营帐, 屏障, 帐篷, 帷幕

[creamyhorror]

I'm a little bored tonight, so I thought I'd just ask about this question I came across:

"...茂密的树叶像一把巨伞，又似一个天然______，不但把半个院落遮住，还把不起眼的小屋也揽在身下，屋里院里都充满了凉意。"

(1) 营帐 (2) 屏障 (3) 帐篷 (4) 帷幕

I'm honestly not too clear which fits best. I'm thinking 帐篷 or maybe 屏障, but maybe someone could say which one is right and explain why? Is there a set phrase like 天然XX, perhaps from a classic text?

edit: I found the sentence "郁郁葱葱的密林正好是我们天然的屏障". I guess 天然屏障 is a set phrase for "natural barrier", but is it the right choice here?

[jkhsu]

Where did you find this question? HSK level 7? I'll let someone else chime in on the answer. I was just curious about where you got the sentence from.

[roddy]

I'd go for 帐篷 as being the nearest to a kind of canopy - 2 and 4 are both vertical (one a partition on the floor, the other a curtain hanging down）. 营帐 is more specific that it'd need to be, and if people are sleeping in it (tent used as barracks is the dictionary definition) it's going to have walls. 帐篷 is used as tent, of course, but do a Google image search and you find canopy-type arrangements with four poles and a roof. That looks more like a tree to me.

I had to look all that up. I'd have guessed otherwise.

[creamyhorror]

I'd go for 帐篷 as being the nearest to a kind of canopy - 2 and 4 are both vertical (one a partition on the floor, the other a curtain hanging down）. 营帐 is more specific that it'd need to be, and if people are sleeping in it (tent used as barracks is the dictionary definition) it's going to have walls. 帐篷 is used as tent, of course, but do a Google image search and you find canopy-type arrangements with four poles and a roof. That looks more like a tree to me.

I adopted the same reasoning in preferring 帐篷, but after seeing 密林正好是我们天然的屏障 and 天然屏障 for "natural barrier" I was inclined to consider it possible as well. I guess we just need confirmation now.

I had to look all that up. I'd have guessed otherwise.

Me too. This question could be part of an experiment to see who actually knows the (right) answer without checking anything. I wonder how many people besides native speakers would.

Where did you find this question? HSK level 7? I'll let someone else chime in on the answer. I was just curious about where you got the sentence from.

Heh, it's a bit of a toughie for us learners huh. It's from a practice book for O-Level (grade 10) Higher Chinese here in Singapore that I happen to have lying around, just so I can stump myself when the urge arises.

[creamyhorror]

Okay, here's another one from the same passage:

”虽然杏、桃在夏天就被摘完，但此时枣子红透了脸，梨子长满了雀斑，苹果则显得越发丰满。它们______地挂在枝头，闪出诱人的光泽，你不需要吃，只看一眼就陶醉了。”

(1) 冷漠 (2) 炫耀 (3) 骄矜 (4) 皎洁

To my mind, (2) and (3) seem to fit better, but which? 炫耀 seems to match 诱人的光泽, but it's a bit strange to 炫耀地挂着. I don't have any sense about the appropriateness of 骄矜 in describing luscious fruit on the branch, but they could be sitting there "proudly" I guess. 冷漠 seemed a bit too distant so I ruled it out. 皎洁 describes pure white light so it's out. Your guesses and ideas are welcome.

Also, another question:

"后院分娩完累累果实的果树，一面唱着_____的歌，一面变醉了红叶，离开枝头翩然落下。"

(1) 凋零 (2) 萧瑟 (3) 颤抖 (4) 枯萎

The answer for this was clear enough once I checked the dictionary. What I actually want to ask, though, is about 变醉 - I don't understand its use here. 果树是怎么"变醉"红叶的？ Is it a typo/白字?

请大家不吝指教~

[jkhsu]

This is like another 中文挑战.

I think the answer for the first question is (2) 炫耀. The reason is, in the last sentence it says that by just looking at it you become infatuated. So it has to mean something that is appealing and attractive. If I break down the words into characters for (2) and (3) I get this (from MDBG):

(2) 炫耀 - to show off / to flaunt

炫 - to dazzle / to boast / to show off

耀 - brilliant / glorious

(3) 骄矜 - haughty / proud

骄 - proud / arrogant

矜 - to boast / to esteem / to sympathize

Words like haughty and arrogant don't seem appealing. Also when I did a jukuu.com search, 骄矜 was almost always negative with arrogance being the main definition while 炫耀 had some "showing off" to attract kind of feel to it. Plus as you mentioned it fits with 诱人的光泽.

I could be totally wrong though. Just giving you my two cents. Don't have a clue about the second question.

[semantic nuance]

@creamyhorror: Are these sentences in the same article or they're different sentence examples? Is it possible that you post the whole article here? With the clear context, it may be easier to decipher which fits.

[creamyhorror]

@semantic nuance: They're from the same passage. I don't have time to type the whole thing out, but I've typed more of the surrounding text below. Hopefully the answers will be clearer. Sorry I didn't supply more context initially.

"在小屋的前后，各有一个不大不小的院子，院子里的世界却是绿茵茵的。最吸引人注目的就是前院那棵大枣树，有一抱粗*，树枝向四周伸开，Q3_____般的茂密树叶像一把巨伞，又似一个天然Q4______，不但把半个院落遮住，还把不起眼的小屋也揽在身下，屋里院里都充满了凉意。在树荫没遮到的地方则开了一片不大的菜地，种着一架黄瓜、一架豆角、几棵西红柿和Q5_____的茄子。"

Q3:　(1) 玛瑙　(2) 水晶　(3) 玉石　(4) 翡翠

Q4:　(1) 营帐　(2) 屏障　(3) 帐篷　(4) 帷幕

Q5:　(1) 混淆黑白 (2) 姹紫嫣红 (3) 零零散散 (4) 七零八落

* 不知道这里是否有了差错

And for the next question:

"秋天是收获的季节，后院更热闹起来。虽然杏、桃在夏天就被摘完，但此时枣子红透了脸，梨子长满了雀斑，苹果则显得越发丰满。它们Q9______地挂在枝头，闪出诱人的光泽，你不需要吃，只看一眼就陶醉了。而到了冬天，前院劳累了半年的各种菜秧枯萎变黄了，爸爸把他们割下来剁碎，又深埋进土里。而后院分娩完累累果实的果树，一面唱着Q10_____的歌，一面变醉了红叶，离开枝头翩然落下。"

Q9 (1) 冷漠 (2) 炫耀 (3) 骄矜 (4) 皎洁

Q10 (1) 凋零 (2) 萧瑟 (3) 颤抖 (4) 枯萎

If that's not enough context, I'll type the whole passage out tomorrow.

@jkhsu: Yeah, I did think 炫耀 fit better. Let's see what others say.

[semantic nuance]

a quick answer to your first question: I'd go 帷幕。天然的屏障 though seems a fixed phrase, but 屏障 to me, has the connotation of being protected from being harmed. In the context you provided, I'ld choose 帷幕, which is used to seprate inside and outside. The reason I don't choose 營帳，帳篷, is because both are kind of being 'walled'. If things are 'walled', it's unlikely to 充满了凉意. That's my take on it, not sure if it's correct or not.

[Peter2010]

1\ I don't think 骄矜 is appropriate but no other words are better here.

2\

果树是怎么"变醉"红叶的？

I guess the author was trying to say that falling leaves in the air appear like drunks so they must be "变醉" by tree (变醉 is strange to me too).

[semantic nuance]

Q3: 翡翠 , reason: color.

* 一抱粗: perhaps the author means the tree is as large as he can hold with his arms.

Q5: 零零散散 reason: here and there, 七零八落 negative connotation

Q9: 炫耀 see definition 1. (shining color) Still, I don't think this is appropriate here, for 炫耀 is normally used as a verb or noun, rarely used as an adverb. 驕矜, though likely for its 詞性， being arrogant, as other members pointed out, is negative. Not sure of this one.

Q10 蕭瑟 goes with the autumn. 變醉了, druken (color implication---turning red, also the linking to the previous phrase 陶醉)

No offence, but I don't think the style of the article is coherent.

[Peter2010]

一抱粗 means “an armful”

[creamyhorror]

Thank you for your detailed answers, semantic nuance, and Peter2010 for your answers too! It looks like this passage is no good, since the answers to the questions are debatable even to native speakers. (Peter2010, are you a native speaker?) Maybe I need to find a better book...

@semantic nuance: Do you find the style incoherent because the words used are mismatched in tone/register? Or because the answer choices are strange?

The 屏障·帐篷·帷幕 question is silly; I guess the author just wanted to test knowledge of the set phrase 天然屏障, even if it doesn't really fit well.

一报粗 is an interesting expression; I'll have to look into it.

[jkhsu]

@creamyhorror - Just for your info, I had a native speaker friend look at this and she said this passage is not odd, it's normal but it's advanced level. Also, roddy's answer 帐篷 is correct . I couldn't get her to look into the answers to the other questions. I'd have other native speakers look at this before you toss it. I get the feeling it's just above most people's level here.

[semantic nuance]

It's just my two-cent opinion. From the passages you posted, I sense that the author uses vivid images to depict what s/he tries to convey, while s/he writes somewhere in quite a plain wording. It just sounds not natural, not very smooth to me.

Besides, some of the answers picked are not necessarily wrong, for in different pictures of the tale, any answer from it is possible. Without pitures attached, you cannot say it's totally wrong. If the answer is clear cut, then the items chosen were vague.

只是我的淺見。我覺得從 creamyhorror 貼出來的段落來看，筆者好像想用很生動的描寫，但在其他字裡行間，其用字遣詞又出奇白話，讓我覺得不是很自然。再者，部分貼出來的答案也不能說通通都錯。如果你的故事裡呈現的是不同的意象，也許每個選項都可以。問題就出在，我們不知道作者的圖像是什麼。又說，如果是單一答案的話 (也就是普世皆準的答案 universal answer, this or that without mistake)，那麼他舉出的例子意義上還是很模糊。

就比如: '梨子長滿了雀斑'這個意象。可指梨子上的斑點，也可指作者想用年輕青春的意象來指涉青春的恣意。所以他可能才有如下的 '驕矜' 或 '炫耀'的字眼。但是，梨子上的斑點卻可能呈現相反的意象，也就是水果本身不夠完美，出現斑痕。

就算文章是給 advanced learner 所學，或文章本身是屬於 advanced level, 也不能只是文字的堆砌，好像很美麗，但無邏輯可言吧!

To me, it sounds like that.

[jkhsu]

就比如: '梨子長滿了雀斑'這個意象。可指梨子上的斑點，也可指作者想用年輕青春的意象來指涉青春的恣意。所以他可能才有如下的 '驕矜' 或 '炫耀'的字眼。但是，梨子上的斑點卻可能呈現相反的意象，也就是水果本身不夠完美，出現斑痕。

I think you might be looking too deep into this. Also, the sentence the pears appears in include similar descriptions of dates and apples which all are very appealing. There's no sense that the pears should not be appealing. While, a youth can be arrogant, the key point is that by looking at it you become infatuated (without even having to eat it). The ambiguities we see are the result of our level of Chinese (I will admit mine is much lower than yours). Even in an English test, we have ambiguities but that's the reason why it's an advanced test vs. a beginner test. In my opinion, there is still a right and wrong answer.

[roddy]

With these kinds of questions, at this kind of level, you don't get one right answer and three wrong ones - you need to be able to choose the best answer from maybe four possible ones. Often you're left just accepting the 'correct' answer even if you can't see why - teachers may well also struggle to see the reasoning in some cases. There's not much value in over-thinking it.

It looks like this passage is no good, since the answers to the questions are debatable even to native speakers.

Debatable maybe, but give it to a range of literate native speakers and I'll wager the majority will end up choosing the same answer.

[jkhsu]

Still, I don't think this is appropriate here, for 炫耀 is normally used as a verb or noun, rarely used as an adverb

I tried searching for 炫耀地 on google and found quite a good number of entries. Many are used to describe "说" as in "炫耀地说". Even when I search for the exact "炫耀地挂", I get over 2,000 entries.

[Peter2010]

I agree with semantic nuance that this article is lack of logic.

e.g.

Q3_____般的茂密树叶像一把巨伞，又似一个天然Q4______，

I guess the author was trying to say "树像巨伞、似屏障" but the the main structure of this sentence is "树叶像巨伞、似屏障". as you can tell, that's ridiculous.

[roddy]

I can not tell that it is ridiculous. Even if it is ridiculous, that doesn't mean the questions are.