Black Beauty (ESL/EFL Version with Audio)

By Qiliang Feng and Anna Sewell

This is Book 4, Collection I, of the Million-Word Reading Project (MWRP) readers. It is suitable for learners with a basic vocabulary of 1,500 words.
Million-Word Reading Project (MWRP) is a reading project for ESL/EFL learners at the elementary level (with a basic vocabulary of 1,500 words). In two years, for about fifteen minutes each day, an ESL/EFL learner can read one million words, and reach the upper-intermediate level, gaining a vocabulary of about 3,500 words and a large number of expressions.

[Text Information]
Readability | 87.71
Total word count | 22011
Words beyond 1500 | 755
Unknown word percentage (%) | 3.43
Unknown headword occurrence | 3.91
Unknown words that occur 5 times or more | 40
Unknown words that occur 2 times or more | 103

[Synopsis]
Black Beauty is the name of a fine horse. He spends his early years with his mother. Then he is sold to the Squire Gordon, who is a horse lover and cares very well for his animals. Beauty spends the better part of three years here and makes friends with the other horses. Then Beauty is sold to Earlshall Park. The life is harder there. He hurt his knees in a riding accident and is sold as a job horse to a new master. The horse then passes from one master to another....
The original novel was written by Anna Sewell (1820 – 1878), an English novelist, and was published in 1877.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Qiliang Feng
• Release date: Dec 14, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310634222

Qiliang Feng

Qiliang Feng has been a teacher of English in senior high schools since 1983. He is a keen supporter of reading in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and is expert at rewriting graded/simplified ESL(English as a Second Language) and EFL (English as a Foreign Language) readers. He has published several series of English reading course books and is promoting a reading project called Million-Word Reading Project (MWRP), in which ESL/EFL learners at the elementary level (with a basic vocabulary of 1,500 words) are expected to read one million words within two or three years, and reach the upper-intermediate level easily.

Book preview

About This Book

This is Book 4, Collection I, of the Million-Word Reading Project (MWRP) readers. It is suitable for learners with a basic vocabulary of 1,500 words.

Million-Word Reading Project (MWRP) is a reading project for ESL/EFL learners at the elementary level (with a basic vocabulary of 1,500 words). In two years, for about fifteen minutes each day, an ESL/EFL learner can read one million words, and reach the upper-intermediate level, gaining a vocabulary of about 3,500 words and a large number of expressions.

Text Information

Readability | 87.7

Total word count | 22011

Words beyond 1500 | 755

Unknown word percentage (%) | 3.43

Unknown headword occurrence | 3.91

Unknown words that occur 5 times or more | 40

Unknown words that occur 2 times or more | 103

Notes:

1. About readability: This is Flesch Reading Ease Readability calculated with MS WORD. The higher the score, the easier the text is to read.

Score | Level

0-29 | Very difficult

30-49 | Difficult

50-59 | Fairly difficult

60-69 | Standard

70-79 | Fairly easy

80-89 | Easy

90-100 | Very easy

2. This e-version does not give the meanings of unknown words. You can look them up with the dictionary on your e-reader. For words with different meanings and some expressions, we give their meanings at the end of the passages. We also provide some necessary background information.

3. To get the audio or video of this book, GO>>>

Synopsis

Black Beauty is the name of a fine horse. He spends his early years with his mother. Then he is sold to the Squire Gordon, who is a horse lover and cares very well for his animals. Beauty spends the better part of three years here and makes friends with the other horses. Then Beauty is sold to Earlshall Park. The life is harder there. He hurt his knees in a riding accident and is sold as a job horse to a new master. The horse then passes from one master to another….

The original novel was written by Anna Sewell (1820 – 1878), an English novelist, and was published in 1877.

Chapter 1. My Early Home

The first place that I can well remember was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it. There were trees around the pond and at the deep end of it, there grew water plants. Over the fence on one side we looked into a field, and on the other we looked over a gate at our master’s house. At the top of the meadow were some tall trees, and at the bottom a little river.

When I was young I lived on my mother’s milk, as I could not eat grass. In the daytime I ran by her side, and at night I lay down close by her.

As soon as I was old enough to eat grass, my mother used to go out to work in the daytime, and come back in the evening.

There were six young horses in the meadow besides me; they were older than I was; some were nearly as large as grown-up horses. I used to run with them, and had great fun. We used to run all together round and round the field as hard as we could go. Sometimes they would bite and kick.

One day, my mother said:

Please pay attention to what I am going to say to you. The young horses who live here are very good, but they have not learned manners. They will draw carts when they grow up. You are quite different. Your father has a good name, and your grandfather twice won the most important race at Newmarket. Your grandmother was very gentle, and I think you have never seen me kick or bite. I hope you will grow up gentle. Do your work well, and never bite or kick even in play.

I have never forgotten my mother’s advice. I knew she was a wise old horse, and our master loved her very much. Her name was Duchess, but he often called her Pet. He called me Darkie because of my colour. Our master was a good, kind man. We were all fond of him, and my mother loved him very much.

There was a boy named Dick, who worked for my master. Sometimes he came into our field to pick blackberries from the fence. When he had eaten all he wanted, he would throw stones and sticks at us young horses to make us run around. Sometimes a stone would hit and hurt us.

One day he was doing this again, and did not know that the master was in the next field, watching what was going on. He jumped over the fence, caught Dick by the arm, and hit him on the ear. Dick let out a cry of pain.

Bad boy! he said, this is not the first time, but it shall be the last. There - take your money and go home. I shall not want you on my farm again. So we never saw Dick any more. Old Daniel, the man who looked after the horses, was just as gentle as our master.

Chapter 2. The Hunt

Before I was two years old, something happened that I have never forgotten. It was early in the spring. I and the other young horses were feeding at the lower part of the field when we heard the cry of dogs in the distance.

The oldest of us raised his head, and listened. There are the hunting dogs! he said, and immediately ran off. The rest of us followed him to the upper part of the field. There we could look over the fence and see several fields beyond. My mother and an old horse of our master’s were also standing near.

They have found a hare, said my mother, and if they come this way we shall see the hunt.

Then, we saw a hare rushed by and ran toward the woods. The dogs came rushing across the field, followed by the hunters. Six or eight men jumped their horses over the fence, close after the dogs. Soon, the dogs were upon the hare and that was the end of her. One of the hunters held up the hare by the leg, and all the gentlemen seemed well pleased.

As for me, I was so astonished that at first I did not see what was going on by the river, but when I did look, I saw a sad sight. Two fine horses were down. One was struggling in the water, and the other was lying on the grass. One of the riders was getting out of the water, the other lay quite still.

Many of the riders went to the young man and carried him to our master’s house. I heard afterward that it was young George Gordon, the squire’s only son. His neck was broken.

Later, a man came to look at the black horse that lay on the grass. He felt him all over, and shook his head; one of his