MOCK EXAM 9
SIMULA UN ENTORNO TRANQUILO DURANTE CUATRO HORAS Y MEDIA
COMO SI ESTUVIERAS EN EL EXAMEN. DURANTE ESE TIEMPO:
1. ELIGE UN TEMA Y REDÁCTALO SIN MIRAR APUNTES, SIMULANDO
EXAMEN REAL.
2. ELIGE TRES PREGUNTAS DE LAS SEIS DEL TEXTO.
GOOD LUCK!
PRACTICAL EXAM:
‘Mind,’ he began again, lifting one arm from the elbow, the palm of the hand outwards, so that,
with his legs folded before him, he had the pose of a Buddha preaching in European clothes and
without a lotus flower. Mind, none of us would feel exactly like this. What saves us is efficiency
the devotion to efficiency. But these chaps were not much account, really. They were no
colonists; their administration was merely a squeeze, and nothing more, I suspect. They were
conquerors, and for that you want only brute force nothing to boast of, when you have it, since
your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. They grabbed what they
could get for the sake of what was to be got. It was just robbery with violence, aggravated
murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind—as is very proper for those who tackle a
darkness.
The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a
different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look
into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental
pretence but an idea; and an unselfish belief in the idea something you can set up, and bow
down before, and offer a sacrifice to. ...’
He broke off. Flames glided in the river, small green flames, red flames, white flames, pursuing,
overtaking, joining, crossing each othe then separating slowly or hastily. The traffic of the great
city went on in the deepening night upon the sleepless river. We looked on, waiting patiently
there was nothing else to do till the end of the flood; but it was only after a long silence, when
he said, in a hesitating voice, ‘I suppose you fellows remember I did once turn fresh water sailor
for a bit,’ that we knew we were fated, before the ebb began to run, to hear about one of
Marlow’s inconclusive experiences*.
‘I don’t want to bother you much with what happened to me personally,’ he began, showing in
this remark the weakness of many tellers of tales who seem so often unaware of what their
audience would like best to hear; ‘yet to understand the effect of it on me you ought to know
how I got out there, what I saw, how I went up that river to the place where I first met the poor
chap. It was the farthest point of navigation and the culminating point of my experience. It
seemed somehow to throw kind of light on everything about me— and into my thoughts. It was
sombre enough, too and pitiful— not extraordinary in any way—not very clear either. No, not
very clear. And yet it seemed to throw a kind of light.
‘I had then, as you remember, just returned to London after a lot of Indian Ocean, Pacific, China
Seas—a regular dose of the East—six years or so, and I was loafing about, hindering you fellows
in your work and invading your homes, just as though I had got a heavenly mission to civilize
, MOCK EXAM 9
you. It was very fine for a time, but after a bit I did get tired of resting. Then I began to look for
a ship—I should think the hardest work on earth. But the ships wouldn’t even look at me. And I
got tired of that game, too.
‘Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps. I would look for hours at South America,
or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration. At that time there were
many blank spaces on the earth, and when I saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map
(but they all look that) I would put my finger on it and say, ‘When I grow up I will go there.’ The
North Pole was one of these places, I remember. Well, I haven’t been there yet, and shall not
try now. The glamour’s off. Other places were scattered about the hemispheres. I have been in
some of them, and ... well, we won't talk about that. But there was one yet—the biggest, the
most blank, so to speak— that I had a hankering after. ”
‘True, by this time it was not a blank space any more. It had got filled since my boyhood with
rivers and lakes and names. It had ceased to be a blank space of delightful mystery— a white
patch for a boy to dream gloriously over. It had become a place of darkness. But there wasin it
one river especially, a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense
snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its
tail lost in the depths of the land. And as I looked at the map of it in a shop-window,it fascinated
me as a snake would a bird—a silly little bird. Then I remembered there was a big concern, a
Company for trade on that river. Dashit all! I thought to myself, they can’t trade without using
some kind of craft on that lot of fresh water—steamboats! Why shouldn't I try to get charge of
one? I went on along Fleet Street, but could not shake off the idea. The snake had charmed me.
SOURCE: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
1. Translate the text till “experiences”.
2. Find a synonym,or near-synonym,of the following words in the text.
1. Competence.
2. Felony.
3. Colouring.
4. Deluge.
5. Colleagues.
6. Preventing.
7. Bare.
8. Dispersed.
9. Charming.
10. Enchanted.
3. Both Rudyard Kipling and Joseph Conrad dealt with the issue of
imperialism in their works, the former praising the role of the Mother Country as
a source of civilization and moral values, the latter denouncing injustice and
oppression. In no more than 250 words, give your opinion on the role of Great
Britain during the era of colonization.
