English Short Stories For Intermediate Learners: 8 Unconventional Short Stories to Grow Your Vocabulary and Learn English the Fun Way!

How to Read Effectively
Reading is an important skill, and in our mother tongue, we read in different
ways. For example, we might skim a news article quickly in order to understand
the main events. Or, we might scan the pages of a bus timetable looking for a
particular time or place. If I gave you a children’s book to read, you would turn
the pages quickly. On the other hand, if I gave you a contract to sign, you would
read each word carefully.
However, when it comes to reading in a foreign language, research tells us
that we lose most of our reading skills. We stop using skills like skimming and
scanning to help us understand difficult texts. Instead, we simply start at the
beginning and read every word, one after the other. Inevitably, we quickly
become frustrated by difficult words.
As long as you are aware of this, however, you can use some simple
strategies to avoid this trap and become a better reader.
* * *
You are reading this book because you like the idea of learning English with
short stories. But why? What are the benefits of learning English with stories,
instead of with a textbook? Understanding this will help you improve your
reading.
When you read books for fun, it is known as extensive reading. This is very
different from how you might read English in a textbook. Your textbook
contains short dialogues, which you read in detail. The aim is to understand
every word. This is known as intensive reading.
Here is another way to look at it. Textbooks give you grammar rules and
lists of vocabulary to learn; they try to teach you. Stories show you “real
English”; they do not try to teach you. In fact, both kinds of reading are valuable
and you need them both in order to learn a language effectively.
English Short Stories for Intermediate Learners, however, is designed to
help you with extensive reading. As you read and enjoy the stories, you will
gradually improve your understanding of how English works. If you often study

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with textbooks, this book will be a breath of fresh air!
Now, in order to get the benefits of extensive reading, you have to make sure
you are reading regularly. Reading one or two pages may teach you a few new
words, but it will not make a big difference to the level of your English. With
this in mind, here is what you should have in mind when you read the stories in
this book, so you learn the most from them:
1. There are two things that are vital to successful reading: enjoyment, and
a sense of achievement. They are important because they make you want
to come back the next day and read more.
2. The more you read, the more you learn.
3. The best way to enjoy reading stories, and to feel a sense of
achievement, is by reading the story from beginning to end.
4. Consequently, understanding every word in a story is not the most
important thing. The most important thing is reaching the end of the
story.
This brings us to the most important point of this section: You must accept