NEW YORK — Anthony Rizzo is staying with the New York Yankees, agreeing Tuesday night to a $32 million, two-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement was subject to a successful physical.
A three-time All-Star first baseman, Rizzo was acquired by the Yankees from the Chicago Cubs on July 29 and added a left-handed bat to a heavily right-handed batting order in New York. He hit .248 with 22 homers, 61 RBIs and a .783 OPS last season, including .249 with eight homers, 21 RBIs and a .768 OPS in 49 games for New York.
Rizzo also provided plate discipline and smooth fielding at first, where he has won a pair of Gold Gloves.
The deal makes it less likely the Yankees will sign former Atlanta All-Star Freddie Freeman. It also creates uncertainty for returning first baseman Luke Voit, the 2020 AL home run champion whose 2021 season was wrecked by injury.
MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports that the Yankees “tried hard” for Freeman, but that he “preferred not to come,” adding the Yankees fear the first baseman could land in Boston. The Blue Jays are also in on the star first baseman.
DAYTON, Ohio — Trayce Jackson-Davis had 29 points and nine rebounds, Jordan Geromino scored a career-high 15 points and Indiana beat turnover-prone Wyoming 66-58 in a First Four game on Tuesday night.
Indiana (21-13) earned an at-large bid after a good showing in the Big Ten tournament, getting back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2016 in its first season under coach Mike Woodson. The Hoosiers move on as the 12th seed in the East and will face fifth-seeded St. Mary’s on Thursday.
With the crowd at University of Dayton Arena heavily tilted _ Bloomington, Indiana, is less than a three-hour drive away _ the Hoosiers pulled to a 10-point lead with under two minutes left in the game.
Wyoming’s Drake Jeffries hit a pair of foul shots to get the Cowboys within six with 14 seconds left. But Jeffries had to foul Indiana’s Xavier Johnson, who hit a pair from the stripe to put it out of reach.
Hunter Maldonado paced the Cowboys (25-9) with 21 points but turned the ball over 10 times.
TEXAS SOUTHERN 76, TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI 67
DAYTON, Ohio — Bryson Etienne scored 21 points and Texas Southern beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the First Four.
The Tigers earned their third NCAA Tournament win in five seasons and will play top-seeded Kansas in the Midwest first round. The First Four returned to the University of Dayton Arena for the first time in three seasons.
PJ Henry hit a go-ahead free throw to highlight a 7-0 run in which Texas Southern (19-12) took the lead and never surrendered. He finished with 14 points and shot 10 of 13 at the free throw line.
John Walker III added 16 points. Brison Gresham grabbed 13 rebounds and scored six points.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (23-12) led by as many as eight points in the opening period and four in the second half.
HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) is a Chinese Language Proficiency Test which is held regularly around the world by Hanban (Confucius Institute Headquarters). So far, there are six levels, and HSK level 1 is the beginning level, which is also the very first goal for many Chinese learners. HSK 1 requires students to learn 150 new words as well as the whole Pinyin pronunciation system, which will enable you to meet basic communication needs and give you the ability to further your Chinese language studies.
Why do I need an HSK 1 Book?
Different books target different goals. HSK is not an achievement test based on any one textbook: it’s a proficiency test assessing learners’ language abilities. Using an HSK 1 book can help you meet the test requirements in a very efficient way. The target words and phrases are scientifically organized and are frequently used in daily life. In this article, we will recommend some popular and established HSK 1 books for you to use.
HSK Standard Course 1 is designed for total beginners who need to acquire basic Chinese language abilities as well as students who aim to take the level 1 test. It has summed up the test’s focuses, difficulties, language points, topics, functions, and situations. Even though the HSK level 1 test only involves listening and reading sections, the HSK Standard Course 1 book still provides listening, reading, speaking, and writing training. Apart from the textbook, there is also a supporting workbook of exercises which focuses on improving students’ listening, reading, and writing skills, so as to refine their language abilities. The book suggests it can be finished in 34 class hours and allow students pass HSK level 1 test.
There are 15 lessons in this book. The
first and second lessons mainly focus on pronunciation, which includes all
basic Pinyin concepts. These two lessons also create a very firm foundation for
further study. Afterwards, each lesson also provides corresponding drills to expand
and strengthen pronunciation skills.
From lesson 3 to 15, the texts are
theme-based with one or two example conversations. The structure of each lesson
is generally formed by warm-up, text, notes, practice, pronunciation,
characters and use sections. Some of the lessons also include a culture section
which helps learners know more about Chinese people and China. HSK Standard
Course 1 ensures the words and grammar points used are within the HSK 1
requirements. It emphasizes diversity and richness of content.
The characters used in this book take the
student all the way through the learning process from 17 basic strokes to
writing order, character structure, and basic radicals. There are 52 single-component
characters required at level 1.
All the target grammar points and words are well organized in each lesson. You know exactly what you are learning with strong purpose and motivation.
As one of the most popular Chinese language textbooks, the New Practical Chinese Reader series has been tested by countless learners. The whole set consists of six volumes. Volumes 1 is at the basic level, which introduces Chinese customs and culture as well as relevant Chinese expressions and ideas within the setting of campus and daily life. It has 12 lessons including 2 preparatory lessons on phonetics. Each lesson needs about 4 or 5 class hours to complete. In addition to systematical phonetic lessons, there are also many drills on Pinyin and tones, as well as some daily expressions.
The main texts are dialogues about necessary topics and typical scenes for learners to use basic structures and functions of Chinese, such as daily greetings, introductions, shopping, and transportation, which strengthen all four language skills. It goes from heavy use of pinyin to gradually more use of Chinese characters. Choosing this Reader 1 as your HSK level 1 book is definitely enough.
The layout of each lesson:
Warm-up
Probing questions, stimulating activity
Text
New words Notes
Language points
Key sentencesGrammar points
Practice and Application
Supplementary wordsPronunciation drillsConversation practiceListening and repeatingReading comprehensionTasks and activitiesWriting exercise
Chinese characters
Character compositionWriting rules
Culture
Cultural knowledge
Self-evaluation
Topics and functions in the Volume 1:
Leeson
Topic
Function
Pre-lesson 1
Phonetics
Knowledge about the phonetics system (Initials, Finals, Tone, Syllables, Spelling rules)
Basic Character strokes and radicals
Pre-lesson 2
Phonetics
Lesson 1
Greetings
Daily greetings
Ask about someone’s name
Lesson 2
Introduction
Greetings
Introducing self and others
Identifying items
Asking about one’s likes
Lesson 3
Family
Family
Profession
Age
Entertaining guests
Lesson 4
Study
Talking about studies
Date
Time
Lesson 5
Birthday
Making an apology
Expressing regret
Congratulating someone on something
Lesson 6
Directions
Directions and locations
Consoling someone
Asking about words you don’t understand
Expressing if you hear or understand something
Lesson 7
Shopping
Praise and response
Price
Asking for help
Shopping (bargaining, paying, choosing, settling a bill, etc)
Making a request and giving permission
Lesson 8
Seeing a doctor
Urging someone to do something
Apologizing
Talking about health
Expressing a need or possibility
Lesson 9
Seasons and transportation
Seasons and weather
Plans
Suggesting an activity
Transportation
Lesson 10
Festivals
Holidays
Phone calls
Passing on someone’s regards
Talking about something or someone that has changed
There are three levels of Developing
Chinese: elementary, intermediate and advanced. Each level contains 5 aspects,
including comprehension, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The
Comprehensive course is the main book.
There are two volumes for the elementary level. Volume one has 30 lessons in total, which is perfect for total beginners. After finishing this book, learners can master the whole Chinese phonetics system and pronunciation skills, as well as the fundamental words and sentence patterns. It also requires the mastery of basic strokes and structures of Chinese characters. With the knowledge from the elementary level, you can meet basic communication needs in daily life and have some cultural knowledge about China, which also satisfies the requirements of HSK level 1.
There are 3 levels of the My Chinese
Classroom series, and each level has three volumes. After studying the
elementary level books, learners can master over 800 words and 80 grammar
points, which means they are able to pass HSK level 3. Each volume has 10
lessons with texts, new words, practice, listening, and characters sections. It
suggests 42 class hours per volume. Besides English, there is also a Japanese
translation provided in it.
The grammar part is quite different from other textbooks. There is no independent explanation of each grammar point, but rather a bulleted list about the grammar points at the very beginning of each lesson. With a teacher’s help, this book can become much easier for learners. Also, there are corresponding grammar drills in the exercises part.
The layout of Elementary 1:
Lesson
Key
Function
Layout of each lesson
Lesson 1
Basic Greetings
Basic greetings
Phonetic system and spelling rules
Text
Vocabulary
Translation in English
Translation in Japanese
Exercises
Listening
Characters
Lesson 2
Nationality and introduction
Talking about nationality
Introductions
Lesson 3
Shopping
Price
Numbers
Shopping expressions
Lesson 4
Plans 1
Time expressions
Suggestions
Phone calls
Lesson 5
Plans 2
Dates expressions
Plans
Lesson 6
Locations
Location & direction expressions
Lesson 7
Dining
Talking about someone’s likes
Lesson 8
Reservation and ordering
Reservation expressions
Ordering expressions
Talking about addresses
Lesson 9
Personal conditions
Talking about health conditions
Talking about habits
Lesson 10
Status
Asking for help
Stating the status
Other materials
Besides the standard textbooks, there are
also some supplementary materials to help you master the knowledge and pass the
HSK 1 test smoothly, and more importantly, further your Chinese language
learning with a firm foundation.
Words and phrases are the bricks for the construction of a language. Each HSK level requires a certain number of key words that need to be mastered. There are 150 words in the HSK level 1 vocabulary list. To become more familiar with these words, you can use this vocabulary list. You can download it here.
To pass the test, you might also need to
know the test structure well so that you can beat it easily. There are mainly
two parts in the HSK level 1 test: listening and reading. Therefore, it doesn’t
need to test your speaking and writing. The whole test will last for 40 minutes
total. Each part counts for 100 points. You just need to get over 120 points to
pass the test. There is also pinyin provided in the test to assist your
understanding.
Before taking the HSK 1 test, it’s better
to do some mock tests to get more familiar with it and to get to know your
current level so that it’s easier to make up for your shortcomings. There are
both paper-based and online mock tests. You can choose any one you want.
