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12 ESL Reading Exercises and Worksheets
Updated July 12th, 2021
After teaching for many years, I have learnt that the most successful reading comprehension worksheets in the classroom for elementary to pre-intermediate English language students are comprehension exercises that relate to their personal experiences. Reading exercises about weekend markets, high school and university experiences, career ambitions and the effects of technology are a few of those topics.
1 What is TV to you?
This is a television advantages and disadvantages reading comprehension and listening exercise for English language students.
2 Inventing a vaccine to save the world
Katalin Kariko and the invention of mRNA vaccines
This exercise is about Katalin Kariko and the development of the most successful coronavirus vaccine.
3 AirTags (with audio and answers)
AirTags are a new device for helping people find or keep track of things. This is a reading, question and answer exercise with audio.
AirTags reading comprehension (PDF)
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4 Instagram Influencer (with audio and answers)
This is a reading comprehension exercise about a day in the life of an influencer.
Instagram Influencer reading comprehension (PDF)
5 Lipstick (with audio and answers)
This is a reading comprehension exercise about the history of lipstick.
Lipstick reading comprehension (PDF)
6 The Weekend Market (with audio and answers)
This is an English language reading comprehension worksheet about a visit to a weekend market. It is an experience that almost every student in the world can relate to and so it’s extremely suitable for an English language class. Click on the link or the image to download the PDF file.
7 Online shopping assistant (with answers)
An online shopping assistant takes online orders and walks around a supermarket or department store and collects items to packed and delivered. This exercise is about the daily activities of a supermarket employee in this line of work on the age of the coronavirus.
Online shopping assistant reading comprehension (PDF)
8 Autonomous vehicles reading comprehension (with answers)
The arrival of autonomous vehicles is a topical issue of our times. It’s a great way to to engage in a discussion about the impacts of new technologies.
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9 First Day at University (with answers)
I have found that another easy-to-teach topic is a student’s first day at university. This is a an experience that university students can identify with and works smoothly in the classroom.
10 High School vs University (with answers)
This reading exercise focuses on the differences between high school students and university students.
11 Christiane Amanpour (with answers)
This reading worksheet is about the journalist Christiane Amanpour.
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12 What effect has technology had on our lives? (with answers)
This is an English language reading comprehension worksheet about the effects of technology. It is an excellent complement to any lesson focusing on technology and society. It also works well in a class when the teacher is trying to determine students’ knowledge of computing and internet vocabulary. I used it in a class with Thai ICT students and I could quickly asses the different English language abilities of the students.
13 How to Entertain (with answers)
This is an English language reading comprehension worksheet about entertaining.
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thanks for sharing
I really appreciate what you did for me ! Thank you ever so much
Very good job
Big effort
Thanks a lot
Good job
Thanks a lot
Thanks. I appreciate any feedback.
Thank You very much for your amazing worksheets
Hi,
Thanks for the comments. I have updated the PDFs and fixed all the mistakes. By the way,
you just have to put a note on the page and I will fix mistakes immediately. This website is just a hobby and it’s demanding being webmaster, and web technician apart from designing and posting the teaching materials. I am a full time teacher toooooo…!!
Thank you for sharing reading comprehension ativities
Thank you so much for sharing. They are really good.