Олимпиада по английскому языку

Школьный этап Всероссийской олимпиады по английскому языку. 10-11 класс

I READING

Part 1

Questions 1-7

Choose the most suitable heading from the list A-l for each part (1-7) of the article. There is one extra heading which you do not need to use. Transfer your answers to your Answer Sheet.

There is an example at the beginning (0).

A. Views on academic results and assessment

B. Reasons for satisfaction at school

C. Where the pressure comes from

D. Views on the purpose of school

E. The most stressful types of work

F. A profile of the survey's respondents

G. Reactions to good results

H. The low percentage of students working for good results

I. The general results of the survey

School pressures survey

It has long been known that Hong Kong's education system is strongly exam oriented. The results of a survey this week show us some of the effects of this system on those most involved in it, i.e. students. Unsurprisingly it reveals that students are concerned over their academic results .

A total of 537 full-time students aged 12 to 29 were surveyed this month by the Federation of Youth Groups for a study entitled 'How important are academic results to students?'

With a system that frequently tests students of all ages every week, and sets exams at least once a term, it was no surprise to find that about 60% of those surveyed rated academic results as important or very important, and said mark-based assessments had put them under pressure.

The pressure comes not only from the assessments themselves but from how those concerned respond to the education system. More than 35% said the main cause of the pressure came from their parents' expectations while about 31% said their own ambitions were the cause.

Yet, in spite of the importance given to assessments and the pressure they create, surprisingly only about 14% of respondents said that good results made them happy.

Happiness at school seemed in fact to come from

other things: nearly half the respondents said good relationships with their schoolmates made them feel happy with school life while 4% said the sudden cancellation of tests by teachers would make them happiest.

The results also indicated that although pressures were great, this had not adversely affected students' attitudes to the value of schooling. Up to 70% believed the significance of learning was to obtain knowledge, establish an analytical mind and explore interests.

This may explain another finding: only about 11% of the students said they would study for high marks and good academic results. We may be putting our students under enormous pressure for little good effect.

Part 2

Questions 8-13

Read the text below about a famous American singer. For questions 8-13, choose the anwer (A, В, С or D) which you think fits best according to the text. Mark your answers on your Answer Sheet.

Tammy Wynette

The Heroine of Heartbreak

Tammy Wynette fulfilled many a girl's fantasy from the American South by moving from the cotton fields to become America's self-styled First Lady of Country Music. Along the way, she sold more records than any other female country-and-western star. But as well as 35 number one hits and White House 5 performances for four different presidents, the so-called 'Heroine of Heartbreak' also had five husbands and four children, seventeen surgical operations and once experienced a kidnapping. Her life story, she freely admitted, was 'ridiculous — mostly because I've made it that way'. The best thing that perhaps could be said about Wynette's personal dramas was that they provided an endless source of good material. 'I write better when I'm depressed,' she claimed, and was once accused of setting to music 'every angry word and flying plate'. As with everything else throughout Tammy's career, her beginnings in music were closely connected to a personal tragedy. Her father who'd dreamed of becoming a professional musician himself, was very ill when Tammy was born and he died when she was just nine months old. On his death bed, he made his wife promise to encourage their daughter to take an interest in music, if she showed any talent. Young Wynette, as she became known, began taking piano lessons at the age of eight, and she became so good at playing by ear that her piano teacher eventually gave up on her. Tammy only really started to take her singing ambitions seriously, however, after the break-up of her first marriage to Euple Byrd. Now with three children and after several frustrating and fruitless trips to Nashville in search of a recording contract, she was persuaded that she would have a better chance if she moved there and so it was in 1966 that she packed her children and their few belongings in­to her car and drove to 'Music City'. Euple happened to drive past just as she was leaving. 'In your dreams, baby, in your dreams,' he said when she told him her plans. Arriving in Nashville, Tammy would leave the children in the car while she did the rounds of the record companies. She eventually slipped past an absent secretary and into the offices of producer Billy Sherrill at Epic Records. He remembers her as a pale, desperate-looking girl but he instantly fell for her voice with what he called its 'teardrop quality'. And the rest, as they say, is history...

8. The opening paragraph suggests that...

A. Tammy's career was a short one. B. Tammy kidnapped someone.

С Tammy enjoyed good health. D. Tammy grew up in a farming area.

9. In response to questions about her difficulties, Tammy

A. pointed to her success. B. blamed herself.

С called the questions 'ridiculous'. D. refused to answer.

10. What is said about Tammy's songs?

A. They were written for plays. B. They were criticised for the music.

C. They were based on her experience. D. They were written by a friend.

11. Tammy moved to Nashville because ...

A. previous trips had been encouraging. B. her ex-husband encouraged her to go.

C. becoming a singer might be easier there. D. she could easily afford to.

12. 'This' in line 43 refers to ...

A. the photograph. B. Tammy's dreams.

C. Euple's request for a signature. D. Euple's comment on her plans.

13. The writer suggests that ...

A. Tammy kept her personal life and music separate. B. Tammy relied too much on other people.

C. Tammy's personal life limited her success. D. Tammy succeeded despite many difficulties.

Part 3. Questions 14-19

Six sentences have been removed from the article. Choose from the sentences A-G the one which fits each gap (14-19). There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use. Mark your answers on your Answer Sheet.

Child labour — a blessing or a curse? When does childhood fun become an abuse of human rights?

Ten-year-old Lita Matundan sells flowers to motorists stuck at traffic lights. 'We are poor, so if I do not work we will not eat’, says Lita, who has six siblings. She was a victim of polio during her infant years and has never seen the inside of a classroom. (14) Gerry Gueverra is another 'early learner' in the labour market. (15) He then goes to school at 10 am and after that returns to the market till 8 pm. 'I dream of having my own restaurant or food chain one day,' he says. (16) He runs the family market stall both before school and after classes have finished for the day, when he should be doing his homework. 'I have no choice but to work so the family can eat,' says Ronald, who has five older brothers and sisters. Many of these children work under 'exploitative conditions', but they go on working because of 'inadequate survival resources' within their families: parents are so poor the children have to work. (17) There are other reasons which force the children to work, such as natural disasters or the geographical location of the home, or the simple fact that education is too expensive. Employers also like to hire children, seeing them as easy to manage and unlikely to complain. Meanwhile, in another part of the world, Tejan, aged 9, who sings for money on commuter trains and picks rags off rubbish dumps, is taking part in a rally and shouting slogans demanding that youngsters like her be given the right to work. (18) 'If I'm not working, how can I survive?' ran one of her slogans. 'End poverty, provide employment for our parents, do something in the villages so we don't have to run to the cities (19), said Deepak Shukla, 15, another street child who helped organise the rally. The organisers said that unless basic needs such as food, shelter and clothing were fulfilled, children should not be denied the right to work.

A. If they do not work, there will be no food on the table.

B. But don't stop us from working.

C. He wakes at 4 am to take goods to market.

D. She was one of 200 children who took part in the rally.

E. Ronald Acudo, aged 12, works longer days than most adults.

F. This work is hard, dirty and dangerous.

G. Her parents have no money for her education and her father cannot work because he's sick.

II Use of English. Part 1. Questions 1-15

Fог questions 1-15, read the text below and decide which answer А, В, С or D best fits each space. There is an example at the beginning (0). Mark your answers on your Answer Sheet. Red River rising

As the (0) D sun turned its warming (1) ... on the frigid (2) ..., it set in motion a deadly chain of (3) .... The snow and ice of the long, cold winter (4) ... into water that fed and swelled the Red River, which forms on the North Dakota — Minnesota (5) .... The river grew and spread swallowing everything in its (6) ... . The water rose with such speed that some people (7) ... their vehicles in the street and escaped (8) ... city dump trucks. Hospitals and nursing homes were (9) .... Family members were scattered, (10) ... refuge in shel­ters (11) ... North Dakota and Minnesota,

(12) ... downtown Grand Forks under five feet of water and more than 40,000 people (13) ..., there (14) ... to be but one mild consolation: things could not possibly (15) ... any worse.

Part 2

Questions 16-25

Read the text below. Use the words in the box to form one word that fits in the same numbered space in the text. Write the new word in the correct box on your Answer Sheet.

(16) COMMUNICATE

(17) ABLE

(18) SUCCESS

(19) SPECIAL

(20) FULL

(21) COMPETENT

(22) ADVANCE

(23) ORGANISE

(24) DEVELOP

(25) ISOLATE

Learn your job skills from your teacher

A teacher standing at the front of a History class is seldom teaching history alone. A good teacher is also demonstrating self-expression, management ability, (16) ... skills, and a whole host of other skills that may be useful for you later in life. There are certain basic (17) ... that everyone needs to have if they are to be (18) ... in education, employment and even in social circumstances.

Learning these skills is (19) ... important at secondary school level, in order to (20) ... prepare for further education or the working world. A minimum level of (21) ... is demanded by all employers, colleges and universities. The more (22) ... you are in those areas the more the (23) ... believes you will be competent.

These personal (24) ... skills differ from other school subjects in that they cannot be taught in (25) ... from the rest of the school curriculum.

Part 3

Questions 26-40

For questions 26-40, read the text and look carefully at each line. Some of the lines are correct, and some have a word which should not be there. If a line is correct, put a tick (Ö) by it. If. a. line has a word which should not be there, write the word at the end of the line. There are two examples at the beginning (0) and (00).

Transfer your answers to your Answer Sheet.

Getting the school bus

0I’ ve been getting the school bus to school for three. Ö

00 years now since we have moved to our new house. have

26 I have to wake up at six each morning to make it sure

27 that I am at the end of the lane just after half past to

28 catch it. It won’t wait you for more that a minute so

29 you really have to be on the time. Luckily I am not the

30 first to be picked up or I would have been to get up even

31 earlier. We all usually sit in the same place each day. The

32 older boys all sit at the back of the bus as far as away from

33 the driver as possible. It is always these boys who they cause

34 the trouble with other children on the bus or motorists on

35 their way to work. Sometimes people make the driver to stop

36 the bus to make complain about something that has been

37 thrown or rude behavior. Most days though we get to school

38 without a problem. The are always teased if they will

39 have a new haircut or wear something different, but you can’t

40 expect that thirty kids to sit on a bus and not have any fun.