PAU Bilbao's boom

BILBAO'S BOOM

Who says spending public cash on museums is a waste o£ the taxpayers' money?  Not the people of Bilbao, whose impressive Guggenheim  Museum has produced the sort of tourist boom normally associated with the packed beaches to the south.  Regional authorities say that the number of visitors to the Basque Country has increased by 25 per cent since the museum opened its doors. «The Guggenheim is the principal motor behind this change», says the regional tourism chief.

The shining titanium building designed by Frank O. Ghery has established itself as a new

       emblem for a city determined to abandon the depressing inheritance of its lost industrial past. It has    already   come to represent Bilbao in much the same way as the Opera House now symbolises Sydney, Australia.  City authorities have made the museum the centrepiece of an ambitious regeneration programme. it has cost more than $100 million to build and stock with 20th-century art; in return for its investment, the museum gets a display of the Guggenheim art collection from the United States.

Glamorous visitors rarely seen in Bilbao have already been welcomed through the Guggenheim's

doors.  "I doubt whether Brad Pitt would ever have come if it weren't for the museum", says one administration official.

(A) COMPREHENSION (3 points; 1 per question)  ANSWER QUESTIONS 1-3 ACCORDING TO THE INFORMATION GIVEN IN THE TEXT.  USE YOUR OWN WORDS.

(1)        What major change has Bilbao experienced in recent times?

(2)        What do the Guggenheim and the Sydney Opera House have in common?

(3)        What can visitors see inside the Guggenheim?

(B)       LEXICON (2 points; 0.5 per question)

(4)        Find in the text the word which has the following definition: “to become greater in number" (verb).

(5) Give one synonym for PRINCIPAL (adjective) (line 5).

(6)        Find in the text one synonym for BRIGHT (adjective).

(7)        Give one opposite for RARELY (adverb) (line 12)

(C)       GRAMMAR (2 points; 0.5 per question)

(8)        Give a question to this answer:

It has cost more than $100 million to build the Guggenheim.

(9)           Put the following sentence into the active voice:

Glamorous visitors have already been welcomed to Bilbao.

(10)         Complete the following sentence:

The number of visitors to Bilbao probably wouldn’t have increased so much if...

(11)         Join the following sentences with a relative pronoun:

The museum has become the emblem of Bilbao.  The museum was designed by Frank 0. Ghery

(D)          PRODUCTION (3 points)

WRITE A COMPOSITION (120 WORDS).  CHOOSE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS.  SPECIFY YOUR OPTION.

(12)         a. Why, in your opinion, are foreign tourists attracted to Spain?

b. Which are the rnain problems in your town?  How would you solve them?