IELTS Reading: plants and nature passages
Plants, forests, fungi and ecosystems, and how living things depend on one another.
18 passages mainly about plants and nature · 26 more that touch on it · from 42 full tests
Passages mainly about plants and nature
Each passage opens as a timed 20-minute practice with its 13–14 questions. Submit to see your band estimate and the sentence that proves every answer.
- Guardians of the Kelp
- The Story of Natural Rubber
- Forests Between the Tides
- The Forest Beneath Our Feet
- Life Without Water
- Seagrass Meadows: The Ocean's Forgotten Gardens
- The Hidden Partnerships of Lichens
- The Grass That Builds Cities
- Reading the Rings of Time
- Saving Seeds for an Uncertain Future
- Office Plants: Beauty or Benefit?
- The Living Library: Botanical Gardens Through Time
- Drawing Plants for Science
- The Pharmacy in the Leaf
- What Plants Say in Chemicals
- The Journey of a Seed
- How Fungi Break Down Wood
- The Giant Sequoia
Other passages that cover plants and nature
These passages have a different main subject but deal with plants and nature along the way.
26 passages
- Why Coral Reefs Turn White
- The Story of Tea
- The Hidden Workforce Beneath Our Feet
- The Carbon Vaults Beneath Our Feet
- Farmers of the Forest Floor
- The Dutch Tulip Craze
- The Blue That Crossed the World
- The Bamboo Specialist: How the Giant Panda Survives on a Plant Diet
- Bodies from the Bog
- The Chilli's Global Conquest
- The Potato's Long Journey
- Learning Under the Trees
- How Wheat Became a Crop
- Should Historic Gardens Be Restored to Their Original Design?
- Quinine and the Fever Tree
- Finding the Active Ingredient
- Are Natural Remedies Safer Than Synthetic Ones?
- The Beaver's Lodge and Dam
- Should Cities Replace Lawns with Wildflower Meadows?
- The Story of the Avocado
- The Story of Saffron
- The Story of Vanilla
- How Oysters Build Reefs
- Moving Species to Save Them
- The Bacteria Beneath the Crop
- The Ants' Dairy Herd
Key plants and nature vocabulary
Words worth knowing before you read about plants and nature, each with the sentence it appears in.
| Word | Meaning | Example from a passage |
|---|---|---|
| volatile adjective | evaporating easily at ordinary temperatures and therefore spreading through the air | “they release a burst of volatile compounds — molecules that evaporate easily and drift on the air” Test 429 |
| palatable adjective | pleasant or acceptable to eat, so that an animal is willing to consume it | “often become less palatable to the insects that arrive later” Test 429 |
| exuded verb | released slowly out of a plant, animal or other surface | “hormones that are exuded by roots and that encourage beneficial fungi” Test 429 |
| eavesdropping noun | the act of listening to information that was not intended for you | “Some researchers therefore prefer to speak of eavesdropping, or of cues rather than signals” Test 429 |
| semantic adjective | concerned only with the meaning of words rather than with reality | “The distinction is not merely semantic: if the release is a by-product” Test 429 |
| floodplain noun | flat land beside a river that is covered when it floods | “Rivers and floods carry the seeds of many floodplain species downstream” Test 440 |
| irresistible adjective | so attractive that an animal cannot refuse or ignore it | “a fatty appendage called an elaiosome, which ants find irresistible” Test 440 |
| statistically adverb | using numbers and probability rather than direct observation | “Ecologists therefore describe dispersal statistically, as a distribution” Test 440 |
| lodging verb | becoming stuck or fixed in a place and staying there | “moves with the tide before lodging in mud” Test 440 |
| scarification noun | the weakening or softening of a seed's outer coat so it can sprout | “in a way that makes germination more likely, a process known as scarification” Test 440 |
| aromatic adjective | having a ring-shaped molecular structure, as certain complex chemicals do | “a complex aromatic polymer that encases the fibres and makes timber rigid and waterproof” Test 475 |
| oxidative adjective | describing a reaction in which oxygen or a similar agent removes electrons | “using an armoury of oxidative enzymes that require oxygen” Test 475 |
| cross-linked adjective | joined internally by many bonds, making the material hard to break apart | “Its random, tightly cross-linked structure resists the enzymes that most living things possess” Test 475 |
| soluble adjective | able to dissolve in a liquid and be absorbed | “releasing enzymes and other reactive substances into the wood and absorbing the soluble products” Test 475 |
| formidable adjective | impressively large or powerful, and therefore rather intimidating | “Some decayers are also formidable in size: a single individual of the honey fungus” Test 475 |
| unmistakable adjective | so distinctive that it cannot be confused with anything else | “Within its native range, however, the tree is unmistakable: a massive reddish-brown trunk” Test 480 |
| fibrous adjective | made up of many tough threads or fibres | “it is soft, fibrous and low in resin” Test 480 |
| exacting adjective | demanding great care and precise conditions in order to be satisfied | “Seedlings are fragile, and their requirements are exacting.” Test 480 |
| suppression noun | the deliberate stopping or preventing of something from happening | “A century of fire suppression allowed litter and small trees to accumulate” Test 480 |
| terrain noun | the physical features and shape of an area of land | “a task made harder by the steep terrain and by the risk of an escape” Test 480 |
Question types in these passages
- Multiple choice (choose more than one) · 16 passages
- Matching headings · 14 passages
- True / False / Not Given · 14 passages
- Sentence completion · 12 passages
- Summary completion · 12 passages
- Matching information · 9 passages
- Multiple choice · 9 passages
- Short-answer questions · 7 passages
- Note completion · 7 passages
- Yes / No / Not Given · 5 passages
- Matching features · 4 passages
- Summary completion (word list) · 3 passages
- Flow-chart completion · 3 passages
- Matching sentence endings · 3 passages
- Table completion · 3 passages
- Diagram label completion · 2 passages