Oxford Bookworms 4 (1400 headwords)

When did you last meet a polar bear, or go to a magician for help? These stories offer many different experiences. Some are strange, some are scary, some are sad, some are blackly funny. A few are shocking - when Lin Lin returns home for a funeral, she learns a dark and terrible family secret which may destroy her.

Bookworms World Stories collect stories written in English from around the world. These stories are from Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa, and Trinidad.

Oxford Bookworms enjoy a world-wide reputation for high-quality storytelling and a great reading experience.
Research shows reading a lot improves all your language skills.

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Careful, Connie, please. Your little sister's eyes are looking angry. Look at the sudden lines around her mouth. Connie, a sister is a good thing. Even a younger sister. 'Mercy, who are you going out with?'

Connie gets an answer to her question, but it is not the answer she wants to hear. And what is the price of peace between sisters?

Word count 16,068

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