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Тексты для самостоятельной работы по разделу «Коммуникативно-речевой практикум»
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Сравнительная таблица систем образования в нашей стране и в странах изучаемого языка
| Корреспонди-рующий элемент | Russia | USA | Great Britain |
| The right to education | is guaranteed by the Constitution | The system of education is determined by the National Education Acts. | |
| Preschool education | 2 to 6. Nursery schools (from 12 months to 3 years); Kindergartens (from 4 to 7 years) | Nursery schools. Age-group: 4-5 years. Kindergartens. | Nursery schools. Ages 3 to 5 |
| Primary schools | forms: 1-3(4) ages: 6(7)-9 | The term used: Elementary grades: 1-8 ages: 5(6)-10 (11) grades 4, 5, 6 make up what is called a "middle grade" school; | Two stages: 1) Infant (from 5 to 7 years of age); 2)Junior (from 8 to 11 years of age). |
| Secondary education | 1) Basic schools Forms: 5-9 Ages: 10 to 14 2) Secondary schools Forms: 10-11 Ages: 15-16 3) Secondary special education a) vocational schools; b) technical schools (colleges) | grades: 7, 8, 9 - "junior high school" grades: 10-12 — a "senior high school" | 1) Grammar schools (and Technical and Bilateral schools; ages: from 11 to 18); 2) Secondary modern schools (ages: from 11 to 16); 3) Comprehensive schools (ages: from 11 to 16). |
| Higher education | universities, academies, institutes (engineering, medical, theatrical, law, teacher training, conservatories) (4-6 years) | 1) the two-year or community college; 2) the technical training institution from 6 months to 3(4) years); 3) the four-year college which is not part of a University; 4) the University which may contain: a) several colleges (a Bachelor's degree; 4 years of study) b) one or more graduate schools (a Master's of Art or of Science degree; 2 years of study) | higher universities, teacher training colleges, Polytechnics and further education colleges |
| Special schools | special school for handicapped children* | special school for children who are deaf, blind, for mentally retarded, physically handicapped, for children with behavioral problems | voluntary schools, which encourage a particular set of beliefs (known as church schools); selective schools (for academically able pupils) |
| School curriculum | mathematics, geography, literature, history, chemistry, physics, biology, Russian, a foreign language, music, art and physical education, handicrafts | mathematics, language (reading, grammar, composition and literature), penmanship (the rules of writing), science, social studies (history, geography, citizenship, economics), music, art, physical education | National Curriculum: English, math, science, technology, a foreign language. In secondary schools: history, geography, art, music and PE, history, geography, art, music are not compulsory after the age of 14. |
| Free of charge | state schools | public schools | compulsory education; grant-maintained schools (independent of the local council) |
| Not free of charge | independent schools = private | independent schools = private | public schools: about 300 fee-paying independent schools (7% of pupils) among them boarding schools |
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Текст1
Cambridge
Yet Cambridge was important long before the University existed. Here, at the meeting of dense forests to the south and trackless, marshy Fens to the north, was the lowest reliable fording place of the River Cam, or Granta. In the first century BC an Iron Age Belgic tribe built a settlement on what is now Castle Hill. Around AD40 the Romans took over the site and it became the crossing point for the Via Devana which linked Colchester with the legions in Lincoln and beyond. The Saxons followed, then the Normans under William the Conqueror, who raised a castle on a steep mound as a base for fighting the Saxon rebel, Hereward the Wake, deep in the Fens at Ely. The motte of William's castle still stands and Ely Cathedral is visible from the top on a clear day.
The first scholars didn't arrive in Cambridge until 1209 and another 75 years passed before Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely, founded Peterhouse, the first college. Clare (1326), Pembroke (1347), Gonville and Caius (1348), Trinity Hall (1350) and Corpus Christi (1352) were established in the first half of the fourteenth century. Ten more colleges were founded during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, including Christ's (1505), King's (1441), Queens' (1448), Jesus (1496), St. John's (1511), Trinity (1546), and Emmanuel (1584).
Henry VI took nearly a quarter of the medieval city for King's College; Henry VIII united two existing colleges to make Trinity grand enough to rival Christ Church in the “Other Place”. Women didn't have a proper college until Girton (founded in 1869) opened in 1873. There are now thirty one colleges; the latest is Robinson College founded in 1977 by a local millionaire.
The colleges contain the great architectural treasures of Cambridge. Founded not by remote bureaucrats, but by kings, queens (Queens' was founded by two queens), bishops, nobles, guilds and rich widows, they attracted powerful patrons and large endowments of land and money. Such wealth, plus natural discrimination, led the colleges to use the best architects – whether unknown Tudor masons, Sir Christopher Wren or Powell and Moya – to create beautiful buildings that reflect perfectly 700 years of British architectural heritage. It is a heritage symbolised by the soaring windows and fan vaults of King's College Chapel.
As the colleges grew so too did the University with its own fine buildings: the Old Schools (1350), the Senate House (1722-30), The Pitt Press (1833), and the University Library (1934). The Fitzwilliam Museum (started in 1834) is only the grandest and most renowned of several excellent University museums.
And the wheel of change continues to turn: Cambridge is no longer a sleepy university cum market town. It is a bustling city of over 109,000 people in the vanguard of the high-technology revolution. It is a city with many good shops (the extraordinary variety and quality of the bookshops is a debt undoubtedly owed to the University), international conferences, and exciting festivals each summer.
(Adapted from the Internet sites)
Текст 2
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