Beauty over youth- PAU Madrid 2002

>Exámenes selectividad inglés resueltos C. Madrid

From the countless music videos portraying young healthy-looking beauties to a flourishing cosmetics industry that promises slow aging, women are led to believe that men primarily prefer youth to beauty. But a new study from Britain suggests that men go for older attractive women rather than younger plain-looking ones.
The new study by a psychologist of Chiterns University College shows that up to a certain age, men find attractiveness more important than youth when considering potential mates. The psychologist took a photo of a 36-year-old woman who was very attractive in the eyes of a group of men. They showed the picture to three other groups in their early 20s along with the same eight pictures of women aged 20-45 who had been considered less attractive. The researchers told the group the beautiful woman was either 36, 41 or 45 years old. When asked who they'd prefer as a long-term partner, all three groups of men chose her, regardless of how old they thought she was.

The study shows that beauty counts and that men are not concerned with the number of children they can have. The younger, plainer women will give them more children, but the fact that men are going for the "aging beauty" is indicative that beauty is more important at some level. But the psychologist also stressed that the study was based only on physical attractiveness and didn't take into account other characteristic traits like kindness, generosity, and caring, which were just as, if not more important, in determining long-term relationships.

RESPUESTAS

I. READING COMPREHENSION

1.- Are the following statements TRUE or FALSE? Write down the evidence from the text. No marks are given for only TRUE or FALSE. 

A)    During the experiment, each group of men saw a different set of pictures.

• FALSE: "They showed the picture to three other groups in their early 20s along with the same eight pictures of women aged 20-45 who had been considered less attractive".

B)    All the men thought that the beautiful 36-year-old woman would be their first choice.

• TRUE: "The researchers told the group the beautiful woman was either 36, 41 or 45 years old. When asked who they'd prefer as a long-term partner, all three groups of men chose her (...)".

2.- In your own words and based on the ideas from the text, answer the following questions.

A)    Why do women think that men find youth more important than beauty? PAR.1

B)   What does new research show about the way men consider women as potential mothers? PAR.3

II. USE OF ENGLISH

3.-Find the words in the text that mean. 

A)    numerous (paragraph 1)  > countless

B)    above all (paragraph 1) > primary

C)    consider (paragraph 3) > take into account

D)    lasting (paragraph 3) > long-term

4.- Complete the following sentences. Use the appropriate form of the word in brackets when given. 

A)    Although Mary does not worry about her age, I think she is not young enough to have a baby now.

B)     The study was done (do) in 2000, and its findings have been valid since then.

C)    Dr Feldman is the psychologist who has conducted this study. He has been (be) working on specific areas of human behaviour for ten years.

D)    Thank you for helping (help) me with the research. All of you are invited to a party on Saturday. It will be at Tony's, the biggest (big) pub in town.

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