China LEVELED BOOK • L

China
A Reading A–Z Level L Leveled Book
Word Count: 456

Discussion Questions
Compare and Contrast:
How is the land in northern
China different from the land
in southern China? How is the
land different in other parts?
Analyze:
What are some examples
of how the work people do
in China depends on where
they live?

Written by Travis Reid

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 Photo Credits:

China
Front cover, back cover: © Lou-Foto/Alamy; title page: Imaginechina
Limited/Alamy Stock Photo; page 3: © REUTERS/Bobby Yip; page 5: © Hsc/
Dreamstime.com; page 6: © REUTERS/Guang Niu; page 7 (top left): © Top Photo
Corporation/Top Photo Group/Thinkstock; page 7 (top right): © Benjamin van
der Spek/Shutterstock; page 7 (bottom left): © xPACIFICA/Stone/Getty Images;
page 7 (bottom right): © Bart?omiej Magierowski/Hemera/Thinkstock; page 8:
© REUTERS/Petar Kujundzic; page 9: © Hungchungchih/Dreamstime.com;
page 10 (main): © Elena Zapassky/iStock/Thinkstock; page 10 (inset):
© thailandphotos/iStock/Thinkstock; page 12: © Song Yang/Dreamstime.com;
page 13 (left): © Mitsuaki Iwago/Minden Pictures; page 13 (right):
© Keren Su/Corbis; page 14: © Zhang Yu/Xinhua Press/Corbis; page 15 (main):
© Ben Molyneux/Alamy; page 15 (inset): © asafta/iStock/Thinkstock

Front and back cover: Chinese students pose for a photo in front of a painting
of China’s Great Wall.

Title page: People celebrate Chinese New Year by going to a tea house.

Page 3: These Chinese boys are celebrating the Chinese New Year by wearing
dragon hats.

China
Countries Around the World
Level L Leveled Book Correlation
Written by Travis Reid © Learning A–Z
Written by Travis Reid
LEVEL L
Fountas & Pinnell K
All rights reserved. Reading Recovery 18
www.readinga-z.com www.readinga-z.com
DRA 20
 China

Russia

Khazakhstan Mongolia

Beijing

YELLOW
SEA
China Shanghai

Table of Contents India

Hong Kong

Where Is It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 ASIA

Myanmar
(Burma) SOUTH
CHINA SEA
People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Thailand

Celebrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Where Is It?
History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
The People’s Republic of China
Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
is one of the biggest countries in
Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 the world. Along with Russia, it
makes up a big part of Asia. Many
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
other countries share a border
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 with China.

China • Level L 3 4
 Mandarin
Characters
Here are the Mandarin
characters for some words.

fire

mountain

forest

woman

In Mandarin, the characters of some words look like what they mean.

People
More than one billion people live
in China. More people live in China
than in any other country in the
world. Seven out of ten Chinese
people speak Mandarin. People
also speak many other languages,
including English.
Beijing is one of China’s largest cities. Chinese writing does not use
Beijing is the capital of China. the letters of the English alphabet.
The city is more than three Instead, it uses thousands of
thousand years old. More than characters that stand for words
fifteen million people live there. or parts of words.

China • Level L 5 6
 Some people live and work in the
tall buildings in China’s big cities.
Others live on small farms and
grow food. More people live
in towns and villages than in
other places.
town village

The lion dance is thought to bring good luck to homes and businesses
in the new year.

Celebrations
The Chinese New Year is one of
the biggest celebrations in China.
It takes place in late January or
early February. Many cities hold
parades. People dress up in colorful
costumes. Some people dress up
as lions or dragons. Many Chinese
people believe lions and dragons
bring good luck. People often shoot
city farm
off fireworks, too.

China • Level L 7 8
The Great Wall of China is more than two thousand years old. Chinese
rulers built it to keep out invaders.

History
China has one of the oldest
civilizations still around today.
Experts think it began more
than five thousand years ago. Silk cloth is made from thread
The ancient Chinese people created taken from silkworm cocoons.

many things we still use today. Chinese people also discovered how
They were the first to create paper. to make silk cloth. Long ago, people
They were also the first to make came to China from far away places
gunpowder. We still use gunpowder to buy silk cloth. The road they used
in fireworks today. was called the Silk Road.

China • Level L 9 10
 China’s Landforms

Zunghaer
Basin Gobi Desert Beijing
Turfan
Depression YELLOW
Tarim Basin
SEA
China Shanghai
Tibetan Plateau
Him Sichuan
alay
an M Basin
t ns .
Mount
Everest Hong Kong

SOUTH
CHINA SEA

Bay Of
Bengal

Land China’s wetlands include areas along the Yellow River.

China is so large that it has many In other parts of China, forests

different types of land. The north cover the land. China also has large
is mostly desert. The south has wetlands and flat areas covered
some of the tallest mountains in with grass. Much of this land is
the world. used to grow food.

China • Level L 11 12
giant panda Siberian tigers

Animals
Many people know of giant pandas
and Siberian tigers. Giant pandas
live in bamboo forests in a small
area in the center of China. They eat
Every year at the lantern festival in Beijing, people create amazing ice and
only bamboo. snow sculptures.

Conclusion
Siberian tigers are among the largest
cats in the world. They live in the China is a large country. Many
forests in the east and the south different people and animals live in
of China. Both Siberian tigers and this land. People from all over the
giant pandas are in danger of dying world come to explore China each
out. However, many people are year. If you were to visit China,
working to protect them. what would you most like to see?

China • Level L 13 14
 China
Glossary
ancient (adj.) from a very long
time ago (p. 9)
bamboo (n.) a plant with long
woody stems and long
leaves (p. 13)
border (n.) the line that divides
one country or area
Population: 1,355,692,576 from another (p. 4)
characters (n.) letters or other
Land: 9,569,901 sq km (3,694,959 sq. mi.)
symbols that are used
Capital City: Beijing in writing or printing
(p. 6)
Primary Language: Mandarin
civilizations (n.) organized societies
Currency: Yuan (yoo-WAHN)
that have a stable food
supply, government,
social structure,
culture, written
language, and religion
(p. 9)
wetlands (n.) areas of land that are
marshy or swampy
Source: Central Intelligence Agency (July 2014), World Bank (p. 12)

China • Level L 15 16