O. Henry’s Short Stories

Wise & Wide is a 6-level English reading program that consists of 60 books and each level is
systematically divided by Lexile Ⓡ measures. The Lexile Ⓡ Framework for Reading is the most popular reading measuring system in American formal education curriculums and many English programs.
Over 20 out of 50 states in the U.S. mark Lexile Ⓡ measures directly on students’ final report cards and over 300 well-known publishers adopt and use Lexile Ⓡ measures.
Experience many kinds of readings written by professional writers from the U.S. and England. They used interesting topics that were carefully chosen after analyzing elementary curriculums from around the world including Korea, the U.S., England, and Australia among many others.

Before Reading

A master of the humanistic short story, O. Henry!
An American writer who is famous for his work The Last Leaf, O. Henry’s real name is William Sydney Porter. In fact, before being widely known as O.
Henry, he had used various pen names. But O.
Henry got editors and readers’ attention the most, so he kept using it. He wrote stories for only 10 years, but in that time almost 300 short stories were published. Therefore, he is also known as a master of the short story. He was influenced by a French writer, Guy de Maupassant, who portrayed ordinary people’s lives in satirical, sorrowful and witty ways.
Besides The Last Leaf, some of his other famous stories are The Gift of the Magi, The Ransom of Red Chief, The Defeat of the City and The Cop and the Anthem.
In the book, we will read three of his stories.The Gift of the Magi
A poor young couple Della and Jim want to give each other a present as Christmas is coming. But they are too poor to do it, so they each give up something that is precious to them to give a nice present.

The Witches’ Loaves

A bakery owner, Miss Martha feels sorry for a German man who always buys cheap, stale bread at her store. She sees the poor looking man’s hands covered with red and brown stains and thinks he is a painter. She tries to find a way to help him....

The Ransom of Red Chief

In a small town in the U.S., Sam and Bill kidnap a child to get ransom money from the child’s parents. They kidnap the son of Mr. Dorset and bring him to a cave in a nearby mountain. Will Sam and Bill be able to get a large ransom for the boy?