Highlight Correct Summary – You will hear a recording. Choose the paragraph that best relates to the recording. This is item type assesses listening and reading skills.
Answer given at the end
PTE LISTENING: HIGHLIGHT CORRECT SUMMARY
Listen to the following audio and choose most accurate summary of the recording.
Choose the best summary:
[A]. The circulation of atmosphere, threatened by global warming and pollution, protects the biosphere and makes life on Earth possible.
[B]. If the protective atmosphere around the earth is too damaged by human activity, all life on Earth will cease.
[C]. Life on Earth is the result of complex interdependent events of nature, and some of these events are a result of human intervention.
[D]. The circulation of atmosphere is the single most important factor in keeping the biosphere alive, and it is constantly threatened by harmful human activity.
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TRANSCRIPT (Only for reference, it will not be given in actual PTE Academic Test)
The atmosphere forms a gaseous, protective envelope around Earth. It protects the planet from the cold of space, from harmful ultraviolet light, and from all but the largest meteors. After traveling over 93 million miles, solar energy strikes the atmosphere and Earth’s surface, warming the planet and creating what is known as the biosphere, the region of Earth capable of sustaining life. Solar radiation in combination with the planet’s rotation causes the atmosphere to circulate. Atmospheric circulation is one important reason that life on Earth can exist at higher latitudes because equatorial heat is transported pole-ward, moderating the climate.
The equatorial region is the warmest part of the earth because it receives the most direct and, therefore, strongest solar radiation. The polar regions are the coldest parts of the earth because they receive the least direct and, therefore, the weakest solar radiation. Here solar radiation strikes at a very oblique angle and thus spreads the same amount of energy over a greater area than in the equatorial regions. A static envelope of air surrounding the earth would produce an extremely hot, uninhabitable equatorial region, while the polar regions would remain inhospitably cold.
At the equator, air saturated with water vapor rises high into the atmosphere where winds aloft carry it pole-ward. As this moist air approaches the polar regions, it cools and sinks back to earth.
The circulation of the atmosphere and the weather it generates is but one example of the many complex, interdependent events of nature. The web of life depends on the proper functioning of these natural mechanisms for its continued existence. Global warming, the hole in the atmosphere’s ozone layer, and increasing air and water pollution pose serious, long-term threats to the biosphere.