Тренажёр ЕГЭ Английский язык

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.

17. The author describes her life without social media as …

           1)     the best time of her life.

           2)     extremely boring.

           3)     quite enjoyable.

           4)     a creative one.

A year without social media: lessons learned

I have been on an extended vacation from millennial life: I deleted my primary social media accounts – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – last December and spent the past year essentially disconnected from the social media world.

It happened on a family trip to Florida in December 2014, when I was more excited about the fresh photos and videos I would post instead of the actual vacation. Finally, on the last night of our trip, one of my videos did not upload correctly, and I reached my breaking point. I was frustrated with the pressures of maintaining a double life and afraid of how a device consumed and controlled me. I was annoyed and defeated, from chasing this perfect life online when I was facing so many struggles in real life.

I was feeling anxious and depressed and worthless and inadequate. I was far from OK, but on social media I was forced to say I was OK. I had reached the bottom of my suffering, and as a result, no action seemed too drastic. Getting off social media seemed like the easiest way to get a fresh start. Even though my former self, an eighth-grader who had begged her father for a Facebook profile, would have been astonished and angry.

At first, it was a little confusing. Suddenly I did not have Twitter or Instagram to rely on during times of boredom or awkward situations. I continued to constantly and desperately check my phone despite the lack of notifications.

By quitting mainstream social media, I was also more open to other “drastic” lifestyle choices. I graduated a semester early from high school, and although it had a positive impact on my life, I certainly would have regretted it or wavered on my decision had I been active on social media. I also began practicing yoga and started a new job working with children, both monumental for my healing. Without social media, they became things I did for me, not for the showing off or the photo opportunities.

My lifestyle without social media was enlightening, peaceful and uncomplicated because I had basically created a safe bubble for myself. I did not judge new friends based on their online profiles, and vice versa. I did not experience significant events through the lens of my camera. I did not rely on likes and favorites for self-validation and gratification.

At the time, escaping the online world was a necessary step to find peace and healing; however, I am ready to return to it.

Life without social media is simple, but it is safe. In the past year, I disassociated myself with the negative aspects of social media, but I also missed out on the benefits. I lost the creativity it takes to entertain an audience in 140 characters. I lost the need to capture important moments. I lost a subtle, but very significant social bond that ties us together.

I recently re-entered the public sphere, and it feels a lot like starting my life over from scratch. I am back to consuming news about my peers, back to wishing people “Happy Birthday” because Facebook said to do so, and back to collecting the Likes. But most importantly, I am back. Maybe I just have to learn to accept those flaws.

I used to view social media as this fake, easy solution to the difficulties of real life, but perhaps avoiding social media altogether was the easy way out. Living in a bubble was easier, and while I will miss the quiet, I know it does not reflect the real world. The real world is loud and messy and complicated, and sometimes we need a break from it to fully appreciate the beauty of chaos.

Which of the following is NOT a reason for the popularity of bananas, according to the text?

1. Their good taste.

2. The long expiry term.

3. Presence of nutritional elements.

4. Their culinary features.

The truth about bananas

When I was in college, I had a professor who had some strange habits. Every now and then, this professor came to class with the sticker from a banana on his shirt. One day a student asked him what was with the stickers. He replied, solemnly, “Oh. Yeah. Well, whenever I have a banana for breakfast that has a sticker on it, I put the sticker on my shirt to remind me of the suffering of the banana pickers in Latin America, who sometimes earn just 50c for a 12-hour day of work in grueling conditions. I wear it to show my solidarity with them, as a silent protest for better treatment.” From that day on, we saw the professor in a completely new light and we started thinking about bananas differently too. As I was later to discover, almost nothing about bananas is as it seems.

On a trip to Costa Rica, the major exporters of bananas, I saw endless banana plantations and visited a botanical garden where a botanist shared some fascinating details about banana trees. He said there are about 300 varieties of banana, but only a small fraction is cultivated commercially. The edible type of banana grown in Costa Rica is a hybrid that is larger and sweeter than its naturally occurring ancestors.

Among the other interesting tidbits we learned was that banana “trees” are not even trees – they’re the world’s largest perennial herbs. The distinction is not merely academic; the stems, which may appear to be solid trunks, are simply multiple layers of very large leaves that could be cut through with a regular knife. In fact, the stems often break under the weight of the bananas and need to be supported with poles.

Bananas also have an unusual life cycle. Normally, the primary reason for a plant to bear any sort of fruit in the first place is to propagate itself, since the fruit contains the seed. Modern, commercial strains of banana don’t have seeds. Seedless fruit-bearing plants normally propagate only with human help, because the plant has no natural way to regenerate when it dies. Each banana plant produces just one bunch of fruit over its lifetime of about a year and then diesor at least appears to. But the stem above ground is just a portion of the plant, the so-called pseudostem. There is also an underground stem, called a rhizome, which produces new shoots at the base of the visible stem. These begin growing into new, flowering stems just as the old one is dying. The new plant, then, really isn’t new at all, and is genetically identical to its predecessor.

These peculiarities aside, bananas are simply tasty. They are also an excellent source of potassium and are extremely good for keeping scoops of ice cream aligned in a dish. Bananas have been referred to as “the world’s most popular fruit,” “the world’s most popular tropical fruit,” “America’s most popular fruit,” and a variety of other designations in the upper strata of fruit stardom, based on different metrics for assessing popularity. In any case, Americans,and much of the rest of the world, certainly consume immense quantities of bananas.

But what about banana pickers? I’m sorry to say it’s true. The life of the average banana picker is still rather bleak. But if the producers paid their workers a living wage, bananas would become so expensive that few people would buy them, thus reducing demand, and so on. For my part, I wear banana stickers just as my professor did, not because I think it will have any tangible impact, but to remind myself of the real price of bananas.

17. Todd called Manny’s wife because he wanted

1) to get acquainted with her.

2) to know whether Manny loved her.

3) to find out what had happened to Manny.

4) to tell Manny’s wife that he was a great worker.

Today was a rice day, fifty pound sacks of white rice in trucks bearing an elephant logo. The same happy elephant appeared on the bags, its head raised to the sky, the trunk curved like an S. ‘Elephant,’ Todd said. He said it because a labourer was staring at it intently, which meant he wasn’t working. ‘That’s right,’ the man said. ‘I couldn’t remember the word.’ He was the only other human at the loading dock this morning. The man didn’t have a name, just a number, like the rest of the robots.

That could be me, Todd thought as he watched him work side by side with his silent mechanical counterparts, lifting, carrying, and dropping bags of rice from the back of the truck to the warehouse. A bad car accident, a bad fall from a ladder, and that could be me. Or a bad memrip.

At lunch, Todd thought of things he could sell. Everything he owned of any value, he could touch: his grandfather’s watch, his grandmother’s wedding ring, a gold necklace be longing to some forgotten relative. His car, too, but that was out of the question as he needed it to work. He got up from his chair and scanned the floor below, the robots still working away, a sea of metallic shoulders rising and falling in unison, strangely beautiful in a way. Over by the forklift sat 8831, his eyes as blank as the piece of bread he was eating.

Two weeks from today was Todd’s thirtieth wedding anniversary, and even if he were to pawn the watch, the ring, and the necklace, he knew he wouldn’t even come close to having enough for Paris. That’s where Sue had wanted to go for as long as he could re member. They didn’t have the money to honeymoon there, but that was okay because back then, there had been plenty of time. They were young, both healthy and working, so they would save a little here and there and in a couple of years, they would be walking up to the Eiffel Tower at night arm in arm, find themselves underneath the arch and look up at the beacon that shines on this city of lights.

But then came two sons and three recessions and a second mortgage. A hysterectomy for her, a double bypass for him, and now here he was, nine years short of retirement, supervising a team of robots and a retarded man, thinking about folks who could sell things they couldn’t touch, like stocks and bonds and whatever else he couldn’t even fathom, people with money who would pay to experience another’s most cherished moments.

Silly. That would be Sue’s word for it if this were a story she’d overheard. For a trip, what a silly thing to do. But it was more than a trip. It was their life together. There was life and there was death, and it seemed to Todd that if he waited any longer, there wouldn’t be any difference between the two.

He opened the filing cabinet and rifled through the folders. Name: Lopez, Manny. Age: 46. Tax Status: Married. In all the years he’d been here, only a handful of human workers had come and gone. All of them were handicapped in some way; they came through the city welfare program, and 8831 was no exception.

Manny’s wife picked up on the second ring. Todd told her who he was, and after he assured her that her husband was not hurt, he was fine, he was a great worker, he asked her what he wanted to know. She listened without interrupting him; then there was a lengthy silence.

‘Why?’ she asked.

‘Does it matter?’

‘I can report you.’

‘I know.’ More silence.

‘He did it because he loved me. Loved,’ she said, hardening. ‘Not loves.’

‘I heard you.’

Then she hung up, and for the rest of the day, Todd replayed the conversation in his mind. Should he have lied to her, made up some story about a sick mother, a dying child? He wasn’t good at talking, especially on the phone. People thought he was unfriendly, hostile. A woman once told him his voice sounded like broken stones rattling in a cage.

The horn blared at five, time for the two humans to go home and the robots to be reconditioned and put in standby.

(Adapted from ‘Paris, at Night’ by Sung J. Woo)

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.

Leadership in college

    Everyone says it's important to get involved in college. Joining organizations and clubs helps college students feel more connected to their schools, build résumés, learn important life skills that may not be gleaned in lecture halls, and potentially meet some of their best friends.

    The minute I walked on campus to begin my freshman year, I knew I had to get involved in as many organizations as I could. In January, I began my position as a sisterhood director, which entailed planning events for my chapter, whether that is at our own chapter or out in the city community. I've hosted events such as essential-oil DIY parties, yoga classes, movie nights and senior send-off celebrations for our chapter members. I was very excited about the opportunity, and I knew that my previous leadership experiences would help me out. However, my perspective on what it means to be a leader among my peers has definitely changed after a semester of holding the position.

    There are three main components that I have learned through leadership: communication, organization, and delegation. I've learned that no matter how many times or in how many different ways you communicate a message, it will not get agross to everyone, and that is OK.

    People value transparency and sometimes need to be told exactly what you expect of them. Some people are so on top of schedules that they could tell you what's going on six months from now, but some people need constant reminders and do not keep track of their schedules. There is a gap in communication between these two types of people that can lead to frustration and disorganization on both ends.

    This past semester I have worked to bridge that gap between types of communicators, and that is one of the most valuable tlings I have learned from my position.

    It's important to appreciate the time it takes for every aspect of an event to plan and to take place; some tasks can take months to put together, and those should not involve procrastination. But some are OK to sort out the day of. Some of my best work was done with hours to spare, and if that's when you work best, why avoid it? Procrastination, when paired with an organized plan, can turn out to be successful.

    One of the strongest qualities a good leader can have is the ability to delegate. It's a misconception that as a leader, you must do and be a part of every step of a project. Delegating tasks to members of a committee, in my case, was a lifesaver and what made my job so worthwhile. I got to work with so many different talents, and this way, they all feel as if they're contributing in a way that is specific to their talents.

    What I've learned through mistakes and successes in my position has led me to be more knowledgeable, not only about planning events and about the members of my chapter but about communicating, organizing, modeling roles, and involving the community.

    I feel so grateful to be in a position that has encouraged me to learn more about myself and the skills that I've had to acquire. I feel so fortunate to have had this position so far, and it has made me reflect on the kind of leader I hope to be in my future career. Having a leadership position in college is vital to be able to discover how you communicate with others and what skills you have and lack before you go off into the real world.

Acordingot hte author, delegating tasks.
1) prevents you from being part of the project. 2) makes a leader's work more specific.
3) is necessary and useful for a leader.
4) is a common myth leaders should accept.

Прочитайте текст и выполните задания 12-18. Вкаждом задании запишите в поле ответа цифру 1, 2, 3 или 4, соответствующую выбранному Вами варианту ответа.

Educational technology

    The covid outbreak showed all of us that education online is possible. Moreover, it can be even effective if we learn to implement educational technology available today.

    Educational technology is the use of tools in the classroom to develop an engaging and personalized learning experience. Beyond the use of computers, students and teachers can use interactive platforms, devices, and even analytical software to better gauge students' progress using data in real-time. Learning has never been a one-size-fits-all endeavour, and with educational technology, teachers can better serve students' individualized needs.

    The benefits of technology in education are far-reaching and growing with each day. Let's take a look at some of the upsides of how technology impacts education positively.

    The first thing that comes to mind is 24/7 availability and accessibility. Technology like the internet and the ability to record lectures, upload learning resources to a platform, and host discussion forums make it possible to expand one's access and availability to learn. For example, at many universities around the world students can earn their degrees entirely online through the use of an online learning system. Students used to have to be physically located inside a classroom to obtain their education. These days, online learning (by choice or by circumstance) has led to a revolution in education that makes it accessible to anyone, anywhere.

    Furthermore, technology offers great metrics for tracking progress. With technological platforms, students and teachers can report and review progress based on each individual's performance. Through the use of analytics, teachers can easily visualize how a student is growing or being thwarted. This can help teachers spot inefficiencies or areas that are ripe for improvement or attention.

    Follow-up activities in online education are more diverse. Once a student leaves their designated class time, homework is a standard follow-up. However, when handing out paperwork, there may be missed opportunities. With education and technology, teachers can design personalized follow-up activities and grant each student the ability to learn at their own pace, even when they are outside of the classroom. For example, teachers can host a variety of options online for follow-up activities, and students, based on their level of understanding, can choose their course of action.

    What the opponents of online education usually say is that you lack communication. But I think using technology actually means increased collaboration. Classroom management tools make it easier than ever for students, parents, and teachers to collaborate. For example, it's not always easy to get students to work together in groups. But, with online portals and discussion forums, students can contribute in their own space and time to work with other students. Additionally, teachers can communicate and collaborate in an organized manner with parents for feedback and the sharing of ideas, thoughts, and/or concerns.

    Lastly, just because schools or institutions use educational technology, it doesn't mean that the need for a teacher is removed. Teachers are necessary to implement the technology properly; devise creative lesson plans, and support students' needs, among other things.

    To conclude, technology in education has led to more accessibility, lower costs, and personalized learning experiences. From education data platforms to online schools and everything in between, it's asy to see how technology has affected education, and continues to do so with each innovation.

It is implied that the role of a teacher in education...
1) has become less important.
2) is as important as it used to be.
3) wil change with technology.

4) has increased with technology.

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.

The dangers of microplastics

    With recent research, it appears that retiring plastic from our lives should be an expedited process. About a month ago it was reported that microplastics had been found in human blood.

    The finding was supported in a study co-authored by Professor Vethaak, who asked the question if the particles retained in the body or transported to certain organs. These are questions that scientific research has yet to answer, showing the dubious knowledge we have on the effect of such an invasive material on our bodies and our culture.

    We have learned to shake hands with this devilish commodity, holding its hand while we carry groceries, and unknowingly consuming it in the food we eat. Even worse, infants are the most vulnerable to it. Babies often play and interact with plastic items from birth. From chewing on plastic teething rings to playing with plastic tub toys, children have a lot of exposure to plastic and its additives. According to a study released in September 2021, that exposure may be cause for concern.

    We need to urge our local governments to support bills that limit our usage of single-use plastics that are very often dumped into our environments, whether that is holding businesses and manufacturers accountable through taxes or even making environmentally-friendly packaging more accessible.

    One of these types of pastics that can be found in our blood is polyethylene, the kind used in carrying bags and food containers. This type of plastic has the highest propensity to be dangerous because plastic bags are an extremely common occurrence in our trash. Due to winds, and careless littering they have also been a plague on the natural world.

    Plastic can be found in our solid and Itquid waste. It can damage human cells and be found in placentas, the essential organ that babies live off until birth. It can be deduced from this that there is a potential for cancer risks and for us to be born with these invasive plastics in us. Truly chilling.

    We have an opportunity to ban these bags. The risk of future generations having embedded plastics in their diet and bodies should veto any argument for convenience.

    It isn't just the potential for invasive plastics to ruin our health that's terrifying, but the fact that our hubris as a factory-fueled civilization has led to this point; that for those who take part in its norms, come with the risk of having an infamously irremovable man-made unnatural material within them.

    Plastic is just as bad as lead, a material also commonly used for its time but if not, even worse. It was a material widely used in paint, car gas, and toys. With research, though, scientists figured out the psychological and physical tolls of lead, and now we use it far less openly. At least paint companies no longer advertise how great lead paint is to the youth.

    As animals and agricultural goods get exposed to these plastics - even trace amounts of it — they permanently become a part of the ecosystem, ecosystems we feed ourselves from today. It can get in our salt, our water from leaching plastic bottles we drink, or from pollution which even filters cannot get rid of completely, and even at that, it is unfortunate a solution is in a paywall.

    It is important we take measures into our own hands and support the banning of plastic bags within a mass-market scale, urging our lawmakers that short-term inconveniences are no excuse for long-term detriments the likes of which we haven't even researched enough to know, with one thing being certain, our manufactured material will prove malicious.

The author compares plastic to lead in order to..
1) explain how i t is used in everyday things.

2) give an example of how science can help.

3) illustrate why plastic is harmful.
4) show what can be done with plastic.

17. Cap-and-trade policy implies that

1) companies will have to cut their emissions.

2) companies could sell their emissions.

3) the overall amount of emissions must stay within a certain limit.

4) companies will have to pay a fixed carbon tax.

The risk of catastrophic climate change is getting worse, according to a new study from scientists involved with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Threats — ranging from the destruction of coral reefs to more extreme weather events like hurricanes, droughts and floods — are becoming more likely at the temperature change already underway: as little as 1.8 degree Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) of warming in global average temperatures.

‘Most people thought that the risks were going to be for certain species and poor people. But all of a sudden the European heatwave of 2003 comes along and kills 50,000 people; [Hurricane] Katrina comes along and there’s a lot of data about the increased intensity of droughts and floods. Plus, the dramatic melting of Greenland that nobody can explain certainly has to increase your concern,’ says climatologist Stephen Schneider of Stanford University, who co-authored the research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences as well as in several IPCC reports. ‘Everywhere we looked, there was evidence that what was believed to be likely has happened. Nature has been cooperating with climate change theory unfortunately.’

Schneider and his colleagues updated a graph, dubbed the ‘burning embers,’ that is designed to map the risks of damage from global warming. The initial version of the graph drawn in 2001 had the risks of climate change beginning to appear after 3.6 or 5.4 degrees F (2 to 3 degrees C) of warming, but the years since have shown that climate risks kick in with less warming.

According to the new graph, risks to ‘unique and threatened systems’ such as coral reefs and risks of extreme weather events become likely when temperatures rise by as little as 1.8 degrees F from 1990 levels, which is on course to occur by mid-century given the current concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases. In addition, risks of negative consequences such as increased droughts and the complete melting of ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica definitively outweigh any potential positives, such as longer growing seasons in countries such as Canada and Russia.

‘We’re definitely going to overshoot some of these temperatures where we see these very large vulnerabilities manifest,’ says economist Gary Yohe of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., another co-author. ‘We’re going to have to learn how to adapt.’ Adaptation notwithstanding, Yohe and Schneider say that scientists must also figure out a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to reverse the heating trend to prevent further damage.

Several bills pending in Congress would set a so-called cap-and-trade policy under which an overall limit on pollution would be set — and companies with low output could sell their allowances to those that fail to cut emissions as long as the total stays within the total pollution cap. Any such federal policy would put a price on carbon dioxide pollution, which is currently free to vent into the atmosphere, Yohe note. He, however, favours a so-called carbon tax that would set a fixed price for such climate-changing pollution rather than the cap-and-trade proposals favoured by the Obama administration. ‘It’s a predictable price, not a thing that bounces around.’

But even with such policies in place—not only in the U.S. but across the globe—climate change is a foregone conclusion. Global average temperatures have already risen by at least 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit (0.6 degree C) and further warming of at least 0.7 degree F (0.4 degree C) is virtually certain, according to the IPCC. And a host of studies, including a recent one from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have shown that global warming is already worse than predicted even a few years ago. The question is: ‘Will it be catastrophic or not?’ ‘We’ve dawdled, and if we dawdle more, it will get even worse,’ Schneider says. ‘It’s time to move.’

17) The expression “put the gears in motion” in “…it is wise to put the gears in motion now” (paragraph 9) means ...

1. to explore.

2. to begin.

3. to move.

4. to invest

Have you ever tasted saltwater? I guess you have and if so, you will agree with me that it’s not very refreshing. In fact, drinking more than a few cups worth can kill you.

According to the United States Geological Survey, whose mission is to collect and disseminate reliable, impartial, and timely information that is needed to understand the nation’s water resources, about ninety-seven percent of the water on our planet is saltwater; the rest is stored in lakes, rivers, glaciers and aquifers underground. Moreover, only about one-third of the world’s potential fresh water can be used for human needs. As pollution increases, the amount of usable water decreases.

Water is the most precious and taken-for-granted resource we have on Earth. It is also one of the most threatened resources. Increased population and possible climate change will put more and more strain on supplies of this vital resource as time goes on. What could we do in this situation? Though it may seem like science fiction, the solution could lie in outer space.

I’m not saying we’re going to be teleporting to a spring on the other side of the galaxy or colonizing another planet just to have longer showers – it’s much more mundane than that. What we could achieve realistically in this century is the successful use of the solar system’s rare metals and water, barring the invention of the matrix.

You may be surprised to learn that the metal in your keys, coins, cell phone, computer, car and everywhere else, originally came to this planet from space. When Earth formed, the heavy metals sank to the center and formed a solid core. The lighter elements formed the mantle and the crust we live on. Asteroids and comets that struck the Earth brought water and metals to the surface.

There are thousands of asteroids orbiting near Earth. Most asteroids are made of rock, but some are composed of metal, mostly nickel and iron. Probes could be sent out to these to identify useful ones. Then larger probes could push them towards the Earth where they can be handled in orbit.

In order to fuel ships and probes, we simply need to find a source of water, such as a comet or the surface of the moon. We collect the water and pass an electric current through it from a solar panel. The water separates into oxygen and hydrogen, which in liquid form is a powerful rocket fuel.

Is this really possible? We may soon find out. Private company SpaceX has already started delivering equipment to the International Space Station (ISS).The ISS is proof that countries once at each other’s throats, like America and Russia, can work together and pull off multi-billion dollar projects.

Recently, a company called Planetary Resources Inc. made the news forgetting big names like Google and Microsoft to invest in exploring asteroids for material gain. Although it will take many decades, it is wise to put the gears in motion now.

We’ve already landed probes on the surface of asteroids and taken samples from them. We can put something as large as the ISS, which weighs just short of 500 tons, according to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), in orbit.

We can make a half-million-mile round-trip to get rocks from the moon. We can do all of these things already. They just need to be applied and developed in a smart way.