A selection of English ESL moral dilemma printables

This is something about moral dilemmas for advanced level conversation. At times the students were reluctant to have an opinion but I had to go slowly step by step. 

Moral Dilemmas

There are seven moral / ethical dilemmas to be considered. Have your students work in pairs an discuss possible solutions. Maybe you also can have a class discussion.

Up For Discussion - Moral Dilemmas #1

A reading passage with true or false, comprehension questions, two further tasks and I also include the passage as a cloze exercise. This could link to a topic on moral dilemmas. 

Elena and the Lost Ring

This thought-provoking worksheet, The Lifeboat Ultimatum, is ideal for B1–B2 level students and centers on a powerful ethical dilemma. After a shipwreck, six survivors must decide who should be left behind so the lifeboat won’t sink — prompting difficult choices and intense discussion. The worksheet includes a short reading to set the scene, vocabulary matching for key terms, and ranking tasks where students must justify their decisions. A set of discussion questions and twist scenarios encourage deeper moral reasoning, empathy, and debate. Perfect for conversation classes, critical thinking practice, or lessons exploring ethics in English.









The Lifeboat Ultimatum: Who would you leave behind?

Who Stays, Who Goes? is an engaging, discussion-based ethical dilemma game designed for 4 to 16 players, ideal for upper-intermediate English learners or advanced speaking classes. Each player receives a unique character card that includes a public role and a secret trait, which they may choose to reveal at any point during the game. Players are then presented with a survival scenario—for example, limited space in a shelter, an oxygen shortage, or a rescue vehicle with too few seats—and must debate who should be allowed to stay and who must be voted out. An optional deck of extra secret trait cards adds a layer of unpredictability and strategic depth, offering players the chance to draw a bonus trait with either helpful or harmful consequences. The game promotes persuasive speaking, active listening, critical thinking, and moral reasoning. It works well as a speaking activity, warm-up for argumentative writing, or collaborative debate practice. The materials include a set of 30 reusable character cards, 30 optional secret traits, 12 scenario prompts, voting rules scaled for group size, a one-sheet rule summary, and a facilitator’s guide for running the activity smoothly. Ideal for teens or adults, this game is replayable and encourages students to use English in emotionally charged, real-world decision-making contexts.

Who Stays, Who Goes ?

This engaging worksheet presents students with an ethical dilemma titled The River Crossing, designed for B1–B2 level learners. It begins with a short, thought-provoking reading about a woman caught in a dangerous situation during a war, forced to make difficult moral choices. The story sets the stage for vocabulary practice, a character ranking task, and rich classroom discussion. Students must decide who is most responsible for the woman’s death, explain their reasoning, and reflect on broader ethical questions such as loyalty, love, and moral duty. The worksheet also includes five alternative scenarios to encourage deeper thinking, empathy, and debate. Perfect for critical thinking lessons, conversation classes, or introducing ethics in EFL contexts.

The River Crossing ethical dilemma

This worksheet introduces students to a future where virtual reality games allow people to do anything they want—because they believe no one gets hurt. Inspired by the idea of catharsis and ethical gaming, the story explores what happens when players discover that the characters inside the game are not artificial intelligence, but real people trapped inside. Through an engaging reading text written at a B1–B2 level, students reflect on right and wrong, freedom and safety, and how people behave when they think there are no consequences. The lesson includes discussion questions, a simple choose-your-own-adventure activity with multiple outcomes, and a personal writing task. It is perfect for conversation classes, critical thinking practice, or moral dilemmas in English.

Virtual Violence – What If the Game Was Real?

This ESL worksheet explores a powerful ethical dilemma set in a future where religion has been completely banned after a violent religious uprising. In a world afraid of belief, even private prayer is illegal, and those who continue to worship are sent to re-education centers. Students read a dystopian background story, then reflect on freedom, belief, and control through discussion questions, a choice-based moral scenario, and a personal writing task. Written at a B1–B2 level, the activity encourages critical thinking, emotional expression, and real-world conversation practice around sensitive but meaningful topics. Ideal for upper-intermediate teens or adults in a conversation or ethics-themed lesson.

After the Fire – A World Without Faith

This worksheet is designed for upper-intermediate to advanced learners and focuses on reading comprehension, moral reasoning, and creative writing. It features a short story titled The Copy in Room 6, where a doctor secretly forms an emotional bond with a conscious clone created for organ harvesting. The text explores deep ethical themes such as consent, power imbalance, identity, and human rights in a futuristic setting. After reading, students answer critical thinking questions and write a journal entry from the clone’s perspective. This resource is ideal for lessons on dystopia, ethics, or science fiction, and works well in classroom debates or philosophy-driven ESL lessons.

The Copy in Room 6 – A Clone and Consent Dilemma

This dystopian roleplay worksheet explores the moral dilemma of using convicted criminals as test subjects for scientific progress. Inspired by current debates around justice, bioethics, and human rights, students read a short story set in the year 2099, where criminals are used for experiments that benefit society. When a student discovers a mistake in the system, they must choose how to respond. Includes a background text, 5 discussion questions, a 3-choice moral dilemma with consequences, and a letter-writing prompt. Designed for B1–B2 students, this worksheet encourages critical thinking, debate, and creative writing.

The Price of Progress – When Justice Becomes Science

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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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>

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10 Moral dilemma English ESL worksheets pdf & doc