Cambridge IELTS 17 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 17 Test 1 starts deep underground and ends on the run from Cromwell. Passage 1 traces the development of the London underground railway in response to street congestion in the 1850s. Passage 2, Stadiums: past, present and future, runs from ancient Greek venues to twenty-first-century multi-purpose arenas. Passage 3, To catch a king, reviews Charles Spencer's book about the six-week hunt for Charles II after the Civil War.

Passage 1 opens with six note completions and seven True/False/Not Given on a chronological narrative — work through both in order. Passage 2 mixes a four-item classifying task on stadium types, a five-gap summary and a four-answer multiple choice; the classifying block is the most distinctive task here. Passage 3 ends with a five-gap summary, four Yes/No/Not Given and five multiple choice on the book review.

Allow seventeen minutes on the underground, twenty on stadiums, twenty on the king-hunt, with three minutes to transfer. Charles II hid in an oak tree for a day — sometimes you have to sit still on a tricky question and come back later, but never more than once.

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