PTE Summarize Written Text — Practice Passages
Summarise each passage in ONE sentence of roughly 30–40 words. This is the strictest formal rule in the exam: two sentences collapses your Form score however good the content.
How to practise this task
- One sentence only — one full stop, at the very end.
- Find the main claim plus the two most important supporting ideas.
- Join them with a comma and a connector such as and, while or because.
Practice questions
Summarize Written Text — practice 1
Honeybees play a central role in agriculture because they pollinate many of the crops humans rely on. As a bee gathers nectar, pollen sticks to its body and travels with it from flower to flower. This accidental transfer fertilises plants, allowing them to produce seeds and fruit. Scientists warn that declining bee populations could therefore threaten global food production. Bees move pollen while they are collecting nectar. Pollination allows plants to produce seeds and fruit. A decline in bees may put food production at risk. The transfer is accidental — bees are simply gathering nectar. The passage says populations are declining. The passage focuses on crops humans rely on. Honeybees pollinate essential crops by carrying pollen between flowers, so falling bee numbers could endanger the world's food production.
Summarize Written Text — practice 2
Sea otters spend almost their whole lives in cold coastal water without any blubber to warm them. Moreover, instead they rely on the densest fur in the animal kingdom, trapping air against their skin. By feasting on sea urchins, otters protect the kelp forests that urchins would otherwise devour. Where otters vanish, urchins multiply and mow the towering kelp down to bare rock. Sea otters have no blubber. Their dense fur traps air for warmth. Otters protect kelp by eating urchins. They have no blubber and rely on dense fur. Urchins devour kelp; otters keep them in check. Without otters, urchins mow the kelp down. Blubberless sea otters keep warm with the animal kingdom's densest fur and, by eating sea urchins, protect kelp forests that are mown to bare rock wherever otters disappear.
Summarize Written Text — practice 3
Volcanoes form where molten rock from deep inside the Earth forces its way to the surface. Furthermore, eruptions can bury whole landscapes under ash within a matter of hours. Yet volcanic soils later become some of the most fertile farmland on the planet. This is why millions of people choose to live in the shadow of active volcanoes. Molten rock rising to the surface forms volcanoes. Ash can cover landscapes very quickly. Volcanic soils are unusually fertile. Their soils become highly fertile. Ash can bury landscapes within hours. Millions choose to live near them. Volcanic eruptions are destructive, but the fertile soils they create explain why millions of people still farm and live near active volcanoes.
Summarize Written Text — practice 4
The Dead Sea, lying at the lowest dry point on Earth, is many times saltier than the ocean. What is more, the dense, mineral-heavy water makes swimmers bob on the surface like corks. Almost nothing can live in it, which is how the lake earned its name. Because inflowing rivers are heavily diverted, its shoreline now drops by about a metre each year. The Dead Sea is far saltier than the ocean. Swimmers float easily on its dense water. Its water level is dropping each year. Almost nothing can live in it. It lies at the lowest dry point on Earth. The shoreline drops by about a metre each year. The Dead Sea — Earth's lowest dry point and far saltier than the ocean — floats swimmers like corks and supports almost no life, and with its rivers diverted its level now falls about a metre a year.
Summarize Written Text — practice 5
Spider silk is one of the strongest natural materials known to science. Weight for weight, the thread is tougher than steel yet remarkably light. As a result, spiders spin it from a liquid protein that hardens the instant it leaves the body. Engineers now study the silk hoping to copy its strength in new materials. Spider silk is among the strongest natural materials. The thread is tougher than steel for its weight. Spiders spin silk from a liquid protein. It is one of the strongest natural materials. It is tougher than steel yet remarkably light. They spin it from liquid protein in their bodies. Spider silk is an extraordinarily strong yet light natural thread spun from liquid protein, and engineers study it hoping to reproduce its strength in new materials.
Summarize Written Text — practice 6
Ancient tally systems could count sheep or coins but had no symbol for nothing at all. Moreover, indian mathematicians treated zero as a genuine number you could calculate with, not just a gap. As a result, the concept travelled through Arab scholars into Europe, where merchants adopted it for bookkeeping. Zero makes place-value arithmetic possible — without it, writing large numbers becomes clumsy. Early tally systems had no symbol for nothing. Indian mathematicians treated zero as a real number. Zero underpins place-value arithmetic. It came from Indian mathematicians via Arab scholars. It was treated as a genuine number to calculate with. Without zero, writing large numbers becomes clumsy. Zero began as a missing idea in ancient counting; Indian mathematicians made it a true calculable number, Arab scholars carried it to European bookkeeping, and it underpins place-value arithmetic.
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