The first of three volumes, Elementary Chinese Reading and Writing Course is designed for intermediate students with some proficiency reading and writing Chinese. Each chapter begins with a reading section with two short texts, vocabulary words, and vocabulary exercises. Each text includes a few useful features, such as the character count, a reading time, and a specific objective to guide the reader (such as key points to look for). Part two of each lesson is the writing part, which instructs the reader to complete various writing tasks related to the topic of the reading part, such as leaving a note for a friend or writing a few sentences. There are two books in each volume, and each book contains 12 chapters and two review sections. The texts and instructions are written entirely in Chinese characters, with the exception of the vocabulary words, which are presented with pinyin and English definitions. This text is appropriate for learners with a vocabulary of 800-1000 Chinese words. The texts in Vol. 1 contain 200-400 characters each, while those in Vol. 2 contain 400-600 each.
Topics in Vol. 1 include: leaving a note, workers talking about their day, rainy days, buying shoes, talking about family members, etc.
Topics in Vol. 2 include: buying train tickets, shopping, city life, changing trains, discussing happiness, visiting Tiananmen Square, etc.
