Tag: reading

The Hurricane Hunters

(After E. Myers)

All along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, from August till November, meteorologists watch for hurricanes, which are very dangerous storms. The wind in a hurricane blows round and round in a spiral. In the centre of a hurricane there is a small area known as “eye” where there is good weather. Usually hurricanes are given girl’s names like Carla, Betsy and Camille. A hurricane is really a very strong tropical cyclone. The girl’s name is used for radio communication. Easy-to-remember names help operators not to make mistakes during radio talks about the movements of a hurricane.

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Mistaken Identity

(After Mark Twain)

Years ago I arrived one day at Salamanca near New York, where I was to change trains and take the sleeper. There were a lot of people on the platform, and they were all trying to get into the long sleeper train which was already packed.

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The Last Leaf

(After O. Henry)
(Level of difficulty: 5 of 10)

SUE and Johnsy were poor artists who lived in a little New York district west of Washington Square. They painted pictures which they hoped to sell. Their studio was on the third floor of an old brick house.

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Violinist In The Metro

A man sat at a metro station in Washington D. C. and started to play the violin [ˌvaɪəˈlɪn]; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that thousands of people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

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Uncle Tom Saves a Little Girl

A large river-boat was going down the Mississippi on its way to New Orleans. One of the passengers on the boat was a young gentleman, St. Clare by name. He had with him a daughter between five and six years of age. The child was so beautiful that people turned and looked after her as she went by.

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Five O’clock Tea

If you are invited to an English home, at five o’clock in the morning you get a cup of tea. You must not say ‘Go away’. On the contrary, you have to say, with your best five o’clock smile, ‘Thank you so much. I love a cup of early morning tea, especially early in the morning.’

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Scarlett

In 1996, a stray calico cat named Scarlett became a true legend in Brooklyn. When a fire broke out in an abandoned garage, she did the unthinkable — walking through flames five separate times to rescue each of her five kittens.

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Old Teacher

An old man meets a young man who asks:

“Do you remember me?”

And the old man says no. Then the young man tells him he was his student, and the teacher asks:

“What do you do, what do you do in life?”

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