PTE Academic

Urban heat islands form when roads, roofs and car parks absorb sunlight during the day and release it slowly at night. As a result, city centres can stay several degrees warmer than nearby rural areas well after sunset. Street trees help in two ways: their shade keeps surfaces cooler, and water evaporating from their leaves cools the air around them. However, trees need space for their roots and regular watering in their first years, which is why some councils have struggled to increase tree cover in older, densely built suburbs. According to the passage, what problem do some councils face?

Young trees need room and care that crowded older suburbs find hard to provide. The last sentence gives the problem: trees need space for roots and regular watering, so councils have struggled in older, densely built suburbs. The other options either reverse what the text says or add ideas it never mentions.

When the museum digitised its collection of 19th-century letters, staff expected most visitors to the website to be university historians. The usage data told a different story. Over 60 per cent of searches came from people researching their own family history, and many of them had never visited the museum in person. The museum has since added a short guide to reading old handwriting and a form that lets users share information about the people named in the letters. Why did the museum add the handwriting guide and the form?

Most website users turned out to be family history researchers, not academics. The text says staff expected historians, but the data showed most searches came from family history researchers. The new guide and form were added “since” then, to suit these users.

Sleep researchers have long known that teenagers’ body clocks shift later during puberty, which makes it hard for many of them to fall asleep before about 11 pm. When several schools in one region moved their start time from 8.00 am to 8.45 am, students slept an average of 34 minutes longer on school nights. Attendance in first period rose, although the study found no clear change in end-of-year exam results. Which statement is supported by the passage?

After the change, more students attended their first class of the day. The passage says “attendance in first period rose”, which means more students came to their first class. The other options contradict the text or add information it doesn’t give.

Supporters of the four-day working week often point to trials in which staff reported less stress and companies kept the same output. These results are encouraging, but they deserve caution. Most trials have been short, lasting six months or less, and the companies taking part chose to join, which suggests they already expected the change to work. Longer studies across a wider range of industries are needed before firm conclusions can be drawn. What is the writer’s attitude to the four-day week trials?

Positive but cautious, as the results may not apply widely yet The writer calls the results “encouraging” but says they “deserve caution” because trials were short and companies volunteered. That’s positive but careful, and the writer wants more evidence before drawing conclusions.

Desalination plants turn seawater into drinking water by pushing it through very fine membranes that hold back the salt. The process uses a lot of electricity, so newer plants are often paired with wind or solar power. The very salty water left over, called brine, has to be released carefully so that it mixes quickly with the ocean and doesn’t harm sea life near the outlet. Which TWO statements are supported by the passage? A. Desalination needs a large amount of energy. B. Brine is released straight onto beaches. C. Brine can harm marine life if it isn’t released carefully. D. The membranes add salt to make the water safe to drink.

A and C A matches “the process uses a lot of electricity”. C matches the last sentence, which says brine must be released carefully so it “doesn’t harm sea life”. B and D aren’t in the text, and D gets the membranes backwards.

Citizen science projects invite members of the public to collect or analyse data. In one long-running bird survey, volunteers count the birds in their backyard for 20 minutes and upload the results through an app. Because thousands of people take part each year, scientists can track changes across the whole country that no small research team could measure alone. The organisers admit that some volunteers misidentify species, so unusual sightings are checked by experts before they’re added to the data. Which TWO statements are supported by the passage? A. Volunteers’ counts let researchers see patterns across the country. B. Unusual sightings are reviewed by experts. C. Volunteers must be trained biologists. D. The survey has only been running for one year.

A and B A matches “scientists can track changes across the whole country”. B matches “unusual sightings are checked by experts”. C and D aren’t supported: volunteers are members of the public, and the survey is “long-running”.

Choose the word that best fills the gap. The new funding rules had a significant ______ on the number of students applying for scholarships.

impact “Have an impact on” is a fixed phrase meaning to change or influence something. The sentence needs a noun after “a significant”, and only “impact” fits with “on”.

Choose the word that best fills the gap. The findings ______ the view that reading with children at home helps their later success at school.

support “Support the view” means to give evidence for an idea. It takes a direct object, so it fits straight before “the view”. The other verbs all need a preposition first.

Choose the word that best fills the gap. Many universities now ______ students to submit their assignments online rather than on paper.

require “Require someone to do something” is correct and natural. The other verbs don’t use the pattern “verb + person + to + verb”.

Choose the word that best fills the gap. The new medicine reduced symptoms in most patients. ______, a small number had serious side effects, so the trial was paused.

However The second sentence contrasts with the first: most patients improved, but some had serious side effects. “However” is the linking word for contrast.

Choose the pair of words from the word bank that best fills gaps (1) and (2). Coral reefs cover less than one per cent of the ocean floor, yet they (1) ______ about a quarter of all marine species. When sea temperatures rise too high, corals (2) ______ the tiny algae that give them their colour and much of their food, and the reef turns white.

(1) support (2) expel Reefs “support” many species by giving them food and shelter. When corals “expel” (push out) the algae, they lose their colour, which explains why the reef turns white. No other pair makes sense for both gaps.

Choose the word from the word bank that best fills the gap. The lecturer reminded students to ______ all their sources, because using someone else’s work without credit counts as plagiarism.

acknowledge To “acknowledge” a source means to show that you used it, which is exactly what avoids plagiarism. It takes a direct object, so it fits before “all their sources”.

Choose the word from the word bank that best fills the gap. Despite ______ the experiment several times, the team couldn’t reproduce the original results.

repeating “Despite” is a preposition, so it’s followed by a noun or an -ing form. “Despite repeating the experiment” is correct.

Put these sentences in the correct order to make a paragraph. A. As a result, the town’s population fell by almost half within ten years. B. In the 1950s, the town grew quickly around a large copper mine. C. Today, tourism has replaced mining as the main source of jobs. D. When copper prices collapsed in the 1970s, the mine closed.

B, D, A, C B introduces the town and the mine, so it starts. D explains the mine closing. A begins “As a result”, so it must follow the closure. C, starting “Today”, brings the story to the present and ends it.

Put these sentences in the correct order to make a paragraph. A. These cells then spread across the wound, closing the gap. B. When the skin is cut, blood vessels near the injury narrow to reduce bleeding. C. Next, a clot forms, creating a temporary barrier against bacteria. D. Over the following days, new skin cells begin to grow underneath the clot.

B, C, D, A B starts the process with the cut. C begins “Next” and adds the clot. D mentions “the clot” and introduces new skin cells. A refers to “these cells”, so it must come after D.

Many people assume that recycling plastic always helps the environment. In practice, only some types of plastic can be recycled at a reasonable cost, and mixed or dirty plastic often ends up in landfill even after it has been sorted. Some researchers therefore argue that using less plastic in the first place, for example by switching to refillable containers, would do more good than raising recycling rates alone. Which sentence best summarises the passage?

Because much plastic can’t be recycled cheaply, using less of it may help more than recycling alone. The passage moves from a common belief, to the limits of recycling, to the argument for using less plastic. Only this option covers both the problem and the researchers’ conclusion.

Small-scale farmers in many countries now use mobile phones to get information that was once hard to reach. Text message services send weather forecasts, crop prices and pest warnings directly to farmers. Studies suggest that farmers who receive price information can bargain better with traders, although the benefit depends on whether they can reach more than one market. Which sentence best summarises the passage?

Phone information services can help small farmers, especially with prices, but the gains depend on access to markets. This option includes the main idea (phones give farmers useful information), the key benefit (better bargaining on prices) and the limit (it depends on market access). The others exaggerate or contradict the text.

Which sentence is grammatically correct?

The number of international students has increased every year since 2015. The subject is “the number”, which is singular, so the verb is “has”. “Since 2015” describes a period up to now, so the present perfect “has increased” is right.

Choose the option that correctly completes the sentence. If governments ______ more in public transport, traffic congestion would fall.

invested This is a second conditional: a possible situation, then “would” in the result. The “if” part uses the past simple, “invested”.

In Summarize Written Text you must write your summary as one sentence. Which option is a single, grammatically complete sentence?

Although recycling helps, using less plastic may have a greater effect because many plastics can’t be recycled cheaply. This option has one main clause (“using less plastic may have a greater effect”) joined to two linked clauses with “although” and “because”. It’s one complete sentence.