I've found a fun new Mandarin app. News stories are presented at various HSK levels (I'm at level 4), with an audio recording, grammar notes and a set of effective exercises on comprehension, vocabulary and sentence structure. They choose good stories, too! So far I've done:
长沙的一个矿井被改成了游乐园
Pit converted into amusement park in Changsha
一艘货船撞上黄浦江西岸
Cargo ship crashes into west bank of Huangpu River in Shanghai
羊奶粉在中国越来越受欢迎
Goat milk infant formula rises in popularity in China
上海两家公司因小笼包商标都将对方告上法庭
Shanghai companies enter legal battle over xiaolongbao trademark
天津一个图书馆的猫陪伴孤独的读者
Cats accompany lonely readers at Tianjin library
and, since not all entertaining news happens in China,
德国野猪成网红，粉丝救了它的命
German wild boar became internet star, fans saved its life
I didn't of course know most of the topical vocabulary for all these, but the app helps you out seamlessly, and I was able to figure out what was going on in all of them without difficulty... reading, at least. (Which isn't to say I got all the comprehension questions right the first time.) Listening comprehension is still the biggest challenge for me, though it must do something to listen a few times in a daze, read through the vocabulary, listen again, and then start of make sense of things.
I'm learning some important new words, like 新冠疫情 (xīnguān yìqíng), COVID-19 epidemic situation, and newsy phrases like 据了解 (jù
