1:20
一次技术故障，让 American Airlines 全美航班一度停飞
One Technical Failure Briefly Grounded Every American Airlines Flight in the U.S.
A medium Chinese listening story: a technical failure led American Airlines to request a nationwide ground stop, halting every flight for under an hour before a cascade of delays, echoing the recent T-Mobile outage.
This is an HSK 3-4 Chinese listening episode that runs about 1 minute. The full Mandarin script is shown with tap-for-pinyin and a line-by-line English translation, so you can listen and read at once — comprehensible input in the sense of Stephen Krashen's i+1 theory. It teaches 10 key vocabulary words such as 安全、问题、发现 and walks through 3 grammar patterns, each explained in English with examples. The same news story is retold at 4 difficulty levels — use the level selector above to find the version that is challenging but still understandable for you.
American Airlines 是美国最大的航空公司之一，每天有成千上万个航班。
American Airlines is one of America's biggest airlines, with tens of thousands of flights a day.
七月二十八号傍晚，一场技术故障，让它突然乱了阵脚。
On the evening of July 28th, a technical failure suddenly threw it into disarray.
公司说，当天晚上，一部分系统的连接出了问题。
The company said that that evening, part of its systems' connectivity had a problem.
为了安全，American Airlines 向美国的航空管理部门申请，暂时停飞所有航班。
For safety, American Airlines asked U.S. aviation authorities to temporarily ground all flights.
也就是说，在那段时间里，全美国的美航飞机，都不能起飞。
In other words, for that stretch of time, every American Airlines plane in the whole country was unable to take off.
消息一出，各地机场都排起了长队，很多旅客被困在登机口。
As word spread, airports everywhere formed long lines, and many passengers were stuck at the gates.
好在，这次故障持续的时间不长，前后不到一个小时。
Thankfully, this failure didn't last long, under an hour from start to finish.
系统恢复以后，飞机陆续重新起飞。
Once the systems recovered, planes gradually began taking off again.
但麻烦并没有马上结束。
But the trouble didn't end right away.
一个航班晚点，往往会牵连后面一连串的航班，很多人因此误了转机、耽误了行程。
One delayed flight often drags a whole string of later flights with it, so many people missed connections and had their trips disrupted.
到目前为止，American Airlines 还没有说清楚，故障到底是怎么来的。
So far, American Airlines still hasn't explained where the failure came from.
就在前几天，美国的电话公司 T-Mobile，也刚刚经历过一次大故障。
Just days ago, the U.S. phone company T-Mobile had suffered a big outage too.
一次又一次的事故让人发现：我们的生活，早就被各种系统紧紧绑在了一起。
One incident after another makes people realize: our lives are already tightly bound up with all kinds of systems.
为了安全 = for safety.
连接出了问题 = connectivity had a problem.
让人发现 = makes people realize.
麻烦并没有马上结束 = the trouble didn't end at once.
经历过一次大故障 = went through a big outage.
一场技术故障 = a technical failure.
最大的航空公司之一 = one of the biggest airlines.
技术故障 = a technical failure.
系统的连接 = the systems' connectivity.
暂时停飞所有航班 = temporarily ground all flights.
* beyond level超纲词
也就是说，……
也就是说 = "in other words".
也就是说，全美国的美航飞机，都不能起飞。
一……往往……
一 X 往往 Y = "whenever X, it tends to Y".
一个航班晚点，往往会牵连后面一连串的航班。
Free account
You just read the story — hear it next. A free account saves your level, the words you keep from this episode, and the line you stop at, so you can pick the story back up on any device.