EXAM_2014 (Экзамен по английскому языку на сертификат B2 за курс бакалавриата), страница 2

A. Lester Morlang was buried in an avalanche in Colorado.

There was no warning. It was instant. All of a sudden I was curled in a ball. Then it was over and I was buried under about fifty feet of snow. It was totally dark. My mouth was packed with snow and the pressure was enormous. It was hard to breathe and I didn’t know which direction was up. I thought I was already dead. Luckily I had my hands over my face so I cleared the snow out of my mouth and then I started screaming. I absolutely lost it – I was out of my mind, and then I noticed my tears were running across my face so I realized I must be lying kind of upside down. Now I felt determined to get out. I dug for twenty two hours, and when I finally saw the first bit of light I was over the moon, although it was fourteen hours before anyone found me. My misfortune has made me a better person; trivial things don’t worry me anymore.

B. Rod Herd was on a boat with the New Zealand Police Search and Rescue team when he nearly drowned.

When we hit the wave, I was thrown against the window, which smashed and let in a tremendous volume of water. There was no air, just pitch darkness, noise, and violent movement. I had no idea the boat had overturned. I felt sad, anxious and despairing, and the fear of drowning was unbearable. I couldn’t hold my breath any longer and at this point I had a vision of my wife and sons waving me goodbye, and I felt at peace. But then I grabbed a stair rail and found myself back in the real world. I managed to pull myself up to the surface and then had to deal with the shock and hypothermia. Periods of shivering became painful. Trying to stay afloat kept my mind off it, although I had to fight the desire to go to sleep. When the helicopter arrived soon afterwards, I vividly remember feeling disconnected from the people who were there to save me. And in the months afterwards I never felt completely warm. Being afraid of dying was the most terrifying thing. It’s impossible for someone to understand what it feels like and I’m still not sure how long the emotional after-effects will last.

C. John Neidigh survived a tornado in Mississippi.

I heard the warning on the television and had just enough time to lie down and cover my head with my arms. The feel of a twister approaching is like a goods train – that low, ever-louder howl and the shuddering ground. First, a sheet of rain sprayed against the side of my trailer like machine-gun fire. I could hear trees snapping, and the roof began to come off as the trailer started moving up and down. Just as I felt the entire trailer lift off the ground, I lost consciousness and woke up twenty minutes later face-down outside. The evening was completely quiet, no wind, no cars, no insect noises. I had gone through the trailer wall, ended up thirty feet up in a tree, and then dropped to the ground. I had concussion, a collapsed lung, cracked ribs and a shattered leg. My injuries should have killed me but the surgeons sewed me back together again.

D. Max Dearing was on the golf course in North Carolina when lightning struck.

It happened on a lovely July afternoon while I was playing golf with friends from work. When it started to drizzle, we decided to get under a shelter. We were standing there teasing each other and I remember the air had an unusual sweet smell. When the lightning struck, I felt absolutely frozen, but then part of me was boiling hot too. I saw these flashing lights and there was such an incredibly loud noise that I couldn’t hear anything for a while. My arms and legs felt heavy. Every bit of my body – including my hair, my eyelashes – hurt. It was a dull ache and yet so sharp at the same time, like a bad headache and needles being stuck in every part of my body. The lightning bolt went up through me and left an exit wound in my head. Now I have a hard time adding simple numbers, although I have no problem with more complex calculations.

Writing

PART 1 – Write a short summary of the article below on the separate answer sheet №2 (50-100 words).

The Little Ice Age

Western Europe experienced a general cooling of the climate after the year 1150 and a very cold climate between 1560 and 1850 that brought dire consequences to its peoples. The period from 1150 to 1850 is sometimes called the Little Ice Age.

During this time, the cooler air of the Arctic began to spread southward. Together with other changes in the atmosphere over the North Atlantic, this directed a higher number of storms into northern Europe. The sea level seems to have been increased by ice melt during the preceding Medieval Warm Period (from about 900 to 1150), contributing to the flooding which caused the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives. Additionally, hail wiped out farmland and killed great numbers of livestock over much of Europe, due to very cold air during the warmer months. Glaciers in many parts of Europe began to advance, destroying farmland and causing massive flooding.

The climate change of the Little Ice Age had a serious impact on agriculture, as it reduced the growing season by up to two months. That is enough to affect almost any type of food production, especially crops highly adapted to use the full-season warm climatic periods. Varieties of seeds that can withstand extreme cold or warmth, wetness or dryness were not available in the past. The impact on agricultural output was significant, with poor harvests leading to high food prices and famines. In one of the worst famines, millions of people died in France and neighbouring countries in 1693. Food prices reached a peak in the year 1816 - 'the year without a summer'.

The cooler climate during the Little Ice Age had a huge impact on the health of Europeans. Malnutrition led to a weakened immunity to a variety of illnesses, including bubonic plague - the Black Death which killed a third of the population of Europe in the late 1340s. Cool, wet summers led to outbreaks of an illness called St Anthony's Fire, which caused terrible suffering, hallucinations and even death. This was due to a fungus which develops in grain stored in cool, damp conditions. Used to make bread, the grain passed the illness to whole villages.

PART 2 - Choose one of the two topics below for writing your essay on the separate answer sheet №3 (200-250 words). ________________________________________________________________________________

1. In the future, students may have the choice of studying at home by using technology such as computers or television or of studying at traditional schools. Which would you prefer? Use reasons and specific details to explain your choice.

1. Some people think that human needs for farmland, housing, and industry are more important than saving land for endangered animals. Do you agree or disagree with this point of view? Why or why not? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Use of English

PART 1- Read the text below and decide which answer (A, В, С or D) best fits each space. There is an example at the beginning. Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet №1.

Earth getting darker as sunlight decreases

In a recent report, scientists (0) C that the Earth is getting darker because of pollution in the atmosphere. The reason for this (1)___________ apparent in 2001 when flights in the US were grounded for a few days and scientists (2)_____________ that days were brighter and nights were cooler. It is thought that pollution is (3)_____________ for this. Sunlight is reflected back into space after hitting particles created by car fumes, aerosols and aeroplanes.

Scientists (4)___________ that this phenomenon may have (5)__________ the climate from becoming even warmer. They also believe that when anti-pollution laws (6)____________ into effect, the speed at which the world's climate changes will (7)____________. To the surprise of scientists (8)__________ the world, hundreds of instruments recorded a drop of around per cent in the amount of sunshine which was (9)___________ the surface of the Earth from the late 1950s to the early 1990s.

The (10)____________ on agriculture could be very damaging, since even a one per cent reduction in sunlight is enough to reduce the growth of some crops. The factors that have led to the reduction in sunlight also cause various environmental problems, such as air pollution and acid rain. Some scientists believe that the reflection of heat has (11)__________ the ocean cooler. As a result, less rain forms and this may have played a (12)____________ in changing weather patterns in the last few years.

PART 2 – For questions 1-12, read the text below and think of the word which best fits each gap. Use only one word in each gap. There is an example at the beginning (0). Mark your answers on the separate answer sheet №1.