IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test 2: Answers & Explanations

All 40 answers below, each with the exact line of the passage that proves it and the reason the tempting wrong option was tempting. If you have not sat the test yet, do that first — a key read before the attempt teaches nothing.

Passage 1: What Happened to the Smart City

13 marks

Answer key and explanations for passage 1
Q	Answer	Evidence in the passage	Why, and the trap
Paragraph A	iii — A vision that briefly dominated	“Around 2010, a particular vision of the urban future became briefly unavoidable.”	The paragraph describes the vision becoming "briefly unavoidable" and then almost none of it existing — a vision that briefly dominated.
Paragraph B	vii — A district that functioned but stayed empty	“The most instructive failure is Songdo, built on reclaimed land near Seoul.”	Songdo's "technical systems largely worked" but occupancy "stayed far below projection" — it functioned and stayed empty. Heading v is a trap: reclaimed land is mentioned but cost is not the paragraph's subject.
Paragraph C	i — A project defeated by an unanswered question	“A second lesson came from a proposed waterfront development in Toronto.”	Toronto "foundered on a question the renderings had not addressed" — data ownership. Heading viii is a trap: residents objected to unresolved governance, not to cameras.
Paragraph D	iv — Why sensing was never the real limit	“What both cases suggest is that the binding constraint was never sensing.”	The paragraph argues the constraint "was never sensing" and is "institutional rather than informational".
Paragraph E	ii — The technology that did work, on small problems	“This is not an argument that the technology was useless.”	Leak detection, adaptive signals and predictive maintenance are the technology working on bounded problems.
Paragraph F	vi — A change in the language authorities use	“The vocabulary has shifted accordingly.”	Explicitly about vocabulary: "smart city strategy" becoming "data governance framework".
7	FALSE	“almost none of the flagship projects exist in the form announced”	The passage says almost none exist as announced, which contradicts "most were completed".Trap: Opposite Meaning
8	FALSE	“Its technical systems largely worked: waste was collected pneumatically”	The systems are described as largely working, waste collection included.Trap: Opposite Meaning
9	FALSE	“the governance dispute had by then run for two years”	The dispute had already run two years when the withdrawal was announced, so it began first.Trap: Temporal Confusion
10	FALSE	“Cities have collected data for a century — census returns, traffic counts, water flows”	A century of data collection predates cheap sensors, so "only after" is contradicted.Trap: Temporal Confusion
11	TRUE	“Sensor networks that detect water-main leaks have paid for themselves repeatedly”	"Repeatedly" supports "more than once".
12	FALSE	“None of these interventions required a citywide dashboard”	Stated directly in the negative.Trap: Opposite Meaning
13	NOT GIVEN	“Occupancy stayed far below projection for years”	The passage says occupancy stayed below projection "for years" but says nothing about the current figure. The comparison the statement makes is never made in the text.Trap: Partial Truth

Passage 2: How Sleep Was Industrialised

13 marks

Answer key and explanations for passage 2
Q	Answer	Evidence in the passage	Why, and the trap
14	B — They are incidental rather than arguing for the practice.	“The references are incidental rather than argumentative, which is what makes them persuasive”	Stated directly, with "which is what makes them persuasive" naming the reason. A: Medical texts are one of several listed sources, but the stated reason is the incidental character of the references, not their authorship. C: Multiple languages are never mentioned. D: The opposite: "nobody explains the practice" — the references are notable for their lack of detail.
15	B — It contained no term presenting the interval as a problem.	“the vocabulary of the period contains no word treating it as a problem to be solved”	A direct restatement of the last sentence of paragraph B. A: The passage says the interval "was not experienced as insomnia" — the reverse. C: The origin of the terminology is not discussed. D: Only two sleeps are named; no wider set of stages is claimed.
16	B — an adaptation to artificial light and clock-timed work.	“it was an adaptation to a schedule”	Paragraph C names cheap artificial light and clock-timed paid work as the two causes. A: Explicitly rejected: "not a discovery about human physiology". C: Physicians appear in paragraph B recommending the interval, not consolidation. D: Worker resistance is never mentioned.
17	C — The shape of a night’s sleep is largely cultural, so treating one shape as healthy creates false complaints.	“the shape of a night's sleep is substantially a cultural artefact”	Both halves of the final sentence: a cultural artefact, and treating one shape as the definition of health turning variation into complaint. A: The paragraph opens by refusing this: "None of this argues for abandoning the consolidated night." B: The opposite — "most people who sleep in one block sleep perfectly well". D: The writer relies on the historical record throughout and calls it persuasive.
18	Paragraph D	“a hormone rising during the waking interval”	Paragraph D: "levels of the hormone prolactin rise during it".
19	Paragraph B	“prayers written for use in the middle of the night”	Paragraph B: "Devotional manuals supplied prayers written specifically for it."
20	Paragraph C	“a financial penalty for arriving late”	Paragraph C: employment "attached a financial penalty to arriving late".
21	Paragraph E	“distress making a period of wakefulness longer”	Paragraph E: "that distress reliably makes the waking longer".
22	Paragraph A	“the absence of any explanation in the sources”	Paragraph A: "nobody explains the practice, because nobody expected a reader to find it strange".
23	interval	“separated by a waking interval of an hour or more in the middle of the night”	One word, taken exactly as printed.
24	conception	“Physicians recommended it as the most favourable time for conception”	A direct lift; "the most favourable time" paraphrases to "the best time".
25	darkness	“long winter-like nights with fourteen hours of darkness and no artificial light”	One word from the passage.
26	interpretation	“Sleep clinicians increasingly treat the interpretation before the sleep”	A single word, lifted directly.

Passage 3: The Limits of Planting Trees

14 marks

Answer key and explanations for passage 3
Q	Answer	Evidence in the passage	Why, and the trap
27	YES	“It is the simplicity that should attract attention, because the actual accounting is considerably less obliging”	The writer says the simplicity "should attract attention" precisely because the real accounting is harder.
28	NO	“is therefore not a carbon claim at all; it is a procurement figure”	The writer explicitly denies that a planting count is a carbon claim.Trap: Opposite Meaning
29	NO	“Treating them as interchangeable is a genuine accounting error rather than a matter of emphasis”	The passage states the opposite, using almost the same words in reverse order.Trap: Opposite Meaning
30	NO	“Latitude is not a detail in this calculation; it can reverse the sign of the result”	Reversing the sign of the result is the opposite of a marginal effect.Trap: Opposite Meaning
31	YES	“Those benefits are real, measurable and worth paying for on their own terms”	"On their own terms" is exactly "independently of carbon".
32	NO	“the net effect of the enthusiasm has been to slow the only intervention that unambiguously works”	The final paragraph calls this the most serious cost — a substitute for reducing emissions that slows the intervention that works.Trap: Extreme Language
33	procurement	“it is a procurement figure”	One word, lifted directly from paragraph B.
34	decade	“sequesters very little carbon for its first decade”	A direct lift; one word.
35	reflectivity	“can reduce the reflectivity of the surface”	One word from paragraph D.
36	degraded	“have repeatedly been targeted as degraded land available for afforestation”	The passage supplies the adjective used to describe such land.
37	unfalsifiable	“effectively unfalsifiable within an electoral cycle”	One word, taken exactly as printed.
38	the tropics (also accepted: tropics)	“The same species planted in the tropics”	Named directly in paragraph D.
39	peatland (also accepted: drained peatland)	“Planting trees on drained peatland can release more carbon from the disturbed soil”	Three words or fewer either way.
40	reducing emissions	“an unusually attractive substitute for reducing emissions”	Two words, lifted from the final paragraph.

Convert your score out of 40

Count your correct answers across all three passages. There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so an unanswered question and a wrong guess score the same.

IELTS Academic Reading raw score to band score
Band	Correct (of 40)
9.0	39–40
8.5	37–38
8.0	35–36
7.5	33–34
7.0	30–32
6.5	27–29
6.0	23–26
5.5	19–22
5.0	15–18
4.5	11–14
4.0	7–10
3.5	0–6

Academic conversion. General Training Reading is stricter: band 7 needs 34 correct there against 30 here. Both tables are on the Reading band calculator.

IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test 2: Answers & Explanations

Passage 1: What Happened to the Smart City

Passage 2: How Sleep Was Industrialised

Passage 3: The Limits of Planting Trees

Convert your score out of 40

Turn the wrong answers into a band