Wise Men of Gotham and Other Stories (ESL/EFL Version with Audio)

Book excerpt: This is Book 9, Collection II, of the Million-Word Reading Project (MWRP) readers. It is suitable for learners with a basic vocabulary of 1,500 words. Million-Word Reading Project (MWRP) is a reading project for ESL/EFL learners at the elementary level (with a basic vocabulary of 1,500 words). In two years, for about fifteen minutes each day, an ESL/EFL learner can read one million words, and reach the upper-intermediate level, gaining a vocabulary of about 3,500 words and a large number of expressions. Text Information Readability | 83.4 Total word count | 15886 Words beyond 1500 | 869 Unknown word percentage (%) | 5.47 Unknown headword occurrence | 2.09 Unknown words that occur 5 times or more | 28 Unknown words that occur 2 times or more | 187 Synopsis Wise Men of Gotham is the early name given to the people of the village of Gotham, Nottinghamshire, who are known for being foolish. Stories of foolish people are told in almost every country. In Germany there are the Schildburgers, from the town of Schilda, and in the backcountry south of Warsaw, Poland, there are Chelmites, who come from a small Jewish village, named Chelm. In Ireland, stories are told about a foolish man named Sir Gaulard, and there are pedants in almost every country. In the old days, these stories brought joy to the dull and hard life of the people. Even today, these stories still make us laugh. After laughing at these people, we might ask ourselves: aren’t we modern people, who consider ourselves wise, sometime just as foolish or even more foolish than those ancient people?