IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test 3 with Answers

This IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test consists of three reading passages. Passage 1 is titled "Networking"; Passage 2 covers "A Silent Force"; and Passage 3 focuses on "Variations on a Theme: The Sonnet Form in English Poetry". The test includes a variety of question types such as Yes/No/Not Given, Matching Headings, Summary Completion, Sentence Completion, and Notes Completion. You have 60 minutes to complete the entire test.

Passage 1 {Q1–Q15}

Networking
IELTS Yes/No/Not Given Questions (Q1–Q5)
IELTS Sentence Completion (Q6–Q10)
IELTS Short Answer Questions (Q11–Q15)

Passage 2 {Q16–Q27}

A Silent Force
IELTS Match the Headings Questions (Q16–Q22)
IELTS Yes/No/Not Given Questions (Q23–Q27)

Passage 3 {Q28–Q40}

Variations on a Theme: The Sonnet Form in English Poetry
IELTS Match the Headings (Q28–Q32)
IELTS Notes Completion Questions (Q33–Q37)
IELTS Multiple Choice Questions (Q38–Q40)

READING ACADEMIC: TEST PAPER 3

Passage 1

Networking

To be certain, the idea of networking has been given a gloss of modernity that isn't entirely warranted. It's widely acknowledged in the business community as an indispensable resource for today's global entrepreneurs. The idea is widely celebrated, not just in the corporate sector.

There are two types of people in the world: those who keep their information and connections to themselves, and those who are willing to share both. An insecure person is not a good networker because they have difficulty connecting with others, whether strangers or friends. The prototypical networker has enough confidence in themselves to introduce people they know, even friends, to each other. A businessperson or academic might make a connection with someone who could prove useful down the line, but at the moment, it might help them to meet another associate.

A very self-assured person needs to bring these people together and allow a connection to grow without being involved. For those who don't regularly participate in online social networks, this kind of change can feel like an unbearable intrusion on others' freedom. The sad part is that the person who made the first contact would stand to gain the most if he knew the full story. How come?

Because all else being equal, people tend to socialise within preexisting networks, and any given individual has the potential to be dragged into ever-expanding spheres of new contacts. It's been stated that as long as you have eight friends, you're connected to everyone on Earth. As more people share their knowledge, the potential of any endeavour becomes obvious.

While it's true that expanding one's professional and personal networks can lead to great success, it can also bring up unexpected challenges. To put it another way, it broadens one's horizons. While this isn't always a bad thing, it does increase the pressure on the networker to expand his sphere of influence constantly. It may seem like the easiest solution to just cut ties with old acquaintances, but this would be a mortal sin for our networker because it would be counter to their stated goal of expanding their professional network. The reaction of acquaintances and friends is an additional issue. When one spreads themselves too thin, they have less time for the people who were once close to them. It's not uncommon for this to lead to jealousy and conflict among coworkers and even between leaders and subordinates in the office. If you work for an insecure manager, their jealousy and envy could backfire and cause them to try to impede or even block your professional advancement.

To solve this problem, one must allow one's superiors to participate in the glory and offer them some solace. This kind of management is sometimes referred to as "bottom-up" leadership. In today's business environment, cooperation between companies and enterprises is essential to success. As the pace of globalisation quickens, businesses need to be able to operate across more than just national borders. Despite how much pushback this trend receives, it appears to be here to stay for the time being. Speciality businesses can't thrive without connections and cooperation. For the computer industry to succeed, businesses must collaborate to ensure that their products are compatible with a wide range of available computers. In today's interconnected world, no organisation can succeed without collaborating with others. It used to be easier for businesses to strike out on their own, but times have changed.

The same holds true in the academic world, where knowledge and understanding have traditionally been guarded with extreme caution. Recently, there has been a widespread trend of universities and colleges opening their doors to the outside world, which has had significant positive effects on business and academia. The stereotypical academic is someone who operates in an air of rarified sophistication, living in glorious isolation as a captive of their own intellect. This individual doesn't have a natural place in today's networked world. It's true, though, that even the most closed-off societies evolve. With increasing frequency, academics are leaving their isolated ivory towers to form partnerships with the business and government sectors, producing surprising results in places like Silicon Valley in the United States and the area around Cambridge, England, which is home to one of the densest concentrations of high-tech companies in Europe.

Call them what you will, networkers, wheeler-dealers, movers, and shakers, they are the ones who keep the world turning. Between 35,000 and 40,000 B.C., Homo sapiens emerged as the dominant species, bringing with them the ability to conceptualise thought abstraction and culture, which are intrinsically linked to planning for survival and productivity in humans, and thus causing widespread upheaval in the Neanderthals' already unstable world. The weak will gain power, so the saying goes. But, will they?

Questions 1-5

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the Reading Passage?

For the questions 1-5 on your answer sheet, write:

1. There are basically two types of people in the world.

2. The prototypical networker has high health and robust physicality.

3. Networking is not a new phenomenon.

4. A person who is willing to open up and connect with others is more likely to succeed in the world of networking.

5. In the business world, networking is a sign of status.

Questions 6-10

6. Specialised companies won't last long unless they have .............................................

7. If a manager is ............................................ at work, it can lead to issues.

8. These days, the success of ............................................  depends on a team's ability to work together.

9. A supervisor has the power to limit an employee's advancement or even.......................................... it entirely.

10. Meeting new people ........................................, but it also has drawbacks.

Questions 11-15

11. Which personality type has the hardest time becoming a modern networker? 

12. Which area of society is more protective of its ideas?

13. So, who exactly took the place of the Neanderthals? 

14. Where in Europe can you find one of the highest densities of technological corporations?

15. When compared to other creatures, what distinguishes humans the most, except our intelligence and ability to think abstractly? 

Passage 2

A Silent Force

A. According to mythology, Saint Augustine was the first person to be observed reading silently, rather than aloud or semi-aloud, as had been the norm previously. Reading has advanced significantly since Augustine's time. It was once a menial task performed by scribes and priests, not a sign of civilisation as it became in Europe during the Renaissance, when it was viewed as one of the characteristics of a civilised person.

B. Literacy levels currently have a significant impact on contemporary societies. While the Western world has experienced notable declines in several areas, other less-developed nations have advanced and, in some cases, surpassed it. For instance, India today has a huge number of educated workers. Therefore, European nations cannot continue to rest on their laurels as they have for far too long; otherwise, they risk falling farther behind in the global economy.

C. Without the ability to read, it is difficult to accomplish anything beyond the most basic tasks in the modern world. Reading as a skill is key to an educated workforce and to the foundation of economic growth, especially in the current technological era. Studies have indicated that improving the reading and numeracy skills of primary school pupils in the United Kingdom can add billions of pounds to the economy. Reading is no longer merely an intellectual or recreational pursuit, but a fully-fledged economic force.

D. Reading is problematic in part because it is undervalued in most developed countries. This mindset has consigned substantial portions of the population in most Western nations to illiteracy. People in countries outside the West may be surprised to learn that the literacy rate in the United Kingdom and several other European nations has slipped below that of so-called less-developed nations.

E. In modern society, there are also factors conspiring against reading. It is not considered cool by a younger generation that is more familiar with computer screens and Walkmans. The seclusion of reading is not particularly attractive. Students who read extensively at school, college, or university are known as bookworms. The term denotes the disdain with which certain circles or subcultures regard reading and learning. As with all such attacks, this critique is motivated by the insecurity of the illiterate and semi-literate. Criticism is also a technique, like all bullying, of keeping peers in place so that they do not step out of line. Peer pressure among adolescents is so potent that it frequently thwarts efforts to alter attitudes toward behaviours such as reading.

F. Putting aside the negative overtones, does modern Western civilisation stand Canute-like against an unstoppable decline? I doubt it.

G. How should individuals be motivated to read more? It can be readily accomplished by fostering early literacy development and encouraging young people to borrow books from schools. There are schools with classroom libraries in addition to school libraries. It is ineffective to wait until students are in high school to encourage a love of reading; this must begin at an early age. It is frowned upon to read comic books, periodicals, and lowbrow literature such as Mills & Boon. But what people, whether adults or children, read is of little consequence. Importance lies in the fact that they are reading. A person who reads a comic book today may get the confidence to read a more significant book in the future.

H. But perhaps the ideal solution would be to prevent unfavourable reading attitudes from arising in the first place. Bringing children to local libraries exposes them to a setting where they can relax among books. If elementary school children were also brought to bookstores in groups, then.

Questions 16-22

This reading passage has eight paragraphs, A–H.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

16. Reading: The defining characteristic of civilisation

17. Today, a country's literacy level has a substantial impact on its economy.

18. Reading develops into a significant source of economic growth.

19. The decline in literacy rates in prosperous countries has been attributed to people's attitudes.

20. The younger generation's reading habits.

21. What the author has to say regarding the drop in readership.

22. Inspiring people to read for pleasure.

I) Paragraph A

II) Paragraph B

III) Paragraph C

IV) Paragraph D

V) Paragraph E

VI) Paragraph F

VII) Paragraph G

VIII) Paragraph H

Questions 23-27

23. European countries have been satisfied with past achievements for too long and have allowed other countries to overtake them in certain areas. 

24. Reading is an economic force.

25. The literacy rate in less developed nations is considerably higher than in all European countries. 

26. If you encourage children to read when they are young, the negative attitude to reading that grows in some subcultures will be eliminated. 

27. People should be discouraged from reading comics and magazines.

Passage 3 

Variations On A Theme: The Sonnet Form In English Poetry

A. The form of lyric poetry known as ‘the sonnet’, or ‘little song’, was introduced into the English poetic corpus by Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder and his contemporary Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, during the first half of the sixteenth century. It originated, however, in Italy three centuries earlier, with the earliest examples known being those of Giacomo da Lentini, ‘The Notary’ in the Sicilian court of the Emperor Frederick II, dating from the third decade of the thirteenth century. The Sicilian sonneteers are relatively obscure, but the form was taken up by the two most famous poets of the Italian Renaissance, Dante and Petrarch, and indeed the latter is regarded as the master of the form.

B. The Petrarchan sonnet form, the first to be introduced into English poetry, is a complex poetic structure. It comprises fourteen lines written in a rhyming metrical pattern of iambic pentameter, that is to say each line is ten syllables long, divided into five ‘feet’ or pairs of syllables (hence ‘pentameter’), with a stress pattern where the first syllable of each foot is unstressed and the second stressed (an iambic foot). This can be seen if we look at the first line of one of Wordsworth’s sonnets, ‘After- Thought’: ‘I thought of thee, my partner and my guide’. If we break down this line into its constituent syllabic parts, we can see the five feet and the stress pattern (in this example, each stressed syllable is underlined), thus: ‘I thought/ of thee/ my part/ner and/ my guide’.

C. The rhyme scheme for the Petrarchan sonnet is equally as rigid. The poem is generally divided into two parts, the octave (8 lines) and the sestet (6 lines), which is demonstrated through rhyme rather than an actual space between each section. The octave is usually rhymed abbaabba with the first, fourth, fifth and eighth lines rhyming with each other, and the second, third, sixth and seventh also rhyming. The sestet is more varied: it can follow the patterns cdecde, cdccdc, or cdedce. Perhaps the best interpretation of this division in the Petrarchan sonnet is by Charles Gayley, who wrote: ‘The octave bears the burden; a doubt, a problem, a reflection, a query, a historical statement, a cry of indignation or desire, a vision of the ideal. The sestet eases the load, resolves the problem or doubt, answers the query or doubt, soothes the yearning, and realises the vision. Thus, we can see that the rhyme scheme demonstrates a twofold division in the poem, providing a structure for the development of themes and ideas.

D. Early on, however, English poets began to vary and experiment with this structure. The first major development was made by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, an altogether indifferent poet, but was taken up and perfected by William Shakespeare, and is named after him. The Shakespearean sonnet also has fourteen lines in iambic pentameter, but rather than the division into octave and sestet, the poem is divided into four parts: three quatrains and a final rhyming couplet. Each quatrain has its own internal rhyme scheme; a typical Shakespearean sonnet would rhyme abab cdcd efef gg. Such a structure naturally allows greater flexibility for the author, and it would be hard, if not impossible, to enumerate the different ways in which it has been employed by Shakespeare and others. For example, an idea might be introduced in the first quatrain, complicated in the second, further complicated in the third, and resolved in the final couplet - indeed, the couplet is almost always used as a resolution to the poem, though often in a surprising way.

E. These, then, are the two standard forms of the sonnet in English poetry, but it should be recognised that poets rarely follow rules precisely, and a number of other sonnet types have been developed, playing with the structural elements. Edmund Spenser, for example, more famous for his verse epic ‘The Faerie Queene’, invented a variation on the Shakespearean form by interlocking the rhyme schemes between the quatrains, thus: abab bcbc cdcd ee, while in the twentieth century Rupert Brooke reversed his sonnet, beginning with the couplet. John Milton, the seventeenth-century poet, was unsatisfied with the fourteen-line format and wrote a number of ‘Caudate’ sonnets, or sonnets with the regular fourteen lines (on the Petrarchan model) with a ‘coda’ or ‘tail’ of a further six lines. A similar notion informs George Meredith’s sonnet sequence ‘Modern Love’, where most sonnets in the cycle have sixteen lines.

F. Perhaps the most radical of innovators, however, has been Gerard Manley Hopkins, who developed what he called the ‘Curtal’ sonnet. This form varies the length of the poem, reducing it in effect to eleven and a half lines, the rhyme scheme and the number of feet per line. Modulating the Petrarchan form, instead of two quatrains in the octave, he has two tercets rhyming abc abc, and in place of the sestet he has four and a half lines, with a rhyme scheme dcbdc. As if this is not enough, the tercets are no longer in iambic pentameter, but have six stresses instead of five, as does the final quatrain, with the exception of the last line, which has three. Many critics, however, are sceptical as to whether such a major variation can indeed be classified as a sonnet, but as verse forms and structures become freer, and poets are less satisfied with convention, it is likely that even more experimental forms will emerge.

Questions 28-32

The Reading Passage has six paragraphs A-F.

Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of headings below.

List of Headings

i)  Octave develops sestet

ii)  The Faerie Queene and Modern Love

iii) The sonnet form: variations and additions

iv) The Shakespearean sonnet form

v) The structure of the Petrarchan sonnet form

vi) A real sonnet?

vii) Rhyme scheme provides structure, developing themes and ideas

viii) Dissatisfaction with format

ix) The Sicilian sonneteers

x) Howard v. Shakespeare

xi) Wordsworth's sonnet form

xii) Future breaks with convention

xiii) The origins of the sonnet

Questions 33-37

Complete the notes below.

33. Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder and Henry Howard were __________.

34. It was in the third decade of the thirteenth century that the __________ was introduced.

35. Among poets of the Italian Renaissance __________ was considered to be the better sonneteer.

36. The Petrarchan sonnet form consists of __________.

37. In comparison with the octave, the rhyming scheme of the sestet is __________ varied.

Questions 38-40

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

38. According to Charles Gayley,

A. The octave is longer than the sestet.

B. The octave develops themes and ideas.

C. The sestet provides answers and solutions.

D. The sestet demonstrates a twofold division.

39. The Shakespearean sonnet is

A. an indifferent development.

B. an indifferent development.

C. more flexible than the Petrarchan sonnet.

D. is enumerated in different ways.

40. According to the passage, whose sonnet types are similar?

A. Spenser and Brooke

B. Brooke and Milton

C. Hopkins and Spenser

D. Milton and Meredith

Answers

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