Блог Юрченко Оксаны Алексеевны An English Teacher blog WE STUDY ENGLISH: ГИА 4

STUDENT CARD 4

Тask 1

Give a talk about keeping fit.

Remember to say:

· why lots of people try to keep fit;

· what you do to keep fit;

· what sports are popular with your friends.

You have to talk for 1.5–

2 minutes. The examiner will listen until you have finished. Then he/she will

ask you some questions.

Task 2 (2–3 minutes)

You play the part of a student in an international language school. You are waiting for your class in the school lobby when you notice your classmate Angela/Andrew working on her/his laptop computer.

· Find out what she/he’s busy with.

· Answer your classmate’s questions about what your home town is like (give a brief description of the place).

· Answer the questions about your favourite means of transport.

· Reject any invitation for the rest of the day. Give an excuse.

You begin the conversation. The examiner will play the part of your classmate.

Remember to

· mention all four aspects of the task

· take an active part in the conversation and be polite

Прочитайте тексты и установите соответствие между текстами А–

G и заголовками 1–8. Запишите свои ответы в таблицу. Используйте каждую цифру только один раз. В задании есть один лишний заголовок.

1. With care for the environment 2. A favourable location 3. Medicine from birds

4. Annual events 5. Names to remember 6. Getting around the town

7. A historical building 8. A green town

Cheltenham started as a small market town that later became one of the most fashionable health resorts in Britain. Once, in 1716 people noticed pigeons eating crystals in a meadow outside the town. These were crystals of salt which helped King George III and the members of the royal family treat their illnesses. Since then, pigeons have been a symbol of Cheltenham Spa.

Cheltenham is a small, ancient town in England situated to the north-west of Oxford. It lies below the highest point of the Cotswold Hills and above the level of the River Severn. The town is also called ‘The Western Gateway’. Thanks to its position it has become a popular tourist attraction.

The Pittville Pump Room is the largest of the spa constructions in Cheltenham. It is a magnificent, old house of classical style made of white stone. The Pump Room was designed for balls and entertainments and, of course, for taking the medicinal waters. Today, it is still used as a concert hall at festival time and for weddings, and of course, visitors can still take the waters –

if they so wish!

Tourism is highly developed in Cheltenham and the City Council has to reduce the negative impact of tourists on the town. A lot has been done. The town has developed walking, cycling and public transport routes as an alternative to cars. There is a pool of bicycles that tourists can use for short distance journeys. The local services try to recycle all the packaging, plastic bottles and batteries left by tourists.

Many famous people of the past have connections with Cheltenham. Gustav Holst, a well-known English composer of the 19th century, was born in the town. His house is now his birthplace museum. Visitors may learn a lot about Holst's life, his music and his family. The famous Antarctic explorer Edward Wilson was also born in Cheltenham. Now a statue of him stands in the Long Gardens.

The beauty and wonderful sights of Cheltenham continue to attract visitors from countries all over the world. For many years people have enjoyed the beauty of Cheltenham's parks, open spaces and the general greenery of the town. Cheltenham has been described as ‘a town within a park’. Montpellier place, which is famous for its wonderful flowers, lies in the centre of the town.

Thousands of visitors come to Cheltenham to take part in the festivals which are held in the town every year. The town organises literature, music, jazz and science festivals, attracting names with a national and international reputation from each field. Besides all this, for a week in March the town becomes the centre of the National Gold Cup in horse racing.

Прочитайте текст. Определите, какие из приведённых утверждений A7–A14 соответствуют содержанию текста (1 – True), какие не соответствуют (2 –

False) и о чём в тексте не сказано, то есть на основании текста нельзя дать ни положительного, ни отрицательного ответа (3 –Not stated).

Mark Twain

Mark Twain wrote ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ in 1884. Since then, the book has been published in at least sixty languages, and some people say it is the best book ever created by an American writer. American students have ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ on their school reading list and parents, teachers and literary experts still debate the problems touched in the book.

The writer’s real name was Samuel Clemens. Samuel was born in 1835. He grew up in the state of Missouri on the Mississippi River. After his father died, young Samuel went to work as an assistant to a publisher. Ten years later, he became a pilot on a steamboat that sailed on the Mississippi. He heard the riverboat workers call out the words "mark twain!" That was a measure for the depth of water. Later he used this word combination as a pen-name.

In 1861 Clemens travelled west and became a reporter for newspapers in Nevada and California. He wrote news stories, editorials and sketches under his pen-name Mark Twain. He became one of the best known storytellers in the West. He developed his own narrative style –

friendly, funny, and often satirical, which won him a wide audience. The first success

came with the story ‘The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County’.

Mark Twain travelled a lot during his lifetime not only round the USA but also to Europe and the Holy Land. He naturally began writing books about his travels. ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ was published in 1876, and soon after he began writing a sequel, ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’.

It took Mark Twain longer to write ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ than any of his other books. He started writing in 1876, but put the story away after about two years of work. He returned to it in 1883, and the following year it was published.

From the beginning, the book was strongly debated. Some critics praised its realism and honesty but the others strongly disliked it. They protested against the personality of Huck –

a rough, dirty and disobedient boy. They could not agree that such a person should be the main character of a book. What's more, critics disliked the way Mark Twain used the language of a common, uneducated person to tell the story; no writer had ever done that before.

Today there is no longer any debate about the importance of ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ in American literature. In 1935 Ernest Hemingway wrote: "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called 'Huckleberry Finn.' There was nothing before. And there has been nothing as good since."

No wonder then, that the novel ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ was a great inspiration for film producers –

more than 20 screen versions of the book have been shot not only in

America but in Europe, Russia and Japan. There are feature films, musicals, cartoons and even Japanese anime.

1. ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ was Mark Twain’s last book.