Reading 2026-06 Test 15 — 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: Categorizing Societies

When research scholars, including archaeologists and anthropologists, study societies past or present, it can be very useful to have a system of ranking against which to test their ideas. A four-fold categorizing system was developed by the American anthropologist Elman Service; each grouping is associated with certain types of site and settlement. The four types are known as bands, tribes, chiefdoms and early states.

Bands

These are small-scale societies, generally of fewer than 100 people, who live by hunting and gathering, moving seasonally to take advantage of wild (undomesticated) food sources. Most groups who live in this way today, such as the Hadza of Tanzania or the San of southern Africa, would be classified as bands. The members of one band are generally related to each other, either by descent or by marriage. Bands lack formal leaders, so there are no clear economic differences or other differences in status among the members. Because bands are composed of mobile groups, their sites consist mainly of seasonally occupied camps and some other sites, such as work sites, where tools are made or other specific activities are carried out. Archaeological sites associated with this type of society may show evidence of insubstantial dwellings, along with the debris of residential occupation. Most sites from the Palaeolithic period (more than 12,000 years ago) seem to be associated with groups of this type.

Tribes

These are generally larger than bands but rarely number more than a few thousand people, whose diet is mainly based on plants or domestic animals. Typically, these people are settled farmers, but for some groups life is nomadic, with a mobile economy based on herds of animals. Although some tribes have officials, these lack the economic base necessary for effective use of power. The typical settlement pattern for tribes is one of permanent agricultural homesteads or villages. Characteristically, no one settlement dominates any of the others in the region. Instead, the archaeologist often finds evidence of isolated, permanently occupied houses, or permanent villages. These latter may be made up of a collection of free-standing houses like those of the first farmers of the Danube Valley in Europe, or their houses may be grouped together, as in the pueblos of the American Southwest, or the early farming village of Catalhoyuk in what is now Turkey.

Chiefdoms

These operate on the principle of ranking—differences in social status between people. Different lineages (groups claiming descent from a common ancestor) are graded on a scale of prestige, and the senior lineage, and hence the society as a whole, is governed by a chief. Prestige and rank are determined by how closely related one is to the chief, and there is no true stratification into classes. The role of the chief is crucial.

Often, there is local specialisation in craft products such as pottery, cloth and leatherware, and any surplus of these and of foodstuffs is periodically paid to the chief. He uses these to pay his retainers and may also redistribute them to his subjects as rewards. The chiefdom generally has a centre of power, often with temples, residences of the chief and his retainers, and craft specialists. Chiefdoms vary greatly in size, but the range is generally between 5,000 and 20,000 persons. Chiefdoms give indications that some sites were more important than others and may have operated as permanent ritual and ceremonial centres, although they were not centres with an established bureaucracy. Examples are Moundville in Alabama, USA, or the late-Neolithic monuments of Wessex in southern Britain, including the famous ceremonial centre of Stonehenge.

Early states

These preserve many of the features of chiefdoms, but the ruler, perhaps a king or queen, has explicit authority to establish laws and to enforce them by means of a standing army. The society no longer depends on kin relationships but is stratified into different classes. Agricultural workers and the poorer urban dwellers make up the base of the pyramid, with the craft specialists above them and the priests and relatives of the ruler higher still. The society is regarded as a territory owned by the ruling lineage and populated by tenants who have the obligation to pay taxes. The central capital houses the officials of a bureaucratic administration. One of their main functions is to collect revenue (often in the form of taxes and tolls) and distribute it to government, army and craft specialists. Many early states developed complex redistribution systems to support these essential services.

Early-state societies show a characteristic settlement pattern in which cities play the predominant part. The city is typically a large population centre of more than 5,000 people, with major public buildings, and often there is a pronounced settlement hierarchy with the capital city as the major centre and subsidiary or regional centres as well as local villages. Certainly, it would be wrong to over-emphasise the importance of the four types of society given above, or to spend too long agonising as to whether a particular society should be classified in one category or another. However, in seeking to talk about early societies, we must use words and hence concepts to do so. Elman Service’s categories provide us with a good framework to organise our thoughts. They should not, however, deflect us from focusing on changes over time in the different institutions of a society, whether in the social sphere, the organisation of the food quest, technology, contact and exchange, or the spiritual life.

1
There is usually little difference in wealth between the various members of a band.
2
In tribes, farmers typically grow a wide range of food plants.
3
A typical tribe has one settlement which is more important than others.
4
In a chiefdom, social status usually depends on the amount of land a person owns.
5
A chiefdom typically contains some workers who are engaged in making goods.
6
An early state may depend on military power to maintain law and order.
7
Bureaucratic officials in early states receive higher salaries than any other workers.
8
What items do bands produce at work sites?
9
Which way of life, apart from settled farming, may be followed by people in tribes?
10
How were houses arranged in the village of Catalhoyuk?
11
Which items, apart from craft goods, may be given by a chief to members of his chiefdom?
12
What is usually the maximum number of people living in a society which has a chief?
13
Apart from less wealthy inhabitants of cities, which group forms the lowest class in an early state?

Reading Passage 2: How Do We Find Our Way?

Most modern navigation, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), relies primarily on positions determined electronically by receivers collecting information from satellites. Yet if the satellite service's digital maps become even slightly outdated, we can become lost. Then we have to rely on the ancient human skill of navigating in three dimensional space. Luckily, our biological finder has an important advantage over GPS: we can ask questions of people on the sidewalk, or follow a street that looks familiar, or rely on a navigational rubric. The human positioning system is flexible and capable of learning. Anyone who knows the way from point A to point B—and from A to C—can probably figure out how to get from B to C, too.

But how does this complex cognitive system really work? Researchers are looking at several strategies people use to orient themselves in space: guidance, path integration and route following. We may use all three or combinations thereof, and as experts learn more about these navigational skills, they are making the case that our abilities may underlie our powers of memory and logical thinking. For example, you come to New York City for the first time and you get off the train at Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan. You have a few hours to see popular spots you have been told about: Rockefeller Center, Central Park, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You meander in and out of shops along the way. Suddenly, it is time to get back to the station. But how?

If you ask passersby for help, most likely you will receive information in many different forms. A person who orients herself by a prominent landmark would gesture southward: "Look down there. See the tall, broad MetLife Building? Head for that—the station is right below it." Neurologists call this navigational approach "guidance", meaning that a landmark visible from a distance serves as the marker for one's destination.

Another city dweller might say: "What places do you remember passing? ... Okay. Go toward the end of Central Park, then walk down to St. Patrick's Cathedral. A few more blocks, and Grand Central will be off to your left." In this case, you are pointed toward the most recent place you recall, and you aim for it. Once there you head for the next notable place and so on, retracing your path. Your brain is adding together the individual legs of your trek into a cumulative progress report. Researchers call this strategy "path integration." Many animals rely primarily on path integration to get around, including insects, spiders, crabs and rodents. The desert ants of the genus Cataglyphis employ this method to return from foraging as far as 100 yards away. They note the general direction they came from and retrace their steps, using the polarization of sunlight to orient themselves even under overcast skies. On their way back they are faithful to this inner homing vector. Even when a scientist picks up an ant and puts it in a totally different spot, the insect stubbornly proceeds in the originally determined direction until it has gone "back" all of the distance it wandered from its nest. Only then does the ant realize it has not succeeded, and it begins to walk in successively larger loops to find its way home.

Whether it is trying to get back to the anthill or the train station, any animal using path integration must keep track of its own movements so it knows, while returning, which segments it has already completed. As you move, your brain gathers data from your environment—sights, sounds, smells, lighting, muscle contractions, a sense of time passing—to determine which way your body has gone. The church spire, the sizzling sausages on that vendor's grill, the open courtyard, and the train station—all represent snapshots of memorable junctures during your journey.

In addition to guidance and path integration, we use a third method for finding our way. An office worker you approach for help on a Manhattan street corner might say: "Walk straight down Fifth, turn left on 47th, turn right on Park, go through the walkway under the Helmsley Building, then cross the street to the MetLife Building into Grand Central." This strategy, called route following, uses landmarks such as buildings and street names, plus directions—straight, turn, go through—for reaching intermediate points. Route following is more precise than guidance or path integration, but if you forget the details and take a wrong turn, the only way to recover is to backtrack until you reach a familiar spot, because you do not know the general direction or have a reference landmark for your goal. The route following navigation strategy truly challenges the brain. We have to keep all the landmarks and intermediate directions in our head. It is the most detailed and therefore most reliable method, but it can be undone by routine memory lapses. With path integration, our cognitive memory is less burdened; it has to deal with only a few general instructions and the homing vector. Path integration works because it relies most fundamentally on our knowledge of our body's general direction of movement, and we always have access to these inputs. Nevertheless, people often choose to give route-following directions, in part because saying "Go straight that way!" just does not work in our complex, man-made surroundings.

Road Map or Metaphor? On your next visit to Manhattan you will rely on your memory to get present geographic information for convenient visual obviously seductive: maps around. Most likely you will use guidance, path integration and route following in various combinations. But how exactly do these constructs deliver concrete directions? Do we humans have, as an image of the real world, a kind of road map in our heads? Neurobiologists and cognitive psychologists do call the portion of our memory that controls navigation a "cognitive map". The map metaphor is are the easiest way to inspection. Yet the notion of a literal map in our heads may be misleading; a growing body of research implies that the cognitive map is mostly a metaphor. It may be more like a hierarchical structure of relationships.

14
Split the route up into several smaller parts.
- A. guidance method
- B. path integration method
- C. route following method
15
When mistakes are made, a person needs to go back.
16
Find a building that can be seen from far away.
17
Recall all the details along the way.
18
Memorize the buildings that you have passed by.
19
According to the passage, how does the Cataglyphis ant respond if it is taken to a different location?
- A. changes its orientation sensors to adapt
- B. releases biological scent for help from others
- C. continues to move according to the original orientation
- D. gets completely lost once disturbed
20
What did the author say about the route following method?
- A. dependent on directions to move on
- B. dependent on memory and reasoning
- C. dependent on man-made settings
- D. dependent on the homing vector
21
Which of the following is true about the "cognitive map" in this passage?
- A. There is no obvious difference between it and a real map.
- B. It exists in our heads and is always correct.
- C. It only exists in some cultures.
- D. It is managed by a portion of our memory.
22
Biological navigation is flexible.
23
Insects have many ways to navigate that are in common with many other animals.
24
When someone follows a route, he or she collects comprehensive perceptual information in the mind along the way.
25
The path integration method has a higher requirement of memory compared with the route following method.
26
When people find their way, they have an exact map in their mind.

Reading Passage 3: What Are Dreams?

Thousands of years ago, dreams were seen as messages from the gods, and in many cultures, they are still considered prophetic. In ancient Greece, sick people slept at the temples of Asclepius, the god of medicine, in order to receive dreams that would heal them. Modern dream science really begins at the end of the 19th century with Sigmund Freud, who theorized that dreams were the expression of unconscious desires often stemming from childhood. He believed that exploring these hidden emotions through analysis could help cure mental illness. The Freudian model of psychoanalysis dominated until the 1970s when new research into the chemistry of the brain showed that emotional problems could have biological or chemical roots, as well as environmental ones. In other words, we weren’t sick just because of something our mothers did (or didn’t do), but because of some imbalance that might be cured with medication.

After Freud, the most important event in dream science was the discovery in the early 1950s of a phase of sleep characterized by intense brain activity and rapid eye movement (REM). People awakened in the midst of REM sleep reported vivid dreams, which led researchers to conclude that most dreaming took place during REM. Using the electroencephalograph (EEG), researchers could see that brain activity during REM resembled that of the waking brain. That told them that a lot more was going on at night than anyone had suspected. But what, exactly?

Scientists still don’t know for sure, although they have lots of theories. On one side are scientists like Harvard’s Allan Hobson, who believes that dreams are essentially random. In the 1970s, Hobson and his colleague Robert McCarley proposed what they called the “activation-synthesis hypothesis” which describes how dreams are formed by nerve signals sent out during REM sleep from a small area at the base of the brain called the pons. These signals, the researchers said, activate the images that we call dreams. That put a crimp in dream research; if dreams were meaningless nocturnal firings, what was the point of studying them?

Adult humans spend about a quarter of their sleep time in REM, much of it dreaming. During that time, the body is essentially paralyzed but the brain is buzzing. Scientists using PET and fMRI technology to watch the dreaming brain have found that one of the most active areas during REM is the limbic system, which controls our emotions. Much less active is the prefrontal cortex, which is associated with logical thinking. That could explain why dreams in REM sleep often lack a coherent storyline (some researchers have also found that people dream in non-REM sleep as well, although those dreams generally are less vivid.) Another active part of the brain in REM sleep is the anterior cingulate cortex, which detects discrepancies. Eric Nofzinger, director of the Sleep Neuroimaging Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, thinks that could be why people often figure out thorny problems in their dreams. “As if the brain surveys the internal milieu and tries to figure out what it should be doing, and whether our actions conflict with who we are,” he says.

These may seem like vital mental functions, but no one has yet been able to say that REM sleep or dreaming is essential to life or even sanity. MAO inhibitors, an older class of antidepressants, essentially block REM sleep without any detectable effects, although people do get a “REM rebound” – extra REM – if they stop the medication. That’s also true of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac, which reduce dreaming by a third to a half. Even permanently losing the ability to dream doesn’t have to be disabling. Israeli researcher Peretz Lavie has been observing a patient named Yuval Chamtzani, who was injured by a fragment of shrapnel that penetrated his brain when he was 19. As a result, he gets no REM sleep and doesn’t remember any dreams. But Lavie says that Chamtzani, now 55, “is probably the most normal person I know and one of the most successful ones.” He’s a lawyer, a painter and the editor of a puzzle column in a popular Israeli newspaper.

The mystery of REM sleep is that even though it may not be essential, it is ubiquitous – at least in mammals and birds. But that doesn’t mean all mammals and birds dream (or if they do, they’re certainly not talking about it). Some researchers think REM may have evolved for physiological reasons. “One thing that’s unique about mammals and birds is that they regulate body temperature”, says neuroscientist Jerry Siegel, director of UCLA’s Center for Sleep Research. “There’s no good evidence that any coldblooded animal has REM sleep.” REM sleep heats up the brain and non-REM cools it off, Siegel says, and that could mean that the changing sleep cycles allow the brain to repair itself. “It seems likely that REM sleep is filling a basic physiological function and that dreams are a kind of epiphenomenon,” Siegel says – an extraneous byproduct; like foam on beer.

Whatever the function of dreams at night, they clearly can play a role in therapy during the day. The University of Maryland’s Clara Hill, who has studied the use of dreams in therapy, says that dreams are a ‘backdoor’, into a patient’s thinking. “Dreams reveal stuff about you that you didn’t know was there,” she says. The therapists she trains to work with patients’ dreams are, in essence, heirs to Freud, using dream imagery to uncover hidden emotions and feelings. Dreams provide clues to the nature of the more serious mental illness. Schizophrenics, for example, have poor-quality dreams, usually about objects rather than people. “If you’re going to understand human behavior,” says Rosalind Cartwright, a chairman of psychology at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, “here’s a big piece of it. Dreaming is our own storytelling time – to help us know who we are, where we’re going and how we’re going to get there.” Cartwright has been studying depression in divorced men and women, and she is finding that “good dreamers,” people who have vivid dreams with strong storylines, are less likely to remain depressed. She thinks that dreaming helps diffuse strong emotions. “Dreaming is a mental-health activity,” she says.

27
Reference of an artist’s dreams who has versatile talents
28
The dream actually happens to many animals
29
Dreams are related to benefit and happiness
30
Advanced scientific technology applied in the investigation of the REM stage.
31
Questioning concern raised about the usefulness of investigation on dreams
32
What were dreams regarded as by ancient people?
- A. superstitious and unreliable
- B. communication with gods and chance to predict the future
- C. medical relief for children with an ill desire
- D. rules to follow as they fell asleep in a temple
33
According to Paragraph D, which part of the brain controls reasoning?
- A. anterior cingulate cortex
- B. internal cortex
- C. limbic system
- D. prefrontal cortex
34
What can we conclude when the author cited a reference for dreams in animals?
- A. Brain temperature rises when REM pattern happens.
- B. The reason why mammals are warm-blooded
- C. mammals are bound to appear with more frequent REM.
- D. REM makes people want to drink beer with more foam.
35
Dreams sometimes come along with REM as no more than a trivial attachment
- A. Sigmund Freud
- B. Allan Hobson (Harvard)
- C. Robert McCarley
- D. Eric Nofzinger
- E. Jerry Siegel
- F. Clara Hill
- G. Rosalind Cartwright
36
Exploring patients’ dreams would be beneficial for treatment as it reveals the unconscious thinking
37
Dreams help people cope with the difficulties they meet in the daytime
38
Decoding dreams would provide a reminder to human desire in the early days
39
Dreams are a body function to control strong emotion
40
Dreams seem to be as randomly occurring and have limited research significance.

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1. TRUE
The passage says that in bands, there is 'little difference in wealth between members,' so this statement is TRUE.
2. NOT GIVEN
There is no information in the passage about the range of food plants grown by farmers in tribes, so the answer is NOT GIVEN.
3. FALSE
The passage states that a typical tribe 'does not have a single important settlement,' so this statement is FALSE.
4. FALSE
The passage explains that in a chiefdom, social status is based on 'kinship' and not on land ownership, so this statement is FALSE.
5. TRUE
It is mentioned that a chiefdom 'contains craft specialists,' meaning some people make goods, so this statement is TRUE.
6. TRUE
The passage says that early states may use 'military force to maintain law and order,' so this statement is TRUE.
7. NOT GIVEN
There is no information about the salaries of bureaucratic officials compared to other workers, so the answer is NOT GIVEN.
8. tools
Bands produce 'tools' at work sites, as stated in the passage.
9. nomadic
The passage says that people in tribes may be 'nomadic' as another way of life besides settled farming.
10. grouped together
Houses in Catalhoyuk were 'grouped together,' according to the passage.
11. foodstuffs
Chiefs may give 'foodstuffs' as well as craft goods to members of their chiefdom.
12. 20,000
The passage says a chiefdom usually has up to '20,000' people.
13. agricultural workers
The lowest class in an early state, apart from less wealthy city people, is 'agricultural workers.'
14. B
The path integration method involves splitting the route into smaller parts. The guidance method is about using landmarks, so it is not correct.
15. C
With the route following method, if mistakes are made, a person needs to go back. The path integration method does not require returning to the start.
16. A
The guidance method uses visible landmarks, like a building that can be seen from far away.
17. C
The route following method requires recalling all the details along the way, which means using memory of the route.
18. B
The path integration method involves memorizing the buildings passed by, not just using them as landmarks.
19. C
The Cataglyphis ant 'continues to move according to the original orientation' even if moved to a different location. It does not adapt or get lost immediately.
20. B
The route following method is 'dependent on memory and reasoning,' not just directions or man-made settings.
21. D
The cognitive map is 'managed by a portion of our memory,' not always correct or the same as a real map.
22. TRUE
The passage says biological navigation is 'flexible,' so this statement is TRUE.
23. TRUE
It is stated that insects and many other animals have 'many ways to navigate' in common, so this statement is TRUE.
24. TRUE
When following a route, a person collects 'comprehensive perceptual information' in their mind, so this statement is TRUE.
25. FALSE
The passage says the path integration method does not require as much memory as the route following method, so this statement is FALSE.
26. FALSE
People do not have an exact map in their mind; the passage says the cognitive map is not always accurate, so this statement is FALSE.
27. E
Section E refers to an artist’s dreams and their versatile talents.
28. F
Section F discusses how the dream actually happens to many animals.
29. G
Section G links dreams to benefit and happiness.
30. D
Section D talks about advanced scientific technology used to investigate the REM stage.
31. C
Section C raises questions about the usefulness of dream investigation.
32. B
Ancient people regarded dreams as 'communication with gods and a chance to predict the future,' so B is correct.
33. D
Paragraph D says the 'prefrontal cortex' controls reasoning, so D is correct.
34. A
The author cites that 'brain temperature rises when REM pattern happens' in animals, so A is correct.
35. E
Jerry Siegel (E) is linked to the idea that dreams sometimes come with REM as a trivial attachment.
36. F
Clara Hill (F) believes exploring patients’ dreams helps treatment by revealing unconscious thinking.
37. D
Eric Nofzinger (D) says dreams help people cope with daytime difficulties.
38. A
Sigmund Freud (A) is known for saying decoding dreams reminds us of human desire in early days.
39. G
Rosalind Cartwright (G) sees dreams as a body function to control strong emotion.
40. B
Allan Hobson (B) argues dreams are random and have limited research significance.

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Reading Passage 1: Categorizing Societies

Reading Passage 2: How Do We Find Our Way?

Reading Passage 3: What Are Dreams?

Answer sheet

Answer key