A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
State Farm 拒赔屋顶，一年少赔十四亿美元：最先反对的，是它自己的代理人
State Farm Kept $1.4 Billion by Denying Roof Claims — Its Own Agents Tried to Stop It
About this story
Unsealed Oklahoma court documents allege State Farm systematically cut roof-damage payouts, keeping $1.4 billion in a single year — and its own agents wrote letters trying to stop it. Chinese listening practice at four levels. HSK 1 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 1 Chinese listening episode that runs about 5 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 家、钱、天气 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, let's talk about a home.
This home is in America.
The home is not big. A family lives inside it.
The weather in America is sometimes very bad.
When the weather is bad, there is rain.
Rain is water that comes from the sky.
Sometimes the rain is light.
Sometimes the rain is very, very heavy.
When the rain is heavy, the top of the home can break.
Broken means it is no longer good, it can no longer be used.
When the top of the home breaks, there is water inside the home.
When there is water inside, people cannot live there.
The top of a home is big, and it is expensive.
One family's money cannot buy a new one.
Many years ago, this family got to know a company.
Inside a company, many people work.
This company is very, very big. It is called State Farm.
In America, a great many people know this company.
The company said to this family: you give me money, and I will give you money too.
Give — look: I have ten dollars.
I say to you: these ten dollars are yours.
Now the ten dollars are yours.
That is called giving.
The company said: each month, you give me some money.
The company said: in the second month, the third month, you give me money too.
The company said: for many, many years, you must give me money.
This family said: all right, I will give.
The company said: when your home breaks, I will give you money.
The company said: once you have the money, your home will be good again.
This family was happy.
They thought: if my home breaks, the company will give me money.
Month after month, they gave the company money.
One year, two years, ten years — they kept giving.
Then one day, the rain came.
Very, very heavy rain.
The top of this home broke.
There was water inside the home.
This family made a phone call, looking for that company.
They said: my home is broken.
They said: you said you would give me money.
They said: please give me the money.
The company said: no.
The company said: your home is not that badly broken.
The company said: we will give you a very small amount of money.
A very small amount of money cannot buy a new one.
A very small amount of money cannot make this home good again.
This family was unhappy.
They thought: I gave this company money for many years.
They thought: now my home is broken, and the company will not give me money.
There are a great many people like this.
A hundred people, a thousand people, all saying: this company is not good.
Why did the company say no?
Listen.
Inside this company, someone thought: we are giving out too much money.
They thought: we need to give less.
When the company gives less, the company has more money.
One home — give it less.
A hundred homes — give them less.
A thousand homes, ten thousand homes — give them all less.
The company's money grew by a great deal.
By how much?
In one year, one point four billion dollars.
One point four billion dollars is a very, very large amount of money.
The people working inside this company saw it.
They were unhappy.
They said: this is not right.
They said: we told people we would give them the money.
They said: now we are not giving it, and that is not right.
They wrote it down and told the company: please stop giving people less.
The company said: everything we did was right.
The company said: we have given many people a lot of money.
Now, many people are going to court.
Going to court means asking someone to look and decide: who is right, and who is wrong.
This year, they are going to court.
Think about it: if your home broke and the company said it would not pay you, what could you do?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇HSK 1. The whole episode turns on one home — 这个家，在美国。
HSK 1. What the family gives the company every month, and what they cannot get back.
HSK 1. 美国的天气，有的时候很不好 — the bad weather is what starts the story.
HSK 1. The script says 家的上面 for the roof, built entirely from words you already have.
HSK 1. 在这个公司里工作的人 — the people who worked there are the ones who objected.
HSK 1. Used twice as a hinge: 这一家人很高兴 early, 这一家人不高兴 after the refusal.
Taught in the script with a worked example: 我有十块钱，我对你说：这十块钱是你的。这，叫给。
HSK 2, so above the HSK 1 floor. Grounded in the script as 公司里，有很多人工作。
HSK 3. Taught with floor words only: 雨，是天上来的水。
Glossed in the script as 坏，是不好了，不能用了。
Explained at the end as 打官司，是请人看：谁对，谁不对。
Needed for the number at the heart of the story: 一年，十四亿美元。
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法X，是 Y。
The definition frame used all through this episode. Name the word, then explain it using only words the listener already has. At HSK 1 this replaces 就是, because 就 is HSK 2.
雨，是天上来的水。
坏，是不好了，不能用了。
打官司，是请人看：谁对，谁不对。
……的时候
Marks the moment something happens. It attaches to the end of a clause, where English would put "when" at the front.
天气不好的时候，有雨。
雨很大的时候，家的上面，会坏。
公司说：你的家坏了的时候，我给你钱。
不能 + verb
Says something is not possible. The episode repeats it to build the consequence chain — water gets in, so you cannot live there.
家里有水，人不能住。
很少的钱，不能买新的。
很少的钱，不能让这个家好。
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
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