A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
蓝蟹搭压舱水来到意大利，吃光了蛤蜊。他们放了八万只小章鱼下去——但章鱼可能不肯去。
Blue Crabs Rode Ballast Water to Italy and Ate the Clams. So They Released 80,000 Baby Octopuses — Which May Not Go Where the Crabs Are.
About this story
Blue Crabs Rode Ballast Water to Italy and Ate the Clams. So They Released 80,000 Baby Octopuses — Which May Not Go Where the Crabs Are. HSK 1 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 1 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 6 key vocabulary words such as 水、吃、开 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
People in Italy love eating shellfish.
The shellfish are in the sea, and they have shells.
The shells are not easy to open.
Now, there is something new in the sea.
It is a crab.
This crab is not from here.
It came from a sea very far away, on a big ship.
This crab is very good at opening the shells.
Once the shell is open, the shellfish is gone.
Italy's shellfish have become far fewer.
And the money has become much less too, much, much less.
The people of Italy thought of a plan.
They released eighty thousand baby octopuses into the sea.
Octopuses eat crabs.
In the sea, octopuses are very good at eating crabs.
They also made homes for the little octopuses.
In the sea, they made tiny homes.
Is this a good plan?
We do not know.
There is one thing that is not good:
The water where there are the most crabs is warm, and very shallow.
Octopuses do not like warm water, and do not like shallow water.
The octopuses may not go, and then they cannot eat the crabs.
Think about it:
Something bad arrives, and you release something else to eat it. Is that good?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇Warm, shallow 水 is exactly where the crabs are and the octopuses will not go.
The whole chain: crabs 吃 clams, octopuses 吃 crabs.
开壳 — to open a shell. The one skill that made the crab a disaster.
What Italy farms, and what the crabs eat.
A clam’s only defence.
章 chapter, 鱼 fish — but it is not a fish at all.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法A 很会 + verb
A is very good at doing something.
这个螃蟹，很会开贝的壳。 — This crab is very good at opening shells.
他很会做饭。 — He is very good at cooking.
一 + verb，就……
As soon as X happens, Y follows immediately.
壳一开，贝就没有了。 — Once the shell is open, the clam is gone.
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
来源Free account
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