A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
两个中国同学，一起拿到了数学界最大的奖
Two Chinese Classmates Win Math's Biggest Prize Together
About this story
Two Chinese Classmates Win Math's Biggest Prize Together. 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 8 key vocabulary words such as 同学、高兴、学校 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
Two Chinese people are classmates.
Today, they are very happy.
All over the world, many people now know them.
They are both very good at math.
Math — what is it?
Look: one, two, three, four, five.
One and one is two.
Two and two is four.
Thinking about this, doing this — this is called math.
Some math is very hard.
When they were very, very young, these two were already good at math.
Many kids were playing; they didn't play.
They thought about math — today, and tomorrow too.
Later, the two of them went to a school.
This school is in Beijing.
At this school in Beijing, they were classmates.
The two classmates studied together and thought about math together.
They studied together for many, many years.
In math, there are very, very hard things.
Some things, many people thought about for a hundred years and still couldn't do.
These two Chinese people figured them out.
One of them is a woman.
She figured out something very, very hard.
This thing, many people thought about for a hundred years and couldn't do.
She figured it out.
The other one also figured out something very hard.
Both classmates figured it out.
Today, many people around the world know the two of them.
Many people say: these two Chinese are really good at math.
Why do so many people know them?
Listen.
In the world, there is a thing.
This thing is very big, very good.
If you are really good at math, you get this thing.
Many people are good at math too, but not as good as these two.
So this thing is theirs.
This thing comes only once in many years.
Very, very few people have this thing.
Today, these two Chinese people have it.
For many, many years, no Chinese person had this thing.
Today, the two of them have it.
They are very happy.
Many people in China are happy too.
A woman being this good at math — many people are happy.
Think about it:
Something very, very hard — do you want to learn to do it?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇A classmate — someone who studies with you at the same school.
Happy, glad. 他们很高兴 = they are very happy.
A school, where you go to study.
To know (a fact). 很多人都知道他们 = many people know them.
Here: to be good at. 很会数学 = very good at math.
To think (about). 他们想数学 = they think about math.
Math — thinking with numbers like 1, 2, 3. Beyond HSK 1; taught in the episode.
Female. 一个女的 = a woman. Beyond HSK 1 on its own.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法A，是什么？
A simple way to ask 'What is A?' — name the thing, then ask 是什么.
数学，是什么东西？
想一想 / 做一做 (V一V)
Repeating a verb with 一 softens it and means 'do it a little / give it a try'.
想一想这个，做一做这个。
有的……
'Some (of them)…', pointing at part of a group as opposed to the rest.
数学，有的很难。
有的东西，很多人想了一百年，都不会。
Proper Nouns
专有名词Free account
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