Read the text and answer the following questions:

Bilet nr. 1

Sometime in December of 1891, Dr. James Naismith, a gym teacher at the YMCA College in
Springfield, Massachusetts was trying to keep his gym class active on a rainy day. He wanted a
vigorous game that would keep his students moving. After rejecting a few other ideas because
they were too rough or not suited for the walled-in gym, Naismith wrote out the rules for a game
with peach baskets fixed to ten-foot elevated tracks. Naismiths students played against one
another, passing the ball around and shooting it into the peach baskets. Dribbling wasnt a part
of the original game, and it took a while to realize that the game would run more smoothly if the
bottoms of the baskets were removed, but this game grew to be one of the most popular sports in
America today. Can you guess which one?

1. What is the text about?

2. Who was Dr. James Naismith?
3. Which were the rules of the game Dr. James Naismith invented?
4. Do you think practising sports is important? (Why/Why not?)

Read the text and answer the following questions:

Bilet nr. 2

It is widely acknowledged fact that machines are stronger than people, but is it possible for them
to become smarter than us too? Some scientists fear that it is, or so says the theory of
technological singularity. In a nut shell, the theory of technological singularity says that when a
computer becomes capable of improving its own capabilities, even in just the slightest way, it
will go into an infinite loop, getting progressively smarter, which would inevitably lead to
machines becoming smarter than people, or so the theory goes. Such gains in available
intelligence might lead to huge improvements in science and medicine. Diseases could be cured
and so forth. On the other hand, it could lead to the total domination of mankind by robots,
which would be bad.

1. What is the text about?

2. What is the theory of technological singularity?
3. According to the text, which are the advantages and disadvantage of artificial
intelligence?
4. Do you consider computers to be helpful? (Why?/Why not?)
Bilet nr. 3

Read the text and answer the following questions:

Stonehenge is an ancient monument situated about ten miles north of Salisbury in England. It
was built about 4500 years ago, but by whom and for what purpose remains a mystery. The
builders must have known of geometry. They may have been influenced by the Mycenaeans,
whose architecture was similar. Some of the stones must have been brought from West Wales,
over 135 miles away. These stones weigh more than fifty tons. They may have been brought on
rafts and rollers. Experts say that it must have taken 1500 men more than five years to transport
them. Stonehenge was probably built in three stages. First, settlers from continental Europe built
a temple for sun worship. Later the "Beaker" people added the stone circles. Finally, people of
the Wesse Culture transformed Stonehenge into an observatory. They could calculate the exact
time of Midsummer and Midwinter and of equinoxes.

1. What is the text about?

2. When was Stonehenge built?
3. How were the stones brought to the place where Stonehenge was built?
4. What was Stonehenge used for?

Bilet nr. 4

Read the text and answer the following questions:

The most dangerous animals on the North American continent, by a margin of 1000 to one, are
not bears, mountain lions or wolves but poisonous snakes. Attacks occur far more frequently
than most people suspect; 6500 to 7000 humans are bitten by venomous snakes in the United
States each year. Fortunately, the death rate from snakebite is low, largely because of widespread
knowledge about snakes and the fact that in most cases treatment is prompt. Yet for the victims,
even though they survive, the ordeal is a dreadful experience sometimes resulting weeks or
months of illness, permanent crippling, the loss of a hand or foot, or other lasting handicaps.

1. What is the text about?

2. How many people are annually bitten by venomous snakes in the USA?
3. Why isnt the death rate from snakebite high in the US?
4. According to the text, which are other consequences of venomous snakebite?