Quiz #3

There came a time in my studies when I shifted gears as a linguist.   First, I studied languages out of phrasebooks and dictionaries, but words get boring when you realize that they're all made up of the same vowels and consonants.   So I turned to grammar, but even that got stale.   Everybody 's got nouns and verbs.   Things are either "on the table" or "table on". There's only so many combinations of SOV, VSO, OVS, etc.  to choose from.   Yawn.  So, other websites might offer simple vocabulary drills and conjugation fill-in-the-blanks, but you won't find much of that here.   Again, not because I don't know it, but because the big picture is more exciting.  

With that in mind, WELCOME TO THE ASIAN QUIZ!




1.  How far is Peking from Beijing?  


A.  50 miles (80 km)
B.  50 years
C.  50 spelling reforms
D.  Thank God Wade-Giles is gone.  Pinyin is a stroke of genius.


2.  You are an American citizen in 1830.  You've heard that Mandarin is a pretty neat language, but the Chinese government forbids you to learn it.   Now what?

A.   Just give up.  It looks totally hard, and only Asians could ever understand it. 
B.   Ask again nicely.  Maybe send the government a nice gift.
C.   Smuggle out some Chinese dictionaries.  
D.   Smuggle in some Turkish opium.