Olimpiada de Limba Engleză LICEU – Etapa locală

An școlar 2023-2024
Clasa a IX-a, SECȚIUNEA B
SECTION A - USE OF ENGLISH (40p)
I. Read the following text and do the tasks that follow. Write the answers on your answer sheet. (10p)
The power of the wind has been used for centuries to directly drive various machines to perform such tasks as grinding wheat or pumping
water. Recently, however, the wind has joined other natural forces such as water and steam as a viable method of generating electricity.
Conventional means of electricity generation using coal or oil-fuelled plants have two major drawbacks: they pollute the environment and
the fuels they use are inefficient and non-renewable. In response to growing environmental awareness there have been calls for a
greener alternative. Nuclear power, while more efficient and less polluting, is seen by many people as unacceptable, because of the
danger of accidents such as those that happened at Chernobyl or Three Mile Island. Wind power, however, is clean, renewable and, with
modern advances, surprisingly efficient.
A. Choose the right synonym. (3x1p=3p)
1. viable a. feasible b. sensible c. retainable d. cogent
2. drawbacks a. aids b. snags c. boons d. blunders
3. awareness a. erudition b. ignorance c. daftness d. mindfulness
B. Rephrase the following sentences so as to preserve the meaning. (3x1p=3p)
1. If I were you, I would not use nuclear power. WORTH
In my opinion, ________________________________ nuclear power.
2. I had not expected to find learning about the environment so interesting. IN
I am more __________________________________________________ I had expected.
3. If we don't look after our planet, everything could end in a catastrophe. OF
If we don't _________________________ our planet, everything could end in a catastrophe.
C. Choose from the 8 words given below the 4 words that fit in the following summary of the text. (4x1p=4p)
DESIGN - HARNESSED – TRADITIONAL – METHOD- DURABLE - TAMED - PREVALENT- RENEWABLE
Wind power, ____________(1) for centuries to grind wheat and pump water, has evolved into a feasible electricity generation
____________(2), joining forces like water and steam. ____________(3) methods using coal or oil are polluting and inefficient.
Nuclear power, while efficient, raises safety concerns. Wind power emerges as a clean, ____________(4), and efficient alternative,
addressing environmental awareness.
II. Use the word given in capitals to form a word that fits in the gap. Write the answers on your answer sheet. (10x1p=10p)
Every weekend in Britain thousands of hikers head off into the countryside
with the necessary (1) _______________ to enjoy their hill-walking. One thing they will EQUIP
not leave behind because it is considered an absolute (2) __________ is their Ordnance NECESSARY
Survey Map. These maps are (3) _______________ to the hiker as they are VALUE
very (4) _______________ , with up-to-date details about every part of the country. INFORM
The Ordnance Survey (5) _______________ in the eighteenth century BEGIN
and was (6) _______________ intended to provide the army of the time with ORIGIN
maps. Before this, most maps were inaccurate and (7) _______________ . Better maps RELY
were thought to be important because the country felt (8) _____________ by invasion THREAT
from abroad or (9) _______________ at home. The organization is still wholly owned REBEL
by the Government, but it was recently (10) _______________ trading fund status. GIVE
III. Some of the lines in the text below are correct, and some have a word which should not be there. On your answer sheet write
the number of the line and the extra-word, or a tick for each correct line. (10x1p=10p)
When I was young, I had argued with my _________had________
brothers and sisters all the time. I used to _____√__________
share with most of my toys with my brother, 1 ____________________
but he specialized in to keeping them for 2 ____________________
himself. When I asked about him for anything 3 ____________________
he simply used to refuse to give it to me, and 4 ____________________
then I became and very angry with him. Our 5 ____________________
sisters blamed for everything on us when our 6 ____________________
parents accused us of quarrelling all the time. 7 ____________________
My brother and I got up annoyed about this, 8 ____________________

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 but only succeeded them in making matters 9 ____________________
worse. Our parents didn’t approve of our quarrelling so much. 10 ___________________
IV. Translate into English. Write the answers on your answer sheet. (10p)
După trei luni în care trăisem pe unde apucasem, alături de străini sau de rude, eram în sfârșit în drum spre casă. De îndată
ce-am trecut de trecătoarea din munți și am văzut râul Swat, tata a început să plângă. Şi când am văzut cum arăta biata Mingora,
eram toți în lacrimi. Oriunde întorceam capul, vedeam clădiri în ruină, grămezi de vehicule distruse, mașini arse, geamuri sparte.
Obloanele de metal ale magazinelor fuseseră deschise cu forța, ferestrele sparte, iar rafturile lor golite. Fiecare clădire părea ciuruită
de gloanțe. Deși guvernul declarase că oamenii se pot întoarce în siguranță, multora le era încă frică să revină. Staţia de autobuz, de
obicei plină cu mașini colorate şi sute de călători, era acum părăsită şi printre pietrele din pavaj creștea vegetația.
(I am Malala – Malala Youaafzai)
SECTION B – INTEGRATED SKILLS (60p)
Read the following text and do the tasks:
I. You are going to read a newspaper article. Five sentences have been removed from the article. Choose the most suitable
sentence from the list A-F on the right for each part (1-5) of the article. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to
use. Write your answers on your answer sheet. (10 p)
Good preparation leads to success in ballet dancing. A former classical ballet dancer explains what ballet training involves
What we ballet dancers do is instinctive, but instinct learnt through a decade of training. A dancer's life is hard to understand, and
easy to misinterpret. Many a poet and novelist has tried to do so, but even they have chosen to interpret all the hard work and
physical discipline as obsessive. And so, the idea persists that dancers spend every waking hour in pain, bodies at breaking point,
their smiles a pretence. As a former dancer in the Royal Ballet Company here in Britain, I would beg to question this.
1) ________ With expert teaching and daily practice, its various demands are easily within the capacity of the healthy human body.
Contrary to popular belief, there is no need to break bones or tear muscles to achieve ballet positions. It is simply a question of
sufficient conditioning of the muscular system. Over the course of my dancing life, I worked my way through at least 10,000 ballet
classes. I took my first at a school of dance at the age of seven and my last 36 years later at the Royal Opera House in London. In the
years between, ballet class was the first thing I did every day. It starts at an early age, this daily ritual, because it has to.
2) ________ But for a ballet dancer in particular, this lengthy period has to come before the effects of adolescence set in, while
maximum flexibility can still be achieved. Those first classes I took were remarkably similar to the last. In fact, taking into account
the occasional new idea, ballet classes have changed little since 1820, when the details of ballet technique were first written down,
and are easily recognised in any country. Starting with the left hand on the barre, the routine unrolls over some 75 minutes.
3) ________ Even the leading dancers have to do it. These classes serve two distinct purposes: they are the way we warm our
bodies and the mechanism by which we improve basic technique. In class after class, we prove the old saying that 'practice makes
perfect'.
4) ________ And it is also this daily repetition which enables us to strengthen the muscles required in jumping, spinning or lifting
our legs to angles impossible to the average person. The human body is designed to adapt to the demands we make of it, provided
we make them carefully and over time.
5) ________ In the same way, all those years of classes add up to a fit-for-purpose dancing machine. This level of physical fluency
doesn't hurt; it feels good. As technology takes away activity from the lives of many, perhaps the ballet dancer's physicality is ever
more difficult for most people to imagine. But they should not be misled: there is a difference between hard work and hardship.
Dancers have an everyday familiarity with the first. Hardship it isn't.

A. Through endless tries at the usual exercises and frequent failures, ballet dancers develop the natural pathways in the brain
necessary to control accurate, fast and smooth movement.
B. The ballet shoe offers some support, but the real strength is in the muscles, built up through training.
C. It takes at least a decade of high-quality, regular practice to become an expert in any physical discipline
D. Ballet technique is certainly extreme but it is not, in itself, dangerous.
E. The principle is identical in the gym - pushing yourself to the limit, but not beyond, will eventually bring the desired result.
F. No one avoids this: it is ballet's great democratiser, the well-established members of the company working alongside the newest
recruits.
II. Your English teacher asked you to write a review about an extracurricular coursebook you have read recently. It could be any
type of coursebook (arts, photography, chess, language, etc.). In your review you should: give details about the coursebook; write
about the most interesting things you learned; recommend the coursebook to other people. Write between 200-220 words.
(50p)