Preview

High Beginner (A1 High) General Reading CEFR A1

The Princess and the Golden Cup

Princess Lina lives in a big stone house. The house sits on a green hill. Every year, the king holds a running race. The winner gets a beautiful golden cup.Lina wants to win the cup very much. She run...

Duration

5 min read

Length

120 words

Story

3 paragraphs

Read Preview Excerpt

Story Excerpt

Sample preview reading passage

Paragraphs 1–2 of 3

Princess Lina lives in a big stone house. The house sits on a green hill. Every year, the king holds a running race. The winner gets a beautiful golden cup.

Lina wants to win the cup very much. She runs every morning, and she is fast. But on race day, she sees a little girl fall down. Lina stops to help her stand up. Then she sees an old man with a heavy bag. She carries the bag for him.

Enjoying the preview?

Complete Story & Ending Interactive Vocabulary & Quizzes Track Reading Streak & XP

Educational Objectives

Story Details

Grammar focus and learning objectives covered in this story.

Grammar Level

A1 · Present Simple, conjunctions, prepositions of place

Learning Outcomes

read and understand a short story about a princess and a race.
use the present simple to talk about daily actions and facts.
recognise and use prepositions 'in' and 'on' to describe places.
answer simple questions about the story's events and moral.

Grammar Focus

Present Simple: subject + verb(-s)

Use the present simple to talk about facts and things that happen regularly.

“ Princess Lina lives in a big stone house.

Tip: Add -s to the verb when the subject is he, she, or it.

Present Simple with 'and'

Use 'and' to connect two simple ideas in one sentence.

“ She runs every morning, and she is fast.

Tip: Put a comma before 'and' when joining two full sentences.

Prepositions of place: in, on

Use 'in' for inside something and 'on' for a surface.

“ The house sits on a green hill.

Tip: Remember: 'in' a house, 'on' a hill.

Reading tip

Daily Habit

Say new words out loud or use them in your own sentence — actively using a word moves it into lasting memory.

Create a free account and turn this tip into a daily habit — full stories, quizzes, and progress tracking included.

More Stories to Read

Explore other popular stories from our reading library.

View all

Proficient (C2 Low)

The Cicatrix of Wings: An Encounter with the Jungle's Night Sentinel

Keira had always harboured a visceral revulsion for the nocturnal raptors, a phobia so deeply etched into her psyche that the mere silhouette of an owl against the dusk could summon a cold sweat. It w...

General Reading 5 min

High Advanced (C1 High)

Biscuit and the Grumblehorn: A Tail of Timbers and Tremors

Constructed from reclaimed space-shuttle panels and an unhealthy quantity of glue, the colossal treehouse in Whiskerwood Park stood as a monument to one man's midlife crisis and, coincidentally, the r...

General Reading 5 min

High Advanced (C1 High)

The Dragon in the Dark Vein: A Cyberpunk Chronicle

Elara Voss, an archival historian in the neon-drenched megalopolis of New Polaxis, harbored an irrational but paralytic dread of darkness. It was an atavistic reflex, she knew, a remnant of the sealed...

General Reading 5 min