MAGISTER

OPOSICIONES AL PROFESORADO Inglés Secundaria

PRACTICE EXERCISES (PART B – LITERATURE)

NOVEMBER 2015
ANSWER KEY

1. TRANSLATIONS.

A. Translate the following text into English.

Alguien muy sabio aconsejaba no temer más que el miedo, pero tampoco conocía la fórmula
para espantar a ese depredador. Muchos niños sienten terror ante la oscuridad. Tal vez sea irracional,
es la intuición de que ésta sólo la pueden habitar el desamparo y los monstruos. Los pavores de los
adultos tienen más sentido. Miedo a las enfermedades lentas y devastadoras, a las pérdidas, a la
locura, al fin de amor, a la traición, a la soledad, a la ruina económica. Saben que esos enemigos son
reales y siempre están al acecho. Si uno dispone de dioses, la necesidad del martirio y la seguridad de
que está recompensado en el más allá, imagino que esos terrores atávicos se llevan mucho mejor.
Pero los agnósticos lo tienen crudo.

El mar no está incluido entre los miedos permanentes de la mayoría de los seres humanos. Su
peligro solo deben constatarlo pescadores y marinos que han sobrevivido a tormentas chungas.
También conozco a unas cuantas personas a las que nadie podría convencer para que se dieran un
baño nocturno en el mar después de haber sufrido la secuencia incial de Tiburón y su instalación a
perpetuidad en el subconsciente. También tengo recuerdos de infancia que me aseguran que los
monstruos en el cine japonés salían siempre del mar, pero sabías que era de mentira.

El mar existe para ofrecer relajamiento a los sentidos al observarlo, crear ensoñación,
alimentar la poesía y la literatura, simbolizar la libertad en tantas películas (unas buenas y otras
malas) en las que inevitablemente sus perdidos o angustiados personajes encuentran la liberación
espiritual al encontrarse finalmente con él.

Pero ese monstruo algunas veces ataca sin declaración de guerra, sin que nadie pueda
imaginar un minuto antes que va a desatar el fin del mundo. La imagen de esas aguas tranquilas que
se repliegan de la playa para embestir inmediatamente con los atributos del Apocalipsis protagonizará
las pesadillas de los que sobrevivieron el infierno.

De Carlos Boyero

A very wise person once said that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, but he did not
know the necessary formula for scaring off this predator. Many children are scared of the dark.
Maybe it is irrational, but it is the sensation that it is uniquely the dwelling place of helpless
abandonment and monsters. Fears that adults have are more logic-based. The fear of devastating
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long-term illnesses, losing a loved one, insanity, a relationship ending, betrayal, solitude, or financial
ruin. They know that these enemies are real and are always just around the corner. I imagine that if
one has gods, the necessity of martyrdom and the certainty that one is rewarded in the afterlife,
makes it much easier to cope with primitive fears. Agnostics, however, have got it is much tougher.

For the majority of the population the sea does not feature amongst their abiding fears. Only
fishermen and sailors who have survived raging storms can verify to its real danger. I also know
quite a few people who absolutely nobody could convince to have a nocturnal dip in the sea after
having suffered the opening sequence of Jaws, now permanently etched in their subconscience. I also
have childhood memories of monsters from Japanese cinema always coming out of the sea, but you
knew that it was not true.

The sea exists so as to soothe our senses as we gaze at it, provoking a dream-like state,
inspiring writers and poets, symbolising freedom in countless movies (some good and some bad), in
which their lost or anxiety-ridden characters, invariably reach their spiritual freedom when they find
themselves face to face with it.

But this monster sometimes attacks without first declaring war, when nobody could have
possibly imagined an instance before that the end of the world is going to be unleashed. The image of
these peaceful waters that draw back from the beach to immediately charge forward with Apocalyptic
fury will be responsible for the nightmares of all those who survive this living hell.

by Carlos Boyero

B. Translate the following fragment into Spanish.

I left as soon as possible to commence my stake-out in secrecy. It was difficult to reach the
Villa Rotunda without being seen from the house. A number of the guests, I knew, would be in the
drawing room that overlooked the South Lawn at the back of which the villa stood. I had, therefore,
to skirt the entire lawn in a wide loop and achieve the summerhouse from the rear. This necessitated
the negotiation of much thick vegetation. The bushes and shrubs had set themselves the happy
afternoon task, it soon came to my notice, of attempting to knock from my hand, by the use of
cunningly upthrust roots and protruding twigs, the cup of coffee I had foolishly decided to take with
me on the journey. By the time I had grunted myself through the rear window of the Villa there was
no more than an inch of coffee remaining, much supplemented by garden detritus. An inch of after-
luncheon coffee, I reflected, is better than a centimetre and I drank it gratefully down, leaf-fragments,
thunder-flies, twig-bark and all. None the less, the spillage of so much was shortly to cause me a
moment of panic, as I was to discover.
Settling cosily on the croquet trunk once more, I watched a spider swing from the ceiling and
pondered on the problem of effort. To stand up takes effort, to move about takes effort: simply to be
still, to do no more than endure, even that takes effort. Effort is expended strength. Strength comes
from food. We carry on because we eat. But creative effort? How is that energy replenished? Where
does creative energy come from? From food also? Then how can it be that a poet, say, who once

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could write, can suddenly write no more? Not, surely, because has stopped eating spinach? David
thinks he has a creative energy that comes from God knows what. From nature, from some intricate
connected web, a sustaining field of force such as they talk about in that absurd science-fiction story
with Alec Guinness. . .
'It´s burning! It´s burning!'
An excited voice outside the window. I leapt to my feet. The coffee cup fell from my lap and
smashed on the floor.
Not David´s voice. Nor Clara´s.
I went to the window and looked out.
There below me were the twins, squatting on the pathway that ran between the rear of the Villa
Rotonda and the edge of the lake. One of them had a magnifying-glass in his hand, the other was
holding a snail. A sizzle of steam rose from a small hole in the snail´s shell.
'Hoi!' I shouted.
They turned in guilty alarm and then smiled when they saw who it was.
'Hello, Uncle Ted.'
'We´re experimenting.'
From The Hippopotamus, by Stephen Fry

Me marché en cuanto que pude para comenzar mi vigilancia en secreto. Era difícil acceder a
Villa Rotunda sin ser visto desde la casa. Sabía que un gran número de invitados estarían en el salón
que daba a South Lawn, cuya parte trasera era ocupada por la Villa. Así que tenía que rodear por
completo el césped y llegar a la casa de verano desde atrás. Esto requería negociar con una muy
tupida vegetación. Pronto me di cuenta de que los arbustos y matorrales se habían encomendado la
feliz tarea de intentarme arrebatar, por medio de raices y ramas que sobresalían con astucia, la taza de
café que con tan poco juicio había decidido llevar conmigo. Cuando por fin, jadeante, logré colarme
por la ventana trasera de la Villa, no quedaba más que una cuarta del café, complementado, eso sí,
con restos de hojas. Llegué a la conclusión de que una cuarta de café es mejor que un centímetro y me
lo bebí gustosamente, con trocitos de hojas, moscas y restos de corteza incluídos. Sin embargo, el
haber derramado tanto hizo que al poco me entrase un momento de pánico, como no tardaría en
descubrir.

Tras haberme acomodado encima de un arcón, contemplé una araña colgada del techo y
reflexioné sobre el problema del esfuerzo. Estar de pie requiere esfuerzo, moverse requiere esfuerzo:
simplemente estar quieto, sin hacer más que aguantar, también requiere esfuerzo. El esfuerzo es
fuerza gastada. La fuerza viene de la comida. Seguimos vivos porque comemos. Pero, ¿y el esfuerzo
creativo? ¿Cómo se recupera esta energía? ¿De dónde viene la energía creativa? ¿De la comidad
también? Entonces, ¿cómo se explica que un poeta, digamos, que antes escribía bien, de repente no
pueda escribir?¿Por supuesto que no será porque haya dejado de comer espinacas? David piensa que
tiene una energía creativa, que viene de Diós sabe donde. De la naturaleza, de una red complejamente
conectada, un campo de fuerza que se sostiene como el de aquella absurda historia de ciencia ficción
con Alec Guinness....

" ¡Está ardiendo! ¡Está ardiendo!"

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Una voz excitada por la ventana. Me levanté de golpe. La taza de café se me cayó del regazo y
se hizo añicos en el suelo.

No era la voz de David. Ni la de Clara.

Fui a la ventana y me asomé.

Allí abajo estaban los gemelos, agachados en el camino que discurre entre la orilla del lago y
la parte trasera de la casa. Uno de ellos sujetaba una lupa en la mano, en la otra, un caracol. El
caparazón del caracol chisporroteaba.

"¡Oye!" Grité.

Se giraron alarmados y sonrieron al ver quien era.

"Hola, tío Ted"

"Estamos experimentando".

De El Hipopótamo, de Stephen Fry

(traducido por Luis Miguel García Vargas)

2. TEXT ANALYSIS. Read the following text and answer the questions below:

Jim closed his eyes. He was very tired but awake, thinking of the rice he had just eaten,
retasting every fishy grain. Basie talked, his devious voice circling the fume-filled air with its
scent of cologne and Craven A. He thought of his mother smoking in the drawing room at
Amherst Avenue. Now that he had met these two American sailors he would be seeing her again.
5 He would stay with Basie and Frank; together they could go out to the boom of freighters; sooner
or later the Japanese patrol boats would notice them.

A hot, fishy breath filled his face. Jim awoke with a gasp. Frank´s huge body leaned across
him, heavy arms on his thighs, hands feeling in his blazer pockets. Jim pushed him away, and
10 Frank calmly returned to his deck-chair and continued to polish the portholes.
They were alone together in the cabin. Jim could hear Basie on the bamboo catwalk below.
The door of the truck slammed, and the elderly engine began to throb, then stopped abruptly.
There was a distant blast from the Idzumo´s siren. With a meaningful glance at Jim, Frank buffed
the faded brass.
15 'You know, kid, you have a talent for getting on people´s nerves. How is it the Japs
haven´t picked you up? You must be quick on your feet.'
'I tried to surrender,' Jim explained. 'But it isn´t easy. Do you and Basie want to surrender?'
'Like hell – though I don´t know about him. I´m trying to get Basie to buy a sampan so we
can sail upriver to Chungking. But Basie keeps changing his mind. He wants to stay in Shanghai
20 now the Japs are here. He thinks we can make a pile of money once we get to the camps.'
'Do you sell a lot of portholes, Frank?'

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Frank peered at Jim, still unsure about this small boy.

'Kid we haven´t sold a single one. It´s Basie´s game, like a drug, he needs to keep people
working for him. Down in the yard somewhere he has a bag of gold teeth that he sells in
25 Hongkew.' With a knowing smile, Frank raised an oil-stained spanner, and touched Jim´s chin.
'It´s a good thing you don´t have any gold teeth, or -' He snapped his wrist.
Jim sat up and remembered how Basie had searched his gums. The sound of the truck´s
motor vibrated through the metal cabin. He was wary of these two merchant seamen, who had
somehow escaped the Japanese net around Shanghai, and realized that he might have as much to
30 fear from them as from anyone else in the city. He thought of Basie´s secret bag of gold teeth.
The creeks and canals of Nantao were full of corpses, and the mouths of those corpses were full
of teeth. Every Chinese tried to have at least one gold tooth out of self-respect, and now that the
war had begun their relatives might be too tired to pull them out before the funeral. Jim
visualised the two American seamen searching the mud-flats at night with their spanners, Frank
35 rowing the dinghy along the black creeks. Basie in the bows with a lantern, prodding the corpses
that drifted past and exposing their gums . . .

40 From Empire of the Sun, by J G Ballard

a. Discuss both the textual genre and the textual type to which this text belongs.

This text is written in prose, and would be classified as being fiction: it is semi-
autobiographical as it clearly draws on J G Ballard´s boyhood experiences in Shanghai during the
Second World War. Its sub-genre could be seen as being modern war literature. In many ways it is
a boys adventure story, a coming-of-age tale in a world thrown out of joint by war. The story is
always told in third person, following only Jim´s story. The narrator tells eleven-year-old Jim´s story
in an emotionless, almost indifferent tone. It tells how in the aftermath of the Japanese occupation of
the International Settlement in Shanghai in 1941, Jim is separated from his parents, eventually being
taken to Lunghua Camp where he spends three years. He survives half-starved until the end of the
war when he is reunited with his parents, shortly after they leave Shanghai for England. This novel
has no heroes nor heriocs, with the only battle being the battle to survive. This extract sees young Jim
in the company of two unscrupulous American seamen – Basie and Frank – whom he has met while
searching for his parents.

According to Jean-Michel Adam, this text would best be described as being narrative,
containing a lot of descriptive details, punctuated by short dialogues.
J G Ballard is narrating how Jim, in his search his parents, has temporarily taken up with a
couple of lowlife American sailors. It is evident that they feel no love for Jim:
- 'Jim awoke with a gasp. Frank´s huge body leaned across him, arms on his thighs, hands
feeling in his blazer pockets.' (lines 8 and 9).
Descriptive detail is vivid, such as in the opening lines:
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- 'Jim closed his eyes. He was very tired but awake, thinking of the rice he had just eaten,
retasting every fishy grain.' (lines 1/2).
There is one dialogue where Jim and Frank are finding out things about each other which ends
with a rather menacing threat from Frank:
- 'It´s a good thing you don´t have any gold teeth, or -' (line 26).

b. Comment on the communicative functions of the text.

According to Roman Jakobson, the predominant communicative function in the text is the
referential function. Ballard is recreating an image of how it was like to live in wartime Shanghai,
where the normal rules of life were temporarily suspended, and where acts like the theft of gold teeth
from corpses was probably commonplace:
- 'Jim visualised the two American seamen searching the mud-flats at night with their spanners.'
(lines 33/34).
Another of the text´s most important communicative functions would be that of the emotive
function, Jim is obviously terrified at the prospect of having his teeth robbed by the Americans:
- 'Jim sat up and remembered how Basie had searched his gums.' (line 27).
The fact the writer is reflecting the vunerability and helplessness of Jim, separated from his
parents, could be seen as being a poetic function of the text:
- 'He was wary of these two merchant seamen, who had somehow escaped the Japanese net
around Shanghai, and realized he might have as much to fear from them as from anyone else in
the city.' (lines 28/29/30)

According to John Searle´s classification of speech acts, a secondary function could be that of:
-Assertive speech acts; as the writer is not very subtly suggesting that the American seamen have
ulterior motives for letting Jim tag along with them:
- 'Jim awoke with a gasp. Frank´s huge body leaned across him, arms on his thighs, hands
feeling in his blazer pockets.' (lines 8 and 9).
Not only does Frank attempt to rob his wallet, but also, maliciously suggests they would rob his gold
teeth.
-Expressive speech acts; as the main character Jim is clearly feeling uncomfortable and uneasy in the
company of Frank. We obviously sympathize with his predicament :
-'How is it the Japs haven´t picked you up? You must be quick on your feet.'
'I tried to surrender,' Jim explained. 'But it isn´t easy.' (line 17)

c. Describe the style of the text.

As previously mentioned, the text is semi-autobiographical. It is written in third person, telling

the story of eleven-year-old Jim´s experiences during the Second World War in Shanghai, China. The
author, J G Ballard, draws extensively upon what he personally saw and lived through during the
Japanese occupation of China. He himself also spent years in the Lunghua Camp.
The text is written mostly in informal English. The text contains six contractions, semi-colons
are used on only two occasions (both in the same sentence), and sentences are generally short:
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- 'They were alone together in the cabin.' (line 11)

As is to be expected, the text is written using narrative tenses, predominantely the past simple,
but also the past perfect:
- 'He was very tired but awake, thinking of the rice he had just eaten.' (line 1).
Ballard uses interior monologue in the first and in the last paragraphs to give us an insight into
what Jim is thinking. In the first paragraph the cigarette smoke makes him think of his mother and
how the two American sailors would help him be reunited with her. The last paragraph is more
sinister. Jim is picturing the very same sailors, not as saviours but as the lowest class of thieves,
extracting gold teeth from dead bodies with spanners:
- 'Basie in the bows with a lantern, prodding the corpses that drifted past and exposing their
gums.' (lines 35/36)
- 'Every Chinese tried to have at least one gold tooth out of self-respect, and now that the war
had begun the relatives might be too tired to pull them out before the funeral.' (lines 32/33)

In terms of semantics, as has earlier been stated the text is largely informal. Not surprising then
that there are several examples of phrasal and prepositional verbs in the text, such as 'leaned
across' or 'picked up'. There are a couple of idiomatic expressions as well:
- 'getting on people´s nerves' (line 15). Referring to being annoying.
- 'quick on your feet' (line 16). Referring to being fast.
There are also countless examples of informal vocabulary: 'Japs' as in the Japanese, or 'a pile of
money' as in a large amount of money.

In terms of semantic the main group is related to a nautical theme: there are countless lexical
references to different types of seafaring crafts: freighters, patrol boats, sampan, and so on.
Vocabulary related to the geography terrain of Nantao – where Jim images Basie and Frank would go
to search for gold teeth - also features in the text: (black) creeks, canals, and mudflats.

The text has a range of figures of speech, which are analysed in the following answer.

d. Find figures of speech in the text.

- Ellipsis: - 'Craven A' (line 3)
- Personification: – 'devious voice circling' (line 2)
- 'the elderly engine began to throb' (line 12)
- 'knowing smile' (line 25)
- Onomatopoeia: – 'snapped his wrist' (line 26)
- 'The door of the truck slammed' (line 12)
- Metonymy: – 'filled his face' (line 8)
- Antithesis: – 'He was very tired but awake' (line 1)
- Alliteration: – 'polish the portholes' (line 10)
- 'elderly engine' (line 12)
- 'buffed the faded brass' (line 14)
- 'The creeks and canals of Nantao were full of corpses.' (line 31)
- Simile: - 'It´s Basie´s game, like a drug.' (line 23)

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e. Find the words/phrases in the text with the following meaning:

1) Behaving in a dishonest or indirect way, or tricking people, in order to get something:
devious (line 2)
2) A narrow area of water where the sea flows into the land: creeks (line 35)
3) To polish something with a soft cloth: buffed (line 14)
4) A metal tool with a specially shaped end for holding and turning nuts and bolts: spanner
(line 25)
5) A small boat with a flat bottom used along the coast and rivers of China: sampan (line
18)

f. Write the phonological transcription of the following extract from the text above:

A hot, fishy breath filled his face. Jim awoke with a gasp. Frank´s huge body leaned across
him, heavy arms on his thighs, hands feeling in his blazer pockets. Jim pushed him away, and
Frank calmly returned to his deck-chair and continued to polish the portholes.

/ə hɒt / ˈfɪʃi breθ fɪld (h)ɪz feɪs // (Jim)* əˈwəʊk wɪð ə ɡɑːsp // ˈ(Frank)s hjuːdʒ ˈbɒdi liːnd əˈkrɒs
(h)ɪm / ˈhevi ɑːmz ɒn (h)ɪz θaɪz / hændz ˈfiːlɪŋ ɪn (h)ɪz ˈbleɪzə(r) ˈpɒkɪts // (Jim) pʊʃt ɪm əˈweɪ /
ən(d) (Frank) ˈkɑːmli rɪˈtɜːnd tu (h)ɪz ˈdektʃeə(r) / ən(d) kənˈtɪnjuːd tə ˈpɒlɪʃ ðə ˈpɔːthəʊlz //

* In 2012 (Madrid) examiners were instructed to include names written in brackets and not
phonetically.

g. Does the text successfully recreate the chaos and dislocation that war generally causes?
Give evidence.

The text does most certainly recreate the chaos and dislocation of war. Firstly, you have
eleven-year-old Jim who has been separated from his parents and is desperately looking for them.

- 'Now that he had met these two American sailors he would be seeing her again.' (line 4)

The chaos of war is reflected in the actions of the two American sailors turned war profiteers. They
try and take advantage of the wartime dislocation to 'make a fast buck' – make a quick profit with the
minimal of effort. Their robbing of gold teeth from corpses is a clear example of this.

- 'Jim visualised the two American seamen searching the mud-flats at night with their

spanners, Frank rowing the dinghy along the black creeks.' (lines 33-35)

h. How does J G Ballard´s portrayal of Frank and Jim make us feel about them?
Give evidence.

It is hard not to feel sympathy for Jim´s predicament: an eleven-year-old boy separated from
his parents and stuck in city ravaged by war. All he wants is to be reunited with them:

- 'He thought of his mother smoking in the drawing room at Amherst Avenue' (line 4)

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He´s young and innocent but certainly not dumb. He sees Frank and Basie as the best way to get to
see his parents again, but he is under no ilusion over their good intentions:

-'He was wary of these two merchant seamen who had somehow escaped the Japanese net
around Shanghai, and he realized that he might have as much to fear from them as from
anyone else in the city.' (lines 28-30)

It is not clear if it is intentional or not, but it very easy to draw parallels with Dicken´s
fictional creation, Oliver Twist, while also comparing Basie and Frank to Fagan and his associates.
The pair can be seen as being examples of an exploitative uncaring adult world:

- 'Jim awoke with a gasp. Frank´s huge body leaned across him, heavy arms on his thighs,

hands feeling inside his blazer pockets.' (lines 8/9)

Not only is Frank dishonest, but he is also cruel and malicious, trying to frighten the wits out of Jim
for his own personal satisfaction:

- 'With a knowing smile, Frank raised an oil-stained spanner, and touched Jim´s chin.

“It´s a good thing you don´t have any gold teeth, or -” He snapped his wrist.' (lines 25/26)

3. LISTENING. Listen to an interview with Doctor Javid Abdelmoneim, a Flying Doctor who
has recently been working in South Sudan, and answer the following questions.

a. What special priviledge does Doctor Javid Abdelmoneim mention at the start of the
interview?
He did not have to go through customs as he had a flying pass. He was able to drive straight on to the
runway.

b. How would they spend the subsequent three to four days after arriving at a location?
They would train the local staff, collect statistics, and perform consultations if it was a mobile clinic.

c. Are there any other NGOs operating in South Sudan? If so, what do they do?
Yes, the Red Cross. They do trauma surgery.

d. Why is it important to build up a relationship of trust with the local population?

Trust gives you safety, because if during a conflict the local population trust you, they will say: 'Hey,
those guys are cool! They help us! Keep them safe!' This means that MSF can stay in an area when
they need to.

e. Why did they not establish permanent centres instead of operating as a flying team?
As South Sudan has been in a state of civil war, they were unable to remain in a location, thus
operating as a flying team.

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f. Summarise the main ideas of the interview in your own words.

In this extract Doctor Javid Abdelmoneim talks about his work as a Flying Doctor in Junglei state, in
conflict-ridden South Sudan. He talks us through a typical working day when they head out from the
capital, Juba. They fly out to a location, where they camp for three or four days, training local staff,
collecting statistics and performing consultations if the clinic is mobile. When they do a mobile
clinic, people queue up from before dawn, telling them about every ailment they have had in the last
six months. A relationship of trust is crucial to their success. He finishes by commenting that once
you volunteer for MSF, that you will be 'hooked for life'.

Transcript of an interview with Doctor Javid Abdelmoneim, a Flying Doctor who has recently
been working in South Sudan

- My name´s Doctor Javid Abdelmoniem, and I´ve just got back from South Sudan where I was
working in Junglei state. My position was as the, er [sic] medical doctor within the flight team of [sic]
A typical day would start with, em [sic], waking up, quite early if it was a flight day. So we´d be at
base in Juba, the capital city. We´d know that that day we´re flying to one of our sites. We´d go to the
airport. We wouldn´t have any customs or anything cause we have a flying pass. Drive straight onto
the runway. Get on the aircraft whether it be a small Cessna or a helicopter, depending on weather
conditions, em [sic], and the weight of what we were taking with us. We´d fly about an hour and
fifteen minutes to whichever location. We´d arrive. And then we´d spend the next three or four days
training the local staff, collecting the statistics, performing consultations if it was a mobile clinic. And
, em [sic], we´d live there. We´d take our tents. We´d take our water. We´d take our food. We´d have
campfires. Three or four days. Fifth day: wake up, fly straight back to Juba.

- This is a video of our goodbye.

- I think the impact that we made in our flying team with MSF in Junglei state is is [sic] huge on two
levels.

- How are you?

- Medically speaking there´s no other organisation working in Junglei as far as I know, em [sic]. The
Red Cross are in one place doing trauma surgery, but we´re the only people doing medical care in
those four centres, and the centres were chosen because geographically it´s more northerly, southerly,
easterly and westerly, and that way you have a good coverage.

You know, when you, when you [sic] do a mobile connect for four days, and no one has been, and no
one has been [sic] there for two years, and the nearest place that has medicine doesn´t even have a
medic, but there are medicines you can purchase in the market- God knows what quality they are – is
[sic] an eight hour walk, one way, and you go and you do a mobile clinic and you the [sic] everybody
just comes. They´re queueing from pre-dawn. You feel the impact for those individuals, you know,
and they, some might just come in and explain, and they do, they come in and explain all their
ailments in the last six months. 'You know three months ago I had this, but that´s better now.' You
know, for them it´s just a chance of seeing a medic, [sic] is huge. You know, so on those personal [sic]
for these people the impact is great. Also, it´s getting out there. It´s showing that MSF is willing and
able to go out to those places where no one else is, so it really raises the awareness of the local

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Inglés Secundaria ©MELC,S.A.(MAGISTER) Answer Key Practice Exercises (Part B – Iterature) November 2015

population of of [sic] MSF. And that gives you, eh [sic], a sort of relationship where trust is built, and
it also gives you safety. So when the conflict [sic], or even if the conflict comes up again, all the
population will say: 'Hey, those guys are cool! They help us! Keep them safe!' And that gives us the
ability to stay when we need to stay.

We´re very much in Junglei, at least, anyway [sic], very much in a sort of post-conflict situation
where it´s a complicated context, that the tribe that´s the majority in Junglei negotiated a peace
settlement with both sides of the conflict to remain neutral. So, right now, there´s a lot of, there´s,
there´s [sic] nearly no fighting. In terms of affecting my daily work, it still meant that we couldn´t
stay in our locations as well, which is why we were a flying team. So we flew in, did our work for
three or four days. Flew out. And then on to the next site.

If you are thinking of joining MSF as a logistician, or as a medic, or whatever your role might be. I
think my message to you might be, don´t you think you´ll want to do only one mission. Once you´re
in, you´ll be hooked for life.

4. USE OF ENGLISH.

A) WORD TRANSFORMATION. For questions 1-8, read the text below. Use the word given in
capitals at the end of some of the lines to form a word that fits in the space in the same line.
There is an example at the beginning.

All in a Word

For years 'bogus' was a word the British read in newspaper (0) headlines but LINE
tended not to say. Its popularity among the teenagers of America changed that,
although they didn´t use it with its original meaning. It came from California. Its
first appearance in print in 1834, was in the Daily Sketch of Dudesville, Nevada,
FORGE
where it meant a machine for making (1) _forgeries_ of coins. Soon, those
GO
'boguses' were turning out ´bogus money' and the word had (2) __undergone_ a
change from noun to adjective.

By the end of the 19th century, it was well established in Britain, applied to
LEAD
anything false, spurious or intentionally (3) _misleading_ . But the computer
LANGUAGE
scientists of 1960s America, to whom we owe so much (4) _linguistic_ innovation,
redefined it to mean 'non-functional', 'useless', or 'unbelievable', especially in
EMERGE
relation to calculations and engineering ideas. This was followed by its (5)
__emergence_ among Princeton and Yale graduates in the East coast computer
ADOPT
community. But it was the (6) adoption_ of the word by American teeenagers
generally who used it to mean simply 'bad', that led to it being widely used by their
counterparts in Britain.

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Inglés Secundaria ©MELC,S.A.(MAGISTER) Answer Key Practice Exercises (Part B – Iterature) November 2015

(7)
Interestingly__ , 'bogus' is one of only about 1,250 English words for which INTEREST
no sensible origin has emerged. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests a
connection with a New England word 'tantrobogus', meaning the devil. A rival US
account see, it as a (8) corruption of the name of a thief called Borghese or CORRUPT
Borges.

B) OPEN CLOZE. For questions 1-8, read the text below and think of the word which best fits
each space. Use only ONE word in each space. There is an example at the beginning (0).

Wheel It On!

It is nearly impossible in our post-industrial age to conceive(0) of a world without wheels.

(1)
From clocks to huge machinery and from cars to compact discs, everything employs cogs, wheels
or other types of cylindrical components that spin on an axis. Yet the wheel took a relatively long
time to be invented and several civilisations reached a relatively high level of technological
sophistication (2) without it. The most likely explanation is (3) that_ neither terrain nor climate suited
the wheel. Until 10,000 BC, much of the world was (4) in_ the grip of the last vestiges of the Ice Age.
(5)
_What_ was not under ice sheet was covered by desert, jungle or bog – conditions obviously
unsuited for something like a wheel.

Most experts agree that the wheel evolved (6) _from_ the fact that Neolithic man was familiar with
moving heavy objects (7) _by_ putting a roller, such as a tree trunk, under the load. (8)
_Such/These/Those__ techniques were used to move huge stone blocks to build the pyramids around
2978 BC.

C) MULTIPLE-CHOICE: For questions 1-8, read the text below and decide which answer (A,
B, C or D) best fits each gap.

The Budding Novelist

'Your book´s not doing too well, I´ve heard.'

That had to be the (0) of the year. My novel had been rejected three times (1)____________
far. I´ve no doubt that behind my (2)___________ the family were having a good chuckle. Will of
course had been the loyal (3)____________, though I admit that his piteous expressions when the
thing limped home battered by franking stamps were harder to (4)___________ than his brother´s
outright sarcasm: 'Has your boomerang got back yet, Melvin?' he´d inquire, while his wife would
give the knife an extra twist by asking if I´d managed to sell any of my doodles. Which meant that
she presumed I´d (5)____________ my job as an electrician to pursue a career as an artist. Maybe I
should have. The manuscript had begun to show bruises from its days, weeks and months
(6)___________ in the inbox of various publishing firms. Actual criticism of the novel by its
rejectors was very (7)______________ on the ground, although the consensus of opinion seemed to
indicate that its main weakness (8)____________ in its apparent 'lack of novelty'.
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Inglés Secundaria ©MELC,S.A.(MAGISTER) Answer Key Practice Exercises (Part B – Iterature) November 2015

0) A understatement B misinformation C incomprehension D distortion

1) A yet B thus C hence D by
2 A back B head C ears D face
3) A omission B exclusion C difference D exception
4) A bear B defy C cope D resist
5) A broken off B wound up C pulled out D packed in
6) A stationed B encased C buried D consigned
7) A light B shallow C thin D scant
8) A stood B revolved C lay D centred

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