USA Education Reader. High School and college culture. Книга для чтения

2.Chucky, allowed to sit up in bed and listen to the game on the radio, was stunned to hear the announcers describe the outpouring of affection for him.

3.Seven students were in the running.

4.The Ole Miss football team completed the season by defeating arch-rival Mississippi State.

5.In January, against all odds, Chucky returned to classes at Ole

Miss.

6.Although some would call it his greatest achievement, his goal was to eventually get up and walk out of his wheelchair.

Match the columns to define the cultural lacunas on the left after you have done some search in the Internet and in the Glossary.

ENHANCING COMPREHENSION

Scan the story and find and translate the paragraphs that

–describe the Ole Miss football team’s achievements the following year;

–illustrate Chucky’s determination not to give in.

Describe …

– the situation when Chucky saved the game for his team;

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–Chucky’s condition caused by the force with which he charged the Vanderbilt receiver;

–people’s reaction to Chucky’s tragedy;

–the Ole Miss football team’s success after Chucky’s injury;

–how far Chucky progressed in his passionate desire to walk again and return to college for his degree.

CULTURE PERSPECTIVE

1.What are the culturally marked words you were able to identify in the story? Which of them are absolutely new for you?

2.What is the central event of Homecoming on any USAcollege campus? What role does theAlumniAssociation play in the life of any university and college?

3.What is fraternity brother? Do you know anything about Greek societies on USA campuses? Look for the information in the glossary and the Internet about this very important part of USA college culture. Is there a similar culture-specific phenomenon in Russian universities?

4.What kind of football did students play in this story? Comment on the difference between football and soccer. Has soccer become popular in the USA in recent decades? What can you say about the USA national team and its performance at the 2010 world cup in South Africa? IsAmerican football played in Russia? How popular is it?

5.What is a community hospital? Comment on its cultural distinguishing features.

6.Comment on cultural features of a college dean. What is similar and different if you do cross-cultural comparison of the word dean and декан in Russian universities?

7.Translate the sentences containing culturally marked words from the story:

a) On homecoming day my senior year of college, I was in the stands, surrounded by my fraternity brothers and watching my school, the University of Mississippi, play against Vanderbilt.

b) Later that year, the university was preparing to elect its “Colonel Rebel,” which is the school’s highest accolade­.

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8.Comment on the sentence below. Why does the author find it necessary to mention this fact?

‘… this is the same school where federal troops were once needed to protect a single black student who wanted to enroll’.

9.Share the information you have found about the italicized culturally marked words with your group mates:

“Colonel Rebel,” Liberty Bowl, Gator Bowl, home football game, Air Force Academy, Vanderbilt University.

10.Prepare short reviews about the university mentioned in the story: Mississippi State University, the University of Mississippi, Louisiana State University, and Vanderbilt University. Make sure it covers such things as location, status, foundation date and other characteristic features.

LEADS FOR DISCUSSION

1.Comment on the role of sport inAmerican universities and colleges. What kind of contribution does sport make to education?

2.Comment on the last sentence of the story. Do you share the author’s opinion? Can one person make a big difference in the world? Can you give other examples when one person changed the world around him or her?

CULTURALWEB

Having read and discussed the story, you can add some new culturally marked words representing college organization and management, academics, social activities and relationships to the Web.

PROJECT WORK

1.In study groups do a project on sports on USA college campuses. Comment on the role it plays in a student’s life. Make a colorful slide presentation.

2.Google the information on the Ivy League universities. Write a two page essay about the Ivy League, its history and sports achievements.

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STORY 15.

ZAPTHE SAP

PRE-READING TALK

Read the title of the story and say whether it gives a clue to what it is all about. It doesn’t help much, does it? Is the epigraph any help? Then, scan the first paragraph. What do you know about student government on USAcollege campuses? Is there any student body council in your school or college? Is it elected or appointed? Have you ever taken part in a student president election?

INTERACTIVE READING

Read the story and say if Eric was a good student body president. After reading the story, do a test and some other exercises to enhance your comprehension and build your vocabulary.

While reading, you will come across a number of culturally marked words. Most of them can be found in the Glossary at the end of the book.As for the culturally marked words in italics, they are not included into the Glossary, so be sure to consult the Internet sources, other dictionaries and encyclopedias to find out culture-specific phenomena they stand for.

ZAP THE SAP

For me, growth begins immediately after I am able to admit my mistakes and forgive myself.

Kimberly Kirberger

I couldn’t believe it.As I walked onto campus I saw posters everywhere with the words “Zap the Sap!” scrawled on them. I was the student body president and I was being recalled from my position. As my peers began arriving on campus, I watched them gather around the postersandthenlookmyway.Atthatmoment,Ifeltmyheart,mycharacter, and my whole body was being pushed back and forth over a cheesegrater. I was in pieces and trying desperately to keep my composure.

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When I was elected student body president, campus officials congratulated me on my campaign saying it was one of the best the college hadseen.MypoliticalcareerbeganbythrowingFrisbeesonthecampus lawn. I would throw a Frisbee to someone I didn’t know and they would throw it to someone they didn’t know. Before long, we had built a community of people who met every day at lunch to throw Frisbees.

One day while throwing Frisbees, the group spontaneously­ decided to climb the mountain near our campus. When we reached the summit, it felt like we were at summer­ camp. We laughed, danced and told dirty jokes. It was intoxicatingly fun. While playing like little children in the cool mountain air, we unanimously decided to do it again the following week. Our motto was “Bring a Friend.”

So the next week while playing Frisbee, we would throw it to someone we didn’t know, run over and invite them to climb the mountain with us. We would say, “Climbing the mountain is better than sex. We guarantee a climax every time.”

We started out with a small group of hikers. But as the word spread, the number of participants increased. One day on campus, I met a woman in a wheelchair and we started talking. Her name was Grace. I asked her if she had ever been to the top of the mountain. She said she hadn’t. I told her that my buddies and I would carry her if she were up for it. Grace accepted the offer. The next time we went up the mountain, we all took turns grabbing a corner of her chair as we carried her 1.7 miles to the top.

This was probably one of the most magical and deeply meaningful things I did in college. By the end, we had over seventy-five people climbing the mountain on Thursdays, including Grace. All of us who participated felt like we were part of something much bigger than we were. We were building a community and it felt great.

With the student body elections approaching, my friends from the mountain encouraged me to run for president. So I did. I knew I could make a difference. With a campaign team of seventy-five people rallying around me, no one was surprised that I had won the election.

The first thing I did as president was hang a sign outside­ the Associated Students office that read, “Under New Management!” I was

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proud of my accomplishments, to say the least. Most of my life as a youth was spent in the principal’s office for being in trouble and this was one of the few times I had actually achieved bona fide respect and appreciation from my peers.

They say absolute power corrupts absolutely. It sure did in my case. I let all the power go to my head. My ego, my arrogance and my pride were out of control. I began speaking­ down to people, demanding they listen to me because I thought I knew what was best. My friends and supporters­ tried to communicate to me that I had changed, that I was abusing my position, but I wasn’t listening.

It wasn’t long before the very people who had believed in my presidency began to turn against me. But I still wasn’t paying attention. I took my obsession with power to such an extreme. A public conflict with the female vice president opened the floodgates for others who were upset with me. It became a blood bath. What started out as a wonderfully enriching experience, or so I thought, suddenly turned into one of my worst nightmares. “Zap the Sap!” posters would soon be everywhere on campus.

When I realized I had made a mistake, it was too late. My whole world collapsed. I had never felt so much pain and sadness in my life as I did then.There I was, one of the most-liked guys on campus, powerful and making a difference,­ until my ego took over and destroyed everything.

Afriend of mine said, “When a man looks into the abyss and nothing is staring back, that is when he finds his true character.” I was empty and emotionally bankrupt. I was at the bottom and had nowhere else to go but up. I began to rebuild. I apologized to a couple of die-hard supporters, who for whatever reason did not quit on me, and asked them to forgive me for all the wrongdoing I had committed. They accepted. I told them I was going to fight this recall election. I wasn’t just going to roll over and accept defeat.

The campus was in an uproar. Every day the newspaper had an article or letter to the editor saying what a big jerk I was. So I went back out to the campus lawn and began explaining to the students that the allegations were true. I had let the power get to my head and abused my

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position­.IpromisedthatIhadlearnedmylessonandthatIwasnotdone serving the students. I wanted to build a coffeehouse on the campus, only the second of its kind in the state. I wanted to build it near the fine arts area and have the theater department do one-act plays, the music department perform concerts and the speech department recite poetry there. I thought to myself, Please, do not recall me. I am not done yet.

I am not sure if I would have been recalled or not, but, by a stroke of magic or divine intervention, summer came. The charges were dropped and I stayed in office.

The next semester, I had a chance to begin again.As I approached mymissiontobuildthecoffeehouse,Iwasmuchmorehumble.Iwanted to show the campus and myself that I was worthy of my position. I had never built a coffeehouse before and didn’t really know what I was doing, so I asked everyone for help. I asked the students, my advisor, the governing board and the college president.

I used to think that I had to pretend to know what I was doing, that I had everything under control and that I was in charge. It was that kind of thinking that got me into trouble in the first place. Now, I was finding that the easiest­ way to gain other people’s respect was to admit to them what I did not know. I was shocked. It was my not knowing, my humility, and my willingness to ask others for help that was making me win in my new endeavor.

I finished my term as president. In the end, the team that I had put together raised over $125,000 and we built a coffeehouse that is still there eleven years later.

On graduation day, as I grabbed my diploma and walked past my college president, he whispered, “Son, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

Eric Saperston

[From Chicken soup for the college soul: inspiring and humorous stories about college [compiled by] Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Kimberly Kirberger, Dan Clark. Health Communications, Inc. Deerfield Beach, Florida (1999). – p.235–238].

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WHILE-READINGACTIVITIES

Decide whether the statement is true or false.

1.Most of his life as a youth Eric was a troublesome fellow, definitely not the kind to make a school president. _______

2.It was the story-teller’s idea to run for the presidency. _______

3.The speaker’s arrogance and unwillingness to listen to other people set everybody against him. ______

4.The story-teller tried to prove the allegations were wrong. _____

5.He apologized to everybody and the recall elections were cancelled. ________

6.The next semester he was more successful as president. _______

Choose the correct variant.

1.The story-teller played Frisbee on campus lawns …

a.because he wanted to build a community.

b.because he wanted to become school president and needed supporters.

c.because he just enjoyed playing and meeting new people.

d.because he wanted to build a coffeehouse.

2.Themostimportantthingforhimaboutbeingelectedwasthat…

a.he was respected by his peers.

b.he felt he could make a difference.

c.he was recognized by his superiors.

d.all of the above.

3.The recall campaign was started because …

a.of Eric’s conflict with the female vice-president.

b.the story-teller let the power go to his head.

c.Eric did not know how to build a coffeehouse.

d.the story-teller pretended to know everything.

4.The recall elections were cancelled, because …

a.thestory-tellerapologizedtoeverybody,includingthefemale vice-president.

b.he proved that the allegations were wrong.

c.he was telling everybody he did not know how to do things and asked for help and advice.

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d.summer came.

5.The story-teller was surprised to discover that …

a.the easiest way to gain people’s respect was to admit to them what he did not know.

b.what didn’t kill people, made them stronger.

c.one did not have to know how to build a coffeehouse to build

one.

d.he had raised over $125 000.

Provide English equivalents from the text for the following key words you will need to discuss the story:

быть избранным президентом; предвыборная кампания; баллотироваться в ; изменить что-то к лучшему;

добиться искреннего уважения; злоупотреблять своим положением; голосование по отзыву кандидатуры; быть достойным; признаваться кому-либо в чем-либо;

собирать деньги на какие-либо благородные цели.

Identify the words and phrases related to politics in the story, write them out and translate into Russian.

Translate the following sentences from the story paying special attention to the underlined phrases:

1.“Under New Management”.

2.I was proud of my accomplishment to say the least.

3.They say absolute power corrupts absolutely.

4.I began speaking­ down to people.

5.“Zap the Sap!”

6.“When a man looks into the abyss and nothing is staring back, that is when he finds his true character”.

7.The campus was in an uproar.

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8.It was my not knowing, my humility, and my willingness to ask others for help that was making me win in my new endeavor.

9.…the team that I had put together raised over $125,000

Paraphrase the underlined phrases in the following sentences using the words from the story:

1.Eric suggested to Grace, a woman in a wheelchair he met on campus, that he and his friends would carry her up to the top of the mountain if she were ready for it.

2.Most of my life as a youth was spent in the principal’s office for doing something wrong and this was one of the few times I was truly accepted and respected by my peers.

3.My friends and supporters­ tried to communicate to me that I had changed, that I was using my position in a wrong way, but I wasn’t listening.

4.I was very distressed.

5.I apologized to a couple of strongly devoted supporters, who for whatever reason did not abandon me and asked them to forgive me for all the bad things I had done.

6.I could do much more for students.

7.They did not press the charges.

Match the columns to define the cultural lacunas on the left after you have done some search in the Internet and in the Glossary.

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