Раздел 2.3.

2.3.1. Прочитайте текст и определите его основную идею:

Notes:

1. grammar school – классическая школа

2. “O” levels – экзамены «обычного» уровня

3. “A” levels – экзамены «продвинутого» уровня

My schooling really started at the age of five, and from the age of five until I was nine I went to a private school, which is quite unusual in England. Then my parents moved and I went to a village school in the countryside. This was a primary school which children usually go to from the ages of five to eleven. And then, at eleven we took an exam called the eleven plus. If we passed that we could go to grammar school, and if we failed we had to go to secondary school, which wasn’t usually of such good quality. I think the system is changed a bit now. Fortunately, I passed my eleven plus. There were all kinds of general knowledge questions and things that, basically, you can work out if you’ve got any common sense.

Then I went to a grammar school. That was also quite a good school. It was good for languages. So from the age of eleven and say sixteen when we took our “O” levels, which were “Ordinary” level exams, we studied about nine subjects.

My favourite teacher was in fact my Russian teacher. She was a French teacher who was married to a very old Russian emigrant. I was the only one studying Russian, but it was good because it meant I had private lessons. However, this made it more demanding because I always had to do my homework and there was no excuse.

So at the age of sixteen we took “O” level exams, and then some people left after that. That was one option or we could go on to a technical college or “Tech”, and study some kind of technical or computer studies, or we could stay on for another two years, as I did, and take “A” levels, which are Advanced level exams. I took “A” levels in English Literature, Russian and Spanish, which, in retrospect, wasn’t a very good idea, because I had to read so many books. I had to sit and read Tolstoy, Dickens and Cervantes.

At the age of about eighteen, in August, everybody in my year was waiting for their “A” level results to see if they got high enough grades to go on to university. We had to apply for five universities, which we put on a list, with the best one at the top. If you want to go to Oxford or Cambridge, of course, you have to put that as number one, and then it goes down, so Oxford and Cambridge would have to be the first, and then maybe Bristol, Manchester, Leeds, and the rest. The Scottish universities are very good. The universities require a certain grade – “A” to “C” are passes. “A” is the best, followed by “B”, then “C”. Usually they ask for three “C”s or above, I passed, fortunately, and I went to Leeds University, which was my first choice, because it had a very good Russian department, and I studied Russian and Spanish.

University usually lasts for three or four years. We were lucky, as when I was at university we were given a grant, or a lump sum of money to live on, and we didn’t have to pay it back. The amount you got was graded according to your parents’ income. So, if your parents didn’t have very much money you got a full grant, which was not a lot of money, but you could live on it. So you could pay your rent, get food and go out quite a lot, as well as buy your books. Going to live in Leeds in the North was better, because things were much cheaper than if I had been in London, where I imagine it’s very difficult for a student to survive, especially these days.

At university, it’s quite different from being at school because you have to rely on your own motivation. I know a lot of people who just didn’t go to any of their classes because they weren’t compulsory.

It was three years of enjoying yourself, basically, studying what you wanted to study, being away from home for the first time, and having some money and being able to go out to parties and concerts. For the first year, I lived in a hall of residence, which was a bit like being in a boarding school. There were lots of eighteen-year olds away from home for the first time, and of course they couldn’t cook, and they weren’t used to doing their own washing or looking after themselves. So this was good, because we had to learn to look after ourselves, cooking and cleaning, and at the same time finding time to study for our finals.

Final exams at university were based on the whole three years’ studies, so there was a lot to learn and it was quite stressful in July when exam time came round. Some people think that this is not a good idea. And that it would be better if there was some sort of system of continuous assessment. Because there are a lot of people who do very well all year, and work very hard, but when it comes to doing exams they just go crazy with stress and can’t remember anything when it comes to the three hour exam you have to do. So, I would be more in favour of that because I don’t think three hours can fairly represent how much you have learnt in three years.

2.3.2. Письменно переведите текст со словарём.

2.3.3. Выберите заголовок, наиболее соответствующий содержанию текста:

1. School And University Life

2. Ways of Student Life

3. Schooling

4. My Education

2.3.4. Ролевая игра. В Москве проходит международная студенческая конференция. Все студенты общаются и расспрашивают друг друга о тех учебных заведениях, в которых они учатся (Оксфордский универстет, Токийский унверситет, Университет в Торонто, Мичиганский университет, Туринский университет, Варшавский университет, Московский университет и т.д.).

БЛОК 3

· Грамматика: видо-временные формы страдательного залога

· Cловообразование

· Текст English Customs And Traditions