3:11
一个有名的人，做错了一件事
A Famous Man Made a Mistake
This is an HSK 1 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 电影、看、想 and walks through 4 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.
Movie, film. The whole episode is about one 电影 — 《监狱来的妈妈》— and why it will not be shown.
To watch, to look at. The narrator 看 the news; the public 看 the movie's description and got angry; Wang Han didn't 看 the film carefully.
To think. '我看了这个新闻，我想……' — the narrator's reflection at the end uses 想.
To do, to make. 做错事 = to do something wrong; 做电影 = to make a movie. The episode's core question uses it.
Money. Wang Han's defense: '我没有给钱' — I didn't put money in. Whether he paid or not became part of the debate.
China — where this story takes place. 'Many 中国 people were angry.'
News. The narrator's framing word: '今天我给你说一个新闻.'
Famous, well-known. Wang Han is described as a 有名 TV personality. Built from 有 (to have) + 名 (name) — 'to have a name.'
Prison. The film's title is 《监狱来的妈妈》 — 'the mother who came from prison.' Zhao Xiaohong spent 15 years in 监狱.
To kill. The fact at the center of the whole story: Zhao Xiaohong 杀了 her husband.
A court of law. The episode contrasts what the 电影 says with what the 法院 (the court papers) actually recorded.
To apologize. On May 20, Wang Han 道歉 — he apologized publicly for being a producer of this film.
* beyond level超纲词
S + 把 + O + Verb
The 把 construction moves the object before the verb to emphasize what is done to it. 电影把她的事做成了一个电影 — the director took her story and made it into a movie. Very common once you describe doing something TO an object.
导演把她的事做成了一个电影。
电影把真的事变成了不真的电影。
也就是说 + clause
Used to restate something in clearer terms. The episode uses it to spell out the gap: '也就是说：电影里的妈妈，跟真的妈妈，不一样。'
也就是说：电影里的'妈妈'，跟真的'妈妈'，不一样。
可是 + clause (but)
可是 marks a contrast — the conversational 'but.' The episode's key pivot: the movie says one thing, 可是 the court papers say another.
可是法院的纸上不是这样写的。
他道歉了。可是有人说：道歉就够吗？
做错事
做 (do) + 错 (wrong) + 事 (thing). A fixed everyday phrase. The closing reflection turns on it: 每一个人都做过错事 — everyone has done something wrong.
每一个人都做过错事。
做错了大事的人，可以做电影吗？