Reading in English at level B1

You understand clear texts in standard language on topics you know: work, leisure, travel. You follow the description of events, feelings and wishes in a personal letter.

• A1
• A2
• B1
• B2
• C1

This is how each text begins at level B1:

• Short story · Oscar WildeThe Canterville Ghost

  When Mr Hiram Otis, the American Minister, bought Canterville Chase, everyone told him he was making a mistake, because the house was haunted.

• CustomConkers: a string, a nut and a long October

  Walk through a British park in October and you will hear a soft thud in the grass. It is a green ball, covered in spikes, falling from a horse chestnut tree. If you press it with your boot, it splits open, and inside lies a seed so glossy that it looks polished: the conker.

• CustomDogger, Fisher, German Bight: the Shipping Forecast

  Turn on BBC Radio 4 just before one o'clock at night. First you hear some gentle music. Then a calm voice begins to read a long list of names like Viking, Dogger, Fisher and German Bight.

• ScienceWhy is the sky blue and the sunset red?

  Look up on a clear day, and the sky is blue. Look at the sun in the evening, and it is yellow, orange or red. It is the same sun and the same light. So where do the two colours come from?

• ScienceWhy does the sea go in and out?

  The Moon is nearly 400,000 kilometres away. Yet twice a day it moves the sea, and near Bristol the sea rises and falls by more than 12 metres. Sit on a beach in Britain for an afternoon and you can see it happen. When you arrive, the sea is far away, behind a wide stretch of wet sand. Two hours later, it is near your towel. Nobody pushed it. It just came in.