PTE Academic Reading Practice Test 15 (with Answers)

Type 1 · Fill in the Blanks (Dropdown)

Click each blank and choose the correct word from its dropdown menu.

The Early Bicycle

The earliest ancestor of the bicycle, a wooden "running machine" with no pedals, by the German inventor Karl Drais in 1817. Riders sat on it and pushed themselves along with their feet, allowed them to travel considerably faster than walking. Pedals were added to the front wheel in the 1860s, but because the pedals turned the wheel directly, makers enormous front wheels to increase speed, producing the famously dangerous "penny-farthing". The modern design, with two wheels of equal size and a chain driving the rear wheel, appeared in the 1880s and the bicycle far safer. the addition of air-filled tyres soon afterwards, cycling became a popular form of everyday transport.

📖 বাংলা অনুবাদ · Bangla translation

সাইকেলের প্রথম পূর্বসূরি ছিল প্যাডেলবিহীন কাঠের "দৌড়ানোর যন্ত্র", যা ১৮১৭ সালে কার্ল ড্রাইস তৈরি করেন। পরে প্যাডেল যুক্ত হয় এবং বিশাল সামনের চাকার "পেনি-ফার্দিং" তৈরি হয়। ১৮৮০-এর দশকে সমান চাকা ও চেইনযুক্ত আধুনিক নকশা আসে, যা সাইকেলকে নিরাপদ করে।

Type 2 · Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers

Read each passage and select all the options that are correct — more than one answer may be right.

Desert Locust Swarms

Desert locusts are usually solitary insects that live quietly in the dry regions stretching from West Africa to India. After unusually heavy rains, however, vegetation grows rapidly and locust numbers rise, crowding the insects together. This crowding triggers a remarkable change: the locusts change colour, become more active and begin to move in groups, eventually forming swarms that can contain billions of insects. A large swarm can travel more than a hundred kilometres in a day and consume as much food in a day as millions of people. Because swarms cross national borders, control depends on international monitoring, with organisations tracking rainfall and vegetation by satellite so that young locusts can be treated before they form swarms.

According to the passage, which TWO statements are true?

Desert locusts always live in large swarms. Satellite monitoring helps detect conditions in which swarms may form. Crowding causes locusts to change colour and behaviour. Each country can control locusts without international help. Swarms cannot travel more than a few kilometres a day.

The Placebo Effect

A placebo is a treatment with no active ingredient, such as a sugar pill, yet patients who receive one sometimes report genuine improvements in their symptoms. This placebo effect is strongest for conditions that involve subjective experiences, such as pain, nausea and fatigue, and much weaker for measurable conditions such as infections or tumours. Expectation appears to play a central role: patients who believe they are receiving effective treatment may release natural painkilling chemicals in the brain. Surprisingly, some studies have found that placebos can help even when patients are told openly that the pills contain no medicine. Because of the placebo effect, new drugs are tested against placebos in clinical trials to show that they work better than expectation alone.

According to the passage, which TWO statements are true?

Placebos contain small amounts of active medicine. The placebo effect is strongest for symptoms such as pain and nausea. Placebos can cure infections and tumours effectively. Placebos only work if patients are deceived. New drugs are compared with placebos in clinical trials.

Type 3 · Reorder Paragraphs

Drag the paragraphs into the correct order, or use the ▲▼ buttons.

Tea Comes to Sylhet

Following this success, the first commercial tea garden in what is now Bangladesh was established in Sylhet in the 1850s.

When wild tea plants were identified in the hills of Assam, the British began experimenting with plantations in north-eastern India.

In the early nineteenth century, Britain bought almost all of its tea from China and was keen to find another source.

Today the Sylhet region contains more than a hundred tea estates, and tea remains an important source of employment and export income.

How a Volcano Erupts

Because it is less dense, the magma slowly rises and collects in a chamber a few kilometres below the volcano.

Deep beneath the surface, rock melts to form magma, which is lighter than the solid rock around it.

When the pressure becomes greater than the strength of the overlying rock, the magma forces its way to the surface in an eruption.

As more magma enters the chamber, gases dissolved in it form bubbles, and the pressure steadily increases.

Type 4 · Fill in the Blanks (Drag and Drop)

Click a word in the box below to select it, then click the blank where it fits (or drag it directly). Two extra words will not be used.

forest dry sugar brine pressure salt electricity

Turning Seawater into Drinking Water

Desalination is the process of removing _____ from seawater to make it safe to drink. The most common modern method is reverse osmosis, in which seawater is forced at high _____ through a fine membrane that allows water molecules to pass but blocks dissolved salts. Desalination provides a reliable supply in _____ countries with long coastlines, such as those in the Middle East. However, the process uses large amounts of _____, which makes the water expensive. It also produces a highly salty waste called _____, which must be disposed of carefully to avoid harming marine life.

📖 বাংলা অনুবাদ · Bangla translation

ডিস্যালিনেশন হলো সমুদ্রের পানি থেকে লবণ সরিয়ে পানযোগ্য করার প্রক্রিয়া। রিভার্স অসমোসিসে উচ্চ চাপে পানি একটি সূক্ষ্ম পর্দার মধ্য দিয়ে পাঠানো হয়। এতে প্রচুর বিদ্যুৎ লাগে এবং লবণাক্ত বর্জ্য সাবধানে ফেলতে হয়।

Type 5 · Multiple Choice, Single Answer

Read each passage and select the single best answer.

Why Leaves Change Colour

In many temperate forests, trees produce a spectacular display of red, orange and yellow leaves each autumn. Throughout the summer, leaves are green because they contain large amounts of chlorophyll, the pigment that captures sunlight for photosynthesis. Yellow and orange pigments are also present in the leaves, but they are hidden by the abundant green chlorophyll. As days shorten and temperatures fall, trees stop producing chlorophyll and begin preparing to drop their leaves, so the green fades and the yellow and orange colours become visible. Red colours are different, since they are produced fresh in autumn in some species, possibly to protect the leaf while the tree recovers nutrients from it.

According to the passage, why do yellow and orange colours appear in autumn?

Trees produce new yellow and orange pigments only in autumn. Sunlight becomes stronger in autumn. Red pigments turn yellow as temperatures fall. The green chlorophyll that hid them breaks down and is not replaced.

Microfinance in Practice

Microfinance institutions lend small sums of money to people, often women, who have no access to ordinary bank loans because they lack property to offer as security. Instead of collateral, many programmes rely on groups of borrowers who meet regularly and encourage one another to repay. Early supporters hoped that small loans would lift large numbers of families out of poverty by helping them start businesses. Later studies have produced a more cautious picture: microloans often help households manage irregular incomes and cope with emergencies, but on average they have had only modest effects on income growth. Many experts now see microfinance as a useful financial tool rather than a complete solution to poverty.

What does the passage suggest about the overall impact of microfinance?

It is helpful for managing money but has had only modest effects on incomes. It has ended poverty for most borrowers. It has no benefits for households at all. It requires borrowers to provide property as security.

PTE Reading Practice Test 15