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The development of Chinese characters
汉字的演变
The Chinese language differs from Western languages in that, instead of an alohabet, it uses characters which stand for ideas, objects or deeds.
汉语与西方语言不同，区别在于它不使用字母，而是用汉字表达思想、物体和行为。
Chinese words are formed by putting together different characters.
汉语中的词汇是由不同的汉字组合而成的。
In many cases, a single character can also make up a word.
很多情况，一个汉字也可以构成词汇。
The history of the Chinese language can be examined by looking at how these characters developed.
要明白许多汉语词语的来龙去脉，只要考察这些词语中单个汉字的发展过程就可以了。
Chinese writing began thousands of years ago.
汉字起源于数千年前。
According to an ancient story, a man named Cang Jie invented Chinese writing.
根据一个传说，是一个名叫仓颌的人发明了汉字。
One winter day while he was hunting, he saw the tracks of animals in the snow and observed that the appearance of each one was different.
冬季的一天，他在打猎时看到动物在雪地里留下的足印，并注意到每一个足印各有不同。
Then he had the idea that he could use different shapes to represent different objects.
于是，他想到了利用不同形状来表示不同物体的念头。
