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大地摇晃的那一下:日本九州7级地震,海啸警报、商场坍塌与几十万人的撤离
The Moment the Ground Shook: A Magnitude-7 Quake on Japan's Kyushu, and the Evacuation of Hundreds of Thousands
About this story
An intermediate Chinese listening story on the Kyushu earthquake: a shallow magnitude-7 quake near Kumamoto, a cancelled tsunami warning, a collapsed mall, mass evacuations, and how a quake-ready Japan still bows to nature. 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 11 key vocabulary words such as 城市、感觉、原因 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 the afternoon of July 28th, the southern Japanese island of Kyushu was violently shaken by a sudden, powerful earthquake.
The magnitude was first measured at 7.1, then revised to 6.8, but to the locals, that world-spinning feeling left no room for doubt.
The epicenter was only about twenty kilometers from Kumamoto, Kyushu's largest city, and the source was shallow, just ten kilometers down, which is why the shaking was so extreme.
After the quake, Japan's weather agency immediately issued a tsunami warning, cautioning that a one-meter wave might hit the coast.
Mercifully, the feared tsunami never truly came; the warning was lifted soon after, and people's racing hearts eased a little.
But the damage on land had already, unmistakably, happened.
In a small town called Kashima, the entire second floor of a large mall caved in, burying some people in the rubble.
As of now, the quake has killed at least two and injured more than ten, with the full toll still being tallied.
Out of fear of aftershocks, hundreds of thousands of residents were told to evacuate to somewhere safe.
Japan sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is one of the most earthquake-prone countries on earth.
From quake-resistant buildings to nationwide drills, they have taken "living with earthquakes" to an extreme.
And yet, no matter how well prepared, every great shudder of the earth reminds everyone: before nature, humans are always small.
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What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇最大的城市熊本 = the largest city, Kumamoto.
那种天旋地转的感觉 = that world-spinning feeling.
这也是晃动剧烈的原因 = this is why the shaking was so fierce.
到安全的地方避难 = shelter somewhere safe.
地震最频繁的国家之一 = one of the most quake-prone countries.
在大自然面前 = before nature.
准备得再充分 = no matter how well prepared.
一场大地震 = a big earthquake.
发布了海啸警报 = issued a tsunami warning.
出于对余震的担心 = out of fear of aftershocks.
被要求撤离家园 = told to evacuate their homes.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法被……
被 marks the passive: "was (done to)".
九州岛,被一场突如其来的大地震狠狠摇晃了一下。
出于对……的担心
出于对 X 的担心 = "out of worry about X".
出于对余震的担心,数十万居民被要求撤离。
即便……,依然……
即便 X,依然 Y = "even if X, still Y".
可即便准备得再充分,每一次大地晃动,依然在提醒所有人。
Proper Nouns
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