Reading 2026-10 Test 9 — IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test with Answers

About this set: compiled and lightly cleaned up from real test material that test-takers recalled. IELTS draws from a global question pool, so this material circulates worldwide. To give you a complete, sittable test, material reported around the same period is assembled together — so a set may combine content from several exam dates, not one single sitting. Any audio is a recreation for practice. Organized for study convenience. Based on test-taker recalls — not official IELTS material.

Reading Passage 1: Lever Brothers' Sunlight Soap: A Revolution in Hygiene and Industry

Sunlight Soap, produced by the Lever Brothers in the late 19th century, was a groundbreaking innovation in the world of consumer goods. At a time when hygiene and cleanliness were not universally prioritised, Sunlight Soap not only introduced a revolutionary product but also played a crucial role in transforming industrial production, marketing strategies and public health. The success of Sunlight Soap laid the foundation for what would later become Unilever, one of the world's largest multinational corporations.

The story of Sunlight Soap begins in 1884, when William Hesketh Lever and his brother James Darcy Lever established the Lever Brothers company in England. They sought to create a high-quality soap that was both affordable and effective in promoting hygiene. Traditional soaps at the time were often harsh on the skin and required extensive preparation. The Lever Brothers aimed to change this by producing a soap that was easy to use and gentle while maintaining strong cleansing properties. The innovation behind Sunlight Soap lay in its production process. Unlike the traditional method of soap-making, which relied on animal fats and wood ash, Sunlight Soap was manufactured using a blend of vegetable oils and alkali, resulting in a more consistent and superior-quality product. This not only improved the soap's effectiveness but also made it a more ethical and sustainable option compared with its contemporaries.

Beyond the product itself, the Lever Brothers were pioneers in marketing and branding. They understood the power of advertising and created memorable, persuasive campaigns for Sunlight Soap. These advertisements emphasised the soap's purity, its ability to fight germs, and its role in maintaining a happy and healthy home. The company used a variety of media, from newspapers and magazines to colourful posters and collectable cards, to reach a wide audience. This aggressive and innovative marketing strategy helped create a strong brand identity and fostered customer loyalty.

The company also revolutionised industrial relations and worker welfare. In 1888, Lever Brothers built a purpose-built factory and village called Port Sunlight on the Wirral Peninsula. This model village was designed to provide high-quality housing, amenities, and social benefits for its employees. It featured gardens, schools, a hospital, and recreational facilities, which were considered revolutionary for the time. This approach was part of William Lever's philosophy of "prosperity sharing," where he believed that a healthy and content workforce would lead to greater productivity and company success. Port Sunlight became a landmark in industrial planning and set a new standard for employee welfare.

The impact of Sunlight Soap on public health was significant. By promoting the importance of cleanliness with an effective and accessible product, it contributed to improved hygiene practices among the general public. This was particularly important in an era before the widespread understanding of germ theory. The widespread use of soap like Sunlight played a role in reducing the incidence of infectious diseases, thereby improving overall public health standards in Britain and beyond.

The phenomenal success of Sunlight Soap provided the capital and brand recognition for the Lever Brothers to expand their operations globally. They began acquiring other soap and food companies, steadily growing their portfolio. This expansion culminated in 1930 with a merger with the Dutch margarine company, Margarine Unie. This merger formed Unilever, a dual-headed company structure that remains unique to this day. The creation of Unilever marked the beginning of a new era, transforming a single soap product into a global consumer goods empire.

Questions 1–6

Reading Passage 1 has six paragraphs, A–F.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter, A–F, in boxes 1–6 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

1
A description of the advertising methods used to promote the soap
2
The reason why a particular location was constructed for workers
3
The way the success of one product led to the creation of a major corporation
4
A comparison between the new product and the types of soap that existed previously
5
The various health benefits for society resulting from the use of the soap
6
The original business goal of the Lever brothers

Questions 7–13

Complete the notes below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 7–13 on your answer sheet.

Sunlight Soap: Key Facts

Founders: William Hesketh Lever and (7) ________

Year company established: (8) ________

Key Product Innovation: Used (9) ________ and alkali instead of animal fats and wood ash.

Resulted in a product that was more consistent, superior, and (10) ________

Marketing & Branding: Advertisements focused on purity and fighting (11) ________

Worker Welfare: Built a model village called (12) ________

Based on the philosophy of "(13) ________"

Reading Passage 2: Desertification

A The world's great deserts were formed by natural processes interacting over long intervals of time. During most of these times, deserts have grown and shrunk independent of human activities. Paleodeserts, large sand seas now inactive because they are stabilized by vegetation, extend well beyond the present margins of core deserts, such as the Sahara. In some regions, deserts are separated sharply from surrounding, less arid areas by mountains and other contrasting landforms that reflect basic structural differences in the regional geology. In other areas, desert fringes form a gradual transition from a dry to a more humid environment, making it more difficult to define the desert border.

B These transition zones have very fragile, delicately balanced ecosystems. Desert fringes often are a mosaic of microclimates. Small hollows support vegetation that picks up heat from the hot winds and protects the land from the prevailing winds. After rainfall, the vegetated areas are distinctly cooler than the surroundings. In these marginal areas, human activity may stress the ecosystem beyond its tolerance limit, resulting in degradation of the land. By ponding the soil with their hooves, livestock compact the substrate, increase the proportion of fine material, and reduce the percolation rate of the soil, thus encouraging erosion by wind and water. Grazing and the collection of firewood reduce or eliminate plants that help to bind the soil.

C This degradation of formerly productive land—desertification—is a complex process. It involves multiple causes, and it proceeds at varying rates in different climates. Desertification may intensify a general climatic trend toward greater aridity, or it may initiate a change in local climate.

D Desertification does not occur in linear, easily mappable patterns. Deserts advance erratically, forming patches on their borders. Areas far from natural deserts can degrade quickly to barren soil, rock, or sand through poor land management. The presence of a nearby desert has no direct relationship to desertification. Unfortunately, an area undergoing desertification is brought to public attention only after the process is well underway. Often little or no data are available to indicate the previous state of the ecosystem or the rate of degradation. Scientists still question whether desertification, as a process of global change, is permanent or how and when it can be halted or reversed.

E Desertification became well known in the 1930s when part of the Great Plains in the United States turned into the "Dust Bowl" as a result of drought and poor practices in farming, although the term itself was not used until almost 1950. During the Dust Bowl period, millions of people were forced to abandon their farms and livelihoods. Greatly improved methods of agriculture and land and water management in the Great Plains have prevented that disaster from recurring, but desertification presently affects millions of people on almost every continent. Increased population and livestock pressure on marginal lands have accelerated desertification. In some areas, nomads moving to less arid areas disrupt the local ecosystem and increase the rate of erosion of the land. Nomads are trying to escape the desert, but because of their land-use practices, they are bringing the desert with them.

F It is a misconception that drought causes desertification. Droughts are common in arid and semiarid lands. Well-managed lands can recover from drought when the rains return. Continued land abuse during droughts, however, increases land degradation. By 1973, the drought that began in 1968 in the Sahel of West Africa and the land-use practices there had caused the deaths of more than 100,000 people and 12 million cattle, as well as the disruption of social organizations from villages to the national level.

G At the local level, individuals and governments can help to reclaim and protect their lands. In areas of sand dunes, covering the dunes with large boulders or petroleum will interrupt the wind regime near the face of the dunes and prevent the sand from moving. Sand fences are used throughout the Middle East and the United States, in the same way snow fences are used in the north. Placement of straw grids, each up to a square meter in area, will also decrease the surface wind velocity. Shrubs and trees planted within the grids are protected by the straw until they take root. In areas where some water is available for irrigation, shrubs planted on the lower one-third of a dune's windward side will stabilize the dune. This vegetation decreases the wind velocity near the base of the dune and prevents much of the sand from moving.

H Oases and farmlands in windy regions can be protected by planting tree fences or grass belts. Sand that manages to pass through the grass belts can be caught in strips of trees planted as windbreaks 50 to 100 meters apart adjacent to the belts. Small plots of trees may also be scattered inside oases to stabilize the area. On a much larger scale, a "Green Wall," which will eventually stretch more than 5,700 kilometers in length, much longer than the famous Great Wall, is being planted in northeastern China to protect "sandy lands"—deserts believed to have been created by human activity.

I More efficient use of existing water resources and control of salinization are other effective tools for improving arid lands. New ways are being sought to use surface-water resources such as rainwater harvesting or irrigating with seasonal runoff from adjacent highlands. Research on the reclamation of deserts also is focusing on discovering proper crop rotation to protect the fragile soil, on understanding how sand-fixing plants can be adapted to local environments, and on how grazing lands and water resources can be developed effectively without being overused.

Questions 14–19

Reading Passage 2 contains 9 paragraphs, A–I.

Which paragraphs state the following information?

Write the appropriate letters, A–I, in boxes 14–19 on your answer sheet.

14
Desertification poses a threat to people worldwide.
15
It is difficult to describe the process of desertification.
16
Desertification may alter local climates.
17
People have misconceptions regarding desertification origins.
18
It is hard to notice desertification in its early stages.
19
Straw grids diminish the swiftness of the surface wind.

Questions 20–23

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 2?

In boxes 20–23 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

20
All desert borders are difficult to define.
- A. YES
- B. NO
- C. NOT GIVEN
21
Desertification is a reversible process.
22
Part of the Great Plains did not become a so-called "Dust Bowl" until almost 1950.
23
Nomads cannot get away from the desert because of their current land-use methods.

Questions 24–26

Complete the summary below.

Use NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Tree fences or grass belts planted inside oases can catch sand in the wind and (24) ________ these areas as well. The "Green Wall" is an example.

Water resource management and prevention of (25) ________ are also effective in protecting lands.

Scientists are trying to find (26) ________ to protect the vulnerable soil.

Reading Passage 3: Linguistic Diversity

(A) More than half of the world's languages are at risk, but an unlikely saviour is at hand. What is an endangered language? As a rough guide, any language with fewer than 10,000 speakers is in danger. However, the total number of speakers is not always a clear indication of the health of a language. In the South Andaman Islands, for example, fewer than 100 people speak Onge, but it is the primary language of those who do, and, critically, the first language of all the islands' children. Consequently, it would be considered less threatened than a language such as Chipewyan in Canada, where more than 4,000 belong to the ethnic group that uses the language, but there is little use among the new generation.

(B) It could be argued that in today's globalised world, we would be better off all speaking the same language, be it Chinese, English or Spanish. It might bring us closer together, and we would certainly be more likely to make our ideas comprehensible. The majority of linguists argue, however, that when it comes to language, diversity matters.

(C) “People's understanding of themselves, and their relationship with their environment are all framed in terms of concepts expressed in their own languages,” says Marcus Colchester, director of the Forest Peoples Programme. “Many indigenous peoples derive their identities from the way they live off their land. Day-to-day activities such as hunting, fishing and farming are directly connected to the spirits and mythic beings whose stories make these people who they are.”

(D) Louisa Maffi of Terralingua, an organisation that protects cultural and biological diversity, believes linguistic diversity is of immense value to humanity as a whole. As we lose each language, we lose a repository of knowledge, values and beliefs that, in many cases, provide alternative solutions to human problems; we diminish that pool of creativity and inventiveness, and our ability to adapt to changing circumstances.

(E) Nicholas Ostler, chairman of the Foundation for Endangered Languages, points out the scientific interest in maintaining linguistic diversity. To lose diversity will mean losing awareness of the many and varied features of human language — what part of our vocal tract we use for communication, the different ways we use words to reflect meaning, and so on.

(F) Historically, colonial governments practised policies of compelling minority cultures to speak the majority language. But even where there was little or no forced assimilation, imperialism still took its toll. Ostler cites the example of the ancient Roman Empire, which had no specific policy of forcing subjects to speak Latin, but still greatly reduced linguistic diversity across Europe. There was some prestige associated with the language—it was the medium of trade and administration—and people who wanted to get on in life tended to learn it. And similar processes are threatening minority languages today, says Ostler. “The Romans succeeded in making people live in larger communities, what we now call urbanisation. And nowadays people move from the countryside to cities where regional languages aren't maintained. The new generation grows up with their lives focused on the wider community. It may take several generations for the traditional language to fall out of use completely.”

(G) “Many nation states see cultural diversity as a threat to national unity,” says Maffi, “so monolingualism is promoted in specific contexts, particularly schools, where there is no multilingual education offered, and in government, where politics is only conducted in the national language. Such implicit endorsement of monolingualism conspires to place pressure on minority peoples to assimilate. There is essentially a misconceived either/or ideology: either you maintain your mother tongue, in which case you can't participate in national life, or you forget your mother tongue and learn the majority language.”

(H) In recent decades, the mass media have reinforced this process further and extended the penetration of metropolitan languages like English and Spanish beyond urban centres into smaller communities. The pervasive influence of the media has effectively created a cultural divide between the generations. Ostler continues, where young people speak their traditional language with their elders, but English among themselves. Maffi describes similar trends among indigenous minority groups worldwide. “All of the images children see in the media are of the glamorised lifestyle of the majority, and that lifestyle is communicated in the majority language. So it becomes very difficult for them to find a reason to value their own language.”

(I) When the internet first took off during the mid-1990s, many feared it represented the end of the road for endangered languages. Because it was only available to English-speakers, it would only serve to continue the decline. However, these fears proved to be unfounded, as the diversity of languages on the web increased rapidly in the years that followed. Peter Austin, of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, attributes this to the lack of control on the internet. “Unlike most TV or radio, the web isn't in the hands of big media corporations. All you need is an internet account and a little technology, and you can produce information, news, videos, and so on, as much as you want.” Minority groups around the world—in Hawaii, Mexico, Siberia, and many other places—are now taking advantage of this autonomy to document their language in written, audio and visual format. And, crucially, it is in a form which appeals to young people. It seems that the mass media could, after all, be the salvation of the world's most threatened languages.

Questions 27–31

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 3?

In boxes 27–31 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer

NO if the statement contradicts the views of the writer

NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

27
The Onge language has a particularly poor chance of survival.
- A. YES
- B. NO
- C. NOT GIVEN
28
Most linguists oppose the idea of a single global language.
29
Many citizens of the Roman Empire chose to become Latin speakers.
30
Majority languages such as Spanish and English are now spreading faster within smaller communities than larger ones.
31
There is a greater proportion of English used on the internet nowadays than in the 1990s.

Questions 32–35

Complete the summary using the list of words, A–I, below.

Write the correct letter, A–I, in boxes 32–35 on your answer sheet.

Disappearing languages in today's globalised world

If everybody spoke the same language, whether Spanish, English or Chinese, there would certainly be less chance of (32) ________ between people. But would society suffer if there were one global language? Experts agree that it would.

According to Marcus Colchester, people's use of native languages is key to how they relate to their (33) ________. He also emphasises the link between indigenous people's traditional (34) ________ and the recounting of the myths and folk tales which are integral to their sense of identity.

Louisa Maffi describes how loss of language diversity leads to a loss of collective human knowledge, so there could be fewer (35) ________ available to help solve problems in the world.

A ideas

B speakers

C connections

D surroundings

E families

F occupations

G relationship

H words

I misunderstandings

Questions 36–40

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

Write the correct letter in boxes 36–40 on your answer sheet.

36
In the first paragraph, the writer mentions two particular languages in order to indicate
- A. a key factor in determining how endangered a language is.
- B. alternative methods of interpreting data about languages at risk.
- C. different reasons why a minority language might be under threat.
- D. difficulties involved in assessing a language's survival prospects.
37
What similarity between the Roman Empire and the present day does Nicholas Ostler mention?
- A. the growth of international trade
- B. the shift towards living in more extended social groups
- C. the attitude of governments towards minority languages
- D. the speed with which minority languages fall out of use
38
According to Louisa Maffi, many people wrongly believe that
- A. it is more difficult for minority-language speakers to access education.
- B. majority-language speakers can participate better in national life.
- C. their national government is opposed to the use of minority languages.
- D. they need to choose between being a minority- or majority-language speaker.
39
What problem among minority-language speakers is mentioned in the eighth paragraph?
- A. younger people's perceptions of their mother tongue
- B. breakdown of communication between the generations
- C. older people's attitudes to their children's language use
- D. generational differences in ability to access the mass media
40
What does Peter Austin see as the main advantage of the internet for minority language groups?
- A. the variety of media it can use
- B. the freedom its users can have
- C. the wide geographical area it can reach
- D. the range of people it can be accessed by

Answer sheet

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Show answer key

1. C
2. D
3. F
4. B
5. E
6. B
7. James Darcy Lever
8. 1884
9. vegetable oils
10. ethical
11. germs
12. Port Sunlight
13. prosperity sharing
14. E
15. D
16. C
17. F
18. D
19. G
20. B
The passage says some desert borders are sharp and others are gradual, so not all are difficult to define. The answer is NO.
21. C
The passage says scientists still question if desertification is permanent or reversible, so the answer is NOT GIVEN.
22. B
The passage says the Dust Bowl happened in the 1930s, not 1950, so the answer is NO.
23. A
The passage says nomads try to escape the desert, but their land-use practices bring the desert with them, so they cannot get away. The answer is YES.
24. stabilize / stabilise
25. salinization / salinisation
26. proper crop rotation / crop rotation
27. B
28. A
29. A
30. C
31. B
32. I
33. D
34. F
35. A
36. A
37. B
38. D
39. A
40. B

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Reading Passage 1: Lever Brothers' Sunlight Soap: A Revolution in Hygiene and Industry

Reading Passage 2: Desertification

Reading Passage 3: Linguistic Diversity

Answer sheet

Answer key