hard-core and casual gamers play in different worlds · 2015. 10. 1. · nivel: avanzado paper:...

Universidad Nacional de La Pampa - Facultad de Ciencias Humanas - SEREX Examen de Acred itac ión de Niveles de Lengua Inglesa 2013

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Nivel: AVANZADO Paper: READING (105 min)

A. Read the following text adapted from npr.org

Hard-Core and Casual Gamers Play in Different Worlds November 22, 2013 4:22 PM

This holiday season, the video game

industry is looking to reig nite sales as

two game titans, Sony and Microsoft,

launch the next generation of game

consoles.

Their target demographic is the group of

dedicated players known as hard-core

gamers. Dive into the wide world of

video game culture on YouTube and

you'll hear that term being thrown about.

(1)__D______________________________

“Well, a hard-core video gamer would be somebody that is there at every single midnight

release,” said Kelly Kelley, known in competitive e-sports circles as Mrs Violence. “Playing

the game for at least five to six hours, beating it within maybe 48 hours of release. That

would be a hard-core gamer right there.”

Kelley qualifies. She makes a living as a gaming personality. You can find her online most

nights, streaming matches of Call of Duty to her many fans.

That's right, gamers stay up at night and watch other people play video games, the way

sports fans watch football. It's about the most hard-core thing a gamer can do. (2)

___B________________________________

At the other end of the spectrum are the people playing cell phone games like Words With

Friends.

“I have parents,” said Kelley, “and they love those games, and they ask me all the time: Does

this make me a gamer? Yes. Absolutely it makes them a casual gamer.”

The Other Side

Casual gamers. (3)_____E________________________________. Inside gaming culture, “hard

core” and “casual” are tribal divisions.

For the hard core, gaming is the passion. Casual players enjoy games, yet they don't steep

themselves in gamer culture rites like midnight openings. Still, as the gaming population

grows, and gets older, exactly where those two tribes begin and end gets a little b lurry .

Case in point: (4) __A____________________________________. Once upon a time, though,

he was hard core:

“I remember beating my brother up because he made the wrong type of noise when I was

fifth boss in Kung Fu. I was like, ‘You ruined this game for me!’”


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Hill has chilled out a lot since then, but he says that when he plays anything — even just a

puzzle game on his cell phone — he still feels the pressure to excel.

“So I can somehow feel that I've been productive in my entertainment today,” Hill said with

a laugh. “Which in itself is ridiculous because one of the reasons we adopt entertainment as

part of our lifestyle is to avoid that constant American rat race of being X-percentage

productive and efficient in a given day.”

The industry divide

Analysts at the research firm NPD Group say that hard-core gamers still spend more than

others buying games, but they note that those who play casual games like Candy Crush Saga

are the fastest growing segment of the market.

“I think there is an antagonism from the hard core towards the casual,” said Jeff Cannata,

who reviews video games for the Web series Newest Latest Best. “I think there’s this

perceived threat of the hobby, which the hard core appreciate at a deeper level, ... being

dumbed dow n , being simplified to bring in a wider audience,” he says.

The industry has begun to split development along the cultural divide, churning out less

challenging mobile games and speeding up production of large blockbusters.

(5)____F__________________________________________. But the monolithic gaming

culture that Hill and Cannata grew up with may become a thing of the nostalgic past.

Noah Nelson is a reporter for TurnstyleNews.com, a tech and digital culture site from Youth

Radio.

1. The following sentences have been removed from the text. Put them back in the right places.

There is one extra sentence that you do not need to use.

A. 4 Ben Hill, who describes himself as an attempted casual gamer, is 38 and a first-time father

B. 2 In fact, more than 32 million people worldwide watched the world championships of the

strategy game League of Legends this month, according to the makers of the game.

C. Now a cultural divide here in the U.S. that keeps getting wider. It's not about education or

class differences, it's about video games.

D. 1 So what exactly is a hard-core gamer?

E. 3 That's the other big group that gets attention from game makers

F. 5 This means more games for everyone.

2. There are 8 highlighted words in the text. Use them to complete the gaps in the sentences

below, which make their meaning in the text explicit.

1. If you produce something of inferior quality, in order to make it easier or simpler to understand,

you are said to have __dumbed down___ your product.

2. Things which are not clear enough are said to be __blurry__

3. To __steep___ oneself in something, is to spend a lot of time thinking or learning about it.

4. When somebody is said to __churn out__ a product, it means that he or she produces it quickly

and in large amounts, which often means carelessly.


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5. When something is too large, too regular, and unwilling to change, you describe it as ___monolithic__

6. When you are very good at something, or you do it extremely well, you __excel__

7. When you say you want to __reignite__ something, it means you are trying to make something

which was disappearing, or dying, gain force again. 8. You are really excited about some new stuff you’ve got, but after a while you relax a little and

you do not feel so enthusiastic. That means you have __chilled out___

B. Read the following text and solve the exercise below

DEFORESTATION A recent report from the United Nations indicates that the world's tropical forests are vanishing faster than previously thought. Up to 50 million acres a year are disappearing, almost the area of West Germany, 50 per cent more than expected. The World Resources Institute, which compiled the report, says that the rising rate of deforestation was “a tragedy for the biological richness of the earth and an ominous signal for the climatic conditions of the future.” About 100 forest species become extinct every day, with irreparable loss of part of the world’s genetic resources. The report says that deforestation accounts for a third of the world’ s emissions of carbon dioxide, the biggest cause of global warming.

The loss of the forests is largely the result of overpopulation. Hungry landless masses in Asia compete with commercial logging for the available resources. At the moment, the landless masses are winning. The overwhelming bulk of the wood and timber of tropical forests is burnt where it stands. Of that which is extracted, only 17 per cent goes for industrial use. The rest is used for firewood. The concept of natural forest as spare land ready for agriculture is predominant. It is the central reality of the deforestation crisis. In 1988, 60 million acres of Rondonia in the Brazilian Amazon was burnt for grazing and cropland. Billions of dollars’ worth of timber went up in smoke, wasted because there was no ready economic market for it. The forest was seen to have more value as agricultural land than as standing forests to be harvested.

Just how bad the situation is can be revealed by satellite photograph. Such a photograph of the Amazon basin will reveal hundreds of points of light stretching from Bolivia to the Atlantic. Each point of light indicates a man-made forest fire at least half a mile wide. In 1988 and 1989, there were at least 15,000 such fires which meant that Brazil sent half as much carbon into the atmosphere as Japan.


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The head of Brazil's environment institute points out: "It's a problem of awareness. Farmers just don't think of anything but making money, and some regional administrations support them because they think this is development. In one state, farmers are killing the rubber tappers. In another, they think only of profits from cattle ranching. They set fire to nature reserves. They could all think about the environment a little more." The head of the satellite agency which analyses the problem on a daily basis is more blunt. He says: "We know that burning in the Amazon is gigantic. It's time they showed us a wealthy farmer in handcuffs."

If you want to know what happens when the rain forests are destroyed, the place to go is Vietnam. During the Vietnam War, the American air force sprayed more than 72 million litres of herbicides and defoliants over the country, dropping bombs and napalm over much of the rest. Almost half of Vietnam's landscape is derelict. Since the end of the war things have got worse: the country’s 60 million people, like most inhabitants of the tropics, are dependent upon wood for fuel and construction. Demand for fuel and the clearance of land for agriculture has also destroyed thousands of acres. What the Vietnamese have discovered is that when the tropical forests go, they go for ever. The soil is poor. Once the cover is gone, tropical rainstorms wash out the nutrients. In the dry season, the grass catches fire and saplings are killed. Then more top soil is washed away. Tropical trees flower unpredictably, and their seeds are difficult to collect and germinate.

The Americans, given a choice between being green and fighting the Peruvian drug barons, have chosen, as one would expect, to fight. The weapon to hand is Spike, a close relative of Agent Orange, the herbicide used in Vietnam. Spike would have carried deforestation into the densely forested eastern slopes of the Andes. However, the President of Peru, having made a helicopter flight over the area, called for a scientific study. He said: “An international scientific team should determine if the proposal is positive or negative for the environment.” He might have added that the Peruvian peasants and the coca barons can manage their own deforestation quite well without any help from American herbicides, thank you very much.

It is not only the tropical trees that should fear man's depredations. Even the cactus in the desert is being uprooted. It seems that the inhabitants of the palatial desert homes of Las Vegas and Palm Springs require a large cactus as a status symbol, just like a stretch limousine. The finest of the cacti of Arizona, despite being in protected tourist amenity areas, are being ripped out of the ground by organised gangs of cactus rustlers. These Saguaro cacti grow as high as five or six metres and weigh up to four tonnes. Larry Richards works full time as a cactus cop. He says:

“I grew up on this land. I can tell you, in the last 10 years the Saguaros here have been thinned out by, oh, maybe half. In the next 10 years another half or more of the rest will go. These are prime, saleable specimens. It's just a matter of time. There are 120 crooked dealers active in Arizona. They use lifting equipment and large trucks to transport the giants instantly to California, about 400 miles away, where black market prices are highest, about $40 for every foot of stem, and up to $100 for every arm which survives the move. A fairly ordinary sample can fetch $800. A big one, $15,000. A whole generation, covering 60 years of growing, is being wiped out.” In one case, the cactus fought back. It fell on top of a young man who was taking pot shots at it with his rifle, and killed him.


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1. Answer the following questions with the options in the box (A to G), according to what

you read in the passage.

According to the passage, where is vegetation …

... burnt because there is no market for it? 1. __B___

... extremely difficult to regenerate? 2. ___D___

... stolen for profit? 3. ___F___

... burnt for pastoral purposes? 4. __B___

... almost 50 per cent destroyed? 5. __D____

... in need of police protection? 6. __F___

... in economic competition with grassland? 7. ___B__

... being destroyed in national parks? 8. __F__ 9. __C___

... threatened by a policing action? 10. __E___

... mostly used for firewood? 11. __A__

... the subject of competition between peasants and the timber industry? 12. __A___

2. Tick the options that complete the sentences below, according to what you read in the

article.

1. Deforestation …

a. is controlled by the World Resources Institute

b. is becoming more serious than expected

c. is the cause of the extinction of genetic resources

d. is contributing to global warming

e. will cause changes in the weather

f. can be appreciated from the sky

A. Asia B. Amazonia C. Brazil

D. Vietnam E. Peru

F. Arizona G. Bolivia


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g. is caused by natural fires in America

h. provides lands for those who do not have a place to live

2. The logs, wood and timber resulting from deforestation of tropical forests…

a. is mostly processed in different industries

b. is mostly carried away from their places to be burned down

c. is mostly discarded

3. The causes for deforestation are…

a. the need of land for people to live in

b. the need of land to grow crops and cattle

c. the transplantation of species to other places

d. the need of wood for fuel and building

e. the need to take nutrients from the soil

f. the unpredictable growth of tropical trees flowers

C. Read the following text.


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Say whether the following are True (T), False (F), or not explicit in the text (?)

1. F Tea was first consumed mainly for health reasons.

2. F Tea has always been a popular drink in most British families.

3. T It took a long time for tea to acquire its present day popularity in Britain.

4. T Catherine of Braganza was very popular in Britain.

5. F Coffee houses were traditional meeting places for men to relax after work.

6. T Tea wasn’t served fresh in the past.

7. T Tea is taxed according to the weight of the leaf.

8. F Servants used to be given special training to make perfect tea.


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Nivel: AVANZADO Paper: USE OF ENGLISH

1. Complete the following text with one word only in each gap.

Life on Mars?

From the days of the ‘Martian canals’, once thought by many to have (1) been made by an

intelligent civilization (2) but later proved to be an optical illusion, to our current

preoccupation (3) with gathering data in the hope of providing us with more information, our

fascination with the Red Planet continues.

In the early days of space (4) exploration/travel, visits were restricted to ‘fly-bys’, such as

those by the Mariner probes, whereby craft would simply pass the planet, taking pictures

and obtaining data as they went. The Viking ‘orbiters’ were next, and later craft in the Viking

series, known (5) as ‘Landers’, began to probe the mysteries of its surface, equipped with

instruments which continued to relay data (6) from/about the environment until they

stopped working.

The more recent ‘Rovers’ move around the planet’s surface (7) as/while they gather

information. Current proposals include missions to study terrain, climate, and soil

components, in (8) order to determine, amongst other (9) things/stuff, whether the planet

can ever have supported carbon-based life forms. Scientists now believe that at some

stage the planet cooled dramatically, resulting in the near-loss of its atmosphere and,

thanks to erosion features, mineral deposits and other factors, it is also (10) believed/

thought/possible that liquid water once flowed there.

2. The following text is the second part of “Life on Mars?” that you read before. In most

lines in this part, there is ONE extra word which is unnecessary and makes the line

grammatically incorrect or incoherent in meaning. Find this word and write it on the

right of the line. There are some lines which are correct. If you consider the line is

correct, write a tick on the right. There are two examples at the beginning.

One of the most recent craft is Phoenix, a Rover which landed in November (0) ____

of 2008. Named after the mythological bird, Phoenix’s mission was to obtain (00) __of__

samples from beneath the surface by digging into the arctic ice, while (1) ____

its high-resolution camera is provided geological data and other equipment (2) __is__

scanned the atmosphere, measuring temperature and pressure in a bid for to (3) __for__

discover whether if the chemicals necessary for life might exist beneath the (4) if/whether


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surface. The craft was expected not to send back data for three months, but (5) _not__

managed to hold out for a further two. (6) ___

An especially important is part of the project was the need to maintain (7) __is__

sterility of the equipment, in order to ensure that any of organic material (8) __of__

collected was not contaminated by ‘hitchhiking’ terrestrial the microbes. (9) __the__

In the future manned landings may have be possible – and though it may (10) _have__

seem an outrageously difficult undertaking, plans have already been (11) ____

discussed for the ‘terraforming’ of the planet – to giving it an atmosphere, (12) __to__

oceans and a terrain as similar to earth, with the possibility of (13) __as__

the human colonisation. (14) __the__

3. Complete the following text with the correct form of the word in capitals at the end of

each line. There is an example at the beginning.

Second Language Learning

There has been much debate in recent times about when young people

should take up a second language. This has been (0) _especially_ ESPECIAL

fuelled in recent times by the increasing (1)importance placed IMPORTANT

on the English language. It is now commonplace to see parents

providing a substantial amount of funds on (2) additional ADD

tuition on language lessons to give their children every(3)competitive COMPETE

edge. In the past decade, language institutes have sprung up in

(4)numerous/innumerable urban centres, all claiming to provide rapid NUMBER

(5) advancement in English. There has been a push by many ADVANCED

parents to expose their children to English in their (6)formative/formation FORM

years. This, many claim, will make the language more (7) instinctive INSTINCT

and ensure that all pronunciation errors can be avoided. There is

some evidence which points to youngsters who have been raised


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in bilingual families, where the language spoken at home is

different to the one that they (8)converse with in their CONVERSATION

external environment. While these children can switch between

two languages with greater (9)ease/ easiness, it remains to be EASY

seen whether this is (10)advantageous when learning ADVANTAGE

other languages.

4. Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using

the word given. DO NOT CHANGE the word given. You can use up to five words.

1. Brian was really interested in North American history in his school days.

interest

Brian had an interest/ had a great interest in North American history in his school days.

2. The manager should think about experience when hiring new staff.

consideration

The manager should take experience into consideration when hiring new staff.

3. She has learnt a substantial amount from her university course.

gained

She has gained a substantial amount of knowledge from her university course.

4. Susan couldn’t get to the date because of the heavy rain.

prevented

The heavy rain prevented Susan from getting to the date.

5. The pupils are living temporarily in a hotel.

being

For the time being, the pupils are living in a hotel.


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6. It looks as if he’s forgotten about the meeting again.

to

He seems to have forgotten about the meeting again.

7. “I wish I’d had the chance to visit Dublin”, Peter said.

not

Peter regretted not having had / that he had not had the chance to visit Dublin.

8. Although Mr Rogers was over sixty, he continued to smoke forty cigarettes a day.

spite

In spite of being over sixty, Mr Rogers continued to smoke forty cigarettes a day.

9. Mary isn’t able to do it. Frank isn’t able to do it either.

nor

Neither Mary nor Frank is/are capable of doing it.

10. I think Robert is too young to look after his brother.

care

I think Robert isn’t old enough to take care of his brother.


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Nivel: AVANZADO Paper: WRITING (120 min)

A. Analyse the following situations and write a suitable text of 250-280 words on ONE of

them.

Option 1

Option 2

You are the film critic for your college newspaper. Below are the three films appearing at your local cinema. You have a brief description of each film, and have written your own comments underneath.

Use this information to give your overall impression of each film. Say what kind of person each film is suited for, and why.

Dangerous Ransom Starring Josh Chandler. A band of elite government agents battle against the clock to prevent a ruthless band of terrorists from blowing up a nuclear power station. A real action thriller.

Josh C. only appears for the first quarter of

the film.

Totally unrealistic ending!

Some really bad acting – terrorists really

non-scary!

Complicated plot


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One day in June Starring Margery Bateman, George Willum. Period drama set in the 1890s. A young man returns to his family estate in England, and wins the heart of the landowner's daughter. But what is the dark secret in his past?

Nightschild Starring Sally Maercs. Something is not right in the little town of Elmer's End. Why does the apple tree bloom in September? Why doesn't anyone ever use the children's playground? The town's new schoolteacher starts investigating.

B. Choose ONE of the following options and write a suitable text of 250 -280

words.

Option 1

You have been asked to write an article for your college newspaper entitled: “My view of public

transport in my country”. This is part of a series on public transport in different countries, and each

article is written not by experts, but by the people who use the services.

Starts as a love story, ends as a thriller

Lots of humour – wasn’t expecting that!

Fantastic costumes and scenery

Directed by Craig Carstairs – his

movies are always scary!

Great special effects, some of them

really horrible

Good supporting cast


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Option 2

You saw this advertisement:

The Circus is Coming!

Full of action and excitement! See clowns, thrilling acrobats and fierce animals! Fun for the whole family.

In fact the circus was a huge disappointment. Write to a friend telling him about it, and

why you feel let down.

Option 3

You have been asked by an international magazine to write an article entitled “The Changing

Family”. Describe any changes in family life you see taking place in your community, and give

your opinion on whether life in the family is getting better or worse.


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Nivel: AVANZADO Paper: LISTENING (55 min)

A. Listen to the following conversation and do the exercises below.

Answer the following questions in your own words

1. Why are Eva and her husband going to a boat show tomorrow?

___Because they want to buy a yacht and they want to look into the matter before purchasing one.

They have collected the necessary money to buy a boat____

2. How does John explain his aversion to sailing?

___He tells an anecdote about a bad previous experience on a yacht____________

3. Describe, in your own words, John’s friend in his story.

__a rich, irresponsible man. A playboy, with expensive hobbies, a posh boy with lots of money and a

daddy who would consent him____

4. Why did John and his friend Tarquin get lost at sea on their yacht?

__Because both of them fell asleep on the yacht and nobody was watching the wheel. The boat didn’t

have any emergency flares, nor ways to send a mayday message_____

5. Did their yacht turn upside down?

____No, it didn’t____

6. Why did the boat engine stop?

__Because it was hit by a large wave and totally flooded with water___

7. How did they reach the coast again?

___A fishing boat rescued them and towed them to harbour____

8. Do John and Tarquin remain friends after the experience?

___No, they haven’t spoken since__


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B. Listen to the following interview to a famous writer and do the exercises below

1. Put the following topics in the order in which they appear in the report.

a. Dan Brown _2__

b. a loyal readership _3______

c. the film Chocolat _1_____

d. the internet and teens _6____

e. Yorkshire _4______

f. Modern Languages at Cambridge _5______

2. Choose the best ending for each sentence.

1. While Joanne Harris wrote she was also

a. a school teacher b. a chocolate seller c. a freelance journalist

2. The phrase ‘runaway success’ refers to

a. a literary prize she received b. the immediate success of Dan Brown

c. the huge acclaim for her novel

3. To ‘make it big’ actually means

a. to create a large book b. to get a movie deal

c. to be extremely successful

4. Joanne is most grateful for

a. the film with Johnny Depp b. her loyal fans c. the money she made

5. What is interesting about Yorkshire is its

a. mix of ruggedness and insularity

b. mix of languages

c. its romantic and small town quality

6. Blueeyedboy is topical because of

a. its protagonist b. how the protagonist presents himself

c. the teenage theme

hard-core and casual gamers play in different worlds · 2015. 10. 1. · nivel: avanzado paper:...

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