SUBIECTUL A – USE OF ENGLISH

I. Fill each of the numbered blanks in the following passage. Use only one word in each
space. (10X1p=10 points)
From a close study of history you would never gain the impression that human behaviour
is dictated by intelligence, …………. (1) less by responsible morality. An observer from
……….. (2) planet, devoid ……………….(3) instincts himself and unaware of the way in
………………..(4) instincts, the aggressive instinct in ……………(5), operate among us,
would be at a complete …………….(6) to explain history at…………..(7). The
phenomena of history do………… (8) have reasonable causes. It is a mere commonplace
………… (9) say that they are caused by …………… (10) common parlance so aptly
called “human nature”.

II. Read the text below and use the word given in capital to form words that fit in the
gaps. (10X1p=10 points)

Performance Art began in the 1960s in the United States and was originally a term used to
describe a live event that often included poets, (1) ………………. (MUSIC), film makers
and so on, in (2)……………(ADD) to visual artist. There were earlier(3)………..
(PRECEDE) for this art form, including the Dadaists in France , who combined poetry and
visual arts, and the Bauhaus in Germany, whose members used live theatre (4)
………………(WORK) to explore the (5)…………(RELATION) between space, sound
and light .
By 1970, Performance Art was a (6)……….. (GLOBE) term and its definition had
become more specific. Performances had to be live and they had to be art not theatre.
Performance Art could not be bought, sold or traded. Performance artists saw their
movement as a means of taking art directly to the public thus completely eliminating the
need for galleries, agents, (7)…………….(ACCOUNT).and any other aspect of other
aspect of (8)………. (CAPITAL). In effect, it became a social commentary on the need to
maintain the absolute(9)……….(PURE)of art. One relatively recent form of Performance
Art is “mobbing”, an email-driven experiment in organizing groups of people who
suddenly (10)……(MATERIAL)in public places, interact with others according to a very
loosely planned scenario and then disappear just suddenly as they appeared.

III. Read the text below and decide which answer best fits each (10X1p=10 points)
For many young people journalism seems to be a career full of (1) ............. and
adventure. However, if you are thinking of (2)............. journalism, it is important to ask
yourself whether this is really for you. This is because there is another side to the world of the
journalist. Today news is everywhere: news (3).................are providing 24
hour(4)..........online while readers are clamouring for the latest headlines. However, it now
seems that working as a journalist is more dangerous than ever. The BBC reported that 168
journalists were killed in 2006, which is the most ever recorded. It is well (5)...............that
many of them were deliberately murdered to stop their stories reaching the public and it is
essential to do more to bring their killers to justice. ( 6) .......... , journalists are also at (7) .......
risk of physical attacks, intimidation and being (8)............. hostage. Press photographers too
must travel to some of the most violent and lawless places in the (9) .......... and their lives are
very different from the celebrity-chasing antics of the (10)........... .
1 A exploration B imagination C excitement D reality
2 A bringing up B taking up C making up D going up
3 A sites B headlines C agents D places
4 A downloads B print outs C updates D alerts
5 A decided B spoken C known D thought
6 A Furthermore B As well as C Because D However
7 A considerable B expanded C countless D sizable
8 A kidnapped B imprisoned C captured D printers
9 A planet B earth C world D globe
10 A cameraman B snappers C paparazzi D printers

IV. Rewrite each sentence so that it contains the word given in capitals, and so that the
meaning stays the same. The word can’t be changed in any way. Use between 3 to 6 words.
(5x2points=10 points)
1. Althought Sam looked for the book for a long time, he couldn’t find it
spent
Sam..............................................................................................for the book without success.
2. John and Mary can’t wait to move into their new flat.
looking
They................................................................................................................their new flat.
3. He might travel around Europefor two months after graduating.
considering
He................................................ around Europe for two months after graduating.
4. Their brother cancelled his camping trip because of the bad weather.
owing
.................................................weather, he cancelled his camping trip.
5. It doesn’t matter where you go in Rome, there is always something to see or do.
wherever
................................................in Rome, there is always something to see or do.

SUBIECTUL B- INTEGRATED SKILLS

Read the text below and do the tasks that follow.

Lisa Tyler was weary after a long, hard day at the pottery factory where she works. But as she
approached her home in the English city of Stoke-on-Trent, her heart lightened.; soon she
would be having a nice cup of tea, putting her feet up and watching Friends, her favourite TV
series. But first, she needed to change out of her work clothes and pick up her three-year-old
son from his grandmother’s house nearby.
As Lisa walked up her garden path, she noticed a light flashing on and off in an upstairs
bedroom. A shiver went down her back. What if it was a burglar? Quietly, she crept round to
the back of the house to see if there was any sign of a break-in. Sure enough, a window was
open and someone’s coat was hanging on the gatepost!
Well, 26-year-old Lisa didn’t fancy coming face to face with a burglar, so she ran to a
neighbour’s house and rang the police. But as she sat waiting for the police to arrive, Lisa’s
curiosity got the better of her and she decided to go back and see what was going on. That’s
when she saw a leg coming out of the downstairs front window. It was a man climbing out.
Lisa gasped in shock. The burglar was carrying her portable television!
At this point, Lisa saw red. She didn’t have many possessions and she’d saved long and hard
to buy that set. Besides, nobody was going to stop her watching Friends.
„Oh, no you don’t”, she muttered under her breath, as the fury swelled inside her. Without
even stopping to think, she tore across the garden and started shouting at the burglar. „Give
me my TV - drop it now!” she screamed.
Ignoring her, the man fled across the garden. So Lisa threw herself at him and successfully
rugby-tackled him to the ground. The burglar struggled to escape, but Lisa hung on like the
best kind of guard dog despite being punched and kicked. As she looked up, she realised that
she recognised the burglar’s face. She was so surprised that she lost her grip and burglar got
away, leaving the TV behind in the garden.
By the time the police and her father arrived, Lisa was in tears. „I can’t believe you were so
foolish, Lisa”, scolded her father. „You could have been killed.”
„I know, but at least he didn’t get my TV”, she replied.
Lisa later remembered the name of the burglar, who had been in the same year as her at
school. He was later caught and jailed for 15 months after admitting burglary and assault. In
May last year, Lisa was given a Certificate of Appreciation by Staffordshire Police, for her
„outstanding courage and public action”. But in the future she intends to leave household
security to a new member of her family, Chan, who is real guard dog.

I. Reading comprehension
For each question choose the correct letter A, B, C or D (5x2p=10 points)

1. How was Lisa feeling as she walked home from work?

A. tired
B. anxious
C. depressed
D. relieved

2. What first led Lisa to think there was a burglar in her house?
A. Something had been broken.
B. Something had been left outside.
C. Something was in the wrong place.
D. Something was moving inside.

3. Why didn’t Lisa wait in her neighbor’s until the police arrived?
A. She was worried about losing her television.
B. She wanted to know what was happening.
C. She noticed something from her neighbor’s window.
D. She realised that the burglar was leaving.

4. What happened when Lisa shouted at the burglar?

A. He tried to explain why he was there.
B. He fell over as he ran towards her.
C. He pretended not to have heard her.
D. He dropped the TV and attacked her.
 5. What did Lisa’s father do when he arrived?
A. He told her off.
B. He comforted her.
C. He praised her.
D. He argued with her.

SUBIECTUL A – USE OF ENGLISH

I. Fill in the gaps with one word. More than one option might be possible. (10 x1p =
10p)

Grandmothers are everywhere in Adjuntas and they’re all respectfully addressed as Dofia.
Lala Echevarria, an 85-yearold great-great-grandmother, was born (1) _____ the oldest street
in town, where she still lives in a small, immaculate home. Dofia Lala grew (2) _____ before
electricity and running water, and remembers (3) _____ the first car arrived in Adjuntas. ‘(4)
_____ a child, I used to spend all my time carrying water, finding firewood, looking after the
chickens and the cows,’ she said. ‘There were sixteen of us. We (5) _____ wash our clothes in
the river and we used to cook on an open fire. (6) _____ meal times, we kids would sit on the
floor to (7) _____.’ Dofia Lala was working as a maid when she met and married the love of
her life, Mariano the mechanic. They had thirteen children and shared 44 years before he (8)
_____ in 1983. She shows me the dozens of photographs of four generations of descendants
that now fill her tiny home. Traditions in Adjuntas (9) _____ back centuries to the mountains
of ancestral islands such as Mallorca, Tenerife and Corsica. People play the old songs in the
countryside and in little shops, like Lauro Yepez’s place (10) _____ men meet to swap stories
and have a drink. When I was there, troubadour Tato Ramos appeared and began to sing in a
centuries-old flamenco style. Word spread fast. The shop filled with working-class men
clapping, tapping and nodding to the music.

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

The minister for no oil

One thing you do not expect an oil minister to do is to block the (1) _________________
(DEVELOP) of his own country’s oil fields. But that is exactly what Alberto Acosta did when
he was (2) _________________ (POINT) Ecuador’s Oil Minister in 2007. For a (3)
_________________ (RELATIVE) poor country whose main income is from oil exports, this
proposal seemed like (4) _________________ (MAD). But if Ecuador is not rich by
economic standards, in terms of biodiversity, it is one of the richest places on Earth. When (5)
_________________ (SCIENCE) studied trees in the Yasuni National Park in Ecuador’s (6)
_________________ (SPOIL) rain forest, they found over 650 different species of tree in just
one hectare – more than the total number in all of the US and Canada combined. Mr Acosta
said he would rather the oil companies did not destroy these natural riches. His innovative
idea was to leave the oil (7) _________________ (SERVE) beneath Yasuni Park untouched,
in return for compensation of half their value. The oil is worth more than $7 billion, so
Ecuador asked the (8) _________________ (NATION) community to pay $3.6 billion not to
extract it.
But the plan has met with problems, both from within Ecuador and from (9)
_________________ (SIDE). The state oil company, Petroecuador, opposes the scheme and
many suspect that President Correa now wishes he had never supported it. At the same time
only a few countries have shown interest, with only Germany (10)
_________________(PROMISE) $800 million over thirteen years. Ecuador is not the only
country trying to get richer nations to pay for not exploiting their forests.(...)

III. For questions 1-10, read the text below and decide which answer (A, B, C or D) best
fits each gap. (10X 1p=10)

SELF DESCRIPTION
So the time has come for you to fill in your college application form. The best advice is to
imagine that you’re the person who’s choosing the applicants and to ask yourself what
valuable (1) _____ you – and you alone – can bring to the college in question. (2) _____
every justified opportunity to (3) _____ yourself in a positive light. You must (4) _____ that
you are clear-headed, keen to study your chosen subject – and that you can (5) _____ your
personality. Make the most of your interests – but bear in mind that any you (6) _____ may
be probed in depth at the interview.
Hopefully, you can (7) _____ a deep, thorough interest in one or two fields. Saying you’ve (8)
_____ a polar expedition is much more (9) _____ than saying you like to go for long walks.
If it’s true put it down! Remember to say what your hobbies have taught you. If you (10)
_____ as a gardener you will surely have informed ideas about the environment.

1 A. elements B. qualities C. factors D. recourses

2 A. catch B. apprehend C. have D. seize
3 A. advance B. present C. command D. proffer
4 A. show B. manifest C. declare D. display
5 A. deliver B. project C. practice D. identify
6 A. denote B. boast C. mention D. enumerate
7 A. take B. prove C. demonstrate D. reveal
8 A. captained B. led C. taken D. undergone
9 A. successful B. worthy C. impressive D. illustrious
10 A. serve B. work C. labour D. employ

IV. Rewrite each sentence so that it contains the word given in capitals, and so that the
meaning stays the same. The word can’t be changed in any way. Use between 3 to 6 words.
(5X 2p =10)

1. John didn’t know he had to phone his teacher if he was going to miss a class.
MEAN
John didn’t know..............................................his teacher a call if he was going to miss a
class.
2. I can barely cook a meal for myself, so I certainly couldn’t cook for eight people.
ALONE
I would struggle..............................................for eight people.
3. I don’t know how he is going to accept the fact that he has lost his job.
TERMS
I don’t know if he is going to..............................................his job.
4. They didn’t trust each other at all.
COMPLETE
There..............................................between them. .
5. There are few chances for me to visit my family these days.
GET
Hardly..............................................to visit my family these days.

SUBIECTUL B – INTEGRATED SKILLS (60 points)

Read the text below and do the tasks that follow.

You are going to read an article about happiness. For questions 1-5, choose the answer (A, B,
C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

A recent survey has examined the well-trodden ground of the relationship between pleasure
and money. Many studies have examined this, from any number of starting points, often
concluding, in the oldest of old clichés, that money can’t buy you happiness or, in more
sophisticated terms, that happiness and pleasure often reside, not in riches in absolute terms,
but in being richer than the people who happen to live to your left or your right. Other studies
have claimed that comparison with the wealth of others leads to a ’set-up for disappointment’
and that a good attitude is all that matters.
This most recent study inquired into the well-being of 136,000 people worldwide and
compared it to levels of income. It found, overall, that feelings of security and general
satisfaction did increase with financial status. Money, however, could not lift its possessors to
the next level, and was unable to provide enjoyment or pleasure on its own. The survey,
published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, examined large numbers of
people from almost every culture on Earth, and found much the same thing. The stereotype of
the rich man who finds life savourless and without pleasure was not invented simply to keep
the poor happy with their lot.
Paul Bloom addresses the same issue in his book How Pleasure Works. According to Bloom,
at the point when people get the thing they really want, they enter a state or perfect pleasure.
Both Bloom’s book and the enormous survey concentrate on status and on the moment of
getting possession of something we want. Are we satisfied and filled with pleasure when we
get what we want? Bloom, looking at eager consumers, would say ’yes’; the survey tends to
say ’not necessarily’. In my view, it’s rare that we can actually pin down the specific moment
when the feeling of pleasure is at its clearest.
Take the teenager determined to buy the latest must-have gadget, a woman setting out to get a
new handbag, or a prosperous businessman who wants to add to his collection of Japanese
netsuke. The setting out with the happy intention of spending; the entering of the shop; the
examination of the wares; the long decision; the handing over of the money; the moment
when the ownership of the goods is transferred; the gloating at home; the moment when the
object is displayed to others. All these steps form a process in enjoyment, but almost all of
them are redolent with anticipation or with retrospective glee. The moment where bliss is at
its peak is over in a flash, and hardly exists at all. Everything else is expectation or memory.
Composers have always known this simple, basic truth: pleasure is half anticipation and half
blissful recollection, and hardly at all about the fulfillment of the promise. The great musical
statements of ecstasy, such as Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde or Schubert’s first Suleika song,
are literally all half crescendo and half languid recall. We look forward to pleasure; we look
back on it. The moment of pleasure itself is over in a flash, and often rather questionable.
The hairband and geegaw emporium Claire’s Accessories has a thoughtful, rather
philosophical slogan to tempt its young customers. It sells itself under the strapline ’where
getting ready is half the fun’. That is honest and truthful. A group of 14-year-old girls in their
party best is nowhere near as successful an enterprise of pleasure as exactly the same girls
putting on and trying out and discussing their hopes for the party in advance ; not as
successful either as talking it over the next day. The party itself, from the beginning of time,
has consisted of a lot of standing around and gawping and giggling, and someone crying in
the lavatory.
So any notion fulfilled pleasure which insists on the moment of bliss is doomed to failure. Mr
Bloom and the researchers if the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology were clearly
happiest when undertaking their research, during which time they were looking forward to
coming to a conclusion. And now they can sit back and start to say ’Yes, when I concluded
my theory of pleasure and satisfaction ...’ Even for philosophers of pleasure, another ancient
and well-handed cliché about travel and life is true; getting there really is half the pleasure.

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

1. The writer says that previous studies of happiness have differed on

A. whether having more money than others makes people happy

B. why people compare their financial situation to that of others
C. what makes people believe that money brings happiness
D. how important it is for people to think that they are happy

2. According to the writer, the most recent survey

A. confirmed a common belief about wealth and happiness

B. produced results that may surprise some people
C. provided more accurate information than many other surveys
D. found that there was no connection between money and happiness

3. In the third paragraph, the writer says that his own opinion on the subject

A. has been influenced by the results of the survey

B. is based on his personal feelings rather than on research
C. differs from what Bloom concludes in his book
D. might not be widely shared by other people

4. The writer says that the musical works he mentions

A. are not intended to produce feelings of intense happiness

B. sometimes disappoint people who listen to them
C. perfectly illustrate his point about pleasure
 D. show how hard it is to generalise about pleasure

5. The writer says that the company Claire's Accessories understands that

A. parties are less enjoyable for girls than getting ready for them
B. girls enjoy getting ready for parties more than any other aspect of them
C. looking good at parties makes girls happier than anything else
D. what girls wear for parties affects their memories of them

II. Write an opinion essay on the following quote: “Happiness is not in the mere
possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort” (250-
280 words) (50 p)