Mandarin sentence – How to say -Which sign of the zodiac are you? I’m a pisces. in Chinese: 你属於那个星座？我是双鱼座。ni3 shu3 yu2 na3 ge5 xing1 zuo4? wo3 shi4 shuang1 yu2 zuo4. ni3 (你 pronoun, you) shu3 yu2 (属 shu3 ,verb, belong; 於 yu2, preposition, in or at; 属於 shu3 yu2 – belong to) na3 ge5 (那个 na3, pronoun, which, ge5 measure word; na3 ge5 – which one) xing1 zuo4 (星座 constellation)? wo3 (我 pronoun, I) shi4 (是 verb, am) shuang1 yu2 zuo4 (双鱼座 noun, pisces).
People have been fascinated (着迷 zhao2 mi2) with the night sky since the dawn of history （li4 shi3, 历史）. Many stars and constellations (星座， xing1 zuo4) were labeled with names from old mythologies. For example, the constellation Orion（lie4 hu4 zuo4, 猎戶座），or “The Hunter （猎人 lie4 ren2)”, got its name from Greek mythology, which means hunter. It is one of the largest constellations in the sky. The central star in Orions’ Belt, Alnilam, is more than 1,300 light-years (光年，guang1 nian2) from the Sun （tai4 yang2, 太阳）.
In the Greek mythologies, Orion was known as the “dweller of the mountain”, and was famous for his prowess as a hunter and as a lover. But he was too sure of himself, and he boasted that he would eventually get rid of all the wild animals from the earth. Apollo, disliked Orion, and also concerned that Orion had designs on his sister, Artemis. So, Apollo told the Earth Goddess (女神 nv3 shen2) about Orion’s boast. So, the Earth Goddess sent the scorpion （蝎子 xie1 zi5）to kill Orion with its sting. Apollo witnessed Orion’s battle with the scorpion and did not want him to escape so easily. So, Apollo challenged his sister Artemis, who was an excellent shot (射手she4 shou3), and tricked her to shoot a small black object far away in the sea, Apollo said it was the head of an infamous bad guy. Artemis struck the object with the first shot, then She swam to look for her victim’s corpse, and discovered she had killed Orion. Artemis begged the gods to restore Orion’s life, but Zeus objected （拒决 ju4 jue2). So Artemis put Orion’s image in the heavens as an eternal (yong3 heng2 de5 永恒的） hunter.
Do you enjoy today’s mythology story about Orion? I hope you do and I also hope you learned some useful Chinese phrases along the reading too. Let’s listen to a grand song by a super famous Taiwan rock band Mayday (wu3 yue4 tian1 五月天) called Xing1 Kong1 星空 Starry Sky. If you would like to see the English and pinyin of the song, it is at
http://www.chinesetolearn.com/?p=1609
Also OMG! 美语 What’s your zodiac sign?
OMG! 美语 Do our signs match?