Human Rights

Respuesta correcta: B) exacerbate

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

Respuesta correcta: B) erodes

• A) secures'Secure' is the opposite of what the sentence describes, since uninformed agreement is precisely what removes consent from being reliable. Nothing in the clause suggests the court strengthened its standing.
• B) erodes'Erode' means to wear away gradually, which fits consent damaged each time a person signs without being told what they agreed to. The clause names consent as the thing being worn down while the court still treats it as valid.
• C) conceals'Conceal' means to hide, and the problem described is a defective process rather than a secret one. The witnesses' lack of information is on the record and is what the clause identifies.
• D) returns'Return' means to give or send back, and nothing in the sentence involves anything coming back to the court or to the witnesses. The clause is about the loss of a legal requirement.

Respuesta correcta: A) blurs

• A) blurs'Blur' means to make a distinction indistinct, and a payment made without any finding of cause treats redress and compromise as the same thing. The clause names the two ideas whose distinction the scheme leaves open.
• B) sharpens'Sharpen' means to make a distinction clearer, which is the reverse of what the sentence describes. Nothing in the clause suggests the scheme defines anything more precisely.
• C) conceals'Conceal' means to hide something from view, and the two categories are publicly discussed rather than kept secret. What is missing is a definition, not an attempt to hide one.
• D) doubles'Double' refers to a quantity becoming twice as large, and the clause is about two ideas becoming indistinguishable rather than an amount increasing. No figure appears in the sentence.

Respuesta correcta: A) withhold

• A) withhold'To withhold information is to deliberately keep it back, even when it is available. The tribunal cannot name the witnesses precisely because the court has protected their identities, which is what withholding means.
• B) circulate'To circulate' is to pass something around among a group, the opposite of keeping it back. The witnesses were relocated precisely so that their names would not spread.
• C) reconstruct'To reconstruct' is to build something again from available material. The identities are not missing records to be pieced together; they are being deliberately concealed, so the verb is wrong.
• D) abbreviate'To abbreviate' is to shorten a word, such as turning a name into an initial. The sentence is about withholding whole identities, not about writing them in a shorter form.

Respuesta correcta: D) The museum preserves many personal stories so visitors can reflect on the conflict.

• A) The museum explains the military strategy of the armed conflict.The text focuses on personal stories of ordinary people, not on military strategy.
• B) The museum tells visitors which side of the conflict was right.The text says the museum 'does not tell visitors what to think', so this is the opposite.
• C) The museum only shows objects that belonged to soldiers.The objects were donated by victims and their families, and the museum also includes recordings and letters.
• D) The museum preserves many personal stories so visitors can reflect on the conflict.The text describes the stories, recordings and objects, and explains the museum's purpose: to make visitors listen and reflect.

Respuesta correcta: D) He saw access to his classes as a matter of equal rights, not a favour.

• A) He wanted the school to give him better grades.Grades are never mentioned; Andrés talks about having the same chance to attend classes.
• B) He was not interested in attending classes.His family went to court so he could attend classes, which shows he wanted to study.
• C) He wanted to change schools after the decision.The judge ordered changes in his school, and nothing suggests he wanted to leave it.
• D) He saw access to his classes as a matter of equal rights, not a favour.'I didn't want special treatment ... I wanted the same chance as everyone else' shows he considers access a right that all students share.

Respuesta correcta: B) Declaring innocence before the facts are established excuses the perpetrator and erases what the victims endured.

• A) It claims that no one has the right to describe a crime as a crime.The report objects to declaring people innocent in advance, not to naming a crime. 'Remembering' and the explicit reference to victims show that the point is about how victims are honoured, not about silencing the description of the offence.
• B) Declaring innocence before the facts are established excuses the perpetrator and erases what the victims endured.'Forgives them in advance' is the key: the phrase describes a judgement handed over before any evidence is weighed. That spares the perpetrator the consequences of their actions and reduces the victims to a category that is declared rather than listened to.
• C) It argues that the guilty should be praised so that reconciliation becomes possible.Nothing in the sentence supports praising anyone. The criticism falls on the exoneration of the accused, which is the opposite of praising them.
• D) It says that remembering a past crime prevents the country from moving forward.That claim would be an argument against remembrance itself, and the report's wording does not support it. The objection is directed at a particular way of framing the memory, not at the act of remembering.

Respuesta correcta: B) were forced to leave their homes but remained in Colombia.

• A) moved to another country to find work.The text says displaced people 'stayed inside the country', and they left because of violence, not to find work.
• B) were forced to leave their homes but remained in Colombia.The second sentence defines the term: people 'forced to leave their homes because of violence but stayed inside the country'.
• C) bought land at the edges of the cities.The text says they arrived at the edges of cities 'without land or jobs', so they did not buy land.
• D) returned to their farms after the conflict.Land return programmes have helped only some families, and returning is the solution, not the meaning of 'displaced'.

Respuesta correcta: A) The repeated way rights were being violated, which the reform was designed to prevent from recurring.

• A) The repeated way rights were being violated, which the reform was designed to prevent from recurring.'The pattern' is contrasted with 'the case in front of the court'. A case is a single instance; a pattern is the repeated sequence behind it. If the reform was written 'to stop the pattern', the aim is to prevent the repetition, not merely to resolve one file.
• B) The specific document that the court was about to sign that week.That would be a matter of timing, which the sentence does not raise. The contrast with 'the case in front of the court' is between a general course of events and a single instance, not between two documents.
• C) The number of previous reforms that had already failed.The reform is described as 'drafted to stop' the pattern, not as a response to earlier drafts. Nothing counts or compares previous attempts, and the phrase has no numerical content.
• D) The order in which the judges were supposed to hear the case.The passage is about the purpose of drafting legislation, and the pattern is what the law targets. A procedural sequence inside the courtroom is a different subject and is never mentioned.

Respuesta correcta: C) To inform domestic workers about their labour rights and where to get help.

• A) To advertise jobs for domestic workers in private homes.The text addresses people who already work in homes; it does not offer any job.
• B) To explain how to clean and cook more efficiently.Cleaning and cooking are mentioned only to identify the readers, not as topics of advice.
• C) To inform domestic workers about their labour rights and where to get help.The text lists the rights (contract, wage, social security, prima) and tells readers where to get free advice if those rights are not respected.
• D) To criticise the Ministry of Labour for its slow service.The Ministry is recommended as a place for free advice, not criticised.

Respuesta correcta: B) detainee

• A) to detainAn infinitive cannot serve as the subject of a clause with 'had', since infinitives are not subjects of finite verbs. The structure needs a noun or a gerund, and the gerund form is wrong for a person.
• B) detaineeThe noun after the comma is the one who was denied representation and who therefore signed the confession, which is what 'detainee' names. An infinitive naming the act would leave the sentence without a subject for 'had'.
• C) detaining'Detaining' is a gerund naming an act, which would make the act the subject of 'had no option'. The clause is about a person being left with no alternative, not about the act of detention.
• D) detainment'Detainment' is a noun meaning the state or process of detaining, and that process is not what had no option. The thing that faced the signature was a person, not the act of holding them.

Respuesta correcta: A) had

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

Respuesta correcta: C) had

• A) hasA present perfect would not match the past simple 'set' in the second clause. The first action happened just before another past action, so it needs the past perfect.
• B) was'Was finished' would be a passive, but the commission is the one doing the interviewing. The clause needs the active past perfect auxiliary.
• C) had'Scarcely' at the start inverts the past perfect: 'Scarcely had the commission finished ... when the tribunal set a date'. 'Had' + 'finished' shows the first completed action.
• D) did'Did' must be followed by a base verb ('did finish'), but the verb in the sentence is the participle 'finished'. It also cannot show one action completed before another.

Respuesta correcta: A) testifying

• A) testifying'Testifying' is the gerund form that 'chose' selects for the option taken, and the trailing clause 'without ever identifying who had been responsible' describes what testifying does and does not require. The whole option is an activity, not a purpose.
• B) to testify'Chose' takes a noun phrase or a gerund for the alternative selected, not an infinitive. Using 'to testify' here would break the verb pattern before the meaning could be assessed.
• C) testified'Testified' is the past simple and does not name an option in the first place. The colon introduces something the survivor picked, not something that happened at a stated past moment.
• D) to have testifiedA perfect infinitive would put the testifying before another reference point, which the sentence gives no basis for. The clause describes a single act chosen over two alternatives, not a sequence.

Respuesta correcta: B) should

• A) must'Must' expresses obligation and would mean the names are required to be published, which reverses the meaning entirely. The sentence forbids publication under any circumstance, so a modal of prohibition is needed, not one of duty.
• B) should'On no account' is a negative fronted adverbial, and it calls for a strongly emphatic auxiliary. 'Should' plus the bare infinitive 'be' gives the emphatic negative 'on no account should the names be published', which is the standard formal construction.
• C) could'Could' only states that publication is possible, not that it is ruled out in every case. 'On no account' requires an emphatic denial, and only the negative form of 'shall' or 'should' can produce that.
• D) might'Might' suggests a small chance, the opposite of a total prohibition. The adverbial in front sets the strongest possible denial, and the verb has to carry that strength rather than reduce it.

Respuesta correcta: A) deflecting

• A) deflectingA gerund is required after the preposition 'by', and 'deflecting' names the redirection the colonel made. The clause about the countersignature names exactly what his answer steered away from.
• B) to deflectAn infinitive cannot follow the preposition 'by' in this pattern, since the phrase needs a gerund to name the action. The error would occur before the sense of the sentence were considered.
• C) deflected'Deflected' is the past simple and would need a subject of its own, while 'by' here introduces the means rather than a finite clause. The colonel is the subject of 'answered', and the blank names what his answering consisted of.
• D) deflect'Deflect' is a bare form that could stand as the main verb, but here it appears after 'by', where only a gerund is grammatical. The position, not the meaning, decides the form.

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

• A) They are literally looking for something in the trees of Barranquilla.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: C) Defend and support the classmate who is being bullied.

• A) Stand up from their chairs when a classmate is bullied.This is a literal reading. 'Stand up for' someone is a phrasal verb about support, not about body position.
• B) Stay away from the classmate so they are not bullied too.The teacher says 'don't stay silent', which is the opposite of avoiding the situation.
• C) Defend and support the classmate who is being bullied.'Stand up for someone' means to defend them; together with 'tell an adult you trust', it describes active support for the victim.
• D) Wait for the classmate to solve the problem alone.The teacher asks students to act and to involve an adult, not to wait.

Respuesta correcta: B) The authorities ignored the complaints for years.

• A) The authorities had hearing problems.This reads 'deaf ears' literally. The activist is criticising the authorities' lack of action, not describing a medical condition.
• B) The authorities ignored the complaints for years.'Fall on deaf ears' means to be ignored; the second sentence confirms that the authorities only reacted after the press published photos.
• C) The complaints were too quiet to be heard.The problem was not volume; the complaints were heard but not acted upon.
• D) The community stopped complaining about the river.'For years, our complaints' shows the community kept complaining during that time.

Respuesta correcta: A) The new cut was the final problem that made them take action after many others.

• A) The new cut was the final problem that made them take action after many others.'The last straw' is the final problem in a series that makes someone react; the worker lists earlier problems (pay, shifts) before the break-time cut.
• B) The workers were given straw hats for working outside.This is a literal reading of 'straw'. The worker is describing unfair treatment, not clothing.
• C) It was the first time the company had treated them unfairly.'Already' and 'again' show that there were several earlier problems, so this was not the first.
• D) The workers decided to accept the change without complaint.The workers went to the labour office, so they did complain.