PAU 3 (and last)

Hello there!

This is the last of the PAU practice exercises I will be posting. Remember when you take your exam to monitor your time and organise yourselves, to read carefully and many times the text and to focus more on avoiding mistakes than on showing off a wide range of your writing skills.

Also note that the exam below is a former version that has been changed since the moment it was created. Now you will have two possible exam options, each with just one writing (and not two, as you have in this exam). You will have to choose one of the options, A or B. However, this year, (as I have also told you) you have the choice of choosing either of the writings (that of option A or that of option B) regardless of which option you had picked for the other four questions. So basically you can do either writing you want.

Good luck!

KEY FOR PAU 3

1a FALSE. "Experts say that A.D.D. involves an over-stimulation of young developing brains"

1b FALSE. "This new study tested the idea that television watching by very young children is linked to attention problems by the age of seven."

2 (Possible answers)

a) It can contribute to the development of a condition called Atention Deficit Disorder (ADD), which consists of a difficulty to pay attention for a long enough period of time.

b) Because they thought that a habit of watching television from a very young age could alter the way children's brains develop.

3

a "amount"

b "signs"

c "tested"

d "earlier"

4

a began / between

b about / "a" or "per"

c on / is

d ...what she would do when she finished her homework.

PAU EXAM PRACTICE 2

KEY FOR PAU2

1a FALSE. "The expression “square-eyes” has long been a term associated with sedentary

children who are exposed to too much television"

1b TRUE. "Some researchers believe the invention is at the vanguard of computer-integrated clothing which will allow clothes to monitor our health."

2 (Possible answers):

a) It does so by counting the number of steps a child wearing a special type of shoes take, and then sending the information to a receiver connected to the television by means of a wireless transmitter. If the number of steps is high enough, the child could be granted the possibility of watching two hours of television at most. Once the permitted time is over, the television turns itself off automatically.

b) It might help them become aware of the fact that they are leading such sedentary lives and perhaps that could prompt a change in their habits.

3

a) concerns

b) expired

c) device

d) bring about

4

a) easiest/from

b) which

c) of/has increased or has been increasing

d) watching/tries/spent

KEY FOR PAU 1

1a. FALSE. Line 3: "The Nobel has often been misapplied. It evaded Tolstoi..."

1b. FALSE. Lines 13-14: "Coetzee was born in Cape Town in 1940 and trained as a computer scientist, coming to London in the Sixties to work for IBM, a period recollected in a superb autobiographical novel"

2 (Possible answers):

a) Because politics has often influenced the judges more strongly than literary criteria.

    Because their decision was based on political rather than literary reasons.

b) First he worked at IBM in the United Kingdom as a computer scientist. Then he went on to teach literature in the United States and was also a literary critic.

     After working at IBM in Britain for a period of time, he moved to the United States, where his occupation was that of a professor of Literature and literary critic.

3a "unquestionably"
3b "wholly"
3c "assumptions"
3d "swiftly"

4a "who" (not possible to say "that"), "last" (the PAU exam is from the year 2004; otherwise you can say "one" or "that")
4b "winning", "had received"
4c "whose", "was not chosen"
4d "about", "his"

PAU for practice 1

Hi everyone,

Here goes the first PAU as promised. On another entry I am publishing the key.

Note that the text has a lot of typos. The word "Jeep" could perhaps be substituted by "their". And all the "lo's" that you will find are in fact "to.