A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
哥伦比亚就职典礼因军营宣誓引发违宪风波，改址卡利举行；前总统佩特罗锁营缺席。
Colombia's inauguration ceremony was relocated to Cali after a bid to swear in at a barracks triggered a constitutional uproar; outgoing President Petro locked the barracks and skipped the event.
About this story
Colombia's inauguration ceremony was relocated to Cali after a bid to swear in at a barracks triggered a constitutional uproar; outgoing President Petro locked the barracks and skipped the event. HSK 5-6 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 5-6 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 11 key vocabulary words such as 仪式、统帅、来源 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
This afternoon, Colombia got a new president.
But what made the news is why the inauguration was held in Cali.
By the rules, a new president has to swear an oath in public before he formally takes office.
For more than a hundred years, that ceremony has been fixed in the capital, Bogotá.
Today's was held in Cali, hundreds of kilometres away.
It began with an idea from the incoming president, Espriella: he wanted to swear the oath inside a military barracks.
The moment the plan was announced, constitutional scholars delivered a verdict: likely unconstitutional.
The reasoning is not complicated. The president is commander of the armed forces, but his power comes from votes, not from the army.
Swearing the oath in a barracks moves the source of that power from the people toward the military.
Petro, still in office at the time, responded bluntly: he ordered every military facility closed and barred from the ceremony.
He then said a line that went round the whole country: the president obeys the people, not the military.
And there it locked: one side insisting on going, the other side locking the door.
Congress finally brokered a compromise, settling on an arena at a university in Cali.
About six thousand people attended today, among them the King of Spain.
More notable still: Petro himself did not attend.
In most countries the single most important image of a handover is the outgoing leader placing the symbols of power into his successor's hands.
That is a country telling itself: we can change leaders peacefully.
Twenty-five lawmakers from his camp were absent as well.
So today's inauguration has three things wrong with it: the venue was forced, the predecessor was absent, and lawmakers boycotted.
Normally, a new president's first day is the most whole a country looks all year.
Colombia did not get that day today.
The cost will not show up immediately; it will show up in every argument from here on.
Think about it: when a country changes leaders, how much does the form of the ceremony really matter?
Is it a formality, or is it part of the power itself?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇这场仪式 = this ceremony. The whole episode is about its form.
三军统帅 = commander of the three services.
权力的来源 = the source of power — the central idea here.
象征权力的东西 = the objects that symbolise power.
交给继任者 = hand it to the successor.
走个过场 = to go through the motions.
国会折中 = Congress brokered a compromise.
Without it, he is not formally president.
The venue he wanted; the origin of the whole dispute.
涉嫌违宪 = suspected of being unconstitutional.
尚未卸任的 Petro = Petro, still in office at the time.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法等于把 A 从 B 挪向 C
"amounts to moving A from B toward C" — names what an action really does.
在军营宣誓，等于把权力的来源，从人民挪向军队。
更值得注意的是……
"more notable still …" — a host's move to the sharper point.
更值得注意的是，Petro 本人没有出席。
是 A，还是 B？
Poses the choice the whole piece has been building toward.
是走个过场，还是本身就是权力的一部分？
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
来源Free account
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