at first / (at the) beginning / first / junior / basic
初
=
刀
+
衤
:
Back in the days when Chantal Chicken first arrived at the space station as the first junior scientist, she tried really hard to make a good first impression and put on a royal ermine coat. Just to be save she hid a cleaver behind her back just in case she wouldn't be received well.
级
=
及
+
纟
:
Joan of Arc (ji) closely investigates her newly arrived troops just inside the space station's entrance (Ø2). She ranks (级) them according to their level (级): First there is a silk worm (纟) which can at least shapeshift. On the next level, there is Yuwen Huaji (及), who has no comparable super power.
within / among / in / middle / center / while (doing sth) / during / (dialect) OK / all right
中
=
丨
+
口
:
Mnemonic symbol: a dart board, because you always try to hit the center.
Julian Giant Squid (zhu-) is throwing dinosaur bones (丨) as darts on a dart board in front of the engine ((e)ng1). To make it a bit more difficult he's throwing mandarins (口) into the air as well and skewers them up right in the center (中 is a mandarin skewered on a dinosaur bone) in mid flight with the dinosaur bones. He's still able to consistently hit the center (中) of the dart board.
to learn / to study / to imitate / science / -ology
学
=
小
+
冖
+
子
:
Xu Xian wants to study scienceology and learn more about daisies. Just inside the elevator's kitchen, he put some daisies into a prize cup and covered them with a cooking top. He wants to study the growth rate of the daisies depending on the pH of the water in the prize cup.