Please read the following text carefully.

       Foreign - language instruction is a growth industry
       in Europe these days.
 
 

With customs barriers soon to come down throughout the European Union ,the push is on to bring down ancient language barriers with them. Businessmen and bureaucrats have begun to worry in earnest about how to deal with their counterparts in other countries. Already, schools in many of the EU’s 15 member nations make study of a second language a compulsory part of the curriculum; some even require a third.
The EU itself seeks to encourage the study of languages as a matter of policy. The EU Commission has proposed affirmative-action programs that would make learning at least one foreign language compulsory iin schools throughout the Union and encourage the study of an additional language beyond that.
Most of those now trying to learn their neighbours’ language are doing so for practical rather than purely
cultural reasons, and this creates special teaching requirements

in Newsweek ( abridged and adapted )
 

2.  Match the words on the left with their definitions on the right.
 
 

3.  Say if these statements are true or false according to the text you’ve read.

a)  The abolishment of the customs barriers could mean the end of ancient language barriers.
b)  Many schools in the EU want the learning of a second language to be obligatory.
c)  Most of the people who are learning a foreign language do it only for cultural reasons.
d)  There are no special teaching qualifications needed to teach a foreign language for practical reasons.

4.  Find evidence ( till the end of the first paragraph ) for the statements below:

a)  Teaching languages will be a good business.
b)  The EU is trying hard to avoid difficulties in communication caused by the use of different languages.
c)  Schools in general try to oblige their students to learn a foreign language.

5.  Reread the second paragraph and say what the EU proposed to do to encourage the study
      of languages in the Union.

6.  Say what the following words refer to in the third paragraph.

a)  those ( line 13 )
b)  this  ( line 14 )
 
 

1.  Make sentences using the two patterns of “likely to” ( is likely to / is likely that )
     Make the necessary changes.

a)  English may contribute with hundreds of new words.
b)  In the future the whole world may learn an international language.
c)  It is possible that a common language will make peace easier.
 

2.  Complete the chart with words belonging to the same word family.
 
 

3.  Use the most appropriate adjectives to complete these sentences:

a)  Susan gets everything she wants from her parents. She is_______________ .
b)  On the football field, Tom is the most ______________ player, always all over the field on defense and offense.
c)  This class is always willing to consider new ideas and opinions. It’s a very ____________ class.
 
 

 “ Our lecturers at college emphasised the importance of being adaptable in one’s lessons, of improvising,
    but very often lessons fail not because the teacher has been insufficiently inventive but because the class, with
    its own deeply ingrained habits of mind, has been incapable of adjusting to the less structured environment of     an improvised lesson.”

 English teacher in an East Anglian Comprehensive,
                               1986
 
 

Do you agree with this teacher ?

What are, in your opinion, the present - day problems in education ?
 
 
 

GOOD LUCK !!!
 
 

English test paper

Please read the following text very carefully :
 
 

“ At training college you are told always to be excepionally patient and understanding, particularly with less able pupils, but what they don’t tell you is that when you give them this special attention and understanding they exhaust and demoralise you by giving you very little in return - no feedback, none of their attention and patience. As a result, after a frustrating day teaching largely unreceptive groups, the last thing you feel like doing is preparing the kind of well thought-out and structured lesson that they in particular need.
When  I started  teaching, I did so with great hopes of helping students make some genuine progress. The reality is that some pupils enter the school at 11 able to read and do elementary arithmetic and leave five years later able to do little more.
One of the biggest problems of the present time is motivation. However unsatisfactory, the old-fashioned method of telling children that exam success and ‘ good behaviour ’ would secure them a worthwhile job, was at least partly successful. That no longer convinces anybody, and yet, desperate to give any encouragement, I have found myself repeating the tired old argument to pupils and trying to believe it myself, only to be reminded by them cynically that nowadays it’s not what you know but who you know that will secure them a job.
The teaching strategies I studied at college not only pre-supposed a degree of motivation on the part of the pupil that does not in fact exist but also made unrealistic demands on the teacher. In fact to make these teaching methods work would require that the teacher had endless reserves of patience, superhuman energy and no social life whatsoever outside school.”

English teacher in an East Anglian Comprehensive, 1986
                                                                                                        ( adapted and abridged )

1.  Say whether these statements are true or false, according to the text. Justify the false ones.

a)  A teacher should only be patient when he wants to.
b)  When a teacher gives special attention to pupils with some learning difficulties, they give the teacher some attention, too.
c)  In our days we realise that some pupils don’t learn a lot in comprehensive schools.
d)  Today, teachers are faced with the problem of students’s lack of motivation.
e)  The teaching strategies studied by teachers at the university are very helpful  and realistic.
 

2.  What do the following words refer to?

a)  you ( line 1 )                                                                 c) it ( line 12 )
b)  their ( line 3 )                                                               d) them ( line 12 )
 
 

3.  Answer these questions on the text.

 a) Many of the more ‘difficult’ students at the school in question come from farming families who have lived the same land for generations and whose children, only 60 or 70 years ago, might have left school at 12 to work on the farm.
Is it perhaps just a waste of time trying to educate them beyond their chosen way of life?
Justify your answer.

b)  How does the great disparity between theory and practice mentioned by the teacher come about and how could it be reduced?
 
 

1.  Say whether these words are British English or American English.

 a) elevator                                                                           lift

 b) underground                                                                    subway

 c) humour                                                                            humor

 d) theater                                                                              theatre
 

2.  Complete the chart ( only when it is possible ) with words belonging to the same word family.
 
 
 

3.  Complete the following sentences using the correct form of either the verb ‘do’ or ‘make’.
 

a)  Susan took another test yesterday. This time she ___________  fewer mistakes. She said she __________her
      best.
b)  Joan __________ her bed before __________ her homework.
 

4.  Use the most appropriate adjectives  ( of personal description ) to complete these sentences.

a)   They are good students so they are _____________ they will pass this test paper.
b)   Mario is an _____________ sort of boy, never worrying about a thing in the world.
c)   Julian thinks he’s the best student in the school, but he refuses to help his schoolmates. He’s so
       ____________ ! Nobody likes him very much.
 
 

              In a foreign city
 

 You cannot speak for no one knows
 Your language. You must try to catch
 By glances or by steadfast gaze
 The attitude of those you watch.
 No conversation can amaze:
 Noises may find you but not speech.

 Now you have circled silence, stare
 With all the subtlety of sight.
 Noise may trap tears but eye discerns
 How someone on his elbow turns
 And in the moon’s long exile here
 Touches another in the night.

Elizabeth Jennings

Vocabulary:

       steadfast  ( line 3 ) - firm and unchanging
        gaze ( line 3 ) - long steady look
         trap ( line 9 ) - deceive, cheat
         discern ( line 9 ) - see clearly
 
 

This poem talks about the difficulties in understanding people who speak a different / a foreign language.
 

Do you consider the learning of a foreign language important? Why / why not?
( You may use the poem as a reference, if you want  )
 
 
 

GOOD LUCK