A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
魁北克的枫糖浆被兑了甘蔗糖，一半都不是枫的。农业部查过一次，说没问题。
Quebec Maple Syrup Was Cut With Cane Sugar. The Agriculture Ministry Tested It Once and Found Nothing.
About this story
Quebec Maple Syrup Was Cut With Cane Sugar. The Agriculture Ministry Tested It Once and Found Nothing. HSK 1 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 1 Chinese listening episode that runs about 1 minute. 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 6 key vocabulary words such as 水、买、吃 and walks through 2 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
In Quebec there is a kind of sugar.
This sugar is famous, and it is expensive.
This sugar comes out of trees.
Inside the tree there is water, and the water is sweet.
You use that water to make this sugar.
People in Quebec all love this sugar.
Now, there is something not good.
Some of this sugar sold in the shops is fake.
Not all of it is fake.
Half of it is fake.
Half comes out of a tree, and half does not.
The half that is not from a tree is a different sugar.
That different sugar is very cheap.
You bought the expensive one, and what you ate was the cheap one.
Someone asked before: is this the real thing?
At that time, nobody said anything was wrong.
Then the television people came.
He went to the shops and bought five.
All five were examined.
In all five, there was the other sugar.
Five, and not one of them was real.
Now the big shops that sold this sugar are in trouble too.
People are asking them: you sold it for years — did you not know?
Think about it:
The things you eat — do you know what is inside them?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇What comes out of the tree, and what the syrup is boiled down from.
你买了贵的，吃到的是便宜的。
The closing question: 你吃的东西，你知道里面是什么吗？
The real syrup comes 从树里来 — out of a tree.
The water inside the tree is 甜.
一半假 — half of it fake. The opposite is 真.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法A 从 B 里来
A comes out of B. 从 marks the source.
这种糖，从树里来。 — This sugar comes out of trees.
水从树里来。 — The water comes from inside the tree.
一半……，一半……
Half is one thing, half is another.
一半从树里来，一半不是。 — Half comes from a tree, half does not.
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
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