Departamento de Lnguas English Written Test 12th year - March 2014

(The 60s)
Name:____________________________________ Class: ______
Evaluation: ____________________
Parents signature ______________ Teacher:
PART I
Before reading the text below, answer the following question, in no more than 35
words:
A How would you defne the decade of the 60s? (12p)
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Text
1950 to 1960: culture and counterculture
During the 50s, a sense of uniformity pervaded American society. Conformity was
common, as young and old alike followed groups norms rather than striking out on their
own. Though men and women had been forced into new employment patterns during WW
II, once the war was over, traditional roles were reafrmed. Men expected to be
breadwinners; women, even when they worked, assumed their proper place was at home
().
Television contributed to the homogenizing trend by providing young and old with
a shared experience refecting accepted social patterns.
But not all Americans conformed to such cultural norms. A number of the so-
called beat-generation rebelled against conventional values. Stressing spontaneity and
spirituality, they asserted intuition over reason, Eastern mysticism over institutionalized
religion. The beats went out their way to challenge the patterns of respectability and shock
the rest of the culture.
Their literary work displayed their sense of freedom. Jack Kerouac typed his best-
selling novel On the Road on a 75-meter roll of paper. Lacking accepted punctuation and
paragraph structure, the book glorifed the possibilities of free life().
Musicians and artists rebelled as well. Tennessee singer Elvis Presley popularized
black music in the form of Rock and Roll and shocked more staid Americans with his
ducktail haircut and undulating hips. In addition, Elvis and other rock and roll singers
demonstrated there was a white audience for black music , thus testifying to the increasing
integration of American culture. Painters like Jackson Pollock discarded easels and laid-out
gigantic canvases on the foor, then applied paint, sand and other materials in wild
splashes of colour. All of these artists and authors, whatever the medium, provided models
for the wider and more deeply felt social revolution of the 60s.()
The visible signs of the counterculture permeated American society in the late
1960s and early 1970s. Hair grew longer and beards became common. Blue jeans and t-
shirts took the place of slacks, jackets and ties. Rock and roll grew, proliferated and
transformed into many musical variations. The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other
British groups took the country by storm. Hard Rock grew popular, and songs with a
political or social commentary, such as those by singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, became
common. The youth counterculture reached its apogee in August 1969 at Woodstock, a
three-day festival in rural New York State attended by almost half-a-million persons. The
festival mythologized in flms and record albums, gave its name to the era - The Woodstock
Generation.
An Outline of American History, United States Information Agency., 1994 (Abridged)
B - Find evidence of the following in the frst three paragraphs. (28p)
1 There wasnt much diference in the habits of the diferent generations.
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2 Society was molded by the new mass medium.
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3 A new group of people began to question traditional ways of thinking.
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4 Culture was revolutionized.
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C - Say what or who the following words refer to: 10p
1 their (l.5) _____________________________________________
2 they (l.11) _____________________________________________
3 these (l.23) _____________________________________________
4 those (l.30) _____________________________________________
5 its (l.33) _____________________________________________
D Reread the frst 3 paragraphs and fnd synonyms for the following words
or expressions. 10p
1 spread across ________________________________________________
2 supporters of the family ________________________________________________
3 agreed on ________________________________________________
4 fought against ________________________________________________
5 imposed ________________________________________________
E Reread paragraphs 4 and 5 and fnd antonyms for the following words or
expressions. 6p
1 imprisonment ________________________________________________
2 said horrible things about________________________________________________
3 decreasing _______________________________________________
F Reread paragraphs 5 and 6 and explain, briefy, what is meant by:
2x5p=10p
1 Those artistsprovided models for the wider and more deeply felt social
revolution of the 60s. (lines 23,24)
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2 The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and other British groups took the country by
storm. (lines 28,29)
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PART II
A - Read the text carefully and fll in the gaps with the words below. 20p
Increasing critique roles what average children rather often of that
The Womens Movement
During the 1950s and the 1960s, (1) __________ numbers of married women
entered the labor force, but in 1963 (2)_________ working women earned only 63%
of _______ a man made. That year, the author Betty Friedan published The
Feminine Mystique, an explosive (4) _______________ of middle class patterns (5)
______helped millions of women articulate a pervasive sense(6) __________
discontent. Arguing that women (7) ____________had no other outlets other than
fnding a husband and bearing(8) ___________, Friedan encouraged readers to
seek new(9) ______________and responsibilities, to seek their own personal and
professional identities (10) __________________than have them defned by the
outside, male-dominated society.
B Complete the following sentence according to what youve studied.
(Write about 40 words) 10p
1 - If we compare the role women played in the past with the role they play today
we
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C Transform each of the following sentences using one of the idioms in the
box. 15p
Home bird Fight like cat and dog Smell a rat
Until the cows come home Have butterfies in ones stomach
1 Mothers in the 60s must have sufered a lot with their children.
2 In the 50s young girls preferred to stay at home.
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3 Poets in the late 50s sensed that society needed a change.
PART III Grammar 35p
A - Rephrase the following sentences beginning with the given words.
1 People could never imagine the transformations the 60s brought to society.
Never ________________________________________________________________________
2 I would like to live a similar experience!
I wish _______________________________________________________________________
3 You shouldnt glorify the drug-taking of that time.
If I __________________________________________________________________________
4 People had to adapt to a changing society. Those who didnt, had serious problems.
People,__________________________________________________________had very serious
problems.
5 The Woodstock festival must have been something terrifc!
I wish _______________________________________________________________________________.
Part IV Writing 35 p
Read the following strophes of the song The Times They Are a-Changin
by Bob Dylan and make a comment on it . (Write between 80-100 words on it.)
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
or the times they are a!changin'"
Come writers and critics
Who prophesi#e with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
or the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
or the loser now
Will be later to win
or the times they are a!changin'"
Come senators, congressmen
$lease heed the call
%on't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
or he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
or the times they are a!changin'"
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
our old road is
!apidly agin'
$lease get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
or the times they are a!changin'"
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
&apidly fadin'
And the first one now
Will later be last
or the times they are a!changin'"