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

They are made of plastic. Nevertheless, they greatly influence the way children think. Don’t children have more interesting games than those arousing a desire to kill one another?”

Children of my generation had no toys. But we used sticks and tree twigs to make toy rifles and automatics and played at war anyway. My peers experienced war firsthand and some fought.

We hate war because we know what it is, but we aren’t very worried about toy guns. Toys are not the point. It’s a child’s upbringing that counts. Did they become Nazis in Germany because they played with toy weapons? They were raised and educated on a planned and efficient basis of Hitler’s thugs.

In the 20s and 30s fairy tales were not published in this country. They were thought to distract children from reality. But fairy tales continue to exist and be enjoyed.

So long as there are armies, weapons, military parades and military service, there will be war toys. So long as boys must protect their land, they will play at war.

So we adults should fight against real weapons – not toy guns. This is the only way to save from war, violence and death.

I do agree with Zscheyge on one point. He asks: “Don’t children have more interesting games than those arousing a desire to kill one another?” I can only say with bitterness that for boys our toy industry offers no other toys. Visit any children’s shop and you will see plastic and metal pistols, submachine guns and tanks. Nothing else. So parents have a very limited choice.

Notes

to capitalize on – извлекать выгоду из чего-либо

My peers experienced war firsthand and some fought. – Мои свер-

стники испытали войну на себе, и некоторые воевали.

Toys are not the point. – Дело не в игрушках.

Assignments

1.Look through the article and in a few sentences say what it is about.

2.Match the following words and word combinations according to their meaning:

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3. Paraphrase or explain the words according to the model: Model: weapons are arms which are used to make (wage) war.

A generation, a basis, war toys, real, to experience, to exist, to fight, to save from.

4.Be ready to answer the questions to the article:

What problem is reflected in the article?

Which point of view do you agree with? Speak on your own point of view on the issue.

Do you believe in a bad influence of war toys? Why?

5.Render the article according to the plan.

A QUALITY EDUCATION? YES, FOR A PRICE*

Thousands of Moscow parents, long accustomed to the notion of free education for all, are now having to dig deep into their own pockets to get all there is to offer from the capital’s state schools.

As hundreds of city schools try to develop a modern curriculum on a limited budget, they are turning to parents to pick up the slack left by the government’s limited coffers.

At state school No 1102 in southwestern Moscow, the student body is divided into two groups: A and B. Group A and Group B both arrive at 8:30. They both devote their mornings to studying all the basics: Russian, Maths, natural sciences, English. But by lunchtime Group A pupils slam shut their textbooks for the day, while the students in Group B – approximately half the class – face a full line-up of information technology, English conversation, physics, world culture, even ballroom dancing.

The parents of school No 1102 are lucky. They are paying the paltry sum for supplementary programme. It may be a pittance, but it is enough to give Lida Studenkova, the school’s director, the flexibility the city budget does not allow. “This money means I can pay quality teachers a little more,” says Studenkova, adding that her teachers’ salaries were “laughable.”

__________________

* The article is taken from “On Education: Practical book in English” by O. Melchina, L. Morozova (p. 25 – 27)

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Whilesomeschooldirectorshireoutsideprofessorstoteachsupplementary programmes, Studenkova relies heavily on her own staff. Keeping quality English teachers on staff, however, is a particular problem. To give them the incentive they need to stay in the classroom, she dips into the extra funds.

Supplementary education is not new. For years parents have paid extra; so their children could receive the afterschool instruction they needed to help them through a difficult subject or to pass college entrance exams. But until recently the fee for these classes was within the means of any family. As the new system evolves, it is creating two distinct structures within state schools: one for students who pay, and one for those who do not.

While supplementary classes are by no means obligatory, they are becoming more popular for parents who worry that their children might otherwise be denied a proper education. “It doesn’t mean that your kid will not get into university,” says Jan Golf of the Institute of Public Education. “But for a good education these days you need money.”

While the standard curriculum is still the same for all students, the supplementary programme varies from school to school, covering anything from computer science to marketing and etiquette. Just as programmes vary, so do fees.

TheparentsofschoolNo465,forexample,havetodigalittledeeperinto theirpockets.Theypaytheequivalentof$40permonthsotheirchildrencan study computer science and German after school. And, according to Golf, fees may climb as high as $100. Even for the courses they share in common, Group A and Group B remain separated in different classrooms.

While educators recognize that some students may be shut out of studying on the fast track because of their wallet and not their intellect, they consider this to be a natural development. “Before we all used to be the same,” says Studenkova. “Now I’ve got some kids in Cadillacs and others in torn boots.”

Since state schools first started offering these classes three years ago, they have been gaining in popularity. But Svetlana Korovina, of Moscow’s Department of Education, has no idea just how many of the city’s 1,336 schools have supplementary programmes. “That is their affair,” says Korovina.

Studenkova claims the practice is widespread. “The demand is ripe,” she says, adding that the parents association now plays an active role in developing new curricula. “If we don’t fulfill the parents’ demands,” she says, “they will take their children to another school.”

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Assignments

1.Read the article to answer the question: “What is it about?”

2.Search for the words that correspond in meaning to the following:

a)suitable;

b)to admit;

c)additional;

d)the people that work in one place;

e)used to;

f)to get;

g)the plan of studying, the subjects that are to be taught;

e)not optional.

3.Decide if the following statements are true or false and explain why:

a)In trying to develop a modern curriculum on a limited budget city schools turn to government for help;

b)There is no difference between Group A and Group B;

c)To teach supplementary programmes the school director relies on her own staff;

d)Supplementary education is new;

e)Supplementaryclassesarenotcompulsorybuttheyareverypopular with parents;

f)The standard curriculum is the same for all students;

g)Parents association plays an active role in developing new curricula.

4.Do the given tasks:

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 school life in Russia did you learn about in this article?

Does this kind of problem exist in our country?

Compare the situation in our country and the UK (or other Englishspeaking countries) and comment on them.

Express your attitude to fee-paying schools as an alternative to statemaintained schools.

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?

Do you think that parents’ money means a quality education?

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What other means should be applied at school to provide a quality education?

5.Speak on the growing popularity of supplementary classes.

6.Makeupaplantothearticledefiningthemeaningfulpartsandentitling each of them.

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

TEENAGERS' EDUCATION 'HELD BACK BY TOO

MANY TESTS'

(From «The Evening Standard» October 20, 2006) Pupils are being held back by too many tests

Too many targets and too much testing are behind the «major problem» of teenagers failing to engage in education, according to a report today. It also found that the «unprecedented» raft of policy initiatives was unlikely to produce significant improvements to the system. Less than half manage basic GCSE English and Math passes.

The annual report of the Nuffield Review of the education and training of 14-19-year-olds said the Government was tackling symptoms rather than «deep-seated problems» in the system.

It reiterated claims that there was too much «policy business», including national targets, new qualifications, short-term funding, and new regulations. A full assessment of the impact, cost and problems associated with introducing such a large number of initiatives needed to be carried out, the report said.

The Nuffield Review, led by Professor Richard Pring of Oxford University, is being launched in London today. It looked at all aspects of 14-19 education and training in England and Wales.

The review described as a «major problem» the failure of many young peopletoengageineducation,adding:«Failureispartlyduetoinappropriate targets, learning experiences and forms of assessment.» It highlighted «the persistence of deep-seated problems concerning the structure of the system, its performance and the policy process».

«The Government tends to address symptoms of these deep-seated problems rather than tackling their underlying cause,» the report said.

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Suggested reforms included reducing the burden of assessment, ensuring more practical modes of learning for all young people and raising the status of vocational qualifications.

Prof Pring said: «There is clearly a need in the light of the changing economic, social and global conditions for constant reappraisal of the aims of education at every level of decision-making.»

The report also found:

Therehadbeen«partial»successinwideningaccess,althoughprogressing to higher education could be «problematic» for those with vocational qualifications - which needed to be viewed and utilised «more positively»; While partnerships between schools and colleges had improved, there was too much competition rather than collaboration. «The system in England could

still be described as weakly collaborative,» the report said;

Waleshadsuccessfullydeveloped«learningpathways»bringingtogether a range of resources to offer a broader range of options to young people, eventually expected to lead to a «Welsh Baccalaureate»;

The drive to achieve exam results needed to progress to higher education may have detracted from the «quality of learning» of teenagers and may be turning some students away from education.

Government achievements included its billion programme to improve the infrastructure of schools and colleges.

Assignments

1.Read and translate the article into Russian.

2.Find in the article the English for:

Цели, главная проблема, беспримерный, значительный, неудача, способы изучения, конкуренция, сотрудничество, возможность выбора.

3.Which is the odd word out:

a)to produce, to make, to do, to introduce;

b)aims, results, targets, purposes;

c)to include, to consist of, to divide into, to enumerate;

d)a success, a problem, a trouble, a failure;

e)to make better, to amend, to change, to improve.

4.Answer the questions to the article:

What problem is the article based upon?

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

Does this kind of problem exist in our country?

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Compare the situation in the UK (or other English-speaking countries) and our country and comment on them.

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

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?

What other means should be applied at school to provide a quality teenagers’ education?

5.Name the people who can get interested in reading this article.

6.Write the annotation, exchange it with your neighbour’s and check it up.

EXAM STARS FLOP AT 1950S SCHOOL*

They were asked to surrender their calculators and dig out log tables. But for the pupils of today the rigours of 1950s exam papers have proved too much.

At least half the highly rated GCSE students chosen for a televised experiment to take them back in time to a post-war school flunked one or more of the O-levels they had to sit.

For the month they were incarcerated the students were stripped of all home comforts in an attempt to recreate the tough discipline and rigorous teaching of a post-war state boarding school.

For most of the 16-year-olds taking part in the experiment at the Royal grammar school in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, results were patchy in English language and literature.

In Maths and history they were appalling. The majority failed the 1950s Maths paper altogether and about half failed history, with its rigorous demand for factual knowledge. Five out of seven students who were asked this weekend said they had failed at least one of the O-levels.

This is despite the fact that pupils were selected for the programme because they were expected to get As and Bs in their GCSEs, which they sat earlier this summer.

_________________

* The article is taken from “The language of English and American press” by E. Telen, M. Polevaya (p. 20 – 23)

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“Most people failed Maths,” said Thomas Jewell, normally a pupil at Churchill community school in north Somerset. “It was quite hard. We weren’t able to use a calculator and we had a lot of arithmetic to do.”

The full exam results will be broadcast this Tuesday in the final episode of That’ll Teach ‘Em, a Channel 4 series.

The pupils faced a stripped-down syllabus tailored to the four O-level subjects.

In history, for example, they were taught the staple patriotic fare of half a century ago: the British empire, the Commonwealth and the Boer war.

In history GCSEs, by contrast, the emphasis is not so much on learning facts but interpreting the actions of tyrants such as Hitler and Stalin.

Most of the O-level papers comprised real 1950s questions but were shorter because students had only four weeks to prepare. Instead of being questioned on three books for the literature exam they were tested on just one. The English language paper, however, was lifted straight from a 1958 Cambridge board exam.

Francis Burns, a former chief O-level examiner who set the tests, described the exams as much more bland and general than their modern-day equivalents. “In the 1950s you got a list of essay titles,” he said. “In history the papers placed more emphasis on facts and dates rather than relying on an analytical approach, favoured in modern exams.”

Channel 4 declined this weekend to release the results, but students contacted directly said there was a high failure rate.

Rajay Naik, 16, from Coventry, who recently achieved four As and five Bs in his GCSEs, passed only two O-levels. He said: “The techniques and skills that were needed to do well in the exams were very different. It was very tough – there was lots of work and revision to do.”

“I think only one person passed all their O-levels and most of us got one or two. I passed English literature and language. These subjects were easier to understand, they were similar to what we are taught now.”

Although the exercise was not a precise comparison between old and new, many education experts are taking an interest in what it reveals about today’s education standards.

Chris Woodhead, the former chief inspector of schools, said comparing GCSEs and O-levels was a valid exercise. “The fact is today’s students do not have the ability to write an essay and they do not have the body of knowledge that was needed to do well in a O-level. GCSEs have been dumbed down.”

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But Fiona Jewell, mother of Thomas, felt the comparison meant nothing. She said: “The children had four weeks to learn the whole syllabus and the subjects were taught in a completely different way.”

“The kids were also extremely busy. Although they were only tested in four subjects, they learnt other subjects like Latin and had after-school activities like debating. So it isn’t a very fair comparison – but as a lifestyle experience it worked very well.”

The children were kept under tight security at the Buckinghamshire school and the only communication they were allowed with the outside world was letters to their parents. They were not allowed to leave the school grounds, watch television or use mobile phones.

Full uniforms – consisting of blazers and caps for boys, and tunics for girls – were expected to be worn throughout the day, even in hot weather, and pupils had to observe strict silence much of the time.

In the early weeks teachers spoke of a running battle with pupils over discipline and the problems of children trying to sneak 21st-century goods into the school. One boy was made to look up extracts from the Bible about truth for several hours after a hoard of sweets and deodorant was found in his locker.

The teenagers were also ordered to adhere to a “six-inch rule”, with girls and boys being no closer than six inches at any time.

Such discipline has been welcomed by the parents. Fiona Jewell said: “It would be good if we had a mixture of today’s and 1950s schooling – if we had 1950s discipline we would have a generation of geniuses.”

Assignments

1.Translate the article into Russian paying attention to new words and expressions. Give their proper translation according to the context.

2.Explain how you understand the title of the article.

3.Use the underlined words and expressions in 5 English sentences of your own.

4.Discuss the questions to the article with your groupmates:

What problem is the article connected with?

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

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

Do you believe in the effectiveness of such an experiment?

Would you like to take part in a similar televised experiment? Why?

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What is the attitude towards a state exam at school in our society?

Did you have any difficulties of taking final exams when you left school?

What unusual facts about school reforms have you heard or read about?

Should school move with the times or should it be slightly more conservative? What is your idea of good schooling?

In what direction should school change today to prepare the young better for their future life?

What kind of school would you like to send your children to?

5.What logical parts can this article be divided into? Give the proper name to each part.

6.Whom can it be interesting to read?

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

THE TERRIBLE TRUTH ABOUT TRUANTS

(From «The Guardian»)

The number of children playing truant and being excluded from school has reached crisis point. More than a million youngsters skip lessons each year and over 100,000 are temporarily excluded. Of those pupils excluded, 83 percent are boys. Half are aged 14 or 15.

The government wants to reduce levels of truancy and permanent exclusion by a third. These problems are blighting the lives of an increasing number of youngsters who could escape poverty through education. And the rising tide of disaffection is fuelling juvenile crime.

We want to focus on prevention although there will always be cases where pupils have to be excluded for the good of other children and to allow teachers to be able to teach. Those who play truant and are excluded are more likely to become teenage parents, unemployed, homeless, or to end up in prison. Society pays the price.

There are many reasons why children drop out: family problems, low parental expectations, or long-term unemployment at home. Teachers, too, sometimes assume that some youngsters can never achieve because of their background.

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