A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
为了 AI，Google 第一次花的比赚的多
For AI, Google Spent More Than It Earned for the First Time
About this story
A medium Chinese listening story on Google: last quarter it spent about $6 billion more than it earned, doubling AI spending to $45 billion on computers, chips and data centers, and the stock fell 8%. HSK 3 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 3-4 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 12 key vocabulary words such as 世界、问题、消息 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
Among all the big companies in the world, Google has always been one of the best at making money.
But recently, a number it reported took a lot of people by surprise.
Last quarter, for the first time, the money Google spent was more than the money it earned back.
It spent roughly six billion dollars more.
Something like this hadn't happened since it went public twenty years ago — a first.
It's not that Google is out of money; its business is still very profitable.
The thing is, it poured too much money into one place — AI.
In just these three months, it spent about forty-five billion dollars buying computers and chips and building data centers.
That number is double what it was a year ago.
Meanwhile, the cash its business actually earned back was only thirty-nine billion.
Spend more than you earn, and naturally the money runs short.
What makes people even more nervous: Google also said it will spend even more this year than it originally planned.
Hearing this news, many people who own its stock started to worry, and the stock fell eight percent.
Still, looking at the whole year, its stock is actually up about sixty-six percent.
So now everyone is asking the same question:
Google spending this much on AI — is it smart, or too reckless?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇全世界的大公司 = big companies in the whole world.
大家都在问同一个问题 = everyone asks the same question.
听到这个消息 = hearing this news.
很多人开始担心 = many people started to worry.
更让人紧张的是 = what makes people even more nervous.
到底是聪明，还是太冒险 = is it smart, or too reckless.
让很多人吃了一惊 = took a lot of people by surprise.
上一个季度 = last quarter.
太冒险了 = too risky.
把太多的钱投到 AI = poured too much money into AI.
买电脑、买芯片 = buying computers and chips.
股票也跌了百分之八 = the stock fell 8 percent.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法比……还多
比 X 还多 = "even more than X".
花的钱，第一次比赚回来的钱还多。
更让人……的是
更让人 + adj + 的是 = "what is even more … is that …".
更让人紧张的是，Google 还说，今年要花的钱，比原来说的还要多。
到底是 A，还是 B？
到底 sharpens a choice question: "in the end, is it A or B?".
到底是聪明，还是太冒险了？
Proper Nouns
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