Books by level / English books
The Lady, or the Tiger?: reading level, length and free edition
The Lady, or the Tiger? by Frank R. Stockton is a short story adapted for learners in English. Our team rates it A2. It runs to 3,021 words with 476 different word forms, about 15–30 min of reading at 200 to 100 words per minute, and it is free from VOA Learning English.
- Author
- Frank R. Stockton
- Language
- English
- Level
- A2
- Form
- short story, adapted
- Words
- 3,021
- Different word forms
- 476
- Forms for 95% / 98%
- 393 / 439
- Reading time
- 15–30 min
- Free edition
- VOA Learning English
Is The Lady, or the Tiger? right for your level?
To recognise 95% of the running words in The Lady, or the Tiger?, you need its 393 most frequent word forms; for 98%, the share at which most readers manage a novel without a dictionary, 439. The median English A2 book in our table needs 415 forms for 95%, so by this measure the book is typical for its level: number 18 of 60, easiest first.
A word form is any spelling that appears in the text, so “walk” and “walked” count twice, and names count too. These numbers are a guide to how much vocabulary the book asks for, not a test. The level itself was set by hand by our team. Before you commit, read one page of the free edition and count the words you do not know: the one-page test takes two minutes.
Which words should you know before you start?
These are the words that The Lady, or the Tiger? uses most often but that are not among the 2,000 most common word forms across all 309 English books in our library; the number is how many times each appears. Names of people and places are left out. Learning a handful of them first makes the opening chapters easier.
- tiger 21
- arena 18
- accused 12
- trial 8
- decision 6
- punished 4
- innocence 4
- bells 4
- gathered 4
- hated 4
- tense 4
- depended 4
- loving 3
How does it begin?
One of the king’s ideas was a public arena as an agent of poetic justice. Crime was punished, or innocence was decided, by the result of chance. When a person was accused of a crime, his future would be judged in the public arena.
From the VOA Learning English edition, which is in the public domain. If this paragraph already feels slow, try a book one level lower.
How long does it take to read?
| Words | 100 wpm | 150 wpm | 200 wpm | 250 wpm |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,021 | under 1 h | under 1 h | under 1 h | under 1 h |
Learners reading a book at their level often manage 100 to 150 words per minute, and readers in their first language 200 to 250. Where these speeds come from, and a calculator for your own: How long does it take to read a book?
Where can you read it for free?
This is not the original text but an adaptation for learners of English by VOA Learning English (Voice of America), from its American Stories series: shorter sentences, a limited vocabulary and an audio recording read at a slower speed. Text and audio are free on the VOA site. Material produced by the Voice of America, a U.S. government broadcaster, is in the public domain.
To read it with a translation over every word you tap, open it in Readlang Mobile on iPhone or iPad.
What to read next at A2
English books at the same level that ask for a similar amount of vocabulary:
- A Horseman in the Sky, Ambrose Bierce: 1,334 words, 390 forms for 95%
- The God of His Fathers, Jack London: 1,315 words, 389 forms for 95%
- The Line of Least Resistance, Edith Wharton: 1,287 words, 399 forms for 95%
- The Exact Science of Matrimony, O. Henry: 1,477 words, 399 forms for 95%
- The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe: 1,590 words, 399 forms for 95%
- Mammon and the Archer, O. Henry: 1,780 words, 401 forms for 95%
See also all English books by level and books at A2 in all five languages.