Cambridge IELTS 15 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 15 Test 1 covers spice trade history, automotive technology and the meaning of exploration. Passage 1 follows nutmeg from the remote Banda Sea islands to European spice empires. Passage 2 surveys driverless cars and the manufacturing automation that paved the way. Passage 3, What is exploration?, reflects on the human urge to discover and share new knowledge.

Passage 1 packs three question types into thirteen marks — four note completions, three True/False/Not Given and a six-row table completion — making careful navigation crucial. Passage 2 has a five-item classifying task on driverless car claims, a four-gap summary and two two-answer multiple choice questions; classifying is the swing block here, so handle it second after the summary anchors your reading. Passage 3 closes with six multiple choice, five matching items linking quotations to writers and three summary completions.

Plan eighteen minutes on nutmeg, eighteen on driverless cars, twenty-one on exploration, with three minutes to transfer. Nutmeg was once worth its weight in gold — your time on this paper is just as valuable, so spend it wisely on the question types you can finish quickly.

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.