Cambridge IELTS 18 Academic Reading Test 4

• 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 18 Test 4 connects urban ecology, education psychology and the history of geology. Passage 1, Green roofs, surveys the rooftop gardens transforming city skylines. Passage 2, The growth mindset, traces the influential idea that intelligence is not fixed. Passage 3 profiles Alfred Wegener, the scientist behind continental drift theory, drawing on Mott Greene's biography.

Passage 1 features five matching information, a four-gap summary and two two-answer multiple choice questions — the matching information block is the test's first big tactical hurdle. Passage 2 mixes three multiple choice, six matching items linking statements to researchers and four Yes/No/Not Given. Passage 3 closes with four Yes/No/Not Given, a six-gap summary and four multiple choice on Wegener's life and ideas. The two Yes/No blocks total eight items — be especially watchful for hedged phrases that signal Not Given.

Spend eighteen minutes on green roofs, twenty on the growth mindset, twenty-one on Wegener, with one minute to transfer. The growth mindset matching block is the structural centre — six items linking statements to researchers, with closely related views. Wegener was right but ignored for decades — make sure your evidence in the question paper is right and clearly visible.

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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