PTE Writing Task 1: Summarize Written Text

Comparative advantage

With an abundance of low-priced labor relative to the United States, it is no surprise that China, India, and other developing countries specialize in the production of labor-intensive products. For similar reasons, the United States will specialize in the production of goods that are human-and-physical-capital intensive because of the relative abundance of a highly educated labor force and technically sophisticated equipment in the United States. This division of global production should yield higher global output of both types of goods than would be the case if each country attempted to produce both of these goods itself. For example, the United States would produce more expensive labor-intensive goods because of its more expensive labor, and the developing countries would produce more expensive human-and-physical-capital-intensive goods because of their relative scarcity of these inputs. This logic implies that the United States is unlikely to be a significant global competitor in the production of green technologies that are not relatively intensive in human and physical capital. Nevertheless, during the early stages of the development of a new technology, the United States has a comparative advantage in the production of the products enabled by this innovation. However, once these technologies become well understood and production processes are designed that can make use of less skilled labor, production will migrate to countries with less expensive labor.

Sample summary: Different countries enjoy comparative advantage due to availability of human and physical capital or low-price labor, which leads to a greater worldwide production by specializing in the goods for which these countries have comparable advantages, so once the processes are well perceived, production is transferred from developed countries to countries with cheap labor.

American and indian computer programming

Consider the current situation: like their counterparts in the United States, engineers and technicians in India have the capacity to provide both computer programming and innovative new technologies. Indian programmers and high-tech engineers earn one-quarter of what their counterparts earn in the United States. Consequently, India is able to do both jobs at a lower dollar cost than the United States: India has an absolute advantage in both. In other words, it can produce a unit of programming for fewer dollars than the United States, and it can also produce a unit of technology innovation for fewer dollars. Does that mean that the United States will lose not only programming jobs but innovation technology jobs, too? Does that mean that our standard of living will fall if the United States and India engage in international trade? David Ricardo would have answered no to both questions - as we do today. While India may have an absolute advantage in both activities, that fact is irrelevant in determining what India or the United States will produce. India has a comparative advantage in doing programming in part because such activity requires little physical capital. The flip side is that the United States has a comparative advantage in technology innovation partly because it is relatively easy to obtain capital in this country to undertake such long-run projects. The result is that Indian programmers will do more and more of what U.S. programmers have been doing in the past. In contrast, American firms will shift to more and more innovation. The United States will specialize in technology innovation; India will specialize in programming. The business managers in each country will opt to specialize in activities in which they have a comparative advantage. As in the past, the U.S. economy will continue to concentrate on what are called the 'most best' activities.

Sample summary: Despite the fact that India has an absolute advantage in both computer programming and innovative new technologies, it is irrelevant in determining what India and United will produce in the future, as each country will opt to specialize in activities in which they have a comparative advantage, hence American firms will continue to concentrate on innovation and Indian will specialize in programming.

Brain waves

We can't see it, but brains hum with electrical activity. Brain waves created by the coordinated firing of huge collections of nerve cells pinball around the brain. The waves can ricochet from the front of the brain to the back, or from deep structures all the way to the scalp and then back again. Called neuronal oscillations, these signals are known to accompany certain mental states. Quiet alpha waves ripple soothingly across the brains of meditating monks. Beta waves rise and fall during intense conversational turns. Fast gamma waves accompany sharp insights. Sluggish delta rhythms lull deep sleepers, while dreamers shift into slightly quicker theta rhythms. Researchers have long argued over whether these waves have purposes, and what those purposes might be. Some scientists see waves as inevitable but useless by-products of the signals that really matter — messages sent by individual nerve cells. Waves are simply a consequence of collective neural behavior, and nothing more, that view holds. But a growing body of evidence suggests just the opposite: instead of by-products of important signals, brain waves are key to how the brain operates, routing information among far-flung brain regions that need to work together. Miller is among the neuroscientists amassing evidence that waves are an essential part of how the brain operates. Brain oscillations deftly mute information in a way that allows the brain to choose which signals in the world to pay attention to and which to ignore, his recent studies suggest. Other research supports this view, too. Studies on people with electrodes implanted in their brains suggest brain waves, and their interactions, help enable emotion, language, vision, and more.

Sample summary: Brain waves created by the coordinated firing of huge collections at nerve cells pinball around the brain, and that beta waves rise and fall during intense conversational turns, so researchers have long argued over whether these waves have purposes, while evidence suggests brain waves are key to how the brain operates, routing information among far-flung brain regions that need to work together.