Media Ethics

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: A) erode

• A) erode'Erode' means to wear away gradually, which matches both the mechanism and the time scale: the loss happens little by little and only becomes visible once audiences notice. The word describes a slow decay, not a sudden collapse.
• B) bolster'Bolster' means to strengthen or support, which is the opposite of what audiences experience. Nothing in the sentence suggests the airing reinforced trust; the clause about noticing points the other way.
• C) consolidate'Consolidate' means to combine into something stronger, and the sentence describes an absence of correction that weakens a position. A word for reinforcement cannot fit a sentence about losing standing.
• D) circumvent'Circumvent' means to go around a rule or obstacle, and the sentence describes broadcasting without correction, which is evading a standard rather than evading an obstacle. It says nothing about going around anything.

Respuesta correcta: B) foreground

• A) bury'Bury' is precisely what the sentence tells editors not to do, and the phrase 'not merely bury it' removes it as a possible answer. Choosing it would contradict the instruction the sentence gives.
• B) foreground'Foreground' means to place something in a prominent position. The contrast is between putting the correction where the rumour circulated and hiding it at the end, and only this word names that first practice.
• C) retract'Retract' names the act of withdrawing the claim, and the sentence is about where a correction is placed rather than whether one is issued. The verb for withdrawing cannot occupy a slot describing presentation.
• D) attribute'Attribute' means to credit a statement to its source, and nothing here concerns sources. The sentence is concerned with the visibility of a correction, not with who originated the rumour.

Respuesta correcta: A) Accountability

• A) Accountability'Accountability' means being answerable for one's actions, including acknowledging and correcting journalistic mistakes.
• B) Anonymity'Anonymity' means keeping an identity undisclosed, not accepting responsibility for reporting errors.
• C) Sensationalism'Sensationalism' emphasizes shocking material to attract attention rather than responsibility for accuracy.
• D) Censorship'Censorship' involves suppressing information; it does not mean publicly accepting responsibility for an error.

Respuesta correcta: B) How a false video caused panic and led to an effort to teach fact-checking.

• A) How dams are built in the Caribbean region.The dam appears only in the false video; the text gives no information about building dams.
• B) How a false video caused panic and led to an effort to teach fact-checking.The text describes the false video, the panic it caused, the journalists' discovery and the new programme to teach listeners to verify videos.
• C) Why radio is more popular than WhatsApp in Sucre.The text does not compare the popularity of radio and WhatsApp.
• D) Why families refused to leave their homes during the heavy rains.The text says families did leave their homes, in panic, because of the video.

Respuesta correcta: D) She considered the injured man's dignity more important than a dramatic image.

• A) She wanted to attract as many readers as possible.The editor rejected the image that 'would attract many readers', so attracting readers was not her priority.
• B) She thought the accident was not newsworthy.She still published the story with a photo of the motorbike, so she considered the accident news.
• C) She did not have any photographs of the accident.The text says she had to decide whether to publish a photograph of the injured man, so she had one.
• D) She considered the injured man's dignity more important than a dramatic image.Her note says a picture can inform 'without exposing someone on the worst day of their life', showing she chose to protect the man's privacy.

Respuesta correcta: A) It was verified documents that supported the investigation.

• A) It was verified documents that supported the investigation.The cleft structure places 'verified documents' in the focus position as the source of support.
• B) It was anonymous rumors that supported the investigation.This cleft emphasizes rumors, directly contradicting the editor's intended source of evidence.
• C) It was the investigation that supported verified documents.This sentence reverses the relationship: the documents supported the investigation, not the other way around.
• D) It was verified documents that the investigation rejected.'Rejected' changes the meaning from relying on the documents to dismissing them.

Respuesta correcta: A) What the newsroom needs is independent verification.

• A) What the newsroom needs is independent verification.The what-clause identifies the need, and the complement after 'is' highlights independent verification.
• B) What the newsroom needs independent verification is.A what-cleft requires the linking verb before the focused complement: 'What the newsroom needs is ...'.
• C) What the newsroom needs is a faster publication schedule.The grammar is acceptable, but the focused need contradicts the stated priority of independent verification.
• D) What independent verification needs is the newsroom.This reverses who has the need, making verification the subject instead of the newsroom.

Respuesta correcta: B) It was the headline that misled readers.

• A) It was readers who misled the headline.This reverses the roles: readers were misled by the headline rather than causing it to be misled.
• B) It was the headline that misled readers.The cleft focuses on 'the headline' as the element responsible for misleading readers.
• C) It was the article that misled readers.This assigns the problem to the article, although the scenario explicitly describes the article as accurate.
• D) It was the headline that readers corrected.This introduces an unsupported action by readers instead of identifying what misled them.

Respuesta correcta: D) To help readers recognise when online content is advertising.

• A) To sell products through influencers.The text does not promote any product; it teaches readers to identify advertising.
• B) To criticise all influencers for lying.The text explains a rule about labels; it does not accuse all influencers of lying.
• C) To explain how to become a paid influencer.The reader is addressed as a follower who sees posts, not as someone who wants to work as an influencer.
• D) To help readers recognise when online content is advertising.The text explains what labels like '#ad' mean, why they exist, and ends with advice: 'look for the label before you decide to buy'.

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: B) It places the day, rather than the action, in focus.

• A) It establishes that the retraction was published by mistake.The cleft reorganises information structure and says nothing about intention or accident. Choosing it would read a grammatical device as evidence about the circumstances of publication.
• B) It places the day, rather than the action, in focus.The cleft moves 'on Tuesday' into the position after 'It was', which is exactly what the focus slot is for. The retraction and its date are unchanged; only which element is treated as given information differs.
• C) It changes the tense of the sentence from past to present.Both sentences keep 'appeared' in the past simple. The cleft never alters tense, and the comparison is about focus rather than about when the verb is situated.
• D) It proves that readers accepted the retraction.No reaction from any reader is mentioned or implied. A word order cannot supply evidence about an audience's response, and the sentence contains no such claim.

Respuesta correcta: C) It foregrounds the role of the person who declined, rather than the act of declining.

• A) It implies that the refusal was hostile.The cleft carries no evaluation of tone or intention. Reading hostility into it would mean attributing an attitude that the sentence never states in either version.
• B) It shows that the refusal happened more than once.Both sentences use the singular 'a source' and a single past verb. A cleft cannot introduce repetition that the underlying proposition does not contain.
• C) It foregrounds the role of the person who declined, rather than the act of declining.The cleft substitutes 'a source' into the focus slot after 'It was', so the role becomes the new information. The refusal itself is unchanged, and only the information structure shifts.
• D) It explains why the journalist later withdrew the story.No later decision appears in either sentence. The cleft operates within one proposition, and it cannot supply a consequence or a sequence that is absent from the comparison.

Respuesta correcta: C) It brings the timing of the decision into focus, without adding a claim about who cropped it.

• A) It shows that the cropping was intentional.Neither version states an intention, and the cleft version is in fact the one that names no one at all. Reading deliberate purpose into the focus shift would invent a fact.
• B) It changes the crop into a permanent alteration.'Permanent' appears nowhere in either sentence, and a cleft cannot turn a described act into an enduring state. The proposition is identical in both versions.
• C) It brings the timing of the decision into focus, without adding a claim about who cropped it.The cleft moves 'before publication' into the focus slot, so the sequence becomes the new information. It attributes nothing new: the second version has no agent, and the crop remains exactly as described in the first.
• D) It proves the photograph was misleading once cropped.Whether the crop misled readers is a separate judgement that neither sentence makes. A grammatical rearrangement supplies no evidence about the effect on an audience.

Respuesta correcta: B) It explicitly emphasizes who performed the removal.

• A) It establishes that the photograph was removed accidentally.The cleft identifies the agent but provides no information about intention or accident.
• B) It explicitly emphasizes who performed the removal.The cleft puts 'the editor' in focus while retaining the same action of removing the photograph.
• C) It changes the removal into a future action.Both sentences use past forms, so the cleft does not move the event into the future.
• D) It proves that removing the photograph was ethically justified.Grammatical emphasis does not supply evidence that the editorial decision was ethically justified.

Respuesta correcta: C) The sentence highlights the correction's timing but does not prove that every other quotation was accurate.

• A) The correction happened before the original recording was checked.The phrase 'after checking' places the verification before the correction, not after it.
• B) The journalist's identity is the sentence's main focus.The focused element follows 'It was' and is the time phrase, not the journalist's identity.
• C) The sentence highlights the correction's timing but does not prove that every other quotation was accurate.The cleft focuses on when this correction occurred; it makes no claim about the accuracy of other quotations.
• D) Checking the recording guarantees that the entire report contains no bias.Verification of one quotation does not establish that every editorial choice in the report is unbiased.

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

• A) The current strategy is directed towards the wrong objective.Correct. This idiom means to follow a wrong line of thought or course of action.
• B) They are literally looking for something in the trees of Cali.Incorrect. This is a literal and incorrect interpretation of the idiom.
• 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: D) Carolina should be sceptical about the claim.

• A) Carolina should add salt to her chocolate.This is a literal reading. Javier is talking about how to judge the claim, not about cooking.
• B) The website is a reliable source of health information.Javier points out that the site mentions no studies, which suggests it is not reliable.
• C) Carolina should eat chocolate to cure the flu.Javier doubts the claim, so he is not recommending chocolate as a cure.
• D) Carolina should be sceptical about the claim.'Take something with a pinch of salt' means not to believe it completely; Javier explains why: there is no scientific evidence.

Respuesta correcta: C) Not to follow what other media are doing until the information is confirmed.

• A) To publish the rumour first, before other outlets.Other outlets are already publishing it, and the editor refuses to follow them, so this is the opposite of the decision.
• B) To send a reporter to travel with the singer's band.This reads 'bandwagon' literally as a vehicle for a band. The idiom is about following a trend.
• C) Not to follow what other media are doing until the information is confirmed.'Jump on the bandwagon' means to join something because it is popular; the editor refuses to do this without police confirmation.
• D) To stop reporting news about famous people forever.The editor only waits 'until the police confirm it', so the decision is temporary, not permanent.

Respuesta correcta: D) The student has described the problem exactly.

• A) The student has made a serious mistake.The idiom is a compliment; it expresses agreement, not criticism.
• B) The student should be more careful with tools.This is a literal reading of 'nail' and 'head'. The conversation is about clickbait, not about tools.
• C) The student's idea is interesting but not relevant.The teacher's expression means the idea is exactly right, so it is fully relevant.
• D) The student has described the problem exactly.'Hit the nail on the head' means to describe something precisely; the teacher agrees with the student's definition of clickbait.