Ejercicio Text 2 - 1. Reading Comprehension · Inglés PAU Castilla-La Mancha Ordinaria (Humanidades, CC.SS. y Artes) 2021

TEXT 2. QUESTIONS

TEXT 2

IN ISOLATING TIMES, CAN ROBO-PETS PROVIDE COMFORT?

As seniors in nursing homes find themselves far from their families during the pandemic, some are turning to automated animals for company. When Linda Spangler asked her mother, in a video chat, what she would like as gift for her 92nd birthday, the response came immediately. “I’d like a dog,” Charlene Spangler said. Her daughter, a doctor, considered the request. Before visitors were forbidden in the nursing home because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Spangler had seen her mother every day, often taking her to Lake Merritt in her wheelchair to see the ducks and the passing dogs.

In her nursing home, Charlene Spangler had eaten meals with several other residents, joined art classes and listened to visiting musicians, but now, activities and communal meals have vanished. Apart from one quick visit in the lobby, she has not seen her daughter in person in six months; they communicate through 15-minute video calls when staff members can arrange them.

“She’s more isolated in her room now,” Dr. Spangler said. “And she misses having a dog.” Knowing that her mother wasn’t able to look after a pet, even if the institution where she lives had permitted animals, Dr. Spangler looked online for the robotic pets she had heard about. She found a little robotic dog with sensors that allow it to make sounds and movements similar to the ones that a real dog would do. Unable to deliver the robot personally, Dr. Spangler asked a staff member to take it inside. Ten days later, in a video chat, she discovered that her mother had named the robot dog Dumbo.

The isolation caused by the coronavirus, not only in nursing homes, but also among old people living alone in their homes, has intensified interest in these products and increased sales. However, how the elderly will react is unpredictable. Some older people who had dementia and depression and had largely stopped eating started having meals at a fixed time because of the call of their robotic dogs, while others never feel attached to their electronic pets because they saw them only as devices.

As for Charlene Spangler, during a recent video chat she mentioned that her dog was barking and that she could feel its heartbeat. “It seems like there’s some interaction,” her daughter said. “So, for me it’s enough”

Adapted from http://nytimes.com

1. READING COMPREHENSION. (2 POINTS) (0.5 points for each correct answer). Add TRUE or FALSE and copy the evidence from the text to support your answer. No marks are given for only TRUE or FALSE. No marks are given for T or F.

1.

Dr. Spangler always stayed in the nursing home when she went to visit her mother.

TRUE

FALSE

2.

Dr. Spangler took the robot to the nursing home.

TRUE

FALSE

3.

Robotic pets have helped some old people to retake basic routines.

TRUE

FALSE

4.

Some people don't have any feelings towards the robotic pets because they only consider them as machines.

TRUE

FALSE