Chinese DLPT

警惕

Jǐngtì. alert, or "be on guard against." 警 means to "guard." 惕 is comprised of 'heart' and 易 'which was an old way to say "chameleon." But, I suggest that it could also mean that you're thinking the 日 'sun' is 勿 'nothing.' Putting that all together, you are guarding, or on alert, because you don't want the sun to not exist...meaning, it is the world to you. Phonetics of 易 'yi' change to 'ti' in 惕.

高樓大廈

gāolóudàshà. Condominium

莫名其妙

mòmíngqímiào. baffling

進補

jìn bǔ. Tonic

儒家

Rújiā. Confucianism

驕傲

jiāo'ào. proud

搬家

bānjiā. move

原告

yuángào. plaintiff

優惠

yōuhuì. Preferential

錯

cuò. wrong

防禦性

fángyùxìng. Defensive

乾衣機

gānyījī. Dryer. 干 was bastardized into a bunch of meanings. The long form is actually normally pronounced qián. It is a picture of the rising sun, through the trees (on the left). The right radical was a jungle . That was reduced to just the top portion and 乙. 乙 has an interesting meaning in this word "gan," since it represents 东 (east, where the sun rises) and is the first of the celestial stem that represents 阳, as in 太阳. Lost of references to the sun, and heat. Under the hood, it means "dry" because of all of the sun references.

評價

píngjià. Evaluation

適應

shìyìng. adapt

守株待兔

shǒuzhūdàitù. Sit back and wait

盜竊

dàoqiè. theft

依賴

yīlài. rely

假設

jiǎshè. Hypothesis

平淡

píngdàn. dull

退還

tuìhuán. return

練筆

liànbǐ. practice calligraphy

讀者

dúzhě. reader

影響

yǐngxiǎng. influences

選拔

xuǎnbá. Select

減輕

jiǎnqīng. Ease/lighten the load. Why a car is involved in the "light" part of this word is beyond me. Maybe cars were light back when words were first established in China.

顯微鏡

xiǎnwēijìng. microscope. 顯 "appear," is derived from a picture of the sun 日 shining over silk threads 絲, and a head 頁. Only when the sun is shining can the strands of silk "appear" and you turn your head.

一切著眼於

yīqiēzheyǎnyú. All focus on

意見

yìjian. opinion

唐裝

Tángzhuāng. Tang Dynasty clothes

知情回流

zhīqínghuíliú. Educated youth return. This is a truncated set of characters from "智慧青年人回流."

押金

yājīn. deposit

禿頭

tūtóu. Bald

即日起

jírìqǐ. With immediate effect

蓋樓

gàilóu. build a house

壁畫

bìhuà. mural

成本

chéngběn. cost

順序

shùnxù. order

淘氣

táoqì. naughty

忍不住

rěnbuzhù. Could not resist. The reason why this one is hard for me to memorize is because I sometimes expect the "ren" to look like 认, as opposed to 忍. This isn't too far off, since the long form of 认 is 認. They are almost cognates, meaning to "bear," where 认 is most often used with 承认, which means to bear the blame, or admit.

親自

qīnzì. personally

金項鏈

jīn xiàngliàn. Golden necklace

莫名其妙

mòmíngqímiào. baffling

陵墓

língmù. tomb

膏方

gāofāng. Chinese medicinal cream

職業性

zhíyèxìng. Occupational. The long form of this word is much different from the short form. 只 just as in 识, is 戠 in long form. From 音 'sound' and 戈 'weapon', which translates as someone who is an officer, giving commands. The ear 耳 component means that he can not only give commands, but receive them. Together, being able to listen and command is his duty.

平衡

pínghéng. balance

陽臺

yángtái. balcony

水禽

shuǐqín. Waterfowl

秩序

zhìxù. order

貸款

dàikuǎn. loan

重啟

chóngqǐ. Restart. There are a lot of deprecated words that sound like "chong," and I think 重 was used just to make things more simple. The true meaning of these characters comes from 啟, which is a picture of a door or window being thrown open. 重启 is actually older than the long form, 攵 was added for flagrancy.

貢獻

gòngxiàn. contribution

稍微

shāowēi. a little

暫停

zàntíng. suspend

憂鬱癥

yōuyùzhèng. Depression

畢業

bìyè. graduation

嘲諷

cháofěng. ridicule

游戲

yóuxì. game

重新

chóngxīn. Again

蔓延

mànyán. spread

受傷

shòushāng. Injured

前途

qiántú. future. prospects. 前 actually means "front," but we always learned it with 以前, which translates to "before." Kind of a misguided word. 途 means "way." So, the way forward...prospects.

髒

zàng. dirty

被困井下

bèikùnjǐngxià. Trapped underground

遺留病毒

yíliúbìngdú. Legacy Virus

培訓

péixùn. Train

準備

zhǔnbèi. ready

比喻

bǐyù. metaphor

道歉

dàoqiàn. apologize

消防隊

xiāofángduì. Fire fighter team. The character that gets me by itself is 隊 in long form. 队 "team," makes sense, because it has 阝(阜) "abundant" and 人 "people." A team is a group of people. But in long form, it is again 阝(阜) "abundant" with 㒸, which is a depiction of "8" 八 "pigs" 豕.

野生

yěshēng. wild

切合

qièhé. Suit

股市

gǔshì. stock market

技術

jìshù. technology

挖

wā. dig

阻力

zǔlì. resistance. I don't think the 且 was originally this character. 阝on the left often means "abundant." The right character, although written as 且, sounds nothing like zǔ. I propose that it was actually 目, which sounds more phonetic. It can also mean an abundance of eyes. Picture trying to escape a prison, but there is an abundance of eyes blocking you from getting away. 阻 always means to "block." Together with 力, it means "blocking power," or better, "resistance."

濱臨絕跡

bīnlín juéjì. Bordering on extinction

支付

zhīfù. Pay

存錢

cúnqián. Save money

老闆

lǎobǎn. boss. The long form of 板 has nothing to do with the original meaning. It was probably transferred phonetically because 反 sounds like 板. The 门 has 品, so the old guy in the doorway with the stuff, is the owner...or boss.

權利

quánlì. rights

支出

zhīchū. pay (money). As a noun, it's expenditure. 支 is a picture of a hand holding a stick. Back in the day, people used tally marks on sticks to show that something was being paid off. So, they would whip out the stick and the person they were paying would put a notch in the stick, symbolizing that you paid. 出 was originally a 止 foot coming out of an 凵 enclosure, but people got lazy in the writing and turned it into two mountains. "Coming out," or "whip out the stick," as I mentioned earlier.

損失

sǔnshī. loss

抱怨

bàoyuàn. complain

孝順

xiàoshùn. filial piety

壓歲錢

yāsuìqián. New Year's

維護

wéihù. safeguard. 维 by itself has a lot of meanings, but one of them is to "maintain, or save from damage," probably because it has the silk radical and it was regarded as a fine thing. 护, from 保护, is a lot harder to explain. The long form doesn't share any common radicals. The best translation I can give is that you are offering sweet words 讠to a 隹 you have in your hands 又 that you found in the grass 艹. It's not ready to fly, so you're protecting it.

構造

gòuzào. structure. I have a hard time with the "gou" part of this character, where it's in 构造 or

购买. The original character looked like a pair of fish meeting, so the short form 勾 just means to gang up. It's used for phonetics in both "structure" and "shopping," where the left radical is the meaning.

情緒

qíngxù. mood

棺木

guānmù. Coffin

擯而不用

bìn'érbùyòng. reject. Partially the font, and partially the long form, I have a hard time looking at the 兵, since it, by itself, has no long form equivalent. Almost looks like 少 over 贝, but I'm guessing that 兵, meaning "guest," could also look like 丐 "beggar" asking for 贝 "money." In any case, you want to throw the guest out of the house, thus the 扌radical. The whole meaning is that you are rejecting the guest.

無限制

wúxiànzhì. Unlimited

熱線

rèxiàn. hotline

有機

yǒujī. organic

自由撰稿人

zìyóuzhuàngǎorén. Freelance Writer

脆

cuì. brittle

雜志

zázhì. magazine

雇用

gùyòng. employment

傑作

jiézuò. masterpiece

娛樂

yúlè. entertainment. I have a crass way of memorizing the long form of this character. 女 'woman' 大 man, and 口 'mouth.' Could be some entertaining conversation, or something else? 乐 (simple form) is translated from a picture of a 木 'wooden support' carrying a 白 a drum with 幺 bells or tassels. The stroke on top of the drum is a drumstick.