VOA · As It Is
Intermediate · B1–B2learner speed4:162025-02-26public domain
As It Is is VOA Learning English's daily news magazine. Each report covers a current story in clear, learner-speed English with a controlled vocabulary — the closest thing to real news broadcasts that intermediate learners can fully digest, and ideal raw material for dictation.
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01Thousands of women have served as intelligence agents for the United States and its allies since the nation began.
02Virginia Hall was one of the bravest and most successful spies for the Allies during World War II.
03Hall was born in 1906 to a rich family in Baltimore, Maryland.
04She studied foreign languages in college.
05In 1931, Virginia Hall took a job at the American Embassy in Warsaw, Poland.
06Then, she served in embassies in Estonia, Austria, and Turkey.
07While in Turkey, Virginia Hall suffered a tragic accident.
08Her gun accidentally fired while she was hunting.
09The bullet severely wounded her leg.
10Doctors removed it to save her life.
11After that, she wore a wooden leg to walk.
12She resigned from the State Department as a result.
13But her injury did not stop her from serving the Allies.
14Virginia Hall was in Paris, France when World War II began.
15She joined the French Army and drove a medical vehicle.
16Before long, however, she had to leave to escape the invading German soldiers.
17Later, in England, she was invited to join a secret British organization created to organize resistance.
18It helped form military teams in German-occupied areas of Europe.
19Hall learned weaponry, communications, and security.
20Then, she was sent to occupied France.
21She established communications with the French resistance movement in Lyon.
22She successfully plotted the escape of many Allied airplane crews and prisoners of the Germans.
23She saved many lives.
24Later, she escaped from France over the Pyrenees Mountains in the southern part of the country during the winter.
25After a time in Spain, however, Hall again spied in France.
26This time, she was working for the United States Office of Strategic Services.
27Hall dressed as a farm worker to hide her identity.
28She reported German troop movements and organized resistance groups.
29By now, the Germans knew who she was.
30Some called her the most dangerous enemy agent in occupied Europe.
31The resistance fighters she organized gained great success.
32As the Germans withdrew from France, the fighters killed many enemy soldiers.
33They took hundreds of prisoners.
34They exploded four bridges.
35They destroyed communication lines.
36The United States honored Virginia Hall with a Distinguished Service Cross Medal when the war ended.
37She was the only female civilian in the war to receive this medal.
38I'm Katie Weaver.
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