Read and Judge

Passage II :   Read and Judge
Are the following statements true or false according to the passage? Write T/F accordingly.
1The author has been studying Chinese every now and then for ten years.
2He started to study Chinese in Taiwan.
3Chinese is the third language he was studying.
4He made a lot more progress in Chinese during his stay in Taiwan than in the
       States.
5He felt it so torturing to memorize Chinese characters that he almost gave up
       his study.
6When he returned to the U.S., he made even quicker progress in learning
        Chinese.
7Chinese characters are not written with an alphabet, which makes it difficult
        for many westerners to learn.
8He is very proud of people's comments on his pronunciation.
9A big motivation for him to go on studying Chinese in Beijing is to survive
        there.
10 The author thinks learning Chinese is interesting though difficult.
Answers: 1 F 2.T 3.T 4.T 5.F 6.F 7.F 8. T 9.F 10.F
Passage II :   Read and Rewrite
Rewrite the first two paragraphs in the third person in one short paragraph. You can begin the paragraph like this:
The writer has been studying Chinese on and off for ten years…

I’ve been wrestling with Chinese off and on for ten years now. Ten years---that’s one-third of my life. I throw in the “off and on” partly because that explains my still-existing weaknesses with this language. “I’m sorry that I have no idea what you are saying. It‘s just that I’ve been studying off and on, you see.” A very convenient excuse.
In 1987 I began studying Chinese at a University in the States. I had already learned French and German and wanted something a bit more challenging. The first year I had a very good teacher, who came from Suzhou, and I made some progress. But it was nothing compared to what I had to face when I arrived in Taiwan for the first time. The teachers made us all memorize an average of 20 or 30 new characters every week, a pace so quick that soon I began to forget Chinese characters faster than I could remember them. However, I survived, and I think Taiwan left a good impression on me. Otherwise, I would have given up on this tortured language a long time ago.

Reference:

The writer has been studying Chinese on and off for ten years."
The writer has been studying Chinese on and off for ten years. Ten years---that's one-third of his life. In 1987 he began studying Chinese at an American university. He had learned French and German already, but he wanted something more challenging. The first year, he had a very good teacher, who came from Suzhou, and he made some progress. But it was nothing compared to what he had to face when he arrived in Taiwan for the first time. The teachers there made them all memorize an average of 20 or 30 new characters every week. Soon he began to forget Chinese characters faster than he could remember them. However, he survived.

Passage II : Read and Translate
Translate the following sentences.
1 He has been studying computer science on and off for five years.
2 He is not satisfied with what he has done. He needs something a bit
more challenging.
3It was nothing compared to the difficulties he had met before.
4Traffic IC cards are used for the first time this year.
5She spares no effort in helping those disabled children.
6I have already been down this difficult road for years and intend to carry on.

Answer :
1. 他断断续续学习了五年计算机。
2. 他不满足于他已经取得的成就，他需要做一些更具挑战性的事儿。
3. 和他以前遇到的困难相比，这算不了什么。
4. 今年公交IC卡首次投入使用。
5. 她不遗余力地帮助那些残疾儿童。
6. 我已经沿着这条艰难的路走了很多年，而且会继续向前走。