Length of school life. Streaming

1. Read the following words aloud:

[i] – will, into, infant, children, Christmas, until, begin, continue

[i:] – each, these, leave, reach, Easter, feature, complete, receive

[e] – secondary, technical, attend, attendance, education, length, general, separate

2. Transcribe the words and read them:

Vacations, separated, duration, education, beginning, birthday, continue, nineteen, customary, technical, percentage, normally, secondary, primary, attend, general, attainment, particularly, complete, eleventh, another, promote, attendance, junior, infant, corresponding

3. Arrange the following words into 3 columns according to the part of speech. Read and translate:

Education, continue, divide, vacation, start, customary, reach, last, compulsory, complete, attainment, secondary, attend, primary, junior, transfer, promotion, type, urban, birthday, feature, noteworthy, period, duration, promote, attendance

4. Translate the following word combinations into Russian:

A junior school, a primary school, a secondary school, an infants’ school, full-time education, primary stage, secondary stage, promotion, attainment, to transfer, to complete, compulsory.

5. Replace the words in bold type using the following words: compulsory, attend, is divided into, be trained, lasts.

1. Full-time education is obligatory from the age of five. 2. Full-time education consists of two stages. 3. During the primary stage a child may go to one school. 4. In urban areas they may go to both an infants’ school and a junior school. 5. The school year runsfrom September till July.

6. Read and translate the following sentences. Mind the prepositions:

1. It is customary for children to start school at the beginning of the term. 2. They may continue until the age of nineteen. 3. Full-time education is divided into two stages. 4. After an infants’ school a child will transfer to a junior school. 5. Promotion is based on age and not upon attainment. 6. Mid-term is marked by a long week-end. 7. A child normally completes the school primary stage at the end of the year in which his eleventh birthday falls.

LENGTH OF SCHOOL LIFE

Full-time education is compulsory from the age of five, and it is customary for children to start school at the beginning of the term in which their fifth birthday falls. They must not leave before the end of the term in which they reach the age of sixteen, but they may continue until the age of nineteen.

The period of full-time education is divided into two stages – primary and secondary. A child normally completes the primary stage at the end of the school year in which his eleventh birthday falls. During this primary stage, a child may attend one school, or, particularly in urban areas, two, these being an infants’ school and a junior school. If he begins in an infants’ school, he will transfer to a junior school at the end of the school year in which he becomes seven years old. Upon leaving the junior school he goes to a secondary school of one type or another. A noteworthy feature of both primary and secondary schools is that promotion is, in generally, based on age and not upon attainment.

The school year begins in September, and continues until late in July. It is divided into three terms separated by vacations at Christmas and at Easter, each lasting about three weeks, and a summer vacations of six or seven weeks. Mid-term is usually marked by a long week-end of three or four days’ duration.

7. Answer the following questions:

1. What type of education is compulsory in Britain? 2. When is it customary for children to start school? 3. How many stages is the period of full-time education divided into? 4. What are they? 5. When does a child normally complete the primary stage? 6. How many schools may a child attend during the primary stage? 7. What primary schools may a child attend, particularly in urban areas? 8. When may a child be transferred to a junior school if he or she begins in an infants’ school? 9. When does he or she go to a secondary school of one type or another? 10. What is a noteworthy feature of both primary and secondary schools? 11. When does the school year begin? 12. How long does it continue? 13. How many terms is it divided into? 14. How long does each term last? 15. What is each term separated by? 16. What is mid-term usually marked by? 17. How long does it last?

8. Read and translate in the written form the following article: