LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT

PROF. ÁGUEDA VALDEBENITO

READING COMPREHENSION EXERCISES 4th MEDIUM N° 8

Course name Date: ……../………/… …….

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS:
 This guide contains 11 reading comprehension questions , which you must answer according to the content of the
fragments and the information extracted from that content.
 Select the option that you consider correct in each case. ONLY ONE is the correct answer.

Text 1
1. “Buddhism, as a philosophical system, had as its founder Gautama, also called Sidarta or Sakiamuni (“The
solitary one of the Sakia family”), nicknamed Buddha, the Enlightened One. His life is surrounded by legend, but
his existence as well as the fact that he became an apostle of his own doctrine and founder of a monastic order
can be considered historical. It is also possible to establish, with relative accuracy, the time of its existence
between the 6th and 5th centuries BC.

2. Buddhism is an atheistic philosophy, strictly speaking, it does not recognize any first cause, or at least it does
not deal with it. The basis of the system, as in Brahmanic philosophy, is a pessimistic concept of reality.
Buddhism also accepts metempsychosis, that is, a continuity of the existence of the soul in different forms
(reincarnation), until the consequences of the acts performed have been exhausted.

3. The difference between Buddhism and Brahmanism lies especially in that the former abandons all
metaphysical search regarding the origin of things. Then the abolition of castes was added, which the second
had maintained and maintains rigorously, while Buddha addressed his good news to everyone, without
distinction.

4. Buddhism insists on showing pain as the supreme reality of life, in all the manifestations in which life can
present itself. “The intimate cause of pain is desire.” The only happiness that awaits us and that we can achieve
is nirvana. Many believed that it is total annihilation or, at least, the loss of personality; Others currently
interpret Buddhist nirvana as a "happy state of existence, of bliss, but negative, which consists solely of the
absence of pain to the exclusion of all desire and all relationships with other beings." To achieve this, Buddhism
gives very severe standards of life, which for the most perfect, that is, the monks, reach a kind of asceticism
with multiple renunciations (abstention from intoxicating drinks and, for monks, also celibacy). . Buddhism
prescribes universal benevolence (taken to the prohibition of killing animals), almsgiving, forgetting offenses,
non-resistance to evil, but not so much out of love for one's neighbor, but rather to flee from pain and stifle all
activity. and all contrast in a kind of humanitarian ecstasy.

5. This is the philosophical Buddhism of the sacred books and the learned; Popular Buddhism, on the other
hand, which spread as a religion in India and China - and which still has so many millions of followers - is
something else, and which is substantially reduced to a gross idolatry, in which there is also a place the
different local divinities with their superstitious rites; and the Buddha himself with his relics and images, even
more so, the various Buddhas, become so many gods and receive a cult of adoration (...)”.
J. Tredici, History of Philosophy (fragment).

1. SURROUNDED 2. RECOGNIZE
A) influenced A) consider
B) wrapped B) approves
C) circumscribed C) admits
D) determined D) ratifies
E) cover E) values

3. The fragment states that Buddhism:

A) See pain as the source of spiritual improvement. C) Maintains a caste system
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B) Look for the origin of things. D) Consider pain as a source of desire.

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E) It was founded by Buddha, the Enlightened

One.
4. According to the fragment, Buddhism is characterized by:
A) Recognize different images of Buddha. C) Believe in the annihilation of the will.
B) Worship different gods. D) Prescribe non-resistance to evil.
E) Deliver your teachings only to the chosen ones.

5. What is the discursive function of the first paragraph of the read fragment?
A) Describe Buddhism as a philosophical system.
B) Narrate the life of the founder of Buddhism, Gautama.
C) Historically contextualize the origin of Buddhism.
D) Define Buddhism as a system of thought.
E) Characterize Buddhism as an atheistic philosophy.

Text 2
1. “The great theme of Don Quixote de la Mancha is fiction, its reason for being, and the way in which it
infiltrates life and shapes it, transforming it. Thus, what seems to many modern readers to be the "Borgian"
theme par excellence (...) is, in truth, a Cervantine theme that, centuries later, Borges resurrected, giving it his
personal stamp.

2. Fiction is such a central theme of the novel because the gentleman from La Mancha who is its protagonist
has been "deranged" - also in his madness one must see an allegory or a symbol before a clinical diagnosis - by
the fantasies of the books of chivalries and, believing that the world is as described in the novels of Amadises
and Palmerines, he throws himself into it in search of adventures that he will live in a parody way, causing and
suffering small catastrophes. He does not draw a lesson in realism from those bad experiences. With the
unshakable faith of fanatics, he attributes to evil charmers that his exploits always become denatured and
become farces. In the end, he ends up getting his way. Fiction contaminates what has been experienced and
reality gradually bends to the eccentricities and fantasies of Don Quixote (...).

3. The modernity of Don Quixote is in the rebellious, vigilante spirit that leads the character to assume it as his
personal responsibility to change the world for the better, even when trying to put it into practice, he makes a
mistake, crashes into insurmountable obstacles and is beaten. vexed and made an object of ridicule. But it is
also a current novel because Cervantes, in order to tell the quixotic deed, revolutionized the narrative forms of
his time and laid the foundations on which the modern novel would be born. Although they may not know it,
contemporary novelists who play with form, distort time, shuffle and entangle points of view, and experiment
with language, are all indebted to Don Quixote.

4. Perhaps the most innovative aspect of the narrative form in Don Quixote is the way in which Cervantes
approached the problem of the narrator, the basic problem that must be solved by anyone who sets out to
write a novel: who is going to tell the story? The answer that Cervantes gave to this question inaugurated a
subtlety and complexity in the genre that still continues to enrich modern novelists and was for his time what,
for ours, were Joyce's Ulysses, Proust's In Search of Lost Time or , in the field of Latin American literature, One
Hundred Years of Solitude by García Márquez or Rayuela by Cortázar.”
M. Vargas Llosa, prologue to the 2005 edition of Historia del Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha.

6. What is the meaning of the term UNMOVEABLE in the previous fragment?

A) PERMANENT, because Don Quixote's faith is indestructible and focused on what is real.
B) IMPASSIBLE, because Don Quixote's faith allows him not to suffer in his exploits.
C) UNALTERABLE, because Don Quixote's faith does not change, despite adversity.
D) UNTRANSTABLE, because Don Quixote's faith is not sold to the illusion of reality.
E) CONSTANT, because Don Quixote's faith is always fighting with fiction.

7. What element of literature is common to the novels mentioned by the sender of the previous fragment in
relation to Don Quixote?

A) The assembly. B) The plot. C) The theme. D) The characters. E) The

narrator.
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8. According to the issuer, which of the following characteristics of the contemporary novel are inherited from
the work of Cervantes?
I. The narrative form, chronological distortions, the use of various points of view, experimentation with
language, the participation of the narrator in the story.
II. The concept of literary fiction, the use of chivalric novels, parody, the protagonist
III. maddened, the episodic adventures, the fantasies of the central character.
IV. The complexity of the genre, the reading as an allegory, the symbol of madness, the alienation from
reality, the sense of humor, the detachment from realism.

A) Only I B) Solo II C) Only I and II D) Only II and III E) I, II

and III

9. Mario Vargas Llosa's text presents a discursive perspective

I. Objective because it limits itself to informing, avoiding opinions that express its position regarding
what is stated.
II. Admirative, because it rescues positive aspects of both the character and the author of the novel.
III. Criticism, since it frames its thinking in a reflection, to influence the recipient with its ideas.

A) Only I. B) Only III. C) Only I and II. D) Only I and III. E) Only II and III.

Text 3
1. “I had started reading the novel a few days before. He abandoned it for urgent business, reopened it when
he was returning to the farm by train; He slowly became interested in the plot, in the drawing of the characters.
That afternoon, after writing a letter to his agent and discussing with the butler a question of sharecropping5,
he returned to the book in the tranquility of the study that overlooked the oak park.

2. Lounging in his favorite chair, with his back to the door that would have bothered him as an irritating
possibility of intrusions, he let his left hand caress the green velvet over and over again and began to read the
last chapters. His memory effortlessly retained the names and images of the protagonists; the novelistic illusion
won him over almost immediately. He enjoyed the almost perverse pleasure of separating himself line by line
from what surrounded him, and feeling at the same time that his head was resting comfortably on the velvet of
the high backrest, that the cigarettes were still within reach, that beyond the windows The evening air danced
under the oaks.

3. Word by word, absorbed by the sordid dilemma of the heroes, letting himself go towards the images that
were concerted and acquired color and movement, he witnessed the last meeting in the cabin on the
mountain. The woman entered first, suspicious; Now the lover arrived, his face hurt by the blow of a branch.
Admirably she staunched the blood with her kisses, but he rejected the caresses, he had not come to repeat the
ceremonies of a secret passion, protected by a world of dry leaves and furtive paths. The dagger grew warm
against his chest, and hidden freedom throbbed underneath. A yearning dialogue ran through the pages like a
stream of snakes, and it felt like everything had always been decided. Even those caresses that entangled the
lover's body as if wanting to retain him and dissuade him, abominably drew the figure of another body that
needed to be destroyed. Nothing had been forgotten: alibis, chance, possible mistakes. From that hour on, each
moment had its use carefully assigned. The merciless double review was only interrupted for a hand to caress a
cheek. It was beginning to get dark.

4. Without looking at each other, rigidly tied to the task that awaited them, they separated at the door of the
cabin. She had to continue along the path that went north. From the opposite path, he turned briefly to see her
running with her hair down. He ran in turn, taking cover in the trees and hedges, until he could see in the
mauve haze of twilight the avenue that led to the house. Dogs were not supposed to bark, and they did not
bark. The butler would not be there at that time and was not there. He climbed the three steps of the porch
and entered. From the blood galloping in his ears, the woman's words came to him: first a blue room, then a
gallery, a carpeted staircase. At the top, two doors. No one in the first room, no one in the second. The living
room door, and then the dagger in his hand, the light from the windows, the high back of a green velvet
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armchair, the head of the man in the armchair reading a novel.

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“Continuity of the Parks”, Julio Cortázar

10. What is the meaning of the term ROUNDED in the previous fragment?
A) COMFORTABLE, because the protagonist is comfortable reading in the armchair.
B) ARRANGEMENT, because the protagonist cares about sitting in an armchair to read.
C) LOCATED, because the protagonist is located in an armchair in the living room.
D) SITTING, because the protagonist rests in his favorite chair.
E) PLACED, because the protagonist settles into a green armchair to read.

11. What is the meaning of the term POAKS in the previous fragment?
A) SNAKES, as the trails had many difficult curves.
B) Tangled, because the paths had many dry leaves that obstructed the path.
C) HIDDEN, since the trails were not easy to find.
D) WOODED, since the trails were located in a forest of large trees.
E) MYSTERIOUS, because the paths hid the enigma of love.

12. What is the meaning of the term ABOMINABLY in the previous fragment?
A) OSTENSIBLY, since the caresses visibly showed the figure of the body that the man would murder.
lover.
B) PATENTLY, since the caresses clearly revealed the body of the man who would be murdered.
C) WRONGLY, since the caresses mistakenly hinted at the figure of another love.
D) ABORITELY, since the caresses despicably reminded the man that it was necessary to eliminate.
E) SOMBLY, because the caresses darkly illustrated secret love.

13. What is the main action carried out by the protagonist of the story?
A) Narrate.
B) Murder.
C) Write.
D) Read.
E) Rest.

14. The continuity referred to in the title of the story is established between
A) the butler and the murderer.
B) the beginning and end of life.
C) the lovers and the park.
D) the fiction of the novel and who reads it.
E) the narrator and the lovers.

15. The protagonist does not notice the presence of the murderer because
A) reads concentratedly with his back to the door.
B) the worries of his farm keep him busy.
C) is distracted while writing a letter to his attorney.
D) discusses a contract with his butler.
E) observes the meeting of the lovers through the window.

16. Which option represents the function of literature within the story?
A) Combat the protagonist's hours of boredom and leisure.
B) Ideally represent impossible and transgressive love.
C) Confuse reality and fiction within the represented world.
D) Exhibit in detail the characteristics of the everyday world.
E) Evade the emotional conflicts that afflict the protagonist.

17. What is the option that interprets the narrator's following statement? “the sordid dilemma of heroes.”
A) Choose the alibi to cover up the crime.
B) Choose the weapon with which the murder will be committed.
C) Flee together or separately after the crime.
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D) End or continue with the hidden romance.

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E) Decide whether or not to murder the woman's husband.

18. In relation to the interior of the house where the reader of the novel was, the lover
A) I knew him by reference.
B) partially knew him.
C) I knew him completely.
D) he imagined it.
E) I didn't know him.

19. In relation to the outcome of the events, the reader of the novel had returned to the farm
A) that same day.
B) a few days before.
C) the day before.
D) after writing a letter.
E) for some urgent business.

1 TO Contextual lexicon Interpret

2 AND Reading Identify
comprehension
3 d Reading Identify
comprehension
4 c Reading Interpret
comprehension
5 b Contextual lexicon Interpret
6 c Contextual lexicon Interpret
7 AND Reading Infer
comprehension
8 TO Reading Infer
comprehension
9 AND Reading Assess
comprehension
10 TO Contextual lexicon Interpret
11 c Contextual lexicon Interpret
12 d Contextual lexicon Interpret
13 d Reading Identify
comprehension
14 d Reading Interpret
comprehension
15 TO Reading Infer
comprehension
16 c Reading Interpret
comprehension
17 AND Reading Interpret
comprehension
18 TO Reading Infer
comprehension
19 TO Reading Identify
comprehension
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