熊猫是猫吗？
Animals in Chinese: is a panda a cat?
Name: ________________ Date: ________
星期天，天气很好，我和爷爷一起去动物园。
我看见一个很大很大的东西，坐着吃东西。“爷爷，那是猫吗？”
爷爷笑了：“那是熊猫。熊猫不是猫，是熊。”
“那怎么叫这个名字呢？”
爷爷说：“这个，爷爷也不知道！”
中文里，很多名字都是两个字放在一起。
下午，我们去看水里的大东西。
爷爷说：“这个叫河马。”
“河马是马吗？”
“也不是。很早很早的时候，希腊人看见了，也说：这是河里的马！今天很多外国的名字，也是从那儿来的。”
我高兴地说：“你看，中国人和外国人，想的都一样！”
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 星期天 | xīngqītiān | Sunday |
| 天气 | tiānqì | weather |
| 好 | hǎo | good; nice |
| 去 | qù | to go |
| 看见 | kànjiàn | to see; to catch sight of |
| 很 | hěn | very; quite |
| 大 | dà | big; large |
| 东西 | dōngxī | east and west |
| 坐 | zuò | to sit |
| 吃 | chī | to eat |
| 猫 | māo | cat |
| 名字 | míngzi | name |
English (for the teacher)
It was a lovely Sunday, and Grandpa and I went to the zoo together.
I saw something very, very big, sitting down and eating. “Grandpa, is that a cat?”
Grandpa laughed. “That’s a 熊猫, a ‘bear cat’. A bear cat isn’t a cat. It’s a bear.”
“Then why is it called that?”
Grandpa said, “That one, even Grandpa doesn’t know!”
Lots of Chinese names are just two characters put together: bear + cat.
In the afternoon, we went to see the big thing in the water.
Grandpa said, “This one is called a 河马, a ‘river horse’.”
“Is a river horse a horse?”
“No, not that either. A very, very long time ago, the Greeks saw it and said the same thing: it’s a horse of the river! Many of its names in other countries today, like the English hippopotamus, come from there too.”
I said happily, “See, Chinese people and foreigners think exactly the same way!”