In the opinion of our in house test taking squad, today's sample HSK test veers from the excessively easy to the impossibly difficult. And while we've laid out a few traps to catch unwary travelers, don't feel badly if you fall into them: learning means never making the same mistake more than... a few times?
BMG
said on October 22, 2008
Not _impossibly_ difficult, because I somehow managed to conquer more than half the questions. Whew!I'm having a struggle with these two constructions, though: 不仅......还...... 不但......而且......I give up. What's the difference?
imron
said on October 22, 2008
14/15. Missing out on: 我知道的东西太少，______他们问
What is the difference here between 忍不住 and 禁不住?
henning
said on October 22, 2008
10/15.
I like those "function word" tests.
leanne
said on October 22, 2008
to imron
禁不住 means can not handle (the situation or pressure). It's more about strength.
忍不住 means can not helping doing something. It's more about an action.
leanne
said on October 22, 2008
to BMG regarding Question 12
不仅......还......
不但......而且......
As a native speaker, the only reason I guessed it right was because it sounds better.
In this question, it's the same. However, 不仅 can be used alone. It doesn't have to match with 还. On the other hand, 不但 (conj.)......而且/并且......have to be used together.
trevelyan
said on October 22, 2008
I kicked myself for getting #2 wrong on this one. Went with 没, and while I knew my answer didn't really make complete sense, it seemed like the best of a bad lot at the time. Completely forgot about using 清 in the sense of settling an account.
Echo
said on October 23, 2008
@irmon,
Leanne's 禁不住vs忍不住 post is pretty clear already. Also, 禁不住 is more like objectively you can't do anything with it, and there's nothing to do with emotions. 忍不住 always related to emotions,more active. In that case, there's an very important way that you can distinguish them. The word/phrase comes after 忍不住 always related to the subject himself/herself,such as actions or emotions. 禁不住 comes with a word/phrase related to the subject or the object. If the word/phrase after related to the subject, we can use either of them.
eg.
屋外很冷，他禁不住/忍不住 打了个喷嚏。
听到儿子牺牲的消息，这个一向坚强的女人禁不住/忍不住失声痛哭。
他不喜欢喝酒，但总是禁不住众人劝，一劝也就喝了。
In the daily life, people use 忍不住 more. It's colloquial.
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
Echo
said on October 23, 2008
@BMG,
Grammatically, these two are both correct. Although for natives "不仅...还" sounds better in this question, since "能"is a word with one syllable and we have a "rule" in Chinese i.e. We like to put words which have same syllable(s) together. That's why "还能"sounds better than "而且能". However, it is not necessary when adj.+v. You should be more careful when you meet v.+n. and the words are not colloquial. eg. We say 赏月, but don't say 欣赏月.
It's still not a very good question in this test though, so I changed it. Thank you very much and congratulations--开始发现错误，就是你已经取得很大进步的一个表现:)
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
xiaoxin
said on October 23, 2008
@trevelyan,
你这叫 明知故“错”:)
imron
said on October 24, 2008
@leanne and echo, thanks.
Tristan
said on May 14, 2010
Guys, the downloadable files are missing for this test
HSK Intermediate
said on May 14, 2010
@Tristan,
An early one... and regenerated. :)
--david
helen.wallimann
said on September 8, 2010
I find the questions and Echo's answers very useful. Thanks!
huyilin
said on October 28, 2010
他在一年的时间里，竟然去了16个国家之多。"In the course of one year he actually went to as many as 16 countries."
Is this translation correct?
What exactly does 之多 at the end of the sentence mean?
Could you give another sentence with that structure?
Thank you!
Echo
said on October 28, 2010
@huyilin,
之多 means "so many". It was used to emphasize the person went to so many countries with a short year in that sentence. You can omit it, and it doesn't grammatically affect the meaning of the sentence. And you don't have to use 之“多” as well, it could be 之久（this long time), 之大（this big)，之深(this deep)...as well.
For some other examples: 他在非洲呆了10年之久。（He stayed in Africa for 10 years); 这个地方有5000平方米之大。(This place is as big as 5000 square meters).
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
