Download this free C1–C2 English worksheet PDF for advanced English learners and teachers. This lesson is based on research into what goes through people’s minds during an ordinary day and how different thought patterns may relate to happiness.
Students practise advanced reading comprehension, high-level vocabulary, phrase matching and speaking skills through a real-world psychology and research topic about private thoughts, happiness, work, leisure, mental habits, intrusive thoughts and attention. The worksheet is suitable for advanced conversation lessons, online English classes, private tutoring, IELTS-style speaking practice and critical thinking work.
The article explains that economists from Claremont Graduate University and Wuhan University recruited 258 volunteers aged 19 to 71. An app prompted them eight times a day for two weeks to write down what they were thinking, what they were doing and how happy they felt.
This worksheet encourages advanced learners to discuss whether broad thinking categories can really describe human thought. Students consider why the content of thoughts might predict happiness better than activities, whether people can deliberately train themselves to focus on different thoughts, and what ethical limits should apply when researchers study private thoughts.
The article also explores the limits of the study. Students read about four tentative clusters — worriers, domestics, bodily thinkers and work-hard, play-hards — but also learn that the findings are from a preprint and should not be taken at face value as a complete map of humanity. The lesson asks learners to think about culture, sample size, attention and how quickly the mind moves from one concern to another.
The PDF includes a C1–C2 reading article, True / False questions, Phrase Match, Synonym Match, a task where students use new language, discussion questions and a full answer key. It helps learners discuss psychology, happiness, thought patterns, research methods, cultural bias, mental wellbeing and the difference between tentative findings and firm conclusions.
Level: C1–C2
Date: 27 July 2026
Focus: advanced reading, vocabulary, psychology, thinking habits, happiness, research and speaking
This free worksheet includes:
- a C1–C2 reading article about four possible types of thinker
- True / False comprehension questions
- Phrase Match practice with advanced expressions
- Synonym Match with high-level vocabulary
- a sentence-writing task using new language
- discussion questions for Student A and Student B
- full answer key
The worksheet includes useful advanced phrases such as put the spotlight on, goes through our minds, write down, came to the fore, cropped up, mulled over, tuned in to, set in stone, taken at face value and take stock of. It also practises vocabulary such as recruited, ordinary, revealed, tentative, intrusive, highest, content, diverse, occupies and concern.
Worksheet preview
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