Oxford Bookworms 3 (1000 headwords)

It is beautiful to look at, hard to reach, and terribly difficult to climb. Winds of 200 kilometres per hour or more scream across it day and night, while the temperature falls to -20 °C or lower. Every year, some who try to climb the highest mountain in the world do not return.

But for a century people have been coming to climb Everest - some alone, some in groups, but all with a dream of going to the highest place in the world. This is their story.

Everybody knows about the United States of America. You can see its films, hear its music, and eat its food just about everywhere in the world. Cowboys, jazz, hamburgers, the Stars and Stripes - that's the United States. But it's a country with many stories to tell. Stories of busy cities, and quiet, beautiful forests and parks. Stories of a country that fought against Britain, and then against itself, to make the United States of today. Stories of rich and poor, black and white, Native American and immigrant. And the story of what it is really like to be an American today ... Factfiles

American English Audio

Everybody knows about the United States of America. You can see its films, hear its music, and eat its food just about everywhere in the world. Cowboys, jazz, hamburgers, the Stars and Stripes - that's the United States. But it's a country with many stories to tell. Stories of busy cities, and quiet, beautiful forests and parks. Stories of a country that fought against Britain, and then against itself, to make the United States of today. Stories of rich and poor, black and white, Native American and immigrant. And the story of what it is really like to be an American today ... Factfiles

On a stormy winter night, a stranger knocks at the door of a shepherd's cottage. He is cold and hungry, and wants to get out of the rain. He is welcomed inside, but he does not give his name or his business. Who is he, and where has he come from? And he is only the first visitor to call at the cottage that night ...In these three short stories, Thomas Hardy gives us pictures of the lives of shepherds and hangmen, dukes and teachers. But rich or poor, young or old, they all have the same feelings of fear, hope, love, jealousy ... Classics

In our world today a hummingbird is a small, brilliantly coloured bird that lives in the tall trees of tropical forests. In the far distant future, Hummingbird (Hummy for short) is a girl of sixteen who lives somewhere in the Galaxy, on a planet called Just Like Home. She has the name 'Hummingbird' in big letters on all her clothes, but she has never seen a real hummingbird. She has never seen any living animal or bird at all. The Book of Remembering says that there were once many animals on a planet called Earth, but that was before the Burning, a long, long time ago ... Fantasy Horror

What will we do when there is nowhere to put our rubbish? Every day, all over the world, people drop cans, boxes, paper, and bottles into bins and never think about them again. And the rubbish mountains get bigger and bigger. But there is another way - a way that makes old paper into houses, broken bottles into jewellery, and old cans into bridges. Anyone can recycle - it's easy, it saves money, and it's a way to say, 'I care about the Earth.' Saving the world starts with you - here - now.

Factfiles

What will we do when there is nowhere to put our rubbish? Every day, all over the world, people drop cans, boxes, paper, and bottles into bins and never think about them again. And the rubbish mountains get bigger and bigger. But there is another way - a way that makes old paper into houses, broken bottles into jewellery, and old cans into bridges. Anyone can recycle - it's easy, it saves money, and it's a way to say, 'I care about the Earth.' Saving the world starts with you - here - now. Factfiles

'We have to leave our house in London,' Mother said to the children. 'We're going to live in the country, in a little house near a railway line.' And so begins a new life for Roberta, Peter, and Phyllis. They become the railway children - they know all the trains, Perks the station porter is their best friend, and they have many adventures on the railway line. But why has their father had to go away? Where is he, and will he ever come back? Human Interest