A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
「一个没有科学部门的科学馆，还能叫科学馆吗？」安大略科学馆裁掉三十人，整个科学部门一个不留
"How Can You Have a Science Centre With No Science Unit?" The Ontario Science Centre Cut Thirty Jobs and Eliminated Its Entire Science Department
About this story
On 10 September 2026 the Ontario Science Centre laid off 30 people including its entire science department, along with live exhibits, business development and security. The union says that is over 540 combined years of service. The building has been shut since 2024 over a roof report, and a $1-billion replacement is being built. 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 地方、玩、知道 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 place.
This place is in Canada.
This place is called a science centre.
What is a science centre?
A science centre is a big building.
Inside this building there are a great many things.
You can look, and you can also play.
You can find out why water is water.
A lot of people love coming here.
Mums and dads love coming too.
In this science centre, a lot of people work.
Some of them make things for everyone to look at.
Some of them stand at the front and talk.
They say: you can have a go at it yourself.
These people — we call them the science people.
A science centre has to have these people.
Two years ago, something happened.
The top of this building went bad.
Water was coming in from above.
So the science centre closed its doors.
After it closed, people could not come.
Everyone wondered: when can we come again?
Now it has been two years.
Last week, the science centre said something.
The science centre said: thirty people have to go.
Thirty people.
Who are these thirty people?
Some of them are the science people.
Not one of them, not two of them.
All the science people in the science centre have to go.
Not a single one is being kept.
From now on there will be no science people in the science centre.
A lot of people do not know why.
These people have a boss.
She said: a science centre with no science people.
She said: is that still a science centre?
Why do it this way?
The science centre says: we are building a new one.
The new science centre needs a great deal of money.
A billion.
A billion is a very great deal of money.
So at the old science centre, there will be fewer people.
Here is what I want to say.
The new building is not finished yet.
The old building has been closed for two years.
And now the people inside it have gone too.
Think about it:
You want to build a new version of something.
Before the new one is finished, what do you do with the old one?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇HSK 3. How the episode introduces an institution without naming an institution.
HSK 2. 你可以看，也可以玩 — the one line that explains what a science centre is.
HSK 2. 你可以知道：水为什么是水 — what you go there for.
HSK 1. 有很多人工作 — and thirty of them no longer do.
Used three times, and the episode never fully answers it.
HSK 2. 我们要三十个人走 — the plainest possible way to say it.
HSK 5. Said in almost every line, and the thing being removed.
科学馆 — defined in the episode as 一个大房子 with things you can play with.
The episode's closing contrast: the new building versus the people.
Two years ago, over the roof, and it has not reopened.
十亿 — the budget for the replacement, said as Chinese counts it.
The union head, who asked the question the whole story turns on.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法不是……，不是……，是……
Rules out the small readings first, then gives the real one. The episode uses it to make the scale of the cut land.
不是一个，不是两个。
是科学馆里的科学的人，都要走。
一个都不……
Not a single one. 都 with a negative is far stronger than plain 没有, and it is why this sentence stings.
一个都不要了。
在……以前，……
Before something happens. Chinese puts the whole clause before 以前 — and the closing question depends on it.
在新的做好以前，你怎么做老的？
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
来源Free account
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