Fluentide · Chinese Listening — HSK 1

2026 Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards finalists revealed 1 Oct 2026: a record 10,000+ entries from 112 countries; 56 finalists (40 single images, 3 under-16, 4 portfolios, 9 videos). Highlights: 'Are You Kidding Me?' (Kevin Lohman, USA) a squirrel launching itself at a great horned owl in Santa Cruz, California; 'Little Godzilla' (Udo Harms, Germany) a reddish squirrel with a mouthful of grass in Hanover; 'Sneeze' (Alexander Hormann, Canada) a moose's runny nose, sneeze and grin at Maligne Lake, Alberta; 'Lessons' (Heather Cudworth, Kenya) an adult elephant giving a younger one a forceful dust bath in Amboseli National Park; under-16 finalist Phiané Oosthuizen (South Africa) a sunbird with a petal stuck to its beak. Conservation partner: Born Free Foundation. Co-founder Tom Sullam: the competition 'has grown into something far bigger than we ever imagined.' Winners announced 8 Dec 2026; two London exhibitions.

A Squirrel Attacks an Owl and a Moose Sneezes: The Funniest Wildlife Photos of 2026 Are In

HSK 1 level · 3:27

• 喜欢 (xǐhuan) — to like
• 猫 (māo) — cat
• 狗 (gǒu) — dog
• 高兴 (gāoxìng) — happy
• 今天 (jīntiān) — today
• 时候 (shíhou) — time; when
• 东西 (dōngxi) — thing
• 还有 (hái yǒu) — there is also

• A 和 B，都是 C — A and B are both C.
• 是不是……？ — Isn't it…? (yes/no).
• 有没有……？ — Is there…? / Does it ever…?

Get more from this episode at fluentide.com:

• Read the full interactive transcript — tap any word for instant pinyin + definition
• Toggle pinyin on/off above the Chinese text
• See the complete English translation side-by-side
• Save vocabulary to your personal word bank

Open this episode on Fluentide →

2026 Nobel Prize in Physics (announced 6 Oct 2026) to Francis Halzen, sole laureate (first sole physics winner since Georges Charpak in 1992), 'for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.' Halzen, born 1944 in Tienen, Belgium; PhD KU Leuven 1969; at University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1972. Proposed using Antarctic ice as a neutrino detector in 1988. IceCube: 5,160 optical sensors on 86 strings in hot-water-drilled holes, ~1,450-2,450 m deep near Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, one cubic kilometre of ice; completed December 2010; cost $279 million; 450+ researchers, 58 institutions, 14 countries. Neutrinos ('ghost particles') barely interact: over a billion pass through your hand in the time it takes to read a sentence. Detection via faint blue Cherenkov light from secondary particles. 2013: 28 high-energy neutrinos from beyond the solar system; 2018: a neutrino traced to blazar TXS 0506+056 (~4 billion light-years); 2023: first neutrino image of the Milky Way. Prize: 12 million Swedish kronor. Callback: Fluentide's 3 Oct episode said Wolf Prize winner Jun Ye was a Nobel contender.

Francis Halzen Wins the Physics Nobel for Turning a Cubic Kilometer of Antarctic Ice Into a Telescope for Ghost Particles

HSK 1 level · 3:40

• 看见 (kànjiàn) — to see
• 知道 (zhīdào) — to know
• 电脑 (diànnǎo) — computer
• 现在 (xiànzài) — now
• 东西 (dōngxi) — thing
• 朋友 (péngyou) — friend
• 工作 (gōngzuò) — to work
• 什么 (shénme) — what

• 什么都能 + verb — Can do anything.
• ……的时候 — When / while….
• 是从哪里来的 — Where something came from.

Get more from this episode at fluentide.com:

• Read the full interactive transcript — tap any word for instant pinyin + definition
• Toggle pinyin on/off above the Chinese text
• See the complete English translation side-by-side
• Save vocabulary to your personal word bank

Open this episode on Fluentide →

France lycée (high-school) protests, late Sept-Oct 2026. Began at Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Créteil (Paris south-east suburb) over teacher shortages: ~10% of teaching hours went untaught in public secondary schools in 2024-25 (worst in maths and English); 35 students per class, not enough chairs; crumbling buildings, cafeteria too small, 35°C classrooms; Parcoursup stress. 30 Sept: 250,000+ marched nationwide, 56,000 in Paris. 1 Oct: Interior Ministry said ~1,949 arrested in one day; 5,000-6,000 arrests overall, mostly minors; 1,800+ prosecuted. Injuries among students, school staff and 600+ police; 24 schools burned/ransacked; damage tens of millions of euros; a fire truck burned in Marseille. A 15-year-old lost a hand in a grenade explosion during clashes with riot police in Lens (north). 5 Oct: 589 of France's 3,700 high schools fully or partially closed. PM Sébastien Lecornu; Education Minister Édouard Geffray: 'partial, progressive return to lessons', five measures, funding plan by month's end. Context: tight budget, deficit above EU limit, high debt; presidential election ~6 months away; echoes of gilets jaunes (2018) and 2023 pension protests.

French High-School Students Walk Out Over Missing Teachers: 250,000 March, Thousands Arrested and 500 Schools Shut

HSK 1 level · 3:21

• 学生 (xuésheng) — student
• 老师 (lǎoshī) — teacher
• 学校 (xuéxiào) — school
• 椅子 (yǐzi) — chair
• 同学 (tóngxué) — classmate
• 高兴 (gāoxìng) — happy
• 学习 (xuéxí) — to study
• 前面 (qiánmiàn) — in front

• 太 + Adj + 了 — Too….
• 有的……，有的…… — Some…, some….
• X，是 Y — Defines a word simply.

Get more from this episode at fluentide.com:

• Read the full interactive transcript — tap any word for instant pinyin + definition
• Toggle pinyin on/off above the Chinese text
• See the complete English translation side-by-side
• Save vocabulary to your personal word bank

Open this episode on Fluentide →

Russia plague scare (Oct 2026). Darya (Daria) Shipilova, 28, researcher at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute (Siberia). Regional media, citing security-service sources, reported she broke a test tube containing the pneumonic plague pathogen on 25 Sept; admitted to Shelekhov District Hospital 29 Sept with severe pneumonia; died overnight 1-2 Oct. Rospotrebnadzor says she died of 'pneumonia of unknown aetiology' unrelated to her work and found no work-related microorganisms. Yet nearly 200 contacts were placed under medical observation, 60+ colleagues confined inside the institute, access restricted at several Irkutsk hospitals incl. a maternity ward. Contacts: two COVID-19 and two rhinovirus cases, no plague symptoms. White House monitoring (Axios, 4 Oct); US formally requested information; Trump expects to talk to Putin; WHO wants an explanation. Plague (Yersinia pestis, a bacterium): Black Death killed ~1/3 of Europe in the 14th century; pneumonic form spreads person to person by coughing; untreated fatality 30-100%; treatable with antibiotics; incubation 1-2 days (Northeastern's Samuel Scarpino: likely to blow over or be contained locally). Context: Soviet anti-plague institute network; 1979 Sverdlovsk anthrax leak (at least 64 dead; blamed on tainted meat until Yeltsin admitted the truth in 1992).

A Russian Lab Worker Died After a Test Tube Broke at a Plague Institute. Russia Says It Wasn't Plague, but Quarantined 200 People.

HSK 1 level · 3:39

• 医院 (yīyuàn) — hospital
• 医生 (yīshēng) — doctor
• 工作 (gōngzuò) — to work
• 知道 (zhīdào) — to know
• 现在 (xiànzài) — now
• 东西 (dōngxi) — thing
• 时候 (shíhou) — time; when
• 什么 (shénme) — what

• X，是 Y — Defines a word.
• 有没有……？ — Is there / did she have …?
• 如果……，…… — If….

Get more from this episode at fluentide.com:

• Read the full interactive transcript — tap any word for instant pinyin + definition
• Toggle pinyin on/off above the Chinese text
• See the complete English translation side-by-side
• Save vocabulary to your personal word bank

Open this episode on Fluentide →

FlyDubai flight FZ1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv, Wednesday 30 September 2026, 174 people on board, mostly Israeli. About two hours in, at ~34,000 ft, the co-pilot, Omani national Hamam al-Hammami, attacked Indian captain Smit Machchhar (17 years' experience) with the cockpit's emergency crash axe. The plane dropped more than 17,000 ft (~5,180 m) in about two minutes; part of the rudder was torn away. The badly wounded captain, on the cockpit floor, made 'one last push' to unlock the reinforced cockpit door (post-9/11 design, opens only from inside). Passengers, led by an Israeli plumber, rushed in, pulled the co-pilot out and pinned him; two off-duty pilots travelling as passengers took the controls and levelled the jet at about 15,000 ft roughly 12 minutes later. A dentist travelling from China stanched the captain's bleeding. The flight diverted to Tabuk, Saudi Arabia, landing about 85 minutes later. No passengers seriously injured; captain seriously hurt but stable. Oman Air had grounded al-Hammami over extremist views and moved him to a desk job; he resigned around 2024 and FlyDubai hired him after background checks that focused on criminal records. The UAE attorney general called it a terrorist attack; Netanyahu said he meant to crash the plane. Four regional countries are investigating. Germanwings 2015 precedent: co-pilot locked captain out, 150 died.

A FlyDubai Co-Pilot Attacked His Captain With the Cockpit's Own Axe. Passengers Broke In and Saved the Plane.

HSK 1 level · 4:36

• 飞机 (fēijī) — plane
• 开 (kāi) — to open; to drive/fly
• 坐 (zuò) — to sit; to travel by
• 知道 (zhīdào) — to know
• 东西 (dōngxi) — thing
• 前面 (qiánmiàn) — in front; the front
• 后面 (hòumiàn) — behind
• 想 (xiǎng) — to think; to want

• 用 + tool + verb — Use something to do something. The tool comes right after 用, then the action.
• Verb + 了 + duration + 了 — Something has been going on for this long and is still true now.
• Verb + 不了 — Cannot do it — the action is impossible, not just unwanted.

Get more from this episode at fluentide.com:

• Read the full interactive transcript — tap any word for instant pinyin + definition
• Toggle pinyin on/off above the Chinese text
• See the complete English translation side-by-side
• Save vocabulary to your personal word bank

Open this episode on Fluentide →

Should you use a tongue scraper? (The Economist, 1 October 2026, 'Should you be using a tongue-scraper?'.) Tongue scraping — an old Ayurvedic practice now trending on social media and a growing consumer market — removes the white tongue coating (舌苔) of food debris, dead cells and bacteria. Bad breath mostly comes from volatile sulfur compounds made by bacteria at the back of the tongue. Pedrazzi et al. 2004 (University of São Paulo, J Periodontol): crossover trial, 10 subjects; toothbrush cut VSCs 45%, tongue scraper 75%. Cochrane review (Outhouse et al. 2006): only 2 small trials qualified; scrapers/cleaners slightly better than toothbrushes, short-term effect, weak evidence. Twist: tongue bacteria (e.g. Neisseria, Rothia) reduce dietary nitrate (spinach, beetroot) to nitrite, which becomes nitric oxide, relaxing blood vessels and lowering blood pressure. Tribble et al. 2019 (Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology), 26 healthy volunteers: twice-daily chlorhexidine mouthwash for one week raised mean systolic BP from 113 to 115 mmHg; nitrate-reducing bacteria recovered afterwards; people who cleaned their tongues twice or more daily had microbiomes favouring nitric oxide over ammonia. Authors: regular tongue cleaning plus adequate dietary nitrate may help resting systolic BP. Persistent bad breath can signal gum disease or reflux — see a doctor.

Tongue Scrapers Beat Toothbrushes at Fighting Bad Breath — and Your Tongue's Bacteria May Help Lower Your Blood Pressure

HSK 1 level · 4:47

• 东西 (dōngxi) — thing; stuff
• 衣服 (yīfu) — clothes
• 起床 (qǐchuáng) — to get up
• 朋友 (péngyou) — friend
• 买 (mǎi) — to buy
• 医生 (yīshēng) — doctor
• 星期 (xīngqī) — week
• 少 (shǎo) — few; less

• A 比 B + Adj — A is more Adj than B.
• Adj + 不 + Adj？ — Yes/no question formed by repeating the adjective with 不.
• 会不会 + verb？ — Asks whether something will happen.

Get more from this episode at fluentide.com:

• Read the full interactive transcript — tap any word for instant pinyin + definition
• Toggle pinyin on/off above the Chinese text
• See the complete English translation side-by-side
• Save vocabulary to your personal word bank

Open this episode on Fluentide →

Shanghai-born physicist Jun Ye (b. Nov 1967; Shanghai Jiao Tong University applied physics 1989; PhD University of Colorado 1997; JILA/NIST/CU Boulder; NAS 2011; 2022 Breakthrough Prize shared with Hidetoshi Katori) shares the 2026 Wolf Prize in Physics with Immanuel Bloch (Max Planck), announced 1 October 2026, 'for transformative, widely applicable advances in the control of ultracold atomic systems.' Ye's optical lattice clocks (~100,000 strontium atoms laser-cooled near absolute zero, held in an optical lattice, counting ~429 THz light vs caesium's ~9.19 GHz microwaves; enabled by optical frequency combs) would, per NIST, neither gain nor lose a second in 15 billion years. In 2022 (Nature) his team measured gravitational time dilation across a 1 mm height difference within one atom cloud — the smallest scale ever — which Ye said could connect quantum physics with gravity. Uses: GPS/navigation, geodesy, dark-matter searches, a future redefinition of the SI second. He is the second Chinese-born Wolf physics laureate after Chien-Shiung Wu (first laureate, 1978) — 48 years apart. 26 of 72 Wolf physics laureates later won a Nobel; the 2026 physics Nobel is announced 6 October.

Jun Ye's Atomic Clock Won't Lose a Second in 15 Billion Years. Now He Has Won the Wolf Prize, Often a Step Before the Nobel.

HSK 1 level · 4:50

• 知道 (zhīdào) — to know
• 现在 (xiànzài) — now
• 点 (diǎn) — o'clock
• 分 (fēn) — minute
• 做 (zuò) — to make; to do
• 工作 (gōngzuò) — work; job
• 中国 (Zhōngguó) — China
• 年 (nián) — year

• A 比 B + Adj — Compares two things: A is more Adj than B.
• 一 + measure + 也/都 + 不 — Not even one — strong negation.
• Adj + 一点点 — Just a tiny bit more Adj.

Get more from this episode at fluentide.com:

• Read the full interactive transcript — tap any word for instant pinyin + definition
• Toggle pinyin on/off above the Chinese text
• See the complete English translation side-by-side
• Save vocabulary to your personal word bank

Open this episode on Fluentide →

Psychiatrist Awais Aftab argues (NYT, first edition of the series Therapeutic Window) that 'attention deficit' may be the wrong framing for ADHD. A major study in Cell last year found stimulants act on brain networks for salience, reward and arousal, with no detectable change in attention networks whether or not children had ADHD. Aftab distinguishes lab 'attention' (selectively amplifying relevant information) from 'sustained engagement' (keeping the spotlight on a task over time), which depends on whether the task registers as worth doing; stimulants make mundane tasks like homework and laundry seem more worthwhile, which also explains why they calm restless children. Earlier work: Edmund Sonuga-Barke's 1992 experiment showed hyperactive children chose small immediate rewards mainly when it ended the experiment sooner (delay aversion); Russell Barkley's 'time blindness' and emotional self-regulation. The name may leave people who struggle with lateness, boredom and emotional volatility undiagnosed. Psychiatric consensus holds ADHD is a genuine condition with effective treatments; modern work and phones make it more disabling.

ADHD May Not Be a Problem of 'Attention' at All

HSK 1 level · 2:06

• 学习 (xuéxí) — to study
• 坐 (zuò) — to sit
• 名字 (míngzi) — name
• 医生 (yīshēng) — doctor
• 工作 (gōngzuò) — to work
• 知道 (zhīdào) — to know
• 孩子 (háizi) — child
• 药 (yào) — medicine

• verb + 不住 / 不下去 — Can't keep (sitting / going).
• 能不能……？ — Can you or can't you…?
• 可能不是…… — Might not be…

Get more from this episode at fluentide.com:

• Read the full interactive transcript — tap any word for instant pinyin + definition
• Toggle pinyin on/off above the Chinese text
• See the complete English translation side-by-side
• Save vocabulary to your personal word bank

Open this episode on Fluentide →

A surprise inspection on 23 September 2026 by Indonesia's Ombudsman at Cibinong prison, a medium-security prison near Jakarta, found inmates living in at least 10 staff housing units outside the prison with flat-screen TVs and a gym, expensive cars parked in the complex, a golf simulator under construction and an unguarded exit to an adjoining forest. Guards first barred the inspectors; an inmate admitted living in one unit. Five officials including the warden were suspended, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections' inspector general Rudi Setiawan announced; the director general of corrections told legislators 13 unregistered staff residences were found. Authorities are investigating whether inmates paid staff. Ombudsman member Syafrida Rachmawati Rasahan called it 'the tip of the iceberg'. Indonesian prisons are overcrowded and understaffed, with low-paid guards long accused of taking bribes; precedents include the 2017 Kerobokan tunnel escape in Bali and a 2018 finding that corruption convicts paid for VIP treatment.

Luxury Apartments Inside an Indonesian Prison: Big TVs, Fancy Cars and a Golf Simulator

HSK 1 level · 2:06

• 电视 (diànshì) — TV
• 家 (jiā) — home
• 工作 (gōngzuò) — to work
• 住 (zhù) — to live
• 钱 (qián) — money
• 回 (huí) — to return
• 监狱 (jiānyù) — prison
• 房子 (fángzi) — house

• 不让 + person + verb — Won't let someone do something.
• 是不是……？ — Is it the case that…? — a suspicious question.
• 可以 A，也可以 B — Can do A, and can also do B.

Get more from this episode at fluentide.com:

• Read the full interactive transcript — tap any word for instant pinyin + definition
• Toggle pinyin on/off above the Chinese text
• See the complete English translation side-by-side
• Save vocabulary to your personal word bank

Open this episode on Fluentide →

For 20 years citrus greening (huanglongbing), spread by the tiny Asian citrus psyllid, has ravaged Florida's orange groves: fruit drops unripe and tastes bitter, production (90%+ for juice) is down 95%, 60,000 acres (26% of what remained) went out of production last year and about half a million acres sit idle. Only four juice processors remain, down from 54 in the 1980s; the workforce more than halved from 2003-04 to 2020-21; US juice consumption is down by more than half. This year the EPA approved two technologies: Soilcea's Crispr-edited rootstock, thousands of times more resistant (approved in April; Nian Wang of the University of Florida identified the genes), and Silvec's harmless virus that continuously produces antibacterial peptides (levels up 100x, bacteria down at least 90%). Growers have ordered hundreds of thousands of resistant trees for spring planting; Agromillora is growing over a million; Florida has a $330m two-year support package. Juice oranges are two years away. Grower Phil Rucks of Frostproof diversified into blueberries and bamboo; grafter Gary Farmer calls it the first real hope in 20 years.

Citrus Greening Wiped Out 95% of Florida's Oranges. Can Gene Editing Bring Them Back?

HSK 1 level · 2:10

• 喝 (hē) — to drink
• 茶 (chá) — tea
• 水 (shuǐ) — water
• 工作 (gōngzuò) — to work
• 先生 (xiānsheng) — Mr., gentleman
• 买 (mǎi) — to buy
• 橙子 (chéngzi) — orange
• 橙汁 (chéngzhī) — orange juice

• A 是 B 做的 — A is made from B.
• ……的时候 — When…
• 能……吗？ — Can… ? — asks whether something is possible.

Get more from this episode at fluentide.com:

• Read the full interactive transcript — tap any word for instant pinyin + definition
• Toggle pinyin on/off above the Chinese text
• See the complete English translation side-by-side
• Save vocabulary to your personal word bank

Open this episode on Fluentide →