Improving your reading and listening skills

I am a massive fan of keeping up to date with what is happening in the world, and I always try to convince my international students of the importance of reading and listening to the news.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that this is the very best way of improving your English, as well as giving you lots of ideas and information for writing essays and doing various types of academic speaking.  

The problem, for many learners, is that it's just too difficult - the news articles they find are too long and complicated, and they can't see any improvement quickly enough.  They just give up.

Today, however, I've made a great discovery.  Some of my lovely INTO students have been asking me to help them do better in Listening and Reading tests, and I was delighted to stumble upon this fantastic website while I was looking for useful online resources.  You can decide which level you are at (but I think it's probably best to start the first time at Level 1) and each news story is given at all 3 levels, using more vocabulary as you move up the levels.  If there is a video clip, the words which are spoken are written down for you to see.

There's a great story here - and it's about something which happened in China, which will be interesting for my current class, most of whom are Chinese.  Have a look at the 3 different levels, and decide which one is right for you.  

If you're struggling with your reading and listening, or disappointed with your test scores, why not work through one of these stories every day?