ENGLISH
READING TEXTS - levels A2, B1 and B2
GRAMMAR and EXERCISE INDEX
Searchable index of grammar, worksheets and classroom activities accompanying Linguapress elementary and intermediate reading texts
In addition to the main
activities and exercises listed,
most pages
in this index also come with additional tips for teachers, information
about
grammar, and/or more classroom ideas. Extra activities, interactivity
and exercises are added periodically to
these resources, and suggestions are welcomed from teachers.
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Find texts by level, grammar points or exercise
► Note 1: some B2 texts are harder than others. For harder or longer B2 texts, see index of advanced level texts by CEFR level and grammar points.► Note 2: the Language and grammar column is by no means complete: it just lists points that are particularly salient.
| Title | CEFR level |
Theme | Grammar points illustrated | Worksheet, main exercises and activities |
| William Shakespeare, still a star! with Audio | A2 | People | Verbs - past tenses | Interactive - Spelling exercise and antonym exercise. |
| London, historic and modern with Audio | A2 | Places | Adjectives - attributive and predicative; comparison of adjectives | Interactive- Spelling, find the mistakes: true or false questions |
| Suffragettes! They fought and won with Audio | A2 | English History | Irregular verbs | Interactive - Spelling, words and their meaning, sequencing. |
| New York, world city with Audio | A2 | Places | Adjectives,
comparative and superlative Many and much |
Interactive - Adjectives, comparative and superlative. Vocabulary: spelling, word endings; meaning and matching. True or false? |
| Taylor Swift, in simple English with Audio | A2 | Music | Verbs - past tenses | Interactive - Fill in missing words. Comprehension exercise - True or false? |
| The origins of football and rugby - | A2 | Sport | Verbs -
past tenses Adverbs - adverbial expressions of time |
Interactive - Multiple choice questions - choose the correct word. |
| Ed Sheeran with Audio | A2 | Music | Verbs - past tenses | Interactive
- Fill in the missing words: three-letter words. |
| Marathons - what are they about? with audio | A2 | Sport - Interview | Verbs
- use of the simple present
tense, Questions, time and numbers. |
Interactive missing words exercise, for listening practice |
| Princess Kate – from Kate Middleton to Queen Catherine - with Audio | A2 | People, celebrities | Interactive
exercise: Fill in the missing words. Free expression: Questions for Kate. Vocabulary: Family relations |
|
| The place where money has no value with Audio | A2 | Places | Prepositions and Adverbs Verb negatives |
Interactive Multiple
choice questions with dropdown menu Prepositions and adverbs |
| Liverpool, Britain's music city Home of the Beatles - with Audio | A2.2 | Places | Miscellaneous | Interactive - Sentence building (putting words in correct order); grammar and meaning - multiple choice questions. |
| English ghost stories | A2.2 | Life | Irregular verbs | The second part of the article is at A2 level Interactive: Grammar exercise: Irregular verbs |
| Martin Luther King - American hero with Audio | A2.2 | Life - USA | Verbs - past tenses | Interactive: Multiple choice questions, emphasis on past tenses. |
| Living underground - past and future - with Audio | A2.2 | Technical English | Nouns | Interactive: Insert all missing nouns. Vocabulary: Antonyms |
| Dance Macabre - short story with audio | B1 | Short Story | Prepositions | Interactive grammar exercise: replace missing prepositions Interactive comprehension exercise: answer the questions. |
| Alcohol, Prohibition and Al Capone | B1 | Life - USA | Negatives, modal verbs, quantifiers. | Interactive MCQ - words. |
| America's oil - a love affair | B1 | Life - USA | Verbs:
Present tenses Past tenses |
Interactive exercises:
Mismatched sentences. MCQ cloze verb tense exercise |
| Britain - a nation of cat-lovers Text including interactive MCQ gap-fill exercise with audio | B1 | Life – Britain | Simple relative clauses
with who Simple uses of the passive |
Interactive MCQ gap-fill / cloze exercise replace the missing words (from a list) |
| Britain, that island: with audio | B1 | Life - Britain | Use of first conditional clauses with will or present There is / there are |
Comprehension: complete the sentences using information from the text. |
| Charles
III Britain's king with audio |
B1 | People – Britain | Verb
forms and tenses |
Interactive exercise - Imagine questions from answers given Interactive Grammar exercise: verb forms and tenses. |
| Charles III, his coronation and the future with audio | B1 | Life - Britain | Verbs:
the future Simple use of verbs in the passive. Expressing negation Not, no, nor etc |
Interactive
MCQ Grammar exercise: the future, negation Interactive Anagrams |
| The end of the world? with audio | B1 | Life in general | Future
events Dependent clauses with that Simple conditional clauses |
Interactive
vocabulary exercise. Interactive True/false comprehension exercise. |
| Christmas shopping | B1 | Life - Britain | Prepositions | Interactive grammar
exercise: prepositions. Question forming. |
| Climate change: can we stop it ? - with audio | B1 | Technical | Modal verbs | Interactive MCQ Choose the correct word from the lists provided. Covers vocabulary, grammar, collocations |
| Dialogue: Talking about "culture" | B1 | Discussion | Tag questions | Interactive MCQ grammar exercise: choose the right tags |
| Dialogue: Brand slaves. Talking about fashion | B1 | Discussion | Tag
questions Verbs: present tenses - present simple and continuous ; participle clauses or phrases. |
Interactive MCQ
grammar exercise: choose the right tags Interactive comprehension exercise: explain meanings. Creative writing activity. |
| Dialogue: Talking about school uniforms with audio | B1 | Discussion | Negation. Negative structures | Two exercises covering vocabulary and creative writing. |
| George Washington with audio | B1 | Life - USA | Verbs: the passive | Interactive MCQ - expressions. Write questions from answers. |
| Holidays in space with audio | B1 | Technical | Articles - the, a an or no article | Interactive MCQ grammar exercise. Choose the correct article when needed. |
| Keir Starmer - Britain's prime minister with audio | B1 | People - Britain | Articles - the, a an or no article. Question forming. | Interactive MCQ grammar exercise. Choose the correct article when needed. Form questions starting... |
| London
in the Sea ? - with 20 missing words to select (interactive MCQ gap-fill exercise) |
B1 | Life – Britain | Prepositions. Verbs: - expressing the future (will, going to etc.) |
Interactive
grammar exercise: replace missing prepositions. Activity: pair work - imagine an interview |
| Looking for the yeti. | B1 | Relatives | Join
pairs of sentences using which who or when. Reusing information: What did people say when... ? Nouns and adjectives for place names. |
|
| Malala Yousafzai - teenage nobel prizewinner | B1 | Human rights | Phrasal and prepositional verbs: | Interactive exercises on verbs and phrasal verbs. |
| Moving to the Country - with audio | B1 | Life - Britain | Verbs: present and past continuous forms | 1. Comprehension questions true or false. 2 Interactive Grammar exercise: missing verbs. |
| Music : the Beatles | B1 | British icons | Verbs: -
Simple past tense They, there and demonstrative these as subjects of the sentence. |
Comprehension
questions true or false. Paused reading suggestion. |
| My name is Bond. | B1 | People - Britain | Adjectives: comparison and gradation | Interactive exercise: correct the mistakes in the resumé |
| Polluting for pleasure - a dialogue | B1 | Technical | Tag questions, oral style | Interactive exercise:
provide short answers on the model Yes I do. Rephrasing exercise. Suggestion for a role-play activity |
| Pollution
- someone else's
problem - a humourous dialogue |
B1 | Technical | Interactive exercise:
word order. Put the words in the right order. Some of the words in the copied dialogue are misplaced. |
|
| Remembering Queen Elizabeth | B1 | People – Britain | Verbs:. The simple past (preterite) - historic narrative | Interactive 1. Cloze exercise - replace the missing verbs. 2. Comprehension questions - true or false. |
| One Foggy Night - short story with audio | B1 | Short Story | Prepositions and
adverbs Modal verbs Tag questions. Verbs: tenses |
Interactive grammar
exercise: replace missing prepositions and adverbs. Listening activity: note the small differences between the written and recorded versions. Part 2: Interactive Retelling the story Interactive Prepositions Past tenses (past perfect / pluperfect) |
| The path to High Crag - short story with audio | B1 | Short Story | Negation,
phrasal verbs, Get
and got Irregular Verbs: Prepositions and adverbs |
Interactive comprehension
/ rephrasing : turn notes into sentences Part 2: Interactive irregular verbs table. Prepositions exercise: add the missing words |
| The Trap - short story with audio | B1 | Short Story | Verbs
Get and got Phrasal verbs |
Telephone
English - Interactive
- complete the phone call
using info from the story. Complete the story in your own words. In part 2: Phrasal verbs, Interactive - write questions from answers, and other activities. |
| Dr. Trelew's Encounter - short story with audio - with audio | B1 | Short Story | Verbs: tenses,
including the past perfect -
simple and progressive
aspects |
True
or false comprehension questions. Word search. Direct and indirect speech. |
| Short story: the Wimp. with audio | B1 | Short Story | Informal
conversational style Indefinite pronouns - someone, anything etc. Adjectives - attributive, predicative |
Interactive exercise – complete sentences using info from the story. |
| The car of the future?- short story with audio | B1 | Technical | Interactive exercise:
replace the missing words using the list provided. The list provides 25
words, but your will only need 20 of these... making this exercise a
bit more interesting ! Activities on: comparing, explaining vocabulary, creative writing. |
|
| The legendary Mini Cooper | B1 | Technical | Irregular Verbs:,
Phrasal verbs Prepositions Articles Questions Compound nouns |
Irregular
verbs exercise - find the preterite forms Phrasal verb exercise: explain the meanings Interactive grammar exercise. Choose the correct article when needed. Interactive exercise. Write questions to fit the answers given and using the question words given. |
| The men who guard the King with audio | B1 | British icons | Questions | Interactive - Complete an imaginary interview - Questions without question words. Interactive - Find the missing words |
| Will there be life after oil? with audio | B1 | Technical | Modal Verbs: - will and others | Interactive MCQ Choose the correct modal from the lists provided. Interactive exercise: replace the missing words in a résumé of the article. |
| A day in London | B2.1 | Tourism | Irregular verbs | A multiple-choice interactive quiz, on irregular verbs, in the form of a short text about a day out in London. 39 verbs to choose. With answers |
| New life for Big Ben. with audio | B2.1 | British icons | Voices - active and passive | MCQ
– select the correct word / information. Convert active to passive and vice-versa. |
| Britain: sport cuts crime. I | B2.1 | Sport | -ing words
- gerunds, present participles |
Interactive cloze exercise – complete an extract from the text. |
| Canada An introduction | B2.1 | Life - Canada | Prepositions | Interactive Grammar cloze exercise: replace the missing prepositions. |
| Dialogue: Talking about drugs | B2.1 | Discussion | Agreeing
and disagreeing Tag questions. |
True
or false comprehension questions. Creative writing exercise |
| Dialogue: Talking about work | B2.1 | Discussion | Tag
questions. Conditional clauses. If |
Interactive grammar
exercise: add the missing tags MCQ Exercise: words and meanings |
| Hollywood & Superheroes Text including interactive MCQ gap-fill exercise | B2.1 | Life - USA | Verbs: | MCQ
gap-fill / cloze exercise mostly on verbs. Activity: imaginary interview. Exercise:answer the questions. |
| I would if I could Sing along song with audio | B2.1 | Song | Modal verbs: | Sing
along to learn the modal verbs. Interactive gap fill exercise: modal verbs |
| The story of London | B2.1 | Life – Britain | Adverbs and function words | Interactive MCQ exercise:
adverbs and function words Interactive Comprehension questions. True or false questions |
| Winter sports USA | B2.1 | Life - USA | Interactive cloze exercise: MCQ – select the correct word. | |
| American Indians - The original inhabitants of the USA with audio | B2 | Life - USA | Interactive Missing words, questions from answers. | |
| Big red London buses with audio | B2 | Life – Britain | Prepositions. | Interactive grammar
exercise: replace missing prepositions True or false questions. Text contraction |
| Black taxis going green. | B2 | Technical | One and all | Interactive exercise: complete the half sentences, |
| Charlie Chaplin and the Little Tramp. | B2 | British icons | Nouns: word
endings . This text is very rich in derived nouns with nominal
suffixes. |
Write
questions to fit the answers given. Interactive - Word families: find words in the same family as... |
| Christmas in England with audio | B2 | Life – Britain | Quantifiers. - less, few, fewer, many, more, most, etc. Verb forms and tenses | Essential
comprehension questions . Interactive grammar exercise - verbs |
| Close encounters with a Twister - A tornado strikes. | B2 | Life - USA | Prepositions. Verbs: Present participles and the past progressive |
Interactive Grammar
exercise: replace the missing prepositions. MCQ exercise on
synonyms. Make up questions. |
| Dialogue: Talking about fast food with audio | B2 | Discussion | Interactive memory exercise (vocabulary) | |
| Elvis - he's still the "King" | B2 | Music - USA | Demonstratives | Interactive exercise – complete the interview. |
| Hollywood - its life and times | B2 | Life - USA | Expressing time | Interactive exercise: complete the sentences. |
| Living in the Highlands. | B2 | Life - Britain | Articles Adjectives: and epithets Compound nouns |
1. Interactive
MCQ Grammar exercise: articles 2. True/False comprehension questions. 3. Word order exercise. |
| Living without energy | B2 | Technical | Articles - the, a an or no article | Interactive MCQ grammar exercise. Choose the correct article when needed. |
| London Fashion | B2 | Life – Britain | Conjunctions and connectors (and, but, yet, however, while, although etc.) | Interactive MCQ exercise: conjunctions and connectors |
| Mystery : The Titanic and the Temple of Doom | B2 | Short Story | Verbs: | Interactive grammar
exercise: verb forms. Memory testing: paused reading. Creative writing: imaginary letter |
| No more Fish 'n' Chips? | B2 | Life - Britain | Nouns and articles | Comprehension
exercise: pick out the mistakes. Interactive MCQ grammar exercise: articles |
| Profession : Cowboy with audio | B2 | Life - USA | Pronouns they / there /
their |
Interactive Answer
the questions. Vocabulary - antonyms |
| Robin Hood | B2 | British icons | Expressing doubt, hypothesis or certainty. | Interactive exercise: replace missing words. Pair work: interviews with Robin Hood. |
| Sherlock Holmes is growing old - | B2 | British icons | Adverbs,
conjunctions, Verbs:. Verbs:: past tenses |
Interactive exercise: replace missing words (grammar based). Activity: pair work - discussions. |
| The Girl in the Denim Jacket -- short story with audio | B2 | Short Story | Phrasal verbs: | True
or false comprehension questions. Phrasal verbs and meaning - match items in list A to list B. Free expression: anticipating the ending. More exercises and activities with part 2. |
| Driftwood -- short story with audio | B2 | Short Story | Gerunds and other -ing words | Two types of comprehension exercise based on the story. |
| The Box - - short story with audio | B2 | Short Story | Prepositions and Prepositional
verbs (in both parts of the story). Colloquial dialogue. Tag questions Imperatives (affirmative and negative) |
Interactive grammar
exercise: replace missing prepositions and adverbs.
Retell the story using the prompts given. Listening activity: note the small differences between the written and recorded versions. Other suggestions and activities. |
| The story of football and rugby - | B2 | Sport | Relative
clauses - with who, whom,
where or which |
Interactive Fun
MCQ cloze exercise Reusing information: complete the sentences in the first person. Find synonyms. |
| The story of the Derby with audio | B2 | Sport | Prepositions | Interactive grammar
exercise: replace missing prepositions True or false questions. Listening activity : spot differences between the recording and the written text. |
| Still looking for Gold | B2 | Life - USA | Indirect speech, Quantifiers. - few, a few, much, many etc | Imaginary interview: answer the questions. |
| Storing electricity - the big challenge. | B2 | Technical | Indefinite pronouns (everywhere, anywhere etc.) | Interactive exercise: replace the missing words using the list provided. Tests vocabulary and grammar. |
| Team sports, American style | B2 | sport | Verbs: present simple passive, present perfect | Interactive cloze exercise – complete sentences using info from the article. |
| The Commonwealth. | B2 | Places | Interactive exercise
– Reading for information. Comprehension questions True or False |
|
| The Loch Ness Monster | B2 | British icons | Prepositions | Interactive grammar exercise: replace missing prepositions. |
| The story of Blue Jeans. with audio | B2 | Life - USA | Interactive cloze
exercise: complete the summary (missing words). Listening exercise. Pick out the small differences between the audio recording and the written text. |
|
| The story of Coca-Cola. Text including interactive MCQ gap-fill exercise. with audio | B2 | Life - USA | Use of Articles | Interactive
cloze exercise: missing words. Interactive MCQ cloze exercise: missing articles. |
| What and where is Silicon Valley ? | B2 | Places - USA | Questions | Interactive exercise - Imagine questions from the answers given. |
| The story of the BBC | B2 | British icons | Imagine questions from answers (Questions with question words). | |
| The tradition of Christmas cards. | B2 | Life – Britain | Prepositions Quantifiers. - each, every, many, no etc. |
Interactive exercise
– Word order: put words in the correct order. Interactive
exercise: replace missing prepositions. Interactive exercise - Imagine questions from the answers given. |
| Who is James Bond ? | B2 | People - Britain | Word endings | Interactive exercise.
Fill in the missing word endings. Pair aginary interviews. |
| Who was Buffalo Bill? with audio | B2 | People - USA | Was and were - as past forms of be, past progressive auxiliary, and passive auxiliary | Listening activity: differences between the written and the recorded text. Exercise: write questions from answers. |
| The story of the bicycle - | B2+ | Technical | True
or false comprehension questions. Pair work: imaginary interview. |
|
| The wind farm controversy - | B2+ | Technical | Compound nouns | Expressions and meaning. Out of eleven expressions explained, which four explanations are incorrect? |
| Leaving home | B2 | Life - Britain | Various points are illustrated in
this extended document. |
1. Word search. 2. Comprehension questions true or false. 3. Interactive : complete the missing middle part of sentences. |
| London : Madame Tussaud's - | Life – Britain | Modal verbs | Match up sentences: connect the correct part B to each part A. | |
| London: the Great River Race | B2 | Life – Britain | Interactive : Reusing information. Complete the postcard | |
| London: the Lord Mayor's show. | Life – Britain | Reusing information. Complete the sentences. | ||
| Scouting moves ahead. | Life - Britain | Reusing information write sentences starting.. |
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