IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test 4: 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 Return of the Night Train

13 marks

Answer key and explanations for passage 1
Q	Answer	Evidence in the passage	Why, and the trap
1	Paragraph B	“a comparison of how many people two kinds of carriage hold”	Paragraph B: "A sleeping car carries perhaps thirty passengers where a seated carriage carries eighty."
2	Paragraph D	“the journey length over which a night service tends to succeed”	Paragraph D: routes that work "connect two large cities roughly ten to twelve hours apart".
3	Paragraph F	“an argument for keeping capacity that does not pay for itself”	Paragraph F: "an argument for maintaining capacity that is not currently profitable".
4	Paragraph C	“the country where a term for shame about flying came into use”	Paragraph C: "a shift visible first in Sweden, where a word for the feeling of shame about flying entered general use".
5	Paragraph E	“why most services today use carriages that are decades old”	Paragraph E: new cars cost millions and take years, so services "run refurbished carriages built in the 1990s or earlier".
6	TRUE	“For most of the twentieth century the sleeper train was the ordinary way to cross Europe overnight”	"Ordinary way" paraphrases "normal means"; the time frame matches exactly.
7	FALSE	“None of that is romantic, and none of it went away.”	Paragraph B lists the economic problems and then says none of it went away, which contradicts "resolved".Trap: Opposite Meaning
8	NOT GIVEN	“a shift visible first in Sweden, where a word for the feeling of shame about flying entered general use”	Sweden appears only as the country where the term originated. The passage makes no claim about flights being withdrawn there, and none at all about a ranking between countries.Trap: Outside Text
9	TRUE	“Austrian Federal Railways, which had quietly kept its sleeper fleet”	The relative clause states it directly: the fleet had been kept.
10	FALSE	“the operators generally attributed this to the timetable rather than to a lack of demand”	The passage names the timetable and explicitly rules out lack of demand, which is the opposite attribution.Trap: Opposite Meaning
11	Nightjet	“expanded the network under the name Nightjet”	A proper noun, one word.
12	thirty (also accepted: 30, thirty passengers)	“A sleeping car carries perhaps thirty passengers”	The passage writes the number as a word; either form is accepted.
13	rolling stock	“Rolling stock remains the binding constraint”	Two words, lifted from the topic sentence of paragraph E.

Passage 2: How Seeds Travel

13 marks

Answer key and explanations for passage 2
Q	Answer	Evidence in the passage	Why, and the trap
Paragraph A	i — Why distance from the parent plant matters	“A plant that cannot move must nonetheless disperse its offspring.”	The paragraph explains that a seed germinating under its parent loses the competition, so distance is "not a luxury but a requirement".
Paragraph B	ii — Cheap seeds and enormous losses	“Wind dispersal is the cheapest solution and the least controllable.”	Wind is cheapest and wasteful: most seeds "land somewhere useless" and the strategy works because seeds are cheap and numerous.
Paragraph C	iii — Paying an animal to choose the destination	“Animal dispersal reverses that trade-off.”	The plant pays with sugar and gets a destination chosen by an animal. Heading vii is the trap here: gut acid is mentioned, but it helps germination rather than destroying seeds.
Paragraph D	iv — Dispersal powered by the plant itself	“A smaller group of plants dispenses with couriers altogether.”	The squirting cucumber and the pea family use stored energy instead of a courier — dispersal powered by the plant itself.
Paragraph E	v — Fruit adapted to animals that have gone	“The most costly strategy is also the least predictable in its returns.”	Fruit too large for any living disperser, which botanists call anachronisms.
Paragraph F	vi — Dispersal as a tool for restoring habitat	“Understanding dispersal has become practical rather than merely descriptive.”	Fragmented landscapes, planting corridors, restoration timescales — dispersal used as a habitat tool.
20	C — the seeds are inexpensive and produced in great numbers.	“the strategy works only because the seeds are cheap to make and produced in vast numbers”	Stated directly at the end of paragraph B. A: Wind dispersal is called "the least controllable" of the strategies. B: The opposite: "the overwhelming majority of wind-dispersed seeds land somewhere useless". D: The parachute lets a seed travel; nothing in the passage suggests it can be steered.
21	D — As a transaction in which neither side cooperates.	“The relationship is a transaction rather than a partnership: neither party is cooperating.”	The final sentence of paragraph C states it in those words. A: Explicitly ruled out — a transaction "rather than a partnership". B: No harm to the animal is mentioned; the animal gets the sugar the plant invested. C: The seed passes through the gut and germinates better for it. The fruit is digested, not the seed.
22	B — Its reach is limited but its placement is comparatively accurate.	“their range is short but their placement is precise compared with wind”	A direct restatement of the last sentence of paragraph D. A: The range is described as short; wind can carry a dandelion seed kilometres. C: The paragraph opens with "A smaller group of plants". D: These mechanisms run on stored energy, which is the point of the paragraph.
23	water	“competes with an established, larger individual for the same light and water”	One word, lifted directly.
24	spins	“a winged fruit that spins as it falls, slowing its descent”	The verb must keep its third-person form to fit the sentence.
25	coat	“the acid thins a coat that would otherwise take months to break down”	One word from paragraph C.
26	anachronisms	“Botanists describe these as anachronisms”	Keep the plural: "anachronism" would not match the passage.

Passage 3: The Measurement Problem in Happiness Research

14 marks

Answer key and explanations for passage 3
Q	Answer	Evidence in the passage	Why, and the trap
27	NO	“it correlates strongly with independent measures”	The writer concedes it "looks unserious" and then defends it: it correlates strongly with smiling, peer report and longevity. Paragraph G confirms it is good enough for one purpose.Trap: Partial Truth
28	YES	“The order effect is large enough to swamp the difference between countries that policy is meant to act on”	Stated directly, and it is the reason wording and position are now fixed by convention.
29	NO	“Researchers adjust for this and disagree about how.”	A four-word clause contradicts the statement: they adjust, but they disagree about the method.Trap: Opposite Meaning
30	NO	“Much of the paradox survives as a statement about time horizons”	Stevenson and Wolfers found income does raise satisfaction, but the writer says much of the paradox survives when restated in terms of time. "Completely disproved" overstates it.Trap: Extreme Language
31	YES	“the instrument is good enough to rank policies and too crude to rank nations”	Paragraph G endorses exactly this use and rejects the cross-country one.
32	unemployment	“It harms satisfaction more than the loss of income can account for.”	Paragraph F: unemployment damages satisfaction "far more than the associated loss of income can explain".
33	bereavement	“Recovery from it is slower than for any other event studied.”	Paragraph F: "Bereavement recovers more slowly than any other event studied."
34	commuting	“People take it on freely despite its dependable cost.”	Paragraph F: commuting "reduces satisfaction reliably and is nonetheless chosen freely".
35	disability	“People recover from it more fully than they had expected.”	Paragraph F: "disability recovers further than most people predict".
36	smiles	“how often a person smiles”	One word, taken directly from paragraph A.
37	traffic	“a survey that asks about traffic before asking about life satisfaction gets systematically lower scores in congested cities”	One word; the anchoring topic is named explicitly.
38	ends	“avoid the ends of scales”	Keep the plural, as in the passage.
39	logarithm	“once the data are treated as a logarithm”	One word from the end of paragraph D.
40	persists	“the damage persists after re-employment”	One word; the tense already fits the sentence.

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 4: Answers & Explanations

Passage 1: The Return of the Night Train

Passage 2: How Seeds Travel

Passage 3: The Measurement Problem in Happiness Research

Convert your score out of 40

Turn the wrong answers into a band