Model subiect olimpiada de Engleza, clasa a 9-a, faza judeteana

SUBIECTUL A – USE OF ENGLISH (40 points) 
 
I. Read the paragraph below and do the tasks that follow. (20 points) 
 
Americans and Diets 
Not since Americans crossed the continent in covered wagons have they exercised and 
dieted as strenuously as they are doing today. Consequently, they look younger and slimmer 
and they feel better. Because of increased physical fitness, life expectancy in the nation has 
risen to seventy -three years, with fewer people suffering from heart disease, the nation's 
number one killer. 
Jogging, the easiest and cheapest way of improving the body, keeps over 30 million 
people of all ages on the run. For the price of a good pair of running shoes, anyone anywhere 
can join the race. 
Dieting, too, has become a national pastime. Promoters of fad diets that eliminate 
eating one thing or another, such as fats or carbohydrates, promise as much as 20 -pound 
weight losses within two weeks. Books describing such miraculous diets consistently head up 
the best-seller lists because every corpulent person wants to lose weight quickly and easily. 
Nevertheless, both jogging and dieting, carried to extremes, can be hazardous. Many 
confused joggers overdo and ultimately suffer from ankle and foot damage. Fad dieting, 
fortunately, becomes only a temporary means for shedding a few pounds, while the body is 
deprived of the balanced nutrition it requires, so most dieters cannot persevere on fad  diets. 
Above all, common sense should be the keystone for any dieting and exercise scheme.  
 
A. response the following questions, according to the text.   8 points 
 
1. In what way is life expectancy influenced by exercise and diet, according to the first 
paragraph?  
2. Why has jogging become so appealing to Americans of all ages?  
3. What are the factors that encourage people to go on a diet? 
4. When can diets and exercise be harmful? 
 
B. Choose the right synonym for the words given below, according to their meaning in 
the text.          6 points 
 
1. fitness: a. readiness b. eligibility   c. health d. preparation 
2. corpulent: a. slim   b. lazy    c. unfit  d. fat 
3. hazardous: a. dangerous b. adventurous c. hazing d. arduous 
 
  Ministerul Educaţiei  
Centrul Național de Politici și Evaluare în Educație 
Probă scrisă la limba engleză   clasa a IX-a secțiunea B 
Pagina 2 din 4 
 
 
C. Rephrase the following sentences so as to preserve the meaning.        6 points 
 
 
1. Consequently, the Americans look younger and slimmer and they feel better. 
      Not only ……………………… younger and slimmer, but they also feel better.  
2. Books describing such miraculous diets head up the best -seller lists because corpulent 
people want to lose weight quickly and easily. 
If corpulent people ……………………… not head up the best seller lists. 
3. Many confused joggers overdo and ultimately suffer from ankle and foot damage. 
As a result ……………………… ultimately suffer from ankle and foot damage. 
 
II. Use the word given in brackets to form a word that best fits in each sentence.         10 points  
Teaching Kids to Be Happy 
There is an (1) _____ (EXCITE) new experiment taking place in British schools; children are 
being taught how to be happy. The well -being classes will provide students with critical life 
skills and (2) _____ (ABLE) them to cope with future problems. In a recent survey focusing on 
life satisfaction, British children scored the lowest out of 21 other countries. In addition, 
research has shown that the number of children in the UK with (3) _____ (EMOTION) problems 
has increased (4) _____ (DRAMATIC) in the last 25 years.  
As a result, the government is trying to introduce the study of happiness in state schools. The 
classes will (5) _____ (INITIAL) be taught to 4,000 pupils in the UK, ages ranging from 11 to 
16 over the next three years.  The idea of being taught how to deal with our feelings sounds 
very (6) _____ (HELP). However, some academics have (7) _____ (CRITIC) these classes as 
they believe they make children focus too much on themselves and how they feel, and this 
could lead to (8) _____ (DEPRESS).  
Although the results of this experiment are yet to be seen, children can benefit from guidance 
on how to cope with the ( 9) _____ (DIFFICULT) they may face in later life. Nonetheless, the 
importance of teaching students how to think for themselves should not be (10) _____ (LOOK). 
Students should be taught how to focus on living a life full of goodness rather than searching 
for ways to be happy. 
 
III. Translate the following text into English.      10 points 
M-am gândit multă vreme în acea noapte, la iluzia acestui „absolut” pe care îl căuta biata 
muzicantă, și am simțit o imensă milă reflectând că și-a părăsit un cămin și o libertate garantată 
de civilizație numai pentru că citise cărțile acelui farsor englez  cu pseudonimul de 
Ramacharaka. (Aveam să aflu mai târziu că însăși lectura acelor cărți – care i-au revelat o altă 
lume, dincolo de simțuri - fusese plină de peripeții și mistere). Spre dimineață mi-am spus că 
este de datoria mea să -I deslușesc adevărul, oricât de tare ar dezamăgi-o acesta, de îndată 
ce se va însănătoși. 
 (Mircea Eliade- Maitreyi) 
  Ministerul Educaţiei  
Centrul Național de Politici și Evaluare în Educație 
Probă scrisă la limba engleză   clasa a IX-a secțiunea B 
Pagina 3 din 4 
 
 
SUBIECTUL B – INTEGRATED SKILLS (60 points) 
 
Read the following text and do the tasks. 
 
A few weeks ago, my friend Isabel met her husband for a romantic lunch in their favourite 
London restaurant. They were there to celebrate their fourth wedding anniversary and her 
husband, a publishing director, had even booked the afternoon off work so they could share 
the day together, just the two of them. Except it wasn't just the two of them at all. ‘As soon as 
I saw his iPhone on the table, I felt resentful’, she says. ‘Twitter, for work’ he says. They'd 
barely got beyond their aperitif when a row started. ‘I refuse to have a three-way conversation. 
If you talk to me, I expect eye contact. Meanwhile, you are typing meaningless observation into 
the ether.' 
According to research carried out by Professor Nada Kakabadse at Northampton University, a 
growing number of people are becoming overdependent on their BlackBerries, mobile phones 
and other digital devices. ‘Overdependence certainly created friction in some of the 
relationships of the people I spoke to. In some cases, it led to divorce when one partner felt 
the other wasn’t paying enough attention to normal human interaction.’ Relationship 
counsellors have also noticed this phenomenon. ‘l see more and more of it’, says Denise 
Knowles, a Relate therapist. ‘People feel they’re being excluded if their partner is spending a 
lot of time using phones for socialising, playing games or working.’ 
D-Day for many people’s relationships came in 2008 when the iPhone relaunched, sleeker and 
faster than ever before. Such technology, it seems, is designed to hook the user in, leaving a 
partner feeling even more irritated and excluded. ‘There is something quite compelling about 
contemporary gadgetry’, says Martin Lloyd -Elliot, a relationships psychologist. ‘These new 
designs seem to activate part of the brain that wants to be absolutely absorbed and, like 
computer games, they can create a strange altered state in the user, in which he or she is with 
you but not available to you.’ Lloyd -Elliot's patients frequently report a strange dislocated 
feeling when a partner is immersed in another virtual hemisphere. Sometimes it’s an almo st 
tragic scene. The couple are on holiday with their children and dad’s eyes are glued to a bit of 
electronic gadgetry. He’s present but he’s absent at the same time. The very technology that 
is meant to bring together is increasingly separating us from those we need to attend to most.’  
However, the only way a new etiquette can really work is through increased self-awareness on 
the part of the user. For starters, users have to realise how their behaviour can affect others. 
As Lloyd-Elliot says: ‘There is something arrogant about the mindset that goes with this trend 
- the sense of always thinking that what you’ve got to say is so important it can’t wait. There’s 
also an absence of thoughtful empathy; how you are making those around you feel.’ Dr Emma 
Short, a senior lecturer in psychology, agrees. ‘It’s about being mindful about the choices you 
make. Whenever you take a call or reply to a message in front of someone, you are prioritising 
what is an absent presence .’ In terms of your relationship and how your partner feels, she 
says, think about who you are promoting above whom when you hear that beep or see that 
flashing light. Take heed — turn off that green flashing light now. 
 
 
I. For each question decide which response (A, B, C or D) fits best according to the text.    10 points 
 
1. The writer starts the article with the story of her friend in order to 
A. make the reader sympathise with Isabel. 
B. make it clear that she approves of the man’s attitude. 
C. give the reader a real-life example of the issue she is addressing. 
D. imply that the drawbacks of iPhones outweigh their advantages. 
 Ministerul Educaţiei  
Centrul Național de Politici și Evaluare în Educație 
Probă scrisă la limba engleză   clasa a IX-a secțiunea B 
Pagina 4 din 4 
 
2. Who is you in the third paragraph? 
A. the person Martin Lloyd-Elliot is talking to 
B. Martin Lloyd-Elliot’s patients 
C. Martin Lloyd-Elliot’s patients’ partners 
D. the partner of a person addicted to gadgets 
 
3. Which word in the third paragraph is used to indicate addiction to electronic gadgets? 
A. tragic 
B. glued 
C. absent 
D. separating 
 
4. What does mindset in the last paragraph mean? 
A. attitude 
B. mood 
C. insanity 
D. thoughtlessness 
 
5. What does Dr Short mean when she says ‘ you are prioritising what is an absent 
presence’ in the last paragraph? 
A. You want to make up for the physical absence of the person who is away from you. 
B. You have a dilemma about which choice you should make. 
C. You consider something else more important than the person you are with. 
D. You decide what to do first and what to do next. 
 
II. Starting from the text, write  a narrative-descriptive essay about the time when a phone 
call/a text message you received changed your mood. (180-200 words)  50 points