1.

Frankenstein: Produce a word cloud with the main concepts of the articles studied
and the central topics of the novel. You will explain it in the oral part of the test. (1
point)

2. Hard Times: Choose a character from the novel and write a descriptive essay. You
can write about the role of the character in the novel, how the character evolves
or not, the connection s/he has with the rest of the characters, etc. Pay attention
to language and organization as well as content. (3 points)

Cecelia Jupe (Sissy)

To begin with, Sissy is the daughter of a circus performer, in spite of her background of
lowest quality; her imagination and her heart are privileged thanks to her father's care
when she was little. Eventually, this father does desert her when she is still a young girl,
leaving her to be adopted by the Gradgrinds, but his education has made its mark on her,
and nothing Mr. Gradgrind can try to teach her will undo it. In a moment of compassion,
Mr. Gradgrind takes Sissy home and gives her a second chance at school. Sissy continues
to fall behind in school, so Mr. Gradgrind keeps her at his house to tend to his invalid wife.

Sissy did not have a very good time in the first few months of her study and was tempted
to drop everything and go back to the circus again, but she never did. She could not take it
anymore; she was tired of being wrong in school and making mistakes. At the same time,
Mr. Gradgrind was angry with her because she kept asking if her father had sent any
letters.
In the Novel, Sissy serves as a contrast to Louisa. This can be interpreted because while
Sissy is imaginative and compassionate, Louisa is rational and, for the most part,
unfeeling. Simultaneously, she becomes the guardian and the savior of the Gradgrind
family, when Louisa nearly succumbs to Harthouse's proposal and when Tom is nearly
arrested; Sissy saves the day, saving their lives and their heart. In the same way, she is
naturally good and emotionally healthy, so the Gradgrind philosophy doesn't affect her.

Another important aspect of the character to remember is that Sissy is the main force for
good in the novel. She is kind, caring, and loving. In the face of being abandoned by her
father and then being forced to learn the Gradgrind philosophy, she never stops being the
only grounding, emotionally positive force in Coketown. In a way she is the perfect young
woman who selflessly takes care of other people. At the end of the novel, she is the only
character who gets a happy ending of marriage and children.

3. The Mill on the Floss: Produce an essay to explain the following statement. Pay
attention to language and organization as well as content. (3 points)
The story contradicts two characteristics of the bildungsroman as genre.

The Mill on the Floss is an example of bildungsroman, or a novel that traces the
development of its protagonist from infancy to adulthood. However, there are
characteristics of the traditional view of this genre that present contradictions throughout
Eliot's novel, which are influenced by previous experience of the author.

One of the main characteristics of bildungsroman in its classic version is the journey
through the hero's life until reaching adulthood and a secure position in the social context,
but in this novel we can see how the conventional bildungsroman pattern becomes
complicated when the main character is a woman. Since, from the female role, there are
many social and cultural restrictions that would not allow her to achieve a common
transition as a man would have had. Maggie's painful maturing in a difficult context
reflects Eliot's own struggles growing up as an intellectually ambitious child with few
educational opportunities.

Another characteristic of this genre, which is contradicted in the novel, is how the ending
unfolds. While within the bildungsroman the hero is expected to achieve a goal and
become a fully realized human at the end of the novel, in The Mill on the Floss this does
not happen. The ending does not offer the satisfying resolution expected of a
bildungsroman. What is more, it challenges our desire for satisfaction, and thus provokes
us to imagine. But from the author's point of view, a "happy ending" cannot be expected if
the main character is a woman, what Eliot does is invite society to reflect on the sexist
conflicts of the context in the 19th century.

Taking everything into consideration, although the novel belongs to the genre
bildungsroman, it presents contradictory characteristics. As a matter of fact, The Mill on
the Floss expresses the social and gender conflicts of the time, all seen from the
perspective of the author, whose work tries to produce a change within the paradigms and
preconceptions with respect to society through this literary genre.

4. Reading comprehension: “Life choices” and “Gorge yourself”. (1 point)

Life choices:

 7-B/ 8-G/ 9-C/ 10-F/ 11-E/ 12-A.

Gorge yourself:

 20-E/ 21-E/ 22-B/ 23-C/ 24-D/ 25-C/ 26-C/ 27-B/28-A/ 29-A y D/ 30-A y D/31- A y B/ 32- A y
B/33-B/ 34-E.

5. Use of English: “A question of safety”, “The hamster’s body clock”, “Intrepid

Travel” and sentence transformation (part 5). (2 points)

A question of safety:
 1-B/ 2-D/ 3-C/4-B/5-C/ 6-A/ 7-A/ 8-B/ 9-D/ 10-A/ 11-C/ 12-B.

The hamster´s body clock:

 13- WHICH/ 14- FROM/ 15- THE/ 16- ACCORDING/ 17- WHEN/ 18- LIKE/ 19- MAKE/ 20- BY/
21- WITH/ 22-UP/ 23-HAVE/ 24- HOW/ 25- ALL/ 26-THAT/ 27-ON.

Intrepid traveler:

 28-COMMITMENT/ 29- ESSENTIALLY/ 30- BEATEN/ 31-FLEXIBILITY/ 32- INTERACTION/ 33-

PLEASURES/ 34-CHOICES/ 35- REQUIREMENTS/ 36- AMAZING/ 37- UNFORGETTABLE.

Sentence transformation:

 Leo´s decision to give up playing came as a disappointment to me.

 Brian was at a loss to explain how the stolen computer got into the boot of his car.
 The footballer’s knee injury put paid to his hopes of a first team place.
 It is highly likely that the film will win an award.
 Davina can’t even boil an egg let alone cook a whole meal.
 Kelvin should get those broken roof tiles repaired by a builder.
 Under no circumstances should you let anyone else use your Identity Card.
 There’s no denying my embarrassment at being given the award.