Reading

Task 4. Read and translate the text. Find out the words in the text which are transcribed like shown below and complete the table.

[ri ': sɜ:rtʃ]		[pər'su:]
[' lɜ:rnɪŋ]		[‚ɒpər’tu:nətɪ]
[‚bækəl ' ɔ:rɪt]		[‚ɪndə'vɪdʒu:əl]
[‚ju:nə'vɜ:rsətɪ]		[ə'kɒmplɪʃ]
[kri:'eɪtɪv]		[’skɒlər]
[pəʋst'grædʒu:ɪt]		[’strʌktʃə]

University education

A university is an institution of higher education and research which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects and provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education. The word "university" is derived from the Latin “universitas magistrorum et scholarium”, which roughly means “community of teachers and scholars”.

A university is a not a building or a collection of buildings. A university is not a collection of people either – even if those people include both students and teachers. A university is a social structure. It organizes people that are a part of it. The closest analogy to a social structure is a rock. Just as rocks are composed of individual minerals, so are social structures composed of individual people. The rock confines the actions of individuals, but also gives rise to properties above and beyond those of individual people.

University study demands more independent learning through your own reading, research, online work and writing. A university education is meant to accomplish many things. We attend a university to receive a general education, to study the liberal arts, and to prepare ourselves for entry into government, business, industry, or the professions. These preparations can also lead to postgraduate study at the university and to advanced degrees after the baccalaureate degree.

Studying at the university enlarges both our understanding and our curiosity about what existed before us, what exists in the present with us, and what will exist in the future. The knowledge we acquire at the university helps us to understand how things happening at one place on earth can profoundly change what happens elsewhere.

Most universities today embrace the idea of interdisciplinary learning in order to provide students with a more comprehensive understanding of the world beyond what any single discipline can provide. Students are typically required to have in-depth knowledge of a major, and to distribute their elective courses across the humanities, social sciences, and technical sciences to broaden their understanding.

An education that cultivates creative understanding enables diverse, talented, hardworking graduates to pursue productive careers, to enjoy the pleasures of lifelong learning. The corresponding institutional mission of universities is to increase opportunity, to cultivate creative understanding, and by these and other important means such as innovative research to contribute to society.

Task 5. Answer the following questions to the text.

1. What is a university?

2. What does the word “university” mean?

3. Why is a university said to be a social structure?

4. In what way is more independent learning provided in a university?

5. What is accomplished throughout a university education?

6. What does the knowledge we acquire at a university help to understand?

7. Why do most universities today embrace the idea of interdisciplinary learning?

8. How is the idea of interdisciplinary learning realized?

9. What enables hardworking graduates to pursue productive careers?

10. By what means can university graduates contribute to society?

Task 6. Decide which of the following statements are true (T) or false (F). If the statement is false, explain why.

1.	A university is a community of teachers and scholars.
2.	A university is a social structure in which people are organized as a part of it.
3.	The closest analogy to a rock is a social structure.
4.	University study demands more dependent learning through reading, research, online work and writing.
5.	A university is attended by students who prepare for entry into government, business, industry, or the professions.
6.	University preparations can lead to undergraduate study at the university and to advanced degrees after the baccalaureate degree.
7.	The idea of interdisciplinary learning is embraced by many universities today.
8.	University students are required to have in-depth knowledge of the humanities and social sciences.
9.	Hardworking graduates are enabled to pursue productive careers.
10.	An innovative research is the most important means to contribute to society.

Task 7. Match the columns to make the phrases and translate them.

1) academic	a) structure	1)
2) university	b) careers	2)
3) interdisciplinary	c) sciences	3)
4) innovative	d) knowledge	4)
5) liberal	e) degree	5)
6) hardworking	f) education	6)
7) in-depth	g) learning	7)
8) technical	h) research	8)
9) productive	i) arts	9)
10) social	j) graduates	10)

Task 8. Match the words from the text with their definitions and compose your own sentence with the following words to illustrate their use.

1.	education	a.	a field of study
2.	degree	b.	relating to a course of studies taken at a college or university after earning a bachelor's degree or other first degree
3.	research	c.	a title conferred on students by a college, university, or professional school on completion of a program of study
4.	discipline	d.	an action or process of teaching someone especially in a school, college, or university
5.	knowledge	e.	literature, philosophy, art, etc., as distinguished from the natural sciences
6.	graduate	f.	a job or profession that someone does for a long time
7.	baccalaureate	g.	a careful study that is done to find and report new knowledge about something
8.	career	h.	information, understanding, or skill that you get from experience or education
9.	society	i.	the first or lowest academic degree conferred by universities and colleges
10.	humanity	j.	a community, nation, or broad grouping of people having common traditions, institutions, and collective activities and interests.

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