OLIMPIADA DE LIMBA ENGLEZA

ETAPA PE SCOALA, clasa a VIII-a

IANUARIE 2020

SUBIECTUL I:

1. Read the text below and look carefully at each line. Some of the lines are correct, and some
have a word which should not be there. If a line is correct, put a tick (√). If a line has a word
that should not be there, write the word. 10 POINTS

1 It was lovely to get your letter, congratulations!

2 Of course I would love for to come to the party.

3.What finally made you decide to get enganged?

4 I haven’t tried the Scottish dancing for a long time.

5 It was good advice to suggest me that I could travel

6 with the Smiths. I had talked to them last night when

7 I got your news. Can you explain how do we get there as

8 I am not got used to driving a long way. I told my mother and

9 she is delighted. Dad says I would look silly if I wore a kilt but

10 other men will be wearing them as well, won’t they?

2. Read the text below and decide which answer A, B, C or D best fits each space. 15 POINTS

The relative importance of upbringing and genes is often discussed. The study of twins provides us with
1…… fascinating results. Darlene and Doris Hewitt’s parents were 2……. when they were tiny. For 3……..
reason they were adopted by separate families. Darlene was 4……. on one of the most 5 ….. sheep farms
you could imagine, while Doris was brought up in Sydney. Strangely enough, Darlene’s 6….. seems to
have been happier, as Doris’s in a smart 7…… was strict. 8…… by chance, the twins bumped into each
other in a department store. ‘It was just 9….. looking into a mirror,’ Darlene said. When it was 10…. That
they had the same birthday, they realized the truth. They both have the same 11…. character and are
rather 12….. from a love of good food. Both trained as nurses and married husbands called Bob. They
13…. many of the same gestures. For instance, they both rub their noses when they are thinking 14… .
they believe they must 15…. the parents they never knew.
 1 A very B extremely C much D obviously
2 A vanished B died C killed D disappeared
3 A one B any Ca D some
4 A lifted B risen C raised D elevated
5A alone B remote C sole D solitary
6A childhood B childlike C childish D children
7A outskirts B suburb C outside D edge
8A almost B nearly C quite D rather
9A like B alike C as D likeness
10A came across B located C discovered D looked for
11A live B alive C lively D living
12A frail B plump C weight D slim
13A divide B split C share D lend
14A hard B lot C hardly D a lot of
15A take after B look after C look into D take off

3. Complete the text below with one word that best fits each space. 15 POINTS

Many centuries ago, a rich man asked a monk called Sengai to write down a 1………of wisdom which his
family would be 2………..to treasure for generations and help guarantee 3………..future wealth and
happiness. The monk 4…… a large sheet of paper and wrote: ‘Father dies, son dies, grandson dies.’

When he saw this 5 ….. rich man became angry and 6 …… the wise man of playing some kind of tasteless
joke on 7….. . The monk calmly explained: ‘If your son 8……… to die before you, then this would cause
you great unhappiness. And if your grandson passed 9….. before either of you this would cause you
10….. greater misery. 11……., if generation 12……… generation of your family leaves this life in the
natural order I have described, now this is 13….. I call the basis of true happiness and posterity.’

Hearing 14….. the rich man calmed down and realized the wisdom of what the monk ….15 told him.

4. Read the text below and use the word given in capitals at the end of each line to form a word
that fits the space in the same line. 10 POINTS

The gap between rich and poor countries seems to be widening. There is nothing 1…….. MYSTERY
about this. Rich countries control modern technology and in turn industrial 2…....... , all DEVELOP
the while exploiting those poor countries which produce raw materials. The 3………. felt ANGRY
towards the rich by the billions of people locked into 4………………… is quite POOR
5………….. . UNDERSTAND
They feel like victims who are 6………..... to change their fate. POWER
This is a 7………….. situation for everyone because one day they will rise up to claim their DANGER
8…………… and take revenge on the minority which exploits them. Rich countries must FREE
develop a new 9……………… to deal fairly with their Third World partners and to attack WILLING
10…………….. . EQUAL
 5. Read the following text and choose from the sentences A-F the one that fits
each gap 1-5. There is one extra which you do not need to use. 25 POINTS

Because such a lot of basic Greek vocabulary is related to English, it’s fairly easy for
native English speakers to develop a good passive vocabulary very quickly. Louise
wanted to see if this made it easier for her to read Greek.
“When I learned French at school,” she says, “I tried to read novels with a dictionary,
but I always found so many words which I couldn’t understand that I never managed
to read more than a few pages. It really put me off”. With Greek she tried a different
strategy.
“I bought some Greek books from a second-hand bookshop,” she says. “Not Homer or
anything like that.”1 1 All the stories were really easy, and even my basic
vocabulary I could make a good stab at them.”
Louise used a marker pen to highlight all the words she wasn’t sure about. 2 This
wasn’t a lot, but it was still too many words to look them up in the dictionary. Each
time she stopped to look a word up, it broke the flow of the story. So, instead of
stopping each time she found a new word, she’d make a guess at what it meant, but
not stop reading. Then, when she’d got to the end of the chapter- usually four or five
pages- she’d look up all the highlighted words in the dictionary, and check how close
her guesses were.
She was surprised at how good she was. 3
Sometimes she was wrong, but quite often the story made it obvious that she’d made a mistake, and
she’d be able to backtrack and get it right. Some words were easier than others, of course.

4 For instance, if someone picked up an object and drank out of it, it had to be a cup, or a glass, or
a bottle, or a wineskin-the details probably didn’t matter. Or if the heroine was describing the man she
had just fallen in love with, she’d be unlikely to say he was stupid, ugly and bad-tempered. 5

Verbs were the hardest to guess; Louise could guess the general area easily enough, but often needed to
be more accurate than that to understand the story properly. Fortunately, the same words kept coming
up again and again, and each time she met one, she got a few more clues to what they really meant.

A. She might say something on these lines when she quarreled with him later, of course, but that
was another matter.
B. Almost all her guesses were partly correct.
C. These were romantic novels.
D. This was quite a challenge.
E. Things that the people in the story picked up or did something with were the easiest.
F. After about six months learning Greek, she found that she highlighted about 20 words on each
page of her novel.
SUBIECTUL al II-lea: 25 POINTS

There is a story competition in a magazine for young people. The story has to finish in the following way:

I could not believe that I was free at last.

Write your story in 120-150 words and give it an appropriate title. Pay attention to the
following:

 you don’t need to write long descriptions;

1. Introduction (paragraph 1 – set the scene)

Don’t count the words given.

 Toate subiectele sunt obligatorii.