A2–C2 · PTE Academic
PTE Academic Practice Test 40
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.
Solar panels convert sunlight directly into electricity using semiconductor materials, most commonly silicon. Although the technology was once prohibitively expensive, costs have fallen by around ninety percent in the past decade. In sunny regions, solar power is now often cheaper than electricity generated from coal.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Pronounce "semiconductor" and "prohibitively" carefully; they are the hardest words. Pause after "electricity" and "expensive". Stress "ninety percent" and "decade". In the last sentence, emphasise "often cheaper" and let your voice fall on "coal".
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.
Show sample answer
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".
Repeat Sentence
You will hear a sentence. Please repeat the sentence exactly as you hear it.
Show sample answer
Model answer: The hospital has appointed a new director of nursing.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Group projects teach students how to negotiate and share responsibility.
Show sample answer
Model answer: It rained so heavily that the football match was postponed.
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: The chart presents typical monthly rents for a one-bedroom apartment in seven cities. New York is by far the most expensive at 3,600 dollars, followed by London at 2,800 and Toronto at 2,100. Rents then drop sharply, with Berlin at 1,300 and Madrid at 1,150. Warsaw is cheapest at 900 dollars, so renting in New York costs roughly four times as much as in Warsaw.
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 traces mail systems from ancient Persian and Roman relay networks for officials to the modern public postal service. Britain's Penny Post in eighteen forty, charging one flat low fee regardless of distance, made mail affordable for ordinary people. Other countries copied the model, and mail volume grew rapidly, connecting families and businesses nationwide.
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: David wants companies legally required to disclose carbon footprints for transparency. Emma warns inconsistent accounting methods make comparisons meaningless without standards. Frank proposes mandatory standardized reporting frameworks. They agree that standardized, independently audited disclosure, rather than unregulated self-reporting, would let transparency genuinely reward greener businesses.
Respond to a Situation
Listen to the situation and respond as if you were in it.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Excuse me, I don't want to make a fuss, but I just noticed a hair in the sauce on my plate. I've mostly finished the meal, so I'm not asking for a replacement, but I did want to mention it quietly so the kitchen is aware. Perhaps you could reflect that in the bill.
Writing
Summarize Written Text
Read the passage and write a one-sentence summary.
Coral bleaching occurs when reef-building corals expel the symbiotic algae that live inside their tissues. These algae, known as zooxanthellae, supply the coral with up to ninety percent of its energy through photosynthesis and give it its colour. When seawater temperatures rise even one or two degrees above the seasonal maximum for several weeks, the algae begin to produce toxic compounds, and the coral responds by ejecting them. The result is a white, skeletal appearance that gives the phenomenon its name. Bleached coral is not necessarily dead; if temperatures fall quickly enough, algae can recolonise the tissue and the reef may recover. However, prolonged stress leaves the coral starving and vulnerable to disease. Until recently, severe bleaching events were rare, occurring perhaps once every quarter of a century at any given reef. Today, some reefs, including large sections of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, experience them every few years, leaving too little time between episodes for full regeneration. Researchers have found that some species and even some individual colonies tolerate heat better than others, and there is growing interest in propagating these resilient corals or breeding heat-tolerant strains. Yet most scientists agree that such interventions can only buy time. Without substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the underlying driver of ocean warming will continue, and even the hardiest corals will eventually be pushed beyond their limits.
Read the passage and summarise it in ONE sentence of no more than 75 words.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Coral bleaching, in which overheated corals expel the algae that feed and colour them, is now occurring so frequently that reefs cannot recover, and although heat-tolerant corals may help, only major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions can address the underlying cause of ocean warming.
Write Essay
Write an essay of about 200-300 words on the topic.
Some politicians have proposed taxing the wealthiest individuals in society more heavily to reduce inequality and fund public services. Is a wealth tax on billionaires a good policy?
Show sample answer
Model answer: Proposals to tax the fortunes of the very richest individuals, rather than only their income, have gained political attention in recent years, and I believe such a tax, carefully designed, would be a reasonable response to growing inequality.
Supporters point out that wealth has become increasingly concentrated at the very top of society, with a small number of billionaires holding assets equivalent to the combined wealth of billions of the world's poorest people. Because much of this wealth grows through investment gains rather than salary, ordinary income taxes barely touch it, while public services such as healthcare and education often struggle for funding. A modest annual tax on very large fortunes could raise significant revenue without meaningfully affecting the lifestyle of those who pay it.
Opponents warn that wealthy individuals and their assets can move easily to countries with lower taxes, that valuing complex holdings such as private businesses or artwork is difficult, and that discouraging large-scale investment could ultimately slow economic growth and reduce the jobs it creates.
On balance, I believe these practical concerns argue for careful design rather than abandoning the idea altogether. International cooperation to prevent wealth simply relocating, together with clear rules for valuing assets and reasonable rates that avoid punishing productive investment, could allow a wealth tax to raise meaningful revenue for public services while addressing widening inequality, without driving away the economic activity that governments also depend on.
Reading
Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks
Select the best word for each blank.
A lichen is not a single organism but a partnership between a fungus and either algae or bacteria, each something the other lacks. The fungal partner provides a protective structure that shields the partnership from drying out or intense sunlight, while the algae or bacteria energy through photosynthesis that the fungus cannot produce on its own. This cooperative arrangement allows lichens to survive in extremely harsh environments, including bare rock, Arctic tundra and even some deserts, where few other organisms establish themselves at all. Because lichens grow extremely slowly, sometimes only a few millimetres per century, scientists can use their size to estimate a rock surface has been exposed. Lichens are also remarkably sensitive to air pollution, and their absence from an otherwise suitable habitat can poor air quality in the surrounding area.
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Read the text and select all the correct answers.
Locusts are a type of grasshopper that normally lead solitary lives, avoiding contact with others of their own species, but under certain conditions, typically triggered by a combination of drought followed by sudden rainfall and abundant vegetation, locust populations can grow rapidly and begin to behave in a dramatically different way. When locusts are forced into close physical contact with one another as population density rises, physical contact against their hind legs triggers hormonal changes that cause the insects to transform, both in appearance and behaviour, into a highly social, swarming form that actively seeks out and moves together with other locusts rather than avoiding them. These enormous swarms, sometimes containing billions of insects and capable of travelling long distances, can strip vast areas of vegetation within hours, posing a severe threat to crops and food security across entire regions, particularly in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia where locust outbreaks have historically caused devastating famines. Modern monitoring efforts rely heavily on satellite data to track weather and vegetation conditions favourable to locust breeding, allowing authorities to target early intervention, such as spraying pesticides on young, still-flightless locust groups, before a small local outbreak has the chance to develop into a full-scale, far more difficult to control regional swarm.
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.
Companies use customer segmentation to divide a broad customer base into smaller groups that similar characteristics, needs or purchasing habits, allowing marketing messages to be tailored more precisely than a single generic campaign aimed at every customer. Segments can be defined using a wide range of criteria, including age, income, past purchasing behaviour or even more specific psychological factors such as personal values or lifestyle preferences. Effective segmentation allows a company to its marketing budget more efficiently, focusing resources on the segments most likely to respond positively rather than spreading a limited budget evenly and inefficiently across an entire, undifferentiated customer base. However, segmentation strategies must be updated periodically, since customer preferences and behaviours can considerably over time, and a segmentation model based on outdated assumptions can lead a company to target the wrong audience entirely. Increasingly sophisticated data analysis techniques now allow companies to their segmentation models continuously, updating them automatically as new customer data becomes available.
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Read the text and choose the best answer.
Before undertaking a long migratory flight, many bird species undergo a dramatic physiological transformation, rapidly accumulating substantial fat reserves that can, in some species, nearly double their normal body weight within just a few weeks of intensive feeding. This stored fat serves as the primary fuel source sustaining a bird through days or even weeks of continuous or near-continuous flight, particularly during especially demanding legs of a migration that cross open ocean or desert, where suitable feeding or resting opportunities are extremely limited or entirely unavailable. Some migratory birds also undergo other significant physiological changes in preparation for migration, including a measurable, temporary enlargement of the heart and flight muscles, alongside a corresponding, temporary shrinking of digestive organs that will not be needed during the demanding flight itself and would otherwise represent unnecessary additional weight. Once a bird reaches its destination and resumes normal feeding, these temporarily altered organs typically return to their usual size within days. Researchers studying these seasonal transformations continue to be impressed by how thoroughly and how quickly a migratory bird's body can be temporarily reorganised entirely around the singular demands of long-distance flight.
3. What is the main idea of the passage?
Listening
Summarize Spoken Text
Listen to the recording, then write a summary.
Transcript (available after checking)
Open-plan offices became popular because they promised cheaper space and more collaboration. Employees would talk to each other spontaneously, ideas would flow, and hierarchy would flatten. But researchers who measured what actually happens found something different. In one study, when companies removed walls and partitions, face-to-face conversation dropped by about seventy percent, and email and messaging increased. People put on headphones to create the privacy they'd lost. Other surveys show that noise and interruptions reduce concentration and increase stress, and that sick days may rise because germs spread more easily. This doesn't mean open plans never work. They can suit teams whose jobs depend on constant quick exchanges. But experts now recommend a mix of spaces, including quiet rooms for focused work, meeting areas for collaboration, and some choice for employees about where they work each day.
Write a summary of the lecture in 50–70 words.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Open-plan offices were meant to boost collaboration, but studies found that face-to-face talk fell sharply while messaging rose, and noise and interruptions reduced concentration. They may suit some teams, yet experts recommend a mixture of quiet rooms, meeting spaces and employee choice about where to work on any given day.
Multiple Choice, Choose Multiple Answers
Listen and select all the correct answers.
Transcript (available after checking)
In November nineteen sixty-three, fishermen off the coast of Iceland saw smoke rising from the sea. It was the beginning of a volcanic eruption that would create a new island, called Surtsey. Within days, a cone of ash and lava had risen above the waves, and eruptions continued for more than three years. The island reached about two square kilometres. Scientists quickly realised they had a rare chance to watch life colonise land from scratch, so Surtsey was declared a nature reserve, and access is restricted to researchers. The first plant appeared in the spring of nineteen sixty-five. Seabirds arrived later and their droppings enriched the soil, which allowed many more plants to grow. Today, there are dozens of plant species and colonies of puffins. The island is also shrinking, because waves are eroding it.
1. Which of the following does the speaker say?
Fill in the Blanks
Listen to the recording and type the missing words.
Roman engineers built an extensive network of aqueducts to carry fresh water, sometimes across distances of more than fifty kilometres, from mountain springs into cities throughout the . Remarkably, the system relied purely on , with no pumps available, so surveyors had to calculate an extremely gentle, continuous downward slope, often following the contours of hills rather than a straight . Where a valley interrupted the route, engineers built raised stone arches, some still standing today, to carry the channel across at the correct . Inside a city, the water fed fountains and baths through lead and clay .
Highlight Correct Summary
Listen and choose the paragraph that best summarises the recording.
Transcript (available after checking)
The Arctic tern holds the record for the longest known migration of any animal, breeding in the Arctic during the northern summer and then flying all the way to Antarctic waters for the southern summer, before returning north again the following year, a round trip that can exceed seventy thousand kilometres depending on the route taken. Because it experiences summer in both hemispheres, an Arctic tern may see more daylight over its lifetime than almost any other creature on Earth. Researchers tracking individual birds with small satellite tags have found that terns don't always fly the most direct route, sometimes taking a zigzagging path that follows favourable wind patterns rather than the shortest line between two points, which can add thousands of extra kilometres but may actually save energy overall.
2. Which paragraph best summarises the recording?
Multiple Choice, Choose Single Answer
Listen and choose the best answer.
Transcript (available after checking)
Early matches, developed in the early nineteenth century, often used white phosphorus, which ignited easily but was highly toxic to the factory workers who handled it constantly, prompting calls for a safer alternative. The safety match, invented in the eighteen forties, solved this by separating the two chemicals needed for ignition: the match head contained one, while the second, required to start the flame, sat only on the striking surface of the box, so the match no longer ignited by accidental friction alone. This was safer for workers and reduced the risk of fires from matches carried loosely in a pocket.
3. How did the safety match reduce the risk of accidental fires?
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 mechanical clocks often lost or gained several minutes a day, since their timekeeping depended on a fairly crude mechanism that released stored energy in rough, poorly regulated bursts. A Dutch scientist in the sixteen fifties paired a swinging pendulum with a mechanism called an escapement, which allows a small, precisely measured amount of energy with each swing, dramatically improving the clock's overall accuracy.
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 41