A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels

Nims 爬遍世界最高的 14 座山,最后倒在一场雪崩里
Nims Purja Climbed the World's 14 Highest Peaks. An Avalanche Just Killed Him.
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 9 key vocabulary words such as 因为、但是、最 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 the complete story in Chinese. Reveal pinyin and English only when you need them.
Today we're talking about a person; his name is Nims.
Nims loved climbing mountains — very, very much.
Many people dislike climbing high mountains, because it's both tiring and dangerous.
The highest mountains are all far away, and all extremely high.
These mountains are so high that they're covered in snow.
Climbing these mountains is very hard, and very dangerous.
For many years, most people never go to climb these highest mountains.
But Nims wanted to climb the fourteen highest mountains.
These fourteen are the highest mountains; every single one is extremely high.
Others need many, many years to climb these fourteen.
But Nims climbed these fourteen mountains in six months.
Six months — and he'd climbed the fourteen highest mountains.
Many people said: this is impossible!
No one can do it!
But Nims did it.
So many, many people came to know his name.
Everyone loved him, and they even made a film about him.
Nims liked to say: nothing is impossible.
Now, Nims went climbing again.
This time, he wanted to do something very, very hard.
He wanted to climb these highest mountains one more time.
In July, he reached a very high mountain and started climbing up.
But right at that moment, something went wrong on the mountain.
A huge amount of snow on the mountain came down all together.
So much snow came down in an instant.
Nims and his friends were all under the snow.
By the time others found out, it was already too late.
Many people went up to search for them, for a long time.
But Nims did not come back.
That man who loved climbing the most stayed, just like that, in the mountains.
Nims often said: nothing is impossible.
But this time, the highest mountain didn't let him come back.
And you?
Would you want to climb a very, very high mountain?
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
HSK2 cause connector. 因为爬高山又累又危险 — because climbing high mountains is tiring and dangerous.
HSK2 contrast. 但是 Nims 想爬最高的十四座山.
HSK2 superlative marker. 最高的山 — the highest mountains.
HSK1. 很多人都知道了他的名字 — many people came to know his name.
HSK1. 给他做了一个电影 — they made a film about him (Netflix’s 14 Peaks).
山太高了,上面都是雪 — the mountains are so high they are covered in snow.
The key verb of the episode: 爬山 = to climb mountains.
爬高山又累又危险 — climbing high mountains is tiring and dangerous.
The central place of the whole story.
* beyond level超纲词
又……又……
"both ... and ...", stacking two qualities.
爬高山又累又危险。
因为……
gives the reason; the result clause can follow or precede.
因为爬高山又累又危险。
但是……
marks a contrast with what came before.
但是 Nims 想爬最高的十四座山。
Free account
Create a free account to keep saved words and your preferred level together.