A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
2:29
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 3-4 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 8 key vocabulary words such as 认识、一定、危险 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.
These past few days, many people who love climbing have felt heavy-hearted.
Because a mountaineer who was almost a legend is gone.
His name was Nims Purja, a Nepali, who used to be a soldier.
Many people may not have heard his name, but they've surely heard of what he did.
When it comes to climbing, Nims was almost like a god.
There are fourteen highest mountains in the world, all above 8,000 meters.
Every one of these fourteen mountains is extremely dangerous.
For an ordinary person, climbing even one in a lifetime is already remarkable.
In the past, even the greatest climbers needed six or seven years — even a lifetime — to finish all fourteen.
But Nims took only about six months to climb them all.
About six months, to finish fourteen snow mountains 8,000 meters high.
In the past, that was something you wouldn't even dare to imagine.
So he has a very famous line: nothing is impossible.
Later, Netflix even made a film about him, and the whole world came to know this Nepali climber.
This year, Nims went back up the mountains.
This time he wanted something harder: to climb these fourteen again, and this time without oxygen.
Oxygen is the air we breathe.
Where the mountain is very high, there's little air; without oxygen, many people simply can't climb up.
On July 30th, he and a few teammates were climbing a high mountain in Pakistan.
This mountain is called Broad Peak, over 8,000 meters high.
But halfway up, an avalanche suddenly struck the mountain.
An avalanche is when a huge amount of snow on the mountain slides down all at once, fast and heavy.
A great sheet of snow suddenly buried Nims and about ten other climbers.
By the time the people below knew, a long time had passed — too late.
Later some went up to search, for a very long time, but Nims never came back again.
The man who said “nothing is impossible” stayed, in the end, on the snow mountain he loved most.
Many people say this is exactly what climbing is: it gives you the greatest joy, and sometimes, it also takes your life.
What do you think?
For the thing you love most in your heart, to run this much risk — is it, in the end, worth it?
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
HSK1. 全世界都认识了这个尼泊尔登山家 — the whole world came to know this climber.
HSK3. 一定听过他做的事 — surely heard of what he did.
每一座都非常危险 — every one is extremely dangerous.
HSK1. 很多人可能没听过他的名字 — many may not have heard his name.
登山 (climb mountains) + 家 (expert). A professional climber.
Glossed in-episode: 山上很多很多的雪，一下子往下滑 — a mass of snow sliding down all at once.
Glossed in-episode: 氧气，就是我们呼吸的空气 — oxygen is the air we breathe.
一个像传奇一样的登山家 — a mountaineer who was almost a legend.
* beyond level超纲词
就算……也……
"even if ... still ...", concedes an extreme case.
就算是最厉害的登山家，爬完这十四座，也要六七年。
所谓X，就是……
"so-called X is just ..." — a natural way to define a term after using it.
雪崩，就是山上很多很多的雪，一下子往下滑。
连…都… / 想都不敢想
"wouldn’t even dare to ..." — intensifies by pushing to the extreme.
这在以前，是想都不敢想的事。
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