INGLÉS

Jose Luis Grande Fernández

Supuestos prácticos - Pedagógicos
Secundaria
Incluye claves didácticas y
pedagógicas para algunas CCAA
Supuestos prácticos - pedagógicos

INGLÉS SECUNDARIA
Jose Luis Grande Fernández

Comentarios de texto, traducciones castellano - inglés,

ejercicios de gramática.
Incluye claves didácticas y pedagógicas para CCAA con
este tipo de proceso.
Primera edición, 2019
Autora: Jose Luis Grande Fernández
Edita: Educàlia Editorial
Imprime: Grupo Digital 82, S. L.
ISBN: 978-84-92655-89-2
Depósito Legal: V-3687-2018
Printed in Spain / Impreso en España.
Todos los derechos reservados. No está permitida la reimpresión de ninguna parte de este libro, ni de imágenes ni de texto,
ni tampoco su reproducción, ni utilización, en cualquier forma o por cualquier medio, ya sea electrónico, mecánico o de otro
modo, tanto conocida como los que puedan inventarse, incluyendo el fotocopiado o grabación, ni está permitido almacenar-
lo en un sistema de información y recuperación, sin el permiso anticipado y por escrito del editor.

Alguna de las imágenes que incluye este libro son reproducciones que se han realizado acogiéndose al derecho de cita que
aparece en el artículo 32 de la Ley 22/1987, de 11 de noviembre, de la Propiedad intelectual. Educalia Editorial agradece
a todas las instituciones, tanto públicas como privadas, citadas en estas páginas, su colaboración y pide disculpas por la
posible omisión involuntaria de algunas de ellas.

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 ÍNDICE
1. INTRODUCTION AND EXAM FEATURES ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������7
2. TEXT ANALYSIS ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������8
3. TYPES OF TEXTS AND GENRES ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 11
4. LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 17
5. FIGURES OF SPEECH ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 18
6. TEXT LINGUISTICS ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������22
7. NARRATIVE DISCOURSE STYLES �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������30
8. GENERAL PRACTICE EXAM PARTS ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������38
9. GENERAL EXAM PRACTICE �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������40
10. MOCK EXAMS ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������113
11. PRACTICAL EXAMS IN ANDALUSIA AND MADRID �������������������������������������������������������������������123
12. PRACTICAL EXAMS IN CATALONIA �������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 132
13. GENERAL PRACTICE EXAM ANSWER KEY ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������135
14. ANSWER KEY TO THE MOCK EXAMS ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 198
15. ANSWER KEY TO EXAMS IN ANDALUSIA AND MADRID ������������������������������������������������������� 206
17.-BIBLIOGRAPHY AND WEBLIOGRAPHY ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������260
 SUPUESTOS PRÁCTICOS - PEDAGÓGICOS DE INGLÉS SECUNDARIA

1. INTRODUCTION AND EXAM FEATURES

Bearing in mind the eliminating nature of the written part, obtaining a good pass mark in the practical
exam becomes essential so as to be admitted to the next stage of the selection procedure. For instance, this
part is worth up to 70% in some Autonomous Communities such as Catalonia (2018). For that reason, a
good selection of different sorts of materials and exercises set in the official tests has been included in this
book. Apart from that, these materials could be also useful to improve your command of certain areas of the
language.
Regardless of your current level of proficiency, training exercises will be very useful to be familiar with
the type of activities that one might encounter on the day of the exam. Besides that, each practice sample
will enable the examinee to make the best use of one’s abilities by making use of one’s time more efficiently.
Needless to say that all the exercises and materials foreseen in this book should cover most of the prac-
tical exam contents and that is the reason why the examinee should devote a lot of time, energy and work
to try to do the task. We have to take into account that some exercises need training in formal aspects rather
than in language. For these exercises, one will have to develop the skills and strategies that work best.
We can also consider that one might come across texts and exercises in general that will make us become
aware of our weak points and for that reason these practical exam exercises will encourage us to overcome
those difficulties and improve our future marks in official tests.
As it has been stated above, both the written development and exposition of one of the topics of the
Official Syllabus and the practical exam can make you pass to the next stage of selection. In general
4 terms, all the practical exams issued by the panels in each Autonomous Community across the nation have a
complex nature. This book mainly focuses on the General Practical Exam Parts based on previous selection
processes (Castile La Mancha, Andalusia, Extremadura, etc.). Nevertheless, we think that it is also important
to take a look at what happens in Autonomous Communities such as Madrid, which, along with Cantabria,
has a Listening part in the test. And last but not least, we cannot forget those exams which include peda-
gogical issues and didactic proposals like the ones set in Catalonia, Aragon, Valencian Community and
the Canary Islands.
In general terms, the practical exam parts that must be learnt so that the examinees can integrate the
necessary skills to get used to them are the following: Vocabulary at Proficiency levels, Phrasal Verbs, Use
of English or “rewriting”, also at Proficiency levels and based on “register” (idioms can also be included in
this section), Direct and Indirect Translations, Phonetic Transcriptions, Text Analysis or “close reading” and
Written Composition based on different current issues.
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2. TEXT ANALYSIS

When we mention the concept Text Analysis we mean the critical examination and interpretation of the
most significant and representative passages singled out from literary works written in English. In most of the
competition practical exams, we can find outstanding prose excerpts belonging to complete masterpieces.

2.1.- HOW TO COPE WITH YOUR TEXT ANALYSIS

Literary excerpts will require literary interpretation by means of specific questions proposed by the panel.
Literary interpretation implies that there is a pursuit of the gist or ultimate meaning of the literary object. They
will also demand literary appreciation, which lays its weight on the assessment of values contained in the
literary texts. Last but not least, they might call for literary analysis, which suggests the breaking down of
the text into smaller components in search for structures and meaningful constituents that help understand the
codes or signs hidden in a text (Alcaraz, 1990).

2.2.- DEVELOPMENT
First of all, we have to read and feel the text. This first approach to the passage tries to seek out the ‘literary
meaning’ of the text, appealing to the reader’s moral, social and psychological judgement and sensitivity in
the examination of plot, characters and places.
Once we have read the excerpt, we will move onto the linguistic analysis of the text, also known as ‘close
reading’, ‘study’ or ‘stylistics’ (Johnson, 1992). This type of analysis not only requires reading and understan-
ding the individual printed words, but also being sensitive to all the nuances and connotation of language 5
as it is used by skilled writers. This can mean anything from vocabulary, sentence construction, and imagery,
to the themes that are being dealt with, the names in which the story is being told, and the view of the world
that it offers. In other words, close reading involves almost everything from the smallest linguistic items to the
much larger issues of literary understanding and judgement.

2.3.- STYLISTICS
This term was coined in 1960 two years after the famous Indiana Congress of Linguistics had been held in
the American town of Bloomington. The proceedings of these meetings were published in a book whose
title is Style in Language. This work breathed new life into literary research from a linguistic point of view.
Roman Jakobson’s Concluding Statement: Linguistics and Poetics, with its insistence on poetics as a linguistic
discipline opened new paths in the study of literature. In Jakobson’s words, poetics deals with the problems
and questions related to verbal structure, as the analysis of painting undertakes to examine the structure of
a picture. He made it quite clear that literature was linked to linguistics as literature is made of words whose
structure is verbal. This investigation is a typical sample of the taxonomical methodology of structuralism,
which tackles all sorts of units and components on a wide range of linguistic levels (the rhyme pattern, the
selection of words, the syntactic parallelism, the structure of nominal groups, the use of epithetical adjectives,
the stylistic effects of the liquid consonants /l/ and /r/, etc.).
Linguistic poetics, prompted by the ‘poetic function’ in the functional scheme of language presented by
Jakobson at the Indiana Congress. Jakobson and other structuralists helped us discover many previously
unperceived linguistic features and characteristics of literary language, and above all, they provided names
and terminology so that the linguistic reality of literary texts could be appreciated in a less confused manner.
 SUPUESTOS PRÁCTICOS - PEDAGÓGICOS DE INGLÉS SECUNDARIA

We refer to the two-dimensional discovery:

Stylistics of choice as the analysis of linguistic preferences, both paradigmatic and syntagmatic used in the
text (for example in the sentence He emphasized the words in tones of agonized loathing there has been
a conscious or unconscious choice of semantic features that have a negative connotation ‘strength’, ‘pain’
and ‘hate’ (Alcaraz,1990). In other words, lexical, semantic, phonological, morphological or syntactical
arrangements and preferences.

Stylistics of connotation as the examination of connotative or expressive values. For example, when we
say she looked at him with beady eyes, the word beady, which denotes ‘as small as a rosary bead’ may also
connote ‘hostility’, ‘suspicious’, etc. (Alcaraz, 1990). In other words, affective, expressive or added values of
a given lexical or syntactic unit.

Generativism also develops poetics, but this time the theoretical sources of research are found in the
Chomskian dichotomy called grammaticaly/acceptability. This paradigm of linguistic investigation also cul-
tivates another dimension of stylistics:
Stylistics of deviation as the study of formal structures which deviates away from normal, everyday lan-
guage at a lexical and syntactical level. (Pratt, 1978, pp.3-37). This branch of stylistics is concerned with
differentiating between literary and non-literary language. For this reason, most of the deviations that take
place in literary texts have been classified as figures of speech from ancient times to the present. The sentence
the rock laughed is a deviation in relation to everyday language, however it has got stylistics effects due to
the use of rhetoric, in this case an author has made use of personification as a figure of speech.
6 In the eighties there were many voices against the great amount of taxonomies of structuralism and the
exaggerated formalisation and idealisation of generativism (Alcaraz, 1990). The language of the ideal
speaker-listener living in a completely homogeneous speech community who knows his language perfectly
and is unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions as memory limitations, distractions, shifts in
attention and interests, etc. (Chomsky, N., 1965, p.3) meant very little. What really mattered was the exami-
nation of culturally describable communicative events. A new paradigm, pragmatics, was making its way
in linguistic research; it was the paradigm that tackled discourse, that is, language in action. According to
Charles Morris (1938) in his seminal “Foundations in the Theory of Signs’, pragmatics examines the relations
between linguistic signs and its users or interpreters. For that reason, the importance of language in context,
communicative events, participants in the communicative process and the integration of other areas of thou-
ght such as cognition, sociology, psychology and computer science captured the attention of many scholars
in the Anglo-Saxon sphere. This paradigm of linguistic research also cultivated another dimension of stylistics:
Pragmastylistics as the study of language in context and discourse. Linguists are attracted by the socio-cog-
nitive dimension of literary discourse. Now language is no longer seen simply as a neutral medium or a
decorative object, but an entity which is conditioned by social necessities, language is what gives shape to
ideas and so it affects the way they are expressed in all texts. (Fowler, R., (1978).

2.4.- CONCLUSION
Because Literary Analysis or Text Analysis is subjective, you may find yourself arguing a point that other
analysts may not agree with or even answering a question you think it is correct, for that reason, when one
has to cope with an excerpt or a passage on the day of the practical exam, the first piece of advice a res-
ponsible trainer can give is to keep calm at all times. Serenity is the key word when dealing with such pieces
 SUPUESTOS PRÁCTICOS DE INGLÉS SECUNDARIA

3. TYPES OF TEXTS AND GENRES

3.1.- TEXT TYPOLOGY

According to Roland Barthes (1977,pp. 155-164), when discussing ‘text’ and ‘work’ from a literary point
of view, he does not try to define what he means by ‘text’ but explains the differences in the two concepts ba-
sed on seven propositions: method, genre, signs, plurality, filiation, reading, and pleasure; how he viewed
the developing relationship between ‘text’ and ‘work.’
-- Method: Barthes explains that ‘work’ can be handled. It is a concrete object; something that is definite
and complete, “a fragment of a substance occupying a part of the space of books,” whereas the text is
the composition or the meaning the reader takes from the ‘work’ and it is not a definite object.
-- Genre: Unlike the rigid classifications applied to the ‘work,’ the text cannot be pigeonholed into a genre
or placed in a hierarchical system.
-- Signs: The ‘work’ is ‘complete’ and comprehensive; it is signified, there is no arbitrariness involved in its
literal understanding or interpretation. However, the text is ‘incomplete’ in that it is metonymic; its words
or phrases may be exchanged for others with similar meanings or associations. Its meaning becomes
interrupted since it encourages the reader to produce overlapping ideas and make associations. Its
ambiguity causes it to become extremely symbolic and makes its signifiers arbitrary and undetermined.
Unlike the ‘work’ which has closure and can be interpreted literally and is explanatory and is a sign in
itself, the text is opened-ended, has a multitude of associations and is deeply symbolic,  accordingly,
it has plurality of meaning. Barthes says the text is like a ‘woven fabric’ that comes with known codes
8 that are assembled differently and maybe  be woven with ‘citations,’ ‘references,’ and ‘echoes;’ it is
intertextual in that it is “the text between of another text.”
-- Filiation: If writing is seen as a ‘work’ it is defined by a process of association or authorship. It becomes
affiliated and identified with its author and the reader’s knowledge of the author and previous works
may become the key to its understanding.  If writing is viewed as a text, then it is not limited and confined
to a genre and the reader does not expect it to fit into a category of type since it is part of a grid and
free to be interpreted beyond the author’s signification.
-- Reading: The ‘work’ is a commodity—an object of consumption in that the reader tends to be passive
and is expected to be fed and entertained when reading.  If the reader approaches a text as writing
and not as a ‘work,’ then the reading experience becomes interactive. The text narrows the distance be-
tween reading and writing by replacing consumption with the free play of collaborative reading. When
interacting with a text rather than a ‘work,’ the reader questions and thinks about the writing instead of
taking it for granted.
-- Pleasure:  The pleasure of reading classic literary works may feel like consumption since the reader
cannot rewrite those texts and thus a distance is created between the reader and the ‘work.’ If viewed
as an accessible text, however, a piece of work arouses feelings of pleasure because there is no feeling
separation between the reader and the writer and the text transcends any language or social barriers.
Despite the fact that Roland Barthes stated that a text is hard to classify owing to its heterogeneous entity,
some scholars in Linguistics have differentiated five types of text or discourse. However, according to Beau-
grande and Dressler (1981, p.183), many actualized instances do not manifest complete or exact charac-
teristics of an ideal type. They also classified texts into three types: descriptive, narrative and argumentative.
They stated that descriptive texts describe objects or situations, narrative texts arrange actions and events
and argumentative texts promote acceptance of beliefs and ideas. Nevertheless, according to Alcaraz
(1990), two more types of texts such as exposition and dialogic discourse must be added to any text
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4. LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS

The word function can be thought of as a synonym for the word ‘use’. In general terms, people do different
things with their language, that is, they want to achieve a large number of different purposes by talking, writ-
ing, listening and reading. The aim of this section is to outline some of the most relevant models of language
functions that have been developed throughout the 20th century.
According to Malinowski (1935), the functions of language must be classified in two different broad catego-
ries: pragmatic and magical. As an anthropologist, his main concern was the practical uses of language,
which he subdivided into active and narrative. On the other hand, he connected the category of magical
with the ritual, ceremonial or religious activities in the cultural sphere of a group or folk.
According to Thibault (2006), the main aim of language is communication. In order to come to this con-
clusion, he revised Saussure’s speech circuit and his code model of communication where the Swiss linguist
developed his dichotomy language and speech. Thibault first set his reading on the notion of code. Then,
he defined it as the shared rules of interpretation which enable a Sender (S) and Receiver (R) successfully to
encode and decode messages which are transmitted from S to R. He also stated that Saussure’s model was a
meaning-making resource whose main aim was communicating rather than transmitting. He also added that
interactants co-deploy the available social-semiological resources on a given social occasion of discourse.
(2006:131).
A quite different classification is connected with Karl Bühler (1934), who was concerned with the functions
of language from the point of view not so much of the culture but of the individual. He made the distinction
into expressive language, conative language, and representational language: the expressive being
language that is oriented towards the self, i.e., the speaker, the conative being language that is oriented
14 towards the addressee, that is, the listener, and the representational being language that is oriented towards
the rest of reality, i.e., the reference or real context. Bühler was applying a conceptual framework inherited
from Plato: the distinction of first, second and third person. On this basis, Bühler recognised three functions of
language according to their orientation to one or other of the three persons. His scheme was adopted by the
Prague School and later extended by Roman Jakobson (1960), who is the basis of the six factors of his own
model of communication. Jakobson distinguished six different functions of communication:
-- Referential: the representation of reality or real context.
-- Emotive: the expressivity carried out by the speaker or addresser.
-- Conative: the set towards the addressee or receiver of the message.
-- Metalingual: the set towards the code or metalinguistic function.
-- Phatic: the set towards the channel or the means of message transmission.
-- Poetic: the set towards the message or the way language is expressed.
From the point of view of Text Linguistics, M.A.K. Halliday identified four different components in the seman-
tics of every language (2004). He refers to them as:
-- Experimental: This concept is connected with the field of discourse, that is, what is going on.
-- Interpersonal: This concept is connected with the tenor of discourse, that is, the people involved or
those who take part in a communicative process.
-- Logical: this is the component which is linked to total interpretation of the message.
-- Textual: this is the essential nature of a functional approach to language. This concept is linked to the
mode of discourse, that is, the role assigned to language, its information and cohesive relations.
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5. FIGURES OF SPEECH

As it was stated in point 3.1, one of the mains of literary works is to attain vividness and emotion. The
first thing a good writer must do is to appeal to our senses by means of the exploitation of communicative
channels. When we try to perceive reality we always adopt a perspective which certainly heightens one of
our mechanisms of perception, which are undoubtedly associated with our senses. In order to attain lively
effects, writers exploit the sensorial resources by means of visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory and tactile
senses. For example, in the first line of Twelfth Night, Shakespeare makes an appeal to four sensations (hear-
ing, taste, passion and touch):

“If music be the food of love, play on

Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting
The appetite may sicken, and so die”.
Of all the communicative channels, the visual one is the most advantageous. In fact, most descriptions, as the
one in this passage from James Joyce’s A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, are usually associated with
the visual experience:
“A girl stood before him in midstream, alone and still, gazing out to sea. She seemed like one whom
magic had changed into the likeness of a strange and beautiful seabird. Her long slender bare legs were
delicate as a crane’s and pure save where an emerald trail of seaweed had fashioned itself as a sign upon
the flesh. Her thighs, fuller and soft-hued as ivory, were bared almost to the hips, where the white fringes of
her drawers were like feathering of soft white down. Her slate-blue skirts were kilted boldly about her waist
and dovetailed behind her. Her bosom was as a bird’s, soft and slight, slight and soft as the breast of some 15
dark-plumaged dove. But her long fair hair was girlish: and girlish, and touched with the wonder of mortal
beauty, her face”. (A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, James Joyce).
However, in the first chapter of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway there is a clever exploitation of the auditory
channel when the author is trying to re-create in the reader’s mind a noisy atmosphere, with words such as
pause, suspense, strikes, musical, bellow, uproar, brass band, barrel organs, jingle, high singing, etc. (Al-
caraz, 1982).
This appeal to the senses reaches its climax with the synthetical combination of sensations, that is, what Ste-
phen Ullmann (1957:266-289) calls the “intersensory transfer” to allude to synaesthesia. These intersenso-
ry transfers are so deeply rooted in human perception that many of them have entered ordinary language.
Synaesthesia is one of the most powerful linguistic devices that a descriptive text can make used of, in order
to reach full vividness. (Alcaraz, 1982)
Another mechanism which is dealt with in the field of figures of speech is repetition as part of the stylistics of
choice. The study of systematic repetition has been the concern of classical rhetotic. It produces aesthetic
functions. Lotman has clearly said that the aesthetic elements of a text cannot be restricted to the field of
images, as all the arrangements in a text are meaningful (Lotman, 1985). The stylistic repetition can be per-
ceived in the presence of partial synonyms. For example, in John Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn we can feel
the sensation of ‘quietness’ thanks to the present of partial synonyms like: ‘bride of quietness’, ‘fosterchild of
silence’, ‘peaceful citadel’, ‘will silent be?’. ‘why art thou desolate?’. (Alcaraz and Hidalgo, 1992)
This repetition does not exclusively refer to lexical units; it can also affect smaller semantic units like features
or semic units. In the following passage from Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent, the semic ‘multitude’ is
present in many words although it is only obvious as one as a lexical unit:
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6. TEXT LINGUISTICS

6.1. DISCOURSE AND TEXT. LITERARY PRAGMATICS

The word ‘discourse’ usually refers to either the verbal exchange that takes place in social interaction, that
is conversation, or to connected speech or writing on a given line of thought. It is also applied to a formal or
extended speech, as in the expression “He gave a lively discourse to the members of the board”. In modern
linguistics, however, the term discourse has a more precise sense: it means language in action or language
in context. The phrase ‘language in action’ is concerned with language as used in oral and written commu-
nication, whereas ‘language in context’ especially highlights the spatio-temporal circumstances in which
utterances are said or spoken. These two senses of the term discourse, which are close to Saussure’s parole
and to Chomsky’s performance, clearly underscore the communicative aspect of language (Alcaraz, 1990).
Literary pragmatics is the branch of textual pragmatics that examines literary texts, that is, what and how
literary texts communicate in an interdisciplinary way. Two of the most attractive goals of literary pragmatics
are the study of its texture, i.e., the structural organization and characterisation of the literary passage as
text, and the analysis of the textual meaning of the passage, i.e., the examination of the literary resources,
devices and stratagems deployed in a literary passage to deploy meaning (Alcaraz, 1990)

6.2. TEXTURE. THE CONDITIONS OF TEXTUALITY

In pragmatics, a passage or a group of sentences can be considered as an organized structure called text if
they satisfy the condition of textuality. If grammaticality is the attribute to sentences, textuality is the attribute 19
of texts, and the process by means of which a text comes into existence is called textualization. In order to
account for the textuality of a text, also called texture (Halliday and Hasan, 1985:70-96), several theoreti-
cal models have been designed. Most of them consists of some or all the following properties:
-- Cohesion
-- Coherence
-- Intention and intentionality
-- Progressivity
-- Closure
-- Meaning
Another theoretical model concerning texture is the one developed by Beaugrande and Dressler (1981).
They set out ‘Seven Standards of Textuality’ and hypothesised that, if any one of them was not met, the
text would not be communicative:
-- Cohesion (see 6.3).
-- Coherence (see 6.3).
-- Intentionality: It is reflected in the writer’s manipulation of rhetorical devices: commands, questions
and suggestions etc. The effect is literally to make some waves and movement in the text.
-- Acceptability: It involves recognition on the reader’s part of cohesion and coherence.
-- Informativity: It is new information given to the receiver, reader or listener.
-- Situationality: It recognises that the appearance of a text at a given time or in a context will influence
the readers or listeners in their interpretation.
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7. NARRATIVE DISCOURSE STYLES

7.1. NARRATIVE DISCOURSE: AWARENESS OF THE

COMMUNICATIVE EVENTS
If the major purpose of descriptive discourse is to paint with words, the chief object of narrative discourse is
to narrate, that is, to tell a story. For that reason, an event is the central issue of narrative discourse, as an
image is the most important concern of descriptive discourse. These events take place in a setting where the
participants are factual or fictional characters, who usually carry out some, or all of these activities, simulta-
neously: (a) acting (they do things); (b) speaking (they utter meaningful sentences in appropriate contexts),
and (c) thinking (they imagine things, consider facts, make expectations, etc.) at the same time (Alcaraz
1990).
Although in prose texts narrative discourse is undoubtedly the emperor of most passages, it is not uncommon
to notice a balance between descriptive discourse depicting the setting, the mood and the characters in a
spatial scope, and narrative discourse presenting the actions and the events in a temporal dimension.

7.2. TIME IN NARRATIVE DISCOURSE

Narrative discourse exploits the temporal dimension, for that reason, the verbal group is the archetypal
linguistic form. The most common verbal tense used in narration to exploit the temporal dimension is the past
tense, especially the past simple.
27
Rawdon left her and walked home rapidly, it was nine o´clock at night. He ran across the streets and the great
squares of Vanity Fair, and at length came up breathless opposite his own house. He started back and fell against the
railings, trembling as he looked up. (W. Thackeray, Vanity Fair).
The commonest way of presenting actions into the reader is the chronological order of events in the past, that
is, the presentation of actions in the order in which they happened. However, it is the narrator’s role to make
use of different narrative techniques. One of these techniques consists in beginning the action in medias res,
in the mist of things. Another technique is the so-called ‘flashback’, where the narrator returns to events in the
past. Nevertheless, when the author looks ahead of time, the technique is known ‘flashforward.
The narration of events can be condensed or expanded. An event that lasts a few minutes in real life may
take many pages in the narration and, conversely, many years’ activities can be presented in an almost el-
liptical way through a few very short sentences (Alcaraz, 1990).

7.3. NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES: THE NARRATOR

The narrator is the voice we hear talking of settings, characters and events. However, narrators are not to be
confused with their authors. The narrator is, in fact, the result of the great authorial effort carried out in the stra-
tegy devised by the architect of the narrative discourse. He is the one in charge of dispensing information,
that is, he has to reveal or conceal valuable facts and details. He is also the one in charge of manipulating
the temporal condensation or expansion of events.
In literary criticism or in linguistic studies the term “point of view” can be understood in at least two senses:
(a) world view, outlook or ideology; and (b) a narrative technique. In its first sense it is linked to pragmatic
presupposition as it involves ideology, assumptions and beliefs whereas in its second sense it refers to the
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8. GENERAL PRACTICE EXAM PARTS

8.1. VOCABULARY
Gaining new vocabulary at a proficiency level is paramount, especially when we have to take the competi-
tion practical exam. As a matter of fact, it will be useful for both the reading comprehension or text analysis
and the specific vocabulary exercises that are often set in the competition exam. Multiple choice exercises
or gap filling exercises are very common since they are easy to correct, very quick and reliable, that is, the
outcome is exactly the same whoever corrects them. Vocabulary exercises can include idioms and proverbs
as part of the English language.

8.2. PHRASAL VERBS

Students of English realize very early in their learning career that prepositions present a problem. They collo-
cate with nouns, adjectives, past participles, and verbs, without rules or logic. For that reason, the so-called
multi-word verbs are one of the most difficult parts to learn since they are verbs that combine with one or
two particles (a preposition and /or an adverb). Nevertheless, the problem does not end up there. It beco-
mes a tougher issue when we realize that most of them have non-literal meaning, that is, we cannot translate
them by splitting their parts (look up, look for, etc.). For all these things, we are going to devote time to prac-
tising them and also to getting familiar with most of them.

8.3. USE OF ENGLISH 35

Use of English, rewriting or rephrasing, or just simply grammar also seem to be a fix part in the exams in
Castile-La Mancha. It is a part which is easy to correct by the panels and a reliable way to test the candi-
dates’ proficiency level, both at formal and semantic levels. Being able to paraphrase an original sentence
without altering its original meaning is something that can give us information about the candidate’s level of
English. These sorts of exercises need a lot of training since we are dealing with formal aspects of the lan-
guage. In some of the exercises we will be working with, a word to form the new sentence will be given or
we will have to finish each of the sentences in such a way that they mean exactly the same as the sentence
printed before them.

8.4. TRANSLATIONS
Translations have been a fix part of the exam lately. Maybe this is due to the fact that it is considered as a very
complete, reliable test of the competence of a speaker in both languages, at an Advanced or Proficiency
level. We must remember that translations need a lot of practice, it is a kind of mental gym. Besides a good
command of both languages it is also necessary to know something about the topics to be dealt with. For
that reason, the wider your range of topics is, the more probabilities you will have to succeed in your exams.
According to experience, it seems that most mistakes would arise from the following main sources:
-- A hasty or superficial reading of the text to be translated.
-- Failure to choose the right word for its context.
-- Unnatural constructions in the language of the translation.
First of all, we advise you something that may seem very obvious: read as much as possible in both lan-
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9. GENERAL EXAM PRACTICE

9.1. EXAM PRACTICE 1

IN EACH OF THE SENTENCES THERE IS AN ADJECTIVE MISSING. FILL IN THE GAPS BY CHOO-
SING THE RIGHT ADJECTIVE FROM THE BOX BELOW

insane gorgeous evil cute charming willing eager cranky lousy tight
She is ………………………………….. : with her looks, she could have been a model.
She is such a(n)………………………person that very few people enjoy her company.
I think it would be……………………………..to help us if we asked him nicely.
The weather has been………………………………….recently, so we haven’t been to the beach for ages.
The apartment we visited was…………………………………, and I’d like to rent it for the summer.
The currents are so treacherous here that you would be…………………………..to try to swim across to
the island.
This T-shirt is too…………………………….on me, I need a bigger size.
In the story, the princess is turned to stone by a(n) ………………………………..witch.
She is a very……………………………..student, always wanting to learn as much as possible.
She’s such a ………………………..woman that people will do anything for her. 37

COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES WITH THE APPROPRIATE PHRASAL VERB PARTICLES

1. This cupboard is very untidy. I must turn it …………………

2. When her husband died she was left to bring………………..her children alone.
3. He backed………….….the deal at the last moment.
4. She will keep breaking…………..…..when other people are talking.
5. I don’t think you have quite caught……………..what I mean.
6. I’m glad to hear the wedding went……….…….so well.
7. They robbed the bank, then made………………..in a stolen car.
8. The factory had to lay him………….……because there wasn’t enough work.
9. You’ll never guess whom I ran……….……the other day.
10. Would you look…………….my bird while I’m away?

REPLACE THE WORDS IN BOLD WITH A PHRASAL VERB IN ITS CORRECT FORM

1. What does this abbreviation mean? ………………………..

2. Although he was unconscious when we found him, he soon recovered consciousness.
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…………………
3. His new book will be published next week. …………………………
4. He resigned from his job in the Foreign Office when the truth about his past became known.
…………….
5. The bad cheese emitted a very unpleasant smell. …………………………
6. The escaped prisoner had tried to disguise his appearance, but a scar on his cheek betrayed
him.
…………………………………
7. The film didn’t equal our expectations. …………………………..
8. When his father died he received a lot of money under his father’s will. ……………………..
9. We never discovered how the accident occurred. ………………………
10. Cutting the grass exhausts him. ……………………….
11. Even if you pay for the damaged it still won’t compensate for the disturbance you have caused.
………………………….
12. Many animals are in the process of becoming extinct. …………………………. .
13. Leave! This is private property. …………………………. .
14. I wasn’t deceived by her charming manners. …………………………. .
15. He is making progress with his studies. …………………………. .
38 16. The dog attacked him without warning. …………………………. .
17. He’s always ready to agree with other people’s plans. …………………………. .
18. I must reduce intake of sugar: I’m getting too fat. …………………………. .
19. The revoked that law years ago. …………………………. .
20. Don’t explode those fireworks in the house. …………………………. .

USE OF ENGLISH 1
For each of the sentences below, write a new sentence as similar as possible in meaning to the
original sentence, but using the word given. This word must not be altered in any way.
Example: I think their marriage is likely to fail soon.
rocks
Answer: I think their marriage is on the rocks.
I’m going to take a risk, Leicester City will win the league for sure.
limb
I’m going ………………………………………………………………………………………
If I can’t have two cats, I’ll have to resign myself to having just one.
along
If I…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
When I saw him, I knew he was the man the police were looking for.
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10. MOCK EXAMS

According to a recent study published in the digital edition of The Guardian in its Teacher Network, Mock
Exams are great for students’ brains. The article also states that those tests have more value than we might
imagine and it also gives the reasons why. Researcher Piers Steel states that “the further away an event is,
the less impact it has on people’s decisions. In essence, summer exams feel like a lifetime away, so some will
only really start working hard for them after Easter. By having mock exams halfway through the year,
students have the opportunity to focus their attention and effort earlier”.
The study also asserts that some of the most commonly used techniques to aid revision are actually the least
effective, including highlighting or re-reading key passages. One reason for their ineffectiveness is they do
not force you to think deeply and critically about the topic, so they often end up being done on auto-pilot.
Mock exams let students practice revision strategies that are proven to be more helpful and dis-
cover what works best for them.
They also help us improve our knowledge by testing ourselves as an effective way to recall in-
formation. In another study on mock exams, researchers found that students who did a practice test after a
period of revision did better on the final exam than those students who did not do the mock exam and had
just spent the whole time revising. The researchers of this study stated that instead of seeing an exam as a po-
tentially threatening event or as some sort of judgement on their ability, it would be great if we could
help students to see their mock exams as a handy way of improving their knowledge and memory.
Another key issue of taking mock exams lies in the fact that practising under exam conditions is a great
opportunity for students to figure out and practice what works best for them. Techniques to manage exam
nerves could include actively slowing down, channelling any nerves into helpful behaviour or listening to
110 some relaxing music beforehand. For some, the competition exams can lead to nerves, anxiety, frustration
and sloppy mistakes, culminating in a poor performance. For others, pressure allows them to concentrate
more, work harder and perform better. It takes time and practice to perform well under pressure. Once these
areas are identified, it is then a case of putting in the hours. It is not enough to think about what you need to
do better, it is the action and the doing that really makes the difference.
In summary, mock exams, if framed right, can be incredibly beneficial since they allow students to see
part of the challenge, to encourage them to start revising earlier, to practice effective revision strategies, to
improve their knowledge, to familiarise themselves with pressure, and act as a guide moving forward.

10.1. FIRST TERM MOCK EXAM

PROCEDIMIENTO SELECTIVO PARA INGRESO EN EL CUERPO DE PROFESORES DE ENSEÑAN-
ZA SECUNDARIA EN CASTILLA LA MANCHA 2015
PRUEBA 1. EXAMEN PRÁCTICO
READ THE EXTRACT FROM “THE ALENXANDRIA QUARTET” BY LAWRENCE DURRELL. MOUNTOLIVE
The airplane stooped and began to slant slowly downwards, earthwards into the violet evening. The brown
desert with its monotony of windcarved dunes had given place now to a remembered relief-map of the delta.
The slow loops and tangents of the brown river lay directly below, with small craft drifting about upon it like
seeds. Deserted estuaries and sandbars - the empty unpopulated areas of the hinterland where the fish and
birds congregated in secret. Here and there the river split like a bamboo, to bend and coil round an island
with fig-trees, a minaret, some dying palms - the feather-softness of the palms furrowing the flat exhausted
landscape with its hot airs and mirages and humid silences. Squares of cultivation laboriously darned it here
 SUPUESTOS PRÁCTICOS - PEDAGÓGICOS DE INGLÉS SECUNDARIA

and there like a worn tweed plaid; between segments of bituminous swamp embraced by slow contours of
the brown water. Here and there too rose knuckles of rosy limestone.

It was frightfully hot in the little cabin of the airplane. Mountolive wrestled in a desultory tormented fashion
with his uniform. Skinners had done wonders with it - it fitted like a glove; but the weight of it. It was like
being dressed in a boxing-glove. He would be parboiled. He felt the sweat pouring down his chest, tickling
him. His mixed elation and alarm translated itself into queasiness. Was he going to be airsick - and for the
first time in his life? He hoped not. It would be awful to be sick into this impressive refurbished hat. ‘Five
minutes to touchdown’; words scribbled on a page torn from an operations pad. Good. Good. He nodded
mechanically and found himself fanning his face with this musical-comedy object. At any rate, it became
him. He was quite surprised to see how handsome he looked in a mirror.
They circled softly down and the mauve dusk rose to meet them. It was as if the whole of Egypt were settling
softly into an inkwell. Then flowering out of the golden whirls sent up by stray dust-devils he glimpsed the ni-
ppled minarets and towers of the famous tombs; the Moquattam hills were pink and nacreous as a fingernail.
On the airfield were grouped the dignitaries who had been detailed to receive him officially. They were
flanked by the members of his own staff with their wives - all wearing garden-party hats and gloves as if
they were in the paddock at Longchamps. Everyone was nevertheless perspiring freely, indeed in streams.
Mountolive felt terra firma under his polished dress shoes and drew a sigh of relief. The ground was almost
hotter than the plane; but his nausea had vanished. He stepped forward tentatively to shake hands and
realized that now with the donning of his uniform every thing had changed. A sudden loneliness smote him
– for he realized that, as an Ambassador, he must forever renounce the friendship of ordinary human beings
in exchange for their deference. His uniform encased him like a suit of chain-armour. It shut him off from
the ordinary world of human exchanges. ‘God!’ he thought. ‘I shall be forever soliciting a normal human 111
reaction from people who are bound to defer to my rank! I shall become like that dreadful parson in Sus-
sex who always feebly swears in order to prove that he is really quite an ordinary human being despite the
dog-collar!’
But the momentary spasm of loneliness passed in the joys of a new self-possession. There was nothing to do
now but to exploit his charm to the full; to be handsome, to be capable, surely one had the right to enjoy the
consciousness of these things without self-reproach? He proved himself upon the outer circle of Egyptian offi-
cials whom he greeted in excellent Arabic. Smiles broke out everywhere, at once merging into a confluence
of self-congratulatory looks.

SECTION 1. READING COMPREHENSION

1.1. ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS ACCORDING TO THE TEXT. DO NOT COPY THE EXACT
WORDS. (6 points)
a. Why does the author mention the word “inkwell”?
b. When and why was the protagonist relieved?
c. Why does Mountolive compare himself to a dreadful parson in Sussex?

1.2. WHAT DOES THE AUTHOR MEAN BY THIS?. EXPLAIN IN YOUR OWN WORDS. (8
points)
a. “At any rate, it became him” (line 9, paragraph 2)
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12. PRACTICAL EXAMS IN CATALONIA

12.1.-2018 PRACTICAL EXAM IN CATALONIA

Concurs oposició per a l’ingrés a la funció pública docent

Procediment d’ingrés lliure i de reserva per a aspirants amb discapacitat

Cos: Professors d’Ensenyament Secundari Especialitat: Anglès Prova pràctica: Part A

Temps màxim: 4 hores

EXERCICI 1: COMENTARI LINGÜÍSTIC DE TEXT

Write a linguistic commentary on the text below and prepare a lesson to make your “batxillerat” stu-
dents learn how to write argumentative essays. Describe in your proposal how you would plan the sessions
based on the following elements:
-- Structure of this text type.
-- Discursive devices (adequacy, coherence, cohesion).
-- Stylistic devices (denotation / connotation, lexical fields, rhetorical devices, expressive resources…).
In the lesson plan, it is recommended to keep in mind these aspects:
-- “Batxillerat” curriculum.
-- Methodological and classroom management aspects: 129
-- Use of resources.
-- Learning assessment.
Use the text below as an example to describe and justify your lesson plan.
We Need A Mental Health Revolution To Secure Gender Equality

This year, International Women’s Day, which was observed on Thursday, is poised to be one of the most
widely celebrated in its history.

The past twelve months have seen women’s rights take centre stage as stories of sexual harassment, abuse
and discrimination have shaken several industries out of their patriarchal indifference to gender equality.
The #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, instigated by celebrities, have given ordinary women a platform
to add their voices to the chorus of change.

But as women, men and non-binary people around the world prepare to celebrate the political, so-
cio-economic and cultural achievements of women, I want to add a different chord to the message that
we #PressforProgress. Because we are not giving the next generation of women the tools and resilience
they need to continue making progress and breaking glass ceilings.

Instead, we – as a society – have put such enormous pressures on young women to look and act in a
certain way, achieve perfect grades, land powerful and well-paid jobs, become flawless mothers, and
‘do it all’, that they are buckling under the weight of our expectations.
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13. GENERAL PRACTICE EXAM ANSWER KEY

13.1. KEY TO PRACTICE 1

IN EACH OF THE SENTENCES THERE IS AN ADJECTIVE MISSING. FILL IN THE GAPS BY

CHOOSING THE RIGHT ADJECTIVE FROM THE BOX BELOW (PRACTICE 1)

She is gorgeous: with her looks, she could have been a model.
She is such a cranky person that very few people enjoy her company.
I think it would be willing to help us if we asked him nicely.
The weather has been lousy recently, so we haven’t been to the beach for ages.
The apartment we visited was cute, and I’d like to rent it for the summer.
The currents are so treacherous here that you would be insane to try to swim across to the island.
This T-shirt is too tight on me, I need a bigger size.
In the story, the princess is turned to stone by an evil witch.
She is a very eager student, always wanting to learn as much as possible.
She’s such a charming woman that people will do anything for her.

132 KEY TO PHRASAL VERBS 1

1. This cupboard is very untidy. I must turn it………out…. (limpiar)
2. When her husband died she was left to bring………up….her children alone. (criar)
3. He backed……out of…….….the deal at the last moment. (volverse atrás)
4. She will keep breaking……in……..…..when other people are talking. (interrumpir)
5. I don’t think you have quite caught……on to………..what I mean. (comprender)
6. I’m glad to hear the wedding went………on.…….so well. (salir/resultar)
7. They robbed the bank, then made………off………..in a stolen car. (escapar/huir)
8. The factory had to lay him………off….……because there wasn’t enough work. (despedir)
9. You’ll never guess whom I ran……into….……the other day. (toparse con)
10. Would you look……after……….my bird while I’m away? (cuidar)

REPLACE THE WORDS IN BOLD WITH A PHRASAL VERB IN ITS CORRECT FORM

1. What does this abbreviation stand for?

2. Although he was unconscious when we found him, he soon came round.
3. His new book will come out next week.
4. He gave up his job in the Foreign Office when the truth about his past became known.
5. The bad cheese gave off a very unpleasant smell.
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6. The escaped prisoner had tried to disguise his appearance, but a scar on his cheek gave away him.
7. The film didn’t come up to / live up to our expectations.
8. When his father died he came into a lot of money under his father’s will.
9. We never discovered how the accident came about.
10. Cutting the grass wears ….out/ tires….out/ takes it out of him).
11. Even if you pay for the damaged it still won’t make up for the disturbance you have caused.
12. Many animals are in the process of dying out.
13. Clear off! This is private property.
14. I wasn’t taken in by her charming manners.
15. He is getting on with his studies.
16. The dog set on him without warning.
17. He’s always ready to fall in with other people’s plans.
18. I must cut down on sugar: I’m getting too fat.
19. They did away with that law years ago.
20. Don’t let off those fireworks in the house.

USE OF ENGLISH – KEY TO PRACTICE 1

For each of the sentences below, write a new sentence as similar as possible in meaning to the original 133
sentence, but using the word given. This word must not be altered in any way.
I’m going to go out on a limb, Leicester City will win the league for sure. (Mojarse)
If I can’t have two cats, I’ll have to get along with just one.
The instant I saw him, I knew he was the man the police were looking for.
Time’s getting on, we’d better go home.
He used to be slimmer than he is now.
Even though parents love their kids very much, sometimes it’s better for them to separate.
Don’t worry, you are not going to be asked if mummy and daddy live in the same house.
Cousin Mathew was the one who took the keys.
Tomorrow is likely to be a good day.
I might have said that but I don’t remember clearly.
There is no point (in) worrying so much because worrying doesn’t change anything.
Abi and I don’t love each other any more.
Please don’t let me forget to take the pills at twelve o´clock.
I think it should be up to your dad to decide where everyone sits for the meal.
If we told our dad we are getting divorced, he would be so upset that might affect his health.
We’d better get a move on!
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16. ANSWER KEY TO EXAMS IN CATALONIA

16.1.- KEY TO 2018 PRACTICAL EXAM IN CATALONIA

KEY TO EXERCISE 1 (LINGUISTIC COMMENTARY AND LESSON PLAN)

This is an argumentative text, also known as persuasion or persuasive discourse, where an expository report has
been written in order to convince and inform the reader about the International Women’s Day. According to the author
of this piece of writing (Eve Hepburn), the so-called feminist or women’s movement has been struggling towards gender
equality for decades. For that reason, we can find some kind of political nuances or propaganda since she is trying to
convince us of the importance of taking part in this event. This modality of discourse is said to be a mere variation of
expository discourse due to the fact that it constructs a convincing and logically ordered argument, and also employs
the same techniques such as:
-- Illustration: “#MeToo and #TimesUp, #PressforProgress” or “such enormous pressures on young
women”, “For instance, research has shown that 70% of women feel guilty and ashamed of their bodies
after spending three minutes reading a fashion magazine”.
-- Definition: “This year, International Women’s Day, which was observed on Thursday, is poised to be
one of the most widely celebrated in its history”.
-- Identification: “But as women, men and non-binary people around the world…”
-- Contrast; “Instead, we – as a society – have put such enormous pressures on young women…”
-- Classification: “Indeed, the Girlguiding Association has revealed that 46% of girls and young women
aged 17-21 have sought help for their mental health. NHS Digital data reveals that  26%  of young
women aged 16-24 have self-harmed”, and 233

-- Cause and effect: “The past twelve months have seen women’s rights take centre stage as stories
of sexual harassment, abuse and discrimination have shaken several industries out of their patriarchal
indifference to gender equality”.
Both expository discourse and persuasive discourse have the same general goal: they set forth reasonable
information to appeal to the understanding of the message. In other words, both exploit the ‘logical’ and sys-
tematic organization of discourse. This text or discourse has been organized in ten paragraphs whose inner
structure goes ahead by means of zigzag sequences of axioms. The aim of this rational thinking lies in the
fact of reinforcing the idea that leads to the title of this discourse, that is, the mental change most women must
take up so as to achieve gender equality. This idea is clearly exposed in the last paragraph since the author
recognizes that feminist around the world are the only ones to make that change.
Before moving onto the discursive devices employed in the text, we will briefly come back to text typo-
logy and genre since we would not like to close this first section without taking into account a few notes
developed by the French philosopher, literary critic and linguist Roland Barthes (1977, pp. 155-164), he
stated that unlike the rigid classifications applied to the ‘work,’ the text cannot be pigeonholed into a genre
or placed in a hierarchical system. The fact that a text is hard to classify owing to its heterogeneous entity is
clearly observed in paragraph 8 where the writer tells an anecdote connected to a magazine called Fearless
Femme that she had launched the previous week.
As stated in the former paragraph, we will now focus on the discursive devices, mainly adequacy, co-
hesion and coherence. In pragmatics, as the fifth linguistic level, a passage or a group of sentences can
be considered as an organized structure called text if they satisfy the condition of textuality. If grammaticality
is the attribute to sentences, textuality is the attribute of texts, and the process by means of which a text co-
mes into existence is called textualization. In order to account for the textuality of a text, also called texture