Reading: The Sharing Economy
The sharing economy is a B2 reading text on the digital-platform business model that has transformed accommodation, transport, and services. The text covers what sharing-economy platforms do (match unused capacity with demand: Airbnb, Uber, TaskRabbit), their benefits (efficiency, accessibility, supplementary income), and their controversies (regulatory evasion, worker classification, neighbourhood effects, gentrification). Learners read for business-model analysis, stakeholder identification, and trade-off recognition.
This worksheet builds B2 reading comprehension through a platform-economy analysis text.
Worksheet preview
What’s inside:
- A B2 reading text (~550 words) on the sharing economy and platform business
- Pre-reading vocabulary box with platform-economy and labour terms
- Comprehension items: business-model identification, stakeholder finding, trade-off recognition
- Vocabulary-in-context: platform-economy lexis
- Writing follow-up: describe your experience with a sharing-economy service
- Full Answer Key plus Teacher Notes
Common challenges: Platform-business vocabulary at B2: platform, marketplace, two-sided market, network effects, scale, disruption, asset-light. Labour vocabulary: gig worker, independent contractor, employee classification, benefits, protections. Identifying competing stakeholder interests: platforms, workers, customers, regulators, neighbourhoods.
For: Adult and teenage learners (14+) at CEFR B2, in upper-intermediate classes, 1:1 lessons, or self-study. Maps onto Cambridge B2 First (FCE) and C1 Advanced (CAE) Reading. Part of the Work & Career Readings collection — the natural next step is The Gig Economy, which extends platform-economy reading into the labour-specific dimension.
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