IELTS Reading practice test, with answers explained
Try a free Reading passage below: six True / False / Not Given questions, marked instantly, with the line in the passage that proves each answer. Full timed Academic and General Training Reading tests are on Stride.
Free IELTS Reading sample: The return of the night train
Read the passage, answer all six questions, then check your answers. In the real test you would have about 20 minutes for a full passage with 13 or 14 questions.
The return of the night train
AIn the 1990s, overnight trains seemed destined to disappear from Europe. Budget airlines were offering two-hour flights for the price of a restaurant meal, and one railway after another withdrew its sleeper services, arguing that they could not cover their costs. By the middle of the following decade, one national operator had sold its entire night-train business.
BThe buyer, the state railway of a neighbouring country, took a different view. It refurbished the old carriages, relaunched them under a single brand and concentrated on routes of between 800 and 1,200 kilometres: far enough for passengers to sleep through the journey, but not so far that the train arrived after the working day had begun. Within three years the service was carrying more than a million passengers a year.
CDemand, however, has not been the main obstacle to further growth. New sleeping carriages take years to build, and each country a train crosses may require different signalling equipment and a separately certified locomotive. Operators also point out that they are charged a fee for every kilometre of track they use, while airlines pay no tax on the fuel for international flights. Supporters of rail argue that until such differences are removed, night trains will remain a small part of the market, however full they are.
Questions 1–6. Do the following statements agree with the information in the passage? Choose TRUE if the statement agrees, FALSE if it contradicts the passage, or NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this.
1In the 1990s, some railways stopped running sleeper trains because the services were losing money.
2The railway that bought the night-train business ordered a fleet of new carriages before relaunching it.
3The relaunched service concentrated on the longest routes available.
4Most passengers on the relaunched trains were travelling for business.
5A shortage of passengers is the biggest barrier to expanding night trains.
6Train operators are charged according to the distance they travel on the track.
0 of 6 answered
How the IELTS Reading test works
| Academic | General Training | |
|---|---|---|
| Time | 60 minutes, with no extra time to transfer answers | 60 minutes, with no extra time to transfer answers |
| Questions | 40 | 40 |
| Texts | Three long passages from books, journals, magazines and newspapers | Section 1: several short everyday texts. Section 2: two work-related texts. Section 3: one longer text |
| Marking | One mark per correct answer; spelling counts | One mark per correct answer; spelling counts |
Your score out of 40 is converted to a band from 1 to 9. General Training needs more correct answers than Academic for the same band, because its texts are easier. You can convert a score with the IELTS band score calculator.
IELTS Reading question types
A full test mixes several of these. Each needs a slightly different approach, so it helps to know which ones cost you marks.
- True / False / Not Given and Yes / No / Not Given: does the statement match the facts, or the writer's opinion?
- Matching headings: choose the heading that sums up each paragraph.
- Matching information and matching features: find which paragraph, person or category a detail belongs to.
- Multiple choice: one answer, or more than one from a longer list.
- Sentence, summary, note, table and flow-chart completion: fill gaps using words from the passage, within a word limit.
- Short-answer questions: answer in a few words taken from the text.
True, False or Not Given: the difference that costs marks
Most mistakes on this question type come from confusing FALSE with NOT GIVEN. A simple test:
- TRUE: the passage says the same thing, usually in different words.
- FALSE: the passage says the opposite, so you could correct the statement using the text.
- NOT GIVEN: the topic may be mentioned, but the passage doesn't say whether the statement is right or wrong. If you can't point to a sentence that proves or contradicts it, it is NOT GIVEN.
Answers follow the order of the passage, so if you have found the evidence for questions 2 and 4, the evidence for question 3 lies between them.
Practise full IELTS Reading tests on Stride
Stride has complete Academic and General Training Reading tests in the exam format. You can take a whole 60-minute paper or one passage at a time, your answers save as you go, and marking follows the exam's rules on word limits and spelling.
- An estimated band from your score, using the conversion for your exam type.
- Every answer reviewed against the passage, with the evidence shown.
- Your accuracy by question type, so you can see what to practise next.
Your first full test is free. See what a complete paper involves on the IELTS practice tests page.
IELTS Reading questions and answers
- How many correct answers do I need for band 7 in IELTS Reading?
- As a guide, about 30 out of 40 in Academic Reading and about 34 out of 40 in General Training. The exact number varies slightly from one test version to another.
- Is the Reading test different for Academic and General Training?
- Yes. Both have 40 questions in 60 minutes, but Academic uses three long academic-style passages, while General Training starts with shorter everyday and workplace texts and ends with one longer passage.
- Do I lose marks for wrong answers?
- No. There is no negative marking, so answer every question, even if you have to guess.
- Do spelling mistakes matter in IELTS Reading?
- Yes. A misspelt word is marked wrong, and so is an answer that goes over the word limit. Copy words from the passage carefully.
- Is this practice passage from a real IELTS test?
- No. It was written for Stride to match the style and difficulty of the test. Stride is not affiliated with IELTS, and bands shown in Stride are estimates.