A1 Seviyesi İngilizce Hikayeler
01 Raining Fish
Great Yarmouth is a town. It is in England. It is a port town. A port town has a place where ships can load and unload. A strange thing happened in this town. It happened on August 6, 2000. What happened? It rained fish!
A tornado is a wind. It forms a cloud. The cloud spins. A small tornado at sea picked up seawater as it spun. Fish got picked up, too. The cloud moved over the town. Fish rained down from the cloud!
02 The Black Cloud
Jim White was a cowboy. In 1901, he saw a strange, black cloud. The cloud seemed to come out of the ground. Jim watched the cloud. He saw that it was not a cloud. It was millions of bats.
Jim went exploring. He wanted to find out where the bats were coming from. They were coming out of a hole. Jim took a lantern and a rope. He went down the dark hole. He went deep underground.
What did Jim find? He found a huge cave. It was filled with passageways and large rooms. Bats slept in the cave during the day. Today, the cave is a park. It is called Carlsbad Caverns. It is in New Mexico.
03 A City Without Cars
Venice is a city in Italy. It is an old city. It is very beautiful. You want to explore Venice. You want to see its beautiful buildings. Do you take a car? Do you take a bus? Do you take an airplane?
You can’t take a car. You can’t take a bus. You can’t take an airplane. They are not allowed!
How do people get around? How do they explore the city? They take boats! Venice is filled with canals. The canals go up and down. The canals are like streets.
04 Should You Wear a Raincoat?
You live in Hawaii. You live on Mt. Waialeale. You go outside. Should you bring a raincoat?
You live in Chile. You live in the Atacama Desert. You go outside. Should you bring a raincoat?
A year has 365 days. On Mt. Waialeale, it can rain a lot. It can rain 350 days of the year. If it rains nearly every day of the year. Yes, you should bring a raincoat!
The Atacama Desert is very dry. It is the driest place in the world. It rarely rains. Less than .04 inches of rain falls in a year. You do not need a raincoat!
05 A Kangaroo Hero
Lulu is a kangaroo. Her mother was hit by a car. She was rescued by a farmer. The farmer lived in Australia. His name was Len Richards. Len took good care of Lulu.
There was a big storm. A big branch fell out of a tree. It hit Len on the head. It knocked him out. Lulu knew Len needed help. She knew he was badly hurt. She knew she needed to get him help.
Lulu barked. She barked and barked. She did not stop until someone helped Len. A farmer rescued a kangaroo. Then the kangaroo rescued a farmer! Lulu was given an award for being a hero.
06 Nodding “No”
How do you say “yes” without words? How do you say “no” without words? To say “yes,” you nod your head. You nod it up and down. To say “no,” you shake your head. You shake it side to side.
Watch out! If you go to Sri Lanka or Bulgaria, it is not the same. In these two countries, you do not nod your head up and down to say “yes.” You shake it side to side! You do not shake your head side to side to say “no.” You nod it up and down!
07 The Window Washer
The Louvre is a museum. It is in France. It is filled with art. It is one of the largest museums in the world. It has two pyramids. The pyramids have four sides. The sides are triangles. The sides are made of glass.
How are the pyramids cleaned? The sides are very tall. The sides cannot be climbed. They would break.
A robot cleans the glass! The robot goes up the glass sides. It goes across the glass. It goes down the glass. It is not too heavy. Its weight does not break the glass. How does the window–washing robot stay on? It stays on by suction.
08 Getting Ready for Antarctica
A marathon is a race. Runners race far. They run 26.2 miles. One marathon was in Antarctica. Antarctica is very cold. There are strong winds. There is ice and snow.
One runner lived where it was hot. How was he going to get ready for the race? How could he get ready for the cold, wind, ice, and snow?
The man ran in a freezer! The freezer was big. Ice cream was stored there. He rode a bike in the freezer, too. The bike stayed in one place. He put a big, strong fan by the bike. When he biked, the fan blew cold air on him.
09 The Only Place
The sun rises in the east. The sun sets in the west. There is only one place in the world where you can see something special. What can you see? You can see the sun rise and set over two oceans.
Panama is a country. It is not very wide. You can stand on a hill. Look to the east. You can see the Atlantic Ocean. Look to the west. You can see the Pacific Ocean.
In the morning, you can see the sun rise. In the evening, you can see the sun set. The sun rises over the Atlantic. It sets over the Pacific. You cannot see this anywhere else.
10 A Salt Mine
A very old mine is in Poland. What is mined? What is taken out of the ground? Salt is mined. Salt has been taken out of the ground for hundreds of years.
The mine is very big. It has several levels. Inside, miners have carved out big rooms. They have carved out statues. They have carved out benches. They have carved out a church. They have carved out all these things from salt.
If you want, you can rent a room in the mine. You can have a big party under the ground in a room carved out of salt!
11 The Biggest Antique Ever Sold
What is an antique? An antique is something very old. It could be a book or a dish. It could be a tool.
People sell antiques. One man bought an antique. It was the biggest antique ever sold. What was the antique? It was a bridge!
The bridge was London Bridge. It was built in London. London is in England. It was used in 1831. It had five arches. It was made of stones. The bridge was moved when it was sold. It was taken to Arizona. Arizona is in the United States. The old stones were used in a new bridge.
12 Mail on Stilts
The mail arrives. Did your mail person bring it on foot? Did he or she bring it by truck? France is a country. In one part of France, the mail once came a different way. Postmen wore stilts! The stilts were high. They made the postmen very tall.
Why did the postmen wear stilts? There was a lot of underbrush. There were lots of brambles. There were lots of marshy areas. The postmen did not want to get scratched. They did not want to get wet. Up high, they were away from the brambles. They were dry.
The postmen could take big steps. They could go fast. The postmen carried long poles. The long poles helped them keep their balance.
13 Easter Island
Easter Island is very small. It is in the Pacific Ocean. It is far away from other lands. It is very hard to get to. It has little water. Very few people live there.
Statues dot the island. The statues are big heads. They are made of stone. They are old. There are a lot of them. There are about eight hundred.
The island has something else on it. It is very long. There is only one. It is not as old. What is it? It is a runway. It is for a space shuttle. It is for an emergency landing.
14 Getting to the Top
The Empire State Building is tall. It is in New York. It opened in 1931. It was the tallest building in the world for forty years. Then taller buildings were built.
Many people come to see it. They ride elevators to go to the top. They look out over the city. How long is the ride to the top? It is not long. It is short. It takes about a minute.
One day each year people do not ride. They do not use the elevators. What do they do? They race! They race up the stairs. They climb 1,576 stairs! One man went very fast. He reached the top in less then ten minutes!
15 A Diamond to Keep
You can go to a diamond mine. The mine is in Arkansas. It is a state park. The park is called Crater of Diamonds State Park. You can do something at the park. You can dig for diamonds!
What if you find a diamond? Do you have to give it back? No, you can keep it! You can keep every gem you find. Two or three diamonds are found each day. Most diamonds are small. Some diamonds are big. The big diamonds are worth a lot of money.
16 A Big Food Fight
Once a year, something special happens in Spain. It is in a small town in Spain. It happens in a small town, but it is something big. What is it? It is the biggest food fight in the world!
People throw tomatoes. The tomatoes are brought in by the truckload. The tomatoes are not for eating. They are just for throwing. They are dumped onto the street. When it is time, people pick up the tomatoes. They throw them at each other. They have a good time making a big mess.
17 A Wet Side and a Dry Side
Washington is a state. It has a wet side. It has a dry side. Why is it so wet on one side of the state? Why is it so dry on the other?
Winds blow. They blow west to east. The winds push rain clouds. Something stops the rain clouds. Mountains stop the rain clouds. The mountains are called the Cascades. The rain clouds can’t get past the Cascades’ high peaks.
The rain clouds stay on the west side of the mountains. They stay on the side of the state by the ocean. They drop their water on the west side of the mountains.
18 The Biggest Country
There are a lot of countries in the world. There are almost two hundred. Some countries are big. Others are small. Russia is the biggest. No other country is bigger. Russia has the most land.
Russia is first. Canada is second when it comes to land. Still, Canada has something that is first. What is it? It is not land. It is a coastline. Canada has the longest in the world.
A coastline is land by the sea. It can be on an island. It can be on a mainland.
19 A State That Grows
There are fifty states. One of the states is growing. It is getting bigger. What state is it? How can it grow?
It is Hawaii. Hawaii is made up of islands. It has more than one hundred islands. People live on some. They live on eight of the islands. The others are too small.
The biggest island is called Hawaii. It has a big volcano. The volcano is called Mauna Loa. Mauna Loa still erupts. Lava shoots out. The lava is hot. It flows down to the ocean. It hits the water. It is cooled by the water. It turns to rock. The island gets bigger!”
20 A Strange Find
A scientist was in Montana. He was high up in the mountains. He was on a glacier. He saw something. It was very strange. It was ice that looked like elephant skin. What could it be?
The scientist dug into the ice. He did not find elephant skin. He found grasshoppers! Lots and lots of them! They had been trapped in the glacier for more than three hundred years!
How did this happen? Scientists think a sudden storm came up. It came up when the grasshoppers were flying in the area.
21 What They Race in Qatar
22 Airport Island
23 Too Wet for a Race
24 A Name That Was a Trick
25 A Bridge to Jump Off
27 A Gray Suit
26 Idaho Before the Moon
28 A Famous Tower
29 A House on Stilts
30 Day and Night Are the Same
31 The Most Bones
A baby has bones. An old person has bones. We all have bones. Bones hold us up. The biggest bone is in your leg. It is called the femur. The smallest bone is in your ear. It is called the stirrup.
Who has the most bones? Every old person has the same number of bones. How many bones do they have? They have 206 bones.
Babies have more bones than big people. They have about 300. As babies grow, some of their bones fuse together. Their 300 bones become 206 bones.
32 The Turtle’s Tears
A sea turtle sheds tears. The tears are big and salty. Why does the sea turtle shed tears? Is the sea turtle sad?
The sea turtle is not sad. The sea turtle’s tears are good. A sea turtle lives in the ocean. It drinks ocean water. The water is salty. Too much salt is not good for a turtle. Too much salt can make it die.
The sea turtle has a way to get rid of salt. What does the sea turtle do? It sheds tears! It sheds big, salty tears to get rid of extra salt.
33 Clam Drop
A gull is hungry. It wants to eat. The gull scoops up a clam. It wants to eat it. How can the gull eat the clam? The clam has a hard shell. The gull cannot break it open with its beak. The shell is tightly closed. The gull cannot open it.
The gull flies up with the clam. The gull flies high above a rock. Then the gull lets it go! The clam drops. It falls down, down, down to the rock below. It smashes on the rock, and the shell breaks apart.
The gull flies down fast! It scoops up the clam meat. It eats the clam it could not open.
34 The Longest and the Shortest Days
You live on Earth. Earth is a planet. It rotates. It turns and spins. What is a day? A day is the time it takes a planet to spin around. On Earth, a day is 24 hours.
Venus is a planet. It rotates. It turns slowly. How long does it take to spin around? It takes 243 Earth days. One day on Venus is 243 days on Earth. Venus is the planet with the longest day.
Jupiter is a planet. It rotates. It turns fast. Jupiter spins around in less than ten Earth hours. Jupiter has two days for every one day on Earth! Jupiter is the planet with the shortest day.
35 The Hungry Shark
A shark is hungry. The hungry shark sees a big fish. The shark is fast. The shark grabs the big fish and eats it. The hungry shark sees a bigger fish. The shark is fast. It eats the bigger fish. The hungry shark sees an even bigger fish. The shark is fast. It eats the even bigger fish. The shark eats every fish that it sees. Not one fish can get away.
Then the shark sees a little fish. The little fish is called a Moses sole. The shark bites down. What happens? The little fish lets out a milky poison. The milky poison hurts the shark. The shark opens its mouth. It lets the little fish go!
36 The First Refrigerator
Long ago, people had to dry their food. They had to smoke their food. They had to pickle their food. They had to salt their food. If they didn’t, the food would rot. It would spoil.
Later, people began to use ice. They had large boxes. They would put in a block of ice. An iceman would bring the ice. The ice would keep the food cold. It would keep the food from spoiling.
The first electric refrigerator was invented in 1913. It did not need ice to keep the food cool. Over time, inventors changed the design. They made it better. Today, refrigerators do not need ice. They can make ice!
37 A True Super Suit
You are wearing a true super suit. This suit protects you. It guards your body from the outside world. It keeps germs out. It is waterproof. It can mend itself.
This suit fits you perfectly. It will always fit you perfectly. It will never be too small. It will never be too big. It can stretch and grow. What is this super suit? It is your skin!
Where does a lot of dust in your house come from? Believe it or not, it comes from your skin! Skin cells flake off all the time. They flake off by the thousands. New skin cells keep growing back.
38 A Snake That Can Catch a Bat
Bats fly. Snakes crawl. How can a snake catch a bat? The boa constrictor is a snake. It lives where it is warm. It lives in tropical areas. The boa slithers up a tree. It hangs from a limb. It can catch a bat as it flies by!
Boas eat things besides bats. They eat rats, lizards, and monkeys. How do boas kill their prey? They constrict them! They wrap themselves around animals. They squeeze. They squeeze tighter and tighter.
39 What the Owl Throws Up
Once or twice a day, an owl gets rid of something. It comes out of the owl’s mouth. The owl throws it up. The owl regurgitates it. Why does the owl do this? What does it regurgitate?
An owl can’t chew its food. It doesn’t have the right teeth. An owl tears its food apart. It swallows big pieces. The pieces have bones and hair. They have fur.
The owl can’t digest bones or hair. It can’t digest fur. These have to come out. The bones, hair, and fur get packed into a pellet. The owl throws up the pellet. It regurgitates it.
40 Why Astronauts Sneeze
Astronauts in space can sneeze a lot. They can sneeze more than one hundred times a day! Why do they sneeze a lot? What makes them sneeze so many times?
Dust does not settle in space. It floats in the air. It gets into the astronauts’ noses. It makes the astronauts sneeze and sneeze.
Dust settles on Earth. Why doesn’t it settle in space? Why does it float in the air? Astronauts in space are far away. They do not feel Earth’s gravity. There is not enough gravity to pull the dust down. Earth’s gravity is a force. It draws us toward Earth’s center.
41 Popcorn
How does popcorn pop? What makes the kernels open up? The answer is water!
A corn kernel has a hard outer shell. It has a starchy inside. Starch is a plant’s stored food. All green plants make starch. What’s inside the kernel’s starchy center? A small dab of water is inside.
Something happens to the water when the kernel is heated. The water turns into steam. The steam expands. It pushes out. It is like a balloon. The shell can’t take it! Pop! The shell bursts! The kernel turns inside out! The starchy inside is now on the outside. It is the white part of the popcorn.
42 Why Spiders Don’t Get Stuck
Spiders spin silk. They can spin different kinds. Some silk is sticky. Other silk is not sticky. A spider’s web looks like it has spokes. The spokes are not sticky. The spider makes this part first. Next, the spider adds sticky strands.
Insects get trapped in the web’s sticky strands. The spider quickly swings across the web. It goes to the insect. Why doesn’t the spider get stuck? The spider has special claws. It uses its claws to hook to the web and swing to the non-sticky strands.
What if the spider slips? What if it gets stuck on a sticky strand? The spider has a special oil. The oil helps to keep it from getting stuck.
43 The Most Kinds
You are a mammal. A dog and a cat are mammals. A snake is a reptile. A turtle and a lizard are reptiles. A robin is a bird. An emu and a hawk are birds. A trout is a fish. A cod and a salmon are fish. A fly is an insect. A beetle and a cricket are insects.
What kind of living thing is there the most of? Are there more mammals? Are there more reptiles? Are there more birds? Are there more fish? Are there more insects?
There are more kinds of insects in the world than anything else. One time, a person counted beetles. The person counted 1,200 kinds of beetles in just nineteen trees!
44 The Quiet Flyer
An owl is a bird. An owl can fly very quietly. It can swoop down on its prey. Its prey doesn’t hear the owl coming. How can an owl fly so quietly?
The feathers on the edges of an owl’s wing are very soft. The soft edges muffle the sound of the owl’s wings moving. Not all birds have wings with such soft edges. Their sounds are not muffled.
You can see for yourself how soft edges muffle sound. Take a soft tissue. Take a piece of paper. Wave the tissue in the air. Then wave the piece of paper. Listen carefully. The soft tissue makes less noise.
45 Different Seasons
Julie said, “It is July 15th. It is hot. It is summer. I will wear shorts. I will wear a sun hat and sandals.”
Jay said, “It is July 15th. It is cold. It is winter. I will wear a coat. I will wear a warm hat and boots.”
Julie and Jay were both right. How could this be? Julie lived in the north. Jay lived in the south. Seasons are different at the ends of Earth. When it is summer in one place, it is winter in the other. This is because of the way Earth tilts as it goes around the sun.