Intermediate

Bassanio wants to get married, but he has no money and a lot of debts. He asks his friend Antonio for a loan, but Antonio is waiting for his ships to return. Until then, he has nothing to lend. To help Bassanio, he borrows money from a money-lender – and agrees to an unusual condition. If Antonio cannot repay the loan in three months, the money-lender will cut a pound of flesh from his body. Will Antonio be able to repay the loan? Or wi ...

In London, Christmas is coming and the people in this story have love on their minds. Some have found love; some have lost it. Some accept their loneliness; others live in hope. Even the new British prime minister’s thoughts are not always on his job – because love, actually, is all around us.

In 1673 young John Ridd meets a little girl called Lorna Doone. Seven years later they meet again, and fall in love. But the Doones are a family of robbers and murderers. One of them, Carver, killed John’s father and now wants to marry Lorna. Can John save Lorna from her worst fears?

A tree full of enormous spiders, a living thing with no face, a picture that comes alive, and a boy with no heart. These are some of the frightening things in these stories by M. R. James, one of the greatest horror writers of all time.

It is 1942 in Holland and the Germans have invaded. All Jewish people are frightened for their lives, so the Frank family hide. Life is dangerous but they hope for the best – until they are finally discovered. Anne Frank was a real person, and this is her diary.

Scarlet is the colour of sin, and the letter 'A' stands for 'Adultery'. In the 1600s, in Boston, Massachusetts, love was allowed only between a husband and a wife. A child born outside marriage was a child of sin. Hester Prynne must wear the scarlet letter on her dress for the rest of her life. How can she ever escape from this public shame? What will happen to her child, growing up in the shadow of the scarlet letter? The future holds no joy for Hester Prynne. And what will happen to her sinful lover - the father of her child? Classics

About a quarter of the people in the world today speak or use English. In homes and schools, offices and meeting rooms, ships and airports, people are speaking English...How has this happened? How did English begin, and what will become of it in the future? The history of the English language is a journey through space and time, from thousands of years ago to today and beyond, and to all parts of the world. Come on that journey and meet the monks and soldiers, the kings and scientists, the printers, poets, and travellers who have helped to make the English of today. Factfiles

The doctor took great care of his patients. Everybody agreed about that. And a lot of his women patients were old and ill, so it was only natural that a lot of them would die. Everyone agreed about that too. Until some of the women who died were not very old, or very ill - and someone began to ask questions about Dr Harold Shipman ...Many great crimes end in a question. Not all the answers are known. Read about Dr Harold Shipman and discover the love, hate, death, money, and mystery behind this and other great crimes. Factfiles