A2 · Getting started
Longer stories about daily life, past and future.
- 港の開いた手 Polly flies into New York Harbor and looks at the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France with metal skin no... ? Quiz included Audio
- ライダーたちが来る The riders arrive with jet skis and long boards, ready for the giant waves. Audio
- 七枚のスカートと銀色の魚 Polly goes down to town and sees gull ladies in seven skirts drying fish in the sun. Audio
- 橋が奪ったもの Polly walks the Brooklyn Bridge, where workers got sick building it underwater, and elephants once proved... Audio
- 立方体を作る動物 Wombats make cube shaped poop, and now we know why. Audio
- 飛びながら眠るこの鳥 Frigatebirds fly for many days and sleep only a little. Audio
- 国中が食べる昼食 In the Dominican Republic, everyone eats the same lunch at the same time. Audio
- 火山が作る夕食 In the Azores, people cook food inside a hot volcano. Audio
- 最終電車 Tomas misses the last train in Tokyo and sleeps in a tiny room. Audio
- 空っぽのカップ On his first day, Pedro drinks from a cup that is not his. Audio
- 四十七番 Carla waits a long time at the clinic for a small cut. Audio
- リスボンで道に迷う Sofía gets lost in Lisbon and a woman helps her with a map. Audio
- バルコニー付きの部屋 Marcos gets a hotel room with a nice balcony. Audio
- 一人用のテーブル Mia eats alone in a small restaurant, and the waiter helps her choose. Audio
- かつて金と同じ値段だった香辛料 Saffron comes from tiny flower threads picked by hand, and for most of history a pound of it cost about the... Audio
- 夏になると消える湖 In Slovenia, a huge lake fills a valley in winter and then vanishes underground every summer, leaving... Audio
- 夜明けの台所 Before sunrise, Polly visits Omicho market, three hundred years old, where crabs are sold in winter. Audio
- 叩かれて、ほとんど消えるまで 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
- 戦争を逃れた町 Polly arrives in Kanazawa, an old city between the sea and the mountains that was never bombed in the war. Audio
- 90秒の飛行機 A tiny plane hops between two Orkney islands in Scotland on the shortest scheduled flight in the world. Audio
- アイスクリームに金をのせる街 Kanazawa in Japan makes almost all of the country's gold leaf, and wraps whole sheets of it around soft ice... Audio
- コーンウォールにワラビーがいる A small Australian kangaroo has been hopping around an English market town for days, and nobody knows where... Audio
- 叫ばないと降りる場所を過ぎる A shared minibus with no bell and no screen, where the only way off is to say so out loud, early and twice. Audio
- 家の隣の公園 A squirrel describes the small park next to its tree: the pigeons by the benches, Mr. Badger and his bread,... Audio
- タコと三つの心臓 The octopus is a clever sea animal with three hearts and blue blood. Audio
- 海の下のケーブル Long cables under the ocean carry almost all of the information that travels between countries. Audio
- マラソンという長いレース The marathon is a very long running race with a curious and surprising history. Audio
- コーヒーはどこから来る? Coffee begins as a red fruit on a green plant and travels far before it fills a cup. Audio
- 夜行列車で眠る Night trains in Europe carry travelers between cities while they sleep in cozy beds. Audio
- アマゾン川、一番大きい川 The Amazon is the river that carries the most water in the world. Audio
- ミツバチはどうやってハチミツを作るの Honeybees turn sweet flower nectar into golden honey through hard teamwork in the hive. Audio
- 絹の長い道 The Silk Road was a famous trade route that linked China with Europe for many centuries. Audio
- イタリアで「ラテ」を注文しないで In Italy, the word latte does not mean coffee. One small word can bring you a big surprise. Audio
- 時計の中の小さな鳥 In Germany's Black Forest, carved wooden cuckoo clocks call out every hour while children wait and laugh. Audio
- 死んではいけない町 When a small Italian town ran out of space in its cemetery, the mayor signed an order telling people not to... Audio
- 終わらないランチ In Spain, the best part of lunch starts when the food is finished. It even has its own name. Audio
- バスに乗る猫 Every morning a cat climbs onto the same city bus, watches the streets go by, and gets off at his own stop. Audio
- 村の最初の光 While the whole village sleeps, one window glows: the baker lights the oven so fresh bread will be ready by... Audio
- 音を立ててすするのが礼儀 In Japan, slurping your noodles loudly is not rude, it is a sign that you are enjoying the meal. Audio
- 上に落ちる滝 On very windy days, strong gusts can blow a Norwegian waterfall's spray back up into the sky. Audio
- 環状列石と朝の船 The Ring of Brodgar at dusk, then the small practical business of leaving an island, done in four sentences... Audio
- 九十日の麦 In a bar in Kirkwall, a flat dark bannock turns out to be the reason the islands were farmable at all. Audio
- 岩礁の集まり Grey seals are hauling out on the low rocks before the pupping season, and the questions Polly has been... Audio
- あり合わせで造った礼拝堂 On Lamb Holm, two army huts hold a chapel that prisoners of war made out of scrap, and the only honest... Audio
- 嵐があらわした村 At the Bay of Skaill, a guide with a carrying voice explains a village that a storm returned to the light... Audio
- 暖炉のそばの椅子 A guesthouse above the harbour, an argument about what counts as a quiet room, and a chair whose whole... Audio
- 船が入ってくる Polly lands at Stromness off the morning boat and works out, one question at a time, how a place with no... Audio
- ピンクは存在しません Pink has no wavelength of its own; it is a color the brain invents when the eyes see red and blue light... Audio
- あなたは今、光っています The human body constantly emits an extremely faint light, invisible to the eye but detectable with a... Audio
- 霧が彼女のうしろで閉じる On her last afternoon, Polly flies high over the island before fog rolls in and hides it behind her. Audio
- 火山につながれた村 Polly learns that the same volcano heat that cooked lunch also warms a big public pool and heats homes in... Audio
- 夜明けに埋める夕食 Polly watches a cook bury pots of food in the ground, where the volcano's heat cooks dinner with no fire. Audio
- 一つの火口、二つの色 Polly finds a huge old crater with two lakes, one blue and one green, joined together under a strip of land. Audio
- 二度も絶滅と思われた鳥 Polly looks for the priolo, a tiny grey and pink bird that lives only in one forest and was once thought to... Audio
- ヨーロッパに残る最後の二つの茶園 Polly finds one of the only two tea farms left in Europe, started after the island's orange trees died. Audio
- 九つの島、三つのプレート Polly arrives over São Miguel, the biggest of the nine Azores islands, made of black rock, green fields,... Audio
- ポリー、バスに乗る Polly's first bus ride: does this bus go downtown, one ticket, how much, where do I get off, next stop,... Audio
- ポリー、道をたずねる Polly is lost on the way to the library and asks an owl for directions: excuse me, where is it, is it far,... Audio
- ポリー、コーヒーを注文する Polly's first cafe order: good afternoon, a coffee with milk, do you have churros, the check please, how... Audio
- ポリー、市場へ行く Berta takes Polly to the market. Polly buys fruit for the first time: what is this, two apples, how much, a... Audio
- ポリー、新しい人と出会う Polly moves to a new street and meets Berta the bear. First greetings: hello, your name, nice to meet you,... Audio
- 滝を登る魚 In Hawaii, a fish smaller than your finger climbs up waterfalls taller than buildings, using its mouth as a... Audio
- 蒸気と小皿料理 A first night at a Taipei night market, where pointing, smiling, and one brave question buy a very good... Audio
- 世界で最も乾燥した場所を登る Polly arrives at a big observatory in the Atacama, the driest desert in the world. Audio
- ウラジオストク Polly arrives in Vladivostok and flies off over the Pacific Ocean. Audio
- アムール川 Polly reaches the Amur River and meets a rare crane on the sixth day of the Trans-Siberian. Audio
- バイカル湖 Polly spends a day on the train along Lake Baikal, the deepest and oldest lake on Earth. Audio
- タイムゾーン Polly explores the dining car and learns that the train uses one time zone across all of Russia. Audio
- ウラル山脈を越えて Polly crosses the Ural Mountains, the line between Europe and Asia, on the Trans-Siberian train. Audio
- 白樺の森 Polly watches Russian birch forests from the Trans-Siberian train and learns that forty percent of Russia... Audio
- ヤロスラフスキー駅 Polly boards the Trans-Siberian train at Moscow and begins her seven-day journey to Vladivostok. Audio
- パスタとのお別れ Polly says goodbye to Pasta the octopus and flies out of Naples. Audio
- 自分を編集するもの Polly learns that octopuses can change their own nervous systems by editing RNA in real time. Audio
- ピザと長いランチ Polly has lunch with Chiara at a Neapolitan pizzeria and learns about traditional Neapolitan pizza. Audio
- 考える体 Polly watches an octopus solve a maze with two arms working independently. Audio
- ナポリ湾 Polly arrives in Naples and meets a giant Pacific octopus at the world's oldest marine biology institute. Audio
- 谷を離れて Polly says goodbye to Ranger Tomas and flies west out of Yosemite. Audio
- 氷河ポイントの天の川 Polly watches the Milky Way at Glacier Point and looks through a telescope at the centre of our galaxy. Audio
- ハーフドーム Polly flies up Half Dome on warm air with a flock of swifts, sees the summit, then glides back down. Audio
- ダイビング・ファルコン Polly tries to copy a peregrine falcon's dive, learning what makes the falcon the fastest animal in the world. Audio
- セコイアの木 Polly visits a giant sequoia nearly 3,000 years old and learns about its fireproof bark. Audio
- レンジャー・トマスと一緒に乗って Polly spends the morning in Ranger Tomas's truck, learning about bear feeding and peregrine falcon nests. Audio
- シナモンの香り A new neighbor leaves a small surprise outside her door. Audio
- 忍耐2キロ A first trip to the local market with a vendor who refuses to let her leave with the wrong tomatoes. Audio
B1 · Finding your flow
Polly's weekly adventures and real-world stories.
- 港が広げた手 Polly flies into New York Harbor and looks closely at the Statue of Liberty, a gift from France built so... Audio
- チーズが必ず勝つレース Once a year in England, people chase a wheel of cheese down a dangerously steep hill, and the cheese almost... Audio
- 爪ほどの大きさの、新種の動物二種 Scientists in Montenegro just described two snail species new to science, found on limestone cliffs in a... Audio
- 本物の虫がコンピューターを止めた日 In nineteen forty-seven, engineers found an actual moth stuck inside a giant computer, taped it into their... Audio
- はさみの中に太陽を持つエビ A small ocean shrimp snaps its claw so fast that it creates a flash of heat nearly as hot as the surface of... Audio
- 二つの国に分かれた家 In a small town on the Belgian-Dutch border, some houses sit in two countries at once, and the front door... Audio
- 働く通りの提灯 In Higashi Chaya, Polly finds a lantern-lit street of wooden teahouses that still works today, and a shop... Audio
- 夜明け前の台所 Before dawn at Omicho market, Polly sees fish laid out on ice in a market three hundred years old, and... Audio
- 叩かれて、ほとんど消えてしまうまで In a gold leaf workshop, Polly learns that Kanazawa makes almost all of Japan's gold leaf, and that a coin... Audio
- 火が奪わなかったもの Polly takes one last high look at Kanazawa, waits out the rain from the sea, and leaves a city that kept... Audio
- 庭が持つべき六つのもの In Kenrokuen, Polly watches koi in a famous pond and learns how gardeners rig cones of rope over the pines... Audio
- 白い屋根と長い壁 At Kanazawa Castle, Polly walks the long stone walls and finds roofs made of lead, weathered white, that... Audio
- 焼け残った街 Polly arrives in Kanazawa, a city between the sea and the mountains, and finds an old wooden centre that... Audio
- 鳥に負けた軍隊 In nineteen thirty-two the Australian military was sent against emus eating the wheat crop in Western... Audio
- チンパンジーにも方言がある A new study of more than eleven thousand recorded calls found that young chimpanzees in different parts of... Audio
- インターネットは海の底にある Almost all international internet traffic travels along cables lying on the sea floor, which break... Audio
- ひとつの建物に住む町 Almost every resident of Whittier, Alaska lives inside a single fourteen storey building reached through a... Audio
- あなたは光っている。でも誰にも見えない。 Human skin gives off a faint light all day long, and a Japanese team photographed it in a sealed dark room. Audio
- あなたの地図はお昼までに狂ってしまう Satellite clocks tick faster than clocks on the ground, and if nobody corrected for it your phone would... Audio
- 国じゅうが食べるランチ In the Dominican Republic the main meal lands at midday, it is almost always the same three things, and the... Audio
- この青は一つの場所にしか存在しない A stony beach in the Dominican southwest, one pebble that is blue all the way through, and the single... Audio
- この鳥は飛びながら眠る Frigatebirds stay in the air for days over open ocean, and researchers put recorders on their heads to find... Audio
- ひとつのカフェ、ふたつの国 In one small town, the border between Belgium and the Netherlands runs straight through streets, houses and... Audio
- 夜に青く光る海岸 On some warm coasts, the sea lights up electric blue when you touch it. The light comes from billions of... Audio
- あなたのメッセージは海の底を旅する Almost everything you send across an ocean travels through cables lying on the sea floor, not through... Audio
- 眠っている間に移動するホテル On a European night train, you fall asleep in one country and wake up in another, with the Alps outside... Audio
- 海の底を歩く Twice a day the North Sea pulls back for kilometres, and people walk barefoot across the bare seabed before... Audio
- 王がほとんど住まなかった城 A Bavarian king built a fairy-tale castle on an alpine crag, slept there only a handful of nights, and left... Audio
- 味がわかる腕 Octopus suckers contain special receptors that let an arm taste whatever it touches, even in total darkness. Audio
- 陸上競技史上最高の賞金 A brand new athletics championship this month paid its winners more than the sport has ever offered before. Audio
- コンピューターにクジラ語を教える Researchers are using artificial intelligence to search for real structure inside the clicking patterns of... Audio
- 木のゆっくりした鼓動 Laser scans at night revealed that trees pulse gently every few hours, possibly pumping water through their... Audio
- 午前三時の花市場 At three in the morning, Bangkok's biggest flower market is more awake than midday, and it never really... Audio
- 一万人の選手、一つの開会の夜 The 2026 Asian Games, hosted jointly by Aichi and Nagoya, Japan, bring together roughly ten thousand... Audio
- チーズしか受け取らない銀行 An Italian bank keeps a vault holding more than half a million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, accepted as... Audio
- その電池の数字は当てずっぽうです A phone's battery percentage is not a direct measurement, but an estimate calculated from voltage and... Audio
- ごみでできた砂浜 A sparkling beach in Northern California is made entirely of old dumped glass, smoothed into colorful... Audio
- どこにも四階がない In much of East Asia, elevators skip the number four entirely, because it sounds exactly like the word for... Audio
- 川を取り戻した街 For fifty years, Seoul hid a river under an elevated highway. Then the city tore the highway down, and the... Audio
- 寒いときにスマホが切れる理由 Your phone shows forty percent battery, then dies in the snow. The battery is not empty. It is cold, and... Audio
- 上空十キロメートル Passenger planes cruise about ten kilometres above the ground. That number is not random: it is where the... Audio
- 五百光年 Polly watches an exoplanet transit observation that measures what gases are in the atmosphere of a planet... Audio
- 古代人は熱帯雨林で栄えていた Scientists once thought ancient humans avoided rainforests. New evidence from West Africa says they thrived... Audio
- 錠前を開けたタコ An octopus called Inky escaped his aquarium tank at night through a drain pipe, and what it reveals about... Audio
- 3000年前のハチミツが今でも食べられる理由 Honey jars from Egyptian tombs three thousand years old are still edible. The chemistry behind a food that... Audio
- 三日間続いたテニスの試合 The longest tennis match ever played: Isner vs. Mahut, Wimbledon 2010, eleven hours, three days, a final... Audio
- 1960年 Polly studies a photograph of Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, the first humans to reach the bottom of the... Audio
- パスタとの別れ Polly says goodbye to Pasta the octopus and flies out of Naples toward her next destination. Audio
- レンジャー・トーマスとの旅 Polly spends a morning in Ranger Tomas's truck, learning how he tracks bear feeding in wildflower meadows... Audio
- 谷の上で Polly arrives at Yosemite Valley from the air, takes in its U-shaped glacial geology, watches climbers on... Audio
- 日曜日のパエリア An adult granddaughter visits home and finds her grandfather hasn't forgotten anything yet. Audio
- 空っぽのマグカップ First day at a new office, a small lesson about asking before assuming. Audio
- グラナダ行きの列車 An overheard phone call on the train turns a long trip into a kind of company. Audio
- 間違った本屋 A simple coffee order leads to a strange conversation about a bookshop that doesn't exist anymore. Audio
- リスボンで道に迷って A wrong turn on a steep street becomes the best part of the trip. Audio
- 304号室からの眺め 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.
- 崖の斜面で見つかった、誰も名付けていなかった二つの新種 Scientists in Montenegro have described two snail species new to science, found on limestone cliffs in a... ? Quiz included Audio
- 爪の中に太陽を持つエビ A small ocean shrimp snaps its claw so violently that it produces a flash of heat nearly as hot as the... Audio
- オーストラリアがエミューに敗れた戦争 In nineteen thirty-two the Australian military was deployed against emus devastating the wheat crop in... Audio
- チンパンジーには訛りがあるらしい A new study of more than eleven thousand recorded calls finds that young chimpanzees in different parts of... Audio
- チーズを担保にお金を貸す銀行 An Italian bank stores and ages more than half a million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, accepted as... Audio
- 昼までに地図が狂ってしまう理由 Satellites tick at a different rate than clocks on the ground, and without a deliberate correction your... Audio
- あなたの肌が発し続ける光 Human skin gives off a faint light around the clock, invisible to the eye, as a Japanese team confirmed by... Audio
- あなたの言葉を海の向こうへ運んでいる本当のもの Almost everything sent between continents travels not through satellites but through cables lying on the... Audio
- 眠っている間に国境を越えるホテル On a European night train, a traveller falls asleep in one country and wakes in another, with the Alps... Audio
- ソウルが半世紀にわたって隠していた川 Seoul spent decades entombing a river beneath a highway, then reversed course and dug it back into the... Audio
- 日曜日がなお求めるもの An adult granddaughter returns home for Sunday paella and discovers that her octogenarian grandfather's... Audio
- ひとつの建物の中で暮らす町 Almost the entire population of Whittier, Alaska lives inside a single fourteen storey building, reached... Audio
- 王がほとんど目にすることのなかった城 Bavaria's King Ludwig the Second poured a fortune into a fairy tale castle he would inhabit for barely a... Audio
- 携帯電話は壊れていない、ただ冷えているだけ A phone that shows forty percent battery and then dies the moment you step into the cold has not run out of... Audio
- 帝国より長生きしたはちみつ Honey sealed inside Egyptian tombs thousands of years ago remains perfectly edible today, and the reason... Audio
- 鍵をすり抜けたタコ An octopus named Inky vanished from a New Zealand aquarium overnight, and the ingenious route he took to... Audio
- 一万五千キロメートルを旅したクジラ Polly learns about two humpback whales who swam 14,000+ km from Australia to Brazil, breaking the world... Audio
- 最も乾燥した場所を登る Polly arrives at ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama, the driest place on Earth, where four enormous... Audio
- 自らを編集するもの Polly learns that octopuses edit their own RNA in real time, tuning their nervous systems to their... Audio
- 見る皮膚 Polly watches Pasta find food under a coloured plate even though octopuses are colour-blind through their... Audio
- 考える身体 Polly watches Pasta solve an acrylic maze using two arms independently. She learns that two-thirds of an... Audio
- 谷を去る Polly says goodbye to Ranger Tomas at the visitor centre and lifts off west out of Yosemite, leaving behind... Audio
- グレイシャーポイントの天の川 Polly watches sunset from Glacier Point and stays for the Milky Way, looking through a park astronomer's... Audio
- セコイア Polly visits Mariposa Grove and climbs into the canopy of the Grizzly Giant, a giant sequoia nearly 3,000... Audio
- 谷を見下ろして Polly arrives at Yosemite Valley from the air, taking in the U-shaped glacial geology, El Capitan with... Audio