From “Oxford life”
(by Dacre Balsden)
Lectures start on the first Monday of term. Lecturers are sometimes in fashion; lectures as such are never in fashion.
Why take notes when you could as well read it all in a book? The question is unanswerable.
In some subjects the lecture-list is itself carefully organized by the Faculty, so that all the necessary lectures are given and given in the terms in which undergraduates need them. In other faculties the freedom of the lecturer is not so rigidly curtailed. Let a lecturer lecture on whatever subject he chosen. If he hopes for an audience, he will choose a subject useful to undergraduates, and he will lecture on it twice a week. If he does not care about the size of his audience and prefers to lecture on some small field of learning on which he is researching or writing a learned paper, he will lecture one hour a week.
Dons in general hate lectures as much as undergraduates. That is why they lecture so badly. Nobody has ever taught them how to lecture well.
On the first Monday the lecturer has his largest audience for the term. Where there are a hundred young men and women today, there will, in eight weeks times, be no more than five or six. Where there is an audience of two today, there will perhaps be one next week and, after that, no audience at all.
A professor’s lecture is sometimes like the “pas seul ” * of a prima ballerina. He appears; he lectures; he retires. And then after an interval, he lectures again. But the College tutor’s public lecture is an interruption in a week otherwise devoted to teaching pupils in his rooms, listening to their essays and talking about them. These are “private hours” – “tutes”, as the undergraduates call them, or tutorials. Sometimes a student comes alone, sometimes in a pair, sometimes with two or three others.
Young tutors find the hour too long, old tutors find it too short. Undergraduates find it very long indeed and if there is no clock in the room, they find it even longer. When you reach a tutor’s age, it is less easy to listen than to talk, and observant undergraduates quickly realize that their tutors criticize in detail the final sentences of their essays but give little evidence of having observed the rest.
* pas seul [ֽpα: 'sə:l] (фр) сольный танец
5*. Read the advertisement of Sheffield University from “Railway Gazette” and translate it into Russian:
6. Write the facts about English higher education that interested you most of all.
(4-5 sentences).
7. What questions could you ask to get these answers?
No, they have to finance their own studies.
There isn’t much difference; it’s just that the courses are more practical in a polytechnic instead of being very academic.
It’s sixteen, but a lot of kids stay on until eighteen.
Because you can get higher education and earn some money.
2.3 Speaking.
1. Number these reasons why people enter universities in their order of importance from 1(most important reason) to 12 (least important reason).
to acquire general knowledge
to prepare for job
to meet with young people
to train one’s memory
to learn something about subjects
to find out what one is really interested in
to give one’s parents some peace and quiet
to test one’s intelligence
to learn how to study and work with books
to have a good time
to be independent
to learn discipline and order
2. Discuss with your partner.
a) Advantages and disadvantages of studying far from home.
b) Higher education is necessary to every young man.
c) No entrance exams. Think of pros and cons.
d) In British universities students are not obliged to attend all lectures. Is it good?
3. Here are some decisions that British students have to make:
at 16 – stay on at school?
look for a job?
apply for a place on a Young Opportunity Scheme?
go to the Sixth Form College?
at 18 – go to University or a college?
get a job?
start a training course?
do voluntary work?
travel and work abroad?
move away from home?
Make a list of decisions that students have to make in your educational system.
4. Render these texts in English* or in Russian.
1.
This is how a student spends his day. His working hours are from 9 to 1. At 9 o’clock he will see the tutor or go to the library, or to the lecture. From 2 to 5 he is engaged in sport and all kinds of exercise to prove himself on river or field. From 5 to 7 he usually either works in the library or in the laboratory. 7 o’clock is the dinner-hour when the undergraduates and dons are gathered in the hall. After dinner the students have club activities, debating societies, etc. At 10 o’clock the student must be in the college and sit down to work for about 2 hours.