C1 · Stretch yourself
Rich, natural texts about places, history and ideas.
- Seitsemän hametta ja hopeakalaa Polly rides the old funicular down to town, where gull ladies in seven layered skirts dry silver fish in... Audio
- Ritari ja peura In a tiny tiled chapel on the clifftop, Polly reads the eight-hundred-year-old legend of a rider saved at... Audio
- Kaksi nimeämätöntä lajia löytyi kalliojyrkänteeltä Scientists in Montenegro have described two snail species new to science, found on limestone cliffs in a... Audio
- Katkarapu, jonka saksissa on aurinko A small ocean shrimp snaps its claw so violently that it produces a flash of heat nearly as hot as the... Audio
- Sota, jonka Australia hävisi emuille In nineteen thirty-two the Australian military was deployed against emus devastating the wheat crop in... Audio
- Simpansseilla on, kuten käy ilmi, aksentteja A new study of more than eleven thousand recorded calls finds that young chimpanzees in different parts of... Audio
- Pankki, joka myöntää lainoja juustoa vastaan An Italian bank stores and ages more than half a million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, accepted as... Audio
- Miksi karttasi olisi väärässä jo lounaaseen mennessä Satellites tick at a different rate than clocks on the ground, and without a deliberate correction your... Audio
- Hehku, jota ihosi ei koskaan lakkaa säteilemästä Human skin gives off a faint light around the clock, invisible to the eye, as a Japanese team confirmed by... Audio
- Mikä oikeasti kuljettaa sanasi valtameren yli Almost everything sent between continents travels not through satellites but through cables lying on the... Audio
- Hotelli, joka ylittää rajoja sinun nukkuessasi On a European night train, a traveller falls asleep in one country and wakes in another, with the Alps... Audio
- Joki, jonka Soul piti salassa puoli vuosisataa Seoul spent decades entombing a river beneath a highway, then reversed course and dug it back into the... Audio
- Mitä sunnuntai yhä vaatii An adult granddaughter returns home for Sunday paella and discovers that her octogenarian grandfather's... Audio
- Kaupunki, joka asuu yhdessä rakennuksessa Almost the entire population of Whittier, Alaska lives inside a single fourteen storey building, reached... Audio
- Yksi kahvila, kaksi maata In the Belgian Dutch town of Baarle, the international border runs straight through streets, houses, and... Audio
- Linna, jossa kuningas ehti tuskin asua Bavaria's King Ludwig the Second poured a fortune into a fairy tale castle he would inhabit for barely a... Audio
- Kävely meren pohjan poikki Twice each day, the tide withdraws for kilometres along the Wattenmeer coast, inviting walkers onto the... Audio
- Puhelimesi ei ole kuollut. Se on vain kylmä. A phone that shows forty percent battery and then dies the moment you step into the cold has not run out of... Audio
- Kymmenen kilometriä korkealla Passenger jets cruise about ten kilometres up not for the view but because that is where thin air starts... Audio
- Hunaja, joka on elänyt valtakuntia pidempään Honey sealed inside Egyptian tombs thousands of years ago remains perfectly edible today, and the reason... Audio
- Tursas, joka livahti lukitusta altaastaan An octopus named Inky vanished from a New Zealand aquarium overnight, and the ingenious route he took to... Audio
- Kehä ja aamulaiva The Ring of Brodgar at dusk, then the small practical business of leaving an island, done in four sentences... Audio
- Yhdeksänkymmenen päivän vilja In a bar in Kirkwall, a flat dark bannock turns out to be the reason the islands were farmable at all. Audio
- Kokoontuminen luodoilla Grey seals are hauling out on the low rocks before the pupping season, and the questions Polly has been... Audio
- Rakennettu siitä mitä oli On Lamb Holm, two army huts hold a chapel that prisoners of war made out of scrap, and the only honest... Audio
- Kylä myrskyn alla At the Bay of Skaill, a guide with a carrying voice explains a village that a storm returned to the light... Audio
- Tuoli takan ääressä A guesthouse above the harbour, an argument about what counts as a quiet room, and a chair whose whole... Audio
- Laiva saapuu satamaan Polly lands at Stromness off the morning boat and works out, one question at a time, how a place with no... Audio
- Usva sulkeutuu hänen jälkeensä On her last afternoon, Polly climbs high over the whole island one more time before fog rolls in from the... Audio
- Kylä, joka on kytketty tulivuoreen Walking through the village, Polly finds the same underground heat that cooked lunch also fills a giant... Audio
- Aamulla haudattu illallinen Beside a steaming lake, Polly watches a cook lower sealed pots into holes heated only by the volcano below,... Audio
- Yksi kraatteri, kaksi väriä Polly finds an ancient volcanic crater holding two lakes side by side, one blue and one green, joined... Audio
- Lintu, joka menetettiin kahdesti Deep in an old laurel forest, Polly searches for the priolo, a tiny grey and pink bird found nowhere else... Audio
- Euroopan kaksi viimeistä puutarhaa Polly lands on a terraced hillside where one of only two working tea plantations left in Europe still uses... Audio
- Yhdeksän saarta, kolme laattaa Polly arrives over São Miguel, the largest of the nine Azores islands, and finds a coastline of black... Audio
- Lähtö aamun ensivalossa Polly says goodbye to Berta on the watchtower at dawn and lets the river lead her out of Albarracín. Audio
- Paimen portilla At dawn a flock of sheep pours through the old town gate, and Polly joins the shepherd, his mastiff and the... Audio
- Joki joka kiertää kaupungin Polly spends a slow day down on the Guadalaviar, the river that wraps the town like a moat, and shares dusk... Audio
- Punaisten kallioiden maalatut eläimet In the pine forest of red stone outside town, Polly finds paintings of animals made by human hands... Audio
- Muuri joka kiipeää vuorelle Polly climbs the great wall above the town to a square stone watchtower and learns who built it more than a... Audio
- Berta ja nojaavat talot An old stone marten who lives inside the town walls shows Polly the crooked lanes of Albarracín, including... Audio
- Kaupunki joen sylissä Polly follows a looping river into the hills of eastern Spain and finds Albarracín, a pink town stacked... Audio
- Polly menee bussilla One nervous first ride, a capybara who has seen it all, and the exact moment a new neighborhood starts... Audio
- Polly kysyy tietä Twenty minutes of proud wandering, one patient owl, and the discovery that a single question is worth more... Audio
- Polly tilaa kahvin A rainy afternoon pushes Polly into the corner cafe, where a badger with a bow tie, a first coffee order,... Audio
- Polly torilla Berta keeps her promise and walks Polly through the Saturday market, where a spiky fruit, a chatty goat,... Audio
- Polly tapaa jonkun On moving day, Polly meets Berta the bear watering her geraniums, and a chat over the fence turns into a... Audio
- Aurinko, joka ei laske On her last night the sun never sets, and from the golden sky Polly sees her whole week at once, then... Audio
- Valas, joka ui viisitoistatuhatta kilometriä Polly learns about two humpback whales who swam 14,000+ km from Australia to Brazil, breaking the world... Audio
- Vladivostok Polly arrives in Vladivostok at the end of the Trans-Siberian's 9,289 kilometres, stretches her wings, and... Audio
- Amur Polly reaches the Russian Far East on the sixth day of the Trans-Siberian, sees the Amur River bordering... Audio
- Baikaljärvi Polly spends the fifth day of the Trans-Siberian running along Lake Baikal, the deepest, oldest, and... Audio
- Aikavyöhykkeet Polly explores the dining car on the fourth day of the Trans-Siberian and learns that the whole train runs... Audio
- Uralien ylitys Polly crosses the Ural Mountains, the geographic boundary between Europe and Asia, on the third day of the... Audio
- Koivumetsät Polly wakes up on the second morning of the Trans-Siberian crossing the birch forests of European Russia.... Audio
- Jaroslavlin asema Polly boards the Rossiya, the flagship train of the Trans-Siberian Railway, at Moscow's Yaroslavsky... Audio
- Hyvästi pastalle Polly says goodbye to Pasta the octopus, who presses one arm against the glass exactly opposite where... Audio
- Itsensä Editoija Polly learns that octopuses edit their own RNA in real time, tuning their nervous systems to their... Audio
- Pizza ja pitkä lounas Polly takes the long lunch with Chiara at a Neapolitan pizzeria, learning the protected rules behind... Audio
- Iho joka näkee Polly watches Pasta find food under a coloured plate even though octopuses are colour-blind through their... Audio
- Ajatteleva keho Polly watches Pasta solve an acrylic maze using two arms independently. She learns that two-thirds of an... Audio
- Purkin arvoitus Polly watches a giant Pacific octopus named Pasta open a screw-top jar to retrieve a live crab. She learns... Audio
- Napolinlahti Polly arrives in Naples and is welcomed into the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, the world's oldest marine... Audio
- Lähtö Laaksosta Polly says goodbye to Ranger Tomas at the visitor centre and lifts off west out of Yosemite, leaving behind... Audio
- Linnunrata Glacier Pointilla 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
- Sukeltava Jalohaukka Polly tries to copy a peregrine falcon's dive after seeing one launch from El Capitan, learning about the... Audio
- Sequoia Polly visits Mariposa Grove and climbs into the canopy of the Grizzly Giant, a giant sequoia nearly 3,000... Audio
- Matkalla Metsänvartija Tomasin Kanssa Polly rides shotgun with Ranger Tomas Rodriguez through Yosemite for a morning, learning how rangers... Audio
- Ylhäällä Laaksossa Polly arrives at Yosemite Valley from the air, taking in the U-shaped glacial geology, El Capitan with... Audio