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 Asked Weibo to Choose for Him: Take the Buyout and Leave the System, or Come Back as a Coach.
About this story
Liu Xiang Asked Weibo to Choose for Him: Take the Buyout and Leave the System, or Come Back as a Coach. HSK 1 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 1 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 6 key vocabulary words such as 跑、快、钱 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
Liu Xiang is Chinese.
He ran very, very fast.
Twenty-two years ago, he came first.
Everyone in China knows him.
Today, he is forty-three.
He does not run anymore.
He does not run anymore; he goes to work.
Last week, he had a question.
His question was: I have two roads. Which one do I choose?
The first road: I stop going to work.
The second road: I go to work, I become a coach, and I teach other people to run.
Two roads. Which one does he choose?
Does Liu Xiang have money?
Yes, he has a lot of money.
Nike gives him fourteen million a year.
If he goes to work, he has money.
If he does not go to work, he still has money.
His question is not about money.
What is his question, then?
He does not run anymore.
He does not run anymore — is he still an athlete?
Think about it:
When 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The verb the whole episode turns on: 他不跑了 — he does not run anymore.
他跑得很快 — he runs very fast. 得 links the verb to how it is done.
他的问题，不是钱 — his question is not about money.
他四十三岁了 — he is forty-three now.
我当教练 — I become a coach. 教 is "teach", 练 is "train".
他还是运动员吗？ — Is he still an athlete? The question of the episode.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法verb + 得 + adjective
Describes how an action is performed. The 得 is required.
他跑得很快。 — He runs very fast.
……了 (change of state)
The sentence-final 了 marks that something has become different from before.
他不跑了。 — He does not run anymore.
他四十三岁了。 — He is forty-three now.
还是……吗？
"Is he still ...?" — asks whether a previous state still holds.
他还是运动员吗？ — Is he still an athlete?
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
来源Free account
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