FREE PTE Reading Practice Questions And Answers

In this short guide, PTE Magic will help you understand better what you actually need to do with the tasks in the PTE Reading section.

Try our PTE Reading practice questions below to see how well you can manage them.

Also, if you really want to increase your scores, pass the PTE Academic test with ease, and finally achieve your goals, check out our PROVEN PTE online course.

Now, let’s take a look.

Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks

First, you’ll see a short passage (up to 300 words long) with a few missing words scattered throughout.

Next to each gap, you’ll see a small arrow; click on it, and a list of word options will appear.

From there, pick the one that fits best in the sentence; once you click your choice, the word will drop into place.

If you change your mind, click the arrow again and choose something else.

You’ll need to go through all the blanks before you hit “Next.”

Sample: Below is a text with blanks. Click on each blank, a list of choices will appear. Select the appropriate answer choice for each blank.

Children who skip school are increasingly on family holidays, government figures revealed today. _________ children played truant this spring term compared with the spring term last year. Children missed 3m unauthorised days of school last term, compared with 3.7m days of school in the same period last year. But a _________ group of truants – 6% of the school population – who account for more than three-quarters of all those on unauthorised absence, are more likely to be on a family holiday than they were in the same _________ last year. Some 1.2% of all absence was for family holidays not _________ by their school last term, compared with 0.9% for the same term last year. More than 60% of all absences were for illness, the same figure as last year.

 

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Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers

Here, you’ll read a passage of up to 300 words, followed by one question.

Underneath, you’ll see several answer options; more than one of them could be correct.

Once you’ve read both the passage and the question, go through the answers and click on all the ones you think are right.

Each option you select will turn yellow.

If you change your mind, just click it again to deselect it.

You can select or deselect as many as you want before moving on.

But once you do move on, your choices are final.

Sample: Read the text and answer the question by selecting all the correct responses. You will need to select more than one response.

Exposure to high levels of noise can cause permanent hearing loss. Neither surgery nor a hearing aid can help correct this type of hearing loss. Short-term exposure to loud noise can also cause a temporary change in hearing (your ears may feel stuffed up) or a ringing in your ears (tinnitus). These short-term problems may go away within a few minutes or hours after leaving the noise. However, repeated exposures to loud noise can lead to permanent tinnitus and/or hearing loss. Loud noise can create physical and psychological stress, reduce productivity, interfere with communication and concentration, and contribute to workplace accidents and injuries by making it difficult to hear warning signals. The effects of noise-induced hearing loss can be profound, limiting your ability to hear high-frequency sounds, understand speech, and seriously impairing your ability to communicate. When sound waves enter the outer ear, the vibrations impact the ear drum and are transmitted to the middle and inner ear. In the middle ear, three small bones called the malleus (or hammer), the incus (or anvil), and the stapes (or stirrup) amplify and transmit the vibrations generated by the sound to the inner ear. The inner ear contains a snail-like structure called Cochlea which is filled with fluid and lined with cells with very fine hairs. These microscopic hairs move with the vibrations and convert the sound waves into nerve impulses–the result is the sounds we hear. Exposure to loud noise can destroy these hair cells and cause hearing loss!

Which of the following statements about health can be supported by the text?

• Even after long exposure, the sound is unlikely to cause hearing loss.
• The cochlea is responsible for the transfer of sound waves into nerve impulses.
• Exposure to noise at work can harm worker’s health.
• Three small bones of outer ear – malleus, incus, and stapes are attached like a chain to the tympanic membrane and convert sound waves.

 

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Re-order Paragraphs

The task shows a few text boxes, each containing a sentence or mini-paragraph, that are in the wrong order.

Your job is to put them back in the right order so they make sense from start to finish.

You can do this by dragging the boxes into place: Just click, hold, and drag a box where you want it to go.

Or, if you prefer, click the box and use the arrow buttons to shuffle it left or right (or up and down).

Once satisfied with the order, click “Next” to move to the next reading task.

Sample: The text boxes in the left panel have been placed in a random order. Restore the original order by dragging the text boxes from the left panel to the right panel.

A. Thus a scientific theory is not directly falsifiable by the data of experience; instead, the falsification process is more indirect.

B. Rather, the scientist declares the law to be some interpolated curve that is more or less smooth and so will miss some of those points.

C. Laws, he said, are not direct generalizations of experience; they aren’t mere summaries of the points on the graph.

D. Poincaré had an especially interesting view of scientific induction.

Answer: D-C-B-A

 

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Reading: Fill in the Blanks (Drag & Drop)

In this task, you will get a shorter passage (up to 80 words) with a few missing words.

Underneath, you’ll see a blue box filled with word options.

To fill the gaps, drag the right words from the box into the blanks.

Just click and hold the word, drag it to where you want it, and drop it in!

You can swap words around or move them between gaps, or even drag one back down to the box if you decide not to use it!

Keep in mind: there are more words than blanks, meaning you won’t have to use every single word.

Sample: In the text below some words are missing. Drag words from the box below to the appropriate place in the text. To undo an answer choice, drag the word back to the box below the text.

An economic depression is a period of sustained, long-term _________ in economic activity in one or more economies. It is more severe than a recession, which is a slowdown in economic activity over the of a _________ normal business cycle. Economic depressions are characterized by their length, and by abnormally large increases in unemployment _________.

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Multiple Choice, Single Answer

In this final question type, you’ll read a passage of up to 300 words, followed by a question.

You’ll get several answer options, but this time, only one of them is correct (unlike the multiple-answer version).

After reading everything, just click on the one option you believe is right, and it will highlight in yellow.

If you want to change it, click the same answer to unselect, or simply click another option to switch your choice.

Sample: Read the text and answer the multiple-choice question by selecting the correct response. Only one response is correct.

After the service sector. agriculture is the next largest contributor to Kenya’s GDP. Agriculture, including fishing and forestry, accounted for 24 percent of the GDP, 18 percent of wage employment and 50 percent of export revenue. Kenya is the most industrially developed country in East Africa. Yet its manufacturing sector accounts for just 14 per cent of the GDP. Kenya has a fast growing cement production industry. It has an oil industry that processes imported crude for domestic use. In addition to this, there is small scale manufacturing of household goods, auto-parts and farm implements. This sector is becoming a major contributor to the Kenyan economy. Other industries include forestry, fishing and mining. Kenya has few minerals and the mining industry is relatively small.

Which of the following statements is true with reference to the Kenyan economy?

• Agriculture is the main pillar of the Kenyan Economy.
• The manufacturing sector of Kenya is not as strong as it should be.
• Kenya has a rapidly growing mining industry.
• The overall contribution of the Kenyan small sector is negligible.

 

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3 Common PTE Reading Practice Mistakes to Avoid

Reading without Purpose

Many beginners either skim the text too quickly and miss the point, or read every single word without actually knowing what they’re supposed to do with it.

The moment the question loads, don’t jump into the text right away.

First, you must read the instructions or questions carefully and ask yourself, “What exactly do I need to find here?”

Only after that should you start looking for main ideas or details.

Not Managing Time

Even though PTE doesn’t give you a timer for every individual reading question, the entire Reading section is timed.

So, if you spend five minutes trying to rearrange one set of Re-order paragraphs, that’s five minutes less for everything else!

To avoid this mistake, start using a timer every time you practice.

Set your time limits: 1 to 2 minutes for multiple-choice questions, no more than 2.5 minutes for Re-order paragraphs, and so on.

Choose Answers Without Checking The Context

Many people see a word that looks like it fits and click on it without a second thought, only to find out later that it didn’t actually make sense in context.

So always read the entire sentence before and after the gap or keyword!

Also, you need to go back to the actual passage and find the full section where that topic is discussed.

Read around that entire section, not just the one line, to be 100% sure that the answer choice truly matches what the passage is saying.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Wrong Answers Affect My Score?

Only in Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer; wrong choices here can reduce your score.

In all other reading tasks, there’s no penalty for incorrect answers.

Can I Go Back to A Question After Clicking “Next”?

No.Once you move on, that question is locked, and you can’t return to it.

Do All Reading Questions Carry Equal Weight?

No. Reading & Writing: Fill in the Blanks counts toward both your Reading and Writing scores, so it has more impact than tasks like Multiple Choice, which only affect one skill.

Does Spelling Matter in the Reading Section?

No typing is required in Reading, so spelling isn’t an issue.

Can I Take Notes During The Reading Section?

Yes.

You’ll get an erasable noteboard and marker, which you can use freely during any part of the test.

Last updated on 02/06/2025