Mandarin Chinese 1 Quiz: Numbers In Context
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Numbers In ContextQuestion 1 of 10

Li Ming is filling out a form and writes his phone number as: 一三八，五五五，九零二一 (yī sān bā, wǔ wǔ wǔ, jiǔ líng èr yī).

Which of the following correctly represents Li Ming's phone number in digits?

138-555-9021
183-555-9021
138-555-9201
138-555-9012
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Mandarin Chinese 1 Quiz

Mandarin Chinese 1 Quiz: Numbers In Context

Practice Numbers In Context in Mandarin Chinese 1 with focused quiz questions that help you check what you know, review explanations, and build confidence with test-style prompts.

What this quiz covers

This quiz focuses on Numbers In Context, giving you a quick way to practice the rules, question types, and explanations that matter most for Mandarin Chinese 1.

How to use this quiz

Try each quiz question before looking at the correct answer. Use the explanations to review missed ideas, then come back to similar questions until the pattern feels familiar.

All questions

Question 1

Li Ming is filling out a form and writes his phone number as: 一三八，五五五，九零二一 (yī sān bā, wǔ wǔ wǔ, jiǔ líng èr yī).

Which of the following correctly represents Li Ming's phone number in digits?

  1. 138-555-9021 (correct answer)
  2. 183-555-9021
  3. 138-555-9201
  4. 138-555-9012
Explanation: When reading Chinese phone numbers, each digit is spoken individually in sequence — there's no grouping or reordering. Your job is simply to map each spoken syllable to its corresponding digit, one-to-one, left to right. Li Ming's number is: 一(yī)=1, 三(sān)=3, 八(bā)=8, 五(wǔ)=5, 五(wǔ)=5, 五(wǔ)=5, 九(jiǔ)=9, 零(líng)=0, 二(èr)=2, 一(yī)=1. Reading straight across gives you 138-555-9021, which is answer A — the correct choice. Answer B (183-555-9021) swaps the second and third digits, turning 三八 into 83. This is the most tempting trap: if you accidentally reversed those two syllables or misheard 三 and 八, you'd land here. Answer C (138-555-9201) gets the first six digits right but scrambles the last four — it places 2 before 0, swapping 零(0) and 二(2). Answer D (138-555-9012) also corrupts the final group by rearranging the last three digits into 012 instead of 021, misreading the order of 零(0), 二(2), and 一(1). A useful study habit: when transcribing spoken Chinese numbers, point to each digit position as you hear each syllable — don't try to hold the whole number in memory at once. Pay special attention to 零(líng) for zero, since it's easy to skip or misplace. On this exam, number-reading questions almost always hide their trap in a small transposition, so slow down and go digit by digit.

Question 2

Wang Fang says: 我今年二十四岁，我妹妹比我小六岁。 (Wǒ jīnnián èrshísì suì, wǒ mèimei bǐ wǒ xiǎo liù suì.)

Based on Wang Fang's statement, how old is her younger sister?

  1. 18 years old (correct answer)
  2. 30 years old
  3. 20 years old
  4. 16 years old
Explanation: When you see a question involving the Chinese comparison structure 比 (bǐ), your job is to identify the two things being compared and the direction of the difference. The sentence 我妹妹比我小六岁 (wǒ mèimei bǐ wǒ xiǎo liù suì) follows the pattern: [Subject] 比 [Comparison] [Adjective] [Amount], which translates as "My younger sister is six years younger than me." Since Wang Fang is 24 years old, you simply subtract: 24−6=1824 - 6 = 18. That makes A) 18 years old the correct answer. B) 30 is wrong because it adds six years instead of subtracting — a classic trap when students confuse the direction of 比. If the sentence said 比我大六岁 (bǐ wǒ dà liù suì), meaning "six years older than me," then 30 would be correct. But 小 (xiǎo) means "small/young," so you subtract. C) 20 is incorrect — there's no mathematical operation that produces 20 from this sentence. It may simply seem like a "close" number to 24, designed to catch students who aren't computing carefully. D) 16 is a subtraction answer, which is the right approach, but it subtracts 8 instead of 6 — likely a misreading of 六 (liù, "six"). A helpful tip: always pay close attention to 大 vs. 小 in comparison sentences. 大 means older/bigger (add), and 小 means younger/smaller (subtract). Mixing these two up is the most common error on age-comparison problems in Mandarin.

Question 3

A student hears the following price at a market stall: 两百三十块。 (Liǎng bǎi sānshí kuài.)

Which numeral correctly represents the price the student heard?

  1. ¥230 (correct answer)
  2. ¥203
  3. ¥2,300
  4. ¥320
Explanation: When reading Chinese numbers, you build the value from largest unit to smallest — just like in English. The key vocabulary here is: 两 (liǎng) = 2, 百 (bǎi) = hundred, 三十 (sānshí) = thirty, and 块 (kuài) = the spoken word for yuan (¥). So 两百三十块 breaks down as: 2 × 100 + 30 = 230, making A) ¥230 the correct answer. Let's look at why the other choices fail. B) ¥203 confuses 三十 (thirty) with just 三 (three) — if the price were ¥203, you'd hear 两百零三块, where 零 (líng) signals a zero placeholder before a small digit. C) ¥2,300 mistakes the scale entirely — 两百 means two-hundred, not two-thousand. To say 2,300, you'd need 两千三百块, using 千 (qiān) for thousand. D) ¥320 reverses the order of 百 and 十 — it imagines you heard 三百二十块, but the passage clearly places 两百 (200) first, then 三十 (30). A helpful study tip: Chinese numbers follow a strict descending unit order (万→千→百→十→个), and each unit word tells you exactly what to multiply the preceding digit by. When you hear a price, mentally map each syllable to its unit: digit × unit + digit × unit. Watch out for 零 (líng), which appears when a middle digit is zero — its presence (or absence) is a common trap on this exam.

Question 4

Chen Jie introduces himself: 我爸爸四十七岁，我今年十九岁。 (Wǒ bàba sìshíqī suì, wǒ jīnnián shíjiǔ suì.)

How many years older is Chen Jie's father than Chen Jie?

  1. 66 years older
  2. 38 years older
  3. 29 years older
  4. 28 years older (correct answer)
Explanation: When a question asks you to compare two numbers in Chinese, your job is to extract the ages and perform simple subtraction — the language itself is just the vehicle for the math. In the passage, Chen Jie states his father is 四十七岁 (sìshíqī suì) — 47 years old — and that he himself is 十九岁 (shíjiǔ suì) — 19 years old. To find the age difference, you subtract: 47−19=2847 - 19 = 28 So Chen Jie's father is 28 years older, making D the correct answer. Now let's look at where the wrong answers come from. A (66 years older) is the result of adding the two ages together (47 + 19 = 66) rather than subtracting — a classic mix-up when you're unsure whether to add or subtract. B (38 years older) likely comes from a misreading of 四十七 as 57, then subtracting 19: 57 − 19 = 38. This is a common error when students confuse 四十 (40) with 五十 (50). C (29 years older) probably results from misreading 十九 as 18 instead of 19, giving 47 − 18 = 29 — a small but critical misparse of the teen numbers. A useful study tip: Chinese numbers for the tens follow a very logical pattern — 四十 means "four-tens" (40), 五十 means "five-tens" (50). Drilling these systematically will prevent the kind of misread that leads to traps like B and C on comparison questions.

Question 5

A classmate recites her phone number slowly: 零九一，三六七，八五四二。 (Líng jiǔ yī, sān liù qī, bā wǔ sì èr.)

Which written number correctly matches what the classmate said?

  1. 091-367-8524
  2. 091-376-8542
  3. 091-367-8542 (correct answer)
  4. 019-367-8542
Explanation: When listening to a phone number in Mandarin, your job is to map each spoken digit directly to its written numeral, in order — no reordering, no substitution. The key skill here is recognizing the Chinese number words: 零 (líng) = 0, 一 (yī) = 1, 二 (èr) = 2, 三 (sān) = 3, 四 (sì) = 4, 五 (wǔ) = 5, 六 (liù) = 6, 七 (qī) = 7, 八 (bā) = 8, 九 (jiǔ) = 9. Breaking down the passage group by group: 零九一 → 0, 9, 1 → 091; 三六七 → 3, 6, 7 → 367; 八五四二 → 8, 5, 4, 2 → 8542. That gives you 091-367-8542, which matches answer C. Answer A (091-367-8524) transposes the last two digits — it swaps 四 (4) and 二 (2), giving 8524 instead of 8542. Answer B (091-376-8542) swaps the second group's middle digits, writing 376 instead of the correct 367 — it confuses the order of 六 (6) and 七 (7). Answer D (019-367-8542) swaps the first group's digits, writing 019 instead of 091 — it misorders 九 (9) and 一 (1). A useful strategy: when transcribing spoken numbers in Mandarin, always go one digit at a time and write them in the exact sequence you hear them. Don't let similar-sounding numbers like 四 (sì/4) and 七 (qī/7) trip you up — slow down and confirm each syllable before moving to the next.

Question 6

A shopkeeper says: 这双鞋原来三百二十块，现在打八折。 (Zhè shuāng xié yuánlái sānbǎi èrshí kuài, xiànzài dǎ bā zhé.)

打八折 means an 80% discount (you pay 80% of the original price). What is the sale price of the shoes?

  1. ¥240
  2. ¥64
  3. ¥256 (correct answer)
  4. ¥288
Explanation: When you see 打折 (dǎ zhé) in Chinese shopping contexts, you're dealing with a discount system that works differently from English. In Chinese, 打八折 means you pay 80% of the original price — not that you save 80%. This trips up many learners who assume "80% discount" means you subtract 80%. Here, the original price is ¥320, and 打八折 means multiplying by 0.8: 320×0.8=256320 \times 0.8 = 256 So the correct sale price is ¥256, answer C. Now let's examine why the other choices are tempting traps. Answer A (¥240) comes from calculating 75% of ¥320, or subtracting ¥80 directly — neither of which matches 打八折. Answer B (¥64) is the most common mistake: treating 八折 as "save 80%" and calculating 320×0.2=64320 \times 0.2 = 64, which would be what you save, not what you pay. Answer D (¥288) results from applying a 90% multiplier (320×0.9320 \times 0.9), confusing 八折 with 九折. A reliable memory trick: in Chinese discount language, the number before 折 tells you what fraction of ten you pay. So 八折 = 8/10 = 80% of the price. 五折 would mean half price, 九折 means 90%, and so on. Whenever you see 打X折, just multiply the original price by X/10 to find what the customer actually pays.

Question 7

Two students are comparing ages. Student A says: 我哥哥今年三十岁。 Student B replies: 我姐姐比你哥哥大两岁，比我大十岁。 (Wǒ jiějie bǐ nǐ gēge dà liǎng suì, bǐ wǒ dà shí suì.)

How old is Student B?

  1. 20 years old
  2. 22 years old (correct answer)
  3. 42 years old
  4. 24 years old
Explanation: When you see comparison sentences in Mandarin using 比 (bǐ), your job is to carefully track who is being compared to whom and in which direction. Here, Student B gives you two clues about her older sister (姐姐): she is 比你哥哥大两岁 ("two years older than your older brother") and 比我大十岁 ("ten years older than me"). Start with what you know for certain: Student A's brother is 30 years old (三十岁). Since the sister is two years older than the brother, the sister is 30+2=3230 + 2 = 32 years old. Now use the second comparison: the sister is ten years older than Student B, meaning Student B is 32−10=2232 - 10 = 22 years old. That confirms B) 22 years old is correct. Looking at the wrong answers helps you spot common traps. A) 20 years old likely comes from subtracting the two-year difference from 22, or confusing which direction 大 points — remember, 大 means "older," so 比我大十岁 means the sister is above Student B by ten years, not below. C) 42 years old is what you get if you mistakenly add ten years to the sister's age instead of subtracting, misreading who is older. D) 24 years old might come from subtracting the two-year difference (instead of adding) when finding the sister's age, giving 28, then subtracting incorrectly. As a study tip: always draw a quick number line when chaining 比 comparisons. Write each person's name, assign the known value first, then move up or down based on whether the sentence uses 大 (older/bigger) or 小 (younger/smaller).

Question 8

A store sign reads: 这件衬衫五十八块九毛五。 (Zhè jiàn chènshān wǔshíbā kuài jiǔ máo wǔ.)

How much does the shirt cost according to the sign?

  1. ¥58.95 (correct answer)
  2. ¥85.95
  3. ¥58.59
  4. ¥58.90
Explanation: When reading Chinese prices, you need to understand the monetary unit system: 块 (kuài) represents the main yuan unit (like a dollar), 毛 (máo) represents tenths of a yuan (like a dime, equal to 0.1 yuan), and 分 (fēn) represents hundredths of a yuan (like a penny). Breaking down the sign character by character is essential here. The phrase 五十八块九毛五 (wǔshíbā kuài jiǔ máo wǔ) breaks down as: 五十八 (wǔshíbā) = 58, followed by 块 (kuài) = yuan, then 九 (jiǔ) = 9, followed by 毛 (máo) = 0.1 yuan, then 五 (wǔ) = 5. When there's a final digit after 毛 with no unit specified, it defaults to 分 (fēn), meaning 0.01 yuan. So the full price is ¥58 + ¥0.90 + ¥0.05 = ¥58.95, confirming that A is correct. Choice B (¥85.95) results from reversing the digits in 五十八 — misreading 58 as 85, a common reversal mistake. Choice C (¥58.59) likely comes from misreading 九毛五 as "59 cents" rather than correctly calculating 9 máo (¥0.90) + 5 fēn (¥0.05). Choice D (¥58.90) ignores the final 五 entirely, treating the price as ending at 九毛 without accounting for the last digit. A useful strategy: always read Chinese prices left to right, assigning each number to its following unit word. If a trailing digit has no unit, it means 分. Practice recognizing 块/毛/分 as a trio so you can parse prices quickly on the exam.

Question 9

A menu lists the following: 一碗面条十二块五，两杯茶各三块。 (Yī wǎn miàntiáo shí'èr kuài wǔ, liǎng bēi chá gè sān kuài.)

If a customer orders one bowl of noodles and two cups of tea, what is the total cost?

  1. ¥21.50
  2. ¥15.50
  3. ¥18.00
  4. ¥18.50 (correct answer)
Explanation: When reading Chinese prices on menus, you need to understand two key elements: the currency words and the distributive word 各 (gè). In Mandarin, 块 (kuài) means yuan (¥), and 五 (wǔ) after a price means 0.50 — so 十二块五 is ¥12.50. The word 各 (gè) means "each," so 两杯茶各三块 tells you that each of the two cups of tea costs ¥3.00. Here's the math: one bowl of noodles costs ¥12.50, and two cups of tea cost ¥3.00 × 2 = ¥6.00, giving a total of: 12.50+6.00=18.5012.50 + 6.00 = 18.50 That confirms D (¥18.50) is correct. Choice A (¥21.50) likely results from misreading 十二块五 as ¥12.50 but then adding the tea incorrectly, or treating the tea price as ¥9 total instead of ¥3 each. Choice B (¥15.50) is the trap for students who ignore 各 and add only one cup of tea (¥12.50 + ¥3.00), forgetting the customer ordered two cups. Choice C (¥18.00) may come from rounding ¥12.50 down to ¥12.00 and then adding ¥6.00, dropping the 五 (five jiao/fifty cents) entirely. Your key takeaway: always pause on 各 (gè) — it signals a per-unit price. If a quantity is mentioned before it, multiply accordingly. Also, remember that a lone 五 trailing a price represents ¥0.50, not a full yuan.

Question 10

During a class exercise, students are asked to write 一千零五 in numerals.

Which numeral correctly represents 一千零五?

  1. 1,050
  2. 1,005 (correct answer)
  3. 1,500
  4. 105
Explanation: When reading large numbers in Mandarin Chinese, the key is understanding how 零 (líng) functions as a placeholder for internal zeros — digits that are zero but sit between non-zero digits. This is what makes 一千零五 different from what it might appear to be at first glance. Breaking down 一千零五: 一千 means 1,000, 零 signals that there is a zero (or zeros) in the middle, and 五 means 5. The 零 here bridges the thousands place directly to the ones place, meaning the hundreds and tens places are both empty. This gives you 1,005, making B the correct answer. Choice A, 1,050, would be read as 一千零五十 in Mandarin — the 十 (shí) for "ten" is missing from the original phrase, so this is wrong. Choice C, 1,500, would be 一千五百, where 五百 explicitly states five hundreds — again, 百 is absent from the original. Choice D, 105, would be 一百零五, using 百 (hundred) instead of 千 (thousand) — this confuses the place value entirely. A useful strategy: in Mandarin numbers, always identify the largest place-value unit first (千, 百, 万, etc.), then note where 零 appears. Each 零 collapses over any skipped place values, so you don't need a separate word for each missing digit. When you see 零 followed immediately by a single digit unit like 五, that digit is likely in the ones place, with everything in between being zero.