In 1998, Questions & Answers-A Course of Speed-up Oral Chinese celebrated its first publication. Now 6 years have passed and the book embraces a reprint. We are glad to learn that in the past 6 years the question-based course with both Chinese characters and Pinyin annotation well met the needs of beginners, especially the learners from countries where Chinese characters are never used and seldom seen. The book itself is easy to learn with, which helps the learners to gear up for Chinese leaning quickly and capture their enthusiasm for learning. With its help, the learners' ability to express their ideas, to compose sentences, to raise questions and communicate in Chinese is expected to grow substantially in a month or two.
    
With accurate reader orientation, practical course design, and tidy layout, this book has gained broad recognition from all of its readers. However, in actual teaching practice, we notice some minor glitches of the book, such as the occasional use of obsolete or over-dialectical phrases, loose or complicated sentence structure, inappropriate topics for two lessons and some printing mistakes. To improve the work, we bring you this revision in order to replace improper phrases and simplify complicated sentences. Also, the topic of Lesson 3 is changed from "Asking about Likes" to "Asking about plans and Hobbies", while the original "Asking for Help" of Lesson 4 is replaced by "Requests". Last but not least, knowledge on the spelling rules of Pinyin, tones and their markings, neutral tone and tone changes is also added in the book, all of which contribute to make the course more systematic and scientific.
    
As emphasized above, the Course of Speed-up Oral Chinese is designed for absolute beginners who seek to nurture their communicative ability in Chinese in one or two months. For those who want to improve their oral Chinese in a short time, enjoy it!