OLIMPIADA DE LIMBA ENGLEZĂ – ETAPA LOCALĂ

17 FEBRUARIE 2018
Clasa a IX-a – SECȚIUNEA A

SUBIECTUL A – USE OF ENGLISH

I. Read the following task and put the verbs in brackets in the correct tense. (10 x 1p = 10p)

Sue Thomas is a fashion designer. She 1) ………………...... (make) clothes ever since she 2)
………………...... (be) a young girl. She 3) …………………………. (get) her first job in a clothes
factory when she was sixteen. She 4) …………………… (sew) buttons onto a shirt one day when
she 5)………………….. (have) a brilliant idea for a design. After she 6) ………………….
(speak) to her bank manager, she got a loan and she 7) …………....……. (open) her own little
workshop. Now she 8) …………………………. (make) lots of money. Next year she 9)
………………….. (open) a shop which will sell all her own designs. She 10) …………………
(sell) clothes to a lot of famous people, including film stars and singers, and she thinks she will be
very rich soon.

II.Use the word given in brackets to form a word that fits in each sentence. (10 x 1p = 10p)

1) If there are aliens out there, do you think they are much more ....................................
(TECHNOLOGY) advanced than we are.
2) Are you thinking of a career in .................................... (JOURNAL)?
3) You shouldn’t make .................................... (ACCUSE) like that without evidence.
4) Do you know that tomatoes .................................... (ORIGIN) from South America?
5) Working out can really .................................... (STRONG) your muscles.
6) I`m still .................................... (DECIDE) about whether to go to the fashion show next week
or not.
7) Fashion critics have greeted the new clothing line with .................................... (ENTHUSE).
8) What can we do to protect .................................... (DANGER) species like the giant panda.
9) I’m afraid I’m completely .................................... (USE) when it comes to making my own
clothes.
10) Living in a foreign country really does .................................... (BROAD) your horizons.

III. Read the following text and decide which answer A, B, C or D best fits in each gap. (10 x 1p
= 10p)

THE HISTORY OF WRITING

The development of writing 1) ................ a huge difference to the world and we might see it as
the beginning of the media . Pieces of pottery with marks on that are probably numbers have been 2)
................ in China that date from around 4000 BC. Hieroglyphics and other forms of `picture writing`
developed in the 3) ................ around Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), where the 4) ................
Sumerian civilization was based, from around 3300 BC onwards. However, the first 5) ................
alphabet was used by the Phoenicians around 1050 BC. Their alphabet had 22 letters and it is true that
it lasted for 1000 years. The first two signs were called `aleph` and `beth`, which in Greek bacame
`alpha` and `beta`, which gave us the modern word `alphabet`.
The modern European alphabet is based on the Greek and 6) ................ to the other European
countries under the Romans. A number of changes took 7) ................ as time 8) ................ . The Romans
added the letter G, and the letters J and V were unknown to people in Shakespeare’s time. If we 9)
................ the history of punctuation, we also find some interesting facts. The Romans used to write
quaesto at the end of a sentence in 10) ................ to show that it was a question. They started to write
Qo in place of the whole word, and then put the Q above the o. In the end, that became the question
mark`?`.

1) A did B had C made D took

2) A invented B displayed C discovered D appeared
3) A distance B area C length D earth
4) A antique B old-fashioned C ancient D dated
5) A observed B measured C counted D known
6) A spread B appeared C was D occurred
7) A place B part C control D account
8) A spent B passed C went D developed
9) A look into B bring on C make off D hold up
10) A turn B fact C order D intention

IV. Translate the following text into Romanian. (10p)

Every winter, districts in Kabul held a kite-fighting tournament. And if you were a boy living
in Kabul, the day of the tournament was undeniably the highlight of the cold season. I never slept the
night before the tournament. I’d roll from side to side, make shadow animals on the wall, even sit on
the balcony in the dark, a blanket wrapped around me. I felt like a soldier trying to sleep in the trenches
the night before a major battle. And that wasn’t so far off. In Kabul, fighting kites was a little like going
to war.
As with any war, you had to ready yourself for battle. For a while, Hassan and I used to build
our own kites. We saved our weekly allowances in the fall, dropped the money in a little porcelain horse
Baba had brought one time from Herat.
(Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner)

SUBIECTUL B – INTEGRATED SKILLS

Read the text below and do the tasks that follow.

First introduced in 1927, The Hardy Boys Mystery Stories are a series of books about the adventures
of brothers Frank and Joe Hardy, teenaged detectives who solve one baffling mystery after another.
The Hardy Boys were so popular among young boys that in 1930 a similar series was created for
girls featuring a sixteen-year-old detective named Nancy Drew. The cover of each volume of The
Hardy Boys states that the author of the series is Franklin W. Dixon; the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories
are supposedly written by Carolyn Keene. Over the years, though, many fans of both series have been
surprised to find out that Franklin W. Dixon and Carolyn Keene are not real people. If Franklin W.
Dixon and Carolyn Keene never existed, then who wrote The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew
mysteries?

The Hardy Boys and the Nancy Drew books were written through a process called ghostwriting. A
ghostwriter writes a book according to a specific formula. While ghostwriters are paid for writing the
books, their authorship is not acknowledged, and their names do not appear on the published books.
Ghostwriters can write books for children or adults, the content of which is unspecific. Sometimes
they work on book series with a lot of individual titles, such as The Hardy Boys and the Nancy Drew
series.

Because each series ran for so many years, Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys both had a number of
different ghostwriters producing books; however, the first ghostwriter for each series proved to be the
most influential. The initial ghostwriter for The Hardy Boys was a Canadian journalist named Leslie
McFarlane. A few years later, Mildred A. Wirt, a young writer from Iowa, began writing the Nancy
Drew books. Although they were using prepared outlines as guides, both McFarlane and Wirt
developed the characters themselves. The personalities of Frank and Joe Hardy and Nancy Drew arose
directly from McFarlane’s and Wirt’s imaginations. For example, Mildred Wirt had been a star
college athlete and gave Nancy similar athletic abilities. The ghostwriters were also responsible for
numerous plot and setting details.

Although The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books were very popular with children, not everyone
approved of them. Critics thought their plots were unrealistic and even far-fetched, since most
teenagers did not experience the adventures Frank and Joe Hardy or Nancy Drew did. The way the
books were written also attracted criticism. Many teachers and librarians objected to the ghostwriting
process, claiming it was designed to produce books quickly rather than create quality literature. Some
libraries— including the New York Public Library—even refused to include the books in their
children’s collections. Ironically, this decision actually helped sales of the books, because children
simply purchased them when they were unavailable in local libraries.

I.For each question choose the correct letter A, B, C or D. (5 x 2p = 10p)

1) According to the passage, the Nancy Drew mystery series was introduced in
A. 1925
B. 1927
C. 1929
D. 1930

2) Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?

A. Ghostwriting: A Way of Life

B. Who Were Leslie McFarlane and Mildred A. Wirt?
C. The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew: Ghostwriting a Series
D. The Dubious yet Profitable Practice of Ghostwriting

3) According to the passage, which of the following people was a real writer?
A. Carolyn Keene
B. Franklin W. Dixon
C. Leslie McFarlane
D. Tom Hardy
 4) According to the passage, a ghostwriter is someone who
I. writes about mysterious or strange events
II. does not receive credit as the author
III. bases his or her books on predetermined guidelines

A. I only
B. I and II only
C. II and III only
D. I, II, and III

5) According to the passage, some teachers and librarians objected to ghostwritten books
such as The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mystery Stories because they
A. disapproved of mystery stories
B. thought the books were too expensive
C. believed the books were not quality literature
D. disliked ghostwriting

II. Read the text again and write a narrative essay, based on your own version about how Nancy
Drew solves a mystery. (230-250 words) (50p)

NOTĂ
 Toate subiectele sunt obligatorii.
 Nu se acordă puncte din oficiu.
 Timp de lucru: 3 ore.
 Clasa a IX-a – SECȚIUNEA A
KEY AND MARKING SCHEME

SUBIECTUL A – USE OF ENGLISH

I.(10 x 1p = 10p)
1) has been making 6) had spoken
2) was 7) opened
3) got 8) is making/ makes
4) was sewing 9) is opening/ is going to open/will open
5) had 10) sells/ has sold

II.(10 x 1p = 10p)
1) technologically 6) indecisive
2) journalism 7) enthusiasm
3) accusations 8) endangered
4) originate(d) 9) useless
5) strengthen 10) broaden

III.(10 x 1p = 10p)
1) C 6) A
2) C 7) A
3) B 8) B
4) C 9) A
5) D 10) C

IV. (10p)
În fiecare iarnă, cartierele Kabulului se întreceau într-un campionat al zmeielor. Şi dacă erai un puşti din Kabul,
ziua întrecerii reprezenta apoteoza sezonului rece. Nu dormean niciodată în noaptea dinaintea concursului. Mă
zvîrcoleam de pe o parte pe alta, făceam jocuri de umbre de animale pe pereţi sau chiar stăteam singur pe balcon, în
întuneric, înfăşurat într-o pătură. Mă simţeam ca un soldat care încearcă să doarmă în tranşee, în noaptea dinaintea marii
bătălii. Şi nu eram departe de asta. În Kabul, luptele cu zmeul semănau oarecum cu mersul la război.
Ca în orice război, trebuia să te pregăteşti de luptă. De ceva vreme, eu şi Hassan ne făceam singuri
zmeiele.Toată toamna economiseam banii de buzunar săptămânali, punându-i în pușculița de porțelan, de forma unui
căluț, pe care Baba o adusese cândva de la Herat.

SUBIECTUL B – INTEGRATED SKILLS

I.(5 x 2p = 10p)
1) D 2) C 3)C 4) C 5)C

II. (50p)