Download this free C1–C2 English worksheet PDF for advanced English learners and teachers. This lesson is based on the Reuters Institute’s 2026 Digital News Report and explores why many people feel uneasy, exhausted or disconnected from the news.
Students practise advanced reading comprehension, high-level vocabulary, phrase matching and speaking skills through a real-world topic about news avoidance, media trust, social media, journalism, public mood and emotional overload. 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 news avoidance is not always caused by laziness or lack of interest. Students read about people who feel worn down by repeated political, economic and social shocks, and about others who still follow the news but switch off from stories that feel repetitive, angry or unreliable.
This worksheet encourages advanced learners to discuss the difference between being informed and being overwhelmed. Students consider whether social media makes people better informed or more emotionally exhausted, whether journalists should focus more on solutions, and how news organisations can rebuild trust with audiences who feel disconnected.
The article also explores what healthier news habits might look like. Students discuss impartiality, accuracy, relevance, fragmented media, constructive reporting and whether citizens should try to keep up with every difficult story. The lesson asks whether a healthier news culture may mean reading less, but reading better.
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 journalism, media fatigue, civic knowledge, trust, anxiety, rumour, public confidence and the future of news.
Level: C1–C2
Date: 22 June 2026
Focus: advanced reading, vocabulary, news, journalism, social media, trust and speaking
This free worksheet includes:
- a C1–C2 reading article about why people are uneasy about the news
- 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 tuning out, keep up with, worn down, switch off, make sense of, scrolling through, crowd out, turn to, filter out and hold on to. It also practises vocabulary such as unease, successive, shocks, avoidance, impartiality, fragmented, overwhelmed, unreliable, constructive and relevance.
Worksheet preview
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