A2–C2 · PTE Academic
PTE Academic Practice Test 15
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.
Public libraries have adapted to the digital age rather than disappearing. Alongside books, they now lend laptops, host coding workshops and provide quiet spaces for remote workers. For many communities, the library remains one of the few free places where anyone can learn and gather.
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Model answer: Keep a warm, positive tone. Stress "adapted" and "rather than disappearing". Pause after "Alongside books" and between the list items "laptops", "coding workshops" and "quiet spaces". Slow down on "one of the few free places" and fall on "gather".
Honeybees communicate the location of food through a remarkable dance. A forager returns to the hive and moves in a figure of eight, and the angle of her waggle relative to vertical indicates the direction of the flowers. The length of the waggle tells her sisters how far they must fly.
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Model answer: Read at a steady, storytelling pace. Stress "remarkable" and "figure of eight". Pause after "hive" and after "vertical". Pronounce "waggle" and "relative" crisply. The last sentence should sound light and conclusive: emphasise "length" and "how far" and fall on "fly".
Repeat Sentence
You will hear a sentence. Please repeat the sentence exactly as you hear it.
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Model answer: Free Wi-Fi is available throughout the library and student centre.
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Model answer: The lecture on volcanoes starts at nine tomorrow morning.
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Model answer: Exercise is often recommended as a natural way of reducing stress.
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 displays student enrolment across seven faculties at State University in 2023. Business is the largest faculty, with 4,200 students, followed by engineering with 3,600 and sciences with 3,100. Law is the smallest at 1,500, and medicine is only slightly larger at 1,800. Overall, practical, career-oriented subjects attract the most students, while law and medicine remain more limited in size.
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 honeybee colonies are collapsing due to several combined causes: varroa mites, pesticide exposure, habitat loss, and climate-related timing mismatches with flowering plants. Since pollinators support about a third of our food supply, farmers and beekeepers are responding with mite treatments, reduced pesticide use, and wildflower planting to protect bee populations.
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 criticizes standardized tests for favoring students who can afford tutoring. Henry counters that teacher assessments have their own bias problems across schools. Isla suggests combining both methods. They agree this helps but still needs free public test-prep resources to reduce the wealth advantage, while acknowledging deeper questions remain about what the tests truly measure.
Respond to a Situation
Listen to the situation and respond as if you were in it.
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Model answer: This invoice includes charges for repairs I was never informed about or asked to approve beforehand. I only authorized the scheduled service we originally discussed. Could you explain exactly what these additional charges are for, and remove anything that wasn't specifically approved by me before the work was carried out.
Writing
Summarize Written Text
Read the passage and write a one-sentence summary.
The Roman Empire's harbours, aqueducts and monuments have survived for two thousand years, while many concrete structures built in the twentieth century begin to crumble after fifty. This contrast has long puzzled engineers. Ancient Roman builders mixed volcanic ash, lime and chunks of rock, and for decades scholars assumed the secret lay simply in the quality of the volcanic ash. Recent analysis of samples from a harbour wall near Naples, however, has revealed a more surprising factor. Embedded in the material are small white lumps of lime, previously dismissed as evidence of careless mixing. Researchers now believe these lumps were deliberately created by combining quicklime directly with the ash and water, a process known as hot mixing, which generates considerable heat. The lumps act as a reservoir of reactive calcium. When cracks form and rainwater or seawater seeps in, the lime dissolves and recrystallises, sealing the fissure before it can spread. In effect, the concrete repairs itself. Seawater also triggers the growth of rare minerals inside the material, which strengthen it over centuries rather than weaken it. Modern cement, by contrast, is designed to be chemically stable and inert, and it lacks any such capacity for renewal. Engineers are now experimenting with Roman-style formulas, hoping to produce durable materials that require less frequent replacement and therefore lower carbon emissions over their lifetime.
Read the passage and summarise it in ONE sentence of no more than 75 words.
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Model answer: Roman concrete has outlasted modern equivalents because its deliberately mixed lime lumps dissolve and recrystallise to seal cracks, allowing the material to repair itself, a property that engineers now hope to copy in order to build longer-lasting and lower-carbon structures.
Write Essay
Write an essay of about 200-300 words on the topic.
Some economists argue that every citizen should receive a guaranteed basic income from the government, regardless of whether they work. Do you think this is a good idea?
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Model answer: A universal basic income, paid to every citizen whether or not they are employed, has moved from a fringe idea to a serious policy proposal. I am cautiously in favour, though I recognise the scheme carries real risks.
Supporters point out that automation is eliminating many routine jobs faster than new ones are created, and a basic income would cushion workers through this transition without the stigma or bureaucracy of traditional welfare. Because the payment is unconditional, people are not penalised for taking a part-time job or starting a small business, which some existing benefit systems discourage. Trials in Finland and Kenya have reported improvements in mental health and modest increases in entrepreneurial activity, with no significant fall in the number of hours worked.
Critics warn that funding a payment large enough to matter would require substantial tax increases or the abolition of other services, and that giving money to everyone, including the wealthy, is an inefficient way to help those most in need. There is also concern that a guaranteed income might reduce the incentive to seek skilled work, weakening the tax base that pays for it.
On balance, I believe a modest basic income, introduced gradually and combined with continued support for job training and public services, is worth testing at national scale. It would not replace the need for good jobs, but it could provide a safety net suited to a labour market that is changing faster than our institutions.
Reading
Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks
Select the best word for each blank.
Glaciers form over centuries as layers of snow compress into dense ice under their own weight, and they typically advance or retreat depending on the balance between winter snowfall and summer melting. In recent decades, warming temperatures have the majority of the world's glaciers to shrink, some at an alarming rate. Meltwater from glaciers supplies rivers that hundreds of millions of people for drinking water and irrigation, particularly during the dry season when rainfall alone is insufficient. As glaciers retreat, this seasonal water supply becomes less reliable, and some regions face the prospect of severe shortages within a generation. Scientists also warn that melting glaciers rising sea levels, since the water they release eventually reaches the ocean. Monitoring glacier volume has therefore become an important indicator the broader pace of climate change.
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Read the text and select all the correct answers.
Many animal species once confined to rural habitats have adapted successfully to life in cities, exploiting food sources and shelter that urban environments unintentionally provide. Foxes raid rubbish bins, pigeons nest on building ledges that mimic the cliffs their ancestors favoured, and some birds have altered their songs, singing at a higher pitch than their rural counterparts in order to be heard over constant traffic noise. Researchers have also observed that urban animals frequently show less fear of humans than their rural relatives, likely because individuals that tolerate human proximity gain consistent access to food while more timid individuals struggle to find resources amid constant disturbance. Over many generations, this pattern can produce measurable genetic and behavioural differences between city-dwelling and countryside populations of the same species. While some conservationists welcome the resilience city animals display, others warn that urban adaptation can create new problems, including increased conflict when animals such as foxes or raccoons come into close contact with people, and the risk that these bold, adaptable populations may spread disease more readily within dense human settlements.
1. Which TWO 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.
Soap molecules have an unusual double structure: one end is attracted to water, while the other end is instead attracted to oil and grease, a property that allows soap to two substances that would not normally mix. When soap is added to greasy water, the oil-attracting ends of countless soap molecules surround a droplet of grease, while the water-attracting ends face outward, allowing the entire droplet to be away from a surface and rinsed off with water. This is why plain water alone struggles to remove grease effectively, since water molecules cannot a layer of oil on their own. Traditional soap was historically produced by combining animal fat or plant oil with a strong alkaline substance, a chemical reaction that gradually the fat into soap and a useful by-product called glycerine. Modern liquid detergents work on a broadly similar principle, though they typically rely on synthetic compounds rather than the natural fats and oils traditional soap makers once .
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Read the text and choose the best answer.
Plants require nitrogen to build essential proteins and genetic material, yet most cannot directly use the abundant nitrogen gas that makes up the majority of the Earth's atmosphere, since this form of nitrogen is chemically very stable and difficult for a plant to absorb and use. Legume plants, such as peas, beans and clover, have evolved a remarkable partnership with specialised soil bacteria that live within small nodules formed on the plant's roots, converting atmospheric nitrogen into a chemical form the plant can readily absorb and use. In exchange for this valuable service, the plant supplies the bacteria with sugars produced through photosynthesis, sustaining the bacterial colony living within its root nodules. Because this partnership effectively enriches the surrounding soil with usable nitrogen, farmers have long rotated nitrogen-hungry crops such as wheat or maize with legume crops, allowing the soil's nitrogen content to be naturally replenished without relying entirely on costly manufactured fertiliser. This ancient agricultural technique remains widely practised today, valued both for reducing fertiliser costs and for its comparatively gentler impact on the surrounding environment.
3. What is the main purpose of the passage?
Listening
Summarize Spoken Text
Listen to the recording, then write a summary.
Transcript (available after checking)
If you walk through a forest, you might think each tree is an individual competing for light and water. But underground there's a much more complicated story. Most trees form partnerships with fungi. Thin fungal threads called hyphae wrap around the tree's roots and extend far into the soil, absorbing water and minerals, which they trade for sugars produced by the tree during photosynthesis. These associations are known as mycorrhizae. Since one fungus can connect to the roots of many trees, researchers have found that carbon and nutrients can pass between neighbouring plants, and that seedlings in the shade may receive help from older trees. Popular articles sometimes call this the wood wide web and suggest that forests are cooperative communities. Scientists urge caution, though. The evidence that trees deliberately help each other is still debated, and the fungi may simply be looking after their own interests.
Write a summary of the lecture in 50–70 words.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Most trees partner with fungi whose threads absorb water and minerals in exchange for sugars, and one fungus can link many trees, allowing nutrients to move between them. Popular accounts describe cooperative forests, but scientists are cautious because it remains unproven that trees deliberately help each other, as fungi may simply serve their own interests.
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Listen and select all the correct answers.
Transcript (available after checking)
Slime moulds are strange organisms that are neither plants, animals nor fungi, yet they can solve surprisingly complex problems without any brain or nervous system at all. A single slime mould consists of one giant cell containing many nuclei, and it explores its surroundings by extending thin tendrils outward in search of food, typically bacteria and fungal spores. In laboratory experiments, researchers have placed oat flakes at points corresponding to major cities on a map, and the slime mould has grown networks connecting them that closely resemble efficient real-world transport routes. Some scientists now study slime mould growth patterns for ideas about designing resilient networks, since the organism appears able to find efficient paths and even remembers locations it has already explored, avoiding wasted effort.
1. Which THREE points does the speaker make about slime moulds?
Fill in the Blanks
Listen to the recording and type the missing words.
Friction is the force that resists motion between two surfaces in contact, and it depends far more on the surfaces themselves than most people assume; rougher surfaces generally produce more than smoother ones. Static friction, which must be overcome to start something moving, is typically stronger than the friction acting once an object is already in , which is why a heavy box can suddenly feel easier to push once it starts . Engineers exploit friction deliberately in brakes and tyres, where more grip is desirable, while lubricants such as are used elsewhere specifically to reduce .
Highlight Correct Summary
Listen and choose the paragraph that best summarises the recording.
Transcript (available after checking)
When threatened, many octopuses and squid release a cloud of dark ink from a specialised sac, and the ink serves more than one defensive purpose at once. It contains a pigment called melanin that creates an obscuring cloud, giving the animal a moment to escape while a predator is briefly confused about its exact location. In some species, the ink also contains compounds that can irritate a predator's eyes or interfere with its sense of smell, temporarily dulling the very senses many predators rely on to track prey once vision is blocked. A few squid species take this further, releasing a blob of thick, sticky ink shaped roughly like the squid's own body, called a pseudomorph, which can fool a predator into attacking the decoy while the real animal swims away in a different direction.
2. Which paragraph best summarises the recording?
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Listen and choose the best answer.
Transcript (available after checking)
Static electricity builds up when two different materials rub together and electrons transfer from one surface to the other, leaving one object slightly positive and the other slightly negative. This is why a balloon rubbed on hair can stick to a wall afterward, since the charged balloon induces an opposite charge on the surface and is pulled toward it. The effect is usually strongest in dry conditions, because moisture in humid air helps charge dissipate quickly rather than building up. A spark felt after walking across carpet and touching a metal handle is simply that built-up charge equalising at once.
3. What does the speaker say makes static electricity stronger?
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. Raised reflective road studs, sometimes called cat's eyes, were directly inspired by the way a real cat's eyes glow when caught in headlights at night. A British inventor eventually patented the rubber-mounted glass reflectors in the nineteen thirties after reportedly nearly steering off a foggy road himself, and the studs' rubber housing is built to sink slightly and self-clean whenever run over by a moving vehicle's tyre, fairly reliably.
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 16