IELTS Reading Practice Test 4

Answer Keys

IELTS Reading Section 1

1. X. The paragraph gives a short record of human-water interaction. Note that title XI doesn’t fit — even though it tells us about destructive force of water in the past, Present Perfect tense is used. This means that this keeps on going. See note on tenses for clarification
2. I. The paragraph talks about changes to the environment and how said changes affected our lives. The phrase “are not exactly new” is a paraphrase of “always”.
3. V. The last sentence best describes the general idea of the paragraph. Heading IX doesn’t fit as it is not the topical idea, even though it is mentioned.
4. III. Both seas and rivers are mentioned as causing serious damage. Even though it sounds simplistic, this heading is the most appropriate. XI doesn’t fit because the phrase “former times” has a meaning of times long gone. The events described in the paragraph took place fairly recently.
5. VIII. This paragraph suggests several ways of solving the current problem of floods.
6. II. The main idea is lack of water rather that flooding, even though it is mentioned briefly so we can’t use XII. You should also not be confused by the first sentence. The paragraph talks about both the future and the present situation, so XIII doesn’t fit.
7. XIII. The paragraph is about “doom-laden estimates” — pessimistic forecasts. This title fits the paragraph perfectly.
8. IV. This paragraph reasons whether we should be hopeful about the future.

9. D. Last sentence of first paragraph. It is going to have even greater importance. Don’t forget that relevant information goes in a certain order, see IELTS Reading tips for clarification.
10. A. The key to this questions is the word “ambiguous” which means that it could be seen in more than one way. Down the paragraph the idea is expanded, bringing up examples of good and bad relationship with water. The suffix ambi- is a Latin prefix meaning “both, around” (e.g. ambivalence, ambient)
11. D. Second sentence of paragraph “D” says that the catastrophes are instant news, meaning that this comes as a surprise, as something new to us. Other paragraphs state the contrary of what is in the text — learning about the destructions makes us feel better, not frightened.
12. C. Sentence three in paragraph “F”. Tree-planting is described as being more affordable and therefore a better decision. “A” talks about international approach to the problem, which is mentioned in the text. However, there is nothing about coordinating their efforts.
13. C. Second sentence of paragraph “G”. It states that two-thirds of people will have no access to drinking water. This means that only one-third of population will have such access.
14. C. First sentence of paragraph “H”. It clearly states the probability of lowlands submerging underwater.
15. B. Last sentence of paragraph “I”. “Accustomed” is a synonym of “get used to”. Answer “D” is wrong because it is the opinion of “some” people, not the author’s. 

IELTS Reading Section 2

16. Shortage. Note that the word is in singular, even though it is plural in the original text. We should use singular form because of the indefinite article “a” before the gap.
17. Teacher-training. This compound word is counted as one, because there is a hyphen (“-“ symbol) between them. Note that if you spell them without that symbol it will be seen as a mistake because the tasks states one word limit for answers.
18. Profession. Ten years in English is a decade. Finding the word in the original text makes it easy to guess the right word for the gap.
19. Obvious. Sentence one of the second paragraph has the word “contempt” which is has the same meaning as “lack of respect”.
20. Increasing. First sentence of paragraph three. Note how the original text and task texts have this word as different parts of speech (adjective in the text, continuous verb in the task)
21. Recent. Sentence one of fourth paragraph mentions a series of “recent bashings”, which is another word for assaults or attacks.
22. Competent. Last sentence of the same paragraph four. As can be seen from the sentence structure there should be an adjective in the gap. Experienced is one adjective to describe the teachers, it is used as a noun in the task. It means we have to use the other adjective.

23. No. The opposite is stated in first paragraph, sentence five.
24. No. Last sentence of paragraph one states that the government is surprised. However irony can be easily seen because the previous sentences named the reasons for such poor state of affairs with teacher’s profession popularity. Government has no right to be surprised, the situation is natural.
25. Not given. Beginning of paragraph three. The author makes an assumption, a guess that the teachers have no time to complain because of the administrative hurdles. It doesn’t mean that this is so in reality. Don’t be misled by the similar wording of the question and the sentence in the text.
26. Not given. Paragraph three, sentences two and three. The author is again using irony — he doesn’t mean that other teachers and cynical. However he doesn’t state that they aren’t, so we can’t answer FALSE in this case. We have no actual information whether teacher are cynical or not.
27. Yes. Paragraph five, sentence starting with “Initiatives in …”. The question statement means that theorists are more dangerous than politicians. This is true, as stated in the sentence: “they know even less, but are more dangerous”. This refers to the educational theorists.
28. Yes. Last paragraph, last sentence. It is clearly stated that the forced government initiatives do not work. Word “foist” is used which can confuse you.
29. Not given. No such information is present in the text, nothing even remotely related.
30. B. The main notion throughout the text is how teachers are underappreciated. “A” is simplistic and is too general. “C” and “D” mention some of the issues in the text, not all of them, so they cannot be used as title.

IELTS Reading Section 3

31. No. Paragraph one, second part. The work has “resounding” or a very strong effect on the visitors. The opposite is true, so the answer is “No”.
32. Not given. No relevant information on this statement can be found in the text.
33. Not given. Even though it is stated that the materials are “cheap and disposable” it is meant to describe the first work. Not to mention that it doesn’t mean that the artistic value of this piece is lower because of its materials.
34. Not given. Some design faults are mentioned in paragraphs five and six. However there is not information on whether they attract any additional attention.
35. Yes. Paragraph two states that the first work gives a sense of “order”. The last sentence of paragraph seven states that the third work gives a sensation of “violence and discomfort”. These emotions are different; the answer is “Yes”.
36. Not given. The author does not state their preference in the listed works. Nothing is mentioned about which of the three works is author’s “favourite”.

37. A. Paragraph nine, first sentence. The author states that the “visual language is unfamiliar, as is the author”. The comparison makes it clear that the author is fairly unknown to the public.
38. B. Paragraph nine, the last sentence. As the author states, her work had been largely ignored “until recently” — it is no longer seen within the context of its time. It is also natural to put conclusions in the end of a paragraph.
39. D. Paragraph 11, first sentence. It states that Hesse’s work is more than the obvious “readings”, or interpretations, make us think. Therefore it is not easy to read, or to understand it’s meaning.
40. A. Paragraph 10, both sentences. The information there suggests the importance of her life being greater than her work because of “influence of feminism … since that period”. Note how this question defies the paradigm of answers in the text following one another — we had to return to the previous paragraph to answer it.