"It's the subway company calling," Gail turned to face the rest of us, phone dangling from her outstretched hand. "They want to know when the new floor cleaners will arrive." This announcement was met by leaden silence from the rest of us....

So - yes - if you're looking for industrial cleaning equipment you're in the wrong place. But if you're planning to take the HSK test and are looking for specialized test preparation materials to learn Chinese, Popup Chinese is the place. These reading exercises for the Beginner HSK fall somewhere between our elementary and intermediate lessons in terms of the difficulty of the content. On a real exam you will have twelve and a half minutes to complete them by skimming each of the passages and answering the questions which follow. Test yourself and see how quickly you can do it.

HSK Tip #28: you will not have accompanying audio for the reading passages on the real HSK exam. We include the extra audio materials here for those of you looking for an extra challenge. And if you can answer these questions only from listening to the audio? You're a definite star and should promote yourself to intermediate right away.
 said on
March 31, 2010
What is the meaning of 摆谱 in the third reading passage? I haven't run into it before and it isn't clear to me from the context.
 said on
April 1, 2010
@orbital,

Personally I think 摆谱 can be translated as "to show off", however, 摆谱 should not precede any object.

e.g.

他总是摆谱。He's always showing off.

你没钱就别摆谱了。Stop showing off since you have no money.

摆谱不能让别人尊重你。Showing off cannot make the others respect you.
 said on
November 11, 2012
Characters come out as simply squares. How do I fix that? I am able to read Chinese characters in other programs.