Всероссийская олимпиада школьников по английскому языку 2015 г.заключительный этап

Listening & Reading

Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Listening

Task 1

For items 1-10, listen to the introduction for the City of London Walk. Decide which of the statements (1-10) are True according to the text you hear (A) and which are False (B). You will hear the text only ONCE. Circle the correct letter in your answer sheet.

1.      Temple is the nearest underground station to the starting point of the walk.

A.    True      B. False

2.      Trafalgar Square is to the east of St Clement Danes.

A.    True      B. False

3.      Romans in London were defeated by the Normans in 1066.

A.    True      B. False

4.      The Tower of London was built by the Normans.

A.    True      B. False

5.      In the 14^th century London suffered from an epidemic disease.

A.    True      B. False

6.      In the time of Queen Elizabeth I the population of London was about 1600.

A.    True      B. False

7.      Rick compares Elizabethan London to a village.

A.    True      B. False

8.      The City of Dickens’ novels is a dirty place.

A.    True      B. False

9.      The City of London was rebuilt just before World War II.

                       A. True          B. False

10.  A relatively small number of people live now in the City. 

                       A. True          B. False

Task 2

For items, 11-15 listen to the story of the church of St Clement Danes. To answer the questions choose the correct answer A, B or C. You will hear the text twice. Circle the correct letter in your answer sheet.

11. The church's tower is compared to a… A. traffic warden.

B.  special day party food.

C.  twisted mass of hair.

12. St Clement Danes is called an island church because it … A. stands in the middle of a road.

B.  is situated on an island.

C.  is stranded by the river.

13. Which of the following is mentioned as a recurrent theme of the walk? A. The Great Fire of 1666.

B.  World War II blitz.

C.  The church of St Clement Danes.

14. How many churches built by Christopher Wren in London no longer exist today? A. More than 50.

B.  23.

C.  About 30

15. Nowadays St Clement Danes is a … A. place for Christian worship.

B.  Royal Air Force museum.

C.  World Wars library.

Integrated listening and reading

Task 3

Read the text below, then listen to a part of the lecture on the same topic. You will notice that some ideas coincide and some differ in them. Answer questions 16-25 by choosing A if the idea is expressed in both materials, B if it can be found only in the reading text, C if it can be found only in the audio-recording, and D if neither of the materials expresses the idea. Circle the correct letter in your answer sheet. Now you have 7 minutes to read the text.

The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus was an English cleric and scholar, influential in the fields of political economy and demography. In 1798, he published an Essay on the Principle of Population, one of the most important but controversial works ever written on the consequences of population growth. According to Malthus, without intervention, population will tend to exceed the supply of food because, whereas population increases exponentially, food supplies do not. He also observed that disasters, disease, famine, and war could have a beneficial effect on population by increasing mortality rates, and thus slowing population growth. In addition, he pointed out that the sector of the population at the highest standard of living tended to exercise preventive measures to control fertility, but the sector at the lowest standard of living had the largest number of children, thereby relinquishing any possibility of improvement in living conditions, and perhaps even serving as a stimulus for the disease and other factors that check population growth.

Citing the fact that the wealthy and better-educated sectors of society already controlled population, Malthus pointed out the benefits of universal education to solve the population problem. He recommended raising the minimum wage and providing an incentive for the poor to choose between having more children, which they could support at a low standard of living, and having smaller families, which they could provide with a higher standard of living. Malthus believed that the ambition to improve their standard of living would direct those at the lowest income levels to limit the number of children they brought into the world once they understood the relationship between their life style and the size of their family.

In spite of having a lot of followers, he remains a much-debated writer.

Now listen to a part of the lecture on the same topic and then do the tasks (questions 16-25), comparing the text above and the lecture. You will hear the lecture twice.

16.  Thomas Malthus made a significant contribution to the study of population. 

17.  The views of Thomas Malthus cause a lot of discussion even today. 

18.  The demographic transition model describes how population increases and declines in several stages. 

19.  According to Thomas Malthus, natural disasters, wars and lack of food help regulate population growth. 

20.  Malthus explained that low-income families had always tended to check their birth rates. 

21.  Malthus believed that education could play an important role in helping people realize the connection between low standards of living and the size of their family. 

22.  Malthus thought that the introduction of higher wages and having smaller families could make people more selfish. 

23.  Advances in medicine and food production were predicted by Malthus. 

24.  Population may increase even though fewer people are born. 

25.  To stop population growth, Japan, Europe and North America have introduced strict rules aimed at reducing immigration inflow. 

Reading 

Task 4

Read the text and answer questions 26-40 below.

Australia’s Lost Giants

What happened to Australia's megafauna, the giant animals that once existed across this enormous continent?

A          In 1969, a fossil hunter named Rod Wells came to Naracoorte in South Australia to explore what was then known as Victoria Cave. Wells clawed through narrow passages, and eventually into a huge chamber. Its floor of red soil was littered with strange objects. It took Wells a moment to realize what he was looking at: the bones of thousands of creatures that must have fallen through holes in the ground above and become trapped. Some of the oldest belonged to mammals far larger than any found today in Australia. They were the ancient Australian megafauna – huge animals of the Pleistocene epoch. In boneyards across the continent, scientists have found the fossils of a giant snake, a huge flightless bird, and a seven foot kangaroo, to name but a few. Given how much ink has been spilled on the extinction of the dinosaurs, it's a wonder that even more hasn't been devoted to megafauna. Prehistoric humans never threw spears at Tyrannosaurus rex but really did hunt mammoths and mastodons. 

B           The disappearance of megafauna in America – mammoths, saber-toothed cats, giant sloths, among others – happened relatively soon after the arrival of human beings, about 13,000 years ago. In the 1960s, paleoecologist Paul Martin developed what became known as the blitzkrieg hypothesis. Modern humans, Martin said, created havoc as they spread through the Americas, wielding spears to annihilate animals that had never faced a technological predator. But this period of extinction wasn't comprehensive. North America kept its deer, black bears and a small type of bison, and South America its jaguars and llamas. 

C          What happened to Australia's large animals is baffling. For years scientists blamed the extinctions on climate change. Indeed, Australia has been drying out for over a million years, and the megafauna were faced with a continent where vegetation began to disappear. Australian paleontologist Tim Flannery suggests that people, who arrived on the continent around 50,000 years ago, used fire to hunt, which led to deforestation. Here's what's certain, Flannery says. Something dramatic happened to Australia's dominant land creatures – somewhere around 46,000 years ago, strikingly soon after the invasion of a tool-wielding, highly intelligent predator. 

In Flannery's 1994 book called The Future Eaters, he sets out his thesis that human beings are a new kind of animal on the planet, and are in general, one prone to ruining ecosystems. Flannery's book proved highly controversial. Some viewed it as critical of the Aborigines, who pride themselves on living in harmony with nature. The more basic problem with Flannery's thesis is that there is no direct evidence that they killed any Australian megafauna. It would be helpful if someone uncovered a Diprotodon skeleton with a spear point embedded in a rib – or perhaps Thylacoleo bones next to the charcoal of a human campfire. Such kill sites have been found in the Americas but not in Australia.

D          The debate about megafauna pivots to a great degree on the techniques for dating old bones and the sediments in which they are buried. If scientists can show that the megafauna died out fairly quickly and that this extinction event happened within a few hundred, or even a couple thousand years, of the arrival of people, that's a strong case – even if a purely circumstantial one – that the one thing was the direct result of the other. As it happens, there is one place where there may be such evidence: Cuddie Springs in

New South Wales. Today the person most vocal about the site is archeologist Judith Field. In 1991, she discovered megafauna bones directly adjacent to stone tools – a headline-making find. She says there are two layers showing the association, one about 30,000 years old, the other 35,000 years old. If that dating is accurate, it would mean humans and megafauna coexisted in Australia for something like 20,000 years. "What Cuddie Springs demonstrates is that you have an extended overlap of humans and megafauna," Field says. Nonsense, say her critics. They say the fossils have been moved from their original resting places and redeposited in younger sediments. 

E           Another famous boneyard in the same region is a place called Wellington Caves, where Diprotodon, the largest known marsupial – an animal which carries its young in a pouch like kangaroos and koalas – was first discovered. Scientist Mike Augee says that: "This is a sacred site in Australian paleontology." Here's why: In 1830 a local official named George Rankin lowered himself into the cave on a rope tied to a protrusion in the cave wall. The protrusion turned out to be a bone. A surveyor named Thomas Mitchell arrived later that year, explored the caves in the area, and shipped fossils off to Richard Owen, the British paleontologist who later gained fame for revealing the existence of dinosaurs. Owen recognized that the Wellington cave bones belonged to an extinct marsupial. Later, between 1909 and 1915 sediments in Mammoth Cave that contained fossils were hauled out and examined in a chaotic manner that no scientist today would approve. Still, one bone in particular has drawn extensive attention: a femur with a cut in it, possibly left there by a sharp tool. 

F           Unfortunately, the Earth preserves its history haphazardly. Bones disintegrate, the land erodes, the climate changes, forests come and go, rivers change their course – and history, if not destroyed, is steadily concealed. By necessity, narratives are constructed from limited data. Australia's first people expressed themselves in rock art. Paleontologist Peter Murray has studied a rock painting in far northern Australia that shows what looks very much like a megafauna marsupial known as Palorchestes. In Western Australia another site shows what appears to be a hunter with either a marsupial lion or a Tasmanian tiger – a major distinction, since the marsupial lion went extinct and the much smaller Tasmanian tiger survived into the more recent historical era. But as Murray says, "Every step of the way involves interpretation. The data doesn't just speak for itself." 

Questions 26-30

The text above has six paragraphs, A-F. Which paragraphs contain the following information? Every question has only one answer but you may use any of the letters A-F for more than one question. Circle the correct letters in your answer sheet.

26               descriptions of naturally occurring events that make the past hard to trace

27               an account of the discovery of a particular animal which had died out 

28               the reason why a variety of animals all died in the same small area 

29               the suggestion that a procedure to uncover fossilised secrets was inappropriate

30               examples of the kinds of animals that did not die out as a result of hunting 

Questions 31-32

For questions 31-32 choose the correct answer A, B or C. Circle the correct letter in your answer sheet.

31               Judith Field claims that

A                  she made a great discovery in 1991.

B                  she found fossil remains of giant animals in layers of sediments very close to those which had stone tools in them.

C                  she was most vocal about Cuddie Springs in South New Wales as an important archeological site.

32 Judith Field’s opponents claim that

A                  the fossils of some younger animals were found in Cuddie Springs.

B                  there was long co-existence of humans and megafauna.

C                  the layers where fossils were found had been displaced.

Question 33

Which TWO of these possible reasons for Australian megafauna extinction are mentioned in the text? Choose TWO letters from A-E for question 33 and circle them in your answer sheet.

A         human activity 

B          disease 

C         loss of habitat 

D         a drop in temperature 

E          the introduction of new animal species 

Question 34

The list below shows possible forms of proof for humans having contact with Australian megafauna. Which TWO possible forms of proof does the writer say have been found in Australia? Choose TWO letters from A-E for questions 34 and circle them in your answer sheet.

A                 bone injury caused by a man-made object 

B                  bones near to early types of weapons 

C                 man-made holes designed for trapping animals  D            preserved images of megafauna species 

      E     animal remains at camp fires 

Questions 35-38 

Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in the text? In boxes 35-38 of your answer sheet, circle  

A (TRUE) if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer B (FALSE) if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

C (NOT GIVEN) if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks about this

35              Extinct megafauna should receive more attention than the extinction of the dinosaurs.

36              There are problems with Paul Martin's 'blitzkrieg' hypothesis for the Americas.

37              The Aborigines should have found a more effective way to protest about Flannery's book.

38              There is sufficient evidence to support Tim Flannery's ideas about megafauna extinction.

TRANSFER ALL YOUR ANSWERS TO YOUR ANSWER SHEET

ANSWER KEY

1	A
2	B
3	B
4	A
5	A
6	B
7	A
8	A
9	B
10	A
11	B
12	A
13	B
14	C
15	A
16	A
17	A
18	С
19	B
20	D
21	B
22	D
23	D
24	C
25	D
26	F
27	E
28	A
29	E
30	B
31	B
32	C
33	A , C
34	A , D
35	A
36	C
37	C
38	B

2015 г.	заключительный этап	стр. 9 из 19
	Use of English

Time: 60 minutes

Task 1

For items 1– 8, match each person (1 -8) with an appropriate phrasal verb (A-K) and a suitable object (a-i). Write down the correct letters in your answer sheet. There are two extra verbs in the second column, which you do not have to use. The first example (0) is done for you. 

Example: 0. Ba

0. a parent	A. brings out	a. a child
1.      a dangerous driver	B. brings up	b. a thief
2.      a dressmaker	C. drops by	c. a new book
3.      a judge	D. gets away	d. a person of a lower social class
4.      a publisher	E. lets off	e. a pedestrian
5.      a snob	F. takes off	f. with the money
6.        a successful criminal	G. looks up	g. on a journey
7.       a traveler	H. runs down	h. a dress
8.      a visitor	I. sets out	i. for a cup of coffee
	J. takes in
	K. looks down on

Task 2

For items 9-23, fill in the gaps in the text choosing an appropriate name or word from the right-hand column. Choose one word/name only. Write the correct word/ name in your answer sheet. There are extra names/words in the right-hand column, which you do not have to choose.

Much early American writing is derivative. European forms and styles were simply transferred to the new (9)_____. Even the well-wrought tales of Washington Irving, (10)______ “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, seem comfortably European (11)______their New World settings.   Perhaps the first American writer to produce strikingly new fiction and poetry was (12)______. In 1835, he began writing short stories – including “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” – that explore previously hidden levels of human psychology and push the (13)_______of fiction toward mystery and fantasy.  Henry James confronted the Old World – New World dilemma by writing directly about it. (14)_______born in New York, he spent most of his adult years in England. Many of his novels center (15)______ Americans who live in or travel to Europe. With its intricate, highly qualified sentences and dissection of emotional nuance, his fiction can be rather (16)_______, even incomprehensible. Among his more accessible works are the novellas “Daisy Miller”, about an (17) ________ American girl in Europe, and “The Turn of the Screw”, an enigmatic ghost story.  At the beginning of the 20th century, American novelists were (18)________ fiction’s social spectrum to encompass both high and low life. They also expressed the disillusionment following upon the war. (19) _________ saw violence and death first-hand as an ambulance driver in World War I, and the senseless carnage persuaded him that abstract language was mostly empty and misleading. He cut out unnecessary words from his writing, simplified the sentence structure, and concentrated on concrete objects and actions. He adhered (20)________a moral code that emphasized courage under pressure, and his protagonists were strong, silent men who often dealt awkwardly with women. “The Sun Also Rises” and “A Farewell to Arms” are (21) ______ considered his best novels.  In addition to fiction, the 1920s were a rich period for drama. A (22)________ original American playwright was Tennessee Williams, who expressed his southern heritage in poetic (23)________ sensational plays, usually about a sensitive woman

although at  baldly boundaries  Charles Dickens daunting despite Edgar Allan Poe enchanting English Ernest Hemingway exciting expanding explaining of generally Herman Melville however in spite locales notably on strikingly Theodore Dreiser to Walt Whitman

                                                                  2015 г.         заключительный этап            стр. 11 из 19

trapped in a brutish environment. Several of his plays have been made into films, including “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”.

William Faulkner yet

Task 3

For items 24-33, complete two English songs by filling in the gaps with one word only. In some cases an explanation and the first letter are given. Write the correct words in your answer sheet. (0) is an example.

A. There is an old English children’s song about the sounds of church bells in various parts of London. Complete the lines of the song using one word only in each gap.  Example: (0) lemons

“Oranges and (0) lemons” say the bells of St Clement’s.

“You owe me five (24)f_______ (a former bronze coin of Great Britain, one-fourth of a penny)” say the bells of St Martin’s.

“When will you pay (25)______?” say the bells of Old Bailey.

“When I grow (26)_______” say the bells of Shoreditch.

“When will that (27)_______?” say the bells of Stepney.

“I do not (28)_____” says the great bell at Bow.

B. The following famous children’s song tells us about one of the most significant events in American History. Complete the lines of the song using one word only in each gap.

Tea, tea, pour that tea,

Be our guest at the tea party.

In the year of seventeen (29)_______-three (year), I got an invite to a tea party.

It was (30) t_________ (organized) by the Sons of Liberty

In (31) _______ (name of the city) Harbour they were pouring tea.

They didn’t like the tax (32) l________ (collected) on their tea By old King (33) ______ (name) and the royalty.

They didn’t serve crumpets, they just poured the tea Into the harbor with the fish in the sea.

Task 4

For items 34-40, match an item in the left-hand column (34-40) with its definition in the right-hand column (A-K). Circle the correct letter in your answer sheet. There are four extra definitions in the right-hand column, which you do not have to use.

One of the most famous characters from a series of books by the British author Sue Townsend (1946-2014) is called Adrian Mole. In one of the books the English teenager got acquainted with an American boy Hamish Mancini. After reading some passages from Adrian’s diaries Hamish became confused about certain British realities. Here’s a passage from his letter to Adrian…

“It was great reading your diary, even the odd unflattering remark about me. Still, old buddy,

I forgive you on account of how you were of unsound mind at the time you wrote the stuff. An’ I got questions …What does RSPCA stand for?”

Adrian’s answer to that one was of course: “1. RSPCA stands for: the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.”

Match some of the other answers from Adrian with the following questions from Hamish. 

34	Sainsbury’s	A_... government agency to help the unfortunate, the unlucky, and the poor.
35	Social Services	B_... yes, it’s Welfare.
36	Social Security	C_...a club for wrinklies over 65 years.
37	Toad in the Hole	D_... exams.
38	VAT	E_... a batter pudding containing sausages.
39	Wellingtons	F_... a batter pudding minus sausages.
40	Yorkshire Pudding	G_... a tax. The scourge of small businesses.
		H_...store selling cheap, fashionable furniture.
		I_... is where teachers, vicars and suchlike do their food shopping.
		J_...is a proletarian sea-side resort.
		K_...rubber boots. The Queen wears them.

TRANSFER ALL YOUR ANSWERS TO YOUR ANSWER SHEET

Use of English

KEYS

1	He
2	Jh
3	Eb
4	Ac
5	Kd
6	Df
7	Ig
8	Ci
9	locales
10	notably
11	despite
12	Edgar Allan Poe
13	boundaries
14	although
15	on
16	daunting
17	enchanting
18	expanding
19	Ernest Hemingway
20	to
21	generally
22	strikingly/ notably
23	yet
24	farthings
25	me
26	rich
27	be
28	know
29	seventy
30	thrown
31	Boston
32	levied/ laid
33	George
34	I
35	A
36	B
37	E
38	G
39	K
40	F

Writing

Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

The college, you attend, has recently held an International Day with events organized by the overseas students.

As a representative of the Student Union you have received the Principal’s letter asking you to write a report. Use the information given in the publicity poster for the event, the Principal’s letter and the notes made after the meeting to write the report which the Principal requests.

Remember to:

•      include a title and subtitles;

•      use an appropriate style;

•      organize the information logically and clearly;  make a critical evaluation and analysis of the event;  recommend what should be done.

Write 220 - 250 words.

USE YOUR OWN WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS in your report.

PUBLICITY POSTER

Want to make new friends?

                           Want to learn about other cultures?

Wednesday 11^th February

International Day

•              videos and presentations

•              cookery demonstrations

•              music and dances from around the world

                                                   … and much more!

                                                                                                                                

PRINCIPAL’S LETTER

Dear Student Rep, Thank you for your help in organizing the recent International Day. As you know, this was the first event of its kind which has been held in the college. Hoping to hold similar events in future, we need to assess how successful the International Day proved to be. I would be grateful if you could carry out a survey among the students and prepare a short report on their reactions. Please include some recommendations based on your survey. Your help is appreciated. N. Foster Principal

Speaking

Set 1 Student 1

Preparation – 15 minutes

Provide commentaries in English for the video “St. Petersburg” to attract foreign visitors (Set 1: St. Petersburg).  

•      Watch the video of the city.  

•      Select information from the FACT FILE in Russian.

Co	mment on:
Location	Main tourist attractions
Population	Entertainment
History	Reasons why tourists must visit the city

•      Make an introduction and a conclusion.

•      Synchronize your presentation with the video.

You can make notes during the preparation time, but you are not allowed to READ them during the presentation.

Presentation and questions – 10 minutes

Task 1

“CITIES - TREASURES OF RUSSIAN CIVILIZATION”

1. Provide commentaries in English for the video “St. Petersburg” to attract foreign visitors (Set 1: St. Petersburg).

•      Comment on all the aspects mentioned in the table (see Preparation section).

•      Make an introduction and a conclusion.

•      Try to interest foreigners in visiting the city. 

•      Synchronize your presentation with the video.

You are NOT allowed to READ the notes made during the preparation time.

(Monologue; Time:  2-3 minutes, depending on the length of the video)

2. Answer 2 QUESTIONS from your partner, who wants to get ADDITIONAL INFORMATION not mentioned in your presentation about the city.

Task 2

Listen to the presentation of your partner (Set 2: Kazan). Ask 2 QUESTIONS about the city to get ADDITIONAL INFORMATION not mentioned in the presentation.

 (Questions/ Answers; Time: 2- 3 minutes)

YOUR ANSWERS WILL BE RECORDED