zhè
zhè
zhè
 
 
zhè
yi̅
kè
rú
hé
shì
hǎo
How can this be?
(pronoun) this; these / (bound form) this; the (followed by a noun) / (bound form) this; these (followed by a classifier) (in this sense, commonly pr. [zhei4], esp. in Beijing)

= + : James II of England (zh) is carrying a heavy book (文) in the elevator's bathroom (e4). This (这) book is so heavy that his gladiator sandals (辶) are sinking deep into the sand.
one / single / a (article) / as soon as / entire; whole; all; throughout / "one" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 1) / also pr. [yao1] for greater clarity when spelling out numbers digit by digit

Maud Younger (y) forgot her keys to the space station (Ø1), all she brought outside was her flute (一). She has no choice but to crash the door with the giant flute.
quarter (hour) / moment / to carve / to engrave / to cut / oppressive / classifier for short time intervals

= + : Mnemonic symbol: an engraver.

The boar cannot believe it when it meets Karl Marx in the elevator's bathroom! Bewildered it asks for an autograph but has nothing except for a kitchen knife and an engraver. It takes Karl Marx a quarter of an hour to engrave his message in the kitchen knife: "Dear boar, keep on fighting capitalism! Yours, Karl."
how / what way / what
as / as if / such as

= + : Mnemonic symbol: Asif ibn Barkhiya, according to the Qur'an, throne hauler at the court of king Salomon.

= + : Just inside the space station's entrance, Asif ibn Barkhiya, Rachel Rhinoceros and Bessie Coleman are playing monkey, throwing a mandarin as if they were little kids.
surname He
what / how / why / which / carry

= + : Mnemonic symbol (from "carry"): baby sling

= + : In the elevator's kitchen, Rosa Luxemburg picks up the crying baby Hamlet from his bed of nails, puts him in his baby sling and tries to calm him down.
variant of 是[shi4] / (used in given names)
to be (followed by substantives only) / correct; right; true / (respectful acknowledgement of a command) very well / (adverb for emphatic assertion)

= + : Mnemonic symbol: a skull, from "to be or not to be".

Sherlock Holmes (sh) starts his day in the space station's bathroom (Ø4) with a mug of coffee (旦). Holding a skull (mnemonic symbol for 是) in his hands, he asks himself "to be, or not to be" (是). He wonders if he can make the skull come back to life using lots of coffee, and injects coffee from his mug into the skull using a syringe (龰).

= + + : Mnemonic symbol: a skull, from "to be or not to be".

Sherlock Holmes (sh) watches the Neanderthal Man (人) trying to climb to the sun (日) on a ladder (下) in the space station's bathroom (Ø4). Sherlock is afraid that he'll open the window, so he puts on a big skull (是) and scares him off.
good / well / proper / good to / easy to / very / so / (suffix indicating completion or readiness) / (of two people) close / on intimate terms / (after a personal pronoun) hello

= + : Hamlet visits the wishing well in the aorta and wishes for a good child. A picosecond later, an egg appears, cracks open and Bessie Coleman jumps out.
to be fond of / to have a tendency to / to be prone to
good / appropriate; proper / all right! / (before a verb) easy to / (before a verb) good to / (before an adjective for exclamatory effect) so / (verb complement indicating completion) / (of two people) close; on intimate terms / (after a personal pronoun) hello
to be fond of; to have a tendency to; to be prone to