Ejemplo Prueba de acceso tipo Bachillerato, modelo actual
An Activity sent by Juan Antonio Arrans Lara

There are plenty of statistics about childhood in the Third World, showing that the struggle for survival is long and hard. But in the rich world, children can suffer from a different kind of poverty –of the spirit. For instance, one Western country alone now sees 14,000 attempted suicides every year by children under 15, and one child in five needs professional psychiatric attention.

There are many good things about childhood in the Third World. Take the close and constant interaction between children and their parents, relatives and neighbours. In the West, the very nature of work puts distance between adults and children. But in most Third World villages mother and father do not go miles away each day to do abstract work in offices, shuffling paper to make money mysteriously appear in banks. Instead, the child sees mother and father, relations and neighbours working nearby, and often shares in that work.

A child growing up in this way learns his or her role through participation in the community’s work: helping to dig or build, plant or water, attend to animals or look after babies –rather than through playing with water and sand in kindergarten, building with construction toys, keeping pets or playing with dolls.

Third World children are not usually shut up indoors, still less in highrise apartments. Instead of dangerous roads, "keep-off-the-grass" signs and "don’t speak to strangers", there is often a sense of freedom to wander and play. Parents can see their children outside rather than observe them anxiously from ten floors up.

Of course twelve million children under five still die every year through malnutrition and disease. But childhood in the Third World is not all bad.

a) ANSWER THE QUESTIONS ACCORDING TO THE INFORMATION GIVEN IN THE TEXT USE YOUR OWN WORDS (1 point per answer)

1. How does a Third World child learn his or her role in the community?
2. What causes the death of more than ten million children in the Third World every year?

b) ARE THESE STATEMENTS TRUE OR FALSE? JUSTIFY YOUR ANSWERS WITH WORDS OR PHRASES FROM THE TEXT. (0,5 points per answer)

3. We can hardly find any statistics about childhood in the Third World
4. In Europe less than the sixth part of the children needs to visit a psychiatrist.
5. A child in the West has a more oppressive sense of space and time than a child in the Third World.
6. Several million children under five die of bad feeding and illness in the Third World every year.

(7) Find in the text the word or group of words with the following definition: (0.25 points)
"take care of"

(8) Find one synonym in the text for FIGHT. (0.25 points)

(9) Fill in the gap with a correct preposition: (0.5 points)
"The industrialized countries are responsible ................ the poverty of the Third World".

(10) Put the following sentence into Reported Speech: (0.5 points)
The old man said to the boy, "Don't speak to strangers."

(11) Put the following sentence into the active voice: (0.5 points)
Third World children are not usually shut up indoors

(12) Give a question for the underlined words: (0.5 points)
Western countries see 14,000 attempted suicides every year.

(13) Use the following words to make a meaningful sentence: (0.5 points)
POOR HELP SUFFER RICH NOT WHO POOR THE DO THE

Write a COMPOSITION (80-100 words). Choose ONE of the following options:

1. How can the rich countries help the Third World?
2. Are our children happy?

  
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