Listening (听力)
Listening (听力) is the first HSK 4 domain. At this level the cumulative vocabulary is about 3,245 words, so recordings are short but dense: everyday dialogues, announcements and short passages about study, work, travel, health and relationships. Items are multiple-choice and each recording is played once, so you must extract who, what, when, where, why and attitude in real time.
Core rules
- Track the second speaker's function: agreement, refusal, correction, suggestion or complaint. The answer usually sits there.
- Match meaning, not sound. Correct options paraphrase: 取消 → 不去了; 便宜 → 不贵; 迟到 → 没准时.
- Mark discourse signals: 但是/不过/其实 (contrast), 因为/所以 (cause), 要是/如果 (condition), 不如/还是 (advice), 可能/也许/不一定 (hedging).
- For numbers, note the figures as heard and calculate after the recording.
Worked example
男：你不是说明天去上海吗？怎么还在订去北京的票？ 女：上海那边的会议取消了，公司让我先去北京见客户。 Question: 女的为什么去北京？ A 开会 B 见客户 C 旅游 D 订票 你不是说...吗 shows the man is checking an earlier plan; 怎么 marks surprise at a change. 取消了 removes A; 让我...见客户 gives B. D repeats a word from the man's line but is not her purpose. Answer: B.
Traps
Hearing 上海 or 会议 and choosing A is the standard distractor: both are mentioned, but the meeting is cancelled. Options that repeat an exact word are often wrong; paraphrases are often right. Fast negation (不, 没, 别, 未) is easy to miss, and a final 不过 can overturn the first half. Relationship and place words (同事, 邻居, 医院, 银行) are usually stated once only.