PTE考生目前最大的问题之一就是练习题缺乏。除了有限的基本官方书（PLUS，Testbuilder, OG）之外，就没有题了。很多英语基础不是很扎实的同学很难找到练习材料。墨尔本文波雅思PTE培训学校专门为墨尔本，悉尼PTE考生准备了适合PTE听力阅读练习的科学60秒。各位PTE同学可以练习PTE听力中的summarise spoken text和PTE口语中的retell lecture，练习记笔记技巧和复述。废话少说，下面开始：
Andromeda Snickers at Milky Way Mass
听力内容：
60秒科学节目（SSS）是科学美国人网站的一套广播栏目，英文名称：Scientific American – 60 Second Science,节目内容以科学报道为主，节目仅一分钟的时间，主要对当今的科学技术新发展作以简明、通俗的介绍，对于科学的发展如何影响人们的生活环境、健康状况及科学技术，提供了大量简明易懂的阐释。
How heavy is the Milky Way in comparison to its neighbor galaxy, Andromeda? Well, depends how you calculate it. In 2006 one group of astronomers figured the Milky Way was twice as massive as Andromeda. A 2009 estimate evened the score, calculating that the two galaxies are equal in mass.
Now a new formula suggests we’re only half the mass of Andromeda. To come up with that number, astronomers first measured the speed and distance of galaxies between three and 10 million light-years away. That allowed them to calculate the deformation of spacetime, and thus the mass, of our stellar neighborhood, aka the Local Group—a group of more than 50 galaxies, in which the Milky Way and Andromeda dominate.
They deduced the center of mass between the two heavyweights and found that Andromeda may indeed be twice as massive as the Milky Way. The results are in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. [Jorge Peñarrubia et al, A dynamical model of the local cosmic expansion]
The researchers say this new model might be more accurate than past ones, because it accounts for dark matter far from each galaxy’s center—assuming the data’s right, that is.
“Well, I never bet money on anything. Because I’m aware of all the uncertainties and approximations.” Lead author Jorge Peñarrubia of the University of Edinburgh. “One year from now, two years from now, some clever guy will come and say, ‘Hey, you forgot to include this, actually when you do everything changes,’ and then you will have to accept that.”
For now, we’ll just have to accept that we live in the wimpier of the two galaxies. At least until the next weigh-in.
—Christopher Intagliata
