Museums are the new churches - PAU inglés 2016 Andalucía

>Exámenes selectividad inglés resueltos Andalucía 

Across the United States, arts institutions are in the middle of a building boom. About twelve museums have been built in the past year. That means twelve temples devoted to art in a single year. Near the end of the 1990s, Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao marked the beginning of a new era of museums designed by star architects. Churches and cathedrals once stood at the top of the architectural hierarchy, but today the museum is the building that every renowned architect dreams of designing. Besides, only a museum can attract the sort of budget that used to be reserved for cathedrals in the past.
Art museums are the new churches not because the role of the church has declined in recent centuries and something had to fill the gap. The new status of museum architecture is rather a reflection of how art has changed over the years. Before the 18th Century, non-religious art could only be found in palaces and lacked any public function. By the 19th Century, museums were meant to serve as places for ethical and social improvement. But, in the 20th Century, aesthetic contemplation became a virtue in itself, and museum architecture changed accordingly. That is why modern museums are marked by pure, white walls and by giant spaces that, like the nave of a basilica, make visitors seem small in comparison.
Art has imitated religion in other ways too. These days, we frequently use religious language when talking about art. We make “pilgrimages” to museums in far-off places. We experience “transcendence” before major paintings. And, of course, Sunday is the busiest day of the week for most art museums.

PAU 2015 Cantabria. Train to take you from Los Angeles to San Francisco in three hours

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Everyone’s talking about California's high-speed rail project – a $68 billion network that could zip passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than three hours. Construction of the first phase of the line will begin next year in the Central Valley, a 28-mile stretch from Madera to Fresno. In future years, the rail line will stretch north to San Jose and south to Palmdale and the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles. The whole network might not be completed until 2028.

The project has been surrounded by controversy. Some have said even though the nation’s first bullet train will take a quarter of the time it currently takes, it will still not be fast enough to attract sufficient customers.

Others have said the price tag is too high. Yet officials at California’s High-Speed Rail Authority say it is still cheaper than building dozens of new airport runways and highways to accommodate a state population that is estimated to reach 46 million by 2035.

At a special ceremony in Fresno on Tuesday, California Governor Jerry Brown compared the rail line to the construction of the great cathedrals of Europe, which took generations. “The high-speed rail links us from the past to the future, from the south to the north,” he said. “It's not that expensive. We cannot really afford not to build it.

All these projects are a little controversial. You’ll always have some critics say why spend all this money?”

Last year, two government transport officials from the state, Brian Kelly and Mary Nichols, wrote in a newspaper article that the only genuine alternative to the high-speed train was to invest up to $150 billion to build 4,300 new lanes of highway, more freeways and hundreds of new airport gates and runways. They added: “This would cover large parts of the state with concrete and asphalt.”

By car, the journey takes at least six-and-a-half hours in optimum traffic conditions, and can cost about as much depending on the type of car, fuel and highway tolls. The high-speed train tickets will be similar to the cost of air travel, promoters say, and deliver people to central stations, saving more time and money.

The Independent, 7 January 2015 (Adapted)

PAU 2015 inglés. E-Cigarettes increase the risk of flu and pneumonia

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Using electronic cigarettes may harm the body’s defences against pneumonia and flu, according to a recent study. The research, which reopens the debate on the dangers and benefits of e-cigarettes, suggests the vapour produced by the devices can compromise the immune system in the lungs, leaving them more vulnerable to infection by harmful bacteria and viruses.

Scientists from John Hopkins University exposed mice to e-cigarette vapour twice a day for two weeks.

They then administered some of the mice with an influenza virus and others with the bacteria which is responsible for pneumonia. The mice that had been exposed to the vapour were less able to fight off illness, and some died. Professor Shyam Biswal, senior author of the study, said the findings suggested that e-cigarettes are not neutral in terms of the effects on the lungs and that studies should now be carried out on people, particularly those with common lung problems which often affect smokers and ex-smokers – the main users of e-cigarettes.

It is true that e-cigarettes have been shown to be highly effective in helping smokers to quit, and there is a broad consensus that despite some uncertainty over their health impact, they are less harmful than tobacco cigarettes but Professor Biswal remains concerned e-cigarettes could pose risks to future generations, particularly given evidence from some countries that they are becoming more popular among young people who have never smoked.

He has recommended to the World Health Organisation that they be banned in indoor public spaces – a measure the Department of Health in England has ruled out, but which is being considered by the Welsh government.

However, Professor John Britton from the UK said the most important point was that harm to the lungs was less from e-cigarettes than from tobacco. “The lung is an exquisitely delicate organ and therefore nobody with any common sense would believe that inhaling heated vapour many times a day would be harmless,” he said. “What matters here is not a comparison of the effects of e-cigarette vapour compared with nothing, but the effects compared with those of tobacco smoke. Harm to the lungs will be less with electronic cigarettes than tobacco cigarettes, and any smoker who cannot quit using nicotine, and doesn’t find medicinal products effective, would be well advised to try an electronic cigarette.”

The Guardian, 4 February 2015 (Adapted).

How Facebook affects us - PAU 2015

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Two recent studies have revealed amazing facts about how Facebook affects its users. The first study, carried out by researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has shown that being envious of Facebook friends can cause depression and that looking through the site to compare achievements with those of friends can have a very detrimental effect on a person`s mental health. Margaret Duffy explains, "Facebook can be a fun and healthy activity if users take advantage of the site to stay connected with family and old friends and to share interesting and important aspects of their lives. However, using it to see how well an acquaintance is doing financially or how happy an old friend is in his relationship can lead to feelings of depression."

Duffy and a colleague based in Singapore surveyed 700 students for the paper, published in the journal ‘Computers in Human Behaviour’. She went on to say, "Facebook can be a very positive resource for many people, but if it is used as a way to compare your own accomplishments against others, it can have a negative effect. It is important for Facebook users to be aware of these risks so they can avoid this kind of behaviour when using Facebook."

A second study, completely independent from the first, has shown that a computer can be better at assessing someone’s basic personality than close friends or family. A study of more than 86,000 users of Facebook has demonstrated the power of intelligent machines to predict an individual’s character based on what they have listed as their “Likes.”

Researchers said that the day when computers are able to judge a person’s personality accurately has almost arrived and even suggested that science fiction films like “Her”, based on a man’s emotional attachment to an intelligent computer, are closer than we think. In the future, computers could be able to infer our psychological characteristics and react accordingly in an emotionally-intelligent way. “People may choose to change their own intuitions and judgements with this kind of data analysis when making important life decisions such as choosing activities, career paths or even romantic partners,” said Wu Youyou of Cambridge University.

The Independent, 12 January and 4 February 2015 (Adapted)

Do young people care about learning foreign languages? - PAU 2015 inglés Cantabria

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Do young people in the UK care about learning languages? Fewer students than ever are choosing to study a language degree at university, and since 2004, taking a language at GCSE* has not been compulsory, so the simple answer would seem to be no. This is disconcerting news for a country which is not exactly famous for its multilingualism.

However, research conducted by the organisation ICM paints a far more complex picture of youth attitudes in the UK. Those choosing to study languages may have dropped, but of the 1001 young people between the ages of 14-24 interviewed in the survey, almost 20% already speak another language at home with their family, and 70% would be interested in learning another language in the future.

When asked to pick the three main benefits of learning a language, students said that job prospects at home and abroad were both key incentives. Learning about another culture and the experience of communicating also scored highly in this section. So if languages offer you the ability to make new friends and work abroad, why are young people put off? Asked to pick the three main downsides of learning a language, the difficulty of the learning process was an important reason but the idea that they were less interesting than other subjects came top for our young interviewees. Interestingly, low confidence levels in speaking another language also played a role in this decision.

Asking interviewees to comment on their ability in the language they had studied at school provided perhaps the most revealing piece of data from the survey. For most of the languages, students don’t perceive themselves to be progressing past basic language levels. The survey suggested that the opportunity to use a language outside the classroom and communicate with native speakers would make language learning more attractive. As for teaching inside the classroom, young people want more interaction, and more technology.

November 2014, The Guardian (Adapted).

• *GCSE – General Certificate of Secondary Education (in the UK)

PAU Galicia 2015 inglés - The Polite Society

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Galicia resueltos

When  was  the  last  time  you  stopped  to  have  a  friendly  chat  with  your  neighbour,  or  paused  to open  the door for someone, or gave up your seat on the bus to an elderly person? If you have to stop to think, then it was too long ago.

Ian Gregory, the founder of the Polite Society, is the sort of person who does it every day and thinks that the world would be a better place if we all did the same. What we need, he says, is a touch more courtesy. Our society is full of rude, inconsiderate and selfish people who wouldn’t give you the time of day even if your life depended on it. He’s absolutely right, of course, but isn’t that “a sign of the times”? Well,  he  thinks there is  something  that  is  going  wrong  with  the  way  we  live  our  lives  and  interact  with one another, especially  on  the  roads,  where  an  estimated  47  per  cent  of  accidents  can  be  traced  back  to some act of discourtesy.
There is nothing that legislation can do about this; there’s nothing that money can do about it either. You can’t impose a personality on a nation and say: “Well, let’s all be nicer to one another”. But the only way you  are going  to  get  anything  effective  done  about  it  is  if  you  persuade  enough  people  that  they  can  be happier, more successful individuals if they are more considerate to one another in their business, in their love lives, in their family lives, in everything.
You  see,  we  are  brilliant  at  discovering  things,  learning  how  to  use  computers,  etc.,  but  in  terms  of behaviour towards one another we are no better than cavemen.

PAU inglés Galicia 2015 - Attitudes towards Britain and the British

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Galicia resueltos

The  British  Council  recently  conducted  a  31-nation  survey  (including  Spain)  of  attitudes towards Britain and the British, as part of the British Government’s efforts to improve the UK’s image  overseas.  In  general  the  attitudes  of  people  in  Africa,  the  Middle  East  and  South  Asia were  quite  positive,  but  those  in  Western  Europe  and  East  Asia  gave  more  critical  responses. However,  all  areas  agreed  on  Britain’s  most  famous  representatives:  David  Beckham,  Hugh Grant and Mr Bean.

In  Spain people  were  more  critical  than  in  other  countries  when  asked  about  Britain.  As  far  as British  people  are  concerned,  Spanish  attitudes  were  positive  in  some  aspects  and  negative  in others.  On  one  hand  they  seemed  to  think  that  the  British  are  honest,  fair, hardworking  and loyal,  but,  on  the  other  hand  they  regarded  them  as  being  rather  conservative,  a  little  bit  dull, and not terribly friendly, particularly to people from other countries and cultures. The country’s main  strengths  were  felt  to  be  the  English language, the nation’s stable economy and its legal, government and education systems. The country’s higher education system, its universities and colleges,  were  well thought of and most Spanish people believe  that if they  go to the UK, they will  get  a  good academic experience in the universities and colleges there. Britain’s art world was widely praised, especially because of its tremendous capacity for innovation.
Contrary  to  people  from other  countries,  the  Spanish  are  more  or  less  aware  of  the  differences between the four countries that make up the United Kingdom. Scotland (whose key images were mountains,  kilts  and  whisky)  was  the  most  recognised,  ahead  of  England  (best  known  for London,  the  Royal  Family  and  the  Tower  of London),  Wales  (the  Prince  of Wales,  castles  and rugby) and Northern Ireland (violence and the IRA).

PAU Galicia 2015 - Kirkland, the most desirable place to live in the USA

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Galicia resueltos

Kirkland,  in  Western  Seattle,  has  been  voted  the  most  desirable  place  to  live  in  the  United  States. Seattle’s  eastside  suburbs  are  a  pleasant  mass  of good  schools,  great  jobs  and  family-friendly neighborhoods. Kirkland has  all  that, while also offering  a unique, lively downtown on  the shores of Lake Washington.

From Kirkland’s beaches on the lake you can see the Seattle skyline, but there’s no need to go to the big city to have fun. Even on a weeknight, the downtown restaurants and sidewalks are full. “Kirkland is definitely a hotspot right now,” says Kristi Caggiano, 42, who moved to town 14 years ago. She lives near downtown with her husband, daughter and 10-year-old son, and says the family can walk to the market, local shops, pool and library. “The school system is fantastic,” Kristi says, “and we are going to send our daughter to a high school which is going to open right next to our house.” This is just one of several schools that will open in the near future. Her son’s elementary school has a well-attended  choir  program,  and  every  child  has  a  chance  to  take  swimming  lessons.  Also,  25%  of Kirkland’s total area is made up of parks. Some of these have sandy beaches and attractions for kids. 

“There’s always something to do,” says Caggiano. Residents report that Kirkland’s proximity to Google and Microsoft offices is attracting a lot more young  people  and  families.  Google  now  employs  about  800  people,  and  has  announced  plans  to double the size of its Kirkland offices by 2016. The town is seeing many other new business start-ups.

The  good  job  market  means  reasonably-priced housing is in short supply. “It’s a problem we are hoping to solve soon, but we’re not there yet,” says real estate agent Brenda Nunes. A three-bedroom home averages $440,000. 

PAU inglés Galicia 2015 - Once upon a time, fashion was only for the rich

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Galicia resueltos

Once upon a time, fashion was only for the rich. Paris was the centre of the fashion world, and everyone else  tried  to  copy  the  top  French  designers.  But  now,  fashion  is  a  much  more  international  matter. London,  like  other  big  European  cities,  has  a  large  number  of  its  own  talented  and  hard-working designers.

Anyway,  many  people,  especially  the  young, take  no  notice  of the  clothes  the  designers produce.  They wear  things  which  express  their  ideas  and  feelings  about  life.  They  use  fashion  like  a  kind  of  uniform. Take hairstyles, for example. If a boy has very short, almost shaven hair, people expect him to have right-wing politics whereas they expect boys with very long hair to have left-wing politics. A boy who wears a leather jacket covered in bits of metal will probably ride a motorbike, and a girl who wears Laura Ashley dresses will probably have middle-class ideas.

Some young people, of course, have fun with all the latest “street styles”. They cut their hair into strange shapes, wear lots of cheap jewellery, cut holes in their trousers to make them look old, or paint their lips blue. These “street styles” come and go, and are not the creation of the big fashion designers, who, in fact, often use ideas from street fashions when they make their own designs. Many young people simply try to look  as  clean  and  tidy  as  possible,  particularly  when  looking  for  a  job,  in  order  to  produce  a  good impression  on  possible  employers.  Clothes  with  a  sporty  look  are  popular,  as  they  make  people  look healthy and energetic.

Most British people are possibly not very fashion-conscious. Even the richest and most important people frequently wear old and untidy clothes, and, of course, only a very few can afford designer clothes.

Imaginary friends – Why more children have one now - PAU 2015

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

When journalist Eleanor Tucker was at primary school in the 1970s, she had a friend. He wasn't a child and he wasn't a girl. He was in his 30s, he had a beard and his name was Klas.

She explains: “Klas was my imaginary friend. He wasn't about all the time, because he lived near my grandmother in a white house by the station, about half an hour's drive from ours. But as I grew up, he was often mentioned and even blamed for some mistakes I made. If I talked when nobody was around, it was to Klas. If I sometimes played without my sister, I was playing with Klas. It seemed quite normal at the time to have an imaginary friend but lots of things pass for normal when you're a kid. By the time I went to secondary school, Klas had stopped visiting. I filed him away under “the past” and forgot about him, until a book I read recently made me think of him again.”

The author of the book is Nikki Sheehan, and as part of her research, she discovered that rather than being an outdated phenomenon, imaginary friends might actually be more common nowadays. But why? First, it's probably just a more accurate representation of the way that children play. “For most of the 20th century the general idea was that imaginary playmates were a sign of insecurity, so people may have been less inclined to admit to having an imaginary friend.” Sheehan also suggests that within smaller family units, children these days are more likely to play in a certain solitary way, which creates an environment that is welcoming to imaginary friends.

Imaginary friends come in a huge range of guises, as educational psychologist Karen Majors discovered.

They might be smaller versions of the children themselves; humans or sometimes animals; based on real people or TV characters; single or multiple; and varied in terms of gender, age and temperament. In general, girls often create imaginary friends who need taking care of, but the characters impersonated by boys are often “super competent” and might be a representation of the child's own aspirations.

(28.02.2014 The Guardian, Adapted).

Cats recognise their owners' voices but never evolved to care- PAU 2015

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Any cat owner will tell you that although they are sometimes kept as pets, felines are friends to no one. A new study from the University of Tokyo has confirmed this, showing that although pet cats are more than capable of recognising their owner’s voice they choose to ignore them - for reasons that are perhaps rooted in the evolutionary history of the animal.

The study tested twenty housecats in their own homes, waiting until the owner was out of sight and then playing them recordings of three strangers calling their names, followed by their owner, followed by another stranger. The researchers then analysed the cats’ responses to each call by measuring a number of factors including ear, tail and head movement, vocalization, eye dilation and finally whether or not the cats moved towards the voice. When hearing their names being called the cats generally moved their heads and ears about to locate where the sound was coming from. Although they showed a greater response to their owner’s voice than to strangers’, they declined to move when called by any of the people.

“These results indicate that cats do not actively respond with communicative behaviour to owners who are calling them from out of sight, even though they can distinguish their owners’ voices,” wrote the researcher. “This cat–owner relationship is in contrast to that with dogs. Historically speaking, cats, unlike dogs, have not been domesticated to obey humans’ orders. Rather, they seem to take the initiative in human–cat interaction.” This is in contrast to the history of dogs and humans, where the former has been bred over thousands of years to respond to commands. Cats, it seems, never needed to learn.

However, it's unlikely that this will dismay cat owners (or indeed, be of any surprise) and the paper notes that although “dogs are perceived by their owners as being more affectionate than cats, dog owners and cat owners do not differ significantly in their reported attachment level to their pets”.

(27.11.2013 The Independent)

Do aliens really exist? - PAU Madrid 2015 inglés resuelto

>Exámenes selectividad inglés resueltos C. Madrid

“Alien” is a word used to refer to beings from other worlds. Do aliens exist on Earth? No one knows the answer for sure, but it is a question that has been debated for ages. If history is to be believed, aliens have been a subject of mysticism in civilizations of places such as India, China, Babylon, South America and Arabia. The external appearance of aliens is also a much discussed matter: they have been depicted as green monsters, small creatures with arms and legs like humans, tiny viruses or beings that change appearance at will.

Many people nowadays, including well-known scientists such as Carl Sagan or Frank Drake, are tireless propagators of the theory that aliens are in fact regular visitors to Earth. This theory is supported by many reported alien sightings. For example, a person waiting at St Martin airport claimed to see fire in the sky; the fire suddenly transformed into a silver ball, moved over him like a jet and vanished in a few seconds. And two brothers in Chile said that they saw a humanoid creature about 80 cm tall, shiny and red, who resembled a child wearing a driver’s suit. 

However, others believe that aliens are just figments of imagination. This view also has scientists on its side, such as Enrico Fermi. He proposed the famous “Fermi paradox”, which states that there is an apparent contradiction between the strong belief in the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the present lack of solid evidence for, or contact with, such civilizations.

Putting the two views together, we cannot be sure if aliens are real unless and until we have strong evidence about their existence.

È morta Whitney Houston - PAU Madrid 2015

È  morta  nel  giorno  dei  Grammy,  alla  vigilia  degli  Oscar  della  Musica:  Whitney  Houston,  48  anni,  una pioggia di statuette, 170 milioni di dischi venduti e una vita da diva che da anni era diventata un inferno, non  ce  l'ha  fatta  a  sopravvivere  alla  sua  fama  in  declino.  La  Regina  del  Pop,  la  Voce,  come era  stata nominata. Ma non solo. Anche il Corpo della Musica, lo splendido corpo di "The Bodyguard", il film che ne  ha  incastonato  la  carriera  prima  che  la  depressione  e  la  droga strangolassero  la  sua  voce  e  la  sua anima.
Whitney  si  trovava  a  Los  Angeles per  partecipare  a  un  evento  collegato  alla  consegna  dei  Grammy.  Il corpo  senza  vita  è  stato  trovato  nella  sua  stanza  d'albergo  al  quarto  piano  del  Beverly  Hilton  hotel,  a Beverly Hills.
Leggendari i suoi successi, da "How Will I Know" a "I Will Always Love You", così come le battaglie con l'alcol e gli stupefacenti. E nel mito dello showbusiness è già entrato il suo matrimonio con Bobby Brown, anche quello tempestoso come la sua carriera.
"Withney, riposa in pace, non ci sarà mai più un'altra come te": così, sulla sua pagina Facebook, Lenny Kravitz ha aperto i necrologi vip.

(L’Espresso)

Lesen: Buch oder Internet? - PAU 2015 Madrid alemán

Im  Laufe  des  letzten  Jahres  war viel  von  der  mangelnden Lesekompetenz der österreichischen SchülerInnen  die  Rede.  Daher wurde  auch  in  den  Medien  viel  zu  diesem Thema  geschrieben.

Das Ergebnis: Jugendliche lesen nicht schlechter, sondern anders.

Befunde zur  Lesekompetenz  und Lesebereitschaft,  Lesearten  und Lesegewohnheiten  sind  im Umbruch.  Lesen  gilt  heute  als Basistechnik  in  der Multimediagesellschaft,  die Bedeutung  des Lesens  wächst  im  Zeitalter  der  neuen  Medien.  Die  Lesezeit  für  Bücher  und Zeitungen  sinkt (zwar nicht dramatisch, aber doch deutlich). Dafür steigt aber die Lesezeit in den neuen Medien: Jugendliche  lesen  Texte  im  Internet;  sie  surfen,  chatten,  e-mailen  und  downloaden.  Aber auch Medien  wie  CD-ROMs,  Computerspiele  (samt  Gebrauchsanweisung),  das  Handy  (SMS)  oder CD-Covers  erfordern  Lesekompetenz  und  werden  gelesen.  Hypertext  lesen  stellt  sogar  höhere Anforderungen  an  die  Lesefähigkeit  als  das  traditionelle  lineare  Lesen  (reine  Schrifttexte Buchstabe  für  Buchstabe,  von  links  oben  nach  rechts  unten),  das  im  Alltag  immer  weniger wichtig  wird.  Anstelle  dessen  tritt  multimediales,  mehrkanaliges  Lesen:  Text,  Bild,  Logo,  Ton, Grafik,  Filmelemente treten kombiniert auf und müssen gleichzeitig erfasst und gelesen werden;  Texte werden –etwa im Internet– nicht mehr kontinuierlich dargeboten, sondern müssen durch Links als Hypertext vom Leser selbst zusammengestellt werden. Aber Eins zeichnet sich klar ab: Lesen in Zukunft heißt nicht „Buch oder Internet“, sondern „Buch und Internet“.

Die  Jugendlichen  sind  auf  die  Herausforderungen  dieses  neuen  Lesezeitalters  generell  gut vorbereitet,  Lesekompetenz  und  Lesebereitschaft  sind  besser  als  oft  in  Vorurteilen  behauptet.

Die  heutige Jugend liest nicht schlechter als frühere Generationen, auch  nicht  weniger, sie  liest anders.

Payés par la Nasa pour rester au lit pendant 10 semaines - PAU 2015

>Exámenes selectividad francés Madrid resueltos

L’agence  américaine  cherche  à  tester  la  résistance  du  corps  à  un  long  voyage  dans l ́espace. Une expérience qui ne sera pas de tout repos.

Cela  ressemble  au  travail  le  moins  stressant  du  monde:  rester  couché  pendant  dix semaines à lire, à regarder la télévision ou à surfer sur Internet. C ́est ce qu’a proposé la Nasa en  ouvrant  les inscriptions sur son site Internet. L’agence  spatiale  américaine  souhaite  évaluer les conséquences sur le corps humain d’un long voyage dans l’espace, en position allongée.

Construits  sur mesure pour les besoins de l’expérience,  les  lits  seront  inclinés  de  six degrés,  tête  en  bas.  Assez  pour  provoquer  un  léger  stress  cardio-vasculaire  proche  de celui ressenti par les astronautes dans l’espace. L’objectif: évaluer les effets de la microgravité sur le corps, pour mieux préparer de futurs vols spatiaux.

« Les  volontaires vont voir leurs muscles s’atrophier  progressivement,  tout  comme  leur densité musculaire », confie  le  docteur  Cromwell.  Maux  de  tête,  nausées,  nez  bouché*, ... les  symptômes d’une longue position allongée sont nombreux. Les amateurs de poses paresseuses sur  leur  canapé  ne sont  donc  pas  les  candidats idéaux.

« Nous  cherchons  des  gens  en excellente santé, physiquement et mentalement », insiste le porte-parole de l’agence spatiale.

Les quelques volontaires ne resteront pas immobiles. Ils devront mimer certaines activités des astronautes: s’extraire  d ́un  véhicule,  déplacer  des  objets  lourds,  etc.  Une  douche  mobile, une séance quotidienne de massage, recevoir des visites devraient rendre le séjour un peu plus plaisant.

D’après Le figaro. fr,2013

Un alpiniste découvre un trésor sur un glacier du Mont-Blanc - PAU 2015

>Exámenes selectividad francés Madrid resueltos

Un jeune alpiniste a découvert pour plusieurs dizaines de milliers d ́euros de pierres précieuses  sur  un glacier du  Mont-Blanc,  provenant probablement  du crash d’un avion indien vieux d’un demi-siècle.

Les  pierres  précieuses,  des émeraudes,  saphirs  et  rubis,  ont été  remises  à  la gendarmerie de Bourg-Saint-Maurice (Savoie). Leur valeur a été estimée entre 130.000 et 246.000 euros par un joaillier local. Le jeune alpiniste, qui souhaite garder l’anonymat, les a découvertes alors qu’il évoluait sur le glacier des Bossons.

Il a aperçu une boîte métallique. À l ́intérieur, se trouvaient des petits sachets, dont certains  portaient  la mention  « Made  in  India »,  contenant  les  pierres  précieuses.  « C’est un  jeune  homme  honnête  qui a  très vite  compris que ça appartenait à quelqu’un  qui  était mort  sur  le  glacier. Il  aurait  pu  garder ça pour  lui,  mais  il  a  préféré  les  amener  à  la gendarmerie », a expliqué Sylvain Merly, commandant de la compagnie d’Albertville.

Deux  avions  indiens  se  sont  écrasés  sur  le  Mont-Blanc  en  1950  et  1966.  Depuis, les  alpinistes découvrent régulièrement des morceaux d’avion,  des  valises  ou  même  des restes   humains.   En août 2012,   deux alpinistes avaient   ainsi   découvert   une   valise diplomatique qu’ils avaient remise aux autorités indiennes.

Dans  le  cas  des  pierres  précieuses,  « si  on  ne  retrouve  pas  le  propriétaire,  un article  de  loi prévoit  que  ça  pourrait  revenir  au  jeune  alpiniste ». Les  autorités  françaises devraient prendre contact avec les autorités indiennes afin de retrouver le propriétaire.

D ́après Libération, 26 septembre 2013

Cup of tea? - PAU Madrid 2015 inglés resuelto

>Exámenes selectividad inglés resueltos C. Madrid

Tea  is  a  huge  part  of  British  culture  and  heritage.  They  treasure  tea  breaks, teacakes,  tea  parties,  afternoon  teas  and  high  tea.  And  despite  the  increase  in coffee houses, tea remains their preferred beverage. So much so, they consume over 165 million cups of it every day.

Tea  was  a  relative  latecomer  to  British  shores.  Although  it  dates  back  to  the third millennium BC in China, it wasn’t until the mid-17th century  that  the beverage  made  its  appearance  in  England.  Samuel  Pepys  first  mentioned drinking  tea  in  his  journal  entry  for  September  1660.  Since  Pepys  was  a member  of  the  wealthy  and  fashionable  London  set,  his  failure  to  mention  tea earlier suggests that it was still unusual at that time.

Yet  it  became  known  in  Europe  very  quickly  after  its  introduction  there.  Two years  later  King  Charles  II  married  Catherine  of  Braganza.  Catherine  was  a Portuguese  princess,  and  a  tea  addict,  and  it  was  her  love  of  the drink  that established it as a fashionable beverage at court and among the wealthy classes.

Tea was particularly interesting to the Western world because it was very easy to  prepare  and  it  revived  the  spirits  and  cured  mild  colds.  In  fact,  in  the  18th century tea was thought to be a wonder cure for all manner of illnesses. It even played  a  big  part in the  Industrial  Revolution  because  the  stimulants  increased the number of hours labourers could work in factories.

Nowadays, whatever the occasion, the nation puts on the kettle for a cup of tea. It’s a drink that cheers and consoles, and it’s good for health and well-being.

Soap operas - PAU Madrid 2015

>Exámenes selectividad inglés resueltos C. Madrid

Watching  TV  is  a  very  popular  pastime  in  Britain,  but  what  kind  of programmes  do  British people  like  to  watch?  Well,  the  most-watched  TV programmes  are  dramas  based  in  one  neighbourhood  that  try  to  depict ordinary life. We call these dramas “soap operas” or “soaps”.

Most soap operas these days are shown in the evening. Each show will have several  different  storylines  happening  at  once  that  continue  over  several shows.  The  same  actors  will  appear  in  every  show  too.  There  are  lots  of different  soaps  on  in  the  UK  these  days,  but  there  are  three  main  popular

ones.

Coronation  Street has  been  on  since  1960.  It  is  set  in  a  suburb  of Manchester and it’s supposed to represent working class life in the north of England. Then there’s Eastenders, which started in 1985, set in the East End of London. And we should not forget Emmerdale, which is set on a farm in Yorkshire, in the north of England.

In  the  early  days  of  TV,  most  of  these  daytime  dramas  were  aimed  at entertaining  the housewives  who  would  traditionally  be  at  home,  probably doing the washing. Companies selling washing powder would advertise their products   at   times   when   these   dramas   were   on,   and sometimes   those companies would even sponsor the drama. Hence the word “soap”. So what about the word “opera”? Well, that’s because these dramas are often an exaggeration of real life. They are supposed to represent ordinary lives but, to  make  them  entertaining,  lots  of  dramatic  events,  like  murders, divorces, affairs,  etc.,  all happen  probably much  more  regularly than  they would in a normal neighbourhood.

Legal doesn't mean right - PAU inglés Andalucía 2002 resuelto

>Exámenes selectividad inglés resueltos Andalucía

I had a liberal upbringing, growing up in Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s. I was free to go where I pleased, bicycling alone almost everywhere from the age of 12. I was never warned against drugs, underage sex, subversive television or dangerous strangers. There was a nun who told us we should never visit a man’s room alone after 12 o’clock at night and an aunt who said you shouldn’t marry a Protestant because they accept divorce, but apart from that I can scarcely remember being forbidden anything.

We lived then in an authoritarian country, where the law did all the forbidding, so our families hardly had to do any. The world has changed since then –in part for the better, in part for the worse– and the opposite is now common for parents raising their children. The culture now is officially liberal, so parents and educationalists have to do all the forbidding, warning against the dangers that await careless young people, from unsafe sex to predatory horrors on the Internet.

The cannabis law states that those in possession of marijuana will not be prosecuted. This is an example of how this paradox works. Once the law protected us from ourselves: but as the protection of the law decreases, so we have to take more responsibility to be our own inner police.

Génération tout à l'ego - PAU 2014

>Exámenes selectividad francés Cataluña resueltos

C’est devenu une manie. Presque une obsession. Une à deux fois par semaine, Lola, 13 ans, change la photo de son profil Facebook. Sur la dernière en date, cette brunette montre son nouveau chapeau. Bingo ! Quarante-deux amis ont « liké » et seize ont fait des commentaires. Lola est sur le réseau social depuis six mois, et elle adore s’y exposer. « Facebook est comme un livre où je me raconte », dit-elle. 

« Je montre ma vie, ce que je fais, les derniers vêtements que j’ai eus. » Elle n’est pas un cas isolé, les adolescents envahissent le réseau. D’après le baromètre 2012 « Enfants et Internet », 80 % des 13-15 ans et 92 % des 15-17 ans y sont inscrits et, comme Lola, 86 % de ces derniers y publient des photos. On les y voit entre copains, en vacances, en soirée. Regard droit dans l’objectif, tête de côté, poses provocantes… Ils sont totalement narcissiques, nos adolescents numériques ?* « Oui, mais c’était déjà le cas avant », estime la philosophe Anne Dalsuet. « Les réseaux sociaux donnent juste une nouvelle résonance à cette tendance. Avant, on faisait des albums photos, maintenant, on les met sur Facebook, car tout le monde a intégré le principe selon lequel ‘‘ pour exister, il faut être vu. ’’ Les jeunes aussi ».

Ils y sont même particulièrement sensibles. « C’est un âge où l’on aime être admiré, rassuré* sur son corps et sur son apparence », estime Jacques Henno, spécialiste du numérique. « Pour eux, les ‘‘ Like ’’ prouvent leur valeur », affirme le psychiatre Xavier Pommereau. Car être « liké », c’est être populaire, une notion clé pour les adolescents, un élément indispensable à la construction de leur identité.

Mais se raconter sur Internet peut être risqué car les plus jeunes postent parfois la photo ou le message de trop. « Quand ils sont derrière leur écran, ils ne mesurent pas toujours le poids des mots », dit Jacques Henno. « Mais s’ils ont écrit n’importe quoi, la ‘‘ vraie vie ’’ les rattrape le lendemain sous la forme d’une dispute à la sortie de l’école. Ils comprennent vite la leçon. »

Le temps porte aussi ses fruits. À la longue, les jeunes se lasseraient* de ce « tout à l’ego ». « Des adolescents commencent à quitter Facebook », remarque Pascal Lardellier, professeur en sciences de la communication. « Ils sont saturés d’auto-narration continue. » Julie, 15 ans, trois ans de réseau social derrière elle et 355 amis, se connecte pour écrire à ses copains qui vivent loin et retrouver des camarades de maternelle ou de primaire. « Au début, je faisais surtout attention à mon image », dit-elle, « je mettais plus de jolies photos de moi. Aujourd’hui, je trouve que ce n’est pas si intéressant de faire ça. » La jeune fille est sur Twitter depuis un an. « On s’y prend moins au sérieux. » Des adolescents utilisent aussi Instagram, un réseau social d’images, qu’ils jugent plus créatif. Comme sur Facebook, on y met des photos, mais l’idée est de donner à voir le monde. Pas seulement son nombril.

D’après Le Nouvel Observateur (17 octobre 2013)