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地心游记
**Simplified Chinese Edition**
Join Professor Luo and his niece Xiaojing in their daring quest down the mouth of a volcano to reach the center of the earth. Guided by an ancient parchment written in mysterious code and accompanied by their faithful guide Lao Xu, the three explorers encounter subterranean phenomenon, prehistoric animals, and vast underground seas. "A Journey to the Center of the Earth" is one of Jules Verne's best-known works and one of the most classic tales of adventure ever written.
Mandarin Companion is a series of easy-to-read novels in Chinese that are fun to read and proven to accelerate language learning. Every book in the Mandarin Companion series is carefully written to use characters, words, and grammar that a learner is likely to know.
Level 2 is intended for Chinese learners at a low intermediate level, equivalent to roughly two to three years of formal study. Most learners who have been able to fluidly read Mandarin Companion Level 1 should be able to read this book. This series is designed to combine simplicity of characters with an easy-to-understand storyline that helps learners grow their vocabulary and language comprehension abilities. The more they read, the better they will become at reading and grasping the Chinese language.
Visit www.MandarinCompanion.com for the latest updates on new titles.
Join Professor Luo and his niece Xiaojing in their daring quest down the mouth of a volcano to reach the center of the earth. Guided by an ancient parchment written in mysterious code and accompanied by their faithful guide Lao Xu, the three explorers encounter subterranean phenomenon, prehistoric animals, and vast underground seas. "A Journey to the Center of the Earth" is one of Jules Verne's best-known works and one of the most classic tales of adventure ever written.
Mandarin Companion is a series of easy-to-read novels in Chinese that are fun to read and proven to accelerate language learning. Every book in the Mandarin Companion series is carefully written to use characters, words, and grammar that a learner is likely to know.
Level 2 is intended for Chinese learners at a low intermediate level, equivalent to roughly two to three years of formal study. Most learners who have been able to fluidly read Mandarin Companion Level 1 should be able to read this book. This series is designed to combine simplicity of characters with an easy-to-understand storyline that helps learners grow their vocabulary and language comprehension abilities. The more they read, the better they will become at reading and grasping the Chinese language.
Visit www.MandarinCompanion.com for the latest updates on new titles.
- GenresChina
122 pages, ebook
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56 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
April 14, 2020
I especially love the grammar in this
This uses a lot of 把 and a lot of 累是累，但是 structures, which are particularly chinese and usually quite tricky for english speakers to learn; though luckily, they're quite easy to read! The story is good, and I like that they made the protagonist a girl, but what I love is the context for grammar that otherwise feels too ethereal to be understood.
One qualm: while this one has way better quality traditional character conversion than Great Expectations, 隻 still comes out as 只, which is just wrong. I hope their next volumes fix these conversion issues entirely.
This uses a lot of 把 and a lot of 累是累，但是 structures, which are particularly chinese and usually quite tricky for english speakers to learn; though luckily, they're quite easy to read! The story is good, and I like that they made the protagonist a girl, but what I love is the context for grammar that otherwise feels too ethereal to be understood.
One qualm: while this one has way better quality traditional character conversion than Great Expectations, 隻 still comes out as 只, which is just wrong. I hope their next volumes fix these conversion issues entirely.
July 25, 2017
I enjoyed this book. The story was interesting enough to make reading it fun, but not so interesting that I felt like I was ruining the real "Journey to the Center of the Earth", which I haven't read.
By contrast, when I read the Mandarin Companion edition of "Great Expectations" I enjoyed it, but I also felt that I was ruining the real "Great Expectations", which I could tell must be a great book.
By contrast, when I read the Mandarin Companion edition of "Great Expectations" I enjoyed it, but I also felt that I was ruining the real "Great Expectations", which I could tell must be a great book.
August 13, 2019
The first book I read in Chinese, and for that only I am quite impressed with the result - being able to actually understand and enjoy the story. The Mandarin Companion Graded Reader series of books is an amazing resource for those studying the language, one of the best ways to practice that I've found so far. This a Level 2 book and it feels like it lies between HSK3 and HSK4 levels, loads of interesting (and repetitive) usages of grammar points that are quite a headache for me, such as 把，再，又，hence it has become a useful guide.
March 25, 2021
Finishing a ~15000 character length book at the 450 unique character level feels like my most significant Chinese language learning accomplishment yet! I really did enjoy this book. It was neat little read which makes me want to read the original one day.
This was more difficult than I would like to admit. It ended up taking me a few hours to finish, but I believe I learned a ton. So many 把 and 被 sentences as well as directional compliments! Great for practice.
This was more difficult than I would like to admit. It ended up taking me a few hours to finish, but I believe I learned a ton. So many 把 and 被 sentences as well as directional compliments! Great for practice.
January 23, 2020
I can't believe I read it all in an hour. The editors did an amazing job at making this. The whole story was gripping and fluid. It felt like I really was reading the original novel. (I've read the original and I wasn't even that impressed.) Hats off.
June 20, 2025
About a year after starting my first (beginner level) Mandarin Companion book, I finished my last level 2 book, until they release new ones I've read them all. So bittersweet! It wasn't my favorite MC reader, but that's mostly because of the original story, not the Chinese adaptation. It's an adventure novel in the turn of the century sci fi mold - don't expect a lot of character development or scientifically grounded content.
That said, the content was good, at this point it was an easy read, and I continue to credit the entire series with helping my Chinese reading level immensely. I wish there were a level 3! There's an awful lot of Dumas novels out there waiting to be set in China....
That said, the content was good, at this point it was an easy read, and I continue to credit the entire series with helping my Chinese reading level immensely. I wish there were a level 3! There's an awful lot of Dumas novels out there waiting to be set in China....
December 15, 2024
This is my last new Level 2 Mandarin Companion book! I hope they release new ones.
Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book as much as the others. I've read the original Journey to the Center of the Earth, and I feel like the plot was reduced too much in the Mandarin Companion adaptation. They had to condense the book, but I feel like they left out an important complicating factor. It's still fun, nonetheless.
Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book as much as the others. I've read the original Journey to the Center of the Earth, and I feel like the plot was reduced too much in the Mandarin Companion adaptation. They had to condense the book, but I feel like they left out an important complicating factor. It's still fun, nonetheless.
April 19, 2025
Popsugar Reading Challenge 2025: A book set in or around water
December 20, 2020
This review regards the Taiwanese Mandarin edition of the Mandarin Companion adaptation of the book and not the original text itself.
This is the fourth Mandarin Companion book I've read, and the first on Level 2. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to practice some Taiwanese Mandarin reading. I've read the original novel in English nearly ten years ago, which was also a great interesting read, albeit not a five-star one, more like three. This one I rate with five stars however, due to the great adaptation into Taiwanese Mandarin and the fact that I enjoyed the accomplishment of having read it in Taiwanese Mandarin so much.
The book is 71 pages long and is built up using 450 core characters plus(?) 110 additional words. It says in the introduction that the book contains in total approximately 650 unique words. I'm not sure what they count as words though and how they do the math. There was only 3 characters that were new to me, and thus it made for a very easy read.
Where is level 3??? @Mandarin Companion: Please adapt some more great books for us on a higher level! George Orwell, Tolkien, Rowling, etc, please! :)
This is the fourth Mandarin Companion book I've read, and the first on Level 2. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to practice some Taiwanese Mandarin reading. I've read the original novel in English nearly ten years ago, which was also a great interesting read, albeit not a five-star one, more like three. This one I rate with five stars however, due to the great adaptation into Taiwanese Mandarin and the fact that I enjoyed the accomplishment of having read it in Taiwanese Mandarin so much.
The book is 71 pages long and is built up using 450 core characters plus(?) 110 additional words. It says in the introduction that the book contains in total approximately 650 unique words. I'm not sure what they count as words though and how they do the math. There was only 3 characters that were new to me, and thus it made for a very easy read.
Where is level 3??? @Mandarin Companion: Please adapt some more great books for us on a higher level! George Orwell, Tolkien, Rowling, etc, please! :)
March 14, 2020
This is the first Mandarin Companion story I've read. I've been listening to the You Can Learn Chinese Podcast for some time and decides to buy this book. Although I've had to look up quite some words, I'm happy I choose this level 2 book (I'm past HSK 3 level). I think the story is very well written with the 450 characters they used for this book and the story didn't become boring as I've seen in other Chinese graded reader book... I'm planning to read more Mandarin Companion books as this book was one of the best Chinese graded reader books I've read.
August 31, 2018
The first Chinese book I have read! I think this one is at an HSK 4+ level, and was a great read. My kindle was a little wonky with highlighting characters to then look up in the Chinese->English dictionary. But a tablet/kindle that translates by highlighting is probably the biggest innovation in foreign language learning since the smart phone!
July 16, 2021
I was kinda bored silly with this one - not the graded reader’s fault, but I’ve always hated the source material (it’s very silly, and this is from a huge fantasy nerd).
I know it was probably chosen to be adapted because it’s a beloved “classic,” but if I was really into 19th century European literature, I probably wouldn’t be learning Mandarin.
I know it was probably chosen to be adapted because it’s a beloved “classic,” but if I was really into 19th century European literature, I probably wouldn’t be learning Mandarin.
October 15, 2021
Great book again, my fifth Mandarin companion.
This was the first Level 2 book I finished, and I felt that the difficulty level was similar to Level 1 - not much difference. I’m currently at around HSK 4-5 level and these books are almost to easy to read. I’d love to read a Level 3 if there was any :-)
This was the first Level 2 book I finished, and I felt that the difficulty level was similar to Level 1 - not much difference. I’m currently at around HSK 4-5 level and these books are almost to easy to read. I’d love to read a Level 3 if there was any :-)
January 7, 2024
It's a good graded reader but there's a few issues with the traditional character choices. For instance 公里 is hypercorrected to 公裡 and 乾 "dry" is written as 幹 "do" because they share the same simplification.
The story was compellingly written for a graded reader and had a fair few moments with strong suspense.
The story was compellingly written for a graded reader and had a fair few moments with strong suspense.
October 2, 2017
Fun light hearted reading. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the land below the Earth's surface.
October 10, 2017
Another good one in the series. The stories are intrinsically dull though (simple and repetitive) so it's definitely for practice and not for enjoyment of the reading.
February 8, 2020
我从半年在学习汉语，差不多到了HSK4。很喜欢这本书， 觉得故事非常有趣，即使汉字数码只是四百五十个的！有时候，故事甚至有点儿感动我！事实上说，不敢相信读到了我第一本汉语书。这是个非常有动力的事了。如果你在学习汉语和在找好读的书，请你看看“地心游记”。
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January 3, 2023不错！
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews