B2 English reading
Discuss more complex ideas. Compare interpretations and practice inference, argument, and qualified opinions.
After reading, try this speaking task
Offer two interpretations, explain which you prefer, and describe what evidence would change your mind.
Read and listen first, checking the translation when needed. Start with one complete idea, then add details in response to the AI. If you need constant translation, try a lower level. If retelling is easy, try a harder version of the same article.
Choose an article to begin
When Familiar Words Change Their Meaning
A mouse can run across a kitchen floor, but it can also sit beside a computer. English speakers usually know which meaning is intended. This simple example shows how familiar words
B2 · Read, listen, and chat
When Past Effort Shapes Today's Choice
Imagine this situation: you paid for a film ticket, but halfway through the film, you are bored. You would rather go home. Still, you stay because leaving feels like wasting money.
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Finding Planets Through Missing Light
How can scientists find a planet hidden in the bright light of its star? One useful method is to watch for a small drop in the star's brightness. The planet may be too faint to see
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When Ice Traveled by Ship
A cold drink on a hot day once depended on a surprising journey. During the nineteenth century, businesses shipped natural ice from cold regions to warmer places. Ice cut from lake
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How You Know Where Your Arms Are
When you put on a jacket, your hand can find the sleeve without your eyes following every movement. You also know whether your elbow is bent or straight while looking somewhere els
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Why Sweat Cools You Only When It Evaporates
On a hot day, a wet shirt may seem like proof that your body is cooling down. But producing sweat is only part of the process. The main cooling happens when sweat evaporates and en
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When AI Learns the Wrong Clue
An AI system can do well in a test and still fail at its real job. Sometimes it learns a pattern that seems useful but is not the one people wanted it to learn. Researchers often c
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Why Skaters Spin Faster with Their Arms In
An ice skater begins a spin with both arms stretched out. Then the skater pulls their arms toward their chest, and the spin becomes faster. They have not pushed against the ice aga
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Where Will Tomorrow's Electricity Wait?
Solar panels can produce plenty of electricity at lunchtime, when many homes are empty. Later, people return, cook dinner, and turn on lights as the sun goes down. Over the next 10
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The Words English Borrowed
You can take a ballet class, play a piano, or collect a child from kindergarten without noticing that you are using words from other languages. English has borrowed words through t
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The Beat Between the Beats
Beside a pond, a woodpecker, a bird that taps on trees, played a hollow branch. He could make sounds like rain, running feet, or nuts falling into a bucket. A squirrel asked him t
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Why Astronauts Float Above Earth
An astronaut lets go of a pen inside a space station. Instead of dropping to the floor, it floats nearby. It looks as if Earth's gravity has disappeared. But gravity is still pulli
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Roman Objects with No Clear Purpose
A small metal object sits in a museum case. It has twelve flat sides, round holes of different sizes, and small round points at its corners. It looks carefully designed, but nobody
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Why Your Eyes Need Time in the Dark
Walk from a sunny street into a dark cinema, and the seats may seem to disappear. A little later, you can make out rows, coats, and faces. The room has not become brighter. Your ey
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How Beavers Turn Streams into Ponds
A line of branches across a stream may look like fallen wood. Sometimes, however, it was put there by beavers—animals that build barriers across streams. By changing how water move
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How AI Turns Speech into Text
Live captions show speech as text during a meeting or video, almost as someone speaks. But speech does not arrive as a neat row of words. It arrives as a changing sound signal. How
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Venice Beyond the Gondolas
In photographs, Venice often appears as a city of gondolas, traditional boats used to carry passengers, and beautiful bridges. For residents, however, the water is more than a view
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Three People, One Rainstorm
The film club had made a four-minute movie about a toy car crossing a garden. It had bridges made from rulers, a tunnel under a flowerpot, and one huge puddle. But it had no sound.
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The Empty Half Hour
By three o'clock, the cheese in Mara's sandwich had gone soft. She had made it at seven, before opening her small hair salon on Willow Lane. Her morning appointments had run late.
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When Does an Invitation Become a Plan?
"You must come over sometime!" sounds like an invitation. But should you take out your calendar, wait for another message, or simply say, "That would be lovely"? The answer often d
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What Does Ready Mean?
At a small furniture company, Lena managed a new product brochure. On Tuesday morning, she asked the designer, Marco, whether the file was ready. "Yes," he replied. "It's in the s
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Six Mugs Left
By noon, Tessa's market table was empty. Every mug she had made was gone, including the yellow one with a slightly uneven handle. She folded the tablecloth with a smile. At last,
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Is the Bigger Bag Really Cheaper?
Two bags of oats sit on a shop shelf. One costs $2, and the other costs $3.60. Which is the better buy? The price alone cannot tell you. You also need to know how much each bag con
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Why Metal Feels Colder Than Wood
A metal spoon and a wooden spoon have been sitting in the same kitchen all night. When you pick them up, the metal one feels colder. Is its temperature actually lower? Usually, no.
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A Game Across Three Evenings
Every Saturday afternoon, Lena and her mother played a board game with wooden boats. They moved between painted islands, collected colored stones, and tried to reach the harbor fir
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The North Wind and the Sun
The North Wind and the Sun argued about which of them was more powerful. They agreed that whoever could first make a passing traveler take off his clothes would win. The North Win
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The Hare and the Tortoise
One day, a hare, an animal like a rabbit, mocked the short feet and slow pace of a tortoise, a land animal with a hard shell. Laughing, the tortoise replied, "Although you are as f
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The Lion and the Mouse
A lion was woken from his sleep by a mouse running over his face. He got up angrily, caught the mouse and was about to kill him. The mouse begged for his life, saying, "If you let
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The Crow and the Pitcher
A crow, a black bird, was dying of thirst when he saw a pitcher, a container for holding and pouring water. He flew to it eagerly, hoping for a drink. But he was disappointed to fi
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The Fox and the Grapes
A very hungry fox was walking beside a garden when she noticed a grape plant growing over a wooden frame. Several groups of black grapes hung from it. They were ready to eat and lo
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Eight Hats, One String
Pella had made eight summer hats for her small hat shop: a yellow one with a wide edge, a green one with flowers, and six others in bright colors. She wanted a photograph of them a
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The Note Under the Door
Tomas was eleven and had been learning the trumpet, a musical instrument you play by blowing into it, for three weeks. Every afternoon at five, he practiced in his small bedroom on
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The Cat with Three Names
Every evening at six, a gray cat with white feet and one bent ear jumped onto Ana's small balcony on the third floor. Ana was twenty-four, new to the city, and lived alone, so the
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The Extra Tomato
Every Saturday morning, Mira walked to the little market in Ashdown Square with a canvas bag and a short list. She had moved to the town in spring and still knew very few people, s
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The Red Shoes on Juniper Hill
Basil Moreno had repaired shoes at the top of Juniper Hill for forty-one years. His shop was small and smelled of leather and glue, and a brass bell rang every time the door opened
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The Cat and the Cock
A cat caught a cock and wondered how he could find a reasonable excuse to eat him. He accused him of being a nuisance to men by crowing at night and not permitting them to sleep.
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THE QUEEN BEE
Two kings' sons once went into the world to seek their fortunes. They began to live wastefully and foolishly, and they could not return home. Then their brother, a small dwarf, wen
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President Jonathan Levin's remarks at Opening Convocation
First-years, transfer students, and families: Welcome to Stanford! We're glad you're here. We enjoyed watching you move in this morning. That is one of my favorite moments of the y
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THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES
There was once a king named Dionysius. He was very unfair and cruel, and almost everyone hated him. He lived in fear that someone would kill him. He was very rich and lived in a f
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Researchers: South Korea's Birth Rate Increase Last Year Unclear
In 2024, the number of babies born in South Korea increased for the first time in nine years. The change is welcome news for a country that is dealing with serious population probl
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The Goodyear Blimp Has Been Flying Over America for 100 Years
The Goodyear Blimp is an airship that is also a traveling advertisement for the Goodyear Tire Rubber Company. The airships are immediately recognizable to most Americans. For the
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Lincoln's Cottage: a Country House for the President
About five kilometers from the White House in Washington, DC there is an old building connected to Abraham Lincoln one of America's most famous presidents. This building is called
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The Old Lion
A LION, worn out with years and powerless from disease, lay on the ground at the point of death. A Boar rushed upon him, and avenged with a stroke of his tusks a long remembered in
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The Charger and the Miller
Once, an old charger was sent to work in a mill because he was no longer fit for battle. Instead of fighting, he had to grind grain all day. The charger was sad and remembered his
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Nothing ventured, nothing gained
The proverb "Nothing ventured, nothing gained" means that if you do not take chances, you will not achieve success or gain anything valuable. It encourages people to be brave and w
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