Reading Level
TOEIC Reading: 195-265
TOEFL Jr. Reading: 250-265
Summary
With more than five million copies in print all around the world, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens is the ultimate teenage success guide--now updated for the digital age.
Imagine you had a roadmap--a step-by-step guide to help you get from where you are now, to where you want to be in the future. Your goals, your dreams, your plans...they are all within reach. You just need the tools to help you get there.
That's what Sean Covey's landmark book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, has been to millions of teens: a handbook to self-esteem and success. Now updated for the digital age, this classic book applies the timeless principles of the 7 Habits to the tough issues and life-changing decisions teens face. In an entertaining style, Covey provides a simple approach to help teens improve self-image, build friendships, resist peer pressure, achieve their goals, and get along with their parents, as well as tackle the new challenges of our time, like cyberbullying and social media. In addition, this book is stuffed with cartoons, clever ideas, great quotes, and incredible stories about real teens from all over the world.
An indispensable book for teens, as well as parents, teachers, counselors, or any adult who works with teens, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens has become the last word on surviving and thriving as a teen and beyond.
"If The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens doesn't help you, then you must have a perfect life already.”-Jordan McLaughlin, Age 17
Reading Level
TOEIC Reading: 200-275
TOEFL Jr. Reading: 260-275
Summary
The novel begins with the titular character Jane Eyre living with her maternal uncle's family, the Reeds, as a result of her uncle's dying wish. The novel starts when Jane is ten years old and several years after her parents died of typhus. Mr. Reed, Jane's uncle, was the only one in the Reed family to be kind to Jane. Jane's aunt, Sarah Reed, does not like her, treats her as a burden and discourages her children from associating with Jane. Mrs. Reed and her three children are abusive to Jane, physically, emotionally, and, as the reader is quick to realize, spiritually. The nursemaid Bessie proves to be Jane's only ally in the household, even though Bessie sometimes harshly scolds Jane. Excluded from the family activities, Jane is incredibly unhappy, with only a doll and books in which to find solace. One day, after her cousin John knocks her down and she attempts to defend herself, Jane is locked in the red room where her uncle died; there, she faints from panic after she thinks she has seen his ghost. She is subsequently attended to by the kindly apothecary, Mr Lloyd, to whom Jane reveals how unhappy she is living at Gateshead Hall. He recommends to Mrs Reed that Jane should be sent to school, an idea Mrs Reed happily supports. Mrs Reed then enlists the aid of the harsh Mr Brocklehurst, director of Lowood Institution, a charity school for girls. Mrs Reed cautions Mr Brocklehurst that Jane has a "tendency for deceit", which he interprets as "liar". Before Jane leaves, however, she confronts Mrs. Reed and declares that she'll never call her "aunt" again, that she and her daughter, Georgiana, are the ones who are deceitful, and that she'll tell everyone at Lowood how cruelly Mrs. Reed treated her.
Reading Level
TOEIC Reading: 140-215
TOEFL Jr. Reading: 240-255
Summary
A carpenter finds a talking piece of wood and gives it to his poor neighbor, Geppetto, who wants to build a marionette. Geppetto carves the block into a marionette puppet and names him his son, Pinocchio. However, Pinocchio runs away as soon as he learns to walk. The marionette is caught by a Carabiniere, but he assumes that Pinocchio has been mistreated and imprisons Geppetto. Pinocchio goes back to Geppetto's house where he accidentally kills a talking cricket who had warned Pinocchio of the perils of disobedience and hedonism. That evening, Pinocchio falls asleep with his feet on the stove, and wakes to find that they have burned off. Geppetto is released from prison and makes Pinocchio a new pair of feet. In gratitude, Pinocchio promises to attend school and Geppetto sells his only coat to buy him a school book. On his way to school the next morning, Pinocchio encounters the Great Marionette Theatre and he sells his school book in order to buy a ticket for the show. The marionettes on stage recognize him in the audience and call out to him, angering the puppet master Mangiafuoco. The puppet master initially decides to use Pinocchio as firewood, but ultimately releases him and gives him five gold pieces to give to Geppetto.
Reading Level
TOEIC Reading: 120-195
TOEFL Jr. Reading: 235-250
Summary
The story opens in England during World War I at Styles Court, an Essex country manor. Upon her husband's death, the wealthy widow, Emily Cavendish, inherited a life estate in Styles as well as the outright inheritance of the larger part of the late Mr. Cavendish's income. Mrs. Cavendish became Mrs. Inglethorp upon her recent marriage to a younger man, Alfred Inglethorp. Emily's two stepsons, John and Lawrence Cavendish, John's wife Mary and Cynthia Murdoch, also live at Styles. John Cavendish is the vested remainderman of Styles; that is, the property will pass to him upon his stepmother's death, per his late father's will. Lawrence Cavendish would also come into a considerable sum of money. The income left to Mrs Inglethorp by her late husband would be distributed according to her will, which she changes at least once per year. If she has not changed her will since her marriage, her husband will inherit that income.Cynthia does war-time work at the pharmacy in the nearby hospital.
Reading Level
TOEIC Reading: 150-225
TOEFL Jr. Reading: 235-250
Summary
The narrative opens in an astronomical observatory at Ottershaw where explosions are seen on the surface of the planet Mars, creating much interest in the scientific community. Later a "meteor" lands on Horsell Common, near the narrator's home in Woking, Surrey. He is among the first to discover that the object is an artificial cylinder that opens, disgorging Martians who are "big" and "greyish" with "oily brown skin", "the size, perhaps, of a bear", with "two large dark-coloured eyes", and a lipless "V-shaped mouth" that drips saliva, surrounded by "Gorgon groups of tentacles". The narrator finds them "at once vital, intense, inhuman, crippled and monstrous". They briefly emerge, have difficulty in coping with the Earth's atmosphere, rapidly retreating into their cylinder. A human deputation (which includes the astronomer Ogilvy) approaches the cylinder with a white flag, but the Martians incinerate them and others nearby with a Heat-Ray before beginning to assemble their machinery. Military forces arrive that night to surround the common, including Maxim guns. The population of Woking and the surrounding villages are reassured by the presence of the military. A tense day begins, with much anticipation of military action by the narrator.
Reading Level
TOEIC Reading: 230-305
TOEFL Jr. Reading: 265-280
Summary
Alice is playing with a white kitten (whom she calls "Snowdrop") and a black kitten (whom she calls "Kitty")--the offspring of Dinah, Alice's cat in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland--when she ponders what the world is like on the other side of a mirror's reflection. Climbing up on the fireplace mantel, she pokes at the wall-hung mirror behind the fireplace and discovers, to her surprise, that she is able to step through it to an alternative world. In this reflected version of her own house, she finds a book with looking-glass poetry, "Jabberwocky", whose reversed printing she can read only by holding it up to the mirror. She also observes that the chess pieces have come to life, though they remain small enough for her to pick up.
Reading Level
TOEIC Reading: 215-290
TOEFL Jr. Reading: 260-275
Summary
The novel follows the adventures of a hypothetical Time Traveller who journeys into the future to find that humanity has evolved into two races: the peaceful Eloi -- vegetarians who tire easily -- and the carnivorous, predatory Morlocks.
After narrowly escaping from the Morlocks, the Time Traveller undertakes another journey even further into the future where he finds the earth growing bitterly cold as the heat and energy of the sun wane. Horrified, he returns to the present, but soon departs again on his final journey.
While the novel is underpinned with both Darwinian and Marxist theory and offers fascinating food for thought about the world of the future, it also succeeds as an exciting blend of adventure and pseudo-scientific romance. Sure to delight lovers of the fantastic and bizarre, The Time Machine is a book that belongs on the shelf of every science-fiction fan.
Reading Level
TOEIC Reading: 235-310 (260)
TOEFL Jr. Reading: 260-275
Summary
The story begins before the three-quarters wolf-dog hybrid is born, with two men and their sled dog team on a journey to deliver a coffin to a remote town named Fort McGurry in the higher area of the Yukon Territory, Canada. The men, Bill and Henry, are stalked by a large pack of starving wolves over the course of several days. Finally, after all of their dogs and Bill have been eaten, four more teams find Henry trying to escape from the wolves; the wolf pack scatters when they hear the large group of people coming. The story then follows the pack, which has been robbed of its last prey. When the pack finally brings down a moose, the famine is ended; they eventually split up, and the story now follows a she-wolf and her mate, One Eye. The she-wolf gives birth to a litter of five cubs by the Mackenzie River, and all but one die from hunger.
Reading Level
TOEIC Reading: 200-275
TOEFL Jr. Reading: 260-275
Summary
In 1801, Mr Lockwood, a wealthy man from the south of England, rents Thrushcross Grange in the north for peace and recuperation. He visits his landlord, Mr Heathcliff, who lives in a remote moorland farmhouse, "Wuthering Heights", where he finds an odd assemblage: Heathcliff seems to be a gentleman, but his manners are uncouth; the reserved mistress of the house is in her mid-teens; and a young man seems to be a family member yet dresses and speaks like a servant.
Snowed in, Lockwood is grudgingly allowed to stay and is shown to a bedchamber where he notices books and graffiti left by a former inhabitant named Catherine. He falls asleep and has a nightmare in which he sees the ghostly Catherine trying to enter through the window. He cries out in fear, rousing Heathcliff who rushes to the room. Lockwood is convinced that what he saw was real. Heathcliff, believing Lockwood to be right, examines the window and opens it hoping to allow Catherine's spirit to enter. When nothing happens, Heathcliff shows Lockwood to his own bedroom and returns to keep watch at the window.
At sunrise, Heathcliff escorts Lockwood back to Thrushcross Grange. Lockwood asks the housekeeper, Nelly Dean, about the family at Wuthering Heights, and she tells him the tale.