Examen de Inglés PAU Madrid 2024 · Ordinaria

TEXTO A

The Benefits of Listening to Your Favorite Music

It has long been suggested that music can help lower pain perception without medication. Emerging research has also found that music might change our experience of certain types of discomfort. Importantly, the type of music you’re listening to may play a role. According to the journal Frontiers in Pain Research, listening to our favorite music can reduce pain intensity, and, specifically, bittersweet music can help reduce the general unpleasantness of pain.

In the body, hypoalgesia is a decreased sensitivity to pain. It happens when pain stimuli are interrupted between their origin point, like a knee or foot, and where they are recognized as pain by the conscious mind, primarily in the brain’s thalamus, and cortex. To investigate this response, researchers placed heat on the left arms of 63 healthy subjects. The sensation was similar to the feeling of a hot cup of coffee on the skin.

The participants were played three different tracks: they either listened to their favorite songs, relaxing music selected for them by the researchers, or silence. The participants were asked to rate the intensity, and unpleasantness of the pain.

When silence was played, the participants rated the pain as less intense by about four points on a 100-point scale. They also said the pain was less unpleasant by about nine points when listening to their preferred songs, compared with silence. The relaxing music that was selected for them did not produce this effect, as in zero points in the scale.

Adapted from “Your favorite, bittersweet tunes may help relieve pain better than unfamiliar, relaxing music,” Popular Science, October 25, 2023. <https://www.popsci.com/health/favorite-sad-music-pain/>

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)

Only bittersweet music has the capacity of diminishing pain.

TRUE

FALSE

b)

Participants did not feel less pain when they listened to the music that the researchers had chosen for them.

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 were the two things participants had to evaluate about pain?

b)

Which two tracks were the most effective to reduce pain?

TEXTO A

The Benefits of Listening to Your Favorite Music

It has long been suggested that music can help lower pain perception without medication. Emerging research has also found that music might change our experience of certain types of discomfort. Importantly, the type of music you’re listening to may play a role. According to the journal Frontiers in Pain Research, listening to our favorite music can reduce pain intensity, and, specifically, bittersweet music can help reduce the general unpleasantness of pain.

In the body, hypoalgesia is a decreased sensitivity to pain. It happens when pain stimuli are interrupted between their origin point, like a knee or foot, and where they are recognized as pain by the conscious mind, primarily in the brain’s thalamus, and cortex. To investigate this response, researchers placed heat on the left arms of 63 healthy subjects. The sensation was similar to the feeling of a hot cup of coffee on the skin.

The participants were played three different tracks: they either listened to their favorite songs, relaxing music selected for them by the researchers, or silence. The participants were asked to rate the intensity, and unpleasantness of the pain.

When silence was played, the participants rated the pain as less intense by about four points on a 100-point scale. They also said the pain was less unpleasant by about nine points when listening to their preferred songs, compared with silence. The relaxing music that was selected for them did not produce this effect, as in zero points in the scale.

Adapted from “Your favorite, bittersweet tunes may help relieve pain better than unfamiliar, relaxing music,” Popular Science, October 25, 2023. <https://www.popsci.com/health/favorite-sad-music-pain/>

A.3.- Find the words in the text that mean: [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)

Yesterday, while we

(listen) to some music, I decided it was worth

(take) some dance lessons.

b)

By 2030, Tom

(work) in this company

more than ten years.

c)

I always feel

(sleep) early in the morning,

is something my mother hates.

d)

After the play, we

(introduce) to the actors, and they were

(surprise) welcoming.

A.5.- Write about 150 to 200 words on the following topic. (Puntuación máxima: 3 puntos)

Do you think it is more interesting to become a scientist or an artist? Justify your opinion.

TEXTO B

Jane Goodall Transformed our Understanding of Chimpanzees

Jane Goodall, whose research on chimpanzees in Tanzania revolutionised our understanding of these primates, challenged some deep-set ideas of what it means to be human. She turned from scientist to activist, campaigning for a kinder attitude towards animals and the environment.

During her first years in the field, Goodall named an individual David Greybeard, who showed her a side to chimpanzees nobody had ever documented before. She watched David from a distance as he chewed a freshly killed pig – an observation that opposed the theory that chimps were strict vegetarians.

Some days later, Goodall witnessed David making and using a tool to feed on ants. After seeing this behaviour repeatedly, Goodall went to Professor Leakey, her colleague, with the discovery. At that point, most people believed humans were the only species capable of making and using tools. In response, Leakey declared: “Now we must redefine ‘tool’, redefine ‘man’, or accept chimpanzees as humans.”

Despite Leakey’s excitement over Goodall’s findings, not everyone was ready to embrace them. The unfair treatment Goodall received from her male colleagues hardly encouraged her to conduct research. She was criticised for giving her study-animals names and personalities. “I didn’t give them personalities, I only described their personalities,” she explains. As for Goodall’s discovery that chimps used tools: “Some scientists actually said I must have taught them,” she laughs. “That would have been fabulous if I could have done that.”

She simply knew that she was right and her critics were wrong. “My mother always taught us that if people don’t agree with you, it is important to listen to them. But if you’ve listened to them carefully and you still think that you’re right, then you must have the courage to defend your convictions.”

Adapted from “Primatologist Jane Goodall, turning 80 this week, tells Henry Nicholls the inside story on how she transformed our understanding of chimpanzees, what it means to be human, and the controversy and condescension she faced in her influential career”, bbc.com, April 1, 2014. <https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140331-the-woman-who-redefined-mankind>

QUESTIONS

B.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)

Before Goodall's discoveries, chimpanzees were thought to be incapable of manipulating tools.

TRUE

FALSE

b)

The reactions to her discoveries led Goodall to work as a scientist.

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)

Who was David Greybeard and why was he important?

b)

What did Goodall's fellow scientists criticise her for? Give two examples.

TEXTO B

Jane Goodall Transformed our Understanding of Chimpanzees

Jane Goodall, whose research on chimpanzees in Tanzania revolutionised our understanding of these primates, challenged some deep-set ideas of what it means to be human. She turned from scientist to activist, campaigning for a kinder attitude towards animals and the environment.

During her first years in the field, Goodall named an individual David Greybeard, who showed her a side to chimpanzees nobody had ever documented before. She watched David from a distance as he chewed a freshly killed pig – an observation that opposed the theory that chimps were strict vegetarians.

Some days later, Goodall witnessed David making and using a tool to feed on ants. After seeing this behaviour repeatedly, Goodall went to Professor Leakey, her colleague, with the discovery. At that point, most people believed humans were the only species capable of making and using tools. In response, Leakey declared: “Now we must redefine ‘tool’, redefine ‘man’, or accept chimpanzees as humans.”

Despite Leakey’s excitement over Goodall’s findings, not everyone was ready to embrace them. The unfair treatment Goodall received from her male colleagues hardly encouraged her to conduct research. She was criticised for giving her study-animals names and personalities. “I didn’t give them personalities, I only described their personalities,” she explains. As for Goodall’s discovery that chimps used tools: “Some scientists actually said I must have taught them,” she laughs. “That would have been fabulous if I could have done that.”

She simply knew that she was right and her critics were wrong. “My mother always taught us that if people don’t agree with you, it is important to listen to them. But if you’ve listened to them carefully and you still think that you’re right, then you must have the courage to defend your convictions.”

Adapted from “Primatologist Jane Goodall, turning 80 this week, tells Henry Nicholls the inside story on how she transformed our understanding of chimpanzees, what it means to be human, and the controversy and condescension she faced in her influential career”, bbc.com, April 1, 2014. <https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140331-the-woman-who-redefined-mankind>

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.

(Puntuación máxima: 2 puntos)

a)

She suggested

(go) to Tanzania

May.

b)

her CV was the most complete one, she

(not take) into consideration.

c)

The project required a lot of

(create), but they managed to do it all by

.

d)

Complete the following sentence to report what was said.

"Must we submit all our work before Friday?" they asked him.

They asked him

.

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

(Puntuación máxima: 3 puntos)

What social cause would make you become an activist? Justify your answer.