PTE Listening Practice Test 15

"Today we're looking at the Silk Road, which was not actually a single road but a vast network of trade routes linking China with Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The network takes its name from Chinese silk, which was highly prized in Rome, but traders also carried spices, glass, horses, paper and precious metals. Very few merchants travelled the whole distance; instead, goods passed from trader to trader through cities such as Samarkand, where markets brought people of many cultures together. Perhaps more important than the goods were the ideas that travelled along these routes, including religions such as Buddhism and Islam, as well as technologies like papermaking. Unfortunately, the routes also carried disease, and historians believe the Black Death reached Europe partly through these trading networks in the fourteenth century. The land routes declined as sea travel became cheaper and safer, but the Silk Road's legacy of cultural exchange shaped civilisations across Asia and Europe."

সিল্ক রোড ছিল চীন থেকে ইউরোপ পর্যন্ত বাণিজ্যপথের এক বিশাল নেটওয়ার্ক। রেশম, মসলা, কাগজসহ নানা পণ্য এক ব্যবসায়ী থেকে আরেকজনের হাতে যেত। ধর্ম ও প্রযুক্তির মতো ধারণাও ছড়াত, তবে রোগও ছড়িয়েছিল। সমুদ্রপথ সস্তা হলে স্থলপথের গুরুত্ব কমে যায়।

"Noise pollution is often treated as a mere annoyance, but health researchers increasingly regard it as a serious public health issue. Long-term exposure to traffic noise at night has been linked with disturbed sleep, raised blood pressure and a higher risk of heart disease. Children who attend schools near busy airports have been found to perform worse on reading tests than similar children in quieter areas. Solutions include quieter road surfaces, lower speed limits at night and better insulation in homes and schools."

"Fast fashion refers to clothing that is designed, produced and sold very quickly and cheaply, allowing shoppers to follow the latest trends. This model has made fashionable clothes affordable for many people and created millions of factory jobs, including in Bangladesh. However, it also encourages people to buy more and throw clothes away sooner, generating huge amounts of textile waste. Critics also point to low wages and unsafe conditions in some factories, and many brands now face pressure to improve their supply chains."

"The dodo, a large flightless bird, lived only on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. With no natural predators on the island, it had little reason to fear humans when sailors arrived in the late sixteenth century. Although sailors did hunt the birds, scientists believe the animals they brought with them, such as rats, pigs and monkeys, did even more damage by eating dodo eggs from nests on the ground. Within less than a century of human arrival, the dodo was extinct."

"Because sound needs particles such as air or water to travel through, and outer space is almost a perfect vacuum, an explosion that happened just outside a spacecraft would make no sound at all."