Státní maturita z angličtiny 2018 - Jazyková kompetence

Otázky k testu:

1) 1. Boys in Skirts
The boys from Exeter Academy, England, asked permission to wear shorts in summer because it was too hot to sit in trousers all day. They complained that girls were in a better situation because they could wear skirts. However, their teacher answered that shorts were not part of the school uniform. The boys’ parents supported their children and argued that the boys’ health was more important than their clothes. When they asked what the teacher suggested the boys should do, she replied that they could wear skirts if they liked. And that’s exactly what the boys did – they showed up in skirts the next day. The girls laughed at them first but then agreed that it was the only way for the boys to cool themselves down. Exeter Academy is now planning to update the school uniform rules, which would allow boys to wear shorts in summer.

Whose idea was it for the boys to wear skirts to school?

2) 2. My Name Is Pádraig
Before I was born, there had been a lot of discussion in our family about the name I should be given. For my parents, it was a serious issue because both came from different countries. My father wanted an Irish name. In his family children always got a name connected to their culture. However, my mother demanded that I was given the name of her father because it was passed down through generations. Fortunately, her father was called Patrick – the English version of the Irish name Pádraig – so they decided to accept my father’s family custom and use the Irish spelling instead of the more common English one. Then when I was born, the doctor asked for my name and my mum – stressed and tired – told the doctor the name but she couldn’t remember the correct spelling. As the doctor was ready to write ‘Patrick’, Dad stopped him and gave him the correct Irish spelling. Nevertheless, my sister loved to call me Paddy – short for Pádraig – and the whole family still calls me that today.

Why is the man’s name Pádraig?

Because:

3) 3. In the Middle Ages in England, when the horse was the king of the road, you never knew who you would meet on the road. Travellers kept to the left because they wanted to make sure that if a stranger passed on the right and behaved in an unfriendly way, they could take their sword1 out easily. And because most were right-handed, they liked to keep their right hands free and so they kept their horses to the left. During that time, this was the unofficial rule of the road. With The Highway Act2 , it became an official rule in 1835. The conservative British still follow it while most other Europeans drive on the right.

What is the best headline for this article?

4) 4. Suspended Coffee
It may sound like the latest trend but the so-called “suspended coffee” has been served in cafés for over ten years now. It started one day in Italy when a customer paid for a cup of coffee in advance. It was left there for any stranger who doesn’t have enough money to pay for his own. And that’s what “suspended coffee” means – paid and waiting for another guest. The tradition quickly spread all over the world and although cafés are not the ones which made suspended coffee widely known, they’re glad that offering it has brought them more customers. Many of them come in to enjoy their evening coffee, and very often leave extra money for a suspended one. What’s interesting is that café websites don’t say whether they offer suspended coffee or not. People who want suspended coffee just come to the café and ask for it. Then they tell others and that’s how the information about suspended coffee is spread.

What is true about “suspended coffee” according to the text?

5) 5. And the Winner Is…
We see more than a million pet injuries1 each year, but some are really strange! Every year, The Veterinary Pet Insurance Company gives a Hambone Prize for the year’s most unusual injury. This year, the first three places went to several dogs for the following strange injuries: Third place went to a poodle that ate some broken glass. That wasn’t as bad as what a border collie and a terrier, which both took second place, did. The border collie ran through a window and bit a postman and the terrier bit a poisonous scorpion. But a one-year-old Labrador retriever from California, called Ellie, beat them in this competition. She ate thousands of bees that had been killed by pesticide. Luckily, all the dogs recovered and could come to collect their prize.

What did this year’s winner of the Hambone Prize do?