Bone Mystery:B2 English Reading/Conditionals, Phrasal Verbs/ Advanced Vocabulary

This reading text is for upper intermediate English learners at CEFR level B2. It is based on a fascinating real news story from February 2026, when workers accidentally stumbled upon a very old skeleton in a church in Maastricht, in the Netherlands. Scientists are currently investigating whether the remains could belong to D’Artagnan, the legendary French soldier who inspired Alexandre Dumas’s iconic novel The Three Musketeers.

The text includes a range of advanced grammar features particularly suited to B2 learners. These include inverted conditional structures such as “had he not devoted” and “were it not for”, a variety of sophisticated phrasal verbs such as “faded into obscurity”, “thrust back into the spotlight” and “going down in history”, and a rich selection of upper intermediate vocabulary used naturally in context.

This text is ideal for upper intermediate learners who want to extend their reading skills, encounter challenging vocabulary in a meaningful context and develop their understanding of complex grammatical structures in authentic, engaging material.