Pre-Intermediate stories and articles

Tae kwon do is the martial art of Korea and one of the most popular in the world. It has taken a lot from Japan and China, but it has also become a sport with its own rules. The name ‘tae kwon do’ means ‘kick and punch’. It became very popular in the Korean War in the 1950s but it started hundreds of years before. Read more about it here (550 words).

This article tells us how scientists explore where we came from and who we are. It talks about different ideas of who we are and why some early peoples died out and others survived and became human beings. Of course, we cannot know anything about this for certain but this article describes some of the most important ideas today (935 words)

The name of Cleopatra will live for ever. Two thousand years after she died, she is still a symbol of beauty and intelligence. But she was also dangerous. She killed her young brothers; she had a baby with Julius Caesar; and she caused Marc Antony’s death. Famously, she died by putting a snake on her breast. But Cleopatra was also an educated woman in a man’s world. Read her story here (990 words).

A lobotomy is an operation on the human brain. Doctors do lobotomies because they want to change people’s personalities. This article tells the terrible story of the history of lobotomy and shows how we still use this operation today on children – some of them are as young as three years old. If you read this, you may never trust medical science again! (680 words)

In this short article, you can read about modern day piracy in the sea around Somalia and learn about the pirates of hundreds, even thousands, of years ago. Julius Caesar was taken prisoner by pirates in Roman times and robbery at sea has continued till the present day. We still love to watch films about pirates which show us a romantic life of adventure but life was very different if you lived on those ships. Read more! (920 words)

‘Banjo’ Paterson wrote many stories about animals and life in the wild in Australia, but there are not many which are as funny as this one about sheep. Here, he tells us why he hates sheep and he makes us laugh too (800 words).

Maupassant, the greatest of all French short story-tellers, here describes a simple habit that has terrible results. A well-known man in a small French town often walks around and sees if there’s anything on the ground he can use. He finds a piece of string, but quickly this small discovery changes his life for the worse (1,350 words).

In this very short story, the great Russian novelist, Leo Tolstoy, gives his readers a simple truth. The story seems like a children’s tale as it includes a king and a wise old man, but it is suitable for all ages of reader (1,100 words)

Saki tells a very funny tale about a man on a train listening to the boring stories of an aunt as she tries to keep three small children interested and well-behaved. She does not succeed. The man takes her place and tells the little ones a story that makes their aunt very worried (1,760 words).

This very short Kate Chopin story is about a young married woman, who is told her husband has died in a train accident. Although she's upset, she also believes that she will now be able to live her own life. (825 words)

Aho’s story is now a phrase in the Finnish language, meaning new things are not always better than old ones. A farmer in the cold countryside of Finland is the first to stop using wood to light his home when he buys a lamp. Everyone is impressed except the old wood cutter. (2,700 words)

A top lawyer leaves his job, wife and home after he suddenly loses his memory. He has had a normal life but only really living for his work. Suddenly, all that changes when he wakes up on a train with thousands of dollars in his pocket. (2,445 words)

Arthur Conan Doyle is famous for crime fiction but he also wrote science fiction and was well-known for his bad-tempered scientist, Professor Challenger. Here’s a story about how he saves the world! (2100 words)

In this tale by Nobel Prize winning author Rabindranath Tagore a seven-year-old boy is told a story by his grandmother in which a king decides his daughter should marry the next person he sees. That turns out to be a young boy so she looks after him and prepares him to be her husband. (1,820 words)

In this powerful tale of official unfairness, the Russian writer, Garshin, describes how a railway employee takes revenge when he is badly treated by a senior official and its tragic consequences. (2,825 words)

This very short piece is a sad story about a little boy who catches a bird. His mother doesn't want him to keep it but he does with tragic results. (500 words)

Although everyone knows about Dracula, Bram Stoker, the writer who created him, didn't become famous until they started making vampire films. In this story a man who does not believe in the undead realises his mistake after a terrifying experience. (2,595 words)

In this exciting story, Ambrose Bierce tells us about the terrible secret that lies in an old man’s past. His wife has died and the man has given up hope. But death is not unusual in his community. So, why is this man’s story so different from others? (1,235 words)

This very short horror story, is about a strange old sea captain who lives alone and buys everything he needs with old gold coins. Three thieves decide to visit him one night but get more than they expect. (855 words)

Pi is one of the most important and strangest ideas in mathematics. It can't be exactly calculated and it is both irrational and transcendental. What does that mean? Find out here! (700 words)

A short history of rugby and the rules of the game. It all started by accident during the 19th century at an English public school called Rugby, hence its name, and it's been growing in popularity ever since.

The Washington Sniper took his ex-girlfriend’s teenage son out one day in 2002 and started shooting people he had never seen before and did not know from the back of his car. All to cover up the planned murder of his wife. (995 words)

Wigs have a long history. The Romans and ancient Egyptians wore them. Three hundred years ago wigs were really heavy and worn mainly by men. Now they're worn more by popstars and people who have lost their hair through illness. (750 words)

When Europeans arrived in South America, they made empires and became unbelievably rich. They killed tens of thousands of local people but they also changed how the world ate. They discovered new foods that they exported and they imported crops like wheat. So began the great food exchange that changed the world. (345 words)

This sad story is about an old woman who is forced to move out of the home she has shared with her husband all her life because of the ambition of her young nephew. (1,960 words)

In this story of honour and revenge, Merimée tells us about a farmer in Italy who lives by certain rules about what is right and wrong. When he leaves his son alone at home one day, the boy behaves in a way that breaks all the rules that his father believes in. (2,350 words)

A foreign doctor makes himself very popular with the local people because of his skill and kindness but suddenly disappears, leaving behind the lady he is going to marry. (3,620 words)

Katherine Mansfield often wrote about the ugliness of middle-class beliefs and lifestyles, but here she tells us about the hard life of an old working grandmother, a good and strong woman, who has lost her grandson but must still carry on… alone. (1,940 words)

The Kayan women are famous all over the world because they wear metal rings around their necks which make their necks seem like giraffes. This article explores why they do this. (590 words)

Less people where hats nowadays but at one time nobody went out without one. This article looks at the incredible hats that people have worn in European history and asks why the hat became less popular. (680 words)

Did you know that only two hundred years ago, countries in Europe did not only have different times but different days too? When we travel from Britain to France, New York to California, Saudi Arabia to Dubai, we change the time on our watches. Two hundred years ago, people changed the day too. Time seems so easy, but, in fact, it has been – and still is – a huge problem. Read all about it here! (1,190 words)

When Catherine the Great was born in 1729, Russia was not one of the most important countries in Europe. But, when she died in 1796 after thirty-five years at the head of her government, it was one of the strongest and also a centre for art and ideas. Catherine started schools, opened the world-famous Hermitage museum, and tried to make life easier for the poor at the same time as she made Russia larger and more powerful. But Catherine was born an unimportant princess of a poor, small German land. Who was this surprising woman? (1,330 words)

Granada is one of the most beautiful parts of Spain and many tourists visit it every year. It is in the mountains but it is only two hours’ drive from the sea. But Granada’s popularity comes from its rich history. This part of Spain has been home to Muslims and Christians for many centuries and we can see this in the wonderful buildings everywhere (600 words).

Maupassant did not often write funny stories. France’s greatest short story writer was more interested in love and tragedy than he was in comedy. But this is an exception. Read it and see what you think! (800 words)

Saki’s very funny short story is about a young boy who is so badly behaved that he cannot go out to the beach with his family. In fact, he didn't want to go because he has something else he wants to do at home. But to do this, he must play a trick on his boring aunt (1,540 words).

Golf is a very popular game these days and it is one that is also very expensive. It’s one of the very few games that old and young people can play, men and women. And so it is surprising that golf was only played in Scotland until the nineteenth century. Read about the history of this game and how it is different from all other sports (600 words).

The history of Nepal is very troubled. Although the country is beautiful because of its mountains – Everest is in Nepal – and rivers, and its wonderful capital, Kathmandu, it has also had a terrible civil war. One evening in the middle of that war, the King was talking with his family about a wife for his oldest son, Prince Dipendra. An hour later, the King and Queen and most of their family were dead, killed by Dipendra. Or were they? (660 words)

The biggest discovery in medicine of all time, the one that saved the most lives, was immunisation. The idea is simple: you put a very small amount of a disease into a body – but not enough to make the person sick. The body’s immune system makes antibodies to fight the disease. If the person catches the disease later, his body is ready and fights it so that he does not become ill and die. This is the story of the history of immunisation (800 words).

The history of zero. It is hard to imagine what life was like before we had the number zero. Numbers were very long and extremely difficult to multiply. Imagine this sum: DCCCLXXVII x MMCCLXIX in Roman numbers, or imagine that you could not use 0 to write 1,000,001. In Europe zero was once thought to be the work of the Devil, because it meant ‘nothing’ and it was impossible to show nothing (1,120 words).

Dog fighting has been against the law for many, many years in most parts of the world. We prefer to keep our dogs with us by the fire or running in the park. Paterson’s story tells a very different tale though. He describes to us why he thinks it’s as natural for dogs to fight as it is for men to box (900 words).

Chekhov is the greatest teller of short stories in Russian, maybe world, literature. This one is about a happily married couple who have a lottery ticket and (only half-) imagine they have won a lot of money. But their dreams of a rosy future are not as sweet as we might expect (1,600 words)

Katherine Mansfield’s brother was killed in The First World War and, in this story, the writer shows the feelings of two fathers whose sons were also killed. She considers their different reactions and how they change as the years pass, and cleverly uses the struggles of an unlucky fly to make her ideas clearer to us (1,405 words).

A young man seems certain to be arrested and hanged for the murder of a retired builder but Sherlock Holmes believes he is innocent. Can he save him? (4,500 words)

A young girl wants her father to tell her a story so he tells her one about the little girl who asked Father Christmas to make it Christmas every day. He agrees but the result does not make the little girl as happy as she expected! (1,875 words)

This short article looks at the Vikings, farmers from Scandinavia – especially Norway and Sweden – who became sailors because they needed to fish to get extra food more than a thousand years ago. The Vikings travelled all over Europe – to Britain, France, even as far as Turkey – and made all the continent afraid of them. They were great soldiers but also very bloody. (540 words)

In this story, the great Russian socialist writer, Maxim Gorky tells us the surprising tale of a student living in the same house as a sex worker. Although she is very hard and rude, Gorky lets us know a secret about her: she writes letters to a boyfriend back in her hometown. But who is this young man that she loves so much? (1,500 words)

Guy de Maupassant is France’s greatest writer of short fiction. This powerful story is about an old woman whose son is killed and who promises him that she will get revenge. But how can she? She is old and cannot fight a young murderer. But then she has a terrible and very clever idea (1,200 words).

In this story, ‘Banjo’ Paterson describes one of the world’s favourite pets. He writes about the famous independence of the cat from the people he lives with and the difference in the animal asleep in front of our fire and in the garden at night. (950 words)

The sail was a revolution in travelling by water. It meant that boats could go much faster and people did not have to use their strength to push it through the sea. This is the history of its invention and development. (525 words)

In Persia, more than a thousand years ago, people developed the game of chess and encouraged the young to play it because they believed it helped them to think. It is a game where chance plays no part but you need a very good memory. A brief history of Chess. (640 words)

The history of hair styles is interesting because it shows us that human beings always want something different. And it is not only women that spend a lot of money on their hair. For most of history, men have also worn their hair long and spent hours on making it look beautiful and unusual. (735 words)

We usually think of the computer as a very modern invention: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, maybe Alan Turing. However, this article takes us back two hundred years to the birth of the first calculating machine and tells the story of two very different people, Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace and the parts they played in making the first computing machine. (870 words)

Table tennis developed when British soldiers in South Africa and India could not play tennis outside and started to use tables inside their houses. At first, they used a tennis ball and broke a lot of windows but slowly table tennis became a game with its own rules, ball and bat. (640 words)

A quick tour of the planets near and far describing the difference between planets and stars and why they keep turning around the Sun. (850 words)

People could see Mars 5,000 years ago, the Babylonians thought it was coloured red and was angry and the Romans called the god of war ‘Mars’. Modern scientists have tried to find life there but we still don’t know very much about it. (1,210 words)

By the age of twenty, Phil Spector was one of the most famous and richest musicians in America. He produced records for some of the best pop groups of his time. But Spector’s childhood and his controlling personality made him a very dangerous man. And then he killed a girl… (1,170 words)

Julius Caesar is one of the most famous generals in history. He made the Roman Empire much richer and bigger by conquering France (then called Gaul) and he made it stronger because he included foreigners among its people. But he was killed by his friends in Rome, not in a foreign war. (735 words)

Cowboy films are still popular. People like the brave men who faced many dangers and cared more about women and children than they cared about themselves. They are often presented as the first true Americans. However, this is not quite true. (1,045 words)

Geronimo was an Apache fighter, one of the last American Indians to fight against the coming of Europeans to the United States. He lived to be an old man, forbidden to travel and a prisoner on a small area of land. But, when he was young, he made many white Americans afraid and his name was used as a way of stopping children from behaving badly. This is his story (600 words).

The Ku Klux Klan started after the southern states of America lost the war against the North in 1865. They wanted black people to be slaves. They lost that fight, but they tried to keep their old way of life by stopping black people from voting. They raped the women, burnt their homes and killed many men. At one time, there were thousands of Ku Klux Klan but today that number is probably under 5,000. This is the story of the group (700 words).

Polo is a game that is thousands of years old. It probably came from Iran. The idea is to hit a ball with a long stick when you are riding a horse. In ancient times, it wasn’t a ball but the head of an enemy you had killed in wartime. The British made the game famous when they discovered it in India and many rich people still play today. But you must be rich because horses are not cheap (720 words).