A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
两百年来第一匹：野马在哈萨克斯坦的草原上自己生下了小马，而它们的父亲没能看到
The First in Two Hundred Years: Wild Horses Have Foaled on Their Own on the Kazakh Steppe — and Their Father Did Not Live to See It
About this story
Two Przewalski's horse foals were born on the Kazakh steppe in August 2026 — the first wild births there in two hundred years. The species, the last truly wild horse, went extinct in the wild by the mid-twentieth century and survived only in European zoos. Since 2024, twenty-two have been flown back. Chinese listening practice at four levels. HSK 2 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 2 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 新闻、完全、重要 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's story is about a foal.
This foal was born in August this year, in Kazakhstan.
A horse being born is not normally news.
But this one is.
Because in that place, the last time a wild horse was born in the wild was two hundred years ago.
First, what kind of horse this is.
The horses we usually see are all raised by people.
People feed them, people ride them.
Only this one kind is not.
It has never been kept by people.
It is the last truly wild horse in the world.
It looks a little different from other horses too.
Shorter in build, thicker in the neck, and its coat is yellowish.
Its mane stands straight up.
Two hundred years ago, the steppes of Central Asia were full of these horses.
The steppe is flat and very large.
Then there were more people, and more cattle and sheep.
People hunted them too.
Year by year there were fewer wild horses.
In the end, there was not one left in the wild.
The species did not vanish completely, because zoos still kept some.
Generation by generation, the numbers slowly came back a little.
But they were in enclosures.
Is a wild horse that is not in the wild still a wild horse?
Which is what led to what happened next.
Starting in 2024, people began sending wild horses back.
Back to Kazakhstan, back to the steppe their ancestors lived on.
That steppe has a name: the Golden Steppe.
Over three years, twenty-two of them were sent back in total.
They went by plane, from zoos in Europe.
On arrival they lived in a fenced area for a while, to let them adjust.
Then the gate was opened and they walked out on their own.
And after that, you wait.
People can only watch from a distance. They cannot manage it.
Can the horses find grass on their own?
Can they find water on their own?
Winter is very cold — can they survive it?
And most important of all: will they have foals?
On the twenty-second of August this year, the first foal was born.
On the thirty-first of August, the second was born too.
Both foals are well.
Their father is the same horse.
But that father has already died, and never saw them.
This is not finished yet.
People want to send back forty in all.
With forty, this group of horses can carry on by themselves, without people sending more.
Here is what I find interesting about it.
Sending the horses back — people did that.
But a foal being born, the horses did that themselves.
The first thing takes money and a plane.
The second thing, people cannot help with at all.
Think about it:
There is something that has been gone for two hundred years.
Would you think it could come back?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇HSK 3. 一匹马出生，本来不是新闻 — the episode explains why this one is.
HSK 4. 野马没有完全消失 — the qualifier the whole rescue rests on.
HSK 3. 最重要的是：它们会不会生小马？
HSK 6. 送回它们祖先住过的草原 — the place they had never personally seen.
HSK 3. 它是世界上最后一种野马 — one sentence that sets the stakes.
冬天很冷，能不能活下来？— the first question after the gate opens.
Defined by exclusion: every other horse you have seen was raised by people.
Horses take 匹, not 个 — the correct measure word, used throughout.
Flat, enormous, and the only place this species belongs.
HSK 4. 上一次有野马在野外出生，是两百年前。
一匹不在野外的野马，还是野马吗？— the question that started the project.
The only reason the species is still here — and the reason the question needed asking.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法本来不是……，可是……
Would not normally be X, but… Sets the ordinary expectation first so the exception lands.
一匹马出生，本来不是新闻。
可是这一匹是。
一年比一年 + adjective
More X year by year. Chinese repeats the noun on both sides of 比 to make a trend audible.
野马一年比一年少。
能不能……？
The A-not-A question. Stacking three of them in a row is how the episode conveys the years of waiting after release.
它们能不能自己找到草？
能不能自己找到水？
冬天很冷，能不能活下来？
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
来源Free account
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