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：Body’s Pain Perception Mapped for First Time
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。
Pain is an immediate attention getter. And when we’re in pain, we think we know the exact location of the source of that pain, for example, your knee or your back. But our ability to pinpoint pain varies across the body, and in a specific pattern.
Scientists created stinglike discomfort on the surfaces of volunteers’ bodies using two lasers. They measured the minimum distance between the two pain points where the volunteer could still distinguish between the two stings. And they found that this capacity to discern different pain points, called spatial acuity, improves as we move towards the center of our bodies. For example, we’re better at detecting the two pain points on the shoulders than at the wrists.
The scientists also tested our acuity for touch, assuming it might be similar to pain. While we tend to have an equal ability to detect touch and pain, scientists found that our acuity for simple touch decreases towards the center of the body. So in this case it’s harder for us to detect non-painful touch at our shoulders than at our wrists. [Flavia Manciniet al, Whole-body mapping of spatial acuity for pain and touch, in Annals of Neurology]
The exception to this rule of thumb, if you will, is our fingers. The digits are sensitive to both pain and touch. But it’s not because fingers have more nerve fibers. The researchers think it might be a question of information processing. Because we use our fingers constantly, we’re more practiced at sensing them. Whether they’re playing the piano, or hammering a nail.
—Christie Nicholson
