PTE Academic practice material-summarize written text passages
Read the passages below and summarize them using one sentence in not more than 75 words. Type your response in the comment section at the bottom of the screen. You have 10 minutes to finish each passage. Your response will be judged on the quality of your writing and on how well your response presents the key points in the passage.
1.The Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the worst in maritime history, dumped 4.2 million barrels of oil, and officials released 1.8 million gallons of Corexit, a chemical dispersant used to break up the oil, into the Gulf before the well was sealed. Six years later, controversy still rages about the wisdom of carpet-bombing the Gulf with these chemicals, and newly released documents reveal that government scientists expressed concern at the time about the health consequences of mixing such large quantities of dispersants with the millions of barrels of sweet crude. Occupational health experts now believe it created a toxic mix that sickened thousands of locals — including some of the 47,000 people that worked in some capacity on BP’s cleanup operation — crippling them with chemically induced illnesses that doctors are unable to treat.
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2.
Within the field of conservation ecology, the importance of invasive species has long been recognized. Invasive animals are of particular concern when they are vertebrate carnivores, perhaps because these taxa are able to persist in diverse habitats and once comfortably embedded in these novel setting, are often able to instigate strong declines in prey species, or indeed, trophic cascades. The pages of Animal Conservation are littered with articles on invasive vertebrate carnivores.
Two carnivorous species blur the line when it comes to assessing whether a taxon is invasive: the domestic dog and cat. Because they are often desired and subsidized human commensals, we rarely consider the ecological role of these species when they are either unowned or beyond the control of their ‘owners’. Thus while conservationists, and sometimes the general public, are often attuned to some concerns regarding the impacts of cats on birds, or the potential for dogs to hybridize with wolves, many in this same audience are unaware of other concerns regarding these predators. While recent syntheses have served to bring these issues to the forefront for ecologists and conservationists, much remains unclear. For example, in some landscapes, free-ranging dogs and cats have existed for thousands of years. Furthermore, in some localities, free-ranging populations of these species may serve as ecological surrogates of native carnivores that have been lost due to anthropogenic impacts. Recognition of such patterns suggests that understanding the impacts of domestic dogs and cats on wildlife requires in-depth research and nuanced interpretation of the ensuing data.
PTE Academic practice material-summarize written text passages
PLEASE WRITE YOUR RESPONSE IN COMMENT SECTION
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