Reading C2
Practice C2 reading with a cleaner browse layout and the same underlying lesson pages.
Less is More, Less is Bore
Examine the enduring quarrel between architectural minimalism and ornament, and what each tradition reveals about how we wish to inhabit the world.
Beauty in the Broken
Consider why imperfection moves us aesthetically, and what kintsugi and wabi-sabi disclose about the limits of Western perfectionism.
Who Writes History?
Examine how historical narratives are constructed, contested and revised, and what monuments and memory disclose about a society's sense of itself.
The Limits of Knowing Ourselves
Investigate why awareness of cognitive biases rarely cures them, and what this reveals about the architecture of human reasoning.
The Trouble with Cultural Appropriation
Examine why the line between cultural exchange and exploitation resists tidy definition, and why the underlying question of power refuses to disappear.
Generative AI — Hype and Reality
Distinguish what large language models actually do from what their boosters and detractors variously claim, and consider the gap between fluency and understanding.
The Strange Career of the Meme
Trace how Dawkins's evolutionary metaphor became the native vernacular of online life — and what that says about humour, virality, and the gap between generations.
Beyond Nature and Nurture
Examine why the old dichotomy between genes and environment has dissolved under the weight of epigenetics, twin studies, and the science of developmental interaction.
Prisons — Rehabilitation vs. Retribution
Examine the philosophical and economic tensions between punishing offenders and reforming them, and what the evidence suggests about which goal a prison system actually serves.
Psychedelics in Mental Health
Trace the resurgence of psychedelic-assisted therapy and weigh the clinical promise against unresolved ethical, regulatory, and epistemological complications.
Social Media Addiction
Probe the architecture of attention-harvesting platforms and consider where personal responsibility ends and structural manipulation begins.
The Cost of Convenience
Examine the hidden externalities of frictionless living — packaging waste, gig labour, and the subtle erosion of capacities we no longer notice exercising.
The Power of Reading
Examine why deep reading rewards a kind of attention that screens cannot provide, and what is at stake as long-form patience erodes.
The Wisdom of Myths
Explore why ancient myths endure and what psychological truths they encode about the human condition.
Why Poetry Still Matters
Examine why an art form that utilitarian eras periodically dismiss continues to outlast its dismissers, and what poetry offers that more efficient prose cannot.