Reading

1. A newspaper of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia published a survey of differences between university and school. So, read the text and find out for yourself.

How Uni is Different from School

There are considerable differences between school and Uni, and first-year students will encounter a whole new set of expectations and learn a new set of skills. If education is an intellectual journey, then starting university can be like visiting a foreign country. There is its own culture, language, rules and regulations and ways of doing things. The transition from school to Uni is one of life's big adventures. Like any journey, it can be exciting, challenging and frightening all at the same time.

University students are a diverse bunch, drawn from a wide range of ages, places, cultures, and socio-economic backgrounds.

University course materials might be delivered in unfamiliar ways and will require new, approaches. Instead of sitting in a class between 9am and 4pm learning a set curriculum, Uni students can often choose from a wide range of courses. There is a varied timetable that they plan themselves. They might be attending lectures for the first time where they are expected to take notes, or learning online with new technologies.

There are many differences between school and Uni but perhaps the biggest difference is that Uni students are expected to be independent learners. Uni offers students far more control over their work than school. Uni also offers far less supervision.

Vocabulary:

considerable - значительный

to encounter - встретиться, столкнуться

challenging - вызывающий

diverse bunch - разнообразная группа

range - ряд, выбор

supervision - надсмотр, надзор

2. Answer the questions:

- Are there considerable differences between school and uni?

- What is the main difference between school and uni from your point of view?

- What difficulties did you encounter?

- Do you like studying at the Volgograd State Pedagogical University?

3. Please, point out nouns in the plural or the singular form in the text above.

4. Make a range of nouns to the following two themes:

School University

5. Give a short summary of the text in English.

Listening

1. Listen to the dialogue.

- What shall we do this afternoon, John? Have you got any plans?

- Actually I want to repair some things at home.

- Do you? Why don't we spend a nice afternoon together? I could make you some coffee and we could have some cake ...

- I'd love to have a drink with you but I'm afraid I have to do some work. Look at the garden! It looks terrible. I need some shears to cut the hedge.

- You could do it tomorrow morning.

- No, no. Tomorrow morning I'm playing bowls with George so I'll have to do everything now. I'll put on my old jeans and plant some flowers. Where are my glasses? I can't read what it says on the seed packets.

- I thought we could play dominoes or read some classics.

- You'd better put your dungarees on and help me clean the garden. The stairs to the veranda need mending. When our guests arrive next week they'll break their legs in those holes. Oh, and I should pick up that broken glass from the pavement.

- It would be better if I brought two glasses and we drank some wine.

- You'd better bring me the scissors and a cloth to wipe the garden table.

- I don't understand you. You don't usually bother to take care of the garden, but now, instead of resting a bit after a tiring week, you want to devote Saturday afternoon to cleaning and cutting the grass.

- I promise you, Kate, that when I finish, we'll sit down in the garden and have a glass of wine.

- Alright. I'll help you so that we can get everything done faster.

- Great, let's get to work!

2. What was it about?

3. Read it and point out all of the nouns.