Материал по чтению
олимпиадные задания по английскому языку (10, 11 класс) на тему

Reading

Time: 20 minutes

Task 1.

Read the text and match sentences 1‐8 below with paragraphs A‐F of the text.

The History of BMX Biking

A. BMX biking began in the late 1960s in southern California. It’s based on the sport of motocross, which dates back to 1924 and involves racing motorbikes across rough tracks. It started when children began to copy motocross riders by racing their bikes on tracks which they built themselves. This new form of bike racing was named bicycle motocross, or BMX.

B. In July 1971, a movie about motocross called ‘On Any Sunday’ came out. At the start of the film a group of kids from California are shown riding their bicycles as if they were riding motorbikes. This helped to make BMX biking more popular. Soon BMX races attracted hundreds of riders.

C. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the most famous BMX bike was the Schwinn Sting‐Ray; this was the bike every young rider wanted to own. At this time 70 per cent of all bicycle sales in the USA were either the Sting‐Ray or similar models. By the mid 1970s BMX design had improved a lot and there were many new models to choose from. But the bikes all had the same sized wheels and usually only one brake.

D. In 1977, the American Bicycle Association was formed to organize the competitions and to make the rules. The sport was also becoming popular in other parts of the world, particularly in Europe. The first BMX world championship was held in Indianapolis, USA, in 1978. Most of the 165 competitors were teenagers, but there were also children competing in special races for the under 8s and under 12s. There were separate races for boys and girls. There weren’t many nationalities present at this competition; apart from Americans there were only a few riders from Australia, Japan and Venezuela.

E. Since that time the number of races for adults has grown very quickly, but BMX racing didn’t become a full Olympic sport until the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Maris Stromberg from Latvia won the first ever Olympic men’s gold medal for BMX racing and Anne‐Caroline Chausson from France became the first women’s champion.

F. As the popularity of BMX grew, riders were constantly testing the limits of their bikes. BMX wasn’t just  about  racing  any  more.  Riders  began  to  take  their  bikes  to  skateboard  parks  and  started performing tricks and jumps. This became known as ‘freestyle’ and riders soon began to practice this as much as racing.

1. There were races for different age groups at the first BMX world championships.  ____

2. BMX freestyle started because BMX riders wanted new challenges.     ____

3. BMX biking was invented by children.         ____

4. The Schwinn Sting‐Ray was the favourite model of BMX riders to begin with.   ____

5. More BMX bikes were sold than any other type of bike in the USA in the early 1970s.____

6. Many people learned about BMX biking from a film.      ____

7. BMX biking appeared more than 40 years after its prototype – motocross.   ____

8. Some riders from Asia and Latin America took part in the first BMX world championship.  ____

Task 2

For questions 9 – 20, read the following text and choose from the list A – L given below the best phrase to fill the space.

1. An alliance of three city – states
2. A symmetrical system
3. A sophisticated civilization
4. Central features
5. Ritual arenas
6. Design masterpieces
7. Art and death rituals
8. The ashes of the owners
9. Cocoa seeds
10. The  indigenous populations
11. Dazzling combinations
12. The cathedral of Mexico City

Secrets of the Aztec’s Glorious Civilization

The Aztec Empire flourished across the centre of what is now Mexico in the 14th and 15th centuries. It was (9) … - Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan.

In the 16th century, Spanish conquistadores discovered (10) … from which they would take many influences back to Europe and across the world.

Aztec cities were (11) … . The capital Tenochtitlan, over which Mexico City now stands, had (12) … of streets divided into suburbs connected by a network of roads and canals.

Art, poetry and song were (13) … of society – poetry was so highly regarded that it was seen as the only worthy occupation of a warrior in times of peace. Chocolate originated in the empire as chichi, a deer – like drink made from the pulp of (14) … .

Cjlossal sculptures of the Calendar Stone and the goddess Coatlicue were found near (15) … almost three hundred years ago. In 1978, The Great Temple of Tenochtitlan was found only a hundred yards away.

Leonardo Lopez Lujan’s new find lies only a few yards to the west, in what must have been one of the most important (16) … of the ancient capital. The relief panel portraying the goddess Tlaltecuhtli dwarfs almost all over Aztec art that we know, and would be a fitting marker for a royal tomb. If one exists, what it would be like?

Two elaborately decorated burial urns – those of “outstanding military captains” and thus high in the Aztec hierarchy – were found in the temple precincts some years ago and contained obsidian and jade ornfvtnts and spear points alongside (17) … .

Some of the finest Aztec jewels so far founds use stones and precious metal in (18) … . These may give us some ideas of what we might expect from a royal interment: but so far we do not have a single Aztec imperial burial.

The conquistadores destroyed the Aztec infrastructure after defeating the empire in 1521. In the next 60 years up to 80 per cent of (19) … died of smallpox, typhus and other illnesses drought over from Europe.

Whatever turns up will be more valuable for what it can tell us about Aztec life and (20) … than any price that could be put on it.

Transfer your answers to the answer sheet!