A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
Photo: Eckhard Pecher (Arcimboldo) · CC BY 2.5
刘翔在微博上问网友：单位让我选，拿钱走人，还是回来当教练？
Liu Xiang Lets Weibo Decide His Coaching Future
About this story
Liu Xiang Lets Weibo Decide His Coaching Future. HSK 2 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 2 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 6 key vocabulary words such as 奇怪、办公室、觉得 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.
Read at your level
原文Read the complete story in Chinese. Reveal pinyin and English only when you need them.
English transcript reference
Liu Xiang is the most famous athlete in China.
Twenty-two years ago, he came first abroad and won the championship.
That year he was twenty-one.
This year he is forty-three, and he stopped running long ago.
But he still has a job in Shanghai.
Last week, he asked a question online.
He said: I have two roads now, and I want you to pick one for me.
The first road: my work unit gives me a sum of money, I take it, and I do not come in to work again.
The second road: I keep coming in to work, become a coach, and teach young people to run.
The question is a strange one.
Why is it strange?
Because Liu Xiang does not need money.
Nike pays him every year — fourteen million a year.
Even if he never comes in to work, that money is still his.
So what he is asking about is probably not money.
Many people replied underneath.
Some said: be a coach, you understand running.
Some said: take the money and go, you have already given this country many years.
And some said: why are you asking us?
I think that last one is the question that hits the point.
Twenty-two years ago, he did not have to ask anyone.
He stood alone on the track, and when he finished running, he had his answer.
Today, he sits in an office.
Two roads: one is to take the money, one is to teach other people to run.
Two roads, and neither of them is running.
Think about it:
After a person stops running, is he still an athlete?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇这个问题很奇怪 — this question is strange.
他坐在办公室里 — he sits in an office. The opposite of the track, in this story.
我觉得最后这句话问到了点子上 — I think that last line hits the point.
你已经给了这个国家很多年 — you have already given this country many years.
当教练吧 — be a coach, then.
拿了冠军 — he took the title.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法帮我 + verb
"Help me do it" — used to hand a decision to someone else.
你们帮我选一条。 — You pick one for me.
不用 + verb
"Do not need to" — no obligation, as opposed to 不能 (cannot).
他不用问任何人。 — He did not have to ask anyone.
以后就不来上班了。 — After that he would not come in to work.
一……就……
As soon as A, then B. Here it runs across two clauses: finish running, and the answer is there.
跑完，就有答案。 — As soon as he finished running, he had the answer.
Proper nouns
专有名词Sources
来源Free account
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