Chinese vocab questions

[drktmplar]

1. Is this correct? 北京直属中央政府管辖。

2. What is the difference in meaning between the above sentence and the following one? 北京有中央直接管辖。

3. What does the following mean? 为人沉厚。

4. What does 百年树人 mean in the following sentence? 教育是一件十年树木，百年树人长远大计，不能急功近利。

5. What does 不方mean in the following sentence? 不要抱住错误观点不方。

6. Is it correct to use 因 in the following way? 她因没考好而懊恼。

7. What is the difference between 盗用，挪用，and 截留?

(All sentences from nciku.com.)

多谢~

dt

[trien27]

1. Is this correct? 北京直属中央政府管辖。

2. What is the difference in meaning between the above sentence and the following one? 北京有中央直接管辖。

3. What does the following mean? 为人沉厚。

4. What does 百年树人 mean in the following sentence? 教育是一件十年树木，百年树人长远大计，不能急功近利。

5. What does 不方mean in the following sentence? 不要抱住错误观点不方。

6. Is it correct to use 因 in the following way? 她因没考好而懊恼。

7. What is the difference between 盗用，挪用，and 截留?

1. Is this correct? 北京直属中央政府管辖。This means that 北京 [beijing] is a 直属管辖 [a municipality] which belongs directly to the 中央政府 [central government] without any other agency / agencies involved.

2. What is the difference in meaning between the above sentence and the following one? 北京有中央直接管辖。Same thing as above.

3. What does the following mean? 为人沉厚。This talks about a person's character.

4. What does 百年树人 mean in the following sentence? 教育是一件十年树木，百年树人长远大计，不能急功近利。It's comparing 十年 to 百年 meaning that it takes time to plan things out, which can't be rushed.

5. What does 不方mean in the following sentence? 不要抱住错误观点不方。方 is wrong. Should be 放, meaning "You shouldn't hold dearly to your viewpoints [when you know you're wrong and others are correct]"

6. Is it correct to use 因 in the following way? 她因没考好而懊恼。It's correct. 因 is short for 因为, and 没 is also short for 没有.

7. What is the difference between 盗用，挪用，and 截留? 盗用 = using something that's pirated or stolen, 挪用 = inappropriate use of something, & 截留 = withhold something for later use.

[imron]

北京有中央直接管辖。

As an aside, this should probably be 北京由中央直接管辖

[drktmplar]

Trien27,

Thank you for your reply, and I apologize for not being more clear, as you did not answer most of my questions. Again, perhaps it was I who was not clear enough.

I should have mentioned that for most of these sentences, I understand the overall meaning, so I do not need an overall translation. My questions pertain to specific phrases or word choices for which I need some clarification.

1. Yes, I knew the meaning already. I'll take it that the sentence is correct because you did not point out any errors.

2. Is this sentence more formal than the first one? More 正式？Or are these just two ways to say the same thing, with no difference in connotation, etc.?

3. I know that 为人沉厚 describes someone's character, but 沉厚 is defined to be simple and mature, which seems a little odd to me. Could you perhaps elaborate on this meaning?

4. I understand the overall meaning of 教育是一件十年树木，百年树人长远大计，不能急功近利。Education takes many years (100 years), that it is necessary to have a long-term plan, and that such plans cannot be rushed to fruition. Yes, that much is clear.

Nciku translates the sentence as:

It takes ten years to grow trees and a hundred years to educate people, so education is a long-term effort. We can't be eager for quick success and instant benefit.

It seems to me, though, that 教育 = 十年树木, and that the 百年树is associated with 人长远大计, so in my eyes, the translation would read as follows:

"Education is like a tree which needs 10 years...[then I don't know what's up with this middle part, which is what my question was about]...One cannot rush such a thing to fruition."

Please elaborate on this middle clause - thank you.

5. Thank you for the correction. I, too, was wondering if 方 was supposed to be 放。 However, again, my question remains unanswered, but I think I can guess at the answer:

The sentence literally means, "You shouldn't hold dearly to your viewpoints, not letting them go," where the bold corresponds to the 不放, correct? If this is the case, why did the author even write 不放？ It seems unnecessary.

6. Thanks. ;-)

7. Beautiful, thank you.

[Jim]

The whole of 十年树木，百年树人 is a set phrase, paraphrasing Guanzi《管子·权修》

“一年之计，莫如树谷；十年之计，莫如树木；终身之计，莫如树人。”

The sense of the whole thing is something like 'you can get decent outcomes with a good short term plan but to really achieve all your goals you need to think for the long-term'.

For 沉厚 I think of things like 'solid' and 'quietly dependable' and 'unflappable', adjust as context suits. often linked with 'taciturn' in the the chengyu 沉厚寡言 - a no-bullshit, steady type of person.

The 不放 modifies the verb 抱住 and is more satisfying from a prosodic point of view rather than strictly necessary - i.e. I think the author added it because it makes the sentence read better and drives home the point.

[pazu]

北京直属中央政府管辖 and 北京由中央直接管辖 are almost the same, but I think the first one is better, there is no reason to add some unnecessary words.

Note that in many cases, Chinese postpositions (can be ignored), the rule isn't as strict as English or other languages.

Also, the following sentence 教育是一件十年树木，百年树人长远大计，不能急功近利。 can be written as 教育是十年树木，百年树人长远大计，不能急功近利。, take away "一件", many number words can also be omitted in Chinese.

Another example:

He is a kind man.

他为人亲切。

but not 他是一个亲切的人。

Both sentences above are okay, but the first one is Chinese, the second one is European Chinese...

[drktmplar]

Fantastic - thanks for the help. :-)