A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
日本南部大地震：商场塌了，几十万人离开家
Big Earthquake in Southern Japan: A Mall Collapses, Hundreds of Thousands Leave Home
About this story
An easy Chinese listening story: a strong earthquake struck southern Japan, a tsunami warning came and went, a mall's second floor collapsed, people died and were hurt, and huge numbers had to evacuate. HSK 2 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 2 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 10 key vocabulary words such as 东西、离开、家 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
On July 28th, a very big earthquake hit southern Japan.
The earthquake was strong, over magnitude 7.
Houses shook, and many things came tumbling down.
At first, everyone was afraid a big wave might come rushing in.
Later, the big wave never came, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
But the earthquake still wrecked a lot of things.
In one place, the second floor of a big mall collapsed.
Some people were pinned inside and couldn't get out.
In this earthquake, some people died, and others were hurt.
Because it was so dangerous, huge numbers of people had to leave their homes.
The government said too: over the next few days there may be more quakes, so everyone must be careful.
For the Japanese, earthquakes aren't rare, but every one is still terrifying.
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇很多东西都掉了下来 = many things came down.
都要离开自己的家 = all had to leave their homes.
离开自己的家 = leave their own home.
一个很大的地震 = a very big earthquake.
—
地震很强 = the earthquake was strong.
一个大商场的二楼 = a big mall's second floor.
商场的二楼塌了 = the mall's second floor collapsed.
因为太危险 = because it was so dangerous.
都让人很害怕 = it terrifies everyone.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法一开始……后来……
一开始 X，后来 Y = "at first X, later Y".
一开始，大家很怕……后来，大浪没有来。
因为……
因为 = "because".
因为太危险，很多很多人，都要离开自己的家。
Proper Nouns
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