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.
- 站着开的会HSK 5
A Meeting Held Standing Up
Every Monday at an advertising agency the meeting ran from nine to past eleven and settled nothing. A new manager says nothing at her first one, takes away the chairs and leaves three rules on the table: fifteen minutes, know your problem before you speak, end with who does what by when. Then an objection from the design department, and a compromise. About 550 characters inside HSK 1–5.
故事Work阅读 7 分钟- 汉字
- 606
- 句子
- 16
- 收听
- —
- 回到小城市HSK 5
Going Home to a Small City
A first-person account. Five years in Beijing: half the salary on rent, three hours a day on the metro, no time to ring home. One Spring Festival back in the county town shows a new motorway, new cafés, and a school friend selling the local fruit online. He resigns, loses money in the first year, learns from the old farmers — and is careful not to tell anyone else to follow him. About 520 characters inside HSK 1–5.
故事Society阅读 6 分钟- 汉字
- 570
- 句子
- 16
- 收听
- —
- 让孩子做点儿家务HSK 5
Let Children Do Some Housework
A short argument in the shape of an HSK 5 opinion passage: the parents’ objection first, then three reasons in order — responsibility, solving problems, talking to each other — and a paragraph of conditions on how to do it. The example that carries the first reason is a pile of unwashed bowls. About 510 characters inside HSK 1–5.
故事Family阅读 6 分钟- 汉字
- 561
- 句子
- 17
- 收听
- —
- 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.
故事Daily life阅读 6 分钟- 汉字
- 576
- 句子
- 18
- 收听
- —
- 用筷子的讲究HSK 5
What Chopsticks Ask of You
An explanatory text on table manners. Why chopsticks are never stood upright in rice, why tapping a bowl was a beggar’s gesture, why you do not rummage through a shared dish or point with them — and the serving chopsticks that more restaurants now set out. It ends where a guest needs it to: nobody laughs at a visitor who cannot use them. About 520 characters inside HSK 1–5.
故事Culture阅读 6 分钟- 汉字
- 576
- 句子
- 19
- 收听
- —
- 睡觉的时候，大脑在做什么HSK 5
What the Brain Does While We Sleep
A short explanatory text in the style of the HSK 5 reading paper. Sleep is not the brain switching off: it sorts the day’s memories, keeping what is useful, and clears away substances that build up while we are awake. One experiment with two groups of students, the advice against staying up to revise, seven to eight hours for adults, and why quality counts as much as length. About 540 characters inside HSK 1–5.
故事Science阅读 7 分钟- 汉字
- 602
- 句子
- 20
- 收听
- —
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.
分级故事与对话
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.