Part 2 of my short story for B1 learners of English - Never Go Back. I'll look at the vocabulary I used, related to suspense.

Here are the words I explain for you to listen for:
Benjamin looked up, shocked at this unexpected and rude behaviour. 

Why all this unfriendly behaviour, when this morning the hotel staff he had met had been so kind.

Her face looked sour and unfriendly.

‘Your card, sir,’ she said. But her look was cold.

He felt anxious and confused.

Benjamin left the room angrily and walked to the lift.

…the whole world had gone mad.

The idea was crazy…

Benjamin became annoyed.

A face with fear written across it. (I forgot to mention this one in the podcast. 'Fear' the noun of 'afraid'. Notice the collocation ‘fear written across her face’ = she felt very afraid.)

The doorman gave a shout and fell two or three steps, his sunglasses sent flying.

He fell badly and screamed in pain…

There are two words I will explain so you can better understand the scene on the stairs. In most European hotels with several floors, there are stairs used usually only in emergencies, for example, fire. They are built in a spiral going from one floor to the other from the top to the bottom floors. In the middle of this spiral, there is a big drop or space going all the way down – this is called a stairwell.

Stairs have a construction you can hold on to so you don’t fall off them, this is called a handrail.

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...