Sleeping Beauty 睡美人 - Paragraph 5 第五段

Text

Note: The text is pasted here in case you want to copy/paste one of the words into a dictionary app, but the above video and zip file download are best inputting the content as they have audio and text-tracking.

一年以后，又是一个夏天，花园里的花儿又大又美。有一天，门被推开了，但开门的人不是爸爸，是谁呢？原来，一个很帅的男孩儿被花香吸引过来了，他找了很久终于找到了这个花园。他走进花园，跟着这个花香来到女孩儿身边。男孩儿看到女孩儿的时候呆住了，因为他从来没有看到过这么漂亮的女孩子。她的皮肤和雪一样白，头发和晚上的天空一样黑。他忍不住，亲了女孩儿一下。女孩儿醒了。她问男孩：“你是谁？” 男孩说：“我是一位王子。今天我经过花园的时候看到了你，然后我爱上你了。你愿意当我的女朋友吗？” 女孩儿点点头。从此，他们幸福地生活在了一起。

Top-Down Words

爸爸 bàba - father
原来 yuánlái -  as it turns out...
吸引 xīyǐn - attract
久 jiǔ - a long time
终于 zhōngyú - finally
漂亮 piàoliàng - pretty
皮肤 pífū - skin
忍不住 rěnbúzhù - cannot help
醒 xǐng - to wake up
王子 - prince
愿意 yuànyì - willing 
从此 cóngcǐ- from now on
幸福 xìngfú - happiness

How to Use This Lesson

Step One

Watch the video here on the course platform. Feel free to take as much time as you'd like to understand the content, but don't feel obligated to understand the text right now fully. You'll download the video and return to it later. 

Step Two

Download the zip file from the sidebar (desktop/laptop) or below this description (Mobile APP). That zip file contains the following:

• Text tracking video(s) MP4 file(s)
• Audio MP3 file(s)
• Image file of the text & top-down words for your reference

Step Three

At a time of your choosing, use the video files to practice shadowing. If you need a reminder, this lesson explains how to shadow. These video files are ideal for shadowing, especially if you download them to your phone because you can walk around while doing it.

Click Here to Navigate to All Phase 5 Stories

Member Comments from 2019-mid-2020

Do you also want to leave a comment? You can do so below！

Soren Korsbaek

I thought I'd highlight an example of understanding/knowing all the characters but the meaning (for me at least) being really hard to derive without having to use Google Translate, Pleco, etc.

Here goes (Sleeping Beauty - Paragraph 5):

"他走进花园，跟着这个花香来到女孩儿身边"

Google translates the second part as the following: "Follow this floral fragrance to the girl"

Pleco confirms that the first two characters in conjunctions means "to follow".

The first part of this sentence is fairly straight forward. Starting from "跟着", subject to Google Translate being roughly correct, despite knowing and feeling comfortable with all the characters, I don't feel I have the foundation to get close to understanding the second part of the sentence.

It made me wonder what 90% comprehension actually means, e.g. if characters are used for meanings I am unfamiliar with to what degree is it relevant for comprehension that I know the character? I realise it's a case of seeing the characters over and over again in different contexts to familiarise yourself with the different usages as seeing it in different contexts is the best way to learn. It has made me consider whether to introduce Pleco as an integral part of my studies for any sentence I am not entirely sure I interpret correctly as there could be other meanings I am yet to encounter. When faced with this type of sentence, I often worry I have missed/overlooked something in the course.

Overall just an interesting sentence to flag and I wanted to share my experience. It's quite fascinating how you can read an entire sentence without having any idea about the meaning despite knowing all the characters, all while others seem really easy and straight forward!

Mandarin Blueprint

Very thoughtful, Soren, here's a response for you:

https://www.loom.com/share/b4ef35bab96c41c5953e4282d93ab33d