Facultatea De Litere Catedra De Limbi Străine De Specialitate

II. Reading Comprehension 30 minutes, 30 points

1. Read the following text and fill in the blanks with the missing words: earthquakes, crater, dust, magma, eruption, explosion, orifice, conical, blown, material.

A volcano is an opening in the earth’s crust through which molten rock, usually called…………while underground and lava aboveground, pours forth. Because the emerging material accumulates near the………., most volcanoes in the course of time build up mountains with a characteristic………..shape that steepens toward the top, with a small depression or……….at the summit. Lava escapes almost continuously from a few volcanoes, but the majority are active only at intervals. A volcanic……….is one of the most awesome spectacles in all nature. Usually ………..provide a warning a few hors or a few days beforehand –minor shocks probably caused by the movement of gases and liquids underground. An……….or a series of explosions begins the eruption, sending a great cloud billowing upward from the crater. In the cloud there are various gases, …………, fragments of solid…………blown from the crater and the upper part of the volcano’s orifice, and larger solid fragments representing molten rock……….to bits and hurled upward by the violence of the explosions.

2. Insert the following sentences in their corresponding place in the text below. There is one extra variant that should be crossed out.

a. However, water may well have once been more abundant on Mars than it is today.

b. Yet Martian climates are exceedingly severe by our standards.

c. Another difficulty that life must face on Mars is the scarcity of water.

d. Mars rotates on its axis in a little over 24 h.

e. The earth’s surface water probably was vented from volcanoes early in its history.

f. Over half again farther from the sun than the earth, Mars receives considerably less light and heat.

The reddish planet Mars has long fascinated astronomers and laymen alike, for it is the only other known body on which surface conditions seemed suitable for life of some kind. ……… The thin atmosphere does little to screen solar ultraviolet radiation. If life exists on Mars, it is adapted to an environment that would soon destroy most earthly organisms. ………. Its revolution about the sun requires nearly 2 years, and its axis is inclined to the plane of its orbit at the same angle as the earth’s. These facts mean that the Martian day and night have about the same lengths as ours and that Martian seasons are 6 months long and at least as pronounced as ours. Its atmosphere, largely carbon dioxide, is extremely thin, so little of the sun’s heat is retained after nightfall. Daytime temperatures in summer rise to perhaps 30ºC, but at nightfall drop to perhaps -75ºC. ………. A trifle is certainly there, as water vapor in the atmosphere and possibly in the white polar caps as well, but apparently not a great deal. The polar caps, which increase in area in winter and decrease in area in summer, are believed to be almost entirely frozen carbon dioxide. ………… Some surface features photographed by the Mariner 9 spacecraft early in 1972 strongly suggest erosion by running water within the past million years or so. ……….. There seems to be no reason why the same process should not have occurred on Mars, whose surface is dotted with extinct volcanoes. Yet, the fact that terrestrial life requires liquid water and oxygen plus protection from solar ultraviolet radiation does not necessarily mean that life of some kind could not develop in their absence.

3. Read the text below and answer the questions in the space provided.

The ancient Egyptians saw the universe as a great box, with Egypt in the center of its long, narrow floor. The top of the box was the sky, from which lamps were suspended by means of ropes. These were the stars. Other lamps which were carried in heavenly boats traveled about the sky and appeared as planets. They thought the Milky Way was the equivalent of the Nile, and the regions through which it flowed were where dead Egyptians lived.

As time went on, people began to put together a remarkably accurate picture of the earth and the solar system. As early as the fifth century B.C., Parmenides declared that the earth was a sphere. It is probable that he realized this from listening to travelers. These discovered that, when they went north, a greater number of stars remained above the horizon all night. They also realized that, when they went south, they could see other stars (from instance, Canopus, which can not be seen from Greece). The early travelers also reported that the length of the day changed with what we now call latitude. This was rather difficult to explain in terms of a flat earth.

In time, when the ancient Greeks accepted that the earth was round, attempts were made to estimate its size. Aristotle quotes 400,000 stadia for the circumference. This is much too big. He does not say where he got this figure from. Probably he took it from the earlier work of Euxodus, a mathematician and astronomer. Archimedes later gave the circumference as 300,000 stadia . this is better, though still 20 percent in error.

Eratosthenes made the best of the early measurements of the earth’s circumference. He worked in the great library at Alexandria. He knew that, at Syene, which was south of Alexandria, the sun was directly overhead at midday on the first day of summer. On the first day of summer in 250 B.C., he carefully measured the extent to which the sun’s rays slanted away from the vertical at midday in Alexandria. He found that this angle was 1/50 of a complete circle, or a little over 7º. Since the distance from Syene to Alexandria was over 5,000 stadia, the circumference of the earth, corresponding to a full circle of 360º, must be 50 times 5,000, or 250,000 stadia. How long was a stadium? There were several stadia in use in the ancient world. Eratosthenes probably used the stadium of 517ft. This means a circumference of 24,500 mi. This is not far from more recent calculations of 24, 800 mi. In round numbers, the earth’s radius is 4,000 mi, the same as 6, 400 km.

Why is the earth round? We can understand the shape of the earth by considering the pressures beneath the earth’s surface. Pressure in water is familiar enough: a dam must be thicker at the bottom than at the top in order to withstand the greater pressure. A submarine can descend only a few hundred feet under the surface of the sea. Below that its hull will collapse. These forces are due to the weight of the overlying liquid. This is a consequence of the earth’s gravitational pull. With increasing distance below the surface of the earth, pressures become enormous. No material can resist these pressures without flowing in response. This means that one part of the earth cannot project outward very much farther than the other parts; if it did, the pressure under it would be greater than under the surrounding regions. The rock beneath the bump would then flow out to the sides until the pressures were equalized.

Thus gravity is what gives the earth a spherical shape and keeps all partsof its surface the same distance from the center. Such minor irregularities as mountains and ocean basins do not greatly disturb the pressure balance, but no large protuberance can exist.

a. Where was Egypt in the “box”?

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

b. What did the Milky Way correspond to?

c. Where did Parmenides probably get his information?

d. Who made the better estimate of the earth’s circumference, Aristotle or Archimedes?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

e. Why was Syene important to Eratosthenes?

f. How long was the stadium Eratosthenes used?

g. What is the most recent calculation of the earth’s circumference given in the text?

h. What happens to a submarine that goes down too deep?

i. Why is a dam thicker at the bottom than at the top?

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..….

j. Do mountains have any effect on the pressure balance?

IV. Writing 30 minutes, 30 points

Write an essay of no more than 200 words on one of the following topics. Use the space bellow.

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of rural tourism in Romania?

2. What are the most important things that high-school students can learn from the Geography classes?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Solutions:

II. Reading: 30 points

1. 1.magma, 2.orifice, 3.conical, 4.crater, 5.eruption, 6.earthquakes, 7.explosion, 8 dust, 9. material. 10 blown. 5 points

2. 1-b, 2-d, 3-c, 4-a, 5-e 10 points

3. a. Egypt was in the center of the long, narrow floor of the “box”. 15 points

b. Milky Way corresponded to the Nile

c. Parmenides got his information from the travelers he met.

d. It was Archimedes who made a better estimate of the earth’s circumference.

e. Syene was important because of its position right under the midday summer sun, which allowed Eratosthenes to use it to calculate the circumference of the earth.

f. Eratosthenes’s stadium measured 517 ft.

g. The most recent calculation of the earth’s circumference indicates 24,860 mi.

h. If a submarine goes down too deep, its hull will collapse.

i. A dam is thicker at the bottom in order to withstand water pressure.

j. Mountains do not have a great effect on the pressure balance.

III. Writing: 30 points

IV. Speaking: 20 points

10 points each subject X 2.

I. Tape script:

Presenter: Human beings cause destruction wherever they go. The latest casualty is the sea, where coral reefs are currently facing the most serious threat yet from tourism and the use of reefs for recreation.

Reefs grow extremely slowly and are produced by millions of tiny animals called stony-coral polyps. Aided by algae that live inside them, these animals produce from their bodies the limestone that forms the structure of the reefs. Since these creatures are so small, it takes a long time for the reef to increase in size.

It’s in the ecosystems of the coral reefs that we find the greatest biodiversity on our planet, rivaled only by that of the rainforests. Coral reefs may appear strong but they are not. In fact, they are extremely fragile systems, vulnerable to damage from natural causes such as disease, and from harm inflicted by humans. Snorkeling, scuba-diving and reef-walking, a new sport in which tourists walk along the reef wearing a helmet with an air-line going up a boat, now play a major role in the destruction of reefs, as does the growing trade in reef curios.

Better teaching techniques and equipment have made snorkeling and scuba-diving more popular. But thoughtless divers can directly damage the reef in various ways: accidentally breaking the coral by collision, or by holding, standing or kneeling on the coral. Just touching the coral can damage the mucus that protects it from infection, increasing susceptibility to disease.

Reef walking is a major problem. When people walk across reefs, they stir up large concentrations of sediment, spoiling the appearance of the coral and reducing the growth rate. The trade in reef curios, especially pieces of coral and shells, is causing changes to the way reefs function. Rare marine species are particularly vulnerable, and their disappearance alters the complex food chains of the reef. The loss of any marine organisms, dead or alive, upsets the complex nutrient cycles so important to marine life.

So what’s being done about these problems? International organizations have been set up to increase public awareness of reefs, reduce the impact of the curio trade and undertake reef conservation projects. However, the greatest impetus must come at a local level from those governments and commercial enterprises, those companies in the tourist industry whose livelihoods depend on their reefs remaining a tourist attraction, not a deep heap of rubble.