Invata engleza citind, nivelul recomandat B1 Pre-Intermediate.

In a small house in the African forests, an English missionary called Samuel Sayer and his sister Rose were saying their evening prayers. For the last ten years, they had lived here in the German colony of Central Africa, close to the muddy waters of the River Ulanga, and far from other white men, trying to persuade the local people to accept Christianity. It was thankless work, and every night and morning, it was their habit to pray, asking God for help in their difficult lives. Rose looked worriedly at her brother. She herself was ill enough to be in bed, but it was clear to her that Samuel was much worse. He was very weak, and when he knelt down to pray, he seemed to have difficulty in getting up again. His hands were trembling violently, and at the moment before she closed her eyes to pray, Rose could see how thin those hands were, with the bones showing through the skin. The damp heat of the African forest seemed to get even worse with the coming of the night, which closed in upon the missionary and his sister while they prayed. Rose's hands, which she was holding together, were wet with sweat, and she could feel rivers of it running down under her white cotton dress as she knelt there. 'I knew I was right to stop wearing my corset!' she thought. 'Mother always said that every woman over the age of fourteen should wear one. But that's impossible here! And anyway, there's nobody to see me, except Samuel.' She realized she should be thinking about the prayer, so she turned quickly towards her brother, making herself listen to his weak voice. 'Help us in our work, God,' he was praying. Rose knew that this work had come to an end, now that she and Samuel were alone in the village. It was August 1914, and the war was just beginning in Europe. Yesterday the German commander Von Hanneken and his soldiers had entered the village. They had taken every single person away, except the Englishman and his sister, to become part of the great German army. Now that Germany was preparing to fight against England, and Central Africa was under German control, Rose and her brother were surrounded by enemies