This Surya Bonaly French reading comprehension activity is about the life and career of French figure skater and Olympian Surya Bonaly. She has recently received attention for having done the first back flip in competition at the 1998 Olympic Games – 27 years before Ilya Malinin did his. While he won a gold medal and received praise for his flip, Surya Bonaly was judged harshly and docked points for her strong, athletic style.
The readings are 1-2 pages long and there are three different versions – novice high (1 page), intermediate low (2 pages), and intermediate mid (2 pages). The novice version is written in the present tense, while the intermediate versions have expanded vocabulary and are written in the past tense.
Included are comprehension questions, in both English and French. You will also have links to news articles and videos. The novice version has 10 true/false and 5 short answer questions while the intermediate versions have 10 multiple choice questions.
What’s included in the Surya Bonaly French reading:
- three different versions of the reading – NH, IL, IM
- 15 comprehension questions in French for the novice version
- 15 comprehension questions in English for the novice version
- 10 comprehension questions in French for the intermediate versions
- 10 comprehension questions in English for the intermediate version
- answer key
- links to resources – websites and videos




















