Zoe ticked the appropriate box and moved her pencil down the page. "Of course the answer is B," she muttered to herself, puzzled to find yet another question that seemed improperly easy. Wasn't the HSK supposed to be difficult? And that was when she found herself staring at blank paper and had the stunning realization she had finished the entire test, and done so with twenty minutes to spare.

Could it be true? Zoe's first year of Chinese had been exhausting - it had demanded several times the effort of her other classes. But where her classmates dropped out Zoe had simply redoubled her focus. And her diligence had paid off. Once a forest of strange and intemperate beasts, the Chinese language had dissolved in her mind into a garden of pictures and words, playful figures with their own private histories and logic. And she was comfortable in conversation with them.

Zoe resolved to take the intermediate test the next year.