Cambridge IELTS 20 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 20 Test 1 covers a critically endangered parrot, an iconic British tree, and the cognitive cost of stress. Passage 1 introduces the kakapo, the nocturnal flightless parrot of New Zealand. Passage 2, To Britain, follows attempts to reintroduce elms after Dutch elm disease wiped out 25 million trees in the 1960s and 70s. Passage 3, How Stress Affects Our Judgement, examines decision-making under pressure.

Passage 1 opens with six True/False/Not Given and seven note completions on kakapo biology and conservation. Passage 2 features a five-item classifying task on elm cultivars, five matching items linking statements to researchers and a three-gap summary — the classifying block requires you to track each named cultivar very carefully. Passage 3 ends with four multiple choice, five sentence endings and five Yes/No/Not Given.

Plan seventeen minutes on the kakapo, twenty on the elms, twenty on stress, with three minutes to transfer. The classifying block on disease-resistant elm cultivars in Passage 2 is the test's tactical hinge — track each named cultivar in the margin as you go. Stress narrows attention and degrades judgement, so the cure is breath, posture and a clear plan — start the timer, settle, and read.

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.