INSPECTORATUL COLAR JUDEEAN ILFOV

Olimpiada de limba englez

Etapa local 24 ianuarie 2015
Varianta I
Clasa a XI-a
I. Read the text below and complete the following tasks:
Imagine a locked room in which a person sits alone staring into space. There is
nothing to look at. (1) Except for sounds
But these sounds resemble nothing heard before. They lack all similarity to
experience and any reference to surroundings. Now imagine that those sounds (2) are the sounds of a Beethoven symphony. What would ones ear and mind make of them?
How much would be understood?
A new field, for example, sometimes called biomusicology, is preoccupied with
how music affects the brain. What regions of the brain respond to changes in harmony or
melody? Is there a single region that makes sense of music?
Music may be revealing a code. This view has contributed to a renewed interest in
the relationship between music and mathematics. (3) Every effort to examine the
effects of single musical variables - pitch, metre, harmony - inadvertently shows just how
much music is the sum of its parts. Dr Tramo, director of the Institute for Music and
Brain Science at Harvard University, has shown that many regions are active when music
is heard: (4) .
The relationship between music and language is also complex. The Russian
composer Vissarion Shelabin continued to write music for a decade after a stroke in 1953
damaged his speech and language understanding. In one classic study, brain-damaged
patients could identify instruments and wrong notes but could not recognize melodies.
1. Four sentences / groups of words have been removed from the text. Select the
appropriate sentence / group of words for each gap in the text. There is one extra
sentence / group of words which you do not need to use.
A. Music is similar to mathematics in important respects.
B. music can only be successfully interpreted in a locked room.
C. Most of the world is stripped away.
D. heard for the first time
E. even motor areas of the brain can become active though the body might be at rest.
2. Sum up the text in about 50 words.

3. For the following questions, choose the answer (A, B, C, D) which fits according
to the text.

1. Why does the writer mention the Beethoven symphony in the second paragraph?
A. to illustrate that certain kinds of music do not make sense
B. to emphasize the difference between a well-known piece of music and music that has
never been heard before
C. to demonstrate that music needs to be related to famous people in order to be
appreciated
D. to speculate what it would sound like to a person with no previous experience of this
kind of music
2. Biomusicology
A. is the study of how the brain understands and reacts to music.
B. examines the relationship between language and music.
C. is the study of how neurons react to language and music.
D. examines which regions of the brain respond to changes in intonation.
3. Research indicates
A. that the relationship between music and the mind is unexpectedly complex.
B. that several areas of the brain respond exclusively to music.
C. that the brain is activated only when in motion.
D. harmony stimulates all parts of the brain.
II. Express your opinion on the following statement: A book is a garden, an orchard, a
storehouse, a party, a counselor. Use relevant arguments to support your ideas.