Social Justice

Respuesta correcta: A) exacerbate

• A) exacerbateCorrect. 'Exacerbate' means to make a problem or bad situation worse, which fits perfectly here.
• B) alleviateIncorrect. 'Alleviate' means to make something less severe, which is the opposite of what's needed.
• 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: C) hollows out

• A) builds up'Build up' means to strengthen, and the sentence describes a process that leaves the substance untouched. A six-month window with no revision adds time to the appearance without adding to the decision.
• B) measures'Measure' means to assess the size of something, and the clause is about whether participation was real rather than about any quantity. What changed, if anything, is the status of the proposal.
• C) hollows outTo hollow something out is to remove what gave it substance while leaving the outer shape intact, which is exactly what a consultation that changes nothing does. The clause names the democratic appearance that survives the procedure.
• D) postpones'Postpone' means to move something to a later time, and the consultation period is already over by the time the proposal is issued. The delay has happened; what did not happen was any revision.

Respuesta correcta: A) relegate

• A) relegate'To relegate people to something is to confine them to a lesser position, usually by force or decision of others. Being put on a waiting list that never moves keeps families exactly there, which is the outcome the sentence reports.
• B) elevate'To elevate' is to raise someone to a higher rank, the opposite of what the programme achieved. The families were not lifted out of the settlements; the sentence says none of them was ever moved.
• C) delegate'To delegate' is to hand a task or authority to someone else. No task is being handed over here, and a waiting list is not an assignment of responsibility, so the verb does not describe what happened.
• D) compensate'To compensate' is to make up for a loss, typically with money. The sentence describes where families were placed, not what they were paid, and nothing in it suggests any payment was offered.

Respuesta correcta: B) outside

• A) despite'Despite' is a preposition but it is followed by a noun phrase naming a contrast, not the noun that the sentence needs here. Nothing in the sentence states what the workers achieved against an obstacle.
• B) outside'Outside' is the preposition that takes a noun phrase naming who does not benefit, and the clause names the gains in question. The relative clause about who was not at the table supplies exactly the group being excluded.
• C) among'Among' places someone inside a group, which is the opposite of what the sentence describes. The workers were precisely not among those who gained, since they were not consulted on the level.
• D) beyond'Beyond' introduces a limit or a point further than something, and the sentence is about membership in a group that benefits rather than about exceeding a threshold. Nothing here concerns a boundary being crossed.

Respuesta correcta: C) To give children equal access to the study materials they need.

• A) To train the neighbourhood mothers as professional librarians.Incorrect. The mothers run reading clubs, but the text never mentions training them for a profession; that is a detail of how the library works, not its purpose.
• B) To raise money to improve the local football field.Incorrect. The football field is only mentioned to say where the container is located; nothing in the text connects the library with collecting money.
• C) To give children equal access to the study materials they need.Correct. Camila says the aim is that "a family's income does not decide who can do their homework", and the library became popular when it lent textbooks free, so its purpose is equal access to materials.
• D) To sell second-hand books to families at low prices.Incorrect. The text says the textbooks are lent "free of charge", which means nothing is sold, so this option contradicts a key detail.

Respuesta correcta: A) Collecting water had been keeping many girls away from their studies.

• A) Collecting water had been keeping many girls away from their studies.Correct. The text links two facts: the long walk for water was done by women and girls, and when the walk became short, many more girls finished school. The reader can infer that the walk had been taking time away from school.
• B) The teacher installed the pump to improve school attendance.Incorrect. The text says the departmental government paid for the pump and the community chose its location; the teacher only noticed the change in the school results.
• C) The pump stopped working after the first year because nobody could repair it.Incorrect. The text says the opposite: two young women were trained to repair it, and nothing suggests that the pump broke.
• D) Boys in the community had to walk even longer distances than girls.Incorrect. The text mentions only "women and girls" walking for water, so there is no information to compare their walk with that of boys.

Respuesta correcta: A) Frequent reassessment can withdraw support exactly when a household begins to improve.

• A) Frequent reassessment can withdraw support exactly when a household begins to improve.'Which meant' links the review schedule to the consequence: income goes up, the benefit goes away. The criticism is that a mechanism meant to target need punishes the very movement it was supposed to encourage, and the relative pronoun is what carries that causal link.
• B) Twice-yearly reviews are cheaper than annual ones for the administering agency.The sentence says nothing about the cost of administering the scheme. What it describes is what happens to families when their income changes, which is a question of effect on recipients rather than of expense to the agency.
• C) The scheme failed to reach any families in the rural parts of the department.No geography is mentioned in relation to who benefited. The sentence discusses the effect of the review frequency on individual households, and the issue raised is the loss of support, not exclusion by location.
• D) The income figures used in the assessment were difficult for families to verify.The sentence concerns the timing of the reassessment, not the accuracy or transparency of the data. 'Which meant' points to what the twice-yearly cycle caused, and that consequence is the withdrawal of a benefit.

Respuesta correcta: A) The same absence of service costs the worst-off the most, because their alternatives are least available.

• A) The same absence of service costs the worst-off the most, because their alternatives are least available.The first clause gives the failure, the second names who absorbs it: those who live furthest and cannot afford lost time. A single missing service does not cost everyone equally, and the relative clause 'who cannot afford to lose a morning' is what makes the burden fall on the poorest.
• B) The residents of the corregimientos are less organised than the residents of the city.Nothing in the quotation compares levels of organisation between two populations. It compares what a lost morning costs in each case, which is an economic difference rather than a difference in civic capacity.
• C) The buses were diverted to the city because of a transport regulation.No cause is given for the missing buses. The sentence simply records that they never arrived, and then turns to the consequences for the people who live furthest, which is where the argument of the report lies.
• D) Rural residents travel mainly for leisure rather than for work or school.The quotation says nothing about the purpose of the journeys. What it measures is the time cost of waiting, and that the worst-affected cannot absorb it, which suggests necessity rather than leisure.

Respuesta correcta: B) Defend people as their lawyers in court.

• A) Explain legal documents to the people who visit them.Incorrect. Explaining documents is one of the services listed in the text ("they explain documents"), so it is something the students do every Saturday.
• B) Defend people as their lawyers in court.Correct. The text says directly that "the students cannot represent anyone in court", so this is the only action they are not allowed to do.
• C) Help people complete official forms.Incorrect. The text says the students "help people fill in forms", which means this is part of their work, not something they are forbidden to do.
• D) Pass complicated cases to a university professor.Incorrect. Sending difficult cases to a professor is exactly what the students do when a problem is too complex, according to the text.

Respuesta correcta: C) was full of difficulties that he had to get past.

• A) had turned into a sports competition with other passengers.Incorrect. This is the literal meaning of the expression; the text uses it figuratively and never mentions any competition or race.
• B) was shorter than before because of the new ramps.Incorrect. The text does not say the trip became shorter; it describes new problems that made the trip harder after the accident.
• C) was full of difficulties that he had to get past.Correct. The sentences that follow list the problems: broken lifts and buses that stop far from the platform. An obstacle course is a route full of barriers, so the expression describes a trip full of difficulties.
• D) had become exciting and enjoyable for him.Incorrect. The rest of the text is a complaint about broken lifts and careless drivers, and Julián says he is demanding a right, so nothing suggests he enjoys the trip.

Respuesta correcta: D) none of whose members

• A) none of its membersIncorrect. "None of its members had served" is an independent clause, not a relative one; placing it between commas inside another sentence creates a run-on, because nothing connects it to "the committee".
• B) none of which membersIncorrect. "Which" cannot be followed directly by a noun to show possession in this position; the possessive relative form needed before "members" is "whose".
• C) whose none of membersIncorrect. The word order is wrong: the quantifier "none of" must come before "whose", as in "none of whose members"; "whose none of" does not exist in English.
• D) none of whose membersCorrect. "None of whose members had served..." is a non-defining relative clause: "whose" links the members to "the committee" and "had served" is the verb of the clause, so the whole sentence is grammatical.

Respuesta correcta: D) since

• A) when'When every appeal took more than three years' would make the duration a single moment rather than a span, and the clause would read as though all appeals resolved at once. The distribution clause about the delay is what matters here.
• B) where'Where' refers to a place, and the relative clause is about the time an appeal took rather than about a location. No site is referred to anywhere in the sentence.
• C) which'Which every appeal took' would require 'which' to stand for a duration that appeals took, but the noun phrase immediately after the comma is a full clause with its own subject. The pronoun would have nothing to refer to in that position.
• D) sinceA relative clause after a comma with a quantifier subject needs a subordinator, since 'every appeal' has no relative pronoun linking it to 'the rulings'. 'Since every appeal took more than three years' supplies that link and reads as a non-defining clause.

Respuesta correcta: A) which

• A) which'Which' is the pronoun used when a non-defining relative clause refers back to a whole clause rather than to a single noun. The comma on both sides marks the clause as additional, and 'the settlement that the families accepted' is the antecedent.
• B) who'Who' refers to people, and the antecedent here is a settlement, not a person. The clause that follows does name the families, but they are the object of the preposition rather than the antecedent of the pronoun.
• C) what'What' introduces a clause acting as a subject or object rather than referring back to an antecedent. Using it after a comma would leave the whole sentence without a subject for the main verb 'was'.
• D) that'That' can introduce defining relative clauses but not non-defining ones in this style of written English, and the defining clause has already been used on 'the families accepted'. A pair of commas also rules it out.

Respuesta correcta: B) as

• A) which'Which the ministry later confirmed' would need a noun phrase to stand for, since 'confirmed' requires an object. No such object appears before the comma closing the clause, so the structure would not be grammatical.
• B) as'As' introduces a non-defining relative clause meaning 'in the way that', and here the way the ministry reacted is what the clause reports. The commas on both sides and the passive 'was confirmed' inside the clause both rule out a defining reading.
• C) what'What the ministry later confirmed' introduces a clause acting as an object, and the main clause already has its own verb and subject. Adding 'what' here would leave the sentence with no predicate for the auditor.
• D) than'Than' introduces a comparison and requires a comparable element after it. The clause 'the ministry later confirmed' names a reaction rather than an alternative, so no comparison can be drawn.

Respuesta correcta: A) having

• A) havingCorrect. "The land titles having been verified by the notary" is an absolute construction: it has its own subject ("the land titles") and a participle instead of a finite verb, so it can sit before the main clause "the family was finally allowed...".
• B) hadIncorrect. "The land titles had been verified" is a complete clause; joining it to "the family was finally allowed" with only a comma produces a comma splice, so a conjunction such as "after" would be required.
• C) wereIncorrect. "Were been verified" is impossible because "were" cannot be followed by "been"; the passive past would be "were verified", which does not fit the words already in the sentence.
• D) haveIncorrect. "Have been verified" is a finite present perfect, so it creates a comma splice with the main clause, and its present time also clashes with the past "was allowed".

Respuesta correcta: D) had

• A) hasA present perfect would mean the clause has not appeared yet, which cannot be right: the second half of the sentence says cases were already being submitted, so the first half must be complete.
• B) did'Did' belongs to the past simple, which describes a single completed action without the sense of an event reached at a precise moment. 'No sooner...than' is about the timing of an event, and that is what the perfect expresses.
• C) was'Was' would form a passive or a copula, but the clause itself is what appeared, so no passive is involved. The inversion needs the perfect auxiliary 'had' in front of the subject to make the structure work.
• D) had'No sooner' is a negative fronted structure that triggers inversion of the past perfect: 'no sooner had the clause appeared'. The two events are moments, not completed processes, so the perfect is what expresses the second one arriving on the heels of the first.

Respuesta correcta: A) The group is focusing on the wrong cause of the problem.

• A) The group is focusing on the wrong cause of the problem.Correct. "Barking up the wrong tree" means looking for a solution or explanation in the wrong place; Daniela then says the real problem is the paperwork, not the money.
• B) They are literally looking for something in the trees of the city.Incorrect. This reads the idiom literally; the debate is about a housing subsidy, and no trees are involved.
• C) The debate has become too noisy and aggressive.Incorrect. "Barking" here does not refer to noise or attitude; the idiom is about choosing the wrong target, as her second sentence shows.
• D) The subsidy should be used to plant trees in poor neighbourhoods.Incorrect. This misreads the image of the tree as a real proposal; Daniela proposes looking at the paperwork, not at an environmental project.

Respuesta correcta: C) Expressing their opinion publicly where decisions are made.

• A) Speaking more loudly so that Ana can hear him.Incorrect. "Speak up" can mean "talk louder", but in this context Luis is contrasting a private chat with a public meeting, so the meaning is to give an opinion openly.
• B) Staying quiet until the fares go down again.Incorrect. This is the opposite of "speak up"; Luis says they "can't just complain", which shows he wants more action, not silence.
• C) Expressing their opinion publicly where decisions are made.Correct. "Speak up" means to say what you think openly, especially to defend something; Luis contrasts it with complaining privately in a chat and names the council meeting as the place to do it.
• D) Writing more messages in the class group chat.Incorrect. Luis rejects this option directly with "we can't just complain in the group chat", so it is the thing he does not want to do.

Respuesta correcta: D) Some families are missed by the system and receive no help.

• A) Some families have accidents in old and damaged buildings.Incorrect. This is a literal reading of "cracks"; the conversation is about a registration system, not about the condition of buildings.
• B) Families without documents receive help faster than others.Incorrect. The speaker says the opposite: these families wait months without contact, so they are disadvantaged, not favoured.
• C) Most displaced families refuse to join the registration system.Incorrect. The speaker says the system works "for most of them", and the problem she describes is that the system misses some families, not that families refuse it.
• D) Some families are missed by the system and receive no help.Correct. "Fall through the cracks" means to be forgotten or not noticed by a system that should help you; she adds that nobody contacts these families for months.

Respuesta correcta: A) Give rural students a fairer chance to compete with others.

• A) Give rural students a fairer chance to compete with others.Correct. "Level the playing field" means to create conditions in which everyone has the same opportunity; Tomás says rural students lack teachers and internet, so the courses would reduce that disadvantage.
• B) Build new sports facilities in rural schools.Incorrect. This is a literal reading of "playing field"; Tomás is talking about exam preparation, teachers and internet, not about sport.
• C) Make the entrance exam easier for every student.Incorrect. Tomás does not ask to change the exam; he wants to change the preparation that rural students receive before taking it.
• D) Show that Sofía is completely right about the system.Incorrect. "I see your point, but..." is a polite way of disagreeing; Tomás accepts part of her idea and then argues that the system is not fair yet.