A Trip to the Orphanage
A Trip to the Orphanage: The Shaanxi orphanage was not where Xi Jinping had hoped to spend his weekend, but a western pilgrimage was an easy way to shore up support among the Party's left-leaning student faction and consolidate his lead as front-runner for replacing Hu Jintao as Party Chairman in 2012. Nonetheless, as the children bustled into the room screaming and yelling, one of the most powerful men on the Politburo couldn't help but think back to his last vacation in Tahiti, with its endless beaches, seaside tranquility and... well... lack of children.
Learning Chinese? If you're new to Popup Chinese be sure to signup for a free account to get immediate access to our massive archive of Chinese audio lessons just like this one. In this lesson we focus on the emotional differences between two popular ways of asking questions. Most textbooks don't cover this sort of emotional subtext, but knowing it is fundamental to really being able to communicate natively in mandarin. So enjoy the podcast, and let us know anytime if you have any comments or suggestions.
Text :
cóngqián a ， yǒu yī zhǐ xiǎo báitù ...... A long time ago, there was a little white rabbit....
hei ， bùyào shuōhuà ！ Hey, keep quiet!
zhège xiǎo báitù ne ...... Now this rabbit....
hei ， nǐ ， nǐ ràng wǒ shuō jǐ biàn ， a ？ Hey - you - how many times do I need to tell you, huh?
zhège xiǎo báitù ā ， tā . . . . This little white rabbit, it....
nǐ zhīdào wǒ shì shéi ma ？ Do you know who I am?
nǐ zhī bù zhīdào wǒ shì shéi ？ ！ Do you have any idea who I am? Vocabulary :
習近平 Xí Jìnpíng Xi Jinping name 從前 cóngqián once upon a phrase time 兔子 tùzi rabbit noun 知道 zhīdào to know verb 讓 ràng to let verb 遍 biàn times measure word 講 jiǎng to narrate verb 故事 gùshi story noun 禮貌 lǐmào manners noun 孤兒 gūér orphan noun
Questions :
1. xiàmian nǎ ge jùzi bù duì ？ a) wǒ de shū ma b) zhè ge rén ne ， wǒ bù rènshi c) tā chīfàn ne d) wǒ tǐng hǎo ， nǐ ne
2. “ cóngqián ” yībān zài shénme shíhòu yòng ？ a) jiǎng gùshi de kāitóu b) jiǎng gùshi de zuìhòu c) jiǎng gùshi de zhōngjiān d) bù zài jiǎng gùshi de shíhou yòng
3. nǐ zhēn rén zháojí ！ a) rě b) bǎ c) jiù d) ràng
4. xiàmian nǎ ge jùzi tīng qǐlai zuì shēngqì ？ a) nǐ dǒng bù dǒng lǐmào b) nǐ dǒng lǐmào ma c) nǐ dǒng bù dǒng lǐmào ma d) nǐ dàodǐ dǒng bù dǒng lǐmào
5. tā zuótiān huí huíjiā ？ a) bù . . . ma b) bù . . . ／ c) méi . . . ma d) méi . . . ／
6. When reduplicating two-character verbs to form questions , it is common to contract the first verb to only its first character , as with zhī bù zhīdào . But is it grammatically correct to use the extended form zhīdào bù zhīdào ? c) only in certain parts of China
Answers: 1 - a, 2 - a, 3 - d, 4 - d, 5 - d, 6 - a.