Today some young people think that having a good education is not very important. Do you agree with them?

It all depends on many things. Those people who think that having a good education is not very important, have their own plans. Some girls want to be good mothers and have big families. Other people think that manual professions do not need good education. In this case they are mistaken. To my mind all professions need special education. Nowadays only highly qualified workers can deal with rather sophisticated equipment and computers.

 

Card № 3

I. 1. Read the article and say in 2—3 sentences what it is about.

My ideal school

My ideal secondary school is a safe haven¹. It shouldn’t be a place you hate going to, but a place you enjoy attending. I believe it should be social, as well as educational experience. A school should always have a soul… there should always be laughter ringing through the corridors.(Angela, 15, Moscow)

My ideal school is a school quite unlike any school we’ve heard of. This school consists of a large library and basic recreational facilities. There are no classrooms. The school is built on the idea of active learning. No student is forced to learn. (Tanya, 14, Rome)

School is the mould², which shapes our future. It’s where we spend most of our valuable time — childhood. Yet I know from firsthand experience that many aspects should be changed: the impersonal attitude of some teachers who do everything only for results, instead of creating happy moments and valuable life experience for young people. These young people are far from being an ‘empty pot’ who are ready to be filled with knowledge. They are simply locked boxes full of potential which should be discovered by caring and encouraging teachers. (Anna, 15, Riga)

Schools may be getting good results but they are not helping the students as individuals. It seems to me that it’s the learner who should ask questions. Give us the freedom to ask questions and do help us to find answers. Don’t you see we learn more from our experience and when people trust and respect us? We learn from our mistakes as well. (Hero Joy, 14, Kent)

I think differences make the world go around. Good teachers know it more than Maths rules. I think school must teach differences. And at the moment some schools are doing the opposite, trying to make everyone normal. (Kate, 13, London)

Schools should develop creativity and dreams. When schools teach people not to seek knowledge on their own, people become passive. Everybody has the right to be free and choose what to be and what not to be, schools do not give that option, they have a ‘well organised’ systematic life for you, in which you have to fit. (Luis, 15, Boston)

 

¹ a safe haven [ˈ heɪ vn] надёжное и безопасное место

² a mould [mə ʊ ld] матрица, шаблон

 

1. One of the children says that school should have a soul. Find this extract and read it aloud.

2. What do the children want to change at school?

3. Why do the children want more freedom?

 

II. Listen to the conversation and answer the questions below.

1. What is wrong with the accommodation?

2. Why did the boy oversleep?

3. What agreement did he reach with the person on Reception?

 

 

III. Let’s talk about the environment.

1. Now let's talk about environment. People say that our planet is in danger. Do you share this opinion?

I’d say that “our planet is in danger” is not the opinion, it’s a fact. Among the most urgent problems are the ozone layer, acid rains, global warming, toxic pollution of atmosphere, disappearance of forests, contamination of underground waters by chemical elements, destruction of soil in some areas, threat to some flora and fauna representatives, etc.

The most dramatic of them is, probably, climate change. It is the biggest environmental challenge facing the world today. In Europe, for example, climate change results in hotter and drier summers; warmer and wetter winters; other extreme weather conditions and rising sea-levels.

There are different types of pollution: air pollution, water pollution, even noise pollution. Cars and factories pollute the air we use. Radioactive contamination is a form of pollution, too. So, nuclear plants are very hazardous (risky). Take Chernobyl or Fucusima, for example.

There’s the issue of resource depletion, as well. In the last decades people have been cutting down lots of trees, especially in tropical areas. Forests are being destroyed at the rate of 40 hectares a minute! Deforestation destroys the environmental balance and reduces biodiversity. It kills animals, changes the climate and ecosystem in the world. People’s activity is crowding animals out of their natural habitat.

One of the most important pollution problems is the oceans. Many ships sail in the ocean water- fishing ships, some ships carrying people, some carrying oil. If a ship loses some of the oil in the water, or waste the water becomes dirty. Many sea birds and fish die because of the polluted water.

2. What do you think people should do to protect the environment?

The main three solutions to the problems are: to respect, to reduce and to recycle.

-     Everyone should become an ecologically conscious person.

-     We should be economical with natural recourses (water, gas, oil)

-     We should buy and use only ecologically safe products (never use sprays)

-     It is advisable to take part in the activities of different ecological organization sand volunteer work: planting trees, picketing …)

-     New purifying systems should be fit

-     We should never do harm to wildlife: stop hunting and killing wild animals

-      The only one way to save wild animals and wild habitats – conservation. That means protecting endangered animals by law, opening more national parks, building fewer new roads, planting more new forests.

3. What would you like to ask your British friend about measures that are taken to protect the environment in Britain?

-     Are there any environmental organizations in Britain?

-     Does your school take part in any programmes to protect the environment?

- Do you recycle all used materials with the available technologies or reuse them?

-     What measures are taken by your local authority to protect the environment?

- You recycle all used materials made with trees/plants to reduce deforestation, don’t you?

4. A friend of yours wants to develop a programme to protect the city where he lives. Give him a piece of advice.

First of all I would recommend him to consult ecologists about the types of local problems. Then it would be easy to plan some activities. And to gather the team it is necessary to make an advertisement of the activity.

5. Grееn School of the Year contest is held in the country and you want your school to enter it. Give ideas for some 'green events'.

I would fit many garbage bins in the town. It is necessary to plant more trees around school.

I would like to organize some excursions to our factories to study the level of protection of the environment there.

 

Card № 4

I. 1. Read the article and say in 2—3 sentences what it is about.

Anna’s diary

SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1942

Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me. Not only because I’ve never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the thoughts of a thirteen­year­old schoolgirl. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. I feel like writing, and I have an even greater need to get all kinds of things off my chest¹.

“Paper has more patience than people.” I thought of this saying on one of those days when I was feeling a little depressed and was sitting at home with my chin in my hands. I was bored and wondering whether to stay in or go out. I finally stayed where I was and decided to start a diary. Yes, paper does have more patience, and since I’m not planning to let anyone else read this notebook, unless I should ever find a real friend, it probably won’t make a bit of difference.

Now I’m back to the point that prompted me to keep a diary in the first place: I don’t have a friend. Let me put it more clearly, since no one will believe that a thirteen­year­old girl is completely alone in the world. And I’m not. I have loving parents and a sixteen­year­old sister, and there are about thirty people I can call friends. I have a bunch of admirers who can’t keep their adoring eyes off me and who constantly try to catch a glimpse¹ of me in the classroom. I have a family, loving aunts and a good home. No, on the surface I seem to have everything, except my one true friend.

All I think about when I’m with friends is having a good time. I can’t bring myself to talk about anything but ordinary everyday things. We don’t seem to be able to get closer, and that’s a problem. Maybe it’s my fault that we don’t trust each other. In any case, that’s just how things are. That’s why I started the diary.

To enhance³ the image of this long­awaited friend in my imagination, I don’t want to write only about facts, but I want the diary to be my friend, and I am going to call this friend Kitty.

 

¹ to get off one’s chest облегчить душу

² a glimpse взгляд

³ to enhance усилить

 

2. The author explains why she decided to keep a diary. Find this extract and read it aloud.

3. What close people did Anna have?

4. Why did Anna start writing in a diary?

 

II. Listen to Alice speaking about her first job and answer the questions below.

1. What job did Alice do?

2. What difficulties did she have?

3. What did she learn at work?

 

 

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