A Chinese podcast · Same story, 4 levels
上海开了一个大会：机器人，越来越像人
Shanghai Hosts a Big Conference: Robots That Look More and More Human
About this story
Shanghai Hosts a Big Conference: Robots That Look More and More Human. HSK 1 Chinese listening practice.
This is an HSK 1 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 8 key vocabulary words such as 电脑、商店、饭馆 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.
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, we're talking about a conference.
This conference is in Shanghai, China.
Many, many people came to this conference.
They came to Shanghai to talk about one thing.
This thing is called artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence is also called AI.
What is AI?
AI is something inside computers.
AI is very smart.
AI can see, can hear, and can speak.
At this conference, there are many robots.
The robots are just like people.
These robots are very smart too.
The robots can talk, and can walk.
The robots can also help people do things.
In a restaurant, a robot can help you.
In a shop, a robot can help you too.
Everyone who saw this was very happy.
This conference is very, very big.
At the conference, there are many, many new things.
Some robots are very big.
Some robots are very small.
You ask a robot a question, and the robot answers.
People from many countries came to see it.
Now, AI is inside robots too.
AI is also in our lives.
A very important person also came to the conference.
He is a top leader of China.
He said a lot, too.
He said: AI is very important.
He said: everyone should work together to do AI well.
He said: AI does not belong to just one country.
AI belongs to the whole world.
He said: some countries do not have AI.
China wants to help these countries.
If everyone works together, AI will be great.
Everyone should work together and do AI well.
OK, today we talked about this conference.
This conference was in Shanghai.
At the conference, there were many robots.
There were also people from many countries.
Everyone was talking about one thing: AI.
Now, AI is great, and very useful.
AI is changing our lives.
In the future, AI will get better and better.
Listen again
Try it without the transcript and notice what sounds clearer.
What vocabulary does this episode teach?
词汇AI 是电脑里的一个东西 — AI is something inside computers.
在商店里，机器人可以帮你 — In a shop, a robot can help you.
机器人可以在饭馆工作 — A robot can work in a restaurant.
大家看了，都很高兴 — Everyone was very happy when they saw it.
大会上有很多新东西 — There are many new things at the conference.
Beyond HSK 1. 机 (machine) + 器 (device) + 人 (person). The star of the conference.
Beyond HSK 1. The topic of the whole conference; also called AI.
Beyond HSK 1. AI 很聪明 — AI is very smart.
* beyond level超纲词
What grammar patterns appear in this episode?
语法在 + Place + ...
Marks where something happens — "at / in a place."
在饭馆里，机器人可以帮你。
在这个大会上，有很多机器人。
Proper Nouns
专有名词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