A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
柏林有十六个月时间换新的黄信封，结果两个星期就用完，该进监狱的人留在了家里
Berlin Had Sixteen Months to Switch Envelopes. The New Ones Ran Out in Two Weeks, and People Due in Prison Stayed Home.
About this story
In Germany a prison-reporting summons is only legally served if it arrives in a specific yellow envelope. The federal justice ministry changed the spec on 31 March 2025 and let old forms run until 31 July 2026 — sixteen months of notice. Berlin procured the new envelopes on time; they were gone in two weeks, and the reorder failed on supplier shortages. Sentences stood, cells sat empty, and nobody recorded how many people stayed home. Chinese listening practice at four levels. HSK 1 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 1 Chinese listening episode that runs about 3 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 写、字、买 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 one small thing.
You have this small thing in your house too.
It is very small.
But in Germany, without it, some people do not have to go to prison.
What is a prison?
You did something bad, so you have to go there.
Once you go there, you cannot go home.
This small thing is called an envelope.
You write words.
When you have written them, the words go inside the envelope.
Then the letter can travel.
In Germany there is a big city called Berlin.
In Berlin, some people did bad things.
Berlin said: you have to go to prison.
But Berlin cannot just say it like that.
Berlin has to write them a letter.
The letter says: you are going to prison.
This letter cannot go inside just any small envelope.
This letter has to go inside a yellow envelope.
The envelope is yellow.
If it is not yellow, it does not count.
Last year, Germany said: we want to use new yellow envelopes.
Everyone had sixteen months.
Sixteen months is a long time.
Berlin bought the new yellow envelopes.
When they bought them, there was still time.
But the new yellow envelopes were gone in two weeks.
Why?
Because too many people needed envelopes.
Berlin wanted to buy more, but could not.
With no envelopes, the letters could not go out.
The letters do not go out, so the person does not know.
The person does not know, so the person does not go to prison.
The people who did bad things were all at home.
The prison had room, but nobody came.
The people in Berlin said: this is a small problem.
Later, they managed to buy some new envelopes.
But they said: it is still far too few.
How many people did not go to prison?
They do not know.
They never looked.
Sixteen months. Two weeks.
A big city could not do its job because of one small thing.
That small thing is an envelope.
Now think about it for a moment.
You have sixteen months to do one thing.
When will you start?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇HSK 1. 你写字。你写好了，字在信封里。— the two-step that makes an envelope necessary at all.
HSK 1. Used instead of any word for "document" — a beginner can picture 字 going into a 信封.
HSK 1. 柏林想买，可是买不到 — the whole failure, in one HSK 1 verb.
HSK 1. 两个星期 against 十六个月 — the episode is built out of that comparison.
HSK 1. 人就不知道 — the hinge: no letter means no legal knowledge, which means no prison.
HSK 1. 信可以走了 — a letter "walking" is how Chinese says a letter can be sent.
The subject. Introduced as "a small thing you also have at home" before it is ever named.
Distinguished from 信封 on purpose: the 信 is the message, the 信封 is what makes it count.
Defined by what happens there: 你做了不好的事，你要去那里。你去了，你不能回家。
HSK 2. 不是黄的，不可以 — an entire legal requirement expressed as a colour.
HSK 3. 一个大城市，因为一个小东西，做不了事 — the closing contrast.
大家有十六个月的时间 — note that HSK 1 has 时候 but not 时间; this is the measurable kind.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法A 就 B，B 就 C
Chaining short clauses with 就 builds a causal ladder. Four links here carry the listener from a missing envelope to a person sitting at home.
信封没有了，信就出不去。
信出不去，人就不知道。
人不知道，就不去监狱。
不是……，不可以
If it is not X, it is not allowed. The plainest way to state an absolute requirement, with no modal verb needed.
不是黄的，不可以。
因为……，……
Because of X. Placing 因为 plus a noun phrase before the main clause attributes a large outcome to a small cause.
一个大城市，因为一个小东西，做不了事。
Proper Nouns
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