Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 1

• Read each passage carefully. You can highlight text by selecting and right-clicking.
• Answer all 40 questions. Move freely between parts using the question palette.
• Submit before time runs out — auto-submit at 60:00.

Cambridge 14 Test 1 is built around play, mobility and motivation at work. Passage 1, The Importance of Children's Play, gathers psychological evidence on how imaginative play supports cognitive development. Passage 2 reports the global growth of bike-sharing schemes, beginning with Dutch engineer Luud Schimmelpennink in 1965. Passage 3, Motivational factors and the hospitality industry, asks what HRM practices keep hotel staff performing well.

Passage 1 brings a substantial eight-gap note completion plus five True/False/Not Given — the notes track the passage tightly, so move in order. Passage 2 mixes five matching information, two two-answer multiple choice and a four-gap summary; the matching block is the heaviest single task in the paper. Passage 3 closes with a five-item matching of researchers, four Yes/No/Not Given and a five-gap summary.

Allow seventeen minutes on play, nineteen on bike-sharing, and twenty-one on hospitality, with three minutes to transfer. The bike-sharing narrative is rich in dates, place names and scheme names — underline them on a single first read so the matching information block runs faster. The hospitality matching task at the end rewards distinctive surnames. Play is open-ended; reading is not. Set strict turn limits at each passage and move when the time runs out.

New to this skill? Read the Reading question types guide for tactics, scoring rules, and frequency analysis across Cambridge 10–20. Or browse all Reading practice tests.

Looking for written strategy? See the IELTS Blog for in-depth posts.