Youth Culture

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: C) aggravate

• A) remedy'Remedy' means to put right or cure, which is the opposite of the neglect the sentence describes.
• B) clarify'Clarify' means to make something easier to understand, and the problem here is safety, not confusion.
• C) aggravate'Aggravate' means to make a bad situation worse, and years of neglect certainly deepen the problem.
• D) postpone'Postpone' means to delay something, whereas the sentence describes a condition that persists and worsens.

Respuesta correcta: C) reduce

• A) expand'Expand' means to increase in size, which is the opposite of what new centres are meant to achieve here.
• B) provoke'Provoke' means to trigger a reaction, and the sentence presents the centres as solving a problem rather than causing one.
• C) reduce'Reduce' means to make something smaller in number, and opening centres should lower the figure of idle young people.
• D) conceal'Conceal' means to hide something, whereas the text describes centres that change a real situation openly.

Respuesta correcta: A) tarnish

• A) tarnish'Tarnish' means to damage the good quality of something, which is what a rumour does to a hard-won reputation.
• B) decorate'Decorate' means to make something look more attractive, which has nothing to do with damaging a reputation.
• C) accelerate'Accelerate' describes making something happen faster, but the sentence is about harm to a reputation, not speed.
• D) circulate'Circulate' describes movement of something, and it would describe the rumour rather than the effect on the person named.

Respuesta correcta: A) A dance group that gives young people a safe and disciplined activity.

• A) A dance group that gives young people a safe and disciplined activity.Correct. The text describes the group's origin, its members and the discipline it teaches, which together form the main idea.
• B) The history of champeta music in the Caribbean.Incorrect. Champeta is only the style the group dances; the text gives no information about the history of the music.
• C) A national competition that Yesenia won.Incorrect. The text mentions performances at local festivals, but no competition or prize won by Yesenia.
• D) Why teenagers in Cartagena prefer football to dance.Incorrect. Football is never mentioned, and the text is about teenagers who choose to dance.

Respuesta correcta: C) Open more free sports or music spaces in the evenings.

• A) Ban mobile phones in secondary schools.Incorrect. The survey describes phone use, but nothing in the text suggests the organisation wants a ban.
• B) Pay students to answer more surveys.Incorrect. The survey is only the evidence; the text never discusses paying students.
• C) Open more free sports or music spaces in the evenings.Correct. The key result is that most students would use free evening spaces, so presenting it to the council suggests a request for them.
• D) Reduce the number of sports fields in the city.Incorrect. This contradicts the survey result, which shows young people want more places for sport, not fewer.

Respuesta correcta: B) Register shifting

• A) Code breaking'Code breaking' is not the term for moving between registers; the change here is systematic and context-driven, not a breakdown of a shared code.
• B) Register shiftingMoving between a formal and an informal register depending on the audience is precisely register shifting, which the report treats as normal rather than careless.
• C) Linguistic drift'Linguistic drift' describes how a language changes across generations, not how one speaker adapts to a particular audience.
• D) Dialect mixing'Dialect mixing' would combine two regional varieties, whereas the contrast described is between a formal school register and an informal one.

Respuesta correcta: B) Leave a difficult past behind and start a new stage.

• A) Read a book about the history of the city.Incorrect. This interprets 'page' literally; no book is mentioned, and the expression describes a change in the neighbourhood.
• B) Leave a difficult past behind and start a new stage.Correct. 'Turn the page' means to move on from a bad period, which fits a neighbourhood that changed from violence to art.
• C) Paint over all the old murals.Incorrect. The murals are still there and the guides explain them, so nothing was covered or erased.
• D) Forget the past completely and never talk about it.Incorrect. Kevin says 'we don't hide our past', so the guides still talk about it; turning the page is not forgetting.

Respuesta correcta: D) Because it gives her a feeling of freedom she does not have during the school week.

• A) Because she can drive faster on Sundays.Incorrect. The roads are closed to cars during the Ciclovía, so nobody drives on them.
• B) Because it is the only time she sees her school friends.Incorrect. Sara mentions school only to compare its hurry with Sunday's freedom; she never says she sees friends only then.
• C) Because it lasts all day on Sundays.Incorrect. The text gives fixed hours, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., so it does not last all day.
• D) Because it gives her a feeling of freedom she does not have during the school week.Correct. Sara contrasts school, where they are 'always in a hurry', with Sundays, when 'nobody tells us where to go'.

Respuesta correcta: C) Semantic shift

• A) Phonetic transcriptionPhonetic transcription only records how a sound is pronounced and creates no new meaning for the word.
• B) Syntactic reductionSyntactic reduction is the omission of function words, a change in sentence structure rather than in word meaning.
• C) Semantic shiftWhen a word develops a new meaning beyond its original one, the process is a semantic shift, which is how online slang keeps adding vocabulary.
• D) Orthographic reformOrthographic reform concerns spelling conventions, not the addition of a new sense to an existing word.

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) does

• A) does'Rarely' is a negative-frequency adverb and it takes an affirmative auxiliary, so 'does a festival bring' is correct.
• B) a festival doesIn formal English the auxiliary precedes the subject after 'rarely', so 'does a festival bring' is the required order.
• C) does bring a festivalThis places the subject after the verb, which is not the order English uses in inverted clauses.
• D) brings a festival'Brings' is not inverted, and 'a festival' cannot be the object of the verb 'bring'.

Respuesta correcta: D) has

• A) didIncorrect. 'Did' must be followed by a base form ('did the school offer'), but the verb in the sentence is the participle 'offered'.
• B) doIncorrect. 'Do' is a plural present auxiliary and also needs a base form, so it agrees neither with 'the school' nor with 'offered'.
• C) doesIncorrect. 'Does' agrees with 'the school', but it needs the base form 'offer', not the participle 'offered'.
• D) hasCorrect. 'Has' + participle forms the present perfect, and after the fronted 'Not for years' it inverts: 'has the school offered'.

Respuesta correcta: D) did

• A) has'Has' does not create the inversion that fronted 'Only after' requires, so the emphasis on sequence is lost.
• B) was'Was' cannot be inverted to open this construction and does not place the drop after the campaign ended.
• C) did not'Did not' would assert that the drop did not happen, but the sentence describes a real drop that followed the campaign.
• D) didFronting 'Only after' is a negative adverbial that triggers inversion, giving 'did the number... drop' and stressing the late timing.

Respuesta correcta: B) have

• A) had'Had' would place the meeting in the past, whereas 'since' with the present perfect covers the period up to now.
• B) haveFronting 'Only since' is a restrictive time phrase, and it takes the present perfect auxiliary 'have' in the inversion.
• C) was'Was' cannot be inverted here and does not link the change to a period continuing until the present.
• D) are'Are' cannot open this clause, and 'been' already requires the plural auxiliary 'have' with the plural subject.

Respuesta correcta: C) was

• A) has'Has' would need a perfect construction, and the sentence describes a completed single event rather than a present relevance.
• B) had'Had' would require a second past event to precede, which the sentence does not contain.
• C) was'So badly' is an intensifier in the formal register and it takes an affirmative auxiliary, so 'was' follows it correctly.
• D) were'Were' does not agree with the singular subject 'the concert', so the auxiliary is 'was'.

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

• A) They are literally looking for something in the trees of Cartagena.Incorrect. This reads the idiom literally; nobody in the debate is searching real trees, because the expression is figurative and describes a mistaken line of action.
• B) The approach is too noisy and aggressive.Incorrect. 'Barking' here does not describe a loud or aggressive tone; the idiom is about choosing the wrong objective, not about how people speak.
• C) The current strategy is directed towards the wrong objective.Correct. 'Bark up the wrong tree' means aiming your effort at the wrong cause or target, so the speaker is saying the current plan on youth culture points in the wrong direction.
• D) A new environmental project involving trees should be started.Incorrect. The word 'tree' belongs to a fixed expression, so the speaker is not proposing a project with trees; the speaker is criticising the approach under discussion.

Respuesta correcta: B) Spend relaxed free time with her cousins, without a fixed plan.

• A) Hang her clothes outside to dry.Incorrect. This reads 'hang' literally; 'hang out with someone' is an informal phrasal verb about spending time together.
• B) Spend relaxed free time with her cousins, without a fixed plan.Correct. 'Hang out' means to spend time casually with people, and 'not really' shows she has no special plan.
• C) Leave the city with her cousins.Incorrect. 'Out' does not mean leaving the city here; she will stay at the park.
• D) Organise a formal event at the park.Incorrect. 'Hang out' is informal and describes relaxing, not organising an event.

Respuesta correcta: A) The concert was extremely exciting and full of energy.

• A) The concert was extremely exciting and full of energy.Correct. This keeps the positive meaning of the slang word 'lit' (exciting, energetic) and uses vocabulary suitable for a report.
• B) Honestly, the concert was lit.Incorrect. 'Lit' and 'honestly' are informal, so the register is still that of a text message, not a report.
• C) The concert had a lot of lights turned on.Incorrect. This interprets 'lit' literally as 'illuminated', but in slang it means exciting, so the meaning changes.
• D) The concert was boring and badly organised.Incorrect. This is formal, but it reverses her opinion: 'lit' is strong praise, not criticism.

Respuesta correcta: A) Camilo and Daniel think in a similar way and understand each other easily.

• A) Camilo and Daniel think in a similar way and understand each other easily.Correct. 'Be on the same wavelength' means to share ideas or feelings, which matches choosing the same songs without explanation.
• B) They listen to the same radio station.Incorrect. This is a literal reading of 'wavelength'; the idiom refers to people's way of thinking, not radio signals.
• C) They play their instruments at the same volume.Incorrect. The idiom is not about sound or volume; it describes mutual understanding.
• D) They should stop working together.Incorrect. The teacher's comment is positive and describes good connection, so it does not suggest separating.