A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
他们把白鸽染成蓝色放上了天：几天后有人在河边找到它们，蓝色怎么洗都洗不掉
Blue-Dyed Gender-Reveal Doves Found Days Later
About this story
An Arizona couple had a dove-release company dye white doves blue for a gender reveal in July 2026. Days later the birds showed up along the Salt River, a wildlife rehabilitator washed them again and again, and the dye would not come out. Chinese listening practice at four levels. HSK 1 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 1 Chinese listening episode that runs about 4 minutes. 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 12 key vocabulary words such as 朋友、家、高兴 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.
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原文Read the complete story in Chinese. Reveal pinyin and English only when you need them.
English transcript reference
Today we are talking about a family in America.
There is a woman, and she is going to have a baby.
She and everyone at home are very happy.
They want to invite their friends over, all of them.
They want to tell their friends: this baby is a boy.
They want their friends to see it.
In America, some people keep doves at home.
A dove is a very, very white bird.
At a time like this, you can let the doves fly.
When the doves fly up into the sky, everybody looks.
This family wanted to let doves fly too.
But what this family wanted was not white doves.
They said: blue means a boy.
So their doves were not white any more.
Their doves were blue.
That day, all the friends came.
Everyone looked: the doves are blue!
Everyone was delighted.
They let the doves fly.
The doves flew up into the sky, and away.
The friends all went home.
It was a good day.
But this was not over yet.
Later, someone by the water saw a few blue birds.
There were birds in the sky, and they were blue.
There were birds on the water, and they were blue too.
This person thought: birds are not blue.
This person thought: what kind of bird is this?
Near there is a woman who helps small birds every day.
When a bird is in trouble, she goes to see it.
So this person called her over.
She came, and she looked at these few birds.
She said: these are doves.
She said: these are the doves from that day.
She wanted to help them.
She washed the doves.
She washed them once, and the doves were still blue.
She washed them twice, and the doves were still blue.
Three times, four times, and the doves were still blue.
This blue would not wash off.
What is wrong with that?
Look: a white dove flying in the sky is very hard to see.
The dove is white, and the sky is white too.
But a blue dove flying in the sky, everyone can see.
Not just people. The big birds see it too.
When the big birds see it, they come.
And when the big birds come, it goes badly for the dove.
There is one more thing that is not good.
There is something on the dove's body.
And that something is not good for the dove.
The doves' home is not here.
The doves have to fly home.
For a blue dove, flying home is very hard.
Later, a lot of people talked about this.
The person who did it spoke too.
She said: what we used was not a bad thing.
She said: we only did it this once.
She said: I will not do it again.
Think about it: you have a bird.
Today, this bird has been made blue.
You let it fly.
Will it come back?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇HSK 1. The party exists for them: 他们想请朋友来，都来家里。
HSK 1. Used both ways here — the family that threw the party, and the home the doves had to fly back to.
HSK 1. Everyone is 高兴 at the party; nobody is later. That gap is the episode.
HSK 1. The hinge word: being seen is what the guests wanted and what nearly kills the bird.
HSK 1. Both senses run through the episode, and the closing question turns on it.
HSK 1. 鸽子要飞回家 — the doves are supposed to come back, and that is the whole risk.
Defined on first use in floor words: 鸽子是很白很白的鸟。
The wider category, used to introduce 鸽子 and again for the predators.
The colour that means "a boy" at the party and "look at me" in the sky.
HSK 2. 鸽子是白的，天上也是白的 — white is what hid the bird.
Repeated across the episode: flying up, flying away, and flying home.
HSK 2. Counted out one wash at a time — 一次、两次、三次、四次 — and it still would not come off.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法……的时候
When something happens. Chinese puts the whole clause before 的时候, not a conjunction in front of it as English does.
鸽子在天上飞的时候，大家都会看。
小鸟不好的时候，她来看它，也帮它。
A 了，B 就……
A happens, and B follows. Chained here to make a chain of consequences audible without a single hard word.
大鸟看见了，就来了。
大鸟来了，鸽子就不好了。
洗了一次……洗了两次……
Verb + 了 + a count of times. Repeating the frame with a rising number is how spoken Chinese shows an effort that kept failing.
洗了一次，鸽子还是蓝的。
洗了两次，鸽子还是蓝的。
洗了三次，四次，鸽子还是蓝的。
Proper nouns
专有名词Sources
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