Линия заданий 10, ЕГЭ по английскому языку

A. There are numerous problems associated with obesity. It is not just a cosmetic problem but also a health hazard. Doctors generally agree that the more obese a person is, the more likely he or she is to have health problems. This is because obesity has been linked to several serious medical conditions. People who are overweight can gain significant health benefits from losing weight.

B. Hey, couch potato! Don’t feel guilty indulging in serials or reality shows - use the commercials as an excuse to burn calories. There is probably an average of 15 minutes of commercials in an hour-long program. If you exercised through each commercial break during just two hours of TV, you’d already have met the recommended amount of daily exercise necessary to reduce health risks.

C. Regular checkups are a valuable tool in maintaining good health. Taking proper care of your health at the right time can help avoid a lot of problems in the future. The main aim of a checkup is to detect illness at an early stage. It’s good to find out that you have a health problem before it is too late so appropriate tests should be done at the right time.

D. Do you mainly exercise for a few weeks in January before you forget your New Year’s resolution, and then again when you realise your summer holiday is around the corner? You’d not be alone, but keeping fit is something you should do all year round. You might not be particularly bothered about your appearance or your weight, but keeping fit is as much about what’s on the inside as it is what’s on the outside.

E. Pain is our body’s means to indicate that something is wrong and requires immediate attention. Pain for a short time can be taken care of by a painkiller but if the soreness is lingering for too long, then it requires proper medical expertise. Sometimes life menacing problems have back pain and joint pain as symptoms and can, if neglected, do permanent damage.

F. Think about your car - the higher the grade of the fuel you put in it, the better it runs. Your body works the same way. If you eat healthy foods, you’ll be healthier and feel better. Eating well is easy if you’re aware of what foods are best for you. But don’t worry! Eating healthy food doesn’t mean eliminating every single thing you love from your diet.

G. Do you spend more than 3 hours a day working or maybe playing on a computer? If so, you are at a higher risk than casual computer users. Researchers warn that watching a computer screen for six or more hours a day might be linked to a progressive eye disease. This does not mean, however, that people who work on a computer for less than 3 hours a day will not suffer eye complications due to computer use.

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A. Tree squirrels are quite used to humans and many will come close to people hoping they will be fed. However, squirrels deserve our respectful distance. They have very sharp teeth and sharp claws and defend themselves by biting and scratching if they are startled. However, they are fun to observe. So treat them with gentle respect... and they can be wonderful ‘wild friends’.

B. Elephants display ‘right-handedness’, not in their limbs, but in the tusks. Close examination of an elephant’s tusks will reveal that one tusk has a blunter tip and is thicker than its less favoured counterpart. The reason for this difference is that in their natural habitat elephants use their tusks for gathering food, and digging for water. Consequently the tusk on their favourite side becomes more developed, but blunter.

C. In October 1987, an attempt to find the famous Loch Ness monster was made with 20 cruisers that swept the loch using sonar equipment, electronically recording all contacts. While the cruisers caught enough salmon to feed an army, there was no sign of Nessie. Most scientists would bet that there is no monster, yet they do seem to hedge themselves and keep an open mind as they await conclusive proof in the form of skeletal evidence or the capture of the monster.

D. Birds used for the production of Foie Gras are trapped in tiny cages, where they hardly have any place to move or flap their wings. Mechanized feeders come at regular intervals to feed them and metal pipes are forced down their gullets several times a day. The over-fed birds have difficulty breathing and acquire a range of diseases. Once these birds have reached a point of near-death, they are slaughtered, and their livers end up in restaurants!

E. Animals adapt over time to their environments, some so much so that they begin to look like their surroundings - a helpful evolutionary advantage in the face of potential predators (or while stalking prey). There are octopi that blend in perfectly with sandy ocean floors, insects that look just like leaves and fish that resemble oceanic plants. There is even an octopus that can mimic nearly twenty other oceanic species to scare off.

F. Humans work together all the time to build incredible structures we could never have dreamed up, let alone construct, on our own - but some animal architecture is arguably even more impressive. There is a spider web built by a variety of species working together that spans much of a public park, an ant colony that extends for thousands of miles and birds nests built by entire flocks living together under one thatched roof.

G. Raining animals... it sounds ridiculous, right? Nonetheless, it happens - although rarely. Fish, frogs and birds are the most common forms of animal rain. Sometimes the creatures land relatively unscathed but in other cases they are frozen or shredded to pieces. Theories vary in their details but generally it is assumed that certain kinds of strong winds lift up the animals with a volume of water (fish and frogs from ponds, for example) or sweep them out of the sky in the case of birds and then deposit them, often right before a major storm.

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A. Computers have already revolutionized the way we live and work. But it is early days for computers. We do not know how much they are still changing the world. Already, Internet users can buy things and study holiday offers. It’s much easier to edit and print documents using a PC. More computer wonders are yet to come.

B. Only a few years before men were walking on the moon, reputable scientists declared that it was impossible. But in 1969 Neil Armstrong stepped out of his space capsule and made his famous statement, ‘That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.’ However, progress in this area is slower now. Not as much money goes into re- search as in the 1960s.

C. Surely nothing has done more for the comfort and happiness of mankind than the advance of medical knowledge! Lots of people have benefited from aspirin and lots of lives have been saved by penicillin. Surgeons can perform the most amazing operations. Average life expectancy in Europe has risen dramatically over the last hundred years.

D. In the past, a holiday used to mean simply a day when you did not work. Now millions of holidaymakers travel to all parts of the world. Perhaps, not all people like to see lots of tourists in their countries, but we must admit that a phenomenon which sees the population of Greece treble is a wonder of the world.

E. It is true that the Olympic Games are now commercialized and there is greed and drug abuse. However, it is a competition in which every country of the world takes part. Every four years, for a brief moment, we see these countries come together in peace and friendship. We see people from warring countries shake hands. We feel hope again for the future of mankind.

F. In 1724, Jonathan Swift wrote, ‘Whoever makes two blades of grass or two ears of corn grow where only one grew before serves mankind better than the whole race of politicians’. In Europe farmers have done it and we produce enough food to feed the world.

If only politicians could find a way to share it with those parts of the world where there is still famine.

G. The greatest wonder of the modern world is simply that we are still here. We have bombs that could destroy the world but we try our best not to use them. Because of people’s effort no government dares to use such weapons. The year 2001 marked the 100th anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize, the most famous attempt to raise awareness of the issues of war and peace.

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A. Globally released worldwide, Microsoft Vista hit the markets in early 2007. Its ideology was to enhance the security system of the personal computer. But the security features weren’t all that better than its previous versions’, according to many software critics. Vista is also not compatible on all sorts of PC’s and runs slower compared to Windows XP. All of this prevented Vista from being a better version and it never took off like the company had hoped.

B. A couple centuries ago, if you wanted to record a moment for posterity, you sat around for hours or days while someone painted it. Up until ten years ago, you were at the mercy of photo developers charging 20 cents or more to help preserve your memories. Now you can record countless images and store them electronically for all of eternity at virtually no cost per picture.

C. With technology advancing at the pace it is today, we have to believe that by the end of the century we won’t be driving our cars around the city. Rather, we will just be sitting on the then historic driver’s seat and doing some work. While the concept looks futuristic, industrial designer Kubik Petr believes that nothing seems impossible with modern technology at hand.

D. The Kenguru is designed only for the disabled. Previously car manufacturers would design cars for the disabled but not specifically for them. This Hungarian company is taking it to the next step, the disabled will be able to open the rear of the car and just roll in the driving position, secure their wheelchair - without never having to leave their chair.

E. Technology certainly offers us innumerable comforts within our world, especially when it comes to people who have extreme medical conditions and need the help of science and technology to live comfortably within their everyday lives. The creation of robot limbs allows a person to walk again. The introduction of synthetic body parts such as a heart pump can help a person to live longer.

F. Everyone knows that being a soldier is a dangerous job. Walking through minefields, deactivating unexploded bombs or clearing out hostile buildings, for example, are some of the riskiest tasks. What if we could send robots to do these jobs instead of humans? Then, if something went wrong, we’d only lose the money it cost to build the robot instead of losing a human life.

G. Cutting edge technologies offer the hope for a better world, bringing welcome solutions to everything from disease to environmental damage. But these same technologies can also bring danger by aiding criminals and terrorists, invading personal privacy and even potentially creating diseases and damaging the environment. The more power ful and pervasive technology becomes, the more dangerous it becomes as well.

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A. Gifted children’s behaviour differs from that of their age-mates. Many gifted children learn to read early, with better comprehension of the nuances of language. As much as half of the gifted and talented population has learned to read before entering school. They can work independently at an earlier age and can concentrate for longer periods. They like to learn new things, are willing to examine the unusual, and are highly inquisitive.

B. Being academically gifted is a topic laced with myths and fears, many of which are unfounded. Moreover, academically gifted children often face special problems. So do their parents. Schools treat those children differently from those whose talents lie in other areas, like music, art, and sports. Gifted children may also be learning disabled, or have another disability while being highly intelligent.

C. Social and emotional difficulties are not directly linked to giftedness. Rather, they result from a lack of understanding by the child of the nature of their intellectual differ- ence. Parents and teachers don’t usually discuss this difference with them because of the concern that they may get a ‘swelled head’. The risk is that gifted children may view their differences as ‘weird’ or ‘bad’ or try to ignore or deny them.

D. Most of the athletes are allowed to develop their special skills at whatever rate best suits them. No one tries to stop them from becoming much better baseball players or swimmers than their classmates. Yet if an academically gifted child tries to do two years of work in one, that’s viewed as potentially harmful. Much of the concern focuses on the non-academic areas of these gifted children’s development.

E. Researchers emphasize that for the vast majority of academically gifted children those concerns are groundless. In fact, these children are more likely to develop social and even academic problems if they don’t feel intellectually challenged. If gifted children don’t go to challenging programs, they may not learn how to learn. Eventually, in college or graduate school, they feel emotionally overwhelmed when they can’t just coast through their courses anymore.

F. Gifted children represent both a challenge and a resource for schools. Educators have a responsibility to provide programs to meet the educational needs of gifted students who are capable of learning at advanced levels. Ideally, schools should have specifically trained teachers for gifted students to create a challenging and supportive learning environment for these children.

G. Gifted children are often viewed as ‘the smart ones’ who should know everything. Yet, being gifted does not mean they possess great abilities in every area. Albert Einstein was 4 years old before he spoke a word. Winston Churchill failed the 6th grade, and Leo Tolstoy flunked out of college. What do these three famous people have in common? In fact, they are all considered gifted, and in some cases, geniuses.

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A. A quick look at junk food facts tells us junk food and diets do not go hand in hand. Junk foods are also called ‘empty calorie’ foods and have no nutritional value. Nevertheless, they are enjoyed by lots of people because of their simplicity to manufacture, consume and, of course, their taste. Chocolates, burgers, pizzas, potato wafers and fries will surely find their way into everyone’s heart.

B. Thai cuisine is one of the healthiest foods you can eat. In fact, several Thai dishes, such as Tom Yum Soup, are currently under scientific study for their incredible health benefits. Of course, it’s already known that many of the fresh herbs and spices used in Thai cooking - such as turmeric, galangal, coriander, lemongrass, and fresh chillies have immune-boosting and disease-fighting power.

C. Vegetarian diets can be very healthy, but eating a balanced diet when you are vegetarian usually requires a little extra attention. Because vegetarians eliminate certain foods from their diets, they often need to work to add foods into their diet that will provide the nutrients found in meat products. If properly planned, vegetarian diets can provide all the nutrients you need.

D. It’s actually easy to make good choices at a fast-food restaurant or the cafeteria. Most cafeterias and fast-food places offer healthy choices that are also tasty, like grilled chicken or salads. Be mindful of portion sizes and high fat add-ons, like dressings, sauces or cheese. Most restaurant portions are larger than the average serving of food at home. Ask for half portions or take half of your dish home.

E. Family meals are making a comeback. Shared family meals are more likely to be nutritious, and kids who eat regularly with their families are less likely to snack on unhealthy foods and more likely to eat fruits and vegetables. Teens who take part in regular family meals are less likely to smoke, drink alcohol, or use drugs. Beyond health and nutrition, family meals provide a valuable opportunity to reconnect.

F. Families are cooking more meals at home, cutting back on take away in the face of the economic downturn. In addition to cutting back on take away and eating out, families have begun cooking more vegetarian meals and are adding vegetables, lentils and baked beans to allow them to cut back on meat quantity. Consumers also indicate that they are likely to prepare meals that can be spread across more than one mealtime.

G. In recent years it has become common practice for celebrities and stars to publicize food products. Businesses take advantage of consumers’ mentality of ‘following the stars’ and invite celebrities and stars to perform ‘false advertising’ so as to mislead or even deceive consumers. The law stipulates that those who publicize ‘faulty food products’ will share responsibility with food producers and sellers.

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A. Nowadays, potatoes are the ‘in’ thing so far as health is concerned. In the 60s and 70s we were told to avoid them at all costs for fear of getting fat, but now they have been reinvented by the dieticians as a source of fibre and vitamins. Sensible people, like you and me, have always eaten them because they taste so good.

B. Organizing a holiday isn’t the easiest task in the world; there are so many things to think about. Let’s keep it simple by assuming that there’s no overseas travel to arrange. That doesn’t mean that you can also forget about injections and other health precautions entirely. What about sun blocker? What about regular medication prescribed by your doctor? My point, quite frankly, is that planning a holiday can be a real pain although a well-planned holiday can more than reward the pains you go to before you set out.

C. Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro have the US market for anti-virus software sewed up between them. But here comes Russia’s Kaspersky Lab trying to gain a foothold. The Moscow-based company opened a sales office outside of Boston in February and has signed up about 40 resellers. Kaspersky reacts quicker than the giants to new viruses and other forms of malware, and gets fixes out fast.

D. Sitting in the office armchairs all-day long has become the norm for many of us. Stress and rush make us forget about regular food and stuff our stomachs with cheese burgers and sodas, which don’t do any good to our bodies. As a result, we rarely find time for exercise, gyms or balanced nutrition and it’s one of the reasons why a lot of people are overweight nowadays. However, it is possible to change your lifestyle and lose weight if you are willing to.

E. The Internet is a very effective medium for spreading ideas or news. It eliminates geographical boundaries, and Greenpeace is aware of it, and benefits from it. For instance, in 1995, Greenpeace utilised its site to publicise a route that the French use to send nuclear shipments to Japan. They also included the fax number of the French Embassy and of the newspaper Le Monde so that letters of protest could be sent.

F. The biggest problem most people face in learning a new language is their own fear, like Stage Fear. They worry that they won’t say things correctly or that they will look stupid so they don’t talk at all. Don’t do this. Actually, the fastest way to learn anything is to do it - again and again until you get it right. Like anything, learning English requires practice. Don’t let your fear stop you from getting what you want.

G. Fuel cells are similar to a battery except unlike batteries, they don’t need to be recharged. Fuel causes air pollution and noise, while fuel cells do not cause either. Fuel cells don’t cause pollution because they don’t create waste like fuel. Fuel cells are also very efficient, so efficient that fuel cells have been providing energy on spacecrafts for a very long time.

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A. The overriding idea is to go for simplicity. A quiet basement, a library table or the ground next to a big tree outside allows you to focus on what you’re doing. Examples of poor locations would include the kitchen table, common areas where you’re likely to encounter friends, or even your own room, as it’s usually stocked with a computer, television, and video games that seem a lot more appealing than what you’re doing. You have to remove yourself far enough from any potential disturbance. This is the key to any successful session of work.

B. Making your work relate to your leisure activities or hobbies eliminates much of the tedium associated with it. Whenever possible, make your schoolwork centre around something you love, and run with it. Essay assignment? Write about your favourite hobby. History report? Write about your favourite historical battle. Just pick anything to make your reports and assignments less mundane. As long as you meet all the requirements of the assignment, the rest is yours to choose.

C. It’s okay to reward a long session of hard work with a quick break here or there. Eat something, watch a TV show, play a bit of your favourite video game, pick up a musical instrument and practise a little bit. Trying to work too long at too hard a pace without a break is only going to spoil your work in the end, as you’ll start to tire, grow apathetic, and make mistakes. Taking semi-frequent breaks proportional to the amount of time you spent working keeps your mind fresh and your spirits up.

D. Ultimately, you are going to have to make executive decisions about the importance of various assignments relative to how much time and effort you’re expending on them. Don’t get bogged down worrying about finishing a small assignment that is worth a negligible fraction of your grade if it means that finishing it will cost you important points on a far more important project or paper for another class. Always rank assignments based on their due date and importance. In the grand scheme of things, it’s always best to do what will get you the best overall average of grade points.

E. If you have multiple assignments to do, don’t try and work on more than one at a time. Pick the most immediately due assignment and stick with it like glue until it’s done. Then move on to the next most pressing assignment. This way, you resist the temptation to bypass hard, looming assignments to jump to easier but less pressing assignments for your sense of accomplishment. Concentrating your efforts on one task is the key to any successful session of work.

F. Often, you’ll be tempted to pull all-nighters simply to get things done and out of your head. This is extremely counterproductive. If you feel very tired, you can just drop off at any moment. If you sense you’re giving less and less effort to your work, then stop. It’s always better to pick it up the next day when you’re focused than to run a marathon all night and wind up with substandard work that you aren’t proud of.

G. It’s not always easy to stay on the ball in college, but if you know how to stay calm, and make your assignments work for you, you can simplify things tremendously. If you have no idea how to even start an assignment, always feel free to contact your professor, campus tutoring office, or even your parents for advice. Don’t let your fears get in the way of your doing well. If asking a professor for assistance is the difference between a C and an A on an assignment, you should not care about your pride, you should care about your college marks.

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A. The presumption of innocence is a legal right that the accused in criminal trials has in many modern countries. The burden of proof is thus on the prosecution. It has to collect and present enough compelling evidence to convince the jury of the fact that beyond a reasonable doubt the accused has broken the law. In case of remaining doubts, the accused is to be acquitted.

B. Sarah and Lisa always enjoyed hanging out at the mall. But one Saturday, after shopping for jeans, Sarah pulled a new shirt out of her bag. Lisa didn’t remember seeing her buy it. ‘I didn’t, ’ Sarah told her. ‘I lifted it.” Lisa was upset and puzzled. Stealing didn’t seem like something Sarah would do. Sometimes people do not realize the consequences of this crime.

C. Even families living in so-called ‘safe’ neighbourhoods are concerned. They may feel safe today, but there is always a reminder that violence can intrude at any moment. Polly Klaas and her family no doubt felt safe in Petaluma, California. But on October 1, 1993, she was abducted from her suburban home during a sleepover. If she can be abducted and murdered, so can nearly any other child.

D. The Internet is a great place to find information, make friends, keep in touch with others, and do business. There always are other sides as long as there is a criminal element. As our world becomes more computerized and ever more interconnected, different kinds of computer crimes will continue to grow. These include break-ins of computers to get trade secrets or illegal entry for the thrill and challenge.

E. Movie violence these days is louder and bloodier than ever before. When a bad guy was shot in a black-and-white Western, the most we saw was a puff of smoke and a few drops of fake blood. Now the sights, sounds, and special effects often jar us more than the real thing. Slow motion and pyrotechnics conspire to make movies and TV shows more gruesome than ever.

F. University of Illinois psychologist Leonard Eron studied children at age eight and then again at eighteen. He found that television habits established at the age of eight influenced aggressive behaviour through childhood and adolescent years. The more violent were the programs preferred by boys in the third grade, the more aggressive was their behaviour, both at that time and ten years later.

G. In the debate about execution and human dignity, supporters and opponents of the death penalty have found very little common ground. Since the 18th century, those who wish to abolish the death penalty have stressed the significance of requiring governments to recognize the importance of each individual. However, supporters of this penal practice see nothing wrong with governments deliberately killing terrible people who commit terrible crimes.

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A. Chocolate chip cookies were actually a mistake! One day in 1903, Ruth Wakefield, while baking a batch of cookies, noticed she was out of bakers’ chocolate! As a substitute she broke some semi-sweetened chocolate into small pieces and put them in the dough. She thought that the chocolate would melt in the dough and the dough would absorb it. When she opened up the oven, she realized she had invented the tasty treat called chocolate chip cookies!

B. Computers originally began as calculators. The first calculator was made by Blaise Pascal. It only had eight buttons, and it could only do addition and subtraction. There was a set of wheels, and all of the wheels had the numbers zero through nine on them. The wheels were connected by gears and each turn of one wheel would turn the next wheel one-tenth of a turn. This machine was completed in 1642 when Blaise was twentyone years old.

C. A helicopter has a big advantage over an airplane, especially when people might be trapped in a tight place like on a mountain, where there is not much space to land, or in the water. They are also used for rescuing people from burning buildings or from trees when there are floods. Without the helicopter as a rescue vehicle, many people would lose their lives because the rescuers would be unable to reach them if they were in a difficult area.

D. Cars have always caused air pollution. In the past, there was a lot more air pollution created by cars than there is today. In the future, there will probably be even less. Two good ways for pursuing the dream of less air pollution are cars that run on solar energy and cars that run on fuel cells. Solar energy and fuel cells don’t cause pollution because they do not give off any exhaust.

E. Reporter Rob Spence is planning to have a camera embedded in his eye socket and become a bionic reporter’. Spence, who lost one of his eyes when he was young, says he has a prototype in development and that one day the replacement of even healthy eyes with bionic ones may become commonplace. It seems shocking now, but it will become more and more normal, ’ he said.

F. Crop circles have been appearing in fields all over the world for the past 30 years.
There have been suggestions that they are made by flying saucers landing and flattening the crops, or even that they are messages left by visiting aliens.
Others think they are created by microwave beams from satellites orbiting the Earth. Other more rational suggestions are that crop circles are man-made hoaxes, attempting to convince the public of extra-terrestrial life on Earth.

G. The Egyptian Pyramids have always been surrounded by mystery.
When Egyptologists began to open the tombs of the pharaohs, rumours abounded that anyone who raided them would be cursed. Many think a curse was to blame for the death of Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to open King Tutankhamen’s tomb in 1923. He died of pneumonia after being bitten by a mosquito a few weeks after the tomb was opened.

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