Часть «Чтение»: Олимпиадное задание муниципального этапа олимпиады по английскому языку. Задание состоит из двух частей.

В первой части необходимо прочитать текст и выполнить задания на определение верности утверждений (True/False). Во второй части учащимся нужно прочитать 5 отрывков высказываний студентов и сопоставить их с предложенными вопросами. Материал подходит для подготовки к олимпиаде по английскому языку.

Part 2. Reading

Task 1.

Time: 15 minutes

Look at the ten sentences below about an Arctic expedition. Read the text to decide if each sentence (8–12) is true or false, according to the text. If it is true, mark T on your answer sheet. If it is false, mark F on your answer sheet.

  1. A building was ready for the scientists to work in on their arrival in northern Canada.
  2. Information was collected on the expedition to help explain the reasons for climate change.
  3. Ann had to do special training to be strong enough for the expedition.
  4. Helen knew it would be difficult doing experiments in freezing conditions.
  5. The expedition research is now available for other scientists to read.

Arctic Expedition

Ann Daniels and Helen Findlay faced the dangers of polar bears, thin ice and frostbite when they became members of an expedition to the Arctic in 2010.

The expedition team consisted of six scientists and a separate group of three explorers. While Helen and the other scientists were setting up a laboratory site on the ice in northern Canada, Ann and two other explorers set off on a 500 kilometre journey on foot across floating sea ice from Greenland to the North Pole.

Both groups planned to measure how thick the ice was at various sites in the Arctic. They would also collect water samples for testing, in order to discover how the chemistry of sea water was changing, and what effect this was having on plant-life and animals in the ocean. On previous expeditions, the water was tested in the summer, using ships at sea, but they had never collected it from under the ice before. The research was important for understanding what might happen in other oceans around the world in the future, as a result of climate change.

Ann Daniels was working in a bank in 1996 when she answered an advert, inviting ordinary women to join a trek to the North Pole in the Arctic. Since then she has become one of the world’s leading professional polar explorers. For the 2010 expedition, she and her two colleagues attended a week-long fitness camp to prepare them for pulling the 120 kilogram sledges over the ice for 12 hours a day.

Despite her previous experience, however, Ann suffered in the freezing conditions. ‘It gets into your bones and never leaves you, even when you’re in your tent at night,’ she said. ‘Especially at the end of an expedition when you’re totally exhausted.’ Yet Ann successfully guided her companions for 73 days and collected all the samples and information that were needed.

Helen Findlay was one of the scientists on the laboratory site based in Canada. Although it was not her first visit to the Arctic, she had never been there in winter and realised that carrying out experiments in such an extreme environment would be challenging. The laboratory tents were heated, but getting equipment to work outside while wearing gloves and thick clothes meant every job took twice as long as it would normally. When they went out onto the ice to collect samples, the scientists were protected by two guides with guns and bangers to frighten any curious polar bears who might be attracted by the smell of humans.

Despite the difficulties, both Ann and Helen stayed out on the ice for the whole of the project, and the results of their studies have been widely published.

Transfer your answers to the answer sheet!

Task 2

Time: 15 minutes

You are going to read an article in which five students talk about their university. For questions 13–17, choose from the students (A–E).

  1. is studying at a university that was not their first choice?
  2. has found it easier to make friends at university than they had expected?
  3. wishes they had more time to take part in social activities?
  4. chose their university partly because a relative had recommended it?
  5. decided to study at the university because of its location?

My university

Five first-year students say what life is like at their universities.

A) Zehra Erdogan: There's a club here for just about every sport or social activity you can think of, and they're a great way to get to know other students. I'd wondered whether I might feel lonely here with my family so far away, but I needn't have worried. There's a group of us who get on really well, and two are already talking about doing research here once they've finished their first degrees. That's my aim too.

B) Anika Mishra: I found it relatively easy to settle in here, just as I thought I would, really. I'd done some research on the various places offering the course I wanted to do, and what I found particularly helpful were the online comments by people actually studying in each one. Actually, this one had always appealed to me as my aunt did a research degree here and said it was a good place to live and study, though unlike her I think I'll move onto another university once I've graduated.

C) Lotte Peeters: Before I came here, people had been telling me I'd find it hard to live on my government grant, but that hasn't really been the case because during my free time I'm nearly always in the halls of residence with the other students. There's so much to do there that it doesn't matter that they're quite a long way from the university, which is right in the centre of town. In fact, I can't do half the things I'd like to do because I'm a medical student and I'm just too busy studying to join any more societies or clubs.

D) Pablo Flores: Universities in different parts of the world tend to be quite similar in some ways, such as the international mix of students, the atmosphere and even the buildings, but something I like about studying here is that you spend a lot of your time in seminars with a tutor. So, nearly a year on, I'm actually quite relieved I had my application rejected by the top university on my list: if I'd gone there I would have spent all day taking notes in lectures. The only downside is that the cost of living is quite a bit higher in this country.

E) Maxim Kuznetsov: As I have family and friends living in several nearby countries, I needed to be somewhere close to an airport offering budget flights. So studying here looked ideal, and though I've noticed prices are quite high in the city, there's plenty to do on campus and I rarely need to go there. Actually, the only time I do that is when some of my old friends come to visit me, and on those occasions we take the train. There's a good service into town, and I can get a discount by using my student card.

Transfer your answers to the answer sheet!