A2 · Getting started
Longer stories about daily life, past and future.
- براميل على كل سطح Polly watches a raccoon carpenter build a wooden water tank on a rooftop, held together with steel rings... Audio
- فطيرة كاملة، أم قطعة فقط Polly visits an old pizza shop where a baker started selling one slice at a time to people who had little... Audio
- الحيوان الذي يصنع مكعبات Wombats make cube shaped poop, and now we know why. Audio
- هذا الطائر ينام أثناء الطيران Frigatebirds fly for many days and sleep only a little. Audio
- الغداء الذي يأكله بلد كامل In the Dominican Republic, everyone eats the same lunch at the same time. Audio
- عشاء يطبخه بركان In the Azores, people cook food inside a hot volcano. Audio
- القطار الأخير Tomas misses the last train in Tokyo and sleeps in a tiny room. Audio
- الكوب الفارغ On his first day, Pedro drinks from a cup that is not his. Audio
- الرقم سبعة وأربعون Carla waits a long time at the clinic for a small cut. Audio
- ضائعة في لشبونة Sofía gets lost in Lisbon and a woman helps her with a map. Audio
- الغرفة ذات الشرفة Marcos gets a hotel room with a nice balcony. Audio
- طاولة لشخص واحد Mia eats alone in a small restaurant, and the waiter helps her choose. Audio
- التابل الذي كان ثمنه يومًا كالذهب Saffron comes from tiny flower threads picked by hand, and for most of history a pound of it cost about the... Audio
- البحيرة التي تختفي كل صيف In Slovenia, a huge lake fills a valley in winter and then vanishes underground every summer, leaving... Audio
- الحديقة المجاورة لبيتي A squirrel describes the small park next to its tree: the pigeons by the benches, Mr. Badger and his bread,... Audio
- المدينة التي تضع الذهب على الآيس كريم Kanazawa in Japan makes almost all of the country's gold leaf, and wraps whole sheets of it around soft ice... Audio
- الرحلة التي تستغرق تسعين ثانية A tiny plane hops between two Orkney islands in Scotland on the shortest scheduled flight in the world. Audio
- اصرخ وإلا فاتتك محطتك A shared minibus with no bell and no screen, where the only way off is to say so out loud, early and twice. Audio
- الغداء الذي لا ينتهي In Spain, the best part of lunch starts when the food is finished. It even has its own name. Audio
- لا تطلب أبدا لاتيه في إيطاليا In Italy, the word latte does not mean coffee. One small word can bring you a big surprise. Audio
- من أين تأتي القهوة Coffee begins as a red fruit on a green plant and travels far before it fills a cup. Audio
- النوم في قطار ليلي Night trains in Europe carry travelers between cities while they sleep in cozy beds. Audio
- كيف يصنع النحل العسل Honeybees turn sweet flower nectar into golden honey through hard teamwork in the hive. Audio
- طريق الحرير الطويل The Silk Road was a famous trade route that linked China with Europe for many centuries. Audio
- الأمازون، أكبر نهر The Amazon is the river that carries the most water in the world. Audio
- الأخطبوط وقلوبه الثلاثة The octopus is a clever sea animal with three hearts and blue blood. Audio
- الكابلات تحت البحر Long cables under the ocean carry almost all of the information that travels between countries. Audio
- السباق الطويل المسمى الماراثون The marathon is a very long running race with a curious and surprising history. Audio
- أول ضوء في القرية While the whole village sleeps, one window glows: the baker lights the oven so fresh bread will be ready by... Audio
- الطائر الصغير في الساعة In Germany's Black Forest, carved wooden cuckoo clocks call out every hour while children wait and laugh. Audio
- البلدة التي مُنع فيها الموت When a small Italian town ran out of space in its cemetery, the mayor signed an order telling people not to... Audio
- القطة التي تركب الحافلة Every morning a cat climbs onto the same city bus, watches the streets go by, and gets off at his own stop. Audio
- السمكة التي تتسلق الشلالات In Hawaii, a fish smaller than your finger climbs up waterfalls taller than buildings, using its mouth as a... Audio
- بخار وأطباق صغيرة A first night at a Taipei night market, where pointing, smiling, and one brave question buy a very good... Audio
- المدينة التي نجت Polly arrives in Kanazawa, an old city between the sea and the mountains that was never bombed in the war. Audio
- المطبخ عند بزوغ الفجر Before sunrise, Polly visits Omicho market, three hundred years old, where crabs are sold in winter. Audio
- مطروق حتى يكاد يختفي Polly visits a gold leaf workshop, where a piece of gold the size of a coin becomes a sheet as big as a table. Audio
- ستة أشياء يجب أن تكون في الحديقة In Kenrokuen garden, Polly sees koi in a big pond and ropes that keep snow off the pine trees. Audio
- ارشف بصوت عالٍ، فهذا من الأدب In Japan, slurping your noodles loudly is not rude, it is a sign that you are enjoying the meal. Audio
- شلال يسقط إلى الأعلى On very windy days, strong gusts can blow a Norwegian waterfall's spray back up into the sky. Audio
- الحلقة وقارب الصباح The Ring of Brodgar at dusk, then the small practical business of leaving an island, done in four sentences... Audio
- حبّ التسعين يوماً In a bar in Kirkwall, a flat dark bannock turns out to be the reason the islands were farmable at all. Audio
- التجمّع على الصخور Grey seals are hauling out on the low rocks before the pupping season, and the questions Polly has been... Audio
- بنَوها مما وجدوا On Lamb Holm, two army huts hold a chapel that prisoners of war made out of scrap, and the only honest... Audio
- القرية تحت العاصفة At the Bay of Skaill, a guide with a carrying voice explains a village that a storm returned to the light... Audio
- الكرسي بجانب المدفأة A guesthouse above the harbour, an argument about what counts as a quiet room, and a chair whose whole... Audio
- وصول قارب الصباح Polly lands at Stromness off the morning boat and works out, one question at a time, how a place with no... Audio
- الوردي غير موجود Pink has no wavelength of its own; it is a color the brain invents when the eyes see red and blue light... Audio
- أنت تتوهّج الآن The human body constantly emits an extremely faint light, invisible to the eye but detectable with a... Audio
- الضباب ينطبق خلفها On her last afternoon, Polly flies high over the island before fog rolls in and hides it behind her. Audio
- قرية موصولة ببركان Polly learns that the same volcano heat that cooked lunch also warms a big public pool and heats homes in... Audio
- عشاء يُدفن عند الفجر Polly watches a cook bury pots of food in the ground, where the volcano's heat cooks dinner with no fire. Audio
- فوهة واحدة ولونان Polly finds a huge old crater with two lakes, one blue and one green, joined together under a strip of land. Audio
- الطائر الذي يئسوا منه مرتين Polly looks for the priolo, a tiny grey and pink bird that lives only in one forest and was once thought to... Audio
- آخر حديقتين في أوروبا Polly finds one of the only two tea farms left in Europe, started after the island's orange trees died. Audio
- تسع جزر وثلاث صفائح Polly arrives over São Miguel, the biggest of the nine Azores islands, made of black rock, green fields,... Audio
- بولي في الحافلة Polly's first bus ride: does this bus go downtown, one ticket, how much, where do I get off, next stop,... Audio
- بولي والسؤال عن الطريق Polly is lost on the way to the library and asks an owl for directions: excuse me, where is it, is it far,... Audio
- بولي في المقهى Polly's first cafe order: good afternoon, a coffee with milk, do you have churros, the check please, how... Audio
- بولي في السوق Berta takes Polly to the market. Polly buys fruit for the first time: what is this, two apples, how much, a... Audio
- بولي مع جارة جديدة Polly moves to a new street and meets Berta the bear. First greetings: hello, your name, nice to meet you,... Audio
- تسلق المكان الأكثر جفافًا Polly arrives at a big observatory in the Atacama, the driest desert in the world. Audio
- فلاديفوستوك Polly arrives in Vladivostok and flies off over the Pacific Ocean. Audio
- نهر آمور Polly reaches the Amur River and meets a rare crane on the sixth day of the Trans-Siberian. Audio
- بحيرة بايكال Polly spends a day on the train along Lake Baikal, the deepest and oldest lake on Earth. Audio
- المناطق الزمنية Polly explores the dining car and learns that the train uses one time zone across all of Russia. Audio
- عبور جبال الأورال Polly crosses the Ural Mountains, the line between Europe and Asia, on the Trans-Siberian train. Audio
- غابات البتولا Polly watches Russian birch forests from the Trans-Siberian train and learns that forty percent of Russia... Audio
- محطة ياروسلافسكي Polly boards the Trans-Siberian train at Moscow and begins her seven-day journey to Vladivostok. Audio
- وداعًا للباستا Polly says goodbye to Pasta the octopus and flies out of Naples. Audio
- المحرر الذاتي Polly learns that octopuses can change their own nervous systems by editing RNA in real time. Audio
- البيتزا والغداء الطويل Polly has lunch with Chiara at a Neapolitan pizzeria and learns about traditional Neapolitan pizza. Audio
- الجلد الذي يرى Polly learns that octopus skin can sense colours even though octopus eyes cannot. Audio
- الجسم الذي يفكر Polly watches an octopus solve a maze with two arms working independently. Audio
- المرطبان Polly watches an octopus open a jar to catch a crab and learns how short an octopus's life is. Audio
- خليج نابولي Polly arrives in Naples and meets a giant Pacific octopus at the world's oldest marine biology institute. Audio
- مغادرة الوادي Polly says goodbye to Ranger Tomas and flies west out of Yosemite. Audio
- درب التبانة فوق جلاسير بوينت Polly watches the Milky Way at Glacier Point and looks through a telescope at the centre of our galaxy. Audio
- نصف القبة Polly flies up Half Dome on warm air with a flock of swifts, sees the summit, then glides back down. Audio
- الصقر الغطاس Polly tries to copy a peregrine falcon's dive, learning what makes the falcon the fastest animal in the world. Audio
- السكويا Polly visits a giant sequoia nearly 3,000 years old and learns about its fireproof bark. Audio
- ركوب مع الحارس توماس Polly spends the morning in Ranger Tomas's truck, learning about bear feeding and peregrine falcon nests. Audio
- فوق الوادي Polly flies into Yosemite Valley, watches climbers on El Capitan, and rides the shuttle bus at dusk. Audio
- رائحة القرفة A new neighbor leaves a small surprise outside her door. Audio
- كيلوان من الصبر A first trip to the local market with a vendor who refuses to let her leave with the wrong tomatoes. Audio
- نزهة في المدينة Polly and Fatima, guided by a mysterious map, uncover a hidden courtyard in Marrakech. As they continue... Audio
B1 · Finding your flow
Polly's weekly adventures and real-world stories.
- السباق الذي يفوز فيه الجبن دائمًا Once a year in England, people chase a wheel of cheese down a dangerously steep hill, and the cheese almost... Audio
- حيوانان جديدان تمامًا، بحجم ظفر إصبع Scientists in Montenegro just described two snail species new to science, found on limestone cliffs in a... Audio
- اليوم الذي عطّلت فيه حشرة حقيقية حاسوبًا In nineteen forty-seven, engineers found an actual moth stuck inside a giant computer, taped it into their... Audio
- الجمبري الذي يحمل شمسًا داخل مخلبه A small ocean shrimp snaps its claw so fast that it creates a flash of heat nearly as hot as the surface of... Audio
- البيت المقسوم بين بلدين In a small town on the Belgian-Dutch border, some houses sit in two countries at once, and the front door... Audio
- الجيش الذي خسر أمام الطيور In nineteen thirty-two the Australian military was sent against emus eating the wheat crop in Western... Audio
- الشمبانزي له لهجات A new study of more than eleven thousand recorded calls found that young chimpanzees in different parts of... Audio
- الإنترنت تحت الماء Almost all international internet traffic travels along cables lying on the sea floor, which break... Audio
- البلدة التي تعيش في مبنى واحد Almost every resident of Whittier, Alaska lives inside a single fourteen storey building reached through a... Audio
- هذا الطائر ينام وهو يطير Frigatebirds stay in the air for days over open ocean, and researchers put recorders on their heads to find... Audio
- الغداء الذي يأكله بلد بأكمله In the Dominican Republic the main meal lands at midday, it is almost always the same three things, and the... Audio
- خريطتك ستصبح خاطئة بحلول وقت الغداء Satellite clocks tick faster than clocks on the ground, and if nobody corrected for it your phone would... Audio
- أنتَ تتوهج، لكن لا أحد يستطيع رؤية ذلك Human skin gives off a faint light all day long, and a Japanese team photographed it in a sealed dark room. Audio
- هذا الأزرق موجود في مكان واحد فقط A stony beach in the Dominican southwest, one pebble that is blue all the way through, and the single... Audio
- مقهى واحد، بلدان In one small town, the border between Belgium and the Netherlands runs straight through streets, houses and... Audio
- رسائلك تسافر تحت الماء Almost everything you send across an ocean travels through cables lying on the sea floor, not through... Audio
- الشاطئ الذي يتوهج باللون الأزرق ليلًا On some warm coasts, the sea lights up electric blue when you touch it. The light comes from billions of... Audio
- الفندق الذي يتحرك بينما تنام On a European night train, you fall asleep in one country and wake up in another, with the Alps outside... Audio
- عشاء يطهوه بركان On a green island in the Azores, cooks lower a pot into a hot hole in the ground and let the earth slowly... Audio
- القلعة التي لم يعش فيها الملك تقريبا A Bavarian king built a fairy-tale castle on an alpine crag, slept there only a handful of nights, and left... Audio
- المشي على قاع البحر Twice a day the North Sea pulls back for kilometres, and people walk barefoot across the bare seabed before... Audio
- لماذا يموت هاتفك في البرد Your phone shows forty percent battery, then dies in the snow. The battery is not empty. It is cold, and... Audio
- المدينة التي كشفت نهرا For fifty years, Seoul hid a river under an elevated highway. Then the city tore the highway down, and the... Audio
- على ارتفاع عشرة كيلومترات Passenger planes cruise about ten kilometres above the ground. That number is not random: it is where the... Audio
- البشر القدماء ازدهروا في الغابة المطيرة Scientists once thought ancient humans avoided rainforests. New evidence from West Africa says they thrived... Audio
- لماذا لا يزال عسل عمره ثلاثة آلاف سنة صالحا للأكل Honey jars from Egyptian tombs three thousand years old are still edible. The chemistry behind a food that... Audio
- مباراة التنس التي استغرقت ثلاثة أيام The longest tennis match ever played: Isner vs. Mahut, Wimbledon 2010, eleven hours, three days, a final... Audio
- الأخطبوط الذي فتح القفل An octopus called Inky escaped his aquarium tank at night through a drain pipe, and what it reveals about... Audio
- ذراع تتذوق Octopus suckers contain special receptors that let an arm taste whatever it touches, even in total darkness. Audio
- أكبر جائزة في تاريخ ألعاب القوى A brand new athletics championship this month paid its winners more than the sport has ever offered before. Audio
- تعليم الحاسوب لغة الحيتان Researchers are using artificial intelligence to search for real structure inside the clicking patterns of... Audio
- نبض الأشجار البطيء Laser scans at night revealed that trees pulse gently every few hours, possibly pumping water through their... Audio
- زهور في الثالثة فجراً At three in the morning, Bangkok's biggest flower market is more awake than midday, and it never really... Audio
- عشرة آلاف رياضي وليلة افتتاح واحدة The 2026 Asian Games, hosted jointly by Aichi and Nagoya, Japan, bring together roughly ten thousand... Audio
- المصرف الذي لا يقبل إلا الجبن An Italian bank keeps a vault holding more than half a million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, accepted as... Audio
- رقم بطاريتك مجرّد تخمين A phone's battery percentage is not a direct measurement, but an estimate calculated from voltage and... Audio
- هذا الشاطئ مصنوع من القمامة A sparkling beach in Northern California is made entirely of old dumped glass, smoothed into colorful... Audio
- لا يوجد طابق رابع في أي مكان In much of East Asia, elevators skip the number four entirely, because it sounds exactly like the word for... Audio
- عبور الأورال Polly crosses the Ural Mountains, the dividing line between Europe and Asia, on the third day of the... Audio
- الجرّة Polly watches Pasta open a screw-top jar to catch a crab, learning that octopus arms taste what they touch... Audio
- الباييلا يوم الأحد An adult granddaughter visits home and finds her grandfather hasn't forgotten anything yet. Audio
- القطار إلى غرناطة An overheard phone call on the train turns a long trip into a kind of company. Audio
- المكتبة الخطأ A simple coffee order leads to a strange conversation about a bookshop that doesn't exist anymore. Audio
- تائهة في لشبونة A wrong turn on a steep street becomes the best part of the trip. Audio
- الغرفة ٣٠٤ لها إطلالة A late check-in turns into a small gift when the hotel runs out of rooms on the lower floors. Audio
C1 · Stretch yourself
Rich, natural texts about places, history and ideas.
- نوعان لم يسمهما أحد، عُثر عليهما على جرف صخري Scientists in Montenegro have described two snail species new to science, found on limestone cliffs in a... Audio
- الجمبري الذي يحمل شمسا داخل مخلبه A small ocean shrimp snaps its claw so violently that it produces a flash of heat nearly as hot as the... Audio
- الحرب التي خسرتها أستراليا أمام طيور الإيمو In nineteen thirty-two the Australian military was deployed against emus devastating the wheat crop in... Audio
- يتضح أن للشمبانزي لهجات A new study of more than eleven thousand recorded calls finds that young chimpanzees in different parts of... Audio
- المصرف الذي يقرض مقابل الجبن An Italian bank stores and ages more than half a million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, accepted as... Audio
- لماذا كانت خريطتك ستصبح خاطئة بحلول الغداء Satellites tick at a different rate than clocks on the ground, and without a deliberate correction your... Audio
- التوهج الذي لا يتوقف جلدك عن إصداره Human skin gives off a faint light around the clock, invisible to the eye, as a Japanese team confirmed by... Audio
- ما الذي ينقل كلماتك حقا عبر المحيط Almost everything sent between continents travels not through satellites but through cables lying on the... Audio
- الفندق الذي يعبر الحدود بينما تنام On a European night train, a traveller falls asleep in one country and wakes in another, with the Alps... Audio
- النهر الذي أخفته سيول نصف قرن Seoul spent decades entombing a river beneath a highway, then reversed course and dug it back into the... Audio
- ما لا يزال الأحد يفرضه An adult granddaughter returns home for Sunday paella and discovers that her octogenarian grandfather's... Audio
- البلدة التي تعيش داخل مبنى واحد Almost the entire population of Whittier, Alaska lives inside a single fourteen storey building, reached... Audio
- مقهى واحد، بلدان اثنان In the Belgian Dutch town of Baarle, the international border runs straight through streets, houses, and... Audio
- القلعة التي لم يعش ملكها ليراها Bavaria's King Ludwig the Second poured a fortune into a fairy tale castle he would inhabit for barely a... Audio
- هاتفك لم يتعطل. إنه بارد فقط. A phone that shows forty percent battery and then dies the moment you step into the cold has not run out of... Audio
- عسل نجا من سقوط الإمبراطوريات Honey sealed inside Egyptian tombs thousands of years ago remains perfectly edible today, and the reason... Audio
- الأخطبوط الذي أفلت من قفله An octopus named Inky vanished from a New Zealand aquarium overnight, and the ingenious route he took to... Audio
- الحوت الذي قطع خمسة عشر ألف كيلومتر Polly learns about two humpback whales who swam 14,000+ km from Australia to Brazil, breaking the world... Audio
- المحرر من ذاته Polly learns that octopuses edit their own RNA in real time, tuning their nervous systems to their... Audio
- الجسد الذي يفكر Polly watches Pasta solve an acrylic maze using two arms independently. She learns that two-thirds of an... Audio
- درب التبانة فوق غلاسيير بوينت Polly watches sunset from Glacier Point and stays for the Milky Way, looking through a park astronomer's... Audio
- نصف قبة Polly climbs the 1,500-metre north face of Half Dome on rising thermals with a flock of white-throated... Audio