Ministerul Educaţiei, Cercetării şi Inovării

Centrul Naţional pentru Curriculum şi Evaluare în Învăţământul Preuniversitar

Examenul de bacalaureat 2009

Proba E/F
Proba scrisă la Limba engleză
L1 - Bilingv

• Toate subiectele sunt obligatorii. Se acordă 10 puncte din oficiu.

• Timpul efectiv de lucru este de 3 ore.

SUBIECTUL I (30 de puncte) Varianta 039

Read the text below and complete the following tasks.

“Most people seem to remember maths as their worst subject and have developed a mental
block about it. So there will be a lot of areas about which they know nothing. Everyone who tries to
popularise maths understands they are going to come up against this (1) … I felt it was important
to address this barrier between writer and reader head on”, said Andrew Hodges, maths lecturer at
Wadham College, Oxford.
Which is easier said than done, (2) … Only last week, Camelot had to withdraw one of its
scratchcards when loads of punters complained that they couldn't understand why - 9 was a lower
number than - 8.
For Hodges, the real battleground is the syllabus at key stages 3 and 4, where the ante
gets upped from relatively straightforward maths to something altogether more complicated: an
uneasy hybrid of the Athenian Euclidian abstract logic that was so appealing to the Victorian gentry,
and the relentless grind of long calculation that has its roots in the pre-computer era (3) … "There
still needs to be a syllabus that stretches the most able and provides them with a route on to A-
level and university," he says. "But I think we should consider abandoning it as a compulsory
subject. What's the point in a system that brands all those who don't get a maths GCSE as
failures? All it does is reinforce their sense that maths is boring and difficult, which is the last thing
we should be doing."
He would like to see a change of approach. "We should be trying to find ways of equipping
children with the basic maths they will need to function adequately in society. I'm sure there are
wonderful examples of good teaching practice to be found in schools, but the curriculum is very
prescriptive and most teachers don't have the time to be creative. (4) …, such as electronic music
and web design, which are more relevant to most students."
(Tuesday November, 13, 2007, The Guardian)

1. Four sentences have been removed from the text. Select the appropriate sentence for
each gap in the text. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use. 4 points

A. when bosses needed clerks to keep books and ledgers with metronomic accuracy.
B. but most choose to ignore it and carry on regardless.
C. when you realise just how limited many people's maths often is.
D. There is no point in insisting on that.
E. We should be looking at ways of teaching maths skills through other media

2. Give the synonyms of the following words/phrases. 6 points

1. to come up against
2. straightforward
3. compulsory

3. Sum up the text in about 50 words. 10 points

 Ministerul Educaţiei, Cercetării şi Inovării
Centrul Naţional pentru Curriculum şi Evaluare în Învăţământul Preuniversitar

4. For the following questions, choose the answer (A, B or C) which fits according to the
text. 6 points

1. A lot of people regard maths as …

A. a subject easy to deal with.
B. the most difficult subject ever.
C. a hobby.

2. Students should be taught basic maths in school …

A. to make it easier for them to get on in life.
B. to help them get a GCSE.
C. to reinforce their sense that maths is boring and difficult.

3. Teachers are prevented from making maths pleasant because …

A. they are not creative.
B. they have a compulsory syllabus to comply with.
C. they lack adequate teaching materials.

5. Comment on the following in about 100 words: Most people seem to remember maths as
their worst subject and have developed a mental block about it. 4 points