School Memories.

1. How similar or dissimilar are the schools in your country?

2. What aspects of school life did you particularly like or dislike? (discipline, general atmosphere, punishments, school subjects, examination)

12.*** Read these texts in which two Irish writers recall their childhood. Then answer the questions:

1. Molly Keane

I went to school at a very late age - I must have been about fourteen. It was called the French School in Bray, Wicklow, probably, I think, because it had been started by some old French lady a thousand years ago. A great aunt of mine went there so it was pretty ancient.

It was a very odd place. Everybody, girls and teachers - except the English mistress - hated me. I suppose it was because I was a different kind of animal to them, having grown as old as I had in that very isolated way; whereas they had a different upbringing, and had seen much more of the neighbouring children as they grew up.

It was a great shock to me, as I had always liked people. I had got on terribly well with all the people who worked at home but now I felt that life would be miserable for the rest of my life.

The school had a very strict regime. There were no 'naughty doings': even the smallest doing was supposed to be dreadfully naughty! You had to make a report each morning on how you had behaved the previous day. Speaking French was the big thing in that school, so the best report was "I faithfully spoke French and I was punctual." (You can imagine the awful French we spoke!) The next grade in the report was "I faithfully tried to speak French and I was punctual"; and the worst grade of all was "I didn't speak any French and I was late. "If you were honest enough to admit that, some ghastly punishment would follow.

Academically, I was hopeless. They gave up trying to teach me arithmetic, let alone mathematics! English was taught in a dreadfully bad and dull fashion; and as a result I don't think that I had any understanding of literature until I was at least twenty-five. But despite that I had a certain liking for it, and I loved Tennyson and Kipling especially.

2. Mary Lavin

Living in Dublin also meant that I could go to day school rather than boarding school. I went to Loretto Convent School in St. Stephen's Green. I was so happy there. I loved it for a variety of reasons. I did well academically; being a gregarious type I loved meeting and mixing with other girls; also, I suppose there wasn't a great intellectual stimulus at home, so I responded readily to the challenge of school. At the same time I was not unduly forced to study at home.

I was a good all-rounder at school. My father had been a champion athlete in Co. Roscommon (or "champeen" as they would say). The Loretto order had a big sports day for all their schools at which I picked up quite a lot of medals for running and jumping. My father always came to the sports - he loved to see me excel at sport.

He would come to the school at other times too. He wanted me to be well educated; he would say "I want you to go to college, Mary, not like me." But he would have no qualms either about walking into the school and taking me to Aintree for two or three days. The nuns were all terrified of him, because he would come in and call for Reverend Mother and say to her, "I want to take Mary out for the day. It's a lovely fine day and I don't see why she should be cooped up here!"

A. Translate the following into Kazakh:

v pretty ancient

v a different upbringing

v to get on well

v miserable life

v dreadfully naughty

v some ghastly punishment

v academically hopeless

v to be taught in a bad fashion

v to have a certain liking for

v to do well academically

v gregarious type

v to respond readily

v challenge of school

v to be (not) unduly forced

v to be a good all-rounder

v to have (no) qualms

v to be terrified of smb

v to be cooped up

B. Answer the questions:

1. In what significant ways was Mary's experience different from Molly's?

2. What evidence is there that Molly had been educated at home?

3. What evidence is there that Molly went to a secular school?

4. What evidence is there that Mary went to a religious school?

5. What evidence is there that Molly was good at English?

6. What evidence is there that Mary lived at home?

7. What evidence is there that Mary's father was uneducated?

C. Find words or expressions in the texts that are similar in meaning to the following:

Text 1

a) way of training and caring for a child

b) hideous

c) government

d) disobedient

Text 2

a) sociable

b) willingly

c) somebody good at both sports and study

d) not feel guilty

e) kept in a confined space

D. In each sentence tick the correct variant:

1. The school was 'pretty ancient'(Text A). Do you think:

a) the school was really 1000 years old?

b) the school was at least 100 years old?

2. “There were no ‘naughty doings’ “(Text A) means:

a) everyone was well behaved?

b) misbehaviour was not tolerated?

3. "They gave up trying to teach me arithmetic, let alone

mathematics!"(Text A) implies:

a) mathematics was harder than arithmetic?

b) mathematics was easier than arithmetic?

Cohesion.

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