A2–C2 · PTE Academic
PTE Academic Practice Test 23
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 Great Barrier Reef stretches for more than two thousand three hundred kilometres along the coast of Queensland. Visible from space, it is made up of nearly three thousand individual reefs and hundreds of islands. Tourism to the region generates billions of dollars annually.
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Model answer: Practise the long number "two thousand three hundred kilometres" so that it flows. Pause after "kilometres", "Queensland" and "space". Stress "nearly three thousand" and "hundreds of islands". Read the last sentence briskly and fall on "annually".
Democracy depends on citizens who are informed and willing to participate. Voting is only the most visible form of engagement; attending public meetings, joining civic groups and discussing issues with neighbours also shape the decisions that affect everyday life.
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Model answer: Stress "informed" and "willing to participate". Pause at the semicolon after "engagement". Keep the three activities as a parallel list and stress "also". Slow down on "everyday life" and fall 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: Before the invention of electricity, people relied on candles and oil lamps.
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Model answer: Learning to code has become an important skill in many professions.
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Model answer: We need to book the meeting room for Thursday afternoon.
Describe Image
Describe the image in detail.
Career — 41%
Study abroad — 22%
Travel — 14%
Emigration — 10%
Entertainment — 8%
Family — 5%
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: This chart shows why adults learn English. The largest group, 41 percent, study for career reasons, and 22 percent want to study abroad. Travel motivates 14 percent, while 10 percent plan to emigrate. Entertainment accounts for 8 percent and family reasons for only 5. Work and education together explain nearly two thirds of learners, which shows how practical the main motives are.
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 quantum entanglement, where measuring one particle instantly affects predictions about a distant linked particle. Einstein called this spooky action at a distance, but experiments confirm it's real, without violating light-speed limits, since no information actually travels between them. Entanglement now underpins practical technologies like quantum computing and secure communication.
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: Ben argues financial literacy should be a mandatory core subject given widespread financial mistakes among adults. Carla worries an already packed curriculum can't easily fit a new subject. David suggests integrating it into existing classes like math. They agree on a concentrated, dedicated module combined with existing subjects rather than either ignoring it or creating an entirely new course.
Respond to a Situation
Listen to the situation and respond as if you were in it.
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Model answer: I need to tell you something important right away, I just realized the dish I served actually contains a small amount of almond, which I completely failed to mention on the menu. Please stop eating it immediately if you haven't already finished it, and let me know if you're feeling any symptoms so we can act quickly if needed.
Writing
Summarize Written Text
Read the passage and write a one-sentence summary.
Glaciers are often described as rivers of ice, and like rivers they flow, though so slowly that the movement is usually measured in metres per year. Snow accumulates at high altitude, compresses under its own weight into dense ice, and creeps downhill under gravity until it melts or breaks off at the glacier's lower end. When the amount of snow gained in winter equals the ice lost in summer, a glacier is in balance. Across most of the world, however, this balance has been lost. Since the 1990s, glaciers have been thinning and retreating at an accelerating rate, and the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are also shedding mass. The consequences are felt in two ways. Globally, meltwater flows into the oceans, contributing to sea level rise that threatens low-lying coasts and island nations. Locally, communities that depend on seasonal meltwater for drinking, farming and hydropower face a paradoxical future. At first, faster melting brings more water, but once a glacier has shrunk beyond a certain point, its summer runoff declines and may eventually dwindle, as is already predicted for parts of the Andes and the Himalayas. Some regions also face the danger of sudden floods when lakes formed by meltwater burst their natural dams. Scientists stress that the amount of ice ultimately lost will depend heavily on how quickly greenhouse gas emissions are reduced.
Read the passage and summarise it in ONE sentence of no more than 75 words.
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Model answer: Glaciers worldwide are shrinking faster than they are replenished, raising sea levels and threatening the water supplies of dependent communities after an initial surge in meltwater, with the extent of the eventual loss depending largely on how swiftly greenhouse gas emissions are cut.
Write Essay
Write an essay of about 200-300 words on the topic.
Scientists can now edit human genes to prevent certain inherited diseases before a baby is born. Should this technology be allowed, or does it raise ethical concerns that outweigh its benefits?
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Model answer: Editing the genes of a human embryo to prevent serious inherited disease is no longer purely theoretical, and I believe it should be permitted for this specific purpose, though with strict limits.
The potential benefit is profound. Families carrying genes for devastating conditions, such as certain forms of muscular dystrophy or severe immune disorders, could have children free from diseases that would otherwise cause lifelong suffering or early death. Unlike treating an existing patient, editing an embryo can, in principle, remove the disease from that family line entirely, sparing future generations as well.
The ethical concerns, however, are serious and should not be dismissed. Editing an embryo's genes affects a person who cannot consent, and any change is permanent and heritable, unlike ordinary medical treatment. There is also a real danger of the technology extending beyond disease prevention towards selecting for appearance, intelligence or other traits, creating new forms of inequality between those who can afford such enhancement and those who cannot. Errors introduced during editing, though rare, could also have unforeseen effects on health.
For these reasons, I believe gene editing in embryos should be tightly restricted by law to the prevention of severe, well-understood genetic diseases, subject to independent ethical review and long-term monitoring of the resulting children. Enhancement for non-medical traits should remain prohibited internationally, since the potential for the technology to entrench inequality outweighs any speculative benefit in those cases.
Reading
Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks
Select the best word for each blank.
Not all animals perceive colour in the same way that humans do, since the number and type of light-sensitive cells in the eye varies considerably between species. Dogs, for example, have only two types of colour receptor rather than the three found in most humans, which their ability to distinguish certain shades, particularly reds and greens. Many birds and insects, by contrast, can detect ultraviolet light that is completely invisible to humans, allowing them to see patterns on flowers or feathers that go unnoticed. Some deep-sea fish have evolved to see almost no colour at all, since so little light to the depths where they live that colour vision would offer little practical benefit. Understanding how differently animals perceive their surroundings has become important designing everything from pet toys to wildlife-friendly lighting.
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Read the text and select all the correct answers.
The sharing economy refers to a range of digital platforms that allow individuals to rent out underused assets, such as a spare room, a car, or even personal tools, directly to other people, typically in exchange for a fee and a commission paid to the platform. Proponents argue that this model makes more efficient use of existing resources, since a car that would otherwise sit unused for most of the day, or a spare room that would otherwise remain empty, can generate income for its owner while providing a cheaper option for the person renting it. Critics, however, point out that some of these platforms operate in a regulatory grey area, avoiding rules that apply to traditional hotels or taxi services, such as safety inspections, insurance requirements or local taxes, which can create unfair competition for established businesses that must follow stricter rules. There is also concern that in cities with severe housing shortages, homeowners renting rooms or entire properties to short-term visitors through such platforms can reduce the number of homes available for long-term residents, contributing to rising rents in already expensive neighbourhoods.
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.
Economists frequently use a statistical measure called the Gini coefficient to the level of income inequality within a country, expressed as a single number between zero, representing perfect equality, and one, representing complete inequality in which a single person holds all the income. A country's Gini coefficient can change considerably over time in response to shifts in taxation, wage growth or social spending, allowing researchers to whether inequality is rising or falling within a specific nation across decades. Comparing Gini coefficients between countries can be genuinely informative, but economists caution that the measure does not every important aspect of economic wellbeing, since two countries with an identical Gini coefficient might have very different average living standards or levels of absolute poverty. For this reason, researchers generally recommend examining the Gini coefficient alongside other indicators rather than it as a single, complete measure of a country's economic fairness.
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Read the text and choose the best answer.
Deepfakes are convincingly realistic but ultimately fabricated images, audio recordings or videos generated using sophisticated artificial intelligence techniques, capable of realistically depicting a real person saying or doing something they, in genuine reality, never actually said or did. As the underlying technology used to generate increasingly convincing deepfakes has become considerably more accessible and sophisticated, researchers have worked correspondingly hard to develop reliable, effective methods for detecting them, often by carefully analysing subtle inconsistencies in lighting, shadow, blinking patterns or other minor visual details that many current AI generation systems still cannot perfectly replicate, even in an otherwise highly convincing overall video or image. This ongoing technical contest between deepfake generation and detection resembles an escalating arms race, since detection researchers who successfully publish a particular new, effective detection method risk inadvertently providing deepfake creators with exactly the specific technical information needed to correct the very flaw that particular detection method originally relied upon to work. Beyond the purely technical detection challenge, the mere widespread existence of increasingly convincing deepfakes has also generated a separate, broader social concern, since even a demonstrably genuine, entirely authentic video can now potentially be dismissed by a bad-faith actor as an alleged deepfake, undermining public trust in authentic video evidence more broadly.
3. According to the passage, what broader social concern has arisen from the existence of deepfakes?
Listening
Summarize Spoken Text
Listen to the recording, then write a summary.
Transcript (available after checking)
Almost every electronic device you own, from your phone to your car, depends on semiconductors. A semiconductor is a material, usually silicon, that conducts electricity better than an insulator such as glass but worse than a metal like copper. What makes it special is that its conductivity can be controlled precisely by adding tiny amounts of other elements or by applying voltage. That allows engineers to build transistors, which act as microscopic switches. A modern processor contains billions of them, and each switch can turn on and off billions of times per second. Manufacturing these chips is extraordinarily difficult. It takes place in extremely clean factories called fabs, and only a handful of companies in the world can make the most advanced ones. That concentration is why chip shortages, like the ones during the pandemic, had such widespread effects on industries from cars to household appliances.
Write a summary of the lecture in 50–70 words.
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Model answer: Semiconductors such as silicon have conductivity that can be precisely controlled, allowing them to form transistors, the microscopic switches that billions of times over make up modern processors. Because only a few companies can manufacture advanced chips in specialised clean factories, shortages can disrupt industries from smartphones and household appliances to cars.
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Listen and select all the correct answers.
Transcript (available after checking)
Unlike dogs, which were deliberately bred by humans for particular tasks, cats seem to have domesticated themselves. About ten thousand years ago, as people in the Near East began storing grain, the stores attracted mice, and the mice attracted wild cats. Cats that tolerated being near humans got a reliable food supply, so natural selection favoured friendlier individuals, and the relationship gradually became mutual. Genetic studies show that the house cat's DNA is remarkably close to that of the African wildcat, much closer than a dog's DNA is to a wolf's, suggesting far less deliberate breeding took place. This may explain why cats retain more independent, wild-type behaviour than most dog breeds. Ancient Egyptian art from around four thousand years ago shows cats in homes, indicating the relationship was already well established by then.
1. Which THREE points are made about cat domestication?
Fill in the Blanks
Listen to the recording and type the missing words.
For thousands of years, coastal communities have produced salt by trapping seawater in shallow ponds and letting the sun and wind evaporate the water, leaving crystallised that can be raked up. This method requires a warm, dry climate with reliable sunshine, since at the wrong moment can ruin an entire harvest. In colder regions, producers instead extract salt by mining underground deposits left behind by ancient seas that dried up millions of years , or by pumping water into these deposits and evaporating the brine using . Salt remains one of the oldest traded in human history.
Highlight Correct Summary
Listen and choose the paragraph that best summarises the recording.
Transcript (available after checking)
Humpback whales undertake some of the longest migrations of any mammal, travelling between cold, nutrient-rich polar feeding grounds, where they build up thick reserves of blubber over the summer, and warmer tropical waters where they breed and give birth during the winter months, since calves are born with relatively little insulating fat and would struggle to survive in cold polar water. During the months spent in warmer breeding waters, adult whales typically eat very little, relying instead on the fat reserves built up earlier, and some individuals lose a substantial portion of their body weight over the course of the migration and breeding season before returning to polar waters to feed again. Researchers track individual whales partly by photographing the unique markings on the underside of their tail flukes, which function almost like a natural fingerprint.
2. Which paragraph best summarises the recording?
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Listen and choose the best answer.
Transcript (available after checking)
Contactless payment, letting a card be tapped near a reader instead of inserted with a PIN, was first trialled in the early two-thousands but adoption stayed slow for years, partly since retailers were reluctant to install new readers without clear evidence customers wanted the feature. Adoption accelerated once smartphones adopted the same technology, letting people pay by phone, and jumped again during a global health crisis, when many businesses actively encouraged contactless payment to reduce physical contact between customers and staff. Transaction limits, initially set low for security, have since been raised considerably in many countries.
3. What caused contactless payment adoption to accelerate sharply on a second occasion, 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. Early doors were typically opened using a basic latch or a length of string pulled through a hole, requiring little mechanical complexity but offering almost no security. The familiar round doorknob, paired with an internal spring-loaded latch mechanism, became standard in the nineteenth century, and a turning knob proved considerably more convenient than earlier designs that needed to be lifted or pulled directly.
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 24