Grade, high school, diploma, vocational, score, higher school, standards, selective subjects, term, admission, middle class, boarding school, mandatory subjects, loan, campus.

Educational certificate of proficiency;

a school where pupils study and live;

being accepted to a school, a club;

the mark given to a student for his work;

subjects that every student must study;

institution for giving secondary education;

subjects that a student may choose;

academic requirements;

professional;

record points;

universities;

class of society between the poor and the rich;

one of the periods into which the academic year is divided;

place where students live;

sum of money given to a person who should return it;

 

II. Fill the gaps in these sentences with words from below:

1. In the UK most children start.................... at the age of five and move to..................... when they are eleven. They.................. school at sixteen, but most students stay on in the.................... till they are eighteen.
2. Our teacher was very.................. and we were always................ if we misbehaved. Sometimes, if we were really................... we were put in..................... and had to stay after school.
3. The............... is in charge of the....................... and.................... of a school.
4. Mary got such good.................. in her exams, that she got a................. at a Cambridge..................... and a............... to pay for her studies. She did so well that she................ with the first class....................

Detention graduated head honours leave

Marks/scores/grades naughty place primary school

Punished pupils/students scholarship secondary school sixth form

Staff strict University

READING

My education

Read David’s story about his school-days:

My name‘s David. I started school when I was five years old. I enjoyed my time at primary school, made lots of friends and learnt to read and write and do arithmetic.

But when I was eleven my family moved to another part of the city and I had to leave all my friends who went to a different secondary school. It was scary being in a new school with hundreds of older and bigger children I didn’t know. But my new class teacher was wonderful – she really helped me feel more secure in my environment. And she made us all work really hard too!

After working hard for the first year with Mrs Green ‘s encouragement, I really realised I didn’t need to do so much work, so I didn’t make much effort in any classes, because I found everything quite easy. I know this was stupid but none of the teachers pushed me to do better so I just did the minimum amount of work necessary.

When I took my GCSEs at the age of sixteen my results were really poor. That taught me a good lesson and since then I haven’t been so lazy!

Now I’m studying history at uni.

Now read Sally’s story:

I’m Sally. Like David, I was eleven when I went to secondary school. At first I had really hard time because, although I did have two good friends, some of the other children picked on me and teased me because I was quite small for my age. My reaction to this was to be naughty inclass and cheeky to the teachers and this got me into troubles – I was in detention a lot. This went on for a couple of years until I became confident. I decided to work hard to show the others that I was better than them. The trouble was that despite my hard work I didn’t do very well in tests and still got bad reports from the teachers. So I really didn’t like school, and I stopped making an effort.

But now I’m in the sixth form, everything is different. I’m interested in the subjects I’m doing, the teachers all treat us like adults and (fingers crossed!) I hope to do well in my exams at the end of the year.

If I get the grades I’m hoping for, I’m going to take a gap year before starting university in two years’ time.

Leo Jones, Making Progress, Cambridge.

 

Match the words and their definitions given below:

scary, to realise, to push somebody to do something, to pick on s omebody, to tease, naughty, cheeky, detention, confident, despite, report, to treat somebody, to take a gap year.

sure that something will happen in the way that you want or expect; disobedient; frightening; to know and understand something; a period of time when nothing is happening, that exists between two other periods of time when something is happening; to behave in an unfair way to someone; a punishment in which children who have behaved badly are forced to stay at school for a short time after the others have gone home; to laugh at someone and make jokes in order to have fun by embarrassing them; rude or disrespectful, sometimes in a way that is amusing; used to say that something happens or is true even though something else might have prevented it; complain; to behave towards sb/sth.; to make somebody do something.

 

Speaking

Work in pairs

Retell the story about your school-days, using useful expressions, given above.

LISTENING

You will hear Rachel talking about her school-days. Put ticks in the chart with information about her.

Didn’t like maths or science
Enjoyed outdoor activities
Had to make friends at secondary school
Has a twin brother
Liked English, geography and history
Played tricks on people

SPEAKING PRACTICE

Work in pairs

Make up a questionnaire about your university and students’ activity (in the Present Simple Tense), using all the information, discussed before.

After that make up dialogues on the theme. You may use active vocabulary and the following group of useful phrases and expressions in your dialogues:

Asking and answering questions:

Could you repeat, please...	That’s a good question!
As far as I know/understand...	Well, let me think...
Will you tell me, please...	Let me see...
If I’m not mistaken...	I need to think about it for a moment.
May I ask one more question?	Well, I’m glad you asked me that.

 

In unpredictable situations that happen very often in real life we advise you to store other useful phrases, just in case:

Well, that’s hard to say right now, but next time I’ll try to answer!

I’m not perfectly ready to answer this question, but next time I’ll try to answer!

What a difficult question!

All this routine work has to be done as a preliminary preparation to the presentation.

 

Homework

Find from the Internet resources the information about five universities - the participants of the Tempus Joint European Project:

– Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania, - the Grantholder of the project;

– Dresden University of Technology (DTU), Germany;

– Ural State Technical University (USTU), Ekaterinburg;

– South Ural State Technical University (SUSU), Chelyabinsk

– Izhevsk State Technical University (ISTU), Izhevsk.

www.ktu.lt.KTU

http://tu-dresden.de.lts

http://inter.istu.ru

http://www.susu.ac.ru/en/about/

http://www.ustu.ru

Lesson 5

UNIVERSITIES

LEXICAL EXERCISES

New Words

Try to match the words and their definitions given below:

Magnet, overseas, guaranteed, assessed, recognition, cost-effective, degree, scholarships, IELTS, foundation, personalized, emphasis, global job market, guidance, drop out, pass rate, impartial, dynamic, cosmopolitan, fascinating.

coming from abroad, foreign;

evaluated, ranked;

promised and assured;

provides good education for not too much money;

payments from a sponsor's funds to maintain a good student in full-time education;

short for International English Language Testing System. It measures ability to communicate in English across all four language skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking;

focused on individual students;

basic, preparatory;

special importance;

help and direction;

marks that you need to get in order to begin/continue to study at a university;

fair, unbiased;

when you have to stop your university studies before you have completed your course;

including people of many different backgrounds;

where a lot happens and changes happen quite often;

very interesting, irresistibly attractive;

a thing that attracts (literally, a piece of metal that attracts or repels iron);

accepting that something (e.g. a course) is of high quality;

providing further education;

jobs that are open to people all over the world;

Reading

UNIVERSITIES IN THE UK

Universities in Britain are a magnet for overseas students. There are currently over 200,000 from outside Britain studying at British universities. The British government expects the total number of overseas students to be around 900,000 by 2020.

But why is the UK such a popular destination for university students? Well, the quality of your course is guaranteed. All courses are assessed by an independent system, so you can be assured that your course is officially approved and has wide international recognition.

The British education system is very flexible in order to provide for the needs of a modern, complex society. It is also cost-effective. Degree courses are usually shorter and more intensive than in other countries. There are lots of scholarships available. You normally need 3 A-levels, which are the exams taken by people leaving school at 18, in order to enter an undergraduate degree course. You also need an IELTS score of at least 5.5, but many universities offer foundation or access courses to prepare students for their studies.

British universities offer a personalised but independent approach. The emphasis is on creative and independent thought, which helps develop the skills you will need to compete in the global job market. Tutors not only teach but also provide support and guidance. As a result, international students have a very low drop out rate and a very high pass rate.

The British Council offers a free and impartial service to anyone who is interested in studying in the UK, and an organisation called UCAS assists you in finding a course and making an effective application.

The UK is a dynamic and cosmopolitan place. The countryside is beautiful, and the theatres, museums, architecture and rich history make it a fascinating place to live and study.

BBC Learning English

SPEAKING PRACTICE

UNIVERSITIES – THE PARTICIPANTS

of the Tempus Joint European Project