IELTS Reading — Stage 3 Sample: The Silence of the Bees (English-Only)

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IELTS Reading Practice Test — Sample (Stage 3: English-Only)

Full reading passage with questions, answer key, and examiner explanations. No Chinese — learn English through English.

READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1–13, which are based on Reading Passage 1 below.

The Silence of the Bees

A. In the winter of 2006, a beekeeper in Florida opened his hives and found something alarming. Adult honeybees had vanished, leaving behind sealed honey, untouched pollen, and a small cluster of live bees huddled around a queen who was, by all appearances, perfectly healthy. There were no dead bees to be seen. Within months, similar reports arrived from twenty-two US states. Scientists eventually named the phenomenon Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), and it quickly became one of the most worrying environmental mysteries of the decade.

B. Bee colonies are, in their natural state, remarkably resilient. A healthy hive regulates its own temperature, defends itself against predators, and divides when it outgrows its quarters. The sudden disappearance of entire colonies — with no trace of the workers who should have been foraging — defied every textbook explanation. Varroa mites, pesticides, and fungal infections had all been linked to bee declines in the past, but none of these accounted for a colony emptied so completely that the honey stores were left unguarded. For a while, the leading hypothesis was a class of insecticides known as neonicotinoids, which are absorbed into a plant's vascular system and appear in its nectar and pollen.

C. The research that followed was enormous, but it also exposed how little was known about the bees themselves. A landmark 2010 review by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that CCD was likely the product of multiple overlapping stressors — poor nutrition, habitat loss, exposure to agrochemicals, and a debilitating mite-borne virus — acting together rather than any single cause. The review was careful not to exonerate neonics, but it warned against pinning the crisis on one villain. Bees, it turned out, were being worn down by a slow accumulation of harms, the way a person might succumb not to a single illness but to the combined weight of age, diet, and exhaustion.

D. Why does this matter beyond the apiary? Honeybees are not an endangered species, but they are an industrial one. In the United States, commercial beekeepers truck billions of bees across the country every year to pollinate almonds in California, apples in Washington, and blueberries in Maine. Without this mobile workforce, fruit and nut yields would collapse. The economic value of bee pollination in the US alone is estimated at well over fifteen billion dollars annually. Wild bees and other pollinators provide a second, unpriced service, but their numbers have also declined, making the managed honeybee — for all its vulnerabilities — irreplaceable in large-scale agriculture.

E. The response of farmers and policymakers has been uneven. The European Union imposed a restricted use of three neonicotinoid compounds in 2013, and expanded the ban in 2018. The United States has moved more slowly, with the Environmental Protection Agency requiring additional studies rather than an outright prohibition. Meanwhile, beekeepers have adopted their own measures: diversifying forage, reducing hive stress during transport, and breeding bees that show resistance to mites. None of these is a silver bullet, but together they have kept colony losses in check even as winter survival rates remain below what beekeepers consider sustainable.

F. Perhaps the most important lesson from CCD is not about bees at all. It is a reminder that ecosystems are not vending machines — you cannot pull one component out without the rest wobbling. The honeybee collapse sounded an early alarm about the fragility of a food system that depends on a handful of pollinator species, and it forced a conversation about what "a healthy environment" actually means. Bees, it turns out, are canaries in the agricultural coal mine, and their silence has been, however belatedly, heard.

Questions 1–5

Reading Passage 1 has six paragraphs, A–F.

Choose the correct heading for paragraphs B, C, D, and E from the list of headings below.

List of Headings


i.	A single chemical blamed for the crisis
ii.	Why the disappearance was so puzzling
iii.	The economic stakes of pollination
iv.	A global treaty to save the bees
v.	Why multiple causes may be responsible
vi.	How bees are transported across continents
vii.	Policy responses on two sides of the Atlantic

1. Paragraph B ________

2. Paragraph C ________

3. Paragraph D ________

4. Paragraph E ________

Questions 5–9

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 1?

Write:

YES if the statement agrees with the writer
NO if the statement contradicts the writer
NOT GIVEN if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

5. The bees found abandoned in Florida were already dead when the hives were opened.

6. Varroa mites were initially considered a possible explanation for CCD.

7. The National Academy of Sciences review rejected the idea that neonicotinoids were harmful.

8. Wild bees have been entirely replaced by managed honeybees in US agriculture.

9. Beekeepers have achieved a fully sustainable winter survival rate.

Questions 10–13

Complete the sentences below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 10–13 on your answer sheet.

10. The National Academy of Sciences concluded that CCD was probably caused by several overlapping stressors rather than a ________.

11. Commercial beekeepers transport bees to pollinate ________ in California and fruit crops in other states.

12. In 2018, the European Union extended its ________ of three neonicotinoid compounds.

13. CCD has drawn attention to the fragility of a food system that relies on only a small number of ________ species.

ANSWER KEY & EXAMINER EXPLANATIONS

Questions 1–5: Choosing Headings

1. ii — Why the disappearance was so puzzling

Paragraph B opens by saying that bee colonies are "remarkably resilient" in their natural state, then lists why the empty-hive phenomenon defied textbook explanations. The key phrase is "defied every textbook explanation." Distractor check: heading i ("A single chemical blamed") describes only the temporary neonicotinoid hypothesis at the end of the paragraph, not the main idea — this is the classic partial-detail trap.

2. v — Why multiple causes may be responsible

Paragraph C is built around the National Academy review, which concluded that CCD was "the product of multiple overlapping stressors… acting together rather than any single cause." The simile about a person worn down by combined harms reinforces this. Distractor check: heading i is tempting because neonics are mentioned, but the paragraph explicitly warns against pinning the crisis on one villain.

3. iii — The economic stakes of pollination

Paragraph D shifts from biology to economics: it explains commercial beekeeping, the trucking industry, the $15 billion valuation, and the irreplaceable role of honeybees in large-scale agriculture. Distractor check: heading vi ("transported across continents") is a detail inside the paragraph — bees are trucked across the US, not continents — and it supports the economic argument rather than being the main idea.

4. vii — Policy responses on two sides of the Atlantic

Paragraph E contrasts the EU's ban with the slower US approach, then describes beekeepers' own measures. The structure is explicitly transatlantic: "The European Union imposed… The United States has moved more slowly…" Distractor check: heading iv ("a global treaty") has no basis — the passage describes national regulation, not a treaty.

Questions 5–9: YES / NO / NOT GIVEN

5. NO

Paragraph A says the beekeeper found "adult honeybees had vanished" and "there were no dead bees to be seen." The statement claims the bees were "already dead," which directly contradicts the text. The contradiction is explicit, so this is NO, not NOT GIVEN.

6. YES

Paragraph B states that "Varroa mites, pesticides, and fungal infections had all been linked to bee declines in the past." This confirms that mites were considered as a possible explanation. The writer agrees.

7. NO

Paragraph C says the review "was careful not to exonerate neonics." "Not to exonerate" means the review did not clear them of blame. The statement claims the review "rejected the idea that neonicotinoids were harmful" — this is the opposite of what the passage says. NO.

8. NOT GIVEN

Paragraph D says wild bees "provide a second, unpriced service" and that managed honeybees are "irreplaceable in large-scale agriculture." The passage never states that wild bees have been "entirely replaced." This is a scope trap: the text discusses their complementary roles, but does not make the absolute claim in the question. NOT GIVEN.

9. NO

Paragraph E ends: "together they have kept colony losses in check even as winter survival rates remain below what beekeepers consider sustainable." The statement claims beekeepers "have achieved a fully sustainable winter survival rate" — this directly contradicts "remain below… sustainable." NO.

Questions 10–13: Sentence Completion

10. single cause

The National Academy concluded CCD was caused by overlapping stressors rather than a ________.

Source: Paragraph C — "acting together rather than any single cause." The answer must be NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS. "single cause" = two words.

11. almonds

…to pollinate ________ in California…

Source: Paragraph D — "to pollinate almonds in California, apples in Washington." Answer: almonds.

12. restricted use / ban

…the EU extended its ________ of three neonicotinoid compounds.

Source: Paragraph E — "The European Union imposed a restricted use… in 2013, and expanded the ban in 2018." The word that fits grammatically is ban (one word) or restricted use. Both appear in the text; "ban" is the cleaner fit.

13. pollinator

…relies on only a small number of ________ species.

Source: Paragraph F — "a food system that depends on a handful of pollinator species." Answer: pollinator.

GLOSSARY (English-Only)

Word / Phrase	Meaning in this context
foraging	searching for food
colony	a group of bees living together in one hive
resilience	the ability to recover quickly from difficulty
vascular system	the system in a plant that carries sap
nectar	sweet liquid produced by flowers
pollen	fine powder produced by flowers, carried by bees
hypothesis	a proposed explanation that needs testing
mitigate / in check	kept under control, prevented from worsening
silver bullet	a simple solution to a difficult problem
canary in the coal mine	an early warning of danger

EXAMINER'S TIP: How to Approach Heading Questions

Read the headings before the paragraphs. Underline the key word in each heading.
Read the paragraph's first and last sentences first — the main idea is usually there.
If a heading matches a single detail inside the paragraph but not the overall message, it is a distractor. The correct heading must summarise the whole paragraph.
Cross out headings as you use them — you will never need one heading twice.

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