Рассказы на английском upper intermediate

World Folktales (Рассказы народов мира)

upper-intermediate

Эти девять историй проведут читателя в захватывающее путешествие к далеким культурам и временам. В сборник вошли сказки из Южной Америки, Африки, Индии, Китая и Европы.

Скачайте книгу с историями на английском языке Upper-Intermediate.

Original description

These nine stories will take the reader on an exciting journey to distant cultures and times. The collection includes folktales from South America, Africa, India, China, and Europe.

Метки: Andy Hopkins, Penguin Readers, Научные

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The Grass is Singing (Трава поет)

Doris Lessing

upper-intermediate

Увлекательная история жизни и трагической гибели Мэри Тернер, дочери английских колонистов, вышедшей замуж за фермера из Южной Родезии. Самый первый роман Дорис Лессинг, лауреата Нобелевской премии в области литературы за 2007 год, моментально принесший начинающей писательнице всемирную известность.

Скачайте книгу на английском языке Upper-Intermediate.

Original description

Set in Southern Rhodesia under white rule, Doris Lessing’s first novel is at once a riveting chronicle of human disintegration, a beautifully understated social critique, and a brilliant depiction of the quiet horror of one woman’s struggleagainst a ruthless fate.

Mary Turner is a self-confident, independent young woman who becomes the depressed, frustrated wife of an ineffectual, unsuccessful farmer. Little by little the ennui of years on the farm works its slow poison. Mary’s despair progresses until the fateful arrival of Moses, an enigmatic, virile black servant. Locked in anguish, Mary and Moses—master and slave—are trapped in a web of mounting attraction and repulsion, until their psychic tension explodes with devastating consequences.

Метки: Doris Lessing, Penguin Readers, Романы

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Prime Suspect (Главный подозреваемый)

Lynda La Plante

upper-intermediate

Быть детективом из Нью-Йоркского отдела убийств уже нелегко, а Джейн Тимони еще сложней – ей приходится добиваться уважения у коллег-мужчин. Она новичок, которого только что перевели в отдел, которым заправляет мужской шовинизм. Тимони тоже не идеальна, у нее темное прошлое, она груба и пренебрегает правилами. Но в первую очередь она отличный коп, который всегда следит за главным – за главным подозреваемым.

Скачайте интересную книгу на английском языке по которой снят сериал для уровня подготовки Upper-Intermediate.

Original description

An international bestseller, Lynda La Plante’s thrilling detective novel Prime Suspect introduced readers around the world to Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison, a gritty investigator locked in a tooth-and-nail struggle to claim the authority, acceptance, and respect she deserves from Scotland Yard’s chauvinist detective squad—even as she desperately tracks the maniac now running loose in the streets of London. Fans of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone books and the work of Kathy Reichs or Karin Slaughter will be immediately drawn to La Plante’s Jane Tennison, the remarkable, no-nonsense police woman who laid the groundwork for all the rest who followed.

Метки: Lynda La Plante, Penguin Readers, Детективы

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On the Road (На дороге)

Jack Kerouac

upper-intermediate

После смерти отца начинающий нью-йоркский писатель Сэл Парадайз знакомится с молодым и очаровательным Дином Мориарти, только что вышедшим из тюрьмы и женатым на соблазнительной красотке Марилу. Они мгновенно становятся неразлучными друзьями. Стремясь к свободе, Сэл, Дин и Марилу порывают с условностями жизни и отправляются в путешествие навстречу миру, людям и самим себе.

Скачайте интересную книгу на английском языке для уровня подготовки Upper-Intermediate.

Original description

Inspired by Jack Kerouac’s adventures with Neal Cassady, On the Road tells the story of two friends whose cross-country road trips are a quest for meaning and true experience. Written with a mixture of sad-eyed naivete and wild ambition and imbued with Kerouac’s love of America, his compassion for humanity, and his sense of language as jazz, On the Road is the quintessential American vision of freedom and hope, a book that changed American literature and changed anyone who has ever picked it up.

Метки: Jack Kerouac, Penguin Readers, Приключения

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The Long Goodbye (Долгое прощание)

Raymond Chandler

upper-intermediate

Очередное захватывающее расследование частного детектива. И если раньше на пороге его пыльной конторы возникал клиент с проблемой и в руках Марлоу оказывалось новое дело, то в этот раз он сам практически с тротуара его подбирает и везёт к себе домой.

Скачайте книгу с историями на английском языке Upper-Intermediate.

Original description

In noir master Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye, Philip Marlowe befriends a down on his luck war veteran with the scars to prove it. Then he finds out that Terry Lennox has a very wealthy nymphomaniac wife, whom he divorced and remarried and who ends up dead. And now Lennox is on the lam and the cops and a crazy gangster are after Marlowe.

Метки: Penguin Readers, Raymond Chandler, Детективы

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Great Expectations (Большие надежды)

Charles Dickens

upper-intermediate

Когда юный Финн впервые увидел прекрасную Эстеллу, сердце его разбилось. Несмотря на предсказание, гласящее о том, что страсть к Эстелле не принесет ему ничего хорошего, Финн поклялся завоевать прекрасную девушку.

Годы спустя, стараниями таинственного благодетеля, молодой художник Финн оказывается в Лондоне, где опять встречает свою неразделенную любовь. Но в тот самый момент, когда Финн снова увидит свою возлюбленную, сбудутся все его самые смелые мечты, как, впрочем, и самые сокровенные страхи.

Original description

A terrifying encounter with the escaped convict Abel Magwitch in a graveyard on the wild Kent marshes; a summons to meet the bitter, decrepit Miss Havisham and her beautiful, cold-hearted ward Estella at Satis House; the sudden generosity of a mysterious benefactor — these form a series of events that change the orphaned Pip’s life forever, and he eagerly abandons his humble station as an apprentice to blacksmith Joe Gargery, beginning a new life as a gentleman. Charles Dickens’s haunting late novel depicts Pip’s education and development through adversity as he discovers the true nature of his identity, and his ‘great expectations’. This definitive version uses the text from the first published edition of 1861.

Метки: Charles Dickens, Penguin Readers, Классика, Романы

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Misery (Мизери)

Stephen King

upper-intermediate

Пол Шелдон. Он создатель книг-бестселлеров, который наконец-то встретил своего фаната. Ее зовут Энни Уилкс и она больше, чем ярый читатель — она медсестра Пола, ухаживающая за ним после автомобильной аварии. Но она также его тюремщик, который держит его в плену в своем доме.

Теперь Энни хочет, чтобы Пол написал его новое величайшее произведение — только для нее. У нее есть много способов, чтобы заставить егого. Один — это игла. Другой — топор. И если они не сработают, она может рассердиться.

Original description

Paul Sheldon. He’s a bestselling novelist who has finally met his biggest fan. Her name is Annie Wilkes and she is more than a rabid reader—she is Paul’s nurse, tending his shattered body after an automobile accident. But she is also his captor, keeping him prisoner in her isolated house.

Now Annie wants Paul to write his greatest work—just for her. She has a lot of ways to spur him on. One is a needle. Another is an ax. And if they don’t work, she can get really nasty.

Метки: Penguin Readers, Stephen King, Романы

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В изучении английского языка очень важно постоянно читать. Чтение развивает понимание структуры языка и расширяет словарный запас. Специально для целей обучения издаются так называемые адаптированные тексты или рассказы, которые подходят под определенный уровень владения английским — начинающий (beginner), элементарный (elementary), средний (intermediate), выше среднего (upper-intermediate), advanced (продвинутый). Мы приводим примеры таких текстов c параллельным переводом.

Подробнее об уровнях владения английским языком вы можете прочитать в нашей статье, а также пройти диагностический тест.

Уровень A1 (Beginner)

Это базовый или начальный уровень изучения английского. Здесь самая простая грамматика и лексика, темы рассказов описывают простейшие бытовые ситуации и дают основную информацию о человеке.

My day

First, I wake up. Then, I get dressed. I walk to school. I do not ride a bike. I do not ride the bus. I like to go to school. It rains. I do not like rain. I eat lunch. I eat a sandwich and an apple.

I play outside. I like to play. I read a book. I like to read books. I walk home. I do not like walking home. My mother cooks soup for dinner. The soup is hot. Then, I go to bed. I do not like to go to bed.

Our Vacation

Every year we go to Florida. We like to go to the beach. My favorite beach is called Emerson Beach. It is very long, with soft sand and palm trees. It is very beautiful. I like to make sandcastles and watch the sailboats go by. Sometimes there are dolphins and whales in the water!

Every morning we look for shells in the sand. I found fifteen big shells last year. I put them in a special place in my room. This year I want to learn to surf. It is hard to surf, but so much fun! My sister is a good surfer. She says that she can teach me. I hope I can do it!

My name is John

Hi! Nice to meet you! My name is John Smith. I am 19 and a student in college. I go to college in New York. My favorite courses are Geometry, French, and History. English is my hardest course. My professors are very friendly and smart. It’s my second year in college now. I love it!

I live in a big house on Ivy Street. It’s near the college campus. I share the house with three other students. Their names are Bill, Tony, and Paul. We help each other with homework. On the weekend, we play football together.

I have a younger brother. He just started high school. He is 14 and lives with my parents. They live on Mulberry Street in Boston. Sometimes they visit me in New York. I am happy when they visit. My Mom always brings me sweets and candy when they come. I really miss them, too!

Уровень A2 (Elementary)

Чуть более сложная грамматика и более разнообразная лексика. Больше времен, предложения становятся сложнее, а темы разнообразнее и детальнее.

At school

Lucas goes to school every day of the week. He has many subjects to go to each school day: English, art, science, mathematics, gym, and history. His mother packs a big backpack full of books and lunch for Lucas.

His first class is English, and he likes that teacher very much. His English teacher says that he is a good pupil, which Lucas knows means that she thinks he is a good student.

His next class is art. He draws on paper with crayons and pencils and sometimes uses a ruler. Lucas likes art. It is his favorite class.

His third class is science. This class is very hard for Lucas to figure out, but he gets to work with his classmates a lot, which he likes to do. His friend, Kyle, works with Lucas in science class, and they have fun.

Then Lucas gets his break for lunch. He sits with Kyle while he eats. The principal, or the headmaster as some call him, likes to walk around and talk to students during lunch to check that they are all behaving.

The next class is mathematics, which most of the students just call math. Kyle has trouble getting a good grade in mathematics, but the teacher is very nice and helpful.

His fourth class is gym. It is just exercising.

History is his last class of the day Lucas has a hard time staying awake. Many lessons are boring, and he is very tired after doing gym.

Going to a restaurant

Sandra and Paul are at a steak restaurant. A waiter greets them.

«Do you know what you would like to drink?» the waiter asks.
“Water and orange juice,” Sandra says.
«Thank you. Here are your menus,» the waiter says.

The waiter brings water for Paul and orange juice for Sandra.

«What would you like to order?» the waiter asks.
«I would like a 12-ounce steak and mashed potatoes,» Paul says.
«The same thing, but with green beans,» Sandra says.
«And two orders of garlic bread,» Paul says.
«Great. You should have it in soon,» the waiter says.

The waiter returns after an hour.

“Sorry for your wait. Here are two orders of 12-ounce steaks with mashed potatoes and garlic bread,” the waiter says.
«I asked for green beans with mine,» Sandra says.
«I’m sorry, I’ll get those for you,» the waiter says.

The waiter quickly returns with Sandra’s green beans.

Letter to a Friend

Hi, Fred!

It’s been a while since we have been in touch. How has your semester been?

I wanted to send you an email update to you let you know how things have been going during my semester abroad here in Málaga, Spain. I’ve already been here for six weeks, and I feel like I am finally adapting to the culture. I’m also speaking the language more fluently.

I arrived during the first week of September. The weather has been very nice. Even though it’s October, it’s still rather sunny and warm. In fact, I went to the beach and swam in the Mediterranean Sea earlier today.

I am living with a very welcoming host family. I have my own private bedroom, but we eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner together. On Sundays, we eat a big home-cooked paella for lunch. In Spain, lunch is usually the biggest meal of the day. It’s also very common for the people to take a midday nap right after a big meal. I am actually just waking up from my nap right now!

On weekdays, I take classes at the local university. There, I met several native Spanish speakers. They have been very kind and patient with me. At first, I struggled to comprehend their Spanish, but now I understand most of our conversations. They have commented that my Spanish has improved a lot since we first met. Now, I am more confident to use the language in other places like stores and restaurants.

I am so glad that I decided to spend the semester here in Spain. We have an extended weekend coming up, so a group of my friends and I are going to travel to France for four days. It’s so easy and inexpensive to travel internationally in Europe. I love it!

I look forward to hearing from you soon. Like I said, don’t hesitate to stay in touch more often. Perhaps you could even come to visit! What do you think?

Best wishes,
Patrick

Уровень B1 (Intermediate)

Это так называемый средний или пороговый уровень. Он предполагает способность общаться и воспринимать информацию на английском в большинстве бытовых ситуаций, без помощи словаря или переводчика.

Chicago

Keith recently came back from a trip to Chicago, Illinois. This midwestern metropolis is found along the shore of Lake Michigan. During his visit, Keith spent a lot of time exploring the city to visit important landmarks and monuments.

Keith loves baseball, and he made sure to take a visit to Wrigley Field. Not only did he take a tour of this spectacular stadium, but he also got to watch a Chicago Cubs game. In the stadium, Keith and the other fans cheered for the Cubs. Keith was happy that the Cubs won with a score of 5-4.

Chicago has many historic places to visit. Keith found the Chicago Water Tower impressive as it is one of the few remaining landmarks to have survived the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Keith also took a walk through Jackson Park, a great outdoor space that hosted the World’s Fair of 1892. The park is great for a leisurely stroll, and it still features some of the original architecture and replicas of monuments that were featured in the World’s Fair.

During the last part of his visit, Keith managed to climb the stairs inside of the Willis Tower, a 110-story skyscraper. Despite the challenge of climbing the many flights of stairs, Keith felt that reaching the top was worth the effort. From the rooftop, Keith received a gorgeous view of the city’s skyline with Lake Michigan in the background.

Going to work in the morning

My job is a long distance from my home, almost 50 miles away. I have to wake up early every morning, as I’m always in a rush. There’s never enough time for a relaxed breakfast. At exactly 6:00 AM, I get into my car and start the long drive.

I usually like driving on the highway more than in the city. During the morning rush hour, though, it’s not very enjoyable. The heavy traffic is a little bit annoying. So I always listen to my favorite classical music CD’s in the car – Chopin, Mozart, and Bach. That cheers me up a lot.

The drive to work takes about one hour. Going back home in the evening after work takes even longer, maybe around 70 minutes. Lately I’ve been thinking about trying to take the train to work instead of driving. That way, I could still listen to my music with headphones, and even read a novel at the same time.

Уровень B2 (Upper-Intermediate)

На этом уровне говорящий уже может рассуждать и читать более абстрактные и специальные тексты, понимать устойчивые выражения, юмор и скрытый смысл.

Boston

Jean and her family recently traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, one of America’s oldest colonial cities. Boston is rich in history and local personality. During their visit, Jean and her family appreciated learning about Boston’s role during the American Revolution.

In the city, Jean and her family followed the famous Freedom Trail. This is a 2.5-mile route that tourists can explore in order to visit 16 different historical landmarks located throughout the city. Famous sites on this trail include the Paul Revere House, King’s Chapel, and the Bunker Hill Memorial. Jean and her family received a map to navigate the Freedom Trail. The roads were clearly marked by red lines, and there were signs throughout the city to keep Jean’s family and other tourists from getting lost.

As part of the Freedom Trail, Jean and her family spent a lot of time in Boston’s North End. This is one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in the entire country. Here, Jean and her family were able to visit Boston Harbor, which is the site of the historical Boston Tea Party. This event sent a strong message to the British leading up to the American Revolution.

The end of the Freedom Trail led Jean and her Family to the Boston Common, the oldest urban park in the nation. The park is filled with plenty of lush greenery, but it also serves as a burial ground for heroes of the American Revolution.

Because of their walk along the historical Freedom Trail, Jean and her family left Boston with a thorough understanding of early American history.

Amazon adventurer

Ed Stafford from the UK is the first person to walk the length of the Amazon River. He started by a small stream in the Andes mountains of Peru and arrived at the river’s mouth in Brazil, two years and four months later, having walked 6,000 kilometres.

The Amazon rainforest is home to poisonous snakes, crocodiles and jaguars, so Ed was in constant danger. Luckily, he survived with nothing worse than a few thousand mosquito and ant bites. On his trip, Ed had to find food to eat every day. A lot of the time, the fruit, nuts and fish he ate were hard to find and he often felt weak and exhausted.

Ed’s walk would have been impossible without technology. He used a radio to ask the people of the rainforest for food and permission to cross their land. Many of them came to meet him and helped guide him through the most difficult terrain. As he walked Ed wrote a blog, recording his day-to-day experiences. He used the media interest in his trip to protest about the destruction of the rainforest and raise money for environmental and children’s charities in Brazil and Peru.

Do dreams predict the future?

Throughout history and across cultures, dreams have been associated with prophecy. People thought dreams were messages from the gods, sent to give us knowledge or insight. Even today, many people can recall a time they dreamed about an event, place or person and then, later, the dream came true in real life. But if most people have four to six dreams every night after the age of ten, that’s as many as 2,000 dreams per year. So, by the time they reach 80 years old the average person might have had 140,000 dreams. Even if we forget 95–99 per cent of our dreams, that’s still a few thousand remembered dreams across a lifetime.

It’s not too difficult to believe that, by coincidence, a dream event is followed by a real-life event that’s similar to it, especially if the subject of the dream is something that happens often in everyday life. Dreams of a phone call from an old friend or the death of someone close, for example, are more likely to be the result of coincidence than prophecy. And, of course, we probably choose to forget all the times we dream about such events but they don’t happen.

Уровень C1 (Advanced)

Свободное общение на английском практически в любой ситуации, от бытовой до учебы в университете и работы в полностью английской среде с носителями языка.

Sustainable supermarkets

Many of the major supermarket chains have come under fire with accusations of various unethical acts over the past decade. They’ve wasted tonnes of food, they’ve underpaid their suppliers and they’ve contributed to excessive plastic waste in their packaging, which has had its impact on our environment.

But supermarkets and grocers are starting to sit up and take notice. In response to growing consumer backlash against the huge amounts of plastic waste generated by plastic packaging, some of the largest UK supermarkets have signed up to a pact promising to transform packaging and cut plastic wastage. In a pledge to reuse, recycle or compost all plastic wastage by 2025, supermarkets are now beginning to take some responsibility for the part they play in contributing to the damage to our environment, with one major supermarket announcing their plan to eliminate all plastic packaging in their own-brand products by 2023.

In response to criticisms over food waste, some supermarkets are donating some of their food surplus. However, charities estimate that they are only accessing two per cent of supermarkets’ total food surplus, so this hardly seems to be solving the problem. Some say that supermarkets are simply not doing enough. Most supermarkets operate under a veil of secrecy when asked for exact figures of food wastage, and without more transparency it is hard to come up with a systematic approach to avoiding waste and to redistributing surplus food.

Some smaller companies are now taking matters into their own hands and offering consumers a greener, more environmentally friendly option. Shops like Berlin’s Original Unverpakt and London’s Bulk Market are plastic-free shops that have opened in recent years, encouraging customers to use their own containers or compostable bags. Online grocer Farmdrop eliminates the need for large warehouses and the risk of huge food surplus by delivering fresh produce from local farmers to its customers on a daily basis via electric cars, offering farmers the lion’s share of the retail price.

There is no doubt that we still have a long way to go in reducing food waste and plastic waste. But perhaps the major supermarkets might take inspiration from these smaller grocers and gradually move towards a more sustainable future for us all.

A threat to bananas

In the 1950s, Central American commercial banana growers were facing the death of their most lucrative product, the Gros Michel banana, known as Big Mike. And now it’s happening again to Big Mike’s successor – the Cavendish.

With its easily transported, thick-skinned and sweet-tasting fruit, the Gros Michel banana plant dominated the plantations of Central America. United Fruit, the main grower and exporter in South America at the time, mass-produced its bananas in the most efficient way possible: it cloned shoots from the stems of plants instead of growing plants from seeds, and cultivated them in densely packed fields.

Unfortunately, these conditions are also perfect for the spread of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense, which attacks the plant’s roots and prevents it from transporting water to the stem and leaves. The TR-1 strain of the fungus was resistant to crop sprays and travelled around on boots or the tyres of trucks, slowly infecting plantations across the region. In an attempt to escape the fungus, farmers abandoned infected fields, flooded them and then replanted crops somewhere else, often cutting down rainforest to do so.

Their efforts failed. So, instead, they searched for a variety of banana that the fungus didn’t affect. They found the Cavendish, as it was called, in the greenhouse of a British duke. It wasn’t as well suited to shipping as the Gros Michel, but its bananas tasted good enough to keep consumers happy. Most importantly, TR-1 didn’t seem to affect it. In a few years, United Fruit had saved itself from bankruptcy by filling its plantations with thousands of the new plants, copying the same monoculture growing conditions Gros Michel had thrived in.

While the operation was a huge success for the Latin American industry, the Cavendish banana itself is far from safe. In 2014, South East Asia, another major banana producer, exported four million tons of Cavendish bananas. But, in 2015, its exports had dropped by 46 per cent thanks to a combination of another strain of the fungus, TR-4, and bad weather.

Growing practices in South East Asia haven’t helped matters. Growers can’t always afford the expensive lab-based methods to clone plants from shoots without spreading the disease. Also, they often aren’t strict enough about cleaning farm equipment and quarantining infected fields. As a result, the fungus has spread to Australia, the Middle East and Mozambique – and Latin America, heavily dependent on its monoculture Cavendish crops, could easily be next.

Racing against the inevitable, scientists are working on solving the problem by genetically modifying the Cavendish with genes from TR-4-resistant banana species. Researchers at the Queensland University of Technology have successfully grown two kinds of modified plant which have remained resistant for three years so far. But some experts think this is just a sophisticated version of the same temporary solution the original Cavendish provided. If the new bananas are planted in the same monocultures as the Cavendish and the Gros Michel before it, the risk is that another strain of the disease may rise up to threaten the modified plants too.

Адаптированная литература на английском

Закажите адаптированные книги на английском и развивайтесь с удовольствием. Наша коллекция включает как лучшие классические, так и современные произведения.

«A Portrait of his son» is a short story that tells us about our parents’ love. It is touching and a bit sad. The story is adapted for the intermediate level and attached with the translation into Russian (for subscribers). It has a surprising end and you are sure to enjoy reading it on a Christmas evening and not only.

Here are 20 words to know before reading the story: to share, passion, to serve, fellow, miserable, depressed, package, genius, features, expression, striking, posession, to value, auction, gift, to gather, list, to care, stuff, to reply.

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Короткий рассказ «The Black Cat» (Черный кот) известного американского писателя Эдгара По, рассказы которого относится к жанру horror stories. Это страшная история про кота, рассказанная от имени ожидающего смерти убийцы своей жены. История о том, как добрый человек, любивший животных, под влиянием алкоголя постепенно превращается в садиста, а затем убийцу. Этот рассказ  имеет сходство с другим рассказом Эдгара По «The Tell-Tale Heart» (Сердце-обличитель), в котором человек, совершивший преступление, сам не позволяет себе остаться безнаказанным и в порыве безрассудства выдает себя. Рассказ «Черный кот»  предлагается для чтения на английском языке также и в более упрощенном варианте —Edgar Poe. The Black Cat (for beginners).

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Enjoy reading the most well-known short story by Edgar Poe «The Black Cat» from the collection of  stories by Edgar Poe. This is a horror story about a man who was becoming evil under the influence of drinking alchohol. Through life his character changed completely and in the end he became the murderer. At first he killed his favourite pet, the black cat, but the dead cat started to take revenge … In the end it helped to reveal the most cruel murder.

The story is adapted and is easy to read. While reading online, you can learn the words you don’t know.

There is a more difficult version of the story «The Black Cat (intermediate)». Enjoy learning English through the classics!

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Полный горькой иронии рассказ американского писателя Шервуда Андерсона о своем детстве, несомненно, понравится изучающим английский язык. Этот рассказ рекомендуется для чтения на английском языке студентам и взрослым на уровне intermediate. Рассказ разделен 10 частей и к каждой части дается 7 слов  для изучения. А значит ваш словарный запас увеличится на 70 слов (Английские слова для изучения к рассказу «The Egg»). Слова для понимания, а также употребительные грамматические конструкции для изучения выделены в тексте.

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This is one more story by Jack London from the collection of «Stories in English for pre-intermediate». The story «The Apostate» is about a boy whose childhood is very similar to Jack London’s. It tells us about the life of children in America at the end of the 19th century. Hunger, exhaustion and labor were their destiny at that time.

The text of the story is divided into 8 parts, each of them has 7 new words to learn.

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Продолжаем публиковать книги на английском языке для начинающих (уровни beginners and intermediate). Сегодня изучающих английский язык ждет увлекательная история о волшебной бутылке, автором которой является классик английской литературы, великий шотландский писатель Роберт Стивенсон. В этой истории автор предлагает читателю разгадать некий логический парадокс, который так и называется парадокс «волшебной бутылки».

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This is one of the most unusual stories by Jack London. The text is adapted for the intermediate level. Also you can read the original text of the story online  — The Leopard Man’s Story (in English, in the original). 

After you have read the story up to the end, please answer the question: «Why did the old tame Augustus crunch down?» If you can’t answer it, you had better read the story once more. Enjoy reading adapted stories in English!

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This most famous story by O. Henry «The Gift of the Magi» is something special. It is written by him to remind us about love and sacrifice and not only on Christmas day but ever.

The story has recorded and adapted for the intermediate level by VOA. You can read and listen to «The Gift of the Magi» online. If you study the Russian language, there is the translation of the story in its abriged version. You are welcome!

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Хотите читать классику на английском? Это легко! И серия «Легко читаем по-английски» предлагает целую коллекцию авторов, английских и американских писателей. Сегодня предлагаю начать с изучения творчества шотландского писателя Оскара Уайльда и его самого известного произведения  «Портрет Дориана Грея» (Oscar Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Gray»). Книги адаптирована до уровня upper-intermediate. Первая глава книги выложена в открытый доступ! Успехов в чтении!

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Продолжаем чтение английской классики, на этот раз мы подготовили для вас адаптированный короткий рассказ на английском языке «Лампа» (уровень средний — pre-intermediate), автором которого является Агата Кристи. (Все книги и рассказы Агаты Кристи — полный список). Сюжет рассказа повествует о семье, которая арендовала за подозрительно низкую плату старинный мрачный особняк. Радость от выгодной сделки постепенно сменяется чувством недоумения, а потом и страхом… Как вы уже заметили рассказ в стиле Агаты Кристи. Мы же совмещаем приятное с полезным и читаем это захватывающее и будоражащее кровь произведение на английском языке, учим и запоминаем новые слова. Напоминаем, что все сложные выражения вы найдете в списке слов для понимания. А список слов для изучения советуем выучить до того, как приступите к чтению.

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Английский писатель Артур Конан Дойль не нуждается в представлении. Его рассказы любят и читают до сих пор.  (The Biography of Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). Детективы Артура Конан Дойля отличаются четким  дедуктивным анализом, что дает читателю возможность, следя за рассуждениями известного сыщика Шерлока Холмса, самому принимать участие в ходе расследования. Сегодня изучающих английский язык ждут рассказы уровня intemediate, а именно один из его лучших рассказов, в котором мы вслед за автором отправимся на южное побережье Англии и займемся разгадкой одного таинственного убийства. Итак, начинаем читать  рассказ на английском языке, который называется «Львиная грива» (Приключения Львиной гривы / The Adventures of the Lion’s Mane). Рассказ адаптирован до уровня intermediate — средний.

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Сегодня читаем короткие рассказы на английском языке.  Рассказ Рэя Брэдбери  «Крик из-под земли» (Ray Bradbury «The Screaming Woman») адаптирован до  уровня СРЕДНИЙ (intermediate), стиль автора полностью сохранен. Рассказ «The Screaming Woman» не самый известный из рассказов Рей Брэдбери, но сюжет его просто захватывающий, при том, что повествование ведется от имени десятилетней девочки. Конец рассказа ОЧЕНЬ неожиданный.

Рассказ разделен на 8 небольших частей и к каждой части прилагаются слова для изучения и комментарии. Изучайте английский язык с нами. Удачи!

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Аудиокниги на английском языке с текстом и заданиями

Приступаем к изучению творчества Чарльза Диккенса. Мы начинаем читать и слушать на английском языке один из его  интереснейших романов, который называется «Большие ожидания». Иногда можно встретить. такой перевод названия: «Большие надежды». Текст аудиокниги Great Expectations адаптирован и относится к уровню СРЕДНИЙ (Intermediate). Рекомендуем для изучающих английский язык. Слова для изучения, а также сложные конструкции и обороты выделены. Глава 1 «Человек на кладбище».

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