FULL MOCK TESTS · TEST 1
Full IELTS Mock Test 1
Listening, then Reading, then Writing — the real exam order. Listening and Reading are scored instantly with every answer explained. Submit your Writing separately for personal feedback.
Part 1: Listening
4 parts, 40 questions, about 30 minutes.
Part 2: Reading
3 passages, 40 questions, about 60 minutes.
Passage 1: The Quiet Rise of the Public Library
A Long before the internet made information instantly searchable, the public library was often the only place where a person without money could read widely, learn a trade, or simply sit somewhere warm and quiet. The idea seems unremarkable today, but for most of human history, access to books was a privilege reserved for the wealthy, the religious, or the academically connected. The public library, as a place open to any citizen regardless of income, is a surprisingly recent invention.
B Private and monastic libraries existed for centuries before anything resembling a modern public library appeared. Monasteries in medieval Europe maintained collections of religious texts, but these were rarely accessible to ordinary people, and even literate visitors typically needed permission from an abbot or senior monk. Universities, too, built substantial libraries from the twelfth century onward, but these served students and scholars, not the general public.
C The turning point is usually traced to nineteenth-century Britain and the United States. In Britain, the Public Libraries Act of 1850 allowed local governments to fund libraries through taxation for the first time, a move that was controversial — critics argued that taxpayers should not be made to pay for other people’s reading habits.
D In the United States, industrialist Andrew Carnegie became the single most influential figure in the spread of public libraries. Between 1883 and 1929, Carnegie’s foundation funded over 2,500 libraries, on the condition that local governments agreed to fund the library’s ongoing operating costs.
E Public libraries were not universally welcomed. Some critics worried that giving working-class readers unrestricted access to novels would encourage idleness, and early librarians often felt pressure to favour “improving” non-fiction over entertainment.
F The twentieth century saw public libraries expand well beyond lending books — reference services, children’s programmes, computers and the internet. Many libraries repositioned themselves as spaces for services the internet does not easily replace: quiet study space, free computer access, and trained staff.
G Contemporary public libraries also increasingly serve as an informal social safety net — among the few remaining public spaces where a person can spend hours without being expected to buy anything. This has sparked debate about whether libraries are compensating for gaps in other public services.
Passage 2: Why Shift Work Is Harder on the Body Than We Once Thought
A For most of the twentieth century, the health effects of night shift work were treated mainly as a matter of tiredness. Research over the last three decades has substantially revised this picture. Shift work is now understood to disrupt the circadian rhythm, the roughly 24-hour internal clock that governs sleep, body temperature, hormone release, and glucose processing.
B The circadian rhythm is regulated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which responds primarily to light hitting the retina. Daylight suppresses melatonin release, while darkness triggers it in the evening.
C Light first strikes the retina, where specialised cells detect it. A signal travels to the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which acts as the body’s master clock. During daylight, the incoming light signal suppresses the pineal gland’s melatonin release. During darkness, the SCN permits melatonin release, promoting sleepiness. Night shift workers, exposed to artificial light through the night and daylight on their way home, effectively send their SCN the wrong signal at both ends of their schedule.
D The consequences extend well beyond feeling groggy. Large studies have found elevated rates of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity among shift workers, even after controlling for diet and exercise. Insulin sensitivity appears to follow its own circadian pattern.
E Sleep quality suffers in ways trackers don’t capture. Even with a full eight hours of daytime sleep, that sleep is often lighter, with less time in deep, slow-wave stages.
F Individual variation exists. Permanent night shifts allow more adaptation than rotating shifts. Paradoxically, rotating patterns, meant to distribute the burden fairly, may be the most disruptive of all.
G Workplace interventions like bright light exposure show modest promise but can only reduce, not eliminate, the underlying mismatch. Occupational researchers and industry representatives disagree on whether regulation or individual mitigation is the better path forward.
Passage 3: Automation and the Uncertain Future of Skilled Trades
A Public debate about automation has focused overwhelmingly on white-collar and manufacturing jobs. Far less attention has gone to the skilled trades — plumbing, electrical work, carpentry — which require dexterity and situational judgement historically difficult to automate.
B A plumber working in an eighty-year-old house encounters a unique, unpredictable environment every time, unlike a factory assembly line. This is Moravec’s paradox: tasks cognitively demanding for humans have proven easy to automate, while tasks simple for a skilled human have proven extraordinarily hard.
C Computer vision can now recognise plumbing fixtures and wiring from a smartphone photo. Robotics has made progress on dexterous manipulation, a capability that lagged badly behind computer vision for years.
D A more plausible near-term trajectory is augmentation rather than replacement — a plumber assisted by diagnostic software, or an electrician using AR glasses overlaying a wiring schematic.
E Many industrialised economies face labour shortages in the trades. Automation that increases productivity may simply be absorbed by existing demand rather than causing job losses.
F A trade’s automation risk correlates with how standardised its work environment is. New-build construction may automate faster than repair work in older, irregular buildings.
G The trades can no longer be treated as a default safe harbour from automation. Whether displacement, augmentation, or an uneven mix, the trades are now a genuine part of the conversation.
Part 3: Writing
Task 1 (20 min) and Task 2 (40 min). Write your responses in your own document, then submit for personal feedback — these are marked by Mudasser Iqbal, not scored automatically.
Writing Task 1 (Academic)
The chart below shows the percentage of households in three countries that had access to high-speed internet in 2005, 2015, and 2025. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
Country A: 12% (2005) → 58% (2015) → 91% (2025). Country B: 4% → 22% → 67%. Country C: 30% → 71% → 95%.
Writing Task 2
Some people believe that governments should invest primarily in public transport rather than building new roads for private cars. Others believe that road-building should remain a priority because most people prefer to drive. Discuss both views and give your own opinion. Write at least 250 words.
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