PTE Academic reading multiple choice single answer practice exercise 8

PTE Academic reading multiple choice single answer practice exercise

PTE Academic reading multiple choice single answer practice exercise.These are traditional multiple-choice questions with five answer choices, of which you must select one.Read the text and answer the multiple choice question by selecting the correct response. Only one response is correct.

1.In nearly all human populations a majority of individuals can taste the artificially synthesized chemical phenylthiocarbonide (PTC). However, the percentage varies dramatically–from as low as 60% in India to as high as 95% in Africa. That this polymorphism is observed in non-human primates as well indicates a long evolutionary history which, although obviously not acting on PTC, might reflect evolutionary selection for taste discrimination of other, more significant bitter substances, such as certain toxic plants.

Which of the following provides the most reasonable explanation for the assertion in the paragraph that evolutionary history “obviously” did not act on PTC?

A.PTC is not a naturally occurring chemical but rather has been produced only recently by scientists.

B.Most humans lack sufficient taste sensitivity to discriminate between PTC and bitter chemicals occurring naturally.

C.Variability among humans respecting PTC discrimination, like variability respecting earwax, cannot be explained in terms of evolutionary adaptivity.

D.Unlike non-human primates, humans can discriminate intellectually between toxic and non-toxic bitter substances.

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2.Language is not a cultural artifact that we learn the way we learn to tell time or how the federal government works. Instead, it is a distinct piece of the biological makeup of our brains. Language is a complex, specialized skill, which develops in the child spontaneously, without conscious effort or formal instruction, is deployed without awareness of its underlying logic, is qualitatively the same in every individual, and is distinct from more general abilities to process information or behave intelligently. For these reasons some cognitive scientists have described language as a psychological faculty, a mental organ, a neural system, and a computational module. But I prefer the admittedly quaint term ‘instinct’. It conveys the idea that people know how to talk in more or less the sense that spiders know how to spin webs. Web-spinning was not invented by some unsung spider genius and does not depend on having had the right education or on having an aptitude for architecture or the construction trades. Rather, spiders spin spider webs because they have spider brains, which give them the urge to spin and the competence to succeed.

According to the passage, which of the following does not stem from popular wisdom on language?

A.    Language is a cultural artifact.

B.    Language is learnt as we grow.

C.    Language is a psychological faculty

D.    Language is unique to Homo sapiens

E.    Language is a cultural invention

 

CLICK FOR ANSWERS

1. A 2. C

 PTE Academic reading multiple choice single answer practice exercise

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