Model subiect olimpiada de Engleza, clasa a 11-a, faza judeteana

SUBIECTUL A – USE OF ENGLISH (40 points) 
 
I. Read the paragraph below and do the tasks that follow. (20 points) 
 
Shortly after Mark Twain’s death, Howells published My Mark Twain  (1910), in which he pronounced 
the author “sole, incomparable, the Lincoln of our literature.” Twenty-five years later Ernest Hemingway 
wrote in The Green Hills of Africa  (1935), “All modern American literature comes from one book by 
Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn .” However, the novel has been dropped from some American 
schools’ curricula on the basis of its characterization of the slave Jim, which some regard as 
demeaning.  
 
As a humorist and as a moralist, Twain worked best in short pieces. Roughing It is a rollicking account 
of his adventures in the American West, but it is a lso seasoned with such exquisite stories as Buck 
Fanshaw’s Funeral and The Story of the Old Ram . In Tom Sawyer, he treated childhood not as the 
achievement of obedience to adult authority but as a period of mischief -making fun and good -natured 
affection. L ike Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote, which he much admired, Huckleberry Finn rang 
changes on the picaresque novel that are of permanent interest. 
 
Twain was not the first Anglo -American to treat the problems of race and racism in all their complexity, 
but, along with that of Herman Melville, his treatment remains of vital interest more than a hundred 
years later. His ability to swiftly and convincingly create a variety of fictional characters rivals that of 
Charles Dickens. Twain’s dreamers and toughs, hi s solicitous aunts, ambitious politicians, false 
aristocrats, canny but generous slaves, sententious moralists, brave but misguided children—these and 
many more constitute a virtual census of American types. And his mastery of spoken language, of 
slang and  argot and dialect, gave these figures a voice. Twain’s democratic sympathies and his 
steadfast refusal to condescend to the lowliest of his creations give the whole of his literary production 
a point of view that is far more expansive, interesting, and ch allenging than his somewhat crusty 
philosophical speculations. Twain will always be remembered first and foremost as a humorist, but he 
was a great deal more —a public moralist, popular entertainer, political philosopher, travel writer, and 
novelist. Perhaps it is too much to claim, as some have, that Twain invented the American point of view 
in fiction, but that such a notion might be entertained indicates that his place in American literary culture 
is secure. Ministerul Educaţiei  
Centrul Naţional de Politici și Evaluare în Educație 
Probă scrisă la limba engleză   clasa a XI-a secțiunea B 
Pagina 2 din 4 
 
 
 
A. response the following questions, according to the text.   8 points 
 
1. What was Ernest Hemingway’s appreciation of Mark Twain’s work? 
2. Why have some American schools decided not to study Huckleberry Finn? 
3. What perspective of childhood is provided in Tom Sawyer? 
4. Which other American writer approached the subject of race and racism? 
 
B. Choose the right synonym for the words given below, according to their meaning in the text. 
6 points 
 
1. exquisite: a. outrageous  b. outperforming  c. outsmarting  d. outstanding 
2. solicitous: a. solitary  b. kind   c. rude   d. heedless 
3. condescend: a. be confused b. act surprised c. act superior  d. be smart 
 
 
C. Rephrase the following sentences so as to preserve the meaning.  6 points 
 
1. Twain was not the first to treat the problems of race and racism but Herman Melville. 
Both  ………………………. treated the problems of race and racism. 
2. His mastery of spoken language gave these figures a voice.  
What  ……………………… his mastery of spoken language. 
3. Twain will always be remembered first as a humourist, but he was a great deal more – a public 
moralist. 
Not only  …………………… as a humourist but also as a public moralist. 
 
II. Use the word given in brackets to form a word that best fits in each sentence.         10 points  
The term Digital Marketing was first used in the 1990s. Up until th en, marketers (1) ______(WORLD) 
were still unsure of the digital platform. They were not sure if their strategies would work since the 
internet had not yet seen widespread (2) ______ (DEPLOY ). In 1993, the first (3) _______ (CLICK)  
banner went live, after which HotWired purchased a few banner ads for their advertising. This marked 
the beginning of the transition to the digital era of marketing. In 1994, Yahoo was launched. This 
prompted wholesale changes in the digital marketing space, with companies (4) _______ (OPTIMUM) 
their websites to pull in higher search engine rankings. 1996 saw the launch of a couple of more search 
engines and tools like HotBot, LookSmart, and Alexa. Then came Web 2.0, where people became 
more active (5) ________ (PARTICIPATE) rather than remain passive users. Web 2.0 allowed users to 
(6) ______ (ACT)  with other users and businesses. Soon, social networking sites began to emerge. 
MySpace was the first to arrive, soon followed by Facebook. Many companies (7) _______ (REAL) all 
these f resh new sites that were popping up were beginning to open new doors of opportunities to 
market their products and brands. With new resources, they needed new approaches to promote their 
brands & capitalize on the social networking platform.  With the advent of (8) _________ (DIGITAL), it 
has been observed that the shopping crowd in the markets (9) _______ (GRADUAL) decreased, and 
now it is seen that more and more people shop online. So, there are (10) ________ (NUMBER)  
advantages to promoting your business online because you want to reach the right audience, and your 
audience is online. Ministerul Educaţiei  
Centrul Naţional de Politici și Evaluare în Educație 
Probă scrisă la limba engleză   clasa a XI-a secțiunea B 
Pagina 3 din 4 
 
 
III. Translate the following text into English.     10 points 
 
Vanitatea m-ar îndemna să pretind că am depins exclusiv de caracterul meu în viață (nu ne asigură 
bătrânul Heraclit că destinul este propriul nostru caracter?) sau că soarta a ales împrejurări deosebite 
pentru a mă călăuzi pe un drum sau altul. Adevărul, însă, mă obligă să fiu modest. Am depins de multe 
amănunte,  iar gardul pe care am stat cocoțat înainte de a pleca la liceu a constituit placa turnantă a 
vieții mele. Dacă-l săream, aș fi fost cu siguranță altul acum. Pentru că nu am făcut -o, am intrat pe alt 
coridor al destinului.   
(Octavian Paler- Et in Arcadia ego!  - text adaptat) 
 
SUBIECTUL B – INTEGRATED SKILLS (60 points) 
 
Read the text and do the tasks that follow.  
In 1963, the Beatles were a musical sensation touring across the United Kingdom and Europe. By 
the time their plane landed in New York City in February 1964, kicking off their first visit as a group to 
the United States, the Fab Four were an international phenomenon. 
Later this year, an exhibition at London’s  National Portrait Gallery  will examine this whirlwind 
period from the perspective of a Beatle. Opening on June 28, “ Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: 
Eyes of the Storm ” will display never -before-seen photographs taken by  Paul McCartney  between 
December 1963 and February 1964.  
Until recently coming across them, McCartney thought the photographs he took in those months 
were lost to time.  “Anyone who rediscovers a personal relic or family treasure is instantly flooded with 
memories and emotions, which then trigger associations buried in the ha ze of time,” McCartney writes 
in 1964: Eyes of the Storm , an upcoming companion book, per  NPR’s Stephen Thompson. “This was 
exactly my experience in seeing these photos, all taken over an intense three -month period of travel, 
culminating in February 1964. It was a wonderful sensation to be plunged right back.” 
The images offer a “uniquely personal perspective on what it was like to be a ‘Beatle’ at the start 
of ‘Beatlemania,’” the gallery’s official description  of the exhibition says. “At a time when so many 
camera lenses were on the band, it is Paul McCartney’s which tells the truest story of a band creating 
cultural history—in one of its most exciting chapters.” 
The photographs are a “record of our first huge trip,” McCartney writes, “a photographic journal of 
the Beatles in six cities, beginning in Liverpool and London, followed by Paris (where  John 
[Lennon] and I had been ordinary hitchhikers three years before), and then what we regarded as the big 
time, our first visit as a group to America.” 
The companion book will be published just before the exhibition opens, coinciding  with 
McCartney’s 81st birthday on June 18.  1964: Eyes of the Storm  will contain 275 photographs, which 
were taken on a 35 -millimeter camera in New York, Washington, London, Liverpool, Miami and Paris. 
“They’re taken by someone who was really, as the exhib ition title alludes, in the eye of the storm 
looking outside at what was happening,” Nicholas Cullinan, director of the gallery, tells the  Guardian’s 
Harriet Sherwood. 
Eyes of the Storm  will help mark the gallery’s reopening following three years of refurbishment, 
initially sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic. On June 22, its first exhibition will be a retrospective of the 
20th-century English photographer  Yevonde. Other shows slated for this year will spotlight drawings 
by David Hockney and portraits by Black artists. Ministerul Educaţiei  
Centrul Naţional de Politici și Evaluare în Educație 
Probă scrisă la limba engleză   clasa a XI-a secțiunea B 
Pagina 4 din 4 
 
 
 
I. For each question decide which response (A, B, C or D) fits best according to the text.  10 points 
 
1. When did the Fab Four’s rise to stardom start? 
A. As soon as they reached New York. 
B. After their first concert in the USA. 
C. As soon as they had concerts in Europe. 
D. Before their concerts in the USA. 
 
2. According to McCartney, discov ering the photos taken between December 1963 and February 
1964 made him remember  
A. their most successful period as a band. 
B. their special moments during their concerts. 
C. the feelings triggered by the tour. 
D. their most demanding and challenging period as a band. 
 
3. Eyes of the Storm will display photos taken  
A. during all the tours made by the Fab Four between 1963 and 1964. 
B. only on the Fab Four’s trips during their summer holidays in Europe. 
C. only by the Fab Four during their concerts in New York.  
D. only by famous photographers during the Fab Four ‘s concerts all over the world. 
 
4. The exhibition title -The Eye of the Storm - indirectly suggests that 
A. the 275 photos were taken by someone deeply involved in the evolution of Beatlemania 
phenomenon. 
B. the 275 photos reveal important details about the fashion and the trend in music at the time. 
C. the 275 photos were taken on the purpose to be published in The Guardian later. 
D. the 275 photos reveal important details about the Beatles ‘family life. 
 
5. Which is the event that will precede The Eye of the Storm exhibition?  
A. a Beatles concert in New York and a press conference. 
B. an exhibition of portraits by Black artists. 
C. a book about the Beatlemania phenomenon. 
D. a book containing photos taken by Paul McCartney. 
 
 
II. Write an opinion essay  on the impact photography has had on modern society . (220-250 
words) 
            50 points