C1 · Stretch yourself
Rich, natural texts about places, history and ideas.
- Två arter ingen hade namngivit, hittade på en klippvägg Scientists in Montenegro have described two snail species new to science, found on limestone cliffs in a... Audio
- Räkan med en sol inuti klon A small ocean shrimp snaps its claw so violently that it produces a flash of heat nearly as hot as the... Audio
- Kriget Australien förlorade mot emuer In nineteen thirty-two the Australian military was deployed against emus devastating the wheat crop in... Audio
- Schimpanser har, visar det sig, dialekter A new study of more than eleven thousand recorded calls finds that young chimpanzees in different parts of... Audio
- Banken som lånar ut mot ost An Italian bank stores and ages more than half a million wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, accepted as... Audio
- Varför din karta skulle vara fel till lunch Satellites tick at a different rate than clocks on the ground, and without a deliberate correction your... Audio
- Skenet din hud aldrig slutar avge Human skin gives off a faint light around the clock, invisible to the eye, as a Japanese team confirmed by... Audio
- Vad som verkligen bär dina ord över ett hav Almost everything sent between continents travels not through satellites but through cables lying on the... Audio
- Hotellet som korsar gränser medan du sover On a European night train, a traveller falls asleep in one country and wakes in another, with the Alps... Audio
- Floden Seoul höll hemlig i ett halvt sekel Seoul spent decades entombing a river beneath a highway, then reversed course and dug it back into the... Audio
- Vad söndagen fortfarande kräver An adult granddaughter returns home for Sunday paella and discovers that her octogenarian grandfather's... Audio
- Staden som bor inuti en enda byggnad Almost the entire population of Whittier, Alaska lives inside a single fourteen storey building, reached... Audio
- Ett kafé, två länder In the Belgian Dutch town of Baarle, the international border runs straight through streets, houses, and... Audio
- Slottet dess kung knappt hann se Bavaria's King Ludwig the Second poured a fortune into a fairy tale castle he would inhabit for barely a... Audio
- Att gå över havets botten Twice each day, the tide withdraws for kilometres along the Wattenmeer coast, inviting walkers onto the... Audio
- Din telefon är inte död. Den är bara kall. A phone that shows forty percent battery and then dies the moment you step into the cold has not run out of... Audio
- Tio kilometer upp Passenger jets cruise about ten kilometres up not for the view but because that is where thin air starts... Audio
- Honung som har överlevt imperier Honey sealed inside Egyptian tombs thousands of years ago remains perfectly edible today, and the reason... Audio
- Bläckfisken som smet ur sitt lås An octopus named Inky vanished from a New Zealand aquarium overnight, and the ingenious route he took to... Audio
- Cirkeln och morgonbåten The Ring of Brodgar at dusk, then the small practical business of leaving an island, done in four sentences... Audio
- Nittiodagarskornet In a bar in Kirkwall, a flat dark bannock turns out to be the reason the islands were farmable at all. Audio
- Samlingen på skären Grey seals are hauling out on the low rocks before the pupping season, and the questions Polly has been... Audio
- Byggt av det de hade On Lamb Holm, two army huts hold a chapel that prisoners of war made out of scrap, and the only honest... Audio
- Byn under stormen At the Bay of Skaill, a guide with a carrying voice explains a village that a storm returned to the light... Audio
- Stolen vid brasan A guesthouse above the harbour, an argument about what counts as a quiet room, and a chair whose whole... Audio
- Båten kommer in Polly lands at Stromness off the morning boat and works out, one question at a time, how a place with no... Audio
- Dimman sluter sig bakom henne On her last afternoon, Polly climbs high over the whole island one more time before fog rolls in from the... Audio
- En by kopplad till en vulkan Walking through the village, Polly finds the same underground heat that cooked lunch also fills a giant... Audio
- Middagen som grävs ner i gryningen Beside a steaming lake, Polly watches a cook lower sealed pots into holes heated only by the volcano below,... Audio
- En krater, två färger Polly finds an ancient volcanic crater holding two lakes side by side, one blue and one green, joined... Audio
- Fågeln som gavs upp två gånger Deep in an old laurel forest, Polly searches for the priolo, a tiny grey and pink bird found nowhere else... Audio
- Europas två sista teträdgårdar Polly lands on a terraced hillside where one of only two working tea plantations left in Europe still uses... Audio
- Nio öar, tre plattor Polly arrives over São Miguel, the largest of the nine Azores islands, and finds a coastline of black... Audio
- Polly tar bussen One nervous first ride, a capybara who has seen it all, and the exact moment a new neighborhood starts... Audio
- Polly frågar om vägen Twenty minutes of proud wandering, one patient owl, and the discovery that a single question is worth more... Audio
- Polly beställer kaffe A rainy afternoon pushes Polly into the corner cafe, where a badger with a bow tie, a first coffee order,... Audio
- Polly på marknaden Berta keeps her promise and walks Polly through the Saturday market, where a spiky fruit, a chatty goat,... Audio
- Polly träffar någon On moving day, Polly meets Berta the bear watering her geraniums, and a chat over the fence turns into a... Audio
- Jorden Andas Polly meets a geyser that erupts all day, learns why hot water shoots from the ground, and finds a country... Audio
- Valen som simmade femton tusen kilometer Polly learns about two humpback whales who swam 14,000+ km from Australia to Brazil, breaking the world... Audio
- Nittonhundrasexton In the captain's mess, Polly studies a photograph of Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh, the first humans to... Audio
- Att Bestiga den Torraste Platsen 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
- Amur Polly reaches the Russian Far East on the sixth day of the Trans-Siberian, sees the Amur River bordering... Audio
- Bajkalsjön Polly spends the fifth day of the Trans-Siberian running along Lake Baikal, the deepest, oldest, and... Audio
- Tidszoner Polly explores the dining car on the fourth day of the Trans-Siberian and learns that the whole train runs... Audio
- Över Uralbergen Polly crosses the Ural Mountains, the geographic boundary between Europe and Asia, on the third day of the... Audio
- Björkskogarna Polly wakes up on the second morning of the Trans-Siberian crossing the birch forests of European Russia.... Audio
- Jaroslavskij Station Polly boards the Rossiya, the flagship train of the Trans-Siberian Railway, at Moscow's Yaroslavsky... Audio
- Farväl till Pasta Polly says goodbye to Pasta the octopus, who presses one arm against the glass exactly opposite where... Audio
- Redaktören av Sig Själv Polly learns that octopuses edit their own RNA in real time, tuning their nervous systems to their... Audio
- Pizza och den Långa Lunchen Polly takes the long lunch with Chiara at a Neapolitan pizzeria, learning the protected rules behind... Audio
- Huden som Ser Polly watches Pasta find food under a coloured plate even though octopuses are colour-blind through their... Audio
- Kroppen som Tänker Polly watches Pasta solve an acrylic maze using two arms independently. She learns that two-thirds of an... Audio
- Burken Polly watches a giant Pacific octopus named Pasta open a screw-top jar to retrieve a live crab. She learns... Audio
- Neapelbukten Polly arrives in Naples and is welcomed into the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, the world's oldest marine... Audio
- Lämna Dalen Polly says goodbye to Ranger Tomas at the visitor centre and lifts off west out of Yosemite, leaving behind... Audio
- Vintergatan över Glacier Point Polly watches sunset from Glacier Point and stays for the Milky Way, looking through a park astronomer's... Audio
- Halvkupolen Polly climbs the 1,500-metre north face of Half Dome on rising thermals with a flock of white-throated... Audio
- Dykande falken Polly tries to copy a peregrine falcon's dive after seeing one launch from El Capitan, learning about the... Audio
- Sekvojan Polly visits Mariposa Grove and climbs into the canopy of the Grizzly Giant, a giant sequoia nearly 3,000... Audio
- Åka Med Ranger Tomas Polly rides shotgun with Ranger Tomas Rodriguez through Yosemite for a morning, learning how rangers... Audio
- Ovanför Dalen Polly arrives at Yosemite Valley from the air, taking in the U-shaped glacial geology, El Capitan with... Audio