МГУ имени М.В. Ломоносова
Вступительные испытания по иностранному языку
Английский язык
Блок 1 Вариант 16
Лексико-грамматическая часть
You are going to read an essay. Choose a word from the list to complete each gap (1-20). Change its form where necessary to make a word / a group of words that fits in the gap.
Different aspects of form change are possible: active or passive voice; indicative, imperative or subjunctive mood; finite or non-finite forms (infinitive, gerund, participle); tense for finite forms or aspect for non-finite forms; full or bare infinitive, etc.
Each verb can be used only once.
Write out the number of the gap and the form of the verb (example: 0. was delivered).
unite / add / be / extendlend / practice / drag / sharefeel / function / lose / findtreat / cause / irritate / ensureinterest / use / get / coin
John Donne (1573-1631), an English writer of outstanding repute, is considered by many (1)____ the first metaphysical poet. As the noun in the plural (2)____ in literary critical writings as well, one might (3)____ tempted to believe that at a certain period of time a sizeable group of people (4)____ in matters of philosophy (5)____ in England as a closely knit unit the way it was the case with the younger English Romantic poets, for example. The statement is only partly true. In the 17th century England there was indeed a group of poets younger than Donne (6)____ his conceptual and stylistic principles, but it was not so much the interest in philosophy that (7)____ them, but their exercise of wit, paradox and wordplay. The term “metaphysical” (8)____ a century after Donne’s death by a critic Samuel Johnson, and it (9)____ into circulation due to Johnson’s active though contemptuous use of it. Understandably, Johnson (10)____ by what he thought was lack of coherence and lack of purpose, because in many cases it was really difficult to say what a certain poem was about.As it often happens to classifications, still later the term (11)____ to poets who were neither the contemporaries nor the acquaintances of the members of the initial metaphysical circle. This was done in order (12)____ the legitimacy of the circle itself and (13)____ importance to its members’ writings. As a result Robert Southwell (1561-1595) and William Shakespeare (1564-1616) were chosen (14)____ in as predecessors, and when the 18th century poets (15)____ to the list, the whole idea demonstrably was about (16)____ any coherence. It is true that in the writings of the older poets numerous cases of antithesis, paradox and wordplay may (17)____, but ideologically and aesthetically Southwell’s and Shakespeare’s texts are quite different from the works of the ‘Metaphysicists proper’. In “The Phoenix and the Turtle”, for example, Shakespeare did make use of ‘conceits’ – extended metaphors with a complex logic so typical of the Metaphysicists. However, with him, in contrast to the latter, it (18)____ not by the mere desire (19)____ rhetoric, but by the necessity to conceal the immediate content which could (20)____ by the authorities as alarming and even seditious.
Блок 2 Вариант 21
ЧТЕНИЕ И ПИСЬМО
1. You are going to read an excerpt from a radio feature on leisure. Summarise the text in your own words. Do not quote the text: a copied sequence of 4 words and more is considered a quotation. Write at least 150 words.
2. Give your own opinion on the issue raised in the text. Write at least 70 words.
Interviewer: This week we’re taking a look at leisure. Joining me to decide how people behave themselves at play, and why, is Professor of Sociology at the University of Wessex, Richard Marshall. Let me start by asking you, Richard, why we need leisure in our lives at all?
Richard: One interesting thing about leisure is that the word ‘leisure’ doesn’t appear in every other language. Dutch for instance doesn’t have it but it has the term «free time», while our word «leisure» comes from Middle French meaning ‘licence’, something permitted. So the notion of freedom is at the heart of leisure. The problem is that, depending on your personal circumstances, we’re only free to join in certain kinds of activities. But more and more, leisure is being seen as something where people can take control and find their own identity. Perhaps sometimes it’s a response for those who are fed up at work or don’t have high enough status to break through some of the boundaries; boundaries of status and the workplace, even the family…
Interviewer: Does it relate to the way we behave at work? Do we deliberately choose something far more aspirational than our daily work
Richard: Well, there are cases of that. There are some people who get involved in what some American sociologists have called ‘serious leisure’, where, for them, leisure turns into the all-consuming purpose. So work is just a place to get out of quickly with your pay packet in order to really enjoy yourself, for instance, in the amateur dramatic society or the choir.
Interviewer: But isn’t it curious that we may have a very rule-filled life at work, but yet we choose a leisure activity that is also full of rules and constrictions?
Richard: Well, it’s one of the greatest paradoxes of leisure that the idea of freedom is at the heart of it, but the further people get into particular types of leisure, the more they seem to want security, and strangely, you know, whether it’s shopping or going to the sports game, there are regular sorts of repeated rituals that in a way underlie these leisure activities. And you see, it’s no different to many other spheres of life where, in lots of respects, you balance the excitement of the unknown and the potentially dangerous against the security of the known and the normal.
Interviewer: And yet in Britain, we’re still quite formal about what we call «leisure», aren’t we? Watching television, for example, is our major leisure activity, isn’t it, and one which spans all ages and classes, I would guess. But we’re strangely reluctant to admit that that’s what we really spend a large proportion of our free time doing.
Richard: A lot of people do admit it – polls show us that – but they want to say that they’re doing something else. Or they admit it but they feel guilty about being a couch potato. But of course there’s more than just that passive act itself in television watching. People take it into all sorts of other spheres like the workplace, or other leisure activities – it’s what people talk about. What would they talk about if they didn’t have things of this kind to exchange?
Interviewer: And in a way the leisure place is somewhere where we transcend ourselves, we become the person we couldn’t be at work.
Richard: That’s true, especially in some of the more dramatic examples of serious leisure. ‘Uniform’ leisure provides some quite interesting cases. There are different examples of activities where uniforms and dressing up, the sense of collectivity with others, apart from the status-defining uniform of the workplace are very important in terms of the respect people have for themselves.
Блок 3 Вариант 23
ПИСЬМО
Isaac Asimov once said, “The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”
To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion? Give at least two reasons for your answer and include at least one relevant example from your own knowledge and experience.
Write at least 200 words.
Remember! Your essay should consist of the introduction, the body of paragraphs and the conclusion.