Ministerul Educaţiei Naționale

Centrul Naţional de Evaluare şi Examinare

Etapa județeană/sectoarelor municipiului București a olimpiadelor naționale școlare –

2019

Probă scrisă

Limba engleză

CLASA a XII-a - SECȚIUNEA B

 Toate subiectele sunt obligatorii.

 Nu se acordă puncte din oficiu.
 Timpul efectiv de lucru este de 3 ore.

SUBIECTUL A – USE OF ENGLISH (40 points)

I. Read the text below and do the tasks that follow. (20 points)

Mardi Gras, meaning literally "Fat Tuesday", was first celebrated in Louisiana by French
colonists in the eighteenth century. As the last "normal" day before the austerity of Lent, "fat
Tuesday" was a day to make the most of, a day of carnivals and revelry. It has remained a
day of carnival ever since; but the original French celebrations are just a small part of today's
festivities. Mardi Gras, New Orleans style, owes as much to Afro-Caribbean customs and the
Latin American carnival tradition as it does to the French colonists.
The Mardi Gras celebrations actually last for several weeks. About a month before the main
carnival, a season of elaborate balls and parties begins, the official Mardi Gras program is
published, and shops start selling the very sweet and colorful "King Cake", a delicacy that
can only be found during this holiday season.
My first Mardi Gras party took place in a friend's apartment in New Orleans a few days before
the parade. The apartment was decorated out in the season's traditional colours of green,
gold and purple. On Fat Tuesday itself, I joined the hundreds of thousands of local people
and visitors to watch the processions wind their way through the streets of New Orleans. The
processions are organized by groups, which each have mythological or historic names, such
as Proteus, Endymion, or Bacchus. The one I liked best was Zulu, a parade organised by
members of the city's black community, resplendent with its colourful ornate floats and
costumes based on African themes.
Perhaps the most astonishing aspect of Zulu and other parades was the "throws". As the
floats move slowly through the crowds, tradition has it that those on them should throw all
kinds of trinkets into the crowd - plastic necklaces, engraved plastic cups, plastic medallions
(a coveted prize) and other souvenirs. Most parade-goers do all they can to catch these
materially worthless items, and I found myself quickly caught up in the frenzy, scraping on
the sidewalk among the surging spectators to proudly pick up my plastic prize. In the heat of
the moment, it's hard not to be caught up in the madness of this ritual. Traditionally, people in
New Orleans use the "throw cups" they pick up, and decorate their cars or homes with the
other souvenirs they take home by the bagful.

A. Answer the following questions, according to the text. 8 points

1. Which important religious holiday, as inferred from the text, can Mardi Gras be associated
with?
2. What makes Mardi Gras a multicultural event?
3. What local marketing strategies, prior to the event itself, are mentioned in the text?
4. According to the writer, what unexpected reaction did the parade trigger in him?

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 Ministerul Educaţiei Naționale
Centrul Naţional de Evaluare şi Examinare

B. Choose the synonym for the words given below, according to their meaning in the
text. 6 points

1. frenzy: a. excitement b. dizziness; c. procrastination d. serendipity

2. surging: a. increasing b. all jostling c. nudging one another d. all moving together
3. coveted: a. hidden b. rewarding c. desired d. worthless
C. Rephrase the following sentences so as to preserve the meaning. 6 points
1. My first Mardi Gras party took place in a friend's apartment in New Orleans a few days
before the parade.
It was __________ took place in a friend's apartment in New Orleans.
2. Perhaps the most astonishing aspect of Zulu and other parades was the "throws".
What __________ the "throws".
3. Mardi Gras owes as much to Afro-Caribbean customs and the Latin American carnival
tradition as it does to the French colonists.
Not only __________ to the French colonists.

II. Use the word given in brackets to form a word that fits in each gap. 10 points

Passed in 1974, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is an (1) ________
(WIELD) piece of legislation affecting all institutions that receive funding from the Department
of Education.
The law's bottom line is: "Once a student reaches 18 years of age, he or she becomes an
'eligible student' and all rights under FERPA transfer from the parent to the student."
This essentially means that you have no right, as a parent, to know what or how your
children are doing in school. They can binge-watch "True Detective" rather than attend
classes, never (2) ________ (CLOSE) their grades, and you have to take their word for it
when they say "everything's fine."
FERPA affects rich and poor alike. "The university considers students as adults, regardless
of age or financial dependence," reads the law. (3) ________ (GRANT), there's a special
kind of pain associated with discovering that your kid took a gap year while still enrolled - if it
so happens you're (4) ________ (COUGH) up $60,000 a year. But taxpayers (5) ________
(FEET) the bill when students of any socio-economic stripe flunk out of or extend their
college experiences.
Some in Congress are agitating to revise the law. But perhaps it is time to throw it out (6)
________ (TOGETHER). Without FERPA, universities could send students' records directly
to their (7) ________ (GUARD), and allow administrators to immediately alert or respond to
families if a student is in crisis. Where's the harm in that? Of course, if a student has good
reason to keep her family in the dark, he/she should have the right to apply for an exemption
or (8) ________ (WAIVE) (inverting the status quo).
Transferring all power to the students is not fair to them; they never asked for that
responsibility. (9) ________ (RESCIND) this law may improve the shameful college (10)
________ (COMPLETE) or graduation statistics. Most important, it will keep families
connected and allow our children to remain young just a little bit longer.

III. Translate the following text into English. 10 points

În acea seară, eram în aşa hal de sfârşeală că n-aş fi crezut să mă pot scula pentru nimic în
lume. Dar deodată mă pomenii în mijlocul odăii, în picioare, uitându-mă disperat la
ceasornic. Mi-adusesem aminte că eram poftit la masă de Pantazi. Ce noroc că mă
deşteptasem! Privii acum cu recunoştinţă scrisoarea părintească; de n-ar fi fost ea, scăpam
întâlnirea cu cel mai scump prieten. Mă îmbrăcai şi ieşii. Deşi nu plouase, tot era ud;
șanțurile plângeau, ramurile goale ale copacilor picurau stropi groşi.
(Adapted from Craii de Curtea Veche, by Mateiu Caragiale]

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 Ministerul Educaţiei Naționale
Centrul Naţional de Evaluare şi Examinare

SUBIECTUL B – INTEGRATED SKILLS (60 points)

Read the text below and do the tasks that follow.

Now naturally, like many of us, I have a reluctance to change too much of the old days. But
there is no virtue at all in clinging as some do to tradition merely for its own sake. In this age
of electricity and modern heating systems, there is no need at all to employ the sorts of
numbers necessary even a generation ago. Indeed, it has actually been an idea of mine for
some time that the retaining of unnecessary numbers, simply for tradition's sake, - resulting
in employees having an unhealthy amount of time on their hands - has been an important
factor in the sharp decline in professional standards. Furthermore, Mr. Farraday had made it
clear that he planned to hold only very rarely the sort of large social occasions Darlington
Hall had seen frequently in the past. I did then go about the task Mr. Farraday had set me
with some dedication; I spent many hours working on the staff plan, and at least as many
hours again thinking about it as I went about other duties or as I lay awake after retiring.
Whenever I believed I had come up with something, I probed it for every sort of oversight,
tested it through from all angles. Finally, I came up with a plan which, while perhaps not
exactly as Mr. Farraday had requested, was the best I felt sure, that was humanly possible.
Almost all the attractive parts of the house could remain operative: the extensive servants'
quarters - including the back corridor, the two still rooms and the old laundry - and the guest
corridor up on the second floor would be dust-sheeted, leaving all the main ground-floor
rooms and a generous number of guest rooms … Even now, I would not go so far as to say it
is a bad staff plan; after all, it enables a staff of four to cover an unexpected amount of
ground.
(Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day)

I. For each question decide which answer (A, B, C or D) fits best according to the text. 10 points

1. The narrator, Mr. Stevens,

A. confesses he is all for the new.
B. admits he is inclined to cling to the past.
C. expresses admiration for the past.
D. gives up the past

2. According to the narrator,

A. he is aware the number of employees should be reduced.
B. he is confident that he will effectively see to the organizational plan of the house.
C. employees have changed their habits.
D. Mr Farraday gave him a free hand to organize the house.

3. According to the text, Mr. Farraday

A. admired Mr. Stevens because he was dedicated to his duties.
B. wanted to get rid of Mr. Stevens.
C. expected Mr. Stevens to adjust to modern time.
D. asked him to make a staff plan.

4. What does the reader learn about Mr. Stevens, the narrator?
A. He was a reliable but hesitant servant.
B. He wanted to please his master at all costs.
C. He never contradicted his master.
D. He worked hard for the staff plan.

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 Ministerul Educaţiei Naționale
Centrul Naţional de Evaluare şi Examinare

5. The main idea of the text is

A. Mr. Stevens, the narrator, is a model servant.
B. Times change and there is nothing to stop that.
C. Mr. Stevens is a man who cannot easily break away with tradition.
D. The present is not as glorious as the past.

II. Starting from the text above, write an essay reflecting on tradition. (250-280 words)
50 points

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