Examen resuelto de Lengua Extranjera (Inglés) — Extraordinaria 2026

Text 1: Europe feels the impact of weeks of wet weather and freezing cold

Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated in Spain, Portugal and Morocco after Storm Leonardo caused widespread flooding. Emergency services and the military have been helping rescue people from their homes with residents who remain warned to leave immediately.

Saturday saw the arrival of Storm Marta, which brought more rain to the region. Other parts of Europe have been gripped by very cold weather. All this is due to a weather pattern that hasn’t changed for weeks.

Iberia has been particularly badly affected by spells of wet and windy weather since the turn of the year. So far this year there have been six major low-pressure systems to hit the Iberian Peninsula in 2026. The most recent was Storm Leonardo. This brought exceptionally wet weather to the Algarve in Portugal and Andalucia in Spain. In this region of Spain, 3,500 people have been evacuated as river levels reached record highs. More than 100 roads have been closed in affected areas due to flooding, landslides or fallen trees (and some high-speed rail services were suspended).

Grazalema, in a mountainous area of Andalucia, recorded 672mm of rain in a day-and-a-half. This is almost the same amount that London gets in a year. Wind gusts of 100kmh or more are forecast across Iberia, together with 10-metre waves along the west coast of Portugal. The storm will push rain eastwards right across the Mediterranean early next week, continuing the very unsettled weather here.

Impacts of these storms are not just being seen in Europe, though. Tunisia saw its heaviest rainfall in more than 70 years in January. There has also been severe weather and flooding in Algeria. Morocco has been particularly badly hit in recent weeks. Last month the port of Tangier saw around four times its January average rainfall and more heavy rain hit the north on Wednesday in association with Storm Leonardo. The army has been deployed to help with evacuations amid a red alert for more heavy rainfall this week. More than 140,000 people in northern parts of the country have been evacuated already.

Source: www.bbc.com (February 2026. Adapted)

Are the following statements true (T) or false (F)? Quote the fragment from the text that justifies your answer. Marks: 2 points (0.5 points per correct answer).

Answer 2 of the following 3 questions with one or two sentences. Use your own words as far as possible. Marks: 2 points (1 point per correct answer).

Find words in the text as requested. Use one word in each case. Marks: 1.5 points (0.5 points per correct answer).

Complete these sentences with one of the options given. Marks: 1.5 points (0.5 points per correct answer).

Text 2: ‘Like an Earthquake’: 40 People Died in a Spanish Train Crash.

Salvador Jiménez was on a high-speed train to Madrid on Sunday evening, speeding through the arid countryside of southern Spain, when the carriage shook so violently that he thought it had hit an animal on the tracks. The lights went out. A voice on the public-address system made a call for medical assistance. Soon the passengers were breaking windows with emergency hammers to escape, Mr. Jiménez said in an interview.

The collision turned out to be with another train, killing at least 40 people in the deadliest railway crash in Spain since 2013. Two cars at the back of Mr. Jiménez’s Madrid-bound train derailed near Adamuz, a town in southern Spain, where they crossed onto the track of an oncoming southbound train, according to a preliminary report by official investigators. Seconds later, at around 7:45 p.m., the southbound train slammed into the carriages, and two cars slid down an embankment, the preliminary report said. “It was like an earthquake,” said Mr. Jiménez, a broadcast journalist.

The crash left Spaniards in grief and shock, shaking a country that has come to depend, and take great pride in, its sprawling and efficient national rail system, the largest high-speed system in Europe and second largest in the world, behind China.

Initial questions have centered on whether the crash was caused by the condition of the track. Investigators are assessing whether a break in a section of track at the site of the derailment was “the cause or the consequences” of the derailment. But government officials warned that this was only speculation for now and urged patience.

The impact of the crash was so severe that bodies were found hundreds of yards from the crash location, according to a broadcast interview with the president of the regional government of Andalucía, where the crash occurred. “Some of the dead are difficult to recognize,” adding that DNA analysis was being used to identify victims. “The impact was very strong, very strong.”

Emergency workers were still working desperately on Monday evening to reach bodies believed to be under overturned carriages.

Source: The New York Times (January 2026. Adapted)

Are the following statements true (T) or false (F)? Quote the fragment from the text that justifies your answer. Marks: 2 points (0.5 points per correct answer).

Answer 2 of the following 3 questions with one or two sentences. Use your own words as far as possible. Marks: 2 points (1 point per correct answer).

Find words in the text as requested. Use one word in each case. Marks: 1.5 points (0.5 points per correct answer).

Complete these sentences with one of the options given. Marks: 1.5 points (0.5 points per correct answer).

Write ONE of the following two compositions. Write between 120-150 words. Marks: 3 points.