B1 · 5 minutes · Short stories

After Twenty Years

A man waits in a dark doorway to meet his best friend after a very long time. A police officer walks by. A story by O. Henry, adapted for learners.

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What you’ll practise

Hear past agreements and “couldn’t have” for something impossible.

Words to know

cop: An informal word for a police officer.
agree: To decide something together.
earth: The world.

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

“After Twenty Years” by O. Henry, 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.

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