Ejercicio 1 — Bloque A · Text 1
Comprensión escrita4 puntosBLOQUE A (Comprensión lectora) — COMPREHENSION (4 points). CHOOSE TEXT 1 OR TEXT 2 AND ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS FROM THAT TEXT ONLY.
TEXT 1: THE 30-MILLION-DOLLAR SANDWICH
[1–3] During the sixties, the United States was locked in a race with the Soviet Union for dominance in space. The question became who would get to the Moon first. In March 1965, NASA launched the spaceship Gemini 3 to develop space travel techniques in weightless conditions. It was the first U.S. mission to carry two astronauts —John Young and his crewmate, Gus Grissom.
[4–8] As the frozen meals that NASA had selected were not exactly appetizing to Young’s palate, he slipped a beef sandwich into his pocket just before the spaceship was launched. Two days later at lunchtime, Young shared a bite of his hidden sandwich with Grissom. Suddenly, breadcrumbs started floating around due to the lack of gravity, putting at risk the pieces of equipment that kept the 30-million spacecraft running. Aware of the serious threat, the astronauts opted to put the sandwich away and continued their mission with crumbs floating around the cabin.
[9–12] Young’s special menu didn’t cause any harm but it became a bigger issue back on Earth, resulting in an official review to discuss the incident. Young was given an official reprimand, the first ever for a NASA member. He eventually regretted taking the sandwich to space, but he later wrote that he didn’t think it was such a big deal. Firstly, because to his knowledge, it wasn’t even the first “illegal” sandwich but the third. And secondly, he joked, it didn’t even have mustard!
[13–14] While the infamous sandwich is no longer available, a similar one, preserved in acrylic, is on display at the Grissom Memorial Museum. It immortalizes the historic moment when an astronaut dared to eat a beef sandwich in space.
(The numbers in brackets are the line numbers of the official paper; the answers refer to them.)
1–2: CHOOSE AND WRITE THE CORRECT OPTION (0.5 points each).
3–6: 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).
7–8: FIND IN THE TEXT (0.5 points each, 0.25 per word). Write one word, in the form it has in the text.