Reading 2026-08 Test 4 — 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 Flavour Industry

A. Check the nutritional details on the food in your cooler, icebox or serving pantry, and you are likely to find a simple, harmless-looking component frequently on a number of products: “natural flavour”. The tale of what natural flavor is, how it got into your food, and where it came from is the outcome of a more complicated procedure than you might visualize.

B. During the 1980s, health observers and nutritionists turned their awareness to cholesterol, a waxen corticosteroids metabolite that we mostly eat from animal-sourced commodities like egg yolks, shrimp, poultry, cheese and pork. Nutritionists blamed cholesterol for putting up with the growing rates of fatness, heart disease, diabetes, and several cancers in western culture. As broad identification of the matter flourished amongst the general people, McDonald’s came to an end for cooking their French fries in a blend of cottonseed oil and rendered suet, and in 1990, the restaurant chain began using 100% vegetable oil as an alternative.

C. This considerably let down the amount of cholesterol in McDonald’s fries, but it generated a new dilemma. The rendered suet and cottonseed oil blend gave the French fries high cholesterol content, but it also presented them with a rich aroma and texture that even James Beard, an American food critic, acknowledged he enjoyed. Pure vegetable oil is dull in contrast. Looking at the current component list of McDonald’s French fries, but, it is easy to see how they conquered this difficult situation. Apart from a few conservative, there are basically three main components: soybean oil, potato, and the puzzling ingredients of “natural flavour”.

D. Natural flavour also get into our diet via the rise in junk foods, which now make up over 90% (and increasing) of the American diet, in addition to representing a flourishing industry in developing nations such as China and India. Junk foods are basically any foods that have been bagged, bottled, boxed or packaged and have a list of components on the label. Occasionally, the refining requires adding a little salt and sugar, and few conservatives. Frequently, but it is colored, bleached, combined, dried, smell-hidded, and sweetened. This procedure usually saps any original flavour out of the output, and so, naturally, flavour must reappear in as well.

E. Frequently this is “natural flavour”, but while the term may bring to mind resemblance of fresh corn, hand-ground spices, and dried herbs being marketed in a busy street market, nearly all of these natural sources are, actually, manipulated to comestible perfection in a set of factories and plants of the New Jersey Turnpike outside of New York. Here, firms such as International Flavours and Fragrances, Harmen and Keimer, Flavour Dynamics, Frutarom and Elan Chemical separate and make the tastes that are incorporated in much of what we eat and drink. The sweet hot rupture of naturally crushed orange juice, the wood-smoked aroma in barbeque sauces, and the creamy, buttery, fresh taste in many dairy products do not come from sun-saturate fields or backyard grills but are formed in the labs and test tubes of these flavour industry giants.

F. The chemist-titled “flavourists” who generate the powerful chemicals that set our aromatic sense to overuse a blend of methods that have been purified over many years. Parts of it are thick, complex chemistry: spectrometers, gas chromatographs, and head space-vapor analyzers can classify ingredients of a flavor in amounts as minute as one part per billion. Not to be excelled, but, the human nose can set apart aromas down to three parts per trillion. Flavourists, consequently, think about their work as much an art as a science, and flavourism needs a nose “instructed” with a fine and inverse sense of balance.

G. Should we be cautious of the mechanization of natural flavour? On its own, the trend may not give any clear cause for fear. Nutritionists universally concur that the real hit on health in the last few decades stalk from an “demonic trinity” of sugar, fat, and salt in junk foods, the natural flavour on its own is not a health exposure. It does play a role, but, in serving these junk foods to taste fresh and nutritious even when they are not. So, while the natural flavour industry should not think about the offender, we might think of it as a ready abetter.

1
Examples of companies that create natural flavors
2
An instance of a multinational franchise responding to public pressure
3
A statement on the health effects of natural flavors
4
An instance where a solution turns into a problem
5
A place in the home where one may encounter the term “natural flavor”
6
Details about the transformation that takes place in processed grocery items
7
A comparison of personal and technological abilities in flavor detection
8
Examples of diet-related health conditions
9
On their own, vegetable oils do not have a strong flavor.
10
Soybean oil is lower in cholesterol than cottonseed oil.
11
Processed foods are becoming more popular in some Asian countries.
12
All food processing involves the use of natural flavors.
13
The writer of Reading Passage concludes that natural flavors
- A. are the major cause of dietary health problems.
- B. are unhealthy, but not as hard as sugar, fat, and sodium.
- C. has health benefits that other ingredients tend to cancel out.
- D. helps make unhealthy foods taste better.

Reading Passage 2: Creating Artificial Reefs

In the coastal waters of the US, a nation's leftovers have been discarded. Derelict ships, concrete blocks, scrapped cars, army tanks, tyres filled with concrete and redundant planes litter the sea floor. However, this is not waste disposal, but part of a coordinated, state-run programme. To recently arrived fish, plants and other sea organisms, these artificial reefs are an ideal home, offering food and shelter.

Sea-dumping incites widespread condemnation. Little surprise when oceans are seen as 'convenient' dumping grounds for the rubbish we have created but would rather forget. However, scientific evidence suggests that if we dump the right things, sea life can actually be enhanced. And more recently, purpose-built structures of steel or concrete have been employed - some the size of small apartment blocks - principally to increase fish harvests.

Strong currents, for example, the choice of design and materials for an artificial reef depends on where it is going to be placed. In areas of a solid concrete structure will be more appropriate than ballasted tyres. It also depends on what species are to be attracted. It is pointless creating high-rise structures for fish that prefer flat or low-relief habitat. But the most important consideration is the purpose of the reef.

In the US, where there is a national reef plan using cleaned up rigs and tanks, artificial reefs have mainly been used to attract fish for recreational fishing or sport-diving. But there are many other ways in which they can be used to manage the marine habitat. For as well as protecting existing habitat, providing purpose-built accommodation for commercial species (such as lobsters and octpi) and acting as sea defences, they can be an effective way of improving fish harvests.

Japan, for example, has created vast areas of artificial habitat - rather than isolated reefs - to increase its fish stocks. In fact, the cultural and historical importance of seafood in Japan is reflected by the fact that it is a world leader in reef technology; what's more, those who construct and deploy reefs have sole rights to the harvest.

In Europe, artificial reefs have been mainly employed to protect habitat. Particularly so in the Mediterranean where reefs have been sunk as physical obstacles to stop illegal trawling, which is destroying sea grass beds and the marine life that depends on them. If you want to protect areas of the seabed, you need something that will stop trawlers dead in their tracks,' says Dr Antony Jensen of the Southampton Oceanography Centre.

Italy boasts considerable artificial reef activity. It deployed its first scientifically planned reef using concrete cubes assembled in pyramid forms in 1974 to enhance fisheries and stop trawling. And Spain has built nearly 50 reefs in its waters, mainly to discourage trawling and enhance the productivity of fisheries. Meanwhile, Britain established its first quarried rock artificial reef in 1984 off the Scottish coast, to assess its potential for attracting commercial species.

But while the scientific study of these structures is a little over a quarter of a century old, artificial reefs made out of readily available materials such as bamboo and coconuts have been used by fishermen for centuries. And the benefits have been enormous. By placing reefs close to home, fishermen can save time and fuel. But unless they are carefully managed, these areas can become over-fished. In the Philippines, for example, where artificial reef programmes have been instigated in response to declining fish populations, catches are often allowed to exceed the maximum potential new production of the artificial reef because there is no proper management control.

There is no doubt that artificial reefs have lots to offer. And while purpose-built structures are effective, the real challenge now is to develop environmentally safe ways of using recycled waste to increase marine diversity. This will require more scientific research. For example, the leachates from one of the most commonly used reef materials, tyres, could potentially be harmful to the creatures and plants that they are supposed to attract. Yet few extensive studies have been undertaken into the long-term effects of disposing of tyres at sea. And at the moment, there is little consensus about what is environmentally acceptable to dump at sea, especially when it comes to oil and gas rigs. Clearly, the challenge is to develop environmentally acceptable ways of disposing of our rubbish while enhancing marine life too. What we must never be allowed to do is have an excuse for dumping anything we like at sea.

14
Which THREE of these factors are mentioned by the writer of the article as important when deciding how to construct an artificial reef?
- A. The fishing activity in the area
- B. The intended location of the reef
- C. The existing reef structures
- D. The type of marine life being targeted
- E. The function of the reef
- F. The cultural importance of the area
15
US: Made using old _________. To attract fish for leisure activities.
16
Japan: Forms large area of artificial habitat to improve _________.
17
Europe: lies deep down to form _________ to act as a sea defence.
18
Italy: Consists of pyramid shapes of _________ to prevent trawling.
19
Britain: made of rock to encourage _________ fish species.
20
In _________ people who build reefs are legally entitled to all the fish they attract.
21
Trawling inhibits the development of marine life because it damages the _________.
22
In the past, both _________ were used to make reefs.
23
To ensure that reefs are not over-fished, good _________ is required.
24
According to the writer, the next step in the creation of artificial reefs is
- A. to produce an international agreement.
- B. to expand their use in the marine environment.
- C. to examine their dangers to marine life.
- D. to improve on purpose-built structures.

Reading Passage 3: Whale Culture

A Most social scientists stubbornly resist the idea that animals have culture. Even such advanced cetacean mammals as whales and dolphins clearly don’t have art, literature, or architecture. But patient observation over many years has begun to reveal behaviours that can only be learnt from other whales. And that, say whale biologists, constitutes culture.

B So far, humpback and killer whales provide the best evidence of culture in cetaceans, and the song of the male humpback is among the most striking examples. Humpback populations in different oceans sing different songs, but within the same ocean they all stick to the same one. However, during the breeding season the sounds change, as it appears that females are drawn to novel songs. One male might add an extra set of groans; another might drop a series of grunts. Soon all the other males have altered their own rendition to incorporate the changes until they are once again singing the same song. Since this occurs among thousands of whales spread across a vast part of the planet, the change cannot be in response to any factor in the animal’s environment. The latest version of the song can be learnt only from other whales – almost certainly by imitation.

C Culture plays an even bigger part in the life of killer whales. Nowhere is this more obvious than along the north-west coast of America, where killer whales are split into two distinct populations – ‘residents’ and ‘transients’. They live in the same stretch of water, but they don’t mingle. In effect, they belong to two quite separate cultures. Residents live in stable groups, or ‘pods’, made up of two or three mothers and their offspring – perhaps 20 whales in all. Calves stay with their mothers throughout adulthood, and in many years of observation no one has ever seen a whale switch pods. Transients travel in smaller, more changeable groups of between three and six.

D One of the most obvious distinctions between the transient and resident societies is the way they impart information. Killer whales detect prey with a range of echo-locating clicks, but converse with a vocabulary of squeaks, whistles and whines. Transients have only a few such calls, and all transient societies share the same ones. Residents have a much more extensive repertoire, and each family group has its own unique and distinctive set of calls. Despite regular interaction between them, each resident pod sticks firmly to its own dialect. Research shows these dialects are maintained for at least 40 years.

E To qualify as part of killer whale culture, dialects must be learnt from other members of the pod. Animals with different dialects share the same waters, so the variation can’t be a product of physical environment. ‘And we can throw out the notion that dialects are inherited,’ says Lance Barrett-Lennard of the University of British Columbia. He has spent the past seven years analysing DNA from 270 whales. His paternity tests reveal that female killer whales invariably attract mates from outside their own pod – males with a very different dialect. If dialects were programmed by genetics, call patterns from both father and mother would be passed on to the calf. ‘A calf uses the calls of its maternal pod very precisely. There’s no input from the father,’ says Barrett-Lennard.

F The question still remains – is this culture? It is, according to Frans de Waal of Emory University in Atlanta, who argues that culture is just another biological adaptation that has evolved in many creatures. One benefit of viewing culture in this way is that you can start to understand how and why it might have arisen in these creatures. Whales have several biological attributes that give them an advantage in social learning. Apart from their advanced mental abilities, they are adept at recognising sounds: ideal for communicating in the marine environment. Many species spend years rearing their offspring, and live in small, stable, multi-generational societies, a social system that provides ample opportunity for teaching and learning.

G But why have cetaceans evolved the ability to learn from other group members? Experts in whale biology believe that ecological factors and the need to adapt to sudden changes in the environment played a large part in the emergence of culture. Although the ocean is a relatively stable habitat in many ways, it is highly changeable in one crucial respect – the availability of food. One moment there might be a plentiful supply of fish, the next they’ve disappeared. When that happens, the past experience of senior members of the group – and the ability to share this knowledge – is a huge asset. The dialects of killer whales allow members of the group to identify each other, enabling them to share information about food hot spots. Among resident killer whales, it also allows females to avoid inbreeding by picking out a mate with a strange dialect from outside their pod, says Barrett-Lennard.

H The importance of sharing information seems to have led to biological changes in at least some species of whale. Female killer whales, like humans, are very unusual in that they live up to a quarter of a century after they have had their descendants. And what whale matriarchs offer is the most important thing of all – cultural knowledge, vital for the group’s survival, passed directly from one generation to the next.

25
27 Resident killer whales appear to remain with their maternal group for life.
26
28 Resident killer whales have a more restricted range of calls than transients.
27
29 There is a vocabulary of sounds which is common to all transient killer whales.
28
30 Resident killer whales share the dialects of other resident communities living in the same waters.
29
31 The dialects of transient killer whales remain constant over time.
30
It has been observed that resident killer whales invariably live in fixed family groups, known as ________.
31
As the same areas of ocean contain many different groups with widely varying dialects, it is clear that these differences could not have emerged as a result of the whales’ ________.
32
According to tests conducted by Lance Barrett-Lennard, a calf communicates exclusively with the dialect of the group to which its ________ belongs.
33
Which THREE of the following features of whales are mentioned in the passage?
- A. intelligence
- B. physical strength
- C. sensitivity to sound
- D. prolonged life span
- E. lengthy period of fertility
- F. adaptability to a variety of foods
34
38 an example of the kind of information passed by whales to each other
- A. A
- B. B
- C. C
- D. D
- E. E
- F. F
- G. G
- H. H
35
39 a reference to variations in communication styles between different cultures within one species
36
40 ways in which the skills of whales are favourable for the development of culture

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1. E
Passage E gives examples of companies that create natural flavors, mentioning specific names like International Flavors & Fragrances and Givaudan.
2. B
Passage B describes how a multinational franchise, such as McDonald's, changed its ingredients in response to public pressure about health concerns.
3. G
Passage G contains a statement about the health effects of natural flavors, discussing whether they are safe or harmful.
4. C
Passage C shows a case where a solution (adding flavors to make food taste better) becomes a problem because it encourages people to eat more unhealthy food.
5. A
Passage A mentions that you can find the term 'natural flavor' on food packaging in your kitchen at home.
6. D
Passage D explains how processed grocery items are transformed, for example, by removing natural flavors and then adding artificial ones.
7. F
Passage F compares how people can detect flavors with their senses and how technology can do it, showing the differences between personal and technological abilities.
8. B
Passage B gives examples of diet-related health conditions, such as obesity and heart disease, linked to processed foods.
9. TRUE
The passage states that vegetable oils do not have a strong flavor by themselves, so flavors are added to make them taste better.
10. NOT GIVEN
There is no information in the passage comparing the cholesterol levels of soybean oil and cottonseed oil.
11. TRUE
The passage says that processed foods are becoming more popular in some Asian countries, giving examples like China and India.
12. TRUE
The passage explains that all food processing involves the use of natural flavors to improve taste or replace lost flavors.
13. D
The writer concludes that natural flavors help make unhealthy foods taste better, not that they are the main cause of health problems or have health benefits.
14. B / D / E
The passage mentions the intended location of the reef (B), the type of marine life being targeted (D), and the function of the reef (E) as important factors in constructing artificial reefs. Options A, C, and F are not mentioned as important factors.
15. rigs and/or tanks
The US example says artificial reefs are made using old rigs and/or tanks to attract fish for leisure activities.
16. fish stocks
Japan's artificial reefs are built to form large areas of habitat to improve fish stocks.
17. physical obstacles
In Europe, artificial reefs are placed deep down to form physical obstacles that act as sea defences.
18. concrete (cubes)
Italy uses pyramid shapes made of concrete (cubes) to prevent trawling.
19. commercial
Britain's reefs are made of rock to encourage commercial fish species.
20. Japan
In Japan, people who build reefs are legally entitled to all the fish they attract.
21. sea [grass) beds/ floor/ bottom
Trawling damages the sea grass beds, floor, or bottom, which inhibits the development of marine life.
22. bamboo and coconuts
The passage says that in the past, both bamboo and coconuts were used to make reefs.
23. management (control)
Good management or control is required to ensure that reefs are not over-fished.
24. C
The writer says the next step is to examine the dangers of artificial reefs to marine life, not to expand their use or make international agreements.
25. YES
The passage says resident killer whales stay with their maternal group for life, so the answer is YES.
26. NO
Resident killer whales do not have a more restricted range of calls than transients; in fact, they have a wider range, so the answer is NO.
27. YES
There is a vocabulary of sounds common to all transient killer whales, so the answer is YES.
28. NO
Resident killer whales do not share dialects with other resident communities, even in the same waters, so the answer is NO.
29. NOT GIVEN
There is no information about whether the dialects of transient killer whales remain constant over time.
30. pods
Resident killer whales live in fixed family groups called pods.
31. physical environment
Because many groups with different dialects live in the same area, these differences could not be due to the physical environment.
32. mother
Tests show that a calf communicates only with the dialect of the group its mother belongs to.
33. A / C / D
The passage mentions whales' intelligence (A), sensitivity to sound (C), and prolonged life span (D) as features.
34. G
Section G gives an example of the kind of information whales pass to each other, such as hunting techniques.
35. D
Section D refers to variations in communication styles between different cultures within one species.
36. F
Section F discusses ways in which whales' skills, like intelligence and communication, help the development of culture.

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Reading Passage 1: The Flavour Industry

Reading Passage 2: Creating Artificial Reefs

Reading Passage 3: Whale Culture

Answer sheet

Answer key