Викторина по страноведению "По странам изучаемого языка" для 9-11 классов
олимпиадные задания по английскому языку (9, 10, 11 класс) на тему

Викторина по страноведению «По странам изучаемого языка»

(Англоязычные страны)

9-11 классы

2015-16 уч. год

Task 1

Match the pictures 1- 8 to the names of the sights and places (A-H). There are more names than you will need.

A. Times Square, New York, the USA.

B. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the USA.

C. The House of Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon, England

D. Piccadilly Circus, London, England

E. The Monument to Washington, Washington, the USA

F. Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland

G. The Monument to Lincoln, Washington, the USA

H. Windsor Castle, Windsor, England

Task 2

Reading Comprehension

For items 1-10 read an article about English place names. Fill in the gaps in the table, using the information from the text.

The oldest place names in England are Celtic, like the majority of the place names in Wales and Cornwall. They include river names such as Avon and Ouse, and some names including the word pen, meaning “hill”. There is even one of those in a London suburb- Penge.

The Roman occupation, during the first four hundred years of our era, left some place names, particularly ending in –chester, or –caster (from Latin castra, “a camp or fort”). The English word street also comes from the Roman strata.

But the overwhelming majority of English place names were contributed by the Angles and Saxons, who invaded or settled from the fifth century onwards. Very common endings are –ham,-ton, and –wick (or -wich) meaning “a farm”,  -worth or –worthy implies also something like “a farm”. The family suffix, like –ov in Russian, was –ing. The town of Reading was originally the small farm of a man called Red, whose name is preserved in the pronunciation, which is, as it were, “Red-ing”.

The ending –bury, -burgh, or –borough usually means “a fort” (Old English burh) but sometimes a “hill” (Old English bearh, like German berg). Names, which use hall, do not often imply an ancient hall; they are more likely the same as the names in hale or halgh, meaning a corner or a triangular piece of land. Lea, lee or leigh were originally clearings in a wood, and later any open place. Shaw meant “a wood”, hurst meant “a small hill”, probably wooded. Many of these elements are not found as separate words in Old English, but only as part of a place name. However, some place names are quite easy to understand, like Cambridge- the bridge over the river Cam.

The Scandinavian invaders (9th to 11th centuries) brought some place names of their own: -by and –thorpe for a settlement, -thwait for a clearing, and -toft for homestead.

The Normans after their conquest in 1066 contributed very few place names, but the more important places often acquired something of a Norman-French form from being recorded by the new administration, e.g. Chester-le-Street, where le is the French word “les” meaning “next to”, or Ashby-de-la-Zouch, which added the name of the Norman lord of the manor to the original Ashby.

New names since those days are very few indeed, but there have been a few  industrial settlements named after the firm which was responsible for their existence, e.g. Stewartby in Bedfordshire. When founding “New Towns” the British authorities have preferred to use the name of an existing settlement however small, e.g. Cumbernauld in Scotland. Peterlee in Durham, however, was named after miners’ leader Peter Lee.

Task 3

For questions 1-6 match the major events from British history with the proper historical personality (a-j). There are more names than you will need.

1. --------- led the unsuccessful rebellion against the Roman occupation.
2. --------- defeated Richard III in the battle of Bosworth and was the last king of England to win his throne on the battlefield.
3. --------- during his reign the War of the Roses between the House of York and the House of Lancaster for the English throne was waged.
4. --------- defeated the Anglo-Saxons in the battle of Hastings and was crowned as the English king. London  became the capital of the country. The Tower of London was built.
5. --------- the first child of Henry VIII, who restored Catholicism and ruthlessly executed three hundred religious dissidents.
6. --------- initiated the reformation of the country, founded Anglican Church or the Church of England, the head of which was the English monarch but not the Roman Pope; England became a strong absolute monarchy.

1. William, the Duke of Normandy                                 f.   King Henry VI
2. Queen Elizabeth                                                           g.   Queen Boadicea
3. King Henry VII                                                            h.  King Edward II
4. Queen Mary I                                                               i.   Queen Victoria
5. King Henry VIII                                                           j.   King Charles I

Task 4

For questions 1-12 choose the best word or phrase to fill each of the spaces in the passage below. There are more words than you will need. Transfer your answers to the answer sheet.

Cabinet      Foreign Secretary    debates     Speaker       Leader of the Opposition

Budget       Shadow Cabinet     Opposition       Chancellor of the Exchequer

ministers       backbenchers      front bench      Prime Minister          Home secretary

The House of Commons

This is the House of Commons where Members of Parliament take their seats on the green leather bench according to their party and position. One of them is chosen to be the … 1 , who acts as kind of chairperson of the … 2 which take place in the House. In front of and on the right of this person sit the MPs of the biggest party, which forms the government, and facing them sit the MPs of the parties who oppose them, the … 3 . The leaders of these two groups sit at the front on each side. MPs without special positions in their parties sit behind their leaders at the back. The leader of the government, the  … 4 , sits next to his or her … 5 . The most important of these form the … 6 . The minister responsible for relations with other countries is called the … 7 . The one responsible for law and security is called the … 8 . The one who deals with financial matters and prepares the annual … 9 speech on the economic state of the country is called the … 10 . Opposite this group sits the … 11 (the main person in the largest party opposing the government) and the … 12 , each member of which specialises in a particular area of government.

Task 5

For questions 1-4 match the extracts with the authors (a-h). There are more names than you will need.

1. “I had slept for many hours. When I awoke it was just daylight. I tried to get up from the ground, but I could not move! My arms and feet were held down to the ground with strings. I heard some noise around me, but I could see nothing. In a little time I felt something alive moving on my foot, then it came over my body and up to my face. Turning my eyes down as much as I could, I saw a man. He was less than 15 centimetres high.”
2. “At last the sleepy atmosphere of the village was stirred and vigorously: Muff Potter was being tried for the alleged murder of Dr. Robinson. It became the absorbing topic of the village talk immediately. Tom knew that he was not suspected of knowing anything about the murder, but every reference to it sent a shudder to his heart. His dreams at night were full of horrors. In the daytime he was drawn to the courtroom by an almost irresistible impulse to go in, but he forced himself to stay out. Tom kept his ears open, but invariably heard distressing news: Indian Joe’s evidence was unshaken and there was not the slightest doubt that Muff Potter would be convicted.”
3. “In the interim the Invisible Man must have learnt something of the rapid use Kemp had made of his confidence. He must have found houses locked and secured, he may have loitered about railway stations, have prowled about inns, and no doubt he read the proclamations and realised something of the nature of the complaint against him. And as the evening advanced the fields became dotted here and there with groups of three or four men and noisy with the yelping of dogs. These men-hunters had particular instructions as to the way they should support one another.”
4. “All the world’s a stage. And all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; one man in his tine plays many parts. His acts being seven ages. As, first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. And then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel. And shining morning face, creeping like snail. Unwillingly to school…”

Possible Answers    

1. James F. Cooper
2. Jonathan Swift
3. Jack London
4. Mark Twain
5. Walter Scott
6. Herbert Wells
7. William Shakespeare
8. Daniel Defoe    

Task 6

The following are names of characters in popular fiction. They are so well-known that they are often used in ordinary conversations. For questions 1-6 put each name in its correct place. There are more names than you will need. Transfer your answers  to the answer sheet.

Robin Hood    Superman       James Bond      Sherlock Holmes      Tarzan

Scrooge           Jekyll and Hyde      Robinson Crusoe     Peter Pan      Cinderella

1. During the war he was sent on dangerous secret missions abroad. Very exciting! He was a sort of ---------------------- .
2. Come on! I’ve never met anyone so reluctant to spend money, you ----------------!
3. He was a criminal and stole a lot of money, but he helped a lot of people with it. He was a bit of ----------------------- .
4. He still has very youthful enthusiasms, and he is as slim and fit as he was 20 years ago. He is a -------------------------.
5. She is really exploited by her family. They make her do everything: cook, clean. She is sort of -------------------------- .
6. How did you guess his nationality, occupation and other things from his appearance? You’re a proper ------------------- .

Task 7

What questions would you ask these famous American and British people if you had the chance?

Task 8

For questions 1-7 match the descriptions with the proper famous personality (a-l). There are more names than you will need.

1. --------- is generally regarded as one of the greatest English novelists. His most famous works include “David Copperfield”, “Oliver Twist”, “A Christmas Carol”. These books show the social evils of Victorian England and at the same time they are full of humour and pathos.
2.  -------- is a Scottish film actor famous especially for playing the character of James Bond in several films, such as “Dr. No” and “From Russia with Love”.
3. -------- was crowned king of England after he invaded the country in 1066. He is remembered as the ruler who changed the organization of society and the laws about landowners.
4. -------- is one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting. He is commonly known as “the painter of light” and his work regarded as a Romantic preface to Impressionism.
5. -------- was an English comic actor and film director of the silent film era, and became one of the best-known film stars in the world before the end of the First World War.
6. -------- was a popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels. Among his most famous works is the romantic novel “The Last of the Mohicans”, often regarded as his masterpiece.
7. -------- is an American aviator and a former astronaut, test pilot and United States Naval Aviator who was the first person to set foot on the Moon in 1969. As he stepped onto the Moon, he said, “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind”

Possible Answers

.     a. Michael Collins                                                   g. William Turner

       b. Clark Gable                                                         h. Ernest Hemingway

       c. James F. Cooper                                                  i. Sean Connery

       d. Jack London                                                        j. Charlie Chaplin

       e. William the Conqueror                                        k. Christopher Wren

       f. Neil Armstrong                                                    l. Charles Dickens                            

Task 9

Match the names of the places, famous people, etc. (1-14) on the left with the categories and the countries (A-H) on the right.

Task10

True or false? Read the statements below and mark each of them as True or False.

1. The majority of schools in Britain are free so that parents don’t have to pay to send their children to these schools.
2. British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was assassinated in the twentieth century.
3. Between 1702 and 1837 the monarchy’s official residence was St. James’s Palace.
4. The London Underground is commonly called the Metro.
5. There are 13 players in a cricket team.
6. Traditionally a double-decker is a big sandwich.
7. “Alice in Wonderland” was written by Lewis Carroll.
8. The “Angel of the North” is a famous nurse from Scotland.
9. Morris men do a traditional dance wearing bells and ribbons.
10. Hogmanay is a kind of Scottish sausage.

Task 11

Match the dates and the holidays. Put your answers into the answer sheet.

Task 12

What do the following abbreviations stand for?

1. BC___________________________________________________
2. VIP __________________________________________________
3. UFO__________________________________________________
4. DIY___________________________________________________
5. IBM___________________________________________________

6. BBC-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

7. mph -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

8. HAND --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Викторина по страноведению «По странам изучаемого языка»

Answer Sheet, 9-11

Task 1                                  Task 2                                                                          Task 3

Task 4                                                                     Task 5                          Task 6

Task 7                                              Task 8                                     Task 9

Task 10                                           Task 11                          

Task 12

KEY

Task 1                                  Task 2                                                                          Task 3

Task 4                                                                     Task 5                          Task 6

Task 7                                              Task 8                                     Task 9

Task 10                                           Task 11                          

Task 12