Cambridge IELTS 16 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 16 Test 3 covers Roman engineering, polar archaeology and plant science. Passage 1 examines Roman shipbuilding and navigation, contrasting their craft methods with modern computer-aided design. Passage 2 reports how melting ice in Norway's high mountains is revealing ancient artefacts. Passage 3 explains how a plant photoreceptor doubles as a thermometer to time springtime growth.

This paper is unusual in that classifying-style tasks (eleven items) loom large. Passage 1 mixes five True/False/Not Given with an eight-gap summary; the summary is sequential, so read it before scanning. Passage 2 has a six-item classifying task linking artefacts to time periods, a three-gap summary and two two-answer multiple choice items — the classifying block is the test's distinctive challenge, so look for date markers in every paragraph. Passage 3 ends with six True/False/Not Given, a five-item classifying task on plant findings and three sentence completions.

Aim for nineteen minutes on Roman ships, twenty-one on glacier finds, twenty on plant thermometers, with no slack. Roman builders relied on inherited rules of thumb — yours is to start with the question types that have the clearest landmarks.

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.