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，PTE听力口语-科学60秒-Frosty Moss练习记笔记技巧和复述。废话少说，下面开始：
60秒科学：Crustal Chemistry May Aid in Earthquake Prediction
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。
Today’s early warning systems for earthquakes give you at most a few minutes to prepare for the hit. That’s because today’s systems rely on detecting the first early rumbles of an actual earthquake before sending the alarm.
Now researchers say that following the chemistry of groundwater could sound a long-term quake alarm. They tracked samples from an artesian well in Iceland for five years and identified changes in the ratios of hydrogen isotopes and a spike in sodium levels, four to six months before two 5+ magnitude quakes.
The chemical clues suggest mixing between groundwaters—so the researchers deduce that rocks may be fracturing, linking up underground aquifers, before the quake. The results are in the journal Nature Geoscience. [Alasdair Skelton et al: Changes in groundwater chemistry before two consecutive earthquakes in Iceland]
Investigations like this one have been plodding along for 40 years, and some studies—like one following the deadly Kobe quake in 1995—have found similar correlations. But study author Alasdair Skelton, a professor of geochemistry at Stockholm University, says the unpredictable study subject makes it tough to get funding, “because you can in no way guarantee a result. So I get three years of money but if there’s no earthquake, there’s no result.”
And even if we do accumulate more results like this and researchers sound a six-month alarm, what next? “If we’re gonna ever predict earthquakes, we want something sort of intermediate term. Not years, and not minutes or days. So weeks or months is probably the most useful time scale—but the sheer practicality of it, what you do about it, I’m thankful I’m not the person who has to resolve that.” Judging by the way leaders have responded to scientists’ warnings about another issue (cough cough, climate change), we might still be left ducking under the nearest table.
—Christopher Intagliata
