"It's the subway company calling," Gail turned to face the rest of us, phone dangling from her outstretched hand. "They want to know when the new floor cleaners will arrive." This announcement was met by leaden silence from the rest of us....

So - yes - if you're looking for industrial cleaning equipment you're in the wrong place. But if you're planning to take the HSK test and are looking for specialized test preparation materials to learn Chinese, Popup Chinese is the place. These reading exercises for the Beginner HSK fall somewhere between our elementary and intermediate lessons in terms of the difficulty of the content. On a real exam you will have twelve and a half minutes to complete them by skimming each of the passages and answering the questions which follow. Test yourself and see how quickly you can do it.

HSK Tip #28: you will not have accompanying audio for the reading passages on the real HSK exam. We include the extra audio materials here for those of you looking for an extra challenge. And if you can answer these questions only from listening to the audio? You're a definite star and should promote yourself to intermediate right away.