← All listening lessons B1 · 5 minutes · Short stories
The Open Boat Four men survive a shipwreck and fight the ocean in a small boat. The story is based on Stephen Crane's own experience. A story by Stephen Crane, adapted for learners.
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What you’ll practise Understand past narration and the future in the past.
Words to know lifeboat A small boat for escaping from a ship. wave A moving line of water in the sea. sink To go down under water. Words at this lesson’s level (B1) At B1, you probably know about 97% of the words in this lesson.
Show 1 word that may be new These words are in the recording, so they also help with the answers.
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 Open Boat” by Stephen Crane, 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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