A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
美国最年长的参议员，为一台用了四十九年的吸尘器写了段告别。它叫贝丝。
The Oldest US Senator Wrote a Farewell to His 49-Year-Old Vacuum Cleaner. Its Name Was Beth.
About this story
The Oldest US Senator Wrote a Farewell to His 49-Year-Old Vacuum Cleaner. Its Name Was Beth. HSK 5-6 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 5-6 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 12 key vocabulary words such as 现任、任期、焦痕 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
America’s oldest serving senator is Chuck Grassley, ninety-two this year.
On the eighth of August, he posted a piece of writing on social media.
The content had nothing to do with affairs of state.
He was saying goodbye to his own vacuum cleaner.
The vacuum cleaner has a name — Beth — taken from a former Senate colleague.
The machine itself is an old Hoover model.
It first served fifteen years at Grassley’s mother-in-law’s house.
Then it moved to his own house and served another thirty-four.
Added together: forty-nine years.
What sort of length is forty-nine years?
In that time America went through several presidents, and Grassley himself went from middle age to ninety-two, a tenure so long it has become almost part of the Senate.
And that machine was still there, still able to run.
Until this August, when its power cord burned a scorch mark.
Using it further would cause an accident, so it had to stop.
So Grassley photographed that scorch mark, put it online, and added a few lines of farewell.
The original preserves his customary typos — which is itself one of the ways people recognise him.
He wrote: you will not see Beth any more.
It is not safe any longer.
Goodbye, Beth.
You really were a capable helper.
I will miss you.
A ninety-two-year-old senator wrote, in all seriousness, a eulogy for a vacuum cleaner.
Colleagues left messages underneath almost immediately, saying they would miss it too.
This travelled, probably, not because it is funny.
It is because a lot of people recognised the feeling at once.
A thing that cannot speak and cannot answer back, that quietly kept you company for most of your life, and then one day could not be used.
Think about it: is there an old thing like that in your home?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇美国现任最年长的参议员 = America’s oldest serving senator.
任期长到几乎成了参议院的一部分 = a tenure so long it has become part of the Senate.
烧出一块焦痕 = burned a scorch mark.
原文里保留着他一贯的错别字 = the original preserves his customary typos.
不会说话、也不会回应的东西 = a thing that cannot speak or answer back.
在岳母家服役十五年 = served fifteen years at his mother-in-law’s house.
为一台吸尘器写了段悼词 = wrote a eulogy for a vacuum cleaner.
保留着他一贯的错别字 = preserves his customary typos.
安安静静陪了你大半辈子 = quietly kept you company for most of your life.
陪了你大半辈子 = for most of your life.
几乎成了参议院的一部分 = almost part of the Senate.
在 Grassley 岳母家，服役十五年 = served fifteen years at his mother-in-law’s house.
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法……到几乎……
"so X that it almost Y". Uses exaggeration to convey scale precisely.
任期长到几乎成了参议院的一部分。
既不……也不……
Two absences stacked, to define a thing by what it cannot do.
一个不会说话、也不会回应的东西
……，然后有一天……
"and then one day". Compresses a long stretch into a single turning point.
安安静静陪了你大半辈子，然后有一天不能用了。
Proper Nouns
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