Reading Comprehension Flashcards
7 cards from real PTE practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Reading Comprehension flashcards as text
In PTE's 'Re-order Paragraphs' task, which sentence most likely belongs at the beginning of a paragraph about urban heat islands?
Answer: Urban heat islands occur when cities absorb and re-emit more heat than surrounding rural areas.
The defining sentence that explains what urban heat islands are provides the foundational context needed before discussing causes, consequences, or examples.
A passage uses the phrase 'a double-edged sword' to describe social media. This figurative language suggests that social media:
Answer: Has both significant benefits and significant drawbacks
A 'double-edged sword' is an idiom meaning something that has both positive and negative consequences simultaneously.
Which sentence from a passage about climate policy represents a fact rather than an opinion?
Answer: The 2015 Paris Agreement was signed by 196 parties and aims to limit warming to 1.5°C.
The statement about the Paris Agreement's signatories and temperature targets is a verifiable factual claim, while the others express subjective judgments or moral positions.
A PTE passage reads: 'The author's tone shifts perceptibly from optimism in the first half to cautious skepticism in the second.' Which reading comprehension skill does this question type primarily assess?
Answer: Recognizing changes in the author's attitude or perspective across a passage
Identifying a shift in tone requires tracking the author's emotional or evaluative stance throughout the passage, a higher-order comprehension skill.
In the sentence 'The findings were unequivocal: further delay would be catastrophic,' what does 'unequivocal' mean?
Answer: Absolutely clear and leaving no room for doubt
'Unequivocal' means leaving no doubt or ambiguity; the colon introducing a definitive consequence reinforces this sense of absolute certainty.
A passage describes a study showing that students who take handwritten notes retain information better than those using laptops. Which conclusion is best supported by this finding alone?
Answer: Handwriting may engage deeper cognitive processing than typing during note-taking
The finding supports a measured inference about cognitive engagement during handwriting without making sweeping policy or intelligence claims beyond the study's scope.
Which of the following is an example of a cohesive device in academic writing?
Answer: Using transition words such as 'however,' 'furthermore,' and 'consequently'
Cohesive devices are linguistic tools that connect ideas within and between sentences; transition words are among the most common, signaling logical relationships between clauses.