A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
诺兰用 IMAX 胶片拍完了整部《奥德赛》。那台新摄影机，用一对在 IMAX 干了五十三年的夫妻命名。
Nolan Shot All of The Odyssey on IMAX Film. The New Camera Is Named After a Couple Who Gave IMAX 53 Years.
About this story
Nolan Shot All of The Odyssey on IMAX Film. The New Camera Is Named After a Couple Who Gave IMAX 53 Years. HSK 2 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 2 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 换、重、清楚 and walks through 2 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
Start with the name of a machine: it is called Keighley.
A machine for making films — why does it have a person’s name?
Because Keighley is the surname of a married couple.
The husband worked at IMAX, the company, for fifty-three years.
What he did was not make films. It was to look at the picture and see whether it was right.
When a film came out, he had to check: are the colours right; is the picture clear or not.
In fifty-three years he looked at roughly five hundred films.
His wife is still at the company today, doing the same job.
So when the new machine arrived, the company used their surname.
Now, why a new machine had to be made at all.
IMAX films use very large film stock.
The bigger the film, the clearer the picture on the screen.
But the machines for big film have one big problem: they are too loud.
The moment the machine starts, how loud is the sound?
The people who shoot films say: like a broken lawnmower.
Which means there is no way to film people speaking.
What you would hear in the film is the sound of the machine, not the lines.
So the old way of doing it was: shoot the big scenes on the IMAX machine, and switch to a small machine when people speak.
One film, two kinds of machine, swapped back and forth.
That went on for twenty years.
Then Nolan said: I want a film shot on IMAX from beginning to end.
Including when people are speaking.
So the company had to build a new one.
How much quieter is the new machine?
The company says thirty percent quieter; the people who shoot films say not that much — more like ten or twenty.
But the character of the sound changed.
It used to be like a broken lawnmower. Now it is like a well-oiled sewing machine.
The new machine is still very big.
It has to be wrapped in a box to keep the sound in.
The box plus the machine weigh over two hundred kilos; too heavy to push, so it sits on a cart made of steel plate.
And one more thing: a roll of film only lasts three minutes.
The moment three minutes are up, you stop and change the roll.
This film of Nolan’s is called The Odyssey, and Matt Damon is in it.
The story is about a man who talks his way, thinks his way, all the way back to his own house.
It is the first film shot on IMAX film from beginning to end.
It took eleven hundred million dollars — the best-selling film Nolan has made.
And finally, back to that name.
A machine that is huge and heavy and has finally gone quiet, with a married couple’s surname written on it.
The husband never made a film.
He only looked at the picture for fifty-three years, and judged whether it was right.
Think about it:
One thing — could you do it for fifty-three years?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇They 换 machines whenever someone spoke, and 换 the film roll every three minutes.
The rig is over two hundred kilos — too 重 to push.
His job was to check whether the picture was 清楚.
The physical strip a film is shot on. The bigger it is, the clearer the picture.
Literally "silver screen" — the thing the picture goes up on.
What an actor says. With the old camera you heard the machine instead of the 台词.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法The more X, the more Y.
胶片越大，银幕上的画面，越清楚。 — The bigger the film, the clearer the picture on screen.
越说越快 — the more he talks, the faster he talks
只好……
Have no choice but to — the only remaining option.
公司只好做一台新的。 — The company had no choice but to build a new one.
他只好走路回家。 — He had no choice but to walk home.
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
来源Free account
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