Lingue Straniere

Pag. 7/32 Sessione ordinaria 2009

Seconda prova scritta

PL0A - ESAMI DI STATO DI LICEO LINGUISTICO

Tema di: LINGUA STRANIERA

TESTO LETTERARIO – LINGUA INGLESE

(comprensione e produzione in lingua straniera)

Answer the following questions.

1. Where is the narrator?

2. What place does the character compare England with?

3. What doesn’t the character like about England?

4. What is the dominant colour?

5. How does the character feel in England?

6. Through which sense does the character mainly describe the two places? Substantiate your

answer with reference to the text.

7. Which sensations does the character convey through the description of the English town?

8. Who narrates the story and from whose point of view is the story told?

9. What does the character miss?

10. What narrative technique is used in the passage?

SUMMARIZE the content of the passage.

COMPOSITION: 1

In the passage the narrator, as Abel puts it, “shows a sense of internal division” and at the same

time “obeys a logic based on an associative process”. Comment on this statement in a 300-word

essay.

Alternatively, think of a foreign country where you have been or that you feel attracted by and

describe or imagine your feelings and sensations upon your arrival there. Write about 300 words.

____________________________

Durata massima della prova: 6 ore.

È consentito soltanto l’uso dei dizionari monolingue e bilingue.

Non è consentito lasciare l’Istituto prima che siano trascorse 3 ore dalla dettatura del tema.

1 Abel, E. ”Women and Schizophrenia: the Fiction of Jean Rhys.“ Contemporary Literature, XX, 2, Spring 1979, 155-77

Pag. 8/32 Sessione ordinaria 2009

Seconda prova scritta

PL0A - ESAMI DI STATO DI LICEO LINGUISTICO

Tema di: LINGUA STRANIERA

TESTO DI ATTUALITÀ – LINGUA INGLESE

(comprensione e produzione in lingua straniera)

Decisions, decisions

DICTATORS and authoritarians will disagree, but democracies work better. It has long been held that

decisions made collectively by large groups of people are more likely to turn out to be accurate than

decisions made by individuals. The idea goes back to the “jury theorem” of Nicolas de Condorcet, an

18th-century French philosopher who was one of the first to apply mathematics to the social sciences.

Now it is becoming clear that group decisions are also extremely valuable for the success of social

animals, such as ants, bees, birds and dolphins. And those animals may have a thing or two to teach

people about collective decision-making.

Animals that live in groups make two sorts of choices: consensus decisions in which the group makes a

single collective choice, as when house-hunting rock ants decide where to settle; and combined decisions,

such as the allocation of jobs among worker bees.

Condorcet’s theory describes consensus decisions, outlining how democratic decisions tend to outperform

dictatorial ones. If each member of a jury has only partial information, the majority decision is more

likely to be correct than a decision arrived at by an individual juror. Moreover, the probability of a correct

decision increases with the size of the jury. But things become more complicated when information is

shared before a vote is taken. People then have to evaluate the information before making a collective

decision. This is what bees do, and they do it rather well, according to Christian List of the London

School of Economics, who has studied group decision-making in humans and animals along with Larissa

Conradt of the University of Sussex, in England.

In a study reported in a special issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, researchers

led by Dr List looked at colonies of honeybees (Apis mellifera), which in late spring or early summer

divide once they reach a certain size. The queen goes off with about two-thirds of the worker bees to live

in a new home leaving a daughter queen in the nest with the remaining worker bees. Among the bees that

depart are scouts that search for the new nest site and report back using a waggle dance to advertise

suitable locations. The longer the dance, the better the site. After a while, other scouts start to visit the

sites advertised by their compatriots and, on their return, also perform more waggle dances. The process

eventually leads to a consensus on the best site and the swarm migrates. The decision is remarkably

reliable, with the bees choosing the best site even when there are only small differences between two

alternatives.

But exactly how do bees reach such a robust consensus? To find out, Dr List and his colleagues made a

computer model of the decision-making process. By tinkering around with it they found that

computerised bees that were very good at finding nesting sites but did not share their information

dramatically slowed down the migration, leaving the swarm homeless and vulnerable. Conversely,

computerised bees that blindly followed the waggle dances of others without first checking whether the

site was, in fact, as advertised, led to a swift but mistaken decision. The researchers concluded that the

ability of bees to identify quickly the best site depends on the interplay of bees’ interdependence in

communicating the whereabouts of the best site and their independence in confirming this information.

Adapted from The Economist, 13 February 2009

Pag. 9/32 Sessione ordinaria 2009

Seconda prova scritta

PL0A - ESAMI DI STATO DI LICEO LINGUISTICO

Tema di: LINGUA STRANIERA

TESTO DI ATTUALITÀ – LINGUA INGLESE

(comprensione e produzione in lingua straniera)

Answer the following questions.

1. What sort of decisions do animals that live in groups make?

2. Who is Nicolas de Condorcet?

3. What is Condorcet’s theory about?

4. According to Condorcet, why are democratic decisions more likely to be correct?

5. What might make decision-making more complicated?

6. Why did Dr List do his research into honeybees?

7. What do honeybees do in spring?

8. How do honeybees advertise suitable nesting sites?

9. How do honeybees reach a consensus?

10. What does the computerized bees study tell us about the decision-making process?

SUMMARIZE the content of the passage.

COMPOSITION:

Do you think that collective decision-making is important in society? What can we learn from

honeybees on the matter? Discuss your views on the topic by referring to the article.

____________________________

Durata massima della prova: 6 ore.

È consentito soltanto l’uso dei dizionari monolingue e bilingue.

Non è consentito lasciare l’Istituto prima che siano trascorse 3 ore dalla dettatura del tema.

Pag. 10/32 Sessione ordinaria 2009

Seconda prova scritta

PL0A - ESAMI DI STATO DI LICEO LINGUISTICO

Tema di: LINGUA STRANIERA

TESTO LETTERARIO – LINGUA RUSSA

(comprensione e produzione in lingua straniera)

Многие годы деревенское стадо паслось на большом лугу речки Каменки. Места здесь были

тихие с прекрасными травами. Каменка от лета к лету высыхала всё больше и больше, да и луг к

середине июля становился пожелтевшим, и всё же пока кормов и воды для коров хватало.

Но вот позапрошлым летом на берега Каменки пришли люди. Заработали тракторы, бульдозеры,

автомашины, зашумели экскаваторы. На реке стали строить плотину и электростанцию, а чуть

дальше, у леса, - прокладывать шоссейную дорогу. Коровы по-прежнему паслись на лугу и не то с

прошёл месяц,

любопытством, не то с беспокойством прислушивались к непривычному шуму. Но

другой, и коровы уже не обращали внимания на строителей и технику. Привыкли.

Вечером, перед заходом солнца, работы на строительстве прекращались. Как только стихал шум

моторов, коровы уже знали: пора отправляться домой. Стадо само брело в деревню. Пастуху

ними. Так было каждый вечер

ничего не оставалось делать, как отрываться от книжки и шагать за

два лета подряд, пока шло строительство.

Но вот работы закончились. Была готова плотина и электростанция, проложен участок новой

дороги. Солнце еще стояло высоко в небе, когда перестали шуметь молотки. Перевалив за

бугор, последний трактор увез по новому шоссе вагончик строителей.

коровы в стаде забеспокоились. Они перестали щипать траву,

И вдруг пастух заметил, что

повернулись в сторону реки и с удивлением прислушивались к наступившей тишине. Наконец,

словно поразмыслив о чём-то, они медленно двинулись в сторону деревни.

- Куда пошли? Давай назад! - закричал ничего не понимавший пастух, стараясь повернуть

внимательными,

стадо. Коровы на минуту останавливались, смотрели на пастуха

задумчивыми глазами и вновь шли по дороге в деревню.

Как ни бился пастух, а остановить стадо так и не смог. Только когда коровы подходили уже к

ферме, он понял, в чём дело. С трудом привыкали коровы к шуму, а теперь придется их к

есть сила привычки!

тишине приучать. Видно, и у коров

( ад.текст С. А. Баруздин 1961 Баруздин С. Твои друзья - мои товарищи. Стихи, рассказы,

повести, М.: Дет. лит., 1967)

Вопросы:

1. Какое название Вы могли бы дать этому рассказу и почему?

2. Что изменилось в жизни коров с появлением стройки?.

рассказе?

3. О каких чувствах коров пишет автор в

4. Почему пастух не смог остановить стадо, отправившееся в сторону деревни раньше времени, в

последний день стройки?

5. Как Вы думаете, коровы привыкнут к тишине?

Сочинение :

Напишите письмо другу и расскажите о вашем идеальном месте для отдыха.

____________________________

Durata massima della prova: 6 ore.

È consentito soltanto l’uso dei dizionari monolingue e bilingue.

Non è consentito lasciare l’Istituto prima che siano trascorse 3 ore dalla dettatura del tema.

Pag. 11/32 Sessione ordinaria 2009

Seconda prova scritta

PL0A - ESAMI DI STATO DI LICEO LINGUISTICO

Tema di: LINGUA STRANIERA

TESTO DI ATTUALITÀ – LINGUA RUSSA

(comprensione e produzione in lingua straniera)

Более 60% россиян начинают рабочий день в соцсетях.

Есть ли кризис в Интернете?

Что делать, чтобы встреча одноклассников не разочаровала? Кому, как не Никите Шерману,

президенту компании «Одноклассники», знать ответы на эти вопросы.