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：
60秒科学：Bio-Spleen Sucks Pathogens and Toxins from Blood
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。
Sepsis is a potentially deadly inflammatory condition caused by infections. Muppet creator Jim Henson was a famous victim. Proper treatment of sepsis can require knowing what bacteria or virus caused the infection. But the identification can take days, and by that time it’s often too late. Some eight million people die of sepsis annually worldwide.
Now, scientists at Harvard’s Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering have come up with a device that cleans blood—without a need to diagnose the infectious agent. What’s being called the bio-spleen seems to work even for antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
In the device, blood is cycled outside the patient’s body and gets filtered through microfluidic channels. The channels nanoscale-sized magnetic beads attached to an immune system protein. The protein naturally latches onto bacteria, fungi, viruses, and toxins.
Then magnets pull the magnetic beads out of the blood, taking the attached pathogens and toxins along for the ride. The cleansed blood then flows back into the patient.
The researchers tested the system on human blood, and then on infected rats. In the trial, 90 percent of the treated rats recovered. Only 14 percent of the controls survived. The research is in the journal Nature Medicine. [Joo H. Kang et al, An extracorporeal blood-cleansing device for sepsis therapy]
The scientists hope to quickly scale up to human trials and ultimately develop a version that could find a place in the emergency room armamentarium.
—Cynthia Graber
