ya4 miao2 zhu4 zhang3

[nipponman]

Hey guys, at this site http://www.wellesley.edu/Chinese/Chinese_Fables/spoil/spoil_fable.html

there is a good cheng yu. I was listening to the story and I basically got most of it, but there were a few parts I didn't understand, or couldn't hear very well. My questions are the words/senctences before the numbers in parenthesis, and also the parts where there are no hanzi, but only pinyin, here I either couldn't hear her, or couldn't find a word that matched what I thought I heard. Here is my transcription with questions included (yay:):

揠苗助長

揠苗是拔秧苗拔起來的意思。（１）助長是幫夫（２）秧苗長大的意思。一 看

（３）﹐這張畫兒上的農夫在 （４） 拔他田裡秧苗納（５）這個農夫的性子很奇﹐沒有耐心。他總覺得（６）刺激zhong的莊稼長得太慢。沒有別人的快。他想如果我把（７）田裡的秧苗都拔高一點兒﹐我就長得快了嗎﹖他決定了以後﹐就在田裡把（８）秧苗yi ke yi ke地完善拔（９）他一舉把都 fei1才（１０）八萬（１1）回家以後他fen de yi ??家人說我jin he lei si(?)la.可是我作了已將（１2）你明天去田裡看看﹖我們的莊稼一定比別人的長得高。因為我想辦法幫秧苗張高啦。diar 天早上﹐他妻子高高興興得跟他到田裡去看﹐以看﹐哎呀糟糕田裡的秧苗全都（１3）枯死了。

1.I don't know if this is right, that is all I can hear though.

2.Don't think this is a real word, but I don't know what she is saying here.

3.doesn't sound like yi2 kan4, sounds more like yi1 kan1.

4.sounds more like cai4, but I don't know what she says here either.

5.sounds like na4, if only it were na2.

6. sounds to me like jue2 de1, not jue2 de5.

7.I can't tell if this is ba2 or ba3, but I think it is ba3 because two ba2 might be a little redundant.

8.same as 7.

9. don't get this part at all

10. Can't here this word, cai or zai?

11. what is this part?

12.can't hear this.

13.is this a real word, I think the meaning is obvious if it is though.

Also, the exercises kicked my butt, question 2, a and b seem like the same thing.

If someone could help me with some (or all of these, I would be grateful,

Thanks

nipponman.

romaji <-->pinyin

[skylee]

Consider the orange parts -

揠苗是把秧苗拔起來的意思，助長是幫助秧苗長大的意思。你看，這張畫兒上的農夫在拔他田裡的秧苗哪。這個農夫的性子很急，沒有耐心。他總覺得自己種的莊稼長得太慢，沒有別人的快。他想，如果我把田裡的秧苗都拔高一點兒，不就長得快了嗎﹖他決定了以後，就在田裡把秧苗一棵一棵地往上拔。他一直拔到天黑才拔完。回家以後，他很得意地對家人說，我今天累死啦，可是我做了一件很聰明的事。你明天去田裡看看，我們的莊稼一定會比別人的長得高，因為我想辦法幫助秧苗長高啦。第二天早上，他妻子高高興興地跟他到田裡去看。一看，哎呀，糟糕，田裡的秧苗全都枯死了。

[skylee]

Q1 a. ya miao zu zhang b. ya miao zhu zhang c. ya miao zhu zang

Q2 a. 多給秧苗肥料 b. 把野草除掉 c. 把秧苗往上拔高

[nipponman]

Ah, ok, thanks skylee. I was so close on some of those!

[nipponman]

This is a grammatical question, hows does多給秧苗肥料 mean "to give the sprouts much fertilizer." I don't see how 多 translates into an adverb, there is none of the "de's" around to help me out, but I have seen this in other places like : 弟弟要多吃一些. Sorry if I am being inflexible, but this is only my second year of chinese:lol: .

nipponman

[Altair]

As far as I understand it, there are many one word "adverbs" that cannot take "de" when they appear immediately before a verb. 多 is one of these. 很 is another.

Also, I think the meaning in such phrases is not "much," but "more." 多給秧苗肥料 is "give the sprouts more fertilizer," and 弟弟要多吃一些 is "Younger brother is going to eat a little more.

While English casts "more" in the role of an adjectival modifier (e.g., "more fertilizer") or as a noun equivalent (e.g. "eat more"), Chinese casts it in the role of an adverb (e.g., "do more giving of fertilizer" and "do more eating of a little amount").

[nipponman]

Ah, okay, so your saying it is acting as an adverb. I couldn't figure out for the life of me what it was doing there! Thanks Altair

nipponman