C1 · Stretch yourself
Rich, natural texts about places, history and ideas.
- Twee ongenoemde soorten gevonden op een rotswand Scientists in Montenegro have described two snail species new to science, found on limestone cliffs in a... Audio
- De garnaal met een zon in zijn schaar A small ocean shrimp snaps its claw so violently that it produces a flash of heat nearly as hot as the... Audio
- De oorlog die Australië verloor van emoes In nineteen thirty-two the Australian military was deployed against emus devastating the wheat crop in... Audio
- Chimpansees blijken accenten te hebben A new study of more than eleven thousand recorded calls finds that young chimpanzees in different parts of... Audio
- De bank die leent tegen onderpand van kaas An Italian bank stores and ages more than half a million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, accepted as... Audio
- Waarom je kaart tegen de middag verkeerd zou zijn Satellites tick at a different rate than clocks on the ground, and without a deliberate correction your... Audio
- De gloed die je huid nooit ophoudt uit te stralen Human skin gives off a faint light around the clock, invisible to the eye, as a Japanese team confirmed by... Audio
- Wat je woorden echt over een oceaan draagt Almost everything sent between continents travels not through satellites but through cables lying on the... Audio
- Het hotel dat grenzen oversteekt terwijl je slaapt On a European night train, a traveller falls asleep in one country and wakes in another, with the Alps... Audio
- De rivier die Seoel een halve eeuw geheimhield Seoul spent decades entombing a river beneath a highway, then reversed course and dug it back into the... Audio
- Wat de zondag nog altijd eist An adult granddaughter returns home for Sunday paella and discovers that her octogenarian grandfather's... Audio
- De stad die in één gebouw woont Almost the entire population of Whittier, Alaska lives inside a single fourteen storey building, reached... Audio
- Eén café, twee landen In the Belgian Dutch town of Baarle, the international border runs straight through streets, houses, and... Audio
- Het kasteel dat zijn koning amper heeft meegemaakt Bavaria's King Ludwig the Second poured a fortune into a fairy tale castle he would inhabit for barely a... Audio
- Wandelen over de bodem van de zee Twice each day, the tide withdraws for kilometres along the Wattenmeer coast, inviting walkers onto the... Audio
- Je telefoon is niet dood. Hij heeft het gewoon koud. A phone that shows forty percent battery and then dies the moment you step into the cold has not run out of... Audio
- Tien kilometer hoog Passenger jets cruise about ten kilometres up not for the view but because that is where thin air starts... Audio
- Honing die keizerrijken heeft overleefd Honey sealed inside Egyptian tombs thousands of years ago remains perfectly edible today, and the reason... Audio
- De octopus die aan zijn slot ontsnapte An octopus named Inky vanished from a New Zealand aquarium overnight, and the ingenious route he took to... Audio
- De cirkel en de ochtendboot The Ring of Brodgar at dusk, then the small practical business of leaving an island, done in four sentences... Audio
- Het graan van negentig dagen In a bar in Kirkwall, a flat dark bannock turns out to be the reason the islands were farmable at all. Audio
- De verzameling op de klippen Grey seals are hauling out on the low rocks before the pupping season, and the questions Polly has been... Audio
- Gebouwd van wat ze hadden On Lamb Holm, two army huts hold a chapel that prisoners of war made out of scrap, and the only honest... Audio
- Het dorp onder de storm At the Bay of Skaill, a guide with a carrying voice explains a village that a storm returned to the light... Audio
- De stoel bij het vuur A guesthouse above the harbour, an argument about what counts as a quiet room, and a chair whose whole... Audio
- De boot komt binnen Polly lands at Stromness off the morning boat and works out, one question at a time, how a place with no... Audio
- De mist sluit zich achter haar On her last afternoon, Polly climbs high over the whole island one more time before fog rolls in from the... Audio
- Een dorp aangesloten op een vulkaan Walking through the village, Polly finds the same underground heat that cooked lunch also fills a giant... Audio
- Avondeten, bij zonsopgang begraven Beside a steaming lake, Polly watches a cook lower sealed pots into holes heated only by the volcano below,... Audio
- Eén krater, twee kleuren Polly finds an ancient volcanic crater holding two lakes side by side, one blue and one green, joined... Audio
- De vogel die tweemaal verloren werd gewaand Deep in an old laurel forest, Polly searches for the priolo, a tiny grey and pink bird found nowhere else... Audio
- De laatste twee tuinen van Europa Polly lands on a terraced hillside where one of only two working tea plantations left in Europe still uses... Audio
- Negen eilanden, drie platen Polly arrives over São Miguel, the largest of the nine Azores islands, and finds a coastline of black... Audio
- Spider Rock At the place where the canyon splits in two, a single tower of red stone stands alone on the floor, and... Audio
- De enige weg naar beneden A Diné rider brings visitors down the sandy track, and Polly learns why almost nobody walks this canyon... Audio
- Regen op de rand A summer storm turns the canyon walls into waterfalls for one hour, fills the dry wash, and waters the... Audio
- De paarden van de bedding Thunder without clouds turns out to have legs: horses running loose along the flat sand, and walls that... Audio
- De huizen in de wand High in a hollow in the cliff, Polly finds stone rooms built hundreds of years ago, and learns this canyon... Audio
- Waar de wanden overeind komen The canyon grows around Polly, the cliffs show their dark water stripes, and cliff swallows teach her to... Audio
- De lage muur Polly arrives at a famous canyon in Arizona and finds walls barely taller than the trees, until a raven... Audio
- Vertrek bij het eerste licht Polly says goodbye to Berta on the watchtower at dawn and lets the river lead her out of Albarracín. Audio
- De herder bij de poort At dawn a flock of sheep pours through the old town gate, and Polly joins the shepherd, his mastiff and the... Audio
- De rivier die om de stad heen stroomt Polly spends a slow day down on the Guadalaviar, the river that wraps the town like a moat, and shares dusk... Audio
- De geschilderde dieren van de rode rotsen In the pine forest of red stone outside town, Polly finds paintings of animals made by human hands... Audio
- De muur die de berg beklimt Polly climbs the great wall above the town to a square stone watchtower and learns who built it more than a... Audio
- Berta en de scheve huizen An old stone marten who lives inside the town walls shows Polly the crooked lanes of Albarracín, including... Audio
- De stad in de arm van de rivier Polly follows a looping river into the hills of eastern Spain and finds Albarracín, a pink town stacked... Audio
- De walvis die vijftienduizend kilometer reisde Polly learns about two humpback whales who swam 14,000+ km from Australia to Brazil, breaking the world... Audio
- Polly neemt de bus One nervous first ride, a capybara who has seen it all, and the exact moment a new neighborhood starts... Audio
- Polly vraagt de weg Twenty minutes of proud wandering, one patient owl, and the discovery that a single question is worth more... Audio
- Polly bestelt een koffie A rainy afternoon pushes Polly into the corner cafe, where a badger with a bow tie, a first coffee order,... Audio
- Polly op de markt Berta keeps her promise and walks Polly through the Saturday market, where a spiky fruit, a chatty goat,... Audio
- Polly ontmoet iemand On moving day, Polly meets Berta the bear watering her geraniums, and a chat over the fence turns into a... Audio
- Beklimming van de Droogste Plek Polly arrives at ESO's Paranal Observatory in the Atacama, the driest place on Earth, where four enormous... Audio
- Vladivostok Polly arrives in Vladivostok at the end of the Trans-Siberian's 9,289 kilometres, stretches her wings, and... Audio
- De Amoer Polly reaches the Russian Far East on the sixth day of the Trans-Siberian, sees the Amur River bordering... Audio
- Het Baikalmeer Polly spends the fifth day of the Trans-Siberian running along Lake Baikal, the deepest, oldest, and... Audio
- Tijdzones Polly explores the dining car on the fourth day of the Trans-Siberian and learns that the whole train runs... Audio
- De Oeral Oversteken Polly crosses the Ural Mountains, the geographic boundary between Europe and Asia, on the third day of the... Audio
- De Berkenbossen Polly wakes up on the second morning of the Trans-Siberian crossing the birch forests of European Russia.... Audio
- Station Jaroslavski Polly boards the Rossiya, the flagship train of the Trans-Siberian Railway, at Moscow's Yaroslavsky... Audio
- Afscheid van Pasta Polly says goodbye to Pasta the octopus, who presses one arm against the glass exactly opposite where... Audio
- De Redacteur van Zichzelf Polly learns that octopuses edit their own RNA in real time, tuning their nervous systems to their... Audio
- Pizza en de Lange Lunch Polly takes the long lunch with Chiara at a Neapolitan pizzeria, learning the protected rules behind... Audio
- De Huid Die Ziet Polly watches Pasta find food under a coloured plate even though octopuses are colour-blind through their... Audio
- Het Lichaam Dat Denkt Polly watches Pasta solve an acrylic maze using two arms independently. She learns that two-thirds of an... Audio
- De Pot Polly watches a giant Pacific octopus named Pasta open a screw-top jar to retrieve a live crab. She learns... Audio
- De Baai van Napels Polly arrives in Naples and is welcomed into the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, the world's oldest marine... Audio
- De Vallei Verlaten Polly says goodbye to Ranger Tomas at the visitor centre and lifts off west out of Yosemite, leaving behind... Audio
- De Melkweg Boven Glacier Point Polly watches sunset from Glacier Point and stays for the Milky Way, looking through a park astronomer's... Audio
- Half Dome Polly climbs the 1,500-metre north face of Half Dome on rising thermals with a flock of white-throated... Audio
- De Duikende Valk Polly tries to copy a peregrine falcon's dive after seeing one launch from El Capitan, learning about the... Audio
- De Sequoia Polly visits Mariposa Grove and climbs into the canopy of the Grizzly Giant, a giant sequoia nearly 3,000... Audio
- Rijden Met Ranger Tomas Polly rides shotgun with Ranger Tomas Rodriguez through Yosemite for a morning, learning how rangers... Audio
- Boven de Vallei Polly arrives at Yosemite Valley from the air, taking in the U-shaped glacial geology, El Capitan with... Audio