A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
Diddy 有很多钱，现在一个人在小房间里
Diddy Had Money and Friends. Now He's Alone in a Tiny Cell
About this story
A simple beginner Chinese listening story about Diddy, the famous American who had money and friends but now sits alone in a small prison cell after a fight. HSK 1 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 1 Chinese listening episode that runs about 1 minute. 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 谁、知道、钱 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
Who is Diddy?
He's an American.
A lot of Americans know him.
He has a lot of money and a lot of friends.
Now, he can't go home.
He's living in a very bad place.
It's a place a lot of people never want to go.
Last week, there, he got into a fight with someone.
That person said bad things about him, and the two of them fought.
Now he's alone, living in a very small room.
He's alone in there, and even his friends can't come.
Diddy has a lot of money and a lot of friends.
Now he's alone, in a very small room.
He really wants to go home, but right now he can't.
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇Diddy 是谁？ = Who is Diddy?
很多人都知道他 = a lot of people know him.
很多钱 = a lot of money.
很多朋友 = a lot of friends.
不能回家 = can't go home.
很想回家 = really wants to go home.
住在一个很小的房间 = living in a very small room.
很多人都不想去 = a lot of people don't want to go.
他和一个人打了 = he got into a fight with someone.
一个很小的房间 = a very small room (his cell).
一个很不好的地方 = a very bad place.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法……是谁？
是谁？asks "who is …?", a basic identity question.
Diddy 是谁？
有 A，也有 B
也 ("also/too") links two things that are both true.
他有很多钱，也有很多朋友。
不能 + verb
不能 = "cannot / is not able to".
现在，他不能回家。
Proper Nouns
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