News articles in levels

The website News in Levels has short news articles written in three levels: Level 1 is extremely simple - suitable for beginners to low-intermediate; Level 2 is more advanced; and Level 3 is the original article (suitable for upper-intermediate to advanced).

http://www.newsinlevels.com/

Each level has, in addition to the text, an audio component in which someone reads the news article. Levels 1 and 2 are read very slowly and clearly, and level 3 sounds like a "normal" news report (also reading the news text of the article). Each level highlights and explains "difficult" words for that level. The original news story (level 3) also has a news video (time 0.57).

Here's an example of the 3 versions of the first sentence from the article Some Cars are Not Safe:

1. People from the USA do a test. They test cars. This test has a name of "crash test."
2. The Institute for Highway Safety carried out a new safety car crash test.
3. A new safety car crash test has found that half of the vehicles tested were rated "marginal" or "poor."

The words highlighted as "difficult" are in 1. crash; in 2. carried out; and in 3. marginal.

These articles suit a range of levels, and are particularly good for lower-level students - it's often difficult to find texts for very low levels. They're good for both classroom use and for students to use at home to improve their reading and listening skills.