L1 Intensiv

Ministerul Educaiei, Cercetrii i Tineretului Centrul Naional pentru Curriculum i Evaluare n nvmntul Preuniversitar
EXAMENUL DE BACALAUREAT 2008 Proba oral la Limba Englez L1 Intensiv 3 4 ore

SUBJECT 1 1.
Read the text below, identify its theme, summarize it, and dwell on the ideas it contains. Support your views with relevant arguments and examples.
Its refreshing to discover from a new and beautifully judged exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery that there was a time when women were in charge. Brilliant Women celebrates the Bluestocking women of the early 18th century, who spurned the customary role of gentlewomen as mere decorative adornment and took on the mantle of learning. Women like Elizabeth Carter, who in 1737, aged just 19, travelled up to London from Kent to embark on a career as a journalist, writing poetry in Latin and Greek (journalism was a rather different trade in those days). Carter was an extraordinary woman, choosing independence and scholarly endeavour over marriage. As if to prove that she had made the right decision, she created a translation of All the Works of Epictetus, which are now extant, which has been admired ever since by classicists (mostly male) as the standard study on the Greek Stoic philosopher. Carter had been encouraged by her forward-thinking father, the vicar of Deal, to learn the classical languages, but she taught herself French, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic and Hebrew, forcing herself to get up at first light to study by inventing an elaborate system of pulleys and clocks and alarm-bells. The curators of the exhibition have discovered a fascinating portrait of her as Minerva, the Greek goddess of wisdom. She appears youthful and fresh-faced but her bearing is statuesque and shes dressed in the armour of intellect, a breastplate and shield. In her right hand, instead of a spear, she holds an edition of Plato. Carter, though, reconciled her intellectual enterprise with domestic duties, famously (or perhaps infamously) admired by her friend Dr Johnson as a woman who could make a pudding just as well as translate the work of Epictetus, an achievement no man of his acquaintance could match. (The Spectator) . SUBJECT 1 2.
Its official: TV makes kids fat. According to a recent Lancet study, adults who had been avid TV watchers as children were more likely be overweight, to smoke and to have high cholesterol. Children should watch no more than two hours of TV a day to protect their future health, the study warned, adding that parents should lead by example and turn the TV off. But agreeing and doing are too different things. TV is a great help to many parents, taking away some of the daily pressure of entertaining children. Even if the benefits are often all too short-term, with kids often ending up bored, listless, uncommunicative and grumpy after just a few hours of television viewing, todays busy urban lifestyles often allow for few alternatives. Except, that is, for computers. Computers dont replace the need for children to get out of the house and take good exercise, but they do offer a lean forward experience that is much to be preferred over TVs passive, lean back mode of viewing. The body language says it all. At a computer, children can get a reaction. They can be mentally active and emotionally responsive when engaging with quality computer software or emailing friends. Good computer content can enable children to engage actively, to be creative and to grow intellectually. Of course children need to be physically active and everyday they should be outside playing, cycling, and running about at some point. But there are times when it is necessary to be indoors and if there is a computer to hand, well lets see children use it to best effect. With a little help from parents or grandparents - the computer becomes a really valuable tool. (The Telegraph)
Bacalaureat 2008 Proba oral Limba englez L1- Intensiv 3-4 ore
SUBJECT 1 3.
Social networking sites will be required to remove material unsuitable for children, such as nude or violent images and comments, within 24 hours of receiving a complaint, under a tough new code for internet safety. The Byron Review on e-safety also recommends that search engines such as Google and Yahoo display a safe search button prominently on their home page, to filter out potentially harmful material when children search the web. Dr Byron, a mother of two, said: Many parents seem to believe that when their child is online it is similar to them watching television. In fact it is more like opening the front door and letting your child go outside to play unsupervised. The review recommends the creation of a UK council for child internet safety, established by and reporting to the Prime Minister and including representatives from the Home Office and the Department for Children, Schools and Families. The council should be the conscience of the industry, encouraging it to take a greater responsibility for removing inappropriate content promptly, promoting and improving parental control software and regulating online advertising. The review also called for e-safety lessons in schools and a campaign to inform parents, grandparents, teachers and child-carers about how to ensure safe use of the internet. The digital industry welcomed the report, with all the main businesses emphasising the importance of pulling together to tackle the problem. None, however, would give specific backing to any of the recommendations. (The Times) . SUBJECT 1 4.
About 60 people are mixing, mingling and chatting in the fifth-floor cafe at Waterstones in Piccadilly. Coffee is fuelling an intense atmosphere of handshaking and exchanging of business cards. Most are male, under 40, wearing open-collared shirts, casual jackets and jeans. Several people have laptops open and sit rapt in front of screens, showing companions their web pages. Here is the Swedish start-up Tablefinder, finding global restaurant reservations; there is the Slovenian start-up Zemanta, offering online links. Potential internet companies from all around Europe have converged on this central London marketplace. This weekly networking event is called OpenCoffee Club, and is one of a significant handful of meetings for a bounce-back generation of internet entrepreneurs, future technocrats and investors to hook up and share: perchance also for some VC venture capital to change hands. Here, amid the banquettes and table lamps, its as though the dotcom crash of 2000 never happened. Saul Klein, 37, who set up OpenCoffee Club last February, says the idea came at the right time. There are now OpenCoffee events in more than 80 locations around the world, which shows the extent of the interest in internet companies. Kleins aim is to bring the informal business culture that go-for-it Californian positivity of Silicon Valley to the UK. A veteran of various dotcoms, including Lovefilm and Skype, he prefers to see the start-ups as companies rather than just dotcoms. You dont think of Tesco as a dotcom, do you? But it makes millions from its internet platform. Last year he set up an entrepreneurs forum called Seedcamp, which attracted interest from 274 internet-based companies. Twenty were chosen for the forum, which is likely to become an annual event. (The Sunday Times)
SUBJECT 1 5.
"My husband's American, we're living in London and English completely dominates our household," says Romy-Rose's French-born mother, Delphine. "If we didn't go to these classes, my daughter's only link with French language and culture would be me." Ask the other parents who have brought their children to Club Petit Pierrot, in St John's Wood, and they're divided between those fighting to keep their own first language alive and those like twoyear-old Julian Clemente's mother, Stacey. An American, she is aware of how useful a foreign language can be, not just as a business qualification, but as an all-round horizon-broadener. "We're really bad at learning languages in the States," she says. "The only one I was ever taught in school was Spanish, and I never really learnt to speak it properly. "My husband and I decided before Julian was born that we wanted him to speak another language, to get some insight into another way not just of talking, but of thinking. As it happens, we've got a French nanny, so that's been great practice for him. What's more, he doesn't think it strange that she speaks to him in French. He accepts it, doesn't even have to think twice about it and just goes straight into talking French." No surprise there, says educational psychologist Dr Marion Farmer of the University of Northumbria. "From a very early age, children in families with different nationalities know instinctively which is the appropriate language to talk to, say, Grandad, as opposed to Mum," she says. "What's more, speaking different languages is actually very good for the development of the brain. It improves the process of metacognition, which is to say it gives children a broader understanding of what language is all about." (The Telegraph)
SUBJECT 1 6.
Scientists are finalising plans to link radio wave detectors in five countries and create a device sensitive enough to pick up signals from worlds the other side of the galaxy. By connecting banks of detectors in fields across Britain, France, Holland, Sweden and Germany, astronomers aim to create a radio telescope that will have the accuracy of a machine the size of Europe. They believe it could solve some of the universe's most important secrets - including the discovery of radio broadcasts from intelligent extraterrestrials. 'This system works by collecting radio waves over a range of frequencies,' said cosmologist Robert Nichol of Portsmouth University. 'These can then be analysed using arrays of computers which can identify patterns from the data streaming from our detectors. 'Some of these signals will reveal information about the early universe, for example. However, broadcasts by alien intelligences would also be revealed by our computers because we will, primarily, be collecting radio signals. Signals that have regular patterns will give themselves away as the possible handiwork of extraterrestrials. Such work is a bonus, however. The main work of the system is basic research,' added Nichol. The project - known as Lofar (low frequency array) - was launched in Holland several years ago, but has attracted the attention of other European astronomers. All have agreed to build their own banks of detectors, which can then be linked to those in Holland. Britain is committed to building one set, while requests for money for another three have been put to research councils. (The Guardian)
SUBJECT 1 7.
On a small stage under an inky Kenyan sky, a Samburu tribesman stands opposite a Canadian Inuit woman imitating the sound of a lion. She responds, note perfect, and they bounce sound back and forth. The two cultures may not be able to communicate with words, but with similar 'throat singing' techniques they can jam into the night. This is just one of many cross-cultural collaborations you'll witness at Earth Festival, a two-day international music and arts event held at the 100,000-acre Laikipia Nature Conservancy on the edge of the Great Rift Valley. Earth's producer, Italian-born but Kenyan-raised Sveva Gallmann, says: 'This is the "cradle of humanity", a symbolic place to bring people together, united by music, art and nature.' Of the 500 or so guests gathered at Earth, most are white Kenyans. The festival's tiny size is part of its charm (organisers say it will never exceed 1,000). As we gather at sunset for the opening ceremony on a vast open plain, the atmosphere's one of a big private party. Schoolchildren from the local community sing a welcome, women from the Pokot tribe dance, and we join in a Samburu prayer. Besides bringing cultures together, Earth's goal is to highlight environmental issues, and a different elemental theme is chosen each year. For 2008 it's water. Money from ticket sales will go to the Great Rift Valley Trust for water projects in local communities, including wells, pumps, and rainwater harvesting systems for schools. (Some tribes in this area have to walk 12km every day for fresh water supplies.) (The Guardian) . SUBJECT 1 8.
Boarding: hard times? Is it wise to send a child away to board at seven? Among children boarding from the age of seven or eight, there are approximately twice as many boys as girls. By 16, the numbers are more equal, with roughly five girls for every six boys. Many middle-class parents continue to feel that teenage girls need to be protected, to some extent, from the pressures exerted by the opposite sex. Consequently, you get many parents who send their daughters to boarding school in the sixth form in the belief that they will probably do better in their exams without boys to distract them. "More and more parents seem to think that two years at boarding school is about right," says Hilary Moriarty, national director of the Boarding Schools Association. "It gives children the opportunity to learn independent study skills in a safe and secure environment, without having Mum and Dad on their back." The link between boarding and doing well in exams has been widely acknowledged. Lord Adonis, the Schools Minister, has recently been liaising with both state and independent boarding schools to see if they would consider admitting children in care on a subsidised basis. This follows research by the Royal Wanstead Children's Foundation, a charity subsidising boarding school places for vulnerable children, which suggests that such children do 85 per cent better than average in exams after just three years at boarding school. There are certainly no hard-and-fast rules but such statistics are compelling. And if you give your children a say in whether and when they board, you are more likely to be satisfied with the outcome. (The Telegraph)
SUBJECT 1 9.
Boarding: hard times? Is it wise to send a child away to board at seven? 'If I had not been sent away to boarding school," wrote Stephen Fry in his autobiography, "I would have wondered what was wrong with me. I would have felt rejected and left out." To Fry, his father was only doing what his own father had done - packed him off to prep school at seven, leaving him to sink or swim in a Dickensian world of beatings and cold showers. The beatings may be history and showers may now have hot taps, but boarding schools are remarkably durable. For every 21stcentury parent who has vowed never to subject his children to what he went through, there is another parent determined to maintain the family tradition. As Jeremy Clarkson ruefully commented when he deposited his daughter outside the boarding school gates: "It's a barbaric and hateful thing to do. What makes it worse is that she's going to absolutely love it." What has changed is the age at which it is thought both wise and acceptable to send a child away from home. A few seven-year-olds still suffer the same fate as Fry, but the number is down to a trickle - there were barely 200 seven-year-old boarders in the whole of Britain last year. It is more common for children to start boarding at the age of 11, 13 or even older. Every parent you talk to seems to have a different theory - inevitably rooted in their own experiences - about what is right and wrong. It is still quite a common perception, for example, that boys need "toughening up" by being subjected to the disciplines of an institution and that the sooner that process starts, the better. (The Telegraph)
feeling or showing that you had not done something
SUBJECT 1 10.
As educators return to class this fall, so will a generation of middle and high school students more digitally sophisticated than ever before. Where are kids logging on, and what can we do to ensure responsible online behavior while still harnessing their passion for the Internet? Sitting at a table in the computer lab at the Prospect Sierra Middle School in El Cerrito, Calif., munching a sandwich from a brown-bag lunch, Emily, a seventh-grader, is filling me in on Neopets, a site where she goes to create virtual pets and mingle with other pet owners in the fictional land of Neotopia. Her classmate Mariko, who has a Web site of her own, seems unimpressed. "It's basically a walking advertisement," she offers wryly. The rest of the students at the table share their Internet horror stories. "I went to a chat room just to check it out, and now I get thirty pieces of junk mail a day," says Matt, a sixth-grader who spends about half an hour online daily. Alyse, an eighth-grader with eight Instant Messenger screen names, puts it differently: "I hate the Internet. It's a mess," she says, recounting how she unintentionally found herself at a neo-Nazi site while trying to gather information on the Holocaust. All the kids at the table agree that chain letters and Internet hoaxes are "creepy." Welcome to the world of teens online, a digital generation that's comfortable tossing around terms like spam and broadband, casually visiting chat rooms (although most dismiss them as stupid), or disabling a cookie that the latest digital music site has surreptitiously placed on their hard drive. This level of tech sophistication is not just a phenomenon among upper-middle-class kids like those I talked to at Prospect Sierra. (Amy Poftak, Net-Wise Teens: Safety, Ethics, and Innovation)
SUBJECT 1 11.
Last week I saw an advertisement for a brand new product that completely sold me - and then completely unsold me - in a matter of seconds. The ad was a full page one in a newspaper; the product was a svelte, sleek new touch screen mobile phone by Korean electronics giant LG. But it wasn't its svelteness or sleekness and touch-screenness that attracted me, but a line of copy that put the phone momentarily on my early Christmas shopping list: "a 5.1 megapixel camera". Five megapixels! That many pixels plus a seriously snazzy lens equals one serious camera. You see, I have a mobile phone. I need a mobile phone. I can't do without a mobile phone. A mobile phone has a permanent place in the pocket of my jeans. But having started a website with a picture gallery and a blog, I now look at the world as a photo-opportunity and need a decent camera in the pocket of my jeans as well. The solution? Upgrade to the new LG phone. Sold. And then I saw the name of the phone. The LG Viewty. Yes, Viewty. View plus beauty. Viewty. Even if this is the best phone in the world, and by all accounts it's pretty close, I just can't buy something called the Viewty. It's too ridiculous, and ridiculous on too many levels. Do names matter? You bet they do. A name is like a condensed piece of branding and advertising all in one. It can tell you the product's proposition, purpose and positioning; it can give the product credibility, humour, quality, accessibility, exclusiveness. It can't kill a product but it can hinder or help its success. (Naresh Ramchandani, Named and shamed, The Guardian) .
SUBJECT 1 12.
The number of under-18s studying at English universities has gone up by over 50% in the past six years, according to figures that suggest that ambitious teenagers are taking advantage of new antidiscrimination laws to demand an early place. There are nearly 8,000 under-18s at university - up from less than 5,000 in 2002, figures obtained from the Higher Education Statistics Agency by the Guardian show. The overwhelming majority started only a year early, at 17, but official documents suggest there are up to 100 university students under 16. Universities have been forced to examine child protection laws that are usually the preserve of schools. Many universities have preferred to resist approaches from children under 18 for fear of the "in loco parentis" role they have to take. But a change to the age discrimination laws in 2006 now means they have to consider all applicants, regardless of age. Margaret Morrisey, chair of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said: "The danger is that while a child may be bright and need stimulation, universities can't provide for the needs of a child. To push them prematurely into an adult world might not be responsible." This year's Cambridge university prospectus says: "There is no age requirement for admission ... although the vast majority of undergraduates are 18 years or older when they come into residence. All applicants will need to demonstrate that they have the maturity and personal skills to cope with university level study." (Polly Curtis, Rise of the prodigies: 50% increase in university students under 18, The Guardian)
SUBJECT 1
13.
It already dominates cyberspace, but now Google is extending its reach into the heart of British culture. The internet giant is in talks with the Shakespeare Globe Trust, the charitable body that owns London's Globe Theatre, about sponsoring a new visitor centre that will form part of an ambitious refurbishment programme. If a deal is struck, the expanded exhibition space will be called 'In Search of Shakespeare'. Plans to build the centre, on an existing site next to the theatre, are well advanced and the Globe is set to launch a fundraising drive to pay for it, along with other improvements, on 23 April, the commonly accepted anniversary of the Bard's birth. While purists may frown on the idea of teaming up with the 70bn American corporation, a sponsorship deal would enable the theatre, a replica of the original Elizabethan playhouse on the south bank of the Thames, to offer visitors a more compelling experience, according to a source at the Trust. It also hopes to boost the theatre's profile, and attendances, by persuading Hollywood actors to star in productions of Shakespeare's plays. From 1969 American film director and actor Sam Wanamaker spearheaded a campaign to rebuild the Globe on the site of the original theatre, which was destroyed by fire in 1613, 14 years after it was built. Construction began in 1991 and it was finally completed in 1997, four years after Wanamaker's death. (James Robinson, Google embraces the Glob, The Observer) . SUBJECT 1 14.
The destruction of Sumatra's natural forests is accelerating global climate change and pushing endangered species closer to extinction. A study from WWF() claims that converting the forests and peat swamps of just one Sumatran province into plantations for pulpwood and palm oil is generating more annual greenhouse gas emissions than the Netherlands, and is endangering local elephant and tiger populations. The fastest rate of deforestation in Indonesia is occurring in central Sumatra's Riau province, where some 4.2m hectares (65%) of its tropical forests and peat swamps have been cleared for industrial plantations in the past 25 years, the study shows. Illegal and legal forest clearance for the development of settlements, infrastructure and agriculture has traditionally driven deforestation in Riau, but the "speed and finality" of forest conversion for the rapidly expanding pulp and paper and palm oil industries is matched "by no other type of deforestation", the report says. In the past 25 years, there has been a clear correlation in Riau between the clearance of forests and declining wildlife populations, largely thought to be due to an increase in human-wildlife conflict as animals are driven from their disappearing forest habitats. The report shows there has been a huge decline in elephant numbers from an estimated 1,067-1,617 in 1984 to possibly as few as 210 individuals today. If this trend continues and the two largest remaining elephant forests are not protected, Riau's wild elephant population will face extinction, the report warns. Similarly, figures in the report show that Riau's Sumatran tiger population has declined by 70% in 25 years, from 640 to 192 today. Unless the last remaining patches of tiger habitat are connected by wildlife corridors, these too will face extinction, the report says. (Jessica Aldred, Sumatran deforestation driving climate change and species extinction, The Guardian)
SUBJECT 1
15.
The growth of developing economies in Africa, Asia and South America has accelerated global warming far beyond official predictions and it is developed nations that must act to halt the potentially catastrophic consequences, according to a new study from the world's leading temporary power supplier, Aggreko.The warning, which has shocked environment campaigners, comes from Aggreko's chief executive, Rupert Soames, who said: 'The threat of global warming is far greater than people have previously thought. The consensus figure on the world's power consumption going forward to 2015 is simply wrong.' 'What's happening is the developing economies are growing like topsy,' said Soames. 'There's work coming into these countries and when people earn they want to buy mobile phones, TVs and fridges. Now, who are we to tell the developing economies to go without these things to protect the earth from global warming?' However, Soames believes the study has produced a solution to increasing concerns over global warming. 'There are about 8,000 power stations in the world and the vast majority are highly polluting coal-fired things,' he said. 'If the world is serious about making an impact against global warming, then just turn the worst 150 polluters around the world into clean nuclear stations and the effect would be the same as if you immediately took every single car in the world off the road. It'd be that dramatic.' Mary Taylor, energy campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said the report from Aggreko painted a 'grim picture indeed. The increasing emissions are of huge concern,' she said. (David Parsley, Climate change 'is accelerating', The Observer) . SUBJECT 1 16.
Charities hit by falling donations over the past year yesterday welcomed figures showing online fundraiser justgiving.com had channelled more than 250m to the sector since its launch in 2001.The Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), which advises good causes on fundraising, said the private company was enabling charities to tap Britain's youth with viral marketing and sophisticated processing technology for online donations. Smaller charities, which find it costly to raise funds and track donations, benefited the most, CAF said. Charities need all the help they can get to target a new generation of donors after a recent drop in charitable giving. According to the latest figures from the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and CAF, the proportion of the population that gave to charity in 2006/07 dropped to 54%, down 3% from 2005/06. The UK Giving 2006/07 report found overall donations slipped to 9.5bn - 3% lower than the previous year when accounting for inflation. Large international charities with well-known brand names expanded strongly, leaving many smaller charities to struggle, it said. Justgiving.com has spread the appeal of charitable giving to a younger generation. Hundreds of participants in this year's London Marathon, which takes place on April 13, have asked friends and relations to send their donations via the justgiving.com site and hundreds more have linked to the site from their personal pages on social networking sites. CAF head of research Richard Harrison said the website allowed young people to include charitable giving as part of their social life and the way they portray themselves on social sites. "It is bringing giving to the public in an easy and enjoyable way that makes it part of their lifestyle." (Phillip Inman, Charities go online, The Guardian)
SUBJECT 1
17.
A few bad reasons for wanting to change your course: you haven't yet started the assignment due in tomorrow; all the cool people are doing something else; you fancy someone in another faculty. And one good reason: you have developed a passionate interest in a different subject, and regularly daydream about a life devoted to its study. Having a good excuse for giving up a course is essential because lots of people will want to know about it. This kind of change is rarely possible, or advisable, without speaking at length to your personal tutor, a careers adviser, a student finance officer, and various members of your family. If you are feeling bored, try changing something else first - your selection of modules, friends, variety of instant rice. Often minor changes can make your university experience more positive. Even if your career aspirations are radically different since you started the course, a few tweaks may be enough to meet them. It is important to establish whether the course you want to change to will suit you any better. Unhappiness with a subject is often down to knowing too little about it beforehand. Some students are surprised to find that studying English demands a lot of reading, or that maths involves doing sums. Even if you're sure about why you want the change, it is rarely as good as a rest, especially if it means catching up on a term or two's work in your spare time or mastering the rules of an entirely new subject. Maybe a rest would be better. Taking time out would give you plenty of time to work out what you really want to do, and to earn enough money to pay for it. (Harriet Swain, The art of changing course, The Guardian) . SUBJECT 1 18.
In 1950s America, being black was undoubtedly a disadvantage - children born to black parents looked at a future of inequality. I'm sure there were well-meaning white liberals who thought that the source of their inequality was their colour. And that they, as liberals, should somehow accommodate black people. Similarly, our problem is often seen as being our deafness. And wellmeaning people seek to accommodate us by bringing in equality laws - not because of people's attitudes, but because they are necessary. In that way, we aren't really accepted as full and equal beings. We're told by people who have never experienced deafness that we are disabled and that we are in denial if we claim otherwise. Yes, I've had plenty of obstacles in life, but I see these as the result of a society built for people who can hear. Anything for deaf people comes as an afterthought after years of lobbying. TV didn't incorporate subtitles until the 70s. Fire alarms could easily all have a flashing light, but you have to ask for one. Sign language, like French, could be taught in schools. When it became as freely used as spoken language on Martha's Vineyard in the 19th century, deafness wasn't considered a disability. That's why people recoil in horror when a deaf person says, "Actually, I wouldn't mind if I have a deaf child," and refuses to take steps to ensure their offspring is hearing. Parents who would dare choose a deaf embryo are seen as disturbing. But if people recognised that their own attitudes make deafness a disability, would it matter whether someone was born deaf? (Cathy Heffernan, The Guardian)
SUBJECT 1 19.
The people are always talking about the problem of youth. If there is one- which I take leave to doubt then it is older people who create it, not the young themselves. L et us get down to fundamentals and agree that the young are after all human beings people like their elders. There is only one difference between an old man and a young one: the young man has a glorious future before him and the old man has a splendid future behind him. When I was a teenager, I felt that I was just young and uncertain and I would have been very pleased to be regarded as something so interesting as a problem. For one thing, being a problem gives you a certain identity, and that is one of the things the young are busily engaged in seeking. I find young people exciting. They have an air of freedom, and they have not a dreary* commitment to mean ambitions or love of comfort. They are not anxious social climbers, and they have no devotion to material things. All this seems to me to link them with life, and the origins of things. All that is in my mind when I meet a young person. He may be conceited or ill-mannered, but I do not turn for protection to dreary clichs about respect for elders as if mere age were a reason for respect. I accept that we are equals, and I will argue with him as an equal, if I think he is wrong. *sad or cheerless (Fielden Hughes, Out of the Air, in The Listener) . SUBJECT 1 20.
I'm considering taking a new job; my only hesitation is that the person who would be my new boss is a good friend. It's a wonderful career opportunity, but I am not sure what will happen to our relationship if we work together. This requires some serious planning and thought. It can work, but only if proper precautions are taken. That involves some serious discussion with your friend and prospective boss. First, ask yourself what is so wonderful about this position, regardless if the boss is a friend or not. Would you even consider this job, career or company if your friend wasn't involved? Get a clear explanation and understanding of the actual responsibilities of the job. If my prospective new boss were someone I had never met before this exciting offer of employment, would I want to work under her or him? What traits do they have as a boss that would help me reach my goals? Ask your prospective boss to pretend you weren't friends. Then ask him or her to compare you with other candidates for this position - or compare you to others who have previously held this position. What makes you the best candidate for this position and why? It's important to take the friend factor out of the equation and consider if you would really be happy in this position if you were working for someone else. Many people have worked with friends and find out they can't stand that person as a boss, but love them as a friend. That's because running a business is much different than maintaining a friendship. (Matt Krumrie, Working With A Friend As A Boss, in Star Tribune)
SUBJECT 1
21.
American school boards spend more than $20 billion a year to build public schools and billions more on other facilities issues. As state education budgets get tighter, it's time for schools to consider more creative, cost-efficient ways to construct and update facilities. That's where a recent study by the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute offers helpful direction. The updated report from the institute's Center for School Change documents how sharing space in cooperative arrangements can benefit schools and social service agencies. The report offers case studies on 22 public school buildings in 11 states, including Minnesota. The programs are relatively small (500 students or fewer) and are in rural, suburban and urban areas. Many share space or are next door to recreation centers, libraries, colleges, preschools or seniors' programs. Similar arrangements are helping schools in Europe. In the Netherlands, one school sits above commercial shops and another is underneath an apartment complex. Think of the volunteer, internship and job training opportunities made possible by those arrangements. Community building is another benefit. Smaller, co-located programs encourage interaction between children and adults, which builds relationships and lessens generational fear and suspicion. Researchers found that the most successful programs have good arts programs, engage students in community service and share or co-locate with other agencies. On average, schools that have 500 students or fewer are safer and have higher achievement and graduation rates. As school leaders grapple* with declining enrollment and shrinking resources, more should seek opportunities to share space. As Center for School Change Director Joe Nathan points out, they should set aside the "edifice complex'' and work together. * To struggle (Star Tribune) . SUBJECT 1 22.
Food and drink companies should be banned from marketing unhealthy snacks and drinks to young children via new media such as social networking sites and text messaging, a coalition of international consumer groups and health bodies recommends today. The group is urging governments to adopt a code that they say would curb the rising obesity rates among children. The code would restrict junk food marketing, including outlawing the use of cartoon characters, free gifts and competitions aimed at younger audiences. The federation of consumer organisations - including the UK group Which? - wants its code to be adopted by governments as part of the World Health Organisation's broader strategy to tackle obesity and diet-related disease. There are 177 million children worldwide threatened by obesity-related diseases. The code, which will be recommended to the WHO's decision-making body, the World Health Assembly in May, tackles the failures of the food industry to regulate itself. Leading food, soft drink and confectionery companies spent billions on advertising in 2006, but that excludes undisclosed sums spent on things as online games, cartoon characters and celebrity tie-ins. Some of the world's leading food manufacturers market to children on social networking websites and internet chat programmes. In the UK, popular brands such as McDonald's, Starburst, Haribo and Skittles have switched to the internet to target children since new rules have made it difficult to advertise during children's television. The proposed code specifically targets the marketing of foods that are poor in nutrients and high in fat, sugar and salt. It also demands a ban on radio or TV adverts promoting unhealthy food between 6am and 9pm, any promotion of unhealthy food in schools, and the inclusion of free gifts, toys or collectable items which appeal to children to promote unhealthy foods. (Rebecca Smithers, The Guardian)
SUBJECT 1 23.
Humphrys told his interviewee, T. Lichy, a writer and artist, that deafness is a "pretty serious disability", even after Lichy told him he didn't view it as such. The fact that Lichy himself is deaf didn't matter. Because Humphrys, never having been deaf himself, considers it a disability, he considers it "deeply disturbing" that Lichy objects to legislation that would force deaf people to reject deaf embryos for hearing ones. Humphrys' comments don't surprise me. Deaf people who don't consider themselves disabled come up against them over and over again. They stem from a society that doesn't consider deaf people equal enough to even say whether or not they are disabled. Plenty of deaf people consider themselves disabled. If Humphrys lost his hearing it would have a severe impact as he wouldn't, as he said so vehemently, be able to hear Beethoven (who was deaf himself). But for those born deaf, the experience can be completely different. We can't hear the phone, but we have minicoms, phones that you type on. We can't hear the television, but we have subtitles. Lichy said it was up to deaf people to decide if they were disabled. I don't fully agree. When deafness stops people doing what they would otherwise do, it is a disability. But how can I call myself disabled when I don't think I've been that put out in life because I am deaf? Some of the most confident and well-adjusted people I know are deaf children from deaf families. The confidence stems from a combination of early communication through sign language and from feeling part of a community with a strong sense of identity. (Cathy Heffernan, The Guardian)
. SUBJECT 1 24.
Compassion is not a response the media seem able to sustain. That small window that affords a degree of respect for the grief of the bereaved seems to shrink ever more, but even so the treatment of Fiona MacKeown, the mother of the 15-year-old murdered on a Goa beach, has plumbed new depths of harsh judgmentalism. While MacKeown struggles to get the police to take on the case of her daughter's killing, she has a second child lying in hospital in the UK with a broken neck from a car accident that happened shortly before her daughter's death. Was she a perfect mother? Did she make mistakes? Was there an error of judgment? No, yes, yes: and what parent wouldn't admit to the same tally? But this has become one of those cases on which the smug middle classes gorge themselves with self-righteousness. The MacKeowns' home in caravans in a field in Devon is held up as evidence of hippy parenting. But when did unconventionality become a crime? MacKeown is not the only one. Kate McCann was criticised for dressing too well, not crying enough, her hair too neat. No woman emerges from the public scrutiny unscathed*. Let's be clear, the scale of the intolerance is well beyond rationality. There is a profound superstition (or social mechanism) at work whereby we transmute anxiety into persecution. MacKeown has to be made into a monster; it enables readers to distance themselves from the tragedy and so find flimsy reassurance that it could not happen to them. The reader enjoys a rich moment of "I'm not like that" selfcongratulation: this is how the media turns tragedy into a form of entertainment. * not hurt (Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian)
SUBJECT 1 25.
We are all too familiar with debates about sport and political controversies - should we allow an Olympic games in China? Should England play cricket in Zimbabwe? - but we hear little about sport and political ideas. Does the history of sport demonstrate the rightness, or otherwise, of a political world view? I would argue the history of sport challenges all the political systems of thought. Sport, like life, advances through evolutionary individualism, not top-down institutional diktat. Unfortunately for those who like to control sport from the centre, you simply can't stop people getting better at sport by their own devices. Sport is about problem solving. A challenge is set: kick the ball into the net; hit the ball over the boundary; jump over the bar. Rules are (eventually) agreed - no kicking of opponents; don't pick up the ball with your hands; stay within this area, and so on. From then on, it is pure Darwinism players innovate constantly, sometimes deliberately, sometimes by accident. Gifted human beings, if they address a physiological challenge with their full attention and talents, invariably come up with pretty good solutions. When they are exceptional, they rewrite convention and the game inches forward. This is taking place all over the sporting world, beyond the control of administrators or writers of textbooks. As such, sport is irreverent, constantly changing and essentially resistant to authority. Sport never stands still long enough to be effectively ensnared by an over-arching political theory. It is much too interesting for that. (Ed Smith, The Guardian) . SUBJECT 1 26.
Young children love to talk about their injuries. Band-Aids are conversation starters for kids. Luckily elbows and knees can heal pretty quickly but when a child says something mean like, "You're stupid, that hurts another child's feelings. Hurt feelings can take a longer time to mend and continued teasing can have long lasting consequences. Teachers have developed through music, stories and activities creative tools for parents to help children learn about age-old character words that relate to a family's real life experiences. To help children monitor their remarks, parents and educators can teach appropriate vocabulary and physical cues to help children label and recognize feelings. When a child is able to recognize the physical signs and then say they're angry, scared or frustrated, undesirable behaviours can fade. Most often in early childhood, hurtful words are said because of the lack of vocabulary to describe a feeling. Young children can be taught tolerance and respect of individual's differences. These young minds are eager to learn that people come in all sizes, shapes and colours. People might express themselves through different languages-perhaps they even speak with their hands or read with their fingers. As children mature, if this message isn't reinforced, they can become cliquish with their own set of priorities. Starting in elementary school, bullying and teasing are hot topics. Most occurrences happen away from adult supervision so that the victim feels powerless. As parents and educators, we need to teach our children the difference between tattling and asking for help. We also need to encourage them to find their voice to stand up for themselves and others when bullying occurs. (Give Bullying a Knockout, by Caroline Figiel)
SUBJECT 1 27.
Historically, music education and music therapy researchers have provided a clear evidence that music and music education does have a measurable impact on individuals. Three major developments in recent years have strengthened the position in promoting music as a significant discipline that ought to be at the core of the curriculum. Firstly, it is the extensive amount of brain research, much of it using music to understand the human brain. Howard Gardner's development of the "Theory of Multiple Intelligences" provides a model of human intelligence for educational reform that gives music a significant place in the development of educational programs; last but not least, research suggests a causal relationship between music and aspects of intelligence. A significant number of neurologists are studying the relationship between music and brain development. Musicians who learned to play string or keyboard instruments before adolescence appear to have larger areas of the brain devoted to touch perception of the fingers. Moreover, exposure to music rewires neural circuits. Music has been used as a vehicle for remediating audio logical and neurological dysfunctions and facilitating higher levels of brain function. In the January 1997 article, "The Musical Mind," Gardner was quoted as saying that music might be a special intelligence which should be viewed differently from other intelligences. He stated that musical intelligence probably carries more emotional, spiritual, and cultural weight than the other intelligences. But perhaps most important, Gardner says, is that music helps some people organize the way they think and work by helping them develop in other areas, such as math, language, and spatial reasoning. Therefore, students are entitled to all the artistic and cultural riches the human species has created. (An Intelligence View of Music Education by Arthur Harvey) . SUBJECT 1 28.
Chinatown suggests that the very notion of an honest, trustworthy leader is a myth. In Chinatown, people in positions of power are never what they seem to be, and their true nature is always harmful to the people beneath them. In the world of Chinatown, anyone with any authority becomes a mere cog in a machine that maintains corruption. Many of the people in Chinatown claim ignorance of the corruption that surrounds them, often with tragic results. Most of the characters have some dark shame or secret haunting their past, a situation that on a larger scale echoes the hidden corruption of the world in which they live. When people live too long in a city with deep-rooted darkness, they will naturally end up with a bit of it in themselves. One basic element of the American dream is the idea that common people can move into unclaimed wilderness and transform it into valuable land. Water, and the irrigation systems that provide it, first helped the American West blossom into the rich and thriving area it is today. This situation turns into an excuse for murder, too. Part of the allure of America is its promise of success for the common person, the chance to control ones own destiny with the help of available resources.. Chinatown shows the promise of Americas future betrayed by the desires of its corrupt present because the city itself serves as the symbol for the true nature of every city. No matter how good a character is or how noble his or her intentions are, Polanski is careful to show how impossible it is for the common people to overcome or even escape the corruption that is so pervasive in the world of the film and the world itself.
SUBJECT 1 29.
It seems that when our children are in the elementary grades, parental involvement in their day to day school activities is easy. Attending meetings and school plays and helping with homework assignments keep us connected to school life and help us keep a close watch on our children's progress. But for most parents, as their children progress through school, the monitoring of their schoolwork and activities gets a bit more complicated. When the kids reach high school, they have several different teachers and the academic demands become more advanced. There are also fewer activities that draw parents into school life at this level. Teens become seemingly more independent, translated they don't need (or want) us as much, they become mobile, and all of a sudden it becomes more difficult to keep up with what is going on in their lives, both academically and socially. They are unique creatures; what works for one may not work for another. One teen may be a very successful student despite having little, if any, parental guidance. Another might have parents doing "all the right things" and still venture into areas that are detrimental to their success. But the one common characteristic teachers have observed among most successful high school students is that of continued parental involvement during the high school years. Consequently, parental involvement in teen education is directly related to increased achievement. Frequent communication with teachers, monitoring of schoolwork, responding to requests from the school for interaction, and taking an active part in your teen's preparation for the transition to life after high school are integral components of what parental involvement should include at the high school level. (Parental Involvement during the High School Years, by Linda Hinkle)
. SUBJECT 1 30.
Does the thought of making a presentation to a group of peers bring you out in a cold sweat? If so, you're not alone. The mere idea of having to 'stand and deliver' in front of others is enough to strike dread into the heart of the most experienced business person, let alone students. Yet effective spoken communication is an essential skill for career success in today's business and academic environments. So what can people do to add sparkle to their speaking skills and overcome this understandable but unfounded fear of speaking in public? The bad news is that presentation nerves are quite normal and you will probably always suffer from them. The good news is that interesting speakers are made and not born. You can learn the techniques that will turn you into a calm and convincing speaker. The first step is to persuade yourself you can do it. Just like an actor waiting in the wings, or an athlete warming up for the big race, you need to get yourself on a confidence high. Try focusing your thoughts on moments of particular success during your life to date. Remember that the physical symptoms of nerves are most obvious to you. The audience won't see your knees knocking or your hands trembling so don't worry about it. Some of the worst presentations are those where the speaker clearly hasn't devoted enough time to it beforehand. Let's face it; a presentation that's slung together half an hour before it's going to be delivered isn't going to impress anyone. (BBC NEWS adapted)
SUBJECT 1 31.
The seventh spiritual law of success is the Law of Dharma. Dharma is a Sanskrit word that means purpose in life. The Law of Dharma says that we have taken manifestation in physical form to fulfill a purpose. According to this law, you have a unique talent and a unique way of expressing it. There is something that you can do better than anyone else in the whole world and for every unique talent and unique expression of that talent, there are also unique needs. When these needs are matched with the creative expression of your talent, that is the spark that creates affluence. Expressing your talents to fulfill needs creates unlimited wealth and abundance. If you could start children right from the beginning with this thought, youd see the effect it has on their lives. In fact, I did this with my own children. Again and again, I told them there was a reason why they were here, and they had to find out what that reason was for themselves. I also taught them to meditate. What I really want you to focus on is asking yourself how you can serve humanity, and asking yourself what your unique talents are. Because you have a unique talent that no one else has, and you have a special way of expressing that talent, and no one else has it. They ended up going to the best schools, getting the best grades, and even in college, they are unique in that they are financially self-sufficient, because they are focused on what they are here to give. This then, is the Law of Dharma. (Chopra, Deepak - The 7 Laws of Success)
. SUBJECT 1 32.
Researchers from universities in America and England have developed a new software program that translates peoples emotions into computer-generated artwork. The technology is still in its infancy and analyses only eight basic facial expressions, including the position and shape of the mouth, the openness of the eyes and the angle of the eyes. These visual cues are picked up by a web cam and are used to make an approximation of the emotional state of the viewer. The application uses the data it gathers to select hues and types of brush strokes as each expression alters. Lead researcher Dr. John Collomosse of the University of Bath in southwest England said the technology "does all of this in real time, meaning that as the viewer's emotions change, the artwork responds accordingly". Collomosse calls his experiments empathic painting. He said: Once you have the programme and have calibrated it for the individual viewer, you are ready to start recreating personalized art based on your mood." The project is part of ongoing research that is aimed at developing a range of advanced artwork tools for use in the computer graphics industry. It may also have practical uses in other fields. Practitioners in the realms of neurology and psychology could apply the software in determining the psychological state of patients through the interpretation of the computer-generated images. It may also provide a little more pizzazz to the mundaneness of our humdrum lives by automatically placing uplifting artwork in front of us wherever we go. No more gloomy faces on the daily commute. (BBC NEWS adapted)
SUBJECT 1 33.
Old people are always saying that the young are not what they were. It has never been truer than it is today. The young are better educated. They have a lot more money to spend and enjoy more freedom. They grow up more quickly and are not so dependent on their parents. They think more for themselves and do not blindly accept the ideals of their elders. Events which the older generation remembers vividly are nothing more than past history. The old always assume that they know best for the simple reason that they have been around a bit longer. They do not like to feel that their values are questioned or threatened. And this is precisely what the young are doing. What they reject more than anything is conformity. Office hours, for instance, are nothing more than enforced slavery. And what about clothing? Who said that all the men in the world should wear grey suits and convict haircuts? Why have the older generation so often used violence to solve their problems? Traditionally, the young have turned to their elders for guidance. Today, the situation might be reversed. The old, if they are prepared to admit it, could learn a thing or two from their children. One of the biggest lessons they could learn is that enjoyment is not sinful. Enjoyment is a principle one could apply to all aspects of life. It is surely not wrong to enjoy your work and enjoy your leisure. It is surely not wrong to live in the present rather than in the past or future. (The Younger Generation Knows Best)

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Ministerul Educaiei, Cercetrii i Tineretului Centrul Naional pentru Curriculum i Evaluare n nvmntul Preuniversitar

EXAMENUL DE BACALAUREAT 2008 Proba oral la Limba Englez L1 Intensiv 3 4 ore

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