Luke's ENGLISH Podcast - Learn British English with Luke Thompson · Luke Thompson

941. The Man Who Could Work Miracles ✨ (Learn English with a Short Story)

June 23, 2025·2 hr 3 min·5 clips

George Fotherington's casual argument about miracles backfires when a lamp suddenly flips upside down, defying all logic.

Luke’s English Podcast is a language learning podcast for intermediate and advanced English learners, hosted by Luke Thompson, a British English teacher. Episode 941 is built around a full reading of H.G. Wells’ 1898 short story The Man Who Could Work Miracles, adapted by Thompson into modern British English while preserving the story’s tone and detail. Thompson departs from his usual introduction format and jumps straight into the story as a listening comprehension exercise, positioning this as a mini-test of whether learners can follow a narrative without preparation. The story follows George McWhirter Fotherington, a short, red-haired clerk at a shop called Gomshots, who loves arguing and has just lost a heated pub debate with a man named Toddy Beamish about whether miracles are possible. To prove his point that they aren’t, Fotherington imagines an oil lamp flipping upside down—and it does, still burning. He gradually discovers he can will anything into existence. The story escalates through escalating misuses and tests of the power, building toward a crisis of scale and judgment. After the reading, Thompson provides a narrative summary in plain English, discusses the vocabulary including words like sceptic, moustache, freckles, and miraculous, and explores the story’s themes: the relationship between power and wisdom, what it means to suddenly have unlimited agency, and the dangers of using extraordinary capability without the experience or judgment to deploy it wisely. Wells’ story is treated as both a language text and a philosophical fable. Thompson notes that the story was written over a hundred years ago but its themes remain immediately relevant. The episode includes a PDF text download so learners can read along. The tone is warm, enthusiastic, and pedagogical, suited for English learners at B2 level and above who want rich, engaging content rather than dry exercises.

As heard by us

A story-led H.G. Wells lesson that begins as a listening test and explains itself afterward.

Luke Thompson opens by moving straight into H.G. Wells's The Man Who Could Work Miracles, turning the episode into a small test of listening before the explanation arrives. The shape is easy to follow: story first, then a summary of what it means, then themes and vocabulary.

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You start with H.G. Wells and get the vocabulary after the story has done its work.

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