A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
Tom Holland 第四部蜘蛛侠《Brand New Day》上映，票房冲今年最高
Spider-Man: Brand New Day Opens in 2026
About this story
A medium Chinese listening story: Spider-Man: Brand New Day opened huge (~$200M+ first weekend, near the year's best and the series' 2nd biggest after No Way Home, 90%+ positive), and why the 'ordinary hero' endures. HSK 4 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 4 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 10 key vocabulary words such as 普通、帮助、电影 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
This weekend, movie theaters all over the world were packed for one person: Spider-Man.
Spider-Man's new movie Brand New Day officially opened on July 31st.
It's Tom Holland's fourth Spider-Man movie, and many fans waited years for it.
The moment it opened, the box office was staggeringly high.
In America, the first weekend could bring in over two hundred million dollars.
What does that mean?
That is nearly the biggest opening of any movie this year.
In the whole Spider-Man series, only No Way Home a few years ago had a bigger first weekend.
It's not just the crowds — the people who saw it rated it very highly too.
On the review sites, more than ninety out of a hundred said it was great.
So why is Spider-Man so beloved?
Actually, Spider-Man is unlike many great heroes.
He wasn't powerful from the start.
He too is an ordinary young man — he gets nervous, makes mistakes, and has plenty of worries.
But every time someone needs help, he steps up.
It is exactly this "ordinary yet brave" Spider-Man that generation after generation has fallen in love with.
So this time, when Spider-Man came back, everyone was this excited.
Many fans say: after waiting so long, this time, it was truly worth it.
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇一个普通的年轻人 = an ordinary young man.
在别人需要帮助的时候 = when others need help.
第四部蜘蛛侠电影 = the fourth Spider-Man movie.
会紧张 = he gets nervous.
大家才这么激动 = everyone is this excited.
—
票房就高得吓人 = the box office was staggeringly high.
七月三十一号正式上映 = officially opened on July 31st.
整个蜘蛛侠系列 = the whole Spider-Man series.
和很多大英雄不一样 = unlike many great heroes.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法这是什么概念呢？
A rhetorical "what does that even mean?" to frame a big number.
这是什么概念呢？这几乎是今年开画最高的一部电影。
不只是……，……也……
不只是 A，B 也 … = "not just A, B also …".
不只是人多，看过的人，评价也非常好。
正是……，让……
正是 X，让 Y = "it is exactly X that makes Y".
正是这个"普通又勇敢"的蜘蛛侠，让一代又一代人爱上了他。
Proper nouns
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