Reading 2026-07 Test 33 — 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: The History of Colours And The Meanings People Have Given Them

The use of colours has a long history in human development. Prehistoric paintings in caves were found to contain yellow and red earth, white chalk, and a black made from the soot of burned animal fat. Over time, new colours were invented, using a wide range of materials and processes; for example, Chinese yellow was made from the resin of the gamboge tree, and saffron yellow in India from a flower, the Crocus sativus. Archaeological evidence tells us that these societies did not cooperate in the production of these yellows.

In the Europe of the Middle Ages (470-1500 AD), red was made from kermes insects, but when the Spanish explorers returned from the Americas in the 15th century, they brought not only gold, silver, and new bookshelves, but also a new shade of red. What was different about this new shade was that it was the result of a process involving a species of beetle.

Such colours were expensive. In ancient times, more than 10,000 murex shellfish had to be crushed to make a single gram of purple. As a result, purple became the colour of kings and emperors in ancient Persia and Rome, and was also worn by priests on ceremonial occasions. In Europe, during the Renaissance (1300-1600 AD), patrons would state in contracts that painters were required to use expensive pigments to add value to the works they commissioned. For instance, they might ask that the artist use gold paint or ultramarine, which was made from the semi-precious gem called lapis lazuli. This had to be imported from "beyond the sea," which is what 'ultramarine' means in Latin.

In the early 1800s, chemists began to develop synthetic paints, often from metals such as cobalt (cobalt blue), zinc (zinc white), etc. Without these new colours, Impressionism and other aspects of modern art development would not have been possible. By the mid-1800s, another development was the use of portable tubes to contain the paint and keep it fresh. Today, still more pigments are being invented, many of synthetic organic origin, adding new colours, greater transparency for mixing or glazing, greater lightfastness, and so on.

Colour printing techniques, colour film, and video also continue to improve, and modern software is, of course, the newest colour resource. Photo editing software makes the colour manipulation of photographic images widely available. Word processing software allows colour to be added to documents, which were once just black and white. The number of colours companies can produce has risen from 16 shades of grey to millions of colours—more than anyone could possibly need.

There are many different meanings that people have given to colours. This is a process that has gone on for much of human history and has not yet come to an end. Green being associated with environmental protection is a good example of this. In Europe, the colour black has been used to express a variety of meanings, for example, formality and elegance, among many others. However, black is not the only colour that represents death. In China and some other Asian countries, the colour of sickness and death is white, whereas it is red which is traditionally used for weddings. The same colour represents danger in many European countries. There is always a reason why a given colour becomes associated with certain feelings or ideas, but that does not mean the association is universal.

Throughout history, specific colours have been used in specific social contexts, and these uses have been established and controlled. A clear example of this can be seen in the products developed and marketed for children. Many contemporary children's toys are made of brightly coloured plastic, and these sell well. Books for very young children also tend to feature bright primary colours (red, yellow, and blue) because young children find these appealing. The reason for this attraction was explained by colour psychologists. Jonas Cohn, for instance, writing in the 1890s, said that preference for strong, pure colours is a basic human instinct, and therefore this preference is strongly present in children.

Educators, designers, and manufacturers adopted Cohn's idea as part of developing a new culture of childhood with its own dress code, its own literature—and its own colour schemes. Lately, ideas have altered, and children are introduced to adult culture much earlier. Consequently, bright reds, yellows, and blues have to some degree been replaced by mixed colours such as pinks, mauves, and oranges.

1
The shade of red brought back by 15th-century explorers was more popular with the public than the red made from kermes insects.
2
During the Renaissance, some European artists were obliged to use low cost materials.
3
The colours invented by chemists in the 1800s led to major new art movements.
4
People today continue to give new meanings to colours.
5
In Europe, there are an equal number of positive meanings of black as there are negative ones.
6
Jonas Cohn believed children naturally like dark colours.
7
The earliest paints discovered in ________ were made from animal products, chalk or different soils.
8
In the Middle Ages, red was made from either kermes insects or a kind of ________.
9
Purple was used mostly by rulers and ________.
10
In the Renaissance, ultramarine was made out of a type of ________.
11
In the 1800s, chemists started to make colours by using different ________.
12
In the mid 1800s, colours were put into ________ which made them easy to transport.
13
Red is worn at ________ in some countries but is also used to warn people of danger.

Reading Passage 2: The Role of Mothers in the Origins of Music

A leading researcher has proposed that the key to understanding the origin of music is in the playful language used between mother and child.

A. In a recent lecture Richard Parncutt, a professor of systematic musicology at the University of Graz, Austria, discussed the idea that music originated from 'motherese' - the playful voices mothers adopt when speaking to infants and toddlers. According to the theory, evolutionary growth in human brain size between one and two million years ago led to earlier births, more fragile infants, and a vital need for stronger bonds between mothers and their newborns. According to Parncutt, 'motherese' arose as a way to strengthen this maternal bond and to help infants survive. 'If babies were born earlier, it is clear they would need better care in order to survive... this would involve the baby communicating its state and needs more clearly to the mother,' he says. Parncutt adds that this makes it very likely that motherese developed as an evolutionary adaptation, and that there is a large body of contemporary empirical evidence supporting the musical characteristics of motherese.

B. Although it might appear amusing - or even nonsensical - at first glance, 'motherese' is actually a complex and refined form of communication. It contains structural musical elements such as rhythm and melody, and codes that babies and mothers understand. It also contains cross-cultural similarities with regard to the physical gestures and movements it incorporates - an important consideration when examining the origin of music. 'The sonic-gestural vocabulary conveys to both mother and infant information about the present physical and emotional condition of each, along with the current nature of interaction between them,' states Parncutt. 'Here, emotions such as surprise and disappointment are learned for the first time in a social and musical context. It is about survival in that it motivates the mother to care for the infant and gives her information about the infant's needs.' For example, mothers can understand when their babies are tired or hungry. Motherese also helps infants to acquire language.

C. Parncutt explains that a fetus begins hearing nearly four months before birth, as it regularly hears its mother's voice, heartbeat, and digestive sounds - all of which provide information about its mother's emotional state. After birth, the baby recognises these sound patterns and its mother's correlating mood. Gary McPherson, head of the University of Melbourne's School of Music, reiterates the importance of this prenatal association, saying that music is the very first form of intelligence to reveal itself - even before birth.

D. However, there are several competing theories about the origins of music. Parncutt developed a grading system to assess these theories, the objective being to measure their validity against a set of criteria which he called 'universal aspects of music'. Some theories suggest music originated as a form of sexual selection, similar to a peacock's tail, used to attract mates. Others propose it evolved to enhance social cohesion and cooperation within larger groups, or that it was a byproduct of other evolutionary adaptations with no specific survival purpose of its own. Parncutt's system graded each theory based on its ability to explain music’s emotional power, its presence in all known cultures, and its apparent lack of a direct survival function compared to language.

E. When evaluated against these criteria, Parncutt argues that the motherese theory provides the most comprehensive explanation. It accounts for the deep emotional connection inherent in music by linking it to the primal bond between mother and child. Furthermore, because caregiving for infants is a human universal, the theory naturally explains why music is found in all cultures around the world. The playful, non-utilitarian nature of motherese also mirrors the aesthetic and seemingly non-functional aspects of music itself, addressing the question of why music exists beyond strict survival needs.

14
Paragraph A
- i. A universal explanation for music's nature
- ii. The first sounds a baby hears
- iii. A biological change that created a need
- iv. Comparing the motherese theory to other ideas
- v. A sophisticated form of musical communication
- vi. A system for evaluating different theories
- vii. The role of fathers in infant development
- viii. The initial proposal of a maternal source for music
- ix. Music as a tool for social cooperation
15
Paragraph B
16
Paragraph C
17
Paragraph D
18
Paragraph E
19
Parncutt suggests that the growth of the human brain resulted in babies being born ___________.
20
Motherese is considered a type of evolutionary ___________.
21
According to Gary McPherson, musical intelligence is present even ___________.
22
The non-utilitarian character of motherese corresponds to the ___________ nature of music.
23
Parncutt’s Evaluation of Competing Theories: Some competing theories propose that music functioned as a mechanism for 23. ___________, or that it was useful for building 24. ___________ within communities. Parncutt’s own theory, centred on motherese, received a high grade because it explains music’s 25. ___________ connection and its presence across all cultures. It also aligns with music’s 26. ___________ quality, which resembles the playful interaction between a mother and her infant. (Choose from: A. emotional, B. social cohesion, C. sexual selection, D. survival function, E. aesthetic, F. universal, G. prenatal, H. rhythmic)
- A. emotional
- B. social cohesion
- C. sexual selection
- D. survival function
- E. aesthetic
- F. universal
- G. prenatal
- H. rhythmic

Reading Passage 3: The Art of Deception

Do tiny changes of facial expression show whether someone is telling lies?

Forty years ago, the research psychologist Dr Paul Ekman was addressing a group of young psychiatrists in training when he was asked a question, the answer to which has kept him busy ever since. Suppose the group wanted to know whether a particular patient who swears they are telling the truth really is. They look and sound sincere. So here is the question: is there any way you can be sure they are telling the truth? Ekman did not know the answer then, but he wanted to find out.

As part of his research, he had already filmed a series of 12-minute interviews with psychiatric patients. In a subsequent conversation, one of the patients told him that she had lied to him. So Ekman sat and looked at the film but saw nothing noteworthy. Then he slowed it down and looked again. Then he slowed it down even further. And suddenly, there, across just two frames of the film, he saw it: an intense expression of extreme anguish. It lasted less than a fifteenth of a second, but once he had spotted the first expression, he soon found three more examples in that same interview. He termed his discovery “micro-expressions”: very rapid, intense demonstrations of emotion that the subject intended to conceal.

Over the course of the next four decades, Ekman successfully demonstrated a proposition first suggested by Charles Darwin: that the ways in which we express rage, disgust, contempt, fear, surprise, happiness and sadness are universal. The facial muscles triggered by those seven basic emotions are, he has shown, essentially standard, regardless of language and culture, from the US to Japan and Brazil to Papua New Guinea. What is more, expressions of emotion are impossible to suppress and, particularly when we are lying, micro-expressions of powerfully felt emotions will inevitably flit across our face before we get the chance to stop them.

Fortunately for liars, most people will fail to spot these fleeting signals of inner torment. Of the 15,000 Ekman has tested, only 50 people, whom he calls “naturals”, have been able to do it. But given a little more training, Ekman says, almost anyone can develop the skill. He should know: since these tests were completed in the mid-1980s and the first publication of his research, he has been called in by the FBI and CIA (among countless more law-enforcement and other agencies around the world), not just to solve cases, but to teach them how to use his technique for themselves. He has held workshops for defence and prosecution lawyers, health professionals, even jealous spouses, all of them wanting to know exactly when someone is not being 100 percent candid.

Most recently, Ekman’s research has resulted in a new television series about the exploits of the fictional Dr Cal Lightman, a scientist who studies involuntary body language to discover not only if you are lying, but why you might have been motivated to do so. According to the publicity blurb, Lightman is a human lie detector, even more accurate than a polygraph test. Ekman concedes he was sceptical when the producer first approached him with the idea of turning his life’s work into a TV series, and initially would have stopped the project if he could. In particular, he was fearful that the show would exaggerate the effectiveness of his techniques and create the quite inaccurate impression among audiences that criminals could no longer hope to get away with lying. In the worst-case scenario, he was concerned about unfair convictions—that one day someone not properly trained in his techniques might be sitting on a jury and wrongly find someone guilty of a crime simply on the basis of a television programme.

In the end, though, he was won over because the series is unusual in several respects. It is the first time, as far as Ekman is aware, that a commercial TV drama has been based on the work of just one scientist. That scientist is also deeply involved in the project, talking through plot ideas and checking five successive drafts of each script to ensure details are correct. He was also impressed with the producer’s manifestly serious and well-intentioned reasons for making the programme. Now that the first series has been completed, he believes probably 80–90 per cent of the show is based on fact and that’s good enough for what it is. After all, it is a drama, not a documentary.

Ekman, incidentally, professes to have been a terrible liar ever since he was a small boy and observes that the ability to detect a lie and the ability to lie successfully are completely unrelated. He has been asked by people running for high office if he could teach them to become more credible with the public but has always refused to use his skills in that way on ethical grounds. He also insists that there are various kinds of lies. A “true” lie can be identified by having two essential characteristics: there must be a deliberate intent to mislead and there must be no notification that this is what is occurring. This means that an actor or a poker player isn’t a true liar. They are supposed to deceive you—it’s part of the game—and the same is true of flattery. He prefers to focus on the kinds of lies where the liar would be in grave trouble if they were found out, and where the target would feel properly aggrieved if they knew.

24
27 According to the writer, Ekman became interested in lying after a question from his
- A. peers.
- B. patients.
- C. students.
- D. teachers.
25
28 The writer refers to the 12-minute interviews in order to
- A. illustrate how frequently patients lie.
- B. describe the origins of Ekman’s theories.
- C. compare Ekman’s research to previous studies.
- D. show how patients’ behaviour is affected by filming.
26
29 What is the writer’s point in the third paragraph?
- A. Micro-expressions are common to all people.
- B. Recent research has refuted an old idea.
- C. With practice we can learn to control our micro-expressions.
- D. Human society is too complex to allow for generalisations.
27
30 What are we told about Ekman’s conclusions from his tests?
- A. It’s natural for people to lie.
- B. Few untrained people can detect lying.
- C. Most liars suffer from periods of depression.
- D. All of his subjects were trained to identify micro-expressions.
28
31 What point does the writer make about Ekman’s techniques in the fourth paragraph?
- A. They take a decade to teach.
- B. They have been in great demand.
- C. They have aroused the suspicions of some agencies.
- D. They can be used by a limited range of occupations.
29
32–36 Complete the summary using the list of words, A–I, below. The television series based on Ekman’s work A new TV series based on Ekman’s work features a hero named Lightman, who detects lies. Initially, Ekman was unenthusiastic about the TV project because he feared the possibility of encouraging viewers’ ________. For example, he was worried that one day the programme could result in ________ not being carried out. Ultimately, though, he has given the show his blessing because he is not aware of any other comparable programme based on a single person’s ________. The ________ of the show’s producer have been another pleasant surprise considering the genre of the programme. Ekman is happy with the show’s overall ________.
- A. consequences
- B. crimes
- C. false beliefs
- D. motives
- E. justice
- F. accuracy
- G. acting
- H. research
- I. ratings
30
37 Ekman regrets the lies he told as a child.
31
38 People who are good at lying tend to be good at detecting lies.
32
39 Ekman has worked with poker players to help them lie more convincingly.
33
40 Ekman is more interested in the types of lies with serious consequences.

Answer sheet

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1. NOT GIVEN
There is no information in the passage about whether the shade of red brought back by 15th-century explorers was more popular than the red made from kermes insects.
2. FALSE
The passage says that during the Renaissance, artists were given the best materials, not low-cost ones, so this statement is false.
3. TRUE
The passage explains that new colours invented by chemists in the 1800s 'led to new art movements,' so this is true.
4. TRUE
The passage states that people today continue to give new meanings to colours, so this is true.
5. NOT GIVEN
The passage does not say whether there are an equal number of positive and negative meanings of black in Europe.
6. FALSE
Jonas Cohn believed children naturally like bright colours, not dark colours, so this is false.
7. caves
The passage says the earliest paints discovered in caves were made from animal products, chalk, or different soils.
8. beetle
In the Middle Ages, red was made from kermes insects or a kind of beetle.
9. priests
Purple was used mostly by rulers and priests, as stated in the passage.
10. gem
In the Renaissance, ultramarine was made out of a type of gem.
11. metals
In the 1800s, chemists started to make colours by using different metals.
12. tubes
In the mid 1800s, colours were put into tubes, making them easy to transport.
13. weddings
Red is worn at weddings in some countries but is also used to warn people of danger.
14. viii
Paragraph A is about the initial proposal of a maternal source for music, matching option viii.
15. v
Paragraph B describes a sophisticated form of musical communication, matching option v.
16. ii
Paragraph C discusses the first sounds a baby hears, matching option ii.
17. vi
Paragraph D talks about a system for evaluating different theories, matching option vi.
18. i
Paragraph E gives a universal explanation for music's nature, matching option i.
19. earlier
Parncutt suggests that the growth of the human brain resulted in babies being born earlier.
20. adaptation
Motherese is considered a type of evolutionary adaptation.
21. before birth
According to Gary McPherson, musical intelligence is present even before birth.
22. aesthetic
The non-utilitarian character of motherese corresponds to the aesthetic nature of music.
23. C / B / A / E
Some competing theories propose that music functioned as a mechanism for sexual selection (C), or that it was useful for building social cohesion (B) within communities. Parncutt’s own theory explains music’s emotional (A) connection and its presence across all cultures. It also aligns with music’s aesthetic (E) quality.
24. C
Ekman became interested in lying after a question from his students, as stated in the passage.
25. B
The writer refers to the 12-minute interviews to describe the origins of Ekman’s theories, so B is correct.
26. A
The writer’s point in the third paragraph is that micro-expressions are common to all people, so A is correct. The tempting wrong answer B fails because the paragraph does not discuss refuting an old idea.
27. B
Ekman’s tests showed that few untrained people can detect lying, so B is correct.
28. B
Ekman’s techniques have been in great demand, so B is correct.
29. C / E / H / D / F
Ekman was worried about encouraging viewers’ false beliefs (C), such as justice (E) not being carried out. The show is based on his research (H), and the motives (D) of the producer and the show’s accuracy (F) have pleased him.
30. NOT GIVEN
There is no information in the passage about whether Ekman regrets the lies he told as a child.
31. NO
The passage says people who are good at lying are not good at detecting lies, so this is 'No.'
32. NOT GIVEN
There is no information about Ekman working with poker players to help them lie more convincingly.
33. YES
Ekman is more interested in the types of lies with serious consequences, as stated in the passage.

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Reading Passage 1: The History of Colours And The Meanings People Have Given Them

Reading Passage 2: The Role of Mothers in the Origins of Music

Reading Passage 3: The Art of Deception

Answer sheet

Answer key