DLSS English Language Ability Test, 2020

Facultatea de Litere / Departamentul de Limbi Străine

Specializate
Această secţiune se completează de către candidat. Se vor utiliza doar majuscule de tipar.
Numele şi Prenumele (cu iniţiala/iniţialele tatălui, aşa cum se găsesc in
catalog ) : MICU I IZABELA-MARIA
Facultatea de DREPT. Anul de studii : I
Specializarea (daca este cazul se va menţiona ID) :DREPT

Această secţiune se completează de către profesor.

Citire Scriere Vorbire Ascultare
Nota obtinută (în cifre)
Echivalent nivel cf. CEFR

Calificativul general

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ABILITY TEST

I. LISTENING COMPREHENSION 10 points

Listen carefully to the English legal terms used by the characters while watching the
film Runaway Jury in the English version and solve the following tasks:
a) Make your own list of 20 legal terms / phrases used by the characters in this film.
b) Explain the words and phrases chosen by you in English, according to their
meaning in the context.
Attorney - an official title of lawyers in some jurisdictions
Blackmail – demand money from a person in return for not revealing compromising or injurious
information about that person
Bidder - To make an offer to pay or accept a specified price
Chambers - offices used by a lawyer or judge
Lawsuit - a charge brought against a person or company in a court of law
Plaintiff - someone who brings an action against someone in a court of law
Sue - to make a legal claim against someone
Summons - an official order to appear in a court of law
Testify - to give evidence in a court of law
Verdict - a decision made by a jury in a court of law
Versus - used to show that two or more people are against each other
Authorize - to allow someone to do something
Goon - a violent criminal who is paid to frighten or attack people
Jury duty / jury service - service as a juror in a legal proceeding.
Litigation - the process of taking claims to a court of law
Pledge - a promise
Real estate - houses or land for sale
Research - to study something carefully
Sequester -to force a group of people, especially a jury, to stay away from other people
Settle -to pay a debt
Supervisor -someone in charge of a group of people
Testimony - a statement that something is true, especially one that is made by a witness in a court of
law
Witness - someone who testifies at a court hearing because they observed and/or have direct
knowledge of a crime or significant even

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DLSS English Language Ability Test, 2020

II. READING COMPREHENSION* (10 points)

Read the text and solve the tasks on the following page.
1. TEXT A: MAKING A NEW LAW (legislating) 7 points
Introduction
The laws passed by Parliament are called Acts of Parliament or statutes. Before a law becomes a statute, it has
to pass through a number of stages of debate and discussion in both the House of Commons and House of Lords.
There are seven main stages, and each of them is given a special name.
1. The creation of the billFirst the law is presented to the House of Commons. At this stage it is called a Bill.
All that happens at the First Reading is that MPs are informed about the proposed legislation, and a date is
given for the next stage. The Bill is then printed.
2. Debate
The Bill is discussed or debated in the House of Commons and a vote is taken as to whether it is in the principle
a law of which MP’s approve, or whether it should go no further. In this debate front-bench Government
Ministers and their Opposition counterparts, who occupy the front benches of the debating chamber, will make
the opening and closing speeches. The rest of the debate will be given over to the backbench MPs, who occupy
the remaining benches.
3. Examination
The Bill is now examined line by line, or “clause by clause”, in great detail by a small committee of MPs. These
MPs may be chosen to serve on the committee because they have a special interest and experience in the
subject. At this stage the committee may agree to receive representations and suggestions for and against the
proposed new law from anyone who is likely to be particularly affected by it. It may also hear evidence and
take the advice of experts. Alterations to the Bill, known as amendments, made at the committee stage will be
passed if a majority of the the committee members vote for them.
4. Final adjust
A report is made to the House of Commons on what has happened at the committee stage, and MPs are given
the chance to discuss the changes which have been made by the committee. Even at this time it is possible to
make amendments to a Bill.
5. Final debate
At this stage little is done. It is a final debate, frequently held immediately after the report stage. This is the
stage at which the Bill is officially passed from the House of Commons on to the House of Lords.
6. House of Lords amd House of Commons
The House of Lords then considers the Bill in much the same way as the House of Commons. Once again the Bill
goes through a number of stages, but this time it is carefully examined by members of the House of Lords. They
too may suggest amendments to the Bill, and send it back to the House of Commons for further consideration.
7. The Royal Assent
After a Bill has passed through all its stages in Parliament, it is sent to the monarch. It does not become law
until the Queen has assented. This she does by signing it. This Royal Assent, as it is called, is given by the
Queen signing the Bill.
In practice the Queen always signs her assent to laws passed by Parliament. That is her constitutional duty. As
soon as she has signed a Bill it is sent back to the House of Lords, where in an ancient ceremony the Clerk of
the Parliament pronounces the Norman-French words which signify that she has given her consent: ‘La Reines le
veult’: ‘the Queen wishes it’.
(Adapted and abbreviated from First Steps in the Law, by Geoffrey Rivlin)

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DLSS English Language Ability Test, 2020

Task 1: Give headings (titles not sentences) to the seven main stages of passing laws
by the UK Parliament. Use the empty spaces provided for you in the opposite text.

Task 2: Fill in the blanks with the missing words in the text below, and introduce
them in the table. Use text A as a source and pay attention to the grammar
peculiarities, as well (e.g. tense, 3-rd person singular, plural etc.).

Laws which have not been passed by Parliament are called …(1). Such drafts have to be
discussed and debated in both…(2) of the Parliament. During the debates in the House of
Commons the opening and closing speeches will be made by the …(3) or by their…(4). In
the House of Lords some …(5) may be also suggested. Finally, it is the monarch’s
constitutional duty to…(6) and …(7) the Bill.

(1) Bill
(2) Chambers
(3) Government Ministers
(4) Opposition counterparts
(5) Amendments
(6) To assent
(7) To sign

2. TEXT B 3 points
Read the following extract and tick the correct answer. (Only one answer is correct!)

The word mistake is generally used in the law of contracts to refer to an erroneous belief
– ‘a belief that is not in accord with the facts’. To avoid confusion, it should not be used,
as it sometimes is, in common speech to refer to an improvident act, such as the making
of a contract resulted from such an erroneous belief. Nor should it be used, as it
occasionally is, by courts and writers to refer to a situation in which two parties attach
different meanings to their language.

1. What is the writer doing in the first paragraph?

A. explaining why a word is misused
B. identifying the appropriate legal usage of a term
C. suggesting a wider interpretation of a particular term

2. The term ‘mistake’ should not be used to refer to an improvident act because
A. the results would be erroneous
B. it would bring confusion
C the contract would be unlawful

3. The word “it” in the phrase ‘nor should it be used…’ refers to

A. the word contract
B. an erroneous belief
C. the word mistake

III. WRITING. (10 points)

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DLSS English Language Ability Test, 2020

Present your personal opinion about the film Runaway Jury in 3 paragraphs
(maximum 300 words). Choose a character, a scene or any other topic you liked
most in order to reveal your opinion.

In my opinion, Runaway Jury, a screening of John Grisham's book, directed by Gary

Fleder, complicates in an original manner the alleged good faith of jurors in the performance of
duties conferred by the state. At the same time, Gary Fleder's film raises a big question mark
over how characters capable of influencing the final decision are selected and named on the jury.

Nicholas Easter (John Cusack) seems at first sight an ordinary citizen, a man who leads a
normal life sprinkled with daily routine. Things change when he is notified by mail that it is time
to fulfill his obligation to be a juror in a trial in which an arms company was accused of
supporting the illegal trafficking of its own products. Wendell Rohr (Dustin Hoffman), the
applicant's lawyer, seems convinced that she will succeed in winning the case and that the newly
created precedent would have sparked a national wave of lawsuits against arms manufacturers.
However, faced with such a danger, the owners of arms companies hire a private advisor
specializing in the selection and handling of jurors. Thus, Rankin Fitch (Gene Hackman) manages
to lay the foundations of a jury that, faced with various ideas and meaningful questions of the
defense lawyer, would have decided in favor of the defendants. Beyond all this confrontation
marked by considerable physical and material efforts, Nicholas Easter intervenes. He claims that
he can influence the decision from the inside, inducing his fellow jurors with ideas meant to
change the course of any event in the courtroom. Of course, the interested party must pay the
amount of money that Easter requires.

In all this landscape in which the jury becomes a simple pawn, the three central
characters are caught in a secondary fight, much hotter than the one ruled by the judge.