The reading section in academic certification exams such as IELTS and SAT has long been a nightmare for many Vietnamese students because of the huge amount of new vocabulary that they are forced to “digest” in just about 1 hour. However, there is a very useful method that helps you both entertain yourself and increase your vocabulary. Let’s explore with Clever Academy to see what it is!
In fact, many of you have tried reading articles on topics such as science, history, and economics on foreign websites to increase your vocabulary, but this approach does not really bring positive results. The reason is that these topics are quite “boring” and usually after just 5 minutes, you are distracted to other things.
For this reason, in this article, Clever Academy will bring you a very useful method: forming the habit of “reading English novels“. Reading novels in English not only helps you improve your vocabulary and gradually familiarize yourself with diverse sentence structures commonly found in English, but also equips you with knowledge about the culture and history of America, England, or countries that you may be planning to study abroad in. This helps you integrate more easily in your studies in these countries.
Below are 7 novels (with download links) that Clever Academy highly-recommend you should read:
Charlotte’s Web – E. B. White
is a children’s novel by famous American author E. B. White, telling the story of a pig named Wilbur and Wilbur’s friendship with a spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by his owner, Charlotte weaves messages praising Wilbur (such as “Some Pig”) onto her web to convince the owner to let it live. “Publishers Weekly” listed the book among the best-selling children’s paperbacks of all time in 2000. Most native English speakers have read this book at least once.
Book download link: HERE
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson
The story follows a London lawyer named Gabriel John Utterson investigating the strange presence between his old friend, Henry Jekyll, and the villain Edward Hyde. The novel has been adapted into various languages, and the phrase “Jekyll & Hyde” has been used to refer to a person with very different personality and morality in many situations.
Book download link: HERE
Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe
This is the finest work among more than two hundred and fifty novels and short stories by Daniel Defoe, first published in 1719 when the author was nearly sixty years old. Defoe wrote based on a true story of a sailor named Alexander Selkirk (1676-1721). Alexander Selkirk was shipwrecked and stranded on a deserted island off the coast of Chile. Unlike Robinson Crusoe in the story, who is a person of willpower, bravery, strength, and the power of labor to overcome nature, in 1709 Alexander Selkirk was rescued by an expedition led by Woodes Rogers, when he had almost become a wild man.
Book download link: HERE
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
This is a novel published in 1884 by American author Mark Twain. “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is considered one of the greatest works in American literature. Regarded as the sequel to “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” from 1876, the narrator – Huckleberry Finn, is the friend of Tom Sawyer. The story tells of Huckleberry Finn’s adventures on the Mississippi River with his friend – Jim, a runaway slave. The book depicts scenes on the river and satirizes the views of the American South in the pre-Civil War period, particularly racist perspectives. The image of Huck and Jim on their raft drifting down the river, heading toward freedom, is one of the most enduring images in American literature.
Book download link: HERE
Les Misérables – Victor Hugo
The work is considered one of the most famous novels in world literature of the 19th century. “Les Misérables” is a story about French society over more than 20 years at the beginning of the 19th century from the time of Napoleon I’s rise to power and several decades after. The main character of the novel is Jean Valjean, a former convict seeking to atone for the mistakes he made in his youth. The novel not only speaks to the nature of good and evil, of the law, but the work is also a comprehensive encyclopedia of the history, architecture of Paris, politics, philosophy, law, justice, and beliefs of France in the first half of the 19th century.
Book download link: HERE
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
This is a masterpiece by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald, first published in 1925. The work is set in the Long Island area of America in the summer of 1922 and describes the lifestyle period of the author himself. After the shock and chaos of World War I, America entered an unprecedented period of prosperity in the 1920s due to the boom of the economy. During this same period, the “Prohibition Act” was enacted, increasing the number of organized crimes. Although Fitzgerald, like Nick Carraway in his work, admires wealth, he felt uncomfortable with a society that placed too much emphasis on materialism while morality did not keep pace with it.
Book download link: HERE
Clever Academy wishes you will have enjoyable entertainment time with these novels and most importantly, achieve great results in your upcoming exams!
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