A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels

美国政府终于打开了UFO档案:里面有什么?
US Government Opens the UFO Files on war.gov — Photos, Videos, and Apollo 17 Moon Lights
About this story
The US government opens 162 UFO files on war.gov — photos, videos, and strange Apollo 17 lights on the moon. HSK 2 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 2 Chinese listening episode that runs about 7 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 18 key vocabulary words such as 政府、网站、文件 and walks through 7 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
Recently, something very interesting happened in the US.
Yesterday, May 8, the US government opened a big box.
This "box" is a website.
The website has many files — 162 in total.
Inside there are photos, videos, and text.
All about one thing.
This thing is called "UFO."
U-F-O is English, usually translated in Chinese as "unidentified flying object."
It means: flying in the sky, but no one knows what it is.
Why don't they know?
Not a plane, not a bird, not anything else we recognize.
Just a "we don't know what it is" thing.
This kind of thing has actually been seen for a very long time.
Some people see it in their own backyard.
Some people see it while driving.
Some people see it while flying on a plane.
Police see it.
Soldiers see it.
Even people who've been to the moon have seen it.
So the US government decided: "Let's show these things to everyone."
They made a website called war.gov/ufo.
Anyone can go see it, free.
Yesterday was the first batch — more is coming.
Let me tell you a few of the most interesting cases first.
The first one happened in 2023.
The location was in several western US states.
There were seven police officers.
They were all federal officers.
They take their work seriously.
They're not the kind of people who lie.
Over those two days, they all saw something.
There were several orange orbs in the sky.
And those orbs would "give birth" to smaller orbs.
That is to say: one big orange orb suddenly became one big orb plus several small ones.
The small ones were red.
There was also a big orb that hung in the sky and didn't move.
And something like a "kite."
What's a kite?
A kite is a kind of toy — children fly it in the sky on a string.
But this "kite" had no one flying it; it was up there by itself.
All seven officers saw it; they all drew it and all wrote reports.
The reports said: "What we saw doesn't look like an ordinary thing — we can't tell what it is."
The US government's UFO office said: among all the stories they hold, this one is one of the most interesting.
Why?
Because there were many witnesses, and because they take their work seriously.
Because what they saw really doesn't look like anything we recognize.
The second case is from 2025.
Also in the US.
There was a plane and a helicopter.
They were flying together.
They were using a special kind of camera.
This camera can see heat.
They saw an extremely hot orb.
That orb was moving very fast.
Then, "boom," it split into two.
Then it split into four or five.
All orange, with white or yellow centers.
The pilots were all stunned, and none of them knew what it was.
The third case is the most famous.
Over fifty years ago, the US sent people to the moon.
That was a very big event.
The whole world was watching.
People rode rockets, flying to the moon.
They walked on the moon.
And they looked at the sky too.
Did you know?
They also saw some strange things.
This batch of files includes what they said at the time.
For instance, the crew of "Apollo 17" said: "Wow, there are a whole bunch of bright ones outside my window."
They also said: "Once our eyes adjusted to the dark, we saw lots of flashes — some even rotating."
They said: "I think these aren't optical errors — there's really something there."
Sounds incredible.
Now you might ask: are these aliens?
Let me tell you the US government's reply — it's interesting.
They said: "We don't know either."
They said: "We looked, we investigated, we spent a lot of time."
"But we still don't know what these are."
"And we have no evidence."
No evidence that they're aliens, and no evidence that they aren't.
So these things are now called "unsolved mysteries."
Unsolved, meaning not yet solved.
We're still waiting for answers.
Why is this time special?
Because this batch is being released by the government itself.
Not folklore, not fake images online — real government documents.
From pilots, police, military, and astronauts.
Very important.
But remember: even if the government releases them, that doesn't mean the answers are out.
As with this time, the answer is: "We don't know either."
Sounds a little disappointing, right?
But actually it's also very honest.
Our world is big, the sky is big, and there are still lots of things we don't know.
This batch also tells us one thing: even the most powerful country has plenty of "I don't know."
So what should ordinary people do?
I think: don't be too scared, and don't get too excited.
If you're interested, you can take a look.
If you're not interested, listen to a different story.
But one thing is true — there are many things in our sky we still don't recognize.
Maybe one day we'll know.
When that day comes, we'll talk about it.
For today, we just watch.
Maybe the story of that day will be even more interesting than we imagine.
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇HSK 4. 美国政府 = the US government. The actor that released the files.
HSK 4. 网 (web) + 站 (station). war.gov/ufo is the new 网站.
HSK 4. 162 份文件 = 162 files (measure word 份).
HSK 3. 拍照片 = take a photo.
HSK 5. 视 (visual) + 频 (frequency). 视频 has displaced 录像 in modern usage.
HSK 4. 翻 (turn) + 译 (interpret). UFO 翻译成中文 = UFO is translated as ...
HSK 4. 工作很认真 = takes their work seriously. The episode emphasizes the witnesses are 认真.
HSK 4. 写报告 = write a report. Both verb and noun.
HSK 1. 我们认识的东西 = things we recognize. Used to say 'familiar to us'.
HSK 5. 美国政府的答复 = the US government's reply. Formal alternative to 回答.
Beyond. English acronym, glossed inline.
Specialist (4-character compound). 不明 (unknown) + 飞行 (flying) + 物 (object).
HSK 6. 宇 (universe) + 航 (navigate) + 员 (member). Featured in the Apollo angle.
Idiom-like. 未 (not) + 解 (solve) + 之 + 谜 (riddle). The Pentagon's official label for these cases.
HSK 5. 没有证据 = no evidence. Central to the 'we don't know' framing.
Specialist. 热 (heat) + 成像 (imaging). The technology that recorded the 'super hot orb'.
HSK 6. 直 (straight) + 升 (rise) + 机 (machine). Featured in the 2025 case.
Beyond. 外 (outside) + 星 (star) + 人 (person). The big question.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法'That is to say.' Used to restate or clarify in expository register.
也就是说:一个大的橘色球,忽然变成了一个大的,加几个小的。
也就是说:飞在天上,但是大家不知道是什么。
'Not A, not B, not C.' Used to rule out options before introducing the unknown.
不是飞机,不是鸟,不是别的我们认识的东西。
不是民间偷偷传的,不是网上的假图,是真的政府文件。
Proper Nouns
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