A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
半夜四点房子着火，他开走了来救他的消防车，还碾过了正在给他家浇水的水带。
Man Steals Fire Truck at His Own House Fire
About this story
Man Steals Fire Truck at His Own House Fire. 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 水、正在、重要 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
In New Hampshire, in America, there is a small place called Dalton.
Last Tuesday, at four in the morning, a house here caught fire.
The owner of the house was a thirty-year-old man.
Fire trucks came, to save his house.
Fighting a fire needs water.
The water is not on the truck. The water has to travel a long, long way.
The firefighters laid hoses on the ground, one length at a time.
The hoses ran from the water all the way to the house, and the line cannot break anywhere.
The water travels inside the hoses, all the way to the fire.
So that night, on the ground, there were many hoses.
Every single one mattered.
Inside every single one was the water that was saving his house.
What happened next is hard to understand.
This man got into a fire truck.
He drove the truck away.
At four in the morning, he drove away a fire truck that had come to save his home.
He drove east, and he drove fast.
As he drove, he hit another fire truck.
That truck was pouring water onto his own house fire.
He also drove over the hoses on the ground, crushing them, one after another.
The water inside those hoses was saving his own house.
And three firefighters were nearly hit by him.
They had to run clear, run to the side of the road.
Later, that fire truck ended up in the yard of another Dalton house, and was wrecked.
He got out and walked to that family’s door.
At the door, he started taking things.
When the police arrived, he was still at the door.
The police arrested him right there.
Now he faces many charges.
Stealing a truck, hitting a truck, hitting people, and taking things at someone else’s door.
Put it all together and the shape is clear.
The truck that came to save his house, he drove away.
The water that was saving his house, he crushed under his wheels, one hose after another.
Think about it:
Why would a person drive away the truck that came to save him?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇救火要用水 — fighting a fire takes water.
正在救他房子的水 — the water that is in the middle of saving his house.
每一根，都很重要 — every single one of them matters.
形状很清楚 — the shape of it is clear.
Literally "extinguish-guard vehicle". 消防员 is the firefighter.
水在管子里 — the water is in the hoses.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法一……一……地 + verb
One at a time. The repeated measure word plus 地 makes an adverb.
消防员把管子放在地上，一根一根地放。 — The firefighters laid the hoses down one length at a time.
差一点被……
"Almost got ..." — 差一点 plus the passive 被. Something bad nearly happened.
三个消防员，差一点被他撞到。 — Three firefighters were nearly hit by him.
正在 + verb + 的 + noun
A relative clause with 正在: the noun that is currently doing something.
正在救他房子的水 — the water that is currently saving his house.
Proper nouns
专有名词Sources
来源Free account
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