PTE reading writing fill in the blanks
A. Pinker
In a sequence of bestsellers, including The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works, Pinker
has argued the swathes of our mental, social and emotional lives may have ………………… as
evolutionary adaptations, well suited to the lives our ancestors eked out on the Pleistocene
Savannah. Sometimes it seems as if nothing is …………… from being explained this way. Road
rage, adultery, marriage, altruism, our tendency to reward senior executives with corner offices
on the top floor, and the smaller number of women who become mechanical engineers—all
may have their …………….. in natural selection, Pinker claims. The controversial implications are
obvious: that men and women might …………………… in their inborn abilities at performing certain tasks,
for example, or that parenting may have ………………. influence on personality.
1. origin, originating, originate, originated
2. protected, immune, convinced, prohibited
3. roots, values, demands, needs
4. differ, interested, complicate, indulge
5. little, many, a few, few
B. Video-Conferencing Technology -exam questions
Never has the carbon footprint of multi-national corporations been under such intense scrutiny.
Inter-city train journeys and long-haul flights to ……………. face-to-face business meetings contribute significantly to greenhouse gases and the resulting ……………. on the environment. The Anglo-US company Teliris has introduced new video-conferencing technology and partnered with the Carbon Neutral Company, enabling corporate outfits to become more environmentally responsible. The innovation allows simulated face-to-face meetings to be held across continents without the time ……………………. or environmental burden of international travel. Previous designs
have enabled video-conferencing on a point-to-point, dual-location basis. The firm’s VirtuaLive
technology, however, can bring people together from up to five ………………. locations anywhere in
the world – with …………………… transmission quality.
1. produce, generate, create, conduct
2. gases, steam, strain, affect
3. stress, limit, pressure, press
4. separate, each, respectively, single
5. unreliable, unrivaled, unrealistic, unreasonable
C. Social Isolation
Sound depressing, even apocalyptic? Well, it could be the future. If government …………… are right, about 20 years from now, two out of five households will be single …………………… And there is evidence the situation is already …………….. According to a report, Social Isolation in America, published in the American Sociological Review in 2006, the average American today has only two close friends. Twenty-five percent of those surveyed said they do not have anyone to talk with about important things—And yet, while some are ………………… a crisis in our ability to make friends, others are saying exactly the opposite. For example, MSN’s Anatomy of Friendship Report, published last November, suggests that the average Briton has 54 friends -a …………………… rise of 64 percent since 2003.
1. forecasts, prediction, goals, aims
2. occupancy, occupied, household, family
3. deteriorating, improving, damaging, recovering
4. declaring, requiring, announcing, releasing
5. spectacular, amazing, special, applausive
D. Australia Higher Education Funding
The financing of Australian higher education has undergone dramatic change since the early 1970s. Although the
Australian Government provided regular funding for universities from the late 1950s, in 1974 it …………. full
responsibility for funding higher education – ………….. tuition fees with the intention of making university
……………….. to all Australians who had the ………….. and who wished to participate in higher education.
- assumed, started, discovered,
- abolishing, eradicate, destroy, terminate
- accessible, available, ready approachable
- ability, capacity, potential, expertise
E. Poverty
Measuring poverty on a global scale …………. establishing a uniform poverty level across extremely divergent
economies, which can result in only rough comparisons. The World Bank has defined the international poverty
line as U.S. $1 and $2 per day in 1993 Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), which adjusts for differences in the …………
of goods and services between countries. The $1 per day level is generally used for the ………… developed
countries, primarily African; the $2-per-day level is used for ………….. economies such as those of East
Asia and Latin America.
- needed, requires, higher,
- quality, prices, quantity, rates
- least, most, backward, less
- high, income, middle-income, developed, emerging
conduct – affect – limit – separate – unrivaled
forecasts – family – deteriorating – declaring – spectacular”
Write your answers in the comment section of reading writing fill in the blanks.
More practice material:
PTE listening exercise-summarize spoken text practice 9
Do you think English will remain as the dominant international language through globalization?
