All Things Considered

This modern Chinese language textbook bridges the gap between intermediate and advanced Chinese. It is ideal for students who have completed intermediate courses but need more language practice to prepare them for the complexity of advanced Chinese. The text is divided into two parts. The first section consists of twelve dialogues; the second is a selection of recent newspaper articles about contemporary Chinese society. A novel feature of "All Things Considered" is that several topics appear in both dialogue and essay forms. This repetition is designed to improve students' retention of grammar and vocabulary as well as to highlight differences between spoken and written Chinese. All of the articles and dialogues center on everyday issues in contemporary China. Several of the topics featured are controversial in the hope that they will spark students' interest and promote participation in class discussions.