На этой странице собраны задания по письму, встречавшиеся на олимпиадах 2017/18.

Text Completion — 1

Представьте, что вы стали невольным свидетелем важного разговора, но Вам удалось расслышать не все реплики. Восстановите недостающие фразы по картинке и запишите их в лист ответов.

Waiter: Good evening, sir, madam. 1. ____________________________________

Mr Adams: No, we aren't. Give us another minute or two, please.

Waiter: Perhaps I could help you.

Mr Adams: Oh, yes, please.

Waiter: Of course. 2. ____________________________________

Mrs Adams: No, we aren't. We eat meat and fish.

Waiter: All right. And what about poultry?

Mr Adams: 3. ____________________________________

Waiter: Poultry. Our chicken fried in breadcrumbs is delicious.
Mr Adams: No, thank you, I'd rather have some red meat.

Waiter: Then I would recommend that you try our veal in cream sauce with brandy.

Mr Adams: Sounds fine. 4. ____________________________________

Waiter: Three pounds and ten pence.

Mr Adams: OK, and I'd like some baked potatoes with it, please. And the chicken with a side of French fries for my wife.

Waiter: Sure. 5. ____________________________________

Mr Adams: Yes, we'd like a bottle of dry white wine.

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Writing a Comment — 1

Comment on the following extract.

Can Artificial Intelligence Replace the Real Human Intelligence?

They say   Artificial Intelligence (AI) will soon replace many blue collar and white collar jobs.  Artificial Intelligence   is exhibiting a slow but continuous influence on the value and availability of work  - in the form of wages and the number of adult workers with full-time jobs. The widespread disappearance of jobs would result in a social transformation unlike anything we’ve ever  imagined. We observe entirely a new phase in history, one characterized by a steady and inevitable decline of jobs. The newest industries  mostly related to computer software, and telecommunications and similar industries, are the most labor efficient and don’t require many people. If  we  run out of jobs, what will our society look like without universal work?

The next-generation manager will view intelligent machines as colleagues. The reason is that there will be need for high social intelligence to collaborate effectively in teams and networks to use digital technologies to tap into the knowledge and judgment of partners, customers, external stakeholders and role models in other industries. When technology enables many people to have more information about themselves and others, it’ll be  easier to take a clear and more mature view of the workplace. Self-assessment tools, particularly those that enable people to diagnose what they do and how they do it, can help employees pinpoint their own productivity issues. They have less need for the watchful eyes of a manager. One could easily imagine that the “the end of management” is in sight.

Источник (по ссылке загрузится .zip):

СПбГУ, финал 2017/18, 10–11 классы.

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Writing a Comment — 2

Comment on the story in pictures.

В задании не указывался предполагаемый формат ответа и его объем.

Источник (по ссылке загрузится .zip):

Финал олимпиады СПбГУ 2017/18, 10–11 классы, вариант 1.

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Writing a Comment — 3

Comment on the following statement:

«Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth»

(Aristotle)

Источник (по ссылке загрузится .zip):

Финал олимпиады СПбГУ 2017/18, 10–11 классы, вариант 1.

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Writing a Comment — 4

Babies are born able to produce all of the sounds of all the world languages and ready to speak any of them.

Write down your ideas on this statement.

Источник (по ссылке загрузится .zip):

Финал олимпиады СПбГУ 2017/18, 10–11 классы, вариант 1.

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Writing a Comment — 5

Give up to 10 examples of healthy nutrition and eating habits.

(1) Not to eat after 6 o’clock

Источник (по ссылке загрузится .zip):

Финал олимпиады СПбГУ 2017/18, 10–11 классы, вариант 1.

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Writing a Comment — 6

Comment on the following extract.

Is there necessarily a limit to human aging? The wish to extend the human lifespan has a long tradition in many cultures. Optimistic views of the possibility of achieving this goal through the latest developments in medicine feature increasingly in serious scientific and philosophical discussion. Focusing on interventions in biological ageing, one can distinguish between research that is first and foremost aimed at prolonging life by slowing or even arresting ageing processes and research that is directed at combating the diseases that seem to be intrinsically connected with biological ageing.

The papers nowadays don't argue that human lifespan is limitless. But they note that it's premature to accept that a maximum lifespan for humans exists. It's equally possible, they say, that humans will continu e to live longer, and therefore m ight survive beyond 115 years. It was reasonable that when everybody lived to 50 that the very long lived, for whatever reason—genetics or luck—would make it to 80. If people live on average to 80 or 90, like they do now, then the very long lived make it to 110 or 120. So , if the average lifespan keeps expanding, that would mean the long -lived would live even longer, beyond 115 years. But what happens if we all live to 100, 110, 120 or beyond? Society will obviously look very different and life may seem not too enjoyable.

Источник (по ссылке загрузится .zip):

СПбГУ, финал 2018/19, 10–11 классы.

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Writing a Comment — 7

Read the fable and write down the moral it contains in the space below the fable.

The Ant and the Grasshopper Fable.

In the field one summer's day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest. “Why not come and chat with me,” said the Grasshopper, “instead of toiling and moiling in that way?”

“I'm helping to lay up food for winter,” said the Ant; “and recommend you to do the same.”

“Why bother about winter?” said the Grasshopper; “we have got plenty of food at present.”

But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil.

When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer.

Then the Grasshopper knew what to do next autumn.

Источник (по ссылке загрузится .zip):

СПбГУ, финал 2018/19, 10–11 классы.

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Writing a Fairy Tale — 6

Write a fairy tale based on oneof the given sayings:

  • God helps those who help themselves.
  • Those who chase two rabbits at once will catch neither.
  • All's well that ends well.

Use your imagination. Your fairy tale must have:

  • A title
  • Good and bad characters
  • A setting (when and where the story is taking place)
  • A plot (sequence of ordered events)
  • A morale (which supports the saying)

Total: 200–250 words.

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Writing a Story — 15

Write the appropriate ending to the story given below.

after Somerset Maugham

I suppose every family has a black sheep. Tom had been a sore trial to his for twenty years. He had begun life decently enough: he went into business, married, and had two children. The Ramsays were perfectly respectable people and there was every reason to suppose that Tom Ramsay would have a useful and honourable career. But one day, without warning, he announced that he didn't like work and that he wasn't suited for marriage. He wanted to enjoy himself. He would listen to no expostulations. He left his wife and his office. He had a little money and he spent two happy years in the various capitals of Europe. Rumours of his doings reached his relations from time to time and they were profoundly shocked. He made a steady income from his friends and he made friends easily. But he always said that the money you spent on necessities was boring; the money that was amusing to spend was the money you spent on luxuries. For this he depended on his brother George. He did not waste his charm on him. George was a serious man and insensible to such enticements. George was respectable. Once or twice he fell to Tom's promises of amendment and gave him considerable sums in order that he might make a fresh start. On these Tom bought a motor-car and some very nice jewellery. But when circumstances forced George to realize that his brother would never settle down and he washed his hands of him, Tom, without a qualm, began to blackmail him. It was not very nice for a respectable lawyer to find his brother shaking cocktails behind the bar of his favourite restaurant or to see him waiting on the box-seat of a taxi outside his club. George paid.

Once Tom nearly went to prison. George was terribly upset. He went into the whole discreditable affair. Really Tom had gone too far. He had been wild, thoughtless, and selfish, but he had never before done anything dishonest, by which George meant illegal; and if he were prosecuted he would assuredly be convicted. But you cannot allow your only brother to go to gaol. The man Tom had cheated, a man called Cronshaw, was vindictive. He was determined to take the matter into court; he said Tom was a scoundrel and should be punished. It cost George an infinite deal of trouble and five hundred pounds to settle the affair. I have never seen him in such a rage as when he heard that Tom and Cronshaw had gone off together to Monte Carlo the moment they cashed the cheque. They spent a happy month there.

For twenty years Tom raced and gambled, philandered with the prettiest girls, danced, ate in the most expensive restaurants, and dressed beautifully. He always looked as if he had just stepped out of a bandbox. Though he was forty-six you would never have taken him for more than thirty-five. He was a most amusing companion and though you knew he was perfectly worthless you could not but enjoy his society. He had high spirits, an unfailing gaiety, and incredible charm. I never grudged the contributions he regularly levied on me for the necessities of his existence. I never lent him fifty pounds without feeling that I was in his debt. Tom Ramsay knew everyone and everyone knew Tom Ramsay. You could not approve of him, but you could not help liking him.

Poor George, only a year older than his scapegrace brother, looked sixty. He had never taken more than a fortnight's holiday in the year for a quarter of a century. He was in his office every morning at nine-thirty and never left it till six. He was honest, industrious, and worthy. He had a good wife, to whom he had never been unfaithful even in thought, and four daughters to whom he was the best of fathers. He made a point of saving a third of his income and his plan was to retire at fifty-five to a little house in the country where he proposed to cultivate his garden and play golf. His life was blameless. He was glad that he was growing old because Tom was growing old too. He rubbed his hands and said:'It was all very well when Tom was young and good-looking, but he's only a year younger than I am. In four years he'll be fifty. He won't find life so easy then. I shall have thirty thousand pounds by the time I'm fifty. For twenty-five years I've said that Tom would end in the gutter. And we shall see how he likes that. We shall see if it really pays best to work or be idle.'

How did Tom Ramsay end his life?

Источник (по ссылке загрузится .zip):

Финал олимпиады СПбГУ 2017/18, 10–11 классы, вариант 1.

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Writing an Advertisement — 1

Докажите, что «Реклама — двигатель торговли»! Представьте, что Вы маркетолог и отвечаете за продвижение товаров на рынке Великобритании.

Выберите один из изображенных ниже товаров и напишите к нему слоган и рекламное объявление. Ваша задача — сделать товар привлекательным для покупателя. Важно использовать многообразие средств выразительности английского языка.

В задании не указывался предполагаемый объем ответа.

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