The B1 story today:

The Girl in the Painting

Sophie had been meaning to visit the old house on the hill for years, and she was surprised to see the door open, as though inviting her to visit.

Inside, the air was heavy and quiet. She glanced around the dusty room and saw an old mirror. In the glass, she saw a handsome young man smiling at her. She turned suddenly, however, there was no one there behind her. She turned back to the mirror. There was the same young man dressed in a smart dinner jacket and matching trousers, his dark, curly hair falling down onto his broad shoulders.

“Help yourself to some tea,” he said calmly, and pointed to a table with a silver teapot, plates and dishes with cakes.

Sophie wanted to escape, but the man’s deep, brown eyes somehow pulled her towards them, and then she disappeared into the mirror altogether.

When her friends came looking for her a few days later, the mirror was gone, and in its place was an enormous painting of a young couple in fine clothes taking tea and cakes. The gorgeous woman looking out of the painting, they recognised as Sophie. Her sad eyes filled with tears.

Here is a link to a Pdf extract from my new book: "B1 English Vocabulary Builder" so you can see how it works and how it can help you reach a B1 English level.

https://www.practisingenglish.com/pdf/Inchcape-rock-sample.pdf

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...