Reading in English at level B2

You read articles and reports on current topics and understand the writer's point of view. You enjoy contemporary literary prose.

• A1
• A2
• B1
• B2
• C1

This is how each text begins at level B2:

• Short story · Oscar WildeThe Canterville Ghost

  When Mr Hiram B. Otis, the American Minister, bought Canterville Chase, everyone told him he was doing a very foolish thing. There was no doubt at all that the place was haunted. Lord Canterville, a man of the most punctilious honour, felt bound to mention it. His grandaunt, the Dowager Duchess, had been frightened into a fit by two skeleton hands on her shoulders.

• 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. If you press one with your boot, it splits open, and inside lies a seed so glossy that it looks polished.

• CustomDogger, Fisher, German Bight: the Shipping Forecast

  Turn on BBC Radio 4 just before one o'clock in the morning. First comes a gentle piece of orchestral music. Then a calm voice begins to read what sounds like a strange poem: names such as Viking, Dogger, Fisher and German Bight, each one followed by numbers and a few short words.

• ScienceWhy is the sky blue and the sunset red?

  On a clear day the sky above you is blue. A few hours later the same sun sinks towards the horizon as a yellow, orange or red disc, and the sky around it glows. Nothing has changed in the sun. So what turns one light into two colours?

• ScienceWhy does the sea go in and out?

  The Moon is nearly 400,000 kilometres away, yet twice a day it moves the sea. Near Bristol, the water rises and falls by more than 12 metres. Spend a day on almost any British beach and you will see the sea change its mind. In the morning it may lie half a mile away, beyond a wide expanse of rippled sand. By lunchtime it is lapping at your deckchair. By teatime it has retreated again, leaving pools, seaweed and the occasional surprised crab.