I. Choose the right answer.

Having a (1) _________ with Chinese characters was certainly helpful when I studied Japanese – but it was not (2)________. Sure, some of the characters look mostly the same, and the (3) ____________ of the meaning is similar, but the pronunciation is another story. When the Japanese borrowed the Chinese characters to use in their written language, the characters keep their original Chinese pronunciation. Of course, the Japanese already had a spoken language, and were not going to (4) _________ their own words in favour of a completely new vocabulary. So each Chinese character came to have an on reading, or Chinese pronunciation, and a kun reading, or Japanese pronunciation. To (5) ________, the character 新 can be pronounced shin or shim, as in the word 新聞  shimbun (newspaper).     But it can also be pronounced atara, as in _____ atarashii (meaning “new”). In addition, many of the Chinese pronunciations have changed over the years, and some I can (6) _______ recognize. Still, knowing Chinese has been a great help to me in learning to read and write Japanese – and (7) ________ it.

II. Translation

1. 中国的哲学、艺术、饮食和文学既显示出精妙的艺术，又闪烁着人性的光辉。(subtlety)

2. ……说起来很丢人，我自己查汉字的速度每小时还不到20个字。(scarcely)

3. I have to keep going, as the journey will fascinate me as much as the arrival at my destination.

4. With the dominance of English as an international language set to decline over the next 40 years, it’s not surprising that this fall is matched by a rise of interest in learning Chinese.

5. … others such as guo, ba or le are called particles, whatever that means, but don’t have an identifiable function in the terms we use to describe language.