Ministerul Educaţiei Naționale

Centrul Naţional de Evaluare şi Examinare

Etapa județeană/sectoarelor municipiului București a olimpiadelor naționale școlare -

2019

Probă scrisă

Limba engleză

CLASA a IX-a - SECȚIUNEA B

 Toate subiectele sunt obligatorii.

 Nu se acordă puncte din oficiu.
 Timpul efectiv de lucru este de 3 ore.

SUBIECTUL A – USE OF ENGLISH (40 points)

I. Read the paragraph below and do the tasks that follow. (20 points)

Algeria installed metal detectors at exam halls and video cameras in locations where question
papers were printed in a bid to avoid cheating. The whole nation of Algeria went offline on
Wednesday for the start of high school exams, the first in a series of internet blackouts to stop
the possibility of students cheating. Mobile and fixed internet connections were cut across the
country for a total of two hours, to coincide with the start of two school tests. Devices with
internet access, such as mobile phones and tablets, were banned from Algeria‟s more than
2,000 exam centres and metal detectors were set up at the entrance to the centres, education
minister Nouria Benghabrit said. In a further move to prevent questions being leaked, the
minister said mobile phone jammers and surveillance cameras had been installed in locations
where the exam papers were printed.

A. Answer the following questions, according to the text. 8 points

1. How many exam centers were subject to metal detectors setup?

2. When were the Algerians denied access to the internet?
3. What equipment was installed in order to prevent question leaking?
4. Where was extra precaution taken?

B. Choose the right synonym for the words given below, according to their meaning in
the text. 6 points

1. bid: a. initiative b. attempt c. offer d. bet

2. further: a. fresh b. supplementary c. helpful d. distant
3. to leak: a. to display b. to materialize c. to show d. to reveal

Probă scrisă la limba engleză clasa a IX-a secțiunea B

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 Ministerul Educaţiei Naționale
Centrul Naţional de Evaluare şi Examinare

C. Rephrase the following sentences so as to preserve the meaning. 6 points

1. Algeria installed metal detectors at exam halls.

Metal detectors ............. up at exam halls by Algeria.

2. Algeria installed metal detectors and video cameras in locations where question papers
were printed in a bid to avoid cheating.
What Algeria ....................................... metal detectors and video cameras in locations
where question papers were printed in a bid to avoid cheating.

3. The minister said mobile phone jammers and surveillance cameras had been installed in
locations where the exam papers were printed.
The minister said „Mobile phone jammers and surveillance cameras .......... printed.‟

II. Use the word given in brackets to form a word that fits in each gap. 10 points

Some people (1)____________ (BELIEF) that a school uniform can (2)

_________(IMPROVEMENT) learning by reducing distraction, (3)_________ (SHARP) focus on
schoolwork and making the classroom a more serious environment, allowing students to
perform better (4) ___________ (ACADEMIC). Perhaps most (5) __________ (IMPORTANT),
a uniform means students don't have to worry about peer (6) _________ (PRESS) when it
comes to their clothes. When (7) ___________ (ONE) is dressed the same, worrying about
what you look like isn't so important. There is no (8) ____________ (COMPETE) about being
dressed in the latest trend, which would put a great deal of (9) _____________ (FINANCE)
pressure on students and parents. (10) ____________(POTENTIALLY) bullies have one less
target for their insults; it's hard to make fun of what someone is wearing when you're dressed
exactly the same.

III. Translate the following text into English. 10 points

Ochii lui Salva erau înecați în lacrimi fierbinți. Unde au dispărut toți? De ce au plecat fără
să-l trezească? Știa deja răspunsul: pentru că era copil-ar fi obosit ușor și i-ar fi încetinit, s-ar fi
plâns că i-e foame, ori cine știe ce alte necazuri ar mai fi putut provoca. N-aș fi făcut niciun fel
de necazuri-și nu m-aș fi plâns de nimic! ... Ce o să fac eu acum?
Salva a făcut câțiva pași, să cerceteze puțin împrejurimile. În depărtare, spre linia
orizontului, cerul era cenușiu de la fumul bombelor. Cam la o sută de pași în fața lui, se zărea o
baltă micuță. Între baltă și hambar era o casă-și da, o femeie stătea la soare în apropiere.

Probă scrisă la limba engleză clasa a IX-a secțiunea B

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 Ministerul Educaţiei Naționale
Centrul Naţional de Evaluare şi Examinare

SUBIECTUL B – INTEGRATED SKILLS (60 points)

Read the text below and do the tasks that follow.

I had now the key to all language, and I was eager to learn to use it. Children who hear acquire
language without any particular effort; the words that fall from others' lips they catch on the
wing, as it were, delightedly, while the little deaf child must trap them by a slow and often painful
process. But whatever the process, the result is wonderful. Gradually from naming an object we
advance step by step until we have traversed the vast distance between our first stammered
syllable and the sweep of thought in a line of Shakespeare.

At first, when my teacher told me about a new thing I asked very few questions. My ideas were
vague, and my vocabulary was inadequate; but as my knowledge of things grew, and I learned
more and more words, my field of inquiry broadened, and I would return again and again to the
same subject, eager for further information. Sometimes a new word revived an image that some
earlier experience had engraved on my brain.

I remember the morning that I first asked the meaning of the word, "love." This was before I
knew many words. I had found a few early violets in the garden and brought them to my
teacher. She tried to kiss me: but at that time I did not like to have any one kiss me except my
mother. Miss Sullivan put her arm gently round me and spelled into my hand, "I love Helen."
"What is love?" I asked.

She drew me closer to her and said, "It is here," pointing to my heart, whose beats I was
conscious of for the first time. Her words puzzled me very much because I did not then
understand anything unless I touched it.

A day or two afterward I was stringing beads of different sizes in symmetrical groups–two large
beads, three small ones, and so on. I had made many mistakes, and Miss Sullivan had pointed
them out again and again with gentle patience. Finally I noticed a very obvious error in the
sequence and for an instant I concentrated my attention on the lesson and tried to think how I
should have arranged the beads. Miss Sullivan touched my forehead and spelled with decided
emphasis, "Think."

In a flash I knew that the word was the name of the process that was going on in my head. This
was my first conscious perception of an abstract idea.
For a long time I was still–I was not thinking of the beads in my lap, but trying to find a meaning
for "love" in the light of this new idea. The sun had been under a cloud all day, and there had
been brief showers; but suddenly the sun broke forth in all its southern splendour.
Again, I asked my teacher, "Is this not love?"

"Love is something like the clouds that were in the sky before the sun came out," she replied.
Then in simpler words than these, which at that time I could not have understood, she
explained: "You cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain and know how glad the
flowers and the thirsty earth are to have it after a hot day. You cannot touch love either; but you
feel the sweetness that it pours into everything. Without love you would not be happy or want to
play."

The beautiful truth burst upon my mind–I felt that there were invisible lines stretched between
my spirit and the spirits of others.
Probă scrisă la limba engleză clasa a IX-a secțiunea B
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 Ministerul Educaţiei Naționale
Centrul Naţional de Evaluare şi Examinare

I. For each question decide which answer (A, B, C or D) fits best according to the text. 10 points

1. All children

A. get the meaning of words by miming.

B. acquire the language in a progressive way.
C. understand words by painful methods.
D. can trap the name of objects in a wonderful way.

2. During the process of learning words

A. the girl asked very few questions.

B. the more words the girl learnt, the more curious she became.
C. the girl returned to the same word.
D. each word revived a new experience.

3. The girl first learnt the meaning of the word “love”

A. by knowing many other words before.

B. when being kissed by her teacher.
C. by the heat coming from the sun.
D. when offering a bunch of flowers.

4. Stringing beads of different sizes was a process

A. used to identify mistakes.

B. of teaching the girl how to arrange them symmetrically.
C. of teaching the girl a new word.
D. used to notice sizes.

5. The teacher explained the feeling referring to

A. plants and earth reactions.

B. the sweetness that came from everything.
C. the joy that rain could bring for nature.
D. the happiness that came from playing.

II. Read the text again and write a narrative-descriptive essay (180-200 words) continuing
the story of how the girl discovered and felt a new word-friendship. 50 points

Probă scrisă la limba engleză clasa a IX-a secțiunea B

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