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ДЗИ по английски език


МИНИСТЕРСТВО НА ОБРАЗОВАНИЕТО И НАУКАТА

ДЪРЖАВЕН ЗРЕЛОСТЕН ИЗПИТ ПО АНГЛИЙСКИ ЕЗИК
29 август 2018 г. – Вариант 2

 


12и клас - Английски език - Външно оценяване
Read the following text and mark the correct answer for questions 1. to 5.

Vitamin Supplements

A recent research study has suggested certain vitamin supplements do not make our life longer and could even be harmful. The research involved selecting various studies on vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, and some minerals which the research team felt were the most likely to fairly reflect the impact of the supplements on reducing death rate.
It has been thought that these supplements may be able to prevent damage to the body’s tissues called “oxidative stress” by eliminating the molecules called “free radicals” which are said to cause it. But a review of a large number of studies found “no convincing evidence” that antioxidant supplements contributed to a healthier life. On the contrary, the overconsumption of vitamins has been proven to damage our health.
The Department of Health said people should try to get the vitamins they need from their diet, and avoid taking large doses of supplements – a market which is worth over £330 million in the UK. “There is a need to exercise caution in the use of high doses of purified supplements of vitamins, including antioxidant vitamins, and minerals,” a spokesperson said. “Their impact on long-term health may not have been fully established and they cannot be assumed to be without risk.”
But the Health Supplements Information Service, which is funded by the association which represents those who sell supplements, say that many people are simply not able to get everything they need from their diet. “For the millions who are not able to do that, vitamins can be a useful supplement and they should not stop taking them,” said spokeswoman Pamela Mason. Another nutritionist, Patrick Holford said: “Antioxidants are not meant to be magic pills and should not be expected to undo a lifetime of unhealthy habits. But when used properly, in combination with eating a healthy diet full of fruit and vegetables, getting plenty of exercise and not smoking, antioxidant supplements can play an important role in maintaining and promoting overall health.”

1. The reported research on vitamin supplements was based on the results from over 600 studies.






2. The research definitely proved that antioxidant supplements make us healthier.




3. According to the Department of Health, people should be careful with the quantity of the vitamin supplements they take.




4. According to nutritionist Patrick Holford, taking large doses of vitamin supplements can compensate for not living healthily.




5. One of the main points of the article is that people should eat healthily.




Read the following text and mark the correct answer for questions 6. to 10.

A Sports Writer Eats His Own Paper after Losing a Bet

A sports editor in Belarus has kept a promise to eat his own newspaper after incorrectly predicting the fortunes of a local ice hockey team.
Vyacheslav Fedorenkov, who writes for the major Belarusian sports paper Pressball, had said that Dinamo Minsk wouldn’t make it to the play-offs in the Kontinental Hockey League, an international league dominated by Russian teams. But the team proved him wrong, leaving Mr Fedorenkov to eat his words.
A Belarusian news website reports that he arrived at Minsk Arena’s press centre with a copy of the paper, a bowl of soup to make it softer and a can of a fizzy drink to wash it down more easily. Unfortunately, he was a bit short on soup, so he only managed to eat half of the pages.
Mr Fedorenkov was in good spirits despite his unappetising meal, jokingly telling reporters: “I would do anything for my favourite team.” But he added that he would think twice before making any similar commitments in the future. “I will be frank with you lads,” he said. “Don’t joke like this and don’t make such promises, because they are pretty difficult to keep.”
There was no pressure on the journalist from Dinamo Minsk, but team coach Craig Woodcroft was still impressed with the effort, telling the news website: “I will remember his deed every time I enter this room.”

6. The journalist ate a copy of his paper because





7. In the story, “Dinamo Minsk” is





8. The journalist tried to make the newspaper more “delicious” by





9. While eating the newspaper, the journalist was





10. The coach of the team, Craig Woodcroft,





Read the following text and mark the correct answer for questions 11. to 15.

Forget The Beatles – Franz Liszt was music’s first ‘superstar’

The women who screamed and fainted for the 19th century piano virtuoso Franz Liszt set the behavioural pattern for fans in our own time – from The Beatles to Justin Bieber.
The spectacle of young women shrieking, crying, and fainting at the sight of their musical idols might seem like a peculiarly modern phenomenon, but it is nothing new. And surprisingly, it has its roots in the classical concert halls of 19th century Europe, where an extremely talented young Hungarian named Franz Liszt overcame a very poor background to become a true ‘celebrity’. (According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word ‘celebrity’ was first used in the way we use it now in the 1830s, as Liszt rose to fame.)
Franz Liszt was a child prodigy who began casting his spell on audiences in Vienna, Paris and London at a young age, not just for his extraordinarily gifted technique and fine musical imagination, but also for the distinctive image he projected at the piano, tossing his shoulderlength hair and swaying hypnotically over the keyboard as he played. During a period of eight years, he gave around a thousand recitals, which is an incredible total. In the process, he effectively invented the profession of the international concert pianist. Baronesses and countesses got into fights over trying to lay hands on a glass or handkerchief that Liszt had used, women threw themselves at his feet and others went crazy. The popular press of the time reported at
length on Liszt’s concerts and at even greater length on his numerous love affairs.
Such behaviour – or its equivalent – wouldn’t exactly feel out of place in the 21st century. There is, however, a critical difference between Liszt’s time and the era of Beatlemania and beyond, and that is the ever more sophisticated ‘PR machine’ behind the artists. These days, when it comes to creating a superstar, actual talent may be just a small part of the equation. There are so many other factors at play – looks, charisma, branding, catchy tunes, marketing: these all play a part in creating a modern superstar.

11. Franz Liszt came from a rich family.




12. Franz Liszt was very young when he became internationally popular.




13. Franz Liszt had an equal number of recitals each year.




14. behaviour of the legendary pianist’s fans was very different from that of today’s music stars’ fans.




15. The fame of contemporary celebrities relies more on good PR than on their talent.




Read the following text and mark the correct answer for questions 16. to 20.

The Snark Mark

The easy-to-write – and type – snark mark is simply a period followed by a tilde (.~). It was created around 2007 by American typographer Choz Cunningham as an end-of-sentence mark that could carry the meaning of irony in writing. Its intended use is to help readers understand when the meaning of a sentence is actually very different to what the sum of its words seem to mean.
For example, if a family woke up on the first day of a long-awaited beach vacation to find themselves in the middle of the worst hurricane of the century, one member might turn to another and say, ‘Brilliant weather, don’t you think.~ I’m so glad we came all this way.’
In a written text passage, it could seem like the speaker is talking complete nonsense, but with the snark mark, it’s immediately clear that they’re making a sarcastic joke.
Sarcasm, like hyperbole and understatement, is a form of irony, and while it may be easy to express in face-to-face communication, it is much harder to convey to readers, who don’t have the context of body language, vocal intonation, facial expression, and other cues that can help indicate meaning.
From blogs to chat, more people are writing in personal environments and using irony in ways and contexts where they might have once only tried to communicate face-to-face. Just like one takes skis and jackets on a trip to the snow, or doesn’t dig a hole without a shovel, the tools of our language should be whatever is appropriate to where we are going.
However, the snark mark wasn’t the first attempt to indicate irony or sarcasm though. As far back as the late seventeenth century, when British philosopher and believer in aliens John Wilkins proposed using an upside-down exclamation point to denote irony, there have been motions to create some symbol that can help writers in signposting these types of sentences.
So, even though you may never have heard of it, it’s one of the coolest, most useful punctuation marks around, and we think it’s worth lobbying for.

16. The snark mark has been used in English for about a decade.




17. If a snark mark is used after a sentence, it means that the readers should understand the writer’s words literally.




18. According to the author of the text, it is more difficult to express irony in speech than in writing.




19. The author of the text argues that language needs to adapt to the requirements of written communication.




20. John Wilkins used his symbol for irony (the upside-down exclamation point) in all his published written works.




Read the text below. Then read the questions that follow it and choose the best answer to each question 21. to 25.

The Little Mermaid Syndrome

If you’ve seen the Disney movie “The Little Mermaid”, you may recall the scene depicting Ariel’s experience of love at first sight – in fact, we might just call it “the Little Mermaid Syndrome”. Already under the spell of unrealistic fantasies about how people live above water, she pops up on the deck of a ship and sees the dashing Prince Eric playing with his dog. Shortly thereafter, Ariel rescues Eric from certain death by sea storm and gazes at him while he sleeps, entranced by his perfectly shaped cheekbones.
In the Disney book version of the story, the script reads, “Oh, he’s so beautiful! At that moment, Ariel knew that she loved Eric.” Her eyes glaze over, and, on the basis of this single and completely one-sided encounter, she decides to give up her family, her kingdom, her voice, and her body so she can totally reshape herself into a woman that she hopes he will find irresistible.
Sadly, in real life, there are plenty of “Ariels” (both men and women) who commit themselves in radical ways to people they hardly know. Real-life Ariels fly off to a faraway city to meet up with someone in person that they’ve just met over the internet. Real-life Ariels make cross-country moves to live with someone they’ve only ever known through email correspondence. Real-life Ariels quit their jobs and eagerly present themselves as participants on reality shows like “The Bachelor”.
In all of these cases, guarding your own safety means you should trust someone only as much as you know them, which is an elegantly simple, but profoundly important, concept. When you are willing to make these kinds of commitment without any knowledge of the other person, what message does this send about your own self-worth? What is the message for the other
person when you demonstrate that you are willing to make a huge investment of your time, energy, finances, or physical body without any evidence that it is a wise one to make?
Ariel’s story ended happily, as we might expect from a Disney movie, but in the original Hans Christian Andersen version of the story, the little mermaid throws herself into the sea in a fit of despair, and her body dissolves into foam. I’m not saying that despair and a conversion into sea foam awaits all who become victims of the Little Mermaid Syndrome, but it is interesting that in the original tale, there is a sense of harsh consequences stemming from the impulsive actions of the youthful mermaid. So it’s probably wise to slow down and avoid becoming an Ariel in the first place.



21. “The Little Mermaid Syndrome” is a term which refers to





22. In the Disney version of the story Ariel is fascinated by





23. According to the text, in real life the Little Mermaid Syndrome







24. According to the text, the most negative side of the syndrome is that







25. Which sentence best summarizes the message of the article?







Read the text below. Then read the questions that follow it and choose the best answer to each question 26. to 30.

To Err Is Human
(an expert’s report)

I was once asked by a large computer company to evaluate a brand-new product. I spent a day learning to use it and trying it out on various problems. In using the keyboard to enter data, it was necessary to differentiate between the “return” key and the “enter” key. If the wrong key was pressed, the last few minutes’ work was lost forever.
I pointed this problem out to the designer of the product, explaining that I myself have made the error frequently and that my analyses indicated that this was very likely to be a frequent error among users. The designer’s first response was: ”Why did you make that error? Didn’t you
read the manual? After you enter some data you need to press the “enter” key.” He proceeded to
explain the different functions of the two keys.
“Yes, yes,” I explained, “I understand the two keys, I simply confuse them. They have similar functions, are located in similar locations on the keyboard, and as a skilled typist, I often hit “return” automatically, without thought. Certainly others have had similar problems.”
“Nope,” said the designer. He claimed that I was the only person who had ever complained. I was skeptical about being the only one to do that, so we went together to some of the secretaries and asked them whether they had ever hit the “return” key when they should have hit “enter”.
“Oh, yes,” said the secretaries, “we do that a lot.”
“Well, how come nobody ever said anything about it?” we asked the secretaries. After all, they were encouraged to report all problems with the system.
The reason was simple: when the system stopped working or did something strange, the secretaries dutifully reported it as a problem. But when they made the “return” versus “enter” error, they blamed themselves. After all, they had been told what to do. They had simply erred.

26. Trying to evaluate a new product for a computer company, the expert found out that





27. As the expert happened to confuse the “enter” and the “return” keys too often,





28. The two keys were easy to confuse because







29. To find out the truth





30. The secretaries had not reported the “return” versus “enter” error because





USE OF ENGLISH

Read the text below and for each numbered gap choose the word or phrase that best suits the gap, marking your answers for questions 31. to 45.

Six Things You Never Knew About Chocolate

There’s a brand-new attraction for chocoholics: Choco-Story, a New York City museum (31) ……………… to the dark art and craft of chocolate, set up with renowned master chocolatier Jacques Torres. The exhibit, just like the ones in Belgium, Mexico, and elsewhere , is (32) ……………… a thoughtful exploration of the roots and history of chocolate-as-dessert than an all-out candy shop (although, of course, there’s plenty of chance to satiate your sweet (33) ……………… while studying the artifacts). It also (34) ……………… some unusual details about the beloved pick-me-up, which has come a long way from its ancient roots to the treats we enjoy today.
Time magazine stopped by on opening night for a preview of the museum’s multi-sensory experience – and came away with some unexpected revelations. Here is some interesting information (35) ……………… chocolate, all (36) ……………… the museum’s curator.
There’s a/an (37) ……………… why chocolate and champagne go well together. Well, sort of. It (38) ……………… that routine champagne “cheers” actually have a chocolateassociated origin. Mayans, and later Aztecs, would place a cocoa bean in the hollow feet of their ceramic drinking vessels, and (39) ……………… the vessels before drinking to frighten away evil spirits, making a chink-chink sound. Today, that tradition (40) ……………… in the timehonored ritual of clinking glasses before taking a sip.
Cocoa was also used as a (41) ……………… . In Mayan culture, people would trade, say, a whole rabbit for 10 of the precious beans. (They were not yet used in their current edible or drinkable forms.)
Saucers were developed for drinking chocolate. Cups (42) ……………… with drinking chocolate were prone to tipping over, so at one point a member of Spanish royalty had a ring put in the plate where the cup rested. In France, nobility enjoyed their chocolate on-the-go in a coach, leading to spills; so they developed a hole in the saucer where the cup would (43) …………… .
You can make your own flavored truffles by substituting one of the ingredients. The key to chocolate truffles is the soft filling, traditionally a combination of chocolate, cream, and butter. You can substitute the cream, though, for any other (44) ……………… – champagne, for instance, or a fruit purée – and voila: flavored truffle filling, says Jacques Torres.
“The most difficult thing (45) ……………… you make chocolate is to stay clean.” That’s a quote from “Mr. Chocolate” Torres himself, who tried not to make a mess of his sharp white chef’s coat while whipping up a batch of new truffles on opening night.
The Chocolate Museum and Experience is now open to visitors, who will each be guaranteed to come away with plenty of chocolate in hand. Tickets are \$15.

31. (31)





32. (32)





33. (33)





34. (34)





35. (35)





36. (36)





37. (37)





38. (38)





39. (39)





40. (40)







41. (41)





42. (42)





43. (43)





44. (44)





45. (45)





For each of the sentences below, choose the word or phrase that best completes its meaning, marking your answers 46. to 50.

46. You mustn’t forget ……………… a birthday card to your grandmother next week.





47. Stop shouting or you will never see me again! I ……………… being treated like this.





48. This is the most delicious cake I ………………. ! May I have another piece?





49. She is an artist ……………… paintings I adore.





50. He had been working for the company for seven years when the boss finally ……… him a promotion.





Sentence Transformations

Complete the second sentence below so that it is as close as possible in meaning to the first one.

The young inventors themselves demonstrated to the audience various new kinds of robots.

Various new kinds of robots………………………………………………………………………………………….



It was a mistake that you didn’t pay more attention in class. (Use a modal verb.)

You ………………………………………………………………………………………….

The hall is too small, so it is not possible to hold the conference meeting there.

The hall isn’t ………………………………………………………………………………… .

I have never met a brighter student than Patricia.

Patricia is the ………………………………………………………………………………….

Their first and second concert were equally successful.

Their second concert ………………………………………………………………………… .

Someone has sent her an anonymous Valentine card.

An anonymous Valentine card ……………………………………………………………… .

I had never heard such a hearty laughter.

I had never heard anyone …………………………………………………………………… .

They didn’t manage their time properly, so their team failed to finish the project on time.

If they ……………………………………………………………………………………… .

She said to him: “I’m sorry I didn’t return your call earlier.”

She apologized for …………………………………………………………………………… .

Josh: “Are you feeling well?”

My friend Josh asked me ………………………………………………………………. .

WRITING

On your sheet write a text in standard English of about 160-170 words on ONE of the following topics.

1. Do computer games have a negative effect on young people? Can they be beneficial to them in any way?
Express your own opinion, providing arguments and appropriate examples.

2. Super Me
Imagine yourself as a superhero. What do you look like? What powers do you have? What do you do with them? Describe one of your heroic deeds.



WRITING

On your sheet write a text in standard English of about 160-170 words on ONE of the following topics.

1. Is there a moment in your life that you like to remember because it makes you proud? Maybe you won a competition? Or helped a person in need? Or did something that seemed difficult or scary at first?

Describe your experience: the setting (when? where? who with?), the events and the
way you felt.

2. Technology is supposed to make people more connected. They can stay in touch with their friends all the time by texting or on social media like Facebook. But aren’t smartphones, laptops and tablets actually getting in the way of real socialising? Could technology be making us more alone?

Tell us about your views on the issue.



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