My Dad is a scoundrel

This very indignant kid seems destined to be a vegetarian.
Learn Chinese Reading: Beginner Practice Exercises for Mandarin Chinese: Children's EssaysI’d say the most difficult phrase in this little passage is: 家里人都吃得很香. The beginning of that sentence is no problem: 家里人都 “Everyone in the family…”, but 吃得很香 is a bit more difficult, as we don’t have sentence structure similar to this in English. Let’s break it down:
吃 – chī – To eat
得 – de – Grammar word, which kind of acts as a bridge between “吃” and “香”, indicating that the result of 吃 (eating) is that it was very 香 (savory)
很 – hěn – Very
香 – xiāng – Savory
Another interesting thing about this sentence is the word 香, which can mean both “fragrant” (smells good) and / or “savory” (tastes good). I find it particularly interesting that the Chinese recognize in language the interconnectedness of good taste and smell.
One other notable point is the word 又, which means “again”. But did you know that in Chinese, there are two ways to say “again”? There’s 又, and there’s also 再. It’s a little alien to a native English speaker that there might be two different ways to say “again”, so let me explain the difference:
又 – Indicates that the action has already been repeated in the past. Example: “You forgot your homework again? You’re going to get in trouble.” The person being scolded forgot their homework once, then already forgot it again (maybe many times). The forgetting of homework again has already happened. So we use 又.
再 – Indicates that something will happen again in the future. An example of this would be: Don’t forget your homework again or you’ll get in trouble. In other words, you forgot your homework at least once already, don’t repeat that action again in the future. Another example of this is would be a sentence like, “When will I see you again?” The seeing again hasn’t yet happened – it may happen in the future. So we would use 再.
The Chinese title of this text is 爸爸是个大坏蛋.
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青蛙 – qīng wā – Frog
害虫 – hài chóng – Harmful pests (insects, etc.)
庄稼 – zhuāng jia – Farm crop
消灭 – xiāo miè – Nasty, vile
能手 – néng shǒu – Put an end to, annihilate
煮 – zhǔ – Cook, boil
却 – què – But, however
可怜 – kě lián – A pity
青蛙捉害虫，是庄稼的好朋友。可我爸爸成天出去捉青蛙。
我对爸爸说：“青蛙是消灭害虫的能手，你不能捉它！”爸爸却笑着说：“大人的事，小孩别管。”我很着急。
爸爸又捉了许多青蛙，煮了一锅青蛙肉。家里人都吃得很香，我却一点儿也不想吃。我想：我们吃了青蛙肉，又有许多小青蛙没妈妈了，他们一定在哭着找妈妈，多可怜呀！爸爸真是个大坏蛋！
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Frogs catch pests, so they’re a farm crop’s good friend. But my dad goes out during the day and catches frogs.
I said to dad: “Frogs are experts at annihilating pests, you can’t catch them!” But my dad only smiled and said: “Children should stay out of adult business.” I’m very worried.
once again, dad caught several frogs and boiled up a pot of frog meat. Everyone in the family ate up the savory [food], but I didn’t even want to eat a little. I thought: here we are eating frog meat, that means there are many small frogs with no mama, surely they’re crying for their mother, it’s such a pity! My dad is a big scoundrel!