照本宣科
zhào běn xuān kē
to read mechanically from the text
Character by character
照zhào
follow
follow
本běn
book
book
宣xuān
proclaim
proclaim
科kē
text
text
Example
这个老师上课只会照本宣科，太无聊了。
This teacher just reads from the textbook. So boring.
Tone: negative (criticism).
Usage and origin
For lectures, speeches and presentations.
Learn it in context
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