Test your language

Updated on: Monday, December 13, 2010

A relatively new English language ability test — the Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic) is an innovative and engaging way to demonstrate your English language proficiency to international institutions. Recognised by more than 2040 academic programmes including over 455 institutions in the UK, PTE Academic is endorsed by and is the preferred English language test for the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), owner of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). The test will accurately measure the listening, reading, speaking and writing ability of candidates who are non-native speakers of English and who want to study at institutions where English is the principal language of instruction.

Results of the test can be obtained within five business days. Students can find a seat on a day and time that suits them and schedule a test up to 24 hours in advance, complete the test in a single three-hour test session and send free score reports to an unlimited number of institutions. The test is divided into three timed sections, in addition to a short un-timed introduction and an optional 10-minute break.

Test format:
Part Content Time Allowed
Introduction Not timed
1: Speaking & Writing: 77-93 mins
2: Reading: 32-41 mins
Optional scheduled break: 10 mins
3: Listening: 45-57 mins

In India, the PTE Academic is delivered through Pearson VUE centres. Some prestigious colleges and universities accepting this test are the London Business School, University of British Columbia, Queen’s University Belfast, University of Edinburgh, and Yale University’s Yale College. The test costs between US$150 and US$210 depending on where you choose to take it from.

Writing
1. Read the passage below and summarise it using one sentence. 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.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a new report on anthropogenic climate change. The findings of the report include the following:

* The world’s average surface temperature has increased by around 0.74°C over the past 100 years (1906-2005). A warming of about 0.2°C is projected for each of the next two decades.

* The best estimates for sea-level rise due to ocean expansion and glacier melt by the end of the century (compared to 1989-1999 levels) have narrowed to 28-58 cm, versus 9-88 cm in the 2001 report, due to improved understanding. However, larger values of up to 1m by 2100 cannot be ruled out if ice sheets continue to melt as temperature rises.

* Sea ice is projected to shrink in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Large areas of the Arctic Ocean could lose year-round ice cover by the end of the 21st century if human emissions reach the higher end of current estimates. The extent of Arctic sea ice has already shrunk by about 2.7 per cent per decade since 1978, with the summer minimum declining by about 7.1 per cent per decade.

* Snow cover has decreased in most regions, especially in spring. The maximum extent of frozen ground in the winter/spring season decreased by about 7 per cent in the Northern Hemisphere over the latter half of the 20th century. The average freezing date for rivers and lakes in the Northern Hemisphere over the past 150 years has arrived later by some 5.8 days per century, while the average break-up date has arrived earlier by 6.5 days per century.

* It is “very likely” that precipitation will increase at high latitudes and “likely” it will decrease over most subtropical land regions. The pattern of these changes is similar to what has been observed during the 20th century.

Answer:
A new UN report finds that increasing surface temperatures around the world are causing rising sea levels, shrinking sea ice and snow cover, and changes in precipitation.

2. Read the passage below and summarise it using one sentence. 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.

For millions of years, Mediterranean sea turtles have been coming to the shore of southern Lebanon to lay their eggs. Every summer, their babies hatch and literally run for their lives on the strip of sand that separates their nests from the sea. An endangered species, they had been largely ignored in this part of Lebanon until two women set out to protect them.

Mona Khalil was inspired by a walk on the beach during a visit to her homeland, when she first saw the turtles. Upon lear-ning that they were close to disappearing from her country, Khalil decided to “co-me back and do something about them.”

The next year, 2000, she returned and teamed up with Habiba Fayed, who shares her passion for the environment. They opened a bed-and-breakfast in the Khalil family home to finance their efforts. Guests could simply vacation or, in the spirit of ecotourism, they could help the owners protect the turtles’ nests and keep the beach clean.

Female turtles travel to the exact spot where they were born to dig their nests in the sand, laying an average of 70 to 100 eggs. This is the moment when the women intervene. They protect the nests from predators by burying an iron grid in the sand above the eggs. The spaces on the grid are large enough to allow the baby turtles to emerge after a month and find their way to the sea…and to a chance at life.

Answer:
This passage tells of two Lebanese women who have taken an active role in helping the plight of Mediterranean sea turtles, an endangered species.

3. 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, organise your ideas, present supporting details and control the elements of standard written English. You should write 200-300 words.
Some people believe that exploring outer space is important because it expands human knowledge and might lead to discoveries that will benefit humanity in the future. Other people believe that space exploration is a waste of money that could be better spent solving immediate problems here on Earth.

Choose which position you most agree with and discuss why you chose that position. Support your point of view with details from your own experiences, observations or reading.

Answer:
I believe that space exploration has its advantages and its disadvantages. However, I feel that its disadvantages outweigh its advantages.

Firstly, many people argue that the universe is so big and that it would be an awful waste of space if we were the only ones occupying it and it is for this reason that we should explore new frontiers in the space. I do not agree with this stance because we have enough to discover here on our planet as it stands. There are uncharted territories and breathtaking vistas that we have yet to encounter or even species of flora and fauna that have yet to be identified.

Secondly, there is talk of us humans having so much to learn from the universe and that the cure for our diseases and pain is out there somewhere in the universe. If we were to look at the amount of money being pumped into space exploration we will see that billions of dollars are essentially being ‘wasted’. Back in the 1950s there was the ‘Space Race’ between Russia and the USA to put the first man into space. All the money spent on the race could have been put to much

Test your language

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