Exercise 3. Give the English equivalents for the following word-combinations and use them in sentences of your own

Part I. UNIVERSITY STUDIES

UNIT 1

A. College Life

Active Vocabulary

to leave / finish school

to receive a school-leaving certificate
entrance exams, finals

full-time students, part-time students

dean, (at) the dean’s office

sub-dean

assistant professor

senior lecturer

tutor

full-time student

part-time student
chair, to hold the chair

community

campus, campus ground, to live off-campus

dorm (itory)

monitor

to hand in, to hand out smth

student membership card

student record book

library card

to attend lectures / extra lessons

to play truant, to cut / to skip classes

to be absent from classes

to have a good excuse for missing classes

scholarly societies

to cope with smth

postgraduate course

synopsis (pl -es)

graduation dissertation

thesis (pl -es)

final

oral

assignment

a real avalanche of homework

to keep pace with (the programme)

to crib (from), a crib

to cheat

to cram

to swot

to lag behind, to fall behind, to be behind smb in smth

to catch up with smb in smth

to be expelled (from)

to give up one’s studies

to have to repeat the year

undegraduate

to graduate from; to be a graduate of

to graduate with honours

to get a free education

to pay a certain fee for

grant

scholarship

allowance

timetable

curriculum (pl -la, -s)

syllabus (pl -bi, -es)

There are different payments students can get while studying.

A grant is what students get every month which is taken from the state budget or is paid by local authorities. A scholarship is given to especially bright students who have excellent results, and is usually much higher than a grant. An allowance is a one-time payment for not so well-to-do students who may find themselves in a difficult financial situation.

Read the following essay and say whether you agree with the author or not, paying special attention to the words and expressions in bold.

College Life

The merry-go-round of college life is something that one never forgets. It’s a fascinating, fantastic, fabulous experience, irrespective of the fact whether one is a full-time or a part-time student.

Who can forget the first day at the university when one turns from an applicant who has passed entrance exams into a first-year student? I did it! I entered, I got into the university! A solemn ceremony in front of the university building and serious people making speeches. Hey, lad, do you happen to know who they are? Who? The rector, vice-rectors, deans, subdeans... and what about those ladies? Heads of departments and senior lecturers? Okay. Some of them must be professors, some – associate or assistant professors, but, of course, all of them have high academic degrees. And where are our lecturers and tutors?

The monitors hand out student membership cards, student record books and library cards – one feels like a real person. First celebrations and then days of hard work. So many classes, so many new subjects to put on the timetable! The curriculum seems to be developed especially for geniuses. Lectures, seminars and tutorials. Home preparations; a real avalanche of homework.

If one cannot cope with the work load of college he or she immediately starts lagging behind. It is easier to keep pace with the programme than to catch up with it later. Everyone tries hard to be, or at least to look, diligent. First tests and examination sessions. The first successes and first failures: “I have passed!” or “He has not given me a pass!” Tears and smiles. And a long-awaited vacation.

The merry-go-round runs faster. Assignments, written reproductions, compositions, synopses, papers. Translations checked up and marked. “Professor, I have never played truant, I had a good excuse for missing classes”. Works handed in and handed out. Reading up for exams. “No, professor, I have never cheated – no cribs. I just crammed”.

Junior students become senior. Still all of them are one family – undergraduates. Student parties in the student clubs. Meeting people and parting with people. You know, Nora is going to be expelled and Dora is going to graduate with honours. Yearly essays, graduation dissertations, finals...

What? A teacher’s certificate? You mean, I've got a degree in English? I am happy! It is over! It is over... Is it over? Oh, no...

A postgraduate course, a thesis, an oral, and a degree in Philology. The first of September. Where are the students of the faculty of foreign languages? Is it the English department? Oh, how nice...

VOCABULARY EXERCISES

Exercise 1. Find in the text words denoting:

- a short piece of writing on one particular subject that is written by a student;

- a class, usually at college or university, where the teacher and the students discuss a particular topic or subject;

- a long essay that a student does as part of a degree;

- financial aid that the government gives to an individual or to an organization for a particular purpose such as education, welfare, home, improvements;

- a student at a university or college who has not yet taken his or her first degree;

- a person who has a first degree from a university and who is doing research at a more advanced level;

- someone who has left school or college before they have finished their studies;

- a long piece of written research done for a higher university degree, especially a PhD;

- money given to a student to help pay for the cost of his or her education;

- a regular meeting in which a tutor and a small group of students discuss a subject as part of the student’s course of study;

- a block of flats where students live.

Exercise 2. Pick out from the text:

1) nouns, denoting different types of classes at the university; 2) nouns, denoting money support for students; 3) nouns, denoting types of written works done by students.

Exercise 3. Give the English equivalents for the following word-combinations and use them in sentences of your own.

Прогуливать занятия, заканчивать университет с отличием, раздавать студенческие билеты, справляться с учебной нагрузкой, иметь оправдание за пропуск занятий, идти в ногу с программой, быть исключенным, получать высокую академическую степень.

Exercise 4. Explain the meaning of the following words and phrases:
- monitor

- a diligent student

- an avalanche of homework

- applicant

- to play truant

- to have an excuse for

- to lag behind

- to keep pace with

- curriculum

- to graduate with honours

Exercise 5. Discuss in pairs the difference between:

- junior and senior students;