Базовый курс английского языка - Эккерсли К.Э.
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OLAF: Can you go to any lecture you like, no matter whether it is by a tutor or professor of your college or not?
JOHN: Yes. Lectures are organized not by the colleges but by the university, and so any member of the university may attend, for all students are members of a college and of the university.
OLAF: You said that lectures were "organized by the university".
Where is the university?
JOHN: It must seem rather strange to you but there isn't really any university at Oxford as there is, for example, at Manchester or Bristol or Edinburgh. Oxford (like Cambridge) is a collection of
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colleges, each self-governing and independent. "The University" is merely an administrative body that organizes lectures, arranges examinations, gives degrees, etc. The colleges are the real living Oxford and each has its own character and individuality There are students of all kinds in each college; I mean you don't get all science students at one college, all law students at another. Every college has its arts men and its science men, its medical students and its engineers. Every student, of course, follows his own course of study, but he gains a lot from living among those who represent all other branches.
OLAF: I saw in the porch of one college some notices about "Societies"; there seemed to be quite a lot of societies.
JOHN: There are dozens of them: dramatic societies, language clubs, philosophy societies, rowing, boxing, political clubs of all colours, cinema clubs-clubs, in fact, for almost every activity under the sun. Each society arranges for a leading expert in his subject to come and talk to its members. So in term time you get a regular stream of politicians, musicians, poets, painters, film-producers and so on. In a way I think we probably get more out of talking and listening at these clubs and societies than from any other side of university life. The best-known society, I suppose, is the Union, a debating club- a sort of training ground for our future statesmen. The next time you come to Oxford you must come in term time and I'll take you to one of the debates. You'll hear some attempts-not always very successful-by young speakers to be witty. But you'll hear, too, some first-class debating; and if you look round the walls of the Union at the photographs there, you'll see what a number of our greatest statesmen were once "President of the Oxford Union".
OLAF: There's another tutor, I suppose, that man in the cap and gown with those two men in bowler hats behind him.
JOHN: No, he's a proctor. And the two men behind him are "bulldogs". The proctor's job is to keep discipline, to see that students aren't out after midnight, or aren't driving a car without having first received permission from the proctor.
OLAF: What punishment can the proctor give?
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JOHN: Students can be fined a sum of money, or, for a very serious offence, they can be expelled.
OLAF: And the "bull-dogs", what are they for?
JOHN: They are to catch the student if he tries to run away before his name can be taken.
OLAF: By the way, what are you studying? It's medicine, isn't it? You're going to be a doctor.
JOHN: As a matter of fact, I'm not. That was the idea when I came here, but my interest has always been in language learning and language teaching and so I changed from medicine to modern languages. I'm in my last year now.
OLAF: What do you want to do when you leave Oxford?
JOHN: What 1 should like more than anything else would be to start a school in Oxford for teaching English to foreign students. And if I could get some Olafs and Jans and Friedas there, I should be very happy.
OLAP: I think they'd be very happy, too, to study English in Oxford. Well, I wish you luck.
JOHN: Thanks, Olaf. But let's walk on again; you've hardly seen any of the colleges yet.
(Continued in Lesson 24)
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¦ УПРАЖНЕНИЯ
1. Придумайте предложения со следующими словами и словосочетаниями:
undergraduate; sherry; queer-looking; personal; ragged; afford; originally; in disgrace; power; it is characteristic of; in due course; merely; criticize; in detail; appoint; research; organize; gain; activity; expert; politician; club; offence
2. Ответьте на вопросы:
1. What Oxford lecturer wrote a famous book for children?
2. What was the name of the book?
3. What do undergraduates wear for examinations?
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4. Why do some undergraduates prefer to buy a ragged gown?
5. What does a tutor do?
6. Which is the best-known society?
7. What is the job of a proctor?
8. What does John wish to do when he goes down from Oxford?
3. Объясните разницу между словами или словосочетаниями в каждой паре. Составьте с ними предложения:
1. an Oxford college; Oxford University; 2. a guest; a host; 3. a book-case; a book-shelf; 4. a chair; an arm-chair; 5. he smiled at John; he laughed at John; 6. John admitted...; John permitted...; 7. a portrait; a picture; 8. a picture of Oxford; a photograph of Oxford
4. Поставьте вопросы к выделенным курсивом словам так, чтобы следующие предложения были на них ответами:
