Task 9

Прочитайте тексты и установите соответствие между текстами и их заголовками: к каждому тексту, обозначенному буквами A–G, подберите соответствующий заголовок, обозначенный цифрами. Используйте каждую цифру только один раз. В задании есть один лишний заголовок.

1. Pages of History
2. A national holiday
3. Languages
4. Cities and towns
5. Geography
6. Economy

1. The island of Ireland is bounded to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, the east coast is washed by the Irish Sea. The western landscape mostly consists of cliffs, hills and mountains. The country's interior is relatively flat, traversed by rivers such as the River Shannon and numerous lakes. Agriculture and food is an important industry in Ireland, with about 64% of the total land area used for agriculture. The main cities are Dublin, Cork and Limerick.
2. Ireland has always been an agricultural country. It is almost self-sufficient in food and a major exporter. High technology industries have now made Ireland into Europe's largest (and the world second largest) exporter of computer software. American companies like Apple and Intel have invested heavily in Irish computer factories. The secret of Ireland's success is a young and highly educated population, who speak English. Now Dublin, the capital of the country, is an important world financial centre.
3. Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and his day is celebrated on the 17th March with parades, «wearing of the green», music and songs, Irish food and drink, and activities for kids such as crafts, coloring and games. It's a time for fun. On that day almost every town has a parade of bands and floats. Some floats depict scenes from Irish history, others advertise products. The largest parade is held in Dublin.
4. The Celts were the first known inhabitants of the island. They gave the Irish the basis of their language and culture. Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, is said to have brought Christianity to the Celts. Later, the Vikings arrived from Scandinavia and founded Ireland's two main cities, Dublin and Cork. At the beginning of the seventeenth century the British started an invasion on Ireland. They imposed their language and laws.
5. It was imposed on the people of Ireland, yet it has produced some of the most imaginative writers of English literature. This creativity goes back the Gaelic poetry of the Celts. Irish is still the official language of Ireland, but the great majority of people speak English. Most television programmes are in English too. As a result of immigration, Polish is one of the most widely spoken languages in Ireland after English and Irish.

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Tasks 10-17

Прочитайте текст. Определите, какие из приведённых утверждений 10–17 соответствуют содержанию текста (1 – True), какие не соответствуют (2 – False) и о чём в тексте не сказано, то есть на основании текста нельзя дать ни положительного, ни отрицательного ответа (3 – Not stated).

The Santa Claus Wait

Christmas Eve is a special time for children. Every year they wait for their presents from Santa Claus. Magic is everywhere in Tim and Robert’s house which is decorated with greeting cards, candles and lights. The sweet smell of Mum’s homemade cookies also brings to mind the coming wonders.

Throughout the month before Christmas Tim and his brother Robert regularly made their beds, set the table and followed their parents’ instructions about the house. As usual, each of them wrote a letter to Santa to ask for a toy. They knew Santa wouldn’t visit naughty children.

The same thing happened each year until the brothers were nine. They suddenly began to doubt that Santa could decorate their tree and millions more trees in a single night. It also seemed hard for Santa to deliver all the gifts before daybreak. Besides, they kept asking Dad how Santa could get inside their house without a chimney!

Dad usually answered that Santa would surely come, but that the children should be good and go to bed early. So on Christmas Eve, after Mum had checked that there was enough food left for Santa, the boys were sent to bed as usual. Robert was soon asleep, but Tim silently lay in bed, hoping to hear Santa coming. It seemed the longest night of Tim’s life.

In the early morning, when the other members of the family were still asleep, Tim bravely went to the living room to check for presents from Santa. When he switched on the light, he cried «Wow! He’s come» In the room the Christmas tree stood in the middle of a big platform that looked like a small town with a toy railroad. It was unbelievable: a toy wonderland!

Tim spent an hour among the toys and then decided to wake up Robert and his parents to see the presents. While running upstairs he saw that the cookies had disappeared. In excitement he went into his parents’ bedroom but didn’t notice that they seemed a little bit more tired than usual.

«Mum! Dad! Quick! Robert! It’s fantastic!» he shouted. Everybody went down. Robert immediately saw his new car. It was wonderful. Poor Robert was upset because the car wouldn’t run. Dad said he couldn't understand why the car wouldn't start. The batteries in the car had been absolutely new.

He didn’t know Tim had turned on the car and had forgotten about it when he was checking out other gifts earlier. Within that hour the batteries died, in those times they didn't last long. Tim kept silent as he didn’t want to be punished on Christmas Day.

10. Tim was the only child in the family.

        1) TRUE                        2) FALSE                        3) NOT STATED

11. Tim got good marks at school before Christmas.

        1) TRUE                        2) FALSE                        3) NOT STATED

12. Tim had never believed that Santa existed.

        1) TRUE                        2) FALSE                        3) NOT STATED

13. On Christmas Day, Tim’s father usually dressed up like Santa.

        1) TRUE                        2) FALSE                        3) NOT STATED

14. Tim was the first to get up on Christmas Day.

        1) TRUE                        2) FALSE                        3) NOT STATED

15. Some tasty things were left for Santa on that Christmas night.

        1) TRUE                        2) FALSE                        3) NOT STATED

16. There were presents for the parents under the Christmas tree.

        1) TRUE                        2) FALSE                        3) NOT STATED

17. Tim told his father that he had damaged the car.

        1) TRUE                        2) FALSE                        3) NOT STATED

Задание 9:        A5        B6        C2        D1        E3

10.        2 (FALSE)

11.         3 (NOT STATED)

12.        2 (FALSE)

13.        3 (NOT STATED)

14.        1 (TRUE)

15.        1 (TRUE)

16.        3 (NOT STATED)

17.        2 (FALSE)