Reading a lot of easy text does more for your vocabulary than reading a little hard text. Here is how to choose what to read, and two short texts to start with.
The night train
Level B1 · about 150 words
Anna had always wanted to travel by night train, so when she found a cheap ticket from Vienna to Venice, she booked it at once. The compartment was small but clean, with two narrow beds and a tiny window.
Her neighbour was an elderly man who worked as a piano tuner. He told her that he had made the same journey every month for thirty years, and that the view of the mountains at sunrise was the reason he never flew.
Anna doubted she would wake up in time, but at six o'clock he knocked on her door. Outside, the snow on the peaks was turning pink. She understood immediately why he kept coming back.
Questions
- Why did Anna choose this journey?
- What was her neighbour's job?
- Why did he prefer the train to flying?
Answers: she had always wanted to take a night train and found a cheap ticket · piano tuner · the view of the mountains at sunrise
A library without books
Level B2 · about 160 words
In a small town in the north of England, the public library did something unusual: it started lending objects instead of books. Residents can now borrow a drill, a sewing machine, a tent or even a ukulele for up to two weeks.
The idea came from a survey which found that most households owned tools they used only once or twice a year. Sharing them, the organisers argued, would save people money and reduce waste at the same time.
Not everyone was convinced at first. Some worried that items would be returned broken. In practice, the volunteers who run the scheme say damage is rare, and the most popular item, surprisingly, is a carpet cleaner.
Questions
- What can people borrow from this library?
- What problem did the survey reveal?
- What was the main concern at the beginning?
Answers: tools and other objects, e.g. a drill or a tent · people owned tools they rarely used · that items would come back broken