OLIMPIADA DE LIMBA ENGLEZĂ

ETAPA LOCALĂ (Giurgiu, 16.02.2019)

CLASA a X-a, Varianta A

I. USE OF ENGLISH

1. Complete the following text by writing one word in the gap. …… (10 points)

The explosive growth (1) ……. the Internet over the past decade has been accompanied (2) ……a
rise in new ways of interacting in cyberspace. One way of interacting is by blogging. For those
(3) ……have never heard of it, blog is short for web log. The beauty of blogging is that anyone
(4) ……put a blog on the web and write (5) ……any topic (6) ……the sun. Favourite subjects
tend to be sports, politics, food and gossip. Some of the most interesting blogs can be found on
the Internet newspaper sites (7) ……readers post their comments on articles in the news. One
surprising development of blogging is that they are now being (8) ……as a source of news
themselves. It is (9) ……uncommon for journalists to use information that they have found on
blog sites to write their articles. On the downside, (10) ……, there have been cases in which
people have written bad things about their jobs and bosses on a blog and then ended up getting
the sack.

2. Put the verbs in the brackets into the correct tense. ………… (10 points)

Martin Backings, the magician, (1) ................. (disappear) together with his precious
black hat. Yesterday everybody (2) .............(wait) for him to come at the rehearsals for a
charitable show, but he (3) ................(fail) to arrive. Mr. Backings, who (4) ..............(live) in
Southampton, (5) .................(leave) home at four o‟clock yesterday afternoon for St.
Lawrence
Rehearsal Hall, a journey he (6) ...............(make) several times the week before. Two people
who were walking past his home at the time saw him leave. But no one (7) .................... (see)
him since then. For hours and hours, workmates and friends (8) ....................(try) to contact
Mr. Backings, but they have had no success so far. The police (9) ...............(take) the matter
seriously. However, everybody hopes that, in the next couple of hours, he
(10) ...................(show) up without a scratch and happy that everything has been just a
blackhumor
trick.

3. Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first
sentence, using the word given. Do not change the word given. You must use
between two and five words, including the word given …...............(20 points)

1” Peter, you’ve broken my radio, “said Claire. ACCUSED

Claire ....................... her radio.
2 It was her fault they lost the basketball match. BLAME
She was ........ losing the basketball match.
3 Everyone except Lucy failed the exam. PERSON
Lucy .............. managed to pass the exam.
4 ’Can you lend me some money, Marta?’ asked David. BORROW
David asked Marta .................... some money.
5 I’m afraid we don’t have any bread left. RUN
I’m afraid ....................bread.
6 They don’t let us use mobile phones in the library. ALLOWED
In the library, ...... use mobile phones.
7 It’s unusual for Zoe to be rude. HARDLY
Zoe ................ rude.
8 Maybe John was waiting for us at the airport. BEEN
John ...... for us at the airport.
9 I can’t possibly get to work if the buses are on strike. IMPOSSIBLE
It .... to get to work if the buses are on strike.
10 A friend is redecorating my bedroom next week. AM
I.............. by a friend next week.

II. READING COMPREHENSION AND WRITING

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.

1. For each question choose the correct letter A, B, C or D ………. (10 points)
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 Joey’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.

2. 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 points).

Notă
Toate subiectele sunt obligatorii. Timp de lucru 180 de minute.

Succes !
 OLIMPIADA DE LIMBA ENGLEZĂ
ETAPA LOCALĂ (Giurgiu, 16.02.2019)
CLASA a IX-a, Varianta A

BAREM

I. ENGLISH IN USE
SUBJECT 1…………10 points
1. of
2. by
3. who
4. can/may
5. about
6. under
7. where
8. used
9. not
10. however

SUBJECT 2…………10 points

1.has disappeared
2. was waiting
3. failed
4. lives
5. left
6. had made
7. has seen
8. have been trying
9. has taken
10. willshow

SUBJECT 3…………20 points

1 accused Peter of breaking /having broken
2 to blame for
3 was the only person who /that
4 if/whether he could borrow
5 have run out of
6 we are not allowed to
7 is hardly ever
8 might/could/may have been waiting
9 is/ will be impossible for me
10 m having my bedroom redecorated

II. READING COMPREHENSION AND WRITING

SUBJECT 1…………10 points

1. C; 2. A; 3. D; 4. B; 5. A

SUBJECT 2…………50 points