Technological Breakthroughs

Respuesta correcta: D) exacerbate

• A) alleviateIncorrect. 'Alleviate' means to make something less severe, which is the opposite of what's needed.
• B) mitigateIncorrect. 'Mitigate' means to make something less severe, which doesn't fit the negative consequence implied.
• C) facilitateIncorrect. 'Facilitate' means to make an action or process easy or easier, which is not appropriate for a social divide.
• D) exacerbateCorrect. 'Exacerbate' means to make a problem or bad situation worse, which fits perfectly here.

Respuesta correcta: B) developed

• A) developingA gerund before 'by' would leave the clause incomplete: 'developing by the team' is not a verb phrase, so it cannot modify 'the prototype' on its own.
• B) developed'Developed by the engineering team' is a reduced relative clause, the standard C1 way of saying that the team designed and built the prototype without repeating a full 'which was' construction.
• C) designingThe participle is grammatically valid, but the timeline contradicts the sentence. The prototype was built last March and is now being tested, so it must be described as completed, not as the act of designing it.
• D) developmentA noun cannot stand in the verb slot. 'The development by the team' would be a noun phrase describing a process, not an identification of that particular prototype.

Respuesta correcta: A) consumes

• A) consumes'Consume' means to use up a resource such as time, and the clause contrasts the delay at the regulatory stage with the time the engineering itself took. The relative clause describes an experience that uses up a schedule.
• B) returns'Return' would give something back, and the sentence describes time being spent rather than recovered. Nothing in the clause suggests the team got time back from the process.
• C) conceals'Conceal' means to hide, and nothing in the sentence is being kept from view. The clause is about a delay that is visible to everyone involved in the approval.
• D) donates'Donate' means to give away voluntarily, usually resources to a cause, and time spent waiting is not a gift. The relative clause describes something that takes up a schedule rather than contributing to one.

Respuesta correcta: C) constrain

• A) accelerate'Accelerate' means to make something happen faster. A shortage of workers works in the opposite direction, so the plans would slow down rather than speed up.
• B) compensate'To compensate for something' is to make up for a loss. A shortage would limit growth, but the sentence says the shortage threatens the plans, not that the firms are making up for damage already done.
• C) constrain'To constrain is to limit or hold back within a set of limits. A shortage of technicians sets exactly that kind of external limit on how fast a firm can grow, so 'constrain their own plans' is the natural collocation.
• D) celebrate'Celebrate' marks something as an achievement. Plans that are at risk of being held back are the opposite of an achievement, so the verb contradicts the warning in the sentence.

Respuesta correcta: C) Drones are helping rural health posts send small urgent items faster.

• A) Drones have replaced boats for all transport in Guaviare.The nurses say drones cannot carry patients or large equipment, so boats are still needed. 'All transport' exaggerates the text.
• B) Patients in Guaviare now travel to the hospital by drone.The text explicitly says the drones cannot carry patients; they transport vaccines and samples.
• C) Drones are helping rural health posts send small urgent items faster.The text explains what the drones carry (vaccines, samples), how much time they save (40 minutes instead of hours) and their limit (small packages only).
• D) The hospital in San José del Guaviare needs more nurses.Nurses are quoted as a source of opinion, but the text says nothing about a shortage of nurses.

Respuesta correcta: A) Working with the community was more difficult than building the app.

• A) Working with the community was more difficult than building the app.By calling the technology 'the easy part' and saying listening took two years, the developer implies that the community work was the hardest and longest stage.
• B) The app was finished in a few weeks.The text mentions two years of work with the community, and the app is still being developed, so 'a few weeks' is not supported.
• C) Nasa speakers did not want to participate.The team recorded more than 3,000 phrases with Nasa speakers, which shows the community did participate.
• D) Doctors in rural clinics speak Nasa Yuwe fluently.The text says doctors need help from family members to communicate, which means they do not speak the language well.

Respuesta correcta: B) cheap enough for people to buy

• A) easy to repair'Easy to repair' is listed as a separate quality in the same sentence, so it cannot be the meaning of 'affordable'.
• B) cheap enough for people to buyThe text contrasts 20 million pesos, which families 'cannot pay', with about 300,000 pesos, so 'affordable' describes a price people are able to pay.
• C) very strongThe text says the printed hands are 'less strong' than professional ones, so 'affordable' cannot mean strong.
• D) light in weight'Light' is another quality in the same list. A word in a list usually adds a new idea instead of repeating one.

Respuesta correcta: A) To rule out the possibility that the bias came from the test itself rather than from the algorithm.

• A) To rule out the possibility that the bias came from the test itself rather than from the algorithm.The phrase 'through independent testing' is what makes the evidence credible. If the team that built the system had also tested it, a flaw in the test could be mistaken for a flaw in the algorithm, so independence is the condition that lets the conclusion be trusted.
• B) To keep the findings secret until the company had prepared a public statement.The sentence says the algorithm was withdrawn from public use, which is an act of disclosure, not concealment. Nothing suggests a prepared statement or a motive to hide the result.
• C) To avoid spending money on research that nobody had requested.No cost or demand for research is mentioned. The clause 'after engineers had established' shows a completed investigation whose purpose was to find out whether the bias was real.
• D) To prove that the engineers had built the algorithm incorrectly.The testing established that the predictions were biased, not that the engineers made a mistake in building it. A system can be built competently and still produce unfair outcomes, which is what the sentence describes.

Respuesta correcta: B) The connection becomes slow when it rains.

• A) It only works in the city of Tunja.The satellite internet connects rural schools; Tunja is mentioned as a place students can connect with, not as the only place it works.
• B) The connection becomes slow when it rains.The teachers say 'the connection is still slow on rainy days'; the word 'still' signals a problem that continues today.
• C) Students cannot send homework online.The text says students 'can now send homework online', so this is the opposite of the information given.
• D) Teachers must deliver it by motorbike.Motorbikes were used in 2020 to deliver printed worksheets, not internet. This option mixes two different parts of the text.

Respuesta correcta: A) Students should learn to use them responsibly instead of having them banned.

• A) Students should learn to use them responsibly instead of having them banned.The writer rejects the ban ('will not work') and proposes 'a better solution': teaching responsible use, with concrete examples such as checking facts.
• B) Schools should ban them completely.This is the teachers' position, which the writer understands but disagrees with.
• C) They always provide accurate facts.The writer says students must learn 'to check facts', which suggests the tools can be wrong.
• D) They are the enemy of learning.The last sentence says 'Technology is not the enemy of learning'; the problem is using it without thinking.

Respuesta correcta: B) fabricated

• A) conceived'Conceive' means to form the idea of something, which applies to a design on paper rather than to a physical object. A chip with a stated thickness is a manufactured thing, not an idea.
• B) fabricated'Fabricate' means to manufacture a physical object, and a chip is made rather than assembled from parts. The participle follows 'was' as a passive adjective, and the thickness mentioned is a property of a manufactured item.
• C) predicted'Predict' means to say what will happen, and the sentence describes something that was actually produced. Nothing here concerns a forecast or a projection.
• D) assembled'Assemble' means to put parts together, which implies a device built from separate components. A chip is described as a single layer with a thickness, so the verb would misrepresent what was made.

Respuesta correcta: C) had

• A) hasIncorrect. The sentence refers to a past sequence, requiring the past perfect in inversion.
• B) wasIncorrect. 'Was' does not fit the past perfect structure required by 'Hardly'.
• C) hadCorrect. 'Hardly had...' is a classic C1 inversion structure used for sequential events.
• D) didIncorrect. 'Did' would require the base form of the verb, not the past participle 'been'.

Respuesta correcta: A) being reviewed

• A) being reviewed'Was being reviewed' is the past continuous passive, which is what an eighteen-month process with no interruption calls for. The clause about the examiners' silence identifies the period during which the review continued uninterrupted.
• B) reviewed'Reviewed' alone is the past simple passive and describes a completed event rather than a process stretched over time. The duration given makes the continuous form necessary.
• C) being rejected'Being rejected' would mean the application was refused during that time, which the sentence contradicts by saying no objection was raised. The process described is a review, not a refusal.
• D) being delayed'Being delayed' would add the idea of a hold-up that the sentence does not report. The examiners simply reviewed for eighteen months, and nothing suggests the file was held back by anyone.

Respuesta correcta: B) could hire

• A) can hire'Can' is present, and the sentence establishes a past situation resolved at a point in time. The period of not hiring belonged to the past, so the modal has to be the past form.
• B) could hireAfter an emphatic negative opening such as 'It was not until... that', the subject and verb invert, so 'technician' and 'could hire' swap places. A modal makes the ability to recruit available once the money arrived.
• C) could have hired'Could have hired' would place the hiring even earlier than the funding, which reverses the causal order the sentence states. The clause says the ability arrived only after the renewal.
• D) might hire'Might' expresses possibility rather than a resolved ability, and the emphatic structure here presents a settled sequence of events. Nothing in the sentence leaves the outcome uncertain.

Respuesta correcta: D) could

• A) would'Would' would form a second conditional and point to an unreal or hypothetical situation. Here the condition is presented as a real, verified requirement for a decision about safety, which is exactly what 'could' expresses.
• B) must'Must' expresses obligation, so the sentence would say the treatment is required to be considered safe. The clause only states what becomes possible once the verification happens, not what someone is obliged to do.
• C) should'Should' is used for advice, recommendations or expected outcomes, and it would suggest that somebody ought to make the treatment safe. Nothing in the sentence recommends an action; it sets a condition for a possibility.
• D) could'Only when...' makes a restrictive conditional, and the rest of the sentence needs a modal: 'could the new treatment be considered safe'. The perfect 'have been considered' would place the condition in the past, which the sentence does not do.

Respuesta correcta: C) which

• A) what'What' means 'the thing that' and cannot refer back to a noun already mentioned. 'The scanner, what the university bought' is not correct English.
• B) where'Where' refers to a place. The clause describes an object the university bought, so it needs a pronoun for a thing, not for a location.
• C) which'Which' introduces a non-defining clause about a thing, and here it is the object of 'bought': 'the scanner, which the university bought two years ago, has already been replaced'.
• D) whose'Whose' shows possession and must be followed by a noun ('whose screen'). Here the verb 'the university bought' needs an object pronoun, not a possessive.

Respuesta correcta: B) The current strategy is directed towards the wrong objective.

• A) They are literally looking for something in the trees of Bucaramanga.Incorrect. This is a literal and incorrect interpretation of the idiom.
• B) The current strategy is directed towards the wrong objective.Correct. This idiom means to follow a wrong line of thought or course of action.
• C) The approach is too noisy and aggressive.Incorrect. The idiom relates to direction/objective, not volume or attitude.
• D) A new environmental project involving trees should be started.Incorrect. This misinterprets the figurative meaning of the phrase.

Respuesta correcta: A) She wonders if they have to start the project again from the beginning.

• A) She wonders if they have to start the project again from the beginning.'Back to square one' means returning to the starting point after a failure; Daniel's answer 'Not completely' shows that only part of the work is lost.
• B) She wants to move the test to a different room.This is a literal reading of 'square'. Valeria reacts to the failed test, not to the location.
• C) She thinks the battery needs a square shape.The idiom has nothing to do with shape. It is a fixed expression about progress in a project.
• D) She believes the project is finished successfully.The battery overheated, so the test failed; her question expresses worry, not success.

Respuesta correcta: B) Think of and propose an original idea.

• A) Travel up to Nariño to meet the farmers.This interprets 'come up' as physical movement. The object of the verb is 'an idea', not a place.
• B) Think of and propose an original idea.The phrasal verb 'come up with' means to think of or produce a plan or idea; the deadline of two weeks refers to creating that idea.
• C) Copy an app that already exists.'Come up with' implies creating something new, which is the opposite of copying an existing app.
• D) Download an app on the farmers' phones.The app does not exist yet; the team must first produce the idea for it.

Respuesta correcta: A) Starting the first steps of the project before the money arrives.

• A) Starting the first steps of the project before the money arrives.'Get the ball rolling' means to start an activity; the manager proposes choosing the team now, even though the funding comes later.
• B) Buying sports equipment for the robotics lab.'Ball' is part of the idiom, not a real object. The lab is for robots, not for sports.
• C) Waiting until June to make any decisions.The word 'but' and the word 'now' show that the manager does not want to wait.
• D) Cancelling the project because of the delay.The manager wants to begin the project, not cancel it; the delay is only in the funding.