A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
电台"出于好奇"播了国王的讣告，然后是十六分钟死寂
A Radio Worker Played the King's Obituary "Out of Curiosity", Then Ran. Sixteen Minutes of Silence Followed.
About this story
A Radio Worker Played the King's Obituary "Out of Curiosity", Then Ran. Sixteen Minutes of Silence Followed. 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 10 key vocabulary words such as 尴尬、好奇、录音 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, something that happened in Britain.
It is not big news, but it may be the most embarrassing thing this year.
First, two words to make clear.
The first word is king.
Britain has a king, and he is called King Charles.
In Britain, almost everyone knows him.
The second word is radio station.
A radio station is the thing you listen to music and people talking on, at home.
Britain has a very old radio station called Radio Caroline.
Right — now the story.
Every radio station has one preparation ready.
They record a passage in advance and put it on a computer.
That recording is prepared for one day: the day the king goes.
Because on that day, programming has to stop immediately and this passage has to play.
Normally, nobody listens to that recording.
It just sits on the computer, waiting.
That day, someone at Radio Caroline was at work.
He saw that recording on the computer.
He thought: what does this recording sound like?
He was very curious.
So he opened it.
But he forgot one thing: this station was on air.
And so everyone in Britain listening to that station heard one sentence.
The sentence said: programming is stopping for now, because King Charles has gone.
After that came Britain's national anthem.
A lot of people heard that sentence at home.
They were extremely upset, and extremely shocked.
The man at work only then understood what he had done.
He was frightened.
He did not speak, he did not switch it off — he ran straight out of the building.
There was nobody left in the station.
So something even stranger happened next.
For sixteen minutes there was no sound at all in that station.
No music, nobody speaking — complete blankness.
The last thing to say is: King Charles had not gone.
That day he and the Queen were in the north of Britain, perfectly fine.
Afterwards, Ofcom, which oversees British radio, said this station had done wrong and had not followed the rules.
The man was reprimanded, and the station apologised.
And they did one more thing: they deleted that recording from the computer.
Think about it: have you ever done something out of curiosity that you later regretted?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇提前录好 = recorded in advance.
都有一个准备 = each has one preparation ready.
他忘了一个事情 = he forgot one thing.
非常吃惊 = extremely shocked.
电台也道歉了 = the station apologised too.
后来很后悔的事情 = something you later regretted.
最尴尬的一个事情 = the most embarrassing thing.
他很好奇 = he was very curious. The reason the whole thing happened.
这段录音 = this recording. 段 is its measure word.
这个电台，正在播出 = this station was on air.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法因为……
"because …". In spoken Chinese the reason often follows the result.
因为那一天，节目要马上停。
因为 King Charles 走了。
没有……，也没有……
Stacks up what someone failed to do, so the omission lands.
他没有说话，也没有关掉，他直接，跑出了大楼。
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
来源Free account
Keep learning from this story
Create a free account to keep saved words and your preferred level together.
- Keep words with their story context
- Remember your preferred level
- Build your vocabulary over time