Английский ЕГЭ - банк заданий - страница 348
Вопросы
Whatever singing category you are interested ________ (36), online courses can assist you with your singing goals.
Прочитайте текст и выполните задания №12-18. В каждом задании запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.
Sixteen-year-old Henry is Skyping while bouncing up and down on a big Pilates ball. “I sleep with my phone on my pillow. It’s the first thing I reach for when I wake up in the morning,” he says, from his home, appearing in and out of shot as he goes up and down. Does he worry about sleeping with a phone so close to his head? “Oh no!” he says. “I mean if I got a brain tumour, I’d have something to tweet about!” Henry is being flippant, and I suspect he thinks the question of how much he uses a smartphone is a lot of fuss over nothing, but he is too polite to say so. He knows it is not good to sleep with a phone on his pillow, but really, where is the harm?
According to new research into the media habits of teenagers, they spend an average of three hours a day online, which overtakes the time spent watching television. A 2015 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 15% of Americans aged between 18 and 29 were “heavily dependent” on their smartphones for online access. There is no question that smartphones make our lives easier. But at what cost? Several studies have warned that excessive phone use can affect cognitive abilities, sleep, the quality of social interactions and the ability to engage at work.
Can adolescents survive without their smartphones? A group of professors decided to initiate a one-day project, in which students were asked to completely refrain from using their smartphones. Students reacted to the idea with a mix of incredulity and scepticism. Some students pushed back, citing concerns that family members would worry if they were unreachable. A number of students questioned the very notion that they were in any way addicted to their devices. Others wanted to stay up to date with their friends’ news. However, it was ultimately decided to make participation in the project mandatory for all students.
For many students, the days leading up to the challenge were quite busy. In addition to notifying their friends and family, some students decided to announce their upcoming technology hiatus by posting information about it on social media sites. However, the majority of students anticipated some of the problems they would face by printing bus schedules, driving directions, and other materials they usually accessed in real time from their phones. They even consulted with friends and roommates how to wake up in the morning without using their phone alarm.
During the unplugged day, students also experienced a mix of emotions. For some of them, the strongest feeling was anxiety. Students felt anxious about missing something important. How would they catch up with all the social media updates they were missing? One student wrote of her fears about losing contact with people: “I am not receiving messages, emails, likes and comments. It feels as if no one is willing to interact with me! I am alone!”
However, the most common sentiment was that the phone provided “a sense of safety.” Even when it was turned off, some students carried their phone with them just in case there was an emergency. Students also expressed feelings of guilt at not being able to respond to messages received in their class chats. They were concerned that they were hurting their classmates’ ability to complete class assignments and worried about the repercussions their disconnection might have on their reputations.
Owing to the experiment, many students came to realize that technology has pluses and minuses. Although most of them concluded that technology was essential and that living without a mobile phone would be impossible, a fairly large number of students understood that control and moderation were important. As one student wrote, “I appreciate technology and the convenience it brings to our lives. Yet too much technology can be detrimental.” One thing that surprised everybody was that young people are more open to adjusting their technology habits than it was expected. Rather than being totally fixed in their ways, millennials are ready to discover new tasks and duties.
What is Henry’s attitude to using a smartphone?
The noun “repercussions” in paragraph 6 (“...and worried about the repercussions their disconnection might have on their reputations.”) is synonymic to...
Прочитайте текст и выполните задания №12-18. В каждом задании запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.
Uluru, known as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in Central Australia. Physically, it is an inselberg, which is a hill that rises from a plain. Uluru is a huge red stone, which turns into a magical vibrant pink as the sun rises and yellow ochre as the sunsets. It is made up of caves and canyons. However, what makes this rock truly special is the history attached to it. Plenty of paintings and carvings of the early Aborigines have been found in and around Uluru. Towering over the Australian outback, Uluru remains a source of reverence and awe.
It is November, springtime in the Australian desert, and I am standing at the base of Uluru with a group of travellers whom I am guiding on a two-week tour of Australia. Above us, a path snakes up the smooth face of the sandstone rock. Uluru is one of Australia’s top tourist attractions, and thousands of visitors climb this track to the top of the rock. But not today! A sign at the start of the track says the climb is closed due to high winds although the forecast is favourable.
In fact, two weeks before our arrival, the Uluru—Kata Tjuta National Park Board announced that from October 2019 Uluru is constantly closed to climbers. Though the National Park experienced a surge in visitors after the climbing ban was announced, the percentage of visitors who attempted the climb has been steadily declining over recent decades due to the traditional owners’ request for respect. For the rock’s Aboriginal owners the climbing ban is a momentous decision, the one they have dreamed of and worked towards for decades. To them, Uluru is an intensely sacred site linked to spirits of their ancestors, which requires protection against tourists.
Yet those feelings counted for little when weighed against the dollars being generated by the tourism economy. If visitors wanted to climb the rock, who were the Aborigines to stop them? Imagine the euphoria felt by the Aboriginal owners when the Park Board voted unanimously to end climbing. The director of the Central Land Council, which represents Indigenous people in Central Australia, said this decision was “righting a historic wrong.”
Today, at the start of the path up the rock, a large information panel expresses the local people’s feeling both for their most sacred place and for the visitors’ well-being. Under the headline “Please don’t climb,” the sign says. “This is our home. As custodians, we are responsible for your safety and behaviour.” This is not empty emoting. Since the 1950s at least 36 people have died while climbing Uluru and lots of climbers have needed medical rescues.
One unexpected response to the perception of Uluru as a sacred site has been the return of the rock itself or, rather, bits of it. For years, visitors had purloined pieces of Uluru as souvenirs. As awareness of Aboriginal beliefs became more widespread, people started sending the rocks back. Almost daily, the National Park receives packages of rocks from all over the world with messages of regret. Some people claim to have been cursed since taking rocks home, but the majority simply say that what they or their relatives did was wrong. The story of these “sorry rocks” has been widely reported, reinforcing the message of Uluru’s sacredness.
Bigger, wider and taller than Uluru, nearby Kata Tjuta is a spectacular collection of 36 enormous rocks. It is, arguably, one of Australia’s best-kept secrets, barely talked about among most Australians, let alone the world. Different signs invite visitors to relate to the place as the Indigenous people do. The signs say, “Kata Tjuta is sacred. Our people have always shown respect when visiting this place. It is the same for you. Hold in your heart the knowledge that this is a special place. Walk quietly, tread lightly.”
Uluru, as well as Kata Tjuta, will always be cultural landscapes deeply entrenched in the Aboriginal culture. For the Aborigines, these sacred rock formations are living creatures that emit energy. Obviously, the magnificence of these magical wonders needs protecting.
What makes Uluru such an extraordinary place?