PTE Writing: Practice Questions - 5 | Practice Tests for PTE PDF Download

Summarize Written Text

You need to summarize the passage given below. In the exam, you will have 10 minutes to complete this task. Your response will be assessed on how well you capture the essential points of the passage and the clarity of your writing.
You can draft your answer on paper, and then check your response by clicking the "View Answer" button.

Q1: One of humanity's greatest achievements has been mastering routes across the world's oceans. Communities separated by thousands of miles have been brought into contact and religious ideas have spread across the waters, while artistic creativity has been spurred on by the experience of seeing the products of different civilizations. Customs have been decisively altered by the movement of ships across the oceans. No one drank tea in medieval Europe, but once contact had been made with the tea-drinking Chinese, tea became the obsession of millions of people from Sweden to the United States.

We tend to think that the opening of the oceans was the work of the great explorers, especially the 15th century pioneers who edged their way through uncharted waters to southern Africa, the Indian Ocean and the spice lands of the Indies. These were sailors such as Christopher Columbus, who chanced upon unsuspected lands that blocked the expected sea route from Europe to China and Japan. In spite of these achievements, they didn't start the exploration of the world's oceans - and there were also scores of merchants who followed in their wake, taking full advantage of new knowledge about the open ocean to develop trade links across the world that were the precursors of modern globalization. These were the people who really mastered the oceans and brought the continents into contact. Since then, the oceans have only continued to tie the world together.

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Q2: Bottled water has gone from a convenience to an alternative drinking-water system, with about a third of Americans choosing it over tap water most or all of the time. Why? More than 90% of those buying bottled water cite 'safety' and 'quality' as the reasons, but while it's true that it can indeed be safe, this isn't always the case.

Much has been written about the trash problem created by the billions of disposable plastic drinking-water bottles sold each year in the U.S. Far less is understood about the contents of those bottles. According to a government report from 2009, the most recent data available, about 70% of the bottled water sold in the U.S. was not subject to regulation.

This isn't to say you should worry that every bottle of water you drink is contaminated. Rather, a better understanding of how the industry works is important for public health. Major bottled-water suppliers as well as prestige brands have an incentive to do all they can to sell safe drinking water. At a minimum, they want to make sure that their brands are not injured by a loss of reputation. But there are hundreds of bottled-water brands, and some lesser-known bottlers＿working on tiny profit margins＿may not share the concern of the most recognizable ones. Because they don't have to worry about public confidence in their brand name, they can stop using one label and start selling under another without changing the source.

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Write Essay

You will have 20 minutes to plan, write and revise an essay about the topic below. Carefully read the statement below and write an essay in response. A sample essay is available for you to review by clicking on the "View Answer" button.
Your essay will be evaluated based on how effectively you develop your position, organize your ideas, provide supporting details, and adhere to the conventions of standard written English. Aim for a word count between 200-300 words.

Q1: Tourism brings economic development to many lesser-known areas. But some communities feel that it interferes with and destroys their way of life. What are your thoughts on this? Support your point of view with reasons and/or examples from your own experience.

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