Тренировочные задания по чтению. ЕГЭ по английскому языку.

Task 1.

Read the text and fill in the gaps (1-6) with phrases A - F.

The Winter Olympic Games.

Originated by the ancient Greeks, the Olympic Games are the leading international sporting event. The games were revived by Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, and the first modern Olympics were held in 1896.

The Winter Olympic Games were not a part of the modern Olympics when they started. They were played separately as the Nordic Games. The Nordic Games were the first international sporting event A _________. A person called Victor Balck, a close friend of Pierre de Coubertin, organised the first Nordic Games. It was Victor’s idea to include winter games in the Olympics.

However, only in 1924, the first Winter Olympic Games were held as a separate event in Chamonix, France. Athletes competed B ____________ The Games were held from 1924 until 1936, after which they were interrupted by World War II. The Olympics resumed in 1948 and were arranged every four years.

In 1994,  C _______ in different years. So in fact, we can watch the Olympic Games once every two years. First, the Summer Games, then, in two years, the Winter Games, and two years after the Summer Games again. So one set of Olympic Games, summer or winter, is held every two years.

As time went on more sports were introduced to the Winter Olympiad. Nowadays there are fifteen sport disciplines, four of them are indoor sports: curling, figure skating, speed skating and ice hockey.

The Winter Olympics have been hosted D ______. Some cities have arranged the main international winter sporting event several times: Lake Placid (the USA), Innsbruck (Austria), St Moritz (Switzerland).  But the Winter Olympic Games have never been held in Africa, Australia, South America or Antarctica.

In 2014, Sochi, Russia was E _______. A total of 98 events in 15 winter sport disciplines were held during the Games. Lots of sporting records and unique results were recorded at the Olympic Games. However, there were several records which were set during the preparation and Olympiad organization. Sochi was the first sub-tropical city that has ever organized the Winter Olympic Games.   Before the start of the XXII Games in Sochi, the Olympic torch travelled the longest distance in history to some amazing places, including the North Pole, the bottom of Lake Baikal (the world’s deepest lake), the top of Mount Elbrus (Europe's highest mountain), and even into outer space. For the first time in Olympic history, a public vote was held to decide the mascots, symbols that bring good luck to the event, for the Olympics. It was decided that the mascots of the Olympic Games, F _______. They looked very cute and contributed to the success of the Games.

1 in 16 events in six different  sports.

2 the host of the XXII Winter Olympic Games

3 would be a Leopard, a Polar Bear, and a Hare

4 that focused primarily on sports played in winter

5 in 19 cities in different countries

6 it was decided to hold the Summer and Winter Olympic Games

Task 2.

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was the most famous personality of the 15^th and 16^th centuries. He is widely known as A _______. Fewer people know that he was also an engineer, an inventor, a toymaker, a machine designer, an architect, a singer, a theatre costume designer and an animal lover!

Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452 in Italy. The name Leonardo da Vinci can be interpreted as Leonard from the Italian town of Vinci. His father was from a rich family.

From his childhood, Leonardo was a brilliant painter. He took painting very seriously and studied it regularly. He even created B ________. Seeing this, Leonardo’s father took him to a famous painter, Andrea del Verrocchio, who helped Leonardo to develop his extraordinary painting abilities. Leonardo spent several years learning art in his studio. Once Leonardo was asked to draw a painting of an angel. His drawing was so good that his teacher decided to never paint again.

By the age of 25, Leonardo had started his own workshop and had become a famous painter. He was C ________.  According to art experts, his Mona Lisa is considered to be the best known, the most visited, and the most written about work of art in the world. Nowadays this portrait of a woman hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris. People don’t know for sure who the Mona Lisa was. But there have been lots of ideas like it was the real-life wife of a merchant, or even a self-portrait of Leonardo as a woman.

Even though he was a great artist, Leonardo had trouble finishing his work. There were so many interesting things to learn and to do. His remarks and inventions were recorded in 13,000 pages of notes and drawings. There were designs for the first parachute, the first helicopter, the first aeroplane, the first tank, the first bicycle, the first swing bridge, and the first motorcar in his diaries. Since Leonardo’s inventions D _______, they were never realized during his lifetime. Leonardo also never published any of his notes and drawings. He simply kept personal diaries in which he recorded them.

Leonardo da Vinci wrote most of his notes from right to left. The result of this writing was a mirror script, which was not easy to read. Maybe it was due to the fact that he  E _______.  According to his pupils, Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.

Another interesting fact about Leonardo da Vinci was that he was a strict vegetarian! This was an unusual thing for a person F _______. Leonardo did this not for any health reasons but because he loved animals and was against killing animals for food. He was also against keeping animals in cages. He used to buy caged animals and birds and set them free.

Leonardo Da Vinci died in France, in 1519 at the age of 67. His diaries were discovered much later after his death. He is known as, without a doubt, one of the greatest painters of all time and, quite possibly, the most talented person that has ever lived. 

Vinci was the name of an Italian town. 1 his own paints to be used for his pictures 2 were way ahead of their time 3 who lived in the Middle Ages 4 wanted to keep his writing secret 5 a brilliant artist and scientist 6 one of the first Italians to use oil paints