A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
今年春节电影票卖得不好
China's Spring Festival Box Office Falls 60%
About this story
China's Spring Festival tickets are slow — no Ne Zha 2, no Jackie Chan or Jet Li, young people pick cheap travel. HSK 3 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 3 Chinese listening episode that runs about 5 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 15 key vocabulary words such as 春节、准备、习惯 and walks through 5 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
Spring Festival is coming soon, and everyone is preparing to celebrate the New Year.
Many people like to do one thing during the Spring Festival.
This thing is watching movies.
The whole family gets together and happily goes to watch a movie.
This is a very important habit in China.
However, there is a big problem this year.
We found that fewer people are buying movie tickets.
Everyone knows that to watch a movie, you must buy a ticket first.
Many people like to buy tickets in advance.
Why buy tickets in advance?
Because if the movie is very good, there will be many people.
If you don't buy early, there won't be good seats left.
Everyone likes to sit in the middle seats.
Therefore, in the past, everyone bought tickets very early.
This is called "presale," which means selling tickets in advance.
But the situation this year is not very good.
Let's look at this time last year.
Last year, before the Spring Festival even arrived, many tickets were sold.
How much money was sold?
Six hundred million yuan was sold.
That is a lot of money.
It shows that everyone really wanted to watch movies last year.
But what about this year?
This year, up to now, only two hundred million has been sold.
Two hundred million is much less than six hundred million.
It decreased by more than sixty percent.
This is a very big deal.
Why are so few people buying tickets this year?
Let's look for the reasons.
The first reason is about the movies.
Last year there was a very famous movie.
That movie was called "Ne Zha 2".
Although it is an animated movie, it is very good to watch.
Adults like watching it, and children also like watching it.
That movie was very wonderful.
Everyone said that movie was good.
So last year everyone ran to the cinema.
Because of that movie, tickets sold especially well last year.
But this year is different.
This year there are no such particularly big movies.
Although there are also many new movies this year.
But everyone feels that these movies might be just average.
There isn't a single movie that makes everyone want to watch it.
So everyone is not in a hurry to buy tickets.
Everyone wants to wait and see.
The second reason is about the actors.
In this year's movies, there are many old actors.
For example, Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
They are both very famous kung fu stars.
They have made many good movies in the past.
Our parents know them very well.
However, what do young people today think?
Young people today might not like watching old movies.
They feel that movies with old actors are not fresh.
Young people like to see new things.
Young people like to watch young actors.
Who is buying movie tickets now?
Mainly young people are buying them.
If young people don't like it, tickets won't sell.
This is a big problem.
Film companies want young people to buy tickets.
But the movies are for older people to watch.
This is a contradiction.
The third reason is about time.
This year's Spring Festival holiday is very long.
Everyone can rest for nine days.
This is a long time.
Because the time is long, everyone has new ideas.
People don't want to just watch movies at home anymore.
Everyone wants to go out traveling.
To go to far places to play.
Some go to the south to see flowers, some go to the north to see snow.
Traveling costs a lot of money.
Buying plane tickets costs money, staying in hotels also costs money.
If the money is all used for travel, there is less money for watching movies.
Moreover, when people are traveling outside, they don't have time to watch movies.
Therefore, with more people traveling, there are fewer people watching movies.
This is not good news for cinemas.
The people selling movie tickets are very anxious now.
They hope to sell a few more tickets.
So what can be done?
The government also saw this problem.
The government wants to help cinemas.
Some local governments started giving out money.
They issue "coupons" to people who want to watch movies.
What does this mean?
It means making movie tickets a little cheaper.
For example, a ticket originally costs fifty yuan.
The government pays ten yuan for you.
You only need to pay forty yuan yourself.
This way, the ticket becomes cheaper.
When everyone sees the tickets are cheaper, they might go buy them.
This is to get more people to walk into cinemas.
What we just talked about is actually news about Chinese cinema.
The news says that the "presale" results for movie tickets this Spring Festival are not good.
It dropped by sixty percent compared to last year.
Mainly because there is no big movie like "Ne Zha 2".
Also because current movies are not necessarily suitable for young people.
Plus everyone prefers to go traveling.
So the movie market is quite cold right now.
Although there are cheap tickets, it still depends on whether people like the movies.
This is the situation of the movie market this Spring Festival.
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇The Chinese New Year; the most important traditional holiday in China.
A common verb meaning to get ready or to plan to do something.
Can be a noun (custom/habit) or a verb (accustomed to). Here it functions as a noun.
A very common HSK word for traveling for pleasure.
Adjective describing low price.
Reports on current events.
Derived from 年轻 (young).
HSK 1-2. why.
Selling goods (like tickets) before they are officially available or before the event starts.
A number unit in Chinese. 1亿 = 100,000,000. It is a higher-level number word.
Often used to describe performances, movies, or games.
Describes a situation where two things oppose each other or don't match up.
A ticket or document that can be exchanged for a financial discount.
Describes a place or market with very few people or little activity.
A place to sit.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法Although... but... (Conjunction pair expressing concession)
虽然它是一个画出来的电影，但是很好看。
虽然今年也有很多新电影。但是大家觉得，这些电影可能一般。
Comparison structure indicating A is more [Adjective] than B.
两个亿比六个亿少了很多。
比去年下降了百分之六十。
Used to emphasize a specific aspect of a past event or a characteristic (like who, when, where, or purpose).
第一个原因，是关于电影的。
主要是年轻人在买。
但是电影是给老一点的人看的。
Proper nouns
专有名词Sources
来源Free account
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