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：Pack-Rats-Expand-Diet-with-New-Gut-Bacteria
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。
Pack rat. The name is synonymous with hoarding. And researchers have learned that pack rats can actually increase the range of foods they’re able to eat because of their collection of gut bacteria.
Pack rats live in the American Southwest, where they nosh on the native vegetation. Some of these plants produce protective toxins, for example the junipers in the Great Basin desert or the creosote bushes of the Mojave. But pack rats seem to eat these noxious shrubs with impunity.
The researchers found that pack rats from the Mojave harbor gut bacteria that can break down creosote. When antibiotics depleted the pack rats’ gut bacteria, the animals suddenly found creosote nearly indigestible.
Further, the researchers found that they could take pack rats from the Great Basin the ones that eat juniper and give them the ability to eat creosote. All they needed was a fecal transplant, which supplied the necessary gut bacteria from their Mojave-based neighbors. The work appears in the journal Ecology Letters.
The findings show the importance of gut bacteria for eating some otherwise dicey foods. They could also allow farmers to expand the diet of their livestock. Cows with the right gut bacteria could feast on what was formerly feh.
–Karen Hopkin
