PTE Writing Practice Test 21

Summarize written text

Read the passage below and summarize it using one sentence. Type your response in the box
at the bottom of the screen. You have 10 minutes to finish this task. Your response will be
judged on the quality of your writing and on how well your response presents the key points in
the passage.

Question 1
Asda has become the first food retailer in the country to measure how much customers can
save by cutting back on food waste, thanks to a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the
University of Leeds. The idea behind the KTP was for the University, using Asda’s customer
insight data, to apply its research to identify, investigate and implement ways of helping
customers to reduce their food waste. This was one of the first times that a major retailer had
tried to deliver large-scale sustainability changes, with the two year project seen as a way for
Asda to position itself as true innovator in this area. The campaign focused on providing
customers with advice on everything from food storage and labeling, to create recipes for
leftovers. Meanwhile, in-store events encouraged customers to make changes in their own they
will make changes to how they deal with food waste in their own homes, leading to an average
saving of 57 pounds per customer, as well as a reduction in waste. A key aspect of a KTP is that
an associate is employed by the University to work in the firm and help deliver the desired
outcomes of the KTP. As a part of the collaboration with Asda, Laura Babbs was given the task
of driving forward the sustainability changes in the retailer. As a result of the success of her
work, Laura eventually became a permanent member of the team at Asda.

Question 2
When Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web, he surely didn’t anticipate that children
would end up becoming some of its main users. Most start using the internet at the average age
of three – and as recent research shows, children now spend more time playing and socializing
online than watching television programs. Given this change in habits, it is not surprising that a
recent House of Lords report has raised online safety and behavior as an important issue. The
report said that for children, learning to survive in a world dominated by the internet should be
as important as reading and writing. The House of Lords Communications Committee also
warned that children should not be leaving school without “a well-rounded understanding of the
digital world”. It also suggested that the government should think about implementing new legal
requirements and a code of conduct companies would have to adhere to, which would help to
bring the internet up to “child-friendly standards”. Of course, trying to rectify this lack of
child-centered design is not an easy task, but one that requires the cooperation and goodwill of
many sectors. It will need to involve consultation with technology, education, legal and policy
experts. And it would also be a good idea to make children and young people part of the
process.
Question 3
It's very easy to forget about what's in the ground beneath our feet and why it's so important to
protect it. One tablespoon of soil contains more organisms than there are people on Earth;
billions of bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms combine with minerals, water, air and
organic matter to create a living system that supports plants and, in turn, all life. Healthy soil can
store as much as 3,750 tons of water per hectare, reducing the risk of flooding, and the
International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said that 89% of all agricultural emissions
could be mitigated if we improved the health of our soil. Good soil management also increases
disease resistance in livestock and ultimately drives profits for farmers - yet soil and its impact
on the health of our animals has, over recent decades, been one of the most neglected links in
UK agriculture. Over the last 50 years' agriculture has become increasingly dependent on
chemical fertilizers, with applications today around 10 times higher than in the 1950s. Farmers
often think the chemical fertilizer NPK (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium) provides all the
nutrition a plant requires, but it also has a detrimental effect on the long-term health of the land:
research suggests there are fewer than 100 harvests left in many of the world's soils.

Question 4
Over the years, language teachers have alternated between favoring teaching approaches that
focus primarily on language use and those that focus on language forms or analysis. The
alternation has been due to a fundamental disagreement concerning whether one learns to
communicate in a second language by communicating in that language (such as in an
immersion experience) or whether one learns to communicate in a second language by learning
the lexicogrammar – the words and grammatical structures – of the target language. In other
words, the argument has been about two different means of achieving the same end. As with
any enduring controversy, the matter is not easily resolved. For one thing, there is evidence to
support both points of view. It is not uncommon to find learners who, for whatever reason, find
themselves in a new country or a new region of their own country, who need to learn a new
language, and who do so without the benefit of formal instruction. If they are postpubescent,
they may well retain an accent of some kind, but they can pick up enough language to satisfy
their communicative needs. In fact, some are natural acquirers who become highly proficient in
this manner. In contrast, there are learners whose entire exposure to the new language comes
in the form of classroom instruction in lexicogrammar. Yet they too achieve a measure of
communicative proficiency, and certain of these learners become highly proficient as well. What
we can infer from this is that humans are amazingly versatile learners and that some people
have a natural aptitude for acquiring languages and will succeed no matter what the
circumstances.

Question 5
Disabled people were among the early adopters of personal computers. They were quick to
appreciate that word processing programs and printers gave them freedom from dependence
on others to read and write for them. Some of these disabled early adopters became very
knowledgeable about what could be achieved and used their knowledge to become
independent students at a high level. They also gained the confidence to ask that providers of
education make adjustments so that disabled students could make better use of course
software and the web, rather than just word processing. For some disability groups, information
in electronic format (whether computer-based or web-based) can be more accessible than
printed information. For example, people who have limited mobility or limited manual skills can
find it difficult to obtain or hold printed material; visually impaired people can find it difficult or
impossible to read print, but both these groups can be enabled to use a computer and,
therefore, access the information electronically. Online communication can enable disabled
students to communicate with their peers on an equal basis. For example, a deaf student or a
student with Asperger’s syndrome may find it difficult to interact in a face-to-face tutorial, but
may have less difficulty interacting when using a text conferencing system in which everyone
types and reads text. In addition, people’s disabilities are not necessarily visible in online
communication systems; so disabled people do not have to declare their disability and are not
perceived as being different.

Essay Writing

You will have 20 minutes to plan, write and revise an essay about the topic below. Your
response will be judged on how well you develop a position, organize your ideas, present
supporting details, and control the elements of standard written English. You should write
200-300 words.

1.Discuss the pros and cons of the era filled with inventions. Support your answer with your
views.

2.Is a new development in technology a boon or curse? Discuss

3.Out of the computer, antibiotics, and the airplane, which invention according to you holds the
highest relevance. Discuss.

4.Some people believe that technology change human behavior. Do you agree with it?

5.Discuss both sides of Space travel vs. Current crucial problems faced by the human?