Los funcionarios del Centro Penitenciario Murcia I, reciben un «chivatazo» de un interne en el que cuenta que los familiares de un interno que está en el departamento especial, van a introducir un arma de fuego para que dicho interno se pueda fugar del centro. A consecuencia de esto, el centro adopta unas medidas especiales, que consisten en realizar rigurosos cacheos a todos los familiares o allegados que vengan a visitar a cualquiera de los internos que se encuentran en dicho departamento celular.

Los rigurosos cacheos realizados llegan a oídos de los internos que están en el departamento especial, por lo que protagonizan una sentada general ene l patio, al mismo tiempo que lanzan insultos y amenazas a los funcionarios que prestan servicio en el departamento.

Los internos son requeridos para que depongan su actitud y entren a sus celdas, pero hacen caso omiso en todo momento, y prosiguen con los insultos y amenazas. Concretamente, el interno Julio Moreno Martínez, grita explícitamente lo siguiente: «¡Que entre el funcionario del bigote a cogerme si tiene huevos, que le voy a meter el pincho por el culo!».

Los funcionarios del departamento solicitan la presencia del Jefe de Servicios, que tras mantener una conversación de más de dos horas con ellos, consigue que depongan su actitud.

Por la tarde, justo antes del momento de la cena, los 112 internos del módulo 3 realizan otro plante colectivo, por solidaridad con sus compañeros de reclusión del departamento especial. Se niegan a entrar a cenar y a subir a sus celdas. De nuevo el Jefe de Servicios intenta negociar que depongan su actitud pero esta vez no lo consigue. Finalmente, mediante el uso de la fuerza física personal necesaria por parte de todos los funcionarios de la plantilla, consiguen restablecer la normalidad en el centro.

Conteste a las siguientes preguntas:

You are going to read a newspaper article about trees and leaves. Choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

Those brilliant autumn outfits may be saving trees

As trees across the northern areas of the globe turn gold and crimson, scientists are debating exactly what these colours are for. The scientists do agree on one thing: the colours are for something. That represents a major shift in thinking. For decades, textbooks claimed that autumn colours were just a by-product of dying leaves. ‘I had always assumed that autumn leaves were waste baskets’ said Dr. David Wilkinson, an evolutionary ecologist at Liverpool John Moores University in England. ‘That’s what I was told as a student.’

During spring and summer, leaves get their green cast from chlorophyll, the pigment that plays a major role in capturing sunlight. But the leaves also contain other pigments whose colours are masked during the growing season. In autumn, trees break down their chlorophyll and draw some of the components back into their tissues. Conventional wisdom regards autumn colours as the product of the remaining pigments, which are finally unmasked.

Evolutionary biologists and plant physiologists offer two different explanations for why natural selection has made autumn colours so widespread. Dr. William Hamilton, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford University, proposed that bright autumn leaves contain a message: they warn insects to leave them alone. Dr. Hamilton’s ‘leaf signal’ hypothesis grew out of earlier work he had done on the extravagant plumage of birds. He proposed it served as an advertisement from males to females, indicating they had desirable genes. As females evolved a preference for those displays, males evolved more extravagant feathers as they competed for mates. In the case of trees, Dr. Hamilton proposed that the visual message was sent to insects. In the autumn, aphids and other insects choose trees where they will lay their eggs. When the eggs hatch the next spring, the larvae feed on the tree, often with devastating results. A tree can ward off these pests with poisons. Dr. Hamilton speculated that trees with strong defences might be able to protect themselves even further by letting egg-laying insects know what was in store for their eggs. By producing brilliant autumn colours, the trees advertised their lethality. As insects evolved to avoid the brightest leaves, natural selection favoured trees that could become even brighter.

‘It was a beautiful idea’ said Marco Archetti, a former student of Dr. Hamilton who is now at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. Dr. Hamilton had Mr. Archetti turn the hypothesis into a mathematical model. The model showed that warning signals could indeed drive the evolution of bright leaves – at least in theory. Another student, Sam Brown, tested the leaf-signal hypothesis against real data about trees and insects. ‘It was a first stab to see what was out there,’ said Dr. Brown, now an evolutionary biologist at the University of Texas.

The leaf-signal hypothesis has also drawn criticism, most recently from Dr. Wilkinson and Dr. H. Martin Schaefer, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Freiburg in Germany. Dr. Wilkinson and other critics point to a number of details about aphids and trees that do not fit Dr. Hamilton’s hypothesis. Dr. William Hoch, a plant physiologist at the University of Wisconsin, argues that bright leaves appear on trees that have no insects to ward off. ‘If you are up here in the north of Wisconsin, by the time the leaves change, all the insects that feed on foliage are gone’ Dr. Hoch said. In their article, Dr. Schaefer and Dr. Wilkinson argue that a much more plausible explanation for autumn colours can be found in the research of Dr. Hoch and other plant physiologists. Their recent work suggests that autumn colours serve mainly as a sunscreen.

Dr. Hamilton’s former students argue that the leaf-signal hypothesis is still worth investigating. Dr. Brown believes that leaves might be able to protect themselves both from sunlight and from insects. Dr. Brown and Dr. Archetti also argue that supporters of the sunscreen hypothesis have yet to explain why some trees have bright colours and some do not. ‘This is a basic question in evolution that they seem to ignore’ Dr. Archetti said. ‘Idon’t think it’s a huge concern,’ Dr. Hoch replied. ‘There’s natural variation for every characteristic.’

Dr. Hamilton’s students and their critics agree that the debate has been useful, because it has given them a deeper reverence for this time of year. ‘People sometimes say that science makes the world less interesting and awesome by just explaining things away’ Dr. Wilkinson said. ‘But with autumn leaves, the more you know about them, the more amazed you are.’

You are going to read an extract from a novel. Choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

Brick Lane

Thirty or so years after he arrived in London, Chanu decided that it was time to see the sights. “All I saw was the Houses of Parliament. And that was in 1979.” It was a project. Much equipment was needed. Preparations were made. Chanu bought a pair of shorts which hung just below his knees. He tried them on and filled the numerous pockets with a compass, guidebook, binoculars, bottled water, maps and two types of disposable camera. Thus loaded, the shorts hung at mid-calf. He bought a baseball cap and wore it around the flat with the visor variously angled up and down and turned around to the back of his head. A money belt secured the shorts around his waist and prevented them from reaching his ankles. He made a list of tourist attractions and devised a star rating system that encompassed historical significance, something he termed ‘entertainment factor’ and value for money. The girls would enjoy themselves. They were forewarned of this requirement.

On a hot Saturday morning towards the end of July the planning came to fruition. “I’ve spent more than half my life here,” said Chanu, “but I’ve hardly left these few streets.” He stared out of the bus windows at the grimy colours of Bethnal Green Road. “All this time I have been struggling and struggling, and I’ve barely had time to lift my head and look around.”

They sat at the front of the bus, on the top deck. Chanu shared a seat with Nazneen, and Shahana and Bibi sat across the aisle. Nazneen crossed her ankles and tucked her feet beneath the seat to make way for the two plastic carrier bags that contained their picnic. “You’ll stink the bus out,” Shahana had said. “I’m not sitting with you.” But she had not moved away.

“It’s like this,” said Chanu, “when you have all the time in the world to see something, you don’t bother to see it. Now that we are going home, I have become a tourist”. He pulled his sunglasses from his forehead onto his nose. They were part of the new equipment.

He turned to the girls. “How do you like your holiday so far?” Bibi said that she liked it very well, and Shahana squinted and shuffled and leaned her head against the side window.

Chanu began to hum. He danced with his head, which wobbled from side to side, and drummed out a rhythm on his thigh. The humming appeared to come from low down in his chest and melded with the general tune of the bus, vibrating on the bass notes.

Nazneen decided that she would make this day unlike any other. She would not allow this day to disappoint him.

The conductor came to collect fares. He had a slack-jawed expression: nothing could interest him. “Two at one pound, and two children, please,” said Chanu. He received his tickets. “Sightseeing,” he announced, and flourished his guidebook. “Family holiday.”

“Right,” said the conductor. He jingled his bag, looking for change. He was squashed by his job. The ceiling forced him to stoop.

“Can you tell me something? To your mind, does the British Museum rate more highly than the National Gallery? Or would you recommend the gallery over the museum?”

The conductor pushed his lower lip out with his tongue. He stared hard at Chanu, as if considering whether to eject him from the bus.

“In my rating system,” explained Chanu, “they are neck and neck. It would be good to take an opinion from a local.”

“Where’ve you come from, mate?”

“Oh, just two blocks behind,” said Chanu. “But this is the first holiday for twenty or thirty years.”

The conductor swayed. It was still early but the bus was hot and Nazneen could smell his sweat. He looked at Chanu’s guidebook. He twisted round and looked at the girls. At a half-glance he knew everything about Nazneen, and then he shook his head and walked away.

You are going to read a newspaper article about management. Choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

Simply ticking the boxes isn’t enough

I have been asked what I think about the idea of ‘Investing in People’. The best answer I can give is that I think that what it tries to achieve – basically making the link between business improvement and focusing on the needs of the people who work for an organisation – is great. My problem is with organisations who subscribe to it as a way to help them ‘get better’, when they don’t bother to understand where they went wrong in the first place. They need to ask what explicit and implicit policies and procedures they have in place that prevent their people from being able to do the right thing for the right reasons.

I am sure that there are managers out there who don’t know any better, and assume that to manage they simply need to put pressure on their people to perform. But people don’t demonstrate high performance because they are told to. They do it because they see the need to do it, and make the choice to do so. They do it because they are connected to the business goals and they see how their contributions can help achieve them. Such managers may tell themselves they can put a ‘tick’ in the ‘we care about people’ box. But simply putting ticks in boxes is no good if it doesn’t reflect reality.

I know of a company that was so concerned that its people were doing the ‘right thing’ that it put in place a series of metrics to measure their effectiveness. So far, so good. But one of the objectives – making successful sales calls – manifested itself in the metric ‘Number of potential customers seen in one day’. The sales people obviously focused their efforts on going from one customer’s office to another, and not on closing deals. Instead of the employees becoming more effective, they focused on getting the boxes ticked. Good intent; poor thinking.

Another company wanted to improve the speed with which it was able to introduce new products. Competition was beating it to the market place, and consequently the company was losing market share. Senior management sent out the message to reduce the time spent in getting products into customers’ hands, with the explanation that they couldn’t afford delays. This was a relatively easy task, especially since the time spent testing the products was cut in half to accomplish the time reduction. The result was new products were introduced in less time than those of the competition – but soon rejected by customers for poor quality. Good intent; reckless implementation.

A third company I know is trying hard to help employees see that they have some control over their future. The company instituted a programme with a title like ‘Creating our own future’ or something like that. A good idea; get the people involved in the future of the company. But instead of the employees becoming motivated to contribute, they saw it as a hollow exercise on the part of senior management who, in the past, had paid little attention to anything other than getting the job done so they could report great earnings. Yes, the programme was a big ‘tick the box’ effort, but that was all it was in the minds of the people that it was designed for.

A final example is of a company that brought in one of these ‘Investing in People’ programmes to change the way the company was run. Assessors were running around like crazy, helping managers examine how they managed. They told managers how they could manage better. And when the programme was over, the company was able to say they had done it – it had invested in its people and life was now good. But the managers simply went back to business as usual. After all, the assessors were gone, and they had targets to hit.

All these examples are representative of senior management who see the need to improve things in their organisation, but don’t see how to do it. For a start, a programme targeted at improving things is only as good as management’s ability to motivate their people. And when the employees simply see the programme as a box-ticking exercise, then it’s hopeless.

You are going to read a book review. Choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

The Great Indoors: At Home in the Modern British House

In 1910 the music hall comedian Billy Williams scored his biggest hit with the song When Father Papered the Parlour, mocking the incompetence of the amateur home decorator. Fifty years later, comedians Norman Wisdom and Bruce Forsyth were still entertaining millions on the TV show Sunday Night at the London Palladium with a similar routine, but the joke was starting to look dated. The success of magazines such as The Practical Householder was already proving that, as the 1957 Ideal Home Exhibition proclaimed, “Do-it-yourself is a home hobby that is here to stay.”

By this stage, Britain had mostly completed its transition from primitive housing conditions, made bearable – for those who could afford it – by servants and handymen, into a world where families looked after themselves in highly serviced environments. Recognisably modern technology, in the form of telephones, televisions and electricity, had become ubiquitous and was to transform domestic living still further in the coming years. The makeover of British homes in the twentieth century is recounted in Ben Highmore’s entertaining and informative new book. He takes us on a whirlwind tour of an everyday house, from entrance hall to garden shed, illuminated by extensive reference to oral histories, popular magazines and personal memoirs.

At its centre, though, is the way that our homes have reflected wider social changes. There is the decline of formality, so that living rooms once full of heavy furniture and Victorian knick-knacks are now dominated by television screens and littered with children’s toys. There is a growing internationalism in taste. And there is the rise of domestic democracy, with the household radiogram and telephone (located in the hall) now replaced by iPads, laptops and mobiles in virtually every room. Key to that decentralisation of the home – and the implied shift of power within it – is the advent of central heating, which gets pride of place as the innovation that allowed the whole house to become accessible at all times of day and night. Telling an unruly child to ‘go to your room’ no longer seems much of a threat.

Highmore also documents, however, some less successful steps in the onward march of domestic machinery. Whatever happened to the gas-powered fridges we were promised in 1946? Or to the Dishmaster a decade later that promised to do “a whole day’s washing up in just three minutes”? Rather more clear is the reason why a 1902 Teasmade failed to catch on: “when the alarm clock triggered the switch, a match was struck, lighting a spirit stove under the kettle”. You don’t have to be a health and safety fanatic to conclude that a bedroom isn’t the ideal place for such a gadget. Equally disturbing to the modern reader is the prewar obsession with children getting fresh air. It was a belief so entrenched that even a voice of dissent merely argued that in winter, “The healthy child only needs about three hours a day in the open air, as long as the day and night nursery windows are always open.” Nowadays, the fresh air obsession has been replaced by irrational fears of horrors outside the home. It’s easier to laugh at the foibles of the past, and Highmore doesn’t always resist a sense of modern superiority, though, for the most part, he’s an engaging and quirky guide, dispensing sociological insights without jargon.

The message is that even the language of the home has changed irrevocably: airing cupboards are going the same way as drawing rooms. As for that Billy Williams song, “By the 1980s”, Highmore writes, “it would be impossible for anyone to imagine their front room as a ‘parlour’ without seeming deeply old-fashioned.” He’s not entirely correct, for there was at least one person who was still employing such terminology. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher sold her message with the use of what she called ‘the parables of the parlour’, which suggests she understood the truth that, despite the catalogue of changes, there is a core that seems consistent. A 1946 edition of Housewife magazine spelt it out: “men make houses, women make homes”. When you watch a male comedian today doing a routine about his wife’s attachment to scatter cushions, it seems worth asking: has the family dynamic really moved a great deal?

El director del Centro Penitenciario de Murcia I solicita, a propuesta del administrador del centro, que se remita a la caja pagadora del centro, fondos suficientes para atender a varias prestaciones por el procedimiento de «pagos a justificar» y por la cantidad que se determine, siendo ésta en cualquier caso superior a 3.000.

El administrador del centro expide la propuesta de gasto y pago mediante un documentos ADOK, siendo abonado el importe del gasto autorizado mediante transferencia del Tesoro Público a la Caja Pagadora.

Posteriormente, al llegar el momento de justificar la aplicación de las cantidades recibidas, solicita que se amplíe el plazo de rendición de la cuenta, ya que se han realizado pagos por obligaciones correspondientes al ejercicio económico en curso y al ejercicio anterior y se ha complicado la confección de la cuenta.

Conteste a las siguientes preguntas:

En los Presupuestos Generales del Estado del año 2016 se contempla una partida de gastos destinada a la construcción de nuevos centros penitenciarios. En enero de 2017 queda terminada la construcción de un solo centro, quedando el resto pendiente de terminar en los próximos años.

El Ministerio de Interior remite el correspondiente estado de gastos del departamento para la confección de los nuevos presupuestos generales del año 2017, incluyendo los gastos correspondientes a la construcción de los centros penitenciarios pendientes de construir.

En el año 2018, se terminan de construir todos los centros penitenciarios.

Conteste a las siguientes preguntas:

Fernando, residente en el municipio de Murcia, recibió el 3 de julio de 2016 una notificación en la que se le comunicaba la resolución de 27 de junio de 2016 del Excmo. Sr. Alcalde de Molina de Segura por la que se incoaba procedimiento sancionador por la supuesta comisión de una infracción grave, puesto que varias vecinas escandalizadas, habían presentado quejas ante el referido Ayuntamiento denunciando que los días 15 y 16 de junio de 2016 había bajado la basura a la calle vistiendo sólo unos ajustados pantalones cortos, alegando que su comportamiento era poco moral.

Una vez que recibió la notificación, como no se le especificaba que recogía la infracción que se le imputaba, acudió personalmente al Ayuntamiento, donde se le informó que la conducta no se encontraba expresamente recogida en ningún sitio, pero que el Alcalde entendía que tenia potestad suficiente para incoar expediente sancionador para salvaguardar el orden publico y la moral.

El día 10 de julio de 2016 Fernando recibió un mensaje por correo electrónico mediante el que la instructora del procedimiento le convocaba el día 11 de julio para una toma de declaración. Fernando acudió a la cita en la que se entrevisto con la Sra. instructora respondiendo a las preguntas que se le hicieron y aportando la información que estimó oportuna.

El 5 de septiembre de 2016, Fernando recibió una nueva notificación mediante la que se le comunicó la resolución de 1 de septiembre de 2016 del Excmo. Sr. Alcalde por la que se le imponía la sanción de 500 euros.

Responda a las siguientes preguntas:

Fernando, residente en el municipio de Murcia, recibió el 3 de julio de 2016 una notificación en la que se le comunicaba la resolución de 27 de junio de 2016 del Excmo. Sr. Alcalde de Molina de Segura por la que se incoaba procedimiento sancionador por la supuesta comisión de una infracción grave, puesto que varios vecinos presentaron ante el referido Ayuntamiento denunciando que los días 15 y 16 de junio de 2016 había estado rompiendo distintos elementos del polideportivo municipal.

El 7 de julio Fernando recibió notificación del Juzgado de Instrucción número 2 de Molina de Segura en el que se le citaba para recibir su declaración en calidad de investigado por un presunto delito de daños.

El día 10 de julio de 2016 Fernando recibió un mensaje por correo electrónico mediante el que la instructora del procedimiento le convocaba el día 11 de julio para una toma de declaración. Fernando acudió a la cita en la que se entrevisto con la Sra. instructora enseñándole la citación judicial de la que sacó copia y presentó para que fuera incorporada al expediente.

El 5 de septiembre de 2016, Fernando recibió una nueva notificación mediante la que se le comunicó la resolución de 1 de septiembre de 2016 del  Excmo. Sr. Alcalde por la que se le imponía la sanción de 500 euros.

Responda a las siguientes preguntas:

D. Sergio Sixeart, residente en el municipio del Madrid, recibió el 3 de julio  de 2016 una notificación en la que se le comunicaba la resolución del 27 de junio de 2016 de la Delegación de Gobierno por la que se incoaba procedimiento sancionador por la supuesta comisión de una infracción grave del artículo 14 de la Ley de Protección del Patrimonio Histórico, por realizar grabaciones artísticas con un punzón en un muro de cal de un edificio del municipio objeto de protección.

El día 10 de julio de 2016, D. Sergio Sixeart recibió un mensaje por correo electrónico mediante el que se le convocaba el día 11 de julio para una toma de declaración. El Sr. Sixeart alegó que  si bien recuerda que aquél día un vecino le llamó la atención, él no sabia que estaba prohibido, por lo que detuvo su actividad inmediatamente.

El 5 de diciembre de 2016, D. Sergio Sixeart recibió una nueva notificación mediante la que se le comunicó resolución de 1 de septiembre de 2016 por la que se le imponía la sanción de 500 euros.

Responda a las siguientes preguntas: