Activity 1

Read the following text quickly and fill in the table. What do the numbers given in the table refer
to?

Spoon-fed feel lost at the cutting edge

Before arriving at university students will have been powerfully influenced by their school's
approach to learning particular subjects. Yet this is only rarely taken into account by teachers in
higher education, according to new research carried out at Nottingham University, which could
explain why so many students experience problems making the transition.

Historian Alan Booth says there is a growing feeling on both sides of the Atlantic that the shift
from school to university-style learning could be vastly improved. But little consensus exists about
who or what is at fault when the students cannot cope. "School teachers commonly blame the poor
quality of university teaching, citing factors such as large first-year lectures, the widespread use of
inexperienced postgraduate tutors and the general lack of concern for students in an environment
where research is dominant in career progression," Dr Booth said.

Many university tutors on the other hand claim that the school system is failing to prepare students
for what will be expected of them at university. A-level history in particular is seen to be teacher-
dominated, creating a passive dependency culture.

But while both sides are bent on attacking each other, little is heard during such exchanges from
the students themselves, according to Dr Booth, who has devised a questionnaire to test the views
of more than 200 first-year history students at Nottingham over a three-year period. The students
were asked about their experience of how history is taught at the outset of their degree programme.
It quickly became clear that teaching methods in school were pretty staid.

About 30 per cent of respondents claimed to have made significant use of primary sources (few
felt very confident in handling them) and this had mostly been in connection with project work.
Only 16 per cent had used video/audio; 2 per cent had experienced field trips and less than 1 per
cent had engaged in role-play.

Dr Booth found students and teachers were frequently restricted by the assessment style which
remains dominated by exams. These put obstacles in the way of more adventurous teaching and
active learning, he said. Of the students in the survey just 13 per cent felt their A-level course had
prepared them very well for work at university. Three-quarters felt it had prepared them fairly well.

One typical comment sums up the contrasting approach: "At A-level we tended to be spoon-fed
with dictated notes and if we were told to do any background reading (which was rare) we were
told exactly which pages to read out of the book".

To test this further the students were asked how well they were prepared in specific skills central to
degree level history study. The answers reveal that the students felt most confident at taking notes
from lectures and organising their notes. They were least able to give an oral presentation and there
was no great confidence in contributing to seminars, knowing how much to read, using primary
sources and searching for texts. Even reading and taking notes from a book were often
problematic. Just 6 per cent of the sample said they felt competent at writing essays, the staple A
level assessment activity.

The personal influence of the teacher was paramount. In fact individual teachers were the centre
of students' learning at A level with some 86 per cent of respondents reporting that their teachers
had been more influential in their development as historians than the students' own reading and
thinking.

The ideal teacher turned out to be someone who was enthusiastic about the subject; a good clear
communicator who encouraged discussion. The ideal teacher was able to develop students
involvement and independence. He or she was approachable and willing to help. The bad teacher,
according to the survey, dictates notes and allows no room for discussion. He or she makes
students learn strings of facts; appears uninterested in the subject and fails to listen to other points
of view.

No matter how poor the students judged their preparedness for degree-level study, however, there
was a fairly widespread optimism that the experience would change them significantly, particularly
in terms of their open mindedness and ability to cope with people.

But it was clear, Dr Booth said, that the importance attached by many departments to third-year
teaching could be misplaced. "Very often tutors regard the third year as the crucial time, allowing
postgraduates to do a lot of the earlier teaching. But I am coming to the conclusion that the first
year at university is the critical point of intervention".

Alison Utley, Times Higher Education Supplement. February 6th, 1998.

1. What are the complaints of the school teacher regarding the university?

2. What are the complaints of the university lecturers regarding the school?
Activity 2

THE PERSONAL QUALITIES OF A TEACHER

First, the teacher's personality should be pleasantly live and attractive. This does not rule out
people who are physically plain, or even ugly, because many such have great personal charm. But
it does rule out such types as the over-excitable, melancholy, frigid, sarcastic, cynical, frustrated,
and over-bearing : I would say too, that it excludes all of dull or purely negative personality.

Secondly, it is not merely desirable but essential for a teacher to have a genuine capacity for
sympathy - in the literal meaning of that word; a capacity to tune in to the minds and feelings of
other people, especially, since most teachers are school teachers, to the minds and feelings of
children. Closely related with this is the capacity to be tolerant especially with children, to make
mistakes.

Thirdly, I hold it essential for a teacher to be both intellectually and morally honest. This does not
mean being a plaster saint. It means that he will be aware of his intellectual strengths, and
limitations, and will have thought about and decided upon the moral principles by which his life
shall be guided. There is no contradiction in my going on to say that a teacher should be a bit of an
actor. That is part of the technique of teaching, which demands that every now and then a teacher
should be able to put on an act - to enliven a lesson, correct a fault, or award praise.

A teacher must remain mentally alert. He will not get into the profession if of low intelligence, but
it is all too easy, even for people of above-average intelligence, to stagnate intellectually - and that
means to deteriorate intellectually. A teacher must be quick to adapt himself to any situation,
however improbable and able to improvise, if necessary at less than a moment's notice

On the other hand, a teacher must be capable of infinite patience. This, I may say, is largely a
matter of self-discipline and self-training; we are none of us born like that. He must be pretty
resilient; teaching makes great demands on nervous energy. And he should be able to take in his
stride the innumerable petty irritations any adult dealing with children has to endure.

Finally, I think a teacher should have the kind of mind which always wants to go on learning.
Teaching is a job at which one will never be perfect; there is always something more to learn about
it. There are three principal objects of study: the subject, or subjects, which the teacher is teaching;
the methods by which they can best be taught to the particular pupils in the classes he is teaching;
and - by far the most important - the children, young people, or adults to whom they are to be
taught. The two cardinal principles of education today are that education is education of the whole
person, and that it is best acquired through full and active co-operation between two persons, the
teacher and the learner.

How many qualities did the writer mention?

Identify the Main ideas and Supporting details.

Activity 3

There are different ways in which volcanoes are classified. Perhaps the most common and
certainly the one used by non-specialists is the division of volcanoes into the catgories of active,
dormant or extinct. This classification is problematical as there is no clear definition of what makes
a volcano active, dormant or extinct. Typically, a volcano is said to be extinct if it has not erupted
in historical times, or at least since written records began, and it is dormant if it is known to have
erupted in historical times but is now quiet. The difficulty with this is that man has been on the
planet for a comparatively short period of time and our historical records are a rather inaccurate
predictor of volcanic activity and dormant, and even extinct, volcanoes have been known to erupt.
This can be exemplified by one of the most notorious episodes in the annals of vulcanology, the
eruption of Mt Vesuvius in 79 AD. When Vesuvius did erupt, it caused massive loss of life in the
nearby towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii for the simple reason that the locals had not just settled
in towns near to the volcano but they had even gone so far as to build vineyards on its slopes. An
assumption had been made that just because it had not erupted in memory, it would not erupt.
Indeed, this is by no means an isolated example of humans deciding to settle near volcanoes:
another famous instance is how Edinburgh Castle is likewise built on a volcano. The one
difference being that the castle is still with us and has not disappeared in a cloud of ash and a
torrent of lava produced by a volcanic eruption.

Scientists tend to categorise volcanoes not by their probable activity, but by their features, size,
location and form. Hence vulcanologists refer to stratovolcanoes or composite volcanoes, shield
volcanoes, submarine volcanoes, cone volcanoes, mud volcanoes, supervolcanoes and subglacial
volcanoes. The most dangerous of these are the supervolcanoes which should they erupt would not
merely threaten the existence of a town such as Pompeii but could even call into question the
future of entire continents for human habitation. They are of such magnitude that the sulphur and
ash produced by an explosion could adversely affect air temperature globally. Some of the largest,
and least known, volcanoes are the submarine volcanoes found on the ocean floor. Their activity
often goes unnoticed by non-specialists because the sheer amount of water pressing down on them
means that the gases do not escape into the atmosphere. Though, occasionally they do erupt so
massively that new islands are formed above the level of the ocean. Likewise, subglacial volcanoes
that form beneath the icecap escape general notice until the icecap melts and table top mountains
appear. Stratovolcanoes, cone, shield and mud volcanoes are simply volcanoes classified by being
formed of different materials and forming different shapes.
Activity 4

The education gap

The education gap

Education is the passport to modern life, and a pre-condition of national prosperity. But more
than a quarter of the world's adults - 900 million - cannot read or write, and more than 100 million
young children are deprived of even a primary school education. In most developing countries,
after decades of educational expansion, spending on learning is falling. The illiterate are virtually
helpless in a world ruled by the written word, where notices and official papers can seem a mass of
meaningless hieroglyphics. People who cannot decipher them are at the mercy of those who can;
many, as a result, have been cheated of their rights or their land.
Studies show that people with even a basic education are healthier and eat better. They are more
likely to plan their families and their children are more likely to survive. According to the World
Bank, just four years of primary education enables farmers to increase productivity by ten per cent,
often the difference between hunger and sufficiency. National economic returns from education
outstrip those from most other forms of investment.

Enrolment: rise and fall

As they became independent, most developing countries enthusiastically embraced education.
Two decades of astonishing expansion followed. Between 1960 and 1981, the world’s thirty-two
poorest countries (excluding India and China, which have long had good records) increased the
proportion of their children enrolled in primary school from thirty-eight to seventy-two per cent.
The thirty-eight next poorest achieved almost universal primary school enrolment by 1980; up
from about two-thirds in 1960. It seemed as if it would not be long before every child alive could
be sure of going to school.
By the end of the 1080s, that dream had turned to bitter disillusion. The decade brought
economic disaster to developing countries. They slumped when rich nations went into recession at
the beginning of the 1980s, the subsequent recovery passed them by and they were hit again by the
renewed recession in the late 1980s and early 1990s. By 1989, enrolment rates had dropped in one
out of every five developing countries. In some African countries, the number of children in
primary schools declined by a third between 1980 and 1985. Tanzania’s universal primary school
enrolment fell dramatically during this period. Unesco’s Director-General, Federico Mayor, warns
that this threatens to ‘set back the countries of the South by a whole generation or even more’.

Declining expenditure
The proportion of national expenditure going to education declined in more than half of
developing countries over the 1980s. In the world’s thirty-seven poorest countries, the average
expenditure per head on education dropped by a quarter. In Africa as a whole, says the World
Bank, only $0.60 a year is spent on educational materials for each student, whilst it estimates
‘minimum requirements’ at $5.00.

Illiteracy and the poor

In industrialized countries, absolute illiteracy was largely eradicated half a century ago; they
contain only two per cent of the world’s illiterate. ‘Functional illiteracy’, however, remains; in
Canada, the literacy of a quarter of all adults is seriously inadequate; in the United States,
estimates range from five to twenty-five per cent: in France, the total numbers range from two to
eight million people, depending on the study. Most are among the poorest members of their
societies.
 Generally speaking, the poorer a country, the higher the number of illiterate; two-thirds of adults
in the very poorest countries cannot read or write. Furthermore, the poorest individuals suffer
most. The poorer a child’s family, the less likely he (or, particularly, she) is to start school and the
more likely it is that those who do start will drop out.

The disadvantaged countryside

More people in the Third World live in the countryside, where schools and teachers are always
scarcer. But even in the cities, the poor miss out. In Calcutta, over sixty per cent of children do
not attend school because they have to work to keep the family going, or look after younger
siblings to enable their mothers to work. Two-thirds of the children who either never start school or
drop out early are girls. Two-thirds of the world’s illiterates are women. Yet women’s education is
particularly important. The World Bank identifies it as ‘perhaps the single most important
determinant of family health and nutrition’, and its research shows that infant mortality rates fall
steadily, and dramatically, for every year women spend at school. But tradition, prejudices and the
burden of work to be done at home ensure that daughters are pulled out of school first. In the first
grade of Kampala’s primary schools, the sexes are evenly balanced; by the seventh grade, there are
more than twice as many boys as girls.

Primary education: the productive dollar

Every dollar invested in primary school education, according to another World Bank study, is
fifty per cent more productive than one invested in secondary schooling, and gives twice as much
as one spent on universities. Yet throughout the Third World, these spending priorities are
reversed.
A few countries have started to change their priorities, emphasizing primary education.
Zimbabwe doubled its number of primary schools in its first five years of independence; the
proportion of its budget spent on education is the fifth highest in the world, and the curriculum has
been re-oriented to meet local needs. Bangladesh has opened more than 2,500 basic village
primary schools with appropriate syllabuses since 1985, at an annual cost of just $15.00 per pupil.
Only 1.5 per cent of the children drop out, compared to sixty per cent of their peers in the ordinary
primary schools. Moreover, ninety-five per cent of all pupils, the majority girls, continue their
education after leaving.
Nonetheless, all these countries are under harsh economic pressure. There is little hope for the
children of the Third World countries, even if their governments do change their priorities, unless
their countries are enabled to develop.
Activity 5

Directions: Read each passage and then respond to the questions. Each question will ask you to
make a logical inference based on textual details. Explain your answer by referencing the text.

Kyle ran into his house and slammed the door behind him. He paused with his back to the wall
and tried to catch his breath. The puppy in his coat struggled to get out. Kyle looked out the
window worriedly, but he saw that nobody was coming. Then he let the puppy out of his jacket.
The puppy yelped while Kyle took the collar off of him. He threw the collar in an old soup can in
the trash, carefully flipping over the can. The dog looked around nervously.

1. Why is Kyle out of breath?

__________________________________________________________ How do you know this?

2. Why is the puppy nervous?

_________________________________________________________ How do you know this?

3. Why does Kyle put the collar in a soup can?

____________________________________________ How do you know this?

Anastasia sat by the fountain in the park with her head in her palms. She was weeping mournfully
and wearing all black. In between gasps and sobs, Anastasia cried out a name: “Oh... John…”
And then her cell phone beeped. Her hand ran into her purse and her heart fluttered. The text
message was from John. She opened up the message and read the few bare words, “I need to get
my jacket back from you.” Anastasia threw her head into her arms and continued sobbing.

4. What relationship do John and Anastasia have?

_________________________________________ Why do you feel this way?

5. Why is Anastasia sad?

____________________________________________________________ How do you know
this?

Cassie rolled over in her bed as she felt the sunlight hit her face. The beams were warming the
back of her neck when she slowly realized that it was a Thursday, and she felt a little too good for a
Thursday. Struggling to open her eyes, she looked up at the clock. “9:48,” she shouted, “Holy
cow!” Cassie jumped out of bed, threw on the first outfit that she grabbed, brushed her teeth in
two swipes, threw her books into her backpack, and then ran out the door.

6. What problem is Cassie having?

_____________________________________________________ How do you know this?

7. Where is Cassie going?

____________________________________________________________ How do you know
this?
Kelvin was waiting in front of the corner store at 3:56. His muscles were tense and he was
sweating a bit more than usual. The other kids gathered in front of the little storefront were much
more relaxed, even playful. They joked back and forth lightly to each other but for Kelvin, time
slowed. 3:57. “Don’t worry, Kelvin. He ain’t even gonna show up.” Kelvin hoped that he
wouldn’t. A black four-door Camry with tinted windows pulled up and parked across the street.
Kelvin gulped. 3:58. A group of teenagers piled out of the car. James was in the front. “Hi-ya,
Kelvin. Glad you could make it,” James said. Kelvin felt smaller.

8. Why is Kelvin waiting at the corner store?

_____________________________________________

How do you know this?

9. Are James and Kelvin friends?

___________________________________________________

What in the text supports your idea?

10. Why is Kelvin so nervous?

_________________________________________________________

What in the text supports your idea?