- •Unit 5 education
- •1. Answer the following questions.
- •2. Speak in class what you feel when:
- •3. Match the English idioms in the left column with their Russian Equivalents in the right column. Illustrate the meanings of the English idioms by your own examples.
- •4. Translate into English.
- •5. Translate the proverbs into Russian and comment upon them.
- •6. Translate the following quotations and comment upon them.
- •7. Write an essay on one of the following topics.
- •Education
- •1. Correct the mis-collocations in these sentences.
- •Education: debates and issues
- •1. Complete the collocations by filling in the missing words according to the meaning given in brackets.
- •2. Change the underlined words, using more formal and more appropriate word from a. Make any other changes that are necessary.
- •3. Which words or expressions from b mean …
- •4. Match the words on the left with the definitions on the right. The words refer to people involved in education. Use a dictionary if necessary.
- •Cramming for success: study and academic work
- •1. Correct the wrong usage of words to do with written work in these sentences.
- •2. Here are some idiomatic expressions about studying and exams. Use the context to guess what they mean and choose the right answer.
- •3. Answer these questions.
- •Home education
- •1. Find the synonyms in the text.
- •2. What do we call:
- •3. Fill in the blanks using the following words in the necessary form.
- •4. Discuss the following questions.
- •How to pass exams
- •1. Discuss the following questions in groups
- •2. Read the list below and tick the things you should do when preparing for an exam, and write a cross next to the things you should avoid.
- •6. Match the following phrases from the text with the definitions below.
Unit 5 education
Translate the following quotation and comment upon it.
‘A university should be a place of light, of liberty and of learning.’
Benjamin Disraeli
Read the text paying attention to the word in bold.
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 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 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 professors or assistant professors, but, of course, all of them have high academic degrees. And where are our lecturers and tutors? Oh, how nice…
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 play 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. Students’ parties in the students’ club. 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…
1. Answer the following questions.
1. Would you compare college life with a merry-go-round or with something else?
2. What can you say about your first months at university? What were they like?
3. Say a few words about your university: say what it is called, speak about its faculties and their specializations.
4. What would you like to change about your university?
5. What is the university of your dream?
6. Can you imagine an exemplary student? Speak about exemplary students and ordinary ones.
7. What qualities make a good teacher?