A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
Photo: Erik Drost · CC BY 2.0
LeBron James 走了：他离开 LA，去了一个新地方打 basketball
LeBron James Leaves LA for a New Team
About this story
LeBron James Leaves LA for a New Team. HSK 1 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 1 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 8 key vocabulary words such as 知道、喜欢、想 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
There's a man that so many people know.
His name is LeBron James.
He plays basketball, and he plays it very, very well.
So many people love watching him.
He's played basketball for many, many years.
Now, he's forty-one years old.
For many years, he played basketball in LA.
In LA, he played for eight years.
Many people thought he wouldn't leave, that he'd stay in LA.
But he left.
He went to a new place, called Philadelphia.
In Philadelphia, there's also a team that plays basketball.
Many people asked: why?
LeBron has a lot, a lot of money.
This time, the money he asked for was very little.
He didn't want a lot of money.
What he wanted was something else.
Look: two teams play basketball.
One team is good, one team is not.
The good team wins.
Long, long ago, LeBron and his team won, and he was very happy.
Now he's forty-one, and he wants to win once more.
LeBron says: I love basketball; I can play, and I want to play.
And you?
Do you like watching basketball?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇很多人都知道他 = many people know him.
很喜欢看他 = love watching him.
他想再赢一次 = he wants to win again.
他有很多钱 = he has a lot of money.
他很高兴 = he was very happy.
打 basketball = play basketball.
好的那个队赢了 = the good team wins.
好的队，赢了 = the good team wins.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法打得很好
'plays it very well' — 得 links a verb to how it's done.
他打 basketball，打得很好很好。
他会……吗
asking a yes/no question with 会 ('will he …?').
很多人想，他会一直在 LA。
想要的，是……
'what (he) wants is …' — highlights the real goal.
他想要的，是别的东西。
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