Extend your skills

EXERCISE 13. Paraphrase the sentences given below.

1. Courses such as composition, which develop a good facility with language may also be useful.

2. The most important things college student can develop, are good study habits and discipline necessary to the demands of law school.

3. By asking questions about legal concepts and principles, the professor challenges students to articulate and defend their positions.

4. Known as the Socratic method, this dialogue presents students with questions, to which there are no easy answers, regarding some of the most complex legal and social problems.

EXERCISE 14. Do a mind map and write a summary of the text HOW TO BECOME A LAWYER. Present your mind map and a summary in class.

EXERCISE 15. The following task will test you ability to analyze the relationships among events and to draw logical conclusions from the given information.

These are given conditions:

Roe, Doe, Jones, and Fred frequent a certain bar where Smith has been shot.

Roe and Smith are never in the bar together.

Jones and Smith are always in the bar together.

Either Doe or Jones, but not both, will be in the bar.

When Fred is in the bar, either Smith or Roe, but not both, will be in the bar too.

Who were the witnesses to Smith’s shooting?

a. Roe, Doe, and Fred

b. Jones and Fred

d. Doe, Jones, and Fred

c. Only Fred

e. Only Jones.

EXERCISE 16.Study the list of skills a lawyer should possess. Number each skill according to how important you think it is. Think of some other skills you believe are essential to be successful in a competitive professional world.

- academic ability

- written and oral communication skills

- flexibility and the ability to adapt and manage change

- numeracy skills

- interpersonal skills

- personal effectiveness

- IT (Information Technologies) skills

- professional responsibility

- a commitment to continuing professional development

ä Jokes and Puns

QUESTION: What does a failing law student and an alcoholic have in common?

ANSWER: Neither of them can pass the bar.

The lawyer’s son wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps, so he went to law school. He graduated with honors, and then went home to join his father’s firm. At the end of his first day at work he rushed into his father’s office, and said, “Father, father, in one day I broke the accident case that you have been working on for ten years!” His father responded, “You idiot, we lived on the funding of that case for ten years!”