This lesson was generated based on a biography of kung fu legend Bruce Lee (李小龙) – I asked the AI to simplify his biography into language that an HSK 1-2 reader could understand. The result is an extremely pared down paragraph about his life, using the simplest possible words.
李小龙是一个很有名的人。他1940年在美国出生，但是他的家是中国人。
他在香港长大。他小时候很喜欢学功夫。他学得很快，也很好。
后来，他去美国学习。他在那里教功夫，很多人喜欢他。
他做电影，全世界的人都看他的电影。他很快，很强。
1973年，他死了，只有32岁。但是今天，很多人还爱他。他是功夫的王。
Hover a word for its pinyin & meaning; click to pin it.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 有名 | yǒu míng | famous |
| 出生 | chū shēng | to be born |
| 功夫 | gōng fu | kung fu |
| 学习 | xué xí | to study |
| 教 | jiāo | to teach |
| 电影 | diàn yǐng | movie |
| 世界 | shì jiè | world<br 快 - kuài - fast |
| 强 | qiáng | strong |
| 王 | wáng | king |
| 李 | lí | plum; surname Li |
| 小龙 | xiǎo lóng | snake (as one of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals 生肖[sheng1 xiao4]) |
| 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] |
| 一个 | yī ge | a; an; one; the whole (afternoon, summer vacation etc) |
| 很 | hěn | very; quite; (also, often used before an adjective without intensifying its meaning, i.e. as a meaningless syntactic element) |
| 的 | de | of; ~'s (possessive particle); (used after an attribute when it modifies a noun); (used at the end of a declarative sentence for emphasis); (used after a noun, verb or adjective to… |
| 人 | rén | person; people; CL:個|个[ge4],位[wei4],名[ming2] |
| 他 | tā | (third-person singular) (since the early 20th century, usu. male) he; him; his; (bound form) other; another; some other (as in 他日[ta1 ri4] and 他人[ta1 ren2]) |
| 年 | Nián | surname Nian; grain; harvest (old); variant of 年[nian2] |
| 在 | zài | to exist; to be alive; (of sb or sth) to be (located) at; (used before a verb to indicate an action in progress) |
| 美国 | Měi guó | United States; USA; US |
| 但 | dàn | but; yet; however; still; merely; only; just |
| 家 | jiā | used in 傢伙|家伙[jia1 huo5] and 傢俱|家俱[jia1 ju4]; home; family; (polite) my (sister, uncle etc); classifier for families or businesses; refers to the philosophical schools of pre-Han China; noun suffix for a specialist in some act… |
| 中国人 | Zhōng guó rén | Chinese person |
| 香港 | Xiāng gǎng | Hong Kong, special administrative region (SAR) of the PRC (short name 港[Gang3]) |
| 长大 | zhǎng dà | to grow up |
| 小时 | xiǎo shí | hour; CL:個|个[ge4] |
| 候 | hòu | to wait; to inquire after; to watch; season; climate; (old) period of five days |
| 喜欢 | xǐ huan | to like; to be fond of |
| 学 | xué | to learn; to study; to imitate; science; -ology |
| 得很 | de hěn | (after an adjective) very |
| 快 | kuài | rapid; quick; speed; rate; soon; almost; to make haste; clever; sharp (of knives or wits); forthright; plainspoken; gratified; pleased; pleasant |
| 也 | Yě | surname Ye |
| 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); (… |
| 后 | Hòu | surname Hou; back; behind; rear; afterwards; after; later; post- |
| 来 | lái | to come; (used as a substitute for a more specific verb); hither (directional complement for motion toward the speaker, as in 回來|回来[hui2 lai5]); ever since (as in 自古以來|自古以来[zi4 gu3… |
| 去 | qù | to go; to go to (a place); (of a time etc) last; just passed; to send; to remove; to get rid of; to reduce; to be apart from in space or time; to die (euphemism); to play (a part);… |
| 那里 | nà li | there; that place |
| 多 | duō | many; much; more; a lot of; too many; in excess; (after a numeral) ... odd; how (to what extent) (Taiwan pr. [duo2]); (bound form) multi-; poly- |
| 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… |
| 全世界 | quán shì jiè | worldwide; entire world |
| 都 | Dū | surname Du |
| 看 | kān | to look after; to take care of; to watch; to guard |
| 死 | sǐ | to die; impassable; uncrossable; inflexible; rigid; extremely; damned |
| 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 |
| 只有 | zhǐ yǒu | only have ...; there is only ...; (used in combination with 才[cai2]) it is only if ... (that one can ...) (as in 只有通過治療才能痊愈|只有通过治疗才能痊愈[zhi3 you3 tong1 guo4 zhi4 liao2 cai2 neng2 qu… |
| 岁 | suì | variant of 歲|岁[sui4], year; years old; classifier for years (of age); year; year (of crop harvests) |
| 今天 | jīn tiān | today; the present time; now |
| 还 | Huán | surname Huan |
| 爱 | ài | to love; to be fond of; to like; affection; to be inclined (to do sth); to tend to (happen) |
Bruce Lee was a very famous person. He was born in America in 1940, but his family was Chinese.
He grew up in Hong Kong. When he was young, he really liked learning kung fu. He learned very fast and very well.
Later, he went to America to study. He taught kung fu there, and many people liked him.
He made movies, and people all over the world watched his movies. He was very fast and very strong.
In 1973, he died, only 32 years old. But today, many people still love him. He is the king of kung fu.