Level 1
Everyday words and short sentences.
Reading passages
Short passages to read, each followed by four or five questions about it. Pick a level or a topic, read a passage, then answer. Every answer shows why it is right.
651 passages
Studio AM wrote 641 of these passages and adapted 3 from public-domain works. The other 7 are excerpts from public-domain books, and each one names its source.
Levels
Levels describe the passage, not the reader. A higher level has longer sentences and harder words.
Topics
The same passages, sorted by what they are about.
- Biography 50 passages The lives and work of real people.
- Economics 57 passages Money, prices, trade and the choices people make with them.
- Essay 51 passages Short pieces that make a case and support it.
- Fable 37 passages Short stories that end with a lesson.
- Fiction 71 passages Stories about invented people and events.
- History 58 passages Events and people from the past, and why they mattered.
- Nature 55 passages Animals, plants, weather and the places they live.
- Nonfiction 51 passages Everyday facts, advice and how things work.
- Philosophy 53 passages Questions about knowledge, fairness and how to live.
- Psychology 54 passages How people think, feel, learn and decide.
- Science 68 passages How the natural world works, and how we find out.
- Technology 46 passages Tools and machines, and how people use them.
How pace mode works
- Open a passage and choose a pace, from 150 to 400 words per minute. Off means you read at your own speed.
- Select Start. A highlight moves through the passage at that pace, and a clock runs.
- Select Done reading when you finish. The passage is hidden, and the same questions follow.
- The result shows your words per minute, measured by the clock, and how many answers you got right.
Pace mode is practice in reading at a steady rate, with a check on what you understood. It does not make you read faster, and the number describes that one passage on that day.
With reduced motion on, no word moves. The sentence you are on is marked, and the clock still gives your words per minute.
Practise with these passages
Two practices draw on the same passages.
- Reading comprehensionA passage at the level you choose, timed, then its questions one at a time.
- Reading skillsEight passages, one question each, on the kind of question you pick.
The guide Reading speed and pacing explains words per minute and what research says about reading faster.