Олімпіадні завдання для 9 класу

For each of the questions 1—10 decide which of the statements are true or false on the basis of what is stated or implied in what you have heard.

1. The first animal to be tamed was the dog.       [True, False]

2. The remains of a domesticated dog were found in a cave in Africa.       [True, False]

3. Domestication took place during the harvest-gatherer period.       [True, False]

4. All of the dogs you see today are ancestors of wolves.       [True, False]

5. The most useful and easily trained young animals were selected as breeding stock.       [True, False]

6. Dogs learned to help humans obtain meat and skins from wild animals.       [True, False]

7. After the dog humans domesticated herd animals.       [True, False]

8. There is a fresco on the wall of a sandstone grotto in the Alps.       [True, False]

9. Dogs helped move herd animals by barking and stinging.       [True, False]

10. Nowadays dogs are valued just for the company they provide.       [True, False]

For each of the questions 11—20 decide which of the answers (a, b, с or d)is the best. Complete the statements on the basis of what is stated or implied in what you have heard.

11. They say that the process of domestication took place:   [a, b, c, d]

a) more than 10 centuries ago;

b) less than 10,000 years ago;

c) more than 10 000 centuries ago;

d) more than 1000 decade ago.

12. So, domestication took place during humankind's:   [a, b, c, d]

a) latest period of improvement;

b) earliest stage of expansion;

с) former point of development;

d) newest stage of introduction.

13. The selection of dogs continued over:   [a, b, c, d]

a) favorite relations;

b) numerous adaptations;

c) few generations;

d) infinite generations.

14. One can easily make a conclusion that:   [a, b, c, d]

a) the dog was disciplined;

b) the dog was handsome;

c) the dog was baking;

d) the dog was generous.

15. Dogs apparently first served as:   [a, b, c, d]

a) guards;

b) herds;

c) shepherd;

d) guides.

16. Humans took advantage of dogs':   [a, b, c, d]

a) haunted instincts;

b) hunting insects;

c) hunted sixth sense;

d) hunting institution.

17. Dogs learned to help humans:   [a, b, c, d]

a) obtain pork and skins from undomesticated animals;

b) get hold of meat and skins from wild animals;

c) secure meat and skins from tamed animals;

d) procure lamb and hides from natural animals.

18. It may be inferred from the text that there is:   [a, b, c, d]

a) a fresco in the fortification of a stone grotto;

b) a fresco on the partition of a granite cavern;

c) a fresco in the hedge of a brickwork grotto;

d) a fresco on the wall of a sandstone grotto.

19. It was mentioned in the text that:   [a, b, c, d]

a) the shepherds are driving their cattle home;

b) the herders are making homes for their oxen;

c) the shepherds are driving their cars home;

d) the herders are riding their oxen home.

20. Nowadays most of the dogs have:   [a, b, c, d]

a) a new character;

b) a new roleplay;

c) a new function;

d) a new part.

The first year of life

If you have any experience of babies, then you know that they develop very quickly. Every week you see huge changes in their bodies and what they have learned to do. But I’d love to know what babies are thinking about, wouldn’t you? And I’d love to understand more about how a baby’s brain works.

A newborn baby can see, hear and feel. By the age of five, a child can talk, ride a bike and invent imaginary friends. How does this development happen? We don’t understand the way language, thinking and planning develop very well. Now scientists are using new technology to ‘see’ into children’s brains. And they are discovering new information about the way a baby’s brain develops.

A study in 2010 showed that the experiences a child has in the first few years affect the development of the brain. It showed that children who received more attention often had higher IQs. The brain of a newborn baby has nearly a hundred billion neurons. This is the same number as an adult’s brain. As they grow, a baby receives information through the senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. This information creates connections between different parts of the brain. At the age of three, there are a hundred trillion connections.

One experiment looked at images of babies’ brains while they were listening to different sounds. The sounds were in different sequences. For example, one sequence was mu-ba-ba. This is the pattern ‘A-B-B’. Another sequence was mu-ba-ge. This is the pattern ‘A-B-C’. The images showed that the part of the brain responsible for speech was more active during ‘A-B-B’ patterns. This shows that babies can tell the difference between different patterns. This experiment is interesting because sequences of words are important to grammar and meaning. Compare two sentences with the same words in a different order: ‘John killed the bear’ is very different from ‘The bear killed John.’ So babies are starting to learn grammatical rules from the beginning of life.

Researchers also know that babies need to hear a lot of language in order to understand grammar rules. But there is a big difference between listening to television, audio books or the internet, and interacting with people. One study compared two groups of nine-month-old American babies. One group watched videos of Mandarin Chinese sounds. In the other group, people spoke the same sounds to the babies. The test results showed that the second group could recognise different sounds, however the first group learned nothing. The scientist, Patricia Kuhl, said this result was very surprising. It suggests that social experience is essential to successful brain development in babies.

Choose the correct item:

1. The purpose of the article is to ...