PTE Retell Lecture Questions – Real Repeated in Exams – Update 3

Transcript:

I want to talk to you tonight about the work that makes all other work possible, about the millions of women who go to work in our homes every single day, caring for children as nannies, caring for our loved ones with disabilities and our elders, as home care workers, maintaining sanity in our homes as cleaners. It’s the work that makes all other work possible. And it’s mostly done by women, more than 90 percent women, disproportionately women of color. And the work itself is associated with work that women have historically done, work that’s been made incredibly invisible and taken for granted in our culture. But it’s so fundamental to everything else in our world. It makes it possible for all of us to go out and do what we do in the world every single day, knowing that the most precious aspects of our lives are in good hands.

Response:
The lecture is about the role of domestic workers in our society. Domestic workers care for children and elderly, keep the houses cleans and do much more. Majority of these workers are women. However, their contributions are often ignored. We can go out and perform our jobs because we know the house is taken care of. In conclusion, our society should do more to appreciate the work done by the domestic workers.

Transcript:

Now, the first time I heard about phages was back in 2013. My father-in-law, who’s a surgeon, was telling me about a woman he was treating. The woman had a knee injury, required multiple surgeries, and over the course of these, developed a chronic bacterial infection in her leg. Unfortunately for her, the bacteria causing the infection also did not respond to any antibiotic that was available. So at this point, typically, the only option left is to amputate the leg to stop the infection from spreading further. Now, my father-in-law was desperate for a different kind of solution, and he applied for an experimental, last-resort treatment using phages. And guess what? It worked. Within three weeks of applying the phages, the chronic infection had healed up, where before, no antibiotic was working. I was fascinated by this weird conception: viruses curing an infection. To this day, I am fascinated by the medical potential of phages. And I actually quit my job last year to build a company in this space.

Response:

The lecturer discusses a special medical concept. He shares an incident in which his father in law treated a women with knee problems. She had a bacterial infection which was ultimately treated with the application of this medical concept. In essence it is about viruses curing infections instead of causing them, something which is usually unthinkable. In conclusion, this medical breakthrough has the potential to cure various chronic illnesses around us.

Transcript:

Nearly 100 years ago, almost today, most women in the United States finally won the right to vote. Now, it would take decades more for women of color to earn that right, and we’ve come a long way since, but I would argue not nearly far enough. I think what women want today, not just only in the United States but around the globe, is to no longer be an afterthought. We don’t want to continue to try to, like, look at the next 100 years and be granted, grudgingly, small legal rights and accommodations. We simply want true and full equality. I think that women are tired of retrofitting ourselves into institutions and governments that were built by men, for men, and we’d rather reshape the future on our own terms.

Response:
The lecturer talks about women rights in the United States and world over. Women won the right to vote in the US about a 100 years ago, though women of color got that right much later. However, now the women world over do not want to be given these and other rights as a favour. Instead of trying to fit in a male dominated world, they want to create their own place at their own terms. In conclusion, the women rights landscape is undergoing a drastic transformation.

Transcript:

Hello. I’d like to introduce you to a word you may never have heard before, but you ought to know: drawdown. Drawdown is a new way of thinking about and acting on global warming. It’s a goal for a future that we want, a future where reversing global warming is possible. Drawdown is that point in time when atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases begin to decline on a year-to-year basis. More simply, it’s that point when we take out more greenhouse gases than we put into Earth’s atmosphere.

Now, I know we’re all concerned about climate change, but climate change is not the problem. Climate change is the expression of the problem. It’s the feedback of the system of the planet telling us what’s going on. The problem is global warming, provoked by the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases caused by human activity.

Response:

The lecturer discusses a new concept in the field of global warming. It is a new way of dealing with greenhouse gases. In future, instead of adding to global warming by producing more greenhouse gases, we will be able to take out the greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. This is a new way of looking at climate change, by treating the root cause. In conclusion, the new approach seems promising and it is hoped it will help reduce global warming.

Transcript:

This is me at five years old, shortly before jumping into this beautifully still pool of water. I soon find out the hard way that this pool is completely empty because the ice-cold water is near freezing and literally takes my breath away. Even though I already know how to swim, I can’t get up to the water’s surface, no matter how hard I try. That’s the last thing I remember trying to do before blacking out. Turns out, the lifeguard on duty had been chatting with two girls when I jumped in, and I was soon underwater, so he couldn’t actually see or hear me struggle. I was eventually saved by a girl walking near the pool who happened to look down and see me. The next thing I know, I’m getting mouth-to-mouth and being rushed to the hospital to determine the extent of my brain loss. If I had been flailing at the water’s surface, the lifeguard would have noticed and come to save me. I share this near-death experience because it illustrates how dangerous things are when they’re just beneath the surface.

Response:
The lecturer shares a personal anecdote to highlight the point that the things that aren’t visible get ignored. When she was a child she jumped into an almost frozen pool. Due to the very low temperature she fainted and almost sank underwater. Since she was underwater the lifeguard couldn’t see her and therefore didn’t move to save her. Eventually she was saved by someone who was nearer and could see her. To conclude, we should be able to see and observe things if we want to do anything about them.