A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
有人把成人用品扔进 WNBA 球场，一家虚拟币公司承认是他们找人扔的。被打中的是小孩。
People Threw Sex Toys Onto WNBA Courts for a Crypto Stunt. The Ones Who Got Hit Were Children.
About this story
People Threw Sex Toys Onto WNBA Courts for a Crypto Stunt. The Ones Who Got Hit Were Children. 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 6 key vocabulary words such as 次、笑、公司 and walks through 2 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
First, about the WNBA.
The WNBA is the women’s basketball league in America.
These last few years, more people have been watching the WNBA.
Last year, something started going wrong at WNBA games.
During a game, someone from the spectator seats threw an object onto the court.
What was thrown?
An adult product.
The first time, everyone treated it as a joke.
The second time, the third time, the fourth time.
In two weeks, several games had someone throwing one.
Why were so many people doing the same thing?
Later everyone found out.
There is a crypto-currency company whose name is the name of that object.
The company said it was them, paying people to throw them.
What they wanted was simple: for everyone to see that name.
A company taking someone else’s game and using it as its own advertising.
Up to here, you might still think this is just silly.
The next two things are not silly.
One time, the object did not land on the court. It landed in the seats.
It hit a twelve-year-old girl.
The thrower was a thirty-two-year-old man, and he was arrested afterwards.
Another time, one of these hit a man and his nine-year-old niece.
That thrower was taken away by the police as well.
So the situation is clear:
The ones throwing were adults; the ones hit were children.
The players spoke up too:
We are running on that court; you are throwing things onto it; we are not safe.
The league then set a rule:
If you deliberately throw something onto the court, you are removed on the spot.
You cannot enter for a year, and you are handed to the police.
This August, someone threw again.
This time was different.
Angel Reese was sitting beside the court.
She saw the person, pointed, and picked him out.
Security went straight over and took him away.
He was arrested, and he can never enter a WNBA arena again.
One last thing I want to say.
A joke, at the start, is only a joke.
But when it becomes something a lot of people do together, it stops being a joke.
Think about it:
Something a lot of people are laughing at — would you laugh along?
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇第一次，第二次，第三次 — the counting is what turns one incident into a wave.
The hinge of the whole episode: what is 好笑 and what stops being 好笑.
The crypto company that paid people to do it.
观 to watch, 众 crowd. The objects were thrown from the 观众 seats.
The players’ own framing: this is a safety question.
The organisation that set the one-year ban.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法第一次……，第二次……
Counting occurrences in sequence, which is how a single incident becomes a pattern.
第一次，大家当成一个笑话。第二次，第三次，第四次。
可是当……，就……
But once X happens, then Y — marks a change of state.
可是当它变成很多人一起做的事，它就不是笑话了。
Proper Nouns
专有名词Sources
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