The evening before the HSK found Harrison relaxing by the pool. After an exhausting massage he had spent the afternoon drifting into and out of consciousness only to wake at last now the sun was finally setting. And as he lay there contemplating the fading dusk, his flatmate's head wormed its way around the screen door. "Aren't you at all worried about the exam tomorrow?" Harrison simply shrugged. What was there to worry about?

Preparing for the HSK exam? We recommend a long-term strategy of test preparation coupled with vocabulary review and extensive listening: take several practice HSK tests daily, and couple the exercises with regular vocab review. Also remember that all questions you answer incorrectly will be saved for review on your test tracking page. This will save considerable time over preparing with other materials. Good luck!
 said on
October 28, 2009
Good test. It has been a while since I've had to count text messages.

Also, in

9.

___下个星期开始,我一定不迟到了。

自从

I know that 自从 just sounds 'wrong', but can someone clarify why? Does it have to be used with more general times (like 自从古代)?

Thanks and keep up the good work!
 said on
October 29, 2009
@toneandcolor,

自从 can only indicate the starting point of time in the past. 就 is often used in conjunction with it.

自从我买了新的闹钟以后,就再也没迟过到了。

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
December 10, 2009
在第二个问题为什么不可一写 ‘三个月多的时间’?
 said on
December 10, 2009
@foxkyle2003 - it's a word order issue here. "more than three months" should be 三个多月 rather than 三个月多.

 said on
December 11, 2009
@foxkyle2003,

When adding 多 after the figure to express, there are two structures.

One is "integer + 多 + quantifier(+noun)". For example, 我在美国住了三十多年了。

The other one is "figure + quantifier + 多". Like the sentence in the test, 学完这本书需要三个月多的时间。

So when the figure is not an integer, we have to follow the situation No. 2.

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com
 said on
December 13, 2009
Thanks guys, I always found this stuff tricky.
Mark Lesson Studied