A selection of English ESL sports printables with general reading comprehension, reading comprehension

This ESL worksheet consists of two exercises. The first one is the text with eleven gaps which students must fill in with the words given below and then students choose T, F оr NS. Hope you find it useful.

Crazy Free Time Activities

This worksheet is for adults and high school, level A2 -B1 students. The students read the text and answer the  questions. The text should also introduce a debate about the subject.



The FIFA World Cup 2026

This worksheet is for adults and high school, level A2-B1 students. The students read the text and answer true or false  questions. There are also open questions that students have to answer. The text should also introduce a debate about the subject.

Easy reading - The History of the Olympic Games

An article written specially for intermediate ESL students with 10 multiple choice questions that test higher-order thinking skills, such as understanding the nuances of the English language and making inferences. Also has prompts that can be used for speaking and writing. 

"World's Best Soccer Player Lionel Messi Will Go to Miami" - Intermediate Reading Comprehension

It´s a reading comprehension with different exercises. 

Students read the tesk and deal with five different exercises. Besides two comprehension exercise, students have to check for statements and re-write wrong sentences. As a summary, students have to get in pairs and talk about their favourite sports. 

Jesse Owens (reading comprehension)

Revising the present simple tense with the most lovable football player, a Korean, Son Heung Min. You can also discuss racism issues in football and Asian stereotypes.

The Present Simple Tense with Son Heung Min

Playing sports provides young people with many benefits, from improving physical health to developing essential life skills. Regular exercise strengthens muscles, boosts endurance, and helps maintain overall fitness. Sports also improve mental well-being by reducing stress, increasing confidence, and teaching resilience. Socially, young athletes learn teamwork, leadership, and communication skills, which are valuable in school and future careers. Studies show that student-athletes often perform better academically and develop strong time-management skills. This B1-level worksheet includes vocabulary activities, comprehension questions, and discussion prompts to help learners explore the positive impact of sports while building their English skills.

The Benefits of Sports for Young People

This is a free B1 intermediate level English reading lesson about Paris 2024 Olympics, generated using Cathoven AI tools. It includes the reading and reading comprehension exercises in various formats together with the answer keys and explanations.

True/False questions
Multiple choice questions
Short answer questions 
Writing Exercise

B1 - Reading Lesson - Countdown to the Paris 2024 Olympics

This worksheet is designed for B1-B2 learners, focusing on adverbs and adverbial phrases in the context of a reading passage about the history of the word "soccer." Students will explore how adverbs and adverbial phrases function to add detail, sequence events, express attitudes, and link ideas. The lesson includes comprehension activities such as true/false, multiple-choice, and open-ended questions to ensure students understand the content. The grammar section takes a context-based approach, organizing adverbs into functional groups such as precision, time, opinion, and contrast. This allows students to see how adverbs work within real language use rather than learning them in isolation.
 
 
After analyzing examples from the text, students complete controlled practice and then write their own paragraph about a sport they enjoy, using various adverbs. The combination of reading, grammar, and writing tasks ensures that students apply their knowledge of adverbs in both guided and creative ways, making the worksheet both practical and engaging. The historical context of the article, along with nostalgic black-and-white imagery, adds depth to the learning experience, connecting language skills to real-world topics.

History of the word soccer : adverbs & adverbial phrases

This worksheet is intended for intermediate-level students (B1) and focuses on a comprehensive approach to learning future tenses (will vs. going to) through engaging activities. Students will begin with warm-up questions that encourage critical thinking about how technology has shaped sports. Next, they will engage in true or false and multiple choice questions based on a reading passage, helping to reinforce key ideas while developing reading comprehension skills.

 
A vocabulary matching activity ensures that learners grasp the essential terms, and the open-ended questions allow them to express their understanding in their own words. The grammar section takes an inductive learning approach, encouraging students to analyze sentences before diving into detailed explanations of when to use will for predictions, promises, and spontaneous decisions, versus going to for plans and predictions based on evidence.

 
To reinforce learning, students will complete fill-in-the-blank sentences and correct common mistakes. A task-based writing activity invites students to reflect on a past sports event, make predictions using "will," and describe future plans using "going to." For additional practice, students can access a QR code to explore interactive grammar exercises online, allowing for further reinforcement of the lesson's key concepts.

The Future of Sports: will vs going to

A lively A2 reading and worksheet on the problems facing FIFA 2026, mixed up : PAST SIMPLE /PRESENT PERFECT futures: WILL/PRES CONT/ BE GOING TO Exercises on this grammar too as gap fill about the history of football and the future of football. My teens and young adults found it fun as a great revision of tenses, hope yours do too ? :-)

Reading : FIFA Football- mixed past and future tenses- current affairs

Easy reading - Olympiad in Paris

General reading comprehension

Sports

Culture, intercultural communication, cross-cultural communication

Adjectives to describe feelings, emotions

Adjectives to describe personality and character

Adjectives: Gradable / Non-gradable adjectives

Articles: Definite or indefinite article (a, an or the)

BE + infinitive structures (e.g. he was to become famous)

Clauses of contrast (e.g.  although, while)

Clauses of purpose (e.g. in order to, so that, so as to)

Clauses of reason (e.g. because, because of, due to, as, since)

Cleft sentences (e.g. It's Joey we're looking for)

Comparison: Comparative adjectives and structures

Comparison: Superlative adjectives and structures

Conditional 2 (second conditional) - would

Conditionals: Conditional phrases (e.g. unless, provided that, as long as)

Conjunctions (aka connectives, e.g. and, but, or, so, then)

Contractions (shortened forms, e.g. don't, aren't, etc.)

Determiners (words that can come before nouns)

Formal and informal English (politeness or colloquial language)

Future perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Future perfect simple and continuous (progressive) tense

Future phrases (e.g. be about to, bound to, likely to, due to, set to + INF)

Homonyms (two words with the same pronunciation - homophones and homographs)

It as preparatory subject (e.g. it's raining, it's nice of you to)

Linking verbs (aka copulas, e.g. I am a student)

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how to accuse somebody of something in English

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how to ask for something, make requests in English

how to blame somebody for something in English

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how to express agreement /disagreement in English

how to express approval and disapproval  in English

how to express cause and effect in English

how to express interest in something in English

how to express likelihood, probability in English

how to express likes and dislikes in English

how to express sequence and chronology in English

how to express shock and disbelief in English

how to express sympathy and condolences in English

how to give permission, authorization in English

how to inform somebody about some news in English

how to interpret what was said in English

how to keep a conversation going in English

how to make guesses about something in English

how to make, accept and refuse offers in English

how to order or make a booking in English

how to persuade, convince people in English

how to praise people and express appreciation in English

how to reassure somebody of something in English

how to refuse and object to something in English

how to remind people of something in English

how to rephrase, paraphrase what was said in English

how to say thank you, express gratitude in English

Nouns: Collective nouns (team, class, family, committee)

Nouns: Proper nouns (names of people, cities, companies)

Oxymorons (phrases with words of contradictory meaning, e.g. living dead)

Participles: Past participle (e.g. HAVING DONE)

Participles: Present participle (e.g. DOING)

Parts of Speech (aka word classes, e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs)

Past perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Phonetics (pronunciation, IPA, phonetic symbols)

Plural nouns: regular plurals with S ending

Prefixes (e.g. A, UN, IM, DIS, MIS, EN, etc. )

Prepositions vs adverbs (e.g. before me, saw him before.)

Prepositions: Double prepositions (e.g. out of)

Prepositions: Participle prepositions (e.g. pending, concerning)

Prepositions: Phrase prepositions (e.g. by means of)

Present perfect continuous (progressive) tense

Present perfect simple or present continuous tense

Present simple tense: S for third person singular verbs

Present simple vs continuous (progressive) tense

Pronouns: EACH OTHER, ONE ANOTHER (reciprocal pronouns)

Pronouns: Possessive pronouns (e.g. my, mine)

Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself, yourself))

Pronouns: SOMEBODY, ANYBODY, EVERYBODY, NO ONE, NOTHING, etc.

Pronouns: THIS, THAT, THESE, THOSE (demonstratives)

Pronouns: YOU and THEY to talk about people in general

Quantifiers (e.g. some, many, much, any, few, little)

Questions: WH questions (open-ended questions)

Reported speech: reported questions (indirect questions)

There is / there are / there was / there were / there will be, etc.

Verbs: Transitive or intransitive verbs (words that can or cannot stand with objects)

Working with Paragraphs: ordering, titling

Role play, miming, drama activity or improv game

Pictionary (picture dictionary) or picture matching

Writing an opinion essay (persuasive essay)

Learners who are Pre-A1 have just begun learning English and will first learn how to:<ul><li>Say the letters in the alphabet and numbers</li><li>Say hello, talk about names and age</li><li>Name the colors and dates, express likes and dislikes</li></ul>

Absolute beginners who have begun to learn the letters and numbers

Learners taking the A1 Elementary exam should be able to:<ul><li>Introduce themselves and ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, things he/she has, people he/she knows.</li><li>Communicate using very basic phrases as long as the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: common adjectives & adverbs of frequency, going to, how much/how many, imperatives, I'd like, 's – possessive, common prepositions of place and time, present simple & continuous, there is/are</li></ul>

A very basic tourist level, which is enough for buying food and a bus ticket

Learners taking the A2 Pre-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand sentences and frequently used expressions (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment).</li><li>Complete tasks that are routine and exchange information about familiar matters.</li><li>Describe matters of immediate need in simple terms.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: countable/uncountable nouns, adverbs of frequency, future will/going to, much/many, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, common phrasal verbs, common modals: can/should</li></ul>

A tourist who can do basic conversations about the past, present and future

Learners taking the B1 Intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand points regarding family, work, school or leisure-related topics.</li><li>Deal with most travel situations in areas where the language is spoken.</li><li>Create simple texts on topics of personal interest.</li><li>Describe experiences, events, dreams, and ambitions, as well as opinions or plans in brief.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: question tags, intensifiers: too/enough, future tenses, past tenses, modals, conditionals, wh-questions in the past</li></ul>

Learners who can deal with both familiar and routine situations, in friendly and work contexts

Learners taking the B2 Upper-intermediate exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialization.</li><li>Interact with fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without difficulty for either party.</li><li>Produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain an opinion on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.</li><li>Main grammar points to know: perfect tenses, mixed conditionals, modals in the present, phrasal verbs, reported speech, wish, relative clauses</li></ul>

The level where you can be a tour guide for your foreign friends and talk about a lot of topics, even abstract ones, with ease and fluency

Learners taking the C1 Advanced exam should be able to: Express ideas fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts. Produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, using linking phrases (=words that connect ideas between sentences). Main grammar points to know: inversion, mixed conditionals, modals in the past, all passive forms, phrasal verbs (all patterns), wish/if only for regrets

Learners who can smoothly communicate in every walk of life, read long texts and write well

Learners taking the C2 Proficient exam should be able to:<ul><li>Understand almost everything read or heard with ease.</li><li>Summarize information from a variety of sources into a coherent presentation.</li><li>Express themselves using precise meaning in complex scenarios.</li><li>Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in the most complex situations</li></ul>

Get here and you are ready to study in English at university

108 Sports, General reading comprehension, Reading Comprehension English ESL worksheets pdf & doc