Bloque A · Inglés PAU Andalucía Ordinaria Suplente 2 2026

BLOQUE A (Comprensión lectora)

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

A FLASH CHINESE SPEAKER

1 Australian Ben McMahon had learned some basic Chinese in high school but was far from fluent. In 2015, a semi-trailer truck

2 ran a red light and smashed into the side of the car he was driving. The crash fractured his sternum and several ribs, left him with

3 a severe head trauma, and put him into an induced coma for a week. When Ben finally regained consciousness, waking was a

4 fog. For two weeks he moved in and out of consciousness. When he finally began to speak, the nurse attending him was astonished

5 and rushed to tell his parents that their son was awake, though speaking a language she barely understood. Ben's parents were

6 filled with joy that he was alive, though shocked at the change, because he was speaking fluently—but in Chinese.

7 At first Ben had no idea that anything was unusual. Every time he spoke, Chinese flowed naturally from his mouth. Before the

8 accident, he had managed only basic exchanges, but now his internal monologue—the voice in his head—had switched languages

9 completely. There was no translation from English, just effortless speech, as if Chinese had always been his mother tongue.

10 Neurologists later speculated that the trauma to Ben's brain might have altered how his language centers worked. For most

11 English speakers, language processing occurs largely in the brain's left hemisphere; Chinese, however, tends to engage both

12 hemispheres more equally. Because the left side of Ben's brain had sustained the most damage, doctors theorized that his brain

13 had temporarily relocated linguistic processing to the right, making Chinese the more accessible language.

14 It took about a week for Ben to start distinguishing between English and Chinese again. He gradually began to speak English

15 with his parents and brother but could still use Chinese with hospital staff. Within a month he was home, recovering—and amazed

16 at how his life had changed.

17 In time, his fluency opened unexpected doors. One led him to appear on If You Are the One, China's most-watched dating

18 show with an audience of eighty million. Onstage, twenty-four women quizzed him about his background, job, and hobbies. Ben

19 tried to charm them by handing out Australian cookies and playing a Chinese song on the mandolin. One contestant gave him a

20 "super-like," and though she and Ben dated briefly, they soon realized they weren't a match.

21 Still, Ben saw the experience as another gift of fate. He often spoke of Mìngyùn, the Chinese notion of destiny that connects

22 people and paths. He believed it was fate that had tied him to China and to the language that had, quite literally, saved his voice.

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

A1.

According to the text,...

A2.

According to the text, after the accident, Ben...

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

A3.

After he woke up, Ben alternated between wakefulness and unconsciousness.

TRUE

FALSE

A4.

When he began to speak, Ben immediately realized something was wrong.

TRUE

FALSE

A5.

Ben would eventually be able to change languages according to his conversation partner.

TRUE

FALSE

A6.

Ben and his Chinese date became engaged.

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.