A2–C2 · PTE Academic
PTE Academic Practice Test 20
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.
The first modern Olympic Games took place in Athens in 1896, with fourteen nations and roughly two hundred and forty athletes. Today, the Summer Games attract more than ten thousand competitors from over two hundred countries, and billions of viewers watch the events on television and online.
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Model answer: Say the year as "eighteen ninety-six". Pause after "Athens" and after "athletes". Contrast "fourteen nations" with "over two hundred countries" through stress. Read "billions of viewers" with energy and let your voice fall on "online".
Jazz emerged in New Orleans at the beginning of the twentieth century, blending African rhythms, blues and European harmony. Its defining feature is improvisation: musicians invent melodies spontaneously, responding to one another in real time. No two performances of the same piece are ever identical.
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Model answer: Slow down on "twentieth century" and "improvisation". Pause after "Orleans", "harmony" and "improvisation". Stress "spontaneously" and "real time". Finish with a slightly slower, emphatic delivery of "ever identical", falling on the last word.
Repeat Sentence
You will hear a sentence. Please repeat the sentence exactly as you hear it.
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Model answer: Neither of the two candidates had much experience in international marketing.
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Model answer: The professor asked us to read the first three chapters over the weekend.
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Model answer: The new science building will be open to students next September.
Describe Image
Describe the image in detail.
Government grants — 52%
Patient fees — 9%
Insurance payments — 24%
Charity donations — 6%
Research funding — 9%
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 pie chart shows where a regional hospital gets its money. More than half, 52 percent, comes from government grants, and insurance payments provide another 24 percent. Patient fees and research funding both contribute 9 percent, and charity donations are the smallest source, at 6 percent. Public and insurance funds together account for over three quarters of income, so the hospital depends little on donations.
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 overfishing has driven global fish stock decline, prompting sustainable management through science-based catch limits and marine protected areas that let breeding populations recover. While some North Atlantic stocks have rebounded under strict quotas, enforcement remains difficult, particularly in international waters affected by illegal fishing and disagreement between nations.
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: Isla criticizes fast fashion for generating waste through disposable clothing. Jack notes many people rely on cheap clothing due to genuine affordability constraints. Anna proposes stronger production regulation instead of relying on individual ethical spending. The group agrees regulation on manufacturers, combined with growing second-hand and rental markets, addresses the problem more fairly than blaming consumers.
Respond to a Situation
Listen to the situation and respond as if you were in it.
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Model answer: I understand you want to be careful, and I'd honestly rather you double-check than risk a mistake. Is there anything I can do to speed up reaching the doctor's office, like calling them myself or providing more details about my appointment? I do need the medication today if at all possible, so I appreciate you trying to move quickly.
Writing
Summarize Written Text
Read the passage and write a one-sentence summary.
Writing appears to have been invented independently in several places, but the earliest known system emerged in Mesopotamia, in the southern part of modern Iraq, around 3300 BCE. It did not begin as literature. The first clay tablets from the city of Uruk contain simple marks representing quantities of grain, beer, livestock and textiles, and they were used by temple administrators to keep track of goods that were collected and distributed. Before that, accountants had used small clay tokens of different shapes to represent commodities; pressing these tokens into soft clay and eventually drawing the shapes with a pointed reed appears to have been the crucial step. Over the following centuries, the pictorial signs became increasingly abstract, and scribes began to use wedge-shaped impressions made with a reed stylus, a form called cuneiform. Crucially, signs also came to represent sounds rather than only objects, which allowed scribes to write personal names, verbs and eventually entire sentences. Schools were established to train scribes, whose years of study made them influential figures at court. By around 2500 BCE, the script was being used for legal contracts, royal inscriptions, letters and hymns, and later for epic poetry such as the story of Gilgamesh. The origin of writing in bookkeeping is a reminder that many cultural achievements begin with practical needs rather than artistic ambition.
Read the passage and summarise it in ONE sentence of no more than 75 words.
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Model answer: Writing first arose in Mesopotamia as a means of recording goods for temple administrators, and as its signs grew more abstract and came to represent sounds, it developed into a tool for law, correspondence and literature, showing that cultural achievements often begin with practical needs.
Write Essay
Write an essay of about 200-300 words on the topic.
International tourism brings economic benefits to many countries, but it can also damage local communities and the environment. Do you think the advantages of tourism outweigh the disadvantages?
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Model answer: Tourism is one of the world's largest industries, and for many regions it is the main source of income. Nevertheless, I believe that its benefits are outweighed by its costs unless it is carefully managed.
The economic argument is strong. Visitors spend money in hotels, restaurants and shops, and this creates jobs for guides, drivers, cooks and craftspeople, often in areas where alternatives are scarce. Tourism can also encourage governments to protect historic monuments and national parks, since these are the attractions that draw people in.
However, the problems can be serious. Popular destinations such as Venice and Barcelona suffer from overcrowding, and residents complain that rents rise as apartments are converted into holiday lets, driving local families out of their own neighbourhoods. Fragile environments suffer too: coral reefs are damaged by careless divers, and mountain trails are eroded by thousands of walkers. Much of the income may also leave the country, since foreign companies often own the largest hotels and airlines, so local people receive only low-paid seasonal work.
The answer is not to ban travel, but to manage it sensibly. Authorities can limit visitor numbers, charge entry fees that fund conservation, encourage stays outside the busiest seasons and favour locally owned accommodation. If such measures are adopted, tourism can remain a benefit rather than a burden for the places that host it.
Reading
Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks
Select the best word for each blank.
A blockchain is essentially a shared digital record, or ledger, that is not by a single central authority but by a large network of independent computers. Each new batch of transactions, once verified, is added as a block that is permanently the previous one, forming a chronological chain that is extremely difficult to alter retroactively. Because every participating computer holds an identical copy of the ledger, tampering with a single record would require almost every copy simultaneously, which is practically impossible on a large network. This structure was originally developed to support digital currencies, but it has since been explored for uses supply chain tracking to secure voting systems. Critics note that verifying transactions across such networks can consume enormous amounts of electricity, a cost that developers are still trying to .
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Read the text and select all the correct answers.
Crowdfunding platforms allow entrepreneurs, artists and inventors to raise money directly from a large number of individual supporters online, typically by offering early access to a product, a small reward, or simply the satisfaction of supporting a project they find appealing. This model has enabled creators without access to traditional bank loans or investors, often because their idea is considered too risky or too small for conventional financing, to fund projects ranging from independent films to innovative gadgets, relying instead on broad public interest rather than the approval of a small number of financial gatekeepers. However, crowdfunding also carries significant risks for backers, since most platforms do not guarantee that a funded project will actually be completed or delivered as promised, and a meaningful proportion of funded campaigns are ultimately delayed substantially or fail to deliver anything at all, sometimes due to the creator underestimating the true cost or difficulty of the project once funding is secured. Because campaigns typically require an engaging video and a compelling public pitch to succeed, some critics argue that the projects best suited to raising crowdfunding are not necessarily the most viable ones, but rather those that are most effectively marketed to a general audience.
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.
As the ocean absorbs a significant proportion of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by human activity, a chemical reaction gradually the pH of seawater, a long-term process now widely known as ocean acidification. This shift makes it measurably more difficult for many marine organisms, including corals, oysters and certain types of plankton, to the calcium carbonate shells or skeletons that they fundamentally depend on for structural support and basic survival. Because these affected organisms often occupy a foundational position within marine food webs, their decline can through an entire ecosystem, ultimately affecting far larger species, including the fish that people around the world directly depend on for food and livelihood. Unlike some other forms of environmental damage, ocean acidification is extremely difficult to reverse on any meaningfully short timescale, since it is directly and fundamentally tied to the overall level of carbon dioxide present in the Earth's atmosphere as a whole. Scientists therefore generally regard reducing global carbon emissions as the only truly effective long-term strategy for ocean acidification, since localised interventions alone cannot meaningfully offset a change occurring at a genuinely planetary scale.
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Read the text and choose the best answer.
In recent decades, museums across Europe and North America holding significant historical artefacts originally acquired, often through colonial-era conquest, looting or otherwise questionable means, from other countries and cultures have faced growing pressure to return these items to their communities or countries of origin, a process generally referred to as repatriation. Advocates of repatriation argue that many such artefacts were originally acquired under deeply unjust historical circumstances, and that returning them represents an important, if partial, form of restitution while also allowing the artefacts' original communities meaningful renewed access to and authority over their own cultural heritage. Museums have historically often resisted such repatriation requests, citing concerns including the artefacts' physical preservation, worries about adequate security in a receiving institution, and a stated belief that housing such artefacts in major international museums allows a genuinely global audience to view and learn from culturally and historically significant objects. In recent years, however, a growing number of major museums have begun voluntarily returning at least some contested artefacts, while simultaneously establishing longer-term loan agreements and expanded collaborative partnerships intended to balance continued public access with a more genuine and meaningful respect for a community's own legitimate claims to its historical cultural heritage.
3. What reason have museums historically given for resisting repatriation requests?
Listening
Summarize Spoken Text
Listen to the recording, then write a summary.
Transcript (available after checking)
Long before modern instruments, Polynesian sailors crossed thousands of kilometres of open Pacific in double-hulled canoes and settled islands as remote as Hawaii and New Zealand. How did they find tiny islands without compasses or maps? The answer is a sophisticated body of knowledge passed down orally. Navigators memorised the rising and setting points of dozens of stars, which acted like a compass around the horizon. They read the direction of ocean swells, which stay steady over long distances, and they watched for signs of land, such as certain seabirds flying home at dusk or clouds gathering above an island. Some navigators even sensed the reflection of lagoons on the underside of clouds. Today, cultural groups are reviving these skills, and recent voyages have shown that the traditional methods really do work over enormous distances.
Write a summary of the lecture in 50–70 words.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Polynesian navigators crossed the Pacific without instruments by memorising the positions of stars, reading the direction of ocean swells and observing birds and clouds that indicated land. This knowledge was passed down orally, and modern cultural groups have revived it, proving on long voyages that the traditional methods really work.
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Listen and select all the correct answers.
Transcript (available after checking)
Every cell in the human body follows an internal clock lasting roughly twenty-four hours, known as the circadian rhythm, which is set mainly by exposure to light. This clock regulates when we feel sleepy, when body temperature rises and falls, and when hormones such as cortisol are released. Shift workers, who must be alert at night and sleep during the day, are essentially fighting this internal clock, and long-term night work has been linked to higher risks of obesity, heart disease and certain cancers. Researchers have found that consistent shift patterns, rather than rotating schedules, allow the body to adjust more successfully, because constant switching never gives the internal clock time to settle. Bright light during a night shift and strict darkness afterward when sleeping can also help realign the rhythm, though most experts agree that no schedule fully replaces sleeping at the body's natural time.
1. Which THREE points does the speaker make about circadian rhythms?
Fill in the Blanks
Listen to the recording and type the missing words.
Ukiyo-e, meaning pictures of the floating world, was a style of Japanese woodblock printing that flourished from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, depicting landscapes and city . Producing a print required teamwork between specialists: an artist who designed the image, a carver who cut a block for each , and a printer who layered inks onto paper by hand. Because printing could be repeated many times from the same , prints were affordable and reached a wide urban . When examples reached Europe, they strongly influenced painters such as Van Gogh, who admired their bold .
Highlight Correct Summary
Listen and choose the paragraph that best summarises the recording.
Transcript (available after checking)
Ocean tides are caused mainly by the gravitational pull of the moon, which is strong enough to noticeably stretch the layer of water covering the Earth, creating a bulge of higher water on the side facing the moon and, less intuitively, a second bulge on the opposite side, caused by inertia as the Earth itself is pulled slightly toward the moon. As the Earth rotates beneath these two bulges roughly once a day, most coastlines experience two high tides and two low tides daily. The sun also exerts a smaller gravitational pull on the oceans, and when the sun, Earth and moon roughly align during a full or new moon, the combined pull produces unusually high spring tides.
2. Which paragraph best summarises the recording?
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Listen and choose the best answer.
Transcript (available after checking)
Many cities have introduced municipal composting, collecting food scraps and garden waste separately from regular rubbish so the material can become nutrient-rich compost rather than going to landfill, where decomposing organic waste produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas, because it breaks down without enough oxygen. Composting facilities provide the oxygen and conditions needed for material to decompose aerobically instead, producing far less methane and a useful soil product sold back to farmers. Participation rates vary between cities, and programs offering free, clearly labelled bins with ongoing reminders tend to achieve noticeably higher participation than those simply announced once.
3. What does the speaker say tends to increase participation in composting programs?
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. Naked mole rats live in large underground colonies structured somewhat like those of bees or ants, with a lone breeding female and dozens of non-breeding workers who dig tunnels and gather food. Unusually for a mammal, naked mole rats can survive for several minutes with very little oxygen, an adaptation matched to their crowded, poorly ventilated tunnels, where oxygen levels frequently run low.
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 21