The Truth and the Lie

A story for reading and listening practice

Photo by Jimmy Chang on Unsplash

Hello everyone,

I’ve been thinking about how I could use audio in some of my newsletters. People sometimes say they would like to hear my voice and listen to my pronunciation. It’s also useful for you if you want to practise your listening skills.

If you use the Substack app, you might notice that there is always an option to listen but that’s not my voice. That’s a computer-generated audio with an American accent. Today, you can hear my voice and my British accent! You can either read the story or listen to it, or you can even do both at the same time.

I didn’t write this story but I found it online and really liked it. Also, I think reading stories is a great way for you to improve your English. After the story, you can find a list of the most difficult words.

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​The Truth and the Lie

Click here to listen:

One day, the Truth and the Lie met on the road. The Lie said to the Truth, "It's a lovely day today!" The Truth looked up at the sky and sighed, for the day really was beautiful.

They walked together for a while until they reached a beautiful well. The Lie told the Truth, “The water in the well is very nice. Let’s take a swim together!” The Truth was suspicious but she tested the water and discovered that it was indeed very nice.
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They undressed and started to bathe. Suddenly, the Lie jumped out of the well, put on the clothes of the Truth and ran off towards a nearby village. Furious, the Truth leapt out of the well and ran to find the Lie and get her clothes back. The villagers, seeing the Naked Truth, were angry and embarrassed so they looked away.

The poor Truth returned to the well and disappeared forever, hiding her shame. And since that day, the Lie travels the world, clothed as The Truth, satisfying the needs of society, because the World has no wish at all to meet the naked Truth.

Vocabulary
sigh = to let out a long breath when happy, sad or tired
well = a place to get water, like a deep hole in the ground
suspicious = how you feel when you don't believe or trust somebody
undress = take clothes off
bathe = swim or relax in water, or have a bath
furious = very angry
leap = jump (past tense: leapt or leaped)
embarrassed = feeling uncomfortable or ashamed so that your face goes red
shame = a painful feeling of embarrassment or guilt
naked = without clothes
the naked truth = the pure truth with nothing hidden or added, even if it is uncomfortable

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So what do you think this story means? Have a think about this for a moment before you read my answer.

This is my interpretation. I think it means that there are a lot of lies in the world and it’s often difficult to know what’s true and what isn’t. Some lies are very convincing and we can be fooled easily. The truth is sometimes hidden and we have to look for it. But people don’t like to hear the truth. Sometimes total truth and honesty actually make us uncomfortable.

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Let me know in the comments what you thought about today’s lesson and maybe I’ll do some more posts like this in the future.

Have a good weekend!

Katie

PS Thanks for reading! I’m Katie Salter and I teach British English online. I help adult learners to speak better English through conversation and grammar lessons.

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