BAC ENG, 2009, SCRIS, L3-4 h, V-4, Sb-1, [ sub + rezolv ]

[musa paradisiaca]

Ministerul Educaţiei, Cercetării şi Inovării
Centrul Naţional pentru Curriculum şi Evaluare în Învăţământul Preuniversitar

Examenul de bacalaureat 2009
Proba E/F
Proba scrisă la Limba Engleză
L1 - Intensiv 3-4 ore

Varianta 4

SUBIECTUL I ( 30 de puncte)

Read the text below and complete the following tasks.

In a recent study, researchers uncovered evidence of what shopaholics have known for years. (1) … The study of 33 volunteers found that feeling sad leads to self-centered thinking -- and this, in turn, can lead to a greater likelihood of dropping extra cash on something to make you feel better.

To reach their conclusions, the team of researchers showed volunteers either a video clip that showed grief following a tragic death or a neutral clip from a nature show. (2) … They found that people who'd watched the sad video clip offered an average of 300 percent more money for the bottle than those who had viewed the neutral clip. The researchers concluded that shopping can temporarily take people's minds off their troubles.

Also, shopping for things we like can help us feel better about ourselves and more concerned with the way we look. (3) … This is not the first study to show a sadness-spending link. The two are related because they both deal with a way of filling up the emptiness inside that focuses on making their outside more attractive. (4) … "The way I discovered it was because I was treating a lot of eating disordered patients at the time, and found that after I cured their eating disorder, they developed a compulsive shopping disorder," she said.

1. Four sentences have been removed from the text. Select the appropriate sentence for each gap in the text. There is one extra sentence which you do not need to use.
4 points

A. Afterward, participants had the chance to purchase an ordinary item -- a sporty water bottle.

B. For example, shopping for clothes make us feel we look better.

C. One of the doctors involved in the project explained how she discovered the connection.

D. It’s a practice so common it has come to be called retail therapy.

E. The fact that people may be willing to spend more on themselves when they're feeling sad.

Solution
My answer:

● 1 – E;
● 2 – A;
● 3 – B;
● 4 – C;

2. Explain the underlined words.
6 points

Solution
My answer:
● shopaholics = people who enjoy going to shops or buying things;
● volunteers = people offering to do something without being forced;
● disordered = suffering from an illness;

3. Sum up the text in about 50 words.
10 points

Solution
My answer:

● Retail therapy research reveals the fact that there is a close relationship between people proportionately or disproportionately spending money and their inner feeling at the time of shopping. What makes people disproportionately spend money while shopping is their unconscious desire to please their empty insides by making their outsides look more attractive. ( 52 words )

4. For the following questions, choose the answer (A, B, C, D) which fits according to the text.
6 points

1. What was the conclusion of the study?

A. People are more willing to spend money to feel better.
B. Nowadays people tend to feel miserable.
C. Self-centered thinking can be destructive.
D. It found 33 volunteers.

2. How did the people who saw the neutral video clip react?

A. They forgot about their troubles.
B. The experiment didn’t make any difference to them.
C. They paid less money for the bottle.
D. They did what the researchers wanted.

3. What is the connection between sadness and people’s tendency to spend money?

A. The shopping disorder.
B. People who like going shopping are sad.
C. Both of them are illnesses without a cure.
D. Both have to do with satisfying people’s internal needs.

Solution
My answer:

● 1 – A;
● 2 – C;
● 3 – D;

5. Comment on the following statement: (100 words)

Shopping can temporarily take people's minds off their troubles.

4 points

Solution
My answer

● People usually choose to do their shopping in places which they like. It is evident that those shops which are clean, where goods are finely packed and properly arranged on shelves, and where the retailers are willing to meet their customers’ needs, attract more people than those which fail to do so. The combination of pleasant atmosphere plus desired practicality make people to frequent such shops even when they don’t desperately need something, but just for getting rid of some problem, or stress, or fatigue, or discomfort, and sink themselves into some pleasant environment where their souls’ batteries can get fully recharged. ( 102 words )