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：Plummeting-Petroleum-Price-Gases-Up-Global-Warming
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。
Remember when a barrel of oil cost more than $140? That was way back in 2008. Nowadays, cars and trucks have been made to go farther on less fuel. Alternatives like ethanol have boomed. And fracking has unleashed a flood of oil formerly trapped in shale rock underneath North Dakota, among other places.
As a result, oil prices have fallen far. The price of a barrel of oil has dropped below $60.
But what’s good news for drivers is bad news for the global bid to cut climate changing pollution. Burning oil in vehicles is the second largest source of fossil fuel pollution.
It’s also bad news for alternatives, like new facilities that turn corn stalks into ethanol. Hybrids and electric cars are less popular when gas is cheaper. In fact, the sport-utility vehicles of yesteryear are staging a comeback.
But back on the good news front: a falling price of oil reduces the incentive to do expensive things to get the liquid fossil fuel¡ªlike drill in the Arctic or mine Canada’s boreal forest for tar sands.
Of course, in the long run oil prices are likely to go back up. It’s just a question of how much environmental damage gets done before that happens.
–David Biello
