We can use Chinese character1“少”to make different words：“多少”and“少年”.
Here “少”has two meanings（意思）.
We tell them apart（區分）by their different sounds,or pinyin.
In Chinese,there are many such words.
It is a lot of fun,but not easy.
Pinyin helps us learn.
This year,pinyin turns 60 years old.
Pinyin is not only popular in China.
Many people around the world start to study Chinese by learning pinyin.
You might say"nihao"instead of（而不是）"hello" to a foreign friend.
If you talk about Chinese gongfu, he or she will understand you.
In the Oxford English Dictionary（《英語牛津字典》）,there are more than 100 Chinese words in pinyin,such as jiaozi for dumplings,zhongguomeng for Chinese dream,wanggou for online2shopping and xiongmao for panda.
Pinying is not just a language tool3.
It's a brige between4China and the world.
DID U KNOW?
Father of pinyin
Zhou Youguang(1906-2017)was a linguist（語言學家）.
He and his team designed（定製）pinyin in 1958.
WORD BANK | 詞彙
character [ˈkærəktə(r)] 文字
online [ˌɒnˈlaɪn] 在線的
tool [tu:l] 工具
between [bɪˈtwi:n] 在……之間
文章摘錄自21世紀學生英文報 小學
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