PTE SUPPORT

PTE Practice Questions

Reading- Multiple-choice, choose multiple answers

Read the text and answer the question by selecting all the correct responses. More than one response is correct. 

1) Most stones have capillary passages that suck saltwater from the wet ground. Death Valley provides an ultradry atmosphere and high daily temperatures, which promote evaporation and the formation of salt crystals along cracks or other openings within stones. These crystals grow as long as saltwater is available. Like tree roots breaking a sidewalk, the growing crystals exert pressures on the rock and eventually pry the rock apart along planes of weakness, such as banding in metamorphic rocks, bedding in sedimentary rocks, preexisting or incipient fractures, and along boundaries between individual mineral crystals or grains. Besides crystal growth, the expansion of halite crystals by heating and of sulphates and similar salts by hydration can contribute additional stresses. A rock durable enough to have served as your great, great, ever so great grandfather's tombstone could probably be shattered into small pieces by salt weathering within a few generations.

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According to the passage, which of the following is NOT TRUE about the effects of salts on rocks?
a) Salt damage at the seashore is more severe than sale damage in Death Valley.
b) A rock strong enough to have withstood natural conditions for a very long time could be broken apart by salt weathering.
c) Only two types of salts cause prying and wedging.
d) Salts usually cause damage only in combination with ice.
e) A variety of salts in all kinds of environments can cause weathering.

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2) Over the past two years, Aberystwyth University has been calling on the services of Hawksdrift Falconry to control the population of seagulls on the Penglais campus. On Friday 30th January, Hawksdrift Falconry owner Layla Bennett will be giving a seminar to students and staff on the use of falconry as a deterrent to the University’s seagull population. The talk will take place at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre Cinema at 2 pm. During her talk, Layla will look at the impact that falconry has on the seagull population at the University, and aspects of the company. Layla has previously appeared on Dragon’s Den, and on Oxford Street Revealed, where she used her hawk ‘Hope’ to control the pigeon population. Along with ‘Hope’ who appeared at a similar talk on Monday 26 January, she will also be bringing ‘Monty’, her Gyrfalcon. The University has been looking for ways of controlling the seagull population on the Penglais campus, particularly in the area of the Arts Centre piazza. Herring gulls are the most common seagulls on campus. The hawks have been used to deter the seagulls from nesting on buildings on the Penglais campus. In twelve months the presence of the hawks meant that seagull numbers dropped by 50%. Aberystwyth University’s Director of Health and Safety, Phil Maddison said; “It is within our duty of care to our staff and students at Aberystwyth to take preventative measures to reduce the risk of seagull related incidents on campus. We appreciate the protected nature of this species and therefore have opted to use this natural bird dispersal method of population control at the University.”The talk is for the University’s community of students and staff.

According to the writer which of the following will Layla Bennett do at Aberystwyth?
a) She will offer the solutions to deter the seagulls from nesting on the campus.
b) She will take care of and take preventative measures to reduce the risk of seagull.
c) She will investigate the impact that falconry has on the seagull population.
d) She will use her hawk to control the pigeon population and provide a speech on it.

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Practice PTE Question

Reading- Re-order Paragraph

The text below has been placed in random order. Choose the most logical order of sentences from among the choices given to construct paragraphs.  

Question 1)

a) It offered proof of what the US psychologist William James noticed more than a century ago- humans “are mere walking bundles of habits”.
b) In 1992 a retired engineer in San Diego contracted a rare brain disease that wiped out his memory.
c) Yet whenever he was hungry he got up and propelled himself straight to the kitchen to get something to eat.
d) Every day he was asked where the kitchen was in his house, and every day he didn’t have the foggiest idea.
e) Studies of this man led scientists to a breakthrough: the part of our brains where habits are stored has nothing to do with memory or reason.

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Question 2)

a) By the beginning of World War II, many towns and cities had built airports, and there were numerous qualified pilots available.
b) The war brought many innovations to aviation, including the first jet aircraft and the first liquid-fueled rockets.
c) During the 1920s and 1930s, great progress was made in the field of aviation, including the first transatlantic flight of Alcock and Brown in 1919, Charles Lindbergh's solo transatlantic flight. In 1927, and Charles Kingsford Smith's transpacific flight the following year.
d) One of the most successful designs of this period was the Douglas DC-3, which became the first airliner to be profitable carrying passengers exclusively, starting the modern era of passenger airline service.
 

PTE Practice Questions

Reading- Fill in the blanks

Below is text with blanks. From the options given below, choose the correct word for each blank to

complete the text. 

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1) One of Australia’s most remarkable natural gifts, the Great Barrier Reef is blessed with the breathtaking beauty of the world’s largest coral reef. The reef contains an __________of marine life and comprises of over 3000 individual reef systems and coral cays and literally hundreds of ___________ tropical islands with some of the world’s most beautiful sun-soaked, golden beaches. Because of its natural beauty, the Great Barrier Reef has become one of the world’s most________ after tourist destinations. A visitor to the Great Barrier Reef can enjoy many________ including snorkelling, scuba diving, aircraft or helicopter tours, bare boats (self-sail), glass-bottomed boat viewing, semi-submersibles and educational trips, cruise ship tours, whale watching and swimming with dolphins.

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experience, enough, abundance, sought, picturesque, searched, interesting, angle

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2) In the process of studying these techniques, I learned something __________: that there’s far more ________ in our ________than we often give them credit for. I’m not just talking about the fact that it’s possible to memorize lots of __________using memory techniques. I’m talking about a lesson that is more GENERAL and in a way much bigger: that it’s possible, with training and hard work, to teach oneself to do something that might seem really _________.

potential, remarkable, complicated, difficult, data, minds, information, books

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PTE Practice Questions

Reading/Writing- Summarise Written Text(SWT)

Read the passage below and summarize it using one sentence in 5-75 words. You have 10 minutes to finish this task.  

Research shows that when people work with a positive mind-set, performance on nearly every level — productivity, creativity, engagement — improves. Yet happiness is perhaps the most misunderstood driver of performance. For one, most people believe that success precedes happiness. “Once I get a promotion, I’ll be happy,” they think. Or, “Once I hit my sales target, I’ll feel great.” But because success is a moving target — as soon as you hit your target, you raise it again—the happiness that results from success is fleeting. In fact, it works the other way around: People who cultivate a positive mind-set perform better in the face of challenge. I call this the “happiness advantage” — every business outcome shows improvement when the brain is positive. I’ve observed this effect in my role as a researcher and lecturer in 48 countries on the connection between employee happiness and success. And I’m not alone: In a meta-analysis of 225 academic studies, researchers Sonja Lyubomirsky, Laura King, and Ed Diener found strong evidence of directional causality between life satisfaction and successful business outcomes. Another common misconception is that our genetics, our environment, or a combination of the two determines how happy we are. To be sure, both factors have an impact. But one’s general sense of well-being is surprisingly malleable. The habits you cultivate, the way you interact with coworkers, how you think about stress — all these can be managed to increase your happiness and your chances of success.

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PTE Practice Questions

Reading/Writing- Fill in the blanks

Below is text with blanks. From the options given below, choose the correct word for each blank to

complete the text. 

1)There isn’t a financial director around who wouldn’t like to __________ cash flow by reducing debtor days- in other words, get customers to pay up faster. In Europe’s top 1,000 quoted companies, nearly one-quarter of all invoices are unpaid at any _________in time, according to recent research carried out by the ASF organization. This means they are sitting on a total of 274 billion overdue debts. Most of this is caused by poor collection practices. According to Jan Porter, ASF’s Managing Director, “You can set up all the systems you want, you can insist on__________ contracts and payment terms, the government can even introduce late payment legislation, but there are always some debtors who ___________  to pay on time. Once payment is overdue, your first step is to talk to your debtor. You should let them know the payment is late and try to find out if there is a dispute about the work, or if your debtor has financial problems. This is OK, but Tim Vainio, a chartered accountant, believes that too many companies are afraid of losing a relationship, and that, before__________ any action; the focus should be on recovering as much money as possible, rather than on preserving a relationship.

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Options:
a) achieve, accelerate, decrease, slower
b) point, aspect, place, hour
c) waterproof, watertight, traditional, suitable
d) manage, fail, insist, persist
e) meeting, evaluating, assessing, undertaking

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2) In his _________book Carbon Detox, George Marshall argues that people are not persuaded by information. Our views are formed by the views of the people with whom we mix. Of the _________ that might penetrate these circles, we are more likely to listen to those that offer us some reward. A story that tells us that the world is cooking and that we'll have to make sacrifices for the sake of future generations is less likely to be accepted than the more rewarding idea that climate change is a conspiracy hatched by scheming governments and venal scientists, and that strong, independent-minded people should unite to defend their freedoms.

He proposes that instead of arguing for sacrifice, _________ should show where the rewards might lie: that understanding what the science is saying and planning accordingly is the smart thing to do, which will protect your interests more effectively than flinging abuse at scientists. We should __________ the old-fashioned virtues of uniting in the face of a crisis, of resourcefulness and community action. Projects like the transition town’s network and proposals for a green new deal tell a story which people are more willing to hear.

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Options:
a) boring, interesting, fascinating, frustrating
b) stories, insights, research, narratives
c) environmentalists, activists, protectors, extremists
d) eliminate, emphasize, repeat, create

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PTE Practice Questions

Reading- Multiple-choice, choose a single answer

Read the text and answer the question by selecting all the correct responses. Only one response is correct.  

Question 1)

Every day millions of lights and computers are left on in deserted offices, apartments and houses. Environmental activists say that simply switching them off could cut Sydney’s greenhouse gas emissions by five percent over the next year.Per capita, Australia is one of the world’s largest producers of carbon dioxide and other gases that many scientists believe are helping to warm the Earth’s atmosphere, causing climate upset. A long-standing drought and serious water shortages in Australia have focused much attention on climate change. Some experts warn higher temperatures could leave this nation of 20 million people at the mercy of more severe droughts and devastating tropical cyclones.

One present indicator of climate change in Australia is …
a) Gas emissions
b) Environmental activists
c) Carbon dioxide
d) Drought
e) Oxygen

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Question 2)

You can only submit a paper by entering into the 'classroom' of a class in which you are enrolled. Enter the classroom by clicking on the class name in your class portfolio. Your classroom page is divided into two broad sections: to the left is your assignment list and to the right is your portfolio. 

In your assignment list, to the right of the assignment that you must submit, you will see an icon of a document beneath the submit column. Click this to submit an assignment. You will now be asked to attach your assignment. Before you submit your assignment, you will need to copy the following declaration and paste at the top of your title page: I declare that this assignment is original and has not been submitted for assessment elsewhere, and acknowledge that the assessor of this assignment may, for the purpose of assessing this assignment: 

1. reproduce this assignment and provide a copy to another member of faculty; and (or) 

2. communicate a copy of this assignment to a plagiarism checking service (which may then retain a copy of this assignment on its database for the purpose of future plagiarism checking).

The process outlined for the submission of papers is mainly intended to address which of the following problems?
a) assignments being misplaced by university staff
b) students copying others' work
c) overcrowding in classrooms at peak times
d) the poor quality of English expression in assignments

PTE Practice Questions

Reading- Fill in the blanks

Below is text with blanks. From the options given below, choose the correct word for each blank to

complete the text. 

1) Can dogs tell when we are happy, sad or angry? As a dog owner, I feel ______ not only that I can tell what kind of _________ state my pets are in, but also that they respond to my emotions. Yet as a hard-headed scientist, I try to take a more rational and ________ view. These personal observations seem more likely to result from my _________ for a good relationship with my dogs. The problem is that studying emotional interpretations and responses across two interacting species is very difficult. For one thing, you can’t ask a dog how it’s feeling.

emotional             confident       reported            pragmatic             desire            eminent        operate          novel

2) There’s a pointless argument between economists and ecologists over which _______ is more important—the ecosphere or the economy? The materialist ________ is that their fates are interlinked. We know the natural world only by interacting with it and transforming it: nature __________ us that way. Even if, as some supporters of “deep ecology” ________, the earth would be better off without us, it is to us that the task of saving it falls.

provide        crisis            decreased            produced           increased           greater          answer               argue

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PTE Practice Questions

Reading- Re-order Paragraph

The text below has been placed in random order. Choose the most logical order of sentences from among the choices given to construct paragraphs. 

Question 1)

a) In do doing, they discover that these once remote worlds are themselves earth-like in character.
b) During this period of the scientific revolution, a new literary genre arose, namely that of the scientific cosmic voyage.
c) The expanding influence of Copernicanism through the seventeenth century transformed not only the natural philosophic leaning of astronomers but also the store of conceptual material accessible to writers of fiction.
d) Descriptions of these planetary bodies as terrestrial in-kind demonstrate the seventeenth-century intellectual shift from the Aristotelian to the Copernican.
e) Scientists and writers alike constructed fantastical tales in which fictional characters journey to the moon, sun, and planets.

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Question 2)

a) Games provide an ideal setting to explore important elements of the design of cleverer machines, such as pattern recognition, learning, and planning.
b) Researchers in the field of artificial intelligence have long been intrigued by games, and not just as a way of avoiding work.
c) Today, though, they are pressing the attack on every front.
d) Ever since the stunning victory of Deep Blue, a program running on an IBM supercomputer, over Gary Kasparov, then world chess champion, in 1997, it has been clear that computers would dominate that particular game.

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PTE Practice Questions

Reading- Multiple-choice, choose multiple answers

Read the text and answer the question by selecting all the correct responses. More than one response is correct. 

Dennett recognizes that all human minds are shaped not only by natural selection but by enormous cultural influenced which effectively redesign our minds. He invites us to think of the conscious mind as consisting of those mental contents that win in the competition against other mental contents in the battle for control of behavior. What we are is the “organization of all the competitive activity between a host of competences” that our bodies have developed. Consciousness is defined by what a mind can do – whether it can concentrate, be distracted, recall earlier events, keep track of a number of things at once, etc. Dennett urges us to resist the temptation to imagine animals as accompanying their clever activities with streams of reflective consciousness as we would. We may not know that they do not, but we certainly cannot assume that they do. He notes that the more we learn about clever activities in animals and how they are accomplished, the less the processes in their brains seem to resemble the thoughts we imagined were doing the work.

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According to Dennett, the mind displays which of the following characteristics?
a) Our minds are shaped by natural selection.
b) Our conscious mind tries to control our behaviors.
c) Our minds are not shaped by cultural influences.
d) Animals make decisions based on their conscious minds.
e) A mind cannot concentrate or cannot be distracted.

PTE Practice Questions

Reading- Fill in the blanks

Below is text with blanks. From the options given below, choose the correct word for each blank to

complete the text. 

1) Disadvantage in early childhood poses multiple risks to children’s development. Factors such as low socioeconomic status, long-term unemployment of parents, and social isolation may have lasting ________on a child’s chance of reaching their full potential. Whilst not eliminating disadvantage, preschool education can help to_________ the effects of these risk factors and can provide children with a better start to school. However, some of these factors may also be ________ to preschool attendance for groups that would benefit most from preschool education. In Australia, the early years of children’s education are the responsibility of man government and non-government agencies and it occurs in a range of settings. Preschool is aimed at children around four years of age to _________ them for compulsory schooling from the age of six years. In most states and territories, children can start full-time schooling at five years of age, when they enroll in a kindergarten or preparatory year. In 2001, just over half of five-year-olds (57%) were at school with about a third (34%) attending preschool. While in some states and territories children can _______ preschool before they turn four, participation rates for three-year-olds are much lower than four-year-olds (24% compared with 56% for four-year-olds in 2001). The preschool participation rate of four-year-olds in 2001 (56%) was similar to the rate in 1991 (58%).

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prepare     support     lessen    commence    prevent    significance    impacts    enhance    barriers

2) A mini helicopter modeled on flying tree seeds could soon be flying overhead. Evan Ulrich and colleagues at the University of Maryland in College Park turned to the biological world for inspiration to build a scaled-down helicopter that could mimic the properties of full-size aircraft. The complex_______ of full-size helicopters gets less efficient when shrunk,_______ that standard mini helicopters expend most of their power simply fighting to stay stable in the air. The researchers realized that a simpler aircraft designed to stay stable passively would use much less power and reduce manufacturing costs to boot. It turns out that nature ________    _________  them to it. The seeds of trees such as the maple have a single-blade structure that ___________them to fly far away and drift safely to the ground. These seeds, known as samaras, need no engine to through the air, thanks to a process called autorotation. By analyzing the behavior of the samara with high-speed cameras, Ulrich and his team were able to _______ copy its design. The samara copter is not the first single-winged helicopter - one was flown in 1952, and others have been attempted since-but it is the first to take advantage of the samara’s autorotation. This allows Ulrich’s vehicle to perform some neat tricks, such as falling safely to the ground if its motor fails or using vertical columns of air to stay aloft indefinitely. “We can turn off the motor and autorotate, which requires no power to sustain,” says Ulrich.

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tells    spin    allows    makes    meaning    design    has     flurish    had    caught    beaten

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PTE Practice Questions

Reading- Re-order Paragraph

The text below has been placed in random order. Choose the most logical order of sentences from among the choices given to construct paragraphs. 

Question 1)

a) During this period of the scientific revolution, a new literary genre arose, namely that of the scientific cosmic voyage.
b) In so doing, they discover that these once remote worlds are themselves earth-like in character.
c) The expanding influence of Copernicanism through the seventeenth century transformed not only the natural philosophic leaning of astronomers but also the store of conceptual material accessible to writers of fiction.
d) Scientists and writers alike constructed fantastical tales in which fictional characters journey to the moon, sun, and planets.
e) Descriptions of these planetary bodies as terrestrial in kind demonstrate the seventeenth-century intellectual shift from the Aristotelian to the Copernican.

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Question 2)
a) Children like him involved with child protective services were shown to have consistently low average math and reading standardized test scores.
b) He went to two schools while he was in foster care and one was Barr Beacon School, formerly Barr Beacon Language College, is a mixed comprehensive for foster children.
c) According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies in 2014,11 old boy was unable to live with his family, due to child abuse.
d) One of the recommendations was to send him to his relatives who were willing to take care until he was 18. This resulted in a positive outcome in academic achievement.
e) But upbringing in the foster care system means he has no-one to help him. It's not his fault, yet he is being penalized for something he can't change.

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PTE Practice Questions

Reading/Writing- Fill in the blanks

Below is text with blanks. From the options given below, choose the correct word for each blank to

complete the text. 

1) Organisations need to integrate their sales activities more both internally and with customers' needs according to a new book co-authored by an academic at the University of East Anglia. The book ____(a)_____ how sales can help organisations to become more customer oriented and considers how they are responding to challenges such as increasing competition, more ____(b)________customers and a more complex selling environment. Many organisations are facing escalating costs and a growth in customer power,____(c)____ makes it necessary to allocate resources more strategically. The sales function can provide critical customer and market knowledge to help inform both innovation and marketing. However, the authors say that within the industry ____(d)______ is still uncertainty about the shape a future sales team should take, how it should be managed, and how it ___(e)_____ into their organisations business model.

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Options:
a) does, addresses, discusses, analysis
b) demanding, attractive, nice, loyal
c) so, that, which, but
d) it, that, there, here
e) flows, taps, rolls, fits

2) Comparing the intelligence of animals of different species is difficult, how do you compare a dolphin and a horse? Psychologists have a technique for looking at intelligence that ___(a)____not require the cooperation of the animal involved. The relative size of an individual's brain is a reasonable indication of intelligence. Comparing__(b)_____ species is not as simple an elephant will have a larger brain than a human simple because it is a large beast,__ (c)______ we use the Cephalization index, which compare the size of an animal's brain to the size of its body. Based on the Cephalization index, the brightest animals on the planet are humans,_____(d)____ by great apes, porpoises and elephants. As a general ____(e)____, animals that hunt for a living (like canines) are smarter than strict vegetarians (you don't need much intelligence to outsmart a leaf of lettuce). Animals that live in social groups are always smarter and have large EQ's than solitary animals.

Options:
a) did, does, do, done
b) over, accross, to, through
c) because, instead, then, otherwise
d) follow, follows, following, followed
e) principal, principle, rule, theory

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PTE Practice Questions

Reading- Multiple-choice, choose a single answer

Read the text and answer the question by selecting all the correct responses. Only one response is correct. 

Question 1)

 Many advocate legalisation of cannabis, believing that it will eliminate the illegal trade and associated crime, yield a valuable tax-source and reduce policing costs. In 1969, only 16 percent of voters in the USA supported legalization. That number had risen to 36% by 2005. More recent polling indicates that the number has risen even further; in 2009, between 46% and 56% of US voters would support legalization. A Research Centre poll released in 2013, claimed 52 percent of Americans support legalising the drug and only 45 percent oppose legalisation. While support has generally tracked upward over time, it has spiked 11 percentage points since 2010. Research in 2014 shows an increase in the percentage of legalisation supporters, from 52% to 54%.

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Which of the following most accurately summarizes the opinion of the author in the text?
a) Many believe that cannabis should be legalised and the number of advocates of is legalisation growing.
b) The percentage of those who support the legalisation of cannabis has grown from 52% to 54%.
c) Many believe that cannabis should be legalised and more and more people support its legalisation as can be seen through many polls and research.
d) The percentage has spiked 12% points since 2014.

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Question 2)

The history of chocolate begins in Mesoamerica. Chocolate, the fermented, beverages dates back to 1900 BC. The Aztecs believed that cacao seeds were the gift of Quetzalcoatl, the God of Wisdom, and the seeds had so much value they were used as a form of currency. Originally prepared only as a drink, chocolate was served as a bitter, frothy liquid, mixed with spices, wine or corn puree. It was believed to have powers and to give the drinker strength. After its arrival to Europe in the sixteenth century, sugar was added to it and it became popular throughout society, first among the ruling classes and then among the common people. In the 20th century, chocolate was considered a staple, essential in the rations of United States soldiers at war. The word “chocolate” comes from the Classical Nahuatl word chocolātl, and entered the English language from Spanish.

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Which of the following most accurately summarizes the text?

a) Chocolate is an ancient drink used by the Aztecs who believed it was valuable and healing. 
b) Chocolate reached Europe in the 1900s where it was enjoyed by lower-class Europeans.
c) Chocolate is made from cacao seeds which the Aztecs believed were a gift from the God of Wisdom. 
d) Chocolate was originally consumed as a liquid. Later, sugar was added and it became very popular.
 

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PTE Practice Questions

Reading/Writing- Fill in the blanks

Below is text with blanks. From the options given below, choose the correct word for each blank to

complete the text. 

Question)

Comparing the intelligence of animals of different species is difficult, how do you compare a dolphin and a horse? Psychologists have a technique for looking at intelligence that ____(a)_____not require the cooperation of the animal involved. The relative size of an individual's brain is a reasonable indication of intelligence. Comparing ____(b) ____ species is not as simple an elephant will have a larger brain than a human simple because it is a large beast____(c) _____, we use the Cephalization index, which compares the size of an animal's brain to the size of its body. Based on the Cephalization index, the brightest animals on the planet are humans, ______(d)_____ by great apes, porpoises and elephants. As a general ____(e)_____, animals that hunt for a living (like canines) are smarter than strict vegetarians (you don't need much intelligence to outsmart a leaf of lettuce). Animals that live in social groups are always smarter and have large EQ's than solitary animals.

Options:
a) did, do, done, does
b) across, over, to,  through
c) because, then, instead, otherwise
d) follow, follows, followed, following
e) principle, principal, theory, rule

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PTE Practice Questions

Reading- Multiple-choice, choose multiple answers

Read the text and answer the question by selecting all the correct responses. More than one response is correct. 

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When we accept the evidence of our unaided eyes and describe the Sun as a yellow star, we have summed up the most important single fact about it-at this moment in time. It appears probable, however, that sunlight will be the color we know for only a negligibly small part of the Sun’s history. Stars, like individuals, age and change. As we look out into space, We see around us stars at all stages of evolution. There are faint blood-red dwarfs so cool that their surface temperature is a mere 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, there are searing ghosts blazing at 100, 000 degrees Fahrenheit and almost too hot to be seen, for the great part of their radiation is in the invisible ultraviolet range. Obviously, the “daylight” produced by any star depends on its temperature; today(and for ages to come) our Sun is at about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and this means that most of the Sun’s light is concentrated in the yellow band of the spectrum, falling slowly in intensity toward both the longer and shorter light waves. That yellow “hump” will shift as the Sun evolves, and the light of day will change accordingly. It is natural to assume that as the Sun grows older, and uses up its hydrogen fuel which it is now doing at the spanking rate of half a billion tons a second- it will become steadily colder and redder.

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Which of the following statements can be supported by this text?
a) The passage is mainly about the evolutionary cycle of the Sun.
b) Hot stars are referred to as “ghosts because they are nearly invisible.
c) The important thing about the Sun at the present time is that it appears yellow.
d) As the Sun continues to age, it is likely to become colder and redder in color.
e) Sun has a short history and it always remains the same.

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PTE Practice Questions

Reading/Writing- Summarise Written Text(SWT)

Read the passage below and summarize it using one sentence in 5-75 words. You have 10 minutes to finish this task. 

Most of the time when I embark on such an investigation, it quickly becomes clear that matters are much more complicated and ambiguous — several shades grayer — than I thought going in. Not this time. The deeper I delved into the confused and confusing thicket of nutritional science, sorting through the long-running fats versus carb wars, the fiber skirmishes and the raging dietary supplement debates, the simpler the picture gradually became. I learned that in fact science knows a lot less about nutrition than you would expect – that in fact nutrition science is, to put it charitably, a very young science. It’s still trying to figure out exactly what happens in your body when you sip a soda, or what is going on deep in the soul of a carrot to make it so good for you, or why in the world you have so many neurons – brain cells! – in your stomach, of all places. It’s a fascinating subject, and someday the field may produce definitive answers to the nutritional questions that concern us, but — as nutritionists themselves will tell you — they’re not there yet. Not even close. Nutrition science, which after all only got started less than two hundred years ago, is today approximately where surgery was in the year 1650 – very promising, and very interesting to watch, but are you ready to let them operate on you? I think I’ll wait awhile.

Most of the time when I embark on such an investigation, it quickly becomes clear that matters are much more complicated and ambiguous — several shades grayer — than I thought going in. Not this time. The deeper I delved into the confused and confusing thicket of nutritional science, sorting through the long-running fats versus carb wars, the fiber skirmishes and the raging dietary supplement debates, the simpler the picture gradually became. I learned that in fact science knows a lot less about nutrition than you would expect – that in fact nutrition science is, to put it charitably, a very young science. It’s still trying to figure out exactly what happens in your body when you sip a soda, or what is going on deep in the soul of a carrot to make it so good for you, or why in the world you have so many neurons – brain cells! – in your stomach, of all places. It’s a fascinating subject, and someday the field may produce definitive answers to the nutritional questions that concern us, but — as nutritionists themselves will tell you — they’re not there yet. Not even close. Nutrition science, which after all only got started less than two hundred years ago, is today approximately where surgery was in the year 1650 – very promising, and very interesting to watch, but are you ready to let them operate on you? I think I’ll wait awhile.

PTE Practice Questions

Reading- Multiple-choice, choose a single answer

Read the text and answer the question by selecting all the correct responses. Only one response is correct. 

Question 1)

It probably won’t surprise you to learn that the Leaning Tower of Pisa was never designed to lean. Construction started on the tower, the third structure in Pisa’s cathedral complex, in August of 1173. It was after three of the building’s eight stories had been completed that the uneven settling of the tower’s foundations became obvious. Construction was then paused as war broke out between the Italian city-states. When construction resumed, the engineers tried to compensate for the lean by making the higher stories taller on the short side, but this only served to sink the tower further. The tower’s heaviest bells were then silenced due to fears they would worsen the lean.In 1990, the building was closed for a major straightening scheme which succeeded in reducing the lean to 4.1 metres. Experts say the tower should now remain stable for at least another 200 years.

Choose the best summary for the paragraph

a) The Leaning Tower of Pisa is a beautiful building in Italy. It was never designed to lean but builders made a mistake during construction which was paused due to war between Italian city-states. Engineers tried to fix the lean but failed.

b) The Leaning Tower of Pisa was built in 1173. Its first three stories were uneven, causing the tower to lean. Construction was halted when war broke out. The building was secured in 1990 and hopefully it will last another 200 years. It is a beautiful piece of architecture and history.

c) The Leaning Tower of Pisa leans due to an engineering error. Early efforts to lessen the lean made it worse. More recently the lean was lessened, securing the tower for another two centuries.

Question 2)

A 20% sugar tax could discourage shoppers from buying unhealthier breakfast cereals, new research led by Newfinland University shows. Researchers found demand for sugary cereals fell by 48% if consumers knew a tax was being applied and consumers purchased healthier alternatives. The study, carried out by experts from Newfinland University, examined the impact of both a 20% and 40% tax on unhealthier cereals and soft drinks containing sugar. It also looked at whether telling people they were being taxed influenced the way they shopped. Lead researcher, Damien Rizzo, Professor of Economics at Newfinland University Business School, said: “Our findings suggest a 20% sugar tax would work and lead to large changes in shopping behaviour.”

What factor caused a decrease in demand for high sugar cereals?

a) A  20% tax
b) Knowing how much sugar was in the cereal
c) Knowing a sugar tax was included in the price

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PTE Practice Questions

Reading- Fill in the blanks

Below is text with blanks. From the options given below, choose the correct word for each blank to

complete the text. 

Question 1)

What is the significance of instinct in business? Does a reliable gut feeling separate winners from losers? And is it the most valuable emotional tool any entrepreneur can possess? My observations of successful company owners lead me to believe that a highly analytical attitude can be a drawback. At critics； junctures in commercial life, risk-taking is more an____________ of faith than a carefully balanced choice. Frequently, such moments require _____________and absolute conviction above all else. There is simply no time to wait for all the facts, or room. for doubt. A computer program cannot tell you how to invent and launch a new ____________  . That journey involves too many unknowns, too much luck - and too much sheer intuition, rather than the infallible _________  that machines deliver so well. As Chekhov said: “An artist's flair is sometimes worth a scientist's brains" - entrepreneurs need right-brain thinking. When I have been considering whether to buy a company and what price to offer, I have been ___________too often by reams of due diligence from the accountants and lawyers. Usually it pays to stand back from such mountains of gray data and weigh up the really important issues - and decide how you feel about the opportunity.

class, blinded, act, product,  decisiveness, logic, distress, cover

Question 2)

Paris is very old—there has been a settlement there for at least 6000 years and its shape has been determined in part by the River Seine, and in part by the edicts of France's rulers. But the great boulevards we admire today are relatively new, and were constructed to prevent any more barricades______________ by the rebellious population; that work was carried out in the middle 19th century. The earlier Paris had been_____________ a maze of narrow streets and alleyways. But you can imagine that the work was not only highly expensive, but caused great distress among the half a million or so residents whose houses were _______________ razed, and whose neighborhoods disappeared. What is done cannot usually be undone, especially when buildings are torn ________________  .

in part,   down, original, simply, being created, destroy

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PTE Practice Questions

Reading- Multiple-choice, choose multiple answers

Read the text and answer the question by selecting all the correct responses. More than one response is correct. 

Question)  

The Western alphabet, which is used in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Australia and New Zealand as well as in other countries, originated in the Middle East. The people who gave the world this alphabet were the Phoenicians, a people who established colonies all over the Mediterranean, including Carthage in Africa and Gades in Spain. In their alphabet, the letters were represented by little pictures which represented sounds. The Phoenician A was Aleph, which means “bull”. and it was made from a little picture of a bull’s head. The letter B was Beth which meant “house”, and showed the round-roofed buildings which you can still see today in Syria. The Phoenicians had contact with another nation of sailors, the Greeks, with whom they fought and traded. The Greeks also started to use the Phoenician alphabet. They changed the names so aleph and beth became alpha and beta. The shapes of the letters are the same but they have been turned sideways. Of course, the first two letters of the alphabet give it its name. Over the years there have been changes. Latin developed an alphabet with some different letters to the Greeks, and other letters have been added since. But really westerners are using the same system of writing which has served them so well for thousands of years.

Which of the following are true statements in accordance with the information given in the above passage?
a) The Greeks turned the letters in a different direction.
b) The purpose of this text is to tell something of the Phoenician history.
c) The Phoenician alphabet was composed of individual signs.
d) Our modern system of writing is similar to the Phoenician alphabet.
e) The Phoenicians came from Carthage.

PTE Practice Questions

Reading/Writing- Summarise Written Text(SWT)

Read the passage below and summarize it using one sentence in 5-75 words. You have 10 minutes to finish this task. 

With a good system of crop rotation, and especially with the addition of any sort of fertilizer you may be able to come up with, it’s possible to grow crops on a plot of land for upwards of 2-3 years at a time with good results. Ultimately, though, you must let the land rest if you hope to continue farming there in the long-run. Allowing a plot of land to rest for a period of time is known as letting the field go fallow, and there are several reasons for this.

Allowing a field or plot to lie fallow means that you don’t grow anything new on it, don’t harvest anything and don’t graze any animals on the land for at least a year. Sometimes a field will lay fallow for two, there or even four years, but the traditional standard on many farms was to let a field lie fallow once every 2-3 years.

This fallow period allows the land to replenish many of its nutrients. The root networks of various grasses or groundcovers (like clover) have a chance to expand and grow, which further strengthens the soil and protects it from erosion.

During the fallow period, there are many beneficial flora and micro-fauna, including cyanobacteria, which live in the soil. These microorganisms continue to be active at the root level, steadily improving the quality of the soil so that when you come back in a year or two, you can begin planting food or cash crops a new.

PTE Practice Questions

Reading- Re-order Paragraph

The text below has been placed in a random order. Choose the most logical order of sentences from among the choices given to construct paragraphs.

Question 1) 

a) The fire, lasting four days, most likely started with broken gas lines (and, in some cases, was helped along by people hoping to collect insurance for their property—they were covered for fire, but not earthquake, damage).
b) But when calculating destruction, the earthquake took second place to the great fire that followed.
c) At 5:12 a.m. on April 18, 1906, the people of San Francisco were awakened by an earthquake that would devastate the city.
d) The main temblor, having a 7.7-7.9 magnitude, lasted about one minute and was the result of the rupturing of the northernmost 296 miles of the 800-mile San Andreas fault.

Question 2) 

a) Reading also is special because, unlike language, most children have to be taught to read, write and spell.
b) Humans appear to be the only species which is able to translate their communication into another medium, and in this case the medium provides a semi-durable record of the elements of the communication.
c) So, Reading also is special because, unlike language, most children have to be taught to read, write and spell.
d) So though we may be predisposed to being able to read and usually have the abilities necessary to master reading, it is something that most of us only accomplish through the direct help of others.

PTE Practice Questions

Reading- Multiple-choice, choose a single answer

Read the text and answer the question by selecting all the correct responses. Only one response is correct. 

Question 1)

Future Shock is a book written by the futurist Alvin Toffler in 1970. In the book, Toffler defines the term “future shock” as a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies. His shortest definition for the term is a personal perception of “too much change in too short a period of time”. The book became an international bestseller, selling over 6 million copies, and has been widely translated.  Toffler argued that society is undergoing an enormous structural change, a revolution from an industrial society to a “super-industrial society”. This change overwhelms people, he believed, the accelerated rate of technological and social change leaving people disconnected and suffering from “shattering stress and disorientation” – future shocked. Toffler stated that the majority of social problems are symptoms of future shock. In his discussion of the components of such shock he popularized the term “information overload.”

What would be the most suitable title for the passage?
a)  A shocking vision of the future.
b)   What is “future shock”?
c)  The career of the futurist Alvin Toffler.
d)  A changing society.

Question 2)

Thomas Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of the invention, and because of that, he is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory. Edison is the fourth most prolific inventor in history, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications.

Choose the best heading for the paragraph from the list below.
a)  The creator of the first industrial research laboratory.
b) A pioneering and prolific inventor.
c)  Edison’s contribution to mass communication.
d) Edison's is credited with few inventions.

PTE Practice Questions

Reading/Writing- Fill in the blanks

Below is text with blanks. From the options given below, choose the correct word for each blank to

complete the text. 

Question)  

Opportunity cost incorporates the notion of scarcity: No matter what we do, there is always a trade-off. We must trade off one thing for another because resources are limited and can be used in different ways. By acquiring something, we use up resources that could have been used to acquire something else. The.........(a).............  of opportunity cost allows us to measure this trade-off. Most decisions.......(b)..........  several alternatives. For example, if you spend an hour studying for an economics exam, you have one fewer hour to pursue other activities.

To .......(c)........... the opportunity cost of an activity, we look at what you consider the best of these “other” activities. For example, suppose the alternatives to studying economics are studying for a history exam or working in a job that pays $10 per hour. If you consider studying for history a ......(d)....... use of your time than working, then the opportunity cost of studying economics is the four extra points you could have .....(e)......... on a history exam if you studied history instead of economics. Alternatively, if working is the best alternative, the opportunity cost of studying economics is the $10 you could have earned instead.

Options

a) notion, probability, use, idea
b) include, involve, choose,embrance
c)determine, reduce, rise, grasp
d)best, better, worst, worse
e) mentioned, received, granted, examined

PTE Practice Questions

Reading- Multiple-choice, choose multiple answers

Read the text and answer the question by selecting all the correct responses. More than one response is correct. 

Question)  

Until the mid-20th century, scientists believed that the chest cavity would implode at around 115 feet. Water pressure, they argued, reaches 65 pounds per square inch at that depth, which is enough to shrink lungs to the size of grapefruits and collapse rib cages like empty soda cans. Their theory went out the window in the 1950’s and early 1960’s, however, when divers like Enzo Maiorca returned from beyond 115-feet with rib cages intact. We now know that water pressure forces blood vessels in the chest to swell, filling the void left by the lungs with an incompressible fluid. Among the dangers of free diving, the most disconcerting is shallow-water blackout—the brains frightening tendency to shut down within 15 feet of the surface during the ascent. As you descend, water pressure squeezes your lungs, condensing the oxygen and giving you what feels like a second breath. During the return trip, however, your lungs re-expand, dissipating whats left of your oxygen. If levels drop too low, not enough will move into the bloodstream, and the lights go out. Fortunately, the body’s laryngospasm reflex kicks in to tighten the throat and keep water out for up to a minute—just enough time for your dive buddy to drag you to the surface, tilt your head back, and beg, “Breathe, baby.” Knowing Johnston will be there watching my eyes as I ascend (seeing them roll back in the head is a red flag), I dip below the surface. Staying in the syringe—dive speak for a tight hydrodynamic column—I kick down to 30 feet, my point of neutral buoyancy, and then sink effortlessly to the bottom. I feel good—surprisingly good—thanks to the densely packed oxygen molecules in my lungs. Lingering a moment, I peer up at the mirrored surface that separates this liquid world from mine. Diving to 55 feet was no sweat. I figure I could dive twice that with a little practice, reaching what scientists thought, not 50 years ago, was the body’s depth limit. Today, however, that boundary has been pushed to at least 531 feet (the current no-limits world record), which begs the question: Just how deep can humans go? “We don’t know that yet,” says Lundgren, adding ominously. “But one day someone will find out."

Which of the following is true in respect of the effect of water pressure on humans?
a) Scientists believed that the chest cavity would blow up at a depth of about 115 feet.
b) Rib cages will collapse at the water pressure of 65 pounds per square inch.
c) Blood vessels of the chest enlarge and fill the empty space left by lungs that have been compressed.
d) It is now known that lungs will not shrink with the increase in water pressure.
e) It is no longer believed that the chest cavity will cave in at a depth of about 115 feet.
 

PTE Practice Questions

Reading/Writing- Summarise Written Text(SWT)

Read the passage below and summarize it using one sentence in 5-75 words. You have 10 minutes to finish this task. 

According to researchers, the invisibility cloak illusion stems from the belief that we are much more socially observant than the people around us. This means that, while we watch and wonder about other people as much as possible, we often think that people around us are less aware. This illusion occurs because, while we are fully aware of our own impressions and speculations about other people, we have no idea what those other people are thinking unless they close to share with us, something that rarely happens except in exceptional circumstances.

To better understand what is happening, it is important to consider the groundbreaking research by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman on cognitive biases. When people make judgments about other people in social situations, they often depend on specific biases such as the availability heuristic, i.e., that we attach more significance to thoughts that come to mind easily. This is why we consider thoughts about other people as being more important than thoughts about inanimate objects. And so, as we look around us, we tend to focus our thoughts on the people we see and what they happen to be doing. Which is why people-watching can be so addictive.

What adds to the sense that we are relatively invisible to others is that people tend to be as discreet as possible about their people-watching. Just because other people aren’t sharing their observations with us, it’s easy to pretend that they are not as observant as we are. Of course, people many share their people-watching observations with anyone they happen to be with but, for the most part, that only applies to something remarkable enough to comment on. For most of us, what we are seeing tends to be extremely private and not to be shared with others.

PTE Practice Questions

Reading- Re-order Paragraph

The text below has been placed in a random order. Choose the most logical order of sentences from among the choices given to construct paragraphs. 

Question 1) 

a) Government finances are terminally impaired with uncontrolled fiscal deficits.
b) Industry too is not ready to deliver growth, should even the government pursue the right policies.
c) The fiscal deficit has deteriorated.
d) The current reforms pace is too slow.
e) There are big gaps in perception and capability of managers.

Question 2) 

a) Reading also is special because, unlike language, most children have to be taught to read, write and spell.
b)So though we may be predisposed to being able to read and usually have the abilities necessary to master reading,       it is something that most of us only accomplish through the direct help of others
c) Humans appear to be the only species which is able to translate their communication into another medium, and        in this case the medium provides a semi-durable record of the elements of the communication.
d) So reading is a very special ability that we have.

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