Easy Reading in English. Методическое пособие по домашнему чтению для студентов II курса неязыковых специальностей педагогических вузов

to fling – бросать abuse – оскорбление a spear – копье odd – добавочный a savage – дикарь

Assignments

1.Translate the article paying attention to the unknown words for you.

2.Paraphrase the following terms:

1)the lowest-ranked institution;

2)a non-graduate;

3)to fare;

4)a salary;

5)a shortage;

6)competition;

7)to perform;

8)targeted courses;

9)a renowned course;

10)job-hunting.

3.Complete the sentences:

1)… that half of British school leavers should go to university;

2)Competition is becoming increasingly …;

3)Almost one-third of graduates­ believe they are in jobs that …;

4)…, the traditional elite institutions dominate the league tables;

5)Job-hunting is likely to become increasingly difficult for ….

4.Express your opinion on:

What is the problem the article is connected with? What is the author’s opinion on the problem?

Do you share it?

What aspects of students’ life in the UK did you learn about in this article?

Compare the situation in Britain (or other English-speaking countries) and Russia and comment on them.

Does this kind of phenomenon/problem exist in our country? What is the attitude towards this problem in our society? What have you read or heard about this phenomenon?

Did anything surprise you?

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Have you (or your friends) ever had to deal with the problem described in the article?

How do you feel about your future prospects after graduating from the Institute?

5.Divide the text into some meaningful parts, make up a plan to the article and entitle each point of it.

6.Who(m) can it be addressed to read?

7.Render the article according to the plan, using new words and expressions.

DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. DIPLOMAS AREN’T

(From «The Moscow News» № 21/5-11 June 2009 by Mark H. Teeter)

It’s not the diploma that counts, it’s the transcript: a real record of what was studied and when. Maybe one day Russian institutions will grasp this.

June is underway, and Moscow’s newly-anointed graduates are pouring out of universities, institutes and academies, brandishing rolled-up sheepskins like broadswords and mustering en masse in the Sparrow Hills for a headlong charge into the unsuspecting world below.

Makethatthesuspectingworld,actually.ThefirstwordsmanyofRussia’ new bachelors, masters and doctors hear from prospective employers may not be: “How about an unpaid internship?” or even “Sorry, there’s a crisis on” – no, the best and brightest may well meet less discouragement than skepticism: “You say you have a degree from Prefabrograd State – can you prove it?”

If the proud graduate’s response is to unfurl a diploma, the interview may prove a short one. As a form of authentication, the average institutional sheepskin offers a less convincing affirmation of its bearer’s bona fides than a passport, a work permit or, come to that, a letter from uncle Fedya, the precinct police chief.

Everyone knows that a wide variety of diplomas are on sale at Moscow’s better metro stations. You can probably pick up a degree in Oriental

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Languages, like James Bond, at the Universitet station (along with a “used” cell phone that 007 might envy). And counterfeiting aside, the country is fairly awash in “legitimate” diplomas from bogus institutions, many of them pay-for-play degree mills and/or Chechnya draft-dodging centres set up during the woefully under-regulated ‘90s.

But even a real diploma from a real institution offers scant evidence of what went into earning it. Of courses taken, books read, theses written and knowledge gained, the diploma says not a word – which is why it belongs under glass on a wall, not at a job interview.

Yet because it is a document, and the Russian obsession with arcane documentation remains undiminished since Gogol’s Chichikov began buying up titles to dead serfs, the parchment diploma continues to carry evidentiary weight in certain circles – including mine: twice I’ve been asked to produce diplomas as evidence of my qualifications to teach at Russian universities.

So far I have successfully declined, noting with polite incredulity, “You have my curriculum vitae, which shows my degrees and who awarded them. And you know, most Americans don’t cart their diplomas around in their luggage…” Both times the deans have backed off at this, one of them perhaps prompted by an assistant suggesting, “If it comes to that, we could send you to a good metro station.” Everybody laughed.

If it ever does come to that, I won’t produce a diploma, of course, but a transcript – the official document that matters to Americans, the one your university sends out (for a modest fee) to show exactly what you studied and what degree you got. No graduate school or potential employer is likely to question an official, raised-stamp transcript, which Russian institutions should duly note.

And American institutions should also take note, because transcripts are nowchanging.Aftercenturiesinthesameink-on-paperformat,thetranscript is being reinvented – or reprogrammed, perhaps. Soon a job applicant will be able to download positive proof of graduation in a trice from a pocket BlackBerry – and ask an interviewer, if it seems appropriate, “Want a quick look at my thesis, too?”

AccordingtoThomasBlack,Stanford’sinnovation-friendlyregistrar,the next standard in post-parchment authentication will be an interactive digital transcript whose hyperlinks allow any authorised online user to access a wealth of information beyond the simple confirmation of a student’s degree

– such as his dissertation, the faculty who taught and advised him, and the

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special projects he took part in. Why not video highlights of his debate at Oxford?

The digital transcript is already a fact; as its dimensions and potential are pushed and explored, there’s no reason Russian institutions can’t become part of the process. Indeed, Kremlin support for this mini-front of the digital revolution makes perfect sense: not only does such record keeping represent a worthy anti-corruption measure – putting the lowlifes at the Universitet station out of business, one hopes – but academia itself stands to gain in the bargain. When both teacher and taught know their efforts will become part of a restricted-but-accessible public record – and transcripts name names! – many courses may become less pro forma and more pro-active. Everybody wins.

Perhapsonedaysoonapotentialemployer,lookingathisdesktopscreen, will tell my godson Ilya, “Wow, you got a 5 from Professor Sidorov. I’m impressed. And that’s a nice graduation picture of you standing beside him, too. How is the old coot?”

Try buying that in the metro.

Mark H. Teeter teaches English and Russian-American relations in Moscow.

Assignments

1.Read the article and answer the question: Are diplomas forever?

2.Name the synonyms from the article that correspond in meaning to the following words or word combinations:

1)students who have graduated from the higher educational establishment;

2)the certificate that gives you the right to work in the sphere you’ve studied for;

3)to give knowledge, to instruct, to educate;

4)a student’s written work;

5)a copy of graduation paper.

3.Search for the words which can be used to answer the question: What is it: a diploma?

4.Be ready to answer the questions to the article proving your ideas with the facts from the text:

What problem is the article based upon? What is the author’s opinion on the problem? Do you share the author’s opinion?

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What aspects of life in Russia did you learn about in this article? Compare the situation in our country and Britain (or other Englishspeaking countries) and comment on them.

What is the attitude towards this problem?

What have you read about this phenomenon in other Russian newspapers?

Did anything surprise you?

Do you agree with the theory presented in the article?

Do you agree with the statement that getting a diploma gives you a possibility to find prestigious work?

5.Render the article according to the plan of writing an annotation, using new words and expressions.

6.Who(m) can it be useful for reading?

WANT TO BE HAPPILY MARRIED?

GO TO COLLEGE

(From «Newsweek» January 31, 2010 by Pat Wingert and Barbara Kantrowitz)

New research shows women with degrees are luckier in love.

There was a time, not that long ago, when women were considered smart if they played dumb to a get a man, and women who went to college were more interested in getting a «Mrs. degree» than a bachelor's. Even today, it's not unusual for a woman to get whispered and unsolicited counsel from her grandmother that an advanced degree could hurt her in the marriage market. Despite the fact that more women than men now attend college, the idea that smart women finish last in love seems to hang on and on.

«There were so many misperceptions out there about education and marriagethatIdecidedtosortoutthefacts,»saideconomistBetseyStevenson, anassistantprofessorattheWhartonSchoolattheUniversityofPennsylvania. So along with Wharton colleague Adam Isen, Stevenson crunched national marriage data from 1950 to 2008 and found that the marriage penalty women once paid for being well educated has largely disappeared. «Marriage rates in the U.S. for college-educated women have risen enormously since the 1950s,» Stevenson said. «In 1950, less than three quarters of white collegeeducated women went on to marry by age 40 [compared with 90 percent of

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high-school graduates]. But today, 86 percent marry by age 40, compared with 88 percent of high-school grads.»

«In other words, the difference in marriage rates between those with college degrees and those without is miniscule,» said Stephanie Coontz, a family historian at Evergreen State College and author of Marriage: A History. The new analysis (detailed in a briefing paper released last week by the Council on Contemporary Families) also found that while high-school dropouts had the highest marriage rates (93 percent) in the 1950s, today college-educated women are much more likely to marry than those who don't finish high school (86 percent versus 81 percent).

Ofcourse,expectationshavechangeddramaticallyinthelasthalfcentury. «In the 1950s, a lot of women thought they needed to marry right away,» Coontz said. «Real wages were rising so quickly that men in their 20s could afford to marry early. But they didn't want a woman who was their equal; they wanted a woman who looked up to the man. Men needed and wanted someonewhoknewless.»Infact,shesaid,researchpublishedbysociologist Mirra Komarovsky in 1946 documented that 40 percent of college women admitted to playing dumb on dates. «These days, few women feel the need to play down their intelligence or achievements,» Coontz said.

The new research has more good news for college grads. Stevenson said the data indicate that modern college-educated women are more likely than other groups of women to be married at age 40, are less likely to divorce, and are more likely to describe their marriages as «happy» (no matter what their income) compared with other women. The marriages of well-educated women tend to be more stable because the brides are usually older as well as wiser, Stevenson said. Researchers have long known that the older people are when they marry, the more likely that the marriage will last. «When a man with only a high school degree marries by age 20, there's a 49 percent chance that he will be divorced within 10 years,» she said. «Compare that with the man who gets married in his mid-30s who has a college degree. Ninety percent will still be married 10 years later.»

College-educatedcouplesarealsomorelikelytomarryforcompanionship and love and compatibility rather than for financial security. «These couples have different expectations,» Stevenson said. «Among college graduates [today], only 6 percent say that financial security is the most important reason to marry, compared with 20 percent of those without a college degree.» Better-educated couples, she said, «tend to think of themselves as equal partners.» That's another big change from the past, Coontz said.

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«For women, financial stability used to be the most important reason for marriage,» she said. «Today, educated women are a lot less concerned about how much their husband earns,» she said, and more interested in whether «he is willing to share child care and housework.»

Over the last half century, more women and men have been putting off marriage, and the group of women who have never been married at age 40 has grown over time. But even among this group, Stevenson said, college grads who want to get married eventually have an advantage because they are «twice as likely to marry in the next 10 years» as unmarried 40-year- olds with just a high-school degree.

The data also point to significant racial differences. While white women with college degrees are slightly less likely to marry than their less-educated sisters, a different scenario emerges among African-American women. Today, 70 percent of black college-educated women marry by age 40, compared with 53 percent of those who never finished high school. In the 1950s, black college-educated women were much less likely to marry than those with less education. «What all this tells me is that our perceptions lag behind the reality of our time,» Stevenson said. «College-educated women have been closing the gap very steadily.»

So if you're looking for another reason to encourage a young woman to get her college degree, add this one to the list: chances are you'll be luckier in love.

Assignments

1.Read and translate the article.

2.Underline the words and word combinations concerning the topic of the article.

3.Make up 5 sentences with them.

4.Give your comments to the following:

What problem does the article touch upon? What is the author’s opinion on the problem?

What aspects of life in the UK (or other English-speaking countries) did you learn about in this article?

Compare the statistical data of Britain and those of Russia (if available) and comment on them.

Does this kind of phenomenon/problem exist in our country? What is the attitude towards this problem in our society? Do you agree with the theory presented in the article?

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Have you (or your friends) ever had to deal with the problem described in the article?

Do you believe in a happy marriage? Express your opinion.

5.Define the meaningful parts, make up a plan to the article and entitle each part of your plan.

6.Who(m) can it be useful for?

7.Render the article according to the plan, using new words and expressions.

RENEWING THE TEACHING PROFESSION*

The success of an educational system inevitably depends upon the judgement and ability of those who teach… It is in the classroom that the pupil experiences the educational process; if the interaction between a teacher and a child is not effective, even the soundest federal, state or local policies will be useless. Reducing objectives for the schools and revamping the curriculum will improve public education only if teachers are of high quality.

Economically, too, teachers are the critical component of the system. About85percentofallsalariesineducationgototeachers–65percentofthe total budget. To be productive and, in a sense, to invest public funds wisely, schools must recruit, retain and reward corps of competent professionals, imbued with high standards of performance and capable of commanding the respect of their “clients” – their pupils, the parents and the public.

In 1983 “declining teacher quality” suddenly became an issue for the American media. A number of negative trends affecting the profession are often mentioned; low pay, declining prestige, decreasing academic ability among the teachers themselves, poor working conditions and inadequate trainingareamongthetroublingcomplaints.Yetwhysomuchconcernnow? After all, these problems, which result from an interrelated set of historical circumstances, have been building for years.

One reason for the present intense scrutiny of the teaching profession is thattrendsinstudentenrolmentarechangingonceagain.Afterdecliningover the past decade, enrolment will increase by 2 million from 1985 to 1990.

___________________

* The article is taken from “On Education: Practical book in English” by O. Melchina, L. Morozova (p. 54 – 56)

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Moreover, from 1970 to 1982 very few new teachers were hired, so that the average teacher is older and is close to retirement. In the 80s teaching will be one of the fastest growing professions. The student population is changing as well as growing; these new teachers will confront a higher proportion of pupils from disadvantaged and single-parent homes. By 1990 about two-thirds of the national student population will come from such households.

There is an even more significant reason for looking closely at the teaching profession: fundamental changes in the labour market for teachers. Taken together the circumstances surrounding the work force in education compel a rethinking of the very concept of the teaching process.

The Changing Labour Market

Women make up two-thirds of the total work force of teachers – and 80 per cent of all elementary school teachers. The dependence of the teaching professiononwomenisamajorcauseforconcern,becausethevastexpansion of occupational choices for young women has correspondingly decreased the supply of superior teachers. Women who achieve high scores on academic testshavedisappearedfromtheschoolemployers’personalfilesoverthepast 15 years because teaching – like nursing, librarianship and social work – is no longer one of the few places for them to go. Management, law, medicine

– all the opportunities are open to them today.

The bright young women who taught English 15 years ago is now carrying an attach case and heading for an office.

New opportunities for women affect teacher quality in another way. Women who withdrew from teaching to raise families once constituted a vast reserve army of teachers who could be called upon as their children grew up. But today, about 70 per cent of women between the ages of 25 and 65 are already employed, meaning that the reserve army no longer exists. Education must compete on its own merits as a desirable occupation.

Notes

the present intense scrutiny of – (зд.) особо пристальное внимание сегодня к

is close to retirement – скоро уйдут на пенсию, близки к пенсии disadvantaged – (зд.) неблагополучный

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compel a rethinking – вынуждают пересмотреть

an expansion of occupational choices – увеличившийся выбор про-

фессий

personal files – картотеки работников

Assignments

1.Read and translate the article into Russian.

2.Guess what this article is about according to the title given.

3.Find in the text the English for:

Испытывать на себе, бесполезный, важнейшая составная часть, заработная плата, общий (суммарный), вкладывать (средства), нанимать (брать на работу), награждать, завоевать уважение, упоминать, падающий (снижающийся), достаточная подготовка, большая тревога, совокупность обстоятельств, сталкиваться с, рынок труда, рабочая сила, основная причина, достигать высоких результатов, возможности, умный (способный).

4. Form the nouns from the following verbs:

To depend, to judge, to retire, to experience, to interact, to improve, to invest, to reward, to perform, to respect, to concern, to result, to enrol, to change, to choose.

5. Match the following parts of the given sentences:

6.Answer the questions to the article:

What problem does the article highlight? What is the author’s opinion on the problem? Do you share the author’s opinion?

What aspects of life in the US did you learn about in this article? Speak on the main reasons for the decreasing of the quality of teaching in the USA nowadays.

Say whether we have the same problems and suggest effective measures to improve the situation.

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