A2–C2 · PTE Academic
PTE Academic Practice Test 12
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.
Antibiotic resistance occurs when bacteria evolve to survive the drugs designed to kill them. Overuse of antibiotics, especially for viral infections against which they are useless, speeds up this process. Doctors are therefore urged to prescribe them only when they are genuinely needed.
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Model answer: Take care with "antibiotic" and "resistance". Pause after "them" and after "useless". Stress "overuse", "speeds up" and "genuinely needed". Fall on the last word to sound conclusive.
Bread-making is one of humanity's oldest technologies. When yeast ferments the sugars in dough, it releases carbon dioxide, which forms bubbles and makes the loaf rise. Baking then sets the structure, while the browning of the crust creates the flavours that make fresh bread so appealing.
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Model answer: Say "technologies" and "ferments" with clear syllables. Pause after "technologies", "dough" and "rise". Stress "sets the structure" and "browning". Finish with a warm, falling tone on "appealing".
Repeat Sentence
You will hear a sentence. Please repeat the sentence exactly as you hear it.
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Model answer: I would rather study in the morning than late at night.
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Model answer: I'm afraid the professor is out of the office until Wednesday.
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Model answer: Could you tell me where the nearest post office is?
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 chart shows the number of wading birds counted at a nature reserve between 2012 and 2022. The population grew from 1,800 in 2012 to 2,600 in 2016. There was a small fall to 2,400 in 2018, but numbers then recovered strongly, reaching 3,300 in 2020 and 3,900 in 2022. The overall trend is upward, with the number of birds more than doubling over the decade.
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 the wheel appeared later than expected in human history, requiring precise axle-fitting, with the earliest examples from around three thousand five hundred BCE likely first used for pottery, not transport. Some advanced civilizations never adopted wheeled vehicles despite knowing the concept, since they lacked strong draft animals and suitable terrain.
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: Jack argues four-day week trials show maintained or improved productivity. Anna raises concerns about shift-based sectors like hospitals and shops, and about possible pay cuts. Jack and David clarify that successful trials kept full pay and used rotations for continuous-service jobs, reducing burnout and turnover. Anna becomes more open, seeing the main obstacle as employer mindset, not feasibility.
Respond to a Situation
Listen to the situation and respond as if you were in it.
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Model answer: I appreciate the effort, but this is noticeably shorter than what I asked for and showed you in the photo. I understand it can't be undone today, so let's talk about how to style it so it looks its best given where we are now, and I'd like to discuss a discount given it wasn't what I requested.
Writing
Summarize Written Text
Read the passage and write a one-sentence summary.
Traditional economics assumes that people make decisions rationally, weighing costs and benefits to maximise their own welfare. Behavioural economists have shown, however, that human choices are systematically influenced by habits, emotions and the way options are presented. A striking example concerns pension savings. When employees must actively choose to join a retirement plan, many delay or never enrol, even though doing so would clearly benefit them. When enrolment is made the default and employees must actively opt out, participation typically jumps from around fifty percent to over ninety percent, without any change in incentives or information. Such gentle adjustments to the environment in which decisions are made are known as nudges. Governments have adopted them to encourage organ donation, reduce energy consumption and increase tax compliance, often at very low cost. Supporters argue that nudges preserve freedom of choice while improving outcomes, since nobody is forced to do anything. Critics respond that they can be manipulative, especially when people are unaware of the influence, and that they may distract attention from more effective structural reforms, such as regulation or higher wages. There is also evidence that the effects of some nudges fade over time or vary between cultures, suggesting that policymakers should test interventions carefully before assuming that a success in one setting will be replicated elsewhere.
Read the passage and summarise it in ONE sentence of no more than 75 words.
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Model answer: Behavioural economists have shown that subtle changes in how choices are presented, such as making pension enrolment the default, can substantially alter decisions at low cost, but critics argue that these nudges may be manipulative, temporary, or a distraction from deeper structural reform.
Write Essay
Write an essay of about 200-300 words on the topic.
Some people believe that prisons should focus mainly on punishing criminals, while others think the priority should be rehabilitation so that offenders can return to society. Discuss both views and give your opinion.
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Model answer: How societies should treat convicted criminals, whether primarily through punishment or through rehabilitation, remains a deeply divisive question, and my own view leans firmly towards rehabilitation, without abandoning punishment altogether.
Those who prioritise punishment argue that a prison sentence should reflect the seriousness of the crime and provide justice for victims. They believe that harsh consequences deter potential offenders and reassure the public that wrongdoing carries real costs. Without meaningful punishment, they argue, the justice system risks appearing to reward or excuse criminal behaviour.
Advocates of rehabilitation respond that punishment alone rarely changes behaviour and can even make reoffending more likely, since prisoners with little education, few job prospects and damaged relationships often return to the same circumstances that led to crime in the first place. Countries such as Norway, which emphasise education, therapy and vocational training within relatively humane prison conditions, report considerably lower reoffending rates than systems built mainly around punishment.
In my opinion, the two goals need not be opposites. A sentence can reflect the gravity of an offence while the time served is used productively, through education, addiction treatment and preparation for employment, so that a person leaves prison less likely to commit further crimes. Protecting the public in the long run depends less on how severely someone is punished than on whether they are given a genuine chance to change.
Reading
Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks
Select the best word for each blank.
During deep sleep, the brain repeatedly the events of the day, gradually transferring memories from short-term to long-term storage. Researchers have found that people who sleep soon after learning new material it considerably better than those who stay awake for an equivalent period. This process depends heavily a brain structure called the hippocampus, which acts as a temporary holding area before information is consolidated elsewhere. Sleep deprivation, by contrast, appears to the brain's capacity to absorb new information the following day. For this reason, many sleep scientists argue that adequate rest should be treated as effective learning rather than an optional luxury.
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Read the text and select all the correct answers.
Ancient Egyptian embalmers developed an elaborate process for preserving the bodies of the dead, rooted in the religious belief that the deceased's spirit required an intact, recognisable body in order to survive successfully in the afterlife. The process typically began with the removal of internal organs, including the lungs, liver, stomach and intestines, which were preserved separately, while the heart was deliberately left in place because it was considered the seat of intelligence and emotion and would be needed for judgement in the afterlife. The body was then packed and covered with a natural salt called natron for a period of many days, which drew out moisture and helped prevent decay, before being cleaned, treated with oils and resins, and carefully wrapped in many layers of linen bandages, sometimes with protective amulets placed between the layers. Because this elaborate process required considerable time, skill and expensive materials, it was originally reserved almost exclusively for royalty and the wealthiest members of society, though the practice gradually became somewhat more widely accessible, in simplified and less costly forms, to a broader segment of the population over subsequent centuries. Modern scientific analysis of preserved mummies, including CT scanning and DNA testing, continues to reveal new information about ancient Egyptian diet, disease and even family relationships.
1. According to the passage, which THREE of the following are true?
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.
Farmers increasingly use small autonomous drones equipped with specialised cameras to the health of their crops across large fields, identifying areas experiencing pest damage, disease or water stress far more quickly than would be possible through routine on-foot inspection alone. Because these cameras can detect certain types of plant stress before any visible sign would be apparent to the human eye, farmers can often earlier than they otherwise would, potentially preventing a minor, localised problem from spreading across an entire field. Some more advanced agricultural drones can also precisely apply fertiliser, water or targeted pesticide only to the specific areas of a field that genuinely require treatment, an approach that can substantially both the overall cost of these inputs and their unwanted environmental impact compared with applying them uniformly across an entire field regardless of actual local need. Despite these clear benefits, the significant upfront cost of purchasing agricultural drone equipment and the specialised training required to operate it effectively have so far widespread adoption primarily to larger commercial farming operations rather than small independent farms.
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Read the text and choose the best answer.
During a series of workplace studies conducted at a factory in the 1920s and 1930s, researchers noticed a puzzling pattern: worker productivity seemed to improve following almost any change researchers introduced to the factory's conditions, including changes such as increasing lighting levels, and puzzlingly, productivity also improved when researchers later reduced lighting back toward its original level. This unexpected pattern led researchers to conclude that the workers' productivity gains had little to do with the specific physical changes being tested at all, and instead resulted largely from the workers' awareness that they were being carefully observed and studied by outside researchers. This phenomenon, now widely known as the Hawthorne effect, has since been cited as a caution for researchers across many fields, since simply knowing that one is part of a study can measurably influence a participant's behaviour, independent of whatever specific variable a study is actually designed to test. Modern researchers designing careful experiments now attempt to account for this effect, for example through the use of control groups that are observed in a similar manner but do not receive the specific change or intervention being tested.
3. According to the passage, what did researchers conclude was the actual cause of the productivity gains?
Listening
Summarize Spoken Text
Listen to the recording, then write a summary.
Transcript (available after checking)
There are roughly seven thousand languages spoken in the world today, but linguists estimate that about half of them could disappear by the end of this century. A language is considered endangered when children stop learning it. Often that happens because parents believe a dominant language, such as English or Mandarin, will give their children better opportunities at school and at work. When the last fluent speakers die, a great deal disappears with them, including local knowledge about plants, weather and history that was never written down. Not all news is bad, however. Communities in New Zealand and Wales have revived their languages through immersion schools and media broadcasts. Technology helps too, with apps and online dictionaries being built for small languages. Revival requires more than documentation, though. It requires people who actually want to use the language every day.
Write a summary of the lecture in 50–70 words.
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Model answer: Around half of the world's languages may vanish this century, usually because parents choose dominant languages for their children's future, and with them goes unwritten local knowledge. Revival is possible, as in New Zealand and Wales, but it depends on immersion education, media and, above all, people wanting to use the language daily.
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Listen and select all the correct answers.
Transcript (available after checking)
The human gut is home to trillions of bacteria and other microbes, collectively called the gut microbiome, and researchers now believe they influence far more than digestion alone. A healthy, diverse microbiome helps break down fibre into compounds that nourish the cells lining the intestine, trains parts of the immune system, and even produces small amounts of certain vitamins. Diet has a powerful effect on its composition; diverse, fibre-rich diets tend to support a wider range of bacterial species, while diets high in processed food are linked to lower diversity. Scientists have also found connections, though not yet fully explained, between gut bacteria and conditions far from the digestive system, including mood and anxiety, through what's sometimes called the gut-brain axis. Because every person's microbiome is different, researchers caution that a single ideal diet for gut health probably doesn't exist for everyone.
1. Which of the following are mentioned in the lecture?
Fill in the Blanks
Listen to the recording and type the missing words.
Rice was domesticated independently in Asia thousands of years ago, from a wild grass whose seeds shattered and scattered naturally once ripe, much like wild . Early farmers favoured plants whose seeds stayed on the stalk a little longer, since these were far easier to in bulk, and over generations this produced a rice plant entirely dependent on human . Because rice grows well in flooded fields, farmers developed elaborate irrigated paddy systems, which also suppress many . Today rice feeds more people than almost any other single .
Highlight Correct Summary
Listen and choose the paragraph that best summarises the recording.
Transcript (available after checking)
Early experimental contact lenses, developed in the late nineteenth century, were made of blown glass and covered the entire visible surface of the eye, making them uncomfortable enough that wearers typically could only tolerate them for a few hours before needing to remove them. The development of clear plastics in the twentieth century allowed lenses to be made thinner, lighter and more precisely shaped to an individual eye, and a major breakthrough came with the invention of soft, flexible hydrogel lenses in the nineteen sixties, which allowed oxygen to pass through to the cornea far more effectively than the earlier rigid materials had permitted. This dramatically increased how long a lens could comfortably be worn each day, and it paved the way for the disposable, daily-wear soft lenses that are now the most common form of contact lens in use.
2. Which paragraph best summarises the recording?
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Listen and choose the best answer.
Transcript (available after checking)
The first crossword puzzle recognisable as similar to today's version appeared in a New York newspaper in nineteen thirteen, created by a British-born journalist as a diamond-shaped word puzzle intended simply to fill space in a Sunday entertainment section rather than as a serious ongoing feature. The puzzle proved unexpectedly popular with readers, and other newspapers began publishing their own versions within a few years, gradually standardising the now-familiar square grid with numbered clues for across and down answers. Crosswords became such a widespread craze in the nineteen twenties that some employers reportedly complained about staff spending work time solving them instead of working.
3. What was the crossword puzzle originally intended to do, 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. A bell's pitch depends largely on its overall size and the thickness of its metal walls: a larger, heavier bell vibrates more slowly, generating a lower note, while a smaller, thinner bell vibrates rapidly and produces a higher one. Bell founders carefully shape the bronze while casting to fine-tune its ring, since even slight variations in wall thickness can noticeably alter the final sound.
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
Up next: PTE Academic Practice Test 13