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

c.failed to achieve its goal as some kids left school.

d.has just begun working but has already achieved some results.

5.The hourglass in the school hall helps the students to …

a.monitor how many students still remain in class.

b.monitor how many days are left till graduation.

c.monitor the grades of the members of the dropout patrol.

d.monitor how many new members joined the ‘Dropout Patrol’.

6.The work of the ‘Dropout Patrol’mainly involves …

a.collecting donations from businesses and rewarding kids who do well academically.

b.monitoring the hourglass.

c.patrolling the corridors and getting other people to join the

group.

d.giving moral and academic help to other students during bad

times.

Translate the underlined phrases in the following sentences from the story:

1.Then one night, it hit me.

2.At the end of my speech the whole audience jumped to its feet with a standing ovation.

3.Then I told him I thought it would be good if we could have some type of party to celebrate if we made it through a whole semester without losing anyone.

4.Throughout the summer, word began to spread about our chal-

lenge.

5.I had told our class we could become the most famous class in America if we all made it to graduation.

Provide words and phrases from the text to match the definitions:

–something that tests strengths, skills or ability, especially in a way that is interesting;

–a promise to do something or to behave in a particular way;

–formal, a firm promise, especially one made publicly or offi-

cially;

41

–to leave school;

–reaction;

–goods that are produced to be sold; products.

Choose a proper definition of the word class of 2000

–a lesson in any subject at school or college

–a period on a school time-table

–a body of students meeting regularly to study the same subject 

–the period during which such a body of students meets to study a subject

–a body of students whose year of graduation is the same.

Paraphrase the underlined parts of the following sentences, using the wording of the text:

1.When I set the task to my classmates to become the first class in history …

2.I could tell they were really interested and inspired.

3.It was all I could do to stay calm and not to cry in public.

4.I’ll give your class a party.

5.…they were interested in showing our class on their news pro-

gram.

6.… but we have already had a big effect.

7.… if the entire class, across the country, had a 100 percent graduation rate.

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

42

ENHANCING COMPREHENSION

Look through the story and find, read and translate the paragraphs that illustrate

–what Jason did during the summer to draw the nation’s attention to the project;

–the support of the communities and businesses for the project;

–the progress the class had achieved by the end of the second grading period.

Can you…

–explain why everyone at school thought of Jason’s project as a challenge?

–describe the actions he took to get his project started?

–describe the response he got from the people?

–describe the effects of the project achieved so far?

CULTURE PERSPECTIVE

1.Doyouhaveastudentbodycouncilandpresidentatyourschool? Hopefully, you have found some useful information in the Internet about student governments in US high schools. Comment on the similarities and differences of the election systems, the duties and rights of the council and the president in the USAand Russian schools.

2.Comment on the cultural aspect of the name of the school in the story Erwin Middle School. What is interesting about it? How is it different from the way schools in Russia are identified?

3.Why is the word class so misleading for Russian-speaking students? Comment on different meanings of the word class. Which of them is the meaning of the key word in the story?

43

4.Comment on the USA public school system. Don’t confuse it with the British public schools. Give a short description of the elementary, middle and high schools. You might also like to mention junior high school. The Glossary will be a great help. You are also encouraged to look for additional information in the Internet.

5.What is the Russian for school principal? It seems so easy, doesn’t it? Don’t say it too soon. Firstly, it’s used only in the USA. The British English equivalent is headmaster. Secondly, its counterpart in schools in Russia has somewhat different work duties and is accounted for to different school authorities. Comment on the cultural similarities and differences of the school principal in the USA and Russia.

6.You have a good idea of the system of grades in USA high schools. Now let’s turn to its organizational framework. What is a grading period in a USAhigh school? How does grading system work in the USA and Russia? Is there much difference? Which one would you introduce in your school if you were principal?

7.Share the information you have found about the italicized cul- turally-marked words with your group mates: class directory, Ken Hamblin Talks with America, 48 Hours.

SUMMARIZING

Imagine that you are one of the students on the ‘Dropout Patrol’. Describe the project and your activities.

Imagine that you are one of the students in Jason’s class. You had a difficult time not long ago and were going to drop out, but the ‘Dropout Patrol’helped you.

LEADS TO DISCUSSION

1.Do you think a similar project could be possible in Russia? Would it have a big effect? Give you arguments.

2.Do you think Jason and his classmates will meet the goal they set for themselves? What makes you think so?

3.Should all students graduate from high school, or are there any special situations when graduation is not possible or necessary?

44

4.Commentonthedropoutrateinyourschool.Atwhatagearestudents officially allowed to leave school in the USA and Russia? What options for continuing education are available for dropouts and those who leave school on their own accord in Russia and in the USA?

CULTURALWEB

Having read and discussed the story, you can add some new culturally marked words to the Web concerning school organization and management, learning and social activities.

PROJECT WORK

Arrange in groups of 3–4 and do a project to combat poor academic achievements in your class and motivate your classmates for better learning.

STORY 5.

UNIFORM

PRE-READING TALK

Can you guess what the story is going to be about? What do you think of wearing a uniform to school? Does it matter much to you? Can it have any serious influence on your life?

Read the story to see what kind of role a uniform can play in a person’s life.

INTERACTIVE READING

Read the story and say whyAmy didn’t like Incarnate Word at the beginning of her first school year? Did her attitude change towards the end of the year? 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, dictionaries or encyclopedias to find out what they mean.

45

UNIFORM

It was a scene straight from the annals of teen nightmare­ scenarios: Over Saturday morning pancakes, my parents announced they had enrolled me in a private school. Not just any private school — an allgirls Catholic school with uniforms. If I had been cutting class, smoking cigarettes in my middle school’s mint-tiled bathrooms, or loitering about with small, sinister boys who glared at my parents, I might have understood. But I hadn’t even done anything interesting enough to deserve this cruel decision­. I petitioned my parents all summer with plea bargains­ and threats, but when fall crept around, there I was sighing resentfully as I slipped on my polyester skirt, buttoned­ up my thin white blouse, tied a ridiculous tie around my neck and stomped dramatically to my dad’s sedan in stiff, shiny penny loafers. He smirked at my expense and handed me two new dimes. “Put them in your shoes. That’ll show those nuns.”

Nuns? Dear God. I hadn’t even considered nuns.

I had, however, considered my new classmates. My public school friendsandIhadfrettedallsummerabouttheseunseen,privateschoolbred creatures — wealthy snots, we imagined, with expensive purses and a million tortures planned for inferior classes like myself. When they turned sixteen, their daddies would buy them BMWs, which they would make a point of parking on the opposite end of the school lot from my hand-me-down clunker as though poverty were contagious. Unanimously,­ my friends agreed that they were lucky they weren’t me. Now I had to suffer nuns, too?

The halls of the private school, Incarnate Ward, whirled with plaid. Matching girls skipped in all directions, hugging and squealing, “Omigod!” and, “How was your summer?!” Nuns and civilian teachers cruised amid the flurry. I went to my first class, sat down and didn’t open my mouth for an entire semester.

By the beginning of spring, I’d mumbled enough words to make a few good friends — Sara, Cathy, Jamie and Anne — and learned that the country club crew, whom we called “The Buffies,” kept their whispers about debutante balls and banquets to themselves. They couldn’t

46

be bothered­ to engage in the snobby insults and hair-pulling stunts I’d come to fear from a lifetime of bad teen movies. More importantly, such a small school couldn’t even uphold a social hierarchy.All cliques were weighted equally — except for the Star Trek nerds, but no society is perfect. In this society, however, you were forced to get a personality. This wasn’t like public school friendships when preppies drifted towards preppy-looking people. We were forced to look the same; what distinguished us was the person beneath the plaid, and it was time to figure­ out just who she was.

My parents had promised I could leave after one year if I truly, deeply hated private school, but after just an hour’s deliberation, I decided to stay on, making up my absence to my public-school friends with true tales of nunsense. There was Sister Agnes who called everyone ‘my good American’, Sister Clarita with one big leg and one normal one (she never spoke, only hissed), and her sister, Sister Ailbee, whose shifting hairline just had to be a wig. Sister Ailbee was also legendary for her perfect attendance at every basketball game, her passionate defense of the Trail of Tears and the time she broke off midsentence during her own lecture on the Great Depression to stare over our heads at the wall and chant “I’m Abraham Lincoln.”

Eventually, my routine polyester plaid getup made the same transition from creepy to, well, lovably creepy. Knee socks were cute, almost disarmingly precious, and since I didn’t need much practical everyday wear, I was free to spend my allowance on highly impractical party clothes for the liberating weekend. My old wardrobe of jeans and T-shirts couldn’t compete with silver-sequined miniskirts and dresses lined in hot pink fur. Smart girls even got their driver’s license pictures taken in uniform, their ties knotted high enough inside the frame to catch a sympathetic cop’s eye. Most of them finagled their way out of speeding ticketswith a warning.When I got citedfor breakingmy city’s teen curfew, I wore my uniform to court and was sentenced to ten hours of community service­ pouring lemonade at the public library’s weekly poetry readings. The guy ahead of me had to scrub barnacles­ off the police officers’boats. We knew what the uniform­ did to civilians; it was a superhero’s disguise bestowing the powers of innocence and charm.

47

Private school had never been punishment, and it never became prison. Like high schools of all shapes and flavors, Incarnate Word was a rite of passage with bragging rights of its own. While I never wore pants to class, never cheered on my school at a football game or stared dreamily­ at the cute boy a few desks over, I did graduate with a well-carved sense of self and a solid group of girlfriends I will be close to till we’re all in grandmother shoes. And for the rest of my life I’ll be able to juice up conversations with the simple boast: I survived an all-girls Catholic high school.

Amy Nicholson

[From Chicken soup for the teenage soul IV: stories of life, love, learning [compiled by] Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen (2004). – p. 284–287].

WHILE-READINGACTIVITIES

Decide if the statements are true (T) or false (F).

1.It was the girl’s parents’idea to send her to a Catholic all-girls private school. ___

2.ThethingAmyfearedmostaboutprivateschoolswasthenuns.

____

3.The girls was bullied and insulted by rich girls, but, nevertheless, she made some true friends at school. ___

4.Most of the nuns were completely mad. ___

5.It wasAmy’s own decision to stay at school. ___

6.The school became an important part ofAmy’s life and helped her to develop her personality. ___

Choose the correct variant.

1. When Amy’s parents decided to send her to the public school,

…

a.she liked the idea.

b.she protested and made them change their decision.

c.she tried to talk them out of it, but failed.

d.she was scared.

48

2.Amy was so much afraid of the school because …

a.she had a lot of stereotypes based on bad teen movies.

b.she did not like nuns.

c.she was sorry to leave her friends.

d.her family was not very rich, so she was afraid rich girls would bully her.

3.What madeAmy’s school different from a typical public school was the fact that …

a.the academic standards were much higher.

b.the nuns took good care of the students and did not let them argue or do mischief.

c.no groups or cliques were allowed there.

d.the groups and cliques were less important than the personality of the students.

4.Amy stayed at school because …

a.the nuns were so funny.

b.she could save a lot of money because of the uniform.

c.she began to like the uniform.

d.she made good friends there and the school began to feel like

home.

5.The school uniform became an important part of the story and Amy’s life because …

a.it was beautiful andAmy looked lovely in it.

b.itproducedagoodimpressiononthepolicemenandthecourt.

c.it helped the girls to develop their personality, as they all looked alike, and what distinguished them was the personality inside the uniform.

d.it helped to save money for party clothes.

FindtheEnglishequivalentstothefollowingRussianwordsand phrases. You will find them very useful when discussing the story. Write down these words into your vocabulary book.

Признание себя виновным в мелком проступке в обмен на устранение обвинения в более серьезном преступлении, ухмыляться,

49

единодушно, пробормотать,

содержание, пособие, карманные деньги, обряд посвящения.

Translate the underlined phrases in the following sentences from the story:

1.It was a scene straight from the annals of teen nightmare­ sce-

narios.

2.The halls of Incarnate Word whirled with plaid.

3.Matching girls skipped in all directions, hugging and squealing, “Omigod!” and, “How was your summer?!”

4.They couldn’t be both­ered to engage in the snobby insults and hair-pulling stunts I’d come to fear from a lifetime of bad teen movies.

5.More importantly, such a small school couldn’t even uphold a social hierarchy.

6.…however, you were forced to get a personality.

7.Eventually, my routine polyester plaid getup made the same transition from creepy to, well, lovably creepy.

Provide words and phrases from the text to match the definitions:

–to arrange officially to join a school, university or course;

–to miss or skip classes;

–hanging around;

–to look angrily at someone for a long time;

–to ask formally someone of authority for something;

–thinking over, careful consideration;

–after a long time, finally;

Paraphrase the underlined parts of the following sentences, using the wording of the text:

1.… when the fall slowly approached…

2.They would park their cars on purpose on the other side of the school parking lot so as to make everyone see it.

50