News writing is a register all its own: dense, impersonal, and future-facing, built to pack facts into the fewest characters. This short brief about a new subway line shows the four moves that define it — the 据…报道 framing that attributes every claim to a source, the formal future 将, the 被 passive (dressed up here with literary 所), and big numbers counted in 万 — all wrapped in the clipped 书面语 vocabulary (本市, 该, 于, 共) that makes newspaper Chinese sound nothing like a conversation. Read the brief first, then take it apart.
The report
本市首条自动驾驶地铁线正式开通
běn shì shǒu tiáo zìdòng jiàshǐ dìtiě xiàn zhèngshì kāitōng
City's First Driverless Subway Line Officially Opens (headline)
据本报报道，本市新建的地铁五号线于昨天上午正式开通。
jù běn bào bàodào, běn shì xīn jiàn de dìtiě wǔ hào xiàn yú zuótiān shàngwǔ zhèngshì kāitōng
According to this paper, the city's newly built Subway Line 5 officially opened yesterday morning.
该线路全长约三十公里，共设二十个车站。
gāi xiànlù quáncháng yuē sānshí gōnglǐ, gòng shè èrshí ge chēzhàn
The line is about thirty kilometers long and has twenty stations in total.
据了解，这条线路每天预计将有五十万人乘坐。
jù liǎojiě, zhè tiáo xiànlù měitiān yùjì jiāng yǒu wǔshí wàn rén chéngzuò
It is understood that the line is expected to carry 500,000 passengers each day.
开通首日，许多市民被这条线路的现代化设计所吸引。
kāitōng shǒu rì, xǔduō shìmín bèi zhè tiáo xiànlù de xiàndàihuà shèjì suǒ xīyǐn
On opening day, many residents were drawn in by the line's modern design.
一位乘客表示，新地铁又快又方便，大大节省了通勤时间。
yí wèi chéngkè biǎoshì, xīn dìtiě yòu kuài yòu fāngbiàn, dàdà jiéshěng le tōngqín shíjiān
One passenger said the new subway is fast and convenient, greatly cutting commute time.
据悉，另外两条新线路也将于明年年底陆续开通。
jù xī, lìngwài liǎng tiáo xīn xiànlù yě jiāng yú míngnián niándǐ lùxù kāitōng
It is reported that two more new lines will also open one after another by the end of next year.
Grammar in this text
1. 据…报道 — framing the source
Newspaper Chinese almost never states a fact flatly; it attributes it. The brief opens with 据本报报道 ("according to this paper's report") and later reaches for two shorter cousins: 据了解 ("it is understood") and 据悉 ("it is reported / learned"). The pattern is 据 + source + (报道 / 了解 / 悉) = "according to…." Here 据 (jù) is a written coverb closely related to 根据 ("on the basis of"), and 悉 (xī, "to know") is pure Literary Chinese, alive today only in this frozen 据悉. The everyday spoken equivalent is the far looser 据说 ("they say") or simply 听说 ("I heard"). Attribution is what lets a paper report a claim without vouching for it. See news-headline style, the coverb 据 / 根据 / 按照, and the wider set of formal connectives.
据说那家新开的餐厅很好吃。
jùshuō nà jiā xīn kāi de cāntīng hěn hǎochī
They say that newly opened restaurant is really good. (informal)
2. 将 — the written future
Twice the brief predicts with 将 (jiāng): 预计将有五十万人乘坐, 也将于明年年底…开通. 将 is the formal, written marker of future time — the newspaper's stand-in for spoken 会 or 要. It sits directly before the verb (将 + verb) and needs no sentence-final 了. You will meet it constantly in reports, forecasts and official plans (大会将于下周举行 — "the conference will be held next week"), but you would never say it while chatting; there you'd reach for 会 or 要. Swapping 将 ⇄ 会 is one of the cleanest formal/spoken function-word pairs — see also spoken vs written register.
音乐节将于下周六在市体育馆举行。
yīnyuèjié jiāng yú xià zhōuliù zài shì tǐyùguǎn jǔxíng
The music festival will be held next Saturday at the city stadium. (formal)
3. 被…所 — the marked passive
许多市民被…设计所吸引 ("many residents were drawn in by the design") is a full 被 passive: subject + 被 + agent + verb. What makes it newspapery is the extra 所 (suǒ) tucked before the verb — 被…所吸引. This 被…所… frame is a literary intensifier: it adds nothing to the meaning of plain 被…吸引 but lifts the register several notches, and it favors two-syllable psychological or abstract verbs (所吸引, 所感动, 所影响). Note too that this passive is neutral, not adversative — classic spoken 被 often carries a whiff of misfortune (被骂 "got scolded," 被偷 "got stolen"), but the formal 被…所 is happy to report good news. See the 被 passive overview, the basic 被 pattern, and the classical particle 所.
他的自行车昨天被偷了。
tā de zìxíngchē zuótiān bèi tōu le
His bike got stolen yesterday. (neutral)
4. 万 — big numbers
五十万人 is not "fifty ten-thousand people" — it is 500,000, and it exposes the deepest gap between Chinese and English counting. Chinese groups large numbers in 万 (wàn, ten-thousand), not in thousands: after 万 the next named power is 亿 (yì, hundred-million). So 十万 = 100,000, 一百万 = 1,000,000, and 五十万 = 500,000. English speakers must retrain the reflex of grouping by three zeros (thousand, million); Chinese groups by four. This shows up in every news figure about population, money or attendance. See 万 and 亿 — big numbers.
这场演唱会一共来了五万多人。
zhè chǎng yǎnchànghuì yígòng lái le wǔ wàn duō rén
Over fifty thousand people came to this concert. (neutral)
5. Compressed 书面语 — 本市, 该, 于, 共
The rest is vocabulary tuned for the page. 本市 ("this city") and 本报 ("this paper") use written 本 for "this"; 该线路 ("the said line") uses 该 (gāi) as a formal "this / the aforementioned," the newspaper's way of saying 这条 without repeating the noun. Time and place ride on the bookish coverb 于 (yú, "at / in / on") — 于昨天上午, 于明年年底 — where speech would use 在. And counting adverbs turn formal: 共 ("in total," spoken 一共), 约 ("approximately," spoken 大概), 陆续 ("one after another"). Together they produce the agentless, telegraphic voice this brief shares with the broadcast weather report.
Vocabulary
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 据…报道 | jù…bàodào | according to reports |
| 据了解 / 据悉 | jù liǎojiě / jù xī | it is understood / it is reported |
| 开通 | kāitōng | to open (a line, service) |
| 正式 | zhèngshì | official(ly), formal(ly) |
| 该 | gāi | this, the said (formal) |
| 线路 | xiànlù | route, line |
| 全长 | quáncháng | total length |
| 约 | yuē | approximately (formal) |
| 共 | gòng | in total, altogether (formal) |
| 预计 | yùjì | to estimate, be expected to |
| 将 | jiāng | will, shall (formal future) |
| 被…所 | bèi…suǒ | passive marker (literary) |
| 市民 | shìmín | city resident, citizen |
| 通勤 | tōngqín | to commute |
| 陆续 | lùxù | one after another, successively |
| 于 | yú | at, in, on (formal, = 在) |
Key Takeaways
- News attributes every claim: 据…报道 / 据了解 / 据悉 ("according to…"); the spoken equivalent is the looser 据说 / 听说.
- 将 is the written future — 将 + verb, no 了 — standing in for spoken 会 / 要.
- The 被…所… frame is a literary passive; the 所 only lifts register, and this 被 is neutral, not a tale of misfortune.
- Chinese groups big numbers by 万 (ten-thousand), then 亿 — so 五十万 = 500,000; retrain the English "thousand, million" reflex.
- Newspaper register swaps words wholesale: 本 / 该 for 这, 于 for 在, 共 for 一共, 约 for 大概 — the same clipped 书面语 as the weather report.
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