МИНИСТЕРСТВО НА ОБРАЗОВАНИЕТО, МЛАДЕЖТА И НАУКАТА

REGIONAL OLYMPIAD IN ENGLISH

2014
Group One – 8th grade
Part One
Dictation
Alice thought / she had never seen / such a curious playground: / the balls were live
hedgehogs, / the mallets live flamingoes, / and the soldiers had to / double themselves up / and
stand on their hands and feet, / to make the arches. //
The chief difficulty Alice found / was in managing her flamingo. // She succeeded / in getting
its body tucked away, / comfortably enough, / under her arm, / with its legs hanging down, /
but just as she had got / its neck nicely straightened out, / and was going to give the hedgehog
/ a blow with its head, / it would twist itself round / and look up in her face, / with such a
puzzled expression / that she could not help / bursting out laughing. // Then, when she had got
/ its head down to begin again, / it was very provoking to find / that the hedgehog had
unrolled itself, / and was crawling away. // Besides, / there was generally a ridge / or hole in
the way / wherever she wanted / to send the hedgehog to / and the doubled-up soldiers / were
always getting up / and walking off / to other parts of the ground. // So, Alice soon came to
the conclusion / that it was a very difficult game indeed / and went back for a little more
conversation / with her friend, the Cheshire Cat. //
She found quite a large crowd / collected round him; / there was a dispute going on / between
the executioner, / the King, and the Queen. //
The executioner's argument was / that you couldn't cut off a head / unless there was a body /
to cut it off from.
The King's argument was / that anything that had a head / could be beheaded, / and that you
weren't to talk nonsense. //
The Queen's argument was / that if something wasn't done about it / in less than no time / she
would have everybody executed, / all round. //
Meanwhile, / the Cat's head began gradually disappearing. //

Преди първия прочит на текста на дъската се изписват следните собствени

имена от текста: Alice / æl s /, Cheshire / e /.
При диктовката се отбелязва, че думите King, Queen и Cat се изписват с главна
буква (capital letter).
 МИНИСТЕРСТВО НА ОБРАЗОВАНИЕТО, МЛАДЕЖТА И НАУКАТА

REGIONAL OLYMPIAD IN ENGLISH

2014
Group Two – 9th grade

Part One
DICTATION

Dill left us / early in September, / to return to Meridian. // We saw him off / on the five
o’clock bus, / and I was miserable without him / until it occurred to me / that I would be
starting school / in a week. // I never looked forward more / to anything in my life. // Hours of
wintertime / had found me in the tree house / looking over at the school yard, / spying on the
group of children / through the telescope Jem had given me, / learning their games, / secretly
sharing their misfortunes / and their victories. / I wished / I could join them. //
Jem agreed / to take me to school the first day, / a job usually done / by one’s parents,/
but our father had said / Jem would be delighted to show me / where my room was. // I think
some money changed hands / in this deal, / for as we trotted around the corner / I heard an
unfamiliar jingle / in Jem’s pockets. // When we slowed to a walk / at the edge of the school
yard, / Jem was careful to explain / that during school hours / I was not to bother him / with
any requests, / to embarrass him / with references to his private life, / or tag along behind him/
at break time and noon. // I was to stick with the first grade / and he would stick / with the
fifth. // In short, / I was to leave him alone. //
“You mean / we can’t play anymore?” / I asked. //
“We’ll do / like we always do at home,” / he said, / “but you’ll see – / school is
different.” //
It certainly was. // Before the first morning was over, / our teacher took me / to the
front of the room / and patted the palm of my hand / with a ruler, / then made me stand in the
corner / until noon. //

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Преди първия прочит на диктовката на дъската в съответната зала се изписват
собствените имена от текста: Dill, Jem и Meridian.
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 МИНИСТЕРСТВО НА ОБРАЗОВАНИЕТО, МЛАДЕЖТА И НАУКАТА
REGIONAL OLYMPIAD IN ENGLISH
2014
Group Three – 10th grade
Part One
DICTATION

Fog can be a sudden thing / on the Eastern coast. // Even on the clearest mornings, / swirling
gray mists / sometimes appear in an instant, / covering the earth / with an opacity / that makes it
hard to see / even one’s own feet / on the ground. // On this particular September morning / it
descended at six o’clock, / about the time Lucy / and her companion Ricky, / a small dog of
indeterminate pedigree, / arrived at the cemetery, / the starting point /of their daily four-mile run. //
The cemetery was / a historical landmark in Portland / and one of the oldest / in the city. // The
inscriptions on the earliest gravestones / from the eighteenth century / had faded to near illegibility.
// Those that could be read / bore the names of early Portland’s / most prominent families: / all of
them Yankee names, / which had achieved / a measure of immortality, / having been bestowed /
upon the streets and parks / of the growing city. // More recent were the tombstones / of Irish and
Italian immigrants / who came to work / in the city’s thriving shipbuilding trades / at the turn of the
twentieth century. // Today, however, / the place was full / and no more of the deceased / were
buried there, / regardless of ancestry / or influence. //
When the fog moved in, / Lucy considered cancelling her run, / but only briefly. // At the age of
thirty, / she had more than enough self-discipline / to let a little morning fog / interfere with her
training schedule. // It was tough / getting up so early / for jogging, / given the long hours she
worked / as the newest account executive / at the city’s biggest advertizing agency, / but she was a
survivor. // In any case, / Lucy knew her route / quite well. // She slipped off Ricky’s collar / to let
him run free. // He darted past / barking furiously / at what Lucy figured / was another runner /
coming up the path / in her direction. // Seconds later / a tall man emerged from the fog: / he was
unusually good-looking / with dark, deep-set eyes / that would be difficult to forget. //
“Good morning,”/ he smiled courteously. // “Do you mind if I run along?” //
Lucy hesitated, / but the man hastened / to introduce himself. // “Harry,” / he said, / extending his
hand. // “Harry Potter.” //
“You’re kidding.”//
“No, / I was christened long before / the first book came out, / and I wasn’t about / to change my
name.” //

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Преди първия прочит на диктовката на дъската се изписват собствените имена: Lucy,
Ricky, Portland,Yankee, Harry Potter.
Всички числа трябва да се изпишат с букви.

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МИНИСТЕРСТВО НА ОБРАЗОВАНИЕТО, МЛАДЕЖТА И НАУКАТА

REGIONAL OLYMPIAD IN ENGLISH

2014
Group Four - 11th grade

Part One
Dictation
Florence was once a walled city. / Its primary entrance, / the stone gateway of the
Porta Romana, / was built in 1326. // While most of the city’s perimeter / was destroyed
centuries ago, / the Porta Romana still exists, / and to this day, / traffic enters the city /
by funneling through deep arched tunnels / in the colossal fortification. //
The gateway itself / is a fifty-foot-tall barrier / of ancient brick and stone / whose
primary passageway still retains / its massive bolted wooden doors, / which are propped
open at all times / to let traffic pass through. // Six major roads / converge in front of
these doors, / filtering into a rotary / whose grassy median / is dominated by a large
statue / depicting a woman / departing the city gates / carrying an enormous bundle on
her head. //
Although nowadays / it is more of a snarled traffic nightmare, / Florence’s austere
city gate / was once the site of the Contracts Fair, / at which fathers sold their daughters
/ into a contracted marriage, / often forcing them / to dance provocatively / in an effort
to secure higher dowries. //
This morning, / several hundred yards short of the gateway / Sienna had screeched
to a stop / and was now pointing in alarm. // In the back of the car, / Langdon looked
ahead / and immediately shared her apprehension. // In front of them, / a long line of
cars / idled at a full stop. // Traffic in the rotary had been halted / by a police barricade, /
and more police cars were now arriving. // Armed officers were walking from car to car,
/ asking questions. //
‘That can’t be for us,’ / Langdon thought. //
A sweaty cyclist / came pedaling towards them. // ‘Roadblock. Military police.’ //
He shouted and hurried past, / looking concerned to clear the area. //
Sirens wailed in the distance behind them / and Sienna spun in her seat, / staring
back, / her face now masked with fear. //
‘We are trapped in the middle,’ / Langdon said, / scanning the area for any exit – /
an intersecting road, / a park, a driveway – / but all he saw were private residences / on
their left and / a high stone wall to their right. //

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Преди първия прочит на диктовката на дъската се изписват собствените имена
от текста: Florence, Porta Romana, Sienna и Langdon. При “Contracts Fair” в
третия параграф при диктовката се отбелязват само главните букви (capital
letters). С изключение на годината, всички числа от текста се изписват с думи.

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 МИНИСТЕРСТВО НА ОБРАЗОВАНИЕТО, МЛАДЕЖТА И НАУКАТА

REGIONAL OLYMPIAD IN ENGLISH

2014
Group Five - 12th grade
Part One
Dictation
Sometimes in the morning, / as I've sat in bed / sucking down the early cup of tea / and
watched my man Jeeves / flitting about the room / and putting out the clothes for the day, /
I've wondered / what I should do / if the fellow ever took it into his head / to leave me. // It's
not so bad / now I'm in New York, / but in London / the anxiety was frightful. // There used to
be all sorts of attempts / on the part of low rascals / to sneak him away from me. // An old
schoolmate / to my certain knowledge / offered him double what I was giving him, / and a
friend from my club, / who's got a valet / who had been known / to press his trousers
sideways, / used to look at him, / when he came to see me, / with a kind of glittering hungry
eye / which disturbed me profoundly. // Bloody pirates! // The thing, you see, / is that Jeeves
is so dashed competent. // You can spot it / even in the way / he shoves studs into a shirt. // I
rely on him in every crisis, / and he never lets me down. // And, what's more, / he can always
be counted on / to extend himself / on behalf of any pal of mine / who happens to be / to all
appearances / knee-deep in a dire predicament. // Take the rather queer case / of dear old
Bicky and his uncle, / the hard-boiled egg. //
I was sorry if Bicky was in trouble, / but, as a matter of fact, / I was rather glad / to have
something I could discuss / freely with Jeeves just then, / because things had been / a bit
strained between us / for some time, / and it had been rather difficult / to hit on anything / to
talk about / that wasn't apt / to take a personal turn. // You see, / I had decided – / rightly or
wrongly – / to grow a moustache / and this had cut Jeeves to the quick. // He couldn't stick the
thing / at any price, / and I had been living ever since / in an atmosphere of devouring
disapproval / till I was getting / jolly well fed up with it. // What I mean is, / while there's no
doubt / that in certain matters of dress / Jeeves's judgment is absolutely sound / and should be
followed, / it seemed to me that / it was getting a bit too thick / if he was going to edit my face
/ as well as my costume. // No one can call me an unreasonable chap, / and many times / I've
given in like a lamb / when Jeeves has voted against / one of my pet suits or ties;/ but when it
comes / to a valet's staking out a claim / on your upper lip / you've simply got to have / a bit of
the good old bulldog pluck / and defy the rascal. //

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Преди първия прочит на диктовката на дъската се изписват собствените имена от
текста: Jeeves и Bicky. С цел стандартизиране, думата valet се произнася /∪vΘλΙτ/.