Bloque A - Text 2 · Inglés PAU Andalucía Extraordinaria Titular (Admisión) 2023

TEXT 2: BUZZING FOR LIFE

1 More than 50 years after Rachel Carson's illuminating study of pesticides in Silent Spring, we're still dealing with chemicals

2 and their effects on ecosystems. The latest perpetrator: sulfoxaflor, a bug and plant killer recently reapproved by the Environmental

3 Protection Agency. The latest victim: bees.

4 We're losing billions of bees each year due to complex factors like decreasing agricultural diversity, habitat loss and climate

5 change. However, one threat to bees remains under our control: pesticides. While pesticides are designed to kill pests and insects

6 that damage crops, they also have unintended consequences like eradicating entire harmless species. These include bees, which

7 are essential for harvests.

8 Besides vegetables and fruit trees, bees fertilize other crops that don't instantly come to mind when we think of bees —cotton,

9 coffee, tea and chocolate. Moreover, there are whole industries that produce various beeswax and honey-based goods. Together,

10 they are multibillion-dollar industries whose collapse could seriously impact on the economy by putting tens of thousands out of

11 work. Bees alone contribute $15 billion annually to U.S. agriculture, and pollinators in general contribute$24 billion to the country's

12 economy. Moreover, since the U.S. is the largest food exporter in the world and as the global population keeps rising, bees' survival

13 is essential not only for the U.S. but also for fighting world hunger. Globally, it's estimated that pollinators, including bees, affect

14 one-third of the world's food supply.

15 Bees have evolved into mega-pollinators over millions of years, and plants have adapted to incorporate them into their life

16 cycle. If bees disappeared quickly, plants wouldn't have time to adjust. Many plant species would simply die off, including not only

17 crops but also flowers and trees, which also need pollinators.

CHOOSE AND WRITE THE CORRECT OPTION (A, B, C or D). (0.5 points each)

9. According to the text, the use of pesticides...

10. According to the text, the decline in bee population...

ARE THESE STATEMENTS TRUE OR FALSE? JUSTIFY YOUR ANSWERS WITH THE PRECISE WORDS OR PHRASES FROM THE TEXT, OR USE YOUR OWN WORDS. (0.5 points each)

11.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced an upcoming ban on the use of sulfoxaflor.

TRUE

FALSE

12.

Innocuous bugs can also be exterminated by pesticides.

TRUE

FALSE

13.

Bee pollination can affect non-food crops.

TRUE

FALSE

14.

If bees became extinct, plants would survive by adapting to other types of pollinators.

TRUE

FALSE

15. FIND IN THE TEXT: (0.5 points)

15.1.

15.2.

16. FIND IN THE TEXT: (0.5 points)

16.1.

16.2.