IELTS Reading Practice Questions
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164 passages
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All 164 IELTS Reading practice questions (A–Z)
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- A Beginner's Guide to Home Composting
- A Brief History of Money
- A History of the World in Board Games
- A Short History of Tea
- Advantages of Public Transport
- Air Traffic Control in the USA
- Ancient Water Engineering
- Aphantasia: A life without mental images
- Auditory Challenges in the Classroom
- Australia's Sporting Success
- Behavioural Economics and Decision Making
- Biological Control of Pests
- Bioluminescence in the Deep Ocean
- Booking the Village Hall for Events
- Carbon Fibre and Lightweight Materials
- Coal and Pollution
- Collecting Ant Specimens
- Community Allotment Gardens: A Members' Guide
- Coral Reefs Under Pressure
- Cycling Safety on Shared Paths
- Early Childhood Education
- Endless Harvest
- Esperanto and the Universal Language Dream
- Finding the Way Across the Pacific
- Findings of a Neuroscientist
- From Bean to Bar: The Making of Chocolate
- Getting Started with Backyard Birdwatching
- Greenfield Public Library Services
- Guided Walking Tours of the Old Town
- Hillcrest Leisure Centre: Notices for Members
- How Antibiotics Fight Bacteria
- How Birds Learn to Sing
- How Bridges Stand Up
- How Children Learn to Talk: Two Views of Language
- How Computers Store Information in Binary
- How Coral Reefs Build Themselves
- How Forests Regulate the Global Climate
- How Migratory Birds Find Their Way
- How much higher? How much faster?
- How Painters Learned to Show Depth: The Invention of Perspective
- How Satellite Navigation Finds Your Position
- How Skyscrapers Are Built to Stand Tall
- How Soap Cleans
- How Telescopes Reveal the Distant Universe
- How the Human Heart Pumps Blood
- How the Internet Sends Data Around the World
- How the World Agreed on the Time
- How to Read Food Labels
- How Vaccines Train the Immune System
- Intercity Sleeper London-Scotland
- Is There Anybody Out There?
- Joining Brightpath Couriers: Job Advert and Induction
- Joining the Neighbourhood Book Club
- Land of the Rising Sun
- Lithium and the Battery Age
- Living in the Shadow of Volcanoes
- Lost Cities of the Amazon
- Mapping the Ocean Floor
- Movable Type and the Printing Revolution
- Museum of Local History: Visitor Information
- Nature or Nurture?
- New Staff: Workplace Health and Safety
- Noise in the Ocean
- Numeration
- Oral Storytelling Traditions
- Peat Bogs and the Carbon They Keep
- Radio Waves: The Invisible Messengers
- Reaching for the Sky
- Ready for the Call: How a Volunteer Lifeboat Service Works
- Reclaiming the Zuiderzee: How the Dutch Turned Sea into Land
- Restoring Urban Wetlands
- Rethinking the Psychology of Crowds
- Riverside Community Leisure Centre
- Seed Banks and the Future of Food
- Simple Ways to Save Energy at Home
- Situations Vacant
- Sleep and the Consolidation of Memory
- Some Places to Visit
- Sourdough: Bread That Is Alive
- Staying Safe in the Summer Sun
- Tenants' Handbook: Your Responsibilities
- The Anthropology of Gift-Giving
- The Antikythera Mechanism: A Computer from the Ancient World
- The Art of Memory
- The Bauhaus and the Birth of Modern Design
- The Birth of Nicaraguan Sign Language
- The Box That Changed the World
- The Business of Second-Hand Fashion
- The Bystander Effect
- The Bystander Effect: Why Crowds Can Fail to Help
- The Cave Paintings of Lascaux
- The Chemistry of Everyday Plastics
- The Coffee House and the Birth of Public Debate
- The Commons and How to Manage Them
- The Craft of Stained Glass
- The Design of the Everyday Chair
- The Development of Trial by Jury
- The Discovery of Antibiotics
- The Domestication of the Horse
- The Economics of the Spice Trade
- The Effect of Light on Plants and Animals
- The Endless Journey of the Water Cycle
- The Engineering of Suspension Bridges
- The Engineering of the Gothic Cathedral
- The Engineering of the Suspension Bridge
- The Evolution of A Kiss
- The Formation of River Deltas
- The Garden City Movement
- The Global Journey of Coffee
- The Global Spread of the Chilli
- The Global Spread of the Potato
- The Great Library of Alexandria and the Loss of Ancient Knowledge
- The Hanseatic League and Medieval Trade
- The Hidden World of Fungi
- The History of Cartography
- The Importance of Soil to Life on Earth
- The Invention of the Supermarket
- The Language of Bees
- The Library of Alexandria
- The Life Cycle of Stars
- The Long Journey of Plastic Through the Ocean
- The Long Search for Water on Mars
- The Marathon and the Limits of Endurance
- The Montessori Method of Education
- The Nomads of the Eurasian Steppe
- The Origins of Jazz
- The Origins of Opera
- The Origins of Paper Money
- The Origins of the Alphabet
- The Placebo Effect
- The Problem of Scarce Resources
- The Psychology of Colour
- The Psychology of Habit Formation
- The Quiet Revolution of the Lithium-Ion Battery
- The Reinvention of the Bicycle
- The Return of Artificial Intelligence
- The Rise of the Modern Zoo
- The Rise of the Novel
- The Rise of Vertical Farming
- The Rise, Fall and Revival of the Allotment
- The Rosetta Stone and the Decipherment of Hieroglyphs
- The Science of a Balanced Diet
- The Science of Fermentation
- The Science of Scent
- The Science of Sound and How We Hear It
- The Science of Waiting in Line
- The Silent Grammar of Gesture
- The Silk Road and the Exchange of Ideas
- The Standardisation of Time Zones
- The Terracotta Army of the First Emperor
- The Trombe Wall: Heating Buildings with Sunlight
- The True Colours of the Ancient World
- The Volunteer Ranger Programme
- Tragedy in Uppark
- Using the Self-Service Laundry
- Venus in Transit
- West Thames College
- West Thames College II
- What's On in Millbrook: Three Local Notices
- Why Cities Are Hotter Than the Countryside
- Why the Body Needs Vitamins
- Why the Sky Is Blue
- William Henry Perkin
- Working at Fairfield Foods: Conduct and Overtime
Frequently asked questions
Is IELTS-Bank reading practice free?+
Yes. Try one reading passage with instant marking, answer explanations and an estimated band without an account. Create a free account to submit more passages and save your progress across devices.
Are these real IELTS past papers?+
They are original passages written to match the real test — the same question types (True/False/Not Given, matching, completion, multiple choice), length and difficulty — not leaked past papers, which are never legally available.
How is my reading band score estimated?+
Your raw score is converted using the public IELTS band conversion tables, scaled to the number of questions in the set. Academic and General Training use different tables, and the estimate is a guide rather than an official score.
What is the difference between Academic and General Training reading?+
Academic reading uses three long academic texts, while General Training mixes everyday notices, workplace documents and one longer text. General Training requires more correct answers for the same band.