PTE Summarize Spoken Text – Update 5

Transcript

Now, before going into some details of specific solutions, you may be wondering how we came to these calculations. Well, first of all, we collected a lot of data, and we used statistical analysis to create ranges that allow us to choose reasonable choices for every input used throughout the models. And we chose a conservative approach, which underlies the entire project. All that data is entered in the model, ambitiously but plausibly projected into the future, and compared against what we would have to do anyway. The 84 gigatons reduced from onshore wind turbines, for example, results from the electricity generated from wind farms that would otherwise be produced from coal or gas-fired plants. We calculate all the costs to build and to operate the plants and all the emissions generated. The same process is used to compare recycling versus landfilling, regenerative versus industrial agriculture, protecting versus cutting down our forests.

Sample response

A massive amount of data is collected to guide the choices for various inputs in the models used in the project. The amount of energy saved is compared with what it would have been otherwise. This approach is also applied to other comparisons such as recycling and landfilling.

Transcript

Moreover, approximately a third of all food produced is not eaten, and wasted food emits an astounding eight percent of global greenhouse gases. We need to look where across the supply chain these losses and wastage occurs. In low-income countries, after food leaves the farm, most food is wasted early in the supply chain due to infrastructure and storage challenges. Food is not wasted by consumers in low-income countries which struggle to feed their population. In the developed world, instead, after food leaves the farm, most food is wasted at the end of the supply chain by markets and consumers, and wasted food ends up in the landfill where it emits methane as it decomposes. This is a consumer choice problem. It’s not a technology issue. Preventing food waste from the beginning is the number three solution. But here’s the interesting thing. When we look at the food system as a whole and we implement all the production solutions like regenerative agriculture, and we adopt a plant-rich diet, and we reduce food waste, our research shows that we would produce enough food on current farmland to feed the world’s growing population a healthy, nutrient-rich diet now until 2050 and beyond. That means we don’t need to cut down forests for food production. The solutions to reversing global warming are the same solutions to food insecurity.

Sample response

A major chunk of food produced in the world is wasted due to various reasons. In poorer countries food is wasted due to supply chain issues, whereas in richer countries the wastage is largely due to consumption habits. If the food production system is assessed as a whole and measures taken to improve it, it can feed the world for a long time to come.

Transcript

Without capital, inequality is locked in. We use words like choice, freedom to describe the benefits of the market, but it is literally wealth that gives us choice, freedom and optionality. Wealthier families are better positioned to finance an elite, independent school and college education, access capital to start a business, finance expensive medical procedures, reside in neighborhoods with higher amenities, exert political influence through campaign finance, purchase better legal counsel if confronted with an expensive criminal justice system, leave a bequest and/or withstand financial hardship resulting from any number of emergencies. Basically, when it comes to economic security, wealth is both the beginning and the end.

Sample response

The biggest cause of inequality is the lack of wealth and true freedom only comes from having money. Wealthy families have better options for living, education, healthcare and business funding. They get more help from the legal and political system when needed. True security cannot be enjoyed without being wealthy.

Transcript

In 1995, Betty Hart and Todd Risley published a study that found that working class families and those being served by welfare experience what we now refer to as the “30 million word gap.” Essentially, what they learned is that children in these families are hearing so many fewer words each day that by the time they are three years old, there’s this enormous disparity in their learned language. And that gap in words follows them as they enter school, and it results in later reading, poorer reading skills, a lack of success overall. Children need to hear words every day and they need to hear not just our day-to-day conversation, they have to hear rare words: those outside the common lexicon we share, of around 10,000.

Sample response

Children who grow up in families that depend upon social welfare face severe disadvantage in their language skills. These children hear far fewer words compared to children from more well to do families. This gap in their language sets up in early childhood and follows them throughout their academic life.

Transcript

And one of the things that we can do to stop wars and to have peace is to make sure that the wealthiest countries in the world also help the developing countries. Now, we did this in the past. After World War II, when Japan and Germany were devastated after the war, United States of America gave many tax dollars to those two countries, so that they can rebuild their economies and rebuild their corporations. And we can do that again. And if we can think about how we can help these other countries. And I want to give an example of issues that we are facing in the United States of America, for instance.

We know that right now we have a lot of refugees from Central America that are at the border of the United States. Why do people leave their homes, their beautiful homes that we go to as tourists? Because they don’t have opportunities there.

Sample response

The world will have fewer wars and more peace if the richer countries provide adequate support and help to the poorer countries. This has been done in the past, as seen in the assistance that United States provided to Japan and Germany after the world war. These countries were able to rebuild largely due to the generosity of Americans.