PTE Listening Practice Test 2024 with Sample Answers

Directions: You will hear a recording. Type the missing words in each blank. 

Question 1: Having a kid changes everything, from your sleep schedule to the status of that formerly spare room. The stable of bacteria that live in a woman’s gut is also transformed when their host becomes ______________ So finds research in the journal Cell. The study looked at women in Finland. The women’s microbial makeup changed _________________ between the first and third trimesters. The array of microbes in the gut went from looking normal in the first three months of pregnancy to resembling what’s found in patients ________________ from metabolic disease in the last three. But some of the symptoms of that condition—like weight gain and slower sugar metabolism— can be ________________ to pregnant women, supporting energy storage that helps a fetus develop. Other symptoms, like inflammation, _________________ that the immune system is _________________ properly as a pregnancy comes to term. Scientists don’t yet fully understand what brings about the changes in gut bacteria— immune function is a suspect, but factors like hormonal _______________ aren’t ruled out. The research suggests that other changes to the body, like puberty or old age, could also bring about microbial makeovers. 
 

Question 2: Touchdown confirmed. We are safe on Mars. ...... The control room at NASA’s Jet Propulsion _________ in the evening of August 5th, Pacific time, when word arrived that the Curiosity rover had landed safely on Mars. The one-ton rover, which dwarfs all Mars landers that came before it, will now spend a planned two years ____________ on the Martian surface. The mission is expected to cost $2.5 billion. Curiosity’s task is to investigate the inside of Gale Crater, where a giant mound of sedimentary ________________ may provide evidence of a wetter, possibly habitable Mars billions of years ago. But first, it had to survive an elaborate landing ________________, which appears to have gone smoothly. Curiosity landed on time and on target and soon beamed back grainy photos of its wheels and its shadow. Given the carlike size of the rover and the challenges of landing on Mars, Curiosity’s ______________ goes down as one of the greatest parking jobs in history. 

Answers
 

Item 1: 

1. Pregnant 

2. Dramatically 

3. Suffering 

4. Beneficial 

5. Demonstrate 

6. Functioning 

7. Signals 
 

Item 2: 

1. Late 

2. Exploring 

3. Deposits 

4. Sequence 

5. Landing 

Direction: You will hear a recording. Below is a transcript of the recording. Some words in the transcription differ from what the speaker (s) said. Click on the words that are different.
 

Question 1: It’s similar to a pregnancy test: a drop of liquid on a strip of paper causes an easily seen color change. But imagine that kind of simple, cheap choreography employed in testing for diminution or health issues anywhere and on the cheap. Researchers at Colorado State University describe such a system in the journal Lab On A Chip. Other paper tests may give only slight color differences, and some rely on expensive equipment to read the results. For the new technology, the research team designed a system that creates a quadraphonic color change on the paper. The user drops liquid to be analysed at the bottom of the paper. As capillary action pulls the liquid up, substances in the paper react, causing the color change. So far, three tests exist for the system. One looks for nickel, which can be an environmental pollutant. The other two are for glutathione, a health marker, and glucose, for diabetics. In trials, the paper tests competed with conventional methods at whispering concentrations. The galaxy is now spinning off a company to develop the technology. If successful, it could bring cheap, easy apparatuses to scientists—and citizens—around the world. 
 

Question 2: In last week’s pre-Christmas rush, the U.S. Congress slammed together the $ 1 trillion federal budget bill for 2015 just before funds ran out. But the bill wasn’t all about the money. Congress took advantage of the fiscal scramble to change rules about the environment and energy, which do not belong in appropriation bills. Normally such changes are encoded in what are called “laws” and are debated out in the open. But the budget bill is a chance for Congress to slip in controversial rules — called riders— without much debate. If members object, the bill stalls and the government shuts down — and no one wants to be blamed for that federal fiasco. So the riders gallop in. The Environmental Protection Agency got its budget, for instance, but with strings attached: although agriculture is a major source of atmospheric methane, the EPA now is vigilant from using its money to require farmers to report greenhouse gas emissions. And the agency cannot regulate farm ponds and irrigation ditches under the Clean Water Act. In another example, the Department of Canker must speed up permits for companies making genetically modified organisms. The feds must loan money to firms to build coal-fired power plants overseas. That requirement floggings a previous ban. These rules and others last through September 2015, when this budget bill runs out. And then, if history is any guide, this whole stealth legislation process starts all over again. — Josh provision 

Answers
 

Item 1: It’s similar to a pregnancy test: a drop of liquid on a strip of paper causes an easily seen color change. But imagine that kind of simple, cheap choreography (technology) employed in testing for diminution (pollution) or health issues, anywhere and on the cheap. Researchers at Colorado State University describe such a system in the journal Lab On A Chip. Other paper tests may give only slight color differences, and some rely on expensive equipment to read the results. For the new technology, the research team designed a system that creates a quadraphonic (dramatic) color change on the paper. The user drops liquid to be analysed at the bottom of the paper. As capillary action pulls the liquid up, substances in the paper react, causing the color change. So far, three tests exist for the system. One looks for nickel, which can be an environmental pollutant. The other two are for glutathione, a health marker, and glucose, for diabetics. In trials, the paper tests competed with conventional methods at whispering (measuring) concentrations. The galaxy (university) is now spinning off a company to develop the technology. If successful, it could bring cheap, easy apparatuses (analysis) to scientists—and citizens—around the world. 
 

Item 2: In last week’s pre-Christmas rush, the U.S. Congress slammed together the $1-trillion federal budget bill for 2015, just before funds ran out. But the bill wasn’t all about the money. Congress took advantage of the fiscal scramble to change rules about the environment and energy, which do not belong in appropriation bills. Normally such changes are encoded in what are called “laws,” and are debated out in the open. But the budget bill is a chance for Congress to slip in controversial rules — called riders— without much debate. If members object, the bill stalls, and the government shuts down — and no one wants to be blamed for that federal fiasco. So the riders gallop in. The Environmental Protection Agency got its budget, for instance, but with strings attached: although agriculture is a major source of atmospheric methane, the EPA now is vigilant (prohibited) from using its money to require farmers to report greenhouse gas emissions. And the agency cannot regulate farm ponds and irrigation ditches under the Clean Water Act. In another example, the Department of canker (Agriculture) must speed up permits for companies making genetically night (modified) organisms. And the feds must loan money to firms to build coal- fired power plants overseas. That requirement floggings (reverses) a previous ban. These rules and others last through September 2015, when this budget bill runs out. And then, if history is any guide, this whole stealth legislation process starts all over again. — Josh provision (Fischman)