Reading 2026-06 Test 8 — IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test with Answers

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Reading Passage 1: When Maps were Made for the Public

Since the art of map-making began, maps have largely been made for explorers, academics, and rulers. It wasn’t until the 19th century that the general public began to demand maps for themselves. More than anything else, it was the appeal of travel to ordinary people that encouraged companies to begin creating and printing more maps than ever before, in order to meet the demands of their new market.

In the years after the American Civil War (1861–65), the rapidly growing US railroad system had so many independent rail companies, schedules, and destinations that maps were critical for planning a person’s journey. One publisher, Rand McNally, made a fortune from producing railway maps for different parts of the USA, combined with a timetable and many descriptions of scenery and towns in the same booklet.

When safety improvements in the 1880s helped to make the bicycle popular, cycling maps quickly appeared, showing roads in good condition even if they were rarely used. Later, in 1896, one of the first cycling guides appeared in print: George Blum’s Cycler’s Guide and Map of Road for California. Each cycle road was highlighted in red and labelled with not only the type of surface riders could expect to find, but also an indication of how steep it was.

The advent of the car brought a need for road maps and travel information. In 1900, André Michelin published a guide about France, with maps that showed the location of different kinds of reasonably priced accommodation and also car assistance for any mechanical problems. However, it was due primarily to its recommendations regarding which was the best restaurant to go to that the guide quickly became something a huge number of tourists and travellers bought and relied on. Nowhere was the need for road maps greater than in the United States. In 1902, the American Automobile Association was founded in Chicago, and three years later it published its first road maps for long-distance drivers. In 1917, Rand McNally began to publish Auto Trails Maps, a series of maps that each focused in detail on a different region that people might hope to visit within North America. The same publisher also helped to establish the US’s use of identifiers to identify previously nameless roads. Following the European tradition, roads were given names, but now, thanks in part to Rand McNally, they were allocated numbers instead.

The oil companies did not take long to realize the profit to be made from Americans exploring the open road, so service stations soon began to distribute free maps to encourage this. Free road maps became part of the fabric of American life, and it has been estimated that more than ten billion were distributed before the 1970s. It was then that the rising costs of oil and subsequent falling consumption led to the oil companies investigating where savings could be made. The maps were one of the first things to go. Another map product was the aeronautical chart for pilots. The first examples were produced in France and England around 1911. Techniques progressed greatly during World War I, and during the 1920s there was continual development of maps for air navigation.

New maps also became available for those who only wanted to cross town by train. Some of the early maps of the London Underground were based on the city above ground; therefore, although they were accurate in terms of distance and direction, the maps were confusing because the stations in central London were so crowded together. In 1931, Harry Beck produced a map that looked rather like an electrical circuit, with straight lines and symbols. It included only one feature above ground: the River Thames. The stations were also spaced relatively equally, making the map much easier to read. Although Beck’s map was initially rejected as too radical, it was approved in 1933. He continued to refine it for the next 25 years.

Shortly after Beck’s contribution to the mapping of subterranean London, an equally significant achievement was performed above ground. Phyllis Pearsall was a painter who, in 1935, became lost on the way to a party in London, due to the lack of a good map. This inspired her to plot all of London, and the next year she traced and catalogued its 23,000 streets. With map-maker James Duncan, Pearsall then produced an atlas and a comprehensive street index. Unable to interest any of the major publishers, the two founded their own company, the Geographer’s Map Company Ltd, and produced what was then called the A–Z, Atlas and Guide to London. The company still exists and now publishes more than 300 different A–Z maps and atlases.

1
Rand McNally made a lot of money by putting a map and a ________ in one publication.
2
George Blum’s cycling map showed the kind of ________ the paths had.
3
André Michelin’s guide provided information about finding economical ________.
4
The Michelin guide became popular mainly because it helped people select a ________.
5
Rand McNally’s Auto Trails Maps helped people explore roads through a particular ________ of the USA.
6
Rand McNally was also responsible for giving ________ to American roads.
7
The free road maps provided by oil companies were the most detailed maps available to drivers in the USA.
8
Pilots were the first people to make use of aeronautical maps.
9
Beck’s London Underground map was immediately well received by the authorities.
10
Beck stopped working on the design of his map in 1933.
11
Pearsall created a new map of London because she got lost on her way to an event.
12
Pearsall needed the help of a professional cartographer to complete her map.
13
Pearsall’s map was widely praised by London’s major publishing companies.

Reading Passage 2: The Impact of Environment to Children

A What determines how a child develops? In reality, it would be impossible to account for each and every influence that ultimately determines who a child becomes. What we can look at are some of the most apparent influences such as genetics, parenting, experiences, friends, family relationships and school to help us understand the influences that help contribute to a child's growth.

B Think of these influences as building blocks. While most people tend to have the same basic building blocks, these components can be put together in an infinite number of ways. Consider your own overall personality. How much of who you are today was shaped by your genetic inheritance, and how much is a result of your lifetime of experiences? This question has puzzled philosophers, psychologists and educators for hundreds of years and is frequently referred to as the nature versus nurture debate. Generally, the given rate of influence on children is 40% to 50%. It may refer to all of siblings of a family. Are we the result of nature (our genetic background) or nurture (our environment)? Today, most researchers agree that child development involves a complex interaction of both nature and nurture, while some aspects of development may be strongly influenced by biology, environmental influences may also play a role. For example, the timing of when the onset of puberty occurs is largely the results of heredity, but environmental factors such as nutrition can also have an effect.

C From the earliest moments of life, the interaction of heredity and the environment works to shape who children are and who they will become. While the genetic instructions a child inherits from his parents may set out a road map for development, the environment can impact how these directions are expressed, shaped or even silenced. The complex interaction of nature and nurture does not just occur at certain moments or at certain periods of time; it is persistent and lifelong.

D The shared environment (also called common environment) refers to environmental influences that have the effect of making siblings more similar to one another. Shared environmental influences can include shared family experiences, shared peer groups, and sharing the same school and community. In general, there has not been strong evidence for shared environmental effects on many behaviors, particularly those measured in adults. Possible reasons for this are discussed. Shared environmental effects are evident in children and adolescents, but these effects generally decrease across the life span. New developments in behavior genetic methods have made it possible to specify shared environments of importance and to tease apart familial and nonfamilial sources of shared environmental influence. It may also refer to all of siblings of a family, but the rate of influence is less than 10 per cent.

E The importance of non-shared environment lay hidden within quantitative genetic studies since they began nearly a century ago. Quantitative genetic methods, such as twin and adoption methods, were designed to tease apart nature and nurture in order to explain family resemblance. For nearly all complex phenotypes, it has emerged that the answer to the question of the origins of family resemblance is nature— things run in families primarily for genetic reasons. However, the best available evidence for the importance of environmental influence comes from this same quantitative genetic research because genetic influence never explains all of the variances for complex phenotypes, and the remaining variance must be ascribed to environmental influences. Non-shared environment, it may refer to the part of siblings of a family, the rate of influence to children is 40% to 50%.

F Yet it took many decades for the full meaning of these findings to emerge. If genetics explains why siblings growing up in the same family are similar, but the environment is important, then it must be the case that the salient environmental effects do not make siblings similar. That is, they are not shared by children growing up in the same family— they must be 'non-shared'. This implication about non-shared environmental import lay fallow in the field of quantitative genetics because the field's attention was then firmly on the nature-nurture debate. 'Nurture' in the nature-nurture debate was implicitly taken to mean shared environment because, from Freud onwards, theories of socialization had assumed that children's environments are doled out on a family-by-family basis. In contrast, the point of the non-shared environment is that environments are doled out on a child-by-child basis. Note that the phrase 'non-shared environment' is shorthand for a component of phenotypic variance— it refers to 'effects' rather than 'events', as discussed later. Research in recent years suggested that the impact from parents will be easy to be interrupted by the influence from the children of the same age. That also showed that variations of knowledge that children get from other culture are increasing. A number of interests between, whatever, fathers and mothers or parents and their children are conflicting.

G Because siblings living in the same home share some but not all of the potential genetic and environmental factors that influence their behaviors, teasing apart the potential influences of genetic and non-genetic factors that differentiate siblings is very difficult. Turkheimer and Waldron (2000) have noted that non-shared environmental influences—which include all of the random measurement error—may not be systematic, but instead may operate idiosyncratically and in ways that cannot be ascertained. Thus, the question is whether or not quasi-experimental behavioral genetic designs can be used to actually identify systematic non-shared environmental mechanisms cross-sectionally and longitudinally. This is the impetus for the current study.

14
Type of Impact to Children: Genetic. Range of Reference to Siblings: Including to all of siblings. Rate of Influence: 40%-50%.
15
Type of Impact to Children: Shared Environment. Range of Reference to Siblings: all of siblings. Rate of Influence: less than 10%.
16
Type of Impact to Children: Shared Environment. Range of Reference to Siblings: all of siblings. Rate of Influence: less than 10%.
17
Type of Impact to Children: Non-shared environment. Range of Reference to Siblings: part of siblings. Rate of Influence: 40%-50%.
18
Type of Impact to Children: Non-shared environment. Range of Reference to Siblings: part of siblings. Rate of Influence: 40%-50%.
19
Research in recent years illuminated that the impact from parents will frequently be ________ by the peer's pressure.
20
It was also indicated that ________ of knowledge that children learned from other culture is increasing.
21
The study has found quantities of competing ________ between parents and children or even between parents themselves.
22
The more children there are in a family, the more impacts of environment it is.
- YES. YES
- NO. NO
- NOT GIVEN. NOT GIVEN
23
Methods based on twin studies still meet unexpected differences that cannot be ascribed to be a purely genetic explanation.
24
Children prefer to speak the language from the children of the same age to the language spoken by their parents.
25
The Study of non-shared environment influence can be a generally agreed idea among researchers in the field.
26
According to this passage, which comment is TRUE about the current Study of non-shared environment influence to children?
- A. a little biased in nature
- B. not sufficiently proved
- C. very systematic
- D. can be workable

Reading Passage 3: Women and the Vision Thing

Many believe that bias against women lingers in the business world, particularly when it comes to evaluating their leadership ability. Recently, we had a chance to see whether that assumption was true. In a study of thousands of 360-degree assessments collected by INSEAD’s executive education program over the past five years, we looked at whether women actually received lower ratings than men. To our surprise, we found the opposite: as a group, women outshone men in most of the leadership dimensions measured. There was one exception, however, and it was a big one: Women scored lower on ‘envisioning’ — the ability to recognize new opportunities and trends in the environment and develop a new strategic direction for an era.

But was this weakness a perception or a belief? And how could someone not perceive explored these issues with successful female executives, we arrived at another question: Was a reputation for vision even something many of them wanted to achieve?

A brilliant career

A leading services company CEO well call Anne Dumas typified in many ways the women we spoke with. The pillar of her leadership style was a principle taught to her 20 years ago by her first boss: Always stay close to the details. As she explained it: “I think strategy comes naturally from knowing your business and the forces that influence your market, clients, and suppliers — not at a high level but at a detailed level. Intermediaries kill your insight. You obviously can’t monitor everything, but nothing should keep you from knowing in detail the processes on which your company runs — not supervising everything but understanding at a detailed level what is going on. Otherwise, you are hostage to people who will play politics. At best you don’t have full information; at worst you’re vulnerable to hidden agendas. My job is to go to the relevant detail level.”

In her four years as CEO, Dumas had achieved some impressive results. She had doubled revenues and operating margins, given the company a new strategic direction, and undertaken a fundamental reorganization of the company’s core processes and structures. More recently, she had turned her attention to developing her leadership team.

Another executive, Sarah Lin, a tech industry veteran, echoed this sentiment. She believed that the traditional concept of a visionary leader — a solitary figure announcing a grand, top-down strategy— was outdated. "My 'vision' isn't a prophecy I deliver from on high," Lin stated. "It's a collaborative synthesis. It emerges from deep immersion in the work my team is doing, from understanding the granular challenges and the small, incremental innovations. The big picture is built from a mosaic of details." This hands-on approach, while highly effective in fostering agile and responsive teams, often remains invisible in traditional leadership assessments, which tend to value charismatic, broad-stroke pronouncements.

This discrepancy points to a potential gender-based bias in how "vision" is defined and recognized. The archetype of a visionary leader is often male, associated with bold, future-oriented rhetoric. Female leaders, who may build strategy from the ground up through collaboration and detailed mastery, might not fit this mould. Consequently, their strategic contributions are sometimes overlooked or undervalued as mere operational excellence, rather than being recognized as a different, yet equally valid, form of visionary leadership. The question, therefore, may not be whether women lack vision, but whether the business world has a narrow definition of what vision looks like in practice.

27
The study from INSEAD confirmed that women receive lower overall leadership ratings than men.
28
The study found that women outperformed men in every single leadership dimension.
29
Anne Dumas believes that understanding detailed processes protects a leader from office politics.
30
Anne Dumas's first boss was the CEO of a leading services company.
31
Sarah Lin works in the technology sector.
32
The INSEAD study was surprising because it showed that women
- A. were significantly better at envisioning than men.
- B. received higher ratings in most leadership areas.
- C. were biased against male leaders.
- D. had not improved their leadership skills over five years.
33
According to the passage, 'envisioning' is the ability to
- A. manage a team of executives effectively.
- B. double a company's revenues and margins.
- C. identify new opportunities and set a new strategic direction.
- D. understand the detailed processes of a company.
34
The core principle of Anne Dumas's leadership style is to
- A. supervise every single company process.
- B. delegate all strategic planning to intermediaries.
- C. remain closely connected to the details.
- D. avoid hidden agendas by playing politics.
35
What impressive achievement did Anne Dumas accomplish as CEO?
- A. She increased the company's market share by 100%.
- B. She developed a new leadership team from scratch.
- C. She doubled the company's revenues and operating margins.
- D. She taught her first boss a new leadership principle.
36
According to the passage, the traditional concept of a visionary leader is often
- A. collaborative and detail-oriented.
- B. female and operational.
- C. charismatic and broad-strokes.
- D. invisible and undervalued.
37
The passage suggests a potential .................... in how leadership vision is perceived.
- A. archetype
- B. collaboration
- C. bias
- D. operational excellence
- E. study
- F. prophecy
- G. principle
38
The authors argue that the common .................... of a visionary leader is typically male and associated with bold rhetoric.
39
Female leaders like Sarah Lin, however, often develop strategy through .................... and a deep understanding of details.
40
Because this approach does not fit the traditional mould, their strategic work might be misclassified as .................... instead of visionary leadership.

Phiếu trả lời

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Hiện đáp án

1. timetable
The answer is 'timetable' because the passage says Rand McNally combined a map and a timetable in one publication, which made it popular and profitable.
2. surface
The answer is 'surface' because George Blum’s cycling map showed what kind of surface the paths had, helping cyclists choose suitable routes.
3. accommodation
The answer is 'accommodation' because André Michelin’s guide gave information about finding economical accommodation for travelers.
4. restaurant
The answer is 'restaurant' because the Michelin guide became popular mainly for helping people choose a restaurant.
5. region
The answer is 'region' because Rand McNally’s Auto Trails Maps helped people explore roads through a particular region of the USA.
6. numbers
The answer is 'numbers' because Rand McNally was responsible for giving numbers to American roads, making them easier to identify.
7. TRUE
TRUE is correct because the passage says the free road maps from oil companies were the most detailed maps available to drivers.
8. TRUE
TRUE is correct because the passage states that pilots were the first people to use aeronautical maps.
9. NOT GIVEN
NOT GIVEN is correct because there is no information in the passage about how the authorities received Beck’s London Underground map at first.
10. FALSE
FALSE is correct because Beck continued to work on the design of his map after 1933.
11. NOT GIVEN
NOT GIVEN is correct because the passage does not say Pearsall created her map because she got lost on her way to an event.
12. FALSE
FALSE is correct because Pearsall did not need the help of a professional cartographer to complete her map.
13. NOT GIVEN
NOT GIVEN is correct because there is no information about whether London’s major publishing companies praised Pearsall’s map.
14. Genetic
The answer is 'Genetic' because the table shows that genetic impact has a 40%-50% rate of influence and includes all siblings.
15. all of siblings
The answer is 'all of siblings' because the shared environment affects all siblings, as shown in the table.
16. 10%
The answer is '10%' because the rate of influence for shared environment is less than 10%, according to the table.
17. Non-shared environment
The answer is 'Non-shared environment' because this type of impact affects only part of siblings and has a 40%-50% influence.
18. 40%
The answer is '40%' because the non-shared environment has a 40%-50% rate of influence, as shown in the table.
19. interrupted
The answer is 'interrupted' because the passage says the impact from parents is often interrupted by peer pressure.
20. variations
The answer is 'variations' because the passage indicates that variations of knowledge learned from other cultures are increasing.
21. interests
The answer is 'interests' because the study found many competing interests between parents and children or even between parents themselves.
22. NOT GIVEN
NOT GIVEN is correct because the passage does not say if more children in a family means more environmental impacts.
23. YES
YES is correct because the passage says twin studies still find differences that cannot be explained only by genetics.
24. NOT GIVEN
NOT GIVEN is correct because the passage does not say if children prefer to speak the language of their peers over their parents.
25. NO
NO is correct because the passage says the study of non-shared environment influence is not a generally agreed idea among researchers.
26. B
B is correct because the passage says the study of non-shared environment influence is not sufficiently proved.
27. FALSE
FALSE is correct because the study from INSEAD did not confirm that women receive lower overall leadership ratings than men.
28. FALSE
FALSE is correct because the study did not find that women outperformed men in every single leadership dimension.
29. TRUE
TRUE is correct because Anne Dumas believes that understanding detailed processes protects a leader from office politics.
30. FALSE
FALSE is correct because Anne Dumas's first boss was not the CEO of a leading services company.
31. TRUE
TRUE is correct because the passage says Sarah Lin works in the technology sector.
32. B
B is correct because the study was surprising as it showed women received higher ratings in most leadership areas, not just envisioning (A), bias (C), or lack of improvement (D).
33. C
C is correct because 'envisioning' means identifying new opportunities and setting a new strategic direction, not just managing a team (A), doubling revenues (B), or understanding details (D).
34. C
C is correct because Anne Dumas’s core principle is to remain closely connected to the details, not to supervise everything (A), delegate all planning (B), or avoid politics (D).
35. C
C is correct because Anne Dumas doubled the company's revenues and operating margins as CEO, which is a clear achievement mentioned in the passage.
36. C
C is correct because the traditional concept of a visionary leader is described as charismatic and broad-strokes, not collaborative (A), female (B), or invisible (D).
37. C
C is correct because the passage suggests there is a potential bias in how leadership vision is perceived.
38. A
A is correct because the common archetype of a visionary leader is typically male and linked to bold rhetoric.
39. B
B is correct because female leaders like Sarah Lin often develop strategy through collaboration and understanding details.
40. D
D is correct because this approach is sometimes misclassified as operational excellence instead of visionary leadership.

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Reading Passage 1: When Maps were Made for the Public

Reading Passage 2: The Impact of Environment to Children

Reading Passage 3: Women and the Vision Thing

Phiếu trả lời

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