A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
北爱尔兰卖酒太难，德国超市利德尔干脆在店里开了一家酒吧
Selling Alcohol Is So Hard in Northern Ireland That Lidl Opened a Pub Inside Its Supermarket
About this story
Northern Ireland's century-old liquor licensing makes it almost impossible for a supermarket to sell alcohol, so Lidl got a pub licence instead and opened the Middle Ale inside its new Belfast store — trolley-shaped seats, own-brand crisps, bouncers and a first-night fight included. The stunt has reopened the debate over relaxing the law. Chinese listening practice at four levels. 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 12 key vocabulary words such as 喝、买、东西 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
Do you go to the supermarket to buy things?
There are lots of things in a supermarket.
There are things to eat, things to drink, and clothes too.
In a supermarket, can you have a drink?
In a lot of supermarkets, you can't.
Now there's a supermarket with a pub inside it.
You can buy things in the supermarket, and you can also sit down for a drink.
This supermarket is in Northern Ireland.
In Northern Ireland, selling alcohol is hard.
If you want to sell alcohol, you need a licence to sell it.
Licences to sell alcohol are few, and they're expensive.
This supermarket wanted to sell alcohol, but it didn't have a licence.
So what could it do?
The supermarket thought: we won't sell alcohol, we'll open a pub.
The supermarket got a licence to open a pub.
So now the supermarket has a pub.
This pub is very interesting.
The chairs in the pub look a lot like the supermarket's shopping trolleys.
The food in the pub all comes from the supermarket.
Lots of people come to this pub.
Some people even fly here.
A woman said: if I forget to buy something, I come back to the supermarket and have another drink.
Sometimes there are too many people in the pub.
The supermarket hired a few people to watch the drinkers.
On the first night, some people got into a fight in the pub.
The police came too.
Now lots of people in Northern Ireland are asking: could selling alcohol be a bit easier?
If your supermarket had a pub, would you go?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇HSK 1. 坐下来喝一杯 = sit down for a drink.
HSK 1. 你去超市买东西吗？
HSK 1. 超市里有很多东西.
HSK 1. 酒吧里的椅子，很像超市里的小车.
HSK 1. 有的人，坐飞机来.
HSK 1. 有吃的，有喝的，也有衣服.
超 (super) + 市 (market).
酒 (alcohol) + 吧 (bar). 超市里有一个酒吧.
The opposite of 买 (to buy) — same sound, different tone.
卖酒的许可 = a licence to sell alcohol.
卖酒的许可很少，也很贵.
警察也来了.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法可以 A，也可以 B
You can do A, and you can also do B.
你可以在超市里买东西，也可以坐下来喝一杯。
能不能 + verb/adjective？
A yes-no question made by putting 能 and 不能 together.
现在，北爱尔兰很多人说：卖酒能不能容易一点？
有的人……
Some people… — picks out part of a group.
有的人，坐飞机来。
Proper Nouns
专有名词Free account
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