A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
Photo: Dcrjsr · CC BY 4.0
六十四年的土拨鼠研究没了经费，教授用 OnlyFans 筹钱
Marmot Study Turns to OnlyFans After Funding Cut
About this story
Marmot Study Turns to OnlyFans After Funding Cut. HSK 2 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 2 Chinese listening episode that runs about 3 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 一样、一直、开始 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 a mountain in Colorado, in America, there is a small animal called a marmot.
It is not big — about the size of a cat — and it has a lot of fur.
It lives high up the mountain; when the weather turns cold it sleeps, and when it warms up it comes out and runs about.
On that mountain, there is a group of people who have been watching these marmots.
How long have they been watching?
Sixty-four years.
Sixty-four years — longer than a lot of people’s whole lives.
That is not a typo: from 1962, right through to today.
Over those sixty-four years they have written a lot of things down.
How many marmots are on the mountain this year?
What do they eat?
Which one had babies?
Which one did not come back this year?
One record a year, kept going, for sixty-four years.
There are very few studies like this anywhere in the world.
The person who runs it is called Dan Blumstein, a professor at UCLA.
But research costs money.
Going up the mountain costs money, staying there costs money, and people cost money.
That money originally came from the government.
This year, the government gave a lot less.
With less money, this thing they had done for sixty-four years was going to stop.
Sixty-four years, stopping right here.
Blumstein came up with a plan — a very strange plan.
He said: we have no money, but we do have marmots.
Over sixty-four years, we have taken a great many marmot photographs.
So they went to a website called OnlyFans.
That website was not made for animals.
What gets sold there is generally not animal photographs.
But they went anyway, and they wrote one line: uncensored marmots here.
Pay, and we will show you marmots.
So how much did they get?
About four thousand.
Four thousand cannot save a sixty-four-year study.
But because of this, a lot of people heard about the study for the first time.
Think about it: what do you have in your hands that other people might want to see?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇和一只猫一样大 = about the size of a cat.
一直在看这些土拨鼠 = have been watching these marmots all along.
从一九六二年开始 = starting from 1962.
Blumstein 想了一个办法 = Blumstein came up with a plan.
这些钱，本来是政府给的 = that money originally came from the government.
可是，研究要花钱 = but research costs money.
是 UCLA 的教授 = a professor at UCLA.
一种小动物，叫土拨鼠 = a small animal called a marmot.
一年记一次 = one record a year.
就要停了 = was going to stop.
这个网站本来不是给动物用的 = that website was not made for animals.
上面卖的，一般也不是动物的照片 = what gets sold there is generally not animal photos.
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法一……就……
"as soon as A, then B". Used three times here, twice about weather and once about money.
天气一冷就睡觉，天气一暖就出来跑。
钱一少，这个做了六十四年的事，就要停了。
不是……，也不是……，是……
Rules out the numbers the listener might have misheard, then lands the real one.
不是六年，也不是十六年，是六十四年。
本来
"originally / by rights". Marks how things were supposed to be.
这些钱，本来是政府给的。
这个网站本来不是给动物用的。
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
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