Задание 10 из ЕГЭ по английскому языку: задача 14

2. A photo surprise

3. A record-breaking lunch

4. From buttons to touchscreens

5. A time difference

6. The first selfie ever

7. A bird in disguise

8. Where do you live?

A.You probably know that Russia has 11 time zones (of just 24 total in the world). So when a Russian on one side of the country is waking up at 7 a.m., another Russian on the other side may be sitting down to dinner or even preparing to sleep. Surprisingly, though, Russia is not the country with the most time zones in the world — even despite officially being the biggest country! This title belongs to France which has 12 time zones because of its overseas territories.

B. One of the most recognizable birds in the world is a pink flamingo. However, contrary to popular opinion, flamingos are actually not pink. They are born gray, and their diet of brine shrimp and blue green algae contains a natural pink pigment called canthaxanthin that makes their feathers pink. This is why flamingos that live in zoos may often lose their bright colours and turn gray again until zookeepers supplement their diets with shrimp and seaweed.

C. Some geographical names all over the world consist of just one letter — for example, A, U, D, or O. A is actually the name of not one, but several different small villages in Scandinavian countries. In turn, D is the name of the river in Lincoln City, Oregon, USA — interestingly, this river also used to hold the record for being the shortest in the world (just 130 meters!). Two more rivers — in England and in Japan, as well as an island in Sweden, are called O.

D. The first company to manufacture a handheld mobile phone that we know today is Motorola. It was invented by a famous telecommunications engineer Martin Cooper, who became the first person in the world to make a call from a mobile phone — back in 1973! However, these phones became available to regular customers only 10 years later, in 1983. In turn, the first company to produce the modern smartphone with touchscreen and Internet access is IBM. Their devices appeared on the market in the early 2010s.

E. A Brazilian food company earned a Guinness World Record by assembling a line of 1,180 submarine sandwiches to celebrate the 469th anniversary of the city of Sao Paulo. The sandwiches were prepared by a team of 40 over the course of about five hours and assembled into a line at the Parque Ibirapuera urban park. A Guinness representative verified that each sandwich measured at least 30 centimeters long and confirmed the new record, after which the sandwiches used in the event were served to the spectators in the park.

F.A 9-year-old Pennsylvania boy with dreams of becoming an astrophysicist is one step closer to his goal after graduating high school. David Balogun started at school as a third-grader, and now has been awarded his high school diploma after completing the required classes virtually from home. Balogun, who is also working on getting his black belt in karate, has already completed a semester at college and is looking into continuing his education at a four-year college or university. “I want to be an astrophysicist and I want to study black holes and supernovas,” the boy shared.

G. A trail camera set up to capture images of wildlife in Colorado was hijacked by a bear that used the camera to pose for about 400 “selfies.” Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks said a wildlife camera set up in a wooded area in November snapped 580 photos in a single night, and rangers reviewing the photos found about 400 of them were “bear selfies” of the same animal. The camera was set up to help researchers learn more about the area’s diverse wildlife.