A2–C2 · PTE Academic
PTE Academic Practice Test 37
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.
Tea originated in China thousands of years ago and later spread to Japan, India and Britain. Each culture developed its own rituals: the Japanese tea ceremony emphasises calm and respect, while British afternoon tea became a relaxed social occasion.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Pause after "ago" and at the colon after "rituals". Read "Japan, India and Britain" as a list. Stress the contrast between "calm and respect" and "relaxed social occasion". Say "ceremony" and "emphasises" clearly, and fall on "occasion".
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.
Show sample answer
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.
Repeat Sentence
You will hear a sentence. Please repeat the sentence exactly as you hear it.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Applications for the scholarship must be submitted online by the fifteenth of March.
Show sample answer
Model answer: A well-designed survey should contain clear questions and a representative sample.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Some historians argue that the empire collapsed for economic rather than military reasons.
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.
Show sample answer
Model answer: This graph shows how electricity demand changes during a winter weekday. Demand is lowest at 4 a.m., at 24 gigawatts. It rises sharply to 42 by 8 a.m. and stays around 40 at midday. There is a small increase at 4 p.m. and then the daily peak of 52 gigawatts at 6 p.m. when people return home. After that, demand falls again to 31 by 11 p.m. The pattern has a morning and an evening rise.
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.
Show sample answer
Model answer: The lecture explains that genetic evidence dates horse domestication to around four thousand two hundred years ago near the Volga and Don rivers, later than once believed. This successful lineage replaced earlier failed domestication attempts and spread rapidly across Europe and Asia, transforming warfare, trade, and travel within a few centuries.
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.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Isla warns that accumulating space debris threatens satellites and spacecraft, risking a cascading Kessler syndrome effect. Jack notes cooperation is hard since the problem doesn't feel urgent. Anna points out debris-removal technologies already exist. The group agrees on requiring satellite operators to fund end-of-life deorbiting plans upfront rather than deferring cleanup responsibility to the future.
Respond to a Situation
Listen to the situation and respond as if you were in it.
Show sample answer
Model answer: This is almost double what I was quoted over the phone before I agreed to the repair. I understand extra parts sometimes come up, but I should have been contacted and asked before the cost jumped that much. Could you break down exactly what changed and why, and can we discuss the price before I agree to pay this full amount?
Writing
Summarize Written Text
Read the passage and write a one-sentence summary.
Open-plan offices became fashionable in the early twenty-first century on the promise that removing walls would encourage collaboration, spark creativity and cut the cost of space. Managers imagined that employees would exchange ideas more freely if they could see and hear one another. Studies that have measured what actually happens suggest otherwise. In one investigation by two Harvard researchers, employees at two multinational companies were fitted with sensors that recorded their interactions before and after a move to an open layout. Face-to-face conversation fell by roughly seventy percent, while email and messaging rose sharply. The workers, it seems, retreated behind headphones and communicated electronically to preserve some privacy, ironically becoming less sociable than before. Other research has found that background conversation impairs concentration on tasks that require reading or writing, that employees in open layouts take more sick days, and that people report lower satisfaction when they have no control over their environment. Advocates note that open offices can be beneficial for teams whose work depends on constant, quick exchanges, such as software developers working in pairs, and that problems are often due to poor design, for example the absence of quiet rooms. Many companies now adopt a compromise, providing a mixture of shared desks, private booths and meeting rooms, which allows staff to choose the setting that best suits the task at hand.
Read the passage and summarise it in ONE sentence of no more than 75 words.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Contrary to expectations, open-plan offices often reduce face-to-face interaction and concentration as workers withdraw behind headphones, so although they can suit certain collaborative teams, many companies now combine shared areas with quiet spaces so that employees can choose an environment suited to their task.
Write Essay
Write an essay of about 200-300 words on the topic.
Some countries require all young adults to complete a period of military or civilian national service. Should this policy be adopted more widely?
Show sample answer
Model answer: Compulsory national service, whether military or civilian, remains in place in a number of countries, and while I see genuine value in the idea, I do not think it should be adopted universally in its traditional military form.
Proponents argue that a period of service teaches discipline, teamwork and practical skills that benefit young people throughout their lives, while also fostering a shared sense of national identity across social and economic backgrounds that might otherwise rarely mix. In countries facing genuine security threats, a trained reserve of citizens can also strengthen national defence at a reasonable cost.
However, mandatory military service in particular raises difficult issues. Many young people have no interest in a military career and may resent time taken from education or early employment, and enforced participation can lower morale within the armed forces themselves. For countries without pressing security needs, the economic cost of removing large numbers of young workers from the labour market for a year or more can also be considerable.
A more flexible policy, in my view, would offer young adults a choice between military training and civilian service, such as working in healthcare, environmental projects or education, for a shorter, clearly defined period. This would preserve the social and personal benefits that supporters value, including cooperation across backgrounds, while avoiding the resentment and economic cost associated with compulsory military duty for those who have no wish to serve in that capacity.
Reading
Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks
Select the best word for each blank.
Genetic evidence suggests that dogs were from wolves tens of thousands of years ago, making them the oldest domesticated animal by a considerable margin. Researchers believe the process began when wolves that were less fearful of humans started scavenging near camps, gaining access to food scraps tolerating human presence. Over many generations, humans likely favoured individuals that were calmer and more cooperative, gradually the species through selective breeding, whether deliberate or accidental. As dogs adapted to living alongside people, they developed physical and behavioural traits, such as the ability to read human gestures, that wild wolves generally . This long partnership eventually produced the hundreds of breeds that exist today, each shaped by tasks ranging from herding to hunting simple companionship.
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Read the text and select all the correct answers.
Clownfish live among the stinging tentacles of sea anemones, a relationship that benefits both species in distinct ways. Most fish that brush against an anemone's tentacles are quickly paralysed by its venomous sting and consumed, but clownfish are protected by a thick layer of mucus on their skin that prevents the anemone's stinging cells from firing, allowing the fish to move freely among the tentacles that would otherwise pose a lethal threat. In exchange for this safe shelter from predators, clownfish provide several benefits to their host anemone, including chasing away certain fish that feed on anemone tentacles, removing parasites, and improving water circulation around the anemone through their constant swimming movement, which some studies suggest increases the oxygen available to the anemone's tissue. Young clownfish must locate a suitable host anemone shortly after hatching, and competition for available anemones can be intense in crowded reef areas, since a clownfish separated from anemone shelter for too long is highly vulnerable to predators. Interestingly, all clownfish are born male, and a fish will change sex to become female only if the dominant female within its anemone dies or disappears, at which point the largest remaining male transitions to take her place.
1. Which THREE 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.
Advertisers frequently use a technique called A/B testing to which version of an advertisement performs better, by showing two slightly different versions to separate groups of viewers and comparing the results. A single variable, such as the headline, image or call-to-action button, is typically changed between versions so that any difference in performance can be confidently to that specific change rather than several changes at once. Because online advertising platforms can track precisely how many viewers click or purchase after seeing each version, marketers can reliable data within days or even hours, rather than waiting months for traditional market research. Critics note that A/B testing works best for incremental improvements to an existing advertisement and may be less useful for evaluating a genuinely novel creative concept, since testing typically a reasonably large existing audience to produce statistically meaningful results. Despite this limitation, the technique has become a standard tool that most major online advertisers now as part of their routine marketing process.
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Read the text and choose the best answer.
A patent grants an inventor a legally enforceable, exclusive right to prevent others from manufacturing, using or selling a particular invention for a limited, fixed period, typically twenty years from the date of filing in most countries, in exchange for the inventor publicly disclosing exactly how the invention works in complete technical detail. This exchange is intended to genuinely benefit society as a whole: the inventor gains a temporary period of exclusive commercial advantage that can justify their significant investment in research and development, while the wider public eventually gains full, permanent access to the disclosed technical knowledge once the fixed patent period has fully expired. Companies operating in highly innovative, competitive industries often build extensive, deliberately overlapping patent portfolios covering not just a core invention but also numerous related incremental improvements, partly to prevent close competitors from developing very similar alternative products, and partly to create valuable, licensable assets that can themselves generate substantial additional licensing revenue entirely independent of any company's own direct product manufacturing and sales. Critics argue that overly broad or excessively numerous patents can sometimes stifle beneficial innovation by making it considerably harder or more legally risky for other companies to develop genuinely new products without risking a costly infringement dispute, a persistent tension that patent offices and courts continue actively working to carefully balance.
3. According to the passage, what does an inventor receive in exchange for publicly disclosing an invention?
Listening
Summarize Spoken Text
Listen to the recording, then write a summary.
Transcript (available after checking)
Most of us know that the moon causes the tides, but the details are more interesting than you might expect. The moon's gravity pulls on the Earth, and it pulls hardest on the side facing it. The water on that side bulges toward the moon. Now, there's a second bulge on the opposite side of the Earth, which surprises many students. It happens because the Earth itself is also pulled toward the moon, leaving the far-side water slightly behind. As the Earth rotates, most coastlines pass through two high tides and two low tides each day. The sun contributes as well. When the sun, moon and Earth line up, at new moon and full moon, the pulls combine and we get especially high tides called spring tides. Local coastline shape then decides how dramatic the effect actually is.
Write a summary of the lecture in 50–70 words.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Tides occur because the moon's gravity creates two water bulges on opposite sides of the Earth, one facing the moon and one on the far side, so most coasts have two high tides daily. When the sun and moon line up, spring tides are especially high, while local coastline shapes influence how strong tides become.
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Listen and select all the correct answers.
Transcript (available after checking)
Parents often ask whether social media harms teenagers, and the honest answer from researchers is that it depends. Large surveys show only a small average link between time online and lower wellbeing, and that link is much weaker than the effect of sleep or of bullying. However, averages can hide important differences. Some teenagers, particularly those who already feel anxious, seem more vulnerable to comparing themselves with others. What seems to matter most is how young people use platforms. Passively scrolling through other people's polished photos is associated with feeling worse, whereas chatting with friends can strengthen relationships. Researchers therefore recommend that families talk about online experiences instead of simply setting a strict time limit, and that phones are kept out of bedrooms at night so that sleep is protected.
1. Which TWO recommendations does the speaker make?
Fill in the Blanks
Listen to the recording and type the missing words.
For centuries, deaf communities in many countries developed their own natural sign languages informally, passed between family members, though these languages were rarely . A turning point came in eighteenth-century France, where a priest founded one of the first schools for deaf , formalising the signs already used within the local deaf community rather than inventing a new system. His approach influenced deaf education across Europe. Linguists eventually that sign languages have their own full grammar and are not simply gestured versions of language, a recognition that took disappointingly long to gain .
Highlight Correct Summary
Listen and choose the paragraph that best summarises the recording.
Transcript (available after checking)
Public bathhouses were a central feature of Roman social life, found in even modest provincial towns across the empire, and they served purposes far beyond simple hygiene. A typical bathhouse offered a sequence of rooms at different temperatures, cold, warm and steamy hot, heated by an ingenious underfloor system called a hypocaust, where hot air from a furnace circulated beneath a raised floor and through hollow wall spaces. Bathing was a lengthy, social activity rather than a quick errand; people gathered to chat, conduct business, exercise, and sometimes read or listen to poetry, making the baths something closer to a modern community centre or gym than merely a place to wash. Entry was typically cheap or even free, funded by wealthy patrons or the state, making the baths accessible to nearly all social classes.
2. Which paragraph best summarises the recording?
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Listen and choose the best answer.
Transcript (available after checking)
A green roof is a rooftop partly or completely covered with soil and vegetation, and beyond looking attractive, it offers several practical benefits. The layer of soil and plants absorbs rainwater that would otherwise rush straight into stormwater drains, and it also insulates the building beneath, reducing heating costs in winter and cooling costs in summer by buffering temperature swings. In dense cities, green roofs also help offset the urban heat island effect, since vegetation reflects and absorbs less heat than a dark, bare roof. Some cities now offer incentives for new buildings to include one.
3. According to the lecture, how does a green roof help with a building's temperature?
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 road hazards were often marked with simple wooden barriers, which were heavy, rather awkward to store, and easily broken by passing vehicles. An American street painter eventually patented a portable rubber cone in the nineteen forties that could be knocked over safely and quickly set upright again. Its bright orange colour and nestable shape soon made it practical for road crews to carry in fairly large numbers.
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 38