Urban development is a central topic in urban planning and city management, encompassing various aspects like housing, infrastructure, and green spaces. In the PTE academic exam, the Summarize Written Text task often features topics that are both current and critical, such as urbanization, sustainability, and environmental impacts. This is a crucial opportunity for test-takers to showcase their ability to distill long texts into concise summaries while maintaining key information.
In this article, we’ll provide practice questions for the Summarize Written Text task based on the topic of Urban Development And Green Spaces. You’ll find a variety of realistic PTE-style exercises, answer samples, and a breakdown of what makes a good summary.
Let’s dive in!
Summarize Written Text Practice for Urban Development and Green Spaces
Practice Question 1: Urban Sprawl and Environmental Impact
Urban sprawl is a notable consequence of rapid urbanization, leading to the conversion of large amounts of natural land into developed regions. It often causes the fragmentation of green spaces, aligning poorly with environmental sustainability goals. Green spaces, such as parks and forests, are crucial for biodiversity, mitigating climate change, and improving public health by providing cleaner air and mental health benefits. However, the spread of cities into surrounding rural areas continues, often prioritizing housing and commercial developments over preserving these natural environments. Urban planners are now challenged to find solutions that balance a growing population’s needs with environmental concerns. Large-scale urban development is highly resource-intensive, often causing pollution and significant strain on water resources and wildlife. It is, therefore, critical to integrate more green spaces into urban environments to ensure long-term sustainability.
Instruction: In one sentence, summarize the text above.
Answer Samples:
Band 90 Response:
Urban sprawl resulting from rapid urbanization leads to environmental harm by fragmenting green spaces, forcing cities to prioritize housing over sustainability, which demands integrating more green areas into urban planning.
Analysis:
- Content (90/90): The response captures all aspects, including urban sprawl, the impacts on green spaces and biodiversity, and the need for urban planners to integrate green areas.
- Form (1/1): The response is within the required word limit.
- Grammar (90/90): No grammatical mistakes.
- Vocabulary (90/90): Words like “fragmenting,” “green spaces,” “resource-intensive” are used correctly.
- Spelling (90/90): No spelling issues.
Band 75 Response:
Urban sprawl is causing environmental issues by reducing green spaces and putting pressure on cities and planners to prioritize housing while addressing biodiversity concerns.
Analysis:
- Content (75/90): This response misses some aspects like pollution and resource strain but highlights key themes such as urban planning and green space concerns.
- Form (1/1): The response is well within the word limit.
- Grammar (75/90): Minor grammatical issues like “and putting pressure” could be refined.
- Vocabulary (75/100): Adequate vocabulary use, but simpler than the preceding response.
- Spelling (90/90): No spelling issues.
Band 50 Response:
Urbanization is harming the environment as it reduces green spaces, which hurts the ecosystem.
Analysis:
- Content (50/90): This summary lacks detail and misses essential information about urban sprawl’s broader impacts, including pollution and planning challenges.
- Form (1/1): Word count is acceptable.
- Grammar (50/90): Some sentence structure issues that affect cohesion.
- Vocabulary (50/90): Basic vocabulary; lacks the specificity found in higher-scoring responses.
- Spelling (90/90): No spelling issues.
Practice Question 2: Urban Renewal and Green Spaces
Urban renewal projects often involve demolishing older buildings and redeveloping areas to accommodate population growth. As cities expand, green spaces are sometimes compromised, sacrificed to create housing units and commercial zones. However, there are growing efforts in modern urban planning to include green infrastructure, such as rooftop gardens, public parks, and green corridors, to promote sustainability. Advocates for urban greening emphasize the multiple social and environmental benefits provided by these spaces, from improved health and wellbeing to enhanced biodiversity and resilience against climate change. The challenge remains to ensure that as urban areas are renewed, green spaces are not only preserved but expanded to create more livable cities for future generations.
Instruction: In one sentence, summarize the text above.
Answer Samples:
Band 90 Response:
Urban renewal projects, while necessary for accommodating population growth, must incorporate green spaces such as parks and rooftop gardens due to their social and environmental benefits, ensuring more sustainable urban development.
Band 75 Response:
Urban renewal involves redevelopment but risks sacrificing green spaces, although modern planners are trying to include more green infrastructure.
Band 50 Response:
Urban renewal can harm green areas, but planners are trying to include them.
Practice Question 3: Green Spaces and Urban Planning for Climate Adaptation
Urban planning is increasingly focused on adapting to climate emergencies such as rising temperatures and natural disasters. Green spaces, including urban parks, community gardens, and wetlands, play a significant role in enhancing urban resilience. They help to lower surface temperatures, absorb excess rainfall, and prevent flooding—making cities better prepared for climate adaptation. However, global urbanization trends mean that these spaces are under continuous threat as cities expand. Planners are urged to ensure green space integration in urban areas not just for aesthetic or recreational purposes but to strengthen climate resilience and protect urban populations from environmental disasters.
Instruction: In one sentence, summarize the text above.
Answer Samples:
Band 90 Response:
Green spaces are critical in urban planning for climate adaptation, as they help mitigate rising temperatures and flooding risks, but their continued preservation is threatened by urbanization.
Band 75 Response:
Green spaces are useful for climate adaptation but are threatened by urbanization as cities expand.
Band 50 Response:
Urbanization is threatening green spaces that help with climate adaptation.
Vocabulary and Grammar Breakdown:
Here are 10 challenging vocabulary words from the passages above:
-
Urban sprawl (/ˈɜːrbən sprɔːl/) – the uncontrolled expansion of urban areas.
- Example: Urban sprawl often leads to the reduction of natural habitats.
-
Biodiversity (/ˌbaɪoʊdaɪˈvɜːrsɪti/) – the variety of plant and animal life in a particular habitat.
- Example: Maintaining biodiversity is critical to environmental sustainability.
-
Mitigate (/ˈmɪtɪɡeɪt/) – to make something less severe or harsh.
- Example: Green spaces help mitigate the impacts of urban pollution.
-
Infrastructure (/ˈɪnfrəˌstrʌktʃər/) – the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society.
- Example: Building green infrastructure can improve both the environment and quality of life.
-
Adaptation (/əˌdæptˈeɪʃən/) – the action of adjusting to new conditions.
- Example: Urban adaptation to climate change is essential for future sustainability.
-
Fragmentation (/ˌfræɡ.menˈteɪ.ʃən/) – the process or state of breaking or being broken into small or separate parts.
- Example: Habitat fragmentation due to urban sprawl threatens numerous species.
-
Resilience (/rɪˈzɪliəns/) – the ability to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.
- Example: Green infrastructure increases urban resilience to environmental changes.
-
Sustainability (/səˌsteɪnəˈbɪlɪti/) – the ability to be maintained or continue in a healthy and productive state.
- Example: Urban planning increasingly focuses on long-term sustainability.
-
Redevelopment (/ˌrisɪˈvɒlv/) – the act of improving an area by creating new buildings or infrastructures.
- Example: Redevelopment of urban areas must consider long-term environmental impacts.
-
Resource-intensive (/rɪˈsɔːrs ɪnˈtensɪv/) – requiring a large amount of resources to produce.
- Example: Urban expansion is resource-intensive and often leads to environmental degradation.
Conclusion:
The topic of urban development and green spaces is a recurring theme in the PTE’s Summarize Written Text task. With these sample questions, test-takers have the opportunity to practice summarizing large pieces of text while focusing on key details. Integrating green spaces into urban planning is essential for building sustainable and resilient cities, a concept that’s increasingly relevant in actual exam prompts. For more related PTE materials, check out our articles on topics like Urban sprawl and environmental sustainability and Urban planning for climate adaptation.
