Our nation has been griped by mind-numbing PSLE questions before, but mastery of our Mother Tongues is still proving to be tricky for many of us.
A netizen posted a PSLE Oral passage meant to be read aloud on Thursday (20 Aug), which quickly went viral with Singaporeans giving it a go.
We’ve transcribed the text below for easy reciting, and summarise netizens’ hilarious attempts to make sense of it below.
Transcribed Text (Mandarin):
富兰克林是美国历史上一位伟大的科学家和政治家。
住在农村里的一个农夫非常仰暮他的大名。
于是，农夫决定去拜访他。道别时，农夫要求富兰林
赠送他几个字。因此，他在纸上写下“今日事今日毕”。
农夫兴高采烈地回家了。
到家后，农夫看见他的家人已经把麦割好，却没有把麦
搬进家里。家人说: “我们已经工作了十多十小时，很累了。”
农夫想起富兰克林写给他的那些字，便对家人
说: “不可以! 今日事今日毕! ”
就在那天晚上，下起了倾盆大雨。
农夫很庆幸麦已搬进了家里。
The OP on Facebook posted this passage with a hilarious caption, stating that he tried to take the “Primary 6 oral exam”, and his Chinese was “sibeh good”.
All this was said in good fun, with a heavy dose of sarcasm of course.
In any case, the post quickly went viral, with many Singaporeans recalling the rite of passage and trying their hand at the challenge.
Most citizens who responded in the comments thread evaluated the difficulty level of the passage – to be read out loud for 50 points without Hanyu Pinyin.
Some netizens used it as a measure to test their standard of Mandarin, feeling heartened when they could read it smoothly.
Others tagged friends to issue a challenge. With this individual hilariously making a reference to Mr Charles Yeo’s “成何体统” — aka ‘how can dis b allow’ comment.
Regardless of whether we are fluent in our Mother Tongues or not, we encourage you to give this tricky passage a try with your loved ones.
If you need a little help – spoiler alert – here’s the passage transcribed with Hanyu Pinyin as the answer key.
Your friends don’t need to know you mugged this before showing off your PSLE Oral proficiency.
How many marks out of 50 do you think you would get? We’d love to hear your attempts in the comments below.
Featured image adapted from Facebook & YouTube.
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