VOA · As It Is
Intermediate · B1–B2learner speed3:352025-02-27public 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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01About five kilometers from the White House in Washington, D.C., stands an historic building closely linked to one of America's most famous presidents, Abraham Lincoln.
02The building, known as President Lincoln's Cottage, is where Lincoln spent about one-fourth of his time while in office, and he made some very important decisions while there.
03Summertime can get very hot in Washington, D.C., so President Lincoln used a country house to escape the worst of the heat.
04Each morning and evening, Lincoln rode between the two houses on horseback, unguarded.
05The trip took about thirty minutes.
06The large house he rode to was on the grounds of the soldier's home.
07The house stood on much higher ground than the White House, so the wind kept it cooler.
08It was also quiet, a place to think.
09Lincoln spent much of his time there writing.
10That work included early versions of what would become one of the most important documents in American history, the Emancipation Proclamation.
11The Emancipation Proclamation came during the Civil War in the United States.
12The proclamation declared people held as slaves in the rebellious states were free.
13The Civil War lasted from 1861 to 1865.
14Troops remained at the soldiers' home to protect President Lincoln during the war.
15At first, Lincoln did not welcome the soldiers.
16He did not think he needed their protection.
17But he began to enjoy talking to them.
18In fact, much of what historians know about the President's time at the house is from stories told by those soldiers.
19One night in 1864, President Lincoln survived a murder attempt.
20He was alone and on horseback near the country house when someone shot at him.
21His tall hat flew off his head.
22Soldiers found the hat and saw that a bullet had torn through it.
23The President was not injured in the attack.
24After that, the War Department increased protection for Lincoln.
25But it was not enough to save his life.
26Records show that he visited his country house for the last time on April 13, 1865.
27The next day, John Wilkes Booth, an actor and supporter of the defeated Confederacy, shot President Lincoln at Ford's Theater in Washington.
28President Lincoln's cottage opened to the public in 2008.
29I'm John Russell.
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