Download this free B2–C1 English worksheet PDF for adult learners and English teachers. This lesson explores personal questions, social etiquette and privacy, including age, salary, relationships, family plans, workplace boundaries and the changing meaning of appropriate conversation.
Students practise reading comprehension, useful vocabulary, phrase matching and speaking skills through a real-world culture and communication topic about social conventions, intrusive questions, personal boundaries, transparency and privacy. The worksheet is suitable for private English lessons, online classes, advanced conversation practice and homework before a discussion lesson.
The article begins with the familiar question of whether it is rude to ask an adult’s age. Students consider how an apparently harmless enquiry can cross the line when it carries an unspoken assumption about appearance, success or life choices, and how the same question may seem curious in one setting but intrusive in another.
The worksheet also explores salary conversations. Greater pay transparency may expose unfair treatment, but individuals may still be reluctant to disclose confidential information. Students discuss whether talking openly about money reduces inequality or creates new tensions.
Family and relationship questions provide another area of debate. Relatives may bring up marriage or children with genuine affection without realising that the topic is painful or unwelcome. Students consider different responses, from opening up honestly to brushing off the question or drawing a clear boundary.
The article also examines privacy in online and professional life. Information may be easy to find, but people still have the right to decide what they share. At work, friendly conversation can become intrusive when managers pry into health, relationships or family plans.
The lesson avoids the simple conclusion that all personal questions should be banned. Instead, students consider context, appropriateness and whether respectful curiosity leaves enough room for someone to refuse without their boundaries being treated as a personal insult.
The PDF includes a B2–C1 reading article, True / False questions, Phrase Match, Synonym Match, a task where students use new language, discussion questions and a full answer key.
Level: B2–C1
Date: 8 October 2026
Focus: reading, vocabulary, social etiquette, privacy, personal boundaries, sensitive questions and speaking
This free worksheet includes:
- a B2–C1 reading article about personal questions and social etiquette
- discussion of age, salary, relationships, family plans and privacy
- True / False comprehension questions
- Phrase Match practice with useful expressions
- Synonym Match vocabulary practice
- a sentence-writing task using new language
- discussion questions for Student A and Student B
- full answer key
The worksheet includes useful phrases such as cross the line, put someone on the spot, bring up, brush off, open up, keep to yourself, pry into, draw the line, come across as and think twice. It also practises vocabulary such as intrusive, conventions, reluctant, disclose, candid, superficial, appropriate, awkward, genuine and boundaries.
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