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：Central Park Features Worldwide Soil Microbes
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。
“If you want to find unique diversity and if you want to find a wide range of different below-ground organisms, you don’t have to travel around the world. You can walk across Central Park.”
That statement comes from Noah Fierer, an ecology and evolutionary biology professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He’s also a coauthor of a study that uncovered the surprisingly large diversity of subterranean microbial life at the 843-acre green rectangle in the heart of Manhattan. The research is in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. [Kelly S. Ramirez et al, Biogeographic patterns in below-ground diversity in New York City’s Central Park are similar to those observed globally]
Investigators looked at 596 separate soil samples from the park and found thousands of different types of microbes. They also compared those microbes with those living in 52 other soil samples taken from all around the planet. The park had organisms that also exist in deserts, frozen tundra, forests, rainforests and prairies. Antarctica was the only area that had microbes that did not overlap with those found in Central Park. And only a small percentage of the park’s microbes were found to be already listed in databases.
The variety of microbes probably reflects a diversity of soil conditions within the park.
Seems that New York is a melting pot for people above the surface. And for microbes beneath it.
—Steve Mirsky
