Ejercicio Text 2 - 4 · Inglés PAU Extremadura Extraordinaria 2026

Text 2: ‘Like an Earthquake’: 40 People Died in a Spanish Train Crash.

Salvador Jiménez was on a high-speed train to Madrid on Sunday evening, speeding through the arid countryside of southern Spain, when the carriage shook so violently that he thought it had hit an animal on the tracks. The lights went out. A voice on the public-address system made a call for medical assistance. Soon the passengers were breaking windows with emergency hammers to escape, Mr. Jiménez said in an interview.

The collision turned out to be with another train, killing at least 40 people in the deadliest railway crash in Spain since 2013. Two cars at the back of Mr. Jiménez’s Madrid-bound train derailed near Adamuz, a town in southern Spain, where they crossed onto the track of an oncoming southbound train, according to a preliminary report by official investigators. Seconds later, at around 7:45 p.m., the southbound train slammed into the carriages, and two cars slid down an embankment, the preliminary report said. “It was like an earthquake,” said Mr. Jiménez, a broadcast journalist.

The crash left Spaniards in grief and shock, shaking a country that has come to depend, and take great pride in, its sprawling and efficient national rail system, the largest high-speed system in Europe and second largest in the world, behind China. Initial questions have centered on whether the crash was caused by the condition of the track. Investigators are assessing whether a break in a section of track at the site of the derailment was “the cause or the consequences” of the derailment. But government officials warned that this was only speculation for now and urged patience.

The impact of the crash was so severe that bodies were found hundreds of yards from the crash location, according to a broadcast interview with the president of the regional government of Andalucía, where the crash occurred. “Some of the dead are difficult to recognize,” adding that DNA analysis was being used to identify victims. “The impact was very strong, very strong.”

Emergency workers were still working desperately on Monday evening to reach bodies believed to be under overturned carriages.

Source: The New York Times (January 2026. Adapted)

4. Complete these sentences with one of the options given. Marks: 1.5 points (0.5 points per correct answer).

A.

If the train had been late, the accident ________ place.

B.

The cause of the accident will not be known ________ the investigation concludes.

C.

The crash took the people ________ the train by surprise.