A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
诺兰把三千年前的希腊故事拍成电影，成了今年最火的一部。
Nolan's Odyssey Becomes Year's Top-Grossing Film
About this story
Nolan's Odyssey Becomes Year's Top-Grossing Film. 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 8 key vocabulary words such as 故事、电影、因为 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 at your level
原文Read the complete story in Chinese. Reveal pinyin and English only when you need them.
English transcript reference
Today we're talking about a very old story, and a very big movie.
This story is from many, many years ago, but people still love it today.
In the story, there's a man who wants very much to go home.
Long ago, he went to a faraway place to fight a war, for many years.
When the fighting was over, he just wanted to go home, back to his own country.
But the road home was far too hard.
He had to cross a vast, vast sea.
On the sea, there were many terrifying things.
One time, they saw a huge, huge man.
This giant had only one eye.
This one-eyed giant wanted to eat them.
They were terrified, but they were clever, and in the end they escaped.
And so one year, two years, ten years all went by.
In those ten years, he always longed to go home.
In his far-off home, his family kept waiting for him.
Everyone wondered: will he ever make it back?
This very old story is called The Odyssey.
Now, a very famous person has turned this old story into a big movie.
Many famous people are in this movie.
The moment it came out, huge numbers of people went to see it.
It's the hottest movie of the year.
Why do people still love such an old story so much?
Because everyone has a place in their heart they're thinking of — and that place is home.
And you?
When you're far from home, do you also long to go back?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇还有一个很大的电影 — and a very big movie.
因为每一个人，心里都想着一个地方 — because everyone has a place in mind.
大家到现在还很喜欢 — people still love it today.
这个大人，只有一个眼睛 — this giant had only one eye.
一个很老的故事 — a very old story.
他要走过很大很大的海 — he had to cross a vast sea.
他去很远的地方打仗 — he went far away to fight a war.
海上有很多很可怕的东西 — there were many terrifying things at sea.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法就……
"just / then". 打完了，他就想回家 — once it was over, he just wanted to go home.
打完了，他就想回家。
一直……
"continuously / all along". 他一直很想回家 — he longed to go home the whole time.
这十年里，他一直很想回家。
为什么……？
"why ...?" — a set-up question the episode then answers.
为什么这么老的故事，大家还是这么喜欢？
Proper nouns
专有名词Free account
Keep learning from this story
Create a free account to keep saved words and your preferred level together.
- Keep words with their story context
- Remember your preferred level
- Build your vocabulary over time