American English Texts

'The Purloined Letter'   - By Edgar Allan Poe [Video :] Transcription: Our story today is called "The Purloined Letter." It was written by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe is generally known for his horror stories. This is the third of three stories he wrote about Auguste Dupin and how he solves crimes. The story is about a stolen letter. It first appeared in eighteen forty-four in a yearly magazine. It was reprinted in many publications, newspapers and books. This is one of Poe's stories that influenced the development of the modern detective story. Here is Shep O'Neal with "The Purloined Letter." STORYTELLER: One evening in Paris, during the autumn of eighteen forty-five, I went to visit a friend, Auguste Dupin. We were smoking our pipes and talking when the door of his apartment opened. Mister Germont, the head of the Paris police force, came into the room. "I came to ask your advice," Germont said to my friend Du...

This isn't even a full word, but can you guess which language this is? Chances are, you can! Thanks to that very Spanish letter "ñ". Hold on there! Once upon a time, this "n" with a tilde wasn't so Spanish. Take it apart; you'll find the tale of an ordinary mark that evolved into an extraordinary letter. Spain has a national hero, a really old one. Like, almost 1000 years old. They call him El Cid or "El Thid"? Look, Spain is notorious for lithping its thees, but out here in the Western Hemisphere and even over there in Andalucía it's "El Sid". El Cid did the stuff a good national hero's supposed to do. He wielded a legendary weapon. He fought cunningly for various factions but always kept bigger goals in mind. He won the hearts of the peasants. Oh, and he loved Babieca, his trusty steed. One legend tells us how they met. When he was young, "su padrino", his godfather, took him out to pi...