Zadania 1–9 — 60 punktów / 90 minut
Read the text below. Five sentences have been removed. Choose from options A–H the one which best fits each gap. Three options are distractors and do not fit any gap.
The Great Lakes – Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario – are the five largest lakes in the United States. They lie in the northern Midwest, along the border with Canada, and eight states, from Minnesota to New York, have a shoreline on at least one of them. Of the five, only Lake Michigan is located entirely inside the country. The five cover over 94,000 square miles, have 11,000 miles of shoreline and hold around 21 per cent of the world’s surface freshwater. Some of the biggest cities in North America, including Chicago, Cleveland and Toronto, grew up on their shores.
Lake Superior is the giant of the family. It covers 31,700 square miles, which makes it the largest freshwater lake by area on the planet, and it is also the deepest of the five, going down 1,335 feet at its deepest point. Its average depth is only about nine feet, and yet it is home to alligators, manatees, river otters and bobcats.
Not every famous American lake is freshwater, either. The largest lake in the country outside the Great Lakes is the Great Salt Lake in Utah, and, as its name suggests, its water is salty – saltier, in fact, than the ocean. Only a few species – brine shrimp and algae among them – manage to survive in it.
The deepest lake in the United States is not one of the Great Lakes either. Crater Lake in Oregon reaches a depth of 1,943 feet, although it is fairly small – just six miles long and five miles wide. Today the lake, the mountain and the land around them are protected as Crater Lake National Park.
Lake Tahoe, up in the Sierra Nevada on the border between California and Nevada, is the second deepest lake in the country after Crater Lake and the sixth largest by volume. Whether they come for the summer or the winter season, visitors treat the lake as a major attraction all year round.
Read the text below. For questions 2.1–2.4, decide if each statement is True, False, or if there is No Information given in the text (4 pts). For questions 2.5–2.8, find the word in the text that matches the definition (4 pts).
Canada is home to around 80,000 species of plants and animals, and a handful of them have become symbols of the country itself. WWF-Canada, whose mission is to find ways of conserving this biodiversity, has drawn up a list of the most iconic. Some of the choices are obvious; others less so.
The beaver, unsurprisingly, comes first. It is the largest rodent in North America, with a flat tail, powerful jaws and chisel-sharp front teeth that can bite through tree trunks and branches. Beavers are famous for their productivity – we say “busy as a beaver” for a reason – and for the vital part they play in keeping freshwater ecosystems healthy, which has earned them the moniker “nature’s engineer”.
The moose is the largest member of the deer family. A bull can stand up to 1.8 metres tall from shoulder to hoof, weigh as much as 725 kilograms and carry antlers 1.5 metres across. Moose can travel over almost any terrain, which is why they are found in boreal forests and wetlands right across the country, and they are strong swimmers, sometimes diving several metres to feed on plants at the bottom of a lake.
At least two-thirds of the world’s polar bears live on Canadian territory, giving the country a special relationship with – and responsibility for – these animals. Known to scientists as Ursus maritimus, or “sea bear”, the polar bear spends much of its life in, around or on the ocean, using the sea ice as a hunting platform. It is an apt description, and it explains the problem: as the planet warms and the ice melts, the bears are forced to spend more time on land, which brings them into greater conflict with people in the Arctic.
Not every icon is large. The monarch butterfly, with its orange, black and white wings, undertakes one of the longest insect migrations in the world: each autumn, monarchs travel 4,000 to 5,000 kilometres from southern Ontario and Quebec to the mountain forests of Mexico. Sadly, this small but mighty pollinator is threatened by the loss of the forests where it spends the winter and of the native plants along its route.
Other animals on the list are in even deeper trouble. The southern resident killer whale of British Columbia’s Salish Sea is listed as endangered in both Canada and the United States, and it faces imminent threats from food shortages and underwater noise; only 72 of these whales remain. The woodland caribou of the southern boreal forests appears on the Canadian 25-cent coin, while the smaller barren-ground caribou roaming the Arctic have provided food and clothing to Indigenous Peoples for thousands of years – yet many of their herds have shrunk by more than 90 per cent.
The remaining icons are the Atlantic walrus, whose ivory tusks can grow up to three feet long and are used to break sea ice and climb out of the water; the Atlantic puffin, the provincial bird of Newfoundland, which will dive as deep as 60 metres to catch small fish; the Canada lynx, which moves expertly across deep snow on paws like snowshoes and preys on hares, ducks and young deer; and the beluga whale, known as the “canary of the sea” for the chirps, clicks and whistles it uses to communicate. About two-thirds of the world’s belugas spend the summer in Canadian waters, although a few small populations live farther south, relics of the last Ice Age.
The beaver heads the list because it is the biggest rodent on the continent.
Polar bears are spending more time on land because there is less sea ice to hunt from.
The monarchs that leave Ontario in autumn are flying away from their winter home.
The southern resident killer whale is officially classed as endangered on both sides of the Canada–US border.
Find the word in the text that matches each definition.
to move about a wide area with no particular destination
an informal name given to a person or thing, especially one that describes what they are like
to hunt and kill other animals for food
exactly suitable for a particular situation
Uzupełnij poniższe wypowiedzi (3.1.–3.6.), wybierając spośród podanych możliwości. Zakreśl literę A, B albo C.
I’d love to join the hike on Saturday, but I’m completely ______ under with revision this week.
X: A few campers have started feeding the squirrels near the tents.
Y: The rangers should nip that in the ______ before the animals get used to it.
With the fog coming down and the bridge washed away, we were between a ______ and a hard place: go on in the dark or spend the night outside.
Looking for the campsite without a map turned out to be a wild ______ chase – we drove round for two hours and found nothing.
X: Did Mark hear a single word the guide said about the trail?
Y: I doubt it – he’s had his head in the ______ all day.
After failing two exams, Josh promised to turn over a new ______ and study every evening.
Read the text below. Complete each gap (4.1.–4.10.) with one word to create a coherent and grammatically correct text.
Canada has 48 national parks and national park reserves, and 4.1. _______ two of them are alike. Wood Buffalo, in Alberta, is by 4.2. _______ the largest; Banff, also in Alberta, is the oldest, having existed 4.3. _______ 1885, and it remains the most popular park in the country. Banff sits in the heart of the Canadian Rockies, and its lakes are 4.4. _______ turquoise that first-time visitors assume the photographs have been edited – until they see the water with their 4.5. _______ eyes. Lake Louise, the best known of them, gets busy in summer, so you had 4.6. _______ arrive early in the morning if you want to have some of it to yourself.
Not every park is about mountains, 4.7. _______. Thousand Islands, in the Saint Lawrence River at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, is one of the smallest parks in Canada; its twenty 4.8. _______ so granite islands, however, are home to some of the richest wildlife populations in the country. Gros Morne, on the west coast of Newfoundland, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, largely because 4.9. _______ its ancient landscape, which provides a highly visible example of plate tectonics. And Jasper, on the eastern slopes of the Rockies, is 4.10. _______ a good place for observing the night sky that enthusiasts gather there every October for a festival of stargazing.
Complete each sentence with one word. The number of dashes corresponds to the number of missing letters. Some letters are already given.
We stopped the car every few miles to photograph the _ _ e _ _ _ _ – peaks, forests and waterfalls on every side of the road.
A _ _ _ c _ _ _ is a huge, slowly moving mass of ice that carves out valleys as it creeps down the mountain.
After four months without rain, farmers across the state were facing the worst _ _ _ u _ _ _ in living memory.
The road over the pass is closed all winter because of the risk of an _ _ _ _ _ n _ _ _ – a huge mass of snow sliding down the mountainside.
Never shelter under a tall tree in a storm: _ _ _ h _ _ _ _ _ usually strikes the highest point around.
Every autumn the bears _ _ _ _ p _ _ _ _ into their dens and are not seen again until spring.
There is very little _ _ _ _ m _ _ _ _ t _ _ _ inside the park, so most visitors either camp or stay in a hotel in the nearest town.
Wolves _ _ _ a _ _ _ n _ _ _ _ come close to the road, but most visitors never see one.
Read the text. Complete each gap (6.1.–6.8.) with one word by transforming the words given in the box. Two words are extra.
The United States has four major deserts, all of them in the western part of the country. A desert is 6.1. _______ as an area that receives less than ten inches of 6.2. _______ – rain, snow or anything else – in a year. 6.3. _______, the largest of the four, the Great Basin Desert, is often very cold, and most of what falls there falls as snow. Much of it lies at 6.4. _______ of 3,000 to 6,000 feet, between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains, and it gets so little rain because the Sierra Nevada acts as a shield against the winds from the Pacific Ocean, keeping moisture out of the region.
Further south, the Chihuahuan Desert stretches along the border with Mexico, where its largest part lies, and occupies corners of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. The 6.5. _______ plant here is the creosote bush, although yuccas, agaves and prickly-pear cactuses grow too, and the Rio Grande cuts through the desert on its way to the Gulf of Mexico. Big Bend National Park gives 6.6. _______ to over 800,000 acres of the desert’s plants and wildlife.
The Sonoran Desert of southern California and Arizona is perhaps most famous for the saguaro cactus, which can grow to over 60 feet tall, with branches that sometimes look like arms. Between it and the Great Basin sits the Mojave Desert, home of the Joshua tree and of the greatest contrasts of all. Its elevations range from 11,049 feet at Telescope Peak down to 282 feet below sea level at Death Valley, and the upper slopes can become 6.7. _______ cold, especially at night. Death Valley itself, on the other hand, is the hottest place in the United States, with a world record of 134 degrees Fahrenheit, and North America’s 6.8. _______ spot, with an average of less than two inches of rain a year.
6.1. DEFINE → defined (past participle, passive: 'a desert is defined as’)
6.2. PRECIPITATE → precipitation (noun: 'ten inches of precipitation’)
6.3. SURPRISE → Surprisingly (sentence adverb, capital letter: 'Surprisingly, the largest ... is often very cold’)
6.4. HIGH → heights (plural noun: 'at heights of 3,000 to 6,000 feet’)
6.5. DOMINATE → dominant (adjective: 'the dominant plant’)
6.6. PROTECT → protection (noun: 'gives protection to over 800,000 acres’)
6.7. EXTREME → extremely (adverb before an adjective: 'extremely cold’)
6.8. DRY → driest (superlative adjective, y -> ie: 'North America’s driest spot’)
Distractors (not used): ELEVATE, PREVENT
Using the word given in CAPITALS, complete each sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the original. Do not change the form of the given word. You may write a maximum of five words, including the word given.
There is no point in visiting the caves without a torch.
Key word: WORTH
The caves ________ without a torch.
Although the rain was heavy, the rangers carried on and found the missing hiker by nightfall.
Key word: DESPITE
The rangers carried on ________ and found the missing hiker by nightfall.
In the end, the climbers managed to reach the top before dark.
Key word: SUCCEEDED
In the end, the climbers ________ the top before dark.
I can’t wait to see the bison on the prairie.
Key word: FORWARD
I ________ the bison on the prairie.
Don’t forget to lock the food in the car tonight.
Key word: REMEMBER
Please ________ the food in the car tonight.
Raccoons often get into rubbish bins at night.
Key word: TENDENCY
Raccoons ________ into rubbish bins at night.
“Why don’t we take the ferry across the river?” said Tom.
Key word: SUGGESTED
Tom ________ the ferry across the river.
I wish I had brought a warmer sleeping bag.
Key word: REGRET
I ________ a warmer sleeping bag.
Match each feature (8.1.–8.6.) to one option (A–H). Two options are extra and match none of the features.
| Feature | Answer |
|---|---|
| Mount Whitney | |
| The Missouri | |
| General Sherman | |
| Baffin Island | |
| The Horseshoe Falls | |
| Wrangell–St. Elias |
| Feature | Answer |
|---|---|
| Mount Whitney | H |
| The Missouri | C |
| General Sherman | A |
| Baffin Island | E |
| The Horseshoe Falls | D |
| Wrangell–St. Elias | G |
Rozwiąż zadania (9.1.–9.5.), udzielając odpowiedzi w języku angielskim. Wymagana jest pełna poprawność merytoryczna i językowa odpowiedzi.
Which river carved out the Grand Canyon over millions of years, and into which gulf does it flow?
Which national park, established in 1872, was the first national park in the United States?
What is the name of the line running along the Rocky Mountains from which water flows either east to the Atlantic or west to the Pacific?
Which bay on Canada’s Atlantic coast is famous for having the highest tides in the world?
What is the name of the longest river in Canada, which flows north into the Arctic Ocean?