B2 · 5 minutes · Short stories

A Horseman in the Sky

A young soldier from Virginia joins the Union army and faces a terrible choice. A Civil War story by Ambrose Bierce, adapted for learners.

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What you’ll practise

Follow past narration and “would” for the future in the past.

Words to know

decision: A choice you make after thinking.
on duty: Working at your job, for example as a guard.
dizzy: Feeling that everything is turning around you.

Words at this lesson’s level (B2)

At B2, you probably know about 100% of the words in this lesson.

The other words of this lesson are at B2 or below.

Word levels from the CEFR-J Wordlist 1.5 (Yukio Tono, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies); words not in it count as above B2. Your level is the one you chose in the level guide, otherwise the lesson’s.

Source

“A Horseman in the Sky” by Ambrose Bierce, adapted for VOA Learning English American Stories. Public domain.

View the source · Licence terms

Five sentences selected from the opening and cut into clips. Explanations and vocabulary are original.

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