МИНИСТЕРСТВО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ

НИЖНЕТАГИЛЬСКАЯ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННАЯ СОЦИАЛЬНО-

ПЕДАГОГИЧЕСКАЯ АКАДЕМИЯ
КАФЕДРА АНГЛИЙСКОЙ ФИЛОЛОГИИ

Е.Ю. Титова
Insight into Learning and Teaching a Foreign
Language

Учебное пособие для студентов высших и

средних учебных заведений

Нижний Тагил
2006

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 Печатается по решению кафедры английской филологии НТГСПА.
(Протокол №2 от 19.10.2005 г.)
Е.Ю. Титова. Изучение и преподавание иностранного языка (Insight into
Learning and Teaching a Foreign Language): Учебное пособие для студентов
высших и средних учебных заведений. - Нижний Тагил, 2006. – 193с.
Рецензенты:
М.В. Синицына, к.п.н., доцент;
Л.А. Ерофеева, к.п.н., доцент
Пособие предназначено для студентов, изучающих английский язык на
продвинутом уровне. Материалы пособия могут быть использованы при работе
над разговорными темами «Образование», «Профессия учителя», «Изучение
иностранных языков» на факультетах иностранных языков педагогических
колледжей, институтов и университетов. Пособие состоит из 9 уроков,
построенных вокруг оригинальных текстов, затрагивающих такие аспекты как:
общая педагогика, общая психология, школа, высшая школа, психология
учебной деятельности, методика преподавания иностранных языков,
лексических упражнений к ним, а также упражнений на выработку навыков
устной речи по темам уроков. В «Приложении» даются 17 текстов, близких по
тематике к основным текстам пособия, которые можно использовать в качестве
дополнительного или домашнего чтения, и ряд тестов на проверку усвоения
терминологии и профессиональной лексики.
Ответственный редактор: И.Е. Шкабара, к.п.н., доцент
Технический редактор: Е.С. Шарипова
Подписано в печать . Формат 60х84 1/16. Бумага для
множительных аппаратов. Гарнитура «Таймс». Печать офсетная (на ризографе).
Усл. печ. л. Уч.-изд. л. Тираж 30 экз. Заказ . Оригинал-макет изготовлен
автором. Типлаборатория НТГСПА. Адрес: 622031 Нижний Тагил, ул.
Красногвардейская, 57.
© Нижнетагильская социально-педагогическая академия

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 ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ
Настоящее пособие предназначено для студентов факультетов
иностранных языков педагогических колледжей, институтов и университетов,
изучающих следующие разговорные темы: «Образование», «Школьное
обучение», «Изучение иностранных языков», «Профессия учителя» и др.
Работа с пособием рекомендуется как переходный этап к чтению оригинальной
литературы по специальности.
Цель пособия – сформировать у студентов следующие навыки:
• Научиться читать, понимать и переводить научно-популярные тексты
по педагогике, психологии и методике преподавания иностранных языков.
• Продолжать развитие навыков и умений углубленно читать, понимать
и анализировать оригинальные художественные тексты и газетные материалы
повышенной сложности.
• Уметь поддерживать беседу, делать сообщения, высказывать
собственное мнение в рамках профессиональных тем.
• Расширить словарный запас педагогической, психологической и
методической терминологией;
• Развивать коммуникативные, дискуссионные навыки и навыки
педагогического общения; научиться быть в состоянии полемической
готовности.
Необходимость решения вышеуказанных задач определила структуру
пособия.
Пособие состоит из 9 уроков (Основной курс), в центре каждого из
которых – текст научно-популярного характера, оригинальный и
неадаптированный. Некоторые из текстов были подвергнуты сокращениям, что
продиктовано учебными целями и объемом пособия.
Активная лексика урока и основные идеи текста закрепляются и
усваиваются в ходе выполнения последующих многочисленных и
разнообразных лексико-грамматических упражнений. Это вопросы к тексту,

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устный перевод с английского языка на русский, письменный перевод с
русского языка на английский, задания, стимулирующие устную речевую
активность и т. д.
Тематика текстов такова, что на их основе можно успешно развивать
навыки устной речи: вопросно-ответная форма работы над текстами, пересказ
целых текстов, сообщения студентов о состоянии поднимаемых в текстах
проблем, высказывание собственного мнения по дискуссионным вопросам.
Пособие снабжено Приложением, состоящим из оригинальных текстов
для дополнительного чтения во время занятий или для индивидуального
домашнего чтения; выбор данных текстов обусловлен тематикой Основного
курса.
Настоящая работа – попытка систематизировать накопленный материал
по практике английского языка для старших курсов, имеющий отношение к
процессу обучения и изучения иностранного языка. Автор будет благодарен за
все замечания и пожелания, направленные на улучшение и обновление
содержания и структуры пособия.

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 ESSENTIAL COURSE
LESSON ONE
Education
I. Read the following article, find a suitable title for it and explain its main
idea:
Education is not an end, but a means to an end. In other words, we don’t
educate children only for the purpose of educating them, our purpose is to fit them for
life. As soon as we realize this fact, we will understand that it is very important to
choose a system of education, which will really prepare children to life. It is not
enough just to choose the first system of education one finds; or to continue with
one’s old system of education without examining it to see whether it is in fact suitable
or not.
In some countries, it has been fashionable for some time to think that by free
education for all – whether rich or poor, clever or stupid – one can solve all the
problems of society and build a perfect nation. But we can already see that free
education for all is not enough to improve one’s living standard; we find in such
countries a far larger number of people with university degrees than there are jobs for
them… Because of their degrees, they refuse to do what they think “low” work; and,
in fact, work with their hands is thought to be dirty and shameful.
But we have only to think a moment to understand that the work of a
completely uneducated farmer is far more important than that of a professor: we can
live without education but we die if we have no food.
In fact, when we say that all of us must be educated to fit us for life, it means
that we must be educated in such a way that, firstly, each of us can do whatever job is
suited to his brain and ability, and, secondly, that we can realize that all jobs are
necessary to society and that it is very bad to be ashamed of one’s work, or to scorn
someone else’s. Only such type of education can be called valuable to society.
(From: L.A. Hill, R.D.S. Fielden. Further Comprehension and Precise Pieces
for Overseas Students. London, 1965)

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 II. Make up your sentences using the following words and word
combinations from the text: ends and means; to fit for life; free education; a
university degree; to be suited to one’s brain and ability; to solve the problems of
society; to build a perfect nation.
III. Answer the following questions based on the text:
1. What is the purpose of education as it is defined in the article? 2. Why is it
necessary to examine any system of education before choosing it? 3. Can “free
education for all” solve all the problems of society? 4. What sort of education can be
called really valuable to society?
IV. Complete the following sentences choosing the variant expressing the
idea of the article best:
1. It is essential to solve the problems of education because education brings
up cultured people; it plays an important role in the lives of people; it helps to build a
perfect nation.
2. The value of a university degree, as the author implies is the following: it
states your proficiency in some sphere; it gives you a chance to do some highly
qualified work in a particular sphere; it adds to your self-education.
3. “Our purpose is to fit children for life” means that: we want them to choose
a good career; we want them to be efficient in their jobs; we want to make them well
adjusted to life in society.
V. Translate the following text into Russian and discuss the problems it deals
with:
Education at a university level must necessarily provide the student with a
body of positive knowledge, which equips him for his career in later life. But it also
has another and more notable attribute. It develops in the student an attitude of mind,
which regards the critical assessment of facts and values as more important than
dogmas and which holds that a grasp of underlying principles is more valuable than
the accumulation or information or acquisition of skills and techniques. A university
expects that at the end of their courses their students will not merely be able to

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comprehend the extent and significance of that is already known within their own
field, but will be receptive to what is new, eager to explore it, show the ability to cope
with it and above all – be able to work confidently on their own. By entering a
university, a student has undertaken to accept a rigorous intellectual discipline and to
be more than passive receptacle for information, much of which in many subjects
may be out of date within many years. To the limit of his capacity, he is trained to
collect evidence for himself and form a balanced judgment about it and he fortifies
his ability to think for himself. This is what good teaching achieves in a university.
(From: J. Mouthford. British Universities in Teaching and Learning.
Middlesex, 1970)
VI. Read the following text, define its subject-matter and make up 10
questions of different types to the text.
The Purpose of School
If you ask yourself why children go to school, you’ll probably say that they go
to learn their own language and other languages, arithmetic, geography, geometry,
history, science and all other subjects. That is quite true: but why do they learn at
school?
We send children to school to prepare them for the time they will be adult and
will have to work for themselves. They learn their own language so that they will be
able to tell clearly what they know and understand what others tell them. They learn
foreign languages in order to be able to benefit from what people in other countries
have written and said and in order to make people from other countries understand
what they themselves mean. They learn arithmetic in order to know how to measure
and count things in their daily life; geography – to know something about the world
around them; and history – to understand the events taking place today and realize
their connection with what happened a long time ago. Nearly everything they study at
school has some practical use in their daily life, but is that the only reason why they
go to school?

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 No. there is more about education than just learning facts and things. We go to
school above all to learn how to learn, so that, when we leave school, we can
continue to learn. A man who really knows how to learn will always be successful,
because whenever he has to do something new, which he never had to do before, he
will rapidly teach himself how to do it in the best way. The uneducated person, on the
other hand, is either unable to do something new, or does it badly. The purpose of
school, therefore, is not only to teach languages, arithmetic, geography etc., but also
to teach pupils the way to learn.
(From: L.A. Hill, R.D.S. Fielden. Further Comprehension and Precise Pieces
for Overseas Students. London, 1965)
VII. Support, challenge or dwell on the following ideas:
1. The purpose of school is to teach pupils the way to learn for themselves. 2.
Education is not just learning facts. 3. Free education doesn’t solve all social
problems. 4. It is absurd to look down on people who have no higher education. 5.
Education must fit children for life. 6. Suggest the lines of improvement in the system
of Russian secondary and higher education. 7. Education is still based largely on
punishment. 8. The approach of Russian educationalists to the problem of corporal
punishment. 9. The teacher should teach not the subject but the whole child. 10.
Different approaches to teaching and upbringing. 11. Old versus new approaches to
school education. 12. Permanent education. 13. The role of the teacher in the process
of upbringing and education.
VIII. Comment on the following statements:
1. Do not try to learn everything not to become an ignoramus in everything. 2.
The power of knowledge is in doubt. 3. One must learn at school, but upon leaving
school one must learn still harder. 4. Education makes a people easy to lead but
difficult to drive, easy to govern but impossible to enslave. 5. Education has produced
a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading. 6.
Knowledge is of two kinds. We know the subject, or we know where we can find
information upon it. 7. Human history becomes more and more a race between

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education and catastrophe. 8. It is only the ignorant who despise education. 9.
Knowledge is power.

LESSON TWO
Learning from the Psychological Point of View
I. Read the following text and do the activities that follow:
Learning may be defined as changes in behavior as the result of experience.
Psychologists have formulated a number of theories about how learning takes place
and have performed a great deal of search with humans and animals in an attempt to
gain a better understanding of the process.
One of the most important studies of learning, like many discoveries of
science, was initiated almost by accident. At the beginning of the 20th century, a
Russian psychologist named Ivan Pavlov was continuing his research on the reflex
process and observing the behavior of the dog on which he was working as a
laboratory subject. Pavlov accounted for the learning process to the “signal-response”
scheme. The signal-response sequence for learning is called “classical conditioning”
(формирование условных рефлексов).
There is a widespread feeling that all learning is built up by the same process
of association of symbols or signs in close relationship with the things that they
symbolize or signify. Added evidence for thеsе viewpoints is supplied by studies on
higher order conditioning (формирование условных рефлексов более высокого
порядка). The process of building up the learning of associations that link together
many different signals and stimuli is gradual and long.
Many new facts have been found out since the time of Pavlov’s discovery.
It is important to mention that we may learn to avoid certain signals, signs or
symbols just as we can be conditioned to respond positively towards others, which
means that learning is selective.
A different type of learning, sometimes called operant conditioning
(спонтанное научение, не вызванное определенным стимулом) was described

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most recently by B.F. Skinner of Harvard University. He examined the way learning
takes place when the behavior is spontaneous, but not at the reflex level, as it is in
classical conditioning. This learning scheme is as follows: “response-reward”. The
reward, or the reinforcement, comes after the response has been made. Both operant
and classical conditioning are association schemes: classical conditioning being an
association between a signal and response; operant conditioning being an association
between a response and reward. The first method is connected with automatic,
reflective type of response; the latter type seems to be connected with voluntary
modes of action and behavior.
It has been known for a long time that human memory is associative. One thing
reminds us of another for various reasons: either they occurred together, or they refer
to the same subject-matter in some sense. Human learning is partly a matter of
associations of responses acquired through classical or operant conditioning
experiences. Our acquired behaviour seems to be too complex to be exclusively
accounted for by these two types of causes.
W. Koehler, a German psychologist who worked in America, demonstrated
another solution of the problem by combining previously learned experiences or
solutions to problems in a new way. It is the formation of a new association for the
organism trying to solve a problem. The important role of a non-rendom scheme of
learning is called “insight”.
To sum up, all different forms of learning have some elements of association in
them, and some element of reinforcement, although learning may sometimes seem
much more complicated than these conditioning schemes would suggest.
(From: L.S. Skurnik, F. George. Psycology for
Everyman. Penguin Books, 1972)
II. Answer the following questions based on the text:
1. How may learning be defined? 2. Who was the first to start studies of
learning? Did he intend to investigate the problem of learning at the very beginning
of his experimental research? 3. What is the sequence of events in the learning

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process, called “classical conditioning”? 4. Why is learning considered to be
selective? 5. What is operant conditioning? 6. Who was the first to describe operant
conditioning? 7. What kind of behaviour did Skinner examine? 8. What was the
scheme of learning he accounted for? 9. What association is operant conditioning
based on? 10. What role does association play in learning?
III. Translate the following sentences from Russian into English using the
words and word combinations from the text:
1. Павлов открыл механизм образования условных рефлексов. 2.
Необходимо отличать врожденные рефлексы от приобретенных. 3. В последнее
время ученые собрали много интересных данных по этой проблеме. 4. Более
поздние исследования показали, что научение – это гораздо более сложный
процесс, чем предполагалось ранее. 5. Чем сложнее нервная система, тем гибче
поведение. 6. Научение – это приобретение знаний и навыков. 7. Память –
основа психической деятельности. 8. Запомнить – значит связать то, что
требуется запомнить, с чем-то уже известным, т. е. образовать ассоциацию. 9. В
памяти хранится прошлый опыт.
IV. Speak on the following points:
1. The problem of “insight”. 2. Pavlov and his contribution to the learning
process study. 3. The phenomenon of association.
V. Make up a dialogue between two students exchanging their opinions
about a lecture on the conditioning technique they have just attended. The
following can serve as a guideline for the dialogue:
A. – What do you think about today’s lecture?
B. – Many things sounded interesting. But the only thing I couldn’t
understand is what conditioning has to do with psychology.
A. – ….
B. – I see now. It’s clear then why all behaviourists have such a high
opinion about Pavlov and his teaching.

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 A. – As for the difference between conditioned and unconditioned
responses, it seems clear to me.
B. – Really? Then explain it to me, if you please.
A. –…
B. – Then learning consists of association and reinforcement, doesn’t it?
A. –…
VI. Read the following text and do the activities that follow:
Сomplex Learning
The basic principle of learning is reinforcement. When the student does
something that leads to success, he is much more likely to repeat it; when he fails he
is not likely to repeat it. Reinforcement does not necessarily have to occur every time;
occasional reinforcement can be sometimes more effective than cоnstant.
Reinforcement can be either reward or avoidance of punishment. It is preferable to
learn under the incentive of rewards rather than the threat of punishment.
Motivation is also essential for efficient learning. Human beings can
sometimes acquire knowledge without any deliberate effort. This type of learning,
which occurs without intention or obvious cause, is called latent learning.
The only way we can be sure that learning has taken place is if it is manifested
in performance. The performance is brought forth usually under the offer of some
reward, which the individual is motivated to acquire. So, we may say that we learn
better if we want or need to learn.
Many different kinds of motivation conditions affect the way we learn. One’s
desire to learn will certainly enhance the achievement; but too much motivation can
lead to extreme anxiety and excitement, which will interfere with the learning
process. It is moderate, but not intense desire that is needed. External rewards (e.g.
marks for classroom work) will be effective only if they are what the student wants.
Not only must the reward but the material to be learned must also have meaning.
Another important condition in the development of skills is distribution.
Distribution of learning and practice allows the material or skill to be much better

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assimilated. Just as excessive motivation interferes with success, so does over-
concentrated practice. Study and learning (e.g. for examinations) should be spread
over the entire term. A more prominent gain in learning should be acquired over a
long period.
Transfer of training is another very important concern: what has been learned
in one situation can be used in other situations. Enhanced learning experience is
called positive transfer. Interference in effective performance is called negative
transfer.
Complex learning is a process of many associations in knowledge, skills, and
attitudes. We must be able to generalize from these associations and apply them in
new situations. This process is called convergent or deductive thinking. We learn to
think and solve problems by both convergent and divergent (inductive) thinking.
(From : L.S. Skurnik, F. George. Psychology for Everyman. Penguin Books,
1972)
VII. Choose the right word and insert it into one of the following sentences:
anxiety, reinforcement, punishment, reword, motivation, knowledge, affect, learning,
success, thinking, individual.
1. Among the principles of learning ……. is distinguished as the basic one. 2.
…… is a certain condition of the organism, which may lead to stress and depression.
3. Human beings can acquire …… under specific conditions. 4. Every ……, coming
to a psychological clinic, should have a careful physical examination by a general
practitioner. 5. What is your attitude towards physical …… at home and at school? 6.
…… languages is a serious and complex process, demanding high …… and deep
…… . 7. …… can be considered a kind of reinforcement. 8. When excessive
motivation interferes with …… it may …… the learning process negatively.
VIII. Define what the following notions mean: latent learning, reinforcement,
reward, positive and negative transfer, convergent and divergent thinking, motivation,
distribution of learning.
IX. Answer the following questions based on the text:

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 1. In what way do we acquire knowledge? 2. What is the basic principle of
learning? 3. What kinds of reinforcement are mentioned in the text? 4. Which of them
is more effective, to your mind and why? Do you believe that if a student’s work is
followed by praise, recognition for improvement and persistence, advancement and
good marks for each piece of work, chances are the rate and quality of his work will
continue to improve? 5. Why is proper distribution of the material to be learned
important? 6. What factors influence the efficiency with which we master new
material? 7. Why are the results limited in case of latent learning? 8. What is
complex learning?
X. Translate the following sentences into Russian:
1. It is noted, that even at the age of six children are able to organize their
performance in a variety of perceptual and motor tests, directing their energies toward
efficient performance, working away independently and experiencing delight when
succeeded. 2. Man being a very complex organism, many sciences are concerned
with his investigation. 3. Can anything be learned when there is no motivation at all?
4. It is natural that every parent should be anxious to teach responsibility to his
children. 5. There is a strong association between ageing and many kinds of
intellectual skills. 6. Philosophic materialism interprets the process of learning as a
reflection of the external world.
XI. Translate the following sentences into English, using the words and word
combinations from the text:
1. Причиной такого поведения может быть внутреннее беспокойство. 2.
Родители оказывали ему постоянную помощь и поддержку. 3. Врачи, учителя и
психологи прилагают массу усилий, чтобы повысить эффективность школьного
обучения. 4. У вас нет абсолютно никаких причин для беспокойства. 5.
Психолога интересует влияние внешнего мира на внутренний мир человека, его
мысли и чувства. 6. У него хорошее знание теории, но нет практических
навыков.

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 LESSON THREE
Power Learning
I. Read the following text and do the activities that follow:
Jill had not been as successful in college life as she would have liked. Since
college involved even more hard work, it was no surprise she didn’t do any better
there.
The reason for her so-so performance was not a lack of effort. She attended
most of the classes and read her textbooks. And she never missed handing in any
assignment, even though it often meant staying up late the night before homework
was due. Still she just got by in her classes. Before long, she came to the conclusion
hat she couldn’t do any better.
Then one day, one of her teachers said something to make her think otherwise.
“You can probably build some sort of house if you bang a few boards together,” he
said. “But if you want a sturdy home, you’ll have to use the right techniques and
tools. Building carefully takes work, but it gets better results. The same can be said of
your education. There are no shortcuts but there are some proven study skills that can
really help. If you don’t use them, you may end up with a pretty flimsy education.”
Prompted by this advice, Jill signed up for a course in study skills at her
school. She then found out a crucial fact – that learning how to learn is the key to
success in school. There are certain dependable skills that have made the difference
between disappointment and success for generations of students. These techniques
won’t free you from work, but they will make your work far more productive. They
include three important areas: time control, classroom note-taking, and textbook
study.
Time control
Success in college depends on time control. Time control means that you
deliberately organize and plan your time, instead of letting it drift by. Planning means
that you should never be faced with a night-before-the-test “cram” session or an
overdue term paper.

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 There are three steps involved in time control. The first step is to prepare a
large monthly calendar. At the beginning of the semester, circle important dates on
this calendar, for example the days on which tests are scheduled or when papers are
due. This calendar can also be used to schedule study plans. You can jot down your
plans for each day at the beginning of the week. An alternative way would be to make
plans for each day the night before: on Tuesday night, for example, you might write
down “Read Chapter 5 in Psychology” in the Wednesday block.
The second step in time control is to have a weekly study schedule for the
semester. To prepare this schedule, make up a chart that covers all the days of the
week. On your schedule, mark all the fixed hours in each day – hours for classes, job
(if any) and time for fun. Next, mark in time blocks that you can realistically use for
study each day. Depending on the number of courses you are taking and the demands
of the courses, you may block off five, ten, or even twenty or more hours of study
time a week. Keep in mind that you should not block off the time for study that you
do not truly intend to use for study. Otherwise, your schedule will be a meaningless
gimmick. Also, remember that you should allow time for rest and relaxation in your
schedule. You will be happiest, and able to accomplish the most, when you have time
for both work and play.
The third step in time control is to make a daily or weekly “to do” list. This
may be the most valuable time-control method you ever use. On this list, you write
down the things you need to do for the following day or week. Always concentrate on
doing first the most important items on your list. Mark high-priority items and give
them precedence over low-priority items in order to make the best use of your time.
As you complete items on your “to do” list, cross them out. Do not worry about
unfinished items. They can be rescheduled. You will still be accomplishing a great
deal and making more effective use of your time.
Classroom Note-Taking

16
 One of the most important single things you can do to perform well in a college
course is to take effective notes. The following hints should help you to become a
better note-taker.
First, attend class faithfully. Your alternatives – reading the text or someone
else’s notes, or both – cannot substitute for the experience of hearing ideas in person
as someone presents them to you. Also, in class lectures and discussions, your
instructor presents and develops the main ideas and facts of the course – the ones you
will be expected to know on exams.
Another valuable hint is to make use of abbreviations while taking notes. Using
abbreviations will save time when you are trying to get down a great deal of
information. Abbreviate terms that recur frequently in a lecture and put a key to your
abbreviations at the top of your notes. In addition, abbreviate words that often recur
in any lecture. For instance, use ex for example, def for definition, info for
information, + for and, and so on. If you use the same abbreviations all the time, you
will soon develop a kind of personal shorthand that makes taking notes much easier.
A third hint when taking notes is to be on the look out for signals of
importance. Write down whatever your teacher puts on the board. If he or she takes
the time to put the material on the board, it is probably important and the chances are
good that it will come up later on exams. Always write down definitions and
enumerations. Enumerations are lists of items, which are signaled in such ways as:
“The four steps in the process are …”; “There are three reasons for …”; “The two
effects are …”; “Five characteristics of …” and so on. They will help you to
understand the relationships among ideas and organize the material of the lecture.
Watch for emphasis words your instructor may use to indicate that something is
important, for example: “This is an important reason …”; “A point that will keep
coming up later …”; “The chief cause is …”; “The basic idea here is …” and so on.
Always write down the important statements announced by these and other emphasis
words. Finally, if your instructor repeats a point, you can assume it is important. You

17
may put an R for repeated in the margin, so that later you will know that your lecturer
has stressed it.
Next, be sure to write down the teacher’s examples and mark them with X. The
examples will help you to understand abstract points. If you do not write them down,
you are most likely to forget them later when they are needed to help to make sense
of an idea.
Also, be sure to write down the connections between ideas. Too many students
merely copy the terms the teacher puts on the board. They forget that as time passes,
the details that serve as connecting bridges between ideas quickly fade. You should,
then, write down the relationships and connections in class. That way you will have
them to help you to tie your notes together later on.
Review your notes as soon as possible after class. You must make them as
clear as you can while they are fresh in your mind. Make sure that punctuation is
clear, that all words are readable and correctly spelled, and that unfinished sentences
are completed. Add clarifying and commenting remarks whenever necessary. Make
sure important ideas are clearly marked. Improve the organization, if necessary, so
that you can see at a glance main points and relationships among them.
Finally, try in general to get down a written record of each class. Studies have
shown that within two weeks you are likely to have forgotten 80 percent or more of
what you have heard. And in four weeks you are lucky if 5 percent remains! The
significance of this is so crucial that it bears repeating: to guard against relentlessness
of forgetting, it is absolutely essential that you should write down what you hear in
class. The more complete your notes are at the time of study, the more you are likely
to learn.
Textbook Study
There is a way to attack even the most difficult textbook and make sense of it.
Use a sequence in which you preview a chapter, mark it, take notes on it and then
study the notes.

18
 Previewing. It is an important first step to understanding. Taking the time to
preview a section or chapter can give you a bird’s - eye view of the way the material
is organized. You will have the sense of where you are beginning, what you will
cover, and where you will end.
There are several steps in previewing a selection. First, study the title. The title
is the shortest possible summery of the selection and will often tell you the limits the
material will cover. Next, read over quickly the first and last paragraphs of the
selection: these may contain important introductions to, and summaries of, the main
ideas. Then examine briefly the headings and subheadings in the selection. Together,
they are a brief outline of what you are reading. Headings are often main ideas or
important concepts in capsule form; subheadings are breakdowns of ideas within
main areas. Finally, look at pictures and diagrams. After you have previewed a
selection in this way, you should have a general sense of the material to be read.
Marking. If it is your own textbook, you should mark a textbook selection at
the same time that you read it through carefully. Shade it or put symbols in the
margin next to the material. You should try to find main ideas by looking for the
following clues: definitions, examples, enumerations and emphasis words.
1. Definitions and examples: Definitions are often among the most
important ideas in the selection. They are particularly significant in introductory
courses, where much of your learning involves mastering the specialized vocabulary
of that subject. In a sense, you are learning the “language” of whatever subject may
be. Most definitions are abstract, so they usually followed by examples to help to
clarify their meanings.
2. Enumerations: Enumerations are lists of items (causes, reasons, types, and
so on) that are numbered 1, 2, 3, … or that could easily be numbered in an outline.
They are often signaled by addition words like first of all, another, in addition, and
finally. Textbooks use this very common and effective organizational method as well.

19
 3. Emphasis words: Emphasis words tell you that an idea is important.
Common emphasis words include phrases such as a major event, a key feature, the
chief factor, important to note, above all, most of all, etc.
Note-Taking. Next, you should take notes. Go through the chapter a second
time, rereading the most important parts. Try to write down the main ideas in a
simple outline form.
Studying Notes. To study your notes, use the method of repeated self-testing.
For example, look at the heading “Kinds of Defense Mechanisms” and say to
yourself, “What are kinds of defense mechanisms?” When you can recite them, then
say to yourself, “What is realization?” “What is an example of rationalization?” Then
ask yourself, “What is projection?” “What is an example of projection?” After you
learn each section, review it and then go on to the next section.
Do not simply read your notes; keep looking away and seeing if you can recite
them to yourself. This self-testing is the key to effective learning.
In summery, remember this sequence in order to deal with a textbook:
previewing, marking, taking notes, studying the notes. Approaching a textbook in this
methodical way will give you very positive results. You will no longer feel bogged
down in a swamp of words, unable to figure out what you are supposed to know.
Instead, you will understand exactly what you have to do and how to go about it.
(From: Sh. Akers. English Skills with Reading. Atlantic Community College,
1991)
II. Answer the reading comprehension questions:
1. Which of the following would be the best alternative title for this selection?
a. The Importance of Note-Taking; b. Good Study Skills: The Key to Success; c.
Easy Ways to Learn More; d. How to Evaluate Your Study Skills.
2. Which sentence best expresses the main idea of the selection? a. Good
study skills can increase academic success; b. Note-taking is the best way to study
difficult subjects; c. More and more schools are offering courses on study skills; d.
Certain study techniques make college work easy for everyone.

20
 3. Which of these is not a good way to organize your time? a. Make a monthly
calendar; b. Keep a weekly study schedule; c. Prepare a “to do” list; d. Always use
extra time for studying.
4. Which is the correct way to study from a textbook? a. Preview, questions,
study, take notes; b. Take notes, preview, mark, study; c. Questions, mark, preview,
study; d. Preview, mark, take notes, self-test.
5. When marking the textbook for main ideas, do not: a. mark it while you are
previewing; b. highlight definitions and examples; c. include lists of items; d. look for
“emphasis” words.
6. True or false? The author implies that it is better to write too much rather
than too little when taking classroom notes.
7. The author implies that one value of class attendance is that you: a. need to
get the next assignment; b. will please the teacher, which can lead to better grades; c.
can begin to improve your short-term memory; d. increase your understanding by
hearing ideas in person.
8. True or false? The author implies that studying does not require any
memorization.
9. The word “abstract” in “The examples help you to understand abstract
points” means: a. simple; b. difficult; c. ordinary; d. correct.
10. The word “capsule” in “Headings are often main ideas or important
concepts in capsule form” means: a. adjustable; b. larger; c. complicated. d.
abbreviated.
III. Answer the following questions based on the text:
1. What are the important techniques that make the learning process far more
productive? 2. What are the three steps in time control? Which do you think will be
most helpful to you? 3. Why has the author chosen to present the essay in the second
person – “you”? 4. What does the author advise on taking class notes? 5. How can
one tell what information is important enough to write down, when taking notes in
class?

21
 IV. Answer the following questions sharing your personal experience:
1. What ways do your teachers signal that certain ideas are important and worth
taking down? 2. Estimate your own study skills. Does anything pull you away from
success sometimes? 3. What reasons do students have to skip classes? 4. Is it
necessary to learn how to study better? 5. Can the techniques given in the text be
helpful? What are your own techniques to get better academic results?
V. Write a paragraph or essay on how you could go about improving your
study skills. You may start with the following sentence: “To become a better
student, I will take the following steps…”
VI. Read the following text, make up 15 questions of different types to the
text and explain the general idea: You may think that study is an individual matter;
that methods, which suit some individual will not suit others; and that different
methods are appropriate to different subjects. All this is true. Study remains an art.
The best methods of learning medieval history will not necessarily be the best
methods of learning chemical engineering. But, whatever subject you are studying,
there are nevertheless certain general principles which you should know about, and
which should enable you to work out your own personal methods and schemes of
study more effectively, and with less trial and error.
Success in study depends not only on ability and hard work but also on
effective methods of study. Some students can do more work in a given time than
others, and do it more easily. This is largely a matter of ability, no doubt, but ability
is by no means the only factor. Important study skills such as note-taking, revising,
making plans and time-tables have to be learned and practised, yet very few students
get any systematic instruction in these matters. Most have to rely on the study
techniques, which they learned at school, or to proceed by personal trial and error.
Even the most gifted students can seldom discover unaided the most effective ways
of studying.
Take a question, which must concern all students: What is the most effective
method of learning from textbooks? Several methods are possible: 1) simple reading

22
and re-reading; 2) underlining the main points and important details in the text; 3)
reading and then making brief outline notes.
Actual research studies of the effectiveness of these methods, as judged by
examination success, have in fact been done on quite a large scale. Method Three
turned out to be the best, but only if the text was read over first in order to get the
general sense, and if the notes were made in the student's own words. Without some
practice and training in note-taking, method Three was actually inferior to method
One.
You must thoroughly understand what you are studying. If you really
understand a subject, not only do you remember it easily, but you can apply your
knowledge in new situations. The important thing is not what you know, but what
you can do with what you know.
The extra effort involved in getting a firm grounding in the essentials of a
subject is repaid many times in later study.
How are you to achieve understanding? Understanding involves: 1. linking
new knowledge to the old; 2. organizing it and remembering it in a systematic
fashion.
(From: H. Maddox. How to Study. Penguin Books, 1971)
VII. Answer the following questions based on the text:
1. Do you think that study is really an individual matter? Do you believe that
you can become efficient in learning through proper organization and method? 2.
Which of the three methods of learning from textbooks suggested by the author do
you usually stick to in your studies? Which do you personally find effective? 3. How
do students achieve understanding?
VIII. Read the following text:
Self-Education
You have no doubt already discovered that the only effective learning is the
learning you do yourself. University work is much more than school work. Mostly it
is a process of self-education…

23
 At university you will have to plan your work for weeks, even months ahead.
You will probably have an examination at the end of the term. You will have essays
or laboratory work, or tests, or translations, or papers to prepare for seminars, but the
major test by which your academic progress is assessed may seem to you quite time
ahead. Hence the need for developing good habits and methods of study appears.
Now it is the time, then, to consider the most effective ways of studying, and
whether the habits and methods of study you have so far acquired at school are likely
to measure up to the heavy demands which university work in going to make upon
you.
Many students mistakenly think that study is simply the memorizing of subject
– matter and its reproduction in the examination papers. Of course there are in every
subject elements to be memorized, but study involves a great deal more than that. It
involves the mastery and practice of the methods of thinking, of experiment and
appreciation, the understanding of theories, the solution of problems, analysis and
criticism of lectures, books and articles, the making of summaries and extracts, the
writing of essays, papers, reports and theses. In short you have to digest knowledge
form a wide variety of sources and make it part of you – living and even growing part
of you. Self-education is your own responsibility.
(From: A. Laing. Art of Study: Some Hints for Undergraduate Freshmen. Univ.
of Leeds, 1964)
IX. Answer the following questions based on the text:
1. Who, in your opinion, is the text addressed to? 2. What do good habits and
methods of study mean? Can you say that you have already developed studying
habits and methods? 3. Why is it important to plan academic work? Do you generally
plan your work in advance? 4. Do you sort out priorities in your studies? 5. Do you
agree that the only effective learning is the learning you do yourself? 6. In what way
does university work differ from school work?

24
 LESSON FOUR
Language
I. Read the following text and single out its main points :
Each of us uses an infinite number of different speech sounds when we speak
English. Indeed, it is true to say that it is difficult to produce two sounds which are
precisely identical from the point of view of instrumental measurement; two
utterances by the same person of the word cat may well show quite marked
differences when measured instrumentally. Yet we are likely to say that the same
sound sequence has been repeated. In fact, we may hear clear and considerable
differences of quality in the vowel of cat as, for instance, in the London and
Manchester pronunciations of the word: yet, though we recognize differences of the
vowel quality, we are likely to feel that we are dealing with a “variant” of the “same”
vowel. It seems, then, that we are concerned with two kinds of reality: the concrete,
measurable reality of the sounds uttered, and another kind of reality, an abstraction
made in our minds, which appears to reduce this infinite number of different sounds
to a “manageable” number of categories. In the first, concrete approach, we are
dealing with sounds in relation to speech; at the second level (abstract level) our
concern is the behaviour of sounds in a particular l a n g u a g e. A language is a
system of conventional signals used for communication by a whole community. This
pattern of conventions covers a system of significant sound units (the phonemes), the
inflexion and arrangement of “words”, and the association of meaning with words.
An utterance, an act of speech, is a single concrete manifestation of the system at
work.
(From: A.C. Gimson. Language. Английский язык для поступающих в
вузы. Москва, 1993)
II. Translate the following sentences into English in writing:
Язык – это специально отработанная, исторически изменчивая знаковая
система, служащая основным средством общения и представленная разными
формами существования. Формы существования языка имеют, по крайней

25
мере, одну из двух форм реализации – устную или письменную. Речь – это
изъяснение средствами языкового кода, воплощенное в некотором тексте.
Текст, в котором воплощена речь, может быть в устной (в виде дискурса) или
письменной форме. В более узком смысле речь – это последовательность
звуковых сигналов, подлежащих восприятию и декодированию, из чего
складывается понимание сказанного.
III. Read the following text and single out its main points:
One of the chief characteristics of the human being is ability to communicate to
his fellows complicated messages concerning every aspect of his activity. A man
possessing the normal human faculties achieves this exchange of information mainly
by means of two types of sensory stimulation, auditory and visual. The child will
learn from a very early age to respond to the sounds and tunes, which his elders
habitually use in talking to him; and, in due course, from a need to communicate, he
will himself begin to imitate the recurrent sound patterns with which he has become
familiar. In other words, he begins to make use of speech; his constant exposure to
the spoken form of his own language, together with his need to convey increasingly
subtle types of information, leads to a rapid acquisition of the framework of his
spoken language. Nevertheless, with all the conditions with his favour, a number of
years will pass before he has mastered not only the sound system used in his
community but also has at his disposal a vocabulary of any extent or is entirely
familiar with the syntactical arrangements in force in his language system. It is no
wonder, therefore, that the learning of another language later in life, acquired
artificially and without the stimulus arising from an immediate need for
communication, will tend to be tedious and rarely more than partially successful. In
addition, the more firmly consolidated the basis of a first language becomes or, in
other words, the later in life that a second language is begun, the more the learner will
be subject to resistances and prejudices deriving from the framework of his original
language. It may be said that, as we grow older, the acquisition of a new language

26
will normally require a great deal of conscious, analytical effort, instead of the child’s
ready and facile imitation.
(From: A.C. Gimson. Speech. Английский язык для поступающих в вузы.
Москва, 1993)
VI. Read the following text:
English as a World Language
Today, when English is one of the major languages in the world, it requires an
effort of the imagination to realize that this is a relatively recent thing - that in
Shakespeare's time, for example, only a few million people spoke English, and the
language was not thought to be very important by the other nations of Europe, and
was unknown to the rest of the world.
English has become a world language because of its establishment as a mother
tongue outside England, in all the continents of the world. This exporting of English
began in the seventeenth century, with the first settlements in North America. Above
all, it is the great growth of population in the United States, assisted by massive
immigration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, that has given the English
language its present standing in the world.
People who speak English fall into one of three groups: those who have learned
it as their native language; those who have learned it as a second language in a
society that is mainly bilingual; and those who are forced to use it for a practical
purpose - administrative, professional or educational. One person in seven of the
world's entire population belongs to one of these three groups. Incredibly enough, 75
percent of the world's mail and 60 percent of the world's telephone calls are in
English.
The following are basic characteristics of Modern English:
SIMPLICITY OF FORM. Old English, like modern German, French, Russian
and Greek, had many inflections to show singular and plural, tense, person, etc., but
over the centuries, words have been simplified. Verbs now have very few inflections,
and adjectives do not change according to the noun.

27
 FLEXIBILITY. As a result of the loss of inflections, English has become, over
the past five centuries, a very flexible language. Without inflections, the same word
can operate as many different parts of speech. Many nouns and verbs have the same
form, for example swim, drink, walk, lass, look, and smile. We can talk about water
to drink and to water the flowers; time to go and to time a race; a paper to read and to
paper a bedroom. Adjectives can be used as verbs. We warm our hands in front of a
fire; if clothes are dirtied, they need to be cleaned and dried. Prepositions too are
flexible. A sixty-year old man is nearing retirement; we can talk about a round of
golf, cards, or drinks.
OPENNESS OF VOCABULARY. This involves the free admissions of words
from other languages and the easy creation of compounds and derivatives. Most
world languages have contributed some words to English at some time, and the
process is now being reversed. Purists of the French, Russian and Japanese languages
are resisting the arrival of English in their vocabulary.
THE FUTURE OF ENGLISH. Geographically, English is the most widespread
language on Earth, second only Mandarin Chinese in the number of people who
speak it. It is the language of business, technology, sport and aviation. This will no
doubt continue, although the proposition that all other languages will die out is
absurd.
(From: John and Liz Soars. Headway. Upper-intermediate. Oxford University
Press, 1987)
VII. Answer the following questions based on the text:
1. Where does the text come from: a brochure for an English language school?
a preface to a book on modern language teaching? a dictionary? an encyclopedia? 2.
Why is English a world language? 3. Which of the three groups of English speakers
do you belong to? 4. What is your reason for learning English?
VIII. Here are the answers to some questions. Work out the questions.

28
 1. A few million. 2. Because it is the mother tongue of many countries outside
England. 3. In the 17th century. 4. 75%. 5. 60%. 6. Yes, it did have a lot of inflections.
7. Simplicity of form, flexibility and openness of vocabulary. 8. Mandarin Chinese.
IX. Read the following information and try to remember the facts
mentioned: 1. Mandarin Chinese is spoken by 700 million people (70 percent of the
population of China). 2. The oldest written language is Egyptian, which is 5000 years
old. 3. There are no irregular words in Esperanto, an artificial language, invented in
1887. 4. Cambodian has 72 letters. 5. The largest encyclopedia is printed in Spanish.
6. More than 5,000 languages and dialects are spoken in the world today. About 845
come from India. 7. After English and Chinese, the next commonly spoken language
is Spanish. 8. Sixty-five different alphabets are used in the world today. 9. The
language with the most vowels is Sedang, a Vietnamese language, with 55 vowel
sounds. 10. The language with the least vowels is Abkhazian. It has only 2 vowel
sounds. 11. Chippewa, the North American Indian language of Minnesota, has 6,000
verb forms. 12. No language is known without the vowel a. 13. English is most
widespread, with 400 million speakers. 14. There were only 30,000 words in Old
English. Modern English has the largest vocabulary, with approximately 600,000
words and 300,000 technical terms. There are about 60,000 words in common use.
15. About 450-500 words are added to the English vocabulary every year. 16.
Seventy per cent of the English vocabulary are borrowed words and only thirty per
cent of the words are native. 17. The most frequently used words in written English
are: the, of, and, to, in, that, is, I, it, for and as. 18. The most frequently used word in
conversation is I. 19. The longest word in the English language is
pneumonoultamicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (a lung disease), with 44 letters. 20.
The longest words in common use are: disproportionableness and
incomprehensibilities (21 letters). 21. The commonest letter is e. More words begin
with the letter s than any other. 22. The most overworked word in English is the word
set. It has 126 verbal uses and 58 noun uses. 23. The newest letters added to the
English alphabet are j and v, which are of post-Shakespearean use. 24. The largest

29
English-language dictionary is the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, with
21,728 pages. 25. The commonest English name is Smith. There are about 800,000
people called Smith in England and Wales, and about 1,700,000 in the USA. 26. In
English there are words from 120 languages. 27. Many Japanese, French and
Germans mix English words with their mother tongues and the resulting hybrids are
called Japlish, Franglais and Denglish. In Japanese, for example, there is a verb
Makudonaru, to eat at McDonald’s.

LESSON FIVE
Learning a Foreign Language
I. Read the following extract from the famous work “Language Teaching: a
Scientific Approach” by Professor of Applied Linguistics Robert Lado:
Learning a second language is more than learning a description of it. The
process of speaking and listening is involved, and this process combines linguistic
and psychological as well as other elements. To formulate a theory of second-
language learning we must know what is involved in the process of speaking and
listening, so that we may account for learning that process.
The process of speaking and listening
When a person speaks, we assume that the following takes place. Through
some motivation the person decides to speak, and some content is brought under
attention. Through association of this content with expression in the language,
sentences are constructed with words, intonation, phonemes, etc.
This happens at the conversational speed of some 500 sounds per minute. To
achieve this requires great facility in using the language and an adequate memory
span to complete sentences within the structure of the language.
In listening, the process is partly reversed, starting with expression as heard in
context, followed by recall of content through associations between expression and
content. Great facility is required also for listening at conversational speed, as is an
adequate memory span with attention on the content of what is heard.

30
 Reading and writing are parallel processes to listening and speaking, with the
writing system associated with units of expression and the matter of fluency
measured in different terms.
Each one of these factors — memory, facility, fluency, units and patterns, etc.
— can be described and sometimes measured separately, but when a person is
speaking or listening, they are all involved simultaneously. For example, through
some personal motivation you decide to send greetings to a friend whose brother is
taking leave of you. You say the sentence “Give John my regards”. You use a request
sentence pattern, the words give, John, my regards, a falling intonation at the end,
some sixteen consonant and vowel phonemes, three word junctures separating the
four words, etc., and you do all this in less than two seconds! Expression begins
while the content is still under attention; memory span holds the length of the
sentence with ease.
Your listener probably began grasping the content of the sentence before you
finished expressing it, and the context thus provided made it easier for him to
perceive the rest.
To account for this process we must assume a memory store within the nervous
system of the speaker-listener where each unit and pattern of expression and content
is retained for instant use. These units and patterns are not observable directly in the
store but are assumed from the speaker's ability to produce them and to react to them
in normal use of the language.
We assume further that these units and patterns parallel the units and patterns
that the linguist describes in speech. Thus each phoneme, word, and sentence pattern,
and each permitted sequence of sounds has a counterpart in the memory store.
The units and patterns are available to the speaker under a speaking-listening
attitude or attention posture that we shall call speech set. The phonemes are available
as part of words and morphemes, not in isolation, except when there has been special
phonetic training. For example, the [g] [i] [v] phonemes of give are expressed
automatically in a habit bundle as the word is elicited. Phonemic variants are

31
available automatically in their usual phonetic environments and not in others. For
example, the [g] of give is exploded as an initial stop; the [i] is automatically rather
long before the voiced continuant [v], etc.
The expression is available in association with content, and the content in
association with expression; one elicits the other. Typical sequences are recalled
when part of the sequence is experienced. If I say "To be or not ..." to a group of
English-speaking students, they will probably finish the famous quotation from
Shakespeare for me.
Attention and facility
Under a normal speech set the speaker has his attention chiefly on the content,
and he manipulates the mechanics of expression largely through bundles of habits
below the threshold of awareness. Attention, however, can be shifted to a particular
word, sound, or other element of expression. The shifting of attention is controlled
partly at will and partly by habits, attitudes, and such external factors as intensity of
the sound, size of the letters, duration, repetition, relative movement, change, and
contrast. Attention cannot be directed to all the elements in the process of speech
since there is a definite limit to the number of items that can be held under attention
at any one time.
The facility necessary to use a language ranges from habit for the phonemes
and variants to less automatic selection of inflections, words, phrases, and sentence
types to the least automatic selection or minimal facility when new arrangements of
words are expressed.
Recall and memory span
To bring into use something after it has slipped out of attention or use is recall.
To hold something under prolonged attention or to reproduce it immediately involves
memory span.
The speaker of a language recalls the words and sentence patterns he needs as
he speaks. This represents complete recall. He must keep under attention or under
immediate recall a length of sentence in order to be able to complete it properly.

32
 Psychologists have studied memory span with series of digits to be repeated in
sets of increasing length. This ability to repeat series of numbers is weaker in a
language that is not well known.
Motivation and will
The need and urge to communicate through language to fulfill the complex
needs of a human being are a constant stimulus to use language. Urges, desires,
wants, needs, ideals, and values result in conflicting motivations from which the will
selects some to act upon and combats others through inhibition, of practice.
Fluency and monitor function
"Language in use" means speaking at normal conversational speed under a
speech set. At normal speed the speakers have the capacity to notice errors in
expression even though correct use proceeds below the level of awareness. The errors
...noticed are distortions of the speech of the speaker rather than variations from a
standard that may not be the speaker's own speech. This capacity is labelled monitor
function.
Definition of knowing a language in use
We can now define completely for our purposes what it is to know how to use
a language. A person, knows how to use a language when he can use its structure
accurately for communication at will, with attention focused on the content, recalling
automatically the units and patterns as needed, and holding them for a normal
memory span at conversational speed, noticing any errors that occur.
Psycho linguistics
The combined approaches of psychology and linguistics have been discussed at
interdisciplinary seminars in an attempt to understand language better. Although the
problems that are concerned in psycholinguistics include many that are not of direct
concern to the language teacher, this combined approach is well suited to the study of
language in use and language learning. The theory developed in this chapter is based
on a psycholinguistic frame of reference.
(From: R. Lado. Language Teaching: a Scientific Approach, 1964)

33
 II. Answer the following questions based on the text:
1. What is the main subject of the above extract? 2. Give a general definition of
the text. What are its main characteristics? 3. What features make it a sample of
scientific prose?
III. Paraphrase the following sentences from the text:
1. Great facility is required also for listening at conversational speed, as is an
adequate memory span with attention on the content of what is heard. 2. The units
and patterns are available to the speaker under a speaking-listening attitude or
attention posture that we shall call speech set. 3. The expression is available in
association with content, and the content in association with expression; one elicits
the other. 4. He must keep under attention or under immediate recall a length of
sentence in order to be able to complete it properly. 5. A person knows how to use a
language when he can use its structure accurately for communication at will, with
attention focused on the content, recalling automatically the units and patterns as
needed, and holding them for a normal memory span at conversational speed,
noticing any errors that occur.
IV. Give Russian equivalents of the following: an adequate memory span, a
unit of expression, the urge to communicate through language, the matter of fluency,
monitor function, speech set, to retain something for instant use, to be involved
V. Explain the use of articles in the following sentences:
1. Learning a second language is more than learning a description of it. 2.
Through association of this content with expression in the language, sentences are
constructed with words, intonation, phonemes, etc. 3. To achieve this requires great
facility in using the language. 4. The speaker of a language recalls the words and
sentence patterns he needs as he speaks. 5. The need and urge to communicate
through language to fulfill the complex needs of a human being are a constant
stimulus to use language. 6. ...this combined approach is well suited to the study of
language and language learning.
VI. Fill in the blanks with prepositions or adverbs if necessary.

34
 Learning Theories. There are — least eight psychological theories — learning
which differ — terminology, content, and sometimes — the definition — learning.
These theories, based — experiments, performed chiefly — animals, tend to account
— some part — the learning process — the entire animal kingdom.
When E.L. Thorndike explained learning as trial-and-error activity —
successful attempts reinforced — satisfying consequences, and when he attempted to
relate this — brain and nerve activity, he succeeded — finding a focus that might
apply — all animal life but does not account — much — what is characteristic —
learning.
When E. Kohler and K. Koffka explained — the Gestalt theory that we grasp
total configurations rather than separate parts, they again dealt — only part — the
learning process.
Language learning cannot be understood — trial — and —error, association,
Gestalt, or overt behavior alone. It requires a more comprehensive explanation
because it involves simultaneously the widest range — human activity.
(From: R. Lado. Language Teaching: a Scientific Approach, 1964)
VII. Read the following text:
Introduction to Learning a Foreign Language
When you are teaching somebody to swim or drive a car, teaching does not
start to be effective until the learner is in the water or the driving seat. It is a waste of
time to give him lectures about swimming strokes or how the carburetor works. He
needs a model to imitate and plenty of practice of the right kind. In fact, we learn to
do things by doing them, and this applies no less to language learning than to
swimming or driving.
It is useful to think of mastering a language in terms of four related skills: two
passive and two active. These are the skill of listening with understanding, to tell
language, that of reading it with understanding, and the active skills of self-
expression through the spoken and written word. Because of this, it is necessary to
have ample practice in listening to the language, in reading the language, and in

35
practicing. Learning a foreign language consists of forming the sounds of the
language, of framing the structures correctly, of choosing the right word in the right
place in a pattern, of using the right intonation with each structure and so on. These
are skills in just the same way as a swimmer’s, who practices the skills of using
correct arm movements, correct leg movements and correct breathing; and these must
be put together, so that the skills are co-ordinated into the right swimming habits. The
swimmer needs to practice these habits until he does them without thinking. We
know if we have learned the wrong habits, if we are allowed to use wrong arm
movements in swimming, for example, it is later very difficult to correct them.
Unless we start with the correct skills, and practice them, we are never likely to
become a good swimmer.
Learning a language is not a matter of acquiring a set of rules and building up a
large vocabulary. The student’s mastery of a language is ultimately measured by how
well he can use it, not by how much he knows about it. A student who has learnt a lot
of grammar but who cannot use a language is in position of a pianist who has learnt a
lot about harmony but cannot play the piano. The student’s command of a language
will therefore be judged not by how much he knows, but how well he can perform in
public.
(From: Тер-Минасова С.Г. Английский язык для поступающих в вузы. -
Москва, 1993)
VIII. Answer the following questions: 1. On what ground is language learning
compared with learning to swim or to drive? 2. How do we learn to do things? 3.
What are the four skills of mastering a language? 4. What does learning a foreign
language consist of? 5. Why is it dangerous to learn wrong habits? 6. What is the
student’s command of a language measured by?
IX. Make up your own sentences using the following words and word-
combinations from the text: to be effective, plenty of practice of the right kind, self-
expression, the right word in the right place, in the same way as, to be a matter of, in
terms of, to give lectures, a waste of time, to master a language, four related skills,

36
ample practice, the command of a language, in public, to build up a large vocabulary,
without thinking.
X. Support or challenge the following statements: 1. We learn to do things by
doing them. 2. If we have learned wrong habits it is later difficult to correct them. 3.
The student’s mastery of a language is measured by how well he can use it, not by
how much he knows about it. 4. The ability to speak a foreign language confers a
high status on an individual in our society.
XI. Speak about your personal experience in learning a foreign language.
How ambitious are you to succeed in learning English?

LESSON SIX
What Makes a Good Language Learner?
I. Read the following text to figure out the author’s approach to foreign-
language learning:
Every day I see advertisements in the newspapers and on the buses claiming
that it is easy to learn English. According to these advertisements, with very little
effort on the student’s part, he will be able to speak the language fluently in three
months or even ten days. There is often a reference to Shakespeare or Charles
Dickens to encourage him even more. When I see advertisements like this I don’t
know whether to laugh or cry. If it were as easy to learn English as they say, I would
have to look for another job, because very few qualified teachers would be needed.
But a large number of people must believe these ridiculous claims, or else the
advertisements would not appear.
It is natural for students to be attracted to methods that will teach them as
quickly and efficiently as possible. But it is difficult for anyone to explain in simple
language why one method is better than another, and it is no use pretending that
anyone has discovered a perfect way of teaching English in every possible situation.
Some experts even say that there are as many good methods of teaching a language as
there are good teachers, because every teacher is an individual with his own

37
personality. No doubt this is true to a certain extent, but it is not very helpful to
students.
For a long time people believed that the only way to learn a language was to
spend a great deal of time in a country where it was spoken. Of course it is clear that
students who go to England to learn English have a great advantage over others, but a
large umber of students go to the opposite extreme and think they can teach
themselves at home with dictionaries. But it is wrong to assume that each work in
English has a precise equivalent in another language and vice versa, and it is
impossible for any translation method to provide students with the neutral forms of a
language in speech, let alone produce good pronunciation and intonation.
A great deal of teaching is still based on behaviourist psychology.
Behaviourists are fond of making students repeat phrases and making them do
exercises where they continually have to change one word in a sentence. If we were
parrots or chimpanzees, these methods might be successful. A large number of
theorists seem to think it is a pity we aren’t because it would make it easier to use
their methods.
In my personal opinion, no one can learn to speak English or any other
language unless he is interested in it. Human beings, unlike parrots and chimpanzees,
do not like making noises unless they understand what the noises mean and can relate
them to their own lives. It is worth remembering that language is a means of
communication. What people want to say and write in another language is probably
very similar to what they want to say and write in their own. What they listen to and
read cannot be a formula. It must be real.
There is another point worth mentioning here. We need other people to talk to
and listen to when we communicate. If what we are learning is strange to us, it will be
helpful if there are other students around us who can work with us and practice the
unfamiliar forms with us in real situation, talking to each other about real life in real
language.
(From: W. Fowler Incentive Themes. Surrey, 1980.)

38
 II. Answer the following questions based on the text:
1. Do you think the problem described in the text is really topical? 2. Why are
many people attracted to methods that promise to teach them as quickly and
efficiently as possible? 3. What is the most important factor in learning a language, in
the author’s opinion? 4. What theses of behaviorist psychology are used in acquiring
language skills?
III. Support or challenge the following statements:
1. The average rate of success of learning a foreign language achieved by
learners today is much higher than that of their parents. 2. People can learn a foreign
language perfectly in half a year. 3. It is possible to learn a language on one’s own. 4.
All people are born with a gift for languages. 5. Learning word for word makes a
student dull. 6. People who like to study do not always fit into modern scheme of life.
7. Women are generally better language learners than men.
IV. Fill in the following questionnaires and make conclusions about
yourself.
What Kind of Language Learner are You?
1. Tick the three activities you think are most similar to language learning, and
say why. Do you think learning a language is like: learning to ride a bike; learning to
play the piano; learning to play chess; learning to walk; learning words in a play;
learning mathematical formulae; learning to swim; learning dates for a history exam;
learning to play cards.
2. Try to number the sentences in order: 1=the most useful way for me; 12=the
least useful way for me.
Which do you think are the best ways to learn English: learning lists of
vocabulary by heart; writing down the translation of every new word or phrase;
learning grammar rules, with example sentences; reading as much as possible in
class; speaking as much as possible in class; writing everything down in a notebook
and learning it; forgetting about grammar and listening to people talking instead
doing lots of grammar exercises – written? – oral?; getting the teacher to correct you

39
every time you say a sentence; trying to think in English and not translate into your
own language; writing essays and getting them correct by the teacher.
3. What aspects of language do you feel you need most help or practice with?
Number them in order: 1=need to practice most 7=need to practice least:
grammar, vocabulary, reading, listening, speaking, writing, pronunciation.
4. How do you think the following people can help you best: your teacher;
the other people in the group; yourself; your family; people in the street, in shops, etc.
Learning a Language: Experience and Expectations
Think about your previous experience of learning a language. Tick the
sentences that are true for you:
Learning a foreign language: involves hard work; is interesting; is difficult; is
frustrating; is painful; is confusing; is boring; is a lot of fun; is easy; comes naturally;
requires a lot of memorization.
When I am speaking a foreign language I feel: shy; frustrated; stupid;
confident; challenged; happy; embarrassed; tongue-tied; as if I am a different person.
Learning a foreign language in class should involve: reading a passage and
answering questions; translating a passage; reading literature in the original; writing
grammar exercises; doing a project; learning about British and American culture;
learning grammar rules by heart; writing dictation; listening to the teacher; acting a
play or a dialogue; memorizing passages; reading aloud; learning lists of vocabulary;
frequent tests; following a textbook; making a newspaper; letter writing; practicing
speaking in pairs or groups; listening to a tape and answering questions; games;
repeating in chorus; practicing pronunciation; class discussions and debates; songs;
writing stories and essays.
Your Aptitude for Learning a Foreign Language
Test your aptitude for language learning by doing this quiz, adapted from The
Sunday Times Magazine. Write your answers, then add up your scores to find out
how good a language learner you are.
1. Learn the following Samoan words (Samoa is in the South Pacific):

40
 toalua – husband, tamaloa – man, tamaitiiti – child, taulealea – youth, laomatua
– old woman.
2. Exhausted after swimming the river, Fred decided to get some sleep, but the
boolles made it impossible, and even the smoke from his camp fire didn’t keep them
away
What is a boolle?
a) a wild animal; b) a giant mosquito; c) a kind of noise; d) don’t know.
3. Someone asks you the way in very bad English. When he/she doesn’t
understand your reply, do you
a) say it again but louder; b) get irritated and give up; c) draw him/her a map;
d) find out if he/she speaks another language you know?
4. Here is a new language:
ek kum chuchu – the train is coming; ek namas chuchu – the train is very big;
nek kum niva chuchu – the train isn’t coming;
How would you say “It’s not a train”?
a) nek chuchu niva; b) ek niva chuchu; c) nek niva chuchu; d) don’t know.
5. How many foreign languages can you greet someone in?
6. Your boss tells you that you have been chosen to go on a six-month course
to learn a completely new language. Do you
a) look for another job; b) say they’ve chosen the wrong person; c) worry a bit
but reckon you’ll cope; d) long to get started?
7. You go to an evening class to learn a language. The class lasts two hours a
week. List the sorts of practice you might do on your own at home.
8. How good are you at expressing yourself in your own language, both in
speaking and in writing?
9. When did you last read a book for pleasure (in any language)?
a) yesterday; b) I can’t remember; c) last week; d) last month.
10. Have you got

41
 a) a bilingual dictionary (English into your language); b) a monolingual
dictionary (English-English); c) both a bilingual and a monolingual dictionary; d) no
dictionary at all.
11. Read through this list of words, then write down as many of them as you
can without looking.
Pin, church, identify, luxury, accelerate, carefully, miscalculate, occasional,
anxious, knot, daffodil, impertinent.
12. In one minute write a list of things you could do with a cabbage (apart
from cooking or eating it).
13. In one minute write down as many reasons as you can why it might be
useful to learn Eskimo.
14. Fill in the blank with one of the words below.
Shakucomespiteare isos wonone ovofef tehe wororolid’s grematerest’s
wririterners. Hehe wasis …onin Staratarafoorrd-inon-Aravont.
a) borotone; b) born; c) shororit; d) don’t know.
15. What is your attitude to learning about British culture (arts, institutions,
way of life)?
a) I’m not interested in the slightest, I just need to learn the language; b) I’m
interested a little bit, but only out of curiosity; c) I’m very interested to find out about
the people behind the language.
16. What do the following words in Samoan mean?
loomatua, tamaitiiti umaloa taulealea, toalua
17. Are you male of female?
Answers
1. a: score 10 points; b: 4; c: 8; d: 0. Good language learners find words fairly
easy, and aren’t put off by the way they look.
2. a: 5; b: 10; c: 0; d: 0. Good language learners are able to make imaginative
guesses about the meaning of words.

42
 3. a: 0; b: 0; c: 10; d: 8. Good language learners make the most of their skills,
and manage to communicate in all sorts of unlikely situations.
4. a: 5; b: 2; c: 10; d: 0. Good language learners are quick at seeing patterns in
a foreign language, (Negative sentences in this language begin with ‘nek’. The last
word is always ‘chuchu’.)
5. Two points for each language (maximum 10 points). This question shows
how interested you are in languages and communication.
6. a: 0; b: 3; c: 7; d: 10. Being scared stiff is obviously a bad sign.
7. Good language learners practice a lot on their own. Give yourself two
points for each different activity you listed (e.g. listening to cassettes while driving,
watching foreign language films on TV). Maximum 10 points.
8. a: 4; b: 0; c: 10; d: 2. Good language learners think a lot about how they use
language.
9. a: 10; b: 0; c: 5; d: 2. Good language learners seem to read a lot. (It’s a good
way of increasing your vocabulary).
10. a: 5; b: 8; c: 10; d: 0. Good language learners have reference books and
consult them regularly.
11. Less than 5, score 0. 6-8, score 5. More than 8, score 10. This test measures
your short-term memory. Most people can remember 5 or 6 words out of the list.
12. A point for each idea (maximum 10). People who are very rigid in the way
they see things tend not to be very good at learning languages. This is probably
because they don’t like being in situations they can’t control.
13. Two points for each idea (maximum 10). An important factor in learning a
language is motivation.
14. a: 10; b: 2; c: 7; d: 0. This question assesses how willing you are to take
risks in a language you don’t know well.
15. a: 0; b: 5; c: 10. It is impossible to separate a language from its culture.
Good language learners are open to other cultures and individuals, and this creates
more opportunities for progress.

43
 16. Two points for each word you got right. This question tests your memory
again.
17. Females score ten. On the whole, women are better at languages.
Interpret your score
0-30 you think you are useless at languages, and can’t see the point in trying.
Don’t give up! Keep at it!
30-70 Learning a language is hard work for you but you get there in the end.
You probably had a bad experience at school. Just remember that most people in the
world speak at least two languages, and lots speak four or five, so it can’t be all that
difficult, can it?
70-100 You’re an average sort of learner, not brilliant, but you manage. You/re
always willing to have a go. Surprisingly, it usually works, too! Add some systematic
study to this, and a bit of practice, and you’ll be able to cope in most situations.
100-140 You can probably get by in one or two languages already and learning
a new language holds no terror for you. Don’t give up when you feel you/re not
making progress. A bit more confidence, and some concentrated practice, and you
could easily start feeling really at home in your foreign language.
140-170 You are an outstanding language learner. You enjoy using words, and
language is a constant source of delight for you. You don’t learn a language to go on
holiday – you enjoy going abroad because it gives you an excuse to learn another
language.
(From: P. Meara. Quizes. Birkbeck College, London)
V. Render the article taken from a teenagers’ magazine into English:
К концу второго тысячелетия на Земле сформировалось так много
разнообразных языков и наречий, что никто не может точно определить их
количество. Однако по примерным подсчетам Организации Объединенных
Наций люди нашей планеты умеют выражать свои мысли и чувства более чем
на 6700 языках.

44
 Конечно, лучше всего овладеть премудростями чужого языка в той
стране, где на нем говорит местное население. Такой способ иногда называют
«погружением». Не в том смысле, что окружающие вас иностранцы начинают
вас грузить своими непонятными словами, а в том смысле, что вы, подобно
смелому аквалангисту, отважно погружаетесь в пучину чуждого вам языка и
пытаетесь в этой своенравной стихии как-то существовать. Этот способ,
наверное, самый трудный (особенно для застенчивых личностей), но зато и
самый действенный. Представьте, что на вас со всех сторон постоянно
обрушиваются потоки иностранного языка: на улице и в магазине, по
телевизору и вообще везде. И вам ничего не остается, как только попытаться
осознать, что же происходит вокруг, и попробовать общаться с людьми на их
родном языке. А это – самое лучшее обучение. Чем дольше вы находитесь в
иной языковой среде, тем лучше вы в ней освоитесь. Идеальный вариант –
пожить за границей несколько лет (кто из нас об этом не мечтает?). А вот
соблазняться вариантами типа «изучите английский в Англии за две недели» не
стоит, если только вы не хотите съездить в турпоездку и при этом заплатить
втридорога.
Если жизнь за границей вам не светит, а улучшить свое знание языка
путем общения с живыми иностранцами очень хочется, то для этого есть
несколько путей. Если вы живете в Москве, Питере или Киеве, то вам,
наверное, и подсказывать ничего не надо: иностранцы и так ходят по вашим
улицам табунами, а чтобы пересчитать общества дружбы с народами
различных стран, не хватит пальцев на обеих руках. Если ваш город размером
поменьше, то любителей иностранных языков и их иноязычных друзей можно
поискать в местном университете, институте или крупной библиотеке. Даже
если ваш город не обозначен на карте нашей страны, вы можете попробовать
найти себе друга (подругу) по переписке. Можно начать поиск с соседней
школы, если с вашей еще не побратались какие-нибудь американские
бойскауты. Неплохой вариант – зайти в библиотеку и полистать молодежные

45
журналы. Там можно обнаружить рубрику для друзей по переписке со всего
света. Как говорится, кто ищет, тот всегда найдет.
VI. Discuss the following questions:
1. What are the differences between the ways a baby learns its first language
and the ways an adult learns a second language? What advantages does the baby
have? What advantages does the adult have? 2. What do you know about Esperanto?
Would you rather be learning Esperanto than English? 3. What are your personal
language learning strategies? 4. What does a good language learner do?

LESSON SEVEN
What Makes a Good Foreign Language Teacher?
I. Read the following text for obtaining the main idea:
Modern methods of language teaching, with their emphasis on the teacher as
model and the constant interchange between teacher and student, require a more
sympathetic relationship between student and teacher than did earlier, more
impersonal methods. …
It seemed to me appropriate to question students themselves regarding that
topic of such vital concern to all of us: What makes a good teacher of English as a
foreign language? In tallying up the students’ responses, one silent and somewhat
heartening factor became apparent. The students, speaking from sheer experience on
the receiving end of the classroom situation, tended to put fourth advice strikingly
similar to that which most methodology and educational psychology textbooks and
courses offer… The students have had a variety of teachers. They were not required
to sign the questionnaire and they respond at length with a complete lack of
diffidence. Despite the diversity of the students themselves, the responses were
revealingly uniform.
First on the list - mentioned by an overwhelming 78 per cent of the students –
was the teacher’s thorough knowledge of the subject. As one student wrote: “It
doesn’t matter how nice a teacher is if he doesn’t know what he is talking about.”

46
 Logically, the next most important concern was how the teacher goes about
imparting that knowledge – in other words, methods of teaching. What the students
requested most was variety within the lesson hour.
“If we just do drills forever, I fall asleep. Why do we have to do idioms for a
whole hour?”
“It’s nice when you have a little grammar, and then a dictation, and then some
reading or a discussion.”
The students also frequently mentioned the need for activity in the classroom.
Many of them referred to language games as being useful and enjoyable. They also
seemed to feel that they should be constant participants:
“The teacher shouldn’t do all the talking.”
“I like it when the students go up to the board.”
“Discussions and debates are my favourite way of learning.”
Students complained vehemently about teachers who use up precious class
time telling personal anecdotes. On the other hand, the importance of the teacher’s
sense of humour and his/her ability to take the tension out of language learning was
mentioned repeatedly:
“If he can laugh once in a while, you don’t get so nervous about making
mistakes.”
“When the teacher is smiling at you, you want to try.”
Also stressed was the teacher’s preparation of the lesson and a conscientious
attitude toward student papers:
“You can tell if he runs out of things to do before the bell rings.”
“Why should I turn in my homework? He doesn’t grade it for a week anyway.”
Discipline, although mentioned specifically by only a few, was hinted at by
many:
“There are some teachers who just talk all the time. Then you never learn
anything.”

47
 “He says your homework is due on a certain day and then he lets people turn it
in later. Or he forgets.”
“I don’t think she cares if we are absent or not. I wish she did.”
Getting away from actual teaching methods, over half of the students had
something to say about the student – teacher relationship. Most often, they expressed
a desire for a sympathetic teacher, who “remembers what it was like to be a student.”
“He should,” as one student with an obvious command of the colloquial idiom put it,
“be on our wavelength.” They felt that the teacher should “know each student as an
individual,” and there was a frequent demand for justice:
“She only talks to the best students. Doesn’t she know I’m trying?”
A significant number of students expressed a fear of being embarrassed by a
teacher’s caustic wit:
“They have to be polite with us. We are people, too.”
“She only became a teacher so she could be powerful and hear her own voice.”
Lastly, just short of half of the students had something to say about the
character of the teacher himself. A majority of the responses praised a teacher who is
confident and who obviously enjoys his profession and specialization:
“I liked him right away, he walked in, wrote his name on the blackboard, and
started right in. You could tell he wasn’t new at all.”
“If he doesn’t know the answer, he is not afraid to tell so. So you know you can
trust him.”
“I used to hate compositions, but my teacher likes writing and she just makes
you like it. She has a lot of fun.”
“He could probably have done a lot of things, but he wanted to be a teacher. It
wasn’t for money either.”
The students also referred to teachers with endless patience and amiable
disposition that could be provoked to anger only in extreme cases. The teacher’s
voice was mentioned, too:
“It shouldn’t be monotonous.”

48
 “You have to hear him at the back row.”
Finally, a surprisingly big number were concerned about the appearance of
their teachers:
“He is always neatly dressed.”
“She is not really pretty, but I don’t mind looking at her all hour. Anyway, she
tries to look nice.”
The composite ideal teacher, then, with infinite knowledge and energy,
impeccable teaching techniques, a sense of humour and a talent for discipline, along
with personal charm and eternal patience, may seem rather hard to live up. But as one
understanding student wrote:
“What makes a good teacher is someone who tries to do everything I have
listed above. But I understand that teachers are only students like me.”
II. Answer the following questions and comment on the statements:
1. What are the causes of social distance between teachers and learners? Does
social distance contradict the idea of “a more sympathetic relationship”? 2. What do
you think the students’ responses depend on? Do the students sound objective
assessing a teacher’s efficiency? 3. Give a general description of a good foreign
language teacher described in the text. 4. What are the main pitfalls that may await a
young teacher at school? 5. What was your school practice like? What was your
professional choice: permissiveness or authority? 6. Do you think teaching is an art,
or merely a skilled occupation depending on experience? 7. What do you think of the
popular quotation from B. Shaw: “Those who can, do, those who can’t, teach”? 8.
We simply do not know what makes an artful teacher.
III. Make up your own list of qualities necessary for a good language
teacher.
IV. Make up your sentences using the following words and word
combinations from the text:
Modern methods of language teaching; constant interchange between teacher
and student; sympathetic relationship between teacher and student; impersonal

49
methods; sheer experience; educational psychology textbooks and courses; the
teacher’s thorough knowledge of the subject; to go about imparting the knowledge;
variety within the lesson hour; to do drills; to do idioms; constant participants; to do
the talking; to use up precious class time; to take the tension out of language learning;
to get nervous about making mistakes; a conscientious attitude toward student papers;
to run out of things to do; the student - teacher relationship; an obvious command of
the colloquial idiom; to be on one’s wavelength; a fear of being embarrassed; a
teacher’s caustic wit; infinite knowledge and energy; impeccable teaching
techniques; a sense of humour; a talent of discipline; personal charm; eternal
patience.
V. Read the following text and single out the main and supportive ideas:
Teaching English at University Level
When I am asked by my British colleagues: “Is it true that teaching English in
Russia has become a most important educational problem?” I answer: “No, it is not.
It is not only an educational problem any longer. It is a most important social
problem”.
English-speaking people do not fully realize the significance of teaching
English for the simple reason that they are the lucky owners of the language which
has become one of the most important means of international communication. They
get this generous gift from their English-speaking parents and acquire the knowledge
of their mother tongue effortlessly while millions of foreigners spend years trying to
master the language which they desperately need for their work or study. This is
where the social aspect comes in.
English is learnt in Russia not for fun, not as a luxury or as prestigious
evidence of culture, education and the social rank of parents, not even so much as a
means to open a new world. It is all that, but that is not the main thing.
The knowledge of English has become an objective social need because for
millions of people the English language is a tool of their trade. Businessmen,

50
tradesmen, engineers, scientists and scholars all over the world must know English
because it is an international means of exchange of information and experience.
Russian people have always been keen on studying foreign languages in
general and English in particular, especially after the Second World War. Nowadays,
with iron curtains being lifted, doors to other countries opened, travelling by private
invitation allowed, partnerships in trade, business and science encouraged, the ever-
increasing thirst for the English language is turning into a demand to be taught it as
soon as possible.
Technical problems and barriers of distance separating peoples do not exist any
longer because scientists worked hard and did their best. Politicians – at long last -
are beginning to do their duty and break down the political barriers of bureaucracy,
formalism, mutual mistrust and old feuds.
As these serious and difficult obstacles are being overcome, a new barrier has
come to the forefront – the language barrier. Foreign language teachers have found
themselves in the focus of public attention. It is their turn to do their duty. Under such
circumstances, teachers of English become, on the one hand, more important and on
the other, more vulnerable. This is because they cannot fully satisfy this ever-
increasing cry for help.
Universities crown the system of education in all European countries, therefore
it is the university teachers of foreign languages who must find the solution to this
urgent social and educational problem.
The situation with foreign language teaching in Russian Universities is in some
ways different from that of many European countries. In Russia, students in all
specialities have foreign languages on the curriculum as an obligatory subject for
three or four years out of the average five years of the full course. Thus, our students
not only want to learn foreign languages, but also have to learn them because students
of any subject, any discipline must learn a foreign language as part of their syllabus.
At the beginning of the university course of foreign language teaching it is
necessary to formulate its actual and realistic aims and tasks. Students must know

51
from the start what variety of the foreign language, and to what extent, they are going
to master. Many people get bitterly disappointed and lose interest in foreign language
studies because they were not duly informed that it is not possible (if you are not a
genius, but these are scarce) in the limited period of learning – 2-4 hours per week for
2-3 years – to master a foreign language, to acquire all the various skills: reading
special literature, newspapers, fiction, writing scientific papers, understanding the
lyrics of songs, everyday speech, etc., etc.
The task of foreign language teaching must be formulated from the beginning.
In Moscow University these tasks are very humble: to teach students a foreign
language for special purposes, i. e. as an actual means of communication among
specialists of different countries, meaning both – oral and written kinds of
communication. In other words, foreign language teaching is oriented towards
mastering skills for professional communication, and teaching language for
professional purposes.
Another important aspect to be taken into consideration is distinguishing
between passive, aimed at recognition (reading, comprehension) and active, aimed at
production (speaking, writing) forms of language use. The distinction is essential
because these two forms require different means and methods of teaching and – most
importantly – different teaching materials.
Teaching methods must be learner-oriented. In other words, foreign language
teaching is concerned, first and foremost, with satisfying the real needs of the
students but not with revealing the knowledge of the teacher. The intensive and
efficient teaching of grammar, vocabulary, translation, etc. must be scientifically
grounded and concentrate only on those items which students actually need for the
purposes specified at the beginning of the university course. This is an important
statement which in theory is universally accepted but in practice is hardly ever
followed.
For instance, teaching grammar is a very essential part of foreign language
teaching. However, very often grammar is taught par excellence, in its full splendour,

52
regardless of the actual aims of teaching, of the actual skills to be required.
Paradoxically, teachers concentrate their (and the students’) efforts on those
complicated and cumbersome grammar structures which are hardly ever used. The
difference between seeing a difficult grammatical form in the text and actually using
it is often disregarded and different grammar points are taught with equal enthusiasm.
Teaching communication for special purposes must be based on the previous
linguistic analysis of special texts resulting in recommendations for teaching those
grammar forms and structures which are most characteristic of these texts. Another
urgent problem is a good grammar book. Most textbooks repeat the same definitions
which are colourless and difficult to understand because they are “universal”, i. e.
written regardless of nationality of the learner. Grammar books must take into
account on the one hand the peculiarities of the language learning special purposes in
question, and, on the other, the characteristic features of the grammar of the student’s
mother tongue. I need hardly say that what is difficult about the English language for
Russians may be easy for Italians and vice versa. This concerns Grammar books and
Grammar commentaries, explanations and exercises in all kinds of foreign language
courses.
The problem of teaching vocabulary may seem to be, theoretically speaking,
easier. Teaching language for specific purposes implies teaching the vocabulary of a
special text. However, there are no easy points as far as living human languages are
concerned. Indeed, the vocabulary of a special text consists of three strata: general
words, specific words and terms. Basic general words must have been learnt before
the University. Terms are the gist, the essence of the speciality and are usually better
known by students than by teachers. The emphasis, consequently, is on the scientific
vocabulary which is, as it were, the skeleton of every special text. However, the
general vocabulary is never taught properly at school and has to be acquired at the
University level, especially now that the demand for the so-called colloquial language
has become so great since the prospects of direct, live contacts with foreigners have
become real. This is one more problem to think about.

53
 A very important point in any language course is the actual words too be
studied, the topics to be discussed and learnt, the thematic choice of language to be
activated.
I strongly believe that the educational experience of a language course is
determined by the thematic and situational value of the layer of language to be
studied. And the most important parameter here is again the need of a student: how
much will the student need these words, will he or she have many opportunities to
use them, how high is this bit of vocabulary on the student’s list of priorities? From
this point of view many topics seem doubtful as far as Russian students of foreign
languages are concerned.
And the last (but by no means least) aspect – psychological. Learning a foreign
language, like no other subject, requires a special psychological approach, the
atmosphere of relaxation, trust, even love and faith. Indeed, learning a strange
language, a strange world picture, strange, (often alien) mentality is a difficult
psychological barrier for many learners. Teaching foreign languages to university
students of non-philological subjects is complicated by the fact that for these students
a foreign language is not part of their special, professional education which may
result in a lack of motivation. Thus, the foreign language teacher’s difficult but noble
task is to create a relaxed, uninhibited atmosphere in class without being too
indulgent or permissive.
(From: Тер-Минасова С.Г. Английский язык для поступающих в вузы.
Москва, 1993)
VI. Read the following text:
Training Language for Special Purposes Teachers in Russia
Nowadays, one of the characteristic features of life in Russia is an
unprecedented surge in the study of foreign languages – chiefly English. The growth
in political, economic, cultural and educational contacts with different countries has
set the scene for a renewed interest in foreign language studies. Language teachers
will have to work very hard in order to satisfy this interest: they must change

54
drastically their inadequate and outdated teaching methods and produce new,
effective ones.
In order to perform all this tasks, which may look humble but are in fact
extremely difficult and complex, many questions have to be settled; the most urgent
of these is how to teach teachers? In other words, another approach to foreign
language teaching should begin with a new approach to language teachers’ training
and education.
In Russia this problem is especially urgent because, oddly enough, the
profession which is in greatest demand nowadays – that of teacher of foreign
languages for scientists – is not fully recognized as such: it does not exist in the
official State Committee of Education list of professions. Russian universities and
higher education institutions provide training for philologists (experts in languages
and literature) and for schoolteachers of foreign languages. The former know too
much, the latter too little, to be good teachers of foreign languages for non-
philologists, that is, for those legions of specialists in all branches of knowledge for
whom a foreign language is not a subject of their research but just a tool of their
trade. This last statement may seem paradoxical and is, obviously an exaggeration,
but it gives, in a nutshell, some idea of the problem.
Teachers of foreign languages for non-philologists should, then, be especially
trained along the following lines:
1. They must learn the variety of language for special purposes that they are
going to teach, its peculiarities in all aspects – whether grammar, vocabulary, syntax
or style. 2. They must have a general idea of the subject their students are doing. This
seems to be a highly revolutionary point, usually provoking protests and panic among
those foreign language teachers who are accustomed to teaching economists or
chemists the foreign language skills they require for their professional
communication without themselves having the slightest idea about economics or
chemistry. 3. They must be taught to cater to their students’ needs. This is a difficult
psychological requirement but there is no doubt that foreign language teaching must

55
be learner oriented. Language teachers must resist the temptation of revealing their
vast, profound knowledge of the subject to the students and think only about their
actual needs. 4. Finally, they must enthuse their students. Teaching foreign language
to university students of non-philological subjects is complicated by the fact that for
these students a foreign language is not part of their special, professional education:
hence their lack of motivation. Foreign language teachers must, therefore, think of
ways of arousing interest in their subject and of finding new means of increasing their
students’ motivation.
(From: Тер-Минасова С.Г. Английский язык для поступающих
в вузы. Москва, 1993)
VII. Answer the following questions:
1. What is the present situation with foreign language studies in Russia? 2.
What are the main problems in teachers’ training? 3. What are the peculiarities of
teaching foreign languages to non-philologists?
VIII. Support or challenge the following statements:
1. Philologists know too much, schoolteachers know too little to be good
teachers for non-philologists. 2. Teachers of foreign language for non-philologists
must have a general idea of the subject their students are doing.
IX. Expand on the following;
1. Non-philologists are specialists in all branches of knowledge for whom a
foreign language is not the subject of their research but a tool of their trade. 2.
Foreign language teaching must be learner-oriented.
X. Read the article taken from the teacher’s resource manual “Forum”:
Lesson Planning as Friend not Foe
Writing lesson plans is an integral part of teaching. Unfortunately, too many
beginning teachers consider writing lesson plans a tiresome and unnecessary chore.
Perhaps this negative image of lesson planning is the fault of those professors and
teacher trainers who give trainees a complicated lesson plan format and then require
that the trainees produce a certain number of their own lesson plans to pass a course.

56
Instead of being presented as a heuristic, as an aid in times of preparatory trouble,
lesson planning is presented as a requirement, a loathsome task that “real teachers”
do not bother with anyway.
In an effort to clarify the role of lesson planning in teaching a new lesson
planning instrument is presented in this article.
The instrument consists of three main parts: a list of benefits derived from
lesson planning; a lesson plan form with space for objectives and outline of the
lesson; a set of questions to consider about the objectives and the structure of the
lesson.
1. Lesson planning will: focus you; provide you with a plan and a backup
plan; force you to consider the purpose of the lesson and reason for each step;
establish clear goals for the lesson that are understood by both you and the learner;
allow you to predict potential problems; help you to design a coherent and cohesive
lesson; help you to make a smooth transition from this lesson to the next; provide you
with a written record of the course; encourage you to examine the lessons critically
and make improvements; add your own…
2. Lesson plan form:
Course: Date:
Teacher: Form:
Recent material covered:
Materials needed:

Objectives

Theme/Topic
Aims
Skills
Vocabulary
Learner-training

57
 Performance
Conditions

3. Questions to answer about Lesson Objectives:

Theme/Topic:
1. Why have I chosen this topic? 2. Is it of interest to the students? 3. How can
I personalize the material/make it relevant to the students? 4. What is the best way to
present the material?
Aims:
1. What is the general purpose of the lesson? 2. What do I want to encourage
the students to do? 3. What do I want the students to get out of this?
Skills:
1. Does the topic suggest the particular skill(s) which should be focused on? 2.
Does the material to be learnt predetermine a particular skill? 3. How can the four
skills (reading, listening, speaking, writing) be integrated in the lesson?
Vocabulary:
1. How can I get the students to practice using the new vocabulary? 2. In what
“real life” situations does one find this vocabulary items?
Learner Training:
1. Are there any skills, apart from language, that I can train my students in
(e.g. note-taking, outlining, study skills, self-education)? 2. Can I help my students
find out more about their personal learning styles? 3. How can I help my students
improve their learning?
Performance:
1. What do I want the students to be able to do at the end of the lesson? 2.
How can I determine if this is accomplished? 3. Under what conditions will I evaluate
their performance? 4. What standards will I use to evaluate the students?
Conditions:

58
 1. What type of atmosphere do I want to create and what is the best way of
doing this? 2. How can I help the students to feel comfortable? 3. Can the students
have fun with the activities I have planned?
4. Lesson structure:
Phrase Time Activity Grouping Comm
ents
Preparation
Presentation
Communicative
practice
Evaluation
Follow-up

5. Questions to answer about Lesson Structure:

Preparation:
1. What is the best way to introduce the topic? 2. How can I get the students
interested in the topic? 3. How much time should I spend on this phrase? 4. How can
I get the students to contribute to this part of the lesson? 5. Can I use the students’
previous knowledge?
Presentation:
1. Does the presentation depend on the materials I have? 2. What is the best
way to present this? 3. How can I make my students actively participate in this
phrase? 4. What do I need to teach?
Communicative practice:
1. Are the tasks, activities, and/or experiences I have chosen based on what
was presented in the previous phrase? 2. Are the tasks communicative? Are they
learner-centered? 3. What should my role as a teacher be during this phrase (a
facilitator, resource, participant, etc.)? 4. What types of activity would work best

59
here? 5. What “sort” of classroom arrangement would best fit the learning
experiences I have chosen (discussion circle, small groups)?
Evaluation:
1. How can I best determine if the students have learnt what I wanted them to?
2. What is the best way to arrange the class for this phrase? 3. Can I help the students
learn to evaluate themselves? 4. What types of learning experiences would be best for
this phrase of the lesson?
Follow-up:
1. What can I have the students do that will reinforce what they have learned in
this lesson? 2. Should this be done as homework or in class?
6. Reflecting on the lesson:
1. What was the best thing about the lesson? 2. What did I enjoy most? What
did the students enjoy most? 3. How did the students react? Why? 4. What would I
change about the lesson if I used it again? 5. At what points in the lesson could I have
engaged students more? How? 6. Were the students able to do what I wanted them to
do? Why/Why not? 7. Add your own questions…
As you may see there is nothing revolutionary or innovating about this lesson
planning instrument. As the title suggests, it simply serves to put a new slant on age-
old process. It can help to clarify the reasons for lesson planning, to write better
objectives, to effectively guide them throughout the lesson planning process and to
foster a more positive view of lesson planning.
(From: D. Propst. English Teaching Forum.
October, 1997)
XI. Try and write your own lesson plan using the lesson planning instrument
given in the article above.
XII. Answer the following questions based on the text: 1. Why are lesson
plans important? 2. What are the main sources of teachers’ frustrations with lesson
planning? 3. What is good about the lesson planning instrument the author of the
article presents?

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 LESSON EIGHT
Teachers and Students
I. Read the following text and find a suitable title for it:
To be a teacher, you need some of the gifts of a good actor: you must be able to
hold the attention and interest of your audience; you must be a clear speaker, with
good, strong, pleasing voice which is fully under your control; you must be able to
act what you are teaching in order to make its meaning clear.
Watch a good teacher, and you will see that he does not sit motionless before
his class: he stands the whole time he is teaching, he walks about, using his arms,
hands and fingers to help him in his explanations, and his face to express feelings.
Listen to him, and you will hear the loudness, the quality and the musical note of his
voice always changing according to what he is talking about.
The fact that a good teacher has some of the gifts of a good actor does not
mean that he will indeed be able to act well on the stage: for there are very important
differences between the teacher’s work and the actor’s playing. The actor has to
speak words which he has learned by heart; he has to repeat exactly the same words
each time he plays a certain part; even his movements and the way in which he uses
his voice are usually fixed before. What he has to do is to make all these carefully
learned words and actions seem natural on the stage.
A good teacher works in quite a different way. His audience takes an active
part in his play; they ask and answer questions, and if they do not understand
something, they say so. The teacher therefore has to suit his act to the needs of his
audience, which is his class. He cannot learn his part by heart, but must invent it as he
goes along.
I have known many teachers who were fine actors in class but were unable to
take part in a stage-play because their brains would not keep strictly to what another
had written.
(From: L.A. Hill, R.D.S. Fielden. Further Comprehension and Precise Pieces
for Overseas Students. London, 1965)

61
 II. Answer the following questions based on the text:
1. Why does a good teacher need some of the gifts of a good actor? 2. What is
there in common between the teacher’s work and the actor’s playing? 3. What are the
differences between the teacher’s work and the actor’s playing? 4. Why must a good
teacher be able to improvise in the course of the lesson? 5. What is the difference
between the audience of students and that of theatre-goers?
III. Translate the following sentences into English:
Учитель играет серьезную роль в современном обществе. Основное
содержание деятельности учителя включает выполнение обучающей,
воспитательной, организаторской и исследовательской функций. Эти роли
обычно проявляются в единстве, но у многих учителей одна из них доминирует
над другими. Профессионализм учителя выражается в умении видеть и
формулировать педагогические задачи на основе анализа педагогических
ситуаций и находить оптимальные способы их решения. Одной из важнейших
характеристик педагогической деятельности является её творческий характер.
IV. Read the following text, singe out its main and supportive idea:
Quite properly, one may argue, the emphasis in society today is falling upon
the need to individualize. The danger that the individual may become lost in the
crowd has led in turn to the questioning of the very basis of authority by students, and
in some cases by Authority itself.
It is for this reason, among others that schools constantly need to examine the
relationship that exist between teachers and pupils, indeed within the school as a
whole, and ask some, or all, the following questions: is it possible in today’s climate
of opinion to continue operating on an authoritarian basis? Can discipline be
maintained in a situation where there is little day-to-day social commerce between
students and teachers, and where relationships are based not upon mutual trust and
understanding, but upon a “Do as I say and argue afterwards” approach? How much
effort are we making to understand the pressure under which children are operating or
falling to operate? What, come to think of it, do we mean by discipline, anyway?

62
How far is it possible to open lines of communication in such a way as to admit the
possibility of children being outspokenly and fiercely critical of what is happening in
their own school?
Primarily, however, the concern must be with the child and the way or ways in
which any child lives and moves within the school.
There is little point in teachers believing that an expressed desire to help, to
guide and to advise will be accepted at its face value by today’s child. The teacher
has to prove himself through a period of apprenticeship, during which time he will be
assessed by the children themselves. If, during this time, he reveals a genuine, as
opposed to an expressed interest, he will eventually be accepted in both a tutorial and
perhaps a counseling role.
I admit to a personal doubt as to whether any teacher will be accepted in a
counseling role if he has not at some time or other joined regularly in some activity
involving prolonged contact with children in a social setting. Once a child has
committed his trust there is a further need to create situations, where, if necessary, the
teacher may make himself available to children in a private capacity, as a friend,
when he may be talked to alone and in confidence.
But the pressures on teachers today are considerable, especially since their
sphere of operations has increased to include the individual welfare of all children in
form or tutor groups. Unfortunately it is hard to see how tutors can become tutors in
the real sense of the word unless they are prepared to become deeply involved
(though not so involved as to be unable to be dispassionate and clear-sighted) in the
interest and preoccupations of the children. To fill the position satisfactory implies a
desire to know the child’s background and his family history, and it implies also a
respect for the child as he is, and not as we would like him to be.
(From: C. Stuart-Jervis. Pastoral Care. London, 1974)
V. Answer the following questions based on the text:
1. Why is the need to individualize so urgent in our society? 2. What is the
basic requirement of our educational system? 3. What does the “climate of opinion”

63
mean? 4. How does the “climate of opinion” affect the atmosphere in school and the
teacher-student relationship? 5. What are the pressures under which children are
operating? 6. What does the “period of apprenticeship” mean? How to pass it
successfully? 7. Is it necessary to create situations where a teacher can be available to
children as a friend? 8. What does “a tutor” mean in the real sense of the word?
VI. Support or challenge the following statements:
1. The child is not an object but a subject of education. 2. Schoolchildren of
today are different from what they used to be. 3. The teacher should respect the child
as he is, but not as he would like him to be. 4. The individual may become lost in the
crowd. 5. Children are often manipulated by teachers. 6. The years of school are hard:
homework to prepare every day, examinations to take, lack of understanding on the
part of the teachers.
VII. Find English equivalents for the following Russian words and word
combinations from the text:
Необходимость в осуществлении индивидуального подхода; работать в
авторитарном режиме; поддерживать дисциплину; взаимное доверие и
понимание; критиковать то, что происходит в школе; прямо и беспощадно;
наставническая и консультационная роль; номинальная стоимость; искренний
интерес; длительный контакт с детьми; дальнейшая необходимость; социальное
окружение; быть вовлеченным в интересы и занятия детей.
VIII. Check the following list of duties and obligations of the form tutor and
enlarge it, trying to number the points in order of their importance:
1. to have all the necessary information on the pupils; 2. to have interviews
with parents; 3. to be informed by subject teachers about success, problems and
worries of the pupils; 4. to make written records of the pupils assessments.
IX. Support or challenge the following ideas:
1. It is easier to be a teacher than to be a student. 2. A child’s success depends
on the manner of his being taught rather than on his inborn abilities. 3. Teachers
prefer dull students to bright ones as the former are easier to manage. 4. The status of

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a teacher in modern society is extremely low. 5. People learn best while they teach. 6.
I find my personal experience as a pupil valuable and I am going to use it in my
teaching practice.
X. Look through the following list of names, choose any familiar to you and
speak about the pedagogical ideas and creative activity of the teacher –
philosopher:
Confucius [kən'fju: jəs]; Socrates ['socrəti:z]; Democritus [di'mokritəs ]; Plato
['pleitəu]; Aristotle ['æristotl]; Quintilian [kwin'tiljən]; Thomas More; Francois
Rabelais ['ræbəlei]; Comenius [kə'mi:niəs]; Jean Jacque Rousseau ['ru:səu]; Denis
Diderot [di:'drəu]; Claud Adrien Helvetius [hel'vi: iəs]; Johann Pestalozzi
[pestə'lotsi]; Robert Owen [əuin]; Herbert Spencer; John Dewey; Benjamin Spock.

LESSON NINE
Teaching Techniques and Strategy
I. Read the following text and define what “teaching strategy”, “teaching
techniques”, “methods of foreign language teaching” and “basic activities in
language instruction” mean:
Strategy is an art of planning and managing affairs under the most favourable
conditions. Teaching strategy is a skill of planning instructions in order to achieve the
best possible progress on the part of the learners; it is an ability to create the most
favourable conditions of transferring and gaining information on a given subject.
The development of teaching strategy is divided into a number of stages which
are to be fulfilled consecutively and fully. The first stage is setting up goals which
provide a foundation of success in a certain activity. The goal or the desirable result
should be clear to the teacher and to the learner. The second stage is the selecting
techniques of achieving the goal. Contemporary methods of foreign language
teaching offer the teacher a variety of such techniques from traditional ones to ultra-
modern intensive courses. Teaching at secondary school should not be based on one
of them only. Combining the most useful and interesting elements of different

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methods prevents instruction from being monotonous, keeps the learner’s interest,
promotes his wish for further learning.
Once the teacher has outlined the goal and the method, s/he can choose means
of instruction and components of a teaching method complex. The basic activities in
language instruction are listening comprehension, speaking, reading and writing. At
this stage, the teacher decides which aids and auxiliaries to use in class and how to
use them properly. Effective planning of instruction itself and its basic constituent - a
lesson – is another stage. These days the teacher has a great many ways of conducting
a lesson at his/her disposal. A lesson is in a way a workshop demonstrating the
teacher’s creativity. Making conclusions and inferences is the final step to designing
favourable conditions.
A school lesson is no doubt the main constituent part of teaching strategy.
However, no matter how good a single lesson is, it is not enough to help pupils to
gain the profound knowledge of the language.
The learner himself is expected to study the subject willingly and continuously
and the teacher is expected to organize and direct this independent study. For
example, the teacher can encourage the pupil to stay and learn in a language room.
Modern technical means enable students to listen to recordings, to do drills with the
help of computer equipment, to watch educational video films, to use audio courses.
The teacher must make students understand that independent studies facilitate
material mastering and develop essential learning skills. Well-thought home
assignments contribute a lot to this process too. Traditional grammar exercises,
problem-solving tasks, monologues and dialogues, written essays and many other
types of home assignments enable the student to master the material covered earlier,
to demonstrate his/her creative potential and keep a sustainable interest in the subject
as well as to develop industry, accuracy and responsibility. Thus, checking home
assignment in class is of great importance as it allows to revise the previous material
and to prepare students for the introduction of new information.

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 II. Read the following text and determine your attitude towards teaching a
foreign language at an early age:
The process of society development and social progress includes a higher level
of education and intelligence of every new generation.
Introduction of foreign language teaching into kindergartens and primary
schools’ curriculum is one of the ways of attending to the issue. There are different
points of view regarding early foreign language teaching. There have been produced
a number of teaching method complexes aimed at laying a foundation for further
foreign language learning. The best known of them is “English for Kids”.
Early language teaching requires high professionalism on the part of the
teacher. Every teacher must be aware of the objectives, system and techniques of
instruction as well as children’s psychology and physiology. Thus, teaching skills
should be combined with the knowledge of pedagogy and psychology.
It is well known that children enjoy playing best of all. In the process of
playing, they learn new words and expressions willingly and easily. Classes for
pupils of an early age should have much in common with a game. Failure to make
children play in class and to provide them with aids such as toys, picture books,
music, etc. may result in low learning interest and lack of progress. Another issue is
evaluation of knowledge. Such young pupils are not supposed to know that their
progress is being evaluated in class, though direct marks are not given. It is
recommended that teachers perform indirect evaluation, the nature of tests being
determined by the teaching methods and the contents of experimental instruction.
Society’s demand for early foreign language teaching puts forth a combination
of educational, developmental and teaching objectives. Educational objectives
include making children interested in a language and forming learning skills. Early
foreign language teaching contributes to development of an individual. It develops
thinking, emotions, imagination, will-power, memory, learning and speaking
abilities. It forms correct understanding of the native language and a foreign one. It
also helps to build up interpersonal relations, self-evaluation and evaluation of other

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children. Teaching objectives include forming a skill of solving simple
communication problems independently.
Psychologists say that 5-8 year-olds are the most receptive to foreign language
instruction as they demonstrate a special linguistic susceptibility and begin to take
interest in intelligent speaking.
The knowledge of children’s psychology, a solid teaching method basis, the
understanding of the objectives and principles of early foreign language instruction,
carefully selected according to the age and characteristics of learners will enable the
teacher to provide highly effective instruction.
III. Look through the following description of the grammar teaching
methods. Add any information that you know about them. What other
principles and theories in teaching any aspect of the foreign language do you
know?
Three approaches to the teaching of grammar will be discussed: the older and
discredited one of the grammar-translation methods, the newer one of the mimicry-
memorization method, and the still newer one of pattern drills and pattern practice.
The grammar-translation approach is not recommended. The mimicry-memorization
method is offered as a successful approach to be used for part of the teaching task or
in the absence of more refined patterned and graded materials. The pattern-practice
approach is presented as most effective at its appropriate stage.
Grammar - translation methods
In the grammar-translation mode, the book begins with definitions of the parts
of speech, declensions, conjugations, rules to be memorized, examples illustrating the
rules, and exceptions. Often each unit has a paragraph to be translated into the target
language and one to be translated into the native one. These paragraphs illustrate the
grammar rules studied in the unit. The student is expected to apply the rules on his
own. This involves a complicated mental manipulation of the conjugations and
declensions in the order memorized, down to the form that might fit the translation.

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 As a result, students are unable to use the language, and they sometimes
develop an inferiority complex about languages in general. Exceptionally bright and
diligent students do learn languages by this method, or in spite of it, but they would
learn with any method. The grammar - translation method is largely discredited
today.
Mimicry-memorization method
Mimicry-memorization was the method developed in the Intensive Language
Program of the American Council of Learned Societies and used by the United States
Armed Forces during the Second World War to teach foreign languages intensively
to military personnel. It was successful because of high motivation, intensive
practice, small classes, and good models, in addition to linguistically sophisticated
descriptions of the foreign language and its grammar.
Grammar is taught essentially as follows: some basic sentences are memorized
by imitation. Their meaning is given in normal expressions in the native language,
and the students are not expected to translate word for word.
When the basic sentences have been overlearned (completely memorized so
that the student can rattle them off without effort), the student reads fairly extensive
descriptive grammar statements in his native language, with examples in the target
language and native language equivalents. He then listens to further conversational
sentences which recombine the basic sentences for practice in listening. Finally, he
practices the dialogues using the basic sentences and combinations of their parts.
When he can, he varies the dialogues within the material he has already learned.
This approach was developed for use when linguistically trained teachers were
not available, and when materials had to be prepared with utmost speed. It was
successful, especially when the students had the benefit of a full nine months or a
year of intensive concentration in the language.
The problem of motivation was also a special one, since
the urgency of the situation justified intensive mimicry-memorization practice
without sufficient variation or challenge.

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 Pattern-practice approach
The mimicry-memorization exercise tends to give the same amount of practice
to easy as well as difficult problems. It also concentrates unduly on the memorization
of specific sentences, and not enough on the manipulation of the patterns of sentences
in a variety of content situations.
For those patterns that are functionally parallel to the native language, very
little work needs to be done, and very little or no explanation is necessary. On the
other hand, for those patterns that are not parallel in the two languages, more specific
understanding of the grammatical structure points at issue is needed while the
sentences are learned and not before or after. And more practice with the pattern is
necessary before it is learned, that is, used without attention to its structure. When the
teachers and the materials provide for these differences in difficulty through a
pattern-practice approach, better results may be expected. For these reasons the
pattern approach is described in some detail.
(From: R. Lado. Language Teaching: a Scientific Approach, 1964)
IV. Read the following text and do the activities that follow:
For some years linguists have been writing textbooks designed to teach foreign
students spoken English. But only recently, as teachers have found that many
students want and need to learn how to write English as well as to speak it, have
linguistically oriented textbooks designed to teach written English appeared.
It is obvious that grammar, aural comprehension, reading, and even oral
production are to varying degrees involved in writing. Certainly, we cannot teach a
writing course that never touches on these areas. But, at the same time, teaching a
writing course that covers only these areas is redundant. Given the limited time most
of us have to teach the student as much as we can about English, we should, if only
for efficiency’s sake, use a method that teaches him something he will not learn in his
other courses. That is, we should use a method that emphasizes that which is unique
in writing.

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 Learning to write, then, involves more than learning to use orthographic
symbols. Primarily, it involves selecting and organizing experience (facts, ideas or
opinions) according to a certain purpose. It follows that teaching the student to write
requires active thought.
When writing the student must keep in mind his purpose, think about the facts
he will need to select that are relevant to that purpose, and think about how to
organize those facts in a coherent fashion.
Although, unlike pronunciation and grammatical production, the process of
reading requires thought, it does not, as does writing, require activity. Reading is a
passive process, while writing is active. Although he can learn through reading how
various writers have selected and organized facts in order to carry out a specific
purpose, the student himself must ultimately undergo the intense mental activity
involved in working out his own problems of selection and organization if he is ever
really going to write. This is why the copybook approach, which requires the student
to copy and emulate certain writing, does not work very well. While it does require
the students to memorize structures, thereby increasing the grammatical ability, and
perhaps even teaching them something about style, it does not require him to do
much thinking.
Because the combination of thought and activity carrying out that thought is
unique to writing, we must, in planning a certain curriculum, devise exercises that
necessitate intense concentration. While grammar and reading are both certainly
indispensable to such a curriculum, we must present them in such a way that the
student will learn to use them as tools. For example, one of the first things the student
will have to learn is that writing has certain structural differences from speech. One
difference is that writing generally has longer sentences – what might be two or three
sentences in speech is often one sentence in writing. So the student must learn how to
combine the short sentences of spoken English by modification or by using sentence
connectors of various kinds.

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 Of course, one of the biggest problems in teaching writing is that the student
must have facts and ideas in order to write and that these must be manifested in the
form of grammatical English sentences. But if we allow him to use the facts and ideas
gained from his first-hand experiences, he will think of these first of his own
language and try to translate them word-for-word into English, often with most
ungrammatical results. This is why the free composition approach to teaching writing
is just as unsatisfactory as the copybook method, but in a different way. The student
makes so many grammatical errors that his compositions lose much of the original
meaning.
We can, however, avoid the problems caused by the student’s limited
knowledge of grammar and of idioms of English by requiring that, instead of using
the facts of firsthand experience, he use secondhand facts gained through the
vicarious experience of reading. Since what is unique in learning to write is not so
much learning to state facts as it is to use them, we can avoid making grammatical
errors and can actively concentrate on the purposeful selection, and organization of
those sentences: that is, he can concentrate on thinking.
(From: The Art of TESOL. Washington, 1975)
V. Answer the following questions based on the text:
1. What, according to the author, is the main drawback of all textbooks
designed to teach written English? 2. What does learning to write involve? 3. What
must the student keep in mind when writing? 4. What is the basic difference between
the processes of reading and writing? 5. What is one of the first things the student has
to learn about writing? 6. Why does the author consider both the “copybook
approach” to writing and the “free composition approach” unsatisfactory? 7. What is
the author’s suggestion for teaching students to write?
VI. Evaluate your own writing skills:
1. What is the most successful written work done by you? 2. Do you follow
any recommendations to improve your writing style? 3. What tasks and specially
designed techniques can help you to develop your writing habits?

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 VII. Read the following article and do the activities that follow:
Of course, we all know that an oral approach is the greatest thing since the
invention of the wheel... don't we? All together now: "Yes, we do!"
But let's pause for thought.
An oral approach to teaching EFL (teaching English as a foreign language)
often seems so novel and interesting to new teachers that a general notion of it is
formed and embraced without evaluation. Misguided generalisations about principles
and techniques are made, and it becomes twice as unproductive as the traditional
grammar-translation method
Teachers, half understanding the terminology and techniques, dash off into
classrooms and wreak havoc among their students. This half-understanding leads to
teachers at first: either being too sure of themselves, setting into complacency, rolling
out the techniques, and teaching without ever really asking themselves why they do
that they do, or if it's valid at all, or going through the motions of applying the
techniques, meeting resistance and problems in class, and then having a crisis of
confidence in the approach.
Neither of the two really know which of the techniques are achieving anything,
because the confidence of the second is shaken by the failure of some of the
techniques which they believed infallible and universally applicable. Both are victims
of the "Isn't-an-oral-approach-marvellous?" virus, which produces dogma and
insularity.
At its best, an oral approach provides a set of techniques which can make
learning more efficient and enjoyable in appropriate circumstances.
At its worst — and all too often — it leads to a pointless display of fireworks
on the part of the teacher, and confusion and dissatisfaction on the part of the
students.
In the following sections I shall be more precise about all this.
I. Heads It's Dynamism, Tails It's Insensitivity

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 Teachers can become so intent on being "dynamic" that they become
insensitive to what is really happening in their class. Students become items to be
manipulated.
II. Over-Valuing of Technique ("You Know, I did a Fantastic Progressive
Substitution Drill Today")
This concentration on techniques goes beyond a reasonable awareness of their
usefulness, and becomes petty, paranoid, punctilious, and (in conversation)
gigantically boring. Often acquiring all the how can blind teachers to the what, as
well as they why [e.g. perfectly-organized questioning being done on a text which is
irrelevant or unsuitable for the class, because of content or level; beautiful sets of
carefully-prepared visual aids being used to teach expressions which are useless to
students; suitcases full of flash-cards being used to teach all the vocabulary from a
text before approaching the text itself, etc.).
III. Fashionable Scorn for Traditional Approaches
This is a pity, because, once again, things which began as sensible suggestions,
e.g.: 1) teachers should not be dominated by textbooks, 2) unseen dictations at too
early a level are risky, 3) reading unprepared material round the class can be boring
and frustrating, etc. become extreme pronouncements: 1) textbooks are useless, 2)
dictations are useless, 3) reading aloud is useless, etc.
IV. Taking Too Much for Granted
Oral approach techniques and principles which seem so interesting, sensible
and useful to teachers encountering them for the first time, should all be thought
about in order to decide on their real functions, and hence their advantages and
dangers.
V. Not Looking Before You Leap
Enthusiasts among oral approach teachers — like all fashions - change rapidly,
because there's always someone coining a tasty new phrase, which is seized and used
for a few weeks until the new one arrives. One day it's: "Examples should be striking,
unusual, and memorable: none of this boring old cleaning-the-car stuff." The next it's:

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"Examples should be normal, familiar and everyday: none of this bizarre desert-
island stuff."
We should be willing to say that there's a place for both suggestions and leave
it at that.
VI. And So...
My general points, out of everything above, are that in advocating an "oral
approach" style of teaching, especially on teacher-training courses, we should: avoid
presenting particular techniques as dogma, set techniques as simply possible means to
an end, see oral approach techniques in the perspective of other methods, not take any
oral approach elements on trust, respect the demands of different students and
different circumstances, and decide whether we really know what we mean by "oral
approach" before telling people how marvelous it is.
(From: English Language Teaching Journal. L., 1976. No. 2)
VIII. Answer the following questions:
1. Judging by the article, what are the criticisms of the oral approach? Do you
think the close adherence to its principles has brought the desired results in English
schools? List the points used by the author as counter-arguments against the oral
approach.
2. Were the elements of an oral approach used in foreign-language teaching in
the Soviet Union? What did the experience show? (Speak on school level.)
IX. What are the current trends in foreign-language teaching abroad? Read
the following for information:
One of the most popular oral methods abroad is the audio-lingual method. Its
basic principles are the following: use of the students' native language should be
avoided; a foreign language should be learned through imitation and analogy;
foreign-language patterns should be practiced through intensive drills such as
repetition of dialogue or through exercises (substitution, transformation, etc.);
listening and speaking habits should precede reading and writing habits, etc.

75
 Many teachers using the audio-lingual method had long wished for some
improvement or modification of the accepted methodology. Although they found the
memorization and pattern-practice exercises useful for the early stages, they felt a
need to build a bridge from those highly structured activities to the freer, more
creative use of the language at the intermediate and advanced levels. The audio-
lingual method and its proponents did not provide a satisfactory solution to this
important problem.
Creative teachers, who early saw that a potential drawback of the audio-lingual
method was its tendency to be dull and uninspiring (for both student and teacher),
tried to make the drills more interesting by varying their form, by providing a
meaningful context, and by using visual aids. Resourceful teachers often succeeded
admittably by such means. But there was a limit to what they could accomplish
without making use of more "cognitive" activities.
Other sources of disillusionment with the audio-lingual approach were its
emphasis on speech and the rigid order it prescribed for teaching the skills: listening,
speaking, reading, and writing.
Judging from techniques and trends of the past few years, we can see that
current thinking in the teaching methods seems to be in the direction of: (a) relaxation
of some of the more extreme restrictions of the audio-lingual method; (b)
development of techniques requiring a more active use of the students' mental
powers.
The trend toward a more active use of the students' mental powers probably
represents the most important effect of the current cognitive theory of language
acquisition. This mental activity goes well beyond the more passive "activity" that the
audio-lingual method called for. The cognitive-code method (approach) is based on
the following principal assumptions: language learning is a creative process, therefore
the student should be as mentally active as possible: drills and exercises should be
meaningful, rote learning is to be avoided; reading and writing should be taught at

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early stages along with listening and speaking, occasional use of the student's native
language for explanation of new grammar and vocabulary is beneficial.
Viewing language learning as a natural creative process rather than as habit
formation suggests that the teacher should provide guided practice in thinking in the
language rather than mere repetition drill. Such mental involvement tends to make
language learning more enjoyable for the student — which must itself be a positive
factor contributing to improved attitudes and better results.
This kind of mental activity is quite different from memorizing grammar rules,
as in the old grammar-translation method. Nor is it simply the manipulation of
examples of grammar rules — an activity that was largely discredited by the early
proponents of the audio-lingual method.
(From: English Teaching Forum, 1974)
X. How are meanings of new words to be taught? Read the following article
and choose the most preferable way of presenting meanings:
The meaning of words can be communicated or taught in many different ways.
The following list includes most of the possibilities.
1. By demonstration: using an object, using a cut-out figure, using gesture,
performing an action.
2. By pictures: photographs, blackboard drawings, pictures from books.
3. By verbal explanation: description, giving a word with the same
meaning, giving a word with opposite meaning, putting the new word in
a defining context, translating into another language.
Some people often criticise translation into the mother tongue as
communicating or teaching meaning. Their objections are generally like this:
1. There is usually no exact correspondence between one language and
another.
2. Translation into the mother tongue is indirect.
3. The use of the mother tongue takes time which could better be spent in
using English.

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All of these criticisms are true. But they can also be applied to the use of
pictures, drawings, demonstration, and the use of real objects. For example, the
a picture for one group of learners does not always have the same meaning as it
does for the teacher. The use of a picture to convey meaning is indirect
because it requires decoding. Time spent using pictures could be better spent
using English.
Translation into the mother tongue, however, has certain features that can be
used by the teacher to the learners' advantage. Here is a list of the main
advantages.
1. Translation can be done quickly. This is a disadvantage if the teacher
wants to spend time on a word so that the learners will be sure to
remember it. The speed of translation is an advantage, however, if the
teacher wants to pass quickly over an unimportant word in reading text.
By giving the meaning quickly, using translation, the teacher has satisfied
the learners and has avoided spending too much time on an unimportant
word.
2. Translation is not limited like pictures and objects to nouns, adjectives,
and verbs. It can be used to explain many different types of words.
3. The teacher can ask the learners to respond by using translation to see if
they have understood something he presented in another way. Except
where the teacher provides a multiple-choice list of definitions or pictures,
there is not really any other way in which the learners can respond freely,
quickly, and easily to show they have understood something.
It is true that the use of translation as a way of teaching meaning has its
drawbacks. It is usually too quick, it takes away time that could have been
used to expose the learners to English, often there are not exact equivalents of
English words in the mother tongue. However, translation shares these
drawbacks with other ways of conveying meaning. By careful use of

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 translation in suitable teaching techniques many of these drawbacks can be
avoided.
The exclusion of the mother tongue from the classroom as a way of
communicating meaning robs the teacher of one useful technique of encoding. It also
leaves the learners to make their own uncontrolled and often incorrect translations.
(From: English Language Teaching Journal. L., 1978)
XI. Answer the following questions based on the text:
I. What ways of teaching the meaning of words does the author suggest? 2.
Which of the suggested ways do you consider more effective for different study
levels? (Give your reasons.) 3. What kind of meanings cannot be conveyed in any
other way but by verbal explanation? What are the subtypes of this method?
(Illustrate each subtype by examples showing how it is possible to convey this or that
meaning.) 4. What are the usual objections against using translation as a way of
teaching meaning? 5. What are the author's arguments in favour of using translation?
6. What is your opinion? 7. What are the drawbacks of the demonstration method of
teaching meanings? 8. What are the drawbacks of using pictures? 9. Does verbal
explanation in the target language always achieve the aim? Why can it sometimes
fail? What should be done to prevent the failure? 10. How can translation be used to
check the students' understanding? What do you think of the recommendation? 11.
Do you think that the mother tongue should be absolutely excluded from a foreign
language class? Give sound reasons for whatever you say.
XII. Fill in the blanks with the definite or indefinite article where required:
How to Teach Vocabulary
In—past,—vocabulary was taught mostly by—translation: either—list of
words with their translation at—beginning of — lesson or — translation of —
material containing—new words or—glossaries at—end. — error in this was to
confuse — translation with — language use, and to assume that — putting across —
meaning was — whole of teaching vocabulary.

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 Actually — putting across — meaning is only — small part of - vocabulary
teaching. To use – word, - form of - word must be taught; and making – new word
easily available may require - great deal of - practice for – fluency in speaking and
quick understanding in listening. - emphasis, therefore, should be on learning to use
– words rather than merely grasping – meaning.
(From: R. Lado. Language Teaching: a Scientific Approach.1964)
XIII. Read the following text and be ready to speak on the problem
described:
Teaching with Video
In recent years, the use of video in foreign language classes has grown rapidly
as a result of the increasing emphasis on communication teaching techniques. Being a
rich and valuable resource, video is well-liked by both students and teachers.
Students like it because video presentations are interesting, challenging and
stimulating to watch. Video shows them how people behave in the culture whose
language they are learning by bringing into the classroom a wide range of
communicative situations. Teachers like it because video helps them to promote
comprehension. As listening and speaking are the two major skills students should
acquire, the video course not only teaches English through video but gets students to
use the English they have learned in talking about the video.
The success of such an approach is dependent on methods and techniques as
well as on the kind of activities offered in class. What follows are examples and
suggested activities to be used in dealing with video at a foreign language lesson.
The teacher plays a key role in a video class for s/he has the prime
responsibility for creating a successful learning environment. Adequate preparation is
necessary to promote active viewing and facilitate successful language acquisition.
This requires being familiar with the video materials before they are used in
class. The teacher should develop a plan for each video unit and encourage active
viewing. In order to prepare students for active viewing, students should be told what

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is to be learned and what will be expected of them before, after and during the
viewing.
One of the suggested methods and activities is active viewing and global
comprehension. In order to help students get an overview of the content of the video
presentation, write key questions on the blackboard about the presentation and ask
students to keep the questions in mind as they watch. After viewing the video, have
students answer the questions orally. For more detailed comprehension, provide
students a cue sheet or viewing guides and let them watch the video presentation
again, section by section, asking them to watch and listen for specific details or
specific features of language.
Freeze framing and prediction are other possible methods of working with
video presentation. Freeze the picture when you want to teach words and expressions
regarding mood and emotions, to ask questions about a particular scene, or to call
students’ attention to some point. This technique is also useful if you want students to
repeat something or to identify body language, and if you want to explore
background detail. To fire the imagination of your students, it may be a good idea to
pause at a certain point of the video presentation during the first viewing and get
students to predict what will happen next, or to deduce further information about the
characters based on what they have picked up from the video units.
Silent viewing activity (playing the video segment with the sound off using
only the picture) is a way of arousing student interests, stimulating thought, and
developing skills of anticipation. Silent viewing сan be a prediction technique when
students are watching the video for the first time. Get students to guess what is
happening and what the characters might be saying or ask students what has
happened up to that point. Finally, replay the video segment with the sound on so that
students can compare their impressions with what actually happens in the video.
Sound on and vision off activity can sometimes be interesting and useful.
Students can hear only the dialogue but are unable to see the action. Have students
predict or reconstruct what has happened visually depending only on what they heard.

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If there are some difficult language points in the video unit closely controlled
repetition is a necessary step to communicative production exercises. Replay a scene
on video with certain pauses for repetition either individually or in chorus. When
students have a clear understanding of the presentation, get them to act out the scene
using as much of the original version as they can remember. And when students
become confident with role playing and are sure of vocabulary and language
structures, a more creative activity can be introduced in which students are asked to
improvise the scene to fit their views of the situation and the characters they are
playing. Role play involves students as active participants.
Dubbing activity is effective when students have the necessary language
competence. Turning the sound off and leaving students only with the visual
information, ask the students to fill in the script orally.
Discussion that usually follows the video presentation stimulates
communication among students. A good discussion helps to arouse interest because
the students taking part are challenged to think. Before discussion, tell students the
purpose of the discussion activity. Get students to talk about the discussion topic and
encourage them to participate in the discussion.
Video is an effective teaching aid, and teaching with video in a conversation
class is exciting and stimulating. Watching video presentations for language learning
purposes should be an active process for students.
XIV. Answer the following questions based on the text:
1. Why is teaching with video considered to be a rich and valuable resource?
2. Why are video classes equally liked by both students and teachers? 3. What does
the success of teaching with video depend on? 4. What active methods of dealing
with video in class are mentioned in the text? 5. Who plays a key role in a video
class? 6. Which of the mentioned activities do you find most exciting and
stimulating? 7. What does the process of preparation for active viewing involve? 8.
What does follow-up activity involve? 9. Share your personal experience in being
taught with video.

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 XV. Answer the following questions:
1. Teaching films have been with us for a few decades already but still teachers
do not seem to be on friendly terms with them. What are the reasons for this kind of
situation? 2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of teaching films in foreign-
language teaching as compared with other audio-visual aids? 3. Are you familiar with
film-segments and loop-films included in the complex set of teaching materials for
our schools?
XVI. Read the following text:
Teaching Films: A Necessity Or... A Nuisance?
For various reasons many foreign-language teachers are not quite on friendly
terms with films. Even the filmstrip and slide that are less difficult to handle in the
classroom have met with more acceptance outside language teaching than within it.
Meanwhile film is certainly acknowledged as one of the most effective visual aids
that exist. From good films students learn faster and remember a body of subject
matter longer than when the same subject matter is presented only verbally; films
have been used successfully to facilitate thinking and problem solving. Foreign-
language films can bring to the students activities that they could not otherwise
observe or become involved with. They are indispensable for teaching the "culture
element". The tendency of those who view films to identify themselves with the
actors and the situations makes films highly valuable for image forming and language
learning.
I have used English films with considerable success in quite varied situations.
In addition to their value for actual language learning, they break the monotony of
classroom and laboratory work and provide variety to the curriculum. Creative
teachers use professional feature and science-popular films at the advanced stage of
language learning as subject matter for class discussions and debates, for evaluating
their artistic value.

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 Let's be honest: the main stumbling block lies in the lack of professional
competence of the teacher himself. Contrary to the good old blackboard he cannot
handle it on his own which creates embarrassing moments in front of the pupils.
Very often it is the lack of methodological competence. And the HOW is as
important as the WHAT! For example, some teachers take feature films and show
them to pupils in the hope that exposure would result in learning. More often than not
this procedure has the opposite effect, incomprehension leading to discouragement.
Or they expect the students to identify themselves with the film actors on second
showing without any preparation with taped sound track or the ancillary film-strip.
And finally, the quality of both software and hardware should be excellent! A
bad sound track may lead to incomprehension and further — to irritation and
disillusionment of the students.
XVII. List the arguments and counter-arguments on using films in foreign-
language teaching.
XVIII. Answer the following questions:
1. Can you name the films that are in common use at our secondary schools
and higher educational establishments? 2. What do you think of the cartoon loop-
films for the junior forms? 3. Did you use any audio-visual aids during your school
practice? If so, describe the techniques you used.
XIX. Answer the following questions:
1. In what way must a foreign language classroom be different from other
classrooms? 2. What innovations in teaching foreign languages have recently taken
place at schools? 3. What main problems concerning the language teaching process
can you name? 4. What are the possible ways of holding an exam in language
practice? 5. What does teaching a country’s culture through its language involve?

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 SUPPLEMENTARY READING
I. One of the many kinds of English spoken and written today is Euro-
English. Euro-English has its origins in the political arena of the European
community. Here is a humorous article about the future of Euro-English published
in a Canadian newspaper. Read it, translate it into plain English and decode its
massage:
Euro-English
The European Union has announced that an agreement has been reached to
adopt English as the preferred language for European communications. As part of the
negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some
room for improvement and has accepted a five-year plan for what will be known as
Euro- English ("Euro" for short).
In the first year, "s" will be used instead of the soft "c". Sertainly sivil servants
will reseive this news with joy. Also, the hard "c" will he replaced with "k". Not only
this should klear up konfusion, hut typewriters kan have one less letter.
There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the
troublesome "ph" will he replaced with the "f". This will make words like "fotograf"
20 per cent shorter.
In the third year, puhlik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to
reach the state where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always
ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent
"e" in the language is disgrasful.
By the fourth yar, peop wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" by "z"
and "w" with "v".
During ze fifz year ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou",
and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

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 After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or
difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer. ZE DREM VIL F1NAL1
KUM TRU!
II. Read the following texts and explain their meaning.
The Language
G. Mikes
When I arrived in England I thought I knew English. After I'd been here an
hour I realized that I did not understand one word. In the first week I picked up a
tolerable working knowledge of the language and the next seven years convinced me
gradually but thoroughly that I would never know it really well, let alone perfectly.
This is sad. My only consolation being that nobody speaks English perfectly.
Remember that those five hundred words an average Englishman uses are far from
being the whole vocabulary of the language. You may learn another five hundred and
another five thousand and yet another fifty thousand and still you may come across a
further fifty thousand you have never heard of before, and nobody else either.
If you live here long enough you will find out to your greatest amazement that
the adjective nice is not the only adjective the language possesses, in spite of the fact
that in the first three years you do not need to learn or use any other adjectives. You
can say that the weather is nice, a restaurant is nice, Mr. Soand is nice, Mrs. Soand's
clothes are nice, you had a nice time, and all this will be very nice. Then you have to
decide on your accent. The easiest way to give the impression of having a good
accent or no foreign accent at all is to hold an unlit pipe in your mouth, to mutter
between your teeth and finish all your sentences with the question: "isn't it?" People
will not understand much, but they are accustomed to that and they will get a most
excellent impression.
Can you prove that nice is not the only adjective the language possesses? Try
to use more exact words or expressions instead of nice.
"It's nice to be home," sighed Gloria. "But I did have such a nice time at Ann's.
Friday was nice and warm. I wore my nice blue suit and that nice white blouse I got

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for my birthday. I had a nice seat in the train, and the conductor was very nice about
warning me before we came to West Lake. Ann and her mother met me in their nice
new BMW."
"Wasn't that nice of them?"
"What comes next is even nicer. We drove to their place, a nice brick house,
and had the nicest supper. After supper Joe and Tommy, two nice boys, took us to
see a very nice movie, and after that we all had nice big sundaes at the "Sugar Bowl".
"On Saturday we had a nice game of tennis on those nice new high school
courts, and Saturday night we went to a nice barn dance. Ann looked nice and
summery in a nice light blue print dress. On Sunday she and her mother drove me to
the train, and I thanked them for the nicest weekend I've ever had."
These words might help you: attractive, pleasant, exciting, sunny, fashionable,
comfortable, kind, terrific, considerate, solid, interesting, modem, fine, lovely, grand,
great, pretty, splendid, wonderful.
Spoken English and Broken English
G.B. Shaw
If you are learning English because you intend to travel in England and wish to
be understood there, do not try to speak English perfectly because if you do, no one
will understand you.
Though there is no such thing as perfectly correct English, there is presentable
English which we call "Good English", but in London nine hundred and ninety nine
out of every thousand people not only speak bad English but speak even that very
badly. You may say that even if they do not speak English well themselves they at
least understand it when the speaker is a foreigner, the better he speaks the harder it is
to understand him. Therefore the first thing you have to do is to speak with a strong
foreign accent, and speak broken English: that is English without any grammar. Then
every English person will at once know that you are a foreigner, and try to understand
and be ready to help you.

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 He will not expect you to be polite and to use elaborate grammatical phrases.
He will be interested in you because you are a foreigner. If you say: "Will you have
the goodness, sir, to direct me to the railway terminal at "Charing Cross",
pronouncing all the vowels and consonants beautifully, he will suspect you of being a
beggar. But if you shout "Please! Charing Cross! Which way?" You will have no
difficulty. Half a dozen people will give you directions at once.
Oxford Accent
D. Balsden
The Oxford accent exists, but it defies definition. It is not, as the French think,
the kind of English which is spoken within a twenty mile radius of the city. Indeed, it
is not an accent at all, but a manner of speaking. In particular it is a manner of
pausing in your speech, of pausing not at the end of sentences, where you might be
interrupted but in the middle of sentences. Nobody, it is to be hoped, will be so rude
as to interrupt you when you are in the middle of a sentence. So pause there, to decide
what your next sentence is going to be. Then, having decided, move quickly forward
to it without a moment's pause at the full stop. Yes, jumping your full stops — that is
the Oxford accent. Do it well, and you will be able to talk forever. Nobody will have
the chance of breaking in and stealing the conversation from you. The Oxford accent,
so called, is also a matter of redefining the other person's statement on your own
terms. Wait for him to say whatever he has to say. Then start yourself: "What you
really mean is ..." Nothing could be ruder...
III. Read the following texts. They describe different kinds of schools. Before
you read, talk with your groupmates about your first school. How old were you
when you started? What did you think of it? Can you remember your first day
there?
Now read the first text. It was written by Winston Churchill (1874-1965), and
is from his autobiography “My Early Life”. He describes his first day at school,
when he was seven.
Winston Churchill’s Prep School

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 The school my parents had selected for my education was one of the most
fashionable and expensive in the country. It modelled itself upon Eton and aimed at
being preparatory for that Public School above all others. It was supposed to be the
very last thing in schools. Only ten boys in a class; electric light (then a wonder); a
swimming pond; spacious football and cricket grounds; two or three school treats, or
'expeditions' as they were called, every term; the masters all M.A.'s in gowns and
mortar-boards; a chapel of its own; no hampers allowed; everything provided by the
authorities. It was a dark November afternoon when we arrived at this establishment.
We had tea with the Headmaster, with whom my mother conversed in the most easy
manner. I was preoccupied with the fear of spilling my cup and so making 'a bad
start'. I was also miserable at the idea of being left alone among all the strangers in
this great, fierce, formidable place. After all I was only seven, and I had been so
happy in my nursery with all my toys. I had such wonderful toys: a real steam engine,
a magic lantern, and a collection of soldiers already nearly a thousand strong.
Now it was to be all lessons. Seven or eight hours of lessons every day except
half-holidays, and football or cricket in addition.
When the last sound of my mother's departing wheels had died away, the
Headmaster invited me to hand over any money I had in my possession. I produced
my three half-crowns, which were duly entered in a book, and I was told that from
time to time there would be a 'shop' at the school with all sorts of things which one
would like to have, and that I could choose what I liked up to the limit of the seven
and sixpence. Then we quitted the Headmaster's parlour and the comfortable private
side of the house, and entered the more bleak apartments reserved for the instruction
and accommodation of the pupils. I was taken into a Form Room and told to sit at a
desk. All the other boys were out of doors, and I was alone with the Form Master. He
produced a thin greeny-brown covered book filled with words in different types of
print.
'You have never done any Latin before, have you?' he said.
'No, sir.'

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 'This is a Latin grammar.' He opened it at a well-thumbed page. 'You must
learn this,' he said, pointing to a number of words. 'I will come in half an hour and see
what you know.'
Behold me then on a gloomy evening, with an aching heart, seated in front of
the First Declension: Mensa - a table. Mensa - 0 table. Mensam - table. Mensae - of a
table. Mensae - to or for a table. Mensa - by, with or from a table.
What on earth did it mean? Where was the sense in it? It seemed absolute
rigmarole to me. However, there was one thing I could always do: I could learn by
heart. And I thereupon proceeded, as far as my private sorrows would allow, to
memorize the task which had been set me.
In due course the Master returned. 'Have you learnt it?' he asked. 'I think I can
say it, sir,' I replied; and I gabbled off. He seemed so satisfied with this that I was
emboldened to ask a question. 'What does it mean, sir?'
'It means what it says. Mensa, a table. Mensa is a noun of the First Declension.
There are five declensions and you have learnt the singular of the First Declension.'
'But,' I repeated, 'what does it mean?'
'Mensa means a table,' he answered.
'Then why does mensa also mean 0 table,' I enquired, 'and what does 0 table
mean?'
'Mensa, 0 table, is the vocative case,' he replied.
'But why 0 table?' I persisted in genuine curiosity.
‘0 table - you would use that in addressing a table, invoking a table.' And then
seeing he was not carrying with him, 'You would use it in speaking to a table.'
'But I never do,' I blurted out in honest amazement.
'If you are impertinent, you will be punished, and punished, let me tell you,
very severely,' was his conclusive rejoinder.
Such was my first introduction to the classics from which, I have been told,
many of our cleverest men have derived so much solace and profit.

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 Read the second text. In this text, A.S. Neill describes his famous school,
Summerhill, which he founded in 1921.
The Idea of Summerhill
This is a story of a modern school - Summerhill. Summerhill began as an
experimental school. It is no longer such; it is now a demonstration school, for it
demonstrates that freedom works.
When my first wife and I began the school, we had one main idea: to make the
school fit the child- instead of making the child fit the school. Obviously, a school
that makes active children sit at desks studying mostly useless subjects is a bad
school. It is a good school only for those who believe in such a school, for those
uncreative citizens who want docile uncreative children who will fit into a
civilization whose standard of success is money.
I had taught in ordinary schools for many years. I knew the other way well. I
knew it was all wrong. It was wrong because it was based on an adult conception of
what a child should be and of how a child should learn.
Well, we set out to make a school in which we should allow children freedom
to be themselves. In order to do this, we had to renounce all discipline, all direction,
all suggestion, all moral training, all religious instruction. We have been called brave,
but it did not require courage. All it required was what we had – a complete belief in
the child as a good, not an evil being.
My view is that a child is innately wise and realistic. If left to himself without
adult suggestion of any kind, he will develop as far as he is capable of developing.
Logically, Summerhill is a place in which people who have the innate ability
and wish to be scholars will be scholars; while those who are only fit to sweep the
streets will sweep the streets. But we have not produced a street cleaner so far. Nor
do I write this snobbishly, for I would rather see a school produce a happy street
cleaner than a neurotic scholar.
What is Summerhill like?

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 Well, for one thing, lessons are optional. Children can go to them or stay away
from them - for years if they want to. There is a timetable - but only for the teachers.
The children have classes usually according to their age, but sometimes according to
their interests. We have no new methods of teaching, because we do not consider that
teaching in itself matters very much.
Whether a school has or has not a special method for teaching long division is
of no significance, for long division is of no importance except to those who want to
learn it. And the child who wants to learn long division will learn it no matter how it
is taught.
Summerhill is possibly the happiest school in the world. We have no truants
and seldom a case of homesickness. We very rarely have fights - quarrels, of course,
but seldom have I seen a stand-up fight like the ones we used to have as boys. I
seldom hear a child cry, because children when free have much less hate to express
than children who are downtrodden. Hate breeds hate, and love breeds love. Love
means approving of children, and that is essential in any school. You can't be on the
side of children if you punish them and storm at them. Summerhill is a school in
which the child knows that he is approved of.
The function of the child is to live his own life - not the life that his anxious
parents think he should live, nor a life according to the purpose of the educator who
thinks he knows what is best. All this interference and guidance on the part of adults
only produces a generation of robots.
In Summerhill, everyone has equal rights. No one is allowed to walk on my
grand piano, and I am not allowed to borrow a boy's cycle without his permission. At
a General School Meeting, the vote of a child of six work counts for as much as my
vote does.
But, says the knowing one, in practice of course the voices of the grownups
count. Doesn't the child of wait to see how you vote before he raises his hand? I wish
he sometimes would, for too many of my proposals are beaten. Free children are not

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easily influenced; the absence of fear accounts for this phenomenon. Indeed, the
absence of fear is the finest thing that can happen to a child.
Answer the following questions based on the text:
1. In what ways does a child usually have to fit a school
To what extent do you think Summerhill fits a child? 2. What are the freedoms that
children at Summerhill enjoy? 3. Neill holds quite strong views on education, the
innate qualities of children, and the way adults interfere with learning. Which of these
views do you agree with? 4. What do you understand by the last sentence of the
extract? What were you afraid of when you were young? 5. Here are some more of
A.S. Neill's ideas. What is your reaction to them?
'I hold that the aim of life is to find happiness, which means to find interest.
Education should be a preparation for life.'
'Most of the school work that adolescents do is simply a waste of time, of
energy, of patience. It robs youth of its right to play and play and play; it puts old
heads on young shoulders.'
'Traditional education produces children for a society that needs obedient
sitters at dreary desks, slanders in shops, mechanical catchers of the 8.30 suburban
train'.
IV. Read the following text, find a suitable title for it and speak about Mrs.
Leonard’s role in the author’s life:
I grew up knowing I was different, and I hated it. I was born with a cleft palate,
and when I started school my classmates made it clear to me how I must look to
others: a little girl with a misshapen lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth and garbled
speech.
When schoolmates would ask, "What happened to your lip?" I'd tell them I'd
fallen and cut it in a piece of glass. Somehow it seemed more acceptable to have
suffered an accident, than to have been born different. I was convinced that no one
outside my family could love me. Or even like me. Then I entered Mrs. Leonard's
second-grade class.

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 Mrs. Leonard was round and pretty and fragrant, with shining brown hair and
warm, dark, smiling eyes. Everyone adored her. But no one came to love her more
than I did. And for a special reason.
The time came for the annual hearing tests given at our school. I could barely
hear out of one ear and was not about to reveal something else that would single me
out as different. So I cheated.
The "whisper test" required each child to go to the classroom door, turn
sideways, close one ear with a finger, while the teacher whispered something from
her desk, which the child repeated. Then the same for the other ear. Nobody checked
how tightly the untested ear was covered, so I merely pretended to block mine.
As usual, I was last. But all through the testing I wondered what Mrs. Leonard
might say to me. I knew from previous years that the teacher whispered things like
"The sky is blue" or "Do you have new shoes?"
My time came. I turned my bad ear toward her, plugging up the other just
enough to be able to hear. I waited, and then came the words that God had surely put
into her mouth, seven words that changed my life forever.
Mrs. Leonard, the teacher I adored, said softly, "I wish you were my little
girl."
V. Look at the headline below. What does it suggest the article from The
Independent on Sunday is about?
Teaching with a Magic Touch
Karen Gold learns that a pat on the back brings the best out of the class
A pat on the back is worth a dozen curricular innovations, according to a study
of how teachers touch their pupils in primary schools.
When teachers supplement praise with a pat, the whole class works on average
20 per cent harder, say researchers looking at 16 West Midlands primary schools.
In one class children concentrated almost twice as hard when their teacher
added a touch to every “Well done”, in another, bad behaviour fell by more than two
thirds after the teacher combined a pat with praise.

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 Touch studies were the brainchild of Kate Hevan, an education lecturer at
Wolverhampton Polytechnic. She and two Birmingham University researchers spent
more than 50 hours in 16 classes, watching children aged four to six and categorizing
of how often teachers touched their pupils, when, where and why.
Almost none of the teachers used touch to accompany praise. Mostly they
touched the head, shoulder, hand, arm or back to move a child to another part of the
classroom, show it how to do something – hold a pencil for example – or for no
apparent reason.
The researchers’ theory was that a touch would reinforce praise. So without
telling the teachers what they were investigating, they asked four of those previously
observed to stop all touching except when praising their pupils. They should touch
whenever they praised, but they should not praise more than usual.
The results were staggering. Children's normal concentration in different
classes ranged from 75 per cent of the three-minute spells of observation to only 39
per cent of the time. But during the praise-touch weeks concentration in every class
soared: to more than 90 per cent of the time in the harder-working classes; to 69 per
cent of the time - almost double - in the ones where children had worked properly
less than half the day.
The teachers achieved this without any extra praise, and with fewer pats over
all, because all the inconsequential touches stopped. They kept control without
touching, too: in the two classes where disruption as well as concentration was
measured, incidents such as water throwing and pencil-grabbing fell by almost two-
thirds.
The teachers were amazed ‘Some of them weren’t aware that they touched
children at all’ says Kate Bevan. ‘None of them had any idea it would have such a
potent effect’.
She believes that a pat reinforced the pleasure of being praised, particularly for
young children who are still more familiar with actions than words. Praise then
becomes more memorable for the touched child and those nearby.

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 Touch is not on the teacher-training curriculum. Kate Bevan, who trains
teachers, believes it should be: 'Teachers can only do what they feel comfortable
with, but this is part of the teacher's answer to what makes children work hard and
what motivates them. They should at least be aware of it.
VI. Read the passage below about a child with behavioural problems. Decide
how you would deal with Daniel if he were a pupil of yours. Discuss your answers.
Troublesome Children in the Classroom
Irene Caspari
Nine-year-old Daniel was troublesome at school. His parents were well off, but
they were divorced. Daniel was in the habit of pushing children for no apparent
reason, and on one occasion he scratched a girl's leg with a cocktail stick until it
bled.... In spite of this very objectionable behaviour, the teacher reported that there
was something very appealing about Daniel when she talked to him and reprimanded
him.
Daniel was also a problem at home. There was a close connection between his
home circumstances and his behaviour at school. He lived with his mother and a
younger brother with whom Daniel quarrelled all the time. Mother preferred the
younger brother who was much better behaved at home and much more successful at
school than Daniel. The mother tried not to favour her younger son, but she was
aware of her preferences.
It seemed very obvious that Daniel's attacks on other children at school were
connected with his jealousy of his younger brother. He attacked his brother at home
just as he attacked the children at school. His attacks on his brother were, of course,
linked to his feelings of being unwanted and unloved at home. They also ensured that
his mother took notice of him. Similarly, his attacks on the other children at school
necessitated the teacher’s attention. Once he got the teacher's attention, for example
when she talked to him, he could be very appealing. Just as his frequent quarrels with
younger brother can be seen as his way of telling his mother that he felt hurt by her

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preference of the younger child, he showed his teacher how hurt he was by her
attending to other children.
Neither the mother nor the teacher neglected him. Neither of them could give
him as much attention as he desired. The reasons for Daniel's insatiable greed for
attention were very complex and complicated and not easy to discover.
Daniel's attention-seeking behaviour made the teacher's life very difficult. She
understood that he wanted attention and that he needed it. Yet as one of forty children
he could not get what he wanted. She also had to protect the other children from his
attacks. So she had to reprimand him and punish him, just as his mother did at home.
In this way Daniel was caught in a vicious circle which was difficult to break. He
wanted to be loved, he felt angry because he could not get what he wanted, he
attacked other children because he was angry, and therefore could not get the love he
wanted.
VII. Read the following text. Do you think the way the young teacher dealt
with the situation was correct? What risk did he run? What would you do if you
were in similar conditions?
The Passionate Year
James Hilton
Speed was very nervous as he took his seat on the dais at five to seven and
watched the school straggling to their places. They came in quietly enough, but there
was an atmosphere of subdued expectancy of which Speed was keenly conscious; the
boys stared about them, grinned at each other, seemed as if they were waiting for
something to happen. Nevertheless, at five past seven all was perfectly quiet and
orderly, although it was obvious that little work was being done. Speed felt rather as
if he were sitting on a powder-magazine, and there was a sense in which he was eager
for the storm to break. At about a quarter past seven a banging of desk-lids began at
the far end of the hall.

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 He stood up and said, quietly, but in a voice that carried well: "I don't want to
be hard on anybody, so I'd better warn you that I shall punish any disorderliness very
severely."
There was some tittering, and for a moment or so he wondered if he had made
a fool of himself. Then he saw a bright, rather pleasant-faced boy in one of the back
rows deliberately raise a desk-lid and drop it with a bang. Speed consulted the map of
the desks that was in front of him and by counting down the rows discovered the
boy's name to be Worsley. He wondered how the name should be pronounced —
whether the first syllable should rhyme with "purse" or with "horse". Instinct in him,
that uncanny feeling for atmosphere, embarked him on an outrageously bold
adventure, nothing less than a piece of facetiousness, the most dangerous weapon in a
new Master's armoury, and the one most of all likely to recoil on himself. He stood
up again and said: "Wawsley or Wurssley — however you call yourself — you have
a hundred lines!"
The whole assembly roared with laughter. That frightened him a little.
Supposing they did not stop laughing! He remembered an occasion at his own school
when a class had ragged a certain Master very neatly and subtly by pretending to go
off into hysterics of laughter at some trilling witticism of his.
When the laughter subsided, a lean, rather clever-looking boy rose up in the
front row but one and said, impudently: "Please sir, I'm Worsley. I didn't do
anything."
Speed replied promptly: "Oh, didn't you? Well, you've got a hundred lines,
anyway."
"What for, sir?" — in hot indignation.
"For sitting in your wrong desk."
Again the assembly laughed, but there was no mistaking the respectfulness that
underlay the merriment. And, as a matter of fact, the rest of the evening passed
entirely without incident. After the others had gone, Worsley came up to the dais
accompanied by the pleasant-faced boy who dropped the desk-lid. Worsley pleaded

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for the remission of his hundred lines, and the other boy supported him urging that it
was he and not Worsley who had dropped the lid.
"And what's your name?" asked Speed.
"Naylor, sir."
"Very well, Naylor, you and Worsley can share the hundred lines between
you." He added smiling: "I've no doubt you're neither of you worse than anybody else
but you must pay the penalty of being pioneers."
They went away laughing.
That night Speed went into Clanwell's room for a chat before bedtime, and
Clanwell congratulated him fulsomely on his successful passage of the ordeal. "As a
matter of fact," Clanwell said, "I happen to know that they'd prepared a star benefit
performance for you but that you put them off, somehow, from the beginning. The
prefects get to hear of these things and they tell me. Of course, I don't take any
official notice of them. It doesn't matter to me what plans people make - it's when any
are put into execution that I wake up Anyhow, you may be interested to know that the
members of School House subscribed over fifteen shillings to purchase fireworks
which they were going to let off after the switches had been turned off! Alas for fond
hopes ruined!"
Clanwell and Speed leaned back in their armchairs and roared with laughter.
VIII. Read the following interview and describe Christine’s professional
characteristics:
Presenter: Christine teaches in a secondary school. What do you enjoy most
being a teacher?
Christine: I enjoy the fun you have, I enjoy the … er…, the unexpected, the
things that … that you can’t plan for. When we were at college I think the only thing
that they … they kept on about was planning lessons, and we used to have to make
modern fiction, the lesson plans, because real lessons aren’t like that, they don’t work
out the way you plan them and that’s what makes it really interesting is that you just
go in, thinking you’re going to do thing A and it turned into thing B depending on

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what the students do and say. Or, if you’re teaching two parallel classes, as I used to
quite for literature at ‘A’ level, you’d be doing the same set book, and you might
even be at the same part of the book with the two groups, but it would go completely
differently depending on the youngsters you had in front of you.
And they’re also funny, yeah, I mean students are terribly entertaining and
they’re just a hoot. And they … they come out with all these amazing things and they
tell you things. And if you’re any good at it they will trust you as a person. And so
what you’re teaching them in English is much less important than what you’re
teaching them about ‘the big world’ and the world they’re going into and about
relationships and values and things like that.
And it’s quite the most unboring job in the world and you could …if you were
bored in teaching, then you shouldn’t be there, um …but something awful would
have gone wrong if you didn’t find …er… each day interesting.
I think the only downside is that it’s terribly hard work and it’s awfully tiring
physically and emotionally at times. But …um… children are such nice people and if
you treat them properly then they’ll do anything. You … can turn them into anything
you want if you treat them well and you develop appropriate relationships with them.
Then there’s very little that they can’t learn and can’t do and a good teacher can take
children into a whole world which is magic and exciting.
Presenter: What changes have taken place in the relationships between teachers
and pupils since you were at school?
Christine: I think that there has been a real change in the quality of
relationships, I think they’re much more open, more relaxed, less formal. Some
people would say that quality relationships bring quality work. Familiarity does not
breed contempt, care and control are not opposites. If you care for children you
manage your classroom well and it is a well-ordered classroom, it doesn’t mean it is
not a relaxed classroom, it’s not a friendly classroom, it’s not a supportive classroom.
What matters is that … that it’s a .. there is good quality of relationship
between the teacher and the student, and the students trust the teacher as an individual

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and vice versa. And I think teachers have become more human and more open with
their students and are more prepared to allow the students to know more about them
as individuals. And many of the things that we’ve developed in the past few years,
like records of children’s achievement replacing school reports, have meant that there
is formally built in much more dialogue now. Students are involved much more in
their own progress and their own assessment, they have a voice in their programmes
of study and their progress. And that voice has always been a vital voice and the
teachers who failed to take that on board, who didn’t listen to student feedback were
losing out on a whole valuable resource for planning and developing work: it’s how
the students are receiving the work.
I mean when I was at school nobody had… showed any signs of being
remotely interested in what I thought of what was going on or whether I thought it
could be different. Yet by the seventies and eighties it was becoming much more
widely recognized that consulting with students and making decisions with them was
much more positive than imposing them upon them, you know. And it isn’t just a
simple tension between authoritarian and democratic ways of running a classroom:
it’s about a partnership for learning, in which teachers and students work together.
And that partnership needs to involve the family as well, so that everybody is taking
part in shaping the child’s learning and is paying the attention to what the child or
student himself thinks and feels.
Children are wonderful at assessing their own progress. There was a lot of gosh
talked at the early stages about if you invited children to comment on their own
progress or to assess their performance or to get goals that they couldn’t do at, they’d
be unrealistic, they’d say they were brilliant. And it just… there was never any
evidence for that and a lot of work’s been done since, and children are deeply self-
critical. You could ask a teacher to put the children in a rank order if you asked the
children to put the children in a rank order themselves they’d get it tight. They know
exactly where they are relative to other people. They are very good judges of their

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own progress, they’re un… unnecessary harsh critics of their own abilities,
particularly as teenagers and they are deeply self-confident.
And I think one of the big changes has been the handling over of some of the
responsibility in the classroom to children. But it does, I think, demand more skill not
less. I think it’s much harder to take risks with youngsters, to be open, to be relaxed.
It’s easy to run an authoritarian classroom, it’s easy to rule using fear and
punishment. Anybody can do that, particularly if you’ve got a big system of
sanctions behind you to put into place. But winning and earning the respect of
children, and earning a relaxed relationship and relaxed classroom, that’s much
harder. And that’s why I get so cross with critics who get on their high horses about
‘standards’ and ‘sloppiness’, you know, and ‘not expecting enough of the children’.
A relaxed classroom isn’t about low expectations, it’s about purposeful quality work.
And it’s very-very hard to achieve, it’s much easier to bully them into submission and
shout at them.
IX. In the passage below George Finely, a teacher in his early forties shares
some of his experiences as a teacher. Read the passage through and answer the
question: Does George like teaching?
I went into teaching for all the wrong reasons – short hours, long holidays and
the idea that I’d have enough time to set up my own business. It didn’t work out at
all. I ought to have known better, as my father was a teacher, but he worked in a
grammar school. Although he brought marking home, his job was very different from
mine, much more settled. It was easy for him to know what he was doing. If he saw
my classroom sure he would be absolutely horrified. He just can’t envisage what my
school is like.
Before I became a teacher I worked as a designer in industry. It was a dead-end
job with no chance of making progress unless you were brilliant. So I went on a post-
graduate teaching course for a year, which I enjoyed. It was much better than sitting
in a factory working out pattern designs. I liked the academic side, but the practical
side wasn’t very useful, though I understand it’s much better now.

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 My first job was at a small school in an expensive dormitory village, very
different from my present school. All the children were smartly dressed in uniform.
They were expected to move quietly from one classroom to another and to eat their
lunch in total silence except for a short period of quiet chatting at the end. In
assembly, the head stood behind a sort of lectern in traditional fashion with his staff
ranged on either side. He once told the female staff, ‘I like my ladies to wear a collar
and tie’. In many ways he was running a nice little preparatory school which was
what the parents wanted.
Although I liked the head personally, he reminded me of my father; I didn’t
feel that working in a school like that was doing a lot for society. I wouldn’t call
myself a political – capital P – person, but I’d developed a bit of a social conscience
by that time. So I left after two years.
After a while, I met up with a chap I’d worked with before, who was setting up
a handicraft workshop. It seemed a good idea so I threw in my lot with him, lost a lot
of money and just avoided being made a bankrupt. When the business collapsed, I
just went abroad for four months. When we returned, I needed money desperately, so
I went back to teaching.
I’ve been at this school for four years now. We have about three hundred
pupils. The catchment area includes quite a large number of council houses and
terraced houses houses like mine. The teaching is mainly informal and staff are
allowed to use their own methods. Unless things are going badly wrong, no one
interferes. We try to bring the children progressively towards a more secondary way
of working. In the first year, they are with the class teacher almost constantly; but by
the time they leave us at the age of twelve, they’re moving around in groups from
teacher to teacher.
The first two or three years in this school were very difficult for me, even
though I’d already done quite a bit of teaching. The children didn’t know how to act
in a classroom situation: their socialization wasn’t complete. They couldn’t sit at their
desks and work, but wanted to make friends with the children around them. There

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was a lot of talking and moving about. They weren’t actually destroying the ceilings
but the relationship deteriorated to such an extent that some of them disliked me.
It needs a lot of work to recover from that situation. A teacher is very isolated.
You can go to a colleague and say, ‘They’re a hell of a bunch’, and get a sympathetic
hearing but you’ve got to work it out for yourself ultimately. I overcame by trial and
error. There’s no prescription for getting control. Maybe it’s a shout or a threat or just
waiting there with the expression on your face. There were times when none of them
worked. Teaching is an art, having an eye for the types of movements and an ear for
the sounds that indicate the machine running properly.
I like teaching much better now and I want to stay in this school because I’m
reaping the benefits of all the hard work put into the relationship. I still have a
yearning to set up another business, though that will probably remain a dream. A lot
of teachers see their work as a vocation, but I could never feel that. In some ways, I
see myself as a performer, an entertainer setting up activities for the children at their
level. If they enjoy them, then the job is done.
Complete, in note form, the chart instead of George:
Reasons for becoming Current teaching
a teacher job
Non-teaching jobs Problems with
teaching
Teacher training Pleasures from
teaching
First teaching job Future plans

X. The article below describes the lives of two Russian teachers of English
Anya and Оlga. Read the article and find out whether they are satisfied with their
jobs. Then compare and discuss your answer with a partner giving reasons.
A Tale of Two Teachers

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 At a time of unprecedented East-West interchange Russia is losing its English
teachers. Pieta Monks reports from Moscow.
‘I would never work as a teacher after I qualify – never!’ Anya’s whole face
expressed repugnance at the idea of being permanently stuck in a classroom with a lot
of rowdy pupils. ‘They don’t even listen to me…’
She is a young, striking-looking, slim woman in her final year at the Moscow
Pedagogical Institute – now upgraded to a university. She is very hard-working and
able. She is at the moment on teaching practice which she finds difficult, hard and
non-rewarding financially and intellectually.
She looks even younger than her 21 years and lots of the children she teaches
are bigger than her and won't do what she tells them. There is also a dearth of good
textbooks in her subject which is English.
She needs a powerful incentive to keep at it which she won’t get. Russian
schools are crying out for English teachers, any English teachers, let alone those of
the caliber of Anya.
English speakers can earn a fortune in private enterprise. On teaching practice
Anya gets 1.000 roubles a month (which is typical of Moscow only) - a bit more than
the basic rate for a student because she is at a special English school. Potatoes cost 80
roubles a kilo. A pair of good quality shoes 3.000 roubles. She gets by because she
lives al home. Her mother and father both work.
0f course, money isn't everything to Anya, but she naturally wants enough to
live on especially if she doesn't find the job that congenial anyway.
In the holidays she enjoyed working as an interpreter which paid three times
her present day. Anya's rejection of the teaching profession is typical of her peers in
college. Many of them in fact didn't even bother to finish the course but left once they
found themselves profitable jobs in business, often earning, unqualified, more than
their parents.
Olga Vinogradova is a lively, brilliant teacher, in her early thirties. She is an
academic, who preferred to work in schools rather than carry on with her research.

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She teaches English but was not trained as a teacher. She is a graduate of the Institute
of Linguistics, and worked on her thesis there, but found the professors stuffy.
She abandoned linguistics after getting he doctorate and became a computer
expert, then an agricultural research scientist. Her English is excellent.
She was persuaded to go into teaching by the head of English at School No. 57,
an inner city school. This was four years ago. She discovered that she enjoyed
teaching and her pupils seemed to enjoy being taught by her.
She likes the new freedoms, that allow her to teach the way she wants, as long
as she broadly conforms to certain guidelines. A few years ago her timetable would
have been rigidly controlled, even her voluntary after-school work would have been
strictly laid down.
There arc particular problems in her inner city school. There are many Tartar
children for whom Russian is not their first language, whose parents come to
Moscow for work and whose living conditions are crowded and stressed. It is
difficult to give special attention to them in classes of 40.
There are general problems too which she shares with Anya: lack of textbooks
and other teaching aids. For her, however, these are challenges that she can
overcome.
But will she stay a teacher? Olga Vinogradova has two dependent children and
a mother who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. She cannot afford to carry on
working as a teacher if her salary does not improve. Her husband earns twice as much
as her, but in today's inflationary Russia they find it possible just to get by. If a few
years ago 20 per cent of their income went on food, today it is 80 per cent, leaving
not enough for clothes and other basic necessities.
Anya and Olga are two women typical of today. Anya lured into private
business that wouldn’t have existed to tempt her a few years back, and Olga lured
into teaching by the new freedoms and ideas that now abound there. Both women
now can reject the careers they were trained for. But will Russian teachers get the
salary they deserve and will Olga be lost to the teaching profession as well?

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 XI. Read the following article and say whether the same problem is topical in
Russian schools as well:
Teachers Seek Help with Violent Pupils
Secure hospital is helping to train teaching staff, reports John O'Leary
STAFF from a high-security hospital are training teachers to deal with
disruptive children as young as three. The courses designed by Ashworth hospital on
Merseyside, which houses some of the most violent criminals, instruct teachers on
how to restrain violent pupils and how to defuse their anger.
The training was disclosed at the conference of the Assoсiation of Teachers
and Lecturers, where delegates called for training in restraint methods to be offered to
all schools.
John Williamson, who works at Kilgarth School on The Wirral, said he used
the techniques taught by Ashworth every day because his school catered for teenage
boys with behavioural problems. "Other teachers may find themselves in a situation
like this only once a term or once in a career but it can terminate a career. If you
don’t know how to hold a child, it can be particularly dangerous," he said.
Nursery teachers have received the training, and Mr. Williamson said that
young children were increasingly using violence such as kicking and biting. These
were a particular problem to deal with, he said. "Small children can slip to the ground
and cause considerable damage to you and themselves. You need to be trained in
ways of preventing that, such as bringing yourself down to their level."
The three-day courses include instruction on how to pin down pupils' arms to
give time to defuse a violent incident. The advice on "de-escalation" includes
avoiding threatening body language and giving potentially violent pupils a way out of
a conflict without losing face. Tom Capper, of Bridgewater School, Cheshire,
described an 11-year-old pupil crawling under his desk, ripping up a textbook and
eating it. "This kind of incident disrupts the education of other children".
"We need special training to deal with it because if you have got 34 other kids
in the class you have got a megaproblem if one says he simply isn’t going to work."

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 Government guidelines issued last year set down limits on the degree of
"reasonable force" that teachers can use to control pupils. But delegates said
yesterday that the guidance was useless without training in effective techniques. They
said the Government policy to integrate more children with emotional and
behavioural difficulties in mainstream schools mean that teachers were facing
increasing violence.
Few schools or colleges offer training in restraint, despite sharp rise over recent
years in the number of pupils excluded because of violence. Ann Speake, of
Tavistock College, Devon, said that most schools relied on a senior member staff to
be "on call" to deal with threatening pupils.
Delegates backed a motive that drew parallels between the Government's
policy of teaching children with special needs in mainstream class and the "well-
intentioned but ill-fated Care in the Community" programme for mentally
handicapped people.
They called for the "reasonable force" rules to be delayed until schools were
adequately funded and teachers properly trained to deal with disrupted children.
XII. Here is a chance to apply your understanding of educational,
psychological, language teaching and learning aspects to a full-length reading.
First, read the following selection by a college student who has had a tough time
figuring out her life. She has had to move between countries and adjust to their
cultures, and she has had a difficult time making friends. Yet she is determined to
succeed. After reading the selection, answer the questions that follow. There are
also other comprehension questions to help you continue practicing analytical
reading skills.
MY OWN TWO FEET
Irina Marjan
Sometimes in my life, I have felt like the world's orphan. I have been shuttled
between two countries, yet I don't fully belong to either one. I speak their languages,
but I sound "foreign" to the native speakers of both. I have had two sets of parents,

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yet neither set has really wanted or accepted me. I turned 18, and I just started
attending college. Even if neither of my two sets of parents has truly helped me, I am
finding that I have my own two feet, and I'm beginning to stand on them.
In the beginning, I didn't know who my parents were or where I belonged. I
was born in Queens, New York, and shipped off at nine months to Belgrade,
Yugoslavia. My parents had their own problems and couldn't take proper care of me.
I lived with my grandparents and aunt and uncle in Lokve, Yugoslavia. For a
long time, I thought that my aunt and uncle were my parents, so when my mother
came to see me, I ran away from her because I didn't know who she was. My foster
parents had never told me that they were not my parents, much less who my parents
were. They didn't like my mother, so they didn't say a word to help me to understand
who this strange visitor was. My mother was upset because I didn't want to talk to
her. One day, she caught me by my hair and made me listen. "You listen," said the
woman, "I'm your mother." After that, she brought me back to the U.S., where I
stayed with my parents for a year but was sent back to Yugoslavia because they still
didn't get along, and I wasn't welcome any more.
At the age of five, when it was time to start school in Yugoslavia, the children
in kindergarten were rude. I only had one friend, and we used to cry together because
no one liked us. We would run out the door as soon as the teacher went on her break.
I would run home, and my grandfather would bring me back to school. It was the
"highlight" of every school day. My schoolmates reminded me about it till I was in
the seventh grade.
If this was not enough, then there was the obstacle of learning to speak Serbian.
The Serbian language was the official language of Yugoslavia even though there
were many other languages spoken regionally. For example, the school I attended
was the school for the children of Romanian-speaking people living in the area. All of
my classes were in Romanian except for my Serbian language class. At that school,
the only foreign language offered was French. I had to make a decision whether to
stay in that school and learn French or transfer to a Serbian school which had more

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foreign languages, including English, which I wanted to learn. If I'd transferred, then
I'd have had to take all my classes in Serbian, which I hated. What I already detested
in my Serbian language class were the prescribed essays that I had to write, in
particular the perennial favorite "Moja domovina" - "My country." This was ironic
because it wasn't even my country!
There was a Serbian school nearby, but the Serbians who attended it were
arrogant and had snobbish attitudes toward non-Serbians who wanted to go to their
school. Therefore, I decided to stay and learn French. I never did learn English.
In the summer of 1988, at 14, I came to the U.S. to visit my parents. At that
point, there was nothing for me to go back to in Yugoslavia because I had gotten to
be too much of a responsibility for my aunt and uncle since I'd entered puberty. But
ultimately I didn't want to go back because I knew I would have to attend a high
school where classes were taught entirely in Serbian.
At that moment, I decided that I ought to remain in the U.S. My father still
wanted to send me back, but that's when I started taking charge of my life. I told him
that I wanted to stay in the U.S. and make something out of my life. I decided that I
would go to school here and reach high. I would graduate with a master's degree in
business some day. And I would speak and write perfect English.
A dream and the realization of a dream may be separated by many years and
many hurdles. One hurdle for me was graduating from high school. High school was
hard. I had to learn English. I had to make new friends. I had to work to make money.
In English my biggest problem was my accent. I will never forget my first oral report.
It was a health class, and we had to do a report on drugs and alcohol. I listened to
everyone's report, but no one listened to mine. The whole class was laughing instead
of listening. I had a strong accent, and I was reading very fast because I was nervous.
It was funny for my classmates, but for me it was one of the worst experiences in my
life. I had to talk to people who didn't care what I had to say about drugs and alcohol.
Also, these rude people were the very people that I had to become friends with. I
cried every day because I was lonely and had no one to call a friend. I had an accent,

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and I was different than everyone else. Therefore, it was hard for them to accept me.
As my English improved, they began to accept me. I could feel that my life was
getting better. I did better in my classes and became friends with many people. Still, I
was working from 4 to 8 p.m. I had to stay up till 2 a.m. to finish my school work; I
had to learn English and do well in my classes in order to graduate.
Now that I'm here in an English-speaking college on this side of the Atlantic at
last, I foresee a rough road financially, but at 18 and with my sense that I can grapple
with hardship and come out on my feet, I think I can do it. I work twenty-five hours a
week for five dollars an hour and have scheduled a full college load. I do keep my
eyes on the prize. I'm beginning to feel as American as my passport declares, and I'm
told by my teachers that I'm a real student.
I guess I had to learn who I was, where I came from, where I belonged, what I
wanted to do with my life, and where I would want to live it before I could start
taking charge of it. Now at 18, I've started taking charge of my life, and I'm trying to
make the best of it. I can look back and see the long road from the tears in my first
grade class to the hopeful and expectant attitude I bring to college, and to the rest of
my life.
Reading Comprehension Questions
1. The word arrogant in "There was a Serbian school nearby, but the Serbians
who attended it were arrogant and had snobbish attitudes toward non-Serbians"
means
a. conceited; b. pleasant; c. intelligent; d. normal.
2. The word foresee in "Now that I'm here in an English-speaking college on
this side of the Atlantic at last, I foresee a rough road financially" means
a. forget; b. predict; c. appreciate; d. want
3. Which sentence best expresses the central point of the selection?
a. Sometimes Marjan felt like "the world's orphan."
b. Marjan did not want to go back to Yugoslavia because she knew she would
have to attend a high school there where classes were taught entirely in Serbian.

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 c. From her childhood on, Marjan overcome many obstacles to eventually take
charge of her life and aim for success.
d. It was during her high school years that Marjan had to learn English, make
new friends, and work hard to earn money.
4. Which sentence best expresses the implied main idea of the first paragraphs?
a. The author found her school life in Yugoslavia to be pleasant.
b. The author had big social problems.
c. The author's grandfather was her best friend.
d. The author had great challenges to deal with in Yugoslavian schools.
5. True or false? The author never found out who her parents were.
6. True or false? At age of 14, the author did not want to return to Yugoslavia
because the classes were taught in Serbian.
7. Marjan feels she began taking charge of her life when she:
a. lived in Yugoslavia; b. decided not to attend the Serbian school; c. decided at
the age of fourteen to stay in the U.S; d. bravely started college.
8. The major details of the first paragraphs are:
a. the author's Yugoslavian friends and family;
b. the languages the author knew as a child;
c. the author's schoolmates and neighbors in Yugoslavia;
d. the challenges of dealing with rude classmates and the Serbian language
in school.
9. A central point is supported by major details, just as main ideas are. The
major details of the entire selection are: a. obstacles the author faced in
Yugoslavia; b. the author's family problems; c. challenges the author has met on the
way to taking charge of her life; d. obstacles the author has faced in all of her school
work.
10. This selection follows Marjan's life in two countries. The major events
described by the author are written below. Circle the name of the country she was in
when each incident occurred.

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 1. Marjan is bom in (Yugoslavia; the United States).
2. At nine months, Marjan is sent to (Yugoslavia; the United States).
3. Marjan starts kindergarten in (Yugoslavia; the United States).
4. At age 14, Marjan visits her parents in (Yugoslavia; the United States).
5. Marjan graduates from high school in (Yugoslavia; the United States).
Discussion Questions
1. Marjan writes that at the age of fourteen, she decided that she should remain
in the U.S. Do you think this is old enough to decide where you want to live? What
types of decisions were you making at the age of fourteen?
2. Marjan states that she had trouble making friends in high school because "I
had an accent, and I was different than everyone else." What could the school have
done to make life easier for a foreign student like Marjan? What could her fellow
students have done?
Writing Activities
1. We might conclude from the reading that one of Marjan's struggles was to
build her self-esteem. Write a paragraph telling what steps people can take to
strengthen their self-esteem. Your topic sentence will be "There are a number of
things people can do to build up their own self-esteem." Where possible, use
examples to illustrate your points.
2. In one of the paragraphs, Marjan discusses the difficulties she had to face in
high school. Write a paper describing the difficulties you had to face in high school.
If you eventually overcame them, explain how. To illustrate the points you make,
include detailed descriptions of incidents. Alternatively, write a paper about the
challenges you had to face as a young child or as an elementary school student.
XIII. Read the following true story by a woman who began her college
education at the age of 30 plus. While terrified at the thought of going back to
school, she struggled through scholarship forms and an assessment test. She went
on to overcome her fear of college and gain a new self-image and sense of

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optimism. After reading the selection write an essay under the same title and share
your personal experience in gaining self-esteem with the help of studying progress
THE DREAM INSIDE
Ruth Norris
Wash the dishes? Clean my room? Mow the grass? Phooey! When I grow up,
I'm going to run my own life. Isn't that what all children say? Starting at around the
age of ten, my goal was to live my own life my own way. By the age of seventeen I
was married. I had freedom at last.
Just when everything seemed to be going my way, I realized that the love of
my life was secretly a Nazi dictator who took his schooling on the right-hand side of
Hitler. At least that's how it seemed to me. As if that wasn't enough, I learned the cold
hard facts of divorce and the humiliation of having to move back in with my parents.
At the age of twenty-one, Mr. Stork brought me a bouncing baby boy. It only
took me about a week to figure out that a child is not something you can just leave in
the toy box when you are done playing. Years went by as I watched my son grow and
my paychecks shrink.
The answer to all my problems came while I was watching a soap opera: every
family needs a father figure. I was married again. Now I was raising two boys. Which
one actually had the higher I.Q. never was documented. But I decided that a husband,
unlike a child, could be left in his toy box and never played with again. This put my
seven-year-old and me back into the single parent group.
A person doesn't need much to be in this group: just sign up on welfare.
Unfortunately, in this group, a person doesn't get much. While it seemed to be
working for us, somehow I had completely lost what I had always wanted. Now the
Department of Human Services was in charge of my life.
School had still not entered my mind. I guess I thought since I had a high-
school diploma, from 1977, who needed more? Maybe I did. I found this out when
time to help my ten-year-old with his math homework came. I don't remember doing

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that kind of math when I was young. I'll just make him study harder; that way I won't
look so stupid.
The next year or so I don't really have any memory of. I did try marriage
number three, but that was a very short one. I ended up just settling back in front of
the television and accepting my fate.
My fate seemed to be the knowledge of the street. This had many good points.
It gave me the know-how to survive. Book knowledge, on the other hand, is a lot
different; for this I needed school. While I was having a hard time money-wise,
keeping my son dressed properly and school supplies replenished, the need for my
education entered my mind but was just a faraway dream.
I sat and watched the world go by. Many of my friends were going back to
school, but they had more money and time to waste than I did. All my time was
needed to impress the welfare system with my lack of worldly possessions. That in
itself was a full-time job, and I was good at it. This became my big accomplishment. I
was in control now. It's funny how things look when I keep my eyes closed.
While sitting—my most perfected art—and watching television one night, I
was dreaming of all the things I would not be able to get my son for his thirteenth
birthday. Thirteen, he was no longer a baby. He was turning into a teenager before
my eyes. It won't be long before he becomes a young adult. Then he becomes
completely independent. Next, he'll move into an apartment of his own. Oh my God!
Then he will fall in love, get married, and have children! I'm going to be a lonely, old,
fat grandmother facing the rest of my life with nothing to fill the void! Wake up,
Ruth! Take charge of your life before it's over!
Who said that? Is it really possible that there is a little voice inside my head
that can scream loud enough to register on a Richter scale? I had read about it in
children's books, and I had watched it happen on television, but now it was happening
to me. My inner self wanted to come out. Most of all, my inner self wanted to learn,
to grow, and to become something. After another week or two, I decided to check

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into the possibility of furthering my education. What could it hurt? I'll send for a Pell
grant form, and if I'm accepted, maybe I'll go.
The application is here. I thought surely they would have lost my address. No
problem; I'll just fill it out and see what happens. What is all this? A person has to
have a college degree to understand the forms. How will I ever make it through
school if I can't make it through the forms? Boy, am I in trouble!
Well, that chore is done and over. The papers are in the mail. It's in the hands
of the U.S. Post Office now. I'm glad I don't have to worry about it anymore.
I can't believe it. They accepted me! Don't panic. The next step is the
Assessment Test. The secretary has assured me that I cannot flunk.
That's a relief. Great, what am I going to wear? How do school kids dress these
days? I hope it's not like my son. What am I doing? I'm thirty-three years old. I'm too
old for this! Calm down; it's just a test, not a fashion show.
Everything is going pretty well. I have made it through the first part of the test
without much trouble. The only part left is the math portion. I'll do okay unless there
are a lot of fractions. What is all this shorthand-looking number stuff? This can't be
math. I'm doomed!
Well, the results are in. I'm not as dumb as I thought. My worst hurdle is going
to be math. All my scores made it almost to college level. I'll be starting my first math
class with the other four-year-olds at Noah's Ark Preschool.
What a feeling there is inside me. I have a sense of accomplishment and a
sense of worth. The hardest part is yet to come. The toughest obstacle of all, I have
found, is fear. That one little four-letter word has such an impact on me. It covers
such a large variety of areas: failure, fitting in, acceptance, peer pressure, and
rejection.
What will it be like if I can't make the grade? How will I handle sitting next to
students who are fifteen years my junior and not knowing as much as they do? How
will I watch some people do their work with what seems like second nature, while I
pull at my gray hairs trying to make the simplest things come into perspective? What

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will they think of me? These questions ran through my head a million times before I
ever set one foot in my first classroom.
The first day is here. Sitting outside the school with all my new books, pencils,
paper, and wearing the new outfit my mother had bought me, I almost had a change
of mind. "Start the car and drive away," I told myself outloud. Instead, I opened the
car door and walked into class.
This is great! I'm not the oldest person here. I'm not even the fattest! This is
going to be all right. Even my clothes are up to date with my age group. I feel good.
Time out. Maybe this isn't so great. It averages out for every hour I spend in
school, I have three hours of homework. Time is going to be an important factor for
the first time in a lot of years. Maybe it is a good thing my son is now a self-
maintaining individual. The days are long, and television is now a luxury. This is so
different, but I think I'm going to make it.
Who made up these rules? Mid-term tests? I'm not ready! Just when everything
is going smoothly, someone throws in another test! I hope they don't make a habit of
this. Let me guess, this is what school is, right? Right.
I'm actually doing it. I'm changing my life. Although it will take me until I am
sixty-five to get through my math courses, everything else is falling into place. I used
to think I would be just another Roseanne Arnold, but since I have enrolled in school,
I see myself more as a Murphy Brown. Journalism has aroused my attention since I
now feel intelligent enough to read a newspaper. I have a lot to share with people,
and journalism can be my tool. I ended my first semester with a 3.6 grade point
average. Pretty damn good for a woman of thirty-four.
All in all I believe I have finally done it. I am now in charge of my life. The
funny part is, it has been a lot easier than I thought it would be. What I was so afraid
of I will probably never really know. My future is not forged in steel, but it looks
brighter than it used to. With the dream inside me now the future looks pretty good.
What seems so ironic to me is now I tell my son to wash the dishes, clean his room,

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and mow the grass. I only hope and pray it doesn't take him thirty-four years to find
what I have.
XIV. Read the following true story which tells about overcoming difficulty in
order to reach the point. After reading the selection, answer the questions that
follow. To help you continue to strengthen your work on comprehension skills
there are also questions on vocabulary in context and main ideas.
DETERMINED TO SUCCEED
Regina Lynn Rayder
I am thirty-eight years old, and I have just completed my first semester at
Roane State Community College. I have passed with a grade point average of 4.0. I
have had to overcome many obstacles along the way in order to get to where I am
today. I am also looking forward to my next semester in January.
To begin with, I was unable to attend high school because I had been expelled
for disruptive behavior when I was in junior high school. I had staged a riot because
girls were not allowed to attend school wearing slacks. I had to walk about four miles
to school every day, and I would get so cold that my bare legs would chap and bleed,
and so I refused to wear a dress. I was expelled from school because I started wearing
slacks and had gotten many of the other girls to follow my example. As a result, the
rest of the students sided with me and refused to return to school. All the students in
school couldn't be expelled, so we had won the battle. We were allowed to wear
slacks. There was other disruptive behavior from me also. For example, I would
sometimes take food from the cafeteria because my family was very poor and I never
had enough to eat. The one free meal a day that I would eat at school was all I would
have until the next meal the following day. When I would get caught, I got a paddling
and would have to stay after school for a week as punishment. I was very skinny and
I had to be at school every day in order to eat, so I would try and take my mind off
the hunger pains by concentrating on learning. I made good grades and was looking
forward to high school, but I was not allowed to attend. When I went to register for

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high school, the principal called me into his office and said because of my disruptive
behavior in junior high school that I would not be accepted.
I left school and studied on my own and was able to obtain a General
Equivalency Diploma. The next step on my agenda was to go to college. I was twenty
years old, and I had made all the necessary preparations in order to attend. I had taken
the entry exam, which I passed, and had gotten my schedule for classes.
When I arrived home from the college that day, a deranged man was waiting
on me. He had been stalking me for a year and had physically hurt me a few months
before. He put me out of commission for the next three weeks. He broke into my
home, and he shot me through the chest and through the left wrist. I was in the
hospital in intensive care for eight days. My left lung had collapsed from the 357
Magnum bullet that had penetrated it. I was hemorrhaging so much that I had to
receive many blood transfusions. As a result, I was very weak, and it would take me
about a year to regain the use of my left arm.
It was impossible for me to escape this man because he was best friends with
the city judge, who was very powerful, and anything he did was always "taken care
of." I had called the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, but somehow the judge found
out about the call and I was "persuaded" to keep my mouth shut. Between him and
the judge and a few men on the police force, I didn't have a chance. I confided in a
man I knew about what was happening to me, and he tried to help. He protected me
for about a month before they shot him in the back one night. I was forced to go with
the murderer to get rid of the gun. The murder is still on record as unsolved. I wanted
to talk with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but I never did because they hurt me
so badly when I talked with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Since they found
out I had talked about it, I didn't know who I could trust. This man was insane, and I
was trapped. He would do a lot of crazy things such as put one bullet in the gun and
spin the chamber, then hold it against my head and pull the trigger. He would beat me
and handcuff me to the bed and put a piece of cloth in my mouth and tie another
around my head to keep that one in. I was afraid I would vomit and drown or that I

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would start to cry and my nose would stop up so I wouldn't be able to breathe. He
would keep me like this for hours while he tortured me, and he would describe in
detail how he was going to kill me.
I was still trying to get an education, and I was accepted into a nursing program
at an area vocational school. I was beginning to miss school because he would
sometimes play his sick games for days. I was finally dismissed from school because
I missed too many days.
I decided to make another attempt to get away from this man. I wanted to live
so badly, but I couldn't endure any more of his torture. The next time he pushed his
way into my home and put the gun to my head, I calmly turned and walked out of the
door. He had hit me with the gun, I suppose, because I was bleeding and my vision
had blurred. He yelled for me to stop or he would kill me. I just kept walking. I heard
him cock the gun, and I felt the bullet as it whizzed past my head. I expected at any
moment for him to shoot me in the back, but I just kept walking. He fired the gun
again as I opened my car door, and I got in and drove away. I got married a month
after that incident, to a man I hardly knew and didn't care anything about. I just didn't
want to be by myself when that monster came back. I was twenty-five years old.
When I turned thirty-three, I was on my own again with four children and no
way to support them. I turned to government assistance and was trying to get into a
position to attempt college again. Finally, after five years, my youngest child was in
school and I had saved enough money for a used car. I was finally able to attend
college. Now I look forward to everything, and I am determined to make my life
better. I also want to help my children become productive adults. I watched my oldest
child graduate last year, and my sixteen-year-old will graduate this year. My eight-
and nine-year-old children have made the honor roll at school every year. I do all I
can to ensure that they are intellectually motivated. For example, my nine-year-old
has taken a computer class for a month each summer for the last two years. My
sixteen-year-old volunteers as a substitute teacher a few hours a week during her
study time at school. She has access to all the computers and other machines and

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knows how to operate them. I take her to the college I attend on Saturdays, and she
has taught me all she knows about the computer. We study at the library, and she
helps me "brush up" on using the different indexes and the different machines. She
does a lot of her school work at the college, and when she goes to college this fall,
she will be familiar with the surroundings.
Finally, I am where I want to be, and I look forward to each day. I don't worry
about the man who tortured me because I haven't seen him in thirteen years, and the
judge who protected him is dead. All of the obstacles I have had to overcome in order
to get to college have made me more determined to succeed. I am finally taking
charge of my life.
Reading Comprehension Questions
1. The word disruptive in "I had been expelled for disruptive behavior" means
a. weak; b. definite; c disturbing; d. violent.
2. The words confided in in "I confided in a man I knew about what was
happening to me, and he tried to help" mean:
a. shared secrets with; b. lied to; c. yelled at; d. prayed to.
3. The word endure in "I wanted to live so badly, but I couldn't endure any
more of his torture" means:
a. understand; b. remember; c. refuse; d .bear.
4. Which sentence from the reading comes closest to expressing the central
point of the entire selection?
a. "I have had to overcome many obstacles along the way in order to get to
where I am today."
b. "I left school and studied on my own and was able to obtain a General
Equivalency Diploma."
c. "I am 38 years old and I have just completed my first semester at Roanne
State Community College"
d. "I decided to make another attempt to get away from this man."
5. The supporting details of the first paragraphs are:

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 a. parts of an average day for Rayder in junior high school.
b. Rayder's "misbehavior" in junior high school and the school's reactions.
c. information about Rayder's taste in clothing and in food.
d. all of the above.
6. According to the selection, the man who tried to protect Rayder:
a. fathered her child; b. left her; c. was murdered; d. worked for the Tennessee
Bureau of Investigation.
7. At age 25, the author finally decided:
a. to shoot her attacker; b. not to put up with her attacker's torture any longer;
c. to marry her attacker; d. to turn to government assistance to support her
children.
8. According to the selection, the attacker:
a. was the father of two of the author's children; b. was finally caught and put
in jail; c. killed himself; d. no longer worries the author.
9. This selection is organized by time: first one thing happened, then another,
and so on. Four of the major events are scrambled in the list below. Put them in the
correct order.
1. Rayder earns her General Equivalency Diploma.
2. Rayder is not allowed to enter high school.
3. Rayder decides she can no longer endure her rapist's torture.
4. The man who tries to protect Rayder is murdered.
Discussion Questions
1. When Rayder decided that she could not endure her attacker's torture any
longer, she simply walked away, even though he was shooting at her. Do you think
this was the right way to handle the situation? Why or why not? Is there anything else
she could have done?
2. Judging by the reading, what kind of person is Rayder? Explain which
details of the reading support each quality you name.
Writing Activity

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 Rayder had to overcome a number of obstacles in order to attend college. Write
a paper about the obstacles you faced in order to get to college and how you dealt
with them.
XV. This selection tells of a woman who meets and conquers more obstacles
than most of us have experienced. She does not spend a lot of time asking why
these things happening to her. She does what she must to make her life and her
family life better. We can all learn from Rosa.
A Success Story
Edward Patrick
Up until six months before I met her, life for Rosa Perez had been easy. Her
father was a wealthy plantation owner in Nicaragua. Her family owned a large house
with all the comforts of the rich. Then came the same type of violent civil war that
has torn apart so many Latin American countries.
Rosa's father was identified as a supporter of the rebel cause, and the family's
plantation was seized. During the government takeover, her father was shot and
killed. Her mother gathered as much money as she could and fled with Rosa and her
two younger brothers, Adolpho and Roberto. Their destination was the United States.
Rosa's mother knew a man who knew another man who could get them through
Mexico and across the U.S. border into Texas or California. There was nothing to
worry about, they were told. Rosa believed it.
At first, things went smoothly. Twelve others joined Rosa and her family. The
group had no trouble getting into and across Mexico. But just before they were to
cross into California, the guide said he could go no further. Another man would take
them the rest of the way. Rosa's mother protested, but to no avail. They were led
across by a man they did not know. He told them to follow his every command. They
must move quickly and silently or risk detection by the Border Patrol. It was a
difficult trek. It was dark. It was cold. Coyotes howled in what all hoped was the
distance. Everyone was tired and frightened.

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 And then came the bright lights. Just as they were about to cross into the
United States, the U.S. Border Patrol sighted the group and turned on the searchlights
on their jeeps to track them down. People scattered. Rosa held on to Adolpho and
Roberto. She looked back, but could not see her mother. "Aqui. Ahora," commanded
their guide, appropriately called a "coyote." Rosa blindly followed him and watched
as the lights of the jeeps sped after the others. They waited quietly for what seemed
like hours. Only when he was convinced that it was safe did their guide take the five
who had managed to follow him the rest of' the way. Eleven were not with them,
including Rosa's mother.
I first saw Rosa three months after this nightmare. I arrived at my office early,
wanting only to unwind from the freeway drive before my first class. I was annoyed
that someone was standing outside my office so early in the morning. But I spoke
with her, and soon realized that there was something special about this slender, dark-
skinned young woman with large, expressive brown eyes. I didn't know then what it
was I saw in her. Now I know she projected an inner strength, conveyed an unspoken
sentiment that "You don't know me, but you can believe in me." It was magnetic. I
knew that I would help in any way I could.
Rosa wanted to learn English. She wanted to do more than just get by. Her
halting English told me she could manage that already. She wanted to be able to read
and write the language so that she could provide for her brothers. My basic reading
class had been recommended to her. She asked what materials she could get to work
on even before the semester started.
Eager students are always easy to work with, and Rosa proved to be one of my
most ardent students. She kept me on my toes and constantly challenged me. She
prodded me to provide more information, additional examples, better explanations. If
I used a word she didn't understand, she would stop me. She would make me explain
it so that she and her classmates could grasp its meaning. If we looked for the main
idea in a paragraph and her answer was different from mine, she insisted on giving
the reasons why she felt she was right and I was wrong. I could not always convince

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her that my answer was better. But I always encouraged her to ask questions
whenever she was confused or unconvinced. While I looked forward to the class she
had enrolled in, I was always exhausted at its conclusion.
Rosa advanced from our basic reading classes to the more difficult study-skills
class. Then she moved through the writing classes offered in the department. She
enrolled in the Early Childhood Program at the college. This is a program which can
lead to certification as a child-care worker. Her progress in her classes was reflected
in a steady stream of A's and B's.
It took Rosa three years to complete the coursework that she needed to
graduate. I made plans to attend the graduation ceremonies where she would receive
her associate's degree. She insisted that I attend the graduation party her friend
Alberto was giving. I said I would be honored to go.
The ceremony was typical, with boring speeches made for proud
accomplishments. The party was something special. Rosa had come a long way in the
three years I had known her. She had made some wonderful friends, had secured a
decent job at a nearby day-care center, and had provided a good home for her two
brothers.
Rosa greeted me when I arrived. She wanted for me to meet everyone there,
and she hinted at a surprise she had for me.
"Dr. P, may I present to you my brothers, Adolpho and Roberto."
"Mucho gusto," I began.
"Right," said the smaller brother. "Call me Bobby. Nice to meet you. Doc. Say,
you don't mind if me and Al 'mingle,' if you know what I mean?"
I knew, and encouraged them to meet and greet the others especially the young
ladies - in attendance.
I commented on how quickly her brothers had adjusted to life in the States. But
Rosa seemed preoccupied. I was puzzled until I saw that we were walking toward an
older woman who had the same brown expressive eyes as Rosa. It was her mother.

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 Rosa's mother had been captured by the Border Patrol and deported to
Nicaragua. There, she was jailed. Rosa had been despondent over her mother's lack of
the freedom she and her brothers enjoyed. She had located her mother and worked for
close to three years to get her released. I don't know all the details of how she did it.
Perhaps it is best that I don't. At the moment I met her, I did not care at all
about how she "had attained freedom. I was just overjoyed that she was here with her
children.
Rosa entered San Diego State University, some ninety miles away. As often
happens with students who move on, I saw very little of her. She was working hard
toward a degree in early childhood education, I was on leave for a year, and our paths
rarely crossed.
Sometimes she would come by right before Christmas or at the end of a school
year. She stopped by the office again yesterday, with a purpose.
She carried two babies in her arms. The six-month-old twins were hers. |Their
huge, expressive brown eyes told me that before she did.
Rosa proudly recounted what had happened in the five years since her
graduation. I listened enthusiastically as she described her completion of a Bachelor
of Arts degree, her marriage to Alberto, their jointly opening a child-care center, and
the birth of their twin sons.
"And now," she said, "I want to tell you their names. This is Alberto," she said,
nodding toward the larger twin. Then she looked toward the smaller one. Her eyes
smiled as much as her mouth. "He is smaller, yes, but obviously more intellectual.
That is why we have chosen to name him Eduardo."
I gasped, tried to collect myself, but did not succeed. Rosa came to the rescue.
She calmly explained that Alberto and she decided to name the baby after me because
of all the help I had provided when she needed it most. I babbled something about
how proud I felt. It was true.
Some people, I know, object to the flow of immigrants entering our country.
They forget that almost all of us came to America from somewhere else. We need

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every so often to be reminded of success stories like Rosa's. Like many of our
ancestors, she fled an oppressive government and poor economic conditions. She then
worked hard to create a new life for herself. Hers is not an uncommon story. Many
others like her have come to enrich their lives, and they have enriched our country as
well.
Use context clues to help you decide on the best definition for each italicized
word.
1. The word detection in "They must move quickly and silently or risk
detection by the Border Patrol" means:
a. assistance; b. trust; c. discovery; d. noise.
2. The word ardent in "Eager students are always easy to work with, and Rosa
proved to be one of my most ardent students" means:
a. difficult; b enthusiastic; c. healthy; d. slow.
3. The word secured in "She had made some wonderful friends, had secured a
decent job at a nearby day-care center" means:
a. got; b. hired; c. paid; d. quit.
4. The word despondent in "Rosa had been despondent over her mother's lack
freedom she and her brothers enjoyed" means:
a. joyful; b. comfortable; c. depressed; d. cruel.
5. The word recounted in "Rosa proudly recounted what had happened means:
a. ignored; b. complained about; c. told;
d. forgot.
Reading Comprehension Questions
1. Which sentence best expresses the central point of the selection?
a Civil wars have destroyed many countries. b. Like many immigrants fleeing
oppression, Rosa came to America and made a successful life for herself.
c. Rosa finally brought her mother to the United States. d. Rosa married and gave
birth to twins, one of whom she named after her teacher.
2. Which sentence best expresses the main idea of paragraph 4 ?

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 a. The Border Patrol turned on bright searchlights. b. Rosa held on to her
brothers but couldn't see her mother. c. Rosa and her brothers successfully crossed the
border, but her mother was among those who did not.
d. The guide was very cautious and waited for what seemed like hours until
it seemed safe to continue crossing the border.
3. Which sentence best expresses the main idea of paragraphs 6-7?
a. Rosa's English was not very good. b. Rosa always asked questions in class.
c. Rosa kept the author on his toes. d. Rosa was a very eager student.
4. True or false? According to the author, Rosa's success story is unusual.
5. According to the article, Rosa's:
a. brothers had trouble adjusting to life in the United States. b. mother spent
about three years in a Nicaraguan jail. c. graduation party was boring. d. husband has
never met the author.
6. The author implies that Rosa and her brothers:
a. received very little education in Nicaragua; b. had friends waiting for them
in the United States; c. entered the country illegally; d. are very rich again.
7. From the selection, we can conclude that Rosa:
a. never wanted to leave Nicaragua; b. will be a benefit to her new home
country; c. will have a large family of her own; d. will move back to Nicaragua when
the situation there improves.
8. This selection is organized by time. Major events of the selection are
scrambled in the list below. Write them in their correct order based on the reading.
1. Rosa's education toward a bachelor's degree. 2. Rosa's education toward an
associate's degree. 3. Rosa’s escape to the U.S. 4. Rosa’s visit with the twins. 5.
Rosa’s graduation and party.
Discussion Questions
1. As Rosa reached the border of the United States, she realized that her mother
was not with her. Should she have looked for her mother, or was she right to cross
into the U.S. when she did?

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 2. The author writes that "we need ... to be reminded of success stories like
Rosa's." What are the values of hearing such a story?
Writing Activity
Rosa's education prepared her for a career. If you want your education to lead
to a career, write a paragraph on which one and why you've picked it. Be specific
about the types of positions you'd like to hold and why they appeal to you. If you're
not sure about the type of career you want, write about one or two that you're
considering. Here are two sample topic sentences for this paragraph: 1) "I'm aiming
for a career in _______ for two main reasons"; 2) "I'm in the process of weighing the
values and drawbacks of a career in _____________.";
XVI. In every school, there are some students whom nobody really knows.
We may be aware of their names but little else about them. No one seems to really
care about who they are. The following selection looks at one such student, who led
a short, unhappy life. The question raised is whether the people around him could
have made his life a better one.
Cipher in the Snow
Jean Mizer Todhunter
On most snowy mornings on my way to the high school where I teach I drive
behind the school bus. I was trailing the bus on one biting cold February morning
when it veered and stopped short at the town hotel. It had no business doing this, and
I was annoyed as I had to bring my car to an unexpected stop. A boy lurched out of
the bus reeled, stumbled, and collapsed on the snowbank at the curb. The bus driver
and I reached him at the same moment. His thin, hollow face was white even against
the snow.
"He's dead," the driver whispered.
It didn't register for a minute. I glanced quickly at the scared young faces
staring down at us from the school bus. "A doctor! Quick! I’ll phone from the
hotel…”

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 “No use. I tell you he’s dead" The driver looked down at the boy's still form.
"He never even said he felt bad," he muttered, "just tapped me on the shoulder and
said, real quiet, 'I'm sorry. I have to get off at the hotel.' That's all. Polite and
apologizing like."
At school the giggling, shuttling morning noise quieted as the news went down
the halls. I passed a huddle of girls. "Who was it? Who dropped dead on the way to
school?" I heard one of them half whisper.
"Don't know his name; some kid from Milford Corners," was the reply.
It was like that in the faculty room and the principal's office. "I'd appreciate
your going out to tell the parents," the principal told me. "They haven't a phone, and
anyway, somebody from school should go there in person. "Why me?" I asked.
"Wouldn't it be better if you did it?"
"I didn't know the boy," the principal admitted levelly. "And in last year's
sophomore personalities column I noted that you were listed as his favourite teacher.”
I drove through the snow and cold down the bad canyon road to the Evans place and
thought about the boy, Cliff Evans. His favourite teacher! Why, he hasn't spoken two
words to me in two years! I could see him in my mind's eye all right, sitting back
there in the last seat in my afternoon literature class. He came in the room by himself
and left by himself. "Cliff Evans," I muttered to myself, "a boy who never talked." I
thought a minute. "A boy who never smiled. I never saw him smile once."
The big ranch kitchen was clean and warm. I blurted out the news somehow.
Mrs. Evans reached blindly for a chair. "He never said anything about bein’ ailing.”
His stepfather snorted. "He ain't said nothin' about anything since I moved in
here."
Mrs. Evans got up, pushed a pan to the back of the stove, and began to untie
her apron. "Now hold on," her husband snapped. "I got to have breakfast before I go
to town. Nothin' we can do now anyway. If Cliff hadn't been so dumb, he'd have told
us he didn't feel good."

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 After classes I sat in the office and stared bleakly at the records spread out
before me. I was to close the boy's file and write his obituary for the school paper.
The almost bare sheets mocked the effort.
"Cliff Evans, white, never legally adopted by stepfather, five half brothers and
sisters." These meager strands of information and the list of D grades were about all
the records had to offer.
Cliff Evans had silently come in the school door in the mornings and gone out
of the school door in the evenings, and that was all. He had never belonged to a club.
He had never played on a team. He had never held an office. As far as I could tell, he
had never done one happy, noisy kid thing. He had never been anybody at all.
How do you go about making a boy into a zero? The grade school records
showed me much of the answer. The first and second grade teachers' annotations read
"sweet, shy child"; "timid but eager." Then the third grade note had opened the
attack. Some teacher had written in a good, firm hand, "Cliff won't talk.
Uncooperative. Slow learner." The other academic sheet had followed with "dull";
"slow-witted"; "low IQ." They became correct. The boy's IQ score in the ninth grade
was listed at 83. But his IQ in the third grade had been 106. The score didn't go under
100 until the seventh grade. Even timid, sweet children have resilience. It takes time
to break them.
I stomped to the typewriter and wrote a savage report pointing out what
education had done to Cliff Evans. I slapped a copy on the principal's desk and
another in the sad, dog-eared file; slammed the file; and crashed the office door shut
as I left for home. But I didn't feel much better. A little boy kept walking after me, a
boy with a peaked face, a skinny body in faded jeans, and big eyes that had searched
for a long time and then had become veiled.
I could guess how many times he'd been chosen last to be on a team, how many
whispered child conversations had excluded him. I could see the faces and hear the
voices that said over and over, "You're dumb. You're dumb. You're just a nothing,
Cliff Evans."

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 A child is a believing creature. Cliff undoubtedly believed them. Suddenly it
seemed clear to me: when finally there was nothing left at all for Cliff Evans, he
collapsed on a snowbank and went away. The doctor might list "heart failure" as the
cause of death, but that wouldn't change my mind.
We couldn't find ten students in the school who had known Cliff well enough
to attend the funeral as his friends. So the student body officers and a committee from
the junior class went as a group to the church, looking politely sad. I attended the
service with them and sat through it with a lump of cold lead in my chest and a big
resolve growing in me.
I've never forgotten Cliff Evans or that resolve. He has been my challenge year
after year, class after class. Each September, I look up and down the rows carefully at
the unfamiliar faces. I look for veiled eyes or bodies scrunched into a seat in an alien
world. "Look, kids," I say to myself, "I may not do anything else for you this year,
but not one of you is going out of here a nobody. I'll work or fight to the bitter end
doing battle with society and the school board, but I won't have one of you leaving
here thinking yourself into a zero.”
Most of the time—not always, but most of the time—I've succeded.
Use context clues to help you decide on the best definition for each italicized
word.
1. The word veered in "the bus ... veered and stopped short at the town hotel"
means:
a. went in reverse; b. turned suddenly; c. sped up; d. closed its doors.
2. The word reeled in "a boy lurched out of the bus, reeled, stumbled, and
collapsed on the snowbank at the curb" means:
a. jumped; b. laughed; c. moved unsteadily; d. pushed.
3. The word meager in "these meager strands of information and the list of D
grades were about all the records had to offer" means:
a. impressive; b. injured; c. few; d. proud.

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 4. The word annotations in "the . . . teachers' annotations read 'sweet, shy
child'; 'timid but eager' " means:
a. written comments; b. lies; c. excuses; d. criticisms.
5. The word resilience in "Even timid, sweet children have resilience. It takes
time to break them" means:
a. pleasant voices; b. illnesses; c. ability to recover; d. secrets.
Reading Comprehension Questions
1. Which sentence best expresses the central point of the selection?
a. A boy nobody knew died on the way to school. b. Children need to believe
that they are valued and important. c. One teacher has found a way to help influence
students. d. Children believe everything they are told.
2. Which sentence best expresses the author’s attitude?
a. The author was angered and upset by what the school had done to Cliff. b.
The author didn't feel well. c. The school never helped Cliff.
d. The author disliked doing paperwork.
3. Which sentence best expresses the main idea?
a. Cliff died of heart failure. b. Children are innocent. c. Cliff's heart failed
because others convinced him he was nothing. d. The doctor listed Cliff's cause of
death as "heart failure".
4. Cliff had a. never been adopted by his stepfather; b. been one of the author's
favorite students; c. a small group of close friends; d. been very sick for a long time.
5. At the funeral a. everyone was sad and cried; b. the author saw many of
Cliff’s teachers; c. the author became determined to help other students like Cliff; d.
ten of Cliff’s friends showed up.
6. The author implies that Cliff
a. wanted to run away from home; b. and his stepfather did not have a good
relationship; c. was a troublemaker at home; d. had no chance of finishing high
school.
7. From the selection, we can conclude that:

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 a. no one cared that Cliff had died; b the school system helped convince Cliff
that he was a zero; c. Cliff was on drugs when he got off the bus; d. the author is the
most popular teacher at the school.
8. This selection is organized by time. Major events of the selection are
scrambled in the list below. Write them in their correct order based on the reading.
Visit to Cliff's home. What the records revealed. The teacher's decision to keep
other students from becoming like Cliff. Funeral. Unexpected bus stop. Search in
school records.
Discussion Questions
1. From the article, what information do you learn and infer about Cliff's home
life? How do you think he was treated by his mother? His stepfather?
2. Todhunter states that Cliff "had never been anybody at all." What does she
mean? What is needed for a person to be "somebody"— either in school or out of
school?
Writing Activities
1. The author asks "How do you go about making a boy into a zero?" How did
Cliff become a zero? Write a paragraph explaining why he thought so little of
himself. You might begin with this topic sentence: "The attitudes and behavior of
people around Cliff Evans convinced him that he was a zero." Then you could go on
to explain briefly how teachers, students, and family influenced Cliff’s poor self-
image.
2. What would you say to Cliff's mother or stepfather if you had the chance?
Write a letter to either, or both, explaining how you think each might have influenced
Cliff. Use whatever tone you wish—angry, sad, questioning, or sympathetic.
XVII. Read the following story and say what mistakes the main character has
made. What could he have done to avoid them?
Decline and Fall
Ellen Lowenberg

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 Mr. Denton was my new history teacher and I wanted his impression of me to
be a good one. I was just about flunking history. As a matter of fact, I was just about
flunking almost everything but math. It isn't that I'm stupid, it's mainly that I don't
work hard enough because of Kathy.
Kathy is pretty - dark hair, green eyes, fine figure. She's smart, too. Kathy and I
have been going steady since the ninth grade. Anyway, just after Christmas vacation,
when the Dentons moved to town, Kathy and I started having little fights. This
happens about twice a year, but it always kind of gets me down for a while.
At Clinton Carter High, where I go, we get numerical marks, and if my father
saw anything below a seventy, I could see myself grounded for the rest of the year.
No car. No lacrosse. No Kathy.
So that was the position I was in when the matter of Denton's daughter came
up. It all started on Friday when I failed a surprise history test. So I thought of going
to Mr. Denton and telling him I had a very strict father and may be he'd let me do a
special report or something to make it up.
I walked up to Denton's desk and stood there like an idiot. "Is there something I
can do for you, Caroll?" he asked. "I started telling him my father would be upset if I
got a sixty-eight in history, but he interrupted me. "I know you can do well, Caroll.
Anyway we'll have a quiz on Thursday on Chapters 22 and 23. If you write it well
your final mark will be eighty. "If it's girl-trouble that's bothering you, Caroll, don't
worry too much. My daughter Evelyn is going through the same sort of thing. We've
just moved to town and Evelyn hasn't met many people yet".
That was when I had a brainwave. It was nasty and against my principles. "Mr.
Denton, why don't I take her to Arty Hoffman's party on Saturday night? She'd like
the crowd a lot, they are great kids." That was a lousy thing to do. Everybody
expected me to take Kathy to the party, including Kathy.
Denton thought it was a good idea, because he knew me and could trust me. He
gave me his number and I promised to call that night.

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 When I came to the usual place to meet Kathy I was half an hour late. She was
mad. She said I needn't bother calling her that night because she didn't care to speak
to me. And in case she didn't feel like speaking to me the following day I could pick
her up at 8.30 Saturday night. "What for?" I asked like a jerk. "For Artie Hoffman's
party, you stupid lacrosse player."
"Oh, Kath, I promised to take Denton's daughter. The poor kid doesn't know
anyone in town and she's probably shy and terribly dull. You know what teachers'
daughters are. It will be a big kick for her going out with a lacrosse player. "Are you
sure she is real plain and you are doing it as a favour to her father? 0. K. I'll forgive
you this time."
That night I called Evelyn Denton. Her voice didn't sound bad, I told her to call
me Buck.
The next day I met Kathy. She smiled at me in a sneaky way and said: "Linda
Larson came over last night. I showed her that picture of you in your lacrosse
uniform. And she showed me the picture of a girl in .her class." And she handed me a
colour snap of a girl.
What a beauty! Long red curly hair, blue eyes. "Would you like to know her
name?" Kath asked "Evelyn Denton, that's her name," she screamed. "And she looks
neither plain nor shy. If you had told me the truth I might not be so angry. Are you
still taking her out?" "Yes. I can't help it." "Then go to hell!" said Kath and walked
away.
I thought about Evelyn Denton all afternoon. I forgot to study for her father's
test. So I got an eighty, instead of the hundred I needed; but I thought I was pretty
safe. Even Denton wouldn't have the heart to fail a guy who would be practically in
the family after Saturday night.
Friday night I called Kathy. I figured that after a couple of days she might cool
off and would be willing to make up. I was told she was out with Marty Tanner. I felt
sore until I looked at Evelyn's picture. Kathy is a cute kid, but this Evelyn was a
queen. A real queen.

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 I was nervous Saturday night, but I began feeling better when I got dressed and
into the car.
The Dentons’ house was pretty. Little and white. I rang the door bell. A girl in
a black jumper answered. She was short, plump and decidedly plain. "Hello. Buck,"
she said. "Where is your sis?" "I don't-have a sister. Just a little brother. Come in".
I was confused. Just then a short, grey-haired woman walked in and smiled at
me. "I'm Mrs. Denton. I've heard about you from Mr. Denton." Then she said to the
girl, "Evelyn, dear, don't stay out too late." Evelyn! I didn't know what it was all
about. Suddenly I noticed the mantelpiece. There was an enlarged copy of the picture
I'd been admiring for the past two days. "Who's that?" I blurted. "That's my niece,
Evelyn Denton. She and my Evvie were both named after the same grandmother. Do
you know her?" "I've seen her around," I answered. What else could I say?
I still haven't met the beautiful red-haired Evelyn Denton. But my Evelyn met a
boy at the party and they have been dating since. He is nut on biology...
Kathy was real angry with me and didn't speak to me for three weeks. Denton
gave me a sixty-seven in history. He said he was sorry to do it because he liked me a
lot. But he didn't think personal feelings should enter into grading. Dad hit the ceiling
when I brought home my report card and said I couldn't have the car for a month.
Which didn't turn out to be much of a punishment because my brother had the
measles and I caught them and had a much worse case than my brother.
ХVIII. Learning vocabulary is a very important part of learning English. If
you do not know the exact word that you need, it can be very frustrating for you.
Good English means having a good vocabulary. Test your thematic vocabulary
doing the following exercises:
PUPILS. Choose the correct answer.
1. The children can get to school ten minutes earlier if they take a
short……through the park.
a) cut b) link c) pass d) path
2. When Mr. Obsequious was at school, he won first ..... for good behaviour.

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 a) present b) price c) prize d) reward
3. This is an exciting book which ..... new ground in educational research.
a) breaks b) reaches c) scratches d) turns
4. Little Tom did not like his first ..... at school at all.
a) course b) period c) presence d) term
5. We all laughed at his ..... of the teacher.
a) copy b) image c) imitation d) mimic
6. They had lunch together in the school .....
a) bar b) cafe c) canteen d) restaurant
7. You could ..... all the worthwhile information in this article into one page.
a) condense b) contract c) decrease d) shorten
8. Sue's teacher ..... her to improve her drawing.
a) encouraged b) insisted c) made d) persisted
9. We all make mistakes; no-one is .....
a) fallible b) infallible c) mistaken d) unmistakable
10. It's your ..... that we're late for school again.
a) care b) fault c) mistake d) trouble
11. I think you should ..... that matter with your teacher.
a) complain b) demand c) discuss d) enquire
12. Since Oscar had no proper reason for missing school, his absence should be
treated as ..... .
a) abstention b) desertion c) neglect d) truancy
13. If pupils are to understand the notice, the instructions must be ..... clearer
a) done b) got c) made d) wrote
14. You are late again — please try to be ..... in future.
a) accurate b) efficient c) punctual d) reliable
15. An I. Q. test is supposed to measure the ..... of your intelligence.
a) degree b) extent c) level d) size

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 16. You are not very ..... today, Hugh. What's the matter? I've never known you
so quiet.
a) chattering b) loud c) speaking d) talkative
17. Those pupils never ..... any notice of what their teacher says.
a) attend b) give c) make d) take
18. Annie is already twelve but she hasn't learned to ..... the time yet.
a) know b) read c) say d) tell
19. Patrick ..... the whole morning looking for his essay, but still couldn't find
it.
a) brought b) had c) passed d) spent
20 Rita is not ..... of doing this work - she should change her class.
a) capable b) fit c) possible d) suitable
21. After he broke the window, the boy was ... from school.
a) exiled b) excluded c) expelled d) extracted
22 A child's first five years are the most important as far as learning is .....
a) affected b) concerned c) hit d) touched
23. It takes a great deal of ..... for the class to make a tap abroad.
a) arrangement b) business c) expense d) organization
24 There is no ..... in going to school if you're not willing to learn.
a) aim b) point c) purpose d) reason
25 There are three of us and there is only one book so we'll have to ..... it.
a) distribute b) divide c) share d) split
ENROLMENT. Choose the right answer.
1. New students must ..... for classes before term begins.
a) enroll b) enter c)join d) teach
2. Quentin must go to France for the next ..... of his training.
a) point b) stage c) stand d) step
3. Medical students are doctors … .
a) for the most part b) in the making c) in the mind’s eye d) to the life

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 4. I'm going to ..... all I can about the subject because I need this information.
a) discover b) find out c) know d) realize
5. This course ..... no previous knowledge of the subject.
a) assembles b) assigns c) assumes d) assures
6. Scan asked his teacher's ..... about going to university.
a) advice b) experience c) information d) knowledge
7. What are you going to do when you ..... school
a) complete b) conclude c) end d) leave
8. Have you ..... for any evening classes next term?
a) engaged b) enrolled c) inscribed d) signed
9. Viola took her ..... at Cambridge University.
a) degree b) grade c) qualification d) standard
10. In some countries students are selected ... to their current level of
academic attainment.
a) according b) due c) owing d) relating
11. Your progress will be ..... in three months' time.
a) counted b) enumerated c) evaluated d) priced
12. Vivian is studying to become a member of the medical … .
13. Our group ..... of twelve students.
a) composes b) comprises c) consists d) contains
14. The new experimental system of enrolment didn’t …. expectations.
a) climb up to b) come up to c) reach d) rise to
15. Some schools have very …. rules of behaviour which must be obeyed.
a) solid b) straight c) strict d) strong
16. It was very difficult for the examiner to … what recommendations he
should make.
a) decide b) realize c) settle d) solve
17. Please inform the college secretary if you … your address.
a) change b) move c) remove d) vary

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 18. Sharon wants to make it clear that she prefers a course in Fine Arts as ....
from Graphic Arts.
a) different b) discrete c) distinct d) separate
19. The classes were closed because of ..... of interest
a) absence b) emptiness c) lack d)missing
20. This school has the highest ..... standards in our town
a) academic b) intelligence c) learning d) study
21. Please find … a copy of the letter I received from the college.
a) contained b) covered c) enclosed d) included
22. We need … information before we can decide which courses to choose.
a) farther b) further c) near d) nearer
23. Someone from the Ministry of Education is coming to … our classes.
a) control b) inspect c) look on d) overlook
24. before joining a course of study you must fill in a long … form.
a) enrolment b) induction c) inscription d) personal
25. Please … clearly which courses you want to take.
a) ask b) indicate c) instruct d) learn
ENROLMENT. Put each of the following words or phrases into its correct
place in the passage below.
amount calendar class hours college selecting
course credits curriculum electives
graduation major number opportunity
outlines prospectus specified subjects
requirements technical three week
Selecting Courses
The courses given by a … or university are called its curriculum. The … of the
institution … the complete…. . It gives the ..... for entry to each course, as well as the
credits given for the … .

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 Each course is designated as giving a ..... number of credits. These are usually
equal to the number of ..... devoted each week to the course. For example, a course
that meets three times a ..... usually gives ..... credits towards graduation. Schools
using the semester …. require about 120 credits for ..... . Between 30 and 40 of the
required ..... must be in the student's ..... subject.
Schools vary considerably in the ..... of freedom given students in ..... their
courses.
Almost all schools have a certain ..... of required ..... . Students can also usually
choose nonrequired courses palled ..... . Liberal-arts colleges usually give students
more ..... to choose than do ..... schools.
ENROLMENT. Choose the right answer.
1. The Examination Board have recently changed the ..... for the Diploma in
History.
a) brochure b) compendium c) programme d) syllabus
2. It should be ..... that students are expected to attend classes regularly.
a) marked b) noted c) perceived d) reminded
3. The Headmaster is preparing the ..... for next term.
a) brochure b) catalogue c) pamphlet d) timetable
4. During their first teacher-training year, the students often visit local schools
to ..... lessons.
a) examine b) inspect c) investigate d) observe
5. The school ..... is worn on the boys' caps.
a) badge b) figure c) label d) sign
6. Mr. Wellbred went to a school which ..... good manners and self-discipline.
a) blossomed b) cultivated c) harvested d) planted
7. There was a(n) ..... against the College's new syllabuses.
a) bang b) outcry c) scream d) whistle
8. The tutorial system at Oxford and Cambridge is the ..... of many universities.
a) envy b) jealousy c) regret d) sorrow

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 9. Miss Undecided was not sure which profession to enter, but finally ..... for
medicine.
a) accepted b) chose c) opted d) selected
10. Comprehensive schools ..... for all levels of ability.
a) cater b) cope c) look d) watch
11. Secondary schools offer a wide ..... of subjects.
a) field b) list c) range d) type
12. If you want to attend a course, you should study the college ..... for full
particulars of enrolment.
a) programme b) prospects c) prospectus d) syllabus
LECTURES. Choose the right answer.
1. Are you going to attend Prof. Wise's ..... on Medieval History next week?
a) conference b) discussion c) lecture d) meeting
2. The lecture was so ..... that almost everyone fell asleep.
a) bored b) dull c) exhausted d) tired
3. According to my ...... the lecture starts at eleven tomorrow morning.
a) belief b) information c) knowledge d) opinion
4. Prof. Rush was speaking so quickly I couldn't ..... what he said.
a) accept b) catch c) listen d) take
5. Use your imagination and try to ..... the scene in your mind.
a) draw b) model c) paint d) picture
6. Miss Not-Very-Bright said she could not ..... all the information given in the
lecture.
a) absorb b) accumulate c) admire d) listen
7. When you listen to a lecture, it is useful to ..... the important points.
a) clear b) notify c) put down d) write on
8. I can agree with you to a certain ...... Professor, but not entirely.
a) extent b) level c) part d) way
9. The lecture was very ..... and I slept for most of it.

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 a) annoying b) boring c) noisy d) sleepy
10. You ought to pay ..... to what the lecturer is saying; it's quite interesting.
a) attention b) comment c) importance d) praise
11. Dr Knowledgeable will be making a ..... this evening.
a) lecture b) sermon c) speech d) talk
12. I absolutely ..... with everything that has been said.
a) accept b) admit c) agree d) approve
13. You will never understand my arguments if you don't actually ..... to what I
say!
a) appreciate b) hear c) listen d) understand
14. The students paid ..... attention to their distinguished professor.
a) respectable b) respected c) respectful d) respective
15. The lecture will begin at 10.00 ..... .
a) in time b) on time c) punctual d) sharp
LECTURES. Choose the right answer.
1. Would you please ..... from smoking while the lecture is in progress?
a)avoid b) keep yourself c) refrain d) stop
2. Prof. Orator spoke clearly and ..... so we could understand every word he
said.
a) distinct b) distinctly c) distinguishable d) legibly
3. During a lecture I always try to ..... down the main points that are made.
a) doodle b)jot c) noting d) sketch
4. That's precisely what I mean. You've hit the ..... on the head.
a) idea b) nail c) pin d) point
5. The students were interested in what the teacher was saying and listened ......
a) attentively b) guardedly c) prudently d) watchful
6. A few jokes always ..... up a lecture.
a) inspire b) liven c) loosen d) raise

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 7. Miss Duffer looked as if she hadn't a ..... what Prof. Sophisticated was
talking about.
a) clue b) guess c) point d) thought
8. You can ..... your shorthand by taking notes during lectures.
a) keep b) keep in c) keep on d) keep up
9. To begin the lecture, let's take an ..... of the present situation.
a) oversight b) overtone c) overture d) overview
10. The lecturer spoke so fast that I found it hard to take ..... what he was
saying.
a) away b) in c) over d) up
11. Prof. Silvertongue was a most effective speaker and his audience seemed to
..... on his every word.
a) catch b) cling c) hang d) hold
12. I'm relying on you, gentlemen, so please don't ......
a) allow me off b) drop me off c) drop me down d) let me down
13. The teacher ..... out the words he had written on the blackboard.
a) cleaned b) dusted c) rubbed d) scraped
14. The example you have just referred to has no ..... on the matter under
discussion.
a) bearing b) connection c) dependence d) relation
15 I'm afraid my speech may have ..... you as to my true aims.
a) miscalculated b) misled c) mistaken d) misunderstood
16. Please repeat what you said. I didn't quite ..... the meaning.
a) comprehend b) grasp c) retain d) seize
17. I take ..... to that remark. It's a quite unjustified insinuation.
a) affront b) displeasure c) exception d) offence
18. The professor never finished his lecture because there were so many .....
from the
audience.

145
 a) delays b) gaps c) interruptions d) intervals
HOMEWORK. Choose the right answer.
1. It's vital that the students' handwriting be ..... .
a) illiterate b) legible c) legitimate d) literate
2. It's quite ..... which question you answer first because you must answer them
all.
a) arbitrary b) indifferent c) unconditional d) voluntary
3. Vincent read the article through quickly, so as to get the ..... of it before
settling down to a thorough study.
a) core b) detail c) gist d) run
4. It is very difficult to ..... the exact meaning of an idiom in a foreign
language.
a) convert b) convey c) exchange d) transfer
5. I tried to concentrate on my homework but my eyes kept ..... away from the
handbook.
a) digressing b) lapsing c) rambling d) straying
6. On Sunday, Vivian studied for seven hours ..... .
a) at length b) at once c) in full d) on end
7. Miss Nervous handed in the test and awaited the results … .
a) in the same breath b) out of breath
8. Wilfred was so ..... in his studies that he did not notice Ac time passing.
a) drenched b) drowned c) engrossed d) soaked
9. You will need a pen and some paper to ..... this problem. It is too difficult to
do in your head.
a) discover b) find out c) realize d) work out
10. Students will be ..... for exceeding word-limits in their precis.
a) condemned b) penalized c) punished d) sentenced
11. I'm afraid I've only had time to ..... the article you recommended.
a) glance b) look c) peruse d) scan

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 12. Frank has a good ..... for figures.
a) brain b) head c) mind d) thought
13. The noise from the traffic outside .... me from my homework.
a) annoyed b) distracted c) prevented d) upset
14. You must not ...... from the point when you write an essay.
a) diverge b) go astray c) ramble d) wander
15. I can't possibly mark your homework as your handwriting is ......
a) illegible b) illicit c) illogical d) illusive
16. Deborah is going to take extra lessons to ..... what she missed while she
was away.
a) catch up on b) cut down on c) put up with d) take up with
17. Miss Crammer is so ..... in her work that it would be a pity to disturb her.
a) absorbed b) attentive c) consumed d) intent
18. It suddenly ..... On me what he really meant.
a) came b) dawned c) hit d) struck
STUDENTS. Choose the correct answer.
1. How many ..... is Sam studying at school?
a) objects b) subjects c) themes d) topics
2. I have English classes ..... day — on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
a) all other b) each other c) every other d) this and the other
3. I haven't had a very ..... week. I seem to have done nothing at all.
a) economic b) enthusiastic c) extensive d) productive
4. It is..... impossible to find a good educational computer program.
a) almost b) barely c) hardly d) merely
5. ..... the difficulty of the task, I shall be lucky to complete it by the end of
next month.
a) Accepted b) Given c) Presuming d) Regarding
6. A small ..... of students was waiting outside the classroom to see the teacher.
a) form b) gang c) group d) team

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 7. Hard as she tried, she ..... couldn't understand the question.
a) always b) even c) still d) yet
8. And as she didn't understand anything, she merely gave the teacher a .....
look.
a) blank b) clear c) simple d) useless
9. How many marks did you ..... in the last test?
a) get b) make c) score d) take
10. You will have to do the course again because your work has been ..... .
a) unnecessary b) unpleasant c) unsatisfactory d) unusual
11. Andy was ..... from school because of his bad behaviour.
a) evicted b) expelled c) left d) resigned
12. I’m not sure why he didn't go to the college, but I ..... he failed the entrance
test.
a) deduce b) estimate c) predict d) suspect
13. The study of ..... can be very interesting.
a) a history b) histories c) history d) the history
14. You can learn as much theory as you like, but you only master a skill by
..... it.
a) doing b) exercising c) practising d) training
15. Mabel's school report last term was most ..... .
a) fortunate b) fulfilling c) satisfactory d) satisfied
16. Most of the students agreed to the plan, but a few ..... it.
a) argued b) differed c) failed d) opposed
17. Mr. Genius was so ..... at maths at school that he became the youngest
student ever to be accepted by a college.
a) brilliant b) hopeful c) keen d) proud
18. Miss Lazy has hardly done any ..... this week!
a) effort b)job c) labour d) work
19. When I told him my opinion, he ..... his head in disagreement.

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 a) hooked b) knocked c) rocked d) shook
20. Please reply ..... as I have no time to lose.
a) hastily b) promptly c) rapid d) swift
STUDENTS. Put each of the following words into its correct place in the
passage below.
authority bachelor's bodies campuses
classes co-educational co-ordinate courses
degree freshmen graduates junior
located school separate sex
special students undergraduates university
women year
Students
The student body of a ..... or college is divided into ..... and undergraduates.
Graduates have already received their ..... degrees, while ..... have not. The
undergraduates belong to one of four ...... according to their ..... of study. These are
...... sophomore, ...... and senior classes. Most schools also admit ..... students who
take a number of ..... , but are not working towards a .... .
Students ..... vary considerably from ..... to school. Some institutions are ......,
with both men and ..... students. Others admit ..... of only one ...... .
A ..... institution has ..... men's and women's colleges. They are controlled by
the same central ..... and are usually ..... on the same campus or nearby ..... .
STUDENTS. Choose the correct answer.
1. Miss Pretender's knowledge of the subject was only ...... .
a) external b) outer c) outward d) superficial
2. Arnold is ..... a bit with his English classes so his parents have arranged for
him to have private tuition.
a) dragging b) fighting c) straining d) struggling
3. Billy is a most ..... young man; he can do a lot of different jobs well.
a) capable b) cunning c) industrious d) laborious

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 4. Miss Conceited is very ..... up and thinks she is superior to her classmates.
a) fed b) looked c) stuck d) turned
5. The new student found the informality at school ..... at first.
a) blinding b) foreign c) mysterious d) off-putting
6. We can't teach him anything because he already knows his subject
a) from cover to cover b) from top to toe c) inside out d) upside-down
7. What's done is done. It's ..... wondering what would have happened if you
had passed the exam.
a) futile b) helpless c) ineffectual d) valueless
8. My sister is a most ..... student, never failing to turn up to lectures
a) absent b) careful c) conscientious d) honest
9. You completely misunderstood my instructions; you got hold of the wrong
end of the … .
a) line b) rope c) stick d) story
10. Miss Amusing was ..... at school because she always made people laugh
a) attractive b) considerate c) familiar d) popular
11. Some people have the mistaken idea that all students are .....
a) idle b) motionless c) stagnant d) still
12. After the serious talk with his tutor, Hilary …. himself more
conscientiously to his studies.
a) applied b) converted c) engaged d) exerted
TEACHERS AND STUDENTS. Match the words for people in education
with the correct definition.
1. apprentice a) female teacher in charge of a school
2. cadet b) person who trains sportsmen for contests or prepares private
3. coach students for an exam
4. dean c) highest grade of university teacher
5. discipline d) the lowest teaching rank at a university
6. headmistress e) person in charge of a division of study

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 7. instructor f) person who teaches you driving
8. lecturer g) the head of some universities and schools
9. trainee h) a person studying to become an officer in the army or a
policeman
10. principal i) someone learning a trade who works in return for being
taught
11. professor j) person undergoing some form of vocational training
12. pupil k) anyone devoted to the acquisition of knowledge, especially
attending university
13. student l) attends primary school
m) follower of a religious teacher
TEACHERS AND STUDIES. Which of the three definitions most nearly
describes each of the following subjects?
1. Agronomy, taught by agronomists, is
a) the study of primitive races
b) the survey of human emotions
c) the science of farming
2. Anthropology, taught by anthropologists, is
a) the science of ants
b) the study of man
c) the art of poetry
3. Embryology, taught by embryologists, is
a) the study of coals
b) the study of the development of living creatures before their birth
c) the study of amber
4. Entomology, taught by entomologists, is
a) the study of insects
b) the study of the derivation of words
c) the study of tombs and monuments

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5. Graphology, taught by graphologists, is
a) the analysis of handwriting
b) the study of the earth
c) the study of maps
6. Linguistics, taught by linguists, is
a) the science of language
b) the study of linking chains together
c) branch of mathematics dealing with lines
7. Penology, taught by penologists, is
a) the art of good penmanship
b) the study of old-age pensioners
c) the study of prison management
8. Philology, taught by philologists, is
a) the art of wisdom
b) literary scholarship
c) the study of the derivation of words
9. Physiology, taught by physiologists, is
a) the study of the functions of the body
b) the study of the functions of the mind
c) the science of matter and energy
10. Seismology, taught by seismologists, is
a) the splitting of the atom
b) the science of earthquakes
c) the study of famous quotations
11. Theology, taught by theologians, in
a) the study of religion
b) the art of the theatre
c) the study of wind
12. Typography, taught by typographers, is

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 a) the making of maps
b) the art of printing
c) the study of human types
EXAMINATIONS. Choose the correct answer.
1. Remember that exams never start late, they always start ......
a) ahead of time b) at the last moment c) in time d) on time
2. Will you help me to ..... for tomorrow's exam?
a) go through b) read c) review d) revise
3. Lazy Tom clearly had no ..... of doing any work, although it was only a week
till the exam
a) ambition b) desire c) intention d) willingness
4. Are the students ..... about the history exam?
a) discussing b) saying c) talking d) telling
5. If you never do any work, you will only have yourself to ..... if you fail your
exams.
a) blame b) fault c) mistake d) reprove
6. I’m …..I didn't pass the exam but I'll do better next time.
a) deceived b) despaired ^disappointed d) disillusioned
7. You must tell me the result now. I can't bear the ......
a) suspenders b) suspending c) suspense d) suspension
8. As my exam is next month, I'll take advantage of the week off to ..... on
some reading.
a) catch up b)hurry up c) make up d) pick up
9. Eve was happy she..... to finish the exam in time.
a) achieved b) managed c) realized d) succeeded
10. Do you think there is any... \ of him passing the exam?
a) chance b) expectancy c) occasion d) opportunity
11. I hate ..... formal examinations. I find it difficult to organize my thoughts in
a limited

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 space of time.
a) making b) passing c) sitting d) writing
12. Don't forget to ..... your name at the top of the test paper.
a) get b) place c) put d) set
13. Your answers to the examination questions must ..... exactly the
instructions given below.
a) accompany b) conform c) follow d) keep
14. Eric was very upset by his French exam ..... .
a) effects b) failures c) results d) successes
15. Well done! You've done an excellent ..... .
a) job b) task c) trade d) work
16. If at first you don't ...... try again.
a) accomplish b) prosper c) succeed d) triumph
17. Those students ..... their exams last week.
a) assisted b) made c) presented d) took
18. Franky got very ..... marks in his maths exam.
a) imperfect b) low c) reduced d) secondary
19. Did you ..... the examination last month?
a) enter into b) form part of c) go in for d) take place in
20. You should write your name ..... at the top of the paper.
a) clearly b) largely c) obviously d) seriously
21. Good .....! I hope you do well.
a) chance b) hope c) luck d) wish
22. The examiners often ..... extremely difficult questions for the written
exams.
a) create b) make c) set d) write
23. I expect all of you to be here ten minutes before the examination begins,
without .....
a) fail b) failure c) fault d) miss

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 24. The purpose of this examination was to ..... the students' knowledge of the
subject.
a) inspect b) prove c) test d) try
25. Vivian passed the ..... test but failed the written examination.
a) handy b) practical c) skilful d) working
EXAMINATION GRADING. Put each of the following words into its correct
place in the text.
Achievements, adjustment, admit, attitude, average, colleges, common, failure,
grade, letter, marking, method, minimum, occasionally, pass, percentage, perfect,
progress, record, reports, school, teacher.
Grading
Grading is a ..... used in schools to ..... student achievements. Almost
every…..keeps a record of each student's ..... in order to have some basis for
measuring his….. .The record supplies information for ..... to parents. Universities
and ..... often use this information to help determine whether they should ..... a
student.
For a long time, the most ..... method of recording achievement was by .....,
with a mark, or ...... of 100 per cent representing ..... achievement. The ….. mark for a
….. was usually 70 per cent, and for ..... work, about 80 per cent. Today, the letters A,
B, C, D, E and ….. F, are much more commonly used. The mark A stands for
exceptional achievement, and E or F means ..... .
A few schools use no ..... system at all. Instead, each ..... writes a detailed …..
to the parents. Such letters report the student's progress, ..... activities, and social ..... .
EXAMINATIONS. Choose the correct answer.
1. Miss Unlucky was very ..... because she had failed her examination.
a) afraid b) excited c) sensitive d) upset
2. You should have ..... the examination last week, so bring your money to the
office as soon as possible.
a) entered for b) passed c) sat for d) taken

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 3. Congratulations ..... passing your exams. Well done!
a) by b) for c) from d) on
4. During the test it is always better to make an educated ..... than to leave a
blank.
a) attempt b) chance c) endeavour d) guess
5. Mrs. Worried had a good ..... of the examination result when she saw her
daughter's face.
a) idea b) news c) report d) thought
6. This kind of question can sometimes be answered only by a process of ….. .
a) abolition b) elimination c) exception d) subtraction
7. The person who ….. an examination is supposed to see that nobody tries to
cheat.
a) dominates b) governs c) leads d) supervises
8. Greg has just taken an exam ..... history.
a) about b) for c) in d) on
9. Miss Intelligent was the ..... student in her class and passed all her exams
with high grades.
a) brightest b) clearest c) fastest d) highest
10. Sign your name on the ..... line.
a) broken b) dotted c) drawn d) spotted
11. There must be a ..... of at least one metre between the desks in the
examination room
a) expanse b) gap c) place d) room
12. This test ..... a number of multiple-choice questions.
a) composes of b) composes in c) consists of d) consists in
13. Please don't talk in the ….. because there is an examination in the lecture
hall.
a) corridor b) lane c) promenade d) way
14. The ….. thought of exams makes me feel ill.

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 a) just b) little c) mere d) sole
15. The school has ….. a system of monthly tests in place of an annual exam.
a) adopted b) agreed c) collected d) taken
EXAMINATIONS. Choose the correct answer.
1. Miss Diligent did nine hours ….. studying a day for her exam.
a) big b) heavy c) powerful d) solid
2. in the examination you may be asked for comments on various ….. of a
topic.
a) angles b) aspects c) features d) qualities
3. Failing the final exam was a big ….. to my hopes.
a) band b) blow c) hit d) kick
4. You shouldn't talk about him failing. You’ll ….. his confidence.
a) underestimate b) undergo c) undermine d) worry
5. I'm feeling rather ..... because of the exam I'm doing next week.
a) anxious b) excited c) impatient d) unquiet
6. The result of this exam will ..... his future.
a) control b) 'determine c) govern d) rule
7. Please be ..... .1 haven't got long.
a) brief b) concise c) rapid d) short
8. George has no head for figures. He simply cannot ..... them.
a) collect b) realize c) relate d) remember
9. No one is so ..... as the person who has no wish to learn.
a) ignorant b) sensible c) simple d) useless
10. In a multiple-choice exercise it's sometimes easier to ..... the wrong answers
before choosing the right one.
a) eliminate b) exclude c) give d) omit
11. Waiting outside the examination room, I trembled with ..... .
a) apprehension b) comprehension c) expectation d) tension

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 12. His test results are not very ..... .He does well one month and badly the
next.
a) consequent b) consistent c) continuous d) invariable
13. The ..... exam in March prepared pupils for the real thing in May.
a) false b) imaginary c) mock d) unreal
14. My hopes of becoming a doctor ..... when I failed my "A" levels.
a) cracked b) crashed c) crumbled d) smashed
15. I was completely ..... by most of the exam questions, so I must have failed.
a) baffled b) harassed c) stupid d) stupified
16. Having already graduated from another university, he was ..... from the
entrance examination.
a) deferred b) excluded c) exempted d) prohibited
17. This exam is supposed tp be ..... because the marking is not affected by
individual preferences.
a) concrete b) impersonal c) objective d) open-minded
18. Any candidate caught ..... in the examination will be disqualified.
a) cheating b) deceiving c) swindling d) tricking
LANGUAGE-LEARNING. Choose the right answer.
1. The new school claims to ..... students all the English they need in a few
months.
a) explain b) instruct c) learn d) teach
2. I never ..... a chance of improving my English if I can help it.
a) avoid b) lose c) miss d) waste
3. Will you ..... me how to make that sound?
a) learn b) practice c) show d) train
4. Franck thought that the other students would think he was English, but his
accent gave him ..... .
a) away b) in c) out d) up
5. ..... that he only started learning it one year ago, his English is excellent.

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 a) Accounting b) Considering c) Imagining d) Wondering
6. We were the ..... students in the class who could speak Russian.
a) alone b) one c) only d) single
7. Your pronunciation would improve if you ..... with a tape recorder.
a) exercised b) practised c) repeated d) trained
8. The students ..... ever use the language laboratory.
a) almost b) hardly c) nearly d) practically
9. Priscilla asked for ..... lessons at home as she thought she would learn
English more quickly that way.
a) particular b) peculiar c) personal d) private
10. Learners of English as a foreign language often fail to ..... between
unfamiliar sounds in that language.
a) differ b) distinguish c) separate d) solve
11. Jonathan was surprised that Sonia's English was so ..... as she had never
been to England.
a) definite b) fluent c) liquid d) national
12. If you want to learn a new language you must ..... classes regularly.
a) assist b) attend c) follow d) present
13. Would you ..... to me studying English privately?
a) allow b) agree c) approve d) permit
14. Spanish is the ..... language of most Spaniards.
a) home b) mother c) native d) nature
15. They are learning English, but they haven’t ..... much progress.
a) done b) got c) made d) performed
16. There has been a great ..... in his English.
a) escalation b) improvement c) increase d) rise
17. If you don't know what that word means, ..... in the dictionary.
a) give it up b) look it up c) make it up d) show it up
18. Some language students reach a high ..... of competence in communication.

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 a) degree b) grade b) level c) mark d) note
19 Don't ..... to correct me if I make a mistake.
a) hesitate b) mind c) pause d) stop
20. Please ..... your hand if you want to ask a question.
a) arouse b) put out c) raise d) rise
21. At the language school, each student is assigned to his or her own ….. .
a) director b) professor c) staff d) tutor
22. A(n) ….. mistake which many students make is to leave out the definite
article.
a) common b) just c) ordinary d) plain
LANGUAGE LEARNING. Choose the correct answer.
1. Mario has now ….. to the point where his English is almost fluent.
a) advanced b) approached c) arrived d) reached
2. Pierre’s ….. of the basic structures is good but his vocabulary is limited.
a) grasp b) grip c) hold d) seizure
3. Some people think it is ….. to use long and little-known words.
a) clever b) international c) sensitive d) skilled
4. There is a feature of dialect ….. to Bristol by which an “l” is added to the
ends of some words.
a) original b) particular c) peculiar d) proper
5. A role-play session is particulary useful in bringing together different ….. of
teaching.
a) cords b) fibres c) strands d) threads
6. Cyril’s understanding of the language is growing ….. .
a) by hook or by crook b) by leaps and bounds c) from time to time d) slow
but sure
7. It’s fifteen years since Timothy worked in Holland and his Dutch is pretty
….. now.
a) rusty b) scratchy c) sloppy d) state

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 8. The school’s exam results ….. the headmaster.
a) celebrated b) delighted c) enjoyed d) rejoiced
9. The Examination Syndicate was most impressed by the overseas student
whose English was ….. .
a) impeccable b) infallible c) irreproachable d) spotless
10. It is ….. that students will have doubted their vocabulary in three months.
a) anticipated b) foreseen c) hope d) worry
EDUCATION AND MONEY. Choose the right answer.
1. Dr Inventive received a ..... from the university in order to continue his
research.
a) credit b) grant c) prize d) reward
2 His father paid him ..... while he was at university.
a) alimony b) an allowance c) a pension d) the rates
3. The headmaster had been trying to ..... money for a new science block.
a) ask b)deal c) increase d) raise
4. Prospective students must show that they have sufficient money to cover
their course fees and ….. .
a) boarding b) maintenance c) supplies d) support
5. If you find it difficult to make ends meet, you can ..... to the university for an
a) apply b) ask c) propose d) submit
6. Many teachers are protesting about the Government ..... in education.
a) contractions b) cuts c) drops d) reductions
7. Students sometimes support themselves by ..... of evening jobs.
a) efforts b) means c) methods d) ways
8. The … .. for the course are $150 a term.
a) charges b) Costs c) fees d) payments
9. The government will be increasing student ..... to give them more money.
a) aids b) benefits c) grants d) rewards

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 10. Despite the excellent results in his A level exam he has not won a(n).....to
the university.
a) aid b) money c) pension d) scholarship
EDUCATION AND MONEY. Put each of the following words into its
correct place in the passage below.
advance approximately balance beginning
cash credit currency delayed
fees full holders installments
mail money payment visa
Payment plans
Tuition ..... are payable in ..... in full at the time billed. Students may pay by
….. , cheque, ….. order or ….. card (Master card or ….. ). Foreign students must pay
in British ….. . ….. may be made by telephone for credit card …… . Payment may
also be by ….. . However, the College is not responsible for lost or ….. mail.
Students who do not pay in ….. in advance automatically choose the deferred
payment plan of two equal ….. . The initial payment is due ..... two weeks prior to the
….. of each term. The ….. is due four weeks after the beginning of the term.
EDUCATION. Choose the best synonym.
1. That student is discourteous; he GRUMBLES no matter how you try to
please him.
a) complains b) giggles c) scolds d) sneers
2. Vivian REVISED his paper carefully, following the professor's suggestions.
a) copied b) corrected c) retyped d) reviewed
3. "Roget's Thesaurus", a collection of English words and phrases arranged by
the ideas they express RATHER THAN in alphabetical order.
a) as well as b) instead of c) restricted d) unless
4. Habits can be CONSCIOUSLY strengthened, as when a student of the guitar
practices and memorizes different fingerings.
a) conveniently b) deliberately c) lastingly d) robustly

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 5. My supply of confidence slowly DWINDLES as the day of the exam
approaches.
a) diminishes b) emerges c) grows d) revives
6. His face was FLUSHED because he had run all the way from the dorm so as
not to be late for the lecture.
a) pale b) red c) shaking d) wet
7. The student BROKE IN ON the conversation without waiting for the
speaker to stop talking.
a) interrupted b) regarded c) seized d) withdrew from
8. The warmth of the lecture hall made the student DOZE.
a) faint b) fall asleep c) sweat profusely d) yawn widely
9. The speaker DEMONSTRATED his knowledge of the subject by his
excellent lecture.
a) corrected b) created c) repeated d) showed
10. The teacher told the student that his paper was ILLEGIBLE.
a) illegal b) indecipherable c) outstanding d) sloppy
PUPILS. Choose the correct answer.
1. The children can get to school ten minutes earlier if they take a
short……through the park.
a) cut b) link c) pass d) path
2. When Mr. Obsequious was at school, he won first ..... for good behaviour.
a) present b) price c) prize d) reward
3. This is an exciting book which ..... new ground in educational research.
a) breaks b) reaches c) scratches d) turns
4. Little Tom did not like his first ..... at school at all.
a) course b) period c) presence d) term
5. We all laughed at his ..... of the teacher.
a) copy b) image c) imitation d) mimic
6. They had lunch together in the school .....

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 a) bar b) cafe c) canteen d) restaurant
7. You could ..... all the worthwhile information in this article into one page.
a) condense b) contract c) decrease d) shorten
8. Sue's teacher ..... her to improve her drawing.
a) encouraged b) insisted c) made d) persisted
9. We all make mistakes; no-one is .....
a) fallible b) infallible c) mistaken d) unmistakable
10. It's your ..... that we're late for school again.
a) care b) fault c) mistake d) trouble
11. I think you should ..... that matter with your teacher.
a) complain b) demand c) discuss d) enquire
12. Since Oscar had no proper reason for missing school, his absence should be
treated as ..... .
a) abstention b) desertion c) neglect d) truancy
13. If pupils are to understand the notice, the instructions must be ..... clearer
a) done b) got c) made d) wrote
14. You are late again — please try to be ..... in future.
a) accurate b) efficient c) punctual d) reliable
15. An I. Q. test is supposed to measure the ..... of your intelligence.
a) degree b) extent c) level d) size
16. You are not very ..... today, Hugh. What's the matter? I've never known you
so quiet.
a) chattering b) loud c) speaking d) talkative
17. Those pupils never ..... any notice of what their teacher says.
a) attend b) give c) make d) take
18. Annie is already twelve but she hasn't learned to ..... the time yet.
a) know b) read c) say d) tell
19. Patrick ..... the whole morning looking for his essay, but still couldn't find
it.

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a) brought b) had c) passed d) spent
20 Rita is not ..... of doing this work - she should change her class.
a) capable b) fit c) possible d) suitable
21. After he broke the window, the boy was ... from school.
a) exiled b) excluded c) expelled d) extracted
22 A child's first five years are the most important as far as learning is .....
a) affected b) concerned c) hit d) touched
23. It takes a great deal of ..... for the class to make a tap abroad.
a) arrangement b) business c) expense d) organisation
24 There is no ..... in going to school if you're not willing to learn.
a) aim b) point c) purpose d) reason
25 There are three of us and there is only one book so we'll have to ..... it.
a) distribute b) divide c) share d) split
ENROLMENT. Choose the right answer.
1. New students must ..... for classes before term begins.
a) enrol b) enter c)join d) teach
2. Quentin must go to France for the next ..... of his training.
a) point b) stage c) stand d) step
3. Medical students are doctors … .
a) for the most part b) in the making c) in the mind’s eye d) to the life
4. I'm going to ..... all I can about the subject because I need this information.
a) discover b) find out c) know d) realise
5. This course ..... no previous knowledge of the subject.
a) assembles b) assigns c) assumes d) assures
6. Scan asked his teacher's ..... about going to university.
a) advice b) experience c) information d) knowledge
7. What are you going to do when you ..... school
a) complete b) conclude c) end d) leave
8. Have you ..... for any evening classes next term?

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 a) engaged b) enrolled c) inscribed d) signed
9. Viola took her ..... at Cambridge University.
a) degree b) grade c) qualification d) standard
10. In some countries students are selected ... to their current level of
academic attainment.
a) according b) due c) owing d) relating
11. Your progress will be ..... in three months' time.
a) counted b) enumerated c) evaluated d) priced
12. Vivian is studying to become a member of the medical … .
13. Our group ..... of twelve students.
a) composes b) comprises c) consists d) contains
14. The new experimental system of enrolment didn’t …. expectations.
a) climb up to b) come up to c) reach d) rise to
15. Some schools have very …. rules of behaviour which must be obeyed.
a) solid b) straight c) strict d) strong
16. It was very difficult for the examiner to … what recommendations he
should make.
a) decide b) realise c) settle d) solve
17. Please inform the college secretary if you … your address.
a) change b) move c) remove d) vary
18. Sharon wants to make it clear that she prefers a course in Fine Arts as ....
from Graphic Arts.
a) different b) discrete c) distinct d) separate
19. The classes were closed because of ..... of interest
a) absence b) emptiness c) lack d)missing
20. This school has the highest ..... standards in our town
a) academic b) intelligence c) learning d) study
21. Please find … a copy of the letter I received from the college.
a) contained b) covered c) enclosed d) included

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 22. We need … information before we can decide which courses to choose.
a) farther b) further c) near d) nearer
23. Someone from the Ministry of Education is coming to … our classes.
a) control b) inspect c) look on d) overlook
24. before joining a course of study you must fill in a long … form.
a) enrolment b) induction c) inscription d) personal
25. Please … clearly which courses you want to take.
a) ask b) indicate c) instruct d) learn
ENROLMENT. Put each of the following words or phrases into its correct
place in the passage below.
amount calendar class hours college selecting
course credits curriculum electives
graduation major number opportunity
outlines prospectus specified subjects
requirements technical three week
Selecting Courses
The courses given by a … or university are called its curriculum. The … of the
institution … the complete…. . It gives the ..... for entry to each course, as well as the
credits given for the … .
Each course is designated as giving a ..... number of credits. These are usually
equal to the number of ..... devoted each week to the course. For example, a course
that meets three times a ..... usually gives ..... credits towards graduation. Schools
using the semester …. require about 120 credits for ..... . Between 30 and 40 of the
required ..... must be in the student's ..... subject.
Schools vary considerably in the ..... of freedom given students in ..... their
courses.
Almost all schools have a certain ..... of required ..... . Students can also usually
choose nonrequired courses palled ..... . Liberal-arts colleges usually give students
more ..... to choose than do ..... schools.

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 ENROLMENT. Choose the right answer.
1. The Examination Board have recently changed the ..... for the Diploma in
History.
a) brochure b) compendium c) programme d) syllabus
2. It should be ..... that students are expected to attend classes regularly.
a) marked b) noted c) perceived d) reminded
3. The Headmaster is preparing the ..... for next term.
a) brochure b) catalogue c) pamphlet d) timetable
4. During their first teacher-training year, the students often visit local schools
to ..... lessons.
a) examine b) inspect c) investigate d) observe
5. The school ..... is worn on the boys' caps.
a) badge b) figure c) label d) sign
6. Mr. Wellbred went to a school which ..... good manners and self-discipline.
a) blossomed b) cultivated c) harvested d) planted
7. There was a(n) ..... against the College's new syllabuses.
a) bang b) outcry c) scream d) whistle
8. The tutorial system at Oxford and Cambridge is the ..... of many universities.
a) envy b) jealousy c) regret d) sorrow
9. Miss Undecided was not sure which profession to enter, but finally ..... for
medicine.
a) accepted b) chose c) opted d) selected
10. Comprehensive schools ..... for all levels of ability.
a) cater b) cope c) look d) watch
11. Secondary schools offer a wide ..... of subjects.
a) field b) list c) range d) type
12. If you want to attend a course, you should study the college ..... for full
particulars of enrolment.
a) programme b) prospects c) prospectus d) syllabus

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 LECTURES. Choose the right answer.
1. Are you going to attend Prof. Wise's ..... on Medieval History next week?
a) conference b) discussion c) lecture d) meeting
2. The lecture was so ..... that almost everyone fell asleep.
a) bored b) dull c) exhausted d) tired
3. According to my ...... the lecture starts at eleven tomorrow morning.
a) belief b) information c) knowledge d) opinion
4. Prof. Rush was speaking so quickly I couldn't ..... what he said.
a) accept b) catch c) listen d) take
5. Use your imagination and try to ..... the scene in your mind.
a) draw b) model c) paint d) picture
6. Miss Not-Very-Bright said she could not ..... all the information given in the
lecture.
a) absorb b) accumulate c) admire d) listen
7. When you listen to a lecture, it is useful to ..... the important points.
a) clear b) notify c) put down d) write on
8. I can agree with you to a certain ...... Professor, but not entirely.
a) extent b) level c) part d) way
9. The lecture was very ..... and I slept for most of it.
a) annoying b) boring c) noisy d) sleepy
10. You ought to pay ..... to what the lecturer is saying; it's quite interesting.
a) attention b) comment c) importance d) praise
11. Dr Knowledgeable will be making a ..... this evening.
a) lecture b) sermon c) speech d) talk
12. I absolutely ..... with everything that has been said.
a) accept b) admit c) agree d) approve
13. You will never understand my arguments if you don't actually ..... to what I
say!
a) appreciate b) hear c) listen d) understand

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 14. The students paid ..... attention to their distinguished professor.
a) respectable b) respected c) respectful d) respective
15. The lecture will begin at 10.00 ..... .
a) in time b) on time c) punctual d) sharp
LECTURES. Choose the right answer.
1. Would you please ..... from smoking while the lecture is in progress?
a)avoid b) keep yourself c) refrain d) stop
2. Prof. Orator spoke clearly and ..... so we could understand every word he
said.
a) distinct b) distinctly c) distinguishable d) legibly
3. During a lecture I always try to ..... down the main points that are made.
a) doodle b)jot c) noting d) sketch
4. That's precisely what I mean. You've hit the ..... on the head.
a) idea b) nail c) pin d) point
5. The students were interested in what the teacher was saying and listened ......
a) attentively b) guardedly c) prudently d) watchful
6. A few jokes always ..... up a lecture.
a) inspire b) liven c) loosen d) raise
7. Miss Duffer looked as if she hadn't a ..... what Prof. Sophisticated was
talking about.
a) clue b) guess c) point d) thought
8. You can ..... your shorthand by taking notes during lectures.
a) keep b) keep in c) keep on d) keep up
9. To begin the lecture, let's take an ..... of the present situation.
a) oversight b) overtone c) overture d) overview
10. The lecturer spoke so fast that I found it hard to take ..... what he was
saying.
a) away b) in c) over d) up

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 11. Prof. Silvertongue was a most effective speaker and his audience seemed to
..... on his every word.
a) catch b) cling c) hang d) hold
12. I'm relying on you, gentlemen, so please don't ......
a) allow me off b) drop me off c) drop me down d) let me down
13. The teacher ..... out the words he had written on the blackboard.
a) cleaned b) dusted c) rubbed d) scraped
14. The example you have just referred to has no ..... on the matter under
discussion.
a) bearing b) connection c) dependence d) relation
15 I'm afraid my speech may have ..... you as to my true aims.
a) miscalculated b) misled c) mistaken d) misunderstood
16. Please repeat what you said. I didn't quite ..... the meaning.
a) comprehend b) grasp c) retain d) seize
17. I take ..... to that remark. It's a quite unjustified insinuation.
a) affront b) displeasure c) exception d) offence
18. The professor never finished his lecture because there were so many .....
from the
audience.
a) delays b) gaps c) interruptions d) intervals
HOMEWORK. Choose the right answer.
1. It's vital that the students' handwriting be ..... .
a) illiterate b) legible c) legitimate d) literate
2. It's quite ..... which question you answer first because you must answer them
all.
a) arbitrary b) indifferent c) unconditional d) voluntary
3. Vincent read the article through quickly, so as to get the ..... of it before
settling down to a thorough study.
a) core b) detail c) gist d) run

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 4. It is very difficult to ..... the exact meaning of an idiom in a foreign
language.
a) convert b) convey c) exchange d) transfer
5. I tried to concentrate on my homework but my eyes kept ..... away from the
handbook.
a) digressing b) lapsing c) rambling d) straying
6. On Sunday, Vivian studied for seven hours ..... .
a) at length b) at once c) in full d) on end
7. Miss Nervous handed in the test and awaited the results … .
a) in the same breath b) out of breath
8. Wilfred was so ..... in his studies that he did not notice Ac time passing.
a) drenched b) drowned c) engrossed d) soaked
9. You will need a pen and some paper to ..... this problem. It is too difficult to
do in your head.
a) discover b) find out c) realize d) work out
10. Students will be ..... for exceeding word-limits in their precis.
a) condemned b) penalized c) punished d) sentenced
11. I'm afraid I've only had time to ..... the article you recommended.
a) glance b) look c) peruse d) scan
12. Frank has a good ..... for figures.
a) brain b) head c) mind d) thought
13. The noise from the traffic outside .... me from my homework.
a) annoyed b) distracted c) prevented d) upset
14. You must not ...... from the point when you write an essay.
a) diverge b) go astray c) ramble d) wander
15. I can't possibly mark your homework as your handwriting is ......
a) illegible b) illicit c) illogical d) illusive
16. Deborah is going to take extra lessons to ..... what she missed while she
was away.

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 a) catch up on b) cut down on c) put up with d) take up with
17. Miss Crammer is so ..... in her work that it would be a pity to disturb her.
a) absorbed b) attentive c) consumed d) intent
18. It suddenly ..... On me what he really meant.
a) came b) dawned c) hit d) struck
STUDENTS. Choose the correct answer.
1. How many ..... is Sam studying at school?
a) objects b) subjects c) themes d) topics
2. I have English classes ..... day — on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
a) all other b) each other c) every other d) this and the other
3. I haven't had a very ..... week. I seem to have done nothing at all.
a) economic b) enthusiastic c) extensive d) productive
4. It is..... impossible to find a good educational computer program.
a) almost b) barely c) hardly d) merely
5. ..... the difficulty of the task, I shall be lucky to complete it by the end of
next month.
a) Accepted b) Given c) Presuming d) Regarding
6. A small ..... of students was waiting outside the classroom to see the teacher.
a) form b) gang c) group d) team
7. Hard as she tried, she ..... couldn't understand the question.
a) always b) even c) still d) yet
8. And as she didn't understand anything, she merely gave the teacher a .....
look.
a) blank b) clear c) simple d) useless
9. How many marks did you ..... in the last test?
a) get b) make c) score d) take
10. You will have to do the course again because your work has been ..... .
a) unnecessary b) unpleasant c) unsatisfactory d) unusual
11. Andy was ..... from school because of his bad behaviour.

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 a) evicted b) expelled c) left d) resigned
12. I’m not sure why he didn't go to the college, but I ..... he failed the entrance
test.
a) deduce b) estimate c) predict d) suspect
13. The study of ..... can be very interesting.
a) a history b) histories c) history d) the history
14. You can learn as much theory as you like, but you only master a skill by
..... it.
a) doing b) exercising c) practising d) training
15. Mabel's school report last term was most ..... .
a) fortunate b) fulfilling c) satisfactory d) satisfied
16. Most of the students agreed to the plan, but a few ..... it.
a) argued b) differed c) failed d) opposed
17. Mr. Genius was so ..... at maths at school that he became the youngest
student ever to be accepted by a college.
a) brilliant b) hopeful c) keen d) proud
18. Miss Lazy has hardly done any ..... this week!
a) effort b)job c) labour d) work
19. When I told him my opinion, he ..... his head in disagreement.
a) hooked b) knocked c) rocked d) shook
20. Please reply ..... as I have no time to lose.
a) hastily b) promptly c) rapid d) swift
STUDENTS. Put each of the following words into its correct place in the
passage below.
authority bachelor's bodies campuses
classes co-educational co-ordinate courses
degree freshmen graduates junior
located school separate sex
special students undergraduates university

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 women year
Students
The student body of a ..... or college is divided into ..... and undergraduates.
Graduates have already received their ..... degrees, while ..... have not. The
undergraduates belong to one of four ...... according to their ..... of study. These are
...... sophomore, ...... and senior classes. Most schools also admit ..... students who
take a number of ..... , but are not working towards a .... .
Students ..... vary considerably from ..... to school. Some institutions are ......,
with both men and ..... students. Others admit ..... of only one ...... .
A ..... institution has ..... men's and women's colleges. They are controlled by
the same central ..... and are usually ..... on the same campus or nearby ..... .
STUDENTS. Choose the correct answer.
1. Miss Pretender's knowledge of the subject was only ...... .
a) external b) outer c) outward d) superficial
2. Arnold is ..... a bit with his English classes so his parents have arranged for
him to have private tuition.
a) dragging b) fighting c) straining d) struggling
3. Billy is a most ..... young man; he can do a lot of different jobs well.
a) capable b) cunning c) industrious d) laborious
4. Miss Conceited is very ..... up and thinks she is superior to her classmates.
a) fed b) looked c) stuck d) turned
5. The new student found the informality at school ..... at first.
a) blinding b) foreign c) mysterious d) off-putting
6. We can't teach him anything because he already knows his subject
a) from cover to cover b) from top to toe c) inside out d) upside-down
7. What's done is done. It's ..... wondering what would have happened if you
had passed the exam.
a) futile b) helpless c) ineffectual d) valueless
8. My sister is a most ..... student, never failing to turn up to lectures

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 a) absent b) careful c) conscientious d) honest
9. You completely misunderstood my instructions; you got hold of the wrong
end of the … .
a) line b) rope c) stick d) story
10. Miss Amusing was ..... at school because she always made people laugh
a) attractive b) considerate c) familiar d) popular
11. Some people have the mistaken idea that all students are .....
a) idle b) motionless c) stagnant d) still
12. After the serious talk with his tutor, Hilary …. himself more
conscientiously to his studies.
a) applied b) converted c) engaged d) exerted
TEACHERS AND STUDENTS. Match the words for people in education
with the correct definition.
1. apprentice a) female teacher in charge of a school
2. cadet b) person who trains sportsmen for contests or prepares private
3. coach students for an exam
4. dean c) highest grade of university teacher
5. discipline d) the lowest teaching rank at a university
6. headmistress e) person in charge of a division of study
7. instructor f) person who teaches you driving
8. lecturer g) the head of some universities and schools
9. trainee h) a person studying to become an officer in the army or a
policeman
10. principal i) someone learning a trade who works in return for being
taught
11. professor j) person undergoing some form of vocational training
12. pupil k) anyone devoted to the acquisition of knowledge, especially
attending university
13. student l) attends primary school

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 m) follower of a religious teacher
TEACHERS AND STUDIES. Which of the three definitions most nearly
describes each of the following subjects?
1. Agronomy, taught by agronomists, is
a) the study of primitive races
b) the survey of human emotions
c) the science of farming
2. Anthropology, taught by anthropologists, is
a) the science of ants
b) the study of man
c) the art of poetry
3. Embryology, taught by embryologists, is
a) the study of coals
b) the study of the development of living creatures before their birth
c) the study of amber
4. Entomology, taught by entomologists, is
a) the study of insects
b) the study of the derivation of words
c) the study of tombs and monuments
5. Graphology, taught by graphologists, is
a) the analysis of handwriting
b) the study of the earth
c) the study of maps
6. Linguistics, taught by linguists, is
a) the science of language
b) the study of linking chains together
c) branch of mathematics dealing with lines
7. Penology, taught by penologists, is
a) the art of good penmanship

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 b) the study of old-age pensioners
c) the study of prison management
8. Philology, taught by philologists, is
a) the art of wisdom
b) literary scholarship
c) the study of the derivation of words
9. Physiology, taught by physiologists, is
a) the study of the functions of the body
b) the study of the functions of the mind
c) the science of matter and energy
10. Seismology, taught by seismologists, is
a) the splitting of the atom
b) the science of earthquakes
c) the study of famous quotations
11. Theology, taught by theologians, in
a) the study of religion
b) the art of the theatre
c) the study of wind
12. Typography, taught by typographers, is
a) the making of maps
b) the art of printing
c) the study of human types
EXAMINATIONS. Choose the correct answer.
1. Remember that exams never start late, they always start ......
a) ahead of time b) at the last moment c) in time d) on time
2. Will you help me to ..... for tomorrow's exam?
a) go through b) read c) review d) revise
3. Lazy Tom clearly had no ..... of doing any work, although it was only a week
till the exam

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 a) ambition b) desire c) intention d) willingness
4. Are the students ..... about the history exam?
a) discussing b) saying c) talking d) telling
5. If you never do any work, you will only have yourself to ..... if you fail your
exams.
a) blame b) fault c) mistake d) reprove
6. I’m …..I didn't pass the exam but I'll do better next time.
a) deceived b) despaired ^disappointed d) disillusioned
7. You must tell me the result now. I can't bear the ......
a) suspenders b) suspending c) suspense d) suspension
8. As my exam is next month, I'll take advantage of the week off to ..... on
some reading.
a) catch up b)hurry up c) make up d) pick up
9. Eve was happy she..... to finish the exam in time.
a) achieved b) managed c) realised d) succeeded
10. Do you think there is any... \ of him passing the exam?
a) chance b) expectancy c) occasion d) opportunity
11. I hate ..... formal examinations. I find it difficult to organise my thoughts in
a limited
space of time.
a) making b) passing c) sitting d) writing
12. Don't forget to ..... your name at the top of the test paper.
a) get b) place c) put d) set
13. Your answers to the examination questions must ..... exactly the
instructions given below.
a) accompany b) conform c) follow d) keep
14. Eric was very upset by his French exam ..... .
a) effects b) failures c) results d) successes
15. Well done! You've done an excellent ..... .

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 a) job b) task c) trade d) work
16. If at first you don't ...... try again.
a) accomplish b) prosper c) succeed d) triumph
17. Those students ..... their exams last week.
a) assisted b) made c) presented d) took
18. Franky got very ..... marks in his maths exam.
a) imperfect b) low c) reduced d) secondary
19. Did you ..... the examination last month?
a) enter into b) form part of c) go in for d) take place in
20. You should write your name ..... at the top of the paper.
a) clearly b) largely c) obviously d) seriously
21. Good .....! I hope you do well.
a) chance b) hope c) luck d) wish
22. The examiners often ..... extremely difficult questions for the written
exams.
a) create b) make c) set d) write
23. I expect all of you to be here ten minutes before the examination begins,
without .....
a) fail b) failure c) fault d) miss
24. The purpose of this examination was to ..... the students' knowledge of the
subject.
a) inspect b) prove c) test d) try
25. Vivian passed the ..... test but failed the written examination.
a) handy b) practical c) skilful d) working
EXAMINATION GRADING. Put each of the following words into its correct
place in the text.
Achievements, adjustment, admit, attitude, average, colleges, common, failure,
grade, letter, marking, method, minimum, occasionally, pass, percentage, perfect,
progress, record, reports, school, teacher.

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 Grading
Grading is a ..... used in schools to ..... student achievements. Almost
every…..keeps a record of each student's ..... in order to have some basis for
measuring his….. .The record supplies information for ..... to parents. Universities
and ..... often use this information to help determine whether they should ..... a
student.
For a long time, the most ..... method of recording achievement was by .....,
with a mark, or ...... of 100 per cent representing ..... achievement. The ….. mark for a
….. was usually 70 per cent, and for ..... work, about 80 per cent. Today, the letters A,
B, C, D, E and ….. F, are much more commonly used. The mark A stands for
exceptional achievement, and E or F means ..... .
A few schools use no ..... system at all. Instead, each ..... writes a detailed …..
to the parents. Such letters report the student's progress, ..... activities, and social ..... .
EXAMINATIONS. Choose the correct answer.
1. Miss Unlucky was very ..... because she had failed her examination.
a) afraid b) excited c) sensitive d) upset
2. You should have ..... the examination last week, so bring your money to the
office as soon as possible.
a) entered for b) passed c) sat for d) taken
3. Congratulations ..... passing your exams. Well done!
a) by b) for c) from d) on
4. During the test it is always better to make an educated ..... than to leave a
blank.
a) attempt b) chance c) endeavour d) guess
5. Mrs. Worried had a good ..... of the examination result when she saw her
daughter's face.
a) idea b) news c) report d) thought
6. This kind of question can sometimes be answered only by a process of ….. .
a) abolition b) elimination c) exception d) subtraction

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 7. The person who ….. an examination is supposed to see that nobody tries to
cheat.
a) dominates b) governs c) leads d) supervises
8. Greg has just taken an exam ..... history.
a) about b) for c) in d) on
9. Miss Intelligent was the ..... student in her class and passed all her exams
with high grades.
a) brightest b) clearest c) fastest d) highest
10. Sign your name on the ..... line.
a) broken b) dotted c) drawn d) spotted
11. There must be a ..... of at least one metre between the desks in the
examination room
a) expanse b) gap c) place d) room
12. This test ..... a number of multiple-choice questions.
a) composes of b) composes in c) consists of d) consists in
13. Please don't talk in the ….. because there is an examination in the lecture
hall.
a) corridor b) lane c) promenade d) way
14. The ….. thought of exams makes me feel ill.
a) just b) little c) mere d) sole
15. The school has ….. a system of monthly tests in place of an annual exam.
a) adopted b) agreed c) collected d) taken
EXAMINATIONS. Choose the correct answer.
1. Miss Diligent did nine hours ….. studying a day for her exam.
a) big b) heavy c) powerful d) solid
2. in the examination you may be asked for comments on various ….. of a
topic.
a) angles b) aspects c) features d) qualities
3. Failing the final exam was a big ….. to my hopes.

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 a) band b) blow c) hit d) kick
4. You shouldn't talk about him failing. You’ll ….. his confidence.
a) underestimate b) undergo c) undermine d) worry
5. I'm feeling rather ..... because of the exam I'm doing next week.
a) anxious b) excited c) impatient d) unquiet
6. The result of this exam will ..... his future.
a) control b) 'determine c) govern d) rule
7. Please be ..... .1 haven't got long.
a) brief b) concise c) rapid d) short
8. George has no head for figures. He simply cannot ..... them.
a) collect b) realize c) relate d) remember
9. No one is so ..... as the person who has no wish to learn.
a) ignorant b) sensible c) simple d) useless
10. In a multiple-choice exercise it's sometimes easier to ..... the wrong answers
before choosing the right one.
a) eliminate b) exclude c) give d) omit
11. Waiting outside the examination room, I trembled with ..... .
a) apprehension b) comprehension c) expectation d) tension
12. His test results are not very ..... .He does well one month and badly the
next.
a) consequent b) consistent c) continuous d) invariable
13. The ..... exam in March prepared pupils for the real thing in May.
a) false b) imaginary c) mock d) unreal
14. My hopes of becoming a doctor ..... when I failed my "A" levels.
a) cracked b) crashed c) crumbled d) smashed
15. I was completely ..... by most of the exam questions, so I must have failed.
a) baffled b) harassed c) stupid d) stupified
16. Having already graduated from another university, he was ..... from the
entrance examination.

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 a) deferred b) excluded c) exempted d) prohibited
17. This exam is supposed to be ..... because the marking is not affected by
individual preferences.
a) concrete b) impersonal c) objective d) open-minded
18. Any candidate caught ..... in the examination will be disqualified.
a) cheating b) deceiving c) swindling d) tricking
LANGUAGE-LEARNING. Choose the right answer.
1. The new school claims to ..... students all the English they need in a few
months.
a) explain b) instruct c) learn d) teach
2. I never ..... a chance of improving my English if I can help it.
a) avoid b) lose c) miss d) waste
3. Will you ..... me how to make that sound?
a) learn b) practice c) show d) train
4. Franck thought that the other students would think he was English, but his
accent gave him ..... .
a) away b) in c) out d) up
5. ..... that he only started learning it one year ago, his English is excellent.
a) Accounting b) Considering c) Imagining d) Wondering
6. We were the ..... students in the class who could speak Russian.
a) alone b) one c) only d) single
7. Your pronunciation would improve if you ..... with a tape recorder.
a) exercised b) practised c) repeated d) trained
8. The students ..... ever use the language laboratory.
a) almost b) hardly c) nearly d) practically
9. Priscilla asked for ..... lessons at home as she thought she would learn
English more quickly that way.
a) particular b) peculiar c) personal d) private

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 10. Learners of English as a foreign language often fail to ..... between
unfamiliar sounds in that language.
a) differ b) distinguish c) separate d) solve
11. Jonathan was surprised that Sonia's English was so ..... as she had never
been to England.
a) definite b) fluent c) liquid d) national
12. If you want to learn a new language you must ..... classes regularly.
a) assist b) attend c) follow d) present
13. Would you ..... to me studying English privately?
a) allow b) agree c) approve d) permit
14. Spanish is the ..... language of most Spaniards.
a) home b) mother c) native d) nature
15. They are learning English, but they haven’t ..... much progress.
a) done b) got c) made d) performed
16. There has been a great ..... in his English.
a) escalation b) improvement c) increase d) rise
17. If you don't know what that word means, ..... in the dictionary.
a) give it up b) look it up c) make it up d) show it up
18. Some language students reach a high ..... of competence in communication.
a) degree b) grade b) level c) mark d) note
19 Don't ..... to correct me if I make a mistake.
a) hesitate b) mind c) pause d) stop
20. Please ..... your hand if you want to ask a question.
a) arouse b) put out c) raise d) rise
21. At the language school, each student is assigned to his or her own ….. .
a) director b) professor c) staff d) tutor
22. A(n) ….. mistake which many students make is to leave out the definite
article.
a) common b) just c) ordinary d) plain

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 LANGUAGE-LEARNING. Choose the correct answer.
1. Mario has now ….. to the point where his English is almost fluent.
a) advanced b) approached c) arrived d) reached
2. Pierre’s ….. of the basic structures is good but his vocabulary is limited.
a) grasp b) grip c) hold d) seizure
3. Some people think it is ….. to use long and little-known words.
a) clever b) international c) sensitive d) skilled
4. There is a feature of dialect ….. to Bristol by which an “l” is added to the
ends of some words.
a) original b) particular c) peculiar d) proper
5. A role-play session is particulary useful in bringing together different ….. of
teaching.
a) cords b) fibres c) strands d) threads
6. Cyril’s understanding of the language is growing ….. .
a) by hook or by crook b) by leaps and bounds c) from time to time d) slow
but sure
7. It’s fifteen years since Timothy worked in Holland and his Dutch is pretty
….. now.
a) rusty b) scratchy c) sloppy d) state
8. The school’s exam results ….. the headmaster.
a) celebrated b) delighted c) enjoyed d) rejoiced
9. The Examination Syndicate was most impressed by the overseas student
whose English was ….. .
a) impeccable b) infallible c) irreproachable d) spotless
10. It is ….. that students will have doubted their vocabulary in three months.
a) anticipated b) foreseen c) hope d) worry
PUNCTUATION MARKS. Match each of the following items with the
correct letter near the text below.
abbreviation apostrophe asterisk bracket

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 capital letter colon comma full stop
hyphen inverted commas italics question mark
small letter stroke
The early records entitled Calendar are arranged h)
a) chronologically. In some Calendars numbered items — i)
b) e.g. grants, leases, warrants — appear within a
c) "calendar" of no uniform duration. Dates are essential,
d) therefore, in identifying the items*. j)
* Great Britain. Public Record Office,
e) Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, of the Reign k)
f) of Elizabeth, vol. 4/1 (1566-69): Calendar 1566 1)
g) (17 November 1566), Elizabeth to Cecil's Wife (?). m) n)
EDUCATION AND MONEY. Choose the right answer.
1. Dr Inventive received a ..... from the university in order to continue his
research.
a) credit b) grant c) prize d) reward
2 His father paid him ..... while he was at university.
a) alimony b) an allowance c) a pension d) the rates
3. The headmaster had been trying to ..... money for a new science block.
a) ask b)deal c) increase d) raise
4. Prospective students must show that they have sufficient money to cover
their course fees and ….. .
a) boarding b) maintenance c) supplies d) support
5. If you find it difficult to make ends meet, you can ..... to the university for an
a) apply b) ask c) propose d) submit
6. Many teachers are protesting about the Government ..... in education.
a) contractions b) cuts c) drops d) reductions
7. Students sometimes support themselves by ..... of evening jobs.
a) efforts b) means c) methods d) ways

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 8. The … .. for the course are $150 a term.
a) charges b) Costs c) fees d) payments
9. The government will be increasing student ..... to give them more money.
a) aids b) benefits c) grants d) rewards
10. Despite the excellent results in his A level exam he has not won a(n).....to
the university.
a) aid b) money c) pension d) scholarship
EDUCATION AND MONEY. Put each of the following words into its
correct place in the passage below.
advance approximately balance beginning
cash credit currency delayed
fees full holders installments
mail money payment visa
Payment plans
Tuition ..... are payable in ..... in full at the time billed. Students may pay by
….. , cheque, ….. order or ….. card (Master card or ….. ). Foreign students must pay
in British ….. . ….. may be made by telephone for credit card …… . Payment may
also be by ….. . However, the College is not responsible for lost or ….. mail.
Students who do not pay in ….. in advance automatically choose the deferred
payment plan of two equal ….. . The initial payment is due ..... two weeks prior to the
….. of each term. The ….. is due four weeks after the beginning of the term.
BITS AND PIECES. Choose the right answer.
1. The ….. needs changing on your typewriter; otherwise we won’t be able to
read a word.
a) key b) letter c) oil d) ribbon
2. The paper was so thin that the ….. of the pencil went right through it.
a) edge b) end c) point d) top
3. Write in pencil and ..... out any mistakes.
a) clean b) rub c) scratch d) wipe

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 4. Oh, my pen has …..; can you lend me yours?
a) run down b) run in c) run off d) run out
5. On no ..... must you press this button!
a) account b) circumstances c) reason d) time
6. The educational …… of computers has not yet been fully realized.
a) amount b) quality c) value d) worth
7. Can you lend me a ….. of paper?
a) half b) page c) piece d) portion
8. He ….. up the sheet of paper and dropped it into the wastepaper basket.
a) bent b) broke c) crumpled d) curled
9. With a word ….. you can produce a document much faster than with a
typewriter.
a) computer b) copier c) processor d) printer
10. Paper clips, drawing pins and safety-pins were ..... all over the desk.
a) dispersed b) scattered c) separated d) sprayed
11. Give me a ..... of paper and I'll write a message for Mr. Absent.
a) blade b) fragment c) leaf d) sheet
12. In the computer room the boys were ..... holes in cards.
a) banging b) knocking c) punching d) shooting
13. We packed most of our books in strong ..... boxes.
a) cardboard b) carton c) paper d) wrapping
14. Unfortunately our local library provides no ..... for photocopying.
a) amenities b) chances c) facilities d) opportunities
15. I can't open the drawer in my desk as it's ..... .
a) fixed b) set c) stuck d) unmoved
EDUCATION. Choose the best synonym.
1. That student is discourteous; he GRUMBLES no matter how you try to
please him.
a) complains b) giggles c) scolds d) sneers

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 2. Vivian REVISED his paper carefully, following the professor's suggestions.
a) copied b) corrected c) retyped d) reviewed
3. "Roget's Thesaurus", a collection of English words and phrases arranged by
the ideas they express RATHER THAN in alphabetical order.
a) as well as b) instead of c) restricted d) unless
4. Habits can be CONSCIOUSLY strengthened, as when a student of the guitar
practices and memorizes different fingerings.
a) conveniently b) deliberately c) lastingly d) robustly
5. My supply of confidence slowly DWINDLES as the day of the exam
approaches.
a) diminishes b) emerges c) grows d) revives
6. His face was FLUSHED because he had run all the way from the dorm so as
not to be late for the lecture.
a) pale b) red c) shaking d) wet
7. The student BROKE IN ON the conversation without waiting for the
speaker to stop talking.
a) interrupted b) regarded c) seized d) withdrew from
8. The warmth of the lecture hall made the student DOZE.
a) faint b) fall asleep c) sweat profusely d) yawn widely
9. The speaker DEMONSTRATED his knowledge of the subject by his
excellent lecture.
a) corrected b) created c) repeated d) showed
10. The teacher told the student that his paper was ILLEGIBLE.
a) illegal b) indecipherable c) outstanding d) sloppy

Литература

190
 1. Английский язык. Учебник для гуманитарных факультетов / Авторы-
составители Н.М. Карачарова, А.А. Масленникова, Э.Ф. Осипова и др. Спб.:
«Лань», 1997.
2. Англо-русский словарь-минимум психологических терминов / Сост.
В.В. Лучков, В.Р. Рокитянский. М., 1993.
3. Англо-русский словарь персоналий. Ермалович Д.И. 3 изд., доп. М.:
Рус. яз., 2000.
4. Никошкова Е.В. Английский язык для психологов: Учеб. пособие для
студ. высш. учеб. заведений. – М.: ВЛАДОС, 2002.
5. Практический курс английского языка. 5 курс: Учеб. для высш. учеб.
заведений / Под ред. В.Д. Аракина. – М.: гуманит. изд. центр ВЛАДОС, 1999.
6. Тер-Минасова С.Г., Фатющенко В.И. Английский язык. Пособие для
поступающих в вузы. – М.: МГУ, 1993.
7. Учись читать педагогическую литературу на английском языке: англо-
русский словарь педагогических терминов / Сост. Брискина М.Ю. – Нижний
Тагил, 2001.
8. Bright Ideas. A Teacher’s resource manual. National Council of Teachers of
English. USA, 1997.
9. ESP Russia. A Newsletter for Russian Teachers of English for Specific
Purposes. №4 April, 1997.
10. Langan J. English Skills With Readings. 2nd ed., 1991.
11. Mariusz Misztal. Test in English. Thematic Vocabulary. Warszawa.
Pedgogiczne, 1996.
12. Scurnik L.S., George F. Psychology for Every Man. Penguin Books, 1972.
13. Soars John and Liz. Headway Advanced. Headway Upper-intermediate.
Student’s book. Oxford University Press, 1987.
14. Povey J., Walshe I. An Engkish Teacher’s Handbook of Educational Terms.
– Moscow, 1982.

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 15. Forum. A Journal for the teacher of English outside the United States. Vol.
35. № 3, July, 1997.

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 Оглавление
Предисловие……………………………………………………………..3
Lesson One Education…………………………………………………….5
Lesson Two Learning from the psychological point of view…………….9
Lesson Three Power learning……………………………………………..15
Lesson Four Language……………………………………………………25
Lesson Five Learning a foreign language…………………………………30
Lesson Six What makes a good language learner?......................................37
Lesson Seven What makes a good foreign language teacher……………..46
Lesson Eight Teachers and students………………………………………61
Lesson Nine Teaching techniques and strategy..………………………….65
Supplementary Reading.............................................................................85
Литература...............................................................................................191

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