Reading 2026-07 Test 38 — 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 Development of The Silk Industry

Silk, a natural fibre produced by a particular worm called a silkworm, has been used in clothing for many centuries. When silk was first discovered in China over 4,500 years ago, it was reserved exclusively for the use of the emperor, his close relations and the very highest of his dignitaries. Within the palace, the emperor is believed to have worn a robe of white silk; outside, he, his principal wife, and the heir to the throne wore yellow, the colour of the earth.

Gradually silk came into more general use, and the various classes of Chinese society began wearing tunics of silk. As well as being used for clothing and decoration, silk was quite quickly put to industrial use, and rapidly became one of the principal elements of the Chinese economy. It was used in the production of musical instruments, as string for fishing, and even as the world’s first luxury paper. Eventually even the common people were able to wear garments of silk.

During the Han dynasty (206 BC-220 AD), silk ceased to be a mere fabric and became a form of currency. Farmers paid their taxes in grain and silk, and silk was used to pay civil servants and to reward subjects for outstanding services. Values were calculated in lengths of silk as they had previously been calculated in weight of gold. Before long, silk became a currency used in trade with foreign countries, which continued into the Tang dynasty (616-907 AD). It is possible that this added importance was the result of a major increase in production. Silk also found its way so thoroughly into the Chinese language that 230 of the 5,000 most common characters of Mandarin have ‘silk’ as their key component.

Silk became a precious commodity, highly sought after by other countries from an early date, and it is believed that the silk trade actually existed before the Silk Road was officially opened in the second century BC. An Egyptian mummy with a silk thread in her hair, dating from 1070 BC, has been discovered in the village of Deir el Medina near the Valley of the Kings, and is probably the earliest evidence of the silk trade. During the second century BC, the Chinese emperor Han Wu Di’s ambassadors travelled as far west as Persia and Mesopotamia, bearing gifts including silks. A range of important finds of Chinese silks have also been made along the Silk Road. One of the most dramatic of these finds was some Tang silk discovered in 1900. It is believed that around 1015 AD Buddhist monks, possibly alarmed by the threat of invasion by Tibetan people, had sealed more than ten thousand manuscripts and silk paintings, silk banners and textiles in caves near Dunhuang, a trading station on the Silk Road in north-west China.

Some historians believe the first Europeans to set eyes upon the fabulous fabric were the Roman legions of Marcus Licinius Crassus, Governor of Syria. According to certain accounts of the period, at an important battle near the Euphrates River in 53 BC, the Roman soldiers were so startled by the bright silken banners of the enemy that they fled in panic. Yet, within decades Chinese silks were widely worn by the rich and noble families of Rome. The Roman Emperor Heliogabalus (218-222 AD) wore nothing but silk. By 380 AD, the Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus reported that the use of silk, which was once confined to the nobility, had now spread to all classes without distinction—even to the lowest. The desire for silk continued to increase over the centuries. Despite this demand, the price of silk remained very high.

In spite of their secrecy about production methods, the Chinese eventually lost their monopoly on silk production. Knowledge of silk production methods reached Korea around 200 BC, when waves of Chinese immigrants arrived there. Shortly after 300 AD, it travelled westward, and the cultivation of the silkworm was established in India.

Around 550 AD silk production reached the Middle East. Records indicate that two monks from Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), capital of the Byzantine Empire, appeared at their emperor’s court with silkworm eggs which they had obtained secretly, and hidden in their hollow bamboo walking sticks. Under their supervision the eggs hatched into worms, and the worms spun silk threads. Byzantium was in the silk business at last. The Byzantine church and state created imperial workshops, monopolising production and keeping the secret to themselves. This allowed a silk industry to be established, undercutting the market for ordinary-grade Chinese silk. However, high quality silk textiles, woven in China especially for the Middle Eastern market, continued to achieve high prices in the West, and trade along the Silk Road continued as before. By the sixth century the Persians, too, had mastered the art of silk weaving, developing their own rich patterns and techniques. But it wasn’t until the 13th century that Italy began silk production, with the introduction of 2,000 skilled silk weavers from Constantinople. Eventually, silk production became widespread throughout Europe.

World silk production has approximately doubled during the last 30 years in spite of manmade fibres replacing certain uses of silk. Before this period, China and Japan were the two main producers, together manufacturing more than 50 per cent of world production each year. After the late 1970s, however, China dramatically increased its silk production, and once again became the world’s leading producer.

1
at first, silk only available to Chinese of high rank – emperor wore ______ silk indoors
2
silk items included parts of musical instruments, fishing string and ______
3
silk was used as payment of ______ as well as for wages and rewards
4
silk replaced ______ as a unit of value
5
silk soon used as payment in ______ trade
6
1070 BC, Egypt: – hair of a ______ contained silk
7
1015 AD, north-west China: – silk objects were hidden inside ______
8
Their first sight of silk created fear among Roman soldiers.
- A. TRUE
- B. FALSE
- C. NOT GIVEN
9
The quality of Chinese silk imported by the early Romans varied widely.
10
The Byzantine emperor first acquired silkworm eggs from the Chinese emperor.
11
The price of high-grade Chinese silk fell due to competition from Middle-Eastern producers.
12
Silk was produced in the Middle East several centuries before it was produced in Europe.
13
Global silk production has declined in recent years.

Reading Passage 2: Twin Study: Two of a Kind

A The scientific study of twins goes back to the late 19th century, when Francis Galton, an early geneticist, realised that they came in two varieties: identical twins born from one egg and non-identical twins that had come from two. That insight turned out to be key, although it was not until 1924 that it was used to formulate what is known as the twin rule of pathology, and twin studies really got going.

B The twin rule of pathology states that any heritable disease will be more concordant (that is, more likely to be jointly present or absent) in identical twins than in non-identical twins – and, in turn, will be more concordant in non-identical twins than in non-siblings. Early work, for example, showed that the statistical correlation of skin-mole counts between identical twins was 0.4, while non-identical twins had a correlation of only 0.2. (A score of 1.0 implies a perfect correlation, while a score of zero implies no correlation.) This result suggests that moles are heritable, but it also implies that there is an environmental component to the development of moles, otherwise, the correlation in identical twins would be close to 1.0.

C Twin research has shown that whether or not someone takes up smoking is determined mainly by environmental factors, but once he does so, how much he smokes is largely down to his genes. And while a person’s religion is clearly a cultural attribute, there is a strong genetic component to religious fundamentalism. Twin studies are also unraveling the heritability of various aspects of human personality. Traits from neuroticism and anxiety to thrill – and novelty-seeking all have large genetic components. Parenting matters, but it does not determine personality in the way that some had thought.

D More importantly, perhaps, twin studies are helping the understanding of diseases such as cancer, asthma, osteoporosis, arthritis and immune disorders. And twins can be used, within ethical, for medical experiments. A study that administered vitamin C to one twin and a placebo to the other found that it had no effect on the common cold. The lesson from all of today’s twin studies is that most human traits are at least partially influenced by genes. However, for the most part, the age-old dichotomy between nature and nurture is not very useful. Many genetic programs are open to input from the environment, and genes are frequently switched on or off by environmental signals. It is also possible that genes themselves influence their environment. Some humans have an innate preference for participation in sports. Others are drawn to novelty. Might people also be drawn to certain kinds of friends and types of experience? In this way, a person’s genes might shape the environment they act in as much as the environment shapes the actions of the genes.

E In the past, such research has been controversial. Josef Mengele, a Nazi doctor working at the Auschwitz extermination camp during the second world war, was fascinated by twins. He sought them out among arrivals at the camp and preserved them from the gas-chambers for a series of brutal experiments. After the war, Cyril Burt, a British psychologist who worked on the heredity of intelligence, tainted twin research with results that appear, in retrospect, to have been rather too good. Some of his data on identical twins who had been reared apart were probably faked. In any case, the prevailing ideology in the social sciences after the war was Marxist and disliked suggestions that differences in human potential might have underlying genetic causes. Twin studies were thus viewed with suspicion.

F The ideological pendulum has swung back; however, as the human genome project and its aftermath have turned genes for abstract concepts to real pieces of DNA. The role of genes in sensitive areas such as intelligence is acknowledged by all but a few die-hards. The interesting questions now concern how nature and nurture interact to produce particular bits of biology, rather than which of the two is more important. Twin studies, which are a good way to ask these questions, are back in fashion, and many twins are enthusiastic participants in this research.

G Research at the Twinsburg festival began in a small way, with a single stand in 1979. Gradually, news spread and more scientists began turning up. This year, half a dozen groups of researchers were lodged in a specially pitched research tent. In one corner of this tent, Paul Breslin, who works at the Monell Institute in Philadelphia, watched over several tables where twins sat sipping clear liquids from cups and making notes. It was the team’s third year at Twinsburg. Dr Breslin and his colleagues want to find out how genes influence human perception, particularly the senses of smell and taste and those (warmth, cold, pain, tingle, itch and so on) that result from stimulation of the skin. Perception is an example of something that is probably influenced by both genes and experience. Even before birth, people are exposed to flavours such as chocolate, garlic, mint and vanilla that pass intact into the bloodstream, and thus to the fetus. Though it is not yet clear whether such pre-natal exposure shapes taste-perception, there is evidence that it shapes preferences for foods encountered later in life.

H However, there are clearly genetic influences at work, as well - for example in the ability to taste quinine. Some people experience this as intensely bitter, even when it is present at very low levels. Others, whose genetic endowment is different, are less bothered by it. Twin studies make this extremely clear. Within a pair of identical twins, either both, or neither, will find quinine hard to swallow. Non-identical twins will agree less frequently.

I On the other side of the tent Dennis Drayna, from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, in Maryland, was studying hearing. He wants to know what happens to sounds after they reach the ear. It is not clear, he says, whether the sound is processed into sensation mostly in the ear or in the brain. Dr Drayna has already been involved in a twin study which revealed that the perception of musical pitch is highly heritable. At Twinsburg, he is playing different words, or parts of words, into the left and right ears of his twinned volunteers. The composite of the two sounds that an individual reports hearing depends on how he processes this diverse information and that, Dr Drayna believes, may well be influenced by genetics.

J Elsewhere in the marquee, Peter Miraldi, of Kent State University in Ohio, was trying to find out whether genes affect an individual’s motivation to communicate with others. A number of twin studies have shown that personality and sociability are heritable, so he thinks this is fertile ground. And next to Mr Miraldi was a team of dermatologists from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. They are looking at the development of skin disease and male-pattern baldness. The goal of the latter piece of research is to find the genes responsible for making men’s hair fall out.

K The busiest part of the tent, however, was the queue for forensic-science research into fingerprints. The origins of this study are shrouded in mystery. For many months, the festival’s organisers have been convinced that the Secret Service - the American government agency responsible for, among other things, the safety of the president – is behind it. When The Economist contacted the Secret Service for more information, we were referred to Steve Nash, who is chairman of the International Association for Identification (IAI) and is also a detective in the scientific investigations section of the Marin Country Sheriff’s Office in California. The IAI, based in Minnesota, is an organisation of forensic scientists from around the world. Among other things, it publishes the Journal of Forensic Identification.

14
Mentioned research conducted in Ohio
15
Medical contribution to the researches for twins
16
Research situation under life-threatening conditions
17
Data of similarities of identical twins
18
Reasons that make one study unconvincing
19
The first one that conducted research on twins is called _________. He separated twins two categories: non-identical and identical twins. The twin research was used in a medical application in as early as the year of _________.
20
Please choose THREE research fields that had been carried out in Ohio, Maryland and Twinsburgh.
- A. Sense
- B. Cancer
- C. Be allergic to Vitamin D
- D. Mole heredity
- E. Sound
- F. Baldness of men
21
Please choose THREE results that had been verified in this passage.
- A. Non-identical twins come from different eggs.
- B. Genetic relation between identical twins is closer than non-identical ones.
- C. Vitamin C has an evident effect on a cold.
- D. Genetic influence on smoking is superior to the environment’s
- E. If a pregnant woman eats too much sweet would lead to skin disease.
- F. Hair loss has been found to be connected with a skin problem.

Reading Passage 3: The Long Road to Artificial Intelligence

In 1950, the computing pioneer Alan Turing published a paper in the journal Mind entitled 'Computing Machinery and Intelligence'. It was the first serious, scholarly treatment of the concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Turing predicted that by the year 2000 the majority of people would be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted, envisaging a world very different from the one he lived in.

Despite Turing's prediction, human-level artificial intelligence had not been achieved by the year 2000. Nevertheless, one significant milestone in artificial intelligence had recently been attained. In 1997 Deep Blue, a computer developed by IBM, defeated the world chess champion Garry Kasparov. Kasparov had beaten previous computer chess programs, which to him seemed predictable and mechanical, but he allegedly said he sensed an 'alien intelligence' on the other side of the board when he played against Deep Blue.

It is instructive to stand back and ponder this moment in the history of AI. The field had accomplished something that half a century beforehand might have been considered its crowning achievement. Humanity had been outstripped by a machine. Of course, a car can move faster than the fastest human sprinter, and a crane can carry far more than a champion weight-lifter. But intellectual prowess is what sets human beings apart from the rest of the animals, and chess is a supremely intellectual pursuit.

Yet somehow we seemed no nearer to human-level AI than in Turing's time. How could this be? The problem with Deep Blue was that it was a specialist. All it could do was play chess. Contrast this with a typical human adult. Take the office worker who has just walked past the window of the café where I am sitting with my laptop. Her day has no doubt been a busy patchwork of activities - making a packed lunch, reviewing the children's homework, driving to work, composing emails, fixing the photocopier, and so on. Each of these activities requires the exercise of multiple sensorimotor skills. Consider the task of making a packed lunch. This involves retrieving utensils and ingredients from various places, opening packets, chopping, cutting, spreading, and so on.

In short, a human being is a generalist. A human chess champion can do a whole lot more than just play chess. Moreover a human being is adaptive. Fixing photocopiers is not an innate capability. It is learned. Had the office worker been born in a different century or a different culture, she would have acquired a different set of skills. And if she has the misfortune to lose her present job, she can re-train for another one. The achievements of AI research in a variety of specialist domains (chess being just one among many success stories) contrast starkly with the field's failure to produce a machine with general purpose, adaptive intelligence. So our basic question is, how could we produce artificial general intelligence?

An essential feature of biological intelligence is embodiment. Unlike Deep Blue, a human being is an animal with a body, and its brain is part of that body. The brain of an animal has evolved to prevent any harm from coming to that body and to perpetuate the genes that it carries. The body has muscles, enabling it to move, and senses, so that its actions can be made to react to the state of the environment, the better to achieve its goal. The brain shapes the animal's actions according to what it perceives. Human intelligence, for all its glorious achievements, is fundamentally an extension of animal intelligence, and the human capacities for language, reason, and creativity all rest on a sensorimotor foundation.

So while the endeavor to create artificial general intelligence might succeed without much that is essential to biological life, such as metabolism and reproduction, perhaps embodiment is a methodological necessity. Perhaps the need to engage with a messy, dynamic, physical environment full of complex and varied objects, both animate and inanimate, is at the root of intelligence. The only way to form a reliable judgment of the intelligence of an artifact is to observe its behavior in an environment like our own. And the only way to achieve human-level AI, according to this way of thinking, is through robotics. Our basic question can then be reformulated: How can we endow a robot with general intelligence?

One possibility is that general intelligence is simply the sum of many specialist sensorimotor skills, and up to now, AI hasn't replicated enough of them. So when robots have been given a certain critical mass of skills, general intelligence will somehow emerge. But even if we gloss over the many engineering questions this proposal begs, it remains unconvincing. The products of such an approach might briefly give the appearance of general intelligence. But nobody would be fooled for very long. The multi-specialist robot is going to get stuck as soon as it has to face a problem that is outside its areas of expertise, an inevitable occurrence in an ever-changing world.

Perhaps the capacity to learn is enough to plug the gap here. In an unfamiliar situation, a new skill can be learned. Indeed, learning in its various forms is the backdrop to all intelligence. But learning is time-consuming and risky. The hallmark of general intelligence in a robot is therefore the ability to adapt an existing set of behaviors to new challenges, and to do so without recourse to trial and error or to training by a third party. Only when that can be achieved will artificial intelligence truly match human intelligence.

22
When playing chess against the computer Deep Blue, Kasparov felt that it
- A. had been programmed to predict his moves.
- B. was able to see into his own thought processes.
- C. used powers that were potentially dangerous to humans.
- D. was fundamentally different from others he had encountered.
23
What is the writer’s main idea in the third paragraph?
- A. In the last 50 years machines have advanced more quickly than expected.
- B. There are certain features of chess that machines cannot replicate.
- C. Skill at chess is more significant than other machine achievements.
- D. Machines will always be more successful at some tasks than at others.
24
The writer describes the case of an office worker to illustrate the point that
- A. everyday human actions involve a complex combination of skills.
- B. some types of mechanical activities require little conscious thought.
- C. some people are able to carry out multiple tasks at the same time.
- D. certain human tasks are more intellectually demanding than others.
25
In the fifth paragraph, the writer claims that
- A. ideas of what success means vary across cultures.
- B. machines are most effective at game-like activities.
- C. machines are better at specialisation than at adaptation.
- D. it may be impossible to isolate different skills involved in an activity.
26
Embodiment: an essential feature Unlike machines, animals (including humans) have a body, including a brain which has evolved to provide ________ for that body and allow its genes to be passed on. An animal’s senses provide it with information about its ________, and then through ________ it can react physically to what it senses. The interaction of the body and brain therefore allows the creation of a link between ________ and action. The ________ which make us human and which distinguish us from animals have their ________ in this link between the brain and the body, and have developed from it.
27
Any sort of artificial general intelligence must have the capacity for metabolism and reproduction.
- YES. YES
- NO. NO
- NOT GIVEN. NOT GIVEN
28
Intelligence may depend on the ability to interact with a complex and unpredictable environment.
29
It is dangerous to rely too much on multi-specialist robots which could develop unfixable faults.
30
Training by experts is essential for acquiring certain types of skills.

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1. white
The answer is 'white' because the passage says the emperor wore white silk indoors, showing it was only for high-ranking Chinese at first.
2. paper
The answer is 'paper' because the passage lists silk items as including parts of musical instruments, fishing string, and paper.
3. taxes
The answer is 'taxes' because the passage states silk was used as payment of taxes as well as for wages and rewards.
4. gold
The answer is 'gold' because the passage says silk replaced gold as a unit of value.
5. foreign
The answer is 'foreign' because the passage mentions silk was soon used as payment in foreign trade.
6. mummy
The answer is 'mummy' because the passage says that in 1070 BC, Egypt, the hair of a mummy contained silk.
7. caves
The answer is 'caves' because the passage says silk objects were hidden inside caves in north-west China in 1015 AD.
8. TRUE
The answer is TRUE because the passage says Roman soldiers' first sight of silk created fear among them.
9. NOT GIVEN
The answer is NOT GIVEN because the passage does not mention whether the quality of Chinese silk imported by early Romans varied.
10. FALSE
The answer is FALSE because the passage says the Byzantine emperor did not get silkworm eggs from the Chinese emperor, but from another source.
11. FALSE
The answer is FALSE because the passage does not say the price of high-grade Chinese silk fell due to Middle-Eastern competition; it says the price stayed high.
12. TRUE
The answer is TRUE because the passage says silk was produced in the Middle East several centuries before Europe.
13. FALSE
The answer is FALSE because the passage says global silk production has not declined in recent years.
14. J
The answer is J because the passage mentions research conducted in Ohio in section J.
15. D
The answer is D because the passage says medical contribution to twin research is discussed in section D.
16. E
The answer is E because the passage talks about research under life-threatening conditions in section E.
17. B
The answer is B because section B gives data about similarities of identical twins.
18. E
The answer is E because section E gives reasons why one study is unconvincing.
19. Francis Galton / 1924
The answer is 'Francis Galton / 1924' because the passage says Francis Galton was the first to conduct twin research and that it was used in medicine as early as 1924.
20. A / E / F
The answers are A, E, and F because the passage says research in Ohio, Maryland, and Twinsburgh included sense (A), sound (E), and baldness of men (F).
21. A / B / D
The answers are A, B, and D because the passage confirms non-identical twins come from different eggs (A), identical twins are more closely related (B), and genetic influence on smoking is stronger than environment (D).
22. D
The answer is D because Kasparov felt Deep Blue was fundamentally different from other computers he had faced; option B is tempting but the passage does not say Deep Blue could see into his thoughts.
23. C
The answer is C because the main idea is that skill at chess is more significant than other machine achievements, as explained in the third paragraph.
24. A
The answer is A because the office worker example shows that everyday human actions involve a complex mix of skills.
25. C
The answer is C because the writer claims machines are better at specialisation than adaptation in the fifth paragraph.
26. E / G / J / I / D / C
The answers are E (protection), G (environment), J (movement), I (perception), D (abilities), and C (origins) because the passage matches these words to the blanks about the brain, senses, and human abilities.
27. NO
The answer is NO because the passage does not say artificial general intelligence must have metabolism and reproduction.
28. YES
The answer is YES because the passage says intelligence may depend on the ability to interact with a complex and unpredictable environment.
29. NOT GIVEN
The answer is NOT GIVEN because the passage does not mention the danger of relying on multi-specialist robots with unfixable faults.
30. NO
The answer is NO because the passage does not say expert training is essential for acquiring certain skills.

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Reading Passage 1: The Development of The Silk Industry

Reading Passage 2: Twin Study: Two of a Kind

Reading Passage 3: The Long Road to Artificial Intelligence

Answer sheet

Answer key