PTE WRITING Summarize Written Text (SWT) exam questions

Tip: Summarize Written Text questions tend to have higher repeated rate than other question types in PTE Academic test. Make sure you understand the whole passage. Memorise words as much as you can. We selected some of PTE predicted Summarize Written Text (Writing) for September 2022. You can get full version of this material by accessing PTE Predicted Questions for September 2022.

1.Brain Wave

We can’t see it, but brains hum with electrical activity. Brain waves created by the coordinated firing of huge collections of nerve cells pinball around the brain. The waves can ricochet from the front of the brain to the back, or from deep structures all the way to the scalp and then back again. Called neuronal oscillations, these signals are known to accompany certain mental states. Quiet alpha waves ripple soothingly across the brains of meditating monks. Beta waves rise and fall during intense conversational turns. Fast gamma waves accompany sharp insights. Sluggish delta rhythms lull deep sleepers, while dreamers shift into slightly quicker theta rhythms. Researchers have long argued over whether these waves have purposes, and what those purposes might be. Some scientists see waves as inevitable but useless by-products of the signals that really matter — messages sent by individual nerve cells. Waves are simply a consequence of collective neural behavior, and nothing more, that view holds. But a growing body of evidence suggests just the opposite: instead of by-products of important signals, brain waves are key to how the brain operates, routing information among far-flung brain regions that need to work together. MIT’s Earl Miller is among the neuroscientists amassing evidence that waves are an essential part of how the brain operates. Brain oscillations deftly route information in a way that allows the brain to choose which signals in the world to pay attention to and which to ignore, his recent studies suggest. Other research supports this view, too. Studies on people with electrodes implanted in their brains suggest brain waves, and their interactions, help enable emotion, language, vision and more.

Summarize Spoken Text (SWT) – Brain Wave – Sample Answer:

Brain waves created by the coordinated firing of huge collections of nerve cells pinball around the brain, and that beta waves rise and fall during intense conversational turns, so researchers have long argued over whether these waves have purposes, while evidence suggests brain waves are key to how the brain operates, routing information amoung far-flung brain regions that need to work together. (63 words)

2. Fiber

Currently, Americans only eat about 16 grams of fiber — the parts of plants that can’t be digested — per day. That’s way less than the 25 to 30 grams that’s recommended. There are so many reasons why, from fast-food marketing to agriculture subsidies, but one contributing factor is the slow death of cooking, and the rise of the restaurant meal. Americans now spend more on food at restaurants than they do at grocery stores, but restaurant food tends to have even less fiber than the food we would otherwise eat at home. One problem seems to be that restaurant meals aren’t typically loaded with two of the best sources of fiber, unprocessed fruits and vegetables. A revealing study from 2007, in which researchers interviewed 41 restaurant executives, showed that restaurants think fruits and vegetables are too expensive to feature prominently on the menu, and “61 percent said profits drive menu selections.” They also opposed labeling certain menu items as healthier choices, saying that would be “the kiss of death.” So people like to eat out, and when they do, they prefer mushy, fiber-free comfort foods. But that’s a pretty dangerous road to go down.

Summarize Spoken Text (SWT) – Fiber – Sample Answer:

Americans only eat about 16 grams of fiber because of the slow death of cooking and the rise of restaurant meals, and restaurant food tends to have even less fiber, and that restaurant meals aren’t typically loaded with two of the best sources of fiber and people like to eat out. (51 words)

3. Sustainable Development

The Brundtland Report, Our Common Future (1987), defines sustainable development as “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’. Implicit in this definition is the idea that the old pattern of development could not be sustained. Is this true? Development in the past was driven by growth and innovation. It led to new technologies and huge improvements in living standards. To assume that we know what the circumstances or needs of future generations will be is mistaken and inevitably leads to the debilitating sense that we are living on borrowed time.

Only if we assume that society will remain static can we understand the needs of the future. The way we live today could not have been predicted twenty years ago. The sustainability paradigm fails to recognize this. It is a static view and thus places limits on human ingenuity. Similarly, a whole host of false assumptions dominate environmental thought; the scale of problems is exaggerated, the amount of resources is underestimated and spurious links are made between areas such as green policies and profit, poverty and environmental degradation. Those of us who want a better future need to question these assumptions.

Summarize Spoken Text (SWT) – Sustainable Development – Sample Answer:

The definition of sustainable development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs is not true since development in the past led to new technologies and huge improvements in living standards, and that the sustainability paradigm fails to recognize needs of the future because a whole host of false assumptions dominate environmental thought. (64 words)