Zadania 1–10 — 40 punktów / 90 minut
Read the text below. For each statement, decide if it is True, False, or if there is No Information in the text.
The island of Ireland is the second largest island in Europe; only Great Britain is bigger. Politically, however, it is two countries. The Republic of Ireland occupies about four fifths of the island, and its capital is Dublin. The remaining fifth is Northern Ireland, which belongs to the United Kingdom and has Belfast as its capital. Altogether the island is divided into 32 counties. The Republic uses the euro as its currency, its head of government carries the Irish title of Taoiseach, and both Irish and English are its official languages.
The nickname “Emerald Isle” comes from the green of the island’s fields. Beneath the grass the ground is mostly limestone; inland there are wide peat bogs, and along the Atlantic coast the land ends in high cliffs. This landscape is young: as recently as 15,000 years ago the whole island lay under glaciers. On the north coast, an ancient volcano produced the Giant’s Causeway, a field of roughly 40,000 hexagonal rock columns. Also in Northern Ireland, the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge hangs 30 metres above the ground and leads to a tiny island; fishermen first built a bridge there nearly 300 years ago. Underground, the Marble Arch caves in Fermanagh are another famous sight.
The Republic’s mountain ranges include Macgillycuddy’s Reeks and the Wicklow Mountains, while Northern Ireland’s highest peak, Slieve Donard, stands in the Mourne Mountains. The rivers include the Shannon, the Liffey, the Boyne, the Moy and the Barrow. The largest freshwater lake in the whole United Kingdom, Lough Neagh, is not in Great Britain at all but in Northern Ireland.
Wildlife on the island is famously limited. There are no wild snakes, only one kind of lizard, two kinds of wild mouse and three kinds of amphibian: the natterjack toad, the smooth newt and the common frog. The Republic protects its nature in six national parks. In the 1990s and 2000s its economy grew so fast that the country earned a second nickname, the “Celtic Tiger”.
Ireland has more kinds of amphibian than kinds of wild mouse.
Ireland was called the 'Celtic Tiger’ because of the colour of its countryside.
Lough Neagh is the largest lake on the island of Ireland.
Slieve Donard stands in the Wicklow Mountains.
Fifteen thousand years ago there was no ice-free land anywhere on the island.
The peat bogs were left behind by the glaciers.
Read the text below. Four sentences have been removed. Choose from options A–G the one which best fits each gap. Three options are distractors and do not fit any gap.
The island of Ireland is the second largest in Europe, but it is not a single country. About eighty per cent of it belongs to the Republic of Ireland, an independent state whose capital is Dublin. The Republic alone covers 68,890 square kilometres, and the whole island is divided into thirty-two counties. Its capital is Belfast, and with a population of about 1.8 million it is the smallest of the four UK nations. Its flag is St Patrick’s Saltire, its patron saint is St Patrick, and both English and Irish are spoken there. Its coasts face the Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, and its longest river, the Bann, is only 129 kilometres long.
Belfast is by far the largest city in Northern Ireland, about four times the size of Derry, which is also called Londonderry. It is an important port, and ferries sail from it across the Irish Sea to Liverpool. Its most famous ship, the Titanic, was built there.
Northern Ireland is small, but its landscape is varied. Lough Neagh is the largest freshwater lake in the whole United Kingdom, and Slieve Donard, in the Mourne Mountains, is the highest peak at 850 metres, lower than the highest mountains of the other three UK nations. Underground, in Fermanagh, are the Marble Arch caves. On the north coast lies the Giant’s Causeway, where an ancient volcano left roughly 40,000 rock columns, most of them with six sides, and it is one of the most famous landmarks in the whole of the United Kingdom. Fishermen first built it nearly 300 years ago, and it is no place for anyone who is afraid of heights.
The Republic has landmarks of its own. Its mountain ranges include Macgillycuddy’s Reeks and the Wicklow Mountains, and its rivers the Shannon, the Liffey and the Boyne. Its recent history has been eventful too. Ireland’s other nickname is gentler: the Emerald Isle, for the green fields that cover it.
Complete each sentence. Choose A, B or C.
Every cloud has a silver ______ — the wet summer filled the reservoirs.
Peat cutting died ______ around here two generations ago.
The old peat cutter ______ up a wonderful story about a giant who lived in the bog.
You’re barking up the wrong ______ — the farmers had nothing to do with the fire.
Complete each mini-dialogue. Choose A, B or C.
X: Why is the bog protected?
Y: It’s worth its weight in ______ for storing carbon.
X: Did the restoration project work?
Y: It was touch and ______ for a while, but yes.
X: How many species did you count?
Y: Only a ______ — far fewer than there used to be.
X: Do people still cut peat by hand?
Y: A few do, but they’re few and ______ between.
Read the text below. Complete each gap (5.1.–5.10.) with one word to create a coherent and grammatically correct text.
On the north coast of Northern Ireland stands one of the strangest landscapes 5.1. _______ Europe. The Giant’s Causeway is made 5.2. _______ around 40,000 columns of dark rock, most of them with six sides, packed together 5.3. _______ closely that you can walk across their flat tops.
According 5.4. _______ legend, the columns were laid by the giant Finn MacCool, 5.5. _______ wanted to cross the sea to Scotland. Scientists give a different explanation: the columns formed 5.6. _______ lava cooled and cracked around 60 million years ago.
The site 5.7. _______ been protected since 1986, and it is now visited 5.8. _______ hundreds of thousands of people every year. 5.9. _______ the number of visitors keeps rising, the paths will need repairing more often. Visitors are asked 5.10. _______ to climb on the tallest columns.
Complete each sentence with one word. The number of dashes corresponds to the number of missing letters. Some letters are already given.
Ireland is known as the Emerald Isle _ _ a _ _ _ to its bright green fields.
Peat bogs grow so _ _ o _ _ _ that one metre of peat can take a thousand years to form.
The Cliffs of Moher rise over 200 metres _ _ _ a _ _ _ _ out of the Atlantic.
The Giant’s Causeway was not built by a giant, _ _ _ t _ _ _ _ the old legend says.
Sheep are _ _ _ c _ _ _ _ _ _ _ everywhere in the Irish countryside.
Complete the mini-dialogues with the words given in brackets, in the correct form. Both gaps must be right to score the point. Full grammatical and spelling accuracy is required.
X: What (happen) to the wolves in Ireland?
Y: They (die) out about three hundred years ago.
X: Are the bogs being restored?
Y: Yes, the channels (block) so that the water level (rise).
X: Have you been to the Burren?
Y: I (go) there last spring and I (have) never seen anything like it.
X: Why is Ireland so green?
Y: It (rain) a lot, which (make) the grass grow.
X: Will the peat ever come back?
Y: If nobody (cut) it, the bog (recover) slowly.
Match three items to each country. Write the correct letter (A–L) in the table. Three options are distractors and do not belong to any of the three countries.
| Country | Item 1 | Item 2 | Item 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Republic of Ireland | |||
| Northern Ireland | |||
| Scotland |
| Country | Item 1 | Item 2 | Item 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Republic of Ireland | A | D | G |
| Northern Ireland | B | E | H |
| Scotland | C | F | I |
Choose the correct answer A, B, C or D.
Which nickname was given to Ireland during its economic boom?
Which sentence is a false one?
Your class is taking part in a project about protecting nature. Write a post for your school blog about it.
Napisz swoją wypowiedź po angielsku (blog post). Podpisz się jako XYZ. Rozwiń każdy z trzech podpunktów.
Po kliknięciu Zakończ egzamin wypowiedź zostanie sprawdzona automatycznie i dostaniesz ocenę każdego podpunktu.
Treść (3 pkt) — 1 punkt za każdy całkowicie rozwinięty podpunkt. Samo wspomnienie tematu nie wystarczy.
Poprawność językowa (2 pkt) — liczba błędów (gramatycznych, leksykalnych lub ortograficznych): do 3 → 2 pkt, 4–6 → 1 pkt, powyżej 6 → 0 pkt.