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A1 · Beginner For children

The Emperor's New Clothes and Other Tales

by Hans Christian Andersen · graded reader

  • 4 chapters
  • 3,493 words
  • about 27 min
  • fairy tales

Two clever cheats sell an emperor clothes that nobody can see. A princess feels a tiny pea under twenty mattresses. A little fir tree cannot wait to grow up, and an ugly duckling finds out who he really is. Four famous tales by Hans Christian Andersen.

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Many years ago there was an Emperor. He loved new clothes more than anything. He spent all his money on them. He did not care about his soldiers, and he did not go to the theatre. He only wanted to show his new clothes. He had a different coat for every hour of the day.

In his big city, life was happy, and many visitors came every day. One day two cheats came. They said, "We are weavers. We can make the most beautiful cloth in the world. The colours and the pictures on it are wonderful. But this cloth is special. People who are stupid, or who are not good at their work, cannot see it."

"What wonderful cloth!" thought the Emperor. "With clothes like that, I can find out who is not good at his work. I can see who is clever and who is stupid. They must make some for me at once!" And he gave the two cheats a lot of money.

Words you will learn

Common A1 words in this book. Tap one for its note and the sentence it comes from.

Chapters

  1. The Emperor's New Clothes · 8 min
  2. The Princess and the Pea · 2 min
  3. The Fir Tree · 9 min
  4. The Ugly Duckling · 8 min

Translations

Word notes in Turkish, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, French, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and Hindi. Paragraph translations in Turkish and Spanish. More languages are being added.

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