← All listening lessons B1 · 5 minutes · Short stories
The Cop and the Anthem Winter is coming, and Soapy, a homeless man in New York, wants to spend it warm in prison. Getting arrested is harder than he thinks. A story by O. Henry, adapted for learners.
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What you’ll practise Hear “make someone do” and descriptions of a city.
Words to know restlessly Unable to stay still or relax. anthem A song of praise, often sung in church. brightly With a lot of light. 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 “The Cop and the Anthem” by O. Henry, 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.
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