Reading comprehension exercises

Advanced EFL / ESL
Comprehension grammar and vocabulary - exercise and classroom activity index, listed by type of exercise or activity

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General comprehension exercises, based on the text

• A Few Good Reasons -  Interactive  A short story with general comprehension exercises
• All you need is Love -  22 written or oral comprehension questions on this article
• Britain - at any cost ?    10 oral or written comprehension questions about the article
• America's drive-in movie theaters.  True/False questions - justify your answers
• The Bird Man of the Isles - True/False questions
• Bodie - where the west was wildest - Say whether the following statements are true or false.
• Deserts of America -  True/False questions
• Drug addiction: Days in the Death...  True/False questions
• Mardi Gras in New Orleans  
• Mississippi Music :  Decide if statements are right (R) or wrong (W). Rewrite any wrong statements, correcting them as necessary.
• Short story - Lucky Jim - General comprehension questions
  
• Tea and the British : Text comparison : Find the ten factual mistakes in this summary of the article
• Tolkien & the Hobbit   Interactive  Read through the article, then complete sentences using relevant information

Comprehension - listening

• Short story - Blue Gum Tree - Two listening comprehension exercises are suggested.
• Crime time basketball - Have students remember what was written in the article.

Comprehension : sequencing events 

• Jewel - the voice from Alaska -  Read the article then put list of events into chronological order.
• Route 66 - Highway 66 revisited : Read the article, then put these events in the right order.

Comprehension - careful reading for information

• Nevada and its Extraterrestrials Find the 20 cases where the information in the resumé of the article does not correctly reflect what was written in the original. Covers vocabulary and factual information.
• Deserts of America. Parallel text : Underline all the cases where the information given is not the same as the information in the original article.
• Pubs and their signs Read the article and write down five things that you have learned about British pubs.
• Smugglers text correction: Correct the mistakes in this badly copied extract from the article.
• Tea and the British : Text comparison : Find the ten factual mistakes in this summary of the article

Reusing information : Creative or descriptive writing

• Awaiting the big one  - Imagine that you are a journalist in 1906 in San Francisco, a short time after the earthquake. Describe the scene that you see
• California's Water Wars: Produce projects for authentic documents (in English) for distribution to the public
• College sport USA. Write a letter reusing certain elements of vocabulary from the article.
• The Bird Man of the Isles : Write a 400-word article about Graham Ross using the interview as your raw material.
• The Story of the blues -  Write sentences to link the following words in the order given
• Leonard cohen Interview : write an article about Cohen, using the interview as your source.
• London's Notting Hill Carnival -  Describe a day at the carnival, using the words given
  
• Route 66 - Highway 66 revisited :  Letter writing, based on information in the article
• Short story - Blue Gum Tree : Retell the story as a local newspaper article. Include certain terms.
• Short story - The Car : Rewrite the story as told by Shafi in his own words.
• Short Story - Lucky Jim -  Interactive The local coast guard chief had to write a report explaining the events that took place. Complete the sentences.
• Tolkien & the Hobbit:  letter writing, based on information in the article. An exchange of letters between Tolkien and Edith.

Expression - writing / speaking activities

See also creative writing exercises above.

Rephrasing

• College sport USA. - Rephrase a complex sentence, using the framework given
• Thanksgiving - Interactive  Rephrase the following sentences in your own words, starting with the prompt given:

Question forming:

• America's Amish - Imagine an interview with Johan, using the question words indicated
• Crime time basketball -  Rearrange the words to make questions that relate to the article
• For Elise - a short story -  An investigative journalist from New York came to interview Coke Bucknil about the story of Elise Toussaint. Here are the answers to his questions; what were the questions?
• Hillary Clinton - the early years . Form questions from the answers given.
• Orson Welles : Fictitious interview with Orson Welles: what were your questions ?
• Short story - Blue Gum Tree : Police interview. Here are the answers, what were the questions ?
• Short Story - Lucky Jim  : Interactive  Here are the answers, what were the questions ?
  
• Short story - The Car : Interactive  Police interview. Here are the answers, what were the questions ?
  
• Thanksgiving. Interactive Form questions starting with specific question words, to which the article provides the answer

Sentence building

• The Mormons - Make up one correctly structured sentence from each of the groups of words below.

• Rodeo - two exercises to explore the question of style

Text contraction:

• America's Bald Eagles - reduce each paragraph of this article to no more than 20 words,
• The Bird Man of the Isles  - Write a 400-word article based on this interview.
  
• College sport USA  - Reduce this article to about half its length.
• Hillary Clinton - the early years  Contract the article to about half its length.
• America's teenage courts - Reduce the article to four sentences of about 30 words each

Role play activities:

• Amerca's Teen courts - Conduct sessions of the teen court in class, using the method indicated
• Amerca's Deserts - A citizens' meeting is held as the climate gets drier and drier.
• The Bird Man of the Isles : Pair work : recreate the interview, using the original questions.
• Ellis Island -  Structured role play, with roles and theme
• GM crops - Frankenstein foods ?  Role-play exercise - 5 roles
• Save the Everglades -  Structured role play exercise , with roles and theme
• A Town called Sturgis -  Imagine a radio sketch based on the article

Grammar points:

Article use

• Pubs and their signs  Interactive Complete an extract from the text, adding articles where necessary.
• Thanksgiving. Interactive Choose the correct article frolm the dropdown lists
• Skyscrapers . Interactive Put in the definite articles in an extract from the text, but only when they are needed.

• Britain at any cost ? :  Discover the different ways in which negation is expressed in this article

• Skiing in the wind :  explain the meaning of the many compound nouns used in the article

• Nevada and its Extraterrestrials  Interactive Replace all the missing prepositions and adverbs in this extract from the article.
• The story of Ellis Island  Complete these sentences with the appropriate prepositions   
• America's Amish - Interactive Replace all the missing prepositions in this extract from the article.
• Save the Everglades - Replace all the missing prepositions in this extract from the article.

Prepositional and phrasal verbs

• Rodeo : Have students pick out and explain the phrasal/prepositional verbs used.
• Woody Guthrie - Match the prepositional verbs listed with their meanings.

Relative pronouns

• All you need is love - Interactive Replace the missing relatives (that, which, who, whom,) or nominal relatives ( what, how) in this extract
• The Mormons - Interactive  Replace the missing relative pronoun in these sentences: (which, what or whose?)

Time clauses:

• The story of Ellis Island -  match phrases and add a time clause.

Verbs :  participles, tenses, voice

• Martin Luther King - Interactive  Blank-fill :  replace the verbs and participles indicated, using the correct form.
• America's teenage courts -  Interactive  Blank-fill : put the verbs  into the correct form
• Save the Everglades - this text well illustrates use of the present perfect tense.
• Skiing in the wind : Interactive   transform active sentences into the passive voice
• The Story of the jet plane -  Interactive Replace all the missing -ing and -ed endings in this extract.
  

Verbs : modals and auxiliaries

• Henry Ford  Interactive Blank-fill  - Replace missing modal verbs or auxiliaries in extracts from the article
• John Lennon  Interactive Blank-fill  - Replace missing modal verbs or auxiliaries in these extracts from the article

Words and vocabulary

Vocabulary : general

• America's Bald Eagles: What expressions, used in the original article, mean...?
• Britain - at any cost ?  Find the words in the text that mean.....
  
• California's Water Wars - Memory and logic - complete an extract from the text, using the qualifiers (adjectives, etc.) listed.
• Charles Babbage  Explain, in English, the following words and expressions
• Gettysburg  Interactive  Two multiple choice vocabulary exercises
  
• GM crops - Frankenstein foods ?  Explain and rephrase selected words / expressions.
• GM crops - Frankenstein foods   Interactive  Blank-fill (cloze) exercise . Complete an extract from the text. some cases require the original expression, others require  alternatives.
• Life in Umbridge - living in the country - Words and structures Complete sentences using appropriate words in the right structure.
• Meet Robodog.  Technical language : Explain the meaning of the following expressions:
• Mighty Mississippi -  Blank-fill exercise : Try to complete this extract from the text using  words in the list provided
• Rosa Parks - Find the opposites of the following words, in the article.
• Shakespeare 400 years on - General text study exercises.
• Short story - the Car   Interactive  Select the closest equivalent of the words and expressions used in the story:
• Smugglers :  Explain the italicized expressions in the article; then make up sentences reusing them
• The Yukon quest - Find the expressions, used in the text, that could be rephrased using the following words.
  

Vocabulary - multiple choice exercises

• America's Drive-in movie theaters Interactive MCQ vocabulary exercise
• Who killed Martin Luther King  
• Rosa Parks - Select the best alternative for the following words or phrases that occur in the article
• Britain at any cost ? :  Find the words in the,article which have the meaning of ...
• Short story : Lucky Jim  - Interactive  Select the nearest equivalents
• Who is Angelyne ?  Select the nearest equivalent to the following words as used in the article.
• Route 66 - Highway 66 revisited :  Select the nearest equivalent for the following words and phrases

Vocabulary : words and meaning

• The story of the blues :  Explain the use of the following expressions.
• Stephen Hawking : Explain the following expressions in your own words:

Vocabulary : Synonyms

• Britain's Chinese come out on top - Rephrasing - complete an extract from the article using alternative words and expressions
  
• The Yukon quest - Find the expressions, used in the text, that could be rephrased using the following words.
• Short story - the Car   Interactive  Select the best synonym from the dropdown list:

Word endings

• Americans fat and thin:  Interactive Add the necessary word endings, and words, to complete this extract
• America's bald eagles:  Interactive Add the necessary word endings, and words, to complete this extract
• California - Awaiting the big one Interactive  Replace the missing word-endings in two extracts from the article.
• Stephen Hawking - Interactive online exercise (click) - Without referring back to the article, try to put in all the correct endings
• Wall street culture  Interactive Replace the missing word endings.  
• Woody Guthrie - Interactive  Replace the missing word endings in this short extract from the article

Word search

• America's teenage courts - Find words or expresions in the text which mean...
• Americans fat and thin. Here are some synonyms : find the original words

Word order

• Agatha Christie - Interactive  Reorganise the words in the boxes to make up correctly structured sentences.
• Americans fat and thin. Here are some synonyms : find the original words

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