bǔ
=
bu
+
Ø3:
(bound form) to divine / to forecast or estimate / (of a place to live etc) to choose
Mnemonic
Mnemonic symbol from "to divine" and the shape of the character: a voodoo staff.
Bruno Bear (bu-) tries to divine (卜) the future in the space station's living room (Ø3). He places a petal (丶) in the middle of the room as an offering and starts a magic ritual with his voodoo staff (卜). The staff transforms the petal into a dinosaur bone (丨). Bruno divines that the staff was trying to tell him that all things are mortal and must come to an end.
(bound form) to divine / to forecast or estimate / (of a place to live etc) to choose
卜
=
丨
+
丶
:
Mnemonic symbol from "to divine" and the shape of the character: a voodoo staff.
Bruno Bear (bu-) tries to divine (卜) the future in the space station's living room (Ø3). He places a petal (丶) in the middle of the room as an offering and starts a magic ritual with his voodoo staff (卜). The staff transforms the petal into a dinosaur bone (丨). Bruno divines that the staff was trying to tell him that all things are mortal and must come to an end.
vertical stroke (in Chinese characters), referred to as 豎筆|竖笔[shu4 bi3]
Mnemonic symbol: a dinosaur bone. Sheldon Shrimp (shu) found a gorgeous dinosaur bone (丨) in the space station's bathroom (Ø4) and is cracking it open to eat its bone marrow.
down / downwards / below / lower / later / next (week etc) / second (of two parts) / to decline / to go down / to arrive at (a decision, conclusion etc) / measure word to show the frequency of an action
下
=
一
+
卜
:
Mnemonic symbol: from the up/down logic, and a little bit the shape of the character, a ladder.
Xi Shi (xi) is on a retreat in the ashram. Using a voodoo staff (卜), she divined that next (下) week she'll have to play the flute (一) sixteen hours per day. Because she hates playing the flute, she climbs over the ashram's bathroom (a4) wall using a ladder (下) to escape.
to stop / to block / (computing) (coll.) slow / (loanword) card / CL:張|张[zhang1],片[pian4] / truck (from "car") / calorie (abbr. for 卡路里[ka3 lu4 li3]) / cassette
卡
=
上
+
卜
:
Protesting against capitalism in the ashram (a3), Karl Marx (k) attaches everyone's credit cards (卡) to balloons (上) to send them up (上) and away. He uses a voodoo staff (卜) to summon winds to carry the balloons away.
朴
=
卜
+
木
:
Petra Penguin (pu) celebrates a very plain and simple (朴) Christmas in the space station (Ø3). She has a simple Christmas tree (木) and to let it snow she simply (朴) beats the Christmas tree with a voodoo staff (卜) so that its needles will come off and float all around.
贞
=
⺊
+
贝
:
Mnemonic symbol: a girdle of chastity. James II of England (zh) wants to get rid of his girdle of chastity (贞). In front of the encampment ((e)n1) he asks the crab (贝) to destroy the girdle, but the crab waves with a pennant (⺊) instead to alarm the royal guard.
仆
=
亻
+
卜
:
After a long day at work Petra Penguin (pu) leaves the space station (Ø1), stumbles over a voodoo staff (卜) and falls forward (仆). On earth she would just fall prostrate (仆), but in outer space she just continues tumbling on and on until Rosa Luxemburg (亻) comes to her rescue.
仆
=
亻
+
卜
:
Petra Pinguin (pu) is acting as Rosa Luxemburg's (亻) servant (仆) in the space station's kitchen (Ø2), but because she is very sloppy, Rosa often beats her with a voodoo staff (卜).
占
=
⺊
+
口
:
Mnemonic symbol: a yellow umbrella. James II of England occupies the anthill's bathroom (an4). He uses a pennant (⺊) stuck into a mandarin (口) to mark his territory, and stands there proudly with a yellow umbrella (占).
Labrang Monastery, Tibetan: bLa-brang bkra-shis-'khyil, in Xiahe county 夏河縣|夏河县[Xia4 he2 Xian4], Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu, formerly Amdo province of Tibet
lit. when you pull a radish out of the ground, some dirt comes up with it (idiom) / fig. to uncover, during the investigation of a crime, evidence of other crimes / to cause further problems while working on a problem