B1 · 5 minutes · Short stories

A White Heron

Sylvie, a quiet girl who lives on a farm near the woods, meets a young man who is hunting birds. A story by Sarah Orne Jewett, adapted for learners.

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What you’ll practise

Understand past narration about country life.

Words to know

heron: A tall bird with long legs that lives near water.
stream: A small river.
bush: A plant like a small tree with many branches.

Words at this lesson’s level (B1)

At B1, you probably know about 100% 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 White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett, adapted for VOA Learning English American Stories. Public domain.

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

Levels are suggestions. Found a mistake? Tell us through the Contact page.