B1 · 5 minutes · Short stories

The Lady, or the Tiger?

A king decides guilt with two doors: behind one is a lady, behind the other a tiger. A classic story by Frank R. Stockton, adapted for learners.

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What you’ll practise

Understand formal storytelling language and sentences that begin with a place.

Words to know

progressive: New and modern for its time.
gather: To come together in one place.
ceremonial: Used for special public events.

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 Lady, or the Tiger?” by Frank R. Stockton, adapted by Shelley Gollust for VOA Learning English, read by Barbara Klein. 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.