Олимпиада по английскому языку 10-11 класс
олимпиадные задания по английскому языку (10, 11 класс)

I. READING

For question 1-6, choose which of the paragraphs A-G fit into the numbered gaps in the following magazine article. There is one extra paragraph which doesn’t fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on a separate answer sheet.

THE STORY OF THE LAMB-PLANT

According to the recent survey, 70 per cent of ten-year-olds living in Scotland’s big cities think that cotton comes from sheep. It’s easy enough to mistake the soft white stuff sold in fluffy balls in plastic bags at the local chemist’s shop or supermarket with the curly stuff on a sheep’s back, especially   when the only sheep you’ve seen are in books or on the TV. (1)

Rumours had first begun to circulate way back in the Middle Ages. The borametz, also known as the “lamb-plant”, was said to exist in Tartary, a far- away land stretching across Eastern Europe and Asia. None of those who told the various tales had actually seen it, but they’d always met men who had. ( 2 )

The man responsible for spreading the story in Britainwas John Mandeville, a knight of Englandwho left home in 1322, and for the next 34 years travelled about the world to many diverse countries. His account of what he saw was the medieval equivalent of a bestseller, and was translated in every European language. He wrote that he too had seen a type of fruit that when opened, proved to contain a small white creature that looked in every way to be a lamb. ( 3 )

This was apparently proof enough for Mandeville and those who passed on the story. With each telling, the story gained more details and greater credibility. But in the 16th and 17thcenturies, people learned more about the world and its inhabitants. As doubts crept in, more sceptical travellers set out in search of the mysterious lamb of Tartary. (4 )

And so it went on. As soon as anyone voiced doubts, someone else popped up with new “evidence” of the lamb’s existence. In 1605, Frenchman Claude Duret devoted a whole chapter of a book on plants to the borametz. But then, 80 years later, the great traveler Engelbrecht Kaempfer went east looking for it. He found nothing but ordinary sheep. The number of believers was dwindling, and in Londonthe renowned scientific academy, the Royal Society, decided it was time to “kill off” the borametz for food. (5 )

This, the Society reckoned, was what had started the ancient rumours. They proclaimed it to be a “specimen” of a borametz, in fact. Hans Sloane, founder of the BritishMuseum, described the specimen in a contemporary publication: it was made from the root of a tree fern, had four legs and a head and seemed to be shaped by nature to imitate a lamb. The four-footed fake also had “wool” of a dark golden yellow. Despite this discrepancy in the colour of its fleece, the Royal Society considered the case closed. ( 6 )

The answer was there all along in the writing of ancient travelers. While researching his bookSea Monsters Unmasked, the observant Henry Lee kept coming across detailed descriptions of plants that sounded far more like the prototype borametz. The Royal Society, Lee decided, had settled for something so unlikely it had to be wrong. What so many had imagined to be a mythical animal in fact turned out to be ordinary cotton.

A And so it was, more or less, for 180 years. Then a little known naturalist pointed out that their so-called “original” lamb-plant was a false clue. There was, however, a plant that had almost certainly given rise to the notion of the borametz.

B  There’s certainly doubt as to whether this was based on first-hand experience, but the contemporary guidebooks were certainly available. A few years earlier, a monk who came from a monastery nearPadua, wrote that “there grow fruits, which when they are ripe and open, display a little beast much like a young lamb”. He claimed he had heard this from reliable sources.

C The best way, it felt, was by showing people how the idea had begun. It was then lucky enough to suddenly receive a curious object from China, a sort of toy animal made from a plant with a few extra bits stuck on to give it a proper number of limbs.

D In some versions the “vegetable lambs” were the fruits of a tree that grew from a round seed. When the fruits ripened, they burst open to reveal tiny lambs with soft white fleece that the natives used to make their cloth. In others, the seed gave rise to a white lamb that grew on a stalk rooted in the ground, and lived by grazing on any plants it could reach.

E There’s less excuse for the generations of explorers, scholars and philosophers who were perhaps even more naïve. They were all happy to accept the story that the soft fibres trom which eastern people wove fine white cloth came, in fact, from a creature that was half-plant, half-animal.

F  Distorted descriptions of the cotton plants seen inIndia preceded the actual plants by many years. In the meantime, traders bought samples of cotton “wool” along trade routes that passed through Tartar lands. To those who had never seen raw cotton, this fine “Tartar wool” looked like something that might come from the fleece of a lamb.

G  Still it eluded them, yet most came home convinced that it existed. One of these was a powerful baron who represented theHoly Roman Empire at the Russian court. The baron had dismissed the sheep-on-stalk as fable until he heard the creature described by a “person in high authority” whose father had once been an envoy to take the King of Tartary. The story was enough to convince the baron.

II USAGE

For questions 1-15, read the text below and then decide which word ( A, B, C or D) best fits each space. Mark the correct letter on an answer sheet.

SMART DOG!

Dogs are probably much cleverer than most people think, They are  convinced that dogs can count and that the animals  try to (1) …  different messages through the pitch and pace of their barks. Animal behaviourists used to think their bark was simply a way of ( 2 )…  attention. Now a new study suggests that individual dogs have ( 3 ) …  barks with a range of meanings. For example, dogs usually use high-pitched single barks when they are ( 4 ) …  from their owners and a lower, harsher superbark when strangers ( 5 ) …  towards them or the doorbell rings.

Dogs also know when they are receiving fewer treats because they have a basic mathematical ability that ( 6 ) …  them to tell when one pile of objects is bigger than another. But to count, an animal has to recognize that each object in a set ( 7 ) … to a single number and that the last number in a ( 8 ) …  represents the total number of objects.

The theory has been tested on eleven dogs. They were first ( 9 ) …  treats before a screen was lowered so that the treats were out of ( 10 ) …   . The treats were left as they were or some were added or taken away. If a treat was added or taken away, the dogs looked at them much longer than they did when the treats were not disturbed, ( 11 ) …  because they had done their sums and the numbers did not meet their ( 12 ) … .

Dogs are (13 ) … from wolves, which not only have a large neo-cortex – the brain’s centre of reasoning – but live in large social groups. This mathematical ability could have been used to (14 ) …  how many enemies and ( 15 ) …  they had in a pack.

III. QUIZ

1. The population of theBritish Islesbefore the Anglo-Saxon invasion was mostly of … origin.

A. Roman   B. Iberian   C Celtic   D. Latin

2. The king who united Anglo-Saxons underWessexreign, organized resistance to the Danish invaders and promoted science and education was King … .

A. Arthur   B. Alfred   C. Ethelbert   D. Harold

3. The battle ofHastingsin which the Anglo-Saxon troops were defeated took place in … .

A. 1066   B. 1235   C. 1380   D. 1551.

4. The Christ Church College which is known for many of its famous graduates belongs to … University.

A.London   B. Birmingham   C. Oxford   D.Cambridge.

5. Cockney is a certain kind of …

A. language   B. sport   C. literature genre   D. aristocratic title.

6. The Declaration ofIndependencefromGreat Britainwas adopted in …

A. 1685   B. 1776   C. 1777   D.1867.

7. The Caribbean Crisis during which theUSAand theUSSRwere on the brink of nuclear war was when …  was at office.

A. Dwight Eisenhower   B. Lyndon Johnson   C. John F. Kennedy   D. Ronald Reagan

8. O. Henry is a pseudonym of … .

A. James F. Cooper   B. William S. Porter   C. Samuel Clemens   D. Henry Longfellow.

9. Which of the following is not a borough ofNew York?

A. Queens   B. Bronx   C. Brooklyn   D.Harlem.

10.Hollywoodis a suburb of … .

A.New York   B. Chicago   C.San Francisco   D.Los Angeles

Олимпиада по английскому языку для 10 - 11 класса

( школьный тур)

Школа № _______

Класс __________

Фамилия, имя учащегося _______________________________________

Фамилия, имя учителя _________________________________________

Write your answers in the tables.

 I. Reading

 II. English in use

 III. Quiz

Общий балл _________

 Олимпиада по английскому языку для 10 - 11 класса

( школьный тур)

KEYS

I. Reading

1E  2D  3B 4 G 5C  6A

II. USAGE

1B  2B  3A 4C  5D 6C  7A  8A 9C  10D  11B  12 D  13A  14B 15C

III. Quiz

1C  2B  3A 4C  5A  6B 7C  8B  9D  10D