A2 · Getting started
Longer stories about daily life, past and future.
- A Estação Onde Ninguém Passa Polly finds an old subway station built to look nice, closed long ago because new trains were too long for... Audio
- O animal que faz cubos Wombats make cube shaped poop, and now we know why. Audio
- Esse pássaro dorme enquanto voa Frigatebirds fly for many days and sleep only a little. Audio
- O almoço que um país inteiro come In the Dominican Republic, everyone eats the same lunch at the same time. Audio
- Jantar cozido por um vulcão In the Azores, people cook food inside a hot volcano. Audio
- O último trem Tomas misses the last train in Tokyo and sleeps in a tiny room. Audio
- A xícara vazia On his first day, Pedro drinks from a cup that is not his. Audio
- Número quarenta e sete Carla waits a long time at the clinic for a small cut. Audio
- Perdida em Lisboa Sofía gets lost in Lisbon and a woman helps her with a map. Audio
- O quarto com varanda Marcos gets a hotel room with a nice balcony. Audio
- Uma mesa para uma pessoa Mia eats alone in a small restaurant, and the waiter helps her choose. Audio
- A especiaria que já custou o mesmo que ouro Saffron comes from tiny flower threads picked by hand, and for most of history a pound of it cost about the... Audio
- O lago que desaparece todo verão In Slovenia, a huge lake fills a valley in winter and then vanishes underground every summer, leaving... Audio
- O parque ao lado da minha casa A squirrel describes the small park next to its tree: the pigeons by the benches, Mr. Badger and his bread,... Audio
- A cidade que coloca ouro no sorvete Kanazawa in Japan makes almost all of the country's gold leaf, and wraps whole sheets of it around soft ice... Audio
- O voo que dura noventa segundos A tiny plane hops between two Orkney islands in Scotland on the shortest scheduled flight in the world. Audio
- Grite ou você perde seu ponto A shared minibus with no bell and no screen, where the only way off is to say so out loud, early and twice. Audio
- O almoço que nunca acaba In Spain, the best part of lunch starts when the food is finished. It even has its own name. Audio
- Nunca peça um latte na Itália In Italy, the word latte does not mean coffee. One small word can bring you a big surprise. Audio
- De onde vem o café Coffee begins as a red fruit on a green plant and travels far before it fills a cup. Audio
- Dormindo em um trem noturno Night trains in Europe carry travelers between cities while they sleep in cozy beds. Audio
- Como as abelhas fazem mel Honeybees turn sweet flower nectar into golden honey through hard teamwork in the hive. Audio
- A longa estrada da seda The Silk Road was a famous trade route that linked China with Europe for many centuries. Audio
- O Amazonas, o maior rio The Amazon is the river that carries the most water in the world. Audio
- O polvo e seus três corações The octopus is a clever sea animal with three hearts and blue blood. Audio
- Os cabos debaixo do mar Long cables under the ocean carry almost all of the information that travels between countries. Audio
- A longa corrida chamada maratona The marathon is a very long running race with a curious and surprising history. Audio
- A primeira luz da vila While the whole village sleeps, one window glows: the baker lights the oven so fresh bread will be ready by... Audio
- O passarinho dentro do relógio In Germany's Black Forest, carved wooden cuckoo clocks call out every hour while children wait and laugh. Audio
- A cidade onde era proibido morrer When a small Italian town ran out of space in its cemetery, the mayor signed an order telling people not to... Audio
- O gato que pega o ônibus Every morning a cat climbs onto the same city bus, watches the streets go by, and gets off at his own stop. Audio
- O peixe que escala cachoeiras In Hawaii, a fish smaller than your finger climbs up waterfalls taller than buildings, using its mouth as a... Audio
- Vapor e pratinhos A first night at a Taipei night market, where pointing, smiling, and one brave question buy a very good... Audio
- Sorva Alto, É Boa Educação In Japan, slurping your noodles loudly is not rude, it is a sign that you are enjoying the meal. Audio
- A Cascata Que Cai Para Cima On very windy days, strong gusts can blow a Norwegian waterfall's spray back up into the sky. Audio
- O Círculo e o Barco da Manhã The Ring of Brodgar at dusk, then the small practical business of leaving an island, done in four sentences... Audio
- O Cereal de Noventa Dias In a bar in Kirkwall, a flat dark bannock turns out to be the reason the islands were farmable at all. Audio
- O Ajuntamento nos Rochedos Grey seals are hauling out on the low rocks before the pupping season, and the questions Polly has been... Audio
- Feita Com o Que Tinham On Lamb Holm, two army huts hold a chapel that prisoners of war made out of scrap, and the only honest... Audio
- A Aldeia Debaixo da Tempestade At the Bay of Skaill, a guide with a carrying voice explains a village that a storm returned to the light... Audio
- A Cadeira Junto à Lareira A guesthouse above the harbour, an argument about what counts as a quiet room, and a chair whose whole... Audio
- O Barco Chega Polly lands at Stromness off the morning boat and works out, one question at a time, how a place with no... Audio
- O Cor de Rosa Não Existe Pink has no wavelength of its own; it is a color the brain invents when the eyes see red and blue light... Audio
- Estás a Brilhar Neste Momento The human body constantly emits an extremely faint light, invisible to the eye but detectable with a... Audio
- A Névoa Fecha-se Atrás Dela On her last afternoon, Polly flies high over the island before fog rolls in and hides it behind her. Audio
- Uma Aldeia Ligada a um Vulcão Polly learns that the same volcano heat that cooked lunch also warms a big public pool and heats homes in... Audio
- Jantar Enterrado ao Amanhecer Polly watches a cook bury pots of food in the ground, where the volcano's heat cooks dinner with no fire. Audio
- Uma Cratera, Duas Cores Polly finds a huge old crater with two lakes, one blue and one green, joined together under a strip of land. Audio
- A Ave Dada Como Perdida Duas Vezes Polly looks for the priolo, a tiny grey and pink bird that lives only in one forest and was once thought to... Audio
- Os Dois Últimos Jardins da Europa Polly finds one of the only two tea farms left in Europe, started after the island's orange trees died. Audio
- Nove Ilhas, Três Placas Polly arrives over São Miguel, the biggest of the nine Azores islands, made of black rock, green fields,... Audio
- Polly apanha o autocarro Polly's first bus ride: does this bus go downtown, one ticket, how much, where do I get off, next stop,... Audio
- Polly pergunta o caminho Polly is lost on the way to the library and asks an owl for directions: excuse me, where is it, is it far,... Audio
- Polly pede um café Polly's first cafe order: good afternoon, a coffee with milk, do you have churros, the check please, how... Audio
- Polly no mercado Berta takes Polly to the market. Polly buys fruit for the first time: what is this, two apples, how much, a... Audio
- Polly conhece alguém Polly moves to a new street and meets Berta the bear. First greetings: hello, your name, nice to meet you,... Audio
- Vladivostok Polly arrives in Vladivostok and flies off over the Pacific Ocean. Audio
- O Amur Polly reaches the Amur River and meets a rare crane on the sixth day of the Trans-Siberian. Audio
- Lago Baikal Polly spends a day on the train along Lake Baikal, the deepest and oldest lake on Earth. Audio
- Fusos Horários Polly explores the dining car and learns that the train uses one time zone across all of Russia. Audio
- Cruzando os Urais Polly crosses the Ural Mountains, the line between Europe and Asia, on the Trans-Siberian train. Audio
- As Florestas de Bétulas Polly watches Russian birch forests from the Trans-Siberian train and learns that forty percent of Russia... Audio
- Estação Yaroslavsky Polly boards the Trans-Siberian train at Moscow and begins her seven-day journey to Vladivostok. Audio
- Adeus à Pasta Polly says goodbye to Pasta the octopus and flies out of Naples. Audio
- O Editor de Si Mesmo Polly learns that octopuses can change their own nervous systems by editing RNA in real time. Audio
- Pizza e o Longo Almoço Polly has lunch with Chiara at a Neapolitan pizzeria and learns about traditional Neapolitan pizza. Audio
- A Pele Que Vê Polly learns that octopus skin can sense colours even though octopus eyes cannot. Audio
- O Corpo que Pensa Polly watches an octopus solve a maze with two arms working independently. Audio
- O Pote Polly watches an octopus open a jar to catch a crab and learns how short an octopus's life is. Audio
- A Baía de Nápoles Polly arrives in Naples and meets a giant Pacific octopus at the world's oldest marine biology institute. Audio
- Deixando o Vale Polly says goodbye to Ranger Tomas and flies west out of Yosemite. Audio
- A Via Láctea Sobre Glacier Point Polly watches the Milky Way at Glacier Point and looks through a telescope at the centre of our galaxy. Audio
- Meia Cúpula Polly flies up Half Dome on warm air with a flock of swifts, sees the summit, then glides back down. Audio
- O Falcão Mergulhador Polly tries to copy a peregrine falcon's dive, learning what makes the falcon the fastest animal in the world. Audio
- A Sequoia Polly visits a giant sequoia nearly 3,000 years old and learns about its fireproof bark. Audio
- Passeio com o Guarda Florestal Tomas Polly spends the morning in Ranger Tomas's truck, learning about bear feeding and peregrine falcon nests. Audio
- Acima do Vale Polly flies into Yosemite Valley, watches climbers on El Capitan, and rides the shuttle bus at dusk. Audio
- O cheiro a canela A new neighbor leaves a small surprise outside her door. Audio
- Dois quilos de paciência 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.
- A corrida em que o queijo sempre vence Once a year in England, people chase a wheel of cheese down a dangerously steep hill, and the cheese almost... Audio
- Dois animais novíssimos, cada um do tamanho de uma unha Scientists in Montenegro just described two snail species new to science, found on limestone cliffs in a... Audio
- O dia em que um bicho de verdade quebrou um computador In nineteen forty-seven, engineers found an actual moth stuck inside a giant computer, taped it into their... Audio
- O camarão com um sol dentro da garra A small ocean shrimp snaps its claw so fast that it creates a flash of heat nearly as hot as the surface of... Audio
- A casa dividida entre dois países In a small town on the Belgian-Dutch border, some houses sit in two countries at once, and the front door... Audio
- O exército que perdeu para pássaros In nineteen thirty-two the Australian military was sent against emus eating the wheat crop in Western... Audio
- Chimpanzés têm sotaques A new study of more than eleven thousand recorded calls found that young chimpanzees in different parts of... Audio
- A internet fica debaixo d'água Almost all international internet traffic travels along cables lying on the sea floor, which break... Audio
- A cidade que vive dentro de um único prédio Almost every resident of Whittier, Alaska lives inside a single fourteen storey building reached through a... Audio
- Seu mapa estaria errado antes do almoço Satellite clocks tick faster than clocks on the ground, and if nobody corrected for it your phone would... Audio
- Você brilha. Ninguém consegue ver. Human skin gives off a faint light all day long, and a Japanese team photographed it in a sealed dark room. Audio
- Esse azul existe em um único lugar A stony beach in the Dominican southwest, one pebble that is blue all the way through, and the single... Audio
- Um café, dois países In one small town, the border between Belgium and the Netherlands runs straight through streets, houses and... Audio
- Suas mensagens viajam debaixo d'água Almost everything you send across an ocean travels through cables lying on the sea floor, not through... Audio
- A praia que brilha azul à noite On some warm coasts, the sea lights up electric blue when you touch it. The light comes from billions of... Audio
- O hotel que se move enquanto você dorme On a European night train, you fall asleep in one country and wake up in another, with the Alps outside... Audio
- O jantar cozido por um vulcão On a green island in the Azores, cooks lower a pot into a hot hole in the ground and let the earth slowly... Audio
- O castelo em que o rei quase não morou A Bavarian king built a fairy-tale castle on an alpine crag, slept there only a handful of nights, and left... Audio
- Caminhando pelo fundo do mar Twice a day the North Sea pulls back for kilometres, and people walk barefoot across the bare seabed before... Audio
- Por que o celular morre no frio Your phone shows forty percent battery, then dies in the snow. The battery is not empty. It is cold, and... Audio
- A cidade que desenterrou um rio For fifty years, Seoul hid a river under an elevated highway. Then the city tore the highway down, and the... Audio
- Dez quilômetros de altura Passenger planes cruise about ten kilometres above the ground. That number is not random: it is where the... Audio
- Humanos antigos prosperaram na floresta tropical Scientists once thought ancient humans avoided rainforests. New evidence from West Africa says they thrived... Audio
- Por que o mel de três mil anos atrás ainda é comestível Honey jars from Egyptian tombs three thousand years old are still edible. The chemistry behind a food that... Audio
- A partida de tênis que durou três dias The longest tennis match ever played: Isner vs. Mahut, Wimbledon 2010, eleven hours, three days, a final... Audio
- O polvo que abriu a fechadura An octopus called Inky escaped his aquarium tank at night through a drain pipe, and what it reveals about... Audio
- Um Braço Que Prova o Que Toca Octopus suckers contain special receptors that let an arm taste whatever it touches, even in total darkness. Audio
- O Maior Prémio de Sempre no Atletismo A brand new athletics championship this month paid its winners more than the sport has ever offered before. Audio
- Ensinar um Computador a Falar Baleia Researchers are using artificial intelligence to search for real structure inside the clicking patterns of... Audio
- O Batimento Lento das Árvores Laser scans at night revealed that trees pulse gently every few hours, possibly pumping water through their... Audio
- Flores às Três da Manhã At three in the morning, Bangkok's biggest flower market is more awake than midday, and it never really... Audio
- Dez Mil Atletas, Uma Noite de Abertura The 2026 Asian Games, hosted jointly by Aichi and Nagoya, Japan, bring together roughly ten thousand... Audio
- O Banco Que Só Aceita Queijo An Italian bank keeps a vault holding more than half a million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, accepted as... Audio
- A Percentagem da Bateria É um Palpite A phone's battery percentage is not a direct measurement, but an estimate calculated from voltage and... Audio
- Esta Praia É Feita de Lixo A sparkling beach in Northern California is made entirely of old dumped glass, smoothed into colorful... Audio
- Não Há Quarto Andar em Lado Nenhum In much of East Asia, elevators skip the number four entirely, because it sounds exactly like the word for... Audio
- A Editora de Si Mesma Polly learns that octopuses edit their own RNA in real time, building a brain that is different in each... Audio
- Passeio com o Guarda Tomas Polly spends a morning in Ranger Tomas's truck, learning how he tracks bear feeding in wildflower meadows... Audio
- A caneca vazia First day at a new office, a small lesson about asking before assuming. Audio
- O comboio para Granada An overheard phone call on the train turns a long trip into a kind of company. Audio
- A livraria errada A simple coffee order leads to a strange conversation about a bookshop that doesn't exist anymore. Audio
- O quarto 304 tem vista A late check-in turns into a small gift when the hotel runs out of rooms on the lower floors. Audio
- Uma mesa para uma A traveler eats alone in Madrid and discovers the waiter is the real star of the meal. Audio
B2 · Building confidence
Real places, real news, richer language.
C1 · Stretch yourself
Rich, natural texts about places, history and ideas.
- Duas espécies que ninguém tinha nomeado, encontradas em uma parede rochosa Scientists in Montenegro have described two snail species new to science, found on limestone cliffs in a... Audio
- A guerra que a Austrália perdeu para as emas In nineteen thirty-two the Australian military was deployed against emus devastating the wheat crop in... Audio
- Chimpanzés, ao que parece, têm sotaque A new study of more than eleven thousand recorded calls finds that young chimpanzees in different parts of... Audio
- O banco que empresta dinheiro em troca de queijo An Italian bank stores and ages more than half a million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, accepted as... Audio
- Por que seu mapa estaria errado até a hora do almoço Satellites tick at a different rate than clocks on the ground, and without a deliberate correction your... Audio
- O brilho que sua pele nunca para de emitir Human skin gives off a faint light around the clock, invisible to the eye, as a Japanese team confirmed by... Audio
- O que realmente carrega suas palavras através de um oceano Almost everything sent between continents travels not through satellites but through cables lying on the... Audio
- O hotel que atravessa fronteiras enquanto você dorme On a European night train, a traveller falls asleep in one country and wakes in another, with the Alps... Audio
- O rio que Seul manteve em segredo por meio século Seoul spent decades entombing a river beneath a highway, then reversed course and dug it back into the... Audio
- O que o domingo ainda exige An adult granddaughter returns home for Sunday paella and discovers that her octogenarian grandfather's... Audio
- O castelo que seu rei quase não chegou a ver Bavaria's King Ludwig the Second poured a fortune into a fairy tale castle he would inhabit for barely a... Audio
- Caminhando pelo chão do mar Twice each day, the tide withdraws for kilometres along the Wattenmeer coast, inviting walkers onto the... Audio
- Seu celular não morreu. Só está com frio. A phone that shows forty percent battery and then dies the moment you step into the cold has not run out of... Audio
- A dez quilômetros de altura Passenger jets cruise about ten kilometres up not for the view but because that is where thin air starts... Audio
- O mel que sobreviveu a impérios Honey sealed inside Egyptian tombs thousands of years ago remains perfectly edible today, and the reason... Audio
- O polvo que burlou a própria fechadura An octopus named Inky vanished from a New Zealand aquarium overnight, and the ingenious route he took to... Audio
- A baleia que percorreu quinze mil quilômetros Polly learns about two humpback whales who swam 14,000+ km from Australia to Brazil, breaking the world... Audio
- Escalando o Lugar Mais Seco Polly arrives at ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama, the driest place on Earth, where four enormous... Audio
- Adeus ao Pasta Polly says goodbye to Pasta the octopus, who presses one arm against the glass exactly opposite where... Audio
- Cavalgando com o Guarda Florestal Tomas Polly rides shotgun with Ranger Tomas Rodriguez through Yosemite for a morning, learning how rangers... Audio