OLIMPIADA DE LIMBA ENGLEZĂ – ETAPA LOCALĂ

16 FEBRUARIE 2019
Clasa a X-a SECȚIUNEA A
Toate subiectele sunt obligatorii.
Timpul de lucru este 3 h.
Nu se acordă puncte din oficiu.

SUBIECTUL A – USE OF ENGLISH (40p)

I.Read the following text and put the verbs in brackets in the correct tense (10 x1p = 10p)

Ever since Dolly the sheep 1)......................................... (be) cloned in 1997, scientists, politicians and
theologians 2) .......................................... (discuss) the question of whether or not the cloning of human beings
3) ..........................................(should/allow). If cloning does become a reality one day, it 4)
..................................(raise) many questions. Many scientists want cloning 5)............................(be) legalised.
They believe that if it 6) .....................................(be) legal to clone human beings, it 7)
....................................(be) possible to create a superior race. Many childless couples also wish the government
8).......................................(allow) cloning. If this 9) ...............................(be) the only way for you to have a
child, you 10).................................. (may) agree with them too.

II.Use the word given in brackets to form a word that fits in each sentence. (10 x 1p = 10p)

1.I wear a lot of make-up in order to feel ____________________(CONFIDENCE)

2.I am a very ______________ person. I can never wait. (PATIENT)
3.I always have my cell phone with me. I am completely ___________without it (HELP).
4.Mom hates those shoes. They are so ________________ (COMFORT)
5.My brother bought an outdoor jacket. It's so __________when he goes hiking. (PRACTICE)
6.It will be a _____________day today. The sun isn't going to come out. (CLOUD)
7.Eating chips is not very _______________ (HEALTH).
8.Most of our possessions are _____________. We could live just as well without them. (REPLACE)
9.She is really a ____________ person. She can play three different instruments and sing as well. (MUSIC)
10.The manual is completely ___________. All the information is out-of-date. (USE)

III. Read the following text and decide which answer A, B, C or D best fits in each gap (10 x 1p = 10p)

The Virtual Assistant

Personal (0 ) ....A....are no more. They have been replaced with a much more (1)...........version called virtual
assistants (VAs). VAs do not work in big city offices dressed in (2) ..........black suits. Nor do they work
exclusively for one (3)............ . The VA works from home and may help to run the lives of up to 30 business
people simultaneously. They are selfemployed and (4)..........by the hour allowing great flexibility on both sides.
VAs have more equality than (5) .......... PAs; they have customers rather than bosses. There are a few
disadvantages to the job; you work alone all day and so have no colleagues to chat to over coffee and you can
(6) ......... the social interaction. But on the plus side no day is ever the same. There is no boring routine or rigid
(7)..........and the variety of jobs you might be asked to do means it is never (8) ............ . Clients who employ a
VA benefit from being able to outsource. Their VA can do the tasks they don’t have time to do; typing, filing,
(9)........... flights, and even (10)............to clients. VAs are perfect for the self-employed and small businesses,
they don’t need annual salaries and can be employed for one-off days or weeks.

Example: 0. A assistants В helpers С supporters D colleagues

1. A free В flexible С adjustable D rigid
2. A informal В smart С neat D clean
3. A chief В leader С boss D director
4. A charged В earned С rewarded D paid
5. A traditional В old С original D ancient
6. A lose В lack С forget D miss
7. A agenda В diary С timetable D journal
8. A still В slow С regular D dull
9. A ordering В finding out С booking D paying
10. A talking В discussing С telling D explaining

IV. Rephrase the following sentences using the word in bold. Use between 2 and 5 words, including the
word given. DO NOT CHANGE THE WORD GIVEN. (10 x 1p = 10p)

1. "How about going to the cinema tonight?", said Anne.

suggested Ann ............................ to the cinema.

2. My advice to you is to talk to your parents.

would If .................................. talk to my parents.

3. Barry wasn't strong enough to lift the box.

have Barry didn't .............................. to lift the box.

4. They started the company in 1997.

set The company ................................... 1997.

5. I think Jean really likes Simon.

keen Jean ................................ Simon.
6. I was made responsible for foreign sales.
charge They put .................................. foreign sales.

7. The brothers really enjoyed themselves in Spain last summer.

time The brothers really ................................... in Spain last summer.
 8. The Queen is opening the new school tomorrow afternoon.
opened The new school ....................................Queen tomorrow afternoon.

9. He doesn't have enough money to buy the computer.

too The computer ..................... to buy.

10. "You should start a new hobby, Mr. Jenkins", the doctor said.
take The Doctor advised ............................ a new hobby.

SUBIECTUL B – INTEGRATED SKILLS (60p)

Read the text below and do the tasks that follow.
One day last summer, when Joey had been arrested yet again for yet another burglary, his solicitor went
down to the police station to see him. He sat down opposite him in the interview room, sighed and asked him
straight: „Joey, why do you do it?‟ Joey looked straight back and told him „I dunno. I gotta buy fags, drink.
There‟s drugs and things. I gotta girl. It‟s money, you know…‟ Joey shrugged, like any man with a weight on
his mind: Joey was then eleven years old.
Soon afterwards, he became a household name when, in October last year, he was locked away in a
secure unit outside Leeds where his peers weren‟t that far off from coming of age. His incarceration required
the personal authority of the Home Secretary. As he was led away from court, he hurled insults at the press and
then disappeared in a cloud of publicity.
He became a caricature – „the Artful Dodger‟, „Britain‟s most notorious crook‟, „Crime baby‟. „the
Houdini Kid.‟ He made all the papers. Soon his case was being used as ammunition in a sustained assault
which has seen the Home Secretary, the Police Federation, the Daily Express and various Chief Constables
campaigning to lock up more children.
They pointed not only to Joey but to a rash of other adolescent delinquents: the eleven-year-old brother
and sister whose attempted arrest caused a riot at a wedding party: the six „Little Caesars‟ from Northumbria
who were blamed for 550 offences: the thirteen-year-old armed robber from Cheshire. Their solution was
simple: these children had to be punished: the courts needed more powers to put them behind bars.
Joey grew up with his father, Gerry, a Southern Irish labourer who has not worked regularly for years,
and his mother, Maureen, also Irish and barely literate, who was only eighteen when she married Gerry, fifteen
years her senior. The neighbours remember Joey playing with his go-cart in the street, running around with his
two smaller brothers, banging on the door to scrounge cigarettes for Gerry. They say he was a nice kid. They
remember him skiving off school, too, and thieving, but they don‟t remember it well. Almost everybody‟s kid
skives off school, and a lot of them go thieving. Gerry says he‟s not sure when Joey first broke the law. He
thinks he stole some crisps for dinner when he was four. In Gerry‟s family there has often been trouble with the
law: petty crimes, handling the occasional fight, a succession of brothers and uncles behind bars.
By the time he was 10, thieving was the only game Joey knew. He had 35 arrests behind him and the
social workers decided he had to be locked up. They had tried taking him into care but he had simply legged it
from where they put him so he was sent to the secure unit at East Moor outside Leeds. He liked it there.
Everyone at East Moor agrees that Joey liked it. It is not like a prison: there are no peaked caps or truncheons. It
is more like a school with extra keys.
Tucked away there, far from the mean crescents of the housing estate, he was a child again.
He played with lego. He practised joined-up writing. He woke up feeling ill in the night and cried on the
principal’s shoulder.
Joey is due to be released from the secure unit. Everyone who has dealt with him is sure that he will go
straight back to his old ways. They say they have given up on him. They have two options: lock him up or let
him go. Everyone in social services knows the danger of putting away a child: it breaks up the family, it
stigmatizes the child, it floats him in a pool with older criminals.
Yet letting him go is no better, not when it means returning to the battered streets of the city. Joey is not
the only child like this. Every English city has them. Joey just happens to be the famous one. He‟s bright and
he‟s brave and the psychiatrists agree he is not disturbed. He is, by nature, anxious to please. In the secure unit
now, he conforms with everything around him. If you throw a child into the sea, it will drown. If you throw it
into an English ghetto, it will grow up like Joey.

I. For each question choose the correct letter A, B, C or D (5 x 2p= 10p)

1.Joey became famous because

A. he had committed so many burglaries.
B. he was always being arrested.
C. he was the youngest inmate in the secure unit.
D. he swore at the press photographers.

2. How did the Home Secretary and the police respond to the rise in juvenile crime?
A. They wanted to see more young criminals put in prison.
B. They believed that there should be a return to corporal punishment.
C. They thought that the courts had too much power.
D. They thought that the police force should be strengthened.

3. What can the neighbours recall about Joey?

A. He smoked cigarettes.
B. He was a bully.
C. He started stealing when he was four.
D. He played truant from school.

4. Why was it decided that Joey should go to secure unit?

A. He refused to give up thieving.
B. He kept running away from the homes.
C. He behaved better in a secure unit.
D. He was too old for the children‟s home.

5. What does the writer think is the main cause of Joe’s behaviour?
A. He is a victim of his own circumstances.
B. He is unable to sort himself out.
C. He has been forced to behave in an anti-social way.
D. He has been badly treated by the police.

II. Read the text again and write a narrative-descriptive essay about one of Joey’s wild adventures
which fortunately had a happy ending.
Your writing should refer to what exactly happened, the atmosphere of the place or the places
where the events took place and his feelings and emotions. (200-220 words).
(50 p)