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This short story is about a magic pencil - whatever it draws comes to life.<!--more-->

The sentence structure here is completely beginner - very basic stuff. But there are quite a few vocabulary words that you may not know. I'm banking on the fact that you'll be able to work through the vocabulary words due to the story's repetitive patterns and easy structure. But to save everyone's sanity, I took out one phrase from the original due to its difficulty. 

One of the more difficult sentences is. 

老鼠的肚子圆鼓鼓的，像个大球，没法再装什么东西了。 - This literally translates to "The mouse's stomach (肚子) was as round as a drum (圆鼓鼓 - lit. round drum), like a big ball, there was no way he could pack (装) any more food in there. Word for word, the last bit translates to - 没法 (no way to) 再装 (pack / load ) 什么东西 (anymore of anything). 

The Chinese title of this story is <strong>神笔</strong>.

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<div class="postintro">
<h4>Click to Listen</h4>
神 - [pinyin]shen2[/pinyin] - Magical, divine, Godly
哈欠- [pinyin]ha1 qian4[/pinyin] - Yawn
伸伸懒腰 - [pinyin]shen1 shen1 lan3 yao1[/pinyin] - Stretch
香喷喷 - [pinyin]xiang1 pen1 pen1[/pinyin] - Delicious and savory
津津有味 - [pinyin]jin1 jin1 you3 wei4[/pinyin] - With interest, with gusto
香肠 - [pinyin]xiang1 chang2[/pinyin] - Sausage
洞 - [pinyin]dong4[/pinyin] - Hole, cave
仓库 - [pinyin]cang1 ku4[/pinyin] - Storehouse, warehouse
稻草 - [pinyin]dao4 cao3 ren2[/pinyin] - Straw
磨牙 - [pinyin]mo2 ya2[/pinyin] - Grind one's teeth
吞 - [pinyin]tun1[/pinyin] - To swallow
</div>
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<div id="chinesetext">

有个老爷爷给小丰一支铅笔。这不是普通的铅笔，而是支<strong>神</strong>笔。晚上，小丰睡觉了。铅笔就自己站起来，在纸上画了一只老鼠。刚画完，老鼠打了个<strong>哈欠</strong>，<strong>伸伸懒腰</strong>，活了。

老鼠跑到铅笔面前，说: “我肚子饿得要命，快给我东西吃！" 铅笔画了一个面包。面包<strong>香喷喷</strong>的，老鼠一下子就把它吃掉了。吃完面包，老鼠又跑到铅笔面前，说: “面包不甜，我要吃大蛋糕！” 铅笔又给它画了一块大蛋糕。这蛋糕又松又软，甜甜的，上面有<strong>厚</strong>厚的一层奶油，奶油上还有花生仁和瓜于仁。

老鼠眯着眼睛，吃得<strong>津津有味</strong>，把一整块蛋糕全吃了，肚子吃得饱饱的。可它还想吃，就说: “蛋糕太甜，我要吃咸的！” 铅笔画了一根<strong>香肠</strong>，老鼠又把香肠全吃光了。老鼠的肚子圆鼓鼓的，像个大球，没法再装什么东西了。它又对铅笔说: ”我饱了，可我没地方住，你要给我房子!”

铅笔画了一个很大的老鼠<strong>洞</strong>，里面有好几条地道，有睡觉的地方，还有<strong>仓库</strong>。老鼠跑到洞里到处看了看，说: “仓库里还应该有粮食呀。” 铅笔又在仓库里画上了谷子、花生、玉米…… 老鼠点点头说: “房子还可以，可惜没有床铺。” 铅笔又画了一堆<strong>稻草</strong>，稻草上还铺了许多棉絮一一这是老鼠最舒服的床铺。

老鼠跳到床上，打了几个滚，满意地说:“还不错！”接着，它跑过来，对着铅笔就狠狠地唆。铅笔叫了起来: “哎哟！把我的皮都咬破了！” 老鼠说: “嘿嘿，现在我什么都有了，可牙根痒痒的，没地方<strong>磨牙</strong>。你的身子又长又瘦，正好给我磨牙。” 铅笔说: “等等，我给你画一样东西，你可以在上面磨牙。”

说着，铅笔又画起来。它刚画完，一只猫咪跳起来，一口<strong>吞</strong>掉了老鼠。

</div>

<a href="http://www.tom61.com/ertongwenxue/shuiqiangushi/2010-09-14/17369.html">See the original on Tom 61</a>

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There was an old grandfather who gave Xiao Feng a pencil. This was no ordinary pencil, it was a magic pencil. At night, Xiao Feng went to sleep. The pencil stood up on its own, and draw a mouse on a piece of paper. As soon as it had finished drawing, the mouse yawned, stretched, and came to life. 

The mouse ran up to the pencil and said: "I'm starving, give me something to eat quick!" The pencil drew some bread. The bread was deliciously savory, and the little mouse gobbled it right up. After it finished the bread, the mouse ran back to the pencil and said: "Bread isn't sweet, I want to eat a big cake!" The pencil drew a big cake. This cake was light, soft and sweet, and on the top it had a thick layer of cream, and on top of the cream there were peanut and melon seeds.  

The mouse squinted his eyes and ate with gusto, and when he'd eaten an entire piece of cake, his stomach was very full. However, he still wanted to eat, so he said: "The cake was too sweet, I want to eat something salty!" The pencil drew him a sausage, and the mouse ate the sausage right up. The mouse's stomach was round as a drum, or a big ball, and there was no way he could cram anything else in there. To the pencil he said, "I'm full, but I have no place to live, you must give me a house!" 

The pencil drew a big mouse hole, inside there were several tunnels, a place to sleep, and also a storehouse. The mouse ran into the hole, looked all around, and said: "There should be some foodstuffs in the storehouse." In the storehouse, the pencil drew millet, peanuts, corn... the mouse nodded and said: "The house is pretty good, but it's a pity there's no bed." The pencil drew a pile of straw, and on top of the straw he spread cotton wadding - this is a mouse's most comfortable [type of] bed. 

The mouse jumped onto the bed, rolled around a bit, and said, satisfied: "Not bad!" Then, the mouse ran over to the pencil and began to ferociously suck on it. The pencil cried out: "Aiyo! Are you cheating me? You're nibbling all my skin off!" The mouse said: "Hey hey, I have everything I want now, but my teeth itch, and I have no place to grind them. Your body is long and thin, it's a perfect place for me to grind my teeth." The pencil said: "Wait a second, I'll draw you something similar, and you can grind your teeth on that."

Saying this, the pencil began to draw. When it had finished drawing a mewing cat jumped up [from the paper] and swallowed the mouse. 

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