Examen de Inglés PAU Madrid 2022 · Ordinaria Coincidencias

TEXTO A

Knocker Uppers

Until the 1970s in some areas, many workers were woken by the sound of a tap at their bedroom window. On the street outside, walking to their next customer's house, would be a figure holding a long stick. The "knocker upper" was a common sight in Britain, particularly in the northern mill towns, where people worked shifts, or in London where dockers kept unusual hours. While the standard implement was a long fishing rod-like stick, other methods were employed, such as soft hammers, rattles and even pea shooters.

"They used to come down the street with their big, long poles," remembers Paul Stafford. "I would sleep with my brother in the back room upstairs and my parents slept in the front. The knocker upper wouldn't hang around either, just three or four taps and then he'd be off. We never heard it in the back, though it used to wake my father in the front."

One problem knocker uppers faced was making sure workers did not get woken up for free. "When knocking up began to be a regular trade, the public complained of being bothered by our loud rapping or ringing," Mrs. Waters, a knocker upper in the north of England told Canada's Huron Expositor newspaper in 1878. "Knocker uppers also found out that while they knocked up one who paid them, they knocked up several on each side who did not," she continued. The solution they hit on was modifying a long stick, with which to tap on the bedroom windows of their clients, loudly enough to wake up those intended but softly enough not to disturb the rest.

The trade spread rapidly across the country, particularly in areas where poorly paid workers were required to work shifts but could not afford their own watches.

Adapted from “Knocker uppers: Waking up the workers in industrial Britain,” BBC News, March 27, 2016. <https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-35840393>

QUESTIONS

A.1.- Are the following statements TRUE or FALSE? Copy the evidence from the text. Use a complete sentence. No marks are given for only TRUE or FALSE. (Puntuación máxima: 2 puntos)

a)

Knocker uppers only used sticks to do their jobs.

TRUE

FALSE

b)

Knocker uppers waited for their clients to wake up before moving to the next house.

TRUE

FALSE

A.2.- In your own words and based on the ideas in the text, answer the following questions. Do not copy from the text. (Puntuación máxima: 2 puntos)

a)

Which two main problems did knocker uppers have at the beginning?

b)

What kind of people hired knocker uppers?

TEXTO A

Knocker Uppers

Until the 1970s in some areas, many workers were woken by the sound of a tap at their bedroom window. On the street outside, walking to their next customer's house, would be a figure holding a long stick. The "knocker upper" was a common sight in Britain, particularly in the northern mill towns, where people worked shifts, or in London where dockers kept unusual hours. While the standard implement was a long fishing rod-like stick, other methods were employed, such as soft hammers, rattles and even pea shooters.

"They used to come down the street with their big, long poles," remembers Paul Stafford. "I would sleep with my brother in the back room upstairs and my parents slept in the front. The knocker upper wouldn't hang around either, just three or four taps and then he'd be off. We never heard it in the back, though it used to wake my father in the front."

One problem knocker uppers faced was making sure workers did not get woken up for free. "When knocking up began to be a regular trade, the public complained of being bothered by our loud rapping or ringing," Mrs. Waters, a knocker upper in the north of England told Canada's Huron Expositor newspaper in 1878. "Knocker uppers also found out that while they knocked up one who paid them, they knocked up several on each side who did not," she continued. The solution they hit on was modifying a long stick, with which to tap on the bedroom windows of their clients, loudly enough to wake up those intended but softly enough not to disturb the rest.

The trade spread rapidly across the country, particularly in areas where poorly paid workers were required to work shifts but could not afford their own watches.

Adapted from “Knocker uppers: Waking up the workers in industrial Britain,” BBC News, March 27, 2016. <https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-35840393>

A.3.- Find the words in the text that mean: (Puntuación máxima: 1 punto)

a)

b)

c)

d)

A.4.- Complete the following sentences. Use the appropriate form of the word in brackets when given. (Puntuación máxima: 2 puntos)

a)

I (usual) sleep well but recently I've been having such strange dreams that they're beginning (scare) me.

b)

The less you sleep, the (big) the impact your health.

c)

If you (set) the alarm clock as I told you last night, you (not / oversleep).

d)

Last week, she (ask) how many hours she needs to be ready an exam.

A.5.- Write about 150 to 200 words on the following topic.

“A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures for anything.” Do you agree? Justify your answer.

(Puntuación máxima: 3 puntos)

TEXTO B

The Secret History of ‘Monopoly’

One night in late 1932, a Philadelphia businessman and his wife, Todd, introduced their friends Charles and Esther Darrow to a real-estate board game they had recently learned. As the two couples sat around the board, enthusiastically rolling the cube, purchasing properties and moving their tokens around, Mr. Todd was pleased to note that the Darrows liked the game. Charles Todd, in fact, made them a set of their own, and began teaching them some of the more advanced rules. The game didn’t have an official name: it wasn’t sold in a box but passed from friend to friend. However, everybody called it ‘the monopoly game’.

Together with other friends, they played many times. One day, despite all of his exposure to the game, Darrow – who was unemployed, and desperate for money to support his family – asked Charles Todd for a written copy of the rules. Todd was slightly perplexed, as he had never written them up, nor did it appear that written rules existed elsewhere.

The truth is that the rules to the game had been invented in Washington DC in 1903 by a bold, progressive woman named Elizabeth Magie. But her place in the game’s folk history was lost for decades. Today, Magie’s story can be told in full. But even though much of the story has been around for 40 years, the Charles Darrow myth persists as an inspirational parable of American innovation – thanks in no small part to Monopoly’s publisher and the man himself. After he sold a version of the game to Parker Brothers, it became a phenomenal success, eventually making him a millionaire. One journalist after another asked him how he had managed to invent Monopoly, “It’s a freak,” Darrow told the Germantown Bulletin, a Philadelphia paper. “Entirely unexpected and illogical.”

Adapted from “The secret history of Monopoly: the capitalist board game’s leftwing origins,” The Guardian, April 15, 2015. <https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/apr/11/secret-history-monopoly-capitalist-game-leftwing-origins>

QUESTIONS

B.1.- Are the following statements TRUE or FALSE? Copy the evidence from the text. No marks are given for only TRUE or FALSE.

(Puntuación máxima: 2 puntos)

a)

Todd easily facilitated the written rules for Monopoly.

TRUE

FALSE

b)

Magie copied the rules from the Darrows.

TRUE

FALSE

B.2.- In your own words and based on the ideas in the text, answer the following questions. Do not copy from the text.

(Puntuación máxima: 2 puntos)

a)

How was Monopoly played originally?

b)

How did Charles Darrow make a profit from the Monopoly game?

TEXTO B

The Secret History of ‘Monopoly’

One night in late 1932, a Philadelphia businessman and his wife, Todd, introduced their friends Charles and Esther Darrow to a real-estate board game they had recently learned. As the two couples sat around the board, enthusiastically rolling the cube, purchasing properties and moving their tokens around, Mr. Todd was pleased to note that the Darrows liked the game. Charles Todd, in fact, made them a set of their own, and began teaching them some of the more advanced rules. The game didn’t have an official name: it wasn’t sold in a box but passed from friend to friend. However, everybody called it ‘the monopoly game’.

Together with other friends, they played many times. One day, despite all of his exposure to the game, Darrow – who was unemployed, and desperate for money to support his family – asked Charles Todd for a written copy of the rules. Todd was slightly perplexed, as he had never written them up, nor did it appear that written rules existed elsewhere.

The truth is that the rules to the game had been invented in Washington DC in 1903 by a bold, progressive woman named Elizabeth Magie. But her place in the game’s folk history was lost for decades. Today, Magie’s story can be told in full. But even though much of the story has been around for 40 years, the Charles Darrow myth persists as an inspirational parable of American innovation – thanks in no small part to Monopoly’s publisher and the man himself. After he sold a version of the game to Parker Brothers, it became a phenomenal success, eventually making him a millionaire. One journalist after another asked him how he had managed to invent Monopoly, “It’s a freak,” Darrow told the Germantown Bulletin, a Philadelphia paper. “Entirely unexpected and illogical.”

Adapted from “The secret history of Monopoly: the capitalist board game’s leftwing origins,” The Guardian, April 15, 2015. <https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/apr/11/secret-history-monopoly-capitalist-game-leftwing-origins>

B.3.- Find the words in the text that mean: (Puntuación máxima: 1 punto)

a)

b)

c)

d)

B.4.- Complete the following sentences. Use the appropriate form of the word in brackets when given.

a)

Acknowledged as a very

(success) game, Monopoly is a board game where two or more players play against

another.

b)

The history of Monopoly is based

accounts that were known a long time after it

(register) by Parker Bros.

c)

There were few possibilities

Magie to be recognized as the inventor of the game because she

(lose) the legal war.

d)

Complete the following sentence to report what was said.

"Who was the best Trivial Pursuit player in 2021?"

B.5.- Write about 150 to 200 words on the following topic.

What is your favorite board game? Why? Explain.