Раздел «Чтение» (30 минут). Задания В2, В3, А15-А21

Where did basketball come from?

B4 Basketball is now a major sport in the USA. Basketball __________________ by Dr. James Naismith at Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891. Basketball is a game played between two teams of five players, in which each team tries to win points by throwing a ball through a net. INVENT

B5 Basketball is a very spectator-oriented sport. It is the __________________ most popular game in the USA. People enjoy both watching and playing it. THREE

B6 There__________________ many basketball centers in cities and towns of every state. They do not often produce sportsmen or sportswomen who are successful in world basketball championships but they help young people to keep fit and look athletic. BE

B7 Basketball __________________ by men and women at all levels, from the professional level to high schools and clubs. PLAY

B8 One of the __________________ and the most famous basketball teams is the Harlem Globetrotters, formed in 1926. It has a lot of fans in the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand. OLD

B9 This team __________________ crowds of fans especially for final or championship matches. One can see photos of its members in newspapers and magazines all over the USA. ATTRACT

B10 The name of the team __________________ a symbol of a fast and furious play. BECOME

B11

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The Opening Night

B11 The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Mama Mia… They are all stage musicals. The opening night of a new musical is always a ________________ event. MARVEL
B12 After years of __________________ and weeks of rehearsals the production has to be ready for the public and the critics. PREPARE
B13 First nights usually start earlier than the regular __________________ so that the critics can write their reviews in time to include them in the next morning’s newspapers. PERFORM
B14 The critics are the most __________________ people on the first night because their opinions will either help make the show a hit or force it to close. FRIGHT
B15 The rest of the audience on the first night is usually made up of friends of the cast and famous celebrities. The celebrities attract newspaper __________________ and help give the musical maximum publicity. PHOTOGRAPH
B16 There will also be some angels there who will __________________ be more nervous than the performers.
And then after the curtain has come down and the show is over, there’s the opening night party. PROBABLE

'Second Stonehenge' discovered near original

Archaeologists have discovered evidence of what they believe was a second Stonehenge located a little more than a mile away from the world-famous prehistoric monument.
The new find on the west bank of the river Avon has been called "Bluestonehenge", after the colour of the 25 Welsh stones of A ___________________.
Excavations at the site have suggested there was once a stone circle 10 metres in diameter and surrounded by a henge – a ditch with an external bank, according to the project director, Professor Mike Parker Pearson, of the University of Sheffield.
The stones at the site were removed thousands of years ago but the sizes of the holes in B _________________ indicate that this was a circle of bluestones, brought from the Preseli mountains of Wales, 150 miles away.
The standing stones marked the end of the avenue C __________________, a 1¾-mile long processional route constructed at the end of the Stone Age. The outer henge around the stones was built about 2400BC but arrowheads found in the stone circle indicate the stones were put up as much as 500 years earlier.
Parker Pearson said his team was waiting for results of radiocarbon dating
D __________________ whether stones currently in the inner circle of Stonehenge were originally located at the other riverside construction.
Pearson said: "The big, big question is when these stones were erected and when they were removed – and when we get the dating evidence we can answer both those questions."
He added: "We speculated in the past E ____________________ at the end of the avenue near the river. But we were completely unprepared to discover that there was an entire stone circle. Another team member, Professor Julian Thomas, said the discovery indicated F _________________ was central to the religious lives of the people who built Stonehenge. "Old theories about Stonehenge that do not explain the evident significance of the river will have to be rethought," he said. Dr Josh Pollard, project co-director from the University of Bristol, described the discovery as "incredible".

1. which could reveal

2. which they stood

3. which it was once made up

4. that this stretch of the river Avon

5. that there might have been something

6. that it should be considered as integral part

7. that leads from the river Avon to Stonehenge

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Раздел «Чтение» (30 минут). Задания В2, В3, А15-А21

A. Her Majesty’s Government, in spite of its name, derives its authority and power from its party representation in Parliament. Parliament is housed in the Palace of Westminster, once a home of the monarchy. Like the monarchy, Parliament is an ancient institution, dating from the middle of the thirteenth century. Parliament is the seat of British democracy, but it is perhaps valuable to remember that while the House of Lords was created in order to provide a council of the nobility for the king, the Commons were summoned originally in order to provide the king with money.

B. The reigning monarch is not only head of state but symbol of the unity of the nation. The monarchy is Britain’s oldest secular institution, its continuity for over a thousand years broken only once by a republic that lasted a mere eleven years (1649-60). The monarchy is hereditary, the succession passing automatically to the oldest male child, or in the absence of males to the oldest female offspring of the monarch. In law the monarch is head of the executive and of the judiciary, head of the Church of England, and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

C. The dynamic power of Parliament lies in its lower chamber. Of its 650 members, 523 represent constituencies in England, 38 in Wales, 72 in Scotland and 17 in Northern Ireland. There are only seats in the Commons debating chamber for 370 members, but except on matters of great interest, it is unusual for all members to be present at any one time. Many MPs find themselves in other rooms of the Commons, participating in a variety of committees and meetings necessary for an effective parliamentary process.

D. Britain is a democracy, yet its people are not, as one might expect in a democracy, constitutionally in control of the state. The constitutional situation is an apparently contradictory one. As a result of a historical process the people of Britain are subjects of the Crown, accepting the Queen as the head of the state. Yet even the Queen is not sovereign in any substantial sense since she receives her authority from Parliament, and is subject to its direction in almost all matters. This curious situation came about as a result of a long struggle for power between the Crown and Parliament during the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries.

E. Her Majesty’s Government governs in the name of the Queen, and its hub, Downing Street, lies in Whitehall, a short walk from Parliament. Following a general election, the Queen invites the leader of the majority party represented in the Commons, to form a government on her behalf. Government ministers are invariably members of the House of Commons, but infrequently members of the House of Lords are appointed. All government members continue to represent “constituencies” which elected them.

F. Each parliamentary session begins with the “State Opening of Parliament”, a ceremonial occasion in which the Queen proceeds from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster where she delivers the Queen’s Speech from her throne in the House of Lords. Her speech is drafted by her government, and describes what the government intends to implement during the forthcoming session. Leading members of the Commons may hear the speech from the far end of the chamber, but are not allowed to enter the House of Lords.

G. The upper chamber of Parliament is not democratic in any sense at all. It consists of four categories of peer. The majority are hereditary peers, a total of almost 800, but of whom only about half take an active interest in the affairs of the state. A smaller number, between 350 and 400, are “life” peers – an idea introduced in 1958 to elevate to the peerage certain people who rendered political or public service to the nation. The purpose was not only to honour but also to enhance the quality of business done in the Lords.

Australia

Australia was the last great landmass to be discovered by the Europeans. The continent they eventually discovered had already been inhabited for tens of thousands of years.
Australia is an island continent A. _______________________ is the result of gradual changes wrought over millions of years.
B. _______________________, Australia is one of the most stable land masses, and for about 100 million years has been free of the forces that have given rise to huge mountain ranges elsewhere.
From the east coast a narrow, fertile strip merges into the greatly eroded Great Dividing Range, C. _______________________.
The mountains are merely reminders of the mighty range, D. _______________________. Only in the section straddling the New South Wales border with Victoria and in Tasmania, are they high enough to have winter snow.
West of the range of the country becomes increasingly flat and dry. The endless flatness is broken only by salt lakes, occasional mysterious protuberances and some mountains E. _______________________. In places the scant vegetation is sufficient to allow some grazing. However, much of the Australian outback is a barren land of harsh stone deserts and dry lakes.
The extreme north of Australia, the Top End, is a tropical area within the monsoon belt. F. _______________________, it comes in more or less one short, sharp burst. This has prevented the Top End from becoming seriously productive area.

1. that once stood here

2. that is almost continent long

3. whose property is situated to the north of Tasmania

4. whose landscape - much of bleak and inhospitable -

5. whose beauty reminds of the MacDonald Ranges

6. Although its annual rainfall looks adequate on paper

7. Although there is still seismic activity in the eastern highland area

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