A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
陪审员选她当陪审长，理由是「你上过法学院」：可她只是在《律政俏佳人》里演过律师，连大学都没念完
A Jury Made Her Their Foreman Because "You Went to Law School" — She Had Only Played a Lawyer in Legally Blonde, and Never Finished College
About this story
Reese Witherspoon told The Graham Norton Show that about seven years after Legally Blonde she did two weeks of jury duty in Beverly Hills on a dog-bite case, and her fellow jurors elected her foreman because they thought she had gone to law school. She told them she had not, and had not finished college. 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 演员、意外、发现 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 an American actress.
She told it herself.
She is very famous, and she has been in a lot of films.
More than twenty years ago, she was in one film.
In that film she played a young woman studying law.
At the start, everyone thinks she only knows how to dress up and cannot study.
But she gets into a very good school.
Later she becomes a lawyer, and she wins a case.
That film was a hit.
More than twenty years on, a lot of people are still watching it.
But a film is a film.
She herself has never studied law.
As she puts it: I did not even finish college.
All right, now for what happened.
In America, ordinary people are sometimes called to court.
Called to do what?
To serve on a jury.
What does a juror do?
Put simply: the judge handles the law, the jury handles the facts.
Whether a thing actually happened is for them to decide.
Anyone can be called, famous people included.
Seven years after the film came out, she was called.
It was not a big case — a dog bite case.
She was there for two weeks.
On the first day, the jurors had to choose one of themselves.
That person sits at the front, runs the discussion, and speaks for everyone at the end.
They all looked around and chose her.
She was taken aback.
She asked: why me?
They said: because you went to law school.
She said: I did not go to law school.
She said: really, I did not.
She said: I did not even finish college.
But they had already decided.
As they saw it, she had been a lawyer in a film, so she knew the law.
When she told this story later, she said a few things.
She said: I only played a lawyer in one film.
She said: and they really did sit me at the front.
She said: that was when I realised how many people do not understand how the law works.
I find this funny, and also worth a thought.
The funny part is: she acted it, so she was taken to know it.
The part worth a thought is: it was a real case.
One person's business was handed to those few people.
And when they picked their leader, what they used was a film.
Think about it:
Have you ever assumed someone knows their subject because of where you saw them?
How did you know they knew?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇The profession at the centre of the mix-up.
HSK 4. 她很意外 — she asked the question nobody else thought to.
HSK 3. 那时候我才发现 — what she took away from the two weeks.
HSK 4. 普通人有时候会被叫去法院 — jury duty falls on anybody.
HSK 4. 最后代表大家说话 — what the foreman actually does.
HSK 4. 一件事到底有没有发生 — the jury's one job, stated plainly.
The subject she was assumed to have studied.
HSK 5. 她在电影里当过律师，那她就懂法律 — the whole faulty inference.
Where ordinary people get called, famous ones included.
法官管法律，陪审员管事情 — the division that makes the system work.
Explained from scratch before the story needs it.
一个狗咬人的案子 — small, ordinary, and completely real.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法被 + verb
The passive. Chinese uses 被 far less than English uses "was", saving it for things that happen to you — which is exactly what jury duty is.
普通人有时候会被叫去法院。
电影出来七年以后，她被叫去了。
Even. 连 fronts the most extreme case and 都 confirms it, which is why this is the strongest way she can deny the assumption.
我连大学都没有念完。
在……看来
In X's view. Attributes a belief to someone without endorsing it — essential when reporting reasoning you think is wrong.
在他们看来，她在电影里当过律师，那她就懂法律。
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
来源- 'Legally Blonde' star Reese Witherspoon was chosen as jury foreman after jurors thought she went to law school
- Reese Witherspoon Chosen as Jury Foreman After Jurors Thought She Went to Law School Because of Legally Blonde
- Reese Witherspoon says jurors once chose her as foreman because they thought she had gone to law school
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