NIVEL INTERMEDIO B2

SECTION 1: MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST

You are going to hear a radio report on the problems posed by some Saudi students in USA. Pay
attention and answer the following questions by marking the right option.You will hear the recording
twice. You will have 30 seconds to consider your answers before listening to the recording for a
second time and 30 seconds at the end. You now have 1 minute to read the questions.

1. According to a report, some Saudi offenders in America...

a. are being deported by the US government.
b. benefit from the US government's lack of concern.
c. leave the country after being sentenced in court.

2. In Portland...
a. a girl was run over by a Saudi student.
b. a Saudi student was charged with murder.
c. a Saudi student was tried and sentenced to prison.

3. The Saudi government...

a. has kept its activities hidden from US security services.
b. has provided legal counsel to Saudis prosecuted in US.
c. is concerned about being shamed for its nationals' behaviour.

4. American security services...

a. are chasing diplomats involved in Saudi offenders' evasion.
b. fear terrorist attacks sponsored by the Saudi government.
c. have neglected the problem of Saudi offenders' evasion.

5. Saudi students coming to America...

a. are fewer now than they used to be.
b. are mostly disrespectful of US law.
c. have benefited from a grant programme.

6. The overall tone of the report can be described as...

a. disappointed with the US security service.
b. flattering towards the Saudi government.
c. unconcerned by Saudi students' behaviour.
 SECTION 2: MATCHING

You are going to hear (twice) nine brief fragments of news.You will hear all the fragments once,
and then you’ll hear them again a second time after a 30-second pause. Pay attention and match
each fragment to its corresponding headline. Keep in mind that there are two extra headlines.

Now you have 60 seconds to read the fragments (and you will also have 30 seconds to consider
your answers at the end).

A. ANYONE INTERESTED IN BUYING A TABLOID?

B. BARGAIN HUNTERS WITHOUT BORDERS

C. BREAKING INTO PEOPLE'S HOMES IS NOW LESS FREQUENT
D. BUYING GOODS ON LINE HELPS ALLEVIATE TRAFFIC JAMS
E. MURDER OF AN INNOCENT CITIZEN
F. DISCIPLINARY ACTIONS UNDER DISCUSSION
G. IS THERE A PLACE FOR GUNS IN CLASSROOMS?
H. OVERWEIGHT PEOPLE ALSO NEED SOMETHING TO WEAR
I. SUBSTANTIAL PAY RISE FOR TEACHING STAFF
J. THE INTERNET IS NOT FREE OF DISADVANTAGES, AFTER ALL
K. WIDESPREAD CONCERN ABOUT SEXUAL ASSAULTS
 SECTION 3: GAP-FILLING

You are going to hear (twice) a report on a school in Baltimore. Pay attention and fill in each of the
gaps in the sentences below with one word said by the speakers in the recording. You will have 60
seconds to consider your answers before listening to the recording for a second time and 60
seconds at the end. And you now have 90 seconds to read the statements.

1. According to the reporter, you can fix one of the ___________ problems of education by
focusing only on one thing.

2. Missing school days is often caused by a mix of ________________, illness and family
problems.

3. Wolfe Strett Academy is a __________________ elementary school near the port of Baltimore.

4. Mark Gaither changed a lot of things at Wolfe Street Academy, but he started with one key
issue:__________________

5. In 2014 Wolfe's test_________________were second highest in the district.

6. Robert Balfart studied high school________________for years and kept seeing one red flag:
chronic absence.

7. The reporter says that if you miss a _____________of days a month you fall behind in reading.

8. At Wolfe Street Academy there were problems like tooth______________, mental health or not
having a winter coat.

9. Now there is a box in the cafeteria of the school with _________________clothes.

10. This morning, Mar Gaither is opening up the school__________________for parents to visit.

11. The journalist ends her report by enumerating three key concepts: _______________ families,
building trust and forging relationships.
 CLAVES DE CORRECCIONES Y TRANSCRIPCIONES

TASK 1
Key:
1 2 3 4 5 6
B A C C C A

Transcript
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
A recent report shines a light on the number of Saudi students who come to the U.S. to study, commit crimes
and then leave the country before facing charges. The report from ProPublica and The Oregonian also shows
that the U.S. government has turned a blind eye to all this. The news organizations have been investigating
how Saudi foreign students evade the U.S. justice system with the likely involvement of the Saudi
government. We spoke with ProPublica's Tim Golden to find out more.

TIM GOLDEN: Well, The Oregonian started out - a very enterprising reporter there, Shane Kavanaugh -
with a story of a 15-year-old Portland girl named Fallon Smart who was killed by a hit-and-run driver in
2016. The driver of that car turned out to be a Saudi student at a local community college in Portland, and he
was eventually charged with vehicular manslaughter. But right before he was supposed to go on trial, a big,
black SUV pulled up to the home where he was living and whisked him away.

MARTIN: Do we know where it whisked him away to?

GOLDEN: Well, they found the ankle monitoring bracelet that he was wearing - at the court's insistence - on
the side of the road. And he reappeared more than a year later back in Saudi Arabia.

MARTIN: Wow. And are there other examples?

GOLDEN: There have been more than 20 examples that The Oregonian has found of crimes ranging from
rape to assault to child sexual abuse. Well, what we learned in the reporting that we are just publishing is that
the United States government - the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI and the State Department -
have been aware of this pattern of Saudi government involvement in these cases for at least a decade.

MARTIN: And we're seemingly OK with it? Or we're turning a blind eye to it?

GOLDEN: It's a complicated picture, as you would imagine. But the Saudi government has had this system
in place, it would seem, for a long time in which they have gotten prominent visitors to the United States out
of trouble. And Saudi diplomats, Saudi intelligence officers have come in mostly to protect the kingdom
from embarrassment and from negative imagery in the United States.

MARTIN: In your reporting, did you discover any individual U.S. official or federal agency that has tried to
push back on the Saudis and their interference in the U.S. justice system?

GOLDEN: The Department of Homeland Security did an analysis of this, we learned, in 2008. But that was
not widely shared within the United States government. A number of FBI officials in the United States and
also in Riyadh have become aware of this and have avoided raising it - primarily because their overarching
concern has been continuing Saudi cooperation in the fight against terrorism.

The State Department just told us that they have raised this issue now with the Saudi government, but going
back over the last 10 or 15 years, our understanding is that they never took action against any of the Saudi
diplomats or intelligence officers who are believed to have been involved in these cases.

MARTIN: We should also note that the number of young Saudis coming to the U.S. has exploded, right?

GOLDEN: That's right. Under a scholarship program that the late King Abdullah set up with the Bush
administration in 2005, the number of students has gone from fewer than 5,000 to more than 80,000 10 years
later. And obviously, most of those students are well-behaved, law-abiding kids. But there have also been
these problematic cases. And United States officials seem to have looked the other way consistently when
they have become aware of this.

MARTIN: Tim Golden is the editor at large at ProPublica, which partnered with The Oregonian and
OregonLive to investigate this story. Tim, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

GOLDEN: Thank you.

 TAREA 2: MATCHING
Key:
1 E
2 F
3 B
4 D
5 A
6 G
7 C
8 K
9 H

TRANSCRIPCIÓN:
FRAGMENT 1
As we said earlier, police conduct towards civilians, particularly when someone dies, has become a
flashpoint in American life. This happened in Texas last month, when an off-duty police officer shot
and killed an unarmed man in his own home, claiming she mistook it for her home. And, of course,
amplifying this is that the officer is white, and the deceased man was black.

FRAGMENT 2
A new report shows the majority of high school and middle school students in Texas were
suspended or expelled at least once during a six year period. The report marks the most
comprehensive analysis of school suspension and expulsion policies ever conducted. And it
concludes that when misused, such policies often put students at greater risk of dropping out or
ending up behind bars.

FRAGMENT 3

Yesterday was Black Friday, the day following Thanksgiving when U.S. shoppers descend on
stores and malls to try and take advantage of pre-Christmas discounts. But that ritual seems to be
spreading around the world, even to places that don't have, you know, American Thanksgiving.

FRAGMENT 4
Nobody likes getting stuck in traffic. It's one of many reasons people go online to order everything
from clothes to paper towels. Yet, those deliveries may be adding to traffic congestion. Think about
it. One trip to the mall is replaced by six or eight package deliveries, plus all the trucks needed to
stock fulfillment centers

FRAGMENT 5
The National Enquirer - you know, it's usually on sale at grocery store checkout stands with its
sensational headlines. You might have read some as you've been waiting in line. Well, it is now up
for sale.

FRAGMENT 6
At a Senate Education Committee hearing today, the conversation turned again and again to one
question. Is it legal for schools to use federal dollars to arm teachers?

FRAGMENT 7
Burglary is one of the most mundane crimes. More than 2 million Americans are victims of burglaries every
year. Even so, that number is a lot lower than it used to be.

FRAGMENT 8
It can be a struggle for women and girls to stay safe in India. The horrific case of a gang rape on a
bus led to increased prison terms and fast-tracked trials for rapists. But in the past month, there
have been new, similarly brutal attacks, and Indians are worrying if anything has actually improved.

FRAGMENT 9
Let's talk about size discrimination. Even though the average American woman is around a size 14,
most department store racks are devoted to much smaller bodies. But that's changing, as NPR's
Elizabeth Blair reports.
 TAREA 3
KEY:

1 toughest
2 truancy
3 neighbourhood
4 attendance
5 scores
6 drop-outs
7 couple
8 decay
9 donated
10 library
11 greeting

TRANSCRIPT:

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

You can fix some of the toughest problems in education by focusing on one thing - getting kids to show up
for school in the first place. Students who miss just two days of school per month are far more likely to fall
behind and eventually drop out. Often it's a mix of truancy and illness and family problems. The U.S.
Education Department is working on this, holding a virtual summit today seeking solutions. NPR's Elissa
Nadworny has been looking for answers, too, at an elementary school in Baltimore.

ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE: Gough Street, Southeast Baltimore, 7:30 a.m.

MARK GAITHER: Hey, Erwin. Hey, Edgar. Good morning, Victoria.

NADWORNY: Mark Gaither is standing outside Wolfe Street Academy, a neighborhood elementary school
near the Port of Baltimore.

GAITHER: Good morning, Daniel.

NADWORNY: Gaither is the principal. Most of his students speak Spanish at home. Ninety-six percent
qualify for free and reduced-price lunch. Each morning, he makes a point to say hello. That's 225 good
mornings.

GAITHER: Rain, shine, snow - good morning.

NADWORNY: Ten years ago, this school was in bad shape. Their test scores were terrible. They faced a
state takeover. Then Gaither took over. He changed a lot. But he started with one key thing - attendance.

GAITHER: If you can crack it, you're going to get a lot of bang for your buck back in terms of improvement.
NADWORNY: And they did. In 2014, Wolfe's test scores were second-highest in the district.

ROBERT BALFANZ: This is, like, the biggest thing in school improvement that people have paid the least
attention to.

NADWORNY: That Robert Balfanz, who studies absenteeism at Johns Hopkins University. He says it's like
ignoring something basic, like bacteria in a hospital.

BALFANZ: You put all this effort into helping the patient, and then because you don't pay attention to
bacteria, they get sick and die on you.

NADWORNY: He studied high school dropouts for years and kept seeing a red flag - chronic absence in
elementary and middle school. If you miss a couple days of school a month, you fall behind in reading. And
if you can't read, you can't pass the test.

BALFANZ: To miss a month of school when you're 11 and 12, there's got to be something behind that.

NADWORNY: And at Wolfe Street Academy, there was. Problems like tooth decay, mental health, not
having a winter coat. The list goes on. So Gaither reached out to community organizations to fix those
problems. The University of Maryland sends dental students for checkups, and Gaither says there's a box in
the cafeteria with donated clothes.

GAITHER: It's a common-sense idea. It's a complex marker to move because there's so many different
pieces.

NADWORNY: One of the biggest pieces - parents. So this morning, he's opening up the school library for
parents to visit.

GAITHER: When you build a relationship, people feel comfortable coming to you knowing that you might
be able to do something to help them.

NADWORNY: And that's what Gaither's doing every morning.

GAITHER: Good morning (laughter).

NADWORNY: Greeting families, building trust, forging relationships. Elissa Nadworny, NPR News,
Baltimore.