Idioma Moderno: Idioma 1, IV: Inglés

Online Sessions
Adriana Taboada González

INSTRUCTIONS

Hi everyone, long time no see! I decided to create this document to ease those of you
who are getting nervous about the Use of English test and the Book Writing test and to
explain what the situation is right now. I would also like to try something out with you so I
can see if the exercise format I’ll use later on is practical and if everyone would be able to
do it. This would help me choose the best option in case the tests you have to do with me
are online based.

The reason why you haven’t heard of me for the last 2 weeks is simple: since I covered
the last 2 in-class sessions you would have had with Kaye, she and I agreed that she would
cover those hours back. Coincidentally, those hours happened to be the first 2 weeks of
online sessions. Does this mean you are missing out on any kind of content with me? Or
that you’re getting less Use of English exercises/practise? Not at all; remember that you
already had “extra” hours with me in which we covered some grammar topics, vocabulary
and Use of English exercises. In fact, we only did 2 Reading exercises (Kaye’s part),
because I knew you would be able to practice with her soon. I hope this is now clarified.

Since you had an exam yesterday and you are having another exam today, I’m only going
to send 2 exercises for you to do for homework. Again, this is for me to check if this
format would work. If you want to practice more on your own, I recommend doing as
much Use of English exercises as you can. You have the Student’s book, but you can also
access the web – here you have some examples:

https://www.examenglish.com/CEFR/C2.htm
https://www.cambridgeenglish.org/exams-and-tests/proficiency/preparation/
https://www.englishrevealed.co.uk/cpe.php

The good thing about these websites is that they either give you an automatic feedback or
they provide the answer key. You can send me any doubts you might have while doing
the exercises. After Easter, my classes will run as usual (either online or on campus).

For today’s exercises, you’ll see that I’ve only uploaded a .docx version that is protected.
This means that you will only be able to edit those parts that I want you to, i.e. the boxes
where you have to provide an answer. Follow the instructions of each exercise carefully
and let me know ASAP if you have any problems with the format. You have until
tomorrow (2nd April) at 20.00 to upload the exercises to the assignment under my name;
make sure you save the document correctly with all the answers. It works better if you use
a computer; it’s very important for all of you to do it so that we can know if it works.

That’s it for today. Take care, wash your hands, shower every day and dance to some
quarantine hits!

P.S. “Resistiré”, “Sobreviviré”, “Echa pa’llá”, “La Bamba”, “Quédate en casa”, “Voy a
pasármelo bien”… in case you needed some ideas.
 Idioma Moderno: Idioma 1, IV: Inglés
Online Sessions
Adriana Taboada González
NAME:

USE OF ENGLISH PRACTICE

1. For questions 1-8, read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C, or D)
best fits the gap.

SOCIAL MEDIA – A TOOLKIT FOR GREATER FREEDOM?

In the 21st century, the revolution may not be televised – but recent experience
suggests it is likely to be tweeted, blogged, texted and organized on Facebook.
After (1) analysing more than 3 million tweets, gigabytes of YouTube content and
thousands of blogs, a new study finds that social media played a (2) decisive role
in shaping political debates during the Arab Spring. Conversations about
revolution often (3) preceded major events, and social media carried inspiring
stories of protest across international borders (4) directly.
During the week before former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s resignation,
for example, the total (5) rate of tweets from Egypt – and around the world –
about political change in that country ballooned from 2,300 a day to 230,000 a
day. Videos (6) featuring protest and political commentary went viral – the top 23
videos received nearly 5.5 million (7) views. And the amount of content (8) posted
online by opposition groups increased dramatically.

2. Read this review of a collection of poetry in translation. Use the word given in
capitals to form a word that fits the space.

It’s hard to issue (1) PREDICTIONS on exactly what impact Jonathan Galassi’s
superb translation and (2) analysis of the Italian writer Eugenio Montale’s
Collected Poems: 1920-1954 will have on English-speaking (3) scholars and, more
importantly, on poets. Translations of poetry are often (4) untrustworthy today,
not because, as the poet Robert Frost once claimed, ‘Poetry is what gets lost in
translation,’ but because, (5) presuppose, the act of turning writing in another
language into writing in ‘ours’ is part of a larger (6) imperial project. As a result,
instead of attempting to feel and think beyond the boundaries of any single nation-
state, much academic work (7) imprisions itself within a restrictively pure
nationalist framework of literatures – ‘American’, ‘English’, ‘French’.
(8) Familiar as I already was with Montale’s poetry, my own reaction has been an
unexpected one. After consuming his three main books in a two-day gulp, I felt
stunned by the concentrated power of his language. Without my particularly
wanting them to, the poetry’s cadences have infiltrated my memory, and its (9)
anigmatic images have invaded my dreams. As remote as Montale’s poetry may be
from one’s own world view in the twenty-first century, it nevertheless has to be
accommodated.