University

Students from other countries that I met at university often took a long time to get used to the system. The university terms lasted only six months and you were free to do what you liked in the vacations. Attendance at lectures was optional, and the only compulsory assignment was to write an essay once a week and submit it to your tutor. The idea was that you were not supposed to be there to obtain an academic qualification, but to extend your knowledge of this or that subject in your own way. It was all there in the libraries and laboratories and lecture halls if you looked for it. A poor American student who had attended all the tutor's lectures once reproduced them almost word for word in his essay, and the tutor said: 'I know what I think. What do you think?' The life of an undergraduate was relaxing and enjoyable, but you had to work things out for yourself.

Note: In British universities, there is normally only one Professor for a given subject; other university teachers are called lecturers. They are also tutors when they give individual students classes in small numbers.

Vocabulary:

to get used (to) - привыкнуть (к);

term - семестр;

to last - продолжаться, длиться;

attendance - посещаемость;

optional - факультативный; необязательный;

compulsory - обязательный;

assignment - задание;

to submit (to) - предоставлять (куда, кому);

tutor - куратор;

to obtain - получать;

to extend - расширять;

to attend - посещать;

to reproduce - воспроизвести;

word for word - дословно;

undergraduate - студент последнего курса

to relax - отдыхать, расслабляться;

to work out - решать; разрабатывать.

Comprehension check: answer the following questions:

1. Is this system similar to that of university inRuaaia? If not, what are the differences?

2. Why do you think people go to university? Do you think they go for the right reasons?

3. What did the American student's tutor expect him to do? How do you suppose this differed from the system he was used to?