Comunidad: | Comunidad Valenciana |
Convocatoria: | Junio de 1996 |
Modalidad: | LOGSE - Todas |
Ejercicio: | 1er Ejercicio B |
Asignatura: | Inglés |
Obligatoriedad: | Obligatoria |
Duración: | 60 minutos |
Baremo: | Reading comprehension: 2 points (1 point each); True/ False: 1 point (0.5 each); Find synonym: 1 point (0.5 each); Multiple choice: 2 points (0.5 each); Composition: 4 points. |
Read the following text:
The Western
America's interest in the West was probably influenced by the appearance of tales of adventure in the dime novels1 of the 1860s. In these romantic stories, the cowboy was elevated to hero. One of the most popular authors was Ned Buntline, whose work laid the foundation for western fiction.
With the appearance in 1920 of The Virginian by Owen Wister, the western genre was established. By then, the cowboy was disappearing from the American scene, and the romantic figure was even more appealing. Wister also introduced several other memorable characters, including the villain, the gambler, and the love interest, a school teacher. They became stock characters2 in the novels and the films that followed.
The next year, in The Log of a Cowboy, Andy Adams described a trail drive from Mexico to Montana. Told simply and less dramatically, it was nonetheless popular and influential in the development of the new genre. Adams injected details that rang true, especially in his descriptions of places and real people like Bat Masterson and Wyatt Erarp.
One interesting aspect of the development of the western genre is the fact that most of the authors were easterners. Ned Buntline wrote almost all his novels before he ever went west. Owen Wister, a Philadelphian, was a Harvard graduate. Andy Adams, born in Indiana, was an easterner who went to Texas, worked in a ranch and, eventually, became a trail driver. The western writer was an exception.
1 dime novels: novels that cost one dime (ten cents of a
dollar)
2 stock: popular and recurrent
I. Answer these questions using your own words:
II. Are the following statements True (T) or False (F)?
III. Find a word or phrase in the passage which, in context, is similar in meaning to...
IV. Choose a, b, c or d in each question below. Only one choice is correct:
Choose one of the following two topics:
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