Our Studies

Normally, we’ve got one or two English classes a day. We are doing phonetics, grammar and oral work. At our phonetic classes we have a lot of pronunciation practice. We are trained to imitate native speakers. Those who have a good ear for the sounds and intonation learn more quickly than others. Anyway, it is rather a hard job which takes a lot of time and effort but it has to be done, if you want to make progress.

At our grammar classes we practice the use of various grammar patterns, and learn to do some commenting and linguistic analysis. We do a lot of exercises, translation and grammar tests.

Most of our time is taken up by classes in oral and written work where we do all kinds of work. We make up dialogues, talk on various situations, do vocabulary and spelling tests. Regular practice helps us to get a good command of the language.

The teachers give us oral and written homework, so we’ve got an awful lot of work to do. We have to learn the new vocabulary, intonation and grammar rules and do some exercises both orally and in writing. Quite often we have to go to the language laboratory to do some lab work and listen to the texts which we are to reproduce in class. If your homework is carefully done, you usually answer well in class.

Students sometimes complain that they are given too much work to do but if you plan your day well you can manage (cope with) it without much difficulty.

As far as the other subjects go, the term is divided between theoretical and practical work: we have a few weeks of lectures followed by seminars. This term we are having lectures on linguistics, history and psychology. We are to take notes at the lectures and we can manage it fairly well, unless the lecturer speaks too fast so that you may find it hard to follow him. Those who miss a lecture usually copy up the notes if they wish to be successful in the exam. When we have seminars, we spend a lot of time in the reading-room revising the material.

Twice a year, in January and June, we have our end-of-term exams.

Exercise 1. Provide the correct prepositions or adverbial particles joining two words or phrases:

1. a good ear ... music

2. to catch … … the groupmates

3. to be behind the class ... grammar

4. a good knowledge ... modern literature

5. a lecture / seminar ... psychology

6. to graduate ... Oxford University

7. a mark ... a subject

8. a mark ... an answer

9. to make a study ... the rules

10. a good memory / no memory ... figures / dates / symbols / rules

11. to hand ... a test paper

12. to hand ... the texts

13. to borrow a textbook ... the library

14. to excuse smb ... coming late

15. to sit / revise ... an exam

16. to be through ... the work / book

17. to praise smb ... his progress in studies / good behaviour

Exercise 2. Paraphrase the following sentences using the active vocabulary.

1. I can’t remember names (to have no memory for).

2. She never misses her classes (to attend).

3. Mike knows history well (to have a good knowledge of smth.).

4. They are studying a lot of subjects (to learn / to do).

5. Mr. Black is an Oxford graduate (to graduate from).

6. Her daughter is leaving school this year (to finish).

7. She learns things quickly (a quick learner).

8. You can find this textbook in the library (to borrow from).

9. Let me use your grammar notes, please (to lend).

10. I am sorry I am late (to excuse).

11. She didn’t pass the exam I am afraid (to fail).

12. What subjects are you studying this term (to do)?

13. Judy decided to give up studying at night (to make up one’s mind).

14. Ann is preparing for her end-of-term test (to revise, to sit).

15. They are going to arrange a meeting tomorrow (to hold).

16. Her pronunciation is getting better (to improve).

17. She is good at linguistics (to have a good knowledge of).

18. Professor Petrov is giving lectures on old-Russian style in architecture (to lecture).

19. She carefully studied the vocabulary (to make a careful study of).

Exercise 3. Respond to the following expressing your agreement, advice, disapproval, etc.

Model 1: - John is good at history.

- No wonder. He has a good memory for dates, names and things.

Model 2: - Lucy can’t spell.

- She must learn the vocabulary and practise writing every day.

1. - I am behind the other students in grammar. – (to revise the rules, to practise the use of the grammar patterns, to catch up with).

2. I am afraid I may fail the exam in linguistics. – (to make notes, to do a lot of revision, to revise from the lecture notes).

3. - The teacher praises him for his progress. – (to do well, to get on well in one’s exams).

4. - I am not going to the party. – (to change one’s mind).

5. - She is doing her fifth year at the University. – (to graduate in a couple of months, to take one’s final exams).

6. - His knowledge of the subject is poor. – (never to do any preparation).

7. - Our time is up. – (to hand in the test-papers).

8. - Has Nell passed her English exam? – (to have bad luck, to fail).

Exercise 4. Extend the given statements. Use the prompts and any other active words or phrases which fit into the situations.

1. Jane is a quick learner (to have a good memory / ear for, to take notes of, to enjoy practising smth, to be witty and sociable, etc.).

2. I think Victor will get on well in his English exams (to attend, to do a lot of revision, to make a careful study of smth, to revise from grammar books, to improve).

3. I am sorry to say Mike is an unsatisfactory student (to miss classes without a good excuse, to be inattentive in class, never to do any preparation).

4. Working with tapes is helpful in many ways (to learn to understand native speakers, to get rid of one’s faults in pronunciation, to imitate the manner of speech).

5. It’s hard to do a vocabulary test (to do a lot of revision / preparation; to have a good memory for prepositions and things, to be good at translating into English).

6. I like to do a translation test (to teach one to be precise, to show one’s progress in mastering English, to be stimulating).

7. I find it dull to learn the rules in English (a lot of terms, hard to remember, not very helpful).

8. It isn’t much fun to try and catch up with the group after you’ve missed a lot of classes (to be behind smb with / in, to feel inadequate, to have to cover a lot of material, to study on one’s own).

9. I am not very punctual, to be frank (to be late for, to arrange to meet people, to be on time, to be scolded).

Exercise 5. Match the English fixed expressions in the left-hand column with their Russian equivalents in the right-hand column. Illustrate the meanings of the English idioms by your own examples.

1. to go into details 2. a brain twister 3. to drum something into somebody’s head 4. two and two make four 5. a stumbling block 6. the key word 7. the brain of a pigeon 8. to come easy 9. to start from scratch 10. a bluestocking

A. начать с азов B. как дважды два – четыре C. куриные мозги D. синий чулок E. вдаваться в подробности F. головоломка G. легко даваться H. ключевое слово I. камень преткновения J. вдолбить что-либо в голову

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