PTE MocksMock Practice Tests

Reading · Writing

Summarize Written Text — practice #swt-008

Read the passage below and summarise it using one sentence (5–75 words). Type your response in the box at the bottom. You have 10 minutes; your response is judged on the quality of your writing and how well you capture the key points.

Summarize Written Text

Untimed practice

Read the passage below and summarise it using one sentence (5–75 words). Type your response in the box at the bottom. You have 10 minutes; your response is judged on the quality of your writing and how well you capture the key points.

A persistent belief holds that people are born either left-brained or right-brained, with logical, analytical thinkers governed by the left hemisphere and creative, intuitive ones ruled by the right. This idea has become so widespread that it appears in self-help books, workplace personality tests, and casual conversation, used to explain everything from career choice to artistic talent. The notion is appealing because it offers a simple story about human variety, neatly sorting people into two recognizable types. Unfortunately, it badly misrepresents how the brain actually works. The theory grew out of genuine research conducted decades ago on patients whose two hemispheres had been surgically separated to treat severe epilepsy. Those studies did reveal that certain tasks, such as processing language or recognizing faces, tend to rely more heavily on one side than the other. However, later imaging studies of healthy brains found no evidence that individuals favour one hemisphere as a whole. When people perform real-world activities, regions across both sides work together in constant communication, exchanging information through the thick bundle of fibres that connects them. Solving a mathematics problem or composing music draws on networks distributed throughout the entire brain, not on a single dominant half. Scientists therefore reject the idea that personality or ability can be traced to hemispheric dominance. The popular version survives largely because it is memorable and flattering, allowing people to label themselves in tidy terms. Researchers stress that creativity and logic are not housed in opposite halves of the skull but emerge from the cooperation of many regions. The lesson, they suggest, is that an attractive and easily repeated explanation can outlive the evidence that once seemed to support it.

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Practice sample modelled on the official PTE Academic format — not a real exam question, and not affiliated with or endorsed by Pearson. Confirm current rules at pearsonpte.com.