Free · Reading
Reading practice
Short passages with comprehension questions. Multiple-choice questions are scored instantly; open-ended answers are checked by AI.
The bookshop that refused to die
When the third national bookshop chain collapsed in our small market town, everyone assumed Mr. Hossain's tiny independent bookshop on…
B1 · 5 passages
The night market that never sleeps
Every Friday evening at sunset, a quiet vacant lot in the city center transforms. Vans pull in, stalls go up, lights flicker on, and within…
A letter from my grandmother
Last spring, while clearing out an old wooden box in the attic, I found a letter my grandmother wrote to me when I was seven. I do not…
The second-hand revolution
Twenty years ago, buying second-hand clothes meant a slightly embarrassing visit to the local thrift store. Today it is one of the…
Joining the running club
I had always thought of myself as someone who could not run. At school I was last in every race, the kid who finished red-faced and gasping…
Tea, coffee and the office wars
Every office has the question, even if it never gets asked aloud: are you a tea person or a coffee person? It seems trivial. It is, in…
B2 · 5 passages
Should we work a four-day week?
Could you do your job in four days a week instead of five — without earning less? An increasing number of companies, governments and trade…
Why are big cities so lonely?
It seems strange, even contradictory, that loneliness is most often reported in places where millions of people live within a few square…
The quiet revolution in our pockets
When historians look back at the early twenty-first century, they may decide that the most important technology of our age was not the…
What bees can teach us
A honey bee on her own is a fragile, almost helpless creature. In summer she lives only a few weeks. She cannot survive a winter alone. She…
The bookshop that refused to die
When the third national bookshop chain collapsed in our small market town, everyone assumed Mr. Hossain's tiny independent bookshop on…
10 passages in the library — more added regularly.