A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
许家印被判无期。恒大留下一百六十二万套没盖完的房子，还有七十万套空着。
Evergrande’s Founder Got Life. The Company Left 1.62 Million Unfinished Apartments — 700,000 Are Still Empty.
About this story
Evergrande’s Founder Got Life. The Company Left 1.62 Million Unfinished Apartments — 700,000 Are Still Empty. HSK 1 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 1 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 6 key vocabulary words such as 钱、买、住 and walks through 2 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
In China there is a man called Xu Jiayin.
He used to be the richest man in China.
The richest.
He had a very big company, called Evergrande.
What does Evergrande do?
Evergrande makes houses.
A great many houses.
In China there are a lot of people who want to buy a house.
They went to Evergrande and gave Evergrande money.
They gave the money, and the house was still not finished.
They said: never mind, we will wait.
One year, two years, three years — they waited.
They waited for the houses to be finished.
Were the houses finished?
No.
A great many houses were not finished.
Some people gave money and still had no house to live in.
Their money was inside Evergrande.
Where did Evergrande’s money go?
Evergrande said: we have a great deal of money.
That was not right.
The money Evergrande had was less than the money Evergrande said.
Very, very much less.
On the twentieth of August, the court spoke.
The court said: Xu Jiayin, what you did was wrong.
The court said: you cannot go home.
Not for one year, not for ten years.
He cannot go home at all.
And his money is not his any more either.
His two sons went as well.
A lot of people are watching this.
But the biggest problem is not Xu Jiayin.
The biggest problem is those houses.
Those houses are still standing in those places.
Some were finished, some were not.
In the houses that were not finished, nobody lives.
The people who bought them are still waiting.
They have been waiting for many years.
Their money — given. Their house — no.
Think about it:
You gave someone money and they did not give you the thing. What would you do?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇Paid to the company, and then gone.
买房子 — to buy a home.
You buy a house in order to 住. Nobody 住 in the unfinished ones.
The thing everyone in this story paid for and did not get.
The verb the whole episode turns on. 他们等了很多年了。
做完 = to finish making. The houses were never 做完.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法A 比 B 少
A is less than B. 比 marks the comparison.
恒大有的钱，比恒大说的少。 — The money Evergrande had was less than the money it claimed.
今天比昨天冷。 — Today is colder than yesterday.
不是……，不是……，都……
Rules out several possibilities in a row, then states the whole case.
不是一年，不是十年。都不能回家。 — Not one year, not ten years. He cannot go home at all.
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
来源Free account
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