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The merry-go-round runs faster. Assignments, written reproductions, compositions, synopses,
papers. Translations checked up and marked. "Professor, I have never played truant, I had a good
excuse for missing classes". Works handed in and handed out. Reading up for exams. "No, professor, I
have never cheated — no cribs. I just crammed".
Junior students become senior. Still all of them are one family —
undergraduates. Students' parties
in the students' clab. Meeting people and parting with people. You know, Nora is going to be expelled and
Dora is going to graduate with honours. Yearly essays, graduation dissertations, finals...
What? A teacher's certificate? You mean, I've got a degree in English? I am happy! It is over! It is
over... Is it over? Oh, no...
A postgraduate course, a thesis, an oral, and a degree in Philology. The first of September. Where are
the students of the faculty of foreign languages? Is it the English department? Oh, how nice...
1. Say a few words about your university: say what it is called, speak about its faculties and their
specializations.
2. Would you compare college life with a merry-go-round or with something else?
3. What do you think of the first months at the university?
4. They say that it is a poor soldier who does not want to become a general. Name the steps of the social
ladder which a student must pass to climb up to the position of the rector. Use the words from the list below,
placing one word on one step.
Dean, assistant lecturer, head of department, vice-rector, associate professor, assistant professor, subdean,
professor.
0 TEXT
Ruth at College
(Extract from the book by A. Brookner "A Start in Life". Abridged)
The main advantage of being at college was that she could work in the library until nine o'clock. She was
now able to feed and clothe herself. She had, for the moment, no worries about money. In her own eyes she
was rich, and it was known, how, she did not understand, that she was not on a grant,' did not share a flat
with five others, did not live in a hall of residence, and took abundant baths, hot water being the one element
of life at home.
There was also the extreme pleasure of working in a real library, with access to the stacks. The greed for
books was still with her, although sharing them with others was not as pleasant as taking them to the table
and reading through her meals. But in the library she came as close to a sense of belonging as she was ever
likely to encounter.²
She was never happier than when taking notes, rather elaborate notes in different coloured ball-point
pens, for the need to be doing something while reading, or with reading, was beginning to assert itself. Her
essays, which she approached as many women approach a meeting with a potential lover, were well
received. She was heartbroken when one came back with the words "I cannot read your writing" on the
bottom.
She bought herself a couple ofpleated skirts, like those worn by Miss Parker;* she bought cardigans and
saddle shoes³ and thus found a style to which she would adhere for the rest other life.
* Miss Parker — Ruth's teacher at school.
The days were not long enough. Ruth rose early, went out for a newspaper and some rolls, made coffee,
and washed up, all before anybody was stirring. She was the neatest person in the house. As she opened the
front door to leave, she could hear the others greeting the day from their beds with a variety of complaining
noises, and escaped quickly before their blurred faces and slippered feet could spoil her morning. She was at
one with the commuters at the bus stop.
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There would be lectures until lunch time, tutorials in the afternoon.
In the Common Room there was an electric kettle and she took to supplying the milk and sugar.
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It was more