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The Serpent of Stonewick Academy
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High Upper Intermediate (B2 High) General Reading CEFR B2

The Serpent of Stonewick Academy

Stonewick Academy had always been a place of hushed whispers and careful spells, yet the recent rumors of a dragon unsettled even the most composed students. Every night, a low rumble echoed from the...

Duration

5 min read

Length

437 words

Story

6 paragraphs

Story Excerpt

Sample preview reading passage

Paragraphs 1–2 of 6

Stonewick Academy had always been a place of hushed whispers and careful spells, yet the recent rumors of a dragon unsettled even the most composed students. Every night, a low rumble echoed from the underground vaults, accompanied by a faint smell of sulfur that drifted through the dormitory corridors. The faculty insisted it was merely a heating enchantment, but the students knew better, and they began to avoid the lower levels after dusk.

Elara, a third-year student with a knack for riddles, decided to solve the mystery rather than flee from it. She spent her evenings poring over old maps and chatting with the caretaker, who let slip that the vault had been sealed for decades, long before any living faculty member arrived. The clue that truly set her onto the path was a patch of cold glass on the floor near the entrance—something a real dragon's breath would never produce.

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Educational Objectives

Story Details

Grammar focus and learning objectives covered in this story.

Grammar Focus

Past Perfect: subject + had + past participle

Use the past perfect to talk about an action that happened before another past action or time. It shows which event came first in the past.

“ the vault had been sealed for decades, long before any living faculty member arrived
Tip: Use the past perfect only when you need to make the order of two past events clear; if the order is obvious, the past simple is often enough.
Passive Voice: subject + be + past participle

Use the passive when the action is more important than the person who did it, or when the doer is unknown or obvious from context.

“ the dragon illusion vanished, and the vault was sealed properly with a simple lock rather than a monstrous lie
Tip: Make sure the verb 'be' matches the tense you need (was, were, had been, is, are) and that the main verb is in its past participle form.
Causative 'have something done': subject + had + object + past participle

Use this pattern to say that someone arranged for an action to be done, or that something happened to someone/something, without naming the person who did it.

“ its maintenance had been sloppy
Tip: Do not confuse 'have something done' with the present perfect; in the causative, the past participle describes an action done to the object, not a completed action by the subject.

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