IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test 3: 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: The Standardisation of Time

13 marks

Answer key and explanations for passage 1
Q	Answer	Evidence in the passage	Why, and the trap
1	Paragraph D	“a country that continued to use a different meridian for decades”	Paragraph D: "France abstained and continued to reckon from Paris for a further twenty-seven years."
2	Paragraph B	“a reason why disagreeing clocks were physically dangerous”	Paragraph B: two trains on one track running to clocks four minutes apart "could occupy the same rails at the same moment".
3	Paragraph F	“the claim that time-zone boundaries are not geographical”	Paragraph F: the boundaries "look natural. They are not" — they bend around borders and are drawn by treaty.
4	Paragraph C	“a description of clocks displaying two different times at once”	Paragraph C: provincial clocks "carried two minute hands, one for local time and one for railway time".
5	Paragraph E	“public objections framed in terms of the natural world”	Paragraph E: a standard noon not matching the sun was called "an offence against nature".
6	timetables	“it did so through timetables rather than through speed”	One word, lifted directly.
7	telegraph	“distributed along the telegraph lines that ran beside the tracks”	One word from paragraph C.
8	usage	“Greenwich was chosen largely on grounds of usage rather than principle”	"Largely" paraphrases to "mainly"; the noun is "usage".
9	zones	“the railways introduced four standard zones in 1883”	A direct lift; one word.
10	FALSE	“Nobody found this inconvenient”	The passage says nobody found it inconvenient, because nothing needed coordinating at that distance.Trap: Opposite Meaning
11	FALSE	“it was the railway companies, not governments, that acted first”	The text states the reverse order explicitly, and paragraph C confirms legal recognition lagged by a generation.Trap: Temporal Confusion
12	TRUE	“invited delegates from twenty-five nations to select a common prime meridian”	The number and the event match the statement directly.
13	FALSE	“some cities kept municipal time in deliberate defiance for years”	Cities kept their own time for years afterwards, so "all… by 1883" is contradicted.Trap: Extreme Language

Passage 2: Bringing Rivers Back

13 marks

Answer key and explanations for passage 2
Q	Answer	Evidence in the passage	Why, and the trap
Paragraph A	i — Why cities buried their rivers	“Almost every large old city is built on a river, and in many the river is no longer visible.”	The paragraph explains streams becoming sewers and being covered — why cities buried their rivers. Heading iii is a trap: culverts are mentioned, but their engineering cost is not the subject.
Paragraph B	v — The experiment that started the reversal	“The reversal of that logic began with a specific and expensive experiment.”	Seoul 2003 is introduced as the "specific and expensive experiment" that began the reversal.
Paragraph C	vi — What the measurements showed	“The measurements are the interesting part.”	Temperature, particulates, species and rents — the paragraph is a list of measured outcomes.
Paragraph D	ii — The unexpected effect on congestion	“The traffic result was the one that changed professional opinion.”	Congestion was expected to worsen and did not; "disappearing traffic" explains it.
Paragraph E	viii — Why open channels handle heavy rain better	“Flood behaviour is where the case is strongest and least intuitive.”	A fixed pipe versus an open channel with a floodplain — why open channels handle heavy rain better.
Paragraph F	vii — Reasons for caution, including displacement	“Enthusiasm should nonetheless be tempered by cost and by consequence.”	Cost, impossibility under metro lines, and gentrification — reasons for caution including displacement. Heading ix is a trap: the opposition described in B was from traders, not environmental groups.
Paragraph G	iv — A redefinition of what infrastructure is for	“The wider significance is a change in what infrastructure is taken to be.”	Explicitly about what infrastructure is taken to be, contrasting hard buried structures with visible multi-purpose ones.
21	B — Its outcomes were measured rather than merely claimed.	“the reason is that its outcomes were measured rather than asserted”	The reason is given directly in the last sentence of paragraph B. A: The passage calls it a specific and expensive experiment that began the reversal, but never claims it was the first anywhere. C: It cost roughly nine hundred million dollars, and paragraph F calls daylighting expensive. D: It was "fiercely opposed by traders along the route".
22	B — evaporation and shading.	“attributable to evaporation and shading rather than to reduced traffic”	Named directly as the cause. A: Explicitly ruled out by "rather than to reduced traffic". C: Species return is a separate measured outcome, not a cause of cooling. D: Particulates dropped alongside the cooling; the passage does not make one the cause of the other.
23	B — Rising values can displace the residents the project was meant to help.	“a project justified as environmental repair can displace exactly the residents it was meant to serve”	Stated directly in paragraph F. A: The passage treats rising rents as "the beginning of a different problem", not as proof of success. C: The opposite: daylighting is "a powerful driver of property value". D: Several cities pair daylighting with rent controls; no claim is made that this prevented rises everywhere.
24	Cheonggyecheon (also accepted: the Cheonggyecheon)	“to expose the Cheonggyecheon stream beneath it”	A proper noun, one word.
25	disappearing traffic	“a well-documented effect called disappearing traffic”	The named effect is given in paragraph D; two words.
26	into basements (also accepted: basements)	“water emerges wherever it can, usually into basements”	Three words or fewer either way.

Passage 3: Who Pays for Science

14 marks

Answer key and explanations for passage 3
Q	Answer	Evidence in the passage	Why, and the trap
27	NO	“The arrangement is a historical residue rather than a design”	The writer explicitly calls it a historical residue rather than a design.Trap: Opposite Meaning
28	NO	“credentials are not substitutable”	The passage states credentials are not substitutable and explains that publishing in a cheaper journal does not deliver the same career benefit.Trap: Opposite Meaning
29	NO	“article-processing charges have settled at levels that reproduce the old economics in a new place”	The original conception was a route to lower cost; in practice the charges reproduce the old economics, which is the opposite of achieving it.Trap: Partial Truth
30	YES	“which is not the result the industry expected”	The writer notes explicitly that this was not what the industry expected.
31	NO	“cost real money, and any workable system must pay for them”	The final paragraph concedes these functions cost real money and must be paid for; the objection is to the margins, not to the costs.Trap: Extreme Language
32	at close to cost, when printing was a real expense.	“Learned societies once ran journals”	Paragraph B: societies "ran small journals at close to cost", and typesetting, printing and posting were real labour.
33	cannot simply switch to a comparable cheaper supplier.	“A library facing a price rise”	Paragraph C: the user needs one specific article, and "the alternative to subscribing is not a cheaper journal but no access at all".
34	from the reading institution to the writing one.	“Article-processing charges have moved the cost”	Paragraph D: "the burden has moved from the reading institution to the writing one".
35	is enforceable in a way an appeal to principle is not.	“A condition attached to grant money”	Paragraph F: "a condition attached to money is enforceable in a way that an appeal to principle is not".
36	unpaid	“reviewed for quality by other academics, also unpaid”	One word, lifted directly from paragraph A.
37	reputation	“the value being sold shifted from the physical object to the reputation attached to the title”	A direct lift; one word.
38	inflation	“subscription costs rising far faster than inflation for three decades”	One word from paragraph C.
39	transitional	“Publishers have responded with transitional agreements that convert subscription payments into publication payments”	The adjective is given directly; one word.
40	three times	“a system in which the public pays three times over”	Two words, within the limit.

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 3: Answers & Explanations

Passage 1: The Standardisation of Time

Passage 2: Bringing Rivers Back

Passage 3: Who Pays for Science

Convert your score out of 40

Turn the wrong answers into a band