Short Stories in English for Beginners

truth the true facts, something that is not a lie
unconscious in a state like sleep in which you are not aware of what is
happening, usually because you are seriously ill or injured
carefully without making mistakes or causing damage
spaceship a vehicle for travel in the area outside Earth’s atmosphere
Comprehension Questions
Select one answer only for each question.
1) There is a war between ___.
a. Aldin and Emperor Valior
b. the Earthlings and Kira’s husband
c. the Earthlings and the Kalkians
d. Kira and Emperor Valior
2) The Emperor is in a meeting with ___.
a. Aldin and the Kalkians
b. his ministers
c. Kira and her husband
d. a little girl and Aldin
3) The woman, Kira, tells the Emperor that ___.
a. there’s a little girl in her house
b. there’s a capsule at her farm
c. her husband died in the war
d. Aldin must come to her house
4) At first, the little girl ___.
a. tells Aldin about her world
b. doesn’t want to talk because she’s shy
c. cries a lot
d. cannot speak because she is unconscious

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5) Kira offers Aldin ___.
a. a cool drink
b. coffee
c. a place to rest
d. something to eat

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Chapter 2 – The Girl
The girl from the Kalkian capsule was conscious! Someone needed to talk
to her. Aldin was a minister of the Emperor. He was the person to do it. He
walked into the bedroom. Kira joined him. They sat down.
The girl looked sleepy. Finally, she asked slowly, ‘Where am I?’ Kira and
Aldin looked at each other in surprise. She spoke English!
The girl looked around. She saw the guards. Suddenly, she became very
frightened. The doctor gave her a drug to calm her down. She soon went to
sleep again.
An hour later, the girl’s eyes opened. ‘Where am I?’ she asked. Then she
looked at Aldin. ‘Who are you?’ she asked. Her English seemed pretty
good.
‘Hello,’ Aldin said. ‘My name is Aldin. This is Kira. We are Earthlings.
Please stay calm.’ He paused. ‘How do you feel?’
‘I’m OK,’ she answered carefully. She didn’t trust them.
‘We don’t want to hurt you,’ Aldin explained.
The girl was still frightened. She didn’t answer.
Kira gave it a try. ‘Hi there,’ she said slowly. ‘Can you tell me your
name?’
‘My name is Maha,’ the girl replied.
‘Everything’s all right, Maha. My name is Kira. And this is Aldin. You’re
at my house. You were hurt. We’ve been looking after you.’
‘Am I in your capital?’ the girl asked. She looked out the window. It was
late. She couldn’t see much through the glass. She could only see a few
trees and fields. ‘It doesn’t look like a city,’ she said in surprise.
‘You are near the capital. Not in the capital,’ explained Aldin. ‘The
emperor is still far from here.’
When the girl heard the word ‘Emperor’, she became frightened again. ‘I
don’t want to go home! I’m 13 now. I can make my own decisions!’ she
shouted.

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Aldin was surprised. Why didn’t the child want to go home? Why did she
say that? Something strange was going on. ‘Why don’t you want to go
home?’ he asked.
‘I don’t like Kalkia any more,’ replied Maha.
‘You don’t like Kalkia?’ asked Aldin with surprise. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I don’t want to live there any more.’
‘Why do you say that?’
‘Well, for one thing my family is never home.’
‘Yes? And?’
‘They ignore me. They don’t spend time with me. They don’t care about
me.’
‘So your family ignores you?’ said Aldin.
‘Yes … for a long time now.’
‘And because you were