A1–C2 · TOEFL iBT
TOEFL iBT Practice Test 17
AI-generated practice paper in the style of TOEFL iBT — 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.
Reading
Complete the Words
Type the missing letters to complete the words in the paragraph.
Impressionist painters shocked audiences in nineteenth-century France. Instead of polished, detailed scenes, they offe quick brushs and bright colours that captured a passing mom. Many worked outd, which was unusual at the time, because new paint tubes made tra easier. Claude Monet painted the same hayst and cathedral repeatedly to show how changing lig transformed their appearance. Critics first moc the movement, even taking its name from an insulting rev. Today, however, these paintings are among the most belo in the world.
Read in Daily Life
Read the text and answer the questions.
Store policy: Returns and Exchanges
Items may be returned within 30 days of purchase with a receipt. Clothing must be unworn and have the original tags. Sale items can be exchanged but not refunded. If you paid by card, your refund will go back to the same card within five to seven working days. Underwear and swimwear cannot be returned for hygiene reasons.
1. What can a customer do with a sale item?
2. Why can swimwear not be returned?
Information sheet: Graduation Ceremony
Doors open at 1:00 p.m.; the ceremony begins promptly at 2:00 p.m. and lasts approximately 90 minutes. Each graduate may bring up to 4 guests; additional guest tickets can be requested but are not guaranteed. Gowns must be collected from the gown office by noon on the day. Photography is allowed from the seating area only.
3. What is true about additional guest tickets?
4. By when must gowns be collected?
Read an Academic Passage
Read the passage and answer the questions.
The Japanese tea ceremony, or chanoyu, developed over centuries into a highly formalised ritual for preparing and serving powdered green tea, but its philosophical foundations were shaped decisively by the sixteenth-century tea master Sen no Rikyū, who emphasised an aesthetic he called wabi-sabi: an appreciation of simplicity, imperfection, and transience. Rikyū deliberately favoured rustic, irregularly shaped utensils over the ornate Chinese porcelain fashionable among the era's elite, and he is said to have designed tea rooms with low, narrow entrances that forced even powerful samurai to remove their swords and stoop before entering, temporarily equalising guests of different social rank within the tea room itself. Every gesture within the ceremony—the specific way a bowl is turned before drinking, the sequence in which utensils are cleaned and arranged, the placement of a single seasonal flower—follows a codified sequence developed to focus participants' attention entirely on the present moment, an idea closely tied to Zen Buddhist practice, in which Rikyū had trained. Historians note that the ceremony's association with restraint and humility existed in some tension with its patronage; wealthy and powerful figures, including the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi, sponsored elaborate tea gatherings partly to display cultural refinement and political authority, illustrating how an aesthetic built around simplicity could nonetheless become entangled with status and power.
5. According to the passage, what was one deliberate design choice Rikyū made in tea rooms?
6. As used in the passage, "transience" most nearly refers to
7. What can be inferred about the low tea-room entrances Rikyū designed?
8. Why does the author mention Toyotomi Hideyoshi's elaborate tea gatherings?
9. What is the main idea of the passage?
Listening
Listen and Choose a Response
Listen to each speaker, then choose the best response.
1. Choose the best response.
2. Choose the best response.
3. Choose the best response.
4. Choose the best response.
5. Choose the best response.
6. Choose the best response.
7. Choose the best response.
8. Choose the best response.
Listen to a Conversation
Listen to the conversation, then answer the questions.
Transcript (available after checking)
Emma: Isla, we should prepare some questions for the guest speaker before Friday's event.
Isla: Good thinking. What topics do you think would interest most of the audience?
Emma: Probably her career path and how she got into environmental policy.
Isla: I'll write a couple of questions about that. Should we also ask about current challenges in the field?
Emma: Yes, that would make the discussion feel more relevant to students planning similar careers.
Isla: I'll draft five questions tonight and send them to you to review.
Emma: Sounds good, I'll add one or two more if I think of anything.
Isla: Great, let's finalize the list by Thursday so we're ready.
9. What are Emma and Isla preparing for?
10. What is the guest speaker's field?
11. What will Isla do tonight?
Listen to an Announcement
Listen to the announcement, then answer the questions.
Transcript (available after checking)
Good evening, and welcome to the campus planetarium. Tonight's show, titled 'Journey to the Outer Planets,' begins in ten minutes and lasts approximately forty-five minutes. Please silence your phones, as the theater will be completely dark once the program starts, and latecomers may not be admitted after the doors close. Following the show, our astronomy staff will be available in the lobby to answer questions and help you look through a portable telescope, weather permitting. Remember that our next show, focused on black holes, will run every Friday evening throughout next month, with tickets available at the front desk.
12. How long does tonight's show last?
13. What can visitors do after the show?
Listen to an Academic Talk
Listen to part of a lecture, then answer the questions.
Transcript (available after checking)
So, before we get to Adam Smith and the rise of free trade theory, it's worth understanding the economic system he was actually arguing against, mercantilism, which dominated European economic thinking for roughly two centuries. Mercantilist thinking treated global wealth as essentially fixed, a zero-sum game, where one nation's economic gain necessarily came at another nation's expense. Under this view, the primary goal of national economic policy was accumulating gold and silver, achieved mainly by exporting as much as possible while importing as little as possible, maintaining what was called a favorable trade balance. Governments actively intervened to support this goal, imposing high tariffs on imported goods, granting monopolies to favored domestic companies, and establishing colonies specifically to extract raw materials cheaply while serving as captive markets for the home country's manufactured goods. Smith's eighteenth-century critique fundamentally challenged this framework, arguing that wealth wasn't actually fixed at all, and that voluntary trade between nations, and between individuals, could create genuinely new value for everyone involved rather than simply redistributing a fixed pie. This shift in thinking, from wealth as a zero-sum competition to wealth as something that trade itself could actively expand, laid crucial intellectual groundwork for the free trade principles that would go on to dominate much of modern economic policy in the centuries that followed.
14. What was the core belief of mercantilism about wealth?
15. What was the primary goal of mercantilist policy?
16. What role did colonies play under mercantilism?
17. How did Adam Smith's view challenge mercantilism?
Writing
Build a Sentence
Click the words and phrases to put them in the correct order.
1. What did you think of the exhibition?
2. My sister has just started a new job.
3. Do you two know each other?
4. What did the mayor promise?
5. Why did the population grow so quickly?
Write an Email
Write an email that responds to the situation.
You are an exchange student who has lost your bank card abroad. Write an email to the international office.
In your email, do the following:
- Explain what happened.
- Say what help you need.
- Ask about emergency support.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Dear International Office,
I am an exchange student from Brazil, and I am writing because my wallet was stolen on the tram this morning. It contained my bank card, my student card and about forty euros in cash.
I have already called my bank to block the card, but the replacement will take at least two weeks to reach me. In the meantime, I have no way to pay for food or transport.
Could you please help me report the theft to the police and get a temporary student card? I would also like to know whether the university offers any emergency funds or meals for students in this situation.
Thank you very much for your support.
Regards,
Bruno Silva
Write for an Academic Discussion
Read the discussion and write a post that contributes to it.
Professor Achebe: In organisational behaviour, we're considering the four-day work week, where employees work four days for the same pay as five, with the same total workload compressed. Would this benefit workers and companies, or would it backfire?
Rosalind: It would help enormously. Trials in several countries showed similar or even higher productivity, plus lower stress and burnout, because people return refreshed rather than exhausted.
Emeka: I doubt it works everywhere. In jobs like nursing or retail, where someone has to be physically present, compressing the same hours into fewer days just means longer, harder shifts.
Write a post that contributes to the discussion (at least 100 words).
Show sample answer
Model answer: Rosalind's evidence from trials is genuinely encouraging, and I think for office-based, knowledge-focused jobs, a four-day week is worth pursuing seriously, since the trials she mentions show that rested employees often work more efficiently, not less.
Emeka's objection, though, points to a real limitation rather than a flaw in the whole idea. Jobs requiring constant physical presence, like nursing, don't shrink their workload just because the calendar changes, so compressing five days into four there really could mean longer, more exhausting shifts unless companies hire more staff to cover the gap, which raises costs. I think the four-day week should be rolled out first in sectors like Rosalind describes, while sectors like Emeka's need a different solution, perhaps shorter shifts with more staff rather than fewer days.
Speaking
Listen and Repeat
Listen to each sentence and repeat it exactly.
Show sample answer
Model answer: The milk in the fridge is expired.
Show sample answer
Model answer: She forgot to bring her student ID to the exam.
Show sample answer
Model answer: The power went out during the storm and stayed off for hours.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Regular meditation has been shown to reduce stress and improve overall mental wellbeing.
Show sample answer
Model answer: The team's new coach introduced a training programme that focuses heavily on recovery and nutrition.
Take an Interview
Answer each interview question. Speak for about 45 seconds.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Yes, photography is my main hobby. I got a secondhand camera two years ago and have been teaching myself ever since, mostly through online tutorials and a lot of trial and error.
Show sample answer
Model answer: I enjoy street photography the most, capturing everyday moments in the city, like someone reading on a bench or light falling through a narrow alley. It feels more honest than posed pictures.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Understanding manual settings was the hardest part, especially adjusting exposure in changing light without making the photo too bright or too dark. It took a lot of failed shots before it clicked.
Show sample answer
Model answer: It's made me notice small details I used to walk right past, like interesting shadows or a particular colour combination. I now spend a lot of my free time just observing my surroundings more closely.
Keep your streak going
Up next: TOEFL iBT Practice Test 18