Helen Parker - Amazing Women - A2

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Title Page

Introduction INTRODUCTION Collins Amazing People Readers are collections of short stories. Each book presents the life story of five or six people whose lives and achievements have made a difference to our world today. The stories are carefully graded to ensure that you, the reader, will both enjoy and benefit from your reading experience. You can choose to enjoy the book from start to finish or to dip into your favourite story straight away. Each story is entirely independent. After every story a short timeline brings together the most important events in each person’s life into one short report. The timeline is a useful tool for revision purposes. Words which are above the required reading level are underlined the first time they appear in each story. All underlined words are defined in the glossary at the back of the book. Levels 1 and 2 take their definitions from the Collins COBUILD Essential English Dictionary and levels 3 and 4 from the Collins COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary . To support both teachers and learners, additional materials are available online at www.collinselt.com/readers . The Amazing People Club ® Collins Amazing People Readers are adaptations of original texts published by The Amazing People Club. The Amazing People Club is an educational publishing house. It was founded in 2006 by educational psychologist and management leader Dr Charles Margerison and publishes books, eBooks, audio books, iBooks and video content, which bring readers ‘face to face’ with many of the world’s most inspiring and influential characters from the fields of art, science, music, politics, medicine and business.

The Grading Scheme THE GRADING SCHEME The Collins COBUILD Grading Scheme has been created using the most up-to-date language usage information available today. Each level is guided by a brand new comprehensive grammar and vocabulary framework, ensuring that the series will perfectly match readers’ abilities. CEF band Pages Word count Headwords Level 1 elementary A2 64 5,000–8,000 approx. 700 Level 2 pre-intermediate A2–B1 80 8,000–11,000 approx. 900 Level 3 intermediate B1 96 11,000–15,000 approx. 1,100 Level 4 upper intermediate B2 112 15,000–19,000 approx. 1,700 For more information on the Collins COBUILD Grading Scheme, including a full list of the grammar structures found at each level, go to www.collinselt.com/readers/gradingscheme . Also available online: Make sure that you are reading at the right level by checking your level on our website ( www.collinselt.com/readers/levelcheck ).

Harriet Tubman

Emmeline Pankhurst

Maria Montessori

Helen Keller

Eva Perón

Nancy Wake

Glossary

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About the Publisher

Collins Amazing People Readers are collections of short stories. Each book presents the life story of five or six people whose lives and achievements have made a difference to our world today. The stories are carefully graded to ensure that you, the reader, will both enjoy and benefit from your reading experience.

You can choose to enjoy the book from start to finish or to dip into your favourite story straight away. Each story is entirely independent.

After every story a short timeline brings together the most important events in each person’s life into one short report. The timeline is a useful tool for revision purposes.

Words which are above the required reading level are underlined the first time they appear in each story. All underlined words are defined in the glossary at the back of the book. Levels 1 and 2 take their definitions from the Collins COBUILD Essential English Dictionary and levels 3 and 4 from the Collins COBUILD Advanced English Dictionary .

To support both teachers and learners, additional materials are available online at www.collinselt.com/readers.

The Amazing People Club ®

Collins Amazing People Readers are adaptations of original texts published by The Amazing People Club. The Amazing People Club is an educational publishing house. It was founded in 2006 by educational psychologist and management leader Dr Charles Margerison and publishes books, eBooks, audio books, iBooks and video content, which bring readers ‘face to face’ with many of the world’s most inspiring and influential characters from the fields of art, science, music, politics, medicine and business.

The Collins COBUILD Grading Scheme has been created using the most up-to-date language usage information available today. Each level is guided by a brand new comprehensive grammar and vocabulary framework, ensuring that the series will perfectly match readers’ abilities.

For more information on the Collins COBUILD Grading Scheme, including a full list of the grammar structures found at each level, go to www.collinselt.com/readers/gradingscheme.

Also available online:Make sure that you are reading at the right level by checking your level on our website ( www.collinselt.com/readers/levelcheck).

I escaped from slavery in the south of the USA. I then helped hundreds of other slaves to escape to the north of the USA and Canada. I also freed hundreds of slaves who wanted to fight in the Civil War.

My parents were slaves for the Brodess family in Maryland, USA. I was the fifth of nine children. At the age of 6, I started work as a nursemaid for another family. After that I had to work in the woods and fields. Our owners did not think of us as people. For them, we were like animals or machines. If we did something wrong, they hit us or punished us in horrible ways.

In 1831, at the age of 11, I started to do the same work as the adult slaves. Every day we had to work for many hours in the fields. Around this time, I received an injury, which I never forgot. I refused to stop a slave who was escaping. The slave’s owner threw a metal weight at the slave, but it hit me on the head. It hurt a lot and this injury gave me headaches for the rest of my life.

In 1849, I was brave and tried to escape. I was married by then, but my marriage was very unhappy and I hated the thought of another year of slavery. Two of my brothers agreed to come with me. We wanted to reach the north of the USA, where slavery was illegal. I could live there as a free woman.