College Life

The merry-go-round of college life is something that one never forgets. It’s a fascinating, fantastic, fabulous experience, irrespective of the fact whether one is a full-time or a part-time student.

Who can forget the first day at the university when one turns from an applicant who has passed entrance exams into a first-year student? I did it! I entered, I got into the university! A solemn ceremony in front of the university building and serious people making speeches. Hey, lad, do you happen to know who they are? Who? The rector, vice-rectors, deans, subdeans... and what about those ladies? Heads of departments and senior lecturers? Okay. Some of them must be professors, some – associate or assistant professors, but, of course, all of them have high academic degrees. And where are our lecturers and tutors?

The monitors hand out student membership cards, student record books and library cards – one feels like a real person. First celebrations and then days of hard work. So many classes, so many new subjects to put on the timetable! The curriculum seems to be developed especially for geniuses. Lectures, seminars and tutorials. Home preparations; a real avalanche of homework.

If one cannot cope with the work load of college he or she immediately starts lagging behind. It is easier to keep pace with the programme than to catch up with it later. Everyone tries hard to be, or at least to look, diligent. First tests and examination sessions. The first successes and first failures: “I have passed!” or “He has not given me a pass!” Tears and smiles. And a long-awaited vacation.

The merry-go-round runs faster. Assignments, written reproductions, compositions, synopses, papers. Translations checked up and marked. “Professor, I have never played truant, I had a good excuse for missing classes”. Works handed in and handed out. Reading up for exams. “No, professor, I have never cheated – no cribs. I just crammed”.

Junior students become senior. Still all of them are one family – undergraduates. Student parties in the student clubs. Meeting people and parting with people. You know, Nora is going to be expelled and Dora is going to graduate with honours. Yearly essays, graduation dissertations, finals...

What? A teacher’s certificate? You mean, I've got a degree in English? I am happy! It is over! It is over... Is it over? Oh, no...

A postgraduate course, a thesis, an oral, and a degree in Philology. The first of September. Where are the students of the faculty of foreign languages? Is it the English department? Oh, how nice...

Vocabulary exercises

Exercise 1. Find in the text words denoting:

• a short piece of writing on one particular subject that is written by a student;

• a class, usually at college or university, where the teacher and the students discuss a particular topic or subject;

• a long essay that a student does as part of a degree;

• financial aid that the government gives to an individual or to an organization for a particular purpose such as education, welfare, home, improvements;

• a student at a university or college who has not yet taken his or her first degree;

• a person who has a first degree from a university and who is doing research at a more advanced level;

• someone who has left school or college before they have finished their studies;

• a long piece of written research done for a higher university degree, especially a PhD;

• money given to a student to help pay for the cost of his or her education;

• a regular meeting in which a tutor and a small group of students discuss a subject as part of the student’s course of study;

• a block of flats where students live.

Exercise 2. Pick out from the text:

1) nouns, denoting different types of classes at the university; 2) nouns, denoting money support for students; 3) nouns, denoting types of written works done by students.

Exercise 3. Give the English equivalents for the following word-combinations and use them in sentences of your own.

Прогуливать занятия, заканчивать университет с отличием, раздавать студенческие билеты, справляться с учебной нагрузкой, иметь оправдание за пропуск занятий, идти в ногу с программой, быть исключенным, получать высокую академическую степень.

Exercise 4. Explain the meaning of the following words and phrases: - monitor

- a diligent student

- an avalanche of homework

- applicant

- to play truant

- to have an excuse for

- to lag behind

- to keep pace with

- curriculum

- to graduate with honours

Exercise 5. Discuss in pairs the difference between:

• junior and senior students;

• a reproduction and a composition;

• a student record book and a student membership card;

• a lecturer and a tutor;

• a curriculum and a syllabus.

Exercise 6. Answer the questions.

1. Who can become a part-time student?

2. What documents do students have?

3. What should one do to cope with the work-load of college?

4. What are the consequences of playing truant?

5. Why do a number of students take a postgraduate course after their fifth year at university?

• SPEAKING

1. Describe your first days at the university.

2. Would you compare your college life with a merry-go-round or with something else? Why?