After today's sample HSK test pummels you to the ground, grinds its boot into your neck and forces you to cry for mercy, we leave you with a point of consolation: many famous world figures (including practically the entire roster of Nobel laureates) have also failed this exam, or lacked the courage to even begin. There is no shame in giving up and returning to French....On the other hand, if you've come this far, there is light at the end of the tunnel. It's the blazing market for your future job prospects, coupled with the lingering afterglow of the Shenzhou VII launch. And when the manual for the space age gets written in Chinese, won't it be nice not to have to rely on machine translation?
trevelyan
said on September 29, 2008
Happy National Day holidays everyone! Although it's the start of a week-long holiday today for everyone in China, we'll be continuing to produce test and lesson content every day as usual, and will have another short story up today, and more podcasts tomorrow.If you need an excuse to celebrate, 1.3 billion people can't be all wrong. We're also counting our blessings that we're nowhere near the transit system right now. Not as bad as Chinese New Years, but still pretty bad. :)
orbital
said on September 29, 2008
arg.... 11/15. and I was completely confused by the question with 光 as well. Not even sure what it means.
BMG
said on September 29, 2008
Also 11/15. I won't tell you what scores I've been getting up till now. I don't know the 光 question either but from context it just made sense to put it where it is.
At least I have hope that being an "intermediate" level student may someday translate to being ready for "intermediate" level HSK.
orbital
said on September 29, 2008
@BMG - sounds like you should skip beginner and go straight to intermediate.... :)
Echo
said on September 29, 2008
Hey guys,
It is a bit hard to translate 光 here directly into English. It is kind of like only/just though. I'm gonna give you some sample sentences below. See if you can get better understanding of it.
她有很多衣服，光连衣裙就有上百条。
别光顾着说话，快吃饭吧，菜都凉了。
大家都走了，光剩下小明一个人站着发呆。
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
user361
said on September 29, 2008
OK - I may be stupid, but I can't work out how to see the free lesson - all I can see is the discusssion
trevelyan
said on September 30, 2008
@user361 - go to http://popupchinese.com/voucher and enter our beta promotion code 2008AOYUN. This will get you free premium access to all parts of the site, including the HSK testing materials.
marco64
said on September 30, 2008
So... 光 means barely, as in... she's barely/only a child but she still has four children?
trevelyan
said on September 30, 2008
I think so Marco. We'll check with Echo when she's back (it's National Day Holidays, so it's pretty quiet here right now).
suk_nak
said on February 19, 2010
Hi,guys
yeah, i don't understand the usage of guang. What part of speech is Guang? Is that adverb?
Echo
said on February 19, 2010
@marco & suk_nak,
Yes， 光 is an adverb, so we place it before a verb.“那个女人生了很多孩子，光女孩就有四个。” This sentence means "That woman has so many children. Only for girls, she has four. (Apart from that,she has some boys as well) Here is another example: 他很有钱，光公司就有五家。He's very wealthy. Only for companies, he has five. (Apart from that, he has a lot of other property as well.) The 光 part of entence is used to prove/explain further more what it says in the first half sentence.
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
