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。悉尼文波雅思PTE培训学校专门为澳洲，尤其是悉尼、墨尔本的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：
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。
This is Scientific American — 60-Second Science. I’m Christopher Intagliata.
It’s bad enough that mosquitoes suck our blood, and sometimes pass on disease. But there’s more.
“They can actually give you a disease and pee on you at the same time. Adding insult to injury if you will.” Jerod Denton, a pharmacologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
“If you look up almost any picture on Google of a mosquito taking a blood meal you’ll see a clear drop of fluid hanging out of the rear end of the mosquito. That’s actually the urine the mosquito has made from your blood.”
That pee production is vital to the mosquito’s survival. Because blood is salty. “And as these mosquitoes digest the red blood cells to get at the proteins and other nutrients hiding there, they release potassium chloride which can cause depolarization of the membrane potential of excitable cells and induce ‘excitotoxic death.'” Translation: not good. So mosquitoes and other bloodsuckers have evolved a rapid diuretic process to expel salt from their bodies, using kidney-like structures. Basically, while still sucking blood, they start peeing.
But Denton and his colleagues found a way to block all that. They developed a chemical compound that blocks the bugs’ salt-ejecting pores, “sort of like a cork in a bottle.” So when the skeeters come in contact with the compound, they swell up—and stay that way. “And in some cases we can actually see the abdomen rupture, because they’ve basically overfilled with food.” The study is in the journal Scientific Reports.
The substance doesn’t kill honeybees, and it works well on insecticide-resistant mosquitoes, too. So if it turns out to be safe enough to use around humans, the pesticide will give a whole new meaning to “bye-bye, sucker!”
Thanks for listening for Scientific American — 60-Second Science Science. I’m Christopher Intagliata.
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