Reading 2026-07 Test 32 — IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test with Answers

Về bộ đề này: tổng hợp và chỉnh sửa nhẹ từ các đề thật mà thí sinh recall lại. IELTS lấy đề từ ngân hàng câu hỏi toàn cầu, nên tài liệu này được lưu hành rộng rãi. Để bạn có một đề hoàn chỉnh, các phần được báo cáo cùng thời điểm sẽ được ghép lại — vì vậy một bộ có thể gồm nội dung từ nhiều ngày thi, không chỉ một buổi. Audio nếu có cũng là bản tái hiện để luyện tập. Sắp xếp thuận tiện cho việc học. Dựa trên ký ức thí sinh — không phải tài liệu chính thức của IELTS.

Reading Passage 1: Koalas

A. Koalas are just too nice for their own good. And except for the occasional baby taken by birds of prey, koalas have no natural enemies. In an ideal world, the life of an arboreal couch potato would be perfectly safe and acceptable.

B. Just two hundred years ago, koalas flourished across Australia. Now they seem to be in decline, but exact numbers are not available as the species would not seem to be 'under threat'. Their problem, however, has been man, more specifically, the white man. Koala and aborigine had co-existed peacefully for centuries.

C. Today koalas are found only in scattered pockets of southeast Australia where they seem to be at risk on several fronts. The koala's only food source, the eucalyptus tree, has declined. In the past 200 years, a third of Australia's eucalyptus forests have disappeared. Koalas have been killed by parasites, chlamydia epidemics and a tumour-causing retro-virus. And every year 11,000 are killed by cars, ironically most of them in wildlife sanctuaries, and thousands are killed by poachers. Some are also taken illegally as pets. The animals usually soon die, but they are easily replaced.

D. Bush fires pose another threat. The horrific ones that raged in New South Wales recently killed between 100 and 1,000 koalas. Many that were taken into sanctuaries and shelters were found to have burnt their paws on the glowing embers. But zoologists say that the species should recover. The koalas will be aided by the eucalyptus, which grows quickly and is already burgeoning forth after the fires. So the main problem to their survival is their slow reproductive rate - they produce only one baby a year over a reproductive lifespan of about nine years.

E. The latest problem for the species is perhaps more insidious. With plush, grey fur, dark amber eyes and button nose, koalas are cuddliness incarnate. Australian zoos and wildlife parks have taken advantage of their uncomplaining attitudes, and charge visitors to be photographed hugging the furry bundles. But people may not realise how cruel this is, but because of the koala's delicate disposition, constant handling can push an already precariously balanced physiology over the edge.

F. Koalas only eat the foliage of certain species of eucalyptus trees, between 600 and 1,250 grams a day. The tough leaves are packed with cellulose, tannins, aromatic oils and precursors of toxic cyanides. To handle this cocktail, koalas have a specialised digestive system. Cellulose-digesting bacteria in the caecum break down fibre, while a specially adapted gut and liver process the toxins. To digest their food properly, koalas must sit still for 21 hours every day.

G. Koalas are the epitome of innocence and inoffensiveness. Although they are capable of ripping open a man's arm with their needle-sharp claws, or giving a nasty nip, they simply wouldn't. If you upset a koala, it may blink or swallow, or hiccup. But attack? No way! Koalas are just not aggressive. They use their claws to grip the hard smooth bark of eucalyptus trees.

H. They are also very sensitive, and the slightest upset can prevent them from breeding, cause them to go off their food, and succumb to gut infections. Koalas are stoic creatures and put on a brave face until they are at death's door. One day they may appear healthy, the next they could be dead. Captive koalas have to be weighed daily to check that they are feeding properly. A sudden loss of weight is usually the only warning keepers have that their charge is ill. Only two keepers plus a vet were allowed to handle London Zoo's koalas, as these creatures are only comfortable with people they know. A request for the koala to be taken to meet the Queen was refused because of the distress this would have caused the marsupial. Sadly, London's Zoo no longer has a koala. Two years ago the female koala died of a cancer caused by a retrovirus. When they come into heat, female koalas become more active, and start losing weight, but after about sixteen days, heat ends and the weight piles back on. London's koala did not. Surgery revealed hundreds of pea-sized tumours.

I. Almost every zoo in Australia has koalas - the marsupial has become the Animal Ambassador of the nation, but nowhere outside Australia would handling by the public be allowed. Koala cuddling screams in the face of every rule of good care. First, some zoos allow koalas to be passed from stranger to stranger, many children who love to squeeze. Secondly, most people have no idea of how to handle the animals: they like to cling on to their handler, all in their own good time and use his or her arm as a tree. For such reasons, the Association of Fauna and Marine Parks, an Australian conservation society, is campaigning to ban koala cuddling. Policy on koala handling is determined by state government authorities. And the largest of the numbers in the Australian Nature Conservation Agency, with the aim of instituting national guidelines. Following a wave of publicity, some zoos and wildlife parks have stopped turning their koalas into photo props.

1
The main reason why koala declined is that they are killed EXCEPT for
- A. by poachers
- B. by diseases they got
- C. giving too many birth yet survived little
- D. accidents on the road
2
What can help koalas fully digest their food?
- A. toxic substance in the leaves
- B. organs that dissolve the fibres
- C. remaining inactive for a period to digest
- D. eating eucalyptus trees
3
What would koalas do when facing the dangerous situation?
- A. show signs of being offended
- B. counter attack furiously
- C. use sharp claws to rip the man
- D. use claws to grip the bark of trees.
4
In what ways Australian zoos exploit koalas?
- A. encourage people to breed koalas as pets
- B. allow tourists to hug the koalas
- C. put them on the trees as a symbol
- D. establish a koala campaign
5
What would the government do to protect koalas from being endangered?
- A. introduce koala protection guidelines
- B. close some of the zoos
- C. encourage people to resist visiting the zoos
- D. persuade the public to learn more knowledge
6
New coming human settlers caused danger to koalas.
7
Koalas can still be seen in most of the places in Australia.
8
It takes decade for the eucalyptus trees to recover after the fire.
9
Koalas will fight each other when food becomes scarce.
10
It is not easy to notice that koalas are ill.
11
Koalas are easily infected with human contagious disease via cuddling.
12
Koalas like to hold a person's arm when they are embraced.
13
From your opinion this article written by
- A. a journalist who write for magazine
- B. a zoo keeper in London Zoo.
- C. a tourist who traveling back from Australia
- D. a government official who studies koalas to establish a law

Reading Passage 2: Learning from the Romans

A In a quest to make concrete more durable and sustainable, an international team of geologists and engineers has found inspiration in the concrete used by the ancient Romans. The chemical secrets of Roman concrete have been uncovered in samples taken from a concrete Roman breakwater. A breakwater is a barrier that is built out into the sea to protect coasts and harbors from the force of waves. This particular breakwater has spent the last 2,000 years submerged in seawater. The international team of researchers that collected the samples was led by Paulo Monteiro, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Analysis of samples from the ancient underwater site in Pozzuoli Bay near Naples in Italy, and pinpointed why the best Roman concrete was superior to most modern concrete.

B Concrete was the Roman Empire’s construction material of choice. It was used in land monuments such as the Pantheon in Rome, as well as in underwater and partially underwater coastal and harbor structures. Monteiro and his team were particularly interested in how the coastal and harbor structures endured the unforgiving saltwater environment. Chemical analysis of Roman concrete showed that it differs from the modern kind in several ways. One is the content of the cement that binds the material in the concrete. The most commonly used cement in recent decades has been Portland cement. Portland cement is a compound of calcium, silicates, and hydrates (C-S-H). However, analysis of Roman concrete shows that it contains a significantly different cement. Roman cement contains aluminum, which is not found in Portland cement, and less silicon than is found in Portland cement. The resulting calcium-aluminum-silicate-hydrate (C-A-S-H) is an exceptionally stable cement.

C The recipe for the contents of Roman concrete was first described around 30 BC by Vitruvius, an engineer for the Roman Emperor Augustus. Volcanic ash was one of the ingredients, and it is now understood that this is crucial, as it is volcanic ash that contains the aluminum that ultimately gives Roman concrete its great durability. The Romans devised an efficient method of making concrete for coastal structures. They combined volcanic ash with lime, which added the calcium to the mix. This was then packed, together with stones and chunks of rock, into wooden molds, which were then immersed in seawater. The seawater instantly triggered a hot chemical reaction. The lime was hydrated by the seawater, which means that it incorporated water molecules into its structure, and reacted with the volcanic ash to cement the whole mixture together. This reaction formed the concrete that was used to build some of the most enduring structures in Western civilization.

D According to Marie Jackson, a member of the research team, Roman concrete is one of the most durable construction materials on the planet, and that was no accident. Shipping was the lifeline of political, economic, and military stability for the Roman Empire, so constructing harbors that would last was critical. ‘Over time, the Romans used less and less concrete.’ ‘As the Roman Empire declined, and shipping declined, the need for the seawater concrete declined,’ said Jackson. ‘You could also argue that the original structures were built so well that, once they were in place, they didn’t need to be replaced,’ she added.

E Producing Roman concrete also left a smaller carbon footprint than its modern counterpart. ‘It’s not that modern concrete isn’t good—it’s so good we use 19 billion tons of it a year,’ says Monteiro. ‘The problem is that manufacturing Portland cement accounts for seven percent of the carbon dioxide that industry puts into the air.’ Portland cement holds most modern concrete together. However, making Portland cement releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from burning fuel in order to heat a mix of limestone and clays to 1,450 degrees Celsius. The production of Roman concrete, however, was much cleaner, as less heat was needed. A temperature that was a third lower than that required for making Portland cement was sufficient for making Roman concrete.

F Some modern concrete no longer contains Portland cement; instead, fly ash is used, which causes fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Fly ash is a waste product from burning coal, and the researchers are investigating whether volcanic ash would be a good, large-volume replacement in countries that cannot access fly ash easily. ‘There is not enough fly ash in this world to replace half of the Portland cement being used,’ said Monteiro. ‘Many countries don’t have fly ash, so the idea is to find alternative local materials that will work, including the kind of volcanic ash that Romans used. Using these alternatives could replace 40 percent of the world’s demand for Portland cement.’

G Cutting greenhouse gas emissions is one powerful incentive for finding a better way to provide the concrete the world needs; another is the need for stronger, longer-lasting buildings, bridges, and other structures. ‘In the middle 20th century, concrete structures were designed to last 50 years, and a lot of them are on borrowed time,’ Monteiro says. ‘Now we design buildings to last 100 to 120 years.’ Yet Roman harbor installations have survived 2,000 years of chemical attack from seawater and wave action. Stronger, longer-lasting modern concrete may be the legacy of a deeper understanding of how the Romans made their incomparable concrete.

14
an opinion on why the Romans reduced the amount of concrete they made for use in seawater
15
a list of the contents of both Portland and Roman cement
16
an argument for finding substitutes for a limited resource that is used in making cement
17
information about the structure from which the scientists took their Roman concrete samples
18
a comparison of the environmental impacts of making modern and Roman concrete
19
a comparison of the durability of Roman concrete with concrete produced today
20
details of how the Romans used seawater to make concrete
21
21–22. According to the passage, which TWO of the following statements about fly ash are true?
- A. Fly ash results in less damage to the environment than Portland cement.
- B. Fly ash was used by the Romans as an alternative to volcanic ash.
- C. Fly ash is already used in the production of some concrete.
- D. All countries have access to fly ash resources.
- E. Fly ash will soon replace volcanic ash.
22
23. This is because a temperature of 1,450 degrees Celsius is needed to combine clays and ________ to make Portland cement.
23
24. This level of heat was reduced by a ________ when making Roman concrete.
24
25. Needing less heat meant less ________ had to be burned and less carbon dioxide was produced.
25
26. According to Monteiro, when considering the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by ________, seven percent of it comes from the manufacture of Portland cement.

Reading Passage 3: What is social history?

Ever since its elevation to the status of an academic discipline, history has been very largely concerned with problems of its own making. These may be gaps which the young researcher is advised by supervisors to fill; or established views which he or she is encouraged to challenge. In either case, the need for the researcher to provide new insights in order to gain professional advancement often counts for more than the intrinsic interest of the topic.

Social history is quite different. It touches on, and arguably helps to focus, major issues of public debate. It mobilises popular enthusiasm and engages popular passions. It prides itself on being concerned with everyday things rather than sensational events and is directed against the ‘Great Man’ theories that originally characterised history, and the tedious focus on bureaucratic issues that subsequently dominated the 1920s and 30s. This is also reflected in the way it is taught, through the adoption of multi-disciplinary perspectives rather than a narrow historical interpretation.

Social history emerged, both as a popular enthusiasm and as a scholarly practice, from the cultural revolution of the 1960s in North America and Europe, and reproduces its leading inspirations. The spirit of social history was pre-eminently a modernising one, as reflected in its choice of subject matter. Whereas traditional history had focused on the 12th to 17th centuries, social history was apt to make its historical homeland in the 19th century. Latterly, it has even begun to extend its inquiry up to contemporary events and movements.

The subject matter favoured by the new social history, with its move away from the aristocracy and the establishment, corresponds to other cultural manifestations of the 1960s, such as New Wave British cinema, with its working-class protagonists, or ‘Pop art’, with its use of everyday artefacts. Similarly, the anti-institutional bias of the new social history—the renewed determination to write the history of ‘ordinary’ people as against that of statecraft—could be said to echo a much more widespread collapse of social deference, and a questioning of authority figures of all kinds.

Another major 1960s influence on the new social history—very different in its origins and effects—was the ‘nostalgia industry’, which focused on the sale of memorabilia and artefacts from recent history. This emerged as a kind of negative counterpart to the otherwise dominant modernisation of the decade and reflected a disenchantment, no less apparent on the Left of the political spectrum than on the Right, with post-war social change.

Industrial archaeology, an invention of the 1960s, elevated disused factories and mills to the status of national monuments. Following in the same track, property restorers turned houses built for 19th-century factory workers—once emblems of poverty, overcrowding, and ill-health—into picturesque residences. In another sphere, one could point to the proliferation of folk clubs and the discovery of industrial folk songs, prefiguring one of the major themes of the new social history—the dignity of labour.

So far as historical work was concerned, by the 1970s the sense of disenchantment had crystallised into an idealised view of the past, fostering a nostalgic regard for disappearing communities. The restoration of vanished components of ‘the world we have lost’ became a major impetus in historical writing and research. The dignity of ordinary people could be said to be the unifying theme of this line of historical inquiry and retrieval—a celebration of everyday life, even, perhaps especially, when it involved hardship and suffering.

Despite the novelty of its subject matter, social history reproduces many of the characteristic biases of its predecessors. Social historians are good at amassing details on household artefacts, budgets, daily purchases, but at times the evidence is assumed to speak for itself, and the simple reproduction of fact masquerades as explanation. The facts accumulated may leave no conceptual space for the great absences, for the many areas where the documentary record is silent.

The indulgence which social historians extend towards their subjects, and the desire to establish ‘empathy’—seeing the past in terms of its own values rather than those of today—can also serve to flatter our self-esteem, making history a field in which, at no great cost to ourselves, we can demonstrate our enlarged sympathies and benevolence. Recognising our kinship to people in the past, and tracing, or discovering, their likeness to ourselves, we are flattered in the belief that underneath we are all lovable; eccentric perhaps and even absurd, but large-hearted, generous and frank. This sense of integration with the past can thus serve as a comfortable alternative to critical awareness and self-questioning, allowing us to dignify the present by illegitimate association with the past.

Social history, if it is to fulfil its subversive potential, needs to be a great deal more disturbing. If it is to celebrate a common humanity, and to bring past and present closer together, far more weight needs to be given to the effects of insecurities and emergencies—the fears that shadow the growing up of children, the oppositions we encounter during our lives—experiences which may be hard for an individual to categorise but which nevertheless have a significance which goes beyond that individual.

Perhaps too we might recognise that there is a profound condescension in the notion of ‘ordinary people’—that unified totality in which social historians are apt to deal. Implicitly it is a category from which we tend to exclude ourselves, although in fact we are exceptional only by our privilege of hindsight. ‘There are … no masses,’ Raymond Williams wrote, ‘only ways of seeing people as masses.’ It is perhaps time for historians to scrutinise the term ‘ordinary people’ in the same way.

26
Since it became an academic discipline, historical study has been too concerned with a search for ______ by researchers who want to develop their careers. Social history, however, is more closely related to the ______ of the public. It avoids history’s traditional focus on ______, and its later concentration on ______, and it is also different from traditional history in its teaching ______, which is derived from different academic subjects.
- A. methodology
- B. needs
- C. originality
- D. important people
- E. accuracy
- F. interests and feelings
- G. explanation
- H. organisational matters
27
32. The rise of social history led to the cultural revolution of the 1960s.
28
33. Social historians tend to study a later period of history than traditional historians did.
29
34. British cinema in the 1960s lacked any working-class characters.
30
35. The loss of respect for authority in the 1960s was a leading cause of social problems.
31
36. What point is made about the ‘nostalgia industry’?
- A. Its products were not always genuine historical items.
- B. It led to the abandonment of modernisation.
- C. Its origins were political rather than industrial.
- D. It opposed the dominant trend of the time.
32
37. In the sixth paragraph, the writer makes the point that in the 1960s
- A. construction workers gained greater status.
- B. there was a new interest in traditional industrial buildings.
- C. architects applied industrial techniques to home design.
- D. many older homes were unsuitable as places of residence.
33
38. By the 1970s, historians had come to believe that
- A. researchers should focus on the immediate past.
- B. modern life is not necessarily an improvement on the past.
- C. they should not overemphasise the difficulties of life in the past.
- D. there was a need for more ‘ordinary’ people to do research into the past.
34
39. One problem related to the use of detail by social historians is that
- A. the wrong types of facts are collected.
- B. some information may be hard to categorise.
- C. more important issues may be ignored.
- D. some of the data may be incorrect.
35
40. The writer recommends that to be effective, social history must
- A. explore the negative emotions that are part of daily life.
- B. build on what has already been established by historians.
- C. try to provide an objective view of the recent past.
- D. offer solutions to the pressing problems of our day.

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.

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

1. C
C is correct because the passage does not mention koalas declining due to giving too many births with few surviving; it mentions poaching, disease, and road accidents as reasons for decline.
2. C
C is correct because the passage says koalas remain inactive for a period to help digest their food, not because of special organs or just eating eucalyptus.
3. A
A is correct because when facing danger, koalas show signs of being offended, not attacking or using claws to grip trees; D is tempting but refers to normal climbing, not danger.
4. B
B is correct because the passage says zoos let tourists hug koalas; the other options are not mentioned as ways zoos exploit koalas.
5. A
A is correct because the government plans to introduce koala protection guidelines to help protect them.
6. YES
YES is correct because the passage says new human settlers brought danger to koalas.
7. NO
NO is correct because the passage says koalas are not seen in most places in Australia anymore.
8. NO
NO is correct because the passage says eucalyptus trees recover more quickly after fire, not taking decades.
9. NOT GIVEN
NOT GIVEN is correct because the passage does not say whether koalas fight each other when food is scarce.
10. YES
YES is correct because the passage says it is hard to notice when koalas are ill.
11. NOT GIVEN
NOT GIVEN is correct because the passage does not mention if koalas catch human diseases from cuddling.
12. YES
YES is correct because the passage says koalas like to hold a person's arm when embraced.
13. A
A is correct because the article is written in the style of a journalist for a magazine, not a zookeeper, tourist, or government official.
14. D
D is correct because the passage gives an opinion on why Romans reduced concrete use in seawater.
15. B
B is correct because the passage lists the contents of both Portland and Roman cement.
16. F
F is correct because the passage argues for finding substitutes for limited resources used in cement.
17. A
A is correct because the passage gives information about the structure where Roman concrete samples were taken.
18. E
E is correct because the passage compares the environmental impacts of making modern and Roman concrete.
19. G
G is correct because the passage compares the durability of Roman concrete with modern concrete.
20. C
C is correct because the passage gives details about how Romans used seawater to make concrete.
21. A / C
A is correct because fly ash causes less environmental damage than Portland cement, and C is correct because fly ash is already used in some concrete; B, D, and E are not supported.
22. limestone
The answer is 'limestone' because the passage says 1,450°C is needed to combine clays and limestone to make Portland cement.
23. third
The answer is 'third' because the passage says the heat needed for Roman concrete was reduced by a third.
24. fuel
The answer is 'fuel' because needing less heat meant less fuel had to be burned and less carbon dioxide produced.
25. industry
The answer is 'industry' because the passage says seven percent of carbon dioxide from industry comes from making Portland cement.
26. C / F / D / H / A
The answers are C (originality), F (interests and feelings), D (important people), H (organisational matters), and A (methodology), matching the passage's points about historical study and social history.
27. NO
NO is correct because the passage does not say social history led to the cultural revolution of the 1960s.
28. YES
YES is correct because the passage says social historians tend to study later periods than traditional historians.
29. NO
NO is correct because the passage says British cinema in the 1960s included working-class characters.
30. NOT GIVEN
NOT GIVEN is correct because the passage does not say loss of respect for authority caused social problems.
31. D
D is correct because the passage says the nostalgia industry opposed the main trend of the time.
32. B
B is correct because the passage says there was new interest in traditional industrial buildings in the 1960s.
33. B
B is correct because by the 1970s, historians believed modern life is not always better than the past.
34. C
C is correct because the passage says focusing on detail can mean more important issues are ignored.
35. A
A is correct because the writer says social history must explore negative emotions in daily life to be effective.

Muốn trải nghiệm thi có tính giờ đầy đủ? Hãy thử bài thi thử toàn phần miễn phí — câu hỏi thật do thí sinh nhớ lại, trên giao diện thi thật.

Bắt đầu thi thử →

Reading Passage 1: Koalas

Reading Passage 2: Learning from the Romans

Reading Passage 3: What is social history?

Phiếu trả lời

Đáp án