zh-en-gloss

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

1. Pattern: 中文词或短语 (English) — one natural English phrase or term in parentheses.
2. 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)
3. Capitalization: common phrases lowercase; proper nouns and established terms Title Case (Redis, mindfulness meditation).
4. 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
5. 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.
6. Leave unchanged: particles and ultra-common words (的、是、可以、因为), tokens already in English, code identifiers, URLs.
7. Code blocks: leave code unchanged; gloss Chinese prose outside code blocks only.
8. Keep glosses inline for readable flow; add a separate vocabulary appendix only when the user asks.
9. 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:

1. 规律作息 (a regular sleep schedule)
2. 有氧运动 (aerobic exercise)
3. 饭后散步 (a walk after meals)
4. 均衡饮食 (a balanced diet)
5. 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:

1. 布隆过滤器 (Bloom filter) — block obviously invalid keys upstream
2. 空值缓存 (null-value caching) — cache negative results with a short TTL
3. 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.