Professional Documents
Culture Documents
05 C1 Vigo
05 C1 Vigo
Now in his 60s, former shopkeeper Shahaz Uddin has been looking forward to becoming another white-
bearded grandfather enjoying retirement. But there’s a signal that may be complicated — a warning sign in
the spots freckled across his chest. The speckles of pigmentation start out black and then turn white, says Dr.
Tariqul Islam, as he leans forward and examines Uddin. Like “raindrops on the sand,” he says, following the
spatter across his patient’s skin. These are the telltale signs of arsenic poisoning.
“I know this water is not good for my health,” one villager says, “but there is nothing to do.”
Uddin lives in the village of Totar Bagh, an agricultural community of corrugated iron and concrete huts set
amongst rice fields and woodlands to the east of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital. Colorful laundry hangs amidst
palm trees over the earthen floor, as families go about their business of cleaning, cooking, and fetching water
from shallow, hand-pumped wells.
It is the well water that has brought Dr. Islam to the village today. He is working with the University of
Chicago and Columbia University to study the effects of long-term exposure to the famously risky element,
arsenic. About half of the wells in their study area of 35,000 people in the region of Araihazar contain arsenic
at more than 50 parts per billion, five times the World Health Organization standard of 10.
“I know this water is not good for my health, but there is nothing to do,” says Uddin. He tried installing
another shallow well himself, but it was contaminated too. A deep well would have safe water, but at $1,000,
it’s 10 times the cost of a shallow well and too expensive for villagers to dig without government or other
outside support. He asked the local governing council for a new well, but they refused. “They told me to get
better water.”
One villager who did get a new well is Piar Ali Shaheb, a building contractor who is also the local
representative of the ruling party. When asked if his political connections helped, he smiles: “Yes, definitely.”
As he is talking, a neighbor glistening with sweat just in from the fields approaches and begins shouting at
him. He says he paid money to a local politician in order to get a safe well, but it had never been delivered.
Many of the other villagers have the same story, and are also frustrated.
Shaheb, relaxed in his tank top and sarong, shrugs: “You gave the money to the wrong guy.”
Left with no alternative water source, Uddin, like most of his neighbors, is still drinking from his
contaminated well. He spreads his hands before him and looks heavenward as his grandchildren play at his
feet. “I have no alternative.”
Exposure appears linked to increases in cancers, heart disease, and developmental problems.
The result is that trace arsenic exposure in Bangladesh appears to have led to dramatic increases in cancers
ranging from skin to liver to lung, in cardiovascular disease, and in developmental and cognitive problems
for children. The Bulletin of the World Health Organization estimates that the invisible taint of arsenic in the
country’s well water could now be responsible for as many as 43,000 deaths per year in the country.
A naturally-occurring metallic element, arsenic was first discovered in the country’s drinking water more
than two decades ago. At that point, dismay led to widespread water testing, but relatively little has been done
to directly address the problem in recent years. Yet researchers say there is no question that the mass arsenic
contamination is solvable in most cases by drilling wells deeper than 500 feet. Some deep wells could provide
for several hundred villagers, while the shallow wells they would replace usually serve only one household.
Geologists say that enough wells and other types of safe water projects to supply water to the worst exposed
20 million people could be provided relatively quickly — and that such improvements could gradually be
expanded to other at-risk populations.
“If they are properly sited in areas of greatest need, even a small increase in the rate of installing deep tube
wells could bring arsenic poisoning to a virtual end in five to 10 years,” says Peter Ravenscroft, a groundwater
expert who has worked on the arsenic issue for more than two decades and is currently advising WHO and
UNICEF on new arsenic mitigation guidelines.
And this raises a troubling question. If the problem is solvable, if ending what WHO once dramatically called
“the largest mass poisoning of a population in history” involves a straightforward fix, why hasn’t that simply
been done?
To appreciate why that question is such a complicated one, one has to go back to the moment in time several
decades ago when public agencies decided to first tackle water quality problems in Bangladesh.
In the 1970s, hundreds of thousands of people a year in Bangladesh were dying from cholera and other
diarrheal diseases. UNICEF and other international organizations were on a mission to help countries access
clean water throughout the developing world. In an effort to get people to stop drinking dirty surface water,
they worked with the Bangladeshi government to promote the use of shallow, hand-pumped wells.
The purity of the water was even tested by the British Geological Survey. Unfortunately, they did not test for
arsenic.
Source: https://undark.org/article/bangladesh-arsenic-poisoning-drinking-water/
Question 0 is an example.
Question 0. The article deals with the problem of contaminated drinking water in Bangladesh and looks at …
3. Dr. Islam …
A. is measuring the levels of arsenic in the water in Totar Bagh.
B. teaches at the University of Chicago and Columbia University.
C. is investigating how arsenic can affect human health.
D. is examining the consequences of arsenic in drinking water over time.
4. When Shahaz Uddin requested help from the local authorities, they …
A. ignored him.
B. showed disrespect.
C. criticized his actions.
D. didn’t believe him.
5. One of Mr. Uddin’s neighbors who had the same problem as Mr. Uddin …
A. used corrupt means to try to solve the problem.
B. followed his example and went to the local authorities.
C. asked a local building contractor to help him.
D. tried to threaten a local political representative.
6. One of the main difficulties in dealing with the problem of the contaminated well water is the …
A. the lack of scientific data available.
B. incorrect diagnosis by local doctors.
C. the indifference of the authorities.
D. the insidious nature of arsenic.
Read the article below about women’s soccer in the USA and place the following missing sentences (A-K)
in the correct gaps (1-8). There are 2 sentences which you do not need. Question 0 is an example.
US Women’s Soccer Is More Popular than Men’s, but the Players Are Still
Paid Less
By Dave Zirin
The above quote is often attributed to Marilyn Monroe, but was more likely said by psychologist and LSD
guru Timothy Leary. 0. Either way, it should be the slogan of the US women’s national soccer team’s
radiantly ambitious history. Over three decades, it has traveled the distance from non-existence to a place at
the top of this nation’s soccer world. Think about that: In the lifespan of Rihanna, these women have become
more watched, more profitable, and more successful than their male counterparts. This wasn’t merely
accomplished through the power of their play but through struggle. 1. _________________ This extremely
public action—coupled with interviews across the media landscape—are best understood as part of a historical
continuum: the latest chapter in an ongoing narrative of how women’s soccer has developed in this country.
For those who have been living in jury sequestration, US women’s team co-captains Carli Lloyd and Becky
Sauerbrunn, as well as goalie Hope Solo, forward Alex Morgan, and midfielder Megan Rapinoe, representing
the entire team, filed a wage discrimination complaint with the EEOC. 2. _________________ “We are the
best in the world, have three World Cup championships, four Olympic championships.” The men “get paid
more to just show up than we get paid to win major championships.”
Solo is right that the numbers speak for themselves. Here are some of these pesky digits: 20 million. That’s
how many more dollars in revenue the women produced in 2015 compared to the men’s team, while the
fellas were paid nearly four times as much in salary and bonuses. That’s according to US Soccer’s own
financial reports. Another number is 25.4 million. That’s the number of people who watched the 2015 World
Cup Final against Japan, making it the most watched soccer match—male or female—in the history of this
country. 3. _________________
And yet numbers, a.k.a “logic,” have never been enough to ensure equality in women’s soccer.
Women in US Soccer have always had to fight for their fair share of resources and attention. In the 1980s,
the national team existed without either a FIFA World Cup to compete in or an event at the Olympics.
4. ______________ “Men’s soccer got all the money and respect. That’s just the way it was,” 1999 team co-
captain Michelle Akers said. This began to change with a new generation of teenage players, 15- and 16-year-
olds who were “Title IX Babies”: the first generation of US women raised with ready access to play. In 1991,
FIFA finally held the first women’s world cup in China, but FIFA was so concerned about sponsoring a failure
it did not want to even bestow the World Cup brand on the proceedings and called it “The M&Ms Cup.” That
women’s team dominated, becoming the first US soccer team to even make the finals of a world tournament—
juniors or seniors, male or female—at any level.
The players unified and held what one called a “wildcat strike,” refusing to report to practice. As Foudy
remembered, “[King] taught us that this wasn’t an issue for the federation to handle. The team could handle it
ourselves.”
The soccer powers, backed by the United States Olympic Committee, brought in a group of scab players, but
eventually caved.* The 1999 World Cup was the culmination of this tight-knit team. 7. _________________
The crowd was very young, and very female. They were and are the most under-served audience in the sports
world.
Now this new generation is taking up this torch. They know that US Soccer telling them to “just wait until the
next collective bargaining session” is another way of just saying, “Just hurry up and wait.” They know that
their careers in this high-concussion/high-injury sport are finite, and you have to actually fight and raise your
issues to the public, beyond the collective-bargaining table, if you are ever going to see change.
8. _________________ And that’s what makes it both so important and so dangerous to the powers that be.
A Either way, it should be the slogan of the US women’s national soccer team’s radiantly ambitious
history (example question)
B They sold out Giants Stadium and the Rose Bowl—and did it by marketing the sport straight to fans, in
clinics for young girls around the country.
E Then there are the smaller numbers: The women receive $10 less per day than men for their meal
allowances on the road.
F They are seizing the time and it is a great example for all of women’s sports.
G That’s why the nuclear lawsuit filed last week with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC) against US Soccer by the elected leadership of the team was so significant.
H The next move they made was unprecedented in the history of women’s sports.
I Instead, they boarded a 52-hour flight back, and waiting for them at JFK airport was a grand total of
three people.
J The reaction from the Federation has been one of "wait and see."
K They received ten dollars a day in meal money, and practiced on fields that were graveyards of torn
ligaments.
C1 CENTRO DE LINGUAS MODEL TASKS 7
Task 3 – Museums in New York Matching (8 questions)
Read the four texts on the next page about museums in the UK and answer the questions below. The texts may be
used more than once. You must write all your answers on the Answer Sheet provided. Question 0 is an example.
Which museum …?
exhibits an extraordinary piece of furniture? 0 A
C – New York Transit Museum D – Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
At this museum, located in an authentic 1930s subway This educational museum is located on the aircraft
station, visitors can climb aboard an exceptional carrier, the USS Intrepid, and docked at Pier 86. Highlights
collection of vintage subway and El ("Elevated") cars and include a restored fleet of jets, including some new
additions (like a helicopter flown in World War II), a mess
explore a working signal tower. Exhibitions cover the
hall decorated to look as it would have in 1969 and
history of the city’s rapid transit system, as well as au interactive exhibits. For World War II buffs, and folks that
courant topics. Other archives may offer broader like checking out fighter ships and planes, this museum
perspectives on city history, but we love the Transit on a real aircraft carrier The Intrepid docked at Pier 86 is
Museum because it goes deep into one essential element a chance for an up-close look at the nuts and bolts of our
of New York life: the public transit system. Opened in not-so-distant history. Aboard this vessel, which fought in
1976 in a former IND subway station, the museum the Pacific during the ‘40s and withstood head-on attacks
by Kamikaze planes and a torpedo strike, visitors will find
displays historic artifacts—including a collection of
a wealth of information about how naval officers lived on
vintage train cars spanning the 20th century—as well as the massive ship, including hands-on-displays of items
more timely pieces, such as works from the MTA’s Arts used in everyday life and views of the lower living
for Transit program. We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention quarters, and an outdoor flight deck with an impressive
Sadie, the fluffy gray cat who controls the space’s rodent assortment of fighter jets and helicopters. Non-
population; look for her on the lower-level subway claustrophobic guests should descend into the Growler,
platform, where she’s often found snoozing in an old- the only American guided missile submarine open to the
public, where your tiny New York living quarters will seem
timey car.
spacious and airy in comparison. If underwater living
freaks you out though, then imagine taking to the skies,
and beyond, in the Space Shuttle Pavilion where NASA
orbiter, the Enterprise, is parked, which is fitting since
during the 1960s the Intrepid was a NASA recovery vessel.
A series of photographs, films and artifacts from the
Enterprise’s career makes the history of space travel,
which predated modern computers by decades, all the
more awe-worthy.
Source: https://www.timeout.com/newyork/museums/best-interactive-museums-cultural-center
There are two tasks in this part of the exam. Read the instructions carefully. You must do both tasks.
Remember to:
· Use language structures and vocabulary appropriate to the C1 level.
· Use language which is appropriate in terms of reader, style and formality.
· Use punctuation which will facilitate ease of comprehension.
You must do Task 1 and, for Task 2, you must do either option A OR option B.
Write between 230 and 260 words. You must write your answer on the separate Answer Sheet.
Academic mobility between Europe’s higher education institutions is facilitated by the European Higher
Education Area, which includes 49 countries and promotes Europe as a world education destination,
increasing its popularity with international academics and students. Europe’s universities are under
increasing budgetary strain but leaders recognise the importance of recruiting top-quality staff to maintain
the highest teaching and research standards. It is widely agreed that a knowledge economy is essential in
tough economic times, and Europe’s universities are gaining ground on US institutions in the Times Higher
Education World University Rankings.
Source: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/unijobs/europe/
Refer to the above quotation to write an opinion essay about the present and future effects of
issues such as climate change and pollution, economic and diplomatic crises, war and other armed conflicts, and
hunger and poverty.
Write between 230 and 260 words. You must write your answer on the separate Answer Sheet.
OR
Option B – a report
You have been asked to write a report on the potential for tourism in your town and surrounding area for a foreign
investment company. You can include information about various aspects such as geographical features, local
festivities, gastronomy, landmarks, and leisure facilities.
In your conclusions you should make recommendations to the investors. Write between 230 and 260 words. You
must write your answer on the separate Answer Sheet.
Listen to the following report about scientific development and answer the questions with one or two words.
Question 0 is an example. You will hear the recording twice.
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQn4Uu2tJeY&list=UUnf7ZZpBsuTxnQgy1TKbTIw&index=21
Example question:
0. Human ..................................…... has only really taken off in the last 160 years.
2. The ...................................................................... of the spider web lies in the geometry of its design.
3. The development of the adhesive can be used to ...................................................... the healing time
for a fracture.
4. The spiral shape has inspired designs for a wide range of ................................................................
You will hear part of an interview with the abstract artist, Cecilia Brown, in which she talks about her work and some
of the people who have been an important influence in her work. Read the sentences (1 – 8) below and choose the
most complete and accurate option ( A, B or C.) You will hear the recording twice. Question 0 is an example.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3ZPcC1p6pM
Example question:
0. When people are viewing Cecilia’s work, she likes them to be able to …
A. see something new each time they view her paintings.
B. contemplate her paintings slowly without rushing.
C. appreciate the time she has taken to create the painting.
Correct answer: __A__
2. As a child, Cecilia associated the art books in her parents’ house with something that was …
A. forbidden.
B. disturbing.
C. complex.
3. She remembers very well a shop scene in a painting in one of her parents’ books because …
A. it seemed slightly disgusting to her.
B. she was strongly attracted to it.
C. she found the images very funny.
6. Ideally, Cecilia aims to produce art works that provide multiple interpretations and so ...
A. she does not feel able to explain her paintings.
B. she does not want to explain her paintings.
C. she does not need to explain her work.
You will hear five speakers who discuss the subject of history and its role in society. Listen to the recordings and
then match questions 1 to 10 with speakers A-E.
3. says that the study of history and human activity have something in common?
4. says that we need to be cautious when people use history to support their arguments?
5. says that we take a risk when we use history to make decisions for the future?
6. says that differences of opinion amongst academics can contribute to the field?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubHcSzcalWw, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0ggGRy7dIA
Reading Tasks
Task 1 - The Poisoning of Bangladesh
Multiple choice
0 C
1 A
2 C
3 D
4 B
5 A
6 D
7 B
8 C
9 B
1 G 1 D
2 C 2 A
3 E 3 D
4 C
4 K
5 A
5 I
6 B
6 D
7 C
7 B
8 D
8 F
2 Strength / efficiency
4 Devices / products
5 Funding / finance
Task 2 Task 3
0. A 0. A
1. A 1. D
2. A
2. E
3. B
4. C 3. B
5. A
4. A
6. B
5. E
7. B
8. C 6. D
7. C
8. B
9. D
10. C