Free English reading practice
Level 4
141 passages and 570 questions with answers and explanations.
Longer, denser readings with more layered explanations.
Follow an argument, compare evidence, and interpret less direct language.
Levels describe relative difficulty inside this library. They are not school grades, test scores, or CEFR bands.
- Passages
- 141
- Questions
- 570
- Typical length
- 212 words
Biography
- Ada Lovelace and the Thinking Machine
- Bayard Rustin Plans the March
- Edmonia Lewis Carves Her Own Path
- Emily Roebling Keeps the Plans Moving
- Harriet Tubman's Dangerous Journeys
- Humboldt’s Network of Knowledge
- Leonardo's Workshop Education
- Lise Meitner Explains a Split Nucleus
- Mansa Musa and the Golden Journey
- The Composer Nobody Printed
- Tu Youyou Returns to Old Texts
- Zora Neale Hurston Listens
Economics
- Money Sent Home
- Moral Hazard
- The Cost of a Cheap Glass
- The Division of Labor
- The Price Of Borrowing
- The Second-Price Auction
- The Seller Knows More
- The Shared Field
- The Signal in an Expensive Suit
- The Sunk Cost Trap
- Two Shops Choose Whether to Cooperate
- Two Tasks, One Worker
- What a Posted Price Saves
- When Everyone Claims at Once
- When Reputation Becomes Collateral
- Why the Jeweler Is Downtown
Essay
- A Door Left Open
- In Defense of Slow Questions
- Listening Sideways
- Reading the River
- The Discipline of Returning
- The Discipline You Don't See
- The Honest Estimate
- The Mended Thing
- The Quiet Pride of Maintenance
- The Silence Between Strangers
- What Translation Decides
- When the Measure Becomes the Target
- Writing to Think
Fable
Fiction
- A House Full of Clocks
- A Truth Universally Acknowledged
- Rain for a Paper Moon
- The Book Returned Twenty Years Late
- The Borrowed Coat
- The Cost of Perfect Readiness
- The Light Across the Courtyard
- The Lighthouse Keeper
- The Mapmaker Of Valea
- The Orange Umbrella
- The Quiet Cart
- The Uneven Floor
- The Village That Was Not There
- Two Rules Of The Workshop
- What the Tuner Heard
History
- A Map Against A Theory
- Bread Day at the Terrace Oven
- Learning to Read
- Sarajevo and the July Crisis
- The Clocks The Trains Set
- The Gettysburg Address
- The Lighthouse Keeper's Logbook
- The Manuscripts of Timbuktu
- The Mapmaker of the Ottoman Sea
- The Potato and the Great Irish Famine
- The Sentence That Opened the Wall
- The Shadow That Measured Earth
- The Telegraph Across Australia
Nature
- Borrowed Rooms in the Forest
- Forests That Need Fire
- Glowing in the Dark Ocean
- Slime Mold Finds a Short Route
- The Mantis Shrimp's Extra Colors
- The Narwhal's Sensitive Tusk
- The Room Beneath the Snow
- The Strength of Spider Silk
- The Tidal Marsh Moves With the Shore
- The Toughest Animal You Can't See
- What the Ice Leaves Behind
Nonfiction
Philosophy
- A Promise to Your Future Self
- Choosing Behind A Veil
- From Is To Ought
- Occam's Razor
- On Rising in the Morning
- Shadows On The Wall
- The Art-Kit Dilemma
- The Butterfly And The Sleeper
- The Room That Knows Every Fact About Color
- The Shared Thermostat Has No Neutral Number
- The Weight of Attention
- What Is in Our Control
- What It Means to Know a Place
- When No One Person Caused the Harm
- Would a Perfect Copy Still Be You?
Psychology
Science
Technology
- How a Search Index Finds a Word
- How a Tipping Bucket Counts Rain
- The Number Behind a Written Character
- The Open Design Anyone Can Improve
- The Price of Your Attention
- The Quiet Work of Error Correction
- The Road Built on a Footpath
- The Screws That Did Not Fit
- The Tower You Cannot See
- When Buffers Backfire
- When Software Rolls Back
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