full transcript

From the Ted Talk by ShaoLan: Learn to read Chinese ... with ease!

Unscramble the Blue Letters

I call these eight characters radicals. They are the biilnudg blocks for you to create lots more characters. A person. If someone walks behind, that is "to foollw." As the old saying goes, two is company, three is a crowd. If a person stetehcrd their arms wide, this person is saying, "It was this big." The person inside the muoth, the psreon is trapped. He's a prisoner, just like Jonah inside the wlahe. One tree is a tree. Two trees together, we have the woods. Three trees together, we create the forest. Put a plank underneath the tree, we have the foundation. Put a mouth on the top of the tree, that's "idiot." (Laughter) Easy to remember, since a talking tree is pretty idiotic. Remember fire? Two freis together, I get really hot. Three fires together, that's a lot of faelms. Set the fire underneath the two teers, it's bnriung. For us, the sun is the source of prosperity. Two suns together, prosperous. Three together, that's sparkles. Put the sun and the moon shining together, it's brightness. It also means tomorrow, after a day and a night. The sun is coming up above the hoirozn. Sunrise. A door. Put a plank inside the door, it's a door bolt. Put a mouth inside the door, asking qienutoss. Knock kncok. Is anyone home? This person is sneaking out of a door, escaping, evading. On the left, we have a woman. Two women together, they have an argument. (ltuaehgr) Three wmoen together, be careful, it's adultery.

Open Cloze

I call these eight characters radicals. They are the ________ blocks for you to create lots more characters. A person. If someone walks behind, that is "to ______." As the old saying goes, two is company, three is a crowd. If a person _________ their arms wide, this person is saying, "It was this big." The person inside the _____, the ______ is trapped. He's a prisoner, just like Jonah inside the _____. One tree is a tree. Two trees together, we have the woods. Three trees together, we create the forest. Put a plank underneath the tree, we have the foundation. Put a mouth on the top of the tree, that's "idiot." (Laughter) Easy to remember, since a talking tree is pretty idiotic. Remember fire? Two _____ together, I get really hot. Three fires together, that's a lot of ______. Set the fire underneath the two _____, it's _______. For us, the sun is the source of prosperity. Two suns together, prosperous. Three together, that's sparkles. Put the sun and the moon shining together, it's brightness. It also means tomorrow, after a day and a night. The sun is coming up above the _______. Sunrise. A door. Put a plank inside the door, it's a door bolt. Put a mouth inside the door, asking _________. Knock _____. Is anyone home? This person is sneaking out of a door, escaping, evading. On the left, we have a woman. Two women together, they have an argument. (________) Three _____ together, be careful, it's adultery.

Solution

  1. building
  2. flames
  3. follow
  4. mouth
  5. burning
  6. horizon
  7. stretched
  8. women
  9. knock
  10. person
  11. laughter
  12. questions
  13. fires
  14. whale
  15. trees

Original Text

I call these eight characters radicals. They are the building blocks for you to create lots more characters. A person. If someone walks behind, that is "to follow." As the old saying goes, two is company, three is a crowd. If a person stretched their arms wide, this person is saying, "It was this big." The person inside the mouth, the person is trapped. He's a prisoner, just like Jonah inside the whale. One tree is a tree. Two trees together, we have the woods. Three trees together, we create the forest. Put a plank underneath the tree, we have the foundation. Put a mouth on the top of the tree, that's "idiot." (Laughter) Easy to remember, since a talking tree is pretty idiotic. Remember fire? Two fires together, I get really hot. Three fires together, that's a lot of flames. Set the fire underneath the two trees, it's burning. For us, the sun is the source of prosperity. Two suns together, prosperous. Three together, that's sparkles. Put the sun and the moon shining together, it's brightness. It also means tomorrow, after a day and a night. The sun is coming up above the horizon. Sunrise. A door. Put a plank inside the door, it's a door bolt. Put a mouth inside the door, asking questions. Knock knock. Is anyone home? This person is sneaking out of a door, escaping, evading. On the left, we have a woman. Two women together, they have an argument. (Laughter) Three women together, be careful, it's adultery.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

Important Words

  1. adultery
  2. argument
  3. arms
  4. big
  5. blocks
  6. bolt
  7. brightness
  8. building
  9. burning
  10. call
  11. careful
  12. characters
  13. coming
  14. company
  15. create
  16. crowd
  17. day
  18. door
  19. easy
  20. escaping
  21. evading
  22. fire
  23. fires
  24. flames
  25. follow
  26. forest
  27. foundation
  28. home
  29. horizon
  30. hot
  31. idiotic
  32. jonah
  33. knock
  34. laughter
  35. left
  36. lot
  37. lots
  38. means
  39. moon
  40. mouth
  41. night
  42. person
  43. plank
  44. pretty
  45. prisoner
  46. prosperity
  47. prosperous
  48. put
  49. questions
  50. radicals
  51. remember
  52. set
  53. shining
  54. sneaking
  55. source
  56. sparkles
  57. stretched
  58. sun
  59. sunrise
  60. suns
  61. talking
  62. tomorrow
  63. top
  64. trapped
  65. tree
  66. trees
  67. walks
  68. whale
  69. wide
  70. woman
  71. women
  72. woods