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The following is the list of what Russian school-leavers should have at their fingertips upon graduation (high or secondary school is meant:)

Обязательный минимум содержания образовательных программ основной общеобразовательной школы.
Английский язык.

Произносительная сторона речи
1.    допустима относительная правильность произношения, не нарушающая коммуникацию;
2.    достаточно четное произнесение и различение на слух всех звуков английского языка;
3.    соблюдение долготы и краткости гласных; соблюдение звонкости согласных в конце слов, отсутствие смягчения согласных (палатализации);
4.    слитное произношение служебных слов со знаменательными, произнесение предложений с соблюдением основных типов интонации английского языка, адекватных целям высказывания, соблюдение ударения в словах;
5.    правильное членение предложений на смысловые группы, соблюдение ударения во фразе, отсутствие ударения на служебных словах (артиклях, предлогах, союзах, некоторых местоимениях). 

Графическая сторона речи
1.    буквы алфавита, графика (полупечатный шрифт);
2.    основные правила орфографии;
3.    правила чтения, техника чтения.

Лексическая сторона речи
1.    2300 слов для рецептивного усвоения. Из них 800 слов предназначается для продуктивного усвоения.
2.    Словообразовательные средства для овладения и расширения потенциального словаря
учащихся:
а) производные слова (аффиксация):
- суффиксы существительных: -ег, -ог, itу, -ind, -nеss, -tion, -sion, -ism, -ment;
- приставки и суффиксы прилагательных: -ful, -less, in-, un-, dis-, -у, -al, -ic, -able (- ible),
- приставки и суффиксы глаголов miss-, re-, diss-, оvег-, - ize (-ise), -еn;
- суффикс наречий -lу;
- суффикс порядковых числительных -th,
б) слова английского языка, сходные по звучанию, написанию и значению со словами русского или родного языков:
ргоduction, сulture, есоlogy,
в) конверсия: образование имен существительных от глаголов: to work - his work, to offer - аn оffer.

Lie detectors

 (Polygraph) Download in http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4534208/lie%20detectors.doc
Although "lie detectors" are being used by governments, police departments, and businesses that all want guaranteed ways of detecting the truth, the results are not always accurate1. Lie detectors are properly called emotion detectors, for their aim is to measure bodily changes that contradict what a person says. The polygraph machine records changes in heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, and the electrical activity of the skin (galvanic skin response, or GSR). In the first part of the polygraph test, you are electronically connected to the machine and asked a few neutral questions ("What is your name?" "Where do you live?"). Your physical reactions serve as the standard for evaluating what comes next. Then you are asked a few critical questions among the neutral ones ("When did you rob the bank?"). The assumption (предположение) is that if you are guilty, your body will reveal the truth, even if you try to deny it. Your heart rate, respiration (дыхание), and GSR will change abruptly (=suddenly) as you respond (=answer) to the incriminating questions.
That is the theory; but psychologists have found that lie detectors are simply not reliable. Since most physical changes are the same across all emotions, machines cannot tell whether you are feeling guilty, angry, nervous, thrilled, or revved up (=excited)  from an exciting day. Innocent people may be tense and nervous about the whole procedure. They may react physiologically to a certain word ("bank") not because they robbed it, but because they recently bounced a check4. In either case  the machine will record a "lie." The reverse mistake is also common. Some practiced liars can lie without flinching  (вздрагивать), and others learn to beat the machine by tensing muscles or thinking about an exciting experience during neutral questions.

QUESTION
According lo the passage, polygraph tests
(A)  record a person's physical reactions
(B)  measure a person's thoughts
(C)  always reveal the truth about a person
(D)  make guilty people angry

ANSWER
Answer (A) is correct because it is a rewording of "bodily changes." Answer (B) is incorrect because the polygraph measures physical changes; thoughts are not physical changes. Answer (C) is also incorrect since the passage states that lie detectors are "simply not reliable." Answer (D) is incorrect since the polygraph does not make guilty people nervous; it makes innocent people nervous.

QUESTION
According to the passage, what kind of questions are asked on the first part of the polygraph test?
(A) Critical .
(B) Unimportant
(C)  Incriminating
(D)  Emotional

Tesing you level

Suppose your friend or colleague said, "I can speak English well". This "well" is, of course, very subjective. To properly assess the level of one's language command I offer people this joke. They should read it without a dictionary and laugh in the end.
If they understand all of it and laugh, their level (according to the CEF Levels) is (Pre-)Intermediate. (as far as Grammar and Vocabulary are concerned).
An old man goes to the Wizard to ask him if he can remove a "Curse" he has been living with for the last 40 years. The Wizard says "maybe, but you will have to tell me the exact words that were used to put the curse on you." The old man says without hesitation "I now pronounce you man and wife".