HKEAA: DSE Chinese Reading Comprehension Paper Sees Serious Omissions; "Harm Benevolence" Mistakenly Written as "Harm People"

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This year's Chinese Paper 1 "Reading Comprehension" saw candidates perform slightly worse overall. In Part A, which assesses three designated classical Chinese texts, "the situation of omitted answers was quite serious," and candidates' grasp of word meanings was also unstable. In a question asking for an excerpt from On Benevolence, Filial Piety and the Gentleman, some wrote "harm benevolence" as "harm people," and "sacrifice one's life" as "kill living beings." In Part B, analysis and explanation of the passages "were often superficial." The HKEAA also noted that the massive amount of information generated by generative artificial intelligence (AI) is of uneven quality and that reading is becoming more popularised and fragmented, reminding candidates to cultivate reading habits and enhance their thinking ability.

📋 "Harm Benevolence" Mistaken for "Harm People": Candidates Good at Identifying but Poor at Explaining
The briefing described this year's Chinese Paper 1 as similar in difficulty to last year, but candidates' overall performance was slightly worse than before—"good at identifying but poor at explaining." Many answers were superficial, treating the passages merely as objects of analysis. Some candidates lacked summarisation ability and had a limited vocabulary. In Part A's word explanation and translation, candidates' performance was less than ideal, with omissions quite serious. In the question requiring candidates to excerpt from On Benevolence, Filial Piety and the Gentleman the idea that "the benevolent value benevolence over life and death," many candidates left it blank, some wrote "harm benevolence" as "harm people," "sacrifice one's life" as "kill living beings," and some lost marks by reversing the word order.

📖 Poor Performance on "The Memorial to the Throne on Dispatching the Army": Ignoring the Imminent Departure
In the question on how Nian Nu Jiao: Memories of the Past at Red Cliff conveys the author's reflections through Zhou Yu, candidates' performance varied widely; some could only give a general account of Zhou Yu's deeds and had an inaccurate understanding of the author's reflections. Performance on the question assessing Zhuge Liang's sentiments at the end of The Memorial to the Throne on Dispatching the Army was "poor"—most candidates ignored the "situation" of the imminent departure, focusing on "gratitude" without analysing the apprehensive state of mind before setting out. In Part B, the briefing directly stated that candidates' analysis and explanation "were superficial," with poor performance on questions requiring synthesis, analysis and explanation, and "poor performance" on questions related to A New Account of Tales of the World.

💬 Paper Chairman: Uneven Quality of AI Information, Fragmented Reading
The paper chairman raised "reflections" in the briefing, noting that in today's fast-paced society with a proliferation of information, focused reading is no longer easy; generative AI produces massive amounts of information of uneven quality, and reading is becoming more popularised and fragmented. The ability to organise information and distinguish truth from falsehood is more important than ever. He suggested teachers cultivate students' reading habits and help them enhance their thinking ability to cope with the changes and challenges of the times.