China General Knowledge Quiz 7     

compiled by Thor May 

(Answer Key to Quiz 7 )

Contacts: thormay@yahoo.com; http://thormay.net || http://www.meetup.com/learn-chinese-in-brisbane/ || https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/182279011816428/


 

I have begun to make a China General Knowledge Quiz every week. This is one way to give the Brisbane China Meetup a little focus. A link to questions and answers will also be posted on the Brisbane China Meetup site (answers linked to the Brisbane China Meetup Facebook page) . I discuss the reason for quizzes in more detail on another page. For anyone who is interested, I am also making a Korea General Knowledge Quiz each week for the Brisbane Korea Meetup (answers linked to the Brisbane Korea Meetup Facebook page).

These questions are both devised by Thor and and answered by Thor. In the nature of things, some people are bound to disagree sometimes about answers. That is fine, but be prepared to defend your answers with evidence! Sometimes I may turn out to be wrong too, which is good, since being wrong means that one has learned something new. A link to an answer key is found with each quiz page.


Quiz 7

 

1. Many Chinese cities have (at least) two types of buses serving the same routes. What are these two types of bus service?

 

2. Most mainland Chinese would not dream of drinking tap water (even after coming to Australia). Therefore every office, and many middle class homes, have 15 litre bottled water dispensing machines. How are these machines serviced?

 

3. When you are in Beijing (and other major Chinese cities) which bookshop has the best collection of books for learning Chinese and teaching English?

 

4. Here is a recent posting translated from Weibo, China’s homegrown Twitter. What does it mean and why is it written in code which many people in China understand? “According to unreliable resource, the 18 th tug war has a winner. The winner is the team of dragon led by carrot and his team mates Teletubby, Subor study machine and wood son Li. The team led by Master Kong beef instant noodle was defeated because they lost tomato and it was a great loss.”

 

5. Chéngyǔ 成语of the week: 脱颖而出 tuōyǐng’érchū - “a sharp stick points out.”. What is the actual applied meaning?

 

6. In Chinese culture (or at least mainland culture) there is a concept of 心眼xīn yǎn. The English dictionary translation of “cleverness” doesn’t really capture the modern Chinese idea of 心眼xīn yǎn. What is its real meaning and importance?

 

7. China has many cuisines. Some of them make much use of chilies. When did chilies come to China, and from where?

 

8. How many people of Chinese ethnic origin now live in Australia?

 

9. Men outnumber women by a large and increasing margin in China overall, mostly because of selective abortions based on the desire for sons. However, a significant group of very attractive women in major cities either have trouble marrying, or remain unmarried. Who are these women?

 

10. Karaoke is popular in some cultures but not in others (e.g. not in Indonesia). It is very popular in China “where going to KTV” is a very typical outing, but has several meanings. Describe a typical Chinese KTV place.

 


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