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 - Intensiv 3-4 ore

SUBIECTUL I ( 30 de puncte) Varianta 036

Read the text below and complete the following tasks.

Most people have heard of Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the telephone in 1876. But it
was a little-known English priest called Henry Hunnings (1) ... . Bell’s model could transmit a voice up
to about 23 Km. A year after its invention, Thomas Edison improved on the model by attaching a solid-
carbon button inside the mouthpiece. But Hunnings decided to experiment with granular carbon (2) ... .
This improved the voice clarity and extended the voice-transmission distance to about 72 Km.
Hunnings was granted a patent for his invention in December 1878.
Hunnings was born in 1843 near London. He became a priest in Yorkshire and although much
of his time was taken up with Church matters, he had a profound interest in all sorts of gadgets,
particularly those that dealt with magnetism and electricity. A friend of Hunnings with similar interests
called Cox Walker, built a telephone receiver. In 1880 an American called Anders visited England and
asked Walker (3) ... . He was impressed and offered Hunnings ₤1000 for the patent. The offer was
accepted and Globe Company was formed to make telephones in England. In 1881 Hunnings was
granted patents in the United States for this invention. But by this time so many rich people and
companies were involved in telephone design and manufacturing (4) ... . There was a famous civil
case in 1882 when the United Telephone Company took the Globe Company to court for an
infringement of its patents. At first it failed to have the Hunnings patents declared invalid - but later it
partially succeeded. It later bought the rights to the entire patents from Hunnings.

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

A. which few people had known about

B. instead of solid carbon
C. that conflict resulted
D. who made the first big improvement
E. if he could inspect Hunnings transmitter

2. Give the synonyms of the underlined words. 6 points

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

4. For the following questions, choose the answer (A, B, C, D) which fits according to the text.
6 points
1. Bell’s model could transmit a voice ...
A. over 23 km
B. almost 23 km
C. exactly 23km
D. less than 23 km
 Ministerul Educaţiei, Cercetării şi Inovării
Centrul Naţional pentru Curriculum şi Evaluare în Învăţământul Preuniversitar

2. Hunnings was ...

A. a priest who worked for Edison.
B. both a priest and a scientist.
C. a priest interested in science.
D. a scientist interested in religion.

3. The United Telephone Company took the Globe Company to court……

A. to take Bell’s patent
B. to make telephones in England
C. to destroy it
D. to prove that Hunning’s patents were not valid

5. Comment on the relationship between religion and science. Start from the sentence: He
became a priest in Yorkshire and although much of his time was taken up with Church matters, he had
a profound interest in all sorts of gadgets, particularly those that dealt with magnetism and electricity.
(100 words) 4 points