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Every reading sits at the level where most of its words are taught
21 readings
Story · 2 min audio塞翁失马The old man who lost his horseA horse runs off. The neighbours call it bad luck. The old man is not so sure.HSK 5
Story · 1 min audio守株待兔Waiting for a rabbit by the tree stumpA rabbit runs into a tree stump. A farmer gets a free dinner. Then he sits down to wait for the next one.HSK 5
Story · 1 min audio画蛇添足Drawing legs on a snakeOne cup of wine. A race to draw a snake. The fastest man has time to spare.HSK 4
Story · 3 min audio木兰从军The real story of MulanA girl at her loom. Her father’s name on every army list. Twelve years at war, and no one guesses.HSK 6
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伯乐和千里马Bole and the thousand-li horse (伯乐相马)An old horse hauls a salt cart up a mountain road until a stranger climbs down, weeps, and covers it with his own coat. The horse answers with a cry that reaches the sky.HSK 6
Story · 1 min audio狐假虎威The fox and the tiger: borrowing a tiger’s powerA tiger catches a fox for lunch. The fox has one trick left: take a walk together and see who the animals run from.HSK 4
Story · 2 min audio井底之蛙The frog in the well: the frog who had never seen the seaA frog thinks its broken old well is the best place in the world. Then a sea turtle tries to come in for a visit.HSK 4
Story · 1 min audio孔融让梨Kong Rong and the pears: the boy who took the smallest oneSeven brothers, one plate of pears. The four-year-old reaches past all the big ones.HSK 3
Story · 2 min audio曹冲称象How Cao Chong weighed an elephantCao Cao is given an elephant and wants to know how heavy it is. Nobody has a scale that big, except, it turns out, a small boy with a boat.HSK 5
