TOEFL Speaking Task 3 Practice #026 -… | English Rhino

TOEFL Speaking Task 3 Practice 026Travel

TOEFL Speaking Task 3 Practice #026 - Travel

Read first

Reading passage

Carrying Capacity In order for a species of animal to survive within a particular environment, it must have access to essential resources such as food and water. However, since these resources are finite, there is a maximum number of individuals of a species that the environment can sustainably support. This maximum is referred to as the carrying capacity. When the balance between the animal population and the available resources remains undisturbed, the carrying capacity tends to remain stable. However, carrying capacity is not a fixed number; it can fluctuate if a major change occurs-such as an environmental disturbance that significantly alters the availability of critical resources within the habitat.

Take the provided reading time before you play the listening passage.

0:000:00

Speed

Listening transcript

Narrator:Now listen to part of a lecture in a Biology class.

Professor:Okay, so let's talk about what happened to a certain type of insect, a moth, a red and black moth that lives in Europe. These moths eat a plant called Ragwort, and they live in fields where the Ragwort plants grow. Now there was a group of moth that lived in one of these fields, and for many years there was a lot of Ragwort growing there. So the moths had plenty to eat, and the total number of moths in the field stayed pretty much the same. But then one year it rained a lot less than usual and the Ragwort didn't grow as well. The result was that the moths didn't get enough to eat and many didn't survive. But even the ones that did survive didn't lay as many eggs as before. So that year, the moth population in the field was quite a bit smaller. The next year, though, the amount of rainfall returned to normal again. Many more Ragwort plants grew and once again there was a lot available for the moths to eat. So that year the moth population increased, and the female moths laid many more eggs than the year before. And now, after all that rainfall and plant growth, there were just as many moths in the Ragwort field as there were before

Your speaking task

Explain Carrying Capacity and how the example from the lecture illustrates the concept.

Record up to 60 seconds. Nothing is uploaded until you submit it.