i RK CHINESE READER WORKBOOK Volume I ie October 1977 DEFENSE LANGUAGE INSTITUTE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CENTERPREFACE This workbook is designed to be used in conjunction with the text Chinese Reader (CR), and was in fact necessitated by certain inherent deficiencies in ‘the original PRC publication. First, as with Eleaentary Chinese (EC), many of the vocabulary itens have alzeady been introduced in Cthe? parts of this course. Moreover, CR treats certain items as faniliar vocabulary, as if they had been introduced in EC, when in fact they haven't been introduced at all. Perhaps even more distracting is the practice of introducing characters several lessons after they begin to appear, or introducing the second half of a character combination only after the’entire combination has already been used in the text. The vocabulary and usage sections of this workbook attempt to rectify this problen. To enable you to work with "raw," authentic, written Chinese materiats, this workbook and the passages fron’CR have several unique features with respect to vocibulary usage, First, you will encounter single characters and character conbinations in the transiation exercises for which neither CR nor this workbook provides a meaning, necessitating the use of a dictionary, At this stage of your language learning, using a dictionary goes hand in hand with reading authentic written passages, and you must learn to take this in stride, ‘The nunber of unknown words has been kept to a minimum. ORGANIZATION OF THE WORKBOOK. Each reading comprehension lesson is comprised of four sections: stuay resources, practice exercises, self-evaluation keys, and a lesson eriterion— referenced test (CRT). With the exception of the CRT, all of these appear in this workbook. STUDY_RESOURCES: As the first section of each lesson, the study resources introduce the new characters and vocabulary, with appropriate usage examples, of sample sentences that present the new terminology in context. A model English translation 13 provided for each usage example. The vocabulary section of each lesson is Sividea into distinct areas? T, Required Vocabulary - These are the high-frequency words in the lesson, Bitch are Turther sub-divided into three groups? A. Familiar Characters in Known Terns ~ As your "aural/oral vocabulary” is nore extensive than your "written vocabulary,” there are many words for which you know all the component characters, and for which you learned the meaning of the combination through PINYIN in other parts of the course, yet have not seen the character combination written in a passage. In short, there are words you don't know you know. You might recognize many’of these words on your own. However, there are other words which you may not recognize because of the characters involved; and for this reason a list has been provided of such terns found in the practice exercises and CRTs, Since these words pose little "new" vocabulary learning burden, no separate usage examples have been written. B, New Characters and Terms - Words in this category are self- ‘explanatory. ‘While the terns may or may not have ‘been learned through PINYIN, new characters will be introduced.C. Familiar Characters in New Terms - In this group, additional Geanings will be given to Taniizar characters and/or combinations, or familiar characters will be combined to form new terns. Note that you will be held responsible for having a thorough working knowleage of all the itens in the "Required Vocabulary category. II, Additional Vocabulary - These are the lesser—frequency words in. the {Eason ond are provided only as an aid for reading and translating the passages in GR, and need not be memorized at this time. PRACTICE EXERCISES: ‘There are two types of practice exercises in this workbook. Both types of » exercises parallel the Lesson CRT in content, style and format. Practice Exercise "I" is an information extraction exercise in a question and-answer format directed toward building your ability to extract pertinent fnfornation from written passages without the use of lexical aids. (The "Addi— Ylonal Vocabulary" List is not considered a lexical aid.) Write your answers in English to questions in English based upon a passage written in Chinese. Practice Exercise "II" is a translation exercise intended to sharpen your ability to translate written passages. At this stage of your Language training you do not yet know a sufficient mumber of characters and their conbinations to Yranstate authentic, unaltered, written passages without the use of lexical aids. For this reason you will be pefmitted to use a dictionary and a copy of the Naaaitional Vocabulary" of the lesson when taking the translation CRT. You will also find that there will be a small number of words in the translation passages that will require the use of a dictionary. You will not be permitted to use the "Required Vocabulary” when taking the crt, and should therefore refrain from referring to that part of the study fesources when doing the translation exercise in your workbook. The reason jou willbe permitted to use.a dictionary and the "Additional Vocabulary" but Rot the "Required Vocabulary" is that the individual characters and/or the Specific combinations presented are relatively high-frequency itens and should become s memorized part of your language base during your formal Language training. By so committing these itens to memory, you will gradually be able to reed and transtate more and more authentic material without looking up each word, In conjunction with this, you will find that the tine limits imposed on The CRT simply will not allow you to complete the test if you haven't memorized the "Required Vocabulary,” and must spend all your time looking up characters you should already know. SELF-EVALUATION KEY! ‘The primacy purpose of a self-evaluated exercise is to enable you to identify and correct your own mistakes and problems -~ in this case, in understanding and {ranstating written Chinese. Secondarily, your self-evaluation will faniliarize you with the systen used in evaluating your performance and competency on the ents. Wnen you have completed one of the practice exercises, compare your work with the answer key that follows in the workbook. ‘These have been broken up to Teflect distinct words and/or phrases of the original Chinesei and, as a matter Of convenience and as a means for standardization, these units have been given Gnec or two-point values fo assist you in evaluating your translations. Although Gltecnate English translations may be equally acceptable, they must contain these essential elements. Give yourself the indicated nusber of points for each model fransiation unit that is included fully in your own version. If your phrasing or choice of words does not distort the sense of the Chinese, you should give yourself full credit for that translation unit (e.g., the phrase "right in the middle” could aiso be translated as "exactly in the cen— ter". If your translation alters the intent or does not give the full meaning