PTE Reading: Practice Questions - 4 | Practice Tests for PTE PDF Download

Reading & Writing: Fill In The Blanks

Q1: Below is a text with blanks. Fill the appropriate answer choice from the given options for each blank.

Modern economies are all about consumption - which requires consumers - and the more consumers there are the bigger an economy gets. 'Nothing more preoccupies the modern political process than economic ___(1)____,' says Australian National University Professor of Public Ethics Clive Hamilton in his book Growth Fetish. 'As never before, it is the touchstone of policy success.' Economists, he adds, are 'relentless advocates of more growth as the solution to all problems'.
The trouble with consumption is that everyone wants their cut. ___(2)____ billions in developing countries who can't afford our level of consumption today aspire to it tomorrow. Which means consumption will keep growing long after global population peaks post-2050. This in turn means we'll continue to make the planet less ___(3)____ by felling Earth's forests, plundering its oceans, damming and draining its rivers, squandering its limited resources and allowing our megacities to metastasise across its surface. And looming over the many environmental problems we've already caused is the spectral threat of climate change, so ___(4)____ linked with us, yet so difficult for us to mitigate. Population and climate change are inextricably linked problems.
Given below are the answer choices for the blanks in the passage. Choose one option for each blank.
1. freedom / growth / status / power
2. That / These / Those / This
3. hospitable / destructive / comfortable / harmful
4. continually / sparsely / poorly / intimately

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Q2: Below is a text with blanks. Fill the appropriate answer choice from the given options for each blank.
'Space-time' is simply the physical universe inside which we and everything else ___(1)____. And yet, even after millennia living in it, we still don't know what space-time actually is. Physicists have ___(2)____ to work it out for more than a century. In recent years, many of us have been trying to figure out what might be the ___(3)____ from which the fabric of reality is woven. We have ideas, each with its own selling points and shortcomings. But for my money, the most exciting one is the most surprising. It is the idea that space-time emerges from a weird property of the quantum world that means particles and fields, those ___(4)____ constituents of nature, can be connected even if they are at opposite ends of the universe. If that is correct, we might finally have found a ___(5)____ between the two irreconcilable totems of physics, placing us on the threshold of a theory of quantum gravity. We would also have the most startling demonstration yet that the world we see isn't the world as it is.

Given below are the answer choices for the blanks in the passage. Choose one option for each blank.
1. constitute / place / move / exist
2. strove / striving / strived / strive
3. threads / cloth / lies / statements
4. fundamental / secondary / eventual / artificial
5. disconnect / bridge / batch / grant

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Q3: Below is a text with blanks. Fill the appropriate answer choice from the given options for each blank.
The Roman Pantheon is the monument with the greatest number of records: the best preserved, with the ___(1)____ brick dome in the history of architecture and is considered the forerunner of all modern places of worship. It is the most copied and ___(2)____ of all ancient works. Michelangelo felt it was the work of angels, not men. Where it stands was not chosen by chance, but is a legendary place in the city's history. According to Roman legend, it is the place where the founder of Rome, Romulus, at his death was seized by an eagle and taken ___(3)____ into the skies with the Gods. What is extraordinary about the Pantheon is not only its architecture or external beauty, but also the fact that it represents a true cultural revolution. It was the first temple built for the ___(4)____ people. Today, this could seem an obvious concept, but in ancient times temples were forbidden places, only for vestals and priests. The Pantheon overturns this concept and for the first time the idea of a place of worship open to everyone was conceived, where the faithful could spiritually ___(5)____ with the Gods.
Given below are the answer choices for the blanks in the passage. Choose one option for each blank.
1. natural / biggest / artificial / solid
2. structured / organised / imitated / segregated
3. of / off / from / across
4. common / elite / royal / poorest
5. deal / specialise / transact / communicate

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Q4: Below is a text with blanks. Fill the appropriate answer choice from the given options for each blank.

The 'I Have a Dream' speech, ___(1)____ by Martin Luther King, Jr. before a crowd of some 250,000 people at the 1963 March on Washington, remains one of the most famous speeches in history. Weaving in ___(2)____ to the country's Founding Fathers and the Bible, King used universal themes to depict the struggles of African Americans, before closing with an improvised riff on his dreams of equality. The eloquent speech was immediately ___(3)____ as a highlight of the successful protest, and has endured as one of the signature moments of the civil rights movement. ___(4)____ for its powerful imagery and its repetition of a simple and memorable phrase, King's 'I Have a Dream' speech is a crowning achievement of one of the movement's most famous faces. In 2016, Time included the speech as one of its 10 ___(5)____ orations in history.
Given below are the answer choices for the blanks in the passage. Choose one option for each blank.
1. delivered / taken / reported / signed
2. opportunities / experiences / references / examples
3. called / recognized / reflected / related
4. Remembered / Remembering / Remember / Remembers
5. tallest / largest / biggest / greatest

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Q5: Below is a text with blanks. Fill the appropriate answer choice from the given options for each blank.

Coastal ecosystems cover approximately 20 percent of the Earth's surface and are extremely diverse. More than 415 of these areas worldwide are ___(1)____ symptoms of eutrophication, according to a 2008 World Resources Institute study, and that number is growing. These areas ___(2)____ half of the value of global economic services, such as tourism, recreation, coastal fisheries, and aquaculture. Coastline waterways are ___(3)____ to everyone in some way: They harbor fisheries and other resources, prevent erosion, protect people from floods and storm surges, ___(4)____ ocean biodiversity, support recreation and tourism, and are culturally important to local heritages. Often the centers of activity for beachside recreation, these areas are also resources for minerals and geological products. ___(5)____ these ecosystems, people would not be able to eat seafood, because 90 percent of global fishery activity occurs in coastal waters.

Given below are the answer choices for the blanks in the passage. Choose one option for each blank.

1. enjoying / experiencing / suffering / mixing
2. represent / add / deduct / monitor
3. unnecessary / important / extraneous / nonessential
4. maintain / keep / locate / last
5. Besides / Without / Towards / Alongside

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Reading: Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers

Q6: Read the text and answer the question by selecting all the correct responses. More than one response is correct.
Which of the following are true about the governments of early civilisations?
Question Passage

During the dawn of civilisation the new societies had one problem: now that the labour was specialised, agricultural surpluses had to happen every year without a break if the new culture was to remain intact. This resulted in the formation of governments which stepped in to fill this void. It's thought that government most likely began with religious leaders, such as priests or other cult leaders, exercising control. However, it was governments who provided roads for their citizens and merchants. They further cemented the bonds between people within villages and regions, unifying culture to the point that it might be called a civilization. However, governments needed a way to pay the labourers who built and worked on their projects. This called for taxes which usually took the form of a tax-in-kind system, whereby the government would take a portion of a product, such as grain from a farmer. Suddenly, all the parts of an ancient civilization appeared.
Governments soon fell into a type of system known as a monarchy, or rule by hereditary leaders (such as kings or princes). The reason for this was two-fold: monarchy came naturally because it was like the family, with the parents on top and the children beneath; eventually the parents grew old and the children became adults and parents in their own right and the cycle continued. Secondly, monarchy was predictable and reliable. In an age without mass communication or speedy travel, it was important for any void left by the death of a leader to be filled quickly, without fuss and strife. Most of the new governments were, however, small city-states, or independent countries composed of a city and some surrounding farmland. This was the beginnings of the world's oldest civilizations in Ancient Mesopotamia.
Options:
1. They were always led by priests.
2. They helped unite people under a specific culture.
3. They would take particular items as taxes.
4. They organised specialised labour.
6. They built roads for citizens and merchants.
6. They were established by rich merchants.

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Q7: Read the text and answer the question by selecting all the correct responses. More than one response is correct.
According to the text, which of the following are needed for writing an investigative report?
Question Passage

Unlike the analysis which follows up on a news event, the information tasks for an investigative report require journalists to uncover information that will not be handed to them, these stories are reported by opening closed doors and closed mouths. These are the stories that expose problems or controversies authorities may not want to see covered. This requires unearthing hidden or previously unorganized information in order to clarify, explain and analyze something. A key technique used in investigative reports is data analysis. In the aftermath of the wildfires a news organization might investigate the insurance claims process or how a charitable organization that received relief funds for fire victims actually allocated the money. The investigative report requires the communicator to have a high level of information sophistication, and the ability to convey complex information in a straightforward way for the audience.

Options:

1. Ability to expose issues which people in power want to make public
2. Skill to uncovering hidden information that has been organized
3. Knowledge about how to use data analysis to process information
4. Skill to reveal information that is not readily available
5. Skill to present information in a way that can be understood
6. Ability to analyze an event after it has happened

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Reading: Re-order Paragraphs

Q8: The text items below have been placed in a random order. Restore the original order by Choosing the correct sequence.
1. Art historians believe the small work was part of an altarpiece completed in 1280, which would have hung somewhere in Europe.
2. A 10-inch-high painting, called "The Mocking of Christ," pained by Cimabue, shows a bedraggled Jesus surrounded by a horde of pushy men and was painted on a panel of poplar wood.
3. To verify the newfound painting's authenticity, researchers compared the distinct wormhole patterns on its back with those from the "Flagellation" and "Madonna" panels.
4. Only two other panels from the series - the "Flagellation of Christ," which hangs in The Frick Collection in New York, and the "Madonna and Child Enthroned Between Two Angels," in The National Gallery in London - have been discovered, and there may be five more yet to find.

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Q9: The text items below have been placed in a random order. Restore the original order by Choosing the correct sequence.
1. While most cetaceans' pectoral fins are only one-seventh of their body length, a humpback's flippers can reach up to one-third of its body length.
2. However, a recent study has offered the first concrete evidence of humpbacks using their pectorals for another purpose: herding fish into their mouths.
3. Humpbacks are not the largest whale species--that distinction goes to blue whales--but they do boast the longest pectoral fins of any cetacean.
4. These massive fins help the whales navigate shallow waters, accelerate rapidly and increase their maneuverability.

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Reading: Fill In The Blanks

Q10: In the text below some words are missing. choose words from the given options appropriate place in the text. 

We look to fiction for ___(1)____ truths about our world and timeless insights into the human condition - either that or giddy escapism. But sometimes, in striving to achieve any or all of the above, a novelist will use the future as their backdrop; and just occasionally, they'll ___(2)____ what's to come with uncanny ___(3)____. They can sit down at their desk and correctly envisage, for instance, how generations to come will be travelling, relaxing, communicating. And in the case of John Brunner, a sci-fi author who grew up in an era when the word 'wireless' still meant radio - the specificity of his imaginings retains its power to ___(4)____.

Options: (figure / predict / startle / eternal / confirmed / uninteresting / accuracy)

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Q11: In the text below some words are missing. choose words from the given options appropriate place in the text. 

The wildlife tourism industry caters to people's love of animals but often seeks to ___(1)____ profits by exploiting animals from birth to death. The industry's economy ___(2)____ largely on people believing that the animals they're paying to watch or ride or feed are having fun too. It succeeds partly because tourists--in unfamiliar settings and eager to have a positive ___(3)____ --typically don't consider the possibility that they're helping to hurt animals. Social media adds to the ___(4)____: Oblivious endorsements from friends and trendsetters legitimize attractions before a traveler ever gets near an animal.

Options: (reduce / depends / experience / maximize / confusion / situation / scatters)

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Q12: In the text below some words are missing. choose words from the given options appropriate place in the text. 

Europe's prehistoric stone structures have long been the ___(1)____ of legend, attributed to everything from giants to aliens to Satan. Early modern scientific ___(2)____ from the 17th and 18th centuries also held that the megaliths ___(3)____ with a specific group of people. These ancients, thought to be from the Near East, the Mediterranean, or elsewhere, depending on the theory, were believed to have ___(4)____ their monument building practices over sea routes around ancient Europe.

Options: (devoted / theories / subject / cancelled / originated / work / spread)

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Q13: In the text below some words are missing. choose words from the given options appropriate place in the text. 

Accidental discoveries are, of course, the ___(1)____, not the rule. Most scientists spend their careers methodically ___(2)____ interesting questions in their respective fields, and if they are lucky will add to the ___(3)____ of knowledge as they do so. And some of their discoveries will no doubt be great. Einstein's discoveries were hardly ___(4)____ --although it helped that he was born at the moment he was, not a millennium earlier.

Options: (norm / telling / accidental / exception / exploring / sum / essence)

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Q14: In the text below some words are missing. choose words from the given options appropriate place in the text. 

Human lifespan has ___(1)____ dramatically over the past century as we've found ways to treat diseases, and at the same time we have been spending more and more time with ___(2)____ light. As science looks for ways to help people be ___(3)____ as they live longer, designing a healthier spectrum of light might be a possibility, not just in terms of sleeping better but in terms of ___(4)____ health. In the meantime, people can also help themselves in ways that don't involve sitting for hours in ___(5)____.

Options: (classrooms / darkness / reduced / overall / increased / natural / healthier / artificial)

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Reading: Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer

Q15: Read the text and answer the multiple-choice question by selecting the correct response. Only one response is correct.
What is the text mainly about?
Question Passage
Students should be exposed to politics as much as possible in order to help them grow into active political participants. This means that in schools, students should be learning about the way the government operates and the types of political processes that are used. By discussing the topic in depth, students are exposed to the political processes that adults engage in, and are given practice in thinking through and forming their own ideas in terms of politics. This practice helps young students into adults who have a concrete understanding of the government. This understanding and early engagement can also help students to identify issues they care about, which is important for producing activists and national change.

Options:
1. The political processes involved in the framing of governments
2. The way students should be taught about politics
3. The benefits of exposing students to politics in schools
4. The steps necessary to form student body governments

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