OPCIÓN 2: 18 JUNIO 1993

To the student:

1.- Read the instructions to the questions very carefully.  
2.- Answer all the questions IN ENGLISH.  
Time: 1 hour

One summer evening I was sitting by the open window, reading a good but rather frightening mystery story. After a time it became too dark for me to read easily, so I put my book down and got up to switch on the light. I was just about to draw the curtains as well when I heard a loud cry of "Help! Help!" It seemed to come from the trees at the end of the garden. I looked out but it was now too dark to see anything clearly. Almost immediately I heard the cry again. It sounded like a child, although I could not imagine how anybody could need help in our garden, unless one of the boys of the neighbourhood had climbed a tree and could not get down.  
I decided, however, that I ought to go out and have a look in the garden, just in case someone was in trouble. I took the torch which we kept for going down into the cellar, where there is no electric light, and picked up a strong walking stick, thinking that this might come in useful, too. Armed with these, I went out into the garden. Once again I heard the cry, There was no doubt that it came from the trees at the end of the garden. "Who’s there?" I called out as I walked, rather nervously, down the path that led to the trees. But there was no answer.  With the help of my torch I examined the whole of that part of the garden and the lower branches of the trees. There was no sign of anybody or anything. I came to the conclusion that someone was playing a rather silly joke on me.  
Still feeling rather puzzled, I went back to the house. I had just sat down and begun to read my book again when I was startled by the cry of "Help! Help!", this time from the right behind my shoulder.

QUESTION 1 (1 MARK)

A) Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.
B) Explain IN ENGLISH the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
 1a) "This might come in useful." (line 11)  
 1b) "As I walked down the path that led to the trees" (line 14)

QUESTIONS 2-4 (2 MARKS EACH)

Answer the following questions, IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible:  
2.- Why did the writer go out into the garden?  
3.- What did the writer arm himself with before he went out?  
4.- Why did the writer think that someone was playing a rather silly joke on him?

QUESTION 5 (3 MARKS)

5.- Imagine that you were the writer of the passage. Complete the story in no more than 90 words (minimum 60)

OPCIÓN 1: 18 SEPT. 1993  

To the student:

1.- Read the instructions to the questions very carefully.  
2.- Answer all the questions IN ENGLISH.  
Time: 1 hour

Tom was rather looking forward to his first journey by Tube, as the underground railway in London is called. He had heard a great deal about it from his friends who had already been to England. They all advised him not to travel alone the first time. But Tom is the kind of person who never listens to anybody’s advice. It is not surprising, therefore, that his first journey by Tube was not a great success.  
Tom entered the station shortly after five o’clock in the afternoon. This is a bad time to travel in London, both by bus and train, because crowds of people go home from work at this hour. He had to join a long queue of people who were waiting for tickets. When at last his turn came, he had some difficulty in making the man understand the name of the station he wanted to go to. The people in the queue behind him began to grumble impatiently at the delay. However,  he got the right ticket in the end and, by asking several people the way, he also found the right platform. This was packed tight with people. He did not manage to get on the first train, but he was able to move nearer the edge of the platform so as to be in a better position to get on the next one. When this came in, emerging from the tunnel with a terrifying roar, Tom was swept forward on to the train by the rush of people from behind. His station was the sixth along the line, so he knew exactly where to get off.  
When the train reached the sixth station, Tom got off, feeling relieved that his journey had been so easy. but he was alarmed to see that he had got off at a station that he had never hard of. He explained with difficulty to a man who was standing on the platform. With a look of amusement on his face the man told Tom that he had travelled on a train going in the wrong direction.

QUESTION 1 (1 MARK)

A) Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.  
B) Explain IN ENGLISH the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
 1a) "Tom was rather looking forward to his first journey by Tube" (line 1)  
 1b) "Tom was swept forward on to the train by the rush of people from behind". 

QUESTIONS 2-4 (2 MARKS EACH)

Answer the following questions, IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible:
2.- Why does the writer say that Tom’s first journey by Tube was not a great success?  
3.- Why did the people in the queue behind Tom begin to grumble?  
4.- What made Tom realise that he had got off at the wrong station?

QUESTION 5 (3 MARKS)

5.- Imagine that you were Tom. Write a short story in not more than 90 words (minimum 60) about what happened to you the first time you travelled by Tube. Do not include any ideas which are not in the passage. Use your own words as far as possible.

OPCIÓN 2: 18 SEPT. 1993

To the student:

1.- Read the instructions to the questions very carefully.  
2.- Answer all the questions IN ENGLISH.  
Time: 1 hour

The party began shortly after nine. Mr Wood, who lived in the flat below, sighed to himself as he heard the first signs: the steady tramp (*) of feet on the stairs; the sound of excited voices as the guests greeted one another; and the noise of the gramophone, which was turned full on. Luckily Mr Wood has brought some work home from the office, with which he occupied himself for a couple of hours, thus managing to ignore with some success the party which was going on over his head. But by eleven o’clock he felt tired and was ready to go to bed, though from his experience of previous parties he knew that it was useless trying to get to sleep. He undressed and lay for a while on the bed, trying to read, but the noise from the room directly above his head did not allow him to concentrate on what he was reading. He found himself reading the same page over and over again. He then switched off the light and buried his head in the pillow, in a desperate effort to go to sleep. But even so he could not shut out the noise. Finally, after what seemed hours, he switched on the light and looked at his watch: it was just after midnight.  
By now his patience was quite exhausted. He leapt out of bed and, putting a dressing-gown over his pyjamas, marched resolutely up the stairs to his neighbour’s flat. He rang the bell several times, but the door remained closed in his face. This did not improve his temper. Just then one of the guests came out and went off down the stairs, leaving the door open. Mr Wood went in. In spite of his odd dress, no one took any notice of him. Then he caught sight of the owner of the flat and managed to attract his attention.  
"My dear fellow, come in and join us. I know our parties must bother you. I meant to send you an invitation". said the owner of the flat, whose name was Mr Black.

QUESTION 1 (1 MARK)

A) Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.
B) Explain IN ENGLISH the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
 1a) "buried his head in the pillow" (line 10-11)  
 1b) "no one took any notice of him" (line 18)

QUESTIONS 2-4 (2 MARKS EACH)

Answer the following questions, IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible:
2.- How did Mr Wood manage to ignore the noise of the party until he went to bed?  
3.- How long had the party been going on when Mr Wood went to complain? (Justify your answer)  
4.- In what way was Mr Wood’s dress odd?

QUESTION 5 (3 MARKS)

5.- Imagine that you were the writer of the passage. Complete the conversation between Mr Wood and Mr Black. Use your own words (60 to 90). Begin as follows:  

Mr Black: "My dear fellow, come in a join us. I know our parties must bother you. I meant to send you an invitation."  
Mr Wood: (Continue)

OPCIÓN 1: 24 JUNIO 1994

To the student:

1.- Read the instructions to the questions very carefully.  
2.- Answer all the questions IN ENGLISH.  
Time: 1 hour

Mrs Robinson: We’ve been waiting an hour now for the shop to open. I hope it is worth it.  
Mrs Jones: The queue is getting longer, but I think they’re opening up now, it’s just on time. The early bird catches the worm.  
Mrs Robinson:  I’ve been looking at their windows and there are lots of bargains in the Household Department. I’m going straight down to the basement to look at those saucepans marked half price.
Mrs Jones: I’m after children’s wear. They’re going to really slash the prices and my kids need new sweaters and scarves for this cold weather. I told Jim, my husband, I couldn’t afford not to buy them, and he said, “That´s feminine logic for you, after all you’ve spent over Christmas."  
Lift attendant: Going up, first floor -Haberdashery, lingerie, second floor -children’s wear, furnishing fabrics- yes madam, I’ll stop here. Mind the doors.  
Mrs Jones: That striped sweater would suit my little son. But that one looks a little big. (To the assistant) Have you this one in a smaller size?  
Assistant: No, I’m afraid not, madam, that’s the only one we have left. What about this one? It has a polo neck and is much thicker and warmer and I pound cheaper too...  
Mrs Jones: Yes, that will do fine, thank you.  
Assistant: Please go and pay at the Cash Desk while I wrap it up for you.  
Mrs Robinson: (Furnishing Dept.) Give me four metres of that patterned curtain material at 99p. a metre. It was 2 pounds, wasn’t it?  
Assistant: Yes, madam, but there are remnants over there, on that counter, in lower priced.  
Mrs Robinson: What a bargain! I can get two pairs of curtains for the price of one. (But another customer snatches the material from her) Oh, that was mine. I’m sorry I spotted it before you did. You missed your turn.

QUESTION 1 (1 MARK)

A) Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.  
B) Explain IN ENGLISH the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
 1a) "The early bird catches the worm" (line 3)  
 1b) "Cash Desk" (line 18)

QUESTIONS 2-3 (2 MARKS EACH)

QUESTION 4 (2 MARKS)

Complete the following sentences. Your answers must be related to the ideas contained in the text.
4a) Mrs Robinson would have saved money at the Furnishing Department if ..., but another customer ...  
4b) After having been waiting in the queue Mrs Jones .......... and ..........

QUESTION 5 (3 MARKS)

5.- Imagine a story of a day out with your parents. Describe in not more than 90 words (minimum 60) Use your own words.

OPCIÓN 2: 24 JUNIO 1994

To the student:

1.- Read the instructions to the questions very carefully.  
2.- Answer all the questions IN ENGLISH.  
Time: 1 hour

After a while I got up stiffly and began to scramble up the stairs in the darkness. They went on and up, leading, not as I had imagined to the bell tower, but to the tower itself. Halfway up I began to wish I had not attempted to climb, for dust and spiders’ weds brushed my face at every turn and I was terrified of bats. I had some idea however of getting out and attracting attention by shouting or waving my handkerchief.  
At last, on my hands and knees, I reached the head of the stairs and here to my relief a little light showed through a kind of grating in the wall of the tower. Before me I made out a small wooden door with a rusty handle. It turned easily enough, however, though I had to push against the door to get it open, for it was swollen with damp. After a moment I stepped through it and found myself at the top of the tower with the open sky above me.  
It was not yet completely dark, but the hills were now grey shapes in the distance, and I couldn’t tell where the line of the sea met the sky. I do not like heights and it took all my courage to approach the edge of the parapet and look down. I saw only the churchyard, deserted and silent, and beyond the roofs of some nearby houses. Straining my eyes, I thought I could make out the market-place in the town centre.
It was very quiet from where I watched, as though the little town had already begun to settle itself for the night. There were a few passers-by, but no-one came when I called, for although the road was not far from the church the country people did not care for graveyards after dark. Once a farm cart rattled by, and a labourer came along on his bicycle, and one or two children in a hurry to get home. But for the most part everyone was indoors by this time and would give no thought to the church tower except to set their watches by the bell chime of its great clock.

QUESTION 1 (1 MARK)

A) Write a title which best summarizes the story and justify your answer.  
B) Explain IN ENGLISH the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
 1a) "I got stiffly" (line 1)  
 1b) "to my relief" (line 6)

QUESTIONS 2-3 (2 MARKS EACH)

Answer the following questions, IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible. (Justify your answers)  
2.- What did the writer see when he found himself at the top of the tower?  
3.- What did no-one come when the writer began to call out?

QUESTION 4 (2 MARKS)

Complete the following sentences. Your answers must be related to the ideas contained in the text.  
4a) The writer realised that no-one ......... when he ..........  
4b) Unless he had shouted .......... or the road..........

QUESTION 5 (3 MARKS)

5.- Write an end to this story. Not more than 90 words (minimum 60) Use your own words.

To the student:

1.- Read the instructions to the questions very carefully.  
2.- Answer all the questions IN ENGLISH.  
Time: 1 hour

In the year 1960 the Union of South Africa celebrated the Golden Jubilee, and there was a nation-wide sensation when one-thousand-pound prize for the finest piece of sculpture was won by a black man, Edward Simelane. His work, "African Mother and Child," not only excited the admiration, but touched the conscience or heart or whatever it is, of white South Africa, and was likely to make him famous in other countries.  
It was by an oversight that his work was accepted, for it was the policy of the Government that all the celebrations and competitions should be strictly segregated. The committee of the sculpture section received a private reprimand for having been so careless as to omit the words "for whites only" from the conditions, but was told, by a very high personage it is said, that if Simelane´s work "was indisputably the best," it should receive the award. The committee then decided that this prize must be given along with the others, at the public ceremony which would bring this particular part of the celebrations to a close.  
For this decision it received a surprising amount of support from the white public, but in certain powerful quarters there was a outcry against the departure from the traditional policies of the country, and a threat that many white prize-winners would renounce their prizes. However the crisis was averted, because the sculptor was "fortunately unable to attend the ceremony." Simelane said that wasn’t feeling up to it because he was a sculptor, not a demonstrator.

QUESTION 1 (1 MARK)

A) Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.  
B) Explain IN ENGLISH the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
 1a) "a nation-wide sensation" (line 2)  
 1b) "wasn’t feeling up to it" (line 17)

QUESTIONS 2-3 (2 MARKS EACH)

Answer the following questions, IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible. (Justify your answers)  
2.- What problems were caused by a black South African winning the sculpture competition?  
3.- How was the crisis avoided?

QUESTION 4 (2 MARKS)

Complete the following sentences. Your answers must be related to the ideas contained in the text.
4a) The committee of the sculpture section received a private reprimand because ...........  
4b) If Simelane had attended the ceremony, ...........

QUESTION 5 (3 MARKS)

5.- Describe some of the barriers that you have perennially experienced (racial barriers/social prejudices/stereotyping of your own nationality,  etc. Describe it in not more than 90 words (minimum 60). Use your own words.

To the student:

1.- Read the instructions to the questions very carefully.  
2.- Answer all the questions IN ENGLISH.  
Time: 1 hour

I am speaking to you tonight from Downing Street after a meeting with my colleagues of the cabinet. I thought I should explain the reasons for the course of action we have adopted with regard to the temporary pollution of areas in the South East of Britain. You will all have read or heard of the disagreements with our essentially wise and cautious policy to preserve England’s green and pleasant land. My government has taken bold measures to contain an explosive situation developed by extremists from the dissatisfied fringe of our society. Through deceit and falsehood these extremists have persuaded some of our fellow country-men to take part in mass-meetings, marches and other forms of protest against government measures. Of course, a democracy thrives upon a variety of opinion and nobody should be afraid to air their views. But a democracy also requires common sense and moderation, a recognition of duty to others as well as personal rights and self-interest.  
Recently it was discovered that certain areas constituted a public danger because of toxic substances in the air and soil. Accordingly residents were rehoused and those areas close so that a full inquiry could be made. There followed an unpardonable and vicious campaign, mostly in the national press, exaggerating the small but understandable complains of the evacuees, and advocating the relocation of industries and of their waste products. Now you and I know how important heavy industry is to our economy. The age of steam and steel began here. If I were to close industries in these areas I should be acting dishonestly and contrary to our tradition, and putting people out of work.

Question 1 (1MARK).-

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

Question 2 (1MARK).-

Explain the meaning of the following phrase from the text: "nobody should be afraid to air their views"

Question 3 (1 MARK).-

Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text: Unless they explain the actions they ................................... people ........................

Question 4 and 5 (TWO MARKS EACH).-

Answer the following questions, IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible (substantiate your answers):  
                                       4.- Why has the situation become explosive?  
                                       5.- Why is the Minister opposed to closing industries?

Question 6 (3 MARKS).-

Write your opinion about the advantages and disadvantages of heavy industry.  
(Please, do not write more than 90 words, minimum 70. Use your own words).

To the student:

1.- Read the instructions to the questions very carefully.  
2.- Answer all the questions IN ENGLISH.  
Time: 1 hour

As David was coming to the end of his last year at University, he began to wonder what he would be doing after it was all over. During the weekends of the spring term he would sit in his flat going through the job columns of newspapers looking at all the possible openings in industry or commerce that might start him on the road to get an important job. First he might start modestly as a trainee in management, then go on to become a junior executive and then end up as a man with a plumb job. He would imagine himself sitting in the back of a long chauffeur-driven car either issuing instructions to his subordinates over the car telephone or dictating letters. Or he would  be sitting at an impressive leather-topped mahogany desk with three telephones, an expensive carpet on the floor, and a pretty secretary sitting opposite him, pencil poised waiting to take down that important directive that would affect the lives of millions. Or again he would be flying to New York on his way to an important international trade conference. His fantasies were endless.  
The realities of the situation were, however, somewhat different. He was at the moment an averagely impoverished student living partly on his young wife’s earnings with just about enough to pay the rent, rates and fuel bills and to eat modestly -at least until his course finished at the end of the following month when his student days would come to an end.  
Despite David’s fantasies he was not feeling especially confident when he started to write a letter to a firm that advertised for a management trainee.

Question 1 (1MARK).-

Write a title which best summarizes the story and justify your answer.

Question 2 (1MARK).-

Explain the meaning of the following phrase from the text: "he was not feeling especially confident"

Question 3 (1 MARK).-

Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text:
When David was about to end his career at University he ......................... But he finally noticed that .................................

Question 4 and 5 (TWO MARKS EACH).-

Answer the following questions, IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible (substantiate your answers):  
                                       4.- How did David imagine "his" office?  
                                       5.- Was David a rich student living on his own?

Question 6 (3 MARKS).-

Write an application for the post.  
(Please, do not write more than 90 words, minimum 70. Use your own words).

OPCIÓN 1: 22 SETP. 1995

To the student:

1.- Read the instructions to the questions very carefully.  
2.- Answer all the questions IN ENGLISH.  
Time: 1 hour

Leo, the young boy, arrives at his rich friend’s house, Bradham Hall, for the summer. Socially inferior, he finds the ways and manners of the people living there difficult but he makes friends with Marion, the eldest daughter. His love for her enables her to use Leo to send messages to her lover Ted. Leo innocently believes that the messages are purely business and is happy to act a go-between. He is deeply shocked when he reads part of an unsealed letter from Marion to Ted and realizes they are in love. He becomes even more caught up in the triangle when he learns that Marion is engaged to Lord Trimingham, someone she does not love. His loyalty to Marion is severely tested as she still asks him to take messages between her and Ted. He cannot understand this as he believes that Marion should now love Trimingham. However, he takes a last message from Ted asking Marion to meet him. The next day, Leo’s birthday, Marion’s mother is convinced that Leo knows something about Marion and she drags him to a hut where the two lovers are discovered. This is the final shock from which Leo never fully recovers.  
The result of this sad story is that Leo is so affected by the behaviour of the adults in Bradham that he is never able to love. At the age of fifty he returns to Bradham, meets Marion and once more feels the influence over him of the events of nearly forty years earlier. He has now become a sad and lonely man whose feelings of guilt and shame have destroyed his faith in other people.

Question 1 (1MARK).-

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

Question 2 (1MARK).-

Explain the meaning of the following phrase from the text: "feelings of guilt and shame"

Question 3 (1 MARK).-

Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text: 
Though Leo was absolutely loyal to Marion, he ....................................... because .............................................

Question 4 and 5 (TWO MARKS EACH).-

Answer the following questions, IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible (substantiate your answers):  
          4.- How old is Leo when the love affair between Ted an Marion occurs? (justify your answer)  
          5.- What was Leo’s role in the relationship between Marion and Ted? and what did he think of his 
 relationship before he had read the unsealed letter? (substantiate your answers)

 Question 6 (3 MARKS).-

Write a story of a young girl/boy’s innocence that has been damaged by the "evil" behaviour of adults?  
(Please, do not write more than 90 words, minimum 70. Use your own words).

To the student:

1.- Read the instructions to the questions very carefully.  
2.- Answer all the questions IN ENGLISH.  
Time: 1 hour

Good morning -if you can call it good. This is Radio Doctor with another word of advice on how to keep yourself fit and to stay away from doctors, even National Heath ones like myself. Well, here we are again in the season of mists and a mellow mugginess, as the poet describes it, the season of coughs, sneezes, influenza, stuffy noses and similar cheerful human ailments. You know they can send people to the moon and back, stop floods, blow up mountains, divert earthquakes but they can’t cure the common cold.
It’s a little fellow called the cold-virus that makes you catch cold and fills up the doctor’s surgery with all those depressing faces with red noses and running eyes. Prevention is certainly better that cure. If you haven’t got a cold stay away, if possible, from people who have. Keep your room ventilated, keep yourself warm and don’t get overtired by work or over-excited by pleasure. Remember an hour’s sleep before is worth two hours’ sleep after midnight. Don’t let yourself get depressed or over-excited. A healthy mind is a healthy body; or physical illnesses are often symptomatic of mental or emotional disturbances. I prove that point whenever the BBC makes me get out of a warm bed to come into the studio at six-thirty in the morning and when I sneeze into the microphone.  
Seriously though, use some common sense and avoid the common cold. And if you can’t be sensible all the time, don’t sneeze over everyone else. Those little viruses enjoy nothing better than taking free rides through the air into the respiratory tracks of some unsuspecting fellow- human. Good morning and good luck!

Question 1 (1MARK).-

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

Question 2 (1MARK).-

Explain the meaning of the following phrase from the text: "to keep yourself fit"

Question 3 (1 MARK).-

Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text: The doctor has been explaining that diseases ............................................ because ............................................

 Question 4 and 5 (TWO MARKS EACH).-

Answer the following questions, IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible (substantiate your answers):  
                                       4.- Over what does the Radio Doctor advise?  
                                       5.- How is infection by cold-virus best avoided?

Question 6 (3 MARKS).-

What’s your opinion about National Health in Spain?  
(Please, do not write more than 90 words, minimum 70. Use your own words).

                She was expensively dressed, rings sparkled on her fingers and she spoke with a cultured English accent. She was also a shoplifter.  
            Debenhams had been open barely an hour when she was spotted putting two tins of food into a carrier bag and walking out without paying.  
            Now she was sitting in the bare-walled security room. On the table were the two tins and a lemon juice container worth a total of about 4 pounds. Store security chief, Mr Alan Shaw, had been called from his office by the store detective who had made the arrest. He asked if she would mind if he checked the contents of another large carrier bag at her feet. The tears started briefly as clothing and an expensive leather handbag, all unpaid for, piled up on the table. Mr Shaw immediately asked for the police to be called and the woman’s only explanation was “I was just stupid”.  
            It was the start of another typical day and when the shop closed another seven offenders had been arrested. “Despite our efforts it’s a growing problem”, said Mr Shaw as we move around the crowded store. And no longer are shoplifters just little old ladies and housewives but often highly organised, trained and potentially violent gangs. So real is the danger of assault during an arrest that the security staff at Debenhams are now trained in karate. One of our store detectives recently had his wrist broken and has also been hit with a billiard ball in a sock while making an arrest. Sometimes knives are pulled and fists are used daily. Debenham´s store detectives, all with either military or police backgrounds work in teams of two or three both for mutual protection and as corroboration for each other. And their highly trained eyes are watching for all the tricks used by shoplifters and pickpockets. The gangs often have one of their number waiting outside the store to get stolen goods and make a quick get-away.

QUESTION 1 (1MARK).-

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

QUESTION 2 (1MARK).- Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
                                    a) “he checked the contents of another large carrier bag”  
                                    b) “we move around the crowded store”

QUESTION 3(1 MARK).- Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text: The woman had no sooner .................. than the store detective ...................

QUESTION 4 AND 5(TWO MARKS EACH).- Answer the following questions,  IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible:  
                4.- Why is shoplifting a growing problem at Debenham´s stores?  
                5.- Why do Debenham´s store detectives work in teams of two or three?

QUESTION 6 (3 MARKS).-

Write an account of theft or a crime which you have knowledge of.  
(Please, do not write more than 90 words, minimum 70. Use your own words).

             Exhausted and shivering, fisherman Nick Lackey bent down in his small inflatable life-raft straining his eyes through the Pacific night in the hope of seeing a passing ship. His boat had been overturned by a huge wave 19 miles away from his home port on the Californian coast. Thrown into the water with his partner Ernie López, Mr Lackey had managed to take the life-raft and jump on to it. But his friend, Ernie, was swept away by 40 mile an hour winds. Desperately using his hands as paddles Mr Lackey tried to reach his friend several times who cried for help. After a while there was silence. Ernie López had disappeared.  
            It was now the early hours of the morning and at Nick Lackey’s home his wife Carol and their two young daughters were fast asleep. At three o’clock in the morning, 12 hours after her husband’s boat had wrecked, Mrs Lackey was awakened by the persistent ringing of the bedside phone. It was the coastguard’s officer reporting that her husband’s boat had disappeared. But the startled woman had no time right then to worry about her husband. For as she listened she smelt smoke and heard the sound of crackling flames. The house was on fire. Some time during the night the blaze had started in the downstairs lounge and now flames were racing through the ground floor. Luckily the staircase was still intact and, taking her children, Crystal, 3, and Jade, 2, Mrs Lackey rushed out of the house. By the time the fire brigade arrived the house was completely destroyed. “If it had not been for that telephone call”, said Mrs Lackey, “I am convinced we would all have been dead”. Standing on the lawn watching the smouldering ruin of her home Mrs Lackey burst into tears as the shock of the news of her missing husband began to set in. Was he safe somewhere or had he perished at sea?  
            Despite a sea and air search there was to be no more news of the missing fisherman for the next four days. Fortunately, the coastguard called again. Mr Lackey had been picked up by a Greek ship 200 miles away from the spot where his boat had sunk.

QUESTION 1 (1MARK).-

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

QUESTION 2 (1MARK).- Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
                                    a) “rushed out of the house”  
                                    b) “burst into tears”

QUESTION 3(1 MARK).- Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text: If the staircase had been burnt .........................

QUESTION 4 AND 5(TWO MARKS EACH).- Answer the following questions,  IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible:  
                4.- Why was Mr Lackey glad to be lost at sea the night his house burnt down?  
                5.- Why had Mrs Lackey no time to worry about her husband when the coastguard telephoned her?

QUESTION 6 (3 MARKS).-

Imagine a story about a dangerous experience which you might  have lived.  
(Please, do not write more than 90 words, minimum 70. Use your own words).

OPCIÓN 1: 17 JUNIO 1998

Some sixteen million years ago, a giant asteroid slammed into the dusty surface of Mars, gouging a deep crater in the planet’s crust and lofting huge quantities of rock and soil into the thin Martian atmosphere. Some of the rocks, fired upward by the blast at high velocities, escaped the weak tug of Martian gravity and entered into orbits of their own around the sun. One of these Martian rocks ventured close to Earth 13,000 years ago and crashed into a sheet of blue ice in Antarctica. It lay undisturbed until scientists discovered it in 1984 in a field of jagged ice called the Allan hills. Last week the rock –dubbed ALH84001- sized the imagination of all mankind. This well-travelled stone appeared to have brought with it the first tangible evidence that we are not alone in the universe.  
On April 25, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched, promising a leap in astronomical observing power unlike anything since 1609, when Galileo first pointed his telescope at the heavens. Since then, the Hubble has confirmed the existence of black holes, peered deep into time and captured a comet’s spectacular collision with Jupiter in 1994. Isn’t it ironic that, with all its immense observing power, the telescope has missed something only 370 miles away: nothing less than a rock from Mars that may hold signs of life on other planets.

QUESTION 1 (1MARK).

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

QUESTION 2 (1MARK).

 Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
 a. “escaped the weak tug of Martian gravity”  
 b. “peered deep into time”

QUESTION 3(1 MARK).

Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text:  Who would have thought that ..........................

QUESTION 4 AND 5(TWO MARKS EACH).

Answer the following questions, in you own words:  
a. What is the history of ALH84001? Where does it come from? And how did it end and where it ended?  
b. According to the author of the text, what is so ironic about the Hubble Telescope?

QUESTION 6 (3 MARKS).-

 Do you believe in life on other planets? May the rock really contain signs of life?  
 (Please, do not write more than 90 words, (70 minimum). Use your own words).

OPCIÓN 2: 17 JUNIO 1998

October 17, 1974: Lucy is discovered. She stood only 3.5 ft. tall, her brain capacity was quite small, and she died at twenty. But this old lady –she lived three million years ago- is throughly modern. Lucy was named after the Beatles’ song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. When discovered, hers were the most intact fossilized remnants of the early hominid ever found. Unearthed by anthropologists Donald Johanson of the U.S. and Maurice Taied of France, Lucy’s skeleton showed her to be surprisingly short-legged, but proved she walked erect.  
Lucy is an Australopithecus Afarensis, one of the species whose fossils were first discovered in 1924 by South African anthropologist Raymond Dart. This primate had a large ape-like face, with teeth like modern man, and a brain far smaller than that of a human child yet larger than an ape’s. But unlike the apes, Australopithecus walked erect on two legs, like the most recent Homo Erectus species.  
In the late 1950s the married team of Louis and Mary Leakey began finding fossils remains at Tanzania’s Olduvai George. These fossils established that Australopithecus was as much as two million years old. They also found pebbles chipped into sharp-edged implements, evidence that even so far back some of the man’s ancestors could make tools. But who?

QUESTION 1 (1MARK).

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

QUESTION 2 (1MARK).

 Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
 a. “Lucy’s skeleton showed her to be surprisingly short-legged”  
 b. “even so far back”

QUESTION 3(1 MARK).

Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text:  
Despite the fact Lucy was found  .....................

QUESTION 4 AND 5(TWO MARKS EACH).

Answer the following questions, in your own words:  
a. After reading the text, in what way do you think Lucy is absolutely (thoroughly) modern?  
b. What are the similarities between Lucy and the monkeys?

QUESTION 6 (3 MARKS).-

Imagine a day in the life of a hominid like Lucy two million years ago.  
(Please, do not write more than 90 words, (70 minimum). Use your own words).

Lucy in the sky with diamonds  

OPCIÓN 1: 17 SEPTIEMBRE 1998  

Scientific investigation into the matter of wild children increased dramatically in 1800 when a boy was captured in the woods near the village of Saint-Sernin in the Aveyron district of France. He appeared to be 11 or 12 years old, was naked except for what was left of a tattered shirt, and he made no sounds other than guttural animal-like noises. His general appearance and behaviour were typical of wild men of popular legend and he seemed to have survived on his own for years in the wild. Attempts to trace his personal history failed and nothing could be uncovered of his life before his being discovered.
In less than a year after the boy was given up as practically being an imbecile, Itard (his tutor) was able to issue a report stating that Victor’s senses, memory and attention were intact, that he had the ability to compare and judge, and that he could read and write to a significant extent. As far as his lack of speech was concerned, Itard concluded that isolation and age might have caused that particular language ability to weaken.  
Victor’s case greatly interested French scholars and he became a focal point of the philosophical debate between the followers of Descartes, who believed that humans  were born with certain ideas in their minds, and the followers of John Locke, who believed that humans are almost blank pages to be written upon by our experiences in the environment and society. Itard himself sided with Locke.

QUESTION 1 (1MARK).

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

QUESTION 2 (1MARK).

Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
a. “dramatically”  
b. “the boy was given up as (...) being imbecile”

QUESTION 3(1 MARK).

Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text: 
Victor’s case shows that ..........................

QUESTION 4 AND 5(TWO MARKS EACH).

Answer the following questions, in you own words:  
a. What was Victor’s most silent deficit after Itard began to act as his tutor?  
b. What does the “blank pages” metaphor refer to?

QUESTION 6 (3 MARKS).-

In view of Victor’s case, and of the others you may know about, who do you think is right in the philosophical 
debate referred to in the text?  
(Please, do not write more than 90 words, (70 minimum). Use your own words).

OPCIÓN 2: 17 SEPTIEMBRE 1998  

Gerhard Schroder, Germany’s SPD chancellor candidate for September’s election, is taking his choice of campaign vehicle very seriously. As a member of the Volkswagen’s supervisory board (Lower Saxony, where he is premier, owns twenty per cent of the company), he and Ferdinand Piech, Volkswagen chairman, are believed to have travelled to Britain to gather information on Rolls-Royce, the prestige subsidiary of Vickers plc. The British company has been recently affected by rumours that place it in the hands of a number of interested luxury carmakers.
Volkswagen, which have manufactured some of the most popular vehicles in the past twenty years (including the mega-successful Golf) is keen to kill its utilitarian image, announcing this month that it is to build a luxury executive model and a sports car to challenge BMW and Mercedes-Benz at the top end of the market, where the Germans rule undisputed. It is not clear where Audi, Volkswagen’s own luxury division, can fit after such a move.  
But if Schroder tested the new Rolls, the Seraph, for size he would have noticed its powerplant is made by BMW. No wonder the latter are still hot favourites to take over the wheel at RR.

QUESTION 1 (1MARK).

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

QUESTION 2 (1MARK).

Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:
a. “gather information”  
b. “is keen to kill its utilitarian image”

QUESTION 3(1 MARK).

Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text: 
Germany’s SPD chancellor candidate for September’s election may .....................

QUESTION 4 AND 5(TWO MARKS EACH).

Answer the following questions, in your own words:  
a. For which specific reason is Gerhard Schroder believed to have recently travelled to Britain?  
b. What is the main problem for Gerhard Schroder’s apparent plans?

QUESTION 6 (3 MARKS).-

Should there be regulations preventing such nationally emblematic firms as Rolls-Royce from being sold to people of other nationalities? Or should buying and selling be absolutely free, independent from national frontiers? Justify your answer.  
(Please, do not write more than 90 words, (70 minimum). Use your own words).

Materia: INGLÉS. COU. Código 11. Común

Read the text and the questions very carefully. Answer all the questions in English.

1.- Read the instructions to the questions very carefully.  
2.- Answer all the questions IN ENGLISH.  
Time: 1 hour

The Californian optometrists who has been criticised for starting a sperm bank containing donations from only Nobel Prize-winning scientists, says that creating a master race was not his intention. He disagreed with comparisons between what he is doing and the Nazi theories of building an elite.  
"I don’t know that much about Hitler and his vision," Mr Robert Graham said to journalists in the garden of his ten-acre property, "but I don’t see any parallel. We are not thinking of a superrace, we are thinking in terms of a few more creative, intelligent people who otherwise would not be born".  
He said he began soliciting Nobel scientists’ sperm in 1977 for the Hermann J. Muller Repository, named after the 1946 winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine, who died at the age of 76 in 1967 and had strong views on the declining endowment of the human race.  
The bank provides sperm at no cost to women who are young, married, of high intelligence, and whose husbands are infertile. So far, Mr Graham said, three women had been inseminated, though it is not known if they are pregnant, and "several dozen women around the country have expressed an interest in following suit".  
The Los Angeles Time reported today that of the 23 Nobel scientists contacted, 11 of them said they have been called by Mr Graham, all but one of them said they had turned down the request.  
Dr Max Delbruck, winner of the 1969 prize in physiology, said, "I think it’s pretty silly". Dr Robert Holley, who took the prize for medicine in 1969 and turned down Mr Graham´s invitation to donate sperm, said, "What surprises me is that any woman would want this. But guess people are entitle to do what they want".

QUESTION 1 (1MARK).-

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

QUESTION 2 (1MARK).-

Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
                                  a) "it’s pretty silly"  
                                 b)   "turned down Mr Graham’s invitation"

QUESTION 3 (1 MARK).-

Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text: 
The Californian experiment, though .......... indicates that .......................

QUESTION 4 AND 5 (TWO MARKS EACH).-

Answer the following questions, IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible (substantiate your answers):  
                4.- How does Mr Graham justify what he’s doing?  
                5.- What has the general reaction of Nobel scientists been?

QUESTION 6 (3 MARKS).-

 How far do you agree with Dr Holley that "people are entitled to do what they want"? Or, do you think there should be legislation to forbid this kind of experimentation? Write your own opinions about the projects to breed a race of intellectual giants.  
(Please do not write more than 90 words, minimum 70. Use your own words).

To the student:

1.- Read the instructions to the questions very carefully.  
2.- Answer all the questions IN ENGLISH.  
Time: 1 hour

The importance of consumer discrimination in domestic life is clear. Indeed, the evaluation and selection of manufactured items, from soap powders to cars, is an inescapable part of life in today’s society. But most people have little knowledge of the actual production of what they buy and are therefore unable to make first-hand judgements of quality. So where do ideas of value for money originate? On what basis do we discriminate between two comparable products? Ideally judgement is based on the type and quality of materials, construction, performance, appearance and price. Often, however, first-hand knowledge of these factors  is not available and we rely on advertisements.  
The essence of advertising is persuasion. to use reasoned argument in order to persuade people to buy a particular product seems a valid form of propaganda and, indeed, could be expected to assist the process of discrimination. But the advertiser’s concern cannot be solely to assist discrimination. His appeal is therefore rarely directed towards reason alone but also towards the more emotional responses that may be triggered by associating a product with the private hopes, fears, prejudices, and anxieties that beset the average human being. And if these appeals can be disguised within a reasoned argument, so much the better.  
In Britain the Code of Advertising Practice exists to protect the consumer from being deceived and misinformed by advertisements. Their slogan is "All advertisements should be legal, decent, honest and truthful" and in their own advertisement they invite consumers to exercise discrimination and to report to the authorities any advertisements which do not fulfil their requirements. "All comparative advertisements", they say, "should respect the principles of fair competition and should be so designed that there is not likelihood of the consumer being misled as a result of comparison, either about the product advertised or that with which it is compared".

QUESTION 1 (1MARK).- Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

QUESTION 2 (1MARK).- Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
                                    a) "actual production"  
                                    b) "is not available"

QUESTION 3 (1 MARK).- Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text: Advertisements should not ................... nor should they ........................

QUESTION 4 AND 5 (TWO MARKS EACH).- Answer the following questions, IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible (substantiate your answers):  
               4.- Why is it difficult to make first-hand judgements of quality about a product?  
               5.-  What two appeals do advertisements make?

QUESTION 6 (3 MARKS).- Express your complain about a given advertisement and request it should not be exhibited.  
(Please, do not write more than 90 words, minimum 70. Use your own words).

To the student:

1.- Read the instructions to the questions very carefully.  
2.- Answer all the questions IN ENGLISH.  
Time: 1 hour

Doctors estimate that around 10 per cent of students will suffer excessive strain because of their final exams and that around 4 per cent will be on the verge of complete breakdown. You might think that most of the strain will come out in students who have neglected their work and have to make frantic last minute efforts to catch up. In fact, say the doctors, the conscientious, hard-working student -who sets himself over-ambitious standards- is far more likely to break down.  
The strain emerges in several different ways. Most commonly, the general tension starts a vicious circle. Anxiety causes insomnia, which leads to reduce work efficiency, which causes more anxiety and more insomnia, and so on. Another familiar pattern is lethargy: the students sleeps for hours on end and still dozes off when he is revising. Then, there is the student who has physical symptoms, such as headaches, sickness and indigestion. These students may not have been aware of any anxiety because they have stuffed it all into their unconscious. It is not a good idea, say advisers, to read and re-read your notes aimlessly. Students should make notes on their notes while they are revising and try to get them into some sort of logical order. Advisers also encourage an even more methodical approach: the revision syndicate. They say that exam anxiety is often infectious -students try to help their friends but, instead, they get sucked into each other’s problems. The syndicate is a way of getting students together more constructively. Each member can be allocated his own revision theme. Later, the students meet again and teach each other.

QUESTION 1 (1MARK).- Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

QUESTION 2 (1MARK).- Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
                                    a) "on the verge of a complete breakdown"  
                                    b) "been aware of"

QUESTION 3 (1 MARK).- Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas  contained in the text: If students had been aware of anxiety problems .....................................

QUESTION 4 AND 5 (TWO MARKS EACH).- Answer the following questions, IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible (substantiate your answers):  
                                    4.- Which students usually suffer excessive strain?  
                                    5.- Which method do advisers propose to combat students’ anxiety?

QUESTION 6 (3 MARKS).- Imagine you are a teacher and you talk to students who are facing imminent  examinations. Try to give them some advice to reduce their exam anxiety.
(Please, do not write more than 90 words, minimum 70. Use your own words).

We had one main idea: to make the school fit the child instead of making the child fit the school: We set out to make a school in which we should allow children freedom to be themselves. In order to do this, we had to renounce all discipline, all direction, all suggestion, all moral training, all religious instruction.  
My view is that a child is innately wise and realistic. If left to himself without adult suggestion of any kind, he will develop as far as he is capable of developing. Logically, Lorello School is a place in which people who had the innate ability and wish to be scholars will be scholars; while those who are only fit to sweep the streets will sweep the streets. But we have not produced a street cleaner so far. Nor do I write this snobbishly, for I would rather see a school produce a happy street cleaner than a neurotic scholar.  
What is Lorello like? Well for one thing, lessons are optional. Children can go to them or stay away from them for years if they want to. The children have classes usually according to their age, but sometimes according to their interests. We have no new methods of teaching because we do not consider that teaching in itself matters very much. All the same, there is a lot of learning in Lorello. Perhaps a group of our twelve-year-olds could not compete with a class of equal age in handwriting or spelling or fractions. But in an examination requiring originality, our lot would beat the others hollow.  
Children who come from other schools vow that they will never attend any beastly lessons again at any time. The average period of recovery from lessons aversion is three months.

QUESTION 1 (1MARK).-

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

QUESTION 2 (1MARK).- Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
                                    a) “innately wise”  
                                    b) “stay away from them”

QUESTION 3(1 MARK).- Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text: Lorello school avoids ......................... because ..........................

QUESTION 4 AND 5(TWO MARKS EACH).- Answer the following questions, IN YOUR OWN WORDS  as far as possible:  
                4.- How does Lorello differ from a conventional school?  
                5.- What do the children who come to Lorello from other schools reveal?

QUESTION 6 (3 MARKS).-

Would you send your child to a school like this? (Think out the reasons for your answer and write them)  
(Please, do not write more than 90 words, minimum 70. Use your own words).

            Did the pollution finish off the Roman Empire? The Romans stored wine in *lead vats (*tinajas de plomo/cubas de chumbo) and some scholars think lead poisoning weakened their minds and lay behind the fall of their civilisation. High lead levels have been found in Roman skeletons. Other historians suggest that Napoleon, Ivan the Terrible and Charles II may all have died from mercury poisoning.  
            Air pollution has been with us since the first caveman choked in his neighbour’s smoke. In 1306 Edward I banned the burning of sea-coal because the stench was unbearable.  
            Worse was to come with the Industrial Revolution. A French visitor to Manchester in 1835 wrote: “A sort of black smoke covers the city. Under this half-daylight 300,000 human beings are ceaselessly at work.” Ten years later, Friedrich Engels had sharp things to say about the city’s rivers: “at the bottom of the city flows, or rather stagnates, the Irk river, a narrow, coal-black, foul-smelling stream.” Across the Pennines in Leeds, you could only see the sun on Sundays.  
            Repeated cholera epidemics in London in the nineteenth century eventually led to the first attempts at sewage control. During the twentieth century, people increasingly realised that polluted air, too, was a killer.  
            It was becoming clear that pollution could not be beaten by individual nations on their own. Pollutants thrown into the sea could end up on another country’s shores; gases dispersed on the winds could poison another country’s lakes. Some pollutants might even be affecting the Earth’s atmosphere. In 1972, 113 countries met at a UN conference in Stockholm to discuss these problems - a landmark in itself. But in 1990s most of them still remain unsolved.

QUESTION 1 (1MARK).-

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

QUESTION 2 (1MARK).- Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
                                    a) “people increasingly realised”  
                                    b) “a landmark in itself”

QUESTION 3(1 MARK).- Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text: Individual nations cannot be expected to .................. because .....................

QUESTION 4 AND 5(TWO MARKS EACH).- Answer the following questions,  IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible:  
                4.- What might have caused the fall of the Roman Empire according to some scholars’ opinion?  
                5.- Why is it difficult for individual nations to solve the problem?

 QUESTION 6 (3 MARKS).-

Do you think that the problems caused by pollution can be solved?  
(Describe your point of view in not more than 90 words (minimum 70). Use your own words).

                She was expensively dressed, rings sparkled on her fingers and she spoke with a cultured English accent. She was also a shoplifter.  
            Debenhams had been open barely an hour when she was spotted putting two tins of food into a carrier bag and walking out without paying.  
            Now she was sitting in the bare-walled security room. On the table were the two tins and a lemon juice container worth a total of about 4 pounds. Store security chief, Mr Alan Shaw, had been called from his office by the store detective who had made the arrest. He asked if she would mind if he checked the contents of another large carrier bag at her feet. The tears started briefly as clothing and an expensive leather handbag, all unpaid for, piled up on the table. Mr Shaw immediately asked for the police to be called and the woman’s only explanation was “I was just stupid”.  
            It was the start of another typical day and when the shop closed another seven offenders had been arrested. “Despite our efforts it’s a growing problem”, said Mr Shaw as we move around the crowded store. And no longer are shoplifters just little old ladies and housewives but often highly organised, trained and potentially violent gangs. So real is the danger of assault during an arrest that the security staff at Debenhams are now trained in karate. One of our store detectives recently had his wrist broken and has also been hit with a billiard ball in a sock while making an arrest. Sometimes knives are pulled and fists are used daily. Debenham´s store detectives, all with either military or police backgrounds work in teams of two or three both for mutual protection and as corroboration for each other. And their highly trained eyes are watching for all the tricks used by shoplifters and pickpockets. The gangs often have one of their number waiting outside the store to get stolen goods and make a quick get-away.

QUESTION 1 (1MARK).-

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

QUESTION 2 (1MARK).- Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
                                    a) “he checked the contents of another large carrier bag”  
                                    b) “we move around the crowded store”

QUESTION 3(1 MARK).- Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text: The woman had no sooner .................. than the store detective ...................

QUESTION 4 AND 5(TWO MARKS EACH).- Answer the following questions,  IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible:  
                4.- Why is shoplifting a growing problem at Debenham´s stores?  
                5.- Why do Debenham´s store detectives work in teams of two or three?

QUESTION 6 (3 MARKS).-

Write an account of theft or a crime which you have knowledge of.  
(Please, do not write more than 90 words, minimum 70. Use your own words).

             Exhausted and shivering, fisherman Nick Lackey bent down in his small inflatable life-raft straining his eyes through the Pacific night in the hope of seeing a passing ship. His boat had been overturned by a huge wave 19 miles away from his home port on the Californian coast. Thrown into the water with his partner Ernie López, Mr Lackey had managed to take the life-raft and jump on to it. But his friend, Ernie, was swept away by 40 mile an hour winds. Desperately using his hands as paddles Mr Lackey tried to reach his friend several times who cried for help. After a while there was silence. Ernie López had disappeared.  
            It was now the early hours of the morning and at Nick Lackey’s home his wife Carol and their two young daughters were fast asleep. At three o’clock in the morning, 12 hours after her husband’s boat had wrecked, Mrs Lackey was awakened by the persistent ringing of the bedside phone. It was the coastguard’s officer reporting that her husband’s boat had disappeared. But the startled woman had no time right then to worry about her husband. For as she listened she smelt smoke and heard the sound of crackling flames. The house was on fire. Some time during the night the blaze had started in the downstairs lounge and now flames were racing through the ground floor. Luckily the staircase was still intact and, taking her children, Crystal, 3, and Jade, 2, Mrs Lackey rushed out of the house. By the time the fire brigade arrived the house was completely destroyed. “If it had not been for that telephone call”, said Mrs Lackey, “I am convinced we would all have been dead”. Standing on the lawn watching the smouldering ruin of her home Mrs Lackey burst into tears as the shock of the news of her missing husband began to set in. Was he safe somewhere or had he perished at sea?  
            Despite a sea and air search there was to be no more news of the missing fisherman for the next four days. Fortunately, the coastguard called again. Mr Lackey had been picked up by a Greek ship 200 miles away from the spot where his boat had sunk.

QUESTION 1 (1MARK).-

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

QUESTION 2 (1MARK).- Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
                                    a) “rushed out of the house”  
                                    b) “burst into tears”

QUESTION 3(1 MARK).- Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text: If the staircase had been burnt .........................

QUESTION 4 AND 5(TWO MARKS EACH).- Answer the following questions,  IN YOUR OWN WORDS as far as possible:  
                4.- Why was Mr Lackey glad to be lost at sea the night his house burnt down?  
                5.- Why had Mrs Lackey no time to worry about her husband when the coastguard telephoned her?

QUESTION 6 (3 MARKS).-

Imagine a story about a dangerous experience which you might  have lived.  
(Please, do not write more than 90 words, minimum 70. Use your own words).

OPCIÓN 1: 17 JUNIO 1998

Some sixteen million years ago, a giant asteroid slammed into the dusty surface of Mars, gouging a deep crater in the planet’s crust and lofting huge quantities of rock and soil into the thin Martian atmosphere. Some of the rocks, fired upward by the blast at high velocities, escaped the weak tug of Martian gravity and entered into orbits of their own around the sun. One of these Martian rocks ventured close to Earth 13,000 years ago and crashed into a sheet of blue ice in Antarctica. It lay undisturbed until scientists discovered it in 1984 in a field of jagged ice called the Allan hills. Last week the rock –dubbed ALH84001- sized the imagination of all mankind. This well-travelled stone appeared to have brought with it the first tangible evidence that we are not alone in the universe.  
On April 25, 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched, promising a leap in astronomical observing power unlike anything since 1609, when Galileo first pointed his telescope at the heavens. Since then, the Hubble has confirmed the existence of black holes, peered deep into time and captured a comet’s spectacular collision with Jupiter in 1994. Isn’t it ironic that, with all its immense observing power, the telescope has missed something only 370 miles away: nothing less than a rock from Mars that may hold signs of life on other planets.

QUESTION 1 (1MARK).

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

QUESTION 2 (1MARK).

 Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
 a. “escaped the weak tug of Martian gravity”  
 b. “peered deep into time”

QUESTION 3(1 MARK).

Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text:  Who would have thought that ..........................

QUESTION 4 AND 5(TWO MARKS EACH).

Answer the following questions, in you own words:  
a. What is the history of ALH84001? Where does it come from? And how did it end and where it ended?  
b. According to the author of the text, what is so ironic about the Hubble Telescope?

QUESTION 6 (3 MARKS).-

 Do you believe in life on other planets? May the rock really contain signs of life?  
 (Please, do not write more than 90 words, (70 minimum). Use your own words).

OPCIÓN 2: 17 JUNIO 1998

October 17, 1974: Lucy is discovered. She stood only 3.5 ft. tall, her brain capacity was quite small, and she died at twenty. But this old lady –she lived three million years ago- is throughly modern. Lucy was named after the Beatles’ song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. When discovered, hers were the most intact fossilized remnants of the early hominid ever found. Unearthed by anthropologists Donald Johanson of the U.S. and Maurice Taied of France, Lucy’s skeleton showed her to be surprisingly short-legged, but proved she walked erect.  
Lucy is an Australopithecus Afarensis, one of the species whose fossils were first discovered in 1924 by South African anthropologist Raymond Dart. This primate had a large ape-like face, with teeth like modern man, and a brain far smaller than that of a human child yet larger than an ape’s. But unlike the apes, Australopithecus walked erect on two legs, like the most recent Homo Erectus species.  
In the late 1950s the married team of Louis and Mary Leakey began finding fossils remains at Tanzania’s Olduvai George. These fossils established that Australopithecus was as much as two million years old. They also found pebbles chipped into sharp-edged implements, evidence that even so far back some of the man’s ancestors could make tools. But who?

QUESTION 1 (1MARK).

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

QUESTION 2 (1MARK).

 Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
 a. “Lucy’s skeleton showed her to be surprisingly short-legged”  
 b. “even so far back”

QUESTION 3(1 MARK).

Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text:  
Despite the fact Lucy was found  .....................

QUESTION 4 AND 5(TWO MARKS EACH).

Answer the following questions, in your own words:  
a. After reading the text, in what way do you think Lucy is absolutely (thoroughly) modern?  
b. What are the similarities between Lucy and the monkeys?

QUESTION 6 (3 MARKS).-

Imagine a day in the life of a hominid like Lucy two million years ago.  
(Please, do not write more than 90 words, (70 minimum). Use your own words).

Lucy in the sky with diamonds  

OPCIÓN 1: 17 SEPTIEMBRE 1998  

Scientific investigation into the matter of wild children increased dramatically in 1800 when a boy was captured in the woods near the village of Saint-Sernin in the Aveyron district of France. He appeared to be 11 or 12 years old, was naked except for what was left of a tattered shirt, and he made no sounds other than guttural animal-like noises. His general appearance and behaviour were typical of wild men of popular legend and he seemed to have survived on his own for years in the wild. Attempts to trace his personal history failed and nothing could be uncovered of his life before his being discovered.
In less than a year after the boy was given up as practically being an imbecile, Itard (his tutor) was able to issue a report stating that Victor’s senses, memory and attention were intact, that he had the ability to compare and judge, and that he could read and write to a significant extent. As far as his lack of speech was concerned, Itard concluded that isolation and age might have caused that particular language ability to weaken.  
Victor’s case greatly interested French scholars and he became a focal point of the philosophical debate between the followers of Descartes, who believed that humans  were born with certain ideas in their minds, and the followers of John Locke, who believed that humans are almost blank pages to be written upon by our experiences in the environment and society. Itard himself sided with Locke.

QUESTION 1 (1MARK).

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

QUESTION 2 (1MARK).

Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:  
a. “dramatically”  
b. “the boy was given up as (...) being imbecile”

QUESTION 3(1 MARK).

Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text: 
Victor’s case shows that ..........................

QUESTION 4 AND 5(TWO MARKS EACH).

Answer the following questions, in you own words:  
a. What was Victor’s most silent deficit after Itard began to act as his tutor?  
b. What does the “blank pages” metaphor refer to?

QUESTION 6 (3 MARKS).-

In view of Victor’s case, and of the others you may know about, who do you think is right in the philosophical 
debate referred to in the text?  
(Please, do not write more than 90 words, (70 minimum). Use your own words).

OPCIÓN 2: 17 SEPTIEMBRE 1998  

Gerhard Schroder, Germany’s SPD chancellor candidate for September’s election, is taking his choice of campaign vehicle very seriously. As a member of the Volkswagen’s supervisory board (Lower Saxony, where he is premier, owns twenty per cent of the company), he and Ferdinand Piech, Volkswagen chairman, are believed to have travelled to Britain to gather information on Rolls-Royce, the prestige subsidiary of Vickers plc. The British company has been recently affected by rumours that place it in the hands of a number of interested luxury carmakers.
Volkswagen, which have manufactured some of the most popular vehicles in the past twenty years (including the mega-successful Golf) is keen to kill its utilitarian image, announcing this month that it is to build a luxury executive model and a sports car to challenge BMW and Mercedes-Benz at the top end of the market, where the Germans rule undisputed. It is not clear where Audi, Volkswagen’s own luxury division, can fit after such a move.  
But if Schroder tested the new Rolls, the Seraph, for size he would have noticed its powerplant is made by BMW. No wonder the latter are still hot favourites to take over the wheel at RR.

QUESTION 1 (1MARK).

Write a title which best summarises the story and justify your answer.

QUESTION 2 (1MARK).

Explain the meaning of the following phrases from the text:
a. “gather information”  
b. “is keen to kill its utilitarian image”

QUESTION 3(1 MARK).

Complete the following sentence. Your answer must be related to the ideas contained in the text: 
Germany’s SPD chancellor candidate for September’s election may .....................

QUESTION 4 AND 5(TWO MARKS EACH).

Answer the following questions, in your own words:  
a. For which specific reason is Gerhard Schroder believed to have recently travelled to Britain?  
b. What is the main problem for Gerhard Schroder’s apparent plans?

QUESTION 6 (3 MARKS).-

Should there be regulations preventing such nationally emblematic firms as Rolls-Royce from being sold to people of other nationalities? Or should buying and selling be absolutely free, independent from national frontiers? Justify your answer.  
(Please, do not write more than 90 words, (70 minimum). Use your own words).

Materia: INGLÉS. COU. Código 11. Común

Read the text and the questions very carefully. Answer all the questions in English.

(Freely adapted from Nevil Shute: On the Beach.)

QUESTION 1. (1 POINT)  
Write a title for the text. (0,5)  
Justify your answer in your own words. (0,5)

QUESTION 2. (1 POINT)  
EXPLAIN THE MEANING OF THE FOLLOWING PHRASES FROM THE TEXT IN ENGLISH.  
the first light on the window (0,5)  
he had not set foot on a ship (0,5)

QUESTION 3. (1 POINT)  
COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCE. YOUR ANSWER MUST BE RELATED TO THE IDEAS CONTAINED IN THE TEXT.
The war did not last as long as ........................................................

QUESTION 4 AND 5. (2 POINTS each)  
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS, IN YOUR OWN WORDS AS FAR AS POSSIBLE.
4.- Why did Peter feel happy when he woke up? (2)  
5.- Why was Peter grateful to the Navy Office? (2)

QUESTION 6. (3 POINTS).  
Imagine the world after a nuclear war and write a short composition about it.  
Minimum extension 70 words. Maximum extension 90 words.

Materia: INGLÉS. COU. Código 11. Común

Read the text and the questions very carefully. Answer all the questions in English.

(Source: Tom Sharpe: Porterhouse Blue. Adapted).

QUESTION 1. (1 POINT)  
a)      Write a title for the text. (0,5)  
b)      Justify your answer in your own words. (0,5)

QUESTION 2. (1 POINT)  
EXPLAIN THE MEANING OF THE FOLLOWING PHRASES FROM THE TEXT IN ENGLISH.  
Zipser slackened his pace (0,5)  
Zipser had paid up cheerfully (0,5)

QUESTION 3. (1 POINT)  
COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCE. YOUR ANSWER MUST BE RELATED TO THE IDEAS CONTAINED IN THE TEXT.
If Zipser had knocked Scallion up ........................................................

QUESTION 4 AND 5. (2 POINTS each)  
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS, IN YOUR OWN WORDS AS FAR AS POSSIBLE.
Why didn’t Zipser think it worth while to hurry? (2)
Why does Zipser say that Mrs Biggs “was easily convinced? (2)

QUESTION 6. (3 POINTS).  
Have you ever been locked out of your house or lost the last bus home? Write a short composition about it. Minimum extension 70 words. Maximum extension 90 words.