Model subiect olimpiada de Engleza, clasa a 12-a, faza judeteana

SUBIECTUL A – USE OF ENGLISH (40 points) 
 
I. Read the paragraph below and do the tasks that follow. (20 points) 
 
Religion isn’t often talked about in medicine,  but should it be? I asked New York psychiatrist 
Dr. Robert Klitzman, author of ‖ When Doctors Become Patients‖, to tell us about  his 
experiences with patients, prayer and faith.  ‖I will pray for you,‖ a senior psychiatrist told my 
patient. His comment surprised me. I was in training, and the patient was a petite Latina 
woman who had remained despondent despite medication, psychotherapy or anything else 
I did. Would he really pray for her?  Occasionally, as a trainee, I would spot  a hospital 
chaplain, but at the medical school where I was trained and others, nothing about religion or 
spirituality is ever taught. Science is supposed to  be logical,  rational and objective, while 
spiritual beliefs are irrational, subjective, elusive and hard to describe. Not surprisingly, 
research suggests that doctors tend to be less religious than their patients.  But then, a few 
years ago, I became a patient myself and began to look at these issues differen tly. My sister 
died in the September  11 World Trade Center attacks, leaving me stunned and depressed. 
As I recovered, I began to wonder about other doctors who had become patients. I ended up 
interviewing more than 50 of them. I soon learned that when doctors get sick with serious 
disease, they also tend to reconsider their spiritual beliefs. Several doctors I spoke with were 
religious before they became patients, but they were admittedly even more so on ce they 
faced serious illness. Others changed more dramatically. ‖Patients used to ask me to pray for 
them, and I’d pooh-pooh it‖, one elderly physician told me. After he got sick, he‖ realized how 
important prayer was.‖ Often these doctors expressed a hodg epodge of beliefs, drawing on 
the organized religion in which they were raised, and adding elements of Eastern philosophy 
or New Age beliefs.  That said, some physicians weren’t changed by illness, remaining 
skeptical and disillusioned with organized religion. ‖I see it helps my patients,‖ one doctor told 
me. ‖I wish I had it in my life more...But I don’t.‖  It could not always be willed.  Some doctors 
felt that prayer can directly alter the physical process of healing through God’s intervention. 
My view is that prayer and faith give vital strength and motivation that can help patients cope 
and continue to fight. 
 
A. response the following questions.      8 points 
 
1. What was Dr. Robert Klitzman required to do? 
2. What is the main difference between science and spirituality in the writer’s view? 
3. What is the possible explanation for the writer’s change of attitude concerning 
religion? 
4. According to the writer, what connection can be made between medicine and 
religion? 
 
B. Choose the right synonym.       6 points 
 
1. despondent: a. hopeful b. exhilarated  c. glad   d. dejected 
2. to recover:a. to pull through b. to pull together c. to come down with  d. to get 
through 
3. admittedly: a. doubtfully b. undoubtedly  c. uncertain   d. illegally   
 
 
Olimpiada de limba engleză clasa a XII-a, SECȚIUNEA B   Varianta 1 
 
 
C. Rephrase the following sentences so as to preserve the meaning.      6 points 
 
1. Research suggests that doctors tend to be less religious than their patients. 
It is ………………………than their doctors. 
2. After he got sick, he realized how important prayer was. 
Only after………………………of prayer. 
3. I became a patient myself and began to look at these issues differently. 
Had I………………………a different look at these issues. 
 
II. Use the word given in brackets to form a word that fits in each gap.    10 points 
 
Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage. In China, in the eigh th century, it 
entered the realm of poetry as one of the polite (1) ________ (AMUSE). The fifteenth 
century saw Japan ennoble it into a religion of aestheticism – Teaism. Teaism is a cult 
founded on the (2) ________ (ADORE) of the beautiful among the sordi d facts of everyday 
(3) ________ (EXIST). It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the 
(4) ________ (ROMANTIC) of the social order. It is (5) ________ (ESSENCE) a worship of 
the (6) ________ (PERFECT), as it is a tender attempt to a ccomplish something possible in 
this impossible thing we know as life. The Philosophy of Tea is not mere (7) ________ 
(AESTHETIC) in the ordinary acceptance of the term, for it expresses , conjointly with ethics 
and religion, our whole point of view about m an and nature. It is hygiene, for it enforces (8) 
________ (CLEAN); it is economics, for it shows comfort in (9) ________ (SIMPLE) rather 
than in the complex and ( 10) ________ (COST); it is moral geometry, in  as much as it 
defines our sense of proportion to the universe. 
 
 
III. Read the text below and think of the word which best fits in each gap. Use only one 
word in each gap.              10 points 
 
―Ah, my dear Basil, that is exactly why I can feel it. Those who are faithful know only the 
trivial side of  love: it is (1) ______  faithless who know love’s tragedies.‖ And Lord Henry 
struck a light on a dainty silver case and began to smoke a cigarette with a self -conscious 
and satisfied air, as if he had summed up the world in a phrase. There was a rustle of 
chirruping sparrows in the green lacquer leaves of the ivy, and the blue cloud -shadows 
chased themselves across the grass like swallows. How pleasant it was in the garden! And 
how delightful other people’s emotions were! —much more delightful than their ide as, it 
seemed to him. One’s  own soul, and the passions of (2) ______  friends - those were the 
fascinating things in life. He pictured to himself with silent amusement the tedious luncheon 
that he had missed by staying so long with Basil Hallward. (3) ______ he to have gone to his 
aunt’s, he would have been sure to have met Lord Goodbody there, and the whole 
conversation would have been about the feeding of the poor and the necessity for model 
lodging-houses. Each class would have preached the importance of  those virtues, for (4) 
______ exercise there was no necessity in their own lives. The rich would have spoken on 
the value of thrift, and the idle grown eloquent over the dignity of labour. It was charming to 
have escaped all that! No sooner had he thought  of his aunt (5) ______ an idea seemed to 
strike him.    
 
 
Olimpiada de limba engleză clasa a XII-a, SECȚIUNEA B   Varianta 1 
 
 
SUBIECTUL B – INTEGRATED SKILLS (60 points) 
 
Read the text below and do the tasks that follow. 
 
In a competition to woo students, public universities are increasingly offering lavish 
amenities that have nothing to do with education. The latest trend is lazy rivers, which have 
been installed at several big institutions, including th e Universities of Alabama, Iowa and 
Missouri. Last year, Louisiana State University topped them all with a 536 -foot-long ―leisure‖ 
river in the shape of the letters ―LSU,‖ pa rt of an $85 million renovation and expansion of its 
gym. It was L.S.U. students who footed the bill. At a time when college has never been more 
expensive, this is the last thing students should be paying for. According to the College 
Board, tuition and fe es at public four -year institutions grew more than 60 per cent over the 
past 10 years. State budgets for higher education have been slashed, and students have to 
make up the difference. In the case of L. S.U., the lazy river was financed entirely by student 
fees, an addendum to their annual tuition. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, 
over the past five years, those fees increased by 60 per cent, nearly triple the amount L.S.U. 
students paid in 2000. 
Tuition and fee hikes at public universities don’t come out of nowhere. Each has to be 
approved by a school’s governing board, whose trustees are typically appointed b y the 
governor. Ensuring affordable, quality education is an essential part of trustees’ 
responsibility, but unfortunately often not part of their practice. Trustees of public universities 
are stewards of a public trust that rests nobly on the notion that an enlightened citizenry is 
vital to a democratic society. They have a fiduciary duty to represent the citizens and 
taxpayers who support public institutions of higher education, as well as the students who 
attend them. But even though the best interests o f students and taxpayers revolve around 
college access, affordability and graduation outcomes, too often presidents and boards are 
more focused on the rankings, reputation and popularity of the institution itself. 
In my career as the president of two state  universities and a consultant to nearly 50 
higher-education institutions, I’ve observed dozens of college presidents skilfully co -opt their 
governing boards into approving costly projects that make schools look more attractive. (Of 
course, every college p resident has to increase costs sometimes. But the goal is to make 
sure it is necessary, while keeping expenses as low as possible for students.) 
Trustees, who typically meet four to eight times each year, are entertained as if they 
are visiting heads of st ate, flattered for their service and financial contributions to the 
institution. College presidents sweeten requests for new buildings and research centres, as 
well as additional student affairs programming, with cleverly branded words like ―promise‖ 
and ― excellence.‖ What board would want to withhold promise and excellence from its 
beloved student body? 
College presidents also tranquilize trustees into agreement with impossibly large 
volumes of reading material. Trustees get binders full of documentation a bout institutional 
successes that are padded with expensive plans for increasing growth and reputation. Most 
come away impressed by their president’s expertise and vision and assured that — thanks to 
their efforts — the university is on the right track. 
The unfortunate truth is that while most college presidents care deeply about their 
institution’s success, an important part of their job is to shake free more resources. They 
seldom initiate serious campaigns to contain costs. 
This means it falls on trustee s to be better prepared to help challenge costly 
proposals that don’t add educational value. When it comes to state schools, the states 
themselves should educate trustees to understand their responsibilities to the citizenry and 
students. Training on big -picture issues and higher -education trends, such as the financial 
trade-off between instruction and research, the costs of intercollegiate athletics, and the 
expansion of amenities, would help trustees develop courage to ask college presidents 
probing questions that look beyond institutional narratives and cherry-picked rhetoric.   
 
 
Olimpiada de limba engleză clasa a XII-a, SECȚIUNEA B   Varianta 1 
 
 
Our nation’s governors must also play a role. As they appoint public university 
trustees, they can and should mandate training to make university boards responsible to 
taxpayers and  students. I don’t mean to imply that trustees should devote themselves to 
ritual opposition to presidents, who usually possess an unmatched understanding of the 
institutions they lead. 
But presidents are not infallible. 
 
 
I. For each question decide which response (A, B, C or D) fits best according to the text. 10 points 
1. Because funding for colleges has been reduced 
A. students must pay for extra-classes. 
B. students can no longer go on adventure holidays. 
C. students can no longer benefit from grants. 
D. students have to pay a part of college expenditures. 
 
2. Although they should, school trustees don’t always 
A. listen to what professors have to say. 
B. take students’ needs into account. 
C. consider education as a process a top priority. 
D. agree on the best curricular options. 
 
3. To make schools more attractive, college presidents usually convince their boards to 
invest money in 
A. lavish amenities. 
B. student exchange programmes. 
C. sports competitions. 
D. summer schools. 
 
4. College presidents use words like ―promise‖ and ―excellence‖ in order to 
A. promote the institution abroad. 
B. receive funding. 
C. describe their students. 
D. use money for utopian interests. 
 
5. It is implied in the text that college presidents 
A. do their best to get projects done as soon as possible. 
B. ask trustees to read too much scientific documents. 
C. don’t really care about the state of their college. 
D. don’t actually try to cut expenditures. 
 
II. Write an opinion essay starting from the statement “An investment in knowledge 
pays the best interest”. (250-280 words)       50 points