English for everyone

Fables by Aesop

The Wolf and the Crane

The Wolf and the Crane


The Wolf and the Crane
A Wolf had been gorging on an animal he had killed, when suddenly a small bone in the meat stuck in his throat and he could not swallow it. He soon felt terrible pain in his throat, and he ran up and down groaning and groaning and seeking for something to relieve the pain. He tried to induce every one he met to remove the bone. “I would give anything,” said he, “if you would take it out.” At last the Crane agreed to try, and told the Wolf to lie on his side and open his jaws as wide as he could. Then the Crane put its long neck down the Wolf’s throat and with its beak loosened the bone, till at last got it out.
“Will you kindly give me the reward you promised?” said the Crane.
The Wolf showed his teeth and said: “Be content. You have put your head inside a Wolf’s mouth and taken it out again in safety; that ought to be reward enough for you.”
“Gratitude and greed go not together”.
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Posthaste by Colin Howard

Posthaste by Colin Howard

Posthaste by Colin Howard


“I say, I am pleased to see you!” declared the little man standing dejectedly by the pillar-box.
“Oh, hullo!” I said, stopping. “Simpson, isn’t it?”
The Simpsons were newcomers to the neighbourhood, and my wife and I had only met them once or twice.
“Yes, that’s right!” returned Simpson. He seemed quite gratified by my ready recognition. “I wonder if you could lend me two pence-half-penny?” I plunged an investigatory hand into my pocket. “You see, my wife gave me a letter to post, and I’ve just noticed it isn’t stamped.”
“They never are,” I said, sympathetically.
“It must go to-night — it really must! And I don’t suppose I should find a post-office open at this time of night, do you?”
The hour being close upon eleven, I agreed that it seemed improbable.
“So I thought, you see, I’d get stamps out of the machine,” explained Simpson, not without pride in his ingenuity. “Only I find I haven’t any coppers on me.”
“I’m awfully sorry, but I’m afraid I haven’t either,” I told him, concluding my explorations.
“Oh, dear, dear!” he said. Just like that. He was that sort of little man.
“Perhaps somebody else —” I put forward.
“There isn’t anyone else.”
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St. Patrick’s Day — March 17

St. Patrick's Day - March 17

St. Patrick’s Day — March 17


St. Patrick, Patron saint of Ireland, was a real man who was born around A.D. 389 and probably died in 461. St. Patrick wasn’t Irish by birth. He was born and raised in England until he was a teenager. In those days England was part of the Roman Empire. The Romans had converted people to Christianity and taught many of them how to read and write. But the Romans had not conquered Ireland and when Patrick was sixteen, he was captured by raiders from Ireland who took him there and sold him into slavery.
Ireland was inhabited by small tribes of people who couldn’t read or write and who practiced an ancient form of religion under leaders called Druids. Patrick escaped from Ireland, but he vowed to return. He studied in European monasteries and after several years was sent back to Ireland as a bishop. There he spent the rest of his life teaching the people of Ireland to read and write while converting them to Christianity.
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Politics — How Britain is Run

Politics - How Britain is Run

Politics — How Britain is Run


The Queen’s Working Day
When The Queen is in residence at Buckingham Palace, every day is a working day both for her and for the Duke of Edinburgh. They meet for a quick breakfast at half-past eight when they will discuss each other’s daily programme but, unless they have joint engagements, they frequently do not see each other again until late evening. By 9.30 am Her Majesty is at her desk ready to start the day’s routine.
A digest of the day’s newspapers will have been prepared for her by the Press Secretary with items of particular interest marked or cut out. When Parliament is sit-ting, a report on the previous day’s proceedings will have been delivered by the Vice-Chamberlain of the Household.
Throughout the working day a number of visitors will call ranging from incoming or outgoing diplomats to Her Majesty’s dressmakers, who may arrive to discuss the wardrobe for a forthcoming overseas tour.
Once a month a meeting of the Privy Council is held in order that the Royal Assent may be given to various items of government legislation.
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What is the American dream

What is the American dream

What is the American dream


American Dream is an expression often used to describe the vital ideals of the US population in both the material and spiritual senses.
The American dream is the ideal of freedom and opportunity, the spiritual power of the nation. If the American system is a skeleton of US policy, the American dream is its soul.
The source of the phrase American Dream is considered to be The Epic of America (1931), historical treatise by James Adams written during the Great Depression. James Adams encouraged his compatriots and reminded them of the purpose of America and its achievements. He states: “The American Dream is “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous5 circumstances of birth or position.” (p.214-215)
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The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky by Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane


The great passenger train was moving fast and smoothly over the plains of Texas, heading west, back to Yellow Sky, carrying Sheriff Potter and his new bride back home. The newly married couple in the luxurious Pullman coach had boarded the train at San Antonio. The man’s face was red from many days in the wind and sun. Because he was used to wearing jeans and a cotton shirt, his stiff new black suit made him uncomfortable. He sat with a hand on each knee, nervously. The glances he gave other passengers were furtive and shy.
‘The sheriff’s bride sat next to him. Despite the fancy dress that she wore, she was not very pretty. She appeared to be about thirty years old, of a working- class background. Now that she had married, she could look forward to many years of cooking and cleaning for her new husband.
Neither of the newlyweds was accustomed to such luxurious travel, so they were very happy, even though many of the other passengers were staring and grinning at the obviously out-of-place couple.
“Ever been on a train before?” he asked her, smiling with delight.
“No,” she answered; “I never was. It’s fine, isn’t it?”
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The angel of the bridge by John Cheever

John Cheever

John Cheever


You MAY have seen my mother waltzing on ice skates in Rockefeller Center. She’s seventy-eight years old now but very wiry, and she wears a red velvet costume with a short skirt. Her tights are flesh-colored, and she wears spectacles and a red ribbon in her white hair, and she waltzes with one of the rink attendants. I don’t know why I should find the fact that she waltzes on ice skates so disconcerting, but I do. I avoid that neighborhood whenever I can during the winter months, and I never lunch in the restaurants on the rink. Once when I was passing that way, a total stranger took me by the arm and, pointing to Mother, said, “Look at that crazy old dame.” I was very embarrassed. I suppose I should be grateful for the fact that she amuses herself and is not a burden to me, but I sincerely wish she had hit on some less conspicuous recreation. Whenever I see gracious old ladies arranging chrysanthemums and pouring tea, I think of my own mother, dressed like a hat- check girl, pushing some paid rink attendant around the ice, in the middle of the third-biggest city of the world.
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