Reading 2026-08 Test 1 — IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test with Answers

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Reading Passage 1 — Computer Games

The Early Days of the Video Game Business

It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game. In the age of computers, that statement takes on new meanings. A video game cannot ever really be defeated because, no matter how high the score, it is always the human who tires first or makes the fatal error. But millions of people continue to play, because microelectronic technology has enabled game designers to conveniently and inexpensively transform plain screens into playfields of extraordinary capability. At the same time, a multi-billion dollar industry has grown from very humble beginnings in just a few decades.

The technological roots of video games can be traced back to 1962, when an MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) graduate student demonstrated Space war, a science-fiction fantasy game played on a mainframe computer and a large screen. That game immediately attracted a wide cult following among computer buffs. The next important step came in 1968, when a console was developed that could be used to play games on ordinary televisions. But it was not until the early 1970s that a young University of Utah engineer brought the concept to the point that the adaptation of Space war from a large computer into a coin-operated format, for use in video game arcades, was becoming economically feasible. Bushnell and his associates began working on such a machine in a converted bedroom workshop, but were unsuccessful. What they ultimately developed instead was a simple tennis-like game that they named Pong. Pong took the industry by storm and quickly became the first coin-operated video game hit. And soon thereafter, commercial Pong-style home video games also appeared. Yet despite early enthusiasm, consumer interest in this area proved less sustained than had been anticipated, and as prices started to drop and losses mounted, most of the early manufacturers withdrew from the field. Profits proved to be just as elusive at Bushnell’s company, Atari, where a rapidly growing market presence in coin-operated machines and home video required greater injections of capital and more professional management than the company was able to provide. In 1976, the founders of Atari sold their share of the company for a sum that was only equivalent to their sales in that year.

At that point, coin-operated video games seemed just another passing fad. But the introduction of Space Invaders, an arcade model produced by the Japanese manufacturer Taito, proved otherwise. With its vibrant graphics, it was so different from the previous black-and-white games that Space Invaders immediately captured public interest. There soon followed a rush of popular video games that employed the same or better hardware and even more imaginative software. Of these, Pac-Man (1980) was especially significant, because now females began to take an interest.

By this time, the same software improvements and technological advances (faster microprocessors and larger memories) that permitted designers to produce spectacular audio and visual effects for coin-operated machines were also being applied to home video units. It was thus only a short while before the programmable consoles that had been unpopular for lack of software suddenly began to sell in large numbers: consumers had discovered that they could finally play a reasonable version of their favorite arcade games in the comfort of their own home. The impact on Atari was astounding. Unprofitable for the first three years, Atari had, by the end of 1979, become a success. By either self-designing or licensing the most popular arcade concepts for cartridge format for use at home, the company had captured some 80 percent of the worldwide market for home video games.

All of this, however, was too good to last. By late 1982, the public’s fascination with arcade games had begun to slow down, and fewer potential best-sellers were becoming available for conversion to cartridges that could be used on an Atari machine. At the same time, the market was flooded with illegal software of all types. It was thus not until the late 1980s that the unstructured nature of the industry, at least on the software side, had stabilized and become restructured in a manner similar, in many respects, to the book publishing business.

Until 1986, when Japan-based Nintendo introduced a more technologically sophisticated and user-friendly game console, the hardware side was also in disarray. But with tight control of software development and marketing, Nintendo was able to revive and then capture up to 80 percent of a once-again booming market in which no significant competition appeared until the early 1990s. By that point, the annual operating profits of Nintendo had already grown to over $1 billion – an amount exceeding the 1991 profits of all the major Hollywood film studios combined. In 1999, sales of game hardware and software, led by Playstation, were equal in size (around $57 billion) to US domestic box office revenue.

With change the only constant, the game industry has moved on to become what it is today. However, no matter what the technology or the format, the essence of a successful game will always be the same: it is simple to understand and to play on an elementary level, but it is compulsive and maddeningly difficult – in fact, forever impossible to master fully.

Questions 1-6: Note Completion

Complete the notes below. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

A history of video games

1960s

Space war was first played on a computer and special screen.

1970s

1. Advances in technology led to cheaper _________ and the possibility of coin-operated video games.

2. The first successful coin-operated video game was _________

3. _________ was bought from its original owners.

4. Space Invaders was successful because of its colourful _________

1980s

5. Pac-Man was the first game to attract _________

1990s

At first one company dominated the market.

6. By the end of the decade _________ had become the biggest selling home entertainment product.

Questions 7-13: True/False/Not Given

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1? Write TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN.

7
Space war was unpopular at first.
8
Bushnell and his team failed to create a coin-operated version of Space war.
9
From the beginning the home video game market has been commercially successful.
10
Atari was successful for the first time in 1979.
11
Video arcade game usage continued strongly in the 1980s.
12
The time taken to produce a video game can be compared to producing a book.
13
The qualities needed for a video game to become successful have been researched thoroughly.

Reading Passage 2 — Malaria Combat in Italy

A Everybody now knows that malaria is carried by mosquitoes. But in the 19th century, most experts believed that the disease was produced by "miasma" or "poisoning of the air". Others made a link between swamps, water and malaria, but did not make the further leap towards insects. The consequences of these theories were that little was done to combat the disease before the end of the century. Things became so bad that 11m Italians (from a total population of 25m) were "permanently at risk". In malarial zones the life expectancy of land workers was a terrifying 22.5 years. Those who escaped death were weakened or suffered from splenomegaly - a "painful enlargement of the spleen" and "a lifeless stare". The economic impact of the disease was immense. Epidemics were blamed on southern Italians, given the widespread belief that malaria was hereditary. In the 1880s, such theories began to collapse as the dreaded mosquito was identified as the real culprit.

B Italian scientists, drawing on the pioneering work of French doctor Alphonse Laveran, were able to predict the cycles of fever but it was in Rome that further key discoveries were made. Giovanni Battista Grassi, a naturalist, found that a particular type of mosquito was the carrier of malaria. By experimenting on healthy volunteers (mosquitoes were released into rooms where they drank the blood of the human guinea pigs), Grassi was able to make the direct link between the insects (all females of a certain kind) and the disease. Soon, doctors and scientists made another startling discovery: the mosquitoes themselves were also infected and not mere carriers. Every year, during the mosquito season, malarial blood was moved around the population by the insects. Definitive proof of these new theories was obtained after an extraordinary series of experiments in Italy, where healthy people were introduced into malarial zones but kept free of mosquito bites — and remained well. The new Italian state had the necessary information to tackle the disease.

C A complicated approach was adopted, which made use of quinine - a drug obtained from tree bark which had long been used to combat fever, but was now seen as a crucial part of the war on malaria. Italy introduced a quinine law and a quinine tax in 1904, and the drug was administered to large numbers of rural workers. Despite its often terrible side-effects (the headaches produced were known as the "quinine-buzz") the drug was successful in limiting the spread of the disease, and in breaking cycles of infection. In addition, Italy set up rural health centres and invested heavily in education programmes. Malaria, as Snowden shows, was not just a medical problem, but a social and regional issue, and could only be defeated through multi-layered strategies. Politics was itself transformed by the anti-malarial campaigns.

It was originally decided to give quinine to all those in certain regions — even healthy people; peasants were often suspicious of medicine being forced upon them. Doctors were sometimes met with hostility and refusal, and many were dubbed "poisoners".

D Despite these problems, the strategy was hugely successful. Deaths from malaria fell by some 80% in the first decade of the 20th century and some areas escaped altogether from the scourge of the disease. War, from 1915-18, delayed the campaign. Funds were diverted to the battlefields and the fight against malaria became a military issue, laying the way for the fascist approach to the problem. Mussolini's policies in the 20s and 30s are subjected to a serious cross-examination by Snowden. He shows how much of the regime's claims to have "eradicated" malaria through massive land reclamation, forced population removals and authoritarian clean-ups were pure propaganda. Mass draining was instituted — often at a great cost as Mussolini waged war not on the disease itself, but on the mosquitoes that carried it. The cleansing of Italy was also ethnic, as "carefully selected" Italians were chosen to inhabit the gleaming new towns of the former marshlands around Rome. The "successes" under fascism were extremely vulnerable, based as they were on a top-down concept of eradication. As war swept through the drained lands in the 40s, the disease returned with a vengeance.

E In the most shocking part of the book, Snowden describes — passionately, but with the skill of a great historian — how the retreating Nazi armies in Italy in 1943-44 deliberately caused a massive malaria epidemic in Lazio. It was "the only known example of biological warfare in 20th century Europe". Shamefully, the Italian malaria expert Alberto Missiroli had a role to play in the disaster: he did not distribute quinine, despite being well aware of the epidemic to come. Snowden claims that Missiroli was already preparing a new strategy — with the support of the US Rockefeller Foundation — using a new pesticide, DDT. Missiroli allowed the epidemic to spread, in order to create the ideal conditions for a massive, and lucrative, human experiment. Fifty-five thousand cases of malaria were recorded in the province of Littoria alone in 1944. It is estimated that more than a third of those in the affected area contracted the disease. Thousands, nobody knows how many, died. With the war over, the US government and the Rockefeller Foundation were free to experiment. DDT was sprayed from the air and 3m Italians had their bodies covered with the chemical. The effects were dramatic, and nobody really cared about the toxic effects of the chemical.

F By 1962, malaria was more or less gone from the whole peninsula. The last cases were noted in a poor region of Sicily. One of the final victims to die of the disease in Italy was the popular cyclist, Fausto Coppi. He had contracted malaria in Africa in 1960, and the failure of doctors in the north of Italy to spot the disease was a sign of the times. A few decades earlier, they would have immediately noticed the tell-tale signs; it was later claimed that a small dose of quinine would have saved his life. As there are still more than 1m deaths every year from malaria worldwide, Snowden's book also has contemporary relevance. This is a disease that affects every level of the societies where it is rampant. It also provides us with "a message of hope for a world struggling with the great present-day medical emergency".

Questions 14-18: Summary Completion

Complete the summary below using NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage.

Before the link between malaria and 14 ________was established, there were many popular theories circulating among the public, one of which points to 15________ , the unclean air. The lack of proper treatment affected the country so badly that rural people in malaria infested places had extremely short 16________. The disease spread so quickly, especially in the south of Italy, thus giving rise to the idea that the disease was 17________. People believed in these theories until mosquito was found to be the 18________ in the 1880s.

Questions 19-21: True/False/Not Given

Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage? Write TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN.

19
The volunteers of the Italian experiments that provided assuring evidence were from all over Italy.
20
It's possible to come out of malarial zones alive.
21
The government successfully managed to give all people quinine medication.

Questions 22-26: Paragraph Matching

Reading passage has six paragraphs, A-F. Which paragraph contains the following information?

22
A breakthrough in the theory of the cause of malaria
- A. Paragraph A
- B. Paragraph B
- C. Paragraph C
- D. Paragraph D
- E. Paragraph E
- F. Paragraph F
23
A story for today's readers
24
A description of an expert who didn't do anything to restrict the spread of disease
25
A setback in the battle against malaria due to government policies
26
A description of how malaria affects the human body

Reading Passage 3 — Does Class Size Matter?

A Of all the ideas for improving education, few are as simple or attractive as reducing the number of pupils per teacher. Unlike competing proposals for reform, class-size reductions rarely elicit huge outcries or involve structural change. The testing of educators, by contrast, generally arouses the anger of unions. Similarly, establishing special ‘charter’ schools involves privileging some schools over others, with the credits provided usually coming out of the budgets of struggling local schools. With its uncomplicated appeal, class-size reduction in the U.S. has lately gone from being a subject of primary academic interest to a policy juggernaut with over twenty states aiming at decreasing class sizes.

B Do small classes improve school achievement? To answer this, investigators have attempted to analyse existing data, such as records at the U.S. Department of Education. These reveal that there were steep drops in pupil-teacher ratios between 1969 and 1997, but no significant gains in academic performance. But do these findings mean that class size makes no difference? Not necessarily. For instance, schools strive for more than just high test scores; they also usually try to keep their drop-out rates low. And, indeed, the drop-out rate for older students fell considerably over that period. Because drop-outs generally come from the low end of the achievement distribution, a reduction in the drop-out rate could be expected to pull down average test scores. Another reason for discounting those data is the difficulty of ensuring a level playing field. In a perfect world, U.S. students would all come from well-off families, with two highly educated English-speaking parents who are involved in their children’s schooling. Teachers would all be creative and have complete mastery of the subject matter. The reality is very different.

C Over the past 35 years, some studies of existing data have produced evidence that smaller classes benefit students, but most of these studies were poorly designed. The exception was the Tennessee study called Project STAR (Student Teacher Achievement Ratio). Frederick Mosteller of Harvard University has called it ‘one of the greatest experiments in education in United States history’.

Students entering kindergarten were randomly assigned to one of three kinds of classes: a small class of 13 to 17 students, a regular-size class of 22 to 26 or a regular-size class with both a teacher and a full-time teacher’s aide. The students remained in whatever category they had been assigned to throughout the third grade, after which they joined a regular classroom in the fourth. To ensure that teaching quality did not differ, teachers were randomly assigned to small and regular-size classrooms. Few teachers received any special training for working with small classes, and there were no new curricular materials.

D At the end of STAR, researchers analysed the data. Jeremy Finn of New York University and Charles Achilles of Eastern Michigan University found evidence for ‘an array of benefits of small classes’. They calculated that students in smaller classes were outperforming their counterparts in regular-sized classes by the first grade and that this advantage persisted even after students returned to larger classes. They also found that the effect was stronger for black and Hispanic minority groups – a significant finding for policy-makers. Eric Hanushek of Stanford, however, criticises some of STAR’s key conclusions. He argues that STAR does not prove that gains persist long after students return to regular classes. It was debatable how much later improvement stemmed from other factors, such as a supportive home. Nor does he accept that the benefits accumulate, with participants widening the gap with their peers in larger classes year by year. Hanushek and others have also shown that during the study too many children moved from regular to small classes, probably because school personnel caved in to parent demands. And Hanushek also asserts that STAR failed to ensure good randomisation of teacher and student assignments. However, these points do not undermine STAR’s basic findings.

E The largest public class size reduction programme so far, California’s, stands more as a warning than as worthy of emulation. That state is trying to reduce classes in kindergarten through grade three despite a shortage of teachers that is most acute in low-income areas. This is exacerbating the disparity in resources available to rich and poor schools in California, because more affluent areas can attract the best teachers. Indeed, some of the extra teachers needed are being recruited from the poorer schools. Researchers found a statistically significant achievement advantage in reading, writing and mathematics for students in classes that had been reduced to 20. What is more, the effect did not vary for students of different backgrounds.

F Wisconsin’s Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) was a five-year pilot study to do some of the groundwork for a major project. Class sizes were reduced in only 14 schools, but it was noteworthy for targeting schools at which 30% of the students were below poverty level, compared with California’s across-the-board approach. SAGE lowered the average pupil-teacher ratio in kindergarten through third grade to 12–15:1 from 21–25:1. Analysts have studied the results of first-grade students in these schools and similar first-grade students elsewhere and found the results accord with those from STAR. STAR and SAGE have made it hard to argue against reducing class sizes. But the California initiative shows that reductions made with too little forethought can yield minuscule gains. Administrators need solid information before they can make sensible policy decisions.

Questions 27–31: Paragraph Matching

Reading Passage 3 has six sections, A–F. Which paragraph contains the following information?

27
detailed criticism of the methodology of a project
- A. Section A
- B. Section B
- C. Section C
- D. Section D
- E. Section E
- F. Section F
28
a comparison of the data from class-size reduction projects
29
the level of public interest in the issues of class-size reduction
30
details of action taken to protect the validity of a project
31
reasons why class composition changed during a project

Questions 32–40: Matching Projects

Classify the following statements as referring to A Project STAR, B The California Project, C SAGE. Write the correct letter, A, B or C.

32
The student composition of each class was left to chance.
- A. Project STAR
- B. The California Project
- C. SAGE
33
A long-term improvement in performance was claimed.
34
Similar results were obtained for all social groups.
35
The project was a preliminary to a more comprehensive study.
36
Several different class types were involved in the project.
37
A special group of schools was selected to take part.
38
Classroom assistants were used as part of the project.
39
The project was responsible for aggravating existing problems.
40
Certain groups of pupils within the sample were identified as having benefited.

Phiếu trả lời

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Hiện đáp án

1. adaptation
The passage says technology made it possible to adapt Space war into a coin-operated format, so 'adaptation' is correct.
2. Pong
Pong is named as the first coin-operated video game hit, so this is the answer.
3. Atari
Atari was sold by its founders in 1976, so it was bought from its original owners.
4. graphics
Space Invaders was popular because of its 'vibrant graphics,' making 'graphics' the answer.
5. females
Pac-Man was significant because 'females began to take an interest,' so 'females' is correct.
6. Playstatio
By the end of the decade, PlayStation led hardware and software sales, so it was the biggest selling home entertainment product.
7. FALSE
Space war 'immediately attracted a wide cult following,' so it was popular at first. 'FALSE' is correct.
8. TRUE
Bushnell and his team tried but 'were unsuccessful' in making a coin-operated Space war, so 'TRUE' is correct.
9. FALSE
Early home video games saw 'losses mounted' and companies withdrew, so the market was not always successful. 'FALSE' is correct.
10. TRUE
Atari was 'unprofitable for the first three years' but became a success by the end of 1979, so 'TRUE' is correct.
11. FALSE
By late 1982, public interest in arcade games slowed down, so usage did not continue strongly. 'FALSE' is correct.
12. NOT GIVEN
There is no information about the time to produce a video game compared to a book, so 'NOT GIVEN' is correct.
13. NOT GIVEN
The passage does not mention research on what makes a video game successful, so 'NOT GIVEN' is correct.
14. insects / mosquitoes
Before the link between malaria and 'insects' or 'mosquitoes' was made, people had other theories.
15. miasma
One theory blamed 'miasma,' meaning unclean air, as a cause of malaria.
16. life expectancy
In malarial areas, rural workers had a 'life expectancy' of only 22.5 years.
17. hereditary
Malaria was thought to be 'hereditary' because epidemics were blamed on southern Italians.
18. culprit / real culprit
In the 1880s, the mosquito was identified as the 'culprit' or 'real culprit' for malaria.
19. NOT GIVEN
The passage does not say where the volunteers came from, so 'NOT GIVEN' is correct.
20. TRUE
Some people survived in malarial zones, so it is possible to come out alive. 'TRUE' is correct.
21. FALSE
Not everyone received quinine; peasants were suspicious and sometimes refused, so 'FALSE' is correct.
22. B
Paragraph B describes the breakthrough discovery that mosquitoes carry malaria.
23. F
Paragraph F connects the story to modern times, saying the book has 'contemporary relevance.'
24. E
Paragraph E describes an expert, Missiroli, who did not distribute quinine and let the epidemic spread.
25. D
Paragraph D explains how war and fascist policies caused setbacks in fighting malaria.
26. A
Paragraph A describes malaria's effects on the body, like 'painful enlargement of the spleen' and 'lifeless stare.'
27. B
Section B gives detailed criticism of the methods used in class-size studies, mentioning problems with data and fairness.
28. F
Section F compares the results of different class-size reduction projects, like SAGE and STAR.
29. A
Section A discusses how class-size reduction is popular and widely supported by the public.
30. C
Section C explains how Project STAR used random assignment to protect the validity of the study.
31. D
Section D mentions that many children moved classes during STAR because of parent demands, explaining changes in class composition.
32. A
Project STAR randomly assigned students to classes, so the composition was left to chance.
33. A
Project STAR claimed that small class benefits lasted even after students returned to regular classes.
34. B
The California Project found the effect of smaller classes did not vary for students of different backgrounds.
35. C
SAGE was a five-year pilot study, meaning it was a preliminary project before a larger one.
36. A
Project STAR included three types of classes: small, regular, and regular with an aide.
37. C
SAGE targeted schools where at least 30% of students were below poverty level, so a special group was selected.
38. A
Project STAR had a class type with both a teacher and a full-time teacher’s aide.
39. B
The California Project made teacher shortages worse in poor areas, aggravating existing problems.
40. A
Project STAR found that minority groups, like black and Hispanic students, benefited more from small classes.

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