Lesson Forty Nine

Guía de examen: TOEFL

 
LECCIÓN CUARENTA Y NUEVELESSON FORTY NINE
VOCABULARIOVOCABULARY

Introducción:

El examen TOEFL evalúa la habilidad y los conocimientos sobre el lenguaje inglés de aquellas personas que necesitan trabajar o estudiar en ambientes académicos. El resultado que se obtiene en el examen TOEFL indica el nivel que tiene la persona evaluada respecto al uso del idioma inglés para entender y comunicar ideas sobre cuestiones académicas. Muchos colegios, universidades, empresas y organizaciones gubernamentales pertenecientes a países de habla anglosajona utilizan este tipo de evaluación para certificar la idoneidad de las personas para desempeñar ciertos trabajos o para la admisión en universidades o colegios.

A continuación, se darán algunos ejercicios que se emplean en este tipo de evaluación.

A) Lectura y análisis de texto: leer el texto que se da a continuación y seleccionar la mejor respuesta para cada pregunta formulada.

Camouflage is one of the most effective ways for animals to avoid attack in the treeless Arctic. However, the summer and winter landscapes there are so diverse that a single protective coloring scheme would, of course, prove ineffective in one season or the other. Thus, many of the inhabitants of the Arctic tundra change their camouflage twice a year. The arctic fox is a clear-cut example of this phenomenon; it sports a brownish-gray coat in the summer which then turns white as cold weather sets in, and the process reverses itself in the springtime. Its brownish-gray coat blends in with the barren tundra landscape in the months without snow, and the white coat naturally blends in with the landscape of the frozen wintertime tundra.

1) ¿Cuál de las oraciones siguientes expresa la información esencial en el primer fragmento subrayado en el texto?

a. Opposite conditions in summer and in winter necessitate different protective coloration for Arctic animals.
b. For many animals, a single protective coloring scheme effectively protects them during summer and winter months.
c. The coloration of the summer and winter landscapes in the Arctic falls to protect the Arctic tundra.
d. In a single season, protective coloring schemes are ineffective in the treeless Arctic.

2) ¿Cuál de las oraciones siguientes expresa la información esencial en el segundo fragmento subrayado en el texto?

a. It is a phenomenon that the coat of the arctic fox turns white in the springtime and gray in the fall.
b. The arctic fox lives in an environment that is brownish gray in the summer and white in the winter.
c. The arctic fox demonstrates that protective coloring can change during different seasons.
d. The arctic fox is unusual in that the color of its coat changes for no reason.

Respuestas:

a
c

B) Leer los párrafos que se dan a continuación y seleccionar la mejor respuesta para cada pregunta formulada.

Párrafo 1:
Post-it® Notes were invented in the 1970s at the 3M company in Minnesota quite by accident. Researchers at 3M were working on developing different types of adhesives, and one particularly weak adhesive, a compound of acrylate copolymer microspheres, was developed. Employees at 3M were asked if they could think of a use for a weak adhesive which, provided it did not get dirty, could be reused. One suggestion was that it could be applied to a piece of paper to use as a bookmark that would stay in place in a book. Another use was found when the product was attached to a report that was to be sent to a colleague with a request for comments on the report; the colleague made his comments on the paper attached to the report and returned the report. The idea for Post-it Notes was born.

Párrafo 2:
It was decided within the company that there would be a test launch of the product in 1977 in four American cities. Sales of this innovative product in test cities were less than stellar, most likely because the product, while innovative, was also quite unfamiliar. A final attempt was then made in the city of Boise to introduce the product. In this attempt, 3M salesmen gave demonstrations of the product in offices throughout Boise and gave away free samples of the product. When the salesmen returned a week later to the offices where the product had been demonstrated and given away, a huge percentage of the office workers, having noted how useful the simple little product could be, were interested in purchasing it. Over time, 3M came to understand the huge potential of this new product, and over the next few decades more than 400 varieties of Post-it products - in different colors, shapes, and sizes - have been developed.

1) ¿Cuál de las oraciones siguientes expresa la información esencial en el primer fragmento subrayado en el párrafo 1?

a. Of the many adhesives that were being developed at 3M, one was not a particularly strong adhesive.
b. Researchers at 3M spent many years trying to develop a really weak adhesive.
c. Numerous weak adhesives resulted from a program to develop the strongest adhesive of all.
d. Researchers were assigned to develop different types of uses for acrylate copolymer microspheres.

2) ¿Cuál de las oraciones siguientes expresa la información esencial en el segundo fragmento subrayado en el párrafo 1?

a. The 3M Company suggested applying for a patent on the product in a report prepared by a colleague.
b. A note was attached to a report asking for suggestions for uses of one of 3M´s products.
c. A colleague who developed the new product kept notes with suggestions by other workers.
d. One unexpectedly-discovered use for the adhesive was in sending and receiving notes attached to documents.

3) ¿Cuál de las oraciones siguientes expresa la información esencial en el primer fragmento subrayado en el párrafo 2?

a. The 3M Company was unfamiliar with the process of using test cities to introduce innovative products.
b. Sales of the product soared even though the product was quite unfamiliar to most customers.
c. The new product did not sell well because potential customers did not understand it.
d. After selling the product for a while, the company understood that the product was not innovative enough.

4) ¿Cuál de las oraciones siguientes expresa la información esencial en el segundo fragmento subrayado en el párrafo 2?

a. The company worked overtime to develop its new product, initially creating numerous varieties to make it successful.
b. The company immediately understood the potential of the product and began to develop it further.
c. The company initially introduced 400 varieties of the product and then watched for decades as sales improved.
d. It took some time for the company to understand how important its new product was and how many variations were possible.

Respuestas:

1. a
2. d
3. c
4. d

C) Leer los párrafos que se dan a continuación y seleccionar la mejor respuesta para cada pregunta formulada.

Párrafo 1:
1A One method of popping corn involved skewering an ear of corn on a stick and roasting it until the kernels popped off the ear. 1B Corn was also popped by first cutting the kernels off the cob, throwing them into a fire, and gathering them as they popped out of the fire. 1C In a final method for popping corn, sand and unpopped kernels of corn were mixed together in a cooking pot and heated until the corn popped to the surface of the sand in the pot.1D

Párrafo 2:
2A This traditional Native American dish was quite a novelty to newcomers to the Americas. 2B Columbus and his sailors found natives in the West Indies wearing popcorn necklaces, and explorer Hernando Cortés described the use of popcorn amulets in the religious ceremonies of the Aztecs. 2C According to legendary descriptions of the celebratory meal, Quadequina, the brother of Chief Massasoit, contributed several deerskin bags of popcorn to the celebration.2D

1) ¿Cuál de los cuatro puntos en el primer párrafo del texto (etiquetados como 1A, 1B, 1C y 1D) indica dónde la oración puede ser agregada? Native Americans have been popping corn for at least 5000 years, using a variety of different methods.
a. 1A
b. 1B
c. 1C
d. 1D

2) ¿Cuál de los cuatro puntos en el segundo párrafo del texto (etiquetados como 2A, 2B, 2C y 2D) indica dónde la oración puede ser agregada? A century after these early explorers, the Pilgrims at Plymouth may have been introduced to popcorn at the first Thanksgiving dinner.
a. 2A
b. 2B
c. 2C
d. 2D

Respuestas:

1. a
2. c


Lessons of the Spanish Course

The course has 59 lessons that go progressively to learn Spanish correctly and quickly.