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Вторая река

The Second River

B2 · Upper Intermediate · fiction · 10 scenes · Premium story

An upper-intermediate adventure four hundred metres underground. Five cavers go down a shaft found on winter aerial photographs, and rain on the surface closes the way out behind them. Rather than wait, they follow the draught: a black river with eyeless fish in it, a chamber whose ceiling the lamps never find, and seven handprints in red ochre that have been waiting twelve thousand years.

Read Вторая река in Russian

Characters

  • Yegor (Егор) — The surveyor
  • Lida (Лида) — Expedition leader
  • Vera (Вера) — Doctor, biologist by training
  • Seven hands (Семь ладоней) — In the niche

Vocabulary from this story

  • пещера — cave
  • вход — entrance
  • выход — way out
  • колодец — shaft
  • меандр — meander
  • зал — chamber
  • сифон — sump
  • галерея — gallery
  • ниша — niche
  • камин — chimney
  • карниз — ledge
  • потолок — ceiling