English for everyone

The boy next door by J. London

Jack London

Jack London


Sladen Morris is the boy next door. He has grown very tall now, and all the girls think he is wonderful. But I remember when he refused to comb his hair and wash his face.
Of course, he remembers me too whenever I appear in a new dress and special hair-do, he says, “Well, well, look at Betsy, she’s almost grown-up. But I remember her first party, when she was so excited that she dropped her ice-cream on her best dress, and she ran home crying.”
So when I say that Sladen Morris didn’t mean anything to me, I am quite serious. But I had known him so long that I felt I had to take care of him — just as I feel towards Jimmy, my little brother. That’s the only feeling I had — neighbourly friendship — when I tried to save Sladen from Merry Ann Milbum.
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Easter — Christian holiday

Easter - Christian holiday

Easter — Christian holiday


Easter is the holiest day of the year for Christians. It celebrates their belief in the resurrection, or the rising from the dead, of Jesus Christ. Easter is always observed on a Sunday in the spring, but its date varies.
The week before Easter Sunday is known as Holy Week. Palm Sunday recalls the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem shortly before his death. Holy Thursday marks the Last Supper of Jesus with his followers. Good Friday remembers the crucifixion, when Jesus was killed by being nailed to a cross. The Monday after Easter Sunday is called Easter Monday.
Easter is a very old festival. In pre-Christian times people used to celebrate the start of spring and ‘new life’. The word ‘Easter’ comes from the name of a pre-Christian goddess called Eostre.
According to legend, Eostre was a playful goddess whose reign began in the spring when the Sun King travelled across the sky in his chariot, bringing the end of winter. Eostre came down to earth then, appearing as a beautiful girl with a basket of bright colorful eggs.
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The one who waits by Ray Bradbury

The one who waits by Ray Bradbury

The one who waits by Ray Bradbury


I live in a well. I live like smoke in the well. Like vapor in a stone throat. I don’t move. I don’t do anything but wait. Overhead I see the cold stars of night and morning, and I see the sun. And sometimes I sing old songs of this world when it was young. How can I tell you what I am when I don’t know? I cannot. I am simply waiting. I am mist and moonlight and memory. I am sad and I am old. Sometimes I fall like rain into the well. I wait in cool silence and there will be a day when I no longer wait.
Now it is morning. I hear a great thunder. I smell fire from a distance. I hear a metal crashing. I wait. I listen. Voices. Far away.
“All right!”
One voice. An alien voice. An alien tongue I cannot know. No word is familiar. I listen.
“Mars! So this is it!”
“Where’s the flag?”
“Here, sir.”
“Good, good.”
The sun is high in the blue sky and its golden rays fill the well and I hang like a flower pollen, invisible and misting in the warm light.
Voices.
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My First Date

My First Date
My First Date by L. Thomas
In the day, shaking and shining, I went up to London on the train and then by bus to the Albert Hall. There she was. Waiting for me! As though I took women out every night, I kissed her on the cheek.
Then things started to become difficult. She grumbled about sitting up in the highest seats, and complained all the way up the endless stairs. When she had gone with Cedric, she moaned, they had sat in the front stalls, just behind the conductor.
‘You don’t hear the music properly down there’, I argued with inspiration.
We sat down. It was like peering into the mouth of a volcano. ‘Up here the music floats to you.’
She kept muttering through the first half of the concert, and then horrified me in the interval by announcing that she really would like a drink. Dumbstruck, I mentally counted the money in my pocket.
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A Date by Ch. Dickenson

A Date by Ch. Dickenson

I am sixteen years and one month old and I have never had a boyfriend. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve known quite a few boys — in fact I was on quite friendly terms with most of the boys in my class, but I’ve never had a date. Not a proper kind of date — holding hands, back row of the cinema, shall-I-or-shan’t-I- let-him-kiss-me kind of date, that is. But I’ve told Jackie that I’ve got a boyfriend.
Jackie is my friend and she has taken me ‘under her wing’. I know she means well and most of the time I like her, but hell, we were at school together and now at work together and there’s hardly a thing left to say to each other that we haven’t said before. I just wanted to stop going to the coffee bar with her every evening, but when I started making excuses not to meet Jackie she kept asking why. Was I doing this, was I doing that, well, if I wasn’t, what was I doing that was so important — and so on. To make things worse the other girls at work started joining in. So the third time Jackie asked why I couldn’t meet her that night I said the first thing that came into my head.
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The end of the story by Jack London

Jack London

Jack London

Four men were playing cards at a table made of rough boards. They were sitting in their shirts, their faces were covered with sweat. But their woolen-socked and moccasined feet were frozen. Such was the difference of temperature in the small cabin. The iron stove was red-hot; yet, eight feet away, on a shelf, lay frozen meat and bacon.
The men played whist: the pair that lost would have to dig a fishing hole through the seven feet of ice and snow that covered the Yukon.
“It’s cold,” said one of the men. “What’s the temperature, Doc?”
“About fifty,” said Doc. He was a slender, dark-haired man, healthy and strong. He had black and clever eyes. His hands were fine and nervous, made for delicate work.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door and a stranger came in.
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Scarlet sails of love

love

We are shaped and fashioned by what we love. (Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe)

St Valentine’s Day is the day for exchanging love messages, chocolates, roses, and promises.
Nowadays it is celebrated all over the world and millions of people receive Valentine cards on February 14th. Originally, Valentine cards were only sent by men to women.
The oldest existing Valentine card can be found in the British Museum. It was sent in 1415.
Your heart beats faster when you are in love. This is why the heart is considered to be the centre of our emotions and is always used to illustrate love.
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