Cover
Title Page
Introduction
The Grading Scheme
Confucius
Socrates
Aristotle
William Wilberforce
Karl Marx
Mahatma Gandhi
Glossary
About the Publisher
Collins Amazing People Readers are collections of short stories. Each book presents the life story of five or six people whose lives and achievements have made a difference to our world today. The stories are carefully graded to ensure that you, the reader, will both enjoy and benefit from your reading experience.
You can choose to enjoy the book from start to finish or to dip in to your favourite story straight away. Each story is entirely independent.
After every story a short timeline brings together the most important events in each person’s life into one short report. The timeline is a useful tool for revision purposes.
Words which are above the required reading level are underlined the first time they appear in each story. All underlined words are defined in the glossary at the back of the book. Levels 1 and 2 take their definitions from the Collins COBUILD Essential English Dictionary and levels 3 and 4 from the Collins COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary.
To support both teachers and learners, additional materials are available online at www.collinselt.com/readers.
The Amazing People Club®
Collins Amazing People Readers are adaptations of original texts published by The Amazing People Club. The Amazing People Club is an educational publishing house. It was founded in 2006 by educational psychologist and management leader Dr Charles Margerison and publishes books, eBooks, audio books, iBooks and video content which bring readers ‘face to face’ with many of the world’s most inspiring and influential characters from the fields of art, science, music, politics, medicine and business.
The Collins COBUILD Grading Scheme has been created using the most up-to-date language usage information available today. Each level is guided by a brand new comprehensive grammar and vocabulary framework, ensuring that the series will perfectly match readers’ abilities.
| CEF band | Pages | Word count | Headwords | ||
| Level 1 | elementary | A2 | 64 | 5,000–8,000 | approx. 700 |
| Level 2 | pre-intermediate | A2–B1 | 80 | 8,000–11,000 | approx. 900 |
| Level 3 | intermediate | B1 | 96 | 11,000–15,000 | approx. 1,100 |
| Level 4 | upper intermediate | B2 | 112 | 15,000–18,000 | approx. 1,700 |
For more information on the Collins COBUILD Grading Scheme, including a full list of the grammar structures found at each level, go to www.collinselt.com/readers/gradingscheme.
Also available online: Make sure that you are reading at the right level by checking your level on our website (www.collinselt.com/readers/levelcheck).
551 BCE–479 BCE
the great Chinese philosopher
He who learns but does not think is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger. Real knowledge is understanding that we actually know very little.
I was born a very long time ago – the story of my life was not written down until a long time after my death, so many of the facts are uncertain. But here I will tell you what was believed about my life and the events that shaped my thinking. I was born in China in the summer of 551 BCE – nobody can agree on the exact date and naturally I was too young to remember it myself. I was born in the village of Zou, in the state of Lu, near present-day Qufu in Shandong Province. My father was from an aristocratic family of warriors – brave, experienced fighters – and he died when I was three years old. This is not surprising when you know that he was about forty years older than my mother. Despite his family background, my father left us little money – the family had lost their fortune some time before – and we were often hungry. In Shandong Province, the winters were extremely cold, and just staying alive was difficult at times. I managed to bring in some money by working as a shepherd – looking after sheep – and I also took care of a local farmer’s cows, so we did not starve.
My mother did her best to educate me and she taught me many fine lessons about life. The hours I spent with the animals gave me the chance to think about life and what made it good. I asked myself about how we should live,