“一只猫？”老先生问。

"A cat?" asked the old man.

Source: Tatoeba

Sentence Composition

1 一 yī
  1. one
  2. single
  3. a (article)
  4. as soon as
  5. entire; whole; all; throughout
  6. "one" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 1)
  7. also pr. yāo for greater clarity when spelling out numbers digit by digit
=2 只 zhī variant of 隻 zhī
=2 只 zhǐ only; merely; just
=2 只 zhǐ variant of 只 zhǐ
=2 只 zhī grain that has begun to ripen
=2 只 zhǐ variant of 只 zhǐ
=2 只 zhī classifier for birds and certain animals, one of a pair, some utensils, vessels etc
=3 猫 māo
  1. (dialect) to hide oneself
  2. (loanword) (coll.) modem

classifier: 隻
=3 猫 máo used in 貓腰 máoyāo
4 老先生 lǎoxiānshēng old gentleman; venerable sir
5 问 wèn to ask; to inquire