Level: A2

Ann and Charles worked long hours every day, but they still had little money. Their home was a tiny one-room flat in a dirty part of the city. At the end of each month, they counted coins and worried about the rent.

Every Sunday morning, they went to the park with their dog, Max. This was the only time they had together because of the long hours they spent at work.

One Sunday morning, they sat on a bench and watched Max play. They were both feeling exhausted and had difficulty keeping their eyes open. Next to them on the bench, an old woman was feeding the birds. She looked at them kindly and said, “You both look tired. Life seems hard for you.”

Ann smiled a little. “Yes, we work and work, but we never seem to have enough money.”

The old woman nodded slowly. “I can give you something. Five million dollars. Enough to change your lives forever.”

Charles laughed nervously. “That sounds impossible. What’s the catch?”

The woman’s voice was calm. “It is simple. Each of you must give up one sense. You can choose which one.”

Ann and Charles looked at her in shock. But the woman only kept feeding the birds, as if her words were normal.

That night, they did not sleep. They thought about the money. A house by the sea, no more work, no more bills.
Finally, Ann whispered, “I will give up smell. I can live without it.”

Charles thought for a long time. “Then I will give up touch. It will not be too bad.”

The next day, they went back to the park. The old woman was waiting on the same bench. She touched their foreheads gently.
In that moment, their senses were gone.

The money came soon after.

At first, everything was wonderful. They bought a large house by the sea with many rooms and big windows.
They travelled to other countries. They ate in famous restaurants and wore new clothes. Life seemed perfect.

But soon, problems began.

Ann could not smell the roses in the garden. She could not smell fresh bread or coffee in the morning.
Food had no taste for her anymore. One evening, she burnt dinner because she did not smell the smoke.

Charles could not feel Ann’s hand in his. He could not feel the warm sun or the soft sheets.
One afternoon he cut his hand badly and did not notice until he saw the blood.

Ann cried, “This is not life. You could die and not feel it.”

Charles looked around at their big house. Ann looked too. They had money, cars, and everything they once wanted.
But they both felt empty inside.

“We are rich,” Charles said, “but we are not happy.”

Ann nodded. “We gave away too much.”

They went back to the park many times, but the old woman never came again. The choice was final.

And in their fine new house, Ann and Charles realised that money cannot buy back the senses that make life real.

📒 Key vocabulary

• tiny – very small
• flat – a small home, usually in a building with many homes
• rent – money you pay to live in a flat or house
• bench – a long seat in a park or public place
• feed (feed, fed, fed) – give food to
• sheets – thin covers on a bed
• empty – with nothing inside
• nod (nod, nodded, nodded) – move the head to show agreement
• final – last, cannot be changed

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John loved technology. It was all he ever talked about. He was always excited to try the latest gadgets, and whenever a new phone, watch, or computer came out, he had to be the first to have it. For John, technology made life easier and certainly more exciting.

The house could do many things. The front door opened when it saw his face. The lights came on when he said, “Lights on.” The coffee machine made coffee when he said, “Good morning.” Even the fridge told him when he needed more milk.

At first, John was very happy. He told his friends, “This house is amazing. I don’t need keys, I don’t need to write shopping lists, and I don’t even need to think about many things. The house does it all.”

But one evening, after work, something went wrong. There was a big storm. The wind was strong, and the rain was heavy. Suddenly, the whole street lost electricity. The smart home went dark and quiet.

John stood at the front door. “Open,” he said. But the door stayed closed. He tried again, louder: “Open!” Nothing happened. The door only worked with electricity. John had no key.

He waited, but the power did not come back. He was wet and cold outside. “Why didn’t I keep a key?” he thought.

When the power finally returned, John ran inside. But the problems continued. The fridge was warm, and the food inside was bad. He wanted to make tea, but the electric kettle did not start. The system was not working so he could not even boil water.

John went to take a shower, but the hot water was cold because the machine needed electricity. He tried to open the windows for fresh air, but they were locked by the smart system too.

That night, John sat in the living room, tired and hungry. Without the smart system, the house felt useless. He remembered his old apartment with a normal key, a simple kettle, and windows he could open by hand. Life there was harder in some ways, but at least it always worked.

The next day, John asked a worker to add a normal lock to the door. He also bought a small gas stove and a candle. His friends were surprised.

“You love technology,” one of them said. “Why are you going back to old things?”

John smiled. “Living in a smart home is great,” he said. “But when there is no electricity, the house cannot help me. I’ve learnt that doing things the old way is sometimes safer and more reliable. A key and a simple stove will not stop working in a storm.”

From that day on, John continued to enjoy his smart home, but he also held on to some traditional habits too. He now realised that while technology can be incredibly useful, it also has some disadvantages.

📒 Key vocabulary

• gadgets – small, useful machines or tools
• electricity – power that gives energy to lights and machines
• kettle – a pot for boiling water
• system – a group of machines or parts that work together
• locked (lock, locked, locked) – close with a key or other system so it cannot be opened
• useless – not helpful; something that cannot do what you need
• stove – a machine used for cooking food or boiling water
• candle – a stick of wax that gives light when it burns
• traditional – old and simple, not modern or new
• disadvantages – negative points, things that cause problems

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Nick had been out of work for months. Every day he sat at his old laptop, sending applications to companies that never replied. His money was almost gone, and each morning it grew harder to believe his luck would ever change.

One day he saw an ad in the newspaper: “GlobalCore Industries needs a worker. High Salary. Travel Opportunities. Start now.”

The job sounded too good to be true. Still, he decided to apply. That afternoon, a woman from GlobalCore called him and asked him to come for an interview the following day.

When Nick arrived at the big office the next morning, the tall building looked dark. Inside, it was quiet and clean. At reception, a woman smiled and said, “Hi Nick, we’ve been waiting for you,” even though he did not give his name. Nick thought that this was very strange.

The interview was strange. A man in a black suit asked only a few straightforward questions. He didn’t look much at Nick’s papers. At the end, he smiled coldly and said, “You are exactly what we want. Welcome to GlobalCore.”

The welcome meeting was short. A speaker talked about “a new future”, but the words were not clear. The contract worried Nick: no fixed hours; he must always be ready for work, and he must never tell anyone, even family, about his job. But the salary was very high. With nervous hands, he signed.

On his first day, he was given an office in the basement. There were no windows, only bright lights. His job was to “translate” papers with numbers and names. They did not make sense. When Nick asked what they meant, his boss only said, “Do your job and don’t ask questions.”

The other workers looked afraid. They spoke only in low voices. Cameras watched Nick all the time. At night, when he left the building, he saw lights still on in the top floors, with people moving inside.

One evening, Nick found an open paper on his desk. It had names of people, cities, and countries. Some names had one word in red: “GONE”.

Nick’s hands felt cold. Now he understood. GlobalCore was not making the world better. It was controlling it.

The next morning, Nick tried to quit before things became more complicated. “Leaving already?” his boss asked with a thin smile.

“I don’t think this job is for me,” Nick said.

The man closed the door and locked it. “You don’t leave GlobalCore, Nick. You stay. You work. That is the deal.”

Nick’s heart beat fast. He saw the truth: this was not a new chance. It was a prison.

And there was no way out.

📒 Key vocabulary

• laptop – a small computer you can carry
• ad – a short text that tells people about a job or product
• salary – money you earn from your job
• reception – the front desk in an office or hotel
• contract – a paper you sign to agree to work rules
• basement – the underground floor of a house or building
• floors – levels in a building
• quit – stop working in a job
• lock – close something so that it cannot be opened
• deal – an agreement between two people or groups
• heart – the part of the body that pumps blood
• prison – a jail; a place where people must stay as punishment

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Fred was a busy man. He worked in an office during the day, and in the evening, he managed his own business. Fred loved swimming, reading and learning, but he never had time to do any of these things. His colleagues called him a workaholic. He laughed when they said it, but deep inside he knew it was true.

The problem was, there were just not enough hours in the day for Fred. He often looked at the clock and wished for more time.
‘’If only I could stay awake,’ he said, ‘’I could do everything I want to do.’’

One night, Fred was walking home after work. He still had a report to finish, but he was exhausted and needed his bed.

The streets were quiet, and the air was cold. Suddenly, a man in a grey coat stepped out of the shadows. He looked serious but friendly.

“You look tired,” the man said.

Fred smiled weakly. “Yes. I never have enough time to do everything that I need to do. I wish I didn’t have to sleep.”

The man reached into his pocket and showed Fred a small white pill.

“This pill can help you. If you take it once, you will never feel tired again. You will never need to sleep.”

Fred’s eyes grew wide. “Never?”

“Never,” the man said. “You will have all the time you want. Day and night. You will always have the energy to do the things you want to do.”

Fred thought about it. No sleep? That meant he could work, read, write, and learn all the time. He could finish everything he started. Life would be perfect.

“What’s the catch?” he asked.

The man smiled. “The catch is simple. You will never sleep again. Even if you want to. Think carefully. Life will feel very long without rest.”

Fred looked at the pill. He remembered all the times he had fallen asleep at his desk, all the mornings when he’d felt slow and heavy. He imagined a life where he was always strong and awake.

“Okay, I’ll take it,” he said.

Fred paid the man, then took the pill. It tasted bitter, but he didn’t care.

The man in the grey coat gave a short smile. “It is done.” Then he turned and walked away into the night.

For the first few weeks, life was great. Fred worked all day, then read and did what he wanted at night. He wrote long reports for his job, learnt German and Japanese, and took up jogging and tennis. He felt powerful and laughed when his friends said they were tired.

 “I don’t sleep anymore,” he told them. “I have time for everything.”

But weeks passed. The nights grew longer. Fred had no dreams, no soft bed, no rest. While the city slept, he walked alone through empty streets.

Every day at the office, he finished his work faster than anyone else, but he felt strange. He missed lying in bed, closing his eyes, and letting the world go dark. He missed the small joy of waking up fresh in the morning.

One evening, Fred sat at his desk, his eyes open wide. He was not tired, but he felt empty. He had all the time in the world, yet nothing felt right.

He whispered to himself, “I only wanted more hours… but not like this.”

Fred was wide awake. And he would be for the rest of his life.

📒 Key vocabulary

• colleagues – people one works with
• workaholic – a person who works too much
• awake – not sleeping
• pill – a small piece of medicine that you swallow or eat
• catch – a hidden problem in an offer or plan
• rest – time to relax or sleep
• bitter – having a strong, unpleasant taste
• empty – with nothing inside, or feeling nothing

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