Academic Reading Practice Test 7
A full 60-minute IELTS Academic Reading mock test on the invention of the bicycle, why soil matters, and the myth of multitasking. 40 questions: note completion, True/False/Not Given, matching information, multiple choice, Yes/No/Not Given and sentence endings.
- • 60 minutes, 40 questions, 3 parts
- • The timer starts when you press Start and the test submits itself when time runs out
- • Your answers are saved on this device as you go
- • Select words in the passage and press Highlight to mark them, just like the computer test
Short on time? Practise one part
About 20 minutes. Check your answers as you go, see why each one is right, and get an estimated band for that part.
What is in this test
Passage 1: The Long Road to the Bicycle
Question types: Completion and short answer (1–7), True / False / Not Given (8–13)
The bicycle is so familiar that it is easy to forget how recently it was invented. Although it is a simple machine, it took most of the nineteenth century, and the work of inventors in several countries, to arrive at the design we know today.
Passage 2: The Ground Beneath Our Feet
Question types: Matching (14–18), Multiple choice (19–22), Completion and short answer (23–26)
Most people give little thought to the ground beneath their feet. Yet soil is far more than dirt. It is a mixture of tiny pieces of rock, water, air and the remains of dead plants and animals, and about ninety-five percent of the food we eat depends on it. It is also, in practical terms, impossible to replace: under natural…
Passage 3: The Myth of Multitasking
Question types: Yes / No / Not Given (27–32), Matching (33–36), Multiple choice (37–40)
Many of us take pride in doing several things at once. We answer messages during meetings, check the news while we eat and listen to podcasts as we write reports. Job advertisements ask for 'excellent multitaskers', as though this were a talent like speaking a foreign language. In my view, this pride is misplaced. What we call multitasking is, for…