中文挑战

Below is a complete but scrambled walkthrough for the first screen of this point-and-click adventure game. Put the sentences back into their proper order.

峭壁底下有一只在睡觉的乌龟和一株高大的仙人掌。

他们三个就这样离开沙漠...

这个过程得重复三次，因为一共有三个花苞。

马车上面有一个气球，靠在气球边有一个睡懒觉的男人，得点击他。

气吹完了，气球会飘飘地上升，直到峭壁的高度时，另外两位队员会跳到气球的平台上。

先点击仙人掌的花苞，让它变色。

再点击，它会变成花，再一次会变成水果，最后一次会落到地上。

他醒后会开始给气球吹气（用自己的呼吸，厉害吧）。

其中一个水果总会被住在仙人掌里面的老鼠偷吃掉。

接下来，点击乌龟。

它醒来之后会眼馋落地的水果，开始往前爬。

其实乌龟在拉一辆马车！

在广阔的沙漠之间，两个队员站在峭壁上。

Source: Quest for the Rest, by Amanita Design

Below is a combo of five different audio clips from Toy Story in Chinese. The challenge is to name the character in each clip without looking at the transcript. Include a quick reason for each guess. If you don’t know all their names (I don’t), just say “the piggy bank” or whatever. If you’ve never seen Toy Story, then look at the picture above and do your best to guess. Good luck, partner.

Toy Story Characters.mp3

Transcript

Links: Toy Story 1, 2, & 3 in Chinese on yesasia.

Peter Vs The Giant Chicken

This is another 7句话 word puzzle.

Hints

These hints are taken from things that happened in the video.

公鸡从****货运卡车上 (4 characters)

彼得用***不停地砸公鸡的脑袋 (3 characters)

卡车掉到**上，立刻爆炸了 (2 characters)

这场暴行都是为了一张过期的*** (3 characters)

看样子公鸡死了，可他突然****，竟然还活着 (4 characters)

***正好飞过来，就被公鸡抓住了 (3 characters)

公鸡不光会脚踢和拳打，他还会用自己的***对手的头 (3 characters)

Pool of Characters

There are some extra characters in this pool.

桥 复 上 眼 摔 脚 睁

夫 券 物 功 三 猫 机

戳 升 直 拖 机 船 购

到 睛 喙 鸟 开 印

Source: Family Guy

Welcome to the first Chinese Food Geography 挑战. Attached is a picture of 11 Chinese food items (mostly 小吃) and below is a list of 5 cities where these food items are well known. Please list the food items under the city that it is related to or famous for.

Provide your answers in Chinese for A thru K. The number of characters for each food item is shown in parentheses ( # of characters ). Answers for C / D are interchangeable and E / F / G are also interchangeable because they have similar number of characters.

北京:

A (5)

B (4)

上海:

C (3)

D (3)

香港:

E (2)

F (2)

G (2)

台北:

H (3)

I (2)

澳门:

J (4)

K (3)

Bonus #1: What is the more specific name for the food item on the second row, third from the left? If you had to order this at a Chinese restaurant, how would you order this type shown in the picture? (5 characters)

Bonus #2: Where does the famous types of the item on the second row, second from the left originate from? (3 characters)

Bonus #3: Traditionally, what are those red and yellow balls in the item on the third row, fourth from the left? (2 characters)

Can you answer these questions without looking at the spoiler tag? When you provide your answers, please mention if you looked at the spoiler tag or not. Also, have you gone to these cities and tried these foods? Which do you like and dislike?

Have fun!

In the spoiler tag are the out of order characters for items A thru K. There are extra characters that are not used and the answers to the bonus questions are not in there.

Use Chinese to describe how the bunny buys the farm.

Source: The Book of Bunny Suicides

Use Chinese to describe how the bunny bites the dust.

Source: The Book of Bunny Suicides

Use Chinese to describe how the bunny meets its maker.

Source: The Book of Bunny Suicides

Here's a 综合填空 (cloze) passage taken from a grade 10 Higher Chinese practice book from Singapore. Can you pick the best word for each blank? Native speakers are welcome to take part!

Instructions:

1. Answer any number of questions in the passage. Simply post your answers as [spoilers] in this blog, and optionally give a quick reason why you chose each answer (in English or Chinese). If you want, say whether you used a dictionary or researched the questions. (Note: This passage was apparently modified from material on the web, so be careful in your searching, else you might spoil your practice.)

2. I'll then send you your score and list the questions you got wrong.

3. After 3 days, I'll post the model answers given in the book. You can then decide and discuss whether the book's answers are right. (They may not be: see the thread that spawned this challenge for an example.)

The passage may look long, but it's really not that difficult. Feel free to answer just a few questions here and there - I'll let you know how you did on those.

Here's the scanned passage. It's a simple one this time, about 台北的小吃. I've also OCRed the passage and edited it, so you can do all the e-dictionary looking up you want. Typos may still be present, so watch out. Here it is:

填空，GO！

(This is the first time we're doing this, so feedback on the 挑战 is welcome.)

You won't really need a decoder ring, just a pen and paper. The attached clip contains two coded messages (two sets of a bunch of numbers). Your mission is to simply to write down all the numbers you hear. Here are the rules - listen straight through, no pausing. Listen additional times as needed to get any numbers you miss. Can you get it on the first try? If not, how many tries does it take? Share your results.

Decoder Ring.mp3

Getting it on the first try is tricky. It took me 7 blessed tries to get all the numbers. I kept missing the same pocket of numbers. Note: 一 is pronounced yao.

Transcript

Links: The clip is taken from 潜伏, so it has a 1940s AM radio flavor.

DRINK MORE OVALTINE

无路用的人.mp3

Listen to the song from 0:18 to 1:55 and solve the following 7句话 word puzzle.

Hints

These hints are lines picked from the song's lyrics.

唉呀未接电话那么多，我想•••也非常多 (3 characters)

我真的好想她，但••已不再 (2 characters)

我很欠骂，我是傻瓜，我好辛苦•••• (4 characters)

••这两个字我常常骂别人，现在我只会骂我自己 (2 characters)

这几年用尽所有力气••••跟别人不一样 (4 characters)

我的脑袋跟•••一样空白 (3 characters)

我在干什么，我在怕什么，也许自由是我••••• (5 characters)

Pool of Characters

There are some extraneous characters in the pool; these extra characters are not used to solve the puzzle.

板 的 知 蛋 花 屁

把 狗 逃 识 试 事

师 借 去 笨 梦 证

方 给 向 口 天 失

明 图 避 老 还 美

Source: 无路用的人 by 张震岳

Below are seven words in English whose Chinese equivalents are loanwords from English. Below that, are the characters for these words all scrambled up. Your assignment, should you be brave enough, is to try to reassemble the Chinese words, based only on their sound. Some loanwords I expect you know, some I hope are more challenging. [Numbers in parentheses are the number of characters.]

blog (2) :

calorie (3):

chocolate (3):

engine (2):

romance (3):

tank (2) [see if you were paying attention last time!]:

vitamin (3):

b: 博

k: 卡 克 客 克

l: 力 路 羅 里

m: 曼 命

q: 巧 擎

s: 史

t: 坦 他

w: 維

y: 引

All words are taken from MDBG; so looking there (or any E->C dictionary) first will give you no honor. Looking up how to pronounce a character that you don't know is, of course, still honorable. [And if you're brave enough, don't check your answers against MDBG before you post -- I'd love to see what people come up with!]

This is another 7句话 word puzzle, only this time the hints are accompanied by photos.

Hints

那颗巨大的•••让两个小孩子很开心 (3 characters)

练••是她最喜欢的活动 (2 characters)

坐在床边，一边看镜子一边••• (3 characters)

躲在树后的三位男人都•••• (4 characters)

这艘船是用••做的 (2 characters)

带着••的女人往上瞧 (2 characters)

男孩躺••••上 (4 characters)

Pool of Characters

纸 皂 样 具 克

在 摸 唇 肥 报

泡 嘴 模 面 一

一 坦 瑜 炮 伽

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Put on your 听力 shoes. This is a clip (1:45) from the audiobook of a horror novel called 《天劫》. Here’s the setup - an older woman (奶奶) and a little girl (小烟) have just bumped into a fortune teller (算命). It's already been hinted at that something is wrong with the girl. See if you can answer these questions without looking at the transcript. The clip alternates between two narrators, but don’t let that throw you.

Cursed Well.mp3

1. Where is the well?

2. What is the fortune teller’s first piece of advice?

3. Why is the woman frightened?

4. The girl shouldn’t leave what place?

Bonus question: Can you guess who the female narrator is? (it is not obvious from the clip, but it is hinted at.)

Transcript

Links: Audiobook on verycd. The transcript for tracks 1 to 28 of the audiobook is below. I’ll update it once I finish parsing out the text for all 74 tracks.

Tianjie transcript 01-28.txt

The following lyric lines are out of order. Listen to the song from 1:25 to 2:00 and put the lines back into their proper order.

Chuan Qi.mp3

只留下疑问与话题

我们是自己

天都快黑尽

圣人的经书

我们在矛盾里传奇

英雄的尸骨已成烂泥

黄土和坟墓

我们是什么

点燃了指头挥霍自己

后辈人继续

才钻破梦底

前辈人教唆

Source: 传奇, by 春秋乐队

If they ever make a Chinese version of Rock Band and this song isn't on it, I will lose my faith in humanity.

This word puzzle is a variation on 7 Little Words. You are given 7 hints which correspond to 7 words/phrases that you must figure out. Each hint contains a bit of text and the number of characters in the given phrase. You are also given a pool of characters from which you must assemble all your answers. Each word in the pool can only be used once, and they must all be used to completely solve the puzzle. Can you deduce all 7 phrases? 加油!

Hints

Cooked dish (2 characters)

An order of dumplings (4 characters)

Numbing spicy soup (3 characters)

Imitation meat (2 characters)

Cook who prepares ingredients (2 characters)

Hot and sour soup (3 characters)

Fast food shop (3 characters)

Pool of Characters

肉 二 快 辣 餐

店 辣 子 一 肴

酸 厨 麻 份 烫

素 汤 菜 饺

Here's my first crack at a 挑战!

I have a clip from the first episode of the show 好想好想谈恋爱. The characters involved are 谭艾琳 and 建豪. Just to give you a little background, 建豪 is fabulously wealthy and he often flies into town for the weekend just to see 谭艾琳, sends her expensive gifts, and in general spends a lot of money on her. This is a conversation between the two of them in a quiet little coffee house.

1. What is the topic of their conversation?

2. Why does 谭艾琳 finally decide to broach this subject?

3. What feelings does 谭艾琳 have towards 建豪?

Transcript:

For more info, here's the link to the discussion thread from the Great First Episode Project.

Use Chinese to devise a caption for each comic panel.

Source: Shanna the She-Devil, by Frank Cho

Here's an audio clip (1:34) from the opening of the kung-fu classic The Five Venoms 《五毒》. There is a ton of good kung-fu vocab in this one, so it might be a bit tough if you do not spend some time in the 江湖. The characters involved are a student named 杨德 and his 师父. See if you can answer these questions without looking at the transcript (below and embedded as lyrics in mp3).

Five Venoms v2.mp3

1. How long has 杨德 been an apprentice?

2. What would happen if he spoke about 五毒门 to the outside world?

3. What is the first thing the previous five 师兄 did after their training?

4. Before sending him on a mission, what does 杨德's 师父 want to tell him?

Transcript

Some links: 《五毒》 on tudou. A thread on Shaw Bros. movies.

Read the two comic pages and answer the following questions. See if you can answer the questions without having to look at the transcript.

1. What crime has occurred?
2. How was the crime committed?
3. How does the "正是如此" Indian arrive at his conclusion?

Transcript:

Source: Indian Summer, by Milo Manara & Hugo Pratt

What is 中文挑战? It's a series of challenges designed to test your hard-earned Chinese skills. Reading, listening, and writing skills will all be covered (though not all at the same time). The focus will be on appreciating media intended for native Chinese speakers.

Who is it for? 中文挑战 is intended for intermediate to advanced learners. Certainly not all challenges will be at the same level, but because everyone has their own learning trajectory it will be hard for us to explicitly label something as "easy", "hard", or "insane". But most challenges will be short, so you can quickly assess whether they're appropriate for your level.

How do I participate? Just read the blog and try to beat the challenge. Ask questions if you're not sure about something. Share your solutions by posting them as a comment. Suggest new types of challenges.

How frequently will these challenges come out? Once a week, give or take.

What form will these challenges take? Most challenges will follow the basic media + quiz format. That is, we present some media clip that you read, listen, or watch; after reviewing the clip you answer some questions on a short quiz. Examples of media we'll use are soundbites, videos, comic panels, etc.

Who will be creating the challenges? Regular forum contributors and media junkies Gleaves and feihong.