The Silver Run (C2 Reading Story)
Ecologist Elena waits beside a Somerset weir for the annual passage of silver eels. A lifetime of observation meets the unanswered questions surrounding their extraordinary journey.
C2 Proficiency
C2 · PROFICIENT
You handle English like a native speaker — across registers, accents, idioms, humour, and culture. The work now is taste, not grammar.
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C2 · YOU
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You have reached the top of the ladder
C2 is mastery, so the work changes. It is no longer about learning rules — it is about the small choices that separate correct English from convincing English: what to leave out, how much to claim, and which word signals the turn your argument is about to make. That is what these lessons cover.
C2 Grammar · Deep dives
Master the fine detail
Ellipsis, hedging, the mandative subjunctive, concession, modal perfects and the discourse markers that hold a formal argument together. New lessons added regularly.
C2 Vocabulary · Word pairs
Sharpen your word choice
The pairs even careful writers argue about — compose and comprise, flaunt and flout — with the distinction explained clearly and a quiz to fix it.
Reading · Graded Stories
Read short stories made for C2
Original graded stories written at your level — each with key words, a comprehension quiz, and a grammar tip. New stories added regularly.
The Unhurried Life of Isolde Kerner (C2 Reading Story)
A fictional biography of Isolde Kerner, a Tyrolean schoolteacher whose private notebooks record decades of ordinary life. Weather, work and wartime choices accumulate into a portrait of quiet attention.
The Bora and the Poet (C2 Reading Story)
Marta travels to Trieste to meet an ageing poet. Their conversation moves between languages, changing borders and personal loss, questioning how much of a life translation can carry.
The Custodian of Kern Street Garden (C2 Reading Story)
Ada has turned a neglected patch between two tower blocks into a garden. A developer’s proposal tests the community’s attachment to the place and the quiet work that created it.
The Cartographer of Clouds (C2 Reading Story)
At a remote coastal weather station, an elderly scientist meets a teenager who draws the sky. Their search for a fleeting cloud formation joins two very different ways of paying attention.
Ellipsis and Substitution: How Fluent English Avoids Repeating Itself
Quick answer Ellipsis leaves out words that the listener or reader can understand from context. Substitution uses a word or phrase such as one, so or do so in place of an understood expression. Both can reduce repetition. Repetition is also useful when it adds emphasis or makes the meaning clearer. Leave Out Words That…
Hedging: The Cautious Language of Academic English
Quick answer Hedging shows uncertainty or limits the scope of a claim. Words such as may, appears and some can help your wording match the evidence. Strong evidence can justify a direct statement; adding a hedge does not automatically make an unsupported claim accurate. Match the Wording to the Evidence Imagine a small study finds…
The Weigher of Words (C2 Reading Story)
In the mountain village of Krevna, spoken promises turn into stones. A young man’s ambition tests the rules of this folk tale, where words carry a weight nobody can easily escape.
The Mandative Subjunctive: I Insist That He Be Present
Quick answer The mandative subjunctive is one way to express a demand, recommendation or requirement in a that-clause: I insist that he be present. It uses the base verb, such as be, attend or leave, without to. Other constructions, including should, can express similar meanings. Recognise the Base Form The form does not change to…
The Man Who Bought the Wind (C2 Reading Story)
In this folk tale, a wealthy miller buys the wind that sustains his coastal village. His private bargain reveals what happens when something shared is treated as one person’s possession.
