Listen to Whole of the Text
Follow Shirley to Read the Sentences & the Chinese Characters

FOREWORD:

On the flight from Sydney to Hong Kong, a beautiful stewardess sent everyone a little envelope and hope us to donate some change to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). After putting 100 RMB into the envelope, I asked her to give me another one. I was interested in how they translated the English on the envelope into Chinese.

Now, I would like to show you how to read some of the Chinese characters on the envelope and hope to be some help with you to learn Chinese.   

THE NEW SENTENCES ABOUT THE DONATION:

Follow Shirley to Read the Sentences & the Chinese Characters

Please hit any Chinese character to open the Vocabulary Board and to see the Chinese pinyin, meaning, pronunciation and follow me to read it..

No. 0204: -- 一个小小的硬币，能带来大大的变化(希望)。
               --   A small change can make a big difference.

No. 0205: -- 一美元 - 可提供五支预防小儿麻痹症的疫苗。
               -- US$1 - Provides 5 doses of vaccine against polio.

No.0206: -- 五美元 - 可提供铅笔和练习簿给十名儿童。
               -- US$5 - Provides 10 children with a pencil and an exercise book.   
           

CHINESE GRAMMAR:

The three sentences are all declarative sentences. Their sentence structures are:

subject + verb + object

Usually, there are one or two or more attributes to modify the subject and the object. There is one or two or more adverbs to modify the verb.   

For example, in No. 0204:

一个         小小的       硬币， 能       带来      大大的    变化。
attribute attribute   subject   adverb      verb    attribute      object

一个 -- a, attribute
小小的 -- small, attribute
硬币 -- change, coin, noun as subject.   

both of the attributes to modify the subject "硬币" change or coin.

能 -- can, adverb, as adverbial modifier
带来 -- bring, verb, as predicate
大大的 -- big, adjective. as attribut      
变化 -- change, noun as object

Here, you have to pay more attention to something below:

NOTE:

The meaning of 硬币 is coin or change in English. It is same in Chinese. But, it is made of two Chinese characters. The character 硬, means something hard, stiff,   tough or strong, the character 币, just means money. The character 硬 modifies the character 币. Both of them together, mean the money that is made of metal, the coins, to distinguish it from the 纸币 -- "paper money".

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please write to shirley@ebridge.cn . You are also welcome to publish your opinions in Message Board. :-)   

--Shirley Zhang
Written and Recorded On Feb 26, 2011