MAGISTER

OPOSICIONES AL PROFESORADO

PRACTICE EXERCISES (PART A – LINGUISTICS)

FEBRUARY 2016

1. TRANSLATIONS.
A. Translate the following text into English.

Antonio Vidal cazó el periódico pisándole las alas. Después se agachó y lo dobló. Lo
tranquilizó. El periódico ya no estaba solo. Ya tenía a alguien que lo iba a leer. TRaía noticias
de sucesos importantes. Un carguero griego se había hundido en las islas Lobeiras, en la ría de
Corcubión: había tanta niebla que los tripulantes no se veían unos a otros en cubierta. Después,
denuncias sobre adulteración de los vinos, sobre la pesca con dinamita…Pero los ojos se le
fueron hacia la sección de Telegramas. Tenía ese instinto. El de la última noticia.

MADRID 15 (23h.) Hoy el Congreso ha estado desanimadísimo. La mayoría de los diputados

se fueron a la corrida de toros.

¿Qué? ¿Te dedicas a recoger cuentos por el suelo?

Desde abajo, con una aureola solar, le pareció una repentina aparición. Una mujer que llevaba
aves encima de la cabeza. Pero lo que ella llevaba en realidad en el cesto eran periódicos, que
agitaban sus hojas con la brisa marina. La muchacha tenía el brazo estirado y reclamaba lo
suyo, con aquel gesto de los dedos magnéticos. ¿Quién le iba a decir que no, que no era suyo, si
ella soportaba el peso de las noticias? Le devolvió el periódico cazado y se iba a marchar sin
más, pero ella posó el cesto y desplegó las distintas cabeceras con la gracia de un inmenso
abanico. Y mientras ella pregonaba las noticias, él permanecía allí. Había oído pregonar
muchas cosas, animales y fruta en las ferias. Había oído el cantar de un ciego. Pero nunca a una
moza pregonar noticias frescas.
¿Qué? ¿Te lo vas a llevar todos?
Y a él le dio un brinco el cuerpo entero. No estaba preparado para el trato con una vendedora de
noticias. Era casi una niña, ya se veía, doce o trece años como mucho, pero hablaba como una
mujer hecha y derecha. Era una manera de hablar que le protegía el cuerpo con una vestidura
muy parecida a la de las pescantinas que andaban alrededor. Quizá en algún momento también
vendería pescado. Quizá, si no lo hubiese sorprendido tan pronto, Antonio Vidal podría llegar a
ver peces en aquel cesto. Un cesto que podía llevar fresas y cerezas, erizos de mar y sardinas,
según la temporada. Pero ahora pregonaba noticias. Era un hablar cantado que convertía a la
pequeña vendedora en el centro de la ciudad. Si ella se moviese, también se desplazaría el
centro.

De “Los libros arden mal” de Manuel Rivas

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B. Translate the following fragment into Spanish.

On the step of her new husband’s house, Nella Oortman lifts and drops the dolphin knocker,
embarrassed by the thud. No one comes, though she is expected. The time was prearranged and
letters written. No, she thinks, this is not the best of greetings, given the blink of a marriage
ceremony the month before ―no garlands, no betrothal cup, no wedding bed. Nella places her
small trunk and birdcage on the step. She knows she’ll have to embellish this later for home,
when she’s found a way upstairs, a room, a desk.

Nella turns to the canal as bargemen’s laughter rises up the opposite brickwork. A puny lad
has skittled into a woman and her basket of fish, and a half-dead herring slithers down the wide
front of the seller’s skirt. The harsh cry of her country voice runs under Nella’s skin. ‘Idiot!
Idiot!’ the woman yells. The boy is blind, and he grabs in the dirt for the escaped herrings as if
it’s a silver charm, his fingers quick, not afraid to feel around. He scoops it, cackling, running up
the path with his catch, his free arm out and ready.

Nella cheers silently and stays to face this rare October warmth, to take it while she can.
This part of the Herengracht is known as the Gouden Bocht (Golden Bend), but today the wide
stretch is brown and workaday. Looming above the sludge-coloured canal, the houses are a
phenomenon. Admiring their own symmetry on the water, they are stately and beautiful, jewels
set within the city’s pride. Above their rooftops Nature is doing her best to keep up, and clouds
in colours of saffron and apricot echo the spoils of the glorious republic.

Nella turns back to the door, now slightly ajar. Was it like before? She cannot be sure. She
pushes on it, peering into the void as cool air rises from the marble. ‘Johannes Brandt?’ she calls
–loud, a little panicked. Is this a game? she thinks. I’ll be standing here come January. Peebo, her
parakeet, thrills the tips of his feathers against the cage bars, his faint cheep falling short on the
marble. Even the now-quiet canal behind them seems to hold its breath.

Nella is sure of one thing as she looks deeper into the shadows. She’s being watched. Come
on, Nella Elisabeth, she tells herself, stepping over the threshold. Will her new husband embrace
her, kiss her or shake her hand like it’s just business? He didn’t do any of those things at the
ceremony surrounded by her small family and not a single member of his.

To show that country girls have manners too, she bends down and removes her shoes –
dainty, leather, of course her best- although what her point has been she can’t now say. Dignity,
her mother said, but dignity is so uncomfortable. She slaps the shoes down, hoping the noise will
arouse somebody, or maybe scare them off. Her mother calls her over-imaginative, Nella-in-the-
Clouds. The inert shoes lie in anti-climax and Nella simply feels a fooling

Outside, two women call to one another. Nella turns, but through the open door she sees
only the back of one woman, capless, golden-headed and tall, striding away towards the last of
the sun. Nella’s own hair has loosened on the journey from Assendelft, the light breeze letting
wisps escape. To tuck them away will make her more nervous than she can bear to seem, so she
leaves them tickling her face.

‘Are we to have a menagerie?’

From “The Miniaturist” by Jessie Burton

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2. TEXT ANALYSIS.

Read the following text and answer the questions below:

As 2015 draws to a close and we prepare for a new year, books are our comfort and our
companions. They inspire, teach, and entertain. The books on this list are especially noteworthy:
they’re the ones we’ve noticed flying off the shelves throughout the holiday season. See what your
fellow book-lovers are enjoying, and resolve to spend even more time reading in 2016.

Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, by Jon Meacham

Meacham, one of the most respected and talented biographers and historians working today, was
given unprecedented access to George Herbert Walker Bush (a.k.a., Bush 41): his private letters,
diaries, and thoughts through a series of interviews with the nonogenarian former President and
father of George W. Bush (a.k.a., Bush 43). Spanning the whole of Bush’s remarkable life,
Meacham reveals how little we know about the man who served his country in such a wide variety
of ways: from his stint in the Navy (where he was shot down in combat and survived a harrowing
sea rescue); through his time in Congress, as head of the CIA, and finally as Ronald Regan’s Vice
president and later Regan’s one-term heir, who lost his re-election bid to Bill Clinton. What’s
revealed is the Bush was a very private, emotional, and compassionate man who masked his
feelings because that’s how he was raised, and that’s how he believed statesmen should act. This
made him unknowable—until now.

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, by Stephen King

This latest collection from master storyteller Stephen King comes with an epic bonus for fans of his
indispensable craft manual On Writing: each story is prefaced by King’s note on its writing and
inspiration. Stories, some of them published here for the first time, include slow-creeper “Under
the Weather,” in which a devoted husband reflects on his marriage to an often sickly wife, and
“Blockade Billy,” in which a retired MLB base coach recalls the terrifying events of a 1950s season
with the New Jersey Titans.

The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, by Mitch Albom

Albom’s latest is told in the voice of Music itself, which narrates the life of Frankie Presto, a
guitarist with godlike talent. A war orphan, Presto emigrated from Spain to the U.S. at age nine, and
his story doubles as a history of music in the 20th century. His own musical ability is so epic it has
the ability to change lives, as reflected by color changes in his guitar’s magical strings. The people
whose lives he touches include such luminaries as Elvis Presley and Carole King, and even the
members of KISS. Then Frankie disappears, setting the stage for one last, mystical act, in a book
that’s as uplifting as it is magical.

From “This Season’s Biggest Books” by Barnes & Noble Editors

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a) Identify the style and textual types in the extract. Explain your answer.
b) Describe the communicative functions used on the text.

c) Locate cohesive devices and other rhetorical resources, illustrated by examples.

d) Define or provide a synonym for the following words from the text:

1. noteworthy

2. a.k.a.

3. nonogenarian

4. stint

5. harrowing

6. slow-creeper

7. MLB

8. luminaries

e) Transcribe phonologically the following lines from the text.

As 2015 draws to a close and we prepare for a new year, books are our comfort and our
companions. They inspire, teach, and entertain. The books on this list are especially
noteworthy: they’re the ones we’ve noticed flying off the shelves throughout the holiday
season. See what your fellow book-lovers are enjoying, and resolve to spend even more time
reading in 2016.

g) Analyse syntactically the following sentences from the text.

1. The books on this list are especially noteworthy: they’re the ones we’ve noticed flying off the
shelves throughout the holiday season.

2. What’s revealed is the Bush was a very private, emotional, and compassionate man who
masked his feelings because that’s how he was raised, and that’s how he believed statesmen
should act.

3. Albom’s latest is told in the voice of Music itself, which narrates the life of Frankie Presto, a
guitarist with godlike talent.

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3. LISTENING

Listen to “100 Women: Hillary Swank - Actor”.

1. Answer the following questions.

a. Where did she grow up?

2. Name some fictional characters she related to when she was a child.
3. Who has been a huge inspiration for her? Why?
4. What’s the greatest gift she thinks she was given as a child?
5. What happened on her last trip while going through customs?
6. What happened to her on the 11th episode of Beverly Hills 90210 series?
7. In what way her first successful role in “Boys don’t cry” is related to her own story?
8. How does she explain this film influences people?
9. How did she prepare for Maggie’s role in “Million Dollar Baby”?
10. What made her realise?
11. What does she think about unequality of salaries in Hollywood?

2. Complete the gaps in the extracts with information from the text.

‘As part of the 100 Women series, Hillary, we are asking (1)__________ to nominate a woman
who has (2)____________ them. Who would you nominate?’

‘I would like to nominate Erin Gruwell, she is an (3)___________ woman who I had the honour
of playing in the film ‘(4)_______ (5)__________’, she talked about installing (6)_________ in
hundreds and thousands of youth, (7)_______ youth, kids who would have never believed in
themselves without her believing in them first. I feel like teachers there’re, they get paid the
(8)____________ amount and they have the most important job. A teacher can (9)___________
affect your life, for the good or the bad, depending on, you know it’s not even… of course
education is important, but the idea that a teacher can make you see bigger, think bigger and…
inspire you to be your (10)_________ self and… Erin took these kids who most of them were
(11)_________ members, they’ve even been shot at, or tried to shoot at somebody. None of
them had any (12)________, let alone, a thought that they would graduate high school, and then
go on to (13)__________ and are now working with her in her (14)____________. Hum…
Again they just needed someone who believed in them and said them you can, and that you’re
(15) ________ it. To me that’s also what I’m…she’s inspired me with my foundation, the idea
that she gave kids help they don’t have any… it’s I think one of the best things that we can do.’

3. Summarize the content.

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4. USE OF ENGLISH

1. Read the text below. Use the word given in capitals at the end of some lines to build a word
that fits in the gap in the same line.

More people fly today than ever before, yet many –experienced air
(1)__________ as well as novices –suffer anguish and (2) TRAVEL
APPREHEND
______________ at the mere thought of flying. As many as one in
seven people are thought to experience anxiety when flying, with
women (3) _______________ men two to one in these feelings of NUMBER
QUIET
(4) _________.
UNDERSTAND
A certain amount of concerns is (5) _________________. The
sheer size of modern jet aircraft, which appear awkward and (6)
________________ on the ground, makes once wonder how they WIELD
will manage to get into the air – and stay there. However, most of
these fears are (7) _____________________ and are perhaps LOGIC
based on the knowledge that once in the aircraft, we, as
passengers, are (8) _______________to control our fate, which POWER
depends solely on the (9) _______________ of the crew. There is EXPERT
little comfort for us in the numerous statistical compilations which
show that modern air transport is many times safer than transport
by car or rail.

2. Choose the option that best fills each gap in the following text.

EARPLUGS FOR ROCKERS!

Rock legends Phil Collins, Sting and Ozzy Osbourne all (1) ____________ years of ear-blasting
rock music have (2) _______________ their toll on their hearing. But a new European Union (3)
___________ introduced today means the likes of Morissey, Marilyn Manson and Madonna could
all be sporting earplugs onstage as they churn (4) ___________ their greatest hots. While the image
perhaps isn’t very rock and roll, musicians have welcomed the new rules.

A spokesperson for the Musicians’ Union said many artists, from orchestra players to rock stars,
suffer hearing problems due to frequent (5) _________________ to loud music. 'We welcome the
new legislation and are calling on all musicians to (6) ______________ in custom-made earplugs.’

The rules (7) _______________ pubs, nightclubs, restaurants and concert arenas, all of whose
management must now ensure the hearing of their staff is protected if music in the venue regularly
(8) _______________ 85 decibels.

The regulations do not, however, (9) _________________ to members of the public.

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1 A claim B mention C hold D demand

2 A made B taken C set D paid

3 A legislation B directive C command D notice

4 A over B away C out D back

5 A presentation B vulnerability C outlook D exposure

6 A invest B purchase C secure D acquire

7 A comprise B incorporate C relate D cover

8 A exceeds B overtakes C passes D transcends

9 A utilise B address C apply D spread

3. Unscramble the words in brackets to complete idiomatic phrases.

a. Barcelona have had a decent start to their season, but you sense they are not yet
_______________________ (all firing cylinders in).

b. You will be fine in your algebra tests, don’t worry! ___________________________ (it is
science not rocket).

c. Look, I am sorry to __________________________ (spanner the put works in a), but I really do
not think this proposal is going to work.

d. I think Roger will get the job. He is young, enthusiastic and he ____________________ (the
buttons all right pushes).

e. Nadal played brilliantly in the first two sets, but rather _________________ (out ran if steam)
later in the match.

f. I hope that is clear, but just ______________________________ (the hammer point to home), let
me show you one last slide.

4. Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using
the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use between three and eight words,
including the word given.

1. Do you mind if I don’t come back to the office after I’ve been to the dentist at lunchtime?

AFTERNOON

Would you have any _________________________________________________ off after my

dental appointment?

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2. Everyone knows you are not allowed to smoke on domestic flights.

BAN

It is common __________________________________________ on domestic flight.

3. He knew nothing of his wife’s impending promotion.

ABOUT

Little _____________________________________________________________ to be promoted.

4. He can’t possibly have said anything like that.

MISHEARD

You really ________________________________________________________ completely.

5. All this media attention is quite unusual for a contemporary painting.

RECEIVE

Seldom ___________________________________________________________ much media

attention.

6. Brian was offended when the teacher accused him of being disruptive.

BEING

Brian took _________________________________________________disrupting the lesson.

5. In each of the following sentences, two of the words in italics collocate with the noun. Cross
the odd one out.

a. Clive has rather unusual beady / blushing / bulging eyes.

b. Maria has delightful sparkling / twinkling / gleaming eyes.

c. The man gave Clare a fixing / menacing / piercing look.

d. It was hard to tell what Jo was thinking because of the bare / glazed / blank expression on her
face.

e. Adam was admitted to hospital suffering from double / blurred / bloodshot vision.

6. Reorder the anagrams of “synonymous of see” verbs, in capitals, to complete the sentences.

a. I ______________ CREEVDIEP a note of unhappiness in her voice.

b. It is often quite hard to ______________ SRPAG what the professor is saying.

c. I can ________________ ESROSFE a time when everyone will use electric cars.

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d. The new bridge is a sight to __________________ LOHDEB.

e. People who are colour-blind can’t ______________________ USTDHISINGI between red and
green easily.

f. I was so surprised when he turned up –I would _______________ DALEUVSISI someone much

older.

g. I thought I _____________________ MDSIPGLE a shadowy figure at the window of the old

house.

h. When do you _______________ VENGESAI finishing the project?

i. He couldn’t _________________ OCCENIVE of a time when he would not be able to paint.