PTE Listening Fill in the Blanks practice: 12 transcripts with answers

When marketing furniture, the 1 of the pieces is crucial for grabbing a buyer's attention. Vivid or unusual hues can make an item noticeable. The 2 of the furniture is also important, since customers seek durability for their investment. A fair price can render the transaction more attractive. Lastly, the style must 3 prospective buyers by suiting their taste preferences. This mix helps boost sales.

Lead-in time is the amount of time that elapses between a business placing an order with a supplier for more stock or raw 1 and the delivery of the goods to the business. Businesses want the lead-time to be as short as possible, so that they can meet their customer orders and 2 the time between paying for the stock and receiving the 3 from the customer. However, this may not happen due to a number of 4 , such as delays in the supplier receiving the order, or the breakdown of the suppliers' lorries 5 the stock to the business.

Despite a steady stream of negative economic reports, the 1 market has climbed — nearly 11 percent over the past few weeks. Junk bonds, those risky corporate I.O.U.'s, are rebounding. The worth of financial shares, bank loans, complex credit derivatives — up, up, up. Many on Wall Street, the center of the credit crisis, appear to believe that the worst is 2. For the first time in months, analysts and executives sound optimistic again. Many of them foresee a broad, 3 recovery in both the economy and the financial markets arriving in the second half of this year, a forecast some market strategists describe as 4 at best. For now, policy makers are mirroring the sentiment on Wall Street. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday that "we are closer to the end of this problem than we are to the beginning." A report from the Bank of England, meanwhile, concluded that mortgage 5, which have been at the core of the financial troubles, probably have 6 too far. The central bank said prices of such securities should "recover 7 in the coming months." Financial stocks and the broader market 8 on Thursday as the dollar strengthened and oil prices dropped for the third day in a 9. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index closed up 1.7 percent, to 1,409.34 points; the Dow Jones industrial average recorded a 189.87-point gain, to 13,010; and the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.8 percent. Another day or two like that, and those market 10 will be in positive territory for the year.

For many years the favorite horror story about 1 climate change was that a shift in ocean currents could 2 cool Europe's climate. These currents, called the overturning 3 bring warm water and warm temperatures north from the equator to Europe. Susan Loosier, an 4 at Duke University, says scientists have long worried that this ocean circulation could be disrupted.

The past ten years have been tough for the music business, marked by a sharp drop in 1 . For a long time, hardly any 2 was taken to stop illegal downloads, and downloaders faced few consequences. But now, two fresh strategies are producing 3 outcomes. First, the industry is teaming up with internet providers to throttle illegal downloaders' connections. Second, it is collaborating 4 with online music platforms. In Sweden, three out of five illegal file-sharers have 5 back or quit, and half of those have switched to legal sites funded by 6 .

Giant exoplanets, like the so-called 'hot Jupiters' that are similar in 1 to the solar system's biggest 2 and orbit very close to their host stars, are excellent targets for 3 in their search for their extrasolar worlds. The size and proximity of these planets is easy to 4 as they create a large decrease in brightness when passing in front of their parent stars.

Hi everybody, it's Joe Biden. I 1 a report to President Obama laying out how far we've come since he put me in charge of the Cancer 2 that was back in January and lay out a real vision for where we need to go in the immediate future to: to do in five years what would otherwise take ten; to 3 a real sense of urgency into the fight against cancer; and to change the culture and reimagine our system in order to be able to win. When President Nixon 4 war on cancer in 1971, he had no army, he had no resources, and no clear 5 . But after 45 years of progress, funding research, training scientists and physicians, and treating millions of patients -- we now have the army. We now have tools, powerful tools. And with this Moonshot, we now have a clear strategy for the road ahead. It matters, 6 , because there's a consensus now that we're at an inflection point with science, medicine, and technology all advancing faster than ever and offering real 7 . We can't play by the rules of 1971 -- we didn't have this working for us.

It is hard to know where to place Montesquieu - if you are the sort of person who likes to 1. Historian, political thinker, 2, legal expert or, if you regard the Persian Letters as a novel, a novelist - he embodied all these roles. Possibly, as some have suggested, he could be classified among that nearly vanished species, the man of 3. The volumes comprising The Spirit of the Laws have exerted the greatest 4 on subsequent intellectuals, and within them, as in his equally remarkable Considerations on the Causes of the Grandeur and Decadence of the Romans, he clarifies his fundamental aim. It is to render the arbitrary, seemingly senseless diversity of events comprehensible; he sought to discover what historical truth was. His beginning point, then, was this nearly infinite variety of ethics, 5, notions, laws and institutions and to derive some coherence from them. He held that it was not fortune that governed the world, and that, beyond the turmoil of incidents, there must be fundamental causes that 6 for the apparent irrationality of things.

Colombia on Tuesday 1 a tax reform plan that was at the root of violent anti-government protests that left more than 60 people dead this year, but was 2 reconfigured to be kinder to the middle class and the poor. President Iván Duque signed the so-called "social investment law," which has as its stated objective to combat poverty in a country hit hard by the coronavirus epidemic. He says the law will, quote, "benefit nearly 29 million Colombians in a 3 situation" out of a total population of some 50 million. A first version of the law presented by Duque early this year to combat the economic 4 of the global health crisis would have significantly increased taxes on an already battered middle class.

Countries frequently put money into schooling to 1 economic expansion. This spending helps build a capable labor pool for tomorrow. It also encourages the 2 of fresh sectors and innovations. These actions result in a more robust economy over time.

Life in the UK 2012 provides a unique overview of well-being in the UK today. The report is the first snapshot of life in the UK to be 1 by the Measuring National Well-being program and will be updated and published annually. Well-being is discussed in terms of the economy, people and the environment. Information such as the 2 rate or number of crimes against the person are presented alongside data on people’s thoughts and feelings, for example, 3 with our jobs or leisure time and fear of crime. Together, a richer picture on 'how society is doing' is provided.

Scientists are studying the 1 to learn more about its hidden ecosystems. They use advanced technology to explore underwater environments. In 2 areas, the water’s 3 is easier to measure and study. These regions often reveal fascinating marine life. The 4 built on the ocean 5 helps support research and conservation efforts. This work is crucial for protecting marine biodiversity.