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

WOMEN’S ORGANIZATIONS

(From «Britain Now»)

There are hundreds of women’s organizations in Britain covering the voluntary sector, political parties, religious groupings, trade unions, single-issue pressure groups and the professions. Some aim to improve the quality of life for women in the home by offering opportunities for social and cultural activities. Others seek to change the status of women in the political, economic, public, legal and social spheres. Certain organizations campaign on issues of particular importance to women, such as abortion, or represent the interests of a particular group of women, for example, teachers. Many have international interests and maintain links with similar bodies overseas.

Several organizations have many affiliates and act as umbrella groups for women’s organizations. The largest are the National Council of Women (set up in 1985) with 90 affiliates, and the newly formed National Alliance of Women’s Organizations with 176 affiliates.

Of the broad-based organizations for women, the biggest are the National Federation of Women’s Institutes (founded in 1915) with 325,000 members, theNationalUnionofTowns–women’sGuilds(1929)with120,000members, the Mother’s Union (1876) with 188,000 members and the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service (1938) with 160,000 members. These and many others are national in scope and have branches in all parts of Britain.

Women’s Institutes aim to provide education for women in subjects such as citizenship, public affairs, music and drama; they also give instruction in agriculture, handicrafts, home economics and social welfare, and seek to promote international understanding. The Mothers’ Union, which forms a part of the Anglican Church, works to promote Christian family life through the departments for education, young families, social concern and overseas affairs, and through prayer groups. Other religious organizations include the National Board of Catholic Women, the League of Jewish Women, and the National Free Church Women’s Council.

Organizations representing the interests of specific groups include the National Association of Widows, the Carers’ National Association, and Gingerbread (representing lone parents). The 300 Group, founded in 1980, aims to ensure that more women (at least 300) are elected to Parliament. It seeks to identify the special problems faced by women in entering politics and to support their efforts.

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The Fawcett Society, founded in 1866, strives for the acceptance of equal status for women in the home and in public life, and equal educational and job opportunities. It also runs the Fawcett Library, Britain’s main library and archive on the history of the women’s movement.

Apart from their activities in such organizations and their role as careers women play a particularly active role in voluntary bodies open to both sexes, and are particularly concerned with areas of social welfare such as health and handicap. A recent government-commissioned study found that 25 percent of women were doing voluntary work, compared with 21 percent of men.

Assignments

1.Read and translate the article.

2.Say what this article is about.

3.Find in the article the synonyms to the following words:

unions,possibilities,work,position,adepartment,free-will,toguarantee, to search for, to contribute to, to be connected, to include.

4.Be ready to discuss these questions with your groupmates:

What problem is the article based upon?

Comment on the author’s view of the importance of such organizations for women.

Do you agree with the author’s opinion?

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

Is it necessary for women to form their organizations?

What problems of social life do women try to solve through their organizations?

Does this kind of phenomenon/problem exist in our country?

What women’s organizations in Russia do you know? What are women offered in our country?

What is the attitude towards this problem in our society? Give your own opinion of feminism.

What have you read or heard about this phenomenon? Did anything surprise you?

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

5.Make up a plan to the article and give the title to each part of it.

6.Whom can you advise to read this article?

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

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THE JOBLESS TEACHERS

(From «The Morning Star»)

Debbie Page is a newly qualified primary school teacher with three years training behind her. But she is finding it impossible to get a teaching job.

She is one of many young teachers who cannot get work in teaching. Some are unemployed, some, like Debbie who has an office job, are doing any sort of work they can get.

The reality that three years’ training could come to nothing must have dawned on many would-be teachers as the schools returned and the government announced further cutback in spending.

A quarter of the students leaving Debbie’s college, Rachel McMillan in Deptford, South London, had not got jobs at the end of the last term. Several got jobs but not in teaching.

“The college authorities didn’t know what to say to us. A lot of students were veryangryatfindingtheyweren’tevenabletogetinterviews”,saysDebbie,who is 23 years old and a former president of the students’ union there.

Even Worse. “So they told us to make applications in September, saying we wanted to start in the Christmas term. But now things look even worse”.

The Inner London Education Authority is already complaining it has 250 too primary school teachers, she points out, and now it wants to axe 500 jobs next year.

Debbie moved out to Kent because she could not find a home she could afford in London. But she cannot find a job there either and resigned to the prospect of not getting a job over the coming months because of the fierce competition for anything that will come up.

Other Jobs. Collegefriends are doinga varietyofjobs now – few of them in teaching. One works in a remand home, one in an advertising agency, another in an adventure playground.

“Soon some of us are going to give up the idea that we’re ever going to get a chance to teach”, she predicts. “In five years’ time away from the job we’re not going to feel very competent”.

One case she recalls is that of a married woman student who had a great difficulty in getting a grant to go to Debbie’s college. She wanted to teach instead of doing shorthand typing. Now a qualified teacher, she’s back where she started – shorthand typing. So, there are hardly any jobs for her and many like her at school.

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Assignments

1.Look through the article and guess what it’s about.

2.Underline the words concerning the topic of the article.

3.Translate the following sentences into English:

1)Чтобы стать квалифицированным учителем, необходимо окончить педагогический институт или колледж;

2)Многие молодые люди готовы выполнять любую работу вместо преподавания и не желают идти работать в образовательные учреждения из-за трудностей, которые ожидают их впереди;

3)У нее есть все шансы получить должность директора колледжа, так как она компетентна в этом вопросе;

4)Жестокая конкуренция на рынке труда не позволяет найти работу по душе;

5)Правительство должно располагать множеством перспективных предложений для привлечения молодежи в сферу образования.

4.Answer the questions proving your ideas with the facts from the article:

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

What aspects of life in the UK did you learn about in this article? Compare the statistical data of Britain (or other English-speaking countries) 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? What have you read or heard about this phenomenon? How would you do in Debbie Page’s place?

What would you tell to the interviewer?

5.Who can read the article?

6.Render the article using new words and expressions in the form of an annotation.

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INSIDE ECCLES SCHOOLS

(From «The Morning Star»)

Jim Arnison reports on the situation in Eccles

When he leaves school, Tom Vallely wants to be a policeman. Roger Price would like to be an airline pilot and Beverley Taylor fancies a career in the army as a military policewoman.

But from a group of 14 and 15-year-olds from different schools in Eccles we spoke to, only these three expressed any preference for a career at this stage.

Tony Webb, Roger Price, Beverley Taylor and Janet Masters attend a school where the pupils are divided into groups for studying their various subjects, rather than being lumped together in large classes.

Bythismethodovercrowdingisavoided,althoughBeverleycomplained: “Overall there are too many in the school. The corridors get jammed and you can hardly move”.

Janet’s favourite subjects are art and design and typing. She also likes Maths, but feels that the teacher “goes too fast and we have much thrown at us”.

All were agreed that this was a big problem with Maths lessons:

“The teacher fills the blackboard up, and it’s being rubbed off to make room for more before you can get it down”.

A general complaint concerned the shortage of equipment. Pens, pencils, etc., are provided by the youngsters themselves and, said Beverley, “everything gets nicked at school”.

From another Eccles school, Gary Harword, Paul Rust, Steve Rigby and Norman Fischer did raise the problem of overcrowded classes. “You don’t get full attention”, said Gary.

The question “What do you like best about school?” evoked the instant reply “Going home!”

On what they liked least, Tom said: “Having to wear school uniform. They should let us wear what we like”.

All agreed there was too much homework.

Gary, Paul, Steve and Norman were least certain as to the purpose of going to school or about the jobs they would be taking up on leaving.

Why do they go to school?

Paul said: “Because we’ve got to”.

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No one wants to see narrow vocational education but the schooling they received did not seem to be related to their environment or the industry which surrounds them.

Assignments

1.Read and translate the article.

2.Pick out the key-words and word combinations reflecting the problem of the article and make up 5 English sentences of your own.

3.Answer the questions to the article:

What problem does the author want to underline? Do you share his opinion?

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

Does the same exist in our country?

What is the attitude towards this problem in our society? Do you agree with what is presented in the article?

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

How would you do in those pupils’ places? What would you change at those schools? Do you believe in an ideal school?

What unusual schools have you heard or read about? How are pupils treated in our country schools?

4.Who(m) can it be interesting for?

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

WHAT IVAN KNOWS THAT JOHNNY DOESN’T

(After Arthur S. Trace, an associate professor of English, who teaches Renaissance literature criticism at John Carrol University, Ohio)

By the time an American fourth grader has learned to read 1500 words from his typical classroom reader, a Russian student in the fourth grade will be expected to read at least 10000 words and will be ready to study history, geography and science. Why does Ivan at the age of nine have a reading

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vocabulary so much larger than Johnny’s? Could it have anything to do with the fact that from his first reader on Ivan reads Tolstoy and Pushkin and Gogol while Johnny follows the adventures of Gerry and a little rabbit that goes hop, hop, hop?

The concern of most of the recent comparative studies of American and Russian schools has been to show that American schools are lagging terribly behindRussianschoolsintheteachingofmathematicsandthesciences.These studieshaveemphasizedthatwhereasallRussianstudentswhograduatefrom high school have studied Physics for five years, Chemistry for four years, Biology for six years and Astronomy for one year, only some American high school graduates have studied Biology or Physics or Chemistry for one year. Hardly any have studied one of these subjects for more than a year, and very few have studied all three. Similarly, in the teaching of mathematics, American schools regularly lag two years behind Russian schools, and a close look at the mathematics program of both school systems will show that in some places the lag is nearly three or even four years.

This gap between American and Russian schools in the teaching of mathematics and the basic sciences is more than a little terrifying. Educators and school administrators readily admit, as they must, that this gap exists. Some efforts have been made to strengthen the science and mathematics programs, but the results are unsatisfactory.

American educators take considerable comfort in the belief in the American schools that at least the other basic subjects, the humanities, - first of all literature and history – are in a very good condition whereas in Russia, so they think, the humanities are suppressed in the schools. But a careful study of the two systems of education in comparison shows this is an illusion. The American system, especially at the elementary and the junior high school levels, is so far from being a bastion of the humanities that the humanities are in fact shamefully and dangerously neglected. Russian education affords its students much better training in these subjects than American schools give our students.

There are four basic reasons that Russian students enjoy this great advantage. First, the Russian curriculum requires that Russian students spend many hours and many years studying all of these basic subjects. Secondly, the continuity of the subject matter at all the grade levels is so carefully preserved that Russian students gain immensely from the orderliness the systematic presentation and the perspective which only such a continuity can provide. Thirdly, Russian students are taught to read so

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efficiently and effectively during the first four grades that in the fifth they are prepared to study Literature, a foreign language, History and Geography on a surprisingly mature level, and fourth, Russian textbooks are carefully written by competent scholars.

Assignments

1.Read the article to find it out what the author would like to inform us.

2.What is the English for:

В возрасте девяти (лет), вокабуляр, сравнительное исследование, отставать от, выпускники школы, преподавание чего-л., разница, основные предметы, ужасающий, неудовлетворительные (о результатах), гуманитарные науки, обеспечивать, преимущество, эффективно, компетентный, подготовка, тщательно.

3.Complete the sentences from the article:

1)This gap between American and Russian schools …;

2)Some efforts have been made …;

3)The American system is so far from being a bastion …;

4)There are four basic reasons …;

5.Russian students are taught to read so efficiently and effectively ….

4.Comment on the following questions:

What problem is the article based on?

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

What aspects of life in the USA did you learn about in this article? Compare the system of education in the USA (or other English-speaking countries) and that of Russia and comment on them.

Does this kind of phenomenon/problem exist in our country? Do we have any advantages in our Russian school system? What is the attitude towards this problem in our society? What have you read or heard about this phenomenon?

Do you agree with the theory presented in the article?

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

How are scientists treated in our country and abroad?

5.Decide how many parts we can define in the article. Make up a plan

to it.

6.What kind of people can get interested in the article?

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

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CURRENT EDUCATION MISTAKES A PERIOD

OF «STRICTNESS» FOR A PERIOD

OF «PERMISSIVENESS»

(Abridged from «Kindergarten is Too Late» by M. Ibuka)

Even today many psychologists and educators, particularly those who are said to be “progressive”, see it as a sin consciously to try to “educate” a small child. They say that to stuff a small head with information only makes an anxious child, and that it is natural to leave the child to grow up in his own way as he does during infancy. Some even think it natural that the infant should be selfish acting only at his pleasure. Thus, parents throughout the world influenced by this thinking conscientiously follow the “let-alone” principle.

Yet once their children are in kindergarten or in school, these same parentsoftenabandontheir“let-alone”policyandstarttobestrictintraining and educating them. All of a sudden, “gentle” mothers change into “fearful” mothers.

It is during the very early years that one must be at once strict and gentle withone’sinfantandafterthatwhenthechildstartsdevelopinghisownself, one should gradually begin to respect his self and will. To put the idea in its extreme form parental interference should be over before the kindergarten age. Not to interfere during the proper years and then to start to interfere with the child once he is in kindergarten can only kill his talent and stimulate rebellion in him.

Assignments

1.Read and translate the article into Russian.

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

3.Fill in the blanks with the words from the article:

1)It is … to leave the child to … in his own way as he does during infancy;

2)Many psychologists and educators think it natural that … should be selfish acting only at his …;

3)Thus, parents throughout the world … by this thinking conscientiously follow the “…” principle;

4)All of a sudden, “…” mothers change into “…” mothers;

5)To put the idea in its extreme form parental … should be over before the … age.

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4. Give you own comments on:

What problem is the article connected with?

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

Does this kind of phenomenon/problem exist in our country? Compare the situation in Britain and Russia (if available) and comment on each of them.

What is the attitude towards this problem in our society? How would you do in parents’ place?

Do you believe in an ideal up-bringing?

What unusual methods of up-bringing have you heard or read about? Which way of raising your future children would you stick to?

5.Give the advertisement to the article so that parents would like to read it.

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

EARLY EDUCATION: FINDING THE BEST

CHILDCARE OPTION

(From «The St. Petersburg Times» February 24, 2009 by Olga Kalashnikova) Psychologists recommend that young children attend nursery school in order to develop their social and mental skills

Former president Vladimir Putin’s appeal and financial incentives to young Russians to have more children and reverse the country’s population decrease has resulted in a baby boom in St. Petersburg during the past couple of years, highlighting the problem of finding reliable and affordable childcare for working parents. Today’s young families can rarely afford not to send their child to kindergarten. If both parents work, someone must be found to look after the child – a grandmother, nanny or kindergarten. Every family finds their own solution depending on their circumstances, but psychologists recommend that young children should attend kindergarten even if other childcare options are available.

“Even if they are intelligent and well-educated, parents cannot give children all the skills that a kindergarten provides; they cannot provide the necessary education program,” said Natalia Odrobinskaya, head of Aspect nursery school.

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