Graded stories and dialogues
Short Chinese texts written to a level, not cut down from a newspaper. Each one shows its level, topic, length, reading time and audio before you open it, so you can pick a text you will actually finish.
- 医院在哪儿？HSK 1
Which Way to the Hospital?
A friend of Amine’s has been taken to hospital and Amine does not know the city yet. He stops a man in the street, discovers that the hospital is behind the shop rather than in front of it, is told to take a taxi, and spots one waiting a few steps away. Sixteen short turns, every word from the HSK 1 list.
DialogueTransport1 min read- characters
- 134
- sentences
- 16
- Listen
- —
- 买水果HSK 1
Buying Fruit at the Shop
A Saturday errand told in the third person: Xiaoming goes to the fruit shop with his mother, picks out the apples he likes, hears the price and gets to eat one in the afternoon. Fourteen sentences, every word drawn from the HSK 1 list.
StoryShopping2 min read- characters
- 176
- sentences
- 14
- Listen
- —
- 买火车票HSK 2
Buying a Train Ticket
Amine wants to be in Shanghai tomorrow. At the ticket window he compares the eight o’clock train with the eleven o’clock one — five hours against four, three hundred yuan against five hundred and fifty — picks the cheap slow one, hands over his passport and learns which gate to use. Eighteen turns of a real errand, built from HSK 1–2 words.
DialogueTransport2 min read- characters
- 203
- sentences
- 18
- Listen
- —
- 大学的第一天HSK 2
The First Day at University
Amine has just arrived from Morocco and walks into the university office to report in. Over eighteen short turns he greets the member of staff, gives his name, hands over his passport, writes his name on the form, learns his room number and asks the way to the dormitory — the entire errand handled with HSK 1–2 words.
DialogueUniversity2 min read- characters
- 182
- sentences
- 18
- Listen
- —
- 我的汉语老师HSK 2
My Chinese Teacher
A student remembers the first months of class, when the teacher’s Chinese was still a wall of sound. Wang laoshi slowed down, told the class to ask whenever they did not follow, and one afternoon wrote out the characters he could not read. By exam time he could answer every question — and she told him he was ready to talk to Chinese people. Sixteen sentences within HSK 1–2.
StorySchool3 min read- characters
- 241
- sentences
- 16
- Listen
- —
- 我在北京的第一个星期HSK 2
My First Week in Beijing
Amine tells the week day by day: the flight lands on Monday, class starts on Tuesday, lunch is mutton and rice with classmates from England and Japan, on Wednesday he gets lost and a stranger puts him on the number three bus, and on Thursday his mother asks over the phone whether he is homesick. Eighteen sentences, every word from HSK 1–2.
StoryUniversity4 min read- characters
- 368
- sentences
- 18
- Listen
- —
- 在饭馆点菜HSK 2
Ordering in a Restaurant
Amine takes his classmate Xiaomei out to eat. He asks the waiter what the house does well, orders the mutton, listens to Xiaomei order fish instead, praises the food, settles the bill with a hundred-yuan note and gets his change. Eighteen turns of a complete meal, built from HSK 1–2 words.
DialogueFood2 min read- characters
- 174
- sentences
- 18
- Listen
- —
- 坐出租车去机场HSK 2
A Taxi to the Airport
Amine has a ten o’clock flight and two hours to spare. He agrees the fare, asks the driver to hurry, and the ride turns into a conversation: twenty years behind the wheel in Beijing, what the driver makes of the city, where his passenger is from — and a compliment on Amine’s Chinese. Sixteen turns within HSK 1–2.
DialogueTransport2 min read- characters
- 170
- sentences
- 16
- Listen
- —
- 邮局里的误会HSK 3
A Misunderstanding at the Post Office
Amine posts a birthday parcel to his mother in Morocco. Everything goes smoothly until the clerk says how long it will take: he hears 四十天 where she said 十四天, and panics about missing the birthday. She smiles, writes “14” on her phone, and the whole thing dissolves into laughter — and into a resolution about numbers. Twenty-two sentences inside HSK 1–3.
StoryAdmin4 min read- characters
- 390
- sentences
- 22
- Listen
- —
- 公园里的星期六HSK 3
A Saturday in the Park
A father tells the story of one Saturday: the family cycles to the park, the old men sing under the trees, his six-year-old wants to know the name of a bird nobody can identify, and they picnic in the shade. At three the wind gets up and the sky greys over — but his wife, as usual, has packed an umbrella. Eighteen sentences within HSK 1–3.
StoryDaily life3 min read- characters
- 297
- sentences
- 18
- Listen
- —
- 校园新闻：新图书馆下星期一开门HSK 3
Campus News: The New Library Opens on Monday
Short campus-paper copy on the library that opens next Monday: five floors, two hundred thousand books, what is on each floor, borrowing by phone, opening hours at the weekend, a word from the head of the university and one from a third-year student who used to arrive early just to find a seat. Twenty sentences inside HSK 1–3.
NewsUniversity5 min read- characters
- 438
- sentences
- 20
- Listen
- —
- 在银行办卡HSK 3
Opening a Bank Account
Amine walks into a bank to get a card. He hands over his passport, learns that his name should be written exactly as it appears in it, waits ten minutes on a chair by the window, and checks that the card will work for shopping online. Eighteen turns of a real errand, inside HSK 1–3.
DialogueAdmin3 min read- characters
- 230
- sentences
- 18
- Listen
- —
- 一起商量去旅游HSK 3
Planning a Trip with Friends
Four free days next month, three friends and one budget. Mountains are ruled out as too cold, Shanghai wins, the plane loses to the train on price, and a night departure saves a hotel night. By the end of the conversation the rooms are booked, the jobs are shared out, and Amine has to go and ask about missing Friday’s class. Twenty-two turns inside HSK 1–3.
DialogueTravel4 min read- characters
- 383
- sentences
- 22
- Listen
- —
- 租房间HSK 3
Renting a Room
Amine wants to move out of the dormitory. A landlord shows him the fourth-floor room: south-facing, air conditioning, a small fridge, his own bathroom. They talk price — two thousand five hundred asked, two thousand three hundred agreed — and he checks what matters to a student: wi-fi, five minutes to the metro, a supermarket downstairs. Twenty-two turns inside HSK 1–3.
DialogueHousing4 min read- characters
- 328
- sentences
- 22
- Listen
- —
- 医生说我要休息HSK 3
The Doctor Said I Need Rest
A student studies until midnight every night in the run-up to exams and wakes one Wednesday with a splitting head and a fever. A classmate notices, takes him to the hospital near campus, and the doctor sends him to bed for two days. His teacher tells him not to worry about the exam. He recovers — and starts exercising every morning. Seventeen sentences within HSK 1–3.
StoryHealth3 min read- characters
- 304
- sentences
- 17
- Listen
- —
- 新来的邻居HSK 3
The New Neighbour
A grandmother in her seventies moves in next door, and the six o’clock music she exercises to is not welcome news to a student who goes to bed late. One morning they finally meet; she turns the volume down, he starts sleeping earlier — and the day he locks himself out in the rain, it is her door that opens. Twenty-two sentences inside HSK 1–3.
StoryDaily life5 min read- characters
- 405
- sentences
- 22
- Listen
- —
- 天气消息：冷空气就要到了HSK 3
Weather Report: A Cold Front Is on Its Way
A city weather bulletin: cold air arrives from the north tonight, Saturday turns grey after midday with a strong wind from three, rain in the evening and snow further north, and Sunday morning is the coldest point of the week. Advice for cyclists, drivers, air travellers and the elderly, then a return to clear skies from Monday. Twenty sentences inside HSK 1–3.
NewsWeather5 min read- characters
- 410
- sentences
- 20
- Listen
- —
- 去公司应聘HSK 4
A Job Interview
A month after graduating, Amine sits down with a manager who has read his file. Four years of Chinese, four languages, two years of interpreting for a travel company; then the harder questions — his best quality, his worst, overtime, business trips — and finally the salary, the timetable for a decision and a word of reassurance. Twenty-four turns inside HSK 1–4.
DialogueWork5 min read- characters
- 443
- sentences
- 24
- Listen
- —
- 为钱的事儿HSK 4
An Argument About Money
Eight hundred yuan lent two months ago, a plane ticket that has to be paid for, and two friends who each remember the conversation differently. It gets tense — “why are you only telling me now?” — before David works out that buying lunch twice does not add up to eight hundred, and they agree on half now, half on payday, and writing it down next time. Twenty-four turns inside HSK 1–4.
DialogueMoney4 min read- characters
- 400
- sentences
- 24
- Listen
- —
- 城市新闻：地铁三号线昨天开始使用HSK 4
City News: Metro Line 3 Opened Yesterday
A city-desk report on the metro line that opened at six yesterday morning: eighteen stations, twenty-six kilometres, an hour by bus cut to thirty minutes. A driver who has spent ten years stuck in traffic on that road, a teacher whose pupils used to take two buses, and a resident of thirty years who is not sure a busier neighbourhood is good news. Twenty-four sentences inside HSK 1–4.
NewsCity life6 min read- characters
- 576
- sentences
- 24
- Listen
- —
- 搬进宿舍HSK 4
Moving Into the Dormitory
Amine arrives at room 305 with two suitcases and a list of questions. The dormitory supervisor hands him two keys and answers them one by one: air conditioning yes, laundry on the ground floor, wi-fi password behind the door, no cooking in the rooms, doors locked at half past eleven. The last piece of news is the best — his roommate is Chinese. Twenty turns within HSK 1–4.
DialogueUniversity4 min read- characters
- 395
- sentences
- 20
- Listen
- —
- 我为什么开始学汉语HSK 4
Why I Started Learning Chinese
Amine answers the question he is asked most often. It began with a Chinese shopkeeper on an old street in Casablanca who made him repeat a few words at a time, went on through a film he understood not one line of, and survived the years when the characters would not stay in his head. The last scene returns to the shop. Twenty-five sentences inside HSK 1–4.
StoryLanguage learning6 min read- characters
- 579
- sentences
- 25
- Listen
- —
Audio duration is shown once a recording or a generated track has been attached to the text. A dash means the audio has not been produced yet — sentence-level playback still works inside the reader.
Written to a level
Each text is attached to a curriculum level and written to that level’s vocabulary ceiling. A handful of concrete nouns the scene cannot be written without — a passport, a dormitory, a bank card — sit above it, and the text glosses them where they appear.
Read, then check
Pinyin and translation are switched on by default and can be switched off per text. Read once with support, once without, and you will notice what you actually know.
Every sentence has audio
Sentence-level playback means you can listen, repeat and compare a single line instead of restarting a five-minute track.
Graded stories and dialogues
Pick a text where you already know most of the words
Reading improves fastest slightly below the edge of your ability, not at it. Roughly one unknown word in twenty is where most learners keep going; one in ten is where most stop.
Once you are signed in, each text also shows the share of its words you have already met in your own study history, so the choice stops being guesswork. Words you tap in the reader can be sent straight to your review queue.
How to use one text three times
- Listen first, eyes closed. Play the sentences in order and see how much survives without the characters in front of you.
- Read with support. Pinyin and translation on. Tap anything unfamiliar; the definition opens without leaving the page.
- Read again with both off. Then answer the comprehension questions. What you miss is what to study next.