This is a very short beginner children’s joke.
A story about a young elephant who learns a valuable life lesson.
Novels: Start reading 《冷刺》Coldspike
Get your dose of cheesy militaristic language in this excerpt is from the modern militant action novel “Coldspike”, or 冷刺, written by 天地飘鸥. You’ll be reading the first part of Chapter 1: King of the Commandos (特种兵之王).
Cat Goes Fishing
A short story about an older cat teaching a younger cat a lesson as they fish together.
Mr. Wang Works at the University
The Magic Pencil
This short story is about a magic pencil – whatever it draws comes to life. This story features beginner sentence structure and a heavy smattering of intermediate vocabulary.
My heart goes out to the many who lost their family, friends or homes in Japan this week. This straightforward Chinese article reviews the Japanese death tolls in the recent earthquake.
The Thief of Time
I love mystery novels, especially the trashy ones. This synopsis’ll get you up to speed on all that evil grave robbing vocabulary you missed in class.
Three Good Friends
A very simple story about three friendly butterflies who stick up for each other.
Joke: The Two Parrots
This not-too-dirty-but-not-really-clean joke comes from a great blog on the Sina blog network, the Chinese equivalent of Blogger. The joke is about a woman whose new parrot can’t seem to stop saying one particular come-hither phrase. The phrase so embarrasses the woman that she tries to take action, but her plan doesn’t quite work out the way she wanted.
This fable describes backstory / origination of the idiom 掩耳盗铃 yǎn ěr dào líng, which literally translates as “to plug one’s ears while stealing a bell”, and meaning “to bury one’s head in the sand”, or “to deceive oneself”.
Theft by the elderly is on the rise in Japan, reports China Youth Daily. While I usually classify news items as advanced reading, the words in this article are actually fairly easy – slightly complex sentence structure but not a whole lot of complex vocabulary, worth a shot for intermediate students.
Fable: The Turkey and the Bull
If you’re in need of a fable that demonstrates the dangers of kissing ass, you’re in luck.
The History of Postage Stamps
Huh, learn something new every day. My entire understanding of the postal service comes from Terry Pratchett’s “Going Postal”, so it’s interesting to take a quick look into the [vaguely] factual history of the postage stamp.
If you’ve ever been to China during Spring Festival (Chinese New Year), you know how impossible it is to make travel plans or book tickets during that time, as the whole country prepares to make the journey back home to see family and friends.
100 Killed in India Temple Stampede
A short news item from Beijing Youth Daily talks of the tragic January 14th stampede in a temple in India.
Famous Chinese Authoress BingXin 冰心
This one-page lower-intermediate essay covers the biography of BingXin, a famous authoress from the early 1900’s. The essay writer also chronicles an interview he did with BingXin, and records some parts of their discussion.
This very short blurb from Sina.com features an announcement by Twitter chairman Jack Dorsey that Twitter has now exceeded 200 Million users.
Feeling Sick
A passage from a BLCU textbook in which a university student laments about catching a cold.
As you’re probably aware, most Chinese idioms are 4-character constructs that make little sense unless you know the story behind them. this one, 南辕北辙, means “to do something that acts against your own best interests”.