Examen PAU Lengua Extranjera: Inglés 2023 Extraordinaria — Andalucía

BLOQUE A (Comprensión lectora) — COMPREHENSION (4 points). CHOOSE TEXT 1 OR TEXT 2 AND ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS FROM THAT TEXT ONLY. TEXT 2: SANAS CAN CHANGE YOUR ACCENT [1–7] English is the world’s most widely used language. An estimated 1.5 billion people speak it, and most of them aren’t native speakers. In the United States alone, millions of people speak English as a second language. A new company called Sanas is testing out artificial intelligence-powered software that aims to eliminate miscommunication by changing people’s accents in real time. A call center worker in the Philippines, for example, could speak normally into the microphone and end up sounding more like someone from Kansas to a customer on the other end. The American accent sounds somewhat artificial, Siri-like, but they are working on improving the technology. The idea is that, rather than learning to pronounce words differently, you could have technology do it for you. And understanding would be nearly instantaneous. [8–12] The three founders of Sanas met at Stanford University, but they’re all from different countries originally. All three say they’ve experienced over the years how accents can get in the way. “We all come from international backgrounds. We’ve seen firsthand how people treat you differently just because of the way you speak,” Maxim Serebryakov, one of the founders, says. He also remarks that people’s accents and identities can be closely linked, and he stresses that the company isn’t trying to erase accents or imply that one way of speaking is better than another. [13–15] Eventually, they hope the app they’re developing will be used by a variety of industries and individuals. It could help doctors better understand patients. Someday, they say, it could also assist language learners and improve dubbing in movies. It could even help smart speakers in homes and voice assistants in cars understand different accents. (The numbers in brackets are the line numbers of the official paper; the answers refer to them.) 9–10: CHOOSE AND WRITE THE CORRECT OPTION (0.5 points each). 11–14: ARE THESE STATEMENTS TRUE OR FALSE? JUSTIFY YOUR ANSWERS WITH THE PRECISE WORDS OR PHRASES FROM THE TEXT, OR USE YOUR OWN WORDS (0.5 points each). 15–16: FIND IN THE TEXT (0.5 points each, 0.25 per word). Write one word, in the form it has in the text.

BLOQUE B (Uso de la lengua) — USE OF ENGLISH (3 points; 0.5 points each). CHOOSE AND ANSWER ONLY 6 (SIX) QUESTIONS. Write the complete new sentence (when the beginning is given, you can write the whole sentence or only the part that follows). Answers are checked against the forms in the official key: a different correct sentence may be marked wrong. Questions 17 and 18 have two gaps (0.25 each); if you answer more than six questions, only the first six count.