This short passage tells the history of the Great Wall of China in the simplest possible language.
很多很多年前，中国有一个皇帝。他叫秦始皇。
那时候，北边有很多人想来中国。皇帝很不高兴。他说：”我们要做一个很长很长的墙！”
很多很多人一起工作。他们用石头做墙。这个工作很难，很累。
墙很长，有六千多公里。现在，我们叫它”长城”。每年有很多人去看长城。长城很美，很有名。
Hover a word for its pinyin & meaning; click to pin it.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| <p>皇帝 | huáng dì | emperor |
| 北边 | běi biān | north side |
| 墙 | qiáng | wall |
| 石头 | shí tou | stone |
| 工作 | gōng zuò | work |
| 难 | nán | difficult |
| 公里 | gōng lǐ | kilometer |
| 有名 | yǒu míng | famous</p> |
| 很 | hěn | very; quite; (also, often used before an adjective without intensifying its meaning, i.e. as a meaningless syntactic element) |
| 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- |
| 多年 | duō nián | many years; for many years; longstanding |
| 前 | qián | front; forward; ahead; first; top (followed by a number); future; ago; before; BC (e.g. 前293年); former; formerly |
| 中国 | Zhōng guó | China |
| 有 | yǒu | to have; there is; (bound form) having; with; -ful; -ed; -al (as in 有意[you3 yi4] intentional) |
| 一个 | yī ge | a; an; one; the whole (afternoon, summer vacation etc) |
| 皇 | Huáng | surname Huang |
| 帝 | dǐ | (bound form) emperor; sovereign; supreme deity |
| 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]) |
| 叫 | jiào | to shout; to call; to order; to ask; to be called; by (indicates agent in the passive mood); variant of 叫[jiao4] |
| 秦 | qīn | surname Qin; short name for 陝西|陕西[Shan3 xi1] |
| 始 | shǐ | to begin; to start; then; only then |
| 那时 | nà shí | then; at that time; in those days |
| 候 | hòu | to wait; to inquire after; to watch; season; climate; (old) period of five days |
| 人 | rén | person; people; CL:個|个[ge4],位[wei4],名[ming2] |
| 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) |
| 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… |
| 不 | bù | no; not so; (bound form) not; un- |
| 高兴 | gāo xìng | happy; glad; willing (to do sth); in a cheerful mood |
| 说 | shuì | to persuade; variant of 說|说[shuo1] |
| 我 | wǒ | I; me; my |
| 们 | men | plural marker for pronouns, and nouns referring to individuals |
| 要 | yāo | (bound form) to demand; to coerce |
| 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… |
| 长 | cháng | long; (bound form) length; (bound form) strong point; forte; (bound form) to be good at; (literary) surplus; spare (Taiwan pr. [zhang4]) |
| 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… |
| 一起 | yī qǐ | (in) the same place; together; in company (with); altogether; in total; an instance of; a case of (murder, accident, dispute etc) |
| 用 | yòng | to use; to make use of; to employ; (coverb) with; using; to need; to have to (usu. used in the negative or in questions); usefulness; utility; (bound form) expense; outlay; (courte… |
| 这个 | zhè ge | (pronoun) this; (adjective) this |
| 累 | lěi | to accumulate; to involve or implicate (Taiwan pr. [lei4]); continuous; repeated; rope; to bind together; to twist around |
| 六 | lìu | six; 6 |
| 千 | qiān | thousand; used in 鞦韆|秋千[qiu1 qian1] |
| 现 | xiàn | to appear; present; now; existing; current |
| 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) |
| 它 | tā | it; it (pronoun for an animal) |
| 长城 | Cháng chéng | the Great Wall |
| 每年 | měi nián | every year; each year; yearly |
| 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);… |
| 看 | kān | to look after; to take care of; to watch; to guard |
| 美 | Měi | (bound form) the Americas (abbr. for 美洲[Mei3 zhou1]); (bound form) USA (abbr. for 美國|美国[Mei3 guo2]) |
Many, many years ago, China had an emperor. His name was Qin Shi Huang.
At that time, many people from the north wanted to come to China. The emperor was very unhappy. He said: “We must build a very, very long wall!”
Many, many people worked together. They used stones to build the wall. This work was very hard and very tiring.
The wall is very long, over six thousand kilometers. Now, we call it the “Great Wall.” Every year, many people go to see the Great Wall. The Great Wall is very beautiful and very famous.