Mandarin Chinese · A117 min

Lin orders hot black tea at a quiet cafe

Practice A1 Mandarin in a short story where Lin orders hot black tea at a quiet cafe. Tap individual words, follow line-by-line meaning, and review vocabulary from the scene.

  1. Vocabulary
  2. Story
  3. Support
  4. Grammar
  5. Practice
  6. Review

Start with the short scene first. Tap individual words when you want the vocabulary, then use the line-by-line support to confirm the full sentence before you reread it.

Core vocabulary

Target word with readingTranslationType
xiǎng

want to

noun

红茶 hóng chá

black tea

noun

bēi

cup / glass measure word

classifier

hot

adjective

tián

sweet

noun

咖啡 kā fēi

coffee

noun

bīng

ice / iced

noun

shuǐ

water

noun

一共 yí gòng

in total

number

茶馆 chá guǎn

tea house

noun

Core text

店员
顾客
店员
顾客
店员

Line-by-line support

Read each line with the direct translation beside it. Use this section to slow down and confirm exactly what each speaker says.

店员
你好 nǐ hǎoxiǎng什么 shén me

Hello, what would you like to drink?

顾客
xiǎng一杯 yì bēi红茶 hóng chá

I would like to drink a cup of black tea.

店员
热的 rè de还是 hái shì冰的 bīng de

Hot or iced?

顾客
热的 rè de不要 bú yào太甜 tài tián

Hot. Not too sweet.

店员
好的 hǎo de一共 yí gòng十八块 shí bā kuài

Okay. That is eighteen yuan total.

Grammar in context

These are the two patterns doing the most work in this lesson. Learn them as reusable sentence frames, not as isolated rules.

想 + verb

Use 想 before a verb to say what you want to do in a simple, natural way.

xiǎng红茶 hóng cháA practical intention sentence.

还是 in choice questions

还是 links two options when the speaker asks the listener to choose one.

热的 rè de还是 hái shì冰的 bīng deA common either-or question.

Extension reading

Review

Story check: What is Lin trying to do in this lesson, and what detail changes the situation?

Vocabulary check: Find the first key word, the second key word, the third key word, and one more key word in the story text again. Explain what each word is doing in its sentence.

Retell: Retell the scene in two or three sentences using the first key word and the second key word. Then add one sentence about why the ending matters for Lin.

Next steps

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