Just going to classes or doing an online course isn't enough if you want to improve your English. Although both are important, it's what you do outside of them that makes the difference on how quickly you improve your level of the language.

If you really want to improve your English, you need to regularly read in English.

If you are an English teacher, click here to learn about the teacher version of this eBook.

To help own my students, I decided to make my own material for them to read outside of class. Articles and pieces of writing which were challenging enough that they would continue improving their level of English when reading them and that were both interesting to read and on a variety of topics which would help them to broaden their knowledge of English vocabulary.

It's taken me over 2 years to create all of this reading material and to get it just right. And the result of all this hard work is this eBook.


What's in the eBook

To start with, this edition of the eBook has been specifically designed to be used by students by themselves. There are 70 reading exercises in it and each exercise includes:

  • A long text (none less than 1000 words)
  • A vocabulary exercise where you'll learn 7 essential words and phrases from the text
  • A page to create your own sentences of the vocabulary you've learnt

Click here to see a list of the titles of the text of the 70 reading exercises

The 70 texts in the eBook

  1. The intelligence of plants
  2. Superstitions and their strange origins
  3. Jordan: A spectacular country with unfortunately too few tourists
  4. The myth of meritocracy in education
  5. The comparative failure of online grocery shopping
  6. Can fashion be considered to be art?
  7. Ten inventions that radically changed our world
  8. What makes solo endurance athletes keep going?
  9. Is human habitation on Mars possible?
  10. The questionable validity and morality of using IQ tests
  11. Is wind power the answer for our future energy needs?
  12. The history of astrology
  13. Our changing spending habits at Christmas
  14. The importance of stories for us
  15. Is lab-grown meat a good thing for us?
  16. Is there any difference between men's and women's brains?
  17. ASMR: Making money through making very soft sounds
  18. Why many of us don't really work when at work
  19. The worrying disappearance of the right to free speech at British universities
  20. Changing the image of classical music
  21. The discovery which is reshaping the theory of our origins
  22. Sleep and its importance
  23. Wealth and happiness: Are the two connected?
  24. Punishing the parents for their kids underage drinking
  25. Reintroducing wolves and other lost species back into the wild in Britain
  26. Everest and death: Why people are still willing to climb mountain of the dead
  27. The debate on whether being overweight is unhealthy
  28. The importance of Conrad's 'The Heart of Darkness'
  29. The resistance to moving from steam power to electricity in manufacturing
  30. The significance of colour
  31. The work of artist Jackson Pollock
  32. Food imagery and manipulation
  33. The urgency of acting now to stop climate change
  34. Trying to reverse the declining demand for humanities majors in America
  35. How the tulip caused the world's first economic crash
  36. A review of the film "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri"
  37. Our personality traits appear to be mostly inherited
  38. Is it right for people to go to Africa to hunt?
  39. The new palaces of the 21st century
  40. Understanding contemporary dance
  41. America's six best hiking trails
  42. Why the disappearance of livestock farming is good for us all
  43. Can we trust our memories?
  44. Why Mary Shelly's Frankenstein is still relevant today
  45. Customer complaints are good for business
  46. How the discovery of plate tectonics revolutionised are understanding of our planet
  47. Is there a conflict between saving the planet and reducing poverty?
  48. No more rock stars anymore
  49. Are the rich better than the rest of us?
  50. Globalisation and how societies have always evolved
  51. The reasons for the decline in wine consumption in France
  52. The merits of being a fair-weather sports fan
  53. The reason why homeopathic treatment does work with patients
  54. Is the gentrification of parts of cities a really bad thing?
  55. The origins of the metric system
  56. Do prisons work?
  57. All you need to know about depression
  58. The future of work
  59. The difficulties for us to colonise the galaxy
  60. The shredding of Banksy's "Girl With Balloon" at auction: Stunt or statement?
  61. Why a decline in the planet's biodiversity is a threat to us all
  62. Should we profile people in society to predict behaviour?
  63. A review of Vincent LoBrutto's biography of Stanley Kubrick
  64. Is free trade between countries a good thing?
  65. Is freshwater the biggest challenge we will face this century?
  66. The problems of relying on metrics to gauge performance
  67. Should you use the carrot or the stick with your children?
  68. Stefan Zweig: The life of a citizen of the world
  69. The evolution of science and thought throughout the ages part 1
  70. The evolution of science and thought throughout the ages part 2

Close the exercise list

In addition to this, you'll also find in the eBook a tried and tested method for using these reading exercises to improve your English quicker.

The material in the eBook will last you for over 6 months of regular reading.


How the eBook will help you

The material in this eBook will help you quickly improve your English in a number of different areas:

Improve your reading

Each reading exercise has a text that been specifically written and adapted for people whose level of English is proficiency (or high advanced) or are studying for the Cambridge CPE exam. The texts cover a wide range of different topics (from science to art and everything in between) and this will broaden your knowledge of English vocabulary.

Improve your vocabulary

In addition to the text, each reading exercise contains a vocabulary exercise. In this, you will learn the meaning of 7 carefully selected phrases and words from the text. These are words and phrases which I have noticed over that students at your level commonly don't know, don't use or use incorrectly.

Make you remember the vocabulary

It would be pointless for you to learn the meaning of these words and phrases and then forget what they mean. To ensure you remember them, each reading exercise comes with a page for you to write a sentence in your own words for each of the 7 words and phrases you learnt in the vocabulary exercise.


Get your copy now

The cost for all of this material is €12 (around $14). When you take into consideration how long it will take you read all the material (over 6 months) and how much it will help you improve your English, it is cheap for the price.

I've been giving my own students these reading exercises for three years now and I'm very happy with the results I've seen. Not only with seeing how it has improved their level of English, but seeing how much they enjoy the topics of the reading exercises that they always want to talk about what they've read in class.

Click the button below to buy your copy.