(PTE Academic Offline Practice Test)
Part 1 Speaking: Answer Key and Transcripts
Read aloud – Item 1Once most animals reach adulthood, they stop growing. In contrast, even plants that are thousands of years old continue to grow new needles, add new wood, and produce cones and new flowers, almost as if parts of their bodies remained "forever young". The secrets of plant growth are regions of tissue that can produce cells that later develop into specialized tissues.
Read aloud – Item 2Analysts were impressed by the improvement in margins reported across all regions, apart from the United Kingdom, and said that this reflected a clear effort to improve profitability across the business. Although the turnaround is still in its early stages and the valuation looks full, given the challenge of turning around such a large and complex business, this is certainly an impressive start. 
Read aloud – Item 3The development of easy-to-use statistical software has changed the way statistics is being taught and learned. Students make transformations of variables, create graphs of distributions of variables, and select amongst statistical analyses all at the click of a button. However, even with these advancements, students sometimes still find statistics to be an arduous task.
Read aloud – Item 4In 2005, donor countries agreed on an accord to harmonize their practices. Since then, aid officialshave complained that too little has changed on the ground. Conferences of donors in developingcountries still tend to be dominated by a small group of north European governments, with the USoften absent.
Read aloud – Item 5The climate for doing business improved in Egypt more than in any other country last year, according to a global study that revealed a wave of company-oriented reforms across the Middle East. The World Bank rankings, which look at business regulations, also showed that the pace of business reforms in Eastern Europe was overtaking East Asia.
Read aloud – Item 6In a genuine republic, the will of the government is dependent on the will of the society, and the will of the society is dependent on the reason of the society. In Federalist 51, for example, James Madison claimed that the extent and structure of the government of the United States make it dependent on the will of the society.
Repeat sentence – Item 1Most teaching staff make their lecture notes available online.
Repeat sentence – Item 2There will be a conference here next summer on using the web for academic research.
Repeat sentence – Item 3The university has a world-renowned school of archaeology.
Repeat sentence – Item 4Successful applicants will work with a large team of researchers.
Repeat sentence – Item 5Higher numbers of patients were infected than during previous outbreaks of the illness.
Repeat sentence – Item 6The final year will consist of four taught courses and one project.
Repeat sentence Item 7He started his tutorial presentation right on time.
Repeat sentence – Item 8The nearest automatic teller is in front of the anatomy labs.
Repeat sentence – Item 9Newspapers are supported primarily by the sale of advertising space. 
Repeat sentence Item 10Sydney is Australia's largest city, chief port and cultural center. 
Re-tell lecture – Item 1The shuttle was designed to be a space truck; it's a multi-purpose vehicle. We've done a tremendous number of different things with it. It's the most versatile space vehicle that has ever been built. We've used it to launch satellites. We've used it to repair satellites in orbit and put them back into orbit. We've used it to capture satellites and bring them back to Earth for repair. We've outfitted it with the space lab built by our European partners and used it before the era of the space station to do scientific research. We used it as part of our partnership with the Russians, which is still continuing, first as part of the Mir space station, where we actually prolonged the useful life of Mir by several years through logistical supply visits with the shuttle. And now, of course, we're using it to build the new international space station, which is a … a huge international partnership. 
Re-tell lecture – Item 2Interviewer: In an article that you wrote that I just read, you said you wished you could takeeveryone back to decades ago to look at the Florida Keys.Interviewee: Fifty years ago. Think about how much change has taken place in that short period oftime. We have managed to consume on the order of 90% of the big fish in the ocean: the tunas, the swordfish, the sharks. They're mostly gone. Until recently people have had the belief that there isn't much we puny human beings can do to change the nature of the ocean. But in fact, we have, not just because of what we've been taking out, and the destructive means often applied to take fish and other creatures from the sea, but also what we're putting into the sea, either directly or what we put into the atmosphere that falls back into the sea.Interviewer: So if you were going to give a grade on the health of the oceans today, what would itbe?Interviewee: Well, it depends on which aspect. Across the board. Huh. The oceans are in trouble. It's hard for me to assign a specific grade. Maybe C-. 
Re-tell lecture – Item 3Interviewer: What nutritional guidelines should we be following?Interviewee: Well, probably the best source of nutritional guidelines are those that are issued by the American Cancer Society or the National Cancer Institute. And the American Cancer Society, for example, offers four really basic, simple nutrition guidelines. The first guideline, which in my mind is the most important, is to choose most of the foods that you eat from plant sources, and we can talk in more detail about that in a moment. The second guideline is to limit your intake of high fat foods, particularly from animal sources. The third guideline is to be physically active and achieve a normal, healthy body weight. And the final guideline is to limit consumption of alcoholic beverages if you choose to drink at all.Interviewer: So Susan, one of the things we always hear about … from the American Cancer Society is this five-a-day recommendation. Maybe if you could explain to our listening audience what that actually means. Interviewee: The five-a-day recommendation is a very simple way of communicating the message to increase consumption of these plant foods. And what five-a-day means is five servings per day of fruits and vegetables in total. And some people misunderstand this guideline, and they may think it's okay if I have five glasses of fruit juice a day, and I've met my five-a-day guideline. The goal is really to choose both fruits and vegetables as part of the five-a-day guideline, to vary the fruits and vegetables that you eat on a daily basis, and that alone is a very major step forward in terms of reducing your risk for cancer. 
Answer short question – Item 1What organ do cardiologists specialize in?Correct: (the) heart / hearts 
Answer short question – Item 2If telescopes are used to locate distant objects, what instrument is employed to magnify minisculeobjects?Correct: (electron) microscope / microscopes 
Answer short question – Item 3Which kind of punishment for a crime is the less severe, an imprisonment or community service?Correct: community service
Answer short question – Item 4How many sides are there in a bilateral agreement?Correct: two 
Answer short question – Item 5Which is the longest: a decade, a millennium or a century?Correct: a millennium 
Answer short question – Item 6A manufacturing process releases noxious gases. What is the most important safety measure forworkers at this plant - ensuring good ventilation, or appropriate footwear?Correct: (ensuring good) ventilation 
Answer short question Item 7A list of events placed in time order is usually described as what?Correct: a chronology / a timeline 
Answer short question – Item 8If a figure is hexagonal, how many sides does it have? Correct: six 
Answer short question – Item 9What key mineral makes sea water different from fresh water? Correct: salt 
Answer short question – Item 10In the animal kingdom, is the purpose of camouflage to attract a mate, to find food or to hide?Correct: (it's) (the purpose is) (to) hide 

Part 3 Listening: Answer Key and Transcripts
Summarize spoken text – Item 1
    Scientists are discovering that when you touch someone, you communicate very specific emotions such as sympathy, disgust, gratitude, or even love. The current issue of the scientific journal Emotion features a series of studies about touch. Reporter Michelle Trudeau touched base with the lead researcher.    Michelle Trudeau: Psychologist Matt Hertenstein from DePaul University in Green Castle, Indiana decided to study touch while he was watching parents interacting with their babies - making faces and cooing sounds, squeezing, stroking, nuzzling them.    Mr. Matt Hertenstein (DePaul University): And all of a sudden it struck me one day and I thought, you know, I wonder if touch can communicate distinct emotions, much like the face and the voice.    Michelle Trudeau: Decades of research has been done on the face and the voice and the distinct emotions that they communicate. But touch has been relatively neglected by researchers until Hertenstein stepped in and began his experiments.    Mr. Matt Hertenstein: We invited two participants into the lab. And we put a curtain up betweenthose two people.    Michelle Trudeau: So they couldn't see or hear each other. One participant, the sender, was told to try and communicate twelve different emotions, one by one, to the other participant, the receiver.    Mr. Matt Hertenstein: The receiver would put his or her arm underneath the curtain, on to thesender's side.    Michelle Trudeau: The sender would then touch the receiver's forearm, trying to communicate the specific emotion, such as envy, fear, love, embarrassment, anger, gratitude, pride, disgust. The receiver had to then decide which emotion was being communicated.
Sample summaryIt is believed that touch can communicate a wide range of specific emotions. Touch has been ignored by researchers in the past, and has not been focused on until recently. A person describes an experiment carried out into touch and emotion to prove that touch can communicate a range ofspecific feelings. 
C1Touch has been neglected as an avenue of communicating distinct emotions, relative to studiesinvolving facial and vocal communication. The journal Emotion featured studies involving touch. One researcher was motivated to study after seeing how parents and babies use physical contact in addition to facial and vocal expressions to communicate with one another. In one study, the sender was asked to communicate twelve distinct emotion, e.g. fear and love.
Explanation: This response is an accurate and detailed summary of the main point and severalsupporting points discussed. The grammar follows standard conventions. The vocabulary used isappropriate for the context. There are few spelling errors. The word count is 68 words. 

Summarize spoken text – Item 2
    About 20 years ago Kent Anger and Barry Johnson came up with 750 chemicals that could harm the brain during development. Nobody has since then dared to update that number, it's just a guess today, there has to be more than a thousand if there was 750 twenty years ago. But the problem is also that we have put too little emphasis in this type of, uh, research.    For example, it has taken so far the OECD 10 years to devise a battery of tests that they couldrecommend for systematic testing of chemicals for developmental neurotoxicity. That panel, thatbattery, has not yet been completed and authorized by OECD so it's taking way, way, way too longbecause it is complicated. But there is so much at stake.    Children are just losing IQ points and losing their concentration span, memory or motor functions. But in the present world where there's so much emphasis on knowledge and brain functions this can also translate into dollars. The EPA has calculated that every time a child loses one IQ point because of chemical pollution it costs society something like $8,000 or $10,000.
Sample summary About twenty years ago, it was estimated that there are 750 chemicals that can affect the developing human brain, and today there may be over 1000. There is little emphasis on the possible damage caused to developing children from these chemicals. It has taken the OECD ten years to develop an index to test for developmental neurotoxicity. Economically, each IQ point lost to chemical poisoning has an impact of $8,000-$10,000.
C120 years ago, the list of chemicals which affected brain development was numbered at 750. Today, this number has increased to about 1000. There is insufficient research on the testing of such chemicals by OECD. These chemicals cause harmful effects like the lost of IQ, concentration, memory and motor functions. It is estimated that for every lost IQ point of a child, society stands to lose 8,000 to 10,000 dollars.
Explanation: The response is an accurate and detailed summary of the main point and severalsupporting points discussed in the lecture. The grammar follows standard English conventions. The vocabulary used is appropriate for the context. There are no spelling mistakes. The word count is 70 words.

Multiple-choice, choose multiple answers – Item 1
If you think about light bulbs, they're an enormous infrastructure. They're in every building in theworld, more or less, they have kind of a privileged position above us, around us, they can see, if you think about it, you know, most parts of any room. The kind of key was to say, well, what if weconsider a light bulb not to be a light bulb, but actually to be a digital projector. It just happens to be really low resolution. In fact, it's a one by one pixel digital projector. You turn on the wall switch and a giant pixel comes out and paints your room. OK, well, that's ludicrous, but what if you put a higher resolution projector inside that same familiar glass bulb? Well, now you have a device that can illuminate. If you turn on all the pixels the same color, you still have a light bulb in the usual sense. But if you turn on the pixels different amounts and different colors, then you're kind of projecting information out into the world. And if at the same time that you're doing that, you put a little tiny camera inside the bulb, then not only is information flowing out of the glass, but you're collecting optical information. So screw one of those into every one of these fixtures and suddenly you have a means potentially to put, display an interaction everywhere throughout the world.
AnswersQuestion: The purpose of this talk is to _____
Correct: illustrate how an everyday object could inspire new technology.Explanation: This response is correct. The speaker begins by considering a light bulb and what itdoes, and then imagines what could be done with it. As the speaker adds features to this imaginary light bulb, it changes from a low resolution projector, to a high resolution projector, to a device that projects and collects optical information.
Correct: encourage listeners to think creatively about mundane items.Explanation: This response is correct. The speaker invites listeners to think about light bulbs thentalks about their use in an unusual way. The speaker goes on to discuss the light bulb in ways most people don’t think about: “they’re an enormous infrastructure,” “they have a kind of privilegedposition above us,” and that light bulbs each project one giant pixel that “paints” the room. 

Multiple-choice, choose multiple answers – Item 2
We are led to believe that basically much of eastern North America was heavily cloaked in matureforest, forest that today we covet as old growth, and yet at one time, it was the sort of ancestral, um, botanical blanket that covered much of certainly Massachusetts and New England. Certainly one of the first things that happened as increasing waves of colonists arrived was the need to clear the land, um, and this clearing of the land is something that started, um, really in the form of small, subsistence farms, uh, the timber was used for building houses, um for building ships, for firewood, for all manner of things. The boulders, the erratic, ah, the glacial erratic stones that were so much a part of the New England landscape, um, are today sort of, ah, what we find in the latticework of stone walls that one can find practically anywhere in the landscape, ah, if it's in a relatively untouched condition. By the early part of the ,ah, nineteenth century, ah, it's thought that generally the zenith of clearing had taken place, ah, sometime in the 1830s 1840s and the trees and the forests were essentially clear-cut, ah, to an extent that is almost unbelievable.
AnswersQuestion: What happened as a result of the arrival of colonists?
Correct: Huge areas were deforested.Explanation: This response is correct. The speaker says that one of the first things that happened as increasing waves of colonists arrived was the clearing of the land. The speaker also says thatsometime in the 1830s and 1840s, the trees and the forests were essentially clear-cut.
Correct: Sections of land were delineated with stones.Explanation: This response is correct. The speaker says that the glacial erratic stones that were somuch a part of the New England landscape are today ‘‘sort of’’ what can be found in the latticework of stone walls that one can find practically anywhere in the landscape. This implies that stones were used to delineate sections of land. 

Fill in the blanks – Item 1
One seminal difference in policy remains; the [coalition] has not matched what is Labor's mostimportant innovation promise. That is to bring together responsibilities for innovation, industry,science and research under one single federal minister. Innovation responsibilities [currently] lie within the powerful Department of Education and Science, and while there is a [separate] industry department, it has little influence within Cabinet. This has [hampered] policy development and given Australia's innovation policies a distinctly science and research [bias]. It is the scientists rather than the engineers who call the tune in innovation policy in Canberra, so it's no surprise our policies are all about [boosting] government funded research and later [commercializing] their results.

Fill in the blanks – Item 2
We've decided to adopt, just as a loose theme for the course, a [biological] theme so that you can see the connections between chemistry and biology and the things that you might consider doing in the future. We want you to think about the [molecules] that are relevant to your body, the processes that occur in your body, the chemistry that's going on and how [energy] plays a role. And we divided the course into four sections and after each section there will be a mid-term. The first one, or an exam. The first one is about [matter].

Highlight correct summary – Item 1
So what influences consumers in different parts of the world? Many factors affect how we, asindividuals and societies, live, buy and consume. And it should be readily apparent that culture has a profound impact on the way consumers perceive themselves, the products they buy and consume, and the processes by which those products should be purchased, and the organization that sells those products. 
Correct: Consumers in different cultures value different things. These values, which can be uniquefrom one culture to the next, impact not only what kinds of products these consumers buy, but alsowho they buy them from, how they buy them, and for what uses and reasons.
Explanation: This response is correct. The speaker says “culture has a profound impact on theproducts they buy and consume” which implies that culture influences consumer decisions, leadingpeople from one culture to make different purchases from those in another culture. According to the speaker, culture also affects “the processes by which those products should be purchased, and the organization that sells those products”, which addresses “how they buy them” and “who they buy them from.” 

Highlight correct summary – Item 2
We’re not running out of oil. The first thing that one can say with absolute confidence is that we’re not about to run out of oil, we are definitely not. But what we are approaching is the end of the first half, and this is one way to describe it, and this chapter in history lasted about a hundred and fifty years since the first oil was produced. And we’re coming to the end of that, and you have to find oil before you can produce it, and when we look back into history, we can find that the peak of discovery was in 1964, and that the discovery of oil has been falling ever since, relentlessly, um, and it’s been falling despite the world wide search, always aimed at the biggest and best prospects, no one’s looking for the smallest and the worst, the biggest and the best. It’s been falling despite amazing technological and geological advances, we understand this business so much more than we did. And finally, it’s been falling despite a very happy economic environment, whereby most of the cost of exploration is written off against tax. So I would say in view of all of those incentives, and all of those benefits, if discovery has actually been falling relentlessly, er, there is no good reason to think that this trend is going to change direction. So, in other words, we’ve passed the peak. 
Correct: While we are not about to run out of oil, we are certainly past the peak of oil production,which occurred about 40 years ago. This is despite improvements in technology, geology, and withtax-subsidized investment in exploration. 
Explanation: This response is correct. The speaker asserts, “We’re not running out of oil” at thebeginning of the recording. The speaker then says that the peak of oil discovery was in 1964, and that the rate of oil discovery “has been falling ever since” despite “amazing technological and geological advances.” He also mentions that “most of the cost of exploration is written off against tax.”

Multiple-choice, choose single answer – Item 1
I have chronic pain and at times this is severe, but this is managed with opiates. I know the general public has a very perverted view of opiates because they think street addiction, heroin, drug smugglers. However, if prescribed correctly by doctors in the right dose for your height and weight and you manage it well yourself, I haven't increased my dose of 80 milligrams of morphine in the last 18 years. So that's a fairly good illustration, that no you don't double it every ten minutes the way the general public think. And also it's very well looked after by the government. I have to present myself to my GPs who all get to know me very well every 30 days, and they have to phone to Canberra to have authorization, and I get my monthly dose of opiates to keep me going till the next lot. 
AnswersQuestion: What is the main idea that the speaker is trying to convey in her comments? Correct: Governments can play a key role in chronic pain management.Explanation: This response is correct because the details in the recording support this idea. Thespeaker also states that her opiate use is “very well looked after by the government.”

Multiple-choice, choose single answer – Item 2
I should say one more thing about theory. It's a … It's great to discover theory, but there .. the .. you have to lose a lot, and you may have noticed, or maybe you didn't, how much you lose. Partly you don't notice it much because here at the university everybody's dedicated to theory, and what is … what's left out is ,uh, perception cause you-you use your mind not your eyes. Skill-you're notsupposed to have to have any particular, uh, sort of bodily kind of skills; there's a kind of mentalthing, but I'm not … let's not call that skill. I'm just calling skill the way you cope with everyday stuffthat you use and so forth. Intuition, it's not fair to have intuition, I mean you can have intuition, butit's not ... it's not theory, it's not something that everybody has to believe until you can put it intolanguage and argue for it. Gets rid of emotions, the body, tradition.
AnswersQuestion: What is the lecture mainly about? Correct: Theory and how it forces you to lose aspects of yourself.Explanation: This response is correct. The lecturer begins by saying that he is talking about theory.He says, “It's great to discover theory, but … you have to lose a lot,” and then goes on to list thethings that one loses in pursuit of theory including perception, skill, intuition, emotions and the body.

Select missing word – Item 1
Robyn Guymer: My PhD student, Elaine Chong, did what was called a meta-analysis where youanalyze the literature very carefully, to see what evidence there is to suggest that what we eat,particularly in terms of antioxidants, prevents you getting macular degeneration.Norman Swan: Because ophthalmologists have been using antioxidants quite a lot.Robyn Guymer: That's right. There have been studies looking at whether antioxidant supplementsslow the progression once you have the disease, whereas this study was looking at trying to stop you getting it (in the first place).
Correct: in the first placeExplanation: This is correct because “stop you getting it in the first place” echoes the speaker’searlier statement about “preventing you getting” a disease. Also, the conjunction “whereas” signals a contrast between the first and second half of the sentence. The first half of the sentence talks about using antioxidants after one has the disease, whereas the second half of the sentence talks about using antioxidants before one gets the disease. 

Select missing word – Item 2
So what, what meiosis does for every species is generate a lot of diverse individuals. Individuals with different capabilities. In the hope, that by having a population with very diverse individuals that at least some of them will be competent to survive. And, it's wildly successful, almost, almost everyspecies on this planet has meio … has, has a way to create genetically diverse gametes, and they use meiosis to do that. Ok, so ,um, meiosis is extremely important in the evolution of life and the survival of the (species). 
Correct: speciesExplanation: This response is correct because the speaker refers to the impact of meiosis on species throughout the recording. Additionally, the sentence requires a countable noun to follow “the” and “species” is a countable noun. 

Highlight incorrect words – Item 1
So far in our discussion of chemical [reactions] we have assumed that these reactions only go in one direction, the forward direction, from left to right as we read it in an equation. That's why our [arrow] points from left to right: reactants react together to make products. However, this is not exactly how things occur in nature. In fact, practically every chemical reaction is reversible, meaning the products can also react together to reform the reactants that they were made of. So instead of writing that single arrow facing from [left] to [right], a more appropriate symbol would be a double arrow, one going from left to right and one going from right to left. Reactants are continually - continuously - reacting to form [products]. But at the same time as those products are formed, they remake the reactants. They're both going simultaneously, forming each other. This is what we would call a state of equilibrium.
AnswersSo far in our discussion of chemical [equations] we have assumed that these reactions only go in one direction, the forward direction, from left to right as we read it in an equation. That's why our[arrowhead] points from left to right: reactants react together to make products. However, this is not exactly how things occur in [reality]. In fact, practically every chemical reaction is reversible, meaning the products can also react together to reform the reactants that they were made of. So instead of writing that single arrow facing from [right] to [top], a more appropriate symbol would be a double arrow, one going from left to right and one going from right to left. Reactants are continually - continuously - reacting to form [produce]. But at the same time as those products are formed, they remake the reactants. They're both going simultaneously, forming each other. This is what we would call a state of [equality]. 

Highlight incorrect words – Item 2
I think the importance of creativity today really reflects a fundamental [shift] in the nature of theeconomy. You know, in the old days, wealth was created because in the industrial era, youmanufactured [something], you got economies of scale, you had long production runs, you were really [efficient] - you know, you could get a Model T, any color just so long as it was black. Right? So there was [standardization]. And there was a whole set of assumptions about how to manage, how to create an organization - you know, a typical kind of hierarchical organization - to make sure that things ran smoothly. Well, that may be great for a relatively stable era of history - relatively stable - but now things are [fundamentally] unstable - and so we need less economies of scale and more economies of [discovery]. Which means that the management approach, the organizational approach, has got to shift as well.
AnswersI think the importance of creativity today really reflects a fundamental [rift] in the nature of theeconomy. You know, in the old days, wealth was created because in the industrial era, youmanufactured [everything], you got economies of scale, you had long production runs, you were really [effective] - you know, you could get a Model T, any color just so long as it was black. Right? So there was [centralization]. And there was a whole set of [presumptions] about how to manage, how to create an organization - you know, a typical kind of hierarchical organization - to make sure that things ran smoothly. Well, that may be great for a relatively stable era of history - relatively stable - but now things are [functionally] unstable - and so we need less economies of scale and more economies of [recovery]. Which means that the management approach, the organizational approach, has got to shift as well. 
Write from dictation – Item 1You must submit your assignments by next Friday at the latest.
Write from dictation – Item 2The time of the (maths, math) lecture has been changed to (ten thirty, 10.30, 10:30).
Write from dictation – Item 3Final year business students have to write a (5000, 5,000, five thousand, 5 thousand) word essay on market trends.