A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
八胜两负、防御率一点七九，大谷翔平今年不再上场投球：教练说他爱当双向球员，但现在这么做说不通
Ohtani Stops Pitching for Rest of 2026
About this story
On 7 September 2026 Shohei Ohtani said he most likely will not pitch again this season — 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA, and hitting .277 with 30 home runs. A biceps flare-up, a knee, a neck. His manager: he loves being a two-way player, but right now it does not make sense. Chinese listening practice at four levels. HSK 1 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 1 Chinese listening episode that runs about 3 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 12 key vocabulary words such as 打、给、工作 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
Today we are talking about a person.
This person is very famous.
He is in America, but he is not American.
He is Japanese.
His job is playing ball.
In America, a lot of people love watching this game.
One person stands here, and he has to get the ball to that person.
That person is holding a big thing, and he has to hit the ball.
One person delivers the ball, one person hits the ball.
These are two jobs.
One person does one of them.
If you deliver the ball, you do not hit.
If you hit the ball, you do not deliver.
That is how it is for everybody.
For a hundred years, that is how it has been for everybody.
But this Japanese man does both.
He delivers the ball, and he also hits the ball.
He delivers the ball very well.
He hits the ball very well too.
So everybody loves him.
A lot of people come to watch him.
They are not coming to watch the game.
They are coming to watch this one person.
This year he has been very good.
When he delivers the ball, he has eight good ones and two bad ones.
When he hits the ball, he has hit thirty big ones.
Thirty big ones is a lot.
But this July, something happened.
His arm went bad.
Then this part of him went bad too.
Then that part of him went bad too.
After July, he stopped delivering the ball.
He still hits, but he does not deliver.
Everyone wondered: when is he coming back to deliver?
September came.
He spoke.
He said: this year, I will not deliver the ball.
Not for a day, not for two days.
Not for the rest of this year.
His boss spoke too.
The boss said: he loves delivering the ball.
The boss said: he loves doing both.
The boss said: but right now, doing that is not right.
Listen — these two people are saying the same thing.
They are saying: not doing it.
They did not say: not next year either.
Next year is for next year.
This year, do one of them first.
And what did the man himself say?
He said: this is not good.
But he also said: I want to remember this year.
He said: later on, I will use this year.
Here is what I want to say.
This person can do two jobs.
In a hundred years, nobody else could.
But this year, he has to do one too.
One person doing two jobs is a fine thing.
But there is only one body.
Think about it:
You have two things, and you want to do both.
But you only have one body.
Which one do you do first?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇HSK 1. Half the episode: 他打球，他也给球。
HSK 2. How the episode says "pitch" using a word a beginner already owns.
HSK 1. 这是两个工作 — the framing that makes the whole story legible.
HSK 2. 可是身体是一个 — the sentence the closing question turns on.
HSK 1. Used for the fans and, in the manager's words, for the thing being given up.
HSK 3. 我要记住今年 — how the episode renders "use this as an experience".
The one object everything in the episode happens to.
他在美国，可是他不是美国人 — the setup line before the name of the country.
Established before anything else, so the stakes are set from line two.
八次好，两次不好 — how a win-loss record is said in floor vocabulary.
HSK 2. Carries every causal step in an episode with no complex connectors.
HSK 3. 七月以后，他就不给球了 — the date the whole story hinges on.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法你 + verb，你就不 + verb
If you do one, you do not do the other. Chinese states a rule by putting two bare clauses next to each other, with no "if" at all.
你给球，你就不打球。
你打球，你就不给球。
不是……，不是……，是……
Rules out the small readings before giving the real one. Here it makes the scale of the decision land: not a day, not two days, the whole year.
不是一天，不是两天。
是今年都不给了。
……，也……
也 goes before the verb, never at the end as English "too" does. The episode uses it for everything he does on both sides.
他给球，他也打球。
他的头儿也说话了。
Proper nouns
专有名词Sources
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