Олимпиадные задания по английскому языку
олимпиадные задания по английскому языку на тему

8-th form

TASK 1        LISTENING (10 points)

Time: 10 minutes

Listen to the text and answer the questions

1.        Tommy went skiing for the first time        

1. with his friends
2. with his family
3. alone

2.        He _ .

1. was taught to ski
2. learnt to ski
3. didn't learn to ski

3.        He fell over a lot because he        

1. enjoyed it
2. could ski very well
3. couldn't ski

4.        Tommy went to the mountains for        

A) seven days B) ten days C) a month

5.        They _ time together.

A) didn't have B) enjoyed C) didn't enjoy

6.        They went down the mountain on        

1. skis
2. skateboards
3. snowboards

7.        In the evening they        

1. stayed at the hotel
2. went out
3. watched TV

8.        They liked to eat        

A) fish and chips B) pizza C) hamburgers

9.        They watched an ice-hockey game        

1. at the stadium
2. on TV
3. at the sports centre

10.        Tommy and his friends _ winter sports.

1. are fond of
2. don't like
3. are not keen on

TASK 2 READING (20 points)

Time: 20 minutes

1. Read fragments from stories about famous women. For answers to questions choose the names designated by letters A-E. “0” is the example for you. (5 points)

1. Florence Nightingale was impatient with a life without meaningful purpose. By age 24, Florence rejected a marriage proposal and decided to be a nurse. For several years Florence pleaded with her parents, with God and suffered a near nervous breakdown, but never considered disobeying her parents’ wish. At last, in 1851 her parents permitted her to study nursing at an institution in Germany.  Two years later, she was appointed superintendent of the institution. Her administration was very successful and so were the changes made to the institution.
2. Louisa May Alcott lived most of her life in Boston and Concord. She worked as a teacher for a short time. Next, she worked as a housekeeper and finally began writing. Her first books were written quickly. Then, Alcott volunteered to be a Civil War nurse, where she caught typhoid and was sent home. But, from this experience her book Hospital Sketches became famous. Soon, her stories were chosen for the Atlantic Monthly. Her most popular book was Little Women. It described her own childhood, as many of her other books: Aunt Joe’s Scrap Bag, Little Men, Eight Cousins and others.
3. Marie Curie was born Maria Sklodowska as the fifth and youngest child of Bronislava Boguska, a pianist, singer and teacher and Wladislaw Sklodowski, a professor of mathematics and physics. From young she was remarkable for her prodigious memory and at the age of 16 she won a gold medal on a competition of her secondary education at Russian lycee. In 1891, she went to Paris. She worked late hours and virtually lived bread and butter and tea. In 1804 she was placed the second in the license of mathematical sciences. It was then that she married Pierre Curie, a famous scientist.
4. Valentina Tereshkova was born in Yaroslavl region of the former USSR. Soon after starting work in a textile mill at the age of 18, Valentina joined an amateur parachuting club. She was a hard worker. Later, at the age of 24, she applied to become a cosmonaut. On June 16, 1963 Tereshkova was launched into space aboard Vostok 6. She became the first woman to travel in space. Her flight lasted 48 orbits totaling 70 hours 50 minutes in space. She spent more time in orbit than all the US Mercury astronauts combined. Valentina received the Order of Lenin and Hero of the Soviet Union awards for her historic flight.   
5. Margaret Thatcher was born in England in the family of grocer and dressmaker. Her father was involved in local politics. Early in her life she decided to be a member of the Parliament. In 1950 Margaret married Denis Thatcher, got her degree from Oxford and worked there as a research chemist. In 1959 she won a seat in Parliament. In 1970 to 1974 she served as the Minister of Education and Science. In 1979 general elections Mrs. Thatcher became the first woman to be elected Prime Minister of Great Britain. She resigned in 1990. She was awarded an Order of Merit award by her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Who

1. was a bright pupil? _C_
2. was honored with the title of Hero for her historic deed? _____
3. waited for her parental permission to realise her dream to become a nurse? ____
4. succeeded as a leader and was awarded the order for her remarkable work for the country? ____
5. worked as a nurse at war? ____
6. was an outstanding scientist? ____

2. Read the text and do the tasks below (9points).

A company in Japan is selling a new drink. Their new drink is a powerful mixture of powered ginseng root, a fungus from the skin of caterpillars and reptile's blood. This strange drink, people say, is helping Chinese women athletes to win gold medals at international athletics meetings. The Japanese firm says that this mixture can do wonderful things for ordinary people too.

Mr. Ma Junwen is the trainer of the Chinese women's athletics team. He created the recipe for this peculiar cocktail of roots and fungus and blood specially for the team. His runners train in the mountains of central China. They run 30  or  40 kilometres every day, so they are all very strong runners. But they all drink Ma's cocktail every day too ... and they are winning more medals nowadays than they did before. And Mr. Ma is trying to market his odd mixture through the company in Japan. People in Japan know about Ma's runners and they are rushing to buy a bottle of his amazing drink.

So Mr. Ma is winning, too, not only runners. Before he invented his drink, he was not a rich man, but now he is making a lot of money from the drink, and people in Japan love it!

A   Write down whether the following sentences are true (T) or false (F).

1. Mr. Ma is helping Japanese sportswomen.
2. This drink is a mixture consisting of different ingredients.
3. This mixture was created for sale.
4. Mr. Ma was a rich man before.
5. A Japanese company is now selling the drink in China. 

B   Answer the following questions.

1. Who is drinking Ma's mixture nowadays in Japan?
2. Who usually drinks it in China?
3. How many medals are Chinese women runners winning nowadays, with the help of Mr. Ma's drink?
4.  Why is Mr. Ma winning?

3. The parts of the following text are all mixed up. Put them in the right order (6 points).

1. He often told his friends that he could tell anyone's character exactly by his handwriting. So one lady friend decided to give it a test.

2. The lady was surprised. She smiled and explained that this was Balzac's own exercise book which he used when he was a little boy.

3. She brought him a young boy's exercise book. She said she wanted to know what Balzac thought of the boy's character.

4. Balzac, the famous French writer, was a man of great talent. He was very proud of his ability to tell a person's character by his or her handwriting.

5. He decided to tell the truth. The boy's exercise book
   showed that it was written by a bad, lazy fellow with no respect
   to other people.

(F)        She told him that the boy wasn't her son and asked him
to tell her the truth. Balzac studied the boy's handwriting very
carefully.

TASK 3     USE OF ENGLISH (30 points)

Time: 20 minutes

1. Transform the words printed with capital letters so that they grammatically and lexically corresponded to the text. Fill in the gaps with these words. “0” is the example for you. (6 points)

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre

The Globe Theatre is a faithful reconstruction                                 RECONSTRUCT (0)

of the ____________________ open-air playhouse designed             ORIGIN  (1)

in 1599, where Shakespeare worked and for which he wrote

many of his ____________ plays.                                                        GREAT (2)

Each year the Globe Theatre Company rediscovers the energetic

____________ between the audience and the actor in the unique     RELATION (3)

building. The Globe also welcomes _________________theatre     NATIONAL (4)

companies to share the impact Shakespeare’s plays have had

worldwide. Today, audiences of this “____________ O” sit in a          WOOD (5)

gallery or stand informally as a grounding in the yard, just as they

would have done _____________400 years ago.                                     NEAR (6)

2. Choose the right variant (9 points)

      1. I broke my leg yesterday and I … take part in the football match.

                 a) can’t    b) couldn’t  c) could

      2. Mr Garret … have a personal bank account.

                 a) doesn’t    b) don’t    c) isn’t

      3. … birthday is it next week?

                 a) Whose    b) Whom        c) Who

      4. Run downstairs. Your sister … for you.

                 a) waits     b) waiting     c) is waiting

      5. Perhaps they …a new house next year.

                 a) will buy      b) buy             c) shall buy

      6. Don’t worry about your letter. I … it yesterday.

                 a) have sent   b) sent   c) sended

      7. Timothy can play cricket well, …?

                 a) doesn’t he?    b) can he?      c) can’t he?

      8. My elder sister is afraid … height.

                 a) -             b) of           c) with

      9. I don’t want … or help.

                 a) advices    b) an advice    c) advice

3. Fill in the gaps with the pronouns instead of the words in bold. (10 points)

me   her   him   he   it   me   us   them   they   us  them   him

Example:   Bill and I went to a concert. Jim met us there. 

1. I recorded my first album when I was 10, and people loved ________!
2. Mozart composed many songs, but we don’t have all of __________.
3. My parents love rap music. _________ bought the new Eminem album!
4. Madonna is very famous. Everybody knows _________.
5. I saw Justin Timberlake in a shop and took a photo of _______.
6. Elvis Presley didn’t only record songs - _______ also made films.
7. Jane and I were at a concert and P. Diddy said hello to_______! It was amazing!
8. I was singing on the beach and a pop manager gave _______ a recording contract.
9. My younger brother can sing pretty well and my parents have decided to send  _____ to a music school.
10. Ben and Tom met Sara at a café. She asked ______ to go a J-Lo concert on Saturday night with her and Lucy.

4. Read the text and open the brackets. (5 points)

The History of Man

How long has man been on the earth? Let us travel 5,000 years into the past. We are in the days before man 1(learn) __________________ to write. Recorded history 2(not begin)__________________ yet. Let us go further into the past to 8,000 years ago. We are in a world without cities or towns, houses or roads. Yet there are people, about five million of them,  3(live)__________________ on all five continents. They have cows and horses and they 4(farm)__________________ the land. To find the first man we must 5(go)_____________ many hundreds of thousands of years into the past. The earliest true human being, Homo sapiens, appeared in Europe more than 50,000 years ago.

TASK 4     WRITING (20 points)

Time: 20 minutes

Write a short essay (composition-reasoning) on a theme “Positive and negative aspects of fame” (120-150 words).

TASK 5     SPEAKING (20 points)

Time: 10 – 12 minutes

1. Dialogue (10 points)

Put the phrases of the dialogue into the correct order

A)        1. Yes, sure. Thank you.

      2. That's exactly what I want.

3.Can I have a look at this magazine?

4.  I think this article about clothes is interesting.
5.   Yes, of course. I read quickly.

B)        1. Oh, yes, it is. It tells you how to choose the best clothes for you.

      2. See you tomorrow then.

3.Yes, sure. What would you like to read?

4.Do you think you will give it back to me tomorrow?

5.You can also read an article about music.

2. Monologue (10 points)

Speak on watching TV

Maximum points: 100 points