A2–C2 · PTE Academic
PTE Academic Practice Test 11
AI-generated practice paper in the style of PTE Academic — original material, not a reproduction of any real exam paper, following the official task types. Listening audio is read aloud by your browser's voice. For Speaking you can record yourself and compare with a model answer, and Writing tasks include a model answer — neither is scored automatically, since that needs real speech and writing evaluation this site does not offer for this exam.
Speaking
Read Aloud
Look at the text below. In 30 seconds, you must read this text aloud as naturally and clearly as possible.
Good customer service is not simply about solving problems; it is about making people feel heard. Research shows that customers who receive a quick, sincere apology often remain loyal even after a mistake. Companies that ignore complaints, by contrast, lose both revenue and reputation.
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Model answer: Stress "not simply" and "heard" to bring out the contrast. Pause at the semicolon after "problems". Say "sincere apology" and "loyal" warmly. Pause before "by contrast", stress "ignore", and end firmly on "reputation".
Noise pollution is more than an annoyance. Prolonged exposure to loud environments has been linked to sleep disturbance, high blood pressure and difficulty concentrating. Planners can reduce the problem by building barriers, restricting night-time traffic and creating quiet green spaces.
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Model answer: Stress "more than an annoyance". Pause after "environments" and after "concentrating". Read the two lists, "sleep disturbance, high blood pressure and difficulty concentrating" and the planners' three actions, with clear list intonation. Fall on "spaces".
Repeat Sentence
You will hear a sentence. Please repeat the sentence exactly as you hear it.
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Model answer: Owing to the strike, all trains to the coast have been cancelled.
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Model answer: Although the experiment failed, the students learned a great deal from it.
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Model answer: A strong password contains letters, numbers and symbols.
Describe Image
Describe the image in detail.
Look at the image below. In 25 seconds, prepare, then describe in detail what the image is showing. You will have 40 seconds to speak.
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Model answer: The line graph shows how full a reservoir was during the year. It began at 88 percent in January and reached a high of 92 percent in March, probably because of winter rain. After that the level fell steadily: 85 percent in May, 61 in July and a low of 44 in September. It then recovered to 57 percent in November. Summer clearly places the greatest pressure on water supplies.
Re-tell Lecture
Listen to the lecture and retell it.
Listen to the lecture. Then retell it in your own words. You will have 40 seconds to speak.
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Model answer: The lecture explains that black holes form when collapsing mass creates gravity strong enough to trap light, with the event horizon marking the point of no return. Most arise from dying massive stars, while supermassive versions sit at galaxy centers for reasons still unclear. In twenty nineteen, astronomers captured the first direct image confirming decades of theory.
Answer Short Question
You will hear a question. Type your answer in one or a few words.
1. Type what you hear.
2. Type what you hear.
3. Type what you hear.
4. Type what you hear.
Summarize Group Discussion
Listen to a group discussion and summarise it.
Listen to the discussion. Then summarise it, covering each speaker's main point. You will have 70 seconds to speak.
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Model answer: Carla argues universities prioritize research over teaching due to promotion incentives. David notes active researchers can still benefit student learning. Emma points out weak incentives discourage improving teaching. They agree on creating a separate teaching-focused promotion track alongside the research track, aligning incentives with both goals rather than favoring one over the other.
Respond to a Situation
Listen to the situation and respond as if you were in it.
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Model answer: I've been assembling the furniture I bought from you today, and after three hours I've found that a critical bracket piece is completely missing from the box. I know you're about to close, but could you confirm you'll have a replacement part ready for me first thing tomorrow, or arrange for the missing piece to be delivered directly.
Writing
Summarize Written Text
Read the passage and write a one-sentence summary.
CRISPR is a technique that allows scientists to edit the DNA of living organisms with unprecedented precision, speed and low cost. It is adapted from a defence mechanism used by bacteria, which store fragments of viral DNA and use them to guide an enzyme, called Cas9, to cut the genes of invading viruses. Researchers realised that by supplying Cas9 with a customised guide sequence, they could direct it to cut almost any chosen location in the genome of a plant, animal or human cell, after which the cell's own repair machinery either disables the gene or inserts a new sequence. Applications are advancing rapidly. Farmers may soon grow crops that resist drought or disease, and the first therapy based on the technique, for the inherited blood disorders sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia, has been approved in several countries. However, the technology raises difficult questions. Edits sometimes occur at unintended sites, with unknown consequences, and changes made to eggs, sperm or embryos would be passed on to future generations. When a Chinese scientist announced in 2018 that he had created gene-edited babies, he was widely condemned and later imprisoned. Most experts support the use of CRISPR to treat disease in adult patients, whose modifications are not inherited, but they call for strict international rules before any editing of the human germline, and they worry that the high cost of therapies could deepen global health inequalities.
Read the passage and summarise it in ONE sentence of no more than 75 words.
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Model answer: CRISPR, borrowed from bacterial defences, allows cheap and precise gene editing with promising uses in agriculture and medicine, but because of off-target errors, heritable changes and unequal access, experts favour treating adult patients while demanding strict international regulation of edits to embryos.
Write Essay
Write an essay of about 200-300 words on the topic.
As more payments are made by card or phone, some countries are moving towards a cashless society. Would eliminating physical cash be a positive change?
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Model answer: The steady decline of cash in favour of cards and mobile payments has led some to suggest that physical currency should be phased out entirely, but I believe this would create more problems than it would solve.
Advocates of a cashless society point to genuine advantages. Electronic payments are convenient, reduce the costs and risks associated with handling and transporting cash, and make transactions easier to trace, which can help combat tax evasion and organised crime. Businesses also save money on security and cash handling, and digital records can simplify accounting.
However, removing cash entirely would disadvantage vulnerable groups, including elderly people unfamiliar with digital technology, those without a bank account or reliable internet access, and people in areas with poor mobile coverage. Cash also provides a practical backup during power cuts, technical failures or natural disasters, when electronic systems may be unavailable. Moreover, a fully digital payment system gives banks, technology companies and governments an unprecedented ability to monitor and, in principle, restrict how individuals spend their own money, which raises serious concerns about privacy and financial freedom.
For these reasons, I believe cash should remain available as an option even as digital payments continue to grow in popularity. Rather than eliminating cash outright, governments should ensure that cash access remains reasonably convenient, particularly for those who depend on it, while allowing individuals and businesses to choose the payment method that suits them best.
Reading
Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks
Select the best word for each blank.
Noise-cancelling headphones work by using tiny microphones to detect the sound waves of background noise and then an opposite sound wave designed to cancel it out before it reaches the listener's ear. This technique, known as active noise cancellation, is especially effective against low, constant sounds such as an aircraft engine, which fairly predictable and therefore easier to counteract electronically. Sudden or highly variable noises, such as a person talking nearby, are considerably harder to cancel, since the circuitry has time to analyse and respond to an unpredictable sound. Engineers have steadily improved the technology by using faster processors and more precise microphones, allowing modern headphones to a wider range of frequencies than earlier models. Despite these advances, no current system can eliminate every kind of background noise .
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Read the text and select all the correct answers.
As people ascend to high altitudes, the air pressure drops and less oxygen is available with each breath, a change the body can only partly compensate for in the short term. Altitude sickness typically develops when a person climbs too quickly for their body to adjust, producing symptoms such as headache, nausea and fatigue that usually appear within a day of reaching a significant altitude. In most cases, symptoms improve within a few days as the body increases its production of red blood cells, allowing it to carry oxygen more efficiently despite the thinner air, a process known as acclimatisation. However, in more severe cases, fluid can accumulate in the lungs or brain, a potentially fatal complication that requires immediate descent to a lower altitude and, if available, supplemental oxygen or medication. Experienced mountaineers reduce the risk of altitude sickness by ascending gradually, sometimes spending extra days at intermediate altitudes to allow the body time to adjust before continuing higher, a strategy commonly summarised by guides as climbing high but sleeping low. Individual susceptibility to altitude sickness varies considerably and is not reliably predicted by physical fitness, meaning that even very fit climbers can be severely affected while less fit companions experience only mild symptoms.
1. Which THREE statements are supported by the passage?
Re-order Paragraphs
Click the sentences to put them in the correct order.
2. Put the paragraph in the correct order.
Reading: Fill in the Blanks
Choose the best word for each blank.
Quantum encryption exploits an unusual property of quantum physics to secure communications: observing or measuring a quantum particle used to transmit information inevitably its state in a detectable way, meaning any attempt to secretly intercept the transmission leaves clear evidence of the intrusion. This is a fundamental departure from conventional encryption, which typically relies on making a message extremely difficult, though not theoretically impossible, for an eavesdropper to without the correct key, given sufficient computing power and time. Because quantum encryption can, in principle, reveal any interception attempt immediately, two parties using the technology can be confident that a transmitted key has not been secretly copied, allowing them to a genuinely secure communication channel. Building practical, large-scale quantum encryption networks remains technically challenging, however, since the fragile quantum signals involved can only over limited distances before they degrade, requiring specialised relay equipment for longer-distance communication. Governments and financial institutions have shown particular interest in the technology, given the potentially catastrophic consequences of their most sensitive communications being by a sufficiently determined and well-resourced adversary.
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Read the text and choose the best answer.
Regions surrounding active or recently active volcanoes often support unusually fertile farmland, an apparent paradox given the destructive power volcanic eruptions can unleash. When volcanic ash settles onto surrounding land, it gradually breaks down and releases minerals such as potassium, phosphorus and calcium directly into the soil, nutrients that many crops require in significant quantities to grow well. Because volcanic soil also tends to have a light, porous structure, it drains excess water effectively while still retaining enough moisture to support healthy root growth, a combination that heavier, more compacted soils often struggle to achieve. Farmers in volcanic regions from Indonesia to Italy have long taken advantage of this natural fertility, sometimes cultivating crops directly on the slopes of volcanoes that remain capable of erupting again with little advance warning. This trade-off between fertile land and genuine danger has shaped settlement patterns in volcanic regions for centuries, as communities weigh the clear agricultural benefits against a real, sometimes catastrophic risk.
3. According to the passage, why is soil near volcanoes often especially fertile?
Listening
Summarize Spoken Text
Listen to the recording, then write a summary.
Transcript (available after checking)
Economists used to assume that people always make rational decisions, but behavioural science shows that we're heavily influenced by how choices are presented. The idea of a nudge is to change that presentation, without banning anything or offering large rewards, so that people are gently steered toward better decisions. One famous example concerns pensions. When employers enrol workers automatically and let them opt out, participation jumps dramatically compared with systems that ask people to opt in, even though the choice is exactly the same. Other nudges include placing healthy food at eye level in canteens, or telling householders how their energy use compares with their neighbours. Critics ask whether nudging is manipulative, and whether governments should be shaping our choices at all. Supporters reply that every choice is presented somehow, so it's better to design the presentation thoughtfully and openly.
Write a summary of the lecture in 50–70 words.
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Model answer: Nudges are small changes in how choices are presented, such as automatic pension enrolment with an opt-out, that steer people toward better decisions without restricting freedom. Critics worry about manipulation, but supporters argue that choices must always be presented in some way, so designing them thoughtfully and transparently is preferable.
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Listen and select all the correct answers.
Transcript (available after checking)
At its height, the Roman road network stretched for more than eighty thousand kilometres, connecting the empire from Britain to the Middle East. The roads were built to last, with layers of stone, gravel and sand compacted beneath a surface of fitted paving stones, and a slight curve so that rainwater drained to ditches on either side. Roman engineers preferred straight routes wherever possible, cutting through hills and building bridges rather than following the natural contours of the land, which sped up travel for soldiers, officials and traders. Distances were marked with milestones, and a system of staging posts allowed messengers on horseback to cover impressive distances in a single day. Many modern European roads, and even some motorways, still follow the original Roman routes, a testament to how carefully the original surveyors chose their paths across the landscape.
1. Which of the following statements match the lecture?
Fill in the Blanks
Listen to the recording and type the missing words.
Deep learning, the technology behind much of today's artificial intelligence, is loosely inspired by the brain, using layers of simple mathematical units called neurons that pass signals to one . During training, a network is shown many examples, and an algorithm gradually adjusts the connections so its become more accurate over time. Early layers learn simple patterns, such as edges in an , while later layers combine these into abstract concepts, such as recognising a face. This layered approach needs huge amounts of data and computing , which is why deep learning only became practical .
Highlight Correct Summary
Listen and choose the paragraph that best summarises the recording.
Transcript (available after checking)
Glass looks solid and behaves like a solid in every practical sense, yet its atoms aren't arranged in the neat repeating pattern found in true crystalline solids like ice or salt. Instead, the atoms in glass are frozen in a disordered arrangement more like a liquid, which is why scientists sometimes call it an amorphous solid. A popular myth claims that old windows are thicker at the bottom because glass slowly flows downward over centuries like a very slow liquid; in reality, this thickness comes from old manufacturing methods, and installers simply placed the thicker edge at the bottom. At room temperature, glass doesn't flow at all on any observable timescale.
2. Which paragraph best summarises the recording?
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Listen and choose the best answer.
Transcript (available after checking)
When a foraging ant finds food, it leaves a trail of chemical pheromone on its way back to the nest, and other ants that cross this trail are more likely to follow it than search randomly. Each ant that reaches the food and returns reinforces the trail with its own pheromone, so a route to a rich, easily reached source quickly becomes far stronger than a route to a poor one, since more ants complete that round trip successfully. Because pheromone naturally evaporates if not refreshed, trails to sources that have been exhausted gradually fade and are abandoned.
3. Why do trails to poor food sources eventually disappear, according to the lecture?
Select Missing Word
The recording ends with a beep. Choose the option that best completes it.
4. Choose the word or phrase that best completes the recording.
Highlight Incorrect Words
Listen to the recording and select the words in the text that differ from what you hear.
5. The text below differs from the recording in some words. Select the words that are DIFFERENT from what you hear. An early swivel chair is often credited to a former American president, who reportedly wanted a seat that would let him turn toward different papers on a wide desk without constantly rising up. The design, essentially a chair mounted on a rotating base, proved enormously practical for office work, and later manufacturers added springs and wheels, producing the adjustable office chair familiar today.
Write from Dictation
Listen to the sentence and type it exactly as you hear it.
6. Type what you hear.
7. Type what you hear.
Keep your streak going
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