ИСТИНА

The paper deals with the cultural aspect of tasks in Lomonosov English language competition targeted at high school students pursuing a scholarship at MSU. The task aimed at specifically gauging the cultural competence of prospective university students focuses on history, geography, famous people, traditions and overall cultural heritage. Contestants also complete tasks which implicitly either test or foster cultural competence through a range of texts devoted to English-speaking countries. The purpose of the competition tasks is not to encourage learning by rote facts about cultures but to boost students’ interest in discovering new aspects of cultures through reference books and fiction.