Mgter.

Viviana Valenti

MARK
MOCK TEST /50

The Large Hadron Collider

1 Many great minds — Democritus,
Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell,
Albert Einstein — made contributions
to find the universe's lost unity. In
5 1964, Peter Higgs, a scientist in
Edinburgh, added his name to that list
by coming up with an ingenious
theory that proposed that the two
classes of particles, which now appear
10 to be different, were once one and the
same. He supported the idea that an
electromagnetic background field
must exist and that once particles pass
through it, they attain mass. That is, he believed in the existence of a single particle
15 responsible for imparting mass to all things —the "God particle." The scientific term for it is
the Higgs boson. Physicists are now counting on the most powerful particle accelerator ever
constructed: the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to give proof of the existence of such particle.

This machine was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
near Geneva. It took 14 years and $8 billion to be built. It is housed within a 27 km circular
20 tunnel 300 feet under the earth – 5 km longer than the London Underground Circle Line. It is
operated by more than 3000 physicists and engineers from about 40 countries. Basically, this
super collider has been designed to reproduce the incredibly high energies found in the first
trillionth of a second after the "Big Bang", which gave birth to our universe into existence. If
the project succeeds, it will recreate the natural phenomena of cosmic rays under controlled
25 laboratory conditions.
The experiment of the hadron collider consists in driving beams of particles in opposite
directions around the ring at 99.999999, which is 1% of the speed of light. As the two
circulating beams pass through each other, protons from each beam hit one another. Thus, the
resulting spray of particles is registered in the pixel detectors which are positioned around the
30 beam containing the colliding protons in three layers, like a vast Russian doll. The innermost
of the three is located just 4cm from the proton collision site. The detector system has to
operate with great precision. This helps to deliver three-dimensional images of the particles'
flight paths.
At last, the collider was first tried in November 2009. Although there was a major
35 incident that caused a delay of more than a year, researchers from the participating institutes
were able to collect enough data to take an initial particle-physics recording. Besides, they
could write the first scientific article based on this experiment.
Mgter. Viviana Valenti

Exercise no.1 Complete the following chart with information from the text in SPANISH

Name of the machine

Reason for constructing the collider -

Constructor (in Spanish) and place -
-
Characteristics of the machine -
-
Specialists working and their -
nationalities -
Objective of the experiment

How the experiment works (2pt)

(6x1+2=8pt)

Exercise no.2 Find the contextual reference in the text.

(10x1=10pt)

1. that list (line 6) _________________________________________________

2. which (line 9) _________________________________________________
3. it (line 14) _________________________________________________
4. they (line 14) _________________________________________________
5. it (line 15) _________________________________________________
6. which (line 23) _________________________________________________
7. which (line 27) _________________________________________________
8. one another (line 28) _________________________________________________
9. the three (line 31) _________________________________________________
10. this (line 32) _________________________________________________

Exercise no.3 Read the following connectors. Choose what relationship they express
(8x0.75=6pt)

alternative contrast purpose cause addition consequence

condition sequence clarification similarity exemplification comparison

1. That is (line 14 ) _________________

2. If (line 23) _________________
3. as (line 27) _________________
4. Thus (line 28) _________________
5. like (line 30) _________________
6. At last (line 34) _________________
7. although (line 34) _________________
8. Besides (line 36) _________________
Mgter. Viviana Valenti

Exercise no.44 What is the meaning of the following words as they are used in the text?
(10x0.5=5pt)

1) lost (line 4) a. pérdida b. perdida c. perdió

2) by coming up with (line 7) a. al idear b. al encontrar c. al investigar
3) imparting (line 15) a. transmitir b. transmición c. transmitiendo
4) built (line 19) a. construido b. construida c. construyó
5) housed (line 19) a. almacenada b. hospedada c. alojada
6) incredibly (line 22) a. increíbles b. increíble c. increiblemente
7) phenomena (line 24) a. fenomenal b. fenómeno c. fenómenos
8) circulating (line 28) a. circulantes b. circulando c. circulares
9) innermost (line 30) a. más adentro b. más insertado c. más profundo
10) deliver (line 32) a. repartir b. despachar c. enviar

Exercise no.5 TRUE or FALSE? Translate the sentence or sentences that justify your answer.
( 6x2=12pt)

1. _______ Before Higgs scientists had made reference to the existence of a unique particle that
gave birth to the universe.
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

2. _______ The Hadron Collider has shown how the universe started
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

3. _______ Better machines had been constructed before the hadron accelerator.
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
Mgter. Viviana Valenti

4. _______ The collision is captured at different distances.

____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

5. _______ The particles are sprayed as a consequence of the speed at which the protons travel.
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

6. _______ The machine was expected to be working before 2008.

____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

Exercise no.6 Answer in Spanish. Write your answer on the other side of the paper
(3x3=9pt)

1. What was Peter Higgs convinced of?

____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

2. Why is the particle called ―God’s particle‖?

____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________

3. Were the first results encouraging? Give reasons

____________________________________________________________________________
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