Chinese reading texts by level
50 texts from 1 to 5, 6 666 words in all, with 185 comprehension questions. Each text shows how much of it is explained in this site’s vocabulary — calculated, not claimed.
1 (10)
1 · 58 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
A Day in Wang Ming’s Life
A student’s ordinary day, from breakfast to bedtime.
1 · 58 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
Buying Fruit
A short conversation at a fruit shop, with prices and change.
1 · 60 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
My Family
A girl introduces her family, one person at a time.
1 · 79 words · 1 min
StoryTravel
Anna in Beijing
A first day in a new city: a small hotel, a park and a cheap lunch.
1 · 66 words · 1 min
StoryWork
Teacher Zhang’s Day
A school day from seven in the morning to ten at night — and one empty chair.
1 · 77 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
Our New Flat
A walk through a new home, room by room.
1 · 56 words · 1 min
DialogueTravel
Where Is the Station?
A traveller asks the way, and the answer is not the one she hoped for.
1 · 67 words · 1 min
DialogueWork
First Day at the Café
A new barista learns the prices and the one question to ask every customer.
1 · 54 words · 1 min
MessageEveryday life
What Time Are You Home?
A chat between a mother and her daughter about dinner and a shopping errand.
1 · 59 words · 1 min
EmailEveryday life
Saturday Is My Birthday
An invitation by e-mail: a day, a time and one thing the guest should not do.
2 (10)
2 · 72 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
It Started to Rain
No umbrella, a heavy shower and a classmate who has two.
2 · 80 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
On the Underground
A wrong line, a helpful stranger and a late arrival.
2 · 81 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
Mum’s Birthday
Two children plan a surprise for their mother.
2 · 110 words · 1 min
StoryTravel
Lost in Shanghai
A student goes looking for a famous park, and his phone gives up on the way.
2 · 102 words · 1 min
StoryWork
A New Job
One month into a new job: a short ride to work, a talkative neighbour and Friday dumplings.
2 · 102 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
A Cold on Monday
A girl wakes up ill, sees a doctor and is not allowed to watch TV.
2 · 100 words · 1 min
DialogueTravel
At the Hotel Desk
Checking in: a passport, a key card and three questions every traveller asks.
2 · 80 words · 1 min
DialogueWork
A Day Off
A father asks his manager for a day off because his son is ill.
2 · 70 words · 1 min
MessageEveryday life
Shall We See a Film?
Two friends plan an evening by chat: a time, a place and who pays.
2 · 85 words · 1 min
EmailEveryday life
My New Life in Shanghai
An e-mail from a friend who moved to a big city two months ago.
3 (10)
3 · 117 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
Moving House
A new flat near work, and the neighbours who make it home.
3 · 122 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
At the Doctor’s
A cold, a day off work and some advice the narrator ignores.
3 · 112 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
Learning to Cook
Living alone for the first time, and a dish that goes wrong twice.
3 · 169 words · 1 min
StoryTravel
A Night on the Train
A long journey home before the Spring Festival, heavy snow and a box of dumplings shared with strangers.
3 · 153 words · 1 min
StoryWork
A Presentation Without a Computer
Two weeks of preparation, a room full of guests — and a computer that will not start.
3 · 149 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
The Missing Key
Locked out on a rainy night, a young man knocks on a door he has never knocked on before.
3 · 135 words · 1 min
DialogueTravel
To the Airport
A taxi ride against the clock, a shortcut and a compliment.
3 · 115 words · 1 min
DialogueEveryday life
Changing a Shirt
A shirt that is too small, a receipt that is lost and a colour that is sold out.
3 · 97 words · 1 min
MessageEveryday life
A Surprise for Xiaomei
Three flatmates plan a birthday surprise in a group chat — without the birthday girl.
3 · 132 words · 1 min
EmailWork
The Office Is Moving
A message to the whole team: a new floor, three boxes each and a free Friday morning.
4 (10)
4 · 139 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
The Lost Wallet
A wallet left in a taxi, and a driver who brings it back.
4 · 126 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
A Weekend in the Mountains
A hike planned as an easy day out, and the weather that changes it.
4 · 123 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
The Interview
Preparing for a job interview, and the one question that was not on the list.
4 · 225 words · 2 min
StoryTravel
The Guesthouse in the Hills
A trip to a mountain village, a host who pours tea and a story about what visitors bring with them.
4 · 197 words · 2 min
StoryWork
The Intern
A summer internship at an online shop, a wrong address and the sentence that made it into a notebook.
4 · 189 words · 2 min
StoryEveryday life
Grandpa’s New Phone
A seventy-eight-year-old, a phone he does not want and a grandchild who will not give up.
4 · 163 words · 1 min
DialogueTravel
The Flight Is Cancelled
Fog, an important meeting the next morning and two ways to get there in time — or not.
4 · 155 words · 1 min
DialogueWork
The Client Wants It Sooner
A manager, a designer and a programmer discuss a deadline that has just moved.
4 · 134 words · 1 min
MessageEveryday life
Grandma Turns Eighty
A family chat about a birthday: a restaurant or the living room, relatives or a photo.
4 · 157 words · 1 min
EmailEveryday life
Renovation Upstairs
A polite complaint to the building management about noise at the wrong hours.
5 (10)
5 · 177 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
Working from Home
What one office worker gained by working from home, and what she lost.
5 · 171 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
The Old Street
An old shopping street, its empty shops and an attempt to revive it.
5 · 161 words · 1 min
StoryEveryday life
What a Library Is For
A town library in an age of screens, seen from its reading room.
5 · 307 words · 3 min
StoryTravel
An Old City by Bicycle
A cycling tour through narrow lanes, an empty plot where a lane used to be and a question with no simple answer.
5 · 270 words · 2 min
StoryWork
The Bookshop
A bank employee gives up a safe job for a small bookshop — and has to find out what a bookshop is still for.
5 · 251 words · 2 min
StoryEveryday life
Letters in a Drawer
After a grandmother’s death, a box of letters shows a love nobody in the family had ever heard spoken.
5 · 275 words · 2 min
DialogueTravel
Planning a Trip Around the Crowds
Two travellers and an agent weigh a famous route against a quiet one — and a long bus ride.
5 · 222 words · 2 min
DialogueWork
The Year-End Talk
A manager and an employee look back at a year: praise, one habit to change and a new responsibility.
5 · 216 words · 2 min
MessageEveryday life
Buy or Rent?
Two friends weigh the parents’ offer of a deposit against the freedom to leave.
5 · 191 words · 2 min
EmailEveryday life
Weekend Volunteers Wanted
The neighbourhood library needs help on Saturdays and Sundays — and says exactly what it asks and what it offers.
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Learning words one at a time and practising grammar one point at a time is work on separate parts. A text is the first thing that needs both at once — and the only exercise where nobody tells you which rule is being tested.
What makes a graded text is a number: how much of it you already know at your level. If it is too low, reading turns into looking things up. Here that number is calculated for every text against this site’s vocabulary and shown with the text — together with the level that follows from it, next to the level on the label.
Every text is written for this site. Click a word to look it up without leaving the page.
What is measured here — and what is not
Coverage tells you about this site’s vocabulary, not about the text. If a text stands at 96 %, four words in a hundred are not explained anywhere here; they are then in the glossary next to the text.
The measured level can be below the stated one, and that is intentional. A set of minutes made up of perfectly ordinary words can be a very hard text — what makes it hard is the sentences they sit in. That is why the average sentence length is shown alongside.
Whether a text is good is measured by nobody here. That is for the reader to decide.