AN TU SUO JI VS ZHAO BEN XUAN KE - CONTEXT PRACTICE
Options: 按图索骥 (neutral clues), 按图索骥 (rigid method), 照本宣科, neither / more context needed.
These are original language exercises, not dictionary quotations.

1. A number on a spare part leads you to the correct catalogue entry. Which expression fits, and is it critical?
Choice and reason: ________________________________

2. A team applies a procedure from an older system unchanged, despite knowing that the new system works differently. Nobody reads a script aloud. Which is the closer criticism?
Choice and reason: ________________________________

3. A lecturer reads the printed handout word for word, ignores requests for explanation and never adapts the delivery. Which expression best names that problem?
Choice and reason: ________________________________

4. A speaker reads a short passage exactly so listeners can discuss the author’s precise wording. Does that alone justify 照本宣科?
Choice and reason: ________________________________

5. A presenter uses an outline and changes the examples to answer questions from the audience. Is “uses notes” enough to call this 照本宣科?
Choice and reason: ________________________________

6. You know only that someone “followed the instructions.” Can you decide that 按图索骥 must be critical?
Choice and reason: ________________________________

7. Someone mechanically reads an obsolete instruction sheet without addressing a changed situation. Can both idioms be relevant?
Choice and reason: ________________________________

8. A writer wants to praise a careful, accurate reading of an agreed statement and translates “by the book” as 照本宣科. Is that a safe equivalent?
Choice and reason: ________________________________

9. A learner searches aimlessly without a map, index, description or other clue. Does the neutral sense of 按图索骥 describe the search?
Choice and reason: ________________________________

10. Revise “He is 照本宣科” into useful feedback for a presentation rather than a judgment of the person. What should the revision add?
Choice and reason: ________________________________

ANSWER NOTES - TRY THE QUESTIONS FIRST

1. 按图索骥, in its neutral clue-following sense.
You have a usable clue and follow it to find the item. Nothing in this scenario says the method is rigid or unsuccessful.

2. 按图索骥, in its rigid-method sense.
The relevant problem is refusing to adapt the procedure to changed circumstances. Mechanical recitation is not part of the stated situation.

3. 照本宣科.
The prepared text is being delivered mechanically without responding to the audience. This is more specific than merely following an old method.

4. No; neither idiom is required by the facts given.
An accurate direct quotation can be appropriate. To criticize wooden delivery, you would need context showing that flexibility or explanation was required and absent.

5. No. Ordinary wording is more accurate.
The presenter adapts the material. Notes, slides or a script are not automatically evidence of mechanical recitation.

6. No; there is not enough context.
The instructions could supply useful clues or be an outdated pattern applied rigidly. State what the person did and how the method relates to the circumstances.

7. Yes, with different emphases.
照本宣科 can criticize the reading; 按图索骥 can criticize applying the old method unthinkingly. Choose the focus you want, or explain the concrete problem directly.

8. No. That Chinese expression can introduce a criticism the writer did not intend.
“By the book” can praise compliance in English. For the stated meaning, describe accurate reading or following the agreed wording without importing wooden delivery.

9. Not on the information given.
The clue-following sense requires a basis for the search. “Looked everywhere” does not establish that someone followed a clue.

10. Name the specific delivery problem and a concrete change.
For example: “You read the chart labels without explaining the relationship; explain that relationship in your own words.” An idiom can summarize the concern, but it does not replace actionable feedback.

REWRITE A CONTEXT
A useful clue: ___________________________________
A changed situation and a rigid method: ___________
Mechanical reading when explanation is needed: ____
Accurate quotation where exact wording is needed: __