to compete / competition / match / to surpass / better than / superior to / to excel
赛
=
宀
+
井
+
丌
+
贝
:
Socrates (s) and the crab (贝) are competing in a competition (赛) in the airplane's bathroom (ai4). The competition is about stacking wells (井) as high as possible. After time's up, Socrates is the clear winner. He climbs the winner's pedestal (丌) and receives a honorary PhD and thus a graduation cap (宀).
lining / interior / inside / internal / also written 裏|里[li3]
里
=
土
+
田
:
Mnemonic symbol: a sunflower. The 田 part looks like the blossom and 土 looks like the stem and leaves. Li Qingzhao (li) wants to put up a field (田) inside (里) the space station's living room (Ø3). First she puts some earth (土) here and there, and then she plants lots of sunflowers (里).
li, ancient measure of length, approx. 500 m / neighborhood / ancient administrative unit of 25 families / (Tw) borough, administrative unit between the township 鎮|镇[zhen4] and neighborhood 鄰|邻[lin2] levels
Malte Monkey (mu) is setting up a Christmas tree (木) in the bathroom of the space station (Ø4). He decorates the tree with eight-balls (八) and puts a holy cross (十) at the top of the tree.
湖
=
氵
+
胡
:
Helga Horse (hu) is doing an experiment just inside the space station's entrance (Ø2). She lets the water out of a water bottle (氵) and it forms something like a ball very soon. Helga Horse then uses her Confucius beard (胡) to create a loop and let the water, through the surface tension, expand by stretching the loop. She wants to find out how far she can stretch to get a little lake (湖).