- Un estudiante de nivel avanzado debe completar las instrucciones para un compañero sobre cómo registrarse en el sistema universitario en línea. ¿Cuál opción completa la secuencia de manera gramaticalmente correcta y pragmáticamente apropiada entre compañeros? 'Primero, _______ la página oficial de la universidad. Luego, _______ en tu cuenta con tu número de estudiante. Después, _______ la pestaña de «Inscripciones» y _______ los cursos que necesitas.'
Answer: abre / entra / haz clic en / selecciona
When giving step-by-step instructions in Spanish, you need to recognize whether the situation calls for informal commands (imperative tú form). Here, two students are talking to each other — a peer-to-peer context — so informal singular commands are both grammatically required and pragmatically appropriate. Each verb in the sequence must be a tú imperative, formed by using the third-person singular present tense for regular verbs (abre, entra, selecciona) and memorizing irregulars like haz.
Option A — abre / entra / haz clic en / selecciona — is correct because every verb is a properly formed informal tú command. Abrir → abre, entrar → entra, seleccionar → selecciona, and hacer → haz (irregular). The phrase haz clic en is also the standard, widely accepted way to say "click on" in academic Spanish contexts.
Option B uses infinitives (abrir, entrar, hacer clic en, seleccionar), which describe actions in general but do not function as instructions or commands. You cannot give someone directions using infinitives in Spanish the way you might informally in English.
Option C is almost correct but fails at the last verb: seleccionen is the ustedes subjunctive/command form, which is inconsistent with the singular tú register used in the rest of the sequence. Mixing command forms within a single set of instructions is a grammatical and pragmatic error.
Option D uses cliquea, which, while understood informally in some Latin American dialects, is considered non-standard and would be inappropriate in a formal academic registration context. Haz clic en is the preferred standard form.
Study tip: Whenever you see a sequenced list of instructions (primero, luego, después), immediately ask yourself: who is the audience and what register is appropriate? That determines your command form — and every verb in the sequence must match.
- Si el hermano de Teresa sigue las instrucciones al pie de la letra, ¿cuál de las siguientes afirmaciones describe con exactitud lo que habrá hecho al terminar?
Answer: Habrá recogido la ropa y la habrá colocado en el cesto, tendido la cama con las almohadas ordenadas, pasado la aspiradora por la alfombra incluyendo debajo de la cama, y colocado flores en el florero de la mesita de noche.
Questions like this test your reading comprehension and attention to detail in Spanish — specifically, your ability to track multiple sequential instructions and identify which summary accurately captures all of them without distortion.
Teresa gives her brother four clear tasks: (1) pick up clothes from the floor and put them in the basket (cesto), (2) make the bed and make sure the pillows are properly placed (almohadas bien colocadas), (3) vacuum the carpet including under the bed (debajo de la cama también), and (4) place flowers in the vase on the nightstand (mesita de noche), explicitly not on the desk (escritorio). Answer D captures every one of these details faithfully — the clothes go in the basket, the pillows are arranged, the vacuuming includes under the bed, and the flowers go on the nightstand. That makes D correct.
Answer A gets most steps right but places the flowers on the escritorio (desk), which is the opposite of what Teresa instructs — she specifically says no en el escritorio. Answer B correctly places the flowers on the nightstand but says the brother won't worry about the pillows (sin preocuparse por las almohadas), directly contradicting the instruction to ensure they're well placed. Answer C contains multiple errors: the clothes are left on the desk instead of the basket, the vacuuming covers only the center of the carpet instead of including under the bed, making it the most distorted option.
A useful strategy: when a passage gives sequential instructions, create a quick mental checklist as you read. For each answer choice, verify every detail — these questions are designed to trick you with one small change hidden among correct information.
- Si Pablo sigue exactamente las instrucciones de Marta, ¿cuál de las siguientes afirmaciones describe con mayor precisión la ubicación final del gimnasio según las instrucciones recibidas?
Answer: El gimnasio está ubicado dos cuadras después de doblar a la derecha en el semáforo, situado entre la farmacia y el correo, detrás del quiosco de periódicos.
When reading comprehension questions ask you to trace a sequence of directions in Spanish, your job is to act like a GPS — follow each instruction exactly as given, in order, without skipping or reordering steps.
Let's walk through Marta's directions carefully. She tells Pablo to exit through the back door, walk north until reaching the semáforo (traffic light), not cross at the light, instead turn right (dobla a la derecha), and then continue two blocks along the avenue. The gym is located between the pharmacy and the post office, just behind the newspaper kiosk. That full description matches option B perfectly — it captures the right turn, the two-block walk, and the correct landmarks.
Here's why each wrong answer fails: A says the gym is visible from the traffic light heading north, but Marta explicitly says not to cross there — you turn right instead, meaning you never head north past the light. C claims the gym is "directly north of the apartment" and "behind the traffic light," which misrepresents the route entirely and scrambles the landmark relationships. D says Pablo turns left at the light ("dobla a la izquierda"), but the passage clearly states "dobla a la derecha" — a critical directional detail that changes the entire path.
A great strategy for these navigation passages: underline or mentally flag every directional word (derecha, izquierda, norte, sur, dobla, sigue, cruces) and every negation (no cruces, en cambio). Wrong answers almost always distort exactly those details, betting you skimmed past them.
- Un hablante avanzado de español quiere dar instrucciones formales (usted) a un cliente sobre cómo usar el cajero automático. Elige la secuencia que usa correctamente todas las formas del imperativo formal para los verbos: insertar, esperar, teclear, retirar.
Answer: Inserte la tarjeta, espere a que aparezca el menú, teclee su número secreto y luego retire el dinero con cuidado del cajero.
When giving formal commands in Spanish (using usted), you must use the subjunctive-based imperative forms, not the tú imperatives or the infinitive. For regular -AR verbs, the formal command ends in -e (inserte, espere, teclee, retire). This question tests whether you can consistently apply that rule across an entire sequence of instructions — a common trap is mixing formal and informal forms mid-sentence.
Answer C is correct because every verb follows the formal usted imperative pattern without exception: inserte (insertar), espere (esperar), teclee (teclear), and retire (retirar). The logic and flow of the instructions also makes perfect practical sense for using an ATM.
Answer A fails immediately with espera, which is the tú (informal) imperative of esperar. You cannot switch registers mid-instruction — if you're using usted with a client, every command must match.
Answer B makes the opposite mistake: inserta and retira are tú imperatives, while espere and teclee are correctly formal. Again, the inconsistency disqualifies this option entirely.
Answer D uses the infinitive insertar instead of a command form. While infinitives sometimes appear in written instructions (like recipes or manuals), this question explicitly asks for formal imperative forms, so insertar is grammatically incorrect here.
A quick study tip: when you see a list of commands in Spanish, check every verb — test writers deliberately place the error in the second or last verb, betting you'll stop checking after the first one looks right.
- Un profesor de español le pide a un estudiante avanzado que dé instrucciones para preparar una receta sencilla. El estudiante dice: 'Primero, pela las papas. Después, cortas las papas en trozos pequeños. Luego, hierve el agua y añade sal.' ¿Qué error morfológico comete el estudiante al dar estas instrucciones en modo imperativo?
Answer: El estudiante usa 'cortas' incorrectamente en lugar del imperativo 'corta', mezclando el presente indicativo con formas imperativas dentro de una misma secuencia de instrucciones directas.
When giving direct instructions in Spanish — like steps in a recipe — you should use consistent imperative forms throughout. The informal (tú) imperative for regular verbs is formed by dropping the -s from the present tense tú form: tú cortas → corta. Understanding this formation helps you spot inconsistencies in a sequence of commands.
In the student's instructions, three verbs are correctly in the imperative: pela (pelar), hierve (hervir), and añade (añadir) — all properly formed tú imperatives. However, cortas is simply the present indicative tú form, not an imperative. This morphological inconsistency is the error, making B the correct answer. The student accidentally slipped back into the indicative mood mid-sequence instead of maintaining the imperative corta.
Choice A is wrong because it inverts the logic entirely — pela is actually correct as an imperative, not an error. Claiming recipes require indicative forms for the whole sequence misunderstands how Spanish instructions work. Choice C incorrectly targets hierve, which is a perfectly valid tú imperative (the usted subjunctive form would be hierva). Recipes don't universally require subjunctive; that only applies when using indirect command structures like quiero que usted hierva. Choice D makes a false grammatical rule — the word luego has no special power to trigger the subjunctive. Añade is a correct imperative, and sequence adverbs like primero, después, and luego simply organize steps without changing verb mood.
Study tip: When reviewing imperative formation, practice converting tú present-tense forms by dropping the -s. If you see a verb ending in -s in an instruction sequence, that's your red flag — it's likely indicative, not imperative.
- Un hablante avanzado repite las instrucciones para otro grupo usando ustedes. ¿Cuál de las siguientes versiones contiene un error que distorsionaría significativamente la ruta si se siguiera al pie de la letra?
Answer: 'Salgan de la plaza por la calle principal, bajen la colina durante diez minutos, doblen a la izquierda cuando vean el letrero amarillo, y continúen hasta llegar al mirador al final del sendero.'
When a question asks you to identify which version of directions "would significantly distort the route if followed literally," you need to compare each option word-by-word against the original, asking yourself: would this change cause someone to end up in the wrong place?
The original instructions tell travelers to subir (go up) the hill. Option C replaces suban la colina with bajen la colina — meaning "go down the hill." This is a directionally opposite instruction. If the mirador is reached by climbing uphill, telling someone to descend would send them entirely the wrong way from the very second step. This is the error in C, and it would genuinely derail the route.
Now let's look at why the other options are wrong answers to this question (meaning they are correct repetitions or contain only minor errors):
A is an exact word-for-word repetition of the original instructions — no error at all, making it an incorrect answer choice.
B changes two details: continúen hasta llegar becomes paren cuando lleguen, and al final del sendero becomes al comienzo del sendero. This does introduce inaccuracies, but the travelers would still arrive at the mirador — they'd just stop at the beginning of the path rather than the end. It's a discrepancy, but the destination is still reachable.
D changes izquierda to derecha, which sounds significant, but this question asks what contains an error — and D does. However, C's error (reversing the entire direction of travel on the hill) would distort the route more fundamentally and immediately than a wrong turn that at least puts you on the right hill.
Study tip: When comparing directions, prioritize errors that affect movement direction (up/down, toward/away) over endpoint descriptions — they derail the traveler earliest and most completely.
- El Estudiante B escucha las instrucciones y luego las repite para confirmar su comprensión. ¿Cuál de las siguientes repeticiones refleja una comprensión exacta y completa de todas las instrucciones dadas por el Estudiante A?
Answer: 'Entonces, debo cruzar el parque en diagonal, salir por la esquina noreste, donde veré la farmacia a mi izquierda y la panadería a mi derecha, pasar la farmacia, seguir recto y llegar al segundo edificio después de la farmacia, que es el banco.'
When verifying comprehension of spoken directions, you need to track every specific detail — location words, sequence markers, and any corrections the speaker explicitly makes. Even one swapped word or altered detail makes a repetition inaccurate.
Student A gives five key pieces of information: (1) cross the park diagonally, (2) do NOT go around it, (3) exit at the northeast corner, (4) the pharmacy will be on the LEFT and the bakery on the RIGHT, and (5) the bank is the SECOND building after the pharmacy, not the first. Option D captures all five details correctly — diagonal crossing, northeast exit, pharmacy on the left, bakery on the right, and the second building. That makes D the only fully accurate repetition.
Option A fails on two counts: it says "the first building after the pharmacy" when Student A explicitly said it was the second, not the first. It also omits the bakery landmark entirely. Option B contradicts the very first instruction — Student A said not to go around the park ("no lo rodees"), but B says "rodear el parque." Everything after that detail is built on a misunderstanding of the route. Option C swaps the positions of the pharmacy and bakery, placing the bakery on the left and the pharmacy on the right, which is the opposite of what Student A described. This kind of mirror-flip error is easy to miss if you're listening quickly.
Your strategy: when evaluating comprehension questions, treat negations and positional words (izquierda/derecha, primero/segundo) as the highest-priority checkpoints — those are exactly where test writers hide the traps.
- ¿Cuál de las siguientes opciones identifica correctamente un problema de precisión o coherencia en las instrucciones dadas por el estudiante, considerando el contexto de dar indicaciones de transporte a alguien no familiarizado con la ciudad?
Answer: Las instrucciones no aclaran si 'la tercera parada' se cuenta incluyendo la del aeropuerto como primera o si es la tercera después de abordar, lo que puede causar que el visitante se baje en la parada equivocada.
When evaluating instructions for clarity and precision, your job is to ask: could this cause genuine confusion for someone with zero prior knowledge? Small ambiguities that a local would ignore can send a visitor to the wrong place entirely.
The critical flaw in these instructions is what option C identifies: "la tercera parada" is genuinely ambiguous. Does the airport count as stop #1, making the destination the third station after departure — or is the destination literally the third stop after boarding? Depending on interpretation, the visitor could exit one stop too early or too late. For someone unfamiliar with the city, this isn't a minor detail — it's the difference between arriving correctly and getting lost.
Option A is tempting but incorrect. While formal register (busque vs. busca) is a real grammatical distinction, the question asks about precision and coherence, not register appropriateness. Furthermore, using tú commands for public-facing instructions is common and widely acceptable in many Spanish-speaking countries — there is no universal rule requiring usted for foreign visitors.
Option B raises a fair real-world concern, but contingency planning (what to do if the line is down) goes beyond precision — it's about completeness in emergency scenarios. The question specifically targets precision and coherence within the instructions as written, not their exhaustiveness.
Option D is simply wrong. Mentioning escalators before describing the landmark orientation doesn't contradict anything — leaving the metro station includes taking escalators up, so the sequence is logically sound.
Study tip: On precision questions, always ask whether an ambiguity could produce two different physical outcomes — if yes, that's a true coherence problem worth flagging.
- Según las instrucciones dadas, ¿cuál es el orden correcto de las acciones que debe realizar el estudiante para llegar a la biblioteca?
Answer: Salir, doblar a la izquierda, seguir dos cuadras, girar a la derecha, pasar el banco, cruzar la avenida, llegar a la biblioteca enfrente del parque.
When answering direction-following questions in Spanish, your job is to carefully track the sequence of actions described in the passage — every turn, landmark, and detail matters. Treat it like a map you're mentally walking through step by step.
The passage gives this exact sequence: Sal (exit the cafetería) → dobla a la izquierda (turn left) → sigue recto por dos cuadras (go straight for two blocks) → gira a la derecha en la calle Roble (turn right on Roble Street) → pasa el banco (pass the bank) → cruza la avenida principal (cross the main avenue) → la biblioteca queda enfrente del parque, a mano derecha (the library is in front of the park, on the right). Answer B matches this sequence perfectly, including the correct final landmark — the park, not the bank.
Answer A fails immediately because it says to turn right first and then left, which is the opposite of the instructions. It also incorrectly places the library in front of the bank. Answer C distorts the order by inserting the right turn before the two-block stretch, when the passage clearly says to go straight first for two blocks, then turn right. Answer D skips the left turn entirely, replaces the right turn with a left turn onto Roble, and wrongly describes the library as being on the left side in front of the bank.
A useful strategy: when you see sequencing questions like this, underline or mentally number each action verb in the passage as you read — sal, dobla, sigue, gira, pasa, cruza — then match those to whichever answer choice preserves that exact order.
- Un evaluador nativo nota un problema de registro en las instrucciones del estudiante. ¿Cuál es el problema y cuál sería la corrección más adecuada en el contexto de dar instrucciones directas en español?
Answer: El problema es que 'es necesario que salgas' mezcla innecesariamente una perífrasis de obligación con el subjuntivo en lugar de usar el imperativo directo 'sal,' lo que es pragmáticamente más distante y menos natural para instrucciones directas entre iguales.
When giving directions in Spanish, register refers to how formal or informal your language feels — and consistency matters. The key question here is whether the instruction style feels natural and pragmatically appropriate for the context (two peers, direct navigation instructions).
The passage mixes registers awkwardly. It opens with "es necesario que salgas" — a subjunctive construction triggered by an impersonal expression of obligation — then shifts to plain imperatives: "camina," "sube." The subjunctive-triggering phrase creates unnecessary grammatical and social distance, as if the speaker is imposing an obligation rather than simply guiding someone. For direct peer-to-peer directions in Spanish, the imperative "sal" is cleaner, more natural, and rhetorically consistent with everything that follows. This makes A the correct answer: the problem is precisely this pragmatic mismatch between the heavy-handed periphrastic construction and the casual directness of the rest.
B is wrong because it assumes all verbs in a sequence must match the mode introduced by "es necesario que." That's not how Spanish works — the subjunctive is governed by syntactic subordination, not sequential agreement. "Camina" and "sube" are independent imperative clauses, not subordinate to the opening phrase.
C is wrong because the gerund (subiendo) expresses simultaneity or manner, not sequential instruction. Saying "subiendo al tercer piso" would imply doing something while climbing, not then climbing — which distorts the meaning entirely.
D is wrong because cardinal directions (al norte) are not a conventional standard in conversational navigational Spanish, and spatial landmarks like "a la derecha de los baños" are perfectly appropriate and natural.
Study tip: On register questions, always ask yourself: Does this feel like what a native speaker would actually say in this situation? Grammatically possible ≠ pragmatically natural.
