PTE Listening Practice Test 18

"Today we'll examine food waste, a problem that affects both wealthy and developing countries, though in different ways. Researchers estimate that roughly a third of all food produced for people is lost or wasted somewhere between the farm and the plate. In lower-income countries, most losses happen early in the supply chain, because of poor storage, a lack of refrigeration and difficult transport, so crops spoil before reaching markets. In wealthier countries, much more waste happens at the end of the chain, in shops and households, where food is thrown away because of strict cosmetic standards or confusion over date labels. Wasted food also wastes the water, land and energy used to produce it, and rotting food in landfill releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. Solutions therefore differ by region: better storage and cold chains in some countries, and clearer labelling and redistribution of surplus food in others."

উৎপাদিত খাদ্যের প্রায় এক-তৃতীয়াংশ নষ্ট হয়। দরিদ্র দেশে সংরক্ষণ ও পরিবহনের অভাবে শুরুতেই ক্ষতি হয়, ধনী দেশে দোকান ও বাড়িতে খাবার ফেলে দেওয়া হয়। এতে পানি, জমি ও শক্তিরও অপচয় হয় এবং মিথেন নির্গত হয়।

"The sharing economy covers services that let people rent out things they own, such as spare rooms, cars or tools, usually through an app. Supporters say it makes better use of resources that would otherwise sit idle and allows ordinary people to earn extra income. Critics argue that short-term home rentals can reduce the number of homes available to local residents and push up rents in popular tourist areas. As a result, several cities now limit the number of nights a home can be rented to tourists each year."

"Hilsa, the national fish of Bangladesh, spends most of its life at sea but swims up rivers to spawn. In the early two-thousands, catches declined sharply because too many young fish, known as jatka, were being caught before they could breed. The government introduced seasonal fishing bans in key breeding areas and provided rice to fishing families during the ban periods. Since then, hilsa catches have recovered substantially, and the programme is often cited as a successful example of fisheries management."

"When bicycles first reached Asian cities in the late nineteenth century, they were expensive imported luxuries. By the mid-twentieth century, however, local factories in countries such as China and India were producing sturdy, affordable bicycles in enormous numbers. In China, the bicycle became so central to daily life that it was considered one of the essential possessions for a household. As incomes rose and cities expanded, cars and motorbikes replaced many bicycles, although bike-sharing schemes have recently brought cycling back in some cities."

"Because water expands when it freezes, rainwater that seeps into small cracks in rocks and then turns to ice during cold nights gradually forces the cracks wider, until eventually the rock breaks apart into pieces."