Book Third - Residence at Cambridge
Cambridge English Audio

Book Third - Residence at Cambridge

B2Upper-intermediateNovember 13, 202640 min

Reader: Heather Glen Book Third brings Wordsworth to Cambridge. Arriving across the flat landscape of Huntingdonshire, the young Wordsworth catches sight of King’s College Chapelbefore entering the city by Magdalene Bridge. For a boy raised among the mountains of Cumberland, Cambridge appears at first as a bewildering new world of gowns, colleges, churches, ceremonies, friendships, dinners and social expectations. Wordsworth takes up residence at St John’s College, within earshot of Trinity’s clock and close to the statue of Newton.Yet his account of university life is distinctly ambivalent. He enjoys its fr...

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Sentence 4 of 12 · 0:21

the long-backed chapel of King's College, rare his pinnacles above the dusky

.

tasseled cap. He passed. Nor was I master of my eyes till he was left a hundred yards

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B2

B2 · Upper-intermediate

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A1 16%A2 26%B1 33%B2 21%C1 4%
  • 75% of the words are B1 or easier.
  • 121 words a minute: slow, clear speech.
  • 350 harder words (B2 and up) in the whole episode.

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0:00

Book Third, Residence at Cambridge. It was a dreary morning when the chaise rolled over the flat plains of Huntington and through the open windows first I saw the long-backed chapel of King's College, rare his pinnacles above the dusky groves. Soon afterwards we aspired upon the road a student clothed in gown and

0:29

tasseled cap. He passed. Nor was I master of my eyes till he was left a hundred yards behind. The place, as we approached, seemed more and more to have an eddies force, and sucked us in more eagerly at every step we took. Onward we drove, beneath the castle, down by Mordland Bridge we went, and crossed the cam, and at the hoop we landed, famous

0:58

in. My spirit was up. My thoughts were full of hope. Some friends I heard, acquaintances who there seemed friends, poor simple schoolboys, now hung round with honor and importance. In a world of welcome faces up and down I roved. Questions, directions, counsel and advice flowed in upon me from all sides fresh

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