PTE Reading Practice Questions With Answers
Read each passage and choose the single best answer. The question is always what the text states — not what is true in general, which is the most common trap.
How to practise this task
- Answer from the passage only, never from outside knowledge.
- Watch for options that are factually true but not stated in the text.
- Do not linger — Reading is timed as a block.
Practice questions
Multiple Choice, Single Answer — practice 1
Honeybees play a central role in agriculture because they pollinate many of the crops humans rely on. As a bee gathers nectar, pollen sticks to its body and travels with it from flower to flower. This accidental transfer fertilises plants, allowing them to produce seeds and fruit. Scientists warn that declining bee populations could therefore threaten global food production. The transfer is accidental — bees are simply gathering nectar. The passage says populations are declining. The passage focuses on crops humans rely on. Honeybees pollinate essential crops by carrying pollen between flowers, so falling bee numbers could endanger the world's food production.
According to the passage, which statement is correct?
- Bee populations are increasing steadily.
- Bees mostly pollinate wild flowers rather than crops.
- Bees move pollen while they are collecting nectar. ← correct
- Bees deliberately fertilise plants to help farmers.
Multiple Choice, Single Answer — practice 2
Sea otters spend almost their whole lives in cold coastal water without any blubber to warm them. Moreover, instead they rely on the densest fur in the animal kingdom, trapping air against their skin. By feasting on sea urchins, otters protect the kelp forests that urchins would otherwise devour. Where otters vanish, urchins multiply and mow the towering kelp down to bare rock. They have no blubber and rely on dense fur. Urchins devour kelp; otters keep them in check. Without otters, urchins mow the kelp down. Blubberless sea otters keep warm with the animal kingdom's densest fur and, by eating sea urchins, protect kelp forests that are mown to bare rock wherever otters disappear.
Which of the following is stated in the passage?
- Thick blubber keeps otters warm.
- Their dense fur traps air for warmth. ← correct
- Kelp thrives after otters disappear.
- Urchins protect kelp forests.
Multiple Choice, Single Answer — practice 3
Volcanoes form where molten rock from deep inside the Earth forces its way to the surface. Furthermore, eruptions can bury whole landscapes under ash within a matter of hours. Yet volcanic soils later become some of the most fertile farmland on the planet. This is why millions of people choose to live in the shadow of active volcanoes. Their soils become highly fertile. Ash can bury landscapes within hours. Millions choose to live near them. Volcanic eruptions are destructive, but the fertile soils they create explain why millions of people still farm and live near active volcanoes.
According to the passage, which statement is correct?
- Eruptions take decades to affect the land.
- Molten rock rising to the surface forms volcanoes. ← correct
- Nobody lives near active volcanoes.
- Volcanic areas are useless for farming.
Multiple Choice, Single Answer — practice 4
The Dead Sea, lying at the lowest dry point on Earth, is many times saltier than the ocean. What is more, the dense, mineral-heavy water makes swimmers bob on the surface like corks. Almost nothing can live in it, which is how the lake earned its name. Because inflowing rivers are heavily diverted, its shoreline now drops by about a metre each year. Almost nothing can live in it. It lies at the lowest dry point on Earth. The shoreline drops by about a metre each year. The Dead Sea — Earth's lowest dry point and far saltier than the ocean — floats swimmers like corks and supports almost no life, and with its rivers diverted its level now falls about a metre a year.
Which of the following is stated in the passage?
- Swimmers float easily on its dense water. ← correct
- The Dead Sea teems with fish.
- Its shoreline is rising steadily.
- It sits high in the mountains.
Multiple Choice, Single Answer — practice 5
Spider silk is one of the strongest natural materials known to science. Weight for weight, the thread is tougher than steel yet remarkably light. As a result, spiders spin it from a liquid protein that hardens the instant it leaves the body. Engineers now study the silk hoping to copy its strength in new materials. It is one of the strongest natural materials. It is tougher than steel yet remarkably light. They spin it from liquid protein in their bodies. Spider silk is an extraordinarily strong yet light natural thread spun from liquid protein, and engineers study it hoping to reproduce its strength in new materials.
According to the passage, which statement is correct?
- Spiders collect silk from plants.
- Spider silk is one of the weakest known materials.
- The silk is far heavier than steel.
- Spider silk is among the strongest natural materials. ← correct
Multiple Choice, Single Answer — practice 6
Ancient tally systems could count sheep or coins but had no symbol for nothing at all. Moreover, indian mathematicians treated zero as a genuine number you could calculate with, not just a gap. As a result, the concept travelled through Arab scholars into Europe, where merchants adopted it for bookkeeping. Zero makes place-value arithmetic possible — without it, writing large numbers becomes clumsy. It came from Indian mathematicians via Arab scholars. It was treated as a genuine number to calculate with. Without zero, writing large numbers becomes clumsy. Zero began as a missing idea in ancient counting; Indian mathematicians made it a true calculable number, Arab scholars carried it to European bookkeeping, and it underpins place-value arithmetic.
Which of the following is stated in the passage?
- Zero is merely a decorative gap, never calculated with.
- Zero was first used in ancient Rome.
- Indian mathematicians treated zero as a real number. ← correct
- Large numbers are easier to write without zero.
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