Reading 100 monosyllabic words to test pronunciation. (10%)
Reading 100 polysyllabic words to test pronunciation. (20%)
Reading out the correct form from several choices, to test vocabulary and syntax. (10%)
Reading a 400-character passage to test fluency. (30%)
Speaking for three minutes on a topic chosen from two supplied by the examiners. (30%)
There are sixty literary selections used in the fourth section of the test,[4] including:
a selection fromJia Pingwa's丑石 ('Ugly Rock'), a story about ameteorite which he and the local community had thought of for many years as a worthless ugly rock[4]: 338–339
"People that Read are Happy People" a piece byXie Mian included in his 1997 bookEternal Campus (永远的校园) and originally published in the July 19, 1995 edition of the China Reader's Report (中华读书报).[4]: 344–345
a reflection written byYan Wenjing on the hope for friendly Sino-Japanese relations describing the author's discovery of Lotus flowers imported from China which had been planted around the portrait ofJianzhen in theTōshōdai-ji temple inNara, Nara, Japan.[4]: 380–381
a story from the youth ofXu Dishan in which, after the family has grown peanuts for several months, his fatherXu Nanying uses an analogy to the peanut to teach a moral lesson to his children.[4]: 384–385
a translation (byBa Jin) of a story about a young sparrow which had fallen from its nest, written byIvan Turgenev.[4]: 386–387
Candidates who pass the test are given a Certificate of Putonghua Proficiency Level at levels 1, 2 or 3, each of which is subdivided into grades A and B:[8][9]
Level 1-A (97% correct) is required for presenters in national and provincial radio and television.[8]
Level 1-B (92% correct) is required for Chinese-language teachers in northern China.[3]
Level 2-A (87% correct) is required for Chinese-language teachers in southern China.[3]
Level 2-B (80% correct) is required for Chinese teachers teaching other subjects in China thanChinese Language and Literature.
Level 3-A (70% correct)
Level 3-B (60% correct) is required for civil service jobs.[3]
By 2010, the test had been taken more than 35 million times. As it requires strict adherence to thephonology of Standard Chinese, including such features as retroflex initials,erhua and theneutral tone, the test gives an advantage to native speakers of theBeijing dialect and closely related varieties over speakers of varieties lacking these features.[8]
^Liang, Sihua (2014).Language Attitudes and Identities in Multilingual China: A Linguistic Ethnography. Springer International. pp. 21–22.ISBN978-3-319-12618-0.
^海阳市筹建峻青文学艺术馆 今年10月有望开馆 [Haiyang city preparing to build Junqing Literature & Art Museum, to be opened to the public this October] (in Simplified Chinese).Fenghuang Shandong. Retrieved8 December 2017.峻青，原名孙俊卿，1922年出生于烟台海阳市郭城镇西楼子村，当代著名作家、画家。
^电视文学艺术片《绿》在仙岩梅雨潭景区开机 [TV Literary Art Documentary 'Green' starts filming in Xianyan's Meiyutan Scenic Area] (in Simplified Chinese). Ouhai District People's Government. 3 December 2014. Archived fromthe original on 27 April 2018. Retrieved27 April 2018.1923年朱自清先生来温州执教，同年先后两次来到仙岩梅雨潭景区，被仙岩浓厚的人文气息和那醉人的女儿绿深深吸引，于是就写下了脍炙人口的美文名篇《绿》。
