Just as children gain literacy in their native language by reading, learners of a foreign language must read large amounts of level-appropriate books and material to attain fluency in their target language. Tales and Traditions was specially created to help learners of Chinese achieve that goal, by collecting adaptations and selections from the most well-known works in the Chinese literary and folk canon in a series of convenient supplementary readers.
Perfect for class instruction or pleasure reading outside of class, Tales and Traditions exposes students to a wealth of information essential for the development of cultural fluency in Chinese. This series of graded readings will be especially welcomed as the AP* Chinese Language and Culture exam requires knowledge of China's literary, cultural, and historical traditions.
The selections in the Readings in Chinese Literature Series have been adapted to a level appropriate for language learners at four different levels, from beginning in Volume 1 through advanced in Volume 4. This first volume for beginning learners contains fables and literary quotations, sayings from classical philosophers, and myths and legends. Each story includes a short summary in English, a vocabulary list, and questions to facilitate discussion in both Chinese and English. Stories appear in both simplified and traditional characters on facing pages, and an appendix contains a simplified character text with pinyin for readers still learning Chinese pronunciation.
*Advanced Placement and AP are registered trademarks of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.
Contents:
I 寓言典故
FABLES AND LITERARY QUOTATIONS
1. Pulling Seedlings Up to Help Them Grow 拔苗助長
2. Sitting by a Stump to Wait for a Careless Hare 守株待兔
3. Drawing a Snake with Feet 畫蛇添足
4. Mistaking the Reflection of a Bow for a Snake 杯弓蛇影
5. Six Blind Men and an Elephant 盲人摸象
6. Self-Contradiction 自相矛盾
7. A Frog in a Well 井底之蛙
8. Three in the Morning and Four in the Evening 朝三暮四
9. Carving a Mark on a Boat to Look for a Lost Sword 刻木求劍
10. An Old Man on the Frontier Loses His Horse 塞翁失馬
II 名人軼事
SAYINGS OF IMPORTANT HISTORICAL FIGURES
11. One Out of Every Three Must Be My Mentor 三人行必有我師
12. Mencius’ Mother Moved Three Times 孟母三遷
13. Kong Rong Offers the Best Pears to His Brothers 孔融讓梨
14. Grinding Down an Iron Pestle to a Needle 鐵杵磨成針
15. Bringing a Birch and Begging for a Flogging 負荊請罪
16. Cao Chong Weighs an Elephant 曹沖稱象
17. Breaking the Water Vat to Save a Life 司馬光砸缸