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Reading “Easy Readers”

  • January 18, 2011 at 1:36 pm

Did you ever wonder about the difference between “Easy Readers” and their original book ?

Here are some examples, with a scan of the first page of each book’s first chapter…

Can you see the difference between each original book and its Easy Reader version ?

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Let’s start and compare British author Jane Austen‘s famous novel “Pride and Prejudice”,

with first, the original book and then, different versions of Easy Readers.

“Pride and Prejudice”

(a novel by Jane Austen)

(for more information about the story, see the wikipedia entry here or here in simple English)

The original book:

about 400 pages (Penguin Classics edition)

The Easy Reader versions:

(1) Penguin Readers

about 140 pages (with exercises),
Level 5 (2300 headwords),  about 42,000 words in total

(2) Scholastic Readers

about 90 pages (with exercises, fact files and pictures of the 2005 movie),
Level 3 (1500 headwords)

(3) Oxford Bookworms Readers

about 120 pages (with exercises),
Level 6 (2500 headwords),  about 30,000 words in total

(4) Macmillan Readers

about 95 pages (with exercises),
Level 5 (about 1600 basic words)

(4) Black Cat Readers

about 160 pages (with exercises),
Step 5 (B2.2)

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Other examples:

The original:

Persuasion, by Jane Austen

about 230 pages

The Easy Reader version:

about 45 pages (with exercises)

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The original:

Death on the Nile, by Agatha Christie

about 315 pages

The Easy Reader version:

about 100 pages (with exercises)

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福島 県 福島 市 入江町 で フランス語、 ドイツ語、 英語 を 勉強しましょう。

www.annerose-no-heya.net

Interesting books in English: Little Charo

  • December 31, 2010 at 3:52 pm

Do you know NHK’s “Little Charo” ?

NHKの『リトルチャロ』をしていますか?

It is a very cute story of a Japanese dog looking for his friends in America.

The bilingual books are published monthly. The TV version is easier than the radio one.

Level: from high beginner

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福島 県 福島 市 入江町 で フランス語、 ドイツ語、 英語 を 勉強しましょう。

www.annerose-no-heya.net

Interesting books in English: The secret life of words

  • December 31, 2010 at 3:38 pm


I ordered and received the following book:

The Secret Life of Words – How English became English

(amazon.co.jp link)

Level: intermediate-advanced or very interested in the topic

Many words in English come from French, German etc, with sometimes a very different meaning from the original…

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福島 県 福島 市 入江町 で フランス語、 ドイツ語、 英語 を 勉強しましょう。

www.annerose-no-heya.net