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Setting: Fairytale
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The Curse of the Pig
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Genre: Children’sSetting: FairytaleNew Vocabulary: Bone, Catch wind, Curse, Dragon, Forbid, Iron, Ladder, Mud, Pass by in a blur, Pork, String, Tell the future, Tie around, Transform, Wear outWord Count: 4280Original Author: Ariel GoodbodyA princess finds a book that tells her future. When she grows up, she will have to marry a pig. The girl doesn’t want to believe it, but one day a pig comes knocking on her door. But things are not as they seem. This is a curse, and there has to be a way to break it…
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Three Kisses
Leah’s mother dies, and her brother leaves home, and Leah is so sad that she cannot speak. Her father plants a rose garden on her balcony, and every day she gives a white rose to a seagull and kisses it three times, sending it to her brother. But dark magic is also travelling across the sea, and soon Leah will find that every rose is not so sweet…
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The Pumpkin Jug
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Genre: RomanceSetting: FairytaleNew Vocabulary: A good match, Bow (verb), Come into season, Fit, Hole, Impossible, Jug, Landslide victory, Pick (flowers), Poppy, Pumpkin, Rule (noun), ThirstyWord Count: 1348Original Author: Ariel GoodbodyA king meets a woman who grows pumpkins. She gives him water in a dirty old jug, and then she breaks it. The king thinks this is strange, but he likes the woman. So he gives her a challenge: if she can put a big pumpkin in a small jug, he will marry her. But she cannot break the jug or the pumpkin. Can she do it?
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The Golden Fish
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Genre: PhilosophicalSetting: FairytaleNew Vocabulary: Calm (weather), Education, Fisherman, Grant a wish, Hut, Let go of, Nag, Politics, Revolution, StormyWord Count: 1086Original Author: Fairy TalesA fisherman finds a golden fish. The golden fish says it can grant his wishes. But the fisherman doesn’t wish for anything. However, when his wife gets home she says she wants a new house. So the next day the fisherman catches the golden fish again and wishes for a new house. That starts a series of events that ends in disaster…
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Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Cut Off Your Hair
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Genre: RomanceSetting: FairytaleNew Vocabulary: Chew, Get caught on, Loom, Nail, Pharmacist, Scalp, Starve, Suit of armour, Sword, Trapped, Treat someone likeWord Count: 3658Original Author: Ariel GoodbodyAn old couple wish for a son and instead have a daughter with long, magical hair. They don’t see the value in it, and sell her off to an old man who keeps her in a tower. Every day, he massages the oil from her hair and sells it. But the girl gets tired of this life, and makes a plan to escape…
Strange Friends (Advanced)
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Genre: Children’sSetting: FairytaleNew Vocabulary: “For all the good it will do you”, Altar, Christening, Crumbs, Disposition, Fantasise, Godmother, Kitty, Might as well, Ponder, SavourWord Count: 1554Original Author: Ariel GoodbodyA cat and a mouse live together as friends, and what strange friends that makes! One day, the cat suggests they store some food for the winter, so they buy a pot of fat and hide it in a church. But while the mouse happily cleans the house, the cat starts to think about the food…
The Holy Cat
A cat hunts all the mice in the town, so it goes to the fields. But the mice in the fields are too fast. So the cat decides to start praying…
The Giant Turnip
A woman grows a really big turnip. She wants to pull it out of the ground but she can’t. Her husband helps her, but together they still can’t pull the turnip out of the ground. How much help will they need?
The Water Monster
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Genre: HorrorSetting: FairytaleNew Vocabulary: Bend someone’s will, Brine, Flesh and blood, Froth, Make to do something, Mild, Seaweed, String of pearls, Swirl, Tea (food)Word Count: 753Original Author: Karel Jaromír ErbenDownload this episode as a PDF. Transcript Welcome to Easy Stories in English, the podcast that will take your English from OK to Good, and from Good to Great. I am Ariel Goodbody, your host for this show. Today’s story is for intermediate learners. The name of the story is The Water Monster. You can […]
Doggo and Kitty Tear Their Trousers (Advanced)
It’s a lovely day, and Doggo and Kitty go for a walk in the forest. But when Doggo gets into a fight with a rabbit, he tears his trousers, and now everyone is laughing at him! How can they mend his trousers when they’re just a dog and a cat?