Classics • Crime & Mystery • Factfiles • Fantasy & Horror Human Interest • Playscripts • Thriller & Adventure True Stories • World Stories
The OXFORD BOOKWORMS LIBRARY provides enjoyable reading in English, with a wide range of classic and modern fiction, non-fiction, and plays. It includes original and adapted texts in seven carefully graded language stages, which take learners from beginner to advanced level. An overview is given on the next pages.
All Stage 1 titles are available as audio recordings, as well as over eighty other titles from Starter to Stage 6. All Starters and many titles at Stages 1 to 4 are specially recommended for younger learners. Every Bookworm is illustrated, and Starters and Factfiles have full-colour illustrations.
The OXFORD BOOKWORMS LIBRARY also offers extensive support. Each book contains an introduction to the story, notes about the author, a glossary, and activities. Additional resources include tests and worksheets, and answers for these and for the activities in the books. There is advice on running a class library, using audio recordings, and the many ways of using Oxford Bookworms in reading programmes. Resource materials are available on the website <www.oup.com/elt/gradedreaders>.
The Oxford Bookworms Collection is a series for advanced learners. It consists of volumes of short stories by well-known authors, both classic and modern. Texts are not abridged or adapted in any way, but carefully selected to be accessible to the advanced student.
You can find details and a full list of titles in the Oxford Bookworms Library Catalogue and Oxford English Language Teaching Catalogues, and on the website <www.oup.com/elt/gradedreaders>.
STARTER • 250 HEADWORDS
present simple – present continuous – imperative – can/cannot, must – going to (future) – simple gerunds …
Her phone is ringing – but where is it?
Sally gets out of bed and looks in her bag. No phone. She looks under the bed. No phone. Then she looks behind the door. There is her phone. Sally picks up her phone and answers it. Sally’s Phone
STAGE 1 • 400 HEADWORDS
… past simple – coordination with and, but, or – subordination with before, after, when, because, so …
I knew him in Persia. He was a famous builder and I worked with him there. For a time I was his friend, but not for long. When he came to Paris, I came after him – I wanted to watch him. He was a very clever, very dangerous man. The Phantom of the Opera
STAGE 2 • 700 HEADWORDS
… present perfect – will (future) – (don’t) have to, must not, could – comparison of adjectives – simple if clauses – past continuous – tag questions – ask/tell + infinitive …
While I was writing these words in my diary, I decided what to do. I must try to escape. I shall try to get down the wall outside. The window is high above the ground, but I have to try. I shall take some of the gold with me – if I escape, perhaps it will be helpful later. Dracula
STAGE 3 • 1000 HEADWORDS
… should, may – present perfect continuous – used to – past perfect – causative – relative clauses – indirect statements …
Of course, it was most important that no one should see Colin, Mary, or Dickon entering the secret garden. So Colin gave orders to the gardeners that they must all keep away from that part of the garden in future. The Secret Garden
STAGE 4 • 1400 HEADWORDS
… past perfect continuous – passive (simple forms) – would conditional clauses – indirect questions – relatives with where/when – gerunds after prepositions/phrases …
I was glad. Now Hyde could not show his face to the world again. If he did, every honest man in London would be proud to report him to the police. Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
STAGE 5 • 1800 HEADWORDS
… future continuous – future perfect – passive (modals, continuous forms) – would have conditional clauses – modals + perfect infinitive …
If he had spoken Estella’s name, I would have hit him. I was so angry with him, and so depressed about my future, that I could not eat the breakfast. Instead I went straight to the old house. Great Expectations
STAGE 6 • 2500 HEADWORDS
… passive (infinitives, gerunds) – advanced modal meanings – clauses of concession, condition
When I stepped up to the piano, I was confident. It was as if I knew that the prodigy side of me really did exist. And when I started to play, I was so caught up in how lovely I looked that I didn’t worry how I would sound. The Joy Luck Club
BOOKWORMS FACTFILES STAGE 2
ALEX RAYNHAM
‘What does the world look like from the moon?’ ‘How do our bodies work?’ ‘Is it possible for people to fly?’ ‘Can I make a horse of bronze that is 8 metres tall?’ ‘How can we have cleaner cities?’ All his life, Leonardo da Vinci asked questions. We know him as a great artist, but he was also one of the great thinkers of all time, and even today, doctors and scientists are still learning from his ideas. Meet the man who made a robot lion, wrote backwards, and tried to win a war by moving a river …
BOOKWORMS • FACTFILES • STAGE 3
ALISON BAXTER
Everybody knows about the United States of America. You can see its films, hear its music, and eat its food just about everywhere. Cowboys, jazz, hamburgers, the Stars and Stripes – that’s the United States.
But it’s a country with many stories to tell. Stories of busy cities, beautiful forests and parks. Stories of a country that fought against Britain, and then against itself, to make the United States of today. Stories of rich and poor, black and white, Native American and immigrant. And the story of what it is like to be an American today …
