English Articles for Upper-Intermediate and Advanced Students

This is a collection of articles written by Fullspate and intended to be interesting to read and equally interesting to discuss. Newer articles or revised articles are listed in the first section below. Older articles (presented with the older website styling) are listed in the archive section further down this page. Use your browser's back button to navigate back to this page.

Newer English articles worth reading

Aaron Ralston's Story
The climber who escaped death by cutting his arm off

Leverage & the financial crisis
Leverage & the financial crisis explained for the EFL classroom

Einstein's Theory of Relativity for Dummies
Einstein Theory of Relativity - an introduction and summary - EFL, ESOL advanced reading material from Fullspate

Digital Heaven
Heaven online - Ray Kurzweil and the idea of uploading the brain to the internet - EFL, ESOL advanced reading material from Fullspate

Nanotechnology - an Introduction
Nanotechnology - an Introductiont - EFL, ESOL advanced reading material from Fullspate

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster
Chernobyl nuclear disaster EFL ESOL article English language teaching materials - from Fullspate.net

Catch 22 - EFL ESL lesson material
Catch 22, Joseph Heller - advanced TEFL TESOL English lesson material

Archive of Fullspate stuff worth reading

Drugs and teenagers
Scott Douglas' story of his fatal addiction.

Break my leg, Doc!
Chinese girls are queuing up to have their legs broken so they can find a good job and a husband.

How dumb are you?
Ever wondered if you are as smart as your mum says you are? Do this little quiz to check.

Are you hot?
A little test for girls to see how hot they are. Plus some consoling thoughts for the poor girls who just can't make it.

The death of poetry
Poetry is dead. We do a little post-mortem to find out what killed it.

The next ice age
Forget about global warming. In northern Europe it's going to get colder - a lot colder. Find out why.

Relativity for dummies
At last we bring you the fun introduction to everyone's favourite theory: the theory of relativity. Find out how you can use the theory to live longer.

No more heroes
The old heroes are gone - no one has pin-ups of them on their bedroom wall. What put an end to the epoch of greatness? Is the age of the TV celebrity any better?

Robocop - the true story
They connected his brain to a computer so he could control it just by thinking. Robocop is just around the corner.

Falling idols
Why do so many popstars lose their touch and end up recording rubbish? We look at the reasons.

Screen idle
TV - is the stuff you see on TV really as bad as some people say? An alternative look at the impact of the small screen.

Boy and girl problems
Why do men and women find it so difficult to understand each other? Why does love so often end up in a big shouting match?

Nuclear nightmare
Harrowing stories from the disaster at Chernobyl.

Terror on the pitch
What was it like to play football in Iraq under Saddam Hussein and have your coach tell you they might just cut your legs off if you miss a penalty?

War stories

What happens when you lose your trousers on the battlefield? A true story from the invasion of Iraq.

Down with school
Pink Floyd sang, "We don't need no education." Ivan Illich said, "We don't need no school." Here we look at one argument against school.

Alien ancestors?
Are we descended from aliens? Are whales more intelligent than us? Check out what the prophets of the New Age tell us.

The truth about adverts
Adverts are everywhere. How does all this advertising affect us, and is it all so innocent? Is there more to adverts than meets the eye?

How modern are we?
Some say the modern world is a thing of the past - it's over and done with. But what was the modern world? And are we still modern, or have we gone beyond that?

He will clone himself
We report the views of one man who insists he doesn't want regular kids, only clones. Find out why it just might be better to be a clone.

The joy of laziness
Why do people try to make us feel guilty if we don't spring out of bed at sunrise and start working? Here we try to soothe the conscience of work-shy late risers.

Happy shopper
How super are supermarkets? They are universally popular with shoppers, but why are so many other people unhappy with what supermarkets are up to?

I won't stop smoking
A British popstar puts the cat among the pigeons when he explains why he won't stop smoking.

From Art to pop
Art used to be such a powerful force in society. Why is it now so irrelevant? Can pop take its place?

Thanks for bombing me (?)
Did the Iraqis really want to be bombed? Here, Raed - the blogger from Baghdad - sets the record straight and speaks out against the madness.

The real Father Christmas
Where was Santa Claus born? Why does he always wear red and white? Find out in our short biography of the merry man of Christmas.

Sex and the older woman
The story of a 15 year old boy falling in love with a 26 year old woman. A happy story until the police arrive. Should the woman have been sent to prison?

Want to become a teacher?
Some tips for those who might be considering a career in teaching. Are you cut out for the job? Have you got what it takes?

A girl's life in Iraq
One girl's experience of life after the war in Iraq.

Spanking kids
The debate about corporal punishment. Should naughty kids be given a good spanking?

YES, spank 'em: the subtle arguments for.

NO, all u need is love: the arguments against.


Inside Hitler's brain
Never read Adolf's book "My Struggle"? No need coz here we give you the craziest bits from a truly crazy book.

Crazy Christians
Ever heard of Christian fundamentalism? Find out about the crazy end of Christianity and why US airlines won't let both the pilot and the copilot of a flight be fundamentalist Christians.

Big Brother
Forget reality TV. Walk across London and your movements are being recorded. A couple of articles about the total surveillance society.

1. The real Big Brother
Who was the real Big Brother, and what did the TV show of the same name actually achieve?

2. Closed Circuit TV
CCTV cameras are everywhere now. Spend a day walking the streets of London and your image will have been recorded hundreds of times. Is it only the guilty that should worry, or should we all be concerned about the invasion of privacy?

Shooting your classmates
Two boys planned to blow up their school canteen and then shoot the survivors. What actually happened at the Columbine School massacre, and why did they do it?

The f*** word
It may be bad language but it's still English. Here are a few of the things said in English when people get really pissed off.

Chaos
Is the world essentially chaotic? How could a butterfly change an entire weather system across the Pacific Ocean? Is this the end of science as we know it? Find out about the chaos theory.

Crazy Globalization
A series of 4 articles about what's going on in the madhouse we call the global village:

1. The real rulers of the world: Unelected by anyone, the IMF and the World Bank are two of the most powerful organisations in the world. Find out what they are and what they're up to.

2. Foreign debt: Some people want to feed the world but the bankers insist on profit. Find out how foreign debt cripples the poorest nations of the world.

3. Shameless multinational companies: Big business is supposed to be the saviour of the Third World. The story of Nestle (famous for Nescafe) reveals just how bizarre this idea is.

4. Crazy laptops: What on earth was the UN thinking about? Laptops for hungry kids without electricity in the Thirld World?

Chain gangs
Chaining groups of prisoners and taking them out to work. Is this a step forward? See what the prisoners have to say.

Dreaming of politics
A fun look at the two extremes of the political spectrum: John Lennon and Adam Smith.

A reply to our critics
People say we are too miserable. "Where is the joi de vivre (the joy of life)?" they ask. Here we set the record straight.

The other drug dealers
Is it right for pharmaceutical companies to make so much money out of drugs that people need to stay alive? Should they be the ones to decide which drugs get produced and how much they cost?

Love and Sex
Why are there so many thorny issues surrounding that girl-boy thing? Here we give frank answers to some of your most troubling questions.

The German cannibal
The truly gruesome story of the man who wanted to eat human flesh and the other man who wanted to be loved and eaten. (Not suitable for younger readers.)

What is reality?
We say that a whole bunch of things that people used to believe in are not real. But do we really know what reality is? How about trees - what are they really?

About Fullspate: - Fullspate is actually one man with a PhD and a laptop who grew tired of the bland contents of EFL coursebooks, decided to write slightly more engaging stuff for his English students, and then thought it might be nice to share them online. Then subsequently packed it in.

 

 

 

 

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