Nature, weather and environment

What holds these lists together

Chinese weather needs no "it". 下雨(xiàyǔ)了(le) is "it is raining", literally "falls rain", and the 了(le) says that it has started; snow works the same way, 下雪(xiàxuě). The characters of the natural world often show what they belong to: 河(hé), a river, 湖(hú), a lake, and 海(hǎi), the sea, all carry the three drops of the water component on their left, and a learner who sees the component can guess the field of a word before knowing it. The later lists are the vocabulary of the forecast, the news and the report: climate, pollution, energy and the words heard when an earthquake or a flood is in the headlines.

For example: 天气(tiānqì) (weather), 山(shān) (mountain, hill), 气候(qìhòu) (climate), 大自然(dàzìrán) (nature; the natural world), 熊猫(xióngmāo) (panda), 环境保护(huánjìngbǎohù) (environmental protection)

Spread across the levels

The category runs across the levels — it is an area, not a difficulty. If you practise it, you can also choose a level at the top of the practice page and then get only the part that sits there.