Reading 2026-06 Test 9

Exam month: 2026-06

In this test

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: Sleep Study on Modern-Day Hunter-Gatherers Dispels Popular Notions

The sleep troubles common in modern life have long been blamed on our industrial society, from the city lights, long work hours and commutes, to caffeine and the Internet. Sleep researchers often look back on a time when humans were able to get more rest by sleeping and waking to the rhythms of the sun. It turns out that this may not be quite right. In fact, our ancestors may not have been getting the recommended eight hours of sleep, either.
In a recent study, researchers traveled all over the world to examine sleep in some of the world’s last remaining hunter-gatherer societies – the Hadza of Tanzania, the San of Namibia, and the Tsimane of Bolivia. Cut off from media, electricity and other distractions, these pre-industrial societies are thought to sleep the way humans did more than 10,000 years ago. Traveling to where they lived, often in humid, remote locations, researchers used medical devices to record the sleeping habits of 94 of these tribespeople and ended up collecting data representing 1,165 days.
They found very similar sleep patterns despite their geographic isolation. On average, all three groups sleep a little less than 6.5 hours a night, do not take naps, and don’t go to sleep when it gets dark. Like many of us, the Hadza, San, and Tsimane spend more time in bed – from 6.9 to 8.5 hours – than they do actually sleeping. This adds up to a sleep efficiency that is very similar to today’s industrial populations.
According to Jerome Siegel, director of the University of California’s Center for Sleep Research, evidence suggests sleep habits may not be environmental or cultural, but central to the physical makeup of humans. These findings question the millions of dollars that have been spent on research that tries to explain why some sleepers get only about six hours of sleep a night. Also, such findings question whether lack of sleep is a cause of obesity, mood disorders, and other physical and mental illnesses which have become so common in recent decades. Scientists have documented that people’s energy often falls in the mid-afternoon. Some have suggested that it’s because we’ve managed to suppress a natural desire for a nap.
However, the new study provides evidence that this is unlikely, and that napping was actually rare in hunter-gatherer societies. The researchers estimated that naps may have occurred on up to 7 percent of winter days and 22 percent of summer days. They noted that their devices were only good at detecting longer naps, so it is possible that some of the study subjects took naps that were short, perhaps 15 minutes or less.
Another fascinating finding from the study had to do with the circadian rhythms, our daily activity cycles related to sunlight. Instead of going to sleep right at dusk, tribespeople were staying awake an average of between 2.5 and 4.4 hours after sunset. All three tribes had fires going, but the light itself was much lower than you might get from a light bulb. They did, however, have a tendency to wake up anywhere between an hour before and an hour after sunrise.
Siegel and his co-authors investigated this further by looking into the significance of temperature. They found that it also played a big role, though it was somewhat less important than light in influencing sleep patterns. They wrote that “sleep in both the winter and summer usually occurred during the period of cooling and that waking times usually occurred near the height of the daily warming trend.”
The tribespeople that were studied are different from people living in modern conditions in a number of respects. Importantly, almost none of them were troubled by sleeplessness. In interviews with the researchers conducted through interpreters, only 1.5 to 2.5 percent of the study subjects said they had severe difficulties sleeping more than once a year. This figure is far lower than the 10 to 30 percent recorded in many industrialized countries today. Siegel suggested that “mimicking aspects of the natural environment” may therefore help treat some sleep disorders.
The tribespeople are also much healthier. Not a single one is overweight, indicating their overall higher levels of physical fitness. They also tended to have healthier hearts. Thus comes a critical question. If we can’t blame our health problems on our lack of sleep, could it be that the reason we feel so unrested is because of poor health?
  1. 1

    Scientists studied hunter-gatherer societies because their sleep patterns are assumed to be similar to those of humans more than 10,000 years ago.

  2. 2

    The medical devices used in the research were specially designed for humid conditions.

  3. 3

    Researchers found that tribespeople stayed longer in bed than inhabitants of industrialised regions.

  4. 4

    Jerome Siegel believes that environment and culture have little effect on sleep patterns.

  5. 5

    Scientists have recorded an afternoon drop in _________.

  6. 6

    Studies of hunter-gatherer societies show that napping was rare and occurred more often during the _________.

  7. 7

    The devices may not have detected _________ naps.

  8. 8

    Even with _________ there was little light.

  9. 9

    Tribespeople usually woke up around _________.

  10. 10

    Scientists found that _________ had almost as much influence on sleep patterns as light.

  11. 11

    _________ is something that very few of the tribespeople suffered from.

  12. 12

    Tribespeople had better fitness than industrialised populations and were not _________.

  13. 13

    Tribespeople also had stronger _________.

Reading Passage 2: Coins – the first form of money

A Few people pay much attention to coins; we take them for granted. Since the advent of paper currency and the abandonment of a monetary system based on intrinsic or actual value, they have been demoted to the status of change: what is left when you have paid for something with ‘paper’ money. There is even a belief that they will one day be obsolete, as will paper or plastic notes, and money will at last have achieved the pure status of a mathematical formulation, a system of electronic credits and debits.
B In the modern media environment, the sheer number of visual images is overwhelming, but it makes one stop to think that coins are among the most durable of our artefacts, and future archaeologists will scrutinise coins in order to learn about their distant ancestors. This is exactly the way ancient coins have informed us for over four millennia. There are thousands of different coins, each designed to carry meaning as well as value, tiny but rich sources of documentary evidence about events and cultural attitudes, frequently produced with exquisite craftsmanship.
C Coins in Europe date from 2,500 to 2,700 years ago, and seem to have originated in the ancient kingdom of Lydia, in what is now Turkey. Before coins, trade was based on barter: the direct trade of commodities. Barter required the physical presence of both commodities that were being traded. Metal coins were far more portable, and not subject to the same spoilage on long sea journeys as a commodity like grain might be if it became wet. However, they could also be accumulated, and these hoards could be stolen. Coins were therefore a temptation to criminals. The Greeks, however, were the first to realise the full potential of the new invention. They were a trading people of seafarers. Their civilisation, which was composed of dozens of city-states, was highly decentralised. Despite the potential for theft, the Greeks realised that they could benefit enormously from a system that used coins, because it meant that they no longer had to carry goods with them to barter.
D The value of coins was generally based on the intrinsic value of the metal they were made of. At first this was mostly silver, and this meant that the discovery of silver mines on Greek territory actually increased the quantity of money they could produce. Had the Greek mining been on a larger scale, it could have caused problems similar to those faced by the Spanish centuries later, when so much gold from the New World was brought into their economy that it resulted in serious inflation. One advantage of intrinsic value was that coins could be weighed to determine the amount of metal they contained, so that the only thing an issuing state had to guarantee was the purity of the metal to prevent accusations of fraud and cheating, which could cause fighting and unrest. This was quite difficult to do, especially with coins made of gold, until Archimedes realised that different metals have different weight-volume ratios, and that by measuring the amount of displacement when coins were immersed in water, it was possible to establish whether gold was alloyed with silver.
E All ancient coins were made by hand using engraved metal moulds. Many hundreds of coins were made, and as a result the moulds often cracked and new ones had to be engraved. This explains the endless variety encountered in coins with the same designs because the moulds had to be remade repeatedly, by many different artisans. One of the distinctive features of coins, in fact, is that they are the work of anonymous craftsmen, and yet each coin is an intimate reflection of the character of its city of origin. It was the Greeks who realised that coins could have a double function, as a unit of value and as a symbol of the identity of the city that issued them. The Greek view of life was deeply motivated by a spirit of competition, and coins, which circulated around the trading world, were a way of advertising the qualities of each particular city-state.
F Interestingly, Greek coins from the city of Athens, which was the home of the greatest sculptors of the classical period, seem to have been completely disconnected from the high sculptural tradition. The beautiful features of the city’s patron, Athena (with her owl on the reverse of the coin), seem to have been repeated virtually unaltered for many years. Perhaps this was because the Athenian currency had grown increasingly to be the international standard and, like the US dollar today, a uniform design implied integrity.
G One side of a coin was always occupied by the head of a divinity, so it was a relatively small step, at around 323 BC, for Greek coins to replace that head with the portrait of the reigning monarch, a tradition that has continued in monarchies to the present day. Republics may have either symbolic heads going back to the older tradition of divinities or the features of a distinguished past head of state. The Romans adopted the Greek practice of coin design and as a result, the features of many great Romans have survived and are known to modern generations, despite the fact that the art of portrait painting was completely lost for more than a millennium following the fall of the Roman Empire.
  1. 14

    Paragraph A

    • i. Training coin makers
    • ii. A form of regional promotion
    • iii. More gold than silver in Greece
    • iv. Calculating what a coin was worth
    • v. A simpler, more efficient way of trading
    • vi. Putting a face to famous historical names
    • vii. An uncertain future
    • viii. Careless workmanship caused breakages
    • ix. Unchanging coins signalled trustworthiness
    • x. Reading the writing on coins
    • xi. Significant records of past societies
  2. 15

    Paragraph B

  3. 16

    Paragraph C

  4. 17

    Paragraph D

  5. 18

    Paragraph E

  6. 19

    Paragraph F

  7. 20

    Paragraph G

  8. 21

    Which TWO of these comments about ancient coins are made by the writer of the text?

    • A. There is no record of the names of the coin makers.
    • B. Coins were not popular as payment for traded objects.
    • C. Coins with the same design often looked quite different.
    • D. Greek coins were more beautiful in design than Roman coins.
    • E. At times, too many coins were produced in Greece.
  9. 22

    Greek traders and coins: The ancient Greek ______ was made up of many city-states which were spread over a large area. Many Greeks were seafarers who travelled the seas trading. Before coins, they had to do this through ______. This meant that, whenever they set out, they had to carry a lot of goods, which could get damaged on the voyages. The Greeks liked coins; they were made of metal, and the weather and sea had little effect on them. The Greeks had a plentiful supply of ______ which they mined themselves, but were able to avoid the problem of ______ which the Spanish encountered much later, after they allowed too much gold from the New World to enter their economy.

Reading Passage 3: The Dunedin Study

The New Zealand city of Dunedin in the early 1970s can easily be made to sound idyllic. There was next to no unemployment and people left their doors unlocked at night. New Zealand was then the ninth richest country in the world and many residents believed that, as a place to bring up children, this was a city without rival. However, Phil Silva, an educational psychologist, was not so certain and decided to take a closer look. Silva identified those children born in the year from April 1, 1972 whose mothers were still living in the city three years later. The parents were asked if they would mind bringing their children in for a health and development assessment. Incredibly, no fewer than 91% agreed to help and 1037 three-year-olds completed half a day of tests and experiments. In the process, the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study was born.
There was precious little money at Silva's disposal, so the assessments were done in a church with the help of dozens of volunteers. Each child was assessed against a range of measures such as height, weight, and head circumference. Language skills were assessed and profiles of behaviour were compiled. However, one set of assessments was never going to satisfy Silva's curiosity, so when the children were five, his same team asked the parents to bring the children back for a second study. Of the original 1037 children, 96% came. The data gathered at age three was updated and new measurement criteria – discipline, nutrition, dental health - were introduced.
By 1978, Silva was able to shock the nation with his findings: one in four children had delayed language development; 15% had ear problems; the researchers had identified one child who was blind and another who might have died from undetected skin cancer. New Zealanders, Silva declared, were more diligent about their cars than their children. Cars were required by law to be regularly checked; if children were treated similarly, ideally at behavioural clinics in schools, problems could be picked up in time to prevent lasting damage.
The parents were asked to bring their children back at ages seven, nine and 11 to the old church for further assessments. Crucially for the study's survival, the politicians were finally starting to take note and government funding began to trickle in. By the time the children returned at age 13, the study had taken up residence in an abandoned building tucked behind the dental school. It wouldn't have been the researchers' first choice, and was certainly not grand, but it was at least a site for the long term and its acquisition represented a landmark in the study's development. It was to this building that the participants returned at ages 15, 18, 21, 26 and, most recently, at 32.
Among the most recent findings are that birth complications - a focus of Silva's original research - don't necessarily set children up for problems as they mature in later life, although the amount a newborn infant weighs is associated with IQ. Paediatric textbooks had insisted for years that breast-feeding protected against medical problems like asthma and allergies. The Dunedin study has shown that assumption to be incorrect. Other findings that challenged the received wisdom include the fact that thumb-sucking does no harm; birth order makes no difference to later development; and pre-schoolers whose mothers work are not disadvantaged. Overall, the study has confirmed the notion that broad personality traits are laid down by the age of three. Along the way, the Dunedin researchers have been able to contradict old assumptions and explode medical myths long held by the profession.
The Dunedin study is important not only because of its findings, however. It also provides a model because of the extraordinary commitment of study members. No other longitudinal research project in the world matches its retention rate of 96% at age 32. Silva concedes that luck has a lot to do with this: Dunedin city was, and largely still is, close-knit, homogeneous and devoted to its university and medical school. It is large enough to produce a study population that produces findings that can be generalised to New Zealand and other developed countries, yet small enough that one in every 10 households has had a child or relative in the study.
More important than circumstance, though, was the approach taken by the researchers. Silva recalls that by year 13, participation had dropped off - only 82% came in for assessments. He realised the most important asset they had was the sample group and these people must be nurtured at all costs. He spent many long hours out in the field, finding those participants who had gone adrift and persuading them to come in. Study members are kept up to date with the steady flow of findings to which they have contributed. Privacy is absolutely paramount: Silva won't even say how many of the study members are now in prison: nothing must erode the trust that's been built up over the years.
Today, more than a quarter of the sample live overseas so the study also has its own travel agent, who does her best to accommodate requests to spend Christmas in Dunedin with family. This is just one example of the enormous effort that goes into maintaining contact and removing obstacles to participation. With such diligence and care, researchers hope the Dunedin study will continue for many years, perhaps generations, to come.
  1. 23

    What does the writer say about Dunedin in the 1970s?

    • A. It was the safest city in the country.
    • B. It was less prosperous than other cities.
    • C. Many people were frustrated that they could not find a job.
    • D. It was wealthy and seen as an ideal place to raise children.
  2. 24

    What did the writer find surprising about Phil Silva’s original study?

    • A. That the study was held in a church.
    • B. That the tests took half a day.
    • C. That 91% of parents agreed to help.
    • D. That the study used volunteers.
  3. 25

    What was Silva's main finding in 1978?

    • A. Children had excellent language.
    • B. Many children had developmental problems.
    • C. No children had ear problems.
    • D. All children were healthy.
  4. 26

    What was different about the first and second studies?

    • A. The sample group was smaller in the first study.
    • B. The second study produced conflicting results.
    • C. Helpers were not used in the second study.
    • D. The second study collected additional types of information
  5. 27

    What problem did Silva face when conducting the original study?

    • A. A shortage of helpers.
    • B. A lack of available funding.
    • C. The bad behaviour of some children.
    • D. The poor language skills of the participants.
  6. 28

    Why does the writer mention the new building in the fourth paragraph?

    • A. To show how generous project funding had become.
    • B. To show that the study was being taken seriously.
    • C. To emphasise the temporary nature of the facilities.
    • D. To highlight that the children disliked the site.
  7. 29

    Recent results suggest that intellectual development and birth weight are linked.

  8. 30

    Medical textbooks used to claim that breast-fed children were more intelligent.

  9. 31

    Children who suck their thumbs are prone to developmental problems.

  10. 32

    The findings of the Dunedin study have challenged some doctors’ preconceptions.

  11. 33

    The demographics of Dunedin mean that residents feel committed to the study, and that it also provides ............. that can be applied both nationally and internationally.

    • A. generalisable research
    • B. study members
    • C. government funding
    • D. assessments
    • E. loyalty
    • F. barriers to involvement
    • G. confidentiality
    • H. results
  12. 34

    ...but even more important was Silva's conviction that the ............. must be looked after; nothing should be done to threaten the study's ............. and as a result Silva is cautious when questioned, and a lot of work is done to minimize ............. in order to ensure that the study continues into the future.

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Answer key

  1. 1. TRUE

    This is correct because scientists believe hunter-gatherers' sleep is similar to humans from over 10,000 years ago, as stated in the passage.

  2. 2. NOT GIVEN

    There is no information in the passage about the medical devices being specially designed for humid conditions.

  3. 3. NOT GIVEN

    The passage does not mention whether tribespeople stayed in bed longer than people in industrialised regions.

  4. 4. TRUE

    Jerome Siegel is quoted as saying that environment and culture have little effect on sleep patterns, matching the answer.

  5. 5. energy

    The passage says scientists recorded an afternoon drop in energy.

  6. 6. summer

    It is stated that napping was rare and happened more often during the summer.

  7. 7. short

    The passage mentions that the devices may not have detected short naps.

  8. 8. fires

    It is stated that even with fires, there was little light.

  9. 9. sunrise

    The passage says tribespeople usually woke up around sunrise.

  10. 10. temperature

    Scientists found that temperature had almost as much influence on sleep patterns as light.

  11. 11. sleeplessness

    Sleeplessness is described as something very few of the tribespeople suffered from.

  12. 12. overweight

    Tribespeople had better fitness and were not overweight, according to the passage.

  13. 13. hearts

    The passage states that tribespeople also had stronger hearts.

  14. 14. vii

    Paragraph A is about an uncertain future, matching option vii.

  15. 15. xi

    Paragraph B discusses coins as significant records of past societies, matching option xi.

  16. 16. v

    Paragraph C describes coins as a simpler, more efficient way of trading, matching option v.

  17. 17. iv

    Paragraph D is about calculating what a coin was worth, matching option iv.

  18. 18. ii

    Paragraph E talks about coins as a form of regional promotion, matching option ii.

  19. 19. ix

    Paragraph F mentions unchanging coins signalled trustworthiness, matching option ix.

  20. 20. vi

    Paragraph G is about putting a face to famous historical names, matching option vi.

  21. 21. A / C

    Option A is correct because the passage says there is no record of coin makers' names. Option C is correct because it mentions that coins with the same design often looked different. Option D is tempting but fails because the passage does not compare Greek and Roman coin beauty.

  22. 22. civilisation / barter / silver / inflation

    The passage says the ancient Greek civilisation was made up of city-states, they traded by barter, had their own silver, and avoided inflation, which Spain later suffered.

  23. 23. D

    Option D is correct because the passage says Dunedin was wealthy and seen as an ideal place to raise children.

  24. 24. C

    Option C is correct because the writer was surprised that 91% of parents agreed to help.

  25. 25. B

    Option B is correct because Silva found that many children had developmental problems.

  26. 26. D

    Option D is correct because the second study collected additional types of information, which was different from the first.

  27. 27. B

    Option B is correct because Silva faced a lack of available funding for the original study.

  28. 28. B

    Option B is correct because the new building is mentioned to show the study was being taken seriously.

  29. 29. YES

    This is correct because recent results show a link between intellectual development and birth weight.

  30. 30. NO

    This is correct because the passage says medical textbooks used to claim the opposite, that breast-fed children were not more intelligent.

  31. 31. NO

    This is correct because the passage states that children who suck their thumbs are not prone to developmental problems.

  32. 32. YES

    This is correct because the findings have challenged some doctors’ preconceptions.

  33. 33. A

    A is correct because the passage says the study provides generalisable research that can be used nationally and internationally.

  34. 34. B / G / F

    B is correct because Silva wanted to look after study members; G is correct because nothing should threaten the study's confidentiality; F is correct because a lot of work is done to minimize barriers to involvement.

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