1. to go into details                         А. начать с азов

2. to drum something into              В. как дважды два — четыре

somebody's head

3. a brain twister                            С. куриные мозги

4. two and two make four               D. синий чулок

5. a stumbling block                       Е. вдаваться в подробности

6. the key word                               F. головоломка

7. the brain of a                                    G. легко даваться

8. to come easy                                    H. ключевое слово

9. to start from scratch                         I. камень преткновения

10. a blue stocking                                         J. вдолбить что-либо в голову

Exercise 20. Watch the video “Top 10 Universities” on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hCHx0EPhK4 Insert the missing numbers: 1636; 1189; 82; 58; 33; 111; 180 000;1 777; 135; 80; 36 000; 1861; 1890; 13;

1.Oxford University traces its origins back to the _______th century.

2. University of Chicago was only founded in ______ making it one of the youngest elite university in the world.

3. ___________Colombians have won a Nobel Prize at some point in their careers.

4. California Institute of Technology includes __________Nobel laureates, _______National Medal of Science recipients, 13 National Medal of Technology and innovation recipients and ________ National Academy of Science member.

5. Princeton University is one of the oldest and most historic universities in USA. Its famous Nassau Hall still bears a cannonball scar from the ________ Battle of Princeton and its former President John Witherspoon was the only university president to sign the declaration of independence.

6. University of Cambridge over _________students represent more than ________ countries and its faculty has earned over ______ Nobel Laureates.

7. University of California at Barkeley with over ________students is also one of the largest elite University.

8. In the century and a half since its founding _____ has become the world's preeminent science research center.

9. Sandford has access to numerous world-class _____ acre Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve study ecosystems firsthand.

10. Harvard University was founded in_______.

Exercise 21 . Read and translate the dialogue. Then act out the dialogue.

Jane: What do you do, Mark?

Mark: I'm a student but I'm working with Tim for the summer.

J.: You won't be here for long, will you?

M.: I'll only be here until the end of August and then I'll go home.

J.: You won't have a holiday, will you?

M.: Oh. yes. I'll have three weeks holiday in Wales. I'm going to the Welsh mountains.

J.: And then?

M.: Then I'll go to Coventry.

J.: Why will you go there?

M.: To study at the University of Warwick.

J.: Oh, I'll be very near there.

M.: Where will you be?

J.: I'll be at Birmingham University. What are you going to study?

M.: Economics. I hope to work tor an advertising agency one day. And what about you? Will it be your first year?

J.: Yes. I'm doing modem languages. I don't know what I want to be. I think I'd like to be a teacher.

Exercise 22 . Translate the proverbs into Russian and comment upon them.

1. A man is never too old to learn.

2. Education covers a lot of ground, but it doesn't cultivate it.

3. Live and learn.

4. By doing nothing we learn to do ill.

5. Better untaught than ill taught.

6. Brevity is the soul of wit.

7. Dot your i's and cross your t's.

Exercise 23. Read and translate the Text. Choose an appropriate title for the Text.

a. Universities in ancient times

b. History of higher education

c. First universities

Text III

The first universities were not actually degree-granting institutions. The original Latin word universities, first used in time of renewed interest in Classical Greek and Roman tradition, tried to reflect this feature of the Academy of Plato. The choice for the oldest institution of higher learning is usually among Nalanda, Constantinople, Al Karoline or Al-Azhar. Nalanda University, founded in Bihar, India around the fifth century B.C.E. conferred academic degree titles to its graduates, while also offering post-graduate courses. Another Indian university whose ruins were only recently excavated was Ratnagiri University in Orissa. Chinese institutions of higher learning were the semi-legendary Shang Hsiang, and later Taixue and Guozijian serve as the highest level of educational establishment while academies became very popular as non-governmental establishments teaching Confucianism and Chinese literature among other things. Also the academy of Gundishapour is one of the oldest universities in the world, made around the fourth century C.E. in Iran.

Al-Azhar University, founded in Cairo, Egypt in the tenth century, offered a variety of post-graduate degrees, and is often regarded as the first full-fledged university. The University of Constantinople, founded in 849, by the regent Bardas of emperor Michael III, is generally considered the first institution of higher learning with the characteristics we associate today with a university (research and teaching, auto-administration, academic independence, etc.). The Guinness Book of World Records recognizes the University of Al Karaouine in Fez, Morocco as the oldest university in the world with its founding in 859.

Byzantine university refers to higher education during the era of the Byzantine empire. The medieval Greek world had no autonomous and continuing institutions of higher learning comparable to the universities of the later Middle Ages in Western Europe, but higher education was provided by private teachers, professional groups and state appointed teachers.

In the early period Rome, Athens, and Alexandria were the main centers of learning, but were overtaken in the fifth century by the Queen of cities, Constantinople. After the closing of the Academy in Athens in 529 due to its pagan teachings, and the conquest of Alexandria and Beirut by the Arabs in the mid seventh century, the focus of all higher learning moved to Constantinople.

After the foundation of Constantinople in 330 teachers were drawn to the new city and various steps were taken for official state support and supervision, however nothing lastingly formal in the way of state funded education emerged. However in 425 Theodosius II established a clear distinction between teachers who were private, and those who were public and paid from imperial funds. These official teachers enjoyed privilege and prestige. There were a total of 31 teachers: ten each for Greek and Latin grammar; five for Greek rhetoric; three for Latin rhetoric; two for law; one for philosophy. This system lasted with various degrees of official support until the seventh century.

In the seventh and eighth centuries Byzantine life went through a difficult period (sometimes called the Byzantine Dark Age). Continued Arab pressure from the south and the Slavs, Avars and Bulgars to the north led to dramatic economic decline and transformation of Byzantine life. However during this period higher education continued to receive some official funding, the details of which are not well known to scholars, but it is assumed the quality of the education was probably low.

With improving stability in the ninth century came measures to improve the quality of higher education. In 863 chairs of grammar, rhetoric and philosophy (includes mathematics, astronomy, and music) were founded and given a permanent location in the imperial palace. These chairs continued to receive official state support for the next century-and-a-half, after which the leading role in the provision of higher education was taken up the Church. During the twelfth century the Patriarchal School was the leading center of education which included men of letters such as Theodore Prodromos and Eustathius of Thessalonica.

The capture of Constantinople in 1204 by Crusaders during the Fourth Crusade ended all support for higher education, although the government in exile in Nicaea gave some support to individual private teachers. After the restoration in 1261 attempts were made to restore the old system, but it never fully recovered and most teaching fell to private teachers and professions. Some of these private teachers include the diplomat and monk Maximos Planudes (1260-1310), the historian Nikephoros Gregoras (1291-1360), and the man of letters Manuel Chrysoloras, who taught in Florence and influence the early Italian humanists on Greek studies. In the fifteenth century many more teachers from Constantinople would follow in Chrysoloras' footsteps.

Exercise 24. Vocabulary. Study following words and expressions.

1. degree-granting institutions

2. to confer

3. post-graduate courses

4. non-governmental

5. full-fledged university

6. pagan

7. conquest

8. supervision

9. to emerge

10.  economic decline

11.  chair

12.  men of letters

13.  capture

14.  Crusade

Exercise 25. Find the rest of the sentences in the text: