Материалы олимпиады по английскому языку 7-8 классы

Олимпиада по английскому языку для 7-8 класса

Школьный уровень

Reading Comprehension

Time: 45 minutes

Part 1

Questions 1-6 are based on Text 1

Peer Influences on Achievement

by Laurence Steinberg

By tracking students over a three-year period, we were able to see how they were doing in school at the beginning of the time period, which friends they were spending time with, and whether their school performance and behavior changed over time as a result. By comparing the academic careers of students who began high school with similar grades, but who had different sorts of friends during the school years, we were able to see whether the type of friends that young people have actually makes a difference in their school performance.

The answer is that it most certainly does, especially in two areas: academic performance and behavior. Youngsters whose friends were more academically oriented—that is, whose friends had higher grades, spent more time on homework—did better over the course in school than students who began school with similar records but who had less academically oriented friends. Similarly, students whose friends had more conduct problems developed more problems themselves over time. These findings tell us, then, that parents have reason to worry about the qualities and values of their children's friends. How large a difference do friends make? In one set of analyses, we were able to contrast the influence of best friends with the influence of parents. Parents may influence their children's long-term educational plans, but when it comes to day-to-day influences on schooling—whether students attend class, how much time they spend on homework, how hard they try in school, and the grades they bring home—friends are more influential than parents.

Decide which of the following statements (items 1 -6) are True (A) or False (B).

1. T F The researchers compared groups of students with similar grades.

2. T F They compared the students' grades at the beginning of the school year with their grades at the end of the year.

3. T F Students who had academically oriented friends had better grades over the course of high school.

4. T F Students who had less academically oriented friends had worse grades.

5. T F Close friends had an important influence on students' grades and behavior.

6. T F Parents and friends had a similar influence on students' grades.

Part 2

Questions 7-12 are based on Text 2. You are going to read an article about soap operas. Six sentences have been removed from the brochure. Choose from the sentences A-G the one which fits in each gap 7-12. There is one extra sentence you do not need to use.

Soap Operas

In the1930s radio stations in the USA wondered what type of programmes they should put on during the daytime. They came up with the idea of producing serials that would be on the radio every afternoon telling a continuous story. 7. _____________. Knowing that the majority of the audience would be women, the broadcasters decided that the women in the serials would be strong characters and the men weak. The serials were popular with listeners. As the radio stations were paid for by advertising, these programmes always carried advertisements and, since one of the most frequently advertised products was soap, the programmes became known as Soaps or Soap Operas.

8. ___________. The BBC had no interest in producing this type of programme but during the Second World War it was thought that the Americans should be shown how well the British people were standing up to the war. 9. ___________. It was called Front Line Family and showed how a typical English family, the Robinsons, were living during the war. 10.__________. The BBC were unwilling to this but finally agreed and broadcast the programme in Britain, but changed the name to The Robinsons. The programme ran for six years.

Other soaps were introduced later, one telling the life of a doctor’s family and another, The Archers, about life in a country village. The original aim of The Archers was to inform farmers of new developments in agriculture. The serial began in 1951 and is still to be heard on five evenings every week.

Some attempts at soap opera began to appear on television in Britain in the mid-1950s, but it as not until 1961 that the first real soap opera appeared. 11. ___________. The serial, called Coronation Street, was about the lives of people living in a working class street near Manchester. 12.__________.

The BBC never managed to produce a really successful soap opera until 1984, when it introduced Eastenders. This programme is about life in the area of the east end of London. For a timeit had more viewers than Coronation Street and was the most popular programme on the British television.

A. This was shown not by the BBC, but by commercial television.

B. To keep the listeners’ interest, there would be far more troubles than in real life.

C. Some people in Britain managed to hear the programme and asked for it to be broadcast for the British audience.

D. It was really by chance that the soap opera appeared in Britain.

E. Although the serial was planned to run for only thirteen weeks, it is still to be seen several nights every week and almost every week has more viewers than any other programme on British television.

F. For this reason, a soap opera was written for the North American service of the BBC.

G. It has always been the most popular programme on television.

Part 3

Questions 13-20 are based on Text 3. You are going to read an article about the library in the past. For questions 13-20, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best according to the text.

Going to the library in the past

When I go into our local library, I often watch children looking at the shelves filled with a variety of brightly coloured books. They pick a book, glance through a few of the pages and then almost immediately reject it before beginning to look at another book. I smile to myself for when I was a child in the 1910s, we were never allowed anywhere near the books. They were kept in some remote corner of the building to which only the librarian had access.

How, you may ask, did we manage to choose the book which we wanted to borrow? Well, immediately to the right of the entrance was a room which served two purposes: it was a reading room for the older members of the community and it contained catalogues in alphabetical order of the titles and authors of the books kept in the library. Using these, all one had to do was to write out a list of the books required. However, since most of us knew very few authors by name, and even fewer book titles, the whole process of borrowing a book was based upon guesses. There was no possibility of looking through the first few pages to help us form an opinion, no looking at illustrations to discover if a book might arouse our interest.

Even now I recall almost with pain some of the selections my friends and I made. We learned with dismay that titles often gave little guidance as to what the book was about. If we could have returned the book the next day, our irritation would have been considerably reduced, but this was not possible. The librarian did not allow us to bring back any book until we had kept it for at least a week.

Having written out your list, you presented it to the librarian. If you thought your troubles were finished, you were sadly mistaken. Your hands were inspected to make sure they were clean. More than once, one or other of us was sent out of the library and told to return when we had washed our hands.

Once the librarian was satisfied that we were clean enough, she would disappear into another room and return with the first book on our list which was available. When a book was returned, she would make a thorough inspection of the pages to make sure that it had not been damaged in any way. At least that way we never got blamed for something we had not done. Although the librarian appeared very strict and frightening to a small boy, I owe her and the man who gave the library to the town an immensedebt of gratitude. They led me into the land of story, romance and adventure, which in years to come brightened many a dull day.

13 According to the first paragraph, how is life different for children today from life for children in the 1910s?

A They always get what they want.

B They have a wider choice of books.

C They are allowed to behave badly.

D They spend more time reading books.

14 It was difficult for children to know which books to choose because

A there was no list of authors.

B the illustrations did not interest them.

C there were only a few book titles.

D they could not see the books in advance.

15 How did children find out which books were available in the library?

A They had to write out a list.

B They had to ask the librarian.

C They had to look through the catalogues.

D They had to order them.

16 What does the writer say about book titles?

A Nobody knew any of them.

B They told us what books were about.

C There were not very many of them.

D They were not very helpful.

17 What rule was there about returning a book to the library?

A You had to keep it until the following day.

B You had to return it within a week.

C You had to keep it for a week or more.

D You had to return it by the following day.

18 What did the librarian do as soon as she had received a child's list?

A She looked at the children's hands.

B She sent all the children away to wash their hands.

C She washed the children's hands.

D She asked the children if their hands were dirty.

19 Why does the author think that it was a good idea for the librarian to check the books

carefully when they were returned?

A She would be able to find out why you had damaged the book.

B You would not be accused of damaging a book that was already damaged.

C She would be able to find out if somebody else had damaged the book.

D You would not be blamed if you had damaged a book.

20 Why is the writer grateful to the librarian?

A She helped open up the world of literature to him.

B She told him wonderful stories.

C She helped to cheer him up when he was older.

D She made him feel like an adult.

TRANSFER ALL YOUR ANSWERS TO YOUR ANSWER SHEET

READING ANWSER SHEET

ID NUMBER _______________________

Use of English

Time: 20 minutes

Task 1

For questions 1-10 fill in the gaps choosing A or B. There is only one answer possible.

There exist a lot of dialects in the world, and there are a lot of English dialects.

Most large cities in (1) _____ UK have a local dialect. A dialect is a version of English that is used in that (2) ________ area or city. It can usually be explained by the history of the area and has a (3)_______. For example, in Liverpool there is Scouse, in London there is Cockney and in Newcastle (4)______ local dialect is Geordie. Scouse, Cockney and Geordie are also accents.

If you spend time in Newcastle, you will soon (5) _______ the Geordie dialect. It can be difficult to (6) _________ the local people at first but listening to a dialect in (7) _____ makes it easier to catch on to (8) ______ people are saying.

When you arrive (9 ) _______ a new city in the UK, one of the first things you will notice will be the local accent. Usually, (10) ______ words will sound different to the way you remember from your English lessons.

Task 2

For questions 11-20 match the common symbols and abbreviations with their meaning. There are two extra meanings you do not need to use.

Task 3

Use the words in capitals to form a word that fits in the space.

The Job Interview

It is important to make a good (0) IMPRESS impression when going for a job interview. Interviewers usually ask a (21) VARIOUS _________________ of questions, many of which concern (22) QUALIFY___________________. However, they also usually like to ask questions about previous (23) OCCUPY _________as well as (24) ACHIEVE __________ not connected to the work place. Often, the (25) SUCCESS__________________ candidate is not the one with the most impressive (26) EDUCATE __________but the one who shows that he or she has made the most (27) EFFECT__________ use of their time. Few employers want employees who are (28) ABLE__________ to think for themselves. The (29) POSSIBLE _______of advancement in any job very rarely depends on the (30) ACCURATE__________ of work but more on the enthusiasm and dedication of the employee.

TRANSFER ALL YOUR ANSWERS TO YOUR ANSWER SHEET

Use of English

ANSWER SHEET