ESL Reading Comprehension Worksheet: Giving Advice (Intermediate-Advanced)

A worksheet in business context to practice reading for advanced ESL students. (Free download available.)

Giving advice

My name is Fred, and today I stopped my colleague, Penny, to have a chat. We talked about her performance on a recent project and I explained some of the ways that it could have gone better. I started by praising her for the good work she’d done, although she may have seen through this obligatory praise as some kind of sugar-coating in order to cushion the impact of the criticism. 

That being said, she accepted my guidance genuinely, and I feel that this was a beneficial discussion. She was quite happy to be given the chance to improve, actually, and told me to let her know if there was any other advice I could offer in the future. The fact that she handled this so maturely made me see just how professional she is.

I. Exercise one – Fill in the blanks

1. My name is __________________________________.

            a. Francis

            b. Felix

            c. Fred

            d. Fredric

2. I started by __________________________________ her

            a. commending

            b. pleasing

            c. scolding

            d. praising

3 .The fact that she handled this so __________________________________

            a. maturely

            b. immaturely

            c. well

            d. poorly

II. Exercise two – Answer the questions

1. Who is Fred’s Colleague?

________________________________________________________________

2. What did Fred do?

________________________________________________________________

3. What is obligatory praise?

________________________________________________________________

4. What was the point of the conversation?

________________________________________________________________

5. What was Penny’s reaction to the advice?

________________________________________________________________

III. Exercise three – Talk about yourself

1. What was the last piece of advice you gave?

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

2. Are you good at giving advice?

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

3. Do you think Fred did the right thing in this situation?

____________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________

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