A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels

香港机场抢金案:三个蒙面人,和一个看不见的“内鬼”
The Hong Kong Airport Gold Robbery: Three Masked Men and an Unseen 'Mole'
HSK 2 Chinese listening practice. A real Hong Kong airport gold heist: a hired courier with HK$7 million in gold bars is ambushed by three masked, knife-wielding robbers — and police suspect an inside man leaked his route. Seven suspects caught within a day.
This is an HSK 2 Chinese listening episode that runs about 4 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 14 key vocabulary words such as 机场、事情、地方 and walks through 7 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.
Read the complete story in Chinese. Reveal pinyin and English only when you need them.
Today,
we'll tell
a real criminal case.
It
happened just this week,
and the place
was Hong Kong's airport.
That day,
it was the small hours,
around half past midnight.
The airport
still had people in it,
but it was very quiet.
There was a
thirty-six-year-old man
who had just gotten off a plane.
He had flown back to Hong Kong
from abroad.
You might think:
getting off a plane at midnight,
nothing special, right?
But
this man
was no ordinary man.
Because,
in his backpack,
he carried
something very precious.
What was it?
Gold.
Six
gold bars.
These gold bars,
all together,
were worth seven million.
It turned out
this man
had been hired.
He was, for a boss,
transporting this gold.
He got off the plane,
walked to the car park,
ready to get his car.
Just at that moment,
it happened.
Three men
suddenly rushed out.
They were all
masked,
you couldn't make out
who they were.
In their hands,
they held knives.
The moment they came,
they used their knives
to slash the man,
cutting
his arm and leg.
Then,
they snatched
the backpack full of gold.
Having grabbed it,
the three
jumped into a
seven-seater car,
and at top speed,
fled.
The whole thing
took only
a very short time.
Seven million in gold,
just like that,
was gone.
Up to here,
you might feel:
this is just
an ordinary robbery.
But
the police soon
discovered
something strange.
Think about it:
this man
had just gotten off a plane.
When he arrived,
where he parked,
that he carried gold —
these things,
an outsider
simply could not know.
So,
how did those three bad men
come to
know it all
so perfectly clearly?
The answer
is only one:
among their people,
there must be a 'mole'.
A 'mole'
is one of your own —
a person
who knows all the secrets,
yet
secretly tells the bad people.
The police said
this was absolutely not
a random robbery.
The good news is,
the Hong Kong police
moved very fast.
In less than a day,
they
caught seven people.
Among them,
four were men,
three were women.
It's said
some of them
had ties to
organized crime.
And some others
had already fled to
mainland China.
The case
is still being investigated.
Finally,
I'd like to talk with you.
In this case,
the most frightening thing
is not those three knives.
It is that
'mole'
we cannot see.
A door
can be locked.
Things
can be put away safely.
But
the human heart
is the hardest thing to guard against.
So,
I want to ask you:
the secrets in your heart —
whom
would you
safely tell?
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
地点,是香港的机场 = the place was Hong Kong's airport.
HSK 1-2. matter/thing.
HSK 1-2. place.
HSK 1-2. to tell.
HSK 1-2. to prepare / preparation.
HSK 1-2. to feel / to think.
HSK 1-2. strange / odd.
真实发生的案子 = a real criminal case. 案 = case.
那天,是凌晨,大概十二点半 = that day it was the small hours, around 12:30am.
他的背包里,装着,非常贵重的东西 = his backpack held something very precious.
非常贵重的东西 = something very valuable — the gold.
是六块,金条 = six gold bars.
他帮一个老板,运送这些黄金 = he was transporting the gold for a boss.
走到停车场,准备去开车 = he walked to the car park to get his car.
* beyond level超纲词
是被 + Agent + Verb 来的 (passive: was ...-ed by)
Marks the subject as the one acted upon.
这个男人,是被人请来的。
一 + Verb,就 + Verb (as soon as...)
Two actions in immediate succession.
他们一上来,就用刀,砍伤了这个人。
根本不 + Verb (simply / fundamentally not)
Strong negation.
这些事,外人,根本不会知道。
一定有一个 ... (there must be a...)
A confident inference.
他们的人里面,一定有一个内鬼。
不是 X,而是 Y (not X, but Y)
Corrects to the real point.
最可怕的,不是那三把刀。而是那个,我们看不见的内鬼。
X 是最难 + Verb 的 (X is the hardest to...)
Superlative of difficulty.
人心,是最难防的。
你会告诉谁呢?(whom would you tell?)
A reflective question for the close.
你心里的秘密,你会,放心地,告诉谁呢?
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