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.
- 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
- —
- 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
- —
- 楼下的修表师傅HSK 5
The Watch Repairer Downstairs
A narrative. Hardly anyone wears a watch now, so why does Master Chen keep his tiny repair shop open? He answers with a watch from his drawer: a widow’s first present from her husband, which no other shop would touch because the parts stopped being made. Six months of evenings, no charge, and a yearly visit for a watch that is not really slow. About 500 characters inside HSK 1–5.
StoryDaily life6 min read- characters
- 576
- sentences
- 18
- Listen
- —
- 晚到三十年的信HSK 6
A Letter Thirty Years Late
Workers repairing a county post office find a dusty cloth bag of letters posted more than thirty years ago. Old Liu sets out to deliver them all, and one reaches Li Xiuying, who opens an apology from the brother she quarrelled with and has not seen since. Her daughter finds him within a fortnight, and at the Spring Festival the two meet again; a dozen letters in the bag are still unclaimed. About 820 characters inside HSK 1–6.
StoryDaily life10 min read- characters
- 920
- sentences
- 26
- 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.