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Reading: discussions and interactive exercises

Centuries ago, author and philosopher Sir Francis Bacon said, "Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man." The best way to improve your mastery of the English language is to read a lot (news items, essays, poems, articles from newspapers and magazines, books, etc). Your writing, speaking and listening abilities will definitely improve when your reading and reading comprehension skills improve.

Listed below are links to discussions and interactive exercises in reading from the best ESL and EFL resources on the Internet. Clicking the blue links will take you to the specific pages where the discussions and activities are, while clicking the website name will take you to the home page. Take time to browse these excellent websites; they are consistently good and fast loading. Besides the activities and exercises listed below, these sites generously offer, free of charge, a tremendous range of valuable resources for ESL and EFL teachers and students.

In answering the interactive exercises, you should follow carefully the prompts and directions. You should read each sentence or part aloud before clicking the answer you think is right. After the correct answer is displayed, think it over as to why it is the correct answer. (Please take note that the correct answer may depend on whether the exercise comes from an American English or a British English website.) After doing so, read the complete sentence again aloud with the correct answer.

To train yourself to think in English, try to recite the sentences with the correct answers from memory and at your full speaking volume. Or you can ask a friend to read out loud the sentences with the correct answers and you repeat them without looking at the computer screen.

[01] Reading, from English-at-home

[02] English Reading, from EnglishClub

Classic English Reading ( famous texts in English from classic sources like the Bible or Shakespeare, with Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced and Shakespeare categories)
English Short Stories (For upper-Intermediate to Advanced levels, Short stories ranging in length from 1,500 to 7,000 words, with activities in vocabulary, vocabulary quiz and comprehension quiz. Some stories are from the public domain like Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”, and H.H. Munro’s classic horror story “The Monkey's Paw”.)
Authors (William Blake; Rudyard Kipling; Wilfred Owen; William Shakespeare; Percy Bysshe Shelley)
The English Alphabet
Reading Test (Written Comprehension Test)
English Proverbs
News (Current English language news stories from news publications around the world, good for reading practice)

[03] Reading, from English Corner (Rod Rodgers)

Note: Javascript required, with audio selections related to readings

Glossed Readings
Glossed Poems
Readings with True - False Quiz
Readings with Multiple Choice Quiz
Story Building Exercises
Text Reconstruction Exercises
Cloze Exercises

[04] Reading Techniques (Skimming, Scanning, and Using Context), from English On The Run

[05] English Reading Room, from English Page

Free Online Newspapers; Free Online Magazines; Free Online Books and Literature; Free Online Reference Materials; Online Libraries

[06] The Reading Room - English Comprehension, from English The International Language

Practice your reading skills and improve your vocabulary through selected Articles and Stories, with instant feedback in the True/False questions

[07] Reading, from English Works! Gallaudet University

Reading and Mapping Strategies
Reading Exercises (Traditional Reading Practice - main idea, details, and inferenc- with Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary and Cloze Reading Practices
ESL Reading Links (Reader’s Digest, National Geographic and many others)

[08] Reading, from esl-lounge Student

Elementary
Pre-Intermediate
Intermediate
Advanced

[09] Finest Quotes

[10] Readings in English, from Interesting Things for ESL Students

Reading English Signs
VOA's Special English Feature Stories (with limited vocabulary of 1,500 words)

[11] The Reading Room, from John’s ESL Interactive

Reading Strategies
Action Mazes (Interactive reading exercises)
Password Prize (game)

[12] Reading, from Karin’s ESL Partyland

With Easy, Difficult and TOEFLesque categories, and reading comprehension activities (matching, error correction, etc)

[13] Online Literature Library, from 1-language.com

Aesop’s Fables (350 direct translations from the Greek)
Selected plays of Shakespeare (All's Well that Ends Well; Antony And Cleopatra; Hamlet, Prince of Denmark; Julius Caesar)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The Junior Classics - World Fables (from India, China, Japan, New Guinea, Serbia, Jamaica and others)
World Folk Tales
African Folk Tales
Central Asian Folk Tales
Central European Folk Tales
Chinese Folk Tales
Frank B. Linderman, 1915, Indian Why Stories
The Twins Tales: - Lucy Fitch Perkins, 1911 onwards

[14] Reading, from Language and Learning Online (Monash University)

Effective Reading; Selecting Texts; Predicting; Skimming; Scanning; Detailed Reading; Taking Notes; Reading problems, and Reading Strategies in Education

[15] Readings for ESL Students, from Lauri’s ESL Website

[16] Reading Comprehension, from Learning English Online (englisch-hilfen.de, English version)

[17] ESL Reading Lessons, from 5 Minute English

Note: There are many selections with comprehension exercises from this site; listed below are some representative articles.

Night Study in Korea
Improving Your English
English Around the World
English as an International Language

[18] Reading skills, from One Stop English

Reading matters: What is reading?
Reading skills lesson plans (lesson plans for teaching and learning reading)

[19] 100 free short stories for ESL learners (with listening, grammar, comprehension, and dictation exercises), from Rong-chang Li

Note: In order to listen to the real audio, you need to install the free Real Player. To see the definitions and hear the pronunciation of any word in the stories, you can install the free 1-click Answers program.

[20] Learn English with the news, Read and listen to articles, from Simple English News

[21] Learn English Reading, from Teacher Joe

Timed Readings (How many words per minute can you read?)
Life in China
Joe's Newest Jokes (Learn Vocabulary in context )
English Conversations (Read dialogues between a Chinese student and her friend from New York)

[22] The Quotations Archive

[23] Reading Comprehension Exercises, from Using English

Note: Reading comprehension exercises, based primarily on ESL examination questions like Cambridge ESOL, TOEFL, IELTS and other major exams

Comprehension: Beginner Level Exercises
Comprehension: Intermediate Level Exercises
Comprehension: Advanced Level Exercises

[24] Reading, from world-english

English Proverbs
Proverbs & Old Sayings Quiz
Classic Short Stories (public domain, copyright free)
Classic English Poetry

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