A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
四十年拿不下来的靶点被拿下了。胰腺癌病人多活半年，代价是一个月三万九千八百美元。
A Target Called Undruggable for Forty Years Just Fell. Pancreatic Cancer Patients Gain Six Months, at $39,800 a Month.
About this story
A Target Called Undruggable for Forty Years Just Fell. Pancreatic Cancer Patients Gain Six Months, at $39,800 a Month. HSK 1 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 1 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 月、可以、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
There is a new drug in America.
This new drug is for patients.
Which patients?
There is an illness that is very bad.
In the past, people with this illness could not live long.
How long?
Six months.
Six months is not long.
Six months is half a year.
Half a year is short.
Now there is a new drug.
If you take this new drug, how long can you live?
Thirteen months.
Six months. Thirteen months.
Six months, plus another half a year.
That half year is what the new drug gives.
This drug is a small tablet.
You do not have to go to hospital.
You take it at home, one tablet a day.
One a day, a very small one.
One a day, taken at home.
This new drug has its bad side too.
People who take it often go red on the skin.
Out of a hundred people, eighty-six go red.
Eighty-six people. That is a lot, a lot.
But the patients say this drug is good.
Why?
Because when you take this drug, you are not in so much pain.
No pain means you can be at home.
You can walk. You can see people.
You can see the people in your family.
You can be at home, you can walk, you can see people.
Is this drug good?
It is.
But this drug is expensive.
How expensive?
One month: thirty-nine thousand eight hundred dollars.
One month.
Not one year — one month.
Thirty-nine thousand eight hundred dollars for one month.
And two months?
And half a year?
A lot of people do not have that much money.
The drug is there, but the money is not.
The drug is good, but people cannot afford it.
Think about it:
A drug can let a person live half a year longer.
But a lot of people cannot afford it.
Is that a good thing?
For people with money, it is good.
And for people without money?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇六个月，十三个月 — six months, thirteen months. The whole story is a comparison of months.
不疼，就可以在家 — no pain means you can be at home.
药在那里，可是钱不在 — the drug is there, but the money is not.
不用去医院 — you do not have to go to hospital. The point of a pill.
美国有一种新药 — there is a new drug in America.
Literally "ill person". 病 is illness, 人 is person.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法不是 A，是 B
Not A, but B — used here to make a number land.
不是一年，是一个月。 — Not a year — a month.
……不起
Cannot afford to. The 起 complement is about capacity, not ability.
可是人买不起。 — But people cannot afford it.
可以 + verb
Lists what becomes possible. Repetition builds the picture.
可以走路，可以看人。 — You can walk, you can see people.
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
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