Олимпиада по английскому языку 7-8 класс
LISTENING
Time: 15 minutes
Task 1
For Questions 1-8 you will hear a man talking to a travel agent. Before
you listen, read through the list of statements below. As you listen, decide
whether each statement is true (T) or false (F).
1. Mr Petrov is keen on having an eco-holiday.
2. He plans to go for three weeks.
3. Mr Petrov is not prepared to pay more than ₤750.
4. One can have a discount if he pays in advance.
5. Mr Petrov wants to buy travel insurance.
6. He is a meat-eater.
7. Mr Petrov is from Moscow.
8. He may need a visa to visit some of the places.
Task 2
For questions 9-15 you will hear a woman talking about the places she
has visited. While you listen, complete the notes she made by writing suitable
adjectives for each of the gaps. The first one has been done for you as an
example.
Tennyson Down
 large steep hill

9
views

10
stone column
 a few years ago
 family
 walked

11
sunny day

12
weather
 ate picnic
 visited the neddles 
14
13
rocks
area
 good exercise

15
air
TRANSFER YOUR ANSWERS TO THE ANSWER SHEET!
READING
Time: 15 minutes
You are going to read an article by an actress called Josie
Lawerence, in which she writes about her holidays. For Questions 1-10,
choose the correct answer A, B, C or D.
Mark your answers on the answer sheet.
MY HOLIDAYS
On New Year’s Eve a few years ago, I decided to go skiing for
the first time with two friends. They are the complete opposite of me
in that they’re really brave and fearless - they’ve been skiing and
diving all their lives, whereas I’m a bit of a coward. Surprisingly, 4
however, I enjoyed it very much and the second time we went I felt
much more confident and decided to move away from skiing on the
nursery slopes. I was doing really well and skiing down quite a steep
slope when I heard one of my friends say ‘Wow, Josie, you’re
moving fast!’ I thought ‘Yes, I am, aren’t I - but how do stop?’
Suddenly all my confidence left me and I fell very badly. I didn’t
break anything but I twisted my knee. The rest of the holiday was
spent sitting on top of the mountain, looking after everybody’s bags
and coats.
If I’m honest, I prefer going somewhere hot and sunny for a
holiday. I love going to Thailand, for example, and staying in one of
the beautiful resorts on the coast. The people are extremely friendly
and in one hotel we stayed at we got to know the chef quite well and
he would take us round the market with him. And one of the waiters
took us to visit his uncle who owns a coconut farm. It’s only in ways 18
like this that you begin to get a feel for the country and its people, as
these kinds of opportunities are not available for the average tourist.
I’m not a rough-it kind of person: I did enough of that when I was
younger. The trouble with me is that I have a genuine problem with
mosquitoes - they absolutely adore me! If I get bitten, the bites turn
into mini-balloons all over my body. Once when we were travelling by
jeep during the monsoon season, the rain was so heavy that we
stopped in a village. A young Thai boy noticed this huge bite on my
arm, which was going a funny colour, and looked as if it might be
infected. He picked some leaves off a tree and made a mixture of them
using some salt and a little alcohol and then rubbed the mixture into
my arm. You could see the infection disappear: it was amazing, it was
like letting the air out of a balloon.
Generally, after I’ve finished a run of performances in a play, I
feel exhausted. Pleasantly exhausted, but not too weary to escape! All
I want to do is find a hotel with a fantastic view, a beach, a good book
and a mosquito net. My needs are very simple, really, and I just want
the opportunity to refresh myself. Sometimes I might consider a
holiday in a completely different environment, like visiting a friend in a
country cottage or staying in a small bed and breakfast place and
walking in the surrounding hills. It’s good for my soul.
1. How did Josie feel about going away with her friends for the first time?
A very surprised
B rather afraid
C not bothered
D really terrified
2. What does 'it' in line 4 refer to?
A New Year's Eve
B diving
C skiing
D being a coward
3 How did Josie feel about her second holiday?
A really eager
B sure of herself
C rather surprised
D horrible
4 How was Josie's confidence destroyed?
A She broke her leg.
B She started to think.
C Her friend embarrassed her.
D Her friend criticised her.
5. What does 'to get a feel for' in lines 18/19 mean?
A to experience
B to develop
C to visit
D to understand
6. What personal problem does Josie mention?
A She hates mosquitoes.
B She enjoys travelling by jeep.
C She prefers living rough.
D She dislikes very bad weather.
7. What effect did the mixture have on Josie's arm?
A It changed colour.
B It became better.
C It became infectious.
D It turned into a balloon.
8. How does Josie feel when a play finishes?
A completely worn out
B desperate to get away
C pleased that she's free
D very tired but satisfied
9. What does Josie mainly want from a holiday?
A the chance to her build up her energy
B the chance to visit somewhere fresh
C the possibility of relaxing on a beach
D the opportunity to stay with friends
10 What kind of person is Josie?
A choosy
B rough
C easy to please
D confident
TRANSFER YOUR ANSWERS TO THE ANSWER SHEET!
USE OF ENGLISH
Time: 10 min
For questions 1-10 complete the sentences below with the words in the box.
There are three words which do not fit into any of the gaps.
celebrity
functional boring information performance decorative
repair modern retire research
produced
preserve
bored
1
This jumper has a very big hole in it and you won't be able to..................it.
2
During her fashion course, she compared............................clothes with
clothes from the past.
3
The best way to............................these clothes is to keep them out of the
light.
4
These clothes are all............................by hand and that's why they take a
long time to make.
5
She always wanted to be famous and attract attention from the media, so she
was very happy when she became a.............................
6
These clothes are very............................and can be worn both for work and
social occasions.
7
He gave a wonderful............................in the film and the critics said he was
a brilliant actor.
8
The clothes made by this company have a............................design on the
front of them.
9
According to ……………….the number of overweight people is growing.
10
The conversation was extremely …………….. and I stopped listening.
TRANSFER YOUR ANSWERS TO THE ANSWER SHEET
WRITING
Time: 20 min
Last year your class participated in the work of the English-speaking Club at your
school. You have recently received the following letter from the manager of the
Club.
…I am writing to all members of the English-speaking Club to thank you for your
participation over the last year. We want to make our work even better this year!
Please send a short report to us, telling us what you think are the best and worst
aspects of the club. We also want to hear your ideas about the new events...
Write your report to the manager of the club (around 90-100 words).
Do not forget to:
- make an introduction
- give your opinion about the best and the worst aspects of the club
- draw a conclusion
Олимпиада по английскому языку 9-11 класс
LISTENING
Time: 20 minutes
1. You will hear part of a lecture about jeans. As you listen complete the
sentences below (1-10). Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS for each
answer.
Questions 1-10
1. The word jeans may have originated in a material used in clothes worn by
___________ from Italy.
2. One difference between jean and denim material concerned the ___________
used to create them.
3. Denim was used in the clothes worn by people whose place of work was
___________ .
4. Strauss’s first name was originally ___________ .
5. The miners’ problem concerned the ___________ on their clothes.
6. Strauss’s clothes solved the problem because they used ___________ fasteners.
7. The label Strauss added showed his waist overalls connected to ___________ .
8. In the 1930s, the clothes became more popular because people saw characters
in ___________ wearing them.
9. In the 1940s, people in other countries saw the clothes being worn by
___________ from the U.S.
10. In the 1950s, teenagers called the clothes ___________ .
TRANSFER YOUR ANSWERS TO THE ANSWER SHEET!
READING
Time: 30 minutes
So you think humans are unique
Read the text and answer the questions that follow.
There was a time when we thought humans were special in so many
ways. Now we know better. We are not the only species that feels emotions,
empathises with others or abides by a moral code. Neither are we the only
ones with personalities, cultures and the ability to design and use tools. Yet
we have steadfastly clung to the notion that one attribute, at least, makes us
unique: we alone have the capacity for language.
Alas, it turns out we are not so special in this respect either. Key to the
revolutionary reassessment of our talent for communication is the way we
think about language itself. Where once it was seen as a monolith, a discrete
and singular entity, today scientists find it is more productive to think of
language as a suite of abilities. Viewed this way, it becomes apparent that
the component parts of language are not as unique as the whole.
Take gesture, arguably the starting point for language. Until recently, it
was considered uniquely human – but not any more. Mike Tomasello of the
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and
others have compiled a list of gestures observed in monkeys, gibbons,
gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orang-utans, which reveals that
gesticulation plays a large role in their communication. Ape gestures can
involve touch, vocalising or eye movement, and individuals wait until they
have another ape's attention before making visual or auditory gestures. If
their gestures go unacknowledged, they will often repeat them or touch the
recipient.
In an experiment carried out in 2006 by Erica Cartmill and Richard
Byrne from the University of St Andrews in the UK, they got a person to sit on
a chair with some highly desirable food such as banana to one side of them
and some bland food such as celery to the other. The orang-utans, who
could see the person and the food from their enclosures, gestured at their
human partners to encourage them to push the desirable food their way. If
the person feigned incomprehension and offered the bland food, the animals
would change their gestures – just as humans would in a similar situation. If
the human seemed to understand while being somewhat confused, giving
only half the preferred food, the apes would repeat and exaggerate their
gestures – again in exactly the same way a human would. Such findings
highlight the fact that the gestures of non-human primates are not merely
innate reflexes but are learned, flexible and under voluntary control – all
characteristics that are considered prerequisites for human-like
communication.
As well as gesturing, pre-linguistic infants babble. At about five months,
babies start to make their first speech sounds, which some researchers
believe contain a random selection of all the phonemes humans can produce.
But as children learn the language of their parents, they narrow their sound
repertoire to fit the model to which they are exposed, producing just the
sounds of their native language as well as its classic intonation patterns.
Indeed, they lose their polymath talents so effectively that they are ultimately
unable to produce some sounds – think about the difficulty some speakers
have producing the English th.
Dolphin calves also pass through a babbling phase. Laurance Doyle
from the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, Brenda McCowan from
the University of California at Davis and their colleagues analysed the
complexity of baby dolphin sounds and found it looked remarkably like that of
babbling infants, in that the young dolphins had a much wider repertoire of
sound than adults. This suggests that they practise the sounds of their
species, much as human babies do, before they begin to put them together in
the way characteristic of mature dolphins of their species.
Of course, language is more than mere sound - it also has meaning.
While the traditional, cartoonish version of animal communication renders it
unclear, unpredictable and involuntary, it has become clear that various
species are able to give meaning to particular sounds by connecting them
with specific ideas. Dolphins use 'signature whistles', so called because it
appears that they name themselves. Each develops a unique moniker within
the first year of life and uses it whenever it meets another dolphin.
One of the clearest examples of animals making connections between
specific sounds and meanings was demonstrated by Klaus Zuberbuhler and
Katie Slocombe of the University of St Andrews in the UK. They noticed that
chimps at Edinburgh Zoo appeared to make rudimentary references to
objects by using distinct cries when they came across different kinds of food.
Highly valued foods such as bread would elicit high-pitched grunts, less
appealing ones, such as an apple, got low-pitched grunts. Zuberbuhler and
Slocombe showed not only that chimps could make distinctions in the way
they vocalised about food, but that other chimps understood what they
meant. When played recordings of grunts that were produced for a specific
food, the chimps looked in the place where that food was usually found. They
also searched longer if the cry had signalled a prized type of food.
Clearly animals do have greater talents for communication than we
realised. Humans are still special, but it is a far more graded, qualified kind
of special than it used to be.
Questions 1-5
For questions 1-5, choose the correct answer (A, B, C or D).
1 What point does the writer make in the first paragraph?
A We know more about language now than we used to.
B We recognise the importance of talking about emotions.
C We like to believe that language is a strictly human skill.
D We have used tools for longer than some other species.
2 According to the writer, what has changed our view of communication?
A analysing different world languages
B understanding that language involves a range of skills
C studying the different purposes of language
D realising that we can communicate without language
3 The writer quotes the Cartmill and Byrne experiment because it shows
A the similarities in the way humans and apes use gesture.
B the abilities of apes to use gesture in different environments.
C how food can be used to encourage ape gestures.
D how hard humans find it to interpret ape gestures.
4 In paragraph 7, the writer says that one type of dolphin sound is
A used only when dolphins are in danger.
B heard only at a particular time of day.
C heard at a range of pitch levels.
D used as a form of personal identification.
5 Experiments at Edinburgh Zoo showed that chimps were able to
A use grunts to ask humans for food.
B use pitch changes to express meaning.
C recognise human voices on a recording.
D tell the difference between a false grunt and a real one.
Questions 6-11
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading
Passage 3?
Write
True (T)
if the statement agrees with the claims of the writer
False (F)
if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer
DOESN’T SAY (DNS) if it is impossible to say what the writer thinks
about this
6 It could be said that language begins with gesture.
7 Ape gestures always consist of head or limb movements.
8 Apes ensure that other apes are aware of their gesturing.
9 Primate and human gestures share some key features.
10 Cartoons present an amusing picture of animal communication.
11 The sound range of pre-linguistic infants is wider than that of their
parents.
Questions 12-15
Complete the summary using the list of words, A-H, below.
Babbling
It seems that humans are not the only species that babble. Before young
infants speak, some experts think that they produce the 12 ……………
mixture of human sounds. Over time, however, they copy the language of
their parents, and this affects their ability to pronounce 13 …………….
sounds from other languages.
A 14……………..pattern has been found among dolphins. They produce a
range of individual sounds when they are babies, and then combine some
of these to produce the sounds of 15………………dolphins later on.
A adult
C similar
B rare
D full
E restricted
G different
F sociable
H random
TRANSFER YOUR ANSWERS TO THE ANSWER SHEET
USE OF ENGLISH
Time: 15 minutes
Unjumble the words in bold (the dictionary definitions after each
sentence will help you to decide what the verb is), and write the answers on
your answer sheet. The last letter of one verb is the first letter of the next
verb. The first letter (1) has been underlined for you.
1. It usually takes about two weeks to sorpsce an insurance claim
(to deal with something in the usual routine way)
2. The company has offered to osonrsp three employees for a
management training course (to pay for someone to go on a
training course)
3. She has been asked by her company to hereracs the
effectiveness of bargaining structures (to study a subject in detail)
4. If our advertisement for a manager is unsuccessful, I suggest we
aedunhht elsewhere (to look for managers and offer them jobs in
other companies)
5. We would like to ratsenrf you to our Scottish branch (to move
someone or something to a new place)
6. I would certainly emredconm Ms Smith for the job (to say that
someone or something is good)
7. The manager had to cenpisilid three members of staff for their
bad attitude at work (to punish an employee for misconduct)
8. The directors peltoxi their employees, who have to work hard
for very little pay (to use something to make a profit, usually used
in a negative way)
9. This company sells products that gttrea the teenage market (to
aim to sell to somebody)
10. When his mistake was discovered, he offered to nerted his
resignation (to give / hand in: a formal word)
11. If you accept the job, we can wrerda you with a generous
remuneration package (to give a person something in return for
effort or achievement)
12. Problems began when the workers decided to gaisdrder the
instructions of the shop stewards (to take no notice of, or not to
obey)
13. Mr Lee has been asked to tirdce our South-East Asian
operations (to manage or organise)
14. I'm afraid we have no option but to rmetintea your contract
with immediate effect (to end something, or bring something to an
end)
15. The company is trying to renugecoa sales by giving large
discounts (to make it easier for something to happen)
TRANSFER YOUR ANSWERS TO THE ANSWER SHEET!
WRITING
Time: 30 minutes
You have found the following text in the Internet. Comment on this
piece of information:
IS CONSTANT USE OF ELECTRONIC MEDIA
CHANGING OUR MINDS?
The power of modern electronic media – the net, mobile phones
and video games - to capture the attention of the human mind,
particularly the young mind, and then distract it, has lately become a
subject of concern. We are, say the worriers, losing the ability to apply
ourselves properly to a single task, like reading a book in its entirety or
mastering a piece of music on an instrument, with the result that our
thinking is becoming shallower.
Nicholas Carr, the American science writer, has explored this
theme for his new book, The Shallows, in which he argues that new
media are not just changing our habits but our brain too. Deep thought,
the ability to immerse oneself in an area of study, to follow a narrative, to
understand an argument and develop a critique, is giving way to
skimming…
Write 100-120 words.
Remember to
- make an introduction;
- express your personal opinion on the influence of electronic media on human
brain, namely its ability to focus and analyze and give reasons for your opinion;
- make a conclusion.
Write in your own words. DO NOT quote from the given text.