For today's Intermediate HSK test we scoured the cesspits of Beijing in search of 15 of the most battle-hardened and surly words and phrases you'll be expected to know for the Intermediate level HSK exam. As with the rest of our reading comprehension exercises, your challenge is to select the word or phrase that best matches the meaning of the word selected from the sentence given.
stratman1
said on December 7, 2008
12/15, there were a few words I hadn't picked up on/heard before, like 他是半瓶子醋, and 没戏.. Fun test.
orbital
said on December 7, 2008
bizarre. I just heard the phrase 半瓶子醋 for the first time yesterday. still managed to get the question here wrong (went with the more literal answer, silly me). Also 12/15.
liamdarcybrown
said on December 7, 2008
12/15 too - really must think first before widly pressing buttons - spent the past few years doing nothing but reading Qing-dynasty memorials and forgetting my putonghua... eek. But isn't 精神紧张 just as good a paraphrase of 七上八下?
Echo
said on December 7, 2008
@liamdarcybrown,嗨，你好！“七上八下”的意思是一个人的心情很不平静，一般是指在不太好的方面。这个词来源于《水浒传》——“十五个吊桶打水，七上八下”，试想一下，如果你打水（get water from the well)的时候，七个水桶在上面，八个在下面，当然会失去平衡。这个词主要强调的是心里不平静，但是我们并不太清楚让我们不平静的原因，可能是紧张，可能是慌乱（这是在《水浒传》中的意思），也可能是后悔、担心等等。例如：离考试成绩公布还有一段日子，这些天我的心里总是七上八下的，不是滋味。我很开心也很荣幸，有一位研究清史的朋友来到泡泡中文，对您的研究也很好奇，不知道能不能和大家分享一二？：）--Echoecho@popupchinese.com
barrister
said on December 8, 2008
@liamdarcybrown - Qing dynasty memorials? That sounds... tremendously difficult. I remember running into some older 19th century documents in 3rd year Chinese. The lack of punctuation was a killer. I'd be curious to hear what you've been researching and if you have any tips for the rest of us....
etbaccata
said on October 16, 2012
Weren't they written in Manchu? whew!
