PTE Reading

Multiple Choice, Single Answer

1 questions. Answer them all, then submit once for your section score.

Pearson Test of English — TestDayTwin Practice
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1.
Multiple Choice, Single Answer

Read the passage and answer the question.

Herbal gardens, once a fixture of monasteries and early hospitals, were organized less for beauty than for utility. Plants were grouped by medicinal function rather than color or height, allowing healers to locate remedies quickly during outbreaks of illness. Monastic records from medieval Europe describe separate beds for digestive herbs, wound-healing plants, and those believed to ease fevers, with detailed notes on dosage passed between generations of caretakers. Modern herb gardens still borrow this functional layout, though today it often serves educational rather than clinical purposes. Few visitors realize that the geometric hedges enclosing many historic herbal gardens originally served a practical role too: containing invasive root systems that would otherwise overtake neighboring beds.

Based on the passage, what was the primary reason plants in early herbal gardens were grouped by medicinal function?