Cambridge IELTS 14 Academic Reading Test 3

• 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 3 examines intelligence, biology and play once more. Passage 1, The concept of intelligence, contrasts implicit theories with explicit theories and notes how cultural context shapes them. Passage 2, Saving bugs to find new drugs, follows zoologist Ross Piper into pharmaceutical research using insects. Passage 3, The power of play, returns to the universal childhood drive to play and what it accomplishes developmentally.

This paper leans heavily on matching, with twelve matching items across the three passages. Passage 1 has a three-item classifying task, three Yes/No/Not Given and seven matching items linking statements to researchers — the matching block is the centrepiece. Passage 2 brings seven matching information items, two two-answer multiple choice and a four-gap summary. Passage 3 closes with five matching items linking findings to researchers, five Yes/No/Not Given and a four-gap summary.

Plan eighteen minutes on intelligence, twenty on insect drugs, and nineteen on play, with three minutes for transfer. With three matching tasks across the paper, the trick is to read first for who said what — names before claims. Underline every researcher's surname on your first pass and you will save real seconds when you scan back.

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.

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