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.”
My NEW book: "B1 English Vocabulary Builder - 22 Short Stories for Learning the Words and Phrases Students Need to Pass the B1 Exam" is now available! This book gives the learner enough vocabulary to pass any B1 exam (special help for Cambridge exams).
To read more about my book, click here (you can access it from any Amazon platform):
https://amzn.to/46AVFe9
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.
https://www.practisingenglish.com/
Be back soon with another podcast!
Mike Bilbrough (Secondary school English teacher and Doctor in English philology)