A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
诺兰将三千年前的希腊史诗《奥德赛》拍成电影，成为今年最火爆的大片。
Nolan's Odyssey Becomes Year's Top-Grossing Film
About this story
Nolan's Odyssey Becomes Year's Top-Grossing Film. HSK 4 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 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 10 key vocabulary words such as 军人、国家、聪明 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
This summer, the hottest movie in theaters worldwide tells a 3,000-year-old story.
The story is called The Odyssey (in Chinese, usually 《奥德赛》).
Its hero is a soldier who, after a war, wants to go home; his name is Odysseus.
Long ago, he left his own country to fight a great war.
When the war ended, he wanted just one thing: to go home, back to his wife and son.
But heaven seemed unwilling to let him return.
The way home was all sea, with terrifying dangers of every kind.
The most famous part is when they meet a giant with only one eye.
This giant was enormous and immensely strong, and wanted to eat them one by one.
In the end, Odysseus used his wits to find a way to escape the giant's grip.
And so he wandered the sea for a full ten years before finally reaching home.
And at home, his wife kept waiting for him, for many, many years.
The reason the story is famous is that what it's really about is something everyone understands: wanting to go home.
Now, a very famous director has turned this 3,000-year-old story into a big movie.
The director is Christopher Nolan; his last film won many Oscars.
This time, he cast many famous actors and shot it with a very special, very large kind of camera.
The moment it opened, it broke his own record — the best opening of all his films.
At first many wondered: a 3,000-year-old story, do people today still want to watch it?
The result: the theaters were packed.
It seems that no matter how many years pass, people still want a story like this: someone who endures every hardship, all to get home.
What do you think?
To you, what, in the end, is “home”?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇他离开自己的国家 — he left his own country.
Odysseus 用他的聪明 — Odysseus used his cleverness.
想办法从巨人手里跑出来 — found a way to escape the giant.
他只想做一件事：回家 — he wanted just one thing: to go home.
拍成了一部大电影 — turned into a big movie.
一个打完仗、想回家的军人 — a soldier who wants to go home after the war.
一个只有一只眼睛的巨人 — a giant with only one eye.
一个非常有名的导演 — a very famous director (Nolan).
他上一部电影，拿了很多个奥斯卡大奖.
他找了很多有名的演员 — he cast many famous actors.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法之所以……，是因为……
"the reason X is, is because Y" — a natural spoken explanation frame.
这个故事之所以有名，是因为它说的，其实是每个人心里都懂的一件事。
不管……，还是……
"no matter ..., still ...".
不管过了多少年，人们还是想听这样一个故事。
把 + O + V成……
"turn O into ...". 把这个故事拍成了电影 — turned the story into a movie.
把这个三千年前的故事，拍成了一部大电影。
Proper nouns
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