OET Reading Samples – How to Practice OET Reading

The OET Reading test is divided into three sections, each assessing your ability to understand healthcare-related information. With a total of 42 marks available—20 for Part A, 6 for Part B, and 16 for Part C—it’s crucial to master each section. This article provides OET Reading samples and explains each part of the test. Use these OET reading samples and strategies to practice effectively, improve your comprehension, and boost your confidence for test day.

In this article, we will provide a sample for OET Reading practice and explain the details of each section. Read on to understand what each part involves before diving into the practice materials.

Information and Tips

Reading Part A

This is the first section and comprises four short texts revolving around the same theme or topic related to the healthcare domain. This section involves reading at a swift pace and scanning through information quickly.

• The texts will be of various types ranging from case studies to workplace information guides to extracts from the scientific literature.
• Bear in mind that they will be applicable to all healthcare personnel, including nurses and doctors.
• There is a time limit of twenty minutes within which you will have to answer questions about the text extracts given.
• The question will be in three modes: matching, short answer questions, and sentence completion.
• The first seven or eight questions will require you to match a statement with a text and point out from which of the text the information in the statement originates.
• For the short answer questions, it will be based on the text given and require you to find the appropriate answer from it. In case of completing the sentences, you will need to finish the statement using information or words from the given text.

Reading Part B and C

These two tasks are of a longer duration and involve more careful reading. Part B tests your ability to pick out details, summary or the key aspects of six brief texts taken from healthcare work situations.

• These passages will range from around 100-150 words respectively.
• The texts will include excerpts from hospital regulations, policy documents, manuals or internal communications within the workplace such as memos or emails.
• There will be a three-option multiple choice question provided for this portion.
• Part C will evaluate your ability to determine detailed meaning and opinions given in two extracts on issues that are of concern to healthcare personnel.
• These passages will be of 800 words and require you to answer around eight multiple choice questions with four options each.

Sample for OET Reading

Part A

Rabies: A Neglected Tropical Disease

Text A

The Feasibility of Canine Rabies Elimination in Africa

Background:

Canine rabies causes many thousands of human deaths every year in Africa, and continues to increase throughout much of the continent.

Methodology/Principal Findings:

There are four common reasons given for the lack of effective canine rabies control in Africa: (a) a low priority given for disease control as a result of lack of awareness of the rabies burden; (b) epidemiological constraints such as uncertainties about the required levels of vaccination coverage (c) operational constraints including accessibility of dogs for vaccination and insufficient knowledge of dog population sizes for planning of vaccination campaigns; and (d) limited resources for implementation of rabies surveillance and control.

We address each of these issues in turn, presenting data from field studies and modelling approaches used in Tanzania, including burden of disease evaluations, detailed epidemiological studies, operational data from vaccination campaigns in different demographic and ecological settings, and economic analyses of the cost effectiveness of dog vaccination for human rabies prevention.

Conclusions/Significance:

We conclude that there are no insurmountable problems to canine rabies control in most of Africa; that elimination of canine rabies is epidemiologically and practically feasible through mass vaccination of domestic dogs; and that domestic dog vaccination provides a cost-effective approach to the prevention and elimination of human rabies deaths.

Text B

Description of Rabies and current situation:

Rabies is a viral zoonosis caused by negative-stranded RNA viruses from the Lyssavirus genus. Although rabies can infect and be transmitted by a wide range of mammals, the vast majority of human cases result from the bites of rabid domestic dogs

Recent successes have been demonstrated in many parts of South America, where canine rabies has been brought under control through large-scale dog vaccination campaigns.

In contrast, in Africa and Asia the incidence of dog rabies and human rabies deaths continue to escalate, and new outbreaks have been occurring in areas previously free of the disease.

Text C

Economic Burden:

The major component of the economic burden of rabies relates to high costs of medication, which impacts both government and household budgets. Many countries spend millions of dollars importing supplies of tissue-culture vaccines.

At the household level, costs of medication arise directly from anti-rabies vaccines and from patient costs associated with travel including multiple hospital visits, medical fees and income losses. Total costs have been estimated conservatively at $40 US per treatment in Africa and $49 US in Asia accounting respectively for 5.8% and 3.9% of annual per capita gross national income.

Text D

Vaccination Coverage:

Domestic dogs are the sole population responsible for rabies maintenance and main source of infection for humans throughout most of Africa and Asia and therefore control of dog rabies should eliminate the disease. Studies indicate the elimination of rabies through domestic dog vaccination is cost effective.

Technology:

Considerable progress has been made in the development of simple and inexpensive techniques for sample preservation and rapid diagnosis such as the use of light microscopes which are widely available. The technique is simple and can be performed by a range of operators if appropriate training is provided.

Questions

Questions 1-7

In which text can you find information about

1 Several animals spread Rabies in people ____________

2 The cost-effective way to eradicate Rabies completely ____________

3 Why Canine rabies could not be controlled in Africa ____________

4 Financial cost is found to be an obstacle to

overcome the spread of rabies in Africa ____________

5 Recently, massive dog vaccination has

produced a positive result in various locations of a continent ____________

6 Expected cost per treatment in two different continents ____________

7 Reference to equipment to quickly and

accurately diagnose the condition of Rabies ____________

Questions 8-15

8 In general, how many reasons contribute to the ineffective Rabies control in Africa?

9 Which animals are solely accountable for infection for people in almost all parts of Africa and Asia?

10 What is the proportion of overall costs by an Asian household per capita gross national income to treat Rabies every year?

11 Why has low priority been given to rabies control in Africa?

12 Which two budgets are mainly affected by expensive medicines for Rabies?

13 What equipment is generally used nowadays to detect the conditions of Rabies?

14 How much is approximately spent by an African family for each treatment?

15 What kinds of approaches are used in Tanzania to provide information in addressing ineffective Rabies control?

Questions 16-20

16 Epidemiological restraints including the uncertainties about the necessary levels of ____________ are the key behind poor Rabies control in Africa.

17 Numerous nations around the world spend huge amount of money to bring provisions of ____________

18 ____________viruses lead to a viral condition called Rabies.

19 From the epidemiological and practical views, Rabies’ deaths among human beings can be best avoided and reduced through____________.

20 Visiting ____________ several times increases the financial burden of a household.

Part B

In this part of the test, there are six short extracts

relating to the work of health professionals. For questions, 1-6, choose the

answer (A, B, C) which you think fits best according to the text.

1. What does Dr Lubroth recommend should be done with the sick birds?

A They should be processed immediately

B They should be killed

C They should be allowed to recover

H1N1 Virus found in Chile

Last week the H1N1 virus was found in turkeys on farms in Chile. The UN now says poultry farms elsewhere in the world could also become infected. Scientists are worried that the virus could theoretically mix with more dangerous strains. It has previously spread from humans to pigs. However,swine flu remains no more severe than seasonal flu.

Chilean authorities first reported the incident last week.Two poultry farms are affected near the seaport of Valparaiso Juan Lubroth, interim chief veterinary officer of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), said: “Once the sick birds have recovered, safe production and processing can continue. They do not pose a threat to the food chain.”

2. Which of the following sentences about a panic attack is not true?

A Approximately one in 3 people faces this condition at least once in their lives

B Sometimes, panic attacks last longer than people usually thought

C Many likely avoid a variety of circumstances to prevent anxiety attacks from happening

Panic attack and its symptoms

A panic attack is a brief episode of intense anxiety, which causes the physical sensations of fear. Symptoms of a panic attack can include: heightened vigilance for danger and physical symptoms, anxious and irrational thinking, a strong feeling of dread, danger or foreboding, fear of going mad,losing control or dying, feeling lightheaded and dizzy, tingling and chills, particularly in the arms and hands, trembling or shaking, sweating, hot flushes, accelerated heart rate, a feeling of constriction in the chest, breathing difficulties, including shortness of breath, nausea or abdominal distress, tense muscles, dry mouth, as well as feelings of unreality and detachment from the environment.

Panic attacks are common. Up to 35 percent of the population experience a panic attack at some time in their lives. A panic attack can also be called an anxiety attack. Without treatment, frequent and prolonged panic attacks can be severely disabling. The person may choose to avoid a wide range of situations (such as leaving their home or being alone) for fear of experiencing an attack.

3. Push buttons are increasingly used worldwide due to

A It’s a simple yet effective operating procedure

B Its ability to collect a wide variety of patient information

C Both A and B

Push Button Medicine

Valeta Young, 81, a retiree from Lodi, California suffers from congestive heart failure and requires almost constant monitoring. But, she doesn’t have to drive anywhere to get it. Twice a day she steps onto a special electronic scale, answers a few yes or no questions via push buttons on a small attached monitor and presses a button that sends the information to a nurse’s station in San Antonio, Texas. “It’s almost a direct link to my doctor”, says Young, who describes herself as computer illiterate but says she has no problems using the equipment.

Young is not the only patient who is dealing with her doctor from a distance. Remote monitoring is a rapidly growing field in medical technology, with more than 25 firms competing to measure remotely – and transmit by phone, Internet or through the airwaves everything from patients’ heart rates to how often they cough.

4. Which one is not the common cause of bird flu infection in human beings?

A Contact with the saliva, nasal secretions or faeces of an infected bird

B Transmission from one affected person to another

C Contact with surfaces that have been contaminated by excretions or secretions from infected birds

What is bird flu (avian influenza)?

A growing number of avian influenza (bird flu) cases are turning up among bird populations around the world. The bird flu is an infection caused by the avian (bird) influenza (flu) virus. These flu viruses occur naturally among birds. Wild birds worldwide carry the virus in their intestines, but usually do not get sick from it. However, avian influenza is very contagious among birds and can make some domesticated birds, including chickens, ducks, and turkeys, very sick and kill them.

Most cases of bird flu infection in humans have resulted from direct or close contact with infected poultry (For example: domesticated chicken, ducks, and turkeys) or surfaces contaminated with secretions and excretions from infected birds. The spread of bird flu viruses from an ill person to another person has been reported very rarely, and transmission has not been observed to continue beyond one person. During an outbreak of bird flu among poultry, there is a possible risk to people who have direct or close contact with infected birds or with surfaces that have been contaminated with secretions and excretions from infected birds.

5. According to the passage, what is the reason behind the battle between parents and their children?

A Not eating vegetables

B Overeating of vegetables

C Not cleaning

Battles between parents and their children

Most parents have waged epic battles with their kids over eating veggies. But if they don’t clean their plate of the last Brussels sprout, does it matter? Vegetables are behind some of the greatest battles between parents and children. Most parents have dinnertime horror stories involving small bits of vegetables and lots of screaming, and while these stories can be entertaining, the research showing how few veggies our kids are eating is not.

The 2009 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare national report card found that a whopping 78 percent of 4-8-year-olds, 86 percent of 9-13 year-olds and 95 percent of 14-16 year-olds are not eating the recommended daily servings of vegetables. Take out potatoes, which most kids eat as chips, and the percentage of kids not getting the nutrition they need jumps to 97, 98 and 100 per cent respectively. Other research has made similar findings.

6. For what does acupuncture give immediate relief?

A Headaches

B Acute pain

C None of the above

Scientific research on Acupuncture

Modern science has surprisingly little to say on whether acupuncture successfully relieves pain or not. There are some high-quality studies, mainly focusing on the relief of back pain and headache but they are small – so what researchers have done is pool the results. A 2009 review of 22 existing studies on the prevention of migraine with acupuncture found that people receiving acupuncture had fewer headaches after three to four months than those who received either no treatment or routine drug treatment. Those receiving acupuncture also had fewer undesired consequences, such as drug side effects. Another review from the same year found that acupuncture also reduces the intensity and frequency of tension-type headaches.

For chronic lower back pain, a 2007 German study of 1162 participants found that the effectiveness of acupuncture after six months was almost twice that of conventional therapy (drugs, physical therapy and exercise). A 2009 American study of 638 people found similar results. However, the most current reviews pooling all available evidence on chronic lower back pain doesn’t paint such a conclusive picture: they found that while acupuncture is a useful addition to conventional therapies, there isn’t sufficient evidence that it’s any more effective than other treatments.

Part C

Text 1: Employment records reveal the detail of asbestos danger

About a quarter of the people who worked in an asbestos mine in Western Australia between 1943 and the closure of the pit in 1966 are already suffering from diseases related to their exposure to the mineral or may do in the future. This is the estimate of researchers who say that the mines’ employment records have enabled them to carry out one of the most thorough studies ever of the long-term health effects of exposure to asbestos fibre. The team, based at the University of Western Australia and the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital in Perth, says that it is the only study in which a well-defined group of people has been exposed to a single form of asbestos over a specified period. Of the 6502 men and 416 women who worked at the mine, almost 2000 have developed or will develop cancer and other diseases related to asbestos, The Asbestos Diseases Society of Australia, a group formed to help people exposed to asbestos, claims that 300 former workers have already died of asbestos-related diseases,

The people, mostly migrant labourers from Europe, worked in an asbestos mine and mill in Wittenoom, a town in the Hamersley Range, about 1606 kilometres north of Perth, Wittenoom, once the home of 4000 people, is now virtually deserted. The state government cut essential services to the town last year. Blue asbestos, or crocidolite, was mined there. The researchers were able to determine how much asbestos the workers were exposed to byte by making calculations based on readings of dust that were taken at various times during the mine’s operation. The most extensive asbestos exposure occurred in the mill where ore was ground down and the fibre extracted.

The Australian study was published last month in the Medical Journal of Australia, Other records of exposure to blue asbestos- such as those from South Africa – have not been as useful to researchers as the data from Wittenoom, says William Musk, from the University of Western Australia. Blue asbestos fibres are very thin, straight and small – about 0.1 micrometres in diameter. As a result, they are more likely to enter the lungs than other types of asbestos fibres. They ate also the least likely to adhere to and be intercepted by the protective mucus in the airways.

Scientists have associated the fibres mined at Wittenoom with three types of disease: malignant mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis, a scarring of the lung. Most of the workers were at the mine for only short periods – months, rather than years. The diseases may take up to 40 years to develop. The records until 1986 show 94 cases of mesothelioma, 141 lung cancers

and 336 cases of asbestosis among the Wittenoom workers. In the general population, mesothelioma, a cancer of the outer covering of the lung, is rare, occurring at the rate of less than one per million people each year, The scientists say that exposure to asbestos can account for about 40 percent of the cases of lung cancer at Wittenoom, the remainder were caused by the effects of smoking

Over the next 30 years, there will be a sevenfold increase in the number of cases of mesothelioma, according to the researchers’ estimates.There will be as many as 25 cases of the disease a year by the year 2610. The team predicts that between 1987 and 2020, a total of 692 new cases of mesothelioma will occur. Most will be in the lung (pleural mesothelioma), but

some will be in the abdomen (peritoneal mesothelioma). Cases of lung cancer and asbestos among the workers will reach a peak by about 2000, with a total of 183 and 482 respectively by the year 2020.

The Asbestos Diseases Society claims that the problem will not be confined to former workers. About 6000 of the 14 000 wives and children of workers at Wittencom will also suffer from an asbestos-related disease, according to the society. “Forty-one people in their late 30s or 40s who were children at Wittenoom have died of mesothelioma,” according to Robert Vojakovic, the President of the society. He obtained the statistics from death certificates. The university study only examined the records of workers. Last year, after a legal battle lasting 13 years, CSR, the mining company whose subsidiary, Australian Blue Asbestos, operated the plant, agreed in an

out-of-court settlement to pay compensation to former miners and residents of Wittenoom.

By 5 December, 350 people and their families had received compensation totalling $42 million. The State Government Insurance Commission will share the costs of compensation based on exposure to asbestos at Wittenoom after 1959, The payments, part of the largest industrial settlement in Australian history, will range in size between A$30,000 and A$600,000. However, Western Australia has another problem: The red gorges within the Hamersley Range, including the Wittenoom Gorge, have become a tourist attraction. The millions of asbestos tailings that still litter the area are regarded as a health hazard, especially to children who might be tempted to play on the piles.

Camping is forbidden in the Wittenoom Gorge. The state government is considering burying the tailings or putting them under the water, Both solutions will be expensive. The asbestos society is trying to obtain funds from Lang Hancock, the mining magnate who opened the mine in the late 1930s, and CSR, to help restore Wittencom Gorge, which it says could be made into a major tourist attraction. It also wants the town to be relocated within the gorge.

Questions 7-14

7 Of all workers in the Western Australian mine, 25%

A have died since 1966 of mine-related diseases

B have already got symptoms of mine-related diseases

C may suffer from mine-related diseases in the future

D have developed mine-related diseases or may do so.

8 Which of the following is not unique to the West Australian study?

A The mine kept records of all workers

B The effects of only one form of asbestos were studied

C Data were collected during a clear period

D The group studied was well defined

9 The population of Wittencom is now

A around 4,000 people

B extremely small

C around 1,600 people

D non-existent

10 Which of the following is not typical of blue asbestos fibres?

A The fibres are so small that they enter the lungs easily

B The fibres easily adhere to protective mucus in the airways

C The fibres are usually not intercepted by mucus in the always

D The fibres are less than a micrometre in diameter.

11 Of the three types of diseases associated with asbestos fibres at the Wittenoom mines

A mesothelioma is the most frequently occurring type

B asbestoals is the most frequently occurring type

C asbestosis is the least frequently occurring type

D lung cancer is the least frequently occurring type

12 The research team predicts that by the year 2020 there will be 183 cases of

A asbestosis

B pleural mesothelioma

C Lung cancer

D peritoneal mesothelioma

13 Statistics quoted in the article are based on

A death certificates

B mine employment records

C research conducted at a university

D all of the above.

14 A 13-year legal battle for compensation of disease victims resulted in

A an out-of-court settlement involving payment by two parties

B compensation payments to former Wittencom miners

C compensation payments to 50 Wittencom residents

D an out-of-court settlement involving payment only by CSR

Text 2: The senses of the newborn Tests for hearing and vision have improved

Shakespeare’s description of the infant, “Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms,” echoed in the attitudes of doctors earlier this century, The newborn baby was thought to be either drowsy, asleep, or crying, and to experience the world as a “great, blooming, buzzing, confusion.” But we have learnt over the past 30 years that a healthy newborn baby can discriminate between different sensations from the environment and respond selectively. Within hours of birth the baby will look at the mother’s face, and given the choice newborn babies prefer to look at a card showing the features of another human being rather than the same features jumbled up or the features condensed into a large black patch.

The newborn baby spends only 11% of the time awake and alert in the first week of life, a proportion that rises to 21% in the fourth week.This small fraction of wakefulness hindered the early development of methods of testing senses. When eliciting responses it is important to record the baby’s state of arousal – between deep sleep at one extreme and crying at the other end. Prechtl’s group first described five possible behavioural states. Brazelton extended this work to include items of higher neurological function, including visual and auditory responses to a ball and rattle, and his neonatal behavioural assessment scale is a means of scoring interactive behaviour.

Why do we need to test the senses of the newborn? We want to ensure that the baby is able to interact with the parents and with the environment and that there is no impairment to social, emotional, cognitive, and linguistic development. It is often difficult to prove that early

intervention is effective in minimising handicaps, but there is evidence – for instance, that deaf children fitted with hearing aids in the first six months of life have better speech than those fitted later. And all parents and most therapists agree that they would like to know of any handicap as early as possible.

Finding reliable and practicable methods of testing heating and vision in newborn babies has proved difficult. They show behavioural responses to sound, blinking and startling to a sudden clap and “stilling” to interesting noises, with alteration in their breathing pattern. Every mother recognises these responses, but they cannot be used to detect deaf babies reliably because of the spontaneous random movements babies make and possible bias on the part of the observers. The use of a simple rattle to produce head and eye turning has been described, but the method has not found widespread acceptance. Behavioural responses may be recorded by devices incorporating microprocessors such as the auditory response cradle (which

should eliminate observer bias). The sensitivity and specificity of this cradle

have varied among trials, the sound stimulus has to be very loud (80-85 dB) to result in a behavioural response by the baby so that moderate hearing losses are missed.

The electrophysiological response to sound may be detected by audiometry based on evoked responses in the brain stem, and this is considerably more sensitive. Simpler and more important brain stem screeners have now been developed. Most recently, newborn babies’ hearing has been tested by using otoacoustic emissions, a phenomenon first reported by Kemp in 1978. A click stimulus delivered to the normal ear results in an “echo” sound generated by the cochlea, which can be detected by a miniature microphone. The method is quicker and less invasive than brainstem audiometry and can detect even mild hearing losses, Stevens and his colleagues tested 346 infants at risk and showed that 20 of the 21 surviving infants gave negative results to brainstem audiometry and also failed on the otoacoustic test. This work also highlighted a major problem of validating methods of testing senses in the newborn baby. This has to be by Follow up, checking the outcome with the testing methods that become possible in the older infant. Steven’s group found a poor correlation between distraction testing of the babies’ hearing at 8 months of age and brainstem audiometry in the newborn, a discrepancy confirmed by others. We must now be more cautious in interpreting the results of electrophysiological tests in the newborn. Babies who give negative results will need retesting several times during the first year, Though the early fitting of hearing aids is desirable, the degree of hearing impairment needs to be clearly established, particularly as maturation of the auditory pathways may be taking place, although delayed.

Similar problems and challenges occur in testing vision in newborn babies. Behavioural responses are familiar to the mother, with the baby blinking to bring light. Babies turn their heads to a diffuse light but (like turning to sound) this test may not be reliable, especially in preterm infants.All these responses give a qualitative indication of vision.

Optokinetic nystagmus can be shown when a striped tape or drum is moved in a temporal to the nasal direction across the newborn baby’s field of vision and gives a valuable but crude indication that vision is present. Electrophysiological recording of the visual evoked potential to a flash gives limited useful information because of great individual variations and because it relates as much to general cerebral function as to the visual outcome. “Visual evoked potentials to patterns may give a measure of visual function but only after the age of 2 months. The best method of measuring visual acuity is to use the preferential looking technique. This is

based on the observation of Fantz 30 years ago that patterned objects are visually interesting to infants. The latest version, called the acuity card procedure, uses patterned and plain stimuli mounted in pairs on cards, and these can be used successfully even in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Much fascinating and enjoyable research is being done into the ability of babies to discriminate and respond to smell, taste, and touch. We should also be glad that at long last there is widespread acceptance of the fact that newborn babies do experience real pain and need postoperative analgesia like the rest of us.

Questions 15-22

15 Doctors now know

A that it is natural for a newborn baby to experience the world as a great blooming buzzing confusion

B that babies are much more responsive to visual and auditory cues in their surroundings than was thought

C newborn babies are slow to respond to visual and auditory stimuli since they are awake only 11% of the time

D that babies are less able to discriminate between different features of the environment than was believed in the first half of this century

16 According to research referred to in the article, a baby given a choice about what to look at is more likely to choose

A a card showing human facial features

B a card showing jumbled human features

C a card showing a large black patch

D a black and white photograph of the mother

17 The senses of the 4-week-old baby can only be tested

A 11% of the time

B when it is crying

C 21% of the time

D none of the above

18 Which of the following statements is true?

A There is some evidence that early intervention can prevent handicaps

B There is much evidence that early intervention can minimise handicaps

C There is some evidence that early intervention can minimise handicaps

D There is no evidence that early intervention can minimise handicaps

19 Treating hearing in newborn babies is difficult for all of the following reasons except

A Newborn babies show behavioural responses to sounds such as blinking and startling

B Deaf babies sometimes make movements by chance when interesting noises are made

C Observers may be biassed in their Interpretation of babies’ responses

D The auditory response cradle does not measure moderate hearing losses

20 Otoacoustic emissions are

A sounds delivered to the cochlea

B ‘echo’ sounds caused by click stimuli

C click stimuli delivered to normal ear

D sounds generated by a miniature microphone

21 Compared with the use of otoacoustic emissions, brain stem audiometry

A is quicker

B can detect even mild hearing logs

C is more invasive

D is more sensitive.

22 Of the hearing testing methods described in the text

A brainstem audiometry correlated well with otoacoustic tests

B brainstem audiometry correlated poorly with distraction testing

C otoacoustic tests correlated poorly with brainstem audiometry

D otoacoustic tests correlated well with distraction testing

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