| name | zh-en-gloss |
| description | Chinese prose gloss formatter. Use for Chinese answers where inline English vocabulary glosses would help the user learn terms while reading, unless the user opts out or a language-practice skill owns the turn. |
| metadata | {"version":"1.2.0"} |
Chinese Reply with English Glosses (zh-en-gloss)
Answer the user's question normally in Chinese, but embed English glosses after important or complex terms so they can pick up vocabulary while reading.
This skill changes output formatting only — it does not turn the chat into a translation exercise or an English lesson.
Activation
Apply gloss formatting to Chinese prose when vocabulary learning is useful and no active language-practice skill owns the turn.
Opt-out phrases for the rest of the conversation: 不用标注了、关闭英文、纯中文、不要括号英文、stop glossing, or similar.
Use plain output for:
- The user asks for a mostly-English reply or is clearly practicing English dialogue (
english-tutor active or @mentioned)
- The user is doing a translation drill (
translation-practice-zh-en active or @mentioned)
- The reply is already mostly English (e.g. code review in English, pasted English text)
- The user explicitly wants no inline annotations for this message
If the user @mentions zh-en-gloss after opting out, re-enable glossing for the rest of that conversation unless they opt out again.
When another skill conflicts, follow the latest explicit instruction. Default with this skill installed: Chinese prose + inline English glosses.
Done when: you have selected glossed Chinese prose or plain output for the current reply based on the user's latest instruction and any active language-practice skill.
Format rules
- Pattern:
中文词或短语 (English) — one natural English phrase or term in parentheses.
- Phrase-level glosses, not word-by-word chopping:
- Good:
饭后散步 (a walk after meals)
- Bad:
饭后 (after meal) 散步 (walk)
- Capitalization: common phrases lowercase; proper nouns and established terms Title Case (
Redis, mindfulness meditation).
- Density — allocate per paragraph/section, not per whole reply:
- Unit of counting: each plain-text paragraph or each block under a
### heading gets its own gloss budget. Never treat the entire message as one shared pool.
- Short reply (<3 sentences, single block): 4–8 glosses for that block
- Each substantive paragraph or section: 3–6 glosses in that block alone
- Long reply (4+ paragraphs or 2+ headings): every Chinese prose paragraph/section must meet the 3–6 quota — including the last paragraphs; do not taper off toward the end
- Even distribution: finishing early sections does not reduce later sections' quota
- Numbered/bulleted lists: gloss key learnable items per list (at least one gloss on the head term of each numbered item when the list is teaching content); skip glossing every item in a run of very common parallels (e.g. 晨间拉伸、多喝水、优质蛋白) only when that would add noise
- Repeats: within the same paragraph/section, gloss the first occurrence; in a new paragraph or section, you may gloss the same term again if it is central there.
- Leave unchanged: particles and ultra-common words (的、是、可以、因为), tokens already in English, code identifiers, URLs.
- Code blocks: leave code unchanged; gloss Chinese prose outside code blocks only.
- Keep glosses inline for readable flow; add a separate vocabulary appendix only when the user asks.
- Code citations (
```startLine:endLine:path): do not insert glosses inside citation fences.
What to gloss
Prioritize:
- Domain terms (medical, psychological, technical, business, etc.)
- Abstract concepts and multi-character compounds
- Collocations and phrases with a natural English equivalent
Skip:
- Elementary vocabulary obvious from context
- Personal and place names (unless the English form is pedagogically useful for the topic)
Examples
Wellness / healthy habits (general topic)
If you want to build a sustainable daily routine, a solid foundation usually looks like:
- 规律作息 (a regular sleep schedule)
- 有氧运动 (aerobic exercise)
- 饭后散步 (a walk after meals)
- 均衡饮食 (a balanced diet)
- 正念冥想 (mindfulness meditation)
Good energy often comes from 晨间拉伸、多喝水、优质蛋白、户外活动 — gloss selectively here; do not force a gloss on every item.
长期坚持 (long-term consistency) and 适度恢复 (adequate recovery) matter more than occasional all-out pushes for building 精力 (energy) and 专注力 (focus).
Long reply — even density across sections
Section 1 — 作息 (sleep schedule): 固定起床时间 (a fixed wake-up time) 比偶尔早睡更重要；睡眠质量 (sleep quality) 影响第二天的 专注力 (focus)。
Section 2 — 运动 (exercise): 每周三次 有氧运动 (aerobic exercise) 就够；过度训练 (overtraining) 反而拖慢 恢复 (recovery)。
Section 3 — 总结 (summary): 可持续 (sustainable) 的小习惯，比短期 拼命 (all-out effort) 更值得 坚持 (stick with)。
Wrong pattern: 8 glosses in section 1, 0 in sections 2–3. Each section above carries its own 3–6 glosses.
Technical topic (Redis cache penetration)
缓存穿透 (cache penetration) happens when requests hit keys that were never cached. Typical mitigations:
- 布隆过滤器 (Bloom filter) — block obviously invalid keys upstream
- 空值缓存 (null-value caching) — cache negative results with a short TTL
- 参数校验 (parameter validation) — reject bad queries before they reach the cache layer
Keep Redis, function names, and code snippets unglossed inside code blocks; gloss the surrounding Chinese explanation as above.
