Олімпіада з англійської мови, завдання 2011- 2012 н.р. та відповіді

1. Listening Comprehension Test for 8th
Form Students Text
Great- Granddad’s Last Battle by Robert Froman
I will never forget the Saturday I took my great-grandfather to his first movie. I was nine.
Granddad was over 90 years old.
The movie was a Wild West show. And that Saturday afternoon in 1920 turned out to be
a wild one too!
We were a little late when we got to the movie. The lights were already turned low. The
girl at the piano had started to play. In those days, the movies had no sound. The only sounds
that went with them came from a piano. I helped Granddad find a seat in the first row. He sat
back just as Hoot Gibson came riding across the screen on his horse. I looked at Granddad. His
eyes were fixed on the screen and his lips were moving. I saw that he was riding right along with
Hoot Gibson!
Hoot was running away from outlaws. Faster and faster the horses ran. The girl at the
piano played louder and louder. Suddenly Granddad jumped to his feet and yelled at Hoot.
“Look out!” he cried. “Run for it, Hoot! They are getting closer!”
The girl at the piano turned around. Right behind her she saw a tall old man with arms
stretched wide. It was my granddad. She thought he had gone crazy. With a scream she climbed
to the top of the piano. Then she jumped through the movie screen, making a big hole in it. She
ran out the back door of the movie, yelling.
There were about 40 people at the movie that afternoon. Granddad was the only one there
over 12 years old. All the excitement made us boys feel we should do something. But what?
Hoot showed us! He was shot from his house right into the hole in the screen!
A friend of mine named Sammy climbed up to see what had become of Hoot. Three or
four others followed Sammy. Soon about 12 yelling boys were crowded around the screen. What
noise! The ticket-taker came running. “Stop the show!” he yelled. “Turn on the lights!” But no
one seemed to hear him. At that moment, Sammy shot his cap gun. Someone saw the smoke
from the cap gun and screamed “Fire!”
Granddad was still standing. He called out, “Get the firemen! Where is the fire?”
Just then several men came in through the back door. The girl who played the piano had told
them about the crazy man. They were coming to get Granddad!
Before they got to him, a fireman came in the front door. He was carrying a hose.
“Water!” he shouted to the firemen behind him. Then he turned his hose on the screen full force.
The hole in the screen became larger and larger. Now we could see only the top of Hoot’s head
and his horse’s tail.
“I’m getting out of here!” Granddad said to me. “I’ve been in many a battle, but this is
the worst of all.” We pushed past the firemen and got to the street at last. By this time there was
a big crowd of people. “What’s happened? Where’s the fire?” everyone wanted to know.
But we did not wait to talk. Granddad took me to his little house and gave me some ice-
cream. “I am sorry you didn’t get to see the whole show, Granddad,” I said. “Will you go with
me next Saturday?” Granddad shook his head. “No, Robert,” he said. “I don’t like movies. They
are too noisy. My first movie will be my last!”

2. Listening Comprehension Test for 8th
Form Students Assignments
Task 1. Put (+) if the statement is true, and (-) if the statement is false.
1. They came to the movie in time.
2. The movie they watched was soundless.
3. They were sitting in the first row.
4. There was a back door behind the movie screen.
5. Hoot Gibson was chasing the outlaws.
6. Hoot Gibson made a big hole in the screen.
7. The cap gun caused a fire.
8. The piano girl brought the firemen with her.
9. The water made the hole larger.
10. Granddad did not like his first movie.
Task 2. Circle the right answer A, B, C, or D
11. The grandson’s name was...
A. Sammy B. Hoot C. Gibson D. Robert
12.. How old was the boy?
A. 19 B. 12 C. 9 D. 90
13. Why did the girl play the piano?
A. to help people understand the movie.
B. to add sound to the movie
C. to help people find their seats.
D. to entertain the audience.
14. Hoot Gibson was...
A. The name of the actor.
B. The name of the film
C. The name of the author
D. The name of Granddad
15. The Granddad jumped and ...
A. cried B. yelled C. shouted D. screamed
16 How many people were there at the cinema?
A. 40 B. 12 C. 14 D. 20
17. Sammy shot his...
A. pistol B. fire gun C. cap gun D. petard
18. The fireman brought..
A. a house B. a hose C. a horse D. a hole
19. A lot of events happen that afternoon EXCEPT...
A. The girl broke the screen
B. The boys did shooting
C. The old man got crazy
D. The fireman put out the fire
20. Why the Granddad did not want to go to the movie again?
A. He did not like fire.
B. He did not like noise
C. He did not like Wild West show
D. He did not like shooting

3. Writing Comprehension Test for 8th
Form Students
“An Old Time Iowa Christmas” by Paul Engle
Every Christmas should begin with the sound of bells! Mine always did, when I was a
boy in Iowa. I am an old man now. But I still remember the sound of the bells in the cold
morning. They were the sleigh bells on my father’s horses.
Early each Christmas morning, Father drove the sleigh up to the front door. Mother came
out, with a big Christmas basket on her arm. She climbed up onto the front seat beside Father.
We children climbed into the back of the sleigh. The floor of the sleigh was covered with straw.
We had a buffalo robe to keep us warm Father clucked at the horses and off we went! we were
on our way to Grandfather’s farm, ten miles away
The horses broke into a trot. The sleigh flew over the snow. The faster the sleigh went,
the louder the bells rang. We children pulled the buffalo robe up to our chins. Under us, the straw
made a soft bed. Riding in the sleigh was like sliding over silk.
When we came near the farm, Father stood up in the sleigh and cracked the whip. He
wanted the folks on the farm to hear us coming. Faster and faster went the horses. Lauder and
lauder rand the sleigh bells. “Whoa! Whoa!” Father suddenly yelled. The horses came to a stop
at the door of farmhouse. Everyone came running from the house – aunts and uncles and cousins.
There was laughing and talking. Dogs barked. The horses snorted and pranced. The air rang with
shouts and laughter.
At last the women went into the house. But I went with the men to the barn. While they
waited for the horses to cool off, the men talked. I liked the smell of the horses and the hay. A
barn is a good place to be at Christmas. It makes you remember what Christmas is all about.
After a while, we men went to the house. The good smell of Christmas dinner was
everywhere. The women were talking and laughing in the warm kitchen. Their faces were red
from the heat of the stove. In a corner near the big kitchen stood the tall Christmas tree. On it
were real candles, paper stars and balls. There were popcorn strings and homemade candy.
The gifts were homemade too. There were socks and ties and lace collars – and even dolls
made of corn husks! My job on Christmas Day was to feed the big black kitchen stove. Its name
was “Smoke Eater”. But what it really ate was wood – lots of wood! I had to make many trips to
the woodpile out behind the house. At last dinner was ready. The grownups ate at the big kitchen
table. We children had a small table all our own.
There was roast goose, with all the trimmings. There was warm bread, just out of oven.
There were three kinds of pie – apple, pumpkin and mince. After dinner, we children dragged out
our sleds. For hours, we slid down the long hills. It seemed that we could slide on and on, right
into the sunset.
At last it was time to go home. But first we all sang a song around the tree. Then we
children jumped into the sleigh and pulled the buffalo robe up around us. Above us we could see
the stars coming out. The horses broke into a trot. And Christmas ended the way it began: with
the ringing of bells.
Many families have certain customs that they observe. They often have special foods they
eat or specific traditions for special days.
- Do you think it is important for families to have their own customs?
- Does your family have any special activities they do on holidays or birthdays?
- What traditions or customs of Ukraine do you especially like?

4. Speaking Comprehension for 8 Form Students
1. What extreme sport would you most like to try?
* Describe the sport, including, including the equipment required, uniform and rules.
* Why is it considered an extreme sport?
* What dangers can exist when somebody does an extreme sports?
2. You are the owner of a pet store, and you have been asked to speak about the importance of having
pets.
* Explane how to choose the right pet for you
* What benefits do pets offer their owners?
* What responsibilities do owners have to their pets?
3. Books have a positive influence on many people's lives.
* What childhood books influenced you the most?
* What do you think are important elements of a good story?
* If you could be any character from literature, who would you be and why?
4. Describe your dream house and why you want to live there.
* What does it look like?
* Where is it located?
* What things does it have?
5. What is the most important quality a friend can have?
* Why is this quality so important?
* Do your closest friends have this quality? Do you?
* How can you work to improve on this quality?
6. Imagine you are transported to another or fantasy world.
* What does your fantasy world look like?
* What makes it strange and interesting?
* How does it differ from our world?
7. What activities do you find enjoyable when you are by yourself?
* Why is this activity so enjoyable to you?
* How often do you spend time by yourself? Do you feel it is important to have time alone? Why?
* Have you ever been afraid to spend time by yourself?
8. Discuss your favorite actor or actress.
* What plays, films or television shows have you seen this person in?
* Explain why they are your favourite actor or actress.
* Compare this person with another actor or actress and explain why your choice is the best.
9. Choose a favorite holiday.
* Explain why you like this holiday so much.
* Tell a story from your life that illustrates what this holiday means to you.
* Explain how your family’s traditions are typical, or not, for Ukraine.
10. Do you like to keep pets?
* What kinds of animals are best as pets? Why?
* Are there some animals that should not be kept as pets?
* Why do you think so many people like to keep pets?
11. You can choose to have one supernatural ability or gift.
* What do you choose?
* Why will you choose this? Will you use it to help others, for personal gain, or for both?
* How do you think others will treat you because of your gift?

5. 12. You are at a computer club waiting to use a computer. Someone who was not waiting takes your
computer and starts playing a game.
* What would you do? Why?
* Have you ever been in a situation like this? What did you do?
* Do you think that it is important to wait in line and respect others who are waiting?
13 Imagine that you are lost in the woods.
* What five things would you like to have with you in your rucksack?
* If you could have one other person with you, who would you choose and why?
* What is the first thing you would do once you got out of the woods?
..
14. You meet up with a friend who you haven’t seen for several years.
* Tell him her about the events in your family and in your school that have happened since you last
saw him her.
* Tell your friend how your goals have changed. What do you want to become?
* Invite your friend to an event that is coming up in the near future where heshe can see some of your
other old friends.
15. Ukrainian teenages often have responsibilities at school and at home.
* What are some of your responsibilities at home? At shool?
* Discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of working hard at school and home.
* How does age affect your responsibilities?
16. A pen pal from the United States decides to visit you in Ukraine.
* How can you help him or her prepare for this trip?
* What Ukrainian dishes will you make to give your friends a taste of Ukrainian food?
* Where will you take him or her in your town? What other towns would you like to visit with your
friend?
17. Tell us about the greatest teacher you have ever had.
* Why did you choose him or her?
* How did he or she influence your life?
* How can you use what he or she taught you to help others?
18. How important are experiences, such as traveling or meeting people from different cultures, in our
education?
* Do you feel that there is enough experience in your education?
* What do you feel has been your most important experience so far in your life?
* Is there anything you wish you have done, but didn’t? What is it? Why didn’t you do it?
19. Do you think exercise should be an important part of every person’s life?
* Do you play any sports? Dance? Go jogging? Do you like exercise?
* Can you see any difference in the people around you who exercise and those who do not?
* What are the benefits of regular exercise?
20. Your school is having a competition in which students are designing a new school uniform.
* What colors and styles would you choose?
* Why do you think your design should be chosen?
* What are the advantages and disadvantages of school uniforms?

6. Listening Comprehension Test for 9th
Form Students. Text
Pre-listening Activity: Make sure you know the following words
hammock - гамак, підвісне ліжко
Love Letters Marketing
One day last summer, I was lying in my hammock, drinking a beer and relaxing. I was
starting to nod off, when I heard a quiet “ahem”.
I opened my eyes and sported my young neighbor, Jeremy, who had just started the 6th
grade a couple weeks earlier.
: Hey, Mr. Deckers”, he said, “Taking a nap, huh?”
I congratulated the lad on his keen powers of observation, although I wished he had a
better sense of timing.
“What services may I bestow upon you, young Jeremy?” I inquired.
“Huh?”
“What do you want?”
“I need some advice. Mrs.Deckers said you were pathetic with girls when
you were my age”.
“Oh she did, did she?”
“Yeah. She said you were pretty hopeless until you met her. I figured that if you were as
dorky as she said, but you still got married, you must have done something right. So I thought
you were probably the best person to help me?.
I could not fault the little blighter for his logic, but felt I should have a word with
Mrs.Deckers later.
“So what do you need?”
“I need some help with a love letter. I am trying to get Susie Capstone to like me”. He
held out a neatly folded piece of paper. I looked it over and immediately identified his problem.
It looked like what I would have written when I was his age: “Dear Susie, I like you. Do you like
me? Sincerely, Jeremy”.
I turned it over. “Where is the rest of it?”
“That is it. It is short and to the point”.
“It needs serious help. It needs the delicate touch of a marketer”.
I grabbed a pen from my pen case (we writers are always prepared) – and started
scribbling notes on his paper.
“First you need a U.S.P.”.
“What is that?”
“Universal Selling Propositions. It is what sets you apart from your competitors”.
“My what?”
“Your competitors. Let me ask you this, is Susie pretty?”
“Yeah, I guess”.
“Do other boys like her too?”
“Yeah”.
“yes, lad, say yes. Speak clearly. Now, these other boys are your competitors. Your
U.S.P. tells Susie why she should pick you over them”. I scribbled a few more notes.
“Now what about an Attention Getter and Benefit Statement?”
Jeremy’s glazed look told me he had no clue what this was.
“What is one positive thing that Susie would get by choosing you?”
“I have my own bike. It is a ten speed”.
“Good, but that is a feature. A benefit is what she gets. So how does your bike help her?”
“I could give her a ride somewhere”.

7. “Excellent”. I scribbled a few more notes. “Now we need a call to action, something for
her to do. Research shows that giving a respondent a call to action increases your response rate”.
Jeremy could only nod silently. I wrote down one last thing:
“What do you think of this?”
“Dearest Susie, You have captivated my heart with your eyes that sparkle like dew on a
red rose in the early dawn. Come be my love and we can fly anywhere your heart desires. If you
will be mine, please respond with a resounding yes, and pass this note back to Gretchen. I yearn
for you, Jeremy”.
He looked at me suspiciously. “Are you sure about this?”
“Absolutely”.
“Is this how you got Mrs.Deckers?”
“No, that is a whole different story. Now rewrite this in your own handwriting and give it
to Susie”.
Jeremy still looked unsure, so I started to launch into a lecture about the importance of
word of mouth marketing when he said he heard his mother calling and ran off.
A few days later, Jeremy interrupted another nap.
“So what was the final return?” I asked. “Did it work?”
“Well, yes and no. No, Susie is already going with Tyler Marlowe and he nearly beat me
up”.
I started to offer my condolences, but he held up his hand.
“But”, he continued, “she showed it to her friends, and now three girls like me”.
“Wow, Referral Marketing. That is really great. I’ll bet you are pretty excited about that,
huh?”
Jeremy whipped out a pair of sunglasses and struck them on his face. “You bet. Now I
want to create a few different versions of the letter so I can start testing them on different
markets. I figure I can improve my customer retention rate by 20% if I pump up the copy and
leverage my brand buzz in other schools. Do you know any good freelance copywriters?”
I think I have created a monster.

8. Listening Comprehension for 9th
Form Students Assignments
Task 1. Put (+) if the statement is true, and (-) if the statement is false.
1. The story may be taking place during holidays.
2. The boy must have had a heart disease.
3. The author was very popular with girls when a boy.
4. Mr. Deckers’ wife did not have a very positive opinion about her husband.
5. The boy’s letter seemed to be very short and unemotional
6. The author suggested some marketing strategies
7. The boy knew how to write love notes really well.
8. Mr. Deckers did not attract his wife by writing love letters
9. Jeremy got what he initially wanted.
10. The boy turned out to be much smarter than expected.
Task 2. Circle the right answer A, B, C, or D
11. When Mr. Deckers is telling the story, Jeremy is most probably the student of:
A. the fifth grade B. the sixth grade C. the seventh grade D. the eighth grade
12. Jeremy asked Mr. Deckers for help because long ago the man had been:
A. an expert about girls
B. absolutely unaware how to deal with girls
C. married to Jeremy’s mother
D. a well-known writer
13. Jeremy had a wish:
A. to have someone fall in love with him
B. to have love with somebody
C. to fall in love with somebody
D. to fail in love with somebody
14. What was wrong with Jeremy’s letter is that it was:
A. too brief B. too emotional C. too extended D. too unusual
15. The text makes us think that in his hammock the author kept something like;
A. a bureau B. a pencil-case C. a notebook D. a briefcase
16. The author suggested that Jeremy should make something
A. outrageous B. outspoken C. outstanding D. outlaw
17. The benefit that Jeremy could offer his girl was more of:
A. giving advice B. giving a bike C. giving a lift D. giving a light
18. As a result Jeremy...
A. got beaten
B. got the girl he liked
C. got his expectations tripled
D. got to develop a different plan
19. The author must have been...
A. sorry about what he had done
B. proud for Jeremy
C. looking for a different market
D. eager to help Jeremy more
20. At the end, Jeremy wanted to find some...
A. copyrights
B. advertising writers
C. copiers
D. free people who write on human rights

9. Writing Comprehension Test for 9th
Form Students
( From “The Kilimanjaro Machine” by Ray Bradbury)
I walked to the door. The hunter sat there examining my face. At last he grunted, got up,
walked over and came outside with me.
I pointed at the kerb. We both looked at the truck parked there.
“I’ve seen those before,” he said. “A truck like that, in a movie. Don’t they hunt rhino
and lions from a trunk like that? or at least travel in them around Africa?”
“You remember right.”
“No lions around here,” he said
I walked over and touched the open truck.
“You know what this is?” I stroked the wing for a long moment.
“A Time Machine,” I said.
His eyes widened and than narrowed and he sipped the beer he was carrying in one large
hand. He nodded me on.
“A Time Machine,” I repeated.
“I heard you,” he said
He walked out around the safari truck and stood in the street looking at it. He would not
look at me. He circled the truck one round and stood back on the kerb and looked at the cap on
the petrol tank.
“What do you fuel a thing like that with?” he said
I could have said: reading late at night, reading many nights over the years until almost
morning, reading up the mountains in the snow or reading at noon in Pamplona, or reading by
the streams or out in a boat somewhere along the Florida coast.
Or I could have said: all of us put our hands on the machine. All of us thought about it
and bought it and touched it and put our love in it and our remembering what his words did to us
twenty years or twenty-five or thirty years ago. There is a lot of life and remembering and love
put by here, and that is the petrol or the fuel or whatever you want to call it ... I should have said
that I thought it, but I let it stay unsaid.
The hunter must have known my thought, for he walked over and did an unexpected
thing. He reached out and .. touched... my machine. He laid his hand on it and left it there, as if
feeling for the life, and approving what he sensed beneath his hand. He stood that way for a long
time. Then he turned without a word, not looking at me, and went back into the bar and sat
drinking alone, his back turned towards the door.
The character from Ray Bradbury’s story used the Time Machine to meet the writer
Ernest Hemingway. Time travel is an idea that fascinated many people. You should write
an essay on imaginary travelling back in time to witness one event or meet one person.
The following ideas and questions will help you decide what to write about, they will help to
guide your thoughts.
-What would you like to see?
-Who would you like to meet?
-What effect would this experience have on you?
-Explain in detail why you would choose this event or person.

10. Speaking Comprehension Test for 9th
Form Students
1. School uniforms are mandatory in some schools around the world, although certainly not in every
school
* If you were the headmaster of a school would you want your pupils to wear a uniform?
* Imagine the response of a pupil who disagreed with you. What would the pupil say?
* How would you respond to this pupil?
2. All schools have rules. What are some of the rules you have at your school?
* Which rules do you believe are necessary and which do you believe are unfair?
* What are the advantages and disadvantages of having rules?
* Have you ever been caught breaking any school rules?
3. What is your favourite subject? Why? How will this subject help you in the future?
* Would you recommend this subject to some one else?
* How do teachers make lessons interesting for you?
* What role do you play in your own education?
4. Humans have come to dominate all other animals, sometimes for fun. Should humans be allowed to use
animals as objects of entertainment?
* Why do you think hunting as a sport is still practiced in the modern world?
* How do you feel about animals living in cages to provide entertainment for people?
* How could zoos be dangerous for animals?
5. Speak about your favourite genre of literature.
* What are some of examples of works you like from this genre?
* Why are these examples good representatives of this genre?
* What does your favourite genre say about your personality?
6. Supermarkets are becoming more widespread and popular in the modern world, while traditional
markets (bazaars) are becoming less common.
* Where do you or your family do most food shopping?
* What advantages and disadvantages do you see with modern supermarkets?
* Do you think that traditional markets will disappear? Why or why not?
7. Zoos and ecological parks are popular in many countries of the world with both children and adults
alike.
* What do you think the purpose of a zoo is?
* Are these reasons valid? Why or why not?
* Should there be international standards that zoos must comply with? Please explain.
8. If you had a week to travel out of your native country and endless supply of money where would you
want to go, and how would you get there?
* Would you travel alone, with a few people, or with many people? Why?
* What are the top three things you would do in each place and why?
* What does your travel style say about your personality?
9. The way people decorate their rooms usually says something about their personality.
* Give a brief description of your room.
* What do you think your room says about your personality?
* How important is the decoration of your room to you?
10. You are starting your own band.
* What kind of music would you play? Why?
* Who would be in your band? What instruments would they play?
* What would your songs be about?

11. 11. There are thousands of different professions in the world.
* What professions are extremely important to the well-being of society? Explain why.
* How might the word be different if these professions did not exist?
* Is it important to choose a profession based on its significance to society? Why?
12. You are at a job interview and are asked to describe yourself. What will you say?
* What kind of character do you have?
* How do you get along with other people?
* What are your strong and weak points?
13. Music influences different people in different ways.
* What type of music influences you the most? How?
* Which musician has had the greatest impact on you? Why?
* How is the music of your generation different from the music your parents listened to?
14 Describe a resent book that you have read or a movie you have seen.
* Why was this book or movie interesting?
* Who were the characters? Describe them.
* If you could change the ending, would you? Why or why not?
15. Consider what your life will be like in 10 years.
* Where will you be living?
* What type of job will you have?
* Will you have a family? If so, describe it. If not, explain why.
16. Your pen-pal is planning to take a tour of Ukraine this summer and wants to know what there is to see
and do. What would you recommend?
* Why would you recommend these places?
* How are these places interesting and what can one do there?
* What is the most important place in Ukraine to visit and why?
17. A renowned publisher has given you an opportunity to write a book and have it published. What
would you write about?
* What would be on the cover of your book? What would its title be?
* What genre of books do you find most interesting? Why?
* What kind of obstacles might you need to overcome when writing your book?
18. Do you think exercise should be an important part of every person’s life?
* Do you do any sports? Dance? Go jogging? Do you like exercise?
* Can you see any difference in the people around you who exercise and those who do not?
* What are the benefits of regular exercise?
19 Today many students in schools have mobile phones. Many of them don’t always turn their phones off
before going to their lessons.
* Is it necessary for pupils to have mobile phones? Why do you think so?
* Do mobile phones interrupt teachers and students? How? How about text messages?
* Should teachers be able to take phones from students? In which cases should they?
20. If you could have any talent that you don’t already possess, what would it be?
* Why is this talent so important for you to have?
* How would you use it?
* Do you feel it is more important to gain talents through hard work or through natural ability?

12. Listening Comprehension Test for 10th
Form Students Text
Pre-listening Activity: Make sure you know the following words
adjacent –суміжний, прилеглий, сусідній
Looking for a Sign (from The Economist, Nov. 2005)
The birth of a new language is such a rare event that scientists who want to watch it
happen generally have to make due with computer simulations. Bruno Galantucci, a cognitive
scientist at Yale University in America, has developed a human alternative, based on the
necessity is the mother of invention. He asks pair of strangers to play a computer game in which
they have to find one another in a virtual bungalow. This requires them to communicate but the
only way they can do so is by inventing a language. The game is revealing some of the secrets of
successful communication
The two players cannot see or hear each other, but they are seated at connected
computers. In the simplest version of the game, each player is located. in one of four rooms and
the players must find each other in one move each. These rooms are arranged in a square, and
each pair of adjacent rooms is connected by a doorway. On the floor of each room is an icon – a
circle, a hexagon, a flower – and, prior to the start of the game, the players have a short time to
explore their surroundings. (Sometimes, a player with good spatial awareness can move quickly
through all four rooms and understand the layout but others do not grasp it at this stage.)
The players know there is another player in another one of the rooms, and that they must
both end up in the same room, but they can only ever see the room they are in. To help them
guide each other to a rendezvous, they have a device on which they can draw or write symbols
that appear on the other’s screen. But a device works like a roll of paper that constantly scrolls
downward, preventing them from writing letters, numbers or any other commonly recognizable
symbols.
The first thing Dr. Galantucci discovered was how quickly reliable symbolic systems
emerged. Nine out of ten pairs solved the game in three hours, having agreed on a set of three or
four symbols.
The languages were also very different. Dr.Galantucci had expected that the pairs would
build their language on elements of the icons that that appear on the floors of the rooms. A few
did so, but they used different features of the icons – the numbers of vertices, say, or some linear
abstraction of its shape. Others adopted a numbering system for the rooms – such as one slanting
line for the first room and two for the second, moving clockwise or anticlockwise through the
four rooms.
Having observed winning pairs at play, Dr. Galantucci says that communication is
established as soon as one player decides to copy the symbols proposed by his co-player, rather
than impose his own. At that point the pair’s chances of finding each other jump. As soon as
there is imitation, he says, there is a common currency.
One strength of Dr. Galantucci’s experiment that does not exist in the real world,
however, is that he is able to interview his subjects afterwards. What is striking, he says, is that a
pair can be successful even if a symbol represents something quite different in the virtual world
to each player – as long as they agree on what they should do when confronted by it. In other
words, people only need to convey a small amount of information to communicate effectively,
and they can do so while holding fundamentally different ideas about how their language
describes the world.

13. Listening Comprehension for 10th
Form Students Assignments
Task 1. Put (+) if the statement is true, and (-) if the statement is false.
1. The computer game is made is made for two players.
2. Each pair of adjacent rooms is connected by one doorway.
3. In the simplest version of the game, each player is located in one of seven rooms.
4. The players can always see all of the rooms on their computer screens.
5. The players are allowed to use a device, like a scroll, to communicate with each other.
6. The majority of players solved the game in two hours.
7. The languages the players developed were very different from each other.
8. Communication is effective only when both players do the same thing when faced by a
symbol.
9. In order for communication to be effective, both parties must understand their symbols
as representing exactly the same concept or idea.
10. This computer game is revealing some of the secrets of successful communication.
Task 2. Circle the right answer A, B, C, or D
11. Bruno Galantucci is a ---- scientist at Yale University in America.
A. rocket B. ecological C. nuclear D. cognitive
12. The experiment is based on the concept that ---- is the mother of invention.
A. work B. patience C. necessity D. procrastination
13. In the game, in how many moves the players must find each other?
A. one B. two C. three D. four
14. The rooms in the game are arranged in the shape of a ....
A. circle B. square C. rectangle D. pentagon
15. The phrase “spatial awareness” has to do with the ability to ...
A. recognizes the colour-patterns of rooms
B. recognizes the speed of objects in motion
C. recognizes the location of objects in relation to each other.
D. recognizes the pitch of various musical sounds.
16. The fact that scrolling device seen on the players’ screens is constantly moving prevents the
players from...
A. drawing pictures of themselves
B. writing funny jokes
C. communicating with Dr. Galantucci
D. writing any commonly recognizable symbol
17. How mane pairs managed to solve the game in only three hours?
A. nine out of nine
B. eight out of ten
C. nine out of ten
D. seven out of eight
18. The symbols created by the pairs included the use of slanting lines to represent the ...
A. number of the room
B. size of the room
C. geometrical shape of the room
D. density of the room
19. “as soon as there is imitation”, Dr. Galantucci says< “there is a common currency”. In this
quote, the word “currency” means...
A. money B. finance C. understanding D. winning
20. According to Dr. Galantucci’s experiment, what amount of information people need to
communicate in order to be effective?
A. small B. moderate C. large D. very large

14. Writing Comprehension Test for 10th
Form Students
Run your home from your mobile phone
Forgot to turn off the heating when you left the house this morning? No need to worry –
just use the latest mobile phone to switch it off. The Japanese are preparing to launch a new
generation of mobiles which will give their owners remote control over virtually every
household garget, reports The Observer. If you’re heading home to a cold house, you could use
the phone to turn off the heating. If you are going to miss your favourite TV show, use it to
programme the video. The phone will also warn you if you’ve left the freezer door open, and will
sound an alarm if an intruder breaks in. Panasonic is launching a version of this revolutionary
technology, known as Echoner, which comprises a book-sized control system costing &500.
Fitted to the kitchen wall, the unit communicates with tiny transponders attached to household
appliances. Householders can control appliances from both their mobiles and this central unit.
The robot surgeon controlled from 4,000 miles away
Robots could soon be performing routine operations after a study indicated that they are
safer and more accurate than human surgeons – even when controlled by doctors 4,000 miles
away. This is primarily because unlike humans, robot “arms” do not shake when targeting a
small piece of tissue or organ. In the trial, carried out at Guy’s Hospital in London, researchers
compared the performance of a robot, controlled by a doctor using a computer-linked joystick,
with that of a human surgeon. Doctors were asked to cut through the “skin” of a silicone dummy,
then locate and extract a kidney stone. This test was carried out 152 times by both the doctors
using robots and by urologists. The results showed that although the robot took longer than the
humans to locate the stones, it hit the right spot with significantly fewer attempts. “We believe
this is a landmark,” Prokar Dasgupta, who led the study, told The Observer. “We now have firm
evidence that robots can give us an amazing level of precision which it would be foolish to
ignore.” ( from “The Week”)
You should write an essay about the computers and machines in our life. The following
questions will help you decide what to write about, they will help to guide your thought.
- Do you believe that computers and machines have already revolutionized
everything about our lives?
- How is your life personally affected by machines and computers?
- What examples do you see in the world around you? Is all this technological
advancement good or bad? Why?
- Where is it taking us and what can we expect in future?

15. Speaking Comprehension Test for 10th
Form Students
1. Imagine yourself in ten years and describe your life.
* What are your greatest accomplishments?
* What is your personal and professional life like?
* What are some obstacles you have faced and overcome?
2. People in your neighbourhood are concerned that a nearby factory is polluting the air, causing people to
get sick
* What can one person do in such a situation?
* How can the community respond to the situation?
* Should people around the country be involved (even though it does not directly affect them)?
3. You are the owner of a pet store, and you have been asked to speak about the importance of having
pets.
* Explain how to choose the right pet for you
* What benefits do pets offer their owners?
* What responsibilities do owners have to their pets?
4. You have got an amazing chance to meet with a celebrity (living or dead) for one hour.
* Who would you meet and why?
* What questions would you ask this person?
* What would you like to tell him?
5. If you could be a famous actor or actress in a film, what kind of film would you choose?
* Which actors would you hope to work with?
* Would it be more important to you that the film was popular or creative?
* What other elements would you want in the film, such as scenery, location, plot or central message?
6. Many of the best athletes in the world earn extremely high salaries for both playing a sport and for
advertisements. Do you think this is fair?
* Do you think some sports are not worth the amount of money athletes get paid? Why?
* What sports have the best-rounded athletes? Why?
* What is the most under-paid sport, and what would you do to make it more popular?
7. If you were seated on an airplane, and the person next to you was terrified of flying, what would you
tell him or her to help calm that person down?
* Do you have a phobia? What and how do you deal with it?
* What method of transportation is the scariest? Safest? Why?
* What are some advantages and disadvantages of travelling by airplane?
8. You have decided to move to a different country and will take one person with you.
* Where will you go? Why did you choose that place?
* Who will you take with you? Why that very person?
* What will you miss about Ukraine?
9. What do you think life would be like without clocks to measure time?
*. How would people structure their day and make plans?
* Do you think life would be better or worse? Why?
* What problems might people have without clocks?
10. You have been shipwrecked alone with no supplies on an island. What is your plan for survival?
* Would you find food or build a shelter first? Why and how?
* Would you make contact with passing ships or call for help?
* How long do you think you could live alone? Why?

16. 11. Imagine that you are asked to plan a summer camp for pupils in your town ot city.
* What kind of camp will you organize? Will it have an overall theme?
* What types of lessons and activities will you include? What about the daily schedule?
* What kind of problems might you encounter? What are possible solutions to them?
12. Imagine that in order to finish school you are required to write a book.
* What kind of book will you write, for example a novel, biography, or poetry? Why?
* Describe the general theme, contents, message and purpose of your book.
* Who would you like to read your book? What do you think or hope they will learn?
13. Some people say that whatever happens it happens for the best.
* Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why
* Can good come from bad situations? In which cases?
* Which is more important, fate or luck? How?
14. Your friend studied at an English university. Now she can look for work in England or come back to
Ukraine. Her English is good, but few people in England need an interpreter.
* Compare the advantages and disadvantages of each option for work.
* What kind of work might she find in England? In Ukraine?
* She asks for your advice. What do you tell her?
15. The history of Ukraine is long and interesting. Please, tell a bit about your favourite period of
Ukrainian history.
* Why do you like this period of Ukraine more than others?
* Why should others know about this period of Ukrainian history?
* Do you think that history should have a more important place in the school curriculum?
16. Everyday science and technology develop faster and faster. New inventions and technologies change
the way we work, live and play. What do you think the future will look like?
* How will people travel in the future?
* How will the development of this technology improve people’s lives or harm them?
* How will people’s daily routines change due to technology?
17. All students are required to participate in physical training classes. Should participation in physical
training at school be mandatory?
* What benefits and problems does this training have?
* What dangers might be involved in physical training activities?
* Should parents have the right to remove their child from this kind of lesson? Why?
18. Parents often tell children, “Mind your manners”.
* What do you think are examples of good manners? Bad manners?
* Can Manners affect your success in life? How?
* What is the best way to teach manners to children?
19. Professions that once did not exist, such as computer programmers, are now extremely important to
society.
* What is one new job that you think will appear in the future?
* How will this job be important to society?
* Which profession will this new job replace? Why do you think so?
20. Litter that has been disposed of improperly is a global problem and takes away from the beauty and
safety of many cities and towns throughout the world.
* Do you feel that litter is a problem in Ukrainian cities and towns? Why or why not?
* What are some practical ways in which the litter problems around the world could be addressed?
* Why do you think they would be effective?

17. Listening Comprehension Test for 11th
Form Students Text
( from “Muddy Waters” by Tim Cahill)
Sharecropper – спільник, пайовик
It was Muddy Waters who took the Delta blues north to Chicago, electrified the sound, and
changed the course of popular music as we know it. That is pretty much the judgment of history, and it is
mine as well. I remember hearing Muddy Waters play, but in the mid –‘60s, during a blues revival. I was
a college student and unaware of the fact that the blues were being revived or that they needed to be. The
music and the lyrics moved me. They still do.
Muddy Waters grew up on the Stovall Plantation, not far from Clarksdale, Mississippi. The house
where he lived is gone now, rebuilt in the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale. The idea was to preserve
the structure, a humble rough-cut cedar building of the type that housed sharecroppers. There was only a
depression in the grass where Muddy’s childhood home had been. A plaque nearby identified the site and
included a quote from Eric Clapton : “Muddy Waters’ music changed my life, and whether you know it or
not, and like it or not, it probably changed yours too”.
These words ring true. I could see it all over the Mississippi Delta region, where the music we
call the blues was born. The blues wandered off down south, where it influenced the sound of the jazz that
was springing up in different forms in New Orleans. But most of the blues travelled with itinerant blues
men, and it moved north. Memphis, the capital of the mid-South, only a few hundred miles north of the
Delta, was a natural destination for a musically talented and ambitious man.
But the blues weren’t done travelling. Chicago was a destination for Delta blacks, many of whom
were out at work due to new mechanized cotton sowing and picking machines. Chicago was seen as a sort
of Utopia. There were jobs for the taking, and there was no lingering heritage of slavery.
Afro-Americans in the Delta had seen Chicago through rose-colored glasses for many decades. In
the mid-1930s, “Sweet Home Chicago” was a famous song. Chicago hired men to work in steel mills and
foundries and in the stockyards and meat-packing houses. The black-owned and operated newspaper The
Chicago Defender encouraged migration to Chicago. It told people that there were more jobs than men in
the big city up north. It was true. There is a statue of a weary black traveler with a broken suitcase near
the old station, at Martin Luther King and 28th
Street, on the South Side of Chicago. There is no plaque,
and I assume the monument is meant to immortalize the “Great Migration North”.
When Muddy Waters took the Illinois Central to Chicago in 1943, he asked a few questions at
Union Station, found a relative’s apartment without any trouble, and got a job at a container factory that
day, a Saturday. Muddy, who’d quit a 22.5-cent-per-hour job driving a tractor at the Stovall Plantation in
the Delta, had been told by Chicago friends that he’d never make it with his guitar in the big city. Muddy
was told, “They don’t listen to that kind of old blues you’re doing now, nobody listens to that, not in
Chicago”.
But Muddy pressed on, playing in little clubs for $5 a night. By the next year, 1944, he had
enough money to buy his first electric guitar. The idea was to cut through the sound of the noisy South
Side clubs, where most blacks had settled. But the amplification of the slide guitar Muddy played, of the
harmonica played by his longtime collaborator, they sounded like voices. And the voices rocked. Did half
the rock artists to follow take ideas from Muddy Waters and his band? They surely did. Muddy himself
said, “the blues had a baby, and they called it rock ’n’ roll”.
In 1952 Muddy wrote the song “Rollin’ Stone”. It was a nation-wide success, and the song echoes
down through rock ‘n’ roll history. Bob Dylan wrote a tribute song by the same name, an English band
decided to call themselves the Rolling Stones, and the magazine that first embraced music as a serious
cultural phenomenon was itself called Rolling Stone.
And this is where I came in, a white college student driving down from the University of
Wisconsin to hear Muddy Waters and the great musicians of that time. And they changed my life.
The blues wrapped me in an aural web, and I was never the same. Indeed, I ended up working for that
music magazine, Rolling Stone, which was named after a Muddy Waters song. In fact, I still work there
and have, on and off, for over 30 years. Whether he knew it or not – and he surely did not – Muddy
Waters started changing my life in 1963, and I have a feeling he still isn’t done with me.

18. Listening Comprehension Test for 11th
Form Students Assignments
Task 1. Put (+) if the statement is true, and (-) if the statement is false.
1. The author believes Muddy Waters was an important person in the migration of the blues.
2. The author was influential in the migration of the blues.
3. The blues were born in the Mississippi River Delta.
4. The song “Sweet Home Chicago” was written in the 1930s in the style of rock’n’roll.
5. Muddy Waters had trouble finding a job in Chicago.
6. Muddy Waters brought an electric sound to blues music.
7. Rock’n’roll came after the blues.
8. The name “Rolling Stone” originally came from a music magazine.
9. The author works for Rolling Stone magazine.
10. Muddy Waters’ music changed the author’s life
Task 2. Circle the right answer A, B, C, or D
11. Muddy Waters is ...
A. a type of blues music. B. a town in Mississippi. C a blues musician. D a place in the Delta region
12. Muddy Waters’ childhood home on the Stovall Plantation...
A. is in its original location.
B. has a plaque near where it used to be located.
C. is in Chicago
D. was dedicated to the plantation owners.
13. Over time, the blues music moved...
A. south to Mississippi.
B. east to New Orleans
C. west to Mississippi.
D. north to Chicago.
14. People saw Chicago through “rose-colored glasses’. This means they saw...
A. Chicago in a positive way.
B. Chicago in a negative way.
C. Chicago while wearing sunglasses.
D. Chicago’s stockyards and steel mils.
15. The monument of a traveler with a broken suitcase near the station in Chicago is meant to ...
A. be a tribute to Muddy Waters
B. immortalize the migration of job-seeking blacks, and so the music they played..
C. identify the site of the house where Muddy Waters was born.
D. tell travelers there was no lingering heritage of slavery.
16. Why was Muddy Waters told “They don’t listen to that kind of old blues you are doing now?”
A. Muddy Waters played the electric guitar.
B. People didn’t like his song “Rollin’ Stone”.
C. People in Chicago would think Muddy Waters’ music was out of date.
D. Muddy Waters worked at a container factory.
17. In Chicago, Muddy Waters bought...
A. blues music B. an electric guitar C. rock’n’roll music D. a harmonica
18. What was NOT a factor in the movement of blues music?
A. A black-owned newspaper
B. Higher paying jobs in Chicago.
C. once during a blues revival, and did not like his music
D. Higher paying jobs in Mississippi.
19. The author listened to Muddy Waters ...
A. at university and still does
B. Travelling blues musicians.
C. at university while studying for an exam.
D. only in Chicago
20. The author likes Muddy Waters because...
A. they knew each other growing up on Stovall Plantation
B. his music has greatly influenced his life
C. he wrote about Muddy Waters for Rolling Stone magazine.
D. he knew Muddy Waters in Chicago.

19. Writing Comprehension Test for 11th
Form Students
(From “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been
turning over in my mind ever since.
“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone,” he told me, “just remember that all the
people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
He didn’t say any more, but we’ve always been unusually communicative in a reserved
way, and I understood that he meant a great deal more than that In consequence, I’m inclined to
reserve all judgments, a habit that has opened up many curious natures to me and also made me
the victim of not a few veteran bores. The abnormal mind is quick to detect and attach itself to
this quality when it appears in a normal person, and so it came about that in college I was
unjustly accused of being a politician, because I was privy to the secret grieves of wild, unknown
men. Most of the confidences were unsought – frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation or
a hostile levity when I realized by some unmistakable sign that an intimate revelation was
quivering on the horizon; for the intimate revelations of young men, or at least the terms in
which they express them, are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions. Reserving
judgments is a matter of infinite hope. I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget
that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental
decencies is parceled out unequally at birth.
Often there are people in our lives who we look to for support, inspiration, or ideas about
how we should live. It was his father, who influenced Nick Carraway, the main character
from “The Great Gatsby”. However, sometimes these role models are famous stars,
athletes, family members, musicians or others. You should write a composition about the
most influential role model in your own life. The following questions will help you to guide
your thought.
- Who has been the most influential role model in your life?
- How has this person influenced you and your actions?
- What would you say to this person to explain his influence on your life?
- How will your future change because of him?

20. Keys for Listening Comprehension Tests
8th Form
Task 1 True- false statements
1.+ 2.+ 3 - 4.- 5.+ 6.+ 7.- 8.- 9.+ 10.-
Task 2 . Multiple Choice
11.C 12.B 13. B 14.A 15.D 16. A 17.A 18. A 19.B 20.B
9th Form
Task 1 True- false statements
1.- 2.+ 3.- 4.+ 5.+ 6.- 7.- 8.- 9.+ 10+
Task 2 . Multiple Choice
11.A 12.B 13.A 14.B 15.B 16.A 17.C 18.A 19.B 20A
10th Form
Task 1 True- false statements
. 1.- 2. + 3. - 4.+ 5 .+ 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 + 10 -
Task 2 . Multiple Choice
1 C 2 B 3 A 4 B 5 B 6 B 7 C 8 C 9 D 10 A
11th Form
Task 1. True-false statements
1.+ 2.- 3.- 4.- 5.- 6.+ 7.+ 8.+ 9.- 10.+
Task 2. Multiple Choice
11.A 12.A 13.A 14B 15. C 16.D 17.D 18.B 19.A 20.B