"I am thrilled with the program. It is a new and powerful tool in my study of Chinese."
—Jos Spapens



"I have been using the program for about 5 months now and I have moved from knowing a little over 2,000 characters to consistently scoring 3,000 or more on your on-line character test. More importantly I have finally moved from reading intermediate texts to on-line news I find on the WWW. Your program has turned out to be an amazing aid. I am now a huge fan."
—Brent Nelson



"Big thanks for the software! I just started learning Chinese here at the UN, and your program is just what I need. It lets me follow up what I learn in the classroom and then explore further."
—Nikolai Galkin, United Nations



More User Comments

 


Stepping Stones Lesson Five


Audio Immersion  |  Audio Practice  |  Vocabulary Study  |  Vocabulary Review
Reading Practice  |  Exercises  |  Stepping Stones Home


This Spot Doesn’t Have 300 Taels of Silver

Study the vocabulary for one line of the story along with the English translation of that line. You may want to go back to the previous step so you can listen to the line and practice reading it aloud. When you can read the line comfortably and with full comprehension, go on to the next line.

此地无银三百两
This Spot Doesn’t Have 300 Taels of Silver
古时候
In ancient times,
有一个人把银子埋在地下。
there was a man who buried his silver underground.
他怕别人把银子偷走，
He feared that other people would steal his silver,
就在埋银子的地方立了
so right where he had buried it, he put up
“此地无银三百两”的牌子。
a sign that said “This Spot Doesn’t Have 300 Taels of Silver.”
邻居有个叫王二的人看见了,
There was a neighbor, a man called Wang Er who saw this,
等天黑就把银子偷走了。
and [he] waited until after it was dark and then stole the silver.
王二怕别人知道是他偷的，
Wang Er feared that other people would know that it was he who stole it,
就在牌子上加了一句：
so he added onto the sign
“邻家王二不曾偷。”
“Neighbor Wang Er Didn’t Steal It.”
结果，别人看了后
As a result, after other people saw it
都知道是王二偷了银子。
they all knew that it was Wang Er who stole the silver.

 

New Vocabulary

Click on any character to see how it is written. Click on any character's pinyin to hear how it is pronounced.

While learning to write the characters is not essential to learning to read them, it helps a lot and is highly recommended. Practice writing each yourself 5-10 times, being careful to follow the stroke order shown in the animation.

this place; this spot; this land
negative form of 有（“to have,”“to exist”）
silver (the material; not the color)
ancient
times；time
埋
 to bury
under the ground
to fear; to be afraid of
other people
to steal (and carry off)
place
to stand; to make stand; to put up; to erect
sign; placard
neighbor
叫
(to be) called
王
 king; surname Wang
to see
to wait
黑
 black; (v.) to darken
to know
加
  to add
句
 a sentence (of speech)
never before; not before
as a result
都
 both; all


Existing Vocabulary


Vocabulary Notes

In Classical Chinese, there was no explicit word difference between “this” versus “that.” 此 could therefore function as either “this” or “that.” In Modern Chinese 此 is quite formal. In modern colloquial speech, 这 zhè and 那 are nà used for this and that, respectively. They are also commonly used with measure words.

无 is the Classical Chinese negative form of 有 (to have; to exist; there is / there are). In Modern Chinese, the negative 没有 méiyǒu is used.

子 is a noun suffix. Therefore 银子 refers to the noun silver (the actual material), rather than the color (adjective) silver. To describe something as silver, simply use 银色的 yínsède (silver colored). The 子 suffix is never used when a word is acting as a measure word. In this chapter we have “a sentence” 一句。Take note that the noun form of sentence is 句子。

时候 refers to a time when something happened. For example “when burying the silver” would be 埋银子的时候, literally “burying the silver’s time.” This construction is necessary because, unlike English, dependent clauses in Chinese precede the noun rather than follow the noun.



Once you've studied the vocabulary and can read each line of the story with comprehension, you are ready to go on to the next step.