MINISTERUL EDUCAȚIEI NAȚIONALE

OLIMPIADA NAȚIONALĂ DE LIMBA ENGLEZĂ – ETAPA JUDEȚEANĂ/PE

MUNICIPIUL BUCUREȘTI
2017-2018

SUBIECTUL A – USE OF ENGLISH

I. Read the following text and put the verbs in brackets in the correct tense (10
x1p = 10p)

Last week I (1) __________ (WALK) home after playing tennis when it
(2)____________(START) raining very heavily. 'Oh no, I (3)__________(GET) soaked
before I (4)___________ (REACH) home,' I thought. 'I wish I (5)_____________
(REMEMBER) to bring my raincoat.' Luckily just then a friend of mine passed in her car and
offered me a lift. (6) ____________(YOU WANT) to go for a drink?' she asked. 'I think I'd
rather you took me home,' I said. 'If I (7) _________(not change) my clothes, I know I
(8)____________ (fall) ill, and then I (9)_________ (not be able) to play in the tennis
tournament next week. And I (10)____________ (PRACTISE) hard for the last month.'

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

1. I’m not going to clean the floor, it’s not my (RESPONSIBLE)____________

2. Your (PUNISH)________________ for not doing your homework is to stay behind
after school.
3. I want to be a painter or a composer, I want to do something (CREATE)____________
with my life.
4. The Queen of England’s art collection is so (VALUE)_________ that it is impossible
to insure it.
5. He says he saw some visitors from outer space in his garden; it’s just his
(IMAGINE)_________!
6. My brother’s mood is very (PREDICT)__________; sometimes he’s happy and the
next moment he’s depressed.
7. The French (REVOLUTIONARY)__________, which took place in 1789, changed
the history of Europe.
8. He has a sad (EXPRESS)_________ on his face; I wonder what’s wrong.
9. Why are holidays sometimes more (STRESS)__________ than staying at home?
10. (LIKE)_________ most people, I took no interest whatsoever in the Olympic Games.

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

(1) ___________________, people all over the world are working longer hours. We also have
more leisure time than ever before. After sleeping and working, watching TV is by far the
most (2) ___________________ leisure activity the world over. The British watch more TV
than any other nation in Europe, but they read more too. The majority, 85%, read newspapers,
and 54% regularly read books. Two thirds of modern European women work full time, but
they still do the main (3) _______________ of the housework too. Husbands help in the
household more than they did in former times. No wonder that many working women say
they are stressed and (4) ________________. According to the latest (5)

CLASA A X-A, SECȚIUNEA A - MODEL

 MINISTERUL EDUCAȚIEI NAȚIONALE
OLIMPIADA NAȚIONALĂ DE LIMBA ENGLEZĂ – ETAPA JUDEȚEANĂ/PE
MUNICIPIUL BUCUREȘTI
2017-2018

__________________ by supermarkets, the average British family spends just 11 minutes

preparing for the main evening meal. Almost half of all UK families in the UK eat together
only once a month or (6) __________________. More than half of young people in the UK
have a full - time job (7) ___________ to the age of 19, but the majority of young Spanish
and Italian people do not start full-time work until they are 24. The average American
fourteen year-old (8) _________________ only half an hour a day doing homework, and less
than a fifth of them participate in sports, music or have other hobbies. (9)
____________________, 65 % say they spend their time chatting on their mobiles and (10)
___________________ out with friends in shopping malls.

1 A -In general B -Although C - However D - Despite

2 A -joint B - common C - regular D - general
3 A -cut B - portion C - part D - piece
4 A -alert B - sleepy C - exhausted D - spent
5 A -inspections B - examinations C - explorations D - research
6 A -fewer B - less C - least D - smaller
7 A -with B - up C - until D - under
8 A -fills B - occupies C - uses D - spends
9 A -In spite of B - Nevertheless C - Despite D - Instead
10 A -falling B - hanging C - running D - dropping

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

Then he walked over to the motor car where the woman sat crying in the corner. “That
was a pretty thing to do,” he said in a toneless voice. “He would have left you too.”
“Stop it,” she said.
“Of course, it’s an accident,” he said. “I know that.”
“Stop it,” she said.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “There will be a certain moment of unpleasantness but I will
have some photographs taken that will be very useful at the inquest. There’s the testimony of
the gun-bearers and the driver too. You’re perfectly all right.”
“Stop it,” she said.
“There’s a hell of a lot to be done,” he said. “And I’ll have to send a truck off to the
lake to wire for a plane to take the three of us into Nairobi. Why didn’t you poison him?
That’s what they do in England.”
“Stop it. Stop it. Stop it,” The woman cried.
(E. Hemingway – The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber)

SUBIECTUL B – INTEGRATED SKILLS

Read the text below and do the tasks that follow.

Diane Modahl’s six older sisters all live within a ten-minute drive of their parents’ house
in a suburb of Manchester. It is the place where Modahl lived from the age of 11 until the age
of 24, when she married and moved to Sale – twenty minutes away by car. Every Sunday she
and her husband, like the rest of her siblings, return to Manchester for a huge Jamaican lunch

CLASA A X-A, SECȚIUNEA A - MODEL

 MINISTERUL EDUCAȚIEI NAȚIONALE
OLIMPIADA NAȚIONALĂ DE LIMBA ENGLEZĂ – ETAPA JUDEȚEANĂ/PE
MUNICIPIUL BUCUREȘTI
2017-2018

of marinated chicken, rice with peas and fried potatoes. It is a family tradition and they all
relish it.
In Diane’s mind, Manchester stands for happiness. Up until the age of 11 she had lived
in Moss Side and Longside. She remembers little about these places except the sports days her
father used to organize for the children in the neighbourhood. Her father, who worked in the
pastry department of a factory, was, she says, ‘like the Pied Piper’, knocking on everybody’s
door and encouraging them to take part. ‘The first prize for the races would be a chocolate
bar, which really inspired me then.’
Her mother, a nurse, ‘is a very ambitious and positive lady’, and Modahl thinks it was
mostly due to her desire to make ‘a step up’ that the family moved from their three-bedroom
council house in Longside to a very large five-bedroomed Victorian house in Manchester, an
area which ‘tended to be white middle-class’.
Modahl made friends with two girls living opposite. ‘I do remember always being
different from them but if they were racists, it was inadvertent. They’d ask rather silly
questions, like did I burn in the sun, and what kind of makeup could I use? Colour and race
never came up in Longside, but there were more black people there. I was bemused by
people’s reaction to me in Manchester but there was never any blatant name - calling and I
never felt uncomfortable. Although my brothers and sisters always accused me of being naïve,
I think it was just ignorance and curiosity.
Whereas before her marriage Modahl would never have contemplated leaving her home
town, since meeting her husband she now feels ‘the sky’s the limit’. She says she’s more
mature. ‘I wouldn’t hesitate to move to Norway, where he comes from. We are thinking of it
and it’s an exciting thought. He and I rely on each other totally. We both want each other to
achieve our ambitions. Now we have our first child we have to set a standard and tone for our
family. I think my parents would be disappointed if they felt one of us was being held back
and tied to them.’

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

1. Diane’s brother and sisters

A. live very close to their parents’ house in Manchester.
B. sometimes return to Manchester for family reunions.
C. have always lived in Manchester.
D. do not particularly like having lunch together.

2. Diane’s father had a good sense of fun because

A. he went door to door to encourage the neighbours’ children to participate in races.
B. he knew how to motivate the children to participate.
C. he made all children feel happy.
D. he always had good jokes to tell.

3. Diane’s mother had always wanted the family to move because

A. their house in Longside was too small.
B. she had always wanted to live in a Victorian house.
C. she wanted the family to have a better position in society.
D. she wanted to live in a white middle-class area.

CLASA A X-A, SECȚIUNEA A - MODEL

 MINISTERUL EDUCAȚIEI NAȚIONALE
OLIMPIADA NAȚIONALĂ DE LIMBA ENGLEZĂ – ETAPA JUDEȚEANĂ/PE
MUNICIPIUL BUCUREȘTI
2017-2018

4. Diane’s friends living opposite

A. always made Diane feel different on purpose.
B. always asked innocent silly questions.
C. were racists and made Diane feel uncomfortable.
D. always called Diane naïve.

5. Diane and her husband

A. want to live near Diane’s family forever.
B. have their hearts set on achieving their goals.
C. often rely on each other.
D. do not think of having children yet.

II. Read the text again and write a narrative-descriptive essay about a 16-year old
teenager who has just moved to a new school. Your writing should refer to what
happened on their first day there, the atmosphere of the place and their feelings and
emotions. (200-220 words) 50 p

CLASA A X-A, SECȚIUNEA A - MODEL