Free

IELTS Reading Practice Test 4 (Academic, free, with answer key)

Last updated September 16, 2026

Short answer: Reading Test 4 is a full IELTS Academic Reading test: three passages (bird migration, forest fungi, concert hall acoustics), 40 questions in 60 minutes, and your raw score, estimated band on the Academic scale and per-passage breakdown the moment you submit. Free, no sign-up. Take the test first, then check the answer key below; reading it before the test makes the band meaningless.

Start Reading Test 4
3
Academic passages, each with its own page and full text
40
questions in 60 minutes, scored automatically and converted to an estimated band
0
sign-up, email or card to take the test and see your band

This page describes what is in Reading Test 4 and gives the answer key for its 40 questions. The test itself runs on the ParrotTalk Reading page: the button above opens it with Test 4 already selected. The three passages are Academic texts written for ParrotTalk, in the shape of the IELTS Academic Reading test, and each has its own page where you can read it in full before or after the test. This is not an official IELTS test.

What is in this test

PassageTitleQuestionsQuestion types
Passage 1 The Navigation of Migratory Birds 1 to 13 True/False/Not Given (Q1 to 7), Multiple choice (Q8 to 13)
Passage 2 The Hidden Networks Beneath Forests 14 to 26 Matching headings (Q14 to 19), Multiple choice (Q20 to 26)
Passage 3 The Acoustics of Concert Halls 27 to 40 Summary completion (Q27 to 33), Multiple choice (Q34 to 40)

Allow 60 minutes for the three passages, as in the exam, which leaves about 20 minutes per passage; there is no extra time to transfer answers. The timer starts only when you click Start, the passages are read on tabs, and your progress is saved in your browser, so a reload does not lose your answers. If you finish early, a review panel lets you check your answers until the clock runs out or you submit.

Answer key

Take the test first. The answer key is here so that you can check your work afterwards; if you read it before you start, the band you get at the end tells you nothing about your level.

The answers below are the ones accepted by the automatic scoring, one per question, with the paragraph of the passage that supports each answer. The questions themselves stay on the test page; each passage page lists the question groups without their wording.

Show the answers for Passage 1: The Navigation of Migratory Birds

Questions 1-7, True / False / Not Given

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage? Write TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN.

  1. TRUE (Paragraph 1: 'moves between the polar regions twice a year')
  2. FALSE (Paragraph 1: 'making the journey for the first time, without the guidance')
  3. FALSE (Paragraph 2: 'the avian compass does not respond to polarity')
  4. FALSE (Paragraph 2: 'cryptochromes, light-sensitive proteins in the retina')
  5. NOT GIVEN (Not stated in the passage)
  6. TRUE (Paragraph 3: 'the axis around which the night sky appears to turn')
  7. NOT GIVEN (Not stated in the passage)

Questions 8-13, Multiple Choice

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

  1. B, Reads the angle at which the field lines meet the ground (Paragraph 2: 'the angle at which the field lines meet the surface')
  2. A, It departs on a course rotated from the correct one (Paragraph 3: 'depart on a course predictably rotated from the correct one')
  3. C, Treated the false centre as north permanently (Paragraph 3: 'adopted that false centre as north, and oriented accordingly')
  4. D, Crossbred populations whose offspring take an intermediate bearing (Paragraph 5: 'offspring that head off on an intermediate bearing')
  5. C, Kept to their inherited heading and wintered in the wrong area (Paragraph 6: 'continued on the heading they had inherited')
  6. C, Its direction, but must learn to work out its position (Paragraph 6: 'the compass is innate while the map is learned')
Show the answers for Passage 2: The Hidden Networks Beneath Forests

Questions 14-19, Matching Headings

Match each paragraph (A-F) with the correct heading from the list below. Choose from: A. An exchange of goods underground  ·  B. A description ignored by its own century  ·  C. Where the popular story outruns the proof  ·  D. The scale of a hidden partnership  ·  E. Evidence that material moves between trees  ·  F. What the findings mean for managing woodland  ·  G. A threat from introduced species  ·  H. The economics of the timber trade

  1. Paragraph A: D, The scale of a hidden partnership (Paragraph A: 'the ordinary condition of terrestrial plant life')
  2. Paragraph B: B, A description ignored by its own century (Paragraph B: 'correctly described earlier than is often supposed, and then ignored')
  3. Paragraph C: A, An exchange of goods underground (Paragraph C: 'What each partner supplies is now reasonably well established')
  4. Paragraph D: E, Evidence that material moves between trees (Paragraph D: 'material can move from one plant to another')
  5. Paragraph E: C, Where the popular story outruns the proof (Paragraph E: 'has run some way ahead of the evidence')
  6. Paragraph F: F, What the findings mean for managing woodland (Paragraph F: 'the practical implications are less disputed than the biology')

Questions 20-26, Multiple Choice

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

  1. B, 1885 (Paragraph B: 'In 1885 the German botanist Albert Bernhard Frank')
  2. C, They regarded a fungus on a root as an infection (Paragraph B: 'a fungus on a root was an infection')
  3. C, Up to a third (Paragraph C: 'up to a third of the carbon a tree fixes')
  4. A, Can enter pores that a root is too thick to reach (Paragraph C: 'enter soil pores that a root cannot penetrate')
  5. D, The label appearing in neighbouring trees of different species (Paragraph D: 'detected the label subsequently in neighbouring trees of different species')
  6. B, It may remain in the fungal tissue around the roots (Paragraph E: 'remaining in the fungal tissue wrapped around its roots')
  7. C, As reservoirs of fungal life from which the network can regrow (Paragraph F: 'reservoirs of fungal life from which the network can regrow')
Show the answers for Passage 3: The Acoustics of Concert Halls

Questions 27-33, Complete the Summary

Complete the summary using words from the passage. Write ONE WORD ONLY for each answer.

  1. SABINE (Paragraph 1: 'a young physics instructor, Wallace Clement Sabine')
  2. DECIBELS (Paragraph 2: 'the interval a sound requires to fall by sixty decibels')
  3. ABSORPTION (Paragraph 2: 'falls with the total absorption of its surfaces and contents')
  4. SHOEBOX (Paragraph 3: 'The older is the shoebox: a tall, narrow rectangle')
  5. BERLIN (Paragraph 3: 'The alternative was introduced in Berlin')
  6. SIDES (Paragraph 4: 'Reflections that reach the two ears from the sides')
  7. UPHOLSTERED (Paragraph 5: 'seats are upholstered to a carefully judged degree')

Questions 34-40, Multiple Choice

Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

  1. C, A speaker in a lecture theatre could not be understood (Paragraph 1: 'a new lecture theatre in which a speaker was effectively unintelligible')
  2. A, Rises with its volume and falls with its absorption (Paragraph 2: 'it rises with the volume of the room and falls')
  3. D, Its reverberation time is far too long (Paragraph 2: 'at seven or eight seconds, is unusable for either')
  4. C, Its quality was only appreciated after it was finished (Paragraph 3: 'its excellence was recognised only afterwards')
  5. D, Its side walls are close together (Paragraph 3: 'whose side walls are close together')
  6. B, Merged with the direct sound and heard as greater fullness (Paragraph 4: 'the ear merges them with the original')
  7. C, It explains why a hall sounds as it does better than it predicts approval (Paragraph 7: 'It remains poor at predicting, before the first note')

Quick answers

Is this Reading test free?

Yes. Reading Test 4 is completely free, with no sign-up, no email and no card, and you can take it as many times as you like. The three passages, the 40 questions, the automatic scoring and the estimated band are all included.

Is this test Academic or General Training?

Academic. The passages are Academic Reading texts and the band uses the Academic conversion table; there is no General Training passage on ParrotTalk. The Reading page lets you tick General Training before you start, and then adds a note that on the real General Training scale the same raw score gives a band about one step lower. The General Training conversion table is on the band score calculator.

How is the Reading band calculated?

From your raw score out of 40, converted to a band with the official-style Academic table. The band and a per-passage breakdown appear the moment you submit, and each wrong answer shows where in the passage the answer was. The full conversion table, Academic and General Training, is on the band score calculator.

Is this an official IELTS test?

No. It is practice material in the format of the IELTS Academic Reading test, with passages written for ParrotTalk, and the band is an estimate to track your progress, not an official result. ParrotTalk is independent and not affiliated with IELTS, the British Council, IDP, or Cambridge English.

Start Reading Test 4 All Reading practice tests All Reading practice tests

ParrotTalk is free, with no sign-up. Bands are estimates, not official IELTS results. See the band score calculator for the full raw score to band tables, Academic and General Training, and read how to practise IELTS Reading for free for the mistakes that cost the most marks.