A1–C2 · TOEFL iBT
TOEFL iBT Practice Test 3
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.
Sleep is not simply a period of rest for the brain. During the night, the brain replays the events of the day, strengt some memories and discarding others. Experiments show that stud who sleep after stud recall far more than those who stay awa. Deep sleep seems to help transfer inform from a temporary store to long-term stor. Meanwhile, dreaming may allow the mind to comb old knowledge with new experiences in crea ways. Chronic sleep loss, there, can weaken both lear and emotional stability.
Read in Daily Life
Read the text and answer the questions.
Schedule: Student Research Day (Room 204)
9:00 — Welcome and coffee
9:30 — Talk: "Bees in the City" (Aiko Tanaka)
10:15 — Talk: "Reading on Screens" (Luis Ortega)
11:00 — Break
11:20 — Panel discussion: Careers after a master's degree
12:15 — Lunch (provided for registered participants only)
1:30 — Poster session in the main hall
1. Who can get a free lunch?
2. What happens right after the break?
Menu: The Old Mill — Autumn specials
Starter: Roasted pumpkin soup with toasted seeds — $7
Main: Slow-cooked lamb with rosemary potatoes — $19
Vegetarian main: Wild mushroom risotto — $16
Dessert: Apple and blackberry crumble with custard — $8
Set menu (starter, main and dessert): $29, Monday to Thursday only.
Please tell us about any allergies before ordering.
3. When is the set menu offered?
4. How much would a starter, vegetarian main and dessert cost if ordered separately?
Read an Academic Passage
Read the passage and answer the questions.
The genome was once described, somewhat simplistically, as a fixed blueprint that determines an organism's traits regardless of its environment. Epigenetics has substantially complicated this picture by showing that chemical modifications attached to DNA, without altering the underlying genetic sequence itself, can switch genes on or off and that these modifications can be influenced by environmental factors, including diet, stress, and toxin exposure. One well-studied mechanism, DNA methylation, involves attaching small chemical groups to specific points along the DNA strand, typically suppressing the activity of nearby genes without changing the genetic code they contain. A now-classic study of Dutch famine survivors found that children conceived during a severe wartime food shortage in 1944 and 1945 showed distinctive methylation patterns decades later, along with higher rates of certain metabolic conditions, compared to siblings conceived before or after the famine, suggesting the prenatal environment had left a lasting molecular mark. More controversial is the question of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance: whether such modifications can be passed to children or even grandchildren who were never themselves exposed to the original environmental trigger. Some animal studies suggest limited transmission across one or two generations, but rigorous evidence in humans remains scarce and difficult to disentangle from shared environment or cultural transmission, and many geneticists urge caution against overstating how much epigenetic inheritance, as opposed to ordinary genetic inheritance, actually explains.
5. According to the passage, what does DNA methylation typically do?
6. As used in the passage, "disentangle" most nearly means
7. What can be inferred about the Dutch famine study's findings?
8. Why does the author mention that many geneticists urge caution about transgenerational inheritance claims?
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)
Grace: Ben, our engineering club is putting together a team for the regional robotics competition. Want to join?
Ben: I'd love to, but I don't have much experience with robotics, mostly just programming.
Grace: That's actually really useful, we need someone to handle the control software.
Ben: That sounds manageable. When does the team start meeting?
Grace: Twice a week starting next Monday, and the competition itself is in two months.
Ben: Two months feels tight, but I'm willing to put in the time.
Grace: Great, I'll add you to the team and send you the project files tonight.
Ben: Thanks, I'm excited to get started.
9. What role does Grace suggest for Ben?
10. When does the team start meeting?
11. How does Ben feel about joining?
Listen to an Announcement
Listen to the announcement, then answer the questions.
Transcript (available after checking)
Attention, campus community. Starting this month, the university is launching an expanded recycling program that adds separate bins for glass, plastic, and paper in every academic building, replacing the single mixed-recycling bins used previously. Facilities staff will be distributing color-coded posters near each set of bins explaining exactly what belongs where, since mixing materials can contaminate an entire batch and send it to the landfill instead. This change is part of a broader effort to reduce campus waste by twenty percent over the next two years. We encourage everyone to take a moment to learn the new system and help make it a success.
12. What is replacing the single mixed-recycling bins?
13. What is the program's overall goal?
Listen to an Academic Talk
Listen to part of a lecture, then answer the questions.
Transcript (available after checking)
Let's turn now to the critical period hypothesis in language acquisition, one of the more debated ideas in linguistics. The basic claim is that there's a biologically limited window, roughly from early childhood through puberty, during which humans can acquire a language, especially its pronunciation and grammar, to a native-like level with relative ease. After this window closes, the theory suggests, language learning becomes noticeably harder, and achieving a fully native accent, in particular, becomes rare, though certainly not impossible. Now, the evidence for this comes from a few different sources. Studies of children who experienced severe social isolation early in life and were deprived of language exposure show that even with intensive later intervention, they often struggle to master certain grammatical structures that younger learners pick up effortlessly. There's also research comparing immigrants who arrived in a new country at different ages, generally showing that those who arrived before around age seven tend to achieve native-like fluency and accent, while accuracy and native-sounding pronunciation both tend to decline gradually the later someone arrives. That said, plenty of researchers push back on how strict this cutoff really is, pointing to adult learners who've achieved remarkably native-like proficiency through sustained immersion and motivation, which suggests the window might be more of a gradual decline in ease than a hard biological deadline.
14. What does the critical period hypothesis claim?
15. What evidence does the professor cite from isolated children?
16. What pattern is found among immigrants who arrive at different ages?
17. What is the professor's attitude toward the strict version of this hypothesis?
Writing
Build a Sentence
Click the words and phrases to put them in the correct order.
1. Who's in charge of the event?
2. How long have you lived here?
3. What did the boss want?
4. Did you hear about the fire?
5. Why did the manager resign?
Write an Email
Write an email that responds to the situation.
You are the president of the university film club and want a professor to speak at your next event. Write an email to Professor Nakamura.
In your email, do the following:
- Introduce yourself and the club.
- Invite the professor to give a short talk after a screening.
- Suggest a date and explain what the talk would involve.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Dear Professor Nakamura,
My name is Aisha Karim, and I am the president of the university film club. We have about sixty members who meet every fortnight to watch and discuss films from different countries.
Our committee would be delighted if you could give a short talk after our screening of a classic Japanese drama. Since you teach Asian cinema, your comments on the director's style would be very valuable to us.
We are planning the event for Wednesday, 12 November, at seven o'clock. You would speak for about fifteen minutes and then answer questions from the audience.
I hope you will be able to join us.
Kind regards,
Aisha Karim
Write for an Academic Discussion
Read the discussion and write a post that contributes to it.
Dr. Petrov: In media law, we're discussing whether governments should force social media platforms to remove false information quickly, or whether this risks giving governments too much power over what people can say. Share your opinion.
Camille: Platforms should be forced to act fast. False health information during the pandemic genuinely got people killed, and waiting for companies to self-regulate clearly hasn't worked well enough.
Boris: I'm nervous about government power here. Today's government might remove genuine misinformation, but tomorrow's government could use the same law to silence legitimate criticism it simply dislikes.
Write a post that contributes to the discussion (at least 100 words).
Show sample answer
Model answer: Camille's example about health misinformation is hard to argue against, and I agree that some content, like false medical claims that can directly harm people, needs fast removal. Waiting weeks for a voluntary review clearly isn't good enough when lives are at stake.
However, Boris's warning about power is exactly why I would want any such law to be narrow and specific rather than broad. I would support mandatory fast removal only for clearly defined categories, like verified health misinformation or direct incitement to violence, decided by an independent panel rather than the government of the day. A vague rule against 'false information' in general is far too easy for any government, however well-meaning today, to stretch later into silencing opinions it simply finds inconvenient.
Speaking
Listen and Repeat
Listen to each sentence and repeat it exactly.
Show sample answer
Model answer: The gym closes at eleven tonight.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Gravity pulls objects toward the earth.
Show sample answer
Model answer: The stadium was completely packed for the championship final last weekend.
Show sample answer
Model answer: The insurance company asked for photographs before they would approve the claim.
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Model answer: The festival attracted thousands of visitors despite the unusually cold weather this weekend.
Take an Interview
Answer each interview question. Speak for about 45 seconds.
Show sample answer
Model answer: My ideal weekend would start with a slow morning and a good breakfast, followed by some time outdoors, maybe a hike or a bike ride, and end with dinner and a film with friends.
Show sample answer
Model answer: It's fairly close on good weeks, though assignments or work shifts often interrupt the plan. Realistically, only about half of my weekends actually look the way I'd ideally want them to.
Show sample answer
Model answer: Coursework deadlines are the biggest interruption, especially near the end of a term, when even Saturday mornings sometimes get taken up by an essay or a project I've left until the last minute.
Show sample answer
Model answer: I think without deliberately planning enjoyable time, it's very easy for work to expand and fill every available hour. Protecting that time keeps me motivated and prevents the kind of exhaustion that eventually hurts productivity anyway.
Keep your streak going
Up next: TOEFL iBT Practice Test 4