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MODULE 4. ENTERING THE LEGAL PROFESSION.

“The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.” R.M.Hutchins

LESSON 1

A. LEAD –IN

A1. Answer the following questions:

-Why do we need education?

-What levels of education can a person have?

-What is the correlation between the stages of your educational process and your age?

A2. Discussion. What is the need of university education?

Split into two groups: one group has to provide arguments for university education, another group thinks up arguments to prove that one can be successful without it. The group that gives more arguments wins.

A3. Discussion. Look through the list of professions (use a dictionary to check the meaning of the words you don’t know). What kind of education does each of them require? What job would probably be impossible for a person who has no university education? (give reasons to ground your point of view)

A4. Express your ideas:

1.Say a few words about your university: say what it is called, speak about its faculties and their specializations.

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B1. Read and translate the text. Note the italicized words relating to the field of education. Explain their meaning. Use the dictionary if necessary.

COLLEGE LIFE

The merry-go-round of college life is something that one never forgets. It’s a fascinating, fantastic, fabulous experience, irrespective of the fact whether one is a full-time or a part-time student.

Who can forget the first day at the university when one turns from an applicant who has passed entrance exams into a first-year student? I did it! I entered, I got in to the university! A solemn ceremony in front of the university building and serious people making speeches. Hey, lad, do you happen to know who they are? The rector, vice-rectors, deans, subdeans… and what about those ladies? Heads of departments and senior lecturers? Some of them must be professors, some – associate or assistant professors, but, of course, all of them have high academic degrees.

The monitors hand out student membership cards, student record books and library cards – one feels like a real person. First celebrations and then days of hard work. So many classes, so many new subjects to put on the timetable! The curriculum seems to be developed especially for geniuses.

Lectures, seminars and tutorials. Home preparations; a real avalanche of homework.

If one can not cope with the work load of college he or she immediately starts lagging behind. It is easier to keep pace with the programme than to catch up with it later. Everyone tries hard to be, or at least to look, diligent. First tests and examination sessions. The first successes and first failures: “I have passed!” or “He has not given me a pass!” Tears and smiles. And a long-awaited vacation.

The merry-go-round runs faster. Assignments, written reproductions, compositions, synopses, papers. Works handed in and handed out, checked up and marked. ”Professor, I have never played truant, I had a good excuse for missing classes”. Reading up for exams. “No, professor, I have never cheated – no cribs. I just crammed”.

Junior students become senior. Still all of them are one family – undergraduates. Students’ parties in the students’ club. Meeting people and parting with the people. You know, Nora is going to be expelled and Dora is going to graduate with honours. Yearly essays, graduation dissertations, finals…and I’ve got a degree! I am happy! It is over! It is over… Is it over? Oh, no… A postgraduate course, a thesis, an oral, and a degree in Law.

Where are the first-year students of the law faculty? Oh, how nice…

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B2. Write out from the text the words relating to the following categories. Learn them by heart.

KEY VOCABULARY

C. VOCABULARY

C1. Using the text, match the verbs with the nouns to make 11 word partners. Learn them by heart.

C2. Explain the difference in the meaning of the following words:

a)full-time student – part-time student

b)graduate – postgraduate

c)curriculum – timetable

d)lecture – seminar

e)to keep pace with programme – to catch up with programme

f)to take/sit an exam – to pass an exam

C3. Find in the text the English equivalents to the following word