PTE Retell Lecture Topics – Real Exam Questions

Coffee Industry

The lecture is about coffee industry in Vietnam.

Mentions some figures and data.

The US helped Vietnam to become the second largest coffee producer in the World.

Coffee production witnessed a 5 fold increase from 6 billion to 30 billion.

The output of Central America is witnessing dramatic decrease.

Darkness between Galaxies

Why is sky dark at night?

The reason is the finite universe, paradox, and finite in size and age (from the big bang).

Mentions a picture from NASA, to further explain the darkness.

This picture is copyright free and is used by newspapers, magazines, and media and on the
Internet.

The darkness between galaxies is what every scientist is trying to find and is still remain
mysterious to us.

Non-government Organizations

The non-profit sector is worth one trillion dollars.

700,000 such organizations in Australia alone.

NGO as a predictor of governmental success.

Australia’s Changing Role

Australia has become a famous destination and export.

Because of the rise of Asian countries, especially China.

Japan is the no. 1 market, and China is no. 2.

In future, China will overtake Japan and become NO.1 as the largest export country.
Dimensions

How to describe a position. Only longitude is needed to describe a position on the equator,
whereas longitude and latitude are required for

The second dimension, on the earth.

Require longitude, latitude, and altitude for the third dimension, over the earth.

The 4th parameter takes the time into account along with all 3 previous variables.

Welsh Language

Gives some figures of people who can speak and understand Welsh.

Welsh is a language of Welsh and other western countries

In the end, the number of people speaking this language has decreased.

Brain Development

Different brain regions develop functions at different age.

Some functions like sensory functions begin at the embryo phase.

High development, such as cognitive took a long period of time to develop.

Childhood development has a great impact on the adult brain.

Student’s Performance in Maths and English

This lecture compares boys and girls performance in English and Mathematics.

Girls outperform boys in English while in maths, there is no real difference.

From the 3 contributing factors, biological factors and social factors are closely linked.

The third factor is pre-school factors.

Licking and Grooming (LG): High LG and Low LG

The lecture describes importance of LG i.e. Licking and Grooming

An experiment shows mother rats who spend a lot of time licking and grooming their pups
tend to grow up to be calm adults.

Low LG is related with low ability to deal with stress and alcohol.
Low Child Birth Rate

More and more western women do not want to have children.

The decreasing birth rate trend makes it the lowest birth rate in human history.

Low child birth rate directly relates to several factors, one being employment rate.

Bomb Calorimeter

There is a chemical reaction in the food chamber between the food and the oxygen.

Like bomb calorimeter, the human body breaks down the food to give off the energy.

Human digest system cannot absorb full energy, so bomb calorimeter cannot measure as
same as the actually absorbed.

Napoleon III: Renovation of Paris

Napoleon 3 instructed Haussmann, to bring air and light to the centre of the city.

Build roads, parks, squares, plant more trees, made the city cleaner and more beautiful.

The avenue de l’Opera, created by Haussmann painted by Camille Pissarro

The reasons for the renovation are that the old Paris was overcrowded, dark, dangerous,
and unhealthy.

Thermodynamic Theory

The law of thermodynamic is constant and statistical.

Temperature is the average kinetic energy of a given object.

Thermal energy is the total of all kinetic energies within a given system.

Heat flows from an object at the higher temperature to object at the lower temperature.

Flows from warmer areas to cooler areas.

Marshmallow Experiment

The lecture is about marshmallow experiment.

Based on the bonus of one more marshmallow for not eating marshmallow within 15 mins.

The children under 4 years old eat it within 15 mins.

The elder children can resist for a longer time.

Self-control ability correlated with higher competency later in life

Globalization

The lecture talked about globalization. Integrated economics strategy /organization

integration. Different countries consume or produce different goods, so countries would
depend on the economy of other countries.

Listening link: https://english2language.com/pte-academic-listening-re-tell-lecture-

practice-part-1.html

ITEM 1: A non-governmental organization (NGO) is a not-for-profit organization that is

independent from states and international governmental organizations. They are usually
funded by donations but some avoid formal funding altogether and are run primarily by
volunteers.

The number of NGOs worldwide is estimated to be 3.7 million. Russia has 277,000 NGOs.
India is estimated to have had around 2 million NGOs in 2009, just over one NGO per 600
Indians, and many times the number of primary schools and primary health centres in India.

NGOs are difficult to define, and the term ‘NGO’ is not always used consistently. In some
countries the term NGO is applied to an organization that in another country would be
called an NPO (non-profit organization), and vice versa. There are many different
classifications of NGO in use. The most common focus is on “orientation” and “level of
operation”. An NGO’s orientation refers to the type of activities it takes on.

EXPLANATION: In this lecture, the speaker talks about the non-governmental organization.
The speaker mentions that NGO is independent of states and international governmental
organizations and are usually funded by donations. Moreover, he indicates that the number
of NGOs worldwide is 3.7 million and India has around 2 million in 2009. Lastly, he suggests
that it is hard to define. In general, this lecture is about the non-governmental organization.

ITEM 2: Question: Did you set that fire that night?

Answer: I wasn’t even in the area that night.
Question: Did you have a gun on you when you walked into that store?
Answer: I have nothing to do with guns.
Question: Have you ever been inside that girl’s apartment?
Answer: There’s no reason for me to have been inside her apartment.
Question: Did you steal any of the missing money from the safe?
Answer: I didn’t even know there was any money in the safe. It’s not my job to go into the
safe.
Question: Did you leave the store that night with any of that money in your possession?
Answer: I didn’t even know any money was missing until I came into work the next morning.
ITEM 3: TRANSCRIPT

Antares, acronym for “Astronomy with a Neutrino telescope and Abyss environmental
Research”, is a complex neutrino detector that is being built 50 km from the French coast,
about 2400 m below sea level. The apparatus consists in a long submarine cable that
connects the control room, set at ground level, to a net of 1000 underwater sensors. When
it’s complete, in two to three years’ time, the net will spread over a 100.000 sq. m. surface,
thus keeping under observation a volume of 35 million cubic meters of water.

The heart of the Antares experiment is the system that allows to “see” neutrinos. Since
these particles cannot be directly observed, secondary particles, called muons, which are
produced by the interaction between neutrinos and the water closed in by the sensors, are
detected instead. Muons move faster than light in water. Thus, due to a physical mechanism
called Cerenkov Effect, they leave a weak light trail behind them. The objective of Antares is
to prove that it is possible to do neutrino astronomy, although in order to do actual research
in this field a very much larger submarine apparatus would be necessary.

ITEM 4: TRANSCRIPT

Population size, growth, and patterns of resource use can have an impact on the levels of all
types of pollution, including air, water, and solid pollution. Pollutants are often
concentrated in densely populated, urban areas. According to UN projections, by the year
2005 the majority of the world’s population will live in urban areas, where standards of
living and consumption patterns often exceed those in rural areas. Labor availability,
infrastructure, and transport facilities favoring industrial development can affect the
severity of urban atmospheric and water pollution. Even in the absence of population
growth, poor environmental policy and management can lead to serious environmental
degradation. For example, despite its negative rate of population growth (-0.5 percent),
Russia faces significant environmental damage created by the industrial complex of the
former Soviet Union.

ITEM 5: TRANSCRIPT

The human brain has undergone an evolutionary process that began some 500 million years
ago in the marine animals that lived submerged in the sand and which led to its first central
nervous system building plan. This system has been progressively modified and is shared by
all modern vertebrates.

The study of the genetic networks that have given an identity to the different brain regions
plays a key role in our understanding of how they have evolved. For this reason, Geno
architecture is a powerful tool for describing the regions of the nervous system, cells and
their structures, making it possible to determine which genes are active in each territory or
region during development and to characterize the limits between them, as well as to
define, with the utmost precision, how many different components originate from each
region. It is therefore useful in helping us to recognize, in detail, how the human brain
resembles that of another vertebrate.

ITEM 6: TRANSCRIPT

If teachers would learn to recognize students’ learning styles, they could tailor their
teaching strategies to accommodate those in their classes. Although most people in the
Western culture are visual, most lectures are geared toward the auditory learner. A good
teacher should take note and provide pictures, graphs, and diagrams to enhance the
lecture. Also, although some people actively process information well in groups, reflective
learners need time to ponder new material. Instructors should provide collaborative
opportunities from time to time and also recognize that some students need guidance and
encouragement when working in groups.

ITEM 7: TRANSCRIPT

College couples have been the subjects of much research, and one thing is clear: the major
reason for relationship breakups is boredom. The timing of the breakup also seems
consistent with most findings. Couples tend to dissolve relationships during vacations and
holidays. Who initiates the breakup is also interesting. Often it is the woman, who tends to
notice first when the man is less attentive. But if the woman breaks up first, there is usually
no “Can we still be friends?” situations because the man strongly feels the rejection.
However, if the man initiates the breakup, there is a better chance the two will still stay in
touch.

ITEM 8: TRANSCRIPT

One of the creators of Cranium, Richard Tait, a former Microsoft executive, said he wanted
to invent a game that allowed people to leave the board feeling good. He wanted a game
that involved chance as well as skill, one in which people could have fun together and not
feel so competitive. One of today’s hottest-selling games, Cranium can be played by four
people or several teams. While some moves on the game board may require that a team
member know the name of the largest mammal on earth (the blue whale), other moves may
ask participants to hum songs, pantomime people, or spell words backward. At the end,
though, all the teams feel good because they have had so much fun.

ITEM 9: TRANSCRIPT

Because researchers studying circadian rhythms have discovered that most teenagers are
really nocturnal, school administrators should take this into account when organizing a
school day. For example, traditionally teenagers must arise in the predawn hours and arrive
at school before sunrise. Groggy and unfocused, they find it difficult to concentrate and be
alert before lunch. After lunch, which for many students in overcrowded high schools begins
at 10:30 a.m., they are finally able to pay attention. Armed with this information, the school
board should be innovative and rearrange the schedule, which would curb truancy in grades
8 through 12.

ITEM 10: TRANSCRIPT

Tobacco companies should be forced to pay lucrative settlements to anyone who has
become addicted or adversely affected by the use of their products. Anyone who has a
loved one who has succumbed to the temptation to use cigarettes can attest to the way the
product can swallow souls as well as consumers’ wallets. The clinical evidence of the
devastation created by secondhand smoke is compelling enough for legislators to consider
legal action against the powerful corporations. Unfortunately, tobacco companies have
traditionally provided strong financial support for many political candidates. Write your
congressional representative and express your outrage!