Задание 16. ЕГЭ-2014 - Задание B3: все задания

One of America’s great poets, Emily Dickinson belongs more to the twentieth century (A) ________. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, 1830, Emily remained for her entire life in the town of her birth.

Other than a few infrequent trips to Boston, Washington and Philadelphia (B) ________, she was content to stay at home, finding meaning in the near-at-hand, her family, her friends, and the phenomena of nature. Though her thoughts were expressed in hundreds of poems, she remained basically an unpublished poet during her lifetime, (C) ________ until more than 25 years after her death in 1886.

In her poetry Emily Dickinson accepted the tradition of formal verse but in combinations of rarely more than four lines; she showed a disciplined control of short verse form. Her poetry was brief and to the point and powerful (D) ________. The unusual way she looks at the world coloured all her poetry. Like Walt Whitman she did not use regular rhythms and often neglected the rules of grammar (E) ________. In thought content, Emily Dickinson’s poems are far from simple; they are filled with humour, with lively ideas, and with wit.

Everything about Emily Dickinson’s poetry was original; the thought and the unusual form. In a few lines, with only a few words, (F) ________.

At that moment, the city of New York was about to begin converting 840 acres of hayfields and scrubland into the long-awaited Central Park. It was an enormous site, stretching nearly 2,5 miles from top to bottom (A)________ Frederick Olmsted, in some desperation, applied for the job of superintendent of the workforce and got it. He was thirty-five years old, (B)________

Becoming the superintendent of a municipal park was, for someone who had enjoyed as much success as he had, a humbling comedown, particularly (C)________ For one thing, in those days it wasn’t actually central at all. ‘Uptown’ Manhattan was still nearly two miles to the south. (D)________– a forlorn expanse of abandoned quarries and ‘pestiferous swamps’, in the words of one observer. (E)________ seemed almost ludicrously ambitious.

(F)________ – which was, not incidentally, always called the Central Park, with a definite article, in its early days. A prize of $2,000 awaited the winning entry and Olmsted need the money.

Alan Austen found himself in a tiny room, which contained no furniture but a plain table, a rocking chair, and an ordinary chair. On one of the walls were a couple of shelves, containing a dozen bottles and jars.

An old man sat in the rocking chair, reading a newspaper. Alan, without a word, handed him his card.

"Sit down, Mr. Austen," said the old man very politely. (A)________.

"Is it true," asked Alan, "that you have a certain mixture that has – er – quite extraordinary effects?"

"My dear sir," replied the old man, "I think nothing I sell has effects which could be precisely described as ordinary."

"Well, the fact is – "began Alan. "Here, for example," interrupted the old man, reaching for a bottle from the shelf.

"Here is a liquid as colorless as water, quite imperceptible in any beverage. (B)________.

"Do you mean it is a poison?" cried Alan, much horrified.

"Call it a glove-cleaner if you like," said the old man indifferently. "Maybe it will clean gloves. I have never tried. One might call it a life-cleaner. Lives need cleaning sometimes."

"I want nothing of the sort," said Alan.

"Do you know the price of this? For one teaspoonful, I ask five thousand dollars."

"I hope all your mixtures are not as expensive," said Alan apprehensively.

"Oh dear, no," said the old man. "It would be no good charging that sort of price for a love portion. Young people who need a love potion very seldom have five thousand dollars. Otherwise they would not need a love potion."

"I am glad to hear that," said Alan.

"I look at it like this," said the old man. "Please a customer with one article, and he will come back when he needs another. Even if it is more costly. He will save up for it, if necessary."

"So," said Alan, "you really do sell love potions?"

(C)________ said the old man, reaching for another bottle, "I should not have mentioned the other matter to you."

"And these potions," said Alan. "They are not just – just – er –" "Oh, no," said the old man. "Their effects are permanent. For indifference," said the old man, "they substitute devotion. For scorn, adoration. Give one tiny measure of this to the young lady – its flavor is imperceptible in orange juice, soup, or cocktails – and she will change altogether. She will want nothing but solitude and you."

"I can hardly believe it," said Alan. (D)________.

"She will not like them any more," said the old man. (E)________.

"She will actually be jealous?" cried Alan in rapture. "Of me?"

"Yes, she will want to be everything to you."

"She is already. Only she doesn't care about it."

"She will, when she has taken this. She will care intensely. You will be her sole interest in life."

"Wonderful!" cried Alan.

"She will want to know all you do," said the old man. "All that happened to you during the day. She will want to know what you are thinking about, why you smile suddenly, why you are looking sad."

"That is love!" cried Alan.

"How carefully she will look after you! She will never allow you to be tired, to sit in the draft, to neglect your food. If you are an hour late, she will be terrified. She will think you are killed, or that some siren has caught you. And by the way, since there are always sirens, you need not worry. She will forgive you – in the end."

"That will not happen," said Alan fervently.

"Of course not," said the old man. "But, if it did, you need not worry. She would never divorce you."

"How much is the love potion?" said Alan.

"Oh, that is just a dollar."

"I can’t tell you how grateful I am," said Alan.

"I like to oblige," said the old man. "Then customers came back, later in life, (F)________, and want more expensive things. Here you are. You will find it very effective."

"Thank you again," said Alan. "Goodbye."

"Au revoir," said the old man.

Scotland Yard is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police in London. To most people, its name immediately brings to mind the picture of a detective – cool, efficient, ready to track down any criminal, or a helmeted police constable – (A)________ and trusty helper of every traveller from overseas.

Scotland Yard is situated on the Thames Embankment close to the Houses of Parliament and the familiar clock tower of Big Ben, and its jurisdiction extends over 740 square miles with the exception of the ancient City of London, (B)________.

One of the most successful developments in Scotland Yard’s crime detection and emergency service has been the “999 system”. On receipt of a call the 999 Room operator ascertains by electronic device the position of the nearest available police car, (C)________. Almost instantly a message is also sent by teleprinter to the police station concerned so that within seconds of a call for assistance being received, a police car is on its way to the scene. An old-established section of the Metropolitan police is the Mounted Branch, with its strength of about 200 horses stabled at strategic points. These horses are particularly suited to ceremonial occasions, (D)________.

An interesting branch of Scotland Yard is the branch of Police Dogs, first used as an experiment in 1939. Now these dogs are an important part of the Force. One dog, for example, can search a warehouse in ten minutes, (E)________.

There is also the River Police, or Thames Division, which deals with all crimes occurring within its river boundaries.

There are two other departments of Scotland Yard – the Witness Room (known as the Rogues’ Gallery) where a photographic record of known and suspected criminals is kept, and the Museum, (F)________.

Australia was the last great landmass to be discovered by the Europeans. The continent they eventually discovered had already been inhabited for tens of thousands of years.

Australia is an island continent (A)________ is the result of gradual changes wrought over millions of years.

(B)________, Australia is one of the most stable land masses, and for about 100 million years has been free of the forces that have given rise to huge mountain ranges elsewhere.

From the east coast a narrow, fertile strip merges into the greatly eroded Great Dividing Range, (C)________.

The mountains are merely reminders of the mighty range, (D)________. Only in the section straddling the New South Wales border with Victoria and in Tasmania, are they high enough to have winter snow.

West of the range of the country becomes increasingly flat and dry. The endless flatness is broken only by salt lakes, occasional mysterious protuberances and some mountains (E)________. In places the scant vegetation is sufficient to allow some grazing. However, much of the Australian outback is a barren land of harsh stone deserts and dry lakes.

The extreme north of Australia, the Top End, is a tropical area within the monsoon belt. (F)________, it comes in more or less one short, sharp burst. This has prevented the Top End from becoming seriously productive area.

Archaeologists have discovered evidence of what they believe was a second Stonehenge located a little more than a mile away from the world-famous prehistoric monument.

The new find on the west bank of the river Avon has been called "Bluestonehenge", after the colour of the 25 Welsh stones of (A) ________.

Excavations at the site have suggested there was once a stone circle 10 metres in diameter and surrounded by a henge – a ditch with an external bank, according to the project director, Professor Mike Parker Pearson, of the University of Sheffield. The stones at the site were removed thousands of years ago but the sizes of the holes in (B) ________ indicate that this was a circle of bluestones, brought from the Preseli mountains of Wales, 150 miles away.

The standing stones marked the end of the avenue (C) ________, a 1¾-mile long processional route constructed at the end of the Stone Age. The outer henge around the stones was built about 2400BC but arrowheads found in the stone circle indicate the stones were put up as much as 500 years earlier.

Parker Pearson said his team was waiting for results of radiocarbon dating (D) ________ whether stones currently in the inner circle of Stonehenge were originally located at the other riverside construction.

Pearson said: "The big, big question is when these stones were erected and when they were removed – and when we get the dating evidence we can answer both those questions."

He added: "We speculated in the past (E) ________ at the end of the avenue near the river. But we were completely unprepared to discover that there was an entire stone circle. Another team member, Professor Julian Thomas, said the discovery indicated (F) ________ was central to the religious lives of the people who built Stonehenge. "Old theories about Stonehenge that do not explain the evident significance of the river will have to be rethought," he said. Dr Josh Pollard, project co-director from the University of Bristol, described the discovery as "incredible".