Verb Noun Adjective

to educate

vocational

college

to exam

nursery

parental

to graduate

compulsory

experiment

to train

comprehensive

programme

grant

to note

tutorial

composition

to drop out

Read the following text and be ready to render it.

The Private System

No one can understand the educational system in England and Wales without reference to the 'public schools' - which are independent and private. The major public schools, such as Eton, Harrow, Winchester and Westminster, have several hundreds of years of history. They have traditionally served a social elite and, in some cases, an intellectual elite. Oxford and Cambridge, for instance, draw almost half their undergraduates from the private schools which only about 7% of the population attend. And the top jobs in the judiciary, the civil service, the military and the Church have tended to go to those who have had this privileged upbringing – although this is changing bit by bit. However, the private school system, especially the top 'public schools', remains extremely influential in British society.

There are schools for those up to 13, generally called 'prep schools', followed by

the secondary or 'public school' at 13. Many of these are boarding schools. It was

customary for the upper classes to send their children away to school. This was in

many ways subsidised by the state since many children going to these schools would

be the children of army, navy or airforce personnel stationed abroad and their fees

would be paid by the Ministry of Defence. However, there has recently been a sharp

drop in the number of boarders. There have been cuts in the armed forces, with a

consequent drop in fees to the private sector. And many more parents wish to keep

their children at home. So many of the boarding schools are now recruiting from

abroad, especially the Far East (and Russia!) to fill their places.

The most significant subsidy, however, has been through the 'assisted places scheme' which enabled some parents who otherwise would not be able to afford it to send their children to private schools. However, the first thing that the Labour government did when elected in 1997 was to abolish this scheme.

The distinction, however, between public (state) and private or independent can become increasingly blurred. For example, there is the growing dependence of the maintained (or state) sector on private means – on donations from parents for essential goods such as books, equipment and even teachers; on sponsorship by industry, and on selling services such as renting sporting facilities and premises.

There is much evidence of schools dependent on donations and covenant schemes.

And it is clear that, as schools move towards control of their own budgets, they will be expected to improve their resources through external funding.

However, the position may best be understood not so much between 'public' and 'private', since, with 'the private' being subsidised publicly and 'the public' being subsidised privately, the boundaries between the two in terms of funding become blurred. Rather may the position best be seen in terms of the degree of independence from government control, or of readiness to compete in the market conditions that once affected only the private sector but now provide the framework for all. The point is that one cannot understand the educational system in England and Wales without appreciating the role of those often very rich and influential schools which remain financially independent of government and to which many influential people send their children (about 7% of the secondary school population).

Ex. 1. Compare the situation in private section in Britain with the situation in Kazakhstan. Are there any common tendencies? What is different?

Ex. 2. Give free translation of the passage below.

В настоящее время реформы идут полным. Суть их заключается в том, что даже такое богатое государство, как Великобритания, не может обеспечить бесплатного высшего образования для всех при все возрастающем количестве студентов, преподавателей и университетов. Предлагается в течение двух лет ввести дифференцированную, зависящую от доходов родителей, плату за университетское образование.

Эти планы, конечно же, не вызвали прилива благодарности лейбористскому правительству, породили острые споры по всей стране и в стане самих лейбористов, где немало людей, получивших высшее образование благодаря его общедоступности. В то же время необходимо подчеркнуть, что нововведения не должны коснуться наименее обеспеченных слоев населения. Более того, все студенты будут иметь возможность получать специальные льготные займы с отсрочкой выплат на весьма продолжительное время – его, как полагает автор реформы, у которого дети студенческого возраста, должно хватить, чтобы человек успел прочно встать на ноги и начал прилично зарабатывать.

Однако идея платного образования, при всем понимании его неизбежности, воспринимается общественным мнением как отход «новых лейбористов» от высоких идеалов старой лейбористской партии.

Существует еще чисто прагматический аспект критики политики

правительства. Его оппоненты утверждают, что правительство проводит реформу слишком быстрыми темпами, и скорость принятия решений не

дает возможности сформулировать альтернативные подходы к решению

этой по-настоящему назревшей проблеме.

Ex. 3. Comment on the following quotations.

1. "You can learn from anyone even your enemy." (Ovid)

2. "It is better to learn late than never." (Publilius Syrus)

3. "To be conscious that you are ignorant of the facts is a great step to knowledge." (Benjamin Disraeli)

4. "Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence." (Robert Frost)

5. “Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.”

(Chinese Proverb)

6. "In the Western tradition, we have focused on teaching as a skill and

forgotten what Socrates knew: teaching is a gift, learning is a skill." (Peter Drucker)

7. “You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.” (Clay P. Bedford)

8. “A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of

Youth Problems

I. Read the text and speak on the problems raised in it.

Love and Help Children

Today's children will become tomorrow's civilization. Bringing a child into the world today is a little bit like dropping one into a tiger's cage. Children can't handle their environment and they have no real resources. They heed love and help to make it.

It is a delicate problem to discuss. There are almost as many theories on how to raise a child or not raise him as there are parents. Some try to raise children the way they were themselves raised, others attempt to exact opposite, many hold to an idea that children should just be let grow on their own. None of these guarantee success.

A child is a little bit like a blank slate. If you write the wrong things on it, it will say the wrong things. But, unlike a slate, a child can begin to do the writing; the child tends to write what has been written already. The problem is complicated by the fact that, while most children are capable of great decency, a few are born insane and today, some are even born as drug addicts: but such cases are an unusual few.

It does no good just to try to "buy" the child with an overwhelm of toys and possessions or to smother and protect the child: the result can be pretty awful.

One has to make up his mind what he is trying to get the child to become. This is modified by several things: a) what the child basically can become due to inherent make-up and potential; b) what the child, himself really wants to become; c) what one wants the child to become; d) the resources available.

Whatever is one's affection for the child, remember that the child cannot survive well in the long run if he or she does not Have his or her feet put on the way to survival. It will be no accident if the child goes wrong: the contemporary society is tailor-made for a child's failure.

It will help enormously if you obtain a child's understanding. What does have a workability is simply to try to be the child's friend. Try to find out what a child's problem really is and without crushing their own solutions, try to help solve them.

Observe them — and this applies even to babies. Listen to what children tell you about their lives.

It will help the child enormously if you obtain understanding, of and agreement to this way to happiness and get him or her to follow it.

Ex. 1. Discuss your point of view on the problem of bringing up children with the groupmates. What is an ideal way of bringing up to your mind? What are the main reasons for the conflicts between different generations?

Ex. 2. Solve the problems and make dialogues based on them.

1. Your daughter is well-educated person, she likes her job greatly and think that her baby will have it fine in the kindergarten. She informs you that she is going to start working in half a year after her baby’s birth. What is your reaction?

2. Your son/daughter is in his/her first year at university. S(he) wants to go away for the weekend? Would you permit him/her?

3. Your graduate son (daughter) came home after an interview with employer. S(he) says that they need a person with higher education and with experience (at least one year). What would you say?

4. Your friend has been seeking for job for almost a year but without any result. What would you advise him/her?

5. Your parents are going to divorce. What would you do? Would you try to prevent it?

Ex. 3. Write about your own family or about family structure and tasks standing before it in some other countries.

Read the passage about Age Discrimination in the Work Place.

“Discrimination on the basis of age is a pressing problem in business today. Age discrimination is the fastest-growing discrimination complaint in the work place. In 1986, almost twenty-seven thousand age-discrimination complaints were filed with federal and state agencies - more than twice the number filed in 1980.

Although many age-discrimination cases never reach court (only about one in five do), the rapid increase in the number of complaints has many businesspeople worried.

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act and its amendments should not be interpreted to mean that young and older workers cannot be fired for unproductivity. Businesses should keep in mind, however, that decisions to hire and fire must be based on ability, not on age. Employers need to evaluate individual employees' ability to carry out job duties, not rely on arbitrary age limits.

Many lawyers believe that the current rush of age-discrimination suits is nothing compared to what is going to happen by the year 2010, when workers over age 40 who are protected by age-discrimination laws will make up half of the work force. Others believe that older people with medical handicaps will be increasingly inclined to file suit. It is likely that companies will need to examine their personnel practices continuously, and make changes on an ongoing basis to avoid age-discrimination.”

Ex. 1. Answer the following questions:

1. Have you or your friends faced such a problem in the work place?

2. What do you know about ageism?

3. It is 2012 now. Have the situation really changed?

4. What should employers keep in mind while recruiting new employee?

5. Some companies prefer to hire young people without any

experience and train new employees themselves. Is it productive?

Ex. 2. Read suggested to you text and give synonyms for the words and

expressions in it:

-alcoholic drinks;

- fizzy drinks;

- drunk;

- very drunk;

- expensive.

Ex. 3. Answer the following questions based on the given to you text.

1. What is alcohol? Do you know any types of it?

2. How does it influence on your body?

3. What does the law say?

4. What is the “Temperance movement”?

5. What is the purpose of distillation?

6. Does fool proof hangover cure exist?

7. What do you know about long-term damage?

8. What are the recommended limits of alcohol consumption?

Read the text.

Passive Smoking

”An hour a day in a room with a smoker is nearly a hundred times more likely to cause lung cancer in a nonsmoker than 20 years spent in a building containing asbestos.” Sir Richard Doll, 1985

The first conclusive evidence on the danger of passive smoking came from Takeshi Hirayama’s study in 1981 on lung cancer in non-smoking Japanese women married to men who smoked. Although the tobacco industry immediately launched a multimillion dollar campaign to discredit the evidence, dozens of further studies have confirmed the link. Research then broadened into other areas and new scientific evidence continues to accumulate.

A complex mixture of chemicals is generated from the burning and smoking of tobacco. As a passive smoker, the non-smoker breathes “sidestream” smoke from the burning tip of the cigarette and “mainstream” smoke that has been inhaled and then exhaled by the smoker. The risk of lung cancer in nonsmokers exposed to passive smoking is increased by between 20 and 30 percent, and the excess risk of heart disease is 23 percent.

Children are at particular risk from adults’ smoking. Adverse health effects include pneumonia and bronchitis, coughing and wheezing, worsening of asthma, middle ear disease, and possibly neuro-behavioural impairment and cardiovascular disease in adulthood. A pregnant woman’s exposure to other people’s smoking can harm her foetus. The effects are compounded when the child is exposed to passive smoking after birth.

Ex. 1. Comment on the following quotations:

1. “To some, the cigarette is a portable therapist.” (Terri Guillemets)

2. “To smoke or not to smoke: I can make of either a life-work.” (Mignon McLaughlin)

3. “Annual drug deaths: tobacco: 395,000, alcohol: 125,000, 'legal' drugs: 38,000, illegal drug overdoses: 5,200, marijuana: 0. Considering government subsidies of tobacco, just what is our government protecting us from in the drug war?” (William A. Turnbow)

4. “You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself.” (Galileo Galilei)

5. “If you want happiness for a lifetime - help the next generation. (Chinese Proverb)

6. “Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.” (Elizabeth Stone)

7. “Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories.” (John Wilmot)

8. “Your children need your presence more than your presents.” (Jesse Jackson)

9. “Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.” (Robert Fulghum)

10. “If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders.” (Abigail Van Buren)

11. “What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give.” (P.D. James)

Ex. 2. Give Russian equivalents for the following proverbs. Use them in situations of your own.

1. The church is close, but the road is icy. The bar is far, but I will walk carefully.

2. As drunk as a lord.

3. By doing nothing we learn to do ill.

4. Diseases are the interests of pleasure.

5. Drunken days have all their tomorrow.

6. Drunkenness reveals what soberness conceals.

7. A good example is the best sermon.

8. Like father, like son.

9. Many a good father has but a bad son.

10. Happy is he that is happy in his children.

GRAMMAR: The usage of articles

For better or for worse, English is blessed with articles. This causes a considerable amount of confusion for speakers of most of the world's other languages, who seem to get on rather well without them. The good news is that English began dropping the complex case systems and grammatical genders still prevalent in other European languages a very long time ago. Now we are left with just two forms of the indefinite article (a & an) and one form of the definite article (the). Perhaps more than anything it is the transition from being a language with synthetic structure to one which is more analytic that has helped gain English the kind of unrivalled worldwide acceptance it enjoys today. 

Although greatly simplified, English article usage still poses a number of challenges to speakers of other European languages. Let's compare the German sentence "Da er Botaniker ist, liebt er die Natur" with the corresponding English one "Being a botanist, he is fond of nature". You'll see that English puts an indefinite article in front of a profession but German doesn't. Conversely, English manages without articles in front of abstract nouns like nature, where German needs a definite article. 

Even between British and American usage one finds subtle differences in nuance or emphasis. For example, Americans usually say someone is in the hospital, much as they could be at the bank or in the park. To the British this sounds like there is only one hospital in town or that the American is thinking of one hospital in particular that he or she patronizes. The Brits say an ailing person is in hospital, just as they would say a child is at school or a criminal is in prison. This is because they are thinking more of the primary activities that take place within those institutions rather than the buildings in which they are housed. If, however, you are merely visiting one of these places, you are at the hospital, at the school or at the prison — both British and Americans agree here that what we have in mind is the building itself.

These few examples serve to illustrate that there is more to articles than at first meets the eye. From whatever perspective you are viewing this page, we hope you'll discover that articles are actually precision tools that greatly contribute to the unique accuracy of expression afforded by the English language. Most article usage does in fact have a reasonably logical explanation. If this can be properly grasped then non-native English can be made a lot less conspicuous and many misunderstandings avoided.