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The Astronaut and the Savanna Secret: A Cyberpunk Mystery

Preview

High Elementary (A2 High) CEFR A2

The Astronaut and the Savanna Secret: A Cyberpunk Mystery

Duration

5 min read

Length

250 words

Story

4 paragraphs

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Story Excerpt

Sample preview reading passage

Paragraphs 1–2 of 4

Nova was an astronaut who lived in a tall tower in the cyberpunk city. The city was full of bright neon lights and flying cars, but Nova felt calm. One quiet evening, she found a strange old book in her room. The book was about the savanna, a wide golden grassland far away. It showed pictures of animals that lived there long ago.

Nova read that the savanna had a food chain. Grasses grew first, and then grazers like zebras came to graze on them. Predators like lions hunted the grazers, which kept the balance. During the great migration, many animals traveled together to find water. But when a drought came, the grass dried up and life became hard for everyone. Nova wondered why someone had left this book for her.

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Educational Objectives

Story Details

Grammar focus and learning objectives covered in this story.

Grammar Level

A2 · Past Simple, relative clauses, prepositions of place

Learning Outcomes

Read and understand a short mystery story set in a cyberpunk city and the savanna.
Recognise and use past simple verbs to talk about completed actions.
Identify and use relative clauses with 'who' and 'that' to describe people and things.
Use prepositions of place (in, on, at, through) correctly in sentences.
Explain the savanna food chain and the roles of grazers and predators.

Grammar Focus

Past Simple: subject + verb-ed (regular) / irregular verbs

We use the past simple to talk about completed actions in the past. Regular verbs add -ed, but many common verbs are irregular (e.g., find → found, see → saw).

“ Nova found a strange old book in her room.

Tip: Learn the past form of irregular verbs by heart, and practise using them in sentences about yesterday or last week.

Relative clauses with 'who' and 'that': noun + who/that + verb

We use 'who' for people and 'that' for things or animals to add extra information about a noun. The relative clause comes right after the noun.

“ Nova was an astronaut who lived in a tall tower in the cyberpunk city.

Tip: Make sure the relative pronoun matches the noun: use 'who' for people, 'that' or 'which' for things.

Prepositions of place: in, on, at, through

Prepositions of place show where something is or where an action happens. 'In' is used for enclosed spaces, 'on' for surfaces, 'at' for specific points, and 'through' for movement inside something.

“ She walked through the busy streets until she saw her.

Tip: Visualise the scene to choose the right preposition: think about whether the action is inside, on top, or moving across something.

Reading tip

Daily Habit

Don’t stop at every unknown word. Guess the meaning from context first, then check — that is how fluent readers build intuition.

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