English readings at level B1+
300 original readings written by the FitForm team, graded B1 → C2 and sorted by topic. Reading is free and needs no account; exercises, vocabulary review and essay marking need a FitForm login.
Why warming up works
Coaches have told athletes to warm up for a century, but the reasons are more interesting than the habit. A…
The cost of a plastic bottle
A plastic water bottle costs about five thousand dong. That price covers the plastic, the water, the…
Learning from a mistake
Most students hate making mistakes in front of other people. That feeling is natural, but it works against…
The library that lends things
A library lends books. In about a hundred cities, libraries now lend other things too: drills, sewing…
The first week of a habit
Almost everyone can do something new for three days. The interesting question is what happens in the…
The twenty-minute rule
Most advice about exercise assumes you have an hour, a gym and a change of clothes. Most students have none…
Ten minutes before bed
Ask a group of fifteen-year-olds how they fall asleep and most will describe the same scene: lying in bed…
The classroom that was too loud
Room 204 had a reputation. Teachers said the students there did not listen. Three different teachers said it,…
The bicycle and the city
In 1970 Amsterdam was a city of cars. Photographs from that year show the main squares used as car parks and…
The shop with no prices
A student-run shop in a secondary school sold snacks at break. In its first term it lost money, which puzzled…
The river that moved
Rivers look permanent on a map. On the ground they are among the least permanent things in a landscape. A…
The first job interview
Most advice about interviews is about what to say. The more useful advice is about what to prepare before you…
The island that counted birds
On a small island off the coast of Scotland, volunteers have counted seabirds every June since 1969. They…
The song that everyone knows
Every culture has songs that nobody remembers learning. You did not sit down to study them. They arrived…
The pencil nobody can make
Pick up a pencil. It costs almost nothing. Now try to find one person on earth who knows how to make it. The…
The thermometer in the sun
Weather stations keep their thermometers inside a white box on legs, with slatted sides, standing at a fixed…
The sound of your own voice
Almost everyone dislikes hearing a recording of their own voice. The usual explanation — that we are simply…
The museum of ordinary things
Museums are full of gold and weapons because gold and weapons survive. Wooden tools rot, cloth decays, food…
The fish that walked inland
When a new road or dam crosses a river, the fish on either side stop being one population and become two.…
The word for blue sky
Learners often assume that vocabulary means a list of words with their translations. It is a reasonable…
The two-minute rule
A small piece of advice circulates among people who manage a lot of small tasks: if something takes under two…
The name on the door
A hospital in Scotland tried an experiment that cost nothing. Staff began writing their first name and role…
The shortcut across the grass
Walk through almost any park and you will find a worn line across the grass, cutting the corner that the…
The mountain that makes rain
Travel across a mountain range and the landscape frequently changes completely between one side and the…
The river of rubbish
Studies of plastic reaching the sea keep finding the same uncomfortable shape. A small number of rivers carry…
The problem with averages in class
A class average of six out of ten can describe two completely different classes. In the first, almost every…
The rule of the first draft
A student sits down to write an essay and spends forty minutes on the first paragraph. The paragraph is good.…
The town that counted cats
A small town wanted to know how many stray cats lived in it. Counting them directly was impossible: cats…
The house that faces south
In the northern hemisphere, a window facing south receives sun for most of the day. A window facing north…
The glass that rings
Rub a wet finger around the rim of a wine glass and it sings. Add water and the note drops. This is a…