Practising English
Listening practice for learners of B1 intermediate and B2 upper-intermediate levels of British English. Learn British English by listening to stories. Original and exciting stories written for learners and students of British English. Practise and prepare for Cambridge: B1 PET Preliminary and FCE First Certificate exams. IELTS: level 4, level 5 and level 6. Includes English grammar explanations and practice exercises, examples of vocabulary use, phrasal verbs and collocations help, British English pronunciation practice, advice and help for passing B1 and B2 English examinations: Cambridge, IELTS and Trinity. Start practising and improving your British English listening, vocabulary and speaking levels today!
Practising English
261. The Crown Thief (B2 Story)
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B2 story and vocabulary today. Here is the audioscript of the story and the B2 words in bold.
The Crown Thief
Detective Harris was on the point of leaving the police station when the phone rang. A robbery had taken place at the old museum. He grabbed his coat and hurried out.
At the scene, the guard looked bad-tempered. “This is a disgrace!” he shouted. “The thief just walked in and out. Nobody stopped him. There are three of us, but the robbery happened the other side of the museum. My colleague should have stopped the thief, but he did nothing it seems. I don’t understand why.”
Harris tried to stay calm. “Don’t be ashamed,” he said. “I’m sure you did your best. Now, tell me what happened.”
The guard explained that the lights suddenly went off in the entire museum. “Basically, I heard footsteps, then silence. But I thought it was my colleague checking on the situation. When the lights came back on, the gold crown in the medieval room was gone. With the lights out, it must have been a piece of cake to steal the crown.”
“Well. We should be checking on what your colleague has to say. Will he back up your story?” asked the detective.
“I can’t seem to find him,” said the guard. “That guy is a real pain. He’s never where he should be. He’s new, you see.”
Suddenly, they heard a noise behind a curtain. Harris pulled it back, and there stood a man with the missing gold crown in his hand.
“You again,” Harris muttered.
“You know him, sir?” asked the guard, amazed. “But that’s my colleague, George Rigby – he works as here a guard. He’s been working here for 3 months now.”
The thief tried to run, but the guard stopped him easily. Harris sighed with relief.
“Good work,” Harris said. “His real name is Jack Smith. He’s a well-known jewel thief. We’ve been chasing him for months. Well, finally I’ve caught him. Case closed.”
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Learners studying towards B2 level will be interested in my B1 to B2 reader: The Tudor Conspiracy (includes audio version) https://amzn.to/4gPsj0i
For very young learners (from 8-10), I recommend my picture reader book for children learning A1 to A2 English. It comes with a fully dramatised audio version: https://amzn.to/46TCWvv
At https://www.practisingenglish.com/ I offer learners of intermediate-level English, free grammar help and exercises and other English learning pages.
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Be back soon with another podcast!
Mike Bilbrough (Secondary school English teacher and Doctor in English philology)