The test consists of five sections: • Reading 100 monosyllabic words to test pronunciation. (10%) • Reading 100 polysyllabic words to test pronunciation. (20%) • Reading out the correct form from several choices, to test vocabulary and syntax. (10%) • Reading a 400-character passage to test fluency. (30%) • Speaking for three minutes on a topic chosen from two supplied by the examiners. (30%) There are sixty literary selections used in the fourth section of the test, including: • a selection from
Jia Pingwa's ('Ugly Rock'), a story about a
meteorite which he and the local community had thought of for many years as a worthless ugly rock who in 1962 wrote about the hope for a better year of farming in 1963 after the
Great Chinese Famine. • a story from the youth of
Xu Dishan in which, after the family has grown peanuts for several months, his father
Xu Nanying uses an analogy to the peanut to teach a moral lesson to his children. • a translation (by
Ba Jin) of a story about a young sparrow which had fallen from its nest, written by
Ivan Turgenev. • a description of the
Mogao Caves in
Dunhuang,
Jiuquan,
Gansu • a reminiscence on the value of keeping in close contact with friends by
Liu Hsia • a story about the wisdom displayed by
Tao Xingzhi in his handling of a misbehaving elementary school student. • a story from the childhood of famous footballer
Pelé growing up in the slums of
Rio de Janeiro. • a reminiscence on the life of Mina Owczyńska, mother of author
Romain Gary •
Xia Yan's comparison of things conventionally assumed to be strong and powerful with grass, which he considers more powerful == Grading ==