IELTS Reading · Academic · Computer-delivered

IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test 8: The Remarkable Intelligence of the Octopus, The Printing Revolution, Understanding Lightning

This is IELTS Academic Reading Practice Test 8 on the computer-delivered screen, with 3 passages: The Remarkable Intelligence of the Octopus, The Printing Revolution, Understanding Lightning. You can start it free in your browser — no download.

• 60 minutes
• 40 questions
• Reading passages on screen

What is in this test

• Passage 1

  The Remarkable Intelligence of the Octopus

  An octopus solves puzzles and recognises faces with most of its neurons spread through its arms rather than its head.

• Passage 2

  The Printing Revolution

  What changed in Europe once books could be copied by machine, and who lost work because of it.

• Passage 3

  Understanding Lightning

  How charge builds inside a storm cloud, why the strike travels upward as well as down, and how it is measured.

Question types in this test

This test uses 8 of the Reading question types. Each one links to what it asks for and the mistakes that cost marks:

• True / False / Not Given
• Matching information to paragraphs
• Summary completion
• Matching headings
• Note completion
• Matching features
• Multiple choice (one answer)
• Sentence completion

Timing and marking

You get 60 minutes for all 40 questions, and there is no extra time at the end to copy answers across — on screen, what you type is already your answer.

There are 40 questions, one mark each, so your raw score is out of 40. The results screen shows which questions you got right, grouped by question type, so you can see where the marks went.

What is different on a computer

The passage sits on one side and the questions on the other, with a divider you can drag. You select text and highlight it instead of underlining with a pencil, and you can search the passage. Practising that is the point of this site.