An IELTS Academic Reading test is typically comprised of three sections (or testlets), each organised
around a separate reading passage. These passages, which average about 750 words in length, are
drawn from a range of sources including magazines, journals, books and newspapers, with topics
designed to be of general interest, written for a non-specialist audience. Accompanying the reading
passages are a range of tasks (40 in total) used to test students comprehension of material in the 60
minutes allocated. These tasks or techniques are characterised by IELTS (1996) as follows:
! multiple