A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
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多莉·帕顿去世了。她最看重的不是那几千首歌，是每个月寄到孩子门口的一本书。
Dolly Parton Died at 80. The Thing She Was Proudest Of Was a Free Book in the Mail, Because Her Father Never Learned to Read.
About this story
Dolly Parton Died at 80. The Thing She Was Proudest Of Was a Free Book in the Mail, Because Her Father Never Learned to Read. HSK 2 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 2 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 6 key vocabulary words such as 送、本、开始 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
Last week, a very famous American died.
Her name was Dolly Parton, and she was eighty.
She was a singer, and she sang for more than sixty years.
Everyone in America knew her, and people in many countries knew her too.
But today, what I want to talk about is not her songs.
What I want to talk about is books.
Dolly Parton had a lot of money.
She used that money to do one thing: she sent books.
Starting in 1995, she sent books to children.
One month, one book.
The book comes from the post office, to your house, right to your door.
You do not have to go out, and you do not have to pay.
The book is free — not one cent.
From the day you are born, all the way to five years old.
Five years, sixty books in all.
Sixty books, sent one at a time, one a month.
At the start, only one small place in Tennessee had it.
That was the place where Dolly Parton was born.
Later, other places had it too.
Now, five countries have it.
One small place became five countries.
To this day, more than three hundred million books have been sent.
In America, of children under five, one in every six is receiving her books.
Why did she do this?
Because of her father.
Her father was a man from the mountains, and as a boy he did not go to school.
So he could not read, and he could not write.
Dolly Parton said: my father is the smartest person I know.
The smartest person, and he could not read.
He was very smart, but he had never been to school.
Her father lived to seventy-nine.
Before that, he heard children call her "the book lady".
He was very happy. He felt that half of this was his.
He was a man who could not read, and his house produced a "book lady".
Dolly Parton said this was the thing that made her father happiest.
She had many songs, and many people love them.
But what her father loved most were those books.
Now Dolly Parton is gone.
The people who send the books said: the books will keep coming.
Every month, still one.
Still from the post office, still to the door, still free.
Think about it:
When a person is gone, what stays behind in other people's homes?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇她送书 — she sends books. One verb covers give, deliver and see off.
一本书，六十本书 — one book, sixty books. Books are always counted with 本.
从一九九五年开始 — starting from 1995.
一个小地方，变成了五个国家 — one small place became five countries.
这本书是免费的 — this book is free. Literally "exempt from fee".
图书女士 — the book lady. 图书 is the bookish word, used in 图书馆 (library).
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法不用 + verb
"Do not need to" — no obligation.
你不用出门，也不用花钱。 — You do not need to go out, and you do not need to spend money.
一……一……地 + verb
Doing something one at a time. The doubled measure word plus 地 makes it an adverb.
六十本书，一本一本地送。 — Sixty books, sent one at a time.
每……就有一个……
"One in every N" — a ratio.
每六个里就有一个，在收她的书。 — One in every six is receiving her books.
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
来源Free account
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