4б. Конкурсные задания для Олимпиады

7-8 классы

But the greatest town and the port of the British Isles is, of course, London, the capital of the United Kingdom, its political, economic, commercial and cultural centre with a population of more than 7 million.

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy (without a written constitution). The monarch, now Queen Elizabeth II, is the head of state. The Prime Minister is at the head of the elected government. The Parliament which seats in London is composed of the Queen, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The latter numbers 650 members and is elected (at least every five years) by a simple majority. The party that has a majority of seats in the House of Commons forms the government whilst the closer rival party forms the opposition (the „Shadow Cabinet"). The House of Lords is made up of peers upon whom the title was conferred for life. Their role is to examine parliamentary bills before they are voted upon. The House of Lords also constitutes the highest court of appeal in the country. It has more than 1000 members, although only about 250 take an active part in the work of the House. There are 26 Anglican bishops, 950 hereditory peers, 11 judges and 185 life peers, and unlike MPs they do not receive a salary.

Parliament in London is responsible for deciding national policy, but many public services are provided by local government. The UK is divided into administrative areas known as „Counties" and each county has a „County Town" where the offices of the local government are located.

For items 1-5, choose the answer (A, B, C, or D) which fits best according to the text.

1. The author’s aim is to prove that

A. the largest islands are called Great Britain and Ireland.

B. the largest islands are called Wales, Scotland.

C. the smallest isle are called Great Britain and Ireland.

D. the largest countries are called Great Britain and Ireland.

.

2. Today the United Kingdom is a highly developed industrial power because

A. it sells nothing.

B. it exports machinery, vessels, textiles and other goods.

C. it imports machinery, vessels, textiles and other goods.

D. it does not import food products.

3. The greatest town and the port of the British Isles is considered to be

A. Liverpool.

B. Bradford.

C. Birmingham.

D. London.

4. The head of state is

A. the monarch.

B. the Prime Minister.

C. the speaker of the parliment.

D. the guard.

5. The word ‘local’ in the last sentence refers to

A. government.

B. students.

C. policy.

D. languages.

Part 2

For items 6-15 read two texts about Russian history & culture. Fill the gaps (6-15) in the texts choosing from the list A – L the one which fits each gap. There are two extra sentences which you do not need to use.

The migrants

The migrants who gave the region its character, however, were the Slavs. (6------). The Eastern Slavs are the ancestors of the Russians. From the Western Slavs came the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and others. The Southern Slavs became the Bulgarians, Serbians, Croatians and Slovenes.

The Slavs' conversion to Christianity in the 9th and 10th centuries was accompanied by the introduction of an alphabet devised by Cyril, a Greek missionary (now St. Cyril), and sim­plified a few decades later by a fellow missionary, Methodius. (). The Bible was translated into the Southern Slav dialect. This became known as Church Slavonic and remains the language of the Orthodox Church liturgy to this day.

The nation-forming process among Eastern Slavs was influ­enced by trade with the Byzantine Empire at Constantinople (Istanbul) to the south, the Khazars to the south-east and Viking freebooters from the northern Baltic. The Vikings, called Varangians by the Slavs, penetrated the upper Volga region in search of furs, honey, wax, amber and slaves, shipping them north as well as down the Dnepr to the Black Sea and Constantinople. (8-----). The founding of Novgorod in 862 by Rurik of Jutland is traditionally taken as the birth of the Russian state. (9------).

The name Rus may have been that of the dominant Kievan clan. (10-----).

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Text 2

Folk culture

Loosely defined, „folk culture" is what ordinary people have traditionally done to enrich their lives in a way that distinguishes them from other groups or regions. (11----).

The big music and dance ensembles known in the West, like the Georgian State Dance Company and the Moiseev and Red Army ensembles, are Soviet institutions but their repertoires — including heroic ballads, the familiar Slavic trepak or stamping dances and khorovod round dances, which are Georgian warrior dances — have roots as old as Kievan Rus.

Isolated by vast distances and long winters, Russians evolved an amazing spectrum of richly decorated folk art. (). From Gzhel, near Moscow, came glazed earth-enware in the 18th cen­tury and its trademark blue-and-white porcelain in the 19th. Gus-Khrustalny, south of Vladimir, maintains a glass-making tradition as old as Rus. ().

Most common is woodcarving, represented by toys, distaffs and gingerbread moulds in the museums, and in its most cliched form by the nested matryoshka dolls — surely the most familiar symbol of Russia after the hammer and sickle — and the red, black and gold, lacquered pine bowls called khokhloma overflowing from souvenir shops. (). The art of carpentry flourished in the 17th and 18th - century houses and churches, many now reconstructed in open-air „museums of wooden architecture" around the country.

Rich non-Russian cultures are to be found in the Baltic republics, Caucasia and Central Asia. (15-----).

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A. Rurik's successor Oleg became Kiev's ruler 2 decades later, and the Rurikid dynasty produced the domi­nant rulers in Eastern Slavic areas until the end of the 16th century.

B. From east-central Europe they expanded rapidly west and east in the first few centuries AD and by the 6th century had moved south into the Danube basin.

C. In the Russian ethnic kalei­doscope its most visible forms are music, dance, and applied and decorative art.

D. Every region also has its own style of embroidery and some specialise in knitwork or fine fabrics.

Reading

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