General Training Reading 2025-03 Test 3 — IELTS General Training Reading Practice Test with Answers

Rebuilt from test-taker recalls — not official IELTS material. Audio and passages are recreations for practice.

Buying a 2nd Hand Used Car - Hints + Advice

Buying a car can be a stressful and expensive process. In order to help you, we have created these notes. Please be aware though that there is no mechanical advice here. There are different ways you can find a used car to buy: a dealer, online, a newspaper, an auction or a private person. Below is some advice about buying a car in different ways.

A. A Dealer: Buying from a dealer can be the safest way to buy a used car, but watch out for unscrupulous dealers! One way you can check a dealer's credentials is by seeing if they follow a code of practice. Nowadays you can also visit feedback and chat websites, where you may find comments about dealers, but a friend or colleague's suggestion is still a good way to find a good place. Check if the cars are inspected independently and ask for any inspection report. Watch out for any notices saying "as seen" or "no refunds". A reputable dealer should offer a warranty and guarantees.

B. Online: Online is probably the most simple way nowadays to buy a car. The danger of course is that you only see the pictures of the car before you buy it. It's often a good idea therefore to choose a car not too far from where you live and arrange a meeting to see, inspect and drive it before paying.

C. A Newspaper and/or a Private Sale from an Individual: Newspapers can be an advertising channel for dealers and individuals. Be careful of dealers pretending to be individuals, so that they can avoid legal restrictions! This can be avoided by looking at the log book. This should record all the owners. It's also important to check that you're not buying a stolen car. Ask the seller for the registration number, make and model and MOT test number. Then use the government's online vehicle enquiry service to check that the details you've been given match their records. Also, check that the vehicle's technical check is up to date and the technical check history matches the details you've been given. Finally, check that the vehicle identification number and engine number match the details that are in the log book.

D. An Auction: An auction can be an exciting place to buy a car and you can often pick up a great deal. Apart from the usual things to consider when buying a car, two things are important with auctions. Firstly, go to an auction as only an observer, so you can learn what happens. Secondly, make sure you are completely happy with the car before making any bid.

E. For all Purchases: Some advice is good for however or wherever you buy a car.

Get an independent mechanical check.

Check up on prices for the make, model and year of production you are considering.

If you don't know much about cars, take a friend who does to see any car you are considering.

Questions 1–7: For which section are the following statements true?

Write the correct letter, A–E. NB You may use any letter more than once.

1
This can be a good way to get a bargain.
2
Check that sellers' car information corresponds with the publicly available information on the car.
3
Make sure to try a car out prior to buying.
4
Some people try to sell a car privately when they are in fact part of a business.
5
Ask people you know for a recommendation.
6
Watch other people doing this method first.
7
Research how much the car you want should cost.

Kitchen Accidents and Their Causes

Over 90% of all accidents are preventable, and three basic rules of kitchen safety, if enforced, will significantly reduce the likelihood of kitchen mishaps.

1. Do not run. People who rush around in the kitchen tend to take chances that increase the likelihood of an accident.

2. Keep your mind on your work: People who let their attention wander are a hazard to themselves and others around them.

3. Observe all the rules for operating kitchen equipment. Never operate kitchen equipment until instructed in the correct procedures.

Cooking is considered a fairly safe occupation, but hazards certainly do exist, not only in food preparation but in other related tasks as well. The most common accidents in the kitchen are cuts, burns, falls, and strains.

CUTS: Cuts are all too common in commercial kitchens because knives and other cutting implements are constantly in use. These cuts, and the seriousness of the cuts, however, can be kept to a minimum by using ordinary good sense, by paying attention to the proper safety rules, and by practising proper cutting procedures.

BURNS: Two types of burns occur in the commercial kitchen: minor and serious. Minor burns are usually a result of wet or damp towels used to handle hot pots and pans, or from bumping an exposed area of your arm against a hot surface like an oven rack. More serious burns occur when grease is splashed, when steam escapes or is released too quickly, or when gas is turned on or released unknowingly.

FALLS: Falls can cause some of the most serious injuries in the commercial kitchen. They may disable or incapacitate a person for life. Falls are caused by extreme carelessness, wet floors and aisles, spilled food or grease, and by torn mats or warped floor boards.

STRAINS: Strains may not be as serious as other types of injuries, but they are painful and can result in the loss of many working hours. They are caused by carrying loads that are too heavy and by improper lifting practices. Most strains do not require medical attention, but they do require time and care to heal properly.

Questions 8–14: Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text?

Write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information, FALSE if it contradicts, NOT GIVEN if there is no information.

8
It is said that nine out of ten kitchen accidents can be avoided if three basic safety steps are followed.
9
Hurrying around the kitchen is a guaranteed way to cause an accident.
10
Because some tasks may be considered simple and straightforward, it is occasionally acceptable to use kitchen equipment when you have not read the instructions.
11
Cuts are definitely the most typical incident causing great harm to people in kitchens.
12
The unexpected release of very hot air when cooking is one of the ways to cause very bad burns.
13
In restaurant kitchens we see the most prolific instances of such things as broken bones through falling on food that hasn't been cleaned up.
14
Strains generally will involve the injured person to seek professional attention from a doctor at a hospital or clinic.

Changing your Child's School

There is always a time when someone needs to change their child's school. This does not happen very often, but we have provided these guidelines to help you if this is necessary for you.

Applications for schools open on different days in each local council area - usually at the start of the autumn term of the year before your child is due to start school. Therefore, schools don't usually have many spaces during a school year. Schools try and get full as this influences their government funding.

To apply for a school mid-year, you follow the same procedure as you would normally at the beginning of the year. You begin by contacting your local education authority and get your child on the waiting list. As your child will already be at a school, the authority will want to know why a change is necessary. The most frequent explanation in this country for a child going to a new school is moving house. Your reasons for changing school will be kept confidential if you ask. We aim to let you know the outcome of your application within 10 working days after we receive your completed form and necessary paperwork, including:

proof of address (dated within the last 3 months)

proof of arrival into the country (if applicable).

We need agreement from some schools that are their own admitting authority (such as an Academy) before we can allocate a place. As such, there could be a delay over the summer break when schools are closed.

Sometimes it is difficult to know when a place becomes available in a new school. If a place becomes available, you have to take it up within two weeks or you will risk losing it to another applicant. In each local council area, there is the children's bureau that can give you help and advice with the application procedure or any problems that might crop up. These offices are open from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but they are closed all day on Wednesdays when they catch up with administration. Things they might help you with could include:

Child care while you wait for a new place

Lists of available schools and their contacts

Financial assistance for your situation

Help with special educational needs

Criteria for schools' admissions

All schools have admission criteria that they use to decide which children can be allocated places. Admission criteria are different for each school. For example, schools may give priority to children who have a recommendation from their former school.

Changing school can be a stressful time for your child. There is the problem of settling in and making new friends and catching up with work that might be a bit different to what they were doing. Most schools have a councillor and it is important that your child gets together with him or her to help with the transition. If you feel that you are treated unfairly at any point, you can issue a grievance to the schools' adjudicator. He or she will consider all evidence provided before reaching an independent decision within the law.

Questions 15–21: Complete the sentences below.

Write NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer.

15. What does having no empty places at a school affect? 16. What is the most common reason given for changing a child's school? 17. How quickly must an available place at a school be taken up before it might be lost? 18. Which organisation can provide help for people with the changing school process? 19. What could people ask their child's previous school to provide that might help a school's acceptance? 20. Who is it advised that children meet with when they go to a new school? 21. To which person can people complain if they wish?

16
What is the most common reason given for changing a child's school?
17
How quickly must an available place at a school be taken up before it might be lost?
18
Which organisation can provide help for people with the changing school process?
19
What could people ask their child's previous school to provide that might help a school's acceptance?
20
Who is it advised that children meet with when they go to a new school?
21
To which person can people complain if they wish?

Hilton Laboratory - Health and safety in the workplace

Personal safety

You must be familiar with the emergency procedures in your building so that you know what to do in the event of fire, spillages or other accidents. Do not enter restricted areas without authorization, and at all times observe the warnings given. Do not wedge open fire doors or tamper with door closures, and do not block doorways, corridors or stairs, as obstructions may affect access in the event of a fire. Avoid leaving drawers and doors open unnecessarily and do not trail cables or flexes across the floor.

How to dispose of rubbish safely

We aim to protect the environment by saving and recycling glass, waste paper, and an increasing range of other materials. It is important to check materials carefully for contamination before placing them in recycling containers. Never put sharp objects such as razor blades or broken glass into waste bins without having wrapped the items carefully to protect those emptying the bins. Other waste procedures may vary – contact your Building Manager or Divisional Safety Officer for advice with regard to your particular department.

How to handle heavy objects

Make sure that shelves are not overloaded and that glass and heavy objects are stored at working height where they will be easier to reach. Use steps or ladders to reach items at height; never climb on benches, tables or chairs. Never move anything that is beyond your capability. Wherever possible you should use the trolleys provided in the workplace to do the job for you. If repetitive manual operations are routine in your work, your department will ensure you receive appropriate instruction on safe working practices and posture.

Staying alert

If you become mentally or physically tired during the working day, and find that you're feeling drowsy or not concentrating properly, you could be at risk of causing an accident or making a mistake that could harm you or your colleagues. To prevent this, make sure that you take regular breaks when necessary.

Questions 22–27: Complete the notes below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the text for each answer.

22. There are certain places in the building that staff should avoid unless they have _________.

23. To ensure people can get out easily, it is important that there are no _________ to exits.

24. Items which could cause injury must be _________ before they are disposed of.

25. Not all departments have the same system for dealing with _________ so you need to check before throwing things away.

26. _________ are available to make tasks, which require moving objects easier.

27. You should have _________ while you are working.

Women's Pain Is Different From Men's

A. Men and women can't feel each other's pain. Literally, we have different biological pathways for chronic pain, which means pain-relieving drugs that work for one sex might fail in the other half of the population. So why don't we have pain medicines designed just for men or women? The reason is simple: Because no one has looked for them. Drug development begins with studies on rats and mice, and until three years ago, almost all that research used only male animals. As a result, women in particular may be left with unnecessary pain-but men might be too.

B. Now a study in the journal Brain reveals differences in the sensory nerves that enter the spinal cords of men and women with neuropathic pain, which is persistent shooting or burning pain. The first such study in humans, it provides the most compelling evidence yet that we need different drugs for men and women. "There's a huge amount of suffering that's happening that we could solve," says Ted Price, professor of neuroscience at the University of Texas, Dallas, and an author of the Brain article. "As a field, it would be awesome to start having some success stories."

C. Some 50 million people struggle with pain most days or every day and chronic pain is the leading cause of long-term disability in the United States. Women are more likely than men to have a chronic pain condition, such as arthritis, fibromyalgia, or migraines. Meanwhile, pain medications are killing us. About 17,000 people die each year from prescribed opioids as clinicians write almost 200 million opioid prescriptions, or more than one for every two American adults.

D. The failure to include sex differences in the search for better pain relief stems in part from flawed but deep-seated beliefs. "Medical researchers made the assumption that men and women were absolutely identical in every respect, except their reproductive biology. If there were differences in how their drugs worked between men and women, they didn't want to hear about it, says Marianne Legato, a cardiologist who began sounding an alarm in the 1980s about differences in heart attack symptoms among women. She went on to pioneer a new field of gender-specific medicine.

E. The Brain study came about from a unique opportunity at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. You can't take a biopsy of spinal tissue, but researchers were able to study clusters of sensory neurons in eight women and 18 men who had spinal tumors removed. The analysis included sequencing RNA to determine which genes are active in the neural cells. They compared men and women who had a history of chronic neuropathic pain to those who didn't. Their pain wasn't caused by the tumors themselves. Some patients had nerve compression causing neuropathic pain, while others didn't have neuropathic pain or chronic pain at all. In men who did have neuropathic pain, macrophages-cells of the immune system-were most active. In women, neuropeptides, which are protein-like substances released by neurons, were prominent. "This represents the first direct human evidence that pain seems to be as sex-dependent in its underlying biology in humans as we have been suggesting for a while now, based on experiments in mice," says Jeffrey Mogil, professor of pain studies at McGill University in Montreal and a leading researcher on sex differences in pain, who was not involved in the Brain study.

F. Tailoring new medicines to men or women would be revolutionary, particularly considering that it took many years for women (and female animals) to get included in pain research at all. Fearful of potential birth defects, in 1977 the FDA cautioned against including women of childbearing age in clinical trials, which meant women used drugs solely designed for men. By 1993, the thinking had changed, and Congress passed a law requiring the inclusion of women in clinical trials funded by the National Institutes Of Health. Although clinical trials now include both men and women, they often don't report results by sex.

G. The acknowledgement of sex differences in pain could stir up the field and lead to new advances. Amid the promise of "personalized" medicine, with drugs tailored to patients based on genetic sequencing, developing pain medicines for half the population seems like a no-brainer. "Now there's a whole new frontier opening up in front of our eyes," Price says.

Questions 28–34: Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below.

Write the correct number, from i–ix.

LIST OF HEADINGS

i. Conclusion was made on an analysis of men and women's chronic neuropathic pain

ii. The inclusion of females in pain research used to encounter certain obstacles

iii. A criticism of a wrong belief

iv. Different pain conditions were found in women

v. The pioneering study about the differences in neuropathic pain between men and women

vi. Promising scenarios for the medicine field

vi. The main cause of prolonged disability in the US

vii. Challenges to include sex differences in medicine researches

viii. Less attention has been paid to gender-specific medicine

28
Section A
29
Section B
30
Section C
31
Section D
32
Section E
33
Section F
34
Section G

Questions 35–40: Answer the questions below.

Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS for each answer.

35
Chronic pain is considered the root of ________ in many people in the US.
36
It used to be assumed by medical researchers that ________ was the only difference found in men and women.
37
The study at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center included participants whose ________ were cut off.
38
________ were the cells that functioned most strongly in men having neuropathic pain.
39
The Brain study suggested that pain was likely to be ________ in terms of the biology.
40
Women during the ________ used to be refused to be included in medical experiments.

Answer sheet

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1. D
D (An Auction) is correct because the passage says, "An auction can be an exciting place to buy a car and you can often pick up a great deal."
2. C
C (A Newspaper and/or a Private Sale) is correct because it advises to use the government's online vehicle enquiry service to check that the details you've been given match their records.
3. B
B (Online) is correct because it says, "arrange a meeting to see, inspect and drive it before paying."
4. C
C is correct because it warns, "Be careful of dealers pretending to be individuals, so that they can avoid legal restrictions!"
5. A
A is correct because it says, "a friend or colleague's suggestion is still a good way to find a good place."
6. D
D is correct because it advises, "go to an auction as only an observer, so you can learn what happens."
7. E
E is correct because it says, "Check up on prices for the make, model and year of production you are considering."
8. TRUE
TRUE is correct because the passage says, "Over 90% of all accidents are preventable, and three basic rules of kitchen safety... will significantly reduce the likelihood of kitchen mishaps."
9. FALSE
FALSE is correct because the passage says running increases the likelihood of an accident, but does not guarantee it.
10. FALSE
FALSE is correct because the passage says, "Never operate kitchen equipment until instructed in the correct procedures."
11. FALSE
FALSE is correct because the passage says cuts are common but does not say they cause the most harm.
12. TRUE
TRUE is correct because it says, "serious burns occur when... steam escapes or is released too quickly."
13. NOT GIVEN
NOT GIVEN is correct because the passage does not mention broken bones or falling on food in restaurant kitchens.
14. FALSE
FALSE is correct because it says, "Most strains do not require medical attention, but they do require time and care to heal properly."
15. government funding
Government funding is correct because the passage says, "Schools try and get full as this influences their government funding."
16. moving house
Moving house is correct because it says, "The most frequent explanation... is moving house."
17. two weeks
Two weeks is correct because it says, "If a place becomes available, you have to take it up within two weeks or you will risk losing it."
18. Children's bureau
Children's bureau is correct because it says, "there is the children's bureau that can give you help and advice with the application procedure."
19. recommendation
Recommendation is correct because it says, "schools may give priority to children who have a recommendation from their former school."
20. School councillor
School councillor is correct because it says, "Most schools have a councillor and it is important that your child gets together with him or her to help with the transition."
21. Schools' adjudicator
Schools' adjudicator is correct because it says, "you can issue a grievance to the schools' adjudicator."
22. authorization
Authorization is correct because it says, "Do not enter restricted areas without authorization."
23. obstructions
Obstructions is correct because it says, "do not block doorways, corridors or stairs, as obstructions may affect access in the event of a fire."
24. wrapped / wrapped (carefully)
Wrapped (carefully) is correct because it says, "Never put sharp objects... into waste bins without having wrapped the items carefully to protect those emptying the bins."
25. waste / rubbish
Waste/rubbish is correct because it says, "Other waste procedures may vary – contact your Building Manager... for advice with regard to your particular department."
26. trolleys
Trolleys is correct because it says, "you should use the trolleys provided in the workplace to do the job for you."
27. (regular) breaks / breaks
(Regular) breaks/breaks is correct because it says, "make sure that you take regular breaks when necessary."
28. v
v is correct because Section A discusses why pain medicines are not designed for men or women, matching heading v.
29. vii
vii is correct because Section B talks about new research showing differences in pain biology, matching heading vii.
30. iii
iii is correct because Section C gives statistics about chronic pain and its effects, matching heading iii.
31. i
i is correct because Section D discusses the mistaken belief that men and women are identical except for reproduction, matching heading i.
32. ii
ii is correct because Section E describes the study at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, matching heading ii.
33. vi
vi is correct because Section F discusses the history of including women in medical research, matching heading vi.
34. long term disability
Long term disability is correct because it says, "chronic pain is the leading cause of long-term disability in the United States."
35. long term disability
Long term disability is correct because it says, "chronic pain is the leading cause of long-term disability in the United States."
36. reproductive biology
Reproductive biology is correct because it says, "Medical researchers made the assumption that men and women were absolutely identical in every respect, except their reproductive biology."
37. spinal tumors
Spinal tumors is correct because it says, "researchers were able to study clusters of sensory neurons in eight women and 18 men who had spinal tumors removed."
38. macrophages
Macrophages is correct because it says, "In men who did have neuropathic pain, macrophages—cells of the immune system—were most active."
39. sex dependent
Sex dependent is correct because it says, "pain seems to be as sex-dependent in its underlying biology in humans as we have been suggesting."
40. child bearing age
Child bearing age is correct because it says, "the FDA cautioned against including women of childbearing age in clinical trials."

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