Classic Texts
These are short, famous texts in English from classic sources like the Bible or Shakespeare. Some texts have word definitions and explanations to help you. Some of these texts are written in an old style of English. Try to understand them, because the English that we speak today is based on what our great, great, great, great grandparents spoke before! Of course, not all these texts were originally written in English. The Bible, for example, is a translation. But they are all well known in English today, and many of them express beautiful thoughts.
Elementary
Intermediate
For now we see through a glass, darkly
I shall not pass this way again
To be, or not to be, that is the question
To every thing there is a season
Advanced
Consider the lilies of the field
Sonnet On Seeing a Piece of our Heavy Artillery Brought into Action
Shakespeare
When forty winters shall besiege thy brow
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Weary with toil I haste me to my bed
They that have power to hurt and will do none
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Authors
Meet some of the writers of the texts on these pages.