A2–C2 · PTE Academic
PTE Academic Practice Test 14
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.
Classical economists argued that markets, left alone, will naturally balance supply and demand. Modern critics point to financial crises as evidence that unregulated markets can be unstable, and they call for governments to intervene when necessary to protect ordinary savers.
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Model answer: Pause after "alone" and after "unstable". Stress "naturally balance" in the first sentence and "unstable" and "intervene" in the second. Pronounce "unregulated" and "necessary" slowly. End on "ordinary savers" with a falling tone.
Public transport reduces congestion and lowers emissions, yet many people still prefer to drive. Convenience, comfort and unreliable timetables are the most common reasons. Cities that invest in frequent, affordable services often see a noticeable shift in commuting habits.
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Model answer: Pause after "emissions" and after "drive". Stress "yet" to mark the contrast. Give the list "Convenience, comfort and unreliable timetables" a steady rhythm. Emphasise "frequent, affordable" and "noticeable shift", then fall on "habits".
Repeat Sentence
You will hear a sentence. Please repeat the sentence exactly as you hear it.
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Model answer: We have run out of printer paper again.
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Model answer: Recent studies suggest that regular exercise improves concentration and memory.
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Model answer: Her presentation examined how social media influences teenage friendships.
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 bar chart shows the average amount of sleep people need at different stages of life. Newborns need the most at about 15 hours a night, and the figure falls steadily as age increases. Toddlers need 12 hours, school-age children 10, and teenagers 9. Adults sleep on average 7.5 hours, and people over 65 need about 7 hours, the least. The trend is a consistent decline from birth to old age.
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 describes the fifteen-minute city concept, where daily needs like work, shops, and healthcare are reachable within a short walk or ride by mixing land uses in neighborhoods. Supporters say this reduces traffic and pollution while boosting community, though critics raise concerns about cost, feasibility, and misunderstandings about restricting travel.
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: Grace advocates strict screen time limits for young children, citing links to attention and language delays. Henry argues content quality and parental co-viewing matter more than screen time alone. Isla agrees, noting research points to passive, unsupervised content as the real concern. They shift toward favoring quality- and supervision-focused guidelines over blanket time limits.
Respond to a Situation
Listen to the situation and respond as if you were in it.
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Model answer: I specifically booked a non-smoking room, but the one I've been given smells strongly of cigarette smoke. I have a meeting starting in under an hour, so I don't have time to deal with this at length right now. Could you move my luggage to a genuinely non-smoking room while I'm at my meeting and have it ready when I return?
Writing
Summarize Written Text
Read the passage and write a one-sentence summary.
When Johannes Gutenberg introduced movable metal type to Europe around 1450, he did not invent printing itself; woodblock printing had existed in East Asia for centuries, and Korean printers had already used metal type. What distinguished his contribution was a combination of technologies, including an oil-based ink, a modified wine press and a durable alloy that could be cast in large quantities, which together made it economical to produce books in volume. The effects were dramatic. Within fifty years, printing presses were operating in more than two hundred European towns, and millions of volumes had been produced, far more than scribes could have copied in the preceding millennium. Prices fell, literacy expanded, and ideas circulated faster than authorities could suppress them. Martin Luther's criticisms of the Church, printed as pamphlets in 1517, reached a wide audience within weeks, and historians generally agree that the Reformation would have unfolded very differently without the press. Printing also helped standardise spelling and grammar in emerging national languages, and it enabled scholars to compare identical copies of a text, which encouraged the systematic checking of evidence that underpins modern science. Not all consequences were welcome, however: the same technology spread propaganda, rumour and pirated works, prompting governments and churches to introduce censorship and licensing regimes that shaped publishing for centuries.
Read the passage and summarise it in ONE sentence of no more than 75 words.
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Model answer: Gutenberg's combination of technologies made book production cheap and rapid, which spread literacy, fuelled the Reformation, standardised languages and supported scientific method, although it also enabled propaganda and thus provoked censorship by governments and churches.
Write Essay
Write an essay of about 200-300 words on the topic.
To reduce traffic and pollution, some cities have banned private cars from their central areas. Do you think this is a good solution?
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Model answer: Traffic jams, noise and poor air quality afflict many city centres, so the idea of removing private cars entirely has gained supporters. I think it can be a good solution, provided that alternatives are ready before the ban begins.
The benefits have been demonstrated in places where restrictions have been introduced. Air pollution falls quickly, streets become safer for children and older people, and the space once occupied by parked vehicles can be used for wider pavements, trees, cafes and cycle lanes. Shops may even see more customers, since people who walk or cycle tend to stop more often than those who drive past. Public spaces that were once dominated by engines become places where residents meet.
Nevertheless, the policy must be handled carefully. Disabled residents, delivery drivers and emergency services still need access, so exceptions are essential. Small business owners fear that customers will stay away, and people living on the edge of the zone may be unfairly burdened if public transport is unreliable or expensive. A ban imposed suddenly without such preparations would create resentment.
A sensible approach is to improve buses, trams and cycling networks first, provide car parks at the perimeter connected to frequent services, and then gradually widen the restricted area. Studies show that once residents experience the benefits of a quieter, cleaner centre, most support the change. With careful planning, a car-free centre can make a city more pleasant for everyone.
Reading
Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks
Select the best word for each blank.
A financial bubble forms when the price of an asset rises far any reasonable estimate of its underlying value, driven largely by investors' expectation that prices will keep climbing. As more people rush to buy, prices rise, reinforcing the belief that the trend cannot end. Eventually, confidence falters, often triggered by a single piece of bad news, and the bubble as investors sell in a panic. Historians point to the Dutch tulip mania of the 1630s as an early example, though patterns have recurred in stock and housing markets ever since. Economists disagree about whether bubbles can be reliably in advance or whether they are only obvious with the benefit of hindsight.
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Read the text and select all the correct answers.
Before the 1920s, a diagnosis of severe diabetes was effectively a death sentence, since doctors had no way to replace the hormone that the body needs to regulate blood sugar. In 1921, a young surgeon and his assistant, working with limited funding in a small laboratory, managed to extract a hormone from the pancreas of dogs and showed that injecting it into diabetic animals rapidly lowered their dangerously high blood sugar levels. Within months, the team had refined their extraction method sufficiently to test the substance, later named insulin, on a critically ill human patient, whose dramatic recovery convinced sceptical colleagues that the treatment could be safely scaled up. Because the researchers wanted the treatment to reach as many patients as possible rather than restricting access for profit, they sold the patent for a nominal sum to a university, a decision that allowed pharmaceutical companies to begin mass production relatively quickly. Within just a few years, insulin transformed diabetes from an almost certainly fatal diagnosis into a manageable chronic condition, although patients today still require regular injections or pump-delivered doses, since a full cure for the underlying disease has not yet been developed.
1. According to the passage, which TWO 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.
Herd immunity occurs when a sufficiently large proportion of a population becomes immune to a particular infectious disease, whether through vaccination or prior infection, that the disease can no longer easily even among the remaining, still-susceptible individuals. This indirect protection is particularly valuable for people who cannot be vaccinated themselves, such as newborn infants or those with certain medical conditions, since they can still the reduced circulation of disease within a highly vaccinated surrounding community. The exact proportion of a population that must become immune before herd immunity takes effect varies considerably depending on how easily a particular disease spreads between people, with more highly contagious diseases generally a higher vaccination rate before herd immunity is achieved. Public health officials closely monitor vaccination rates within specific communities, since even a modest decline can allow a previously well-controlled disease to and spread rapidly once immunity levels drop below the critical threshold required. This dynamic explains why public health campaigns often specifically target communities with unusually low vaccination rates, rather than treating an entire country's vaccination rate as if it were across every region.
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Read the text and choose the best answer.
Franchising allows an individual entrepreneur, known as a franchisee, to operate a business under an established brand's name and proven operating system, typically in exchange for an initial fee and a share of ongoing revenue paid to the parent company, or franchisor. While franchising is often marketed as a comparatively lower-risk path into business ownership compared with starting an entirely independent business from scratch, since a franchisee benefits from an already-proven business model, an established brand and existing customer recognition, franchising nonetheless carries risks that prospective franchisees should carefully consider before committing significant personal capital. A franchisee typically has comparatively limited independent control over major business decisions, since franchise agreements generally require strict, ongoing adherence to standardised operating procedures, approved suppliers and centrally set pricing policies determined by the franchisor rather than the individual local franchisee. Additionally, a franchisee's own business success remains directly tied to the parent brand's overall reputation, meaning that a serious public relations problem or safety scandal affecting the parent brand elsewhere can meaningfully damage an individual franchisee's own local business, even where that particular local franchisee personally did absolutely nothing wrong. Prospective franchisees are therefore generally advised to carefully review a franchisor's disclosed financial performance history and to speak directly with existing franchisees before signing any binding franchise agreement.
3. According to the passage, why might a franchisee's business suffer despite doing nothing wrong?
Listening
Summarize Spoken Text
Listen to the recording, then write a summary.
Transcript (available after checking)
Inflation means that prices in general are rising, so each unit of money buys less than before. Economists usually describe two main causes. The first is demand-pull inflation, which happens when people and businesses want to buy more goods and services than the economy can supply. The second is cost-push inflation, where producers face higher costs, for example for energy or raw materials, and pass them on to customers. Central banks respond mainly by raising interest rates. Higher rates make borrowing more expensive, which cools spending, and that slows price increases. But it's a blunt tool. It can also raise unemployment and slow growth. Moderate inflation of around two percent is generally considered healthy, since it encourages spending and investment, but high and unpredictable inflation damages savings, especially for people on fixed incomes, and makes long-term planning very difficult.
Write a summary of the lecture in 50–70 words.
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Model answer: Inflation, a general rise in prices, is caused either by demand exceeding supply or by producers passing on higher costs. Central banks usually raise interest rates to cool spending, although this can slow growth and increase unemployment. Moderate inflation is considered healthy, but high, unpredictable inflation harms savers, especially people on fixed incomes, and complicates planning.
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Listen and select all the correct answers.
Transcript (available after checking)
When a honeybee finds a good patch of flowers, she flies back to the hive and performs a figure-of-eight movement known as the waggle dance. The angle of the straight middle part of the dance, measured against vertical on the comb, tells the other bees which direction to fly relative to the sun. The longer she waggles, the farther away the flowers are. She also shares the scent of the flowers on her body, so her sisters know what to look for. Karl von Frisch worked this out in the nineteen forties, and won a Nobel Prize for it. What's remarkable is that the dance happens in the dark, so the other bees follow it by touch, feeling the vibrations of her body.
1. Which THREE statements about the waggle dance are true according to the lecture?
Fill in the Blanks
Listen to the recording and type the missing words.
A lever is one of the simplest machines, a rigid bar that pivots around a fixed point called a , letting a small force applied over a longer distance move a larger load a shorter . The mechanical advantage depends on where the fulcrum sits relative to the load; moving it closer to the load increases lifting force but reduces how far the load actually . Tools such as scissors use lever principles, though the human forearm is a fairly inefficient lever, trading force for greater , which suits many everyday better than raw power.
Highlight Correct Summary
Listen and choose the paragraph that best summarises the recording.
Transcript (available after checking)
Biodegradable plastics are often marketed as an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional plastic, but the label can be misleading. Many biodegradable plastics only break down properly under specific industrial composting conditions, with carefully controlled heat and microbial activity, and simply won't decompose at any meaningful speed if they end up in a landfill or the ocean instead. Some products labelled biodegradable are actually conventional plastic with an additive that helps it fragment into smaller pieces faster, without ever truly breaking down chemically, which can worsen the microplastic pollution problem rather than solve it. Genuinely compostable plastics do exist and work well when properly collected and processed, but experts stress that reducing overall plastic use matters more than switching labels.
2. Which paragraph best summarises the recording?
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Listen and choose the best answer.
Transcript (available after checking)
Individual coral polyps, the tiny animals that build a reef, can reproduce in more than one way. Many corals reproduce asexually through budding, where a polyp essentially clones itself, growing a genetically identical new polyp attached to the original, which is how a colony gradually expands to form the larger structures recognised as coral heads. Corals can also reproduce sexually, releasing eggs and sperm into open water, often during a synchronised mass spawning event, producing genetically varied offspring able to drift with currents and settle in new locations, helping corals colonise new areas and maintain diversity budding alone cannot provide.
3. According to the lecture, what is one advantage of sexual reproduction over budding in corals?
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. Prairie dogs typically live in extensive underground burrow systems containing separate chambers for sleeping, storing food, and raising pups, connected by multiple tunnel entrances that allow a quick escape from predators. Colonies actively maintain distinct sentry duties, with one animal often scanning from an entrance mound while others feed nearby, and a sharp alarm call sends the whole group diving underground instantly.
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 15