This manual is addressed to foreign students mastering the Russian language in the Second Certification Level (B2) program. The purpose of the manual is to develop reading skills, expand vocabulary, and improve oral speech. The manual presents the stories of contemporary Russian writers, minimally adapted and shortened for educational purposes. The manual consists of two parts and is built on...

Everything in this life has to be paid for. The protagonist of our book paid for the fleeting minutes of fame, wealth and much more. As he later understood, neither money nor fame can replace the feelings experienced by a person experiencing love, joy, hu

The Good Soldier Schweik is the story beginning in Prague with news of the assassination in Sarajevo that precipitates World War I. Schweik displays such enthusiasm about faithfully serving the Austrian Emperor in battle that no one can decide whether he is merely an imbecile or is craftily undermining the war effort. However, he is arrested by a member of the secret police after making some...

Some mysterious documents fall into the hands of the protagonist of Andrei Kurkov's action novel The Good Angel of Death, Mykola Sotnikov. Hiding from people who want to take possession of them, he embarks on a journey to the Caspian Sea. The trip is very risky and dramatically changes the life of the hero.

The story 'The Old Man and the Sea' is one of the most famous and beloved by the readers of Hemingway's works. It brought the author the Pulitzer Prize, and also played an important role in awarding him the title of Nobel laureate. This is a story about 'tragic stoicism' and courage, about how before in the face of ruthless fate and loneliness, a person, even losing, must maintain dignity....

Children of the Arbat is one of the most significant works of Russian literature of the 20th century. The main characters of this epic are the metropolitan youth of the thirties of the last century. True friends, a close circle - each of them has a special path prepared by fate. Someone will receive an honorable place of 'arbiter of destinies', others - a link to the Far East; some will be able...

One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than 40 languages, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the 20th century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South...

Past the rusted gates and untrimmed hedges, Hill House broods and waits….Four seekers have come to the ugly, abandoned old mansion: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of the psychic phenomenon called haunting; Theodora, his lovely and lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a lonely, homeless girl well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill...

It is the spring of 1939, and three generations of the Kurc family are doing their best to live normal lives, even as the shadow of war grows closer. The talk around the family Seder table is of new babies and budding romance, not of the increasing hardsh

Flora 717 is a sanitation worker, a member of the lowest caste in her orchard hive where work and sacrifice are the highest virtues and worship of the beloved Queen the only religion. But Flora is not like other bees. With circumstances threatening the hi

The book acquaints the reader with the history of piracy, which appeared simultaneously with shipping and sea trade and accompanied humanity at all times. The publication contains amazing facts and legends about pirates, introduces their life on the ship during long voyages. In the book you can read about the most famous sea robbers, including Henry Morgan, Blackbeard, and the fairy-tale...

The book presents the novel 'Shot' and 'Snowstorm' of the great Russian writer of the XIX century A.S. Pushkin. This is a story about amazing stories that happened in the lives of heroes. But in the end, nobility helps to overcome the thirst for revenge, and love and mercy defeat egoism and frivolity.