Health

Health is something everyone can relate to and has opinions about. These questions cover daily habits, medical experiences, and different approaches to staying healthy.

Questions are organized by level from beginner to advanced. A printable PDF of all the questions is available at the bottom of the page.

Beginner (A1-A2)

1. How often do you exercise? What kind of exercise do you usually do?
2. Do you like to exercise alone or with other people? What do you prefer about that?
3. Do you sleep well at night? What time do you usually go to bed?
4. Who do you talk to when you feel sick? What do they usually tell you?
5. What healthy foods do you eat? What’s a good one you like?
6. Where do you go when you need to see a doctor? What’s it like there?
7. What do you do to relax after a long day? How does it make you feel?
8. Do you like going to the doctor? What is it like when you go?
9. What do you usually eat for breakfast? What’s your favorite thing to have?
10. Who in your family is very healthy? What do they do to stay healthy?
11. Where do you go when you feel sick? Who takes care of you?

Elementary (A2)

1. What is your diet like? What foods do you eat most often, and what foods do you try to avoid?
2. What unhealthy foods do you eat sometimes? Why are they so tempting?
3. Have you ever gotten injured while exercising? What happened?
4. What do you do when you catch a cold? Why do you do that?
5. Have you ever stayed in a hospital overnight? What was it like?
6. What kind of food do you avoid eating? Why do you stay away from it?
7. What do you do when you can’t sleep at night? Why does that help?
8. Do you prefer to see a doctor when you feel sick, or do you wait until you feel better? Why do you prefer doing it that way?
9. What do you usually drink during the day? Why?
10. What’s the worst tasting medicine you’ve ever had? What was it like?
11. Do you think sitting is unhealthy? Why? How long do you sit during an average day?

Intermediate (B1)

1. What is the best thing to do to stay healthy?
2. What do you think the worst disease to have would be?
3. Do you consider yourself to be healthy? Why?
4. People are living longer and longer thanks to medicine. How long would you like to live? How about forever?
5. Would you like to get your genome sequenced? Why or why not? What would you hope to learn from it?
6. If you could find out that you were at risk for a certain disease, would you want to know? Why or why not? How might knowing change your life?
7. What health advice do you often hear but don’t follow? Why don’t you follow it?
8. Have you ever tried alternative medicine like acupuncture or herbal remedies? What did you think of it?
9. What time of day do you have the most energy? Why do you think that is?
10. What exercise did you do when you were younger? Why did you stop or continue?
11. Do you think people today are healthier or less healthy than 50 years ago? Why do you think so?
12. Should employers be responsible for their employees’ health? Explain your thinking.
13. Do you think mental health is as important as physical health? Why?
14. Should governments tax unhealthy foods like sugar and fast food? Why or why not?
15. How do you feel about cosmetic surgery for purely aesthetic reasons? Explain your view.
16. Should schools teach children about healthy eating? Why or why not?
17. How do you feel about people who smoke in public places? Is it common in your culture or country?
18. What advice would you give to someone who wants to start exercising? Why would you suggest that?
19. If you had to choose between sleeping more or exercising more, which would you choose and why?

Upper-Intermediate (B2)

1. What do you think about the health care system in your country? How could it be improved?
2. Are there any diseases like small pox that you think humans could totally get rid of if we tried?
3. Where do you think the future of medicine will be? Genetics? Cybernetics? Chemistry?
4. How has social media affected people’s attitudes toward body image and health? Consider both positive and negative effects.
5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of universal healthcare systems compared to private healthcare?
6. How do mental health issues affect workplace productivity, and what can companies do to address this?
7. Compare how different cultures approach aging and elderly care. What factors contribute to these differences?
8. What are the benefits and risks of genetic testing for disease predisposition? Who should have access to this information?
9. Compare the effectiveness of preventive medicine versus treatment-focused healthcare. Which approach offers better value?
10. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using fitness tracking apps and devices?
11. How might climate change affect global health in the next few decades? Why do you think so?
12. What are the arguments for and against making vaccines mandatory for all children?
13. How has the rise of processed food affected public health, and what responsibilities do food companies and the government have regarding processed foods?

Advanced (C1)

1. What tensions exist between personal autonomy in healthcare decisions and collective responsibility for public health?
2. How do cultural definitions of wellness and disease reveal underlying assumptions about the relationship between the individual and society?
3. What paradoxes emerge when applying Western biomedical models to non-Western healthcare traditions, and what does this reveal about medical epistemology?
4. To what extent do mental health diagnoses reflect genuine medical conditions versus socially constructed categories that pathologize normal human variation?
5. How does the concept of ‘health optimization’ in contemporary wellness culture reveal tensions between self-improvement and acceptance of human limitation?
6. How might the medicalization of death and dying in modern societies reflect deeper anxieties about meaning, control, and the limits of human agency?
7. To what extent do cultural attitudes toward aging reflect broader societal values about productivity, worth, and the healthcare resources we allocate to the elderly?
8. How do economic, cultural, and psychological factors interact to make lifestyle changes so difficult despite widespread knowledge of their health benefits?
9. What philosophical questions arise when we consider extending human lifespan significantly, and how might this reshape our understanding of life stages, purpose, and social structures?
10. How do societal narratives about health and personal responsibility potentially obscure the systemic factors that determine health outcomes for different populations?

PDF: Download a PDF of all the questions