# PTE Listening FIB #18: Evolutionary Robotics and...

Listening: Fill in the Blanks #18 - Level 3 - Feeds Listening

> You will hear a recording. Type the missing word in each blank.

It might sound ____ that if you want to improve a robot's software, you should improve its software. Agrim Gupta of Stanford University, however, begs to ____ . He thinks you can also improve a robot's software by improving its hardware--that is, by letting the hardware ____ itself to the software's capabilities. As they ____ in Nature Communications, he and his colleagues have devised a way of testing this idea. In doing so, they have brought to robotics the ____ of evolution by natural selection. They also cast the spotlight on an evolutionary idea that dates from the 1890s, but which has hitherto proved hard to demonstrate.

## Answer

1. obvious
2. differ
3. adapt
4. describe
5. principles

## Explanation

"Begs to differ" is a fixed phrase, so expect "differ" after "begs to." "Adapt" is easy to confuse with "adopt"; "itself to the software's capabilities" shows changing to fit. "Describe" follows "as they," so it has no -s. "Principles" is plural and ends in -ple, not "principals."

## Hints

- Listen carefully to the speaker's tone and emphasis on specific words.
- Consider the grammatical role of the missing word in the sentence.

## Transcript

It might sound obvious that if you want to improve a robot's software, you should improve its software. Agrim Gupta of Stanford University, however, begs to differ. He thinks you can also improve a robot's software by improving its hardware, that is, by letting the hardware adapt itself to the software's capabilities. As they describe in Nature Communications, he and his colleagues have devised a way of testing this idea. In doing so, they have brought to robotics the principles of evolution by natural selection. They've also cast the spotlight on an evolutionary idea that dates from the 1890s, but which has hitherto proved hard to demonstrate.

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