n.post-inner {padding-top: 3rem;}\n.entry-content > *:not(.alignwide):not(.alignfull):not(.alignleft):not(.alignright):not(.is-style-wide) {\n    max-width: 100%;\n	width: calc(100% - 8rem);}\n	\n	#mandarinspot-tip {padding: 15px!important;}\n', 'twentytwenty', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1649-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 01:34:45', '2020-04-20 05:34:45', '', 1649, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1649-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(2418, 1, '2020-05-26 09:20:18', '2020-05-26 13:20:18', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\n<p style=\"padding:25px; margin-bottom: 20px; font-style: italic; background-color:#ffeaee;\">It\'s Communism Week at CRP. All this week, we\'re learning Chinese through the lens of historical and modern CCP propaganda, speeches, stories, essays and songs.</p> \r\n\r\n<strong>Quick reminder:</strong> To maintain a polite, language learning-focused environment, political comments – positive, negative, or neutral – are not allowed, and will be deleted. Dinner table rules, please.\r\n\r\nZhu De (朱德 [pinyin]zhu1 de2[/pinyin]) is an early Communist folk hero, and the founder of the People\'s Liberation Army (解放军 [pinyin]jie3 fang4 jun1[/pinyin]), also called the Red Army (红军 [pinyin]hong2 jun1[/pinyin]). He was applauded as a people\'s general, and this popular revolutionary story - in which Zhu De helps his regiment carry grain (粮食 [pinyin]liang2 shi[/pinyin]) up a mountain on a carrying pole (扁担 [pinyin]bian3 dan[/pinyin]) - shows his willingness to toil alongside the common soldiers. The story spawned many popular posters of him, like this one:\r\n\r\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/chinese-reading-practice-communist-language-learning-zhude-carrying-pole.jpeg\" alt=\"Beginner Chinese Reading Practice Exercises: Communist Folk Stories Revolutionary Heroes\" width=\"425\" height=\"500\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-2387\" /> \r\n\r\nZhe De is a revolutionary from the early days of Chinese Communism. For those who don\'t know their CCP history: modern China was founded in 1949, but for the 20-odd years before that, the Red Army was fighting various wars for control of the country. Zhu De was instrumental in these wars, and after 1949, he became a key Party leader and politician. This story is set in the early days of the wars, in 1928. It\'s crazy to think that Zhu De, who was born in 1886 and died in 1976, lived to be 90 years old, but spent three or four decades of his life doing nothing but fighting battles. Considering how many people died in those wars, or were purged in political upheavals afterwards, this guy was a real survivor. \r\n\r\n<h4>Some language stuff</h4>\r\nThis is an example of a story that will look much harder on first glance than it actually is. That\'s because some of the vocab is intermediate, but the sentence structure is beginner. The intermediate vocab is also used repetitively, so once you look up the tougher words, you\'ll immediately have an opportunity to see them again in the text. The first two sentences are much rougher than the rest, because they\'re almost entirely made up of intermediate words, so push through those and it\'ll be easier going from there. If you break the sentences down patiently, and you are at HSK 3 or up, I promise you can get through this. \r\n\r\nWe have a few proper names here: \r\n朱德同志 [pinyin]zhu1 de2 tong2 zhi4[/pinyin] - Comrade Zhu De \r\n红军 [pinyin]hong2 jun1[/pinyin] - the Red Army\r\n井冈山 [pinyin]jing3 gang1 shan1[/pinyin] - Jinggang Mountain \r\n\r\nWe also have some military words: \r\n队伍 [pinyin]dui4 wu[/pinyin] - troops \r\n敌人 [pinyin]di2 ren2[/pinyin] - enemy\r\n战士们 [pinyin]zhan4 shi4 men[/pinyin] - soldier \r\n打仗 [pinyin]da3 zhang4[/pinyin] - to fight a war\r\n\r\nAnother word that comes up quite a bit is 粮食 [pinyin]liang2 shi[/pinyin] - Also just 粮 [pinyin]liang2[/pinyin]. This is a general term for \"grain\", could be wheat, rice, millet, oats, or whatever.\r\n\r\nAnd one phrase that might be a little hard to understand:\r\n\r\n<strong>争着去</strong> [pinyin]zheng1 zhe qu4[/pinyin] - 争 means \"to fight\" or \"to struggle\", 着 is a present-tense grammar word, and 去 means \"go\" or \"leave\". At first glance, 争着去 looks like it means \"fighting in order to leave someplace\", but it\'s not. In this case, it\'s describing a group of people pushing and shoving to be the first to volunteer to go somewhere. Imagine a group of soldiers asked to undertake a hard mission - one person says, \"I\'ll go!\" and someone else says, \"No, choose me, I\'ll go!\". This is 争着去. \r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<h4>朱德的扁担</h4>\r\n1928年，<span class=\"highlightText\">朱德同志</span>带领一支<span class=\"highlightText\">红军队伍</span>到<span class=\"highlightText\">井冈山</span>。山上是<span class=\"highlightText\">红军</span>，山下不远就是<span class=\"highlightText\">敌人</span>。\r\n \r\n<span class=\"highlightText\">井冈山</span>上粮食不多，常常要派一些人到山下的田园去挑粮。<span class=\"highlightText\">井冈山</span>离田园很远，山高路窄，非常难走。可是每次挑粮大家都<span class=\"highlightText\">争着去</span>。\r\n \r\n<span class=\"highlightText\">朱德同志</span>也跟<span class=\"highlightText\">战士们</span>一起去挑粮。他穿着草鞋，挑起满满的一担粮食，跟大家一起爬山。白天挑粮，晚上还常常整夜整夜地学习怎样跟<span class=\"highlightText\">敌人打仗</span>。大家觉得他要做的工作太多，就把他那根扁担藏了起来。可是<span class=\"highlightText\">朱德同志</span>又找到了一根扁担，写上“<span class=\"highlightText\">朱德</span>扁担，不要拿走”八个大字。大家见了，更敬爱<span class=\"highlightText\">朱德同志</span>，不好意思再藏他的扁担了。\r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\nIn 1928, Comrade Zhu De lead a detachment of Red Army troops to Jinggang Mountain. The Red Army was on the mountain, but down the mountain not far away was the enemy. \r\n \r\nNot much grain was produced on Jinggang Mountain, so [they] often had to send a few people down to the fields below to tote back some grain. Jinggang Mountain was far from the fields, the mountain was high and the roads were narrow, it was very hard going. But each time grain had to be carried back, everyone fought to be the one to go.\r\n \r\nComrade Zhu De also went along with the soldiers to carry grain. He wore grass shoes, carrying a pole packed full of grain, and climbed the mountain with everybody else. During the day [he] carried grain, and during the evening he often spent the whole night studying how to make war on the enemy. Everyone felt he had too much work to do, so they took his carrying pole and hid it. But Comrade Zhu De found another carrying pole, and wrote 8 big words on it: \"Zhu Du\'s carrying pole, please don\'t take it\". Everyone saw this, and loved and respected Comrade Zhu De even more, and were too ashamed to hide his carrying pole again. \r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]</div>', 'Communist folk tales: 《朱德的扁担》- Zhu De\'s Carrying Pole', 'Zhu De (朱德) is an early Communist folk hero, and the founder of the People\'s Liberation Army (解放军), also called the Red Army (红军). This popular revolutionary story highlights his willingness to toil alongside the rank and file soldiers. HSK 3-4. ', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '2366-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-05-26 09:20:18', '2020-05-26 13:20:18', '', 2366, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/05/26/2366-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1675, 1, '2020-04-20 01:44:20', '2020-04-20 05:44:20', 'h1.entry-title, h2.entry-title {text-align:left;}\nh2.entry-title {font-size: 4.2rem;}\n.section-inner.medium {max-width:100%;}\nh2.widget-title {font-size: 16px}\n.featured-media {display:none;}\n.entry-categories-inner {justify-content: left; }\n.archive-header-inner {text-align:left;}\n.post-meta-single-top .post-meta {justify-content: left;}\n.post-meta-wrapper {max-width: 100%;}\nul.primary-menu {font-size: 16px;}\n.post-meta-wrapper {margin-top: 1rem;}\n.post-inner {padding-top: 3rem;}\n.entry-content > *:not(.alignwide):not(.alignfull):not(.alignleft):not(.alignright):not(.is-style-wide) {\n    max-width: 100%;\n	width: calc(100% - 8rem);}\n	\n	#mandarinspot-tip {padding: 15px!important; border-radius: 0; border: none; background-color: #000; color: #fff;}\n.sub-menu li a {font-size: 12px;}\n', 'twentytwenty', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1649-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 01:44:20', '2020-04-20 05:44:20', '', 1649, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1649-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1677, 1, '2020-04-20 01:44:54', '2020-04-20 05:44:54', 'h1.entry-title, h2.entry-title {text-align:left;}\nh2.entry-title {font-size: 4.2rem;}\n.section-inner.medium {max-width:100%;}\nh2.widget-title {font-size: 16px}\n.featured-media {display:none;}\n.entry-categories-inner {justify-content: left; }\n.archive-header-inner {text-align:left;}\n.post-meta-single-top .post-meta {justify-content: left;}\n.post-meta-wrapper {max-width: 100%;}\nul.primary-menu {font-size: 16px;}\n.post-meta-wrapper {margin-top: 1rem;}\n.post-inner {padding-top: 3rem;}\n.entry-content > *:not(.alignwide):not(.alignfull):not(.alignleft):not(.alignright):not(.is-style-wide) {\n    max-width: 100%;\n	width: calc(100% - 8rem);}\n	\n	#mandarinspot-tip {padding: 15px!important; border-radius: 0 !important; border: none !important; background-color: #000 !important; color: #fff !important;}\n.sub-menu li a {font-size: 12px;}\n', 'twentytwenty', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1649-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 01:44:54', '2020-04-20 05:44:54', '', 1649, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1649-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1707, 1, '2020-04-20 03:01:41', '2020-04-20 07:01:41', '[su_row]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\nThis kid was asked to imagine the perfect desk-chair of the future - what it would look like, and what it would do - and boy, does he ever. The chair turns into all kinds of utopian machinery. It flies, it helps you sleep, and it carries your books to school. Sentence structure is pretty easy and the language is solidly intermediate, with very little advanced vocab (one idiom, a couple of advanced words but not much). At six paragraphs, the text is a bit long, though. <!--more-->\n\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/20140528-INLINE.jpg\" alt=\"Learn to Read Mandarin - Simplified Chinese Character Reading\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" /> In this text, you\'ll notice several uses of the character \"型\". 型 [pinyin]xing2[/pinyin] means \"type\", \"kind\", \"sort\". The character can be combined with other descriptive words, and in this text you\'ll see 新型 - \"New Type of...\" and 大型, meaning \"big type\" or \"large-scale\". \n\nHere\'s the <a href=\"http://www.tom61.com/youxiuzuowen/xiaoxueyinianjizuowen/2014-04-02/1396399386256109.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">original</a>. \n[/su_column]\n[/su_row]\n\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\n[su_row]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n<h4>未来的桌椅</h4>\n你想知道<strong>未来</strong>的桌椅是什么样子吗? 还是让我这个<strong>发明人</strong>来介绍一下吧!\n\n未来的桌椅是<strong>高科技</strong>材料制成的，大小、颜色、形状能随意<strong>变化</strong>。早晨去上学，就按第一个<strong>按钮</strong>，颜色可以变成绿色，象征新的一天<strong>朝气蓬勃</strong>，这个桌椅变成了新型自行车，那时候人们讲究环保，每个学生都骑这样的车去上学，不用别的<strong>能源</strong>，有太阳能和风就够了。如果遇见堵车的现象，自行车就会飞跃过去，保证准时到达学校。\n\n到了学校，请按第二个按钮，绿色自行车变成了蓝色电脑桌椅，开始上课学习，根本不用带书包呀、<strong>文具盒</strong>、教材什么的。一切学习任务都在电脑上完成。\n\n到了放学的时候，又变回自行车回到家。当然这时候的车速可以放慢，好好欣赏一下大自然的风光。回到家没有作业，这时请按第三个橘色按钮，自行车再变成大型<strong>游戏机</strong>，你就可以玩各种游戏了。当然，对眼睛没有害处。\n\n到了晚上，请按第四个按钮，游戏机变成了你喜欢颜色的折<strong>叠床</strong>，发出美妙的音乐，催你甜蜜地入眠。假如你感觉哪儿不舒服了，就从床头伸出几个按摩头给你按摩，让你<strong>安然</strong>入睡。\n\n怎么样，我发明的未来的桌椅你一定喜欢吧?欢迎你现在就来预订一套。\n</div>\n[/su_column]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\nDo you want to know what chairs and tables will be like in the future? Well then let this inventor [author is referring to self] introduce you!\n\nChairs and tables in the future are manufactured from high-tech materials, and the size, color and shape can change according to your wishes. In the morning when you go to school, you just push the first button, and the color will change to green, symbolizing a new day full of youthful energy, and its shape will change into a new type of bicycle, since at that time [the future] people will all pay attention to the environment, and every student will ride this kind of bike to go to school, and no other power source will be needed, just solar and wind will be enough. If you run into traffic, this bike can leap over it, ensuring you\'ll arrive at school on time. 　\n\nOnce you get to school, please push the second button, and the green bike will turn into a blue computer desk and chair, and when you start to study, you don\'t even need to have your book bag, stationery box or other study materials. Everything you need [to accomplish studying] is all in the computer. 　\n\nWhen school gets out, it will again turn into a bike so you can return home. Of course at this time, the bike is also freed to go slowly, so that you can take a moment to appreciate the natural scenery. When you get home and you have no homework, press the third orange-colored button, and the bike will change into a large video game machine, and you can play all kinds of games. Of course, it will do no damage to your eyes. \n\nAt night, press the fourth button, and the video game machine will turn into a fold-out bed in any color you want, playing splendid music, that will encourage you to drift into sweet sleep. If you feel at all uncomfortable, a few massagers will extend from the head of the bed and give you a massage, to let you rest peacefully. \n\nWhat do you think? Surely you\'ll like my future desk chair. I welcome you to place an order for one now. \n\n[/hide-this-part]\n[/su_column]\n[/su_row]', 'Desk-chairs of the Future', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1481-autosave-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 03:01:41', '2020-04-20 07:01:41', '', 1481, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1481-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1683, 1, '2020-04-20 02:04:43', '2020-04-20 06:04:43', '[row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\n\r\nYayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<h3>A few notable points:</h3>\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他<strong>过</strong>的很快乐，时光飞快地<strong>过</strong>去了。\r\n\r\n\"He <strong>passed</strong> [his days] very happily, time flew <strong>past</strong>.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n<h3>One more thing:</h3>\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does.  咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋<strong>粮食</strong>送到河对<strong>岸</strong>的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他<strong>驮</strong>着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己<strong>淌</strong>过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？<strong>犹豫</strong>中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一<strong>迈</strong>腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠<strong>翘</strong>着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他<strong>卷</strong>走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，<strong>咱们</strong>一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:04:43', '2020-04-20 06:04:43', '', 1596, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1682, 1, '2020-04-20 02:03:24', '2020-04-20 06:03:24', '[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\n[su_column]\r\nYayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<h3>A few notable points:</h3>\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他<strong>过</strong>的很快乐，时光飞快地<strong>过</strong>去了。\r\n\r\n\"He <strong>passed</strong> [his days] very happily, time flew <strong>past</strong>.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n<h3>One more thing:</h3>\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does.  咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n[/su_column][/su_column]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋<strong>粮食</strong>送到河对<strong>岸</strong>的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他<strong>驮</strong>着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己<strong>淌</strong>过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？<strong>犹豫</strong>中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一<strong>迈</strong>腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠<strong>翘</strong>着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他<strong>卷</strong>走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，<strong>咱们</strong>一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:03:24', '2020-04-20 06:03:24', '', 1596, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1684, 1, '2020-04-20 02:05:24', '2020-04-20 06:05:24', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\n\r\nYayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<h3>A few notable points:</h3>\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他<strong>过</strong>的很快乐，时光飞快地<strong>过</strong>去了。\r\n\r\n\"He <strong>passed</strong> [his days] very happily, time flew <strong>past</strong>.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n<h3>One more thing:</h3>\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does.  咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋<strong>粮食</strong>送到河对<strong>岸</strong>的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他<strong>驮</strong>着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己<strong>淌</strong>过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？<strong>犹豫</strong>中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一<strong>迈</strong>腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠<strong>翘</strong>着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他<strong>卷</strong>走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，<strong>咱们</strong>一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:05:24', '2020-04-20 06:05:24', '', 1596, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1685, 1, '2020-04-20 02:06:42', '2020-04-20 06:06:42', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\n\r\nYayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<h3>A few notable points:</h3>\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他<strong>过</strong>的很快乐，时光飞快地<strong>过</strong>去了。\r\n\r\n\"He <strong>passed</strong> [his days] very happily, time flew <strong>past</strong>.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n<h3>One more thing:</h3>\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does.  咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋<strong>粮食</strong>送到河对<strong>岸</strong>的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他<strong>驮</strong>着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己<strong>淌</strong>过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？<strong>犹豫</strong>中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一<strong>迈</strong>腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠<strong>翘</strong>着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他<strong>卷</strong>走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，<strong>咱们</strong>一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:06:42', '2020-04-20 06:06:42', '', 1596, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1686, 1, '2020-04-20 02:08:28', '2020-04-20 06:08:28', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\n\r\nYayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<h3>A few notable points:</h3>\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他<strong>过</strong>的很快乐，时光飞快地<strong>过</strong>去了。\r\n\r\n\"He <strong>passed</strong> [his days] very happily, time flew <strong>past</strong>.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n<h3>One more thing:</h3>\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does.  咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋<strong>粮食</strong>送到河对<strong>岸</strong>的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他<strong>驮</strong>着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己<strong>淌</strong>过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？<strong>犹豫</strong>中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一<strong>迈</strong>腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠<strong>翘</strong>着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他<strong>卷</strong>走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，<strong>咱们</strong>一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[su_spoiler title=\"Show English translation\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/su_spoiler]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:08:28', '2020-04-20 06:08:28', '', 1596, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1687, 1, '2020-04-20 02:10:54', '2020-04-20 06:10:54', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\n\r\nYayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<h3>A few notable points:</h3>\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他<strong>过</strong>的很快乐，时光飞快地<strong>过</strong>去了。\r\n\r\n\"He <strong>passed</strong> [his days] very happily, time flew <strong>past</strong>.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n<h3>One more thing:</h3>\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does.  咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋<strong>粮食</strong>送到河对<strong>岸</strong>的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他<strong>驮</strong>着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己<strong>淌</strong>过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？<strong>犹豫</strong>中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一<strong>迈</strong>腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠<strong>翘</strong>着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他<strong>卷</strong>走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，<strong>咱们</strong>一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:10:54', '2020-04-20 06:10:54', '', 1596, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1689, 1, '2020-04-20 02:13:58', '2020-04-20 06:13:58', 'h1.entry-title, h2.entry-title {text-align:left;}\nh2.entry-title {font-size: 4.2rem;}\n.section-inner.medium {max-width:100%;}\nh2.widget-title {font-size: 16px}\n.featured-media {display:none;}\n.entry-categories-inner {justify-content: left; }\n.archive-header-inner {text-align:left;}\n.post-meta-single-top .post-meta {justify-content: left;}\n.post-meta-wrapper {max-width: 100%;}\nul.primary-menu {font-size: 16px;}\n.post-meta-wrapper {margin-top: 1rem;}\n.post-inner {padding-top: 3rem;}\n.entry-content > *:not(.alignwide):not(.alignfull):not(.alignleft):not(.alignright):not(.is-style-wide) {\n    max-width: 100%;\n	width: calc(100% - 8rem);}\n	\n	#mandarinspot-tip {padding: 15px!important; border-radius: 0 !important; border: none !important; background-color: #000 !important; color: #fff !important;}\n.sub-menu li a {font-size: 12px;}\n.hide-this-part-more {background-color: #444444;\n    display: inline-block;\n    padding: 12px;\n    color: #ffff;\n    font-size: 16px;\n    font-family: sans-serif;}\n.hide-this-part-more:hover {cursor:pointer;}', 'twentytwenty', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1649-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:13:58', '2020-04-20 06:13:58', '', 1649, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1649-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1691, 1, '2020-04-20 02:17:58', '2020-04-20 06:17:58', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\n\r\nYayzors, horsies. \r\n\r\nI know that when you first start reading, it\'s hard to hold a narrative thread through a longer post, but give this one a try - 6 short paragraphs, all of them very straightforward. This one has mostly very beginner language, with a couple of intermediate or upper-intermediate words. The grammar, rather than the vocab, is probably the hard part of this post, which is an great survey of every basic Chinese sentence structure. If you can read this, your foundation in Chinese grammar is very solid. <!--more-->\r\n\r\n<h3>A few notable points:</h3>\r\n\r\n他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。\r\n\r\nI figure that might be confusing for new readers, since there are two different uses of the word 过 [pinyin]guo4[/pinyin] here. I tend to find that the easiest way to remember what 过 means in every context is that it almost always means either \"past\" or \"pass\", or one of many variations thereon. Let\'s look a few usages of 过.\r\n\r\n1) In the most common usage, the one we see earliest in our learning, 过, when used after an action, means that the action has \"been done before\", or \"has been done in the past\", as in \"Have you ever been to Shanghai (in the past)?\" （你去过上海吗?), or \"Have you ever eaten this type of fish (in the past)?\" (你吃过这种鱼吗?). \r\n\r\n2) Usage two, 过去, means \"to pass by\", as in “The days passed one by one\" (一关一天就过去了). \r\n\r\n3) Usage three, also 过去, means \"The Past\", a noun, as in the opposite of the future. \"To forget the past is a betrayal.\" (忘记过去，就意味着背叛)\r\n\r\n4) The fourth usage is \"to pass (time)\", or \"to pass one\'s days\" (过日子), or to \"How were you [how did you pass] the last few days?\" (这些天过得怎么样？). \r\n\r\n5) Another 过去 - to \"pass across\", \"to cross\" (as in a river or street).\r\n\r\n6) 过去 \"to pass by\" (someone or something). \r\n\r\nAnd on and on. In our sentence here, we\'re using #4 first, and then #2. \r\n\r\n他<strong>过</strong>的很快乐，时光飞快地<strong>过</strong>去了。\r\n\r\n\"He <strong>passed</strong> [his days] very happily, time flew <strong>past</strong>.\"\r\n\r\nMake sense? Hope so, because several different usages of 过去 come up in this post, so keep an eye out. \r\n\r\n<h3>One more thing:</h3>\r\n\r\n咱们 [pinyin]zan2 men5[/pinyin]. This means \"us\" or \"we\". I know, I know, you learned that 我们 means \"us\" and \"we\", and it does.  咱们 only refers to \"us\" and \"we\" when the speaker is including the person they\'re talking to. So 咱们 means really \"You and I\", not \"we\". Confusing, right? Here are some examples：\r\n\r\n我们： \"Sorry, you can\'t come with us, we\'re going to see a movie alone.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"Why don\'t we see a movie this afternoon?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"I\'ll call you as soon as we get back.\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"What should we do when we get back?” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n我们： \"We\'re not home right now, leave a message!\" (The person being spoken to is not included in the \"we\".)\r\n咱们： \"We could go home right now and check the messages.” （The speaker is including the person spoken to in the \"we\".)\r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<h4>小马过河</h4>\r\n小马和他的妈妈住在小河边。他过的很快乐，时光飞快地过去了。有一天，妈妈把小马叫到身边说：“小马，你已经长大了，可以帮妈妈做事了。今天你把这袋<strong>粮食</strong>送到河对<strong>岸</strong>的村子里去吧。”\r\n\r\n小马非常高兴地答应了。他<strong>驮</strong>着粮食飞快地来到了小河边。可是河上没有桥，只能自己<strong>淌</strong>过去。可又不知道河水有多深呢？<strong>犹豫</strong>中的小马一抬头，看见了正在不远处吃草的牛伯伯。小马赶紧跑过去问到：“牛伯伯，您知道那河里的水深不深呀？”\r\n\r\n牛伯伯挺起他那高大的身体笑着说：“不深，不深。才到我的小腿。”\r\n\r\n小马高兴地跑回河边准备淌过河去。他刚一<strong>迈</strong>腿，忽然听见一个声音说：“小马，小马别下去，这河可深啦。”小马低头一看，原来是小松鼠。小松鼠<strong>翘</strong>着她漂亮的尾巴，睁着圆圆的眼睛，很认真地说：“前两天我的一个伙伴不小心掉进了河里，河水就把他<strong>卷</strong>走了。”\r\n\r\n小马一听没主意了。牛伯伯说河水浅，小松鼠说河水深，这可怎么办呀？只好回去问妈妈。马妈妈老远地就看见小马低着头驮着粮食又回来了。心想他一定是遇到困难了，就迎过去问小马。小马哭着把牛伯伯和小松鼠的话告诉了妈妈。妈妈安慰小马说：“没关系，<strong>咱们</strong>一起去看看吧。”\r\n\r\n小马和妈妈又一次来到河边，妈妈让小马自己去试探一下河水有多深。小马小心地试探着，一步一步地淌过了河。噢，他明白了，河水既没有牛伯伯说的那么浅，也没有小松鼠说的那么深。只有自己亲自试过才知道。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\nLittle Horse and his mother lived by the river. He passed his days happily, and time flew by. One day, Mother called little horse to her side and said: \"Little Horse, you\'re all grown up, you can help mother with a few things. Today, take that sack of grain and take it to the village on the opposite riverbank.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily agreed. Carrying the grain on his back he flew to the river. But there was no bridge over the river, he could only wade across. But he didn\'t know how deep the river was.(?) While he was hesitating he lifted his head, and saw Uncle Ox eating grass not far away. Little horse hurriedly ran over and asked: \"Uncle Ox, do you know if the river is deep or not?\" \r\n\r\nUncle Ox straightened his big, tall body and laughing, said: \"Not deep, not deep. It only comes up to my calf.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse happily ran back to the riverside and prepared to wade across. He\'d just taken one step, when suddenly he heard a voice say: \"Little Horse, Little Horse, don\'t go in, this river is so deep!\" Little Horse lowered his head and looked down, and saw it was Little Squirrel. Little Squirrel raised her pretty tail, round eyes opened wide, and spoke earnestly: \"Two days ago my companion accidentally fell into the river, and the water swept him away.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse had no idea. Uncle Ox said the water was shallow, Little Squirrel said the water was deep, what was he to do? He had to go back and ask Mother. From a distance, Mother Horse saw Little Horse returning with a lowered head and carrying the sack of grain. She knew in her heart that he must have run into trouble, so she went to welcome Little Horse and ask. Little horse, crying, told Mother what Uncle Ox and Little Squirrel had said. Mother consoled Little Horse, saying: \"Don\'t worry, let\'s go together and have a look.\" \r\n\r\nLittle Horse and Mother went back to the riverbank again, and Mother let little horse test out how deep the water was. Little Horse carefully tried it out, and step by step waded across the river. Hey, he understood, the river on the one hand wasn\'t as shallow as Uncle Ox said, and also wasn\'t as deep as Little Squirrel said. You only know if you find out for yourself. \r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]', 'Little Horse Crosses the River', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1596-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:17:58', '2020-04-20 06:17:58', '', 1596, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1596-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1692, 1, '2020-04-20 02:19:22', '2020-04-20 06:19:22', 'h1.entry-title, h2.entry-title {text-align:left;}\nh2.entry-title {font-size: 4.2rem;}\n.section-inner.medium {max-width:100%;}\nh2.widget-title {font-size: 16px}\n.featured-media {display:none;}\n.entry-categories-inner {justify-content: left; }\n.archive-header-inner {text-align:left;}\n.post-meta-single-top .post-meta {justify-content: left;}\n.post-meta-wrapper {max-width: 100%;}\nul.primary-menu {font-size: 16px;}\n.post-meta-wrapper {margin-top: 1rem;}\n.post-inner {padding-top: 3rem;}\n.entry-content > *:not(.alignwide):not(.alignfull):not(.alignleft):not(.alignright):not(.is-style-wide) {\n    max-width: 100%;\n	width: calc(100% - 8rem);}\n	\n	#mandarinspot-tip {padding: 15px!important; border-radius: 0 !important; border: none !important; background-color: #000 !important; color: #fff !important;}\n.sub-menu li a {font-size: 12px;}\n.hide-this-part-more {background-color: #444444;\n    display: inline-block;\n    padding: 12px;\n    color: #ffff;\n    font-size: 16px;\n    font-family: sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px;}\n.hide-this-part-more:hover {cursor:pointer;}\n.readingPassage {padding: 40px; background-color: #fffbcc;}', 'twentytwenty', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1649-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:19:22', '2020-04-20 06:19:22', '', 1649, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1649-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1694, 1, '2020-04-20 02:21:43', '2020-04-20 06:21:43', 'h1.entry-title, h2.entry-title {text-align:left;}\nh2.entry-title {font-size: 4.2rem;}\n.section-inner.medium {max-width:100%;}\nh2.widget-title {font-size: 16px}\n.featured-media {display:none;}\n.entry-categories-inner {justify-content: left; }\n.archive-header-inner {text-align:left;}\n.post-meta-single-top .post-meta {justify-content: left;}\n.post-meta-wrapper {max-width: 100%;}\nul.primary-menu {font-size: 16px;}\n.post-meta-wrapper {margin-top: 1rem;}\n.post-inner {padding-top: 3rem;}\n.entry-content > *:not(.alignwide):not(.alignfull):not(.alignleft):not(.alignright):not(.is-style-wide) {\n    max-width: 100%;\n	width: calc(100% - 8rem);}\n	\n	#mandarinspot-tip {padding: 15px!important; border-radius: 0 !important; border: none !important; background-color: #000 !important; color: #fff !important;}\n.sub-menu li a {font-size: 12px;}\n.hide-this-part-more {background-color: #444444;\n    display: inline-block;\n    padding: 12px;\n    color: #ffff;\n    font-size: 16px;\n    font-family: sans-serif; margin-bottom: 10px;}\n.hide-this-part-more:hover {cursor:pointer;}\n.readingPassage {padding: 40px; background-color: #fffbcc;}\n.entry-content #chinesetext h4 {margin-top: 0;}', 'twentytwenty', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1649-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:21:43', '2020-04-20 06:21:43', '', 1649, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1649-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1695, 1, '2020-04-20 02:25:45', '2020-04-20 06:25:45', '[su_row]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\nHey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\n\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer. <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Wangshu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dai Wangshu</a>, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\n\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.<!--more-->\n\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/20160428-inline.jpg\" alt=\"Learn to Read Chinese: Advanced Chinese Poetry, Modern Chinese Poetry\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" />《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_massacre_of_1927\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 12 Incident</a>, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \n\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \n\nI don\'t love the <a href=\"http://www.zg-wh.com/2014/03/a-lane-in-rain-poem-by-dai-wangshu.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">translation that\'s available</a> for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\n\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \n\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \n\n[/su_column]\n[/su_row]\n\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\n[su_row]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n撑着油纸伞，独自\n<strong>彷徨</strong>在悠长，悠长\n又<strong>寂寥</strong>的雨巷，\n我希望逢着\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\n结着<strong>愁怨</strong>的姑娘。\n\n她是有\n丁香一样的颜色，\n丁香一样的<strong>芬芳</strong>，\n丁香一样的忧愁，\n在雨中<strong>哀怨</strong>，\n哀怨又彷徨；\n\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\n撑着油纸伞\n像我一样，\n像我一样地\n默默<strong>彳亍</strong>着，\n冷漠，<strong>凄清</strong>，又惆怅。\n\n她静默地走近\n走近，又投出\n<strong>太息</strong>一般的眼光，\n她飘过\n像梦一般的，\n像梦一般的<strong>凄婉</strong>迷茫。\n\n像梦中飘过\n一枝丁香的，\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\n她静默地远了，远了，\n到了<strong>颓圮</strong>的篱墙，\n走尽这雨巷。\n\n在雨的<strong>哀曲</strong>里，\n消了她的颜色，\n散了她的芬芳\n消散了，甚至她的\n太息般的眼光，\n丁香般的惆怅。\n\n撑着油纸伞，独自\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\n又寂寥的雨巷，\n我希望飘过\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\n \n</div>\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\n\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\npace through a long, long, \nand solitary rainy alley.\nI hope to come upon\nA girl like lilacs, \nDistressed and grudging.\n\nShe has\nThe color of lilacs\nThe scent of lilacs\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\nGrudging in the rain,\nResentful and hesitating. \n\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\nAs I do,\nJust as I do, \nSoundlessly wending,\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\n\nShe walks quietly closer,\nWalks closer, casting\nA glance like a sigh,\nShe floats past,\nAs a dream does,\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\n\nFloats by as a dream does, \nA single lilac,\nThe girl who floats past me, \nShe is getting farther, farther,\nReaches the toppled fence,\nWalks out of this drizzling alley.\n\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\nHer color is washed away\nHer scent dissipates\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\nSighing eyes\nHer lilac melancholy.\n\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\npace through a long, long, \nand desolate rainy alley.\nI hope to float by\nA girl like lilacs, \nDistressed and grudging.\n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1587-autosave-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:25:45', '2020-04-20 06:25:45', '', 1587, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1587-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1697, 1, '2020-04-20 02:27:07', '2020-04-20 06:27:07', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\nHey guys. Been a while. I\'m studying Chinese IRL, so I\'ve got less reason to focus on the blog, but I have been getting all the letters - thank you all. I\'ve also received two guest posts that I\'m embarrassed to say I haven\'t put up yet. Apologies, it may be a while, but they\'re coming. Right, on with the poetry.\r\n\r\nKinda kills me how little information is available on the modern Chinese writers, you know? A few of the most famous works have been translated, but most have only cursory mentions. Even the Wikipedia pages don\'t have nearly the amount of content that the Chinese encyclopedias offer. <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_Wangshu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dai Wangshu</a>, for example, is relatively unknown in the west. So who is this guy?\r\n\r\nDai Wangshu (戴望舒) was a famously-depressed modern Chinese symbolist poet, born in 1905, died from an accidental overdose of asthma medication in 1950 - asthma which he contracted when he was thrown in jail by the Japanese for advocating revolution. Seriously, this guy spent his entire life having the sadz. He threatened to kill himself a couple of times, once to force his girlfriend to marry him (she agreed, but then ran off with a refrigerator salesman, cuz I guess refrigerators were a big deal at the time), and once when his first wife fell in love with another man and asked for a divorce.<!--more-->\r\n\r\n《雨巷》, Dai Wangshu\'s representative work was written in 1927 when he was 22. He\'d just broken it off with his girlfriend and was spending much of his time in seclusion at a friend\'s house. This was also written soon after the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_massacre_of_1927\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 12 Incident</a>, during which the KMT (Guomindang) slaughtered a bunch of Communists in Shanghai, where Dai Wangshu was living, so we\'re talking a period of political uncertainty and upheaval. Because of this, there\'s been speculation that the poem has political overtones, but I don\'t think so. \r\n\r\nLike most of Dai Wangshu\'s work, 《雨巷》 is wistful, lovely and sad, and also a bit misty and dreamlike. It describes a single scene in which a woman, dressed in purple and holding an oil paper umbrella, passes the author on a silent rainy road. You\'ll see the word 丁香 appear frequently - that\'s a \"lilac\". Lilacs come up a lot here. The language is difficult at first, but then gets repetitive, as he uses the same words again and again in different configurations, until in the last stanza, there\'s no new vocabulary. \r\n\r\nI don\'t love the <a href=\"http://www.zg-wh.com/2014/03/a-lane-in-rain-poem-by-dai-wangshu.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">translation that\'s available</a> for this, so I made own translation below - it\'s not perfect. Like most Chinese poetry, if you translate with exact faithfulness, it sounds crappy in English, so small liberties have been taken. You may like the other version better, go check it out. Regardless of the translation, I think this piece loses its beauty in the English version. If you read the poem out loud in Chinese, you\'ll notice it\'s got a lovely cadence, with some off-tempo rhymes that get lost in any other language, so try reciting it, if you can.\r\n\r\n彷徨 is interesting in that it has two meanings. One is to pace back and forth - a Chinese synonym for this might be 徘徊. But it also means \"to hesitate\". I personally used both definitions, one in the first stanza, a different one a little later on, so don\'t let that trip you up. In fact, I do something similar in a couple of places, use different definitions of the same word to make it sound a bit better in English. \r\n\r\nLittle side note, these Chinese punctuation marks 《》 indicate the name of a book, movie, poem, or other written work - we use quotes or italics for this in English. \r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<h4>《雨巷》</h4>\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n<strong>彷徨</strong>在悠长，悠长\r\n又<strong>寂寥</strong>的雨巷，\r\n我希望逢着\r\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\r\n结着<strong>愁怨</strong>的姑娘。\r\n\r\n她是有\r\n丁香一样的颜色，\r\n丁香一样的<strong>芬芳</strong>，\r\n丁香一样的忧愁，\r\n在雨中<strong>哀怨</strong>，\r\n哀怨又彷徨；\r\n\r\n她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，\r\n撑着油纸伞\r\n像我一样，\r\n像我一样地\r\n默默<strong>彳亍</strong>着，\r\n冷漠，<strong>凄清</strong>，又惆怅。\r\n\r\n她静默地走近\r\n走近，又投出\r\n<strong>太息</strong>一般的眼光，\r\n她飘过\r\n像梦一般的，\r\n像梦一般的<strong>凄婉</strong>迷茫。\r\n\r\n像梦中飘过\r\n一枝丁香的，\r\n我身旁飘过这女郎；\r\n她静默地远了，远了，\r\n到了<strong>颓圮</strong>的篱墙，\r\n走尽这雨巷。\r\n\r\n在雨的<strong>哀曲</strong>里，\r\n消了她的颜色，\r\n散了她的芬芳\r\n消散了，甚至她的\r\n太息般的眼光，\r\n丁香般的惆怅。\r\n\r\n撑着油纸伞，独自\r\n彷徨在悠长，悠长\r\n又寂寥的雨巷，\r\n我希望飘过\r\n一个<strong>丁香</strong>一样的\r\n结着愁怨的姑娘。\r\n \r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand solitary rainy alley.\r\nI hope to come upon\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\nShe has\r\nThe color of lilacs\r\nThe scent of lilacs\r\nAnd a lilac\'s concerns,\r\nGrudging in the rain,\r\nResentful and hesitating. \r\n\r\nShe paces in the drizzling, desolate lane,\r\nHolding her oil paper umbrella,\r\nAs I do,\r\nJust as I do, \r\nSoundlessly wending,\r\nAloof, cheerless, and unhappy.\r\n\r\nShe walks quietly closer,\r\nWalks closer, casting\r\nA glance like a sigh,\r\nShe floats past,\r\nAs a dream does,\r\nAs a dream does, indistinctly bittersweet.\r\n\r\nFloats by as a dream does, \r\nA single lilac,\r\nThe girl who floats past me, \r\nShe is getting farther, farther,\r\nReaches the toppled fence,\r\nWalks out of this drizzling alley.\r\n\r\nIn the rain\'s plaintive song,\r\nHer color is washed away\r\nHer scent dissipates\r\nWashed out and dissipated, even her\r\nSighing eyes\r\nHer lilac melancholy.\r\n\r\nHolding an oil paper umbrella, I\r\npace through a long, long, \r\nand desolate rainy alley.\r\nI hope to float by\r\nA girl like lilacs, \r\nDistressed and grudging.\r\n\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]', 'Modern Chinese Poetry: Rainy Alley by Dai Wangshu', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1587-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:27:07', '2020-04-20 06:27:07', '', 1587, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1587-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
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(1698, 1, '2020-04-28 19:30:51', '2020-04-28 23:30:51', '[su_row]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\nFeels 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\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">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-->\n\nThis 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? \n\nUPDATE: Thanks to our native Chinese readers, we sorted out this is probably \"straw\" or \"gras\n\nThere\'s one other very useful phrase here that\'s very commonly used in everyday language: 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!\" \n\nEnjoy this one, and consider it good practicing in very colloquial story building.\n\n[/su_column]\n[/su_row]\n\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\n[su_row]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n<h4>玩具跳舞</h4>\n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<strong>灿烂</strong>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。\n \n</div>\n[/su_column]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\nThe 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. \n\n[/hide-this-part]\n[/su_column]\n[/su_row]', 'The Little Polar Bear and the Doll Dance Together', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1566-autosave-v1', '', '', '2020-04-28 19:30:51', '2020-04-28 23:30:51', '', 1566, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1566-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1700, 1, '2020-04-20 02:50:10', '2020-04-20 06:50:10', '[su_row]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\nA fairly simple read for newbies about a self-hating rabbit. <!--more-->\n\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/20150305-INLINE.jpg\" title=\"Learn to Read Chinese Characters: Mandarin Readying Study\" alt=\"Learn to Read Mandarin: Read Chinese Study\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" />In terms of plot, this is your basic \"it\'s what\'s on the inside that counts\", moral-of-the-story story. Frankly, it\'s a bit boring, but there are a couple of good words and phrases in here. One in particular is difficult, and I couldn\'t figure it out just by looking at the definition, I had to go hunt around a bit: 钻出来 [pinyin]zuan1 chu1 lai2[/pinyin]. We know that 出来 means to \"come out of\". But 钻? The first definition that came up when I looked was \"diamond\", but that wasn\'t the correct definition in this case. Secondly, it also means to \"drill\" or \"bore\", which makes sense as a second definition of \"diamond\" - lots of diamond drill bits out there. But that still doesn\'t work in context of the whole sentence. I finally ran a Baidu image search on the phrase, and there were lots of pictures of miners squeezing out of small spaces, children coming out of playground tunnels, workers coming out of manholes, and I realized that 钻出来 means to wiggle out of a space via a small opening. Imagine a secret agent crawling through an air duct; in Chinese, there\'s a word for that, and that word is 钻. \n\nI got this from Sina user <a href=\"http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_6ace1efa0100kltk.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zifengling\'s personal blog</a>, in a post where she lists a few different easy stories, so if you wanna read some more on your own, head on over. I\'ll probably translate another couple from there before too long. \n[/su_column]\n[/su_row]\n\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\n[su_row]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n<h4>美丽的小兔子</h4>\n森林里住着一只小兔子，它叫“丑丑”。它的眼睛红红的，像一对<strong>红宝石</strong>。可是它的毛灰灰的，像是从<strong>灰炉</strong>里钻出来似的，它觉得自己太<strong>丑</strong>了，常常一个人躲在家里。\n\n虽然它长得不好看，但是它有一颗无比善良的心。小猴子乐乐的家被大水<strong>冲垮</strong>了，无家可归。丑丑就让乐乐住在自己的家，还把自己最喜欢吃的巧克力分给乐乐吃。<strong>不仅如此</strong>，谁头痛、生病了，没钱买药，它都会尽其所能进行帮助。\n\n日子一天天过去了，丑丑还是很<strong>孤单</strong>。一次，森林里最好看的小兔子美美来找它玩，可丑丑觉得自己太丑了，没脸见它。美美告诉丑丑：“人的<strong>外表</strong>并不重要，重要的是<strong>内在</strong>美。”丑丑恍然大悟，它跑了出去，和伙伴们一起尽情地玩耍。\n</div>\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nIn the forest there lived a little rabbit whose name was \"Chouchou\". His eyes were red, like a pair of rubies. But his fur was grey, like he\'d wiggled out of a furnace, and he felt himself to be very ugly, often hiding in his house alone. \n\nAlthough he wasn\'t nice to look at, he had an incomparably kind heart. When Little Monkey Lele\'s home was burst apart by a flood, he had no house to return to. Chouchou let Lele live with him, and he divided up his favorite chocolate to give some to Lele to eat. Not only that, whoever had a headach, or got sick, with no money to buy medicine, he did everything he was able to do to help. \n\nThe days passed one by one, and Chouchou was still alone. One time, the forest\'s most beautiful rabbit Meimei came looking for Chouchou to play, but Chouchou thought of himself as just too ugly, he couldn\'t face seeing her. Meimei told Chouchou: \"It\'s not what\'s on the outside that counts, the important thing is what\'s on the inside.\" Chouchou suddenly saw the light, he ran outside, and played with his friends to his heart\'s content.  \n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'The \"Beautiful\" Rabbit', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1565-autosave-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 02:50:10', '2020-04-20 06:50:10', '', 1565, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1565-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1703, 1, '2020-05-07 17:10:29', '2020-05-07 21:10:29', '[su_row]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\nYang over at <a href=\"http://learnmandarinnow.com\">Learn Mandarin Now</a> is spoiling me with all these guest posts. I\'ve been struggling to find something that suitable for beginners lately - everything I stumble across ends up being intermediate. But this is a very good place for beginners to start reading <em>[pinyin]cheng2yu3[/pinyin]</em> (成语 idiom) stories, because you\'ll get an introduction to a few words that you often see in this kind of \"long long ago, far far away\" fable. <!--more-->\n\nIn the very first sentence, we run across three words of interest. One, 从前 [pinyin]cong2qian2[/pinyin], means \"a long time ago\", your classic storybook beginning. \n\nThe second, 楚国人 [pinyin]chu3guo2ren2[/pinyin], means \"a man from the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_(state)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">State of Chu</a>\". The State of Chu was a Chinese jurisdictional division during the Zhou Dynasty (1046 – 256 BC). In stories that reference pre-1900 China, you\'ll often see references to places that existed in ancient times.  <a href=\"http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/116528/Chu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Encyclopedia Britannica</a> tells us: \"China itself was at the time divided into a series of small duke states, all of which theoretically owed allegiance to the Zhou dynasty, although the Zhou rulers had long since been unable to exercise control over more than their own fiefs.\"  Anyhoo, the third word is 宝剑 [pinyin]bao3jian4[/pinyin], which means \"a double-edged sword\". How fable-y is that, huh?\n \nI\'d also like to draw your attention to the word 移动 [pinyin]yi4dong4[/pinyin], meaning \"to be moving\" or \"mobile\". This word is quite common - it\'s used to refer to people who move often, and also to \"mobile\" phones (the cell provider \"China Mobile\" has this in their Chinese name: 中国移动).\n\nOkay, let\'s do this. And thanks again to <a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com/how-to-learn-chinese-the-easiest-way/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yang</a>! Lots of work for some paltry backlinks. \n[/su_column]\n[/su_row]\n\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\n[su_row]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n<h4>刻舟求剑</h4>\n<strong>从前</strong>有一位楚国人, 他非常<strong>爱惜</strong>他的宝剑。有一天，他正坐在船上准备过河，<strong>一不小心</strong>他就把宝剑掉进了河里。他马上在宝剑掉落的地方作了<strong>记号</strong>。当他到达对岸的时候，他沿着记号跳进河里去找他的宝剑。当然，他已经找不到了。\n \n宝剑已经不在原来掉落的地方因为船和水都在<strong>移动</strong>。这个故事形容只会刻板地遵守规则，不懂变通的人。\n\n</div>\n[/su_column]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\nLong ago, there was a man from the State of Chu who loved his sword very much. One day, he was sitting in his boat preparing to cross a river, when he accidentally dropped his sword into the water. He immediately made a notch on the side of the boat at the place where his dear sword fell. When he returned close to shore, he re-entered the water just beneath the notch he made, looking for his sword. Naturally, he wasn\'t able to find it.  \n \nThe sword was already gone because the boat and the river were in motion. This idiom is used to describe a person who sticks to rigid rules without considering a changing environment [or describes an action made pointless by changing circumstances]. \n[/hide-this-part]\n[/su_column]\n[/su_row]', 'Story Behind the Idiom: 刻舟求剑 - Sticking to rigid rules without considering the changing environment', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1557-autosave-v1', '', '', '2020-05-07 17:10:29', '2020-05-07 21:10:29', '', 1557, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1557-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1709, 1, '2020-04-20 03:03:59', '2020-04-20 07:03:59', '[su_row]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\nHey, whaddaya know! A guest post. Been a while since we got one of these. Many thanks to Ryan, who submitted recently. Ryan tells us: \"This is a very interesting article about Chinese-Americans that shouldn\'t be too hard for intermediate-level readers. The grammar in this article is fairly simple, and I could understand most of it, having learnt Chinese for half a year.\" <!--more-->\n\nThis post was taken from a passage in one of Ryan\'s old Chinese textbooks, given to him by a friend. It introduces what we presume is a much longer treatise on the history of Chinese immigration to North America. In this text, we learn a couple of cool place names and period names here. \n\n[/su_column]\n[/su_row]\n\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\n[su_row]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n<h4>华裔美国人</h4>\n中国人是从19<strong>世纪</strong>二十年代开始到美国来的。他们大多来自<strong>广东省</strong>和<strong>福建省</strong>。一开始，他们在加利福尼亚<strong>淘金</strong>；后来，又在西部修建<strong>铁路</strong>、经营农场。20世纪四五十年代，一些人因为中国<strong>内战</strong>来到美国。从20世纪七十年代开始，越来越多的中国人到美国来留学。学习结束后，有的人继续留在美国工作和生活。\n\n中国人到美国的时候，最先是在大城市里居住。所以，现在很多城市像旧金山、纽约、<strong>檀香山</strong>和加拿大的温哥华等都有很大的<strong>中国城</strong>。\n\n以前，中国人在美国生活非常艰难。在几代人的共同努力下，很多人取得了很大的成就。看看下面的当代华裔美国人，有哪些是你认识的？ \n</div>\n[/su_column]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\nFrom the 1820\'s, Chinese people started arriving in America. Most of them came from Guangdong Province and Fujian Province. Initially, they came to California to pan for gold [during the Gold Rush] ; later, they built railroads and started farms in the West. In the 1940s and 1950s, more people [immigrated to the] United States] because of the Chinese civil war. Beginning in the 1970s, more and more Chinese people came to America to study. After they graduated, some people stayed in America to work and live.\n\nWhen the Chinese arrived in the United States, most of them lived in big cities. Thus, now many cities like San Francisco, New York, Honolulu, Canada\'s Vancouver, and others have large Chinatowns.\n\nPreviously, Chinese people living in the United States had it very hard. But through the joint efforts of several generations, many [Chinese] people have achieved great things. Here\'s a look at contemporary Chinese Americans, which ones are you familiar with?\n[/hide-this-part]\n[/su_column]\n[/su_row]', 'Guest Post: The History of Chinese Americans', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1519-autosave-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 03:03:59', '2020-04-20 07:03:59', '', 1519, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1519-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1712, 1, '2020-04-20 03:07:57', '2020-04-20 07:07:57', '[su_row]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\nScience! A quick paragraph about why peppers come in so many hues. Though the sentence structure here isn\'t too bad and the article is very short, I\'m classifying this as \'advanced\' since several of the words are quite chemistry-specific. <!--more-->\n\nAdvanced readers will recognize the words \"被破坏\" - to be broken by - as the phrase itself is common. In this case, though, we\'re not talking about a literal breaking, we\'re talking about the chemical process of an element \"breaking down\". \n\nHere\'s <a href=\"http://www.tom61.com/shiwangeweishime/youqudezhiwu/2012-01-30/25368.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the original</a>. \n[/su_column]\n[/su_row]\n\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\n[su_row]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n<h4>辣椒的颜色</h4>\n　辣椒的品种有很多，但不论哪一个品种，在<strong>未成熟</strong>前都是青绿色的，那是因为含有<strong>叶绿素</strong>的<strong>缘故</strong>。到了成熟期，叶绿素被破坏，辣椒中<strong>含有</strong>的黄色<strong>素</strong>和叶红素就<strong>相应</strong>增多，于是变成黄色和红色。而有的辣椒品种是在青绿色时味道更好，因而在未成熟前就上市了。所以，我们可看到各种颜色的辣椒。  \n\n</div>\n[/su_column]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\nThere are many types of peppers, but all types of pepper are green in color before they ripen, which is because they contain chlorophyll. When it finally comes time for them to ripen, the chlorophyll breaks down, and the yellow and red pigments in the peppers increase accordingly, so they become yellow and red. In addition, some types of peppers taste better when they\'re still green, so they are brought to market before they ripen. That\'s why we see so many different colors of peppers.  \n[/hide-this-part]\n[/su_column]\n[/su_row]', 'Why are some peppers different colors?', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1480-autosave-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 03:07:57', '2020-04-20 07:07:57', '', 1480, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1480-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1869, 1, '2020-04-20 07:36:39', '2020-04-20 11:36:39', '[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\r\nHappy Year of the Sheep! Couple of days ago, I stumbled across the Book \"The Last Yin Yang Master\", aka \"The Last Onmyoji\" 《最后一个阴阳师》, a supernatural ghost story available for free online. Grab the whole thing <a href=\"http://www.zhuaji.org/read/146/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zhuaji.com</a>. <!--more-->\r\n\r\nI\'ve recently sort of discovered that ghost stories and detective novels are where it\'s at for practicing reading. The cliches in a Chinese murder mystery are exactly the same as they are anywhere: hard-boiled cop, confused rookie, seductive woman, shady business, and definitely a chase scene. It\'s easier to follow a story when you have a semi-expectation of what\'s supposed to happen. They get hard when people start talking about blood spatter and ballistics, but you can kind of get the gist. Ghost stories are the same way - a scene of normalcy is set, followed by some red-flag strangeness that everyone completely ignores because they don\'t believe in the supernatural, followed by some myths and legends, or maybe a mysterious old man, or maybe a body goes missing, and then things really freaky. Again, the read gets hard when characters start talking about the mystic books of old, or funeral customs, so you should probably be reading this with the help of Pleco (which I do), but The Last Onmyoji is accessible enough that those parts shouldn\'t totally derail you. Highly recommended.\r\n\r\nThis really is worth a go for readers at almost all levels. The read is late-intermediate, but using Pleco, late-stage beginners and early-intermediates will be able to understand large chunks of it, enough to motivate you to puzzle through the parts you don\'t get, more so because this is being told in first-person. Remember, now, that the beginning of a book is usually the hardest as you try to get a sense of the story. Once the story gets rolling, it\'s easier to flow with it. Advanced readers may just appreciate learning a bit of spooky vocab. \r\n\r\nThe segment that I\'m translating here doesn\'t have any ghostly bits in it, this is the first chapter to get you going on the story. It\'s packed full of Chinese village culture, and some parts at the end that would be considered extremely un-PC in the west: a little anti-Japanese talk, and a little bit about buying women, the rarities of college education in the countryside: the realities of village life in China, even these days. \r\n\r\nThere\'s a lot I could talk about in here, but I do like the word 投 [pinyin]tou2[/pinyin] - This word had a ton of meanings. Imagine slipping a piece of paper into a suggestion box. That action is what this word embodies, or anything related to a similar action of taking a flat object and dropping it into a slot, literally or figuratively. So it can mean to \"vote\", as in an election, because you\'re submitting a ballot. It can mean to \"slide\" an envelope into a letter box. In this case, it means to \"submit\" a resume while seeking a job offer.\r\n\r\nEnjoy!\r\n\r\n\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]\r\n\r\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\r\n[su_row]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\r\n<h4>最后一个阴阳师</h4>\r\n我叫林小凡,今年23岁。大学刚毕业。一个三流的大学四流的成绩,大学是在杭州读,毕业之后最开始在一家房地产公司做销售员,底薪一千八。因为业绩太差,公司没说辞退我,我自己就不好意思待了。\r\n\r\n在杭州转了两个月,<strong>投</strong>了不知道多少份儿简历,面试了多少次,都没有通过。<strong>盘缠</strong>花光之后,就回了老家。\r\n\r\n我的老家是洛阳。洛阳的乡下,一个叫做十里铺儿的小村儿落。\r\n\r\n之所以回来,是因为村儿里小学唯一的教师得了<strong>肺痨</strong>,病的已经非常严重,我作为村里走出来唯一的大学生,村长愿意一月掏出一千块的巨资来请我去代课。\r\n\r\n所以我回来了。\r\n\r\n在外面活的不如一条狗的我,在老家得到了极大的尊严。\r\n\r\n在偏远的山村,大学生,还是一个极其厉害的存在,村民们在看到我父亲的时候,都会为他竖起大拇指,说:“老林家祖坟冒了青烟,竟然出了个大学生,以后你就走出了大山咯。”\r\n\r\n每当这个时候,我父亲都会憨厚的笑一笑,抹去他脸上的汗水。\r\n\r\n我回到村子之后,方圆几里的媒婆都争着抢着给我介绍对象,几乎踏破我家的门槛儿,这不是吹牛。你不在那个环境里,不知道大学生三个字的分量。\r\n\r\n父亲也极力的给我<strong>张罗</strong>,在他们眼里,23岁,甚至已经过了结婚的年纪。跟我同龄的人,现在儿子已经可以光着<strong>屁股</strong>到处跑了。\r\n\r\n为了不让他们操心,我也去一次次的应付相亲。\r\n\r\n对,是应付。\r\n\r\n大学,说白了就是一个区分性与理性的地方,虽然是山村出来的,可是我的相貌并不算丑,甚至可以说英俊。也谈过一个女朋友,我没钱,她也不是非常的富裕,可是就算这样,我们还在在一起了三年,我尽我所能的打零工,来做一个男朋友该做的。大三那年,我们分手。\r\n\r\n那一天,我在我们学校的后山喝了一瓶2块钱的二锅头。醒来之后,不再悲伤,继续<strong>浑浑噩噩</strong>的过日子。\r\n\r\n关于相貌这一点,我继承了我母亲。\r\n\r\n 一个不知道故乡在哪里的美貌女人。\r\n\r\n她有痴呆症。\r\n\r\n在几十年前,我父亲进城,用了三百块钱把她买了回来。\r\n\r\n我父亲说,他那一天花了两元钱给母亲买了一身衣服,回来的时候母亲的美貌,让村里的人哈喇子都流到了地上。\r\n\r\n可惜,她是个傻子。\r\n\r\n如果不是傻子,我父亲也买不起。\r\n\r\n后来有了我,母亲的痴傻一直都是那样,可是她的傻,并不是像街头的疯子一样,她非常安静。\r\n\r\n不说话,不动。只是安静的坐着。\r\n\r\n我就在这样的一个环境下长大,可是我并不想文艺的说,我有孤僻的性格,因为就算是这样,我还是有完整的童年。\r\n\r\n我父亲非常的勤劳,他尽一个农民的极限,利用手中的农具,养活一个家。我没有什么怪他的地方。\r\n\r\n没钱,这是命。\r\n\r\n我爷爷,是一个退伍的老军人,他不识字,没有农民典型的精明,反倒是实诚的可怕。有人说他是gmd,有人说他是gcd,可是他自己都不知道自己到底是哪个党,他唯一知道的,就是他拿枪打日本鬼子,鬼子打跑之后,他就回到了家。\r\n\r\n</div>\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\r\n[hide-this-part morelink=\"Show English translation\"]\r\nMy name is Lin Xiaofan, I\'m 23 years old this year. I just graduated from college. A third-rate school with fourth-tier grades, my college was in Hangzhou, and after I graduated I first went to work as sales staff at a real estate agency with a salary of 1,800 [translator\'s note: this is a very low salary, about $300 USD / month]. My sales performance was poor, and the company never fired me, but I was so embarrassed that I left. \r\n\r\nI wandered around Hangzhou for two months, submitted I don\'t even know how many resumes, or went to how many interviews, but nothing came through. After I\'d spent all my travel money, I went back to my home town.\r\n\r\nMy home town is Luoyang. In the Luoyang countryside falls a little village called Shilipu\'er. \r\n\r\nThe reason I went home is because the village\'s only teacher got tuberculosis, and he was very seriously ill, so as the village\'s only person who\'d ever gone off to college, the village chief dug up a thousand-dollar [translator\'s note: \"1000 kuai\" is \"1000 Chinese Renminbi\"] investment and asked me to substitute teach. \r\n\r\nSo I went home. \r\n\r\nMy life away from home wasn\'t even as good as a dog\'s, but I get plenty of respect in my home town. \r\n\r\nIn such a remote village, being a college graduate is still an extremely awesome thing to be, and every time the villagers see my father, they all give him a thumbs-up and say, \"Your family\'s ancestral grave is emitting green smoke, unexpectedly out popped a college student! You\'ll be walking off this mountain after a while!\" [translator\'s note: this is a compliment regarding the family\'s lineage.]\r\n\r\nOf course at these times, my father would smile in a simple and honest way, wiping the sweat off his brow. \r\n\r\nAfter I came back to the village, all the local matchmakers tried to set me up with someone, almost trampling down my door, no exaggeration. If you\'ve never been in that [village] environment, you don\'t know the power of those three words, \"College Degree Holder\".\r\n\r\nMy dad also made a supreme effort to settle me, because in his eyes, at 23 years old I\'d already passed marrying age. Everyone my age already had kids running around with their bare butts hanging out. \r\n\r\nSo as not to make him worry, I\'d already coped with my first blind date. \r\n\r\nYes, it was definitely \"coping\". \r\n\r\nCollege, speaking frankly, was a place with completely different place with different rationales, but although I came from a farm village, I wasn\'t considered ugly, you might even say I\'m handsome. I had a girlfriend, but I had no money, and she wasn\'t very rich either, but that\'s just the way it was, we were together three years, and I used up all my part-time work money trying to do all the things a boyfriend is supposed to do. In the third year, we broke up. \r\n\r\nOn that day, on the hill behind our school, I drank a bottle of 2-dollar liquor. After I woke up, I wasn\'t sad anymore, and I just continued muddle-headedly passing the days. \r\n\r\nAbout my looks, those I inherited from my mother. \r\n\r\nA good-looking woman from who-knows-where.  \r\n\r\nShe had dementia.\r\n\r\nA few decades ago, my father went to the city, and spent three hundred dollars to buy her and bring her home.\r\n\r\nMy dad said, that day he spent two bucks to buy mom some clothes, and when he returned, mom\'s good looks made everyone in the village drool all over the ground. \r\n\r\nPity, she was an idiot.\r\n\r\nIf she hadn\'t been an idiot, my dad could never have afforded her. \r\n\r\nThen I came along, and mom\'s dementia continued as before, but her brand of dementia wasn\'t like a crazy street person\'s, she was very quiet. \r\n\r\nShe didn\'t speak, didn\'t move. Just quietly sat there.\r\n\r\nThis is the environment I grew up in, but I don\'t want to make it sound literary, I had an antisocial nature, but even so, I still had a full childhood. \r\n\r\nMy father is very industrious, he has a farmer\'s strength, using the farm tools in his hands, he nurtured a household. I don\'t have anything to blame him for. \r\n\r\nNo money, that\'s just life. \r\n\r\nMy grandfather is a retired soldier, he\'s illiterate, and he doesn\'t have any of a villager\'s typical shrewdness, on the contrary he\'s terrifyingly honest. Some people said he was GMD [translator\'s note: GMD = guo min dang, the fascist party in the Chinese civil war, who lost], some people said he was GCD [GCD = gong chang dang, the communist party that won the war and remains in power today], but he doesn\'t even know himself which \"dang\" [translator\'s note - this \"dang\" means \"political party\"] he was in, the only thing he knows is that he grabbed a gun and fought the Japanese devils [the Japanese invaded while the GMD and the GCD were fighting each other], and after the devils ran away, he went home.\r\n[/hide-this-part]\r\n[/su_column]\r\n[/su_row]', 'Novels: The Last Yin Yang Master', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1539-revision-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 07:36:39', '2020-04-20 11:36:39', '', 1539, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1539-revision-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0),
(1718, 1, '2020-04-20 03:16:26', '2020-04-20 07:16:26', '[su_row]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"yes\" class=\"\"]\nHey hey, lookie here, an excellent guest post submitted by native Chinese speaker Yang from <a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Learn Mandarin Now</a>. This story tells us a bit about the Chinese <em>chengyu</em> (idiom),塞翁失马, which can mean \"a blessing in disguise\", or can conversely mean \"bad luck disguised as good\". It\'s used to point out the hidden positives or negatives in a situation, so you might say it means \"there are two sides to every circumstance\". <!--more-->\n\n<img src=\"http://chinesereadingpractice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/20150220-INLINE.jpg\" alt=\"Beginner Chinese Reading: Intermediate Chinese Fables and Idioms\" width=\"100\" height=\"100\" class=\"imgborder alignleft\" />I\'m loving this post for the fable-y language: \"servant\", \"steed\", etc. Plus, I learned a new favorite word in this one: 塞外 [pinyin]sai4 wai4[/pinyin], meaning \"Beyond the Great Wall\". In other words, a remote place near the outskirts or borders of China. Also, don\'t forget, 匹 [pinyin]pi3[/pinyin] is the measure word for Horses, so you\'re gonna see that a few times. \n\nThere\'s one phrase we should probably get into in greater detail, because I don\'t think it\'s immediately clear what it means: 全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗. Let\'s take a look at this, word by word:\n\n全国 - The whole country\n上下的 - Everywhere\n年轻男子 - young men\n都 - all\n被 - grammar word usually indicating that the subject of the sentence has had something unfortunate happen to them\n抓 - grabbed\n去 - go out\n打仗 - fight \n\nThe key word here is 抓 [pinyin]zhua1[/pinyin], which usually means to \"catch\" or \"grab\". In this case, the word means \"drafted\", so it still means to \"grab\", but in this case, it\'s the ruling power (probably the king) doing the grabbing up (of potential soldiers). The 被 in this case functions as \"were\", with a negative overtone. So this can be translated as \"All the young men everywhere in the country <strong>were drafted</strong> to go fight a war.\"\n\nLearn Mandarin Now\'s \"<a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com/how-to-read-chinese/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How to Read Chinese</a>\" page for a basic overview on getting started with Simplified characters, and look at <a href=\"http://www.learnmandarinnow.com/blog/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">their new blog</a> for some learning tips. \n\n[/su_column]\n[/su_row]\n\n<div class=\"readingPassage\">\n[su_row]\n[su_column size=\"1/2\" center=\"no\" class=\"\"]\n<div id=\"chinesetext\">\n<h4></h4>\n从前，一位<strong>老翁</strong>和他的儿子住在<strong>塞外</strong>的边境上。他们都非常喜欢骑马。有一天，他们家的<strong>仆人</strong>给老先生报告：\"我们家的一匹骏马走丢了，好像跑去<strong>邻国</strong>了。\"\n\n老翁的朋友<strong>闻讯</strong>都过来安慰他。但老先生说：“呵呵，这也许不是坏事，谁知道呢！＂\n\n几个月之后，奇妙的事情发生了，那匹走失了的骏马意外地跑回来了，并且从邻国带来了一匹新的<strong>骏马</strong>。老翁的好友纷纷过来祝贺他。老翁说：“唉，这也许不是什么好事情呢！”\n\n一天，老翁的儿子正在骑那匹新的骏马，突然不小心从马上掉了下来并摔断了腿。他从今以后都不能正常走路了。老翁的朋友都为老翁感到伤心，但老翁却说：“这个意外以后能为咱们带来好运也不一定。”\n\n一年后，全国上下的年轻男子都被抓去打仗，大部分去参军的年轻人都死在了<strong>战场</strong>。老翁的儿子因为腿受伤了所以避过了这一次劫难。\n</div>\n[/one_half]\n\n[one_half last=last][hide-this-part morelink=\"SHOW ENGLISH TRANSLATION\"]\nOnce upon a time, there was an old man who lived with his son on the borders of the country. They both very much enjoyed riding horses. One day, a servant reported to the old man, “One of our good horses has gone missing. It seems the horse ran across to the neighboring country.\"\n\nOld man\'s friends came and comforted him. However, the old man said: \"Well, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Who knows!\"\n\nCouple of months later, a strange thing happened. The missing horse came back, accompanied by a great steed from the neighboring country. When his friends congratulated him on this great news, the old man said: \"Well, this might bring us bad luck.\"\n\nOne day, his son was having fun riding on the fine [new] steed. Suddenly, he fell from the hose and broke his leg. His son was never able to walk again. Again, his friends came to comfort the old man. But the old man was not bothered and said: \"This accident might bring us good luck in the future.\"\n\nA year later, all young men in the country were drafted to join a war. Most young men who fought died on the battlefield. Luckily, his son avoided entering the war because of his broken leg.\n\n[/hide-this-part][/one_half]', 'Guest Post: Story Behind the Idiom: 塞翁失马', '', 'inherit', 'closed', 'closed', '', '1551-autosave-v1', '', '', '2020-04-20 03:16:26', '2020-04-20 07:16:26', '', 1551, 'http://chinesereadingpractice.com/2020/04/20/1551-autosave-v1/', 0, 'revision', '', 0);
