A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
2:18
一个男孩，一个女孩，和一间小店
A Boy, a Girl, and a Little Medicine Shop
HSK 1 Chinese listening practice. Meet a new C-drama, Overdo (这一秒过火): a little girl hides a starving runaway boy in her family's shop — a kindness that saves him but costs her everything.
This is an HSK 1 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 12 key vocabulary words such as 故事、帮、家 and walks through 4 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.
Today, we're telling a new story.
This story is from long, long ago.
Long ago, there was a little boy.
This boy didn't have a good home.
The people at home treated him very badly.
The boy didn't want to be home, so he ran away alone.
He had no home, no money, and nothing to eat.
One day, the boy was too exhausted.
All alone, he was in a bad way.
Just then, there was a little girl.
The girl saw the boy.
The girl's family had a little shop.
This shop was a shop for treating illness.
The girl was kind.
The girl helped the boy.
She gave the boy food.
She also let the boy stay in the shop.
In the shop, the boy slowly got better.
The boy was very happy.
He thought: this girl is so good to me.
When the boy was all alone, only the girl was good to him.
The boy thought: from now on, I'll be good to the girl too.
But later, something terrible happened.
Because the girl had helped the boy,
very bad people came to the girl's home.
Something terrible happened at the girl's home.
The people of the household were all gone.
Only the girl survived, all alone.
The girl was very sad.
But she remembered this day.
Many, many years went by.
The boy grew up.
The girl grew up too.
One day, they met again.
But the boy and girl of now
were very different from before.
The girl helping the boy was, at heart, a kindness.
But this kindness also cost the girl her whole family.
What will happen next?
Have you ever helped someone,
and then something you never expected happened?
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
HSK 2 (taught here). 说一个新的故事 = to tell a new story.
HSK 2 (taught here). 女孩帮了男孩 = the girl helped the boy.
HSK 1. 女孩的家 = the girl's home/family.
HSK 1. 没有钱 = has no money.
HSK 1. 男孩很高兴 = the boy was very happy.
HSK 2 (taught here). 很久以前 = long, long ago.
Beyond HSK 1. 有一个小男孩 = there was a little boy.
Beyond HSK 1. 有一个小女孩 = there was a little girl.
Beyond HSK 1. 一个小店 = a little shop; here a shop for treating illness.
Beyond HSK 1. 有很坏的人 = there were very bad people.
Beyond HSK 1. 只有女孩一个人活了下来 = only the girl survived.
Beyond HSK 1. 女孩很难过 = the girl was very sad.
* beyond level超纲词
对 + 人 + 好/不好
对 + person + 好/不好 = to treat someone well / badly.
家里的人对他很不好。
这个女孩对我很好。
因为 …
因为 X = because X; it gives the reason for what follows.
因为女孩帮了男孩，有很坏的人来了。
只有 … (only)
只有 = only; marks the sole person or thing.
只有女孩一个人，活了下来。
只有女孩对他好。
本来 …
本来 = originally / at heart — what something was before things changed.
本来是一个好心。
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