Answer the following questions.

UNIT 5 EDUCATION

Translate the following quotation and comment upon it.

‘A university should be a place of light, of liberty and of learning.’

Benjamin Disraeli

Read the text paying attention to the word in bold.

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

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

The monitorshand out student membership cards, student record booksand 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 curriculumseems to be developed especially for geniuses. Lectures, seminarsand tutorials. Home preparations; a real avalanche of homework.

If one cannot cope with the work load of collegehe or she immediately starts lagging behind. It is easier to keep pacewith the programme than to catch up with itlater. Everyone tries hard to be, or at least to look, diligent. First testsand examination sessions. The first successesand 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. Translations checked upand marked. ‘Professor, I have never play truant, I had a good excuse for missing classes’. Works handed inand handed out. Reading up for exams. ‘No, professor, I have never cheated– no cribs. I just crammed’.

Junior studentsbecome senior. Still all of them are one family – undergraduates. Students’ partiesin the students’ club. Meeting people and parting with people. You know, Nora is going to be expelledand Dora is going to graduate with honours. Yearly essays, graduation dissertations, finals…

What? A teacher’s certificate? You mean, I’ve got a degree in English? 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 Philology. The first of September. Where are the students of the faculty of foreign languages? Is it the English Department? Oh, how nice…

Answer the following questions.

1.Would you compare college life with a merry-go-round or with something else?

2.What can you say about your first months at university? What were they like?

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

4.What would you like to change about your university?

5.What is the university of your dream?

6.Can you imagine an exemplary student? Speak about exemplary students and ordinary ones.

7.What qualities make a good teacher?

2. Speak in class what you feel when:

you get a bad mark; you fall (lag) behind the group; you fail (in) examination; you read up for an examination late at night; you miss classes; you come late to classes; you keep up with the rest of the group; you catch up with the rest; you have to retake an examination; you work in the library at the weekend; you work on your dissertation on holiday; you spend sleepless nights over a load of books; you look up every word in your dictionary when reading an English book; you are not prepared for the class; you are given virtually no time to digestand remember several chapters; another student cheatsat an examination or test.

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 1034