Free IELTS Reading Passage 3 Practice Test

Passage 3 is the argumentative one. At least one IELTS Academic passage contains a logical argument, and it is almost always the third. That changes the question types: instead of testing what the passage states, Passage 3 tests what the writer claims, which is why Yes/No/Not Given appears here rather than True/False/Not Given.

Target 23 minutes. Do not start Passage 3 with less than 20 minutes left; 13 marks are worth more than finishing Passage 2 perfectly.

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Key Takeaways

• At least one IELTS Academic passage contains a logical argument, and it is usually Passage 3.
• Yes/No/Not Given tests the writer’s views and claims; True/False/Not Given tests factual information.
• Identifying the writer’s position separately from the positions they report is the core Passage 3 skill.
• Hedging language — “arguably”, “it is often claimed”, “on this view” — marks a reported position, not the writer’s own.
• Matching sentence endings follows passage order and must produce a grammatical sentence.

Passage 3: Against the metaphor of the brain as a computer

A. Every era describes the mind in the vocabulary of its most impressive machine. Hydraulic pumps gave the seventeenth century a mind of animal spirits flowing through channels; the telegraph gave the nineteenth a nervous system of wires and relays; and since the middle of the twentieth century the mind has been a computer, complete with memory, storage, retrieval, processing and information. This is not a neutral choice of words, and the discipline has been slow to notice how much the metaphor does. B. The computational metaphor earned its position. It supplied the first framework in which mental processes could be described formally, in terms precise enough to be modelled, and it delivered results that no earlier framework could. That success is not in question here. What is in question is whether the framework is now doing work it cannot support, and whether some of the field’s hardest problems are artefacts of the metaphor rather than features of the brain. C. Consider the notion of memory storage. On the computational account, an experience is encoded, written to a store and later retrieved — and the retrieved item is, barring corruption, the item that was written. Recall, on this view, is a lookup. But the experimental literature on memory is a sustained catalogue of results that this picture handles badly. Recalling an event alters it. What is recalled depends on the questions asked and the setting in which they are asked. Confidently held memories can be wholly constructed. None of this is impossible to model computationally — one can build a system with a reconstructive store — but the reconstruction has to be added to the model, whereas in a brain it appears to be what memory is. D. A second strain shows in the concept of information itself. In a computer, information is a quantity that exists independently of any interpreter: a file has a size whether or not anything reads it. Applied to nervous systems this becomes the claim that neurons carry information about the world, and the claim is genuinely useful for describing, say, the relationship between light falling on a retina and the firing of a cell. It becomes strained when applied to whole organisms, because what a signal is information about depends on what the organism does with it, and that is not determined by the signal. E. Critics of the metaphor have offered replacements. Some propose dynamical systems theory, describing cognition as the evolution of a physical system through a state space with no representations in it. Others emphasise embodiment, arguing that cognitive processes are constituted partly by the body and its environment rather than merely influenced by them. A third group retains representation but denies that it is symbolic in the computational sense. These programmes have produced real results in specific domains, particularly in motor control and perception, where the computational account was always weakest. F. Whether they can replace the computational framework wholesale is a different question, and the honest answer is that they have not yet. Dynamical accounts describe behaviour elegantly and predict it less well than they describe it. Embodiment arguments are strongest where the task is physical and become considerably vaguer applied to arithmetic or planning. It is one thing to establish that the computational metaphor is a metaphor; it is another to supply a framework that does everything the metaphor does and more. G. There is a further consideration that the debate tends to skirt. The computational metaphor has been extraordinarily productive institutionally, not merely intellectually. It made cognitive science legible to funders, gave psychology a shared vocabulary with computer science, and produced tools — from imaging analysis to machine learning — that the critics themselves use. A framework that organises a field’s methods and its funding does not fall because it is shown to be a metaphor. It is displaced, if at all, by another framework that organises them better. H. The reasonable position, then, is neither the confident computationalism of the 1980s nor the wholesale rejection some critics urge. It is that the metaphor should be used with an awareness of where it stops describing and starts prescribing — where a research problem exists because the brain is puzzling, and where it exists because we have insisted on asking a computational question of an organ that is not a computer. Distinguishing the two is difficult, unglamorous and probably the most useful thing the critique has to offer.

Questions 1-6: Yes, No or Not Given

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer? Write YES, NO or NOT GIVEN.

1. The computational metaphor produced results that earlier frameworks could not.
2. The writer believes the computational metaphor should be abandoned.
3. Reconstructive memory cannot be modelled computationally.
4. Describing neurons as carrying information is useful at the level of single cells.
5. Dynamical systems accounts predict behaviour better than they describe it.
6. The computational metaphor has attracted more research funding than its alternatives.

Questions 7-10: Matching sentence endings

Complete each sentence with the correct ending, A-F.

7. According to the writer, each historical era has described the mind
8. On the computational account of memory, recall is treated as
9. Embodiment arguments become less convincing when applied to
10. The writer suggests a dominant framework is displaced only by

A — a lookup of a stored item. B — tasks such as arithmetic or planning. C — another framework that organises methods and funding better. D — in the language of its most impressive machine. E — evidence that it is merely a metaphor. F — motor control and perception.

Questions 11-13: Multiple choice

11. What does the writer identify as the central problem with the memory-as-storage account?
    (A) It cannot explain forgetting.
    (B) Reconstruction must be added to the model but appears to be constitutive in brains.
    (C) It relies on outdated experimental methods.
    (D) It conflicts with dynamical systems theory.
12. Why does the writer consider the concept of information strained at the level of whole organisms?
    (A) Neural signals are too noisy to carry information.
    (B) Organisms process information more slowly than computers.
    (C) What a signal is information about depends on the organism’s use of it.
    (D) Information cannot be measured in biological systems.
13. What does the writer regard as the critique’s most useful contribution?
    (A) A complete replacement for computationalism
    (B) Evidence that the brain is not a computer
    (C) Distinguishing genuine puzzles from artefacts of the metaphor
    (D) New funding arrangements for cognitive science

Answer key

Q	Answer	Evidence	Why not the alternative
1	YES	“delivered results that no earlier framework could” (B)	The writer states it directly and endorses it
2	NO	“neither the confident computationalism… nor the wholesale rejection some critics urge” (H)	The writer explicitly rejects abandonment, so NO not NOT GIVEN
3	NO	“None of this is impossible to model computationally” (C)	Directly contradicted
4	YES	“genuinely useful for describing… light falling on a retina and the firing of a cell” (D)	—
5	NO	“describe behaviour elegantly and predict it less well than they describe it” (F)	The statement reverses the writer’s claim
6	NOT GIVEN	Paragraph G says the metaphor “made cognitive science legible to funders”	No comparison of funding between the frameworks is made
7	D	Paragraph A opening	—
8	A	“Recall, on this view, is a lookup” (C)	—
9	B	“considerably vaguer applied to arithmetic or planning” (F)	F is where they are strongest, not weakest
10	C	“displaced… by another framework that organises them better” (G)	E is what the writer says is not sufficient
11	B	“the reconstruction has to be added to the model, whereas in a brain it appears to be what memory is” (C)	A and C are never claimed
12	C	“what a signal is information about depends on what the organism does with it” (D)	A, B and D are not in the passage
13	C	“Distinguishing the two… probably the most useful thing the critique has to offer” (H)	The writer says the critique has not supplied a replacement

Yes/No/Not Given versus True/False/Not Given

	True / False / Not Given	Yes / No / Not Given
Tests	Factual information in the passage	The writer’s views and claims
Typical passage	Descriptive	Argumentative
What “No” means	—	The writer claims the opposite
Main trap	Using outside knowledge	Attributing a reported view to the writer
Key skill	Locating the sentence	Separating the writer’s position from positions they describe

Question 3 is the trap in miniature. The passage spends a paragraph on the problems with computational memory, so a reader tracking sentiment rather than claims answers YES. The writer states the opposite in a single clause: “None of this is impossible to model computationally.”

Whose view is it? The signal phrases

Phrase in the passage	Whose view
“On the computational account…”	A described position, not the writer’s
“on this view…”	The position under discussion
“Critics of the metaphor have offered…”	The critics’
“Some propose… Others emphasise…”	Named groups, not the writer
“the honest answer is that…”	The writer’s
“The reasonable position, then, is…”	The writer’s conclusion
“What is in question here is…”	The writer framing their own argument

Mark the writer’s own sentences as you read. In this passage they cluster in paragraphs B, F and H, which is a common structure: the writer sets up in the early paragraphs, presents others’ positions in the middle, and states their own at the end.

Matching sentence endings: the two rules

1. The completed sentence must be grammatical. An ending that produces a broken sentence is wrong however plausible its content.
2. Answers follow passage order, unlike matching headings. Question 7 comes from an earlier paragraph than question 10, which narrows your search substantially.

There are more endings than questions here — six endings for four questions — so expect two to be unused, and expect at least one of them to be a claim the passage denies. Ending E is exactly that: the writer argues a framework is not displaced by being shown to be a metaphor.

Timing and the order to work in

Step	Time	Note
Skim, marking the writer’s own sentences	4 min	This is the investment that pays for Yes/No/Not Given
Multiple choice	6 min	Follows passage order; do these while the argument is fresh
Matching sentence endings	5 min	Also in passage order
Yes/No/Not Given	7 min	Hardest; leave until the writer’s position is clear
Transfer	1 min	—
Total	23 min	—

If you arrive at Passage 3 with fewer than 15 minutes, change the order: answer the multiple choice and sentence endings first, guess every Yes/No/Not Given, and fill in every box. Thirteen unattempted marks is the most common single cause of a low Reading band.

FAQ

Is IELTS Reading Passage 3 always the hardest?

It is normally the most demanding: at least one Academic passage contains a logical argument and it is usually the third, which brings Yes/No/Not Given and longer multiple-choice options. The questions are not worth more marks, though — every question in the section is worth one.

What is the difference between Yes/No/Not Given and True/False/Not Given?

Yes/No/Not Given tests the writer’s views and claims; True/False/Not Given tests factual information. In practice that means Yes/No/Not Given requires you to separate what the writer argues from the positions the writer merely reports.

How do I tell the writer’s view from a view they are describing?

Watch the framing. “On this view”, “critics have argued”, “some propose” all introduce someone else’s position. “The honest answer is”, “the reasonable position is”, “what is in question here” mark the writer’s own. Marking these while you skim is faster than deciding per question.

How long should I spend on Passage 3?

About 23 minutes, and never start it with fewer than 20 minutes left. If you are short of time, answer the multiple choice and matching questions first and guess the Yes/No/Not Given items rather than leaving them blank.

Do matching sentence endings follow passage order?

Yes, which distinguishes them from matching headings and matching information. There are also more endings than questions, so some endings are never used and at least one usually states something the passage denies.

Should I read the passage or the questions first?

Skim the passage first for Passage 3, marking where the writer states their own position. The argument’s structure is what most of the questions test, and locating it once is faster than reconstructing it thirteen times.

Related practice resources

• IELTS Reading Passage 2 practice
• IELTS Reading Passage 1 practice
• IELTS Listening Part 3 practice

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