PTE Multiple Choice, Multiple Answers: free practice questions

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1. Question 1

   Bamboo is a grass, not a tree, but some kinds grow taller than a three-storey house. It is one of the fastest-growing plants on Earth, and some species can add close to a metre in a single day during the growing season. A bamboo stem can be harvested after three to five years, whereas timber trees often need several decades. For its weight, bamboo is very strong when pulled, which is why it has long been used for scaffolding across much of Asia. Its weak points are insects and fungi, which attack untreated stems, and fire. Builders who use it in permanent houses usually treat the stems first and keep them off wet ground.

   According to the passage, which of the following are true of bamboo? Tick every answer that is right.

   It can be harvested much sooner than many timber trees.It is a type of tree that grows in Asia.Untreated stems can be damaged by insects and fungi.It does not catch fire easily.It is too weak to be used for scaffolding.

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2. Question 2

   Antibiotics kill bacteria or stop them from multiplying, but in any large group of bacteria a few may carry a change in their genes that lets them survive the drug. When an antibiotic wipes out the others, these survivors have more room and food, and they multiply. Over time, the drug stops working against that infection. Several habits speed this process up. In some places antibiotics can be bought over the counter without a prescription, so people take them when they do not need them. In many countries they are also given to farm animals in large amounts, often to make them grow faster rather than to treat illness. And they are often prescribed for colds and flu, which are caused by viruses that antibiotics cannot touch.

   Which of the following does the passage give as habits that speed up resistance? Tick every answer that is right.

   Selling antibiotics without a prescriptionBacteria changing into virusesGiving antibiotics to farm animals to make them grow fasterPrescribing antibiotics for illnesses caused by virusesDoctors giving patients too many vaccines

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3. Question 3

   The routes now called the Silk Road were never a single road, and silk was far from the only thing carried along them. Few traders travelled the whole distance from China to the Mediterranean. Most moved goods a few hundred kilometres between market towns, where the goods changed hands and continued with someone else. Because of this relay, a wealthy Roman might wear Chinese silk with only a vague idea of where it had been made. Ideas moved the same way. Buddhism reached China through Central Asian towns along these routes, and papermaking travelled west slowly, over several centuries. Some historians argue that the exchange of knowledge mattered more in the long run than the trade in luxury goods.

   Which of the following can be inferred from the passage? Tick every answer that is right.

   Most goods passed through many hands before reaching their final buyers.Merchants in Rome usually travelled to China to buy silk.Buyers at one end of the routes often knew little about where goods came from.Papermaking spread west within a few years.Silk was the only valuable item traded along the routes.

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4. Question 4

   Many of the hydropower plants built on Nepal's rivers are of the run-of-river type. Instead of holding back a large lake behind a high dam, they divert part of a river's flow through a tunnel or channel to turbines further downstream, then return the water to the river. Because they flood little land, they move fewer people from their homes than large dams do. Their weakness is that they depend on how much water the river carries at the time. In the monsoon they can produce more power than nearby users need, while in the dry winter months, when demand is often highest, their output falls.

   Which of the following are described as features of run-of-river plants? Tick every answer that is right.

   They flood very little land.They store large amounts of water for the dry season.Their output changes with the amount of water in the river.They send the water back into the river after use.They produce the most power in winter.

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5. Question 5

   In many drug trials, one group of patients receives the new medicine and another receives a placebo, a pill that looks the same but contains nothing active. Neither the patients nor the doctors handing out the pills know who got which. This design exists because people often feel better after taking any pill they believe might help. The effect is strongest for symptoms that depend partly on how a person feels, such as pain or tiredness, and much weaker for things like blood sugar or the size of a tumour. If a new drug cannot do better than the placebo, it is not counted as working, however much patients report improvement.

   Which of the following statements are supported by the passage? Tick every answer that is right.

   A placebo pill looks the same as the real medicine.The placebo effect is strongest for symptoms such as pain and tiredness.Doctors in the trial know which patients received the placebo.A placebo can shrink a tumour as well as a real drug.A drug counts as working if patients say they feel better.

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