A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
哥伦比亚西部7.4级地震致多楼倒塌，被埋男子先喊出：我这里还有个孩子。
Colombia Earthquake Rescue Finds Buried Baby
About this story
Colombia Earthquake Rescue Finds Buried Baby. HSK 3 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 3-4 Chinese listening episode that runs about 2 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 14 key vocabulary words such as 忽然、立刻、动作 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
On the tenth of August, a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck western Colombia.
The geological service said it was the strongest one this century.
A lot of buildings collapsed, and a lot of people were buried under the rubble.
What follows was filmed by someone on a phone.
That day, a group of rescuers were standing on a collapsed building.
They had no heavy machinery and could only dig with their hands.
After a long time, one of them suddenly raised a hand and told everyone to stop.
The site went silent at once.
They wanted to listen for whether anyone below was making a sound.
There was.
A man below was speaking.
The people above asked: are you alone?
The buried man said: no, there is a baby down here with me.
The moment they heard that, five of them closed in.
They moved the stones away one at a time, very slowly, afraid of another collapse.
After a while, they saw the baby.
A pair of hands reached down and slowly lifted the child out.
The second the baby was out, they shouted for the medics.
Once the medics had taken the baby away, those five men broke into cheers on the rubble.
But it was not over.
The man was still down there.
He was pinned underneath and could not get out, yet his two hands had been held up the whole time, cradling the baby above his palms.
When the people above asked his name, he did not answer about himself.
What he spoke of first was the baby.
When the cheering stopped, those five men turned around and went back to digging him out.
In the end, more than two hundred people did not survive this earthquake.
But that morning, under that collapsed building, one man thought first of someone other than himself.
Think about it: in that one second, what was going through his mind?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇有一个人忽然举起手 = one of them suddenly raised a hand.
五个人立刻围了过去 = five of them closed in at once.
动作很慢，怕再塌 = moving very slowly, afraid of another collapse.
两只手却一直举着 = his two hands had been held up the whole time.
接着挖他 = went back to digging him out.
发生了七点四级地震 = a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck.
被埋在废墟下面 = buried under the rubble.
一群救援的人 = a group of rescuers.
那个被埋着的男人 = the buried man.
很多楼塌了 = a lot of buildings collapsed.
他们看见了那个婴儿 = they saw the baby.
把婴儿托在掌心上面 = cradling the baby above his palms.
在废墟上欢呼了起来 = broke into cheers on the rubble.
现场一下子安静了 = the site went silent at once.
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法却
"and yet". Marks the contrast between his own state and what he was doing.
他自己被压在下面出不来，两只手却一直举着。
被 + V
The passive: something was done TO the subject.
很多人，被埋在废墟下面。
那个被埋着的男人。
……的那一秒
"the very second when X". Pins the story to one instant.
孩子出来的那一秒。
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
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