IELTS Academic Reading practice questions with answers

TRUE. It was 'started four years ago by a retired teacher'.

1. Correct. 'Retired teacher' = 'former teacher'; 'started' = 'set up'.
2. Not correct. The founder's background is given and matches.
3. Not correct. The passage names her and her former job.

Tip: Synonym pairs: retired → former; started → set up / founded / launched.

NO. The writer reports this argument and says, 'I find this position difficult to accept'.

1. Incorrect. The idea of closing these places belongs to 'one response', not to the writer.
2. Correct. 'Difficult to accept' is a polite way of rejecting the position, and the writer gives reasons: fees fund protection and local guides benefit.
3. Incorrect. The writer reacts directly to this proposal, so the view is clear.

Tip: Polite phrases such as 'difficult to accept' or 'not convinced' are still clear disagreement.

The answer is ii. Paragraph A explains that the fires and lamps used before lighthouses were 'far from dependable'.

1. Incorrect. Telling one light from another is developed in D. In A, a lamp could be confused with a farmhouse window because there was no system for identifying lights at all.
2. Correct. 'Unreliable' = 'far from dependable'; 'lights of earlier times' = fires on headlands and church-tower lamps used 'for most of history'.
3. Incorrect. This heading fits Paragraph E, which describes the keepers' detailed daily and nightly duties.
4. Incorrect. This heading fits Paragraph F, which challenges the popular image of keepers as lonely and unhappy.
5. Incorrect. This heading fits Paragraph B, which describes the difficulty of building towers on rocks out at sea and how engineers overcame it.
6. Incorrect. G states the opposite: lighthouses 'have not been abandoned' and still serve as a back-up.
7. Incorrect. This heading fits Paragraph C, which traces improvements in the light source, from candles to reflectors to glass lenses.
8. Incorrect. This heading fits Paragraph G, which explains how automation ended the keeper's job while lighthouses stayed in use.
9. Incorrect. Ships 'lost' are mentioned, but only as the result of misleading lights; nothing is said about rescuing cargo.
10. Incorrect. The passage describes what keepers did and how they felt about the work, but never how they were trained.

Tip: A detail in A (a lamp mistaken for a window) is related to D's topic. Shared vocabulary is not enough; decide what A as a whole is about.

The answer is Paragraph C. Furnaces 'posed a serious risk of fire', so 'Glassmakers were therefore ordered to move their workshops'.

1. Incorrect. Paragraph A describes the earliest glass objects and why glass was a luxury; it contains no reason for workers moving.
2. Incorrect. B describes glass spreading through an empire, not workers being moved.
3. Correct. Furnaces 'posed a serious risk of fire', so 'Glassmakers were therefore ordered to move their workshops'.
4. Incorrect. Paragraph D corrects the belief that old glass flows and gives the real reason for uneven panes; it contains no reason for workers moving.
5. Incorrect. Paragraph E describes making flat sheets by floating glass on molten tin; it contains no reason for workers moving.
6. Incorrect. Paragraph F discusses recycling glass and its practical difficulties; it contains no reason for workers moving.

Tip: 'Therefore' links a reason to a result. Look for it when the statement asks for a reason.

A (Okafor) is correct. She urges funding bodies to support documentation 'before the opportunity disappears'.

1. Correct. 'Before the opportunity disappears' is paraphrased as 'before it is too late', and recording is her 'first priority'.
2. Incorrect. Varga accepts the value of records but warns about them; she does not call for urgent recording.
3. Incorrect. Reyes discusses revival programmes with elders, not recording.
4. Incorrect. Zhou talks about the value of partial use, not documentation.

Tip: Scan for each name, then read the whole paragraph around it. A person's main idea is often in the first sentence of their paragraph.

G is correct. 'When the water becomes unusually warm for a sustained period … the coral expels the algae … This is known as bleaching.'

1. Incorrect. Cooler water allows recovery, not bleaching.
2. Incorrect. No subject; about restoration projects.
3. Incorrect. No subject; about restoration projects.
4. Incorrect. Bleaching cannot be defined by bleaching happening again; this describes the shift to a simpler community.
5. Incorrect. The white skeleton becomes visible because the tissue is transparent; it is not damaged by sunlight.
6. Incorrect. 'When supply…' has no subject.
7. Correct. 'Sustained period' = long period; the coral expelling the algae is what is called bleaching.

Tip: E reuses 'skeleton' and 'sunlight' from the passage. Words that appear in the text are not proof that an ending is correct.

D is correct. 'The evidence for REM … is less consistent, and some researchers believe its role has been overstated.'

1. Incorrect. Facts and events are linked with slow-wave sleep, not REM.
2. Incorrect. Motor skills are one thing REM has been linked with; nothing says REM occurs only in those learners.
3. Incorrect. Researchers do not agree – some think REM's role has been overstated.
4. Correct. 'Less consistent evidence' is paraphrased as 'less firmly established'.

Tip: Words such as 'however' and 'some researchers believe' signal doubt. Options claiming general agreement (C) are then wrong.

B and C are correct. Supporters say it can 'produce food close to the people who eat it' and 'remove the need for pesticides'.

1. Incorrect. Nutrient content is not mentioned.
2. Correct. 'Close to the people who eat it' = near the people who eat it.
3. Correct. 'Remove the need for pesticides' = pesticides are no longer needed.
4. Incorrect. Prices are discussed only for staple crops, which 'sell at low prices'; lower prices are not a claim of supporters.
5. Incorrect. Employment is not mentioned.

Tip: The supporters' claims are listed in one sentence. The third claim (less water) is not among the options, so exactly two match.

A is correct. A hyphenated word counts as one word, so 'self-guided' meets the ONE WORD ONLY limit.

1. Correct. 'Self-guided' is a single hyphenated word, copied exactly from the passage, and it fits between 'a' and 'tour'.
2. Incorrect. Without the hyphen, 'self guided' is two separate words, which breaks the ONE WORD ONLY instruction and changes the passage spelling.
3. Incorrect. 'Guided' changes the meaning: a guided tour has a guide, while a self-guided tour does not.
4. Incorrect. 'Family' is not the word that describes the type of tour in the passage; families are who the tour is for.

Tip: Copy hyphens exactly. A hyphen can turn two words into one for counting purposes.

A (fertiliser) is correct. Sewage sludge 'is spread on land as fertiliser in many countries'.

1. Correct. 'Used as fertiliser' paraphrases 'spread on land as fertiliser'.
2. Incorrect. Clothing is the source of the fibres in the sludge, not what the sludge is used as.
3. Incorrect. 'Looser' is an adjective describing soil; 'used as looser' is ungrammatical.
4. Incorrect. 'Heavier' is an adjective and is not mentioned in the passage.
5. Incorrect. Organic matter is in the soil and must be removed before counting; sludge is not described as being used as organic matter.
6. Incorrect. Methods relate to measuring plastic, not to how sludge is used.

Tip: 'Used as' requires a noun describing a role. Only fertiliser describes the role of sludge in the passage.

'cut reed' is correct. 'Scribes pressed a cut reed into damp clay to make wedge-shaped marks'.

1. Correct. 'Marks pressed with a ______' paraphrases 'pressed a cut reed into damp clay'.
2. Incorrect. Plant stems were used to make papyrus in Egypt, not to write on clay.
3. Incorrect. 'Wedge' describes the shape of the marks, not the tool used to make them.
4. Incorrect. A brush is never mentioned; choosing it relies on outside knowledge, not the passage.

Tip: Distinguish the tool (reed) from the result (wedge-shaped marks).

'cuticle' is correct. 'The upper surface is covered by a thin, waxy cuticle, which reduces water loss'.

1. Correct. The label 'thin waxy layer on the upper surface' matches 'covered by a thin, waxy cuticle'.
2. Incorrect. The upper epidermis lies BENEATH the cuticle and is described as transparent cells, not a waxy layer.
3. Incorrect. Stomata are pores in the LOWER epidermis, not a layer on the upper surface.
4. Incorrect. Veins run through the middle of the leaf, not along its outer surface.

Tip: 'Beneath it lies ...' tells you the order of layers from top to bottom. Follow the passage in the same direction as the diagram.

B is correct. Short-answer questions follow the order of information in the passage, so the next answer comes after the previous one.

1. Incorrect. Going back to the start wastes time; the answer to Question 3 will not come before the answer to Question 2.
2. Correct. Because the answers appear in passage order, continue reading from where you found the answer to Question 2.
3. Incorrect. Short-answer questions are not in random order; they follow the passage.
4. Incorrect. The answer will come after paragraph C's answer, but not necessarily in the final paragraph. It could be later in paragraph C or in the next paragraph.

Tip: Use each answer you find as a bookmark for the next question.

B is correct. 'Be compelled to do something' means to have no choice but to do it; slow handwriting leaves students no choice but to select.

1. Incorrect. The phrase says nothing about how students feel about it.
2. Correct. Compelled = forced or obliged. Because handwriting is slow, students cannot write everything down.
3. Incorrect. 'Encouraged' suggests gentle persuasion with a free choice. The cause here (slowness) removes the choice.
4. Incorrect. 'Unable to' reverses the meaning: students ARE made to select and summarise.

Tip: compel / compulsory / compulsion all share the idea of force.

B is correct: 'illegitimate'. Before a word starting with l, the negative prefix in- changes to il- (illegal, illogical, illegitimate).

1. Incorrect. dis- forms opposites of some verbs and adjectives (disagree, dishonest), but not of 'legitimate'.
2. Correct. il- is the form of in- used before l, giving 'illegitimate' (not lawful or not acceptable).
3. Incorrect. un- is a common negative prefix (unclear, unusual), but 'unlegitimate' is not an English word.
4. Incorrect. in- changes its form before l, m, p and r (il-, im-, ir-), so 'inlegitimate' is wrong.

Tip: Look at the first letter of the root: l → il-, r → ir-, m/p → im-.