A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
Radio Caroline 电台员工好奇播出查尔斯国王"去世"录音，然后跑了，电台静默十六分钟。
King Charles Obituary Tape Causes Radio Dead Air
About this story
King Charles Obituary Tape Causes Radio Dead Air. HSK 1 Chinese listening practice.
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 9 key vocabulary words such as 知道、听、工作 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.
Read at your level
原文Read the complete story in Chinese. Reveal pinyin and English only when you need them.
English transcript reference
Today we are going to talk about something very bad.
This thing happened in Britain.
Britain has a king.
Who is a king?
A king is a person.
In Britain, a great many people know him.
This king is called Charles.
Right — now something new: a radio station.
What is a radio station?
You listen to music at home. Where is that music?
It is in the radio station.
In a radio station there are people talking, and there is music.
Britain has a lot of radio stations.
Now here is the thing.
People who work at a radio station all know one thing:
Everyone will go one day, and a king will too.
On the day the king goes, the station has to say so.
So the station's people made something in advance, and put it on a computer.
In that thing, there is someone talking.
Saying what?
Saying: the king has gone.
One day, a person was at work at the radio station.
He thought: this thing — what does it sound like?
He really wanted to have a listen.
He opened it.
He did not know: everyone else was listening to it too.
The person in the station said: the king has gone.
After that came Britain's music.
A lot of people at home heard it.
They were all upset, and very frightened.
The person working at the station knew he had done wrong.
He was very, very frightened.
He did not say anything. He left.
He went home.
In the station, there was nobody.
In the station, there was no sound at all.
Sixteen minutes, and no sound at all.
King Charles had not gone.
That day he was somewhere in Britain, perfectly well.
The station said: we are sorry.
Think about it: if you did something very wrong, what would you do?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇他不知道 = he did not know. The hinge of the whole story.
他很想听一听 = he really wanted to have a listen. 听一听 softens it.
在电台工作 = works at the radio station.
他想：这个东西，是什么声音？= he thought: what does this sound like?
他回家了 = he went home. 在家里 = at home.
Taught in the episode: a person a great many people in Britain know.
Taught in the episode: where the music you hear at home comes from.
他很怕，很怕 = he was very, very frightened.
知道错了 = knew he had done wrong.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法X 是什么？X，是……
Ask, then answer yourself. The plainest way to teach a new word.
国王是谁？国王，是一个人。
电台是什么？
……的时候
"when …". The clause comes first.
国王走了的时候，电台要说这个事情。
什么……都没有
"nothing at all". 都 after the question word makes it absolute.
电台里，什么声音都没有。
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
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