B1CEFRReading15 min

Reading: The Changing Role of Landlines

Old gadgets and changing technology

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IELTS Reading Practice • Level B1

The Changing Role of Landlines

Unit: Old Gadgets & Changing Technology • Estimated Time: 15 minutes

💡 How to use this lesson

For Teachers: Use this lesson to help B1 students practice scanning for details and completing IELTS question types within 15 minutes. Review the answers together by reading the exact evidence lines from the passage.

For Learners: First, read the four short paragraphs carefully to understand the main points without worrying about every single number. Next, answer the eight practice questions below and read the explanations to check your understanding.

Reading Passage

Landline Telephones in US Homes

4 Paragraphs (A–D)

The National Center for Health Statistics, a US government agency, has asked people about the phones in their homes since 2003. In its regular survey, it asks whether there is a working phone in the home that is not a cell phone. By the second half of 2024, 78.7 percent of adults, which is about 205 million people, lived in homes with a mobile phone but no landline.

The share of adults living in homes without a landline has generally gone up since 2003. For example, it rose by 2.7 percentage points in just one year, going from 76.0 percent in the second half of 2023 to 78.7 percent in the second half of 2024. For children, the figure was even higher, reaching 86.9 percent in the second half of 2024.

Age makes a big difference in phone choices. In the second half of 2024, 88.9 percent of adults aged 25 to 29 had their own mobile phone and lived in a home without a landline. On the other hand, for adults aged 65 and over, the figure was much lower at 57.9 percent.

However, many homes still have a landline today. In the second half of 2024, 19.8 percent of adults lived in homes with both a landline and a mobile phone. Meanwhile, only 0.9 percent of adults lived in homes that had a landline but no mobile phone.

Useful Everyday Pattern

Comparing Habits Between Generations

"My grandmother still uses a landline, but I no longer have one."

Why this works: You can link two contrasting habits using "but" to compare different family members smoothly without repeating words.

IELTS Practice Exercises

Answer questions 1–8 based on the reading passage above.

Question 1 • True / False / Not Given

Instructions: Choose True, False, or Not Given based on the text.

1. In the second half of 2024, around 205 million US adults lived in homes that had a cell phone but no landline.

____ True ____ False ____ Not Given

Question 2 • True / False / Not Given

Instructions: Choose True, False, or Not Given based on the text.

2. Older adults prefer landlines because landlines are cheaper to maintain than mobile phones.

____ True ____ False ____ Not Given

Question 3 • Multiple Choice

Instructions: Choose the correct letter A, B, C, or D.

3. What percentage of children lived in homes without a landline in the second half of 2024?

____ a. 76.0 percent ____ b. 78.7 percent ____ c. 86.9 percent ____ d. 88.9 percent

Question 4 • Multiple Choice

Instructions: Choose the correct letter A, B, C, or D.

4. What is the main idea of Paragraph D regarding home landlines?

____ a. Almost all US households have completely given up using landline telephones. ____ b. A notable group of people still keep landlines, though very few rely only on them. ____ c. Landline telephones are becoming more popular than mobile phones in most homes. ____ d. Adults aged 65 and over prefer having both a mobile phone and a landline.

Question 5 • Which Paragraph Contains This Information?

Instructions: Select the paragraph letter (A, B, C, or D) that contains the stated information.

5. Which paragraph contains information about how phone ownership varies across different age groups?

____ a. Paragraph A ____ b. Paragraph B ____ c. Paragraph C ____ d. Paragraph D

Question 6 • Which Paragraph Contains This Information?

Instructions: Select the paragraph letter (A, B, C, or D) that contains the stated information.

6. Which paragraph contains information about the small percentage of adults who rely solely on a landline without any mobile phone?

____ a. Paragraph A ____ b. Paragraph B ____ c. Paragraph C ____ d. Paragraph D

Question 7 • Sentence Completion

Instructions: Complete the sentence using exact words from the text.

7. Since the year 2003, a US government agency called the ____ has been collecting data about home phones.

Question 8 • Sentence Completion