Школьная олимпиада по английскому языку 9-11 классы
олимпиадные задания по английскому языку (9, 10, 11 класс) на тему

9-11 класс.

 (Чтение) Reading - Time 20 min

You are going to read an extract from an autobiography. For questions 1-7, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text. Put your answers to the answer sheet below.

A Visit Home

Amid the swarming, clattering travellers, railway staff and suitcases, I saw the thick, dark eyebrows of my brother Guy lift by approximately one millimetre in greeting as I came down the steps of the footbridge and out into the station forecourt. Guy speaks like most men in the village we come from, i.e. not at all until he has spent five minutes considering whether there are other means of communication he can use instead. His favourites are the eyebrow-raise, the shrug, and the brief tilt of his chin; if he is feeling particularly emotional, he may perform all three together. That morning, as I worked my bags through the other passengers, he kept his eyebrows raised. Standing in his work clothes, he looked rather out of place, resembling a large, solitary rusty nail in the midst of, but apart from, the crowd of people: his steel-capped boots, battered, formless jacket and heavy stubble seemed to be causing many people to give him a wide berth^[1], diverting their path to the exit rather than heading for it directly.

‘Hello, Guy’, I said.

‘Now then,’ he replied. ‘Give me one of your bags.’

‘Thank you,’ I said, and passed him a large bag.

‘Whatever have you got in here?’ he exclaimed.

My brother is appalled by indulgences such as luggage, although his exclamations are less aggressive than resignedly bemused. With Guy, you have to understand that when he asks what on earth you’ve got in a bag, it is a way of saying, ‘Hello, how are you?’

‘It’ll be the computer that’s heavy. And there are some books,’ I explained.

‘Books,’ he said wearily, shaking his head.

‘Sorry.’

‘Doesn’t matter,’ he said. ‘It’s not that heavy.’ He yanked the bag up onto his shoulder.

‘It’s nice to see you, Guy.’

Guy raised his eyebrows and chin five millimetres, and strode off towards the car park.

I felt relieved by his distracted, unemotional expression because it was usual: since he was a small child he had gone through much of life looking as if he was pondering^[2] the answer to a complex mathematical problem. But as I caught up with him and looked at him from the side, I noticed dark half-circles below his eyes.

 ‘Are you all right, then?’ I said.

He raised his eyebrow again, and blew out through pursed lips. He looked as if he were trying to pop the features off his face. Then he gave me the sort of consolation smile you give people when they’ve asked a stupid question, batted his lashy black-brown eyes and shrugged.

‘You look a bit worn out,’ I said.

‘I should think I do,’ he said. ‘I’ve been doing twelve-hour days on the farm since July. Sling your bags into the back of the van then.’

This was not as straightforward as he made it sound. He used the van as a workshop, storage unit and mobile home, and so as well as the usual driving-dregs of sweet wrappers and plastic bottles, there was farm equipment of an often surprising scale – straw bales, black polythene barrels, bundles of shovels and forks, metal toolboxes which were themselves almost as large as small cars, and other tools which I did not recognise or understand. Intermingled with that were random, inexplicable household articles: sofa cushions, half a dozen plant pots and a roll of carpets.

I gingerly^[3] balanced my bags on some boxes, and then walked round the van and climbed into the front passenger seat. Guy stamped down the accelerator and we shot out of the car park. Guy looked straight ahead into the traffic, lifted his eyebrows and moved his mouth in what may or may not have been a grin. As we drove through the city, I watched his face to try to catch his expression when the half-grin lapsed, but he just lost himself in nonchalant concentration on the other cars and vans around us. For something to do, I turned on the radio and began retuning it. This caused a very loud static noise to fill the cab, and Guy to jerk round in his seat, shouting, ‘Don’t fiddle with that radio.’

I snapped it off, and looked at him again. ‘Sorry’.

‘Never mind,’ he said. ‘It only plays one station and it takes me ages to get that. There are some CDs in the glove compartment. Put one of those on instead.’

I put a CD on but as we accelerated off at the bypass roundabout the music was drowned out by the engine noise anyway.

It takes only twenty minutes to drive through the hills to our village, but that day the journey seemed to take forever. Neither of us could think of anything to say to each other so Guy pretended to concentrate on the speed of his windscreen wipers which were keeping the driving rain off the windscreen so he could see the road ahead. I, on the other hand, leant my forehead against the side window, looking out at the scenery which was so familiar to me but was actually obliterated by the horizontal rain.

1. What aspect of Guy’s personality is the writer reinforcing when he says ‘if he is feeling particularly emotional, he may perform all three together’?

A  His facial expressions are difficult to interpret.

B  His speech is always backed up by non-verbal expressions.

C  He is very controlled when expressing his feelings.

D  He can give out conflicting messages about what he is thinking.

2.  What is meant by many people giving Guy ‘a wide berth’?

A  People were staring at him because of the way he looked.

B  People were getting annoyed with him because he was in their way.

C  People did not understand what he was doing there.

D  People did not feel comfortable getting too close to him.

3.  How does the writer feel when Guy complains about his bag?

A  He knows he shouldn’t take the complaint seriously.

B  He thinks Guy is making an unnecessary fuss.

C  He wishes Guy had not greeted him with a complaint.

D  He is embarrassed about bringing so much luggage.

4.  As they walk towards the car park, the writer realises that

A  he is not being sensitive enough about Guy’s situation.

B  there is a change in Guy’s normal behaviour.

C  Guy’s expression seems more worried than usual.

D  he had more reason to be concerned about Guy than he initially thought.

5. What does the writer exaggerate when he is describing the back of the van?

A  the combination of items

B  the size of the items

C  how old the items were

D  how many items were unnecessary

6. Guy gets annoyed in the van because

A  the radio doesn’t work properly.

B  he prefers to listen to CDs.

C  the radio made a terrible noise.

D his brother touched the radio.

7. What does the writer say about the journey in the van?

A  He preferred to look out at the countryside rather than talk.

B  He didn’t speak to Guy because the driving conditions were difficult.

C  The fact that they travelled in silence seemed to make it longer.

D  It was much slower than usual because of the weather.

Answer sheet

(Лексико-грамматическое задание) Use of English - Time 30 min

Task 1

For questions 11-20 match two parts of 10 idioms. There is one extra part in the second column. Put your answers to the answer sheet below.

Answer sheet

Task 2

For questions 1-10 read the text below and decide which word (A, B, C or В) fits the space best. Example: (0) just.  Put your answers to the answer sheet below.

On the other hand?

We left-handed people lack collective pride. We (0) just  try to get by, in our clumsy way. We make (1)______ demands and we avoid a fuss. I used to say whenever someone watched me sign my name and remarked that he or she was also left-handed: “You and me and Leonardo da Vinci!” That was a weak joke, (2)________ it contained my often unconscious desire to belong to Left Pride, a social movement that (3) _____ far doesn’t exist but I hope may one day come. There are many false stories about the left-handed (4)______ circulation: for example, a few decades ago someone wrote that Picasso was left-handed, and others kept repeating it, but the proof is all (5)______ the contrary. The great genius Einstein is often still claimed as one of ours, also (6)____ proof. And sadly there is also no truth in the myth that the left-handed tend to be smarter and more creative.

(7)_____ the amount of research that has been carried out, researchers in the field still find it hard to decide precisely what we mean by left-handed. Apparently a third of those who write with their left hand throw a ball with their right. (8)____, those using their right hand for writing rarely throw with their left. A difficult skill that becomes crucial at a most impressionable age, writing defines (9)_____ you will call yourself. I have never used scissors, baseball bat, hockey stick or computer mouse with anything but my right; (10)_____ so, I think I’m left-handed as does everyone else.

Answer sheet

Task 2

For questions 21-25 complete the sentences below using the CORRECT GRAMMAR FORM of the phrasal verbs in the box. There are three odd phrasal verbs which you do not need to use.  There is an example (0) done for you. Put your answers to the answer sheet below.

1. Ronaldo was sent off during yesterday’s football match.

21.  If you ___________ my glasses, please let me know as I can’t see anything without them!
22.  Train fares ______________ twice already this year. It’s really outrageous.
23.  Please _____________ what you just said and apologize to Jack.
24.  Don’t believe anything Alison says. She’s always _______________ stories.
25.  The doctors managed to _______________ David ______________ after the accident, but he had to stay in hospital for a while to recover from the consequences.

Answer sheet

(Письмо) Writing - Time 30 min

You have decided to throw a surprise party for your brother. Write a letter to a friend inviting him/ her to the party. Give details about the party as well as directions on how to get there. (120-180 words)