China is a country with a long history. It has great tradition culture, especially Chinese characters. Chinese characters usually have more than one meaning and some of them are very interesting. Here are six ones. We use “pinyin” here because “pinyin” is the Chinese spelling way for the characters. For example, “fu” is the “pinyin” for good luck in Chinese. “Pinyin” “fu” is only the phonic part of the character and if you want to know the meaning of good luck “fu”, you must read the Chinese character “福” because “fu” also represents (代表) other Chinese characters that sound the same.
“Fu” means blessing, good fortune and good luck. The Chinese character “fu” is one of the most popular ones used during Chinese New Year. Chinese people often put up “fu” upside down on the front door of a house or an apartment. The upside down “fu” means good luck comes since the character for upside down in Chinese sounds the same as the character for “come”.
“Lu” is used to mean officials’ pay in old China. “Shou” means long life, age or birthday. “Xi” is happiness. The doubled character “xi” means double happiness. It is usually put up everywhere at Chinese weddings. “Cai” is wealth or money. Chinese often says “money can make a ghost turn a millstone”. It is to say money really can do a lot of things. But, money can’t buy everything. “He” is an important part of Chinese culture. It means good relations with other people. When you have “he”, things will be a lot easier for you.
The top six lucky Chinese characters, “fu” “lu” “shou” “xi” “cai” “he”, are particularly loved by Chinese people.
1. What do we use to show how to read the Chinese characters?
A. “Pinyin”. B. Letters.
C. Words. D. Spelling.
2. The upside down “fu” means ______.
A. coming B. good luck comes
C. good fortune D. “fu” is upside down
3. People in China most probably put up the Chinese character ______on the front door at their weddings.
A. upside down “cai” B. upside down “fu”
C. doubled “xi” D. doubled “he”
4. Which of the following is Not true according to the passage?
A. “Cai” is wealth or money.
B. “Lu” is used to mean officials’ pay in old China.
C. “Shou” means keeping thin.
D. Things will be a lot easier if you have “he”.
