The Alchemy of Time

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Este test de nivel C2 está diseñado para estudiantes que buscan perfeccionar su comprensión lectora a través de una narrativa envolvente y desafiante. Consta de 25 preguntas que pondrán a prueba tu habilidad para interpretar ideas complejas, analizar a fondo personajes y captar matices esenciales en el texto.

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Tabla de Contenidos
  1. Historia
  2. Preguntas

Historia

In a forgotten corner of the ancient city of Eridane, there stood a shop unlike any other. Its sign, faded and cracked, bore the cryptic name “The Horologist’s Atelier.” Within its dimly lit walls, shelves overflowed with clocks of every size and shape, their ticking forming an intricate symphony. But the shop’s true secret lay in its backroom, where time itself was transformed.

Isaac Thalos, the enigmatic owner, was no ordinary clockmaker. He was a temporal alchemist, a practitioner of the arcane art of manipulating time’s flow. His craft was whispered about in the annals of forbidden knowledge, where time was seen not as a fixed line but as a malleable substance, capable of being bent, stretched, or condensed.

Few dared to seek Isaac’s help, for his services came at a price. Those who entered his atelier left with more than altered timepieces—they carried the weight of their choices, etched into their lives like indelible marks.

One rainy evening, a visitor arrived. Dr. Elena Marek, an astrophysicist consumed by regret, stepped into the atelier, her footsteps hesitant. She carried an ornate pocket watch, its face cracked, its hands frozen at a moment she could not forget.

“I need to fix this,” she said, her voice trembling.

Isaac studied her with piercing eyes. “The watch is not broken,” he replied. “It’s you who are stuck.”

Elena hesitated, then confessed. “I made a mistake—a calculation that cost lives. If I could go back, I could change it.”

Isaac nodded. “Time’s flow cannot be reversed, but its currents can be navigated. Are you prepared to pay the price?”

Elena’s resolve wavered but did not break. “Yes.”

Isaac led her to the backroom, where an elaborate apparatus awaited. It was a fusion of clockwork and crystalline machinery, its gears turning with a rhythm that seemed to pulse with life. He explained the process: the watch would serve as her anchor, allowing her consciousness to revisit a specific moment. However, her actions would ripple forward, reshaping the present in unpredictable ways.

As the machine activated, Elena felt herself pulled into the past. She stood once more in her laboratory, surrounded by equations and data. The pivotal moment loomed before her: a calculation she had overlooked, a warning she had dismissed.

This time, she acted. Correcting the error, she watched as the experiment unfolded without catastrophe. Relief flooded her as she returned to the present.

But the atelier was different. The clocks on the shelves ticked out of sync, their faces unfamiliar. Isaac stood silently, his expression unreadable.

“What happened?” Elena asked, dread creeping into her voice.

Isaac gestured to a mirror. In its reflection, Elena saw herself—but older, her face lined with experiences she did not remember. “You altered the current,” he said. “You saved lives, but the timeline adjusted. The cost was your own path.”

Elena’s mind raced. Memories she did not recognize flooded in—years spent in a different reality, sacrifices she had made, relationships she had forged and lost. She realized that by fixing one mistake, she had unraveled others, creating a tapestry she could not control.

“Can it be undone?” she asked, her voice breaking.

Isaac shook his head. “Time is a river with no return. Each choice carves a new channel.”

Elena left the atelier, her altered life awaiting her. She had gained knowledge, but at the cost of certainty. The experience left her with a profound understanding: time was not a tool to be wielded, but a force to be respected.

The Horologist’s Atelier remained a mystery, its doors open only to those willing to confront the paradoxes of their own existence. And Isaac Thalos continued his work, guiding seekers through the alchemy of time, knowing that every tick of the clock carried both promise and peril.

Preguntas

1. What did Elena gain from her encounter with the temporal apparatus?

 
 
 
 

2. Why was the atelier described as ‘a symphony of ticking clocks’?

 
 
 
 

3. Why was Dr. Elena Marek’s request to ‘fix’ time particularly complex?

 
 
 
 

4. What was the purpose of the elaborate apparatus in Isaac’s backroom?

 
 
 
 

5. What did Isaac mean when he said, ‘Time is not a tool to be wielded, but a force to be respected’?

 
 
 
 

6. Why is Isaac’s expression described as unreadable when Elena returns?

 
 
 
 

7. What paradox does the narrative explore through Elena’s altered timeline?

 
 
 
 

8. What does the relationship between Elena and Isaac suggest about the narrative’s perspective on mentorship?

 
 
 
 

9. What dilemma did Elena face after returning to the present?

 
 
 
 

10. What role did the ornate mirror in the atelier play in the story?

 
 
 
 

11. How does the story use the imagery of clocks and ticking to reinforce its themes?

 
 
 
 

12. What warning did Isaac give Elena before she used the temporal apparatus?

 
 
 
 

13. What lesson does ‘The Alchemy of Time’ impart about regret and decision-making?

 
 
 
 

14. What was the significance of the cracked pocket watch Elena brought to Isaac?

 
 
 
 

15. What impact did the timeline adjustment have on Isaac’s atelier?

 
 
 
 

16. Why did Isaac refer to time as ‘a river with no return’?

 
 
 
 

17. What made The Horologist’s Atelier unique among the shops in Eridane?

 
 
 
 

18. What does the line ‘Each choice carves a new channel’ signify?

 
 
 
 

19. What does Isaac Thalos’s role symbolize in the narrative?

 
 
 
 

20. How did Elena’s intervention in the past affect her present life?

 
 
 
 

21. What did Isaac Thalos mean when he told Elena, ‘The watch is not broken, it’s you who are stuck’?

 
 
 
 

22. What broader theme does the story of ‘The Alchemy of Time’ explore?

 
 
 
 

23. Why is time referred to as ‘alchemy’ in the story?

 
 
 
 

24. Why did Elena describe her experience with time as ‘profound yet unsettling’?

 
 
 
 

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