Ex. 2. Answer the questions. 1. Why did you decide to study at the Academy?

1. Why did you decide to study at the Academy? 2. Do you think you were lucky to be accepted by the Academy? 3. How long does it take you to get to the Academy? 4. What year are you in? 5. What faculty do you study at? 6. What subjects do you study at the Academy? (What subjects is your curriculum split into?) 7. What are your favourite subjects? 8. Is the rapport with your teachers good? Are the teachers friendly & helping? 9. Do you have all opportunities and facilities for your studies? 10. Where can you read for your seminars? 11. When do you take examinations? 12. How do you spend your free time? 13. What leisure activities сan you afford in Gorki? 14. What kind of people do you prefer to spend time with? 15. What do you think about the advantage of the Academy being placed in a small town like Gorki?

Ex. 3. Match the words.

a) Excellent, foreign, practical, special, academic, research, scientific, friendly, fabulous, rich.

b) Laboratories, work, conferences, people, scenery, hours, experience, reputation, year, languages.

Ex. 4. Complete the sentences using the active vocabulary:

1. I think I've made the right choice because the Academy has an _____. 2. I was lucky _____ by the Academy. 3. The curriculum is _____ into many subjects. 4. The _____ with teachers is good. 5. The academic year is _____ into two terms. 6. I'm surrounded by_____ who always make ______. 7. Sometimes we have wild parties but mostly _____. 8. In winter Gorki is ______. 9. In summer you can ______. 10. The sport facilities are _____.

Ex. 5. Reproduce the episodes using the plan below:

a) reasons for your decision to study at the Academy;

b) the subjects you study;

c) the rapport with the teachers;

d) the organisation of studies (the curriculum);

e) your free time and your friends;

f) the placement of the Academy;

g) your plans for the future.

Ex. 6.Discuss the following questions with a partner.

1. In what way does university work differ from school work? 2. How can you assess you progress in education? 3. What are the purposes of higher education? 4. What do you think are the best means of learning a foreign language? 5. What may be the ways of self-education? 6. Can you say that you have already developed good habits and methods of study? What are they? 7. Do you generally plan your work in advance? 8. How do you sort out priorities of your study? 9. What are the most time-consuming subjects in your opinion?

Ex. 7. Read the text and answer the question: “What is like being a student in Oxford?”

Text B

Student Life

Like all British universities, Oxford is a state university not a private one. Students are selected on the basis of their results in the national examinations or the special Oxford entrance examina­tion. There are many applicants, and nobody can get a place by paying. Successful candidates are admitted to a specified college of the university: that will be their home for the next three years, and for longer if they are admitted to study for a postgraduate degree. They will be mostly taught by tutors from their own college. Teaching is pleasantly informal and personal; a typical undergraduate (apart from those in the natural sciences who spend all day in the laboratories) will spend an hour a week with his or her “tutor” perhaps in the company of one other student. Each of them will have written an essay for the tutor, which serves as the basis for discussion, arguments, the ex­position of ideas and academic methods. At the end of the hour students go away with a new essay title and a list of books that might be helpful in preparing for the essay.

Other kinds of teaching such as lectures and seminars are normally optional; popular lecturers can attract audiences from several faculties, while others may find themselves speaking to two or three loyal students, or maybe to no one at all. So, in theory, if you are good at reading, thinking, writing quickly, you can spend five days out of seven being idle: sleeping, taking part in sport, in student clubs, in acting and singing, in arguing, drinking, having parties. In practice, most students in Oxford are enthusiastic about academic life, and many of the more conscientious ones work for days on each essays, sometimes sitting up through the night with a wet towel round their heads.

At the end of three years, all students face a dreadful ordeal: “Finals”. The victims are obliged to dress up for the occasion in black and white, an old-fashioned ritual that may help to calm the nerves. They crowd into the huge, bleak examination building and sit for three hours writing what they hope is beautiful prose on half-remembered or strangely forgotten subjects. In the afternoon they assemble for another three hours of writing. After four or five days of this torture, they emerge, blinking into the sunlight and stagger off for the biggest party of them all.