Stories in English with translation, intermediate level. Simple stories to read in English

"Night. Dead silence. Only the breath of the night sways the grass on the plain. A lonely fire burns in the night,” this is how this story begins, written back in 1955 by the great dreamer and almost madman Ray Bradbury. Read an online story in English called The Dragon. The story is adapted for intermediate level(intermediate). Words to learn are included.

The Dragon by Ray Bradbury (part 1, for intermediate)

Words for understanding:

• on the moor- on a plain covered with heather
• in the wilderness- in this wild place
• strewn hither and thither- scattered here and there
• the birth of Jesus- birth of Christ

The night fell, the silence was on the moor. It was years since a bird had flown in the dark sky. Two men were sitting by their lonely fire in the wilderness, darkness pumped quietly in their veins and ticked silently in their temples and their wrists .

Firelight glamed on their wild faces. They listened to each other's faint breathing.

At last, one man poked the fire with his sword.

“Don't do that; you'll give us away! »

“No matter,” said the second man. “The dragon can smell us miles off, anyway. How cold it is! I wish I was back at the castle."

“It’s death, not sleep, we’re after...”

"Why? Why? The dragon never sets foot in the town!”

“Quiet, fool! “He eats men traveling alone from our town to the next!”

“Let them be eaten and let us get home!”

“Wait now; listen!”

The two men sat in silence. They waited for a long time, nothing had happened, nothing was heard, there was only the shake of their horses’ buckles, softly, softly.

"Ah." The second man sighed. “What a land of nightmares. Everything happens here. God, listen! This dragon, they say his eyes are fire. His breath is white gas; you can see him go across the dark lands. He runs with thunder and kindles the grass. Sheep panic and die insane. Women deliver forth monsters. The dragon’s fury is such that tower walls shake back to dust. His victims, at sunrise, are strewn hither and thather on the hills. How many knights, I ask, have gone for this monster and failed, even as we shall fail? »

"Enough of that!"

“More than enough!” Out here I cannot tell what year this is!”

"Nine hundred years since the birth of Jesus«.

“No, no,” whispered the second man, eyes shut. “On this moor is no Time, is only Forever. I feel if I ran back on the road the town would be gone, the people yet unborn, things changed; don’t ask how I know, the moor knows, and tells me. And here we sit alone in the land of the fire dragon. God save us!

“What's use? The dragon runs from nowhere; we cannot guess its home. It vanishes in fog, we know not where it goes. Aye, put on our armour, we’ll die well-dressed.”

The second man turned his head.

The Dragon by Ray Bradbury (part 2, for intermediate)

Words for understanding:

• all the time confused- time is mixed up
• the midnight wilderness- midnight desert
• terrible wailing cry- a terrifying piercing howl
• gave him plenty of whistle- whistled loudly

Across the dim country the wind blew full of dus t from clocks that used dust for telling time. The burnt leaves were shaken from some autumn tree beyond the horizon. This wind blew, making the blood thicken. It was a thousand souls dying and all the time confused. It was a fog inside of a darkness, and this place was no man’s place and there was no year or hour at all, but only these men were standing in the emptiness of the moor. Sudden thunder was heard, then came the lightning. The rain drenched the moor, and the two men were waiting alone, listening to its sound.

“There,” whispered the first man. "Oh, there..."

Miles off, rushing with a great roar appeared the dragon.

In silence the men mounted their horses. The midnight wilderness was split by as the dragon roared nearer, nearer. Its yellow glare appeared above a hill and then disappeared into a valley.

They spurred their horses forward to a small hollow.

“This is where it passes!”

They got their swords ready for the battle.

On the instant the dragon rounded a hill. Its monstrous yellow eye flashed on them. With a terrible wailing cry it was going forward.

'Mercy, God!'

The sword struck under the huge yellow eye. The dragon buckled him, threw the man through the air, knocked him down. Passing, the monster smashed the other horse and a rider. The two knights were dead. The roaring dragon, the fire and the smoke all around, disappeared.

"Did you see it?" cried a voice. "Just like I told you!"

“The same! The same! A knight in armor, by the Lord, Harry! We hit him!”

“Are you going to stop?”

"Did once; found nothing. Don’t like to stop on this moor. I get the willies."

"But we've hit something."

"We gave him plenty of whistle; but he didn’t move.”

The steam cut the mist aside.

"We'll arrive at Stokely on time. More coal, eh, Fred?”

The night train vanished over cold earth, towards the north, leaving black smoke and steam to dissolve in the air minutes after it had passed and gone forever.

Read more online stories in English for intermediate level writer Ray Bradbury / Read more short stories by Ray Bradbury in the category —

In this article we offer you simple English texts for beginners with audio and translation. If you have already mastered them, then it will not be difficult for you to read them.

The texts are written by a native English speaker with an Australian accent, the so-called Aussie. Listen carefully, follow the text with your eyes, try to catch not only sounds, but intonation, rhythm, stress. Listen several times (the more, the better), then start repeating after the speaker, and try to copy exactly all the nuances of her speech.

We highly recommend reading an article on the topic, which, in particular, contains some practical useful advice from the young, very successful polyglot Luca Lampariello on how to correctly read texts in English for beginners.

1. I am happy - I’m happy

2. Texts in English for beginners on the topic: What is it? - What is this?

I want to tell you a little about my family. My family is quite big. I have a mother, father, sister and brother. There are five of us in our family. My mother is 42, but she looks younger. She is not tall, but slim. Her hair is blond and curly. Her eyes are gray. She is a doctor. She is very kind. My father is strong and handsome. His hair is dark and straight. His eyes are brown. My father is a programmer. It can also do many different things. He always helps us with our homework. I have an older sister. She is 19 and a student. She loves to cook and read. She looks like my father. She has a lot of boyfriends. My little brother is only 12. Sometimes he is noisy, but mostly he is a very friendly boy. I'm 16. I like to play football and listen to music. I look like my mother. I also have blond, curly hair and gray eyes. After I finish school I would also like to be a doctor and help people. We have grandparents. They live in the village. They don't work, they are retired. Sometimes they come to visit us and every summer we visit them and spend our holidays with them.

4. Apperance - Appearance

We have a head, a face, two arms, two hands, a body with two shoulders, a chest and stomach, two legs, two knees and two feet. We have hair and two ears on our head. We have two eyes, a nose, a mouth on our face. We have 32 teeth and a tongue in our mouth. Our hair can be dark or light, straight or curly, long or short. Our eyes can be blue, green, brown, gray or yellow. We can have long or short, strong or weak arms and legs. We can be tall or short, thin or fat. Our skin can be white, yellow, brown or black.

We may be old or young. A man can be good-looking or handsome. A woman can be very pretty or beautiful. How would you describe yourself? I'm not very tall, not very short. I'm not very old, but my hair is almost grey. I have blue eyes. My nose is straight. My ears are small. My face is a little tanned because I'm outside a lot. What about you? How would you describe yourself?

5. Where are you from - Where are you from?

Where are you from?
I'm from Russia. And you?
I am from Germany. And you?
I am from Italy. And she?
She's from France. And he?
He's from Spain. And they?
They are from the Czech Republic.

We are from different countries, but we all want to learn English, don't we?
By the way, do you know where English is the native language? It is a native language in the UK, Ireland, Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ghana and the second national language in India.
English is now the most influential language in the world, spoken by more than a billion people on our planet.

Simple texts in English for beginners - a collection of short stories

Friends, you already know that learning English is divided into levels: elementary, basic, intermediate, professional, etc. Each of these levels gives a person certain knowledge of the English language corresponding to a given stage of learning. Consequently, each level has its own requirements and its own degree of difficulty in learning the language.

Today we will focus on reading in English at the Intermediate or intermediate level. What books, what texts are suitable for those studying English at the Pre Intermediate, Intermediate Upper Intermediate level, what can you read to improve your knowledge of the English language and enrich your vocabulary?

Reading skills at pre-threshold, intermediate and advanced levels have significant advantages over previous levels. At these stages of training, you have a good understanding of the literature at these levels. You are able to read and understand articles on the Internet, newspapers and magazines. You can start reading simple literature in the original, you understand the meaning and main idea of ​​the material you read.

Let's start with reading at the Pre Intermediate level. Since this is a pre-threshold level, that is, a stage up to the intermediate level, the texts and books here are almost no different from reading at a basic level. What can you read at the Pre level? Pay attention to the following authors and their works:

• David A. Hill "How I Met Myself?"
• Isaac Asimov "I, Robot"
• Jack London "Call of the Wild"
• Stephen Colbourn "Robin Hood"
• David Morrison "The Mind Map"

Since the Intermediate level is an average, intermediate level of language learning, texts and books in English should be of average complexity. This means that the reader must grasp the main meaning, the essence of the story or the book as a whole, despite the fact that he still encounters unfamiliar words.

Stories and novellas in English (short stories) are perfect for reading at an intermediate level. If you want your reading to be not only useful, but also exciting, then we bring to your attention:

• Humorous stories by O'Henry
• Stories by Ray Bradbury
• Detective stories by Sara Paretsky
• Famous stories about Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson by Arthur Conan Doyle

And finally, books in English at the Upper level. This stage of learning is more difficult than the previous one, therefore, reading will be the same:

• Herman Melville "Moby Dick"
• Peter Abrahams "Mine Boy"
• Alan Maley "A Tangled Web"
• Margaret Johnson "Jungle Love"
• John Stainbeck "Of Mice and Men"
• Margaret Johnson "All I Want"

These three levels are somewhat similar, but they also have significant differences. The Pre level prepares us to study English at an intermediate level; the intermediate level itself equips us with the basis for the Upper level, etc. Accordingly, reading proceeds in an increasing order.

How to read profitably?

• Get a notebook or notepad in which you will write down all the words you don’t know.
• Pay attention to the context in which a particular word is used.
• Translate the words in writing.
• Make up phrases, sentences, and a short story with them.
• Use new words in short dialogues.
• Make a written plan for the passage you read.
• Retell the fragment out loud in English.
• Work in this order for each chapter or passage you read.

In this way, your reading will be productive, and very soon you will achieve good results in working with English vocabulary.

To train your listening comprehension of English, interesting stories in English are perfect, most of which come with translation. The stories are suitable for any age group, for any level of English proficiency. Stories allow you to keep your English skills sharp. This section will be constantly updated with stories on various life topics.

• The site presents a collection of English stories, start listening to short stories if you are a beginner, or listen to stories in English for intermediate level and higher if you understand the meaning of 80% of the words.
• Write down the translations of the words you want to learn.
• Try to describe out loud and in your own words in English what the story was about.
• Read stories on everyday topics, stories about family, hobbies.

Reviews of stories

I like to listen to interesting stories in English when I’m traveling on public transport, without even reading the text itself, but just listening to the audio track. I am often too lazy to devote even an hour of time to improving my level of English, but stories help me maintain my level of knowledge.

We ask the admins of this site to add a section where short stories will be collected, because on a phone it’s not so convenient to look through many pages of your site in search of short stories, or at least add tags))) Audio stories personally help me to perceive English speech a little better, yes and not only me, for example, my nephew would rather devote 10-20 minutes of time to listening to audio stories rather than sit in front of textbooks. Another request, add more stories about everyday situations.

Since now is the holiday season and many people are going to the seas abroad, it would be nice if you publish stories about your trip, I think there are interesting stories on this topic. I would like to say thank you to the authors of the site for a good selection of materials, it is convenient to learn English through a cell phone, but it is better if you can download English stories to your phone, since not everywhere there is access to the Internet, but this is so, my wishes.

It’s a pity that the site doesn’t have stories about food in English, and the main thing is that there are translations. There will be double benefit, and you can improve your English and at the same time cook something delicious. In general, audio stories in English were a discovery for me; it’s a pity that when I was at school, stories were not as popular as they are today. For those who are just starting to learn English, I recommend listening to short stories as often as possible.

Excellent English stories, it really helps when learning a foreign language, but there is not enough list of “difficult” words with translations that appear in the stories. I once tried to force myself to read long stories in English, but they were difficult for me, and recently I decided to read simple stories and a positive result was already noticeable, I was able to significantly increase my reading speed in English. Friends, don’t be lazy, read more literature in English, good luck to everyone!!!

Reading is for our mind what working out in the gym is for our body. In this article we will give you links to 7 sites with texts for reading in English. Try to “pump up” your brain!

1. English as a Second Language

This site is suitable for beginners with levels and. All texts are short, they use simple words and elementary grammar - three tenses of the Simple group. Try to read at least 2-3 texts daily, it will only take 5-10 minutes.

The themes of the texts are different, often they are small jokes. All words are selected in such a way that the student not only reads texts in English, but also expands his vocabulary. So, you can learn the first phrasal verbs, frequently used words and expressions.

Feature of this resource: Each text is accompanied by an audio recording. The speaker speaks clearly and slowly, which is exactly what beginners need to learn to understand English by ear.

2. English Online

This resource was created specifically for English language learners with advanced level and above. The texts are not very long, but they are full of useful expressions and words.

Articles on various topics are adapted specifically for students: the most commonly used vocabulary and simple grammatical structures are used. At the moment, several hundred texts on various topics are available for reading on the site. They are all quite interesting, so this resource contains the optimal proportion of education and entertainment.

Feature of this resource: In all articles you will see words in bold. This is the vocabulary you are asked to learn. After the text of the article you will find an English-English dictionary with these words. Thus, the site performs an important function - you can learn new vocabulary on it in context.

3. Short Stories

This site is suitable for all lovers of fiction. There are no adapted texts or dictionaries here, only stories by English-speaking authors in their unaltered form.

The site presents 8 popular genres: children's literature, detective, fantasy, horror, humor, documentary, novel, science fiction. If you are at the Pre-Intermediate level, try starting to read children's stories. In these texts, the characters speak in fairly simple words, and at the same time, their speech is lively and unadapted. You can try reading any stories at a level; it’s better to start with short texts in your favorite genre.

Feature of this resource: the variety of genres of stories on this site will not allow even the most demanding reader to get bored. Additionally, you can sort stories by length. To do this, select any of the genres you are interested in and click on the All stories button. In the tab that opens, you can select stories from 1-2 to 30+ pages in length. This is quite convenient: you can select your text depending on the availability of free time.

4. Breaking News English

The site is suitable for students from Elementary to , who want to keep up with the latest news and improve their English. News is sorted by date - from the most recent to the oldest. Sources are indicated for each - if interested, you can read them in the relevant media and compare the presentation of information.

For all news there are reading, listening, vocabulary and writing exercises.

Feature of this resource: the same news is adapted to several levels - see what words and grammatical structures can convey the same information.

5. Infosquares

This site contains only a few dozen texts, but it is worthy of your attention. The resource is suitable for students with an Intermediate level and above.

The resource differs from previous sites in that your task is now not just to read the text and understand the main idea, but to grasp even the smallest details. On the tab with any article you will find not only a link to the text itself, but also a test to test your reading comprehension. Therefore, we advise everyone who is preparing for an English language exam to pay attention to this resource, because you can “rehearse” the Reading section on this resource.

Feature of this resource: The main purpose of this site is to check how well you understand the text. Therefore, we recommend studying on this site about once a month, and reading other articles the rest of the time. This way you will see how quickly your English reading skill is developing and how attentive you are when reading.

6. Study Zone

This site is similar to the previous one: the small amount of materials is more than compensated by the presence of various exercises that test understanding of the text. Here you can study at the Pre-Intermediate level and above.

Feature of this resource: Of course, the main advantage of this site is the availability of exercises for understanding and memorizing the text. In addition, we must pay tribute to the authors of the site - they have collected the most interesting stories for you and presented the information in a convenient form.

7. Dreamreader

This resource will be of interest to those who like to read various educational and entertaining articles on the Internet. The site is suitable for students at the Elementary level and above.

Most of the texts on this site are presented in the Fun English and Academic English sections. The beauty of the articles is that they are written in simple but lively language. And the topics discussed in the articles are relevant and cover a wide variety of aspects of life: from body language to fast food, from UFOs to “cat” idioms. Each text is accompanied by a series of questions to help you check how well you understood what you read.

Feature of this resource: the site is a 2 in 1 tool. You can not only read the article, but also listen to it. Moreover, the audio recording is suitable even for those who have difficulty understanding English speech by ear. The speaker speaks clearly and quite slowly, so you can practice your listening skills, and the text will become your assistant in this matter.

There are many more sites on the Internet with texts in English. However, we have recommended the most informative and useful ones for you to study. Read with pleasure, and let English become your best entertainment, an activity that brings pleasure.