Explaining a language choice means saying what one word or image suggests and why it suits the writer’s point. It appears whenever a task asks how a writer creates an effect.
This lesson builds on identifying a writer’s emphasis, because the effect of a word only makes sense once you know what the passage stresses. Chinese examples stay in Simplified Chinese, with pinyin where it helps.
How do you explain a choice step by step?
Use a three-part chain: quote, suggest, link.
- Quote the smallest piece of text that carries the effect.
- Suggest what it makes the reader see, feel or understand. Ask what the word is doing that a plainer word would not.
- Link that suggestion to the writer’s wider point in the passage.
If you skip step 3, the answer becomes a description of the word. If you skip step 1, it becomes an opinion.
Worked example
Invented sentence, written for this lesson:
他把那张旧车票夹进书里，像夹进一片干枯的叶子。
Question: explain the effect of the comparison 像夹进一片干枯的叶子.
Quote. 像夹进一片干枯的叶子 (xiàng jiājìn yí piàn gānkū de yèzi, “like pressing in a dry leaf”). The verb 夹 (jiā, “tuck, press”) appears twice, so the action is repeated and careful.
Suggest. A dry leaf is fragile and belongs to a past season. People press leaves in books to keep them. The comparison makes the ticket feel like a delicate keepsake, not rubbish.
Link. The man is handling something from the past gently. The comparison therefore shows that the old ticket holds a memory he does not want to lose.
Full answer: The comparison 像夹进一片干枯的叶子 suggests that the ticket is fragile and tied to a past season, as a pressed leaf is. Together with the repeated, careful 夹, it shows the man keeping the ticket as a memory.
A common mistake
Weak answer: 作者用比喻，使句子很生动。
This names the technique and adds a stock adjective (生动). It never says what the comparison suggests or how it connects to the writer’s point.
Correction: replace 很生动 with what the reader pictures (a fragile pressed leaf) and what that says about the man and the ticket.
Self-check
- In 雨把整条街洗得发白 (“the rain washed the whole street pale”), which word carries the effect, and what does it suggest?
Show answer
洗 (xǐ, "wash"). It treats the rain as an active cleaner, so the street looks scrubbed and bare. The suggestion is emptiness or a fresh, stripped scene, depending on the surrounding passage.- In 他匆匆吃完饭，碗里还冒着热气, what does the detail 还冒着热气 show?
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The food is still hot, so he left it almost untouched. The detail shows hurry without the writer saying 他很着急.- Rewrite the weak answer 作者用拟人，很形象 into a better one for 风推着门，门不肯动.
Show answer
Sample: 门不肯动 gives the door a stubborn will, which suggests the wind is strong but the door resists. It sets a small struggle at the start of the scene.Where next?
Continue with Compare viewpoints without flattening differences. Return to the module overview for the full route, and try the mixed practice set when you have two lessons behind you.
For help turning one-line explanations into complete ones, see Chinese tuition.