Instrucciones: 

• Lea atentamente los siguientes pares de palabras e intente memorizarlas.
• Dispone de tres minutos para ello. Transcurrido este tiempo, dispone de dos minutos para completar las preguntas que se le proponen.

 

1	ROJO	SANGRE
2	PLANCHA	ROPA
3	SILLA	SOFÁ
4	LLUVIA	GOTA
5	SARTÉN	CAZO
6	CARTÓN	CAJA
7	TABACO	HUMO
8	BANCO	MISA
9	CUADRO	MARCO
10	HILO	AGUJA
11	ANCHOA	LATA
12	JARRÓN	AGUA
13	MOTO	CASCO
14	VERDE	PIMIENTO
15	VINO	VASO
16	RELOJ	MINUTO
17	GUANTE	BUFANDA
18	LIBRO	GAFAS
19	PIJAMA	CAMA
20	LIMA	CÁRCEL

 

Instrucciones: 

– Lea atentamente las siguientes líneas e intente memorizarlas.

– Dispone de cuatro minutos para ello. Transcurrido este tiempo, dispone de dos minutos para completar el texto que se le propone.

Instrucciones: 

– Lea atentamente las siguientes líneas e intente memorizarlas.

– Dispone de cuatro minutos para ello. Transcurrido este tiempo, dispone de dos minutos para completar el texto que se le propone.

 

Soy mujer y escribo. Soy plebeya y sé leer. Nací sierva y soy libre. He visto en mi vida cosas maravillosas. He hecho en mi vida cosas maravillosas. Durante algún tiempo el mundo fue un milagro. Luego regresó la oscuridad. La pluma tiembla entre mis dedos cada vez que el ariete embiste contra la puerta. Un sólido portón de metal y madera que no tardará en hacerse trizas. Pesados y sudados hombres de hierro se amontonan en la entrada. Vienen a por nosotras. Las Buenas Mujeres rezan. Yo escribo. Es mi mayor victoria, mi conquista, el don del que me siento más orgullosa; y aunque las palabras están siendo devoradas por el gran silencio, hoy constituyen mi única arma. La tinta retiembla en el tintero con los golpes, ella también asustada. Su superficie se riza como la de un pequeño lago tenebroso. Pero luego se agrieta extrañamente. Levanto la cabeza esperando un envite que no llega. El ariete ha parado. Las perfectas también han detenido el zumbido de sus oraciones.

¿Acaso han logrado acceder al castillo los cruzados?

 

Historia del rey transparente, Rosa Montero.

Instrucciones: 

– Lea atentamente las siguientes líneas e intente memorizarlas.

– Dispone de cuatro minutos para ello. Transcurrido este tiempo, dispone de dos minutos para completar el texto que se le propone.

---

En un seminario internacional sobre el futuro de la parapsicología en el que participaron hace más de tres décadas los más destacados expertos, se discutió si la investigación debía tener un enfoque cualitativo o cuantitativo. La mayoría de los participantes coincidieron en que esta disciplina debería combinar adecuadamente análisis de estos fenómenos tal y como se producen espontáneamente y la confirmación experimental de los mismos en el laboratorio; el estudio de los primeros casos espontáneos permitiría diseñar nuevas investigaciones.

Rhine recordó que la parapsicología debía su origen a la observación de los casos espontáneos y que la evaluación de estos “no tiene que ser necesariamente calculada por los matemáticos para ser considerada válida…

Diversas encuestas indican que las experiencias parapsicológicas están mucho más extendidas entre la población de lo que podría pensarse. Una de las más representativas es el estudio sobre las creencias de la población norteamericana que realizó en 1973 el Centro Nacional de Investigaciones sobre la Opinión Pública. Según esta encuesta, hace tres décadas, el 58% de los encuestados aseguraba haber tenido alguna experiencia de telepatía y el 24% de clarividencia. Había un 15% que confesaba experimentar fenómenos paranormales de manera frecuente.

 

Los poderes ocultos de la mente, Enrique de Vicente.

 

Instrucciones: 

– Lea atentamente las siguientes líneas e intente memorizarlas.

– Dispone de cuatro minutos para ello. Transcurrido este tiempo, dispone de dos minutos para completar el texto que se le propone.

---

Mary conoció a un atractivo hombre en un bar, era su primer día de vacaciones de ese caluroso verano de 1987. Un par de copas y varios cigarrillos fueron suficientes para que congeniaran inmediatamente y el hombre la invito a que pasase unos días con él en su casa de las Bahamas. Aceptó aun sin saber muy bien si lo hacía por las interminables tardes sumergida en aguas cristalinas, o por poder recuperar el tiempo perdido acurrucada entre aquellos bronceados brazos que sutilmente comenzaban a rodear su cintura.

Fueron las mejores vacaciones que había tenido en los últimos años y ella se sentía más mujer que nunca. Las noches de pasión parecían haberla rejuvenecido, y una amplia sonrisa adornaba su cara desde el primer día.
El día de la vuelta a casa, se despidieron en el aeropuerto sin un propósito firme de volver a verse. Justo antes del último beso él le entrego un regalo con la condición de que no podría abrirlo hasta que estuviere sentada tranquilamente en el sofá de casa.

Una vez llegado el momento, Mary sopesó entre sus manos aquella caja de cartón, al levantar la tapa encontró en su interior una pequeña cafetera de metal. En su tapa había una nota que decía: “Te serà útil para todas las noches que vas a pasar sola. Bienvenida al mundo del Sida”.

El fabuloso Libro de las Leyendas Urbanas, J. Harold Brunvand.

You are going to read an article in which a television news producer talks about his work. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-G the one which fits each gap (37-42). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use. 

Working as a TV news producer

Rob Cole has produced TV news for decades now, working on anything from international celebrities to global conflicts. He shares the benefit of his considerable experience in the industry

Rob’s time behind the cameras has coincided with huge changes in the way news is reported – from a time when everyone bought local newspapers, through the birth of 24-hour rolling news, and now the Internet. But what is the work like on a day-to-day basis?

Rob’s always worked in foreign news, so his focus is obviously on news from around the world. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of that. Rob comes in early, having checked his phone, social media, and listened to as many news programmes as he could. (1)……………….   . Running the foreign section is like a never-ending contest – constantly trying to get his journalists’ news presented ahead of the TV station’s other sections.

Once you have a story it’s then a matter of making sure that wherever the journalist is, the report comes into the building – through satellite, Internet or other routes – and it is ready to run on air on time. (2)……………….   . There’s nothing like getting a note from the producer at another network congratulating on a job well done. The low points, on the other hand, are much less pleasant: ‘I’ve had colleagues badly injured.’

So how can you become a news producer? Says Rob: ‘We get loads of applications. (3)……………….   .Don’t be put off; people in this business admire people who don’t give up.

You need to be keen to learn and, of course, take a real interest in current affairs. ‘You have to be obsessed with news, constantly following it. Even if you’re a creative producer, doing graphics, you still have to care about what’s going on in the world. Also, some people think about going into the media just because it sounds exciting. That would be a mistake; you have to really want to do the job. Luck’s involved too, of course. (4)……………….   .

In some ways, Rob’s job should remain fairly constant for the next few years. ‘They will always need someone to make decisions and take responsibility for newsgathering. However, what will change is the way in which news is delivered. When I started in TV, the crew used to consist of a reporter, producer, a camera operator, a sound person, and sometimes even a separate lighting person. (5)……………….   . Now there’s just the reporter and a multitasking camera operator who also edits and supplies the written material – if you’re lucky!’

‘Before long there will be a crew of just one, shooting all their own material on a smartphone, then editing and voicing that material, before sending it to head office, where it ends up going straight on air. (6)……………….   . Actually, this has already started to happen. The technology will just get quicker and quicker and smaller and smaller.’

You are going to read an article about new types of university courses. Seven sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-H the one which fits each gap. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

Online Courses

The boundaries between education and entertainment are beginning to blur, and a new type of learning, in which education merges with entertainment, is emerging – ‘edutainment’. (1)………………. But now US television company AMC has teamed up with the University of California to produce an online course based on the TV show, The Walking Dead, which features a post-apocalyptic world ridden with zombies.

 

With an audience of 10 million, student numbers for the course are expected to be in the hundreds of thousands. (2)……………….

 

Academics from the University of California say that the online course will be a ‘legitimate educational experience’ and tackle serious issues from the fields of science, public health, nutrition, psychology and sociology.  (3)………………. However, students will gain no formal qualifications or credits on successful completion of the course.

 

(4)……………….  It insisted that all modules had been made as academically rigorous as those taught on the university grounds.  One lecturer in social science stated that the university already used contemporary media examples to make theories more relevant to students, and this course was merely taking this concept one step further. ‘The curriculum is very real,’ says Josh Coates, head of Infrastructure and designer of the online platform. (5)……………….   ‘The fact that the context is this fictional world of an apocalypse is incidental.  This course gives us the opportunity to educate people about the science of disasters.’

 

The market for massive open online courses, or MOOCs, is rapidly expanding. Millions of students sign up for online education courses each year. However, millions fail to complete the courses, suggesting that they pose a real challenge to online learners. Part of this experiment is to find out whether the power of television can reduce the high drop-out rate characteristic of MOOCS.

 

The university is taking this opportunity to hone the way it delivers online courses. (6)……………….    With the increasing demand for online courses, these are issues that universities looking to invest in online learning are increasingly having to face.

 

 

You are going to read an article about the making of an unusual television commercial. Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-G the one which fits each gap. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.

The Making of ‘Tipping Point’

Many of the most expensive commercials ever made are those in which an A-list celebrity flashes a beautiful smile at the cameras. (1)………………. Their recent television advertisement, the most expensive in British history, cost ten million pounds, and it features, not the rich and famous, but villagers from the mountains of Argentina.

 

The advertisement features a game of dominoes. It begins in a darkened room where several thousand ordinary dominoes are set up on a specially-designed table. (2)………………. Dominoes knock over books, which in turn knock bigger household objects such as suitcases, tyres, pots of paint, oil drums and even cars. The final piece in the chain reaction is a huge tower of books. These flutter open to reveal a structure in the shape of a pint of Guinness.

 

The location chosen for the commercial was Iruya, a village high up in the mountains of north-west Argentina. (3)………………. The journey there could take up to ten hours. Asked why this remote destination was chosen for the shoot, the director said that even though it was the most difficult location they could have picked, it was perfect.

 

For one month, the village, population thousand, increased in size by almost thirty percent. One hundred and forty crew members descended on the village. These included the world record holders in domino toppling, Weijers Domino productions from the Netherlands. (4)……………….

 

Creating this film was no easy task. Preparations for filming took well over a month. Twenty six truckloads of objects were brought in. (5)………………. They included 10,000 books, 400 tyres, 75 mirrors, 50 fridges, 45 wardrobes and 6 cars. Setting the objects up took skill and patience. They needed to be arranged so they would fall over easily, and this involved balancing them on stones. Some of the sequences had to be reshot 15 times and 24 hours of footage was captured. However, the sequence in which six cars fell over was successfully shot in just one take.

 

Filming in this location was not without its difficulties. Firstly, being so isolated, it was hard to obtain resources at short notice. The second problem was the high altitude. (6)………………. It was also hard working with the villagers who had no experience of film-making. Finally, setting and resetting the props caused a good deal of frustration.

 

Director Nicolai Fuglsig said about the project : ‘Despite all the challenges, the cast was fantastic and it was a really amazing experience.’ Whether or not the effort put into the advert pays off is another matter entirely.

MADAGASCAR – WHEN TO GO

Madagascar has two seasons, a warm, wet season from November to April, and a cooler dry season between May and October. However, different parts of the country have very different weather.

The east coast is hotter and wetter, with up to 4000mm of rainfall per year. In the rainy season, there are strong winds, and these can cause a lot of damage.  Avoid visiting eastern Madagascar between January and March because the weather can make road travel very difficult.  The dry season is cooler and more pleasant.

The high, central part of the country is much drier and cooler. About 1,400 mm of rain falls in the rainy season, with some thunderstorms, but the summer is usually sunny and dry, but it can be cold, especially in the mornings, with freezing showers, and it may snow in mountain areas above 2,400m, and even stay there for several days.

The west coast is the driest part of the island. Here, the winter months are pleasant with little rain, cooler temperatures and blue skies.  The summers can be extremely hot, especially in the southwest.  This part of the country is semi-desert, and only gets around 300mm of rain per year.

Look at the sentences about “I Love Italy” competition. Read the text to decide if each sentence is TRUE or FALSE.

 

I LOVE ITALY

 

For your chance of winning a weekend in Bassano Del Grappa, Italy, tick the ‘x’ on your favourite photo from the images opposite! It only takes a bit of imagination to find yourself in Italy.

 

HOW TO ENTER:

 

Choose both your favourite photo and tell us what ‘Imagine More’ means to you and then return your completed leaflet to the address opposite or enter online.

 

WIN:

The winner will receive a weekend break for two people to include complimentary tickets to Bassano Fotografia 11, a diverse photographic exhibition hosted by Manfrotto School of Xcellence. A series of exhibitions, workshops and seminars on photography, delivered by internationally renowned photographers, will contribute in transforming Bassano Del Grappa into the centre of photography and imagination. Whether you are an amateur photographer or an expert, Bassano del Grappa has something to offer everyone: A weekend immersion in art, culture, landscapes and photography.

 

 

FULL DETAILS:

The prize includes return flights to Italy for two people, bed and breakfast accommodation for three nights in Bassano Del Grappa from a Thursday to Sunday in October 2011. Keen photographers will also have the opportunity to visit some incredible landscapes that lend themselves perfectly for photography courtesy of Manfrotto School of Xcellence.

 

 

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

The ‘I Love Italy’ competition closes on 30th September 2011. All entries must be received by this date. Manfrotto Distribution Ltd accepts no responsibility for entries received after this date or for entries lost in transit. By entering this competition you will also be opting into Manfrotto Distribution Ltd and Manfrotto School of Xcellence (MSoX) e-newsletters but you have the option to unsubscribe at any time. One entry per person only. Open to UK residents only. Entries from Manfrotto Distribution Ltd employees will not be accepted. Winners will be announced on the Manfrotto UK and MSo Xwebsites after the stated closing date and following contact via email. There is one prize (for two people) to Italy and is not redeemable for cash. *Valid email address required. For full Terms and Conditions please visit…