Ils pensent qu'insulter via Internet, ça reste virtuel . PAU francés 2012

Exámenes selectividad francés resueltos Andalucía

Image credit: Martin Cogley

Le cas de figure est souvent le même: un conflit débute entre deux élèves, souvent sur la base d'une rumeur ou d'une querelle amoureuse et la situation dégénère. Des clans se forment pour ou contre tel ou tel élève. Les menaces de mort arrivent via SMS ou sur les réseaux sociaux. Dans les cas extrêmes, le conflit finit par se régler à «l'extérieur» de l'établissement.
Responsable des formations de l'association e-enfance, Alla Kulikova intervenait auprès des classes de troisième «Ce qui est étonnant c'est qu'ils ont rarement conscience des conséquences de leurs actes. Ils ont le sentiment qu'insulter via Internet, ça reste virtuel, inaperçu alors que c'est une fenêtre publique». En témoigne ce jeune garçon de 16 ans qui devant un passage à tabac filmé sur téléphone portable a reconnu ne pas avoir bronché et avoir assisté à la scène, spectateur muet, jusqu'au bout. «Il trouve ça normal!», raconte-t-elle.
Ce phénomène qui touche 5 à 10 % des élèves est selon lui difficile à détecter pour un adulte, car il ne voit que la partie émergée de l'iceberg. La campagne de spots télévisuels lancée par le ministère permettra, espère-t-il, aux éventuels témoins de tels actes de parler. «Il suffit souvent qu'un seul adolescent intervienne pour dire ça suffit pour que les brimades cessent sur-le-champ, car l'effet de groupe s'effrite».

Marie-Estelle Pech, Le Figaro, 21.01.2012 (texte adapté)

Étudiants étrangers: portrait de nouveaux sans-papiers . PAU 2012

Exámenes selectividad francés resueltos Andalucía

Source: Réseau Universités Sans Frontières

Venue de Russie en France, Ekaterina a suivi un parcours d´excellence dans le domaine de la linguistique, qui devait la mener sur la vie de la professionnalisation. Une pointe de timidité dans la voix, elle relate ce qui l´a amenée de la Russie en France. Son diplôme de professeur d´anglais et français en poche, elle veut vivre sa «passion française». Après avoir passé une batterie de tests, elle est acceptée en master de lettres modernes à Paris. Pour subvenir à ses besoins, elle passe un contrat étudiant-logement avec une famille. De quoi justifier auprès de la préfecture d´un hébergement et de revenus. Alors qu´elle envisage de poursuivre un doctorat, on l´invite à participer à un concours universitaire destiné à l´insertion professionnelle des étudiants en sciences humaines. C´est là que tout bascule. En août 2011, elle se rend à la préfecture, sa promesse d´embauche à la main, pour demander son passage en statut «salarié». On la fait revenir plusieurs fois. D´autres étudiants lui parlent de la circulaire Guéant qui impose des critères plus restrictifs à l´accueil des étrangers en France. Alors, son changement de statut est refusé. «C´est l´incompréhension. J´ai l´impression que toute ma vie professionnelle part. Si je rentre, je perds aussi ma vie personnelle», dit-elle. Ni étudiante, ni salariée, elle appartient désormais à la nouvelle catégorie de sans-papiers. 

Hélène Sallon, Le Monde 23.1.12 (texte adapté)

Boys and girls - PAU Valencia 2003

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Comunidad Valenciana resueltos

Source: Skin&Blis

Boys tend to play outside, in large groups that are hierarchically structured. Their groups have a leader who tells others what to do and how to do it, and resists doing what other boys propose. It is by giving orders that high status is negotiated. Another way boys achieve status is to take centre stage by telling stories and jokes, and by challenging the stories and jokes of others. Boys´games have winners and losers and elaborate systems of rules that are frequently the subjects of arguments. Finally, boys are frequently heard to boast about their skills, likes and possessions, and argue about who is best at what.

Girls, on the other hand, play in small groups or pairs. The centre of a girl´s social life is her best friend. Within the group, intimacy is key: differentiation is measured by relative closeness. In their most frequent games, such as jump rope and hopscotch, everyone gets a turn. Many of their activities (such as playing with dolls) do not have winners or losers. Although some girls are certainly more skilled than others, girls are expected not to boast about it, or show that they think they are better than the others. Girls don´t give orders: they express their preferences as suggestions, and suggestions are likely t be accepted.

Martin, N. (2000). “Women must wait 15 years for equality on housework”

Telegraph Group Limited

Chernobyl "poses more risk than Fukushima" - PAU C.Valenciana 2011

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Comunidad Valenciana resueltos

Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images

The recent nuclear disaster at the Fukushima plant in Japan has been described as "the next Chernobyl" but Chernobyl itself poses an even greater threat, according to campaigners. Twenty-five years on from the accident, the sarcophagus hastily put in place to prevent further poisons seeping into the atmosphere is now crumbling. And this poses a great danger to the people of the region, according to Adi Roche, Chief Executive of Chernobyl Children International (CCI).

A quarter of the region is now unoccupiable and already 200,000 people have been displaced from their homes, but the nightmare may not be over for the people of Belarus.

In the aftermath of the explosion in 1986, emergency teams covered the stricken reactor with a massive steel and concrete structure to seal in the lethal mix of radioactive fuel and materials like concrete and sand that fused together in the 1986 blast. That has come to the end of its lifespan and must be replaced but, to date, nothing has been done.

"It is a crumbling sarcophagus", and "The next Chernobyl could be Chernobyl", said Ms Roche of the structure of nearly 700,000 tons of steel and 400,000 tons of concrete. She estimates that just three per cent of the radiation escaped in the original explosion -leaving 97% of the material "still rumbling away". She was "heartbroken" when the catastrophe struck at the Fukushima plant in Japan. She also pointed out immediately after the Japanese disaster, experts had said: "This is not Chernobyl". But now, weeks later: "It is Chernobyl".

Irish Independent, 22nd April, 2011, p. 13

Spain: No country for the young? - PAU C.Valenciana inglés 2011

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Comunidad Valenciana resueltos

During the last 10 years booming Spain was a magnet for immigrants, attracting 5 million foreigners. Now Spaniards are talking of a return to the mass emigration of 1960s, when 2 million left looking for jobs in northern Europe. "I only see jobs for exploited interns who earn €300 (£263) a month. That's barely enough to cover the costs of getting to work and back every day", said Luna, a Spanish graduate. "Opportunities are scarce in a country with youth unemployment over 40%".
The crucial difference between those leaving now and the manual labourers who sought work in Germany in the 1960s is that today's emigrants are mostly young graduates. It is no longer clear that a degree is useful in Spain's paralysed job market. Unemployment among graduates aged 29 or under is running at 19%, almost the same as the national average for all age groups, regardless of education.
Many graduates lie about their education when applying for work, worried that they will be rejected for being overqualified. And 44% of those who find work do so at below their skills level, twice the European average. The contrast with booming Germany, which is short of 48,000 engineers, could not be greater. Those graduates who have left say that opportunities are far more plentiful abroad. "Salaries, working hours, conditions and opportunities to advance in your career are far greater here", said 28-year-old Paula, who left Valencia five years ago and is now an IT consultant in Edinburgh.

Giles Tremlett, The Guardian, 28th March, 201

Scientists call for research on climate link to geological disasters

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Comunidad Valenciana resueltos

Source: Volcano facts

Scientists today called for research into whether more volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis could be triggered by rising global temperatures under global warming. Significant warming of the atmosphere in the distant past can be linked to changes in geological activity, they say. Suggestions that climate change predicted for coming decades could bring similar changes remain speculative, but the scientists say there is enough evidence to take the threat seriously.

Richard Betts, from Exeter, said: “It was previously assumed that there was no link at all between climate change and these events, but it is possible to speculate that climate change might make some events more likely. If we do get large amounts of climate change in the long term then we might see some impacts”.  
Experts say global warming could affect geological dangers such as earthquakes because of the way it can move large amounts of materials around on the Earth’s surface. Melting glaciers and rising sea levels affect the distribution of huge amounts of water, which release and increase pressures through the ground.
Research suggests that the Earth’s surface can sometimes be so close to failure that small changes in surface pressure provoked by heavy rain can produce earthquakes. Actually, tropical storms, snowfall and shifting tides have all been linked to shifts in seismic activity.
Bill McGuire, from University College London, says: “studies point towards increased risk in relation to a warmer world, and observations suggest that the rise in global temperatures may already be producing disasters in the earth’s surface”.

David Adam, The Guardian, 9th April, 2010

Are your kids awake? They're online - PAU C.Valenciana inglés 2011

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Comunidad Valenciana resueltos

The average young American now spends practically every waking minute —except for the time in school— using a smart phone, computer, television or other electronic device, according to a new study.

Those ages 8 to 18 spend more than seven and a half hours a day with such devices, compared with less than six and a half hours five years ago, when the study was last conducted. And that does not count the hour and a half that youths spend texting, or the half-hour they talk on their cell phones.

And because so many of them are multitasking —say, surfing the Internet while listening to music—

they pack on average nearly 11 hours of media content into that seven and a half hours.

The study’s findings shocked its authors, who had concluded in 2005 that use could not possibly grow further, and confirmed the fears of many parents whose children are constantly tethered to media devices. It found, moreover, that heavy media use is associated with behavior problems and lower grades.

The third in a series, the study found that young people’s media consumption grew far more in the last five years than from 1999 to 2004, as sophisticated mobile technology like iPods and smart phones brought media access into teenagers’ pockets and beds.

On average, young people spend about two hours a day consuming media on a mobile device, the study found. They spend almost another hour on “old” content like television or music delivered through newer pathways like the Web site Hulu or iTunes. Youths now spend more time listening to or watching media on their cell phones, or playing games, than talking on them.

Tamar Lewin The New York Times 21st January, 2010

Alert pizza delivery driver saves custumer's life - PAU Valencia 2012

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Comunidad Valenciana resueltos

Photo by: Eric McCandless / Disney Channel via People.com

A pizza delivery driver was called a hero on Monday after she likely saved an elderly woman's life. Before Monday's incident, most neighbors knew little about Memphis resident Jean Wilson, except that she's eaten pizza daily for the past three years. “We make her pizza every day before she even calls, because we know she's going to call,” delivery driver Susan Guy said. Guy often delivers Wilson's regular order, one large pepperoni pizza, but recently workers at her restaurant noticed an unusual break in the pattern. “She hadn't called in three days,” Guy said. “My boss told me about it today.” Guy insisted to her boss that she should be allowed to check on Wilson.
Guy drove to Wilson's house and knocked on her door, but no one answered. Then, she banged on Wilson's windows, but there was still no response. Running out of options, Wilson ran to neighbor Larry Comeaux's house for help. “The pizza lady came over and knocked on the door wanting to know if I'd seen the lady across the street,” Comeaux said. “And he said, 'No, maybe she's not home,'” Guy said. “And I said, 'Well, not home?' I said, 'How many times have you seen her leave?' And he said, 'Never.'” Guy quickly called 911. When police arrived, they broke down the door to Wilson's home, and found her lying on the floor inside.

They soon learned that Wilson had fallen on Saturday, and couldn't get over to a telephone to call for help. Investigators said it's possible that her pizza-only diet may have saved her life.

By Nick Kenney, 22 February, 2011 WMC-TV

Young turn to piracy to watch pay TV for free - PAU C.Valenciana 2012

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Comunidad Valenciana resueltos

Broadcasting analysts are predicting a fresh tide of television piracy with the launch of Sky Atlantic, the satellite channel that has bought the UK rights to many of America's most successful drama series.

Fans of popular US shows are already developing new, illicit ways of accessing episodes of the shows they love without the need to pay at least £20 a month to subscribe to Sky. While many non-subscription viewers are still happy to wait for the release of DVD box sets, younger audiences are already resorting to accessing episodes from illegal sites.

“If I have a good connection I will download a whole show in bits and see it whenever I like,” said Jake, from Bournemouth. “It is not about the money. It is about impatience and getting some power back.” Jake and his friends tend to watch television on the screens of their Macs, occasionally gathering together around a traditional TV set for live shows.

The trend is growing among those who are used to accessing music from pirate sites, says John Enser, a partner at media law firm Olswang. “Young people already know where to move from. And, broadly speaking, they know a legal site from an illegal one,” said Enser.

Yet the truth is that few who transgress will ever be fined, or even reprimanded. Broadcasters would not enjoy seeing their name linked to a legal action against a 12-year-old who has downloaded from the wrong place. As a result, the chances of any individual being pursued are tiny.

Adapted from an article by Vanessa Thorpe, The Observer, 6 February, 2011

McDonald’s boss dies suddenly - PAU C.Valenciana inglés 2004

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Comunidad Valenciana resueltos

The Chief executive of McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast-food chain, has died from a suspected heart attack. Jim Cantalupo, 60, was taken ill during a meeting of franchise owners in Orlando, Florida, the company said. His death is a severe blow to McDonald’s at a time when the chain is trying to shed its image as a supplier of high-fat, high-salt and high-sugar food. In his 16 months at the helm, Mr Cantalupo turned the company’s fortunes round. As well as slowing its breakneck expansion programme and closing hundreds of under-performing outlets, he tried to address criticisms that McDonald’s was contributing to the obesity epidemic in the US and Europe. When Mr Cantalupo became chairman and chief executive in January last year after a management shake-up, McDonald’s was in the doldrums.

Changing tastes, the mad cow disease scare and the perception that its menu was tired had hit sales, particularly in Europe and Asia. In December 2002, McDonald’s went into the red for the first time in its 48-year history. Mr Cantalupo, a former vice-chairman and president, who had retired a year earlier, was brought back as the new boss.

The Weekly Telegraph, Issue no. 666, p. 20.

Cours le matin et sport l'après-midi? PAU francés 2012

Exámenes selectividad francés resueltos Andalucía

Étudier le matin, puis se dépenser en faisant du sport l'après-midi. C'est l'expérience lancée depuis septembre 2010 dans une centaine de collèges et de lycées en France. Résultat? Des jeunes mieux dans leur corps, mais qui n'ont pas de meilleurs résultats scolaires. L'expérience concerne aujourd'hui 15 000 élèves de collège et de lycée. Le matin est consacré aux cours (entre 8 h et 14 h). L'après-midi au sport et aux activités culturelles. Le nombre d'heures de cours par semaine est le même que dans les classes dites «classiques». Cet aménagement de l'emploi du temps s'inspire du modèle de nos voisins allemands. Il est censé améliorer la réussite scolaire, la santé et le bien-être des élèves. Il doit également permettre de limiter les violences en apprenant l'esprit d'équipe et le goût de l'effort. Résultat? C'est bon pour le moral, mais pas forcément pour les notes. 50 % des parents, interrogés lors d'une étude, disent qu'ils n'ont pas vu de changement dans les notes scolaires de leurs enfants. Leurs résultats sont identiques. Les horaires aménagés n'empêchent pas non plus d’aller se promener au lieu d’aller en classe... Par contre, les élèves disent se sentir mieux dans leur corps. Leurs parents affirment aussi qu'ils ont une meilleure et plus saine hygiène de vie. Ils mangent plus, ils boivent davantage d'eau et dorment mieux. Leur santé s'améliore, ils semblent être plus heureux.

JDE 2012 (Texte adapté)

Zara - PAU C.Valenciana inglés 2005

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Comunidad Valenciana resueltos

Zara, the popular clothing chain, is known for stylish designs, many resembling those of the bigname

Italian fashion houses, sold at moderate prices. Yet if it finds that customers are coming in asking for, say, a rounded neck on a vest rather than the V-neck on display, a new version with the rounded neck can be in the store within about 10 days. If Jennifer Lopez appears in a beautiful new item, Zara can get a version of it into its stores in a matter of weeks, not months.

To do that, Amancio Ortega Gaona -the company’s chairman and one of the world’s wealthiest people-, built up an elaborate distribution structure over the years. Zara’s huge warehouse features customised sorting machines that can now handle 40,000 items an hour. Trucks deliver goods to Zara stores that are within 24 hours’ driving time; stores farther away are supplied by air.

Yet for all its technical expertise, quick delivery has its limits. Zara has just 10 stores in the United States, six of them in New York. To expand there, it may need to duplicate its manufacturing and distribution system in North America, perhaps in Mexico.

International Herald Tribune

June 1st 2003

Cleaner ruins 800,000€ artwork that she thought was dirty - PAU 2012

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Comunidad Valenciana resueltos

Recreation of First Public Demonstration of Auto-Destructive Art

An overzealous cleaner in Germany has ruined a piece of modern art worth 800,000€ after mistaking it for an eyesore that needed a good scrub.
The sculpture, by Martin Kippenberger, had been on loan to the Ostwall Museum in Dortmund. The work, called When It Starts Dripping from the Ceiling, comprised a rubber bucket. Inside the bucket, Kippenberger had spread a layer of paint representing dried rainwater. He thought it was art, but the cleaner saw it as a challenge, and set about making the bucket look like new and removed the patina from the four walls of the bucket. "It is now impossible to return it to its original state", a spokeswoman for the museum said. She said that cleaning crews had been told to keep 20cm away from artworks, but it was unclear if the woman had received the memo.
But Kippenberger is not the only artist to have his works ruined by cleaners. In 1986, a "grease stain" by Joseph Beuys valued at about 400,000€ was mopped away at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf.
In 2004, a cleaner at Tate Britain in London threw away part of a work by another German artist, Gustav Metzger, after mistaking it for rubbish. The cleaner failed to realise that a plastic bag containing discarded paper and cardboard was an integral part of Recreation of First Public Demonstration of Auto-Destructive Art, and not just some litter. The bag was later recovered, but it was too damaged to display, so Metzger replaced it with another bag.

Adapted from an article published in guardian.co.uk, 3 November 2011

What the Titanic means today - PAU C.Valenciana inglés 2012

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Comunidad Valenciana resueltos

A century ago, on an April night in the cold waters of the North Atlantic, a world came to an end. When RMS Titanic struck that iceberg and sank, killing 1,500 people, the disaster became one of those few truly landmark events before which things were one way and after which things were quite another.
The great lesson of the disaster is that no matter how smart we think we are, how skilled and how technologically advanced, we remain at the mercy of events beyond our control.
Writing in 1955, Walter Lord understood the significance of the subject in A Night to Remember. “The Titanic marked the end of a general feeling of confidence. Until then men felt they had found the answer to a steady and civilized life. For 100 years the Western world had been at peace, technology had steadily improved and the benefits of peace and industry seemed to be filtering satisfactorily through society. The Titanic woke them up. Never again would they be quite so sure of themselves.”
It seems fair to argue that the 20th century really began the night the Titanic sank. Two years later came the Great War, and the tragedy of Versailles, and the rise of Hitler, and the splitting of the atom, and so on.
Yet perhaps the most interesting part of the centennial of the Titanic for us now lies in the fact that technology, like any other human endeavor, is flawed and subject to disaster. We can never innovate nor create ourselves totally out of harm’s way.

Time, 13 April 2012

Rien qu'une rumeur . PAU francés 2012

La semaine dernière, plusieurs centaines de lycéens sont descendus dans la rue. Ils protestent contre la suppression d'un mois de vacances. Une suppression qui n'est rien qu’une rumeur.

Encore une fois, Internet a prouvé sa puissance de nuisance. La semaine dernière, une rumeur s'est propagée sur les réseaux sociaux (Facebook, Twitter…) et par SMS. Cette rumeur disait que le gouvernement se préparait à supprimer un mois de vacances scolaires. Cette rumeur est fausse.
Pourtant, ils sont nombreux à l'avoir crue, notamment parmi les lycéens. Résultat, plusieurs milliers d'entre eux sont descendus dans la rue. Ces manifestations, et les débordements qui les accompagnent parfois, ont eu lieu toute la semaine dernière.
La seule chose qui soit vraie dans cette information, c'est que le gouvernement réfléchit à l'aménagement du temps de travail à l'école. Il a envisagé de raccourcir de deux semaines les vacances d'été, mais rien n'est décidé. Pas de panique!

JDE le 3 octobre 2011