Unit 1 Education Is the Key

Photos of Some World famous university

• Cambridge University

at Cambridge, England, one of the oldest English-language universities in the world. Originating in the early 12th cent. Cambridge was organized into residential colleges, like those of Oxford, by the end of the 13th cent.

Oxford University Museum one of the oldest

English-language universities in the world. The university was a leading center of learning throughout the Middle Ages. It has maintained an outstanding reputation, especially in the classics, theology, and political science.

University of SydneyThe University of Sydney, established in 1850, is the oldest University in Australia, and it is located in Sydney. It is one of Australia's “Group of Eight" leading universities and remains one of the country's largest educational institutions. In 2004, the University of Sydney reported an enrolment of 47,296 students and employed 2,451 academics.

Columbia University

Columbia University, mainly in New York City; founded 1754 as King's College by grant of King George II; first college in New York City, fifth oldest in the United States; one of the eight Ivy League institutions.

Columbia University Campus tree lights

University of VictoriaCanada

The University of Victoria (usually known as UVic) is located on southern Vancouver Island in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It is a medium-sized university, with approxim

ately 18,000 students, as of 2004.

                           

The University of Auckland is New Zealand's largest university and top-ranked research institution. Founded in 1883, it has a scholarly tradition of international excellence. It has a cosmopolitan student body of 33,000, of which nearly 5,000 are international students representing over 100 countries. Its 3,800 staff are recruited internationally.

    Founded 16 years after the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, the College has grown from 9 students with a single Master into a University with an enrollment of more than 18,000 degree candidates.

                              

Established in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Harvard was named after its first benefactor, John Harvard, of Charlestown, Massachusetts

Boston University is a non-sectarian private university located in Boston Massachusetts. It was founded in 1839 in Vermont as a Methodist seminary, then transferred to New Hampshire in 1847, and finally moved to Boston in 1867.

The university, with over 2,000 faculty and nearly 30,000 students, represents the 4th largest private university in the nation.

Vocabulary

• commitment: thing one has promised to do,

• I am overworked at the moment. I have taken on too many commitment

• undertake: make oneself responsible for

• She undertakes the organization of the whole scheme. Undertake a mission, a project, task

• innovation: making changes; new technique and idea

• excel in/ at: be exceptionally good at• She excels in learning foreign languages.• cosmopolitan: containing people from all over the

world• Shanghai is a cosmopolitan city.• stimulating: making sb. or sth. more active or alert.

arouse sb. or sth• enrollment: number of people enrolled• Our college has an enrollment of more than 5000 st

udents.

• Directions:

• You are going to hear some people talking about universities in some English-speaking countries. Supply the missing information.

Key to Task A

• 1. Oxford• commitment • academic record• 2. oldest• largest• reputation• research• science

• 3. first• Australia• 150 years• excels• 4. excellence• 17,000• location

• 5. largest • 1883• situated• 26,000• 6. 1636• enrollment• 18,500• schools

• 7. awards • degrees• 20,000• 8. located• 135• third

Task B

• Directions:

• Listen to a passage about the online higher education in the U.S. Supply the missing words.

Key

• online • computers• academic • Bachelor’s• social • educational• progress• problem solving

• online

• reading

• like

• travel

• time

• Professors

• communication

• e-mail

• traditional

Part II. Educational Systems

• Task A.

• Work on the pre-listening questionsand familiarize with the vocabulary

• Comprehensive school:

• large secondary school at which children of all abilities are taught.

• Grammar school:

• type of secondary school provides academic (contrasted with technically) courses.

• GCSE examination: General Certificate Secondary Education examination

• A level: advanced level

• O level: ordinary level

• sophomore: second year students

• provincial: of province

• school board: school authorities

• diploma: certificate awarded for passing an examination, completing a course study

Primary school entering age

Secondary school entering age Permissible age to

leave school

Britain 5 11 16

The United States

6Junior high: 11

Senior high: 14 16

Australia 5

Intermediate school: 11

High school: 12/13

16

Canada 6 about 13 16

Key to Task B

Key to Task C

• 1. GCSE• 2. students / higher education• 3. student / second year / high school / college• 4. general exam / school certificate • 5. sit in University Entrance Examination• 6. Bachelor’s degree / 3-4 years /• Master’s degree / another year or 2• Doctorate degree / a further 3-7 years

Part III Remarks on modern education

• Training Focus: Identify Major Viewpoints and Supporting Details

• The size and the location of the world’s deserts are always changing. Over millions of years, as climates alter and mountains rise, new dry and wet areas emerge. But within the last hundred years, deserts have been increasing at a frightening speed. This is partly because of natural changes, but those most responsible for creating deserts are men.

• (Statement)

• In the nineteenth century some people living in the English colonies in Australia introduced rabbits into that continent from England. Today there are millions of rabbits that eat every plant in sight. The great desert that lies in the center of Australia is growing, partly due to the rabbit.

• (supporting details: example)

• Men can make deserts, but they can also prevent them from getting bigger. (statement) Algeria is planting a green belt of trees along the edge of the Sahara Desert to stop the sand. In China, too, windbreaks are being built in the northwest to keep the desert from growing.

• (Supporting details: examples)

Vocabulary

• snob: a person who respects and likes only people who are of a high social class, and/or a person who has extremely high standards who is not satisfied by the things that ordinary people like:

• 谄上骄下的势利鬼• He's a frightful snob - if you haven't been to the ri

ght school he probably won't even speak to you.

• craftsman: 工匠 ; 技工 ; 巧匠 ; 工艺师• decent: proper; socially acceptable• 正派的 ; 合乎礼仪的• I only associate with good decent fellows.• 我只和正派的好人交往。• promotion: advancement in rank or position• 提升 , 晋级• The job offers excellent promotion prospects.

humble: of low rank or position• ( 身份 , 地位等 ) 低下的 , 卑微的• He is of humble birth. 他出身卑微。

• colleague: one of a group of people who work together.reject: to refuse to accept, consider, or use

• oblige: to force someone to do something, or to make it necessary for someone to do something

• The law obliges companies to pay decent wages to their employees.

Key to Task A

• 1. a kind of snob value• 2. have a piece of paper• 3. obtain a certificate or a diploma first• 4. relatively unimportant• 5. get a degree• 6. proper education• 7. allow people to become expert / oblige them to

follow a set course of instruction

Task BListen again and read the statements in Task A and then decide which ones are major points and which are supporting ideas and facts. Write the statement numbers in the right place.

• Major Viewpoints• Statement Numbers• 1, 4, 7

• Supporting Ideas and Facts

• Statement Numbers:• 2, 3, 5, 6

Part IV. Short Talks on Listening Skills.

Listen and fill in the missing information

• communicative ability• extended• continuously• specific readiness• constantly setting up• constantly testing• what he has heard in

reality

• out of his expectation• get the message• familiarity • knowledge• the setting• already• take in• pre-listening

preparation

• give some thought to• related materials• vocabulary work• fully orientated • active thinking• ahead of

• logical & intelligent• know generally• exactly• next utterance