Examen selectivitat Anglès 2024 Extraordinària — Comunitat Valenciana

ARTIFICIAL INTELIGENCE’S HUNGER FOR DATA AND ITS THIRST FOR WATER AND ENERGY One of the most dangerous myths about digital technology is that it is somehow weightless or immaterial. But datacentres – those enormous metallic cabins containing tens or even hundreds of thousands of noisy servers – consume massive amounts of electricity and need lots of water for their cooling systems. Consider Ireland, a small country with an awful lot of datacentres. In 2022 those centres consumed more electricity (18%) than all the rural dwellings in the country, and as much as all Ireland’s urban homes. And as far as water consumption is concerned, a study estimated that one medium-sized datacentre used as much water as three average-sized hospitals. Although these industrial spaces are representative of the metaphor of “cloud computing”, there is nothing vague or incorporeal about them. There are now between 9,000 and 11,000 of these datacentres in the world and many of them are beginning to look a bit out-of-date. But that is going to change, because the industrial interest around Artificial Intelligence (AI) means that the materiality of the computing “cloud” is going to become harder to ignore. Machine learning needed in AI requires a different kind of computer processors which are considerably more complex (and expensive) than conventional processors. Additionally, they also run hotter, and need significantly more energy. Within the technology industry, it has been widely known that AI faces an energy crisis, but it was only at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2024 that one of its leaders finally spoke clearly about this crisis. Adapted from an article by John Naughton, The Guardian, 2-3-2024. A2. Are the following statements true (T) or false (F)? Identify the part of the text that supports your answer by copying the exact passage on the answer sheet. (1.5 points: 0.5 each)

“GENDER INEQUITIES ARE IMPORTANT”: WHY COUPLES FALL OUT OF LOVE A new study unpicks the reasons men and women call time on a relationship and finds that grievances really do matter. “The desire to get married is a primal instinct in women,” observed the late, great Nora Ephron. “It’s followed by another basic and primal instinct: the desire to be single again.” Relationship wisdom is full of generalisations but, according to a recent study, women do appear to fall in and out of love more extremely than men. Saurabh Bhargava of Carnegie Mellon University has published a new study in Psychological Science which has a number of striking findings. The first is that women reported having feelings of love almost twice as frequently as men. The second is that, over the course of a long relationship, women on average experience a much steeper decline in these feelings compared to their male partners. Joanna Harrison is a former divorce lawyer who, having decided she wanted to help relationships before they broke down, became a couple’s counsellor. She is also the author of Five Arguments All Couples (Need to) Have, which bears the imperishable subtitle: and why the washing up matters. Harrison points to “a brilliant” study entitled: “Gender Inequities in Household Labour Predict Lower Sexual Desire in Women Partnered with Men.” The study claims to “show that gender inequities are important contributors to low desire in women partnered with men.” It seems that if men want more action in the bedroom, they need to be more active in the kitchen. Adapted from an article by Andrew Anthony, The Guardian, 13-01-2024. B2. Are the following statements true (T) or false (F)? Identify the part of the text that supports your answer by copying the exact passage on the answer sheet. (1.5 points: 0.5 each)

ARTIFICIAL INTELIGENCE’S HUNGER FOR DATA AND ITS THIRST FOR WATER AND ENERGY One of the most dangerous myths about digital technology is that it is somehow weightless or immaterial. But datacentres – those enormous metallic cabins containing tens or even hundreds of thousands of noisy servers – consume massive amounts of electricity and need lots of water for their cooling systems. Consider Ireland, a small country with an awful lot of datacentres. In 2022 those centres consumed more electricity (18%) than all the rural dwellings in the country, and as much as all Ireland’s urban homes. And as far as water consumption is concerned, a study estimated that one medium-sized datacentre used as much water as three average-sized hospitals. Although these industrial spaces are representative of the metaphor of “cloud computing”, there is nothing vague or incorporeal about them. There are now between 9,000 and 11,000 of these datacentres in the world and many of them are beginning to look a bit out-of-date. But that is going to change, because the industrial interest around Artificial Intelligence (AI) means that the materiality of the computing “cloud” is going to become harder to ignore. Machine learning needed in AI requires a different kind of computer processors which are considerably more complex (and expensive) than conventional processors. Additionally, they also run hotter, and need significantly more energy. Within the technology industry, it has been widely known that AI faces an energy crisis, but it was only at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2024 that one of its leaders finally spoke clearly about this crisis. Adapted from an article by John Naughton, The Guardian, 2-3-2024. A3. Find a synonym for each of the four words below from these six options. All words are underlined in the text (1 point: 0.25 each) myths weightless dwellings representative out-of-date interest [PAU Mentor: the underlining of the original paper is not reproduced; the six words appear in the text exactly as listed.]

“GENDER INEQUITIES ARE IMPORTANT”: WHY COUPLES FALL OUT OF LOVE A new study unpicks the reasons men and women call time on a relationship and finds that grievances really do matter. “The desire to get married is a primal instinct in women,” observed the late, great Nora Ephron. “It’s followed by another basic and primal instinct: the desire to be single again.” Relationship wisdom is full of generalisations but, according to a recent study, women do appear to fall in and out of love more extremely than men. Saurabh Bhargava of Carnegie Mellon University has published a new study in Psychological Science which has a number of striking findings. The first is that women reported having feelings of love almost twice as frequently as men. The second is that, over the course of a long relationship, women on average experience a much steeper decline in these feelings compared to their male partners. Joanna Harrison is a former divorce lawyer who, having decided she wanted to help relationships before they broke down, became a couple’s counsellor. She is also the author of Five Arguments All Couples (Need to) Have, which bears the imperishable subtitle: and why the washing up matters. Harrison points to “a brilliant” study entitled: “Gender Inequities in Household Labour Predict Lower Sexual Desire in Women Partnered with Men.” The study claims to “show that gender inequities are important contributors to low desire in women partnered with men.” It seems that if men want more action in the bedroom, they need to be more active in the kitchen. Adapted from an article by Andrew Anthony, The Guardian, 13-01-2024. B3. Find a synonym for each of the four words below from these six options. All words are underlined in the text (1 point: 0.25 each) primal study striking decline imperishable active [PAU Mentor: the underlining of the original paper is not reproduced; the six words appear in the text exactly as listed.]

ARTIFICIAL INTELIGENCE’S HUNGER FOR DATA AND ITS THIRST FOR WATER AND ENERGY One of the most dangerous myths about digital technology is that it is somehow weightless or immaterial. But datacentres – those enormous metallic cabins containing tens or even hundreds of thousands of noisy servers – consume massive amounts of electricity and need lots of water for their cooling systems. Consider Ireland, a small country with an awful lot of datacentres. In 2022 those centres consumed more electricity (18%) than all the rural dwellings in the country, and as much as all Ireland’s urban homes. And as far as water consumption is concerned, a study estimated that one medium-sized datacentre used as much water as three average-sized hospitals. Although these industrial spaces are representative of the metaphor of “cloud computing”, there is nothing vague or incorporeal about them. There are now between 9,000 and 11,000 of these datacentres in the world and many of them are beginning to look a bit out-of-date. But that is going to change, because the industrial interest around Artificial Intelligence (AI) means that the materiality of the computing “cloud” is going to become harder to ignore. Machine learning needed in AI requires a different kind of computer processors which are considerably more complex (and expensive) than conventional processors. Additionally, they also run hotter, and need significantly more energy. Within the technology industry, it has been widely known that AI faces an energy crisis, but it was only at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2024 that one of its leaders finally spoke clearly about this crisis. Adapted from an article by John Naughton, The Guardian, 2-3-2024. A4. Choose a, b, or c, in each question below. Only one choice is correct. (1.5 points: 0.5 each)

“GENDER INEQUITIES ARE IMPORTANT”: WHY COUPLES FALL OUT OF LOVE A new study unpicks the reasons men and women call time on a relationship and finds that grievances really do matter. “The desire to get married is a primal instinct in women,” observed the late, great Nora Ephron. “It’s followed by another basic and primal instinct: the desire to be single again.” Relationship wisdom is full of generalisations but, according to a recent study, women do appear to fall in and out of love more extremely than men. Saurabh Bhargava of Carnegie Mellon University has published a new study in Psychological Science which has a number of striking findings. The first is that women reported having feelings of love almost twice as frequently as men. The second is that, over the course of a long relationship, women on average experience a much steeper decline in these feelings compared to their male partners. Joanna Harrison is a former divorce lawyer who, having decided she wanted to help relationships before they broke down, became a couple’s counsellor. She is also the author of Five Arguments All Couples (Need to) Have, which bears the imperishable subtitle: and why the washing up matters. Harrison points to “a brilliant” study entitled: “Gender Inequities in Household Labour Predict Lower Sexual Desire in Women Partnered with Men.” The study claims to “show that gender inequities are important contributors to low desire in women partnered with men.” It seems that if men want more action in the bedroom, they need to be more active in the kitchen. Adapted from an article by Andrew Anthony, The Guardian, 13-01-2024. B4. Choose a, b, or c, in each question below. Only one choice is correct. (1.5 points: 0.5 each)

Part II. Composition (130 to 150 words approximately) (4 points) A5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of artificial intelligence?

Part II. Composition (130 to 150 words approximately) (4 points) B5. Do you think that men and women are equal in today’s society? Discuss.