Lesson 4

Question 1

only
[55]

Answer 1

只

Imagine a suspicious looking salesman trying to show off his latest rare find. The animal was the only one of its kind. It was a strange pac-man like creature with a large mouth and two small legs.

*mouth, animal legs

Question 2

shellfish
[56]

Answer 2

貝

Imagine a freakish shellfish with a single, gigantic eye roaming the beaches on its slender little legs, scaring the wits out of the sunbathers.

*eye, animal legs

Question 3

pop song
[57]

Answer 3

唄

There is a lot of money to be made if one’s songs are pop-ular. This is depicted here as a stream of clams/money spewing out of the mouth of someone performing a pop song.

*mouth, clams/money

Question 4

upright
[58]

Answer 4

貞

Shellfish like clams and oyster aren’t able to walk upright. It would take a magician with a magic wand to make them walk upright.

*magic wand, shellfish

Question 5

employee
[59]

Answer 5

員

All the new employees had clams pinching their mouths shut to enforce the policy of “keep your mouth shut and do your job”.

*mouth, shellfish

Question 6

post a bill
[60]

Answer 6

貼

This key word has to do with posting bills to a billboard. In this case, the billboard is standing at the exit to a Chinese restaurant displaying the latest alternative to the traditional fortune-telling cookies. Look closely and you will see rows of leftover shells of clams with little slips of paper sticking out of them posted to the billboard.

*shellfish/clam, fortune-telling

Question 7

see
[61]

Answer 7

見

Think Mike Wazowski. He must be able to see so well.

*eye, human legs

Question 8

newborn babe
[62]

Answer 8

児

The elderly often take care of newborn babies to impart their wisdom to the next generation. Imagine someone from “the olden times” with their newborn grandchild balanced on their lap (legs).

*olden times, human legs

Question 9

beginning
[63]

Answer 9

元

In the beginning there were only two humans (with human legs), one man and one woman.

*two, human legs

Question 10

page
[64]

Answer 10

頁

Imagine a title printed on the shell of an oyster (shellfish), let us say “Pearl of Wisdom,” and then open the quaint book to its one and only page, on which you find a single, radiant drop of wisdom, one of the masterpiece poems of nature. But it only shares its wisdom at a dire cost. The reader will then have their head bitten off by the book.

*one, a drop of something, shellfish/oyster
*P: head (severed?)

Question 11

stubborn
[65]

Answer 11

頑

Man has been stubborn since the beginning, such a big head, always thinking he knew everything he needed to know already.

*beginning, head

Question 12

mediocre
[66]

Answer 12

凡

The rain storm that everyone had been hyping up was mediocre, there was wind but hardly any rain at all.

*wind, a drop of something

Question 13

defeat
[67]

Answer 13

負

Imagine two oysters engaged in shell-to-shell combat, the one who is defeated being bound and gagged with seaweed, the victor towering triumphantly over it. The bound shellfish thus becomes the symbol for defeat.

*bound up, shellfish

Question 14

ten thousand
[68]

Answer 14

万

Given that the comma is used in larger numbers to bind up a numerical unit of one thousand, the elements for one and bound up naturally come to form ten thousand.

*one, bound up

Question 15

phrase
[69]

Answer 15

句

A phrase is a series of words bound together so they will fit neatly into your mouth.

*bound up, mouth

Question 16

texture
[70]

Answer 16

肌

Any body part exposed to this wind will take on a rough and dry texture.

*part of the body, wind

Question 17

decameron (a journey of ten day with a band of people)
[71]

Answer 17

旬

There is simply not a good phrase in English for the block of ten days which this character represents. So we resurrect the classical phrase, decameron. Actually, it refers to a journey of ten days taken by a band of people - that is, a group of people bound together for the days of the decameron.

*bound together, day

Question 18

ladle
[72]

Answer 18

勺

If you want to bind up drops of anything (water, soup, lemonade) you use something to scoop these drops up, which is what we call a ladle. See the last drop left inside the ladle?

*bound together, a drop of something

Question 19

bull’s eye
[73]

Answer 19

的

Imagine a rusty old ladle with a bull’s eye painted on it in the form of a tiny white bird, who lets out a little “peep” every time you hit the target.

*white (bird), ladle

Question 20

neck
[74]

Answer 20

首

• What animal has prominent horns and nose? Moose. And there it was, its neck fastened to the wall. It’s horns were used to hang things and its nose had spigots installed for soft drinks.*

*horns, nose