FDTL 46/99

Chinese language skills for Britain: Disseminating Best Practice

Reading Tips - Reading Week 7


Would I understand the meaning of a sentence if I check every word in dictionaries? (7)

 When you start reading Chinese newspapers, you will find that there are too many new characters. Looking up new characters in dictionaries can be very tedious. Even if you have checked every character in the article and have made a long vocabulary list, you may still not understand the meaning. That is because you do not know how to group the characters into phrases and sentences.

You should always use your time more efficiently by looking for the so-called “markers”, such as and , which you have learnt in previous lessons.

The basic names of Chinese central and local governments and departments. (7)

中华人民共和国

People’s Republic of China

中共中央

Chinese Communist Party Central Committee

国务院

 State Council

Ministry

Province

直辖巿

Municipality

别行政Special Administrative Zone

 

County

District 

 

The word before the above characters in bold can be names of places, and words after these characters can be titles such as , 主任 or 主席 . For example, 安徽省阜阳县长张小明 Zhang Xiaoming, the head of Fuyang County in Anhui province.

 

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