Reading: Fill in the Blanks · Part 2: Reading

Science Warn Global Warming

45 students marked "I sat this"Added 16 Apr 2020Question #110048

Drag words into the blanks.

You may well ask why science did not warn us of global warming sooner; I think that there are several reasons. We were from the 1970s until the end of the century 1 the important global problem of stratospheric 2 depletion, which we knew was manageable. We threw all our efforts into it and succeeded but had little time to spend on climate change. Climate science was also neglected because twentieth-century science failed to 3 the true nature of Earth as a 4 self-regulating entity. Biologists were so carried away by Darwin’s great vision that they failed to see that living things were tightly coupled to their material environment and that evolution concerns the whole Earth system with living organisms an 5 part of it. Earth is not the Goldilocks planet of the solar system sitting at the right place for life. It was in this favourable state some two billion years ago but now our planet has to work hard, against ever increasing heat from the Sun, to keep itself 6. We have chosen the worst of times to add to its difficulties.

Word box (alphabetical)

alivedecidedistracted byfocusing onhabitableintegralozonerecognizeresponsive

More Reading: Fill in the Blanks questions

Reading: Fill in the Blanks format (Pearson)

Pearson's name: Fill in the Blanks (Drag and Drop)

PromptText up to 80 words
Time to answerNot set per question (Part 2 lasts 23–30 minutes)
Skills assessedReading

How it is scored

  • The box has more words than there are gaps.
  • Partial credit applies: a partly correct response still scores.

Source: Pearson, PTE Academic & UKVI test format, Part 2: Reading, checked 9 October 2026.