The pilot - PAU inglés 2016 Andalucía

>Exámenes selectividad inglés resueltos Andalucía

As a German pilot in World War I, my father was flying a reconnaissance mission over the east of France when he was attacked by French airplanes whose machine guns damaged his plane. Without engine power, he managed to cross the Swiss border and crash-landed in a field among surprised farmers. At the end of the war, he returned to Germany from neutral Switzerland, where he had been living in an internment camp. After that, he continued his studies, graduated as a geologist, and eventually immigrated to the United States, where he became a geology professor at a leading American University. 

Half a century after this wartime incident and near the end of his career, my father was with a group of students at the end of a day's geological fieldwork. They all gathered around a campfire and he started to tell them his experience. Suddenly, one of the students interrupted him and said, "Let me finish the story." From that moment, to the amazement of all, the student provided the correct details of what had happened that day in Switzerland.

He told them that, when the farmworkers got to the place of the accident to assist the soldiers, they found that the photographer who was seated behind my father was dead. They liberated my disoriented but uninjured father from the plane and provided him with food and water. Some time later, the Swiss police arrived and interned him in a camp. In his youth, the student had heard this story many times from his mother, who happened to be one of the farm girls taking part in the events.

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.

Jet lag - PAU Aragón 2011

Jet lag is a combination of fatigue and other symptoms caused by travelling abruptly across different time zones. Travelling to a different time zone disrupts the circadian rhythm. And it can take many days to readjust to the new time zone. In fact, NASA estimates that you'll need one day for every one-hour time zone crossed to get back to your normal rhythm and energy levels. So a five hour time difference means that you'll need five days to get back to normal. There is no cure for jet lag, but its effects (memory lapses, irritability, digestive upsets,...) can be reduced with careful planning.

Flying east or west makes a difference. Your circadian rhythm (body clock) is less confused if you travel westward. This is because travelling west ‘prolongs’ the body clock’s experience of its normal day–night

cycle. Travelling eastwards, however, runs in direct opposition to the body clock. 

There is no evidence that popular strategies, such as fasting or eating complicated diets, have any effect. Suggestions to reduce the impact of jet lag while travelling include avoiding alcohol and caffeinated drinks, eating small meals frequently, choosing lighter foods like fruit and vegetables or wearing loose, comfortable clothing.

Some travellers use alcohol to help them get to sleep, but this actually disrupts the normal sleep cycles and can prolong jet lag. The impact of alcohol on the body is 2-3 times more potent when you're flying.

Computer education for young children: a growing concern

Over the past few years, computers have become a vastly popular household item. Our children's lives are already getting influenced by technology. Today, we find computers in use everywhere, whether we go to reserve a train ticket or to a bank. This is because it is faster and helps us complete our work without errors. So parents too have realized the need to help their children develop strong computer skills.

Slowly traditions are being broken and the computer is becoming a child’s learning tool. Children are reading their bedtime stories online instead of in bed with their parents. Parents are leaving the learning up to the computers and spending less quality time with their children. The most important learning step for children is interaction with others. If they are sitting in front of the screen all day, they do not learn to share, wait their turn, or even something as simple as manners.

Kids with access to software that is not age appropriate may be exposed to such negative influences as violence, strong language, and over-stimulation from fast-action graphics. Moreover, frequent and prolonged computer sessions may pose physical health risks like visual strain, and posture and skeletal problems.

Overall, however, the benefits seem to outweigh the drawbacks. And actively involved parents can control most of the drawbacks. This puts even greater responsibility on parents to be vigilant and conservative in their judgement about their children's computer usage, especially regarding the internet.

Scientific agreement over global warming

The overwhelming consensus among climate scientists is that human-caused climate change is happening. Yet a fringe minority of our populace clings to an irrational rejection of well-established science. This virulent strain of anti-science infects the halls of Congress, the pages of leading newspapers and what we see on TV, leading to the appearance of a debate where none should exist.

In fact, there is broad agreement among climate scientists not only that climate change is real (a survey and a review of the scientific literature published say about 97 percent agree), but that we must respond to the dangers of a warming planet. If one is looking for real differences among mainstream scientists, they can be found on two fronts: the precise implications of those higher temperatures, and which technologies and policies offer the best solution to reducing, on a global scale, the emission of greenhouse gases.

For example, should we go full-bore on nuclear power? Invest in and deploy renewable energy — wind, solar and geothermal — on a huge scale? Price carbon emissions through incentive-based legislation or by imposing a carbon tax? Until the public fully understands the danger of our present trajectory, those debates are likely to continue to fail.

Netflix gain is HBO's loss in subscriber wars

According to a new report from the NPD Group, streaming services have seen a 4% rise in subscribers over the past two years. People can’t get enough Netflix. According to this report, the streaming video service and others like it have been gaining subscribers as premium pay networks like HBO and Showtime have been losing them. The NPD Group, a global information company, says over the past two years, the number of households subscribing to premium networks has fallen by 6%. Online streaming subscriptions, however, have risen by 4%, according to their report.

According to the report, in August 2013, 32% of American households paid for premium networks like HBO or Showtime and 27% subscribed to ondemand digital services. While Netflix is the most widely used service, Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime are gaining in popularity. “It’s fair to say … that some of the shift that you’re seeing is probably caused by Netflix,” Russ Crupnick, a senior vice president of the NPD Group told the Los Angeles Times. “Some of this could be caused by the economy. It could be people looking at their cable bills and saying, ‘I can’t afford this.’”

Halloween in Hollywood - PAU Andalucía 2001

Poltergeist  by Steven Spielberg, Universal Studios 1982

All Hallows Eve is the night when witches and fairies traditionally dance in the moonlight, and when old superstitions come to the surface. But Halloween is also the night when television and cinema screens serve thrillers and horrors, a new tradition of demons, vampires and ghosts.
A sinister legend circulates Hollywood that these subjects, even on film, can be dangerous. The Poltergeist trilogy tells a terrifying tale of how the Freeling family is tormented by a group of demons which try to possess their five-year-old daughter, and in the process destroy their house. In Poltergeist II the demons return to the Freelings’ new home, and they turn for help to Taylor, a native Indian medicine man, or “shaman.”
During the filming., there were strange happenings. For instance, one of the actors would regularly return home and find the pictures on the walls had been moved. Another one died very young, after a long battle with stomach cancer. Finally, the actor who played Taylor, a shaman in real life too, exorcised the studio. When the shooting was over, the director said with relief: “I am convinced that the presence of a shaman on this film saved us all from tragedy.” However, the shaman himself died before the film was even released.

Do violent video games damage your brain?

Recent medical studies indicate that violent video games damage the brain permanently. Video games may be more dangerous to your health than cigarettes or alcohol. The studies show that repeated playing of violent video games minimizes the activities of the brain involved in reasoning and planning. At the same time, these games activate those functions that respond to violence. The studies include scientific data indicating that these games may actually cause destructive behaviour.

Violent amusement, such as video games, has been a crucial factor in shootings and killings at schools around the world, such as those at Columbine High School in Colorado, where 27 students and teachers were massacred by two youths addicted to violent video games and movies.

The results of studies showed that people had less brain activity when regularly playing a violent video game. “Brain changes were most apparent in those teens who were ‘heavy users’: those who played several hours a day”, said Dr. Mathews. “I think this information confirms the relationship between brain damage and violent video games.”

A story in the October 2002 issue of Computer Game magazine reported that in Japan, children are at risk of developing ‘Video-Game Brain’, a permanent suppression of certain brain functions. Scientists examined 240 people between the ages of 6 and 29 over a six-month period. These subjects, who spent 2-7 hours a day playing violent video games, showed a decline in brain activity associated with reasoning, planning and selfcontrol.

Those players hardly use the frontal regions of their brains. If the level of what is called beta-brainwaves is too low, they get angry easily and have difficulty in concentrating.

Senator wants to jump-start college for all

Senator John Edwards today will propose a government program to pay the first year's college tuition for a student who also works 10 hours a week at a job or community service. Edwards says offering a jump-start* would encourage more people to go to college. Once there, they would be better able to pursue financial aid and recognize the value of a college education.

In addition, he'll put forward plans to offer four-year, full-tuition scholarships to students who agree to teach in hard-pressed schools or work in homeland security for five years after graduation. Edwards' speech at the University of Maryland embraces an expanded federal role -and billions of dollars in new spending- in raising pay and standards for teachers, reducing the size of high schools and making college more affordable.

Edwards also urges colleges to end admissions practices that give a preference to alumni's children and that offers early decisions to students who apply early and agree to attend if accepted. Both policies tend to be used most by upper-income students. "Today, it's too hard for too many Americans to dim up the ladder of success," he says. "It is time for some reforms to get back to our democratic roots."

 *glossary: jump-start = ayuda inicial

An engineering game for girls

Debbie Sterling, a US engineer who became increasingly frustrated by the very high percentage of men in his profession, thought that something should be done about it. "Only 11% of engineers are women and girls start losing interest in science when they are very young" she writes on her blog. "This is quite worrying and we should try to change that statistic."

She wanted young girls to become more interested in science and engineering so she decided to put her ideas into practice and created GoldieBlox, a game aimed at girls between five and nine years old, that is half way between a story book and a construction kit. The heroine in the story book is a girl named Goldie that has to face a number of engineering challenges– assisted by her trusty friends Nacho the dog, and Katinka, the dolphin ballerina.

Sterling spent a year researching different ways to get girls interested in construction toys, fearing that Lego and Meccano had not managed to do so. "The question was quite simple: boys have spatial attitudes and they like building things; girls, on the other hand, have better verbal capacities and they prefer reading stories," she says. "So I thought we could put those two things together, spatial plus verbal, book series plus building tools."

The research also suggested that girls are not satisfied with the building alone – they want to know the reason behind it. “Girls aren't just interested in 'what' they're building, they want to know 'why' they are building it”, says Sterling.

“Goldie's stories relate to girls'interests because her machines solve real problems and help her friends. The result: girls love it”.

Drugs don't work

As a doctor I have noticed that many drugs I prescribe do nothing for my patients. Of course, these drugs have been approved for use by the corresponding Agency and millions of doses are swallowed every year around the world. When I read the trial data before I write the prescription I find only well-designed tests, with amazingly positive results. But I have been misled.

Drugs are tested by the people who manufacture them, in poorly designed trials, on unrepresentative small numbers of patients, and analysed in such a way that they exaggerate the benefits of treatments and that, unsurprisingly, favour the manufacturer. Among the many trials that are being continuously conducted comparing, for example, a drug against a placebo, only the one with a neat, positive result, is published in an academic journal. The other trials, probably tested on many more patients, may show the drug to be no better than a dummy sugar pill, but these are not published because the companies are perfectly entitled to hide them, so there is no way a doctor may have an idea they existed.

Nobody breaks any law in doing this and the drug may still make its way on the market. These problems do not go through public inspection because they're too complex to explain in a few words. Politicians, the people we trust to fix these problems, have failed us. If the trials with negative results are withdrawn, then we simply cannot know the true effects of the treatments we use. Forget about vitally important side-effects. Evidence in medicine is not an abstract academic preoccupation. When we make the wrong decisions we cause unnecessary pain and suffering, and death, on people just like us.

Florence - PAU inglés Madrid

I was born and brought up in Florence.  To live there in itself an artistic education.  I wasn't born in a palace with Raphael's paintings on the walls as some of my friends were, but in those days the message of the past and the taste for beauty could be felt everywhere in the city.  The first pieces of furniture I touched, crawling round the house, had been handed down through the family for centuries.  There were paintings collected by my grandfather, and Della Robbia reliefs, reproductions if not originals, hanging over the doors.  In Florence you do not have to go to school to learn about art and civilisation; it is all around you.  I would wake up at 6.30 am. to go to school and open my window.  We lived on the fifth floor with a view right across the red-tiled roofs of the town and there, right before me, was the dome of the cathedral.  From that moment on wherever I went throughout the day I was surrounded by the heritage of our Renaissance.  Florence is a quiet city, there is nothing flashy; there, everything is conceived according to the severe mathematics of beauty.  It is not like Venice.  Venice is spectacular, full of picturesque things but very little of real quality.  It's not serious; it's Luna Park.  But Florence is stern and pure.  There are no compromises or digressions in Florence.  There are no bright colours, no crimson or gold, just the grey and yellow of the stone, the white marble, the olive groves and the dark cypress trees.

Parents pay children less pocket money because of recession

One in four parents has cut the amount of pocket money they give their children as a direct result of the recession. The average child between 4 and 15 gets £5.80 pocket money a week, but 24% of parents admit they have reduced the amount they give their children. Seven out of 10 parents expect their children to help around the house in exchange for cash, from tidying their own rooms to mowing the lawn.

Around 38% of children regularly save the money they receive, with 35% having a savings account and 58% keeping their money in a piggy bank. Children in London get the most pocket money, at an average of £7.81 a week. Boys typically get more money than girls. They are more than twice as likely as girls to receive between £16 and £20 a week, but they are also more likely to spend it in days.

The majority of parents surveyed said they have had the financial equivalent of the "birds and bees" conversation with their offspring, discussing where money comes from. You can never start financial education early enough, and this approach is by far the best way to teach children good habits.

Driving - PAU CyL 2006

Emboldened* by drink, many drivers become convinced they can do things they’d never dream of attempting sober. Some even boast they can handle a car better after a couple of drinks. But Ford has devised a test to prove them wrong – and I agreed to play guinea pig.
While gradually increasing my alcohol intake, I was asked to perform a series of manoeuvres with a Ford Focus to test my dexterity, reaction times and judgement behind the wheel. After just two pints of beer, the effect on my driving was obvious. It was five times less precise. I needed more corrections and hit more cones than before. After two more pints, I was close to the drink-driving limit. My performance continued to deteriorate. What was second nature while sober, required greater and greater concentration.
They stopped the test on safety grounds when I was approximately twice the limit. By this time I was driving the car wildly and erratically, sending half the cones flying. The one area where my performance improved was in braking: it showed that I was hitting the pedal faster and harder as the alcohol increased my self-confidence. Given the rest of the results, however, this offered little reassurance.

*Emboldened = envalentonados

The euro hits the streets

More than 300 million Europeans adopted the euro as their legal tender at midnight. In the midst of New Year's Eve revelries, people for the first time were able to hold the pastel-coloured banknotes that architects of the common currency believe will become compelling symbols of unity. Many on the Continent were tickled to be able to get their hands on it.

"This is great," said a grinning Christian Foulladosa as he rubbed a crisp note between his fingers and held it up to the light above the cash machine. "This is a big event. We will become a greater Europe with the euro," said this man as he made his first purchase with euros, buying flowers for his wife.

The European Central Bank and European Union hoped it would be, and the fact that the introduction of the notes and coins coincided with the start of a new year certainly helped. Cities throughout the euro zone ushered in both 2002 and the euro with special celebrations. There were fireworks in Frankfurt, home to the European Central Bank, and a laser-like show in Brussels, headquarters of the European Union.

Glossary:

• tender = moneda de curso legal
• be tickled = estar contento
• revelry = festejo, jolgorio

It's getting worse again

When you look at racial segregation in America's schools, another new study presents a bleaker picture. The Harvard report produces some discouraging figures from the country's  public -state-run- schools. After the schools began desegregating in the mid-1950s, they became steadily more integrated until the late 1980s; but then the trend slowed down, and went into reverse. On average, white children go to schools that are 80% white. 

Segregation is worst in the largest city school systems, where enrolment is now overwhelmingly non-white. Yet it is also a problem in the suburbs, where schools once largely white are now mostly black or brown. As the minorities move out from the city centres, whites move even farther out. As the report shows, schools now closely follow housing patterns; if these are heavily segregated, the schools will be too. 

The report's most striking finding, however, is the emergence of Latinos both as the fastest growing minority and the most segregated one. They are divided from whites and blacks not only by race but also by poverty and language. They also do worst at school, with the highest drop-out rates. Their presence now is worrying proof that racial segregation in the schools will get worse before it gets better.

Schools really are better, says Ofsted

Tony Blair has ordered Cabinet ministers to take lessons from education on improving public services as evidence is published today showing that schools are improving. The annual report of Ofsted will say that nine in ten schools have improved since its inspections started in 1992, and that classroom standards have never been higher.

A senior Whitehall figure said last night that Mr Blair considers Estelle Morris, the Education Secretary, and her immediate predecessor, David Blunkett, to be "model public service ministers." In spite of the successes that the Ofsted report will highlight, it will express concern that the gap between the best and worst performing schools is growing wider, while some groups of children, especially those from ethnic minorities continue to fall behind. Mike Tomlinson, the outgoing head of Ofsted, will say that progress has been made on literacy and numeracy in primary schools, but that this has caused a "narrowing" of the curriculum.

More attention needs to be paid to arts, creative and practical subjects, he will say. His report also praises head teachers for their leadership and management of schools, while adding that further measures need to be taken to encourage the vital support that parents can bring.

Climate shift in Europe

Europe must adapt to extremes of climate that will cause new deserts in the south and floods and wind storms in the north, according to a new report before fir European Commission. The report, compiled by climate scientists, warns that traditional holiday destinations on the Mediterranean will lose their beaches as sea levels rise, temperatures will become too hot for comfort, and many older people will die due to excessive heat. The Alps will lose most of their glaciers and uncertain snow patterns will lead to serious problems for the ski industry.

Agriculture in the south will suffer as underground water is exhausted and already sparse summer rain disappears. There will not be enough water to grow the fruit and vegetables that fill northern supermarkets. Hot summers will double in frequency by 2020 and forest fires will increase across the whole region. Dangers include more floods, storms and insects bringing new diseases.

The 350-page report is edited by Martin Parry of the Jackson Environment Institute at the University of East Anglia in Britain. It was released last weekend -two weeks before European Union governments meet in The Hague to discuss reducing carbon dioxide emissions to try to slow global warming.

Spain's water wars

“I will not send a single drop of water from the Ebro”, said Pasquall Maragall, before November´s Catalan elections. Now, Mr Maragall hopes to “paralyse” the Spanish government´s plan to move water from north to south.

The government has condemned Mr Maragall´s stance* as “unpatriotic”. Last month the Spanish government formally requested European Union finance to meet a third of the E15,000m cost of the whole project. It claimed a victory when the European Commission conditionally approved E80m to pay for a part of it. Mr Aznar has called the plan “an act of solidarity” between Spain´s regions.

The water balance between the wet north, where a third of Spain´s rain falls, and the dry south, where 60% of the land is semi-arid, continues to inflame passions. Critics say the entire plan is outmoded and designed to benefit the government´s business friends. They claim it will cost twice as much to transport the water as it would to produce more water through desalination. Greens say it will destroy the Ebro delta wetlands. The government of Aragon supports the Catalans, calling the project a “method to rob the poor to feed the rich”.

*Glossary: stance = postura

Unnatural disaster

The Philippines is accustomed to clearing up after the destruction caused by the dozen or more monsoons that hit the archipelago each summer and autumn. But the island of Luzon is unlikely to recover swiftly from the havoc of last week, when two storms slammed into the coastal areas of Quezon province. The disaster was only partly natural and largely the work of man. Normally, the roots of trees that cover the interior Sierra Madre mountains would absorb the rain. But four decades of logging – much of it illegal – has steadily denuded the island’s mountains of trees, so they no longer function as shield or sponge. Instead, they have become powerful delivery systems of floodwater and mud.

When Typhoon Winnie hit the coast last Monday, one resident said: “Houses have been completely swept away and cars and vans have been washed away too.” By the time Typhoon Nanmadol had moved away from the coast, at least 640 people were confirmed dead and nearly 400 were missing. Rescue efforts were made almost impossible by blocked roads, washed-out bridges and the storms that succeeded Winnie.

President Gloria Macapagal has suspended all logging and promised severe punishment for lawbreakers, in the face of another reminder of how hazardous it is to fool around with Mother Nature.