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A growing library of dialogues, articles, stories, and more — every text adapted across six CEFR levels with activities, vocabulary, and teacher notes.

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A Stranger's Encounter, A Small Grief Gently Held, The Careful Social Mechanics By Which A Difficult Thing Is Given And Received 1
Archaeology And Discovery 1
Art, Looking, And Personal Taste 1
Asking People What They Think And Reporting It Carefully 1
Changing A Habit 1
Childhood And Growing Up 1
Childhood, Memory, And Family 1
Civic Life, Public Services, And Writing To People In Power 1
Community Life And Language Learning 1
Community Life And Public Space 1
Community Life And Shared Spaces 1
Cooking Simply, And What It Teaches Us 1
Culture And Community 1
Describing A Shared Place Fairly And Carefully 1
Displacement, Memory, And The Small Persistent Things One Keeps 1
Doing Simple Things Well 1
Education And Small Scale Work 1
Encounters Between Strangers 1
Environment 1
Everyday Life 2
Family 1
Family And Memory 1
Family, Loss, And Emotional Life 1
Food And Everyday Life 1
Food, Cooking, And Everyday Skills 3
Food, Home, And Traditional Skills 2
Friendship And Emotional Life 1
Frugality, Time, And The Hidden Knowledge Of Home Cooking 1
Getting Around 1
Getting Help 1
Grief, Family Secrets, And What To Do With Information That Was Not Meant To Find You 1
Growing Up, Memory, And Writing To The Past 1
Health 3
Health, Body, And Habits 1
Helping Wildlife 1
Home, Ageing, And The Slow Loss Of A Place 1
Housing And Moving 1
Lives, Medicine, And Public Service 1
Long Practice And Ordinary Expertise 1
Looking After Yourself 1
Looking For Work And Changing Direction 1
Making Plans Together 1
Making Something With Your Hands 1
Music, Work, And A Long Career 1
Nature 1
Neighbours And Shared Living 1
Presenting Yourself Honestly When Offering Help For Money 1
Presenting Yourself Under Scrutiny 1
Professional Communication 1
Protecting Local Places 1
Protest And Public Life 1
Relationships And Emotional Life 1
Reporting On A Community March Against The Closure Of A Hospital Service 1
Reporting On A Cultural Festival 1
Reporting On A Factory Closure And The Workers' Response 1
Reporting On A Mountain Rescue Operation 1
Reporting On A Storm And Its Damage 1
Reporting On An Archaeological Find 1
Reporting On The Discovery Of A Significant Fossil 1
Rescue And Emergency Response 1
Rivers, Environment, And Slow Recovery 1
Saying Sorry Honestly In Writing 1
Saying The Thing That Is Hard To Say 1
Science And Discovery 1
Seeking Help 2
Small Ethical Decisions 1
Small Griefs And What They Teach Us 1
Small Mysteries And Family Memory 1
Small Unexpected Things In Ordinary Places 1
Social Skills And First Impressions 1
Sport, Community, And Shared Events 1
Starting Your Career 1
Sunrise And Small Attention 1
Technology And Modern Living 1
Technology, Work, And Everyday Life 1
The Asymmetry Of Asking To Be Allowed Somewhere To Live 1
The Difference Between A Bad Job That Diminishes You And A Bad Job That Teaches You Something 1
The Dignity Of Humble Food, And What Cheap Meals Carry That Expensive Ones Cannot 1
The Obituary Of A Pioneering Doctor Who Worked In Rural Medicine And Public Health For Over Fifty Years 1
The Quiet Test Of Who We Are When No One Is Watching 1
The Return Of A Small River That Had Run Dry For Decades 1
The Slow Group Recognition Of An Absence, And What People Do With The Morning That Has Been Arranged For Something That Is Not Going To Happen 1
The Small Careful Conversation By Which Strangers Decide To Work Together 1
The Small Connections That Make Ordinary Life Less Ordinary 1
The Small Ethics Of Shared Walls 1
The Small Generous Practices That Make Local Life Work 1
The Small Moment When A Child Realises A Parent Is Also Just A Person 1
The Small Ordinary Moments We Don't Know Are The Last Ones 1
The Small Unexpected Gift Of A Private Story Given By One Stranger To Another In A Brief, Completed Encounter 1
The Small, Unrepeatable Moment In Which A Person Decides What Kind Of Person They Are Going To Be 1
The Way Certain Places Teach A Person To Notice What They Would Otherwise Miss 1
Things Left Unsaid 1
Travel 2
Travel, Vigilance, And The Texture Of Long Journeys At Night 1
Trying Something New 1
Weather And Natural Events 1
Wellbeing 2
What A New Physical Practice Teaches You, Beyond The Practice Itself 1
What A Painting We Keep Returning To Is Actually Doing For Us, Beyond What We Say About It 1
What A Person Learns To Notice When They Are Alone, In Transit, In The Dark 1
What A Recipe Is, And What It Cannot Teach You 1
What An Older Self Would Say To A Younger One 1
What An Ordinary Childhood Birthday Turns Out To Have Been About, Looking Back 1
What An Ordinary First Encounter With AI Reveals About Writing, Thinking, And What We Want From A Tool 1
What Artists Say In Interviews And What They Cannot 1
What Happens When A Public Ceremony Lacks One Of Its Required Participants 1
What Is Actually There To Be Noticed At The Start Of A Day 1
What Is Learned By Doing The Same Thing For A Long Time 1
What It Means To Refuse To Leave, And What It Means To Be The One Who Has To Make Someone Go 1
What One Citizen Can Say When A Small Public Good Is About To Be Lost 1
What We Carry From The Places We Have Left 1
What We Find Out About People We Thought We Knew 1
What We Say When We Leave A Job, And What We Leave Out 1
Work And Employment 1
Work And Study 1
Work And The Economy 1
Work, Jobs, And What They Teach Us 1
Work, Transitions, And Saying Goodbye To Colleagues 1
Writing About What Happened, Accurately And With Care 1
Skills
64 texts
Dialogue Personal Encounter
A Difficult Conversation with a Friend
Friendship And Emotional Life Saying The Thing That Is Hard To Say
“LINA: Thanks for coming. I know it was a long way for you, on a Saturday. I really appreciate it.”
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Dialogue Professional Encounter
A Job Interview
Work And Employment Presenting Yourself Under Scrutiny
“INTERVIEWER: Good morning, Amina. Thank you for coming in. Please take a seat. Can I offer you a glass of water?”
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Letter / Email Open Letter
A Letter to My Eight-Year-Old Self
Growing Up, Memory, And Writing To The Past What An Older Self Would Say To A Younger One
“Dear small me,”
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Report Descriptive Report
A Report on Our Local Park
Community Life And Public Space Describing A Shared Place Fairly And Carefully
“INTRODUCTION”
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Interview Musician Interview
An Interview with Marina Bell
Music, Work, And A Long Career What Artists Say In Interviews And What They Cannot
“Last Thursday, I met the singer-songwriter Marina Bell at a small café near the venue where she was due to perform that…”
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Dialogue Neighbourly Encounter
Asking a Neighbour About Noise
Neighbours And Shared Living The Small Ethics Of Shared Walls
“TOMAS: Hi — sorry, I'm Tomas, from flat 4. I hope I'm not catching you at a bad moment.”
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Dialogue Stranger Stranger
Asking for Directions
Travel Getting Around
“Tourist: Sorry to bother you — I'm trying to find the art museum. Do you know where it is?”
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Dialogue Dentist Patient
At the Dentist's
Health Seeking Help
“Dentist: Hello. What brings you in today?”
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Dialogue Doctor Patient
At the Doctor's
Health Seeking Help
“Doctor: Hello. What brings you in today?”
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Dialogue Customer Pharmacist
At the Pharmacy
Health Getting Help
“Pharmacist: Hi there. What seems to be the problem?”
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Report Obituary
Dr Awa Diallo: An Obituary
Lives, Medicine, And Public Service The Obituary Of A Pioneering Doctor Who Worked In Rural Medicine And Public Health For Over Fifty Years
“Dr Awa Diallo, who was one of the first ten women in our country to qualify as a doctor and who ran…”
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Poem / Song First Person Poem
Five Thirty in the Morning
Sunrise And Small Attention What Is Actually There To Be Noticed At The Start Of A Day
“Five Thirty in the Morning”
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Interview Community Profile
Forty Years on the Allotment: A Conversation with Mr Okafor
Long Practice And Ordinary Expertise What Is Learned By Doing The Same Thing For A Long Time
“Our community newsletter is running a small series of profiles of long-serving members of the Riverside Allotments. (For readers who do not…”
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Advertisement Community Notice
Free English Conversation Group — Saturdays at the Library
Community Life And Language Learning The Small Generous Practices That Make Local Life Work
“I helped to write the advert for our English conversation group last year. We have been running the group for three years…”
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Instructions How To Guide
How to Calm Yourself Down When You're Angry or Stressed
Wellbeing Looking After Yourself
“Everyone gets angry or stressed sometimes. You are not weak or strange — you are human. The steps below will not solve…”
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Recipe How To Guide
How to Cook Rice
Food, Home, And Traditional Skills Doing Simple Things Well
“When I was young, I did not realise that cooking rice was something you could do well or badly. Rice was just…”
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Instructions How To Guide
How to Dig a Wildlife Pond
Nature Helping Wildlife
“Step 1: Choose the right spot. A wildlife pond should be in a place with some sun and some shade. Avoid putting…”
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Instructions How To Guide
How to Introduce Yourself to New People
Everyday Life Social Skills And First Impressions
“The first thirty seconds of meeting someone often matter more than the next thirty minutes. That is not because first impressions are…”
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Recipe How To Guide
How to Make a Lentil Soup
Food, Cooking, And Everyday Skills The Dignity Of Humble Food, And What Cheap Meals Carry That Expensive Ones Cannot
“If you only learn one cheap, filling meal in your life, make it lentil soup. It costs almost nothing, it asks for…”
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Recipe How To Guide
How to Make a Simple Bread
Food, Home, And Traditional Skills Making Something With Your Hands
“When I was about ten years old, my father taught me how to make bread. I had thought, before that day, that…”
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Recipe How To Guide
How to Make a Simple Soup
Food And Everyday Life Cooking Simply, And What It Teaches Us
“I learned how to make this soup from my grandmother, although I should admit straight away that the version I make now…”
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Recipe How To Guide
How to Make a Tomato Sauce
Food, Cooking, And Everyday Skills Frugality, Time, And The Hidden Knowledge Of Home Cooking
“If there is one recipe worth learning by heart, it is a simple tomato sauce. It costs almost nothing, it takes about…”
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Instructions How To Guide
How to Organise Your Digital Life
Everyday Life Technology And Modern Living
“Most of us did not choose to have a digital life. It happened to us slowly, one app, one account, one device…”
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Recipe How To Guide
How to Roast Chicken Thighs
Food, Cooking, And Everyday Skills What A Recipe Is, And What It Cannot Teach You
“This is a simple recipe for roast chicken thighs. It is one of those dishes you can learn in an evening and…”
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Instructions Guide To
How to Write a Good CV
Work And Study Starting Your Career
“A CV is often the first thing an employer sees. Most employers spend less than a minute on each one. Your job,…”
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Blog Post Reflective
I Started Doing Yoga
Health, Body, And Habits What A New Physical Practice Teaches You, Beyond The Practice Itself
“Three months ago, I started doing yoga. I am thirty-eight years old, and until recently, I had not done any sport seriously…”
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Advertisement Service Advert
Maths and Science Tutor Available — In Person or Online
Education And Small Scale Work Presenting Yourself Honestly When Offering Help For Money
“I wrote my tutor advert for the first time about six years ago, when I decided to start teaching maths and science…”
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Blog Post Reflective
My Favourite Painting
Art, Looking, And Personal Taste What A Painting We Keep Returning To Is Actually Doing For Us, Beyond What We Say About It
“I want to tell you about my favourite painting. It is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and it is small enough that…”
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Blog Post Reflective
My Tenth Birthday
Childhood, Memory, And Family What An Ordinary Childhood Birthday Turns Out To Have Been About, Looking Back
“I remember my tenth birthday more clearly than I remember most days from that time of my life. It was a Saturday…”
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Dialogue Family Conversation
Planning a Family Meal
Family Making Plans Together
“Mum: Right, what should we cook for Sunday lunch? Everyone's coming.”
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Dialogue Viewing Encounter
Renting a Flat
Housing And Moving The Asymmetry Of Asking To Be Allowed Somewhere To Live
“MRS COSTA: Hello, you must be Marek. Come in, please. I'm sorry — the lift in the building is broken, and they…”
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Letter / Email Apology Email
The Apology Email
Professional Communication Saying Sorry Honestly In Writing
“Sam realised at twenty past nine that the meeting with Priya had started twenty minutes earlier. The realisation came in the small…”
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Blog Post Personal Travel
The Best Decision I Made This Year
Travel Trying Something New
“Earlier this year, I did something I had never done before. I booked a long weekend away on my own.”
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Story Coming Of Age
The Bicycle
Childhood And Growing Up The Small Moment When A Child Realises A Parent Is Also Just A Person
“When I was twelve, I had a small blue bicycle. I had ridden it everywhere for two years — to school, to…”
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Report News Report
The Bones In The Quarry
Archaeology And Discovery Reporting On An Archaeological Find
“Workers at a stone quarry in the south of the country uncovered the partial skeleton of a woman believed to be approximately…”
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Story Narrative
The Café That Closes at Three
Small Unexpected Things In Ordinary Places The Way Certain Places Teach A Person To Notice What They Would Otherwise Miss
“There is a small café on Rua dos Remédios, halfway up the hill in the Alfama neighbourhood of Lisbon. The street is…”
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Blog Post Reflective
The Day We Lost Our Dog
Family, Loss, And Emotional Life Small Griefs And What They Teach Us
“Three weeks ago, our dog Sam died. He was thirteen years old, and he had been part of our family for almost…”
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Letter / Email Email
The Email About the Library
Civic Life, Public Services, And Writing To People In Power What One Citizen Can Say When A Small Public Good Is About To Be Lost
“Subject: A request to reconsider the closure of Park Library”
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Report News Report
The Festival On The Square
Culture And Community Reporting On A Cultural Festival
“The small town of Albanea celebrated its annual summer festival last weekend, attracting an estimated 4,200 visitors over two days — more…”
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Blog Post Reflective
The First Time I Used AI
Technology, Work, And Everyday Life What An Ordinary First Encounter With AI Reveals About Writing, Thinking, And What We Want From A Tool
“I want to tell you about the first time I used AI. It happened last month. I am forty-two years old, and…”
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Report News Report
The Fossil On The Cliff Path
Science And Discovery Reporting On The Discovery Of A Significant Fossil
“A primary-school teacher walking her dog on Sunday morning has discovered a fossil from the late Cretaceous period on a cliff path…”
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Report Match Report
The Greens Beat the Blues 3–2 — A Sunday Morning Match Report
Sport, Community, And Shared Events Writing About What Happened, Accurately And With Care
“The Greens beat the Blues 3–2 in a close and entertaining match at the community pitch on Sunday morning. Both teams played…”
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Interview Job Interview
The Job Interview at the Bookshop
Looking For Work And Changing Direction The Small Careful Conversation By Which Strangers Decide To Work Together
“Sam had been working at a small office for the past five years, doing a job that had once seemed reasonable and…”
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Report News Report
The Last Shift At The Paper Mill
Work And The Economy Reporting On A Factory Closure And The Workers' Response
“The paper mill at Vista closed for good last Friday after sixty-eight years of continuous operation. Two hundred and forty workers lost…”
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Story Narrative
The Last Tenant
Home, Ageing, And The Slow Loss Of A Place What It Means To Refuse To Leave, And What It Means To Be The One Who Has To Make Someone Go
“Mr Davies was eighty-four years old, and he was the last person living in Beech House. The building had once been full.…”
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Story Reflective Memory
The Last Time I Saw My Grandfather
Family And Memory The Small Ordinary Moments We Don't Know Are The Last Ones
“Last May, on a Sunday afternoon, I went to visit my grandfather. The visit was not unusual. I went to see him…”
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Letter / Email Email
The Leaving Email
Work, Transitions, And Saying Goodbye To Colleagues What We Say When We Leave A Job, And What We Leave Out
“Subject: Saying goodbye after two and a bit years”
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Blog Post Reflective
The Letter I Never Sent
Relationships And Emotional Life Things Left Unsaid
“I have a letter in the bottom drawer of my desk. It is in a white envelope. It has a stamp on…”
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Story Short Mystery Story
The Letters in the Drawer
Small Mysteries And Family Memory What We Find Out About People We Thought We Knew
“Mira's grandmother had died in early spring. She had been ill for several months, and her death, when it came, had not…”
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Report News Report
The March For The Maternity Unit
Protest And Public Life Reporting On A Community March Against The Closure Of A Hospital Service
“About one thousand people walked through the centre of the small town of Mill Field on Saturday morning, in protest against the…”
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Blog Post Opinion Piece
The New Road Through Our Woods
Environment Protecting Local Places
“When I moved to this village fifteen years ago, I fell in love with Green Wood. It's not a big forest —…”
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Story Narrative
The Night Bus
Travel, Vigilance, And The Texture Of Long Journeys At Night What A Person Learns To Notice When They Are Alone, In Transit, In The Dark
“Amani was twenty-two years old, and she had been working at a small hotel in Mombasa for the previous six months —…”
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Story Narrative
The Phone in the Drawer
Grief, Family Secrets, And What To Do With Information That Was Not Meant To Find You The Small, Unrepeatable Moment In Which A Person Decides What Kind Of Person They Are Going To Be
“Tom's mother died on the 14th of March, of a heart attack, in the kitchen of the small flat she had lived…”
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Story Stranger Encounter
The Photograph on the Wall
A Stranger's Encounter, A Small Grief Gently Held, The Careful Social Mechanics By Which A Difficult Thing Is Given And Received The Small Unexpected Gift Of A Private Story Given By One Stranger To Another In A Brief, Completed Encounter
“Two summers ago, I was on holiday in a country I did not know well. I had been there for three days,…”
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Report News Report
The Rescue On The Mountain
Rescue And Emergency Response Reporting On A Mountain Rescue Operation
“Two hikers were rescued from a mountain ridge late on Saturday afternoon, after one of them was injured in a fall on…”
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Report News Report
The River Came Back
Rivers, Environment, And Slow Recovery The Return Of A Small River That Had Run Dry For Decades
“Around two hundred and fifty people walked along the banks of a small chalk stream called the Pen, in the village of…”
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Report News Report
The Storm That Came In From The Sea
Weather And Natural Events Reporting On A Storm And Its Damage
“Storm Marit, the second named storm of the year, struck the coastal region around Port Helen early on Monday morning, bringing winds…”
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Story Short Realistic Story
The Wallet
Small Ethical Decisions The Quiet Test Of Who We Are When No One Is Watching
“It was a Tuesday evening in October, and Alex was walking home from work. The day had been long, the weather was…”
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Story Narrative
The Wedding Without the Bride
What Happens When A Public Ceremony Lacks One Of Its Required Participants The Slow Group Recognition Of An Absence, And What People Do With The Morning That Has Been Arranged For Something That Is Not Going To Happen
“It was a small wedding. The hall was an ordinary registry hall — the kind of public hall, in the kind of…”
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Story Short Realistic Story
The Woman on the Bench
Encounters Between Strangers The Small Connections That Make Ordinary Life Less Ordinary
“Anna had been coming to the same bench in the small park near her flat for almost thirty years. She was nearly…”
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Poem / Song First Person Poem
What I Carry
Displacement, Memory, And The Small Persistent Things One Keeps What We Carry From The Places We Have Left
“What I Carry”
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Blog Post Reflective
What I Learned from My Worst Job
Work, Jobs, And What They Teach Us The Difference Between A Bad Job That Diminishes You And A Bad Job That Teaches You Something
“When I was nineteen, I worked in the kitchen of a small restaurant for six months. It was the worst job I…”
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Report Survey Findings
What People Want from the Saturday Market — A Community Survey
Community Life And Shared Spaces Asking People What They Think And Reporting It Carefully
“INTRODUCTION”
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Blog Post Personal Lifestyle
Why I Stopped Using My Phone in the Morning
Wellbeing Changing A Habit
“A few months ago, I realised something uncomfortable: the first thing I did every morning was reach for my phone. Before my…”
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