Level 6 · Lesson 17

生活、机会和消息
Life, chances and news

听说你要去上海工作，这是一个很好的机会。

Report what you heard with 听说, and hear how the short sentences of a news report differ from talk.

听 · Listen

一个好消息
 李明 —  安娜，听说你要去上海工作？ 
Anna, I hear you're going to Shanghai to work?  
 安娜 —  你也听说了？这个消息真快。 
You've heard as well? That news travelled fast.  
 李明 —  是真的吗？那是一个很好的机会。 
Is it true? That's a very good opportunity.  
 安娜 —  是真的。虽然有一点儿累，但是我很高兴。我的生活会有很大的变化。 
It's true. It'll be tiring, but I'm delighted. My life is going to change a lot.  
 李明 —  我今天早上看了报纸，报纸上也有上海的新闻。 
I read the paper this morning — there was news about Shanghai in it too.  
 安娜 —  新闻上怎么说？ 
What did the report say?  
 李明 —  你看新闻就知道，新闻很短，一句话就是一件事。 
Read the news and you'll see: it's short, one sentence to one fact.  
 安娜 —  那我以后每天看一点儿新闻，这也是学汉语的好机会。 
Then I'll read a bit of news every day — that's a good chance to practise Chinese too.  

讲解 · Explanation

听说你要去上海工作。我听朋友说，那儿的机会很多。

听说 opens a whole sentence and marks everything after it as second-hand. It needs no subject at all — bare 听说…… is the normal form, and it deliberately names no source. When you do want to name one, split the word around it: 我听朋友说, 我听老师说. Do not confuse 听说 with 听见 from l05-05: 听见 is your ear catching a sound, 听说 is information reaching you. And note the 了 in 你也听说了 — it marks that the hearing has happened, not that it is past.

这是一个好消息。报纸上有一条新闻。

消息 is one item of information passed from person to person — a good 消息, a bad 消息, the thing you would text a friend. 新闻 is news as the media report it, and it is what you 看 (看新闻, 看报纸), not what you 听说. Their measure words differ from each other's: 一个消息 or 一条消息, 一条新闻, 一份报纸. 生活 is both the noun 'life' and the verb 'to live': 我的生活 and 我在上海生活.

新闻很短：时间在前，事情在后，没有吗、吧、呢。

Listen to a bulletin and you will hear a different register from the dialogue above. The time expression comes first, the fact follows, nothing is repeated, and the little particles that make speech warm — 吗, 吧, 呢, 啊 — disappear completely, because a report asks nothing and suggests nothing. 昨天下午，上海下了大雨 is a news sentence; 昨天下午上海下大雨了吧？ is a conversation.

生词 · Vocabulary

词	Meaning	注 · Note
听说	to hear that, it is said that	听说……; 我听朋友说……
生活	life; to live	我的生活; 在上海生活
机会	chance, opportunity	一个机会; 好机会
消息	a piece of news, information	一个消息; second syllable neutral
新闻	the news, a news item	一条新闻; 看新闻
报纸	newspaper	一份报纸; 看报纸

练习 · Practice

安娜要去上海。 You did not see it yourself — someone told you. Which is right?

报纸上有一______新闻。 Which measure word goes with 新闻?

______你下个月要去北京，是真的吗？ Fill in 'I hear that…'.

排一排。 Arrange the words: 'This is a very good opportunity.'

听说、生活、机会、消息、新闻、报纸 Match each word to its meaning.

用一用 · Use it

说三个消息：听说……。然后把一个消息说成新闻。

Say three things you have heard lately, each opening with 听说 — about a friend, about your city, about the weather. Then take one of them and say it twice: first the warm way, to a friend (听说小王要结婚了，真的吗？), and then the way a bulletin would, time first and no particles (下个月，小王结婚). Hearing your own voice change register is the point of the exercise.