short stories british council

• Listen and watch
• Short stories

Who was Boudica? Watch this story, one of our 'British tales' videos about characters and people from British history, to find out!

Do the preparation task first. Then watch the story and do the activities.

Preparation

Is there a famous hero or heroine from your country? Write a comment and tell us about it!

Will Boudica's body ever be found?

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so good 100.1000

Wow! Queens are not fighting, they are chilling, exact this weird queen.

Hmmm! interesting his body was never seen again.

I will find her body, and become rich man :)

English courses for children aged 6-17

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• General English
• B2–C1 stories

Bad blood – B2/C1

When a vampire visits a young couple in love, can they – and their love – survive?

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.

Preparation

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David and Emma gazed at each other across the table. The young couple were content: the meal was delicious, the candlelight was soft and the music captured the moment perfectly. 

David looked at Emma's beautiful smile. All the pain of his last break-up, all his doubts and fears about love melted away. His hand reached out and touched hers nervously. 

'I have something I want to ask you.' David searched her eyes to see if she guessed what was coming. 

Her smile was reassuring. She squeezed his hand. 'You needn't worry. Whatever it is, I'm sure I'll say yes!' 

A huge wave of excitement went through him as he prepared to ask the most important question of his life.

From the corner of the restaurant, a strange man watched them. He sat, stiff and unmoving, at his table, pretending to read a menu. But all the while, he stared with cold eyes at the young couple. 

Back at their table, David suddenly felt his nerves return. 

'Excuse me,' he said to Emma. He pushed his chair back and went to the toilet. As he looked at his reflection in the mirror, he took a deep breath and told himself: 'Come on, David, come on! You can do this, mate! She's crazy about you!'

He nodded at himself and, feeling braver, he stepped outside the bathroom. He bumped straight into the extremely tall man, who was waiting by the door. The man's eyes were a cold, bright blue and his face was pale with a sharp, pointed nose and thin, pale lips. 

'Oh, sorry!' said David. 

'Which one?' the man hissed. He spoke with a strange, heavy accent that David had never heard before.

For a moment, David was confused until he realised what the other man meant. 

'Er ... oh! This one!' said David, helpfully. 'This is the men's toilet!'

David went back into the restaurant, reaching into his pocket for the small, square-shaped box. He was now filled with courage. He was going to ask her.

The taxi ride home was heaven. The happy pair discussed their future life together and shared sweet words of admiration. 

'The night I proposed!' said David. 

'The night I accepted!' replied Emma. 

'Just think, a whole life together!' 

'Caring, sharing, …' he began.

'... loving, giving!' Emma finished his sentence.

They smiled at each other in love and excitement. 

'You are so wonderful!' sighed David.

'And you're absolutely gorgeous!' said Emma. 'I've never met anyone so lovely and kind! I'm so happy I could sing!' 

But as they entered their block of flats, holding hands, a tall figure watched them from the shadows. 

'Which one?' he whispered to himself. 

He watched the building, waiting for a light to come on and give away which flat was theirs. One minute went by … two … there it was! The light went on in a third-floor window. Emma was briefly visible as she closed the curtains. 

How often had the sharp-toothed watcher stood on corners like this observing his victims? Many corners! Many windows! A thin smile spread across his pale lips. He moved out of the shadows to the door and pressed all the doorbells. The vampire was always grateful for these modern flats. Sooner or later someone would let you in, thinking it was a pizza delivery. Silly humans! It was a kind of invitation – and that was all he needed to enter a home. 

As he climbed the stairs to the third floor and walked soundlessly down the hall, he could hear the young couple's laughter and conversation. As he pressed his ear against the door, he could hear their conversation. Young love made for the sweetest blood; it was so full of life and energy.

'I feel as if I'm in a film,' she was saying.  

'More like a dream,' he replied.

'Yes, a dream. How lucky we are!' 

'Guess who I'll be dreaming about tonight!' he teased.

'Who? Who?' 

'Her hair smells of roses! She's like an angel!'

Their dream was about to become a nightmare, the vampire thought. He burst through the door and stood there with a cruel expression, showing his sharp teeth. The couple screamed and held each other in terrified silence. The vampire smelled the tension and tasted the fear. This was how he liked it. Fear made the blood even sweeter.

'There's my wallet! On the table, there! Take it!' said David. 'Take anything you want!'

'Indeed, I will take anything I want!' the vampire replied. 

'Fine! Fine! We won't stop you, I promise!' David cried.

'You won't! I promise!' replied the vampire.

As the light shone on the sharp, pointed teeth, the terrible realisation came to David and Emma at the same time. 

'Look at his teeth! Is he ... ?'

'A vampire!!'

'Which one?' the vampire hissed. 'It can be … only one!'

The couple's eyes were wide open and staring. Their mouths hung open in horror. They held each other's hands and their stomachs filled with fear. 

'Already tonight,' continued the vampire. 'I have drunk from three. One more ... then … I can … sleep … and feel young again.'

David felt a strong instinct as the vampire moved towards them. He stepped in front of Emma and protected his wife-to-be. Emma gratefully held on to his back. 

The vampire was in no rush. Who best to attack? he asked himself. Which one? 

'Thank you,' Emma whispered to David, 'for what you're doing for me.'

'Of course, darling. I'm here to protect you.' Pride swept over him as he said the words. He could fight this vampire. All he needed was a cross, or something to stab him through the heart. He looked around for something ...

'You're so selfless to offer yourself so bravely,' continued Emma, admiringly. 

'Pardon?' asked David. 'What the hell are you talking about?'

'Oh!' said Emma. 'I just thought that with your love for me and everything …'

David and the vampire stared at each other.

'Now, listen, Emma. There is no doubt about my love for you!'

'Really?' she replied, her voice heavy with disbelief. 

'But you can't expect me to just throw away my life!'

'I wasn't saying you should!' she said. 'It's just one of our options, that's all!'

'Well, think of another one!' he argued. 'Why don't you offer yourself up for me!'

The mood in the room had certainly turned ugly. The vampire was displeased that the fear and love had turned into petty arguments.

Emma was furious. 'I hope you're joking!'

'Let's see how strong your love is!' he said, angrily.

'What a gentleman!' 

'What a lovely woman I was planning to marry. Offering me up like a bone to a dog!'

'You said my hair smells of roses!' she cried. 

'All right, all right! Calm down!' David was a little embarrassed to be having this argument in front of a stranger. 

'I'm an angel, you said!' she carried on shouting.

'MUST… FEED!' shouted the vampire furiously as he came even closer. He was determined to make a quick kill and get to bed as soon as possible, away from this terrible pair. 

His eyes opened wider and he showed his teeth. 'WHICH ... ONE?' 

'HER!' said David, pointing at his future wife. 

'HIM! HIM!' screamed Emma in rage. 'Please, take HIM!' 

The vampire approached David. 

'She's younger! Sweeter!' said David. 

The vampire turned to Emma. 

'He's bigger! There's more of him!' she said, pointing desperately. 

Suddenly a wave of tiredness came over the vampire. He was centuries old, and listening to them was exhausting and depressing. How could he feel better by feeding on either of these pathetic creatures? 

He looked down upon their terrified faces and cried, 'BAD BLOOD!' 

And with that, he disappeared into the night air and left Emma and David alone together. Together, as they had promised, for the rest of their lives.

Story written by Clive Lane and adapted by Nicola Prentis.

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Do you think Emma and David will have a happy future together?

Language level

Vampire wanted to eat sweet couple and he was shocked when he saw this drama, poor vampire

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Nice story. The presence of the vampire only accelerates what all couples would go through.

I wonder how many couples have broken up after the vampire's visit

In my opinion, their relationship deteriorated after they showed their natural character in a stressful situation. Therefore, they will probably break up.

I like this story, I will be disappointed if it doesn't happen like that. Poor vampire

I think they knew the truth of each other and the won't marry.

In my opinion, the couple will break up soon as they have realized the true nature of each other.

I think that this couple has no future because they think only about themselves.They aren`t ready to sacrifice themselves for saving each other. This shows how different they are and how false is love. But the story is really instructive. Love isn`t about sweet words, it`s about acts and behavior.

Personally, I think they will have a great life together because they act in sync for example when they were aware they were in danger with the vampire they acted strategically so they could get away from the danger. It means further they will work together in any circumstance they can have.

What an interesting and breath-taking story! I really enjoyed it. To me, the story shows true demonstration of how actions talk louder than words. The Vampire appeared to be a test for the couple’s love that fails to pass. All the relationships through hard times will reveal their nature. At the end, the couple together realized that they didn’t love each other as said. Definitely, without true love of sacrifice, huge compassion, they can’t be happy together!

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• Teaching secondary
• Pre-intermediate A2

Storytelling

Storytelling activities are a great way to allow students to express themselves freely and creatively in an authentic and real way.

Stories can be a very versatile and powerful teaching tool.

• Stories are fun and motivational.
• Stories allow students to be creative and imaginative.
• Stories give students a sense of achievement.
• Storytelling gives students a chance to practise oral fluency and extended discourse.
• Stories introduce language in a comprehensible and meaningful way.
• Stories are authentic.
• Listening to stories can develop important skills such as prediction, guessing, hypothesising and message decoding.
• Storytelling can provide valuable cultural input.
• If the students know the story in their L1 they can use this knowledge to help them understand or tell the story in L2.
• There are lots of different fun activities that spin off from stories.

Possible sources of stories

• you and your life
• students' lives
• books, magazines, comics, Reader's Digest, newspapers
• the internet
• folk stories, fairy stories, Disney films
• local stories and legends
• urban legends
• creating your own stories using words or pictures

Choosing and preparing

• You need to find stories that are interesting to you and your students.
• The stories should have values that are acceptable to you and your students.
• You will need to decide which key words may need to be pre-taught.

Activities that you can do

• my life story
• my family story
• my last holiday

The students then tell each other their story based on the pictures they have drawn. This works well if you model this on the board by drawing your pictures and telling your story first.

• Tell a short funny story, joke or anecdote. Try this at the beginning of class as a warm up and ask the students if they have any funny stories or jokes that they would like to tell you.
• Stories and pictures. Get students to bring in cut-out magazine pictures of their favourite stars. Then write different words on the board, such as love , jealousy , fame , travel , murder , marriage , luxury hotel , boat , fast car , money , big dark house , family , friends , accident , disappearance , theft , adventure , suspicious , secretive , treasure , jewels , fortune , etc. Then tell the students they have 10-15 minutes to make up an interesting story about their favourite stars. Tell the students they can use any vocabulary or grammar that they want to but that they must use at least five words from the board. Students then make up their stories and tell them to the rest of the class or other groups.
• Tell the students a simple urban legend or a ghost story. Then get them to tell you one that they know. Using pictures to help you tell a story is always a good idea even if it is just stick figures drawn on the board as you are telling the story.
• What does this person look like?
• What do you think their name is?
• Do you think they're happy? Why?
• What do you think they're doing now? Why?
• What kind of house do you think they live in?
• What kind of lifestyle do you think they lead?
• What do you think their family is like?
• What do you think their job is?
• Do you think they like their job?
• What do they do in their free time?
• Do they have any secrets?
• What would a typical day their life be like?
• Student A puts down a card and starts the story. Then student B puts down one of their cards and continues the story. Then student C continues, and so on, until all the students have used all their cards and the story is complete.
• Students then re-tell their story to another group and listen to other groups' stories.
• You can easily make up your own story dominoes on other topics such as sci-fi, urban life, football, Harry Potter, etc., or if you are artistic you can even draw pictures on your dominoes instead of words. This set is for a fantasy story:
• Once the students have told you the rough outline of the stories, put them into pairs or small groups. Now tell the students that they have 10-15 minutes to recreate one of these stories in a different genre, for example as a horror story, a detective story, a love story, an adventure story, etc.
• Tell the students they are free to add in new characters or events if they want to and that at the end of the activity they will vote on the most original and creative story.

When was this article written

When was this article written? And may I cite it?

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The article was written in 2002. It's fine if you would like to cite it.

Best wishes,

Cath TE Team

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