Universitatea din București, Facultatea de Limbi și Literaturi Străine, Departamentul de Engleză

SUBIECTE EXAMEN DE LICENȚĂ

Limba și literatura engleză (Engleză A)
Sesiunea iunie 2016

I. SUBIECTUL DE LITERATURĂ (9 points)

1) Identify and analyse in the fragment below the instances of witty/philosophical

speech and comment on their relevance in the dramatic building of a portrait that
Shakespeare intended for Portia.
2) Evaluate critically in the fragment below Portia’s reflections on the notions of
doing good and of doing justice, considering also her attitude towards marriage.
Place Portia’s thoughts in their appropriate historical and cultural contexts (viz.
Elizabethan England and the Venice of Shakespeare’s times).

“PORTIA: If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels

had been churches, and poor men’s cottages princes’ palaces. It is a good
divine that follows his own instructions. I can easier teach twenty what were
good to be done than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The
brain may devise laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o’er a cold
decree. Such a hare is madness, the youth, to skip o’er the meshes of good
counsel, the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion to choose me a
husband. O me, the word ‘choose’! I may neither choose who I would nor
refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a living daughter curbed by the will of
a dead father. Is it not hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one nor refuse
none? […] The quality of mercy is not strained. / It droppeth as the gentle
rain from heaven / Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest: / It blesseth him
that gives, and him that takes. / ’Tis mightiest in the mightiest. It becomes /
The thronèd monarch better than his crown. / His scepter shows the force of
temporal power, / The attribute to awe and majesty, / Wherein doth sit the
dread and fear of kings; / But mercy is above this sceptred sway. / It is
enthronèd in the hearts of kings; / It is an attribute to God himself, / And
earthly power doth then show likest God’s / When mercy seasons justice.
Therefore, Jew, / Though justice be thy plea, consider this: / That in the
course of justice none of us / Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy, /
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render / The deeds of mercy. I have
spoke thus much / To mitigate the justice of thy plea, / Which if thou follow,
this strict court of Venice / Must needs give sentence ’gainst the merchant
there.” (From William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, 1600; Act I,
scene 2, 12-26; Act 4, scene 1, 181-202)
 Universitatea din București, Facultatea de Limbi și Literaturi Străine, Departamentul de Engleză

II. SUBIECTUL DE STRUCTURA LIMBII (9 points)

1. Identify the uses of the Present Tense in the following sentences. (2 points)
1) The next high tide is around four this afternoon.
2) I always do the New York Times crossward puzzle.
3) Passengers on Flight AF 312 are requested to proceed to Gate 32.
4) There was I playing so well even I couldn’t believe it and along comes this kid
and keeps me off the table for three frames.
2. In each group of sentences below, explain why the first two sentences are
grammatical, while the third one is not. (3 points)
a. He stopped/finished talking.
b. He stopped/finished painting the house.
c. *He stopped/finished finding the key
3. Illustrate the following in sentences of your own. (4 points)
1. an achievement recategorized as an activity predicate
2. epistemic need
3. modal will
4. deontic might
5. a state verb used in the progressive
6. an experiential perfect
III. SUBIECTUL DE CURS PRACTIC (9 points)
1. Translate into English (4.5 points):
„Dar apoi gândul îi reveni la întrebarea dacă nu cumva motivul ruperii era altul şi
micul lor trecut în loc să se îndepărteze din inima lui, continua s-o ţină trează, cu o
bătaie mai puternică. Ce s-o fi întâmplat de fapt? Nu cumva s-a decis totuşi să se
mărite cu doctorul Spurcaciu? Bine, dar atunci ce-o mai interesa că el nu-i
telefonase? Frumos nu putea să-i spună: Ştefane, vezi, trebuie să mă mărit, şi nu cu
tine, aşa că păstrează-mi o amintire frumoasă! Aiurea! A vorbi frumos nu era
genul ei. Ajunsese s-o cunoască oarecum în acest punct... Ce să înţelegi? Fiindcă
îşi dădea seama, istoria cu doctorul Spurcaciu era lichidată, o lichidase într-o zi cu
mare pericol pentru el ca s-o piardă... Da, dar dacă acest pericol în realitate nu
trecuse încă pentru el? [...] Da, probabil că acest pericol nu trecuse pentru el.”
(From Marin Preda – Delirul).
2. Translate into Romanian (4.5 points):
“Isabel thought this to have been a better answer than she admitted; it was a
tolerable description of her own manner of judging, but it would not have sounded
well for her to say so. On the lips of a person less advanced in life than Mrs.
Touchett such a declaration would savor of immodesty, even arrogance. She risked
it nevertheless in talking with Ralph, with whom she talked a great deal and with
whom her conversation was of a sort that gave a large license to extravagance. Her
cousin very soon established with her a reputation for treating everything as a
joke, and he was not a man to neglect the privileges such a reputation conferred.
She accused him of an odious want of seriousness, of laughing at all things,
beginning with himself. (Henry James – The Portrait of a Lady)