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Every reading sits at the level where most of its words are taught
131 readings
Story · 1 min audio一年三千块Chinese words for exercise: my New Year gym cardA gym card for the whole year. Every day in week one. Three times in week two. And in February, a note on the door.HSK 2
Story · 1 min audio爸爸教我游泳Learning to swim: an easy Chinese story“Swimming is easy,” Dad says, “I’ll teach you.” So why does he never leave the shallow end?HSK 2
Story · 1 min audio钱包里的小纸条The lost wallet that came back with a noteA lost wallet comes back with nothing missing. Inside, there is something new: a note from the stranger who found it.HSK 2
Story · 1 min audio奶奶的字Grandma's shopping list: a trip to the Chinese supermarketGrandma sends me to the supermarket with a list. Her handwriting is the problem.HSK 2
Story · 1 min audio一天吃一次Buying medicine in Chinese: a night at the pharmacyA headache, no appetite, three hours of sleep. The pharmacist asks a few questions and finds the right medicine.HSK 2
Story · 1 min audio第一次见面The first date: both late for the same reasonTheir first date is at seven. She is late. He is even later. The reason is in their hands.HSK 2
Story · 1 min audio十二排F座Taking the high-speed train in China: seat 12FHis first high-speed train on his own. He finds his seat, and an old lady sitting in it, with the very same ticket.HSK 2
Story · 3 min audio空城计The Empty Fort Strategy: Zhuge Liang's famous bluffTwo and a half thousand soldiers. A hundred and fifty thousand at the gate. Zhuge Liang opens the doors and starts to play music.HSK 5
Story · 3 min audio草船借箭Borrowing arrows with straw boatsMake 100,000 arrows in ten days, or die. Zhuge Liang says three days will do, then does nothing for two.HSK 5
Story · 3 min audio庄周梦蝶Zhuangzi’s butterfly dream, and what it meansZhuangzi dreams he is a butterfly, wakes up, and cannot say which of them was dreaming. Two thousand years on, nobody has settled it.HSK 6
Story · 3 min audio桃花源记The Peach Blossom Spring, retold in modern ChineseA fisherman rows into a peach grove and comes out in a village that has never heard of the Han dynasty. He marks the way home. No one ever finds it again.HSK 6
Story · 2 min audio女娲补天Nüwa mends the skyA lonely goddess makes the first people out of mud. Then a furious god breaks the pillar that holds up the sky.HSK 4
