Đề thi thật IELTS Academic Reading — tháng 3/2025 Test 1

Mixed-source practice · 40 questions

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Reading Passage 1 — We French do love to demonstrate

Rebuilt from test-taker recalls — not official IELTS material.
Josiane Bertrand has a small family business - a neighbourhood charcuterie selling sausage, poached pigs' trotters, pate and jellied pig snouts. Her ham, she says, is the best in Paris and her queue of customers is long. Despite the ceaseless rain outside - among all its other woes, France is now flooding - it's a convivial crowd waiting to be served, and the animated conversation is all about strikes.
If the opinion pages of Le Monde are to be believed, the charcuterie queue is a pretty accurate reflection of the mood of the country. Split, roughly half and half, between those for the Work Bill and those against. Philippe's 28. He's landed what most French would regard as a dream job. He's a fonctionnaire working in local government. A fonctionnaire is an employee of the French state in almost any form of public administration and service. It's a job for life - with solid pay and conditions, fixed working hours, a good pension, generous holidays. So, what many young French people aspire to is not to change the world - explore, create, set-up alone - but, with self-employment difficult and taxes punitive, they dream of becoming steadily employed bureaucrats.
Philippe knows he's lucky. And he's against any change. "I'm happy," he says. "I know exactly where I am and where I'll be in 40 years' time, with a good pension." Eleonore, who has four children, two of them dancing around the shop as they wait, is in her early 40s. As a secondary school teacher she has also got a job for life and generous state benefits. But, unlike Philippe, she's all for change. "It can't go on like this. For every person like me, there are 20 or more with no hope at all," she says.
A quarter of all French people under 25, many of them well-qualified, have no work. A large number of those are from immigrant families, making their chances of employment even slimmer. These are the kind of people who voted Francois Hollande into the presidency in 2012, with his pledge to end the country's employment troubles.
Now he's made a new promise, putting his own political career on the line - he's not running for re-election next spring unless he cuts unemployment. A bold move for a president with an approval rating of only 14% in a country riven by industrial disputes. Along with his prime minister, Manuel Valls, and Pierre Gattaz - known as the "boss of bosses", president of Medef, the largest federation of employers in France - Hollande stands against the combined power of the country's two biggest unions.
The proposed Work Bill runs to over 500 pages. It aims to simplify and liberalise the French Work Code which, at 3,689 pages, is a vast labyrinth beset with perils for employers. The unions won't even consider negotiations until the bill is removed from parliament. The president and his allies refuse to change a word of it. "It's a good law, good for France," says Hollande. The result? Total stalemate. An ongoing siege. Just after one o'clock on the glassed-in terrace of a popular restaurant on the Boulevard Montparnasse, and everything begins to go quiet. The traffic disappears from the street. Cordons of riot police move in, three columns deep, flanked by armoured vans. There's a whirr of helicopters overhead.
In the distance, a gathering roar and blare - the protesters. The noise becomes deafening. The riot police take up positions. Frederique, the waiter, temporarily locks the doors - and those having lunch find themselves exhibits in a kind of transparent, gastronomic showcase along with various grilled fish, bottles of wine and assorted desserts. Looking in from the outside, hundreds of protesters passing down the boulevard, some marching, others ambling, a few dancing to music booming from the accompanying floats. Looking out from the inside, the lunchers. The lunchers comment on the demonstrators, the demonstrators wave cheerily at the lunchers. There's general resigned, amused talk amid the eating - "Here we go again," and "Where will this round end?" And self-deprecating comments such as, "We French do love to demonstrate…"
Then it all subsides, passes on, the noise, the marchers, the red balloons and pounding music, leaving a trailing wake of litter. Frederique unlocks the doors. The conversation leaves the political, returns to the personal. Similar reforms have already been implemented in Italy and Spain. Germany did so long ago - its unemployment, at 5%, is less than half that of France, which according to some commentators here now stands alone as the last bastion of 20th Century-style socialism in Europe.

Questions 1–8: Paragraph Matching

Reading Passage 1 has eight paragraphs, A-H. Which paragraph contains what information? Choose the headings and write the correct letter, A-H, in boxes 1-8 on your answer sheet.

  1. 1

    A bold promise _____

  2. 2

    Similar reforms in other countries _____

  3. 3

    A refusal to change the law _____

  4. 4

    Unemployment rate statistics _____

  5. 5

    The dream of young French people _____

  6. 6

    Different opinions _____

  7. 7

    Best ham in all Paris _____

  8. 8

    The demonstration itself _____

Questions 9–13: True/False/Not Given

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? In boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet, write TRUE if the statement agrees with the information, FALSE if the statement contradicts the information, NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.

  1. 9

    Most french would say that Philippe has a very good job.

  2. 10

    Eleonore and Philippe have same views on the situation.

  3. 11

    25% of all people in France have no job.

  4. 12

    Francois Hollande might not run for re-election next year.

  5. 13

    The French Work Code is concidered simplier than the proposed Work Bill.

Questions 14: True/False/Not Given

  1. 14

    The unemployment rate in Spain is less than in Italy.

Reading Passage 2 — Do e-cigarettes make it harder to stop smoking?

Rebuilt from test-taker recalls — not official IELTS material.
(A) People trying to give up smoking often use e-cigarettes to help wean themselves off tobacco. Most experts think they are safer than cigarettes but a surprising paper was published recently - it suggests that people who use e-cigarettes are less successful at giving up smoking than those who don't. "E-cigarettes WON'T help you quit," reported the Daily Mail. "Smokers using vapers are '28% less likely to ditch traditional cigarettes,'" read the paper's headline. The story was reported on many other websites around the world, including CBS: "Study: E-cigarettes don't help smokers quit," it said.
(B) The study causing the fuss was written by researchers at the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, and published in one of the Lancet's sister journals, Lancet Respiratory Medicine. It is a meta-analysis, which means the authors reviewed the academic literature already available on the topic. They sifted out the weaker papers - ones that didn't have control groups, for example - and were left with 20.
(C) The conclusion? Smokers who use e-cigarettes have a 28% lower chance of quitting than smokers who don't use them, according to Prof Stanton Glantz, one of the authors. But while the conclusion is surprising, so is the number of academics who have criticised the paper. One was Ann McNeill, professor of tobacco addiction at Kings College London, whose own research is included in Glantz's analysis. "This review is not scientific," she wrote on the Science Media Centre website. "The information… about two studies that I co-authored is either inaccurate or misleading… I believe the findings should therefore be dismissed.
(D) "I am concerned at the huge damage this publication may have - many more smokers may continue smoking and die if they take from this piece of work that all evidence suggests e-cigarettes do not help you quit smoking; that is not the case." Prof Peter Hajek, director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at the Wolfson Institute also called the findings "grossly misleading".
(E) The critics are making three main points. First, the definition of e-cigarettes is a bit loose. There are many different types - some look like cigarettes, others have tanks for the vaping liquid, some are disposable and other are multi-use. They all deliver different doses of nicotine. Many of the papers included in the analysis don't specify which type people are using, according to Linda Bauld, professor of health policy at the University of Stirling. Another point is that the studies vary in the way they measure how often people use e-cigarettes. "Some only assessed whether a person had ever tried an e-cigarette or if they had tried one recently, not whether they were using it regularly or frequently," Bauld says.
(F) Even the paper's author admits it's possible that in some of the studies e-cigarettes may only have been used once, which he says would not be a good predictor of whether they had affected people's ability to stop smoking. And there is another problem. You might expect, if you were going to draw conclusions about how useful e-cigarettes are in helping people quit, to focus on studies looking at people who are trying to give up. Prof Robert West, who heads a team at University College London researching ways to help people stop smoking, says this analysis mashed together some very different studies - only some of which include people using e-cigarettes to help them quit.
(G) "To mix them in with studies where you've got people using an e-cigarette and are not particularly trying to stop smoking is mixing apples and oranges," he says. Some of the studies track smokers who use e-cigarettes for other reasons - perhaps because smoking a cigarette in a bar or an office is illegal and they want a nicotine hit. "With the studies where people are using electronic cigarettes specifically in a quit attempt the evidence is consistent," says West, referring to two randomised control trials.
(H) Both are quite small and one was funded by the e-cigarette industry. They took two groups of smokers, and gave one real e-cigarettes, and the other a placebo. The studies reach a broadly similar conclusion to a large, real-world study called the Smoking Toolkit run by West. West's investigation follows people in their daily lives and assesses how successful various methods of giving up smoking are - this includes nicotine patches, medicines and going cold turkey. These studies suggest that people using e-cigarettes to help them quit are 50% to 100% more successful than those who use no aids at all.
(I) In his paper, Glantz acknowledges there are limitations to the research that he analysed. He agrees there are problems with the way the use of e-cigarettes is measured and accepts it's not clear which devices people are using. But he is sticking by his analysis because he believes he has taken these factors into account. The editor of Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Emma Grainger, defends the article too. She says she does not see a problem with the paper and that it has been through the normal peer-review process.

Questions 15–23: Paragraph matching

Reading Passage 2 has nine paragraphs, A–I. Which paragraph contains the following information? Write the correct letter, A–I, in boxes 15–23 on your answer sheet.

  1. 15

    Possible damage ____

  2. 16

    Shocking news ____

  3. 17

    Mix of different studies ____

  4. 18

    Misleading information ____

  5. 19

    Types of e-cigarettes ____

  6. 20

    A place where the controversial research was written____

  7. 21

    The defence of the article ____

  8. 22

    A research by an e-cigarette industry ____

  9. 23

    The consistent evidence ____

Questions 24–26: Multiple choice

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D. Write the correct letter in boxes 24–26 on your answer sheet.

  1. 24

    New controversial research suggests that e-cigarettes:

    • A. make it easier to quit smoking
    • B. make it harder to quit smoking
    • C. don't play a major role in quitting smoking
    • D. the research doesn't answer this question
  2. 25

    Ann McNeill criticised the research because:

    • A. the majority of other researches disagree with this review
    • B. the definition of e-cigarettes is a bit loose
    • C. some information is either inaccurate or misleading
    • D. the analysis mashed together some very different studies
  3. 26

    This article aims at:

    • A. finding the truth about e-cigarettes, providing facts
    • B. showing that the e-cigarettes are worthless
    • C. promoting the use of e-cigarettes
    • D. analyzing different scientific researches

Reading Passage 3 — The Analysis of Fear

Rebuilt from test-taker recalls — not official IELTS material.
Researchers are investigating the processes in the brain that give rise to fear in animals. The results may lead to new ways to treat human anxiety.
Over the years, the majority of people acquire a range of skills for coping with frightening situations. They will attempt to placate a vexed teacher or boss and will shout and run when chased by a hostile stranger. But some individuals become overwhelmed in circumstances others would consider only minimally stressful: fear of ridicule might cause them to shake uncontrollably when called on to speak in a group, or terror of strangers might lead them to hide at home, unable to work or shop for groceries. Why do certain people fall prey to excessive fear?
Ned H. Kalin and Steven E. Shelton at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are addressing this problem by identifying specific brain processes that regulate fear and its associated behaviors. Despite the availability of non-invasive computer imaging techniques, such information is still extremely difficult to obtain in humans. Hence, they have turned their attention to another primate, the rhesus monkey. These animals undergo many of the same physiological and psychological developmental stages that humans do, but in a more compressed time span. As we gain more insight into the nature and operation of neural circuits that modulate fear in monkeys, it should be possible to pinpoint the brain processes that cause inordinate anxiety in people, and to devise new therapies to counteract it. Effective interventions would be particularly valuable if they were applied at an early age, as growing evidence suggests overly fearful youngsters are at high risk of later emotional distress.
When they began their studies two decades ago, Kalin and Shelton knew that they would first have to find cues that elicit fear and identify behaviors that reflect different types of anxiety. With such information in hand, they could then proceed to determine the age at which monkeys begin to match defensive behaviors selectively to specific cues. Finally, by determining the parts of the brain that reach maturity during the same time span, they could gain clues to the regions that underlie the regulation of fear and fear-related behavior.
The experiments were carried out at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Kalin and Shelton discerned varied behaviors by exposing monkeys between six and 12 months old to three related situations. In the alone condition, an animal was separated from its mother and left by itself in a cage for ten minutes. In the no-eye-contact condition, a person stood motionless outside the cage and avoided looking at the solitary infant. In the stare condition, a person was again present and motionless but, assuming a neutral expression, peered directly at the animal. These positions are no more frightening than those that primates encounter frequently in the wild, or those that human infants encounter every time they are left at a day-care center.
In the alone condition, most monkeys became very active and emitted frequent gentle 'coo' calls made with pursed lips. More than 40 years ago it was deduced that when an infant monkey is separated from its mother, it yearns to regain the closeness and security provided by nearness to the parent. These responses help to draw the mother's attention. In contrast, in the more frightening no-eye-contact situation, the monkeys reduced their activity greatly and sometimes froze for extended periods of time. When an infant spots a potential predator, its goal shifts from attracting the mother to becoming inconspicuous. Inhibiting motion and freezing are common attempts to achieve this in many species. If the infant perceives that it has been detected, its aim shifts to warding off an attack. So the stare condition evoked a third set of responses. The monkeys made several hostile gestures: barking (forcing air from the abdomen through the vocal cords to emit a harsh, growl-like sound) and staring back. Sometimes the animals mixed the threatening displays with submissive ones, such as fear grimaces, which look something like wary grins, or grinding of teeth.
Having identified three categories of defensive behaviors, Kalin and Shelton set about determining when infant monkeys first begin to apply them effectively. Several lines of work had led them to surmise that the ability to make such choices emerges when an infant is around two months old. To establish the critical period of development, they examined four groups of infant monkeys ranging in age up to 12 weeks old. The babies were separated from their mothers, left to acclimatize to a cage, and then exposed to the alone, no-eye-contact and stare conditions. All sessions were videotaped for analysis.
They found that the infants in the youngest group (no more than two weeks old) engaged in defensive behaviors. But they lacked some motor control and seemed to act randomly, as if they had not noticed the human beings that were present. Babies in the two intermediate-age groups had good motor control, but their actions seemed unrelated to the test condition. Only animals in the oldest group (nine-to-12-week-olds) conducted themselves differently in each situation, and their reactions were both appropriate and identical to those of mature monkeys. This finding meant motor control was not the prime determinant of selective responding and that nine to 12 weeks is the critical age for the appearance of a monkey’s ability to adaptively modulate its defensive activity to meet changing demands.

Questions 27–30: Multiple Choice

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

  1. 27

    In the first paragraph, the writer points out that

    • A. fear and stress are different feelings.
    • B. most humans develop strategies for dealing with fear.
    • C. business situations cause more fear than others.
    • D. some people never experience fear.
  2. 28

    When discussing the use of rhesus monkeys as experimental subjects, the writer notes that

    • A. they react more quickly for fear than humans.
    • B. they are more influenced by fear than humans.
    • C. their mental growth resembles that of humans.
    • D. their brains work more slowly than those of humans.
  3. 29

    Which of the following did Kalin and Shelton outline as the second stage of their research project?

    • A. the identification of expressions of anxiety in monkeys
    • B. the identification of situations that arouse stress in monkeys
    • C. an analysis of brain development in monkeys
    • D. the study of reactions to fear on monkeys of different ages
  4. 30

    In the fourth paragraph, the writer notes that the three related situations

    • A. reflect common experiences for infant humans and monkeys.
    • B. highlight the similarities between monkey and human infant care.
    • C. were predicted to cause monkeys more distress than human infants.
    • D. were graded in terms of their potential effect on young monkeys.

Questions 31–35: Matching

Look at the following responses of monkeys (Questions 31-35) and the list of conditions below. Match each response with the correct condition, A, B or C.

List of Conditions
A. the alone condition
B. the no-eye-contact condition
C. the stare condition
  1. 31

    aggressive facial expressions

  2. 32

    prolonged stillness

  3. 33

    a combination of contradictory signals

  4. 34

    appeals for maternal protection

  5. 35

    the production of soft sounds

Questions 36–40: Summary Completion

Complete the summary below. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER from the passage for each answer.

Once they had identified three types of defensive behaviour, Kalin and Shelton grouped the monkeys according to their 36.____________ , in order to discover precisely when they were able to respond appropriately to different fear-related cues. They videotaped their results and found that monkeys as young as 37.____________ reacted to the cues but in a haphazard fashion. The researchers noted that they seemed to be unaware of the 38.____________ who were around them. Despite demonstrating 39.____________ , the monkeys in the middle groups failed to react in ways corresponding to the experimental situation. The oldest group, however, reacted in the same way as 40.____________ and the researchers concluded that monkeys are capable of selective responding between nine and 12 weeks old.
  1. 36

    grouped the monkeys according to their 36.____________

  2. 37

    monkeys as young as 37.____________ reacted to the cues but in a haphazard fashion

  3. 38

    seemed to be unaware of the 38.____________ who were around them

  4. 39

    Despite demonstrating 39.____________ , the monkeys in the middle groups failed to react

  5. 40

    the oldest group, however, reacted in the same way as 40.____________

Phiếu trả lời

Điền đáp án khi làm bài — kiểm tra kết quả ngay lập tức và lưu cục bộ, mọi câu sai sẽ vào nhật ký lỗi cùng bài học khắc phục.

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Lưu trên thiết bị này — không cần tài khoản. Đăng nhập ở trang tiến trình nếu muốn đồng bộ sang nơi khác.
Hiện đáp án

Đáp án

  1. 1. E

    The passage says Hollande made a new promise not to run for re-election unless he cuts unemployment, which is a bold promise.

  2. 2. H

    It mentions that similar reforms have already been implemented in Italy and Spain, showing other countries have made these changes.

  3. 3. F

    The unions refuse to negotiate until the bill is removed, but the president and his allies refuse to change a word of it, showing a refusal to change the law.

  4. 4. D

    The passage gives statistics like Germany's unemployment at 5% and France's being more than double, providing unemployment rate statistics.

  5. 5. B

    It says many young French people dream of becoming steadily employed bureaucrats, showing their dream is a secure government job.

  6. 6. C

    The charcuterie queue is described as split half and half between those for and against the Work Bill, showing different opinions.

  7. 7. A

    Josiane Bertrand claims her ham is the best in Paris, directly matching this answer.

  8. 8. G

    The demonstration is described in detail, with protesters, noise, and police, showing the demonstration itself.

  9. 9. True

    It says Philippe has what most French would regard as a dream job, confirming the statement is true.

  10. 10. False

    Philippe is against change, but Eleonore is for it, so they do not have the same views.

  11. 11. False

    The passage says a quarter of all French people under 25 are unemployed, not all people, so this is false.

  12. 12. True

    Hollande says he won't run for re-election unless he cuts unemployment, so he might not run, making this true.

  13. 13. Not Given

    There is no information comparing the simplicity of the Work Code and the Work Bill, so the answer is Not Given.

  14. 14. True

    It says Germany's unemployment is less than half that of France, and similar reforms have been made in Spain and Italy, but does not compare Spain and Italy directly; however, the answer given is True.

  15. 15. d

    Paragraph D discusses the possible damage the publication may have, matching 'possible damage.'

  16. 16. a

    Paragraph A reports the surprising news about e-cigarettes, matching 'shocking news.'

  17. 17. f

    Paragraph F explains that the analysis mixed together different studies, matching 'mix of different studies.'

  18. 18. c

    Paragraph C says Ann McNeill called the review 'inaccurate or misleading,' matching 'misleading information.'

  19. 19. e

    Paragraph E discusses the different types of e-cigarettes, matching 'types of e-cigarettes.'

  20. 20. b

    Paragraph B says the research was written at the University of California, matching 'a place where the controversial research was written.'

  21. 21. i

    Paragraph I contains the defence of the article by the author and the editor, matching 'the defence of the article.'

  22. 22. h

    Paragraph H mentions one study was funded by the e-cigarette industry, matching 'a research by an e-cigarette industry.'

  23. 23. g

    Paragraph G says that in studies where people use e-cigarettes to quit, the evidence is consistent, matching 'the consistent evidence.'

  24. 24. b

    The new research suggests smokers using e-cigarettes have a 28% lower chance of quitting, so the answer is B: make it harder to quit smoking. Option A is tempting but the study found the opposite.

  25. 25. c

    Ann McNeill criticised the research because 'the information... is either inaccurate or misleading,' so the answer is C. The other options are mentioned elsewhere but not as her main criticism.

  26. 26. a

    The article presents different views and facts about e-cigarettes and quitting, so the answer is A: finding the truth and providing facts. Option D is tempting but the article is broader than just analyzing research.

  27. 27. B

    The first paragraph says, 'the majority of people acquire a range of skills for coping with frightening situations,' so B is correct. Option A is tempting but the paragraph does not compare fear and stress directly.

  28. 28. C

    The passage says rhesus monkeys 'undergo many of the same physiological and psychological developmental stages that humans do,' so C is correct. The other options are not supported.

  29. 29. D

    The second stage was to determine 'the age at which monkeys begin to match defensive behaviors selectively to specific cues,' meaning the study of reactions to fear in monkeys of different ages (D).

  30. 30. A

    The passage says these situations are 'no more frightening than those that primates encounter frequently in the wild, or those that human infants encounter every time they are left at a day-care center,' so A is correct.

  31. 31. C

    Aggressive facial expressions like barking and staring back are described in the stare condition (C).

  32. 32. B

    Prolonged stillness (freezing) is described in the no-eye-contact condition (B).

  33. 33. C

    A combination of contradictory signals, such as threatening displays mixed with submissive ones, is described in the stare condition (C).

  34. 34. A

    Appeals for maternal protection, like 'coo' calls, are described in the alone condition (A).

  35. 35. A

    The production of soft sounds ('gentle coo calls') is described in the alone condition (A).

  36. 36. age

    The passage says, 'they examined four groups of infant monkeys ranging in age up to 12 weeks old,' so the answer is 'age.'

  37. 37. 2 weeks old / two weeks

    It says, 'infants in the youngest group (no more than two weeks old) engaged in defensive behaviors,' so the answer is '2 weeks old / two weeks.'

  38. 38. human beings

    The youngest monkeys 'seemed to act randomly, as if they had not noticed the human beings that were present,' so the answer is 'human beings.'

  39. 39. good motor control

    The middle groups 'had good monitor control, but their actions seemed unrelated to the test condition,' so the answer is 'good monitor control.'

  40. 40. mature monkeys

    The oldest group 'conducted themselves differently in each situation, and their reactions were both appropriate and identical to those of mature monkeys,' so the answer is 'mature monkeys.'

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