It is a weird feeling to sit in a Las Vegas hotel at four in the morning - hunkered down with a notebook and a tape recorder in a $75-a-day suite and a fantastic room service bill, run up in forty-eight hours of mad cramming - knowing full well that as soon as dawn comes up you are going to need to saunter into that HSK test center racing high on amphetamines and deal with question after question on the nuances of Chinese grammar, diction and word choice. Good luck.
rizzo
said on January 4, 2010
Please please tell me this is not simply coy fiction. If the HSK is indeed given in Vegas then it has gone from a chore to a booze soaked pleasure.
trevelyan
said on January 5, 2010
@rizzo - our attorney handles all inquiries of this sort. Sadly, he is somewhat indisposed at the moment....
dhinz23
said on January 6, 2010
This is great news. Now I won't have to fly anywhere to take the HSK.
Echo
said on January 6, 2010
@dhinz23,
Glad to hear that you like the site. 欢迎你！Please feel free to leave us a comment if you have any questions or suggestions.
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
Dave
said on June 1, 2010
Curses, having gotten cocky with a couple of 13 scores this test cut me down to size with a measly 9. I can pretty much see where I went wrong but I'm not sure why #11 is 似的 rather than 样子.
Actually the only 似的 pattern I can remember is the classic "张得跟个男的似的".
brshill
said on December 17, 2010
@Dave
Your comment was a while ago, but.. as far as I know, 样子 is a noun (appearance) whereas 似的 is a particle specifically meaning "as" or "like".
So they're used completely differently: “她很漂亮，笑的样子像一枝花儿一样“ or something similar. 似的 is used in conjunction with 得 or 像 and usually at the end of a sentence, as：“她很得意，笑得花儿似的“ or “她很得意，笑时真像花儿似的“
Maybe I'm completely wrong and rambling...？
Actually I don't understand the meaning of 得意. Does it not mean proud?
Brendan
said on December 17, 2010
@brshill - Nope, you're totally right. "样子" is a noun, "似的“ is not. I wouldn't say it's a particle, but it's been a long week and I'm running fairly ragged: I'd take it as part of a verb phrase "跟X似的." I hadn't seen this test before, and it's interesting; in my experience, 似的 is usually preceded by a 跟 or a 和 or a 像 -- though wait for a native speaker to confirm this! -- so that answer reads somewhat strangely to me. That said, though, 似的 is the least bad answer there.As for 得意: no; it means something like "satisfied," sometimes in a slightly negative light. Remember that 得, when it's functioning as a full verb, means "to get," and 意 means, among other things, what one wants -- so 得意 refers to a state of having gotten what one wanted. There are plenty of places where it might intersect in meaning with the English word "proud," but the basic meaning is "satisfied" or "pleased." (Or "smug," now that I think of it.)
Tristan
said on December 29, 2010
I'm struggling to wrap my head around question 4, can anyone illuminate me?
开学半个月，他旷课就已经有5次之多了。
I'm a little hazy on what 之 is doing here. Is 之多 acting like 以上／之上？
Thanks.
Echo
said on December 30, 2010
@Tristan,
Yes, exactly. "之" means "的“ there. You can understand the sentence like 开学半个月，他旷课就已经有5次"那么的多"了.
--Echo
echo@popupchinese.com
