Bloque A · Inglés PAU Andalucía Extraordinaria Suplente 2 2025

BLOQUE A (Comprensión lectora)

COMPREHENSION (4 points). READ THE TEXT AND ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS.

THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER

1 Snow in June, freezing temperatures in July, and a killer frost in August marked 1816 as the year without a summer for millions

2 of people in North America and Europe. The unusual cold was later understood to be caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora

3 in Indonesia in April 1815, the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history. When a volcano erupts, it releases sulfur dioxide, which

4 can rise to the stratosphere. There, it reacts with water vapor to form sulfate aerosols that remain in the atmosphere, blocking

5 sunlight and cooling the Earth’s surface.

6 1816 was the coldest year in at least the last 250 years, according to a study. Each season showed temperature anomalies,

7 but the summer brought the most drastic change, with the lowest summer temperature recorded in Europe between 1766 and

8 2000. Cold, wet conditions in Central and Western Europe and even North America led to crop failure and the death of farm

9 animals. It was called the “last great subsistence crisis in the Western World.” In addition to food shortages, the climate change

10 caused by the eruption resulted in disease, mass migration, and religious revivals as people tried to make sense of it all.

11 That year without a summer profoundly impacted the science and culture of the time. Agricultural failure was widespread, and

12 the cost of food jumped. This also increased the price of grain for horses, which were the main transportation source by then. This

13 might have helped inspire the invention of the bicycle by Karl Drais in 1817.

14 That exceptional summer also inspired something else: Gothic tales. The writers Lord Byron, Claire Clairmont, Dr. John

15 Polidori, Percy Shelley, and Mary Godwin (before she married Shelley) were staying in a villa overlooking Lake Geneva in

16 Switzerland. But the weather at their idyllic setting was depressing. During one of their discussions, Byron suggested that each

17 member of the restless group write a ghost story to share. Within a few weeks, Godwin had written Frankenstein, Byron composed

18 his poem “Darkness,” and Polidori wrote his short story The Vampyre.

19 The summer of 1816 teaches us that volcanic eruptions certainly affect climate change. With today’s global temperatures at

20 record highs, another massive eruption such as Mount Tambora’s would even likely pause human-made warming, though the

21 effects would eventually vanish.

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

A1.

According to the text, the Tambora volcanic eruption brought about...

A2.

The invention of the bicycle is believed to have been influenced by...

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

TRUE

FALSE

A7. FIND IN THE TEXT: (0.5 points)

A7.1.

A7.2.

A8. FIND IN THE TEXT: (0.5 points)

A8.1.

A8.2.