english_kripets / Темы

Topics for the first-year students

(the 1^st term)

Topic 1

MY VISITING CARD

My name is Boris Ivanov. I am Belarusian. I was born on the 6^th of April 1987 in the village of Bakino, Slutsk district, Minsk region. Three years ago our family moved to Minsk where I live now together with my parents. My father’s name is Igor Petrovich. He is 45 years old. He works at a big plant as an engineer. My mother’s name is Olga Petrovna. She is 43. She is a doctor and she works at a hospital. My mother always has a lot of work to do about the house and at the hospital. She is a busy woman and we all help her. We are four in the family. I have a younger sister. Her name is Lusy. She has blue eyes and lovely fair hair. She is a very good-looking girl. Lusy is fifteen. She is a schoolgirl. She does well at school. Our family is very united.

In May I finished school No 45 in Minsk. I always did well at school and studied with great interest. Now I am a first-year student of the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics. I study by correspondence. I try to be a good student and I do well in all subjects. But my favorite subject is mathematics. I spend much time on it. I like reading. I like detective stories.

I have many friends. We spend much time together, go for a walk, talk about music, discuss our problems.

I like to listen to modern music, but sometimes I like to listen to some classical music. I haven’t much time to watch TV but sometimes I spend an hour or two watching an interesting film or a news programme. I like fresh air and exercise, but I have not much time to go in for sports.

Topic 2

AT THE UNIVERSITY

Now I am student of the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics.

On September 1, 1964 Minsk Radioengineering Institute admitted students for the first time. The youngest Institute of the Republic was established on the basis of the oldest Polytechnic Institute of the Republic of Belarus. It was assigned to meet the demand of the Republic in highly qualified specialists for evolving national radioelectronic industry.

In 1993 Minsk Radioengineering Institute was granted the status of university and celebrated its 30th anniversary as the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics. Within this period BSUIR has trained thousands of engineers, doctors and candidates of science.

Over 11 thousand students from the country and outside study at its 9 faculties: the Faculty of Computer-Aided Design, the Faculty of Information Technologies and Control, the Faculty of Radioengineering and Electronics, the Faculty of Computer Systems and Networks, the Faculty of Telecommunication, the Faculty of Engineer Economics, the Faculty of Extramural, Evening and Distance Education, the Pre-University Preparation and Occupational Guidance Faculty, the Military Faculty.

Now BSUIR prepares engineering staff on 22 specialities in the field of computer facilities, computer science, radio engineering, microelectronics, telecommunications automated systems, artificial intelligence, medical electronics, and economy.

The educative process and scientific research are conducted by highly competent teaching staff that consists of professors, assistant professors, lecturers and teachers. They give lectures, hold seminars and have practicals with the students in various subjects: physics, higher mathematics, descriptive geometry, technical drawing, etc. Special attention is given to such subjects as computing technology, impulse techniques, analogue and digital computers, theoretical foundations of electroengineering. Nobody can deny vital importance of mastering foreign languages nowadays. English, French, German and Spanish are taught at the University. Students also have an opportunity to study a second foreign language and to advance in one of the foreign languages and to acquire the speciality of a translator.

The University has all necessary facilities for teaching including up-to-date computers and laboratory equipment, robots, closed-circuit TV. A large electronic library is at the students’ disposal.

To sum up, the University provides a good engineering education. The graduates of the University work at computer centres, design offices, industrial enterprises, research laboratories and institutes, joint ventures and banks.

So, I take radio engineering at the University. As I am a correspondence student, I do not attend lectures every day. I have lectures only in September, January and June. In January and in June I also have my terminal examinations. From September to January and from January to June I study by myself, I get tasks and tests at the university or by mail, read my notes of lectures, study text-books in the library, consult my teachers and professors and fulfill these tests and send them back to the University. My short-term classes and lectures held in autumn, winter and in summer begin at 8 o’clock and finish at 10 p.m. It’s difficult to study by correspondence but I am not afraid of hard work. I am young and my practical experience helps me a lot in my studies.