VARIANTA 1

SUBIECT I

There was once a little boy who had no companions. For some reason he could make no friends. One day he went
off into the woods to look for a friend. On and on he walked until he met a rabbit.
“Good morning, Bunny!” said the boy. “Would you like to be my friend?”
“Yes!” the rabbit agreed.
So they walked on together. When they reached the fringe of the forest, they saw a hunter coming towards them.
Trembling with fear, the rabbit rushed to hide under a bush.
“Little boy, have you seen a rabbit around here?” asked the hunter.
“Yes” said the boy.
“Where?”
“Right there under the bush.”
The hunter fired, but the rabbit was no longer there.
The boy was again alone in the forest. He walked on and on. The sun had set and a wind had begun to blow.
Leaves whirled overhead. The boy sat down under a tree and began to think how dull life was when you are all alone.
Suddenly a squirrel crept out from a hollow in the tree.
“Little boy, what are you doing here?” the squirrel asked.
“I’m looking for a friend,” said the boy.
“Do you want to be my friend?”
“I do”, said the boy.
The squirrel was very glad. She invited him into her nest, placed nuts before him and made him a soft bed out of
moss.
“Eat and go to sleep”, she said.
The boy ate and slept. Next morning he woke up very early, got into the squirrel’s storage, put all the nuts into his
pocket and walked off. He walked on and on through the forest until he met a bear.
“Where are you going, little boy?” Teddy asked.
“I am looking for a friend. Will you be my friend?”
“I will,” roared Teddy.
So they walked on together. Suddenly a pack of vicious dogs came running from the thick of the forest.
“Please don’t leave me, friend!” pleaded the boy.
“Hurry up, climb on to my back,” said Teddy. “We’ll manage somehow to get away together.”
Down raced Teddy through the woods with the dog on his heels. Seated on his back, the boy urged on: “Hurry,
hurry, Teddy dear!”
Teddy was panting from fatigue, his tongue was hanging out of his mouth, his fur was drenched in sweat; it was
very hard for him to run with the boy on his back. When he finally got away from the dogs, he collapsed under a fir tree
and said to the boy:
“Now you watch while I get some sleep.”
The boy sat down, produced his penknife and began to fashion a reed pipe. A woman came walking down the
forest path.
“Whose bear is it lying there?” asked the woman.
“Mine,” said the boy.
“Sell me his skin; I’ll pay for it,” said the woman.
“All right,” agreed the boy, “Give me the money!”
The woman began to count the money, but Teddy heard it. He rose and walked off into the forest. The boy was
again left alone. Night came and dogs began to bark viciously in the forest. Frightened, cold and hungry, the boy sat there
crying bitterly, when he suddenly saw a hedgehog come out of his hole.
“Why are you crying little boy?” the hedgehog asked.
“I feel hurt,” the boy complained. “I had three friends and they all left me.”
The hedgehog marvelled.
“There’s something wrong here,” he said, shaking his head.
 The boy had to tell him how it all happened.
The hedgehog said nothing in reply. He merely curled up into a ball and rolled down into his burrow.

1. Answer the questions: (1 punct)

a) Who are the main heroes in the fable above?
b) What made the little naughty boy go into the forest?
c) What caused the boy think that life was dull?

2. Find in the text synonyms for the following words: (1 punct)

a) forest
b) hare
c) sad

3. Choose the right answer: (1 punct)

a) The first animal the boy met in the forest was a. a rabbit; b. a bear; c. a hedgehog
b) The squirrel was a. cold; b. friendly; c. contemptuous with the boy.
c) He a. helped; b. robbed; c. betrayed the squirrel.

4. Which of these sentences is not true? (1 punct)

a) The little boy had no friends because he wasn’t understood.
b) The boy had no friends because he kept betraying them.

5. Sum up the text in 50-75 words. (2 puncte)

SUBIECT II

1. Give the adverbs corresponding to the following nouns and adjectives: (1 punct)
a) day
b) beautiful
c) fast
d) lazy
e) sun

2. Turn the verbs in the sentences below into the continuous form: (1 punct)
a) Mike, you do not listen to me.
b) His father helped him with his translation.
c) Will you take this to the post office?

3. Give the three forms of the following irregular verbs: (1 punct)

a) to fly
b) to shine
c) to ring
d) to set
e) to go

Nota: Se acorda un punct din oficiu.

 VARIANTA 2

SUBIECT I

…Anna had been nurse to my sisters Marie and Yvonne long before I – my name is Lucille – was born. She had
been a servant in our house in Paris for more than twenty years and it was but natural that she should be looked upon as
one belonging to the family. Everybody loved her for she was so kind, so helpful and so constantly busy: she helped with
the work in the house, she did the sewing, and she could cook any dish better than anyone else I knew could. If ever we
were in difficulties, from a torn frock to a broken heart, it was to Anna that we went for help and comfort. In brief, she had
made herself so generally useful that none of us could ever think of starting anything of importance without first asking
for her advice. Then, one day, a bolt from the blue. She came to say that she was leaving us.
“Leaving us, Anna!” I said hardly to believe my ears.
“Yes, Miss Lucille,” she said, and then, blushing and looking rather confused, she added, “I’m going to be
married”.
You could, as they say, have knocked me down with a feather. Because we had known her all our lives, because
she was the Anna, our own Anna.
I don’t suppose she was older than forty when she left us; for she did leave us and married Henry Behr. It was the
greatest mistake she ever made in her life, and though Anna never said a word about it, I am sure she regretted it almost
from the day she was married. Anna had saved quite a bit of money during the years she had been with us, and with it she
bought a house in Tours. It was a big old house, and she made her living by letting rooms in it. And when I say she made
her living, I literally mean it, for Henry did absolutely nothing at all.
My father and mother and my sisters and I at some time or other all visited Anna, but none of us liked Harry. I
never once saw him smile or say a kind word to anyone. But all this was nothing compared with his laziness. That was
almost beyond belief. He got up about ten o’clock in the morning – by which time Anna had been up for four or five hours
– and sat in his armchair, and there he would sit until it was time to go to bed. Anna had to leave her work and hurry to
bring him his breakfast; then he sat and read his paper and smoked his pipe or slept while Anna ran about upstairs
cleaning all the rooms, making the beds, doing the washing, or running downstairs half a dozen times to answer the door
bell. And in the midst of it all she had to prepare the vegetables and cook the huge meal that he always expected at one
o’clock.
Well, for the next year or two, we lost touch with Anna. Tours is a hundred and fifty miles or so from Paris, and
in any case we hated to see her so unhappy, so we seldom went to see her. Then, one day, we went to Tours to visit some
friends and I thought I would call and see Anna. I went to the house where she lived and rang the bell. After a minute, I
heard footsteps slowly coming down the stairs. The door opened and I saw Anna. The moment she saw me her face
lighted up with a smile. (It must be said that I used to be her favourite ever since I was born.) I threw my arms about her
neck and said: “Oh, Anna, how nice to see you again!” There was no doubt about her joy at seeing me. She took me to her
cosy room, neat and clean and tidy as Anna’s rooms always were. The room was exactly as I had known it – except that
Henry wasn’t there; and except for one other thing. On the table near Anna’s chair (the chair where Henry always used to
sit) was a big sand-glass.
Well, I noticed that Anna looked every now and then at the sand-glass and whenever she saw that the sand, a
peculiar, dark-coloured sand had run through, she turned the glass and let the sand run through again. Just then the front
door bell rang, but instead of jumping up at once to answer it as Anna always used to do, she just turned the sand-glass
over and sat still. When the sand had all run through, she got up quietly and went to answer the door.
It all seemed very funny, but I didn’t say anything. She soon came back and we continued our chat with Anna
never failing to keep an eye on the sand-glass and turn it upside down when all the sand had run through from the top to
the bottom of it. And it was not until I was about to take leave of Anna that I said: “Where is Henry?”
“He’s dead, said Anna, he died a year ago.”
I couldn’t say “I’m sorry to hear it”, I just sat silent.
“One day, Anna went on to say, he got into one of his rages and suddenly dropped dead.” – There was a pause. –
“I had him cremated”, she said. “These, and she pointed to the sand, are his ashes. He never worked while he was alive,
but I see to it that he does now that he is dead.” And she turned the sand-glass over again.

1. Answer the questions: (1 punct)

 a) What is the Romanian for sand-glass, and what is it good for?
b) How far was Tours from Paris?
c) Why did Anna keep turning the sand-glass over and over again?

2. Find in the text synonyms for the following words: (1 punct)

a) to consider
b) dress
c) unbelievable

3. Choose the right answer: (1 punct)

a) Anna was a a. cook; b. maid; c. nurse.
b) Henry was a. kind; b. lazy; c. ill.
c) Anna and her husband lived in a. Paris; b. London; c. Tours.

4. Which of these sentences is not true? (1 punct)

a) Anna married Henry out of love and kept loving him for the rest of her life.
b) Henry was very lazy and he did nothing all day, while Anna was doing everything.

5. Sum up the text in 50-75 words. (2 puncte)

SUBIECT II

1. Give the three forms of the following verbs: (1 punct)

a) to lie
b) to lay
c) to find
d) to found

2. Put the adverbs/adverbial phrases given between brackets in their right place: (1 punct)
a) The tourists have visited the newly opened department store (recently).
b) He is wounded (badly).
c) We do not go to cinema (often).

3. Fill in the comparative or superlative form of the adjectives in brackets according to the meaning of the sentences: (1
punct)
a) Let him carry (heavy) of the parcels, he is (strong) than you.
b) These workers achieve (good) and (good) results.
c) We don’t like him in the (little) degree.
d) This is the (far) I could do.

Nota: se acorda un punct din oficiu.

 VARIANTA 3

SUBIECT I

“… actually I received a very good education.” I travelled in my youth, then took to the stage, and finally became
a reporter on an evening paper. One day, my editor wished to have a series of articles upon begging in London. I agreed to
write them. I had to try begging myself in order to get the facts upon which to base my articles. When an actor, I learned
all the secrets of making up. I decided to turn to account this experience for the new position.
So I painted my face, and made a scar across my face and a twist at one side of my lip. Then with a head of red
hair, and a beggar’s dress, I took my station in the busiest part of the city as a match-seller, but really as a beggar. When I
returned home in the evening I found, to my surprise, that I had received no less than twenty-six shillings and two pence.
But, as it often happened, I was up to the neck in debt then. I had not enough money to settle with my creditors at
the moment. A sudden idea came to me; I asked my creditors to wait two weeks, and got a leave at my office. I spent the
time in begging in the city. In ten days I had the money and pay the debt.
Well, you can imagine how hard it was for me to return to my work at two pounds a week, when I knew that I
could earn as much in a day by painting my face, laying my cap on the ground, and sitting still. It was a long fight
between my pride and the money, but the money won at last. So I sat day after day in the corner, filling my pockets with
coins.
Soon I found that I had a considerable sum of money. I do not mean that any beggar in the streets of London
could earn that much. As I grew richer, I bought a house in the country, and married. My wife knew simply that I had
some business in the city…”

1) Find in the text synonyms for the following words:

a) to want
b) to go back
c) clothes
d) to discover
e) quiet
(1 punct)

2) There is one true statement in the following three. Which one is that?
a) The author has always been a beggar.
b) The narrator got used to begging in the city as he earned a lot of money.
c) He earned as much by begging as by working as a reporter.
(1 punct)

3) Choose the correct alternative:

a) The narrator’s official job is a) an actor; b) a beggar; c) a reporter.
b) At his work, he won a) 26 shillings and 2 pence; b) 2 pounds; c) 26 pounds.
c) He told his wife he a) was rich; b) was a beggar; c) had some things to take care of in the city.
(1 punct)

4) Answer the following questions:

a) What kind of jobs had the character had before?
b) Why did he become a beggar?
c) What did he choose in the end?
(1 punct)

5) Sum up the text in about 50 words.

(1 punct)

SUBIECT II
Put the words in brackets in the correct form:
a) I see him (cross) the street.
b) If you study more, you (get) better grades.
c) Don’t disturb him! He (eat) now.
d) Give me two (knife) and two forks.
e) You (send) the letter yet?
f) I asked the girl how old she (be).
g) We last (see) each other in 1995.
h) Tomorrow at this time we (fly) to London.
i) I like (listen) to music.
j) Then I remembered we (meet) before.
(5 puncte)
 VARIANTA 4

SUBIECT I

One day a rich man was returning home on horseback. His dog accompanied him as he always used to do on such
occasions. The man had a bag full of money and some valuables with him. After riding for an hour or so, he got off his
horse and lay down to rest under a tree. He took the bag and placed it by his side.
Soon he stood up, got his horse and rode away. He forgot about his bag. But his dog noticed this. He ran after his
master, overtook him, and by barking and howling tried to stop him.
The man did not understand anything. Then the faithful animal tried to stop the horse by biting the horse’s heels.
“Oh, my dog has gone mad”, thought the man, as the dog continued to bark and bite now with greater strength
than before.
Now the man was sure that his dog was mad. He took a pistol from his pocket and took aim. In a moment the poor
animal fell on the ground.
The man rode on slowly, but he was very unhappy. He was sure he had killed the dog. “It is better to lose all this
money than my dog, my very true friend,” he said to himself.
And suddenly he remembered his bag. He stretched out his hand for it, but there was no bag. In a moment the man
understood everything. He turned his horse and rode back. He saw the marks of blood on the road, but the dog was not
there. At last he reached the place where the forgotten bag lay. His dog was near it.
When the dog saw his master, he was very glad. He tried to rise, but he had no strength. He only licked his
master’s hand, closed his eyes and died.

1) Find in the text words with the same meaning as:

a) to put
b) crazy
c) to go on
d) power
e) gun
(1punct)

2) Which of the following statements are true and which are false?
a) The man’s dog had gone mad.
b) He preferred killing the dog to losing his money.
c) The dog tried to remind his master of his forgotten bag.
(1 punct)

3) Choose the right answer:

a) The dog accompanied the man a) by accident; b) as usual; c) to protect him.
b) The man a) hanged; b) shot; c) kicked his dog.
c) The dog died because a) his master had shot him; b) the horse had stepped on him; c) he had been poisoned.
(1 punct)

4) Answer the following questions:

a) How did the dog tried to remind his master of the forgotten bag?
b) What did the man first think about his dog?
c) What kind of feelings did he have after shooting the dog?
(1 punct)

5) Sum up the text in about 50 words.

(1 punct)

SUBIECT II
Put the words in brackets in the right form:
a) In the yard there were a few (goose) and hens.
b) This exercise is (difficult) than the one before.
c) This Arab has many (wife).
d) I (be) here since 5 o’clock.
e) When I went to visit him, he (fix) his car.
f) You ever (be) in England?
g) My girlfriend is (pretty) in the whole world.
h) The more you eat, the (fat) you get.
i) He was walking very (slow).
j) I don’t like (read) newspapers.
(5 puncte)