INSPECTORATUL Ș COLAR JUDEȚ EAN VÂ LCEA
OLIMPIADA DE LIMBA ENGLEZĂ – ETAPA JUDEȚ EANĂ – 20.03.2022 –CLASA A XII-A-SECTIUNEA B
CLASA A XII A SECȚIUNEA B
SUBIECTUL A – USE OF ENGLISH
I. Read the paragraph below and do the tasks (20points)
One message flashes on the screen in hot pursuit of another. Your fingers are always busy: you squeeze the
keys, calling new numbers to answer the calls or composing messages of your own. You stay connected - even though
you are constantly on the move, and though the invisible senders and recipients of calls and messages move as well, all
following their own trajectories. Mobiles are for people on the move. You never leave your mobile out of sight. Your
jogging gear has a special pocket for your mobile, and you would not go out with that pocket empty just as you would
not go running without your training shoes. As a matter of fact, you would go nowhere without your mobile
("nowhere" is, indeed, the space with a mobile out of range, or a mobile with a flat battery). And, once with your
mobile, you are never out or away. You are always in - but never locked up in one place. Protected in a web of calls
and messages, you are invulnerable. (Zygmunt Bauman, Liquid Love, 2003)
A. Answer the questions: 8 points
1. State in no more than 15 words what is the main topic of this passage from Bauman's text.
2. What is the meaning of "on the move"?
3. What is the metaphorical meaning of "nowhere" in Bauman's text?
4. What kind of protection is offered by calls and messages?
B. Choose the right synonym: 6 points
Pursuit: a. research b. chasing c. aim d. vocation
Gear: a. speed b. outfit c. shoe d. material
Invulnerable: a. unbeatable b. vincible c. damaged d. unable
C. Rephrase the following sentences so as to preserve the meaning: 6 points
1. She still hasn't really recovered from losing her job in August.
redundant
She still really hasn't got _______________in August.
2. I'm afraid I believed his fake story completely!
taken
I regret to say that I ____________ his fake story.
3. This washing machine will give you years of service if you care for it properly.
after
Properly _________________________ will give you years of service.
II. Use the word given in brackets to form a word that fits in each sentence (10 x 1p = 10 p)
Welcome to another edition of the club newsletter! A list of (1) _______(COME) events for the autumn is
being prepared. It will be displayed on the club’s (2) __________(NOTICE). Sadly, our intended celebrity guest, the
actor George Wells, has had to (3) ____________(DRAW) from the summer fair. However, we are pleased to
announce that we have lined up a (4) _________(PLACE) in the shape of Bethan Rogers, the folk singer.
Meanwhile, we are looking for (5) _____________(VOLUNTARY) to help run both the cloakroom and the
(6)____________(FRESH) stall. If you are interested please let me know as soon as possible. The cost of (7)
________________(ADMIT) to the fair for non-members has been agreed at £2.50. Members will, of course, be free.
As you know, Professor Byatt, who has been associated with the club for 15 years, is retiring at the end of term. In (8)
____________(RECOGNISE) of his support and enthusiasm, we are planning to hold a little (9)
INSPECTORATUL Ș COLAR JUDEȚ EAN VÂ LCEA
OLIMPIADA DE LIMBA ENGLEZĂ – ETAPA JUDEȚ EANĂ – 20.03.2022 –CLASA A XII-A-SECTIUNEA B
______________(PRESENT) for him. Mrs. Byatt has suggested we buy him a gold watch. Please send any (10)
______________(CONTRIBUTE) you would like to make to me by Friday the 30th.
III. Fill in the gaps with ONE word only. (10 points)
Global English exists (1) ... a political and cultural reality. Many misguided theories attempt to explain why the
English language should have succeeded internationally, whilst (2) ... have not. Is it because there is something
inherently logical or beautiful about the structure of English? Does its simple grammar make it easy to learn? Such
ideas are misconceived. Latin was once a major international language, (3) ... having a complicated grammatical
structure, and English also presents learners with all manner of real difficulties, (4) ... least its spelling system. Ease of
learning, therefore, has little to do with it. (5) ... all, children learn to speak their mother tongue in approximately the
same period of time, (6) ... of their language. English has spread not (7) ... much for linguistic reasons, but rather
because it has often found (8) ... in the right place, at the right time. Since the 1960s, two major developments have
contributed to strengthening this global status. Firstly, in a number of countries, English is now used in addition to
national (9) regional languages. As well as this, an electronic revolution has taken place. It is estimated that (10) ... the
region of 80% of worldwide electronic communication is now in English.
SUBIECTUL B – INTEGRATED SKILLS
Read the text below and do the tasks that follow.
This book examines how the ever-changing role of colour in society has been reflected in manuscripts, stained
glass, clothing, painting and popular culture. Colour is a natural phenomenon, of course, but it is also a complex
cultural construct that resists generalization and, indeed, analysis itself. No doubt this is why serious works devoted to
colour are rare, and rarer still are those that aim to study it in historical context. Many authors search for the universal
or archetypal truths they imagine reside in colour, but for the historian, such truths do not exist. Colour is first and
foremost a social phenomenon. There is no transcultural truth to colour perception, despite what many books based on
poorly grasped neurobiology or – even worse – on pseudoesoteric pop psychology would have us believe. Such books
unfortunately clutter the bibliography on the subject, and even do it harm.
The silence of historians on the subject of colour, or more particularly their difficulty in conceiving colour as a
subject separate from other historical phenomena, is the result of three different sets of problems. The first concerns
documentation and preservation. We see the colours transmitted to us by the past as time has altered them and not as
they were originally. Moreover, we see them under light conditions that often are entirely different from those known
by past societies. And finally, over the decades we have developed the habit of looking at objects from the past in
black-and-white photographs and, despite the current diffusion of colour photography, our ways of thinking about and
reacting to these objects seem to have remained more or less black and white.
The second set of problems concerns methodology. As soon as the historian seeks to study colour, he must
grapple with a host of factors all at once: physics, chemistry, materials, and techniques of production, as well as
iconography, ideology, and the symbolic meanings that colours convey. How to make sense of all of these elements?
How can one establish an analytical model facilitating the study of images and coloured objects? No researcher, no
method, has yet been able to resolve these problems, because among the numerous facts pertaining to colour, a
researcher tends to select those facts that support his study and to conveniently forget those that contradict it. This is
clearly a poor way to conduct research. And it is made worse by the temptation to apply to the objects and images of a
given historical period information found in texts of that period. The proper method – at least in the first phase of
analysis – is to proceed as do palaeontologists (who must study cave paintings without the aid of texts): by
extrapolating from the images and the objects themselves a logic and a system based on various concrete factors such
as the rate of occurrence of particular objects and motifs, their distribution and disposition. In short, one undertakes the
internal structural analysis with which any study of an image or coloured object should begin.
The third set of problems is philosophical: it is wrong to project our own conceptions and definitions of colour
onto the images, objects and monuments of past centuries. Our judgements and values are not those of previous
societies (and no doubt they will change again in the future). For the writer-historian looking at the definitions and
taxonomy of colour, the danger of anachronism is very real. For example, the spectrum with its natural order of colours
was unknown before the seventeenth century, while the notion of primary and secondary colours did not become
common until the nineteenth century. These are not eternal notions but stages in the ever-changing history of
knowledge.
INSPECTORATUL Ș COLAR JUDEȚ EAN VÂ LCEA
OLIMPIADA DE LIMBA ENGLEZĂ – ETAPA JUDEȚ EANĂ – 20.03.2022 –CLASA A XII-A-SECTIUNEA B
I have reflected on such issues at greater length in my previous work, so while the present book does address
certain of them, for the most part it is devoted to other topics. Nor is it concerned only with the history of colour in
images and artworks – in any case that area still has many gaps to be filled. Rather, the aim of this book is to examine
all kinds of objects in order to consider the different facets of the history of colour and to show how far beyond the
artistic sphere this history reaches. The history of painting is one thing; that of colour is another, much larger, question.
Most studies devoted to the history of colour err in considering only the pictorial, artistic or scientific realms. But the
lessons to be learned from colour and its real interest lie elsewhere.
I. For each question choose the correct letter A, B, C or D (5 x 2p= 10p)
1. What problem regarding colour does the writer explain in the first paragraph?
A. Our view of colour is strongly affected by changing fashion.
B. Analysis is complicated by the bewildering number of natural colours.
C. Colours can have different associations in different parts of the world.
D. Certain popular books have dismissed colour as insignificant.
2. What is the first reason the writer gives for the lack of academic work on the history of colour?
A. There are problems of reliability associated with the artefacts available.
B. Historians have seen colour as being outside their field of expertise.
C. Colour has been rather looked down upon as a fit subject for academic study.
D. Very little documentation exists for historians to use.
3. The writer suggests that the priority when conducting historical research on colour is to
A. ignore the interpretations of other modern day historians.
B. focus one’s interest as far back as the prehistoric era
C. find some way of organising the mass of available data.
D. relate pictures to information from other sources.
4. In the fourth paragraph, the writer says that the historian writing about colour should be careful
A. not to analyse in an old-fashioned way.
B. when making basic distinctions between key ideas.
C. not to make unwise predictions.
D. when using certain terms and concepts.
5. In the fifth paragraph, the writer says there needs to be further research done on
A. the history of colour in relation to objects in the world around us.
B. the concerns he has raised in an earlier publication.
C. the many ways in which artists have used colour over the years.
D. the relationship between artistic works and the history of colour.
II. Write a reflective essay on unfairness impacted on your interactions. (250-280 words) (50 p)
Toate subiectele sunt obligatorii.
Nu se acordă puncte din oficiu.
Timpul efectiv de lucru este de 3 ore.
