Vocabulary:

undergraduate and postgraduate students – студенты и аспиранты;

to take professional development (post-graduate) courses – обучаться на курсах повышения квалификации (в аспирантуре);

tuition – обучение; деятельность учителя;

to work for their doctor's degree – работать над докторской диссертацией;

a scientific council – ученый совет;

to be closely connected – быть тесно связанным;

to solve problems – решать проблемы;

to provide safety – обеспечивать безопасность.

Exercise 6. Revise the degrees of comparison.

	Comparative degree	Superlative degree
large	larger	the largest
important	more important	the most important
good bad little mach, many	better worse less more	the best the worst the least the most

Give the degrees of comparison for the adjectives.

Small, high, low, old, new, young, fast, slow, quick, long, short, busy, happy, clever, serious, important, strong, kind, brave, attentive, beautiful, intellectual, different, attractive.

Exercise 7. Look at the table and give the general information about main transport universities of Russia. Choose the oldest (the largest, the farthest, the most famous and so on) one.

Commentary. There are different ways of representing the name of the university, training in the field of railway transport: University of Transport Communications, University of Transport , Railway University. You can also see the name formed in the course of history: University of Railway Engineering. The table follows the uniform variant: State Transport University (государственный университет путей сообщения). But also it contains the names presented by the universities on their web-sites (in parentheses).

Name	Place	Foundation	Number of students	Institutes and departments	Specialities
Moscow State Transport University (Moscow State University of Railway Engineering)	Moscow, К-55, 15, Obraztsova st.	1896	100000	9	60
Petersburg State Transport University (Petersburg State Railway University)	St.Petersburg, 9, Moskovsky av.	1809	13000	9	28
Rostov State Transport University (Rostov State University of Transport Communications)	Rostov-on-Don, 2, Narodnogo Opolcheniya sq.	1929	22000	9	31
Far Eastern State Transport University	Khabarovsk, 47, Serysheva st.	1937	25000	14	45
Siberian State Transport University (Siberian State University of Transport)	Novosibirsk, 191, Kovalchuk st.	1932	9500	10	29
Omsk State Transport University	Omsk, 35, Marksa av.	1896 (Tomsk), 1961 (moved to Omsk)	13000	9	26
Ural State Transport University (Ural State University of Railway Transport)	Ekaterinburg, 66, Kolmogorova st.	1956	10000	7	30
Samara State Transport University (Samara State University of Transport)	Samara, 18, Pervy Bezymianny bystreet	1973	11000	6	16
Irkutsk State Transport University (Irkutsk State Railway University, Irkutsk State University of Railway Engineering)	Irkutsk, 15, Chernyshevskogo st.	1975	11000	6	25

Exercise 8. Compare two of the universities using the patterns.

Степень сходства	Способы выражения
Полное сходство	My profession is the same as yours. Your profession and mine are alike.
Сходство по многим признакам	This building is like a museum This student works like a skilled specialist.
Сходство по одному признаку	He has the same plans as I have. He works as good as an engineer.

Степень отличия	Способы выражения
Неопределенная степень отличия	His design differs from mine. His design is different from mine.
Незначительная степень отличия (неполная)	This problem differs somewhat from that one. This problem is a little different from that one.
Отличие по одному признаку	His work is not so difficult as mine.
Значительная степень отличия (полная)	Your plan differs from mine in many ways. Your plan is very different from mine. Your plan is entirely different from mine.

Чтобы избежать повтора существительных в предложении, используйте следующие замены:

а) существительное можно пропустить при наличии притяжательного местоимения в независимой форме или существительного в притяжательном падеже,

• This university is as large as ours.

• His plan is not so interesting as Victor`s.

б) существительное можно заменить словами-заместителями,

• This university is as large as that one.

• The building of our university is different from that of the Moscow university.

Unit 3

Exercise 1. Read the dialogue.

Education in Russia

- What did you do after finishing secondary school?

- After finishing secondary school I went on to further education. I successfully passed the Unified State Exams and became an applicant for entry. I didn`t have to take competitive examinations at the University.

- What do you know about the system of higher education in Russia?

- Russian educational policy is a combination of economic and social objectives. In the terms of the ratio of students to the total population Russia ranks among the top ten countries in the world. There are a lot universities and colleges in Russia. They teach almost in all subject areas: Arts, Sciences, Law, Engineering, etc. Higher educational institutions are headed by Rectors. Vice-rectors are in charge of the academic and scientific work. The Departments are headed by the Deans. There are subdivisions within Departments.

- What do you know about the programs of study?

- Higher educational institutions train students in two types of programs. The first way is as follows. After four years of study a university graduate will get the Bachelor`s Degree. He can continue his study for two years to take his Master's Degree. The other program provides for a diploma of the specialist after completing five years of study. In either program a student is trained in one specialization. In order to receive a university degree a student writes a graduate paper. The graduates can also continue their education and write dissertations for advanced degrees. After three years of post-graduate research work and the presentation of the dissertation it is possible to obtain the candidate degree. The next stage is the Doctor's Degree which requires much more research work and defending the Doctor`s dissertation. - Why is the system of higher education in Russia so complicated?

- In Russia the process of the integration and reformation of higher education, based on principles of the Bologna Declaration, is under way. For the past several years Russian education has gained high dynamics of development in the course of global and European trends. The following new developments are a serious evidence of these trends: the introduction of the Unified State Exams, steady strive for providing equal opportunity in obtaining higher education by any individual, highly increased independency of the education institutions. Some new important developments are still in the discussion process, whereas, at the same time, the new specific methods are already being chosen to be implemented: the new system of knowledge and workload assessment; strong reinforcement of quality assurance in education; modern types of state financial support. In the course of these changes the implementation of two-tier degree structure in higher education has been launched.

- How can you evaluate these new trends and developments from your point of view?

- Let me note that Russian education, by its nature, is one of the most sensitive areas of our culture to the improvements and new ideas. The Russian youth is treasuring European values in accordance with its cultural wealth. Based on these grounds, further integration with Europe in the education area is a realistic goal.