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 - Bilingv

• Toate subiectele sunt obligatorii. Se acordă 10 puncte din oficiu.

• Timpul efectiv de lucru este de 3 ore.

SUBIECTUL I (30 de puncte) Varianta 077

Read the text below and complete the following tasks.

Robbing a bank was not a capital offence even before hanging was abolished. Robert Hart
therefore paid a higher price than either he or society can have expected for his share in the
Kensington bank raid. (1) … In the circumstances the constable had to become involved and an
exchange of shots was inevitable. Anything less and the policeman would have been failing in his
duty - regardless of the fact that he was armed originally for a different purpose. He shouted a
warning that he was armed before he and his first opponent each fired and fell wounded. To ask
that he wait and see whether the gang intended to kill him is tantamount to expecting a voluntary
martyrdom by the constable. (2) …
But the incident has predictably polarised opinion. One school of thought holds that the
robbers got what they deserved, and that the incident shows that all policemen should be armed.
(3) … In its extreme form it teeters on the verge of implying that in some way Constable Slimon’s
action was unfair to armed men who should be able to go about their task without such unexpected
and unpleasant shocks.
The argument of those who abhor the armed policeman and are shocked by the
Kensington incident is greatly coloured by a legitimate fear of a wider use of guns in Britain. (4) …
But we are not as near to the American situation as it is sometimes imagined. Our firearms
controls, while far from ideal, are in a different world. A majority of our police still do not want to be
armed. The number of indiscriminate shootings in the pursuit of criminal gain is not notably greater
than before.
(Arms and the Policeman)

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. In the United States ordinary people often carry weapons for self-defence, so great is the use
of guns for attacks in the streets.
B. No one has a right to expect that.
C. The other, in deploring the killing, also deplores that any constable should be armed
(particularly in a busy street).
D. The arming of the police must continue only in special cases.
E. It was Mr. Hart’s misfortune that the gang crossed the path of an armed policeman on his way
to guard the Jordanian Embassy.

2. Explain the following words. 6 points

1. voluntary
2. predictably
3. pursuit

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

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

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

1. We can infer from the text that Robert Hart was …

A. the greatest robber in the United States.
B. an emigrant of Jordanian origin.
C. shot after he had robbed a bank.

2. It is stated in the second paragraph that …

A. the Kensington incident started to be studied in schools.
B. people did not share the same opinion about the incident.
C. people expected the police to treat criminals in a more humane way.

3. The last paragraph mainly presents …

A. the fear the British population lived in after the accident.
B. a difference in perspective between the British and the Americans.
C. the lack of proper equipment of the British Police.

5. Comment on the following in about 100 words: The argument of those who abhor the armed
policeman and are shocked by the Kensington incident is greatly coloured by a legitimate fear of a
wider use of guns in Britain. 4 points