ЗНО 2014 по английскому языку

Read the text below. For questions (2–6) choose the correct answer
A Different Way to Wake Up
By Catherine Clarke FoxMatty Sallin’s alarm clock wakes you up with the aroma of sizzling bacon. When Matty Sallin, 34, was working on a degree in art and technology at New York University, he got an interesting assignment in electronics class: Create something for 5 the household. He decided to create an alarm clock.”Everybody has to deal with these every day, and they are extremely unpleasant!” he says. He asked different people what they’d like to wake up to instead of a clanging, noisy alarm. A lot of them said, “The smell of bacon.”So Sallin and two classmates invented a new kind of alarm clock: a wooden box with a pig face and a digital clock that uses the smell of cooking bacon rather than sound to wake someone up. He explains, “There’s no danger of burning, because I built it carefully. It uses halogen light bulbs instead of a flame for cooking and turns off automatically after ten minutes.” Just a few easy steps are required to set the “alarm”.”What you do is put a couple of frozen strips in the night before,” says Sallin. Bacon is cured, or preserved, so there is no danger of it spoiling overnight.”If you set the alarm for 8:00, it will turn on at 7:50 and slow cook for ten minutes under the halogen bulbs”, he says. Then the bulbs turn off and a fan blows the scent out through the nostrils of the pig.

“So instead of an alarm or a beep or a radio, you smell yourself awake”, says Sallin. “Then you can open the door on the side and pull the bacon out and eat it.”

When Sallin was a kid, he spent a lot of time making drawings of inventions. “I wanted to make an elevator in my back yard and a special tree house,” he says. “But I never really thought I’d be called an inventor!”

Sallin got an A in the class and went on to other things – but people continue to hear about his invention and email him every day asking where they can buy his alarm clock.

These days he designs computer software, but if he decides to produce and sell his aroma alarm, maybe he can develop some other models. Any votes for cinnamon buns?

Read the text below. For questions (9–18) choose the correct answer (A, B, C, D)This Week’s DreamMost pubs in Bermuda have two TVs, one for cricket and one for baseball. In recent decades, American cultural (9)___________ over this little archipelago in the western Atlantic has been strong, but it remains a British Overseas Territory – the oldest of all. Bermuda is old-fashioned, democratic and very friendly – (10)___________ the eye of any stranger in the street and they’ll smile and say hello.The island was known (11)___________ the Spanish but still uninhabited in 1609, when Sir George Somers ran aground on a sandbank in a storm and (12)___________ claimed it for the Crown. The “pretty” town of St George’s, which he founded, is the oldest English (13)___________ community in the New World.Pink is the island’s “defining colour”. It’s a popular shade for the neatly pressed Bermuda shorts (14)___________ worn by some locals (usually with a jacket and a tie). Many of the island’s bungalows are pink, its buses are pink – and so are its beaches, (15)___________ thanks to grains of coral in the sand. (16)___________ Among Bermuda’s other natural wonders are Crystal Cave – a cavern complex with stalagmites and stalactites – and its rich bird’s life: like Prospero’s isle, “(17)___________ full of noises, sounds and sweet airs”, Bermuda “thrums to the sound of birdsong (18)___________ at dawn and twilight”.

Read the text below. For questions (19–23) choose the correct answer (A, B, C, D)Japan under SnowWhy do so few of us think of (19)________ Japan in winter? On the north island of Hokkaido, snow is as (20)________ as in Finnish Lapland, but it’s not as cold. And the resorts are(21)________ managed and the facilities are first-class. At Rusutsu there are 18 miles of groomed trails, catering to all abilities, through well-spaced birch and bamboo forests. Niseko is even (22)________, with 30 miles of trails and plenty of off-piste too. After a hard day in this “Oriental (23)________ wonderland” you can visit a traditional onsen for a shiatsu massage and a dip in the steam bath, guaranteeing a good night’s sleep.

The Turkey PardonEach year at Thanksgiving, the President of the United States (24)________ a gift of a live turkey (along (25)________ an alternate in case_something (26)________ to the official turkey). At a White House ceremony, the president (27)________ “pardons” the National Thanksgiving Turkey and the alternate turkeys, allowing them (28)________ out the rest of their lives on a farm.

WritingYou have received a letter from your pen-friend in which he/she complains that his/ her parents want him/her to read classical authors, while he/she is fond of fantasy. Write a letter to your pen-friend in which you tell him/her
• whether your parents influence your choice of books to read
• what is your favorite literary genre and why
• where you usually get books you’d like to read