INGLÉS

INGLÉS
Septiembre 2002
INSTRUCCIONES GENERALES Y VALORACIÓN
TIEMPO: 1 hora y 30 minutos
INSTRUCCIONES: 1. Lea todo el texto cuidadosamente
2. Lea atentamente todas las preguntas de la prueba.
3. Proceda a responder en lengua inglesa a las preguntas en el papel de examen.
PUNTUACIÓN: La puntuación máxima de la prueba es de 10 puntos.
Beauty over youth
From the countless videos portraying young healthy-looking beauties to a flourishing cosmetics industry that
promises slow aging, women are led to believe that men primarily prefer youth to beauty. But a new study from
Britain suggests that men go for older attractive women rather that younger plain-looking ones.
The new study by a psychologist of Chiterns University College shows that up to a certain age, men find
attractiveness more important than youth when considering potential mates. The psychologist took a photo of a
36-year-old woman who was very attractive in the eyes of a group of men. They showed the picture to three
other groups in their early 20s along with the same eight pictures of women aged 20-45 who had been
considered less attractive. The researchers told the group the beautiful woman was either 36, 41 or 45 years old.
When asked who they’d prefer as a long-term partner, all three group of men chose her, regardless of how old
they thought she was.
The study that beauty counts and that men are not concerned with the number of children they can have. The
younger, plainer women will given them more children, but the fact that men are going for “aging beauty” is
indicative that beauty is more important at some level. But the psychologist also stressed that the study was
based only on physical attractiveness and didn’t take into account other characteristic traits like kindness,
generosity, and caring, which were just as, if not more important, in determining long-term relationships.
QUESTIONS
1.
Are the following statements TRUE or FALSE? Write down the evidence from the text. No marks
are given for only TRUE or FALSE.
a) FALSE
“....They showed the picture to three other groups.........with the same eight pictures....”
b) TRUE
“....all three group of men chose her....”
2.
In your own words and based on the ideas form the text, answer the following questions.
a)
Because most aspects regarding beauty such as fashion clothes, cosmetics, TV...show young
women enjoying these things.
b) The study implies that men prefer beautiful women who are not young although the young
women could give them more children.
3.- Fin the words in the text that mean:
a) numerous(paragraph 1) countless
b) above all (paragraph 1) primarily
c) consider (paragraph 3) take into account
d) leave (paragraph 3)
bequeath
4.- Complete the following sentences. Use the appropriate from of the word in brackets when given.
a)
Although Mary doesn’t worry about her age, I think she is not young enough to have a baby
now.
b) The study was done (do) in 2000, and its findings have been valid since then.
c) Dr. Feldman is the psychologist who has conducted this study. He has been (be) working on
specific areas of human behaviour for ten years.
d) Thank you for helping (help) me with the research. All of you are invited to a party on
Saturday. It will be at Tony’s, the biggest (big) pub in town.
Aquí hemos de recordar ciertas reglas de gramática importantes como son:
- No olvidar que tras una preposición siempre tenemos que poner el verbo en gerundio
- Recordemos que las frases comparativas son muy frecuentes en este ejercicio: en estos casos veréis que
la palabra entre paréntesis es un adjetivo.(frase d)
5.- Write about 100 to 150 words on ONE of the following topics.
a) Is physical appearance in a boy/girl friend more important for you than personal qualities?
Nowadays, physical appearance is an important value for society and in this way, television, advertisements,
fashion...constantly show the good feelings and success associated with a good look.
But in my opinion, when you meet somebody there are a lot of things which can attract you and this is something
you can not control because it is a matter of feeling and interaction with that person.
Despite we should admit that a good appearance is very important and can be something pleasant for most
people, I believe that the look can not reach your soul so the personal qualities are what give somebody charm
and personality.
Besides, these aspects make one person different from another and they are the real beauty.
I consider that beauty should be together with good personal qualities and that society should remark other
motivations apart from being worried all the time about beauty.
Finally, I appreciate very much the personality and especially things so important such as having sense of
humour or being tolerant.
(NOWADAYS = hoy en día; podemos utilizar otros sinónimos como CURRENTLY= actualmente.
IN THIS WAY= de esta forma, de esta manera
BESIDES= además
La frase que comienza con DESPITE equivale a “a pesar de”y tras esta conjunción tenemos que escribir una
frase.
TOGETHER WITH= junto con; sinónimo de ALONG WITH
b) Do you think that studies like the one described in the text are useful? Discuss.
Para este tema, recomiendo aportar argumentos a favor y en contra, de forma organizada y
clara: siempre nos dará puntos hacerlo.
All the studies and researches have interest because they give an idea about preferences and opinions on different
and current issues, so important such as relationships.
However, the choice of the characteristics we desire in a person to live with is very personal and each person
need something different or appreciate some qualities or anothers depending on the moment of life, the age, the
culture or the education. For this reason, this researches can not be extended as if it was the general opinion.
It is interesting to take into account these studies because they can show that there are a great variety of people
with different likes and dislikes .
In my opinion, we can consider this information as a guide to know better our society but I think that it would be
useful to perform studies which can increase the levels of culture and so get a more developed society.
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La preposición ON sirve en este caso para expresar “sobre”:este uso se hace cuando utilizamos verbos
como STUDY ON , GIVE AN OPINION ON,...
La palabra ISSUE significa tema , asunto, y es bastante útil a la hora de redactar.
Atención a los verbos TO DEVELOP = desarrollar, y su participio, developed= desarrollado; también
es interesante, TAKE INTO ACCOUNT= considerar, tener en cuenta
Likes and dislikes= cosas que gustan y que no gustan; el verbo LIKE es gustar,y también puede
utilizarse LIKE como nombre.