PTE Listening: Fill in the Blanks and Highlight Correct Summary

Listening Fill in the Blanks shows you a transcript with several blanks on screen while the corresponding audio plays simultaneously, and you type the missing words as you hear them. Because the audio plays only once and you're typing while listening, this task rewards a different rhythm than the Reading version: since the surrounding text is already visible, you can use it to predict grammatically what kind of word is needed -- a noun, a particular verb form -- before the word is even spoken, narrowing what you're listening for in advance. Correct spelling is required to receive credit, since this task also feeds into the spelling enabling skill.

Highlight Correct Summary is a different task type entirely: you listen to a talk, then choose which of several written paragraph summaries best matches what was actually said, from a set that includes plausible-sounding but inaccurate distractor summaries. The reasoning skill closely resembles eliminating False or Not Given claims against a passage: rule out any summary that contradicts a specific detail from the audio, or that oversimplifies the talk by omitting its actual main point, even if that summary reads fluently and confidently.

Below is an original transcript, followed by a fill-in-the-blanks-style excerpt and a Highlight Correct Summary-style question, so you can practice both skills against the same source material.

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Transcript (original -- talk on why leaves change color in autumn):

During spring and summer, leaves appear green because of chlorophyll, the pigment plants use to capture sunlight for photosynthesis. Chlorophyll is produced continuously through the warmer months, which is why it masks other pigments that are present in the leaf the whole time. As days shorten and temperatures drop in autumn, trees gradually stop producing chlorophyll, and the green pigment breaks down faster than it's replaced. This allows other pigments -- carotenoids, which produce yellow and orange colors, and anthocyanins, which produce red colors -- to become visible. Interestingly, anthocyanins aren't present in the leaf all year; some trees actively produce them in autumn, and researchers believe this may help protect the leaf from sun damage during the period just before it falls.

Excerpt with blanks, as it might appear on screen while the audio plays: "...trees gradually stop producing (1), and the green pigment breaks down faster than it's replaced... carotenoids, which produce (2) colors... anthocyanins, which produce (3) colors..."