Xiao Ming who nails every subtraction problem in math class, except one.
今天上数学课，老师教大家做减法。
老师问小明：”小明，如果我有五支铅笔，你拿走两支，我还有几支？”
小明说：”三支！”
老师说：”很好！”
老师又问：”如果我有十本书，你拿走四本，我还有几本？”
小明说：”六本！”
老师笑了，说：”对！很好！”
老师很高兴。她想再问一个。
“小明，如果你有十块巧克力，我跟你要两块，你还有几块？”
小明想都没想，说：”十块！”
老师说：”不对！应该是八块。你没听懂吗？”
小明说：”老师，我听懂了。但是不管你要多少块巧克力，我一块都不给你。”
Hover a word for its pinyin & meaning; click to pin it.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 减法 | jiǎn fǎ | subtraction |
| 铅笔 | qiān bǐ | pencil |
| 拿走 | ná zǒu | to take away |
| 巧克力 | qiǎo kè lì | chocolate |
| 应该 | yīng gāi | should; ought to |
| 听懂 | tīng dǒng | to understand (by listening) |
| 不管 | bù guǎn | no matter; regardless |
| 高兴 | gāo xìng | happy; glad |
| 想都没想 | xiǎng dōu méi xiǎng | without thinking at all |
| 今天 | jīn tiān | today; the present time; now |
| 上 | shǎng | used in 上聲|上声[shang3 sheng1] |
| 数学 | shù xué | mathematics |
| 课 | kè | subject; course; CL:門|门[men2]; class; lesson; CL:堂[tang2],節|节[jie2]; to levy; tax; form of divination |
| 老 | lǎo | prefix used before the surname of a person or a numeral indicating the order of birth of the children in a family or to indicate affection or familiarity; old (of people); venerabl… |
| 师 | Shī | surname Shi |
| 教 | Jiào | surname Jiao |
| 大家 | dà jiā | everyone; influential family; great expert |
| 做 | zuò | to make; to produce; to write; to compose; to do; to engage in; to hold (a party etc); (of a person) to be (an intermediary, a good student etc); to become (husband and wife, frien… |
| 问 | wèn | to ask; to inquire |
| 小 | xiǎo | small; tiny; few; young |
| 明 | Míng | Ming Dynasty (1368–1644); surname Ming; Ming (c. 2000 BC), fourth of the legendary Flame Emperors, 炎帝[Yan2 di4] descended from Shennong 神農|神农[Shen2 nong2] Farmer God |
| 如 | rú | as; as if; such as |
| 果 | guǒ | fruit; result; resolute; indeed; if really |
| 我 | wǒ | I; me; my |
| 有 | yǒu | to have; there is; (bound form) having; with; -ful; -ed; -al (as in 有意[you3 yi4] intentional) |
| 五 | wǔ | five; 5 |
| 支 | Zhī | surname Zhi |
| 你 | nǐ | you (informal, as opposed to courteous 您[nin2]); you (Note: In Taiwan, 妳 is used to address females, but in mainland China, it is not commonly used. Instead, 你 is used to address both males and females.) |
| 两 | liǎng | two; both; some; a few; tael, unit of weight equal to 50 grams (modern) or 1⁄16 of a catty 斤[jin1] (old) |
| 还有 | hái yǒu | there still remain(s); there is (or are) still; in addition |
| 几 | jī | small table; (literary) almost |
| 说 | shuì | to persuade; variant of 說|说[shuo1] |
| 三 | Sān | surname San |
| 很 | hěn | very; quite; (also, often used before an adjective without intensifying its meaning, i.e. as a meaningless syntactic element) |
| 好 | hǎo | good; appropriate; proper; all right!; (before a verb) easy to; (before a verb) good to; (before an adjective for exclamatory effect) so; (verb complement indicating completion); (… |
| 又 | yòu | (once) again; also; both... and...; and yet; (used for emphasis) anyway |
| 十 | shí | ten; 10 |
| 本 | běn | (bound form) root; stem; (bound form) origin; source; (bound form) one's own; this; (bound form) this; the current (year etc); (bound form) original; (bound form) inherent; origina… |
| 书 | Shū | abbr. for 書經|书经[Shu1 jing1] |
| 四 | sì | four; 4 |
| 六 | lìu | six; 6 |
| 笑 | xiào | old variant of 笑[xiao4]; to laugh; to smile; to laugh at |
| 了 | le | (completed action marker); (modal particle indicating change of state, situation now); (modal particle intensifying preceding clause); (bound form) clear in one's mind; to understand clearly |
| 对 | duì | right; correct; towards; at; for; concerning; regarding; to treat (sb a certain way); to face; (bound form) opposite; facing; matching; to match together; to adjust; to fit; to sui… |
| 她 | tā | she |
| 想 | xiǎng | to think (about); to think of; to devise; to think (that); to believe (that); to desire; to want (to); to miss (feel wistful about the absence of) |
| 再 | zài | again; once more; re-; further; beyond this point of time; (before an adjective) more; then (after sth, and not until then); no matter how ... (followed by an adjective or verb, an… |
| 一个 | yī ge | a; an; one; the whole (afternoon, summer vacation etc) |
| 块 | kuài | lump; chunk; piece; classifier for pieces of cloth, cake, soap etc; (coll.) classifier for money and currency units |
| 跟 | gēn | heel; to follow closely; to go with; (of a woman) to marry sb; with; compared with; to; towards; and (joining two nouns) |
| 要 | yāo | (bound form) to demand; to coerce |
| 不对 | bù duì | incorrect; wrong; amiss; abnormal; queer |
| 是 | shì | to be (followed by substantives only); correct; right; true; (respectful acknowledgement of a command) very well; (adverb for emphatic assertion); variant of 是[shi4] |
| 八 | bā | eight |
| 没 | méi | (negative prefix for verbs) have not; not |
| 吗 | má | (coll.) what? |
| 但 | dàn | but; yet; however; still; merely; only; just |
| 多少 | duō shǎo | number; amount; somewhat |
| 一块 | yī kuài | a piece; a chunk; (fig.) (coll.) (typically preceded by a specifier such as 這|这[zhe4]) aspect; area; dimension (Example: 情感這一塊|情感这一块[qing2 gan3 zhe4 yi1 kuai4] "the emotional aspec… |
| 都 | Dū | surname Du |
| 不 | bù | no; not so; (bound form) not; un- |
| 给 | gěi | to; for; for the benefit of; to give; to allow; to do sth (for sb); (grammatical equivalent of 被); (grammatical equivalent of 把); (sentence intensifier) |
Today in math class, the teacher taught everyone how to do subtraction.
The teacher asked Xiao Ming: “Xiao Ming, if I have five pencils and you take away two, how many do I have left?”
Xiao Ming said: “Three!”
The teacher said: “Very good!”
The teacher asked again: “If I have ten books and you take away four, how many do I have left?”
Xiao Ming said: “Six!”
The teacher smiled and said: “Correct! Very good!”
The teacher was very happy. She wanted to ask one more.
“Xiao Ming, if you have ten pieces of chocolate and I ask you for two, how many do you have left?”
Without thinking at all, Xiao Ming said: “Ten pieces!”
The teacher said: “Wrong! It should be eight pieces. Didn’t you understand?”
Xiao Ming said: “Teacher, I understood. But no matter how many pieces of chocolate you want, I won’t give you a single one.”