Modelo 2 · C1 Advanced: Use of English completo (partes 1 a 4)

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Segundo examen completo de Use of English con el formato del C1 Advanced: textos nuevos, las cuatro partes seguidas y treinta preguntas. Se corrige solo aquí y te lo puedes descargar en PDF, con soluciones o sin ellas.

Parte 1 · Multiple choice cloze

Elige la palabra que encaja en cada hueco. Ocho preguntas, un punto cada una.

The hotel that keeps no records

A small hotel on the Galician coast has, since 1998, refused to keep any information about its guests beyond what the law demands. There is no database, no loyalty scheme and no note of who likes which room. Everything the staff know, they remember.

The owner did not set out to make a point about privacy; the decision (1) ___ from irritation. She had stayed in a chain hotel that greeted her by name and offered her, on arrival, the same wine she had ordered eleven months earlier in a different country. She found it, she says, less welcoming than being asked.

The policy costs her money and she does not (2) ___ otherwise. She cannot send offers, cannot target anybody and has no idea what her repeat rate is. What she has instead is a staff of nine who have (3) ___ the habit of paying attention, because nothing is written down and therefore everything has to be noticed.

It would be easy to (4) ___ this as nostalgia, and plenty of people in the industry do. The counter-argument is duller and stronger: a hotel that holds no data cannot lose it, cannot sell it and cannot be (5) ___ into handing it over. In an industry that suffers a data breach roughly every fortnight, that is not a romantic position but a technical one.

Whether it (6) ___ is another matter. The hotel has twelve rooms and the owner does the accounts herself. At two hundred rooms, remembering would (7) ___ into a system, and a system is a database whether you call it one or not. She accepts the point and says, not unreasonably, that it is not her problem to (8) ___ .

  1. 1. the decision ___ from irritationrosesprangjumpedliftedsprang. Spring from something es nacer de algo, y se usa mucho con emociones o ideas. Rise no lleva from con este sentido.
  2. 2. she does not ___ otherwiseclaimdeclareintendpretendpretend. Aquí pretend otherwise es fingir lo contrario. Es además el false friend más caro del examen: no significa pretender.
  3. 3. a staff of nine who have ___ the habit of paying attentiongainedwonacquiredearnedacquired. Acquire a habit es la colocación. Gain va con peso o experiencia, y earn con lo que te ganas trabajando.
  4. 4. It would be easy to ___ this as nostalgiarefusedenydeclinedismissdismiss. Dismiss something as es descartar algo etiquetándolo. Ese as que viene detrás solo lo admite dismiss.
  5. 5. cannot be ___ into handing it overfooledcheateddeceivedtrickedtricked. Trick somebody into doing something es la estructura fija. Los otros tres significan engañar, pero no admiten into con gerundio.
  6. 6. Whether it ___ is another mattergrowsspreadsscalesextendsscales. Scale como verbo es funcionar igual de bien al crecer de tamaño. Es justo lo que discute el párrafo siguiente.
  7. 7. remembering would ___ into a systemstiffensolidifyhardenfreezeharden. Harden into es convertirse en algo rígido. Freeze into daría una imagen de parálisis que no encaja.
  8. 8. it is not her problem to ___answersettleresolvesolvesolve. Solve a problem. Resolve se usa para conflictos y settle para disputas o deudas.

Parte 2 · Open cloze (una palabra en cada hueco)

Escribe UNA sola palabra en cada hueco. Ocho preguntas, un punto cada una.

On not finishing books

There is a particular kind of reader who cannot abandon a book, and I was one (9) twenty years. The rule was never written down but it was absolute: once started, finished, (10) matter how bad.

What broke it was arithmetic. If you read forty books a year and have, optimistically, forty years of reading left, that is sixteen hundred books, which sounds enormous until you stand in front of a decent bookshop. Every book you finish out of duty is one (11) you will never get to.

The objection is that you cannot judge a book from fifty pages, and it is a fair one. Some books are slow on purpose. But the objection proves less (12) it appears: nobody is asking you to judge the book, only to notice whether you want to pick it up again, which is a question you can answer honestly at any point.

What I did not expect was the effect on the books I did finish. Reading stopped being an obligation and became a choice I was making every evening, and it turned (13) that I had been confusing the two for two decades. I now abandon perhaps one book (14) five, and I read more than I ever did.

The only rule I have kept is that I do not tell people (15) I have given up on. It is nobody else’s business, and, more to the point, (16) book I abandoned in March may be exactly the one I need in November.

  1. 9. I was one ___ twenty yearsfor. Duración con el pasado: for twenty years. Con during hablarías de un periodo concreto ya mencionado.
  2. 10. once started, finished, ___ matter how badno. No matter how es por muy… que. La segunda mitad de la expresión ya está puesta.
  3. 11. is one ___ you will never get tothat (también vale which, o dejarlo vacío). Relativo de objeto: el libro al que nunca llegarás. Como no hay coma, that es válido.
  4. 12. the objection proves less ___ it appearsthan. Comparativo: less than. El less de delante lo exige.
  5. 13. it turned ___ that I had been confusing the twoout. It turns out that es resulta que. Aquí en pasado, pero la partícula no cambia.
  6. 14. I now abandon perhaps one book ___ fivein. One in five es uno de cada cinco. Con of haría falta un artículo: one of the five, que sería otra cosa.
  7. 15. I do not tell people ___ I have given up onwhat. Funciona como objeto de give up on: no digo qué he abandonado. Which obligaría a que hubiera un grupo cerrado de libros.
  8. 16. ___ book I abandoned in March may be exactly the onethe. Se refiere a un libro concreto, el de marzo, y la relativa que sigue lo identifica. Por eso artículo determinado.

Parte 3 · Word formation

Escribe la palabra que falta, formada a partir de la palabra en mayúsculas. Ocho preguntas, un punto cada una.

The quiet carriage

The quiet carriage is a rare thing: a rule enforced almost entirely by (17) ___ (STRANGE) who will never meet again. There is no guard, no fine and no realistic (18) ___ (LIKELY) of being reported, and yet it mostly works.

What makes it work is (19) ___ (EMBARRASS), which turns out to be a more reliable mechanism than punishment. A passenger who takes a call is not fined; they are simply looked at, and the (20) ___ (AWARE) of forty faces is enough.

The system fails in two (21) ___ (PREDICT) ways. It fails when the carriage is too full to make eye contact, and it fails on the first train of a holiday, when nobody expects the rule and (22) ___ (ENFORCE) would require somebody to be the first to complain.

Rail companies have tried, without much (23) ___ (SUCCEED), to formalise it. Signs make less difference than expected, and staff (24) ___ (INTERVENE) tends to produce an argument that is louder than the phone call.

  1. 17. enforced almost entirely by ___ (STRANGE)strangers. Persona, en plural, porque el verbo relativo es will never meet. De strange sale stranger, que además es un false friend: es un desconocido, no un extraño raro.
  2. 18. no realistic ___ (LIKELY) of being reportedlikelihood. Sustantivo con -hood, como childhood. El adjetivo realistic delante ya te avisa de que falta un nombre.
  3. 19. What makes it work is ___ (EMBARRASS)embarrassment. Sustantivo con -ment. Dos erres y dos eses, que es donde falla casi todo el mundo.
  4. 20. the ___ (AWARE) of forty facesawareness. Sustantivo con -ness. Detrás de the y delante de of solo cabe un nombre.
  5. 21. fails in two ___ (PREDICT) wayspredictable. Adjetivo con -able, acompañando a ways. Y ojo: el sustantivo sería prediction, que aquí no encaja.
  6. 22. ___ (ENFORCE) would require somebody to complain firstenforcement. Sustantivo, porque hace de sujeto de would require. La palabra aparece ya como verbo al principio del texto, en enforced.
  7. 23. without much ___ (SUCCEED)success. Sustantivo incontable detrás de much. Dos ces y dos eses, y nada de successful, que es el adjetivo.
  8. 24. staff ___ (INTERVENE) tends to produce an argumentintervention. Sustantivo con -tion. Va detrás de staff, que funciona como si fuera un adjetivo, y delante del verbo tends.

Parte 4 · Key word transformation

Completa la segunda frase con entre tres y seis palabras, usando la palabra en mayúsculas sin cambiarla. Seis preguntas, dos puntos cada una.

  1. 25. I only understood the problem when Marta explained it. UNTIL
    It ___ explained it that I understood the problem.was not until Marta. Cuatro palabras. La estructura enfática es it was not until X that Y. Ojo: la segunda mitad va en afirmativo, porque la negación ya la lleva el not until.
  2. 26. Nobody expected him to resign. TOOK
    His resignation ___ surprise.took everybody by. Tres palabras. La expresión es take somebody by surprise, y en pasado el verbo es irregular: took. El sujeto es his resignation, no la persona.
  3. 27. He is probably still at the office. WELL
    He ___ still at the office.may well be. Tres palabras. May well es una forma de decir es muy probable que, bastante más fuerte que may a secas.
  4. 28. The company will not consider the proposal under any circumstances. NO
    Under ___ consider the proposal.no circumstances will the company. Cinco palabras. La expresión negativa al principio obliga a invertir: auxiliar antes del sujeto.
  5. 29. They did not let us into the building. REFUSED
    We ___ the building.were refused entry to. Cuatro palabras. Refuse somebody entry en pasiva deja a la persona como sujeto. La preposición del final es to.
  6. 30. It does not matter what he says, I am going. WHATEVER
    ___ , I am going.Whatever he says. Tres palabras. Whatever equivale a no matter what, y detrás va el orden normal de una frase, no el de una pregunta.

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