B1 · 5 minutes · Short stories

A Pair of Silk Stockings

Mrs. Sommers suddenly has some extra money, and she plans to spend it on her children. A story by Kate Chopin, adapted for learners.

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What you’ll practise

Hear “would” for plans in the past and descriptive adjectives.

Words to know

investment: A careful use of money for a good result.
cloth: Material for making clothes.
costly: Expensive.

Words at this lesson’s level (B1)

At B1, you probably know about 97% of the words in this lesson.

The other words of this lesson are at B1 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 Pair of Silk Stockings” by Kate Chopin, 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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