Mateo brushes his teeth every morning and every night. He has done this for thirty years. Today he sits in the dentist's chair. He does not know why.
Amira is the hygienist. She holds a small mirror. "Look here," she says. On his lower teeth there is a thin yellow line. "That is not dirt. That is dirt that became stone."
Plaque is soft. A brush can clean it. But after two days, plaque becomes hard. It is called tartar. A brush cannot clean tartar. Only the dentist can.
Amira cleans his teeth with a small tool. It takes twenty minutes. It does not hurt. Then his teeth feel smooth.
Tartar hurts the gums. Mateo makes a new appointment. Nobody asks him. He asks.
Every Journeva story exists at four levels — same plot, same characters, richer language each step. Here is how this one begins at each level.
A2 · ElementaryMateo has brushed his teeth twice a day for thirty years. When Amira, the hygienist, turned the little mirror towards him, he expected good news. …
B1 · IntermediateMateo had brushed his teeth twice a day for thirty years and could not see why anyone needed to scrape them. When Amira, the hygienist, turned the little mirror towards him, he expected to hear that he was doing well. …
B2 · Upper intermediateMateo had brushed his teeth twice a day for thirty years, and had never understood why a grown man should sit in a chair while someone scraped them. So when Amira, the hygienist, turned the little mirror towards him, he expected to be told that he was doing well. …
Read the whole story at A2, B1 and B2
In the app you can tap any word for its meaning, listen to the story read aloud with the words lighting up, and save words to practise later. Ten stories are free at every level, and every story is free at A1.
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Read it in a language you already know to check your understanding — every Journeva story is written in all five.
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